So, I guess I should go a year in review. Its been a while since I've written anything here anyways. I've also seen many of my other friends writing little year in wrap-ups. Since this year hasn't been that boring,  I mine as well write a little something.

In January, we ended up meting this cat. At first we saw him in the backyard but he kept coming back around. We ended up taking him in. We had just enough room to add one more animal. My husband was thinking about getting himself another dog but he decided he really liked this cat.

I'll admit I was a little bit iffy on taking on another cat but he's grown on us. Yes, he's a little crazy but he had been on his own for a while so we had to train him. He's gotten very calm over this year but he still hasn't faced his fear of the dogs which is understandable. When we took him in his back was sore and most likely it was from a dog. Oh and we do believe this guy is came from the same liter as Shoe-Fly. He has very similar markings to Shoe-Fly and has similar personality traits.

Also, in January I had dental work done. Dental work that was long overdo. I ended up having two deep cleanings and I was on an antibiotic because I had a mouth infection. It wasn't the funnest thing ever but it was the best decision I ever made. My diet is better now and my mouth is better now. Sure, I found out I was brushing wrong my entire life but now that's fixed. By September of this year I no longer needed laughing gas for my cleanings. In fact, I even had fillings this month and I again didn't need laughing gas. As it turns out I also had two tiny chips on my front teeth which also were fixed. Also, on the dentist note: my youngest is now awaiting braces. She's not thrilled about it but it was bound to happen. Starting last year I heard a lot everything from spacers to a retainer. It wasn't until over Fall Break that we found out that she will end up with braces. Sure, she won't end up with them right away. She still has two(it used to be three) baby teeth to lose before we can even think about the braces but they are coming. My husband even saw a dentist but his work hasn't been able to be done(that explanation will come later.)

In March, The hubby and I celebrated ten years of marriage. Yep, ten years and an entire decade of putting up with each other. We had a small, simple celebration and it was nothing to special. Then again, we really aren't big on huge celebrations anyways.. We did have a nice trip to the casino in the Spring though. It was our first time going out at night in a long while..Yes, we do day dates but it was odd to be out at night while we had a babysitter at home.

Over the summer our oldest came out for a visit. We ended up going around town and finding inside activities to do. You know, its super hot outside during the summer so we had to come up with fun things to do that involved air conditioning. We went around to a whole lot of arcades. We went to just about every arcade we could find and we all agreed on which one we liked the best. We also went to an indoor mini-golf course that was in the mall. Yeah, that trip was a bust since the air conditioning in the golf course wasn't working. We were all hot and grumpy and called it after a few holes. We also made many trips to the mall so that the oldest could get books. My youngest also did extra credit work over the summer which no one else in her class ended up doing. The hubby and I also got the chance to have another date night over the summer. The kids pretty much kicked us out of the house. We ended up having some desert before the movie and all in all it was a good time. By the end of the summer, my husband started having stomach pains. Somehow we were still able to get the oldest to the airport even though his stomach was hurting.

The school year started and the hubby was still having stomach pains. By the start of August we both went to the ER after the youngest was at school. He was diagnosed with a stomach issue and he ended up back in the hospital again for four days a few weeks later. It was a long four days but the treatment worked. Yes, it changed the way he eats and I've had to change around a few recipes but after a 6 months we seem to have his diet down for the most part. We did have a few mess ups here and there but now we mostly have the idea on what upsets his stomach and what doesn't..

This year, we also said goodbye to Dragon-Fly our gerbil. He had lived well beyond his life expectancy. His gerbil buddy Ninja had died the year before and honestly, we didn't expect him to live too much longer after his buddy died. Also, on the pet front our fish tank is still growing and thriving. Every time you look in there you see new babies.

I have also been able to get back to things that I love this year. Since I don't have to worry about my teeth anymore I have so much more freedom. I picked up playing the flute again and even bought myself some ballet slippers. Its nice to be able to get back things I have always loved but lost sight of and since my youngest is older and more independent I can actually have some hobbies outside of taking care of her.

Now back to the kiddos. My oldest is an honor roll student, very good at math and actually enjoys math! She's also into anime now which is nice since the hubby and I actually know a thing or two about anime. My youngest is the top of her class. She's also doing certain third grade classes and is way ahead of the game when it comes to reading. She's worked really hard to get where she is now.

All in all it hasn't been a horrible year. Sure, we had our moments where things kind of sucked but we worked through it. So, there you have it...a year in review!

Now, anyone that knows me understands that I'm not much of a talking on the phone person(anymore). Typically, its because there's always a kid screaming in the background, loud TVs, loud dogs and sometimes a husband who need things or wants to ask questions. Speaking of my husband....He's been in the hospital for a day and well, almost two days and we've rediscovered the art of the telephone(again). The last time we did this was when (ironically) I was in the hospital.

