i don't wanna you can't make me, or, the one where I make way too many TV references.

Can it really be back-to-school time?

I'm not ready!!!

I don't want my babies to go back to school. I'll miss them! I want more summer! For crying out loud, summer just freaking started, like, last week!

Not cool not cool not cool. I'm not ready.

I want to, like, hide under a rock in the hopes that if I'm not paying attention to summer, it will stick around until I finally come out. Or something.

I'm just not ready.

You know that commercial? The one where the dad is jubilantly riding the shopping cart through Staples and in the background is that song, "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" and then the kids come drudging down the aisle behind him?

That's so not me.

And I do love shopping for school supplies. Dork.

I just feel like, "OMG!!! We have to do stuff! and we have to go places!" I'm channelling Sandy from Spongebob Squarepants when she's about to go into hibernation and she's all, "Hi-ber-nay-shunnn!"

So. Today: beach with friends. Tomorrow: well, tomorrow's kinda cut because we've got two Zumba classes in the morning and one at night...so...Wednesday if it's not too hot we'll go hiking. Thursday...well, three classes on Thursday too so that's out. Then Friday we'll hit the playground that the kids have been begging to go to all summer but that is way the heck far away and maybe meet up with my sister. Then next week we'll swim at Papa's house. And then...and then...and then we'll have to go school shopping!!!

*sniffle*snort*

Effing school. It's this time of year that makes me think I could actually homeschool. Except what I'd really mean is, "I could actually keep the kids home and do whatever we want all day and maybe open a book once or twice".

that's it. i'm officially a grown-up.

We bought a house!!!

We just closed on it!

I can go over and visit anytime I want!!

OK, I just used the word "visit" to describe what happens when I go to the house we just bought, so obviously it hasn't quite sunk in yet. I actually called my husband from work the other night:

Me: "So...I can just take the key? and go over? any time?"

Him: "Uh...yeah."

Me: "OK. Just checking." *hanging up, doing the happy dance*

So we don't have to move until next week, which is good because there are other important things to do in the meantime like pack and get the hot water turned on and Oh yeah!! Open presents!! Woo hoo!

And then PACK THEM ALL! YES!!!

Exciting things are in the works for once we're settled.

Like...a puppy.

And...me quitting my job. Maybe.

So...YAY! Happy 2009! ;)

thanks

Kinda busy...but couldn't let today go by without thanking our vets.

I don't like war. I hate it, actually. It's unhealthy. It sucks.

But it's real life, and if there has to be war, then I'm eternally thankful that there are men and women brave enough to fight in it. Because otherwise? We'd have to reinstate the draft, and probably for guys and girls, and trust me--you don't want me over there. I freeze under pressure.

So thank you to anyone who is or was a part of our armed forces. You're the bravest people there are.

Halloween and, oh yeah, I'm outta here!

Thought I'd show you some pictures of the Halloween costume. I got to test-run it at a Halloween-themed class the other day which, by the way, was some of the best fun I've had as an instructor. I got to teach with two other great girls, and we had a blast!

Didja notice the excellent purple dreads?





Leg warmers!!



Spider ring! Actually, this I don't have anymore; it looked better on my sister so I gave it to her. Forgot to mention it might turn her finger green...



Too much makeup. Cuz, y'know, what's Halloween without makeup?!



LOVE my armwarmers, and the funky bracelets. The big joke that day was whether this was really a Halloween costume, since I'm frequently seen wearing this stuff anyway...



Another shot of the armwarmers, just so you could see my skirt. That skirt! Got me in a lot of trouble with the hubby, what with how much I spent on it...and the frilly purple hotpants underneath--Darn you, Hot Topic!--but I have a feeling he'll get over it the next time we go out and I wear it for him, with fishnets, as opposed to more-Zumba-appropriate leggings. :)

So I'm sorry I haven't been in but what with convention coming, and throwing the girls a Halloween party and reading the Twilight series (I just need the last one! kind of like an alkie needs a drink...I know it's so bad but it's so good! LOL) and trying to buy a house which? OMG! is totally nerve-wracking...I just haven't been here.

