june and some pictures of san francisco

in the japanese tea gardens
eric, tired of me taking so many pics

on the trolley, going back to the hotel from ghiradelli square yum!
enjoying the flowers in golden gate park
eric walking around the city, what a view

fyi: this blog was written awhile ago, awaiting pictures in order to be posted

it always seems when nothing is happening in my life i always have so much to say about it, and now, with so much going on, i can't imagine what to say about anything.
june is over and it has not disappointed me one bit. we celebrated, we played, we mourned, we refocused on what is important and we even had time to escape and reconnect. so, that's june in a sentence now to add clarity. we had birthdays, father's day, a blow up pool and sprinklers in the back yard, a new x-box game, a family friend pass away, and a much needed escape to san francisco minus the kids thanks to nana day!

it has been a month to reconnect, refocus and realize just what i have. i'll be forever grateful for the examples, the faith, the love and the selflessness of the people i have surrounded myself with this month and how each one of them has changed my outlook on life.

i've spent a lot of time with my kids. no, not just in the same room or in the same house, but reading, watching the same trick on the tramp one hundred times over with just the name changed, helping georgia empty our little blow up pool with her teeny tiny cup and guess what, i have absolutely loved every minute. blame it on the lazy days of summer, the five days away from them, or the fact that i watched a family lose a child but my patience has been restored, my intrigue for the mind of a 5 and 22 month old has been increased and i can't seem to get enough of these crazy wild children of mine.

i also was able to spend a lot of time with my husband this month, thanks to a selfless act from my mom, she shoved us out the door after almost 6 years of never being away from the kids and we had a blast. it was interesting to note that i'm still as ditsy as the day i met eric (he had to save me several times as i wanted to walk into traffic and trolleys um, ya) and he still can finish the sentence i'm thinking before it comes out of my mouth. these things are so easily forgotten when my mind is full of "mom" ideas and plans and his is full of work and "dad" thoughts. our first day away, we just kind of sat and stared at each other. we soon got the hang of it and, to much chagrin of my mom, we didn't get too much rest and relaxation as we walked and hiked over much of the city! sun up to sun down!

so, with the highlights and lows of this month i feel i have come away a better person, mom and wife. i hope like crazy i can continue on this path, bettering myself and helping those around me as well.

insanity

so, if the working definition of insanity is: performing the same task over and over again expecting a different outcome, what does that say about motherhood? that we live in a particular state of never ending insanity or is it that we need to lower our expectations?!

happy to have june here

may is over. the month came to me with so much potential and yet i was so unable to take advantage of the beauty of it all. sounds a bit sad, doesn't it! well! we started on a good note and then came the drama. so, here's the quick run down: three people sick with the flu for over a week. can i tell you how fun it is to wake up in the middle of the night, change sheets, wash a child and then loose your stomach? it reminded me of being pregnant... so not wanting to be there again anytime soon! (sorry, mom!) a week of health and then the allergies, all four of us this time. so much time spent inside was very hard for the kids and i but so much nicer than the effects the high pollen count had on our systems. (which we learned the hard way). oh, and don't forget the lingering effects of the flu bug we had and the cleaning of the back seat of the car on a day the temps soared higher than 100. thanks to my mom who was laughing so hard it brought tears to her eyes, i was able to get through this one unscathed. no, she wasn't being mean or even heartless, she has five children and apparently this was not a foreign experience in our family to launch vomit all over the car. hmm. we also had shoulder surgery for my sweet husband and he was totally out of commission for several days through which he laid on the couch and the bed and became georgia's new best friend. she enjoyed pointing out his owie, snuggling into his good arm, throwing toys into his bath and only letting daddy put her to bed. andrew, on the other hand, was not so understanding and the day of the surgery kept asking me when daddy was going to wake up. my answer, not today! he also couldn't figure out why dad couldn't play x-box with only one working hand. (eric's doing great, a real promise of no more pain! hooray!) and then, to top it off, georgia had some serious allergies and couldn't handle anymore drainage and woke eric and i up at 3am loosing her stomach. a word from the wise, laundry in the middle of the sleep cycle is not highly recommended. i know the poem says april showers bring may flowers but they really need to add and terrible allergies and stomach bugs and windy weather with high pollen counts and drowsy grumpy benedryl kids and grumpy lortab husbands with a useless arm and... anyway i think i have painted an adequate picture of our month.
may did have some fabulous ups as well, and i will not readily forget them. spending so much time with my kids, mother's day, adding a bright singing little bird to our family, participating in the komen race for the cure on my grandmother's birthday (she died of complications due to her breast cancer), nana day visiting, loosing weight (due to the stomach bug) slowing our lives down to take care of one another, and remaining sane during the whole thing and laughing off the stress of it all with my mom.
i look forward to what june will offer us. swimming, sprinklers and popsicles. warm weather, hefty air conditioning bills and lots of watermelon. i'm even hoping for the eradication of the stomach bug that's been hovering around our house! dang that lysol for not working... or is it me for not using it enough? hmmm. even with day time temperatures hovering around 100, june looks to be promising and i can't wait to see what happens next!