Yes, we are that annoying couple...still. I've been calling him three times a day. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the night. We've also been text messaging each other here and there to keep up. I know, its silly two grown adults acting like over grown teenagers when they are away from each other. Its nice to know that after 10 years of being together that we can still act like hormonal kids wanting to talk to each other constantly. I do admit, I miss him a lot and so does my daughter. Its been rather eerie the past few days being in an empty house after sending the little one off to school. At first, I took to cleaning and a good chunk of things got done. Today, I did some cleaning but mostly just sat around and wished my husband was home.

It's also nice to know that my husband(like myself when I was in the hospital) would rather talk to me over many other people in the world. Sure, even when he's hopped up on pain drugs and grumpy he'll still talk to me. I remember when I was in the hospital and at the time we were still on a plan that had minutes..I think we went over the minutes by A LOT.

Mind you, on the average daily basis we typically just use the phone to let each other know that one of us is on their way home, done with their appointment, or checking to see if the person at home needs anything while the other is out. All just boring stuff..Hey, we're around each other 24/7..So, why use the phone to actually talk on it?

Anyways, my husband will be home soon from the hospital. Well, not this very minute but at least within the next couple of days. In the meantime, we will continue to call each other as much as we can. Yes, its hard to believe but we are a married couple that actually still likes and loves each other.

So, last night was the return of Date Night! At first, my husband didn't want to go out and do anything because he was tired all day but eventually he got a second wind and we decided to go out and do something we hadn't done in years..........Go the the movies!

We quickly picked a movie. We decided on going to see "Maleficent". We had already had dinner on the way so we waited until after we had finished dinner to head out of the house. Of course, the kids were very excited for us to leave the house. They pretty much kicked us out of the house even, so we ended up leaving early even though the movie didn't start for a good hour and a half.

We got to the general area where the theater was at and tried to come up with something to do. We figured that we'd have time for a cocktail and a desert before the movie. We walked around the plaza for a while looking for a place that would met our needs. We found a hole in the wall Mexican food place and decided to go there. We sat on the patio since by the time we got out of the house the heat was tapering off. He ordered a beer and I got a margarita. I also decided to be daring and try a fried ice cream. I went with the vanilla ice cream. Anyways, we were the only ones sitting on the patio which was kind of nice because we were able to goof off while we waited for our drinks. The place had really nice little statues all  over the patio like this one:

And this one:

At any rate, the fried vanilla ice cream was really good but I didn't eat all of it knowing that we were going to a movie and I wanted popcorn. We ended up wasting about an hour at the restaurant. We even had an epic battle with a bee and won! The movie was going to start in a half an hour so we ended up walking over to the theater to check out what video games they had and to get our tickets.

We got there and we still had time to kill. We messed around with the video games for a little while and generally acted like teenagers, taking pictures all over the movie theater while we worked on wasting time. I even convinced my husband to hop inside the photo booth and take some pictures since it had been a couple of years since we played around in one of those. We went outside for a bit and people watched and then decided it was late enough to go inside and get ready for the movie.

We spared no expense at the concession stand. We got popcorn, we got drinks and we even got candy to take home to the kids. Yes, I know....We didn't have to bring home candy for the kids but we wanted to bring home something for them. We went inside and found a place to sit which oddly enough became a bit of a hassle since even though the theater was mostly empty we kept having people sit near us. Anyone who knows my husband knows that he hates sitting next to strangers in the theaters. The last movie we saw when I was pregnant he ended up leaving because he felt trapped in by people. At any rate, we found our seats and like normal we ate most of the popcorn before the previews started. Oh, and I completely forgot how wonderful movie theater popcorn is especially with the extra butter. My teeth were so bad for a while there that I was avoiding foods and popcorn was one of those foods. I was thanking my dentist by name as I ate my popcorn. I keep thinking I'm done with the whole drooling over food thing but as the months go by I keep finding more food that I was avoiding for a while and become instantly happy.

Long story short, we loved the movie. The hubby and I were betting on one ending happening and it didn't but all in all it was a really good movie and it wasn't as long as we were expecting. We weren't expecting the movie to end until 11pm but the movie ended at around 10pm. The hubby called the babysitter who told us that the kids were just now acting out so of course, we booked it home. Once we got home the youngest put up the most fight when it came down to bedtime but I was able to get her into bed. We stayed up a bit longer and then went to bed.

As of our next Date Night we aren't certain about what to do just yet..the movie was a last minute idea. Then again, the casino last Date Night was a last minute idea. I'm sure we'll come up with something that we haven't done in ages.  I'm really digging these nights out especially since this time around its Summer Break and it gave us a nice chance to spend time together without having the kids bothering us for entertainment or food or to tell us that they are bored..

So, in the past I've talked about "Dance Mom's" and "Dance Academy" which both well, are produced by former dancers. Now, I've ran into this new show called "The Next Step" on Hulu plus and it being a dance show I took the bait and checked it out. This is the most unrealistic dance show I have ever watched. It was bothering me so much that I had to go and look up who wrote this show to confirm or deny that the person had any studio experience and sure enough, nope the creator/writer has spent no time in a dance studio. In fact, the creator worked on "Kids In The Hall" which is a good show but there's no dance background at all with the person and it shows. I kept trying to turn off the show last night but I just couldn't turn it off. It was like watching a train wreck and I couldn't stop watching no matter how horrible it happened to be. I'm betting I'll finish up watching the first season anyways, just because I can't turn it off.

