Spring is Coming

Conversation last night:

Papa: "See the tree outside? There are two flowers that have already bloomed. In a few days, that tree is going to explode with flowers."

thirty second pause

P: "Mama, I want to see the flowers go BOOM!"

New Year, a month later...

No blog posts yet this year, eh? Well, it's been kind of busy. Plus when your laptop is on top of the lap of your four-year old and he's on your lap, it makes things a little more, shall we say, challenging. And you've just made dinner and cleaned it up. And you've just made muffins with said four-year old and haven't cleaned up that mess yet. And your eight year old is upstairs with his daddy, stressing out about his spelling homework. And your four year old wants to do a puzzle of the United States of America RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the exercise front: NO swimming (still too cold for me), a teeny bit of biking, some running (say, 2-3 miles, 2-3 times a week). Haven't picked my next event/race. I'm contemplating Bay to Breakers (early reg deadline: April 30th, race date: May 17th). I'm still practicing aikido twice a week and just found out that I should be testing for 3rd kyu sometime in March. Eeek! I thought I was all over test anxiety. Guess I was wrong.

I've got a presentation to do for work on March 6th that I'm already starting to worry about (hey, it's never to early for that).

In the meantime, I'm folding paper airplanes. Lots of paper airplanes. See, we (read D) got a paper-airplane-a-day calendar for Christmas. P is obsessed with it. Never let's me forget to fold one. It is February 5th. You do the math, that's a lot of airplanes and it's only the first week of February!!! But they are a lot of fun to fold and they are a lot of fun to fly. I bet it will make me popular with the below-5 set.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.

50 seconds to muffin time!

Got to go.

I am Full

As I sat watching the television last night, immersed in Obama's speech, I was full.

My glass was full of champagne.

My eyes were full of tears and then they overflowed.

My heart was full of pride.

As I looked at my children, watching with me, my whole being was full of love and hope.

The Best Present Ever

It was my birthday last week and though I received a bunch of very sweet presents from my boys and my friends, the best one was something that cannot be bought - the news that my aunt's cancer therapy is working! After 10 weeks of treatment, the chemotherapy and radiation treatment are starting have an effect on those tenacious cancer cells. Her birthday email sounded happy and upbeat and POSITIVE. My spirits were lifted and I felt so happy.

Now I know that this doesn't herald a cure but it does buy her some more precious time - to spend with her loved ones, to enjoy the peacefulness of her and my uncle's little cottage outside of the city, to smell the flowers, to write email, to be a part of all of our lives and for us to be a part of hers.

Cousin Camp

Eight kids between the ages of eight and four. Three mommies between the ages of, well, let's skip that bit. :) Four summer days. What did we get up to?

Monday: Fun with Boxes Day! Who knew how much fun could be had with some moving boxes, a little bit of string, some masking tape and an adult wielding a box cutter? Just add creativity and you have some houses (with attics and garages), a tunnel and a pulley system for relaying messages.


Tuesday: Water Day! We've still got our 10-ft diameter pool up in the back yard and it was put to fine use as the eight kids were in and out of the water over the course of several hours. First, the splashers, then the non-splashers, repeat.

Wednesday: Field Trip to Coyote Point Museum. Admission was free as it is every first Wednesday of the month. The kids had a great time running around the exhibits, playing with all the hands-on projects, running around the exhibits, reading about spiders and hawks and snakes, did I mention running around the exhibits? Then we spent another couple of hours at the most awesome playground that the kids have ever laid eyes upon.

Thursday: Crafts Day! We made Cousin Camp shirts and decorated visors and flags. The mommies has as much fun as the kids with all the paint and glue and decorations.

I had a wonderful time with the kids and with my two mommy partners-in-crime. The shirts we made today for ourselves say STAFF on the back. That's us.

The best parts of the camp were seeing all of the children having so much fun with each other and becoming better friends in the process. There was very little conflict, only minor scrapes and bumps and not a single second of TV watched during the entire time. Truly amazing!

I hope we do this again next year. I really do.

Time Out

I'm having a 'staycation.' At least that's what the folks at P's daycare are telling me. I'm taking the week off and have pulled both kids out of day camp and day care, we're not getting on a plane or a long drive anywhere, and we are going to have a blast! We're having 'cousin camp'! I'm very excited.

Today, we are driving over to my brother and sister-in-law's house and will be playing with their three kids and with her sister's three kids as well. That makes, count them, EIGHT children under the age of nine under one roof. Or rather, in the garden, in the park, up and down the stairs and everywhere! Us mommies will be hanging out while the kids have a blast, hopefully only having to act as occasional referees and band-aid appliers.

