Grandparents

My grandpa called me today. :)

I haven't talked to them in awhile and I forgot to call my grandma on mothers day. Then I felt guilty for not calling, then I procrastinated even more because the longer I wait to call, the more likely I get a, "I was wondering if you didn't love me anymore or were mad at me." That grandma of mine...she sure lays it on thick. But I love her dearly. I talked to my grandpa about property values and the crazy housing bubble in AZ and CA. And how I don't think my house in TX will ever appreciate that quickly because of the ridiculous taxes. You know...we just talked 'shop'.

I talked to my grandma about how nice my husband is. Yes he is grandma, I am lucky. When Jeff bought me my first car my Grandma saw it and raised her eyebrows and asked, "Are you working Stacia(my pet name from them...not sure why)?" I told her no and she nodded her head knowingly and said, "Ahhh...Having a husband is nice isn't it?" At least she's proud of me for getting my M.R.S. in college.

She told me that when my dad died that he was blessed by a priest so that he would go straight to heaven and not have to wait in purgatory. Huh? She told me that made me lucky because 'Your daddy can pray for you better there.'

Then she told me that I should never have an abortion. The pope says it's better to use birth control than to have an abortion.

Blink. Blink.

"Ok Grandma...I wont." I can't imagine that I would ever choose to have an abortion but I'm just sayin'...isn't this a conversation she should have had, Oh about a decade ago when I was single? I luv me some gramma. She is so cute in all her polishness.

She also told me that she had christmas presents for the kids but she wont send them. I have to come and get them personally. Well, since she is holding my childrens Christmas presents hostage I guess I better start planning another trip to Phoenix. I miss them so much! I want to eat kielbasa and drink out of my blue sippy cup. She has kept it all these years and I still use it every time I go over there. And I want to see if the big wooden spider hanging above their tv is still as scary as it used to be. And I want to see the framed "Happiness is having a Polish Pope" picture. Even though the new pope is Italian. I have so many happy memories in that home.

Their phone call makes me feel the need to go back 'home'. I miss my family and my friends. I'm not looking forward to the scorching heat of AZ but I think it's time for a visit. And some fucking awesome mexican food. Ohhhhhh, and a cheese burger from In and Out. my.mouth.is.watering.now.damnit.

My heart melts...

Kennen just came up to me when I got out of the shower and put his arms around my leg and said "Love Mama" and kissed me. Kimberly is 'reading' a book outloud to her dolls. I'm so lucky.

Family Day

I went and saw Shrek 3 this morning! I brought the 5 point harness carseat in for Kennen because I know there is no way he would sit though a movie! Kimberly will sit for longer than I care to admit in front of a tv or a movie but Kennen would rather run and play and cry really loud than watch a movie. As soon as we got into the theater, I strapped him in his seat and he was fine. I think he knows that the carseat issue is non-negotiable so he just ate his popcorn and drank my Sprite. There was one point where he started screaming and Jeff took him out and walked him around for a mintue. I love that man. Speaking of Jeff...he smelled so good. Sitting next to him in a dark room got my mind wandering. We were surrounded by children though so I kept my hands to myself. I guess that's the good thing about getting older...hello sexual peak!

After the movie we took the kids to the new soft playland at the mall. It was themed after a new car showroom and they had a big rubber building and a bunch of padded cars. Kennen was in heaven. It was stressful because Jeff was playing one of those crane games across the mall courtyard with Kimberly and I kept losing sight of her. Not that I don't trust my kids with Daddy...I just keep a sharper eye on them. After a few minutes I saw him walk away from the crane game without Kim and I flipped out. I ran over to where I saw her last and she was there with our 14 year old neighbor, Kailey. I breathed a sigh of relief and asked K to not let her out of her sight until Jeff got back from the bathroom. Then, 10 minutes later I saw Kailey but not Kimberly so I ran over again and saw Kim with Daddy. OK, I think I might have issues and I need to chill. She is in good hands.

A few minutes later, Kim and Jeff come back to run around the playland again. We were chit chatting with our friends and Jeff exclaimed, "Where's Kimberly!." I shrugged, scanned the kids running past me and found her then motioned my hand toward her, and kept talking to my friend. A few seconds later Jeff yelled at me, "You need to tell me where she is when I ask!" He said he didnt see me point to her and he said he was about to start yelling for a lost little girl. Not that he doesn't trust the kids with Mommy...he just keeps a sharper eye on them. :)

I'm definitely not a clean freak, but...

This morning when I took my cup of coffee with me to drink while checking my email, I was so excited to see that my mother in law sent me the set of pics from when I was out of town.

I lost my digital camera a few months ago and have not had any new pictures to update on myspace or to put on this blog. I was excited to pirate my mil's pics of my family and post updated shots of everyone. The pics of my kids are gorgeous but I can't post them. My house in the background is a mess. I can't even look at them. My anxiety rises when I look past my beautiful babies faces to the dirty hard wood floor and the toys and crap littering every horizontal surface. As soon as I got home last Sunday, I rolled up my sleeves and cleaned everything. It didn't feel like a chore anymore. It made me really happy to have my hands all over this house I love. As soon as everything was spotless I felt like I had purged a demon and I took a huge breath and relaxed. My mil squirmed a little while I was cleaning and she said that it looked much better now. I felt a little ashamed of myself because I wasn't trying to make her feel bad. The house wasn't funky stinky dirty...just cluttery. You could tell that the kids had a great time and played all over the house. I can't even express my gratitude for what they do for me. I'm lucky to have great people that I can trust with my kids. Not only can I trust them, but they say that even though they travel the world, their favorite place to be is with the babies.

