Nursing. How long is too long?

Oh, I'm so grossed out! I believe in nursing but only to age 1. I didn't get to nurse my daughter that long - not even to 6 months but I couldn't stand seeing my brother nurse when he was 2 years old. Old enough to ask specifically to nurse is TOO OLD. That's my opinion. What's yours?

Video

UPDATE!!!
Go HERE to view the video. You can still view the story or see pics of Marissa and her colorguard stuff in previous posts. Also - you may have missed the Georgia post. I didn't know that when you saved as a draft the date would remain and fall into order upon finally posting.

Check out the video of Marissa's field show.

TAG!

20 Years Ago. . .
1. I was a member of the last 8th-grade graduating class at Prunedale Elementary School.
2. I started high school.
3. I was on the color guard team and dance class (thanks to Kim).
4. I was 14 years old.


10 Years Ago...
1. I was a mom of a beautiful, happy 2-year old.
2. I worked for NameSecure.com, Inc.
3. I bought my first new car - a Neon.
4. I lived in Concord, CA!


5 Years Ago...
1. I moved from Colorado to Oklahoma (big mistake!)
2. I moved from Oklahoma back to California.
3. I lived with my cousin Karen for 6 weeks (so much fun!)
4. I worked for PeopleSoft.com, Inc (before they sold to Oracle).


3 Years Ago...
1. I was going through an emotional roller coaster.
2. My daughter was in her 2nd year of Blue Devils Colorguard.
3. I reunited with David.
4. I got engaged...


1 Year Ago...
1. I finally got a job here in North Carolina!
2. I enrolled Marissa into private school.
3. Went to Disney World for the first time!
4. Reverted back to "single mom" mode as I went through my first deployment as a soldier's wife.


So far this year I...
1. became a member of the Disney Vacation Club (been to Disney over 7 times since 2003)!
2. got a new minivan - Yippee - freedom from the Beast (big truck).
3. started completing home renovation projects - so pretty!
4. made a goal to lose significant weight for upcoming cruise (yes, Disney!).


Yesterday I...
1. went to church.
2. went to outlets and got to spend some money!
3. stayed up late.
4. watched most of the MTV Music Video Awards (not so great).


Today I...
1. woke up and made it to work.
2. took Marissa to school.
3. paid first car payment.
4. will be making home-made tacos for dinner (yum!).


Tomorrow I will...
1. go to work again.
2. go to the gym.
3. book an appointment for getting US Passports for cruise.
4. start making a christmas gift buying list.


In the next year I will....
1. renovate the kitchen (new counter tops!).
2. get hard-wood flooring installed for living room, kitchen and hallway.
3. reach weight goal to either 140 pounds or a size 8/10.
4. possibly move to Colorado?


I tag Stacie, Jennifer... whomever wants to answer via email or myspace.

Atlanta, Georgia - Peachy keen!

For Labor Day weekend we wanted to get out of town and do something fun. Living on the East Coast, I wanted to venture beyond Fayetteville. After some thought and many different ideas of how to spend our 3 days off from work and school... we came up with a trip full of activities to do in and around the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

First we went to the Georgia Aquarium:

Then we went to the World of Coca-Cola:



On Sunday we played all day at Six Flags Over Georgia:




We rounded off the evening at the park playing in their water slide area. It was a lot of fun and much needed cooling off as the temperature was hot and steamy. On Monday we took a trip back to downtown Atlanta and visited the Ritz Carlton hotel (all I can say is WOW) and then we had a snack at the Hard Rock Cafe and visited the original streets of downtown Atlanta in a place now known as the Underground (they've turned it into a shopping area but you are under the streets of downtown and walking on the original brick streets from over 100 years ago!


After our dawdling in the city we headed over to Stone Mountain for a trip back in time... back to the days of country life. We made wax candles, watched a demo on blacksmithing and glassblowing and munched on some old tyme candy. Here's a pic of the etching in the side of the STONE mountain - picture is of General Lee and companions - known as the Mt Rushmore of the South:

First Field Show...

Marissa (12 years, 7th grade) performed at her first field show for the Varsity team on August 29, 2008. Her school decided to create a colorguard team in the Spring and tryouts were held before the school year ended. Marissa is in the back, but appears as the flag girl on the right side of the screen/video for most of the recording. They aren't doing tosses yet as most of the girls are in the 6th grade and have never spun a flag before.

