Saturday, July 23, 2011

4.

Approximately 30 minutes ago, my girl Jane turned four years old. And in this moment, I am sitting next to her after a hectic day returning from vacation, watching her new copy of Tangled, and smelling the grape Tinkerbell lip balm she is generously applying to half of her face. She is so perfectly four.

Today I went on an epic cleaning spree in her toy box and book case. I!m pretty OK with throwing out her old toys, but I really had to steel myself when I weeded out the books from when she was a baby. When we would review over and over the pictures, me asking her to identify things, her pointing proudly, all before she could even speak a word clearly.

Now, well, most days she never stops talking. We needed to make room for more big kid books. And soon - only 13 months - she'll need room for school books. Today she got her first real bike. Sometimes it feels like we'll be shopping for her wedding dress tomorrow.

But she still calls bathing suits "bathing soups." and she still holds my ear for comfort. So, yes - I am perfectly happy with her being perfectly four.

Happy birthday to my favorite girl.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

soooooo freaking psyched

Don't you love how much I complain about how busy I am on this blog? Well, there's more where that came from!

This week has been chaos, between working on my big summer writing project at work, along with purging and moving offices with the rest of my department this week. I'm sadfacing over it, because I'm moving out of the office I've lived in for eight of my 10.5 years at my workplace. At the same time, boy, did I throw out a lot of shit. So that's...good? Right? Glass half full? Plus I will be near a window! With natural light! Did I already tell you this? I can't remember.

In addition, I am packing - OK, I am at least thinking about packing - for vacation number two this summer, which begins this weekend. We are renting a house in Rhode Island with some friends and their kids and I. Can. Not. Wait. Soooo freaking psyched for this.

Right now I am looking out the window, spying on people looking at my next door neighbors' house, which was put up for sale this week. This is another thing I am soooo freaking psyched about. I am not a fan of these neighbors and am happy to see them go. I know this makes me a jerk, but believe me, if you knew the whole story, you would agree.

I am also soooo freaking psyched for Susanna Conway's August Break this year. Do you remember when I did this last year? I posted a photo a day at least five days a week - it was an easy way to blog, without many words, but got me into the habit of stopping by here more often. I've been saving my summer photos for just this occasion! I tweeted her and she said she was doing it again. So stay tuned.

What are you sooooo freaking psyched about these days?

Friday, July 08, 2011

the finish line.

Wowza, this work week was crayzee. This is of note in particular because I only worked three days. But I got a lot done and am breathing easier than I was earlier this week. I even had some time today to purge files in anticipation of next week's office move. Yes - after eight years in the same office, I'm moving. It is truly astounding how much shit you can accumulate in that amount of time.

VERY pleased that it's the weekend. Jane and I are having a sleepover in my bed because Greg is down at the boat tonight, fixing something or another. He likes sleeping there and I don't so everyone's happy.

Tomorrow we have another birthday party (July is super-heavy with birthday parties amongst my circle) in the afternoon, and I might start thinking of putting things together to pack for our vacation the week after next, but let's be real - this is not going to happen.

Sunday I am working house for my theater group's production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I am usually VERY involved in the summer production, but this year I'm a lobby worker bee and that's it. I miss it - but I am so relieved that's all I did. It's an awesome show and I'm jealous I don't have my name on it, though!

So, yeah. Low key. Tell me what you are up to this weekend!

Side note: Junior had a vet appointment today. We finally decided to talk to the vet about how he is limping and stiff a lot lately in his back legs. He's an eight-year-old Great Dane - so I was expecting the worst. But she said it was probably some arthritis and gave him some joint supplements. So that was good good good!

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

weekend over.

Seriously - I think all weekends should be five days long. Who's with me? At 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday, I am finally wrapping up my Fourth of July weekend, which began last Thursday night.

We were generously given Friday off at my workplace, and while I had planned to spend the day doing prep work for my Fourth of July party, instead I....well, honestly.....I don't remember what I did. I think I did some reading. I think I did some sitting out in the sun. I know I went out to dinner with an old friend from my newspaper days. That was fun.

On Saturday, I went to my friends' annual family Fourth party (never on the actual Fourth, unless it happens to fall on a Saturday). This is my other family, more or less, and we had a great time. Jane ran herself ragged in the pools and on the water slide and fell asleep on the way home, which is basically my idea of a perfect Saturday night. No bedtime shananigans = A+ day.

Sunday was a down day; we ended up at the boat. Took a long ride in the morning, and then watched the rain fall all afternoon. That wraps up Sunday.

Monday was the day of our big Fourth of July party at our house. Unbeknownst to me, you cannot buy alcohol on holidays in my state (I don't know how I didn't know this - truly, I am an arse sometimes) so I had to drive up over the border to Massachusetts to buy our supply for the festivities - this was after trips to Target and two grocery stores for all of the food and other stuff. By the time 3:30 rolled around and the guests started arriving, I was exhausted.

But we had fun! At least, I think we did - the whole day felt like a complete blur of feeding, cleaning, talking, and watching Greg's epic fireworks display (no limbs lost! yay!). I love having everyone over but I don't think I had one single meaningful conversation.

I took today off because I knew I'd be wrecked from yesterday. After enduring one of the worst, guilt-inducing daycare drop-offs ever (Jane is REALLY NOT HAPPY about transitioning to a new classroom) (REALLY REALLY NOT HAPPY) I headed to the beach, and oh, what a glorious beach day it was. Hot, cloudless July days like today are the days I live for.

So that was my weekend. It's going to be balls to the wall at work this week - seriously, if you see me on Twitter or anywhere else, just tell me to get the hell back to work. I have so much to do....see ya on the flip side!

Friday, July 01, 2011

this is me being serious.

(steps on soapbox)

If you do follow me on Twitter, you know a couple of weeks ago I was freaking out because my brother got in another serious car accident. He's OK- but I truly consider it a miracle that he and his friend are alive, as they were hit from behind by someone who was going 100 MPH on the highway and was possibly asleep. When I saw a picture of the car, I almost choked. The back half of his car was quite literally crushed into the front half of his car. My brother was knocked unconscious and had a concussion, plus a lot of body pain, but holy shit. It could have been so much worse.

One of the reasons is because 10 years ago, as I've talked about here before, he was in another VERY serious car accident where he had six brain contusions, broken ribs, broken leg that ultimately needed a titatium rod put it in, many many cuts and bruises, and a year-long recovery. It is very, very hard to see someone close to you recover from a brain injury. So, as it stands, he really can't be knocked in the head for fear of permanent damage. He was lucky then, and he is lucky again.

All of this leads me to say, as we head into this party-heavy long weekend- please, please be careful on the road. Hey, I've been guilty of distracted driving, checking my phone while driving, certainly talking on the phone while driving, and driving while on the verge of falling asleep. Cars lull you into a false sense of confidence on the road. But make no mistake- they are extremely dangerous machines.

So buckle up, throw your phone in the trunk if it's that alluring to you, don't drink and drive, and pay attention. Have a great weekend!

(steps off soapbox)