Vida. Risa. Amor.

It's Labor day today and I can honestly say I'm not sure what to do with this holiday.  I work part time during the week as a teacher's aide, (of a highschool nursing class), so I understand the concept of looking forward to a three day weekend a little more now.  I am usually incapable of taking a "day off" anyway so looking back on my three day weekend I did exactly what I usually like to do:  got a bunch of stuff done.  (I assumed I was supposed to labor anyway).

Lanie made a club softball team a week ago, so until she has games she has practices both on Friday night and Saturday mornings.  There was a lot of time spent in my lawnchair in that dusty dirt dugout with a watered down diet coke, so as soon as we got back home I decided to disappear in the front yard with my leaf blower.  I didn't seem to notice it was 110 again, and I am still under the impression my neighbors think I am insane...(well, atleast they can see I like to keep my yard clean).

Sunday was the only day this week where we had abso-freaking-lutely NADA on the calendar scheduled to do.  I should have done exactly that:  nothing...but as I have mentioned before, I have serious issues of pulling that kind of day off.  Instead, I had the genius plan that it might be fun to take myself and the kids up for a daytrip to Sedona.  With all our phones, DSI's, and the portable DVD player packed, we had pretty much everything to make the 2 1/2 hour drive pretty bearable.  What I didn't plan for was the extra hour the last 13 miles was going to take to actually arrive to Sedona, because it seemed that half of everyone in Phoenix had the same idea as we did.  I also didn't realize the temperatures were going to be the same 103 degrees as the valley area, and that I should have had cash instead of a credit card to park to go hiking.  The lot where we wanted to hike was full anyway, so our place in line was going to be farther back if I had to drive the 20 miles back to an ATM to get cash and come back, so we checked out the stores and bought Ikea meatball-sized scoops of icecream for $3 each instead. 

What made this trip worth it for my kids was when we stopped in the Los Abrigados Resort near Tlaquepaque where they played minigolf at the park with a creek behind it all to splash around in....(nice that it was free.)  What made the drive worth it for me was the smell of the leaves and listening to the sound of the running water at the creek while being shaded under the huge trees.  I love nature and hope my kids grow up loving it too.  As an extra bonus a little nature rock found it's mark on the windshield on the drive home.

Today, besides laundry and grocery shopping, I decided I wasn't quite finished with being outside so I conquered more yardwork.  I was in a mood to trim my backyard trees, so with country music blasting, and standing on the last rung of my extension ladder, I found a way to slice those wicked palm fronds off.  (By the way, those branches have no mercy on you if you accidently scrape your arm along the edge.)  I also realized my mesquite tree was looking pretty shabby and one power-saw tool later I had about 3 wrist thick heavy branches successfully sawed off.  I also got mesquite sawdust up my nose and in my eyes.  I sat in the kiddy pool for about an hour after that.  Yep, still not sure what my neighbors or my kids think of me some days.

I admit I like projects and yardwork, but I love more the bits and pieces in a weekend that allow me to catch up with my kids and just be around them.  Maybe the hope to create a memory in Sedona was more spent in the moments during the drive, and I loved that I had all 4 of them to myself.  I'll take as much of them as I can get.

This was the last unscheduled weekend before the games begin, and it's going to be interesting to see how we're going to juggle all four of them in sports this season....

Before I knew blogs existed, in my college days in the early 90's,  I used to write down memory filled and busy weeks in incomplete sentences.  I eventually threw those piles of memories away as I think some things back from those times might be better left unsaid. 

19 years later,  my brain occasionally doesn't seem to want to function in complete sentences, so this choppy sentence style is going to be given another chance.  Hopefully I might grab a memory or two of this very busy week, (season).  So here's what's been up:

Sophomore Jaguar
Jr. High Rattler
3rd grade and Kindergarden Bulldogs.

Job hunting.  Resume building.  Reference searching.
Website browsing, facebook stalking, email checking.

Softball tryouts: Friday, Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday:
Birth Certificate copies, 20 page tryout packets, fund raising.
Back to school signatures, school supplies, forms, forms, forms.
Homework helping, checking, signing.
Club meeting, soccer tryouts, football meeting.
Reservations, scrimmages, tournaments.

112 degrees.
Lightning storms.
5 minute rain shower.
Humidity = sweaty kids.

