Where has January gone?

Does it seem to anyone else the older we get the faster time goes? That just doesn't seem fair. I can't believe the month of January is almost over. Frankly, I can't believe that January is here at all! So, since I just started re-blogging and for the sake of consistency let's do a January recap. The trick I've discovered as I sit down to write is knowing what I should and shouldn't include. What I might think is funny, my kids very likely will not agree about or want shared. Do I or don't I? And since my kids are no longer little, the funny "firsts" aren't so funny anymore.

When you have an 18 year-old getting ready to head off to college, the firsts you are looking at are...first kegger, first frat party, first broken heart, first hangover none of which I want to think about, acknowledge or even consider. With a 13 year old boy, on the horizon I have... first school fight, first suspension, first angry girlfriend, first "body" hair, all of which can go on the "don't want to know about it" list. So... what's left?

January - Brenna was accepted into Radford University and Old Dominion University, both of which she promptly informed us she didn't want to go to! But at least she can go somewhere. :0) Her first choice is James Madison University - we won't hear from them until April, so we'll keep our fingers crossed for that. I think she has a good chance of getting in there, but you just never know, it all depends on the group of applicants that come in at the same time. She also applied to Virginia Tech, but on that front unless a blind man is reviewing her application I don't think we'll become Hokies. But, you never know. Also on the Brenna front... got fired (no details provided), almost got suspended from school for 5 days (not sharing those details, but in my opinion it was totally bogus and since it didn't end up happening we're moving on) and celebrating her 8 month anniversary with her love Zack-Zack. We call him Zack-Zack to differentiate him from our Zack. Since he's twice as big - he's Zack-Zack.

Our Zack - Doing great in 7th grade. All A's including in high school Spanish 1. He had his 7th grade chorus concert in which he didn't sing. :o) Mainly made faces at me and goofed off. Frankly I think requiring these kids to either take chorus or band is stupid! They should have other options, but the middle school is a whole other post in itself.

He is a Call of Duty master, known as the duct tape kid at school due to the fact that everything he owns is covered with duct tape. If you go into his room right now there are at least 25 different rolls of colored and patterned duct tape. I find bits of it draped all over the house.

Halloween - Duct tape man!

Otherwise, Dogs are good. Snakes are good. John and I...good. January....good.

Lala Simpson - a saint and now an angel

On January 19th our dear, sweet Lala died. She was John's grandma, his mom's mom, and she was amazing. She lived 95 wonderful years and there is a sad empty space now that she is gone. I can only hope that she has found her Papa Ross and they along with Grandma and Grandpa Hyzy and sweet Shania are all having fun watching the rest of us make our way through this life. I hope with a beer in hand or a Tom and Jerry or slurpee (for Shania) and chicken wings; more importantly I hope they are saving a spot for me. We flew home for the funeral last weekend and in the funny way of funerals it was a very nice visit. We saw lots of people we never usually get to see and laughed and talked and remembered and it was good.

The grandkids and spouses The "old" cousins

Lala's children and spouses

Zack and the ladies!

Can you say "We're getting old"

So I'm watching American Idol again, even though I SWORE I wasn't gonna do it. Last year was LAME and BORING (even though my favorite one), the judges all left and they replaced them with Jennifer Lopes (Yuck) and Steven Tyler (love him but, not enough to watch) and I really hate all "stuff" that they make you watch to actually see the singing, but my TiVo recorded it and it sat there taunting me and then my enabling friend Debbie goaded me into watching and here I am trapped again! Last night our satellite was out due to the snow storm so in a panic I called Debbie and begged to be allowed to crash her American Idol party.

The cold hard truth... I love me some Steven Tyler, I love everything about him - his clothes, his hair, his attitude, his jokes, his screaming every 15 minutes... everything. J-Lo has been a pleasant surprise, so I must admit I'm enjoying it so far.

But, here's what I realized last night... Debbie was surprised that Steven was 63 years old. Duh.. he's only been around forever, but she pointed out, you know your getting old when the 63 year old guy on the TV "doesn't look so bad, in fact he looks great!" My 17-year old daughter probably thinks he looks like a zombie, but Debbie and I were thinking he looks pretty good.

The nail in the "You're Old" coffin... you think he's even cuter when he puts on his reading glasses.

Really??? Again???

I know, I know what you are thinking... she's doing this again? I decided to try blogging again for a couple of reasons.

#1 - I love reading all my "friends" blogs every morning and I'm sick of seeing the same pictures and blog entry on my blog when I link to their blogs. I love reading my "friends" blogs no matter what they write. Funny, not funny, touching, not touching. So, I thought I'd try again.

#2 - I was talking to my real friend Char who said I should blog and not worry about being funny or anything, even if I just did a monthly wrap up. That put it in perspective. I didn't have to blog everyday, even if I just did it once a month that would be better than nothing. Once a month, I can do that.

