Rosie Shmosie "humps"

Rosie went to the groomer this week. She's always so small after she's been groomed. Her hair can get quite long which poofs her out. She's 10.2 lbs as of her last vet appt a few weeks ago.

Todd took the below pictures this week. I believe she was, or is about to, hump that green blanket. She likes to hump things. The girls call it "hugging". They think it's funny when Rosie tries to "hug" their arm. Yeah. Funny. We had her fixed and clearly since she's female it's just a domination thing. She really likes to hump Shawna's slippers, certain blankets, towels left on the floor, her fake sheepskin bed and a couple stuffed animals the girls might have laying around. She gets all worn out from it too, where her tongue is hanging out. She'll do it over and over again in a matter of 30 minutes or more. Maybe all day long if I didn't remove the darn thing she's in love with.

I remember a guy I went to jr. high and high school whose mom had a Llasa Apso, like Rosie, and that dog LOVED to hump my leg. Every damn chance it got it was on my leg. It was actually difficult to pull the dog off too! I was actually worried when I picked Rosie that I'd have that same problem, but since I was getting a female and 'thought' theirs must have been a male, since I couldn't really remember that far back, I hoped we'd be safe. I never saw that written up in any of the breed information that they're humpers. None of our dogs, which were Cocka-poos, did this so I really didn't think it would happen. Apparently I was wrong. Either way she's cute. She's our Rosie Shmosie.

Getting Organized

I WILL be organized this school year. I WON'T forget share days, free dress days, when to bring 100 pennies days, field trip days, etc. I WILL be organized! That's my new mantra.

Somewhere somehow (probably from all the blog hopping I do lately) I found this really cool site with this really cool organizer. It's called the Mom Agenda. http://www.momagenda.com/ (If anyone cares to share how to show only the name, not the http shows up I'd love to know. do I need to upgrade my blogger? I can do it in my emails and other work stuff, it just doesn't seem to happen here. )

Where was I? Oh yeah, It has a place for up to 4 kids, an entire month calendar, plus individual daily calendars. They come in really neat colors too. I got pink. It's really perty and even has 2 ribbons to page mark special pages.

I WILL be organized this school year!!!

Nixed the Princess'

Paula told me the other day that she's too old for princess stuff now. That at her age (she's 7) girls like Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers.

So Sad. So Sad.

Paula has croup. Again. She woke up at 3:30 am not being able to breath well, and had that seal cough. I took her outside to help open her airway. I'd even put her to bed with a humidifier but she still got the croup.
She's at home today with my mom and Shawna. They were planning on going to an indoor swimming pool that has a slide and lazy river. Todd is taking her to the doctor at 3:30 pm. She's been coughing for a few weeks but nothing major. My mom says it's allergies but I don't think so.

I brought her to bed with me since Todd was getting up to go to work at that ungodly hour. We slept in and were laying there talking.

Paula: Mommy, some day I want to go to a Hannah Montana concert. (she has the HM concert recorded for 3D and has watched it for 2 days).
Me: Okay.
Paula: And see the Jonas brothers too (smiles at me as she says it. She has a major crush on all of them. Shawna's boyfriend is Shane)
Me: Oh, okay.
Paula: And I want to sit right in the front. Because Hannah Montana does touch your hand when she's on stage.
Me: Really? Cool.
Paula. Yeah.
pause
Paula: Mommy, I'm different from everyone in my family.
Me: How so?
Paula: I don't like to eat many kinds of foods, but you and Daddy and Shawna eat everything.
I do like broccoli and chicken now. And I ate eggs and liked them.
Me: That's right. See, as you get older you like more foods.
Paula: I like to touch my thumb to my nails and rub them. (shows me). If I do it to this one I have to do it to another one because it has to be even. I like things to be even.
Me: Yes I know.
Paula: There is one thing you do that no one else does. (gets quiet) Getting mad. You were really mad last night. You should have heard yourself.
Me: I know. I got really frustrated. I'm sorry. (She and Shawna were in major hyper mode out of no where at 8pm and were behaving as if they'd just downed a whole box of sugar, running, screaming, jumping on the furniture. I'm saying to my mom "Why are they so fucking hyper?!". Her: I don't know
Todd: Makes no sound from inside the computer room.
Later he goes in there and riles them up more by carrying them around on one arm.
Me: I start yelling at them to be quiet, sit down, calm down. IT'S BED TIME!

