Specifically inside my basement. Yup, there is a live reptile slithering around inside my house right this very moment.
It all started on Tuesday afternoon. It was about 3:20 pm and since I had a few minutes before the bus was due to arrive with my seven year old, I went down to the basement to do some laundry. The washer and dryer are against the back wall, so I have to walk across the basement to get to them. I was about half way there and something “stringy” caught my eye.
Wondering what I listen to while I’m working out? Come on – sure you do. Here they are and mind you, they in no particular order:
At my gym, there’s a second story walking/running track. When I go to the gym, I really like to walk up there because it basically runs around the circumference of the inside of building and it’s all open – so as I’m walking I can look down and see all the people on the first floor working out and lifting weights. It’s usually pretty entertaining (great people watching) and I like walking up there a lot.
I am a lover of lists- long ones, short ones, lists in notebooks that I buy specifically to keep track of them, or on napkins when the notebook is MIA temporarily. I’ve got so many ideas just floating around in my head and lists are a way for me to organize my thoughts until I need them. And trust me when I say, there are lists all over my house. Grocery lists, to-do lists…you name it, if I can make a list out of it – I do.
The other day, Chris, my handsome husband, sent me a text with an image of “I (heart) RSR” (that’s me) carved into the side of a tree. He was out with the boys while I was stuck home working and apparently he was feeling kind of mushy. Isn’t that sweet?
Along with the image, he typed in “Aw”. I responded with an even bigger “awwwwww” (with six w’s), but look at what it auto-corrected to:
This past weekend, I took my seven year old into Boston to see Big Time Rush. It was the biggest concert of the year (so far) and I was psyched last November when my friend asked me if I wanted to go with her and her son. So Saturday night comes and off we go into town with two very excited little boys. After buying over-priced glow sticks, popcorn and t-shirts, we were ready to find our seats. We sat right at floor level and the seats we had were great. There was one thing, however, that could seemingly ruin an all but perfect night. Can you guess what it was?
Yup, it was the screaming tweens.
My mother is a full blown hypochondriac. She has an innate ability to turn the simplest of illnesses into life-threatening diseases (in her head). Sure, she has some real health issues, but she also has some not so real ones. So, when she starts babbling on about all the health issues she has (the real ones and the made up ones), I zone out. I mean, trying to memorize the sequence of numbers in Pi is far more interesting than this weeks made up disease (in my head). It’s because of her constant “self diagnoses” over time, I have become somewhat desensitized towards people with imaginary illnesses.
Yesterday morning I had some free time. Imagine? It was the first day back to school after February vacation and since all my boys were back in school for the day, including my little man – who was back at preschool for the morning, I decided that it was a perfect day to take a walk. There’s this really nice piece of conservation land in my town called Pratt Farm. It’s basically just a couple of paths through the woods, but I’ve been there many, many times with my kids and we really enjoy it there. Since I was alone yesterday morning, off I went with my bottle of water and my iPod fully charged.
Generally, I think that I am a fairly proactive person, especially when it comes to doing things I really enjoy doing – but don’t even get me started on things I don’t. Things like unloading the dishwasher, laundry or helping my second grader with the two hours worth of homework he comes home with on Mondays (yes, you read that right). So, instead of actually doing those things, I try to find fun ways to put them off until I absolutely have to do them. Things like:
I like to think I’m fairly open minded. I like to try new things, but there are some things I’ll never do! Ever. And here they are:
1. Drop. As in going on a roller coaster, bungee jumping, paragliding, hang gliding or sky diving! I don’t like that feeling of my stomach up in my throat, so I’ll be avoiding all those activities at all costs thank you very much.
2. Go camping. Sleeping in a hotel room is as close to camping as I’m ever gonna get. As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing fun about sleeping on the ground in a tent, peeing in dirty public bathrooms, having to walk in the dark to get to the bathroom if you wake up in the middle of the night and have to pee, bugs, dirt, being sweaty, more bugs and even more dirt. I camped out – in a camper – once and I was miserable. I was sore from the uncomfortable bed, dirty the entire weekend and bored senseless. I’d rather just stay home…in the air conditioning.
