Its my time now

I started school last week. Im studying to be an Aesthetician. Ive only gone to school a few days but I am already LOVING it!!! By the 3rd day, we were already hands on. So that means that almost every day right now, I am giving a one hour facial and receiving one. Its absolutely amazing. I lay there and relax and the lights are dimmed and the music is going and everyone is quiet and working or relaxing. I just cant believe this is school. Its fun. I enjoy it. Im excited about what Im learning and excited to go each day. Its a first for me. So this is what its like to be working on something you love. I think its wonderful.

There are 18 girls in my class. Most of them are in their early 20's. Myself and 3 others are in our 30's and one lady is almost 50. Its fun. So far everyone is getting along fine. We are getting to know eachother and its already becoming a comfortable atmosphere where we joke and tell stories. We get two 30 minute breaks and an hour for lunch so its nice that we all have so much time each day to shoot the breeze. Ive been enjoying Tempe again. Its been years since I had a reason to be in Tempe on a regular basis. Today I ate at Dilly's Deli...just as good as ever. It has been years since Ive been there. Im planning on Nello's later this week. I get to go to lunch with new friends and hang out and talk about adult type stuff. I barely think about the kids and house when I am gone for 8 hrs a day. Its a HUGE mental break and it makes me really savor the time I do have with Sam and Charlie.

We are all adjusting just fine. Carl has been super helpful and that has been a very unexpected bonus. He feeds Charlie breakfast and gets him dressed and takes him to school each day. He said he would make dinner once a week and so far he has made Chalupa on my first day of school and Ceviche yesterday...both turning out perfect. He's been picking up and doing laundry and loading the dishwasher. It is sooooo nice to come home and find that I dont have to do it all.

Im just very thankful right now. I cant believe I get to do this.

Both kids riding bikes without training wheels in the same weekend!

We have graduated to a new level of big kid around here. Bikes without training wheels!

Its been stormy with the monsoons and overcast, so yesterday we decided to take the kids to the park and try to teach Sam to ride without his training wheels. So we did that and he was off and riding on his own in the first 5 minutes! He rode all over the park loving every second of it! He was so proud and I was so proud too. It felt like when he started walking or something. haha.

Then today, we went riding again and Charlie's training wheel broke off. So we took off the training wheels and Carl started running him around on the bike. Sure enough, he was off and riding too! Its crazy! All it takes is a big brother for motivation sometimes! I cant believe how fast Charlie picks up the things Sam does. Its crazy that they both learned to ride in the same weekend!

I also should mention that I was very proud of Carl this weekend. It was so humid and muggy out. He ran and kept up with both boys, who need help every time they fall. He was soaked with sweat. Im happy to have a husband that is almost 40 that can keep up with them. Go Carl!

Summer Fun 2010

The kids have been having a ton of fun lately. Summer is already coming to a close. Sam starts full day Kindergarten on Aug 11. Charlie will start his preschool the following week, going 5 days a week and I will start my school on Sept 15. I CANT WAIT! I am so excited to learn something new, meet new people and just have something else going on in my life. Im ready to start that next chapter. Im ready to move on from only being home with my kids all day. I hope that doesnt sound bad. I dont mean that Im sick of them at all. Im just excited about finally after almost 6 years to be doing something that is just for me. Im going to miss not having to wake up to an alarm clock, and having these leisurley mornings Ive enjoyed for quiet some time now. I have a hard time getting out of the house before 11am. Its time for more structure.


We didnt go on a vacation this summer. We have made up for that by taking little weekend trips. we went up to the cabin for 4th of July weekend with our good friends the Werners. We had a great time. The kids are all old enough to play outside on their own a lot so that really made things relaxing for Carl and I. We spent a whole afternoon at Fossil Creek and that was amazing and fun.

A couple weeks ago, Carl's sister Audrey and I went up to Flagstaff with our kids to visit the Whitney Cunningham clan. We had a blast. The kids had fun with all their cousins and the adults got to eat lots of yummy food and drink yummy wine and just get in some good relaxing time. We didnt get up to many plans at all and that was fine with me.

