Leap Year Birthday

Happy 2nd birthday to my 8 year old, leap year pug, Cubbie. The musical Dear Edwina isn't the only fabulous thing that came from Paw Paw, Michigan. You are! We were living in Grand Rapids, Michigan while the Alaskan Assassin was playing Arena Football and our black pug had such separation anxiety (similar to Shay Bae Bae) that we needed you to keep her company. You are the sweetest and best looking pug a girl could ask for. Thanks for loving us and our littles so much. I'm sorry Buddy ate your breakfast (twice) this morning, but I'll try to make it up to you by feeding you lots of carrots and letting you dig at the beach.  Here is to hoping that we get at least one more birthday with you!

Sunday Best

It was a stressful and long work week for the Alaskan Assasin so a weekend of down time, date night and basketball league was all that was on our schedule. It was nice to relax and recharge and then today at church reflect on  where I am in life. Today was the day, once a month, where the Preist calls the littles  up and speaks his homily to them. The gospel was from John 4:1-15 and he spoke mostly about this verse: 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

As the priest is trying to explain how important water is to us, he looked to the littles to ask them why we needed it. The first answer was that we needed it for surfing and I thought how differently my littles are being raised. How special it is that they live in a beach town where the ocean is their first thought of water. I'm also so lucky that Roo and the Felon believe in Jesus and talk openly about that with us. That we have shown our children the way to eternal life is only through the teaching of Jesus Christ.  They learn this at both the LDS church and the Catholic Church and at our house. For me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.

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Bahamas on a Whim

If there is one application that I would recommend you put on your phone, its the timehop app. I understand not everyone takes 1,000 pictures a month, but you take a few right? You can click on the app daily and look back on what fun things were happening in your life years before. I got super excited when I looked at my app the other day and saw the pictures from a cruise I had taken when Roo was 1 and the Felon 3.  It had been a long winter and I was desperate for the sun. The Alaskan Assassin doesn't get that many vacation days so I had to find something I could do alone or with a friend. My girlfriend was telling me about a cruise she was taking at the end of the week with her family. It left right from the Piers in Manhattan. That meant there would be no airplane rides. All I had to do was get us on the train, the subway, maybe a taxi and then I could be on vacation. Since it was less than a week away the prices were super low. I told myself, "I can do hard things." That is pretty much the best mantra for a mama to littles. I then invited my sister in law and her kids and booked the trip. Last minute my sister in law brought her husband, but when on a gigantic boat with no phone service you are on your own anyways. There was room service and a kids club to help me.  It was actually not only manageable, but so much fun! We did Disney World, The Atlantis Hotel and the W Hotel in the Bahamas. For about $300 a person we ate and swam and explored for 8 days. I love looking back on these pictures and remembering how much fun we had and remembering that I could do it all on my own.

One fact you should know about Carnival Cruises, that they did not tell me before, is that if your baby is in diapers and not potty trained they are not allowed in the pools or splash pad on the boat. Jerks.

Book club takes Yoga Shanti

Surrounding myself with smart, funny, kind, athletic, empowering and positive woman has been my secret to staying a happy mom. It is so important to have them as your "village" that helps raise your littles, but also as your escape when needed. In order to make sure we get that time in we started a book club that meets once a month. We all have different interests, so it is fun to read something  that  might be outside of our comfort zone and understand that person a little more based on what they took from the book. We usually meet at a restaurant, but mix it up some months. In the summer we made it to the beach club one night and talked on the deck overlooking the ocean. Another night we met at a friends backyard and spoke by candle and pool light. Last night we met at our girlfriend's yoga studio, Yoga Shanti, in Westhampton Beach. Her husband put us through a fabulous hour of yoga and we followed that with small plates, wine and birthday pie, birthday cake and book talk. As a special treat our girlfriend, Radka, made us beautiful pyara bracelets. I purchased a necklace from her this summer and am constantly stopped and asked where I found it. You can email her directly at radkamogull@gmail.com or contact her through her instagram "pyarajewelry". Namaste. 

The Sweetheart Dance

The last two nights we have been at the preschool being serenaded by Roo and the Felon with Valentine's Day songs. Their sweetheart dance starts with a chaotic dance time in the church's community room and then ends in the church with each class performing three songs. They both were so excited for their time in the spotlight. Roo was very excited to wear her "spy outfit" for her show. It included a leather skirt, leather jacket and studded boots. The Felon told her she looked like one of the cool kids and asked me to find him a leather jacket as well. Shay Bae Bae looked super cute in the leather jacket as well. On the way to the Felon's performance he expressed how sad he was to not be able to dance before his show. I asked him why he felt he couldn't dance and he explained that no one could handle his moves. Roo tried to make him feel better by telling him that he is a great dancer and he responded that yes indeed he was, but he only goes all out.  That means getting down on the floor and kicking his legs around and someone could get hurt. We all agreed with that and decided to save his moves for a dance party with more space and less people. He had so much fun running around with his buddies that I couldn't get a picture of him without him being blurred, but the video turned out good enough. They both knew the words and really enjoyed their time on stage.