I Bet You Didn't Know That....

 

Gabby was once an equestrian! 

When she was little, she LOVED horses.  She loved them so much that she even subscribed to "The Pony Club" and would receive a package every month with horse books, games, toys and surprises in it.  When she was 8 years old, her papa bought her a horse, Ponderosa!  There was just one condition...she had to learn how to properly ride her horse.  So, she started taking horse back riding lessons.

Gabby took lessons, rode horses and competed in horse shows for 5 years.  In 6th grade she hung up her riding helmet and chaps, framed her horse show ribbons and retired.

Ponderosa still lives in Louisiana with Gabby's Nana and Uncle Jason.  Ponderosa gave birth to Cocoa, who became Sinobia's horse and cocoa gave birth to Billy, who I guess belongs to both of the girls. 

Today on day #3 of our vacation, the girls had an opportunity to feed their horses their favorite snacks, peppermints and pears and saddle them up for a ride.

Louisiana!

Day #2 of our road trip...we made to Louisiana today.  We knew we had made it to Louisiana almost instantly!

You know you're in Louisiana when:

• You start to see drive thru daiquiri joints off the highway
• You can buy boudin-balls and crackling at the gas stations
• Teenagers use French slang words.
• There are nothing but pick-up trucks on the road equipped with atv' s and mounted riffle racks
• The roads are littered with armadillo road-kill
• When every radio station is playing zydeco music
• When fine dining isn't at a restaurant, but at a truck stop
• When there is customer service with a smile and conversation, but it takes 15 minutes to get a cup of coffee
• You start to see crosses on the side of the highway
• There are casinos in all the gas stations
• Instead of selling watermelon out of the back of trucks, they sell golf shrimp and crayfish.
• The short-cut is a dusty, gravel road
• Everyone you drive by gives you a head nod and a hands on the steering wheel finger wave
• Oh yeah...the internet connections are aweful! It takes at least a half hour to upload photos to your blog!

Plus... you get to see Nana and Uncle Jason!

Road Trip!

We've got the lovely Ashley and the fearless Sean (Sean and his crew) house-sitting for us and looking after the fury and scaly part of the Aiden clan, so we're off on our Aiden Road Trip.

1st stop...Memphis, Tennessee!  It's 104 degrees here today.  We have settled into our hotel, jumped on the trolley to the famous Beale Street, grabbed some dinner, took in some music at a great little gallery and music venue and then walked back to our hotel (to walk off the dinner). 


There is no pool around that can go undiscovered if Sinobia is around, so off to the pool she headed for the last 45 minutes before the pool closed.

Eric is tired.  He is our prince, chauffeur, sugar daddy and super dad!  The computer system at ETHS was not kind to him on Friday!  Friday was supposed to be his off day, his laundry and pack for the trip day.  It didn't happen quite that way.  Eric ended up working ALL DAY on Friday and until 2:00 am Saturday morning.  He came home and worked another hour (via remote system) before going to bed and waking us up at 7:30 am to load up the car!  He was in good spirits all day and got us to our first stop safely. 


Us girls pretty much slept all the way there. I retreated to my designated spot...the 3rd row with pillow and blanket in hand.  Gabby and Sinobia...not one fight in the car, they were snoozing with their pillows and blankets as well.

The TV is on and everyone is dozing off under the great fluffy down comforters in the hotel room.  I'm off to bed!

 

Triple Trapeze

Over the past 5 weeks Gabby has been attending a "Summer Intensive Class" at the Actors Gymnasium.  During this class time the students are able to choreograph their own performances, choose their own music and costumes.  The culmination of this class is the "Intensives Show".  Thank you to all the family and friends that came out to support Gabby on Saturday at the Gym.  She was completely taken by surprise at everyone who showed up to see her perform.  I had not told her that anyone was coming, I didn't want to add any additional anxiety to whatever she may have already had (is there any anxiety around hanging so many feet off the ground up-side down?).