Paula: If we go into the small TV room we're calmer because there is less furniture to jump on.
Me: Really. Is that why?
Paula: Uh huh. And then we can watch the Hannah Montana concert. But we need new 3D glasses because the ones we have are terrible and don't stay on. Plus Rosie tries to chew them. We need to get the plastic kinds.
Me: Okay. Hey, I think Grandma is downstairs. Do you want to go see? I need to shower.
Her: Okay!!!!! (jumps up out of bed and heads out the door).

I love our little talks.

New Puppy

My brother and his wife just picked up their new puppy this past weekend. It's a Vizsla. Never heard of it? Me neither until they told me about it. Alan and Jen had a yellow lab named Jasmine. She died at 13 or 14 yrs old during an operation to remove a tumor. Alan had had Jasmine since a puppy. He trained her to be a bird dog and she was really good.

After Jasmine they hooked up with a woman who trained yellow labs to retrieve for birds. They purchased a 1.5 yr old yellow lab named Belle. She had been sold, then the woman who bought her couldn't keep her so she was returned. They kept her name and it seemed fitting since now this was his second Princess name. Belle was very odd. She was not like your normal lab dog AT.ALL. She was very skittish, afraid and panicky. They hoped it would go away once they got to know them but they had little success in helping her. Seriously she needed prozac or something. When they saw her before buying her she was normal and seemed fine. After they got her they had 30 days to change their minds but decided to keep her.

One day while they were at work the cable guy came to replace some cables that run over Alan's house. Alan had no idea anyone was coming by. The cable guy left the side gate open and Belle ran out. She ended up getting hit by a car. Alan had a micro chip put in her a soon after they got her so once she was brought in they called. They'd only had a her a few months so it wasn't like when Jasmine died, but still, felt awful. The cable company paid them $1000 for their error.

This time they decided to go back to the puppy idea and choose a Vizsla. A Hungarian short-haired pointing dog. http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/vizsla.htm Alan knew some people who recommended this particular breeder. They were the 3rd in line to pick their female. My brother said she'd have to have a princess name so she's Cinderella. "Ella".
She's all legs and ears. When she drinks her water her ears float on top. LOL She's very gangly and slips on their hard wood. She's only 10 weeks old but is already 11 lbs. Our Rosie is 11 lbs at 1.5 yrs old. She's very smart and already on day 2 learned how to work the doggy door and poop outside. Good girl!

These pics are from my brothers cell phone to my cell phone so I apologize for the blurriness.

Alan with Ella

Ain't she just the cutest!

I can't wait to meet her.

Puttin' out fires

Today at work I participated in a fire extinguisher training for my ERT (emergency response team) that I'm on. The fire department came in 2 trucks. The regular fire truck and the hazmad truck carrying the gasoline. We had approximately a dozen fire extinguishers to use.

They put out 2 garbage cans and a shorter can, poured the gasoline in them. A firefighter took a long stick with a flare on the end, lit the flare, then lit all the cans on fire. We practiced pulling the pin, aiming at the fire down at the base then sprayed it side to side a few times getting the fire out.



I HAD TOO MUCH FUN! Yes, you heard me. Putting out that fire was way too much fun. Many of my colleagues agreed. We want to do it again.

Firefighter telling us again what we need to do. We're also waiting for other fighfighter to light cans. I can't be seen. I'm standing next to the white rolling cart.

Die Fire! Die!

Be careful what you wish for

On Thursday last week Paula woke up at 6am crying saying she didn't feel good. 15 minutes she vomited in my toilet. Stomach flu. As I'm standing next to her holding her hair She says "I changed my mind. I like summer school. I want to go to summer school." Why is she saying this? Because the night before in bed she said she hated summer school and was never going there again. In her young mind, she caught the flu as a direct result from what she said. So sad and cute at the same time.

Hurts my heart

Injustices to me or my children really hurt my heart. Little life experiences that I know in the scheme of things are small seem unfair in great proportion at the beginning.

Yesterday Paula's school had a field trip to Chuck E Cheese. I'm so glad they take them because I hate going there. It's a huge germ fest. Once, my niece climbed in the ceiling tubes with my kids and saw pee pooled in one of the tubes. GROSS!!! You know it was a boy. Ick.

After they'd played and had pizza she gathered up all her tickets from winning games and traded her tickets in for a toy lizard. They were getting ready to leave and a boy in her class apparently had dropped his toy lizard and saw Paula with hers, assumed it was his and snatched it out of her hands. He didn't believe her when she said it was hers. She cried all the way home on the bus. (that just breaks me heart).

