Wednesday, April 21, 2010

"Love You Forever" at a Man's Point of View


Many of us, especially mothers, have read this children's book. It's a heartwarming story about a mother's unconditional love for her son. It follows their relationship from birth until he is a grown man. Each page ends with the mom taking her baby, little boy, teenager, and then grown man into her lap as she sings,

“I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.”

My sister bought me this book when I had my first baby and she told me that it was one of her very favorites. I have to admit that the first time I read the book I choked up. It was so beautiful!

My best friend and her little boy are very close. He's her only child and he adores her. Her sisters have teased her that she won't let go of him when he gets older. I told her she was like the mom from this book and I was surprised when I learned that she'd never read it so I bought her a copy.

This past weekend we were sitting out in our back yard with drinks and watching the children play. We made a joke and a reference to the book and my husband had no idea what we were talking about. I was surprised that he never heard me read the story to the children. I told him the story and when I got to the part about the man being grown and the mom driving across town with a ladder on her car he had a repulsed look on his face.

"That is just gross!" he declared.

My friend and I looked at each other and we just laughed. We never once thought of the story as creepy or weird. In fact, I found it very touching. It was just hilarious that a man wouldn't see it the same way. Then I realized that it really makes perfect sense. We are so very different that a man wouldn't see it as a warm and fuzzy book like we did. Women are mothers and are nurturing. Men are not naturally nurturing and motherly.

It also reminds me of the first time my children saw "The Little Princess." (Spoiler alert if you haven't seen this ancient movie.) When it got to the end when the little girl sees her father and he's all blind and has amnesia, she's crying and asking him to remember her. My daughter busted out into tears and loud sobs at that part and my son just looked at her perplexed. He couldn't even watch the movie because he didn't know what had happened to her and he just kept staring at her wide eyed. I was even shocked at her reaction. I didn't expect it to touch her that way. It was the first time she had ever cried watching a movie.

My husband and I laughed so hard later when we I told him about it. My husband said, "You just witnessed 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' right in front of you."

Well that "Love You Forever" story was our "Little Princess" moment, that's for sure.

If you've never read the book you can read it here. http://www.rogerknapp.com/inspire/loveforever.htm

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Case of the Lost Remote

Comcast Remote

My husband was gone to work to the Dallas/Ft Worth area for a week and in that entire week the remote control to the cable was lost. What kind of crazy irony is that?

First of all let me explain, we are not a three TV household. We have two TVs and the cable is only connected to one. The other one is connected to the wii, so no shows there. The living room TV is connected to the Xbox. So the living room TV is usually used for either watching cartoons or playing Xbox. Once a week or so Rey and I will watch a TV show or a movie together. Since I'm not a big TV person it doesn't really bother me that I don't watch TV. I always have a lot of other things to do besides watching television.

However, the week that my husband was going to be out of town for the entire week I would have liked to be able to watch all the On Demand that I wanted. I could have watched movies, shows, etc. while folding clothes. Imagine my frustration and disbelief when the weekend before my husband left we could not find the remote anywhere. We all looked for it and we could not find it. My husband and son did a thorough search for it but didn't come up with anything.

So my husband left on Monday morning on his business trip and I was left remote-less. I did another search myself and came up empty handed.

When my husband came back on Friday he took the sofa, turned it on its side and shook it. Out popped the remote, along with a bunch of other odds and ends, toys, old wrappers, etc.. I missed out on free television and he gets back on Friday and finds the lost remote that we were sitting on the whole week. How hilarious and how typical of my life.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Art, Shoes and What Not

"El Remendado" by Lizbeth Ortiz

Black Slingbacks by 9 West

Faux Snakeskin by Torrid

Saturday we went by the Houston Institute for Culture for an art show. I got away with a steal! I bought this beautiful "mended heart" by my friend and Latin Grammy artist, Lizbeth Ortiz. Beautiful! 

