“Where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.  You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same.  You wanna be where everybody knows your name.” – Lyrics from the TV show Cheers

Reilly and I have been to the ER so often lately they practically yell Norm when we walk in the door. This is our third time in a year:  broken hand in May, tip of his toe chopped off in July (see a few posts below) and now a broken wrist in March.  Here we are again…on a Friday night after I got a phone call from Reilly that his arm “kinda hurt.”  That is teenage code for dust off the Kaiser card something is broke.  In our case it is my wallet and Reilly’s wrist after he “dropped in” on his Razor scooter at the local skate park and his wrist didn’t drop up.  Reilly’s wrist was broken, but I thought I might have to have the doctors check his hearing as well.

Me:  “Sooo what happened to all the pads we got you for when you ride?”

Reilly: “Huh?”

Me:  “The pads…protective gear…wrist guards?”

Reilly:  “What?”

Me:  “The pads…protective gear…wrist guards you promised you would wear when you scootered at the skate park.”

Reilly:  “Oh yeah, those are at home in the closet.”

Me:  “Why are they in the closet and not on your body?”

Reilly:  “What…Why?”

Me:  “Nothing.  On the way home let’s stop and get pizza and a movie.”

Reilly:  “AWESOME!”

Meggan: ” AH-HA you can hear me…you are just choosing not to listen.”

Reilly:  “HUH?”

I have been reminded as of late that family takes on all shapes and sizes. In a global society we truly are one people full of seven degrees of separation, (often less) and many many Kevin Bacon moments.

All this has brought back in to focus for me the term family. Whether it be “traditional”, friends as close as family or the family we all create for ourselves and find on our journey in life there is no “correct” answer. I am reminded of my own blended family, whom I cherish, and it got me reminisicing about my wedding day. The following is my wedding short “film” from almost five years ago. The fillmaker I hired REFUSED to let his work be called a wedding video. I look back and watch and smile,  I was becoming a new Wife and Stepmom determined to do the right thing and so very nervous.  My husband’s name is Ettore Ravazzolo. People hear his first name and think it is his last, so I tease that I became Mrs. Ettore.

The day was Sactown HOT at 112 degrees and only Ettore can pull off a seafood bar in 110 degree heat. I really wanted to combine American culture with Ettore’s Swiss background, look for the HUGE wheel of Swiss Cheese that took three people to carry, the yodeler for the Swiss influence and then me rocking the mic later in the video to Tina Turner.

It was a great day despite Ettore and I being deathly ill and me having a stress attack and mis-placing the wedding rings one hour before the ceremony…”Oh my God, need to calm down…I need to seriously CHILL OUT…I lost the rings…I lost the rings.” An eternal nod of gratitude to my friend Kristy Osborne for not only telling me to chill out, but she also found my rings and did my hair. Thanks sista’.

We’ve all come a long way baby. Here’s is to family!

“YES, it is raining today!  I feel like I can finally breathe.  Sunshine tears!”

My husband Ettore  thinks I am weird…I think  Summer is God’s little clue of what hell would be like.

It is especially weird to Ettore as I have  lived in California all my life, eight of those years being in San Diego and Los Angeles on the beach.  I felt I was doing winter missionary work spreading the gospel among the sunshine natives about the benefits and virtues of cloudy and cold living.

Cut to today when I let it slip that it was cold and I was “over it!” 

GASP!

Bitch put on a coat and clam it up.  I hate to complain, especially about the weather, but there I was doing just that.   That is when I needed to remind myself of the alternative…the sunny day at the beach.  UGH!  These photos were from this last summer…

Oh happy days...

I really did  try to be light and airy and summery, but…well…not so much.  Maybe it was the hat…too dramatic?    I had an old theater professor who used to say I dressed “emotionally.”  Regardless of my perma frown…we  took Lucas to the local de-commissioned nuclear power plant watering hole (Rancho Seco) for family fun and frivolity and while Lucas had an absolute  blast to me everything was just so sticky…and hot…and well…sticky.

"Daddy who's that scary witch?" "Hush son, that's no witch...that's your Mother."

Being the Mother and Stepmom to three boys you have to like the beach and go to the beach or the lake or the river.  It is written in the contract.  Active sons and stepsons have no interest in sitting around in the rain watching you look mysterious in big black sunglasses, drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and journal.

