Happy Easter

I just finished hiding an ice cream pail full of plastic Easter eggs. That should keep the boys busy for maybe five minutes tomorrow morning. Today we dyed our eggs so I still have to get up before the boys in the morning and hide those as well. Sometimes I wish I was still a kid. Ok, I think that a lot. Mainly when I'm at work. Or paying bills. But wouldn't it be great to wake up tomorrow morning and wholeheartedly believe the Easter Bunny was truly in my house and he hid all those eggs and left me a basket of goodies? I love the look on the boys' faces when they talk about the Easter Bunny or Santa. I wish I still could believe in something like that, but somewhere in our lives we lose the ability to believe there is any kind of magic like that in the world. I'm not looking forward to the day when they find out that there isn't a Santa or an Easter Bunny or a Tooth Fairy. There's just something special about the imagination and innocence of youth.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach

Usually I only work in the morning, but since I had MOPS this morning, I worked this afternoon. It's getting towards the end of the week so I'm tired and there's not much in the cupboards right now so I said I would just pick something up on the way home. When I got home, Torii was the first to greet me at the door. "McDonalds! I love you mommy." He then wrapped his arms around my leg and told me he loved me again.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

Last weekend I had to go to Walmart and get groceries. The boys were whining because they didn't want to go. Heck, I didn't want to go either. Rion kept asking if I had to get a lot. "Don't get a lot," he kept saying. When we got to Walmart we found an unexpected surprise. The Easter bunny was there. The boys sat with the Easter bunny and then we could pick up the picture in an hour. I thought that was great because grocery shopping with the kids took at the very least an hour. Towards the end of the shopping trip I was tired, the kids were driving me crazy and I just wanted to get home. Later, Fred said he had to go out so I asked him to pick up the picture, too. When Fred returned he showed me the picture of the boys. It was so cute. It was one of the rare times both were smiling and looking at the camera. Then he showed me the second picture. What a cute little girl, all dressed in pink. "This is our daughter isn't it," he asked. "No, it's not," I replied. I failed to mention that while the boys visited the Easter bunny, Cordelia was asleep in her car seat and never got her picture taken. Fred said he went through the stack of pictures multiple times looking for Cordelia's picture before deciding that one had to be it. To his credit the baby in the picture did look a lot like Cordelia.

New favorite quotes

I've started reading a Erma Bombeck book on the recommendation of my parents. She is incredibily funny. While she is dealing with college age and older children in the book I am reading I still find myself laughing. It will be awhile until I have to deal with children that age, but it wasn't that long ago that I was the child she is writing about. I find myself relating to some of the stories, but I never had the parent's view until now. Then I think, "Great. Look what I have to look forward to." I thought I would share some of her wisdom today. The first quote I found while reading today and the rest I found online.

"If I had known thirty years ago what I know now, maybe we would have raised tomatoes. At least you could eat them."

"All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them."

"God created man, but I could do better."

"Housework, if you do it right, will kill you."

"I haven't trusted polls since I read that 62% of women had affairs during their lunch hour. I've never met a woman in my life who would give up lunch for sex."

"My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk until I faint."

"One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child's name and how old he or she is."

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, 'I used everything you gave me."

Too young to be old and too old to be young

I watched Fried Green Tomatoes not long ago so I had to borrow that line from the movie for my title. I feel like that a lot. Not old. Not young. Somewhere in the middle. But I'm not middle aged either. I don't know what I am. Anyway, on with the blog.

Last year I turned 30. I joke about being old a lot, but really it's ok. I like being 30. No offense Laurie, but I would rather someone say I look like a 30 year old instead of a 25 year old or younger.

I do feel like I am getting "old" at times. This is the most obvious sign. I like to listen to NPR because it's interesting and educational. NPR is cool. I know a lot of college kids that listen to it too. One of the main reasons I listen to NPR is because I don't like any of the new music out there. "Nobody makes good music anymore." Only old people make that statement.

Next sign. I go to bed before midnight. Hell, I go to bed before 11:00 on weeknights. I haven't seen Conan in ages. I don't even know any of the running gags on Conan anymore. I am old.

I referred to people in college as kids. College kids. Wasn't I just a kid in college? And they look like kids too. I'm at work giving new hires paperwork and feel really old looking at these college kids' birthdates. These kids were born in the late 80's and we're getting into the 90's too. Wow. When I see a kid with a birthdate of the year I graduated high school, then I will really feel old.

I know there were more signs of my oldness, but I can't remember them. Why? Because I'm old.