Here Comes The Sun

Sometimes we get a puppy. Her name is Sunshine, AKA: Sunny, Sunny Girl, Sun-sun, Mrs. Golden Sun, and Soon-She.  She has only lived at our house for two days, but we are thoroughly in love with her. Well, almost all of us are in love with her.

See, we have this other dog named Bullet... and well he is old and kind of grumpy. For the last week or so we didn't think he was going to make it through the night. Then Sunny showed up and since then there's been a lot of singing. You know that song from "Annie" right. (Bet you're bottom dollar you're singing it :) Yeah, that's kind of our theme song right now. Anyway, Bullet does not like the singing. He also doesn't like that he is mostly blind and deaf and there is this fast moving brown thing that sneaks up on him all the time. What he doesn't see is that she desperately wants him to play, but he is too old and mostly dead. Oh, well. It's good for them both I guess. She is learning boundaries and he has a reason to get out of bed now.  Our life as our daughters described it is now a zoo. Two cats, two dogs, two kids, two parents. If anything else shows up in a two pack we may have to build an ark.

So the story behind Sunny is that our good friends have an AKC Chocolate Lab named Cassie, and she is thee best lab I've ever met in my life. She's playful, protective, obedient, and gorgeous. For the last two years I have been hounding my buddy David to breed her so I could have a "Cassie puppy".  They finally found an excellent sire and went for it, and thus Sunny was born and we couldn't be happier.

She fits right in around here already. She's smart and playful, eager to please and kind of crazy. Just the right dog for the Reed's.

Monday, Glorious Monday!

Well, it's back to the grind today. With caffeinated glory in my hands I am ready for what lies ahead today. A fairly long list thank you very much. Work, Y, Bank, Store, Band practice. Somewhere in there i'm in denial that I won't get to see my puppy today, but it's all good.

In just a few moments I will dash off to the bathroom and do the war paint ritual to mask the rampant aging of this face and try and tame the mangled mess on my head. What I really want to do though is snuggle up in front of a fire in my pretend log cabin and read a book... mmmmmm.

Instead I will traipse off to my day job where the first 30 minutes will be making more coffee and planning time with boss 1 A. All the while my kiddos will be doing their time at school.  Reality while not always the most funnest thing to deal with is so important in keeping things in perspective. Hopefully by the time my head hits the pillow tonight I'll look back and appreciate the 2 week long break we just had.

Good morning.

When things don't obey me. Like time, space, & people. A short rant by: Leslie Reed

I woke up late. Obviously this was to be expected after last night's coffee fueled sleeplessness. It was wonderful though, for the first time in a while my teenager came in and sweetly woke me up with a sing song little cheerful voice. "Mom, guess what time it is? It's 11am." Prying myself out of bed is kind of like trying to exit a bear trap. We have actual polar fleece sheets on right now because it's so cold and who really wants to leave a cocoon of warmth when it feels like 0 below on the floor?  So I forced myself upright and beelined for the coffee pot. 

The kids have been looking forward to this day since Christmas when they got spending money and gift cards. It's called, let's go shopping for dad's birthday/ buy ourselves whatever we want day YAAAAAYYYY!!!  So I started devising a plan to leave the house. It began with slave driving the children to clean and ended with us in the car 3 hours later. Success!  Well, sort of. I realized that I had made plans for later that evening and due to my late start in the day would probably end up disappointing a friend. Strike one for things that didn't obey me.... time refused to stretch out and provide a few more hours for this day.  Boo.  I just want to do ALL the fun things.

So were in the car driving, chatting, planning, and plotting. Then I drove right past the bank.... Strike two. My brain didn't obey me by remembering to stop there. No problem, we just went to a different one further down the highway. The teenager went in and cashed her checks like a boss, and we were on our way to shop mania.

 It is at this point of the story I choose to reveal to you the added stress of that moment. I was driving the vehicle with the manual transmission. This is tricky for me since I primarily drive a big 4x4 SUV that does everything for me. So, when I drive the tiny car I am extra careful.  With great caution I nosed the little car out into my lane when a grey Honda flew by at around 30+ mph nearly murdering my children.... well, that's where my head went. Strike three, my right foot disobeyed me by plunging to the floor and following after the woman making sure she new I was not pleased with her almost destroying my family. I wanted to know where it was that she needed to get to so fast that was worth risking our lives. I followed her for 3 blocks to the main stretch of Pt. Fosdick drive, and while I may have called her an idiot, screams didn't leave my lips, and the bird did not greet her as I drove by. Also, there may have been a death stare...I um, don't remember.  It turns out she was in a hurry to get to an apartment complex. No, I didn't go all Terminator 2 on her or follow her to her house, but I kind of wanted to. I may have hoped that her apartment was on fire, but only for a second.  

Was my reaction wrong? Well, sort of. I didn't terrify my kids by my driving... truthfully it's not like I followed her by speeding however, I wanted to be sure she understood that I was angry and that she was stupid for driving nascar through the parking lot of a grocery store. When the red haze began to lift from my vision I felt a bit bad and wished it never happened. See, i'm an empathy person and even after someone does something like that I begin to try and empathize with their situation. Who knows what was really going on in her day that made her feel like speeding like that? Maybe she was insecurely trying to look like an awesome race car driver or maybe she was really upset by someone who hurt her.  I have to believe it was something like that because the alternative is that she was just being really careless and that's so yick.... how's that for a grown up word. 

