First Decade Down

Does anyone remember The Homecoming? In it Elizabeth Walton would squeeze her head between her hands. She was exercising, it was to keep her from growing. She wanted to stay small forever. Sometimes I do that to Adrian. We joke about it and laugh.

But honestly, I don't feel sadness of my little boy growing up. He is so awsome and gets more and more awsome every year. Why wouldn't I be happy to get to know this young soul more and more every year?

Unplugged

What does an unplugged evening bring to your family night? For me I got to play a full game of Monopoly, 2 hours of Uno, a great game of reading comprehension with Capture the Flag and a game of "What's Gnu?" to finish it off. It was 10:00 before we knew it!
While playing Uno we called all our numbers and colors in Spanish. Imagine my surprise when Adrian knew the color of green in French. Seems he'd learned in an online computer game.
But before I plan the next unplug night I'm gonna make sure Adrian has more library books! I was really hoping for a night of reading!

They Say It's Your Birthday

One of the unconservative 21st Century pleasure we have is getting in the car and driving. We've done it every where we've visited. We love finding those out of the way places that no one seems to be inhabiting. For my birthday we did just that. After a stop at famous In and Out Burger we ventured to The Valley of Fire that is located about 50 miles north of Vegas. It was definitely the off season. Hardly any one there. Just us and miles and miles of rock. We did several hikes and lots of hole searching. Afterwards we headed home along Lake Mead, where we ventured down the roads to some coves and ended up at Echo Bay where we meandered into a brand spanking new restaurant where we happened to be the only guests! Pretty nice Birthday.

We found the Ass Hole! Counldn't resist!

First Day of New Year School

Ugh! The break is over and we are back at it. We started with bed snuggles but decided we needed some TV watching on our new bedroom 32" Plasma. So we watched a recording we had from the History Channel on "How the Earth Was Made". I enjoyed how the scientist traveled to discover their findings, but I have to admit I kept asking Adrian "What are they talking about again?" and he'd explain it to me in simple terms.
Next we went on to play Blockus and yes the kid beat my pants off once again. I can't seem to "invision" as my son likes to say. He then traveled with his dad to compare hot water heaters for the jacuzzi, practice some basketball and then onto the library, where the men like to spend hours sitting and reading.
The day ended with history. Seems Paul was quiet upset that the clerk had sneezed into his bag of groceries before handing them to him. He came home called the store and ranted for 1/2 an hour about "Typhoid Mary." Adrian and I were curious as to who Typhoid Mary was, so we googled it and discovered she was an unknowing typhoid killer. She believed she had never had Typhoid, so could therefore not be a carrier of the deadly disease, but she was placed in confinement for most of her life. She was set free for a small period of time, but she did not keep her promise to never work as a cook again and infected a bunch more people. It is believed that her position in society had a lot to do with her treatment. Which lead to the discussion of our law system.
What a great day back at school!

Boxing Day

Historians say the holiday developed because servants were required to work on Christmas Day, but took the following day off. As servants prepared to leave to visit their families, their employers would present them with gift boxes. Traditional English holiday.
My goal today is to not leave the "compound". I plan on exercising, eating chocolates & leftovers & watching some more Christmas movies. This year the stress of work & Christmas left so little time to enjoy, but traditionally the 12 days of Christmas start on Christmas day & now I have the time to enjoy it.
There are still board games unopened. Adrian got some cool stuff & I haven't heard any dissapointment over not getting an X-box. He got an Erector Set, a snap circuit set, a 1,000 piece Lego set, Blokus, Scrabble, Magnetix, a basketball backboard, Harry Potter movie, a DS game, & killer computer game call Civilization. My only regret is there were no new books, but he visits the library every week & I like geting books 4 the home at sales where he can have many choices when he runs out of library books.
Civilization allows players the chance to lead their chosen nation from the dawn of man through the space age & become the greatest ruler the world has ever known. He will learn so much history from this game. I so wish my family members could understand the greatness of the amount of learning that comes from technology. Our civilization has advanced so much, why do people find it hard to accept that the school learning system is so archaic. Why is it so hard to give up the fact that a kid at age nine can write anyway that makes him comfortable. What is the most I write down these days? My grocery list & sometimes that goes on my Treo too! I can see in no way where he is inferior to his schooled friends. By contrast I see a boy whose logic ,common sense & vocabulary far outrank most of his age. Noooooooo! I must not compare! We all learn what we want to when we want to, no matter how forced regulation tries to change that!

Working for the Holiday

What's this? I am an independant owner of a small company who is to be able to take advantage of much needed time off when ever she chooses!!!! HA! HA! HA! Can I get a : "LMAO"?!!!

I saw pictures yesterday that I found from a link from a former neighbor in St. Thomas who is now on FB. It was photo's of Hull Bay, St. Thomas. My old stomping grounds. During our last month there we spent every evening watching the sun go down on the bay. I'd swim in the Ocean as the sun would touch the water. It was an "aw" moment. Wow! How I miss that beauty.

Today, Chirstmas Day, I had the most wonderful day! It was the first day I've had to do nothing but what I enjoy and love (cooking good food, watching movies and enjoying family) in months!!! Here's how it went down. Cappucinno in fine china.

Drum circle.

As washing machine ornament that lights up and the clothes go round and round for the laundry man!
My annual Gluf Coast ornament. This year the Downtown Cathedral!

MMM! Those chocolate covered cherries

The best gift I ever gave to guys in a family. The cowboy pistols. There have been gunfights all day!

The grande finale. Scallops, Lamb, mashed potatoes, and a salad made with fresh beets, maple walnuts, and my garden greens!

In the moment..

We have a whiteboard on our refrigerator. It always has the days date, but what else goes on there is a random call. Sometimes it's what happened on this day in history, or hints on journal writing (someday I know he'll pick up that book and write for days) or it may have a spiritual quote from a varied of places. I like the Daily Word from Unity Church. I like Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williams and tons of inspirational writers. We never know what is sinking in and sometimes I feel I am erasing it too soon as the new day begins. I wonder did he get that or was that just a waste of my time. But erase it I do and the next bit of tidbit goes up.
This week, Adrian and I were driving home from the show listening to the radio. Adrian made the comment that the lyric "reach down and touch me", should not be in that song. I looked at him and asked if he thought it was a sexual innuendo. He said "mom!". I said "yes". If I had wanted to hear that word I would have said it myself. "Sex" I replied. "Yes" came from his. I went on to explain that I would like to always keep the doors of communication open when it comes to sex. I explained how he'd have sex some day, that it was a natural progression. His remark was once again priceless: "I would rather live in the moment."
Something did sink in.