Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy

I live in a houseful of wimps. No really, they just like to play things safe I guess. We went to Cedar Point this weekend. You know, the amusement park where they claim to have some of the best coasters in the world. I think they profess to even have the tallest (or is it fastest?) coaster....the Millineum Force. I didn't take the time to investigate the statistics on it, but my God, the size of that thing is unbelievable. I don't live a very risk taking lifestyle so when I go to places like this with monstrosities such as this, I like to take risks. As we passed each of these twisting and turning and death defying rides I posed the same question, "Anyone?" Guess what answer I got? Yup. A resounding "NO!" from all three of my companions. If I had wanted to go on any of them, it would have involved me standing in long lines by myself, cheating death with strangers, and then not having anyone to share those few post ride adrenaline rush moments with. That's ok. Next time I will go on any and all rides that I missed out on this time, whether I have to do it by myself or not. Anyone want to join me in my quest?

We DID get to cheat death on one somewhat mild coaster....the Mine something or other Ride. It was somewhat similar in intensity to the Thunder Mountain (I think that's what it's called) at Disneyland/World. When we first step into the cars and are getting seatbelts attached and bars pulled down, hubby has one of those embarrassing moments that people of a certain size pray will never happen(believe me when I say I felt for him but I couldn't do a thing for him). They couldn't get the bar to go down far enough to lock into place. After a few tries it finally locked into place (with a glance back in my direction...maybe looking for sympathy or to see if I had noticed...I'm not sure). Have I mentioned yet that hubby is super superstitious about everything? So already he was nervous. Alas, our ride has begun. While heading up the first incline, click, click, kerplunk! The ride has stopped just at the moment that the first car is at the top of the hill. I immediately knew this is not right, but noone seemed to be saying anything. A few minutes pass, people are starting to look around, and one of the employees comes walking down the catwalk with a phony smile on his face. "How are you all doing?" *Um, we're stuck on a ride in the hot, baking sun. How do you think we're doing?* Hubby says, "You got any drinks for us?" I think he ignored the question and moved on to the people stuck way up at the top of the hill....still with that phone smile on his face. He stayed with us, not really comforting anyone because he had nothing to say besides "mechanical problems and don't know how long". Basically his job was to make sure noone started to freak out and jump out of the cars. We were stuck there for a good 20-30 minutes until two more employees walk out to help everyone off the ride. Something I've never gotten to do before. They took our names and zip codes. Not sure why the zip code and nothing else, but oh well. Noone died, noone got hurt, no bodies hurtling through the air at death defying speeds. Alls well. So we continued on our merry way. Found a few more rides to entertain us until Jesse poses the question, "Can we go on the mine ride again? Look it's running again!" I give hubby a 'come on let's go for it....really what could go wrong' look. He gives me his 'we've cheated death once already today...let's not push it' look. Jesse wins. We successfully go on the ride. With only one glitch. The cars made a temporary stop...a few seconds....and then continued on. Immediately when we get off she asks, "Can we go again? Please, please, please?" Hubby decides to bail out on this one. He's had enough excitement. So I take the kids for another ride. As we're standing in line Bobby looks over and notices that the ride is stuck AGAIN with people stuck at the top of one of the hills....same cheesy guy walking out the 'comfort' them. Someone blurts out, "Hey, look the ride is stuck." A woman that's part of a large group very quickly states, "Oh hell NO!", and leads her group back down the ramp. We follow suit.

The water park "Soak City" the day before was loads of fun. I think the wave pool was the big hit of the day. You basically get thrown and tossed like a rag doll for 10 minutes straight until they turn the wave machine off again. At one point I had this aditudinal teenager trying to express something to me (as the waves are throwing us to and fro). I guess I bumped her or something, but sorry, if you've ever been in one of these you know what I'm talking about. You literally cannot control who your body comes into contact with (which can be quite interesting at times but mostly just scary *ex: running into grotesquely hairy bodies and such*) Anyways, a fun time was had by all. Nobody died. We did get sunburned at the water park. 7 hours of play in the water+ 3 liberal applications of 45spf sunscreen+3 very fair skinned people= sunburns all around. Go figure.

Garbage in..........Garbage out

"You owe me $5."

"Actually you owe me extra cuz I touched the can with my hand and got it dirty."

"And I was wearing a sweater which made me really hot.....that'll make it another 50 cents."

"So all together that makes $6 that you owe me."

~My daughter upon arriving home from school~

(and as I glanced out the front window witnessing her loading the garbage and recycle can onto the garden cart this thought crossed my mind.....how sweet- she's finally learning to take on some responsibilities)

A Day in the Life..........

...of Roxanne. Well, actually a couple of days in the life of...but who's counting?

