Our Two Bus, One Train, an Airplane, a Zebra and a Lights Kinda Day… (or.. Plane, Train, and Automobiles)

I wish I were a stay at home mom. I know I get experiences in my career that I wouldn’t get anywhere else and get fulfillment and a paycheck and all that stuff. But every so often, I get to create with my son the kind of days that I wish filled all of our weeks.

We got up late (thank goodness for that! My son is 4 and he is FINALLY!!! starting to learn the art of sleeping in!!) and goofed off at home. We got dressed and took Z’s jeep out for a ride.

We were about a third of the way around the neighborhood when I suddenly realized that I didn’t have to exert myself nearly as much as I did the first time he rode it. The jeep goes 5 mph (about a 12 minute mile.) For a few minutes, I entertained myself with the idea that between the walking I did yesterday and the walk this morning, I was really starting to build up my stamina fast!!

Ok who’m I kidding? I knew the battery starting to lose some life. I had a sudden flash in my mind of pushing the jeep half way around the neighborhood (which is about a mile around the full circle) While I think Zach would still enjoy it, I thought I might not. So I convinced him to turn back around and head home. After performing an 8 point turn, and running over my foot a time or two, we made it back home.

We headed for the Sycamore/Apache bus station for the Valley Metro Light Rail Opening Ceremony. We got there about an hour after the opening and the place was packed. They had little opening ceremonies at stations all along the line. We were just going to hop on the new light rail there, ride it for a bit and then head home. So we got there and there was a bit of a line to get on the rails so I followed it around and around and back and off to the left and back some more until I found the back of it. Where they had an official guy there hollaring at all of us that the line was estimated to be a three hour wait from that point. I looked at Zach and traced my tracks back. In addition to the light rails, they had free buses going up and down the rail lines. So we got in line for one of those. We used to ride the buses in Tucson for fun on slow days so it was old hat for us.

While waiting in line there was a single father there hitting on me (I'm guessing he was a single father... I never did get to do the ring check and I so much prefer that thought to a married guy hitting on me.) He was taking his two boys out for an adventure too. We were in line waiting to get on the bus, kinda talking to this guy. Just then an empty bus pulled in and Zach deftly pushed his way in and saved us two seats in the back (see... old hat) and by the time I get settled into my seat with the stroller, single guy is out of sight. Which is ok because then I can tuck him away in my mind with a nothing more than a smirk.

Anyway, I digress.

We rode the bus for a few miles and got off at random at one stop. Here they had a few fire trucks and other fun things. Zach got his face painted:

And since he got to pick how it was painted... it should come as no suprise to those that know him... he picked Spiderman:

They also took a picture of Zach and let him decorate a foam picture frame with stickers and we got a balloon animal there from a girl clown with the coolest red bobbed cut wig. (Man I really want to have colored hair. Really wish I could've gotten that blue figured out. Sigh.)

At that point, we decided to take a break and see if we could get on the rail at that stop, heading back to our car. Ok so remember how before I told you that the wait to get on the train was 3 hours??? (which is how long it takes me to get from my house to my family in Lakeside!?!?!) Well at this stop, just a few miles down the road, I waited 10 minutes. And the only reason why I waited that long was because when we got there, the train hadn't arrived yet. We got on the first train that came by.

It was kinda cool. They move pretty fast (even though they still have to stop at red lights and stuff.) I spent 10 years in Tucson voting down every transportation initiative to build something like that there (course I gotta say those initiatives were always for a three mile rail... which I still think would fail to deliver all the booming economic growth that was promised... it's three miles for crying out loud. You could walk it in less than an hour...) But since I don't live in Tucson and I didn't get a chance to even have any kind of say in this rail, all I can do at this point is take advantage of the free ride days.

Zach liked the train but was honestly more worried about his spiderman "tattoo" (as he liked to call it... ok can you tell I let him have tattoos a little more than I probably should!!)

We stopped at one more stop before we got to where our car was parked. This stop had a jumping castle:

You can really only see the tippity top of Z's head in this pic but I thought I did such a good job of catching the essence of the jump in the other kid that this would be the one I would show!!

There, we got a free tulip (which Z decided he wanted to give to Tia R - by the way Tia R... if you're reading this... he left it somewhere at your house... hopefully in an obvious place! :D) and he made a flower out of tissue paper (he gave that one to me!!) Then someone at one of the little booths spent about 20 minutes helping him color a picture while we all listened to Mariachi music. It was really quite entertaining!! But the fun had to end and we both decided we were done.

