Learning Lessons

Sometimes I hate that I have had NO experience with sports, scouts, leagues, or, really, anything concerning groups as a kids. I'm expected to know these things with my kids and I don't have the first clue!! I just bought Justinbustin a mouthguard for his flag footbal team last week. Today we thought he lost it so we ran around trying to find another - but they're all sold out because all the sport leagues are starting up right now. We got home and found his, then tried to "custom fit" it like all the guys kept telling me it was so easy to do. Well there WAS a space for him to be able to breathe even with it in his mouth before we placed it in boiling water and stuck it in his mouth to custom fit it, but there isn't anymore. Apparently that part melts without keeping the little (harder) plastic part that keeps it from melting together in it. D'oh! Now I have to hunt down a new one. I feel like Dads should be the stay-at-home parent with boys because I have no idea I'm doing.

I don't want to forget these moments

These moments where I drive to pick up Shawners with the wind blowing in my hair through the sunroof and the sunshine falling on my skin. Where the world seems perfect and everything in it's place. When I pick him up he gives me a big hug with open arms, a smile, and a "Look what I did today Mom!" He proceeds to pull out of his backpack pictures he has drawn of easter eggs, pictures he's colored of Jesus risen, a dinosaur he's drawn that his teacher "is teaching him how to draw", a necklace he's made out of beads and a wooden cross, a picture of you loving me, me loving you, and us living in a happy tree. He shows me each one by one and tells me about how, why, and when he made it. We talk about where we're going on a date for the day. Sometimes it's Starbucks with curry chicken for me, milk and a cookie for him, Connect Four for both of us and a book we read page by page taking turns. Today it was Toys R Us. He'd saved up his money for a toy. On the way home he sings, "I I I I I, lo lo lo lo lo ve ve ve ve ve ve you you you you you you!" I remember when he used to say many times a day, "I love you beautiful." Not so far away. I'm sure he still says it, but he's moved on to the happy tree. I tell him, "I love you handsome." I do. These moments are precious and our time is limited. He won't always be in kindergarten. Pretty soon he will be in a class where they are pressuring him to write, to learn, to write, to read, and to write some more. Some days he'll hate it, somedays I'll hate it. And yet, we'll do it, because it's the society of education in this country. There won't be kindergarten days for long and I am sad at the thought of leaving them behind.

Altered State of Mind

Um, I'm pretty sure my state of mind has been altered by this sinus infection. Most moments I feel like I'm in a cloud. Things are moving slower around me. I'm moving slower around the things around me. I feel like one of those people who with a wave of their hand says, "Whatever is fine." Studying can only be done one page of about eight problems at a time, otherwise my head spins and I feel dizzy and nauseated, like I want to throw up. I have no idea how I'm going to pull off this test tomorrow only studying eight problems at a time. I keep thinking I'll get my equilibrium back, but so far it's not coming.

Surfacing

After a week I am finally on the road to recovery. My house has taken a big bomb in the meantime. Brando very sweetly unpacked, putting his and the boys stuff away, and mine, well, mine's still sitting. EVERYwhere. Gah. My house has completely blown up in my face while I've been sick and I just don't freaking care. Every bone in my body is exhausted and I can't move it enough to want to super clean the whole house. I did clean my bathroom yesterday top to bottom so I could feel a sense of cleanliness. Right now I want to work on the schoolroom but I just got through another round of studying and my brain is exhausted. My body too. For some reason this bout of sickness has linked my physical and mental strength. I went to class on Thursday, as I have a test next Tuesday and could not miss another class, and my head was swimming so bad and my brain hurt so much I cried for an hour when I got out of class. I called my sister to see if she could take the boys for a few hours, but now she is sick too! Any way, I am surfacing, though. Slowly but surely, and I can't wait to post pics of meeting CECILIA!!!! OH MY GOD I MET CECILIA :) !!!! And CAMELS & CHOCOLATE, too!!! And their boys. And of course (actually that's a pretty big of course as she was studying for the final for her MASTERS) I saw lovable Courtney, and got to meet her boy as well! Once this sinus infection and fluid in my ears puts its ugly face away and my antibiotics have fully kicked in there will be lots to post.

