Happy Anniversary

Nineteen years ago I met the man I would spend the rest of my life with. I just didn't know it at the time. We were in high school auditioning for a show - the first for him, I'd lost track of how many it was for me by that time. His hands shook as he read from the copied paper the director had prepared. He swears I laughed at him; I can't imagine doing something like that. We became friends, especially as rehearsals began and we worked on our on-stage relationship as romantic opposites in Harvey.

Time passed, I went away to college, and came home that summer to reconnect with old friends. I found out that my good friend was going to attend the same college as me when he graduated - wasn't that great! Later that summer, after his girlfriend didn't feel like dancing, he asked me to dance with him while at a party, another friend's sweet sixteen. That first time we slow danced, I felt sparks flying. By the third time, dancing to "After All," the electricity between us felt so strong I felt everyone must see it. I went home that night trying to talk myself out of my feelings. I couldn't be falling for him; he was just a friend. And every time we got together with our group of friends I found myself making excuses to be near him, sit next to him, share a big pillow when we all watched a video together. Even after he broke up with his girlfriend, we still didn't acknowledge any change in feelings. It actually took us until the end of that summer to finally acknowledge what we both knew, that we were no longer just friends, but something much more.

We dated for four years, though got engaged after two. We got married right out of college, knowing that we wanted to spend our lives together so figured we'd might as well get married. That first year was tough, especially since neither one of us had lived on our own before, but we stuck it out. And it's honestly gotten better every year.

All relationships have their ups and downs, but every time we have a dip in ours, I have faith we'll be heading up and out of it soon enough. I heard this song on the radio a year or two ago that, in my mind, seemed to sum up a lot of our relationship. It might sound crazy, but I feel that's the foundation of our relationship. No matter what problems we go through, no matter how frustrated I get over the little things (and sometimes the big things), I know that, "I'll never leave, I'll never stray. My love for you will never change . . ." and that he could say the same thing back at me (even though I am perfect and he could NEVER get frustrated at me).

Happy anniversary, DH. And here's to many more.

New Business Website

Just met up with my fabulous friend who tried to help me get the site I designed up and running for my party business but we finally realized that it could only be published using Yahoo. Frustrating, but not the end of the world. However, Yahoo won't let me get in right now. She just left, and I'm still at Starbucks (I have thirty more minutes before I need to meet up with the kids and DH) working on staying calm (I'm so impatient) until I can try it again.

The Dark Side

I've crossed over to the dark side.
I set up a Facebook account - who knew how addicting that was?! I'm finding people I haven't seen in years!
And I also set up a Twitter account (see it there on the right) but can't figure out how to fix it. I posted something, didn't see it, posted it again, and now they're BOTH there! I even deleted one of them from the Twitter home page, but it's still there on my blog. ARGH!

Edited to add: Well, sure, NOW it's fixed. All on it's own. Guess I just had to be patient. Yeah, patient. Piece of cake. No problem.

Website help needed

I have been working on a brand new website for my business. It is finished finally, I love it, now I just have to figure out how to publish it so it replaces my current website (that a fabulous friend made and uploaded for me when I first got started). PLEASE contact me if you have any experience with this kind of thing.

BlogHer

Okay, all my local blogging friends, anyone else interested in going to BlogHer when it comes to DC in October? This is a serious question - I really want to go, and not only would I love attending with people I know, I really can't travel that far by myself for fear of falling asleep (darn Narcolepsy).

Soooo....who else is up for a ROAD TRIP?!! That's right, I'm talking to you, DG, Lauren (even if you haven't updated your blog in forever - what's up with that?!!), CryssyeR (I know I don't REALLY know you in real life, but I know your sister really well and I've been reading your blog, so I FEEL like I know you!), Bossy (well, you're probably speaking at it, but still . . .), Mommychicky, Mommy Brain, Ruth, Mama's World, O, Michelle, Motherhood101Aplus, Perky, Trace, "Only Me" (You are so much more than "only" so I must write that in quotes.), Adorable Girlfriend, HG ....
I know I missed some local bloggers in my list here, but it was only because I never bookmarked your blog - sorry!

