lately

Facebook has sucked me in.

Obama's election has me thrilled beyond belief. We had an Election Night party, which went well. I have pictures, but my computer has no room for more pictures. I need to dump my pictures onto my external hard drive before I put more on my computer. Such a hassle.

I am blown away at the hatred that is spewed about Obama; I hope that it dies down now that he has been elected so overwhelmingly. Even Elisabeth Hasslebeck was gracious when speaking of his win.

So much has happened since I've been so infrequently posting.

Maya had her 8th birthday party. She is now the same age Brittani was when Maya was born. It's so odd.


She actually turned 8 a few weeks prior, but we are slacker parents and procrastinated planning her party. It all worked out, though. Here are some pictures of Maya on her actual birthday.


This is what 8 looks like.



I made ice cream cone cupcakes for her class. She has another classmate who has the same birthday, so his mom brought in ice cream cups. Next year, since we know who our teacher and classmates will be, we know that there will be three kids in Maya's class who share the same birthday, so we three moms think we will do a "make your own sundae" bar. It should be fun.



She got a new bike!! Finally!!

So, about 6 days after Maya's birthday party, we had some Paige Drama. Paige is always so the drama.

We're in a really weird place with her right now...not so weird because I am sure MANY 18 year olds go through it with their parents, but it just isn't the same. She's asserting her status as "adult," though that status is really only for leaglpurposes. Aside from chronological age, she is not very adult or independent right now. She is no more independent than she was when she was 14, as far as I'm concerned. No job. No money. No responsibilities. No chores. Nothing.

So it's annoying when a kid is disrespectful and acts as though she is put out, mistreated and unloved, when that is obviously so not true.

Without going into details, Paige decided to not go to Wayne's birthday dinner and the pumpkin patch beforehand, and it turned into a HUGE blowout, and she left to party for the weekend with no parents breathing down her neck. So apparently we are in this place where Paige wants to live "independently" while being completely supported by her parents. Ha. Isn't that funny?

You know how when you were a teenager, you thought to yourself, "I am never going to say that/do that when I have kids..." well, I am convinced that since all kids do the same stupid things, parents always end up saying the same stupid things. It doesn't change. What I am trying to say is that I now find myself saying things I swore I'd NEVER say. Like: "If you live under OUR roof, there will be certain expectations of you..."

She was back after the weekend was over. Of course.

I am fairly certain that to everyone she spoke to, she portrayed herself as the victim and not as the instigator. I don't understand how we can love someone so much and so unconditionally, and she can be so hateful towards us. It is exhausting and hurtful. I can't wait until she's beyond the "I hate my parents; they're f'ing idiots" phase of her life.

Yesterday Wayne and I celebrated our anniversary. 4 years ago we married in New Orleans. It was such a blast. We've been together for 12 years now, and it really just feels like a blip in time.

Wayne always goes all out for our anniversary; usually we stay in a cabin for the weekend and have a day at the spa, but this year money is tight, so no cabin and spa for us. Instead, Wayne created a spa in our bedroom. It was so cool! He cranked on the space heater to make it nice and warm in the room, heated some stones, had some nice massage oil and even spread rosepetals on the sheets, so I got a heated stone massage! It was lovely.

Last night we went to dinner:



I love The Melting Pot. And Wayne, too.
It was a great anniversary.

Saturday Maya has her first swim meet. I thought she would only swim the 25 yd freestyle, but nooooooo...they have her signed up for back AND breast, too!! Back is no problem, but BREAST???? I am so worried. And she has to dive off the platform. She has never done that before, so I don't know what's going to happen. It should be interesting.