Surprise

Every year, I have a fantasy baseball draft in March and I typically make the effort to join up with my old friends from high school for a weekend of hanging out and discussing baseball.


This year, I went to Surprise, AZ outside of Phoenix to take in a few Rangers games and have the draft with my buddy Jason Schumacher and his eldest son, Jack, pictured below. I've known Jason for a little over 2o years, ever since I moved back to Texas in 7th grade, and we've been good friends since. We missed the other guys but had a great time watching Rangers BP, fielding drills and games at beautiful Surprise Stadium.

Jack was an autograph hound. He got 2 Josh Hamilton autographs, Derek Holland, Joe Nathan, Mike Adams, Yoshinori Tateyama, Mark Hamburger, Martin Perez, Ronald Guzman and two scrubs hoping to make the team, Brandon Snyder and Luis Hernandez. He was a little jackrabbit hopping around, finding the holes to get to the front of the line and get the autograph. Here he is with Tateyama and Nathan.

We got to see the Rangers play the Cubs, Reds, Giants and Angels. I think we lost every game but the one against the Giants, though Mark Hamburger did his best to blow a 4 run lead.

Back at the hotel, we found they had a nice little basketball court and after destroying a couple of teenage girls from neighboring apartment complex in a few games of rundown, we decided to show off our jumping prowess. You might have noticed that we are white. But we can still get rim.

Then we slept about 1 hour on Friday night in preparation for the draft Saturday morning. And my team stinks to show for it.

Also, during our break at the end of round 10, Schu decided he would fry up some bacon for Jack. Except he forgot to turn on the vent so smoke built up in the room and the fire alarm went off. It was so loud that Schu and I had to hold towels up to the alarms (it was 7am) to muffle them while Jack harassed the front desk to turn the alarms off, which they finally did about 15 minutes later.

Constant

I am a constant work in progress, especially in regards to my faith. I feel like I am corrected all the time - happily - because I really do need it.

With all the struggles with this new phase in michael's development, I have kind of lost my parenting way.

However, it is through the good words of the bible, amazing and supportive mom friends, and advice from those friends that holds me up and encourages me that no permanent damage was done!

Michael's school sends out a weekly devotional and this week's was what I needed to hear:

Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-2 (The Message)

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”

I was recommended by one of my supportive mom friends a book called loving our kids on purpose by Danny silk. It has come at a perfect time for me! I need a refresher course on how I like to parent after accidentally slipping into the totalitarian hitler-esque style of parenting.

Hope this encourages you to keep marching on!

P

Counter

Today, Michael countered my post from yesterday by listening and even helping to carry all the folded clean laundry upstairs. Without being asked. And this was no small feat. I am talking about a back log of laundry that covered the entire couch, including arm rests. I am talking in the neighborhood of 8-10 loads of laundry.

Was pretty impressed with him!

Then, we went to swim and I saw him floating on his back pretty dang well with his noodle after lesson during his pool time. Then, he let it go and floated all by himself. Awesomely. With no help. Seriously awesome for Michael who had the hardest time floating a year ago.

Then, he didn't listen when I told him it was time to get out of the pool and he spit at me under the cover of spitting out water from his mouth....hmmmm....sly that one.

We went to see the lorax today! Super cute. Thought we were gonna get a Rita's free water ice but sadly, the 200 college students already in line dissuaded me from that.

P

xoxo

Around Valentine's day, Michael showed me in his classroom something he made that included the letters "xoxo."

He said to me, "Mommy! Did you know that xoxo means hugs and kisses?"

At the time, I thought it was cute, but not blog-worthy.

However, since then, Michael comes up to us and says, "XOXO!" And we give hugs and kisses. He is so enthusiastic about it and it is TOO too cute. And he REALLY squeezes. You can tell it is a big deal to him!

So now it is blog-worthy.

While being cute at the same time - Michael is entering a difficult phase and I'm not quite sure how to handle it. He gets easily frustrated, cries at the drop of a hat about being said "NO" to, and screams at me from time to time.

Not quite sure where my cute little boy went, but it's replaced by this more willful little guy that asks me "WHY" FOR EVERYTHING. By the 60th time in the day, I am a bit tired of explaining everything.

