What to "DO"?

As most of you know I am a chameleon when it comes to my hair. I am always doing new things with it like color, or cuts. This stems back to my HS days with my best friend Karen. After school we would get bored and we would do things to my hair. We did do a few piercings but the pain was to much so stuck with the hair stuff. Now that I am older I think I do it because it is easier for an instant change than weight loss. So the dilemma ... I have an appointment on Tuesday for a real hair color... Not just a box dye job ($10), a real, I am going to pay big bucks hair change... I have been about every color and every style. I currently have dark hair highlighted by gray, yes gray. I didn't realize how gray I was when I was blond. So I have been going through magazines looking for the perfect color and style. I am so worried that they will make me "porno" blond, which I am sure Kurt would love but I have to be somewhat mature...
So I am off to keep looking for that great color and style but I think they will have to cut a lot of my hair due to the "fire hazard" it has become. So as my 20th HS reunion approaches I will have a new look or will I? I might bail...

Summer Begins...

Due to the massive ice storms the East Coast endured this past winter we are finally out of school (June 23rd). Now we are dealing with RAIN. June has seen only 3 days of sun. From what the forecasters are saying the jet stream has changed and we are getting Seattle's weather. I really don't know how people living in Washington state can do it. I am ready to freak out! I have a hard time getting up in the morning and when I do I am back in bed by11:00 am. I pray to God that July has something fabulous in store.



Abby left yesterday for camp for a week. She is living in tents and I am sure she is a muddy, stinky, and bug bitten mess already. We left it up to her if she wanted to go. At the last minute she decided she would go and make the best of it. I am thinking she is re-thinking her decision. Abby will also be going to lacrosse camp at SNHU for a week, then off to Hampton Beach for a week w friends. Brockton has been off at wrestling camp up in Concord. Not sure what he thinks of it yet. I pick him up each day and he is sweaty, stinky, wiped out. The middle of July Brock will be going to football camp, and then in Aug he will be biking Acadia National Park for 4 days. Sophia has been kick'n it at home and at friends houses. She will be doing volleyball camp later in the summer. Halee is working this summer and then we are off to Cali for student/parent orientation for a week. Halee is planning on leaving around Aug 18th for college.
Kurt has been doing the strength and conditioning training every morning at BHS from 8am till 10 am. Mid-July he will be running his first football training camp for this area. I am just going with the flow and driving kids around and keeping the house running.


Each day I get my horoscope text to me, today I really thought about it... Not like other days....
" What is your main objective? Happiness? Wealth? Peace? Evaluate where you are going..."
I realize that all I want is to remain happy and that my family comes first! I would rather be poor and happy, then wealthy and unhappy! So I am going to enjoy my family this summer and make due with the limited funds we have and enjoy each day!

Blessing in Disguise...

So there I am all snuggly on the couch after a crazy day at Bedford High School. I am enjoying something on the TV and eating something even better. Halee and her boyfriend Jon come home and Jon plops down on the other couch and Halee just is standing telling me about Jon's first experience at an all you can eat buffet. As she is telling me this fabulous story... I see her look out the front window with a look of horror! Holy %$#@! (mind you she is not prone to swear, well in front of me anyways) She is screaming, " My car is rolling down the driveway"!!! Come again? Did she really just say that? I have NEVER seen Halee move so fast in all my life! She flew down the stairs and out the front door. Jon is shocked, but jumps up and tries to catch the car. REALLY? Great effort on his part! By the time I realize what is happening I hear Halee screaming. I am thinking, oh my gosh did someone get killed, hit , hurt? Nope... Her Jetta rolled down our 250 foot hill of a driveway crossed the road, hit a stone wall and ended up hanging in some trees. Shocking!!! It was something from out of the movies. As many of you may know I don't handle these situations very well. I think my kids were shocked when I dropped the F bomb every other word. They just stared at me. Halee's boyfriend looked shocked as well.
As we all calmed down, Halee called the police and GEICO. The police arrived and he was shocked no one was injured, but did say he has not seen something like that before. An hour later the tow truck arrived and the big scrappy guy laughed when he exited his truck. He said the noise that the car would make being pulled out would be ugly... Um, he was right.
I was freaking out because Halee was going to sell her car($1500) before leaving for school in California. She doesnt even have the deductible of $500. OMG what is she going to do?
The next day we went to go get a rental car... Ya, Halee is driving a sweet Mazda 6, my car that I want to actually buy, and I am driving my stinky mini van with no radio or air conditioning... Something is not right.
I just got off the phone with the insurance adjuster, the car is TOTALED! OK how much is it worth... She paid $4500 for it 2 years ago... They said Geico will give her $4089 for it... She has her loan to pay off and her deductible, but she walks with $2800. What a blessing! She now has some money to use at school and to get her started in Cali. The down side for me is we have to share a car for 2 months. Oh well, I will take it for the blessing that no one got hurt and Halee is ahead of the game for a bit.
Did I ever think that this would turn out in such a positive way? Obviously not seeing my kids think I have a truck drivers mouth. I need to learn to have more faith!

