Tomorrow...

THE CHILDREN GO BACK TO SCHOOL TOMORROW. THE CHILDREN GO BACK TO SCHOOL TOMORROW!

That is all...
happymommy

PS: James has taken to "talking" on Jeff's old blackberry phone. He mainly calls Jeff's friend, Mark who seems to be an endless source of hilarity. Even in the bathroom.

PS: PLEASE Please go donate to my 3Day Walk for the cure. Click here, or look to your right, click on the 3Day widget and go donate a mazillion dollars! KTHXBAI! (Or don't, whichever!)

Group therapy by myself...

During my 3Day training walk today, I gave myself some group therapy. It went much better than the last training walk I attended with myself. 

It is time for me to pull myself up by my bootstraps, put on my big girl panties, wake up each day and clap  my hands and say loudly, "Today is THE DAY for greatness." I will be kinder to everyone in my family. There is so much on my plate, our plates really. It has become more than I can bear, so instead of just facing the storm, I have avoided it.

Over these past months, I have relinquished so much to Jeff. I have asked him to make all the house decisions, and I am fine with that. It was what I wanted. But now that we are so close to moving day, I HAVE to be a bigger part of the process. This can't involve me being grumpy about everything going on around here. I am going to buck up, turn my frown upside down and accept what must be done.

I will no longer yell and scream about the boy who lives downstairs who plays his horrid music all hours of the day and night loud enough to shake the house along with partaking in other activities that I don't need to hear. I won't yell at the kids to stop jumping and being kids. Well, I might a little because it is annoying. Our circumstance is what it is. I can't change it. But it is time for me to change.

I will smile. I will work at getting things done. I will maintain a family atmosphere that is supporting and loving. It is time.

happymommy
PS: Please go donate to my 3Day Walk for the cure. Click here, or look to your right, click on the 3Day widget and go donate a mazillion dollars! KTHXBAI! (Or don't, whichever!)

7.2 Miles and a great day...

So, in case you haven't been reading or keeping up with me on twitter or facebook, I will remind you how I am walking in the 3Day Walk for the Cure. I have been training, and today I walked 7.2 miles through the city of San Francisco. It was great!

I had James with me in his stroller while we walked from our apartment to James' 3 year well child checkup. Turns out he is really healthy and much to his doctor's delight, quite the talker. He is quite simply perfect. Just like his sister!

We left the doctors office for a full tour of the city, and I had such a great day. We stopped for a milkshake, some perusing Bloomingdales where I coveted the new Michael Kors' watches and some bling. We stopped by the Disney store for new pjs for the kids. We walked through SOMA and accidently passed the new SF division of 4Square headquarters, Twitter Corporate Offices and the much talked about Taptera Headquarters. The latter company just received some amazing funding yesterday, so just seeing this office along with the other companies from the street was pretty exciting for this social media addict.

We made a few other stops, to include AT&T Park to do some shopping at the DugOut. It was a game day, so the crowd was already gathering and the pusle was hopping. We made our purchases and then headed to my parents. Along the way, we encountered cruise ship passengers and even one man dressed as The Hulk.

I am proud of my progress and while I am now icing my ankle, I am confident that I can get to 20 miles in the next week and be ready for my 3Day.

James' first experience with a hospital gown at his 3 year checkup.

Not quite sure why he is doing the Brian Wilson gesture, but it is cute!

AT&T Park

We Got a Hat (Lilly got one too!)

And you are welcome!

Ummm....

Ear Muffs, new Woody PJs and McQueen Slippers.

Not much to say to this...

happymommy

PS: Please go donate to my 3Day Walk for the cure. Click here, or look to your right, click on the 3Day widget and go donate a mazillion dollars! KTHXBAI! (Or don't, whichever!)

Oh college...

We currently live two blocks south of a private college that has an undergraduate population of about 5000 students. It wasn't until tonight while shopping for milk and wine, you know the staples, that I realized what an impact these students have on this small neighborhood. We live in a huge city that only spans seven miles. This city officially houses 805,235 people. This doesn't include any non census taking people, which I believe would make this number much higher. I am not a government official or anything, but I KNOW I am right.

The happymommy house went out to dinner tonight in this little university area of ours and I ventured over to the local grocery store after we ate. It was like a pickup bar. I stood behind these young people and watched a man/boy introduce himself to two attractive girls/women. He started with, "Are you a Freshman?" Followed that up with, "You may know my brother, he is a senior." And then finished it up with, "What are your names again? If I see you around, we can say we are grocery store buddies."

