Halloween 2013

At 4:56pm today my favorite firstborn turns 7.  I still remember the exact time, imprinted in my memory.  That exact moment I became mama, and he was ours.  I loved him before I even met him, but goodness when I laid eyes on his brand-new little self...I found a love that I never new existed.

Today I'm feeling so blessed at our journey so far, as mama and son.  He lets me hear the most amazing giggles, flashes his shy smile, and teaches me amazing things about life.  Daily I learn patience from him, and when I am lacking in patience I learn how amazing it is to be forgiven, by someone so young.  It is so humbling.

He is strong willed, and has an opinion about everything in life.  He wants to be right, always.  He is smart, and sweet, and really just a perfect blend of Paul and I.  I love his feisty spirit, and hope that he continues to learn, when he uses that feisty-ness in the right way, he will continue to be amazing. 

He is growing up: choosing to go to school and hand out goodie bags to his classmates instead of taking the "get out of school free cause it is your birthday and your mama wants to spend the entire day with you" card.  As he gets older, he is becoming less willing to pass out his "Rykles" (Ryker snuggles, a term we coined when he was a toddling little guy).  

Today we will celebrate at home.  Storms (thunder/lightening/ and possible tornados) are predicted around 4pm which is putting a damper on our trick-or-treat plans.  But cake, icecream, and a new birthday DVD (Monsters University) are sure to be a nice 2nd best.  

Happy 7th birthday my sweet boy.

*****

My "Despicable Me" loving kids all decided to be minions for Halloween.  To document the special occasion, as I am sure matching costumes on Halloween will never happen again, we brought the costumes along when we had family pictures done earlier this month.

These pictures were the lone ones where we didn't have to constantly attempt smiles with the bribe of "if you are good for just a bit longer than we will go out to ice cream when we are all done."  Something about the costumes brought out their little personalities.

Happy Halloween, from my little minion loving family.

This photo idea, from my brilliant husband.

Humbling

I have always been a perfectionist.  It is a love/hate issue that I have with myself.

Then we moved away from all of our family, I started grad school and work as a night shift RN, while raising a growing family of littles and loving my husband.  The latter roles are the most important of the bunch.

I quickly realized that taking on so much, well, the superwoman cape was easily tattered.

So I threw it out.  Acknowledging that being perfect at all I decided to take on, is impossible.  There just aren't enough hours in the day for it.  So, if I wanted to continue, to finish the tasks that I have started, and be a happy, whole, loving lady I needed to accept that sometimes average is...well, perfect.

Since I refuse to be average as wife/mama, the highest, most precious roles I will ever have I needed to make some compromise.  I work as a RN just two days on the weekend, and because I am entrusted to care for people I obviously can't be less than perfect at that.  So the only role left to cut myself some slack...grad school.

This might not sound like a big deal to some, but for me it is huge... 

I've accepted that B's get degrees.  A mindset foreign to me a year ago.  I am so disappointed in myself for taking an entire year to have this epiphany.  But goodenss the benefits of this acceptance...a happy home, happy hubby, happy kids, happy wife = happy life.

So yesterdays exam when I earned an 84% - it was a moment of joy.  A jumping heel click, give a high five to a stranger sort of joy.  I earned that "perfect-to-me" grade while working this past weekend, and loving on my husband/kids when I wasn't working.  I can't spend all of my time studying these precious moments with my family away in hopes of being the top of my class and getting all A's.  Instead I choose to be average in grad school, and focus my energy on the real stuff.

I choose them.  Always.

Big changes?

A while back Paul went on an interview to Johns Hopkins University.  Read this post on how his interview this past May went.

I never updated on the outcome of this interview, but...

He got the job!

Now the wondering, worrying, waiting, and weighing our options commences.  

While JHU is worlds away from the Northwest (and surrounding areas we were hoping to return to), I am so proud, and amazed with this opportunity and what it has the potential to do for Paul's job.  My Mr. is amazing.  It isn't everyday that a guy with degrees from Portland State University and Oregon State University get a job offer at JHU...I am not amazed by this offer, because I know he is great, brilliant, and wonderful (and proof that it doesn't matter where you get your college degrees, because if you are smart enough, work hard enough, and believe in yourself enough - degrees from PSU and OSU will beat out those Stanford and Duke educated guys you are up against.)  I am thrilled that others see, and continue to see, his potential and provide him the platform to do great things.

And while this is all a slight source of stress, I am focusing on the fact that this is SUCH a good problem to have.

Humor in the roughness of grad school

Today: Pediatric clinicals from 9am-5pm, rush home in rush hour (oh the irony), feed my family, bathe the kids, read bedtime stories, snuggle them into dream land (wishing I could join them), go for a 4 mile run (absolutely essential), shower, and then...

I study.  Slides from this week's powerpoint presentation, 99 of them to be exact.  Each of these 99 slides has about 10 key points to memorize and know.  So 990 fun pharmacology/pathophysiology facts to know, because there is always a 15 question weekly quiz over the prior week's powerpoint presentation.

I'm not joking.

There is a place for professors who insist on this weekly insanity, and let me tell you it isn't sitting comfortably on my couch next to me, drinking beer.

Pharmacology might be the death of me, well not my death, but the death of my grad school existence.

I'm joking (at least I hope I'm joking about that).

I'll get through this.  December 10th will come, and it'll be over, and I'll have earned at least a C.

and I'll pat my back (even if it is a C), and then do a jumping heel click.