So we headed out and, in a move totally out of character for me, I let Z push the stroller. (I gotta admit, he is getting better - maybe it's all that driving practice he's getting in with the jeep... nah - he barely drives in a semblance of a straight line in the jeep :P)

But he enjoyed it anyway. At this point, we got to chase a bus (which didn't stop for us) and then wait a bit and finally got onto a double bus - the thing was huge!! It was actually my first time being on one of those. They don't have those mammoths in Tucson. But the crazy thing was there were only five people on it. What a waste. We took it back the mile or so to our car and headed back home.

I admit at that point, I really could've gone for a nap. But Z was really excited and begged me to go to Tia R's house. He really wanted to show off his "tattoo." We missed seeing Tia R but Tio T was there and he was about to head out to fly his new remote control airplane. So we met him at the park by our house. Which of course meant that Z wanted to drive his jeep to the park. Which was stupid of me to let him do it because if you remember from above, it wasn't anywhere close to being fully charged. So I ended up pushing him half the way there (thanks Tio T for carting it back to the house for us later!!)

Anyway, Z had a blast and Tio T even let Z try his had at the controls a few times. It was really fun.

Well the plane did about as good as Z's jeep. It needed some more battery and charger time. So while it was short lived, it was still fun and I was really glad that it worked out for us to do it because Z has been walking around since Christmas saying that Tio T said he was going to let Z try to fly it. I appreciate that he got in some male bonding time!

At that point, we got dropped off with the jeep at home and got the thing plugged in to get ready for a different day. We watched a movie from Uncle B's collection (which he left here at my house from last weekend - although I think he may have taken my remote control as advance ransom because I have not seen that thing since he left... hmm) It was nice to take a chill pill and relax. Then we made one more attempt to share the joy of the tat with the family. Z did get to show it G'ma and G'pa so that was good at least. But then we decided to go out to eat. I didn't want to do McD's or anything like that so we started heading towards Phoenix with the intent of finding something new and exciting on the way.


So that's kind of an interesting conundrum I haven't gotten used to yet living here. It is pretty much impossible to find something "on the way" when you take the freeway. Sheesh. But we were headed to the Zoo lights and at some point on the freeways (which are so wonderful!!) I just accepted the inevitable and agreed with myself to pick something up at the zoo.

The zoo was fun. We got food first, although Z would've settled for either a ride on the "endagered animal" (no seriously - it's actually called that) carousel or a flashing strobe light sword/bracelet/necklace.... We got pizza and a cheeseburger (I'm trying to increase both my iron levels and how much protein I'm getting on a regular basis - I got the cheeseburger)


Ok two bites into the pizza (and I so predicted this... I just didn't act on it earlier) Z had to go REAAAALLLLLYY bad. So we packed up the food onto the stroller (sooooooo glad I brought it!!) and headed to the banos. Of course there was a line as long as the one at the train station for the women's and nothing at the guys. So in a moment that was a little sad, a little scary, and a little desperate... I sent Z into the men's room alone. And when he came out with wet sleeves, I was so proud!! And I got like a totally evil/jealous glare from a lady standing in the women's line that pretty much looked like she hadn't moved in the time Z went in and out.


After that incident, we just kinda strolled around. Well, I strolled, Z sat in the stroller. It was great. They had this one section where they had lights on the trees pretty close together and they timed them to music and it was a lot of fun. Of course taking pictures of lights is never very productive so here's one to give you an idea (of either the cool lights or my bad photography... both are acurate)





After a few more terrible shots, my camera couldn't take it anymore and simply passed out. It's home now being charged like everything else electronic in my life.


We stayed a bit longer (with a small detour at the elephant pit that smelled bad and provided no visiual gratification) and then decided to call it a night. It was really cool! We made it back to the car and Z asked where we were headed next. I told him it was off to bed and he assured me he wasn't tired at all. So I agreed that we could watch another movie from Uncle B's stash when we got home. We spent most of the drive telling stories about how we were going to hide that movie stash and only give it back if a certain uncle started crying (take note Uncle B!) We were about a mile from home (on our about twenty mile trip) when Z just totally zonked. I even trying hollaring his name and got nothing. So here I sit, watching a movie from the stash alone, with a zombied out, wonderful, cute, open-mouthed angel sitting next to me.



