In Full Bloom

As you can see, my blog is totally posting backwards.  Not sure why this is so.

I’ll be back when I get it figured out….

Yep. It’s really me.

After a two month hiatus (I am not the only one), I am giving this blog thing a try again.

I know you thought I gave up Blogging for Lent, but I really think it was the NaBloPoMo that did me in. Either that or it’s the freaking sweatshop hours I have been working between three and a half jobs and my, um, life?

Funny how life gets in the way of the really important things, like maintaining a blog, huh?

Anyway, awhile back, when Brett’s cousin, Emily, emailed me and gently nudged me to write a post by plying me with flattering remarks about how she missed reading about my life, I promised I’d get to it. Pronto! (I mean, she misses me!)

But I didn’t. I really meant to….but it just didn’t happen.

I saved her email in my Inbox as a reminder to Get Going. For weeks. And each time I saw it The Guilt would grow and grow, pushing me closer and closer to the breaking point. ( I am a Good Catholic Girl after all!)

Until today.

The Guilt has won over and I am tapping away at the keyboard with some hesitation. It just feels weird. I haven’t done this in soooo long!

So in case you are checking in now and again to see if anything is happening here, as I do at some of my favorite spots, I thought I’d make My Big Comeback a meme. Just in case you’d like to know a little bit more about what makes me tick.

My apologies to Krista, who tagged me for this meme back in November, for being such a lazy ass and dropping the ball. But better late than never, right?

The Picture Meme

Age at My Next Birthday:

Apparently the Big Mac turned forty last year, too! ( Technically I already am forty, but I actually got these photos back in November when I was about to turn forty. So there.)

A Place I’d Like to Travel to:

The rolling hills of Tuscany. Sigh….someday….

My Favorite Place:

In his arms. This is our engagement photo, almost seventeen years ago. Yikes.

My Favorite Object:

It’s not the diamond itself, but the meaning behind it.

My Favorite Food:

It’s pretty much a Carbohydrate tie. Bread, pasta or potato chips. Today I’ll go for the noodles….

My Favorite Color:

I love them all.

My Nickname:

Rocket. As in Scientist. But I only get called that when I have a Blonde Moment.

My Birthplace:

Ithaca, New York. Here’s one of the many beautiful waterfalls there.

If you are still reading this blog, consider yourself tagged! And if you join in, leave me a comment, so I can see what pictures you picked.

Oh, and I promise I will be back tomorrow.

I think.

Yeah, this is me.  Circa 1975.  Scary!

Today is the last day and I have literally run out of steam.

While I want to write, my head is swimming with thoughts and they are all incoherent.  I have things I want to write about, but no energy to write them.

NaBloPoMo was a good challenge, but the next time I write it will be because I want to.  Not because I have to.  And that will feel good.

Anyone else as tired as I am?

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Today I am thankful:

It’s over.

Until this minute, I was home a total of one hour today. From 3:00 to 4:00.

So this is my totally lame I’ve Been Working Fourteen Hours Today And Dragged My Kids All Over Town post. I am officially exhausted. No lunches are packed. No one is ready for tomorrow, but everyone but me is tucked into bed.

At least tomorrow is Friday.

Thanks for understanding. I figure the fact that I’ve made it this far in NaBloPoMo is pretty awesome considering all that I am juggling. And I am proud of myself. ;>)

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I am thankful:

It is bedtime.

With all this working that is going on around here, there has not exactly been what you would call quality time with the kids, if you know what I mean.  One of us is always here with them, but it is only one of us.  You can only spread yourself so thin.

So Sunday we decided to take some time to teach Trent to ride his bike without the training wheels.  He has been begging to learn.

We rode over to the nearby school and used their track area since it is pretty much a straight shot and there’s lots of grass so when he fell he might have a softer area to break his fall.

It was a beautiful day and you would think that it would have been a wonderful bonding experience with a big accomplishment at the end.

Yeah.  Not so much.

The big accomplishment was that he really did try hard, but there was lots of crying, complaining and “I can’ts.”  LOTS of “I can’ts.”  Over and over and over again.

He fell and he fell and he fell and he fell.  And he took it pretty well at first.  But after awhile he decided he had had enough and we gave up for the day.

The first attempt was somewhat successful.  Until he stopped pedaling.  Yeah.  We told him he can’t DO that, but it just never quite sunk in that the wheels have to be moving so you don’t fall over.

More not pedaling.

The crying and complaining.

And here’s what the poor guy ended up with: a big knot on his eye.

I guess we should have listened when he told us he was hurt?

Trent tells us he doesn’t need to learn how to ride his bike anymore right now.  I wonder if Santa will be bringing him a new bike?

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I am thankful for:

Not having to work at night again until next Tuesday.  Yay!

Me: Why don’t you come and sit right here, dear?

Connor: I’m not a deer! I’m a boy!

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Today I am thankful:

For wonderful room mothers in my class.

Today I heard the saddest news I have heard in a long time.

The mother of one of my preschool students was expecting a baby next month and discovered on Thanksgiving Day that the baby had died in utero with the cord wrapped around it’s neck.

She then had to deliver this baby.

As a mother, trying to imagine this level of pain is incomprehensible. Something that should have been joyous was instead tragic and devastating. How do you recover from something like this?

I know God has a plan and reasons why things have to happen. I just wish I knew what the reason is here.

I am terribly, terribly sad.

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I am thankful:

To be able to hug my kids today.

Dear Nintendo of America, Inc. Executives,

I am sure that you are pretty proud of yourselves. You must be sitting smugly in your cushy offices in Redmond, Washington nodding at each other in satisfaction. And I am sure your counterparts in Japan are doing the same.

Meanwhile the parents of children all over America are panicstricken. They are scared to death of Christmas morning. I’m certain that you don’t care too much about the panic you helped create, because that panic is helping to line your pockets, but as you know already, you planted that panic seed.

Shame on you.

When you created the Wii game system, you must have been relishing the opportunity to rock the consumer’s world with a simple supply/demand battle that every economics professor around would drool over. You produced this game that you knew everyone would want, marketed it to the hilt, created a desire for the product and then stalled the availability of it, thus creating a frenzy of buying and selling that boggles the mind.

Stores will not inform consumers when the systems will arrive, causing them to worry that they will not be able to fulfill the holiday wishes of their youngsters and so they do whatever is necessary in order to attain the game, sleeping in front of stores and engaging in bidding wars on Ebay, sometimes paying the equivalent of two weeks pay, just to avoid the Christmas morning disappointment that every parent dreads.

How dare you manipulate people by pulling emotional strings to make yourselves even richer?

I am sick that I have succumbed to this panic myself and I want you to know that I do it begrudgingly. It makes me angry to know that you have played with my emotions this way.

I think you should know that after this holiday, I won’t be among the many who add to your bank accounts. I will skip Nintendo products altogether, thank you.

And maybe it won’t make much of a difference to you really. But it sure as hell will make a difference to me.

Very, very sincerely,

Kim

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I am thankful for:

Having a day where we didn’t have to be anywhere.  We spent a nice, slow-paced day together.

The people who made the crappy offer on our house? The ones who wanted to close on New Year’s Eve? Well, they decided to take their crappy offer elsewhere. Before we could even counter offer, I might add.

They claim they found a house that was smaller and less expensive than ours.

Good.

I didn’t like them anyway.

Except that now it looks like I may have to actually decorate for Christmas.

Damn!

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I am thankful for:

My friend, Patrick, who helps me with the technical stuff on this blog.  He is the man!