Um, What's that smell???

One of my days off last week, the sun was shining and it felt nice to be outside without a jacket. So I decided it was a great day to clean out the cars. We had bought a new booster seat for L because she's big enough now to be out of the 5-point restraint, so I started with removing the car seats from both cars...and oh what a mess to behold!!

Every time I move the car seats, I am determined to not let the kids eat in the car...and then we go on a long road trip, or I just have a week moment while out running errands or grocery shopping and I succumb to the Gold Fish! And then I pay for it later... every time.

Anyway, as I'm using the dust buster, I find myself guiltily enjoying this little task. There is something about vacuuming that I love, and I think it's the Instant Satisfaction. You see the mess, then **Poof** it's gone!

Chaos is gone and Order is once more established!
(insert sinister laugh here)

So I happily busted dust and debris and food crumbs in both cars that day, followed by a quick clean-out of other little compartments where "treasures" were certain to be found and rewarded myself with a quiet drive, alone, for a moment anyway, as I picked up the children from school and listened to them say, "Whoa. What happened in here?"

This, my children, is what happens when we choose to accomplish something and follow it through until completion: Cleanliness. "Um, what's that smell?"

Oh, the fresh car sent you ask? Why, I believe it to be called Waterfall. "Uh, no, I think L dropped her banana."

Sure enough, there was a banana peel that my little "helper" left behind. Quickly stuffing it into the new trash bag, I enjoyed the short ride home listening to them chatter and realized:

Any mess is worth the clean-up as long as you enjoy the creation!!

xoxo Rachel

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask, How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Ever told your child,
we’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say, 'Hi'
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Anonymous child fighting the losing battle with cancer
Her doctor is Dr. Dennis Shields

(found this in some of my husband's files from 2007, his year-long chemo and radiation experience)
We lost a good friend in 2008 after a long battle with an inoperable brain tumor. After all that, reading this little poem really makes me stop and take a breath...

Enjoy today...

...I'm a guest blogger!! Go to this site and read my post for today!! :) So exceiting! This blog is a group blogging site, like MMB. They just put the blog together this past month, so check it out!!

Rachel xoxox

Editing Fun

My sister, bless her heart, has introduced me to a new obsession... editing pictures. I spent a whole day retouching photos, decorating, just basically being creative. It was nice to have the time, actually. So I thought I'd share the fruits of my labors, but give My Sis all the credit, because ever since we were little kids, it's her fault!! :)

xoxox Rachel

P.S. She did the ones with the girls in their dresses. I did the random ones :) but I wanted to show off my family. Thanks again, T!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Just When You Thought Things Were Boring...

It snows, again :) I love a lazy snowey day! Plus, the new white covers up the gray dull and once again, I love winter.

A Great Story

Sometimes, I really enjoy surfing other people's blogs (personal blogs, news blogs, sport blogs), reading their blogging style, enjoying funny things they choose to share, but mostly reading that my sense of reality is not too far off.


A blog I follow, and makes me really enjoy day-to-day life, had a link to another post, "I wish I was a master of photoshop." She said it was a really good read, so I went...and read...and now need to act. I have a few ideas, but will welcome lots, lots more! Go read then Let's Brainstorm!

Missing

It's the first time EVER something like this has happened to me... :( I'm meticulous and OCD about organizing and checking and double-checking...

But I'm also OCD about having an empty memory card. In my mind, memory cards are B&B's for pictures and information. I have to find the information/pictures and permanent home ASAP so I can once again have an uncluttered memory card (you can imagine the state of my home on Saturdays).

It had been weeks since I downloaded pictures off the memory card, you know Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, J's birthday, then some fun dress-up pictures of the girls from just yesterday. So, I had some time and just got a fun photo editing program and was going to try it out so I started downloading, 100-some odd pictures.

When I saw it was all done, I cleaned the memory card, put it back into my camera, then went back to the editing program...and only 6 were there!! I wanted to cry...but that wouldn't bring back my pictures (sigh). I looked everywhere, tried everything I could think of...no pictures to be found.

I guess I'll be more careful next time...that, and get over some of those OCD tendencies! Freak! (Picture found here)

January...

What is it about January that increases my distaste for winter? Is it the seemingly never-ending cold without the snow or is it the horrid "air" filling my lungs with enough crud to keep me in bed for days? Dunno, but I can't even seem to dwell on it long enough to make a decent narrative out of it. Maybe it's seeing the dirty air in combination with the dirty snow that takes any romance away that was built up around it from the preceding months. The city has dirty snow piles you'd like to wish away, but even still the suburbs have dirty snow piles that aren't melting either.

That's how I feel about January. Yeah, yeah, it's a new start to a new year, blah, blah, blah. But after dramatizing the lead up to winter after the fall, and the first snow, and snowing for Christmas, and the magic that I emotionally tie into Christmas, there seems to be a proverbial let-down thereafter. It's like after a break-up. Being in a relationship with someone, things are moving along, going well, you're enjoying yourselves...then something happens and it just ends. Just like that you go your separate ways. One day full of presents, family and cherry music then **SNAP** you wake up the next day and it's all over...Back to reality, work, picking up the toys, yadah, yadah, yadah.

