Dragon Slayer

One Sunday, John had to work some OT and I had to get the kids ready for church all by myself. As I was curling my hair, Soph was leaving my room and she comes back to tell me, “Mom, there’s a lizard in the room.” Not wanting to believe it or her, I asked, “Are you sure?” She say,”Mom, I know what a lizard tail looks like.” True, she has seen a lot of lizards recently. We have had a lot in our yard in the last few weeks.
My hair in curlers, I walked over to see it. Sure enough, it was a lizard. PANIC mode. I NEED to kill this thing before it attacks my face in the middle of the night. (A fear of mine) My first thought-what can I use as a weapon? I thought maybe I could scoop it up by using a blank CD storage container and closing it up. After realizing that to close the storage case, I would need to twist it-it was a no go. That lizard was going to be too quick and jump on my face.
A big huge water bottle-that was the weapon. Smacked the floor a few times, which did nothing, but made him run away.
Now he was behind the door, I needed help. Summoned Magnus from the living room, instructing him to come as stealthly as possible so the lizard would not move. Now, what weapon was he going to use? I gave him a big bottle of mouthwash. Big was good, right? I had him on one part of the wall while I was on the opposite. This thing was going to get killed for sure. We smacked like crazy and ended up just hitting each other’s bottles. Yeah, not so good. Mr. Lizard has made a move again.
This time he went under a hat which was on the floor. Angered that I haven’t killed him, I was more determined than ever. I moved the hat, smacked the floor a few times. I think I might have made contact this time. BUT, that lizard made an escape again.
He was in the slot in between the filing cabinet and the wall. Water bottle and mouthwash bottle will no longer suffice. I grabbed a coat hanger with the intent of smashing the heck out of him, once I wedge it in. But he was probably going to run towards the back, then I wouldn’t be able to kill him for reals.
Next thought, what would be the closest thing in the room that could be a poison? Aha! HAIRSPRAY!!! Grabbed my bottle, sprayed him like crazy, which for some reason made him want to exit the confines of the wall. Now, he was coming towards me!!! Ahh! Must hold down spray bottle and spray. This slowed him down and just enough for another aha moment, I was holding a Mag-Lite. That is a weapon or so, I’ve seen on TV.
Just to let you know, TV was right.
As I was pounding him to his death, instinctively my brain told me, I must make a screaming noise. Like they do on TV, when you are fighting your attacker. After a few pounds, I stop to check him out. His tail was still moving. I asked Magnus if I should give him a few more hits and he says, “ Mom, his head is no longer on his body.” Very matter of fact-ly. Um, thank you my son.
BUT, how was I going to dispose of him? I didn’t want to feel his yucky bloodied smushed up body through the tissues. Aha! Those blank CDs! Used two of them, scooped up his body and in the toilet he goes. Two flushes just to be sure he wasn’t going to come back and jump onto my face.
Yeah, that’s right. I am a dragon slayer. Not for hire. Once was enough.

My 9/11

When this happened 10 years ago, I was working for one of our local banks and John and I had only been married about 2 months. I went to work as usual and people were acting really strange. Really quiet, slow moving and the complete opposite of the chatterbox group of people that we were. Finally getting frustrated I asked what the deal was. Then I felt like an idiot. A rush of emotions came flooding by. I remember some lady saying something like the end of the world was coming and that was scary enough for me. I was a fairly new believer at this point in my life and I was only 20. I called John at home who was still sleeping because he had to work a late shift the night before. He answers the phone and I am trying to tell him what happened, but all that came out were confusion and tears. Finally I asked him to pray for all of us. After I got off the phone and the day progressed, it was like we were all zombies. Once it was speculated that it was a terrorist act, a customer was saying that we are probably going to go to war. That was awful. The next flood of emotions was, "please no. I have only been married for a little while and if we go to war my husband would be drafted and since we were young he would be one of the first ones to go. I didn't want to be alone without my husband."

That was all that I remember from that day. I couldn't watch the news of the images of the jets crashing into the building because my heart could not handle it. I didn't want to think of all the wives and families who were losing a loved one.

image source

Fast forward to now and I can finally handle watching the documentaries on the History Channel. Now I can see the strength of many that came to help. The strength of the many moms out there who are raising their children without their fathers. It is so powerful. I only wish I had an ounce of their courage.

Our 10 Years Of Hard Work

It's actually longer than that if you count the four years we were together before we got married! I say hard work because that is exactly how it has been. If we didn't put in the work then we wouldn't have been able to see this kind of results!!!