If you walked into my house and saw this sitting on my dining room table, what would you think it was?
I hate Valentine’s Day. There I said it. Why you ask?
Because I don’t think my husband (or anyone) should have to buy me flowers, or anything for that matter, just because it’s Valentine’s Day and he feels like he has to.
My Husband, Chris, is a VERY thoughtful guy and he’s always bringing me flowers and/or little gifts. Those things mean so much more to me because he just does it, not because it’s February 14th and he’s forced to buy me something, but because he’s thinking of me and he wants to. It’s nice to know he is thinking about me because he wants to – not because he’s forced into it because of some silly made-up holiday.
Saturday night, as some of you may know, ABC aired not one, but two Charlie Brown Valentine’s Day specials. I, personally, was super excited about it because I just love the Peanuts gang and I’m sure many other families were just as excited to watch the show with their kids as I was. The first special aired at 8 pm, which is already past my kids bedtime….way past as a matter of fact.
Yesterday started out as a typical day for me. I woke up, got the kids off to school and went off to an appointment with my doctor that I’d scheduled on Monday. I am one of those people that never goes to the doctor until I get to the point that I absolutely have to. I’ve had a wicked headache since last Thursday – the worst I’d ever had – and nothing was touching it, so I gave in an made an appointment.
So, 9 am yesterday, at the appointment, the nurse took my blood pressure….twice. It was through the roof. The doctor came right in, took it another two times and told me that I had to go to the hospital right away because it needed to be treated immediately and that I would probably be admitted. Plus he wanted a CT scan of my head done because of the headache. I had my four year old with me, so obviously going to the hospital right away wasn’t an option.
Yesterday, my four year old and I met up with a very good friend of mine and her twin boys for a play date. We met at a local McDonald’s that has a playground. We like going there because the boys can run off some energy and her & I can catch up. As we were pulling into the parking lot to meet them, my kiddo says “Hey! What is that ghost doing?”. Of course, I had no idea what the hell he was talking about until I looked over in the direction where he was pointing and good a good look at it.
This creepfest is what he was referring to:
The other day, I was driving to my parents house with my kiddos. We’ve driven the same route for years, but all of the sudden that day, my son noticed something that he hadn’t noticed before.
It was this storm drain thingie:
Have you ever seen that show Storage Wars? Chris and I aren’t regular viewers of the show, but have been known to watch it on occasion if we happen to stumble upon it. The show is moderately entertaining, but last week when my husband, Chris, told me he’d found out that a storage unit place near our house was holding an auction – I knew we had to go check it out. I mean, how cool is that?
I’m a relatively light sleeper. I have a hard time falling asleep if there is a lot of background noise, which is exactly why I sleep with a fan every night. The hum of my fan helps to block out a lot of the noises that would normally keep me awake. Noises like my husbands snoring, the tv being on or rain. Well, ok, that’s a lie – all of those things would totally keep me from ever falling asleep, but the fan does drown out the noise – a little. My problem is that I have super sensitive hearing and pick up on background noises that most other people don’t hear. And unfortunately for me, sometimes there are noises in which I have no control over and they’ve been known to drive me almost to the brink of insanity.
I’m not the mushy, romantic type. It’s just not my thing. Don’t get me wrong, though, I do have my moments and rarely occasionally I like to be swept off my feet by my handsome husband, Chris (although I don’t have those moments very often). Sometimes he will say something to me like “you’re so beautiful” or “I can’t wait to grow old with you” and do you want to know my standard response? ”Barf.” It’s just the way I am and anyone that knows me in real life can verify it.
When I woke up yesterday, everything seemed like a normal Monday. I woke up at 6 am and after I got myself ready, I helped the kids get through the morning routine before it was time for them to head off to school. At 8:15 am when it was time to take my second grader out to the bus stop (my front yard), I had decided to start my car so that it would be nice and warm for when I had to leave about 20 minutes later to bring my four year old to preschool.