Coupon cutting, ad checking, saving 65%.
Fry's, Albertsons, CVS. Pantry organizing.
Dish loading, garbage dumping, bed making,
Laundry sorting, washing, drying, sorting, washing, drying, sorting.....

6:30 a.m. Drivers Ed.,
7:30 grumpy boys wakeup,
breakfasts, make lunches, tie shoes.
8:10 drop off.
8:12 clean, clean, vacuum, vacuum.
3:15 back home....hungry kids.

Fashion disasters, clothes donating, shopping.
Weight lifting, treadmill sprinting, ipod charging.
Spray painting, garage organizing, car cleaning.
Goodwill hunting, Target browsing, IKEA meatballs.

Ornament making.
Yes really.

Desk building, furniture rearranging, new laptop.
Checklists, messages, voicemail.
Blog writing, blog deleting, blog blech.

Grandma makes us food. 
She's Mrs. Incredible.
Grandpa helps with softball.
He's Mr. Incredible.

Texting, texting, texting,
texting, texting, texting,
texting, texting, sore hand.

Driving, driving, driving,
driving, driving, driving,
driving, driving, need gas.

Too tired to watch movies.
Too hot to be outside.
Too busy to slow down.

Too much for one week.

"Runaway Train"...never goin back.., (by Tom Petty), was the song that was playing in my shiny red car the day I drove away from home when I left for college.  The rain and my tears were both pouring out in buckets that gray day back in January of 1993, but I was determined that it was a road I needed to travel alone.  (Judson college was only a 28 minute drive away, but for an 18 year old that never left home, it felt like I was relocating to the other side of the country).  I do remember that my parents lovingly offered to help me get settled in, but I stubbornly refused because I was determined to face the biggest milestone of my life:  independence.

Before I transfered to Judson, I was taking courses at a community college to become an executive secretary...which I did very well at & enjoyed.  At the time, I misunderstood the importance of earning an actual education or degree & transferred from that community college to a 4 year private school in hopes to live "the college experience".  I was basically known at Judson as another "transfer student" until I made new friends after joining the girls softball team, (even though we didn't win a single game).  A better scholarship offer came the summer after Judson, and the savings was a no brainer, so I decided to transfer again to Liberty University in Virginia, (which was literally the other side of the country this time).  I completed one year and possibly 2 1/2 months when I realized my camping weekends were turning into camping weeks and that college wasn't really something I was committed to anymore.

To this day I am still a little confused as to what I hoped to accomplish with my "college" days.  I remember the day I flippantly walked away from what was most likely the best scholarship offer available.  I remember those camping days with friends as some of the most adventurous days of my life.  I remember heartbreak, being broke, Jimi Hendrix, ramen noodles, and my awesome blue truck.

I remember that leaving college brought me right back to my best friend....and we've been together ever since.

I am thinking back on those days a lot lately, mostly because as of August 10th, all 4 of my children will be in school full time.  (No, I will not be listening to any Tom Petty songs or anything that has to do with saying "goodbye" or "letting go").  One will be in highschool, one in jr. high, one in 3rd grade, and one more last-first-time-kindergardener.  (I have seriously stocked up on tissues).

So yeah, I have a lot of regrets of choices I have made in my past, but I also realize part of life is learning from those mistakes.  I did actually complete 2 & 1/4 years of college, though an actual Bachelors degree would come in handy about now...(I have thoughts to revisit that option soon).

My "resume" reads that I am always going to be on duty 24/7, but this is a new season where I realize I am mostly needed from 6:15am to 8:15am, and from 3:15pm to practices to bedtime and weekends. So yeah, that's still a lot of time that I'm "needed", but I realize that I have a huge 6 - 7 hour time gap from 8:16 am to 3:14 pm, Monday through Friday, that I seriously need to figure out what to do with myself.

I might take some of my friends advice and cut myself some slack and just go ahead and enjoy the freedom a little.  But I'm not sure I will be home as much during those hours, the silence might scare me...otherwise the radio will be blasting.

Milestones have a funny way of sneaking up...ready or not, and I needed to hear these words that I recently read from a friend's post on facebook today:

I had big plans this week.  I was going to cheerfully tackle all the things on my to-do list while being a patient, loving, and cool mom.  I was even going to make rice krispies in the shapes of stars with red-white-and blue sprinkles.  My home was going to be relaxing, yet fun, with a dash of who cares... 