Bottom line, if you blog, and you are in this general area (and you know who you are), PLEASE let me know if you are interested in going to BlogHer in October in DC. That is all.

Eating Out for a WHOLE Lot Less Money

Am I the only one who never used Restaurant.com before?

I just purchased $75 worth of gift cards to use at a local restaurant (I've never been there before but it was voted "Most romantic" in my county and I'm making secret plans for DH and I to celebrate our anniversary.) and it only cost me . . .




Wait for it . . . .




I'm still kind of in awe . . .



Fifteen dollars.

Yes, you read that right. I don't know how this works, but I'm not complaining. In addition to the regular discount you get just using Restaurant.com, I went to one of my new favorite sites, iMommies, to get an additional 50% off the cost. This offer is only good until the 22nd, so if you're interested in checking it out, do it soon!

And, no, I'm not getting paid by either website, though wouldn't mind if they're looking for paid spokespeople!

Now if I could just find a babysitter who wouldn't mind watching the kids for free . . .

92.5 xtu ROCKS!

A is such a fan of our area's country station. We decided to call and request one of his favorite songs, "Our Song" and the dj recorded him and put him on the radio. The song is coming up soon (she had put his request on as a sneak peak of what's coming up) and A has been jumping up and down all around the house since he spoke with her. Thank you, Leigh, for making his day!!!

Recap of Last Week (I know, what a title!)

I can't believe it has been a whole week since I last posted. So much has happened I just haven't had made time to write. Let's see if I can provide a recap to remember the craziness of the last week:

• Thursday was the last day of school for my one class; Friday was the last day for my other class (and for the rest of the school, including J). We had pizza parties both days.
• After school on Friday my DS took my three kids (along with her two kids and the infant she is watching) with her to a pool party that one of the moms was throwing to celebrate the end of the year. The mom had hired three lifeguards - what a great idea when having about 30 or so preschoolers in and around your in-ground pool.
• While the kids were at the party, I worked to pack up my classroom so it could be cleaned over the summer. Being who I am (anal and obsessed with organization) I of course had to reorganize everything as I packed it up to make the room more efficient for me come September. This is the room in which I teach preschool, religious school on Sundays, and Hebrew school on Mondays and Tuesdays, so I wanted to set up the best way to have all of my stuff readily available. It took me longer than I expected, and even with the window unit going full blast in my relatively small room, I was drenched with sweat by the time I was finished (more on that later), but I was able to leave the room knowing that I wouldn't have to go back until it was time to set up in August - nice! When I used to be a classroom teacher teaching full time, I would end up coming in up to two extra weeks to pack up/reorganize my room. Now that I have kids, that's just not an option!
• I started working at a drama camp last week (classes are two hours each, twice a week). This is a fabulous program that a friend of mine started - the focus is on building confidence and allowing each child to shine, NOT on creating the best production possible, which is a philosophy I really love. In fact, I love it so much that not only am I teaching at one of the sites, DH is teaching older kids at another site, and the boys are doing the camp at yet another site. I'm a little nervous about them staying up that late (classes are from 6-8, which means that last night - their first class - all three of them weren't in bed until 9, which is tough for kids who wake up before 7 every day no matter what) but they are so excited about it we'll just see how it goes!
• The kids and I started working on presents for them to give to their teachers for the end of the year. They painted pots, which I will modge-podge, which we wil put flowers in and give out on Friday (the boys' last day is actually Thursday, though there is school on Friday, so we'll deliver gifts that morning).
• Have to go pick up said boys right now. I LOVE that Starbucks now has free wi-fi - J and I have been hanging out here the last few mornings so I could do work while she pushes her baby around in the high chairs with wheels. Fun for all!

Happy Birthday!

