Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Just Me

It is just like me to try to stretch out my birthday as long as possible with blog posts. I had breakfast made for me and when I woke up my girls were eating and my favorite music was playing and my flowers were watered and beautiful.
Yes, Ryann often puts honey on her pancakes.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Puppet Show


Ryann, Cara and I decided to put on a puppet show for Rich yesterday. We colored our bags and turned them into puppets. Then we set the stage and started playing pretend.

Cara wasn't quite figuring it out.

That made her really sad. But eventually I cheered her up.
I had a fun time! Happy day after my birthday to me!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Happy Birthday to Me!


Since it is my birthday I thought I would write a few things about myself. Most of you know me, but some of these things may surprise you. I am trying to keep them just about me, not my parenting or being a wife :)


1. I was in 4-H growing up. I raised pigs and sold them every year to make money. Sold them to people who liked to eat Ham. I grew attached to the pigs, but I never had a problem selling them because I knew what I got into when I started.

2. Speaking of pigs... The money I saved while raising pigs I used to buy my car when I turned 16. I drive that car to work every single day. It almost has 200,000 miles on it. It does not have hubcaps because they made an annoying noise because they were loose so my husband took them all off. It is ghetto.

3. My favorite candy of all time is tropical flavored starbursts. I will eat other candy of course but forever this will be my favorite candy.

4. I have the biggest sweet tooth I know. Seriously. Try to prove me wrong. I dare you.

5. I wrote in my journal every single day of middle school and high school. People can't see how I can blog almost every day, but this is not new to me. I essentially am just keeping my journal every day- plus adding a few pictures.

6. Those journals have just about every boys name in it that I went to middle school and high school with. To say I was boy crazy is an understatement. It would really be embarrassing if I wrote them all out. Rich thinks it is awesome because out of all those boys I had crushes on, I chose him.

7. My job at church is the substitute primary teacher. BEST JOB EVER! I can say no, I get to be the fun teacher every week, and I am never with the kids long enough to get annoyed of them.

8. I try to wash my hair every 3 days. I love dry shampoo and I hate blow drying my hair. Enough said.

9. I hate shaving my legs. During high school I spent an entire basketball season without shaving my legs. I pretended it was for basketball, but really I just hated shaving. Obviously my hatred for shaving was greater than my boy craziness... and now all those boys who are thinking they missed out are happy Rich got me ;)

10. #9 is another reason why I LOVE tights. Tights are the coolest thing out there. I love purple ones and silver ones and grey ones and footless ones and I do not have enough tights.

11. I don't wear heals very often. It used to be because Rich is so close in height that I didn't want to be a lot taller than him, but now it is because I am just too clumsy to walk in them.

12. I am a certified nurse midwife. Basically I am a nurse practitioner in an OBGYN office who delivers babies as well. I write prescriptions, give orders in the hospital, and manage low risk patients. I deliver the babies and a doctor is not there with me. (gasp! That is the most frequent question I get- "when does the doctor show up?")

13. I cry. A lot. It is in my genes. I cry probably almost every day. I cry when I am happy and sad and I cry with patients sometimes before they even start crying.

14. My favorite holiday is Halloween.

15. I love hearing birth stories. I love women telling me about their wonderful experiences and how they brought their children into the world. I don't care if it was a c-section. I want to know how it felt and how amazed you were and I am honored when women share these things with me.

16. I am honored when I am invited to a birth. Any birth, but especially the birth of a friend. Some people think it is weird, but being there as a doula or a sister or friend or a midwife is so amazing. Birth is such a sacred place and to be invited there to serve that woman is amazing. I am not asking to be invited- I know that isn't anything I would push on anyone, but truly each life I have been blessed to witness enter this world has connected me with such a love that I couldn't deny that it is my calling in life to serve women in this capacity.

17. I didn't cut my hair until I was in the 5th or 6th grade. I wore it in a braid down my back almost every single day and I had to put my hair over my shoulder in order to go to the bathroom. Talk about rapunzel.

18. Growing up I had imaginary friends. Lots of them. I had imaginary horses too... except they were bikes that I would tie a shoelace to the handle bars and pretend I was riding my horse.

19. I love to exercise. I hike or run at least 5 days a week. I like to tell myself it is because I want to stay healthy, but really it is because I want to be able to eat all the candy I want without having to worry about getting fat.