Tomorrow, Im headed back up to the cabin with 2 of my bestest girlfriends and our kids. I cant wait. Its a mid-week adventure for 2 nights. We may hit up Fossil Creek or the Tonto Bridge. Hopefully since its mid-week, there will be hardly anyone but us around.

Ive really enjoyed the cabin this summer. I think when we went for the 4th of July, and I saw my kids playing and enjoying the same things I used to enjoy, I realized how much I love that place. Its barely changed since I was a kid. Its the only place that we can go that has been there my entire childhood. I will really miss that place someday when it gets sold. I wish I could buy it and keep it in the family where I think it belongs.

We have Sparky

We have a new pet for the time being. Sparky. Sam named him. He is a little bird that fell out of a nest that was up on the eves of our house, in the sun. Its been especially hot this weekend and the other bird in the nest died. This one had fell out and survived the 12 foot fall. So Carl brought him into the courtyard and put him in a planter that gets a bit of water and lots of shade.


He and the kids are nursing it back to life. He's made more than one trip to Pets Mart already. We were excited because Sparky started eating today. We couldnt get him to take anything yesterday, but today his mouth is wide open and ready.

Carl feeds him this:


Which are these meal worms crushed up. Eeeeew! I know!


Anyways, earlier we saw another bird come by and take note. Later that bird came back and was in the nest with Sparky for a bit. I had a great view from Sam's bedroom window. She was feeding Sparky! Awesome. We are all excited and hope that he will live and these other birds heard his tiny cries and are here to help :)

Where have the months gone?

I cant believe I havent updated this blog in over 2 months. Life has been busy.

Sam started Pre-K at his school this year. His teachers are Mrs. Martinez and Mrs. Klemmer. Sam's friend Will is in his class this year, so that is nice. Will's mom and I are good friends so we take turns picking up the kids from school and letting them play all afternoon. Here is a pic of Sam with his friend Will, on an opposing soccer team.


Charlie and I hang out when Sam is in school. I take him to the park and run errands. He goes to a babysitter here in my neighborhood on Wed mornings so I can have a few hrs to get things done. Miss Lina is his sitter and she is a very nice lady that does child care out of her home full time. She has 3 other 2 yr olds that are always there for Charlie to play with.

Sam is playing his 2nd season of soccer! He is on the Las Sendas league this year so I see all my friends at the games and practices. Its fun for all of us. This year, Sam really seems to understand it more. He actually knows what goal is his haha. He has also discovered that he is a great goalie! So this year that is his job. Its fun watching him, but its a nightmare dealing with Charlie at the games. Man that kid just wants to GO in his own direction.


The kids and I went up to Prescott over the weekend with Leslie who was in town for a wedding. We spent one night up there. It was a quick trip, but nice. We got to go to a pumpkin patch with Kristal and her kids and actually pick pumpkins off the vine! I dont think Ive ever picked pumpkins. Most pumpkin patches in AZ are field with pumpkins trucked in and scattered about.

We are looking forward to the holidays. We are kicking it off with a Halloween party here at our house for our friends and neighbors. Carl has plans to make a haunted house in our courtyard that the kids have to go through to get into the house....he is procrastinating it though, and busy with work so we will see.

Crazy Hair Day

Sam went to vacation bible school this week at our church. Yesterday was Crazy hair day. Since Sam's hair is so short, we decided to dye it any color he wanted! This is how it came out!

Swimming Lessons

Sam has been taking swim lessons this summer. His swim teacher, Harrison, comes to our house and gives him a lesson twice a week. We love Harrison, he is a 17 yr old kid that is wonderful with kids. Sam loves him and is always painting him pictures and stuff. Sam is doing great with swimming. He can doggie paddle all over the place, go down the slide, jump in from anywhere. Charlie is right behind him. Here are a few pics of the boys having lots of fun in our pool and the last one is a close up of Sam, with all his adorable freckles he is getting!