Friday I hit the yard sale circuit. For anyone that works with kids, this is a great way to pick up new and interesting materials for really cheap. I found this one lady that was trying to unload a bunch of craft stuff. I ended up leaving with about 3 boxes full of stuff for $2! Score!

I get home at exactly 3:05 pm. The door is locked and no sign of Bobby. He typically gets home from the bus at around 3:00. Wait around for him to show up. No sign still at 3:30. Just when I'm about to start checking with his neighborhood friends to see if they've seen him, I get a phone call. "Um mom, this is me Bobby. I didn't have my house key so I decided to ride my bike to my friend, Wesley's house. I just got here and wanted to let you know what I was doing." *silent sigh of parental relief* I know that it will not get any easier the older he gets. We'll move on from bikes to cars (oh dear God just shoot me now).

Hubby comes home from work and heads straight to the bedroom. No "hey". No "thank God it's Friday let's go out to eat". So I give him about a half hour or so to either A) sulk for a while and then decide to come out on his own B) take a dump, sulk, go straight to bed C) sulk and decide that he's never coming out of the bedroom again because the world is too scary. It's always a dilemma for me. Do I just leave him be until he HAS to come out or die of starvation. Do I go see if he needs me....sometimes for just a hug, shoulder to cry on, or to talk. So I decide to enter to bedroom of doom, asking if he wants me or to be left alone. He wants me this time. Turns out the hug, shoulder, talk combo was right on this time. He basically feels like he is such a burden to me and the kids that we would be better off without him. He wants to be able to just go away (I don't think it's from the living world this time) and then we wouldn't have to deal with the emotional roller coaster that he is always on. So, again, I try to remind him that we are all better off with him no matter how many problems he brings with him. The good parts very much outweigh all of the evils of depression. Crying session continues, both of us. Then I realize that Bobby is not back from his friend's house yet. So I decide to pick him up. Fast forward about an hour and it's now 7:00pm. Jesse says that she was supposed to call her friend to let her know it was ok to come spend the night at our house tonight (oh yeah, I forgot I had agreed to that one). She calls, makes arrangements, we now have a guest for tonight and tomorrow. I agree to take them to the "Y" pool when she arrives. They're open til 10:00pm so no problem.
We get to the pool only to find out that we have exactly 30 minutes to change and swim. Oh well, better than nothing. The girls are STARVING when we get done swimming so we stop at McD's for some grub. The mealtime conversation was quite intriguing. They discussed many a thing that 8 year old girls should not be concerned with. At one point my lovely daughter stuck her straw between her legs pretending it was a penis. Have I ever mentioned that she is obsessed with genitalia? She's even made up a word for testicles.......mannitanicals. Do not ask me where that came from. One evening the male genitals came up into the dinner conversation and she blurted out "Mannitanicals!!!!!!" and burst into a fit of giggles. Did I also mention that she has been pantsing boys at school? We have discussed all of the reasons why you should not do this to people (without getting into the whole sexual harrassment issue) and her response was this: "Yeah, but Jacob likes it". What do you say to that?

Back to the sleepover. The rest of the evening went somewhat smoothly. In the morning we had to go to the DMV to get the title for our tent trailer changed into our name. What a mess that was. Let me make it short with a few of the highlights: got berated by the grandmotherly clerk for :
1. not raising my right hand fast enough (I was daydreaming about being on a beach somewhere) to testify that I am who I am.
2. we had to stand up and sit down so many times that I thought I was in a Catholic church (never been to one but from what I've heard you get a lot of exercise).
3. heard some young guy getting berated by a young female clerk because he had a different address on his ID (that he just got) and his title. "I KNOW where you live, but you need to tell me which address you're going to SAY you live at."
4. clerk helping us get our license plates asks how much the vehicle weighs. She was trying to do a commercial trailer license for it. "Um, I don't know exactly how much it weighs. I guess it depends on how many bags of marshmallow we have stuffed in the cupboards". We didn't actually say this, but it would have been fun.

After Jesse's friend went home we decided to go somewhere for dinner. We decided on the Chinese buffet. They have an ok variety and it fills everyone's guts without breaking the bank. Jesse is reading the paper placemats to see what animal each of us is. She does this every time we go to a Chinese restaurant and EVERYTIME we have the discussion that hubby was born in 1970 on our calendar, but on the Chinese calendar it actually counts as a different year because his birthday is on Jan. 3. Anyways, she reads that she is compatible with both hubby's and Bobby's animals. "Maybe I can marry Dad......or maybe Bobby. No, then my kids will turn out funny."

I finally decided to try sushi. Two bites and I'm convinced that I can live without it. Let's just say that seaweed tastes pretty much like how you would think seaweed would taste. I've heard people say that if you get the right sauce that sushi is pretty good. I figure that if you have to cover up the flavor of a food in order to make it palatable, than what's the point?

And guess what? There's still one more day left to this fun-filled weekend!

