My Baby Started 2nd Grade!

I know I am always saying how time goes by too fast but the fact that my sweet little boy started second grade yesterday is just about killing me! I get teary every time I think or talk about it (including writing this post). It seems like literally "just yesterday" he was starting kindergarten....most people who don't know him guess he's in kindergarten anyway because he's such a wee little thing. I need to do a better job of documenting all his little milestones like I used to do when he was a baby. He has so many little struggles and challenges I don't know how I would do it but he is a smart, positive and happy little person. He loves skinny jeans, Justin Beiber and Bon Jovi (go figure I have no idea). He has a great teacher (hand-picked by moi), so I hope he has another great year in school!

Radio Wisdom

My darling son and I were driving somewhere or other the other day. (Maybe it was the grocery store I can't quite recall.) Anyhoo, we had the radio on as we usually do. I am a person who is very "into" music and my son is following in his mother's footsteps on that one. So we are listening away and I was not even paying attention to what song was on-just driving-like ya do. So we get to the store and are grabbing what we need and my son says to me,"Mom?"

"Yes son?" I answer, waiting for whatever gem he is about to lay on me cause let's face it this kid is hilarious.

"Words can't bring you down." he says.

I bust a gut laughing and realize that the Christina Aguilara song, "Beautiful" had been on just before we got out of the car. I say, "Wow Andrew, that is great. I appreciate that. Did you get that from that song on the radio?"

"Yeah," he says. "I like that."

So that's our thing now. We'll be doing whatever and I'll say, "Andrew."

"Yeah mom?"

"Words can't bring you down."

We're deep and cool like that. Wise advice from my seven year old son and his friend Christina.

My Baby Turned 7!

The cliche' everyone tells you when you bring home a baby has never felt more true: They DO grow up too fast! WAY TOO FAST! The last seven years have been a blur and it seems like just yesterday (literally) that I was changing Andrew's diapers and rocking him to sleep. It kills me how many things I have already forgotten. I wish I was a better journaler/scrapbooker/blogger. Now he walks around listening to Justin Bieber on his I-POD and telling me he only wants to wear skinny jeans! We celebrated his birthday this weekend with friends and family in attendance. Mom, dad, Hillary, Justin and Rylee came from Idaho Falls, Brian from Evanston and Hunter from Salt Lake. Andrew had been begging for weeks to go to Tepanyaki for his birthday dinner but changed his mind 10 minutes before we were leaving and decided to go to Texas Road House instead. "I just love their bread!" he declared.
So we headed to South Ogden to the Road House. He was delighted to ride the saddle and get a big "YeeHaw," from the crowd in honor of his big day.

The next day he chose to go to Kangaroo Zoo with Rylee to play. He loves all the bouncy slides etc there, but I was surprised it won out over Boondocks and laser tag!

Jolly Holiday!

Here are some moments from our Christmas at home in Idaho at my mom's. It was so nice to have Andrew on Christmas morning again...not having him last year was the worst. He got everything on his list-he made it easy for me by not asking for much. All he wanted was a dog pillow pet-he named him Bagel, how cute is that?, and an Ipod. Now, there was no way I was going to buy a 6 year old an ACTUAL Ipod, but he didn't seem to to notice the difference in his bargain MP3 player. He has always been very into music. I think he gets that from me. lol My niece Rylee also got an MP3 player and the two of them proceeded to ignore the rest of us and talk to each other in loud voices over their music for the rest of the vacation. The MP3 players had to be limited pretty quickly! All in all it was a nice Christmas. As always I had to hurry home too quickly, one to check in on crazy kittens bent on destroying my house, and two because Andrew was scheduled to spend the remainder of the holiday with his other parental unit. Sigh...only 12 more shopping months til next Christmas!

NOTE: Andrew's eye looks freakish and deformed in some of the pics because he got two lovely STYES on his left eye on Christmas Eve. Poor kid! Luckily, they cleared up within a couple of days.

I Am An Amazing Apple!

A new friend of mine shared this wisom with me tonight and it made me feel like a really amazing apple! Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree.The men don't want to reach for the good ones because theyare afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good,but easy. So the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're incredibly amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb allthe way to the top of the tree!

Tale of the Crazy Cat Lady

As some of you may know, I lost my beloved cat Rocky about three weeks ago. He had been with me the last 15 years through thick and thin and I considered him like another child. People who don't have pets don't understand this mentality, but when an animal is with you that long (he outlasted BOTH of my husbands), they become part of the family. Anyway, dear Rocky was a cat unlike any other. My favorite thing about him was he loved to snuggle and would fall asleep in my arms while I watched TV or a movie. He could never get enough loves. I am like that too. He and I were two peas in a pod. He had to be put down after he became ill with kidney failure. My heart was broken and I cried, and cried, and cried...I couldn't stand how empty the house was. I kept seeing him everywhere. I kept thinking I heard him meowing. I needed to fill the void his death had left in my life. AND SO....

I decided to adopt a kitten. I went on KSL, called a few numbers and ended up at a house looking at two brother kittens. The last two left from the litter. One black, a little larger than the smaller brown striped runt. The house had about 12 kids under five carrying the kittens around by their heads and pulling them out from under the chairs by their tails. Someone had to do something....but not me! TWO new kittens is just not realistic. TWO new kittens is WAY too impulsive. TWO new kittens would be just TOO much! SIGH....

I just had to rescue both the babies...Introducing....Tobey and Mowie-the TWO new kitten children of me, the Crazy Cat Lady. They are so cute and so much fun and so cuddly and have helped me mourn my darling Rocky in a much healthier way than I would have otherwise. Despite the fact that they are clawing their way through the complete and total destruction of my entire house...I just love them!

Back to School....I Am Still Alive (barely)

Andrew had a pretty good week one in first grade. His teacher Miss Shepherd is very positive and encouraging and he only cried once (that I know of) lol. He is growing up so fast. Who knew a first grade boy would be into "skinny jeans?" Should I be worried? He constantly refers to himself as a teenager but luckily does not act like one as of yet. He is still my little sweetheart although getting him to hold still long enough for a hug and kiss takes some doing.

His mother on the other hand did not fare so well. Although my class is beyond cute and has lots of potential I think the lazy days of summer might have done me in. I was SO lazy for three months that a week back at a full-time job just about killed me. Shouldn't this job be easy after 15 years? Hmmmm....I came home from work everyday and had to lay down. No energy for cooking. No energy for walking. Barely enough energy to breathe. Is this part of getting older or am I just supremely out of shape. Seriously considering a gym membership at this juncture because 36 shouldn't feel like 45! Here's to a much less exhausting second week! CHEERS!