We'll in my opinion this was one of her best routines.  It may be because she totally owned it.  She and her trapeze-mates worked long and hard on this routine...it was their routine.  I could also see a maturity in Gabby, that was not there in her last performance at the gym.  She's growing up and doing it fast.  The past 9 years she has spent growing up at the Actors Gymnasium...perfecting her circus crafts, becoming fearless, confident and unique in her skills and abilities has been magical to watch.  We will forever be grateful to the AG for the mentoring, love, family and home-away-from-home they have given to Gabby.


Is it odd that one of my proud mamma's moment was my daughter performing in the circus?  If it is...too bad!  I was beaming with pride and of course her loudest cheerleader (as you will hear in the video).  I am confident that she will be able to do anything she puts her mind to. There is a wide open future out there waiting for Gabrielle Ollie Aiden!

Stay tuned for for information about the next show Gabby will be in (I'll let you know, when I know).  I believe we made some new circus lovers out of a few people on Saturday!

 GOOD JOB GABBY!

Come See The Show!

Come see Gabby do her circus thing...we guarantee you'll enjoy it!

http://www.actorsgymnasium.com/coming-soon.htm

No Hot Enough

I think they are calling our weather a "heat wave"?  Yesterday it was 99 degrees with a heat index of 110 degrees.  Currently it is 96 degrees with a heat index of 108 degrees.  This morning, at 8:30 am when I left the house to deliver the girls to where they needed to be, it was 88 degrees already! All of the weather people are telling us to "stay inside", "don't go outside unless you have to".  You only need to tell me once.  The "heat wave" warnings are just the excuse I need to plop down on the couch and watch a movie, or take a nap.  I have noticed a few dust balls in the corners of our house, but it's too hot to clean (the weather people say not to over-exert yourself), even with the A/C on.

So yesterday I rented Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I had not seen it yet, and wanted to get ready to go see Part 2 that is now in the theaters.  I decided that a trip to the movie theatre would be a grand solution to the "heat wave" blues sometime this week.

Today, day #2 of the "heat wave" I find Sinobia and I are a little bored by 1:00. 

"Do you think it's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk?"

I don't know, let me take my shoes off and see."  Sinobia tests out the concrete.  "It's definitely hot enough!"

"Let's try it!"

Out of sheer boredom, we crack an egg on the front sidewalk and wait.....

This is the kind of thing that probably only works on TV.  After a few minutes, Sinobia rolls her eyes and heads inside.  I wait a little longer.  The egg is just oozing all over the sidewalk.  Darn! Now I've got to clean up the egg mess!  I'm cooking if the egg is not! 

It's hot enough to stay inside, drink plenty of fluids and check on your elderly neighbors, but not hot enough to fry and egg on the sidewalk. 

Things Your Parents Did That You Didn't Understand Until You Were A Parent Yourself.

If you have ever had a conversation with me about a television show or movie, chances are it was a quick and dull conversation.  It probably ended with me saying I had not seen the mentioned TV show or movie and you rolling your eyes at me as I ranted about how I don't like TV very much, in fact, I find most selections on TV either boring or stupid.  Now don't get me wrong...I do watch TV, just not a whole lot of it.  I have been known to get hooked on a series or two (some of the worst ones ever!), but I would say I may watch about 1-2 hours of TV a week. 

If it were my choice, we would not have a single television in the Aiden house.  It's not all my choice and the TV vote swings in the other direction.  So, there are some rules in our house (for the kids) that help me feel a little better about the box sitting in the living room.

• No television during the school week.  This rule is a little looser during the summer, and I always work my some other angles, which are...
• If the weather is nice, go outside and play!
• If the weather is not so great, you begged for toys and gadgets, you have great bedrooms, go play!
• No TV in the bedrooms.
• When you appear to be zoning out and going into a TV comma, turn it off and go play!

How did I get this way?  Well, we were always playing when we were little.  We were always inside.  I don't remember having a friend over to watch TV or a movie, we played!