I almost fell down laughing. I remember these boys. It was never directed to me, but to my best friend or others. I always watched from afar, and looking at this through 40 year old eyes, instead of 18, even 25 year old eyes was so much different. I had that boys number. I knew who he was, and watched as the girls/women took stock and figured out if he would fit in their lives at some point. Most likely, he will not. But what do I know? I am an older woman, with life experience and I know what I saw. A pickup place hidden in the self check out line. Times, they don't change. They just evolve. And then Steve Jobs retires. 

Quite the world we are living in these days. I am currently locking Lilly in the closet while I fill out her application for the non-catholic convent with liberal teachings. You know, not the grocery store.

happymommy

Training...

As you all know, I am doing the3day Walk for the Cure in less than three weeks. I haven't trained at all. Life got in the way because there are just a few things going on around the happymommy house. There is this and there is the new job, which I started in March and am now taking a little breather from because, well I have way too much happening. Oh, and there is the driving.

Currently, we are moving back into our house two days before I take part in this 3day Walk. Yeah, because I am great at scheduling and not creating more havoc than necessary. I know it will all work, but it can be overwhelming to think about it all at once. Not to mention, we have a personal family issue happening that is taking Jeff away for three days next week while I sit at home and worry about the personal family issue from afar. When we got this news three weeks ago, I cried for twenty-four hours. I am "sure" next week will be fine and everything will go great and I will not cry. I know it!

So back to my story: I haven't trained at all for this walk. I meant to, but I didn't. I will be walking 20 miles a day for three days in less than three weeks. So today, I started my training, in my new shoes. I took off with a backpack of water, a cookbook I dropped off along the way and my sunglasses. Well, my broken sunglasses that I stopped and had fixed. See, training is going great. I made it five miles. Then I took the bus home. I am ridiculous.

I will try again on Thursday in the late evening. I need to do at least ten miles that day, and then over the weekend get up to 12. Clearly, I have put a lot of thought into this. :(

I got lost in Golden Gate Park today. How I did that, I don't know. I refocused myself, headed west and eventually found the ocean. During my very productive refocusing, I did manage to think way too much. Please find my train of thought below:

• What if I get attacked? I have no mace, or a rape whistle. Can I yell loud enough for someone to hear me? Would I?
• In all honesty, I did tweet that I was lost so if I did go missing, my followers would know when I went missing and approximately where I was. Now, how this information would be helpful, I don't know. Twitter did tell me to ask the bison for directions, which made me laugh and I forgot about being attacked.
• If I am attacked and do die and if I am creamated will it cause the creamation people to get Poison Oak because I STILL HAVE POISON OAK. (Clearly, I am insane.)
• When Jeff goes away next week, what will happen if his plane goes down. (Once again, clearly, I am insane.)
• Do the new light fixtures Jeff picked out for the renovation match? (I don't really need to say it do I?)
• Did I remember to close the door all the way?

And then I found the ocean.

All in all it was a good first day of training. I probably should listen to a book while I walk and stop listening to my brain when alone. I think this is the smartest way to go.

happymommy

PS: Please go donate to my 3Day Walk for the cure. Click here, or look to your right, click on the 3Day widget and go donate a mazillion dollars! KTHXBAI! (Or don't, whichever!)

Driving and children songs...

As I have mentioned 30 bazillion times, I am spending a lot of time in the car communting from our temporary apartment in the city, to activities in our actual home town across the very famous bridge. We drive over, back, over and back many times a day. During these lovely commutes, I have the "honor" of listening to a million children's songs. Our car has a broken CD player, so we listen to Sirius XM from dusk to dawn. They have a children's station, Kids Place Live, which is my children's favorite. We have not graduated to Disney XM, thank goodness as I can't take hours upon hours of Hannah Montana and Selena Gomez. The current selection of music is plenty.

For the most part, I don't mind the songs so much, kind of, sometimes. The DJs (are they called this anymore?) are actually entertaining and the songs, mostly, are engaging. The kids love them and it makes the constant time in the car bearable. At least for the little ones.

So today, I will be sharing YouTube video of some of the songs we hear every morning. Some are crazy, some enjoyable and a few make me want to put forks in my eyeballs.  Enjoy!

Toast...

James has taken to screaming TOAST at various times throughout the day...

I can't get this song out of my head some days, and yes it does become annoying.

Um, chicken monkey duck, chicken monkey duck. This says it all!

Now, this is a really nice message...

Lilly loves to sing the high parts at full volume.