And then it just got hot.  Scorching hot.  July is the month a couple of things equally rise out of control:  the outside temperatures...and my own temper.  When my Wii-crazed son wouldn't answer me after my 4th call for him to come sit down for lunch, I sort of lost it.

No matter how long we've lived in Arizona, (it's been 8 years for us now), for some reason it still surprises me when the temperatures reach triple digit proportions this time every year...as if I didn't remember this from last summer.  I would cry a river, though my tears would just evaporate.  Literally.

I'm not a native, but I have learned how to get us from our air-conditioned house to my air-conditioned van to an air-conditioned destination with military precision.  My van's AC unit is basically useless if the temperature outside is anything hotter than 103, and so I guess that means I have the next 3 months to figure out how to keep us all cool.  When I drive I lean forward so the sweat off my back doesn't soak my shirt and my cupholders are stocked with ponytail holders to keep my hair off my neck all summer.  I also keep a stash of large McDonalds cups that I refill before trips with ice-cubes that I balance on my lap.  (They also comes in handy to toss at whiny children).  I try to never leave the house without drinks for the kids, and since their cupholders don't get used much this season, (they better not dare leave crayons in them), my kids hold whatever they can to keep cool.

When we're on the road, and I see that I have to wait at an intersection that has a shady spot 20 feet away from the stop line, I will wait there until the light turns green.  Go ahead and honk, I'm not moving, because finding shade is like finding treasure.  A rockstar spot is now the space that offers shade, even if it means we are 300 feet away from where we have to walk to.  And in the case that the entire parking lot only offers one tree and only two of the branches are offering shade in the "Associate of the Month's spot, I'll still take whatever I can get.  (Those signs should be abbreviated anyway).  Because, what really matters the most, is that my van will obviously be 50 degrees cooler to come back to.  My car shades are almost ripped to shreds, but until they are replaced, they will continue their purpose in life...("cooler van=cooler Mom"...kind of goes along the lines of "happy wife=happy life").

Yesterday, I had a garage sale, painted the bathroom, and made a meal for a family, (and the kids).  Garage sales are awesome in Arizona:  they start at 6:30 and end at 9:30 and I usually always make more than $100.  What I realized about painting a bathroom is that it is mostly trimwork....little awkward angles, and tackling precise corners that require hovering your face below the toilet at an insane angle as to not paint the baseboard or touch the back of the toilet with your paint brush.  Pretty.  I really just wanted to take a roller to the wall and be done with it.  I was equally drenched in paint and sweat.  Surprisingly, the kids really knew not to let me hear them argue. 

I'll admit after a big day like yesterday I feel a little sluggish and tired.  So, today, we aren't going anywhere, and it's supposedly going to reach 118.  Pools feel like bathwater anyway in this heat and the farthest I want to drive is to the mailbox.  It's easy to tell it's July at our house when the main 4 are on:  Wii, TV, & Facebook, and the delicious smells coming from a crockpot.

I just heard the 5th fudgesicle wrapper being unwrapped downstairs...I better grab one before they're all gone. 

Cool Mom = Cool Home.  Less=More.

It's been awhile since I'd blogged.  School has ended, family vacation has come and gone, we've been t-p'd already, and summer has officially arrived with it's first 107 degree heat.  The kids & I are back in our gym routine, and it's been interesting since we now have 2 gyms we go to...(I just couldn't pass up $20 for 3 months at a gym where my "preschool-mom" crowd are all going this summer).  My kids prefer Lifetime Fitness, where there's an indoor playground of all playgrounds and a pool with waterslides to play in after.  But I like the other gym for the classes, since it's easier to endure thigh burning lunges, 5 minute ab ripping planks, and combat kicks with friends you can laugh & suffer through with together.  There's also something about going back to a gym that made me realize I wasn't in that great of shape I thought I was in....and so, I will be a "gym-rat-junkie" until I can master a 5 minute plank.  I just will.

Vacation was wonderful:  7 days in a row of the the beach and pool.  We also came home "rich" in sand dollars, and I have to admit I was getting a little greedy for them.  I have even hid them from my kids until I figure out a crafty way to display them.  They are "my precioussssssss"....

