an adventurous, passionate, weird life.

Hello my beautiful, wonderful people. I am not sure who is reading my blog these days, but if you're reading I am so glad.  Welcome.  Let's be friends.

I took a break from blogging for a while.  I've resorted to handwritten journals and it's served me so well, but now I am ready to do both again.  I love writing with a nice pen in a pretty book.  But I am missing the connection I get from the outside world.  I miss you.  And for what it's worth, I am so glad we're reconnecting.

yes please. 

It's 5:30 on Sunday morning.  Daylight savings today.  I literally don't know what time it is.  My kitchen clock says an hour later than my phone, which is weird. Someone must have set my kitchen clocks forward already (I'd bet money on Ben) but my phone should automatically change times.  The movie trailer of Saving Daylight is so my life.  Someone just please tell me what time it is.  I don't care, just tell me!  I was up until midnight talking to my husband and then texting my bff Karlin until much later and I LOST an hour sometime after that..  So I cannot even tell you how much sleep I've had.  Let's round up and say 3 hours.  But, no matter what time I go to bed, my internal clock wakes up before the sun and I feel ready to take on the day. I love this about myself.

Aaron has been gone all week in California doing what he loves best, watching and playing tennis.  Last year we went to this tournament together in our first bus trip and it was magical.  But this year, it was best for him to go alone.  It felt so good to let him go and not wish we were tagging along.  This was HIS week and he had a blast.  We sent him off with love notes and a bags of goodies and well wishes.  He is the most amazing husband, father and human.  He makes our lives better everyday and needs a break every so often.

ice cream at midnight in the middle of the week.  

The kids and I had the BEST week.  I don't know why I was so excited with my time alone with them, but for some reason I felt free.  Aaron is not my boss, but sometimes I make him so.  I want so badly to please him and make our house comfortable for him that it can bring an added stress into my life.  That's something I will have to work on now that he's back.  But when he was away, it was a party everyday.  Some days we went to bed early, because I love early bedtime.  And other nights the seven of us went shopping at 11 pm to buy ice cream and then had a dance party at midnight.  There were no rules or schedules and that's how I operate best.  And it's good for the kids too.

Spring!

Later I will give you an update on each of my kids, but right now I am going to sum them up together.  They are the most creative, loving, kind, helpful, funny, delightful children.  I didn't expect there to be any whining or fighting while Aaron was away and I wasn't surprised when there wasn't any.. not a single squabble.  They play together happily.  They work along side me with ease.  Our house was clean.  Our bedrooms were organized.  Music was blasting.  Games were played.  Books were read.  So many books were read.  Television is no longer part of our life, except for Monday nights when Studio C is on.  We learn everyday about things that make us curious.  Spring is coming and we spent so much time outside. We held so many wiggly worms! We went hiking.  We ate all our meals at home, but they were odd foods, random things that sounded yummy at the time.  It was a free-for-all week and these adventurous, spontaneous, weird experiences make me feel free as a bird.  I don't want to be a single mom, but I would do it in a heartbeat with these kids.  They make my life better.  Having Aaron as a husband and dad is the cherry on top.

A poster the boys made and hung before dad came home.

Minutes after Aaron arrived home, I left for a birthday dinner party for my Aunt Nancy.  She turns 65 next week and she is the youngest 65 year old I know.  She's my dad's baby sister who has never been married and lives with her best friend Julie.  My sisters and I planned a girls night with delicious food and meaningful stories about Nancy and how she's influenced our lives.  Nance lives to serve others.  She carried for my widowed Grandma Roma for 20 years after the death of my Grandpa Fred.  She managed Roma's money, shopped for her, cut her grass, washed her dishes, washed her face, bathed her, found her missing dentures, you name it.  Towards the end of the party we started telling stories about Roma and could not stop laughing.  I got to a point to where I could hear my Grandma's scratchy voice and see her dancing in the middle of a crowd and my heart wanted to burst with love from where I've come.  What a wonderful family tree I was born into.  I am so extremely grateful I live by my Aunts and sisters and parents now.

