"Love and Other Disasters" in My Life

This has been a pretty crazy week. Crazy in that unexpected things have happened and I've had to think fast.

Magnet by annetaintor.com

We had some changes at work that have made me have to step up to the plate and to take on some responsibilities I didn't have before. I thought I was being proactive and trying to think ahead, but I wasn't thinking far enough apparently. There was more for me to do.

On the home front, I'm working on my restroom remodeling and when the tile man came to start tiling my bathroom last Saturday morning I found out that I only had maybe a fourth of the tile I needed. I had to travel around Houston Saturday and Sunday visiting four different Home Depots to find enough tile. Lovely.

Then, I'm having challenges with my son and school. I'm afraid that on top of his challenging personality he's now being labeled and they are jumping on him for just looking at them cross-eyed. That can be emotionally challenging for him and also for me as the mom.

Finally, the divorce is final in the next week or so. Despite all of our differences, it is so sad to see fourteen years of work and our lives as a family changing. Life is such a series of struggles and challenges. It's how we handle them that makes all the difference.

"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment & making the best of it..."- Gilda Radner

I Miss My Funny Blogs

I've been looking over my blog lately at old posts. It's amazing that I've been blogging for almost seven years. I started when Seth was just a baby. Some of my blogs from 2008 had me laughing. Even the titles are funny. Like Wasp 1, Me 0 (zero), A Black Cloud With a Side of Rotten Meat, Vodka, Kids and check me out on skirt.com and I'm Full of Strep.

It made me wonder what happened to all my funny blogs. Why aren't my titles funny any more and why don't I blog about the funny things that happen to me? I know that I still have funny things happen now and then.

Magnet by Anne Taintor

Like today, I was walking with my son while my daughter was in her Odyssey of the Mind meeting. We were walking along and he looks me up and down and says with a straight face, "You know, you're not really fat. It's just your boobs that make you look fat."

Out of the mouth of babes! I guess I should take that as a compliment because children are honest and he was telling me that he doesn't think I'm fat. He was cracking me up. I love reading back on my blog at some of the other crazy things he has said to me over the years. He's such a boy!

I need to get back to posting funny blogs or at least funny titles to my blogs. I've been busy writing about goals, moving forward, exercise and even some sad pitiful ones like this one.

I feel like I'm past that sadness or whatever melancholiness (is that even a word?) that I've been feeling. Like I said yesterday (actually it was Monday but this blog counted it as Tuesday because it must have been past midnight) Fall is almost here and it's a time for new beginnings. I can't wait to wear fall clothes this Friday when it's cool. And maybe now my blogs will be funny again.

Come Back Fall & Go Away Mosquitos!!

It's 10:30 p.m. and the kids are in bed asleep and I can write a little. I looked at the weather 5 day forecast and I found out that fall is back on Friday. The high is 71 and the low is 47. I am so excited!!! I love fall!! I have said it before and I will say it again. (I know I say this every single Fall) Fall is the best time of year for me. Fall feels like new beginnings. It's the start of a new school year and football games. Exciting things always happen in the fall when it gets cold. Fall reminds me of New York.

Now if I only I could go to NYC!!  "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms." - Joe Fox in "You've Got Mail."

I love that movie. I've been thinking of it a lot lately with fall and all. One because I love the quotes and two, because I love NY. I can't wait to go back for a visit. I was meant to live in NY if I had been born wealthy.

I have a busy week ahead. Before I go to bed I need to wash my blender for my protein shake in the morning, wash and set my coffee pot, pack the kids' lunch, and get my gym bag ready. Tomorrow is my early morning meeting day so I need to leave everything prepared to leave at a decent time. I want to go to Studewood Park after work with the kids or maybe back to the bike trail. It's a great walking trail too. We roller skated on it last week. Fun but scary! I kept thinking I was going to fall. I'm not a spring chicken any more. It's the fear of falling that keeps me from really skating like I did when I was young. I need to let go of that fear!

Speaking of when I was young and football games. Oh Lort! I went to the UH Homecoming game on Saturday and we made the mistake of stopping by someone's (who will remind un-named to protect the innocent) fraternity tent on the student side. They gave us a bunch of jello shots to go. The first one I had at their tent wasn't too bad, but the second one I had at our tailgating tent was super strong.

I immediately texted this person and said, "Are those jello shots made with everclear???"

"IDK, I'll find out." Then a moment later, "Yes, and some have 151."

Me, "Argh!"

"Why? LOL"

I didn't tell him that everclear had not been kind to me at 21 and I guess it's still not kind to me at 41 either. No wonder. According to Wikipedia, "Due to its high alcohol content, Everclear is illegal, unavailable, or difficult to find in many areas."

