Time for a letter, two in fact

Dear Little Ol' Lady with a Walker,
Please, dear God, use a cross walk.  I'm not fond of slamming on my breaks in the middle of a busy street as you meander across the road.  I get the feeling you feel like you've paid your dues and the rest of us can go f*&k ourselves because you're going to cross the street wherever you damn well please.  I get that.  I agree with it.  You are entitled, you've lived a long life, you've probably lived with deprivation, through wars, and you've probably lost a lot of people in your life.  You are entitled.  I just don't want to live with knowing I hit someone.  So it's not that I don't respect your life and your choices, I just don't want to be the one responsible for ending that life.  So, Please Please, use a cross walk and walk with the light.  I won't even be mad if I have to stay there awhile while you cross....I'd even smile and wave at you.

Thanks,
Concerned Citizen

Dear A$$hole in the big diesel truck behind me,

Were you honking at the little ol' lady crossing the street? Because I'm pretty sure your honking wasn't going to make her move any faster.  Get over yourself already.  Were you honking at me? Because, as much as I disagreed with her decision, I wasn't going to run over her. That punishment -- doesn't quite fit that crime. Seriously, take a chill pill already, that whole two minutes was not going to affect you, you weren't going in a direction of a hospital, you didn't have a siren on you big ol' fancy truck, that I daresay hasn't even seen mud (you didn't look that tough) and there wasn't any other traffic, you could have easily swung into the other lane, that the little ol' lady had already gone through and passed us both.

You were just being mean.

Don't be mean.

Thanks,
Concerned Citizen

year in review - Christmas Letter supplement

There's so much I missed in our Christmas letter like my mother-in-law finding her birth-family, meeting them AND they like each other.

Family

Before Meeting New Family

I don't think I ever posted about what happened.  So, they never wrote back, I never put in the letter when in the summer Sher was coming, so they had plenty of time.  The brother that received the letter believed it right away.  He shared with another brother, who did not.  They took it to their father (their mother had already died), their father is the man their mother married after Sher was born.  He confirmed it.  All this happened before Sher knocked on the brother's door.

So, Sher knocks on the door, brother, Paul answers and knows immediately who she is because she looks just like their mother.  Tears flowed, hugs were given and an impromptu reunion happened the next weekend where Sher met one sister and three brothers (the mother and one other sister had passed away).  Sher couldn't have been happier.

Her sister Maryanne came out for a visit last fall.  She's wonderful, and confirms that humor must be hereditary.  Two of Sher's brothers are coming out in January and we're looking forward to meeting them.  During the investigation of family, Sher found out she has cousins in Wyoming and she and her sister (who also had never met these cousins) went up to visit them.

Weddings
The boys babysitter got married this past summer.  Nothing makes you feel old like attending the wedding of your kids' babysitter.  She was a beautiful bride and it was great to see her marry such a wonderful man.  Unfortunately, we have to find a new babysitter. They asked Jake to be a ring bearer and he got to wear a tux.  He loved that.
Kate getting married

Jason's cousin also got married this year.  We're so happy she chose Hawaii because not only was it wonderful to see the beautiful and talented Emily get married, it was great to have a family vacation in one of the more beautiful places on earth!
Emily Getting Married

Fort lots of pictures of Hawaii, just click on to January on the side tab....

Kid stuff:
lego qualifying tourney
Karate tourney #2
baseball and swimming, same day
karate tourney #1
championship game
Jake pitching

My friends are so funny:
One of the best pranks ever was played on me this year...it still makes me laugh thinking about it

my funny friends


Enjoy the year in review...and hope to hear from you all in the coming year!

2011 Christmas Letter

2011 has been quite the year.  It was so hard to choose only a couple of pictures to represent what we've done.  I'll start with what the kids have been doing, because, frankly, they are what have been keeping us busy!

Jacob Michael (Jake)

He's 12 and half now, and in his first year of middle school. He's 5'6, 98 lbs and wears a size 11 shoe.  He's going to take after his name-sake, my dad, and will be a tall one.  He's very much into sports, we're not sure where that comes from and seems to have some talent at it.  He started a program called Sea Cadets which is a young-navy kind of thing.  And....yup, girls seem to be in the picture, but he plays his cards close to his chest.  I hear about it from the girl's little brother who visits the school nurse (at the school where I work).....gotta love working for the same school district your kids go to.

 Here's Jake doing an 'exercise'.  Not only do Sea Cadets help the boys get prepared for military service later, they also do community service.  This time they helped put the Easter Seals camp to sleep for the winter.  He's loving it and moving up in the ranks quickly.  He's seriously thinking about joining the Navy when he grows up.  We're stressing that he needs to go to college first and join as an officer, like his Uncle, Jose.