It's not a party if the cops dont come...

Abby turned 14 years old in February. A tough time to have a birthday party outside without having one of your extremities get frost bite and fall off. So we said we would have a party in May when the weather was warmer. Well it is May. I had ordered invitations in April. I order from a company called Vista Print and the minimum you can order is 100. So I ordered 100. So when Abby got to the invitations she thought they could all be handed out. I did grab 25 of them to make sure they did not get dispersed. Off she went to school and passed them out to 75 kids.


At this point the party date seems far off and I am excited for her. I am doing my list of things we will need. Well, life takes over and I forget that the party is in a few days... Now I am freaking out about food, music, firewood for the bonfire, and sound system. I have a hard time falling asleep wondering where, when , how. Wednesday night I meet Sherri R. to pick up her SWEET sound system (remember this for later on in the blog...). Friday I have to take a half day at work to get all the drinks, and food at BJ's. Typical me, I buy more then we probably need. I bolt home from picking up the things and get everything ready. I did pick up the kids and some friends that helped make the signs, mow the lawn, clean bathrooms, and just make my set up much easier!

So everything is ready to go and the kids start flowing in. Kurt and I stood at the driveway introducing ourselves to the parents and Abby introduces us to her friends. Some of the parents comments were wishing us good luck, letting us know they were at home if we needed help, and some just asked us "why are you doing this". So with that vote of confidence I was a even more nervous!
Typical girl/boy party, girls are on the deck and guys are playing football. This went on for about an hour. Kids trickled in for a total of 65. It would of been more but it is the long weekend so that was a blessing:) Halee was the DJ for the night and did a great job. The place was rocking and all the kids were dancing, well if you call what they do dancing... It was so loud and the bass was totally bump'n.




Then... Dundundun... The police show up at 9:30. I see them coming up the driveway and I bolt out to them before Kurt sees. I talk first saying" we have till 10 pm and they are all 8th graders, so no problem, right." That is the law here you have till 10pm. He just looked at me and said 6 people complained about the noise. What? We live way out in the woods, classic... I also remember we have a bonfire burning in the back yard and I failed to get a permit so I am panicing hoping that tis cop stays put in his car or I could have a $300 fine. I gave him all my info and did inform him of a HS party that they might be interested in if they are looking to bust some kids. I turn and see Kurt walking towards us, I quickly say "we are all set". Kurt has a history with cops and he is not to fond of cocky police, which this guys was. Lucky they start pulling away as he is almost at the car, fheww .

Off they went and we headed back to the kids. I have to complement Abby and her choice of friends, they were all well behaved and personable! Kurt and I had a great time getting to know these kids and see them interact. No drama, no issues at all. I would do another party for her someday, well maybe before they all drive. I am glad we did all of this, it restores my feeling of middle school kids that they can be fun and not all of them are punks.

*** One parent that came to pick up her son said she could hear the music who lives about 3/4 of a mile up the road. Great sound system!!! Thanks Sherri! ***

What was I thinking? 10.2 miles...