SO - how is this different necessarily than the "terrible two year old" stage? Not quite sure how to explain it, but it just seems that since Michael can express himself quite well - we spend too much time talking about stuff. Lately, it's like he forgot how to listen and obey.

Sigh - I am just really tiring of it. I find myself mentally exhausted and DONE by the end of the day, with just my ONE. I am extra short with him because I'm 1) tired of being interrupted EVERY 2-3 minutes and 2) having to explain myself for every freakin' WHY I get. I think this is where the "Because I said so!" got birthed.

Lately - Michael just gives up on whatever task he's doing SO easily. He can't find the remote - Unmmm: he's only been looking for 2 seconds. GO BACK AND TRY AGAIN. Oh, you can't open that piece of candy? Well, how badly do you want to eat it? If you want it, I suggest you figure it out. I am not here to wait on you hand and foot.

Ok, I'm done venting now. Yes, I love my son. Yes, I think he is wonderful most of the time. But I'm not going to blog every time about how awesome he is and how perfect he is. Because he's not. And it would be misleading for me to present him that way.

Before I forget

Two days ago - when a bunch of the neighborhood kids were over - it neared 6:00pm.

AND I hear hollerin' from the 2 different houses next to me:

"CONNER!!! TIME TO COME HOME!!!"

"ABBEY!!! TIME TO COME HOME!!!!"

It sounded like voices coming from the woods and were so clear. But it cracked me up - like the triangle cattle call to eat.

And it made my heart happy.

Because we don't live with our neighbors within arms reach of our walls. One house is so far tucked in the back, people don't even see it. The other is at least 50-100 yards away. So the people were really hollerin'!!

Most of the time, I really rag on our land. It's sloped, needs new grass seed, and is wooded (ie filled with disease transporting ticks). But the kids love it.

Frankly - it photographs so dang well - that it's hard for ME not to like it either. I am now working hard to earn the thousands of dollars needed to have my property landscaped by a professional with the idea of an outdoor studio in mind. It would be awesome. And would set me apart from the other photographers in the area. Plus, I love it and it would increase our property value while the market is tanking. :)

Performance Review Part Deux

SO today's haphazard question for my performance review to Michael was:

"Does Mommy spend a lot of time on the ipad?"

"Yes! You spend a lot of time on the ipad so I think it is cool and that I should be doing it too."

In my mind:

F*$*(W*#&$

I KNEW that thing was trouble!!! I love it and it's a toy and I am apparently not leading by example.

In all honesty, I really don't feel like I am on it all that much. However, perception vs. reality is obviously at play here.

Here's the first (of what I assume will be many) items for me to work on.

Performance Review

Now that Michael is old enough - I ask him questions that are areas of concern for me as a parent. How he views me reflects a bit on my behavior so I like to perform these very informal "performance evaluations" with him.

I don't necessarily sit down with him and a 20 page questionnaire detailing my metrics on a 5 pt scale with a review of my progression towards my yearly goals.

Hardly.

But I ask random questions now and then, just in our everyday conversation.

Today, I chose to ask:

"Michael, does Mommy yell at you a lot?"

Because frankly - I always feel like I yell at some point in the day. It's not often, but it happens.

"No Mommy, you do not yell a lot. And I am happy."

Awww....but then he continues:

"And even when you do yell, I am still happy. Because I love you."

So when Brian walked in the door at 9pm after his little league coaching meeting and said, "Hey - Michael - who let you stay up so late?",

I just kind of sheepishly move my monopoly pieces along as if I'm not the parent that just got played by my 5 year old. Happily played at that! :)

Slowly but surely, more neighborhood kids of all ages have started playing with us. It's not everyday and it is just starting, but it is enough to make me excited!

Michael ran into the house and said: "Mom! We need snacks!"

So I raided most of what I had and set out a bowl of goldfish, pretzels, and dark chocolate petit ecolier and I hear,

"AWESOME!!! THANK YOU!"

"THIS IS AMAZING! You are the best Mrs. B!"

"Thank you MOMMY!"

"I LOVE goldfish!"

I don't even want to think about what I would have heard had I set out my pre-cut cauliflower that I have on hand for a healthy snack.

But yea! So happy for my little guy who had a wonderful idea! So happy for him to have some people to run around and play with him. So happy for the warmer weather where we can significantly reduce the screen time.

