Oh man Kenzie just keeps talking and talking and I think I'm going to lose it. I totally need a break from her. Now I can see have kids can "drive you

So I'm still on that darn book and going to share a little bit more with ya...

"Would you kindly turn yourself inside out, so that your lungs and heart and offal will be on the outside and the whole universe will be on the inside? And emotionally, will you do the same?"

"You can let yourself off the hook anytime you want. That's the divine contract of a little something we call free will."

"It all goes away. Eventually, everything goes away."

"Guilt is just your ego"s way of tricking you into thinking that you"re making moral progress. Don't fall for it."

"We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of the mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands."

Oh why, Oh why does that last one touch me so deeply. Just brings me to tears every time I think about it, yet I can't explain it...

Eat, Pray, Love

 

So I've started to re-read the book Eat, Pray, Love and you know what seems so weird about it, It's like I've never read it before. Maybe because I'm at a different place in my life and can see it with new eyes or maybe I'm just looking for what I want or need to hear. So anyway I was feeling kinda down last night and I picked up this book and I would like to share part of it with you because it touched me somewhere deep down in my soul and made me feel so much better.....

"People think that a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with you soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it."

Oh , and God? Please be gentle with me, OK?

Milwaukee Zoo

Today we took the kids to the Milwaukee zoo. Lots of fun. Hot and too many people. A very nice zoo. It cost us $60 to get in the place with parking but hey it's a once a year thing. Plus the food wasn't overly price like Museum of science and industry.

They had every animal including a old ski lift you could ride for $3. The kids got some of those wax animals an we laid down the line on those stupid souvenirs.

After the Zoo we went to the Safe-House restaurant. Don't go there without a reservation though. We didn't have one but because we were there so early they let us in for appetizers and no one was even there so we walked around while they made our food.


In the bathroom there is a picture and if you touch the guys "pee-pee" it sets off this loud fog horn and blows air on you. The kids got a kick out of that and you should just hear Kenzie retell the story in her own words.

Last night the kids and I watched the second half of Season 2 of The Office. Kenzie had come under the impression that Michael just wants everyone to be his friend. And Tristen keeps retelling the story of when that lady dropped her shirt in front of Michael at the Christmas party. Oh and we laugh and laugh...


Michael : I'm friends with everybody in this office. We're all best friends. I love everybody here. But sometimes your best friends start coming into work late and start having dentist appointments that aren't dentist appointments, and that is when it's nice to let them know that you could beat them up.

Michael : That is a perfectly good mini Christmas tree. We are going to sell that to charity because that is what Christmas is all about.

Michael : I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon, sue me. And since I don't have a butler, I have to do it myself. So, most nights before I go to bed, I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious, it's good for me, it's the perfect way to start the day.

Time to move on..

So somehow I got to spent to entire morning running around. Got my nail fixed. Can't even tell I smashed the crap out of it :-) Then I hit the pet food store. Guess I get to find out how long one of the big bags lasts with only one dog around now :-(

After that I decided to stop at Barns N Nobles for some books for Owen's 1st birthday. Tried to pick out mostly classics, got a new one that I'm not too sure Tasha will like. It's Old McDonald's farm counting style. You push these poppers to count the animals and it makes and real neat sound. Only reason I question it is because they are vegans...

Tasha was really trying so hard to keep the whole menu vegan for the party but "someone" decided to make some taco thing. Poor Tasha. Next time she knows to clarify the menu. I don't know why people have such a hard time with a vegan menu.

Last night we went to Davis Park to see Shrek. The newspaper said there were about 2,000 people. I was surprised we even found a spot. It's hard because we have chairs and some people just have blankets so you don't really want to plop down your chair right in front of someone on a blanket. Love that movie. Don't know how anyone(Tasha) could not like that movie. Any who the kids and I wanted to ride the Tolley afterward but Jason didn't want to have to hold on to all our crap while on the Trolley. I understand but we were each carrying something and only like 2 people were on the trolley. Oh well next time. Next week is Batman. Sorry going to have to pass on that one.

Started reading my Free Range Kids book. I'd like to share a few tidbits from the book with you....

There aren't any more creeps now than when we were kids. Hard to believe, but thats what the statistics show. Times have not changed. Childhood abduction rates are so rare that the rates do not go up or down by much in any given year.

The problem is than we parents feel that childhood is more dangerous. 40 years ago the majority of children walk or biked to school. Meantime, 70% of Mom's today say they played outside as kids. But only 31% of their kids do.

Where did all this fear come from? (reminds me of how scared everyone was after 9-11) The statistics cited by the national center for missing and exploited children itself show that the number of children abducted and kidded by strangers holds pretty stead over the years - about 1 in 1.5 million. Put another way, the chances of any one american child being kidnapped and killed by a stranger are almost infinitesimally small: .00007%

So I'm talking baby steps here folks. My first step - Letting the kids ride their bikes around the block a couple of times. I know I'm going to get some nay sayers but hey I've pretty much suffered with worry and anxiety since they were born and I really think I've just been feeding off and snowballing that fear and worry over the years to a point that I need medication just to make it thru my day. So heres to taking a step on a new path for me and my children :-)

serious

So the word serious just so happens to be the last work I copy and pasted last. So I decided that whatever I had copy and pasted last would be my title for this blog.

Yesterday turned out to be a great day. My friends had a dinner & cheesecake party for me. Michelle and Melissa picked up some India House and Sarah bought the cheesecake :-) I just love hanging with them, It's like being home again. Maybe you know what I mean. Hard to explain.

