Lego Birthday Party!

First, let's meet our party subject.  

This is my son Ethan Avery on the morning of January 18th his 7th.. SEVENTH.. birthday.  Uhh how the hell did this happen...????

His spikey 'special occasions' hair and snowpants/old man pose!

The only thing this guy ^^^ loves more then Lego is... nothing.  He loves nothing more than Lego; possibly me, one of the bringers of Lego.. but perhaps that's just a fantasy I have?

Exhibit A, B, C, D and E

...........

Tell me when can a boy have enough Legos?

My challenge was to fulfill his insistent request for a home birthday party with a minimal amount of fail in the fun ideas department.  Join me if you want to see how I did!  Otherwise this is just a lot of noise.

Invitations: 

Cast of characters.. only 8 of his very nearest and dearest friends (4 couldn't make it.. I was not sad) who all think farts are endless fun.

Invitation template I found online, re-edited at picmonkey.com and printed out at my local Walmart as 4x6 'photos'
Those photos became the invites and only 50 cents each!

The blank invite, if you need it :)

Different invitation photo, blank, from Delia Creates

Decorations:  

This sign greeted our guests.  The idea was off of Pinterest and
I added the stormtrooper to 'make sure only invited guests can come inside' ;)

I took most of my decoration printables from Delia Creates where I used the idea of the Lego wall collage and also the plates.   There was another Lego birthday banner and cut outs I used but I can't find that link so I won't include it.

Printed out this giant sign to "legoland" in the basement.
I kept this to put in his bedroom later.

We also had about 100 helium balloons all over the ceiling in the basement of Legoland with some cut outs of Lego faces on the walls.  Yeah... should have taken a picture of that.

+ Persnickety Prints for their Lego printable party package.

Activities:  

I set up the Lego table downstairs so the kids were making things, and I attempted to have a Lego Race Car building contest.  We were GOING to race them and the winners would take home some posters I printed out from the Lego City website.  That did NOT work out because off-brand Lego is the WORST and no one could figure it out, and it wouldn't lock in properly.. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO BUY IT.  So, I decided to take an extra Lego set I bought on sale and have the boys put it together and choose two kids I felt 'co-operated' the best in the building process would take home the posters I printed out.

Lego Colouring pages and Poster printables on the Lego City website.

I also made a colouring book as a party favour for our goodie bags that said "thanks for coming to my party" with guys like this.

And the favour bags of course I didn't take ANY photos of but the idea was my own.. I bought yellow bags and drew a unique Lego face onto all of them.  I think they were pretty darn good, too.

There's also a Ninjago colouring page here.

Food:

I attempted to make a Jello mould so that some Lego candy looked 'stuck' inside, but, as I thought, the candy will melt.  Might not be a pretty Pinterest picture but the kids will basically love it anyway even if it looks totally horrific when you try to cut it.  I just told them they could eat the pieces and, bam, magic.  I also put the candy in the goodie bags, you can buy them at Bulk Barn they are awesome.

via MoneyWiseMoms

I was unsure if the kids appreciated my making and not buying their Birthday cakes last year.  My husband was not so subtle in trying to let me off the hook 'with everything I was doing' aka it sucked last year... but I had seen a great idea and felt it was my moment to test it out.

Meet the Lego Bricks Cake!

You just bake a sheet cake and cut into sections and frost... EASY ENOUGH FOR ME.  You might want to freeze it beforehand so you don't get all the crumbs like I did.  For the Lego bumps I cut marshmallows in half and put them on a section of lollipop stick to frost and place on top.  I frankly used way too much gel colouring on the blue and red 'aka purple'.. resulting in 2 kids looking like they had mouth sores.   So... don't do that?

As you can see the reaction on their little faces you'd think I made a miracle appear.  TEN boys completely focused and silent for about 8 whole minutes observing and eating this cake.

