Happy Birthday M

Nine years ago this morning I was in Maryland, in our little house in New Market. After getting to bed late at 11:45pm, my contractions started immediately so I never went to sleep... We paged our midwife and as we waited for her call, got packed for the hospital just in case. In the meantime we called and woke up a neighbor, Lynette Johnson. Got the call back from the midwife, dropped A off at the Johnson's at 2:20am, then headed to the hospital (which was a good 20-30 min away in Frederick). Got checked in by 3am. All my pain was in my back and I couldn't hardly sit down... so I refused to let them put me in a wheelchair to get me up to a delivery room. They had to get an entire bag of fluids in me before they'd give me the epidural, which painfully took forever.  I was at 9.5cm before they'd give me the shot, but thankfully it still happened. My little girl came quickly after that - she was born at 4:57 am and has been a morning person ever since!
That seems like an entirely different life now - I'm old.  I love my girl. She is helpful, pleasant, clever, a hard worker, goal-oriented and a great big sister. 

•  She is highly responsible, honest and for the most part is happy to do her chores every day. She gets up and makes her bed every. single. morning. without ever being reminded. 
•  She loves lists, drawing, playing at the neighbor's house, swimming, cooking and organizing. She loves to clean and help decorate or do crafty projects with me and teach family home evening. She is always interested in my vinyl business and is concerned that I get my work done, too.  She always wants to help me.
•  I had parent teacher conferences yesterday and her teacher couldn't be happier with her. M is way ahead of the curve in the class and has straight A's. Mrs. Murphy was telling me how sometimes she tries to be funny and sarcastic with the class, and a lot of the kids just stare at her, confused. M however gets her jokes every time and throws the sarcasm right back at her.  (Have I mentioned I love my kids' teachers this year? Because I do.)  She has lots of friends right now, even though there's a bit of the "she doesn't want to be my friend" or "so and so was mean to me" etc. that happens in third grade. M was excited to go to school this morning in her new clothes and accessories (Thanks Grandma!) and even had me curl her hair. 
•  She is in LOVE with anything and everything zebra right now. Her birthday present was a big canvas print of a zebra for her room - she loves it. She is totally drawn to obsessed with? anything black and white and pink and loves bling on everything. 
•  She is in synchronized swimming 2x a week and tries to practice stretching (goal = splits) at home. She's been in piano for a little over a year now, and though she hasn't progressed as quickly as I would have hoped she really tries to get her 20 minutes of practice in daily. "MOM set the timer!"  "How many minutes left?"  She likes to play primary songs and do her favorites over and over. She's playing Teach Me to Walk in the Light right now.
• Every once in a while she comes up with some zingers that crack us up. The girls and Daddy were playing Monopoly the other night and A was winning - and gloating. M got mad at her and snarked something about rubbing their faces in it like a dog  (what was it honey?)  . A couple of weeks ago I had spent the day rearranging A's room, which M was totally jealous about when she got home. She yelled at me that it wasn't fair because her own room looked like "a hideous troll".  Hilarious.  10 minutes later she had cleaned her room up and reorganized some things herself and was happy as can be about it.
•  She is great with J, playing with him, making sure he's got breakfast, packs his lunch often, carries his backpack for him and is basically his second Mommy.  She's the one who picks him up from his classroom every day and make sure he gets to the bus.
• M is a great eater and likes a great variety of foods. She is not a fan of mushrooms or sweet potatoes, and rarely chocolate, but she loves salad, carrots, grape tomatoes, spinach, chips and salsa, and all kinds of soups. She will get up and make herself an egg in the morning - which she would rather have than the pancakes and syrup that her siblings are addicted to. She chooses gatorade over soda when we go to QT. It frustrates me that she's the one who tries to eat so well and that she's going to be the one who will probably struggle with weight, versus her sister.
• This girl needs her SLEEP. She is a bear when she stays up too late, but is the most pleasant ever as long as she gets to bed on time. • She is very much a reward-oriented person and loves to earn behavior bucks at school. She totally understands the idea of earning her way and is quite vocal when she sees her siblings getting away with things . I guess you could say she's a natural conservative who doesn't tolerate entitlement...lol

Dear Santa

I have a lot on my wish list lately. I figure Santa's got an unlimited budget, or at least my kids think he does, so why not shoot for it all?

