We don't do Relaxation Vacations...

Howdy Y'all !!!

So... we got back from our Texas vacation a little over a week ago. We had a really great time. Just wanted to post some photos and details on here before I forget.

Here's Amanda's little mascot, Panda, all ready for the trip. Cracks me up every time I see her strap this poor little creature into her "carseat". All because of a close call in the Atlanta airport in 2004,when Panda was almost lost forever. The next trip we went on after that, I came up with the idea of attaching the baby doll carseat inside the backpack, and Amanda has kept it that way ever since.

And the little cowboy hat is just too much...she stole that from one of her Bratz dolls, so that Panda could be dressed appropriately for Texas.

October 5 - The trip didn't start off on a great note. The day we were scheduled to leave, we had a really foggy morning. Our flight wasn't set to take off until 8:45 PM, so when the fog burned off in the late morning we figured we'd have no problem. We got to the airport about an hour earlier than we needed to, checked our bags, and then were immediately told that our flight was going to be delayed by at least 2-3 hours because of fog. ??? What fog??? Apparently it just rolled in again from nowhere...

Well, the 2-3 hour delay would really mess us up in Austin (no rental car counter would be open at 3AM, so how would we get to our hotel, an hour away in San Antonio???) so we ended up changing our flight to the next morning instead. This cut a half a day or so off of our available time to actually "do stuff" in Texas, but what can you do? Arriving in Austin at 3AM with 3 tired grouchy kids and no place to go didn't sound like fun, so changing the flight was really the only option.

October 6 - Once we finally got there, we hit the ground running. As Ryan said, "We don't do RELAXATION vacations - we do EXPLORATION vacations!!" We had a lot of things planned to see and do, so we didn't waste any time getting started. We got our luggage (which had actually arrived ahead of us because it was already checked onto our original flight and we couldn't get it back), rented our car, and drove straight to Six Flags Fiesta Texas.

It was HOT. The kids aren't used to HOT. So we didn't stay at Fiesta Texas too long. Just a couple of hours. Good thing we got in there for free (still rocking the heck out of those season passes we bought!!!) The park itself was very pretty, and it had some great rides and cool Halloween displays, but the kids just couldn't handle it - they were hot, and grouchy, and tired from the flight, and I think they might have even been a little overdosed on Six Flags, since we've been to so many of them this year. So we cut the visit short, checked into our hotel, let them swim in the pool for an hour, and then went out to dinner on the RiverWalk.

I loved the RiverWalk. We all did actually. It was so pretty, and such a cool place to hang out in the evenings. We never worried about making reservations for dinner or anything - every day that we were in San Antonio, we would run around all day doing and seeing as many things as we could, then take a little swim break and go back to the RiverWalk and just wander until we found a restaurant that looked good.

October 7 - This was Sea World day. I think we liked the San Antonio Sea World better than the San Diego one. Ryan loved the rides, and Amanda and I loved the shows. Brendan, surprisingly, was very grumpy all day. I thought he would love Sea World - but he told us that decided that he's had enough rides for this year, and didn't want anything to do with them there. Whatever, B. The rest of us had a good time.

Amanda really really wanted to pet a dolphin. We spent quite a bit of time by the Dolphin Cove, and I bought her 2 trays of fish to feed the dolphins, but she never did get to pet one. She tried, but she couldn't get the hang of holding herself up on the ledge, petting the dolphin with one hand and feeding it with the other. She couldn't reach, and she was afraid she'd fall into the water if she stretched out any further. And she's a bit too heavy for me to hold her up there for very long.

The SHOWS at Sea World were awesome. They were my favorite part of the whole day. All of them - but I think my favorite was "Viva" - it was a combination of acrobats, dolphins beluga whales, amazing choreography and music. This was the last show we saw at the end of the day, and it was absolutely AMAZING.

October 8 - We visited the Natural Bridge Caverns, a few miles outside of San Antonio. The kids were totally fascinated by all the different rock formations down there. Awesome. Later that day, we took a boat tour on the River, and saw a movie at the old Aztec theatre (very cool). Then we had dinner on the Riverwalk again.

