Wow!

Sometimes summers are the most boring time of the year for films. But the past few months I've seen some real good flicks! Yesterday my husband and I saw "Hero" staring Jet Li. Wow...so brilliantly beautiful! If you liked "Crouching Tiger...." you will really enjoy this film. It is subtitled, so be ready, but if you like foreign films and enjoy martial arts magic coupled with beautiful cinematography and a heart wrenching storyline you wont be disappointed.

Again, "the Bourne Supremacy" was another favorite this summer, "the Terminal" was also good, and although I wasnt able to see it my husband really liked the twist in "the Village." He has also seen "Manchurian Candidate" and "Collateral" and thought they were good one time sees. Add in "The Anchorman" if you like a little comedy and it wasnt such a bad summer for movies.

Later I will add some fall and winter films I am looking forward to...but for the moment I have gone blank on the titles!

Argh!

The dreaded head cold! It has burrowed it's way into our home once again! And though I use the antibacterial hand gel and wash my hands regularly somehow it found me.

My husband is more than likely the culprit who brought this sickness home. He just returned from nine days on the road with a strange little cough. I warned him to stay away from our daughter (who is still cold-free) but I think he passed it on to me instead. He's one of those guys who rarely discusses any ailments with the rest of the family. You wouldn't know he had a cold except for the cough. I, on the other hand, as much as I try to stay silent, find myself discussing the topic out loud to anyone who will listen. "Great..." I say to my husband at the table, "both nostrils are completely plugged." "Hm" he says without so much as batting an eye. "I can't blow either....completely plugged!" I say once again trying to rally some sort of conversation about it. "Tsk" he says giving me a tiny head shake out of respect but with no interest continuing the conversation. Well, I can hardly blame him. Nobody wants to hear much about another person's sickness.

The problem with the cold isnt so much the discomfort as it is the lack of knowledge of what is coming next. Let's face it, I think we would all jump for joy over a head cold if the only other option were some sort of stomach virus. But the head cold is so mysterious! "Will I be able to breathe today?" "Will I have a headache?" "If I have a headache will it be my forehead? my cheeks? the back of my head?" "Will I have a runny nose? a cough?" It's always changing...always moving. For instance, last night I climbed into bed with a reasonable amount of breathing going on thru the nose. I had a headache, and mom always said sleep with your head elevated if you have a cold, so I doubled up on pillows and layed on my back. Not 10 minutes after lying down I had lost all breathing ablility thru my nose and had to resort to the detestable mouth breathing. Thus dry mouth and throat set in within a matter of minutes which resorted in a tickly throat that brought on a coughing fit. Finally I decided only a drink of water would solve the matter so I was up again. I got my water, some extra tissues and headed back to bed.

At this point my nose was still completely stuffed, so I decided to try a side sleeping position. I like the right side best, so layed back down, opened my mouth to breathe, and began to rest. Now I know I cant be the only person to have this happen....slowly but surely all the stuff in my head found it's way to the right nostril and miraculously I could breathe again thru the left side! Woo-hoo! As much as I hate to admit it, I would much rather have one side available for air flow than nothing at all. The problem is after only so long you just have to change positions. So I began to get antsy and made the move to my left side. Well, you know how it goes. Needless to say I spent the rest of the night turning from side to side. I tried my stomach once--and let me warn you--stay off your belly if you've got a head cold! You wont breathe for hours!

Today things are moving again. The stuffy nose is gone and has been replaced with a dry, tickly cough. There's no sign of headache! Hurray! But all that could change this evening! And so the mystery of the common head cold continues....

Top 5 vacation memories

This one was inspired by my sister-in-law...

Top 5 vacation memories
5. Spring Break 1993, or in Atlanta otherwise known as "the Blizzard of 93." After dating about 3 weeks my boyfriend (now my husband) invited me to go visit his sister in Georgia for the week. Little did we know we would be laying in the sun just two days before the blizzard struck--and would spend the next week shut in together with his sister and her boyfriend (now husband) and no way out. (we broke up in the car on the way home.)
4. As a child my grandparents took my family with them to Hawaii one year, and although I loved it then I see now what an amazing vacation that was.
3. Our very first "vacation" with our daughter this year, not knowing how it would go but just going for it anyway.
2. Heading out of town on vacation and thinking, "Hmmm I sure felt queasy today....oh heck let's just take a pregnancy test to be sure." And then learning I was pregnant with a 10 hour drive ahead of us and a week long cruise awaiting.
1. Sitting on lounge chairs on the beach at about 9pm with just a little sunlight left listening to the ocean with my husband next to me talking about our life together and about our future.

Good morning!

Well that crazy girl of ours is on to something new. The eggs are old news, cant even get her to play with them these days. But her new favorite thing is socks! She has this pair of red fuzzy socks that she insists upon wearing on her hands like mittens. She even carefully aligns the heels with her thumbs for more comfort. These red fuzzy socks are worn throughout the day, whether we are playing outside or in, riding in the car, or reading books before naptime. (She even wears them during her nap!)

Today we went to the grocery store and she just had to wear them in. So we are strolling around in the shopping cart, me and my sock-handed daughter, enduring the stares of other shoppers. At one point a dad and daughter stopped near us and I felt the need to explain her sock hands. For a moment I thought maybe I'd play on his sympathies and tell him a story about how she had badly sunburned her hands and was forced to wear bandages. The only way to keep her from playing with the bandages was to cover her hands with socks. But no, that wouldn't be right, so instead I launched into an epic explanation of my daughter's funny obsessions with eggs, tickling, and now socks. He was kind and understanding, but I soon realized there wasn't much need to go on and awkwardly strolled away.

