So Much Going On....

Before I forget here is a picture of my Bug at her preschool graduation. We are so incredibly proud of her!

Summer has been a busy one so far and it doesn't seems like it will let up anytime soon. So much for this being the time for us to relax! In the 1.5 weeks the girls have been off, they've had swim lessons, a cheer uniform fitting, their big ballet show, their final t-ball game and multiple birthday parties. But I like being busy, so I guess it's ok.

But it hasn't all been a great either. Sunday morning, I woke up and logged onto Facebook, only to read that another high school classmate of mine had died. And it's something I just can't wrap my head around. Apparently, he was hit head on when another drive veered into his lane. This man was so talented and to know that we never hear that beautiful voice sing again is really hard to stomach. Matthew Trombetta, you will be remembered.

While it's so hard to understand why another great life was taken way too early, it is of some comfort to know that with death comes new life. And we're celebrating that around here big time.

We welcomed new life as my best friend gave birth to her son, Ethan David. This adorable little chuck arrived weighing 9lbs 9oz (and since she's my best friend I can tell you she did it all natural! - way to go Mama!) and 21.5 inches long. I got to spend some time with them on Friday and we're going to see them again today. I couldn't be happier for them!

And I think it's now safe to say that my brother and his wife are expecting their first baby on Halloween. Such an exciting time for them....and I get to be an aunt again!

For me, all it takes is looking in the face of my sweet children to know that everything will be ok.

There Are Still Good People In This World!

When we lost our camera on Monday I was devastated. I tried not to be because I know Nacho was beating himself up over it and I didn't want to make him feel worse. But I was. I was upset we had lost all of our pictures and I was upset that somebody else had all of our pictures. You never know who might want to do what with those pictures.

In the camera case, I had a friends' business card and I kept hoping that the person who found it would get in touch with them. After all, we had called the ball park and the parking garage and neither had seen it - so somebody had to have picked it up. Most of the week went by and there was no word, so I had honestly given up hope. We would never see those pictures of our weekend in Tahoe or the videos of Jack's wacky dance. We went to the store and bought a new camera because all who know me know I could not be without one.

And then today, I got an email from my friend and our camera had been found! And it's being mailed back to us on Monday. So I'll give until Wednesday before I absolutely believe the following, but for now it's really nice to know there are still good people in this world. People who could look at the pictures and realize they were some family's memories. Memories of when their children were small.

Life is good!

And I will get graduation pictures up soon. As you all know, life didn't stop just because I couldn't document it.

The Perfect Memorial Day Weekend With The Not So Perfect Ending

This weekend was going to be an easy one for us. One with no commitments and no real plans, except to attend the Giants game on Monday. Last Friday, I was in the middle of utter (but happy) chaos with the preschool's volunteer breakfast, some PTA commitments, followed by the big school's volunteer luncheon and early dismissal for all, when Nacho called me and wanted to know if we'd want to use his bosses' time-share in Tahoe for the weekend.

Um, yes!!!!!!

He was a bit shocked by my answer since my type-A personality likes to be able to plan things and this was going to be throw random things in the suitcase and hope I remembered underwear for all (I did, btw). As were sitting in holiday traffic, I was starting to regret my decision and silently wondered if staying home might have been the better choice. But then the traffic let up, we started seeing snow and smelling the crisp air and I knew we had made the right decision. I knew it even more when we pulled up to resort and I saw how gorgeous it was. And we were even spoiled to get a suite! We had a picnic at the lake, drove around the entire lake, went swimming and just enjoyed some quiet downtime as a family. It was a much needed trip for us. And come on, where else can you swim with snow-capped mountains in the back.

We came home Sunday and went the Giants game and even though they lost, we had a ton of fun. The girls got slide down the big Coke bottle slide, we finally got to walk around the entire stadium and Lexi got a bag of cotton candy just about as tall as she is! It was perfect.

It wasn't until we got home and were going to look at our pictures that we realized our camera was missing. With all of our pictures from the weekend (and some before that) on it. Nacho started beating himself up because he felt responsible, I started beating myself up because I had been to tired to download the pictures from Tahoe when we got home Sunday night. And I did the only thing I know how to do in these situations - I burst into tears. The most frustrating part is we know we had it when we got up from our seats, so it's between there and the parking garage we lost it (or possibly had it stolen in heard of us exiting the game), but we can't pinpoint where. The parking garage hasn't seen it and the park will only get back to us if they find it.

I woke up this morning with a different perspective on the situation though. I still hope somebody is kind enough to return it to us, but if not, it's just a thing. It's a few weeks worth of pictures in a lifetime of memories. And as I told Nacho, we came home with all 3 kids, so if we had to lose something, better the camera, right?....

And today we are on to more important things.....our little girl graduated from preschool today! Pictures to follow soon.

Yet Another Recall

I want my kids safe. So I'm happy they are recalling defective products. What I'm not happy about it that they aren't being made safely to begin with and that some are being recalled years after they were made.

Right before I had Jack I happened to see in a magazine that the bassinet we were going to use had been recalled due to a strangulation hazard. The same bassinet that we had bought 5 years earlier and had used with both girls. Thank God they survived!

Then a month ago, all of our kids medication got recalled. Too bad we had already used most of it!

