Holiday Cards

There are so many things I love about Christmas - decorating the tree, Christmas music, making and eating cookies...oh the list goes on but one of my all time favorite, although dying tradition, is the Christmas card. I love sending them as much as I love getting them. It is often the one time in this hectic world that I get to connect in a non-social media way with those that are important to me.

This year for fun (or because I am just that odd), I organized my cards by state just to see exactly where they all go. Get ready if you live in any of these states, you may be getting a card from me!

Arizona - 1
Arkansas - 2
California - 1
Colorado - 2
Florida - 1
Indiana - 1
Illinois - 2
Kentucky - 1
Louisiana - 1
Massachusetts - 1
Montana - 4
Nebraska - 3
New York - 3
Oklahoma - 1
Oregon - 1
Texas - 28
Washington - 10

We seem light on the east coast and we barely touch the central or the south but 17 out of 25 States seems impressive to me.

I have a few more cards to get out and a few left-over so if you want one speak now!

School is out on Friday and I am officially off this Thursday through to the 29th. I am looking forward to relaxing. I am officially done shopping but for a few minor things and now get to focus on baking and the most anticipated event (outside of  Christmas morning) pierogi making.

30, 61

In 30 days the girls turn 3 and in 61 days I turn 40.
Time is flying by.

Aubrey was home for Thanksgiving break and used the chickens as models for one of her photo class projects. She has been sending a few each day.

Personalities

I am often asked if the chickens personalities are different. This photo captures the difference better than words.

Lulu in her Cinderella dress and Kat in her jeans.

Traditions

We have the entire week off this year for Thanksgiving. Much to JT's chagrin we are not spending it on some incredible holiday adventure at the beach or in Italy.

I've spent the last few days driving Rick insane cataloging how we have spent the last 17 Thanksgivings to prove my point that this is in fact the first year we are spending it without company, either friends or family. I have to admit it feels a bit odd but have no fear we still have a few days and Rick is always ready for guests. We've had a lot of turkey together.

We will be picking up some old traditions and starting a new one this year. The most important old tradition to kick-off the holiday is the Macy Day Parade. Zach and I love it the most so he will no doubt be my first choice for the day when I get to see it in person. We will ignore the Black Friday crowd and head to our favorite day after Thanksgiving store - Half Price Books -  followed by some hamburgers at Dan's.  The Mitchell ladies will head over Friday for gingerbread houses. We have inconsistently made gingerbread houses throughout the years. We had such fun doing it as part of Thanksgiving weekend last year at Donna's that it was unanimously voted to add it to our weekend celebrations . On Saturday we plan to see the Chuy's parade downtown, which we have missed the passed few years.Of course there will be lots of catching up on our shows. JT and I are woefully behind on Arrow so we need to get caught up and a Thanksgiving can't pass without Talladega Nights. Rick and I are also negotiating a holiday viewing of the Godfather trilogy although this is probably going to take us through Christmas.

Keeping with tradition, I tortured the kids yesterday with a quick photo shoot for Christmas cards. It ended in a bit of an epic fail because I neglected to notice the giant white railing that separates the cuteness of the moment. I begged them to go out again but without much to offer in the way of bribery, I managed to pull off a card with what I had but here are a few previews of the attempts.

That is KitKat giving shouting out!

The boys started a dance party.

All Was Spooky

After months of spooky talk and visiting spooky stores, Halloween seems like distant memory. And sadly it is only a memory because my phone broke and I lost all photos from Halloween until the day it broke. Everyone misses out on the incredible pumpkin that JT carved and some other cuteness that I took while we were out in the hood but I do have a few shots.

 Lulu helping JT

 The girls with some friends before the big night. Kit Kat is Ariel and Lulu was Cinderella.

Zach was a zombie hunter and JT was a bat with these cool foam wings that you can't really see.

I Did Not Forget

It would be impossible to forget that my baby was turning 12 but I think part of me wanted to pretend like it wasn't happening. I mean we are a year away from the teens, 4 years from driving, 6 years from high school graduation. See, I didn't forget, I just can't think about it.

We celebrated JT's 12th over two weekends. Last weekend he invited a few friends over. They ate, they went to a haunted house, they ate, they watched TV, played video games, ate, played football, and then ate more. All in all, I think it was a good birthday.  His actual birthday fell on the weekend on the school's fall carnival and since we live with the PTO president our lives have been consumed with carnival planning and activities. We did manage to get up early on Friday morning and have brekkie at IHOP where both boys at like men and the girls discovered make-a-face pancakes.

