All-in-One

Below are thoughts that have been stewing around in my head the past few days for quite some time. Rather than write 30 separate posts, I decided to just post an "all-in-one". I warn you... it's overkill!

1. There's this blue bird that hangs out around our house all the time, and I've named him Bluey. Of course I can't be sure that he's the same bird every time, but I like to think that he is. He's very pretty. He has a bright blue streak that goes down his back and he has some of the same on his head. He has a whitish/grayish belly. He may be a Western bluebird, but I really can't be sure. He seems to have some black on his head and body, and it doesn't look like the Western has that. Anyway, whenever we go outside to play, he makes an appearance. I would love to get him (or make him) a birdfeeder. I like him very much and I wish I were a better photographer than this. Hopefully one of these days!


2. Emily starts soccer a week from tomorrow, and I'm SO excited! I can't wait to watch her first Pee Wee "game". (I say "game" because the kids are so young and are just starting to learn, so I doubt it'll be much of a game; it'll be more of a lesson, I bet.) She's going to play with her friend, J, who she's known since birth. Stephen and I met J's mom and dad at our childbirth preparation class in the fall of 2004. Lisa and I ended up having our girls only three days apart!


3. My parents' 50th wedding anniversary is a little over a year from now (in July of 2010). My brother and I were talking Thursday morning about how we really should start making plans! I need to create a Yahoo! group for us siblings so we can start researching, discussing and planning.


4. That same brother, Jaime, and his wife, Debbie, just bought a beautiful new home in Massachusetts. They moved in this week and sound very happy. (They're in the same town they were in before, so the kids didn't have to change schools, which is nice.) I'm very happy for them and wish we could go see the house (and throw them a housewarming party)!


5. Since he's on a roll, I'll mention one more Jaime thing. When he graduated from Harvard Medical School in the early '90s, PBS aired an episode of Nova which had, up to that point, been following several of his classmates, documenting their journies. That original episode was called So You Want to be a Doctor?. I remember getting excited when I saw my brother speaking in a scene or two. Anyway, when I couldn't sleep the other night and was flipping channels at around 2 a.m., I flipped to PBS and somebody caught my eye. I soon realized that he was one of the young doctors who was featured in So You Want to be a Doctor?. It had been years since I'd seen that original show, but I still recognized him. I watched this episode (called Doctors' Diaries, which is a follow-up on the doctors some 20 years later) as long as I could, hoping to maybe see my brother, but I never saw him (and I ended up falling asleep at around 2:40 or so). At one point I wanted to get up and go program my DVR to record the show, but I didn't, because I didn't wanna disturb Leah. Fortunately, Jaime gave my parents a heads-up a few days ago that the show was about to air, and they ended up recording it. I hadn't realized that it's actually a two-part show. I'm looking forward to seeing it in its entirety. (And in case you're wondering, my brother IS shown a couple times, but very briefly. His coverage isn't as good as it was in So You Want to be a Doctor?.)


6. I'm loving AI this year. I think the order should end like this: 1)Adam Lambert, who's from my neck of the woods, by the way, and is a BRILLIANT artist and performer; 2) Allison Iraheta; 3) Kris Allen; 4) Danny Gokey; 5) Matt Giraud; 6) Anoop Desai and 7) Lil Rounds. (Poor Lil Rounds is not very good. For some reason there was so much hype surrounding her in the earlier weeks of the season, and she was so overrated. She really isn't that great of a singer, and is a pretty bad performer, in my opinion.)


7. Facebook's addictive! (MySpace is obnoxious; Facebook, I like. And Twitter, I just don't get.)


8. Angie, one of my best friends, (we met during my short year in Illinois, when we were sophomores in high school), is over 35 weeks pregnant right now with her third child -- a (third) baby girl. Her babies tend to make early appearances, so Baby Girl J #3 could come any day now. I'm very excited for Angie and wish I could be there to meet the baby!