So Kurt and I are huge fans of the Biggest Loser on NBC. We would sit on our comfy couch eating a vast array of snacks while watching these HUGE people work out and watch what they would eat. We would comment on their size and heath issues and just be shocked at the amount of weight they could lose in a week. Well, one of the last episodes the final 4 contestants had to do a marathon, walk, run, crawl, whatever but had to finish 26.2 miles. In my head I am like that is crazy, some of the contestants were still a bit heavy, but finished. As I am shoveling strawberry short cake w/ extra whipped cream into my mouth Kurt turns to me and says, "we could do that"... I just looked at him and gave him the look. He said, "how about next Saturday we walk to Bedford High School?" I just said"ya, sure, whatever... " Never did I think we would really want to do it.
OK, so today was "that" Saturday... He rolled over and said, " you ready?" OMG we are really going to do this. Mind you that I do not work out regularly and could stand to lose 30 lbs. I think to myself , I could bail and then feel guilty and possibly emotionally eat, or just suck it up and go.
We drove both cars to BHS and left one. We went home and started the journey. As you all know we live in NH, yes hilly and bumpy NH. Off we went, in my car I figured out mileage, so each few miles I would think about how FAR we had to go. We had to walk out on main roads, which I think most people in the area knew who we were and what the heck we were doing.

Every now and then I would attempt jogging... UGLY! At mile 7 I realized I could do this. One thing though, my hands looked like a catchers mitt and my fingers looked like bratwurst... I had a hard time bending my fingers and my ring looked like it could pop off. I am going to Google later what that all means... So onward, we drive this route everyday and NEVER did I ever think I would be walking it. We head down Nashua Rd and I see my mini van, I have never been more happy to see that sweet ride! We made it in 2 hours and 20 min. I think that is pretty good for no training! Kurt and I stretched for a bit and hopped in the car to head home. I had to be at work at 2 and here it is 1:15. We got home and I go to get out of the car and realize my body is not moving they way it usually does. My hips felt like they were going to pop out and my poor feeties, can you say blisters? So here I am at the VA Hospital working feeling my legs cramp, and my arss twitch.
I am proud of myself for completing this and not bailing out. I did bring my cell phone with me just in case I had to call for help:)
What are you up to next weekend?

Overwhelmed? Take a look at your Blessings...

Overwhelmed? Some days I just want to crawl back into my bed and hide out and snuggle up with all my pillows. Facing that day is hard sometimes for me. I wonder sometimes if I make a difference in people's lives or am I just a burden to others. Sometimes I feel that I am just doing the same things everyday and racing around like a "crazy" person. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering what I did that morning or if I did pick up the kids at school. Do you ever feel like you are losing it? Oh, and to make a simple decision is like brain surgery some days.
Full time mom, Full time job, part time night job... Do you ever feel like you just give and give and the return is less than what you give out? When I am at work I always have to be on my A game and it becomes very draining, mostly when you have nutty high school parents enabling their children, or veterans that are on their last bit of emotion and are calling in to let you know they want to end their lives.

This past weekend I got away to Chatham. This is a place that I feel that I am at my comfort zone. I have so many memories of summers with my family and most of my ancestors settled Cape Cod so I feel like I belong there. I spent the weekend just going over things that matter most and I came to the conclusion it IS my family and close friends. ( not all Facebook "friends")

Stressing out about money, what I can not give my kids to help them keep up with everyone, or having to have the perfect body needs to be put aside. I need to slow down and realize the blessings in my life, and the small and simple things. So I started a quick list of all the blessings and realized I could go on for awhile.

1. Healthy family
2. Happy family that I enjoy spending time with
3. Eternal understanding
4. Jobs
5. House
   
6. Cars
7. Parents that are still somewhat healthy
8. Education for my kids
9. Ability to serve others
10. Great marriage/communication
    

Take some time today to look at the blessings in your lives. Even if it was as simple as missing hitting that car that was not looking, or simply smiling at a stranger.
Hopefully this will help me and you feel less overwhelmed with life, if we just slow down and see my blessings.

Family is all we have... Really?

From the eternal perspective of things I understand God's plan about families... I do have some questions that I am not sure I will ever get the answer to in this life.

1. Did we pick our parents/siblings/children or was in a "crap shoot"?
2. How can you have siblings from the same parents and be so dramatically different?
3. Why do family members dance around the "pink elephant" in the middle of the room when family is all we have, shouldn't we support and help each other without getting all bent out of shape?
   
4. Why is it ok for mothers to say comments that no one else would, or want too, and get away with it? (I am guilty of this too)
5. Do you ever look at your own parents and wonder, how, why, what? Are they truely happy or were they ever happy?
   

Like I stated before, God has a plan... But family is all we have, like it or not...