Damn groundhog.  I would have taken Chloe to punch him in the head, but there was too much snow.

The kids ended up not having school on Tuesday, which put them home for SIX DAYS IN A ROW.  Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed them.  But without having the luxuries of summer activities like the pool and just BEING outside, they were ready for school.  After about four days.

So, the weather is definitely still winter.  But me?  My attitude is gearing up for spring.  I’ve started re-arranging stuff in the house.  I’m gaining a new sense of purpose, and I’m motivated.  That’s MY big sign for spring.  I never, ever start projects in the winter.  Well, I might start them, but I stop them in about five minutes.  I’m enjoying my renewed energy, and I’m relishing in my great attitude.

And I won’t even let sleet, rain, snow or ice ruin it.

Point is, if I have this feeling, I know that ACTUAL spring is coming.  Soon.  So hang in there.  Trust me.

Hell, I may even wash my car.  Poor thing hasn’t been washed since October.

Thursday started as a regular (but warm) day.  I threw the kids on the bus and headed home to do some work.  About a half an hour later, I got a call from my friend.  He had to drop something off to the school that his daughter had forgotten.  He said that the school smelled like gas, and there were fire trucks and ambulances.  He said he was taking his daughter home.  Well, I wrestled back and forth with the decision, and finally decided to just yank mine out of school, too.  I didn’t want them sitting and getting nauseous, and if they ended up with an early dismissal, I figured I would beat the rush.

Well, long story short, I got my kids, all my neighbors got their kids, and they moved all the other children over to the middle school to just kill time all day.  Me?  I took the kids to the zoo a day early.  It was 65 degrees, sunny, and we decided to have fun with our curve ball.

We had a great day.  There was hardly anybody at the zoo, and we got to watch the animals for as long as we wanted.  The kids were in a great mood, and there was absolutely no complaining or whining. (Well, there was the occasional, “Are we there yet???”  But I don’t even really hear those anymore).

Usually I make sure that I leave the zoo in plenty of time to beat the traffic.  But that day?  It just didn’t matter.  Traffic, schmaffic.  As we headed home, we talked about getting close to home and stopping for ice cream.  I drove home through Lawrenceville and the Strip, and I followed through on something I had been meaning to do…Stop at Klavons Ice Cream.  I’ve driven past it a bunch of times, but never actually stopped.  The kids enjoyed sitting at the counter, and they got to pick out some classic candy.  I even got some of those little jaw breakers in a box.  Love those.  I remember paying 10 cents at a basketball game for them.  Well, they’re a quarter now…which is perfect…because I got to say “Hey, when I was little these were only ten cents.”

If I have to get old, I wanna do all the old people stuff I can.

I’ve really been trying to live in the moment, and enjoy every single day.  It wasn’t hard that day.  So I figure, next time I’m having a hard time enjoying my day, I’ll just close my eyes and think about our trip to the zoo.

Hello?  Hello?!?!?!?!  How about when a customer comes into your store, you get your ass off the phone and give me a big cheery, “Hello!  How are ya today?”  I HATE to interrupt your conversation about where you’re going with your gang of pierced and tattooed under-21 friends (not that I have anything against tattoos and piercings…I SO don’t).  Oh wait…..I guess I DIDN’T interrupt, because you’re still having the conversation!

Tell  your friend to just hold on…you have to DO THE JOB THAT YOU’RE GETTING PAID FOR.  Ring up my shit, let me play the lottery, and I’ll be on my merry way.

</rant>

Of course, I didn’t say anything even close to this.  I smiled, I was patient.  I told her I was in no hurry.  I gave her the little golf clap version of a wave good-bye (you know…just wiggle your fingers a teenie bit).  But all those things that I wrote up there?  I thought them.  And it felt good to get it out.

So, I watched The Early Show this morning and saw that researchers have determined that today is the saddest day of the year.

But not for me.

I have to admit, though, I had a day last week that was just…well…icky.  I was just miserable, I was cleaning up puke all day, and I had zero motivation.

But today?  Today is good.