Next question for Michael, which should garner a much less favorable response: "Does Mommy say NO a lot?"

Uhhh.....

Michael is not a fish

Swimming has always been a challenge for him. We do not spend lots of times in pools. We are not avid swimmers. Swimming just isn't a big deal to us. Michael's first attempt at swim lessons was frustrating in his progress although he was having fun.

Well, all this may be the case. However, swimming is an important life skill so I decided lets do this again.

Especially since most kids his age can already swim a little bit.

We have been at swim lessons. The first - he was definitely anxious.

Now, 2 weeks later, he is playing around in the shallow kids pool (basically a ramp that goes from 0" to 2.5 feet) all by himself. He is floating on the noodle all by himself. He will go underwater just to play around and stand himself back up out of the water. His teacher says he will swim like 1 ft by himself and can push off of the wall.

Today, he decided to spend an extra 1.5 hrs after swim lesson paddling around. 2 hours all told in the pool all by himself (with me watching with hawk eyes). And I had to make him get out because I was hungry and now we were well over 2 hrs late for lunch. You must feed mommy before she gets cranky. It is a known rule in this house.

Is this the same kid? Goes to show - Michael is not gonna learn something until he is good and ready to do it. Since we are not proactive about swimming, it is partly our fault. But frankly, I am not big on pushing things on Michael when he does not want to learn it. While he was happy to play and go to swimming, he was not interested in learning it quickly and efficiently.

This leads me to an interesting fact about Michael - when he does not want to learn something, it is like pulling teeth to teach him (like reading - which he is getting better at!). But when he WANTs to learn something, the baby cat is fast at picking it up. Now just to figure out how to motivate him. That is the good question here as his parent.

Thoughts?

P

Jesus

Michael was listening to his VBS CD from last year and there's a series of questions that the song asks:

"Do you believe Jesus loves you?"

Michael, surprisingly, yells out "YES!"

"Do you have Jesus in your heart?"

"YES!"

Well how about that. We are starting to talk more and more about God's love for us and it is amazing watching how he is wrapping his mind around that. We have been reading You Are Special by Max Lucado (thanks to his great godparents!) and talking about how God has made us all different and he loves each and every one of us. We are loving that book!

Keepin' It Real

It is well known that I am not the most neatest person there ever was. However, I am on a quest to change that in 2012.

I would be well on my way, had I not felt awful and sick last week and spent a majority of Mon-Wed on the couch.

Thus - you need to know what my house can look like.

Let's start out easy for the very neat people who are easily faint at heart:
Moving onto the kitchen - yes - that is wet clothes hanging on the back of my breakfast room (and only dining area) chairs:
The living room looks only very slightly better:
Still undecided on the wall color and rug.

Moving to my piano room, I decided to make it a laundry room instead:
Laundry room - slash - piano room - slash goodwill pile.

Michael is moved into the guest room temporarily and it is deceivingly neat because all his stuff is piled up on the OTHER side of his bed:
A sneak peek into MY bedroom:
In case you want to see more teal from the tray ceiling:
I changed out the lamps recently. I will take more pictures when I do not have 30 stuffed animals laying next to my bed.

The basement was not spared:

I sold those recliners! Hallelujah! That glider is going next at the resale!

And there you have it. The truth. It is looking better - and I can only imagine it will improve over the week as we finish up painting/etc.

Love,

P

I'll Pinterest That

I've been craigslist-ing the ever livin' with very little to show for it.

However when this little guy showed up, I nabbed him!

Basically, any furniture that only is 12" in depth has my attention. My house is actually quite small (by American standards - we were shopping by French standards!) and the proportions in each room are very petite. Thus, I am always on the lookout for shallow furniture.

Eventually, I am going to Pinterest the bejeezus out of it until it looks something like this:
However, I am happy to have it look the way it does for now. It's now project #1029 on my list.

Well, The King of the House decided this cabinet showed up for his express purposes:
At least it's organized.
Here he is proud - proud of his organizing accomplishments:
Michael's been wearing that outfit for the last 3 days. You heard that right. He's got his dad in him after all.

Yes, that also means he has not had a bath in 3 days. Yes, he also slept in these clothes last night.

