The things I've done, and the many I haven't

I recently noted that my bold type doesn't show up here so now it's green.

My friend Denise at Full Nest posted this so I thought I'd give it a try to. If you're interested in posting yours, copy and paste then set those that you've done in bold and those you haven't to regular type.

1. Started your own blog (obviously)
2. Slept under the stars (I'm sure I've done this with Girl Scouts)
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii (way too awesome)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (ummmm, where do I live? Where does my mom work? ;-)
8. Climbed a mountain. (see #4 for most recent)
9. Held a praying mantis (3rd grade project)
No--10. Sang a solo (um, never. Most recent was 10 years ago when a 3 year old patient of mine insisted and we were alone)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (and not interested)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (however, I have a neice & nephew adopted from Vietnam)
16. Had food poisoning (hasn't everyone?)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (life's not complete without this one)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (no, but I did a Red Eye)
21. Had a pillow fight (this one's ridiculous--everyone has!)
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (see #21, last time was for a job interview!)
24. Built a snow fort (born just south of Chicago)
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (can't wait!)
29 Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (and you haven't really been on one until you've been on a high end one like Regent)
33 Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community (which is weird since I've passed nearby so many)
36. Taught yourself a new language (enough Spanish to order and make small talk to a omlette cook in the Dominican Republic--where I strangely started thinking in Spanish and was only there a week)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (as brief as it was)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (can't wait!)
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41 Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (dang slippery, potholed parking lot in the rain! All was well)
47. Had your portrait painted (more like caricatured at Disney World when I was 5)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain (can't say I was outside in it!)
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater (now we can't even find one!)
55. Been in a movie (do home movies count?)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60 Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (and ordered some today!)
62. Gone whale watching (from my hotel room balcony in Cabo--going again next week!)
63. Gotten flowers for no reason (to me, but to Jay it was just so he could tell his roomates that he's gotten flowers for every girlfriend he ever had)
64 Donated blood, platelets, or plasma (and need to go again)
65. Gone sky diving
66 Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67 Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (used to every summer in my hometown)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial (does waving to it from the car count?)
71. Eaten Caviar (and don't get the attraction. Boring and salty)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades (more like drove through in the super dark night--Alligator Alley, Rt 27, can be pretty scary!)
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (nose and finger)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79 Seen the Grand Canyon in person (if flying over about to land on the way to Hawaii via Arizona counts)
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (2--my current van and my old Chevy)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox (summer between Kindergarten and 1st grade)
89. Saved someone’s life (my patient's anti-depressant wasn't given to her and she was acutely suicidal and told me her plan to find a way to jump out the window despite her recent knee replacement. I paged her MD 911)
91. Met someone famous (Karel Husa--look him up; Also went to high school with Shonda Rhimes, and Rodney Harrison of the Patriots)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (2 even!)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit (testified as an expert witness)
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Catholic Parent Paparrazzi

Yes, it's that time of year again! You know the one. The Catholic school kids have their annual Christmas show in the church. And you can't see your kid at all because of other kids' parents somehow getting the preferential treatment that allows them to stand up all the way in the front with their cameras at all times blocking nearly everyones' view of the show!
Of course, this is NOT Thing 1's time of day for ANYTHING that is serious. Yes, you guessed it. Air guitar. During "Gloria!"
He was in church choir last year. All the masses he sung in were in the morning. The invisible instruments didn't come out even once.
In all seriousness though, this was probably the best show the kids have put on. It was actually less than an hour, started on time and everyone could hear every word! To me, that's a Christmas miracle.

Progress!!!

Finally!

On the foot front: I now have no stitches, a removable walking cast, a temporary disabled parking permit and a wheelchair on the way (so I can manage to get my Christmas shopping done and go to fun events with the family--impossibilities on crutches). It feels so much better to be able to put SOME weight on my foot.

The loan on the house is another thing. Weird, I tell you. The first one we tried was crap--they're trying to close operations so they ramped up the interest rates. Dumped them quick. You know those Lending Tree commercials where they have all these lenders in your living room waiting to talk to you? Well, it's not much of an exaggeration! I have been on the phone all afternoon with them! Things are looking up in that arena.

Kids are getting sick. Thing 2 has been, but seems to be going downhill. Hopefully I won't have to bring her to the main office of the pediatrician's (painted cement stairs I've nearly fallen down without a foot problem).

Overall, exciting day!

New House! Kids at the Ocala, FL Sarah Palin rally!

I wish I could have been there with them, but we feared me being trampled on crutches due to the aforementioned foot surgery.

We lost a bid on one house and then bid on another and we're getting this one! We would have originally bid on the one we're getting since we like it better but at the time it had a contract on it, and the contract fell through. It was meant for us! We should be moving during Christmas break. The kids will stay in the same school for the rest of the school year, then moving to another one for next year. We're all very excited!

Anyone want to buy a house 10 miles from Disney World?

It's real cheap compared to most of the country. I'm in the area with the biggest downturn in the market because it had the biggest upswing in the market when investors decided to buy up a ton of houses hoping to sell quick for a huge profit that never materialized. And it's the hardest hit from the bad mortgage deals. Fortunately, my development isn't getting the tons of foreclosures many are, but we still get hit with the devaluation.
On the upside, it really isn't breaking us since we bought this 10 years ago when the market was low so now we'll still make a profit and want to get something bigger--and we can get it for a steal!
Looks like we'll be putting in an offer in this neighborhood: stevensplantation.com. I won't post the listing because I don't want my future home searchable here. Needless to say, it's HUGE, and a cavernous fun time! People will love wandering around in it. And it's less than 2 years old!
How's that for an upbeat post for a change!

The bully most often overlooked

is the one who seeks to get someone else in trouble in order to make himself feel good.

I knew there would be another shoe to drop since Thing 1's behavior improved so greatly in school--making it harder for others to tattle on him for nothing. So apparently it's a huge sin that someone chose to stand too close to him and got lightly tapped with his outstretched belt as he re-fastened it. And standing next to the other kid who was off his medication today and decided to mock the assistant teacher's English accent suddenly made all the other kids accuse him of the same behavior. No, my child's far from sainthood--but his own speech issues make it nearly impossible for him to fake a foreign accent.

So my sensitive child cried as he was told that he would get a detention next time these things happened. By adults he trusted.

Sister

So my sister teaches dance classes, mainly the little 3-5 year olds, but a couple of adult "mom" groups. This one in particular can be a bossy pain in the rear end and she's had to put them in their place more than once. The owners don't want to teach this class!

So now she's showing at 14 weeks. One of them had to yell that to her. So she said, "No, I'm just fat." Goofy woman.

We haven't told my kids yet. I figure we'll let her handle that in a phone call before she comes down for Christmas. I think I'll have her handle the fact that she's not married yet with "well, God made it happen anyway!" I think my kids will buy that. The benefits of Catholic schools, LOL! Hopefully that won't backfire into an expecting the second coming of Jesus thing, LOL!