Here's to the Crazy Ones!

Webster would say, "crazy, can be an adjective, noun or adverb...meaning mad, insane, impractical."
I would say it is a state of being and should be encouraged...
So, go Brian...traveling through the jungles of Mexico...

I'm Not Dead Yet

Have you ever felt like the saying "age equals wisdom" is a complete farce? Me, too.
I think the wisest people I know are between three and ten.
They are usually fearless, they don't care what people think, they live for the moment, and enjoy food...like all over their face enjoy.
I had the joy of being the ridiculous adult at a friend's 40th Birthday party that did back flips on the trampoline tonight. It was a blast. I talked another friend into jumping with me. We both laughed like kids. Sure, bladder control is not quite the same, we now have limited jumping time, but we did it nonetheless.
I strongly suggest realizing that you are not dead until you are put in the ground or burned. Enjoy. Live. And if you wake up sore the next morning, take Advil, but never be afraid of being the "crazy one."

Little Miss Muffett?

The start of this day makes me want to huddle under the covers and try again tomorrow, but I am a mom so that is not an option.
First of all, I wake up at 3 a.m. this morning with a terrible headache, the kind that makes you start planning your funeral video because it might take you out. So, as I have visually prepared the arrangement of the slides as my Advil is kicking in, my creative imagination runs wild as I truly believe there is a werewolf hunting on the golf course prepared to come through our gallery doors. Planning my scream and run, I decide that I am thirty-five now and need to be an adult and go back to bed.
The alarm chimes around 7 a.m., but my lovely, sleepy head of a husband turns it off.
Frantically, fifteen minutes till we need to leave for Eden's last day of school, I am trying to grind coffee and turn on PBS to bribe the child to wake up while convincing myself it is safe.
We load up...drive like we are on a Harley and make it to school on time with a sigh of relief.
Minus the fact that my daughter let me know that I am always late and that she has a back up plan for such behavior, I am basking in my glow of good parenting for arriving on time.
Until...
I feel this string of something go across my face as I am heading over sixty miles per hour on the expressway. I do the arm brush to see if I can get it off. Not paying much attention, just wanting the tickle on my cheek to go away.
Then...
No imagination needed here, I bring my coffee cup up to get a drink and just happen to glance down and see that I am attempting to drink a spider. Yes, girls, you heard right...a spider.
Now, I am screaming, swerving, feeling betrayed...grabbing across the passenger seat for some tissue paper out of gift that is over a month late to a friend...stuffing the paper in the cup...throwing the cup in the holder...waiting for the offense to make the spider come out and bite me and tell me how cruel I have been to him.
Freaked out and humbly enjoying my second cup of coffee in a clean cup, I can only hope that this day will not continue in this manner and that I in fact will not become Little Miss Muffett ever again!

Congrats, Brian!

Brian received a Best of TCC award on Monday night.
He has come so far since our days at Tulsa Junior College, way back when.
I still remember seeing his jacket hanging off his shoulders as he strutted down the hall rallying troops to play ball. His blond hair standing on end with the help of a bunch of gel and jeans with holes from being so faded and worn.

Lightning Tree

This week Eden and I took a friend to our local Garden Center to meet some of her classmates for a field trip. It was beautiful.
As we were there I saw a tree that had remained strong after a lightning strike. Being the philosopher that I am, thoughts of the meaning of such an event flooded my mind.
When this tree took such an obvious hit, it did not die. Instead, it learned how to compensate for the tragedy and grow bark around the affected area.
Now, as a spectator, I stood amazed at the strength of the tree despite the mark. Reminded of how we, as humans, wear different emotional scars, but become stronger as a result. Our markings may be apparent to some, but hopefully our strength is also.

A Beautiful Reflection

What a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. All weekend I have been on the verge of tears as I have watched my beautiful daughter grow up. Such strong emotion probably comes from the years I was told that I would never have children.
Brian and I went through In Vitro to have Eden and it was truly our last ditch effort before resigning to the fact that we were going to be the family, just us.
The excitement of finding out we were pregnant lasted until our first trip to the hospital with premature labor. The whole pregnancy was like sitting on pins and needles. So many highs and lows with an incredible ending. Eden.
Now, over seven years later I sit amazed at all the talent and beauty God gave our little girl and that I get to be her mom. She has surpassed all of my hopes and continues to grow in character and grace.
To look back over the journey and craziness that comes with motherhood, I look back reminded of the gift of being called, "mom."
Happy Mother's Day!