Singing to Nance after a yummy Mexican dinner at Debs.

Driving home from the party, I wanted to cry with gratitude, but I smiled and laughed instead.  These are some of the stories that made me smile.

• After searching for Roma's dentures for hours all around her house, my Dad gave up searching and then Roma felt something down her cleavage and found them.  Nancy asked my Dad why he didn't look there and soon that became the first place to search for missing items.  
• Once when Nancy was a young adult, her mom (Roma) approached her and told her that her mother (Lola) said (Lola, my great-grandmother died at the age of 45 long before Nancy was ever born.)  This is the special quote that has been passed down from generation to generation. "There are two things that I like hard and one of them is ice cream."  This made me feel right at home in my family because I am a pervert and an ice cream lover.  This is a quote I will definitely be passing on to my daughters.  It would be a sin to let it die.  If I die before my daughters reach young adult hood, please tell them for me.  
• When Julie (Nancy's roommate for the past 25-30 years) needed to be introduced to Roma's extended family, Roma got a twinkle in her eye, wrapped her arm in Julie's and said, "This is my lover."  Julie was so embarrassed, she walked in another room to avoid the responses.  But now she proudly thinks of herself in such terms.  I like to think of myself as my Grandma's lover as well.  She loved me and everyone else around her.  She was such a people person.  A crazy person as well.
• While my brother was visiting Roma's house, he poured a bowl of cereal and cherry tomatoes came out with the milk.  Roma's response was, "Sorry.  I thought I got all of those out."  Nancy, telling the story, always had the best responses because she's such a straight-logical thinker.  You don't accidentally get several cherry tomatoes inside a milk carton.  What was she doing?  Whatever she wanted, and that's what made her so likable.
• My grandma was always dieting.  She would not try on a dress or outfit that Nancy and Julie had picked out for her unless it was a size 10.  But often, she fit better in a 12 or 14 or even 16.  They had to cut out the tags of her clothes because if she saw it was a bigger size, she would not wear it.  I never knew this about her.  
• One of the diets she tried was the baby food diet.  We laughed so hard about this.  Apparently she purchased and ate baby food for a while because she saw someone on tv go from big to little while eating only baby food.  She believed everything she saw.  
• She was a church goer.  Even in her worst health conditions, she would get up and get ready for church.  She would explain, "I'm a church girl."  Janet is NOT a church girl, so this inspired me.  I want to know what kind of girl I am and stick with it.
•  Nancy said that Roma was the funnest mom on the block.  Their house was always a mess, but her friends wanted to be at her house because her mom was always so interested in them and wanted them around.  This I believe with all of my heart.  She was ALWAYS so glad to have me at her house.  I loved being with her.  As a girl, when I had free time, I wanted to be sleeping at my Grandma's house and playing games and talking with her.  I want to be this kind of Grandma.  I believe I will be because I am this kind of mom.  I love having my kids around.
• We had so many stories of Roma naked.  I have dozen of memories and they are so natural that it never seemed weird to me as a child.  My Grandma was comfortable in her own skin.  If she was in the middle of a conversation but it was time for a bath or she needed to change her clothes, there was no point to stop the conversation.  She would just strip down in front of you.  She never needed privacy and that truly made me comfortable in my own skin.  I am my Grandmother's granddaughter.  If I didn't have to wear clothes, I wouldn't.  And I am dead serious when I say I would like to experience a nudist camp sometime in my life.  I must do this before I die.

one of my heroes.

There were so many other stories shared.  So much happiness in our memories.  I drove away thinking about my own little girl.  I can't believe I actually have my own Roma.   She is named after a legend, someone that I loved and admired with all of my heart.  She is totally her own person, but she is so much of me.  I am so grateful for my past and my present and know that we are all connected at the heart.

"Here's all of us girls.  Your body is crazy because it's always like... dancing." - Ro.  Mom gets her dance moves from Grandma Roma.

Happy Sunday.  Treat yourself to some ice cream this weekend.