All in all, it was a quiet but nice way to celebrate 12 years of a super awesome kid.

though she be but little, she is fierce

Sheryl Sandburg can get ready to move over because Lulu is going to give her a run for her money. Instead of Leaning In, she will be Leaping In.

This girl has a style all her own, a fierce attitude, a strong opinion, and is very stubborn. She bosses around her brothers, her parents, and the dog. She is fearless.

Here are some shots of her on a walk last week. Kat had fallen asleep so Lu entertained me with her Lu ways.

Chi Town

I don't often travel for work, ok I never travel for work but I've been fortunate enough to be invited to Chicago twice now. I obviously can't provide too many details about the work but I had such a fun 48 hours that I wanted to share.

So quickly this is an overview of things. I flew in Tuesday evening and (with the help of my travel partner) put on my big girl pants and road the train downtown to our hotel. We met up with the team, had a late dinner at an enjoyable North Carolina style BBQ restaurant called Q. Afterwards we hung out at a local bar by the hotel where I got to enjoy Polish beer. My favorite being Zywiec (of course I loved the label artwork):

Wednesday we did all the boring work stuff that I obviously can't talk about but needless to say it went well and I enjoyed being included. Once the work part was over my host took us out for a fun adventure at Girl and the Goat. Of course it was super exciting for me because this is the restaurant owned by Stephanie Izard. The boys and I are addicted to Top Chef and Stephanie was the first female winner of the show. Anywho, call me and I will go in to great detail about how great the meal was. I had a cauliflower dish that may have altered my life. Since I was with work people, I felt weird taking a photo but someone else asked to take one outside the restaurant so I am including that although I cropped out the others because I just didn't know how they'd feel being added to my blog - so enjoy my floating head in front of the Girl and Goat and a photo of Stephanie for reference. My host requested that she sign my menu but she was at her new restaurant across the street.



After dinner my travel companion asked to stopped by the Billy Goat Bar (I guess we had a theme going), we then walked the City a bit and stopped by this great store called Eataly that was so much to take in and I wanted to eat and touch everything. Definitely visit the website. I wish I had taken photos but I was too self conscious; something I will need to get over if I keep traveling. We ended the evening back at the local bar from the night before so I could have another Polish beer.



The trip home was uneventful although we were on a packed plane of northerners heading to Austin for the second weekend of ACL Fest. It was a great trip both work-wise and getting out to see some of the City. Sadly I wasn't able to meet up with Barb like I did on my last trip. Hopefully I will get to do some more travel although just my brief trip makes me have new appreciation for the teams I work with and my dad. It would definitely be hard to travel all the time and I honestly don't know how my dad managed in the age before smart phones and laptops to help navigate locations, keep up with work, and help with travel.

And yes, Rick and the kids survived. JT kept me updated on life via text. Both boys gave up and bought lunch at school so they wouldn't have to make their own lunches.

I am Leaving - A selfie

Occasionally, I want to leave.
Most times it is so I can have a few moments by myself at Target or as it was in this photo, to sit on a Sunday afternoon with friends and drink a glass of wine (or two).
Often this is what happens and usually it is Kit Kat.

It feels good to be loved but sometimes it is overwhelming.

glue

A friend sent me this article this morning and while it was written back in February, I don't know that this message ever gets old.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/02/25/recline-dont-lean-in-why-i-hate-sheryl-sandberg/

We all need a chance to recline now and again. So often I am overwhelmed with all that is expected of me and a friend described it as being the glue that has to holds all these pieces together.

• Mom - and not just any mom but several different moms -  the cool, awesome mom that does awesome things or creates cool shit from pinterest, the mom can solve most if not all issues from finding a lost toy to easing pain of middle age years, and the authoritative mom that doles out the punishment and keeps everyone in line
• Friend - because we can't survive without them in good times and bad so we have to ensure that we are putting the energy in to nurture and be a true friend
• Co-worker - the one that helps others and leads because we are also Employee Extraordinaire (see below) 
• Employee Extraordinaire  - doing it all and doing it well because we are expected to be the best at what we do
• Spouse, friend, lover to the one person that we probably see and talk to the least and when we do get to talk it is in clipped phrases, reviewing schedules and to do list, or moments before falling asleep exhausted from being the other personas all day. 

Women are the glue (and talk I women here b/c that is what I am - I don't want to short change guys here -  importance of dads or partnerships in marriage but today is about women). We keep it together and some days we have help and others we don't but what is the most miserable part is that even though women everywhere are doing this rather than join together in support some of us take joy in crucifying others when their glue doesn't stick and we falter or fail. 