8/10/04 Well....

It's been tough getting back to the computer while my hubby has been out of town. My updates are coming fewer and farther between. But Im going to keep this up and see what comes of it. One thing that is disappointing is that there is no "counter" to show if anyone is even reading this thing! Each week I type something and then wonder..."Am I just writing to myself?" Oh well, it is somewhat therapeutic I suppose, and I enjoy it. So if I am only writing these blog pages for myself, I will have a whole book on this period of my life when I am finished.

Friendship is an odd thing isnt it? Most people I know have friends they go out and do things with all the time. If they have kids then they have friends who have kids that they do things with. It's been hard to make new friends in recent years. I dont know if it is because as you get older you get more set in your ways, or if you just lose the stamina to start from scratch with someone.

I recently got back in touch with two friends from high school and it has been real fun emailing each other back and forth because there isnt much pretense. We already know each other, and although it's been years between each visit, and sometimes months between calls or emails, it is good to have that bond already established. I also stay in touch with two or three friends from college. After seeing eac hother date, marry, and move away there is still something that stays familiar though the years have passed.

I think what I miss most is having a best friend. Dont get me wrong, my husband is definitely my best friend, but I miss having a best girlfriend. Someone I can count on calling regularly, go out with on a moment's notice, and someone who just knows me inside and out. Over the years there have been best friends who have come and gone, but right now that's what I miss most. Maybe it's because most of my girlfriends live on the other side of the country! Or maybe it's because I just cant seem to branch out and start fresh. I miss the comfort and joy that comes from having a best friend and knowing that you are someone else's best friend. But I love the friends I have and miss the distant ones all dearly.

Today's Top 5's

Because school starts Monday here, these are the Top 5 school anxieties I remember:
5. What would everyone else be wearing the first day?
4. After a whole summer of only hearing about him, how would that first encounter with my ex boyfriend go.
3. That big list one teacher would always give you with all the reports, tests, and required work for the whole year listed.
2. Did any friends get this class too?
1. Where in the world is room A-27?


Lil' Lu's World
She's still getting her last 3 teeth in and it's been rough, but what can I expect? Im sure if I were cutting teeth I'd be in bed with a cool wash cloth on my forehead and tylenol within reach! So we just try to make it thru.

But one thing that has really helped are these plastic eggs I got for her to play with. You know, the one's you get around Easter to hide and put in baskets. These eggs have gotten more mileage the last two weeks than any other toy we have ever gotten her! She carries them around in an old water gallon jug with the top cut off. We dump them out then pick them up one by one. We take all the eggs apart and put them back together matching. We take them apart and put them back together unmatching. We take them apart and stack them as high as we can...then knock them over. We lay the halves out on the table in squares, circles, color coordinated patterns, flower shapes, straight lines. We make a long line of the halves across the living room floor. Then we put them all back together again and toss them in the jug, or the big metal bowl, or the wagon, or the old oatmeal round container.

The jug has gone with us to Kinkos, Walmart, the park, church (but we have to leave it in the car!), and anywhere else mom and dad let her bring it! Hurray for the 15cent toy!

Embarrassing moments and more...

Life is so serious sometimes it is fun to hear about something ridiculous that happened to someone else. Here's an embarrassing moment of mine that I thought might brighten someone's day...

In college I studied dance, and it was our first performance of the year. We had these stupid outfits on sort of like Las Vegas showgirls with head pieces and sequins (but not revealing) and we had to do this tap routine. Anyway, about mid way thru the performance my halter top came unclasped from behind my neck and fell down! I grabbed it just in time with both hands and tried to fix it but couldnt (Im still tapping away, mind you.) So I keep going with my hand on my shirt holding it up. By now the whole crowd is watching with anticipation to see what Im going to do. I tap my way over to the curtain and run behind it just as the rest of the girls start a big kick line (way cheesy routine I might add.) After the girls took their bow I popped my head out and gave the crowd a wave. Everybody laughed. Very embarrassing. The rest of the night I felt like all eyes were on me to see if I'd gotten my clothes on right!


Today's TOP 5's
Top 5 dream jobs (jobs I would love to do and also have the skills to tackle.)

5. Superstar/Gifted Actor: Ok, something I know very little about except what I read about on the pages of magazines, but from my perspective it looks pretty good. I did study acting in college so I have some skills in this area, and maybe if I had started earlier it could have been a bigger dream. But to really be believable and respected as an actor. Not a wannabe!
4. Tour Dancer: Not sure exactly what this requires, but a few years ago I would have liked to have tackled this one. In my dreams (remember these are "dream" jobs) I would have traveled the world with some big tour as a back up dancer. (a little cheesey but hey.)
3. Beach Critic: --not much different from the Spa Tester but basically on this job I would be expected to travel to exotic locales and test the beaches...(whatever that means....)
2. Spa Tester: (yes, believe it or not I am qualified to test spas..ha!) I would like to have the terrible job of spending weeks away at different exotic locales getting massages, facials, and every meal prepared by a gourmet chef!
1. Wife and mother to my great family...the cliche answer but really...life in reality is not so bad.