I got to watch my Steelers put the smack down on the Ravens.  I got to watch BY MYSELF.  And you know what I did during commercial breaks and halftime?  I cleaned my house.  Laundry?  Put away.  Dusting?  Done.  I love that feeling of having a clean house.  You know what else I did this weekend?  I caught up on my to-do list.  I even cooked dinner yesterday (and that, my friends, is an accomplishment).

I think I’ve turned the corner on the winter blues.  Now only if the weather would start cooperating, I think I can take on the world.

But maybe I’ll just tackle today’s to-do list first.  :-)

Me?  I’m here, on the laptop, in a semi-clean house.  I will be watching the game here, by myself.

Why?

I love watching Steeler games.  I mean, LOVE.  I can watch regular season games with other people (unless it’s a critical-win regular season game).  But playoff games?  Nope.  I can watch them with MY family, but that’s about it.  It’s almost like a religious experience.  You can pray with a bunch of people, but when you really need to concentrate, you just need to be alone.

Will my friends and neighbors think I’m anti-social?  Maybe.  I hope not…I explained the situation to my two close friends.  I just can’t deal with twenty children (two of them mine) running around and creating general chaos WHILE I’M TRYING TO WATCH THE GAME.  And there will be fathers there, but who do the kids go to?  The moms.

So, excuse me while I completely immerse myself in the game…and nothing else.  Except during commercial breaks…I may get up to pee.

GO STEELERS!!!!!!

I don’t know if you read about the teacher who sued Chartiers Valley school district.  Wait, which one, you say?  They’ve been sued so many times in the past few years, it’s hard to keep them all straight.  Anyway, I’m talking about the applicant for a Social Studies teacher who is also a Veteran.   Here’s the article at the Post Gazette.

There’s so much BULLSHIT in this whole situation that I don’t even know where to start.  Plain and simple, Chartiers Valley School District has CONSISTENTLY put their sports program ahead of academics.  They have done this by “bending” the rules (or, you know, breaking the law…whatever) and now the taxpayers are paying for their mistakes.  There have been other mistakes, too.  Mistakes that don’t have anything to do with sports, but politics.  And poor judgement.  And people who have power who do things for their own agenda.  Remember the Assistant Superintendent Tammy Whitfield?  Yeah, she has money going to her.  And then there’s the whole Tim McConnell situation.  Great coach.  He’s also my neighbor.  Nice guy, supports our business.  But he had a job that he wasn’t qualified for.  I’m glad that he’s still the coach, but the way he got into that position was just not cool.  Not necessarily his fault, but it involved more blunders from Chartiers Valley.

The teacher who got the job instead of the applicant who was a Veteran?  Football coach.  I don’t know him from Adam.  He’s probably a very nice guy.  But, plain and simple, he shouldn’t have gotten the job when there was a more qualified candidate.  The situation would be totally different if they were applying for a job with a private company.  But this is for a SCHOOL DISTRICT.  Their salaries are paid by TAXES.  Do I think that the majority of parents would rather have a great coach or a great teacher?  We want great teachers!!!!!

Nepotism exists.  Plain and simple.  ”It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  Well, that’s all fine and dandy.  Maybe it can give you an extra “push” if you know somebody.  It should be a tie breaker.  But if there isn’t a tie??????  HELLO!!!!! Jobs should go to the most qualified person.

OK, I feel better.  Do I want to run for Chartiers Valley School Board?  Hells, no.  Do I want to vote out every person that had anything to do with these situations?  Hells, yes.

Anywhoo, Ramona and Beezus was NOT in 3-D.  Amazing.  You know why?  Every movie in the world now is offered in 3-D.  As we watched the previews, EVERY SINGLE PREVIEW said “in digital 3-D.”  So what.  Yes, 3-D can be cool.  We say Toy Story 3 in 3-D.  Why?  Because that movie was a big deal.  My kids had been waiting for over a year to see it.  Figured it was a nice extra treat to have that extra dimension.  But it really ISN’T necessary for most movies.  It’s sucking up theater space (you need one to show the 2-D and one for 3-D) and the cost is insane!!!!  I’m boycotting all 3-D movies.

Phew.  OK.  I feel better now.  Thanks for listening.

