This Stuff Makes Me Feel Smurfy

One of the things that makes me superhappy (especially the older I get) is nostalgia. For me, that is just about everything 80's. Not only does it bring back tons of memories, but it almost makes me feel like a kid again...even if it's only for a short time. Everything from movies to tv shows to music, toys, pop culture, and even certain fashions makes its way into our house. Much to Bryan's chagrin. He hates the 80's, even though he's a child of the decade himself. It's one of the biggest downfalls in our marriage. But alas, I digress.

How can you not get excited when you see that Back to the Future is the Saturday afternoon movie on tv? Did you NOT want to be Molly Ringwald all throughout the Brat Pack years? I guess if you are a dude though you wanted to be more like Jake Ryan, huh? Recently I watched Teenwolf on Netflix, and oh my...I forgot how in love with Michael J Fox I was. Also? I totally wanna bring back the nickname 'Styles'. Harry and the Hendersons, Can't Buy Me Love (I was in love with Patrick Dempsey LONG before he was McDreamy), and cheesy horror flicks, I love them all.

Back in the 80's, Bon Jovi was cool. Livin on a Prayer? Dead or Alive? Yes please! I still sing into my hairbrush to these songs. Don't even get me started on Michael Jackson!! Billie Jean, Thriller, Bad...I still dance to them. Huey Lewis? Cyndi Lauper? The Bangles? THE BEACH BOYS?!?!?! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy new music very much, but the old stuff...it was just simple and good. It was all about the music. There wasn't all of this studio editing going on. Ok maybe there was a little of that, but not like now.

I'm going to be a kid for a second and talk about, wait for it, SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS. How I long for the Smurfs and Rainbow Bright! Pee Wee Herman, Scooby Doo, Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, Flintstone Kids and Looney Tunes. I can still sing the theme songs, and I have a bunch of it on DVD. I like to sit indian style on the floor right in front of the tv with a big bowl of Fruit Loops or Fruity Pebbles and pop the dvd's in. Or better yet? I want to upgrade our cable package so we can get Boomerang...that channel plays all the good stuff. Alvin and the Chipmunks, Ghostbusters...Oh man. I get so sad when I watch Saturday morning programming with Kennedy. It's so lame now.

Prime Time television was great in the 80's and 90's. There were shows that I could watch with my parents and they weren't afraid of what I would see or hear. The king of Late Night, Johnny Carson, may he rest in peace, will always make me remember our brown plaid loveseat and popcorn. The Golden Girls was also a favorite. I totes have season 1 on dvd. I'm trying to get ahold of season 2 currently. The A Team was amazing, even though they had horrible aim. They always shot the dirt. Chips, Dukes of Hazzard and Hawaii Five-0 were also good. Silver Spoons, Family Ties, Growing Pains? Good family entertainment, for sure.

I could really go on and on about this. I even have in my mind certain commercials, toys and fashions that I loved, but this post would seriously be forever long if I went into all of that. The 80's were such a simpler time. I loved my childhood decade. Sometimes I'm even a little homesick for it. But until a time machine is invented, at least I have all these things to take me back.

My Momma

My mom is a very special person to me. Lots of people say that about their moms, I know, but really, she is one of my closest friends. You see...my mom got to CHOOSE me. Being a mom myself, I know that you can't choose your family...especially your kids. When they color on the walls or puke on the carpet a mere 6 inches away from the tile, you are reminded of this. But still you love them. Hopefully. My mom and dad picked me. They could have passed me up for a son or an older child with personality. But when they saw me in the office of the adoption agency, all wrinkly and bald (I was only 3 days old, give me a break...I'm much cuter now! Although I'm seeing some wrinkly skin again...), they fell in love. I can totally see someone falling in love with me now...I mean...I'm pretty awesome, but as a baby? I was probably pretty boring. Again, since I'm a mom, I know what it's like to love a child more than you love anything else. My mom felt that for me the first moment she saw me.

