Welcome to Fantasy Island!

Lately I have been going through some personal turmoil. Last week culminated in an emotional meltdown. My stress level was so high that I started to become concerned about my blood pressure. So, I decided that I needed to unplug from the news cycle, and my 2 hours daily of political news. I did not watch any of those shows last week at all, and instead I lived a bit more in my fantasy brain, which hasn't been active in a while. I've immersed myself in harsh reality and practical decisions, but not indulging in the parts of my brain that bring me pleasure, and make my daily grind bearable.

The above image is A fantasy land, but mine has a different landscape - more like the below:

Let my imagination exist in this place, where there are BFFs, and then there are LLBFFs...



Monday Morning Weekend Wrap Up

This was a good weekend. The Dude was out of town, and The Boys and I kept busy.

Friday, I went to pick up The Boys early, so that I could talk to the 4/5 graders about the field trip shirts for this year. - For those that have no idea, I teach 4/5 grade art in The Boys class. We had an extended play date after school, celebrating a teen birthday with walking fondue. The kids had fun and got along very well. The Youngest went to a friend's house for a few hours, where he discovered the pleasures of French Dip. All of the moms needed an "End of the First Week of School" deprogramming, and so we did ;-)

Saturday brought my first direct conflict of kid schedules. The Oldest had Football practice 10-noon, and the Youngest had to be at his soccer game at 10. The fields they needed to be at are 30 miles apart. I dropped of The Youngest with a teammate, dropped off The Oldest at football, ran to another town to pick up a Treasure Box, home to put away the food, then to watch and photograph the remainder of the soccer game, and pick up at football. I bought lunch for The Boys at the snack bar, they ate in the car and when we got home I did laundry and took down a supply list for The Youngest, who wanted to buy PVC in order to make a marshmallow gun. He had some allowance left and we went to price the pipe, found that he had enough money to cover what he wanted, so we bought all he needed. We also went to the pet store to price fish tanks for The Oldest, but he didn't realize how much that would cost, and he didn't bring enough money, nor did he know if he even had that much. When we got home, I spent a bit of time cutting the PVC and putting together the gun, which The Boys reconfigured a number of times throughout the rest of the weekend.

Sunday I got to sleep in :-D. After breakfast, The Oldest counted his money and found he did have enough money for a fish tank. We headed out in the afternoon to Dharma Trading Company for fabric dyes and clothing blanks (for field trip shirts) and yarn and needles (for my next knitting project). It is a 2+ hour round trip from the house, but worth the trip! We stopped at the pet store on the way home, and The Oldest picked up a tank, and all of those needed accessories, a Beta fish, and a couple of tank decorations. The Oldest made dinner of Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.

And now for some Music:

Regrets

So I posted one of those silly facebook status things today:
If I have EVER made you smile, click like. Then put this in your status and see how many you get :)
Got a few likes, but I also got this:
I remember you made me sad when I was like 10.. That time you called me a "brat" at my parents house in Fremont.#grude
My response:
I have very few regrets, but that is actually one of them. I have felt horrible ever since that night about how poorly I treated you.

Truth is, he was only 6, he was acting like a spoiled brat, and I said it in their hot tub. I upset him, his parents and embarrassed myself and my parents. I was maybe 12 at the time, and no slouch in the bratty department. And yes, I still feel bad about it over 30 years later...

But this got me thinking about the regrets I do have, and if they actually taught me anything about myself, or those around me.

I regret some of the things I've done, mostly due to my inability to keep my mouth shut.
I regret having verbally assaulted my sister for the majority of our childhood.
I regret having been disrespectful of my parents.
I regret having thought that I was growing up in a family of idiots.
I regret not having given that man a free meal at McDonald's during my first week of work. He needed the food, and I was too chicken to do it. By the time I got up the courage, and just paid for it out of my own pocket, it was too late. He still ate, but I still feel bad for not being as kind initially.

Mostly I regret the things I haven't done.
I regret not having sex with that guy in college. It would have been good, but I probably would regret it to this day, so kind of a lose/lose.
I regret not having the conversations I should have, with the people I loved and lost.
I regret denying who I am for the comfort of others.
I regret not having sex with that gal in college. It would have been good, and would have been better able to navigate my adult life.
I regret not learning everything I could when I was in college. My goal was getting out, not learning. I did learn what I was supposed to, and I got out, but there were many missed opportunities there.
I regret not being my own advocate.

What do you regret?

Tableau Tuesday 8/23/2011

Took these on 8/14, but just now getting through processing them. The boys had a blast, but refused to ride anything...

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Happy Tuesday all!

Monday Evening Weekend Wrap Up

It's been a while since I've done a weekend wrap up, but it's time.

Friday:
The final day of Swim Practice for this year, followed by picking up my new bifocal sunglasses (Yes, this caused a mild case of nausea and thoughts of getting older), and an afternoon/evening of getting stuff ready for the Championship swim meet (Champs). Car packed, kids to bed early, and we are all ready and pumped to go!

Saturday:
Champs!!!!! Got up at 5:30 in the morning to get to Champs by 6:30. The Dude went at 6:00 to set up the ez-up, and I made lunches and packed food, got the kids ready and headed over. The Boys each swam 2 events, and got their personal best times on all races. The Nephews each swam 4 races, and one was part of the Free Relay team that broke the league record by nearly 4 seconds! See the video here. These same 4 set a new league record the last age group they were all in, and it was a great day. The team came in 4th, which is higher than they've placed in decades! We were there for 12 hours, and it was a great and exhausting day.

Sunday:
The morning was recovery from Champs and laundry. I got a bee in my bonnet and decided to go through all of The Boys' clothes to see what still fits. I do this every August, in preparation for the school year. I got through all of the shirts, and the pants will have to be later this week. Maybe tonight, if I can get The Boys to try on pants... The evening was spent at the Swim Team Awards night. It was way too cold for what I wore, but it was fun to see the whole team, and all of the awards for the kids.

And ALL weekend, the song below was on my brain - I finally downloaded it today. Love, Love LOVE it!!!