And I was thinking. You know, life usually doesn't turn out the way it's "supposed" to or anything like that. But this, this life I have is pretty wonderful.

Love, Life and a Four Year Old

My cousin’s baby passed away last week. He lived two precious days. My heart breaks for his parents and I wish them healing and peace.

I am now trying to explain things to my son. He knew that my cousin had a baby in her tummy and he knew the baby’s name. But he doesn’t quite understand why my cousin doesn’t have the baby with her even though he knows the baby isn’t in her tummy anymore.

I tried to tell him that the baby’s body wasn’t strong and that it was better for him to go live with Heavenly Father. He asked me if that meant that the baby was going to live with Heavenly Father and my mom and I told him yes. He told me that that meant that the baby had died. Then, on the verge of tears, he told me he didn’t want to die. I tried to find the words to explain that there at times when death is a good thing as it provides relief from the pains of this world. But he just kept insisting that he didn’t want to live in heaven; he doesn’t want to die.

I am at somewhat of a loss. I made a deal with him that we would eat healthy and exercise and wear our helmets when we ride bikes and seatbelts in the car and do everything we can to stay healthy so we won’t die. But I can’t promise him death won’t come and I won’t lie to him. I think the crux of the problem is a fear of losing his mom as he knows I lost mine. He doesn’t understand why my mom can’t visit us like his other grandma does or like we visit our family.

I’m sure the fact that I’m a single mom makes this a bit harder on him. When he’s with me, I’m all he has and the thought of losing that has to be frightening to him. I’m sure there are books out there that explain death in a four year old language. But I think what I have to address somehow is his fear of loss as I have experienced it.

I admit it freaks me out a little that my son is four and this is the third close death in his life. If this is indicative of a life-long pattern, this is an issue that I need to learn how to address now rather than later. Especially because my grandparents (all four are still alive) are getting on in years and some are suffering in health more than others.

This, I have discovered, is the price of being close to people. At one point or another, you will face loss when you have a relationship you prize. What I MUST convey to my son is that the price is worth it. Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

This Will Chill You to the Bone!!!!

That's right my friends, SNOW. In all it's sopping wet, freakin cold, white, white, glory. I go up for one random weekend and I just so happen to pick the weekend of the first snow of the season. Great timing, eh. It started snowing Sunday night (see it's snowing)

and I threatened to pack up and go right then. But my brother so graciously turned up the heater a degree and we piled on the blankets and dealt with it...

And woke up to this wanna be winter wonderland the next morning.

It's really only a winter wonderland when you have some sort of guarantee that your toes won't get wet or really even cold. Because wonderland doesn't have blue toes. I've been there. I know. And it says that on the box. See right there. Read it and weep.

But I'm a good sport (somewhat, mostly, kinda... maybe) and went outside the next morning and all by myself, created this guy:

I'm talking about the tall, white guy in the back (although I did have a pretty big hand in creating the short grinning one in the yellow jacket too!) His name (the white guy) is Miles after my nephew-to-be... at age 10 or so. So you know he's gonna be a cute ten year old! (or a cute, somewhat short 12 year old) I made him and then went inside and told my sis-in-law that someone stole all the snow off her front lawn.

I know you're probably thinking how could I stand to be outside long enough to perform such magical feats but just a handfull or two of the snow and you had to know that it was good pack snow. If my memory serves me right, the first snow of the season usually is. And this was baby!! It just rolled right off the carpet like that sod grass you can get (like in the movie "Dick and Jane" when the landscapers come and reposes the lawn) and into a snow man. In fact, I got so carried away I had to chip off chunks of snow from the middle piece because I made it too big and couldn't lift it onto the bottom piece all by myself.

By the end of the day the snow was pretty well gone and the snow man didn't quite make it through the afternoon. But the worst part was the next day when for whatever reason, I got a chill in my bones that I just couldn't shake. I hate that. Ughh. I even started planning on how I was going to do a fire in my fireplace when I got back to town. Which I've totally changed my mind on considering where I live and that most people here still have their AC on.

Z had a lot of fun and was a good sport about me bundling him up wherever we went.

But then again, I think he just liked wearing the Teenage Mutant Ninja (Inja) Turtle gloves everywhere!