Anyways, let me count the ways that this show is completely unrealistic to the dance world. First off, the audition process. If you even want to call it that..The auditions are basically just them each individually going to the center of the room and free-styling aka just doing what they want with nothing pre-planned. There was no watching them do floor exercises, watching them doing a warm up exercise, no learning a routine or even learning two counts of eight, just them going to the center of the room and doing whatever they want. No audition even for a studio company is like that! Not to mention, they had tap dancers and Irish folk dancers in there too all trying out for the same company. No company lets people who only know hip-hop dance in the same group as classically trained ballet dancers. No, they each have their own separate group for their style of dance that goes to the competitions.  So, with that fact including the 10 open spots in the big time studio company would be more since each style would have their own performance group.

Secondly, the owner of the studio seems to have no control over her studio and the head choreographer seems to do pretty much nothing. It's like all the kids are in control of the studio and what happens. There's no dance instructors present either which I don't get. They all seem to make up their own routines and they are all in charge of each other. Through out the season the older kids are teaching classes to younger kids which again, begs the question..Where's the teachers? Sure, the older kids sometimes become assistance's to the teachers but they don't run the entire class. Even when I was handed a class, my teacher helped me work on the lesson plan and reviewed the dances that I was working on with the kids. I wasn't just handling the class on my own. You don't just pay money to a studio for you and your peers to teach each other. Even professional dancers take classes from instructors. I have yet to see a teacher step in and actually instruct these kids.

Thirdly, the clothing and hair choices. Oh my! This one kept annoying me. At one point, the one guy is working on his ballet and another member is working on his hip hop.  The hip hop dancer is dressed pretty okay for the style of dance he's doing but the guy that's working on his ballet is dressed all wrong. He's in baggy sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt with no ballet slippers. Seriously, boys wear ballet slippers and generally wear form fitting pants with a tank top of some sort so they can move properly. I was slightly yelling at the IPad wondering why he was dressed the way he was for what he was doing. Even when the older kids are teaching a ballet class, the kids are dressed properly for a ballet class but the older kids aren't. It's seriously like they had no shoe budget at all. In fact, half the company dancers are dancing in socks and the other half are in the proper foot sandals that you are suppose to dance in if you are going barefoot. Not to mention that no one ever secures their hair. None of the girls ever have their hair up at all. It was driving me crazy. If you show up to your studio and your hair is long and not secure you will get into trouble. Even the girl with short hair, she simply has in a headband but clearly, she has enough hair to where she can put it in a pony tail but doesn't..It again, drives me crazy. You can't spot properly when you have hair hitting you in the face. In another scene one girl is yelling at another girl for her in proper dance wear BUT she's still in her warm-up shrug. You are suppose to take those off once you are done warming up. No one in this show ever wears tights or a leotard which is again, unrealistic. I've only been in one class where the teacher didn't mind if you weren't wearing tights and that was my Modern class in college but other than that tights were at least preferred.  Its just one more little thing that shows the writer has spent no time in a real dance studio.

Fourthly, they did this thing called a dance audition for the line up during the dance which of course, the teens are in control of handling. I've never had to audition for being in the front or in the back of the dance. If anything, you were never in one spot during the whole number and half the time you'd spend some time in the front and some time in the back of the line. Not to mention, the one girl is wrongly put in the front line and she's all complaining that she can't dance in the front because she has no one to watch as she dances. Um, you are in the big time company of your studio and you can't dance without having someone in front of you to watch....that doesn't add up. You can't be an advanced dancer and not know how to dance without someone in front of you to copy.

At another point in the show, they are going out to spy on the other company and sneak into their studio. Now, this is completely taken from "Bring It On" and let me tell you, this whole part is unrealistic. The other studio basically has a stage and a stage only to work on their routines. This isn't completely unrealistic. Every single studio I've ever been in you can just drive right out there and peak through the studio windows and see what's going on. You don't need to go through a backdoor to get to the studio, you just go to the studio and look through the window. Sure, they can see you and you can see them but its not like their routines are hidden and kept secret from other studios.

One more unrealistic thing, in one episode a few of the girls decide to randomly go to a competition for trio's.  Yeah, that would never happen because you go as a studio to a competition and you don't just randomly decide to go just on a whim. It just doesn't happen and the studio owner had no clue they went..Um, yeah no, that doesn't happen at all, ever.

Oh, and one other thing: During their auditions, a 'random' from the street walks in and is happily allowed to audition. Seriously, if you have to work your through each company as studio policy as stated in the show this would never happen. Sure, she may be allowed to audition but she'd have to go in front of the teachers, owner before she was even allowed into the audition even if she did just move into town. They simply took her into the office and talked with her for a few minutes. They never even asked her what the name of the studio she was at was called, again unrealistic. I've transferred studios before and they do generally ask the name(s) of the studios you were at in the past.