A close friend of mine is going through some personal and private shit and sadly another mom has ensured that her failings have been made public at school to the point where even the staff is aware of it.  My heart breaks for my friend whose private matter became public.  I am angry at how quickly another woman is willing to cast the first stone. Sometimes the glue doesn't stick and we fail, sometimes we fail daily, and we probably beat ourselves up more than we should but what we don't need is other people especially other women beating us up as well. 

So just like we need to recline a bit and give ourselves a chance to be, a chance to breathe,  we also need to remember (and believe me - I know I am no saint and need to work on this) to give other women a chance to recline and chance a to breathe. Rather than pointing out their failures in hopes to make ourselves feel better or swear that we would never do what they did (because believe me never is a dangerous word to use); we need to support them and make ourselves feel better because we are there to offer to help, to provide glue, and help them hold things together for just a little bit. 

How I Spent My Summer and Other Meghan Musings

The boys informed me that they had to take 3 week tests this week. And obviously I am out of the loop because I couldn't believe we were already 3 weeks in to school but I guess we are. We are in our school routine groove and the Texas fall weather is here. College football dominates the television. My head is full of fall ideas, I bought (and ate with help of my friends) the first bag of candy corn, and I am thinking about craftiness for the upcoming holiday season.

Our summer this year was quieter than last years by leaps and bounds and this is the first year that we did not take a family vacation but we still had a good summer. I've never liked having a structured summer as I feel like the majority of our year is spent following a school and extracurricular activities. Our summer basically revolved around going to the pool. Here is a long overdue summary of our summer.

Chickens
They seem to be growing rapidly. They ended the summer with both of them swimming, jumping off the edge of the pool, and diving down to retrieve pool toys. Their sense of humor amazes me every day. They are quick witted and definitely understand all that is going on around them. They are in love in Cinderella (Lulu) and Ariel (KitKat) but they also enjoy watching Star Wars and rough-housing with their brothers.

JT
This was our first summer that JT did not play baseball and as we move in to our first fall of no baseball, I have to admit as much I love watching him play I am loving not having the time commitment of baseball. As you recall, JT trained and competed in his first triathlo. He worked odd jobs for some of the neighbors and enjoyed the freedom of having his own money. And of course he has embarked into the world of middle school. I've of course have been a nervous wreck about middle school but he seems to be coping just fine despite my angst.

Zach
I am constantly overwhelmed with how gentle and patient and Zach is with the girls. He is such a great help although when he has had his fill he needs a alone time (just like the rest of us). Zach played short season summer ball and had a good time. He has been educating us all on Marvel superheroes. He is also now a resident expert on the Price is Right.

Meghan
I spent my summer at the pool with the kids as well working. In between that I became mildly obsessed with Veronica Mars and watched the series as well as the movie. How did I miss this show when it first aired? How did I survive before Netflix and Amazon Prime? I also did a lot of reading. I tend to pick up beach reads in the summer and I had some definite favorites this time around. I sped through Gone Girl and I am eagerly awaiting the movie. My other two favorites coincidentally took place in Australia - Silver Bay and The Husband's Secret. My go to is usually some UK Chick Lit but both of these books were great reads. I enjoyed Silver Bay enough I read through 3 others of Jojo Moyes books.  Sadly my least favorite book of the summer, The Lost Husband took place in the Hill Country.

So now we move in to fall and I am busy working on Ariel ad Cinderella costumes and trying to finish a homemade Christmas present that I started last fall.

and then...

I've been feeling overwhelmed lately with the weight of it all - work, life, finances. It weighs on me and makes me sad and grumpy and I have even less patience with everyone at the house and then I feel bad for being so grumpy and then I get sad again and it goes around and around.

And then I get an update about coworker's 5 year-old son who had a near drowning experience while at summer daycare and 3 weeks later remains in the hospital, with the ventilator just removed, but still unsure of a long term prognosis.

And then a friend stops by  because she needs to unload the news that a good friend of hers just had to sit for 5 hours while her 3-year old had a tumor removed from his brain. They have to wait another 3-5 days to learn what the next steps will be.

And then I have to remember that things are just things. Money comes and goes, not everything has to be new and flashy, there doesn't have to be big fancy vacations, a house is just a house but what matters most (get ready for the cliche here) is family. I have 4 precious beings that no amount of money, a bigger house, a new car could replace. And while I can't wish away (believe me I've tried) some of life's daily problems or shirk my responsibilities, I have to remember to not let them eat at me all day and become a cloud that ruins my day and makes me miss out the limited amount of time I have with the kids because before I know it there will be graduations, the kids moving out, and what will eat away at me is how I wasted my time worrying about things rather than enjoying it.

