7 Quick Takes with lots of pictures of our recent adventures in Arizona

Woohoo!! It's Friday. I always forget that means it is not Joe's last day of work and Lincoln doesn't go to pre-school tomorrow, so I get NO schoolwork done during the day. *sigh*. Anyway, linking up with Jen for 7 Quick Takes Friday!!!

1.

These last few weeks have been rough. I cried a lot. Not because anything happened to us, but a dear friend lost a baby, and another best friend was hospitalized for suspected bacterial meningitis (which has nearly a 1 in 2 mortality rate). She's 7 months pregnant, and I seriously thought they were both going to die. (They didn't. It was the other kind of meningitis, which isn't as bad). So, yes, LOTS of tears these past weeks. Not to mention the tragedies plaguing the rest of the world. I can't even read the news or look at headlines, I just feel hopeless and angry and sad. Then I feel dumb that I want to whine about feeling "stuck" in Phoenix when there are clearly worse things out there. So instead of wishing I were somewhere else, I'm trying to re-frame my thoughts and feelings with a more appreciate perspective of what I have.

2.

A few weekends ago we went to Prescott, Arizona. It's not very far away, but it's not as hot, it has trees and grass, and a lot of Phoenicians like to retire up there. It's a cowboy town. Lincoln had his first root beer float at The Palace on Whiskey Row.



I took my camera with me on our "bear hunt" and shot a whole ton of photos in RAW without thinking about the space they were eating up on my card. But I got these two:





3.

Last weekend we drove down to Tucson, Arizona to meet up with a friend who was in town at U of A. We hung out by ourselves for the afternoon and met up for a quick dinner before heading home. We started out at the San Xavier Mission. We had a picnic lunch outside and enjoyed a cloudy 93 degree reprieve. Yes, it was "cool" comparatively. The clouds also helped a ton.







4.

I like these weekend road trips because kiddos sleep and just chill, Joe drives, and I read school books. It's a great way to get out and get stuff done at the same time. On the way down, I was reading and trying to catch up on a few chapters to help me understand the material for an upcoming online chat about politics and policy. I got 2 chapters done just as we are arriving at the mission. We were in the gift shop and I saw a basket of the saint medals. I casually picked one up to see who it was, and behold, in my hand was Saint Raymond Nonnatus, patron saint of midwives, pregnancy, and childbirth. Obviously it was meant to be. He's mine now.



5.

Next, we went to the Titan Missile Museum. My Aunt Kathy informed me that my grandfather used to work for a company that made parts of the Titan missiles back in the 60's. I had no idea, so I thought that was pretty cool. We went down underground and got to do a mock missile launch and then see the Titan II missile. It is the only remaining site of all the missile sites that were across the country.

 



6.

Back in Phoenix, we've been enjoying a lovely amount of rain. I've been trying to clean out some stuff. Most of it is happening in my head first, but I'm getting there. Today I put my focus outside so that when the cool weather comes we can enjoy it. Lincoln has been outside hitting balls all the time, hot or not. That kid can hit a ball clean off a tee. He's really into it. It's hard to believe he's almost 3 and is a KID.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/vW7PUxtf-vo][youtube=http://youtu.be/5J5LWdzwYnI]

7.

And the most positive note of all after a very long week of Emi being sick is that she's not sick anymore!!! The smell of vomit and diarrhea is slowly starting to fade from her room and the living room. Hopefully I won't have to wash her carseat, her crib bedding, her rocking chair, the carpet, or us anymore than usual for quite awhile! Happy weekend!

 

More quick takes over at conversiondiary.com

7 Quick Takes in which I spy a year gone by, black bananas, and a 10 page paper I didn't know I had

Welcome to another week of 7 Quick Takes!

1

It's August 1st!! 1 year ago today I took a plane ride from Tampa to Phoenix with an 8 month pregnant belly, an almost 2-year-old boy, and a dog all by myself. I was sad to leave Florida, but I was very excited to come back to our home here in Phoenix. We lived without our furniture for almost a month, eating off a card table and sleeping in B's old full-sized bed (horrible, horrible bed = really sore back). The weather was frying pan hot (114-116 degrees) and the AC in my car was broken, which I learned the hard way by driving 50 miles out east and driving home into the sun in the afternoon. Dumb. If we don't move within this calendar year than my "moved every year since 2002" streak will be over. Bring on the boxes. Where are we going next?!

