Chloe asked me last night why it is taking Macie so long to grow up.
She said she needs someone to play with.  And that Macie is too little to do stuff with her...Like drawing... ("she just scribbles on everything")
It made me feel kind of bad.  So I guess I should look into adopting a five year old or something.
I'm okay with Macie taking her time growing up.  And Chloe too, for that matter.

Thanksgiving

   well thanksgiving is officially over.  And it is hard to believe Christmas season is upon us.  Especially since it has been 80 degrees.  But Chloe was so desperate to get the tree up.  So we did.  And she is sleeping in front of it tonight.  She said it was so "magical."  Don told me he overheard her singing Christmas songs to herself as she was putting herself to sleep.

 Dad took the girls for a little ride today.

And now to Thanksgiving.


Chloe participated in her school turkey trot.  She did an excellent job trotting.  Macie and I did an excellent job moseying.


After that I met up with my childhood friend Jourdan, and the only think I have to show for it is this picture of our children.  I wished we lived closer because she is fantastic.  It is so weird that I have known her since she was 3, and here we are with our own children and able to remember being friends when we were just wee little things. I hope my girls stay friends with some of their childhood friends.

 After that I basically chained myself to the oven for the rest of the day.  For Thanksgiving I was in charge of 10 pies, 2 pans of sweet potato casserole, and 2 pans of pecan bars.  Thankfully I didn't actually have to make any of the pies, I just baked them.   So it wasn't too wretched.  That night I took the girls to the outdoor mall for the Christmas tree lighting and some ice skating performances on fake ice,  (still trying to figure that out).  But it didn't feel much like Christmas because I was seriously sweating buckets standing out there watching the fake bubble snow falling.

  Here is Macie "helping" me on Thanksgiving eve.  She has this incredible ability of making messes exponentially worse.
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On Thanksgiving I ran the Mesa Turkey Trot 10k.  Oh, did I say ran? I meant hobbled.  I thought it would be cake since I just did a ragnar, but it was not cake.  It was fruit cake maybe. Just hard and icky.  I don't know what was up with my feet, but I had to take my shoes off and walk for a little but because my toes were so pained.   But at least I felt like I had earned my thanksgiving dinner.

This year was Don's family,  big family reunion.  My sister in laws and I were in charge.  All the accolades really go to my sister in laws though, who I think did much, much more than I did.  

Gee, it would have been nice if we had taken a family picture. Oh well.  It seemed like to much work at the time.  

Saturday morning we all went to Arriba's Mexican Restaurant, where Don's Mexican relatives treated us all to a Mexican breakfast.  We had the entire restaurant to ourselves and a Mariachi band.  Macie showed off some of her amazing dance moves.  

That afternoon I played the piano for Don's Uncle Rudy's open house.  He wanted some background music and asked me if I would provide it.  

And by then it was already time to head back to the church for Day 2's dinner.  

And then there was the talent show.  

Chloe and Paloma did an adorable little song from "tangled."

I sang a Patsy Cline song because Don told me his Mom loved Patsy Cline.  It was a fun night.

 The family members who came in from Mexico are always the life of the party.  I love Mexican culture.  I love that they kiss everyone on the cheek and are so family oriented.  They were so fun to get to know a little better.

 Here I am making Macie insanely jealous.

 But my Miss Macie Moo will always be my main squeeze.  (well one of them)

Here is a picture of the original siblings.  I think there might have been 14 altogether...I will have to check on that.   At any rate, it makes for large and fun extended family get togethers.

Saturday morning some people went for a hike, but I slept in.  Holidays can be very tiring!  That afternoon was Park day.  Macie napped by the tree. there was more eating and more talking. 

Finally that night, we gathered at Kay's house for some final visiting and some take out Chinese food.

And then it was over!

On Sunday I vegitated and had a Downton Abbey season 3 marathon.  Which I know Don thought was super cool.  It was just the mind numbing silliness that I needed to wind down after a great, but busy, weekend. 