What Sam and Charlie are up to lately

Ive been meaning to blog about a few recent things that have made me smile, laugh or cry. I will start with Sam. He is very into things and how they work. He gets obsessed with little things and then they are the topic of conversation forever it seems. Right now we are on Gates. All of the neighborhoods up here are gated communities. He knows that on Saddleback Rd, there is a neighborhood with green gates, the only one with green gates in all of Las Sendas. This makes them very interesting and he begs me to go down that street all the time, even though it takes us out of our way. Also, he is constantly asking to go into this neighborhood or that...anywhere that we dont live or havent driven. He loves me to drive around and show him new streets and neighborhoods...preferably with gates that I can magically get into because I guess the gate code right. Now even Charlie is catching on to this fun and he constantly points the opposite direction I am driving or turning, and says, "Mommy bat way!"

Charlie is very interested in numbers and letters. His love of clocks has inspired a love of numbers. He can count backwards from 12. He prefers to count backwards actually. Anytime we are driving around or at any place, he notices signs and all those interesting letters and numbers. He randomly calls out any letter that comes to mind and points...A...E....K....P...sometimes even getting them right. The other night he was asleep and talking in his sleep. He was pointing and yelling out random letters...the kid even dreams of letters.

Back to Sam...he knows almost all of the 50 US States! Each night, Carl goes over them with him on a neat map that is hanging in his room. He picks a new state and memorizes it. He can now name almost half of the country's States. Who knows maybe after the States we can do the Capitals. Maybe he can be on Oprah someday as a child genius! (kidding)

Sharing a room

*this entry was written over a month ago and I forgot all about posting it. I think I wanted to get a pic of their room in. I may do that today. But I still think this is worth remembering.

Lately, Sam has been complaining that he didnt want to sleep alone. I always tell him he has to, then kiss him and leave the room. When I think about that, I felt kind of bad. Why should he have to sleep alone when I dont have to? I asked him if he'd like to share his room with Charlie, so they could sleep together every night and he was so excited and said yes. Today we moved Charlie's crib into Sam's room. We had to do a little rearranging of the furniture, but everything fits very nicely! Im happy with how it all looks. Tonight was the first night putting them down together and it went fine. I told Sam that he can talk to Charlie, but has to stay in his bed. And he did. I heard some talking and goofing around, but soon after I walked out, Charlie went to sleep. It took Sam about 20 more minutes to fall asleep. All in all, it went very well. I hope that sharing a room brings them closer as siblings.

6-24-09: Well, its been over a month and its going good. They are both used to sleeping together. It takes them over an hour usually to settle down and go to sleep. Charlie can climb out of his crib now too, so that poses a few challenges. He cant climb back in, so I may just take the rail off and convert it to a toddler bed, until we can get bunk beds for them.

Thanks Audrey

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
James 1:2-3

I was reading Carl's sister's blog, and she posted a verse that really spoke to me tonight. It was just what I needed to read. Thank you.

Life has been hard lately. Everyone that knows me in my personal life, knows this, because I am an open book about my life. I have to talk about it because its what is happening in my life and Im a talker, its therapudic and its who I am.

I am so thankful that we have so many good friends and a lot of close family to help us through the bad times. Every night when I put Sam to bed, he tells me that he wants to me to God Bless all our friends. So I start to do it and the list just goes on and on. We have so many great people in our lives.

Moving Schmoving

We are finally all moved and settled! YAY!!! I have to say that it feels sooooo good to be back in this house. I am loving it with Sam and Charlie. Its so much easier to keep track of them, to keep the place picked up. Sam has stayed in his bed all night since we moved in. We've been enjoying the spa and fire pit at night with the kids. Its been nice to be near all of our friends again and having spontaneous play meet ups at the park with friends. We've been going on lots of walks again too, Sam loves all the wild life. It just feels good to be home. I feel like we were in a dream for 2 years or something and now we are back. It was surreal moving back into this house, feeling at home the very first night, knowing where everything should go before we even moved anything in.

That is a pic of Sam and Charlie playing in some boxes I unpacked. Nothing like plain old card board boxes for the best kid entertainment.

A New Year...a bit late.

I cant believe we are already into 2009!!! I have many high hopes for this year. I just know that it will be better than last year. Already things are starting out right.

Sam started at a new preschool last week. Its called Love Of Christ. He has 16 kids in his class and 2 teachers. I think we are going to like it a lot more. I liked his other school, but it was just too small. Some days, Sam would be the only one alone with the teacher for the entire afternoon. After only 3 days there, he really likes it and is making friends.

