Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Girlfriend Time!!





I am blessed enough to say that I have a GF that I grew up with! We went to elementary school, Jr High, High School AND College together!! Not very many people can say that! Don't get me wrong. Our relationship isn't always hunky dory. (sp?)
We have had our ups and some serious downs. All in all, we manage to work things out. She is pretty much the closest thing to a "sister" that I have. We can go a good length of time without contact and manage to pick up right where we left off. We not only went through all our schooling together, but weddings, births, divorce, and unfortunately deaths. She tends to be the one that moves here and there.
I... well, stay in one place. She used to live here in Dallas, then moved to San Antonio. It had been years, and I mean years since we had seen each other. Life just gets in the way sometimes. She finally was making a trip to the big D!!
Yeee-ha! I got to see her July 15. We had such a good time!!! It was short but sweet. We meet at Uptown here in Cedar Hill. It is a pretty upscale outdoor mall that has recently been added to our lil podunk town.
I sooooooo needed to sit and have a good GF gab!! (NO, pun intended there, since my gf's name is Gabi!! haha) I had been wanting to try out this new place that sells nothing but Mac-N-Cheese. Yep! you heard me, mac-n-cheese!!
The place is called Max-N-Cheese. The noodles were as long as your fingers, and soo, soo, yummy! It comes with one "topping." You can add bacon, jalapeno, broccoli, goldfish or some other crazy thing on their list. They do sell a few sandwiches, but it would be a sin to walk out of there without some mac-n-cheese! After sitting next to the fountains eating out lunch, we walked over to Barnes and Noble to have some dessert from the Starbucks/Cheesecake Factory setup they have inside. We started talking and before we knew it, hours had flown by! My children LOVE to read, thank goodness. We can go and spend hours there and it will feel like we were there 30 minutes. We finally got our dessert, a super chocolate and chocolate chip muffin. Mmmmm, my mouth is watering remembering it.
I only ate 1/2! I quickly throw in my disclaimer, and btw I only ate the smallest portion of mac-n-cheese they offered. Not that I couldn't have had more. : )
We ate and talked some more. After the kids started getting restless we walked to a couple of stores. It is just so much fun, spending time with a friend doing everyday things. Sometimes when friends come into town you do tourist stuff and don't really get to connect. We connected! I felt so much better after her visit. I only wish I had been able to spend more time with her. She is a social butterfly and having lived here (in Dallas) previously she had plenty of "dates" set up with friends for lunch, etc.
She was suppose to stay with us, but we were getting flooring put in. Which is another long story.....
It was a great afternoon. Before we left Barnes and Nobles, I wanted to take some pictures. I got the idea to take pics with crazy books and we only had to look 2 feet at the books we were sitting next to! The one Gabi and I are holding had these Barack and Michelle Obama kinda paper doll cut outs in front of it. The one my kids are holding isn't what you think. How funny that we would find these in just a few seconds! Girlfriends + funny pics = good times!! Miss ya GF!

Happy Birthday America!!!






