Double birthdays!

So, it doesn't matter that our birthdays are only 10 days apart. This year we are celebrating it together by going on a big family road trip to Orlando, Florida! I've always wanted to go to Walt Disney World and for the big 4 oh, we are finally going. Of course, getting ready to become a tween, she is all about anything Disney and amusement parks, so we are going to to Universal Studios, too.

While we are there we are going to visit with Adam's old Air Force buddy, Dan, and one of my oldest BFFs in the world, Angel. It's been years since we've seen either of them, so we are really looking forward to it. Last time I saw her, Pia was a year old! Last Adam saw Dan was nearly 20 years ago! Pia is not being left out of the reunions either. She will get to visit with her big sister, Alex, after almost 5 years of not seeing her.

Anyway, we are actually on the last day of driving before we actually arrive in Orlando. So, check back for updates...I'm sure there will be plenty to report on this Austin Adventure!

My pride and joy

We've been so busy lately that I can't actually believe that I forgot about my diploma. Adam knew what it was as soon as he saw the envelope in the mail. I opened it up and was doing my little dance of excitement as I opened it because I wanted to see with my own two eyes and touch it with my own two hands. Pia asked me why I was so excited, so I told her it was my diploma for finally graduating from college. She proceeds to tell me, "I am so proud of you, mom!" and gives me a big hug. I just ate it up. So, she left and we (Adam, Michelle, and I) were talking about the frame it would go in and the like, when she just casually walks in and listens for a sec and just said so clear, "Mom, I am really proud of you". I know I had just heard it minutes before, but it was more special because she took the time to think about it on her own and then tell me how she feels independently, instead of just reacting to my own excitement. Have I mentioned how proud I am of her lately?

Ghost Rider

Pia decided her and her daddy were going to go see Ghost Rider II, no matter what. She wanted to see the first one before they went to the movies. I decided to rent it for her via iTunes on her iPad after soccer practice on Saturday morning.

We got home from practice at about 10:45 and I was so excited about telling her that we would be doing it that we started it at 11. She was scheduled to go to watch part two at 3 p.m, so there was plenty of time...so I thought. That was the first time I ever rented from iTunes before. OMG, it took nearly three hours to download! Did anyone else know that?

She was getting a little irritated with my timing, as if I controlled download speeds. She finally comes up (by herself, because I couldn't have) an idea of watching part two and then watching part one when we returned home. It finally finished by the time we decided to leave (2 p.m.) to get to the theater early enough to get good seats, being the second day of the showing and all. I let her take the iPad and watch the movie in the car all the way to the movies...she loved it...even though she didn't get to finish it. (Obviously, I crashed their father-daughter movie night.)

We watched it and it was okay, not as good as the first movie, but she was pretty impressed, even afterwards when she finally finished watching the first one when we got back home. She thought he was "so awesome".

Busy, busy...with what you ask?

So it's been three weeks and plenty has happened to keep me from updating this blog. The most obvious is changing gears from my education to fundraising...if you check out my other blog, ""Yuma Rack Attack Squad" you'll see what I mean. In addition to that, we've had an awesome SuperBowl party, playdates for (who else?) Pia, and guess what? Soccer sign-up and practice!

Let's start with the SuperBowl party...it truly was a success. Thank you all for bringing great dishes to share and let's give a hand to Jonna for providing the SuperBowl Challenge! We had lots of fun and except for a couple lost balls over the fence, even the kids enjoyed themselves. Even Rosie got in on the festivites by wearing team colors, thanks to Desiree!

Pia had a couple of her buddies, Xavier and Elaina, to hang with the last two weekends (so that opened up some time for me to get some fundraising duties done at home) and we loved having them over. Last week, we signed her up with Scouts for Soccer and she is pretty excited. One of her buddies (Xavier) is also signed up with her and he is a huge soccer fan and lucky for her has some experience. Having no experience playing soccer, which she knew, Pia didn't really think we were qualified to giver her pointers. Lucky for us, our friend, Isaias, volunteered to spend some time coaching her and getting her ready to play with the team. Her first practice was this past Sunday and, I think, she did pretty good. He had her (Xavier, Jonathon, and his own niece) doing footwork, drills, sprinting, and taking laps. I thought for sure, she was going to tell me it wasn't worth it, but not only did she do everything he told her to, she smiled doing it. She loved it, even when she was coming up last behind the boys! Isaias did a great job keeping the kids motivated and learning while also enjoying themselves. Thank you, Isaias!!!

