Forty-Two

Make a wish.....

I read a meme that the song that was #1 on your fourteenth birthday is the theme for your life. I thought that was so dumb but then of course quickly looked up the most popular song in August 1991. Curiosity always killed this cat. Drum roll please.....the most popular song when I was fourteen was, Bryan Adams, Everything I Do (I Do It for You). 

Then I thought well there's no lover here so...not true. But then I listened to the song. I had to. You know if I apply the lyrics to my children it is true. Everything I do...really is for them. 

I would give it all

I would sacrifice

Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for 

I can't help it, there's nothin' I want more

You know it's true

Everything I do

I do it for you

So instead of telling you all the things I learned about health, and trying to be a guru when you aren't one, and being tired and then not tired, or teaching, single mothering, churching, coaching, tutoring , being fat and then not fat, this last year I have decided to write a new meme. 

Here is what it says: Whatever the number one song is on your forty-second birthday will be the theme for the second half of your life. 

AND THEN. 

I'm going to write the song. 

Here it goes straight to number one on the charts. Are you ready for the title? 

It's all going to work out and your magically wealthy, pretty and thin, and your house is never dirty and the laundry is always done and put away. You have a cook who makes all of your healthy organic meals, and your skin is clear and your wrinkles are gone. You have adventures and the sun shines on your shoulders but doesn't give you skin cancer. You get to wear workout leggings to work and flip flops. You enjoy concerts and yummy meals laughing with friends. One fate filled night in November whilst running to get a diet coke you meet the love of your life who is perfect for you in every way and he's funny and has smiley eyes and he doesn't ever give you a hard time about the diet coke you love to drink because he sees how happy a simple pop makes you. You go to Bora Bora with your new love and when you come home raise all of your beautiful teenagish children together. You sing and dance in the kitchen and go on lots of fun adventures. Mostly wherever you can find a smokin' flight deal and you just go for fun and meet the people, learn the culture, go to the museums, and eat all the good food. Your children grow up to be happy and find lovely spouses and you are surrounded by grandchildren that you spoil with your love, kisses, hugs, and time. You get to go on a mission to France or maybe Switzerland and you can go to the temple any day you like because you can, it is your number one song. You get to go running, and paddle boarding, and hiking whenever you want to and you can take naps. You always have fresh flowers in your home and yummy candles. You live in a cul-de-sac with all of your friends and have BBQ's and swim parties and all the wives and husbands get a long. You have a big yard but a not too big house and a garden with fresh herbs growing in it and flowers and some chickens and a french bulldog named Rick. 

It's a hit I tell you. Number one. The longest title of a song ever. But hey....it's my number one song. 

XOXO-The Sunny D because wishes can come true. 

#Blessed

You're looking at the new Jr. High Basketball coach or at least the certificate that says I am qualified to be. It took.....EIGHT hours to complete this. I am not kidding. I wanted Pomp and Circumstance to play when I printed this thing out. Notice it says SUCCESSFULLY completed...... is that like Summa Cum Laude? It has been a lot of fun so far and I get to coach with my Dad which is super cool. The truth is my Dad is pretty much the coach and I am his helper. He's great with the boys and it is fun to see the team play and improve. 

The start of school had my head spinning. I have two kids that have the same drop off time at two different schools. Trying to figure out the best route to school to get everyone where they need to be took some trial and error. By Friday of the first week of school I was frazzled, exhausted, and ready to rest for the weekend. Ellie was watching a show in my bed and said I sat up and yelled, 

"I haven't even eaten anything!"

I was not awake...I was dream talking. If that tells you anything about the state I was in that first week of school. The no carbs, sugar, and fats was hard for this emotional eater. We are all in a race to get out the door no later than 6:50. In our attempts to get Aydan to Highland (the traffic is TERRIBLE) and Ellie to Franklin. She ended up being late for two days. On the third day the student has to go to detention and the pressure she was putting on me along with the teenage girl angsty stares were enough to give anyone anxiety. The second week I only had to drive Ellie and it was much, much easier. This is the third week and I am taking everyone again. I think we may have figured out the secret. Ellie has been early every day and so has Aydan AND we are leaving at 7:00. It has been a much smoother week. 

In my efforts to look prettier and younger and to also basically just get rid of my zits...because who has zits in their 40's? Who? Me. I put Retin-A on my face Sunday night. All was well Monday night until today and my face is literally peeling off. Acne that has happily laid dormant under the surface of my skin has risen to all of its glory and guess what? Picture day is Thursday! What was I thinking? I sent my son to get a teenage facial to help clear up his skin..... I should have stayed for one too!

 The photo packages are pretty funny and expensive! Luckily, I get half price because I am a teacher so I ordered Ellie the DELUXE set with the reflections picture. Every kid needs a reflection picture. I literally can't wait. 

I should show my second graders this picture of me in second grade they would probably love it.  

This is a perfect picture representation of how I feel about unsolicited advice from regular joe people, especially the ones who think they are smarter than everyone else. In truth, I think you'll find that they are the dumbest smart people you may know.  I think unsolicited advice is stupid and people should just worry about themselves. Always. It's annoying. If you ask for advice that's one thing but if people try to tell you what's best...well. See above picture. 

