December's Pictures

So, I know you all are so thrilled that I'm back. I am too! Plus, I have a ton of pictures to update you with, so let's get started. These are all totally random from December. If posted in order and with a quirky little story, they would obviously be more fun and charming, but instead, we are stuck with just random thoughts and titles. Enjoy it if you can.

Luke wrapping his very first present.  Using his foot to hold it still while he gets the tape.

Getting their picture with Santa.  Almost always a dismal result.

Telling Santa what they want for Christmas.  Not a single one asked to go to Disney World.  That should have been our first clue . . .

Instead, the older kids have taken to asking for outrageous things like 100 servants, and all the wishes in the world.  It was a bit nauseating.  Here is one of several letters that Luke and Evie wrote to Santa this last year.



Translation below:



Dear Santa,

We want a tank, 1,000,000 lego sets, quadrilleun gewles, auto turets, 2,000,000 agents, 200 servents, never run out of money, gigantic underground clubhouse, big doll house.

love,

Luke B___ and Evie B___

I believe it might be time to share this wonderful secret about Santa with Luke.  He's such a good big brother, that I know he will join this team with enthusiasm and joy.  I saw this letter on FB and loved it because it expresses exactly how I feel about Santa.  Thank you to Ryan's parents for articulating it so well.


I got to take Evie to the Nutcracker again this year.  We went with my friend Caroline and her daughter Eva - who Evie considers her "twin".  They are adorable together.  And to be fair, Eva Elizabeth and Evelyn Elizabeth are pretty close!  Unfortuantely, they don't understand why they can't live together. 

Evie at the Nutcraker.  She loved it again!

 If you didn't receive our Christmas card this year, then I apologize up front.  I will certainly send you one, because this isn't the picture we used. But this is one of the 321 shots we took trying to capture a good picture of the kids for our card.  It was a very frustrating process.


The best picture we got from the kids for our Christmas Card after 321 takes.  Unfortunately for them, we didn't use this one.

  And here are some pictures from the family Christmas party at my mom's house.  I love these pictures because I swear they are timeless.  Every family has pictures just like this.  And everyone looks terrible in them!


Evie got a Barbie.  I think that makes #74 in her collection.




George and Luke with their gifts.  Most likely Legos.



 And then back at the homestead with Chuck's family.  I didn't actually get very many pictures, but this one was priceless!



George and Pawpaw.  I freaking love this picture!!!



Going back in time even more, here is George's birthday party.  Isn't he adorable?



George's birthday party.  A pajama jump house party.





All three kids at the party - we were still trying to get a good picture for the Christmas card.  This one was also discarded.



So, there you have it. Pictures and fun from December.  Only three months late!

I recommend only an adult read this post.

An interesting read (not for children).  Found this on a friend's facebook page.  "Wow" is all I can say.

*Had to change the title of the post because I was getting porn responses/comments.  How lovely for me.

Fun times this weekend.

I just figured out how to post the pictures on the blog from my home computer, so I'm ready to kick this thing back in high gear!  Hope you're ready.  Here are some obligatory pictures.

This is the little stinker (literally stinky) who keeps pooping in his pants even though he has been fully potty trained for over a year.  I'm losing my patience and have tried bribes, threats, punishment, diapers, and many more things. He just doesn't seem to care.  I'm pissed off that I'm bribing him too.  As my mother said, I shouldn't have to bribe him to poop in the potty until he is 20 years old.  Ridiculous.  Good thing he's still so cute.

And here's sweet Evie who had a sleepover with her "twin" Eva this weekend while we were running the Cowtown.  George stayed with them too.  After the Cowtown I hobbled along with the girls for a makeover at Sweet & Sassy and a tea party at a tea room in Grapevine. 

We older ladies got to enjoy some sparkling white wine while the girls drank strawberry tea. 

And after 9 miles, I was starving!  So, I devoured these little finger sandwiches.  Thank God Evie didn't actually want to eat them. 

Evie also brought along this stuffed tiger named Tommy the Tiger (it's a girl - which I must mention because Evie reminded everyone all weekend).  This is her 1st grade class mascot and someone in the class gets to take Tommy home each weekend.  Evie has been dying to take this girl home all year!  She was thrilled to get to take Tommy home and to her sleep over.  So fun!

Tommy has her own backpack that she travels in.  This is the backpack.

I am not a runner.

