Lana's Birthday

Well Lana is 4, we wondered at times if she would make it. Sometimes it seemed as though she had a death wish, but somehow we have managed to keep her alive probably with a lot of help from above. This year in between all the scrapes and bruises she has lost a finger nail because her finger was slammed in Kyle’s door. She almost lost an eye from the swinging chair. She cracked her head on the floor while we were eating dinner at Fazoil’s, which was dubbed the thud heard ‘round the world. Then she split her head open because she was jumping on our bed and fell backward into the nightstand. Not to mention the near misses that I was able to prevent like the locking herself in the dryer…no it wasn’t on. The grabbing of a light candle, luckily I was able to catch it when she realized it was hot. The many times she climbed the kitchen cabinets and almost jumped onto the tile floor. And so on and so on… Every birthday that this child has we will pat ourselves on the back and congratulate each other for helping her survive one more year.

With all that said you might think that Lana’s birthdays would be a huge production, but they aren’t. We like to keep birthday’s pretty low key until they reach the age of eight. Lana’s little party was just family. I thought polka dots would be fun to decorate with and I convinced Lana that it’s what kind of party she wanted. It was such a fun theme I think we will be duplicating it in the future. Weeks before the party I bought some polka dot plates and napkins. Ronnie asked a bakery guy at Sam’s to make a polka dot cake. The day before the party I gathered up everything else polka dotty for the party like, favor bags, wrapping paper, gumballs, ribbon, stuff to make polka dot necklaces, and I even found polka dot packing tape. We ended up using to tape to write HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the wall. The kids made a polka dot table cloth by gluing on paper circles. I put the plates and napkins up out of Lana’s reach somewhere and couldn’t find them for the party; I still to this day have not found them. Lana was really into her birthday this year. All day long she was telling everyone that it was her birthday. She really enjoyed her party; she loved popping bubble wrap and making necklaces. Of course the best part was opening the presents and playing with them.

Fun with the Camera

We set up a makeshift photo studio and had fun with the kids...check out the results.

Them Chains Them Chains are 'bout to Drag me Down

I think I am missing the gene that every woman seems to have. The one that makes them wants to carry a purse at the age of three and continue carrying a purse all their life. I cannot stand my purse and it’s not just the style of a purse it’s just the whole premise of the purse. I have enough to keep track of I don’t need something hanging around my arm that I constantly have to keep track of too. I remember when I started carrying a purse, I was in 6^th grade. You were considered “cool” if you could convince your parents to spend a ridiculous amount of money so you could have all the “cool” brands. The “cool” purse to have was a Liz Claiborne and the “cool” thing to carry in your purse was the triangle style Liz Claiborne perfume. I convinced my mom to buy both things for me along with the Cole Haan loafers and Z Cavaricci jeans that were also “cool”. I have no idea why she spent so much money on shoes or jeans that I would out grow in six months, I guess I was pretty good at getting what I wanted. Anyway, the purse was forest green with brown trim and it was a hang over the shoulder style. Most girls liked the purses with the two small handles, but I didn’t want to deal with it, so I got the long strap so I could wear it like a bandolier and not worry about it. Even after my whole trying to be cool phase was over I still had to carry a purse to hold the girly necessities. After I had Kyle I combined my purse and his diaper bag into one. There was no way I was going to carry a purse and a diaper bag. Then I had to come back to reality when he no longer needed a diaper bag. But something happened; my brain never got the message that I was carrying a purse again. I started leaving my purse everywhere. Like in the car and then I would find it and notice my lipstick was all melted in the bottom of it. Or I would leave it at restaurants and would make it home most times before remembering it. The worst one was when I left it at a restaurant in the Palms and when I went back to get it they had turned it over to hotel security, who in turn put it in the casino lock up. That one took forever to get back. Then there are the few times that I just plain lost it never to be found again, and I had to cancel debit and credit cards and get new driver license and social security card etc… I have left my purse at people’s houses and in their cars. I have left my purse in shopping carts at the grocery store. Tonight I left my purse at someone’s cabin on Mt Charleston. I got halfway down the mountain and noticed that it was missing. It would have been just a normal event in my life but tonight I had a carload of girls whose parents were expecting them to be home at a certain time. And my car was mad at me or something; it was just not acting right. It just so happened that I could not for the life of me get cell phone reception to call anyone back at the cabin. My purse was stuck in a coat closet and I thought no one is going to see it and think to bring it so I’ll have to go back. The girls didn’t mind, they were watching Napoleon Dynamite and having a good time. So I get to the cabin and grab my purse, which they DID notice and WERE going to bring to me, and start down the mountain again. This time no one was following me to see if my car decided to leave me stranded on the side of the road with a carload of girls and no cell phone reception. But we made it just fine and all the girls got home safe and sound. Oh how I hate purses, the evil cursed things and I’m not so hip on my car right not either.