My dad was very strict about our TV viewing.  He would grab the TV guide out of the Sunday newspaper every week.  He would go through the TV guide and do the following:

1. Cross out what we absolutely could not watch (Cell Block H, Three's Company, Archie Bunker).
2. Circle what we could watch (Good Times, The Jeffersons, Gilligan Island, The Brady Bunch, McGyver, Zoom), ***There was a catch though!!!
3. If we wanted to watch the circled items, we had to first watch the items that my dad would put stars next to (Jacques Cousteau, National Geographic, Educational Shows).  These were required viewings if we wanted to watch the other shows!

What kid in the 70's and 80's wanted to watch educational TV shows when there were neighborhoods to roam, bikes to ride and adventures waiting at the parks?  Not me.  I woke up every day in the summer and went outside with friends.  We would be gone ALL day long.  Our only rule...be home by the time the street-lights came on.  We would stop at someones house for lunch or a snack, but never to watch a TV show.  It was a great life, and I grew up not watching a lot of TV.  Oh yeah, there also was no cable or DVR!

So as I got older, I had no interest in the TV.  I just didn't turn it on too much...too busy growing up and still exploring the neighborhood, college campus, night clubs, beaches and malls.  When I did have time to settle down to watch a little TV, I realized that there was really nothing on to capture my attention, I would doze off right on front of it.

Flash forward to life with children...barney, tele-tubbies, real world, 16 and pregnant, reality TV, secret life of a teenager and the news?   Go play!  Have I seen any of these shows? Yes. Now I see why my dad censored so much of our TV viewing!  I know I cannot protect my children from the harsh realities of life and I cannot be keep them blinded from all of the unsavory stuff out there, but they don't have to be force fed the stuff all the time.  While they are outside playing exploring their neighborhood and having adventures they may witness some of the unsavory stuff...that's reality!  Now, we will talk about it.  Our dinner-time conversations would blow some people away, but they are honest and real.  Their experiences come from the real world, not scripted TV that is sensationalized to keep them coming back.  They know the truth about the real world and are able to distinguish between that and media propaganda. 

They will tell you they are deprived because of their lack of TV-time. I felt the same way too when I was a kid.  Hopefully, they will remember this and fully understand it when they are parents someday.

All of this TV rant came about because I recently stumbled upon a blog entry that addressed the TV stuff:

Watching Television Is Relaxing

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/watching-television-is-relaxing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TeacherTom+%28Teacher+Tom%29

I Don't Know What It Means, But It's True (More About Watching TV)

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-dont-know-what-it-means-but-its-true.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TeacherTom+%28Teacher+Tom%29

Now go outside and play!

Dancing Til The World Ends!

This weekend, Eric treated the girls to their very first concert.  We took them to Milwaukee Summerfest to see Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj.  Gabrielle has always been a Britney fan and I have secretly been a fan along side of Gabby.  I always knew that Britney would be able to make a come-back after children and her mental break-down. 

Now there was a catch to Eric purchasing these tickets...he wasn't going to the concert.  No way was he going to be caught dead at a Britney Spears concert amongst crowds of screaming teenagers and their moms (that know the words to all of her songs too).  He may hum a Britney song or two, but he will not be a full-on concert fan:)  So, with Eric not going to the concert, that meant mom was going to see Britney!  Well, I can sing along with the best of them, and I belted out most of the songs she sang during the concert.  My new favorite song, Dancing til the World ends, is from her newly released CD and that was the song I was waiting for.  As the concert neared the end, I was thinking I was going to be disappointed.  She said "thank you" and "good-night" to the crowd and then left the stage.  The girls started to gather up their things. 

"No way...I'm not leaving until she sings my song!"

"Mom it's over, people are leaving."

No, you just watch and see." 

The crowd starting cheering louder and louder, you know how it works at concerts, there's always that grand finale song to be sung after the crowd cheers the artist back on to the stage.

Sure enough, back on stage she comes to sing my song!  A perfect ending to a perfect night with my girls.  I captured the moment, but please excuse the moving around, I was singing and dancing with the rest of the crowd!

