Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Where Do I Come From... a Momma Lesson

Several years ago when Sunshine was around 3 she asked me where she came from. Now, I've known since before she was born that there would come a time when I would have to have the birds and the bees talk, but I was not at all prepared for this conversation at 3.

I took a deep breath and I said.. "from Mommy's tummy".

"No, no I didn't"

"Yes, you came from Mommy's tummy, I came from Grandma's tummy".

"But Susie (a child at her day care who was adopted) didn't come from her Mom's tummy"

Dear Lord.. help me!!

"No, you are right, she came from another Mommy's tummy, but that Mommy couldn't take care of her, so gave her to a Mommy who could take care of her".

"So where did I come from?"

The next 35 minutes are a blur to me, but if I was able to play it back, I suspect it was the above repeatedly about 200 times.

Finally, I said, I don't know what you mean? You came from Mommy's tummy.

And Sunshine said... "No, no, no... Amal (another little boy who was adopted in her class) came from India, where did I come from ?"

"Oh, you came from Maine."

"Oh, okay."

At this point I believe I melted into a pile of liquid on the floor... but what I learned was that the simplest answer is probably the one... to take away all the adult mumbojumbo and just answer the question.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Weekend Fun

It seems as summer approaches weekends get fuller and shorter (or is it more full and shorter?), these last 2 weekends have been wonderful and I am hoping a sign of the fun times ahead this summer.

Sunshine was with her Dad for this vacation week, those weeks are always hard for me, they don't get easier, I think I'm just more prepared for them.

I was pretty busy with work and also made plans with friends to see movies and have dinner.

As a brief aside, I have a fantastic group of friends, during the divorce they were amazingly supportive of me, listening to me complain and be negative and sometimes just letting me be near them so I didn't feel quite so alone. I've told them lots of times how much I appreciate them, but I know that words will never quite express what their support meant.

But now, they get the fun, less negative me!! So as I said movies and dinner and this weekend I went Disc Golfing for the first time, some say Frisbee golf.. to-may-to, to-ma-to. It was a blast, low key and just hanging out. Definitely something I will try to do again and when Sunshine is older take her, or find a miniature Frisbee golf course (do they make those?)

And I also ran my 2nd 5k race this weekend. My time was not what I would have liked, a bit slower than the last 5k race I ran, but I didn't walk any of it and I passed people on the hills, so, I'm counting it as a positive experience. I'm hoping as I run more of these I'll be less tense and nervous beforehand- I can go out and run a 5k on my own just to run, but if there is some word like "race" associated with it I get all freaked out, believe me I'm not going to win anything, but it still freaks me out.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

SPRING!!!

The last few days have been the most amazing weather, clear blue sky and in the 60s. After the long winter we've had, I can not ask for more. Last night when walking the dog, I looked up, clear starlit sky and an almost full moon.

Today has been a busy day. After gymnastics, Sunshine and I took off to pick up the trail-a-bike I had found through a local network. She was soooo excited.


We got home and hooked it up to my bike and off we went for a bike ride. It was so much fun, it took a little getting used to the weight distribution, but I could totally tell when she was peddling especially when we were going up hill.



We came home and ran some errands and went back out for another ride, of course stopping for ice cream on the trip.


I was happy to take a shower as I smelled from my run while Sunshine was at gymnastics, but it was a wonderful day, fresh air, outdoor exercise and fantastic Sunshine and Momma time.

Edit- I forgot the part about Sunshine saying how exciting the whole experience was, how she couldn't wait to tell her friends. And how scared she was to go down a hill, and I said, just hold on, we'll be okay and half way down she said this is awesome! I have to imagine that the people in town were laughing at us as we road by both of us with big grins on our faces.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Fetch! and a PC

I don't remember how are when we stumbled across Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman. But I recommend it whole heartedly!

I should probably step back and start closer to the beginning rather than in the middle of the story...

My friends started making MythTV boxes. Think home grown TiVo built on Linux. Now, I'm not a huge watcher of TV, frankly I just don't have the time, but I do have a handful of shows that I like to watch, for a long time I was a huge West Wing and ER fan. And I would diligently put my vcr tape in the vcr every Wednesday and Thursday morning before work so that I could tape that weeks episode of West Wing and ER. At the time we lived in an area that lost power all the time, so often the VCR would loose time and well.. no ER, no West Wing.