Please God....if you're out there.....I have a favor to ask

We had a long talk last night. It was one of those talks that is both good and bad. Good: because it involves him letting out his emotions that he keeps pent up all the time (and feels like he needs to keep from me in order to protect me...even though I've told him that I am HERE and want to be that soft place for him to fall). Bad: because he has no idea if he will ever get to a point where he has any hope again. Hope for a future. Hope in general. Isn't is always that when there is a disaster of some sort, that the one thing you hear the victims say is, "At least we still have hope. If nothing else, we still have hope for a future."

I am going to do everything in my power (which I haven't figured out quite what that is) to help him regain that hope.

Somebody kill me now so I don't have to do it myself (please)

Why am I such an idiot?

Why can I not leave well enough alone?

Why do I have no willpower?

I have gone and done something that I told myself, will myself into believing that I would never do again. Hubby asked me the other day if I had been reading his blog. I was able to honestly answer, "No, I haven't looked since that last time in Nov.(?). I learned my lesson to let you have that space."

Well, guess what folks? Just at the mere mention of it, I couldn't keep my mind off of it. What is there something you wrote about that you don't want me to read? (my paranoia stepping in). Damn, why did he not change the address therefore making it impossible for me to read his innermost thoughts? I will take what I read with a grain of salt (actually a couple of handfuls). I know (or at least I'm convincing myself to believe) that the parts of what I read that affect me very deeply, are in fact stuff that he wrote when he was in his last spiral. I think this is why he asked if I had been reading.....because he knew it was stuff that would affect me. This is exactly the reason why I fell into the mind trap and went back to that space that I should have never gone to again.

Somebody at least needs to slap me really, really hard.

Let's go RVing

We headed out for an evening at the ball park tonight. We have a local AAA team (I think...they're twice removed from the big leagues....whatever it's just freakin' baseball). No such luck. It was a rain out. We'll be able to trade our tickets in for another game though, so all well.

We ended up going to a movie instead. The only 'family movie' available was "RV". If you're in for sappy and funny, I would recommend it. Only, of course, if you're not a Robin Williams hater (Chris :) ). I admit his act can get old after a while, but if you're in the right mood, he can be great.

*segway*
We just bought a tent trailer for $1200. Talked 'em down from $1500. It's a 1988 Coleman and in pretty good shape still. We may end up trying it out over Memorial Day weekend when we take the kiddos to Cedar Point park (my chiropractor rolled his eyes at me and said, "I hope you're not going on any of those big rides"....I have an appt. the day after we get back.....my back will not stifle the kid in me). It shall be rather fun. If the weather agrees, we will be going to the adjacent water park also (minus hubby....he loathes any type of water recreation.....I think it's mostly the having to get half-nekkid in front of people......even though the kids have begged him to go swimming......it'll never happen).

I Done Been Violated

My yearly womanly physical is always such a joy. Not only do you get to have cold, hard metal instruments inserted into certain areas, but you're expected to hold down a conversation about your kids, the weather, if you've gone to college (and what your major was), what was your first job. Basically anything that the doctor thinks will distract you from the fact that you're being violated. Oh yeah, don't forget about the gloved finger up the butt.

I would take a "turn your head and cough" exam over this any day.

And to top it off, the doc informs me that I'll need my first mammogram in two years. How's that for making me feel old?

(Look at me....I'm posting more than once a day now!)

It's a small, small world (of talk)

People view small talk in different ways.

Some see it as mindless drivel that is a waste of their time. If you don't have anything interesting or of importance to say, then keep your trap shut.

Some see it as an excellent way to get to know people. The longer you just keep asking the other person questions about themselves, the more you get to know them.....sort of like an interview. Those same people that don't enjoy small talk may feel like all of these questions are too probing. They may also feel like they don't have the right to ask personal questions of others.....therefore they never really get to know other people that well....thus not becoming close friends with people.

Small talk is truly an art, a skill.

Don't be so snarky

Interesting tidbits from the weekend:

After a fun-filled 2 days of Jesse having a friend over, we decided to order a pizza, chicken, and jo-jos from the pizza place just around the corner. I asked hubby if he wanted to walk with me to go pick it up. He relunctantly agreed (thinks that we need to drive even though it's less than a mile and really nice weather) and as we're headed down our driveway he says, "Hey why don't we go the back way." I, of course, agreed without much thought. 'The back way' consists of walking along a swampy creek area that is at the back of the properties of about 5 houses (3 of which we have met and 2 of those are Bobby's friends houses). As we were rounding out the end of our little voyage I look over and hubby looks extremely nervous and uncomfortable. I remember him saying something along the lines of 'I couldn't be any more uncomfortable right now if I was walking naked through a crowded stadium'. I just said 'It's no big deal. The boys walk back and forth back here to get to each other's houses all the time (and ride their atv's and dirt bikes). No worries, we pick up our food, and head back. For the walk home we decide to go on the road except that there is this extremely large, grassy area that we would have to walk all the way around......so we shortcut. No biggie right? Just as we're approaching the road, the woman from the last house yells from their front steps, "Excuse me....EXCUSE ME.....CAN I HELP YOU WITH SOMETHING?????"