Last week, Pia had a particularly emotionally painful day. At a birthday party, she had her feelings hurt when she was deliberately alienated by some other girls. When I spoke to the other child's mother about it, Pia still came to the girl's defense so she wouldn't get in trouble. Luckily, her friend, Xavier, was there and she made the best of the situation. After expressing my own feelings with some of my friends, it's clear that Pia is definitely made of sterner stuff than I am. I am incredibly proud of her.

Adam and I have been concerned about the negativeness of other childrens behaviors and it has came to a head this week at school, when she was bullied by another child. She cried a lot, but we were able to convince her that she is not to blame, no matter how little these children understand her, and that bullies are and should be ignored and reported to us or her teachers. Needless to say, I am worried and angry. Pia is such a positively happy child and I'm worried that too much at once is going to wear her down emotionally. I am angry that parents either just don't notice or don't care that their children are bullies. I don't want you to be confused either by my meaning of bullies. If you're my age, bullies used to beat you up or tease you mercilessly and their friends would laugh at you. These days, there is still some of that, but there is also the passive aggressive kind, where they push you out and alienate you or don't give you the time of day when you speak to them in front of others...other kids pick up on that and those behaviors spread.

This week was the first week I wanted to tell her "forget ignoring them, just slap her!", but I restrained myself because 1) I don't want to teach her violence and 2) I don't want her to be the one that gets in trouble in a confrontation. Instead, we signed her up for karate classes. She is pretty excited and before I even told her why, she told me it's good to know because it will keep her healthy and she will be able to defend herself against others. That girl is very smart. Lucky for us, Xavier will be joining her in her karate class, too! He is such a blessing. These days he's her champion and we couldn't be prouder of him, not just of because of that, but because he has more compassion, tolerance, and self-awareness than most adults I know.

Focus...Focus!

It's been a little hectic in our house, since I decided to walk again. I'm grateful that this year I am not walking alone, but I must admit I forgot that it was a lot of work last time, and since we need to raise more money this year for the three of us, we need to do more work. Pia has been pretty excited about it, but she did not hide her feelings about how disappointed she was that we were not baking 100 cupcakes on a Sunday night before school for a fundraising event that we still hadn't even scheduled.

I've been up pretty late this week organizing all the 'pink' stuff in my office in order of priority of what I need to be working on now versus later. Pia has been great this whole week suffering my OCD while simultaneously sitting beside me doing her homework. She would just look at me and say, "Mom? Can you help me with this one?", and I would, but then get easily side-tracked. Adam likes to say I'm chasing butterflies, but in truth, you know how it is, a million things racing through your head that you have to get done before you go to bed or you will just lay there thinking about how you should get up and go and do it anyway.

In any case, I've been spending more time with her and her homework (more than last semester while I was working on my own) and oddly enough, she isn't nearly complaining as much as she used to. I think she actually likes just sitting in there with me, just watching me get stuff done and spending time focusing on her and how smart she is (when she applies herself :)). It's been a couple Thursdays now that Adam hasn't been home because he's taking a class, and it's just her and I all evening and she loves that we just hang out and eat whatever we decided on the spot, together. We haven't had that for awhile, usually because she's a daddy's girl, so it's a nice change-up for the both of us.

She told me the other night that she is proud of me for going to college, while I was writing my last blog, thinking it was my homework. I told her that I was finished with college. She was astounded and wanted to know about graduation; how did she miss it?! I explained to her that it was a ceremony that still hadn't taken place, but I was having a problem bridging that communication gap, so I decided to show her images and she understood immediately. She proceeded to tell me that she can't wait for her graduation to jr high, high school, and college. I couldn't have been more proud of HER.

Whoa! Where did the time go?!

Okay, honestly, I forgot I even had this blog. I had to re-read what I wrote about last just to refresh my memory. Sad, I know and while I love to tell people "no excuse", I really do have, not just one, but two. Disclaimer: I know some people have less time than I do and manage to do it, but I didn't.

So, when while I was getting ready for my garage sale for my San Diego 3 Day in 2010 I totally lost track of time, because things just snow-balled into a dizzying haze of running around trying to raise money. I was successful in meeting my goal and walking without, amazingly enough, zero blisters or hotspots.