Anyway, it opened up a great conversation with my girls about defensive driving and we dissected the event all the way to the mall. Where Strike four happened.... Starbucks did not obey me by having egg nog. Followed by Strike five which was Verizon Wireless disobeying me by not giving me the phone I wanted to buy my husband for his birthday, but it all worked out in the end. The girls and I had a great meal together, laughed and talked and shopped til we dropped and found some amazing gifts to celebrate their outstanding father. 

I'm glad we didn't get hit by that car today. I know when it's our day to go, it's our day to go, but after having such a great memory making afternoon with my girls i'm so grateful it wasn't today.  

Sometimes...

It's 1:21 in the AM.  Sometimes I like to restart old things... like this blog. This thing is ancient. I think I opened it in 2010...gross. Well several of my good friends (Tina Stobbe & Jen Adams) recently inspired me to perhaps post once again. I don't always have deep intense things to share, but who knows it might happen. I am ADD after all so if the mood strikes me and I happen to be near the computer wisdom of the ages may spew forth, but i'm warning you... it's not likely. Also, it is fun to start things of with the word sometimes. Truth be told the phrase is borrowed from dear Katy Marshall who said it once on her facebook, but it inspired me for life. How's that for inspiring... are you moved to tears yet?  If you are I know a good counselor. Anyhoo, my reason for revisiting this outlet is that I think it might be fun sometimes, cause you to laugh sometimes, inspire you want to argue with me sometimes, or even get you to see from another's perspective for a brief moment. That's the hope anyway. So consider this your warning that what follows from now on will be steming from highly passionate/dramatic feelings and possibly the throes of an ADD event and that there's probably more to it than what I remember to write down. Consider yourself warned, read on at your own risk.

Let me introduce myself... I'm a 34 year old mom of two humans and four fur babies, 15 year veteran of marriage, and singer in a rock band.  (It's always a bit awkward mentioning that part, but worth it nonetheless so you get the full picture) I love my family and friends fiercely and have one other highly important aspect of my life to disclose, however I think it best to wait to tell you until the suspense has been properly developed.  My parents each have been a unique influence on my life in different ways. My father has the supernatural skill of sarcasm and also taught me to sing, play piano, & guitar.  My mother was one of the most loving and merciful people you'd ever meet. They made me: a sarcastic (but working on it) musician who loves hurting people no matter what.  I was once called highly volatile, and for the record was not offended. 

I have a day job where I masquerade as my alter ego ( a Clark Kentish type only not really because I'm a girl).  At my current workplace I answer to 3 bosses, but it's ok. Don't freak out.  They are all really amazing people to work with. One of them loves to re-enact Les Mis with me on Mondays, one of them can make Christmas songs out of 80's movie tunes, and one of them prefers a plethora of authoritative names; so I get to make them up daily. It's great. Other than that I've held many other jobs: Sales clerk, CSW, Mary Kay Consultant, Childcare, Director of children's programs, Festival planner and blah blah blah... my "night job" is as a singer in a band where i'm more like Batman. More on that later.

I have a husband. He's sleeping right now because he's very smart and has to get up in the morning to go to work. He makes me laugh and cry and think before I act, and be reasonable.  I make him be crazy and he loves that. He offers me the privilege of being the only person who knows what he sounds like with a variety of accents, and let me tell you it truly is an honor. He really honestly is my best friend in the whole world and the greatest of my support system. We are still married because we like each other, and view what we have as worth fighting and working hard for. It's almost our anniversary so I'm kind of super excited about our marriage right now!

I have a teenager. She is absolutely wonderful. She's a legit ballerina who recently earned her pointe shoes and is working hard at her sport. She's a talented artist who loves drawing and painting. She's a gifted writer who creates glorious word pictures for a reader to fall into. There is a deep thoughtful wisdom in her young soul already. Some of her perceptions of life astound me as she shares them. She's also very quiet and shy, deep and thoughtful, and also obnoxiously funny when she feels safe to be herself. I love spending time with her in her element and watching her become the lovely young lady she is. I also adore listening to her mock operatic singers. There is nothing funnier. She is also 90% kind and loving to her sister. What a blessing!  So cool to be her mom.

I also have a tweenager. She is my little Spweetie pie. She's crazy smart, chess player, lego lover, american girl doll fanatical, youngest daughter. She loves singing and playing the piano, writing her own music and making us all laugh. She is witty and entertaining, loyal and loving, and sensitive.  It is a pleasure to be in her company and listen to what is important to her. For instance she loves baking. Ever since she was a toddler she knew who Alton Brown was... do you even know who he is? Anyways, she just finished two papers that were mind blowing. Paper #1 was a classroom assignment where she petitioned us to take her to Hoboken NJ to meet Buddy of Cake Boss and eat at his bakery. Paper #2 was a two page compare and contrast about nuclear fission vs. fusion. That one, she wrote for fun.... It is so much fun to be her mom.

I have four fur babies: Two feline, two canine. Cats are Smoky & Sissy, Dogs are Bullet and Sunshine.  They are all "special" animals in their own way. Smoky is your typical psychotic cat. Sissy has kind of a harelip, Bullet smells like impending doom constantly. It's partly his breed and partly because he's older than the hills. Then there is Sunny. She's coming to live with us in two weeks and well so far the only thing that stands out about her is that she's pretty normal. Well, no, she's insanely cute. 

That's it me in a nutshell. Probably a walnut shell, because well... they're pretty big.  It's late now. 2:23am exactly. I'm going to bed now. Hope you enjoyed this little ice breaker. I did. :)