Date Night

Last night was so great. Me and Brian had our first date night in over 2 years. Moving to Arizona was hard for both of us because we were leaving our families behind. We quickly found out that our occasional nights out and little breaks from parenthood were gone. We didn't know anyone well enough to have them baby sit so one of us always stays home to watch the girls, but last night my mom watched the girls and Brian and I headed out to dinner with some friends. I haven't seen my friend belinda in months and it was wonderful catching up with her and meeting her new boyfriend. We actually were able to engage in adult conversation and talk about something other than kids. After our dinner we headed to the movies. This was HUGE for us. We have not been to a movie together in over 3 years. We watched The Haunting in Connecticut which was okay, but it felt amazing to be out. Brian and I were actually able to hold hands act like a couple again. Usually, because we have 2, we are running after one kid or the other and holding their hands, pushing strollers, etc. It was definitely a nice change! I wish we had taken some pictures, but I forgot! Anyways, we had a great time

Our Museum Adventure

We decided to take advantage of the 3 for Free on sundays at the museums in downtown Mesa. We just visited Artville in march so I was eager to visit the AZ Museum of Natural History. I had heard wondeful things about this museum. When we got to the museum we realized that a lot of people take advantage of the free sundays so it was packed!!!! Growing up in Southern California where there is a lot of big museums, zoos, theme parks, etc. I am continuously being disappointed by the attractions in AZ, and this museum was just okay. I felt that a lot of the exhibits were plastic and fake, but for the girls they had some cool stuff that kept them entertained.


Here we are standing outside of the museum. The girls were more interested in their snacks than the dinosaur behind us!


This dinosaur was the coolest one in the museum. Brian pretended to feed Madison to the dinosaur and she thought that was hilarious. I was afraid they were going to knock down the exhibit because every time he lifted her up there, I saw the dino shake a little.



I don't think Brian was having much fun! (Might have been because we had just lost makenzie. she wandered out of our sight and we were freaking out trying to find her. She learned her lesson because she stayed attached to us the rest of the trip. )




The girls were watching the big dinosaur exhibit. The noise of the water and the t-rex that kept moving was exciting for them.





Makenzie taking a picture with the meteorite.

Men...

Last night was the night of my cheer banquet and it was amazing!!! Everything went to so smoothly and it was a fun and emotional night. A few of my girls brought me flowers and then the varsity coach gave me a bouquet of flowers as well. I was ecstatic because I love receiving flowers and I rarely get them. I brought them home to Brian so he could put them in water because I was headed over to a friend's house. When i got home Brian was already in bed so i checked to make sure that he put my flowers in water. Well, he sure did. rather than look for a vase to put them in, he filled up the sink and stuck them in there. It was pretty funny and I just had to take a picture.

Sometimes kids are so funny...

Makenzie had dance class today and as we were leaving the girls wanted to get a drink from the drinking fountain. Usually I hold the girls up there so they are tall enough to reach the fountain, but Freestone Rec Center conveniently has step stools so children can get their own drinks. Makenzie went first and had no problems so, of course, Madison wanted to do it by herself as well. Unfortunately, she was still not tall enough to reach the stream of water, but watching her try over and over again was hilarious. I pulled out my camera and got most of it on tape, but I did miss the first few tries where she totally wet her head. She was so determined though and kept at it. I couldn't help but laughing because it was so funny and adorable at the same time! I finally helped her out and lifted her up there so she could get a drink. *** In the background you will hear Makenzie begging me to get her on camera ( I think someone was a little jealous).

Goal for Myself

So now that cheer is over I am going to take some time for myself and lose this baby weight (or in my case toddler weight). My motivation is Brian and my trip to Nashville in the fall. I want to lose 50 pounds in between now and then. I definitely think that I can do it as long as i stick with it and find a time that is feasible for me and the girls. The hardest thing will be eating the right foods. I am just tired of not feeling like myself. It has been three years of being in this strange persons body and I am determined to get mine back before it is too late! I know I am going to need support and encouragement along the way, but I am ready to do this!

