Roo's Treehouse

A Lost Boy Grows Up & Birthday-A-Paloozas!

{This post is for grown-ups only. Put your inner child down for a nap.}

 

This is Cody-Odie-Oh, who is often referred to here as one of The Lost Boys, even though technically he isn't lost, and nor by biological birthday standards is he a boy anymore. Mainly, I call him lost boy because he doesn’t want me to refer to him as *boobear* on my blog, which I guess he thinks is read by millions, possibly including celebrities, his coworkers, potential soulmates, and unrelenting jokester best friends.

Anyhoo, lost boy is one of many young men who take up residence in our living room and generally do their part for the economy by snarfing down anything edible in our kitchen. I've always been that mom, the one who hauled everybody to tae kwon do and had the sprinklers going in the heat and made popsicles and let boys  play video games  on the Big TV.

And that's been just fine by me, as I have watched Cody grow up from close range.

Even as they grow older, the Lost Boys tend to stick around our house. But, though raucous and noisy and always near starving, I have to say, these guys are great. One's a Grillmaster if ever there was one, and he taught me how to make homemade donuts-what what? One can write, like nobody's business, and he finds all the good books to read and leaves them next to the coffeemaker for me, so I know they are "Shadow" approved. All of them can and do make music-besides video games, comic books, movies and girls, its their common factor. We have acoustic and electric guitars, harmonicas and violins; one sings like a rock star (the good kind). New Year's parties tend to be centered around a bonfire in our back yard with the inevitable karaoke standoff. FUN! There's always music (and poker chips and glasses and coffee mugs) on the back porch.

Cody. If you have more than a five minute conversation with him, you will be in stitches because he is that funny. Or you will find yourself in a deep discussion regarding parallel universes, wormholes, Stephen Hawkings or Schrödinger's cat.  Or music.

On Thursday the Lost Boy {who popped out muttering to himself} turned 21 years of age. Which makes me a modern medical miracle and mystery of science-how is it possible for Roo to have a 21 year old when I am only 29?

Ahem. *cough cough*

Now, this is apparently a red banner week for birthdays, because not only is it Cody's, but it is   SPC Ryan's (you know, Darling Deb aka Midlife Poet's Son)    *and*   Vanessa's lovely Mombie's  birthday week too!

What incredibly brilliant and wonderful people were born this week in July!

So let's raise a toast to all and sing happy birthday!

But mostly, let's have another apple-tini.

XOXOXOX

Once upon a time and a giveaway.....

Once upon a time, a long time ago and a little farther south, during a particularly sweltering summer day, a brilliant young princess..we'll call her...Roowina (heh), was praying for some cool air. So her friends loaded her up and took her to the lake, for a wee bit of tubing.  Fun, yes?

Only, later that evening, Roowina felt a little funny. Uncomfortable, even. And had an undeniable urge to go outside and howl at the full moon...

.....and ended up at the hospital, muttering to herself and trying to remember how to count.....until finally, the next day, July 29, 1989, her discomfort ceased, and she was the proud mommy of a brand new beautiful, perfect ten fingered ten toed baby .....

Cody! Oh alright, that's not really Cody in the picture, it's Brownie (whom you have already met). But they have both been with me most all my life, though Cody, being a son, was a bit more interactive than my bear, most days. As a matter of fact, he was very "interactive" all throughout school, including staging sit-ins and petitions and letters to the president of a certain television station when they took Ellen off the air because she told the world she was gay.

And that was just during Cody's grade school years! 

Alas, If I post Cody's picture (or tell you his nickname), a certain running joke regarding good ol mom living in a box in Cody's back yard during  my golden years could come to pass. Don't worry..... he's joking of course. But just in case, let's all just say

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY!!!!

And in honor of Cody's birthday, we're picking our prize winner for the Christmas in July soiree.

The ever popular Rudolph has agreed to announce the winning number is.....29. Of course. So counting down the comments we get to...Shanna, of  The Stamping Banana ! Yay, Shanna! Send me your real mail via email and i will send ya a package via snail mail, k?

I had fun hoppin around the Christmas tree, and met alot of cool peeps. Doesnt it do your heart good to know there are so many wonderful creative fun intelligent people out there you have yet to meet?

