The first question I want to answer is the 5th question on the list:

What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?

Because why not start with something happy? I’ve got happiness in spades right now and not that fake happiness that you have to post online to make everyone believe you have your shit together when really, you’re far from it and actually, everyone notices but no one has the  balls to tell you because you’ll just accuse them of being unsupportive when they do.

Unsupportive, is that a word? Spell check says no but I have a few bras that say yes.

Anyways.

1 Thing: Obviously my first thing is my boys. I mean, duh. Everyone is getting along fabulously since the move. It’s taken my son little moments to adjust to the changes but he’s doing well. They get along and have fun when I’m not with them (most days) and I don’t think I could ask for more at this point. The fact that I’m now mother to a 12 year old freaks me out but no matter how hard I’ve tried, I can’t stop time. I need a time turner necklace.

Another thing: Work. I can’t ever say before this that I’ve been happy with a job. Just straight off the bat, happy. Every job has it’s problems but I can’t think of any that prohibit me from saying how much I love my job. I love working for Starbucks. I love my partner family. I am incredibly lucky to go somewhere 8 hours a day and genuinely enjoy the people I have to interact with. There’s no drama, there’s no gossip or hurt feelings. We just have fun. We laugh a lot and we like our customers and when you’re around other people who enjoy what they are doing, it changes everything. As Alanis would say, “I’m broke but I’m happy.” Also, I have an addiction to coffee and coffee mugs. I’m pretty sure they don’t make a rehab for that, not that I’d go anyways.

Third Thing: Reading. I’ve thrown myself violently back into reading. I set my goal to 100 books to read this year and I want to make it. I can lose hours in a book and as you tell yourself that you don’t have that kind of time, well I can say that I don’t either. Except I do. Sometimes I put my phone down and pick up a book in my Kindle instead. And that’s ok. You make time for the things you love and the things that make you feel good and books are one of my things.

“People always ask me why I reread books if I already know what’s going to happen. I tell them it’s like watching a movie you’ve already seen, only better.”

A Fourth Thing: My dragons. Look, I know that any kind of lizard freaks some people out. I used to be sitting right there with you going, “EWWW!” but WE CAN ALL CHANGE PEOPLE. When Ant first showed me how calm and awesome bearded dragons were, I changed my mind. I love animals and having pets and I knew we were going to end up with some. And we did and we love them and they are just as much a part of our family as any other pet we have. It’s funny to me that people will support you getting a cute dog but when you get anything weird, it’s easier for them to not acknowledge that. My beardies are my babies and even if you like them or not, they are seriously awesome. And soooo cute. Yes they are. Honestly, I have two more different reptiles that I have been looking at so our herp family will expand sooner or later. Just not to snakes. No snakes.

The Fifth Thing: Baseball is back. Like I’d leave out the Dodgers on a list of things that make me happy. You don’t even know ow me if you thought I would. I’m stoked about this year. New changes to the stadium, new season seats in a better section and the team has more money to spend? It’s going to be awesome.

Listing 5 things that make me happy was easy. I know a lot of people can’t say the same but taking a few minutes to think of 5 things never hurt anyone.

I hope you have 5 things that make you happy too.

Dear Sir,

Today you are 10. I’ll be honest, I’m not ready for 10. I’m not ready for double digits. But today came anyways and holy cow, were you excited. Your dad gave you a birthday party on Saturday and you were so stoked because this was the first party you got to have where you invited your friends from school. You are so ready for 10, even if I’m not.

I know you’re ready for 10 because you’re just so enthused. You’re just about to start baseball and watching you practice your pitching stance brings a smile to my heart. You know mom wants season tickets when you’re a Dodger and you know how special left handed pitchers are so you’re working hard.

You’ll start 5th grade later this year and you’re flying through 4th like its no big deal. You’ve accepted the changes your dad and I have put upon you, including bringing new people into your life. Your heart is huge, it always has been. You take life with arms wide open and I want to do everything in my power to help you soar.

I love you sir. Happy birthday dude.

Love, Mama

It was number 28 of this post that said something amazing would be coming together soon.

Well it did.

And it was awesome.

The kids didn’t fight. The adults had a blast together. The weekend was a success.

Now that we’re all back home, we sit, and we wait as we’ve become accustomed to. Patiently waiting for our futures to start, for moving vans, for helping each other unpack and get settled into our lives, for 5 bedroom houses.

One day pictures like that won’t be an event, but instead an ordinary Saturday.

It’s going to happen. She deserves it. So do our amazing men. So do our awesome kids.