There are some unbelievable Lego cakes out there, not including professional ones like I bought for Ethan's 5th birthday:

But this little-cake-that-could was just as mind-blowing to these kids.. and I love that.  One boy even burst out with "this is the best party EVER!!!"  I was like wow thanks dude, I bet you say that to all the parties but I really needed that after 3 weeks of putting this stuff together.  I sacrificed showering for this party for goodness sakes!



Of course my own kid just sat there with a low-key grin of 'hey thanks'
....all blue in the mouth and adorable.

Pin in it

I used to joke that I hoped every couple would have a really 'Pinteresting' wedding, and refused to get an account on the aforementioned website Pinterest ( no link since you may have heard of it! ) just because I thought it was so ridiculous.  I say this having just mentioned my website is pinned all the time for my fun fail superhero party last year.  But still, I thought: I do have the ability to just remember things.. idea boards are for crazy ladies or maybe hippies with too many magazines.

That was until my best friend Andrea just got engaged over the weekend.  Um.. YAY!  So whilst I save up for my flight to visit the west coast in 2013, I am already afraid that I've gone past some sort of point ( or pin ) of no return.  This happened yesterday night where I found myself literally describing Time as 'at this point in my Pinning' 

That sure escalated quickly.   Anyhow... great ideas though, so I'll share.

Andrea's Wedding Board

follow the wedding board

I also pinned stuff for Ethan's Lego Party happening this Saturday on there, let's see how that turns out.  Go ahead and follow me but I can't promise you it won't eventually lead you to a board just for sweaters.

Baby, where’d you get your crazy from?

Happy New Year, everyone.  From the moms who find me through 'pinning' Superhero Parties on Pinterest.. to those who should be ashamed of what they Googled to get here!  I hope it's been a good start to your 2013.

This year finds me already smack in the middle of needing to put away Christmas things and planning my oldest sons 7th birthday bash.  He is a spoiled one, that one, a little dictator prince.  After having just last year sworn off doing an at home birthday party EVER AGAIN.. he requests a home birthday party but with more guests!  We had to prune this list down to TWELVE of his closest friends (not even including my own three boys).  Just note that anyone you happen to run into at Walmart two weeks before the party will also be added by your son on the spot.  So, thus starts the never-ending winterfest of crazy that December kicks starts at my house... and I say, challenge accepted.  I'll see that Superhero party: fun fail last year.. and raise you a Lego Party: the reckoning.  In fact if you search 'fun fail' in Pinterest you will find my site pretty fast, and that's so appropriate to me in general.  But that's not what I am sharing with you today.  I am here in the spirit of a fresh new year by airing my grievances that will later be very informative if my kids ever want to know where they got their crazy from.  Answer: you got it from yo mamma!

Things that bother me WAY more than they should, in no particular order:

1.
Gifting my grandparents a Keurig coffee machine, with all the extras, to have them tell me it's too complicated to use as a second machine and though they did not even take it out of the BOX.  What they would like it to be exchanged for? ANOTHER REGULAR DRIP MACHINE.. step-wise it's actually far more complicated than using the Keurig.

I know they say you should never expect a pear tree to bear apples, but, really.

2.
When I get things gifted to me that actually make no sense.  Like my mother buying my ice skates this year, and a half size too small.  I've been a 7.5 shoe for roughly the last 15 years. Probably the last time I also went ice skating.

3.
Neighbours who build a fence between our properties yet constantly come over to 'my side' to blow leaves up my lawn and scalp 'my side' of the grass.  No idea why there's even a fence there, then!  It's not even a privacy fence it's just a stupid iron divider.

4.
Other Moms, at times, if anyone suggests that if I mention in a relevant discussion that I had my three babies 'naturally' .. aka the only experience I have to draw from.. I am being judgemental to moms who do not deliver their babies that way.  Not sure when this happened in the Mom-culture but it's REALLY ANNOYING.   There is no best way to have a baby!!  If there was I expect to see an awards ceremony somewhere, and diamond tiaras.  So. many. tiaras.  Not that I'd get one, just putting it out there.

