It's Mardi Gras Brah!

It's Mardi Gras.

A time of year when I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for my disrespectful tardiness......the parade barricades!

An entire week when otherwise inexcusable behavior can be rationalized by the simple phrase, ''But it's Mardi Gras brah!''

A time where packing my kids in our van and driving in near torrential rains and wind to get to Keller's Bakery for the blueberry cream cheese king cake I had been dreaming of devouring for the past 2 months.....seems like a perfectly safe and sane thing to do. (In my defense, the tornado warnings only started AFTER we were already half way there!)

The few days a year when bands throughout Acadiana can play the same song, over and over again, and still be adored and praised with loud applaud and approving cheers every single time....

Les Mardi Gras s'en vient de tout partout,
Tout alentour le tour du moyeu,
Ça passe une fois par an, demandé la charité,
Quand-même ça c'est une patate, une patate ou des gratons....

Where I grew up, there was no Mardi Gras. Well, that's to say there was no Mardi Gras celebration. The closest thing to a Mardi Gras a celebration we had at home was my mom baking up a storm in our kitchen (she makes the yummiest chocolate eclairs) and having pancakes with lots of syrup for dinner.

When I first moved here, I have to admit, it took me a while to ''get it''.

I was all like, ''But boo, what the hell do you do with all these beads after you catch them?''

After I finally understood that it wasn’t what you did with the beads AFTER the parade, but rather just showing off to the people next to you how many beads YOU were able to catch, I too started my quest to become the world's best bead hoarder.

I have yet to do a courir de Mardi Gras in the country, but I'm guessing it's going to happen soon since my 4 year old Luke will stop at nothing to get the chance to chase a chicken around.

So anyway, I'm wishing you all a safe and happy Mardi Gras. And, remember, Johnston street to Cajundome Blvd is impossible and you have to take the back way to Keller's bakery because of construction on Jefferson street!

Cheers!

An Ounce of Charlie Sheen

So Tuesday I'm on my couch, it's 8:45 p.m and I'm contemplating going to bed since I knew in about 4 hours I'd be hearing those tiny footsteps coming down the stairs and then the whisper in my ear, ''Mommy, can you come sleep with me please?'' Which I would indulge and spend the next 4 hours with cold feet kicking me in the back. Fantastic.

But, as I'm about to turn off the TV, the 20/20 intro music starts and Elizabeth Vargas shoots me a look like, “You better sit your ass back down on the couch cause what you're about to witness is going to f&*#ing blow your socks off!”

So I sat and watched.

I watched much like I watch shows like TLC's Hoarders or Toddlers and Tiaras: peering from under my blanket since I can't decide if I really want to watch this insane debauchery or throw my bowl of ice cream at the TV screen.

I have to say, watching Charlie Sheen chain smoke, sip his pink drink (which I'm assuming was not cool aid) and rant incoherently for an hour was probably the most entertaining thing I've watched on TV since VH1's Flavor Of Love.

(Yes, I am a TV whore!)

I want to point out that I do realize that this was probably not entertaining to his friends and family. But for me, this kind of “entertaining” isn't the “hey let's see how fast we can drink all these beers without puking" type of "entertaining".

I am just totally baffled by the human mind and the fact that we are all just one 7 day crack binge away from totally losing touch with reality.

Personally, I have been too close for comfort to this metaphoric crack binge. After 2 months with no sleep, no booze and a screaming alien like creature hanging from by boobs constantly, I could have undeniably convinced myself that I was a “total bitchin' rock star from Mars!”

Although, I am still not completely convinced that this performance wasn’t just that...a performance. After all, the man is a bitchin' actor!

Whatever the cause or intention of this bizarre, erratic behavior, I would personally like to thank Charlie Sheen for gracing us with “the Charlie Sheen drug”, “Adonis DNA”, “ droopy eyed armless children” and last but not least, “tiger blood”.

Thank you for bestowing upon us a plethora of content for us ''human folk's” facebook status updates, twitter feeds, blogs and comedic acts!

(Image above from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/ )

Seminar

I'm going to a seminar and I feel great.

I'm dressed in something other than my husband's extra-large t-shirt and the sweatpants I've been wearing all week, and I feel like a million bucks.

It is the very first time, since my daughter's birth, 5 years ago, that I'm going to be mingling with adults and the words ''play date'' have not been spoken.

Ok, I'm exaggerating, but this much is true. I never thought going to a web optimization/internalization and social marketing seminar would get me all fired up!

But it did!

It's the first seminar or anything of the sort (that had nothing do to with child birth or breast feeding) that I was attending in the last half decade.

On my way over there, I feel great. My hair looks good, I'm bopping to my jams and I'm processing various business opportunities.

I feel alive again.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1499

In recent years, the lack of sleep, baby talk and me talking about myself in the third person... “Mommy needs to take a time out right now”.....have made me start to doubt my abilities in the ''work-place'' (I'm putting quotations because my house could also be considered a workplace!).

What's particularly scary for me is, theoretically, I have never been in the ''work-place''.