October 9 - Zoo day. No Harrigan Family vacation is complete without a day at the zoo. This particular zoo seemed to have a very large collection of different bird species - far more than any other type of animal. There was a lot of construction going on at the zoo, so some areas were closed, but we still enjoyed our time there. Next we got some lunch, took a little train ride around Brackenridge Park (where the zoo was located), and then went to the Witte Museum (also located within the park). Brendan didn't want to go there. His most famous quote on this trip, whenever we told him where we were going next - "What the heck is a Witte Museum?? I don't know what that is, but I know I'm not gonna like it". This museum was pretty cool - it had an animatronic dinosaur exhibit, a lot of natural history exhibits specifically related to Texas, and a "science treehouse" section which the kids thought was really cool. Even Brendan.

Dinner on the Riverwalk again - BBQ this time. YUMMY!!

October 10 - Last day in San Antonio. We started out by visiting the Institute of Texan Cultures, a museum within the grounds of HemisFair park. We were amazed at how much there was to see in this museum - we spent a good half a day there. The volunteer docents there are SOOOO friendly and SOOOOO eager to share their knowledge of Texas history and culture. We learned a lot. The kids each tried to rope a "calf" - and Ryan actually did it on
his first try. Not bad for a city boy.

After this we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Amanda was thrilled - just by
chance, we got seated at the "Panda" table (with 2 animatronic pandas "talking" to us throughout our meal.) The waitress informed us that the San Antonio Rainforest Cafe is the ONLY one in the country that has pandas. Did I mention that Amanda was thrilled??? (she's so funny - ANYTHING panda-related can make her day)

Then we went to the Alamo. The location of this historic site really surprised me - it's just sitting right smack in the middle of downtown. After this, we took a quick stroll through La Villita, went into a few cute little shops there, and a really pretty little church. Then we headed back into HemisFair park, where we had left our car for the day, and ended the day by going to the top of the Tower of the Americas to take in the view.

October 11 - time to move on to Houston. It was a good 3-hour drive from San Antonio to Houston. We planned to spend the afternoon in the Museum District. It was Thursday, and a lot of the museums are free on Thursdays, so that worked out well. We got into town around 11AM or so, parked the car, and started walking around to some of the museums. The Weather Museum was very small, fairly new - just opened in April of last year. It was pretty interesting though - and the kids had fun doing a scavenger hunt and seeing themselves on TV as "meteorologists". We also visited the Health Museum - very cool. The main attraction is the "Amazing Body Pavilion", which consists of many larger-than-life models of various organs and systems of the human body, with all kinds of interactive kiosks and hands-on activities. Very informative and fun for the kids. The last museum of the day was the Children's Museum - also a very fun place. Then we headed out to find our new hotel - not as conveniently located as the one we had in San Antonio, but what can you do? Houston is VERY big and spread out. They say it's the car capital of the world - well I can see why. You can't get ANYWHERE without a car there.

Anyway, we found the hotel - the room was nice and comfy - and there was a seafood restaurant right across the street that was calling our names. Had a really nice dinner there, and settled in for the night amongst the oil refineries.

October 12 - Space Center day!! The Johnson Space Center was another place that totally surprised me with HOW MUCH there was to see and do. We had thought it was going to be a half-day thing, and we were going to have to find something else to occupy the kids in the afternoon, but as it turned out, we were there when it opened at 10AM, and we left at 4:30 and still hadn't seen everything!! What a huge place!! The kids loved it. Even though we've already taken them to the Air & Space museum in Washington DC, they were still fascinated with everything at the Space Center. Ryan became obsessed with trying to "land the shuttle" (he never did get it right, but he persevered for quite some time). Amanda got the cutest souvenir T-shirt with the NASA logo on it that reads "It's not Rocket Science...Oh wait...Yes it is !!"

