We made it!

Well the first week of school is officially over and I'm proud to say both tay and I made it through. The start of a new school year is exciting and exhausting. It's so wonderful to see all the old faces again, how big the kids are getting. All of the hugs and smiles and so many new faces. It's exhausting to constantly be "on" laughing, engaging while trying to get work done! Tay said she had a great week. She's happy with her homeroom and advisor. She started volleyball practice in the hot sun outside and made it through. Soccer is going along. We had our jamboree and didn't do great but it was good to see the issues that need to be worked out. I was chastised by a dad for not having only positive comments...i didn't realize it was his daughter that made the mistake..now i know she sucks! LOL. I'll just go back to reading again. I have alot of summer reading that didn't get done this year.

I am coaching 6th grade volleyball again. This year I have 16 girls that have come out! So exciting. Most have had some experience and I hate to brag...not... but my team is awesome! We are going to start working on game practice this week. Our first game is not for a while so we have lots of time to master.

I am also a room mom but so far have sucked in my duties. I have missed every event and meeting due to work responsibilities. I keep apologizing and thankfully my other mom partners are very kind and understanding.

The balance of my summer has been spent working and hanging out at my house. The neighbors grandkids have been here all summer so tay (when she was home) spent all her time over there. I picked up a bad habit of beer drinking. I have resigned to stop drinking..well beer anyways.. so that my work outs can be productive. I also have been staying faithful to the gym and eating healthy. Each week I am successfully losing weight. It's been frustrating because i want to lose alot and it seems so slow. BUT my friend reminded me that each week I am LOSING and that is what is important. AND I feel fantastic. This is the most important part.

My tv watching has seriously slowed down due to all of this activity. However I still have found time for true blood, weeds and all my real housewives. True Blood is amazing as usual. I am about 2 books ahead of the show and am enjoying how HBO and alan ball are changing it up.

There's the update from our home. Enjoy your labor day weekend. I need to vaccum.

tick tick tick...BOOM

The time is upon us for school to begin. Teachers return next week and I am definately feeling the pressure. It's been a busy, challenging summer on so many levels. I'm not sure at the end how I am feeling about this one. I think time will tell. Here is an interesting realization that just came up...

When I was in HS I worked at a 711 type store for over 1 1/2 years. I really liked working there and have alot of great memories of coworkers and fun times. I was not a perfect employee by any means, but I certainly wasn't the worst! Eventually I was fired because I refused to work a holiday. I refused because it was at my birthday and I had worked every holiday previous. The manager and several employees told the owner that I should get the day off but he was being a douche. That was my first job and I was fired. I have carried that with me to every job I have had. Including my current one, where I have been for 14years! That situation has kept me on my toes at each subsequent job. BUT is that good? I'm always thinking that no matter how hard I work or how dedicated I am to my job, I will be fired. It's funny that I just realized how much of an impact something had on me over 25 years later! It's really pathetic that I can say over 25 years ago!

This summer I have faced many personal and professional walls. I still keep climbing over. Some people think that those walls are getting higher and higher and if I don't start knocking them down instead of climbing over...i'm going to fall. It's inevitable. I still keep climbing. I can't knock them down, I don't have the confidence or the energy. In that order unfortunately!

After that wah poor me up above, I will give myself a giant pat on the back...I have been consistent with my diet and excercise. The best part is that I have been dancing again. I love to dance and the aerobic dance classes are my favorite. I'm no SYTYCD dancer but I can keep up. It's wonderful and uplifting. I'm going to continue the accolades because I have learned that NO is in my vocabulary when it comes to food (not alcohol...don't worry) and I can go to the gym by myself...i don't like it but I will do it!

My daughter is amazing, as usual. She's still having an awesome summer and I'm completely jealous.

Is school really starting soon???

