Who is my biggest impact...

Who has had the biggest impact on my life, I can sum it up with one word... Hunter. I know some who will read this will be like really come on. I am here to tell you that I would not be who I am and where I am in my life right now without him.

He is gives me the most joy in my life, not all of it but most. He makes me want to be a better person because I see parts of me that I hate coming out in him so I want to change those habits to get him to be the best person I know he can be.

I know it is corny and crazy but he has been the biggest impact on my life, I only hope to live up to the highest standards to make him as proud of me as I am of him.

Thanksgiving Story on Black Friday...

Last year was the first time I have ever gone out for actual shopping on "Black Friday" I must say I really don't see the hype for it, sure I got all my Christmas shopping done on that day but really I wouldn't say I had a good deal that it was worth my while. I must say it was fun just to go out and hang with my sister and friends, I will do it again but it will really be for the company. When I have my son I don't go out for shopping then, no offense but I would prefer to spend time with him. I must thank my family for picking up a few things for me and looking for others.

I got the joy of serving Thanksgiving dinner, a week before the holiday I had realized I didn't have anything bought yet. I got it all bought and was working on cleaning the house then. I know it's family but I need to be able to feel comfortable in my house if we will have everyone over, clean is the only way. It was not the cleanest but survivable.

The night before I was working on cleaning when I get the call from my sister, "Hey, you coming over to help tonight?", yes that's right I forgot about the race day packets and helping with the race. If I didn't have enough to do already, but we made it over to help after we got the boy's room cleaned. We worked on the packets got them done and had to head home and worked on cleaning more. My wonderful young son saw me getting more stressed and was willing to work on cleaning so I could prep food for the next day. He cleaned until 2 in the morning with me prepping food. I must tell you I was never more proud of him then him stepping up to help me out, I love these moments when I see what a wonderful young man he is becoming. I let him sleep in as long as he needed the next morning while I got the turkey and food cooking. I want to thank my sister for letting me get out of helping on race day (I promise next time I will be more prepared) so I could finish cooking and cleaning.

Usually my dad comes over and gets the turkey prepped and in the roaster the night before but he didn't come down this year. I woke up and was getting it ready. I remembered to wash it off and the the innards bag pulled out and the neck. While I was covering it in homemade rosemary butter I was looking at it and wondering first, which was the breast side and second where were the drumsticks because don't they normally stick out? I got all confused and didn't know what I was doing so I went to the back of the turkey. Oh wait there is the drumsticks tied up with a plastic thing. Yes, I realize I am not a cook by nature but come on I should have credit for taking the bag and neck out.

I am sure it is easier to remove the plastic from the turkey if it is not all buttered up and in a roaster but why would I make things easy on myself. The turkey was not done in time, when we pulled it out it was still not cooked all the way, I felt that I had ruined it all but they all made me feel better about it (yep I over react and still I wonder where the boy gets it from).

My family usually never eats my stuffing/dressing (call it what you will I call it stuffing) and H will usually eat it with me. This year just to please us two we decided we would upgrade Stove Top, we added in fresh onions, celery and dried cranberries. We did use half a package of bread chunks too, but my family gobbled up the whole pan! Who knew!

I appreciate my mom for bringing me a bottle of wine, it was wonderful.

Then we were watching tv going through ads and talking, we got all worked up because of an actor on the tv and who he was and what he was in. It was all good fun though. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

The boy will not be here for Christmas, he will be celebrating Chanukkah (harmonica according to the boy)with his father and step family. H said they say a prayer all the time and his dad says he does not need to say a prayer because he is Christian but that he should try anyway, I let him know that a prayer comes from your heart and it doesn't matter who you are praying to as long as it comes from your heart so he can pray with them to share their holiday.

No punch reward...

I always feel like I have to explain the whole punch comment to everyone because I don't want them to think I am like hitting the boy or not, they have a punch card at school we are treated like a demerit so the teacher will paper punch their sheet. My wonderful young boy finally go 0, which really is more of an accomplishment for me because I finally signed all of the 100 papers that are sent home for me to go through and sign then return (I don't think I have signed so much in the k - 3 as I have this first month in 4th).

Knowing that he wanted to go to the fair and honestly not going with my family I was really not wanting to go there this year without them, I gave the boy the option of going to Boondocks or to the fair. He excitedly wanted Boondocks.

We went to Costco and got discounted passes and made our way there (I know me at Costco on a Saturday, yikes, but I survived).

It started off really fun, he wanted to do miniature golf first. Of course he got all annoyed because I was beating him so then I had to pull the "oops guess some how I have lost my skills at playing mini golf just so my son is happy today" trick and quickly he started liking the game again.

He got to go to the smaller track to race, he wanted to do the bigger one but he is still about 8 inches too small. While standing in line there were two boys that were being very obnoxious and then they started to beat each other up, I had to step in to break them up because I guess their parents were no where to be found to stop them from fighting. When it was finally their turn to race H was with them, the reason why this story is significant is because H finally passed them after he got on stuck on the course and there was a small part of me that was really rooting him on.
We then went to the arcade, of course, it is like his favorite part of going to places like this is playing whatever he can. The problem with him being an only child and having me as a single parent is I don't necessarily just let him win, I just get to the point where I really don't care to win so I let him win frequently. This is bad, very bad. Why is it bad???? Well because when he does start to lose he gets extremely upset and frustrated and "the game totally cheats" attitude comes out. He was so upset that I almost made us leave at this point but I decided I wanted to drive one of the go carts first so I would give him the chance to chill out before then.

As we get in line for the go carts where I would drive he would ride, if did everything I could to get him to cheer up... guess what it worked. I was rather proud of myself because I don't normally succeed, picture below for proof.
We got to ride and I chicken out of letting step on the gas from the get go but I think we did pretty good of catching up to everyone and we even passed quite a few. He enjoyed every minute of it.