/rant

Heather

Tomorrow is the last day of school.  Here’s a list of things I’m ready for:

• SLEEPING IN!
• Heading to the matinee
• Lazy mornings in PJ’s
• Trips for ice cream
• The kids splashing in the pool
• The drive in
• Riding bikes on the trail
• Carnivals

Things I’m not looking forward to:

• “I’m bored!”
• “She hit me!”
• “I’m hot!”
• Keeping their brains working

So, I guess I AM looking forward to summer.  But I also get excited about them going back to school.  Seeing that back to school is 76 days away, I’m just going to enjoy the Summer stuff first.  Then I can get excited about new pencils, glue sticks, teachers and outfits.  I’ve decided that I’m going to take some time to ACT LIKE A KID this summer.  I may even put my bathing suit on once or twice.  Why?  Because this is the last summer that I am IN MY THIRTIES!  I’m going to be carefree (I hope), fun and silly.  I will eat popsicles.  I will draw with chalk.  I will jump rope.  I will teach my kids to do a cartwheel.  Don’t get me wrong…I’m not going to be a boring, strict 40 year old.  But I think I’ll suck up the last bit of my thirties, and then get back to ‘the grind’ once I turn 40 and school starts again.

ENJOY THE START OF SUMMER!!!!!

At 5:00 am.

Really.

So, I got myself ready and headed out to Target.  I got to the parking lot around 4:50.  There wasn’t a spot to be had in Target’s lot, so I parked in the lot next door.  I got in line to enter the store.

The end of the line was around the building at the loading docks.

Really.

I got inside and there weren’t any carts left.

Really.

I dragged my but back to a very large air hockey table that was on sale for fifty bucks.  (This was the gift I told my folks that the kids would like – and they will).  I grabbed the table, and, without a cart, dragged it through the store.  I offered one guy ten bucks for his cart.

Really.

I still didn’t get it…he had something large to get.

So, I propped up my air hockey table and headed to the front of the store to stalk people for a cart.  I finally got one.  I tried to do some more shopping.  I had the best of intentions.  I was going to get all the shopping done.

HA!

I waited in line at the electronics counter (because I needed an iPod Touch) for over an hour to pay for all of my crap.  I did save ten percent because I opened a Target charge, and got 25 bucks in gift cards back.

I left the house at 4:30 and got back at 7:45.  And I just went to one store.

Really.

Have a great day!

I mean, they’re coming for me.  I’m assuming that they’re coming for every other person (or at least every other mother) in the world, too.

It’s that month between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It’s one month of slightly controlled chaos, enormous amounts of pressure and lots of extra calories.

I don’t mean to sound like a Scrooge, but I’ve NEVER been big on Christmas.  I take that back.  I was never really big on Christmas once I had to be the grown up (even before I had kids).  I don’t like deadlines, I stress about whether or not I bought something for all the people on ‘the list,’ should I have joined that cookie exchange and did I send cards out to everybody that I got a card from?

Ugh.

So, because Thanksgiving is not until next week, I’m sticking with the whole “Let’s make a better Heather” theme.  Smoking habit?  Kicked. (Don’t get me wrong…I still want to smoke.  A lot.  But I won’t).  Exercise?  Check – five times a week at the gym.  Weight?  Working on it with the exercise and some bland tasting, low calorie foods.  Except for the bag of Heath bars I bought that were on sale after Halloween.  But they’re very small  I’m doing all the crap my doctor wants me to do.  I just need a check up at the dentist, AND I need to get my hair done.

So, tomorrow I’m going to get my hair cut and colored.  Let’s see…I’m going to look back at some old posts…The last time I got my hair cut and colored would be August 13th.  More than three months.  Which explains the roots that are over an inch long.  And the greys.

Oh, the greys.

So, tomorrow will be it for a while.  The last thing I do for me until after Christmas.  Then I’ll be officially diving in.  Present buying, cookie making, wrapping, cards, decorating, attending concerts, making treat bags for school…the list will go on forever.  I’m gonna slap a smile on my face and enjoy it, damn it!  Really, I am.

I just hope I don’t come out on the other side of Christmas as a smoking, lazy, 50 pound overweight mom with a crushed sense of self and a crushed sense of humor.

But hey, then at least I won’t have a hard time picking out some resolutions for 2010.