 Basketball, kind of an obvious choice for such a tall kiddo.  He really likes it.

 He joined track at school and had a good time.  Those long legs were ideal for hurdles...although the little guy next to him, beat him (he's on Jake's baseball team too and that kid gets to first base before his ball gets to outfield, he's quick)

 Jake's baseball team made it to the championship game this summer.  They won every game during the play-offs, but lost the championship game so came in second for the league.  They did great. Jake's favorite position is third base, and he like to pitch once in awhile too.

He's our funny, well-liked, easy-going kid.  He'll still give us hugs and kisses when none of his friends are around and once in awhile will even choose to spend time with us over his friends (but not often).

Isaac Gabriel (Isaac)
He's also going to be a tall one, he's 9 and 3 months, he's the youngest in his class and about a head taller then most of the kiddos.  He's 5 ft tall and 120 pounds (mostly muscle, you should see the thighs and chest on this kid) and wears a 6 1/2 shoe.  He's good at sports too, but enjoys solo sports over team sports.

 One of Isaac's favorite sports is Karate.  He's quickly moved up to a purple belt this year.  He's been able to compete in two tournaments and brought home first place in his "Kata" and second in sparring both times.

 During the summer he swims.  He's been doing this a couple of years and that upper body strength helps him get to the other end pretty quickly.  He's working on getting his dive and strokes down and is hoping to grow some gills....

They started a club at his school for lego Robots.  The kids program the robots to do certain tasks.  They also had to come up with a solution to keep food safe.  Then they compete with other teams.  They actually qualified during the first competition and went to state where they were in the running for rookie team of the year.  This is right up Isaac's alley and it's something he and dad can do together too.  (Isaac is very much his father's child).

Isaac is also a funny boy who makes us laugh all the time.  His conversations run from discussing splitting atoms and pulling his finger kind of jokes.  He's super smart, moves up a grade in math and argues with us all the time....to the point where he now starts an argument with, "Mom, I'm not arguing with you, I just want to discuss why I think it should be....."

This year

besides going to a myriad of sporting events we had a chance to go to Hawaii for Jason's cousin's wedding.  One of our best vacations ever!

And, in case you were wondering, Jason and I also have a life...well sort of.  Jason's working at Perficient, and has been there eleven years.  

I quit my job as a dialysis nurse (being on call, beepers going off at 2 in the morning, driving to Denver Health during a blizzard and working 20+ hours a day -- all too hard on a family) and took a job as a school nurse.  The job itself is interesting and the hours are perfect to help raise our two active boys.  It's the best of both worlds (although I do have a soft spot for dialysis, it was a lot of fun and really interesting!).  I'm almost done with my Master's in Nursing (next April!). Not sure yet what I'll do with that, but I know for sure I'm going to take time off before deciding.

All in all we've been very blessed, we have two such great boys, live in a great neighborhood, everyone is happy and healthy.

Our prayer for you all is that you too find yourselves in good health and are happy.

Have a wonderful and blessed holiday!

Love,

The Zimmers

Jason, Tracey, Jake and Isaac

It's time for a letter

Dear Homeless Guy,

I appreciate that we are in an economic down turn right now and things are tight and that might be the reason you and your friends were on the corner of Speer and 8th with your homemade signs and bottles wrapped in paper bags. I was on my way to work, rushing between two hospitals (where, by the way, one of your buddies tried to pee on me when I was taking care of him) and that's why I was eating in my car, so yes I did avert my eyes because I felt horribly guilty as you rubbed your tummy in the universal "I'm hungry" sign as you waved your sign angrily at me. I'm so happy you got a laugh from your cohorts....which makes me wonder why you bought that bottle of whatever that you so cleverly hid in that brown bag instead of buying some food if you were so damn hungry. I digress -- I really do feel the plight of those who have lost their jobs and are losing their homes and do think something should be done about that (and have and will continue to donate to worthy causes that help those in need), but when I see you and your brethren (fellow homeless guys, in case you're going to blame FREE public education for your current plight) drinkin', laughin' and hangin' out makes me (almost) want to become Republican.

In the future, I'd appreciate it if you didn't yell, "Bitch" at me when I choose not to give you my last dollar. I need that dollar to buy the tar they call coffee at the hospital so that I can stay awake until midnight to take care of people, some of them who may very well be you or your asshole friends who thought it was so funny of you to call me names....while on may way to WORK (look the word up, you have plenty of copious free time!).

Sincerely,
me

Damn Drivers....

