ai to chi-ta-do

yesterday we went to aileen's bbq...farewell party/birthday party. rey is cool, we definitely approve. i love that girl so much. i'm happy she's happy.

i remember when i was in 7th grade and had to go to 4-h camp. i was scared and lonely and not cool, so no one really talked to me. (they were all into makeup and boys...and i was the only brown person north of saginaw). then aileen walked into that same cabin with her stuff. we were inseparable. although i was terribly homesick, just sitting on her bed with the faint smell of mayol made everything better.

only you

where did the time go? everyone's blog shares a common theme... kids growing up... being a 'grown-up'. i want to leap for joy and cry at the same time. i hear you nette, and yes, though this week i'm definitely pms'ing, the sentiment rings true most times of the month.

then the slow acoustic version of 'only you' gets played on the jcpenney commercial. yeah, the one tricia was blogging about. ha ha. brings back serious memories... like singing (badly) to g in the library (with other cohorts), begging him to return to greenies, for example. of course that was waaaaay before when we were just friends. imagine he'd marry the girl who made her own pants, the one they called 'rocket laugh'. yikes, that was 13 years ago! the power of genetics... lucia has quite a rocket laugh... and big ears. pierced ears, she'd add.

live every day like your last

this morning i was running out the door. first i kissed gary as he was getting ready. then i kissed luci goodbye, but she didn't look at me. that's how she copes when she's upset that i have to work. lijah was asleep on the couch. i had exactly 14 minutes to get to the o.r. across town. i was halfway out the door before i ran back in and kissed him on the cheek. you just never know, i thought as i left. weirdly morbid, yes, but i was in such a hurry i didn't think about it the rest of the day.

surgeries went better than planned, so i started getting ready to go home at 4pm. when i know it's time to go home i always imagine the kids waiting for me. i left the parking garage and started driving at a normal pace. sixpence none the richer was on the radio and it brought me back to nostalgic times at the townhouse, when i wasn't quite sure what i wanted to do with my life.

suddenly i noticed a van heading in my direction, in oncoming traffic. see, instead of this person going past the gas station then doing a michigan u-turn to get to it, she tried to dart across five lanes of traffic, even if the last three lanes (including mine) were against traffic. bottom line is i was almost t-boned at the driver door with her van going 40 mph, and while she was looking over her shoulder to make sure traffic was clear from another angle. but i stepped on the gas and swerved, avoiding collision. for the first 5 minutes i was fuming. what a stupid moron. what a jerk. what an incompetent self-centered excuse for a human being. then it dawned on me. i'm lucky to be driving home to see my kids. it's the kind of day when you don't expect to get bad news. it's 75 degrees, partially humid, overall sunny, and we've got dinner plans at 7pm at pizza house for a friend's birthday.

so instead i'll recount the wonderful memories i've been blessed with, and i'm thankful i'm still here to be a wife and mommy. i'm glad it's not my time... yet.

top 10 luci-lijahisms
1. lij saying "uh oh, ashes" when he sees someone fall
2. luci drawing a picture of gary naked during preschool (you can clearly see the schlong)
3. luci flying her dora kite at the park
4. luci afraid of worms too (like mommy)
5. lij throttling the bluegill we caught at the park with luci's barbie fishing pole
6. luci bravely handling the aforementioned bluegill and placing it into a bucket
7. lij gently rubbing noses with luci and kissing her while she's asleep
8. lij's obligatory skin-to-skin contact (preferably his hand on your tummy) during a bottle
9. luci getting down on her knees and praying to Daddy God that sam and frodo baggins will successfully fight off the gigantic spider in return of the king
10. luci learning more parts of the rosary