Twitter

I signed up for Twitter. Mostly to follow/comment to MckMama because I'm not that cool to really need my own. Honestly, my life isn't interesting enough to twitter. Or tweet. Or whatever it is. And I'm not even sure who I should follow. Maybe I'll get the hang of it, but I highly doubt it. I have a feeling by the time I finally get it, it will be Samantha explaining it to me.

Baby Stellan Needs Your Prayers

Stellan, the youngest child of Jennifer over at My Charming Kids, is not doing very well right now. He's is a heart baby and in the past 3 days has been in continous SVT (you can learn about it on her blog). The latest is that he is being airlifted to Boston, but it's not looking good. Please, please pray for this little boy and his family. They need a miracle right about now. And knowing how hard you all prayed for my little miracle, I'm confident you can help here. Stellan is only a month older than my Jack.

Oh DVR, How I Love Thee...

Let me count the ways

* I can record shows that I can watch in peace AFTER the kids go to bed
* I can pause you to go change the load of laundry
* I can record shows for the kids for those time that Mommy needs 20 mins of quiet

The list could go on and on, trust me. So imagine my horror when our Dish DVR went out yet again. Finally having enough of the same issue and their crappy customer service, we cancelled our service and signed up with AT&T UVerse. They shut off our Dish on a Thursday and AT&T was supposed to come that Saturday. Except after waiting all day, the never showed. The hubby called over and over again just to be told they were running late and would be on their way. Finally at 5pm, after realizing we had been stood up, he called again - and was told they had overbooked and wouldn't be able to come until the following Saturday. Not a great start with the customer service AT&T!

But that meant an entire week without any television. How were we possibly going to survive? I'd like to think we don't watch that much tv because honestly how do I have time between catching up on blogs and wasting time on Facebook? Oh and raising 3 kids. But there are a handful of shows we really like and we were lost. Luckily, we did find that most were online, so it wasn't a complete tradegy. But no shows for the kids - that would certainly make for long days. And the first two days it did. But a really cool thing happened - they stopped asking for the tv, knowing it wasn't just me being the world's meanest mom. And they played. With eachother! And didn't fight! Maybe the two things aren't connected, but it was amazing.

But I was thrilled when AT&T showed up yesterday to set us up. Because I can only guess the novelty of our new found no tv freedom surely would have worn off by this week. Now if I could only get the hubby to put down the remote long enough to set me timers. Because I really can't miss another week of Army Wives.

Baby Love

About a week ago Jack starting giving baby kisses. You know the kind I'm talking about - wide open mouth and slobbery. But they are so sweet, especially Jack's. He grabs me on either side of my face and pulls me forward to give me one. I'd love to share a picture/video with you because trust me, we have tried getting one, but an interesting thing has happened. Apparently Jack is so used to getting his picture taken that the minute he sees the camera, he turns to it and smiles. Yes, he is our ham. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get a picture to share. Until then I'll just enjoy the baby love.

Taken For Granted

Do you appreciate the area you live and take full advantage of what it has to offer. I know I have a few friends who truly do, but honestly I really don't. I love where I live and think it's one of the best places in the country to live. We're fairly close to everything we could want - beaches, lakes, snow, the wine country...and San Francisco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But we rarely go into the City. The only times we go, besides driving through to go to the airport is when we're visiting my sister-in-law who lives there or when we have out of town guests that we want to show it to.

My mom and stepdad just did an Alaskan cruise that sailed & returned to San Francisco. They actually docked in San Fran yesterday and stayed on board last night. Well we decided to suprise them and meet them in the city yesterday and play tourist with them. And it was so much fun. We walked to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Warf, stopped for appetizers and drinks and did a tour of the USS Pampanito, a US Navy Submarine used in WWII. I wish we had longer to do more stuff, but for the short amount of time had, we did a lot and it was fun to explore the city a little.

Hopefully we'll start going in the City more often because it really has so much to offer. And I don't like taking it for granted.

10 years

That's how long I've been married as of today! A whole decade. That's like what, the golden anniversary in Hollywood years, right? In some ways it feels like our wedding was just yesterday and in others it feels like a lifetime ago. And I guess in a way it should, since 1/3 of my life has been spent married to this wonderful man.

Right before we left for our trip to New Mexico, Nacho was cleaning out his fanny pack - yes he uses one when we fly, I forgive him for it and I love him anyways. When we got back I went through the pile that was left on our kitchen counter and it was like a walk down memory lane. Boarding passes from when we took our Hawaii cruise right after we graduated from college. Boarding passes from our trip to Atlanta for my cousin's wedding, where we decided we were ready to start a family. Tickets to the state fair right after I learned I was pregnant with Samantha and horribly, horribly sick. All of it a memory of our life together, each one significant in our story.

We have been through so much together in the last 10 years - the birth of our 3 beautiful children, 4 moves (we're staying put now!), countless job changes, deaths of loved ones. And together we've stood by eachother, celebrated eachother, loved eachother. What a glorious life we have built together.

