Aloha!

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Posted by Rebecca Bingham, Special Needs Mommie | Posted in Miscellaneous | Posted on 26-08-2010

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I have spent the last hour catching up on family blogs and Facebook posts. All over the internet are pictures of kids heading off to the first day of school. I love to see the shiny smiles (because it is still new and exciting and everyone has carefully combed hair) and new backpacks (still clean and holding their shape because they haven’t been used as footballs or pillows or projectiles yet). Fall is in the air and the promise of routine and schedule surrounds parents with a familiar welcome.

We are putting off all that stuff because we are still in Hawaii. The kids are missing their first three days of school. My fifth grader is wearing her first day of school outfit in protest (long pants and a heavy shirt) and refusing to go to the beach (cry me a river). The kindergartener keeps hoping we will forget to send him when he gets home. He keeps giving us helpful suggestions like “Hey, I have an idea, maybe we should live in Hawaii?” and “I think kids don’t have to go to school here. Let’s stay”. Tempting.

I’m not sure if it is the sun or the water or all the junk food, but we have had very little trouble this trip. The kids were amazing on the plane (I was flying on my own) and aside from being kicked out of the pool area the first day (a small incident with Cubby involving a major freakout, four security guards and some tears all around) we have had smooth sailing.
 
 I’ll savor these memories from our trip. We aren’t walking the line of trying to force kids to do therapeutic stuff that they don’t want to do and trying to keep the peace. We are just relaxed, sunburned, and the kind of happy tired that comes from swimming all day. I can’t remember our family ever having this.School will start and bring with it all the typical stuff. The kind of worry that I can’t help but have. The kind that involves waiting for the phone to ring and having the principal or office telling me to come get him (again) or that he is banned from playground time. That is also part of the routine of school. It is what it is.

Today. Today I am going to order another Lava Flow, hit the watersides again with my kids, and possibly eat even more junk food. I might even consider Cubby’s request to just live here forever.

Happy first week of school everyone!!

Enough with the Vacations!

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Posted by jamielentzner | Posted in Miscellaneous | Posted on 22-08-2010

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Do you remember the Staples back to school commercial from a few years ago, where the Dad is riding a shopping cart through the store?  His two children are sulking and walking slowly behind him as he tosses school supplies into the cart, all while the Christmas song, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” plays?  Ya – that one.  I feel like that right about now.   

But it not because I crave routine, or my kids are fighting over the wii and we have all had a little toomuch family time….well okay, it is sort of that.   Everyone I know has gone on some fabulous/exotic vacation.  My friends and family have been to Tahoe, Disneyland, Mexico, Spain, England, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, Vegas, Arizona, Palm Springs, New York, Yellowstone….and at least 34 of ‘em have gone to Hawaii.   What I really can’t wait for is to not open up Facebook every frickin’ morning to see one more person post a  57 fabulous pictures of their vacationing. 

I get it, life is fabulous when you are on vacation and you want to share it with the rest of us feeble poor people that are at our office working, while you sashay around the world.  I see the happy lightly sun-kissed pictures of your kids, the unbelievable sunset, the expensive foofy drinks with umbrellas you and your spouse drink poolside.  The truth is I am jealous, okay.  I am, I am, I am – and I am sure everyone else is too. 

Worse than the vacations are the Staycations (don’t ya hate that word? It is so lame and over used in “these tough Economic Times“).  The Stay at home Moms post pictures all day, every day of some little remarkable place they have visited in Northern California.  I have found myself clicking through someone’s photos only to find my son behind me, peeking at the places I did not take him this summer.  I want to take the day off and go to miniature golf, Great America, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Marine World, Muir Woods, Berkley, The Academy of Science and then top the night off with dinner in China Town.   And, yes I am jealous of all you too most days.

 I wonder if that is why people  okay we post 45 photos of our amazing vacation, unless they want people to be jealous.  I would actually like to see the other pictures every once in awhile.  You know where the kids are fighting, a child is crying, Mom is yelling and throwing the foofy drink at Dad….now those would be worth posting.  But, let’s face it no one (including me) is ever going to post those pictures.  Every Time a camera comes out we all start babbling if the photo is going to be “Facebook Worthy” and the “Don’t you dare post this on Facebook without my permission!”  (Ya, I got that speech once).

 Well I have had it – I am going on vacation!  I am getting in one last mini-vacation next week.  It is not super glamorous and their won’t be a $12.00 cocktail for miles around – but it will be beautiful and their will be a river and wineries.  Jealous yet?  You will be….oh wait, I will just make sure and post 65 some odd photos of my trip when I get back.  That ought to get ya!