For the record... (no pun intended)

Any adult female who is attending The Son's birthday party on Saturday and is related to me and not pregnant should STRONGLY consider wearing some type of "rocker-ish" outfit. If this description fits you, I know you must have something you can wear. I remember you in the 80s.

Rock ON! Let the countdown begin...

It's hard for me to believe, but this Friday is The Son's fifth birthday! It seems like such a milestone to me. I cannot believe it's gone by this quickly and I am so proud of the young man he is becoming. He's smart, sweet, independent and friendly. He's definitely his own person which is usually a good thing. I just love him and love being his Momma, so much.

So, he's decided that he wants his birthday party to be a "Rock Star" theme. He would have preferred a Pokemon theme but I'm sorry, this Momma can only take SO much Pokemon. It's probably safe to say Rock Star is his second choice, as soon as I mentioned that we could dress up like Rock stars...he was hooked. My kid loves the opportunity to wear a costume. (can't imagine where he got that ;) ) He's going to wear jeans and a t-shirt with a flannel shirt with cut off sleeves over it, he's got a red bandanna for his head and some cute pins to go on his shirt. We plan on tattooing up his arms so he'll look a little something like this:


This was the picture we used for his invitations. I will have to take a picture of the invites...they came out really cute! This will be The Son's first official birthday party! He's had plenty of celebrations of course, for his first and third birthdays we went to Disney World and for his other birthdays we had parties at my mom and dad's house but this year he'll be having a party at his own house with lots of his friends. Needless to say, he's pretty excited. I have lots of planning, creating and organizing to do this week so I'll be busy but I'll also have lots to post about. Tomorrow I'll tell you what the schedule of games and activities for the party is going to be. Have a great day!

Writer's Workshop...

Time for Mama Kat's Writer's workshop again... I started this at 10 this morning but am finally getting back to my computer to post it now. Who knows if anyone else in the workshop will read it?

Here are the prompts if you think you might like to participate, (even though it's very late):

1.) Describe your latest obsession.
2.) Ask a loved one to use 6 descriptive words to describe you and report your findings. How well do they know you?
3.) Who was your first bloggy friend? How did you find each other? Do you still correspond?
4.) Tell us about your pet! If you have a weird infatuation with your dog or cat we want to hear about it (or if they just plain drive you crazy)...but please don't compare them to children. It's just not the same.

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I asked both The Husband and The son to give me six words that describe me so that I could complete prompt number 2. I did and they both gave me words, sweet words, kind words, loving words...I even told The Husband that they didn't all have to be good words (at which point he quickly added "demanding" and then just as quickly, took it back...that's OK, I've been known to be a tad bit demanding.) I finally had a minute to sit down and really think about the words that they gave me. The Son had some trouble with the list and I was surprised because the kid has a fantastic vocabulary but I didn't want to help him too much since I didn't want to influence his words. Here's what he came up with:

1. Momma
2. Mommy
3. pretty
4. stylin'
5. Best Momma ever
6. beautiful

It's a good list. It might not have the most variety, I mean, he did reference the fact that I'm his Momma THREE times and called me some variation of attractive THREE times. (I must admit the word stylin' threw me for a little loop though!) What I realized after looking at this list is that The Son simply thinks of me as his Beautiful Momma. He can't really come up with additional words because to him, "Momma" incorporates everything that I am...the best Momma ever. It's good to be someone's "best Momma ever."

The Husband's words are as follows: beautiful, kind, loving, (demanding although he recanted that one), motherly, creative and smart. If anyone ever asked me to describe MY mother, these are words I would have used. She was all of those things, yes, even demanding at times, but so am I. I love being a mother but sometimes it's very difficult to BE a mother when my mother is no longer with us. I miss her terribly and wish I still had her here to advise me on my journey through motherhood or just to call when The Son does something funny, or smart or even irritating, I never feel like anyone else can quite understand the way she did. It's nice to know however, that I must be doing OK so far because the two most important people in my life just described me using words I would use to describe MY mother. I think it's safe to say that they love me, I couldn't ask for much more than that. I hope that I can continue to live up to my Mom who was definitely my "best Momma ever."

Not too much to say but lots going on...

Hi Everyone!

