Gym Lady

OMG! Did I mention that I have not been to the gym in a while? Well, my friend that I workout with all the time (and talk her in to crazy events - triathlons) used a personal trainer for a while. Her personal trainer lives in the neighborhood and is kind of a friend now. Her son is in my daughter's kindergarten class. She also practically runs the Lifetime Fitness where I am a member. I don't know what her title is so I will just call her gym lady.

When I first joined I ran in to her all the time at the gym. She is so nice and funny. I have not seen her for a while.

Well, I went out of town on business for a week last week and this week I am having an Unveiling (see Frame with Glass no Picture) for my new artwork. Total excuse for a party but I am having over 40 adults to the house on Friday night. Anyway the party preparations have taken precedence over workouts this week.

So today was Turkey lunch day at the school. I took Sonic for my kids because I would rather sit and visit with them than wait in the ridiculously long line for the (bad) turkey lunch. I sit down with my daughter and pick up one of her cheese fries and start shoving it in my mouth when Gym Lady pops up out of nowhere and asks me why I have not been to the gym lately. I smartly reply "because I am busy eating Sonic!" GUH!

I am such a dork!

Girl Scout Hell

Wow being a Girl Scout leader sure is hard. The kids are adorable, cute and great. The parents (moms) and their personalities - guh!

Ok. I said I had to form a coup on the Girl Scout thing. Here is the deal. I signed my daughter up for girl scouts at the beginning of the school year. We did not hear anything until late October about a troop. The leader called for a parent meeting on the night I had to coach a soccer game for my older daughter and a pizza party after. My good friend was the co-leader and she said don't worry about going to the meeting she would get all the forms for me.

At the meeting they voted on the days/times for the meetings. They decided on Thurs. and my daughter can't do Thursdays. Thursday after school is literally the only time we can not do it. I called the leader and asked her to reconsider. It turns out she was only willing to consider 3 hours a week. She home schools her kids and works full time. Guh! If you are that busy you should not be leading the Girl Scout troop. So anyway I formed a coup and invited 2 girls from that troop and 4 more girls to join.

My friend agreed to move her daughter over and be the leader if I would be the co-leader. All the girls decided to do it. Then one of the moms calls me and asks if we are capping the troop or if others will be added. She said she did not want any girls added or she was not going to do it. I told her that the leader and I did not want any more girls and we would consult with everyone in the troop before adding.

So, the week after our first meeting (this week) one of my sort of friends and neighbor calls me and wants her girl added. She had found out about the troop and wanted in. It turns out she is best friends with mom who wants the troop capped. I think, "that's weird she is intentionally leaving out her best friend." So I talk to the mom who wants the troop capped and she says she does not want this child in the troop because none of the other girls play with her. She says that her best friend has been complaining to her and all her other friends that their daughter does not play with hers and they are leaving her out. She says that there is nothing wrong with the child but that she is different from the other girls and they don't want to play with her. She does not want to force her daughter to play with her.

So I talked to my friend, the troop leader and tell her about it. We decide we better tell this person she cannot add on the grounds that we are new leaders and we don't want any more kids. Nothing personal.

Well, then the best friend gets guilty for leaving her out. She does not even have the guts to call me. She calls another mom and tells her she is riddled with guilt and can she call me and tell me that it is up to myself and the leader they don't mind if we add. So now it is on us! Great. So I talked to this lady for a while and she ends up telling me that this new girl and one of the girls already in the troop had a throw down on the playground at school. New mom accused a girl in our troop of shoving her daughter to the ground on the playground. Ok, I have met the accused. She is totally shy, quiet and shy. There is no way I believe that.

Now my friend and I have to decide if we add a child with a mom that may yell at us all year or leave a child out of girl scouts. What would you do???

Uuugghhh!

