Thai Food & Classic Tunes

This is the time of year that my husband has to work a lot of hours.  I don’t mind so much because I totally guard my time alone.  Always have.  I’ve heard people say that’s unhealthy, but I beg to differ. I think it depends on the individual.  And for me?  I think it’s totally healthy.  If I don’t have that space I get really pissy.

My daughter has a great friend who lives at our place on the weekends.  Sometimes she lives with us during the week as well.  I don’t mind.  I only have one daughter and my son is in college so he’s not around anymore.  When the girls are together I really don’t know that they’re here.  They hang out and play the PS3, they watch Netflix and geek on Facebook.  It’s all good.

Last night it was just us 3 chicks for quite awhile so I rummaged the cabinets to see what I could fix.  The rain has been totally insane for the last 24 hours or so and to top that off, it feels like freaking winter out.  Ridiculous!  In other words I did not want to go out.  Luckily we had most everything we needed to whip up a decent Thai spread.  Rice noodles, chicken, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, peanut and teriyaki sauce and red wine for me.  We jammed out to some Traffic, the Kinks and Van Morrison.  What a fun night!

The party was in celebration of my FIRST FREE weekend after I quit cleaning.  I have had places to be, things to do or been sick since I quit!  And what am I doing on my free weekend?  Besides eating Thai food and drinking wine, I’m prepping the bathroom for a paint revamp.  Yep.  We are leaving the freshwather fish border and mossy green paint behind.  Going soft, pale blue with black accents.  Lauren will have a new background for all of her Facebook shots that she takes in there since the light is great. 

I’m covered in Kilz.  Later.

 

 

Our Kids Rock

My daughter.  At 14 she’s into changing the color of her hair about once per month.  I told her we must stop this or it’s going to fall out!  She just went soft black, so I’m hoping this is the journey back to her beautiful brown.  She will start 9th grade this year.  Where does the time go?

She’s good in school, but she’s a bit on the lazy side.  I am always onto her about it.  When she truly studies and puts her heart into it, her grades are amazing.  And she doesn’t have to try that hard.  So far she hasn’t found anything she’s totally passionate about.  She took French last year and liked it so much that she’s taking it again her Freshman year in high school.  She’s also taking Drama.  I think that theater is going to be her thing.   Something arty for sure whether it be make up, set or costume design, (she’s expressed an interest in sewing) photograhy, film or something like that.

She is still volunteering through Wonders of Wildlife (WOW) and that’s a good thing for her to do.  I did slack and not get her over there like I should’ve so we are cramming some hours in before we leave for Florida here very soon.

We will return from our trip just in time for her to go to St. Louis to hit Warp Tour.  She’s really into alternative music, funky colored hair, skinny jeans, converse of the variety, band t-shirts, beanie hats in many colors and sleeping very late and staying up all night.  I was never much of a night owl, but – I have to remind myself that she – is not me.  She’s coming into her own person, with her own personality and we are pretty much black and white.  She’s very social, has a lot of friends and would rather be anyplace but at home.

She’s awesome!

Our son.  He’s on the left in the green shirt.  He’s downtown at Art Walk paying that guy $1 to write whatever he wants to write on his sign.  Good idea.  He said that guy had made like $30 in 20 minutes.   Hilarious!

He made it through is first year at CMU – Central Methodist University and he did really, really well.  He wanted to live off of campus next year, but you can’t do that there until you are 21.  Something we forgot to ask, silly us.  He disliked the dorm he was in last year and some of the silly people he had to live with.  He was also roomies with a football player, so when that guy had Fall practices going on, Jordan wanted to stay up late.  Then in the Spring when it was time for track, his roomie wanted to stay up late.  He did so well athletically that they gave him more dough and he can afford to live in a dorm in a private room with his own bathroom next year.  He’s really happy about that!  Oh, we are happy too!  No more money out of our pockets.

He hasn’t been able to work much because once track started he had to be out of town at meets every single weekend.  He worked a small job on campus in the art department (so unlike him) but he did well doing that and made a little money.  For the summer he landed an internship, a paid internship at that, with the University of Missouri.  He’s living in the woods for 10-weeks studying birds.  Next year he hopes to land another paid internship tagging sharks in Mississippi.  He recently passed his scuba certification so that was exciting and something he’s always wanted to do.  And we could afford it because it was offered at CMU.

