September 25, 2006 at 4:28pm
Today Shelby was doing her homework. I was supposedly helping her.
But she pulled out her math homework and asked me a question.
I didn’t know the answer. Not only did I not know the answer, I had NO IDEA what the answer could be…it didn’t even sound a bit familiar. She pulled out a little glossary thing she had so I could read about it, but still…no idea. I had to end up telling her she was on her own with this one.
She’s in fourth grade! I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to experience this until at least 7th… 
It feels pretty pathetic. I guess this is the point where they start taking on the teenage attitude where they think they know more than you. Because, apparently, in some cases, they do.
September 20, 2006 at 2:56pm
I go into Kohl’s to exchange a pair of shoes.
I end up spending $107.
And walk out with the same pair of shoes, decided the size I had was correct.
What was the use of that?!
(though I did end up with some cute stuff anyway…)
Same thing happens at Target.
September 16, 2006 at 8:50pm
Decided that rather than let a perfectly good Saturday go to waste while Dave did projects around the house, the kids and I (along with Jami and Trenton- did I mention my brother and sister-in-law and their adorable little baby moved out here and that I’m over the moon happy and enjoying them so much?) decided to go to a dog show. No reason, really, except that it sounded interesting. And interesting it was.
I was cracking up at all of it. The people that look like their dogs. There were lots. And the attitudes. The show dogs. The agility dogs. And everything in between. Lots and lots of people are really REALLY into their dogs. The dogs with nail polish and hairspray and straightening irons cracked me up. The owners, so serious, the tension in the air. Funny. I just think it’s cool that there is something for everyone. Any interest you have, most likely, you can find other people to enjoy it with (unless maybe mass murder…I like to think there aren’t many people into that little hobby). And even if you don’t enjoy other people, you can use your dog as a bridge to do it for you. Pretend it’s all about the dog, when it’s really all about you.
Why I felt the need to come say this while I don’t bother writing about plenty of other worthy, important things, I don’t know. But I’m still chuckling to myself at all the stuff we saw at the dog show.
September 5, 2006 at 9:42am
Not about the school starting, but about being ready. Took them to school a couple hours ago, and am now finding myself pretty bummed. I’m tempted to do nothing and spend my time wandering aimlessly around the internet. I’m supposed to run for 45 minutes today and can’t even make myself change my clothes. I’m going to do it, because I’ll be disappointed in myself if I don’t, but I just thought I’d first mention that I’m surprisingly bummed on this first day of school. I’ll be ok…I thought it would at least take a couple days before I started missing them, though!
September 4, 2006 at 8:36pm
September 1, 2006 at 5:50pm
A couple weeks ago, sitting on the shore at Lake Tahoe, my friend Kari was deciding whether or not to go for an open water swim in the lake (in preparation of the triathalon I’d talked her into and then spent the rest of my time making excuses for why I couldn’t do the workouts). I’d said I might do it too, but knew in my heart of hearts that after saying that, I’d find some excuse, any excuse, to keep me from doing it. The water was COLD!!!
So as she sat there, preparing herself mentally, I asked her if she was going to go. Her response was:
"Yeah…I’ll be disappointed in myself if I don’t."
I’ve thought a lot about that statement in the last couple weeks. I think that is the COOLEST motivation for doing something. Most of the time, the first person I’ll disappoint is myself. In fact, I’ll please someone else at the cost of disappointing myself sometimes. And the fact is, the person that I was working around probably didn’t care that much one way or the other, but then I spent time feeling bad about myself for whatever reason. That is so respectful of yourself to do things for yourself. To keep yourself feeling happy with yourself and proud of yourself. I’ve totally adopted that thinking.
Inspired, I went for the swim in the freezing, frigid water. I almost drowned at first (an exaggeration) because it took my breath away, but managed to live through it.
And then I came home and put away my excuses and have been training hard for this triathalon. I think I can do it. Because I would be disappointed in myself if I didn’t.
And giving myself that respect has made me really happy with myself. It’s so cool because there’s not just the benefit of not feeling bad about yourself, but usually and additional bonus of feeling really good about yourself on top of that.
The whole thing is just super cool. It’s simple, really…I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before. But thanks to that one comment that hit me like a ton of bricks, I’m thinking about it now.
Thanks, KP.
by Shannon Montez
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