April Showers

The girls LOVE to play in the rain. Every time it rains, they want to run outside with umbrella's, rain boots, swim suits and "hey Mom, get the camera". Especially Lexie. She loves the rain. 

I remember playing in flooded streets at my Dad's house when I was a kid. Those were some of the most fun moments my brother and I had growing up on the outskirts of New Orleans. It was like a swamp, only without snakes and alligators. We would wade around, swim and play in that rain water. Kind of gross if you think about it. Well, that is how Cajuns roll. We eat things that come out of the mud and we play in dirty water. Let the good times roll cher'~

It's Raining Leaves?

Ahhh, Spring is in the air. The crisp breeze, the green making its way across the land, blue skies, birds chirping...Time to do the first lawn trim of the year.

I get out in the yard, mower, edger, leaf blower, extension cords...check. I put oil and gasoline in the mower, checked the levels, raised the wheels. I pushed in the choke and started pulling. 25 minutes later, I got the dang thing started....puttering, coughing, inching along, and even the mower was having a little trouble. 

Now: I have a sore back and shaky arms.

Anyhow, I whizzed through the back yard in no time. As soon as I moved to the front yard, the mower started SMOKING. I turned it off, noticed that it was leaking a little oil or gas or something dark brown. I went over and grabbed the edger (allowing the mower could cool off so I could rinse the residue off for a closer look). When I went to plug the edger into the extension cord, the end of the cord disassembled itself from the edger and whacked me in the cheek.

Now: I have a sore back, shaky arms and a pending black eye.

I finished edging the yard and decided to use the blower. Yeah, I know, I wasn't done mowing, but I got the blower for Christmas and really wanted to play with it. 

That is when I "learned" that when it is windy outside and you don't properly place the tip of the blower, you get a tidal wave of leaves blown all over yourself. It happened more than once. The most fun was when I accidentally blew an ant pile. Yeah, that was my favorite.

Now: I have a sore back, shaky arms, a pending black eye, welts from grass debris and ants in my pants.

I shut the blower down and went over to the lawn mower. Now that the mower isn't on fire, I can roll. I guess it had to burn off the "midnight oil" and then it seemed fine...(sounds like my life).
I finished mowing and the last little turn, a stick was catapulted to the side and that one sliver of wood made its way past my glasses and into my eye.

Now: I have a sore back, shaky arms, a pending black eye, welts from grass debris, ants in my pants, an obnoxiously other red eye and a nicely prepared Spring lawn.

So, once a week for the next 6 months, you can tune in to the comedy lawn and garden channel by watching me.....bring your umbrella, it's raining leaves!

Where "I" Been?

Hellooooo. Long time no bloggie, eh?
Yeah, well, I have been kinda prioritizing my life. I decided, while laid out with the flu, that I needed to get out of a relationship that I was in, I needed to get a different "job" and I needed to focus more on being an active parent in my kids lives. I go through the motions of a few aspects of my life and frankly, I was becoming tired and uninspired. So, I shifted my sails and changed the direction I was going in.

I am now teaching at an Elementary school. I am the art teacher and am surprised at how much I am enjoying the work. The kids are great and I am starting to really feel connected to them, and care about them a lot.
It has been a tremendous adjustment in my life and the lives of my girls. I haven't "had to" be anywhere, dressed and ready, with my "ON" button on in 10 years. Now, I have to be peppy, smile, teach, be dressed, eat at 6 AM, have lunch at 11, use the restroom somewhere in between. It is a very structured and exhausting day, but I am truly feeling blessed.

I have been lazy about returning phone calls, checking emails, initiating any outside communication really. After 7 hours of instruction, redirection, behavioral management and art, I am tapped out. It would be an understatement for me to say I have fallen asleep on the couch before 5 PM a few times in the past 3 weeks.

My point is, this blog hasn't made any of my "to do" lists, until tonight.
I am alive. My life is going very well. There is happiness all around me and I will do my best to share the intricacies of this new life, when a glimpse of time presents itself. Here is the first project I pulled out of my own creative brain. 

