Taking a walk down memory lane...

I'm supposed to be wrapping presents for the family we "adopted" this year. But, I found my Baby's Milestones book while searching for the wrapping paper (that I never found and kind of gave up looking for) instead and have become distracted with this little gem. My baby/young kid self has me cracking up!!!

Here's what I was like:

~From the time I was pulled out of the madre's belly my eyes were wide open, smiling, and making funny faces.
~I was an attention whore who loved to laugh at everyone that looked at me.
~At 6 months old my favorite thing to do was look at pictures of myself and kiss them (I was a conceited baby).
~at my 7 month check up appointment I peed all over the table at the doctors office and thought it was hilarious!
~was obsessed with music and dancing: at 3 months old I fell in love with music...per the madre when music was playing I would "sing" and as soon as it was turned off I would stop; at 10 months old I liked to play disc jockey and change the station and dance to the music; at 2 years old I was doing the moon walk to Michael Jackson songs; at 3 years old my favorite song was "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper; at my 7th birthday party all I wanted to do was listen to music and dance, but all the other girls were too shy!
~had my first "boyfriend" at 4 years old: Adam my next door neighbor and best friend and according to the madre we spent every single day together. She once caught us playing house under my covers and I told her we were playing mommy and daddy....bahahahahahaha!
~I loved money: at 2 years old I insisted on paying for everything; at 3 yrs old I saved $2 and made the madre take me to McDonalds so I could buy french fries; at 6 yrs old the madre would take my birthday money and put it in the bank....I asked every day if I had made a lot of money yet and I wanted it back so I could buy Barbies.
~I had two imaginary friends from age 3-5 yrs. old. Big Allison and Little Allison...don't remember those girls, but I'm sure they got me into trouble.
~I was very stubborn/independant: at 2 yrs old I insisted on dressing myself, made the madre stay in the reception area for my very first hair cut; when the parents would tell me "no" I would shake my head no and then do it anyway
~at 2 yrs old I had a habit of biting the boys in Kindercare. I wasnt in Kindercare for long.
~at 15 months old I was acting like "mommy" to the younger babies in daycare

Not too much has changed since those days. Except I don't pee on the doctors table anymore and when I bite boys they like it...



Rockin out as a babe

Traditions and reflections...

I was gearing up to post about traditions today! Mainly because I love having those moments of doing the same thing on the same day with the people that I love SO very! Those moments that you pretty much look forward to recreating all year long. Yeah...those! I love them!

Thanksgiving has a very fun and quirky tradition for my family. My family which consists of the Madre, sister, and myself (I do have more family than this...but these two ladies are my life and live closest). Our Thanksgiving festivities started when I first moved South 6 wonderful years ago. We had our first Thanksgiving with the three of us back together again and it would be my first one not spending with our Hotchkiss clan (madre's side of the familia). We realized that the day would be kind of boring with just the three of us so why not spice it up by dressing up??? Dress up we did! The sister and I put on my old prom dresses and Madre threw together some fany clothes in her closet (which ended up being a Stevie Nicks look) and we sat down to a "fancy" Thanksgiving meal. It was a night of great laughs. We had so much fun that we decided to make it a tradition to "dress up".

Each year since we have gone to the Goodwill to scope out the funniest outfits that we can put together. We have made it into a contest and spend weeks before dropping hints at how great our individual outfits are. How we are so sure that we are going to beat the other two. Then on the actuall day we will get dressed five minutes before it's time to sit down for our feast and all walk out of our rooms at the same time....huge amounts of belly laughter usually follows when we show off our finds! It is one of the best traditions that we have!

Some examples of our outfits from a few years back! (I'm posting from the madre's computer and I can actually share pics....yipppeee) Needless to say, we have FUN!

So, as I was so excited when I first awoke this morning for a day full of laughter I was soon greeted with sadness! A reminder that life is really really short and we need to give THANKS for each day that we are blessed with! A reminder to tell those people in my life whom I love dearly, exactly that, that I love them! Life can be taken away from us in an instant and it's important that we take time each day to remember how very lucky we are to get another day in life. So, I've been doing exactly that, telling people how much I care and love for them and I don't care if it's mushy and sentimental because I think it's important that they know! It's important that we say how we feel and we say it as often as we can because we don't know if we will be here tomorrow!