And the weekend wasn't a waste for sure. Ape worked us like slaves down in ghetto-ville

(aka Poor White Trailer Trash ville)

And after seeing those pictures, I bet you wished it snowed before I took them, huh!

Ok so that's not actually Ape's house... it's the stuff in her backyard. But they've made a lot of improvements. And we all pretty much pitched in to help get it in order although some did more than most and others were willing to step on nails to get out of work (T-bone - you know who I'm talking about!)

See, working hard!! Can't believe you ruined your girl's camp shirt just for some paint and dirt. Sheesh.

Nothing like a little physical labor to prove you still got the guns. And in this family, oh we got the guns!

And the brushes too as you can see Ty show off his mad painting skills! (see look - he's wearing a sweater too... it's not just me and Z!!)

Ok and the one I know you were all waiting too see. As they say on Speed Racer, the following image may be inappropriate for the uninoculated and senstive viewers, my dad and his girlfriend in the bathtub.

(and if you're wondering what the heck they're doing, they're cleaning spray paint off the tub wall - told you it was ghetto-ville. Honestly the first time I ever remember my daddy cleaning a tub.. ever. And I'm old.)

And just for the heck of it, 'cause I'm prouder than snot, my bro-in-law started his first post-graduation job on Monday and I captured the proud moment of him crossing the threshold as he entered "The Real World" (no not the TV show, just that place you have to go when you finally stop going to school and start picking up a pretty paycheck)... his first day of work

(which I have on good authority that it was really very boring... sounds about right for a first day!!)

Zach n Swimming

Z has been in swim lessons since about the middle of August. I figure that since we now have the community pool, we probably better make sure he is safe around water. So in a little more than two months time, Z has graduated from the first level class from Otter to Seal!! This means he can now swim independently from the wall to the instructor and roll on his back for a security breath. He loves and he’s doing so dang good! Wow!

Anyway, check out this link to his swim school’s blog with his pic and stuff!! Go Z!!

(Ok so I just updated this with Z's pic because for some reason the blog link wasn't working... so thanks for supporting Z anyway!)

Primary Program

Z had his primary program this Sunday and he did so well. He sang loud and was very well behaved sitting up there in the choir loft. Well he always gets dressed up for church but this time he let me do his hair - which he usually doesn't do. So I got a few pics of him in his Sunday finest:

And a quick family shot!

(don't look too close - you can see his blue socks!)

Love

My cousin, who is about 5 months along in her pregnancy, recently experienced complications and was hospitalized with the possibility of losing this unborn child hanging over her head. This is scary time for her and everyone that loves her and this new baby. I worry about her a lot and the things she’s going to have to face. She will have challenges if the baby lives because he will most likely come early and will face problems associated with his preterm birth. She will have challenges if the baby does not make it and she has to deal with the loss.

While I am really worried about and what will ultimately happen in the near future, I did have the following thought while watching her with her husband the past two nights at the hospital:

My cousin will be ok because her and her husband love each other. The road ahead of them, regardless of which way it leads, will be one they travel together. I can see the uncertainty in both of their faces but I also watch as her husband instinctively reaches for her hand whenever they are in the same room or how she visible relaxes when he comes in. It is beautiful to see love written visibly across two visages, to see a love that transcends the physical, overcomes individual pain, and links two people in a supporting embrace.

So even though I don’t know what will happen, I know it will be ok.

Updates on my house

Ok so I did a lot of work on my house recently so I thought I'd update ya'll with some pics!

Here's my front way with my newly laid tile and entryway table and all that jazz:

This is my "wall o'pics:"

This is my finished storage bench (remember the previous posts... it looks so much better now!)

And this is Z holding it open for me so you can see how awesome it looks from the inside:

And just for fun, Z stole my camera and took this cute pic of Whit:

And one of himself:

Random

So I was cleaning house and found a camera that I let Z use. Well I was looking at the pictures on it and there's actually some kinda nice pics from the trip April, Z and I took to Nashville last spring.

This is from the balcony off our room overlooking the whole huge hotel:

I think this was in an airport:

Airport again:

He also did a lot of self-inflicted photography and this, I think, is the best of them:

He's so cute!! Finding these pictures was as good as finding a $20 bill stuffed in a jacket pocket somewhere!