So I know I don't need to tell you just hot freakin hot it was today but man I think I did come close to a heat stroke or something. I did ask one of my customers if I could fill my water bottle up at their place and once I left I tasted it and it was just nasty tap water from the sink in their garage. They must just refill the bottle and figure that cold water is better than nothing. Yuck!

So I made it home around 2 today. Showered, ate and took a nap :-) Then the kids and I took Dextor for a walk. He was tired by the end. Kenzie kept trying to "snuggle attack" Tristen. He was being really sweet about it and I snapped a picture(which he told me to take off of here) What he doesn't know hehe

They say it's your Birthday...

Saturday, our kid free day turned out pretty good. After the kids were on their way, J and I stopped at Panera for lunch then headed to Wisconsin for some fireworks. We found the place one of my customers told me about. Across the street there were lines outside and around the building and we went to this one that was kinda tucked back. No lines. Everything was buy one get one free. So we spent way too much.(regret)

So next on our list was ice cream at Dairy Haus. Had to get some of their butter pecan ice cream. So we made it back home and I had started to clean up the back yard. We got a letter from the city that day stating that we needed to clean up the weeds in the alley way. When we moved in 10 years ago we had blacktop in the alley now there is nothing but weeds and grass. I personally think this is the city's fault. If we had nice blacktop then there would be no weeds. Everyone else in this neighborhood has a nice alley but us.

My next door neighbor said that everyone on the block pretty much got the same letter. Then when I was back there I ended up smashing my middle finger between two rocks. I thought it was nothing at first then it started to throb and i ended up coming inside and wakening Jason up at 7am to help me get an ice pack, ect..

Saturday night Eric called and asked us to join Renee and him to dinner and a movie. We went to Texas Roadhouse and then to the movie "The grownups" Jason ended up leaving his cellphone on his seat and on the way home we got a called from Connie saying that someone called her to say they had his phone. Jason called his phone from mine and told the person that they could just leave it at the desk but they said that's okay they would just wait for him to come back. So we were convinced that they just wanted to make sure they got a finder fee for the phone and when we got there Jason offered he $10 but she wouldn't take it. After that I'm not sure what she insisted on handing it to him herself??
Once the kids made it back from camping it was a pretty low key 4th of July. We went over to my Mom's for a few hours swimming and then cooked out with Jason's brother Chris. Then it was time to light a few fireworks before heading to our favorite spot.

Tasha and John meet up with us down there and it turned out to be a great spot. Later we went back home and lit the works off. Our neighbors came home and told us a few of them were a "little bit to close for comfort" which I think ticked Jason off. So we just stuck to the smaller ones and now we have a bunch left over.

Today we went to Pearl Lake for my Birthday. Tasha and John and Owen came with too. Weather was great. A little bit cloudy. Tristen stayed in the water most of the time, Kenzie played in the sand and Owen tried to eat the sand. Tristen took a 3 hour nap when we got home :-)

Lord, she died she left me. I sing the blues on ev'ry Decoration Day.

 

Finally after a few days I am able to share out loud with people that I have lost my Ollie. I had shared it on facebook and such and I had talked to a few people but I've been telling a few more people, like some of my customers and people at work. Yesterday we went over to my Dad's house and I planted a few day lilies from our yard on top of Ollie's grave. I felt like he might like to have a something from his own yard ya know? I want to get a kinda stone grave marker. I have seen them at walmart so we went there but they were all sold out, all they had left was the pet urn. I think I might just search around on the internet for one that I like.  

 

 Just wanted to share this joke I found with you....

Pope vs. Jews

About a century or two ago, the Pope decided that all the Jews had to leave Rome. Naturally there was a big uproar from the Jewish community.

So the Pope made a deal. He would have a religious debate with a member of the Jewish community. If the Jew won, the Jews could stay. If the Pope won, the Jews would leave.

The Jews realized that they had no choice. They looked around for a champion who could defend their faith, but no one wanted to volunteer.

It was too risky. So they finally picked as their representative an old man named Moishe who spent his life sweeping up after people. Being old and poor, he had less to lose, so he agreed. He asked only for one addition to the debate.

Not being used to saying very much as he cleaned up around the settlement, he asked that neither side be allowed to talk. The Pope agreed.

The day of the great debate came. Moishe and the Pope sat opposite each other for a full minute before the Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers. Moishe looked back at him and raised one finger.

The Pope waved his fingers in a circle around his head. Moishe pointed to the ground where he sat.

The Pope pulled out a wafer and a glass of wine. Moishe pulled out an apple.

The Pope stood up and said, “I give up. This man is too good. The Jews can stay.”

An hour later, the cardinals were all around the Pope asking him what happened. The Pope said: “First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that there was still one God common to both our religions.

“Then I waved my finger around me to show him that God was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground, showing that God was also right here with us.

“I pulled out the wine and the wafer to show that God absolves us from our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of original sin. He had an answer for everything. What could I do?”

Meanwhile, the Jewish community had crowded around Moishe, amazed that this old, almost feeble-minded man had done what all their scholars had insisted was impossible! “What happened?” they asked.

“Well,” said Moishe, “First he said to me that the Jews had three days to get out of here. I told him that not one of us was leaving.

“Then he told me that this whole city would be cleared of Jews. I let him know that we were staying right here.”

“And then?” asked a woman. “I don’t know,” said Moishe. “He took out his lunch and I took out mine.”