I am hoping you are reserving judgement right now and letting yourself not bathe your kid every now and then too. Do not feel guilty.

Michael did not know that this was my idea for my new little guy:
I've been wanting some cabinet space to organize Michael's craft and my "home office" supplies for a while.

Here's a peek at the inside:
Michael was pretty pleased to see his supplies were neatly arranged in the cabinet:
With his crayons, glue, and stencils in the drawer. He was REALLY excited to have his own space.

And I was very excited for Brian to have a home for all his stuff from his pockets:
Which I love that white porcelain serving dish because I bought it in Paris and it reminds me of that. AND the white in the dish matches well with the white in the dry erase board. Scroll up to see. I lined it with parchment paper so I could still just wash it and use it as a serving piece for a party if I needed to.

And to keep it real - not everything was organized:
Next up - what a house looks like when mom is holed up sick on the couch.

MY Project

When furniture finds it's way into the center of the room and blue tape appears, only one thing can come of it:

PAINTING TIME! I've been painting like a crazy woman to get Michael's furniture back into his room so I can use my empty guest room as my natural light studio for a session tomorrow.

DEEP BREATHS. As Tina Fey says in her book "BossyPants," my heart has been eating itself for the last week.

I believe in taping. I'm a pretty anal retentive painter (in addition to being high strung, imagine that).

But when my tape fails me, I feel rejected and let down:
Yes, the 3M EDGE LOCK tape does appear to NOT be full proof. This was even AFTER I resealed it with my fingernail. This ain't my first time to the "painting a room" rodeo show.

This kind of stuff drives me crazy. So I got to it with a flat head screwdriver and it is starting to come off. Just a little tip to others who find themselves in my product-let-down situation. It is not perfect, but at least it doesn't SCREAM at me from across the room.

And don't make fun of my red. Throughout my house - I seem to have an obsession with having a neutral color and then screaming a loud color with it. I will post pictures of the final room soon.

But I was not done. I decided Brian needed a DIY project that he wouldn't want to do:
You guessed it - a miter saw and chair rail.

If I ever wonder if my husband loves me, I just need to pull out this picture and remember that he does indeed:
I was very thankful to my handy guy who went and bought the chair rail, rented and learned how to use a nail gun, and got down and dirty with the decorating.

And then he said to me, "You know, you spent this weekend like any other weekend, watching Michael while I did stuff. But usually I get to do what I want like garden or run. And instead, I had to do what YOU wanted."

*watch loving feelings melt away*

At least he realizes now what his life would look like if I had more for him. WHICH I DO.

MORE! YES! MORE TO COME!

Oh My How Our Garden Grows

"Man Time" lately has meant gardening time. It's seed sowin' season up in this house!

Because it's too cute - I got another angle:
Gettin' it in the dirt:
Watering
And found this guy growing from leftover seeds from last year. I love red leaf lettuce:
I want to say we use organic farming methods (mushroom and homemade compost for fertilizer along with organic plant food throughout the season). However, I cannot assure you we do not use GMO seeds!

Love this hobby that my guys share together. And glad I'm only there to take pictures. I ran back inside to work on MY project for the weekend.

I bet you will be excited to see what's coming next! There is more in our blog EXTRAVAGANZA (said in Oprah's booming voice).

Love,

P

The Middle of Nowhere, Example #1

When I say I live in The Middle of Nowhere, PA. I mean it.

A brand new playground went in and the structure that came was called:

It was named. Like a ship. But it's a big building that the kids and run around in. Michael loves it there:
Yes, that is a mushroom he is standing on. I moved from The Live Music Capital of the World to the City of Lights, and then to the Mushroom Capital of the World.

You can call me Angelina Jolie at any time now. I lead an illustrious life. I mean - she does have a Vietnamese kid like me:

It's not my favorite park because they put this park on top of a hill with no tree cover. It is WINDY up there. Almost every time. I usually watch which direction the wind is blowing and stand on the side of the Barn so it can shield me.

Thursday, we had a wonderful windy day in the mid 60s with plentiful sun. So I jam packed the day with playdates.

The first up was at 10am with the kids from his preschool at the aforementioned barn.

Then, we ran over to another friend's house who has this HUGE flat grassy backyard.

