Pool Party!

Wyatt's party yesterday was the first pool party of the year. The kids had a ball! Wyatt enjoyed his party very much. Last night when I tucked him in he told me that he couldn't believe that everyone came just for him. So sweet!

They splashed for hours and then they splashed for a few more hours.

And there was also this cool kid named Lucas, who got a little wet but did not want to splash.

And I don't want to forget these two fellas who came to enjoy the pool early yesterday morning. First time we've seen ducks in the pool, pretty cool. Too bad they couldn't stay for the party, but it's just as well because Eva was worried that they would duck poop the pool.

Summer is closing in on us, four more weeks of school and hopefully many more pool parties this year!

Celebrating Wyatt.

Last Saturday Wyatt did this in the morning:

And he did this in the afternoon:

Yesterday we had friends and family over to celebrate Wyatt's first communion and his 9th birthday too. His actual birthday was in March and Mom & Jim came down that day to make his day sweeter.

Victor, Wyatt's Godfather for baptism was Wyatt's sponsor for this sacrament as well. We are so blessed to have Victor and his wife Nena [and both of their awesome kiddos] in our lives. No one makes me laugh like Nena does.

Yesterday Nena was trying to explain our relationship to one of my sisters-in-law and I said something like, "it's because we are both dorks!" And she said, "she being the dorkier of the two of us." Which is completely true and made me laugh super hard and then say "yeah, and we both have dorky husbands too!" Then she said, "mine being the dorkier of the two of them." Baaaahaaaaa! True again.

Enough about indisputably dorky me. My son is one of the greatest gifts of my life. He can be a little snot sometimes, but mostly he is this sweet, compassionate, loving, smart, strong, beautiful little boy.

And I am mostly so stinking proud of him.

100 Years.

April 14, 2012

Just opened a bottle of wine, It's called Twisted Spur and it's made by Niner Winery in Paso Robles. My sister Alicia also happens to work there. Tonight I have lasagna in the oven, garlic cheese pizza bread in the queue, and homemade chocolate cookies ready for later.  We are going to dine and then watch Titanic. At home, on VHS because that is what I have. I haven't fired it up in a while so I hope my VCR still works. I remember being mildly annoyed in the fall of 2000, when I bought my first DVD player. I just wasn't ready for VHS to end and why do we have to have this new DVD thing anyway? Emily was just two at the time and we had a happy little collection of preschool VHS tapes that I have only recently parted with.

When I was pregnant with Emily 14 years ago in the fall of 1997, Tony and I went to see Titanic and I remember it being a really big deal. I remember one of my first  pregnancy discomfort moments in that theater. It was a long movie for a pregnant lady to sit through!

Tony's grandpa who is known in my house as Abuelito Pepe passed away five years ago.  The family always gave him big birthday parties and he was dearly loved.  When he was alive we would answer questions about his age by saying, "he was born in 1910, two years before the Titanic sinking." Abuelito Pepe would be 102 if he were alive today. Tony sure did love him.

My favorite line from the movie is Thomas Andrews to Rose: "I'm sorry that I didn't build you a stronger ship, young Rose."

100 years is a long time! The song by Five for Fighting sometimes makes me cry. Speaking of music, I have the best Pandora playlist. It's so good that I am on it almost all day, even at work, and sometimes in the night when I can't sleep.

This seems like a very scattered post but I'm going to hit publish and get over to my lasagna and my family and then that old VCR.

Bump.

A month or so ago I was driving myself to work alone and also eating a bagel. Very close to my home I lightly rear-ended a pick-up truck. I freaked out a little bit. It's been a really, really long time since I have bumped anyone. When Tony and I were in Guadalajara once where aggressive driving seemed to be the norm, we were riding with one of his cousins and she lightly bumped another car as she was parking. She exclaimed sweetly, "un besito," a little kiss. I thought it was awfully cute at the time that bumping into another car was such a casual and romantic affair.

What happened to me after I bumped into that pick-up was the best possible thing that can happen in that situation.  The driver paused after I hit him for a period of time that was uncomfortable to me, but gave me more than enough time to hide my bagel and swallow what was already in my mouth. I guess I was expecting him to fly out of his vehicle, slam his door and rage all over me. Perhaps he was collecting his thoughts or summoning his calm? In any case, an adorable 20 something man gracefully exited his truck, glanced at me still sitting in my car, and quickly surveyed the back of his car. I was worried, but calm. Then he came up to my window and said to me in a gentle forviving voice "it's all good." He was so casual and kind. I told him I was very sorry and he was gone and I was on my way.

My faith in humanity was somewhat renewed and the feeling stayed with me for a bit.

Not a big deal. Not really worth mentioning. I probably would have forgotten about my little besito already, except the very same evening I found this on my kitchen counter:



I asked Wyatt what inspired him to create it. He said, "I don't know."

Hmmm.

Five Years.

You're not going to believe this, but I wrote my first lame post in January of 2007! Five years! I did something for five years. Something I'm kind of proud of.  Whoop whoop!

I wrote about blogging once before, way back in '09 for you young'ns.  I just reread it and I do love it.

In honor of my blogiversary, and because this blog may be lacking honor,  I am going to post something here once a week [or more] for the rest of the year.  That's a present to myself because I let too much of my life slide by without giving it the treatment it deserves.

And some other seemingly random, but in truth nonrandom things that I am going to gift myself  here [as inspired here by the brilliant Kris Scott as a tribute to her friend Karen] so that it will hopefully give me the extra push push I need to make them real.  I am not going to try to do these things, I am going to do them.

Get strong.  I am going to walk, run, and do other frequent challenging body movements that don't involve housework. Starting today.  There I said it.  Last fall, before I stopped the pretty great routine that I had going, I called myself a runner. To myself.  Maybe someday I can call myself that and someone else can hear it too.

Get smart. I will more fervently practice the greater awareness that I know I have the capacity for.   And slightly related: I am going to continue to read books at the same or greater level and pace than I have been doing for almost two years. I am a reader, and I just said it outloud.

Get thick.  My skin is never thick enough for all the ridiculous things that try their evil penetrations on me.  How to do this best? Not sure.  IMHO, worrying about things that don't even matter is the biggest waste of time that a liver of life can let happen.  I let, because the elusive and greatly desired awareness slips.

Get rollerblading.    It's actually a substitute for something I used to want to do.  I always used to want to sky dive and I really don't want to do that anymore.  I'm going to Rollerblade instead.

Get better at these other important things:

Keeping my cool.  Yes people, I lose it more than I want to tell you.  It's embarrassing.  Awareness.

Dinner. Always dinner. And food in general.  Proper planning would do me some wonders.

Getting there on time.  It's a sickness, I've never been on time for anything. Proper planning...

Compassionate  mothering.  I too often react harshly instead of lovingly.  I noticed that the more compassion and understanding I show my four little people, the more really good days they have.  What also happens when we all have good days is that I give them more me, the good me that I am proud of.  I just have to relax the perverse human instincts that make me put too much importance on things that really don't matter and take me away from being present. Easy. Awareness.

So I think that's enough for now.  I'll track my progress here, I am posting once a week after all.  If you want to shoot me a note or something to inspire or harass me or whatever about how I am doing, feel free.  It actually might help.