Back to the hotel to swim, and then we went to the Kemah Boardwalk for the evening. I didn't even know such a place existed, but Kevin had snuck out to do some research at the hotel's computer center than morning and discovered it. It's a very tourist-friendly area with restaurants, shops, and amusement rides (like most other "boardwalk" areas) We let the kids go on a couple of rides each, then wandered around until we found a nice restaurant. Very cool evening.

October 13 - This started out to be a "history" day, then turned into "Houston is weird" day, then ended up as more of a "history" day again. We checked out of our hotel in the morning, and went to visit the Battleship Texas. Ryan and Amanda (mostly Ryan) got a HUGE kick out of exploring every single nook and cranny of the ship. Brendan was grumpy again. After the battleship, we went over to the nearby San Jacinto monument for a bit. Then we drove to the Orange Show - possibly one of the weirdest places I have ever seen - kind of a weird combination folk art/obsession thing. I can't really do it justice - check out the website if you want to know what it's all about http://www.orangeshow.org/indexx.html But anyway, while we were there we got a flyer listing other weird "folk art" type places in Houston, and said "why not??" so we ended up also visiting the Art Car museum (talk about weird) and the Beer Can House. Then it was time to drive to Austin, as we were flying home the next day out of Austin airport. We drove the 3 hours or so, checked into a hotel that was a mile from the airport, then visited the Texas State Capitol building for an hour. I must say I am glad we made time for that impromptu visit. It was such a beautiful building. The kids enjoyed touring it too - well, all except grumpy Brendan.

Then we drove around for a bit, looking for a place to park. Kevin told me he was all vacationed out, and tired of driving. We finally parked and found a restaurant, then went back to the hotel and turned in early so we could get up at the crack of dawn (not even!) and fly home. The 7am flight wasn't sounding like much fun, but it was cheaper than any other flight on a Sunday, so there you go.

October 14 - made it home, on an uneventful flight.

Now I need a vacation to recuperate from my vacation.

P.S. We did so many different things - I need 2 slide shows to show them all !! (Never mind the almost 900 pics I have to sort through to decide which ones to print and scrap!!)

Birthday Season - Part 2

Ahh, now I can relax. Birthday season is finally over. Well, OK, maybe I can't relax, but I'm officially out of party-planning mode for a while.

The slide show above features pics from Amanda's birthday festivities, as well as a couple of others we've had in the last week or two.

On her actual birthday, Amanda had to go to school, so she didn't get the all-day special treatment like Brendan did. But we still tried to make a nice day for her. We started out with the traditional "candle in the breakfast". (a silly thing that Kevin started a couple of years ago, but the kids love it - we put candles in pretty much everything they eat on their birthdays.) We gave her a couple of presents in the morning, and she got to bring birthday cupcakes to school. She got to play with her new Webkinz after school, and then she opened the rest of her presents. She got a pink digital camera, a mini Robo-panda, panda pajamas, monkey slippers, a fuzzy blanket and pillow for her room, and some new earrings. And then we took her out to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse/hibachi restaurant. After dinner we went home, and she put on her pink satin panda pajamas, and blew out the candles on her pink girly cake (complete with gummy bears of course!) All in all, it was definitely an Amanda-Panda kind of day!!

The next day was her friend Deanna's birthday. (weird huh - best friends with birthdays a day apart) More girly fun at Build-a-Bear. I got such a kick out of watching the two girls walking through the mall with their shopping bags - looks like a glimpse into the future...

Later that same day, we had to go to my nephew's first birthday party. I can't post pics here, because my brother is paranoid and doesn't want his son's face on the internet, but I did include in my slide show a picture of the Superman cake I made for the event. (The week before, at my baseball bash, my brother and sister-in-law liked my "Mets" cake so much that they asked me to do the Superman one for David's party. How could I refuse??)

Then for the rest of the week, it was time to prepare for the "grand finale of Birthday Season" - Amanda's Sleepover party. You'd think it would be simple - just invite a few girls, rent some movies, make some popcorn - TaDa - a sleepover party. Well, I don't know if it's just because Amanda is my girl and she's learned to go over the top, or because kids in general expect more these days, or what - but Amanda kept asking me "what are we going to DO at my sleepover???" So of course, being the party-planner that I am, I went a little overboard.

