Why Can't he Just Take a Mistress?

Why do we believe we'll have the opposite of our parents' undesirable traits? My mom is a worrier, and so I have always thought I would not be that way.

Yet, here I am at nearly one in the morning, worrying. Although it doesn't happen often, I do have these worrying fits at times.

At this such time, as I am typing, my husband is driving to the Grand Canyon. He had flown to California on business, and has decided drive to Arizona to hike from the north rim to the bottom of the canyon. In one day. In July. Alone.

Should I be worried? He has hiked the Grand Canyon several times before, and usually makes the hike in one day. What is different this time is that he will be hiking from the north rim, which is a first for him. It is a longer and more difficult trail. Oh, and yes, let's see, he's ALONE.

I hope that he will be wise on this excursion. If he leaves the marked trail but yet manages to come home alive, I will then kill him. Leaving the marked trail is what gets a person on a show like I Shouldn't Be Alive.

I shouldn't be worrying, but I am.

Darth Tired

Taking over the galaxy is exhausting. Don't make me climb stairs afterwards.

Saber Sorrow

My children have discovered Star Wars. In many households, this would not be a catastrophic discovery, but in this house, we have four boys. Too much force it is.

No Cookies for You!

Dear Hubby,

Did you think I wouldn't notice that you got into the chocolate chips? Now I know why your eyes didn't widen with delight when I said I was baking cookies.

A Think on Ink

I am beyond a tattoo virgin. At this point, I am a tattoo spinster. It's never gonna happen.

Settling Down

Last night my family and I grabbed our ponchos and strolled downtown for an evening of 80s music and fireworks. While it may seem we were prepared due to my mention of ponchos, we were decidedly unprepared. We noticed this soon after we arrived at Lakeside park with no ID card with which to admit our ready-to-pee, penis-holding three-year-old to the restroom. You see, in our neighborhood, one has to have his town ID card to get into the amenities, such as the awesome playground our kids had to sit next to all night without being able to go in, because I forgot aforementioned card.

Also woefully left behind was the blanket we were to sit on, the cold beverages and tasty snacks, and the card game we would have enjoyed until someone got tired of losing and threw the cards all over the grass. Insect repellent: who would have thought to bring that along on a warm Florida night near the lake?

So we perched on our ponchos amidst our fellow townspeople who could pee when they wanted or send their whiny kids to the playground or pick up the Uno cards their sore loser seven-year-old tossed at her brother's head. We waited about two hours there shooing bugs and playing solitaire on our phones. We "watered" the bushes and found some toys in the bottom of my backpack amidst the layers of toddler snack crumbs, diapers, and sand. The children quit fighting and complaining about lack of snackage. It didn't even rain as expected. Little by little the "misery" eased (it wasn't true misery after all). We settled down.

I wish to "settle down" in the other areas of my life. Like our outing on the Fourth, our lives are lacking due to not being prepared. Granted, it is not easy to prepare to move a family of eight out of state and start a new job and life, but I am rethinking our decisions this past year. We have moved three times. We are currently paying high rent. We need new cars. We may have been emotionally damaged by homeschooling. I am only partly joking on that last one. Our decisions have gotten us to this place in our lives, and this place is not ideal.

Let me go back a few steps. I said it wasn't true misery on our Fourth of July outing. It wasn't. We were sitting under the stars waiting to see breathtaking displays of pyrotechnics to celebrate the amazing country in which we live. My baby girl perched on my belly as I lay on my back to view the show. The rest of my family was flung out beside me, the sparkles reflected in their eyes. It was worth the wait, and the wait wasn't all that bad anyway (spoiled Americans we are!). Reflecting back on that outing, let me put my life in perspective. The place we are in is not ideal, but it is far from horrible. We live in a beautiful home in a beautiful town, albeit temporarily. I could go on about the ocean, the weather, the Mouse at our disposal, blah, blah... We have the challenging, but fun task of finding a permanent home, school, and "life" for a family of eight. We may not have things exactly as we want, but like the fireworks display, all's well that ends well.