5.
Nail polish.  It simply will chip the second you finish it, and then I look like a crack addict for a week, yet I don't stop using it.  If I spend $15 on a nail polish I like isn't there some kind of formula they can use to have that not happen?? The whole purpose is to stay on! It makes no sense!!

6.
Hummer Trucks/SUVs.  Seriously really bother me.. there is nowhere in suburbia that is acceptable to me to own and drive one.  Regardless of how much I love some people on this earth, if they ever purchased a Hummer I am not really sure our relationship would ever be the same.

7.
Dreamcatchers as a car mirror charm.  DO YOU EXPECT TO FALL ASLEEP?



 OK I feel better now.  Ready for this year to deliver some fun, can't wait!

Busy holidays?

This was how I found Kieran (the one totally asleep is our friend) about 5 mins after coming in from a long morning of playing and digging in the snow.  Before you ask, I swear the only drug they are on is fresh air!  Totally made the list of the greatest moments of 2012 right here.

Merry Cookbookmas

Last year my friend Andrea sent me a hilarious cookbook for Christmas, and this year was no different.

Bound to be delicious!

Oh yes, it's real... and it made my freaking day mainly because it came in a package with no explanation whatsoever.  While it MIGHT make my list for my 30-30 dinner party.. I am almost tempted to make something for Christmas Eve dinner.   My grandmother will be eating it and I'll simply have no choice but to explain why I am laughing randomly through dinner otherwise she will no doubt try and drag me to an AA meeting on Christmas Day.

This Christmas I must say has been pretty sweet since we've stepped up the festiveness .. i.e. there is currently a 20 foot inflatable snowman on my lawn!  Among making new memories, one thing that I hope my boys don't remember from the holidays but I am 100% certain they will, is their mother is an astoundingly terrible present wrapper.  I had about 2 hours today while wrapping to think about how I hope none of them inherit this.  Go with bags, you say? ripping through paper on Christmas morning is not something I can bare to deprive them of.. even if I can already feel them making fun of me.  I'm totally up to a grade 3 level in wrapping now.

That's a doodle for absolutely no reason??  I had to take a break, guys.

Hoping you all have a wonderful, memorable holiday!

Places you will go

One of the notable changes about my 30th year of living is that I have come to terms with the fact that, barring some kind of electrical storm where my brain is re-wired, there is one time of year that to me personally might as well be a physical place on Earth.  "Winter" might as well have a real destination pin on a map, and cute candy cane font sign on the road when you enter it, because, for all intents and purposes, I travel there to visit smiles I've had and smiles I've saved up so much it built a town.  

Indulge me for a moment.  

"Winterville" always has the right amount of shimmery snow to walk in; it is vanilla, big blankets and wool sweaters, hugs, and every snowman I've ever built, every fort I ever dug out with a red runny nose.  There, there are toboggan runs any time, fresh trees in every house and so many Christmas lights you'd never wish it was daytime.  It has heart.  Though I do not stay very long at all; those Winters are gone of course and this one is happening now.  It's just so many first things started in Winter for me, best of all my boys birthdays.  Maybe it is the death of the seasons, death of the year, mixed all in with the exciting new.. it either feels some minutes as if I have lived the luckiest life I couldn't possibly ever live long enough to deserve it.  My heart is filled with gratitude instead of the grief that mostly everything pretty and warm in "Winter" town does not really exist, these small memories cannot leave this place.. and then other minutes feeling as if it's too much for me.  Like I am standing in a place equivalent to this commercial.

And that's when I leave.  By that time it is always dark, which make the lights all prettier, and I am always late.

“I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.” 
― Beryl Markham, West with the Night

Ain't nobody got time for that

For your amusement I will go over the last week of my life for you, because what is life if not inconceivably amusing to compare and contrast.

