kissing summer goodbye

its been a while. we have had a busy summer, to say the least, and i have been bad at updating. so here is a picture update for all ya'll out there.

vacaaaaaa picnic in the mountains

where we made evelyn sleep on vacation. its a hard-knock life

flower child

the ieat-myself-girl

i'm open!!!!!

seriously, guyyzzzz, if you aren't going to pass to me I QUIT!

mmmm, deeeelish.

we eat... ahhh-lot around this hizzle

4 generation picture

kissing paps in la grange, tx

daddy look alike

sam trying to fish as good as i do

evelyn moving in for her first fish encounter....didn't go over well.

running from the slimy fish. that's my guuurl.

every girl loves shoes

we had a poorly executed photo shoot - poorly executed because i am quite possibly the world's worst photographer - just for uncle dave today since evelyn is finally able to fit into her chucks...i think he calls them chucks...or maybe i just made that name up. i think we have a shoe-aholic in the making.

billy and all the other old souls

so i like me some billy joel. i fell in love with the piano man way back in high school and yes, it was waaaaay back (10 years to be exact). there is just something about his music that speaks to my inner old soul. i got to see him and elton john together in concert about 10 years ago...the dueling pianos and the guy who got busted for smoking pot in front of us really made it the best concert i've ever been to in my life. it's tough when your best concert experience peaks at 18...at least it didn't peak at say backstreet boys or somesuch nonsense (never saw them in concert. honest!) the only concert semi-regret was having to sit through no doubt opening up for U2. poor no doubt. why are they getting back together? does anyone have an answer to this?

the second best concert i've ever been to was the eagles. yeah, i know what you are thinking now. have i ever been to a concert for a group that actually was popular to my demographic? and to that i would say, yes, however the best concerts were the ones that were not birthed in my generation. no one has been able to hold a candle to these old dogs in my opinion. now i can bust-a-move to some bieber and a few others i am slightly embarrassed to say can be found on my ipod but HEY, don't judge, they's good exercisin' music.

but when it comes to what i want evelyn to grow up hearing, what she has already heard, will be a heavy layering of my main man, billy, and many of his cohorts. and if we don't keep their spirits alive for the next generation who will? so every day the house fills with the nostalgic sounds of billy, bobby, joni and we sing and dance the day away.

Things are okay with me these days
I got a good job, I got a good office
I got a new wife, got a new life
And the family is fine...

~ billy joel

mid may tastes best with a little bit of mo

i am thrilled to say that i can see the end of my medical transcription program and will be taking my final in july! *high five* the road has been long...the days have been long...it's all been excruciatingly long. as if my days aren't busy enough with just trying to keep up with evelyn and all the house work i try to cram in a workout and a significant amount of work 6 out of 7 days a week. it hasn't been easy, in fact it has probably been the hardest, most challenging stage of my life so far. i know there are a lot of people out there, men and women, who just don't believe the work load and time commitment - not to mention time management - of a stay-at-home-working-from-home mom. i know i didn't get it until i found myself knee deep in it. i love being able to stay home, i cherish the time i get to just hang out with mo and read her the same book about a million times in 8 minutes, change her dirty butt, hear her laugh, heck, make her laugh....but its also such a draining job in much more than just physical ways. but even though i find myself wiped and warped at the end of most days i'm always thankful. it's really hard not to be when i have so much and am blessed with so much.

sam and i often talk about the "days before evelyn" and how we miss this or that and just being able to pick up and go see a movie or out to eat somewhere and just linger and be. the days when you didn't worry about nap times and packing snacks and do we have a change of clothes or a pacifier are so long behind us the dust has almost made them disappear all together. and if i were offered the chance to go back i know i'd say no, knowing evelyn doesn't make me wish for those things but be glad that we had those things for as long as we did. i think we are better people because we got to know "us" before she came along and that has helped in ways we probably don't realize.

i know i probably don't know what hectic is since i only have one child. it seems in the "mother circles" that only having one child some how makes you a rookie. you can't run with the big dogs until you have childREN. i guess i'll report on that some day later on down the road. (NO i'm NOT pregnant)

marveling in the fact that it is mid may....the year is flying past us. evelyn is 14-months-old. i just can't believe how fast things change. here are some pictures of mo from today. she is so expressive, inquisitive, full-of-life, charming, whiny, smart little fair skinned beauty. and she makes every day better and worth feeling wiped out!

hangin' out on uncle dave's old bed. one of her fav hang-outs

i'm a little bit cuh-raaaazy

and a lil bit sweet

i climb on eeerrrrythang

look...i'm a spider monkey

wasn't kidding, i'm really a spider monkey

almost there....

wait for it...

success!

exhaustion...but only for 3 seconds

READ ME A BOOK OR I'LL DIE!!!!

Tracey Bianchi's Mom Connection

A review of Tracey Bianchi's book, Mom Connection.

Tracey Bianchi speaks to the mother at the forefront of her joy, her pain, her day-to-day of raising a child(ren) while confronting the ways in which the mother can feel a disconnect from people and life in general. The need for community and companionship for a new mother, and a veteran mother, is of great importance to maintain a healthy and connected sense of well-being. Bianchi brings to light, and realistically enlightens the reader, how to find, or re-find, that "mom connection" in the world of relationships beyond the front door of the home.

Questions such as, "who am I really and how do I make time for myself now that I am a mother," are real questions I have asked myself and I know other mother's have done the same. Bianchi offers great tips and advice to help the mother answer these questions and find the balance that is so very important between being a mother and an individual. Bianchi encourages the reader to grow relationships while helping restore the every exhausted mother to a place of sanity....and we all know how important sanity is as a mother. I am not always sane, my husband can attest to that, but Bianchi helps you to get out of your own way by giving you 5 mom-tested tips at the end of each chapter that offer great resources to tap into.

Bianchi really gets down to the core of what it is like to "feel alone" as a mother and how we shouldn't feel alone while also presenting ways to prevent and overcome this engulfing feeling. Bianchi's ideas and advice on the subject help bridge the "alone" gap into meaningful relationships. Her insight and humor are refreshing and encouraging. As a new mother myself I would recommend this book to mothers who feel they have a good host of support and to mothers who are feeling very alone. Everyone can get something out of this book.

I have one free copy to give away. If you are interested please let me know!

daunting decade

well evelyn seems to have very little interest in walking without holding onto something. she will push her walker all day long like a champ but when you take it away from her will just stand for a few seconds but then decide to sit and crawl. she has ventured out to take 5 or 6 steps but ends up plopping back down. i just hope she is walking by mid june when all her cousins get here so she can walk around and follow them...much for fun than crawling....or maybe not, maybe crawling is just the greatest fun of all fun. what do i know, i gave up crawling decades ago...yes, decades.

speaking of decades, i am approaching my third decade in a few months. yikesabee. i really don't know what to think about this daunting decade that i am inching toward every.single.day. makes me think of john mayer's song, stop this train. if you haven't heard it you can HERE. the lyrics are fantastic.

Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't but honestly won't someone stop this train

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game to find a way to say that life has just begun

to me, the true brilliance of the song follows the previous line:

Had a talk with my old man
Said help me understand
He said turn 68, you'll renegotiate
Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
Don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we'll never stop this train

i think it is easy for many to find themselves in the lyrics of this song. i know i have find myself lingering in the spaces where i do feel scared to get older because i've only ever been young...and i know how to be young. the thought of turning 30, or any number older, just feels like i'm placing another brick onto the accelerator...speeding faster and faster to what? to where? to the unknown.

looking back i do wonder where my 20s went and how they went so fast.  it may be a bit early for this, but here are some of the highlights of my 20s:

~ found my way to bryan college

~ met some of the most incredible people and forged some of the greatest friendships of my life

~ found myself

~ met my husband

~ graduated from bryan

~ married my husband

~ started a life with my husband

~ had evelyn

i would have to say all in all my 20s have been pretty kick ass. i guess there won't be any stopping this train. 30s...here i come.



the prodigal rib

i had had the most productive work week, balance-it-all week, until i woke up this morning to my rib out of place for the third time in a year. this unfortunate and excruciatingly painful prodigal rib is result of lifting too much weight in my 30 minute attempt at the arms P90X DVD. so today i can barely: lift my 20 pound daughter (who is currently yanking every clean cloth diaper out of the sack and stacking them on the couch), turn my head to the left, or complete any work while she slept. i suppose i was due a good "rest day" but don't feel rested, not one bit...i just feel stiff and twinges of pain.

thankfully, thought, i have an aunt who can fix my unfortunate, non-serendipitous prodigal rib. just waiting on her to show up and hoping evelyn doesn't require much physical contact for, um, at least 2 days. huh, yeeah riiight.

in evelyn news: she has started to shake her head "yes" to questions. questions like, "do you want an orange?" "do you want to see so-and-so?" "do you want to be potty trained today?" its fantastically charming when she does it and it always makes me smile. she is little-miss-personality. she gets so wrapped up in her books sometimes she just can't help but take a bite of one of the corners...nibble here, nibble there. we've taken to hiding the "good" books because they really don't stand a chance once her razor sharp pearly whites get to chewing.

still no walking by herself...without holding onto something else that is. she is a champ at walking with her walker-thing with wheels that she can push - like a mini lawn mower...maybe i should put her to work outside on the grass. holdthatthought. but she will attempt to push anything she can get to budge: her small fold-up chair, a big chair, her wagon, a box of cereal, it doesn't matter really. she will stand alone but when she realizes it she usually crouches low, sits then: commence crawling. i'm sure she will walk when she finds it more efficient than crawling. i keep telling her, "come on, start crawling so we can get you potty trained!" i'm dead serious. i'm tired of this diaper nonsense. :)

i've cut my hair really short but no one seems to notice. (my husband didn't even notice. when i brought to his attention that something was different he focused his gaze, squinted his eyes and asked, "you put on make-up today?" thanks, honey, but nope. i chopped off about 8 inches of hair! *withering stare*) maybe i should pull a britney to get some acknowledgement of my new do? thoughts?

now that every diaper is out of the bag and covering the floor and my prodigal rib is screaming at me i will go take a big cocktail of drugs and wait out coldplay to come fix me.

* i was kidding about the cocktail. happy friday!