When the dad came to pick up the boy she told him what happened and he said "You two need to work it out".

Not only did the boy not believe her but the father didn't even come to her defense. Total injustice to her and last night she was still upset. I told her to show me who this boy was at drop off today. She did. His father was there this morning too. I was tempted to bring up the subject lightly to the father, mentioning how upset Paula was yesterday and if his son could please apologize. I didn't. I didn't want to make it a huge deal. I don't know the family at all. If he blew me off I'd have gotten very pissed and that wouldn't have helped matters.

I know that things like this happen and will continue to happen through out her life. "Life isn't fair". But as her mother it hurts my heart that she has to endure these unfair life experiences.

Would you have said something to the father or child?

Why my kids go to Catholic school

I typed this as a comment to someone else's blog on the subject of heaven and hell. It seemed easier to cut and paste than to re-create it. This summarizes MY beliefs on that subject:

I can't stand the belief that "my religion is the right religion". I was
raised Catholic but my views of religion, God, heaven and hell have changed
several times over my 40 years of life. Currently I believe hell is living here
on Earth. We'll have to continue living here until we've learned everything we
need to. I believe in souls, heaven and reincarnation. When you die, if your
soul in that life did not learn everything it needed to, then at some point
you'll be reincarnated. You get to choose your parents and gender and see
tidbits of the life you'll have. (deja vu's). The saying "he's an old soul or
she's a new or young soul" makes sense to me when I think about how many lives a
person might have had, the experiences and lessons they've already or haven't
yet lived. I also believe in guardian angels. If I'm wrong and I'm going to poof
into dust for not living the correct religion or having the perfect relationship
with God, I say Oh well. It's not like I'll know it when it happens. LOL

Now, with all that said, I can say that for a long time I was agnostic at best. Atheist even came into my head a few times. But strangely enough, throughout all of it, I believed in ghosts, reincarnation and souls. So my quandary was how can you have those things and not have God? It was a dilemma I struggled with especially after I had children. Baptism. God Parents. Religion. What is one to do about those things when your not sure of anything? As a mother I felt it my responsibility to expose my kids to religion so that they could make their own choice, but given my lack of beliefs how was I going to do that? Todd and I don't attend church and didn't plan on adding that to our weekend routine.

We became close friends with our neighbors from our first house. They were very involved in their daughter's school (catholic school). I also had a co-worker whose daughter's went to a different catholic school. It seemed these people were being put in my path for a reason and I didn't deny it. What was nice is I could openly talk to them about my beliefs (or lack of) and they were fine with it. They're two of my closest friends now.

I don't pray. Why? Because I don't believe anyone is listening. I do believe in the energy of thought. Like if someone is suffering from cancer and a huge prayer request goes out, I actually believe that the energy from everyone thinking, "please help Janet through this chemo treatment, please cure her cancer" can make a difference.

Last year my sister-in-law Janet (the afore mentioned who actually was battling breast cancer) mailed me a book on CD, which I found very enlightening. It was called "90 Minutes In Heaven." Janet and her family live in WA state and are strong Christians. Very very involved in their church. Their daughter married the youth minister and their son is engaged to the ministers daughter. The narrator was the man himself that had the experience. It's non-fiction and very well written. And I believe him. Meaning, I don't think he made it up to sell a book. Again, something put in my path that I paid attention to.

When it came time to put my girls into a preschool I applied to the catholic school our neighbors go to. Paula was accepted. For kindergarten I had her enrolled in the public school near our house, but agonized over it for a couple weeks. The school is not very good. Rates 6 on a scale of 1-10. There were some other factors like the kindergarten was part-time which I didn't like. The class of kids that went there was a wide spectrum but I knew from reading the Internet that discipline was a problem even in the lowest grades. How does a kindergartner get suspended??? I understand it, but didn't really want my daughter going there.

So, we decided to have the kids baptised as catholics to help us get into the school. I can say that during medical procedures I've been asked my religion in case something bad happened. I like having one to pick from. I wanted them to have a religion they could call their own. I'm technically catholic and Todd is technically Lutheran. We picked Todd's brother and his wife for Paula's god parents and our old neighbors as Shawna's god parents. They were 5 and 3 yrs old.

A couple months after that we applied for Paula and she got in. Shawna will start their kindergarten next fall. She attends their preschool now.

We don't attend church unless it's for an event that the kids are in. We don't pray as a family unless Paula asks us to do so at dinner. Todd and I let Paula say the prayer. The girls talk about God and God's creatures and how they love him. When they get older, if they choose to change their beliefs fine, or stick to them fine. As I said, my beliefs have changed over the years and I'm sure they'll change some more.