20. I was my senior class president and now I have to plan my class reunion. Thankfully I have an awesome group of people who are willing to help me- cause seriously I have a lot of stinkin things on my plate and I can't seem to whittle away at them all.

21. I LOVE being pregnant (even though I gained 55lbs with Cara). I LOVE giving birth. If it weren't for the child and the money and the potty training and that I had to work, I would have babies every single year.

22. I am a super fast reader. No joke. I get sucked into a book and BAM it is done. However, rarely if ever will I stay up late to read. Reading after midnight? Absolutely NOT! I enjoy my sleep way to much.

23. My running shoes are almost over 5 years old. They give me blisters if I walk in them and they give me blisters if I run more than 3 miles in them. I just bought new ones (really cheap ones) and I am trying to break those in before I toss my old ones.

24. I have a horrible memory. I think that is why I blog/ journal. I don't remember what happened a couple days ago, I don't remember dates, meetings, birthdays, or what patient I saw 5 minutes ago.

25. I have horrible depth perception. If there is a pothole on the road and I am trying to miss it, I will 100% certain hit it. I have stopped trying to avoid these because I know that I will miss it more often if I just ignore it.

26. I love "special" dates or times. Like when the clock reads 11:11, I think that is awesome. When the date of the year is 9-10-11 I think that is awesome as well. I also have a really cool friend who likes these things as well and we have stayed in touch since middle school because of these dates. In fact- I got an awesome package in the mail from her for my birthday (THANKS!~)

27. I love baking but I don't like cooking. I hardly ever have the right ingredients for cooking so I use substitutions all the time. I will have to say it used to scare Rich for a long time but now he is totally used to it and is always very impressed when I cook a meal. And when I bake he knows it will be amazing- and if it isn't then I eat it all anyway, so no worries.

28. I understand almost all medical Spanish. I have worked for a year and a half where all of my employees are Mexican and their first language is Spanish. I am finally, this year, starting to speak to my patients in Spanish because I know I need to get over it and just do it.


And that is it folks. I am off to watch a movie and cuddle on the couch with my husband. Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Seriously Spoiled

I can't get over how much fun and excitement this week has been. I have so many wonderful friends.
Tonight I had some sweet girls come pick me up and take me out on the town. By 7:30 we were in Scottsdale after having dinner and wondering what to do. I said, "Wait! We should go dancing!" So we started looking up clubs on our phones- and then we realized it was 7:30 and there was no way we would make it until a club even opened for us to go dancing.
Even without dancing we had a blast and I was home by 10:30 to kiss my sleeping girls. I am exhausted but it was so sweet of them.

On the way home we pulled over as soon as we saw my birthday fireworks going off.
Technically they weren't my birthday fireworks- but I can't think of any other reason they would be going off so I assume they were for me.
Then I had to take a picture of this Cheshire cat moon. Isn't it purrdy??

Then when I got home I started uploading these pictures and Rich brought over some cards and packages I got in the mail. Besides my amazing family- one of the packages I got was from a middle school/high school and now blogging friend for life. It was the sweetest package- each small gift was individually thought of just for me. I almost started to cry because of all the sweet things that have happened to me this week. AND IT ISN'T EVEN MY BIRTHDAY YET!!!
(i will show pictures of my package later)

Also- I should mention that our 2nd buyer backed out of our house a couple weeks ago- so we prepped the house again and put it on the market last night. Today we had 6 showings and an offer already came in, for $10,000 more than we were asking for. Miracle, seriously.

Up tomorrow... a special birthday post all about me!!
(Wait, i think today was all about me too... oh well! It is my birthday and my blog :P )

Friday, January 27, 2012

My Day in Review

I figure since it is my birthday weekend, I would post somethings of my day.
This morning my girls convinced me to cuddle with them instead of doing the dishes. Don't let Cara fool you, she was so excited for the extra attention.

I love that we have turned off the TV in the mornings. I used to turn it on so I could get ready in peace- but guess what? I love having little ones run around my bathroom and help me pick out my clothes and beg me to wear makeup (only Cara begs- Ryann could care less).
Then I had a SUPER BUSY day at work, but when I got home, my little helper helped me to make pizza for dinner. Mickey Mouse and a rainbow.
Then we topped it off with a game night with friends and these AMAZING cookies. I swear, this girl has 1001 recipes on desserts to make using chocolate and peanut butter. She should make a cookbook.
2 more days until my birthday! But the celebrating has been going on all week.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Peas Please

I caught Ryann putting all of her peas on her fork today. I remember doing that.
What a little cutie. Can you believe she is almost 5???

