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Archive for the ‘Musings and Epiphanies’ Category

Destination Truth: Big Brook Preserve

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , , , , on July 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

So we went on the fossil hunt.  The weather was questionable at best, but this had been planned for a while.  I wasn’t going to let a little rain stop this adventure.  I was declared the “Josh Gates” of our very own Destination Truth.  Sometimes on the show, Josh and the gang have to try multiple times to find the correct place or the right area to investigate.  That was us on Friday.  You see, multiple people told me how EASY it was to go to Big Brook and find shark tooth fossils.  I was the good mommy I’m supposed to be and I googled Big Brook and got directions.  The maps certainly seemed easy.

But you see, there is Big Brook Park and Big Brook Preserve.

BIG difference between the two.

The directions from Mapquest were almost accurate.  I already wished we had the Destination Truth GPS equipment.  And the film crew.  We ended up at Holmdel Park initially.  The very nice ranger let us use the bathroom and we found another map.  We got back in the rocketsled and headed to Big Brook Park, still unaware of our initial mistake, Park versus Preserve.  We easily found Big Brook Park and there was much rejoicing.  The kids were hungry already so we ate in the rocketsled (since it was still raining) and studied the maps.  We felt we had found the easiest way to the brook and as we finished lunch, the rain was even letting up a bit.  We all hit the Johnny on the Spot and headed down the trail.

We quickly stopped as we realized how much it was not going to get us to the brook.  With some grumbling from the kids, we got back in the vehicle and studied the maps again.  At this point, Josh Gates took over my mind and I didn’t become freakishly tense Mom.  I stayed loose and relished the quest for the shark tooth fossils.  The kids were having a field day anyway.  And shortly after we got back on the road, the rain started coming down again.

We went around to another side of the park and entered through a trail.  We followed the paved trail and made our way across a bridge.   We guessed it was the brook, but there was no access.  We turned around and tried an unpaved trail.  There we were, the five of us, trekking through a field, keeping the woods to our right while looking for another trail.  We found evidence of an old trail and decided to try that since it headed toward the woods.  We also could see signs on some of the trees so some other human had approached this area and we felt we were finally on the right track.

                                               

We weren’t.  Back to the rocketsled.  Back to the maps.  We had noticed some playground equipment and the sign on the tree said no shooting because there was a school within 50 feet.  We decided to look for the school since that would be public property and, in theory, we could access the brook from there.  We headed out again and slowly came to realize as we tried every little street that the playground equipment belonged to really rich kids with gigantic playsets in their backyards not a school.

By now, we were laughing about the lack of luck, enjoying the journey, and relishing the fact that we were in the rocketsled during the current downpour.

We stopped by a gas station, asked for directions (no luck) and used the facilities.  We ventured another direction and found a park on a road that was on the map, had the required woods, and a trail leading to them.  We kept driving to scope the area, found another key road from the map, and a small sign that said Big Brook Preserve with rules listed on it.  It was simply a sign on the side of the road next to a small bridge.  We figured these were our last two options (considering we were down to about an hour of “fossil time”).  We decided to check the park first.  Our own personal “Ryder” volunteered to scope it out in the rain.  The rain was light but then it became a downpour.  The kids didn’t care.  They were out playing in the playground and running around in the rain.  Ryder reported back via phone that the park was not the right place.  The five of us piled back into the rocketsled completely soaked, but thankful we had a more reliable vehicle than the Destination Truth gang usually has to drive.

We went to our last place to try.  We had about 45 minutes before we had to head home.  Ryder scoped it out again and finally, finally, we had found the right place.  Big Brook Preserve.

And so in the rain we trekked carefully down the side of the bridge, with Ryder leading the way and me, Josh, bringing up the rear.  Happily, one thing I was told was truthful.  We found shark teeth fossils in the little bit of time we had in the brook.  The rain was pouring down and the laughter was floating in the air.

                                                                 

I went so far out of my comfort zone on this trip.  It was invigorating.  While it was not as adventurous as what Josh, Ryder, and the DT gang usually do, it was quite an amazing adventure for us.  Pick a destination and see what truth you can find.  In my Josh Gates mode, I found that I can still climb, play in a brook, and dance in the rain.  That was my Destination Truth.

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Dig It

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , on July 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Tomorrow oldest son will feel more like a paleontologist.  He will have officially gone on a fossil dig.  He is so excited he can barely contain himself.  He can barely contain himself on most days, so he is really bouncy today.  Add to it that a young lady he is very fond of will be joining him on the dig.  She digs dinosaurs too and that makes oldest son smile from ear to ear.  The day will be filled with funny moments…I must remember not to embarrass him.

