*sigh* again with the inability to title my blogs..

there has been a lot going on lately. i feel like i havent really slowed down for over a month... and looking at my calendar, it is not getting much better. i am working on getting my house organized. things are out of control with the clutter and i am having a really hard time dealing with it these days. well, it has been almost two months since my last blog. since then, we went to vegas for a wedding, halloween haunt at knotts berry farm, had a big ol' birthday bash in the dirty desert for daryl's 40th birthday, spent three days in san diego for part one of my lactation educator class, went to a halloween party, survived halloween, the time changed and now here we are... um, i guess that's the last two months in a nutshell :) I am currently looking at a calendar where all weekends have something going on until sometime in January.... I don't know when i will ever have a weekend to just sit around the house, but i guess it balances out with the fact that i can do that on the weekdays if i really had to... There are a ton of things that i need to be doing and never seem to be doing the things i should. well, someday, i guess i will get organized and quit procrastinating... (or not, whatever) :)

Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.' The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed... 'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else---the small stuff. 'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand. One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

My thoughts: Have you evaluated your balls and beer lately?? (Golf balls, that is!!) Take time to make sure that your priorities are being placed into your jar in the right order. If not, there may not be room for everything. I totally agree that family should be first, then your outside responsibilities, followed by the small stuff. If you place everything in the jar in the appropriate order, there will definitely be room for a couple of drinks with friends. It is something that is so often overlooked when we have so many balls, pebbles and sand to deal with, but at the same time it is so very important to take that time and make the room. I have only come to realize this over the last two years and even more-so over the last month or so. I think of it this way... the golf balls, pebbles and sand, once in the jar, are not going anywhere. The beer however, if left unattended will evaporate and need to be replenished. Don't forget to take the time to replenish and quench the thirst in your life. I look at my mayonnaise jar and am very thankful to S and V for always helping make sure my balls are moist!!

Vegas Wedding

We just found out a few days ago, that a friend of ours has decided on a Vegas Wedding later this month. They will be getting married in Vegas on September 26th. Really short notice, but I am looking forward to a great weekend. I am just not sure how they will be able to pull everything off in the next two weeks!! I am going to try to help as much as I can, but I think they are going to try to keep things simple, so that should be helpful.

Labor Day Wknd

Labor Day Weekend proved to be a busy time for us. We ended up doing quite a bit of driving, but we all had a great, relaxing time. Thursday, September 3rd we were at Sea World. We got there in the early evening when lots of people were already leaving. It was nice that it was no longer packed as it had been earlier in the day. We took the kids on a couple of rides in the Sesame Bay of Play, grabbed some funnel cake and ice cream, and headed over to the last Shamu Show of the day. The kids absolutely loved it as usual! They were screaming so loud that people were turning around laughing to see how excited they were to see Shamu. At the end of the show, JR decided he wanted to go down and see Shamu. He tried to run through the crowds away from us to get to him. I caught up to him and said it was time to go and he was devastated! The poor little guy kept crying for Shamu. "I want MU!!!" We had to tell him that Shamu went nite-nite and even then, he still cried. Now he was repeating "MU go nite-nite!" (still crying). After leaving Sea World, we drove up to Pomona and stayed with D's sister. Friday morning and early afternoon was spent in the LA area, then heading south to San Clemente. We met up with my sisters at Trader Joes. At this point the traffic was picking up on a Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend, so we decided we better stay in the area until after traffic died down a bit. We headed up the road to Pines Park (which is the park we were married at). The kids had a great time playing on the playground, but it was hot so I suggested heading over to the beach. We went down to San Clemente Pier and had a wonderful time in the water. There are pictures posted on my facebook page. The kids had a blast!!! We were ill prepared for the beach as it was an impromptu trip, so we all ended up soaked! It was just amazing to see how much fun the kids had though. They are such little fish!! Saturday morning we left for Lake Havasu City, AZ. We have friends there and typically go out there at least twice a year, however, we had not been there since last Labor Day. It was great to see friends and just relax. It was a "go with the flow" weekend. No schedules, no plans, just hanging out. Sunday evening we went to a friends for a bbq and some swimming. Of course the "fish" had a fantastic time in the water. Karizma was jumping from about 3 feet above the water to her daddy and JR decided that he didnt want anyone to hold him anymore and just started swimming back and forth across the pool! It was a much needed relaxing time away for us.

