Positively Positive

Feeling a bit more like myself these last few days. By that, I mean I am feeling more positive, able to see the simple pleasures in my world instead of only the negative aspects. In fact, my world has virtually sparkled with positivity these last few days. What's even better is that my motivation has made a reappearance. I've completed several mundane tasks that I had been avoiding, nothing big, but things that really needed to be done...hotel reservations, pet care arrangements, graduation cards ready to be mailed out, Jazmyne's bathing suit ordered, Ray's anniversary present ordered, several long over due phone calls completed. Feels good to accomplish what I have been avoiding thinking about.

So, here is a peek at a few of those sparkling positive things that I mentioned...

* Jazmyne's spring concert tonight was much fun. They played the theme to Scooby Doo, a medley of old sitcom themes, a cool jazz song, and ended with a tribute to Michael Jackson. Everyone did a great job. Jazmyne is a tuba player. One thing about tubas is that they are LOUD! If the tuba player makes a mistake, it isn't drowned out by the other instruments. Nope, everyone in the audience hears that mistake and knows exactly who did it. On the flip side of that, when the tuba player is rockin, everyone listening knows exactly which band member is making that awesome music. Lucky for Jazmyne, she was having one of the latter type nights. While she doesn't have the lung capacity to blast eardrums like her brother when he played tuba, she does have more than her fair share of musical talent. We are very proud of her!

* Thanks to a husband that spoils me rotten (when he isn't busy forgetting things and having mood swings) I have pretty feet again. He gave me a pedicure, followed by a wonderful foot massage, and topped off with "Lucky Lucky Lavender" polish on my toes. I just love the O.P.I. nail polishes.

* As of today Amber is officially done with geography for the school year. Cannot even begin to express how happy this makes me. I spent my mandatory 12 years doing school work, and doing a good job of it if I do say so myself. I have also been helping various children, my own and other's, with school work for the last 19 years. I've even helped an adult or two slide through a college course. During all of that exposure to a multitude of school subjects, my initial reaction to a geography assignment has always been a hefty groan, followed by several big sighs and the occasional swear word. Finding out at open house, at the beginning of the school year, that Amber would be required to take a weekly geography tests was not the highlight of my year. Lucky for her, Daddy is good with geography, and he likes it, so she got good grades on all of those tests. Still glad it's done though. Hopefully, next year we can have weekly science or vocabulary tests instead.

* May in Louisiana means it is hot. June means hotter. July means hottest. August means STILL hottest. September means "Will it EVER end?" Temperatures have been constantly in the mid 90's since April waved good-bye. The bright side of May in Louisiana is that it rains a lot. I love rain. I love thunderstorms. Been having those for a couple of weeks now. Ray complains that it is too wet. I told him it would still be wet even if it stops raining. The humidity has been at 90-100% for weeks. Nothing ever feels dry in a Louisiana summer. Mold is the state flower! LOL.

* All this hot weather has made me crave lemonade. Ray bought a quart of the Simply Lemonade for me. Yum! Homemade lemonade is the best, but this is a close second, in my opinion. Plus it has perks...like no lemon juice squirting me in the eye and no discovering that there are no lemons in the fridge because a certain 10 y/o has eaten them all.

* Finally watched Avatar with Ray the other day. Very nice movie, though not sure it was deserving of all the hubbub that surrounded it while it was in theaters. Graphics were superb though.

* Dancing with the Stars is down to the final three and Erin and Maks are still in the running for the coveted mirror ball trophy. My hope is that Nicole leaves next and then Erin and Evan battle for first place. I am afraid that isn't going to happen though. A much more likely scenario is that Erin will go next, leaving Evan and Nicole to dance for first place. Nicole will probably win. But I can have hope for one more week.

* I love the Wilton Comfort Grip cookie cutters. I have several already, mostly holiday shapes since that is when Wal Mart carries the cookie cutters. I recently acquired a football shaped one. I was more excited about this than was probably warranted, but I couldn't help it. I told you, I like the little things. Have a butterfly cutter ordered. Will be excited when that one arrives too.

* I have the most eccentric kitty in the world. I have to hide my potatoes and sweet potatoes from her. If I put them anywhere besides the fridge, she finds them and manages to get to them so that she can carry them up the stairs and leave them, full of kitty teeth marks, scattered around the hallway. Don't know why she is so fascinated with potatoes. She also is extremely attached to my husband. Not only does she groom his hair nightly, but on the nights that he has to stay out on the range, she shows her displeasure by throwing things off his dresser. There were 8 or 10 glow in the dark zombie figurines on the cake I made him for his birthday. He lined these zombies across the front of his dresser top. Kitty never touches them when he is home, but every night he isn't home to go to bed with her, she jumps on his dresser and knocks them all on the floor. Such a weird kitty. But amusing.

It's after 2:00 am. Need to sleep. Have to get up early to get the kids off to school. Eight more days! WOOHOO!