*le sigh*

My favorite. There's plenty of room for the kids to run - and she has every toy known to man inside and out.

I don't have any pictures from that day because I was busy getting sunburned on purpose. I usually allow myself one for the warm season and then it's SPF500 from then on.

More posts to come! Watch out!

I have adopted my old strategy of downloading pictures quickly and just slapping 'em up on the internet. This is in lieu of the "professional" itch to edit all the pictures and make them perfect. You will see many more "snapshot" type images from me! Better down than gone!

Love,

P

Feet at the top of the stairs

Brian informed me today that he only checks the blog every once in a while because I only blog once every couple of weeks.

NICE - My own family

Honestly - I just do not have time to blog more than once a week (and even that's a stretch!). Do any of the other bloggers I know have time to post as often as we *should* (to maintain steady readership that is), which according to the internet is 3 times a week?

I think from now on - Sunday night is my blogging day.

Enough whining. Onto my post!

After getting Michael to lay down for downtime, I went up the stairs to check on him and ran smack into these little guys:

To see how much he was hanging off the top step:
I peered a little closer. YUP, asleep. On the landing.

Stubborn kids who don't take naps when they are supposed to fall asleep on the floor. Let that be a lesson learned to all the children who read my blog.

And this wasn't after an hour or anything. This was just 30 minutes. Silly Michael.

Vegetarian Pursuits

In my vegetarian lenten pursuits,

(of which, I have fallen off the bandwagon 3x - 2 of which I am going to say that I was sick and was just trying to get any kind of nutrition to stay in my system but I know that it is a pretty lame excuse - and 1 because my friend "forced" me to eat a mini chicken taco that she made for me as a snack and I didn't want to be rude, also a lame excuse)

I have discovered a tasty combination. I roasted vegetables with Wegman's Basting Olive Oil (basically olive oil with herbs) at 400. Roast whatever you like for however long you like in terms of "doneness." I used red onions, asparagus, red bell peppers, carrots, and cauliflower.

Mix with some feta. Serve warm.

That's it! I loved it! The feta was a nice bit of saltiness to balance the sweetness of the bell peppers, carrots, and red onions. I love eating feta because I think it's only 60 calories for 1-2 tbspn of it, which is A LOT. A little Feta goes a really long way flavor wise.

Culture in The Middle of Nowhere, PA

On Sunday March 4, I convinced Brian to go as a family to see the Lincoln University Symphony perform Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham.

It was free and perfect for kids! They did a great job of it and Michael was particularly enthralled, especially compared to his classmate there to the right:
He sat on the edge of his seat and watched the whole thing! I was pretty proud of my little theater-goer.

In my mind, I have huge hopes that he'll come with me happily to see musical performances. But knowing that he is a Besancon, I'm thinking that going to hear the symphony will probably not be his favorite thing to do.

The orchestra did a great job and brought out each group of instruments to the front to demonstrate to the children the high/low pitches of each instrument.

It was like a Baby Mozart, but in real life.

After the show, they had a Musical Instrument Petting Zoo! So all the kids could try out trumpets, touch violins, and bang on drums.

Michael was pretty impressed with the violin. Embrace your Asian Heritage, son:

Then, we waited in a pretty long line for the percussion section.

Here are father and son, playing on stage:
Michael at the instrument that makes a train whistling noise:
Rockin' out on the drum set:
Can't leave the section without swiping the wind chimes:
And if you run out of music stands, just go to the University of Delaware and pick up some extra:

Michael really enjoyed himself, and that was the goal! He told me his favorite instrument was percussion and that he wanted to start violin lessons! DONE AND DONE!

It was a really great show that was free and super close by. I was glad for Michael to experience something that is important to me, music. And he genuinely enjoyed it - which brought warmth to my heart. There will always be a part of me that remembers being on the stage with all those bright lights and playing music. And loving it. And now as a parent, I wonder if Michael will want any part of that.

Last Sunday, Michael told me:

"Mommy! I like church now! I like the kids liturgy that I go to."

Well how about that. And after that, we find him saying part of the Our Father that he picked up on his own. Michael's funny that way - it will seem sometimes that he is not paying attention or doesn't know something - and then one day - he shows you that he's known all along and was just waiting for the right time to show it to the rest of the world.