I am Thankful for. . .

I was picking Cayden up from school a couple days ago and was looking at his class bulletin board (Located in the hall outside his class) while I waited for the bell to ring. The board was title "I am Thankful for. . . " and all the kids had written something and drawn a picture to go along with what they were thankful for. I scanned the board and came to Cayden's. His picture was a little boy with his hand out dropping brown little balls into a bucket on the ground and written below his said . . . I am thankful I am not . . . the final word had a bunch of eraser marks but it looked like Poo. I was shocked!! I suddenly started scanning the board and read what the other kids in the class were thankful for . . . mom, fluffy, daddy, my sister . . . 19 sweet 1st graders and my rotten kid was thankful he was not POO?? Why would his teacher even put that on the board? So the bell rings, he hugs his teacher on the way out, and surprised to see me (I normally dont get to pick him up from school) runs over and jumps into my arms giving me the biggest bear hug ever. I ask him to tell me about his picture (prepared to discuss the inappropriateness of it) and he reads it to me . . . I am thankful I am not POOR! I cracked up . . .it made perfect sense, those brown little balls were coins, not poo and as I looked closely there was a faint "r" in the midst of the erasing mess. I told him what I thought it had said and he couldnt stop laughing at me and basically gave me the inappropriate talk I was preparing to give him!

On this day of thanks, I am thankful for my Cayden. Last night he was watching tv and I was in the kitchen doing dishes and out of the blue (assuming it must have been commercial) he yelled at me and asked if I knew why he was the luckiest kid on the planet . . . . and his response. . . . because I have you (yep that would be me) as a mommy!! I love that kid to pieces and one day some woman is going to hate me for raising such a mommy's boy :)

On this day of thanks, I am also extremely lucky to be Aubrey's mommy. She may be transitioning into a preteen with a big attitude but she still has the biggest heart in all the world. She is quiet, polite, and thoughtful. She is a good student and a huge helper to everyone. She volunteers her lunch recess every day to help in the autism class at school. I am proud of her and the little adult she is.

Happy Thanksgiving Friends

Die Bugs, DIE!! and my AWESOME Present

I came home a couple of days ago to these random little bugs traveling as a family across my kitchen floor! I'm not sure if they travel daily, and on this particular day, I came home early and interrupted this daily move, or if they were migrating from behind the trash can to the stove for the winter?? Whatever the case, I smashed that family to smithereens and decided to invest in a pack of bug bombs! So this morning I loaded my sleepy kids in the car, put the dog in the garage for the day (in his new cute sweater) and set 6 of those bombs off in my little 1000 square foot house - assuming that was plenty to get the job done! Growing up my mom was, and I suppose still is, an avid user of 'bug bombs' but I honestly don’t recall the "after-math." For anyone who knows me, I am beyond a clean freak (with dishes as my exception). I use the vacuum cleaner daily and do a good vacuum and mop job at least once a week. I have all wood floors so there are not piles of dust and goobers in the corner . . . I am CLEAN!! So we came home tonight and I was shocked to find dead bugs all over the floors - Spiders and flies and unknown creepy crawlers -I must ask, is this normal?? Has anyone used these bombs before?? Where the heck were all these bugs hiding?? Okay, so maybe there weren’t hundreds, but definitely enough to make me scared to sleep tonight!!
I was raving at work today about wanting to be the "Lizard Wizard," and travel around schools with my collection of reptiles and cool bugs, I guess I got my trial run and even though the Lizard Wizard is such a cool name, I resign!!

. . . and now my AWESOME present. . .
For my birthday last week my wonderful sisters got me that IPod thing that is compatible with Nike shoes. I was super stoked to get it but really didn’t know what it did. I already had a pair of compatible Nike shoes (AKA my Not So Amazing Shoes) and finally decided to figure it out last night so I could use it on my run today. It tracks distance, time, calories and plugs into the computer and keeps an ongoing log. Before my run today, I input the time requirement for the day and was surprised when 5 minutes into the run this little voice interupts the music and said "5 minutes completed, 55 to go," then every five minutes it gave me an update. I normally track my long runs with a car the night before but with this, I can input the number of miles I need to run and the woman will come on and tell me ever mile I reach - it is so cool, you can even change the voice that gives you updates!! I am so amazed at technology and especially LOVE my IPod and Nike companion and I highly recommend :)

My Healed Heart

My heart was recently crushed, and with very little experience with this within the past couple of years, I reacted and did ALL the things they say you shouldn’t . . . bought a new car, searched for a new job, signed up to run a marathon, traveled out of state to testify against my ex-husband (k, so maybe that one isn’t typical but not sure I would have done it otherwise), I even considered moving out of state! I avoided 'that' restaurant, and 'that' park, and turn the radio off when 'that' lame song came on . . . Basically, I did anything and everything to stay distracted and keep my mind off the culprit.

So a couple of nights ago the kids and I were driving home from visiting with friends and Aubrey started to tell me about her day via Pig Latin. Her teacher this year uses it a lot in class and thus Aubrey comes home and often tries to teach us. I guess Cayden was feeling left out so he proceeded to tell me about his day by spelling each and EVERY word . . . So I am sitting in the front seat, trying to decipher what the heck my kids are saying iha M-O-T-H-E-R M-Y yma T-E-T-C-H-R ommya . . . between Caydens recent Irish accent he picked up, his new spelling abilities, and Aubrey's creative twist on pig latin, I was at a total loss and decided my best immediate option would be to crank up the Hannah Montana cd full blast and get my kids to sing instead of talk! This plan went over well and I proudly cracked up in the front seat!

For the remainder of the car ride I couldn’t help but think about my life and my progress, and at that moment, I realized my heart was healed! For months I was sad and pondered on all that gunk way too much. I never thought I would get past that horrible ache and like they say, know I am so much stronger for it. All those "typical" things I did have turned to be a blessing in my life . . . I lOVE LOVE LOVE my new car, I recently got hired at the very BEST school in town, my knew best friends are a result of that failed relationship, my ex husband was reamed in court (for those who don’t know him, it totally serves him right), and I have run my brains out in the past months and am SO ready to run my marathon! My feet may look like hell, but my heart is completely healed!! I love my kids and our crazy life, even if it's just the three of us!!

WaLa. . . Bonnie's Blogging Debut

Wahoo for my 1st post!! For weeks I have signed on with every intention of creating my very own blog but quickly found the first post to be a stressful task. So instead of working on my blog, each night I get wrapped into the lives of others. . . BLOG-SNOOPING . . . I decided I LOVE to read about the lives of others (even perfect strangers) - it's kind of like watching tv and hope I can provide all my "viewers" with some sort of entertainment, even if you are merely laughing at me :)