Much Ado About Nothing

Lotsa pictures here! When the music ends, it’ll repeat about 2 or 3x. Keep watching!

Yesterday, Michaela turned 6 years old. As with previous years, we had a celebration planned and of course, with me in party planning mode, it’s never a small production. I naively thought that this year would be a little different. I knew that we were getting a little elaborate with the Sweet and Sassy party but figured it was worth the money since the hassle factor would be greatly diminished since the party would be elsewhere. Um. Yeah. The day started very early. Michaela wanted to sleep in my room the night before and she was awake bright and early shortly after six. I felt her staring at me as I stirred. She was waiting for those magical 2 words that I usually wake her up with each year. Of course, she was first to be awake and so I mustered what enthusiasm I had and smiled, “Happy birthday, Michaela!” She giggled and responded, “I’m six now!”

Happy Tooth-Day!

As with tradition started by her Dad, a birthday wouldn’t be MICHAELA’S birthday unless it involved a visit to Build-A-Bear. Grandad and Nana joined our adventure and off we went to build Michaela her yearly bear and to get portraits created at Kiddie Kandids. All was going well and soon Debbie and Matt joined us for some fun at the Cheesecake Factory at lunch time. Michaela’s wiggly tooth was starting to cause some discomfort for her. On the way to the mall she said her tooth felt funny and when I looked, her gums were bleeding. I told her it wouldn’t be long now - it just might be today. Little did I know how prophetic I was being because while knawing on some french bread at lunch her tooth popped out! And she didn’t even know it! I just happened to glance over at her and thought I saw a gap where her tooth had been. I frantically told her to stop chewing which she did and with a swipe of my index finger, I was able to fish out her tooth. Yuck. What a mom will do! I just know how disappointed she would have been had she lost it by swallowing it! So the picture above was taken shortly after the discovery. Michaela was a little scared at first. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of what had happened. But the cheers erupted at our table and despite the funny looks from neighboring tables, Michaela was soon full of giggles and excitement. How neat to lose her first tooth and on her birthday!!

After lunch we went to Sam’s Club to pick up her birthday cake and some flowers. Our next stop was the cemetary to spend some time with Dad. Thankfully, Hank at Larkin fixed Mike’s vase. And our quiet moment with Dad was just wante we needed - even though Nana was watching from the van and singing happy birthday. I admit that was kinda weird but thinking about it, I am sure Mike was right there giving Mom that weird look he’d give whenever he’d think something was absolutely hilarious. Sorry, Nan..but it was.

We had no sooner picked up the cousins and got back to the house when the Sweet and Sassy limo arrived. The youngest of the girls were pretty excited. And despite the appearances to the contrary, the older ones - Allie and Maggie were kinda excited, too. They all seemed to love the limo and they definitely enjoyed the hairstyles, make up and sparkly clothes - even Maggie who protested much but who I caught smiling often!

Getting their girl on!

The party at Sweet and Sassy got a little wild - doing the Limbo and singing YMCA but the girls proved they were up for the challenge. After the pampering and custom slipper making, the party moved back to the limo that took us back home. We topped off the night with pizza, popcorn, soda, candy, presents, cake, snow cones and even more candy. Everyone was poperly sugared up and the grown ups were sufficiently exhausted. Michaela had a most excellent birthday!! I think next year only a trip to the moon would top this one!

Yesterday on the way home, I was on the freeway and an alarm in the car went off saying that something was amiss with my tire pressure. So I continued on and when I reached the gas station near home, I stopped to check the pressure. At first look, I couldn’t see any problem. The tire gage was saying things were normal until I reached the back driver’s side tire. Although the numbers on the tire were good, I heard the distinctive sound of a steady hiss coming from the back of the car.

::: Bare with me. I am going somewhere with this :::

I got on my hands and knees and looked toward the source of the hiss and found something had become lodged in the tire. It was now a race to get to a place that could fix the tire before it went completely flat. Let me say now as an aside, I totally and completely endorse Les Schwab Tires. They ROCK! Anyway, they fixed the tire (quickly) and the cost? FREE! I was thrilled and I avoided a huge headache.

This morning I blogged about being deflated. Frankly I was. I just didn’t think there was any reason for hope. That steady hiss was me being discouraged with this presidential stuff. I just wanted to pull  my hair out. I will say that McCain’s pick of Palin has temporarily put a stop on the hiss. So far, I like what I am hearing from her and about her. Does it change my mind yet on how I will vote? No. But the potential is there. And I will say that IF I vote the McCain ticket, it won’t be because of him. After hearing her speak, I was wishing she was the one running for president. Ah…maybe some day.

