It Is Hard To Stay Strong

I'm not really the stereotypical mother, so I've been told. I've been analyzing why I think the way I think. Metacognition if you will.

And I will.

Ok, this could get long and self-indulgent. Stop now if your time is valuable.

Here's a little secret about me. I'm into visualization.  I totally believe that if you can see it, you can achieve it.  I used to visualize myself playing sports. I used to visualize a married life with a tall, red-headed lumberjack (close). Now, I visualize where I would like to live, travel and even how I'd like to design my house.  That all being said, I never visualized me having children.

So, on my life went: married, employed, self-absorbed, sporadic, unplanned, always looking for the next destination, experience or at least the next get-together with friends.  I had no need for children.  

Now, I have children. Two.

I'm going to get to the point.  Here's the shakedown:

There are two types of moms:

1) Moms that have always wanted kids. Moms that before they were moms were practicing to be moms. Moms that before they had kids didn't really like to go out or get crazy, but are now finally most happy in life when at home with their children.

2) Women that will become the moms listed above.

I guess what I'm trying to articulate is that I've been trying so hard to hold on to my prior life. I resolved to not change who I was just because I was having kids. I didn't want to be like those women. Give me some examples you say. Ok, I will. I thought I could still just travel like always. I thought I could (Scott sold me on this one.) still go out anytime with friends and to happy hours.  I was determined to keep my sports car.  I was still going to raise hell and maybe take off some clothing after a night of drinking.  Yes, I was not going to let kids, babies, tots bring me down.

Well ladies and gentlemen, it is FREAKING HARD TO HOLD ON TO YOUR PAST LIFE once you become a mom.  Oh it is so hard.  And, let me just break it to you. Two kids makes it damned near impossible.  So, here is my struggle. I am laying it all on the line here in the virtual reality of blogger.  

I am about to just give in.  I am about to just throw in the towel and say, ok, I'm a mom #1 now.  Give me the mom jeans. Give me the minivan. Give me the Hobby Lobby membership discount card so I can buy stamps and ink pads. Give me play dates and MOPS and growth charts.  Hand over staying at home Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night and liking it.

But I haven't given in yet. I still visualize my camper, my road trips, my rifle, my cooler of beer, my campfires, my kayak, my dreams of adventure.  I just have had to add in the two little girls bouncing around in the back with a portable dvd player, juice boxes and marshmallows for the campfire. I've had to expand my dreams and add Scout and Brooke riding quads and purple dirt bikes, and fishing with their dad and learning to surf and snowboard and start a fire.  If I can see it, I can achieve it.

Combining The Worlds

Isn't that what Thanksgiving is about? Combining the worlds? We had a great time tailgating and the Cowboy win was good too. Yes, there are some stories to the game; the good the bad and the ugly.  But I will just say that 6 of us had counterfeit tickets.  I mean, it didn't stop us from getting in the park....finagle! But, well, it was eventful. We'll say that.

Big Group Above (L-R) Adam, Jack, Shay, Trish, Kamie, Scott, Jeremy, Ro, Jerry, Braden, Amanda, Reuben. We had California, New Mexico and Alaska represented along with various Texans.

Jesus, the Homeboy and the Tradish

As we were walking up to church this last Sunday, I said outloud "no matter how hard I try to go to 'other' churches, I keep ending up back at the old baptist."  I laughed about it because not only did I sporadically attend baptist churches as a kid; later a teen, but I spent five years on a southern baptist college campus.  Yet, I haven't ever really considered myself baptist.  

I know, I know..... I shouldn't bring "religion" to a blog that started out named "peeing in the shower," but I wanted to write a little blip about this past Sunday.

Now, a few years ago we hit the neighborhood baptist church after our friend Lani invited us to the contemporary service. Addison Road was the worship band and it was all pretty good.  The sanctuary was still like the old "churchy" type building, but the service was current and even Scott, aka Mr. Traditional, was ok with it.  But, after the band left and our friends moved away and we had babies, we hadn't been back.

Fast forward to this past weekend. Again, it was at the invite of a friend that we took our show back to the neighborhood baptist church.  Except this time, we hit the early service which is a 

TRADITIONAL service.  

Ok people if you haven't been to church since you were a little kid, well you can still go back and recapture the feel....just go to a traditional baptist Sunday service!  Let me start by saying that

 the message was good, kids enjoyed Sunday school, and we were happy to get some Jesus time.  Now, I will say that it cracked me up when I walked in to the sanctuary because it was wall to wall grey-hairs!  I was surprised that I was surprised at how old the congregation was.  I looked at Scott and told him that he was in the right place because everyone in the entire room had voted for McCain (ba-dum-bum).

