You Don't Have To Be A Kid. . .

You don't have to be a kid to look forward to and enjoy a trip to Disneyland. Some things just never change and I am so looking forward to going to with a group of adults from work on Monday. We can act like CHILDREN!! Woo Whoo!! (I always love a good excuse to act my shoe size:) Hotel beds are never safe when I'm around & have no kids with me!...Oh come on people! I'm talking about jumping on them!

I have learned (the hard way) that some things are much more enjoyable (and don't forget easier) when you are a kid. Take for example the hula hoop. Did you try this as a child? I did and I had that baby mastered. I could spend hours with that hoop circling around my waist. I was so cool that I could do tricks. You know, those amazing ones where you can make it go up your neck and circle around your hand that is raised above your head. And then back down again. And then down your legs to your ankles. I know, it's hard to believe the talent that oozed out of me but I did it. It was many years later and I was married with children (hey, that is kind of catchy like it should be a sitcom or something:) that I decided to show off my great skills in front of a group. I grabbed the hula hoop from a snot nosed kid trying to be all tricky and stuff and I stepped inside. What the?????

They have OBVIOUSLY started making these things smaller because DANG there wasn't much room for that baby to circle around me! I worked that stupid hoop for a good 10 minutes before I decided that my body mass was taking up to much of the circle, thus making it virtually impossible to keep it moving. Sigh!

As I child, I was very limber. I could do a back bend without a second thought. It all just came natural and I spent many days tumbling around. I took gymnastics for a while. The memory that has stuck with me to this day was when we were lined up and being assisted in back bends by our instructor. The girl in front of me hadn't mastered a back bend before so the instructor was supporting her. As the girl arched her back, she let out a grunt noise and then farted! OH, boy! The things that will crack up a five year old!! We were unable to do much after that due to laughter (and pointing and mocking).

I also didn't have a problem as a child doing cart wheels. It was like walking! I would cart wheel my way across the lawn. I could run fast and go right into a cart wheel. I was so tricky I could even do it ONE handed! WOW I was cool. Fast forward about 20+ years and a few kids (and many pounds gained). I wanted to show my kids that I their awesome and amazing mother could still do all those tricks. Oh yeah! No mocking this chick! She still has it. . . . or not. As they scooped me off the ground, because my poor arms collapsed from the large amount of weight trying to pass over them, I realized THIS was not going to be so easy! Not only were my scrawny arms trying to hold up some serious weight, all of the sudden it seemed soooo scary!! I was MUCH farther off the ground than I was so long ago. Sigh!

And then there were those days when I could bend myself in half.

Oh not like that picture!! I was talking about bending over to pick something off the floor. . . .

fortunately I can still do that!

There was this one Summer. . . .

when I actually did get pulled around by a policeman with my skirt up as I tried to cool off. I know it sounds a bit crazy but here is the real story. (for those of you who picked this as my lie below)

It was the Summer after my senior year in high school and I was spending most Saturdays in every city parade. It was part of our responsibility of being royalty to adorn the float with our royalness and in all our glory. Now when you live in Podunk city USA your float is not self driven. In fact, you are lucky to be riding on anything at all. Our float was mostly a platform with a little bit of decoration and the three of us "royal" girls stuck out like. . like. . girls with crowns in formals on a minimally decorated platform. The really cool part was that we were not pulled down the parade route by some fancy shmancy truck, from the lot of the local dealer. We were lucky enough to have one of the two (OK, maybe there were 3 but I highly doubt it) policeman in his police car pulling us. How cool is that? Well, we thought it was cool but of course, we got excited about little things coming from our small town.

It didn't take long down those parade routes and in our long formal dresses to become completely hot and sweaty. We would prop one arm out on the post that kept us from flying off the float and the other arm waved wildly. This was a good way to keep the underarms from getting all wet. Unfortunately, we could still feel the drips of sweat roll down our legs as we smiled and waved like we were having the time of our lives. It only took us a parade or two before we got smart. After the parade, and as the policeman was taking us back to the starting place to retrieve our vehicles, we convinced him to drive the back roads and somewhat fast. (which wasn't all that fast considering it was a policeman). The three of us girls would pull up our long skirts ONLY TO OUR KNEES YOU SICK PEOPLE and would enjoy the cool breeze. Sometimes the policeman would take an extra detour or two to make sure we were good and cooled down before getting us back to our cars. Gosh, he was such a nice policeman and was so willing to go along with our request AND even go the extra mile:) I love small town perks!

Here I am pre-parade