Anyways, this show is Canadian so maybe dance studios work differently out there but I doubt it. As I stated earlier this show was no made or even written by someone with even a minor dance background. Its certainly no "Dance Academy" with its realism. I would hate for a young kid to see this and think this is what studio life is like then end up crushed after going to a class and finding out that you aren't in charge of everything. Sure, this show may be a train wreck and completely unrealistic but I'm sure I'll finish watching the first season that's on Hulu Plus just for lack of anything else to watch..If you want to watch something about a fantasy dance world, this show is for you!

So, the other day it had just cooled down enough to where we(Myself and the hubby) could comfortably go outside without catching on fire. We were hanging out in the shade and giving the dogs a chance to go to the bathroom.  We kept seeing the dogs hanging out in the garden and we didn't know why. Eventually, our not so smart dog also known as Angelous woke up this little one who was taking a nap in our garden under one of the dusty millers. The little bird was very angry and upset by the big dog being in its face and the dogs got scared. Anyways, we had to decide what to do with the little one. We went inside for a while knowing it was safe in the garden. After some research on the internet and talking to our friend who knows a lot about animals we moved the little one to safe spot. My husband made a little make shift nest out of an Amazon box and odds and ends he could find around the house. He also threw in some palm leafs for good measure.

At first, we weren't sure if Mom knew her baby had fallen out of the tree or not, so at first we were giving it some soaked dry cat food. We did hang around outside at sunset and noticed another bird nearby. Yep, the parents did notice that their baby had fallen from its home. Its been two days now and the little one is still striving. This afternoon we even caught Mommy bird feeding the baby. The baby has also taken to walking around the yard and exercising its wings. At dusk we put the little one into its nest for the night and we wait.

Over the years we've had many animals come into our home and I've written about a lot of those animals. I figured I mine as well write about our new little bird friend. In a way, this is a pretty interesting way to kick off the Summer vacation for our daughter. Its kind of like a Science experiment just landed in our backyard. We go outside and check on the baby at night and during the day we keep an eye on its exploring in the backyard. We started talking about life cycles in the Spring when we found the pumpkin plant growing and now this kind of just happens.

Of course, in other sad news: We did find another sibling dead under the same tree where we found the little baby bird. That poor little baby bird appears to have broken its neck. Every year the birds put a nest in that tree. This is just the first year that we've had interaction with this bird family. Everyone keeps saying that this little baby will become our own bird now and having grown up with birds I know that's true. Right now, we are just waiting it out per day and hoping that eventually one day the baby just flies away. We've caught it attempting to fly but the little wings just aren't ready yet but the little one is working on it.

Needless to say, we both have high hopes for this little bird. I also expect my daughter to go back to school and phrase things badly to where her teachers are going to think that we got a pet bird. No, we in fact did not get a pet bird but we did help out a poor little lost bird who fell out of its home. We will also see if this little bird will be hanging around when our oldest daughter gets here over the weekend or not. Anyways, once she gets here we already have one adventure planned: The ballet! Until then, we have the baby bird to watch grow! What a way to kick off Summer though, I defiantly didn't see this coming.

There's this thing called Mother's Day coming up this Sunday. From a stay at home mom's standpoint I look at the holiday a lot different. Since I am the one whose up every morning and going to and from school, I am the one taking care of things in the middle of the night when something happens(that happened this weekend), I'm the one handling homework for the most part, buying/picking out clothes for the day, handling meals etc etc..Yeah, you get the idea..Anyways, since I'm the one whose here handling everything and dealing with everyone 24/7 I have one simple wish for the day: Leave me alone! Yes, I know certain Mom's want to spend the day with their kid(s) but seriously, I'm around mine all the time and when I do get a break from her as of late I have other stuff to take care of around the house.

Oh, and I don't want clean up after people either..Its nice to not have to cook especially since I always cook on Sundays but I don't want a HUGE mess to clean up on Monday. It does defeat the purpose of the leave me alone holiday when I have to clean up dirty dishes and pots and pans from people. There have been times when I've gotten sick and I swear people forget how to run a dishwasher and the second I'm healthy I end up doing dishes for days which isn't really my favorite thing to do.

I would always love, love to be able to sleep in. I'm up at 6am every weekday morning to see my daughter off to school and sometimes I even get up at 6am on the weekends too just because my body wants to be awake. Of course, my idea of sleeping in nowadays is 8am..I know, lame but oh well, having a little one has set off my body clock big time or as I've heard it called "The Mommy Clock". I wouldn't mind being able to sleep in and have breakfast made for me on top of that but hey, I normally make brunch on Sundays anyways so it wouldn't bother me that much to have to make my own waffle.