For summer school I have Paula in a christian summer school program where she receives religion daily. I'm not sure how much different what she learns there varies from her regular school but either way I'm happy for her to have different view points. For her first communion it's all taken care of through her 2nd grade class, which means I don't have to drive her to CCD like my mom had to do with my brother and I. Yay!

Speaking of which, my mom and her 5 siblings were all raised catholic in San Francisco by her parents. Her Irish Mom was about to say her final vow to become a nun, but instead married my 100% Italian grandfather. They all went to catholic schools and church weekly. They ate fish EVERY Friday, which was how it was done back then apparently, until the church said they could eat meat on Friday's except during lent. That made many catholics mad apparently, including my grandparents. Also, only 1 sibling (my mom's sister) practices Catholicism religiously. Many others don't practice any religion, 1 practices Buddhism and another is an episcopalian as well as a minister. She's the oldest sister. My mom has not practiced since before I graduated high school.

Paula asked me to take her to church once on a Sunday so I did. I'm letting her guide me. I'm very happy with my decision to send them to their school. We've met some awesome families. We truly love their school and that community. I believe this is something they need and my own soul needs, even if I do battle the truth of it all.

Stuart Little

At work yesterday:

Occurrences before the find:

Tina: I heard T.G. a couple days ago talking to someone in facilities asking who he should tell that he saw a mouse.
Janet: Yesterday I was walking the hallway but I didn't have my glasses on. I thought I saw a mouse running down the grey carpet but then I thought, No, it must just be that I can't see well.
Katie: Do you know why there are so many mouse traps? Guess whose office it was seen in first. Judy's! (our CFO) Ed (facilities manager) kept shaking his head asking why it had to be hers.

After the find:
Tina: Sandra, did you see it?
Sandra: See what?
Tina: The mouse
Sandra: WHERE??
Tina: In the cube across from Janet. When we were leaving the meeting it caught my eye.

I walk around the cubes and stand with 4 other people gawking. On the floor by the wall under the window is a small box with a tiny grey mouse dead on his side.
Wendy: There's another box in Roger's cube. Someone should go check that one to see if one is in there.
Sandra: Seriously? (notices Wendy has her cell phone open) Did you take a picture of it?
Wendy: Uh huh. I'm going to send it to Lucy (Lucy's old cube has the mouse but they moved her to a different building recently)

I go to check Rogers mouse trap but it's empty.

Kathy: There's a MOUSE?! WHERE? (goes to see mouse) OMG someone needs to come take that thing. Who do we call? What is the number to facilities? 9, 1, what? Anyone know? They gotta get that thing out of here.

Sandra: It's a dead mouse Kathy. It's not going to hurt you.
Kathy: I don't care. I can't work in here knowing that it's there. Those things give me the creeps.
Sandra: I'll email facilities. Hang on. I'll email Carlos.

2:13pm "Please send someone up here. We caught a mouse in one of the traps. He’s in Lucy V's OLD cube. It’s freaking some ladies out so he needs to be removed quick".

2:30pm Hi Sandra,
Are you sure you don’t want to keep it as a pet, just kidding. We’ll come to get it.
Carlos

Fire Drill goes off. Everyone has to leave building and stand in 90 degree weather.
I've got an ERT flag on my cube but I was gone the week they did the training. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I head outside with everyone else. Secretly wondering if the mouse is the cause for the drill. Nah. See Wendy talking to Lucy down the steps showing her the picture of the mouse.
Sandra: Lucy, you're supposed to take ALL your belongings.
Lucy: Laughing.

Walk towards the front of the building outside and spot a few ERT friends with orange vests being told by the security manager that they did a good job. They can tell everyone they can go back inside.

Sandra: Where did you guys get your vests?
Katie: From the file cabinet. Where's yours?
Sandra: I don't know where mine is? I don't even know what I'm supposed to do?
Katie: Did you sweep your area?
Sandra: No, I don't even know what my area IS.
Katie: You didn't sweep your area? What if someone is still in there.
Sandra: I wasn't here for the training. Why they put my ERT flag on my cube is a huge mystery.
We all walk back inside. She shows me her file cabinet and tells me I must have one in my area too.
Katie: Go look for it.

I walk back to my cube.

Kathy: The mouse is still here?! I saw someone from facilities over here before we left. Why didn't they take it? They gotta get this thing out of here.
Sandra: The drill happened so they probably left to deal with that. Someone will be up here. Don't worry.