Scary Shit!

The girls are really, really excited about Halloween. Who knows where they get that from?! To help satiate their requests for "spooky" books I've been getting Halloween books from the library. I just picked up some new ones and we were settling down in their room to read them when out from underneath their bookshelf at an abnormally fast speed came this guy.

I screamed, Lulu screamed, Kit Kat started crying and we all three jumped up on their bed. I then (and I apologize for this for many reasons primarily to the library) took one of our books and smashed our visitor.

Rick had his  PTO crew over to start planning the fall carnival so I went and got JT who was clearly the wrong choice because he screamed and jumped in the bed with the girls. I asked him to get me something to pick it up with and he returned with one (!) paper towel. I sent him back for a container so I could preserve the kill. I then scooted the spider out into the hallway, managed to sweep it into the container and put the lid on.

Thankfully my fabulous friend Rebecca has a good friend (who has a PhD in bugs and stuff ) and thanks to the magic of our connected worlds, we identified the spider as a Wolf spider (not a brown recluse as I was 100% it was). I felt a wee bit bad for killing it, worse about using the book, and not real pleased that this spider came to our house.

I kept looking at the spider all night and shaking the container to ensure it was dead but by the time I went to bed I placed it outside because I was certain there was a decent chance that it wasn't dead and knew how to bust out of a container. Turns out it doesn't know how to open tupperware and it is actually dead.

And to get the spider image out of your head, here are the chickens checking out the Halloween store.

And we are back

School started today and I am not officially the mom of a middle schooler. Ugh! I have so much angst about the year and I am trying super hard to not let it show. Both boys seems little anxious about starting the day but we managed to get everyone out and on their way. The 30 minutes difference in school start time is an adjustment but hopefully it will work out.

JT was still asleep when Zach was up and ready to go. He actually left early with Rick to help sell t-shirts at school. The girls were asleep to see Zach leave but cried when JT walked out.

Lucky for me, I can view JT on his walk to and from school from the back deck. This is me sneaking a pic as he walks to school with friends.

August

Life flies by and stands still all at the same time.
School starts on Monday and we've been busy working and trying to enjoy the last few days of summer.

I have lots of thoughts and things I think about saying but until we get going in our school routine they will all have to wait. Here are a few photos until then.

Lulu in a princess dress. She wore it for 3 days straight.

 Kit Kat sharing snacks at the pool with her favorite friend Ben.

Kit Kat and Lulu getting to play dress-up with Abbey. Abbey's younger brothers came to our house to play Legos with JT and Zach.

the first tri

I wish I could say that this post was all about me and my amazing accomplishment but it isn't, it is all about JT and honestly, any feelings I would have about myself completing a tri are far out down by the pride I feel for what JT accomplished today.

A little back story - we had a great spring baseball season, perhaps one of the best we've ever had - not so much in wins but in coaching and overall teamness (that is a new word I just created). JT worked harder than he ever has, which if you've ever had the pleasure of seeing him play is saying a lot. The coaches this year stressed conditioning and when the season ended and the coaches told all the boys that regardless of what they do in the summer and fall the boys better come back in the same shape the coaches left them or they may not make the team.

JT pondered what he wanted to do for a few weeks and then during one of our daily swims another mom mentioned her daughter was signed up for Triathlon training. JT spent a few days researching training, what kids tris were coming up, and then asked if he could do the InspireKids Tri. There were a few hurdles the biggest being a bike suitable for the race (his Redline wouldn't be a good choice) and proper swim wear.

JT asked a few neighbors if he could mow their lawns, started swimming laps daily, and found a bike a goodwill that he fixed up and started riding around the hood. His grandparents bought him he long coveted tri-shorts while in Spokane.

Which leads to today. It was great to watch him compete. His swimming was good, we worried about him during the bike portion and noticed when he did appear that the seat didn't seem high enough and it was making him have to pedal oddly. He ended up having to use my bike as his was good enough for the streets here but was not legal for competition. He also had a wipe out during the run and came in the finish gate with a bloody leg but what matters most is that he did it. And by did it, I mean: he swam 200M, biked 6 miles, and ran 1.2 miles.

And after a long day of sleeping and lounging he has already asked to compete in the Pflugerville Tri this September. I guess the rest of us need to step it up a bit.

Chicago, Spokane and Back Again

I am finally feeling settled after a whirlwind week or at least settled enough to post here. So here is our adventure from last week.