Tomorrow, everyone comes to our house. On Wednesday, we go on a field trip. Thursday, it's off to the third house and on Friday it's back to my brother's for a housewarming/birthday/Fourth of July party. How fun! Especially since all the hubbies have Friday off from work too. I really love having my family close by.

Birthday Wishes

Today was D's 8th birthday party. We lit the candles on his cake, sang the song and, then, uttered those familiar words, "Make a wish!"

I wonder what he wished for. The answer probably revolves around a Nintendo DS*. But I got to thinking about wishes and how, sometimes, we wish for the moon, knowing that we will most likely not get what we want but we wish anyway, just in case.

What would I want? I do believe that it would be a teleportation device, so that I could see the people that I love that live so very far away, whenever I wanted to. Wouldn't that be awesome?

I don't know if this will ever exist outside of science fiction. I'll keep wishing anyway, just in case.

*The DS? We've struck a deal with D. If he can earn half of the money needed to pay for a new one, we'll come up with the second half.

Who's That Whining?

Oh wait, it's me.

M is off to Virginia for five days to represent the four of us at our niece's high school graduation. It's great because it's a wonderful celebration and a happy reunion time for the three brothers.

However...

I have a cold. Yes, a standard head cold. Yes, the kind I've had before and will no doubt have again. The kind that saps your strength and leaves your nose red and chapped, your throat scratchy, your lips dry and your head feeling like it's been hit with a three pound hammer.

I want *my* mommy.

It is now 5:38 pm and I am counting down the minutes until bedtime when I can get the boys into bed, take a dose of NyQuil and go to sleep. But first I have to rustle up some dinner.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Hope

Sometimes I seek inspiration in words and tonight I sought it in a poem. I found Emily Dickinson and I'll link to the Poetry Foundation site because I don't want to be violating any copyright laws:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers-

So Far Away

What do you do when you're far away from people that you love and they're hurt?
Or sick?
How do you hug long-distance?
How do you hold a hand?
How do you share a cry?

One of my dad's sisters has cancer and it has come out of remission.

What do I do? What do I do?

I pick up the phone and call because it's all I can do right now.

What else? What do I do?

Packing and Other Lists

Leave at home:

1. DVD player
2. iPod
3. computer
4. work
5. tent (we're staying in a tent cabin, after all)

Bring for sure:

1. camera
2. underwear and socks
3. sleeping bags
4. fleeces and rainshells
5. sunblock
6. water bottles
7. first aid kit
8. kids
9. snacks
10. caps

Not really looking forward to:

1. "Are we there yet?"
2. "He's touching me!"
3. "Well, he touched me first!"
4. "I need to go potty." (at the most inopportune moment)

Looking forward to:

1. hiking
2. stargazing
3. seeing Half Dome, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls
4. first 'camping' trip with our little boys

Going to Yosemite!

Guess what? For Mother's Day and our wedding anniversary, my family is headed to Yosemite National Park to celebrate. Yippee! I've been wanting to go to Yosemite for ages now. Imagine, I've lived in the Bay Area for six years now and still haven't made it out there.

I've heard others rave about the beauty in the mountains, the hikes, the majesty of the peaks and the peacefulness in the views. Now we're going to see them for ourselves. I hope the kids appreciate it, I know that I will.

Diabolical Plan

My brother and his family are visiting us this weekend. His three kids and our two kids had a 'conference' on Friday night. Today, we found the minutes in the form of a list on a sheet of paper:

1. Trick parents
2. Pooh drop (many times) - I'm really hoping they're referring to Winnie the Pooh
3. gather weapons
4. gather tools

The kids range in age from 8 to 3. Should we be scared yet? :)

Fend For Yourself

Ever had a dinner that was totally miscellaneous? Well, that's what happened here tonight. I didn't feel like cooking - I can always make that chicken stir fry that was going to happen tonight tomorrow night. We looked in the fridge and decided that we could make do with what was waiting in there.

The result:

M: string cheese, mixed nuts, glass of red wine, leftover pork tenderloin and boiled potatoes
D: left over mac and cheese, pretzels, pear
P: yogurt and Cheerios, milk
me: left over beef lo mein, 8 left over tortellinis, three small slices of three day old bread (toasted, one with butter, one with honey and one with Nutella), milk

Not your Martha Stewart dinner but it was a family dinner that we all enjoyed. That's pretty much all that counts.

We are Such Geeks

I just had the greatest laugh with my brother. We were sitting in the living room, looking at the Ask Marilyn column from last Sunday's Parade magazine. It had a little math problem in it and we both looked at each other with the same thought: "Let's solve it." I grabbed a pen and paper and started talking out loud as I started to work. He quickly got frustrated with me and grabbed his own paper and pen and it was off to the races.

