Cello

He played Jingle Bells and Ode to Joy...adorable. His hope is that he learns the fingering so he can apply that to guitar. I must play more Vivaldi and Mozart in the house...and less Eminem!

Falling

Someone left this leaf on my desk the other day. It reminded me that fall is here and that winter is close behind. I tried not to focus on the dying of the trees, plants, my skin! Instead I focused on the rebirth that will come in the oh-so-lovely Spring (my favorite). The weathered look of this leaf tells me that it was a long, hot, summer and that I need to embrace the change. As I approach 40 - holy crap frick- I realize that there is a lot to look forward to. The past is where it needs to be...in the dang past. I WILL embrace turning 40. Heck some people age well and dammit I'm going to be one of those people even if I don't have a plastic surgeon. (Who wants to look like the Joker anyway?). Not me. So here's to the turning leaves...mmm Turning Leaf wine sounds good right now.

Halloween BP style

Ok NOT the most creative photos, but I think we would have won "Most Creative" at any Halloween costume party. Ryan is slightly obsessed with the BP oil spill. He even opted for a book from the school book fair about this topic (his new favorite book). He knows more about oil spills then Valdez and Tony Hayward. So naturally when I asked "what would you like to be for Halloween?" he said without skipping a beat..."the oil spill!" So then he looked to ME to come up with HOW we'd do this. Thank you Glad trash bags, internet pics and BP logos. So many of the neighbors complimented Ryan on his creative costume. This was so much better than two years ago when I attempted to make him a snake costume. We thought it looked like a snake...instead he got:
"Are you a frog?"
"Oh you are a gecko!"
"Ummm...little boy...what are you exactly?"
It broke my heart seeing his rejected, sad, cute face walking back to me after yet another failed attempt at guessing what in the sam hell he was. Epic fail Mommy!

So this year we scored and I treasured trick or treating with him. I'm not sure how many more years he has in him. I packed up the skulls, bats, skeletons, ghosts and thought about how lucky I am to have a son that loves Halloween as much as me. And I'm so proud that when he went to a house that had a sign by the bowl of candy that said, "please only take two pieces" he would only take one. He said, "I don't want to bankrupt them so I only took one." I also love that he saves all the Tootsie Rolls for me because they are my favorite. He's a great kid even if he's obsessed with oil spills, Jason Voorhees and ghosts.

Christmas? Already?

I know, I know, but I am in the process of designing holiday cards and invitations for work so I have to try to “get into the spirit”. I’m listening to Harry Connick sing Christmas songs, I’m already freezing in my office, I’ve pulled out my snowman and plopped him on my desk and then I found these sweet pictures from 2006. I will sorely miss the trek to the Green Hills Mall (usually at lunch on a weekday to avoid the long lines) to see Santa. Ryan is 10 now and well….we had “the talk”. NO! Not that talk. The talk about you know, Diet Dr. Pepper really being a diet drink…I mean…about Santa not really being the dude who forks out all the cash for his Christmas presents. He said he had a feeling he wasn’t the one paying for all those video games. He said that the writing on the packages kinda gave it away. Excuse me?! I purposely wrote those out with my left hand to make it look legit! Fo real! And then he said last year that I knew he shouldn’t open the amp before he got the guitar, that I knew what present was what. Busted. I’m still going to make him set out a Coke for Santa and water and carrots for the reindeer (I always loved that he thought of the reindeer). Oh and the cookies we decorated for Santa – those were the best. Sigh. The ONLY good thing will be that I don’t have to sneak around so quietly Christmas Eve setting out the presents. I always feared he would wake up and catch me in the act. He never did. Oh I’ll still wait until he goes to sleep, but it just won’t be the same.

Ok Chris you encouraged me to write more in my blogs and now I’m all teary…