All you need is love

The kind of love that grows in time. The kind that no matter how far away you are you know that you are loved. My grandma will turn 90 this week. Her brother flew in from Florida to be with her for her special day. Her brother is 82. How great is that. My grandma is a great woman. She got her masters in Library Science and is a huge advocate of reading. She was married to my grandpa for almost 50 years when he unexpectedly passed in 1980. She still lives in the same house that she raised her family in. I see her, but not as much as I would like to. We are going to be celebrating her birthday this weekend and I cannot wait to spend some time with her. Every time I think of 90 years I realize what she has seen, what has been invented, and how much knowledge she has and that no one even thought to ask. I am looking forward to visiting with her, and I hope that it turns out to be a great weekend. Sometimes family makes you crazy, but when your brother who is 82 comes to visit for your birthday that is a lot of love! And sometimes that is all you need.

side note:
I HAVE A NEW ROOF

Bugs Bugs and More freakin' bugs!

This is my place of employment. I work in a quad elbow high cube area. My back faces this really big window that I love. Well, last fall we had this bug problem. These bugs were almost like a praying mantis, but smaller and brown. I was recently informed that they are called Assasin beetles. Yeah... your thought is probably the same as mine. How pleasant! Anyways, as previously mentioned we had a problem with them last September inside and outside the office, and a bug guy came to spray the outside of the two story building that I work in to get rid of these critters. Well, now that spring is... well springing these critters that were in the building hibernating are "waking up". On Monday this week there was one on the wall by my cube area, one on the ceiling over the space across from me, and one on the ceiling above tall guy, and one on the window behind me. I say tall guy because he is the guy I call to get (ok really he squishes) the bugs that are on the ceilings. Well yesterday was the mother of all. A pregnant co-worker comes over to my cube space and asks me for a document. This is my busy season and I start to grab the pile of documents that contains the one documents that she is looking for. As I turn my head behind my arm I see one of these big bugs sitting on the pile of paper. My a$$ jumped so far out of my seat and so freakin' fast out of my cubie that I grabbed pregnant co-worker and flew to the main corridor of the office. This clearly startled many in the office. I will pride myself that I did not ...I repeat did not scream. Tall guy came and removed said bug and I told pregnant co-worker "get it yourself". Now I have this paranoia (mind you not an un-healthy one) that these bugs are going to start popping up all over. They are really quiet as well, so you do not know that they are right behind you. Clearly I have demonstrated that. So... to continue... in the process of jumping up I used my ankle as leverage to jump and last night I was in so much pain I could barely walk. I was mad that it hurt and laughing that I was so stupid over a bug. Today not so bad. Had some ice and Aleve on it last night. feels better only a small limp. Nothing that hockey tonight won't cure right? My life is never dull.

Tradition Who should it be important to?

I would think that it should be important to all involved. Right? Maybe I am wrong. Here is the situation. For the past 25 years my side of the family has celebrated Easter dinner on the Saturday before Easter. The reason for this is at one time family used to travel long distances and usually there is only a three day window to celebrate so we had Easter dinner on Saturday. Here is the problem. My brothers wife is planning my nieces birthday party on Easter Saturday. Typically we have dinner at 2:00 ish however the past 4 years it has been at 5:00. While on a conversation with my mom she casually says to me "sister in law is planning a party for niece on the Saturday before Easter at 5pm". This made me very un-happy. I basically said that was our family day and that she shouldn't do that. To calm the waters my mom said that she could have Easter Diner during the day. That will not work since my dad and hubs have to work. Mom then says well we just won't have it this year. EXCUSE ME! Bottom line I am not sure how this is going to work. You see I am a strong believer in tradition and I think that when you marry in to a family that you have to respect the tradition on both sides of the family, now if there were family traditions that happened on the same day I would understand the need to compromise. Now don't get me wrong birthdays are important and her birthday is not on Easter Saturday, so the ability to choose another day is there. Is my family Easter going to be cancelled. Probably. Am I really upset over this. Absolutely. Will I go to the party? Not likely. Do I love my niece? Yes. Is it her fault? No. So Tradition is important to who? I am confused, hurt and frustrated.