I took them to Plaster Funcraft so they could each paint a project. Then back to the house for pizza and cake. We made beaded jewelry, they autographed/personalized a pillowcase for Amanda, they played Twister - a lot, they watched TV, we did manicures and pedicures, Mad Libs, etc. The only problem was that they couldn't watch any of the DVD's I rented for them, because our makeshift DVD player (PlayStation console) which always worked fine before, decided not to work that night. But in spite of the technical difficulties, the girls found plenty of things to do to keep them entertained, and they stayed up until almost 2AM!!!

NOW I AM BEAT!!!!!!!!!!

It was worth it though - the girls had a really great time and they all said it was the best sleepover ever.

And now Birthday Season is officially OVER. All that's left to do is write thank you notes.

And add up the receipts to find out what it all cost - YIKES!!!

Birthday Season - Part 1

What a weekend - well, actually, what a week!! As I've posted before, September is "birthday" season around here. I've spent the better part of the last week running around doing "birthday stuff". Brendan's actual birthday was on Saturday 9/15. Amanda's is coming up on Friday 9/21. So Sunday was the big "double header" combined birthday bash - the family party for both of them, which also included a few of Brendan's friends. We ended up doing the Mets/baseball theme all the way - from the decorations to the "baseball stadium food" and baseball-themed games and pinata - and it was a big hit (no pun intended). But boy was it a lot of work. I spent the whole week getting ready - shopping, cleaning, cooking, making decorations, hand-painting the favors, etc. Because it was kind of like throwing two parties at once, I felt like I was running twice as fast. Usually for a family party, I'll go nuts on food and maybe decorations, but I don't do games/activities or favors. But because Brendan's friends were included this time, I had to throw in all those kid-oriented "extras" (which is more fun for me, but also more work.) I am exhausted, and 24 hours after end of the party, my feet STILL hurt. It was worth it though. The kids had a great time, and my relatives all complimented me on "outdoing myself again". (I have quite the reputation for going overboard when it comes to themed parties)

Saturday, in between party prep, we tried to cater to Brendan as much as possible on his special day. I made him homemade banana muffins for breakfast (his request), and we gave him one or two gifts at a time at various times throughout the day. His favorite gift? The GREEN digital camera that he had asked for. (Leave it to Kevin to actually find a GREEN digital camera that was inexpensive enough to give to a 7-year-old. Gotta hand it to the man - he is great at shopping for gifts.) We did Brendan's special birthday dinner at home - we convinced him that that would be better than going out to a restaurant because we still had a lot to do to get ready for the big party on Sunday. Kevin had promised him a lobster - now what 7-year-old do you know who gets a whole lobster for his birthday dinner???

Now it kind of looks like this weekend was all about Brendan, but birthday season is not over yet!! Amanda's big day is coming up fast, and then she'll be having a separate girly-girl sleepover party with her friends (which is why she didn't invite any of them to the baseball bash). So I get a LITTLE bit of a break, and then it's back into party mode...

Busy, busy, busy...

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated this blog. Things have been so crazy-busy around here - I just haven't had a chance to spend much time on the computer.

Between a "last summer fling" mini-vacation, and back-to-school, and all the extracurricular activities starting up, and organizing my house/life, and preparing for 2 kids' birthdays 6 days apart, I haven't had time to breathe, never mind blog!!

I'll be back after the weekend, when the first big birthday party is over. Then (hopefully) I'll have a few minutes to breathe before the next party.

No "divorce TV" tonight

We're watching MythBusters. I love that show - I think it's one of maybe 3 shows on the planet that Kevin and I can actually both enjoy.

So for once, we don't have to have what my Mom calls "divorce TV" (both watching TV at the same time, but on 2 different channels in 2 different rooms.)