9. Fallbrook is hosting its annual avocado festival tomorrow, and we might go. I *love* avocado, and besides, it's an excuse to get outside and walk around with the kids in what I'm sure will be fabulous weather. Fallbrook's not my favorite place in the world, but for an avocado festival, I'll try to overlook its faults and enjoy myself. ;-)


10. Since I'm on the topic of food... a couple days ago, my mom made an old family favorite for dessert and sent some home with Stephen. (He picked it up from her house on his way home from work.) It's banana pudding with Nilla wafers, and it's yummy!! My sister, V, used to make it all the time when I was a kid, but it's been a while since any of us have had it. Thanks for making it for us, Ma!


11. One more food post... I want NEED to try this place. It made the list of the five top American burger joints on CNN... and it's here in SD! Actually, it's in OB. Their burgers look AMAZING. To DIE for. We MUST go. NOW.


12. Kathryn's 40th birthday is today (happy birthday, Kat-ryn!), and we're going to her party tonight. She's renting a bouncy house for adults. Did you catch that? Bouncy house. Adults. Adults will be drinking yummy Stone beer... wearing funny hats... and bouncing. I'm there!


13. It's springtime. What does that mean, you ask? It means Xyno's hair is falling off his body in mad chunks and it's time to get him shaved! It's times like these that I am SO glad we have our new floors. (I also feel surges of gratitude for these new floors when someone spills something. Now when we have a spill, we think, "What, a spill? No prob. Bring it on.")


14. Speaking of springtime, the Carlsbad flower fields look cool. We should go. Maybe next month.


15. Emily learned about camping from Olivia. After she watched that particular episode, she asked me if we could go camping soon. I looked at her and said, "What a great idea!" After all, it's been YEARS since I've been camping. I can't even remember my last time camping, it's been so long. (I was definitely a little kid at the time -- possibly when we went to Yosemite when I was 10 or so?) So seeing as how Stephen and I have never been camping together, and it's been so long since either of us has been, and seeing as how Emily's NEVER been, I thought it would be nice for us to pack up and go in the somewhat near future. I told Stephen what I thought and he thinks it's a good idea. He thinks we should start out on a small scale and choose a local site. Maybe he's right. (I was thinking we should venture far out, but I'd be willing to go close by.) We bought a nice tent years ago, and we finally might have a reason to actually use it!


16. Another thing we've never done, even though WE LIVE IN SAN DIEGO, is Legoland. I hear all the time that it's ideal for kids Em's age, and I do think she'd really like it. They even opened a *really* nice-looking aquarium nextdoor to the park which I'd like to check out. I happened to see it featured on an episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 (which I do NOT watch regularly, by the way; I just couldn't sleep one night and when I flipped to it, I saw that they were in San Diego, so I kept watching!) -- the Gosselins were on vacation here and they visited Legoland and the Sea Life Aquarium. They were actually the first-ever visitors to the aquarium; it wasn't even open to the public when they were there, but the officials let them tour it anyway. It's just all so gosh-darn expensive! Maybe one of these days.


17. Stephen and I are going on a date to see The Offspring in concert at SDSU's Open Air Theatre in early June. This'll be our fourth(?) time seeing them live. The last time we saw them was at Open Air, and I was about a week pregnant with Emily. (Didn't know it yet.) We really like the feel of OAT, because it's relatively small and kinda cozy. I'm looking forward to this!


18. G, my beautiful goddaughter/niece, turned 12 a few days ago. It happened to be a hectic day for me, and I tried calling her on my drive home from dinner out with friends, but she was unfortunately in the shower and would be in bed by the time I got home. I told her brother to pass along our love and "happy birthday", and that I'd hopefully talk to her soon. I'm glad I was able to send her a birthday card last week and that it got there on time!


