spirituality and a $50 shirt

i got the new mumford & sons album yesterday. i never thought something with so many f words in it could be so spiritually uplifting.

man i love those mumford & sons. nothing has inspired me to lose this muffin top more. i actually ran 2.5 miles on the treadmill with those angels blasting in my ears. i know, i almost died.

it really gets my blood pumping. it's my roots man.

even tho they are british. whatever. they are irish to me.

i got a chance to run a quick errand w/ my eldest yesterday. usually i pick her up with lots o chillen in the car. yesterday it was just me. she asked where everyone was. i said they were w/ daddy & at piano. 

i asked her if she wanted to make a quick escape before heading back to the shackles of homework, dinner, baths, etc.

she smiled big. heck yes!

so we drove to urban outfitters.

we parked the car, beeped it, big smiles on our faces, anticipating what great deals we would find.

we browsed for a bit, nothing panned out for us, but we did find a great shirt for daddy, $4.99. gotta love a deal.

we were only in there around 20 min.

we walked out to see.....

a yellow parking ticket on my windshield.

BOOOOOO HOOOOOO

i was so excited to escape for a minute, i completely forgot to put money in the meter.

it didn't even cross my mind.

i couldn't believe it.

$42 ticket

so dad's shirt ended up being a $50 shirt.

at least he liked it.

a cheer for greer

a few weekends ago we went up to greer to stay with two other families

in their fancy resort- i mean cabin.

it was amazingly beautiful.

here are all of the little cherubs lined up.

2-12.

we met these dear families when oldest 3 girls were in 4yr. old preschool together.

now they are full on tweens.

the kids had so much fun running wild, catching snakes, riding motorized toys, riding bikes into town, going on hikes, "falling" in the muddy creeks, etc. etc.

R had the time of his life playing sports with daddy all day.

ahhh. the green trees, the kids playing outside, the laughing around the campfire...... heaven.

we even snuck in a little photoshoot :)

          

i can't WAIT for this hot az weather to cool off!!!

museum fun and 7lbs of heaven

mother-daughter time

a few weeks ago, S and i attended a

 st.philomena mother daughter retreat.

it is a special weekend where we were to discuss the gifts of 

femininity, marriage and purity.

gulp.

                                                   

it was really such a fun weekend. i feel so lucky to have met the great group of women who put on this retreat. i also felt happy for S to have such a safe and supportive opportunity to learn all about growing up! i can't wait to take all of my girls on this retreat.

it was held in a nice resort in scottsdale. we went to sessions, had tons of delicious snacks, the girls got time to swim and hang out and the moms had time to chat.

S was hilarious. her reactions and responses were sweet and priceless. it was hard for her to sit still at times, but the talks were so great and thought provoking.

one talk had us thinking about the type of man she would want to marry

and what her deal breakers would be.

since S is not really into boys yet, she was having a hard time coming up with anything.

but after some thought, she said she would like to marry someone like her daddy.

i thought that sounded like a good choice.

a sweet girl from flagstaff came to tell us a story about her devotion to st. philomena. she even had a st. philomena relic!

here are all the girls that attended after our fancy banquet dinner. we met girls from all over arizona. the age spread was 11-15.

we got to attend and share a room with some of my fav people on the planet.
Y and i had a pretty good time too. staying up all night talking after the girls finally passed out. and i mean all night. it took a week to recover!!

50 shades of d

ho hum...

so...

my mom is in germany. me miss her. i.want.to.go.to.there.

who wants to go with me???

i am adjusting to a new parental jr. high lifestyle. i don't remember my mom being so involved in my daily life in jr. high. it's just that one teacher in particular makes me so mad. i'm crazy about all the teachers that say she is outstanding. hmmm...

i do think i have an unhealthy obsession with seeing what we can sneak by the uniform police at school. i think it may be my latent rebellious catholic school girl tendencies bubbling up. considering other options for rebelliousness, it may not be so bad after all?

i took my only child to the children's art museum yesterday. he loved it. before we went, i was explaining where we were going, telling him he was going to have so much fun.

he said: "oh! will there be swords there?"

me: "no, probably not."

R: "oh! guns then!?"

me: "no, probably not"

R: "oh. maybe football then!?" excitement diminishing...

one track mind that child.


i have all kinds of adorable pictures i would like to share.... but still haven't figured out the picture issue.


L is really into having a high ponytail lately. she was a little flustered when i had to leave this morning before doing her hair. i got a text from her dad with a smiling L and a very smooth, very high ponytail.
now he has mastered the braid, the low ponytail and the high ponytail. good job papa.


and my favorite quote from yesterday:

on the way home from school, with my carpool bandwagon, i overheard....