All I had were 2 jello shots combined with my cranberry vodka mix and I was not feeling well for the rest of the night or into Sunday. Hilarious and sad at the same time. Old woman trying to keep up with the young frat boys. Who was I kidding! Ha ha! Needless to say I didn't drink for the rest of the game. How sad!

November is around the corner and so is the real fall. I can't wait! The cold needs to chase away this swarm of mosquitos in Houston.

Random Stuff and I Forgot About Baby Bottle Nipples

So this blog is going to be about random stuff that has something to do with either reading, writing, blogging, newspapers, NPR, traveling, art museums, spirituality, learning, self-discovery, public education, inner-city living, old architecture, fashion, parenting, gifted and magnet school programs, Nike quotes apparently, and cupcakes at some point.

Defensive Driving has been kicking me in the butt and it really shouldn't have been. It was really really easy in retrospect but I made it really really hard on myself because I could save it and go back to it whenever I wanted. So because of that I would save it and I wouldn't go back to it for days. I started it I don't know, like September 6 maybe, and I didn't finish it until this past Sunday, October 16. It was due to the court today and I turned in everything yesterday. I actually felt like I had been set free from the bonds of slavery when I went to the court house to turn it all in. I felt like it was something hanging over my head that I couldn't get past.

Random art from Anne Taintor to go with my random subject. www.annetaintor.com

The funniest part about all that is that not only did I finish on Sunday, I also had to ask them to FedEx the certificate to me. I was expecting the certificate by Tuesday or Wednesday but mainly on Wednesday. On Tuesday I went to check the mail and there on the sidewalk over the side of my gate was a FedEx package. I do not check the mail every day so I'm so glad I happened to go out there and that I saw it. Can you imagine?? After all that I went through procrastinating to finish it that would have been a tragedy and a comedy too I guess.

Now that I'm all done with that I can move ahead in my life. I can tackle the craziness of my house right now. I have a lot of work to do in that department. That should really be my main focus from now on. I need to proceed with the remodeling.

I also need to get on the ball and figure out when these middle schools are having their tours because apparently I've already missed out on some. I still can't believe I'm doing this. Choosing a middle school for my baby girl that is. The baby I just had 10 years ago. Amazing.

Another interesting package that we received this week came with the baby sock monkey I ordered my son from Amazon. Except that these packages come via UPS and that guy is smart and he knows to put my packages inside the breezeway between my kitchen and the garage. There was another big box there with a little box that had baby sock monkey.

I told the kids to open it and they said, "It's a toilet brush." I came back into the kitchen and looked at the brush and what is amazing is that it took me forever to figure out what it was. I actually had to look at it for a while and I had to re-read the description.

It said it was a bottle brush with a nipple brush. It was the nipple brush part that just totally threw me off. I thought nipple as in "nipple" at first, not baby bottle nipple. Apparently it's been a long time since I had a baby and I don't think I ordered that bottle brush. It was an error on the part of Amazon I think. Now I can't find a phone number on the Amazon page to tell them about it. Maybe they sent it to me as a bonus for the baby sock monkey.

So there you go...random stuff.

What Is It About Nike Quotes?

What is it about Nike Quotes that intrigues people? So now my two top visited blog entries are the original Nike quotes from 2007 and now my observation that I should just rename my blog Nike Quotes.

So apparently I put together some of the best Nike quotes all in one place. I know because I tried it. If you Google Nike quotes you will either come up with some random blog that has one quote or you will come up with quotes where other people (usually celebrities) are talking about Nike. My blog entries, especially the first one, has an impressive collection of some of the really good ones.

So since most of you came to my blog via the Google search of Nike quotes I am going to try to randomly post great Nike quotes or ads just because I love Nike too.

Here are some ads I found.

Cool Nolan Ryan ad.

Great ad!

Awesomeness!

Updated: Forgot this one! And it was my favorite too.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE



YOUR MOTHER UNLESS SHE IS



WHO YOU WANT TO BE. YOU DO NOT HAVE



TO BE YOUR MOTHER'S MOTHER, OR YOUR



MOTHER'S MOTHER'S MOTHER, OR EVEN



YOUR GRANDMOTHER'S MOTHER ON YOUR



FATHER'S SIDE. YOU MAY INHERIT THEIR



CHINS OR THEIR HIPS OR THEIR EYES, BUT



YOU ARE NOT DESTINED TO BECOME THE



WOMEN WHO CAME BEFORE YOU, YOU ARE



NOT DESTINED TO LIVE THEIR LIVES. SO IF



YOU INHERIT SOMETHING, INHERIT THEIR



STRENGTH. IF YOU INHERIT SOMETHING, IN-



HERIT THEIR RESILIENCE. BECAUSE THE ONLY



PERSON YOU ARE DESTINED TO BECOME IS



THE PERSON YOU DECIDE TO BE.