So do I.

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”

I hate that my son hates reading.

I grew up with a book in my hands. My parents are huge readers so reading came naturally to me. When I was younger, we would have to commute an hour and a half each way to school and work and reading was the easiest way to pass the time. A lot of people can’t read in the car, it makes them sick, but I’ve never had that problem. I love the library and book stores are like foreplay. I can waste hours in either.

My son? Not so much. He rolls his eyes when I try to take him to the library. We’ve spent too much time trolling the kids section of the book store, looking for a series he might like. He goes straight for the books with big pictures and few words. He has followed in his dad’s footsteps.

His dad used to mock me when he saw me with a book in my hands. He never “got it”, how I could sit for hours and just read. To give him some credit, he is a very smart man. He excels in science and math in ways I never could.

My son is following in his dads footsteps. Which makes me proud, don’t get me wrong. He is top of his class in math and he LOVES science. He struggles where I excel and that is really hard for me to deal with. I know he’s smart, he’s just not interested in reading, language arts, comprehension, none of it.

It’s starting to effect his grades. He rushes through the assignments just to get them over with. When he slows down, he aces his work but most of the time, he’s rushing and getting it wrong.

So we’re working on it at home and one of the biggest things I want him to take an interest in is reading.

Enter J.K. Rowling.

We are starting from the beginning. Every night before bed, we lay down and read. He reads a page and I read a page.  At first he was resistant, rolling his eyes, heavy sighs. He had to see how long the book was and OMG that is waaaaaaay too long mom! I told him to suck it up and give it a try. The first night we read half the chapter. He attempted to divert attention away from the book, all the usual tactics. I was worried this would be an every night thing.

On the second night, he surprised me. The Dodger game was on and I was tempted to let the reading slide. (I KNOW, BAD MOM. But… my Dodgers were on! anyways.) I told him to start getting ready for bed and he asked if we would be reading. I asked him if he wanted to and he said yes.

I know, I was surprised too.

On the second day he read much better, fumbled over less words, and read a lot faster and with more feeling. I know the Harry Potter series is HUGE but its a jumping off point. I don’t care how long it takes to finish. My goal is to get him reading the books on his own and, if I’m lucky, loving them as much as I do.

This may be premature, but I think the reading situation might be looking up.

Quote by Emilie Buchwald.

Although I shouldn’t be shocked by this anymore, I’m always thrown for a loop when the wonderful people on this here Internet come together.

Our girl Piper had her heart shattered. In the process of this, OUR hearts shattered too. We wept, we got angry, we felt all the emotions she felt and on top of it, we felt helpless because we wanted to help our friend. That’s the troublesome part of the Internet, the distance it creates between hearts that love.

So we did what we could. We formed a little militia group. We organized. We plotted. And we’ve come together to love our friend and close the gap of miles between us as best we could.

Piper, we love you. We hope you can feel it.

You are loved. Not just by us:

Amy – Dooblevay
Heather – Soft Skies
Jenny Grace – Miss Disgrace
Melisa – Suburban Scrawl
Melissa – Rock and Drool
Mishi – Secret Agent Mama
Nic – Red Lotus Mama
Diane – Momo Fali
Rachel – A Southern Fairytale
Sarah – Sarahndipitea
Tara – If Mom Says OK
Weaselmomma – World of Weasels

We are enjoying the hell out of San Francisco today. I really needed this trip, even if my child will not stop talking. It’s fair trade to see him discover a city that I love so much.

Enjoy your leftovers!

In case you didn’t know already, I’m a choir nerd. I grew up with music and I learned to love singing very quickly. Almost every year I was attending school, give or take a few, I was singing. In high school, I was in a performing choir. I loved the stage and I loved the feelings that music provided me. While I still love music and am working hard to pass that on to my son (it’s working), I miss the way performing feels, the rush it provides.

Now I just try and get it where I can.

In comes Mary Poppins.

This production is playing at the Ahmanson in downtown LA until February and if you get the chance to go, I highly recommend it. It is so visual and alive. The singing is fantastic and the sets are simple yet they help convey the story very well. If you enjoy musical theater, you will love this production.

They do an entire song with tap shoes on. COME ON PEOPLE. Tap shoes. How can you pass that up? You can’t. So go see this.

I need to get to the theater more often. Lucky for me I found someone who loves it just as much and is conveniently located in the heart of the theater scene. I can’t wait to visit Broadway (WICKED!! One day…) and to share my passion with someone I love.