Also Saturday I went shoe shopping and found a nice conservative 9 West slingback and a crazy faux snakeskin pair to replace a lost pair. See the whole story over on Hips 'n Salsa. Rey isn't too crazy about these shoes. I told him, "But they are just like my other pair that was lost. Do you mean you didn't like that pair either?"  No comment. I guess he didn't.

In addition to all this art and shoe shopping I got some writing done and I took the kids to Build a Bear on Saturday. So I had a very busy weekend, despite the neck pain thing still going on. I can't believe that is still hurting, but thank goodness it is slowly going away. I think I just need a massage!

I haven't talked about my daughter and what predicament I got myself into. My nine year old daughter is in cheerleading! Yes, cheerleading. It all came about because there wasn't a beginning gymnastics class that fit our schedule and she has two school friends in the same cheerleading class. I figured it was great for exercise and for her self esteem. (not that she has low self esteem, just to help make it even better) Well, to my surprise for the next three weeks she has an additional practice day and she performs in Galveston on April 24. Lovely. So now my month is even busier and my life is even crazier.

On a good note, I can work out at my gym down the street on those days she has an extra class. I need to exercise more, but that's a subject for my other blog.

I'm excited for my friend Tony Diaz who has launched a new Latino magazine, Aztec Muse. His launch party is Thursday and I wish I could be there, but it's still tentative.

In addition to that news there is a new initiative to integrate Mexican American literature into the schools. It is developed by the Centro Victoria at the University of Houston- Victoria. There is a free interactive workshop for Houston area teachers this Saturday at HCC, 1300 Holman, Learning Hub 100.  UH Victoria just announced the appointment of Macarena Hernandez as Endowment Professor of Humanities and Dagoberto Gilb, Writer in Residence and Professor of Latino Studies.  Awesome step for Latino literature!

Thursday, April 01, 2010

ShoeMobile, I'm Getting Old & Other Awesome Observations in My Life


I saw this ShoeMobile on 290 today on my way to lunch and it reminded me of ShoeGirl Corner. How cool would a ShoeMobile be? Remember the BookMobile when we were in elementary school? Did anyone else have the BookMobile from the Houston Public Library come by to visit their school? Well imagine a ShoeMobile coming by your job with all kinds of shoes for sale? Wouldn't that be just wonderful?

I've decided to update my profile picture everywhere before someone starts blogging about that. When he told me that he was starting a blog that was one of the first things that I told him.

I said, "I hope you aren't going to blog about how my profile picture is six years old." 

He was quiet for a second and then he said, "Do you have a list of my topic ideas?"

So today I've decided to change out the picture. I don't LOVE the new picture, but it's an update and the big sunglasses hide the bags around my eyes. Looking at new pictures of me and my old profile picture made me realize how much I have aged in just six years. It's amazing how much my face has changed between 34 and 40. But I have to be honest and as much as I wish my face still looked as fresh as it does in my old picture, only eight weeks after giving birth to my son, I don't look that way anymore. Let's face it. I'm 40 and I'm older.

Another little note. I had my first mammogram today and yes it hurt. The first picture wasn't so bad because I placed my boob on a little platform. What hurt more was having to turn my head and having to press it against the machine, because of the crick in my neck. The second sideways photo is the one that hurt a lot. I have very big boobs so the poor little woman had to push and tug to put the whole thing in there at the right angle. Pain. When she was finished I went back to the dressing room and I was all red on my neck, my upper arms, my chest and my boobs. That second one hurt both my boobs and my neck because it's so stiff.

The mammogram was another brutal reminder that I'm getting older. Old face, old boobs. After my mammogram I remembered that my assistant was going to take another close up picture of my face because I've been using a new night cream for my face. We want to track how well the cream is working. Well so far the cream is not working that well. Looking at those close-up pictures of my face was depressing.

So there you go. Not much has changed in my life. I still lust after shoes, I'm getting older and my boobs are too. More soon!