Best Buddies

Matthew’s best buddy at Crème is Riley. They’ve been in the same class since they were 2 ½ , so technically they’ve been friends for half their lives. A couple of weeks ago he had his 4th Birthday party at a fire station. His mom shared with me the heartbreak Riley suffered at the news of Matthew’s move. She said when he found out, he cried for 2 days and was so upset that he wouldn’t talk to anybody at Crème. Bless his heart!

Matthew and Riley

Reaction after Matthew asked if it was OK to call 911 if a tent was on fire

Random Thoughts

Today is the last day at Pink for Michael and the last Day at Creme de la Creme for Matthew. They don't not seem to mind, but I’m not sure they get it quite yet. Maybe they do and they really don't care. I think maybe I’m taking the move much harder than the kids are. I just can’t believe that we are 3 days away from heading out west. I’m not quite sure how a feel about it still.

This week has gone by so quickly because we've been so busy with Michael traveling and me having to tie up the loose ends at work. I blinked and here we are: Friday. I did take some time off and had lunch with my Michael on Wednesday at school. It is always amazing to see how independent he’s become.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get the scoop about him from his buddies because it was a “silent lunch” day. Apparently, they were being too rowdy for the past couple of days and the teachers felt that they needed to be accountable for their behavior. They were allowed to whisper if they had a visitor, but for the entire lunch period, the children were expected to eat their lunch in silence. Well, as silent as 130 1st graders can be.

My Little man & his Mickey D's. Braden is in the background. He and Michael were on the same T-ball team together a couple of years ago and were reunited in Ms. Spain's 1st grade class. He can talk your ears off.

How 'bout Them Cowboys?

We had the good fortune to see the Cowboys play their 1st home game against the NY Giants at THE new Cowboys Stadium last Sunday. Let me tell you, there was a lot of hype. Every radio and TV station talked up this game and how historic this event will be. It was hard not to buy in on the hype. I was ready to go buy myself a Cowboys jersey until I saw how much it cost. And then I realized I’m really not a Cowboys fan. Them are fighten’ words here in Cowboys territory.

Regardless, I was very excited to see the new stadium with my own eyes, and it was fun to see the pageantry of the 1st home game. The Cowboys Stadium is pretty impressive. Like most everything else in Texas, it is Huge with a capital “H.”

We had awesome seats! Row 20 in the lower bowl. Awesome. A huge Texas “thank you” to Chris M for our tickets. There was so much going on even before the game started. Former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush were there to do the coin toss. The Dallas Cheerleaders performed. I have to admit, I was as mesmerized by them as M was. These ladies are beautiful and they can sure move those hips.

And the game? It was pretty exciting. The last field goal decided the game in favor of the NY Giants 33-31, which was a little bit of a let down. All in all, we had a great time and I was glad we were able to be a part of the hype, even if it did cost us $60 just to park.

Cowboys Stadium

Game in progress

Ring of Honor, honoring the Cowboys of the past. You can't really see them, but Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, and the other Cowyboys greats are in this picture.



Then there's us: M, me, Grayson and Chris

Punked

Yesterday, as I was being an industrious person, doing my part to earn a paycheck, I get a phone call from M. It’s a phone call that most working mothers dread. “Matthew is sick. They want us to pick him up from daycare.” By “us” M means me because he’s like 400 miles away somewhere in this great state of Texas. So I hastily pack up and drive 35 minutes to pick Matthew up.

I get to the daycare and he’s lying on a mat in the director’s office looking drained and tired. Brenda tells me that he does not have a fever and when asked if he has a tummy ache, Matthew says no. She thinks it's best if I take him home and let him rest since he seems lethargic and not acting like his chatterbox self. All I can do is agree even when I’m thinking, “I pay you how much to look after my child, and you expect me to take off work and take him home every time he claims that he’s tired?” But that’s not the point of this post. So I tell her, yes, I’ll take him home. As I’m telling her this, I look over at Matthew (still oh so tired on the mat). He gives me a sly smile, and it all comes to me.