And now you know why I have visible grey hair and sometimes twitch involuntarily.

happymommy


PS: Please go donate to my 3Day Walk for the cure. Click here, or look to your right, click on the 3Day widget and go donate a mazillion dollars! KTHXBAI! (Or don't, whichever!)

Books...

I have always been a huge reader. I remember riding around on my bike with my dad when I was five and reading the names off the officers' quarters on the army base where we lived. I remember my red bike and I assume my dad was jogging beside me because I don't ever recall him riding a bike. I loved to read. Back then we had very little tv, and no remote for said tv. We had family dinners around the table and my mom wore pearls and dresses and little fairies sang to us while we moved about the house. NOT. It was more like we rushed around after my sister's swim practice/drill team/football game/social event and sat around the table talking about our day. It was a great life, at least how I remember those days.

My love of reading has been lost in the raising of the children, marriage, work and let's face it twitter. I don't hide my love of twitter and my addiction to constantly checking in and seeing what everyone is doing each second of the day. It is slightly ridiculous, and I realize that. But it brings me joy, so I continue. And will continue. Until someone takes my phone from my hand and flings it across the room and breaks it and I end up in jail because I caused bodily harm to that person.

This past Christmas, my sister and I "gave" my mom a book club. Meaning, we promised to read one book together as a group every two months and meet for dinner to discuss the book. Not only has this led to me recapturing the love of books and reading, but it has given us all a chance to spend at least two hours together every two months. We go to a great restaurant, talk about the book for maybe 5 minutes and just hang out enjoying each other's company. I love it. We spent two hours together today talking about The Book Thief, which was breathtakingly wonderful and horrible all at once.

My rekindled affair with books has somehow intertwined itself with my love of twitter. I follow a funny woman who is a stand up comic, writer and starred on television. Suzy Suro lives in LA and she is funny, endearing and I enjoy reading her tweets and her blog. One day she tweeted something, and somehow I tweeted something back to her about BossyPants by Tina Fey. With trepidation, I offered to send her my copy not thinking she would want to be part of a crazy book sharing situation. But she did. And so began a twittership born of books. I recently sent her four more books and I hope she loves each of them as much as I did. She will pass the books forward once she has read them and the cycle will continue. 

The interwebs are a wonderful place.

happymommy

PS: Please go donate to my 3Day Walk for the cure. Click here, or look to your right, click on the 3Day widget and go donate a mazillion dollars! KTHXBAI! (Or don't, whichever!)

PoisonOakGate of 2011

This is what I have taken to calling my poison oak dilemma. If you are wondering how I managed to get poison oak, read here, and then here. Really all that happened was I attempted to exercise and be part of nature all at once and my body exploded in an itchy protest. I have this friend, let's call her Kelly, well her name is Kelly, and she has been hearing about this affliction since Friday. Poor woman. If she has to hear one more thing about it, I think she may drive down south and shoot me up with steroids herself! (Oh and Jenny too. Sorry ladies!)

Since PoisonOakGate of 2011 traveled from my arms to my face and finally close to my eye, I decided to take a trip to our lovely urgent care. I do not have a primary care doctor other than my OBGYN at the Women's Health Center. I am not sure she could do anything since it is nowhere near my lower regions thank goodness. Can you imagine the post describing that issue? Better yet, don't imagine it.

Before I could go to the doctor, I had a very important business meeting this morning. It was at a very important place that holds famous people and history making things are done at the place. I covered up the rash on my face with enough makeup to make the local drag queen envious. I did tweet that I might need to wear a bag over my head to sell the services of my company, but that would have just been weird.

Needless to say, the meeting went great. I did a good job of communicating and asking the right questions without clawing my arm off to relieve the itching or putting my face on the table to get rid of the pressure of the welts under my chin. All in all a success!

I left this very important place that houses famous people where historic things happen to head to urgent care. Now let me say this about urgent care. Don't ever go expecting not to spend at least three hours there. I had my book, my phone and my patience. The latter isn't easy to come by but from experience I knew I had to have it today.

I tried to read my book but it is VERY hard to do when the older person on your right is about to cough her lungs out onto said book. It is also hard to concentrate when the obviously mentally ill person is standing just far away from the check in desk to not be heard by the staff, but she is speaking Russian loud enough to know that it wouldn't make sense anyway. She does this for 30 minutes before being removed to a place where someone may help her. And it is really hard to concentrate when the woman who arrived before you is constantly yelling about how long she has been there and when is anyone going to see her. I arrived with patience. She did not.