Dear Lady in the Blue Honda blocking the intersection at the grocery store today,

While I appreciate that you did stop your car to talk on the cell phone while simultaneously consulting a map, could you have done it, say, in a parking spot rather then the entrance to the grocery store parking lot. Me and the 3 cars behind me weren't really thrilled to wait while you got your sh...stuff together. And what was with the honking, did you really think I was going to pass you going against oncoming traffic? And isn't honking really supposed to be reserved for, oh, I don't know, the people who are doing it RIGHT to point out to the idiots that are doing WRONG that they should beware . I should have been honking at you. But whatever, maybe it was opposite day?

Sincerely,
Someone who is glad she didn't have ice-cream in the trunk

It's time for a letter...

Dear Teenaged driver in the brand new Volkswagon Jetta,

I am so sorry that you turned left while I was turning right. You may want to review that driving rule book you probably didn't actually read before you took your driving test you probably barely passed. And by the way, speeding up to cut me off because you wanted the outermost lane that I appropriately turned into, is NOT a good idea when you are ONE block away from a school....you know, where CHILDREN will be walking. I realize that you most likely are over privileged (I'm assuming you didn't pay for brand new Jetta yourself) and my mom-mobile may be offensive and you probably didn't know that I would share my lane with you and therefor thought you had to take it, like the spoiled brat that you appear to be. What I don't understand is why you had to lift your hand out the sun roof of your very cool black Jetta and flip me off (by the way, another note from the rule book, hands at the 10 and 2 position, there are no exceptions for flipping people off). I hadn't honked at you, I didn't even raise my hands in the What the H... position, I'm assuming it was the screeching of my tires that was horribly offensive to your ears that prompted the gesture...and by the way, let me remind you dear Jetta driver, there were CHILDREN in the area.

Sincerely,
Someone who wishes I knew your mother and would tell her what you did and if she's not the overindulgent woman I guess her to be, she'd revoke your privileges until you learned some manners.

Letters....

My blog assignment from Martha is to write open ended letters. It's an awesome cathartic thing to do, I had so much fun and encourage some of you out there in blogland to do it too.

Dear Hubster,
I know you think I'm crazy, but I really wish you would be irritated right along side me when the 'culdesac living, poodle owning, nosy, has the perfect daughter' neighbor says something stupid!

*conversation with hubby a couple days ago about newest irritating incident:

Me (M): Doesn't she just bug you?
Hubster (H): No
M: why not
H: I just don't let her get to me
M: Even if she snorted in disgust at you?
H: You snort in disgust at me all the time.
M: (sigh) I really wish she would irritate you like she does me.
H: (laughs) would you listen to yourself


Dear Alpha moms,
Take a Valium! You make it stressful for the rest of us when we don't live up to your volunteer expectations. Sending a 'crisp' email hours before a function about what still needs to be done makes me crazy. If I wanted someone to bark orders at me like that I'd go back to work as a paralegal and work for an ass of an attorney and get paid for it. I'm not going to take that punishment for FREE. So puh-lease, before I drop out of the Hospitality Committee get a prescription for Xanax or Valium or something calming. THIS SHOULD BE FUN! And the other alphas --- THIS IS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, stop freaking out about scores, RECESS is GOOD the children do NOT need to be locked up and drilled for hours. And NO, I'm not a bad mother when I don't force my child to do math sheets daily. They will most likely still get into college -- I did.


Dear School Gods,
Why does the fall semester start THAT Monday? We will either have to leave brother dearest's wedding early and drive a few hours Saturday night or drive Seattle to Denver on Sunday (approx 1000 miles). And thank you for getting me through this semester. Hope you'll still be around for the horrendous summer semester coming up -- Patho and A&P2--Holy Cow!

Dear neighborhood mommies,
I just heart you guys! You're the best, you get me through the day, it's so wonderful relaxing with you over coffee. Thanks for listening, thanks for talking, thanks for just being friends!

That's it I'm sending a letter!

The challenge: Write 5 open letters. People, places, objects, animals. It doesn't matter. Write 5 succinct letters and express what you can't express in person. Strangers? People you'll never see again? People you're afraid to be completely honest with? Corporations? Celebrities? Your sister's cats? Write to 'em.

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I am too young to be using your services AGAIN. Please let the root canal tomorrow be successful and the painkillers plentiful.
Sincerely,
Tracey
FYI your services were last used in my early twenties with the removal of my wisdom teeth. And by the way thanks for the percocet at that time, so much better then a quarter.

Dearest Jose
You are a great brother, stay safe out there in the mid-east doing the things you're not allowed to tell us you're doing.
Your older and wiser sister

To the Citibank Customer Service Rep in India:
I don't care if your name is Buffy, you can't speak English and I DID NOT read the letter incorrectly.
Sincerely,
Former US Customer Service Rep who never told the customer she was an idiot.

Dear Stork,
So sorry you won't be making any more visits here, but thanks for the short people in the house, I'm really enjoying them.
T

Dearest Darling Jason
You were right...just not telling you about what or when
love you
your devoted wife