Never Drink Spoiled Milk

Hi there... this is somechick, guest blogging! This is my first time, so be nice. Today we have a lesson in milk. And drinking it... spoiled.

I log onto MySpace today to see an update in "status" from my older sister. It says "[Sister] thinks she drank spoiled milk... I'm home sick!" Cutest thing if you can hear her saying it. So I send her a comment saying:

Spoiled milk!? EWE!!!!! :P I will not TOUCH the carton if it's near the date. Even if it's a sell buy... you don't mess with milk.

[Sister] replies:

Ugh, I know. And I'm one of those that thinks I'm never gonna get sick from bad food. And I'll even drink after the expiration (that 7days or whatever) if it smells good. [BF] worries about everything being bad. So the story is: We bought it like on Sunday or something. Unpacked all the groceries except for the milk!! Left it in the car overnight until I remembered it Monday morning and called [BF] to see if he could check the trunk. He found it and said it still felt cold so I said let's put it in the fridge and see how it smells later. (It makes it back to the fridge around noon.) So i smelt it later and it smelled pretty good so decided to keep it. Then yesterday morning I smelt it before I took it to work with me for my cereal and it had like a small funk smell, but not bad enough to scare me (that was my big mistake). So yeah, and of course I drank it with cereal so I couldn't taste if it was bad. Then my stomach was rumbling. I made it through work, but last night was miserable and today I am just recovering. :( I will take your advice from now on.

M is the same way, brave (aka, stupid) and drinks the milk based on said "sniff test" without hesitation. If the milk sat out too long after cereal I will by a new carton! Am I crazy?

Stress

Hi. I thought I'd write about STRESS.
Right now I'm learning about being a new mom and new places away from
friends and family at the same time.  There are days when the stress gets
to me and I feel as if I might not be able to keep it up.

My grandma gave me some sage advice when I was in college.  She advised
that, when working with people or having another kind of job that doesn't
have completion, have something to look at and say, I did that and it's
finished.  It can be reading a book about something one wants to learn,
cleaning out a closet,  writing a story, making a piece of jewelry, giving
a party... Whatever it is, we need something tangible we can finish
because people things and some jobs are never completed.  So, finding
myself a bit stressed, I've taken up her advice again.  I've dug out a
how-to-draw book and my pencils and even if it's just a few minutes here
and there, I'm working on my skills and I can walk by and say - I drew
that walnut!  Not only am I feeling less stressed, when I'm with my baby I
am more aware, more present and able to enjoy that moment.

What great advice have you been given about stress?  How do you implement
it?

posted by b

California

was a blast. Unfortunately I got sick the last evening and have had a fever of 102 since. So fun updates will have to come later. In the meantime hopefully the guest bloggers I totally ditched on last week because I didn't want to use my mil's computer to access my blog will pull thru for me and not be too busy this Easter week.

I lost my cell phone!!!!

My adorable pink and perfect in it's case cell phone has completely 100% disappeared. The last time I remember I had it was on the way home, I remember calling Uhaul to check on the refund for our storage and then *poof* it was gone. The boys and I stopped by Taco Bell drive thru, then home. We didn't even stop to get the mail! Brando and I have turned the house and the car upside down looking for it. The worst part is we take off tomorrow for our spring break vacay and NO CELL PHONE. Words can not even begin to describe how disappointed I am right now!!!

Update: I found my phone!! Wheeeeee! I heard it vibrating as I was sitting at my computer tonight. It was in between two Star Kist Tuna Lunch-to-gos in the pantry. Earlier I had grabbed the lunch-to-go tunas and stuck them in my purse aka "mommy bag" on the way out the door so the boys would have something in their tummies before the appointment we were headed to. When the appointment was a no show and we headed back home I decided we were too hungry to get home and make something so we stopped by Taco Bell. When I got home I thought nothing of grabbing both the lunch-to-go tunas and sticking them back in the pantry! Turns out my cell phone was sandwiched in between them. I am SOO relieved I found my cell phone!!