2

I actually don't know where we are going next, if we are even going anywhere at all. After my weekend in Austin, I'll tell you, I want to go to Texas. But, we did get some good news yesterday. Joe made the Major list! I would love for them to publish promotion orders in time for him to get promoted at drill this weekend! We've been waiting for this for so long I am impatient at the idea of waiting any longer - and I'm not even the one getting promoted!

3

I was lucky enough to see Emily, Shawn, and Conner last Sunday and I got to see their house in San Antonio. Just driving around Texas and their neighborhood made me feel more at home there than here. I kinda love Texas, but hat is a whole different topic. Conner is my godson. He just turned 2 in May and he is going to be a big brother come October. When Emi was born, Lincoln got a quilt from my grandma called an "I spy" quilt. It's perfect for so many things. You can play games like "I spy... a tiger" and simply point. Or you can go as far as "put your hand on the tiger. Put your foot on the monkey". Joe also came up with matching animal figures with the pictures on his quilt like "put the panda on panda". It's been so neat. My mom came up with her own take on the quilt in the form of her flannel and denim quilts that I LOVE to take outdoors since denim is so durable. I commissioned one from her for Conner and his baby brother. Emi tested it out and found it worthy of snuggling repeatedly.

4

Fueled by post-Edel energy, I began the week with Lincoln throwing up (and taking a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day) followed by Emi having a fever the next day and getting a stuff nose (=more wake ups at night). Ah, motherhood. So, now I've burned through my energy and I'm just tired. I had my first presentation on the differences on the position of the ACNM and the AGOG on Hydrotherapy in labor. (Boy, they're different, that's for sure.) And despite front loading every assignment, I'm playing catch up on the school-work I somehow managed to get behind on after taking the weekend off. SO.MUCH.READING. I keep falling asleep in Lincoln's room at night often waking up over an hour later. I looked at my calendar a few days ago and saw an assignment that is due tomorrow night. I started working on it casually because I thought it was a mere fill-in-the-heading kind of thing... Apparently it's a paper and the Frontier class Facebook feed is indicating that it is taking 10+ hours and 10+ pages to complete including upwards of 3 pages of references. I've been staring at it now lost. just lost. what? I'll figure it out later while running on the caffeinated effects of Dr. Pepper. I always do my best work under pressure (or so I'm telling myself).

5

I waited for these bananas to go BLACK so I could make banana bread. I am so glad Joe didn't throw them away while I was gone because they were overripe last week, but just not quite enough. I love having Lincoln help in the kitchen now. He is at that age where pouring a teaspoon into the mixer is thrilling and he's careful enough that he doesn't spill it. I like to put my banana bread in the toaster and then melt butter on it. What do you like with your banana bread?



 

6

In my attempt to install those cheap and "easy" cabinet locks for babyproofing, I managed to break three drill bits. THREE!! On all of them, the bit decided to stop spinning from the base and one of them even snapped leaving the bit lodged in the cabinet frame. GRRRR. Maple cabinets can't be THAT HARD! I blame the heat in our garage for denaturing EVERYTHING. We need a basement or just some more practical storage! I *may* have used some exasperated language in my frustration and sweet Lincoln just kept saying, "Awww, I'm sorry, Mommy." Now I need new drill bits. (yes, the drill bits are mine. I'm the power tool happy person in our household even if I sometimes need Joe for manly strength).

7

It's, monsoon season!!! I love love love thunderstorms and desert rain. The lightning is unbelievably amazing. It even cools off the days so the point of being a bearable 99 degrees (like today). I woke up last night having fallen asleep in Lincoln's room, again, and it was pouring rain. We get lots of flash flooding alerts on our phones. I was able to open the window next to me so I could listen. I've even started to love the smell of the desert when it rains. There is nothing else like it.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="680"] Photo source: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/07/27/metro-phoenix-storms/13238085/[/caption]

Happy weekend!! Check out more blogger's quick takes at Jen's!

7 Quick Takes about graduate school, balancing the workload, and how I'm getting it all done

It's been awhile since I've done a Quick Takes. I figured since I started school, people might be wondering how it's going...

1.