"Damn it!"

You heard me, he said "Damn it!". I thought I was hearing things the first time it was said, so like an idiot I said to my child "excuse me what did you say?". Clear as the first time he said it he says it again for my benefit. "Damn it". Yikes! Ok I am the parent what do I do now???? I have read all of THOSE articles in the magazines and I can not remember what any of them said! How on gods green earth do I correct that? Deep breath I stop. Think for a brief moment. Then say "hey bud who says that?" That is my investigative work. He says "I dunno". Clearly not the answer I was looking for. You see in our house we do not swear. People who come to our house do not swear and if something squeaks out we do politely remind them that there is a child in the house. So I continue. "Do you know where you heard that?" He says "no". Ok 0 for 2 I am loosing the battle. So in my best mommyrox voice the best thing that I could come up with is "well, bud we don't say that. When we get frustrated we say Oh Sugar!" (FYI, That is one of my favorites) He looks at me and says "OK". I have lost this battle to a 4 year old and I may loose the next one, but the war, my friends is not over. When I get home I am going to search out all of those old parent books and scour each and everyone until I can find the one that tells me how to effectively correct this kind of behavior. Now, you may ask why not search the internet you big dummy? Good question, duhhh gotta go. Looking it up now.

Ladies & Gentlemen.....
It's hockey night!

Nothing is going to keep me from the hockey game this weekend! I missed out on two last weekend which had left me in a frenzie! I need my hockey! So here is the deal. I follow up with the Dr. and all things go OK. I then go home get a quick bite and go to the game with child in tow. Sounds good to me.
Now, here is a lesson for today.
Let's pretend we are in school. I will ask a series of questions pertaining to one item, and you will need to supply me with the answer.
This is in your car.........It is in the front, but not under the hood..........The driver has control of it......It goes up and down.........here is the last hint... when you tap it up there is a little arrow light in the instrument display area that clicks on and off letting other drivers know that you are turning right. Like wise when you tap it down there is a little arrow light that clicks on and off letting other drivers know that you are turning left. For those of you that are still perplexed it is called a "blinker" let's say it together. Buh-lin-ker blinker. Very good. Now, this also through the mechanics of which I do not understand will have a light on the outside of your vehicle flash on and off. This is where I know (and many other drivers around you know) which way you are planning to go should not be driving straight. Now that we have all had a refresher. USE IT! In case you are wondering.... I am the lady in the car that when you did not use your blinker yesterday and almost cut me off..... drove in front of you and used my blinker for a long time drove in to your lane then for no reason other than to point out to you that you have a blinker.... used mine again to move in to the other lane....again for no reason. Now do not confuse this with road rage I was in a 45mph 4 lane road. No road rage and no speeding. Just a lesson on the road.
thankyouverymuch!

Life is good and back to normal.

Sometimes the blips on the radar are just there to keep you in check. I have checked mine and so far all is right with the world. No more blips. I did forget my lunch today. That really sucked. Growth is a good thing. Bud went to his skating lesson yesterday and I got a good report. Not that I get bad reports, but this was a good one. He and another little boy were skating and Bud was sharing his hockey stick with this new boy. On his own free will. He will share with some prompting sometimes, but this was on his own. Here is proud mommyrox....I am beaming..... So my hubs and I must be doing something right. Bud is also proud of the fact that he was not afraid to go across the net at the playplace. Apparently the net is (or was) scary. He has conquered that. Growing up is hard work. Watching is harder. I guess I need to work on enjoying.
xoxoxo

Back to normal or something resembling normal.

