So Over January!

While looking through old pictures…trying to get myself motivated to start working on our 2011 photo book (yes I said 2011…and its freakin’ 2012…I’m so angry with myself…I TOLD myself LAST year that I’d stay on top of it and not do it all at the end of the year…I’d work on it month by month annnnnd THAT obviously didn’t happen…so now I have the whole darn year to do! grrrrr).  Anyway…I was noticing that January is such a blah month. For whatever reason we don’t seem to have much going on (which is rare), it seems that I don’t take a lot of pictures during this month (which at least makes for an easier time photo-booking! haha)…Yosh is super busy with girls water polo season therefore Owen and I spend a lot of evenings by ourselves…and its just an “eh” month.  Maybe its because of the post-holiday blues…we’re all depressed that the excitement is over and we’re back to our regularly scheduled programs…I don’t really know.  But I can say for myself…so far in 2012 I feel like I’m constantly on the go…between doctor appts, school meetings, my masters homework…its just go go go. AND I recently helped plan my best friends baby shower (which in fact had THIS girl busy busy getting’ my Circut on!)
See below for some of my cirut creations (Thanks to the circuit, pinterest and my friend Cindy, we were able to make Erika’s baseball themed shower come true! )! haha…

It was all done for my girl, Erika…her first baby arrives in April and shes living so far away we all wanted to make her day special! We can’t wait to meet Baby Charlie!!  Her words “I’ve been to and thrown enough showers for you girls…now its her turn!” haha And we all knew we TOTALLY owed her a good one…shes been through the ringer when it comes to other people’s babies!

Also, since November, we have been in a co-ed fantasy football league, The Ball And Chain League…it was originally set up so that husbands and wives could face off (the men really just wanted the women to feel “involved” so they would feel justified watching football ALL day EVERY Sunday!)…but it ended up being a lot of fun. Once us ladies figured out all the “hidden” rules about trading, by-weeks, etc it was fun! I swear the boys cheated (aheemm Joel!) BUT most Sundays the boys would get together and the odd time us ladies tagged along too. On our nice Southern California Sundays we’d play outside…and I loved watching…

Owen and Addi pretty much always had their own game going while the “big kids” (Joel, John, Kris, Yosh, Caroline and Addison) played a real game around them! haha

But back to January…work is busier than usual  because after Christmas break it’s a new semester I’ve had to get my Online Health class re-organized, I get a brand new set of kids and we recently started using a brand new website…so that’s been time consuming to figure out. Along with that group of new kids I also got 42 new bodies in my in-class Health period as well…so I’ve been trying to re-evaluate what worked and what didn’t last semester.
AND on top of all that, I want to be back to Zumba’ing…I’m SERIOUSLY OVER this foot injury. I’m currently going to physical therapy every 2 weeks…until I get the results of the MRI on Feb. 7th…which I have NO idea what those results will say?!?!? So frustrating. I recently actually went back to Zumba (against doctors orders)…to hope to find the inner joy that it brings but its just not doin’ it for me…the frustration is annoying. I want to hop, jump, pivot, wiggle, bend, etc. but my left foot just won’t do it..so I go through the motions…I’m basically doing ZumbaGold  (which is the low impact, old people zumba) not getting the work out that everyone else is and I’m a bit jealous! haha I know…sad that I’m JEALOUS about working out. I continue to remind myself that I’ll be back…in time I’ll be able to get my Zumba on…and Holly Crane I’m DEF trying your Thursday night routine, I can’t wait! So for now I take it easy…don’t want to ruffle the feathers…let my foot fully heal so I don’t screw myself in the long run!

The upcoming months are hopefully going to be filled with exciting things…my foot healing (fingers crossed), finishing school (FOREVER), GOOD oncology appts, turning the big 3-0…just so much. And the only way that seems appealing is to celebrate by doing something we won’t ever get a chance to do again…and that’s to go on an Eastern Caribbean cruise…minus Owen. Sad I know to leave the little dude but I was thinking, like REALLY thinking about leaving him for a week…its going to be hard!! Can I do it?? My Mom is amazing and is going to take him for us, getting time off work so she can pick him up at his regular time but still…a whole week…there will probably be tears. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there!! Still got to book the darn thang!