Conversations of the Little Guy and the Big Guy

BG: You know that Extreme Home Makeover show? How do you get them to build you a house?

Me: You make a video and tell them your story.

BG: I want to do that.

LG: Yeah, they make really good houses! And they will make it however we like.

BG: I like Legos.

LG: Sweeet, you would have a lego room. And my room would be animals!

dear b,

Would you like to guest blog on here? I miss you and hearing about your life. I'd love to hear about it on here for me to have always. Even just your thoughts on something, anything. I still have your cards you wrote for me like you did for the girls in college. I look at them and feel your encouragement and your heart often. Oh, and I love the name of your street : ) . I think about you and I hope baby a is doing well, and you and s! 

*B and her hubby were our welcome team when we first came to our church. Her hubby contacted us after we attended our church for the first time and filled out a guest card. I had no idea a welcome team was even in place, I was just desperate for a heart for my sinking spirit. They called and asked if they could help us with getting plugged in. Her hubby called the leaders of every single Sunday school for me and found the perfect one for us (the young marrieds group we are still in). I was desperate for a community and ended up meeting with b several times about where I could get plugged in. Turns out we were both desperate for a kindred spirit, and though we've seen each other few and far between as she lived on the opposite side of town until recently and is now a travelling woman, we're kindred spirits for life. She's one of those friends that are rare to find.*

*Also I would heart for anybody else who would want to guest blog to do so. I thought of b because of how much I would love to hear from her! But if you've never done it and you'd like to give it a try, shoot me an email sundrops at gmail dot com, or if you've done it before and are an expert, by all means I'd love to have you here*

SUCH a Fun Weekend!!

And it's only halfway over! This morning we went to the 17th Annual Seton Mock Surgery where they have actual doctors and nurses showing people all the procedures they do and one gets to play with all the tools they use - the fifty thousand dollars worth of tools they use! It was AHmazing, as it was when we went two years ago. The kids were SO excited to go again!! Part of the fun and motivation for getting past the "scariness" of all the tools, and blood, and sharp things (and groups of people for Shawners) is being able to pull candy out of stomachs and throats, from dummies of course. The doctors and nurses are wonderful in explaining each procedure, why and how they do it.

This afternoon we went to Shawner's soccer team skill assessment for his first ever soccer team. On the way there, driving behind Brando who had the boys (we took two cars so he could go to work afterwards), with my sunroof open and the wind blowing in my hair I felt like such a GOOD mom, my kid is going to be in SPORTS! Turns out I was the only mom with heels on and a cute outfit - everybody else was in running/workout clothes. D'oh! Oh well, once I coaxed Shawners past the feeling that everybody's looking at him, I felt like a good mom again and was so proud of him for working past it.

Tonight a neighbor of mine, her two boys, my boys and I barbecued hamburgers, hot dogs, and bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos by the pool while the boys played board games. Her and I  drank a bottle of Riesling while we got to know each other better. After the food we roasted s'mores over the grill. How FUN! I had never thought to roast marshmallows over the grill before, I've always just missed being able to make s'mores by the bonfires at the beach. Now we have our own way to make them here! Her and I had such a blast laughing at ourselves and how insane we were taking four boys to the grocery store, and then barbecuing at 7:30 at night and keeping them out until 10pm. Her little one was in the pool by the time we were done and she was downing her last glass of wine trying to not stress out over it. Fortunately I was there to assure her if it was my kid I'd be doing the same thing, and we laughed it off. They are moving tomorrow back to Ama.rillo which is eight hours away tomorrow, but I am sooo glad we got the chance to really hang out together instead of the lengthy conversations we've had when we catch each other on the way to our individual apartments. Thank God for myspace so we can stay in touch : ) .

Ahh, I have just enough wine in my system that this post just flowed. Such a nice feeling. xoxo