For the birds

Yesterday, my son and I decided to enjoy the glorious weather and go for a rollerblade/bike ride. The roads aren't too busy on Sundays and it is a perfect time to practice our bike safety rules, hand signs, etc. To get him motivated, I mentioned a nearby playground that he had not had the opportunity to visit since before this he would not ride his bike. So, off to the playground we go, me on my blades and him on his bike.
We arrive safely at the park, where he gets to play on the swingset while I explore the "tricycle" path that this development uses as a selling point for perspective new home owners. I start along the path that is adjoined to the playset. It's relatively smooth, with a few ups and downs so you can easily pick up some speed. Then there is a rather steep hill that leads up to a bridge that overlooks the playset. Oh look, there is the little monkey. "Hi sweetie, mommy is going to go down the hill, come watch" I'm ignored, but that is ok, since I've just now looked down the other side of the hill. It is not a straightaway, but an "s" curve with a severe hairpin curve at the bottom. This is a tricycle path, I'm sure it was designed with the little children's safety in mind.
Here I go. Made the first curve, lets put a little break on..whoa whoa, I'm not going to make that turn, I'm going to skid out...oh oh oh..crash.
I actually didn't skid out, but managed to launch myself over the earth berm at the edge of the hairpin curve. Luckily, the ground must have been watered recently since there was some give upon impact. After finding my glasses, which had flown off my face with my less than graceful landing, I was able to do a visual survey to see no real damage was done. The impact on my knee was on the scar from my last rollerblading accident, so that skin was already toughened up; my wrist seems to be moving ok and the shoulder I landed on just had a few more creaks and pops to add to the ones it already had from the first time I had separated it many years ago.
By this time, my son had wandered over and decided that it would be cool for him to give it a whirl (how Mommy on the ground, groaning in pain, is an incentive, I don't know). He with all the recklessness and invincibility of a 7 year old, went down that hill at Mach 3, missed the turn, did a jump in the air and managed to land safely on the grass some distance away. Was he afraid to go again after missing the turn and almost crashing? Of course not. Off he went again, to go faster around that curve, to prove that he could do it. And he did.

Fall is here

Ah, fall weather has finally arrived here in Texas. We have dry air with temps in the low 70's. I love this time of year. Even though our foliage does not change, it still is a fantastic time to get outside and enjoy life. It makes me want to bike, to run, to rollerblade everywhere. Which means, my blog suffers terribly. So, when you wonder why I haven't post, even though I do have things to say, it is because I'm out living life.

3am wake up call

3 a.m. and this is what I hear:
Knock, knock, knock,knock,knock, knock
plick, plick (stones against a window)
Knock,knock, knock,
plick, plick

What the #@&%?
I get out of bed and look out my bedroom window which faces the street. I don't see anything. I'll go back to bed.

Beebaw ,beebaw, honk, honk, beep beep.

A car alarm now? A rouse myself completely from the vestiges of sleep, puting my glasses on this time. (Without them I really am blind, there was no way I could see anything the first time I looked out the window, but I was still clinging to the thought that I would be able to go back to sleep.)It's my neighbor, the new ones who are renting the house on the corner. The kid sets the alarm off a few more times, knocks on the door and throws some more rocks. It's obvious he has managed to lock himself out of his home. It is not so obvious why he has chosen to not call his home to wake whomever is there to open the door.

I hear my son rustling in his sleep in the other room. Oh no, we are not waking him tonight, he is already short on sleep and I will not deal with a cranky kid in the morning. Hubby woke up too, but he has worked all night and really needs his sleep. Time for me to throw on some clothes. I storm downstairs, grab my phone and stomp over to the kid's car. Is he still in the car, I can't tell ...yes there, he's unrolling the window.
Me: Hi, what do you think you are doing?
Him: Oh hey lady, I locked myself out.
ME: I understand you are locked out, um hm, but you are waking up me and my husband and my 7 year old - cut it out!
Him: I'm trying to wake my Dad up, his bedroom is right there and must be jet lagged 'cause he doesn't hear me.
Me: Did you try to call him?
Him: Oh, no, my phone isn't working
Me: Hear (thrust phone into to his face). Call him.

The kid trys to call, but Dad doesn't wake up. He decides to try to call his brother on my phone, which appears to be long distance, and chats for a bit with him about how his father doesn't hear anything....I'm still standing there, waiting for my phone and the to go back to my cozy bed. The kid apologizes for waking me, gives back my phone, and says he will sleep in his car until his Dad wakes up. Good idea. It's a lovely night out for that, not to hot, not to cold. I head home, crawl back into bed, and stare wide-eyed at the ceiling for awhile. Guess who is the cranky one this morning?

Update: One of the sons used the "car alarm as key" trick again this morning.

Job update

I decided to stay with my old job instead of taking advantage of the fabulous new opportunities that were presented to me. "Why stay in a job you obviously dislike?" you ask. Simply put, my son. I asked him what he thought about going to daycare for a few hours a week and he did not want to go. He told me that he goes in the summer and that is enough, the kids are mean, it is noisy and they don't get to play outside.
Now, I am not a parent that caves in to my child's every whim, however when it may impact his development and progress in areas that he is already struggling with (ie. school)I do listen. Would my ADHD son have been able to do his school work in that chaos? What about when we got home at night, would it be too stressful, what with having to make dinner and do studying he was unable to do while in daycare? When would he be able to just play? When would fun time with us be? I couldn't do that to him. Being a parent does mean having to sacrifice and this is one of those occasions.

Job opportunity

I have a dilemma. I've been offered a permanent job from my sometimes weekend position of house sales assistant. That would mean leaving my current position, where I just received a promotion and there is plenty of room for advancement if I want it. The pro's the new job would have are a 50% pay raise with bonuses, I would work three days a week instead of 4, and I would be away from my current boss. The cons to this new job - it can be very boring, days of no customers coming in, I would be working until 6 pm which would mean my son would have to go to daycare after school. I asked him if he would like to do daycare after school, to see his friends and play. He said "no way". Hmmm. Plus, because it is in house sales, I would not be close to home forever - eventually all the houses would sell and we would move to a new location. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Ant bite

Here in Texas everything is bigger, which seems to include insect bites. We have fire ant season, which last approximately 10 months out of the year. If you'll notice, the stuff that you buy at Home Depot to kill these ants says that it lasts a season. I guess it refers to a typical length season since my fire ants, having been gone for the spring and summer, have come back with a vengence and they are seeking revenge.
One teeny, tiny, little ant bit me between the big toe and second toe of my right foot. I can barely move that foot today, it is so swollen. I'm even contemplating calling into work, since it will be difficult to stand on it all day and I'm not sure if I can even get a shoe to fit on my foot. I probably still go in, I have to be really sick not to show up for work. But my foot really hurts and it itches like the devil too!