But! I'll have lots to talk about after Convention, maybe even, like, the bank accepted our offer while I was in Florida...? maybe?

So, I got my review from my boss at the Y, where I teach Zumba.

Hee!

I won't go into details--because, really, do you care?--but let's just say there were words used that I never hear in reviews for my other job. Words like "outstanding". And "excellent".

I almost cried. But um, I think that would have scared my boss.

See, I am so excited to teach Zumba--not that I need to tell you that, if you've been reading for any time at all--that I usually forget that it's my job, that it's "work", which, really, is a pretty good way to work, right? And when I stop to think about it, and realize that I finally have a job that:

1. I'm good at
2. I love
3. I never want to stop doing
4. Actually pays me

I can't help but get all misty-eyed. I mean, I've had lots of things that met one or maybe two of those requirements.

There was the time I wrote for the school paper, but that didn't pay.

There was the two seasons of working at the rennaisance faire. I played a pirate. It fulfilled numbers 2 and 3, anyway, but I don't know how good I really was--I was too busy playing around (and, um, flirting with cute rennie boys) to interact much with the patrons--and it sure didn't pay; I just did it for the fun.

I miss that job!

There have been all the crappy little jobs I've had since high school, which pay OK--and the crappy little job I have now that pays really quite well--but which totally suck and, for my current job, anyway, which I am not even any good at. I'm late all the time, I can't push a credit card application on someone to save my life, and I really don't give a flying crap about why you're returning it, just shut up and let me give you your money back already.

There was the brief stint as a PR peon, but every time a press contact rebuffed my advances I'd take it personally and have to take a break outside to collect myself. Too bad; there were other parts of the job that were most excellent, including my lovely, gracious boss and all the event planning stuff, which I totally have to delve into one day...

So anyway...here I am, completely stumbling into this Zumba instructor gig via a desperate attempt to shrink my ginormous...assets...and look!

I'm good!

People come to my classes!

We have fun!

I get asked to do parties!

I forget I'm working! That's certainly never happened before!

I'm--dare I say it, and risk sounding seriously stuck up--sought after!

I still can't believe it.

I knew back from the very first Zumba class I took that this would be a blessing. I just never knew how huge a blessing it would be. To have something in which I am competent...I can't even get into how big that is to me. I struggle a lot with being "just" a mom, which sucks--I want to be content because being a mom is awesome, a job in itself. I love being a mom, which is a large part of why I don't have a "real" job and why I was able to get into teaching in the first place--but having Zumba allows me to be a mom and still quiet that part of me that needs to feel important and smart and good at something.

'Cuz let's face it. Love it or not, I'm not so good at the mom thing. If you don't believe me, I'll tell you what I said just earlier today, when my husband told me there was a case of head lice reported at one of the Y's childwatch rooms:

"That's OK--lice like clean heads, so our kids should be all set." Which, incidentally, is just about the same thing I said when I found out that allergies are more prevalent in children living in very clean homes.

miss independent

So...more about miss Bek and her little independent streak.

I've been sick. Did I mention that? Nasty-sick, complete with the expelling of large wads of green phlem.

You're welcome.

So, when I'm sick, I take lots of naps, partly because I'm convinced they'll help me feel better sooner, and partly because I love naps.

So the other day, I put Bek in for a nap, and then, after checking to make sure she was asleep, headed to bed myself.

Two hours later I crawled out of bed, thinking I would go in and get her from her crib.

Haha!

Bek was already downstairs, sitting quietly at the craft table--apparently her favorite I'm-not-sleeping place--talking to herself and playing quietly.

And this morning! She was sitting at that same table again, regardless of the fact that no one else in the house was up.

If this were either of my other children, they would--well, they wouldn't be able to get out of their crib; they would jump up and down yelling for me until I got them--but if they could have climbed out of their crib, they would have come in my room to get me so I could love on them and get them breakfast. They never would have just doen it all themselves.

There's a reason I have to think about it when someone asks me how old my kids are--my youngest is two but thinks she's five!

now that's attractive.

I'm sick.

I'll be back to write some stuff later on.

Once the drugs kick in.

Now don't step on my pile of snot-filled tissues on the way out.