He placed 11th in the recent track meet, the college Nationals.  He was actually ranked third in the nation in discus, but got beat on that day.  He is still able to qualify for the Junior Olympics for kids 16-19 and if he makes it, he will travel to Barcelona in July to compete.  Very cool.  So bascially right now, he’s trying to do an internship and do well in track.  He even hauled a big piece of plywood to the bird study so he could practice every day.  The kid is super disciplined and very dedicated.  We are very proud of him. 

Rock On Jordan!

 

Easy Sunday

We did have some weather yesterday.  Weather in the way of cold, nasty rain.  It later turned to sleet and then to snow!  I don’t mind March snow, it doesn’t last long. 

I went to yoga at 8:30 this morning.  A class just for me.  No thinking, no teaching, no trying to remember anything that I might take to one of my classes.  Nope, none of that.  It was awesome.  The only part that wasn’t awesome about the morning, was the getting in the car part.  My car sits outside.  It was pretty much iced over, but had begun to melt.  Fast forward to this afternoon. 

The day was sunny and bright and the kids wanted to go to our nature center, so we went.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the left, is my niece Hannah, she was hanging out next door with granny today.  Lauren (my daughter) is in the center and Jordan (son) is on the right.  We saw some deer, chipmunks, some turkey, lots of birds.   Jordan even got a close up photo of a pretty good sized frog!  Lauren skipped her first rock today.  She was ecstatic!  Jordan can skip them for miles, the discus thrower that he is.  Hannah has a hard time skipping, but she didn’t really seem to care much about it.

There’s Lauren on the left and there’s me on the right.  This was taken at my favorite part of the trail, where the creek takes a deep curve or a bend.  The water gets deeper, it’s very clear and you can usually see lots of fish!  It was up quite a bit, due to the moisture we’d just had.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a couple of hours out there which isn’t hard to do! 

Spring break is now over.  Back to school for the kids tomorrow and back to adding three more classes to my week!  I’m glad.  I like my yoga schedule and feel that’s it’s more than just a net for catching days!

Snowy Update

*Springfield just called school off for tomorrow, January 29th, again.  I cannot believe it.  We’ve been out running around all afternoon!  I will be teaching my regular yoga class in the morning at BOWS from 9-10:30 a.m. anyways, so if you need to get out (and stretch) I’ll be there!

*Lauren got her wish of being out of school on her birthday, which is today!

*My kids have been in and out a gazillion times since it started snowing last night, and I’m way sick of melted snow and wet clothes after not even 24 hours.

*Milos (father-in-law) is doing amazing!  The guy was sitting up in bed, eating a huge lunch with a tube draining from his head today!  He can bring that right arm up above his head and only has a slight tingling in his fingers.  They also said the catscan showed his brain is already occupying the space where the clot was and that’s way cool.  I can’t believe it.  Thanks to all of those who were thinking of us during this crazy time!  We look for him to come home on Friday or Saturday!

*We now have an extra day to make fudge for Lauren’s class as her birthday snack celebration since there’s no school, again tomorrow.  I still can’t believe it.

*I hope MSU will be open.  I’m scheduled to teach there at noon tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it!

*I painted a small chalk board on my kitchen wall next to the phone today.  It looks great!  I also mounted a small white shelf below it, to hold chalk and whatever.  Looking forward to doodling on that!

*I hate laundry.

*I love cats but I am so tired of cat hair.

*I want my new (used) furniture.  Plan was to get it on Monday, but nope, weather blew that.  I’m ready to get rid of this sectional. 

*I took my kids to Burger King today because that’s what they wanted.  Yuck, but I ate a little something there anyways.

*There was no one at Wal-Mart this afternoon.  Everyone must’ve been playing in the snow.  I hate to say it, but the groceries there are so much more affordable than the grocery store by my house.  And (this is sad) their meat department even looks better.  Supply and demand keeps stuff fresh I suppose.

