R.I.P. Anita Roddick

while living in England in the late 80's I discovered & fell in love with the Body Shop. wonderful products, no animal testing with real commitment to the communities where the employees lived & worked. when I was first back in the states the stores were hard to find but there was one in NYC near Astor Place that I would frequent. Now they seem to be almost everywhere-even in airports, which was handy traveling last summer with the ban on all lotions & liquids, during lay overs I would pop in and use testers. In K-town there is one at the mall I use to frequent but I must admit a certain loathing for the mall, I worked at one in CT for years, so I tend to avoid them at all costs but maybe I need to stop by this week for moisturizer & peppermint foot lotion

latest craze for kids

ok so it may not be the latest or even a craze but C came home last week asking to buy a webkinz.
I had seen them at hallmark about a month ago so we stopped in during our travels Saturday and picked up a chihuahua because that was the closest looking to a pug-well only if you squish his nose back and of course C keeps calling it a chinchilla but regardless..stuffed toy, it comes with a code so you go on the interweb & create a little virtual world for your pet. Very cute sort of build-a-bear meets beanie bears and they go online.

the fair

I am going to go out on a limb and say my favorite, fondest memory of kidhood was the Danbury Fair. Came to town 2 weeks every fall and the friday before Columbus Day was fair day. All of the Danbury schools had the day off & all kids were given a free pass to the fair for that day. Columbus day being a larger holiday up north(more Italians) we would have a 4 day weekend but that friday we would go the fair. It was christmas & your birthday all rolled into one-there were rides, games, elephants, the big top with all sorts of silly things to buy-mom & dad still have their first ginsu purchased under the big top, cap guns, those little popper things,oxen pull, cows, horses, the Clydesdale's, chocolate covered frozen bananas, lumber jack contest-I guess that would be strong man now, ooh zeoplis, the Sleepy Hollow Ichabod crane statues & bridge, Paul Bunyon & babe statues, sheep, pigs, Dutch village windmill and all, cowboy hats(Danbury is hat city after all), the cannons where we would eat warm gingerbread & drink hot cider before heading home, the paddle boat ride, car racing-if you've seen Arthur you've seen the track at the Danbury fair. They also had races every saturday night in the summer you could always hear it from the house, we even went once or twice. God I could gone on for days! I remember one year mom had surgery or was sick or something Dad took us for just 2 hours & we were heart broken. The first year I was allowed to hang with my friends for a few hours without adults-of course we kept loosing people and spent our precious time unsupervised riding trams back & forth looking for 1 or 2 people. The last year of the fair in '81 we were allowed the whole day with friends, well we were "grown-up" freshman in high school after all..and yes the beloved fair grounds is a
mall-granted it did give me a job for several years and sort of eventually kind of brought me to the south so it wasn't all bad I suppose but I wish the fair was still around!
And all of these leads me to the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville each fall, in the 15 years I have lived here for some reason I have never been until now. We have plans to go next Saturday and I can't wait I am so excited been talking it up to C who is clueless about it all so he doesn't even know he should be excited too, so I will excited enough for both of us!!

work

ever have days where it seems like you can not accomplish ANYTHING? and it is stressing me out more than it should because I have a little weird headache or I having been having a stroke since last night-one or the other. What age is that you start thinking every odd ache & pain is cancer/heart failure/stroke?

you know it's early

when you have to wake the dog up to let him out & when he is done he comes in and promptly goes back into to his cage & falls back asleep....

it was inevitable

C is a Vols fan. Yes a dyed-in-the-wool head over heels orange wearing UT football fan. Oh where did we go wrong?! He was allowed to watch part of the game last night and first question out of his mouth this morning "did they win?" And football is yet another sport he is aching to play, we have ruled NO on that sport for right now. I think he is too young and D just never wants him to play football EVER which I think in this area where football is a religious experience and with C's size and apparent natural abilities in sports(courtesy of daddy's gene's not mine) that will be hard to enforce. And D played baseball, basketball & football growing up so it might be hard to explain why it was ok for dad but not for C. The problem is D now looking back feels that he was always playing or practicing for something and we don't want C to be over loaded with extra-curricular activities especially at such a young age plus some of D's physical stuff is in part due to football related injuries & he only played high school not college ball. I can already see that we might fall into to the year-round sports track he takes tae kwan do weekly plays spring & fall baseball and I am letting him add basketball this year. Ultimately I think as long as he is doing well in school, not over tired and enjoying playing what he is playing it'll be fine. If C stops enjoying a sport we will quit right away, I am striving not to be the pushy parent.
I did have some interesting insight into my hubby's psyche yesterday at the baseball game he admitted to it being difficult in the competitive situation to be sitting on the sidelines and not actually playing the game.

hooky

yes D& I played hooky yesterday-ok so we actually took vacation days but that makes us sound so responsible & all and we can't have that. After dropping the boy at school I had & facial & massage to start my day compliments of D. I had never been to Oasis but if you are in the Ktown area I highly recommend it-excellent service, I did not pay an arm & a leg and the up selling was kept to a minimum. On to a quick sushi lunch at Gohan-Ya, no alcohol please because our next stop was meeting a friend at the gun range. Yes people I have shot my first handgun, didn't drop it or kill anyone in fact the boys said I hit target about 85% of the time-I think I improved once I stopped shutting my eyes when I pulled the trigger. It was not as horrible as I thought it would be and by the time we left I was much more comfortable with the whole thing than when we went in and most likely I will go again. I must admit V's 9mm was easier to handle than D's 40cal oh look gun talk I may be a southerner after all! I know C is itching to try but he has a few years before D will take him to the range. On the upside I think I range membership is what D will get for his b-day this year. Then it was off for a pitcher of margaritas to round out the afternoon. And a movie last night Bourne Ultimatum was great or maybe it was just great to see a regular movie at the theater but I enjoyed it. C went to his grandmother's last night for an evening of chuck e cheese, pizza & dvds He has been retrieved and we are off the the ball field for his first game in the machine pitch league.

how cute

C got his first phone call last night from one of his new buddies in 2nd grade. Big discussion of yu-gi-oh cards ensued.

mommy guilt to start the day

C woke up this morning with a headache, bellyache & complaining that he did not sleep very well last night. Not such a huge shock he had symptoms last night but I hoped a shot of motrin & an early night would clear all of that up, unfortunately no.. Normally my schedule is flexible and I could stay home with him or my mil lives less than 5 minutes away and she happily will take him for the day. Except today, I have class-my first class not something I can really skip & mil is in NYC for a few days., so I feel guilty sticking my husband with the sick kid for the day which is ridiculous, he is a hands on father who in fact had more experience with babies than I did when C was born, he has flex days to burn they "expire" in October and one of the reasons he saves them is just in case someone gets sick & he needs to take a day. So why do I feel guilty???

I'm nervous

and excited, after an 18 year sabbatical I am going back to school tomorrow. It's just one class to start with for right now and hopefully it won't be too taxing I am still working full time & running around after C which is equally a full time job. I figure I can study at tae kwan do and baseball games and I know both my boys are supportive of my decision and will help anyway they can. C is cute letting me know there is nothing to be nervous about"it's just school mommy!"