C. I found a website called http://www.sharedbook.com/. They take your blog and turn it into a book. A BOOK!!! It was mind bogglingly easy. You put in your blog link, select the dates you want printed, make a few design choices, pay and Voila! within about a week you have a BOOK! I am a published author, in my own mind at least. But if I can blog and each year at the end order a book.... Score! I can include them in my scrapbooks and you'd have a visual and written record of the year. That really appealed to my anally compulsive neat freak organizational soul!

So, here we go again. I hope this time I'll be able to stick to my guns and not bore everyone too much! Stay tuned...

We're off to see the wizard...

Today Brenna and I leave for Philadelphia for the Stotesbury Regatta. It's the largest high school regatta in the nation. Her high school is taking 84 athletes! Somehow.... I ended up being a bag checker (going through everyone's "stuff" looking for inappropriate "stuff'), bus chaperone and hotel chaperone! Everyone please say a little prayer for me and my sanity! Maybe at the end of the trip I will get a brain or at least a backbone!

So you think you can post any old time and they will come?

So, I'm back. And as I sit here running through a litany of excuses in my head... alien abduction (lie), pregnancy scare (lie), busy (true, but isn't everyone), overwhelmed-ness (true, but not a real word), ennui (true, but lame), amnesia (lie) - I realize I got nothin, at least nothin that everyone else who blogs doesn't have. I just know that for the last 2 months, I've moved "blog" to the top of probably a dozen different lists and still haven't crossed it off. It's like a sore tooth or canker sore in your mouth, you want to ignore it - but you can't help worrying it. It's not like I forgot I had a blog, because everyday when I read all my friend's blogs I have to go through my blog that still has the same pictures and same old news. Oh well, maybe this isn't for me. It's not like we haven't had a TON of things going on. We had birthdays....

Hard to believe we've gone from this...
To this....

Meet "Steve" the current love of her life. Don't ask me why it's cool to name your car, or "duh"why I didn't know "everyone" does it. Don't ask why "Steve" has already been to the "Dr." for some "work". That's probably a whole other post.
Or from this....

To this...

When did my kids become 17 and 12? When did I become a grown-up? Someone's messing with me!

This is what happens when Candy and cake are the primary gifts at a 12 year old boy's birthday.

Not sooooo precious now.

While I was gone, the Pogo Stick became cool. We're on #2

Zack would like me to qualify the above picture by saying it was crazy sock day and he does not usually wear Santa socks to school on a regular day. :o) So, this is the regular (yellow) everyday $40 pogo stick. That he pogo-ed on so much the pads all wore off until it was just metal on metal. So he stepped it up to the Flybar 800! This is no run of the mill pogo stick. It has levers and adustments and pistons etc... and it costs $188! But, he bought it with his own money and at least it's not another Xbox game. I really shouldn't complain, because since he discovered the pogo stick, he's been outside everyday, the whole neighborhood is pogoing... the bouncy sound is like the soundtrack to my life now.

We had Prom, complete with PROM DRAMA. But all in all they had a good time. I give Brenna a lot of credit. She had date issues and decided date or no date she was going with her friends and she did. She said (and probably smartly) she'd rather go by herself, than with a stranger or someone she didn't like and she probably ended up having more fun than many with dates.

Could these girls be any more beautiful? I never looked like this in High School. Shit I never looked like this! I personally think all the boys are too scared of her to ask her out! Fine with me!

The Gang. They had fun and everything worked out just fine.

So that's it in a nutshell. There's been much more going on, but I guess these were the highlights. I'm going to try and do better, but really who am I kidding. If given a choice between blogging and 3 0'clock naptime, I think we all know what's going to win.

I can't figure it out, life..blogging...kids..time management...

So I still seem to be unable to find the right time to blog... I can't blog when nothing is happening - I can't seem to blog even when lots of stuff is happening. I know people say you should just sit down and write, don't think about it just write. But frankly, if I have time to sit down lately I'd much rather sleep (been doing a lot of that lately) or play my current obsession Plants vs. Zombies... so I haven't been blogging. Now I will attempt to remedy that...

My Zack, oh my Zack... so cute, so funny, so smart and so Middle Schooler... As I've said before he wears his hair too long, his pants too low and plays Xbox too much! But I love him!

As I mentioned, just a little shaggy... but cute... Out of the blue yesterday he says to me, "I think I want to get my hair cut." Zoinks, Shaggy! I called immediately and a couple hours later there we were....OMG! Is he really doing this? Of his own free will? Is he on drugs? Or is he just making a good choice? Naw, it must be drugs.... :o)
There he is. So damn cute I can't stand it. Girls... BACK OFF! Just like the olden days when he was a little pee-wee who did whatever Mom wanted.
I'm always just a little nervous when what Mom wants coincides with what the kids want? That is just not a normal phenomenon. It must be a trick, but until I figure it out... I'm just enjoying being able to see my boys delightful face. Now if I could just get him to wear a belt!