Observations at the rec center

On day three of summer break I took my kids to the rec center to swim.  I felt like I was sitting in a sauna, but that's beside the point.  I took the opportunity to not only keep an eye on my kids but to also watch the people around me.

Some moms are super pushy, rude, and don't respect personal space.  Especially if I'm sitting in their way.  They pretend to be nice but use their kids and their big bags full of crap to subtly push you out of their way until you are forced to pick up your chair and move to another location.  Then when you are struggling to get your chair out of the crowd of wet bodies, bags, and other chairs, they give you a dirty look and don't offer to help.

It's ok to order four pizzas and have them delivered to the pool at the rec center.  Then when you finish you can half-heartedly stuff the empty boxes into the already full trash can. No wonder I found an ant crawling on my leg.

Most of the moms didn't even watch their kids.  I know because there were a few that kept getting yelled at by the lifeguards and I saw who they belonged to.  If my kid got yelled at more than once I would do something about it.

Speaking of lifeguards, why didn't any of them yell at the preteen girls who were running all over the deck?  I was tempted to yell: "Walk!" to them myself, until I saw one of them slip and fall, then I thought, "serves you right."

And speaking of preteens, I felt sorry for the ugly awkward friend of a more attractive girl.  That is until I saw the ugly girl get mad at her attractive friend and yell at her and then stomp off.  Then I didn't feel so bad for her, she was bossy and mean--typical.

I did an informal study: there are waaaay more awkwardly built, slightly overweight teen girls than not, and most of them were wearing two piece swimming suits that only exacerbated the situation.

Worst of all there was a miserable, sweaty, pregnant lady scowling at everyone. Oh wait, that was me.

What I've been thinking...

My blog is boring, I know that.  So in order to keep up with the boring factor I decided to let you know what has been on my mind lately.  Brace yourself, it's exciting.

• I finally read, The Thorn Birds, because I remembered Grammie telling me it was one of her favorite books.  I didn't really like it.  It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't my favorite.  Sorry Grammie.

• John has been wanting to read the 100 Cupboards series.  We are on the second of three books and he likes it, but I don't love it.  It seems like the author gets lost in his prose and forgets what he was writing about for a minute.  There are some passages that make no sense to me.  Don't get me wrong, I was never the reading comprehension genius, but if I don't get the point how are the kids supposed to get it? I even went so far as to read reviews looking for some vindication and most of the reviews were like, "this is the best series ever!!!!!"  Maybe everyone is too ashamed to admit they didn't understand what was going on half the time.  Or maybe I'm just dumb.

• When describing Colorado weather I would usually say, "I remember having snow on my birthday" but lately I started to seriously question my memory. This year however, has proved my memory reliable.

• John got in trouble for pushing a kid who was "taunting" him.  Granted, I don't know what led to the taunting, but I am seriously tempted to do a sociological study to see if the bullying problems we see in society are a result of this whole "no physical contact allowed" mindset.  I've said it before, but if kids felt like it was ok to defend themselves physically I wonder if the bullies would continue to torment them.  I say this as the mother of an occassional bully who might benefit from someone pushing back, but who might also benefit from feeling free to defend himself.

Oh yeah, and for all you people asking for pictures of the pregnant belly-- this may be the best you're going to get!

John's first Mother's Day

I had to write this down so I can remember it later... especially since John asked me this afternoon if this was his first Mother's Day because he doesn't remember ever celebrating it before.  It's not surprising, we aren't crazy about celebrations at our house, especially if left up to Jared.

This morning I was greeted with a sack breakfast in bed that Kitty had put together at school.  She was so excited to give it to me that she woke up at the crack of dawn.  The bag had a juice box, a granola bar, and she ran to the kitchen and added some string cheese.

This afternoon my kids made me stay in my room while they set up a surprise.  I have to admit-- this made me nervous. When they were finished they blindfolded me and brought me out to the living room where they had set up stations.  There was a sign that read: "Every seat reserved for mommy.  The whole room is reserved for mommy." 

The first station was the couch where a blanket and pillow were spread out.  John laid me down, brought me my kindle and told me I could have quiet time for 10 minutes.  Kitty brought me a note that said, "5:23 May Mother's Day" so I could "remember the time forever".  After 10 minutes they led me to the next station-- a chair set up with a bowl of snacks and the remote to the t.v.  After a few minutes, I moved to the other chair where another book was waiting.  Finally, they took me back to my room and propped my feet up so I could relax.

I was so impressed and I felt very loved. As I tried to explain to Jared, I would much rather have this show of appreciation than any gift in the world.

Acrostic Poem by John

I found this poem in John's backpack:

My mom rocks
Optimistic
Trustful
Helpful
Excellent
Royalty
Special!
Daily mom
Appreciative
Yells

Attachments

Yesterday we made the biggest, most expensive purchase for the new baby... we had to get a bigger car.  Thinking my kids would be excited about it, my mom asked John how he felt about trading in our Honda for a new car... It was evident he hadn't realized that to get the new one we had to sacrifice the old.  He was upset.  When his anger had subsided, I tried to comfort him and that's when the tears began to fall.  In my attempts to make him feel better I reminded him how much he likes his Grammie's new car.  But then I made the mistake of saying, "and I bet you don't even miss her old truck."  Another suprise-- he hadn't realized that she had traded her truck-- the tears intensified and he started sobbing.

He was afraid someone was going to buy the Honda and not take good care of it.  I assured him that someone who really wanted a Honda was going to buy it and it was going to make them very happy.  You would think we were giving away a family pet!

Before we gave up the CRV he went through to touch and open everything one last time.  Needless to say, he loves our new car and I think the CRV has been adequately replaced.