This year I have even informed my husband what I want him to cook for dinner for me. Typically in our house we do a big chicken dinner on Sundays which ends up involving large amounts of clean up. Anyways, I thumbed through recipes today and I pin pointed what I wanted and got my husband to agree to make it for me. I'm going buy everything he needs to make it and pretty much make it easy for him to make me dinner. The last thing I want on Mother's Day is spending the day not knowing what we are going for food only to end up having to dig through the fridge and the pantry trying to decide what to do for food. So yes, I am taking care of every detail just so that I have very little to do on Mother's Day.

In years past something has always gone wrong. One year my Mother's Day was wonderful until we started playing the Wii together and then my daughter had a fit because it wasn't her turn on the game and I got a controller thrown at my head..Good times, good times. I have come to accept that there will be a fit in there somewhere no matter how much time I try to plan things out so my day is fruitful.  Of course, I know I'm going to end up helping my daughter with her homework that day no matter what..(Sunday is homework day here) and I'm planning on making my bread on Saturday instead of Sunday. Yeah, I know but I'm going to make a chocolate bread that goes well with ice cream for selfish reasons.

Anyways, I will have a nice Mother's Day one way or another even if I have to help a little bit with the planning just to make sure everything works out. Hey, the hubby and I pick out each others Christmas gifts together so me planning out 'my day' really isn't that much of a deal for me. This year very little will go wrong if I have anything to do with it.

Okay, so its Friday now and the series finale of "How I Met Your Mother" aired on Monday. At first, I was a bit disappointed with the ending but after a long time thinking about it and certain other things in the series and re-watching the finale, I do in fact see the beauty in the finale.

Many people are angry because the Mother dies. Well, my husband isn't sure she's dead since in the end they say 'Its been 6 years since Mom's been gone.' and well my husband says that doesn't mean for sure that she's dead. Seriously though, you don't just up and leave someone who takes care of while you are in the hospital. Part of the reason why I was upset at first was because I was expecting the story to be all about the mystical meeting of the Mother. Yes, they do have a grand mystical meeting for the first time and the relationship is kind of only glossed over probably because the kids already know about their wonderful relationship and he is after all telling the story to his kids. It is really a bitter sweet ending. Also, within the season we learn that the Mother aka Tracy loses the 'love of her life' very early on and she learns how to move on after that and learns that people have more than one great love of their life. Naturally, Ted takes what he learns from his wife and moves on and back to Robin. Clearly, Ted and Robin weren't a good fit in their 20s or even 30s but once Ted has his kids(which Robin didn't want and can't have) and Robin got to travel the world they do become a perfect fit.

Was Ted just holding out for Robin? No, I don't think so..He made it very clear in his story that he did love the Mother. He wanted to make sure his kids understood how much he loved their Mother but also he wanted to let them know what he feels for Robin and what he has always felt for Robin just the timing wasn't right. Now, mind you once you get the whole picture quotes like this one:

Take on an entirely new meaning once you look at the big picture.

Also, if you remember certain things through out the seasons we do get hints that the Mother is dead. Anyone remember the episode "Time Travelers" there's tons of little hints in there that the Mother is in fact, no longer alive. Another little detail that I think people forget is that in one of the earlier seasons where they all start and stop smoking Ted goes through and says when everyone's REAL last cigarette took place. If you remember Ted states that his last one is right when he meets the Mother. I've heard the theories that the Mother died of cancer and maybe that is true and maybe she had battled cancer before hence why Ted stops smoking upon meeting her. It also could explain why through out the last season she is always the hopeful, innocent and positive one rooting the group on in numerous instances. Maybe she is the way she is because she did battle cancer and won once.

People are also forgetting that this series was based off of the two creators. One of them made himself Marshall and the other creator made himself Ted. Naturally, there won't be a fairy tale ending since the series was based off of their own experiences and their own stories so of course, there won't be a full on happy ending. Ted and Robin's story does happen in real life and more than you may think thanks to Facebook. I know of one couple who at a later age ended up finally being together after 25 years of just being friends for this or that reason so in the end it is a pretty real ending. I'm also very certain that this ending will make numerous ex's of the world hope. I mean, if you can break up with someone and remain friends maybe there's hope that you can finally get 'the one that got away'.

I do wish they would have told us more about the Mother through out the story telling. I think all we got was bits and pieces of her. Right now, many people are guessing on specifics. Maybe that's what they wanted. Ted and Tracey do have a wonderful and magically first meeting that is very touching and maybe that's what they wanted us to take away from it. He was also at her side when things got bad and she got sick. There is one line in the finale that does bother me though. Ted states "I knew I had to love this girl." Its the fact that he has he had to love her that bugs me. If they didn't want people getting upset thinking he was not in love with the Mother they should have had him saying he WANTED to love her. Those two words maybe would have kept certain fans from getting so angry thinking that he didn't really love Tracey.