January is coming to an end…bring on February…I’m ready!

BSB

I’ve posted about my Mommy Group on many occasions (our Halloween parade traditions, Summer play dates, and many more)…but I always feel the need to write about them whenever we hang out. I met this random group of women by pure force…yes I’ll finally admit it (no offense ladies). I never wanted to join a support group…but my friend Crystal talked me into it…and Crystal was a friend of a friend…so I wasn’t walking into a room really totally knowing anyone! Yeah kinda awkward since all the other women in the group attended the same Lamaze classes together…and I didn’t! haha The thought of having to pack up and leave my house with Owen once a week was something I did NOT want to do…my anxiety was a bit much (or kinda made me crazy!!) as a new mom (back in June of 2009) BUT with some persuading from my own mother…I thought…how bad can 1 day a week be?!? haha  Well its now years later…and am so thankfully that I braved that first day and went to this support group! I love these women who were once strangers..we sat in a room, shared our birth stories, laughed, cried and really connected in 1 hour. It was pretty amazing. When you are hormonal and a first time mom its kinda strange what kind of bonds can be created in such a short time! The group was about 15 ladies at the beginning…but of course we all didn’t connect…there was a few of us that did and we still talk to this day. We named our group BSB…Babies Supporting Babies…but really it should be MSM…Mommies Supporting Mommies!. 

We try to get together weekly…but I’ll admit that is VERY hard for me…so I’m one of the ladies who only gets to get together maybe every other month. But when we come together and talk and watch our lil similar children play there is a sense of sisterhood that lives between us, probably much stronger for some of the women than others. We don’t need to talk all the time to understand each other…we just know what its like! We’re all dealing with the SAME stuff…and those that have added extras (mommies of 2 babies now) are there to support the others that want more babies. haha

Christmas of 2009…

…yeah we were CRAZY to try and do this…but we did it..professional pictures of 6 eight month old kids at the same time…it was nuts!

2010: we tamed ourselves a bit, ditched the professional studio and did it at someone’s house…while holding our little squirmy monsters!

The April 4th boys wouldn’t sit for a picture that year…but we got the 4 others!

 

And in 2010 Baby Todd was the FIRST official 2nd generation BSB member!!!

 

 

 

 

 

2011
This years Christmas gathering was awesome like the others…and I just realized we didn’t put them in jammies…probably since it was like 85 degrees that day! All six kids sat, said cheeese and all behaved so well together! It was nice.

And now we have a total of THREE 2nd generation members….

Ava, Baby Todd and Aeva.

A day of play at Gwen & Erine’s house was time to relax after the crazy Christmas, munch on yummy food…plan birthday weekends for April-May (oh the thought makes me wanna cry…crazy birthday month and our BABIES turning THREE!!! Oh gosh!)…was nice. Recharging for the new year, new obstacles, new everything that’s in store for all of us…oh I’m excited to see what 2012 has in store for all my BSB ladies!

Thank you ladies for being there…being true support not just for me but for my family…we are strangers brought together for a reason…and I feel blessed to have ya’ll in my life! xoxo

2011 in Review…I know its kinda late.

Yes its only 15 days into the new year…so I’m not THAT behind on this post…OK yes I am. Since arriving home from Ireland life has been a bit crazy. Our first week back we had to fit another Christmas “day” in (aka Owen opening more presents from Santa, Mya & Papa and the VanSoest Family)…then Yosh left for a polo tourney near Pismo beach…THEN back to work. First week back was crazy busy…I get 2 brand new groups of students in my online health class and my regular in class health too…so I have to prep for those, get ready for swim season AND nurse my darn foot (physical therapy started last week as well as getting an MRI done to see whats the real problem with this darn foot!) Oh man. So blogging has been put on the back-burner for a while. There were things in Ireland that I was going to blog about BUT I feel like Ireland was so long ago already haha So those got scratched :/

But like last year I want to take my one favorite photo from every month and post in on here now.

January

We have started a mini tradition of going to the beach on MLK day..since we have no school and sometimes we get great weather. 2011 we had amazing weather. Addi and Owen look so little and young here…and this was the first of MANY beach trips we took this year.