Connection Cake

I have a really great life.
Sure, I have some moments that bring tears to my eyes, but we all do.
The great thing about my life is that it is connected to so many other people's lives.
Yesterday, I got to be connected with a wonderful person, Sandra, who showed up to Skelly Elementary and helped me donate books and journals to over 200 kids. She has amazed me with her high-level of commitment to Blended Love and her willingness to roll her up sleeves and get busy. Just her presence alone almost brought me to tears. There is truly nothing like sharing an experience with a friend who saw it all firsthand.
I also got to have lunch with my mom at Lucky's, which was awesome, and enjoy the undivided attention only a mom can give.
Then, I had the privilege of being Eden's stage mom and helping her with all of her recital needs for the big dress rehearsal. I actually got teary-eyed again watching her enjoy dancing with her friends. The connection of being the mom is even more rewarding than I had planned when I had kids in theory.
The icing on my connection cake for the day was my dear friend and husband, Brian, who took us to ice cream. His attention is still always a treat and Eden and I love being so wanted.
So, if you are ever taking advice on a tasty dessert, I strongly suggest the connection cake.

The Great Stand Off

I have never realized how incredibly stubborn I am until right this minute.
I am absolutely exhausted. Writing a workbook for teachers, hosting out of town guests, scrambling for Eden's upcoming recital, ect. Yet, I sat here insisting on typing away on my computer because I have asked my hubby to come get me when he is done on his computer.
Well, it is 11:15 p.m. and no trace of him. He's working downstairs and I am upstairs.
You would think after fifteen years of marriage that I would be more mature about this stand off, but I am not. No, I am still the stiff-necked, take it on the chin gal he met years ago.
And to think all this time I perceived myself as the great submissive wife. I might need to reconsider.
I may actually just curl up in a ball up here and go to sleep. Oh, wouldn't he feel bad.
No, he wouldn't. I would just have a horrible pain in my neck and break out from not washing my face.
I am waiting..............................still nothing.
I better grab a pillow.

I've Been Robbed!

Yesterday I was watching Eden, my seven year old, dance around the house singing words that didn't make sense to a melody that was being created as she danced. Such joy, a nonsense kind of jubilation...
Of course, being the philosopher by nature that I am, I pondered where my joy of living had gone. I looked over my Outlook Calendar to see where I had scheduled joy and craziness, but couldn't find it. I did see a small two hour block labeled "Activity with Eden" on Friday, but felt that I had tried to incorporate chores which was a huge mistake.
During this block, she was prancing and I was grudgingly attempting to brush off a ring around the toilet bowl upstairs...then it hit me...literally..toilet water flipped up out of the bowl into my eye and mascara came streaming after...major burn...complete disgust. I would like to tell you that I handled this like an adult, but I would be lying. I screamed in horror spinning the contaminated brush all over the tile and reaching for towels to spread the filth all the more. Yes, I over-reacted in a major way.
Then I realized that I have been robbed. Just a decade ago I would have fell to the floor hysterically over such an event, but now, wearing my "mom" hat I have chosen to believe that laughter is irresponsible. What a tragic loss!
So as I tried to implement my new philosophy of child-like humor, I was tested immediately.
Eden made her first salad while I was upstairs, which simply means, our kitchen was slimmed with tomato seeds as she cut each cherry tomato with a butter knife.
Eden had dinner for 34 Webkinz (stuffed animals) in the playroom, which translates as popcorn and fruit snacks placed ever so not so neatly on a long table with bowls of water.
Eden decided to have a fashion show for herself and changed at least ten times creating a lovely pile of clothes in the middle of her floor.
Oh, and my personal favorite, Eden decided it would be a great time if she could pretend I was housekeeping.
My old self would have yelled at the top of my lungs, "I am housekeeping!!!"
The new me...laughed hysterically, made up my own lyrics and danced half-naked until daddy came home!!!!!
Oh, childish joy, you have returned to me.