Sunday: 

I am in the ER.  My best friend, Brooke, calls me at the airport about to board a plane to Cuba.

I have a major infection causing half my face to look like any character in the movie "The Klumps"

Monday:

I'm told I have to spend the next 5 days with what they call "my new best friend" .. i.e. a $4000 IV pump I get to wear every second of the day.  Brooke, my actual best friend, is already rum drunk and hungover in Cuba.

I may have returned to work in the afternoon because I am really horrible at taking direction from bacteria.. telling me what I can't do!? Ain't nobody got time for that.

Tuesday - Friday:  

I hate everything.  Specifically "my new best friend".. I call her Judy.  Judy likes to watch me do a horrible job at trying to have a shower.  I go to a clinic every single evening to get the bag of medicine in Judy changed.   

Meanwhile, Brooke is just finishing up her sun-filled vacation!  She learned now to make an authentic Mojito and I learned that the most common adverse side effect of Clindamycin is diarrhea.  

I keep thinking in medival times I'd have so died by now.  So much for evolution, bitches!!

re - James

There comes a time .. or if you're lucky a couple times in life where you think, can anything be better than this?  Like, ever? I am here to tell you that if it's James Face then this is as good as it gets.  My friend Rob recently shared the link I saw a year ago and seriously every time I look at this thing I can't stop laughing until the captions get blurry with my own tears.

The idea is this guy takes his friends facebook pictures, photoshops them to look slightly different and reposts them to facebook.  His friend James does not like this.

My life's dream is to do this to my friend Andrea someday... gah, it should be on my 30-30 list.  Please, enjoy if you haven't already ...even though I hate repeating myself this is worth it.

Click on the link to see the comments since they are the BEST. PART.

JAMES-FACE by Oli & Alex

  "That's not my bush baby! ...I'm simply not that pale...."

Green Machine with Chocolate Smoothie recipe

Number 9 on my list, "figure out how to juice my food" has been accomplished!  Instead of juicing I prefer blending frozen smoothies.  I drink green smoothies because I just don't even have the TIME to sit and eat all the spinach I need to eat, and generally I eat while I'm working.  If you're interested in adding some goodness to your lunch here's a pretty good guide to start out making whatever your tastes are like.  I won't promise you it will in any way taste like an ice cream sandwich but just wait 5 mins and you'll feel virtually high on vegetables.  It's insane.

If you're wondering why we don't want to just add yogurt, sugar or other yummy things, or you've ever heard the term "eating clean" all it means is you eat as little processed foods as possible, excluding sugar and dairy from your diet as much as possible.  It makes a big difference for a minimal amount of 'taste sacrifice' in my opinion, but I do have a pretty yummy recipe if you like chocolate for breakfast.

Even if you are in perfect health, maybe you are a busy person in the morning who finds themselves either forgetting to eat entirely or eating whatever little thing they find while all the good food sits in the fridge.  Take 5 minutes and make this next time! and you'll be full and happy until lunch.

Recipe: Chocolate-Oat Breakfast Smoothie

(recipe adapted, picture from ohmyveggies.com)

ingredients

• 1/2 c. old-fashioned (steel cut) oats
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 c. almond, soy, or coconut milk 
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. almond butter (or regular peanut butter if you like)
• *optional 1 tsp. agave nectar or honey or stevia for added sweetness
• 
  

instructions

1. Blend your oats first into a fine powder.
2. Add banana, wet ingredients then dry ingredients into the blender and process until smooth and well-combined. Add more almond milk for a thinner consistency if you find it too thick.

r.i.p. shit-soo

photo originally from: link

                  



6.5 years of creative swearing has come to an end.  It was a good run.

Me: Oh.. shih tzu!

Ethan:  Mommy you said a bad word...

Me: No I didn't I said shih tzu.. that's a kind of dog!

Ethan: Yeah but without the 'Soo' it's just SHIT.

