Monday, February 25, 2013

LML Monday - Cub Scouts & BBQ Wings

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here.

Cub Scouts
This weekend was my son's first Blue & Gold Banquet with Cub Scouts. It was quite the event, and very exciting. He received his Tiger Badge that he has been working toward all year, as well as several other awards. I'm very proud of my little man. But even more, I'm so happy to see him take pride in himself and his accomplishments.





BBQ Wings
As some of you know, my daughter has quite a love for BBQ chicken. And so from time to time we go out to one of our favorite joints for wings. Partly because we all like to eat them. But largely because we get to see this face. And who wouldn't want to do that as often as possible?




Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and have a great week!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Renewed Faith in Today's Youth

Getting nailed in the face with a big rubber ball hurts. A lot. It happened to me yesterday when I was dropping my son off at school. We were walking through the playground when one of the kids playing four-square got a little too exuberant with his bounce and the ball got away from him.

It caught me totally off guard - and did I mention it hurt? - but I'm fine. No permanent harm done. The headache that it gave me only lasted for a few hours, and the mark it left on my face is almost completely gone now. And (thank goodness!) my glasses were only bent and not broken, and my husband was able to easily fix them for me.

But the inevitable bright side to this story isn't just that I wasn't hurt all that bad. The really cool thing about what happened is that it gave me a little bit of hope that the "kids these days" may not all be the rotten little monsters that people sometimes like to think they are.

When I recovered from the shock enough to realize that the ball had knocked my glasses off, I started to have that moment of near-panic that most bespectacled people have had at least once. You know, that moment when you realize that you have to find your glasses, but you can't see anything without them, so you have no idea how you're going to pull it off.

I was just about to ask my son if he saw where my glasses went, but before I could even get it out of my mouth a little boy who had witnessed what happened ran over and picked them up, and handed them to me with a cheerful "here you go!" I thanked him, and he happily went off to continue playing. He didn't know me, and he wasn't involved in what happened. He just saw someone in need and was able to help, so he did.

As soon as I got my glasses settled back on my nose I looked up to see another boy standing in front of me. When he saw that he had my attention he quickly said "I'm so sorry! Are you ok?" And he really seemed honestly sincere. I assured him that I would be ok (but I did take the opportunity to remind him that there are lots of little ones running around, and that it's really important to be careful.)

He promised to be careful, and headed back to his game. But before he was gone, another boy from the game also came over to make sure that I was ok. Again I said that I would be, so not to worry (and again I used the chance to remind them to be careful.)

I finally recovered from the initial surprise of getting hit and realized the other (more pleasant) surprise of having young kids be so helpful and caring. Way too much of the time all we hear about is the tales of the "bad kids" and how they're being dealt with. It's tempting to get cynical about today's youth. But they obviously aren't all bad, and some of them do care.

I mean, I've always known how awesome my own kids are. But it's nice to see that there are some other good ones out there too. :)

Monday, February 18, 2013

LML Monday - Busy Days and Lazy Days


It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here.


I have to admit, there were times when I thought this past week was going to kill me. It was a good week, really. Just incredibly busy. And it completely wore me out. But since it was so busy mainly because it was a week spent celebrating... I suppose I can't really complain.

My daughter turned 5 last Monday (which, incidentally, is why I missed my post last week. Much too busy celebrating.) We actually started the celebration the Saturday before, because my husband would be working and my son would be in school on Monday, and we wanted to be able to do something as a family.

So we started with lunch (and a ridiculous birthday brownie volcano) at the Rainforest Cafe, and pretty much just kept celebrating all weekend.



Of course the celebration continued on Monday, when we had a girls' day out that included (among other things) breakfast for the two of us, manicures, and lunch with Grandma.





Then finally this past Saturday we got to have her birthday party with all of her friends.


And run ourselves ragged at the park.



In the end we were all exhausted, but the Birthday Princess was happy, so it was all worthwhile.



Of course all of this would have been plenty of excitement for one week... but let's not forget that we also had Valentine's Day thrown in there too. And the Valentine's Day party at school. More planning, and shopping, and organizing. More exhausted Mommy. But also great fun.




With beautiful moments like these, how could I not simply adore my life? 

Of course, the final treat of the week was yesterday, when at last I had no immediately pressing responsibilities and could relax and breathe for a bit. The kids and I had quite the lazy day, filled with Angry Birds, coloring books, and Dr. Who on Netflix. It was brilliant.


Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and have a great week!

Monday, February 4, 2013

LML Monday - Birthdays and Big Drinks

It's Monday once again, my friends. And as always that means it's time to reflect on the things that made us happy over the past week. And of course now is also the perfect time to set the tone for a great week to come! 

If you missed my take on LML, you can find it here. If you missed the explanation of LML Monday, you can catch up here.


I have to be honest here, guys. I'm extremely tired today, and not completely feeling the writing vibe. But that probably has something to do with having just spent a long weekend in Las Vegas celebrating my birthday. (Can't say that's for sure why I'm so exhausted... but I'd say it's a pretty safe bet.) But for you, I'll suck it up and write anyway. :)

It's no shock that my focus on this fine LML Monday is my awesome husband, and the mini-vacation that he just treated me to. It was a bit of a milestone of birthdays, and it has been many years since the last birthday I got to celebrate, so it seemed like a good time to do something special. Nothing extravagant, of course (because I'm not the extravagant type.) But four days in Vegas was just about perfect.

We spent the days relaxing and taking in the sights. And yes, indulging a little in good food and good drinks. It was a celebration, after all.

Senior Frogs is always a good time. The staff is fun, the karaoke is usually hilarious, and who doesn't love drinks measured by the yard?


Sadly we weren't there at the right time to see the girls dancing on the bar at Coyote Ugly. But I did get to walk around for the rest of the day with a big plastic cowboy boot filled with alcohol, so at least there's that.


Ok, so a huge plastic Eiffel Tower isn't necessarily the most convenient thing to walk around with all night... but it's cute, and the drink was actually pretty good (and enough to share, which is always cool too.)



No, the week wasn't all about the alcohol. But the occasional "big drink" is fun, and it's a huge part of the Vegas experience. (Trust me. Walk around there some time. You'll see what I mean.)

So while I'm exhausted, and taking a bit of time readjusting to reality, it was all worth it. I have to thank my husband again for the wonderful time. Oh, and a special shout-out to my mom, too. If the kids hadn't been able to stay with you... well, I probably would have still celebrated my birthday, but I imagine it would have been considerably different. ;)


Ok. I shared mine - now it's your turn! Please feel free to leave me a comment and share some of your recent LML moments. Focus on the happy thoughts, and have a great week!