Charlie is talking so much. He is already very good at ordering me around. He is saying new words every day. Recently he has gotten into reading. He loves books and we read before bed and nap and also several times during the day. It makes me happy that both of my kids love books. I really want that to continue.

Here are a couple pictures from the park the other day.

The zoo

This turned into a really great weekend. My sister Leslie came into town from Seattle since she was homesick. Randy got back from Hawaii on Friday night after being gone several weeks. Saturday night, we planned to bbq here at our place with mom, Randy and Leslie. Then Jason called and said he was coming down from Prescott with his wife and kids and I invited them for dinner Sat. Well, that turned into them staying with us overnight, and it was so much fun. Sam and Charlie had a blast playing with Evan and baby Brielle is not far behind! They all stayed up late playing outside until 9pm. Up and down the swing set, constantly! It was good times! The kids were WORN OUT and you would hope they would sleep in, but that is never the case. We were all up and going at again at 6am.

Once we all at our breakfasts and got ready, we headed to the zoo and Dad and Fran met us there. We had a really nice time walking all over the zoo. The weather was perfect and all the animals were out. There are times I go to the zoo and almost NO animals are out. Too hot. But not today, it was great. We enjoyed all the shade from all the mature trees. The kids saw Giraffes, Zebra, Elephants, Bears, Piccary's, tunnels, bamboo forests, monkeys and how can we forget the wonderful petting zoo? Lots of happy kids and tons of adults holding their noses! Its a stinky place and its nasty to see your kids trapsing all over the goats pee. Yucky! I held Charlie the entire time and never let him out my arms. I remember all too well taking Sam there when he was a new walker at 13 months old and he was falling all over the place, covered in goat pp! EEEEw!

It was so fun having Jason and Kristal, Evan and Brielle here. It was great seeing Leslie. She looks so happy and seems like she loves her new job. Its the right mix of stress and fun. Its good to see her looking carefree. I love my baby sister. I cant wait till Thanksgiving when I get to see everyone again!

Field Trip: The Pumpkin Patch

Sam had a field trip with his preschool class today. We all got to go to Mother Nature's Farm for some fall festivities! They boys got to pick out a pumpkin and decorate it. Then there was a hay ride and a bounce house and lots of animals to see. Sam's favorite part is the baby chicks they have in the store. He even remembered them from last year!

Here are a few of the pics from today.

Sam being silly like always:

Picking out pumpkins can be so stressful!:

Decorating their pumpkins:

Going through a maze:

Playing on an old tractor:

Big Shopping Carts now

Do any other moms deal with the battle of the grocery carts each time they are in the store? I sure do. My kids beg for the big carts that are like cars for them to drive. These things are huge! Its not easy to maneuver them around the store, down the aisles. Its funny though, because even though its harder, I still give in. I love my boys and want even a trip to the grocery store to be fun.

Im a Soccer mom now..

Today Sam started his soccer season. He was so excited to wear his cleats and meet his team and coach. Sam's coach is a really nice guy named Drew Parada. He is a parent of one of Sam's teammate named Jace, and he's been coaching Soccer for 15 years and has 5 kids. He did a great job of keeping all the kids with the program. I really was expecting much more chaos, not lines and kids actually kicking the balls into the goal.

It was fun being there and meeting the other parents. Im excited about getting involved in stuff like this with Sam and Charlie. Check out the kids in Sam's team standing in line together...arent they just so darn cute???

Buying local benefits everyone

For the last 2 weeks, Ive been to the farmer's market here in down town Mesa. At first when I drove up I was disappointed because I only saw 3 tents and figured they wouldn't have much, but I was wrong about that. They had sooo many veggies! Just what I wanted. Check out the white eggplants and the yellow tomatoes! I love getting veggies that are different colors than what we usually see. A reminder that there are lots of species of fruits and veggies that we don't get to see so much in the boring grocery stores anymore. Id like it if these things made a comeback.

