Once Upon A Time...

I just recently discovered Facebook. It's funny - I didn't realize I knew so many people. I've reconnected with a girl I went to LCM with back in the early 70's, as well as some folks I have worked with within the past decade or so.

Recently, my old friend Scott joined Facebook and "found me". Scott and I used to both be managers at Wherehouse and he was a dear friend through many of my silly and dramatic early 20's.

He posted this picture of us on his Facebook page.


Who is that girl?!
I barely recognize her.
She's so young.
I barely remember her.

And her hair?! The color! I can't remember it growing that way on it's own but I guess it did. Certainly doesn't anymore.

I look at the picture and think about the silly things that seemed so big back then. I have so much I want to tell her.

I want to tell her that there will be hard times ahead. And she will survive.

I want to tell her that "this too shall pass", just as Dad promised.

I want to tell her that everything she hoped for will really happen - when the time is right.

I want to tell her that some day, her son will make this art on the computer and say "That's our family! Dad and you are on the clouds holding us up, and Domino and I are dancing on a rainbow!"


I want to thank that girl in the photo for getting me here. She had no idea what the journey would be like, or what the results would be, but I can tell her it was worth it.

I Love Autumn

I used to think spring was my favorite season. "Ooh look how green everything is! Everything is blooming!". And then I convinced myself winter was my favorite season. "How I love it when it's pouring rain outside and I'm feeling safe and warm inside". But this tree has convinced me that autumn is my favorite season.


This a terrible photo taken with my cell phone camera, but that tree in the courtyard at Domino's school just takes my breath away.

Growing Up - But Not So Fast

Before Domino was born, we had no idea whether he was a boy or girl. We kept his bedroom a very gender neutral palate filled with dragonflies and butterflies. One of my favorite decorations in the room were a couple of whimsical stuffed dragonflies we hung from the corner of the ceiling like a mobile.


Over the past year or so I've been updating the kids bedrooms. Not huge room makeovers or anything, just pulling out some of the outdated and outgrown decorations and toys. I did make a big change in Domino's room and took down his homemade painted art work that has adorned his walls for years and replaced it with this:


Have you ever seen a kid hug a wall before?!

I added a few more Nascar items and he was thrilled with those as well.

And then I noticed the dragonfly mobile. It seemed so out of place among such big boy things. So I took it down. It was one of the last items in his room that remained since he was a baby. I was a little sad to take it down, fondly remembering the time I climbed up on a chair with my big preggo belly to hang the dragonflies up, wondering about the baby who would enjoy them and what he/she would be like.

And now I know that baby.

What I didn't know is how much he loves that dragonfly mobile. He instantly noticed it's absence and asked to have it back.

Turns out my big boy isn't quite as big as I thought. Thank goodness.

Now It Can Rain

We escaped the rain yesterday and had a really fun Halloween full of parades, parties and good old fashioned trick-or-treating fun.

Our usual Halloween has me at home handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters and Tonester taking the kids out to his sister's house for trick or treating fun with the nephews. This year however the nephews decided they are too old for trick-or-treating (!) so we had to come up with a new game plan.

We drove the boys down the street to the "Nascar house" - a house with 2 Nascar fans who have done up their garage with all sorts of Nascar paraphernalia. We knew they would get a kick out of the boys in their Nascar costumes. Tonester and the boys met them one afternoon while walking the dog and their garage was open. Domino had of course spotted the cool stuff and wanted to look at everything and they were more than happy to oblige. They even gave Domino an old Nascar calendar (1996?) they had kicking around that had Jeff Gordon still listed as a rookie.

After that there was the Halloween drive by at Grandma's and then we hooked up with some friends nearby and hung out at their house watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and handed out candy. We even brought over all our pumpkins because we didn't want them to go to waste sitting in our empty house!

I did feel guilty that I was contributing to the neighborhood-Halloween-empty-house-blight. It seemed like there were far more houses this year in the dark than I can remember. All the houses on our block were dark. Tonester said it was about 50/50 in the area they went trick-or-treating. Dark houses were the exception to the rule when I was growing up - and I think they were the ones that got egged. Kids would need to buy A LOT of eggs nowadays.

Here's a few photos of the fun from the day...

"Buzz & Woody" making potions at preschool

"M&M Racer, Jeff Gordon and the Mad Scientist" at Domino's "La-Bor-A-Tory" classroom

"Gorbulas", Lukas, Domino, Rascal, "Ruby" and Daphne

Is this a new Halloween tradition??

Before and After

I would have posted these last night - but 'last night' became 'this morning' before we were finished and I was pooped!