Tagged

2 Tags for the Price of 1
8 Things I am passionate about:
1. My son
2. My job
3. Reading
4. Exercise
5. Music
6. Travelling
7. Creating
8. Doing things that I’ve never done before

8 Words or phrases that I say often:
1. Cuuuute
2. Whatever
3. Not too long King Kong
4. I love you this much
5. Let’s race
6. Ok
7. Thanks
8. Huh?

8 Things I want to do before I die:
1. Raise my son
2. Get the ugly wallpaper off the walls in my house
3. Live on the East Coast
4. Publish a book
5. Hang glide
6. Find inner peace
7. See a cure found for PC
8. Get my doctorate

8 Things I have learned
1. How to manipulate Access to create very pretty columnar output
2. Letting your kid believe in Santa makes Christmas magical
3. Some beliefs have to come at the expense of a comprehensive analytical understanding
4. Everyone wants validation, especially for their pains
5. Friends are the family you choose for yourself
6. Even if it is in style again, the 80’s look is not that attractive
7. Cleaning toilets suck
8. Sometimes you have to fake it till you make it

8 Places I would love to go or see:
1. Chicago
2. MIT
3. Hawaii
4. Alaska
5. Scotland
6. England
7. Italy
8. Spain

8 Things I currently need or want:
1. An irrefutable belief in things hoped for but not seen
2. To hold my baby tight
3. To walk on the beach
4. To live in New York
5. To finish reading the book I’m currently reading
6. To become an expert in the application PeopleSoft
7. To begin working on my masters
8. To get the ugly wallpaper off my walls

8 People I tag:
1. April
2. Ashley
3. Kim
4. Ang
5. Whit
6. Tiffany
7. Allie
8. Jolyn

alphabet tag...
A. Attached or single? Single
B. Best friend? I have a lot of those.. depends on the situation
C. Cake or pie? Ice cream (does that count cause seriously... cake or pie?!?!?)
D. Day of choice? Friday
E. Essential item? Jacket/sweater
F. Favorite color? green
G. Gummy bears or worms? worms
H. Hometown? Lakeside, AZ
I. Indulgence? reading
J. January or July? January… for starting overs
K. Kids? 1
L. Life isn’t complete without? Zach
M. Marriage date? August 11, 2000 (divorce date, September 22, 2006)
N. Number of brothers & sisters? 4 brothers, 4 sisters
O. Oranges or apples? oranges
P. Phobias? Testifying in court
Q. Quotes? Que te via bien, Cuuuuute
R. Reasons to smile? Rain, my son, my friends/family
S. Season of choice? Fall
T. Tag some peeps! see above
U. Unknown fact about me? If I’m working on any project whether for work or fun or at home, I’ll dream about it at night until I figure it out and I can often come up with at least new ideas of how to approach a problem from my dreams
V. Vegetable? Bell peppers
W. Worst habits? Biting my lips
X. X-ray or ultrasound? I’ve never had an x-ray so it is on my list of things that would be fun to do someday. I wanna see what my bones look like
Y. Your favorite food? Ice cream
Z. Zodiac sign? Cancer

Today

Today I'm grateful for my job. My two bosses are really great and an enjoyment to work with. I started a project with the director of my office last week and finally got back to it on Thursday. I had to ask for some guidance at a few points in it working with data that I'm still not 100% familiar with but then was able to dump my data into Microsoft Access and manipulate into the desired output. I got an email last night shortly before leaving work from the requisitioning department asking that I add an additional field and it took me two extra hours to do it. I had to do an analysis of student tuition rates and write an equation that would look at that rate and determine whether or not the student was a part time or full time student and incorporate that data into my previously gathered data. Well about 5 equations, two queries and one report later (plus a bunch of failed attempts and a lot of messing around) I got it! It was all quite exciting!!

Today I ate a Paradise Bakery for the first time since leaving Tucson. I got free lunch because when I left Tucson, my job threw me a going away party and it was catered by Paradise Bakery and they were an hour late so we all got a free lunch. So I got to use that today and still got my yummy yummy Paradise Bakery cookie!! YUM!

Today I wore my first ever ASU shirt. I've been committed to this job but now I'm really committing. I have an ASU shirt (and I spent like three dollars on it!) It's so cute though it's a white polo shirt with a flower on it and the words ASU.

Today one of my co-workers brought bagels this morning. I got in the break room a little late but I was really hungry so I decided to go see what was left. I consigned myself to taking a raisen cinnamon bagel and when I bit into it, I discovered quite unexpectedly that it was chocolate chip! YUM!! Love chocolate!