"ugh, i'm really in the mood for tapas right now."

wha???

my blog is telling me my picture space is full.

goll.

i don't want to pay $2.49 a month from now on.

i wonder if i will get in trouble for writing this.

or flagged.

or something.

conspiracy theory.

so i guess i will have to jot down my jumbled thoughts.

and i just polished off a venti starbucks... so look out.

first off: i love this post from my mom's blog

(side note: she changed all my children's names to correspond with the initials that i use for my blog. it's what she wished i had really named them. i am not paranoid.)

blogging beth living life

what i love about it:

that my mom refers to herself as a little child. she's almost 60 and her dad is adjusting the bike seat for her. funny stuff.

my grammy makes her breakfast.

i love that the ladies love to apply some lipstick & get together for martinis. so exciting.

well basically i love all of it.


what else. what else.....


we just got back from an amazing weekend in greer with some awesome friends. so much fun and laughter... and snakes. yuck.

my mom has some pretty funny stories regarding online dating. hopefully she will write about them.

one recent experience involved an elvis impersonator. the second, she really liked, until the end when he confessed to being over taken by aliens several years ago. it's much funnier when she tells the story.



this school year is off to a strong start. it makes me a little nervous actually. the kids are all so much busier this year. i can't tell yet if it is good or too much.

S: homework galore, volleyball 3x a week

L: piano, gymnastics (maybe), atrium, mary's club, choir

D: piano, soccer 3x a week, atrium, mary's club & choir

S: gymnastics (maybe), atrium, mary's club, choir

and i joined the gym again. R is getting used to the childcare. he is really sad when i leave, but then so happy & having fun when i come back to pick him up after my intense 15 min. workout. jk. i actually did a zumba class, i was terrible tho. i kept jumping to keep my heart rate up, but spent most of the class facing the wrong way.



our bathroom needs to be remodeled in a big way. i will spare you the details.


i want a new hairstyle in a big way.


my friend is preggo with her 6th baby. i am jealous in a big way.


the kids are so funny. they just crack us up all the time. i never get frustrated or overwhelmed.

hahahahhahahahhahahahhahahhahahha.


but they really are funny. i am thankful for my husband and my family every day. i have a friend who has been fighting stage 4 cancer. you can read about her story here. it is heartbreaking. i admire their strength and faith so much.


well.. that's it for now i guess.

man about town

this little boy

wears underwear now.

cool ones.

cause that's important.

the secrets to potty training:

1. boys are unbelievably messy. stock each bathroom with one of these bad boys, or else your bathroom will smell like a pee factory.

2. go to costco and buy the biggest bag of m&ms you can find. give the child an m&m every time the kids goes in the potty. no matter what time it is. basically freak out & have a party every time he/she goes.

3. hire 4 little girls to take the child potty all the time and be equally, if not more, excited that the child is going in the potty.

happiness is.....

back to school dinner club.....

happiness is not: getting called home from the poor babysitters who were overwhelmed at the nonstop crying by several of the little cherubs. we decided to borrow & ride bikes home from the dinner and pdubs popped a tire and had to walk it home ;o

happiness is: finding & buying 8 pairs of salt water sandals at last chance for $4.99

 happiness is not: only one of the eight pairs actually fit one of my children. how could i pass it up tho... right?






happiness is: enjoying a delicious send off meal before starting an 11 day cleanse.

the cleanse was pretty good, terrible in the beginning, but afterwards really made me want to improve our eating habits regularly.

happiness is also stocking my fridge with tons of organic veggies & fruits and feeling fulfilled when my family ate them all up.

eating delicious salads everyday...

 happiness is not: craving alcohol and coffee every second of every day on the cleanse. we decided we missed coffee more than alcohol tho, so that was good. it is also not fun to sit next to my smoking hot friend in a bikini while on the cleanse. it made me feel like it was pointless 'cause i wasn't going to look like her at the end anyway. (A, luv u!!!)




happiness is: enjoying breakfast with my mom and sis and finally being able to have coffee again

 happiness is: having the girls turn all of R's toys in to girl toys... no matter what.

happiness is: this girl being old enough to do this....

happiness is:  being able to spend so much one on one time with this little face every day

happiness is: being greeted first thing this morning by my cute little carpool buddy with this sign. it made me cry :)

outside my comfort zone

this morning i tried a tai chi class for the first time.

i rode my bike to the studio and had an open mind for a new experience.

my friend was supposed to meet me.

she was not there.

i decided i would have to have this experience by myself.

i walked into a room and everyone was punching their own abdomens.

o.k.....

so i started punching mine too.

then the master asked me to follow him into another room.

i laid down and he asked me to breathe.

feel my chest rise & fall.

in through my nose and exhale through my mouth.

so i did that.

then i started to laugh.

he was not laughing.

so i closed my eyes and tried again. 

after about 10 awkward minutes,

he asked me to join the group again.