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Awesome Zoom

I love my new camera because it is new and has all these functions and I am getting a lot better pictures than my camera's before. Plus it isn't broken so that is awesome.

Rich's favorite is the ZOOM!
Here is a normal shot.
This is with the zoom on full power.
Here is another zoom shot of me and Ryann.

I do have to say that is pretty awesome.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Anticipation

The anticipation of going to Disneyland was almost as much fun as actually going. Okay, not really, but still.... soooo much fun waiting and counting down.
The girls were great about it. They were so excited to sleep in their princess sleeping bags at the hotel.
I guess i forgot to mention that we did the entire trip without a stroller.
Now who does that??
It was tough but we ended up having a blast. I carried the girls a lot and everyone else (Rich's family) helped out a ton too.

Just in case you were wondering, my feet have recovered and I was able to go running this morning without a problem.


Saturday, January 21, 2012

Characters

I forget how much the characters at Disneyland mean to little kids. I remember it was cool to have the autograph books- but standing in line for a high five or a hug? No way.

Until Cara comes along. Cara wanted a picture with EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER. I said no more often than not, but she was often in tears until she saw the next character or distraction. Cara would walk down the street and grab my hand and say, "MOM! I need a hug from tigger!!" or "Mom! I want a hug from Daisy." on and on and on. We often gave in if the line was short- but she was just in heaven knowing that each of these characters were there to see her and play with her and high five her.
It didn't help much when the characters really were there to interact with her. She was so smiley and giggly each time one came to her that often they would grab her hand and walk down the street with her. It was so incredible to see the time and attention they spent with her.
Jake- from Jake and the Neverland Pirates was there. He played hide-n-seek with Ryann and Cara. He walked with Cara up and down to street- tried to convince people to give her things or blow bubbles for her- which he succeeded. She got stickers and bubbles and high fives and it was so much fun for her.

Pluto here is pretending to bite Ryann's head. She was pretty sleepy, but she thought it was funny.
Cara and Minnie.

Cara and pluto. They danced for about 10 minutes before the parade began and that girl likes to shake her booty!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Happy Birthday Rich- Disney Edition

On Friday we celebrated Rich's 34th birthday. We started off the morning by Rich getting his "birthday" pin so he could start counting the number of times people said "happy birthday" to him. Rich couldn't keep track there were so many!!

Then we headed down to be in toon town for the "honorary citizens" where we got to go in an hour early and take a lot of pictures with the characters. The girls were so excited to be there and having so much fun. We probably went on the roller coaster there 4 times.
Rich spent some time for his birthday having a tea party at Minnie's house. Outside of Minnie's house there was a wishing well. Ryann says, "I wish I can marry Xavier!!!" down the wishing well... every father's dream to hear his (almost) 5 year old wish for a future husband already...
Later on we met up with Buzz Lightyear and finally got a family picture. Ignore my dorky shoes. The boots I had been wearing the day before made me a little bit sore- so I decided for function instead of fashion.
(now that is a huge birthday deal for Rich! His wife finally choosing a practical route.)
We finished off the night we ElecTRONica and world of color.
Happy birthday Rich. I hope it was wonderful!!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Bugs Life

My girls favorite video at Disneyland/ California Adventure... A Bugs Life.
Cara didn't keep the glasses on for most of the movie. But when they were on she was hysterical.
Ryann made Rich take her a couple more times on the trip.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Flowers from a patient

Today I received a potted flower of hyacinths from a patient of mine. I helped to deliver her baby over a month ago. They are gorgeous and smell amazing and it was really thoughtful of her. As I held her sweet newborn boy I was reminded of the precious gifts that are given to us on this earth.
However, earlier today was a rough, emotional, day at work for me. I spent almost an hour with a patient who recently lost her 15 year old son. We cried and talked and I know her grieving process is so fresh and so young that it touched me to my soul. I felt inspired to spend extra time loving on my girls and reminding them that I needed their help to become a better mother.

Both experiences today were for my profit and learning, things I needed to hear and to learn. I am reminded to stay humble and thank the Lord for all of the things that I have, because without his hand in my life I don't know how I would continue to stay positive and ready to face another day.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Petting Zoo

Ryann wasn't a fan of actually catching the chickens, but she sure wanted me to take a lot of pictures of her with them. She touched them a couple times, but never caught them herself.
She liked feeding the goats.