So, cheer is officially over!!! I can't say that I am not ecstatic. I mean I definitely enjoyed getting back into coaching and anyone who has ever coached knows how rewarding the experience can be, but then again when you have 15 teenage girls that you are in charge of, it can be enough to drive you insane. These last few weeks were especially stressful as we were preparing for our competition. In those weeks we had practice every day and our squad dwindled down to 10 so instead of practicing our routine over and over we had to constantly keep changing it to adapt to our new number. It was extremely frustrating for me because it caused me to stay up late at night making these changes, but also it was hard to see the disappointment on the girls' faces every time they found out another girl had quit. Why were all these girls quitting??? Well, I guess the only way that I can sum it up is that they were not dedicated and did not care at all about the girls (friends) that they were affecting by making selfish decisions. I was also frustrated with the parents of these girls who enable their children to quit when they don't like something rather than sticking it out. I feel if you make a commitment to something you should see it through good or bad and then afterwardes choose whether or not to do it again. I see these girls treat their parents with such little respect and, in turn, I got the exact same treatment from a majority of these girls. Again, I am grateful for the experience because I feel that i am learning to be a better parent by learning how to deal with a variety of different personalities. Also i am getting prepared for when I have 2 teenage girls in my own home. (I know I am a long way off, but practice makes perfect... right?) Anyways, yesterday was the Competition. 17 hours of cheerleading!!! we left at 6:30 AM and did not get back until 11PM. Cheer competitions are a way of proving yourself in the cheerleading world. You are proving yourself to the other schools, the judges, the parents, and colleges that come to scout out cheerleaders. In the case of our school we also had to prove ourselves to the other squads within our own school. This makes it very stressful for a coach, especially one who has not choreographed anything in over 3 years. I was so nervous and even threw up in the morning from butterflies. Even though we had to be there at 7:30 AM we did not perform until almost 5PM. So I had all that time to scope out what other squads were doing and how I might measure up. I felt like I was going to pass out from nerves!!! Finally we were up and I have to say that i am so proud of my girls. They did amazing considering what we had gone through in the last couple weeks and the limited time they had to practice our final routine. We hit almost everything and the things that we messed up on were things that could have been fixed with more time. I was so happy with the end result. In the end we were fourth place. It wasn't enough to get anounced or receive a trophy, but it was enough for me and the girls seemed to be happy as well. We had proved ourselves and showed that even through adversity we could get something accomplished. Thank you girls for sticking with it and showing so much dedication and working so hard. I could not have asked for a better group of girls to end the season with.

Birthday Curse

Some people may know about Brian's curse, but for those who do not Brian has a birthday curse. Either on or around his birthday (usually the day we plan to celebreate his birthday) he has to work and while at work he experiences some sort of freak accident where he gets hurt. A couple of years ago he had a wood chip fly into his eye, last year he was very close to an explosion, and this year was no different. His birthday was Friday, but we were celebrating on saturday by going out to dinner and a movie but during the day he had to go into work. The night before we had been joking about the curse and so when i got a call from his co worker that he was hurt I thought it was a practical joke. When I called back and heard the panic in his co workers voice and brian got on the phone and said it was pretty bad i knew that it was not a joke. I rushed to the hospital and was told that he has cut his arm very bad (not off--thankfully). I was completely unprepared for what I was about to see. I go into ER room number 12 and Brian asked me excitedly if i wanted to see it. He lifted up the guaze and his arm just fell open. The gash was about eight inches long, over an inch deep and about 2 inches wide. It was quite a shock!!! The doctore informed us that it was a pretty clean cut and he paraded other doctors, med students, and even the security guard in the room to show them this massive wound. He had cut himself so deeply that when he flexed his hand you could clearly see the muscle moving. the doctore pointed out muscles, nerves, and other parts and tissues that people cannot normally see. The wound required over 100 stitches in several layers in order for it close. Overall it was a very stressful ordeal and Brian is going to be fine. throughout the process brian made me take progression pictures so i thought that I would share them.

***Please be advised these pictures are graphic and bloody so do not look if you are squeemish.