EXCEPT. 

A friend of mine posted on Facebook that she was in a meeting with Bonnie H. Cordon and she said, We should strive to Bless instead of Impress and I really liked that...a lot. I liked that because her intention was to bless...not impress. I think that on social media people are trying to impress you with their best selves and that's cool, but wouldn't it be cooler if we were all working on being a blessing to each other? I don't know I have been thinking about this a lot and how I can apply it in my own home with my people. Am I a blessing? I'm not sure. I mean...I made homemade chicken soup with homemade broth and all fresh veggies for dinner and brownies for my kids. Is that blessing my people? I hope so. Do I do things to try and impress people...gosh, I hope not. To me that is a number one ear marker of insecurity. That is literally as annoying as unsolicited advice. 

But really. What do I know? 

Today was the best we rocked out to seventies music in the kitchen and made dinner. We sang Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of our lungs and played air guitar. We belted Midnight Train to Georgia with Gladys and Rocky Mountain High with John. My life is far from perfection. It is flawed and I make lots of mistakes. I haven't figured it all out and I am still learning EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I am better at listening than telling you what to do and I complain sometimes....more than I should. But I love days like this one. I love jamming out with my kids. I love eating good healthy food. I LOVE that I am not tempted by the hot brownies sitting in my kitchen making my house smell like home. They have M&M's pressed into the top and I made them for the kids lunches tomorrow but there's already a few nibbled corners missing. I love picking my son up from football. I love that he knows I will say yes to drive a friend of his home who doesn't have a ride. I love that Ellie used her Amazon gift card to order a book and she won't take her nose out of it since it arrived in the mail.  Today during some sentence practice my second graders got a full on hearty laugh out of me...head down shoulders shaking. I think I'm really going to love them, in fact, I already do. 

XOXO- Blessings. The Sunny D

Learned

The Things I Have Learned This Week

1. Why am I waiting six months at a time to get my hair done? I'll tell you...it's expensive! However, I am learning that I need to do these things for myself because it is worth it to feel pretty. It just is. Every girl wants to feel pretty even forty year old single ladies like myself. So I promise myself to not let my hair go that long. Just like I promised myself that I would wear perfume every day and not just special days because every day is a special day.

2. It is always worth it to spend the money on the concert. OH my live music is my JAM! It is also worth it to be on the front row and with cousins and to sing at the top of your lungs and dance and to secretly video tape each other doing so. Also, there are weird people at concerts like the beady eyed guy who recognized my cousin from the Costco photo center and we all kind of went eeeeerrrrrrrrrrr. side eye. Then I told her he probably saves all of your pictures because your so pretty. Plus, he wouldn't go away. Jimmy Eat World was amazing! Third Eye Blind was amazing as we watched Stephen Jenkins hot sauce 54 year old self look at us look at him. I mean eye contact for sure..we could see his smudged eye liner, that is how close we were.  Plus, he taught us the theatrical and very effective way to snap. He perfected the snap for sure. We all needed that night. Because adulting my friends......is not easy. 

Yup. There we are in the yellow circle. A really great show. Make time for fun, that's what I learned. 

3. Work life balance is a myth. It is not true. This week work dominated my life and the scales tippppped way in the work favor. I realized that at work if I am not eighteen steps ahead of the game I feel behind. However, I am NOT behind. It's just when you have all of these plates in the air and if one just wibbly wobbly drops the whole thing just comes crashing down. So I like to be ahead of that especially in my classroom. I also inadvertently volunteered to be the Jr. High Boys Basketball coach. Which is eyebrow raising since I don't actually know how to play any basketball besides the game of horse. Luckily, my Dad is going to help me at the practices, so every little things gonna be alright. Meet the teacher was last night and what fun that is! My room is colorful and happy. I have a big cute rainbow on my front window with the kids names on it. I think rainbows are magical and so is second grade. It is going to be an amazing year! 

4. I learned that hunger is like pain. After you have surgery or a baby and are in the hospital they tell you to stay ahead of the pain so it doesn't become so unbearable and hard to manage. As, I have been cleaning up my eating I have learned that if I do not stick to my schedule and go too long without eating I am susceptible to making not great choices. It is like the hunger is so big you'll eat anything. So I stocked my mini fridge at school with all the good, healthy, REAL food I can eat and cold water. It has helped me to stay on track. I learned a hard lesson I was in my room and eating an orange when Steve started to cry...so I shared my orange with him but then I didn't have anything else to eat. I mean I just can't say no to a six year old geriatric guinea pig. Could you? 

I mean...he is the cutest little thing. He's grown on me I was afraid of him at first plus he smelled. Now he gets baths and eats my oranges. Steve and I have come a long way. 

5. Classrooms have their own distinct smell. My new classroom that I moved into smells like....patchouli musk. There is this musty smell mixed with this man smell that I can't figure out. I have a wax burner with strawberry lemonade wax melts in there but now it just smells like patchouli lemonade musk. I am learning that as hard as you try the classroom smell is here to stay. 

XOXO- Just try your best, do everything you can....The Sunny D