I am so thankful that this was the road that was chosen for us. I am so in love with this man more than ever before! He is an awesomely amazing compassionate person that totally gets where I am coming from. He laughs at my silly jokes and goes along with my silly antics, yet stops me from becoming the fool. He is a great provider and most of all he loves the Lord with all of his heart.

We celebrated the day by taking the kids out to brunch. Magnus was so honored that he was included in our plans. It was so awesome to see him excited for our love. I think including the kids as a part of our anniversary celebration is a keeper! Later in the day John and I had a little date time and went out to the beach. We took pictures 

and then here are the out takes.

                

                 

I am so thankful that we can laugh together! I hope that many more laughs will accompany the many more years together. We ended the night by picking up dinner from Panda Express. Going to the beach and eating at Panda Express was how John and I lived the majority of our high school years together. Perfect ending to a perfect day.

My 30

For my birthday, we had a 2 day celebration thing going on. (maybe it was to make up for someone forgetting their wife's birthday last year, but we won't mention any names around here)! Anyways, we spent some time at the beach for a few minutes before Magnus got sand in his eyes and we decided to cut that trip short. So we picked up some clam chowder from the Tides marketplace, played some video games and drove back home. Along the way home, I kept on seeing signs for Gravenstein apples. They are one of my favorites and they are in season now! We decided to make a stop at Mike's Fruit Stand over by our house and it was a very good decision!

Magnus's birthday card for me! He said he worked on this for 3 days because he wanted to keep it a secret from me!






There's me and him playing, some trees, some birds flying and Soph hiding behind one of the trees





The fruit stand had picnic benches there and this was the backdrop. How could we resist a place to sit and sample our goods we purchased!




Magnus loves going to this fruit stand, just for the candy itself! Maybe we should start calling it the candy stand instead?




Soph eating one of the yummy candies we bought there. She can spot candy a mile away!

The next day we went to SF to get some Banh Mi without the kids because my mom offerred to babysit. What a great 30th birthday celebration I had, doing all the things that I love with the people I love the most!!



How I hurt myself

Well it's been a little more then 2 weeks since I fell down the porch at my friend's house. My foot is healing although slowly. Here's how it went down (hahaha, pun intended)!

John and I were leaving their house so we could have a little date night because the kids were with their grandparents. My intentions were to say goodbye to the people outside and grab a plant that was given to me. I remember seeing an inflatable monkey on the ground on the right side of me, stepped down, and then this realization that I was falling and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I may have stepped on the monkey, I do not remember. I landed face down and my foot was flexed the wrong way and it was hurting. Although I felt okay. Since we were leaving anyways, we left for the remainder of our date night. But by the time I had walked to the car, it had already swollen up. Date night became sit on the couch icing my foot night.

The next day was when the real pain kicked in. My foot was swollen. I couldn't put any weight on so a trek to the bathroom was more than that. I thought that perhaps I could crawl. Wrong! I didn't know that I had injured my knees too.

The following day a friend brought over a pair of crutches to help me get around the house. Sounds great, right? Wrong! I ended up with sore underarms and pair that with the foot and knees. It was an emotionally low day.

The next day John had to go to work. At that point the swelling had gone down a little bit and I could walk holding onto the walls. I tried to put on a pair of flip flops and my foot wouldn't go in it! 

Thankfully John was off the next day. My sister offerred me a walking shoe that people with a foot cast wears. We picked it up from her house and since my sister was at work at this point, it took me a while to figure out how to use it, but it is a God send!!!! I am wrapping my foot with an ace bandage and then wearing the "special" shoe. I can get around! Yippee!!! 

I have finally been able to get out of the house and do some grocery shopping. We had no fruits or vegetables for a week! When I did feel better, I made a salad for dinner one night and Magnus said that that was the best salad he's ever eaten! Poor malnurious family.   

Vote for me on FaceBook!!!

We've joined the cult!!! Yikes! We had to get an account because I had to enter into this contest for a free stay in South Lake Tahoe. Sounds like fat chance right???? Well I checked the sunbmissions and there are only four! Four!!! Only FOUR! There was a whole lotta chance that I could win because my photo is so much better, hence facebook here we come.

SOOO- I need you guys to vote for me from 4/15-4/30 until 11:59 pm. Send it to your friends, send it to your co-workers, whomever! You get 5 votes per day! The competitor inme now me is fightin'!

http://www.facebook.com/StayInTahoe

UPDATE: There are plenty of others besides :(  I am wrong with the voting times-starts on 4/16 Oops!  Thanks!