I can't believe that school is going to be starting soon. It's been quite hectic at the workplace..getting everything ready for the kids. We are in the beginning of a massive remodeling of our middle school and I am in the beginning of a massive remodeling of myself. I am proud to say that I have been working out regularly and will continue to do so. Between my friend jen and my neighbor and linda I have plenty of people to make sure I keep my fat ass in gear and working. I have a plan that I will be back down to "cruise" weight by our spring break trip. Then keep on going to get back to a happy weight after. So maybe next summer I can enjoy it. Now, I've never let the way I look direct me. I still go to the beach etc. but it will be nice to feel totally free. I figure if I could stop biting my fingernails after 40 years, I can do this. Habits are hard to break but I'm going to try my best and thats all I can hope. I will say that I feel great after each class. I've been doing pilates and water aerobics. Last night I did a hip hop class and had the BEST time. I so miss dance classes! I also tried zumba but it was super hard..fun but super hard.

Tay has had a great summer. I never had a summer as good as this kid! She is ready for 7th grade. I can't believe how big my baby is now. She's really starting to turn into a young lady. I helped a friend bring her new baby into the world. It was so nice holding that baby in my arms. Stirred something in me but then reality hit and I remembered they are nice to hold but even nicer to give back to their mommys!

Well i'm off to catch up with all the jersey craziness....the shore, the salon, the housewives..it's all way too good to pass up. TTYL

Guess What?!?

I think I miss my kid! Who knew.... Tay has been at camp for 2 weeks and I'm getting kinda lonely. She still has 1 more week at camp, then she's off to visit with her bff for a week. I'd say I'm having a great summer, but in reality she's the one having a ton of fun! I've just been working all the time.

I have decided that I need to find an available single friend. I'm not a single vacation kinda girl. While I can hang by myself many times, I still need someone to have dinner with. Most of my single friends have kid obligations or don't have the freedom with their work to go at the last minute. I'm ready for exotic. I've been looking at many islands in the caribbean and in the med. BUT paying for tay and me to go places gets expensive. I need another adult to split cost.

On the flip side, I have been going out more since tay is gone. Lot's of trivia, movies, happy hours. Fun adult fun. We've also been hanging out on our patios old school style on my street. It's nice to have a great group of neighbors that like to hang with a beer, swim, bbq etc.

Very chill summer with the exception of my hectic work schedule. Hope your summer is chill too!

Aloha!

Well folks it's official. I'm a DVC'er for life. I just bought into the Hawaii property Aulani http://resorts.disney.go.com/aulani-hawaii-resort/gallery. As you can expect, I will be spending all of my future thanksgivings in paradise, mickey style. Maybe I'll try a new season there. I knew there was a reason I've been saving my hawaiian miles all these years. I probably have 4 tickets! yahoo. Taylor is very excited about returning back to hawaii. This property won't open until August 2011, but they are booking starting September 2010.

I need to start really using my points for vacations. I sold some last year to pay for this coming spring break trip. I am at a loss for vacation right now. My summer is packed but I need a release. I am looking and looking but finding no good time to go. I just want a quick beach trip before school starts. For god sakes, I live in california I should be able to get to a beach at some point right!

My kid is off to sleep away camp. They post pictures and she looks like she is having fun. I sent her an email today which the replacement for snail mail nowadays. I'm glad because when she gets back she's got some book reports to do. Fun summer homework.

Happy belated 4th of July to you all.

It's summer time! My favorite time of year..just not this year.

Lets see..where did we leave off last time?? Oh yea just before mothers day. This year I had planned to have a nice generational lunch with great gma, gma, me and tay. My uncle, however, had to come with us. Oh well. We still had fun. Went to the Ben Lomond Lodge for brunch. It was..interesting to say the least. The lodge is really neat and back in it's heyday it was a happening place but now it was less than steller. And not made any better by the fact that my uncle had my 92yo gma putting food from her plate into plastic bags for his dog to eat...and did I mention that the dog was in the car the whole time we were inside. Oh yea white trash at it's finest. So AWESOME!

Taylor finally had a playdate with her childhood friend, Lise. They had such a good time together and are just both so big. It's so amazing to see the young ladies they've turned into.

Next it was time for the medival festival at school. The kids had to dress in costume and then perform skits. Taylor was the narrator for her groups performance. She did a great job!

