Monday, July 31, 2006

A Weakness

I'm a sucker for a good quote. Here are a few for your pleasure.

Mark Twain:
I refused to attend his funeral. But I wrote a very nice letter explaining that I approved of it. -

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

Oscar Wilde:
I didn't recognize you. I've changed a lot.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Shel Silverstein:
If you are a dreamer,Come in.If you are a dreamer,A wisher,A liar,A hoper,A prayer,A magic-bean-buyer,If you're a pretender,Come sit by my fire,For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.Come in! Come in!

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

J.D. Salinger
I am kind of a paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

2pm Friday

My family is back home and I am ecstatic. You really do never realize how much you love someone until they are not there. Thankfully, mine were only gone a short time. I got to cuddle my Bear and Mr. Man and "cuddle" with my hubby. It's really great to have them home. I found that I'm not very comfortable staying in a big house with no other person around. Hobby was good enough to put me up for a night, invite me out for fireworks, and chat with when I got lonely. She's the best.

So, what am I doing now, you ask? Stressing a bit, actually. I have to present my website today in class and I can't get the damn thing to upload properly. At least I know why it's messing up though. I didn't have the proper links set up in Dreamweaver and will have to correct that later. I don't, for the life of me, understand why English students are being burdened with the complicated task of having to create a webpage...a skill which many of us do not possess. So, for now, I will be trying to present my webpage off my USB where it is stored and is actually working properly. Hope it works on the prof's comp...she uses a mac (yuck). No offense to all you mac folks out there, but I was raised on pc. I can see a gal from my class in the comp cubicle next to me and she looks a bit panicked herself. The webpage, however, is not the end of the panic. This is the last week of classes and I have 2 papers due (one by Wed. and one by Fri.), finish the webpage posting by the end of today, and english final on Wed, and two math finals on Friday. I will not be able to breathe until Friday at about 2pm.

A bonus for getting through the week though is that we will be going camping this weekend. I can't wait. I love to camp and fish, but I will especially enjoy it because it will mean that the summer semester is officially over. What are my plans, you ask? Well, I plan to clean house like a madwoman at first because my brother and his family are coming up in the middle of next week for a few day. We will hang with them, maybe bbq, and show them some of the sights. Their kids want to swim in Salt Lake cause the salt levels are really high and it makes you float. After they head out to their new home in CO, I will then hope to spend some quality time with my kiddos and maybe head to Boise to visit my hubby's family and float the river. Oh, how I miss floating in that river. We usually only get to do it once a year. Just us, a raft, some innertubes, a cooler of drinks, and an hour of floating on cold, crisp water. THAT is what summer is all about. And about 2 and 1/2 weeks from now, I will start the fall semester. *sarcastic* Joy!

I have to say that the reading lists for the fall semester is the best that I've had in my previous 8 years of college (no, I'm not that dumb...I'm a mom). Some of the readings for my children's lit class will be Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and fairy tales...most of which I have read to my kids many times. My theory class will be reading V for Vendetta and The Fight Club among other. I can't wait and will probably start some of the reading before school starts. Man...I can't wait for 2pm Friday.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

All Alone

I have to say that this has been one of the weirdest weeks of my life. Nothing unusual, scary, or amazing happened. I have been living alone because my hubby took the kids with him on a business trip out of state. I had to stay because the summer semester has not ended yet and finals are soon. Why is this weird, you ask? Well, here's why....I have NEVER lived alone in all my 26 years. I grew up with both my parents and sibling. I had my son at the early age of 16. While pregnant, I lived with my older sister and her family. I moved back in with my parents until I married at 19. Then lived with my husband and son. Shortly after our marriage, I had our daughter. The closest I have ever come to living alone was on my study abroad in London. Even then, I had a roommate (loveliest of friends) and 4 other flatmates. So, yeah, I've NEVER been alone. So, I don't know what to do with myself. Not that I don't have plenty to do, but it's weird to not have to be thinking for three other people at the same time as myself. It's lonely and kind of confusing.

I've often wondered what it would have been like had I gone the traditional route (school, living alone, and then marriage and kids much later). I wondered what it would have been like having my own place, taking care of only myself, worrying only about myself. I get glimpses when I catch up with old friends that are still single and childless. They are traveling to Europe frequently, partying with friends weekly in Mexico, and quickly accomplishing in school and career. For those of you who are wondering and probably already know, I wouldn't trade. I get homemade cards saying what my kids REALLY want to say and not what the card company says. I am the recipient of numerous craft projects that they have put all their effort and imagination into. When they need a cuddle, understanding, someone to laugh at their jokes, or someone to ease their pain, I am usually the first one they think of and come to. Not to mention that my daughter is one of the BEST cuddlers in the world (sorry LonDolls) and my son can make me laugh with one sentence. They amaze me.

Many in our area have heard of the disappearance of 5-year-old Destiny Norton and unfortunately, her death. This story really affected me in that she was almost my daughter's age and so little. She is in her Heavenly Father's arms now and safe. The fact that all of this has happened while my family has been gone makes me miss them all the more. I just pray that, one day, such tragedy will not be so frequent.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Never saw one that I didn't...

