Super Saturdays

During the month of February, Zaid had the opportunity to participate in a program at Western called Super Saturdays. It is a program for gifted and talented students. Zaid was able to pull the DNA out of a strawberry on the last day of the program.

This was also the day of his Birthday Party at ChuckE.Cheese's.

Friends Over

Zaid had a friend spend the night a couple of weeks ago. They had a blast! They put to

gether a bionicle kit (from Aunt Rim for Zaid's birthday) and played keyboard on TV and DS right beside each other on Zaid's beanbag. He loved it!! :-) Then for bed, we let them watch TV until they fell asleep well...until the friend fell asleep. His friend was a little scared so I layed down on the couch so he would know I was there if he needed anything. Zaid would stay up all night long if the TV is on, so when his friend fell asleep I turned it off and he slept at the other end of the couch. :-) When they woke up, they were back at playing again until it was time for church. I am glad they had fun.

Colored Paper Clips in Glass Jars

I am going to California in less than two day, quite by accident. I had an emotionally draining week about a month ago, hmmm...who am I kidding every day is emotionally draining for me. I digress. Anyway, a friend sent me some pictures of her friend's who lives in LA. The mountains, the ocean and Santa Monica Pier. I called her and said "Let's go to LA tomorrow!" And so the search was on for tickets, unfortunately or fortunately depending upon how you look at it, we were not able to find tickets on a shoestring budget SOOOO......we scheduled the trip for a month later. The positive side of going a month later is that we have been able to really psyche ourselves up for this trip....we have countdowns and are just generally staying in tip top condition, with haircuts, pedicures and well, the likes of all that. I even cooked in the ultra bronze yesterday. I hate the smell of that. You would think that I would have the sense to not tan after my Mom has had skin cancer twice. What can I say, in the infamous words of my darling nephew once upon a time ago "Some people are stupid."

At one point, I saw a picture of LA and realized that ummm, this was not the California I knew. I only knew San Diego and I had fallen in love with the place, however for some reason I was thinking more of San Diego when we bought our tickets! I actually like more serene places like San Diego. But who am I to say I won't fall head over heels for LA, you never know.......

Someone said something tonight that really stuck with me, she said "If everybody likes you, then there is something wrong." That definitely hit home with me. That is all I have ever wanted anyone to do, is to like me. For the first time, I am realizing that it is okay if someone does not like me, I DON'T like everyone I MEET either. I have ALWAYS tried to please everyone, I am done, done, done, done, done. I can't make everyone happy. Another random thought, is that I have this awesome professor for my Literature class. I have had to miss a couple of days in there, she let me make up my exam and she was so super sweet about it, letting me take it when I was more prepared. Then today I had to give her the news that I would have to miss her class on Friday and I just told her the truth of it all. And again she was so understanding. Hmmmmm....a lot going on upstairs tonight....mainly I am just feeling so super-confident that it's okay to be me. I don't have to apologize a million times a day for myself. I do not have to live up to this image that I have of myself. It's okay to be less than perfect.

In other news, I bought a pair of canary yellow converses recently. :-) Also, another friend wants to "teach" me about music, so Tamer hopped onto www.buy.com and purchased an MP3 player for me. I think he got tired of me whining about an iPod.

OHHHHHHHH......yea for some reason I am on this SSSS list at the airport. I hadn't flown in five years until recently. Yea. It's quite lovely. They frisk you and go through your underwear while you watch. And everyone stares at you like you are going to try to do something on the plane. You just want to look at everyone and shake your head, "No, I'm not going to try anything on the plane, I promise." And then pinky swear or something like that. It's not so bad when you have suitcase full of nicely laundered clothes but when you are going back home, chances are all of your clothes are dirty and at that point you just feel bad for the attendant that has to go through your stuff.
Oh yea, in Nashville not only did I have do go through e'thing on the SSSS list, BUT some sort of sensor when off when it checked one compartment of my bag SO THAT made everyone look at me more. Did I mention I don't like people looking at me. It makes me uncomfortable. Yep. Hard for me to have conversations; I have come a long way though. I just remembered that I used to look at the ceiling and walls when I talked to people, I don't do that anymore, don't even remember when that happened.

One thing that I feel like recently is that I am free to be me again. I can just wear my little yellow shoes and sing my beatles song and not care what anyone else thinks. I can be real, not some sort of cookie cutter.

Stay tuned for more updates on LA and a blockbuster hit soon "Jan and Jen's Adventure" In Geekumentary form!

Lullabies

When Zaid was a little baby, we had a website for him to show family and friends how he had grown from week to week, one day I went to the website to update it and most of it was deleted out. I had to do a project for Literature class last week and scanned in a lot of pictures; Zaid's birth announcement was one of them.

One thing I remember most about the baby days is how much Zaid slept, he slept and slept and slept. I called my Mom probably every day, concerned that he was sleeping so much!! :-) I remember rocking and rocking and rocking him, I held him even while he was asleep in those days.

Fighting Bears

Somedays, life just seems to creep by....slowly, slowly like something out of an Eric Carle book. Then one day you look up at the date and realize that your baby is going to be seven years old in nine days. Every year, I get the same feelings of "Would you look at that? Zaid is another year older." As I savor all of the memories of the past year, I look forward to new memories and new advances in the life of my little one. Yesterday we were driving home from Target and Zaid said, "Mama, what do all the armies fight? Why are there so many? Who do they fight?" As the years go on, I begin to give the answer of "I am not sure Zaid." or "Let's look it up!"; but yesterday I had no answer for him, can I possibly expain to Zaid why fighting exists when I do not fully understand it myself? I remained quiet. So quiet. Eventually he said, "Mama, are they fighting bears?" I myself was hoping he would come to this conclusion as he did last year when one of our dear friends joined the Army; in an attempt to expain it to himself, Mr. Lee must be fighting bears, right? I chose not to correct him; I mean who is to say if a bear came a long; someone in the army could and would have the means to fight him, right?