Wow! Here it is 4th of July already. Where did this year go? I am finally feeling like celebrating a bit. I love the fireworks. I love when you get to watch them cuddling with your "main man" and listening to the music. It's motivating to me in some strange way. I guess looking at them go up and up and going from a small spec, turning into something spectacular and beautiful, makes me feel like the sky is the limit! Strangely, my dh doesn't see it that way. He could care less about the fireworks. It's about the food for him. When isn't it about the food for that man? It's always about the food. He's a closet foodie!!
Usually, I struggle with ANY holiday. I grew up Mexican. (Yes, you are suppose to laugh there!) We made a big deal about losing your first tooth! Quick, get a keg, call your family, let's have a party! What? The baby took his first steps?! Quick, get a keg, call your family, let's have a party! Well, you get the picture...
Dh, grew up completely, entirely at the opposite end of the spectrum. It was always just his Mom, Brother, Grandmother and Grandfather. That's it!!! I kid you not! Early in our marriage, I was going through some pictures his Mother sent us. I have a photographers eye.. I can't help it! I looked at him and said.. "Do you realize that your family is sitting in exactly the same spot, wearing the same clothes, for each picture!!" They were pics of different holidays, but it was hard to tell which was when. I laughed, cuz it was such a contrast to how I grew up celebrating holidays.
We don't get invited to many houses over the holidays. Not sure why? I have lots of friends that have their family locally, and they spend it with them. We don't have any family around... so it's been like the pics my MIL sends us... just us. Thankfully, not wearing the same clothes! This year we got invited to a friend's house. Dh and him used to work together at their previous place of employment and have kept in touch. I like him, he's funny, makes me laugh and we get along. They used to joke, cuz I would call dh at work and end up talking to Mike for 10min and dh would ask him who he was talking too, and he would say.. "Oh here, it's Yvette!"
He's just a good guy. They live a good distance from us. It took awhile, but we got going. I'm glad we did. Just cuz the kids had a blast! They have a pool and the kids went swimming and swimming and played with some other kids. It was hot, and there were lots of people and guess what?? There was even a keg! Yep! (His wife is Mexican, not him. hehe) We didn't get to see fireworks.. darn it! They did have some of those lil packets of fireworks they legally sell at like Target. We went through about 4 of those kits, it was enough for the kids to ohhh, and ahhh.
My son... how do I put this.. can be a bit super observant sometimes. The adults got excited when we could hear the fireworks going off from a big show not too far away. Some were standing on chairs, we were all stretching out necks, moving here and there, trying to catch a glimpse between houses. Then my son says, "Ya know, they do this every year, and we still go all OOOhhh over them." Cracked me up! So true. From the mouth of babes...

Put Your Big Girl Panties On and Deal With It!!!

I don't have a good excuse for not blogging lately. I wish I did... I really, really, don't like where I am at right now. In so many areas of my life. I am trying my best to do my best and sometimes my best sucks! I haven't stayed in bed all day for weeks, so that is an improvement! I haven't gained any weight so that's also a good thing. My gym membership is gone. I've been trying to be more active with the kids. Even if it means going to a couple of stores per day. That is more activity than I had been getting, right?!
I think.. key word.. that I have finally decided to home school my kiddos. I've been researching, and researching and I am pretty close to believing that I can do this! It's amazing when I realize exactly how low self esteem can effect so many areas of your life. maybe I am finally coming to the acceptance phase in my grieving over my brother, job, best friend.. and don't like where my life is. I am figuring out where I want my life to be and how I'm going to get there. I don't want to sound bratty here, but I usually get what I want. I set a goal and go get it. I need to figure out what I am going to do with this new phase in my life. I heard someone talk about losing their job at 40yo and how they were going to venture into opening up a business. The profound statement that got me is, "You may never have this chance again in your life!" OMG! Hit me like lead bricks! This is so true!!! My kids will never be this age again. I have the opportunity to stay home with them and home school like I have always wanted too! WOW! What am I doing freaking out over, "can I do this?" I am a major control freak and here I am going to be in complete control over their education and it scares the poop out of me! The more I searched the more my fears were confirmed that kids from Charter schools are academically behind. I guess this really hit me when my kids scored perfect 100's on their TAKS test. I feel they can only be taught at the rate of the slowest kid in the class, cuz the teacher can't leave that one behind. I don't know... I just feel they aren't being challenged and they are so smart they deserve a good education! I know it will get them further in life! I want "them" to be the only thing that is going to stop them from getting what they want in life. Not their education, or lack there of. I guess I've gone full circle and have confirmed that "I" am the only one stopping me from doing what I want to do. right? right!
Get up GF, put your big girl panties on and deal with it!
Ouch! I needed that! I guess enough pouting, crying, feeling sorry for myself.
Life goes on, like it or not.