Ok. So I am home today with my sick little Sarah reliving the events of yesterday! It is very difficult to sit at a professional training while hearing others talk negatively about your wonderfully spirited child. Ouch! Little did they know that that amazing girl's mom was sitting next to them, taking it all in as her heart was breaking! Please be careful what you say! Words hurt more than actions!

I Always Feel Like Someone is Watching Me

Have you all seen those Geico commercials where the wad of cash is following poor unsuspecting people around, almost stalking. Well, that is kind of happening to me right now. Eileen is going through a weird episode right now. She follows me around the house. If I get up from the computer and she is playing in the t.v room, she gets up too and follows me. She follows me from the kitchen to the laundry area. She follows me into the garage. No toy or cartoon can keep her attention enough from following me. I turn around and she is there. I have tripped over her a few times. The worst part is when she doesn't know where I am, she starts crying and yelling..."Mom...MOOOM!" I am starting to get worried. I try to tell her where I am going but even when I do she still follows me there. I try to acknowledge her fear and talk her through it.
This all started when I went to Baltimore for a week last month. Rich was home alone with and was complaining that Eileen was always at his side. I thought he was exaggerating but now it is happening to me. I think Eileen is afraid I am going to leave again. Just needed to get it out!

Warning: Random Post to Follow

I do not like to eat meat off the bone. I hate the feeling of grease, BBQ sauce etc. being rubbed all over my face as I gnaw like an animal for a little piece of meat. Now I like a barbeque as much as anyone. I like grilled burgers, hotdogs and chicken but please give me a fork and knife for the chicken.

This all started back in college when and friend and I went to an Arizona Cardinals game. This was my first and up to now only Cardinals game. We were enjoying our refreshing cold beer, hotdogs and cheering on our home team when I happened to turn around. Behind me was a man, cave man like as I recall. He had scraggly long salt and pepper hair dangling in his face and wore a tight white t-shirt over his gut. Just at the time I turned around I saw him eat from his turkey leg. I think it was turkey. It was a type of bird, I know that for sure. He gnawed on that thing like a tiger devouring its prey. It was so National Geographic. All the while grease was all over his face and dribbling down to his shirt. It was horrific! So, ever since that eventful day, I have been unable to eat meat with my mouth off of a bone. I have terrible flashbacks of the Arizona Cardinals game and the caveman.

So I heard that Gary Coleman, Arnold from Different Strokes, died. I remember I used to watch that show. I liked it. I liked the "What choo talkin about Willis?" line. It was funny. His passing is sad especially when you know about all the trouble he had after the show with his family, finances, health and staying out of trouble.
It is bothersome to me that within the past year so many entertainers from my childhood have passed away. Farrah Fawcett, John Hughes, Corey Haim, Michael Jackson. Each one of these people were part of my life growing up. Farrah Fawcett... I loved watching re-runs of Charlie's Angel. It was great to see beautiful, smart and tough women on t.v. John Hughes... His movies defined my adolescence. I still absolutely love 16 Candles and The Breakfast Club and Vacation is quite possibly one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Corey Haim... I wasn't into the Coreys. I think I was a bit too old when they made it big. But, I did like The Lost Boys. Nonetheless his passing was sad. Michael Jackson... during the 80's I liked his music but I appreciate it more now than I did then. I was too busy wearing black and listening to Depeche Mode and The Cure to realize how good his music really was. He's another one whose life was filled with trouble and controversary.
All of this is disturbing me. They were part of my life growing up... they were too young to die. I feel that with their passing so soon... I have loss some of my youth. What a shame that such talented people were taken so soon.

Lost in translation or just plan naive????

So, I am at Jazzercise the other day doing a routine to a remixed version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" and I started day dreaming again. I thought of how dang naive I was growing up. My parents avoided any talk that could be uncomfortable, drugs, sex, etc. So as I zoned out I thought about how much I loved this song growing and how I liked it when I was able to "relax" too! Only years later did I learn what it was about. Uh! Those dang British! Then some other meanings childhood favorite songs came to mind. "She Bop"..... I thought Cindy was singing about how everyone likes to dance, like me. I'd get down to this song. I'd sing it out loud, dance around. Well the joke was on me! I was wrong. Girls DO want to have fun! ;) "Physical"... How could you Olivia? You were my idol. I loved you in Grease and Xanadu! You hung on my wall! But, you weren't singing about the working out I was thinking of. So, finally the song was near the end when our wonderful instructor, originally from Germany, said, " Don't we all need to Relax sometimes. Like in this song." "Yes!", I thought. "I am not the only green, naive person out there!" But to her credit, English is her 2nd language, so some things get lost in translation!