Along comes MythTV. One of my favoritest things. I set it to record shows, either weekly or whenever they are on or what have you. For example over about a 2 month period I recorded and watched all of the Will and Grace episodes. I'm working my way through Seinfeld right now, and have a handful of shows I watch like Lost, How I Met Your Mother, Saving Grace, Dirt (yes I understand that the themes vary widely in that list), but I don't have to watch them each week, I can store a few weeks up and if I have the time sit in front of the tv for a few hours and watch a couple of episodes... without commercials!

Along with my shows I also keep on hand several episodes of Sunshine's favorites- Hannah Montana, Drake and Josh and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman. Fetch! is on PBS and it is basically a reality game show for kids, set in Boston the kids do scientific challenges and earn points. Some examples- a scale model of the solar system in Boston, visiting Plimouth Plantation, following the Freedom Trail, learning how to wake board, building a go kart. For the past week Sunshine has only been running through the 31 episodes of Fetch! we have on the Myth box. I love it, I enjoy watching it, I enjoy watching the kids learning new things and I like that Sunshine likes it.. if it is on a PBS station near you- you should watch it too!

In other very exciting news.. I bought a new computer. The one I had was probably 10 years old, Sunshine's Dad and I had it built and then added and upgraded it, but it was old and slow and well, driving me crazy. So the same folks who brought me MythTV, turned me on to Geeks.com where I found a great deal. Now, I'm lucky enough because we built the last machine that I had a lot of the software, so getting a barebones machine worked for me... that and that another friend took Vista off of it, and installed XP for me (again because I had the software already). It is a smokin' machine and I am amazed at how fast things are... technology is a grand grand thing.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Yellow Belt

Seems everyone is a bit behind on the school year, and much to everyone's surprise, today ended up being belt test day as there is no school next week.

And Sunshine did awesome, she nailed the first form of Chon-Ji and was promoted to yellow belt.



Thank goodness for cell phone cameras.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Planetarium

Today was a busy day, besides normal Sunday stuff like grocery shopping, Sunshine had a birthday party to attend and then we met my Aunt and Uncle to go to the planetarium.

It has been ages since I've been to a planetarium, and frankly I didn't realize there was one so close to our house that had regular programs. It was awesome, and sitting next to Sunshine listening to her gasp as things were pointed out in the sky, the Milky Way and then Northern Lights, was wonderful.

This presentation was about Greek Mythology and the stars and how different Greek Mythological creatures ended up in the sky and how they are related to other creatures/constellations in the sky. Brought back my mythology classes from high school, the Greek I learned during pledging and introduced a bunch of new stuff.

I can't wait to go back! So tremendously cool!

Off Kilter

I have had the oddest week. It wasn't a bad week, it just sort of seemed like my world was tilted a little bit. Little things, I push the Diet Coke button on the vending machine, I get Diet Pepsi. I still got caffeine, just not my favorite kind.

Today in the grocery store checking out, the cashier and I both got really confused, about what, I have no idea, but at one point we looked at each other and were like is that it? Had I given him the money? Had he given me my receipt, it was comical.

My favorite jeans have a hole in them. In all honesty, these jeans are probably 6 to 8 years old, so the fact that they have a hole should really not be a surprise to me, especially since I wear them at least once a week in the winter and probably once every two weeks in the summer, that's a lot of wear for a pair of jeans.

We've had this small crisis up here with credit card information being accessed at a local grocery store chain, so doing as I was instructed I contacted all my financial institutions, they assured me everything was fine, just keep checking. And then a week later, I get a notice my card(s) have been canceled, they'll send me a new one. Okay, but I can't log into my online account because the card doesn't exist, so I can't pay the payment, so I call to make a payment- because I don't get the bills in the mail anymore, so I don't have an envelope. Fine and dandy, make the payment, but on the phone I have to pay this extra fee, so I call and say I don't want to pay the fee, and they were very cool about it, once they realized I wasn't angry, I wasn't, glad they canceled it, if they had concerns.

Every morning I drop Sunshine off to get the bus and I bring a biscuit for the dog, at least 2 times this week I forgot the biscuit for the dog. I think in the last year and a half I've forgotten the biscuit maybe 3 times total.