*My husband plowed our driveway and the sidewalk and a path thru the yard next door, at 10:00 p.m. last night.  Bad thing about our road is this.  The snow plows bank the end of your driveway in while you’re at Wal-Mart.  I had to gun it over the hump, but when I slid in the driveway a HUGE sheet of ice slid off the top of my van and bent the shit out of one of my windshield wipers.  And, it scared Lauren to death, she cried.

*I spent probably $30 extra at the store today, just because Lauren was with me.  Jordan only wanted a pack of gum.  He’s awesome as he NEVER asks for anything.  My child on the other hand…….

*Visiting hours in I.C.U. were at 1:00 p.m. today.  So 11 years ago today, I was at the same hospital giving birth to Lauren, who was born at 1:03 p.m. on a Wednesday.  Except today, we were on the 6th floor instead of the 4th.  Weird.

The Energy of 11 Year Olds

 

Lauren will be 11 on January 28th, to be exact. 

Last year for her birthday, I went temporarily insane and let her have 7 girls spend the night.  We don’t have a huge place, no basement, one living area, 3 bedrooms and an office.  We had kids camped out in her bedroom and some on the front room floor.  It was wild  (putting it mildly) and I will never, ever do that again!  So of course this year, she wanted to have another sleep over.  No way.  In lieu of that, we had one of her best friends from her home elementary school spend the night last night.  It’s amazing, how well they play and how quiet they were, until ELEVEN at night!  What’s with that?  So until around 1:30 a.m. we had quiet shrieks, giggles and footsteps up and down the hall.  Exhausting.  I’m old.  Word to those who don’t have kids yet.  Do it when you’re in your twenties.

The weekend after next, she will have one girl from WOLF School spend the night.  Then we’ll have a few girls from her home school, over for lunch and cake.  Growing up, we always had birthday parties.  It seems now, people just don’t do it.  I’ve talked to so many parents who just give me a weird look when you say “birthday party” I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s old school and not cool anymore.  Maybe kids just stay home with their parents and have dinner or something, I don’t really know.  We’ve even asked kids to come “gift free” or make a donation to the Humane Society ’cause we sure don’t need anymore crap around here.  Don’t get me wrong.  Kids always come to the birthday party when we have one, it’s just that not many other kids have one theirsevles.  I’m thinking next year, we won’t have a party, but will do something as she is getting older.  Like have a friend spend the night, go to the movies,  or go to the pottery place and make some cool stuff.

So I guess the question is, what’s up with the birthday party banning?  Anyone?

 

Teach to Inspire

It was a relief to see the kids return to school.  I was scheduled to lead a class of three hours yesterday and I needed some time without kids to plan.  The class was at the new Yoga and Education Training Center in our town.  My good friend and teacher, has a very dedicated group working on their RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) certification.  I of course, was flattered that she asked me to be a part of the training.  I’m scheduled for one Saturday a month, for three months for three hour workshops.  Cool.

Her theme for this month was Leela, which basically translates to playfulness and fun!  The workshop I headed up yesterday at her place, was fun.  It was on teaching yoga to children, of all ages.  I don’t have any experience with teaching a yoga class to children with physical disabilities, but I have taught a few to kids with mental, or behavior oriented disorders.  What a challenge with a big reward.

When I have to teach a workshop, I like to plan, plan and plan some more.  I like to spend lots of time planning and organizing and preparing.  This week, it just didn’t work out that way.  Though the kids were in school there were other demands.  A yearbook planning meeting at WOLF School, kids coming over to play and a breakfast meeting at the YMCA yesterday morning.  I had in my head what I wanted to do, I just needed it on paper.  I got my handouts on the computer and printed them out.  Some day, I will put all the Sanskrit words in my spell check!  How annoying to have every other word you type show up as a typo. 

I always worry if I will run short, that I won’t have enough information for the duration.  Low and behold that never happens.  I can usually go on for hours, and for that, I am thankful, except I almost forgot to take a break yesterday!  I was able to teach this class without too much stressful planning.  I offered what I knew very well with confidence.  I feel thankful, to be at a place where it feels so natural to share what I know.