 

February

I completed my first 1/2 Marathon at the Surf City event in Huntington Beach!! Mom, Nichole, Donnita & Erika participated in 2010…in honor of me! I was strong and healthy enough so it was something I was really excite to do!

 

March

At the end of March, during the first week of our spring break, we went to Big Bear Lake with the Gerke’s and Goller’s for a night. It was so fun since it had snowed a whole lot before we got there…Owen got to play in the snow, fish and have fun in a cabin with Addi! it was so peaceful (after I recovered from the car-sickness getting up there BLAH!) Only in California we can be at the beach in January and in the snow in March and then sweat our buns off at Disneyland in April.

April

For Owen’s 2nd birthday we had to chance to get signed in to Disneyland by our friends.  It was such an awesome day. He LOVED every second of it (even though here he looks scared…which is common of my child when he’s not sure about something new, which was the Pinocchio ride!!!) Disneyland is a place that Owen talks about almost everyday and I love it. He remembers when we have good times and I’m thankful for that.

May

So much happened in May…we did a Breast Cancer walk (which Owen participated in), I did Zumba at a school dance recital in memory of a student that had passed away, Yosh played in a faculty basketball game at school, mothers day, lots of in the sun, etc….but my FAVORITE picture is this. After leaving one of my routine oncology appts my “after summary report” said I was “officially” in remission. Seeing those words brought tears to my eyes…made me so happy. I stopped RIGHT then and took the picture in the middle of the hallway at Kaiser. Next month it’ll be 2 years…and I can’t wait!

 

June

5 years wedding anniversary is silverware (Google told me so!). Yosh had been complaining about how our knife set was getting old and we needed a new one…so on our anniversary I thought it was a great idea to get him exactly what he wanted! haha BUT I also brought him to Vegas for the weekend with some of our friends. I wasn’t THAT mean to just get him knifes and call it a day…especially since he got my rings “enhanced” for our 5 year.

 

July

In July we got to hang out with Yosh’s sister and family from New York. They moved there about 9 years ago…and come out to see us every year. I love when they come home b/c we get to go fun places, eat bad food and just have fun! haha. But this year was special…Owen LOVED his cousins. Oh man! I felt bad for Bailey and Peyton at times b/c they weren’t always up for playing Lego’s and cars and stuff BUT were such good sports and would play WHENEVER Owen asked! I loved watching them hang out together and bond. I pray that someday they will be as close as I am with my cousins who live in another country…distance doesn’t mean much anymore with technology!

 

August

I don’t know why I just LOVE this picture…ok yes I do know why…my child is just so gorgeous! I love capturing pictures like this of him…in his eliminate, happy, carefree, casual! No forced smiles, no awkward poses…just Owen…doin’ his thang! I love it. This was one of the many many days we spent at the beach…which he just loves. We found something that we enjoy…which was playing in the sand at the beach. The sound of the waves, breeze, smelling “the beach”…brought happiness. I wasn’t a beach person before BUT I love it now!!!

 

September

I love the color in this picture…and the event we are at is one of the coolest things I’ve taken part in!! This picture was taken during the opening ceremonies at the Light The Night event at Angels Stadium. This is a fundraising 5k walk for the Leukemia & Lymphoma, which is obviously a foundation that has become very important in my life.  It was the 2nd year we had done it and it seems to get better and better every year.  Owen and my mother are so happy here…captured a beautiful thing!

 

October

Only in California you can have such a beautiful October day at the beach! I feel that this picture was something very rare…us four girls got together as a “last time” before Erika moved up to Warden, Washington. We hadn’t spent much time together…just us four, minus kids, husbands, etc. in probably over 10 years. So it was nice…to just be together.

 

November

This is Owen and the birthday boy Ryland at his 3rd birthday party at the Railway Museum in Perris, Ca. It was a super fun little place and I thought it was adorable how Owen and Ryry took it upon themselves to hold hands while crossing the street. Watching friendships be born is pretty cool…its different now…before we forced our kids to hang out whether they liked it or not…but now they ask to see each other and I just LOVE that!

