Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

The infamous words of Dory (Dorie?) from Finding Nemo are all that I can think about right now. "Just keep swimming..." Of course I am not a fish so maybe I should say, "Just keep moving," or "just keep breathing" or something like that but, "Just keep swimming," works. If you've seen the movie you get my drift ...

How can it be that I am in dire need of another vacation when I just got back to work one week ago??? Luckily I scheduled next week off! I feel so tired. So drained. So zapped - just like our home which was hit by lightening Thursday night. Zapped the phones, computers, electrical outlets, DirectTV, my energy but I'm going to resist this temptation to fall into one of my melancholy moods. Just keep swimming ...

Jordyn's 8th birthday was Saturday. Unfortunately we spent a great part of the day waiting for the telephone repair guy to show. He never did. But my girl persevered. She was content to go shoppping and then come home and celebrate with our little party of five. How can it be that my baby girl is eight already? Already! Watching her grow, I am increasingly aware of how fast time flies whether you're having fun or not. I'm trying to make it fun for her and for her brothers. I'm trying to make easy for them to just keep playing and just keep growing - that's why I "just keep swimming ..."

My mom's best friend is having a birthday party this week. Her daughter asked me to for all intents and purposes, help the guests with make-and-take birthday cards. Thirty of them. Of course I said yes but I am finding out how much work is involved in getting all the materials together and ready for quick and easy assembly. I'm doing four different styles with four different techniques: stamping, dry embossing, doodling and making tags. With any luck I'll have everything together by Wednesday. Thursday at the latest but I've got a major project at working that is due on Thursday and I'm starting to stress about that so I should probably try not to pressure myself into getting the cards done that soon. (Swimming, swimming ...) As long as they are done by Saturday morning ya know? Nothing like last-minuting it. Oh yeah, I've got to get my KNK project done and sumbitted by Wednesday too.(Swim, swim, swim)

With all this swimming I'm doing, you'd think I'd lose some weight. HA!

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The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of ...

I am amazed at how much Justin LOVES Star Wars. Though he is partial to the first three movies (which are actually the last three made) he is totally into all six of the Star Wars movies. He is constantly drawing pictures of the characters and talking about Darth Vadar and Luke and Padmei (sp???) and Darth Sideous and Bobo Fat (???) and General Grievous etc. I will never forget the time he walked up to me and said "Mommy, who is this? 'Cohhhh cohhhhh...'" I was like what the heck?!?!? Justin stood there looking at me like I was the biggest idiot. How could I not know who he was impersonating????? He sounded just like him. Anyway it turned out to be the breathy sound Darth Vadar makes through that voice sound box thingie. Go figure. Never in a million years would I have guessed that he would be sooooo all-in.

He and Dave had a Star Wars marathon a few weeks back. All Star Wars. All day. Oh brother.

So it came as no surprise that when Justin wanted to get his face painted at Disney MGM he chose Darth Mull (sp???) You can only imagine how incredibly geeked he was when during the parade Luke Skywalker and Princess Leah actually pointed to him and Luke aimed his light saber (sp???) at him. I tell ya, it's the stuff dreams are made of!

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Back to the Grind ...

It's 5 AM and in one hour my vacation will be officially over as that is when I am expected to walk back into the building where I work. Umph umph umph. Just like that, the past two weeks have flown by. Oh well, I get another week off in two weeks and that will be much more of an R&R vacation as the kids will be back in school and Dave will be working...

Just like the past two years, we had a grand old time in Florida. Took tons of pictures again. And you know, despite the 2400 mile drive to and from the Sunshine State and the cost of gas ranging between $2.74 and $2.95 per gallon, I guess we got the Explorer in good traveling condition and planned adequately for that expense because it didn't cost quite as much as I expected. And speaking of Sunshine State, for the first time, it didn't rain every single day we were there( even if for only a brief period). I was fretting a bit about tropical storm Chris before we left but I suppose it just fizzled and it only rained the first three days of our trip and as luck would have it, each time it rained we happened to be doing an inside activity and missed it!

And again, speaking of the Sunshine State, I got burned. Yep just like year before last when we went to Lauderdale, I fried like a strip of bacon on Coco Beach. Got the gross flakey peeling back to prove it too. After applying sun screen to Dave and the kids, how could I forget to get some for myself? Got distracted I guess, but at least it didn't/doesn't burn to touch ...

Ironically or maybe not so ironically, the second week of my vacation was almost as good as the first - I mean I did get some chill time in, but more importantly, I got a brand new deck. Yep, Dave finally built it!!! It's about 85% done but I can walk out of the sliding back doors onto it! YAY! BIG YAY!

Well I guess I'd better get off the 'puter now. Got a long day ahead of me and after work I get to go do a survey about my former social smoking habits and earn $125. Should supposedly take 2 hours to complete, but at $62.5 per hour I guess I can't complain. That will cover all the 7 Gypsies stuff I pre-ordered from ER the other day!

toodles
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