Defining moments

We all have them, those moments that make you realize just who you are and where your life is going, whether you like it or not. I had another one today, it was the moment I realized I was officially a soccer mom. 2 kids, 2 soccer games, over a dozen orange slices, and at least 8 bottles of water 'cause it's still hotter than tabasco sauce here.

I wont bore you with a bazillion pictures of my kids looking adorable in their uniforms, but I do want to point out the mystery that is genetics.

Here's my oldest, (he's the one in the middle) by far the tallest kid on his team.

Here's my youngest (far right), by far the shortest kid on his team.

I'm just not that talented

I've seen a lot of crazy things at the ASU campus (okay, that's not actually true, but it makes the story better). But the craziest thing, or maybe the most impressive thing, is people riding around on their skateboards and TEXTING!! I can't even text and walk! I can't skateboard for that matter.

I've started to fear for my life because of these board-texters, (I made that term up, but if it catches on I expect royalties). We've all seen the research done on texting while driving... One of these days one of those board-texters is going to take-me-out!! and I don't mean on a date, I mean lay me out, flat on my face, with skateboard tracks on the back of my head!!

it's going to make you smile....

because I don't want to study....

I'll blog instead.

I took my youngest to the grocery store with me yesterday, and as I took a gallon of milk out of the refrigerator I whacked him in the face with it..... Hard!! He didn't cry, but he did rub his nose and say "you hurt me, I'm gonna tell my daddy!!!"

I say "son of a gun" a lot. My youngest misunderstands what I say and has instead taken to yelling "Somebody's Gum!!" It's my new favorite thing in the world to say.

I woke up this morning with perfect hair!!! It's full and the layers are perfectly piecey ... I want to put on a really cute dress and go somewhere fun, but I'll end up staying in my sweats all day and studying. What a waste....

I was playing SSX on Tour with my youngest the other day (it's a snowboarding video game), he kicked my trash!!! 4 times!!! He's 3!!! and he's better at video games than me. I don't know if this shows how lame I am as a gamer, or as a mother. Either way, it looks like we're gonna have another video game obsessed child.

My oldest goes to our neighbors houses to play for hours, upon hours, upon hours. And I apparently sit at home looking like I might start bawling at any second. Probably because I feel as though I might start bawling at any second. When did he get so big?

.....from me

When I was a little girl, younger than I can even remember, I heard the song "You Are My Sunshine" and apparently did not like how it ended. I believed that the final line - "please don't take my sunshine away." - was incomplete and so I added "from me" onto the end. My family obviously found this adorable because they NEVER told me it wasn't how the song actually ended. It wasn't until I was in HIGH SCHOOL and sang the song to a friends young sibling that I realized it wasn't how everyone else sang the song. My friends thought it was hilarious, I was humiliated, and when I confronted my mother she said "how was I supposed to know you didn't know?"

Anyways, it's still one of my favorite songs to sing to my children, probably because it's one of the few I actually know, and because my children really are my sunshine. They are the light in my world and my reason for dragging myself out of bed every morning. Today I found a beautiful, sweet, simple necklace that I want with every ounce of my being... here's the link ... because it's just so perfect. I asked if I could have it for Mothers Day next year, but I hope my darling husband gets it for me sooner... (hint, hint!!)

I think I could spend a lot of money on products from that website, and not just on myself. I think those are some of the most precious pieces of jewelry I have ever seen, I'm a sap though.

bullets

• School is in full swing and I am eyeball deep in studying.
• I made a super quick trip to Utah to visit my sister on her birthday over the labor day weekend.
• While I was there I decided to join a parade, I haven't done that since I was 13 and in a dance or cheer group. This time I rode in a fire truck with my dad, it was a lot more fun because people clap and yell "thank you", also the little boys think it's the coolest thing ever!!!
• Some 40 year old woman watching the parade was doing the "beauty queen" wave at me. I found it a little disturbing, and yet, I did it back to her.....
• My husband took my children to Macdonalds every single day I was gone, and then again on tuesday when I was back in AZ, but at school.... If I die, my children will eat nothing but fast food that has play-places at the restaurant.
• I'm blogging right now to avoid studying.
• My favorite quote of the day comes from my youngest, "this doughnut is going to be so sweet!!"

sigh......

So what's the most embarrassing thing you've done today?  'Cause for me it was not carefully rereading what I posted on my nanny's facebook wall.  What did I say you ask?  Well....I was trying to thank her for organizing my pantry but left the R out of pantry and instead it said, "I just walked into my panty...... I heart you!!!"  yes I said panty and love in the same sentence to THE NANNY!!!  It was on her wall for about an hour before I noticed it and erased it but I fear the damage may already be done.  

Is there a rock I can crawl under?  A vacation I could possibly take?  

Newport Beach

Last weekend we finally took advantage of Jason's company beach house in Newport Beach, CA. We had a blast. It was the first time our youngest had been to the beach and the first time our oldest had been to a west coast beach. I didn't take the camera with me on the day we spent at the beach because I didn't want my camera to get all sand filled and nasty, but I took it the first night we got there and then when we went back to watch the sunset.

This picture cracks me up. We got to the beach house at about 9:30 and decided to run to the beach because we were all so excited to be there. As we got closer my youngest decided that the ocean was a little scary and he did not want to be there. I tried getting him excited by telling him about all the fun we were going to have, he stared at me and then said "I'll dig" and dropped down and started digging in the sand.

me and my oldest on the beach at night.

My hubby and baby.

I just love this kid.

My youngest playing with his monster trucks in the sand.

He was so brave all weekend, he played in the water constantly and crossed a street without looking, (I wasn't proud of that one, but definitely shocked by his lack of concern!!).