 

December

This is Braid (there is suppose to be an accent over the a but I don’t know how to do that)….there is now a solar powered cross, which replaced a regular ol’ wooden cross, at the top that was put up there by the people in the community. Its not a holy site or anything but just something that was done many many years ago (my mom’s grandmother remembers it her whole life and she was born in 1902). I guess I’ve been up there as a kid…but don’t really remember. But its always talked about “climbing up to braid” (which has a path).  But  spending a good bit of time in Ireland this year was pretty amazing. We got to hang out and really bond with family which was really nice. We had no where to go or any obligations (other than the wedding) and we kept it that way. After we left I thought to myself maybe we should have DONE something…but nah…we shouldn’t have. I spoke with my 2 year old nephew/cousin on the phone and hearing him say “I bub boo” (I Love You) it made my day…and his daddy told me that Jayden asks for one of us everyday since we have gone home…it confirmed the fact that we started a relationship with him and that’s worth it. I hope that Owen and Jayden find a bond that my cousin Alan and I have as well…distance won’t mean anything if they really love each other (and technology continues to advance!) haha and ps. this will be the view out of my parents back window when they do move and build after retirement.

 

So there…that’s my year in review. We had an amazing year…happy, healthy and growing everyday. I’m so very thankful that we have had a good year together as a family (just us 3 and our extended family as well)…you can’t ask for anything else when you have your health!!! So now we are 16 days into 2012 and I feel that it will be hopefully one of the best years of our lives…many milestones to meet and I can’t wait!! Cheers everyone!

St. Stephen’s Night

The day after X-mas in Ireland is one of the best days of the year to go out on the town!! If you work in a bar in America you know that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is one of the biggest nights out…that’s kinda how Stephen’s Night is in Ireland. EVERYONE comes home for Christmas…pubs are closed for the day. Then they re-open on the 26th (St. Stephen’s Day) and everyone goes MENTAL!!! It’s a good time for ALL!  Here is the meaning behind it all….found it on the internet since Mom is flying home right now and I can’t ask her the details of the holiday!

Catherine decided that would be a great day to do her wedding rehearsal…which is also much different than our rehearsals here in the states..there is no dinner after paid for by the grooms parents or anything…its literally meet at the church…do what you gotta do…end of story.

But the maddness didn’t disappoint this year. Nana and Granda watched Owen and man it was a crazy night in Foxford. Started off quiet at an “old peoples pub”..haha j.k Had a drink and listened to a few men play some Irish music in the corner…it was nice! I later found out those music people were my dad’s cousins…haha Small towns are just so different than what I’m used to.

 

 

From there we went to Cruisers…and man o’ man it was WEDGED. LOTS of people in a pub…VERY little room to walk, no where to sit, no air conditioning and its like 95 degrees inside…LOUD music..its nuts but OH SO FUN! haha

It was tons of drinking, dancing, chatting and just typical Irish fun! haha

And yes my cousin and I will dance in the middle of a TOTALLY crowded floor…we got we got the moves…low impact for my darn foot…but still able to move! lol

 

 

And I want you to look around at the people in this photo…can you see the sweat dripping off them by the buckets…that’s how HOT it was and how mental people go!!!

 

 

 

This year was my 3rd Stephens night in Ireland…first time was in 1999…spent the night in Maloney’s…here is the page in my scrapbook that I did from my senior year in high school…God knows I don’t have digitals of old pics

 

(Tara Deacy: I told you I have a picture of you up on a table dancing from YEARS ago…some things don’t change…you were up again this year! haha)

 

 

 

My second Stephens night was in 2007…the year we came home for my cousin Alan’s wedding…and that was also a night unlike any other.  Here are some pics of the pics from that trip (I LOST all the digital copies of my pictures from 2007 due to a crappy hard drive!)

Same craziness…with a lot of the same people!

I thought this was funny…..

    2007                                           2011

      
Thanks Anthony Deacy for all the shots of Baby Guinness, past, present and hopefully our future!!!

So in a nutshell St. Stephen’s night in Ireland is like how most American’s think the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s day BUT I will say I have never been in Ireland for St. Paddy’s day…maybe some year we’ll have to do that…just to make sure its not a better night out than Stephen’s night. haha