Random Funnies

The other day Chloe said to me, "Mom, I know what it means to vote!  It means someone who watches the whole country!  Like when there's sharks, they're going to watch it.  And they help us catch things things that are mean."

So in Chloe's mind:  President of the Unites States = Zoologist

I can live with that.

Here is the paper she gave Chelsey yesterday.  She drew faces with boxes in which Chelsey was supposed to mark which emotion she felt.  Chloe went ahead and x'd the boxes for Chelsey which made Chelsey irate. so she crumpled it up and threw it away.  It was at that point that I found out about this paper since Chloe came in crying that Chelsey had crumpled up her paper.  Look closely and you can see the faces and boxes.  My favorite is the irate box.  So I guess Chloe tracked that Chelsey's moods went from sad to irate, to sad and to happy.  I think I missed the happy part.

 Chelsey on her scooter.  She has one more week, hopefully.  And she has gotten pretty fast on this thing.

 I found Macie in my bed asleep.  She put herself there. And her head was at a 90 degree angle.

 This is Chloe's Halloween skeleton.  I love that she gave it long hair.

Ragnar

This weekend I ran my very first Ragnar Relay race.  If you want to know what a Ragnar relay race is, watch the video above.  We watched it about 15 times on our trip and it never got old.  If you have ever run a ragnar race, you MUST watch the video above.  It is hilarious.

We left Thursday, had a nice drive to Vegas, got settled in our rental house, then ate dinner at IHOP and took a trip to Wal Mart for supplies. In the morning we got ready and drove to the starting line where my team members filled me in on the logistics of the race.  It was freezing and windy in Vegas.  Let me repeat.  Freezing and Windy.  I was not expecting it.  Phoenix has been incredibly warm and so when I heard we were going to have a cold spell, I was thinking in the 70's.  But it was actually more like highs in the 50's.  Which if you are used to being a desert rat, that is very cold.

I was runner number 8.  I started my first leg which was 5.7 miles, somewhere around mid morning.  I cannot remember specifics because I basically was in a time warp for the whole weekend being that the only 3 places I spent my time was 1. on the course  2. in a van 3. in our rental house.  I ran through the suburbs of Vegas.  The wind blew my hat off twice and I would say the first 2 miles of that run was pretty crappy.  The wind was so loud I could hardly hear my music.

After that run I got back in the car and sat there for oh, about 6 hours.  Then we got dinner at Quiznos, returned back to the house, showered, rested a little, and then got up around 11 PM and headed back out to the course.

Did I mention it was freezing?  I tried my very best never to have to get out of the van. And I am proud to say that I only had to use the Porto Potty once the entire trip.

I started my night run at about 2 AM.  That leg was 4.7 miles.  There was one point in that run when I was listening to Cold Play, that I really enjoyed myself and felt good.  The other 4.6 miles was sheer will power.

Then I got back in the van and slept uncomfortably until the sun started to rise and it was time to head back to our house to once again shower and stretch out for a little bit.

I stumbled into bed and awoke feeling invigorated and refreshed.  Not.  I felt like I had been run over by one of the vans.  But after some intense stretching, a shower, and some food I felt better and was ready to get my last run done.

The last run was 4.2 miles and I am not ashamed to admit I walked a good portion of that run.  I was pooped.  Right before my run I ran into (not literally) one of my old college friends, Sam.  That was pretty cool.  The whole experience kind of made me feel like I was back in college.  For a couple days I had no responsibilities but myself, and it was 2 days of joking around and talking about silly stuff (well, except for some Political discourse).

After my last run I felt fantastic. I was done!  And I ate an entire take out container of Panda Express.  Which wasn't the wisest thing I have ever done.  I knew we had plans to eat at the Billagio buffet later that night, but I completely stuffed myself on orange chicken and Beijing beef.  I am pretty sure I managed to still gain 5 pounds this weekend even though I ran almost 15 miles.

