"Now, I'm his ghost. That's not difficult. It's unbearable. I know everyone is proud of him, but I am not. And I do not wish him well." -- Christina Yang, Grey's Anatomy

Happy Monday (Part II)

Kids on Marriage (and Dating)

How do you decide who to marry?

"You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming." ~Alan, age 10

"No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with." ~Kristen, age 10

What is the right age to get married?

"Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then." ~Camille, age 10

"No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married." ~Freddie, age 6

How can a stranger tell if two people are married?

"You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids." ~Derrick, age 8

What do most people do on a date?

"Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough." ~Lynnette, age 8

"On a first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date." ~Martin, age 10

What would you do on a first date that was turning sour?

"I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns." ~Craig, age 9

When is it OK to kiss someone?

"When they're rich." ~Pam, age 7

"The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that." ~Curt, age 7

"The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do." ~Howard, age 8

Is it better to be single or married?

"I don't know which is better, but I'll tell you one thing. I'm never going to have sex with my wife. I don't want to be all grossed out." ~Theodore, age 8

"It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them." ~Anita, age 9

How would the world be different if people didn't get married?

"There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?" ~Kelvin, age 8

How would you make a marriage work?

"Tell your wife she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck." ~Ricky, age 10

Happy Monday :)

"A first-grade school teacher had 26 students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the first half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the saying."

1) Don't change horses ... until they stop running
2) Strike while the ... bug is close
3) It's always darkest before ... Daylight Savings Time
4) Never underestimate the power of ... termites
5) You can lead a horse to water but ... how?
6) Don't bite the hand that ... looks dirty
7) No news is ... impossible
8) A miss is as good as a ... Mr.
9) You can't teach an old dog new ... math
10) If you lie down with dogs, you'l ... stink in the morning
11) Love all, trust ... me
12) The pen is mightier than the ... pigs
13) An idle mind is ... the best way to relax
14) Where there's smoke there's ... pollution
15) Happy the bride who ... gets all the presents
16) A penny saved is ... not much
17) Two's company, three's ... the Musketeers
18) Don't put off till tomorrow what ... you put on to go to bed
19) Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and ... you have to blow your nose
20) There are none so blind as ... Stevie Wonder
21) Children should be seen and not ... spanked or grounded
22) If at first you don't succeed ... get new batteries
23) You only get out of something what you ... see in the picture on the box
24) When the blind lead the blind ... get out of the way
25) A bird in the hand ... is going to poop on you
26) Better late than ... pregnant

“There are all kinds of pedants around with more time to read and imitate Lynne Truss and John Humphrys than to write poems, love-letters, novels and stories it seems. They whip out their Sharpies and take away and add apostrophes from public signs, shake their heads at prepositions which end sentences and mutter at split infinitives and misspellings, but do they bubble and froth and slobber and cream with joy at language? Do they ever let the tripping of the tips of their tongues against the tops of their teeth transport them to giddy euphoric bliss? Do they ever yoke impossible words together for the sound-sex of it? Do they use language to seduce, charm, excite, please, affirm and tickle those they talk to? Do they? I doubt it." ~Stephen Fry

RIP Maurice Sendak

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”

“There is no such thing as fantasy unrelated to reality.”

“. . .from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.”

“There must be more to life than having everything.”

“And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.”

Maurice Sendak

Rock Bottom

Diamonds

"A diamond is a piece of charcoal that handled stress exceptionally well." ~unknown

When I was first planning to come down to Florida, Brayden told me something along the lines of "You don't have to tell people you were married. You can just be you."

I understand why he felt this way ... my whole life story comes off as a little intimidating, and he just wants me to be happy and fit in.

Bless him for that.

But here's the thing : I know I am not my mistakes. I am moving forward and moving on, and I am not stuck in my past. But my past has made me who I am. All of these things are a part of me, and a part of my story. And I am not ashamed of them. Every single thing that has happened over the past few years has made me stronger. And everything that is happening now, no matter how hard it is, can be overcome.

I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. And while I don't want to throw my "drama" in people's faces (it's my burden to bear, after all) this is still my story. I wouldn't trade it for anyone else's. And maybe I'm still learning who I am and how to deal with things, but that's life. It's not about how big your problems are, it's about how you handle them.

The Waiting Place

"Waiting for the fish to bite, or waiting for the wind to fly a kite, or waiting around for a Friday night. Or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake. Or a pot to boil. Or a better break. Or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants, or a wig with curls, or another chance"

Oh, the Places You'll Go

I have never been a patient person. I do not know the meaning of "take it slow." I leap without looking and push myself so hard that I often make myself sick. I don't slow down, and I don't give up.

Sometimes, this works to my advantage. It has helped fuel a strong work ethic, and it helped me try to keep my marriage together even when I wanted nothing more than to escape. Granted, the marriage ended in its own time anyway, but I still fought when so many others would have given up.

But now ... now I'm stuck in that Waiting Place. I cannot help speed my mother's treatments along. I don't know how long they'll take, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I have come to accept the fact that I have to let some things go. I have to breathe, and pray, and let things happen when they will. However, my excess impatient energy seems to have re-focused itself in other areas of my life.

I am no longer content with "someday." My mother had so many "somedays," and now her whole life has shifted. I had "somedays." I had a whole future planned, and now ... well, now my future is a blank canvas. An empty page. There are possibilities and dreams and the crippling fear of failure. My life is now, not someday.

Hold your breath ... make a wish ... count to three

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." 
~ Roald Dahl

It's easy to go through life only focusing on the bad. Sometimes, it seems as though hardship is the only constant. That happiness is a fleeting moment, not to be expected, and not to be trusted. We get caught up in the day-to-day tragedies and we think, "This is my life." And every time something else happens, it becomes that much easier to give up hope. To accept the fact that life sucks, and there is nothing we can do about it.

And with that kind of attitude, you are absolutely right.

Happiness is a tricky thing. It is all around us, just waiting to be noticed and loved, whereas tragedy strikes us whether we're looking for it or not. It is so much easier to see pain and suffering. Oftentimes it's all we hear about. But if you're looking closely, with an open mind and heart, you'll see how much magic there truly is in life. I see it every day. Even when I'm surrounded by tragedies, even when it seems as though everything is falling apart.

I see it in all the little princesses who come to see Mickey and his friends. Those little girls still believe in Happily Ever After, and Prince Charming, and dancing. I see it in the smiles of the grown-ups on their first visits, just as excited as their children to see their favorite character. I see it every time we have an anniversary couple come to visit, because I know how hard it can be to keep that kind of magic alive. And I see it in every single "Make a Wish" child, and the pure love their families have for them. There is magic in every one of their stories, if we look for it.

Someone else might see the screaming babies, the frazzled parents and the bored teenagers. I see a family who still cared enough to go on vacation together. You may see Christmas lights wrapped around trees, I see fairies coming out to play. A handful of glitter becomes pixie dust.  A simple tiara hair clip makes a girl into "Your Highness."

And wishes DO come true.