Normal?

I have never given much thought whether my family would be considered "normal". But, apparently activities that I enjoy with my sons are not run of the mill activities for most families. I have been sky diving twice and would have gone the third time, but the planes were grounded due to heavy clouds. The first time I sky dived was also the first time for both my boys. The instructor was quite surprised that mom and boys were jumping. My youngest loved it and now skydives when he can. My second time to skydive was when he graduated from West Point. He jumped right before I made the tandem jump and we have a cool DVD of the jump. I visited him a couple of weeks ago in North Carolina and we went to the wind tunnel. He has a membership and goes almost daily. He also skydives almost daily. I got to go in the tunnel and loved it. It's probably a good thing that there are no wind tunnels near here. I don't know if I could afford it. Both of my sons like to go to paintball with me. And they are brutal. A friend of my youngest told me that I was lucky to be his mom because he wouldn't try to kill me. Ha! I'm the first one he shoots. And honestly, if he wasn't such a quick kid, I would have taken him out! I'm not sure what "normal" moms do with their kids, but I wouldn't change the things I do with mine. I may be "vieja" (the little brat's word for me), but I have fun. And so do they.

Birthday surprise

Man, it's hard to believe that I've hit the big 5-0. I don't feel like it. After having a pretty good day, my son asked me if I would watch the girls because his wife wanted him to go to her NA meeting with her. I had already gotten them to bed when I received a text message saying to not put them to bed because my son was going to call me and have me bring the girls to meet them for a birthday surprise. He said it would be worth keeping them up. So...I got to wake them up. But, it was worth it. We met at Daybreak coffee and my son and DIL walk up with a young man that I didn't recognize. The young man was my nephew!!! I haven't seen him in at least 8 - 10 years. My nephew had gotten caught up in some things he shouldn't have and spent some time in prison. He was at the NA meeting and my son just happened to see him walk by. I saw my niece a couple of days before (she and her husband and baby stopped by on the way from their home in Tennesee to Phoenix.) She told me then that she didn't know where my nephew was or if he was even alive. My nephew has been in Lubbock for 5 years. He's at a half way house and is working. He saw me on TV for one of our adoption clips and said he thought it was cool. After I gently got on to him for not getting in touch with me, we had a great visit. He's in town and I plan on seeing quite a bit of him. He needs family support. He's had a hard few years, but he's a better guy than he was. This was the best birthday surprise I could have gotten.

Saturday

I have been so tired all week. But I finally got to sleep late Saturday and ended up having a fun day. After I finally dragged myself out of bed, I went to lunch at Beef O'Brady's with the family and a friend. After lunch, (Dharma and I shared a sliders basket) we strolled down to Cato's and I bought two shirts and a dress. Then we moseyed over to Everything's a Dollar and I spent a little bit more. Ahh well. It was time to get Dharma home for her nap. While she was napping, Lauren talked me into playing dress up. Wow, that's something I didn't expect to be doing as an adult. We pulled out dresses that I haven't worn in a very long time, including a couple of formals. Thanks to the weight loss I have had, the dresses fit me! Woo woo as my good friend, sista, says. Lauren loved my formals and my "little black dress" that all women have to have. She tried on several and we had a blast. Saturdays can be so much fun.