Eeps! I had better post this now or I never will! ok, i would tomorrow. But I'll be back soon! Take care, Twinklestars!
xoxoxoxox Rhonda Roo

 

Helloooo

 

January 2009...OK, so there I was, just home from a trip to my mommy goddess' house, where my sister, her family, and me and Cowboy and my Grammy and my aunts celebrate Everything (we do that sometimes in January, a sort of Thanksgiving Christmas Hannukah MLK weekend Kwanzaa New Year Valentine's Day soiree) and you know how sometimes after a road trip you are just tooo tired to unpack?

I was, and as a result, I left my Mary Engelbrecht "It's Good To Be Queen" tote bag full of cans of cranberries on the floor of my bedroom, sorta right where it shouldnt have been. Well, early in the wee hours of the morning I got up and it was dark and I didnt want to wake my main man Cowboy up so I was trying to do that cartooney creepy tiptoe thing when WHOOSH! I was rolling around on top of the tote bag, flailing my arms windmill style like some sort of crazed lumberjack in PJs, trying to get my balance--and just like that, the cranberry can can dance was born.

Only, it turns out, I'm not so good at the cranberry can can, because I smacked my foot- u know the sickening thud kind-right into the side of my dresser, and that, dear peeps, was how I met blogland.

 

Because my foot turned all kinds of colors from your favorite rainy night-black purple grey midnight blue-and there was no doing much of anything. No yoga, no gardening, no walking around the property looking for bunnies or hidden flowers or treasures, no dancing, no skipping to my lou-just sort of a painful hobble, during which I also made pitiful ee ee noises which caused Cowboy and my Son to say, don't get up I will get it for you. ;0

So I commandeered the PC from my son (the 19 year old PC Game Nerd guitar player, he's cute, really) and really, to this day I dont know HOW I fell through the  Secret Keyhole , but boy oh boy am I glad I did!

I thought it was very cool that there was someone who shared my beliefs, and had other parallel similarities, and loved her life like I loved mine, and blogged about it in such a unique and magical way, and was so good at expressing herself, and an incredible artist to boot (which I sadly, am not)! I emailed Ms. V what coulda been considered a stalkery email (it was kinda long and rambling) but she was gracious and sweet and exchanged communications and badda bing, I had a new cousin :)

And the days turned into months and I started regularly reading other blogs too, and then, before I knew it, it happened: My name is Rhonda and I am a blogaholic.

Hours, yes, hours, reading blogs, in the morning or in the night, I had so much to catch up on! Oohing over this one and aahing over that one and Yes! Me too! I feel the same way! Loved that book, didn't dig the movie, oh, I forgot about this song, gotta try that recipe, never thought of it that way before....do you do that too?

It's like all of the sudden the PC changed, and was truly a portal to Something Really Wonderful.

 

And then, you know what's coming...I wanted to do it too. I wanted an enchanted land of my own, where it was safe to share little pieces of myself with like minded peeps who knew the value of words, and creativity, and imagination, and friends...

So, Ms. Vanessa Valencia, Queen of enthusiasm and beauty, is the reason I am here...AND the reason there is something exciting for you to look at up there in the header-can you imagine? She just did that off a few words I sputtered incoherently. She's truly our fairy isnt she?

She helped me in so many ways, I gotta tell ya. And helped me get my blog up and running, and was super excited with me (Jamie of A Forest Frolic too-both peaches! heehee)...and then it was up!

Ladies and gentleman we are LIVE!! Do you remember your first post? Were you anxious? Exuberant?  Wondering if your mic was on and if anyone was out there? Me too.

But then, Memorial Day I got the flu, which turned into a cold, which turned into a sinus infection which put pressure on my ear drums which caused vertigo! YIPES AND HOLY CROW! This is my year for doctors, I guess, because i have been so lucky otherwise.

(But gods and goddesses lords and ladies, great keepers of the healthcare muses, if you are reading this, please put a check by my name for "done with Docs" for 2009, ok? Please? Thank you) 

So now I'm the new kid on the blog. And a little nervous. So bear with me, please, hopefully my pictures will get creative (do I need photoshop??), my words clearer, and my blog better. And if you have any tips, or advice, or do's and dont's, please clue in the Roo. She loooves you. :)

Thanks for taking this new path with me.

(Mind the cranberries) XOXOXOX

:)