Wednesday, July 27, 2011

SummerBridge, we hardly knew ye

And so it goes... tonight's Celebration marks the last performance/day of the kick-a** program that kept my big Girl off the mean streets lo these last three years and (arguably) eased her way into the high school era that will begin in a mere three weeks. I'm so proud of you, Miss Boo. You're such a trooper -- giving up all those lazy days for weeks of homework, fieldtrips, forced comradery and early rising! You were a star in that star of a program and while i'm glad you're (finally) finished i'm also a little sad to see yet another significant milestone in your lifetime of achievements go flying by. {sniff - pass the tissues please}

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Good stuff has happened

and annoying stuff as well.

First, the good:

1) I'm going to Israel! Thaz right, Baby! The "largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth", birthplace of the guy who could very well have been the "last" Son of G*d to circulate freely 'monst da peeps (shhhhh! Don't tell the Mormons!); a nation-state which purportedly scoffs at idea of signing a nuclear non-proliferation treaty and yet was "the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as 'conflict free.'"

This is the highly debated; mostly unknown; I'm sure largely misunderstood place to which i am receiving an expense paid trip to visit through a grant/scholarship program thing set up at my work and I just have to say (again) that I count myself among THE luckiest people on the planet! Plus, and perhaps more importantly, by going to this beautiful/political hotbed of a land, I may actually, finally find out why "Kiss Legend, Gene Simmons" somehow figured into the results for every search i've done so far on the place!

2) Having the girls around at camp and coming over after the SB program ends all summer has been beyond cool and probably the biggest thing i will miss once school starts again in mid-August.

3) We're going horse back riding! Me and the Big girl. For a half day, right before school starts. Just the two of us because unfortunately the place doesn't accept younger riders (actually, they didn't accept my Big girl age riders but i called and begged/lied just a tiny bit to get her in!) but i think it will be fabulously fun.

4) I'm really liking our Flea Market Crew Faux-B-Q's (I tried that made up term on the Wife earlier today and she was unimpressed but i think i'm still gonna "use it til i break it!" or whatever that phrase is...!) I think the peeps on my FMC were all really quality people and i'm delighted we seem to be able to have figured out the "staying in touch when we don't have to" part of friend making. This week-end is our turn to host! Whoo hoo! I know, not sure why i'm so excited about that other than it sort of means the Wife has to come but still... i think it'll be fun.

5) we're going on vacation soon. A real actual vacation with the fam to HOLLYWOOD! yay! seriously. i am packing sunscreen, my shades and a bikini. (Ha! that was kind of fun to write seeing as i am currently not even remotely involved with ANY of the aforementioned [see item 4 below].)

6)My A-Tail got herself a delightful job at a fantastic place and i'm sooooo happy for her! Yay!

7) Dirty Boy is back in the states for the time being (and yes i realize this could rightfully go on either list but i'll put it here because i'm so proud of him for being a stand up kind of guy who takes care of his babies/his s***!) which means there is some likelihood of me meeting the children instead of just being treated to pictures of them that are at best five to seven years shy of "current".

8) My girls are awesome. they just are. the Big Girl is so insightful and funny and gracious and BEAUTIFUL and the Little One is suddenly moving into this very lovely mix of silly and sweet and super aware/explanatory (while still retaining the very real ability to make me crazy at a moment's notice!) -- I'm just beyond amazed that i get to see them and interact with them and claim them (on any level). I do not know what i did to deserve such fantastic-ness but i am in awe of their person-hood every single day at least once if not multiple times throughout!

...

And then there's the Bad

1) it's 81 degrees in my house right now. It's hot and not in a good way. sucks.

2) Cloudy the Rat passed away.

she put up a good fight but didn't quite manage to win her last bout. We still have the Daisy but Cloudy was a special little gal who will be muchly missed.

3) Work is hard. Seriously, it just kind of sucks right now. I think/am sure it'll get better soon but Holy-Jesus-to-the-Cristo, i don't care what anyone says, doing your job(ish) plus two halves of two other people's if freaking ridiculous!

4) I'm getting kind of pudgy. There. I said it. at the ripe old age of 43 i am admitting to being in a shape i am not particularly happy with. And we're not just talking "I wish i could run/walk up those stairs without having to stop for a lengthy rest every five steps or so" I really am at a point where i (I) am looking in a mirror or at a scale at the doctor's office where i have to go because i SPRAINED THE TOP OF MY FOOT doing....?! Yes, exactly! Doing NOTHING! and i think "whoa! really??? O.k. no more jelly toast/red wine for me!" [she says as she has another sip of the shiraz by the keyboard]. And it's not just that i'm thinking i'm a bit bloated or that I'm "letting myself go" due to my happily married state... it's more that the body has changed significantly while i was busy focusing on other stuff. I wasn't paying attention and now i'm all puffy. granted I may get fine with being puffy but for right now it's disconcerting having my "go-to" pants fitting all weird.

5) I'm tired. I feel like i always say this but it's always true. I need to get more sleep. i'm tired and i think that makes me grouchy/unpleasant. i know it makes me more yell-ey [she says, staying up late to continue typing]......

{sigh}

actually, i think that's it. I just wanted to try to capture some of what's been going on so it's not completely lost to The Record. Sort of sorry now that i started with good and ended on bad. Really it's a mix and things, in sum, are fine. really. S'all good. I'm happy. tired but happy. really, really happy. :-)

Friday, July 08, 2011

Today is the day my beautiful niece turns 21!!!

Such an awesome lady! So glad she arrived in our lives all those years ago, bringing beauty and sunshine and sweetness and continues to be such a freaking fantastic representative of all that is cool about the Magnet clan!

In other news two quotes from this morning bear recording

1) "It's a body splash, Mommy!" [uttered in a "sheesh! how are you gonna not know that??!" kind of a teen-agey tone]

and

2) ... [doh! i've totally forgotten the other one. I'll check with the kid in question and update his post at a later date. Sorry... back to your regularly scheduled programming....]

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Happy (late) B-day BBQ!

Such a lovely gathering! such a lovely time! Congrats on reaching such a lovely landmark year!

In other news, Fireworks was grand! We went with IHOEL and the twins to the Emeryville Marina to watch the fantastic-ness and ended up getting to see like five different shows! Seriously. it was awesome.

We have the Big Girl here with us all week which is lovely. I wish I was less STRESSED OUT though. There's alot going on at work right now. Good -- fer sure for IHOEl, potentially for me -- stuff but seriously, so, so much that needs tending. {sigh} S'all good though. IHOEL is figuring stuff out and (IMHO) he tends to make pretty solid decisions so really for me it's just sitting tight as it were until things get sifted through.

k. back to work with me. Supper will not make itself. Nor will pages test their own code. Although, now that i'm thinking about it... why don't our pages test themselves??? Now that i know the guy in charge of these things, I'm going to see if we can find someone to look into that! :-}