I do enjoy winter sports but for a variety of reasons don't take time off work (or weekends) for them. For now, I'm content to spend my weekends lazily with the kids, enjoying the occasional hot chocolate and movie and praying for better air...and any kind of storm to clear out the putrid-smelling smog.

Then, just like after a break-up, after three or four weeks you start to feel like "yourself" again. Life moves on, turns back to "normal" and before you know it we have "clean air" and in comes February! Everywhere you look is Chocolate packaged in every shape and size and I think to myself...

"Now, all is right with the world."

I Have A Dream...

...and I'm always reminded of it over a long weekend :)

Actually, working as a Nurse, I was never really able to enjoy long weekends or even holidays because I was always working! Holiday pay, baby!! But now that I work in an Operating Room, I don't have to work weekends OR holidays! Wow! What a nice change! I still pinch myself.

Can I just tell you how much I love my job???

I've never really talked about work much on this blog. It's never good to mix work with personal stuff. Separation is good...and necessary :) But I love my co-workers. We are a small Operating Room with a handful of Neuro Surgeons doing a range of brain surgery and neuro spine surgery, 4 rooms, a branch of the Main Operating Room. We are a small family and really enjoy it. Well, I enjoy it. The people I work with make me laugh every single day. Some of those people have been gone this week, and I miss them!

As for the weekend, I have a dream, too. Not quite like Martin Luther King, Jr, but it's still a dream: Sleeping the day away without any responsibility.

That won't even happen this weekend. I'm going to play too much with my brothers and sisters and brand new niece!!

But it's still a good dream :)

Where Do These Things Come From??

E, after much trial and twisting and coaxing, finally pulled out another tooth!! She has so many wiggly ones and finally wiggled one of those out. So, she put the tooth under the pillow, anxiously waiting to fall asleep and waking up to the extra $$$. I told D before we went to bed, "Do NOT let me forget to go in there." A few hours later, I'm asleep :)

D took in some $$ around 5:30am.

E woke up and was so excited to show me her $$. Then she added, "Dad brought me the money, I woke up and saw him. But the Tooth Fairy still took my tooth!"

Insert here, either perfect opportunity to lay into one of the many false-hoods we feed our children, or just move on and go make breakfast.

I chickened out and, hugged her, help her put her money away and went to make breakfast. I know, I know. But I just wasn't in the mood for that conversation. I know where it will end up..."So sorry Sweetie, but yes, it's true. I have been lying to you for 71/2 years about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and yes, the Tooth Fairy. But hey, I'll still give you money for your teeth. Now you don't have to wait all night! Isn't that great? Yes, you can still get presents at Christmas."

Seriously? The Tooth Fairy? Who thought this up? Not only money for your tooth, but you have to put it under your pillow and some "fairy" will take it to who-knows-where, and why?

I don't know!

Is it fun? But is it fun to find out the reality? Why do we do this to ourselves, and pass it on to our children?

And, yes, I think I can handle THIS Tooth Fairy :)

And Now We're Off...

...Off to the races!! But I have a distinct feeling I won't be running any legitimate races this year. HOWEVER, I WILL be making more time for myself. And yes, an hour at the gym every day is blissful and I will embrace every one of those 60 minutes!

As for the new year, we (as a family) have a lot we want to accomplish/do/visit. Personally, I have made a Resolution to NOT make any Resolutions this year. Not that I think resolutions are bad, or that if you have a Resolution List that you are weak. Not At All. We all need lists. I am a huge fan of lists! Lists are my life! However, this resolution business has never really worked for me. By March, I've pretty much given up on the Resolution and moved on to goals for the rest of the year. So, I figured, Why not just start with a Goal in the first place?? Then I can simply bypass the disappointment all together!! Beautiful!

Until now, I've always assumed that "Resolution" was just a fancier word for "Goal," until I actually looked it up. Resolution, as mentioned here, seems to be more of a verb behind the goal, the extra something that increases the motivation to accomplish a goal. So, essentially, these last 20 years, I've lacked Resolution this whole time instead of wanting to find it!

Now that I've set myself straight (thank you thesaurus.com) I can focus on what I really want to accomplish this year. I won't make you read them all, but I have a special place in my private room (actually, it's only private when the door is locked) where I'm keeping track of these things. I'll also post it on the fridge so my husband can see his required level of involvement. We'll see if this will work for us, but I can Guarantee You that one hour, maybe 90 minutes, six days a week, will be Me Time at our local Rec. Center. Those 60+ minutes may or may not always include a Tread Mill/Weights :)

Off to a Great Start, Everyone!! Here's to a Great 2010!!

(Picture found here)