Amaaaazing...

If I was any good at poetry I would write an ode to Mom and Katie right now. In response to my rather self-involved, blah mood this week, Mom gave me her ticket to see "The Lion King" at the Aronoff. Now, before you all think I am so selfish to deprive my mother of this experience, I did argue...at length...but she absolutely refused. So Katie and I went to see this incredible performance on Wednesday night. I spent half the night with chills and half fighting off tears as a result of the music, the dancing, the costumes...It was a truly beautiful performance. The woman who played Rafiki was worth every penny - she was amazing. And Scar was delightfully menacing...Zazu was hilarious...A very cool experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who can score tickets. It also reminded me of how much I love the theater...I really do need to make an effort to get out to it more often.

Sighs.

I can't really put my finger on it, but I am feeling really blah right now. It was a busy day today...my kids were not-so-angelic, I watched the girls today, we had school and library and exercise time, plus a baseball game tonight...lots of running, but I felt like I was just going through the motions...set on automatic mom-bot, or something. It's a weird feeling, and I'll have to snap out of it soon. I don't like it.

ugh

I have a cold. And I'm handling it like a man. Which is silly, generally I'm the tough chick in the house, but I really just want to go to bed and be taken care of.

But I'm a mom and I will muscle through. Annika gave me the cold, but she appears to be "on the mend" which I'm pleased about.

This is a silly and boring post, but I just wanted to share my misery.
Whine.

My homies and me...

I do love me some chick time. Last night my mom, sister and I attended an all-night crop with a bunch of girlfriends. I finished a buttload of pages, got some new ideas, and all, but the best part was having chickies to chat with all night. Well, until I went to bed at 3:30AM, anyway.

It's amazing how much my life has changed since we moved here from Chicago. Back there I was one of the youngest moms, I had less money and experience, no career background...I always felt...silly and immature...with the other women I met. I had one really close friend and the wench moved to Texas just as we were getting really close (oh yeah, I'm talking about you, Jody.) I had my family there, of course, but no real girlfriends and I was wicked lonely all the time. I'm not looking for pity, truly; I obviously didn't know how to put myself out there and make those connections.

When we moved here, though, I had no family, no hometown to fall back on. I had to build my connections, I had no choice. So I joined e-mail groups. I found my MOM'S Club. The girls in on of my groups taught me to scrapbook, which led me to more friends. I became very close with my sweetheart neighbor across the street, who has introduced me to some amazing women (the ones I was with yesterday). And now I have these incredible women in my life - people I can lean on and who I can support if they need me. I rarely feel lonely anymore.

Something interesting, though...I notice that I have few guy friends. I mean, I'm friendly with my friends' husbands and all, but this former "guy's girl", the chick with way more male friends than female, has no close male friends, other than one guy from high school, my brother, and my husband. I wonder if this is a natural occurance when one is married, or do we tend to need our girlfriends more as we get older? I don't know, but I really don't miss that male companionship at all. I like men, don't get me wrong, but I don't long for their company like I do for my girlfriends'. Huh.

Ok, this has rambled long enough...I'm just feeling lucky and fulfilled...and very very tired. So to all my homies out there that read this: Thank you. I am lucky just to know you. And I love you all.

Aaahhhh...

Feeling groovy, my friends. The first day back at school and the house is so...quiet. Last week was spring break and we had other kids at our house every day. Now it is just girl child and me and I'm appreciating the silence. Of course summer is coming...but that's still weeks away.

Must go clean...

Theft and chocolate eggs...

All natural forces are truly working for me when my feminine cycle and the Easter holidays fall at the same time. I have been stuffing myself with chocolate marshmallow eggs - you know, the ones that come in the styrofoam egg container?

When we were kids, my mom would buy one container of these eggs and put just a few in each basket. And each time I would steal my brother's (pictured above) out of his basket. I was actually generally a very nice sister, but I felt drawn to pilfer my brother's marshmallow eggs every year. Two were simply not enough. I couldn't help myself, my inner chocolate marshmallow monster would rear its ugly head. So today, I filled the baskets. I even bought an extra container. And I still stole the eggs out of my brother's basket .