3:01pm email to everyone from facilities manager:
"A motor on one of our rooftop air-conditioning units exploded, starting a fire, which triggered the building alarm. The fire was put out and the all clear signal was given. The fire department has also inspected the roof and given us the all-clear.

Any smoke you may smell is residual and will dissipate in a few minutes.

The air-conditioning unit is currently down, a replacement motor is on its way, and repairs will take 1-2 hours to complete. Until it is repaired, the central finance area will be without air-conditioning.

Even though few people saw or smelled anything, a real threat was present; thanks to everybody for timely evacuating the building and listening to the Emergency Response Team."

Facilities: 2 men show up at my cube Hi Sandra. There's a mouse?
Sandra: pointing to the window The other side by the corner in the box.
Kathy: Over here! Please come take it.

Sandra receives 5 calendar appointments for ERT fire extinguisher and CPR training. Thank goodness.

Life back to normal....

Important to note

Listing my marriage troubles was tough for me. I might be chatty and talkative, but I'm also private when it comes to things gone wrong. I like to keep the facade that everything is right in the world of Sandra. Especially the big one....marriage.

If you know me personally, I'm not likely to verbalize my marriage problems to you even if you ask. Your better off checking here for updates. I'm weird like that.

Be Careful Grandma!

My mom threw her back out yesterday. She and Shawna were in the lake where my mom was picking Shawna up and throwing her into the water. All was fine but after they got home my mom's back got tight and she couldn't move much. Today they went to the chiropractor and she's doing better but she still can't lean down to put her shoes on. They went to the movies today.

Shawna tells me after they got back "Mommy, we went to the movies and saw Kung Fu Panda and we had POPCORN AND SODA!".
You might recall that Paula also went to the movies with my mom and saw the exact same movie during her stay up there. I've never taken either of my girls to the movies. Not quite sure why other than we have every movie ever made at my house.

My mom is so great.

I often worry about her. I especially get nervous with all the driving she does (3 hours each way) to and from my house. Now that she has her new Honda CRV with more airbags I worry a bit less but I still make her call me when she gets home. I would feel guilty forever if anything bad happened to her while she was doing something for my family.

She's such a good Grandma. Even this past weekend HER friends were saying how she gets the Grandma of the Year award. They joked saying they wish they had her as their Grandma. It's true. My kids have such a close relationship with her. She gets down on the floor and plays dolls, cards, board games, (I don't even do those things!). She comes down for a week to watch my girls during spring breaks, Christmas breaks and so Todd and I can go on vacation ALONE.
My dad doesn't even come help her. He's not that into kids. He loves my kids, but they're loud and obnoxious, and truth be told my mom doesn't want to have to worry about feeding him too so it's better he stays home. LOL

So I say BE CAREFUL GRANDMA! We need you!

A couple pictures from July 4th weekend

Todd 'mans' the camera card so I see pictures only when I get them from him, but he did send me these two pics today.

These are the twin deers that were drinking from my parents man made creek/waterfall. So darn cute!! My parents said baby deers don't have a scent which makes them less likely to be captured by prey. I'm not sure if that's true but Rosie didn't have a clue they were a few feet away from her. Rosie was on the deck with my dad when we spotted these two.




Shawna and Paula in their matching Wal-Mart (these were purchased on July 3rd and were all that was left that were decent) outfits. I think they're adorable! They wore them 2 days in a row so I already got my money out of them. They were climbing in the backyard of my parents house.

Dreams of being an only child

Paula is alone with us this week. Shawna is with my parents since Paula got to do it in June.
Before bed the other night Paula quietly told me that she wouldn't mind if Shawna wasn't her sister so that she could be an only child.

Now, I totally understand this concept since growing up I REALLY didn't want to have my brother. He was a pest and before he came along, when I was 4 years old, it was all about me. Now I can appreciate him but it took many years. People say my brother and I are a lot alike. When they say that they're referring to our "evil" side. We both have tempers, can be selfish and get loud when we fight and argue with anyone, especially each other. I find Alan to be less tolerant of things and people than me. Either way, he's my brother and we found ways of dealing with each other. I am happy to have him as my sibling, although I always wished he was a sister instead of a brother so we'd have more things in common.

I explained to Paula that I understand why she feels that way but she'd miss not having Shawna to play with. She looked doubtful. haha

Birthday weekend "Readers Digest Version"

Thursday night we headed to my parents about 7:30pm and hit stupid traffic midway on Interstate 80. There was no reason that we could see for the traffic since when it finally dispersed there was nothing there! I hate that.