Our team finally finished around 7 PM.  We got our medals and hobbled together through the finish line.

And then it was Buffet time!  I made sure to get my $41.08 worth of food.

I ate enough to feed a village in Ethiopia.   And then we went back "home" and I literally walked through the door, fell down on my bed, and didn't wake up until 9 in the morning.  I had an amazing night's sleep.

And then we came home.  And I basically slept the whole way home.

I was excited to get back to my family and Chloe stayed awake until 10 PM asking me about my race and what the President does.  Apparently she has picked up on the prevailing conversations around here.

So final words?  Ask me in a few months if I ever want to do another Ragnar.  I had a blast with the people in my van.  We had a lot of good laughs and I felt like I was 16 years old again.  The body aches and the lack of sleep made me feel like I was 60 years old.  All in all, I had a really good experience, made some new friends, and did something crazy.  About as crazy as I get.

 

I know there are a lot of people that are really happy today.  I am not one of them.  I am a member of the half of the country that didn't get what they wanted. Above, is us last night, optimistic but nervous.

 

 And this was me this morning.  

I have pretty much felt like this all day.

Also it is my Mom's birthday today.  So that just added to my glee.

I don't normally talk about my specific political viewpoints because I have this need to be liked.  But maybe just this once I am going to say something just to explain why an election could cause me to hang out in a hoodie for most of the day.

We have been greatly affected by the down economy the past few years.  My husband is self employed.  We were hoping for a Mitt Romney win.  We felt he had extensive business experience that would be incredibly helpful in getting the economy going again and get the spending back in control.  

We really thought he could do it.  And now we will never know.  

It's hard to find hope when I realize nothing is going to change.

How can it change? It's all the same people. 

I feel our country is headed for an economic meltdown.  

At any rate, I have to accept it.

We lost.

And whether you were happy or sad today, I am sure you can understand what it feels like to lose something that was really, really important to you.

So I moped about it for pretty much the whole day.  

I realized this evening that I had ignored my children all day, and have been mentally checked out for the past few days obsessing over the possibilities.

And it started to show this evening with their behavior.

In my struggle to find something positive to cling to, I found something.

My children. 

And so from now on, I am recommitting myself to my family.  And I am going to turn off the news and pay attention to them.

The End

 

 Chloe has at least 3 cavities.  hooray.

 

Halloween

I don't know what was up with Chloe this year.  She had been looking forward to Halloween since pretty much last February, yet she managed to be in a funk on the blessed day. 
Yesterday she was showing me her phone artwork when I came across this beauty.
I asked her why she was sad in this picture.  And she told me that she drew this on Halloween night when her and her cousin were "in a fight."
Apparently the fight ensued because "She has more fancier things than I do.  More fancier hair things...more fancier jewelry...more fancier clothes...and she's prettier than me.  And she has brown skin and I have white skin.  And I am taller than her.  So now we can't be best friends anymore."

Help.

So anyway, I guess that's what she was doing in the corner with my phone.

(She just came and asked me if I could help her make cookies out of her recipe book because she needs to have cookies for her garage sale tomorrow.  News to me.  But she said she is "selling the cookies for free."  So I guess the excuse that we don't sell things on Sunday, will not be an adequate detriment to her plans.)

Macie discovered the magic of Halloween this year.  She caught on very quickly that the goal was to go up to a stranger's basket and take a candy of her choosing...eh, multiple candies of her choosing.  She loved it.  Absolutely loved it.   And she unwrapped every single lollipop in her bag to taste test.
I tried to get Macie to wear some wings, but she hated them.  Alas, this is the first year I have not had a winged creature to show off.  I don't know why, but I just really love wings on babies.

 See, babies need wings.

 As you can see, our costumes were pretty amazing this year.  Chloe was a ballerina, and she was very particular of what her costume entailed, and Macie, I still am not exactly sure what she was, besides happy. 