Funnier moments will come from the idea of oldest son asking youngest son to be his wing man.  The modern interpretation of this role really isn’t that different from the original, a pilot who supports another pilot in a possibly dangerous flying situation.  But picture it–a six-year-old trying to be wing man for an eight-year-old.  Neither of these guys have any experience with the ladies.

The advice this evening at bedtime was to be yourself, less is more, and think of her first.

My main function tomorrow is two-fold.  Do not embarrass the big guy as he tries to impress her.  And run defense for the wing man.  Can you dig it?

 

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Blog Spam Comments

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , on July 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I love reading the spam comments for my blog.  One of my favorite things to do is check how many fine folks may have read posts each day.  The numbers are small and, while it would be lovely to have massive numbers every day instead of once or twice a year, I love simply having even one person reading something each day.  Another favorite part of blogging, for me, are the spam comments.

While more legitimate comments would be cool, the spam ones are so entertaining.  To fully appreciate my appreciation of these comments, remember that I manage a writing center.  These comments could be used for tutor training-they are so poorly written!  Verbs in the wrong place, misplaced modifiers galore, and random article usage.  It is a hoot for someone like me to decipher possible meaning from these computer generated comments.

They try to sound so caring about my blog.  And then they give advice on how to grow the traffic.  The advice may make sense, but the writing is so poor that I can’t bear to read it enough times to find the clarity.

Sometimes I am tempted to write random comments on other blogs, but that is probably poor blogging etiquette.  Creating additional spam comments is most likely frowned upon.

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Singer and Dancer

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , on July 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Younger son loved camp.  The only problem he faced was that he was not a “good singer and dancer”.  Thus he sat out of some of the activities.  He loved everything about the camp.  His counselor, the bunk beds, the friends he made, the crafts, the food!  He said the pancakes even rivaled Daddy’s pancakes.

He brought his blanket and two special stuffed animals, but he had me quickly hide them under his sleeping bag.  My guess is they didn’t have to stay there for long.

I know it was only four days. I know there were only two actual days that I didn’t see him, but he looks older.  The confidence and independence my sons have gained at camp is a wonderful thing.  Younger son is handling himself with more control and is managing older son more easily.  There is more patience in my son’s soul.

I am so proud of younger son for going to camp with an open heart and mind and really giving it a try.  He fell in love with the camp, just as older son has, and we are very blessed to have this wonderful camp to send our sons to for learning.

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Time can move so slowly

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , on July 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Younger son went to camp on Wednesday night.  We left him at camp around 7:45 that evening and he was crying.  Older son and I were crying too.  Yesterday was tolerable.  I only got misty-eyed a few times, but held it together pretty well.  Today was a different story.

Last  night I cuddled a pair of his footed pajamas.  I didn’t sleep well.  I woke up every few hours.  I didn’t really have bad dreams or anything, just kept waking up.  Didn’t sleep soundly.

This morning I cried a lot.  Couldn’t get myself to stop.  I kept myself busy and tried not to think about it on my way home from the lovely half-day Friday.  Filled my afternoon with busy work.  It was good because it was purposeful work.  But I was still thinking about him.

Tonight I put in Sweeney Todd and figured that would fill the evening but it was only 10:30 when it was over.  I can’t bear this.  If I go to sleep this early I know I won’t sleep well.  I wish it were already Saturday morning.

I know it’s only two days of not seeing him, and I know others in the world have had to deal with far more dire circumstances.  Still it hurts my heart to know my baby isn’t in our home.  Tomorrow morning.  Only an hour and a half away.  Then I’ll see my baby.  Still, it’s only 10:52…

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Marvel’s The Avengers

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Fine.  We may have come late to the party, but Marvel’s The Avengers was awesome.

Chris Hemsworth is simply beautiful and I love Thor.

The man knows how work a cape.  I have not been keeping up to date on my Marvel movies (still have yet to see either Iron Man or Captain America), but The Avengers was scripted so that it didn’t matter that I tend to be more of a DC gal.

There is nothing I could write about the movie that has not probably already been written.  Samuel L. Jackson-fabulous.  Robert Downey, Jr.-been a fan since 1985.  All of the heroes were phenomenal as they should be.  That was expected.  My favorite part was watching my sons.