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE movies. If a particular movie strikes my fancy, I could easily watch it every day for months. Both of my parents worked full time after I started school and our family time was spent around the boob tube. On the Fridays, we would rent 3-4 movies from the video store and order pizza. After TGIF tv (if you're old enough to remember that), we would pop in the movies and relax for the rest of the night. Saturday morning, before starting our weekend cleaning, we'd watch the leftover movie from Friday. I loved it. I know that some would consider this nowadays as irresponsible, but there were no complaints from me. The only lingering side effect is a fear of deep water from regularly watching all of the Jaws movies.

Anyway, this love of movies continues today, sometimes to the dismay of my husband (he could do without them, but still enjoys one every once in a while). Some of my repeat favs are "You've Got Mail", "X-Men" series, "Harry Potter"'s, "Be Cool", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (old and new, sorry Joe!), "Spaceballs", "National Treasure", "Con Air", and many more. So, in homage to the many brilliant movies we are graced with by Hollywood, I am going to post some movie quotes. Have fun trying to remember the movie and leave your two cents about them.

"I still maintain that he kicked himself in the balls." -Kat

"If I'm not back in five minutes... just wait longer!" -Ace

"Joey, have you ever been to a Turkish prison?" -Captain Oveur

"Mr. President, I'm sure there's an appropriate thing to say at this moment. Probably some formal apology for the nice-ass remark would be in order. I just don't quite know how to word it." -Sydney

"Right. Okay, people, you have to tell me these things, alright? I've been frozen for 30 years, okay? Throw me a freakin bone here. I'm the boss. Need the info. " -Dr. Evil

"Last night, Darth Vader came down from the planet Vulcan and said that if I didn't take Lorraine to the dance, that he'd melt my brain." -George

"Well, I attended Julliard, I lived through the Black Plague and had a pretty good time during that. I've seen The Exorcist about 167 times and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it! Not to mention the fact that you're talking to a dead guy. Now what do you think? You think I'm qualified?"

Male Dancer: "Chewing gum helps me think."
Albert: "Sweetie, you're wasting your gum."

"I've seen her dehydrated sir, its pretty gross" -Andrew

"I carried a watermelon." -Baby

"She wrote me a john-dear letter...something about me not listening enough, I don't know...I wasn't really paying attention." -Harry

"Pardon by French but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond." -Ferris

"Listen! You smell something?" -Ray

"I've just decided to switch our Friday schedule to Monday, which means that the test we take each Friday on what we learned during the week will now take place on Monday before we've learned it. But since today is Tuesday, it doesn't matter in the slightest." -Mr. Turkentine

"I say puke. If you hurl and she comes back, she's yours. If you blow chunks and she bolts, then it was never meant to be." -Wayne

"I feel the need, the need for speed!"

"I'm not crazy, I've just been a very bad mood for the last 40 years!"

Dark Helmet: I am your father's son's uncle's newphew's cousin's former roommate.
Lone Star: So what does that make us?
Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing.

"What I really want to do- what I want to do for a living-is I want to be with your daughter. I'm good at it." -Lloyd

"There are a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing." -Chris Knight

Vivian: You're late.
Edward: You're stunning.
Vivian: You're forgiven.

"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

"I am just going to go to the kitchen to get some food, then I'm gonna tell you a story to make your balls shrink to the size of raisins." -Spike

"Are you crying? Are you crying? There's no crying in baseball." -Jimmy

"I've had three lovers in the past four years, and they all ran a distant second to a good book and a warm bath." -Dorothy

The Worm: 'Ello.
Sarah: Did you say...hello?
The Worm: No, I said "'ello," but that's close enough.

"What the hell's gotten into you, I got my thingy stuck in my zipper and I got piss all over my pants!" -Tommy

That's all for now, folks!

Friday, July 07, 2006

Laughing over fries

I had the most enjoyable dinner last night than I've had in a while. Considering my kitchen is a mess and I had a huge headache, I decided that cooking was not on my schedule. Therefore, I piled the kids in the car (small pile, considering there is only 2) and we went to Arctic Circle. Usually when eating fast food, we order, eat at lightning speed, and head home. Since it was just me and the kids, we ordered, sat, and took a REALLY long time to eat. This was partly because we had no where to be right then and the kids really wanted an oreo shake that could only be obtained by eating the majority of their food. So, we ate and talked and laughed quite a bit more than we have in a while.

With school running me in circles and keeping me busy, we've stumbled into a rut with our conversations, schedules, and habits...a very disorganized, unstructured rut. So, last night, at our table, my mood went from tired and stressed to smiling and joking with my kids. It was a wonderful feeling. I actually realized that I had missed them. Sure, I had seen them everyday, but lately it was over my calculus book, getting them ready for bed, or through the backdoor watching them play in the water. While just chatting with them, my eyes were reopened to just how wonderful they are...funny, smart, and always saying I love you with their eyes. I was even rewarded with a few belly laughs.

I have a long 1 and 1/2 years ahead of me with graduation and grad school. I hope that I can remember to regularly stop, see my kids, and share a laugh with them. It makes me feel great when my son asks me to say or do something funny, because it means that he believes that I am capable of being one of the funniest people he knows. What's better than that?