Anyway, long story short...I need to either find my camera or buy a new one because my kids are growing up way too fast! I need to freeze them in time!

Parasailing and my baby's got my back

I faced a huge fear while I was out of town. I have always wanted to parasail and I skipped happily up to the marina and paid for my ticket and then sat down and waited. And waited. As I waited Jeff kept chattering away about fishing or something boring like that and I guess my fight or flight response kicked in. I couldn't waste my $60 by running back to the hotel and crawling back in bed and never think about parasailing again so instead I kept snapping at Jeff. Fortunately he knows me well and laughed and put his hand on my arm and told me to relax. I flinched away from him and gave him a dirty look and he was like, 'okaaaaaaay, whatever.' Then I hugged him because that's what I needed and I felt a little better.

We got in the boat and they said the only thing we really needed to know was if we felt sick or were really going to freak out that we could do jumping jacks in the air because yelling for them to bring us down would be futile since they were letting out 600 feet of rope. Yikes! The first lady went up in the air and I was surprised that the boat just bobbed along at an idle speed. I was thinking it would be like water skiing and the boat would have to go fast to keep you in the air. She was up for 10 minutes but the time flew by and before I knew it they reeled her back into the boat and it was my turn.

They hooked me into my harness and the wind lifted me into the air and they started letting out line. I kept watching the boat get smaller and smaller and It was everything I could do to stay calm. Then all the sudden I started bumping around really violently. I was about to do my jumping jack and have them reel me down but then is shaking stopped and it was so quiet and peaceful. I forgot to be scared. It was so beautiful! The water was so clear and I could see the birds flying in circles below me. They looked so far away. I had a little nervous energy so I started flicking my thumb against my harness and HOLY SHIT! I was clicking my carribiner open and closed for at least 5 minutes. This is the thing hooking me to the rope on the boat. OMG If I had disconnected myself then I would have probably flown over to the Port Isabelle bridge and become roadkill. Then I shifted my weight a little and I heard and felt the friction of the ropes tightening. Oy vay! I want down! I would just focus on my baby (Jeff was the black dot in the boat) and then I would calm down. He wouldn't let anything happen to me. Who would iron his shirts then? j/k! Before I knew it though I felt myself start to free fall slowly back toward the boat. :( I was sad it was almost over. When I got close enough to see the 2 workers in the boat they had pulled out a fake sword and pretended that they were chopping the rope. Ha ha. Really funny motherfuckers. It actually was pretty funny. I got really low and they said, "Where are you going? OMG what's happening????!!!!!" and then they dipped my feet into the salty sea. I waved and smiled. I got back in the boat and hugged my honey. I'm so glad I did it but I think now that it's checked off my lifetime to do list, I will probably never do it again. Oh, and apparently that violent shaking I felt when I first got up there was the captain of the boat shaking my rope. Jeff yelled at him though. My baby's got my back. :)

Sunburned and dehydrated and sooooOOooo relaxed

It's true. I had the best time this last week. For anyone that is considering South Padre for a little vacation, I definitely recommend it! Not only was it beachy and beautiful but the prices for everything from the food to the booze to the hotel room were super cheap. The room was amazing! It walked out onto the beach and I spent many mornings soaking up the sunrise and swimming while Jeff was sleeping because it was right outside the back door of our room.

OK, back to reality. Kennen is screaming so I will update more later. His scream no longer makes me want to jump out the window. I missed the little bugger. And the big bugger too. There were a lot of families at S.P.I with small children and at first I stayed as far away from kids as possible. As the days wore on though I missed my kids painfully. My heart literally ached. I would see little girls in bikinis splashing in the waves and chubby little buddy boys that looked like they needed a big hug from a stranger like me but I kept my hands to myself. Plus, all the kids we saw seemed to be an older girl and a baby boy. I told Jeff he needed to keep me busy to curb my pain.

We went parasailing (a little scary but mostly exhilirating), deep sea fishing for 8 hours (I thought this would be mostly a 'Jeff' activity but I loved it!), bay fishing the next day for 4 hours (I have mad fishing skills yo!), watched the sun set during dinner, hung out in the pool, got hammered while talking to a couple that were in their late 60's. I drank more vodka than water so now I am trying to rehydrate. I am so happy. I will post more details about my trip later...like the bay fishing trip that Jeff and I were obnoxiously drunk on and the nice man named David that I piercecd with a fishing hook. Jeff says it's a good thing I'm a girl because David had jailhouse tattoos and probably would have kicked my ass if I wasn't showing so much skin.

24 hours...

...and I can't wait to get the heck out of here! My wonderful in-laws are here spoiling my kids (meaning lots of presents and literally spoon feeding my 2 year old every meal. I'm trying to bite my tongue on that one). They are also spoiling me with a a day at the spa. I just got back and I'm freshly massaged and polished. I just need to think about packing (bikini? check! flip flops? check! deep sea fishing liscense? check! tampons? unfortunately, check!)

bon voyage!