Now that that is all done with. My cutie pie Bud was telling everyone that he had headaches yesterday. You see I explained to him that I had really bad headaches and that is why mommy was not home Friday night. He took it to heart. He had really bad headaches and a vitamin was the cure. Lucky him! I should have been so lucky. Well yesterday and today have been much better. I feel like my old self again. The best story that I have is from yesterday when I called my doctor's nurse to see what additional precautions I should take in the next few days. I was told at 1:30ish. You should not drive or have caffeine for 48 hours. I laughed since I had a cup of coffee while I drove myself to work Monday morning. This information would have been helpful at discharge on Saturday. So now that I am officially out of the 48 hour window all is better with the world. I am going to try to take it easy, however I still am topless (no roof) and Home Depot will be at my house today to take a peek and give an estimate. Let's hope that we can afford them.
Till then as always much love to friends and family

Just so we are all on the same page
It started out at 11:00 in the morning on 3/17 (St. Patty's Day) with some tingling in the left fingertips. Then at the same time there some visual problems where things looked snowy. Not a big deal so I go to get some food in the kitchen and all of a sudden it is back in a stronger form (the tingling and the vision problems) after a night in the hospital it was determined that I had a TIA or a mini-stroke.
Things are ok now. Not much else to do, but be very aware of the symptoms leading up to a second episode. At my age this is very unusual, however the doctors kept saying that the evidence was there, but they want to disprove it and they can't.
So a big shout out to all of my friends and family whom I love very much and in case I don't say it enough I appreciate you and really love you.
Special note to Snarky, La Dolce and Ribail You guys are the best! Those are the ones that I don't see a lot of and just want them to know that I care.
much love to the friends and family!

Brackets....get your brackets here... Did you fill out your brackets?

That seems to be the general question the past two days. If you don't fill out the brackets does that make you un-American? If you picked San Diego State over Indiana are you going to go toes up? It is all in fun right? Is it a game of chance, gambling, or just stupid luck? Either way here is how the mommyrox gets the picks done. Yes. I caved to the pressure of the all mighty brackets. At my work we have a pool manager (no this is not the guy who comes to clean the water hole in the back yard and keeps it tidy) this really nice guy manages all of the scoring for all the peeps. So I get his sheet and take it home. I look at it and decide that my picks are going to be no better than my 4 year olds. So what better thing to do than go to Bud and say "Hey Bud who do you like better Duke or Southern? He picks Duke. I am charged, he may actually do well here. We continue through the entire sheet and while I believe he had the foresight to pick a few major upsets I am content with his overall choices. Under normal circumstances this selection process would be a no brainer to the trained adult. Now to a 4 year old it is all in ability to say the team name right? Wrong. He may not be able to say Whichita State, but he can say Florida and Duke to the finals!

Oh yeah..... he did pick San Diego State lets hope they don't go toes up in the game!

Back a whole week and no update....Jeesh! I get the hint So here you go.
The Flight!

The whirlwind begins! California this time of year is just beautiful! The hills were so green and sky was so blue (when it wasn't raining). They are in the rainy season and we lucked out with some of the weather we did have. Everything is lush now and full of life. That is the physical scenery. When we arrived at midnight CA time which in the world of East Coast time is 3:00 am we were a bit haggard. Bud was sleepy and got a bit cranky during the last hour, but who can blame him. He got captains wings. When we boarded the plane he looked at the flight attendants and said a great big HELLO! They all got a big kick out of it. I did as well. He then took his seat. When we landed in JFK to get the flight direct to CA once again he said HELLO. This got him a look in to the cock pit. That was really fascinating. All those buttons and levers. He met the pilot and co-pilot and that's when they gave him captains wings. Very cool. Kudos to JetBlue! He was actually well behaved on the flight and I think that I got more of a kick listening to him laugh at the cartoons. Out of the blue there would be a great big burst of laughter then silence then about 10 minutes later the laughter again. He was watching the cartoon channel and it was the classic cartoons of Tom & Jerry and the old Hanna Barbara ones. I loved those as a kid. I am glad to see Bud does too. So then after a while of that he watched them without the headset and still got a kick out of it. Then he went to sleep. In all nice flight. We were met at the airport by hubs brother, wife and two kids. Of course Bud perked right up and chatted all the way back to their house which was just shy of an hour. In the dark I did notice how flat everything was. We were in the valley. You could see out so far with out a hill or mountain. That kinda blew my mind. I am so used to hills and mountains. All I could say was wow look how far you can see (in the dark) the lights in the distance. With that we went to the house and went to sleep. Now let me tell you I am sooooo happy to be home! I will fill you in later about the stay there.