After I graduated from my second undergraduate degree (my first being a general science baccalaureate and my second a teaching degree), I moved here to Lafayette, got married and got pregnant 3 weeks later.

For the past 5 years I've been wiping butts and refereeing fights between irrational, unreasonable toddlers.

So, the thought of getting out into the big bad world scared me.

Until now. until this seminar.

I feel confident. I'm asking the right questions. The panel members seem to be genuinely interested in what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm a rock star (lol..as much a rock star as you can be in a web optimization/internalization and social marketing seminar).

The point is, I was not intimidated.

Quite the opposite, I felt surer of myself then I think I've ever felt in such an environment.

It finally dawned on me that maybe, these past 5 years, of staying up all night with fever and ear infections and of damage control after one kid picks the other one's toy, have made me a more confident, strong-willed person.

I guess that's what you call life experience.

And, experience is something I'm starting to have!

Hope

On this quiet Sunday afternoon, I just wanted to take a time-out to mention a friend of mine, a mom who in the past 4 years, has shown tremendous dedication, patience and strength.

My friend Melissa has a 4 year old son, Beckett, a handsome little boy with the bluest eyes you have ever seen. Beckett was recently diagnosed with autism.

I can't begin to imagine what Melissa has gone through, throughout the process of this diagnosis, but I am in total awe of how she has handled it with remarkable grace and undeniable perseverance.

It is moms like Melissa who make me strive to be the best parent I can be.

Beckett has been a gift to our family. To show us that everyone is different, but beautiful just the same.

Here is a link to a video that touched my heart and I'm sure will touch yours.

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/melissastevenson/2011-walk-for-hope-family-fun-day

5^th annual Walk For Hope and Family Fun Day to support Autism Society of Acadiana will be held in Parc International, downtown Lafayette, from 9am to 1pm, on March 26th. LA Online Registration closes at midnight on 3/20/11. After then only walk up registrations ($20) will be taken.

Allons pêcher papa!

 

When I was nursing Luke through the night I would dream of a time when his father would be able to take him fishing for the week-end. Well, that time has come and I'm as happy and grateful as I thought I'd be! :-) Bring home some trout and reds Luke!

POP

''Now can I please go outside and play mom?''

''No, you're going to sit here and watch until Johnny and Baby do ''the lift'' and Baby's dad realizes that Johnny wasn’t Penny's baby daddy after all!''

For those of you who don't know, Johnny is Patrick Swayze and Baby is Jennifer Grey in the BEST romantic, I want to abandon my plans of being a successful doctor and instead teach the Mambo with Patrick Swayze at a family holiday camp, movie....Dirty Dancing.

I have this obsession with making sure my kids are connoisseurs of the pop icons I was obsessed with growing up, both during my childhood and my later college years. Well, the pop sensations ''I'' consider icons.

There is no way in hell my kids will not recognize a song from the Thriller or Like A Virgin album.

Some parents want their kids to be able to read before even starting school, I, on the other hand think it's undeniably important that they are able to perform, with their air guitar of course, the beyond sensational guitar solo from Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lot of Love. (Hardly what you would call a pop icon from the 80-90s but nonetheless of utmost importance....and this proven by the fact that Word spellcheck just corrected the word Zeppelin when I accidentally wrote it with only 1 p).

(I'm going to save the Snoop and Dr. Dre for when they get just a little older).

Music and movies played a leading role in my life and still do.

Am I alone?

Maybe it's a way for me to keep in touch with my younger self , or maybe it's a just a need for me to want to share with my kids the things that helped shaped my life and experiences.

(I'm sure my parents are real happy to hear that Dirty Dancing and Snoop are things I consider life shaping factors in my life:-))

I try not to get to compulsive about it, but rest assured, I am thoroughly satisfied when my kids scream out ''Micheal Jackson'' after only a few notes of P.Y.T on the radio.

I am fully aware that they, themselves, are going to have their very own life shaping music and movie icons, but at least they will KNOW about mine....even if half the time they'll be rolling their eyes at their crazy mom doing air drum solos to Ramble On.

(p.s I did not actually force my daughter to sit through Dirty Dancing....well, just through the good parts:-))

10 Things I Hate (Love) About You!

photo by Gwen Aucoin www.gwenaucoin.com

1. Your long razor sharp nails.
   
   
2. Your incessant need for juice.
   
   
3. Caillou.
   
   
4. Your sticky hands.
   
   
5. Your need to stand on my bare feet while I'm cooking dinner. It F#&!ing hurts!
   
   
6. Waking me up in the middle of the night to ask me if it's time to wake up.
   
   
7. The fact that you can break the Turkish vase my husband lugged around for weeks in his backpack and just turn around and ask me for some Mac-n-cheese.
   
   
8. Your obsession with Mac-n-cheese.
   
   
9. Not making it in time to the bathroom because you were too busy “styling” your hair with Vick's vapor rub.
   
   
10. Getting mad at ME for the fact that you have to put clothes on before leaving the house.