Bits & Pieces of Me.....

It's been a while, so I thought I'd just sit down and type out stuff. I don't have any ONE topic to rag about, so I'm going to just give you the low-down on what's been going on. (like anyone cares)

DYSON TROUBLE

Got back from Vegas only to discover that Jeff was NOT kidding when he said Albus Dumbledog ate my Dyson. Fo'shizzle he sure did. He ate the power cord...well, not so much ATE, but shredded. Found a place in Collinsville that can fix it...coolio. So, I figured I'd borrow my awesome neighbor Mickey's Dyson to tidy up before scrapbooking night.

Craptastic...while I was running the vac in the laundry room, he chewed her cord behind my back. No shit....really....he did. The funniest part was when I had to call the Dyson repair shop in Collinsville. That guy TOTALLY thought I was kidding.

Yesterday (Thursday) was the trip to Collinsville to get them repaired. Now we're back to sucking dirt and taking names here in the 'hood.

THE PERSONAL TRAINER

I joined a gym, hired a trainer, and finally had my assessment with the trainer on Tuesday of last week. I think the trainer thinks fat = dumb and lazy. I'll go for lazy, but not so much of the dumb. And really, on the lazy, not when I'm at the gym. I figure if I drag my fat, lazy ass to the gym I'm making that time worth my while. There could, after all, be a glass (or bottle or whatever) of red wine in my immediate future that needs some pre-burning-off. So we did the first assessment and now I go tomorrow to work out with her. In between "our" sessions she suggested that I do 30 minutes of cardio....15 on the treadmill and 15 on the arc trainer.

Now, being the snarky hag that I am, I said "What about the other 30 minutes". Well, come to find out, she was quite shocked that when I come to the gym (normally 5 times per week) I am working out for an hour. Apparently she was not expecting this type of dedication from me. Let's see how shocked she is tomorrow when I tell her that I made it Wednesday and Friday, both with an hour logged in. She's probably gonna try to kill me tomorrow to see if she can break my spirit. I will not let her win...I will survive!

Actually, she's not that bad, but I really do think she took one look at me and made some assumptions. I think it's fair to say I'm brutally honest, so if I ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's and didn't work out last week, I'd tell ya. I told her that I am completely committed to this new way of eating and exercising like a mad woman to take some of this weight off. My hope is that she shows me some stuff that's gonna help me keep it up and hopefully not drop off the face of the working-out-world in mid-February like all of those other NY Resolution people!

SPECIAL NEEDS

I have an old friend that had her 3rd baby almost a year ago, and this beautiful baby girl was born with Down Syndrome. This little girl is seriously a shining star in my life. She puts things into perspective for me and makes me realize that sometimes you just need to slow down and enjoy the moment.

I have no clue what the day to day life with a Down Syndrome child is like. I talk to Mom and hear her crazy schedule with therapies, appointments, home visits, etc., but I don't get it. I'm not there trying to juggle all of this plus two other kids that have things going on also. From the little bit that I can wrap my brain around, I am amazed. I am humbled. She's a rock star and she doesn't even realize it.

So, in order to help out the rock star a little bit, I gave her coupons for her birthday. These coupons (I had hoped) would help her to feel a little less guilt if she needed an hour or two to herself or whatever. They were "ME TIME" coupons. I specially hand-crafted them myself with a pen and some torn up post-its. That's the kind of high-class friend I am!

Today the rock star called me and asked if she could redeem a coupon. It seems that she needed to get out of "Holland" for a while. Now I had never heard of "Holland" being used as a term for parenting a special needs child, so I had to ask a few weeks ago when it was floating around on her Facebook page. Google "Holland poem" and it will come up. The basic gist is this mom of a special needs child wrote that becoming a parent of a special needs child was like ending up in Holland when you had been planning a trip to Italy. It's interesting how it's written, and I'm sure many people can relate. Like I said....Google it.

So, I took the 2 little girls with me for the afternoon so that Mom could get out of Holland for a few hours. We didn't do anything special, but they ran with me while I did some errands and then we came to my house and played. Here's the thing...if you have a friend who has a child with ANY special needs....give them your TIME. Hell, even if you just have a friend with a newborn or a young child (children).....give them some of your TIME.

I have this theory that ANYONE can do ANYTHING for a small amount of time. I apply this to my life almost daily. For example, I can stay on this arc trainer for 3 more minutes...I can do it. OR....I can watch this child for 2 hours...it is only 2 hours. So, even if it's the most unpleasant 2 hours of my entire day or week, it's ONLY 2 hours. Now, I must say, watching these girls has NEVER been unpleasant, and I'd say that even if the rock star didn't read my blog on occasion!

So, take one for the team...offer up a few hours of your day to someone that could REALLY use a little ME time. Do you know a Mom that has little ones? Offer to go over for a couple of hours so that she can do WHATEVER she wants to. Wanna take a nap? Fine.... Does she want to run to the grocery store with nobody in tow? Fine.... I know a lot of people that get "past" something and never want to go back. But, just for a few hours, go back to diapers and bottles and let someone else escape back to that time that they didn't have to worry about a little someone 24/7! Both of you will come out the better end for it!

AND FINALLY....A PLUG......

Today we had Avery's PreK parent/teacher conference. Jeff and I both went and we were really happy. The teachers had great comments about Avery. Obviously, we, like all parents are sure that our little Avery is totally above average, but today gave us both big heads!

Apparently the teachers evaluate the 3 year olds with the same criteria they use for the 4 and 5 year olds that will be going to Kindergarten in the fall. The teachers obviously do not expect the 3 year olds to excel at this because they have another year of PreK before they embark on Kindergarten. Well, Miss Avery knew almost everything on the sheet, including all of the letters, in both upper and lower case.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh....Yes, that's me.....Mother of the Year.

POP

Did ya hear that? That was my bubble of insanity popping....it was nice while it lasted.

Sadly, I had to admit to the teachers that while I would LOVE to take credit for this child knowing all of these amazing things, it's not me....it's Leap Frog!

More specifically, the Leap Frog Click Start Computer. Miss Avery plays with that and has now learned her letters, how to spell her name, and is now moving on to spelling 3-letter words. As much as I'd like to take credit for her brilliance, it's the computer.

So, if you know of a 3 or 4-year old child and you're looking for a great gift, get one! Avery loves hers and has obviously learned a lot while "playing" with her computer.