Happy I Month Exercise Anniversary to Me

Whoo-Hoo! Yippee! Hooray! Jumping for joy! A lot of hard work, sweat and tears have passed by this month. Along with a little whining. Okay a lot. Sometimes. Like I mentioned before I'm seeing some changes to my body, but no weight loss. Somedays I am okay with that and other days I get discouraged because I have worked so hard and want to see the numbers on the scale change. Thankfully the latter are far and few. I am seeing physical results though. Good results! I can go longer on the exercise machines and can be on a higher resistance level. So something is changing. Sometimes I look at where I need to be physically and it is daunting, but then I have to remember to take it one day at a time.

I am so blessed that I have so many people that are supportive to me getting this done. My mom has watched the kids many times so I can go running, we've had other people babysit, and most of all, the kids, especially Magnus. They are happy to be in the stroller when we run/walk around the neighborhood. He even gets out and runs with us!

I leave you now with a picture of my favorite exercise machine. This thing makes me feel like I am floating on air-most times. One of the best things we've purchased.

Where have I been????

I know it has been a long time since I last posted on here. We've been busy. John and I are on a serious endeavor to lose some weight, so we have been using up any time we have to exercise. Hence the lack of posts. We started around Xmas time and so far so good. We haven't lost any weight yet, although we are seeing some muscles we haven't seen in years! We try to fit in some sort of physical activity everyday, whether it's just a walk around the neighborhood with the kids or a more intense workout in the garage with our machines. I feel good, mentally and physically.

So since the last post, we've had xmas to celebrate and it was one of the best ones for me. I had such a great time with the families. Not just getting gifts-although that's always a plus, but with conversations and building of relationships. I hope you all had a great xmas too and a great start to a new year!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It has been a long time since I had last posted something. We have had to deal with cold, coughs, 2 ear infections and finally a nice getaway once that all ended. Now John is at work and all is normal. Normal is good. Normal I like. Normal is great!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday John!

Can you believe it??? This guy is 30 years old now. Many moons ago when we started dating he was only 16. We've been together for almost half of our lives. I have to say that is pretty exciting!!!



John is a great father and a husband to me and the children. I am so thankful to be his mate. I can't imagine living life without him. He has changed so much from the 16 year old punk that I dated and for that I am so thankful to God for changing his heart and maturing him.



I love you!

Oh Crap..I just got rear-ended

That's right! I was on my way to Target after I had dropped off John and the kids at his mom's house to hook up her new tv. I was stopped at a red light by the most hated gas station on that side of town (most hated because it creates a traffic nightmare), and what do you know someone hits me from behind. It took me a second to realized what happened, but when I did, I was peeved. I called John who was only down the street, gave him the plate number, just in case they decided to run (more typical on that side of town). Thankfully they didn't. We pulled into the gas station across the street from the other ghetto one. I am trying to be as calm as I can. We start to exchange info and she tells me that she doesn't have a drivers license, only a permit. I was unsure of how to handle the situation. So I asked her how old she was, thankfully she wasn't a minor. Anyways they start taking pictures of my damaged bumper and I think, oh crap, I don't know how to use the camera option on my phone. Just then my knight in shining armor drives up in his mom's car. I know that he has a phone and and I know that he knows how to use the camera option!







Anyways, I am fine, the girl and her friend are fine, and both the cars are fine. Now I am just irritated that I have to deal with the insurance crap.







I am very thankful that the children were not with me as I probably would have lost it and beat the crap out of her. Then cry and cry and cry uncontrollably.

Mishap with the glue gun

There's going to be a pretty gross photo coming up, just warning you. I was trying to beautify my house with fall decors because I LOVE fall. Everything about it, the wind, the chill in the air, warm soups, leaves falling, and so on and so on. So I saw some tutes in the blog world about making your own decor balls and thought I could whip those up. I guess the answer to that is WRONG. I am inept with a hot glue gun. Hence the injury.

This was immediately afterwards. Hurts like a b*&%$! Can I tell you I cried, a pathetic frustrated cry of why, why did I do this to myself?

Soon after, this is what the results are. Those are some mighty hurtful blisters. The one on my middlefinger is the worst. I am still wearing a band-aid on that one.

So I never did finish my project and now I am a little sqeemish about using the hot glue gun ever again. So sad...

A change in attitude

So it's been a week since I made my last post about Magnus and my reactions to him. Well, let's just say it has been a miracle week. Our relationship has improved so much. Many times during the week, he would pick up all the toys in the "toy living room" without me asking him. I am so impressed with him. I guess the "secret" to this is all in my attitude. I have been praying a lot, especially during the day cause that's when I see him the most, to love him and to be gentle with him. I don't want this to end. I am having a great time enjoying my son.

John and I are the smartest people around

not tooting our horns or anything! The kids went over to their grandparents on Sunday and John and I went to Costco looking for some school books for Magnus. Costco on a Sunday is crazy busy! So I came up with a clever idea to get it done. We took all the books that pertained to Magnus, loaded it all into the cart. Since Costco was featuring their furniture stuff, we took it over to the dining table, sat down and looked through all the books. An hour later, we finalized our selection. All with the comforts of "home". Oh how I love Costco!

Is it the weather??

In the last couple of days the kids have been rambunctious. There've been lots of whining, not listening, not eating. I don't know what the deal is, but if there was an award for "mommy of the day", I'd be right up there in the running. Yesterday Soph threw up all of her meal for whatever reason. Magnus walked by and said, "oh, that is too much throw up. I can't watch this." Today she woke up from her nap with the BIGGEST poop anyone has ever had. Let's just say I had to cut her onesie off of her. I haven't done that since she was an infant (with very different poo at that stage). And the onesie was the only thing she was wearing. So I'll let you imagine what was in her crib. So hopefully tomorrow will not be as warm and things will go back to normal. No more throw ups, no more massive poops, and no more not listening.

On a side note, I'll post later what Soph can do....

All is quiet on this blog

for the last week because I have been working on another Frock by Friday and it has been difficult. It's probably been the most hardest thing I've ever had to sew. There has been numerous times of pinning, sewing, ripping, cursing, and screw this attitude. But I am determined to get it done. In no way is it going to look as good as other's, but it is teaching me some new sewing skills. So hopefully I can get it done in the next day or so and then I will post it.

Craft Project: Juice Pouch Lunch Bag

Craft Project: Juice Pouch Lunch Bag

I would love to make one of these! We go thru Capri Suns like crazy here. Gotta save up some pouches and then I'll get on this...maybe next week. In the meantime I will be downing Capri Suns...gotta go

What a bloody week

literally! We started with Sopheary cutting her lip as she lost her balance and fell. She hit the coffee table and cut up the inside of her bottom lip probably with her gimormous front tooth . It swelled quite a bit. She had blood on her shirt, I had blood on mine. That was the first time any of the kids ever had that bad of a bleeding. Until today...we were coming home and was about 3 houses away from ours when Magnus asked if he could have a tissue for his nose. I said I didn't have any because it was all in the truck, but that we were almost home that he would have to wait. Pulled into the driveway, Dad looks over and he says, Magnus has a bloody nose. First reaction, no way can't be, second reaction after I got out of the car and saw him, holy crap that's a lot of blood. Since he had tried to wipe his nose, he had blood all over his hands and cheeks and nose and mouth. It looked awful. Awful. I tried to put pressure on it with some baby wipes, which was the only thing I had at that moment. Soaked through a couple of those, realize that that was not working. I picked up our 43lbs. boy out of the car all the way to my room and finally had a towel sufficient enough to hold all the blood. Applied pressure for a couple of mins., checked it, still bleeding. Then I told him to hold the towel and put pressure on his nose while I looked up, how to stop a nose bleed online. My 5 year old is such a trooper. He didn't cry from the sight of all the blood, didn't panic or even squirm. I am so proud of him. After about 6 mins more of applying pressure, by me at this point, it finally stopped. I cleaned his nose carefully and you can only imagine what kind of blood stuff came out. If I wasn't a mother and had to put on a brave face. I think I would have fallen over from the grossness of it all. I am so glad that John was with us because if he wasn't I wouldnt know what to do with the two kids. One that needed my immediate attention and one that is too young to unbuckle her seatbeat and walk into the house by herself. Hopefully this never happens again until Sopheary can unbuckle and walk by herself. I think I saw enough blood to last a while from this week. I hope you week isn't as bloody as ours....

We've been busy....

John is on vacation and because of that we are doing things that normally wouldn't get done. We've had dr. visits, tee ball games, and birthday parties to go to, but I wanted to post a picture of the flowers that Magnus got me for Mother's day. Such a nice guy!

A Frock By Friday

A Frock By Friday

I am making a dress for my sister's birthday by doing this.