Guess who's coming to your party??

Zachary's birthday is coming up and he wanted to invite the kids in his class, and a few close friends, to a party at the gymnastics place. He has a friend named Gracie that is in the 2nd grade class that he integrates into and she also happens to have a brother with Down syndrome so she, of course, adores Zach.

The other day his mom sent me this message on Facebook. I have read it so many times and it just makes my heart happy.  

I have to share. So Zach integrates into Gracie's classroom at least on Thursday's when I'm there to help out during Library and music. Since the modernization will start this summer, they are moving out the music room and have been meeting in Gracie's classroom. So the kids walked from the library to their room and Zach doesn't have a desk so Mrs. U looked around the room and noticed Gracie squealing with delight, almost bouncing out of her chair, with her arms stretched out towards Zach. She directed Zach towards a desk next to Grace and they hugged and were so happy to see each other. Then today when they were lining up, Zach was between the two lines and Mrs. U asked Zach to line up right behind Grace again. She's probably aware that they know each other, I mean Grace doesn't hide her emotions. So Grace started clapping her hands in excitement and they hugged again. It was so super cute b/c as Grace rounded the corner our the door, and as she continued to walk, she bent over almost backwards and looked at Zach all googly-eyed. It was the cutest thing I've seen.

A day or two later I got the RSVP from his mom that Gracie would be at his party. I had a feeling he would be excited so I taped his reaction.

Mom: "Hey Zach... guess who is coming to your party?"

Z: "Umm... Umm... Luke." (his cousin who he has been talking about constantly lately)

 Mom: "No... Gracie"

Excitement... pretty self explanatory :)

Z: "She is invited??"

Mom: "Yeah"

Z: "She got my invitation?... in her mailbox?"

"Great!"

 

The backpack cleanout

Just another Sunday around here. After the kids went to bed I was picking up around the house. I wrote a note on something I was sending back to Zach's teacher and I went to put it in his backpack and just couldn't avoid it anymore. It had been months. When I can't walk outside and shake out the backpacks in the fresh air I kind of avoid the bottom. As long as there isn't a catastrophe forcing me down there I just assume nothing needs attention.

Tonight Chris found himself lucky enough to be sitting close to the front door where the backpacks are hung. I decided to pass this household chore off on him. Possibly for the first time.

"Hey Chris... would you please clean out Zach's backpack while you are watching TV? All that needs to go back in is this. this. and this. Hannah's could use it too."

"Sure" not really knowing what he was in for

Zach's had tons of class work he had done. 3 or 4 art projects and a rock that had been painted and jewels glued on it. We think Hannah made it for him awhile back. A few random pairs of underwear and a sock. And a little tractor toy. A pair of Buzz Lightyear gloves. There was also a lot of glitter. That ended up on the carpet. A few things I am sure I am forgetting. Chris just shook his head by all the randomness.



My mom got these things for the kids to hold certain creations or school work of theirs that are extra special so we file them away in here.


Next he moved on to Hannah's backpack. He started saying what things were as he pulled them out.

Socks. Socks. Underwear. Leopard pants. Bandana. Papers. Egg carton caterpillar. Bean thing. Dinosaur. Broken headband. Another dinosaur.



The girl hates socks and generally always takes them off and sometimes if I am lucky they end up back in her backpack.

What fun things did you find in your kids backpacks lately??

As heard...

Zach was in showering the other night and Chris went in to check on him. Zach told him "I used your soap daddy! I smell like you! I getting big!"

Happy Easter!

We had a fantastic Easter weekend.

We spent a great evening with friends the night before we left out of town for Easter. Mandy hosted. The main reason for gathering was to dye Easter eggs with the kids. We made homemade pizza. Mandy and I shared a bottle of red. Sarah and her beautiful pregnant self brought the cheese and plastic eggs filled with goodies for an Easter egg hunt. Luckily Holden's mood improved and Tara and Arabella were able to join us too. Poor Chris ended up being the only guy but as we all know... he is a good sport. :) Zach chose to go out of town a day early with Nana and miss the gathering so we missed him!

The kids waited patiently before wandering the yard looking for the eggs. They were each given a red solo cup to collect their finds. Joseph started singing some red solo cup song??






The hunt is on


We then lined up more red cups to do the egg dye. We all agreed that doing this process as a group was definitely less stressful and fun for us all!