Did I mention that we both used to compete in Math and Science contests in high school? Oh yeah, we were in the elite group that got to travel to other schools for the Nerdy Olympics. He was much better than me but, fortunately, two years younger than me so I never had to compete directly against him. For me, it was really an opportunity to get out of class and meet 'smart boys.' :)

Needless to say, he figured it out way before I did for several reasons:

a. I've forgotten some basic algebra. Whoops. It's all coming back to me now. Really. In my defense, it was five equations in five variables.

b. I was laughing so hard I couldn't concentrate or write. And that's not just an excuse!

Since we'd had so much fun doing that, I pulled out a book that I'd stashed away a long time ago. It had been quietly gathering dust, waiting for just a moment like this. Yes, you got it, a book of brainteasers. We found another algebra word problem and pounced on it. In my eagerness to demonstrate that I can still do it, I went through my solution out loud. By this time, we were both laughing so hard that M stuck his head into the room to check if we were alright.

You've never seen two people have so much fun with math.

Ahhhhhh, the memories that brought back. The good old days.

I love my brother.

Thoughts on Reunions

Reunion: a reuniting of persons after separation
-Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

The Joy of Hello:

Because my parents live so far away, we usually only see each other once a year, twice if we're lucky. I can't sleep much the night before they arrive here or we leave to go visit them, because I can't wait for the moment to arrive. Whether I'm waiting at the airport for them to come through customs or I'm sitting on the plane, whiling away the hours in the air, the anticipation just builds and builds and builds. And then, there we are, together again and the smiles on our faces could light up the whole arrival area. I see the same kinds of smiles shining on the faces of the people around me and I know that we are all feeling way: like there's a sun inside you making you feel all warm and happy and loved.


The Sadness of Goodbye:

Time flies by so quickly when we're together and before I know it, it's time to head to the airport again and time for my throat to constrict and the tears to start welling up in my eyes. I try really hard not to cry but if I see my mom starting to tear up too, that is the end. Sigh. I hate saying goodbye.

Resolution:

I need to accept that, until teleportation becomes reality, there's not much I can do about the distances that separate us. I need to learn to live in the now and just enjoy the moments that we do spend together, not dwell so much on the time that we are apart, to appreciate what we have and not think about what we do not.

This will be my goal when we head home for the holidays this Christmas. I will focus on hello and I won't say goodbye. I'll stick with the German 'Auf Wiedersehen,' which I like much better.

'Til we see each other again.

A Short Drive

My brother is moving closer to us! A new job has brought him to these parts. Today, he drove about 660 miles in just over 1o hrs to get from Idaho to CA. Needless to say, with that kind of drive between us, we haven't seen each other much these past few years. With four of us here in CA and five of them there, it just seemed like a logistical miracle to get us together once a year. Now, he and his family will be living just a 30 minute drive (weekend traffic conditions) away. Hooray!

We fought like crazy when we were little, as all siblings do (at least I think so). Then when we got to college, we got along much better. Finally, I moved away to go to grad school and I think that distance did make the heart grow fonder. We're really good friends now and I'm very much looking forward to seeing him and his family more often. Part of what I've missed, living here in the U.S., is having family close by. That has just changed.

Got a smile on my face. Life is good.

Daddy's Home!

Usually, it's the boys that are shouting this when M gets home. But, this week, from Thursday till Sunday, I get to say it too because my dad is visiting us. On Sunday evening, he heads back home to Manila and I know I will be sad. But in the meantime, I'm just enjoying having him here, watching him and his grandsons have a grand old time together. It's a time to treasure. Right now, we're a three laptop household. Me blogging, M surfing and doing accounting stuff and Papa sifting through his hundreds (literally!) of pictures of the last month and a half vacation with us and my brother and his family, picking out the lucky few to send on to relatives. Ah, modern times.

Snapshots from a Vacation

Flowers in our backyard, July 14th.



Drakes' Beach, July 21st.




P chasing the waves, July 21st.




The guys on a deserted Drakes' Beach, July 21st.




Flowers for my Mama on her birthday, July 27th.

Another Trip Around the Sun

'Twas a fine day indeed, made more memorable by the following:

1. Celebrating with my parents for the first time in I can't remember when.

2. Three, count 'em, three cakes. A chocolate marble cake with chocolate frosting, a banana cream pie and a fruit tart. Next year, no more candles - too much of a fire hazard!

3. Spending the afternoon with my cousin Todd and his lovely wife Elaine, in addition to my immediate family. That included walking to the park and playing with the kids there.

4. Getting phone calls, cards and text messages from friends and family near and far.

5. Cool new running gadget: a heart rate watch! Programmable and everything.

6. Homemade birthday cards from the boys.

7. Sushi dinner!

8. 2.5 miles in 23 minutes. I've finally broken that dreaded 10 min mile barrier. My heart rate was through the roof when I was done but it was worth it!

I am one happy (and tired) camper.