Tag: blog

Red Light Green Light

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Jen the trainer told me about a great website called Yoga Glo. It’s a membership site where you can choose a yoga class to watch by either the length of time, type of yoga or specific issue (like back pain or prenatal). She assured me that it was no nonesense yoga – not too much om-ing and no corny music. And she was totally right. It’s just stretch, breathe, move on – perfect. I have big dreams of squeezing in 30 minutes on the patio during nap time when it’s finally cool in the afternoon!

I was doing a prenatal session with an emphasis on sciatica (that fun nerve that shoots down your back and leg – mine always gets irritated when pregnant). In the begining of the session, the instructor has you do some simple and calming breathing. Basically in through the nose and out through the mouth – but she added a visual effect. She instructs you to picture soothing, cool, healing green light. When you inhale, you visualize breathing the green light in and pull into wherever the pain is. And when exhaling, you visualize red light leaving your mouth and taking any pain, irritation or anxiety with it.

Now, I’m sure you’re thinking “uh, that sounds a little too om-y….” and maybe it is. But something about the visual really makes it work. I tried it yesterday when I started to feel the anxiety creeping up that usually drives me to run a few miles or scrub the house top to bottom and within a few minutes, the tightness in my chest floated out upon exhaling – and it stayed away too.

The house, however, is still dirty. I need to try visualizing green light while moping I guess…

 

The Rules of Vacation

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I know I’m 2 weeks behind in this post…but I promise it’s still informative. And funny.

 

Several years ago PW and I developed some pretty strict rules for vacation. They are as follows:

Rule #1: There are no rules.

Rule #2: See rule number 1.

You see, when there are too many rules about what time is bed time, eating vegetables and limiting cartoons, no one has any fun. There are too many distractions and differences from normal life to carry on a normal routine. So, we say to hell with the rules. If Baylor doesn’t even look at a veggie for 5 days, she will not die. If she doesn’t go to bed at 8pm, she will probably be a little crabby the next morning….but there’s also a chance she’ll sleep past 6:30am. Does one more Doc McStuffins cartoon mean I get to keep reading my book? Then watch away kiddo. We’ll mold your mushy brain back into shape next week. Cheesecake for breakfast? Why not (this was one of mine and it was fan-freaking-tastic). French fries for lunch? Sure. No nap? Let’s throw those dice! Multiple cocktails on the deck of the Del with lunch? It’s vacation!! (Sad I missed on this one this year –  I do, however, plan to make up for it next year).

I think the most fun part about the no rules is when Baylor realizes it. She will ask for something she knows she normally doesn’t get and then when she gets it, the look of surprise on her face is priceless. More than once I said “we’re on vacation! Run amok!”. And by the last day her favorite phrase was “we can because we’re on vacation!!”.

The caveat here is that while this makes vaca fabulous, it can make the return home a little troublesome. The key is to emphasize when it is and when it isn’t vacation. The declaration of “vacation over” makes for a lot of sad faces all the way around, but it makes it more understandable when the cartoons get turned off, the platter of veggies served and the wine gets left in the rack (maybe it was PW who struggled most this time around…).

Live it Up

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I learned Saturday night about the tragic death of a sorority sister. Sarah was a year younger than me, and while we were merely acquaintances,  I don’t think I ever walked past her without seeing a smile on her face along with a sweet greeting.

The shock of thinking someone that is my age is gone was all consuming. Sarah was an incredibly sweet girl and to think of her not growing old like her friends makes me incredibly sad. I can’t even begin to go to the place Sarah’s parents must be emotionally –

I sat in the office getting a few things done on Sunday afternoon and started to get the anxious feeling that dealing with angry customers gives me. I was suddenly struck by the fact that what I was working on, while important and necessary, really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. What matters is to get the job done and get back to kissing my kiddo, hugging my friends, snuggling with PW, scratching Bear’s ears, feeling the baby squirm and not worrying about the things I can’t change. Living life is what is important and those are the things we will look back on and be happy about, not about how we handled calculating a deposit.