The girls enjoyed their first concert experience and Nicki and Britney did not disappoint.  They both gave fabulous performances.  Mom had a great time too!

Thanks Daddy Eric!



Happy Birthday Eric!

Today is Eric's birthday...he's the big "44" this year!  What to you get the guy that has everything; lovely wife, beautiful children, great health, and a wealth of happiness?  It also makes it difficult to get him a gift because Father's Day was a few weeks ago. 

So, after some conferencing with Gabby and Sinobia, we decided on a few simple things that he has mentioned more than once he wanted...an herb garden for his fabulous cooking and a rice cooker.  I headed over to Gethsemane Garden Center to select the right herbs for his garden.  I decided on a window box for them, so he could place them in the kitchen window to grow and have easy access to them while he is cooking.

We usually bake Eric a German Chocolate cake for his birthday every year.  It's always made with extra love because we know it's his favorite.  This year he decided he wanted a key-lime pie for his birthday.  I've never made a key-lime pie, but I was definitely up for the challenge.  One quick trip to Jewel, limes in hand and one birthday key-lime pie for Daddy Eric!

Yummy stuff, not bad for the first time.

Happy Birthday Daddy Eric!

Class of 1986!

Last weekend the class of 1986 celebrated it's 25th class reunion.  Yes, Eric and I graduated in 1986, and yes we still look fabulously young (go ahead, you can laugh).

I think about class reunions in a way similar to the way I think about facebook.  I maintain my idea that everyone I want to see and keep in touch with, I see anyway, send them Christmas cards or hope they read my blog!  So, as the big reunion day approached, Eric and I decided that it would not be a big deal if we missed another one (we were absent from our 20th too). 

Saturday afternoon, as I was working in the yard, Tracie calls me and says,

"I'm going to the after party and you are too."

"Whatever...you know that is way past my bedtime."

Yeah, well be ready.  I'll call you when I'm on my way.  You're going!"

There was a piece of me dreading getting all dolled up to impress my long-lost classmates and a piece of me that began to get a little excited about getting out of the house for a little "party-time" and see some old friends.  I went inside to let Eric know that Tracie had insisted that I go and he had to go too.

"Nope, I'm not going.  You go and have a great time."

"Come on Eric, we're a team, I can't go without you."

"Nope. You go and I'll hang out with the girls."

"Party-pooper!"

As the time neared for Tracie to pick me up, I decided that I was not going to get all dolled up.  Who would even recognize me if I threw on make-up, a dress and heels?  That wasn't my style in 1986 and it certainly isn't my style now.  So, I opted for the super-laid-back look, Skinny jeans, tank-top and sandals.  Totally me now and totally me in 1986.  Me just being me!

We arrived at the party a little after mid-night (way past my 2011 bed-time, but so 1986 of me).  I immediately recognized faces!  Oh my gosh...I couldn't believe that I was going to miss this! Plenty of hugs, kisses, "you look exactly the same", "how have you been doing?" "I can't believe it's you!" 

I dive into my purse and text Eric..."You need to be here!"  He was totally going to be crushed when I told him about all of the people I was seeing.  He didn't text me back, probably watching movies with the girls or fast asleep.

Anyway, we had a great time.  Laughing, dancing, catching up with everyone.  People seemed surprised to see that Tracie and I were still connected at the hip...best buds for 34 years!  Everyone looked amazing.

I returned home around ??? am. way, way past my bedtime, almost time to wake up!  The next morning (or later that morning) I found Eric on facebook, looking at the pictures from the reunion.  He saw a few of the pictures that I had taken with his camera too and started to look a little disappointed.  "Man, I should have gone to the reunion." 

I have to say, I'm now pretty sad that I didn't go to the actual reunion too.  My old brain does not allow me to remember all of the people that I spent my high school years with.  At the after-party, some of the names and faces began to come back to me.  I started thinking, "what about so-and-so and so-and-so?"

Eric and I have agreed that we will be ready (weight loss and coloring the grey hairs) and present for the next reunion.  See all of you at the 30th!