I'm a busy, busy Momma today...as usual. I already did my morning job, The Son has school, I have a dentist appointment which is making me very nervous since it's probably my least favorite doctor to visit, other than that other one...you know who I mean girls! I have swim lessons from 4-6:30 this evening and I also need to stop at the grocery store for something quick for dinner. Turkey sandwiches and soup sounds pretty appealing to me!

I start my training for the higher swim levels tonight so that should be interesting, The Son is also having his first eel lesson tonight, he says he's a little nervous but I think he'll be just fine. I have to practically pack a suitcase to bring with us considering I need towels, swim suits, work out clothes (if the dentist doesn't take too long) The Son's pjs for after the lessons and obviously regular clothes for me although I will be wearing those. This is probably TMI but I have a tendency to forget to bring underwear so after I work out and swim, I have nothing to put on. The Son finds this extremely hilarious which is why I had to blog about it. He's taken to calling me "underwear issues girl" after we get dressed at the Y. It makes me laugh.

My holiday decorations are still up and it's safe to say that I am officially tired of them now. I think it takes longer to put them away then it does to put them up, I've started working on taking them down but I still have LOTS more to do...this weekend will be loads of fun. Not.

So, I wanted to post to let people know, I'm alive, I'm busy and I'm working hard. I have to go pack the contents of my closet now and I must remember underwear. Have a great day everyone!

Back to life, back to reality.

Hi Everyone! It is now officially the new year for me, I have to go back to work today. I enjoyed my two weeks off immensely, so much in fact that it pains me to think about getting up at 5:45 every week day to get into work at 6:45. Yes, I'm done by 8:30 and by then, I'm awake but it's just the getting up that sucks.

I'm actually looking forward to going back to teaching swimming. (although I did enjoy that time off too) I still have the classes I've always had but I will also be training to teach some of the higher level classes to the older students. I think I'll enjoy the older kids who can already swim and are just perfecting technique...of course, it will call for me actually learning technique but I think 8 weeks of training will help me out with that.

We had lots of fun over the break:

• we visited family,
• had family visit us,
  
• ate too much food,
• thought about working out but didn't,
• made resolutions I will surely break,
• made resolutions I will hopefully keep,
• visited museums
• beat my Word Challenge high score on facebook, (yes, I'm at over 55,000 now!)
  
• got lots of "new" friends on facebook,
• realized that The Son's birthday is in a little over two weeks,
• began making The Son's invitations because I waited too long to order them to be printed,
• picked my giveaway winners,
• realized that now I have to finish the items I was giving away so they can be sent,
• enjoyed my holiday decorations,
• got irritated by my holiday decorations because they're still up.
• had a very uneventful birthday,
• taught the dog a new trick,
• was forced to "be May" from Pokemon a few too many times,
• organized my craft room in anticipation for a scrapping weekend away in January,
  

But, best of all, I got to spend time with my family, friends and loved ones. I continue to reflect on a not so easy year and hope that 2009 will be better but I also realized that I do have lots of blessings and most importantly a wonderful husband and son who love me very much. Thanks for reading everyone...have a great day.

We have TWO winners!

Hi Everyone! I'd first like to thank you for entering my first ever giveaway! Even though it took me a while to get my act together and get it going, I really did enjoy it. The anticipating, the comments and all that other good stuff. I chose the winners fairly, I simply listed all the names of those who commented from all the posts that I said would be eligible and I ended up with 47 entries! It's funny because 47 is my favorite number! I used a number generator on line and generated two random numbers.

For the cards, I came up with #17 who just happened to be my friend Roshell from Always Smiling. Roshell and I have "known" each other for years, we met on a message board when we were both pregnant with our now almost 5 year olds. I have to say, I'm glad that she won.

My second winner, for the Scrabble tile necklace, is my sister-in-law Delphine! It's the one and only time she's ever commented on my blog! See people, it pays to comment! Delphine is married to The Husband's brother and she lives in New England. Unfortunately, we don't get to see as much of them as we'd like. She doesn't have a blog but I know where to find her! Hooray Delphine! I hope this means you'll keep commenting...hee hee.

Thanks again everyone and Congratulations to my winners, I'll get your prizes sent out soon! I think I'll be doing this again someday, it was so much fun. Have a great day everyone!

2009!

Happy New Year! Hope it's a good one!