Mandy recently got the OK to have her chickens and this was their first day in their new house. They were a little sketchy over the kids chasing them trying to pick them up and then all these eggs. They kept trying to jump up and peck at them.


At the end of the night the kids were happy that the chickens were tired and they were actually able to carry them to the coop.

(Jackson - he said he is going to marry Hannah and brought her a flower to school :) )

I think technically Arabella picked up the chicken(s) and handed them to Hannah but she was SO excited to hold them




The tree got a workout this evening. Only 1 incident that was fixed with kisses and a band-aid.


The next day we headed out to my hometown and had an early Easter dinner at my grandmothers house. GG is 88 this year! It was nice and relaxing and I failed to take many pictures so here's all I got.





The next morning we had an egg hunt and brunch with Chris' mom and step dad.

We had an uneventful drive home and we spent Sunday afternoon home preparing for the week ahead.

I definitely feel blessed this year!! Hope you all had a memorable weekend as well!

As heard...

Last night as I was tucking Zach in bed he tells me:

"When Daddy gets home from soccer he will come in and kiss me and then I will go 'whoa' while I am sleeping. Capiche?"

Me: "OK Zach, good night" ... Pause ... "Did you just say capiche?"

Zach: giggling "yeah"

3 little birds

About a week ago after dinner Hannah started singing "Cause every little thing... is gonna be alright". I was so proud to hear her singing such amazing song and knowing the words and the melody as if she'd known it for years. This has always been a favorite of mine and it is Bob Marley after all.

After singing it a couple times with her and still kind of beaming that me and Chris' great taste in music had worn off on her and she wouldn't fall victim to the Justin Bieber Fan club ... Chris says "they play it on Nickelodeon commercials".

My bubble totally burst. I hadn't exposed her to inspirational music of the generations but some damn Cartoon Network had. I felt like the biggest asshole of a parent.

Another seemingly unrelated story:

So a few weeks ago my mom went to Arizona with a friend and while shopping she found a squirrel proof bird feeder.

Sidenote: I have not been able to successfully plant anything on our back deck or back of our property because these huge bastard squirrels dig up everything. So my mom was very excited to try this somewhere in our yard.

So I finally get the feeder up about a week ago and I put it outside my kitchen window. I didn't want it somewhere that they could crap all over the deck and because I didn't know what kind or size of birds would use this feeder I didn't want it somewhere that if it was empty and the birds get mad they would dive bomb the kids where they played so I put it off to the side not over the deck. It is about 7 feet out from my kitchen window. We were home this whole weekend and in between the rain and hail storms these cute little birds would come and eat the food. We don't often see this small of birds in our area but I think since the bigger birds and too big to fit in the cage these ones have free reign.

So all weekend we got to look at all these cute little birds take turns eating the seeds. The kids loved looking out the windows at them and they were just such a bright part of our weekend. It made me sing "3 little birds" often with the kids.

It made me think of my teenage years and listening to the Legend album in my first car. It reminded me that Mandy posted this video to my Facebook wall the morning Chris was going in for heart surgery and that I posted it to her wall when she was going through the early stages of divorce. It made me think of palm trees. To me it is just one of the most soothing songs.

It also made me realize I really need to stop singing Katy Perry with my kids and put on the classics!

Happenings on a preschool playground....

Last night over dinner Hannah was telling us about her day.

She informed us that H (a boy at her school) "is the best boy ever because he likes girl stuff. Like clothes and lip gloss and necklaces".

A bit later Hannah says "H and C (girl at her school) are married because they kissed"

I asked "Do you think you guys are a little young to be kissing?"

"Well C is 5 so she is older. But H is only 4"

I am SO not ready for this.

My birthday - 34

A couple months back I was thinking ahead and mentioned to my mom I would like to go wine tasting for my birthday this year. It came up in conversation with my aunt who said "Oh, I won this free lunch and antique limo ride thing through Cass Winery, we could go that day".

It became a fun relaxing girls day out. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a balmy mid-70s day. Cold enough for a sweater in the early afternoon but warm and refreshing as the afternoon wore on.



Seriously... look at this car. It was a 1947 Chrysler Windsor Limousine. My mom told me about a car that her and my dad had when my brother was a baby that this car reminded her so much of. My dad wanted to sell it to get a motorcycle.





