Its Fine.

When my brother and I were younger, we'd come home from school and make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough. Then we'd eat half the dough...raw. Then we might cook the remainder for our parents. We LOVED this.

I also remember distinctly riding in the back of the pick up truck numerous times. We used to car pool to school on days we had choir or band or whatever and sometimes when it was my mom's turn to drive we would have to take the truck and pile in the back...there was a topper, but it was just wide open back there. We were always told to sit close to the front or on the sides though. I also very vividly remember getting sick one morning after going out to brunch and on the way home from Omaha I had to ride laying down in the back of the truck because I'd throw up if I was sitting up.

In the good old days, my friend Ali and I would get on our matching bikes and ride around the neighborhood for hours. If it was a hot summer day, we'd wiggle in our swim suits and stop at all the houses watering their lawn and run thru the sprinklers. It was the best. We also would stop at the ditch and swing into it on the branches of the willow tree that hung over it. (That is until someone new moved in and yelled at us!)

The point is, I did all this and more and am still alive to tell about it.

Parents today don't let their kids do that. They don't get to go out and just play. Everything is scheduled. Parents are too worried about their kids getting sick, or fat, or abducted to really let them do anything fun or spontaneous. It makes me wonder what this generation will grow up to be like... I hope I won't be like that as a parent. I hope I remember what its like to play in the backyard until it got dark, to ride bikes all afternoon and to just have time to be a kid.

My House Is Way Cuter

I went back to CB (Council Bluffs, IA for those of you who don't know) this weekend. Since my parents are moving to Idaho and my brother just moved out, I didn't really have a choice of where I was going to sleep. Zach had taken the extra bed to his new house, so I had to sleep at his place. Let me just state that Zach just bought his first house on Wednesday, so he just moved in and he has a roommate who was moving in Friday afternoon. So this is a house that two males under the age of 25 live in. Ugh. I've been in frat houses before...I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be much different. But he was sooo excited for me to come stay at his house, so whatever, I can suck it up and stay for two nights.

I head to my parents house first (Zach is off galavanting somewhere) and end up having dinner with my dad then heading off to Omaha to pick up my mom from a UNMC reunion. It was odd to go into that house since all the ladies in there have been friends with my mom since I was 2. I've seen them randomly over the years, but it had been a while. It felt a bit strange to sit and have a glass of wine with them while they were talking their "grown up talk." I still felt 10 and out of place.

Anyway, Zach called to say he was home as we were walking out to the car. He gave me directions and started talking a little about his house. About this time he tells me there are 41 steps to his front door. WTF!?! I don't really believe him or understand how you could have 41 steps in front of your house. So, when we get back to CB, I head over to Zach's new house.

This is what I pull up to (though its like 12:30am, so its actually dark...):


So yeah, lots of steps. Then I walk in the house and have to walk up ANOTHER giant set of steps to get to "my" room. Yikes. It is good that two young males are going to live in this house...especially with winter coming up!

So then I get the tour of the rest of the house. Uh! So not fair. His house is way cuter than my house! The people who owned the house before him basically redid a lot and fixed up basically everything. So he's got a new kitchen, new light fixtures, refinished floors, etc. Its pretty. Not fair.

But we'll see what it looks like after two months of two boys (read pigs) live there.