For some reason my e-mail is not working right now (ARGH!!!) which means I can't e-mail one of my best friends to wish her a happy birthday today. With B being sick (he's totally better now and is going back to school tomorrow) I literally lost track of the date! It wasn't until a little bit ago that I looked at the calendar and saw that it was June 4.

Since I know N and her DH B read my blog, I figured this would be a good way to let her know that I am thinking of her and hope she had a great day. N - we need to get together SOON to celebrate!

It's late and I need to go to bed, otherwise I would write more about the fact that N and I have been friends since the first grade and how now that she doesn't live in the same town we don't get together as often as we want, I still consider her to be my blond sister.

Happy Birthday, N!!!

100%

Every once in a while I find a quiz that entices me. I have been reading Housewife Hiccups for a couple weeks now and saw "Would you make a good housewife?" I felt the burning desire to have a random quiz determine my worth as a "housewife," a term I don't even use to identify myself at all but still felt curious to see what it would say.

I took the quiz and felt great relief to be declared a "normal housewife" (whatever that means).

You're a normal housewife. You wish you could be perfect, but realize the impossibility. And you really like pizza.

Normal housewife 60%
Perfect housewife 50%
Housewife disaster 10%

Now I know I was not a math major (like my super smart sister), but does anyone else see a problem with these percentages?

I'm Really NOT a Bad Mom, But . . .

So much to write, only so much time to write it....

B is sick.

No, maybe you don't understand: B IS SICK.

I love all my children, and when they're not feeling well, I want to take all their pain away. And the same holds true for B. But when B is sick, I also want to find some kind of sedative to allow him to sleep it off and wake up when he finally feels better. Does that make me a bad mom?

B's speech is somewhat garbled at times, especially when he is excited about something. When he is sick he becomes almost uninteligible. I truly cannot understand 80% of what he is saying. It's as if when he's sick he decides that moving his lips or tongue is just too much effort. I cannot even count how many times I've asked him to repeat himself.

And then there's the whining. Nonstop. Everything he says is a whine. And when he's not trying to say something, he is just lying there, moaning. Whining. Without end.

He's had a cold for the last two weeks or so, made worse by the fact that he has decided not to use a tissue anymore. His cheeks, nose, chin, even both his wrists, are covered with a bright red rash brought on by wiping his nose without the use of a tissue. I know, gross. Every night we smear his face and wrist with Neosporin and he wakes up looking a lot better, but by the end of the day they're all red again. Sunday night he looked pretty good, probably from DH and I being on him all weekend to use a tissue. Unfortunately by the time he was brought to my classroom Monday, even though his face looked better, he had started whining, his signal of incoming illness.

By bedtime he had a slight fever. I was going back and forth with finding someone to just watch him during the day so I could still go to school (it was my turn to stay home with a sick kid but it IS my last week of school) and just get him checked out in the afternoon, but by 10PM he had already woken screaming from throat pain a few times, so I knew I needed to bring him to the doctor in the morning first thing.

We were up with him just about every half hour. Even though DH and I take turns with getting up in the middle of the night (a great system that works really well, even if I do have to wake DH for his turn each time), we both still ended up awake for most of the night. I had to talk DH down from wanting to drive him immediately to the ER so they could do something to put B out of his misery. I knew it was strep (which the dr. confirmed this morning, go Dr. Mom!), and while the ER could have confirmed that, it would have cost us $50, we would have been up all night, probably not getting home until about 3 AM (based on past experiences), and would have only started him on antibiotics about six hours earlier then normal. Glad he didn't push the issue!

Anyway, the non-stop whining is KILLING me. I have hidden myself downstairs, having set J and B upstairs with a DVD and a tray of chicken soup and juice boxes, A downstairs with another DVD (yeah, if one of them is sick and needs to rest on the couch, they ALL end up with extra tv time - that's just the way it is) eating his sandwich. If I play my cards right, I might be able to hide out for another five minutes. Just don't tell them where I am. Please. I'm begging you!