Lemme tell ya, it's not going like I initially imagined at all. There is a TON of reading for each class and I am taking three classes. Not only that, but Joe was sent short notice on AT (Annual Training) and has been gone since the day before the first day of class. So, I have been balancing kids, house, and school by myself. Oh, who am I kidding; kids, school, and THEN house. Haha. I've been really good at keeping up with the house, though by the pictures I will show you, you may not believe me. It's one of those things where I have SO much school to do when I have alone time that when I can't be doing school, I do everything else. Kudos to the moms and dads who balance it all every day as single parents. It's definitely harder.

2.

So, how am I doing school work while being home with kids full-time? Like this:

 

How am I keeping them entertained? Like this:





How am I feeding them? Like this:



Serious low point when my kids are eating Cheerios out a box on the living room floor? I think NOT! It's like a dog toy, it was stimulating and satisfying. Emi started out in the box, but then it tipped over and Lincoln joined in the feeding frenzy. This was also the same night we went to get Panda Express for dinner... first time going out though, I'm pretty impressed with myself.

 

3.

Why were my kids eating Cheerios out of a box? What could I have possibly been doing to have gotten to that point, you ask? Haha, well, I am one of the lucky attendees at the upcoming Edel Gathering next weekend, and the co-organizer, Hallie, sent me a message about contributing sample product to the goodie bags. I have been a Mary Kay independent beauty consultant for just over 2 years now. I started my business to have fun, meet women, play with cosmetics and skin care, and for the first time in my life, ever, feel beautiful and confident - make-up on or not. Anyhoo, I spent Wednesday organizing, assembly-lining, and putting together all the bags. It took about 6 hours between baby napping, trashing the house to distract the kids, and ultimately feeding them Cheerios from a box on the living room floor. Then the post office's 24-hour machine was broken... but since were out of the house we went to Panda!

 

4.

228 bags filled an entire laundry basket, utilized my entire sample inventory and then some, and condensed down into a large and a medium flat rate box. Never have I ever printed so intentionally and double checked so carefully that I wrote an address correctly as I did Jen's. Like, seriously, I sent two flat rate boxes for the Edel Gathering to Jen. YOU DON'T WANT TO MESS THAT UP!! So, Jen, I hope those boxes get to you :D Whew.



5.

I took full advantage of the process to do school work at the same time! I am by no means a multi-tasker any more. I like to do one thing at a time, for the most part. But aside from all the reading, there is a substantial amount of video watching! I LOVE videos. I am absolutely a visual learner, so I turned on the laptop and made a ton of progress on learning about plagiarism, paraphrasing, the writing process, and health disparities and wealth. Go me.



6.

Needless to say, the amount of time they told us school would take (50 hours a week) is not an understatement. With Edel coming up, I am front loading all the graded assignments that are due next Friday, and there is still so.much.reading!! I am going to bed between midnight and 1 am, getting between 4 and 5 hours of sleep a night - and not always without interruptions. Therefore, I need all the hours I can get at night, so I officially moved wee beastie bedtime to 8pm. Emi is always ready; Lincoln not so much. But he has been so understanding it makes me so proud and breaks my heart at the same time. He asked me today when I picked him up from preschool, "Mama, did you read your school books?"

A few nights ago he asked me if he could sit up in bed and read a book with his light. I told him it was OK as long as he put the book down and laid down on his pillow when his twilight turtle turned off. I asked him what song he wanted me to sing before I left because I had to go do schoolwork. He asked me, "are you going out to the living room?" I told him I was but that he could pick a song for me to sing and I'd sing it and cuddle with him first. Then he pushed me!! He pushed me to get out of his room and told me, "you need to go do school." I slowly got up and sort of backed out of his room like, "oh, ok.... well, uh.... I guess, good night?... I love you... I'll see you tomorrow?" Then I shut his door and he put himself to sleep.

 

7.

Lincoln is doing well with preschool. He cries at drop off and then cries when I come to get him, but I've seen him before he sees me and he's totally fine. He tells me all about it in the car, like yesterday, "The animal zoo was at my preschool! I saw a toooortoise and a hedgehog... he was so cute (squeaky voice), he was this big (cups his hands). and a snaaaake..." and low and behold I read his report later and the wildlife zoo had indeed come to his classroom. "I did puuuuuzles. I did a birthday one and a lady bug one..." He talks non-stop about his teacher and asks every night and every morning, "Is preschool closed?" He's always glad to come home and glad to hold my hand, but I think he's having fun and integrating juuuust fine. Today he told me his favorite thing to do was art.