19. Stephen's brother, Mike, has been coming to San Diego for business on a monthly basis lately. Sometimes the two brothers meet at a restaurant for dinner, and sometimes Mike comes to the house to see the girls. Emily always looks forward to seeing Uncle Mike. Whenever he comes knocking on the door, she hides from him and he has to go find her. He was just here the other night, and Emily enjoyed entertaining him like usual! :-)


20. Speaking of Lawlesses, it looks like all seven Lawless siblings and their spouses and kids will be descending on Oklahoma in August. I'm bummed because Em, Leah and I won't be able to make it. I'm glad Stephen's finally able to get out there to see his family and visit their properties, though. His brothers and parents have been out there for a long time, and this'll be Stephen's first time visiting, which is great.


21. I realized the other day that I haven't been to my OB for an annual well-woman check-up since my 6-week postpartum appointment after Leah was born. I really need to get on the phone and schedule that. (I'm surprised they didn't send me a reminder in the mail!) Oy, I also recently realized that I haven't scheduled Leah's 15-month well-baby appointment yet. Gotta do that first thing Monday!


22. How come when I feel like I'm "caught up" with my housework (like yesterday), I then slack off and let things go to heck again? On Tuesday I picked up and vacuumed in all the bedrooms, I swept and picked up in the rest of the house, I cleaned the kitchen, cleared off the hi-fi furniture piece in the entryway (the "hot spot" of our house), and cleaned the main bathroom. I felt pretty good about myself, but instead of maintain or tackle other areas, I totally vegged Wednesday, and come Thursday I was completely annoyed with myself. Speaking of cleaning house, I've heard good things about FlyLady, and I keep meaning to take time to thoroughly check out her website and ideas, but I never get around to it. Someday.


23. Another complaint... why is it that I feel like I'm exercising my butt off, but not seeing or feeling results? (I was doing so well with an exercise routine up until October of last year. For some reason I stopped working out, and I then went on to gain between five and 10 pounds between November and January. I'm just now getting around to doing something about it. Ugh.) I know it's only been a few weeks since I started a workout routine again, but I just hate how I don't see or feel any change. It's so discouraging. My gut says it's because I'm such a night-owl... I go to bed too late (and end up late-night snacking) and consequently I wake up too late, and I don't eat breakfast like I should. I don't think I eat poorly or too much; I just think I need to be better at my scheduling and I definitely should make breakfast a priority and I need to cut out night-snacking. The exercise isn't the problem (I've been enjoying regular activity, whether it's step aerobics or Tae Bo, and I look forward to jumping on the treadmill again really soon); the problem is eating right. *Sigh.*


24. The other day, I was reading a blog post written by a woman who's due to give birth to her second child any day. She said that a part of her wants the baby to hurry up and come out, but the other part of her knows that her first will be an only child for just a short while longer, so she's trying to savor every last minute of alone time with her. Reading this prompted me to think back to when I was due to give birth to Leah. I do remember making a conscious effort to lie down with Em and cuddle her. I remember trying to filter everything out and simply focus on enjoying her, because I knew our alone time was running out. They were beautiful times; precious moments. Until reading that woman's blog, I hadn't really thought about those days since they happened. I enjoyed going back and remembering what it felt like to enjoy my Em... when it was *just* Em. What's crazy is that we'll never have those days again.
    Along these same lines, I do cherish the time when Em's in school, and I get to focus on Leah alone. She and I do lots of cuddling and snuggling during those three hours twice/week. It's heavenly. I do it because I know time goes by so fast!


25. School has been SO GREAT for Emily. She's really thriving. Every Monday and Wednesday night, she looks forward to the following morning so she can go to school to see Mrs. M. and play with D, T, A, and all her friends. She loves it when they paint, and she still loves to "vacuum" her classroom. She also digs snacktime and playtime outside. Mrs. M. is a wonderful teacher (my goddaughter/niece, G, had her when she was in preschool, too), and Stephen and I are very happy with how Em's first schoolyear's been going. She's really come out of her shell socially, too. A year ago, she was literally hiding her head when we were in a social setting she wasn't comfortable with; but now she seems very confident, playful and friendly. We're thrilled!