a new addition

after a dinner out with the family, georgia, nana day and i left in one car and andrew and eric left in the other to meet at home. eric had mentioned the need of new running socks so, i sent him to a running store and expected to see him shortly after we arrived home. an hour passed and still no sign of the boys so i reached for the phone (it was close to bed time) and heard the garage door open. my sweet little andrew came in carrying a small box with holes along the sides. the thought of are you kidding me, what has eric done! immediately crossed my mind and i walked into the kitchen where andrew gingerly set the box down and gently opened the handles to show me the contents within. inside was a very small and very scared yellow bird. a canary, eric had bought andrew a canary! with my mind accepting this small pet, my thoughts wandered to the other small pets i have had. when i was 12 years old, my mom took me to this amazing pet store, filled with just birds! i remember there were birds in cages all along the walls, hanging from the ceiling and stacked in the middle of the small space. i studied all the birds and chose a small yellow canary for his song the store owner promised me. he became known as sunny and seriously brightened my world for quite some time. unfortunately i had to say goodbye to my little bird when we moved countries and i always had missed him. shortly after eric and i were married, i had told him about this story. after totally missing the boat on our first valentine's day as a married couple (as in forgot), he came into our small dingy student apartment holding a small box with holes on the side. this little friend came to be known as columbus and traveled all over the united states with us! he was with us for 7 years and died new years eve of 2006. we've missed our little bird, and andrew has asked for over a year now for another canary. both andrew and georgia have been completely taken by this new little addition to our family, andrew checks the water hourly and georgia just sits and watches the bird and if you move her or the bird, watch out! this bird is a singer and has taken no time at all to accept his new surroundings. he even won nana day's heart as he sang and sang all day long. and no, a canary's song is not too loud, not too high pitched and squawky, it is a beautiful song that repeats itself and sometimes picks up on the sounds the bird is surrounded by. i realized today how much i missed little columbus and how happy i am that my husband gave in to my son's pleadings and brought this little guy home. no, we haven't named him yet, we are waiting to get to know this little friend better to name him. but, we are open to suggestions, so if you have an idea, please leave a comment!

liar liar

not really the small box i was expecting
andrew and georgia being very helpful
the base with the gorgeous wood grain
the finished product


there have been very few times people i know have actually 100% surprised me. and it's really never my fault. i have been called the biggest snoop known to man but, in all honesty, i don't intend to snoop. i am just really great at noticing things other people might never see, like receipts, bags, a car that i recognize somewhere it shouldn't be, you name it, if it's out of place, i'll see it. with this disclaimer, let me share what my liar liar husband conjured up for me. here's how the big liar story starts: the x-box breaks (trust me, i couldn't have been more joyful) and eric proceeds to e-mail, call and wrangle with microsoft in order to replace the broken console with a new piece before the warranty expires. fine. so, he asks me what my plans for the next day were, i, of course, ask why and he gives me the whole song and dance how i needed to be home so i could sign for the delivery of his precious x-box package. fine again. i had lots to do around the house so i told him i would stay home except for the driving of andrew to and from school. so, the doorbell rings and i race to the door in anticipation of the expected x-box delivery.(well, not really) as i open the door, i was a little startled as the delivery man is empty handed and asks me where i want him to place the box. i said just right here and pointed to the inside of my house. i receive a blank stare. hmmm. the man lets me know the package may be a little larger than i was expecting. i told him it was just x-box stuff, how large could it be. another blank stare and a mam, maybe you should come look inside my truck, it's more of a crate than a box. what? how big could this x-box thing be? hmmm. as i peered into the truck, it finally donned on me that there was a large chance i was not dealing with anything from x-box and the delivery guy began to laugh. i asked him where he said the crate was from and he said that it was not from x-box. still somewhat confused i ripped the shipping label off the crate and immediately recognized the shipping name as my favorite classic modern furniture retailer. then, the lights came on, i realized eric had completely snowballed me and had bought, with andrew at his side, a piece of classic modern design i had studied and loved and dreamed about owning since design school. and even though i absolutely do not condone the whole lying to your wife, i suppose i could find it in my very spoiled heart to forgive him, and andrew too. oh, and andrew's response was classic, he was not one bit shocked and simply stated, "oh, that's the glass table you like that daddy and i bought for you the other day." nice, my son can even keep secrets from me! just to let you in on why i love this piece so much: besides being beautiful, it is one of the few furniture pieces designed by famed sculpture isamu noguchi. the base is a beautifully organic shaped sculpture of walnut while the free form glass top simply sits on the wood. it is the perfect balance of beauty and function and has been in demand since it's introduction in the 40's. it is simple and beautiful and looks fabulous in my front room. (if i do say so myself!) so, if you happen to be around, come over and take a look!

happy mother's day

growing up, i always wanted to be a mom. wow, i have been so blessed.

mother's day

some things that made my day today the best ever!