Thank you and good night~

Document. Document. Document.

It happens before you know it. A year or two passes you by and then, you bring out the scrapbooks. You peruse through the 2,000 photo archives you have and try to figure out what your child was like 2 years ago, what they were doing, so that you can accurately portray them in their rock, PAPER, scissors SCRAPBOOKS.

In the era of technology, text messages, IM's, emails and digital photography, we have an insane amount of memories on our, well Memory Storage, on our computer. What we need to spend a little more time doing is creating memories and then hard copy documenting them.

My kids are constantly asking to go through photo albums or scrapbooks and look at their growth. I cannot very well sit them down at the computer and say, ok, start here at shutterfly.com, then go over to flickr, then on to the hard drive and look at photos of yourself there...with no story, no input or journaling to accompany them. 

It is a lost story if the journaling is absent. Just a lonely photograph.

I'm merely suggesting that we take a moment to, at the very least, print photos out and put them into a photo album that has a "notes" section in the margin. After all, in 2 years, I won't remember where I have those 2,000 photos and then....the memories, their childhood will be lost....in cyberspace. 

2 Mommy Dorks. 1 Hippie Chick. 1 Greek Goddess. Priceless.

Alabama Native.

My parents moved to Alabama (no teasing allowed) where my Dad began working for a Pharmaceutical company. I don't know when we moved there, but I started Kindergarten in Alabama. We lived in a split level house, quite the change from our one story homes in LA, and I had a window seat in my closet, on the second floor.....not sure if that was a smart architectural feature? It was a cool one though. I remember that I loved to sit in that window.
We also had a basement and 2 poodles. One morning, my Mom went down to the basement to do the laundry and saw a RAT, not a mouse, a RAT. My Dad comes downstairs to see what the ruckus is about, only to find me standing on the floor and my Mom standing on an appliance screaming "RAT". I was looking up at her (from the floor) asking "what's wrong Mommy"....

Now, I am that Mommy. The one that is calling my kid over to get the lizard out of the window seal, inside the house.

What is it about our childhood details that become increasingly blurred? I believe that we remember a lot of images that are solely based on the stories we hear as we are growing up. I am certain that if I went back to see that split level house, that seemed like a mansion, it would appear so much different than how my memory imprinted it.

There are some funny stories I want to tell you about growing up with horses, roosters, four wheelers, a motorcycle/dirt bike and living in a trailer park...Yep, as if living in Alabama wasn't enough to tease me about, we lived in a green trailer too....with RATS.

Larger than Life.

The girls are lifting up their hands, their hearts, their voices 

and praising Jesus through Church Choir.

It is so exciting to watch them smile and sing their hearts out. 

Lexie caught me sneaking a photo of her during their performance, so she just froze. She did the same exact thing when she saw herself on the big screen during the church service. She thought she was so cool...she wanted her own autograph....ha!

Divas N Dudes

The party room included streamers, lights, polka dot garland, a car track, gifts and glow stick lanterns.

This year, we had a "play date" instead of a party. It was really cute...a neighbor stopped by to bring Lexie a gift. At first, I thought he was overwhelmed by all of the pink decor and girlyness. Then, at the end of the night, when given a choice of lollipop colors, he chose pink! 

Girl Power activate....

I made a playlist of fun songs that Lexie loves, 

so the Divas N Dude had a dance party in the middle of the living room. 

Glow in the dark dancing... 

What a trip! It was fun to make "air" designs with the glow sticks, and to use them as drumsticks and play them like a guitar and use them as earrings and....

  (and after everyone was gone)...make a glow in the dark bath. I am pretty sure there were more giggles than soap. All in all, Lexie had a great celebration!

Happy 8th Birthday to my sweet, spunky, happy baby girl!

Happy Birthday Monny !

A video tribute to Nan-E!

CHECK IT OUT, within 21 hours..... 139 views!