I know people are also getting all upset over Barney going back to his old ways after his marriage with Robin ends. Seriously, they were clearly stating how many second thoughts both of them were having so naturally it wouldn't last forever like Marshall and Lily.  Yes, all the character development went out the window but you can't tell me that you've never watched yourself or one of your friends go back to 'their old ways' after a bad break-up. In a sense that is very real. I do wish they would have given the Mother of his kid a name but maybe there's a reason for why they didn't give her a name.

Marshall and Lily, we all knew they would remain together and still be the awesome and cute couple that we have grown to love over the years. They had been the strong couple since that one break up in the first season. Yes, and according to Twitter and Allyson Hanigan they did shot a scene where the bet on if Ted ends up with Robin is finally settled between the two of them but it got cut.

I do however want to know what happened with the pineapple. Why will no one tell us what happened with the pineapple? Where did it come from? Why was this never covered in the final season? Again, this answer is suppose to be on the DvDs but we generally don't buy DvDs so I guess I have to wait until someone uploads that information onto YouTube.

Oh well, I don't know about anyone else but I have come to terms with and now do like the series finale of "How I Met Your Mother". I don't know if any of the other outraged fans will join me in this line of thinking but I've changed my mind on the finale after running through all the past seasons. Yes, our view of the show has been changed but its still a fitting ending.

So, last night the hubby and I got our first date night in roughly five years. Yes, you heard me right...five years! Now, we've done day dates while our daughter is at school but we haven't had a out at night date in five years. Our daughters Godfather volunteered to sit a while ago but for the past couple of months we've been training him and prepping him for babysitting her. Basically, just making sure that he disciplined her and that she would listen to what he would tell to do and not to do. Well, last night my husband made a statement of 'I wish we could go out to dinner tonight.' and our friend said 'okay.' Before you know it we were out and in a cab and on our way to the casino.

Now, they had recently done an overhaul on the casino. Its now a hotel/casino and we had gone there once since they had finished up the project of adding the hotel into the casino but it was in the afternoon and we didn't have that much time to spend there as we did last night. Since it was so long since we've been out at night we basically ended up having an adventure of being awkward and out of our element which is funny seeing as how back when we were newlyweds and bored we'd just go to the casino for a few hours. Anyways, we got there and we located the fancy restaurant and the bathrooms. We walked around and tried to locate where the blackjack tables happened to be now, where they had the slot machines, where the ATMs were located and then we spent a good ten minutes debating on if we wanted to eat now or later. Once we decided to grab an early dinner we walked over to get a table. They said our wait would be 20 to 30 minutes and they handed us a pager thing which my husband put in his back pocket. We walked around the casino for a bit and by the time my husband hit up the ATM the pager was going off. I grabbed the table while he hit up the ATM.

We ended up with a table inside even though there was patio but then again since the sun was setting it really wasn't a good time to sit outside and eat anyways. So yeah, my husband was a bit antsy during dinner.  He was mostly worried that our daughter was giving our friend had a hard time. He went outside a few times and went into the casino a few times. He did eventually calm down and have dinner with me. We got our drinks and we placed our order for dinner. Our food showed up and he ordered Lo-Mein. His only issue with his food was that there was a huge layer of carrots on top of it. He had to dig through to get to his noodles. I ended up getting the surf and turf.

Basically, that's sliced steak with shrimp, mushrooms, onions and green beans over rice. Clearly, we were eating at an Asian restaurant. I was very impressed with my food. The steak and the shrimp were done to perfectly and the green beans were perfectly steamed. I was very pleased with my dinner to say the least. Once we were done with our dinner we ended up playing in the casino. Of course, I had numerous piece of rice and such stuck in my teeth so I hit up the bathroom before doing any blackjack.

As requested by my husband: this is the artwork he made while I was finishing my meal. Yes, he cleaned up his area all nice and didn't leave it like this for the wait staff to clean up but still, he was channeling his inner child since we didn't have our own kid with us at the time.

Since I've had my teeth cleaned I keep floss in my purse now. I wanted to get the stuff out of my mouth so I went to the bathroom and took out the floss. Yes, I am that weird person with floss on me at all times. Anyways, I had a few strange looks from women in the bathroom but hey, with the amount of money that's been spent on my mouth I figure I better take good care of it. Once I was done with that I went to the blackjack table where my husband was waiting for me..

Well, I'm the one that's best at blackjack so I got to take the drivers seat here. For my first time back at a real table and not playing internet blackjack I didn't do too bad. We spent a good hour at that table and I turned a 10 dollar bill into 125 dollars. We ended up only leaving the table because there was a Russian guy there who was very serious and we were all about having fun. After that we walked around the casino for a while and we did end up getting lost since the place is now a circle and it all literally looks the same no matter where in the circle you happen to be.

We only had about four hours to play and mess around there but I think we made the best of our adult time out and about in the world after dark. At one point we sat down to people watch and some of the things that these women were wearing to the casino made me feel like I was overdressed. There were also people all over the casino taking selfies here and there. We bounced back and forth between certain blackjack tables and played some roulette. This time we really didn't do the slot machine thing mostly because it was a Saturday night and pretty crowded.