OK, so I am going crazy!! Just when I think I am done with the laundry... there is more! I am so tired of gathering,sorting, washing, hanging to dry, machine drying, folding, sorting again, hanging and putting clothes away!
Just one more thing, I am tired of doing dishes too! Pre cleaning, machine washing, hand washing, drying, putting them away... It's amazing!
Feeling better now that I released it on my blog or maybe I feel better because I got to sit for 5 minutes. Better go and clean up dinner dishes.... Yikes!

Basket Envy and other Easter antedotes

When I was growing up, my cousins Rusty and Steven would come to visit us for Easter weekend. Oh how I loved it when Steven would come. We always played together and occasionally got into some mischief. The stories I could tell.. As far as Rusty, I was never crazy about him growing up. He was an Eddie Haskell type of boy... real nice and well-mannered when adults were around but a pure nightmare when adults turned their backs. Rusty even looked like you stereotypical pain in the a** kid, red hair, thus the name Rusty, and freckles. Let me assure before we go on that Rusty has since grown out of his childish ways and is now a great man.

So as every child does on Easter Eve all of us (myself, sister, brother, Rusty and Steven) would leave our baskets out for the bunny to fill. The next morning would bring a jealousy like no other. My brother, sister and I would have our meager baskets filled with some chocolate goodies, jelly beans, maybe some socks and undies. One time I even received a Shawn Cassidy iron t-shirt from the Bunny. Let me note that what I am referring to as meager was sufficient for an Easter Basket then and now but all is relative. Rusty on the other hand received an Easter basket overflowing with goodies. Steven's basket was pretty big too but I still recall Rusty's taking the top honors. His was your dream basket, every kid would have envied it. As I'd look at Rusty's basket and that smug look on his face I couldn't help but think... how does he get more stuff than I do? He is naughty. Isn't there a naughty and nice list with the Easter Bunny too? Perhaps the worst part of Rusty's Easter Basket is that he would take the contents out one by one making sure to display it for my brother, sister and I to see. Chocolate bunny, Fun Dip, Jawbreakers, Sweettarts... You name it and it was in his basket. It was horrible and the agony of seeing ALL his candy and treats seemed to last forever. We used to resent my mother, the Bunny, for not giving as much as my Aunt did. But, ow that I am older, I understand that my mother was trying to control our sugar intake and teach to be happy with what we did receive.

After the baskets, all the kids would participate in the Annual Easter Egg hunt. Like other egg hunts, ours had a special golden egg with a cash prize and various colors of plastic egss filled with goodies. One difference though, my mother and Aunt took special care in hiding the golden egg. The two of them would head out into the yard sporting gardening gloves. They would hide the plastic eggs in plain sight but the coveted golden egg was in a special, hard to find/retrieve hiding place. This is where the gloves came in. The golden egg would be in a mud puddle (sloppy and wet), mixed in an ant hill (poor ants were disturbed not once but twice), tucked deep into a holly bush (just far enough to ensure that whoever found the golden egg had to work hard to get it and would get poked in the process),etc. I can't remember all of the places, they say that you soemtimes block out traumatic events in your life. ;)Anyways, it became a challenge for my Aunt and mother to find new and some what painful/gross places to hide the golden eggs. Some other possibilities for the golden egg hiding place I am sure were to: attach it to a homemade ticking time bomb, place it inside radioactive waste, tie it to a bucking bull's horns, set it in the middle of a raging oil fire, place it inside a killer bee's hive, etc. Although their hiding places were a bit demented and as a result of some alcohol, we all survived and have fond memories of our egg hunts.

I am hoping to make some great Easter memories for my girls. We like to dye eggs, look for hidden eggs(in safe places), eat a wonderful family dinner and wear special spring dresses. Each year brings more memories of Egg hunts where the eggs were found and place in the basket by mom to scurring around the yard to find the most. From cracking more eggs than dyeing to loving to dye eggs and being creative to then dreading it. What about you? What are some of your most memorable Easter moments. Happy Easter everyone.