I would love to rent out this space for an event



We had an amazing lunch at Cass and we got in the limo for a 5 hour trip to some of the local wineries. We got in the car and Erykah Badu's "Live" album was playing. (It was funny because my niece and I just loaded this album to our respective ITunes when she was in town visiting us 3 weeks ago. But I hadn't listened to it yet on my ITunes so to get in the car with this 60-something chauffeur playing this album. Priceless!)

My mama and I



My aunt and the chauffeur up front chatting about how he was picking up Drew Barrymore the next day for the film festival at Hearst Castle. We thought that was pretty cool.



We drive out several miles through the gorgeous hills around the wineries listening to music and chatting. As we start pulling into the next winery the car makes a funny noise and starts smoking. Luckily it made it around the parking lot and was able to safely park. We went in to wine taste and they had to call back to the winery for another car to pick us up and take us to get our car. Luckily the wine was good and the view was gorgeous so it did not put a damper on our day.







Left to our own transportation, we continued on to several wineries. I didn't get pictures at every stop (I think there were a total of 5), but here are a few from our day.









When we were done it was about a 20 minute drive home.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE where I live??

As heard...

The other night while we were eating dinner... this was heard at our dinner table.

Hannah: "What is this meat we are eating?"

Me: "It is turkey kielbasa"

Hannah: "Turkey what??"

Me: "Kielbasa"

Hannah: "That's a fancy word"

8 years

8 years ago I married a man I was, and continue to be, madly in love with. Today, as I reflect on our lives together, it is hard to believe it has only been 8 years.

We have experienced more life changing events than most people I know. While some relationships would have been broken when faced with these challenges our relationship strengthened.

For those who don't know us well... here is a little trip down memory lane.

Chris and I met working for Yahoo! at the corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale. We both worked in the Customer Care division - me on the "Frontline Phone" team and him reviewing personal ads. When I started with Yahoo!, I also reviewed personal ads so when I moved to the phone team I was the only one with personals experience. Chris and I both ended up attending a weekly bug meeting. We ended up being "friends" on messenger to discuss, you know, bugs. That turned into innocent flirting. He peaked my interest so one night I invited him to come to a club with me and a group of friends. A few nights later he asked me to come over for dinner.

I drove out to his house that night not completely knowing how I felt about him. He made me grilled chicken, steamed broccoli and pasta. He served a white wine that he said he knew nothing about but got from his moms wine collection earlier that day.

When I was leaving he kissed me for the first time. He later told me that he knew at that moment he would marry me.



The next few months flew by and before we knew it we were spending every free moment together. We quickly moved in together and started discussing wedding plans. We toured several facilities but we were not in a huge rush. We were planning Summer 2004 we would be married.



In September we went to Vegas for Chris' birthday. Neither of us had ever been. Little did we know we would be coming home with a little something extra.

In late October, after peeing on 5 sticks, we found out I was pregnant.

We pushed our wedding date up a little bit and were married February 28, 2004.

June 15, 2004 Zachary was born. We had no idea he had Down syndrome and leaned on each other for support. I will never forget standing in the hallway of the NICU feeling Chris' arms around me as we cried. It was the most raw emotion we'd experienced together.

September 19, 2004 we received a call that my dad had committed suicide.

Spring 2005 Chris was called to a meeting about Yahoo!. We thought they were announcing layoffs and with him being the only bread winner we were pretty stressed. Come to find out the division he worked in was being relocated. Lots to think about and decide.

July 1, 2005 Chris reported to work in Hillsboro, OR.

After a weekend of partying with my girlfriends for the 4th of July I met the movers while they packed up our house into a moving truck. I then made the 672 mile drive to our new house in Beaverton, OR.

Never had I been so far away from everything and everyone I knew. We decided to put Zach in to daycare and I went back to work. Across the office from Chris, working at Yahoo! again.

This is us with Jerry Yang and Chris' old supervisor at the Grand Opening of the Hillsboro Yahoo! office:


Fall 2005 Zach was diagnosed with pneumonia and took his first ride in an ambulance when he had to be transferred to the children's hospital. Luckily his hospital stay was short.

January 2006 Zach spent 5 days at the children's hospital in total isolation with RSV.

June 2006 we packed up and moved back to California. We also bought our first home together.

September, 12 2007 Hannah was born.

July 12, 2010 Chris had a stroke.

I think we have had our share of up's and down's and I wouldn't trade our life for anything. I just really hope the next 8 years aren't quite so eventful!