This is the fewest pumpkins we've ever carved because we lost a couple to a serious case of premature pumpkin funk that oozed all over our dining room table long before we got a chance to carve them.

Each Halloween we try to carve pumpkins of characters that were important in our lives during the year. For several months I scour the internet for pumpkin stencils and templates. In the past, finding pumpkin stencils of favorite characters on the internet was relatively easy. That changed last year when Corporate America decided that people sharing trademarked character pumpkin stencils was a criminal offense and all the major pumpkin websites were forced to pull their stencils or forced to close.

This year's gallery contains Sonic the Hedgehog (their favorite video game character), 2 different Transformer icons carved by Tonester (Decepticon and Autobot - their favorite cartoon to watch with Tonester), Snoopy (Rascal's bday theme) and Jeff Gordon's #24 logo (Domino's bday theme).

I hope it doesn't rain for the Halloween parade at school and tonight's trick or treating!!

Wordless Wednesday

Level I - Redux

I missed the sign ups a few weeks back for our usual Saturday morning swim lessons and our usual spots have been filled. With Tonester's new PM work schedule - twice weekly evening swim lessons seemed like a great time filler.

At the end of the last session, Domino was "promoted" to level 2 and Rascal remained in level 1. You can imagine the drama that created. Domino 's been in level 1 for almost 3 years (off and on) and he's seen his friends advance levels while he has stayed behind. He's been talking about his new level 2 status for weeks. He's so proud of himself! Finally! Level 2!!

Tonight was our first evening swimming lesson. It took about 10 minutes for the level 2 instructor to look at Domino's complete inability to get his head wet and decide he was not level 2 material. I knew it was coming. I could see it from across the pool. Other kids were wildly bobbing up and down, sinking down to the bottom of the pool together - and there's Domino barely getting his face into the water. The teacher was trying to explain to Domino and sadly - Domino actually thought he was doing a good job.

So - the teacher pushed him across the pool to the level 1 group with a "Here - this kid belongs with you".

The heartbreak!! (His and mine). He cried at the side of the pool at his "failure" (his words, not mine) and another lifeguard did his best to cheer him up. Rascal kept trying to ask him what happened and that just upset Domino further. I wanted to scoop him up out of the pool and tell him he was doing great, no matter what level he was in, but I knew this was something he was going to have to handle on his own.

And it sucked.

After the lesson was over I had 2 freezing cold and wet boys to deal with - one who was sobbing uncontrollably, the other who kept saying "Why did they move Domino to level 1 Mom? Why? Why? Why?"

In the fall, the recreation department covers the pool with a big tent similar to a fumigation tent. The tent fits around the perimeter of the pool with just a little extra space for walking. All of the bleacher seating is gone and the dozens of parents in attendance are forced to jockey for a few plastic chairs with minimal head room. The ground is sopping wet and the humidity inside the tent causes the ceiling to drip water everywhere.

In the warmer months, both kids hop out of the pool and head straight for the warm outdoor showers. I am able to get one kid dried and dressed while the other stays cozy in the shower until I am ready for them. The circus tent over the pool doesn't include the showers so getting both kids warm and dry simultaneously poses a serious challenge. Why in the world don't they have any "family dressing rooms"?! I can't bring my 2 boys into the changing area in the women's locker room, and I certainly am not comfortable in the men's changing area. What's a mom of 2 young boys supposed to do?

Trying to get the kids dressed proved to be more of a challenge than I was expecting. I wrapped a shivering Rascal up in a towel and plopped him on to the wet seat and instructed him to hold all our stuff. I then attempted to change and console Domino poolside with people walking around us. He was uncooperative and clingy, 2 of my least favorite characteristics in a 6 year old. I wanted to be gentle and loving, supportive and encouraging - but by god when that kid told me that he needed goggles and that's why he couldn't do level 2, the same kid that has refused the 4 different styles of goggles I have bought for him - I really just wanted to wring his neck. The more I tried to help him get his wet feet into his pants, the more they seemed to get stuck inside the lining and caught inside, frustrating us both further.

In the struggle to get Domino's pants on I toppled over backwards onto my butt and got soaking wet from the cement. As a bonus for those around me, the pants I chose to wear today are cut horribly wrong for my figure and I was flashing everyone my derriere in the process. Meanwhile, Rascal is shivering and people are having to walk over us to both leave from our class and come in for the next. By the time I was ready to get Rascal dry, I was ready to give up the "modesty towel" and just strip him down and dress him in front of everyone. We were quite the floor show.

After finally getting everyone dried and dressed (and me wet and exposed) we headed out and home where I had to whip up dinner, supervise homework, console a broken heart and distract a preschooler.

There's just not enough of me to go around.