Cinderella is Dead!

"Cinderella is dead" my girlfriend told me. I had to laugh, but she is right.

My generation grew up reading Cinderella where the Prince finds her and carries Cinderella off to his castle. How romantic!

How far from the truth!!! I remember reading this story to my daughter when she was little. As I neared the end, I did a bit of editing. After the Prince rides off with Cinderella, I explained to my daughter, she gets to the castle where she has to clean, make dinner, raise kids & get a job to make her own money! My daughter was very disappointed to find out that happily ever after includes all of this!

I grew up with the Cinderella fairytale ending. After all, my Mom stayed at home and took care of my sister & me, cleaned & cooked dinner (from scratch!). My Dad went to work every day, came home, ate the dinner my Mom cooked & took the role of handyman on the weekends.

End of story.

Well, except that women my age only wanted to stay home if they wanted to, wanted to have a career & wanted someone at their side who thought of them as equal (equal in housework too)! The only problem was we weren't quite sure how to work all of that out and the men in our lives certainly were not used to this equality stuff!

My friend & I talked more about how this affects our self esteem, our expectations & our choices in life. Neither of us expected our lives to turn out the way they have so far. I think if we had known ahead of time all the painful emotions we would face, we wouldn't want to do it.

We both just want someone by our side who is supportive. We would like to be encouraged, believed in. I told her that I have so many things I want to do, but for some reason I can't seem to get past the first few steps to what I really want.

Her answer...."I know why. You want someone by your side."

She is right. I grew up believing that you go to school, get married, have kids. There was no talk of divorce or things not working out.

I guess I still have that belief ingrained into my mind. The only problem was that it didn't turn out that way. Now what do I do?

Now that I still believed this while I was married to my exhusband. My Mom's advice was that someone always has to give in and I guess she believed that it was supposed to be the woman. The only problem was that I should have left that relationship a long time ago, only I believed my (ex)Prince would love & stay with me forever.

Do I still want my "knight in shining armour" to sweep me off my feet? Sure I do. I just know that I have to build my own castle first & then maybe, hopefully, meet a prince who does housework!

p.s. - if anyone has seen my Fairy Godmother, tell her I need her help! NOW!

How to Kill a Bug

How to kill a bug...as experienced by my son!

Any sentence that starts with Ahhhhhhh always catches my attention!

1. Scream AHHHHHHH, a bug, a bug and run for the fly swatter.

2. Swat said fly with swatter making sure there are plenty of sound effects..."Wham, wham, wham! Die bug die!"

(This is the point where my daughter & I were rolling on the floor hysterical laughing!)

3. Scream AHHHHHH again!

4. Make sure you hit "the bug" more while yelling "die, die, die!"

5. After killing bug, make sure you let your mom know just how BIG it was!

6. Do not pick bug up and throw away so as to make Mom ask "where is it now?"

7. Announce quite happily "on my sister's Jonas Brother's poster!"

8. Put one big smile on face before running from upset sister!!!

Dinner conversations with my kids!

Dinner time always seems to bring about the best conversations with my kids including the past few nights!

Last night, I learned how an 11 year old boy's mind works. We were talking about setting the alarm clock for the morning. My daughter is the first up and first to leave for school. My son gets up an hour earlier than he has too which we don't understand!

"Yeah, why do you get up so early? You don't have to go to school as early as I do!" she asked her brother.

"I don't know." he answered (which really means I get up early so that I can stagger into the kitchen first thing and have breakfast, get dressed, have an hour of peace on the computer without my sister trying to kick me off, play with the cat & finally watch my favorite cartoon all before going to school)!

"What time is your alarm set for?" I asked him.

"6:52" was his answer.

Now my daughter & I start to tease him and question how he came about this exact time. "6:52? Why not 6:51 or 6:53?"

I swear this was his answer.....

"If I set my alarm to 6:53, I'm afraid it's "2" late & I'm going to oversleep. If I set it to 6:51, that's "2" early. 6:52 seems "2" be the right time "2" get up!"

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Tonight I was lighting the small candle I keep on our table tonight & noticed my daughter's moon sand right next to the flame (moon sand is the newest kid fad & is basically sand that can be molded into shapes like playdough, but turns back to sand again).

"I wonder if moon sand explodes?!" I teasingly said out loud to my daughter. My way of asking her to put it away!

"What? No!" she answered.

"Let's try!"

"No!"

"Well, someone has to be the first to experiment with it and find out!"

"Experiment to learn! Experiment to learn!" my son chimes in (something seems to have sunk in at school!).

"No, no, no! I waited a whole year to get my own moon sand! I'm not exploding it!" she tells him.

His answer.........

"Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Sacrifice!"

Little brothers!

Coffee Explodes!

By the way, did you know that coffee will explode when placing half a cup of coffee in the microwave and heating it up for the same amount of time as a full cup of coffee?

I do now!

Words to Ponder

I came across this quote last night while watching the movie "The Lake House.

It really made me stop and think. Who would I ask? What kinds of answers would I get? More importantly, I think it's a way to connect with the people you care about.

My answer, if I were asked this question, would probably be to be hugged.

I Know Who The Sock Monster Is!

My cat is obsessed with the washing machine! Need I say more?!!!

Carpet Sliders & Sleepovers

This year I gave each of my kids a pair of "carpet sliders" for Christmas (given their past bumps & broken bones, what was I thinking?!). I also made them promise that they are not allowed to break any bones & no trips to the emergence room! I can already hear you saying "oh no"!

They have become addicted to them...along with their friends! So now, not only do I have my 2 kids sliding up and down the hallway crashing into whatever lies in their way, I have their friends sliding up & down my hallway!

I have to admit, it is fun to watch them sliding after each other, hearing a big "CRASH" & lots of giggles! They have become so imaginative with the games they come up with! There is slide down the hall as fast as you can and crash into the toy bin; take the cat for a ride (cat isn't into sliding as much!); slide into first base...anything that lets them crash at the end! Last night, my daughter's friend slept over & had so much fun with the sliders. Every time there was a commercial or break in between what they were doing, she would yell "let's slide"! I forgot to check if she took them off when they went to bed! This morning I wake up to hear them already sliding & giggling!

I have to admit, it does look fun, but that little voice inside me is warning "you are still recovering from back surgery, do you want to break it again?!"

Oh well, I'll figure out a way to try them. Hmmm, maybe if I sit on them and have the kids pull me around.........CRASH!

I found this blog thingy over on http://vicariousrising.typepad.com/vicarious_rising and my word is probably pretty accurate as to the state of my mind right now.

Your Word is "Why"

You see life as complicated and intriguing. The only thing you know for sure is that you haven't figured it all out yet. You question everything and believe very little. And whatever you believe is likely to change. You are interested in theories, philosophies, and religions... even if you don't buy into any of them. You are also fascinated by how things work. You'd like to understand as much in the world as possible.

What's" Your Word?

I always wonder who comes up with this little quizes and how do they figure out the right answers? Do my answers really reflect who I am or what is going on in my life right now?

I just realized that my "word" is a pretty good indicator of my mindset right now! LOL...see the excerpt "You question everything & believe very little."

Hmmm, maybe if I take enough of these quizes, I will find all the answers to my questions!!!