Party Time

If there's one thing I like more than playing travel agent, it's playing PARTY PLANNER! I've got the big September double birthday party coming up - Brendan's turning 7 on the 15th and Amanda's turning 9 on the 21st. Since they're only 6 days apart, the "family" party is ALWAYS a combined affair. I always worry that we won't be able to come up with a good "unisex" theme that will be fun for both of them. But this year it was easy. My little "girly-girl" Amanda is suddenly a die-hard Mets fan - so SHE suggested a Mets/baseball theme for their party. Of course that works for Brendan too, so I hurried up and printed off these invites before she would have a chance to change her mind. I think they came out kind of cute!

So now I'm in full-fledged party-planning mode. I think my menu will revolve around typical "baseball stadium" food - hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, maybe pizza or nachos? and of course a baseball-themed cake. Of course I'm going to need some "real food", too, for the adults, so I guess I'll expand it to a BBQ menu (burgers & chicken to go with the dogs??), and add a few salads or something. I have some baseball-themed decorations left from Ryan's last birthday party (which had a general "sports" theme) - recycling - gotta love that! And games/activities should be pretty easy with this theme.

Now I'm just trying to decide if I'm going to do separate "kid" parties for the two of them, like I've done in the past. Amanda wants to have a sleepover, but Brendan would be happy to just invite a couple of friends to the "family" party. I should probably just go with that - it would save me some time and money - but I feel a little guilty cause he's never had a separate "friends" party yet. Ryan and Amanda have both had at least 2 big "invite-the-whole-class" type birthday parties in their lifetime - and Brendan has never had one.

Well, I guess I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.

Life is also too short for internet BS

No more Scrapjazz for me for a while.

I posted an innocent little spin-off thread a few days ago, and a few pictures of my house, and boy did things get out of control. All of a sudden my little "don't you hate that" kind of thread got turned into a complete bashing of my finances and attitude. I don't want to post the details here, cause that'll just get me all upset again, but let me just say that I found out who my friends are.

It's just as well - I was getting way too hooked on that site anyway. I'm a very shy person in real life, so making friends online is always easier - maybe too easy. It's so easy for me to get "sucked in" to an online community and spend way too much time there, and then I end up ignoring things that need my attention in real life.

Maybe a little less internet time will allow me to have more time for things like exercise, and time with Kevin, and fixing up the house, etc.

Just looking for the silver lining here.

I still kind of feel like I got punched in the stomach today - my "safe" little place on the web is not so safe anymore. My circle of "friends" is not as friendly as I thought. It will take me some time to get used to not having that place to vent anymore. But as I found out, venting to those people (well to some of them anyway) just gets me in trouble.

Life is too short for that kind of BS.

So I guess I'm going to have to do my venting here from now on.

It's really not healthy for me to care so much about the opinions (unsolicited or otherwise) of people I've never even met. So I need to back away, get my own "real" life in order, and maybe some day I'll be able to go back, when I can go back to feeling that it's "just a message board".

Playing travel agent

Uh-oh - it's been a week and I haven't updated my blog. Bad girl. No, wait - I'm not going to say that. I do admit that I have a problem with starting projects and not finishing them, but this is just for fun - so what if I don't keep up with it every day? Life is too short to beat myself up over silly things like that.

Anyway...

I've been busy playing travel agent this week. We've decided on the dates and destination for our next family vacation, and now I'm working out the details, making reservations, etc. We'll be going to Texas from October 5-14. (Actually more like Oct 6-13 - we have a late flight on the 5th and an early one on the 14th - so those are just travel days)

This trip is really for the kids, since Kevin is taking me to Hawaii without them in November. So the kids got to choose where we were going. Their first choice was California - we've been there 3 times in the last few years, to different parts of the state, and they just love it. But Kevin told them that the airfare from NY to California was too expensive for this time around, and besides, they should pick someplace they've never been before. So Texas it is.

Anyway, we're going to spend most of the time in San Antonio, and a couple of days in Houston. We're taking them to Six Flags Fiesta Texas (we are really ROCKING those season passes we bought this year!!!), Sea World, the Riverwalk, the Alamo, the San Antonio Zoo, and the Natural Bridge Caverns (and a couple of other things, museums, etc if we have time). Then we'll be moving on to Houston to visit the Johnson Space Center and a few museums.