I chose not to bring kids to the training class.  #1 they would’ve been a distraction #2 that would’ve been a good idea, as they would have total true experience of a kids yoga class #3 focusing on teaching to kids while being distracted…..not such a good idea.  We played with asana for about an hour, bringing in animal sounds and creative names for poses.  We sang a few Native American Indian songs, we counted to 10 in Sanskrit and named some different body parts in Sanskrit as well.  We looked through the books that I brought in.  I passed around my Lingams (pictured above) as a touch and feel philosophical part of the training.

The new center is beautiful.  I haven’t even been able to squeeze a class in over there for myself yet!   Though yesterday went very well and was well received, I was exhausted.  I slept in this morning, taking care of myself in a restful way.  I know that the exhaustion I was experiencing was in a positive light and that it too soon, will pass.

The Day After, the Day After

The days between Christmas and New Year’s are some of my favorites.  Even though we didn’t have a stressful, crazy holiday this year, I’m always ready for the day after Christmas.  The relief, it’s over, the quiet excitement that takes place.  Decorations come down.  A little more organization happens (I hope) as out with some old stuff and in with some new stuff.  The kids are out of school, days start to get a little longer and I enjoy hanging out with the kids and their new stuff.

Our son, got a driving permit.  Whoa.  How and when did that happen?  When I moved in with Frank and Jordan, he was in the fifth grade, Lauren was starting Kindergarten.  He doesn’t even look like the same kid, not at all.  He’s tall, athletic and has a good head on his shoulders.  I took him driving yesterday.  We started in the cemetery by our house, he did great, so we took to the neighborhood park nearby.  Since I didn’t have to work today, he wanted to venture out and get a protector cover for his new iPod  Touch.   It was 60 and storming like mad today.  I woke up with a killer headache (temperature change I’m sure) took some drugs, and went back to bed for two hours!  I have to make myself do that, to nap and I should do it more often! 

I woke up feeling like a million bucks, it was just drizzling so we headed out.  First stop, sporting goods shop to get him fitted for his letter jacket.  It was a surprise, his birthday is the first week of March.  We got fitted, I paid the deposit ($259 total – YIKES) we dropped off all the patches he’s already accumulated and headed to Target.  They were out of all skins for all electronics, go figure.  But, we scored some xmas candy for 50% off, candy that we did not need by the way.   We were starving (caused by looking at all that candy) so we stopped in Culver’s for some lunch.  Then, Best Buy.  That place on the other hand, was insane as always and by now it was pouring rain.  We were able to park close enough to not get soaked (I’m really not an umbrella person) and got skins for the iPod and Nintendo DS screens.  He also spent some time on the electronic drum sets.  He’s an amazing drummer and goes around drumming on everything and some days, it totally drives me crazy!  If we ever have drums in our home (god help us) they will be electronic, headphones and all. 

Since it’s rained all day, the water is up and the catfish will supposedly be biting, so he ran down to the creek behind our home to dig worms.  He’s now out fishing with grandpa.  Temps have dropped a little, but not too much.  Not too many chances to fish in December, that’s for sure. 

We had a great day.  He’s a great kid and funny too.  We try to do things with both kids one on one every so often.  I think that’s important in a blended family, in any family for sure.  Sometimes it feels too much like “me and Lauren” and “Jordan and Frank” so we take extra time out, like today.   Frank  has taken Lauren fishing several times without me.  She caught her first fish with him.  She even shot her first gun, a little .22 with him.   As a matter of fact, her school has been to the shooting range several times and she’s one of 5 kids that won’t do guns or archery.  But, she’ll shoot with Frank.  Since the guys do like to shoot for sport, they also reload their own ammunition.  Lauren loves to be out in the garage with Frank doing that.  She’s learned to reload and can do it very quickly, it’s amazing to watch her.  I’m not into it, but I do like to watch Frank melt the metal and pour the bullets sometimes.  That’s OK.  If we were all into the same stuff, it would be mighty boring around here! 

*Note – Loveseat is slated to be out of here (SOON) so I can get my new, but gently used, furniture out of storage.  $50 (or best offer) if you’re interested.