AOE Sarah ❤

*Yawn*

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Soooo I think I forgot about the extreme exhaustion that is the last month of pregnancy….or I didn’t notice it last time because I was already on leave from work and my daily routine involved Oprah, cookies and a nap every afternoon. Either way, it’s got me big time beat this time around.

Not only that, but the baby brain has returned with a vengeance. Remember the car mix up? I thought I was just sick – I found out 3 days after this post that Mr.Man was on his way. Point? Baby brain is powerful stuff. More to the point? I have little to no idea that I’m messing things up. Normally I would be uttering “where is my head?!” but instead it’s not until someone brings to my attention that I have missed something that I begin to muddle through what’s left of my memory to figure out what happened.

On top of all this, I’ve reached the “wildly uncomfortable” phase complete with feet in my rib cage, aching back, belly so big it takes a fork lift to roll over and inability to breathe when lying on my back. The last one is new this time which is fun.

I’ve got a stack of post it notes on my desk with topics and fun stories and pictures to go with all of them…just no brain power to write. The crazy things on my desk like bills and things to get done to make the money to pay the bills keep taking precedence. Sigh. Hoping by the end of the week I’ve cleared my desk and enough of the cobwebs to get some posts written before the real lack of sleep and baby brain begin!

The Big Reveal

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It’s finally done! Bay’s room has successfully been transformed into a his and her room – now we just need the baby to go in the crib and we’re set! Check out the pictures on Scottsdale Moms Blog today along with all the other hilarious posts from Pregnancy Week.

And a HUGE thank you to Ashley Hall for all her help with the cut outs for the mobile. Mr. Man will have something fun to look at thanks to you!!

 

Going Going Back Back

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We put another great vacation in the history books this weekend with the annual trip to Coronado, CA. We spent 4 days enjoying the cool weather, walking to every destination and relaxing. It was just what a beach vacation should be!

SAND MOMMY!!! SAAAANNNDDD!!!

Very serious game of kickball

Finally getting to fly her Barbie kite

 

The beach is a lot of work for Baby Mason

Ok, the beach is a lot of work for everyone…

“I don’t get it…where’s the beach?”

The surrey bike. PW and I laughed about riding these around campus when he ran for student senate in college..

Showing off her new favorite hat that she picked out at the surf shop

Dancing to the music on the deck…mommy wishing she had cocktails to improve her moves…

I love the way she is hanging on to us. Hoping she plans to do so for a very long time!

Pregnancy Week

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It’s Pregnancy Week at Scottsdale Moms Blog! There’s something in the writing around here as 5 of the contributors are expecting! This week is filled with fun and funny pregnancy related posts including today’s by Kristin that is a total crack up (and sooo true about the coffee). And Friday is the big reveal of Baylor and Mr.Man’s room – get excited.

In the mean time, I’ve got a million pictures from our annual pilgrimage to Coronado this past weekend to share and stories to tell. It was an amazing trip…it’s hard to be back to reality this morning.

Mini Horse Hands

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A few months ago I got a flyer from the Zoo about their equestrian programs. They have a class called Mini Horse Hands and it’s designed for 3-5 year olds. The stables at the zoo are really nice and the price was right so Peter and Bay ventured to the zoo every Saturday morning in July to the class.

The good news is that she LOVED IT. She was an amazing listener, brave and had a great time. The bad news is that most of the kids (and their parents oddly) were terrified of horses (please let me know if you understand why someone would sign their kids up for horse class if the kids and they are terrified of horses – because I cannot for the life of me figure out why). So there was a lot of standing around waiting for the other kiddos to warm up to take their turn. Needless to say, we won’t be signing up for another round of classes, but we will definitely be looking for a stable for her to take some more lessons!

Grooming “Rolly” Neapolitan

Feeding Midnight

Ready to ride!

Ridding Penny

First Day of School

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Last week marked Baylor’s second year at preschool. I can’t believe how much bigger she is this year than last year!  She landed in a great classroom with several of her buddies including the infamous Ms. Morgan. She has three teachers, two who have been been teaching since forever and one who is only a few years out of college – it’s the perfect mix!

August 9th, 2012