The kids are really excited. I was surprised that they were so enthusiastic about visiting a state other than California. But really, they're such good little travelers - they really enjoy discovering new places. They have done so well on all the trips we've taken them on. As long as every trip includes some "kid stuff" (amusement parks, zoos, aquariums, etc), we can get in a lot of educational/cultural stuff too. I just bought a book the other day, called 500 Places to Take the Kids Before They Grow Up. It was cool to look through it and see how many of the places we could check off on the list. And now of course, the kids have a goal to see how many MORE they can check off in the next few years.

Guess I'll be playing travel agent a lot.

Look out Martha Stewart

So yesterday, the kids and I went up to Connecticut for the day to visit my Aunt Evie. She doesn't get too many visitors, so apparently she was really excited that we were coming. I think maybe since she doesn't have any grandchildren of her own, she wanted to "borrow" my kids and spoil them like grandchildren. She went so totally overboard to make the kids feel welcome and to make sure they had fun. And let me tell you, Martha would be proud.

She made us a really nice lunch as soon as we got there. Shrimp salad sandwiches for the adults, homemade fried chicken nuggets for the kids (but of course, since my kids eat EVERYTHING, they wanted some shrimp salad too) and a beautiful assortment of fresh fruit, including each of my kids' favorites (cantaloupe, watermelon and strawberries).

Then she set up a sprinkler in her front yard so the kids could cool off (it was REALLY hot and sticky today). And speaking of her yard, I could have sat out there all day - even though it was hotter than hell - just because it is so pretty. She has every imaginable color of flowers out there, and her garden is filled with all kinds of handmade projects. Aunt Evie is really into crafts - late at night after Uncle John has gone to bed, she sits at her kitchen table and gets creative. She goes through phases of different types of projects. Right now she is into mosaic flowerpots and handpainted birdhouses. I tell you, she really should sell some of her work - she would make a fortune. She doesn't want to though - she says that would take the fun out of it. So she just gives some of her creations as gifts, and displays the rest of them around her home. Gives the place such a charming, homey feel. No wonder my Mom and Dad love to spend their vacations there.

So back to our nice afternoon - Aunt Evie must have bought out the craft store to find things to keep the kids occupied. She gave the kids some little wooden birdhouses, treasure boxes and a couple of other things to decorate, and set them up at her kitchen table with acrylic paints, glitter, beads, glue, etc. This kept them busy for most of the afternoon, and we had a chance to chat while they were working. (I love chatting with her - she has the craziest sense of humor)

I swear she must have been preparing for our visit for days. She went crazy with homebaked goodies (chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and some crazy cupcakes for the kids with gummy worms on them), made us a nice dinner, and wouldn't let me help with anything.

Right after dinner, I went to check on the kids, who were settled comfortably in the bedroom watching TV. Ryan said to me "This is a really nice Bed-and-Breakfast." I laughed and told him that he should really tell Aunt Evie that - she would take it as the ultimate compliment. So he went right out to the kitchen and gave her one of his famous squishy "Ryan hugs", and told her that she should open up a bed and breakfast at her house. She has been told that before, because she is that kind of a thoughtful hostess and because her house is so charming - but I could tell that it really meant a lot to her coming from an 11-year-old kid.

I think I really need to do a scrapbook page or two about Aunt Evie. She's a very special person.

I am a Tropical Flower

Man, I hear so many people complaining this week about the current heat wave we're having - but I am totally loving it!!

I always feel so much more alive in the summer. I tell everyone that I am a "tropical flower" - after all, I am a product of the Bahamas (honeymoon baby.) Kevin laughs when I say that - he says I'm more like a lizard. (which happens to be one of my childhood nicknames - go figure!!)

I don't know - I kind of like the "tropical flower" image better.

I love soaking up the sun (yes, I know it's bad for you, but I put on sunscreen - sometimes), I love going to the beach, I love swimming in my pool. I really think I need to move to someplace where it's hot all year round.