Monday/Tuesday
Rarely do proposal managers get asked to travel so when the Regional Sales Director invited me for 24-hour trip to Chicago to meet with a customer, it was hard to say no despite the fact it meant I would be getting back at 10 PM the night before the boys and I were set to leave for Spokane. All boring work stuff aside, it was a great opportunity and I am glad I went. Probably the best part was that I got to spend a few hours with Barb, whom I haven't seen in at least 5 years. Now if only all my work travel could be to places with friends.



Photo of Barb and I acting like fools in my hotel room and two shots at the Big 10 headquarters where the meeting was held.

Wednesday
I woke early trying to work and pack prior to the boys and I taking off for Spokane. It has been a while since the boys flew so it was funny to see how anxious flying made them. Despite being an hour early, they insisted we sit at the gate so as to not miss boarding. Of course I think the glamour and excitement wore off quickly when we arrived in Phoenix. The layover was just under two hours until Southwest had some plane issues and I think we ended up staying almost 4 hours in the Phoenix airport. We entertained ourselves the best we could - moving walk-ways are never boring, checking out the stores (and their supplies of properly spelled Meghan gifts) and the people watching was fabulous. Our delay worked out perfectly because our original arrival time would have put us coming in just as a quick but strong storm ripped through Spokane causing power outages. We spent out first night in the dark debating how long an ice cream cake will last in a freezer with no electricity. Thankfully the power was restored just about midnight so we didn't have to feast on Zach's cake a day early.



Thursday (7/24)
The morning started off with JT and I heading to the Valley to pick up Lauren who happened to be staying with her "other" grandma for a week. I also tortured JT with a tour of a few Valley haunts including the house I grew up in. We spent a full day at Mobius, ate at the Onion, visited Aunties, BooRadleys, Atticus, and then headed home to celebrate Zach's birthday.



Friday
We were back downtown to be  Spokane tourist at Riverfront Park. We rode the gondola (first time ever!) and spent an inordinate amount of time on the carousel. I had no idea 12 and 9 year old boys would find it so much fun but the competition of grabbing the ring kept them wanting more. Zach got the bronze ring, which may have been the highlight of his day.




Saturday
I decided the boys needed to see REAL mountains. I remember Grandpa Joe once coming to Spokane and telling us he didn't need to go to Montana to see mountains; he has mountains where he lives. We headed east and when we reached Coeur d'Alene the boys kept asking if  "those are the mountains." I laughed and told them to just wait. My original destination was Wallace, Idaho just over the 4th of July Pass but once we did that it was just a short 20 minute drive to the Montana border (specifically the $50,000 Silver Dollar). I told the boys we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see 3 States in just under 2 hours (it takes us 6 to get out of Texas) and the Silver Dollar is such a kitcshy tourist junk stop, we had to stop. So we took on Lookout Pass and headed to Montana. The boys were impressed especially when they realized we were at 4700 feet compared to Pville's 700 ft. I wish we had been up and about earlier as once we hit Montana I would have loved to just continued to Missoula for the day. There is so much I love about Austin but being in the mountains made me miss the PNW. I want to figure out how I can get the family to Montana next summer.

Sunday/Monday

We spent the rest of our time in Spokane relaxing, taking in a Spokane Indians game, doing a bit more shopping, lots of eating, Huckleberry ice cream,  torturing the boys with some more trips down memory lane,  a visit to GU, and handing out with Mack (aka Fluffy). I also got to sneak away one evening to meet up with some great friends from my G-Prep days as well as hang out at the Manito Country Club with Kassio so we could catch up while the boys swam.

It was a great trip. We all enjoyed spending time with Pete and Judes and of course we were all sad to leave. Hopefully we will back up with the chickens soon.

a life at lucas house update

Summer is cruising by...
In just a short month, I will be sending JT to 6th grade orientation.
Here is a photo recap although I don't have photos of us swimming, which is what we spend our days doing. The chickens have turned in to little fish.

Some shots from JT's final baseball game of his season and Zach playing with his summer league team (yes that is smurf turf you see - strangest ballpark ever in Dripping Springs).

The girls have a growing obsession with Star Wars so one day we tried making Star Wars cookies. I was short on proper supplies so we tried a shortbread recipe. As you can see by KitKat's reaction, they didn't turn out how we wanted. And to be clear, they are dancing in that upper left photo.

Our first adventure bowling. KitKat kicked all our butts.

Baseball in the backyard in our princess nightgowns. The night before KitKat fell asleep crying about playing baseball.