Am I There, Yet?

Yesterday was L’s last day of school for the next 11 days. I’m so excited…I feel as if I’m on Spring Break.  The weather and her school bus schedule have kept me in town for the past couple of months, so I’m looking forward to having an opportunity to get out and explore.  Today we spent an exciting day putting together bunk beds.  Our poor children have been sleeping on air mattresses since we moved here…so they’re pretty excited.  Josh and I are exhausted…but, the kids are thrilled.

Josh is taking Monday off and so we’re taking the train to the city to play.  We’ll probably take the kids to either Top of the Rock or the Empire State Building to get a view of the city.  L’s been bugging me about taking her to the Toys R Us in Times Square, but I may try to talk her into going to FAO Schwarz or American Girl Place instead.  I’ll have to make sure we get a chance to stop at Dylan’s Candy Bar.  Maybe we’ll even get down to Greenwich Village to visit Peanut Butter & Co for lunch.  Yummmmmy!!!  I love taking the kids places because I then have an excuse to act like a child myself.

I have a few more plans up my sleeve for Spring Break.  Sometime next week I’m going to drive to Jersey City and take the kids on a ferry ride to see The Statue of Liberty.  I’ll probably also take a trip to the shore one day to play on the beach.  The weather won’t be that warm…but, it’ll still be fun to get out.  I’m also planning to take the kids to see Meet the Robinson’s. 

These kids look like they need a little more adventure in their life…don’t ya think?  My poor bored babies were drug around a mall yesterday…

…that I’m going to reveal here.  I don’t know why it should be a big deal…but, it is to me.  I’m afraid to admit this.  Maybe it’s because I’m afraid of what people will say.  “I told you so.”  “You’ve made your bed…now lie in it.”  Or worse, yet, “Well, all you need to do is ________________________________ and everything will be all better.”  Or maybe I’m afraid that people will think I’m weak.

However, as I contemplate my little secret, I realize that I’m being silly and that this is a natural reaction to people who have relocated to another part of the country.  I knew this would happen.  Everybody else knew this would happen.  So, why is it so hard for me to admit?

You’ve probably figured out my secret by now…but, here it goes:

I’m homesick.

I miss my family.  I miss my friends.  I miss my house.  I miss my mountains.  I miss Dutch Bros., Red Robin, Fred Meyer and Carl’s Jr. 

I watch Little People, Big World every week in hopes of catching glimpses of things familiar to Oregon.  I read Donald Miller books because of his little comments thrown in periodically of things/places/people in Oregon.

I have no regrets.  I don’t feel for one second that we made a wrong choice to move here.  Our life is not ideal here…but, we believe we are here for a reason.  But, at times, I can’t help but think about what we had and what we’ve said goodbye to.

Don’t tell anybody my secret, O.K?

Today I kidnapped my husband from his office and took him out to lunch.  Our 4-year-old was with us.  After lunch we got into the car and Josh helped our son climb into his booster seat and buckle his seat belt.  Josh was standing with the door open (because he couldn’t do this with the door closed…right?)  Anyways, there was an empty parking spot next to him and an older man in a pick-up truck wanted to park in that empty spot.  He couldn’t get into the spot because of our open door, so he sat there pounding on his horn until Josh finished up and closed the door to give him room to pull in. 

So, what’s rude?  What’s proper parking lot etiquette? 

Is the father who is blocking an empty parking spot for a couple of minutes while he fastens his child safely in the car being rude for blocking the empty spot?

Or…is the man who innocently wants a parking spot and can’t get to it being rude for letting the blocker know that he wants the spot?

What would’ve been the proper way for both parties to handle this situation to make life easier for the other party involved?

I found this quiz on blogthings and thought of a friend of mine who’s getting ready to head south to visit another mutual friend.  These were the results of my quiz…what are yours?

You Should Visit Brazil

If you’re looking for an extreme yet chill vacation, Brazil is perfect for you. Go wild at Carnaval, get lost in the Amazon, and relax checking out the beautiful people on the beach.

There’s a phrase that I keep hearing and it’s an annoying little phrase.  “It is what it is.”  Who started that stupid cliche?  I even saw a shirt made to look like the Wii logo…but says “iiwii” in large letters…meaning…you guessed it, “It is what it is.”

I found a few tidbits about that phrase on the web…these weren’t composed by me…I can’t take credit for them…but thought they were interesting enough to share:

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Urban Dictionary says:

It is what it is:

#1)  A cliche, popular within the circles of coaches, business execs, and those of us who just want to say “It’s happened. ‘I’m going to forget about it. I’m going to move on. There is nothing that can be done about it.”

Voted by USA Today as the #1 cliche of 2004

“We showed up and gave 100%, and it is what it is.”- NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson, after finishing second in the Nextel Cup championship. (AP, Nov. 22)

“Never in a million years did I think we would be 1-5 at this juncture, but it is what it is.”- Mike Minter, safety for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, on his team’s start this season. (AP, Oct. 24)

Is this a better game than before? That’s what a lot of people are asking. Perhaps the more precise question should be: Is this what hockey is going to evolve into? And if so, will the fans, the players, the coaches, and the general managers embrace it as NHL hockey?
“It is what it is,” said Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock. “It’s a new game.” (AP, Oct. 23)

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Some guy named Jantzen wrote an article about cliches.  He says:

“It is what it is” means what it means. Depending on context, it can be a statement of resignation or of defiance, but in neither case does it connote the optimistic good humor of “It’s all good.” If anything, it expresses the absence of emotion, the abdication of feeling. Although it seems to imply value-neutrality, that misses the point; it’s not so much that something is neither good nor bad, but rather that its quality simply isn’t relevant, that it’s not worth the energy to make a value judgment.

To put it another way - it doesn’t matter what you think about it because you can’t do anything about it anyway. It was in this spirit that Al Gore invoked the phrase after winning the popular vote and possibly the electoral tally as well: “I strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court decision and the way in which they interpreted and applied the law. But I respect the rule of law, so it is what it is.”

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So, what do you do when you get to a place when you realize that it is what it is?