Lazy Hazy Summer Dazies...

We are now in the thick of it - yes the middle (or at least what the general public considers middle...screw all that June 21 to September 21 crap) of summer in Atlanta. One word: HOT. Although the heat has been pretty warm and the humidity is sticking to the heat like a fruit roll up to its plastic....we are surviving. The pool has been great! I can't begin to describe my love for the pool mornings on my float with a cup of caffiene watching the birds get dig for their breakfast. The kids are growing up - being goofy and creative - I've added a few recent ones including our new addition "Button" who is growing everyday although since shes so tiny, it's hard to think of her as anything but tiny.

Here is a recent pic of Alex being the silly goof ball that she is.....
And here is one of Matt enjoying Gulf Shores, AL.....


And one of Josh building a wooden fort out of jenga blocks.



So the kids are doing great. I will write more soon with actual substance. Just wanted to get some recent pics up tonight. Good night! :O)

Patriotic Alex

Go to youtube.com and type in mamadeesaid to watch our beautiful little girl sing the National Anthem at the Braves game on Sunday.

I think that almost every Mom and Dad are proud and excited for all of the great things their children do. Billy and I are no exception to this. The only word I can think of that described how I felt watching my baby girl sing the national anthem at the braves game is "beaming". Such a great experience to see and more importantly for her to have and keep in her memories forever.

She is such a great kid and I love how she just dives into new things with passion and drive. I think it's because of this that she succeeds in whatever she puts her mind to. She overcame an impressive bout of peer pressure to join chorus in the first place. A friend of hers in class (Maddie) asked her to not try out because she said that if she tried out and Alex tried out and if Maddie didn't make it, it would upset Maddie too much and so Maddie didn't know if they could be friends after this. Alex told Maddie that she was sorry she felt so strongly about it, but that she was going to try out regardless because it was something she really wanted to do. Its not an easy lesson to learn to stick up for yourself, stand on your own two feet and make your own path in life with your own choices. I am so proud that she is learning to do this at such a young age. To give you the ending of this story - both Alex and Maddie tried out for chorus. Maddie didn't make it. They are still "friends".

We spent the game time with Billy, Matt, Josh, Hannah, Sue, Lynn and sweet Janie. I think all had a good time. We left in the top of the 5th with the braves losing to the marlins, but the braves came back in the end and won the game.

So here is another great example of the things that make up our little girl. I'm sure I will be able to post many more examples in my future blogs. :)

Playin Possum?

I'm sure most of you are aware of how much I LOVE those dah-ling marsupials...the beloved POSSUM. Well, we have had yet another possum adventure....

Occasionally Scout, my pup, has to go to the bathroom at an inconvenient time of the night. Because I am a ridiculously lite sleeper, all he has to do is stare at me until I wake up. He did this very thing this past weekend around 1:00am. Half asleep, I let him out and then half asleep again, I opened the door to let him back in about 30 minutes later. I happened to glance over at him walking into the TV room on my way back to bed and noticed he was carrying something in his mouth and dropping it on the carpet. I'm not sure how many dogs do this, but Scout actually buries rawhide bones that we buy him and digs them up later. This may seem innocent enough but after a rawhide bone sits in the earth for a while it gets quite disgusting and I do not allow them in our house. Seeing him drop an item on the carpet, I sleepily assumed it was another gross bone. I was less than thrilled to see that it was not a decaying rawhide, but a mauled possum!

The creepy varment was about a foot or so long and plopped on the carpet seeming to be dead. After some impressive shreaking, I frantically woke up Billy to get the animal OUT of the house. Billy came into the TV room in a more than half asleep daze, starred at the possum for a minute and walked back out and got a big empty Tide box and a paint stir stick. He stood over the possum for what seemed like a small eternity armed with the box in one hand and the stick held up like a sword in the other. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry nervously and I'm certain I made some crazy noises that combined those two feelings. When Billy bent down to try to put the Possum in the box the first time, the Possum moved his head a bit so we both knew it was actually "playing possum" and not dead. I think after that Billy realized the thing could get up and move somewhere a little less easy to capture and he proceeded to quickly scoop it into the Tide box with the stick. I think the whole thing at that point creeped him out and he taped the box shut with about 15 rounds of moving tape before he removed it from the house into the garbage can outside. Luckily, it was the weekend and our garbage is picked up Monday morning. After the ordeal I scrubbed and rinsed the carpet about 5 times. There are two extremely bright shiny circles in an otherwise very dirty carpet in our living room. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well for the rest of that night. :)

