If Only I could have been there.

This is a day late and a dollar short but such is my life. I don't always make it to post when the topic is hot. Nonetheless........

I really wish I could have been at Columbia University on Monday to hear the crazy man (Iran's President Ahmadinejad) speak. What was the best part?...hmmmmm...he said so many ridiculous, incredulous things I just don't know which one to pick. Was it his insult to University President Lee Bollinger's honest introduction in which he said that in Iran they were polite to visitors? Yeah so polite that they throw them in jail. Or was it when he said that, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country."? The list could go on and on.

I loved how President Bollinger told him that he was either "brazenly provactive or astonishingly uneducated" to deny the Holocaust.

Do I miss working?

The past few weeks I have seen a few old friends and the question that has come time and again has been, "do you miss your job?" It's not the kind of question that I can answer with a quick yes or no. I loved my job. I worked as a school social worker at a middle school ,dealing with all the truant kids. It was fascinating, challenging, entertaining at times, never dull or boring, and I believed in the work I was doing. When I had Blake, I went down to working one day a week. That worked well for the first year after Blake was born but then I got pregnant again and decided to stop working entirely. I thought I would be really traumatized by not working. My job wasn't just a job to me, it was who I was, Amy the social worker, and I was scared to loose my identity.
But I gotta say, staying home full time has been so wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am so glad I was able to work for 5 years in my field and I hope to return someday, but for now this is who I am and what I do. Of course I miss the kids and all of the stuff associated with my job but I get to be with MY kids all day and teach them all of the things that I think are important. How great is that? I have 2 little sponges that I get to fill each and every day. Some days, when I want to pull my hair out because my little creatures are driving me bonkers I remind myself that at least I get to be the one with them and not someone else. I think about the alternative of me being gone all day and not getting that time with them and it makes me cringe. And when I look in on them as they sleep I cannot help falling in love all over again no matter how difficult the day has been.
So here's to staying home. Here's to deciding when I want to get dressed each day instead of rushing out the door at 7am. Here's to a life filled with playing outside, changing blow outs, singing the hokey pokey, story time at the library, park days, and reading the same book 100 times a day. :)


p.s. the answer to the question in the last post is 2 years 5 months.

How Long?

Here's the question of the day. How long did it take Blake to use up the above shampoo?

a) 5 months

b) 1 year 5 months

c) 2 years 5 months

CAMPING-All fun and games until you become "that guy".

Last night, we had our third annual camping trip with Jean and her family. We camped at Leo Carrillo which is right across the street from the beach. It was a beautiful day and we were all charmed by the amazing starfish that we found in the tide pools.
Dinner was great, thanks to my dutch oven potato cooking husband, and we enjoyed sitting around the campfire. And then it became time to retire for the night and MY CHILD SCREAMED his lungs out at 10:30 pm because he didn't want to put his pajamas on. Mind you, there are many other campers VERY NEAR to us. I was mortified to be "that guy with the screaming kid". Once he was finally subdued, it was Julia's turn for the spotlight. She woke up crying 3 or 4 times in the night and so I became the all-night all you can eat buffet. Not much sleep happened on my side of the air mattress.
So tonight I am grateful that my children are asleep in their own room, that I get to sleep in my own bed and most importantly, that I don't have to be "that guy". Until next year that is.
p.s. Mike informed me before this trip that he thinks we should go camping 4 times a year. hmmmmmm...what do you think?

Who are those water aliens?

Tiffany, Nikki, and I participated in the Malibu Aquathon yesterday morning and it turned out to be a very fun experience. Several months ago I was online looking for upcoming races and saw this one. I had never done an "aquathon" (swim and run) before and decided that it would be a fun adventure. Of course I didn't want to do it alone so I cajoled the above friends into doing it with me. I felt like an alien wearing a swim cap, goggles, and a wet suit. I had never ever swam in a race before, let alone a race in the ocean so I knew I was in for an entertaining experience. We swam a half mile in the ocean and then came out, changed, and ran a 5K. I can't wait to do it again next year. The day was beautiful and what better place to spend it than at the beach. I didn't even pee my pants when I was running. And I even won a pair of socks in the raffle afterwards.

But wait, there's more. After the race we went to the UCLA vs. BYU game and had a great time. As an alumna of both universities I knew that I would be happy regardless of who won. Turns out the Bruins came out on top. I dressed Julia in UCLA gear and Blake in BYU gear. Julia celebrated by blowing out her entire outfit at the end of the game.

But let me make a confession. After going to numerous football games I must say that I still don't really have a clue as to what is going on. Watching a football game is like listening to a random foreign language. Kind of fascinating for a few minutes until the ADD sets in.

Happiest place on earth-or Hottest place on earth????

Yesterday I ran the Disneyland 1/2 marathon with my friends Rachelle and Julie. I was very excited to participate in an event which started and finished at the "Happiest place on earth". The course was very flat so I assumed I would do well. What I was not expecting was that it would be 80 degrees when we started at 6am. (and that was just before the sun was rising) By the time I finished it was easily 90+ . It got up to 109 in the afternoon. It's NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HOT IN THIS PART OF CALIFORNIA.
I was also not expecting to pee my pants around mile 8. I should have more pride than to admit this but what the heck, I wet my pants and there was nothing I could do about it. Although I have heard about this happening to runners, this has never happened to me and I was so mortified. It wasn't that I just didn't want to stop to use a porta potty, NOPE, all of the sudden I felt my bladder start releasing. That was fun.
Yeah, no personal record for me. And I was so hot when I finished that I forgot to have Mike take a picture. It wouldn't have been pretty anyway.