1. Citrus trees planted along the side of my house - 1 blood orange, 1 lemon, 1 grapefruit, and 1 navel- and then taken care of by a landscaper from now on, along with the rest of our bushes and trees
2. Sonicare toothbrush - Healthy White, I think it's called?
3. My piano tuned
4. Sparky I-phone case - this one http://www.fanatics.com/catalog/product/Arizona_State_Sun_Devils_iPhone_4_Silicone_Case_-_Maroon

5. New white king-size Egyptian cotton sheets for my bed
5b. While we're at it, four sets of soft high-thread count white twin sheets for the rest of the beds in the house
6. Les Mis and/or Anything Goes tickets at Gammage
7. Gift cards for Tia Rosa's, Sassy's Cafe, Charming Charlie's, Home Depot
8. Table saw
9. Compound miter saw
10. Leaf blower - that backpack kind that you control with your arm like landscapers have

11. Kids' bathroom, and downstairs bathroom, painted
12. Lighting for Master Bathroom 13. A NEW CAR 14. Yellow placemats for my kitchen table
15. Coordinating seat cushions for my kitchen chairs
16. New light fixtures and faucets for my bathrooms
Five of these Giagni Pearl faucets would be fine, and even better if I didn't have to install them myself:

17. a new ironing board
18. a Dyson vacuum cleaner, or actually, just any vacuum cleaner.
19. Shutters in the loft
20. Countertops & new flooring for my office...tee hee hee

My goals.

okay, for the record, I am able to do many things. However, I am unable to do all of the following simultaneously.

1. Keep 4000 square feet cleaned, picked up, dusted, vacuumed, with bathrooms sanitized and laundry and dishes done all at the same time.
2. Work and make a significant contribution to our household income.
3. Make sure three kids accomplish their chores, practice music, do their homework, bathe, brush their teeth twice a day and not kill each other on a daily basis.
4. Do my calling, go visiting teaching, attend the temple and read my scriptures. Gardening? Indexing? Are you kidding me?
5. Work out daily and cook healthy meals, and keep my children from eating junk.
6. Prepare for, pay for and then taxi my children to their various activities... piano lessons, gymnastics, orchestra, Let's Play Music class, synchronized swimming, activity days, library, school events...
7. (Smart) shop for the things we need and take advantage of sales and coupons.
8. Spend quality time once in a while with my children, my husband, my library books, and ASU's football team.
 9. Home improvement projects.
10. Keep in touch with old and new friends and offer service.
11. Journaling, Scrapbooking, etc.

Ummmm..... how about you?

Update.

JULY:

We spent a low-key lovely & cool fourth of July at home painting our master bathroom (ran out of paint and it's STILL not done, sigh) and then going over to swim/bbq with family. We didn't even watch fireworks, lame.

I came down with yet another sore throat, and then had a bad reaction to a facial that week as well, so spent several days uncomfortably sick ON TOP of burns and fever blisters all over my chin too... it was not awesome.

We spent the rest of the month running around between piano lessons and swim lessons and swim meets and synchronized swimming practices and qualifying meets and and..... man, I'm going to start ranking the end of swimming events in July right up there with the end of school events in May in terms of keeping us busy! Here's A in her synchro outfits & makeup... we had to "Knox" her hair into a bun for the performances, which entailed mixing that unflavored gelatin stuff you use to make jam out of into a SUPER thick gel and then painting it on her hair... once it dries it's completely stiff and won't come out in cold water... Crazy. A HATED it. Middle photo is her with her Duo partner Rebecca.

M tried out a little synchro workshop one Saturday and now has the bug... she may be doing a year-round thing with the Arizona Aqua Stars. Stay tuned to see if she stays interested and I can get it all worked out...

N and I were able to go see Singin' in the Rain (my favorite movie ever ever) in a theater... so totally amazing awesome. I was in a good mood for days afterward. Thanks to Grandma and Poppy who melted out at a swim meet in our place so we could go.

SIDENOTE: We bought these super fun deals called "pogo passes" and have been able to do a ton of stuff so far... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT - CHECK IT OUT AT POGOPASS.COM. We took the kids to Big Surf and to a Rattlers game.

The game was too loud and too late for them so they didn't want to go again, but I can say that N and I are officially HOOKED on arena football games! We used our pogo passes and went the next two weeks! For free! SO MUCH FUN. Total opposite of a baseball game, lol. High energy, fast paced, high scoring, lots of gimmicks, super exciting. No one EVER leaves a game early because the whole thing can change in a second! It's awesome. The Rattlers ended up as National Champions, by the way... we got to see all three of their playoff games here in Phoenix. Call it white trash football if you will... but don't knock it til you try it!!! Also was fun because I got to hang out with the lovely Janna at the games too! Don't mind my hair... I'm growing it out and it always looks like death.

A whirlwind trip to California brought us to the end of July. We alternated two days at Disney and two days at Newport beach, (necessary to recover from Disney days). So much fun. We had a 2-bedroom suite at our resort and were able to spread out and enjoy the space.

