There is One Gal in the House That is Glad This Week is Almost Over

Its been one of those weeks for M, one of those that she is ready to put behind her and conquer the next.

We started the week off at the neuro ophthalmologist trying to figure out if a fourth eye surgery was feasible. Our long time eye doctor/surgeon didn't fell comfortable with surgery as a possibility or as a solution and wanted another opinion before any of us making rash or haste moves. The eye exams are tiring for M. She said working her eyes over is like me trying to do the splits over and over again. I was totally prepared to sit for hours in the waiting room. I know how the Center for Advanced Medicine works from spending a vast amount of time at the Spine Center. They move slow, really slow. I never head there without packing an overnight bag and a cooler. So imagine our surprise when we arrived at 830am and left the office at 10am! (I learned it is always better to be the first appointment of the day, they haven't had time to get behind.) When it was all said and done we left the place with the scorecard reading it's a win-lose situation. Win because M won't have to have a fourth eye surgery, lose because they can't fix her constant side double vision without altering her present (cosmetically near perfect) alignment. God love her she hardly complains, says she stopped mentioning it a while ago because it is what it is. M once described herself-- while wearing a back brace, eyeglasses and braces on her teeth-- as a cracked glass. I tell her better to be a Waterford goblet with a crack than cheap lead crystal with a crack. My M is definitely a Waterford goblet. She is mighty fine even with her small "flaws", besides I see no cracks in the Waterford crystal just perfection and beauty.

She had that darn Color Guard section leader try-out-- a try-out that was conducted in a manner never done before (and quite honestly not exactly in the fairest of like or similar ways to the rest of the marching band). It sent her over the edge on Wednesday night. King Ralph helped her out and he said he "choreographed part of her routine." M says "ya, he was like put another of those swirls in there and another of those tosses in there." King Ralph needs to stick to what he does best and flag spinning just isn't one of them. But you got to love him for his interest, help and encouragement. Like the person that M is she went in there did her stuff and left knowing she gave it her all. Now she sits and waits for results. Results that should not take as long as she has been told they will take. Patience is a virtue...it's a lesson being learned in this process.

Last night she spent two hours with a math tutor trying to grasp Algebra II concepts. Math is not and never has been my strong point. So I sat there at the table for a while with them feeling like this form of mathematics is an extension of the Chinese language. I just cross my fingers she does well on the test today. I think M has my mathematical philosophy in her genes: all you need to know is percentages (mostly 10,20, 25, 40, 50 and 75%) for shopping the good sales, simple fractions for cooking and basic math for balancing the check book, everything else is fluff...unless you are going to be a rocket scientist and then my theory goes right out the window. M assures me she isn't going to be studying rocket science in college.

Well M while I know you aren't going to be a rocket scientist just go out in the world everyday doing your best and being the best you you can be!

Buckle Up

How many of us remember the days when we hopped in the car and just drove off? No seat belt required? I do. Crazy days those were! Can you even imagine not wearing your seat belt now? I can't. It's like my wedding ring, I feel naked without it.

As a mom I instilled in my daughters the need and purpose of the seatbelt early on. Now with two young drivers at the helm of the wheel safety is instilled and drilled even more. So this commercial makes a great deal of sense--to not only show my girls but to share with everyone.



Remember, to always buckle up!

The Buried Life Has Got Me Thinking

Truth be told I am a lover of reality TV; no matter how sick and perverted it can be. Our TIVO is chock-full of the shows, everything from American Idol to Project Runway to Biggest Loser. My very favorite is The Bachelor. (dare I mention King Ralph is enjoying the show in a sick male kind of way this season.) I love how we girls at work gather on Tuesday morning, and afternoon, to analyze the bachelor and the hound seeking babes. There is however another reality show I love just as much for a totally different reason-- The Buried Life.

I love The Buried Life for its pay it forward message as much as its way to make people think what would you put on your bucket list and what you want to do if you had one day to live.

This episode drew out my tears

The Buried Life - MTV Shows

The Buried Life - MTV Shows

After I watched the most recent episode of the guys trying like hell to play a game of basketball with the president...I began thinking what would I want to do if I had one day to live. King Ralph and I talked about it together and came up with something.

We love national parks and we love to hike. There is nothing that compares with walking through nature, breathing clean fresh mountain air, hearing the babbling of brooks while bonding with those you love, then standing at the top of a mountain feeling that close to heaven. It's simple life at its best. It is a goal of ours, as a family, to visit Yosemite and hike the mountains and trails of the park. So we decided together that if The Buried Life guys approached us we would tell them it is our desire to hike Half Dome.

As for a bucket list, gosh I am not to sure what all I would put on it. I have few ideas but not many.

What's on your bucket list and what's that one thing you would want to do if you had one day to live?

A Dance and Dining With The Dead

Last night was the "Snoball Dance". A dance that was less snow and more rare but welcomed sunshine on a warm February Saturday.

First pictures with the freshmen.

Then pictures with the juniors
The dress lengths were short and the shoes were all rockin'!...also where my camera battery went dead.

Then King Ralph and I escaped to our favorite pizza/sports bar for a few spirited beverages and a bite to eat [at the bar]. (I forget but I think we call that a date.) It was here I caught glimpse of an urn sitting in the center of one of the pub tables. It seems we crashed an Irish wake--a first for our favorite eatery. The mourners appeared to revel less in grief and more in beer. The urn was a coaster and the ashes were toasted--not with words but with the clink of a Bud bottle to the marble urn. Mr. Ashes was then passed from one friend to the next as the mourners decided whether to stay and continue partying in an Irish wake fashion or to leave..who should take'm home. When Mr. Ashes finally left his eight hour memorial party there was one lone ranger left sipping beer, waiting for his safe ride home.