Younger son was fighting sleep the whole time but never lost the look of awe that was on his face.  It was an experience of the magic of movies.  I watched as his eyes widened and he reacted with pure joy at so many moments.  He laughed, giggled, and said whoa almost as frequently as Joey Lawrence.

Older son was showing off how much he was in the know.  One of the heroes would do some amazing feat and he would quietly say “classic Hulk” or “classic Iron Man”.  His confidence in being familiar with these characters showed how much he has grown from the days of Nick Jr.

My sons have joined the ranks of millions who turn to these superheroes for continuity and symbolism in their lives.  Very patriotic as well, and not just Captain America.  All of the superheroes always bring out the feeling of Americana in me.  Stan Lee made his cameo, funny one-liners abounded, and all was right in the world.

While vengeance is a tricky line to walk in real life, in the movies, it’s simple.  You avenge a wrongdoing.  The Avengers sparked the imaginations of my sons.  Just as Superman did back in 1978 for me.

 

Hulk, smash.

 

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My Lunch with the Doc or A Night at the Opera

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , on July 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

My lunch with the doc is also known as late night dinner with my hubby or a night at the opera.  We went to see (and listen) to an opera.  It was beautiful but had to end at intermission because of the storm.  The power was knocked out so they performed the first act in a combination of the church lights and the emergency lights.  The pianist, who was fabulous, was playing by flashlight and tap light.  Our friend was playing the role of Julius Caesar and his voice is heavenly.  Everyone in the cast did an amazing job especially with no air conditioning!  They decided to end it after act one since the building was getting darker and there were no lights in the restrooms.

That’s a hard call to make but the founder of Opera Modo made the correct choice.  As we were driving home we encountered several trees that had fallen and two lanes on a major road blocked off due to fallen power lines.  She was concerned with safety and liability.  She made the right choice.

So hubby and I had time to enjoy a late night supper and made our way to a classic Jersey diner.  If you are not from Jersey, you do not have a full appreciation for diners.  Next time you come to Jersey, you need to go to a diner.  Not a fancy one, not a “theme” one, just a diner on the side of a highway or maybe even a little off the beaten path.  Good food, good service, good prices.  And lots of good conversation.

Hubby and I were able to finish complete thoughts on the first attempt!  We also had our third date night in a month’s time.  How awesome is that?  We talked about politics, education, food, opera, performing, and our sons.  We sat in silence and ate yummy food.  He stole some of my chocolate milkshake.

So my tip to you is to have a night at the opera.

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Time to do…

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , on July 5, 2012| 1 Comment »

whatever I’d like to do.  It’s odd.  I’ve haven’t had this much on my hands in years.  I do not want to fritter it away however, so I need to focus myself and find something purposeful to do with all this time.

Hubby and I have begun discussing sprucing up the laundry room.  We need to clean and then seal the walls, finish the top half of the walls, and do something with the floor.  Then the fun part is painting it.  I think I’ll pick a very funky color for the room.  It’s one of the rooms you can have a lot of fun in because one has to make laundry fun and exciting.  While we’re at, we can seal the lower half of the walls in the family room and lay down the new floor boards.  The frame of the floor is fine, it just has terrible floorboards.

I also want to paint the upstairs.  Not the boys’ rooms, they’ve been painted several times.  The bathroom’s been done twice too.  I want to paint our bedroom.  And the hallway, living room, dining room, and stairway walls.  This means of course I get to pick COLORS!!!!!

I have no clue about any of the rooms yet except our bedroom.  I’m planning a lovely jewel-tone in the blue family.  I’ve already found the new bedding to go with it.  I have some paint chips and will narrow down the choices.  Then once that’s done, we’ll figure out the rest of the upstairs.  By we, of course I mean me with some mice.

I need to choose carefully about the living room because very soon we will have to replace the furniture.  I’m thinking I’ll pick something in the espresso family because in theory that could hide the boys’ messes.  I keep thinking of spices for the living/dining room colors and then a bright vibrant color for the hallway.

I need to make these choices and then make my timeline so I don’t fritter away my time to do whatever I want to do with my family.  Some home improvement projects are always a good idea.

Happily it’s been too hot to weed!

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My Own Mr. Holland’s Opus

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , , , on July 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I am fortunate to have actual Mr. Holland moments through my work and my pirates always make me proud.  I do enjoy watching their growth and discoveries.  If I have even the tiniest bit to do with their successes, it makes me smile, a smile that goes all the way through my soul.

Still I came to realize that my opus needed to be told that they are my opus.  I sat down with each of my sons and told them that they are my opus.  They are the greatest part of my life.  I explained to them, explicitly, that my priorities go as follows:

My relationship with God.

