he's leaving on a jet plane...

I put my baby on a plane headed north this morning. I also just bit my tongue, as it was implanted securely in my cheek while I used the word "baby". He's been taller than me for over a year now, shaves on a regular basis and is getting smarter every day. It won't be long before I lose my ability to amaze him with useless knowledge.

I've been making this same trip for years now. After packing every piece of clothing my son can call his own into two wheeled-duffel bags bedecked in "Champion" logos, we head to Jacksonville International Airport, search desperately for a parking spot that is not closer to DAYTONA International Airport (and those little red light/green light things above the parking spaces ALWAYS make a fool of me... there are either empty spaces that have the red light illuminated, or a series of spaces showing green that are actually occupied. It's a conspiracy, I'm convinced. Parking spaces and the moon landing. Remain vigilant!), and then race to the Delta/Continental/JetBlue counter only to wait and wait for someone to help us check in. Here's where today was different, though...

My son is no longer considered an "unaccompanied minor". Not by JetBlue, at least. This left me with mixed feelings... there was no $50 Unaccompanied Minor fee to pay (yay!). My little boy is growing up (boo!). You would think that meant it was easier for me to see him off this time, right? Wrong. I still bawled like a little girl. I did, however, manage to delay my tears until he was safely out of sight and onboard. He may be getting older, but he still shouldn't see his momma cry. (Seriously, do you EVER get old enough to see your mom cry without it having an effect on you? If the answer is "yes", it has to be WAY past 35, because I can't stand to watch my mother even tear up!)

Anywho... he's gone. Collin won't be back until the 7th of August. Some days that will seem like an eternity... others it will seem like forever. The good news is I know he will have a great time while he's up there. The better news is I know he's already looking forward to coming home.

eight years and yesterday...

Dad...

It seems hard to believe it's been eight years since you had to leave us. I still struggle with your absence. I hate that sometimes I can't remember the sound of your voice. As the years pass, and old age sets in (!), I begin to realize more and more what an incredible human being you were--no, are. Your patience rivaled Job's... your tolerance set a new standard... your love of all humanity was an inspiration. I don't ever recall you "hating" any one, or any thing. Thank you for the examples you set for me. Thank you for helping to make me the person I am. Thank you for loving me enough to keep me on the right path. Thank you for being such an important part of Collin's life. And thank you most of all for still being a part of our lives. We may not speak of you every day, but you are always in our hearts. Sleep sweet and rest with God until we see you again.

I love you always...
Nina

spreading my wings...

So I've decided to spread my blogging wings and begin posting on a "grown up" blog. I started on Yahoo 360 because... well... because I do everything on Yahoo. Why, you may ask? Good question. I don't know either.

Anywho, it made it hard to have a blog there that could even begin to keep up with the fancy ones I would drool over on typepad.com and blogger.com. Just check out some of my "blogs of note", and you'll see what I mean. It wasn't until I started playing around here on blogger that I realized my friends have cooler blogs because they're more talented than me. They're all manipulating html code and doing fancy stuff in Photoshop. Show offs.

If you're familiar at all with the site templates available on blogger, you should be able to tell that I've managed to change a few things. Please rest assured that I didn't waste hours of my time investigating how to make these little changes. It took days.

I can't let myself want to know more about html for one reason. If I were to give in to this particular quest for knowledge, a floodgate would surge open. How do I know this? Another good question. (And I actually have an answer this time.) Because I can't know "just a little bit" about something. If I were to decide I needed to learn some basic html coding, I would have to immediately start work on obtaining a Super Ninja Webmaster Extraordinaire Certification.

Does this mean I'm a know-it-all? On the contrary. Three or four weeks into my SNWEC studies, I would lose all interest, declare this pursuit moronic, inquire endlessly as to what I thought I was doing, and move on to the next thing that blows my skirt up. Thanks to the internet, my next all-consuming hobby is just a click away. I do have to be careful where I "travel" though. Accidentally wander into the freak-a-deak cooridor of the World Wide Web, and the next thing you know... OK. Let's not even go there.

I don't know why... I've just always been this way. If I were in public school today, I'm sure someone would have long ago diagnosed me with ADD and started shoving Ritalin down my throat. I don't think that's it, though. There's just so much cool stuff going on out there. How can I possibly be expected to settle down with just one or two interests? I have made an artform of being a Jill-of-All-Trades-Master-of-None.

Have I mentioned yet how much my husband adores this little trait of mine? Just in case the incredibly sarcastic tone you should have read the word "adores" with eluded you, know that he truly finds me maddening at times. OK. Most of the time. Fortunately I have LOTS of witnesses who can attest to the fact that he promised to love me in sickness and health... for richer or poorer. In our case, the "poorer" commitment is the relevant vow.

Do you have any idea how much a new hobby can cost? Unfortunately, this is yet another question I actually have an answer for. Or rather, our Quicken program has an answer for. Which leads me to my next supposition. Quicken is straight from the devil. (See? Told you I could change focus faster than a fat lady can make her way through a buffet.)

Do you know that when you use Quicken, you can make your own "Expense" categories? Each and every purchase made around here gets entered into the Quicken software. Want to know what unGodly amount of money we spent on dining out last month? It's there. In pie chart form, even. Hey... how much have we spent at Target the past year? Yep. It's there in glorious red and white, too. Curious as to how much Christina has spent in PayPal transactions on the flavor-of-the-week? You guessed it. Available at the click of a mouse. TOTALLY unfair.

What it really comes down to is this: I'm trying to run with the big dogs but stay married to my number one dog. So forgive me if there aren't all kinds of cool bells and whistles here. I don't have the money or the time to MASTER anything else. What you will find, is me. Sometimes we'll laugh, others we'll probably cry. But it will always be worth the ride. That much I know.