More Cake Please...

I am often astonished at how fast time goes by. It seems like only yesterday I was 20 years old and had not a care in the world. I made the mistake of blinking, and now I am 31 and still sitting in my pajamas. Where did all the time go? I have memories. Some of them are even great memories, but I can’t really remember how I got here. Don’t get me wrong; here is really a great place to be, but it is so far from where I started that I am a little discombobulated (I guess birthdays will do that to you).

I remember graduating from high school with the biggest of plans to travel the world before graduating from college and becoming a world famous news anchor. Fast forward 13 years and here I sit blogging to no one in particular to the sweet lullaby of 5 kids that feel it is their personal duty to fill every silence the day has to offer with noise (good noises like laughter and singing and bad noises that I try and pretend not to hear (see previous blog entry))and my husband rocking out to My Name is Jonas on Guitar Hero for the Wii (his birthday present from me).

That might actually be part of the problem. When you share a birthday with your husband for 11 years, you sort of lose track of you. My birthday sort of becomes all about him. I don’t mind that (as long as he never makes me go golfing in the dead of July in Arizona again) but this year I realized that I really don’t have my own special day (neither does he) and it might be nice every once in a while.

I guess that is what you call having your cake and eating it too. I want to be (or maybe just feel) young forever without missing one minute of the life that I have and love. You do have to make sacrifices as you get older but the joys that come with age are definitely getting sweeter.

I guess, when it comes down to it, I’ll have some more cake.

Another Shining Example of My Extensive Computer (and Mothering) Skills

It has finally happened. The drabble that routinely fills the summer television programming void has driven me to discover the channels that no self respecting woman should ever venture to. I am referring, of course, to the Golf Channel and that channel that shows Sponge Bob Square Pants 24 hours a day. When did I become this person?

Don’t answer that.

Recently, as I was watching the Myth Busters team figure out that Mentos and Diet Coke really do make a mess (I can’t wait for my kids (and by kids I mean my husband) to try that one at home. No really, I already caught him adding Mentos to the weekly shopping list) I saw a commercial (that’s right, the programming is so riveting that I have started watching commercials) that drove me to my laptop. Did you know that there is a whole website dedicated to informing the average Joe on how stuff works? It is the coolest site I have ever visited. Did you ever wonder if piranhas (I learned to spell that word from the site. That’s right, no need for spell check here) could really strip a cow to the bone, or if your iPod can really set things on fire? (Why not? What is wrong with you?) Then this is truly the sight for you. It is chuck full of information that will keep you pre-teen boys busy for hours. The only downside is that, if your boys are anything like mine they are not particularly nice to each other (if you have two boys that are nice to each other, you must provide me with proof followed by detailed, step by step instructions for how this was accomplished.).

Today, my 9 year old refused to read some valuable information from the site to my 7 year old (who could read it for himself if the older boy would leave it on the screen long enough for him to see) which in turn caused the younger to come and tattle on the elder to me (if they would just keep the yelling in the other room I could pretend not to hear it, but once they come and tell me there is no more pretending. Then I must make sure that my kids know that no one wins when I have to get up). By the time I got to the computer to remedy the problem, my 9 year old had navigated away from the page and I had no real hope of ever finding it again (darn the complexities of the internet. I know what you are thinking. Why didn’t I just use the back button or search the cookies or some other made up computer stuff? Well I didn’t, and where were you this afternoon when your pity and disapproval would have saved me a few hours?). So I got to spend the remainder of my afternoon researching how milk is pasteurized (which, sadly, was not the worst part of my day).

So, to get back to my point, you should really check out this website. It might make an otherwise non-stimulating summer, at least a tad bit educational. The site is www.howstuffworks.com (and if you have trouble remembering that I don’t really want to know how you got your boys to behave themselves and get along. I want to know how you have achieved adulthood (I'm not judging you)).