All in all a good day. I got meds for the scratching, steroid cream for the spreading and prednisone should I want to have insomnia and a weakened immune system. I am waiting two days before I chose that option. I learned a good lesson in all of this. Do not exercise. Do not attempt to be one with nature. Sit on the back of a houseboat with a book in one hand, a glass of wine in the other and enjoy. No need to rock the boat, so to speak.

happymommy

I went on a vacation?

If memory serves me, last week I was on a houseboat with no cell service, Internet access or twitter. I read books, listened to my daughter laugh, ate and drank myself into an extra five pounds. I also came home with poison oak, which has spread from my arms to my face.

I don't feel like I went anywhere. Except for the five pounds and the blisters lining my arms, my check bones and jaw bone, there is no evidence of relaxation. (I asked Jeff for the name of this body part and he said mandible, but I refuse to use that word.)

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to go away. I spent endless hours with a best friend, my sister, her children and many others. I even laughed with my brother-in-law. That in itself is monumental.

I should have remembered this as I cussed my way (in my head, not out loud) through putting the kids to bed last night and figuring out how to get back into the routine of driving across the bridge four times a day because we aren't back in our house. We have four weeks left of this temporary life. To get through, I will be eating out at new restaurants every evening and exploring with Jeff and the kids the city that I will claim to miss once we are back home.

happymommy

Once again...

I would like to take this opportunity to say that cancer can kiss my ass. (Sorry Mom!) And that is all I have on that subject today. Except for this:  Failure is not an option people. Not an option at all.

Lilly and I have had quite the world wind of trips these last two weeks. There was Lego Land two weeks ago, and then this week, we went to Lake Shasta. I was disconnected from civilization. It took me a few days to overcome the need to tweet all of my activities. I never actually got over not having ANY access at all to text or phone service. I could do without that. No access to my husband, child or my parents. It was hard. Turns out I didn't need to worry, but what if there was a problem? Remember the days when there were actual pay phones and we didn't have immediate access to people? Were those the days? Hard to figure out if they were or not.

Lilly and I, and each one of the other 15 or so people on our houseboat had a great time this last week. We swam, read, laughed, skied, danced, ate and generally had more fun than should be allowed. Friends played. Cousins swam. Men and women cooked. Others washed dishes; many many dishes. People hiked. I hiked. I got poison oak. I won't be hiking again. Ever.

Lilly and her BFF had quite the time...

They are totally not having any fun...

Many times this past week I sat on the deck of the houseboat, reading a book listening to the laughter of my daughter radiate off the water and I wondered, how did I get here? What did I do to deserve this time in my life? I have my husband, my children, my family and friends. We are all intertwined in love and blessings. No matter what, we have each other. Every day, I am lucky. Every. Single. Day.

Out of service...

Lilly and I are once again headed out of town. We will be hitting the road for Lake Shasta to spend five days on a house boat. We will have next to no cell phone service. I will have no access to twitter, facebook, email or the internet. I am not sure I will survive.

I will check in next weekend with some pictures and thoughts on how I survived the week without access to the outside world. Hopefully, it will be wonderful!

happymommy

So close, yet so far...

Lilly and I spent the last three days 30 miles from San Diego at the not so fabulous Carlsbad by Sea "Resort" in Carlsbad, CA. We had two fun filled days at Legoland. It was a good time for Lilly/Mommy bonding. We rode rides, stood in lines, paid $3 Million dollars for a bag of chips and a fruit plate and learned to "drive" a boat.

Just a few miles away from us, there was a conference being held at the San Diego Marriott. It was the famous blogHer conference known to the blogging women and men around the world. It is a chance for many to meet everyone they "know" from twitter and the blogging universe. I couldn't help wonder as I watched the twitter feeds from #blogher11 each night if I was missing out on something grand. In some ways, I was. But in most, I wasn't. I had the privilege of spending almost four days alone with my Lilly. It wasn't all magical in my eyes, but in hers, it was an experience of a six year old's lifetime. I have to remember that.

Lilly was eaten by a shark...

Oh no....

But she escaped because...

 She learned to drive a boat...

She hung out near the L...



But most importantly, she hung out with me. We had a great time. An interesting experience. We are learning how to be with eachother as a mom and a young lady.

Since I arrived back in the AO (area of operation for those not schooled in army brat talk), I was met with some devestating news. Once again, this is not my story to share. However, most of my readers know the story. We are in battle mode around here. We are fighting for a life and we will be victorious. I have said it, and I say it again. Failure is not an option!

happymommy