D-land: Both the girls got chosen (thank goodness) to be Jedis in the Jedi training show
. Next time I'm hoping J will want to do it! My favorite quote from one of the Jedi cast members to M, as she's standing in front of Darth Vader, was "Keep smiling. He HATES THAT!" Super funny. By the way they've redone Star Tours and it's great! We utilized our fast passes well and did everything and went ALL day long, even stuck it out for the Fantasmic light show too. J was a little concerned in some of the rides, don't want to say "scared" but he held on to me tight during Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, and Space Mountain. His quote of the day was "I want to grow up first before I go on that ride again". Cutie. Love him.

California Adventure was great, except for the whole losing-A-for-30-minutes-thing. California Screamin' and Tower of Terror were once again hits! Our favorite ride on the trip was Radiator Springs Racers... the big new ride in Cars Land. So much fun, and worth all the hype, surprisingly. All three of the kiddos were into their lanyards and getting PINS. Sheesh. I think M could look at pins in pin shops all day long. Oh wait, she did. We also got J his first set of ears. I love that he chose to go with the classic blue. :) The girls and I hit the "Mad T" concert (crazy Disney-esque costumed music group doing covers of a bunch of pop songs... they were actually really good and the girls LOVED it. Here is J in his 3-D glasses for Star Tours, and his newly acquired ears and lanyard!

Newport: Man, how I love this beach, We don't even try to go any other beach because I know it would just be disappointing. The weather was a little cold for me to get in the water, but I totally prefer to lounge on the sand and sleep/read anyway. Kids had fun boogie boarding and digging for sand crabs. Nick was in charge of getting dinner one evening on the beach...and he came back with pizza and salad.... ummm, can you say NOT beach friendly, especially with the wind blowing? Kids liked it anyway.

August:

Home again, home again... I threw myself into a huge vinyl order once we got back in town, and cranked out nearly 75 signs for a school in Texas in less than a week. Shipped them out and was kicking myself that I hadn't charged a little more... and then I got a dreaded email from the principal saying that most of the signs had arrived damaged... seems that even though I thought I had them wrapped up and cushioned REALLY well, the screws on the back of each one scratched the vinyl on the next one. UGH. I re-did almost 50 signs and sent the last of them replacements a few days ago. I'm trying to repeat the phrase "learning experience" over and over and over again so I don't get sick about it again.

We used our Pogo passes once again and all went to Jump Street for an FHE a couple of weeks ago... TOTALLY AWESOME. I swear I want a membership there instead of at my gym, my abs got a WORKOUT that night! N and Dave Meadows played dodgeball with the kids for a good 45 minutes. He was as sweaty and gross as he is when playing basketball... I think we all had a great time.


Also before school started we traded up to this beauty. I was kind of sad to see my old piano go, I've had it my whole life! Lighting is bad because it's in front of the window, but you'll just have to trust me that it's super pretty!  Girls are getting better and better at the piano, and I love the richness of the sound of our new one.

SCHOOL STARTED! Yippee!!

This little guy has taken it all in stride, having to wear pants and real shoes everyday, sitting in a desk, taking his lunch... I love it. He hasn't complained once and seems to like it a lot. Even when the bus takes FOREVER to get home sometimes. No discipline issues I've heard of either... I'm not even sure if his teacher does the whole color-system thing anyway. She's just so "teachery" I can't stand it. It's awesome.

Speaking of music and new stuff, J started a "Let's Play Music" class a couple of weeks ago and is LOVING it.  We have a super cute teacher in my ward. "Miss Jenni" is amazing.

I am quite enjoying having some peace and quiet to myself. Doing lots of projects... vinyl orders, hosting bridal showers, reading books, going to lunch... lol. I am doing things like cleaning and laundry too, I promise. Planning on going to a D-backs game tomorrow night (again, thanks pogo pass!) and looking forward to ASU FOOTBALL STARTING NEXT WEEK! YESSSSS!!!! GO DEVILS!

California.