Of course, Kevin will never go for that. So I just have to soak up as much summer as I can while it lasts.

Taking the kids to the beach today...Ahhh...I love summer!!

Just Do It

Wow, I remember posting this layout at SJ,
over a year ago. ==>

OK, so my old goal of getting "Fit by 40" didn't happen. (I was much better at doing the layouts in the Weight Loss Album than at actually losing the weight - LOL!)

Not going to beat myself up over it. But it's time to set a new goal.

I'm joining a 30-day exercise challenge on SJ. Starting today, for the next 30 days, I am going to exercise in some way, for at least 30 minutes, EVERY DAY.

NO EXCUSES...JUST DO IT.

Life is too short to get upset when SJ is down

...but I do anyway.

What the hell?? This is the 3rd time in less than a week. Don't they know that I need my Scrapjazz fix???

Oh well - guess I'm going to have to actually SCRAP tonight.

---------------------------

We had a very busy but fun weekend. 2 block parties on Saturday, and then a Mets game on Sunday. The weather was supposed to be crappy both days. Saturday ended up being pretty nice. Can't say the same for Sunday. Fortunately our seats for the game were on the Mezzanine level, so we didn't get wet. But they only played half a game because of the rain. At least they won!!

Pics from the weekend:

In a fighting mood

I did something stupid at the supermarket today - I left behind an entire bag of produce that I had paid for. The kids were helping me bag, and I was bagging too, while supervising them, and I guess I got distracted and forgot to put one of the bags into the cart. Didn't realize it until a few hours later, when I was making dinner and realized that I was missing some ingredients.

The "old me" would have said, "Oh, well, I'm an idiot, guess I have to buy all new stuff".

But the "new me" went back to the store with my receipt, with the missing items circled, ready to fight if they wouldn't give me my money back.

Funny thing - they didn't ask any questions at all at the customer service desk - just glanced at the receipt and said "OK, just go get all the same stuff that you're missing and bring it back here". Since it was produce, I figured they would have to re-weigh everything, to make sure I didn't get more than before. But they said "just make it close", and when I brought it back up to the service desk, they didn't even look at it - just said "have a good night".

That was nice, but I guess I was in a fighting mood. I was actually kind of disappointed that I didn't have to argue with the guy.

So then I came home and found an argument with DH and another on SJ, but that's another story...I don't want to post anything negative on this blog. Life is too short to dwell on the negative.

Out of character

I just feel the need to mention this. As part of my "new attitude", I'm trying to live a lot more "in the moment". Which means maybe I don't ALWAYS need to take pictures of everything.

Or do I????

Two days in a row, I took the kids out for the afternoon (to the park and the beach) and DIDN'T bring my camera. On purpose. Can you say "out of character"?? I was so proud of myself for deciding to leave it home. Yeah, I'm really taking this "new attitude" thing to heart!!

But you know what??? I was sorry that I didn't bring it. Especially at the beach yesterday - it was so beautiful, and the kids were having SOO much fun - and more than once I found myself saying "damn, I want to take a picture of that."

So guess what - I'm going back to taking the camera everywhere.

Lesson learned - Maybe not everything about my old attitude needs changing. Some things are just "ME" - and that's fine.

It's a big country

My husband is playing "travel agent" again. His favorite thing in the whole world to do is to go on vacation. Any time we have a little extra money (and sometimes even when we don't), he's got some kind of a vacation plan up his sleeve. I used to fight him on this, but I've come around to his way of thinking. You know, my whole new "life is too short" attitude... Plus I think he deserves to indulge his love of travel. Despite my bitching about him on SJ, he really is a good guy. He works hard for his money - hardly ever spends it on himself, and loves doing fun things with his family. So if he wants to spend all his money taking us on vacation, who am I to argue with that???

We've already been on 3 mini-vacations so far this year, and we may take a couple more before the end of the summer. Plus we have two major trips "in the works" right now.