We are at day 6 after our latest Possum episode and are in some ways STILL dealing with the chaos through Scout. He must have eaten some of the animal and suffered from it from both ends. After a full day of dealing with THAT, Scout was able to clear a room for a few days with a TOXIC aftermath and then unfortunately got an irritated bottom that needed to be looked at by the vet. Per the vet he will be fine after this "runs its course". Hopefully this will be the LAST possum story for the Saids.

Obituary

I just found out that a friend? of mine passed away. He wasn't so much a friend as an acquaintance who I held in high regard. That sounds so uncaring though, doesn't it? He was pretty great. I interviewed with him in the beginning of 2009 for Mini Cities, Inc., a company which I only worked at for a small amount of time, but loved. We hit it off and I really enjoyed his company. He was a chef and was very focused on the local community and had a slight geek side of him that I could relate to. His wife was/is great and he has/had a daughter named Alexandra the same age as Alex. When I met him, he was battling brain cancer. I missed him a great deal after parting ways with Mini Cities. It makes me sad to know that he lost his battle. I can only pray that he is in a beautiful place full of happiness and love.

I've been thinking of obituaries a lot lately so this recent news pressed on my brain about this particular subject. What a profound thing an obituary is...think about it. It sums up a person's life in a paragraph. It consolidates what an individual is known for, remembered for and what they are survived by. That is a pretty powerful set of sentences. I can't help but wonder what my obituary would read? I can't help but wonder if there is anything in my life worth noting, worth mentioning in a paragraph that would forever define my life. And who is this obligation assigned to? A stranger? A loved one...is it designated to a person that the deceased loved and trusted like that of a will? Or is it just handed haphazardly off to an every day Joe who works at that particular newspaper, etc. Do people put their love and passion for the deceased into each and every word that will be written? What will my obituary read? What is significant in my life...and am I focusing on bettering those things which are most important or muddling in unimportant factors of an everyday life? What about you? Are you being significant? Are you making the items that YOU would write about in a person's obituary, the categories that you yourself find most important in life worthy enough to be written about yourself on paper.....
Obituary...pretty powerful paragraph....

The year of the Tiger, the season of Family

The year of the Tiger, the season of Family

crazyhappylife

July 10th, 13:11

Current Mood:

content

The year of the Tiger - at least that's what it is to the Chinese...The year of the tiger emphasizes courage and to have courage throughout the year to overcome life's obstacles. It seems to be a bit generic to me, as if could equate to any year in particular, but who am I to judge or criticize a bagillion year tradition of 1/3 of the population of the world?

For me - every year rolls in and out of certain themes, almost seasonal. The summer season "theme" definitely seems to be family. My family not only includes blood relatives but a few friends along the way that have been bumped into that category. I have spent most of the past two months with a family member somewhere. I've spent time with my in laws - more than I normally do, and have gotten to enjoy my niece and nephew. I've spent time with my sister, who came to visit for 10 days in May and I've gotten the chance to see all of my cousins, their kids and my aunts & uncle on my Mom's side this summer along with spend quality time with my girls & Paulie - all of whom I consider extended family.

I think because of certain turns my life has taken as of late and because of such an emphasis on family, I have found my inner self again. I've been more relaxed and less stressed than I have in many many years. I am content and happy for the first time in a long time.

It's a lazy saturday morning and it's time like these that remind me how great life is & how good I've got it. I've got a goof ball husband who makes me laugh and who I am very much in love with, three happy giggly kids and a great lil' sis living with me. I have an amazing house that is so very much home to me and my life is completely surrounded by loved ones, by family.

I hope your "season" right now gives you a few moments to reflect on yourself and the things in life that make you happy. I also hope that you take a moment to enjoy your life, what you have and who is in it to make it so special.

sitcom material for mothers day

Sunday, May 10, 2009

And so it begins.....