Last time we were at Boondocks my experience on the bumper boats was less than desirable, I was ready to scream at one kid and I actually think I did, but I had the boy convince me to get on this time. He was so ready to take me down.

He was so happy I got so wet, he tried to hide back his smile. I enjoyed it this time, even if I still got soaking wet from other punk kids, including my own this time.

But I think I did pretty good getting him wet too.

And don't forget prizes, he was so happy to get this inflatable hammer and yes it squeaks (oh joy for me)...

And of course the LARGEST smarties I have ever seen, the are like a quarter size around! Seriously freakishly large.

When all is said and done I am proud of my son, it is not easy being my kid but he does a pretty good job most of the time. I love him and am really glad we could spend the day together having so much fun.

Fun Friday, okay so it's Monday...

This year in school they get to have Fun Friday's, as long as they don't have more than 4 punches (demerits) and they are caught up on their school work. This includes any number of things, last Friday they were supposed to walk to the CommonCents store to get Icees. Well not enough parents had volunteered to help out but it was also quite cold so Mrs. G ended up postponing it until Monday. I had planned on showing up on Friday but had completely forgotten so I made the effort to make sure I was there today because really come on this is totally cool in kid land.

I love to help out with his classes when I can, I don't get to do as much as I want because I have some serious deadlines at work but when I can make it work out I try as much as I can because when I show up to class for him H treats me completely different and even though I know he loves me I know he really shows it while I am there to help out. I am not sure if it is boasting that he has a parent to come in to help or what but it makes me a proud mother on one cute and adoring little boy when I am there.

When I showed up I was talking to the teacher and she had made mention that CommonsCents were not going to donate the Icees this year but she had gone in and begged them to reconsider, so an extra special thanks to Mrs. G and to CommonCents for making this happen especially with many companies making many cutbacks for such things. The kids LOVED this, they had so much fun.

The three boys in the middle are the terrible three as I call them now. Garrett, Hunter and Travis. Garrett has been friends with Hunter for years now, they have gone to the same day care and school since before kindergarten. Travis is a new friend of Hunter's who has just moved into our complex, he is a pretty good kid. Hunter makes friends so easy and many of them call him his best friend, but between Travis and Garrett I totally am sensing some strong competition for Hunter's attention, but he does a good job of mellowing them out in the end so it makes me proud of him.

Genius vs. dummy...

Okay, so the boy is old enough now that I give him chores.

Usually most of the chores are the ones that I had when I was younger growing up and hate to do even to this day. One of these chores is helping me to load the dishwasher, he is in charge of the silverware. No way he could screw this up and it was always the most tedious part of the dishes that I hated.

Now what urks me the most is I have done this for years and years but I never thought of what he has decided to do. When he puts the silverware in the dishwasher he sorts them out in the basket.

Why oh why have I never thought of this growing up and even in my adulthood? So a chore that took me 3 times as long as him now only takes him a matter of a minute at most to grab the clean silverware out of the basket and put them into the drawer. I tell you I don't know if I like my son being smarter than myself.

How fair is this that he has taken just moments to figure this out and I never have? I forget that he does this so when I have him do his chores before he can play and it takes such a short amount of time I just get more annoyed with myself.

Hot and tired but can't sleep, so a week in review...

Well, the heat came today. It was nice though, I have enjoyed it. I have been using a self tanner because even though I did bake myself with the baby oil when I was a kid the idea of doing that now actually frightens me. I wonder why I freak out over any new mole, it would be one thing if they were cute little freckles but mine are big and yes sometimes nasty moles. The self tanner is so I look at least some what living considering I have those really bad dark circles under my eyes because of my continued use of allergy medicine and blonde nature (although I try to hide it, still a dirty blonde).

This week was quite the week, my sister is up from Vegas. She is up with the babe and is going to take the bar exam. Wow! I told someone at work about her doing this all and she looked at me and asked "Are you serious? With a new born? Law school?". So the fact that she is still kicking and getting through this all is great. Good for her though, only wish I could help her more than I am.

I just found out yesterday that my nephew has a "girlfriend", I guess he has "written" her a letter and "mailed" it, no those quotes should be there. My older sister is toying with his emotions. But still cute. He told me he wants to kiss her the next time he sees her because he held her hand the last time he saw her. To my understanding this is just some random girl he met at the park. I am sure my sister will pipe in with her defense.

I also did a 5k on Saturday, found out that it is not a 3.2 but a 3.1, but I could go on about that for days. Thanks sis for making me look like a fool to my co-workers when I write out on my board that I am doing a 3.2 and when we talk I mention it is a 5k. All of those looks from them make much more sense. My sister did it with me, I walked the whole thing (okay started with a jog but it really didn't last too long). I thought I had completed it in an hour, well it was just over an hour. Blasted! Well it gives me a goal for next time. I want to complete one with enough time to watch H start and complete his kidsK. Also, I kept getting teared up when other parents were coming down the finish line with their all too proud kids. I don't know if I will be able to do a marathon, but maybe a half? Time will tell along with lots of exercise. Picture of us together below, she being on the left me on the right and the shadow in my face.

Also I just wanted to mention just how proud I am of my son. He had a bike rodeo this week that he was planning on going to, well first we had to fix his flat. Well I ended up popping his tube, at which time 3 neighbors came out to figure out what the loud popping sound was. I had to admit defeat to the boy, he graciously accepted the fact that it was not going to happen so then he proceeded to tell me that he will put on his own rodeo once we get it fixed. I told him we could invite his cousins over and he could get them to put on a show too, he is all too excited for this. But I was proud that he did not let it ruin his spirits. I was really proud of him and it just shows how much he is growing up. He also literally got dog piled this weekend, picture below.

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap.