"I will call him Friend"

Sean and I started Halloween decoration shopping. We plan to get into the Ghoulish SPIRIT this year. So we did a little shopping yesterday. I let Sean pick out a Giant Furry Spider, he will likely go on the stair railings as decoration. Sean turns to me, and says... "I will call him Friend"..... I have a feeling this thing is going to be more than just a decoration.

Something else happened when we were shopping yesterday that is definitely worth noting that absolutely blew me away. We were in a craft store, and we walked down an aisle that had a iron cast of the Eiffel Tower, which I didn't even notice as I was looking at some decorative knobs. Sean shouts out "Mom, the Eiffel Tower!" ... I stall, and look ... he says it again. The other lady in the aisle looks at me... and look at her.. I said, what did you say? He repeats...I said, How did you know that...? He said... I taught myself! LOL. We used to have these Landmark flashcards that we would do. Well they still use them at school... so he is familiar with famous landmarks, pieces of art (ie the Mona Lisa... which he also shocked me with recently) but I just can't believe how this information sticks in his brain. OH TO BE YOUNG and SMART!!!

Plow the fields

Finally getting this boy to pull his weight around here

feeling so blessed

Today, I feel such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and appreciation for my family. I realize how lucky I am to have such an amazing husband. Today, I sent him a text to ask if it would be too much trouble for him to pick up some green tea for me. I had been wanting some at work, but kept forgetting to pick it up while at the store. He just so happened to be at the store buying oil for my Mom's car, who was at my house watching Sean. My Mom's oil light was on when she arrived at our house, and Steve went out to get oil for her car. I love that he does things like this. I love that he cares for my family so much. So he got the oil and got the tea, and brought it to my work to deliver it to me for my long day at work.

My mother is home caring for our son, so we don't have to pay extra in daycare costs. But she's not just there... sitting around. She's playing with Sean. She's folding our laundry (which we do NOT ask her to do... but Steve SOOOO appreciates that she does), and she's preparing dinner for us. Who is this lucky? Who get's to be surrounded by the most wonderful loving people in the world? I do! xoxo! I love them.

Labor Day Weekend

Ahhh... It turned out to be such a nice weekend. Daddy went to California to visit with Great Grandpa and play poker, and Sean and I held down the fort and hung out at the house. I went for a great 33 mile hill training bike ride on Saturday morning, which nearly put me out of commission for the remainder of the day. Fortunately, Sean was willing to play along and have a "movie" day. Sean also decided that since Daddy wasn't home, that it was ok to sneak quietly into Mommy's bed in the middle of the night (actually i was probably only 2 hours after going to bed, but I was so tired after the day of riding that it felt like the middle of the night) and snuggle with Mommy for the rest of the night. He woke me up, by tickling my face with his fingers, and then poking me in the eye.... and said, "Mommy!.... Mommy! I wuv you!... I'm gonna sleep in here, since Daddy's gone, don't worry, it's ok". ha ha hah... I was so tired, I couldn't argue... Not that I would with that kind of reason.

Sunday spent some time playing and then went over to play with Nate, Robyn and Joe. And then Monday, we cleaned the house and got ready for Daddy to come home.

Daddy's Sunday, did not go quite so simple. He was driving back to AZ from CA... Great Grandpa Bill showed up at Steve's hotel room door with a woman and decided that it would be nice for Steve to have a stranger drive with him back to AZ.... so he didn't fall asleep on the drive. She needed to go to Scottsdale, and Steve was going in the vicinity of Scottsdale.... Lucky for Steve, she was a lovely woman named Mary, probably in her 60's. She has been coming out to the Inn for many years. Steve said ended up making the trip home seem a bit quicker than normal. (As you might imagine, this was not is initial reaction... )

Everyone is home safe and sound now. And it's back to regular working life. It was a fun weekend, and it ended with one fun story that will be told for a lifetime. :)

Confessions of a 3 yr old

Last night while snuggling before bed time, Sean says to me, "Mom... I hit someone at school. I lied to Dad and told him I didn't so I could watch t.v."

Today
Outside my window, a new day I see
And only I can determine what kind of day it will be
It can be busy or sunny, laughing and gay,
Or boring and cold, unhappy and grey.
My own state of mind is the determining key,
For I am the only person I let myself be.
I can be thoughtful and do all I can to help,
Or be selfish and think just of myself.
I can enjoy what I do and make it seem fun,
Or gripe and complain and make it hard on someone.
I can be patient with those who may not understand,
Or belittle and hurt them as much as I can.
But I have faith in myself, and believe what I say,
And I personally intend to make the best of each day.

I'm the Boss

Sean is very clear on the "pecking order" in the house. He says to me the other night while I'm putting him to bed.... "You're the first boss, then dad and then I'm the boss, right mom?... " I said, "well...yea, that sounds about right.. but sometimes that changes order a little bit, sometimes, Daddy is the first boss.... " *long pause* Sean says, "Well Dad's gonna be the boss next and then it's my turn... " So two nights later....

Sean says, "Mom it's my turn, now... I'm the boss now. You were the boss, and then Dad was the boss.. and now I'm the boss. "

I laughed and said, "well, I'm sorry to tell you, you're gonna have to wait a really long time for your turn to be the boss". "How long?"... Well at least til Mommy can't talk anymore.... :)

Ozzy will do anything to snuggle

The Training Begins- Group Rides

Today, 4:45am came all too soon. But that was because I was too excited to sleep a wink betweek 10:00pm and 3:10. And then at 3:10am, Sean decided to get up and walk around the house naked, yelling for Grandma Susan, because he wanted to sleep with her, because he had an "accident" in his own bed. Anyhow, it was 3:00am, I wasn't going to let him wake her and everyone else in the house up, so I grabbed him and brought him to bed with us, where he decided he really wasn't interested in sleeping... so he tossed and turned and played with my face, and told me how much he loved me.. (which is always ok by me... ) Until he finally fell asleep at 4:35, and then my alarm went off at 4:45 to get up for my FIRST GROUP BIKE RIDE!

