Popping Bubbles

There seems to be a progression in conversations as a person goes through life. When you're single, people are interested in your job, your life, if you're dating anyone. Once you get engaged, all anyone wants to know is when you're getting married. Big or small wedding? Formal or casual? Where are you going on your honeymoon? By the time the actual wedding rolls around, you're starving for any other subject for conversation. I know I was.  I threatened to elope no less than 10 times during the week leading up to my wedding…but I didn't.

I don't know if most people go through this, but after we got married the questions about kids started. When? How many? Boys? Girls? Why wasn't I pregnant yet? Finally, Aidan was born and I thought, "thank God. Now we can move on to something else." Nope. Since the day Aidan was born 6 1/2 years ago, people have been asking me when Rob and I are having another baby.

We're not.

Nope

No more

Nada

No more kinder

Is that clear? I have tried being polite and saying, "one is enough!" but that didn't work. I have heard millions of reasons and arguments from people who are not involved in the decision about why I need to have another child.

• We don't want him to grow up as an only child, it's lonely
• It's selfish for us to make him an only child
• He won't learn to share
• Only children have trouble relating

There are a million more reasons, but none of them matter. Aidan is our child. Our ONLY child. Neither Rob nor I want any more kids and quite frankly, I don't understand why that isn't enough for other people.  Neither of us wants to relive the baby phase. We like having a child who's old enough to do fun stuff with. No more strollers, no more high chairs. We can go at the drop if a hat without making sure a diaper bag is packed. 

Until Aidan was five, I thought something must be wrong with me. There must be some reason I wasn't craving another child.  I would walk into Target and stand in the baby aisles and just stare at bottles and pacifiers, tiny little socks and onesies. I would stand there and wait….wait for some twinge to kick in. Something that would say, even if it was a whisper, "come on…you know you want another baby." The twinge never came and I finally quit worrying about it.

Now Aidan is almost seven. He is very well adjusted. He has lots of friends and does well in school. I don't think anything is missing from his life or ours. But I wonder….am I going to have to go through menopause before people quit asking me when we're having another baby? 

All I have to say is…why? I don't think we can hope to come close to this perfection again, no matter how hard we try. 

Remember last week when I was proclaiming my jealousy of my Utah friends and their snow? Yes? Well, I should learn to be more careful what I wish for…

This is as of 8:00 this morning. 10 minutes later the lawn was COVERED!

Poor frozen frog!

Someone likes the flakes!

I think I'll stay inside today! Brr…..

I had a completely different post written for today, but scratched it in favor of something far more important. Before I get to the gist, I have a little story to tell you to explain why cancer awareness is so important to me. 

My father died 26 days before my 14th birthday from cancer.  His period from diagnosis to death was two months, but in that short period of time, I watched the strong, able man I knew crumble into a gaunt, weak person who could not even walk up or down the stairs, but instead had to crawl on his hands and knees.  I was too young to go with my mother to take him to chemotherapy appointments, but I remember how sick and even more helpless they made him.

When my father died, I was too young to do anything substantial. I'm not now.  My dear friend Patty's father has cancer and has been undergoing treatments at the Cooper Cancer Center in New Jersey.  The chemotherapy room is cold, it needs to be so that germs can't grow and breed, but it's also not comfortable for the chemotherapy recipients.  To that end, Patty has created an organization called Layers of Love: Covering Chemotherapy Patients One Blanket at a Time. 

Our goal is to collect enough handmade, tied-fleece blankets to cover every patient.  You can read more about Layers of Love and Patty's story on her blog, Layers of Love.  She has also set up a fan page on Facebook and a Twitter account.  All of the links are listed below.  

The blog: Layers of Love

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Layers-of-Lo…

Twitter: twitter.com/Layers_of_Love

Why am I such a big supporter? Because I haven't just lost my dad. This post is for the following people, som of whom we've lost while others fight on:

My dad

Opa

Bob

Jackie

Irene

Sanford

Diane

Clusterfook

Layla Grace

…and so many other loved ones, both online and through the internet who have and continue to fight for their lives.  Every one of us has known someone who has fought cancer.  It is a terrible, unforgivable disease that doesn't discriminate. Adult, child, black, white, man, woman – nobody is unaffected. Please join us in covering as many patients as possible in layers of love so that they know they are not fighting alone. 

February 28 – March 6, 2010

Canon Rebel XT, Kodak EasyShare C913 & iPhone

One can of hairspray, glitter and a few shamrocks later, we're off to Crazy Hair Day!

As a matter of fact, I AM going to sleep right here…in the middle

Go Royals!! We're ready for some baseball!

I'm just so sleepy…

Weekly winners is brought to you by I am Lotus. Go check out her photos and the other entries this week! 

In case you've missed it, it is winter. Here in the desert that means temperatures in the 50's and maybe some rain. If I hop up to the mountain, there may be some snow. I have lived in the desert for 20 years and you would think I'd be used to it by now, but I'm not.

I miss the snow. Christmas doesn't feel right without piles of white stuff on the ground. I haven't put skis on in almost 15 years and the last time I did ski, it sucked. It's very difficult to actually ski when the resort closest to you caters to the VERY beginners who insist on going back and forth across the whooooooole trail making it impossible for you to glide past. So I gave up.  Once or twice a year, I feel a little twinge and wish I lived somewhere with decent snow, decent hills and decent runs.

 This winter has been especially sucky though. I have reconnected with oodles of my old friends on Facebook. Friends in Utah. Friends by the snow. Obviously, they have spent the winter with boards strapped to their feet and have made sure to document EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of it.

Jealous much? Oh you betcha. Oh boo hoo hoo, you say. Lots of people move to different climates when they grow up.  What's the big deal? Go get some skis and make a weekend drive to a resort.  Here's the difference.  As a kid, I skied every day during the winter. Every single day.  Let me paint you a little picture….

Alrighty, that map shows the mountain that was my second home.  Back then it was known as Nordic Valley, but has changed names and added a few new bells and whistles.  You are looking at the current view of Wolf Mountain.  See the proximity of my house to the lifts? My mom was the accountant at the resort and if I had aded another little hat just to the left of my house, you would see the home of Wendy and Matt Miller. Their father managed Nordic Valley for years.  What does all this mean? Free season passes for your truly, Cartman, Wendy and Matt. Every weekday during ski season, we raced home from school.  Homework was done as quickly as possible because the lifts opened for night skiing at 4:30 and by God, we had skis strapped to our feet and were ready to go.  We skied through our front yards, hopped on the lift and didn't stop again until the lifts shut down at 10:00.  

Weekends were no different.  We skied from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. We trekked over to Powder Mountain and Snowbasin for races, but if there was nothing going on, everyone knew where we would be for a few months.

So now I sit in the desert…no snow….grumbling and sighing at all the posts and pictures.  One of these days, we will move.  It's in the plans to leave the desert and move somewhere with actual seasons! When we do pack up, I hope we are Rocky Mountain bound. For now, I'll live vicariously through my friends.