Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Not so Wordless Wednesday ~ Climbing that Hill


I recently took my 1 year old nephew to the park to capture some 1 year photos. The mission proved hopeless in about 5 seconds out of the stroller. This boy just wanted to run around and have fun!


I then thought, well I could turn this into a wordless Wednesday post.


Baby Ethan started up a hill and my initial thought was "oh this could be bad", but I let him venture up this hill.








As he walked up the hill, just so excited, I thought about his mission. At that moment his mission was to climb that hill. He fell down a few times, he laughed it off and got back up and hiked up to the top. When he got to the top he was so excited. He looked back at me with that excitement of "Look what I did!". He then ran down the hill and onto a new mission.

This photo opp now had me reflecting on my own life. What was my "hill" that I was trying to climb. How many times have I fallen? How excited would I be to finally accomplish that mission? Right now, I actually have a few hills. From my losing weight mission to the balancing act of parenting/school/work etc mission and some personal battles I am dealing with these are all hills I am working to climb. I get pretty stressed out sometimes and feel like just throwing my arms in the air and saying "Forget it!" (but probably with an obscenity or two in there). I often get frustrated thinking that my "hills" are just too high to climb.

Baby Ethan had me look at life, just a little differently.

Life is about climbing that hill!

Life is about new experiences, scary or not.


Life is about having fun!


Life is about resting when we are exhausted from climbing that hill.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I survived Girl Pandamoneum, The Allergy Monster and the Bad News Bear

So last week was quite a busy one with a lot of chaos. I really don’t blog on my personal blog enough. It’s not for the fact that I believe no one really reads this blog but I just don’t have time. With this week’s events, I thought surely I have got to blog all of this chaos. So here I am, letting you see a sneak peek into my world.

It all started a couple months ago, when I received a deal alert for $10.00 concert tickets with no fees. What?! This deal fanatic can’t pass up something that good. Imagine my disappointment when the only thing in Phoenix was Jonas Brothers. Hmmmm. At that time, my daughter was 9. She isn’t the biggest Jonas fan, in fact her love for them is pretty minimal. She will tell you her favorite band is the Beatles and she really isn’t into the “tween” bands. I’ll be honest, this warms mom’s heart because I’m not into them either. But I decided to buy a few tickets, give her a chance to experience a concert where I know there will be no illegal activity, foul language and a bunch of angry teens pushing eachother. I’m okay with her experiencing this, but let’s just push that back a few years shall we? So I buy the tickets, thinking she’ll bring a friend. I gave them to her on her birthday in August and asked her to invite a friend. After repeatedly asking her if she will invite someone, I never got an answer.

Well my welcome to Tween-hood came on the day of the concert around 2:30. Phone Rings:

“Mom, can “friend” come to the concert?”

I don’t know honey, I would have to talk to her mom, please have her call me.”

I hang up the phone and think, well nothing like waiting till the last minute. Phone Rings:

“Hi, this is “friends” mom, the girls told me to call.”

“Yes, Adrienne has a ticket to Jonas Brothers, would Allie like to go? She can come as long as you are okay with her coming in late.”

“You mean, like to school tomorrow?”

“Umm well I meant to your house but if you want her to spend the night, that’s okay.”

“Oh ya, that’s fine let’s do that.”

I’m now thinking, did this mom just pawn her child off on me? Hmmmmm. At this point, she is now giving me the list of 100 things her daughter can not eat. Okay kids, change of plans for dinner, Mcdonalds it is. I’m also thinking well, I am sure that my daughter proposed this as a package deal of spending the night as well so I think I just got suckered again. Great, the house is a mess and that 1 hour nap I had planned on doing before enduring the heat at an outdoor concert with screaming girls is now cancelled. I’m now rushing around to do a quick clean up so my daughter is not embarrassed when I walk in her room and it’s a disaster. Mom is suckered again because daughter knows she can not have friends over with a messy room. Sigh.

So on to the Jo Bros concert. I will say, it was not that bad. My dislikes of the concert actually surrounded Disney. Why Disney thinks a late night concert on a school night is a good idea is beyond me. Not to mention they played at an outdoor venue. WHO thought that would be a good idea in the AZ summer really needs a job change. I thought the show was good, for the age group and I think the girls had fun. I got used to the screaming as soon as we sat down and realized it was non stop. These little girls were crazy, some were jumping fences! I mean like 7 year olds. It was crazy and my confession here is that I actually bought a $14.00 margarita. I had to, I really did.


After surviving the Jo Bros, the next day I treated myself to some Sushi. Some people say God has a sense of humor. I like to think he had that when he decided what I would be allergic too. Growing up, I thought I was blessed. Not a single allergy. That was until the day my little sister acquired Guinea Pigs. I developed asthma and I would not dare hold one because everytime I did, I ended up in the hospital. Hey I was a teen, it took me a couple trys to figure out what the deal was. The bad news with that was I had to share a room with these dang rodents until I moved out at 18. 2 years of pure hell.

In my adulthood I developed an allergy to pineapple. But the funny thing about that is I can have pineapple flavoring or even better, cooked pineapple .But if it is raw pineapple, forget it. My tongue breaks out in hives and it sucks. The last allergy I have I actually figured out this year. Cuttlefish. What the hell is a cuttlefish anyways, right? Well one day while enjoying some sushi like I always did, I decided to try something new. Mistake. The allergy took over with watery eyes, swollen throat and itchy skin. Well quickly my memory fades because 2 months later (which was this week). I had the same roll not knowing or remembering that Cuttle Fish was in there. I got to spend my one day off itchy and miserable, waiting for benadryl to take over so I can sleep it off. Luckily, I survived.

After a medicated nap and an evening at church, we received a call and it was some bad news. Nothing I will actually tell you guys about but it really, really really sucked. I think the hardest part about being an adult and receiving bad news is having to be the one to figure it all out and carry that happy face so the kids have no idea there is something wrong. After thinking about it and coming up with some solutions, we’re moving on. We’ve swallowed the big ass pill and we’re moving on. Because really we have no choice.

So with all this chaos, it really just makes my life so much more interesting and well it gives me something to blog about.

The Big 3-0 ~ Happy Birthday to Me!

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It's official, I am 30 years old. Do I feel any different? Um, no I do not. I remember thinking in my late teens that I knew by the time I was 30, life would be over. Back in my partying days where stayin up till 4 AM was the norm and going "clubbing" was an everyday thing. When birthdays were a big deal and I couldn't wait until I turned 21.

Birthdays are now "forgettable" and just another day. Does anyone really make a big deal out of "adulthood" birthdays? I was feeling like I should plan a big "event" for my 30th birthday, I mean this should be a big deal right? If you are a mom, you know planning anything for yourself is nearly impossible. Sometimes birthdays can be fun even as we grow older. But I am not old, my life is not over. It's just um, different. In fact, tonight I am staying up all night long, pulling an all nighter! See I am not old! I could do this! I wish that I had some really great reason to stay up, and well I do but it's not so glamorous.

I'll be starting my birthday festivities at 2 AM. I will be waking up my 10 year old. I know, excitement just became shock. When I wake her up we will be celebrating by watching movies, playing video games and making cupcakes. It might not be glamorous but good quality girl time is awesome. Why 2AM? She is having an EEG done at the hospital at 7Am. She must be sleep deprived with only 4 hours of sleep. I know staying up all night and spending a birthday with a sleep deprived child is ideal for everyone, but I couldn't imagine better festivities.

After the EEG we will be enjoying some breakfast and then coming home to sleep. Really, it's gonna be a pretty good day.

We're praying for some good news, please keep her in your thoughts!