In other unrelated news, here is the latest happenings.
Next week I am running in a Ragnar race in Las Vegas.  I have no idea what to expect.  But it has been good motivation to get me running again.  The best part of running, is being done running.

Also next week is the election.  One half of the country will be in mourning and the other half of the country will feel like Christmas morning.  I hope to be in the latter half.  I am so anxious to know what the results will be.  I hope that we will know by the end of the evening and that it is not so close that we have to wait 2 weeks.

Also last week Hurricane Sandy decimated parts of New York.  Sometimes I think living in New York City sounds rather romantic, but seeing the news lately makes me grateful that it is 90 degrees and always, ALWAYS sunny here.
The world is kind of a crazy place right now. I am quite grateful that my little sphere of the world is quite dull.

PS I was just told that my sister in law asked chloe if she liked animals.  And Chloe said, "Yes, just one."  And she asked her which one, to which Chloe replied, "A unicorn."   aaaaaaaghhhh....that's my Chloe.

O.C.

I have always been taught to respect my elders.  But lately I have been finding that there are a lot of elders that I find very hard to respect.  Many seem to just be Old and Crotchety: O.C.  And most of them seem to be women.
Yesterday I was at the grocery store, stressed out by the way, standing in the corner, on my phone, trying to figure something out with my bank.  (sidenote, I got a SmartPhone.  After 3 crappy cheap phones within a year, I finally bit the bullet.)
Macie was taking off sunglasses and modeling them for me and Chloe was sitting on the floor looking at a display of packaged plastic action figures.
She had taken a couple packages off the shelf and was doing her voices that she does when she plays with little toys.  She was not damaging them in any way, and I knew we would put them back on display when I had figured my bank stuff out.

Well along comes a 113 year old woman (okay that's an exaggeration.  But I am still really ticked off, so I have decided to say that she is 113 years old.  I am not an ageist. I am just anti O.C.)

At first I thought she was stopping to say "hi" to Chloe because usually old people think young people are cute. How silly of me.
 I smiled at her.
She looked at me.  Then looked at Chloe.  Then said, "What are you doing with those?"
I was still thinking she meant it in a conversational way, so I just stood there smiling.  And Chloe just sat there for a second and then put them back.
Apparently she figured out the lady's intentions much quicker than I.
As soon as Chloe put them away, the O.C. lady looked at me, shook her head,  and then continued shaking her head as she walked away.
And I just stood there dumbfounded.

My blood started to boil and Chloe's chin started quivering as she said, "Mommy, I want to go home now."
Flustered, and already stressed out, I probably said some things about the O.C. lady that I shouldn't have.
I told Chloe that she was just pretending to be a Witch because it was Halloween.
And that somehow made me feel a little bit better too, once I pictured her with a broom and a black hat.

This is not the first time I have run into an O.C.
I run into them frequently.  
Usually I see their disapproving head shake and eye roll when one of my children dash in front of their grocery cart.  I guess they forget that children are like birds.  When you are driving, it isn't until the very last second that birds fly right in front of your car.  It's instinct.  Children are the same.  They can be walking right beside you, see that another person is about to cross your path with their cart, and they instinctively run right in front of it.

I just really appreciate all the O.C.'s out there that feel it is their job to let you know that you are failing as a Mother and that your children are cretins. It is just really encouraging and helpful.  Because nothing makes an already stressful trip to the grocery store more enjoyable than a scowl from a stranger or words of criticism.  Bravo O.C.'s! You really are doing some good in the world!

So the next time I see the back of someones disapproving shaking head, I am going to do something.
I am going to empty out one of my old pill containers, fill it with tic tacs, and I am going to write on it, "Nice Pills"   And then I am going to hand it to them and say, "Oh...you must have forgotten to take your nice pills today."  And then I am going to write in small print: " Medication to be used  in cases of unkindness towards little children.  Studies have shown this medication helps to increase patience towards children, who are not nearly as perfect and well behaved as yourself."
Yes.  I think that would make me feel better.