Friday morning my mom sang happy birthday to me. My girls were SO EXCITED that my birthday had finally arrived. We headed over to the bike parade that morning. Todd was already there helping set up. My moms friends Barbara and Carol organized the event and since he helped them last year they asked for his help again this year. Their bikes were all decked out. I bought them matching Wal-Mart outfits (since I'm a big spender). They looked really cute. They each won in their age group. Thank goodness because last year when Shawna won and Paula didn't it was torture for all of all weekend with her complaining.

Afterwards we headed back to my parents to make lunch and get in our swimsuits. My dad and Todd staked out our spot on the beach w/out EZ-Up canopy. The weather on the 4th was great. Not hot or smokey. The girls played in the water for a couple hours. We headed back home so I could nap. LOL Todd set up the pool in the backyard w/the EZ-Up to shade it. A couple times we saw twin baby deers. OMG they are soo cute! Lots of spots. The mom was nowhere to be seen, but the babies came to my parents waterfall for water.

The girls set the table for me. They wanted me at the head of the table with them on each side of me. So cute. They'd each decorated cards and the envelopes for me. They blew up balloons and hung birthday signs. The adults drank the wine I picked from my day out with Dina and Susanne. Delicious. They helped my mom frost the yellow cake with chocolate frosting. YUMMY! My favorite. My mom claims she didn't know she bought trick candles but WHATEVER! Those suckers did not want to blow out! LOL

Saturday we headed to my mom's friends house on the lake. Barbara. She and Carol had planned a kids event where they panned for gold. They'd painted rocks of all sizes gold and tossed them in the lake. The kids LOVED it. There was probably at least a dozen kids of all ages. After they weighed their gold they got to "buy" something from the table. Paula met a sweet girl whose grandparents lived across the cove. Her name was Paige and she's 7 also. They played, even took a paddle boat to her house to play, then paddled back. We headed home where they played in the tiny pool again.

Sunday we left Shawna at my parents. Todd, Paula and I visited my Grandma on the way home. She looked awesome! She's 92 and so pretty. I love her white hair. Sadly her eyesight is so bad she couldn't recognize me right away. Her strokes have affected her eyes. She asked me to read to her a letter she received from her niece so I did that. She adored Rosie too. Rosie was making her laugh, which I loved to hear. We stayed until they came to get her for lunch. Paula wanted to push her wheel chair to the lunch room table. I gave her tons of kisses and we lift. God I love her.

We hit a lot of traffic on the way home. I told Todd that Labor Day weekend we need a plan because towing the trailer in that traffic will be a bear.

So that's my birthday weekend in a nut shell. Overall it was wonderful. I'm not as freaked being 40 now that I AM 40. It was just leaving my 30's that made me panicky.

Todd didn't bring the SanDisk SD card to work so I'll have to post pictures later.

Basking in my 30's for one more day

Tomorrow is D-day. I will officially be 40 years old at 8:45am. I'm really not thrilled about turning 40.
I love my birthday's in general. I love all the attention I get (I'm needy) the presents (I'm materialistic) and the festivities of 4th of July. I remember turning 30 and feeling I hadn't accomplished everything I wanted. Not married yet, no kids, no house.

But my 30's have really turned out to be the best! In my 30's I got married, bought a home, had 2 beautiful girls. They're young, sweet, fun and so full of energry. In my 40's I'll have TEENAGERS! I'm just not so sure my 40's will be as blissful as the 30's I'm leaving.

I wouldn't say I'm kicking and screaming, but I'm not running to my new age either.

Proud Mama!

For those of you who know me well, you know that in the two years Paula attended her school she received many "bad" notes. Mostly for talking & being bossy to her friends. We work on her constantly. I was talking to another mom about her recently who said Paula is a first child and that it's not uncommon for first children to want to be the leaders. Yes, I said, but she could be more diplomatic about it!

Last night after everyone went to bed I went thru her backpack. I always do that to pull out any school work she's done, get her lunch pack and see if there are any notes. There was an award! What?! My Daughter!?!? She received the Student of the Week in her class! A boy and a girl receive one each week. I'm SO proud of her. I went upstairs into her bedroom determined to wake her up even if she'd fallen asleep (which she hadn't) to tell her how proud I was of her.

I even left a message on our answering machine for Todd (who was already snoring by this time) to look on the fridge to see what I'd taped there for everyone to see.

Yep, I'm one proud Mama. :0)