My relationship with my hubby.

My relationship with my sons.

…my family.

…my friends.

…my job.

…my hobbies.

Granted, my job may read this (not my immediate boss, but the concept of employer) and think, why her priorities are not in the right order.

But they are.  If my relationship is not right with God, if I don’t maintain that one, I’m of little to no use to anyone else.   Particularly, I’m of little to no use to my hubby or sons.  Hubby and I have a type of short hand that we can use with each other, but we also know how important it is to nurture our relationship.  And even if all we get is 15 minutes to hold a conversation, because we share a brain, we are able to cover a lot of ground.  This was a banner month-two date nights in one month!

But I remembered that my sons are still young.  They won’t be for long, but at this moment I remembered, or realized, I needed to be EXPLICIT with them.  There are two lullabies I sing to them.  One I made up and the other is “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon.  Mr. Holland (played beautifully by Richard “I did Jaws, I don’t need this” Dreyfuss)  sang this song to his son in the movie.  So I related the idea of the the boys’ importance in my life to the movie.  I told them they are my opus, the most wonderful piece of my life, my efforts,  my dreams and hopes.

While I am not perfect and never will be, I told them that everything I do and say and show to them is to help them when I’m not with them.  To help them make good choices and to know they are loved.  I said if we were independently wealthy, I would be at home waiting for them when they got home from school.  I also pointed out how lucky they are to come to their father.  Not a lot of boys get to spend so much time with their dads.

I love the subtle shifts I’ve seen in my sons.  They are talking more, sharing more about their fears, worries, hopes, and dreams.  They are slowing down their pace and taking the moments to explore what they are feeling.  Then they are trying to express it with more clarity.  I know this change  isn’t simply due to me telling them they are my opus.  This is because they are my opus and hubby and I have been working on this opus since the day we found out we were having babies.  It is so neat to see it starting to click for our sons.  It is so cool to watch them as they grow and develop, gain new confidences, and try new adventures.

My opus will not bring me fame and fortune, just as Mr. Holland’s didn’t bring those things to him.  But it’s not the fame and fortune.  It’s the moments.  It’s hearing “I love you , Mom.”  It’s the hugs.  The kisses.  The cuddles.  The wee bits of embarrassments that are starting to rear their ugly heads.  My opus is filled with cacophonous sounds and they are a beautiful noise.                                                                                                          

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The Peace in the Chaos

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , , , on June 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Well, well, well, gentle readers.  I had a wonderful weekend.  We did so many things together yet nothing with a stringent schedule.  We just were together and doing things that made us happy.  Friday night Hubby and I went to a wedding and had good times, good times with family and friends.  The boys had their yard sale on Saturday morning.  Most of the money they made was because people thought it was sweet that young boys were having their own yard sale.  We put up the screen-gazebo and bought some new chairs for enjoying the outside with-happily they were even made in America.

We played air hockey, we went to church, we went to the baseball picnic.  We cuddled, we talked, we shared dreams.  The peace of the weekend was lovely.

Topic of the sermon on Sunday was about the idea of peace and being still.  As I wrote a few posts ago, peace comes in chaos.  Focus has been given to finding those moments of peace and it makes each day happier.  Humor also helps each day and this evening we were having fun with grammar.  My kind of fun!

I did throw my back out.  In my 41 and a half years I have never thrown my back out.  I attribute that to going to the chiropractor since I was 12.  Irony is oozing over this situation for me since I just celebrated ten years of marriage to my chiropractor.  Hubby was rubbing my feet last night and I fell asleep on the couch.  When I woke up at 5am to the joyful strains of the Brady Bunch, I got up to go to bed.  I grabbed the hand towels, the last bit of laundry in one of the baskets, and headed toward the bathroom.  I opened the door to the linen closet and bent slightly to place the towels on the shelf and out went my back.  The towels were the straw that threw out the camel’s back.

We had put up the gazebo, rearranged the family room, did multiple loads of laundry, and made several trips up and down the attic stairs.  My back said enough.  It hurt on the way to work, all day at work, and then on the ride home from work too.  Hubby worked on it and I’ll be taking some Advil PM.  I’ll stick some ice packs on it as I drift away to slumber land.

The moment of peace in this?  My sons making a date with me for tomorrow night to watch the newest Adventure Time on demand.  Youngest son asked me for the date and he acquiesced to letting oldest son join us.  Slumber land will be filled with sweet dreams of peaceful summer evenings.

                                                 

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