Last week of school

J just finished his last week of middle school, and what an eventful week it was for him. J got into a fist fight, asked out a girl for the very first time, had in school detention on the next to last day of school, and went to apply for a job. The fight was one that had been building all year. A boy in his science class had been picking on him for awhile, this day he was throwing balls of paper at Jo's head. J asked him to stop, bully boy said "What are you going to do to stop me?", J got up and punched him. I cannot say I blame him, as this same child stole J's pencil bag earlier in the year, which contained his glasses and computer jump drive. It was only with the teacher's help that he got it back after a week of trying on his own. No, I don't blame him at all - in fact, his father and I agreed not to punish him because we both probably would have done the same thing if we were in his shoes. The girl he asked out said "no", which did not surprise me as she comes from a strict family who do not believe in letting their 14 year old daughter date. I was just glad that J had the courage to ask. I did not even know that J was applying for a job. He had asked to go to the local ice cream shop by himself, which was fine by me as long as he had a phone on him so he could call me once he got there and once he left. He called to tell me he was leaving and it was taking a very long time for him to get home. I was beginning to get worried and this mama bear was contemplating calling the police when J walked into the house. Come to find out, it took him so long because he was inquiring about job opportunities. Seeing that J is only 13, he was turned down, but you have to admire his grit.

Just another day at work

I work in new home sales, at a model home (a model home is a new home which is an example of a builder's work, it is fully furnished and people come through it to see what they can have if they decided to use my builder). I'm used to rude people, people who treat the model as their own home (it is a place of business, not a hangout house) and odd people in general. What I'm not used to is the family that visited on Saturday.

The family was composed of a set of grandparents, a mom and dad, and two boys - 4 years old and 20 months, approximately. This family allowed their children to wander the home without supervision, which meant they were pulling at decorations, banging the Foosball table, etc - but I'm used to that. They let the boys go into the fenced in backyard with no supervision - again, normal. The older little boy went up to the back fence and decided to relieve himself while he was out there. Both his mother and grandmother were watching him from inside. Grandma laughed, saying "at least he didn't pee in front of everyone in the model", mom seemed a little embarrassed, but not enough to say anything to him about it. Still, this does not shock me, as this is something little boys do, although it is not something I would personally encourage.

Dad and Grandpa leave the model to go to the next home on the street. Mom and Grandma are about 5 minutes behind them. They have the older boy with them, but not the younger one. Grandma asks where the younger one is, Mom comments that "I'm sure he went with his father". Hmm, as a parent, I would double check before leaving a building without my child.  In fact, this mother should have, since her youngest had not left and was in fact hiding in the Foosball table upstairs. I know, because I found him after they left. Yes, you heard me - they left their child behind.

So I take the boys hand and lead him over to the next model home, hoping that his parents are still there. I walk in, mention to the hostess there that I believe a have a child someone left behind at our house. She looks aghast, as if how could that be? I find the family, who are all together - well, except they are missing a 20 mth old. None of them seemed to notice he was gone. When I mentioned,  "I think you forgot someone", they laughed. They didn't appear worried or concerned.

I feel badly for this child. Our model home was full of people and anyone could have taken him. He went with me very willingly and was wanting to get into a car when I told him we were going to find his mom. He could have easily been stolen. Plus, he is much too young to be left wandering around by himself. One of those 4 adults should have had his/her eyes on him the whole time.

Happy Mother's Day

Another Mother's Day has come and gone and I must say it was one of the nicest ones I've had in awhile. The boys started Mother's Day early, since I had to work on both Saturday and Sunday. Hubby was working Sat. evening and I came home from work with the thought that I would be the one preparing dinner. Instead, I came home to my dear boy already cooking a white fish, green bean and artichoke paella. Hubby had already chopped up all the ingredients for J so that the meal would be ready before 11pm (when J has to do a lot of prep work he tends to take hours instead of minutes to get the meal completed).

Sunday morning we woke up early (7 am) to go get breakfast before I had to work. The boys gave me my bike back, completely refurbished and serviced. I'd been saying for years that I needed my bike to have a major tune-up, as it is close to 20 years old. After my Avon walk, I realized that I needed to cross train more, and that my bike would be ideal for it, however it had two flat tires and brakes that were not all that reliable. My bike is now ready to roll.
They also pulled all the weeds and resanded the patio pavers, something I would normally have to nag about for weeks to get it done; this time it was done with no nagging from me. I tell you, doing normal maintenance work around the house is truly one best gifts for me. Since I'm home more, it falls on my shoulders most days; it is nice when it gets completed by someone else.

J wanted to get me something special, so he went to Target and bought me a top for work. Hubby gave him no help, as he thought it would be good for him to learn how to shop for a woman, better now than later. Hubby was questioning J's choice, but I must say, my son has good tastes. I would not have picked out the top for myself from appearances alone, but it did look nice on.

Of course, I still had to work, hubby had to work and J had to go over a friend's house to work on a school project, so all of us were out of the house for most of the day. I was able to go to work, feeling appreciated and loved and when I came home I was still in a good mood. The boy and I went out for a nice dinner at Cheddar's, then to Baskin' Robbins for desert. We sat down and watched Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" (well, until the VCR broke - yes, we were watching it on VHS). I love spending time with my son - I know Mother's Day is a time to show appreciation for your mother, but it makes me realize how much my son means to me and what he added to my life.