This morning I feel much like I do the morning after watching my team lose in the super bowl - deflated. It’s apparent now more than ever that we’ll be calling Obama “president-elect” come November 5th and it’s not because he’s some guy with great ideas and experience to make him capable of being the leader of the greatest country on earth but because he and his people have successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of millions of trained monkeys. Last night we got to see 80,000 of them literally go ape-*!$@# over the man. It was mesmerizing to watch and scary all at the same time. Bit by bit I see individuality fading all in the name of equality. A friend from work said it best yesterday…the liberals have a gift for pointing out the have’s and have nots. They will show you the man with the nice car and tell you that in order to be equal to the man, we must take away the car. What kind of nonsense is this? Wouldn’t it be better to help the one’s without try to attain the car themselves? The message isn’t about building people up but about tearing down the people who have managed to achieve their dreams and goals. It’s pathetic and sad. This whole process has been a big manipulation. And I fear that before long many of us will be as unrecognizable as those thousands of Chinese folks in the Olympics ceremonies - moving in unison, regimented and pissing in diapers.

McCain isn’t helping my anxiety. He’s not my choice and I have vowed not to vote for him unless he can pick a running mate that is capable of being president. Because let’s face it, McCain is old and he can kick the bucket at any time. We need a guy who can be prez. This year, more than any other the choice for VP is most important. I suppose Obama thinks he’ll live a while because why else would he pick Biden?

::: Shudder :::

Word is that the choice isn’t Pawlenty (I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but WHO is he?) and the choice isn’t Romney (bad move, dude). Could McCain pick the obligatory woman Veep? Because if it’s not Romney who is what the party wants, then their only hope is a woman but I just don’t see it helping much. I hope I am wrong. But I doubt it. I am rarely wrong. So, McCain will do a big “screw you” to the base and well, it doesn’t matter because in 4 years he’ll be a fossil and we can finally get it right and get Romney on the ticket. You know as I speculate about all of this, it is apparent that perhaps our only hope are the Clintons. *GASP*! Think about it…they have begrudgenly “accepted” Obama as their guy but everything they say is through gritted teeth. There is nothing genuine about their acceptance and I wouldn’t put it past them to covertly do something to make sure that Obama is not elected so Hillary can save the party in 2012. Wouldn’t that be something?

So, you may ask me, why pay attention this stuff at all? Call it political masochism. It’s like the wreck on the side of the road that you can’t help but bring yourself to slow down and look at. And I do this every four years. I love torturing myself!!! So, I will keep a wary eye out. I’ll remember my standards and I won’t lower them to jump on the Obama bandwagon. Things are gonna get a whole lot worse before they get better and it’s going to take a few clear headed folks to pull all the monkeys out of the ashes.

An old friend contacted me on Facebook today. It was good to hear from her. I haven’t spoken with her in nearly 20 years. We were pretty good pals in Junior High and High School and she was probably one of my better friends at church - I didn’t have many. With the exception of early morning seminary and temple pageant, I didn’t enjoy church at all when I was a teenager. It’s a painful memory and one I should get over. I suppose I have to some degree but the sting of what things were like back then is still a fresh memory. But that being said, for a fellow church-girl, this friend of mine was tops. She was genuine and kind and I appreciated her friendship. Good to hear from you again, friend. Since I reconnected with her I perused a little on Facebook and found many familiar faces who all look pretty much how I remembered them from years ago. It’s hard to comprehend that it’ll be TWENTY YEARS next year. That boggles my mind. It’s also good to see from the comments they leave that all the BS that occured back in high school seems to have been left behind. Maybe it’s maturity. I dunno. But it makes the notion of perhaps attending a reunion next year seem plausible.

Today I got the call from Waterford that they had a space open up and they’d like to offer it to Michaela. I’ll meet with admissions tomorrow and make arrangements to get her enrolled and she’ll probably start on Tuesday. I admit that for the rest of the day it was hard to concentrate. I felt like it was ME getting ready for the first day of school. I was nervous and excited and worried all at the same time. How would Michaela handle the news? Would she be sad about leaving her school and her friends? This lasted most of the day but then I figured that she’d probably handle this bit of news kinda like Mike would. He was pretty much on an even keel all the time. I get so worked up over the little things. And I really shouldn’t. My instincts (once I listened to them) were dead on. Michaela took the news well. She said it was no problem to leave the school. And the fact that picture day is tomorrow and I wasn’t going to buy pictures didn’t bother her either. Luckily she is young enough that she doesn’t mind the fact that she has to start the 1st grade all over. She already has a month under her belt. It kinda stinks that she has to start over. On the flip side, she’ll probably be doing more advanced stuff and she’s already pretty used to being part of school on a day to day basis already. So, she’s probably at an advantage.