GD Girl

Ok. I coach a soccer team of 5 year olds. During the games I have all the kids on one side of the field with me and the parents are on the other side of the field. Well, being that they are 5, sometimes they just need a hug or something from Mom or Dad. So I am out on the field and I am trying to substitute kids. I start looking for one of my sweet, cute, little girls. She is sitting in her Mom's lawn chair with all the parents. I yell out that we need her on the field. I see her stand up and do this big dramatic arm swing and foot stomp. Then I hear her mother yelling something about... “If you ever say that again!"

So after the game I ask my friend what her daughter said. She did the whole arm swinging, foot stomping yell, "God Dammit!" Unbelievable and funny - to me. Her mom did not think it was very funny at all. Gee - I wonder where she got that.

Anyway, the same little girl (GD girl) is now in my daughter's Girl Scout daisy troop. GD girl's mom is the Daisy leader. You have to understand how funny this is because it is just such a nice family, 2 kids, both of the parents just as nice as they can be. The kids really are cute and sweet. So we have our first Daisy girl scout meeting yesterday.

I am the co-leader because I started a coup and formed a new Girl Scout troop when the meetings for the original group were conflicting with my daughter's schedule (another story - funny but another day!). GD girl's mom is the leader. So we are doing our cute little circle time with 6 five-year-olds. They start messing with each other and laughing. So I pull out my soccer coaching experience and tell them the rule at girl scouts is respect others and keep your hands, feet and objects to yourself. Everything was good after that.

So end of the meeting our fearless leader comes out with this game she learned in Girl Scout training. The game is called Daisy to Daisy. They each get a partner and the one without a partner is the caller. The caller says a body part and the partners have to touch that body part. So the first caller says "elbow". They all touch elbows and giggle. The caller says "knee." They all touch knees and giggle. The caller then says "Daisy to Daisy." That means they all get a new partner and we have a new caller. So GD girl is the caller. All the girls are giggling and looking at her intently. Without hesitation and as loud as she could she yells, "tongue!"

I am just dying trying not to laugh out loud. Her mother freaks out and says "say something that it is ok to touch."

Oh man, this Girl Scout thing is going to be fun.

Frame with Glass no Picture

My parents moved to a smaller house about a year ago. When I was helping my mom unpack there was a large box that said "frame with glass no picture" on the outside of it. My mom said she was going to take it to Goodwill because it had been in that box through 3 moves over 35 years and had never been unpacked. Me being the sentimental type, I said I would take it.

Well, of course, the box sat in her garage until a couple of weeks ago. I finally loaded it up (with some encouragement from my mom!) and brought it home. It is a beautiful black frame with hand carved leaves all around the edges that are filled in with gold. The glass was also still in one piece. The glass looks antique and has that wavy appearance that glass has after sitting for years. The glass also had a ton of masking tape on it that the movers must have put on it when packing. The tape had been on there for 35 years and I was concerned about getting it off without breaking the glass.

I showed it to all my friends telling them the story. Everyone I showed it to was really impressed. I told them that I was going to find a picture of a lake to put in it and put it over the bed in my bedroom. I did not want to trust anyone with the frame or the glass. I just did not see myself taking it to a chain frame shop and leaving it with the minimum wage high school student in charge.

I searched the web to find the right picture. I remembered a poster I had while I was in high school and college. It was a poster of a water color done by Mary Doerr. http://www.imagesofaustin.com/austin_art.html (image name = no. 1 tower). I wanted to see if she had any other prints that I would be interested in. I went to her studio and found (image name = view from shep. mnt). It took me 2 hours to get all that tape off but I managed.

After all that talk I left the frame there - and the glass! Oh well. The people there seemed so knowledgeable and nice. They were so respectful of the frame and the glass. They told me how much they liked the frame and how cool the glass was. I left it there a week ago and they told me it would take about two weeks. I just can't wait to see it!

Life Is Funny

Life is funny you know. I have decided to just laugh at what comes my way. I am not sure if the way I look at things is how others would but it makes life fun. Maybe it is the way I look at things but it seems like funny things just happen in my life.

I have decided to share those funny things here. I will share everything from workouts to recipes.