This year, Luke has been participating in Running Club at his elementary school.  He really needed some running training because he looks like an awkward girl on the soccer fields.  He's been pretty good at it and even asks to go running with me.  (Yes, I run on ocassion, but I am not a "runner").  He has running club meetings three days a week for one hour directly after school.  Sometimes, I even volunteer to help because the crazy SAHM inside of me is apparently fighting to get out.  So, this weekend the club ran the Cowtown Marathon 5K together.  It was so fun!  Chuck and I both ran with Luke, who is a bit of a pansy and kept wanting to take breaks.  He even beggeed me beforehand to buy him a camelback because he says he gets a dry throat when he runs.

Before Luke signed up for running club, I had already signed up to run the 10K in the Cowtown. This is really quite a challenge for me.  It is approximately 6 miles and the last time I had run 6 miles was a year ago when I was training for the Cowtown half but my training was interrupted by trial.  This year, I knew I could at least do the 10K since I was going to start training in January.  But of course, there's always a wrench thrown into my plans.  And this year that wrench was a case of tendonitis in my right foot.  It is pretty debilitating and I couldn't even jog a few feet for about 2 1/2 weeks.  Then when I was able to run without pain again, I was scared to.  I was so afraid I was going to reinjure myself.   For several weeks before the race, I resigned myself to just running the 5K with Luke and Chuck, certain that my injury could handle it and I could get through the entire thing.

But, a few days before the race Chuck convinced me to run the 10K to push myself harder than I had been doing.  So, with really very little training, I tackled the 10K last Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m.  And it was COLD.  In the 30s.  Apparently, this is a good temperature for real runners.  Good for them.  It was effing cold for me.  But, in the end, I crossed the finish line and even ran the six miles with only a few walking breaks.  As I continue to emphasize, I am not a runner, so I was super proud when I managed a time of 12 minute miles for the whole thing.  That's my typical jogging pace, so I was proud I could keep it up.  Remember, I am NOT a runner. So no making fun of me.

After a beer and a cup of yogurt, I trudged to my car to get my shirt for the elementary school running club so I could support Luke and Chuck.  When they finally arrived, I was already starting to get stiff, but I had my medal to keep me happy.  Unfortunately, Luke still expected wanted me to run with him and Chuck in the 5K.  I like to think I'm a bad-ass, but I'm pretty sure this was a mistake.  Although I was suckered into running the 5K with them, I totally walked the last 3/4 mile.  I just couldn't go much more. 

So, even though I traversed 9 miles Saturday morning, it was not a pretty sight.  And the rest of the day I looked like an old woman hobbled up with rheumetism.  I'm better now and finally went for a jog again today.  I'm back on the horse.  Now, I'm ready to sign up for my next race.  Either another 10K or a half.  I'm open to suggestions.

Time Suck

The transformation appears to be complete.  I am almost certainly a stay at home mom.  Not sure how it happened, but here I am.  The problem is that I still have all my lawyering skills and that makes me an impatient SAHM. 

Oh, God.  I can't believe I just used the accronym too!  What's happened to me?!

There's certainly nothing wrong with a SAHM, it's just not what I ever expected to become.  And truly, I hope that my practice will at least give me something to stretch my mind - although I'm not going to lie - 1st and 3rd grades are doing a pretty good job of stretching my mind right now.

Instead of thinking that this makes me someone different from who I was when I was practicing at the law firm, I choose to believe that this is simply broadening my perspective - and what a perspective it is!  The strangest thing is finding that the house is much messier than it was before, I'm much less organized that I was before, and I still can't find time to fit in all the things I want to do.  I swear, the time just gets sucked into some horrible vortex of Mommyhood.  It's the most bizzaare and unbelievable (from any other person's perspective) thing.  I find myself listing off all that I've accomplished at the end of the day.  For example:

• Dropped off kids at school
• Accidentally dropped my iPhone in Luke's backpack before school so returned to school to retrieve iPhone.  How do these things happen???
• Called mother to make sure she hasn't died or broken a hip. 
• Ate breakfast and read the paper (gasp!)
• Cleaned kitchen
• Went for a jog
• Checked email
• Lifted weights
• Ate lunch
• Took shower (yes, this must be accounted for since it takes time out of my day)
• Delivered cookie money to Girl Scout mom
• Went to Target to pick up cookie materials for Luke's boy scout project
• Picked up George
• Picked up Luke & Evie
• Allowed kids to play at park while I reviewed a contract for someone; called that someone to discuss contract; finished call and discussed life with another mom on playground (a new and interesting experience that is fairly regular now)
• Took kids home and made them a snack.
• Started homework with kids and alternated between homework and Luke's boy scout project requirements (there are official terms, but I haven't memorized them yet).  He had to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and popcorn as a snack for the den meeting in order to achieve his cooking achievement/badge/requirement/idon'tgiveashitwhatyoucallit.  This took at least two hours to bake cookies and package them in ziplock bags and then pop and entire bag of popcorn and package it in individual paper bags for easy delivery at the den meeting we had tonight.
• Sat down for 15 minutes to rest my feet and eat dinner
• Gathered kids and took them to the scout meeting while Chuck was at a business dinner.  I found myself amongst a flock of power-tool-weilding men and their mini-me's.  There were other females there, but they were all under the age of 8; therefore, they don't count.  Despite my best efforts to keep George and Evie entertained, the iPad failed me as did my iPhone since we couldn't get a good internet connection.  But then the worst happened when I was expected to help Luke build a tool box using plywood (pre-cut), screws, and a drill.  The drill I brought was not charged (thanks Chuck).  We borrowed and eventually, the den leader ended up helping Luke make his tool box.  Quite frankly, I think he was pretty lucky, but I felt as useful as tits on a boar hog. (yes, I just wrote that and yes, you just read that).
• Brought kids home, sent them upstairs, made lunches, insisted kids must sleep, cleaned kitchen ever so slightly, poured glass of wine, sat down.

And here I am.  How does the day disappear before my very eyes????  I don't know, but it happens to mothers every day.  I'm not the first one to experience this, and I won't be the last.  What I know, is that I am learning so many new things about my children - good and bad - and I can't trade that for all the time in the world.

My very first cruise!

My in-laws are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year.  Good for them, right?  Lucky for me, they are taking all their kids and grandkids on a cruise this summer to celebrate.  It will be my very first cruise: Chuck's and the kids' too!  Unfortunately, we received word that the cruise ship we were booked on for this summer was this one:

Do you recognize it?  It's the one that had a fire that shut down its power and had to be towed to shore.  Sadly, it is foul, disgusting, smelly, and thoroughly disabled.  Luckily, they are going to get us a different ship for our trip this summer. Still, it makes me a little hesitant to go on a cruise at all.  We will just have to hope for the best.  Therefore, I've chosen not to read the following stories about the nightmare aboard this ship, but you are welcome to read them.  The titles were enough to frighten me:

As Crippled Cruise Ship Inches Home, Tempers and Compensation Rising

Cruise Ship Went from Love Boat to Horror Honeymoon

Passenger on Carnival Cruise Compares Deck to Shanty Town

Inside Carnival cruise nightmare: Passenger describes deteriorating conditions

Hugs to All!

Sorry, y'all.  I'm still adjusting to this new lifestyle.  I truly think it will take me about 6 months to fall into a routine.

I'm more consumed with the kids' school than I ever have been.  It's good and bad.  It's good because I know way more about my kids and what they are doing in school.  It's bad because I'm spending way too much time with my kids instead of developing my new practice.  Nonetheless, it is coming along.

The biggest issue right now is that I only have 3 hours of patience per day for my kids and I'm currently seeing them for 6 hours a day (or more).  Imagine how thinly spread that patience is. 

On a happy note, the kids did great on their most recent report cards.  Luke even got a 100 (and not in art or music, but in a written subject).  I was more than a little impressed since progress reports are frequently arriving in his backpack.  Evie shouldn't be left out either; she made straight As!!!!  What a little rock star. 

Of course, the biggest thing going on in our house right now is the mountain of girl scout cookies we have to sell.  For a while there, it seemed like people were just asking for cookies so we bought more, and then we bought some more, and then we finally bought 100 more!  Unfortunately, we still have about 75 left at this point, so let me know if you need any cookies.

Hope you all are well.  Perhaps I'll get back to this blog someday soon.

Hugs to all!

I cried. Did you?

First, I'm not pregnant, but my emotions are on a crazy rollercoaster ride since I found myself bawling when I saw the following Budweiser commercial during the Superbowl.

Holy shit. Chuck laughed his ass at my pathetic display of emotion.