However - along with her first field show, the uniforms were pinned in place - they were too big for almost all the girls - and it had been raining a good storm just 40 minutes prior to the halftime show. We waited for a 60-minute delay for the game to start and left promptly after halftime as it was already 11:00pm and we were due to leave for Atlanta, GA early the next morning. I'm hoping the field shows get better but I'm thinking they need more teammates! They are being taught by a dance choreographer that knows little to nothing of colorguard (I wonder if I could get in on the teaching??) and the band teacher is actually one of the percussionists on the field!!! Marissa mentioned something about someone missing so maybe that's why the teacher was on the field.

Marissa is used to performing on a colorguard team as she had been on a Winterguard team for 3 years previously with the Concord Blue Devils ('A' Guard) from 2003-2006 (age 7-10 years) and performed with a much larger team against high school and college level teams and venues. Each year she attended the Regionals down in Southern California at either Riverside or San Bernadino college campuses. Winterguard is different in that she performed in the school gymnasiums to pre-recorded music. You didn't have to worry about the outdoor elements or the music being off, etc. Her picture below is of her first year in Winterguard at age 7.

Oh well, at least I know that Marissa will be going to public high school so that if we don't move and cannot get her on another independent team, she'll have a larger high school team to join up with. For the time being, this will keep her somewhat "warmed up".

Wacky Weather Weekends

Well it appears that a Hurricane is comin'. Either way the path leads her, we'll be getting some windy weather and lots of rain. If Hanna comes in on a more southernly route, hitting land on the coast of South Carolina, then we could see some tornadoes poppin' up around our areas. We are about an hour or so inland from Myrtle Beach, SC or Wrightsville Beach, NC (keep your peepers peering when listing to the news - if those cities are sited as landing spots for the 'cane, we'll surely feel it!!).

We had some tornadoes last week in our county and the surrounding counties compliments of Hurricane Fay. Well... her rain and wind bands stretched out around the country and landed us some warnings and watches (warnings mean that they were seen/felt and watches are "good" conditions for whatever you are watching for). The closest tornado we had last week was about 30 miles away. I was at work looking out at the rain and lightning storm while Marissa was following directions whilst covering her ears from the sirens at her school.

We spent the 3-day holiday weekend down in Atlanta, Georgia (more on that later, with pics!) and we saw the news of Gustav hitting down in Louisiana. We might get some of the weather as well.

I work on base at Fort Bragg and they are loading many FEMA trailers on site today and tomorrow in preparation for Government assistance along the coast lines. We are the point-of-contact for the southern coast in natural disasters and calls of emergency. This leads me to believe that we will definitely be seeing some nasty weather approaching. If not Hanna, then Ike is predicted to come our way...

Burnin' down the house!

Oops! Marissa asked if she could have ramen for dinner and I finally said yes (she's been wanting ramen since she got back from her dad's two weeks ago!). Anyway, I went on to the bedroom to play on the computer leaving her to cook her ramen. Tonight is a fend-for-yourself night. She's cooked ramen plenty of times before... suddenly I smell something weird. I'm thinking it's all in my head. Then I continue to smell it and it seems a bit stronger. I'm thinking that it could be the neighbors trying to bbq or something. I go to check it out - making my way to the front door.

As soon as I open my bedroom door, I'm smacked by the burning smell and gray smoke filling the house. I called for Marissa because I didn't see her and didn't hear her. She came walking out of the kitchen with swim goggles on her face! Why wasn't the smoke detector screaming in our ears!?! Not to worry at this point... I hurry into the kitchen to see what's going on as Marissa explains that she forgot to put water in the ramen before cooking it. I'm like, "what?", how do you forget to put ramen in the bowl?

Well, upon seeing what was in the microwave, I figured it out. She made the cup-o-noodles that I have for work or after-school snacks. Oy. It's burned black and only about 2 inches tall. The microwave is all orange and fumes are choking me. This is all happening in seconds of time. I tell Marissa to go outside as I'm running for the door because I can't breathe! I told her to stand there and fan the door while I go back into the house to open windows and try to clean up/rid the mess.

It took me 40 minutes to clean up what had baked, melted and fumigated the microwave. It's been 3 hours since then and I can still smell the light fragrance of Eau de Toxic Styrofoam! Um, word to the wise - styrofoam should not be microwaved. Boiling water may be added to the cup but you should NOT heat in a microwave as it cooks from the inside out. However, the paper liner/lid was fine if only slightly discolored. Lol.