Then yesterday I stumble upon yet another recall...this time for the crib. What's weird about this is the recall was issued over a month ago and I never heard about it. Sure, I had heard about the drop side crib recall, but this was one related to the mattress support. And the problems started in 2008 when a boy died when the support broke and he suffocated. The recall was in April 2010 - that is a full two years after that happened. How can they wait two years? We would have never used that crib for Jack. But yet another unsafe product all my kids have used.

I do have to say after much run around with the stores where we bought these products (except for the medicine - Costco took it back without a problem), we were finally issued full refunds in the form of store credits for them.

It's getting to the point where I feel like I can't let my kids play with anything, eat anything, sleep in anything. I'd wrap them in bubble wrap, but that would probably get recalled too.

Just a Quick Note

This last month of school is going to be a crazy one for us, so I'm likely not going to be around a lot. But don't worry, I'm still alive and I'll be back to entertain you soon.

If you remember, I vented about the school closure in our district and what it might mean for us. Well, I'm happy to report that we got the phone call yesterday that Lexi is in the school of our choice!

And it other news, I was elected PTA Vice-President. I have no idea what I just got myself into.

Do You Know What Sucks?

When all three of your kids end up with a stomach virus.

Do you know what sucks more?

When two of them get sick in the same night, leaving you with very little sleep.

Do you know what sucks more than that?

When you don't realize that the baby has gotten sick sometime in the night until you go get him up for the day and his entire crib is covered in puke. And you realize you are the world's worst mother because your baby slept in his own puke all.night.long! And you are so disappointed in yourself that it doesn't even make you feel better when somebody else justifies it by saying you've raised pretty awesome kids if they don't even cry when they get sick.

Do you know what sucks more than all of this, though?

When Mom catches the stomach virus and has to take care of sick kids while barely able to lift her head. Umm, Universe, I thought we had agreed that moms can't get sick. Especially when their kids are sick. So I finally admitted defeat and asked Nacho call in sick yesterday because I knew I just couldn't do it.

And I have to give him credit - he stepped up. While I slept upstairs, he got Sam off to school and took care of the two younger ones. When the baby went down for a nap, he took Lexi to Costco and got all of our shopping done. And he even brought home flowers. I finally managed to move down to the couch to watch the younger ones while he picked Sam up from school and then he took the two oldest ones to the preschools' parent potluck. I would like to point out however I did manage to stand upright for 10 whole minutes to make a taco salad for them to take.

After a good nights' sleep, I'm feeling much better. Samantha's teacher, who is recovering from this as well, warned me that I need to take it easy or it will creep back up. The thought of taking it easy sounds heavenly, but I think I just used the one sick day I'll get this decade. And our calendar is crazier than ever, so let's just hope I bounce back as easily as the kids have. Besides, I have to clean the downstairs before I go crazy. Because while Nacho rocked it yesterday, cleaning up is not his strong suit. And making a gigantic mess is Jack's.

My last post really got me thinking about priorities for our family and those to families around us. Obviously I can only speak for my family, since saying anything about how other families live would be making assumptions, which is what I just stated drove me batty. So my comments and observations in the rest of this post are about how I would feel in any given situation and not neccessarily of those living it. I hope that makes sense.

We live in a very nice house in a wonderful neighborhood. Our dream house honestly, unless we were suddenly to win the lotto. Some rooms in our house are nicely put together with furniture that looks like it belongs there, while other rooms have a mish-mash of furniture and somedays look like Toys r' Us has thrown up in it. Our walls are white, something that recently has been driving me nuts, but repainting a house this size would cost lots of money - money we don't have. I suppose I could always do one room at a time, but I tend to be an "all or nothing" type of person.

We recently went over to a friends' house which is honestly immaculate. Now I know we all clean up before having company over, but this was different. You could tell they lived this way. And when it's somebody without kids or with older kids it doesn't really bother me because the need for a bunch of little toys isn't there. But these people have kids similar in age to our oldests, so I'll admit it, I was jealous. How could their entire downstairs be void of little kid toys? Our house looked better when the playroom was upstairs (we had to move it downstairs when we had Jack), but it was never like this.

After sleeping on it for a night (and still waking up a bit jealous) I really got to thinking - I don't really want a house like that. Sure, it would be nice for when company came over for them not trip over toys, but for the day to day stuff around here, I want my kids to know it's their home too. That they can pull toys out during the day and play with them. That for us, this house is a home.

But we've seen the flip side of this too - where a house looks like it's been taken over by the kids and you can't find anything adult in the room. Where counters and tables are covered in papers, games, crayons, etc and you can't quite figure out where they actually eat. Or sit. Where there isn't a single room that looks like it actually belongs. And I couldn't live in a house like that either.

So for me it's trying to find the right balance that allows the kids to be still be kids and allows me to not absolutely go nuts with the clutter and chaos. There are simple things we do each day that helps to accomplish that, I think. Rooms are picked up and beds are made every day. For me walking into a room with a made bed makes the entire room look nicer. Toys are played with and messes are made, but the family room is picked up before bed. And my biggest pet peeve - our center island. Sure it gets covered during mealtimes, but keeping it cleared off for the majority of the day helps me to keep my sanity. Being able to look over and see a clean kitchen table and the clean center island allows me to sit down and watch tv with my husband at the end of day without feeling like hurting somebody.

There are still days where I wish all of our furniture was bought for this house, where we had some actual color on the walls, where we actually had that built in for our tv in our family room and where it didn't look like we owned a toy store. But I also know that there will a time in the not so distant future where we'll probably have all that - a clean house, with matching furniture and no toys. And no noise. And we'll be wishing to have it all back.