OCD

is driving me crazy!

Honeymoon

Back from our first ever night together away from the kids. It was really fun!!!! We went to the Jackson Rancheria Hotel and Casino (!) to see Steppenwolf on their final 4oth anniversary tour. Spent the night there. Went to a casino for our first (T) or first-since-turning-21-and-not-getting-kicked-out (S) time, but were too overwhelmed by the smoke, noise, crowd, unfamiliarity of the whole situation, and stupidness of putting money in a machine just to push a button a few times, and eventually just lose the money. The concert was great, though, I enjoyed it much more than I expected too, in part because we were in the fourth row and could actually see John Kay's facial expressions as he sang. We also ran into one of the boys' aides from preschool there! On the way back we stopped in a really cute town called Sutter Creek, wandered into some art and antique stores (places we could never dream of walking into with the kids), chatted over coffee, stopped at the Chocolate Factory and again at the Tracy Outlets (As we are driving in the car, I'm trying to explain to T about the Outlet stores, sabes los almacenes donde todo es mas barato, and he says, como los "outlets"?. The selectiveness of his English vocabulary never fails to amaze me.
Meanwhile, grandma and grandpa held down the fort at home, taking B bowling (!) and out to lunch (!), getting A off to school just fine, getting everyone in bed and asleep by 10pm with no jumping, and left me wondering why we waited 8 years to try this....

Will

I don't have a will. It's just one of the many things that still hasn't made it to the top of my priority list. But if by some fluke both my husband and I should die in a car crash or something, I want my parents to take care of my kids. And I want you all to tell them everything they need to know so they can do it.
Thanks.

confronting my own prejudices

I want to challenge myself to confront my own prejudices. The Captain showed me a blow-me-over video by a woman with autism, and a couple of websites written by people with autism, that really has me thinking alot about the assumptions that I make regarding people with disabilities. I make assumptions based on what I see or what I believe about categories of people that can be totally off base and of course disrepectful. I think the big lesson for me is don't assume.

Age-ism is another issue that I need to work on.

Taking responsibility

Owning up to the things I mess up. Saying, I should have done that, but I didn't. Or, I'm sorry for doing xyz. Sometimes it really makes a difference.

socks

Tonight, after his shower, when he was putting on his pjs, A realized something was missing and made a spontaneous verbal request.
Socks.


Amazing.

e-soccer

Today was the first day of the e-soccer season. I was very proud of all 3 of us. Of me for being brave enough to take the 2 of them. Of A for sticking through it the whole time, although in the past he's been apprehensive about the whole thing. And of B for only bolting 3 times, and always towards me, never towards the street. Coach J literally did a double-take when he saw me walk up with both A and B, since he's never met A before, only B. I swear I saw his jaw drop. Assistant coaches David and Justin were just amazing with B and A, despite the fact that - or perhaps because -- they themselves are still teenagers.