Not a month later, after the entire holiday season, I jump-started my college education at full-speed. In addition to that, I managed to sneak in three professional certifications and went TDY on four separate occasions, as well. One in particular lasting three weeks!

I am no super woman. I could NEVER have done this without the support of my husband, Adam, my patient daughter, Pia-oops-I mean Paige, and my friends and family. Seriously. When I would get so stressed and feel like it wasn't worth it, Pia would check up on me before she went to bed to tell me how lazy I was for taking so long to do my homework, but that she was proud of me and couldn't wait 'till she went to college. Wow. The bar has officially been set-college is the standard for my deaf baby girl. She has been my propeller and it finally paid off. I'm done...temporarily.

I haven't even gotten my diploma in the mail yet and I've already been asked when I was going to start my masters. Although, Adam and Pia are both very proud of me, they have asked me to take a break so I can actually spend some time with them for awhile. Believe, they aren't twisting my arm. Yet, it would appear that I have learned to live on the high tempo, because it's only been a couple weeks and I'm on to another path that will keep me high on adrenaline.

You guessed it! I'm doing the SGK 3 Day Walk, again. That's good news, of course; however, the great news is that I won't be doing it alone-I've got a team now! The Yuma Rack Attack Squad is officially registered for 16-18 November 2012. My two awesome teammates, Michelle Brown and Vicky Rosales, will be training and hoofing it up and down the local area with me. Additionally, we've got an some awesome support team, consisting of, none other than, our very own spouses, the very motivated, Pia, and of course those that have volunteered to fundraise with us: Magda, Katie, Jonna, Ekta, Dalila, & David.

It's been a week that we've been getting ready to register and Pia has been super excited. She wanted to walk, too! She is settling for decorating cupcakes and training in the street with us. I couldn't be more proud of her. Our first team meeting was tonight and after a productive planning session, she was irritated that we weren't breaking out the cupcake mix tonight! Whoa, girl, hold your horses...she doesn't even know the scale of baked foods we are going to break out onto this community and we'll see if she is truly committed to this as her momma is.

Anyway, I think you are up to speed now. I'll have to put a bit of time into updating the actual look of the blog...and keeping you current in a more timely manner. Wish us luck as we begin our journey. We are gung-ho and motivated now, but believe me, we will need your support all the way through in order to not lose steam...especially since this year our goal will be to raise $6,900!

My First Fundraiser

I've really been stressing hard about what to do to raise money for my walk. I really don't like sending emails asking for money, and giving nothing in return. I've been checking the message boards at The3day.com, and I got a great idea that I could actually use and something I actually have some experience in: a Garage Sale Fundraiser.

Now, I've held a few garage sales, and have made a decent amount of change, but usually it's with dread, and I don't always have that much stuff because I don't like stuff laying around, or out of place...that's just my OCD talking. I've been holing up some stuff in our spare room, but it still wasn't enough to hold a sale, yet. The idea was to recruit other others to donate their stuff for my cause!

I made up a flyer notifying my neighbors and friends that I would be not only holding a garage sale on a predetermined date, but that I would be blocking the street with cars as they stopped in. I mentioned that if they had anything they wanted to donate that I would gladly pick it up. Pia helped me walk up & down our street leaving flyers in our neighbors doors, and my friend, Magda, who lives a few blocks up, did the same. I also posted it on my Facebook page, just in case some friends needed to make room in their home, too.

The very next day I already received word from a couple neighbors, and several friends! Wow! I wasn't sure how well it would work, but it already is, and I still have another week to go before the big day. One neighbor volunteered to lend me her upright clothes rack to hang garments from! Now, I need to begin making room for the items that are coming in...my OCD is a little unnerved, but common sense is keeping it under control. :)

My plan is to also put out some cookies/donuts & coffee for donations, as well. Another idea from a message board is to get a bunch a grocery bags and allow people to fill the bag for a $5 donation...only what will fill the bag...I believe that could work well. I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm really looking forward to this and even Pia is excited to help. She told me as we were walking down the street that she was proud of my for making the effort to put these flyers out. I about cried, and was proud of her for being aware of the situation and what it meant for me. No matter how much we make, it will be worth hearing that from her.