we started the class and it wasn't too bad.

my friend walked in.

thank the good lord.

we smiled at each other and i knew i had better not get the giggles again.

it would have been bad.

we rocked, bounced, counted, twisted, stretched & bowed.

then we relaxed on the floor for 15 minutes.

eyes closed.

i felt something massaging my feet.

it felt good.

they are kind of touchy in those classes i guess.

then, apparently, i was not breathing correctly.

master said i was only breathing  at 50%.

so he proceeded to rub and shake my abdomen stomach area.

for about 10 minutes.

it was so awkward.

i was trying to focus, but kept smiling.

he said to focus on pushing my energy to my fingertips.

all i could focus on was not having a bm with all the pushing on my tummy.

finally he stopped.

my friend was laughing at all the special attention i was getting.

we then stood up.

pounded and punched ourselves in various places.

held our abdomens and stared at each other, laughing.

like a fake laugh. we were supposed to laugh.

that quickly turned into real laughter.

we bowed and we finished.

i rode home, confused.

my friend texted me throughout the day, still laughing at me getting

in her words "all chi and squishy tummy"

when i got home i tried to convince baby R to snuggle up with me in bed.

not so much.

i don't think i'll try any more tai chi.

boston trip

 there are so many photos in this post but i just could not decide which ones to cut. it was all so fun and memorable so.... here we go.

our flight in to boston was great and uneventful. once we got there, we had some minor issues with the rental car situation & a dead phone. once we got that straightened out, S and i had our xm radio turned up and we hit the road. driving thru those tunnels for the first time was a little scary, especially when we realized we were under water. but we made the quick 30 min trip to reading, where my friend lives.

the next morning we got up and started the day. that was S's actual birthday. so we started with a donut the size of her head and drove to essex, ma. we went to woodman's and had delicious seafood. we checked out some antique stores, one in which S's skirt got caught on an old tile but luckily it didn't break, the tiles were $400 each! ouch!, got delicious ice cream and then got back in the car and drove to salem and checked out the beach.

that night we headed into town and had a crazy night in the north end eating delicious italian food and eating cannolis at modern bakery. yummmmmmm.

the next morning we got up and went to the public garden. i LOVED seeing the swans soooo much. the grounds were so beautiful and we loved seeing the giant trees, the green grass and the swan boats. so beautiful.

we met up with some friends at the sowa market where i finally got some sunglasses and my friends got some awesome hats. we looked around at all the local crafters, farmers & artists. we got to eat from the delicious food trucks. it was so hot so we thoroughly enjoyed our blueberry lemonade from roxy's.

after lunch, we started walking around town. we made a few stops at starbucks & a cupcake place, but were equally enthralled seeing the site of the boston massacre and all of the historic buildings.

the next day we drove out to plymouth, as in THE plymouth. you know, plymouth rock?
we saw that. it's actually not the real one, so we were told, but cool to see anyway. this is where we got a whole lobster, saw the mayflower, sailed along the cape, ate delicious ice cream (of course) and best of all... went whale watching. it was such a blast. we thought it was going to be a 1.5 hour cruise but it ended up being a 4 hour tour. good thing we had nothing but time! they had a pretty hefty snack bar luckily so we were able to have snacks, we thought we would be back for lunch ;)

 we were so worried that we were not going to see any whales, it was kind of expensive & they guaranteed sightings or another trip. we didn't have time for another trip, so we had our fingers crossed. luckily we saw several!!

S was getting pretty comfortable on the boat. i may have literally flipped out, crying and everything, when i found her on the very tip, titanic style, on the ride home. we were going so fast and she easily could have lost her balance and... well yada yada yada... i flipped out. anywho....

at the first sighting, the whole boat was really excited. i was on the top level and S was on the bottom level right below me. everyone oohed and ahhhed when we saw the first whale. after it quieted down, S realized i was right above her and exclaimed "mom! did you see that!!??" it was so sweet and everyone chuckled a little and smiled. it is just so amazing to see those huge creatures out there.

mother and baby diving at the same time. awwww.......

 these are seasonal homes on the very end of the cape. you have to bring in everything, including water & power if you choose to stay there. looks like the setting of a romantic nicholas sparks movie....

the mayflower!!

on the beach beneath the little column structure, is plymouth rock.

on our last day there, we braved the traffic and the looong drive down the cape. we made it to hyannis port. i loved to see the differences in the beaches. these beaches had white soft sand and small pine trees.

my beautiful girl taking in the sights.

 we had to then throw our clothes back on and drive straight to the airport. unfortunately we missed that flight and my poor friends had to host us another night. we missed the next flight as well, but finally headed home on the third attempt.

what an action packed, nonstop trip. so memorable and so awesome. and i'm so glad i could share it with my little adolescent.