I got a book from a favorite author, read 2 chapters and can't stand it, luckily I had gotten a 2nd book by an entirely different author, picked it up, loved it.

I haven't slept all that well, and it isn't like I'm thinking about stuff (roof brain chatter), I just wake up. I've always been about not sleeping because I can't shut my mind off, not just because, well, I wake up.

And I have little to no desire to run. I have been walking and doing a lot of stretching exercises, but just don't want to run, which isn't all that good since I have a 5k in a couple of weeks. But its not like I'm just sitting around doing nothing.

So, really, nothing bad, just seems like my world is a little off kilter, perhaps it will be righted soon. I do hope it is.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Who Me???




What Shannon Means



You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.

You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.

You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.



You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.

Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.

Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.



You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic "Type A" personality.



You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.







You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life.

You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you.

At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Monkies, Leaves and Bikes... oh my?

One of the people I work with has a favorite saying, I will clean it up for the purposes of this blog, but when he sees things that look a little awkward he says, it is like a monkey trying to copulate with a football (put the F word in place of copulate and there you have it). The imagery that statement invokes is pretty powerful.. and why do I share it with you? Having never actually seen a monkey performing the above act, I believe, I myself, may have replicated something similar... you see for a long time I had a hard time getting Sunshine to sleep in her own bed, but.. Santa being the great guy that he is brought Sunshine a play tent with Ariel on it.


Sunshine now sleeps on a mattress that sits inside this large play tent... Sunshine sleeps in her own bed. Bless you Santa, bless you!. But you see, making a bed in a tent on the floor... well, I think it has to look, to the casual observer, a bit like a monkey trying to copulate with a football, or at least that is what I feel like!

Very quickly switching gears on you...

Having started my blog in December, you have not had the pleasure of listening to me complain about the leaves that beseech my house every year. Usually, I get them all raked, it takes me about 8 to 10 hours, over several weekend, but with the early snow this year, I did not get my back or side yard completed. And so, as the snow has begun to melt, what I knew lay beneath is now rearing it's ugly head, and alas, I am saddened by the prospect of raking wet leaves.


and again.. shift gears..

But snow is melting and that means Spring is springing.. FINALLY, and so today Sunshine went for a bike ride. She is still mastering riding without training wheels but got it a few times until she realized she was doing it and then she lost her balance, a few more afternoons like today and she'll be a pro... "they" say it is supposed to be 60 tomorrow.. I'm painting my toe nails and taking my sandals out!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

LA in a Major Boomwacker Scale

For the past several weeks Sunshine has been talking about her upcoming concert at school. She brought home the lyrics to Sing Sing a Song to study, and she's been telling me about a Beauty Song, but most importantly she kept telling me that she was LA in the Boomwacker Major scale.

Today I needed to meet with someone at work and he said he was free at 5 could I meet him then, and I said, no, Sunshine is LA in the Boomwacker Major scale, the looks around the table were priceless....

as was the concert tonight.

(note the different colored tubes in each of the kids hands, they are the boomwackers, sound determined by the size of the boomwacker)
Start from the right of the photo.. Do Ra Me Fa So La Ti Do Do Ti La So Fa Me Ra Do

All the classes did a fabulous job, and the music teacher did a wonderful job of making each class have their own special thing to do. We also got to see some of the student's art work. It was a wonderful night.. and Sunshine did fabulously as LA.


After the major scale the whole class sang a song called Downtown and used Boomwackers during the dance.

In other news, today during Tae Kwon Do, they practiced sparing using flags on their belts. I got there too late to see the first match Sunshine participated in, which she lost, but I did see the 2nd one, where she kicked some butt, and won. After their spar, the instructed indicated that she and her partner had done a great job, they got right in there and went for the flags, they weren't afraid to go for it... Go Sunshine!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Easter

So over a week late, but a quick recap of the Easter Bunny's stop at our house a few weeks back.

Sunshine and I decorated 28 eggs, we used tie dye and sparkly dye this year, it was kind of interesting how they turned out.



The Easter Bunny left this wonderful bunk bed for Sunshine's American Girl dolls... I heard through the grapevine that he/she stained and polyed it himself.



Sunshine with her new American Girl Doll- Emily and the American Girl doll she got a year ago when we went to NYC- Molly.


It was, a wonderful day... as Sunshine said, if I get Emily- I will be out of this world!