Guilty as Charged

OK OK so I guess I’m feeling a little guilty about telling the world about how Ronnie is getting older. So I’ll make it even.

What do I do when no one is looking….totally break it down, and trust me I cannot dance. Ask Lana if you don’t believe me, she learned her moves from me unfortunately. Now that we have wood laminate flooring I have incorporated the sock slide as well. I seem to be running low on socks; they keep getting holes in them.

What do I eat when no one is looking….Lays sea salted potato chips…yeah I know it’s not that bad…well I guess it is when you eat HALF the bag.

What do I watch when no one is looking….Gene Simmoms Family Jewels….We don’t have cable, I have to download it on the computer and watch it, I’m not even a fan of Kiss, and I can’t even stand Gene and yet I watch his show…illegally, but I still watch it.

What do I buy when no one is looking….Home organizational books, magazines, gadgets, you name it I’ve at least heard of it and yet my home is NOT organized.

I don't think any of that is as bad as the hair thing...but I put it out there.

Remembering

Kyle's school was taking part in a service project for 9/11 and I signed Kyle and myself up. We were to help put up 3000 flags for the healing field today at 6:30am. I know how much Ronnie hates getting up early so I didn't even ask him to go with us on his day off and plus if Lana was there, there could be a lot of flags needing to be retired. So as I left the house this morning I couldn't help but think I bet Ronnie is all snuggled up in bed with a big grin on his face because I am leaving the house before him. That never happens. I must be a horrible wife because I don't get up at 5am and make him breakfast. I have heard one friend say that she felt the need to make her husband breakfast even though all he wanted was instant breakfast, she would get up and stir the glass and then go back to bed I guess. And then there is the friend that not only gets up to make her husband breakfast she also packs his lunch. I would probably get up and make him breakfast if he left the house at 6:30 or 7:00, but he leaves at 5:30 and I'm just not down with that. I think he enjoys his alone time in the morning actually, it's the only time the house is quiet. Anyways, back the service project. So Kyle and I head out to Palm Mortuary on N. Jones. I told him we would get breakfast after we were finished because I didn't want to be late and I wasn't quite sure where I was going. Well I got lost not once, not twice, but three times on my way there. We were only 5 minutes late, which I thought was pretty good considering what it took to get there. We spotted some kids from his school and went over and started helping. The hard work was already done, all the posts were in the ground all we had to do was place a flag pole on the posts. The only hard part for the kids was trying to keep the flags up, that's when being in cub scouts paid off for Kyle. He and I worked as a team one holding all the flags while the other placed them on the posts. There were so many people helping that we finished in no time. Then we walked around making sure all the posts had a flag on them. As we were walking around it was amazing to see American flags everywhere. A breeze would blow and all the flags would wave. I wanted to run down the rows with my arms outstretched touching all the flags with my hands. But I resisted the urge, for one I would probably be out of breath before I reached the end of the aisle and two, I might not set the right tone. Then I asked Kyle if he remembered what happened on 9/11. And to my surprise he thought that it was when we went to war, so I clarified it for him. And then I started remembering my activities that day. I remember that day being so eerie. The night before for Ronnie's birthday we went to a Cake concert in Denver and Kyle was staying with one of Ronnie's co-workers who had two daughters around Kyle's age. Ronnie's friends said it's fine to let him stay the night because we would probably be back around 1:00am. Well after the concert we debated if we should just let him sleep there or pick him up. I felt like we needed to pick him up even though I knew everyone would be asleep. So we picked Kyle up and got him in his own bed then we went to sleep. I always turned to TV to PBS so Kyle could get up and turn the TV on to cartoons. Kyle got up and turned the TV on in the morning then came in and told me, mom there's buildings on fire. I thought maybe Bob the Builder was putting out a fire or something and didn't pay much attention to it. I said oh ok that's nice, hoping to be able to stay in bed a little longer. Then he came back in and wanted me to come see the buildings, so out of bed I rolled. As soon as my eyes focused and I could read the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen, I just sat there with my mouth hanging open for a minute. Then I woke Ronnie up and told him that one of the Twin Towers collapsed, he said they can't collapse. I then made him get out of bed and see if for himself. We sat in amazement. We went into town for lunch later that day to get away from watching it on the TV and everywhere we went people were huddled around TVs. It was like driving around in a ghost town, hardly anyone was out and about. I can remember seeing a crop duster flying around on our way home and being a little frightened. I don't exactly know why, it's not like I really thought someone was going to crash a plane in Windsor, CO, just one of many irrational thoughts people had that day I'm sure. It's now just a weird day where we try to take a moment or two to remember those that lost their lives and we try to not focus on those that caused it.