Because this.is.so.stinking.hard!

Grad.school.isn't.for.sissies.

Just for a day, it might be nice to be my cat.

Now back to the grind.

2.5 Jovie

Pumpkin patch

Sunday family day = outing to the pumpkin patch, park, and spying on some geese.

My Mr., just keep in classy as usual.

They cheesing face of my middle little :)

My Halloween boy, adores this season.

Picking pumpkins is hard work.   "this is hea-by mama!"


They loved running around on top of the hay bales, and climbing over the "high in the sky bridges"

A girl and her perfect pumpkin.

Okay, so I overload on the pumpkin patch photos, but there is something so sweet about watching them explore and find the perfect one.

An attempt to get one of us - and he flashes a cheesy smile every.single.time.

Milestone moment on Thankful Thursday

Firsts.  They reach them so quickly in infancy - first tooth, first taste of food, first word, first step...and then they grow, and become big first graders just a few weeks shy of a 7th birthday, and BOOM.  Another first.

He lost his first tooth.

It went something like this.  For thankful Thursday, the day of the week where the kids are in charge of the schedule, we picked up our favorite first-grader from the bus stop, J picked "flowers" from a neighbors yard.  Goodness, when he wears jeans, he looks SO grown-up!  Handsome little fella!

Then we all bolted home in an attempt to not be the rotten egg, and I, as always, was the rotten one because that is just what mamas do for their little loves.

R is smirking because "hahaha mom's the rotten egg!" and K is having a coughing fit...poor asthmatic kiddo, any running has him hacking.  I especially like K's overkill stripes today, green shorts and a long sleeved orange shirt - both with stripes.  My kids rock their own styles.  Oh, and J's princess shoes :).

After snack time, R wanted to go to the store to pick out a special treat.  He has a sticker chart where, if he makes good decisions (does his homework in a timely manner, has a good attitude, stays out of trouble, does his chores, etc.) then he gets a sticker at the end of the day.  Once he gets 10, he can pick a $10 treasure of his choice.  One time he used it to treat us all to ice cream; this week he found his treasure, and he is over the moon excited about it.  This kiddo is a minion lover.

After our outing, we came home, played outside in the 80 degree weather -

• trampoline
• tag
• rode 4 wheelers
• made a race track in the sand box and tried to dodge the thousand crickets/grasshoppers that were hanging out in there while doing so
• attempted, and failed mostly, flying a kite (not windy enough).  

Then R decided to bring dinner outdoors and savor these last warm moments before the weather turns more fall like around here.  Tuna and crackers, carrot sticks, and a huge bowl of strawberries/grapes/raspberries...I love thrown together dinners and picnics with these littles.  During our picnic I noticed R had some blood on his chin, so I asked him to open up his mouth.  I said "go look in the mirror, and he came back."  He said "so what's going to happen now?"  The tooth fairy won't bring me $5 (that first one has a hefty price tag!) since I don't have a tooth to trade in.  I told him that there isn't any worry, she just knows.

Then he asked about his tooth, and how it is going to get out...he laughed hysterically when I told him what will happen with his tooth since he swallowed it.  

 Oh Thursdays...sweet days.

season change, clothing change

It is happening.  The weather change.  With it, comes the dreaded clothing change.  My basketball short wearing, almost-7-year-old, always fusses like mad when it is "pants season."

Instead of fighting with him about it, I said, "go outside and then decided what YOU want to wear."

He comes back in, puts on his pants "I guess I hafta wear em' but I don't hafta like em'"

I smirk, he gets annoyed.  

"See you later best brother" paired with a fist bump.

My mama heart explodes.  Some days they bug the crazies out of each other, but the mornings.  Oh, they are sweet, and fresh, and best brothers.  

He struggles with the zipper of his jacket, then gets his backpack on, and off we go.

Our moon lit, morning walk to the bus stop, just him and I, are a highlight of my day.  He makes plans, he gives me a hug and a kiss, and I melt.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursdays are becoming routine around here.  My boys have both realized the significance of the day.

• Monday I have class 8am-5pm.
• Tuesdays class from 1-4, they have a special afternoon of discovery to explore the world with a sweet soul, their favorite Ceci.
• Wednesday I have clinicals all day 9am-7pm.
• Thursdays - I am home.  All day long.  So they are cherished.  Soaked up to the max
• Fridays I am home until I leave for work at 5:45pm (working 6:38pm-7am)
• Saturday I sleep the majority of the day away, get up and make dinner, do bath time, and then leave for work again at 5:45pm (working 6:38pm-7am)
• Sundays I come home and sleep until 2pm, and we soak up the remaining hours together as a family.  Our solo day during the entire week to be a family of 5, together.

R usually plans each Thursday out.  On the walk to the bus stop in the morning he tells me his master plans.  Then, 7 hours after I dropping him off in the dark morning, I go to get him in the afternoon.  He has that look on his face when he jumps off that last stair step on the bus, running up to me.  "It is Thursday!"  He grins.  We fist bump, and then he runs home, backpack bouncing up and down against his back, yelling "last one home is a rotten egg."   

My heart sinks a little, despite his utter joy of Thursday.  Knowing how much he cherishes these sweet, sweet Thursdays, it is so hard to know he would love a few more Thursdays in the week.  I am right there with him.  I push away this feeling, and chase after him.

Trampoline.  Firepit s'mores.  Hose. R's recipe for the perfect Thursday.