One is a just-the-two-of-us cruise to Hawaii in November, which he booked as a surprise and presented to me on my birthday this past Saturday. (I am still in shock - he even arranged for childcare for the 9 days that we'll be gone!!)

The other has not been 100% decided yet, but it will definitely be a family affair. Since the kids are not going to Hawaii, DH told them that they can choose where we go for the family trip. Right now it's looking like San Antonio, Texas. (and possibly a side trip to Houston) They tried to talk us into California, but we've been there 3 times in the last couple of years. DH told them they should pick someplace they've never been before - after all, as he is fond of saying, "It's a big country - let's see as much of it as we can!!"

(and I'm sure once we get around to getting passports for the kids, that quote is going to change to "It's a big WORLD...")

My Healthy Place

This is where I spent my afternoon yesterday with the kids. My favorite park in my hometown. It was a perfect summer afternoon weather-wise - low 80's, sunny and not too humid. The pics of the park are actually from early spring - I don't have any summer ones. I'll have to remember to bring my camera along the next time I go.

I'm calling this "my healthy place" because I always feel so good when I go there. As you can see in the pics, there is a nice path around a little lake (or pond - whatever you want to call it). I love to walk laps around it - I clocked it once with my pedometer and one lap around it is a little over 1/3 of a mile. So it's kind of like walking around the local high school track, only much prettier!!

So this is exactly what I did yesterday afternoon. At one end of the lake, there is a playground. After doing 2 laps around the lake with the kids, they didn't want to walk any more. So I dropped them off at the playground and continued walking. (I can see the playground even from the far end of the lake) After each lap I checked in with them, "Hi guys - I'm gonna go do another lap". I ended up doing 6 laps total - that's a little over 2 miles. I think we're going to have to do this more often. Any way that I can fit in some exercise without it feeling like a chore is definitely a good thing.

(Especially if I want to look good for our Hawaii cruise in November!! )

Life is also too short to let people talk you into things

So I went to work tonight. Didn't want to, but I did give two weeks' notice, so I have to finish out the two weeks, right? Anyway, when I first got in, the General Manager asked me why I was leaving. I explained again about my husband's work schedule getting more demanding - the excuse I gave on Friday when I gave notice. So the GM tried all kinds of ways to "rearrange" the schedule so I would stay.

I didn't know what to say. Kevin's work schedule is only PART of the reason I quit. But I couldn't very well tell the boss that "life is too short to work at Staples". And he was making me feel so guilty, cause he was so willing to be flexible in order to keep me. (Right now, in the summer, cashiers are a dime a dozen, but I KNOW he was thinking about September. Once all the high school and college kids go back to school, I'm the only daytime cashier they've got.) So I told him I'd have to think about it.

And all through my shift, I thought about it.

And at the end of my shift, I told him that I was still going to leave. I kind of feel bad that they won't have anyone in the mornings, but seriously, I can't let that be my problem.

Life is too short to let people talk you into things you don't want to do.

QUICK - Someone call the fire department!!!

There sure are a lot of candles on that cake!! No, there aren't actually 40 of them on there. But I did reach the "Big 4-0" milestone this past weekend.

Feels odd to say that. I am 40 years old.

Several people asked me over the weekend if I "felt any different". Honestly, I think I started feeling different a few months ago. I've been "practicing" by saying "I'm ALMOST 40" for so long, that it didn't come as so much of a shock when I actually got there.

In the last couple of weeks, though, I have made some changes in my attitude. I have decided that LIFE IS TOO SHORT to...

* fight with my husband

* yell at my kids

* wait until my house is clean to have friends over

* NOT have sex

* count calories

and most of all, life is too short to work at Staples.

So I gave my 2 weeks' notice on Friday night, less than 6 hours before I officially turned 40. It felt good. I have hated that job for months now, because I know I can do better. I don't know what "better" is yet, but I know that my silly cashier job at Staples was causing more stress, more fighting, and more damage to my self-esteem than it was worth. So I'm just not going to work there anymore.

So there.

See, I told you I had a new attitude!!!