I sheepishly replied, "We were just shortcutting......"

"Well, we've noticed that happening a lot lately and we've been really trying to keep our yard looking nice (remember that their son and another neighbor boy are always riding motor bikes on this 'well manicured lawn'). We keep our dog tied out here sometimes and would really hate to have him bite someone (little yapper dog)." I don't know if the dog part was supposed to be a threat or anything.

"Sorry, we won't do it again" and then continued on home......on the street. I don't know if my response came out snarky, I was honestly trying to say that we didn't mean to offend anyone and now that we had, we wouldn't walk through there anymore.

I don't know if she recognized me or not. We've met twice before.....one of those times was when I was delivering loaves of pumkin bread to all of the kid's neighborhood friends. I really didn't feel like she needed to be so rude about it either. A simple 'We dont' appreciate people walking through our yard to shortcut' would have sufficed. The message would have still been taken as seriously and no hard feelings.

So now I'm wondering if I should go talk to her and say we REALLY didn't mean to offend you guys.....or should I just let it go. Is this just my obsessive need to be liked/accepted by people?

Check out those gams, baby!

First of all, I would like to say that I am not in the least bit a fashion gal. I try, but I always feel like what other people see is someone who just didn't try enough when searching through the closet.

Last week I found these really cute skorts. I've never had one before but always admired them in the store. I decided, what the heck, I'll go for it. I was utterly amazed to find out that I fit into a size 12 (yes, I just commited a crime by stating my actual size....next thing you know I'll be telling you my weight). Last summer I was still in a size 18 and somedays I was struggling to get the button snapped. I vaguely remember that in high school I wore a size 10/12 depending on the brand. *happy dance in the dressing room*

I end up finding 2 pairs of skorts that I liked....fit well....looked good from all angles (my opinion). It wasn't until I tried them on at home (and hubby so nicely stated) that I realized they look like really REALLY short mini skirts. So even though I know that there's shorts underneath, everyone else I come across during my day thinks that I'm wearing a really short skirt. I didn't think that people would really notice until I went out and about in my new digs.

First stop: Jesse's school. She wanted me to pick her up instead of riding the dreaded school bus. There are these 2 benches (facing each other....you getting the picture?) that the parents sit on as we wait for the kids to come out to the front of the school. I end up sitting straight across from these 2 dads (actually one was older, might have been a grandpa) and I notice the 'line of sight' thing going on. Mind you, I am completely covered underneath but noone else knows that. I thought of just sitting with my legs spread wide like a guy, but no, I decided to be lady like and fool them all!

Every other place I went today I noticed the odd glances. I figure they were either thinking:

A. man those are some nice *ss legs!
B. she really needs to cover up those thunder thighs.
C. what WAS she thinking this morning?
D. you're not exactly a teenager....put some clothes on already!


Disclaimer: I am not conceited.....anything but. I HAVE worn actual mini skirts before.....but that was back in high school....and I actually wanted the attention then.

I told hubby that maybe next time I wear one of these I'll have to put on my revealing tank top from last summer. It has one of those built in bras. The kind that really are just an extra layer of cotton fabric which do no good whatsoever for a person of my size.

*No I will not be posting a picture of my skort or tank top. You'll have to wander the streets of @#$%ville to catch a glimpse. Or just come to our neighborhood bonfire.

Don't hold your breath.......nuttin' too exciting

I've had nuttin' good to say lately and when I did, Blogger wouldn't let me. Things I've been up to.......

shoveled 2 truckloads of soil into our new garden boxes.....2 to go

burned leaf piles.........a gazillion to go

finished mural in basement.....took pics.....will post sometime in the next century

made plans for our camping trip this summer

made plans for memorial day weekend..........Cedar Park one day, water park another........awesome dude

bought a big *ss rabbit hutch........I swear the thing weighs like 500 pounds.......it's still sitting upside down in the driveway cause we have to ask neighbors to help us move it the rest of the way.........making plans to get a rabbit

cleaning, organizing, and decorating basement for daycare area so I can FINALLY get back to work..........bank account will be very happy soon

blogging... procrastinating,....playing Blogger Pictionary.....did I mention procrastinating?

took kids to their new doctor for physicals for summer camp.........Bobby had to have his 'privates' examined (we forgot to warn him about that..oops).....so Jesse and I had to step out of the room.....she says, "Eeeew!"......he didn't seem to be too traumatized afterwords.....did I mention it was a female doctor?.....did I mention that he's 12, almost 13?