The Boy WILL grow to be a warrior

In phase 2 of SPY's manhood training, he has moved on from merely identifying the bodily function. Today, SPY took his first stab at the



Hmm. I have no idea where I was going with this. It was dated 8 months ago. I guess it's a fill-in-the-blank now.

This week

We will celebrate this day 13 years ago:By shopping for a new car to replace this:

I didn't even cry until today when he went to leave for work. I thought that I was going to be driving him to work, because of the painkillers and all, but he decided he could make it to work, take one there, and it would wear off by the time he was ready to go home.

ETA: I should probably have led with he's fine, but sore, and everyone else involved is fine.

Realized just now, while I was mopping the kitchen floor

I've often felt, I don't know, guilty or silly or lazy or lame that I didn't go to college right out of high school. I could have been DONE by the time I got married, but I let various things get in the way - moving in the middle of Junior year and no longer caring about school once we moved, boys, not caring enough to figure out the money, etc. But here's the thing about waiting until now to go to school - I know what I want to be when I grow up. I guess it's fairly likely that I would have figured it out and changed my major, but do you know what I probably would have majored in if we hadn't moved and I'd gone to college right away?

Technical Theatre.

And what would I have done with this degree? Probably the same thing I did with no degree - had kids and worked mostly part-time in various retail and clerical and childcare and healthcare type jobs.

The moral of the story is NOT don't go to college right out of high school. It's that sometimes things happen for a reason. I wouldn't say EVERYTHING happens for a reason and I'm pretty sure that hearing crap like that wouldn't have mattered a bit to my 16-year-old self who was pretty ticked that we moved in the middle of Junior year, but I think I'll let go of that not-going-to-college-sooner regret. It's not doing me any good anyway.

Hopefully if/when we decide to move (it's planned, but not decided, if that makes sense), my daughter, who is already pretty ticked about the idea and it's still 3 years off, will someday forgive us when she meets her soulmate/figures out it was the right thing to do/lives happily ever after. Of course, I really hope that she will be pleasantly surprised and delighted by our new home, but if not, then someday forgiving will have to do.

A dream from which I did not want to wake

I dreamed that we were living on a street like 1600 East in Spanish Fork (in Utah) with houses all in a row and sidewalks, which is the street I lived on during junior high and most of high school. My BFF from lived at the opposite end and across the street. In my dream, we lived about 2 houses in from the middle road (Utah grid system, would be about 550 South I guess - stalk it if you want, none of us live there anymore) and in the dream my BFF from high school lived in what would be the house next to her mom's and then her mom still lived in her house and her cousin lived across the street.

Some of the houses were the same or similar to the real street:















The house where her cousin lived looked literally just like this. I don't know the address of this house and it's been 20 years almost, but given the placement of the mountain behind, this could be the very house, or the next street over. I think. My house and my friend's house also looked just like this (except hers was floor-plan flipped) - for reals and in the dream. This one is for sale; I should buy it. I love these houses. Does that look like a 6 bedroom house? But it is.
Basements, I love them.



but some were a totally different style, kind of like my grandma's house:















This isn't my grandma's house, but it is probably 2 houses down the street from her house (also for sale and surprisingly in the same price range as the above house - um, surprising because this house is in Washington state, home of sky high real estate). I'm not buying this house. Love my grandparents, but they don't even want to live in this neighborhood anymore. Plus, this house does NOT have 6 bedrooms (it does have 4 - attic!!, but if it is really like my grandparents', then the bedrooms are tiny).

Anyway, I walked down to my friend's house that night to watch her kids for a bit while she went across the street to her cousin's house to see her new baby (a boy - it was her first). My friend's husband got home before she left and took over the kid duty and so I went over with her. Her mom was over there already. We helped clean up her kitchen while mom held the baby, then we all kind of crashed in the living room and I got to hold the baby while her cousin slept and I think my friend went home to take care of the kids and her mom stayed on the couch and we talked/dozed. I remember telling her cousin that she could call me any time, even in the middle of the night, to come help with the baby, etc. The baby was so cute and sweet.

So, this dream apparently manifests both my desires to live on a street with sidewalks (desperate desire) and to hold babies. My life is completely devoid of babies right now. I don't want my own (REALLY), but I would like to be near some. This is probably brought on by the birth of my niece almost a week ago and several friends posting new baby pictures this week.

Hey, if we did buy the house by grandma's, I could hold my niece at least. On the other hand, I hear there are babies here and there in Utah too.

(ETA: While I was editing this, the price of the first house dropped $19,000. I couldn't find it when I went back to look at it again.)

The saga of Banana's backpack:

Lovely Banana (aka The Queen) started middle school this week and offered to use the messenger bag I made (well, embellished?) for her last year because she's all money conscious and stuff. She packed it full of her junk and got to school and found out that 6th graders don't get lockers - the middle school was originally just for 7th and 8th grade and they haven't been able to put more lockers in. She has three 1 to 2 inch binders plus other stuff plus gym shoes plus her agenda. It's crammed and her shoulders are killing her every day.

No money for a new backpack - except financial aid money, but it's not yet released to me, just in my account. So I head over to the college bookstore and pick her up a really nice backpack - padded shoulder straps, adjustable compartments, etc. (ok, it was the only one left without wheels) for $50 - way more than I would really like to spend, but I don't want her to keep hurting her shoulders and spending money on financial aid is like spending money on a credit card. it's not quite real/in your hand yet, so it's easy to spend.

Oh, and the backpack is black with mustard yellow and grey accents.

She hated it and it was too long for her. But she let the office lady take off and throw away the tags before she read my note inside saying DON'T TAKE OFF THE TAGS UNLESS YOU'RE GOING TO KEEP IT - oh and there was a note on the outside telling her to read the note inside as soon as she got it.

TEARS.

On Wednesday, I took it back anyway. And got really lucky that they made an exception (mostly because it was the only one left and he still had people coming in to register who could also be suckered in to buying a $50 backpack on financial aid).

HAPPY - except her shoulders still hurt.

Went to Goodwill today. Our Goodwill SUCKS. Seriously sucks. Except when it doesn't, like today.

A PINK and black SWISS ARMY Airflow backpack (looked it up, one with the same features but this year's model, retails for $80), mostly clean (all clean now thanks to Shout, baking powder, bleach, and laundry detergent), a little smaller, did I mention it was PINK!!

And, oh yeah, for $4.99.

95% off retail.

If she doesn't like it...

Well, then I'll sell it on ebay I guess, there's one exactly like it but red listed right now for $60. Or use it myself. It's so awesome, laptop ready and everything. Not that I haul books or laptops anywhere, but if I needed to, I definitely could, in style.

They also had a clean and perfect love seat for $25 that I wanted so badly for our living room, but it was sold. It must have been an employee because it was marked sold today and I was there 5 minutes after they opened.

Resume lameness of Goodwill.

Happy 4th!!

Em just told me that next year She's going to use her birthday money to buy 3 blocks of mozzarella cheese. ''Man, I love mozzarella cheese!''