Houston Avon Walk

I believe I mentioned a while back that I was planning on participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (AWBC) this April. It is a 39.3 mile walk - 26.2 miles the first day, 13.1 miles the second day. There is also the fundraising component, where each participant is required to raise at least $1800 in order to be allowed to participate.

Well, this past weekend was the big weekend. I left the house bright and early on Saturday at 5 am so I could make it to the start of the walk on time. The night before we had had torrential downpours and gale force winds, but the morning was dry, albeit a bit cool with temps in the 40's, although they were expected to get up in the 70's by mid-day.

Even though the organizers had pumps running to drain out the water, the gathering area was a bit muddy. It was a challenge to use the port-a-potties they had set up - they were in a low spot in the field and there was no light. There were approximately 1000 folks ready and waiting to walk for this good cause.

Lucky for me, I belonged to a team, so I had someone to walk with right off the bat. Of course, as you walk you talk to whomever is by your side, teammate or not. The walk led us throughout downtown Houston, through some of the more scenic neighborhoods - the rich ones and the ones that just had charm. We walked through the center of the city, with the volunteer crew stopping traffic so that we might continue on in safety. There were multiple themed rest stops along the way, with plenty of gatorade, water, and snacks to go around. There was even the legendary peanut butter and jelly graham cracker snacks that everyone seemed to know about from previous walks. The port-a-potties were spotless (thank goodness) as one of my team mates mistook the urinal in the port-a-potty as a shelf for her fanny pack. We had quite a laugh over that, with her convincing herself that since we were near the front of the pack no male had used it yet.

The first day went by quickly and I was able to finish the 26.2 miles with ease. Well, it was more like 27 miles, as I took a wrong turn at one point, going straight instead of turning at a light. Luckily, the route was so well marked that I realized within a quarter mile that I had gone the wrong way and simply turned around. I did have some nasty blisters on the heels of my foot, but I knew I would get them as I had every long training walk I took. I had the medical tent dress them for me at mile 13 and I had no trouble with them after that. It was only after I passed the finish line for the first day that I noticed my right knee was a bit sore from over use. I went one more time to a medical tent, iced it and had them wrap it for me. Even with that soreness, I was ready for the next day.

The next day started a half hour later, and the start line was the finish line from the day before. There was a hot breakfast available, along with coffee and jelly beans if you so desired. It was not quite as cold in the morning as the day before, but there was still a nip to the air. I decided to take advantage of the massage therapist they had on hand for the walkers, to see if he could loosen up my knee a bit, since it was not feeling so great this morning. By doing that, I did not start the walk with the majority of the walkers or my team. However, it was not a race, we had many many hours to complete the walk and would have to wait at the end for closing ceremonies anyway, so I was OK with that.
After my massage, I got up and started walking. Within less than 0.1 miles, my knee told rather emphatically that it did not wish to go on with this walk today, as it had already done its fair share of walking the day before. I was sitting on a stone bench trying to talk myself into walking. I had already raised the money, I did not have to complete the walk, I had already done the important part of this fundraiser. However, I could not help but think of all the people who had supported me, who said that they knew I would be able to finish this walk, that I had trained for so long for this, and then I thought of my aunt. My aunt who underwent chemo for breast cancer a few years back, who had so much energy all the time during treatment that it absolutely amazed me. She wasn't given the choice of stopping, she had to go on with the treatment.
So, with those thoughts in mind, I pushed on. The next 13.1 miles were tough. I walked many of them alone, as I had to walk a certain pace to prevent my knee from freezing up, and it was a pace quicker than most of the back on the line folks were maintaining. The sidewalks in Houston are not always smooth, especially in the older areas of the city, and having to lift my foot up and over those frost-heaved, tree root overturned sidewalks was tough. Then, whomever planned this walk threw in a nasty trick - there were hills at mile 9. Hills in Houston? Where did those come from? I was not happy, I wanted to stop, but I kept pushing. Luckily, around that mile, I caught up with another woman who had fallen the first day (tripped on a broken sidewalk) and broken three hand bones. She and I chatted a bit, and that motivated me to keep going. They had lunch break at mile 10, at which point I sat, put my feet up and rested for a moment. With only three miles left, I knew I could do it, that I could dig down deep for that last bit of reserve and get there.
So I continued on, walking, walking, walking. I tried to speak encouraging words to anyone I passed, telling them that we were almost done, that we could do it.
At mile 39, I nearly wept - only .3 miles to go. Unfortunately, it was once again over horribly broken up sidewalk. I was having to hold onto saplings to use them for support as I went up and down on the cement. I came to the last crosswalk, I could see the finish., all I had to do was step off a very large curb and go down  a small hill. I was in tears, from what I am not exactly sure. I had reached the end of my reserve, but I had made it.

The other state bird

Do you know what happens to mosquitoes during a drought? Their eggs do not hatch and they stay dormant until more favorable conditions occur. Favorable conditions like our very rainy Jan-Mar.

Why do I bring this up? Well, J-man went camping with the scouts this weekend. Unfortunately, his tent zipper tore half-way into the trip. The mosquitoes treated him like a buffet.

That's his hand, all those red dots are mosquito bites. Both hands have swollen to twice their size. By J is scratching, scratching, scratching. We've tried hydrocortizone cream, aloe vera, ice water, allergy medicine - nothing is working to stop the itch. Poor kid.