Nacho, today I want to thank you for loving me the way you do. For helping me build the life we have. And for celebrating that life daily. There is nobody I'd rather walk down this road of life with. Here's too many more happy anniversaries.

Should've known....

Knowing her the way I do, I honestly shouldn't have been shocked when I came across of a pair of these in my grandmother's kitchen when I was helping her pack.



Because, come on, seriously.....who's grandmother hasn't been to the Play.boy Club?

Maybe We're Healing?

Last week marked 4 years since we almost lost Samantha. And I realized the anniversary had passed after a friend posted something on Facebook about working in the PICU. Hearing, or reading in this case, the word PICU always brings me back to Samantha's stay there. But the significance of all of this right now - the date passed by as any other day would. For the first time I didn't wake up with a pit in my stomach remembering each and every moment of that day four years ago. Don't get me wrong, I still remember that day on a daily basis, but the date itself didn't overwhelm me. There are some things we still haven't been able to bring ourselves to do, even though we realize how irrational they are - like going back to Burney Falls. It's where we were before that day took such a terrible turn. And it's beautiful. I want to show all my kids...but we're just not ready yet. Baby steps for now and hopefully some day.

But I did realize something over the weekend. How overprotective I am of her...actually of all my children. Yes, I said it - overprotective. And maybe I'd be this way even if we hadn't come so close to losing her....but I don't know how else to be. I do realize I have to start letting her be her own person and learn things for herself. Every once a while the song lyrics to Kelly Clarkson's song "Because of You" go through my head and while the song has a different meaning, I'm reminded that I don't want Samantha to carry the same fears I have for her.

"Because of you, I never stray too far from the sidewalk. Because of you, I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt."

I'm learning every day that she is stronger than I give her credit for, but no matter how old she gets, she will still be my baby fighting for her life on a hospital bed that looked 100x too big for her.

My Little Fishies

Well, the girl passed their levels at swim lessons today, so yay for that! Sam is officially a yellow otter now and Lu is a red frog! We orginally put them in the lessons for water safety -mostly for Lu who had no fear of the water. But something interesting happened during these lessons and it's like they switched places. Sam was our child who if her head went under water when she wasn't expecting it, would freak out and we'd have to get her out of the pool and calm her down, etc. Except one week of swim lessons and she doesn't care anymore. She goes underwater without a problem, jumps in from the side of the pool and resurfaces, and is actually learning to swim underwater. I'm amazed. And then we have Lu, who never cared if she went underwater and would just come up coughing and do it all over again, who suddenly has a fear of the water. I mean I guess that's what I wanted - some fear of the water so that she took it all seriously. But I was surprised by the change in her.

All in all though, they're both doing great! And I couldn't be more proud.

Home Sweet Home

Although, I have to admit I wish we were still on vacation. We just got back from a wonderful and much needed vacation to New Mexico. Now I know what you're saying - who goes to New Mexico for vacation? This trip was for our annual family summit (yes, our family is big enough to warrent the term summit, but I'll get to that later) and I don't get to pick the place. But I'm actually glad I don't because I get to see parts of the U.S. I'd probably never choose to go to on my own. And we've stayed at this resort before - it's beautiful, the staff is wonderful and they treat us like royalty - honestly!

We had a great time. We got to relax, swim, eat, drink & explore. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins, some of which we only get to see once a year. The kids even got Nacho to conquer his fear of heights and go up the Sandia Tramway, the World's Longest! I look forward to this trip every year and this year didn't disappoint.

Now a little about this summit thing - I belong to a family that ownes businesses. And each year we get together for the annual shareholders' meeting, which the company is nice enough to extend into a long weekend (almost a week at this point!) for all of us. They cover the costs and our only legal stipulation is that members age 14 & older go to two meetings - a business overview & the shareholder's meeting. They also have this wonderful camp for the kids where they have trained counselors come in (the same ones year to year) to watch our kids while we're at these meetings, etc. I can't say enough for Camp Three Tree! But truthfully they plan an awesome time complete with meals, activities & other meetings to get to know the company & eachother better. Now here is the amazing part. This family company, which was started by 2 brothers and their cousin, is in it's 154th year, something like 405 members strong (I think around 250 attented the meeting) and welcoming the newest members who are 7th generation! Talk about a legacy!

It's hard to put into words how amazing this experience and opportunity is. To be able to show my children the United States, while exploring it ourselves for the first time. To be a part of something so big and so inclusive. To have the business opportunities we do. To watch my children grow up with cousins they'd otherwise probably never know. This year there were 52 children ages 13 & under - they will grow up together, making memories together. I couldn't ask for anything more for my children. We've some amazing places with this family - Boston, Hawaii, Sedona, Williamsburg, San Diego, all over Washington & Oregon States - and those are only in my adult years. I can't wait for next year's summit and the planning wheels are already spinning in my head!