26. I (we) really should be signing with Leah. She (and we) for some reason stopped signing poop after a while, and I never took off with milk like I wanted to. Just now we showed her the Mommy and Daddy signs. There's really no excuse not to do signs with her, especially now that I've found a nice site to refer to.


27. I *knew* I was a mom when I bought this. The first time I saw it at Costco I resisted, but a couple visits later I gave in to temptation. I thought, "This is the answer to transporting cakes and cupcakes!!" I mean, you know how you put cupcakes on a plate and then put Saran Wrap over the top, and the frosting comes off? Or you can only put one layer of cupcakes on the plate, because adding another row on top would also de-frost the bottom row? Well, this fixes all that. I actually have Snapware storage containers -- I bought a set at Costco one day, came home, cleaned out all my mismatched Tupperware, and vowed from then on to *only* use Snapware. (I gathered all the Tupperware and gave it all to my mom. Sorry, Ma.) Since that day, I've only had and used my Snapware... and I *love* it! It was a great move. Anyway, this cake/cupcake carrier is a Snapware product, so I'm pleased. It's great, too, because it comes with three tiers, and you can use one, two, or all three! You can even add on if need be! Oh, and I got it for a MUCH better deal at Costco. ($17 instead of Amazon's $25. Target's much more expensive, too. I think I saw a one-tier unit for $10 at a Target store.) I think this is such a "Mom" thing because I envision using it to take cupcakes to Em's classroom and such. Awwww. I'm a Mommy!! (Sometimes I still have a hard time believing it!)


28. My neighbor suggested I buy a long-handled dustpan for our new floors, since we now do much more sweeping than we used to. I bought one at Target (it was designed by Michael Graves) and I'm pretty disappointed in it. The concept is great (I hate bending down for my regular dustpan), but this model's not so great. The dirty stuff sweeps right underneath the pan and just ends up on the other side of it, rather than inside of it. I found one on Amazon that got good reviews... I'm debating whether I should return the one to Target and go ahead and try the Amazon one. (It's twice as expensive, and if I don't like it, returning it would be a bit harder since it's an online store, but I think I might go for it.)


29. Speaking of neighbors... I love ours! We live in a great neighborhood. I love our street (to be specific, our *end of the street). It's a pretty quiet area, and there's not a lot of traffic, which gives me peace of mind when the girls are playing outside. Even though it's pretty quiet around here, there are still kids around for Em to play with. In fact, two families moved into the house across the street (Steve, his daughter and their dog Scruff had to move out late last year, and we miss them, but I admit it's nice to have more little kids around for Em to play with). The families are related to each other: there are a sister and a brother and their spouses. Each couple has two sons: one's 5, one's 4, another was born just a few weeks ago, and one is due to be born in a couple months. Also, the nice couple who live two houses down have three grandsons (ages 7, 6 and almost 2), and those boys live just a couple streets over (but they're at their grandparents' house at least a couple times a week). They're very nice boys and Em loves to play with them. [As a matter of fact, she was playing with them today (they like to make believe in the playhouse), and I noticed they had a yucky cough. Man, I hope my girls don't get sick. I really don't want Em to have to miss her first soccer game next week!] Then there's Jean and Dearie, who I've known since I was born... their granddaughters (ages 10 and 8) are often over, and Em loves them, too. And THEN there's of course Dave and Lee, who have two kids: J (age 14) and H (almost 12). We've known them since we moved here five-and-a-half years ago, and we've always been pretty close. J and H are both very good with Em. So I feel very lucky to live around such nice people, and I'm thankful that Em almost always has someone to run around with outside! :-)
    * Down the street, it's not quite so peaceful. There's a house down there that's occupied by a bunch of older men who apparently like to drink, yell and play *really* loud music. And by play, I mean THEY do the playing. They break out their microphones, electric guitars and amps, and go to town. Oy. I'm SO thankful I don't live directly nextdoor to them!!


30. I wrote down 29 items, and I just had to write down a 30th, so here it is. Hmm. Did I mention I get to bed too late? It's almost 2:00 in the morning!!