I do need to backtrack and mention that getting to our vacation destination...wasn't exactly pleasant.  I have a recurring nightmare actually, (not kidding), and it usually involves me at an airplane ticket counter searching and searching for my family's passports and they are no where to be found, and so we are somehow doomed to be stuck in an airport forever.  I never realized this was a prophecy of a similar reality someday to come.  It takes me a couple of days to pack for vacation, (I still pack for 4 out of 6 of us: me and the 3 dudes), and so I like to think through all that needs to be taken:  medicines, underwear, waterbottles, tweezers, foods for breakfast/ lunch/& dinners/snacks, and all the other obvious things to bring to a beach.  And so, when I asked the night before to my lovely husband if he could get his passport papers ready, I assumed he actually heard me.  (He did grunt some sort of reply).

After two hours into our trip to Mexico, the exit just as you enter Gila Bend, was when my husband and I actually had the conversation if his passport was packed or not.  He said he didn't.  I said are you kidding.  He said no.  I said no really, are you kidding.  He said no.  And I said awesome.  (No actually I said a lot more than that).  And so we turned around and headed back to the house to get the man's passport.  I had to explain to my crying 5 year old why we couldn't just get his Dad "another credit card", as he thought that's what we were going back for.  Josie's announcement of "it was all a simple misunderstanding", was the understatement of the week.  Year.  (I think she was secretly happy she had a few more hours left on her cell phone before we'd be out of range for a "whole week" once we crossed the border)....which she also drowned later that week in the ocean.  Tragic.

Making an 8 hour trip out of a 4 1/2 hour drive will definately go down in Palacios Family Vacation memories forever.  Oh yeah, and it will definately never happen again.  It's might be a while for us to be able to mention the word passport without thinking of it as a curse word.

I thought I'd cry.  Get choked up.  Sniffle.  Anything.  But nope, not a tear was shed today.

Except when I drove by a parked SUV with balloons and "Congratulations Grad!...Class of 2011" graffittied all over it.  I realized my daughter will be graduating high school in 3 years.  Three.  Class of 2014.

But back to Rylan.  Preschool Graduation:  2011. 
Highschool Graduation:  2023.

I woke up to his feet kicking my ribs this morning.  I thought we were done with this chapter in life, but evidently he still has bad dreams.  Rylan is adorable when he sleeps, and I cringe to have to wake him up for school because he wakes up like a bear.  There is much "growling", crying, and arguing over what is going to be worn to school.  Today he ordered me to call his teacher because he was convinced he was supposed to wear a graduation gown and cap.  You know what's grumpier than a baby bear?  His mama who hasn't had caffeine yet.  Or food.  grrrrr.

I'm supposed to say how cute my boy was in his graduation, (he was), and how memorable today was, (not really), and since I don't know how to cutesify this morning into words, I'm just going to tell it like it was for a paragraph.  Usually it's amusing to watch little kids perform their little songs, and though they are completely adorable to watch, (for 10 minutes),  Rylan looked a little spaced.  I tried to capture a hand clap, or a thumbs up, or a smile, but it was slim picking in his singing performances.  Tiny people chairs are uncomfortable to sit in...for an hour, and the two little one year old siblings running circles around the class during their song time, (one is standing next to him in this picture), made me want to tackle the parents for not controlling them.  I know I have very large issues, but that was something I seriously had to get off my chest.  That, and preschool rooms make me want to organize and clean something.


Sigh.  My baby just graduated from preschool today, and summer has finally arrived.  Our last first day of Kindergarten is only 3 months away, but the countdown to our beach vacation is only 9 days away.  I might cry about it tommorrow, but for now all I can think about is Destination:  Relaxation.

I liked this quote I heard recently:

What did I do today?  hmmm.....sometimes I actually draw a huge blank.  I don't always actually remember.   A few days ago I was asked the same question from the pedicure guy and I had the same "blanked out" moment.  I wonder how he would have responded if I had told him that I had spent the first part of the morning curling my daughters hair for her Greek costume, spent an hour clearing out Chemo's car "space" in the garage of  a bunch of garage sale junk because I decided I really didn't want to have a garage sale after all, went to see my daughter's 6th grade class "world fair" and her display of the country Greece, bought strawberries for my 5 year old that was begging to have a strawberry shake with his turkey sandwich for his lunch, cleaned out all our toilets, and then spent an hour on my firm fanny lifter cranking out squats and lunges.  Instead I just said, "oh well, not much," and went back to flipping through my stack of magazines.

"Not much".  What if my answer truly was, not much?  What would that look like?