Swimming. Jacuzzi. Disneyland. Pirates of the Caribbean. Indiana Jones. Astroblasters. Space Mountain. $40 pizza. Jedi training. Star tours. Carousel. Finding Nemo Submarine. Monorail. Leaving the park for a break and our timeshare owner update. (thanks for the Disney Dollars folks!) Ihop for dinner. Mickey's Soundsational Parade. Splash Mountain. Haunted Mansion. Fantasmic. Pirates of the Carribean. Bed. Sleeping In. Swimming. Reading. Newport Beach. Reading. Boogie boarding. Playing in the sand. Sleeping. Fish tacos. Shopping for new shoes for Mommy and a self-charging Iphone case for Daddy. Bed. California Adventure. Cars Land. Luigi's Flying Tires. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. Toy Story Midway Mania. Carousel. Silly Symphony Swings. Goofy's Sky School. Jumping Jellyfish. $45 mexican food lunch. Soarin Over California. Shopping and pon trading. Play Parade. Monster's Inc ride. Bug's Land rides with Josh. Losing Allison for 30 minutes. Grizzly River Run. Radiator Springs Racers. California Screaming. Tower of Terror. Mickey-shaped pretzels. Mad T concert. House of Cards Dance Party. World of Color Show. Shopping. Back to Disneyland. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Bed. Newport Beach. Napping. Reading. Smash Ball. Pizza. Swimming. TV marathon of Property Wars. Reading. Bed. Done.

Palm Springs

This last week the kids and I took a trip to Palm Springs with a couple of friends. (I know, I know, it's totally hot there too!)  The kids were all awesome the whole way to and from in the car. Couldn't ask for better. Spent time in the hotel pool, at Ruby's Diner (where they have the MOST AMAZING sweet potato fries I've ever had), and then spent all of Tuesday at Knott's Soak City water park. J was a little timid at first, but by the end of the day was fearless on all the huge water slides. His favorite thing was to lay in an inner tube going down the lazy river... he is his mother's child.  lol. He also loved the wave pool.  Of course I was in the water and wasn't going to carry my camera around all day, but here are some images I pulled from online: This was like an enormous climber/splash zone, with sprays and waterfalls raining down on you everywhere... J in the morning was terrified of the big bucket - - (see that on top?) dumping on him... It would slowly fill up and then dump HUGE amounts of water when it was full... however by the end of the day J was begging to go over there to the "dump fing". Fun.

This was our favorite slide of the day... but oh, what a HIKE! There were two- and four-person tubes (and since I was riding with the kiddos, guess who had to haul that thing up the million and two staircases? ME. It was crazy steep at the top and then you hit this funnel that sloshes you back and forth... so crazy, you feel like you're going to fall out every time!

And this, my friends, is the Tidal Wave Tower that I was too chicken to go on... A did it once, but I think it freaked her out a little... but M went down THREE times. Wow, it was scary just watching her. Seven stories high. Insane in the membrane.

I had major shin splints (?) the next day from all the climbing up hills/stairs! Quite the workout, actually. The next day we took a tram up the San Jacinto mountains and hiked around. This tram rose like 8500 feet and is apparently the second largest in the world... who knew? We took our lunch and hiked a couple of miles, let the kids climb on rocks and explore caves. So fun! Oh, and did I mention it was like 70 degrees up there? Bliss.

Summer.

We're already half done, woohoo! What we've done so far: Picked up Aunt Cheryl and crew from the airport and spent the weekend in Safford with them and this cutie, AKA my great nephew Trenton!

Got new pillow covers made for my couch (so cute! Love how they coordinate with my lamp AND my yellow chevron pillows too) (with zippers, thanks to Cheryl)

and a valance made for my kitchen window. LOVE how it turned out. Yes Deirdre, I know I still need to iron it.

Other home improvement projects that first week of summer break included getting 90% of my kitchen painted, (HOORAY!!! Thanks to Lisa for coming over in the middle of the night and picking up a roller!) And, my dutiful husband got our new outdoor fans installed on the patio in time for J's birthday party. They are lovely. And Hunter brand, thank you very much Nate.

Though you may not be able to tell much from this picture, what this is is a finished and painted cabinet in our downstairs bath, Hallelujah. I'll have to find the "before" pics and show you those, so you truly appreciate this:

We spent J's birthday entertaining all of his friends and my girlfriends with a roarin' good time of a dinosaur party. More details on that in a different post. We then started our 8-week marathon of swim lessons, synchronized swimming, and swim team. Here are M and J waiting for A's class to finish:

I have read countless books sitting out in the heat waiting for kiddos every morning, and several evenings baking at various pools during meets. J is a good sport too:

M has been doing very well, and J has already moved up two levels since starting.

We've also hit the library multiple times to check out countless books and movies, and attend all of their free events/shows.

Here's A helping out the magician with one of his tricks. Still can't figure out how he did that one. Or any of them, for that matter.

The kids have also gotten to hang out with their cousins a bit, both at the children's museum and Grandma's house and Bass Pro Shop, and swimming at our house, etc etc. We tie-dyed shirts with Robyn and crew. Here's A's creation (I call it her "Ironman" shirt)