Today when I went to lunch with my friend from work, we went to the Tempe Market place and parked way out at the end of the parking lot so we could get in a good walk and because there were no good parking spaces anyway. Well the car that had pulled in right before us had the cutest guy. Now talk about YUM!!

Today Is a Gift... That’s Why It’s Called the Present

If I knew that day on which I would die, I think my life would be spent preparing for that… making sure my son’s future would be taken care of, planning for the future, getting it all figured out.

But since I don’t know and lets face it… it could be tonight in my sleep or tomorrow or well whenever.

Something I need to remember a little more frequently.

So I need to figure out some new fun adventures to go on.

I have some frequently flyer miles that I need to use. I was thinking about jetting out to Alaska. New York would usually be my first choice but I will be in DC next March... which is not NY but kinda close so maybe I should try somewhere I haven't been yet.

I'm going back to Tucson later this month for my first visit back since I left and I can't wait to see my friends.

I'm going to find a weekend and take my son to the Phx Zoo.

I need to start some kind of classes again because when I'm not picking up new things I start to go a little nutty. I need my mind to over analyze school stuff instead of other stuff.

I'm going to do a 5K in December. Which isn't that big of a deal since it's only three miles but it's good for me to get out there and do something period.

This weekend I'm hoping to get my tile put down. I've always wanted to learn how to do it so there's no time like the present!

I think I've decided what I want to hang on one of my walls but don't have the foggiest as to where to find it so maybe I'll take a shot at creating it myself.

I gotta find more to do to keep life interesting and make sure I'm keeping my mind and body active.

And really wanna make sure that I keep peace with myself so that I can stay at peace with others too. I learned from a close friend in Tucson that our moral code is something we develop for ourselves and I know I have to live to my moral code. There are positive things all over in life to which I can turn to use as guideposts but the ultimate truths and reality in my world are shaped by my experiences and past. Which means that my life will always be uniquely mine. But even if no one ever fully understands me or sees my points or takes my side, it doesn't matter because I know that there are people in my life who do love me no matter what.

Life really is a gift and I'm grateful to be alive.

Edgefest 2008

Ok top ten observations from edgefest:

1. Inebriation does not make you a better dancer


2. Dancing inebriated does make you good entertainment


3. It also sometimes causes you to make new bff's, who you then forget about three minutes later


4. The songs that are played on the radio are usually not a very good indication of the actual genre/style of music for any given band


5. Lots of bands have really old musicians


6. Lots of bands have really old fans


7. Drunk dancing grannies are really entertaining too... until you picture your own grandma there dancing like that


8. Irish punk rocks


9. If you walk into a tent with a box of stuff and say it's free, a mob will form (and you don't wanna be the guy holding the box) AND FINALLY....


10. Don't wear flip-flops in a mosh pits!

My favorite bands were Everlast, Authority Zero, Pennywise and Flogging Molly (Irish punk!)

It was lots of fun and just the beginning of my concert-going!

What new adventure next? Hmmm.............

Conversations and thoughts

I met with my bishop tonight and we were having an honest open discussion about some things in my life. I have trust issues because of my past and while I feel that my ability to love others has not been incapacitated, I will admit that at times, probably much too often, I allow these trust issues to inhibit my ability to be loved.

And what a tragic state that is. I can at times see my life as if I am an outsider looking in. I see the tragedy of what I do, I recognize the harm in what I'm doing and yet I don't seem to have the ability to stop it. Or more accurately, I haven't honed and perfected my ability to stop it. I push people away that I desperately hope will come closer into my life. I know that it's a form of self preservation as I fight to avoid the pain associated with rejection or even others' imperfections.

But I know that I'm give up a lot because I have not gotten over these hold ups. I know love is risky and loving can hurt. But I have to believe, deep down, somewhere... that the dividends are worth the investment.

But anyway, back to the conversation with the bishop.... He talked about unrighteous dominion and righteous dominion. We often hear about the unrighteous version and we all know how bad it is. But he said in essence that when we choose to get married (or enter a relationship), by making that choice, we give that person dominion over us. Sometimes we attempt, even in marriage to withhold the gift of dominion... but that's when we get ourselves in trouble. So I think that righteous dominion is exercising the dominion that is gifted to us with respect.