There you have it a dance and my dinner with the dead.

You've Got Mail

Yesterday I e-mailed a short note to M's marketing teacher, who was also her Personal Finance Management teacher last year (that required class was full of out-of-control crazy teens making for a stressed teacher), turning out to be her favorite teacher of this year. I felt compelled to apologize to her for M not being able to attend state and nationals; seeing where that trophy could take her in the world of DECA. I felt more compelled to write the note since the male unit of the house is feeling like it is all his fault, walking around with his head hung low and his heart aching. M has assured him there are opportunities that await her in the future and not to feel any guilt. That eases some of his guilt but not all.

I got this nice note back.

I would have never thought that Maddi and I would have such a respect for one another after our first experience teaching PFM and having the class with me. I don't believe Maddi would have thought the same way a year ago. However, I knew she was special and hoped I would have the opportunity to share my true passion with her at some point. I feel I have been blessed with my past three candidates having won the coveted district leadership delegate. Maddi seemed truly honored to be asked to be my delegate, I knew I had the right one. Her care in writing her paper and preparing for the interview told me I had chosen a winner. Although the national leadership conference is awesome, I feel both Maddi and xxxxxxx xxx will carry their passion forward next year as Chapter leaders. She WILL have many opportunities to represent DECA and LHS next year through our program.
Thank you for the note, and enjoy your time together over Spring Break."

So I guess we feel a little better. The male unit is going to feel better about his decision to make spring break plans at a slower pace, but I think he'll get there...when the sun hits his face.

The Winner Is...

It was a big day for M. DECA Districts.

She won a blue ribbon for "Best Dressed for Success" in the advertising campaign category; of which she and her two friends competed. Sadly they did not place.

M also was chosen to be one of two leadership delegates for the high school. Competing in the leadership delegate category meant she had to write a paper and be interviewed.

Guess what?

M won FIRST PLACE out of forty other delegates from twenty different schools.

She is so cute; as she was doing her homework on her bed she looked up and asks for me to bring her trophy to place on her night stand. "You want it close by to look at it" I say. She smiles proudly in that little girl way and replies "yes."

M is stretched out in her bed tiring and when she slumbers tonight a trophy will glistens in the clock's digital light gleam, then greeting her in the morning.

It will say to her what I have always known--You're great!

Fat Tuesday

We partied on Saturday with huge pots of gumbo and Emeril's red beans and rice, washing it all done with hurricanes. They came masked and beaded.

While the good Christians of this world are thinking about what they are willing to sacrifice over the next forty days and forty nights; I feel I have given up a lot so far. Twelve pounds to be exact. Along with my double digit size pants.

I have given up caffeine. I have given up sweets. That was some time ago.

So...if this isn't enough already God, here I am come and get me. I'll give you forty days to find me ;-)

Paper Hearts and Hershey Kisses

A few weeks ago my niece, M and I flopped on the couch to watch this movie; our Saturday Redbox selection:


PAPER HEART: Movie Trailer - Watch more top selected videos about: PAPER_HEART, Michael_Cera, Charlyne_Yi, Jake_M._Johnson, Nicholas_Jasenovec

Without a doubt the dumbest movie, or as it is referred a mockumentary, we ever saw--we all agreed on that!

I did however find my Valentine Day love note line in the movie for King Ralph.

King Ralph asked me to marry him on Valentine's Day. I saw on CBS This Morning a poll that stated that 85% of married people would marry there spouse again...I would be one of those eighty-five percent. Sure King Ralph drives me batty sometimes. He can be a man behaving badly. He can swear like a drunken sailor (which infuriates me), spends to much time in the garage with his other woman "Harley" and he sometimes thinks the bath tub's edge is his clothes hamper...but despite he makes me happy; not to mention his 50% of gene pool made some gorgeous girls.

So to my King Ralph, last year I told you you were the cheese in my macaroni. This year a little African American girl suggested "true love is when you take someone to Applebee's and get them hot wings." So what you say, wanna get some hot wings with me today? XOXO

Snow Day

I am going out to shovel the four plus inches of snow off the driveway. After last night's dose of reality TV--The Bachelor-- it will be good way to work off some of that Vienna dislike and maybe even a pound of two.

Some Dreams Aren't Meant to Come True

I am slow to get going today. I dreamt all night that the weatherman would be my fairy godfather and there would be a snow day. I so want to lay around and watch old movies.

Well, maybe, tomorrow.

Plan B

I have been watching King Ralph's niece every year this week for I don't know how many years, a lot, while Debbie and Dan go on the stations listeners trip (to some tropical location while we stay here all freezing our arses off). We have escaped all these years all and any forms of illness that could be contracted while I drive niece to and from school for a week.

Until today.

Poor baby woke up with the stomach flu and didn't tell us. "Would you have told your mom if you threw up in the middle of the night?" "Yes." "Then you have to think of me as your mom while you are here." "Okay." It was a sheepish okay. Wondering if the sheepish tone was from her still feeling like a volcano ready to erupt or plainly embarrassed she puked at her aunt and uncle's house.

Suddenly I was thrown into Plan B mode. Except in all these years we have never had a Plan B. King Ralph HAD to go to work today; he has a very important task to tend to. I really need to work today as one person is already out of the office with her sick child. Thank the Lord(!) that King Ralph's oldest sister is in town. Plan B! So I called just as the rooster crowed and they agreed to be niece's nurses for the day. THANK YOU!

Things always have a way of working out. Don't they? Yes they do!