And she really liked the llama (or camel according to Cara).
What a fun birthday party!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Birthday Week

I decided to post Rich's favorite pictures of the birthday party in honor of his "birthday week."

He turns 34 this week and I am trying to remind him every day :)
He is so lucky to have me.

Anyway... Rich missed this birthday party we went to this weekend because he was watching a very intense football game... but this was his favorite picture when I told him the story behind it.

Here is Cara, she is trying to feed some straw to the animals in the petting zoo.
She is yelling, "COME HERE CAMEL!!! COME EAT CAMEL!!"
This wasn't an exotic petting zoo, but I guess a llama looks a lot like a camel to a 2 year old, wearing Incredibles panties, pants falling off, girl from Arizona.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

French Braids and Pony Rides

I decided that since Ryann was going to ride a horse today she should have some french braids. Here is my very first attempt at 2 french braids in her hair.
Pretty successful, I mean, they stayed in.

We had a lot of fun at a friend's birthday party today.
Both Cara and Ryann were able to ride the horse with painted hair a couple times.
I have about a thousand more cute pictures but this one below I had to sneak in today... this is the moment her face paint was revealed... she was so excited on how pretty her "fairy face" was.
Happy Birthday Jaidin and Jillian! I can't believe it has been 6 years since I fell in love with that sweet newborn baby I was watching in my home once a week for a year.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Free Lunch


I never go out to lunch. Basically in the past 20 months at my job I have been out to lunch 3 times.


Today I wanted to go. Not sure why I wanted to go, I just went. The girls in my office took me to a place called "Lenny's Burger" because they said it was delicious.


It is in downtown Phoenix and it was very crowded. When I got out of my car there was a scruffy (as in not much better than homeless) man helping someone change a tire. He came up to me and asked it I would be able to buy his "lady" (probably his mother) a small hamburger since she was so hungry and hadn't been able to eat all day.


He didn't ask for money and he was doing service for someone else so without hesitation I took her inside and bought her the biggest meal I could find on the menu. It was small and simple and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to do this for someone today.


Yesterday on facebook I had a friend post, "have you done any good in the world today?" I want to challenge you to do something good for someone this week. Pay for their toll, pay for their meal, help pick up the toy that their kid threw across the restaurant, let them merge into your lane, anything.


This man who helped someone change a tire will never understand how he helped me today. I feel so blessed because he presented me with the opportunity to serve. He was grateful and I am sure he is happy that his "lady" got a meal, but it will last a lot longer for me than it will for her.


I know that I am blessed on a daily basis but this has touched me today, it has reminded me that I am so fortunate and there are so many people out there who love me.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Cuteness of Ryann

Ryann has fallen in love with the game "Guess Who"

We have a Marvel comic book guess who game.

She has actually won once or twice.... without Rich letting her win. She also has been a much better eater lately, but at dinner time she always wants me to feed her. It is so much quicker and less messy- but I am trying to be patient and not shovel food into her mouth when she is being lazy/slow.
She also likes to make breakfast for herself every day. This morning it was toast. She didn't actually toast it, she just smeared jam all over it, but she ate it right up.









Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Sock Puppets

I turned around as I was getting ready for work today. I saw these cute little sock puppets talking to each other. I believe their names were "socky and socker."
Pretty clever huh?
She was hysterical. She thought she was sooo funny. It was awesome.
And see this little stinker below... she looks so innocent. Not so much. She spent 1 hour and 25 minutes at the dinner table without eating her dinner. We finally put her straight to bed. I was exhausted and worn out and at my wits end.
So now I am going to sneak into her room, stare at her cute sleeping face, give her a kiss, and remember how much I love her.

Monday, January 9, 2012

80 degree weather

I will take it. Thank you.
My girls don't have any complaints either.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Hiking in Pictures

Yesterday we headed down for some major hiking in Tucson to celebrate my cousin's birthday. We were watching some friend's kids so we brought them with us. It was fun and exhausting and there weren't many major melt downs.
I love Cara's hair in the picture above. She was mid jump.

Everyone was very interested in uncle Bob and looking at his pictures.
Cara had a lot of the hike in style- on my back.
And finally the real reason we went hiking. To spend time with my aunt, uncle and cousin. It was a great day and we celebrated by having root beer floats after. Delicious.

Thanks for a great day!!