What I miss

For the first time since buying my minivan, I missed my Expedition on Monday.  We got a flurry of snowfall in a short time and it left the roads a mess.  I had to go pick up both the kids from school and decided to leave early.  The roads were slick.  The snow was quickly becoming an icy glaze and there were no plows in sight. 

Emma’s school is on the main road directly off our street but 4 miles down the road.  On a good day, I can easily make it there in 10 minutes, even with all the lights turning red on me (which they do most days).  So I left at 11am, her dismissal time is 11:15. 

As I turned off our street, I took a deep breath.  This would be the first time in a long time that I drove in snow without the aid of AWD or 4WD.  I felt weird about my traction and about how low I was to the ground.  If someone slid into me, I would be more vulnerable in the van than my former tank.

I hit every light red on the way there and realized for the first time

A huntin’ we will go

As I do every year, yesterday I joined all the other crazed shoppers for Black Friday savings.  I planned on going with Megan, Joy & Sandy to the various stores to claim our winnings.  The ads rolled out Thanksgiving day and we made our plan.  Megan & I decided that this year, we would have to play with the big dogs… Walmart.  They had their Leapsters for $30 and there was no way we could pass up that savings.  Add in the other steals and deals they were offering and we knew we had to brave it.  “We ran a half marathon, Megan.  We can do this!”  I assured her but I was nervous myself.  One of the Walmarts here in town made national news in ‘05 when a woman was trampled.  She ended up being ok thankfully but some othershave not been so lucky while shopping at Walmart the day after Thanksgiving. 

We decided that we would go to the one near Megan’s house even though that was a 28 mile drive for me instead of a 5 mile one.  We figured it would be worth it since the store was not in Grand Rapids, we would increase our chances of getting the coveted Leapsters.  Joy was going to spend the night at Megan’s house and I would make my drive out to pick them up early in the morning.  Sandy decided to brave one of the local Walmarts since they were the only ones carrying the TV on sale that she wanted.

3:15am arrived and I rolled out of bed. 

Baby blogger

Emma’s class has a small stuffed turtle that they get to take turns taking home.  Then at the end of the week, they get to write a story about what they did with “Timothy”.  The parent is supposed to write exactly what their child says and not add any words or correct theirs.  Emma finally had her turn and she was SO excited (are you surprised Emma was excited?).  She had been planning his visit since the beginning of the year.  It was a good week and we managed not to lose Timothy even though he’s a little bugger.  I typed out Emma’s story as she dictated to me.  I would like to think of this as Emma’s first (of many haha) blogs to come.

Emma & Timothy

Rhinestone life

Sorta Fairytale

So Monday was my birthday.  The big 32.  Maybe not quite as big as THE BIG 30 or THE BIG 40 but big to me none the less.  It doesn’t bother me so much getting another year older as much as being defined as that number.  All in all, I’m pretty ok with this birthday and really, self delusion can take me pretty far.  In my mind’s eye, I’m still 26.  My sister gave me some great advice to just focus on what I have and have accomplished instead of my new age.  I thought that was a great idea and so I started considering why 32 ain’t so bad.

Reasons why 32 is so much awesomer than 22

Better go it alone

Well, here we are.  I can’t say that I’m surprised.  I figured that Obama would win back when he was still trying to gain the Democratic nomination away from Hillary.  I think people that know me would have expected me to be disappointed but I was disappointed too long ago.  As a conservative, I have been saddened by my party’s inability to pull through in a time of need and that this was the best candidate that they could drum up.  I feel that the Bush administration has done too little to help us in these dark days and I know I’m not alone (obviously).  I’ve lost my confidence with politicians as a whole and wonder what will bring it back. 

Voting yesterday wasn’t so much (for me at least) about who our next President would be but about our local government and representatives.  Our state has the second highest unemployment rate.  As more jobs are being lost, homes are being lost.  On my little street alone, I know of 2 vacant homes where the owners have just walked away.  I know it’s a similar story all over the nation but Michigan has been hit a devestating blow in the last few years with our representatives doing nothing to help.  I feel all of them owe us Michiganders a giant apology and a refund of their salaries.  And so it saddens me that so many were re-elected to their positions.  Not surprised but saddened.

It’s ironic that this historic election that has engaged so many new voters has actually caused me to become more disenfranchised