I was so excited. I have seen these groups of bike riders 10-50 riders up early in the morning meeting in parking lots, or riding down the streets in big groups like a swarm of bees... and I have ALWAYS wanted to be apart of that. Today was my day. My neighbor invited me to a ride with a group that she had previously participated in, so we went. Today was 20 miles. Not bad at all. I loved it. Every minute of it. I've got a 40 miles race coming up with the Tour De Tucson on November 19, so... training will be needed for this one. I'm not gonna get by with just showing up. I hear it's got lots of hills, something I have NO experience with. So I'm looking forward to some of the training days that will be hill days. OH Boy....

Handsome

Fun Visits

I guess it's safe to say that Sean can never get enough Grandparent time. It's so nice for him that he has Grandparents that make an effort to spend time to come out and visit. Grandma Susan and Grandpa Steve are here this weekend, and Sean was nearly bouncing off the walls last night with excitement. He's so excited to show them everything. And all at once! All the crafts he has been painting, toys that he things are exciting at this moment. He wants Grandma Susan to watch 5 movies that he wants to share with her... and he wants to do it all right NOW! it's pretty cute and funny. He loves spending time with all his Grandparents, and anytime he gets to have their undivided attention it's all the more special for him. :)

Karate class

SEAN TRIED HIS FIRST KARATE CLASS TONIGHT. HE DID GREAT. HE LISTEN TO THE TEACHER & HE FOLLOWED INSTRUCTION.

HE IS SO EXCITED FOR HIS NEXT CLASS. LOOKS LIKE WE'RE OFFICIALLY SIGNING UP.

First time bowling. Sean had a great time. I'm both proud and humiliated to report that dad placed first, sean second and me last...

I'm so excited.. We are lucky enough to go back to working 12 hour shifts at work. So that means, 3 shifts per week for me! This is great news. We are thrilled. This starts in September. Yipee!!!

I hate to brag... ok I don't ... but check this out. I didn't believe that Sean actually did this.  I had to call Ms. Frances to ask because he colored in the lines and everything. Suddenly we went from wild aimless crayon lines to in the lines, coloring with style and purpose ... I Love it.

Quote of the day...

Told to Steve on the way home from Daycare...

"Dad, my Green Lantern ring is green, and my Green Starwars Man is Green ... THAT'S INSANE!"

MY Quest

So... As you may or may not know... Life changes a lot in our house. And so does my mood, and I'm pretty darn tired of that. And I imagine so is my husband. So my new resolve has been to get back to my old resolve, which was to get back to basics of living a balanced, happy life. I know that I threw our lives into a tailspin this last year with my move to the police department. I didn't expect it to snap back into place immediately when moving back to the hospital (although I kinda hoped it would), since I was moving back to a new position there was going to be a whole new learning curve. So I've been patient with the transition. But now it's time to get serious, about my "Happiness Project". It's a book I've been reading, and it's fabulous. I am loving every second of reading it. I'll probably refer to it often. With it, I'm hoping to get back to Blogging more!

Here is what I KNOW. Just because you aren't "happy", does not mean that you are "unhappy". This I know for sure, and have been experiencing it. And now I am going to change it. Because I want to HAPPIER, I have so many reasons to be a happy person, and I never want to look back on life and wish I would have appreciated it when I had it. It's time for a little perspective.

I want to work on: Be Appreciative. Live in the Moment. Find freedom in my failures, not be afraid to try things. Give myself, my own "gold star" for those things I feel I need recognition for, not look to someone else to provide that. Be more Silly. Get organized at home/ de-clutter.

I'm sure my list will grow, and evolve. But this is where my head is right now.

Speechless... is he the most handsome boy EVER.... oh my! This was my Mother's Day present.. Sean's wonderful teacher, Frances had her friend and classroom assistant teacher take this photo with this super cute handmade tie (which I think just makes it THAT much cuter). They did photos of all the kids and gave them to the Mom's.

too much time has past

I'm two weeks into moving back to hospital after leaving the police department, and I couldn't be happier. Steve could be happier. Our quality of life has improved greatly. Just having our time together again on the weekends as a family has brought us back together... as I suspected it would. How I missed this! I knew this was the right decision... and these past few weeks has really shown me that my heart was right. I feel whole again.

On to other happenings...

Sean is developing into quite the character. Steve and I swear he must be the coolest and most clever 3 year old on the planet... Today he buckled himself in his carseat (which isn't an easy task in my 5 point carseat). He was super proud of himself, sitting there waiting to show me. I was SHOCK and SO proud of him. He just sat there with a grin from EAR TO EAR. Then as we drove into the neighborhood there was this large grey crane sitting on the fountain rocks. I pointed to the bird and said, look at that bird Sean... He said, "That's interesting that he is sitting on that rock, don't you think Mom?".... I just thought that was such a grown up response. It seems like more and more he comes up with something to say that just isn't "kid-like"... he's definately growing up!

Yesterday, Sean went to his first play with his babysitter, Frances. He went to see Pinnochio. He loved it. We're so lucky to have such a wonderful care provider for Sean. She is the most amazing woman. Sean loves and appreciates her too. When he came home, Sean said... "That was really nice of Ms. Frances to take me to see the play". Two other boys his age went with them as well. Afterwards they were treated to a fun lunch at McDonalds.

I'm so proud to be raising such a loving respectful child.