At one point we found a bar at the very, very back of the casino. Now, this is where we ran into the table of very drunk men. They started calling my husband Kevin Bacon and one of them hit on me at one point. We hung out there for a minute or two mostly because the bartender was busy and because the group of drunk men happened to be very fascinated by us for some reason..I'm betting it was booze. Once we were able to leave that area we hit up the gift shop. You know, just to make us look more like tourists.

The last time we came to the casino the gift shop wasn't as cool. They added potted plants(which since we have a garden now my husband wanted one but I wasn't about to carry that around the casino or even in the cab), they added jewelry, little trinkets and dresses. Yes, I love dresses! I got this really cute pink and white dress and my husband grabbed a cowboy hat which yes, made him look even more like Kevin Bacon from "Tremors". Anyways, shortly after that we ended up leaving. We could have stayed later but our friend had to be up early the following day.

We got home from our awkward night out after the dark and our little one was still up which yeah, isn't a big deal since we've let her stay up late more than once to watch a movie that and it was  a Saturday night. Sure enough, everything was fine while we were gone. Our little one got to play hide and seek, Uno, they tossed a ball around outside and had some pizza for dinner. Needless to say the last time we had a date night we didn't leave until after she was in bed since she was rather young at that point and now she is highly independent and not as hard to handle. Yeah, we're going start doing this date night thing at least once a month so that we actually have an idea so that we have a better game plan. Lesson learned: Even though you are married, try to go out on dates. I swear, most of the time neither of us had any idea of what to do 'on a date' but hey, we're married so we're allowed to be fumbling and awkward. As an added bonus I don't have to worry about eating like a rabbit to make a good impression. Yep, there's my ramblings for today.

Okay, so this morning I saw someone post something on Facebook and basically, it turned into more assumptions on how if you are skinny or built a certain way that you must anorexic. I did have to speak up saying I'm naturally thin and anyone who knows me understands that I don't have an eating problem of any sort and get offended when people think that just because of my build.

Yes, I'm skinny and yes, I eat! Calling a thin girl anorexic is not cute or even funny. So, please don't do it. Personally, I come from a dance background and I've recently gotten back into dance on a more consistent level. Those calories burned while dancing is well, a lot of calories. I've also personally never been one to eat junk food. All my life as long as I can remember I've always been into fruits and veggies. One year my Mom even made me an Easter fruit basket instead of the normal candy and stuff most kids got for the holiday. Also, seeing as how I have a dance background I do tend to still eat like a dancer which is basically small meals through out the day. For example: Today, I've had a greek yogurt, a salad and in a little bit I'll have an apple with a follow up salmon for dinner. I naturally crave the good for you foods. I have in my entire life never been on diet either which I know makes certain people angry.

I do at times feel annoyed with the fact that I have to constantly defend myself on my eating habits because I'm thin. Yes, I do admit I can still shop in the juniors department if I wanted to and I'm 33 years old. I ran across this some card pictured on Pinterest and it does rub me the wrong way. There's tons of these meme's out there that straight up skinny shame too and it drives me crazy. I eat and I do so in a healthy manner and no, I am not hungry. If I am hungry I'll grab an apple or half a bagel. I know how to listen to my body and contrary to what people may believe or think because of my thin frame I do eat. Do I eat pizza? Yes, I eat pizza. In fact, I just had three slices of pizza on Tuesday. I eat sweets every once in a while too but I don't go overboard on portions.

I hope one day people wake up and realize that shaming anyone's body regardless of why is harmful. I know I've had to deal with it all through my life and I look at my youngest who is basically taking after me and I know she'll deal with the same amount of huff as I have. My youngest is tall and thin. She also naturally goes for the fruits and veggies. I know she'll probably deal with the amount of crap from people and I figure I'll have to help her through it as my Mom did but still, I wish people weren't so mean and rude at times.

So many people think being thin is socially acceptable but I disagree. Anyone on either extreme ends of the spectrum will have to deal with comments from other people and shaming. I again state that we should just encourage people to be healthy and not be so infatuated with their body type(whatever it may be).

So, last night as I was getting my little one ready for bed an interesting story started trending. Here it is here: http://www.700wlw.com/articles/national-news-104668/boy-gets-bullied-for-having-my-12161277/ Basically, this little boy is being bullied because he carries around a Rainbow Dash lunchbox. Instead of the school trying to stop the bullies and punish the bullies they tell the little boy to not bring his lunchbox to school. Now, anyone who knows me understands that I'm all about encouraging our kids to have their own identity and be their own person. The fact that the school is taking away the lunchbox is disturbing to me since they are basically bullying him as well which is not fair in the least. All he wants to do is carry around the thing that he loves, not only are the kids giving him a hard time about it now the school has taken away the thing he loves..Now, I'm going to go into detail here on how many levels this is wrong. I will try my best to not turn this into a novel.

