Learning to Stand

Ok, so I swear I'm not just a country music fan. I like all types of music (isn't that what everyone says???) . Anyway, I do like country and I always have. I like music that tells a story and that speaks to you. This song was my fighting song the last 8 months and my friend Kirsten is the one that shared it with me after going thru a similar life change. I love her, I love Rascall Flatts and I love this song and I hope it can become a theme to my life anytime I fall on hard times.

All I want for Christmas...

I am blessed with the funniest and most clever kid! I adore the way he cracks me up daily. Andrew and I were sitting on the couch watching TV. I had let him stay up late because I felt like we haven't had a lot of just "us" time, so we were chatting about Christmas.



"What do you want for Christmas?" I ask him.

"I want what's in the trunk" He replies.... because he was with me when we bought some gifts the other day... smartass.

"Ok..well aside from that, what do you want from Santa?"

He thinks....

"I want a hundred bucks!" he declares.

"WOW! what do you want a hundred bucks for?"

He thinks again... then tells me "well, because that's a lot of money"

"Yes, it is a lot of money. What else do you want?" I reply.

He thinks, and thinks, and thinks...

Then he finally states:

"I want yarn."

after I compose myself from laughing like a banchee, I dare to ask him why.

"Well, because I don't have any yarn"



Later I call his dad. I tell him the story... but stop at the $100 request.

His dad says "I can do that! I'll get him $100!".

"Good!" I tell him, "because I'm getting him YARN!"

My Chi for the Day...

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous “yes.”

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else—the small stuff. “If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked.
It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

The Island

I'm flipping thru the People's Sexiest Man Alive issue and realized that my entire Island is on here! WHOOHOOOO for them!!! If you don't yet have an island here are the rules:

1. You get to pick 5 people to be on your island with whom if you were stranded with you would get a "free pass" from your sig. other to do with them what you please. Your island is whatever you want it to be, it really doesn't matter. My island, for example, has a 5 star full service hotel with other people that work there to take actual care of me and my 6 castaways. They don't count towards my 6.

2. You can have 2 islands if you go that way. Some friends of mine have up to 3 islands... a boy island, a girl island an an ethnic island. My island is just all inclusive (although no girls made it on the list... too bad for them)

3. People have to be living, have to be famous and there can pretty much be no chance in hell you'd ever run into them. If you DID run into them, there's probably still no chance in hell you'd get your free pass, but that's why this is a fictional island.

My Island:

Wentworth Miller


Milo Ventimiglia
Will Smith


Matthew McConaughey

Ryan Reynolds




The ones that are on my backup island:

Taye Diggs
Johnny Depp
Patrick Dempsey
Brad Pitt


Who's on your island???

My Petri Dish Household or Bringing Sexy Back

We can't shake the sickies here in the Martinez/Harris Household. GRRRRRR. The 3 of us sound like we've smoked a pack a day since birth (poor Ryan!) and my little voice is all cracky and butch (apparently scratchy Demi Moore type butchiness is sexy??? why do we spend money on hot lingerie when we could just scream for 3 hours instead)

Either way, the noses are running, fevers are coming and going and throats are sore and swollen. oooooohhhh it sucks. I even ate chicken noodle soup today in case it would work, it didn't. So I ate ice cream, didn't work either. I can't eat anything else in hopes of finding a cure or I'll be sick, butch and chubby... probably not so sexy.

I attempted to take the boys to see Bee Movie today. HA, that was just the same joke as the last time I tried to take them to a movie. We get thru the waiting the in semi dark theater, eating thousands of dollars worth of crap, then we get thru the previews (at which point I kind of forget what we came to see), then we get thru about 45 minutes of the actual movie before we have to leave. Ah well, at least we got out of the house. It seemed cute. I'll just buy the damn DVD and go from there.

I am in search of a Christmas Tree. I don't have real ones although I'd love one. I just don't have the patience to pick up all the pine needles my kids will pick off of it, so I go artificial. I was sick of my tree last year (I'd had it for like 6 years) so I gave it away and now I need a new one. My apartment is teeeeeny so I need a proportional tree. I want to find a pencil tree, skinny and tall just to put in the corner. Looked a few places today but alas, my search continues.

I'll post some Thanksgiving pics tonight!

Thanksgiving Feast at Andrew's School

60 days and nights

It's Thanksgiving. I re-found my blog. I haven't written here in a while and things are pretty different. It's amazing how fast life changes. I thought about this because I have been trying to do so well with the thought of the Holidays. My first Holidays in 10 years alone. I have my boys, but like today they are going with their dad to his family's house. So I will be at my family's house alone. I was fine with that, thinking it would be great to just hang out with my cousins and sisters and not chase children around.... until I saw a damn Publix commercial about being Thankful. Then I lost it. I haven't lost it in a long while, but I did today. In the middle of breakfast, with the TV turned to the Thanksgiving Parade (one of my favorite things!) I broke down. Again. I am Thankful for my children, I am thankful for our health, I am thankful for my family and my amazing friends. I am thankful for old friends and new friends, and both kinds of friends in one. I am thankful for being on my own, being able to take care of myself and my children spiritually, financially and emotionally (well most of the time). I am thankful for my job and for my co workers who I adore. I am thankful for so many things. By the way, I am also thankful for therapy, and meds, and alcohol,... just a little shout out to the things that I used to get thru my hump. I am thankful there are guys out there that are perfectly fine with the fact that you have a family. And they want to be your friend anyway. I am greatful for my new friends who have given me a new sense of myself as a person on my own, not someone's wife or mother.

Anyway, there are so many things I'm thankful for. I am thankful I re found my now 2nd blog... and I think I'm gonna share it.