Birthday & Best(maid)

I had hoped that I would have been able to host a 5 course dinner party by now since it covers 2 whole items on my 30 list.  I am not giving up on that coming to fruition before March (my Champagne Birthday by the way.. neat!) but what's been going on this weekend has been pretty close so I'll share.  We did have a huge dinner party for my husbands birthday, however, it was hosted at a steakhouse where other people cooked our food, poured the champagne and someone else made and delivered the cake.  Anyone who watches Game of Thrones will get a kick out of this.  Everyone else... this will be awkward.

Sean and his cake.. aka his gift from me that
1. you can't buy it for yourself
2. you can't return it

Throne made of swords topper!
4 heads on spikes, and Sean's favorite House Baratheon crest with the motto changed to "Ours is the Forty"

It was the worst weekend for me to be sick because the very next day I was involved with my cousin Alisia's Stag & Doe; an even busier night if not possibly the busiest Stag & Doe I've ever seen.  My responsibility for the night? Besides the early morning set up, oh just selling all the raffle and booze tickets.  Nobody wants those, right?

I'll just show you the end of the night for JUST the beer empties.  I can't even tell you how much other alcohol was there, I didn't count, but 40 pop bottles of mixer were gone.

I'd like to thank Sudafed and Redbull for being invented together in my lifetime so I could even do it.  

I like to put my talents to good use but really, who wouldn't want to sell something to help out a Bride-to-be with a face like this?  She's just too cute to say no to.. smiling, bringing us alcohol, and she's wearing a fracking tiara.  It's all my favourite things!

He must have wanted to be more Irish

I get asked often .. and I mean often.. what having three boys is like.  Well..



It's like this

Everything you've heard is true and every moment of silence when I can't see them, terrifies me.

the religion of tradition

This may be the first time in 6 years we'll have to trick or treat at the Mall.   The Mall.  First, I have an unreasonable attachment to celebrating things on their actual dates.. if I've deemed it important then it might as well be a religious holiday.  Second, as a seasoned Vet of Trick or Treating like yours truly I'm experiencing a mild anxiety attack.  My childhood was spent scavenging the streets for hours with my friends, including all the unintentionally creepy houses you were sure some kids were trapped inside, and we didn't use no fancy buckets we had pillowcases and we liked it!  One year I literally fireman-carried my friend Andrea back to Candy Central (our friends house) when she got sick and couldn't walk back.  It helped that she weighed merely 8 pounds but still.. we didn't leave a man behind, a lit house un-tricked or treated, and we didn't care to dress appropriately for the weather.  The year I went as a cheerleader? my blue little legs brought in 3 pillowcases that year.  It was hardcore candy times, so you can just guess that the very idea of MY kids trick or treating in the Mall just.. annoys me.. but, Hurricanes be crazy! and it's going to pretty much rain all week as we all know by now.  I'll give the boys some time to become MEN.. I guess ;)

My only consolation is that they at least got to dress up already for a spooky fun Halloween Party with some friends on our street on Saturday night.

Sir Gabriel and his dragon Kierfire.. and Lego version Captain Rex with beard.

The Evil Witch ..of the bathroom!

Sean was missing due to being sick that day but his costume was Rick from Walking Dead, if you're familiar.  Maybe he'll get to wear it at the Mall and scare some teen shoplifters into making better life choices.

Here's to a wet but Happy Halloween 2012 everyone!

Nobody knows what it means

I have avoided this video for weeks but, sadly, anything Andrea sends me I feel compelled to watch.  

I have no idea what gangnam style means either, I think its like one of those ink blot tests of life.. Andrea thinks someone might get hurt and I assume we're high on goofballs wearing sunglasses and using "jazz-hands" as currency.

In case you were curious we wanted to see Carrot Top but he was out of town that night.  Also, I saw Penn Jillette going to catch his flight while waiting for Andrea (she was delayed twice.. I now know McCarran Airport REALLY WELL.  Let me take you for a tour sometime!) and he looks just like the Undertaker with a tan.   I guess I should actually write a real update on my trip to Vegas but someone has all the pictures still and hasn't sent me the USB drive in the mail.  Hint: that someone isn't ME.

66%

Before there was this blog there was a little thing called a paper Diary, I'm sure everyone used to also write in these things.  I have no clue if anyone still does.  Also, no one was meant to read them.

"If you read someone else's diary, you get what you deserve."  -David Sedaris

Dragging out the Halloween decorations this week lead me to open a box full of old diaries.  In the photo up there is years 1993-2002.   My first diary was the turquoise one in the middle and it had a sticker of Aladdan on it, a real key lock, a kitten bookmark that says "you are special" and an O-Pee-Chee baseball card of Duane Ward.  

Also the first 10-15 pages are ripped out because I didn't like my handwriting enough for a 'first diary entry', even though I used pencil I couldn't erase it good enough.  I finally settled on what I wrote (and erased re-wrote) because I wasted too many pages already.  It was only a quote from the diary of Anne Frank... a much more famous story than mine!

This perfectionist, book and baseball-loving kid liked watching Arsenio, writing short stories with my friends and having sleepovers.  Oh and figuring out my chances with Frodo Baggins.  

I'm 30 years old now but even still.. posting this is almost unbearably embarrassing.  66% love is HARDLY PROMISING, YOUNG ANN-MARIE!  Elijah Wood doesn't read the internet does he??

If I didn't find it so funny I likely would keep this to my own musings, but, it's all history isn't it?  It's all a little bit of everything that ever was.  It's what storytelling is all about. It caused me to wonder what exactly changes when we finish a book full of nothing but thoughts?  The story isn't over but the thoughts, in ink or type, you own them; could you (would you) throw it in a box?  Yes I would in a box and I would with a fox, and on a train, and in the rain.  Yadda yadda, uh .. I have repeated too many Dr. Seuss stories to my kids.

Ahem.

If history often repeats itself it is good to refresh yourself on the narrative once in a while.  We spend so much time in life being uncertain, impetuous, brightly naive... I enjoyed reading in that voice for a change.  If we can talk to ourselves and get an answer.  Alternatively it can be disturbing, the very last entry in my very last paper diary is something that I still wonder about often.  

The perspective, and the hilariousness, were equally nice.  It makes me curious if when the time comes to give my own kids the advice I'd give myself at 11 years old, if I should just hand them a stack of journals and throw my hands up in the air and say "You know what, I don't actually know!"

Space Day

I had one of the best days this week, and no, it wasn't my childlessly wandering in and out of cafe's reading books, drinking pumpkiny-chi infused drinks, and buying autumn sweaters.  

....sorry I just had to take a moment to imagine that last option.  

So I kept my son Ethan home from school Monday with a cough I didn't like the sounds of.  The boys made a rocketship out of a box after breakfast, so, I decided we should do some special space day activities to keep him interested.  One craft was a big hit: Galaxy Crayons.  

We made each one to be like planet colours.. really easy to do and great way to rid yourself of broken crayons :)

What you need:

• cupcake tray/some oven safe tray

• broken crayons

• glitter

Fill each circle 1/5th of the way with broken crayons, more colours the better, place on middle rack broil LOW for 2mins.. take out and cool for 10mins.. pop them out and colour!  

Ethan took a few of them for show and tell the next day and he came home pretty excited with his 'presentation' since everyone seemed to like them! Fun, fun day.. 

Someday isn't one of them

Another item off my back 30 list: have a running routine.


I'm going to play my 'I have three children' card.. which I promise I never really play.. in the fact it's hard for me to have routines for myself.  But here's where we stand today.


Things that helped me stay on a min. 3 day a week schedule:

• c25k app, has a nice little set up to start you off/guide you
• running partner
• nice scenic area, wooded/lakeshore
• 8tracks app, keeps music interesting.. oddly enough Rhianna's Birthday Cake is fantastic to run to! who knew??
• posting my results and progress on facebook keeps me accountable, especially if I don't have a running partner that day

The biggest accomplishment in setting a routine is not letting any setbacks get you off track.  I am not so much of an unmotivated person as I am a maker of an invisible set of rules that if I ever deviate from, my plan just gets thrown out the window!  For this reason, and the last 4 weeks of running, I cross you off my list.. running routine!!    

Growing up vs Growing old

Coming home from the BBQ last night Ethan asked me in the car, his face painted like a golden cheetah, how much school he has to go to.  I said, like, all of it? He said yes.  I answered, from tomorrow until grade 12 and then University to find job he likes to do.  He asked me if he had to get a job and I said that he did, but that all his friends would have jobs too.  When we got home and I put them to bed Ethan had a requisite 'last question' of the night, which is usually asking when I am going to bed.  Instead he asked if he will get married.  I said fortunately, that was entirely up to him... you only do that if you want to.  Unlike being employed.  Then he told me he wanted to stop talking about that and move onto something else.

Nothing like my kid to twist the knife that is, to all parents, already painfully watching them grow up. THANKS KID.  Now I have to grow up too, just great!

"When I was a girl, my life was music that was always getting louder. Everything moved me. A dog following a stranger. That made me feel so much. A calender that showed the wrong month. I could have cried over it. I did. Where the smoke from the chimney ended. How an overturned bottle rested at the edge of a table.

I spent my life learning to feel less.
Every day I felt less.
Is that growing old? Or is it something worse?
You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” 
― Jonathan Safran Foer

Small Kindness

Today my car just stopped in the middle of traffic and there I was by myself trying (an act of futility) to push it out of the road.  It was broad daylight by the way, on the busiest street I know of, and this woman stopped to help me while noting how many men drove past us.  I am the kind of person who wouldn't like to say she was right but she was, so I'll say it.. at least 10 cars passed me.  If they were men or not isn't the point to me at least.  About a minute after we started rocking the car up the curb two men did come out of nowhere to help push it up and off the road.. and while I thanked everyone for their help I still had what she said in my mind.  I suppose if nobody helped me I could have possibly been hit by a car as I tried to get it up the curb since I'd never leave my car sitting there blocking traffic like that.

It's amazing the moments you aren't prepared for yet can't get by without some small kindness.. and do not know where it will come from, but you somehow do expect it to come.  Why do we expect it will come?  I know for me I like to always assume the best from everyone I meet but it made me appreciate the help I did get even more.  Someone even stopped and gave me a ride for help after that and saved me about an hour, and I made sure to thank them profusely.

Not everyone acts the way we expect them to act.  I need to remember that.  And not take it to heart as much.

Emptying my wallet

goodbye Vegas weekend..

Andrea visited home last weekend and we've already got to retell a lot of the stories from when we were there which was fun, as it was a very fun 4 days.. and got to look around her Mom's basement of old stuff and jam for the mysterious David Copperfield ('s autograph Andrea has).

I have an aversion to saying goodbye to anything, or getting to the end of some stories.  This is never good.  If I've learned anything it's that every story deserves it's end, only in writing it yourself can you give it the integrity that belongs to everything that happened before it.  For example the book I bought in the Newark airport (This Is Your Captain Speaking) I purposely did not finish the last chapter; there it sits on my nightstand since I got home last month as if the vacation wouldn't be officially over unless I read the last word.  Even though it's not particularly a great story it really doesn't deserve to go unfinished.  As a note, only I would buy a book to read on a flight that starts off with a plane crashing into the Hudson River.  I mean, really????

I don't think it's particularly weird to never want something to end but it's certainly never made my life any easier.  Every once in a while I have to empty my wallet whether I like it or not, and I find there's so much more room for other things that way.

Fun Fact: a Las Vegas RTC transit bus is called "The Deuce"