In honor of my several best friends who truly believe that my life is a sitcom waiting to happen, I have decided to write down my daily takes - the in and outs of my chaos and give you my not-so-boring details. Don't get me wrong, I have my mundane days just like the rest of you, but it just so happens that those are not the norm for me, so in order to amuse or give someone a small grin or slight giggle - I will write...the never ending saga of my crazy sitcom life. I hope you enjoy!

So today - I am a mother of three amazing kids - age 3, 5 and 6. I've got a hell raiser, a dreamer and a diva on my hands so no day is ever boring. I asked the stars, the heavens, god or whatever you would like to believe (I believe in a bit of all of it so my praying lasts a long time! ha) for a truly boring, non adventerous Mother's Day. I've been given a Mother's Day (my first) with Chicken pox for both me and my baby without my husband being in town, my second with a very very sick child, my third I believe with my 1st child having severe RSV and my 4th with a newborn and ungodly back pain from a broken (two disc ruptured icky messed up messy) back and of course the 5th one with my sweet baby stuck in the hospital with me for 72 hours with Phnemonia and me...without sleep but who cares...my beautiful baby was sick and it scared the hell out of me. So that brings me to last year. I believe it was non evental, but can't quite remember as I try to block out "all things Charlotte" to remain sane. So this brings us up to date. A 37 year old Mama of 3...just lookin for a day of plain white rice, blah nothingness with a side of ho-hum and a drink of water let's not even spruce it up with ice.
The day went nice for the beginning. I took my three little crazies to Pet Smart that morning to play with puppies and kittties and grab a few things I needed for Scout. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. I ventured to target where I managed to get a few things needed - summer pj's which always shock me that my kids are growing so fast that they don't have clothes for the next upcoming season and a few loungy shorts for me. Again, uneventful. We grabbed some pool toys as the pool is almost ready to be used and regardless that the temperature is a ridiculous brrr freeze level, they are all ready to go in.

The pool unfortunately wasn't ready for today so the floats and noodles and what not had to wait for one more afternoon.

So today, I wanted my relaxing nothingness of no drama, no crazyness, no anything to last all day and I truly thought I was there. I had a few hampers of clothes to fold in our bedroom and asked Billy to bring them into the tv room so I could fold and watch tv together. Well in the midst of my folding, out rolled a dead, slightly eaten small possum. If you have read my other previous blog...you will know my deep distaste for these creatures and for it to show up in my hamper of clean clothes...well you can imagine my distaste and trauma that went with it. I went probably above the average normal person of "crazy" and decided to wash every single piece of clothing that was even remotely related to that day.....but I don't care. It was sick. It was disgusting and it was in my BEDROOM. I have a beloved Mutt named Scout who's crate is inches from where the laundry basket was, so I can figure out how it got there. I need to teach my pup that gift certificates to a spa or something is a much more preferred gift than a dead possum. So for those who have had a great mother's day, I have had the same...nothing but love and appreciation from my three crazy monkeys...with a small varment included that whacked out my laundry and freaked out the rest of my day.
With love till tomorrow,
Mamadee

Posted by Mamadee at 7:51 PM

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone! So I am bound and determined to have a boring, no drama, peaceful mothers day tomorrow. First Mother's day - I had chicken pox, Alex had chicken pox, Billy was out of town and everyone else was at their mother's house celebrating mother's day...including my mother. 2nd Mother's day - Alex had RSV and Billy was out of town 3rd mother's day - Matty was very sick and Billy was out of town, 4th mother's day - I had a newborn, a broken back and two toddlers - just recently had a c-section and was in ridiculous back pain, 5th mother's day - I was in the hospital for 72 hours with Josh with phnemonia. Last mother's day was actually somewhat normal, but Billy was again, out of town so yes, that brings us to tomorrow. I'd like ONE mother's day where there isn't any drama...so I can reflect on how regardless of my "not so great" mother's days, the rest of the year each year has been pretty amazing and I am so unbelievably grateful to have been blessed 3 times...with 3 amazing, wonderful crazy little monkies.