The Onset of Old Age

I tease Ronnie all the time about him being old. I love it because it’s something he can never tease me about because no matter how old I am he’s still older. Well today we were just sitting around talking and I noticed this eyebrow hair that was just taunting me. It was waving around like an old age flag every time he talked. Finally I had to pull on it to make sure it was attached and oh boy was it. This thing was like an inch long and that’s long for an eyebrow hair! Like 4 times longer than it should be. When I pointed it out he wanted me to pull it out, YUCK! I had retired from the pulling of long hairs growing in odd places. First it was the ear hair, grody but I can handle pulling it so I wasn’t walking around with a grody looking husband. Then it was the nose hair that hung out so far it could have tickled his upper lip, and no there was no way I was pulling that bad boy out, he had to handle that one on his own. Now it’s the eyebrow, jeez louise I’m glad I’m not a old man it’s just too much maintenance. Actually it all started with the gray hair in his goatee. And for those facial hair enthusiasts out there yes what Ronnie has on his face is a goatee. Those guys that have the chin hair and the mustache part, like the whole circle of hair, that’s called a Van Dyke. And yes we actually wasted our precious time looking it up. Anyway, when he started noticing gray hair in his goatee he would sit out in his truck and pull them out before he would come in the house from work. For about a week I could hear him pull up in the drive then just sit in his car, I thought he was listening to the radio. Then about 5 minutes later he would come in the house. I finally asked him what was always on the radio at that time that would make him stay in his truck and he said he was pulling gray hairs out. I think my teasing might be driving my husband to the brink of insanity, but at least we are having fun growing old together.

No More Tears

Today I had a glimpse of what life will be like when both kidos are in school all day and it was so sweet. Ronnie went into work at noon today so he came along for the school drop off run. First we dropped Kyle off at 8:25 I was trying to time it as close as I could to 8:30 (the start of his school) because Lana's preschool doesn't start until 9:00 and it is only 15 minutes away. I didn't want to sit outside Lana's preschool for 15 minutes listening to her say "why do I have to go to preschool" and "I want to stay with you", all the things I got to hear when she went to summer school. So it actually took a little less than 15 minutes to get from Kyle's school to Lana's so we drove around for a while then took her there. When we pulled up she said that her old friends weren't going to be there and then I asked her how she knew that and she said she didn't see their cars. I don't know if it was just a coincidence or what but she was right, there were all new faces at preschool. We had a deal that if she would go to preschool without crying she would get a reward from my reward box, and I think it worked, there was no crying. Ronnie was amazed because the last time he dropped her off for summer school I was at Young Women's camp and she had a fit. I think he described it as a blood curdling scream. I still paused for a moment before driving off expecting to see her running after us, but she didn't. We stopped and filled up the car with gas and didn't have to give a blow by blow account of what we were doing. Then we went shopping and I actually had enough time to read the labels. Then I dropped Ronnie off at home so he could get ready for work and I went to the gym and had time to work out before picking her up. When I picked her up she told me "I didn't cry mom, I think the cryings ran away". She said she had fun and started talking about the next time she goes back. What a great first day of preschool. I kind of feel like a taxi, but it's worth it for 6 kid free hours a week.