Ahhhh

My Daughter Elisse started middle school this year( and in case anyone was wondering it hasn't changed a bit). She goes to a great school, one I could only dream of attending at her age. She is a "gifted" (hate that term but it is what it is) student, takes all advanced classes and makes good grades. I tell her this is a part of her problem, she is to damn smart for her own good. She has a hard time relating to the cattyness of the other girls, she has more of a hippy-ish live and let live attitude which is not very common among 11 year old girls. I love that about her. I guess the point of this post is I have no idea what I'm doing. I was just a kid myself when I had her. I remember the exact moment we met, I was alone in my room, in my heart, in my life. Her Dad had left me, freaked out by the prospect of parenting I guess. I had just gotten off the phone with him, it was not a pleasant phone call and it finally hit me that it was truly over and I was in fact doing this on my own. It was the darkest, scariest moment of my life, I literally hit rock bottom. I laid on the floor and just cried and cried.......and then she kicked me. I sat up and she kicked again. I had a feeling wash over me that there are no words to describe, it was as close to heaven as I have ever been. In a moment I went from hysterical crying to jubilant laughing, it wasn't about me anymore, it was about us. She made it easy, she was a great baby, not so terrible toddler and very easy going kid. As we approach the teenage years I am filled with anxiety about screwing her up. I watch news shows and court tv not for the latest scoop but more as a manuel on how not to raise a drunk/druggie/murderer. I always think "what did those parents do wrong? " Okay so even if I have all the felonies covered how do I prevent the misdemeanors? This parenting stuff is hard, I hope I figure it out before it's too late...

Look Mom...I blogged!

Okay, here I am jumping on the bandwagon...now I have to think of something quirky to write about. Who would have thought that the voice in my head could actually do something productive (if this counts for productivity), if only I could figure out how to add the constant soundtrack I have going...

I know what to write about! In case you don't know, I am a Mom to three kids (hence my title), a daughter Elisse who is 11(hence the Insanity part), and two sons, Elijah 7 and Eliott almost 1. Yup there's a big age gap, but that will be blogged about another day. I have been married to John for 8 and a half years, he's my high school sweetheart and also my best friend ever, and I remind myself of that on the days I want to kill him. Anyway we like to play games while riding in the car, my kids aren't the kind to sit back quietly and watch dvds, and some of these games (most of which we just make up) are very entertaining. On of our favorites is called "Opposites". Okay I lied, it doesn't really have a name but from now on we will call it "Opposites". Anyway the way you play is someone says something and the next person has to say what is the complete opposite of it is. Seems easy enough, right? Go ahead, try it next car ride let me know what happens. We are still arguing that the opposite of pancakes is not waffles! Not even close! Burger King is not the opposite of McDonalds either...
So another game we play is "What Are We Rich With?" We all know it's not money so we took turns trying to figure out what we have an abundance of, after all the wisecracks answers (whiny kids, poopy diapers, stress, annoying parents, cats, clutter, you get the point) we came to the conclusion that our family is very rich in laughter. We laugh a lot. All the time, and I love it!