First off, this little boy is being bullied because the kids believe Ponies are for 'girls'. This is problem number one. Anyone who has a child starts to see the gender gap that we start our kids learning at a young age. Case in point: My own daughter was obsessed with the movie "Cars" from the time she was three to about five. She wanted to watch it once to twice a day and wear McQueen clothes. The problem with that is well, McQueen was put into the boys section. So, she naturally was wearing a lot of boys clothes. She also in that time frame liked Thomas which again, you can't find girls Thomas clothes. The media sets this out for us as parents- girls must like pink, tea parties, Barbies and playing dress up. Meanwhile, boys must like blue, cars, trucks and basically anything that's fun and messy. From the point our kids are born we teach them what they are suppose to do and not suppose to do because of their gender. There's nothing wrong with a girl playing with cars and there's nothing wrong with a boy playing with dolls. So, this little boy likes My Little Pony. There's tons of grown men who like My Little Pony's, there is nothing wrong with him and the schools need to tell the bullies just that but of course, they won't instead they take away his lunchbox. Our kids won't learn to accepting of things they don't understand as adults if we don't teach them how to be accepting as kids.

Secondly, if you watch the video he is clearly upset that the school won't let him bring his lunchbox to school. He is clearly attached to it which well, kids of his age do. Kids naturally get attached to objects. This object is part of him since its something he likes. Now, again..I am all for kids gaining their own identity which is why the hubby and I make sure our daughter goes to a school just out of district so that she doesn't have to wear a uniform. Yes, I've heard the arguments for uniforms BUT here's the kicker with this story. This is a bag that the kids are making fun of him for and in uniform schools you are allowed to bring in bags of your choice and coats of your choice. Even if this kid was in a uniform school he would still be made fun of for it. This proves the fact that kids will find something to make fun of you for and even certain adults will find anything and everything to make of someone. The school clearly isn't dealing with by taking away his lunchbox. The bullies still get to go on with no consequences to their actions while the little boy gets a slap on the hand and told to not bring his lunchbox to school. No, you deal with the bullies. What in the world are you thinking? Give this kid a chance to be himself and not have to blend in because of what other people think.

Thirdly, I was bullied in school and so was my husband. My husbands case is vastly different. He was bullied because he's missing fingers. In his case, the school couldn't simply tell him to 'bring other fingers to school' to stop the bullying. I was bullied for being the only redhead in my school, I was tall and my last name. I was a hand jester for most of my Junior high experience. I remember at one point my Mom went to my Junior high to discuss what the other kids were doing and as a result they sent out counselors to each and every health class to discuss bullying. I wonder how this school would handle this situation if it was something about the boy that couldn't easily be taken away to put a Band-Aid over the situation. The school says they take bullying very seriously but I question that with the way they are handling the situation. The kid being pushed around is the one that gets punished and not the kids that are causing the issue. This little boy is almost bursting into tears in the video because he can't bring his lunchbox. Come on, that just isn't right at all. He's been through enough. Now, deal with the bullies instead of bullying the child more so.

Of course, there are some people(jerk people) who will say he had it coming knowing that he was bringing a pony lunchbox to school but seriously, he likes Ponies! Not every parent will tell their little kid that 'oh you can't play with that since its for girls!'. I know with my daughter I don't do that at all. If she likes it then she's allowed to like it. He's a kid and he as a kid just wants to bring something to school with him that he likes and that expresses what he likes. These little expressions also do at times help kids make friends with each other. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've seen my daughter make a friend at the park just because they bond over a SpongeBob T-shirt. Kids don't do things with the thinking of 'gee, this will get me made fun of if I do this.' No, kids just do what they like and are into what they like. Sometimes it is just that simple. The effects of being bullied are also felt to the child whose being bullied. I know for myself it took me numerous years to be comfortable with who I was because of being bullied. It isn't just a magical fix either and can haunt you into adulthood and even smash your confidence from time to time as a young adult. No one should have to be ashamed of who they are and what they like. No one should have to hide what they like either because they may be made fun for it at the end of the day.

Again, I state if we want our kids to grow up into accepting adults then we need to teach them early how to be accepting as a child. Girls don't have to like everything that's labeled for 'girls' and boys don't have to like everything that's labeled for 'boys'. Its okay to step outside your gender role and we need encourage our kids to step outside of the gender role they are being handed. If a boy wants to play with dolls and ponies then so be it! Maybe, he'll learn compassion from the girls toys and possibly learn how to be a good father from playing with the dolls. Don't be afraid of your little girl wants to play with cars and figure out how things work. I know personally thanks to my daughters outside the box thinking she's doing second grade Science now. Also, kids sometimes make fun of her now because she's a girl and good at Science which is 'weird' because a girl isn't 'suppose' to be that smart. Instead of taking things away from our kids how about we give them the option to think outside the box and understand that people think outside the box. If we don't want a new generation of judgmental busy bodies we need to start teaching our kids how to accept that everyone is different. Let your little boys play with dolls and your little girls play with cars! There's nothing wrong with that at all.