Tonight I got to share it with my mom. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that she was recently in the hospital. She’s doing much, MUCH better and I’m so happy that we got to go see Mary Poppins together. I can’t thank those of you who sent prayers and positive thoughts our way this past weekend. It means so much.

Two things about me, to start.

One? I am very easily distracted.

Two? I think that I am ok in a crisis.

That said, tonight I made one of these statements true, and the other really, really false.

Since I was out of the house all weekend with friends, when I got home, the first thing my dad asked was if the hamster was alive. This happens most any day after I am not home for the night. It’s like my dad’s thing. I always say yes, even without checking. My eyes always scan the cage when I walk in the room and if I don’t see her lifeless body, I consider it a win. I did just that today when I got home then I went to finish watching the Dodgers blow out the Padres on their opening day. *ahem* Then we watched CSI (boo WTF) and in between that and a new Ghost Hunters episode, I went to get my laundry to start. For whatever reason, I decided to try to wake up the hamster while I was getting my laundry ready. I went to the cage and opened the door and heard a little scream.

Her little itty bitty foot was stuck in the joint of the door.

[insert me freaking out here]

I probably scared my mom half to death when I ran out of the room, half way into the kitchen and yelled “HAMMY’S FOOT IS STUCK IN THE DOOR OH MY GOD!!!!” and ran back to my room.

Heh. Yea. That’s me handling a crisis well.

Of course my mom is cool and collected as she gently helped unstick the hamsters tiny little itty bitty leg, which, I might add, was all bloody and raw.

Seeeeeeeee

I SO did not take a picture of her stuck. I’m not pure evil. But this is where it happened.

So I threw on a pair of thick socks, ON MY HANDS, and picked her up. Hell NO I wasn’t going to let the little bitch bite me. Been there, done that. I held her while my mom cleaned her little leg up. This hamster is very vocal and always has been and she makes this creepy ass noise when she’s pissed. Which was a clear indication that she was probably ok.

Either way, I cleaned her cage while my mom held her and freaked out all the other animals residing here. Especially the white dog. She flips for the hamster. We had a bad thunderstorm and I happened to be uh, out and the dog came in my room, jumped on the bed, and knocked the hamster cage OVER. She is obsessed with the little critter. Annoyingly so.

Did I mention my mom held the hamster in that tupperwear there?

I honestly have no clue how she ended up stuck. Or how long she had been there. She’s running around and such, but dragging the stuck leg behind her. It’s creepy as hell. I hope she doesn’t die because I so don’t want to have that conversation with my kid. We had a rabbit once who’s leg basically broke in half and it died. That was traumatizing.

Maybe I shouldn’t have small pets.

Not dead. She was actually in this position cleaning her little wound. Poor dear.

Today was a pretty good day.

I went out and grabbed myself some coffee, drove around a little, got some photography porn magazines and got ready to go have some pictures taken.

My friends Jessie and David of Terwilliger Photo came out to take family portraits for my family. With my cousin in town from Iowa, and her mom in town from Alabama, we figured this would be a perfect opportunity to get a family picture taken. But sticking 12 people in a tiny portrait studio? 3 being kids? Then paying out the ass for one or two poses that we would have probably had to settle on? No fucking thanks.

Instead, we opted for the freedom of choosing a place and time. Having two photographers, one taking the portrait shots and the other candids? Being able to get every single shot taken on my own disc to do with them what I please? Having professional editing done to a large majority at no extra cost? Paying only $50 an hour? Yes, yes, yes, and hell yes.

David and Jessie were so professional. They were patient with the kids, even the very, very uncooperative one (not belonging to me for once! SCORE!) and friendly to everyone. They worked with the horrible lighting of the day and found great angles and places for us to shoot. I was seriously impressed and would not hesitate hiring them again. I highly doubt I will ever go to a studio again.

Did you know its been about 4 years since I have had an actual portrait taken with my son? I’ve been meaning and meaning to go but dealing with the appointment, the cost, all that crap just turned me off. Luckily, I was finally able to get a great shot of us. (And yes, he’s usually that squinty, at least when asked to pose. Dunno why)(But can we just say freakin’ awwwwww? Please?)

Seriously. My baby aint no baby no more.

Oooh they even do sexy shots. Obviously not for the uh family, but for erm, private use? Yea. I’m so highly entertaining the thought. Sure I don’t NEED them, but don’t you think they are good to have? Just in case? I mean, I have the boobs, I may as well use them while they are still high above my knees right? Oh shut up. You know you wanna see them if I do them.