Recently I read a great book that has really changed how I feel about the food that I feed to my family. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver is about her and her family's commitment to give up conventionally grown foods, and for 1 year, only eat what they grow for themselves, or can get locally...or learn to do without until the next season rolls around. Seasons, remember those? It used to be that we could only get certain produce at certain times of the year. But now that we can ship things from across the Ocean and have it in our grocery store within 5 days of picking is pretty amazing. Except that it uses a lot of fuel for our food to jet set around the world like that, and its not good for our environment, or our dependency on oil. It also doesn't help to support our local economy when we don't buy food from our local farmers.

Since I cant really grow much myself...I decided to do what I can. I am making an effort to feed my family with as much local organic food as I can find. I also want to try to use produce when its in season, because it tastes better when its in season, and it has up to 60% more antioxidants and vitamins when its in season. Well, I was happy when my friend Elisabeth told me about this farmer's market. All of the food is organic, and its all from Arizona and they have a huge variety! Since we live in such a warm climate, its open all year long!

I have to laugh..

After a long day of just the kids and myself, Im always happy to sit and relax after everyone is finally in bed. House all to myself. I like that, since I lived alone for 5 years, I really enjoy the silence. Tonight, I just had to laugh, when I went to use the guest bathroom and came across this typical mess that anyone with a toddler knows all too well:


Right now C is into EVERYTHING! Oh my gosh. I thought S was bad. Nope, C is much MUCH worse. This kid has already figured out how to use the door knobs. How to pull out a drawer to stand in it so he can reach whatever is on the counter. He knows how to pull a chair over to wherever he wants to climb.

His favorite place in the house right now is the bathroom. He especially loves the pool bathroom, because it has a fan switch low enough for him to reach. He's all over that any chance he gets. Of course, he loves toilet paper and all the fun a mile long roll of paper can afford. Many times, Ive found all the toilet paper in a huge wad on the floor. I have to be quick and pick that up because if Im lazy and take too long, S will find it and "help" mom out by sticking the entire wad into the toilet and flushing it..because that is where toilet paper goes, afterall.

Ive become very familiar with a plunger...the joys of being a mommy!

A few pictures from this week

S learning about dipping cookies in milk.


S with his nerdy glasses he won at Chuck E Cheese

C with his nerdy glasses given to him by his brother

And the lovely scorpian that stung me on the bottom of my foot the other night. He was promptly killed right after this picture was snapped.

I haven't posted in awhile. Its just so hot right now and we are cooped up inside and there is nothing going on. I cant wait for these hot days of summer to end. Oh Fall. I think of you and I am so excited for you to come back into our lives. Cool days...well 75 degrees is cool here...and the park and being able to send the boys outside! We cant wait!

C is already trying to talk to us! Its so cool because he is talking soooo much earlier than S did. Here is a little list of his words so far:

Dee Dee (thank you)
mama and daddy
Sah (Sam)
Bye Bye
Hi
baby
ABCD...he tries to sing the ABC song up to the letter G
awa awa awa (he is trying to sing S's favorite song, an Alicia Keys song, As I Am...no one, no one, no oooonnee!!)
baba (bottle)
wawa (water)

And what about S. What's he been up to this long boring Summer? I assure you he finds many ways to pass the time. Like swimming and playing with the hose. He loves to glue and use glitter. He loves to cut. I just give him a bunch of paper and a pair of scissors and he goes to town for about an hour just cutting up paper. He also likes to find new places to pee. Yes I did just say that. He pees in the bushes outside or just on the rocks. He even peed in the dryer! Yep! I was doing laundry last week and as I'm going to put the clothes in the dryer, I open it up and see that there is some yucky yellow residue in the bottom of the inside of the dryer. (it had been a few days since Id opened up that dryer so who knows how long it had been there?) Apparently, S didn't realize that the dryer isn't a toilet. Luckily its wasn't that hard to clean up because little three year olds don't have huge pees yet.(Thank God)

S is starting official preschool on Tuesday. I know that earlier I posted the pics of his first day of school, well that was in June and it was really just Summer Camp. Real Preschool is starting next week. We had our very first meet the teacher open house last night. He is very excited about his new teacher, Miss Jill Majestic. Yes her last name is really Majestic and she named her class the Majestic Monkeys! I'm sure it will be a fun year for him!