But seriously, the choir sang hymns right out of the hymnals and the music worship leader guy looked just like this guy:

However, he led us in song in a way that reminded us of this guy on the right from the movie The Breakup:

I'm just letting you know what I was thinking about while we were singing.  I don't want you to think I'm making fun of a church or baptists. I mean really, I love Jesus.  But, I will get sidetracked in church looking around at people, at the band, the choir, the violin players, whomever.  Sorry I get distracted. 

I'm not sure if I have a point to this blog post, but I will say that you should give tradish a chance if you haven't ever or if you haven't in a while.  It is pretty fun.  And, I think it sort of makes people like me appreciate the movement towards contemporary and emerging.

NKOTB

Yes, Scott surprised me last night with New Kids on The Block concert tickets. THANK YOU SCOTT!! I was excited. He even arranged for our girls to have a babysitter. THANK YOU SHAY!

The picture above is of the main stage at the beginning of the concert.  The picture below is fro when they popped up right in front of our balcony seats and sang a few songs on this spinning stage deal. (These pics are struggling because they were taken with my phone.)

You know you had a favorite:

So, the question is...was it a good concert? Yes. It was hilarious because it was thousands of 30-something women screaming their hearts out. I was cracking up.  The "new kids" were really good and were a lot of fun to watch perform. There were some cheesy parts, like when Jordan sang a solo song and unbuttoned his shirt with smoke behind him, but over all it was a lot of fun. They had a lot of wardrobe changes which kept it good to look at. Oh, and Danny did a whole breakdance deal by himself which is always good times.

Just for the record: My favorite new kid was Jonathan, and he pretty much did not a thing at the concert, but just barely dance and sing back up. However, I still like him.  And, five dancers is always better than four.

I've Concluded It's Genetic

The Difference Between Men and Women

These are our thoughts on any given Sunday....

8am

WIFE: 

What will I do with the kids today? Maybe I'll take them over to visit family. 

What will I cook for breakfast? 

What will I need to do now to prepare for dinner tonight? Thaw out meat? Slow cook it? Marinate it? Do I have all of my ingredients?

I need to make sure the kids clothes are clean for the week. 

When am I going to do my grad schoolwork since it is due tonight?

I wonder if naptime is going to be difficult today?

8am

HUSBAND:

I hope the Cowboys win.

I hope my fantasy football teams win.

I hope the other NFC East teams lose.

Coastal Life Here I come

Surely, all four of us could fit into 388 square feet just to sleep right? I mean, the beach is at our door step...at least according to these photos.  How much do you think I'd have to pay for a piece of land in NorCal for this to fit?  And, do you think it would be awkward for the girls to have friends over?  

See more on this site: http://www.studiomama.com/chalet.html

Waylon the Dog Wears Me Out

This is a documentary post of how my house looked when I got home from work one day.  The first picture is when we walked in the back door we saw all this torn up carnage:

This picture is of Scout's "baby brooke." Notice Waylon chewed the feet and fingers off:
Here is one of Scout's toys. It was a giraffe.  Now it looks like the Hannibal Lecter of giraffes:

And, here is Scout's recently favorite stuffed animal "kitty-cat" and yes, her face has been removed:
Yes, we had to throw everything away, even the tiny baby boppy.  Scout initially looked around and started bawling at all her favorite things destroyed (she had them all on the couch that morning and I forgot to secure the).  But, she regrouped to make this video.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, WAYLON STAYS OUTSIDE DURING THE DAY NOW.

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING.

"Campy" Website Reviews

If you want to see lots of outdoor fun stuff and reviews, check out this site: http://www.travelizmo.com/

Crazy Website Antics

You can make yourself go back in time. This particular picture of me is from if I wasn't in elementary school in 1984.

www.yearbookyourself.com

House Hunters International is The Devil

I know I put too many posts up here about TV shows, but that is about all I have interesting in my life after my adventures in motherhood. So, let me just tell you that if you want to be disillusioned with your life or if you want to second guess your current living status, then watch House Hunters International on HGTV.

Once you watch a few episodes of this show you too might start to think about a geographic relocation where the sun always shines or the city never sleeps.

This film crew will take you to new builds in Central America (picture at the bottom - Honduras); flats in Europe including some of my favs like Sweden and other Scandinavian countries (middle pic below); and of course they will temp you with beach front properties in Latin America (top pic is Cabo) and the Caribbean.
My mind starts to turn as I think of what our budget would be and what we could afford south of the border. I've thought of how we'd home school the kids, but really just snorkel everyday while practicing our new language to communicate with the locals.

So, don't watch this show unless you want to see some really cool places. Leave a comment letting us know where you would move outside of the U.S....where would you move and live the dream? (I already know my sister desires Italy!)