Mom grew up in Barberton, Ohio (B-town, holla!) and moved to Frankfort, Indiana when she was about 12. Her favorite place to go was Milky Way, one of those walk-up ice cream stands, and she loved going to church camp back in Ohio with her cousins. She graduated high school in '72...she was a very shy girl. However, her personality shone when she went to ABI (theology school) where she met my dad. They were married in '74 and wanted to have kids right away, but they couldn't. For 9 years they tried to have a baby, and they were on adoption waiting lists for 7 years. Then, on January 3rd, 1983, they picked me up and brough me home. My mom never questioned her love for me. Even in my teenage years when I was HORRIBLE and hormonal and rebellious. My mom always welcomed me back with open arms. Of course, I was always in trouble also, but when my mom knew that I really needed her, she was just there for me. Which is what I needed.

I don't know what I would have done without my mom all these years. She was there for me when I was pregnant with my first baby, even when my husband (EX-husband) wasn't. She took me to most of my doctor's appointments, made sure I had everything I needed for a healthy and happy pregnancy, and she was even there when my daughter (her first grandbaby) was born. She had a stroke 4 1/2 years ago, and I was afraid I'd lose her. I was only 23...I wasn't ready to not have my mom anymore. Her recovery was literally a miracle. Not just because the stroke was so bad, but also because through that battle, we became even closer.

She is now 58 years old (this coming September) and she is still by my side. She is still my closest friend. She still gives me guilt trips, but she loves me just the same. Oh, and she still loves Milky Way.

Love you Momma.

Bucket List

Everyone has things that they want to do before they die. I am no exception. There are SO many things that I want to do! Some things I've gotten to cross off my list...like travelling to Jamaica and New York, and graduating from college. But the more I think about it, the longer my list gets. I want to scuba dive, snow ski, go up in a hot air balloon. I want to travel by train, go to Ireland and discover my family's crest, I want to visit Austria and see the small village that my Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Pamer travelled to America from. I want to spend the night (or several) in a castle and camp in the great American desert. Speaking of America, I want to travel to the far reaches of the country by car (or even better, RV), stopping along the way to experience all that there is to see. I want to be a size 8, run a marathon, maybe even complete a triathalon. I want to learn to play the piano and the guitar. I want to be quadrilingual. I want to travel to Alaska and swim in a glacial lake and see the Aurora Borealis and go whale watching and salmon fishing. I want to tour Hawaii by helicopter and learn to surf. I want to own a restaurant and I want it to be successful. There are just so many things to do and see...and I feel like life isn't long enough for me to experience all of it. What are some of the things that you all want to do? What is your bucket list like?

I am a walking contradiction

The title of my blog is 'Attempting to Avoid Typical Suburbia' (of course, you saw that at the top of the page, so this is no surprise). The reason I titled my blog this way is because whenever I look at (most) of the moms in our neighborhood and ones that are similar, I see people who seem so different from me. These moms are so serious, they drive minivans, cart children back and forth to soccer games, they never go out on the weekends and forget about going anywhere during the week, and they seem so much older than me...like June Cleaver, except snobbier because they don't talk to their neighbors. I'm way cooler than they are, right? We are somewhat trendy with our volkswagons and minimalist furniture, we go to concerts and listen to cool music, go out with our friends, we love a good party, we like to go to clubs, Bryan is a graphic designer, we do cool and fun things with our kids, we act silly about 80% of the time, we're several years younger, and I rock some really fun nail polish. I don't want to be boring. But you know what? I realized that I'm not so different than these other moms. This was a painful realization. I'm approaching 30 rather quickly, so I'm probably not THAT much younger than my fellow suburban mothers. My VW hatchback is like a petite minivan. I'm not a soccer mom, but I am a softball mom. We don't get to go out as often now that we have a 2nd child, and during the school year, forget about going out during the week. We make pains to attend every school function that Kennedy has, even the family movie nights.

My attempt at avoiding typical suburbia is kind of a fail. Someone get me a June Cleaver apron and a pair of sensible heels. I'll start going to the salon to get my hair set and then we'll play bridge on Tuesday nights, while drinking sidecars after a dinner of meatloaf or a casserole as soon as we find people in our neighborhood that wanna hang.