My heart is breaking for a friend today who unfortunately is experiencing a level of loss that I can not even imagine. A good man lost his life last night. A man that I met several times and shared laughter with. A man that clearly loved my dear friend and wanted to spend his life with her. And I can't help but feel in shock that this tragedy really happened! It is surreal and devastating!!! It doesn't seem fair and all that I want to do is to wrap my arms around my friend and take this pain away from her. But, you can't do that and God does have his plans. Even if we don't understand them at the moment.

So, as everyone is hopefully spending this day with those that they love and cherish...tell them exactly how you feel! If you can't be with those people today, call them and let them know that you love them! You really never know when it will be your last chance to do so.Take the time to be grateful for being blessed with another day on Earth! Don't waste these moments that we are given on petty things and take this time to reflect on the good in your life! Life is short...dont waste it.

I sincerely hope that everyone enjoys their day today and that you have some of your very own fun traditions that you're looking forward to today! Now off to finish cooking, drinking, and spending this time with two women that mean the absolute world to me...



Random...

I like to occasionally check my "stats" on my blog. Call it vain if you will, but I like to see that people actually read this! It makes me feel good. Whatever...judge away.

Anyways, I just took a glance at my stats and found one of the traffic sources to be a site about convertible cribs. No joke! Http://convertible-cribs.info. I find this very odd! I don't think my blog has anything to do with convertibles, cribs, or cribs that convert to big boy/girl beds. I'm starting to wonder how legit this "stats" business is! Naturally I clicked on the traffic source to check it out...you know see how someone interested in cribs that will last until the kids off to college could get linked to my blog. Yeah, still no clue how that one happened, but I sure hope that person enjoyed what they read.

And that my friends is a glimpse into my random brain. Goodnight...

My cab ride turned into a session with a psychic...

And I wish this was a joke!!! It's not.

I don't know if I would call Mr. Cabbie a psychic, but he pretty much knew my life story and wanted to tell me all about it on our 45 minute drive to my destination. This was a very bizarre experience to say the least!

But, first let's go back to the beginning of my night. A friend and I decided to do a little something out of our normal routine. A trip to Savannah to people watch and enjoy some cocktails and it was a great night until I was ready to leave. It's always tricky when one person is really getting into the groove of fun and the other person is ready to tap out. However, that's exactly the predicament we found ourselves in and that's how I ended up walking out of the bar, finding a cop to help me get a taxi (I'm not a complete idiot and wasn't about to roam the streets at midnight all by myself), and getting into Mr. Psychics cab.

I was a little (okay a lot) nervous about being by myself at that hour and taking a 45 minute cab ride home and I'm sure Mr. Cabbie picked up on my nervous energy and that's why he probably thought it was a great idea to start a conversation. I really wasn't in the mood to talk, but I'm a polite person and made all of the proper responses. Meanwhile I'm feverishly praying that he doesn't pull over on some seedy side road and murder me (I have an active imagination and this increased after he asked for the money up front)!

So, the polite conversation continues and then he asks me when my birthday is. I was very taken aback on this question and didn't want to give him my birthday, but he insisted. This is when shit gets weird and he starts telling me things about my life. I am skeptical of psychics and such, but it is startling when a stranger can tell you about things that happened in your past. Especially when all the information you have shared is your birthday and that you lived in Bluffton and to not take 95 because that would cost more money. I'm not sure how one could get that I had a major life change 6 years ago and left someone I loved from that information, but he sure did! He shared much more, but I'm not willing to share with y'all (some things need to remain private). Unless you're psychic as well and then I don't have to tell you anyways because you'll just end up telling me about my life!

He left me with this bit of information though: "you are masculine and very ambitious, but you need to be more feminine when it comes to love because a man wants a female." Now his English was not perfect so I'm going to interpret masculine as independent, but I responded with "you're probably right".