Giving someone else dominion is allowing them to influence our decisions; it is not requiring/requesting/forcing/allowing them to make the decsision for us but to provide room in which opinions may be expressed and honesty may exist. So it seems to all come down to two points in the end. First, I gotta be willing to be hurt a little if I ever do want to tear down my wall and feel something more than lukewarm interest in someone else. Second, the respect is ultimately the key to everything. Respect for yourself and for others, for different ideas and priorities, for past experiences and future dreams.

I don't know what this means for me. I know it doesn't mean that I'll get it all figured out in the next day or week or month. But it's at least food for thought. I have a lot of things still to "fix" in my life before I consider the different parts of myself to no longer be "broken," my heart being one of them. But if anyone's passing out A's for effort, I think I at least diserve that. I know what direction I want to go... I just wish someone would've told me there's a mountain directly in my path... not that it would've really changed my course. Life is good.

Venting

So this week had some particulary stressful moments with which I admit I not always very adept at dealing. So in order to vent I finally did what works best for me. I made something. I started last night but I didn't want to be rude and had to quit using the power tools around 9:30. pm. I started up again this morning after running a few errands and after about 4 or 5 hours, I have a new storage bench for my kitchen. I'm going to make two more to kinda wrap around the kitchen table and then it will officially be my "kitchen nook." Nothing replaces that sense of satisfaction when you complete something and realize that it even looks nice!














My camera's color is messed up right now so there's one in sepia and on in black and white. It'll look better when it's painted but not that you could tell anyway as long as my camera isn't working right :P

Football

My cousin (who is one of my son's heros!) played in his high school football game this weekend. It was Gilbert High (go Tigers!) vs. Westwood. Here's some random pics. He's number 75.

Brings back good ole memories of high school football in Lakeside!

Cool Stuff

Ok so Jolyn rocks and she told me about this Bountiful Basket thing and I got one. So basically it's a co-op and you end up with a bunch of fruit and veggies at a really great price. So I got my basket home and immediately chopped and bagged whatever I could to make them into easy, convenient snack sized servings. Here's what I got.

I thought it was pretty cool for a pretty good deal. Thanks Jo!


Ok so the other thing... Z and I sat down on Sunday and made a bit of a chore chart (which we are already behind in following) partly to get ready for a visit from his friends from Tucson. So the idea was for each day, there would be chore(s) and then an activity(ies) once we got through the chores. Z gets excited when he knows what we will be doing after school so it's kinda fun for him! So this is what it ended up looking like:





















Ok so the picture doesn't really do it justice and it was probably more fun to make with Z than to follow it... but it was fun!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Happy Monday

We finally got the key to the neighborhood pool and it rained today. I had promised Z that we could go swimming and since I couldn't make good on the promise due to the storm, we went to the park. So here's a few shots from the park that's just right over our back wall (aka... my huge backyard that I don't have to maintain!!)

First we played some football. Z's got good form:

Whitney came with us (she's living with us):

Z loves it when I drive his bike and he sits on the handle bars when we go down the hills!

Here's a shot of the storm that kept us out of the pool but that didn't stop us from tossing around the pig skin (aka nerf football!):

Life Is Cute (It's Hot)

So I just wanted to say, life is great, it's cute! It's so much fun! The things I love:

My son:

• He is in swim lessons and doing wonderful! He's a brave no fear kinda kid!
• He likes his school!
• His teachers always comment on how well he does and how attentive he is and how much he likes participate.
• He likes reading and helps me remember to read books every night.

My job:

• I'm being challenged and growing in new ways
• I am learning new systems and applying previously acquired skills to facilate my performance at this job
• I get along with my coleauges and have a lot of fun
• I get to work with the higher ups in the department and get to be privy to some of the behind the scenes programming of the department (and the University)

My family:

• They just rock straight out!
• My dad's such a great guy who loves his kids
• My sibs all rock and we are all so tight even when we don't get along!
• My aunt and uncle are the bomb and have helped me so much!!!
• My cousins are like some of my best friends ever and are so awesome to me!

My house:

• Oh my gosh! I'm a homeowner and I love my house!! It's still not perfect but it is so great!
• I have a garage
• I have a backyard
• I finally got the key to my community pool (that I don't have to maintain!!)
• I have the most awesome park just over my back fence (that I don't have to maintain!!)
• I have two stories
• I have a fireplace!
• I have a really cool bedspread!

My life:

• It just is the best! I just can't believe that it keeps getting better and better!!!