You got to leave all that in your 20’s, slap on the SPF 1,000 and head into the great sunny outdoors.  That is exactly what I do in my long black beach summer dress that Ettore asks if there is a funeral at the beach.

Yes, just one.

Mine.

Merry Christmas

My 2 1/2 year old son and I don’t seem to be agreeing on much these days.  I think he should pee in the potty, he thinks he should pee in the produce section at Whole Foods.  I think night time is for sleeping, he thinks night time is for yelling “MAMA” 50,000 times while trying to pry my eyelids open so I can watch him jump on the couch.  I think food is for eating, and…well…he thinks food is for decorative wall art.

THANK GOD FOR SESAME STREET!  WE BOTH AGREE SESAME STREET ROCKS!

Case in point, the video above.  Grover parodies the now famous Old Spice commercial “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.”  Old Spice has always smelled like Grandpa to me, but apparently there is a new Old Spice man in town.   The Sesame Street version is hysterical, adorable, and right on the pop culture money. 

Just in case you haven’t seen the Old Spice original, see below.  Put the kids to bed, turn on the TV for your Man, pour yourself a good glass of wine and watch dee-lish actor Isaiah Mustafa.   

Your welcome.

P.S. As I am typing this…I’m on a horse.

I swear to God this thing was 8 feet long.  The computer screen make it look MUCH SMALLER.  I would never scream like that over a little lizard.

Harrison:  “I don’t mean to be mean…but does Caillou have Leukamia?”

Family vacation to the beach with three boys…good Mom…

Leaving keys on the hood of the keyless entry car and driving off down the freeway and having your keys fall off the hood of your car in the middle of I-5 forcing you to pull over while your children pour out of the car onto the busy  shoulder while your stepson documents the whole thing with his new camera he got for his birthday while you scream, “GET YOUR ASSSSSSSS BACK IN THE CAR!”…not so Good Mom.

Hour 5 of vacation.

Reilly's toe, after he dropped a brick on it

Life with boys.   This is the summer of the emergency room for Reilly and of gray hairs for me.   Reilly broke his hand in the beginning of the summer, and he just smashed the tip of his toe.  Being 13 year old boy can be dangerous to your health.

SOOO, what happened?  Reilly dropped a brick on his toe and chopped the top part of his toe nearly off and the doctors had to stitch it back on.  How did this happen?  My thoughts exactly, however the answer was anything but exact.

Me:  “What happened?”

Reilly:  “Ok, let me just say there were scissors near a brick”…

Me:  “and”…

Reilly: ”and…ok…and…there were these scissors and this brick.”

Me:  “AND”…

Reilly: ”ok…and…well…I had the scissors…and I know you aren’t supposed to play with scissors”…

Me:  ”uh-huh…keep going…and”…

Reilly:   “and so I put the scissors down near this brick.”

Me:  “ANDDDD”…

Reilly: ” Right…and I put the scissors down and then I picked up this brick that was near the scissors”…

Me:   “ANNNNNDDDDDD”…

Reilly:   “and then I accidentally dropped the brick and it landed on my toe and squashed my toe and blood squirted everywhere and I looked down and my toe was hanging in two.”

Me:  “Why did you have a brick and scissors?”

Reilly:  “To throw them in the pool. (duh)  Why are you just staring at me?”

Me:  “Just quietly crying inside for a second.”

Reilly:  ”Oh, and I might not have a toenail on that toe ever again and  if it does grow back most likely it will grow back sideways and deformed or all ridgy and gross for the rest of my life.  Don’t worry though, the doctor says I will still be healed in time to ride ALL the roller coasters when we go to Magic Mountain.   WOOO-HOOO!!!

Me:  “Well, as long as you can still ride all the roller coasters at Magic Mountain.  That’s what’s important.”

Reilly:  “Totally, that’s what I said.”

"I'll wait for you on the other side!"

A tractor, Lucas’ first true love.   T.L.A.   That’s 80’s high school speak for true…love…always.  Don’t believe me…get out your high school binders from the back of the closet.  T.L.A. will be scribbled somewhere in there followed by the name Matt, U2, and a hand drawn picture of a dolphin you were going to have tattooed on your ankle just in time for prom…not that I would know anything about that.