Before I knew it, we were at the last dance/bbq. This year the student council (me and virginia) hosted a bbq for the entire middle school. The 6th and 7th graders got their yearbooks and they had a nice time signing each others books. Then the DJ started playing. The kids all started dancing and having a great time. Taylor got a chance to "spin" with the DJ.The 8th graders just couldn't say goodbye to each other and ended the night past the dance time. Lights came on and they were all in a circle just swaying back and forth. It was adorable.

Next up came graduation. We went to the afterparty this year because our friend jillie graduated. We don't have a pic of the graduate but this is a pic of my two tays. Her brother graduated also. It was a fun night. My daughter told me she couldn't wait for her gradutaion. I, on the otherhand, can totally wait!

So now school has ended and the first monday after I have to go to work , but I don't turn on my alarm clock and chill. Guess who shows up on my back porch?? Hermie the sweet stray cat who hangs in my back yard. He never shows up on a weekday morning, so I take advantage and pick him up, which he happily lets me do, and put him in the carrier and promptly take him to the vet. I really love this raggedy animal, but I have wanted to get him looked at for a year. If he's going to hang with my maddie he needs to be disease free. So, the vet tested him, fixed him and even gave him advantage so he would get rid of the fleas. I brought him home to the bathroom. Set up a lovely kitty area. He was happy and rested, ate and just allowed me to pet him and hold him for 2 days. After he was healthy enough to go outside, I let him out figuring that he would run back in, but hell no. He took off outta my yard like nobodys business and then didn't come back for a week! How's that for gratitiude.Here he is looking up at me! Now he comes back once a week. BUT at least he's disease free, flea free and can't knock up any other strays. Sorry dude but the nuggets had to go!

After that excitement came sadness. My boss left his job today. I get to pick up the slack until they hire someone to take his place. Lovely. I wish him the best. I will miss his wit and charm. We had a good time with our picnic on the knoll today. I am sunburnt from it. I hope he and his wife join us for trivia and I'm sure I'll be walking with his wife sometimes.

This also means no vacations this summer for us. Just to busy with work. Oh well. It'll make our spring break cruise so much better.

Tay is getting ready to leave for sleepaway camp. Then she comes back to volleyball camp, then she goes to camp dad. I'm sure I'll be putting in a ton of hours while she's gone. Oh joy.

I'm headed down to Disneyland w/o the kid to check out DVC Hawaii. I can't wait to see what they are offering. It'll be a quick overnight trip with the hughes. Adults only, but we plan to spend the day at Dland and I am excited about that! I hope we have time to check out the new light show at california adventure.

That's the update for now. As the kids say H.A.G.S. (have a great summer!)

In the home stretch of the school year!

This year has had alot of firsts for tay. Moving to middle school, first club sports and afterschool sports, first broken bone and first dance! You decide which was her favorite. At her last dance, she got ready with friends and one of them helped her put make up on to wear to the dance. She was very excited to get yet another first done!

One night while hanging out at the mall with friends, tay decided to become a model...or a mannequin. Can you tell which is real and which is tay??

The 6th grade has had several big projects, but one of the favorites is Astrogation week. The kids spend the week making rockets to launch into space. These 2 pics are tay ready to launch and watching her rocket travel up!


It was a fun day full of sun and I got a nice pink face out of it!

We are winding down the school year preparring for summer and lots of different camps. Tay is very excited to be going to sleep away camp again. We are trying a new one she gets to fly too! One of her school friends is going to the same camp so it's making it even better. No big vacations this summer. We are waiting for our spring break disney cruise next year. Can't wait. I followed a magic in the med blog this time around and am feeling very sad that I didn't get to go back on the magic this summer. Airfare is crazy right now. I spoke with an aquiantance who works for a major airline and they said if you can find a deal buy it as they are getting fewer and farther between. It's very discouraging for those of us who need a deal to get where we want to go.

I'm looking forward to this school year ending. My favorite event we do...ENGAGE THE SPIRIT..is coming up soon. I have started walking on the path to running again. I am embarrased to say I let myself go this year big time. I really need to get off my fat ass and get back into it. I did have a good reason that I let myself go which I'll keep to myself, but it's been well over a year and even though I put on weight I feel much better. AND in the end, it was the right choice and I'm glad I finally did it. Weight can always come off right?!?!