The day before, our neighbor’s daughter was sick so she got to stay home from school. The night before, as I was putting him in bed, he told to me that he needed chicken soup because he wasn’t feeling well. I told him to go to sleep.

My 4-year old has just punked me and the entire staff at Crème de la Crème. As we walked over to get his stuff from his classroom, I told him to look at me and tell me the truth. I asked if he was really sick or if he just did not want to be at school. I say him struggle to find an answer and he said, “Both.”

Needless to say, when we got home, he was happy as a clam and was not so tired anymore. Can a 4-year old win an Oscar?

The Loony Bin

I find myself being a single mom again this week and it’s been getting to me. Actually, it got to me Monday night. M travels a lot for work and it’s usually not that big of a deal since it’s been 3 years and I kind of got use to it. Well, with all the moving to CA business, he’s curbed his traveling for the past 2-3 weeks so my routine changed. Now that he’s traveling again I feel like I’ve had to start all over with having to get use to him being gone. The short of it all is that it sucks. And I know it sucks for the boys too because they are being more unruly than usual.

Monday night, I put them to bed at 8:30 and they did not settle down until at least 9:30. They were playing, laughing, fighting and altogether being 2 very bad listeners with bad listening ears. I threatened, pleaded and screamed to no avail. Needless to say, I was what they say “at my wits end.” So I pulled out the scare tactic from my bag of bad parenting. And I am not ashamed.

I told Michael that they were going to send me to the loony bin because they were driving me crazy. He asked me what the loony bin was and I told him that it was a place where they send people who went crazy. I said that if he and Matthew don’t start behaving, the loony bin people were going to come take me away and they won’t see me ever again. Does he want that to happen? Things settled down a little after that.

Rain

Maybe this is a sign. It’s been raining for the past 3 days here in good ole Texas. Not the typical North Texas rain either. North Texas rain is angry rain. It’s torrential and short-lived. You see the clouds approaching dark and thick with flashes of lightening and roar of thunder. Then suddenly, the clouds burst and you find yourself under waves of heavy rain. Then, 10 minutes later, the clouds part and the sun is shining.

This latest bout of rain is more like the Northern California rain where is it’s more like a grudge or really a pout. It’s light, misty and even when there’s no rain sometimes, it feels wet and gloomy. It sticks around and rains down every so often so that you don’t forget that it’s there. Pouting. It’s been like this for 3 days. Maybe Texas is pouting because I’m leaving.

Why I Love September

1. It’s the month that I married my best friend and the love of my life

2. It’s the month that the aforementioned love of my life was born

3. It’s the start of Fall and I heart Fall & Fall colors

4. It’s the start of a new school year with endless possibilities

5. It’s not as hot as August and not as cold as December

6. Starbuck brings back their Pumpkin Spice Latte! Yummy...

Will Work for ...Something

We are back in town. You didn’t even know we left, did you? We had a great visit to CA to test drive the moving back thing. Gotta say, I’m feeling a lot better about moving back now that we have a plan. The plan is that I find a job ASAP. This means I need to get my butt in gear and start updating my resume and job-hunting. It has been almost 4 years since I’ve done that, but you know what they say, once you’ve done it, you will never forget. Oh wait, that’s about riding a bike. Crap!

Yes, the CA job market is in the crapper, and every time I tell people that I’ll be looking for a job, they act like I’ve just been through a family tragedy. But I think that everything will work out just fine. I’d be overstating it by saying that I’m optimistic, but I’m very hopeful that I can find something soon.

There are lots to do and many details to take care of, and I still don’t know if we’ve made the right choice, but the choice has been made and the best thing to do is keep moving forward.

House Rules

Matthew has just moved up in his daycare class and is very excited. He even had homework last night, like his big bro. Well, it wasn’t really homework, but we had to work together and write down what the rules of the house were. Here are a couple of notables he came up with:

1. No jumping on the bed because we might fall and break our head like the little monkeys.

2. Don’t put your hand in the water because if there were sharks in there they will bite your hand off

Because Texas is known for shark attacks...