life is so unexpected and crappy at times. i just lost a dear friend of mine. over the last week, we have lost a family member, and two close friends. i have lost friends before and (maybe because i was much younger) i was not as affected by it as i am now. of course i was devastatingly saddened as i am now, however, i wasn't thrust into a state of realization of my own mortality. it is frightening to think of not being here. not for myself, but for my family. particularly thinking of my friend i lost today. she was a young mom. two beautiful little girls only 2 and 1... she was a beautiful spirited person, inside and out. her girls are going to be deprived of the love of their mother. if there was ever a time to claim the unfairness of life, this would be it. i am unable to understand these losses of the past week. all so unexpected and crushing.

daily goings ons...

the last couple of days i have spent in the kitchen. i desperately need a new dishwasher! after cleaning the entire kitchen, i had to cook dinner, which now means i have to clean the kitchen again... today i got up and the kitchen was still clean, but all the dishes from yesterday needed to be put away, and the fridge needed to be cleaned out. this in turn created more dishes needing to be washed. after washing all those dishes, it was time to make dinner again, so i still have a dishwasher (used as a drying rack) full of dishes that need to be put away and now dirty dishes from making dinner tonight... wow, no wonder i am tired of being at home. so where in all that am i supposed to clean the rest of the house? i think i need a house elf :) (i'd even settle for a gnome at this point). i have been in a bit of a slump the last few days also, maybe too much down time??? i had been very busy up until sunday morning and i woke up with nothing on my calendar for the entire week... this causes me to feel like i have all the time in the world to finish stuff and therefore never finish anything even though i have way more time to finish than i normally would... (get it?) that was a lot of rambling to say that if i have deadlines, i work more efficiently. i am happy to say that i now have at least two things on my calendar for the week and am anticipating a couple more to develop over the next day or so. a great example of having plenty of time to waste: i have needed to do laundry since sunday, but since i was free i just kept telling myself i had plenty of time to do it, and now it's the middle of tuesday night and i still haven't started a single load... (haven't even sorted any of it yet) i suppose in light of all the procrastinating i am doing, and considering its getting very late now, i should head to bed and get a fresh start tomorrow with some deadlines in place. i think it's partly the accountability. if i have no deadlines, i have no accountability if something is not done. however, as a general rule, if there is a deadline, there is generally some sort of accountability attached to the deadline (otherwise, why would there be a deadline?) which means i will work more efficiently to meet the deadline and be accountable for my actions. i believe this started when i was in fourth grade. i had a teacher who did not push me to excel and i decided that if i already knew how to do the work, that i didn't have to do the homework... boy was i wrong! got a D in math that year, just for not turning in homework, but my thinking was, homework is for practice, i knew how to do it and therefore didn't need to practice. sounded good at the time, i suppose. i quickly learned a lesson in being accountable for my actions even if someone is not looking over your shoulder telling you to do something. i still have a problem with excessive amounts of homework. (and by excessive, i mean homework pertaining to stuff i already know how to do.)

i can never think of a title.

i generally sit down to update my blog having no idea what i am going to update it with. it just seems to me that the day to day happenings are so trivial and that there should be more substance... on the other hand, it makes a nice record to keep track of some of the little things that occur and would otherwise be forgotten. i am extremely out of practice with my writing and need to brush up a bit in the vocabulary department. it seems that every year i live in this armpit of hell, the intelligent words that have seeped into my brain are being sucked out. i rarely find opportunities to use decent sized words in daily conversation outside of home and close friends. (and even at home, there's a lot of 2 1/2 year old conversations, which can be intelligent, just not full of great vocabulary.) i have been volunteering with the imperial county breastfeeding coalition and attending regular meeting. this has provided some great brain stimulation over the past few months. although this has come at a price of doing a lot of planning for the worlds largest baby shower. the event was last week and it was a success! i also presented a piece on "babywearing" and was nervous as hell!!! it's been many, many, many, many moons since i last spoke in front of so many people. (hundreds!) also, this fall, i am anticipating joining the early care and education council as a member and hope to keep on my toes with regards to my loss of intellectual stimulation over the years. i guess i just need to go back to school, but that would require a lot of money, which no one has these days. it would also require a lot of time which i am lacking as well. i don't see where i will fit in between raising twins, keeping up with the house, trying to become a la leche league leader, and preparing to take a lactation educator course... did i mention all this is while trying to get a non-profit child care and family resource center up and running?? whew, i guess i'm a bit ambitious.