Words for the day

The key to genuine happiness is in our hands. To think this way is to discover the essential values of kindness, brotherly love and altruism. The more clearly we see the benefits of these values, the more we will seek to reject anything that opposes them; in this way we will be able to bring about inner transformation

The Dalai Lama

Still Kickin

Waiting to Spring
an exhausting thing.

Feelin hopeful
feeling alive

thanks to the effort
the support and my drive

thinking of my new bike
excited for the run

playing with the kiddies outside
terrible fun

parties, graduations, birthdays and such

concerts, Katy Perry, whom I love-a so much.

Cubs games and especially the first for my boy

Vegas in April, with my love, what joy!!!

Here

Here I am in silence
Here I am undisturbed
for a moment
its quiet
I am still
I close my eyes and direct them towards heaven
From here
I reach out for your hand
From here it is icy
Bitter cold and dark
From here I lay my intentions of
the means to make it there
But here now
in the stillness
All I do is stare.

Hope

Is a thought
an action
faith
and a reaction
a baby
a love story
and a happy landing.
"I expect the worst, but hope for the best" (John Mellencamp)

Ode to the Music of 1992 (for Manna Banana)

Can I have some remedy?
Tell me
Do you think it'd be alright?
We can make time stop for the two of us.
Walking on down the road.....
But I guess you've had you're fill and if
I can't change your mind then no one will.

ASIAN Limerick

There once was a child from China
Who came to America to work in a diner
Great tips she did make
Her happiness she did fake
Thus traveled home on an ocean liner.

Sunday

Lovely lady
can do without
she can wait
she can ponder
because its just fate

uncomfortable
nervous
tired
confused

escape to the air
feel the wind on your face
get to your place
today.

The Early Bird

Every saturday the early bird rises.

1, thirty four pound extention of my heart creeps softly

pulls him self up with all his might, wraps his skinny arms around me,

hugs me and whispers, "I love you, Mommy." We stay like that for awhile.


The early birds rise by themselves as to not wake anyone else up yet.

I make my coffee quietly, let out my Lab, and then feed him as quickly as I can.

And then I hang out with my thirty four pound extension of my heart.

Sweet and silly

A smile to melt my heart each time he flashes it at me and looks at me with adoring eyes......

Before he becomes a cranky and difficult little person,

We have time together.

I notice a solo cardinal outside the kitchen window. Bright, red and magnificent against the gray sky and lush greens surrounding our backyard. Then, he disappears.

The early birds rises.

Gravity

Its inevitable.

I'm gravitating this way.

I moving toward you without thinking.

Catching me in your spider web just like you did before.

Letting me go again

The Captors

I forget about the rest of you
when he's in my head

I forget your standing there all around me

My guards

Making sure I'll never sing again.

Determined to never let me by.

But you're criminals
My captors

You know
You can't have me on sandy beaches
with ice cold peaches in my mouth

You're henchmen
You hold my arms when I try to break free

My own world I'm making inside your tight circle around me.

He makes me forget you're there
When you hit me
When you spit on me

But you're criminals
My own captors.

476 days

with you in my sight
your bright blue eyes in my heart
every day and every night

Now you start to tell me what you want
With your words
and your smiles
and your gleeful expression

you are mine
my bright eyes
I am your everything.
Today
476 days.

Tight (yes the poetry is back)

It's so good
It can't be real
Don't know what to think
or even what to feel

It soft and its sweet
easy and chilled
Like fruit in my belly
so lightly filled.

It tickles is teases
Its tight and it tame
It sweet like candy
Or its just part of a game.

Thanks to my one follower you are much appreciated.

To Grandmother's House We Go

Just last weekend my mom, stepfather, my five month old daughter, Francesca and I traveled to Arizona to visit my 92 year-old Grandma. Things I love about traveling to Arizona the most are seeing my family...and climbing Squaw Peak, which I don't get to do now that my brother and family have uprooted to Maryland.

Yet, my grandmother's house remains the same. One of the most constant things in my life since I was 10 years old. Walking in her home is like being home. A real feeling of home. Like a childhood walk back in time. I picked oranges of her trees, my Italian Papa make us homemade bread, fresh squeezed orange juice, and tons of other culinary goodies.

I have so many memories of my her house, like being 16 and forced to go there when a boy I fell so hard for was back at home waiting for me, playing mini golf at the arcade, the diving board at the pool, driving fast in the golfcart with my brother, and of course, when Papa passed away. I will always feel his presence when I walk through the house or when I relax on Grandma's patio.

The one thing I love most is the love that flows through the house. My Grandma is polite, educated, and well-spoken. She reads the paper every day and you will never ever catch her watching anything but baseball, the news, or Wheel of Fortune. She is also fiesty and opinionated at the same time. "babies should not be wrapped so tight, "She looks like she's in jail!" she tells me when I swaddle Francesca. Not to mention the sock in the arm she gave me when she saw Francesca's pierced ears,

"those are hurting her!"

"She's my baby I'll do what I want," I smile politely. There is more of me in her than just our matching blue eyes.

I'm still here

Here, I am once again. Ready to take of the bloggin scene again. Even if no one reads, I have big plans...for myself and for my family. Plans which involve the world of writing, something I really love and something I am fairly good at. I have plans for my writing and they begin here. Its been a rough, exciting, challenging, special year. A year full of growth and amazing changes. I will begin to document the insanity and the uniqueness that is MY life everyday. I hope you enjoy.

Let's Pray Together Cubs Fan

Eddie Vedder played THIS LIVE after composing it at the request of Ernie Banks who I've had the pleasure of knowing when I worked at Illinois Center Athletic Club once upon a time. I asked him for an autograph for my grandma after sneaking faxes in for him in the office on numerous occasions. He didn't just sign his name - he wrote by Grandma (life long die hard 91 year old Grandma) a sweet, long letter.

Go Cubs!!

Friday Evening & Weary

Sometimes I'm blinded
by exactly what's right in front of me

Other times I'm broken in pieces
but a little bit more put together than the day before

I'm always wishing for things I can't have
I'm always crying for things that I've lost

My heart is a framed picture of bliss, and peace, colored brightly and sweetly
With cracked and fragmented colored lines of gray and black of sadness and regret

Realizing that I just "am"
Helps me sleep better at night.

Lessons in Mommyhood #06

At some point during your child's life, usually between 18 and 24 months - DINNER TIME WILL SUCK. Accept it as it is, move on, dodge the food before it hits you in the face, and laugh. Remember why you became a mom and what a joyful experience it has been so far. And if you get the sudden impulse to just smack your husband in the face or hit him over the head with a large object during dinner, because nothing he says or does actually alleviates the situation, but only makes it worse.....resist the temptation. Save the energy for something else later..wink..wink....that might only result in another mess maker though.

Lessons in Mommyhood #79

What do you do when your toddler insists on going outside and you instruct him to put on his shoes (they're CROCS - he's not like tying gym shoes or anything) and he reappears with one shoe on (ready to go, of course)...while the other shoe is completely lost...for days....and he has not yet acquired the verbal skills to explain or remember what he did with the other one? Try this - CHECK THE FRIDGE - preferably the bottom two shelves.

Lessons in Mommyhood #44

When your toddler wanders in to the bathroom with an EMPTY cup and emerges mere seconds later with that SAME cup, but its FULL of water and your child is happily drinking it, don't immediately ASSUME that the little bugger actually reached up turned on the faucet and filled it up in that short amount of time. GO BUY TOILET LOCKS and then try your best to teach him to say..."I'M THIRSTY!"

(I swear I thought I was going to BARF - well, hey, the dog is still alive after all these years, it must not be THAT bad)