This one hated the ocean, it all started early in the morning when my husband took him for a walk along the shore and a giant wave came and knocked him on his face. The story I got was about a huge storm coming and him swimming, and swimming, and swimming. He stayed miles away from the ocean after that.

My First Day of School

I wish I had a cheesy picture of myself with my backpack but I unfortunately don't, I would scan and post my ID card that I got yesterday but my picture is the worst ID picture I've ever taken, and here's why.

So my big plan for my first day at ASU was to just park in the covered parking lot with visitor parking that was right next to all my classes. Unfortunately everyone else apparently had that idea too and it was full. I seriously did not have a back up plan, which anyone who knows me knows that's unusual. Luckily for me my husband was home, (still recovering from surgery) and I could call him and have him look at the parking map online. He directed me to every parking structure that had visitor parking around the campus, all of them were full. Then we came up with another back up plan, go to the parking services office and just buy my parking pass. He directed me there and I went and got in line and then found out it was an hour and a half wait until I actually reached the front of the line. I had 40 minutes to park and get to class!! So on to plan D, someone mentioned that you could park in lot 59 for free until August 31st, great, except lot 59 is in BFE, but I was completely out of options and really just needed to get to class. So Jason directs me to lot 59, I park, and then begin the 25 minute hike to my first class. I'm not in walking shoes, it's 110 degrees outside and my hair was down. By the time I got to class I had blisters, was completely soaked in my own sweat, and stunk like a boys locker room. Luckily it seemed to be the look of the day.

By the time I made it to the Union building to get my ID card, two classes later, I looked and felt like I had just survived a natural disaster. I also felt incredibly old, seriously, college students look like they're 5!!

I almost died of a brain tumor

Okay, that's not quite true, but I did think I had one, or it could have been a lung tumor, or the early signs of MS, but it's not. So here's the story....
Probably about 7 months ago Jason pointed out to me that one of my pupils was larger than the other. I laughed, checked it out, and then made a remark like "guess it's official, I'm crazy!!!" and then moved on with my life never thinking of it again. Then a little over a month ago I was at the optomotrist getting my yearly check up and renewing my contact prescription when he said the same thing. Except he said, "one of your pupils is smaller than the other". I tried to laugh it off again, but he wouldn't let me. He tried to assure me that it wasn't a brain tumor, but that it might be a lung tumor instead. I had a full blown panic attack the second I sat down in my car. I went straight to my husbands office, cried to his office manager about how I didn't want to die, and then googled this lung tumor that he suspected me of having. I didn't have even half the symptoms that this lung tumor would have given me. I felt relief but decided I should probably go see a doctor anyways.
Fast forward a week or two and I'm at the doctors, sweating and almost crying as he does a full neurological exam. Definitely not a lung tumor, but might be something wrong with the brain. I was scheduled for a full blood work up, a CT Scan and referred to an ophthalmologist. The blood work came back normal, the ct scan came back normal, all that was left was the eye doctor who was out of town for two weeks. In those two weeks I googled my heart out, and then subsequently had massive panic attacks, and was then prescribed xanax to sleep, and then lost 4 pounds.
Today was my appointment with the ophthalmologist and ya know what I have? Adie's Tonic Pupil Syndrome. Ya know what it does? Makes one of your pupils larger than the other. Ya know what the worst symptom of this syndrome is? It takes a little longer for your eye to focus on things up close. It never progresses, it never causes blindness, it's not going to kill me.

At least I lost 4 pounds!!!!

2 weeks

My husband has been home for 2 weeks now recovering from his surgery. We initially thought that during his time off we'd get a lot of things done around the house. You know, cleaning out closets, getting rid of old toys maybe even finally buying a book shelf for the office. This is what we have accomplished so far.

• Using up all 5 of our monthly in-store exchanges for blockbuster, plus actually paying to rent 2 movies.
• Number of hours spent playing video games, too many to count.
  
• Number of times we've gone out for lunch, 5.
• Books read: him 2, me 1.
• Number of times we've actually cleaned the house, 0.
• Number of fights we've had with insurance companies, 3.
• Number of fights we've had with each other, surprisingly only 1.

But hey, we still have 2 weeks left, anything could happen!!!

Some Stories

• Here's a "friendly" exchange that occured between me and my youngest today..
  

"Hey baby how you doin?"
"I don't like you!!!"

• My son received some money as a birthday gift in the mail today. He quickly grabbed it and went running, I assumed to his room. I was wrong. He stopped at the stairs and was shoving his money into the grates of our stair lighting (they're along the bottom of the wall going up the stairs, it's the perfect night light). I stopped him and opened the grate to find over a DOLLAR worth of pennies, nickles and dimes!!!!

• My husband had his one week post-op appointment today, he was getting his stitches out. My youngest was with us and initially requested that he be held so he could see all the action. After the first stitch was pulled out he changed his mind and asked to be seated in a chair. I put him down and noticed that he was quite pale and looked as though he might vomit!!! Poor kid, he might be traumatized for life.
  

• This next story is difficult for me to admit to, but I feel it may help others, and also atone for my sin.......I forgot my oldest at school. It was 2 days after my husbands surgery and I'd had an incredibly busy day. I had finally sat down to relax and eat a snack when suddenly my phone rang. It was the school wondering if I was going to pick my son up from school!!!! I was mortified and horrified and began crying almost immediately. When I got to the school he looked at me and said "you are really late!!!" I was almost half an hour late people!!! The school assured me that it happened all the time, but I'm not so sure. At least he didn't realize that I had full blown forgotten him, that would have crushed his sweet little spirit for sure!!!