I (HEART) my friends!!!

My friends, Kristi, Robin, and Leah, and I were all able to coordinate our schedules for two hours on Friday to hit up a Perkins for lunch… KID FREE! It was SO great to hang out with them for a little while (and have one of Perkins oh SO yummy chocolate shakes) and chat it up without having to worry about our kids. Mind you, usually when we get together with the kids they go off and play with themselves alright, but as a mom whenever your kids are around, you are ‘on’ and by that I mean, you are a mom first and foremost.

Well, as a mom, you are always a mom first and foremost when it comes to your kids… but a lunch out sans kids, let us be adult women as well without having to check on the kids every ten minutes to make sure they are okay playing. And did we need it! I love my friends SO much! They make life bearable and without them life wouldn’t be the same! And the lunch was good too!

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key. We had Ayden’s Green Blue and Gold cub scouts banquet on Saturday afternoon. They had swimming at a hotel in town for the boys and then supper afterwards with the oldest group of boys transferring from cub scouts to boy scouts. Ayden swam from 2-4pm and was a fish like usual! I brought my camera along and took some pictures. It felt good to get it out again. I’d really like to get outside and take some, but its been too darn cold for me!

Ayden had a bit of an attitude after swimming. He didn’t want to get out of the pool and play the other games with the boys. But after a while, he got over his temper tantrum and decided that he wanted to have fun and fun he had! I like the cub scouts and all for what it gives the boys, but I wish it didn’t involve so much parent participation. Yes, I did say that. It’s not who I am, so I don’t necessarily enjoy it. I don’t mind bringing a treat to a meeting, but I’m not the parent who will organize all of the stuff. I don’t enjoy that sort of stuff. I like soccer because I can take Ayden, watch him actively participate in something he likes for an hour and then we leave.

Actually, what I don’t like it sitting around being bored off my butt while Ayden is doing stuff. I’m not a social butterfly, I’m an introvert, so I cannot just walk up to other parents standing around and start a conversation with them like I’ve known them forever, nor do I really want to. So, like last night while Ayden was off playing with some buddies, I was bored stiff. Selfish much, yeah, I admit it, it was. And I realize that, so I just take it and let Ayden have fun. But that doesn’t mean I can’t complain about it a little bit on my blog, does it? If I really didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have agreed to let Ayden be in scouts. It really is a great program for kids (Although I did have a problem with them giving out badges to the kids last night who’s parents pledged money to the scouts, I mean what about the parents like us who cannot afford to pledge any money? Then Ayden doesn’t get that badge… and that I did feel guilty about, but we really cannot afford it right now.)

I saw this really cool photo effect on a blog that I frequent and I thought I would try it out at my house. It didn’t turn out perfect, but for a first shot I think it turned out pretty cool. I’d like to try it out outside at some point, maybe once it gets a little warmer. And I need to make sure that the camera tripod is super steady because all of the pictures didn’t match ‘perfectly’ like I would have liked. In any case, it was a good first attempt!

Ayden and I are at home tonight watching The Pacifier with Vin Diesel while Jay is at his grandparent’s house watching the Super Bowl on their big screen TV in high definition. Boo him! Ayden and I could have gone along, but then we would have had to drive back to Point either at like 10pm tonight with the possibility of snow on the roads (and we all know how much I love to drive with snow on the road) or leave at like 6am tomorrow morning to get back home in time for my 8am class (and no promises the roads wouldn’t have snow on them at that time either).

Reason being that we aren’t watching it at home is because we do not have local channels. As much as I don’t really care for watching football and it wouldn’t otherwise matter that we couldn’t watch the Super Bowl, but our ‘home team’ the Packers are in it and it would have been (as much as it pains me to write this) the littlest bit cool to watch it. And Jay wouldn’t have been able to drive us home tonight because he is staying over at his parent’s house because he has his first dentist appointment in 11 years tomorrow. Turns out that he is covered under his mom’s insurance for dental cleanings (and possibly more) and he is going to take advantage of it. He thinks he has at least one cavity.

If he is covered for more, he may go forward with braces, although it would be more than just your average two years of braces. Apparently he has some major jaw issues and would need jaw surgery which would result in his jaw being wired shut for like 6-8 weeks after surgery to heal and then braces. Or at least that is what they told him how many years ago when his parents decided that it would cost them too much to get it done. I don’t necessarily blame them because dental stuff is expensive, but both his brothers ended up with braces so I thought it was kind of unfair. But in any case, I’d love for him to get his teeth straightened (not that it would make me love him any more), but I know he would like it, even though he doesn’t say it. The only thing I was concerned about was the timing because I don’t really want him to have braces in our wedding photos. Yes, I just wrote that, photos I will cherish for the rest of our lives… don’t want braces ‘ruining’ that. Vain, yes. I know that people can clone them out nowadays, but it takes work and more work means more money. I suppose I shouldn’t be getting ahead of myself because he might not even be able to get any of this stuff done.

Back to school tomorrow… not looking forward to the next couple of weekends. Next weekend is sturgeon spearing and Jay is leaving Thursday night to go home. He planned on being home until the following weekend, but because I have a late class on Wednesday night and even though we have Ayden going to the after school program, he will still need to come back to Point to pick him up because my class gets out after the after school program ends (yeah, its that late). And that means he’ll be gone for Valentine’s Day. Jay is not big on holidays (or anything romantic anymore, seven and a half years later and he’s gone all non romantic on me 364 days of the year, sometimes 365) and so I’m not expecting anything. I would like to, but I know I won’t get anything. Our relationship has been pretty lack luster lately. We’ve been getting along, no fighting or anything, but most just living together, not loving together. Going through the motions of every day and parenting together, but not really appreciating each other or what we have. So, although Valentine’s Day is mostly a Hallmark holiday, it depresses me a little bit that he doesn’t really think anything about being gone and will probably just go through it as any other day.

And then after sturgeon spearing, its state wrestling of which Jay thinks he can run off to as well. Where is my weekend away?! Especially after he will be getting almost a week! But, even though he hasn’t been working a whole lot lately, he does deserve it. I could go on an on about how lazy he has been at home each day, but I won’t vent about that right now. At this point, I know he’s going a little stir crazy and it will be good for him to get out for a few days with something to do and people to see (even if it does involve a little too much alcohol at the bar a night or two). I get out of the house now five days a week and although class may not be my all time favorite cup of tea, it is something to do. He doesn’t have that right now on most days and so I think he is getting a little bored sitting at home. I’ll let him take it.

CIAO! LOVE ME!