Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving

I have long shared the sentiments of Jenna Rink in the movie 13 going on 30- "Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving". That's me. I've looked forward to 30 since I was about 25.  I hated turning 25.  It felt like a lame in between age. So I'd just round up and tell strangers I was 30. 

I've been looking forward to 30 because  I don't feel like what I've been doing in life has matched my age.  Most people guess that I'm older than I am.  Especially in my professional life.  Just a few weeks ago someone said, "What, you're 36, 37?"  I've gotten gasps and stares when people find out how young I am.  People couldn't believe that I had two kids, a masters degree, been married for years and have the career experience that I have.  (It's interesting now that I'm staying home though because most people I'm around have young kids, like me, but are younger than me.  So in that aspect, I feel like the old maid.)

I have a feeling 40 is going to be hard for me.  I've built my 30's up big time. In my head it's all glamourous... it's mostly about having more time and money.  Kids are older, little bit more independent.  No college tuition, getting rid of those student loans.  Time to travel, explore, take on new adventures.  And enjoy the best of life before your kids get to too old and don't want to be with you and your own health starts slipping.  It's going to be hard to say good bye to 30.

Here are ten things about me that prove I'm 30 years old.  Most of these are things I never understood as a kid but I do now.

-I understand what "too sweet" means.

-Plain potato chips ARE better than Doritos.

-Gum is nothing but a nuisance.

-I prefer to drive in silence because the radio is too much noise.

-It's bothersome to have the dome light on while driving.

-I talk to myself.

-Getting off the floor is a little more work than it used to be.

-Sassy shoes really aren't worth it.  Tennis shoes are more comfortable.

-I see the point in having a budget.  (don't tell Mark)

-The cost to see a movie IS outrageous.

I can definitely see how I'm turning into my Mom.  Most of these things remind me of her.  (Love ya Mom!)

This one

(photo by Breanne, May 2012)

 

When Parker was a baby/toddler, I was worried that the world was going to pass him by and he wouldn't even notice.  He's got so much personality now, that I can laugh at myself for even thinking that.  He went from super relaxed and easy going to having a head full of ideas and opinions that he wants to see carried out.  He's not lacking in confidence, which really makes him one of the coolest four year olds I know (in my very biased opinion).

 

He's loving preschool and seems happier throughout the whole day.  I think he enjoys a challenge and is feeling accomplished.  Although if you ask him what he did at school he'll say, "We just did nothing".  He loves his teacher, and thanks Heavenly Father for her every night.  She's so sweet, I love her too. 

 

On his first day, I was reminding him that his teacher, "Ms. Kippie", is the boss (because he tends to think he's in charge).  And when the assistant teacher gave him an instruction, he said, "My Mom says Ms. Kippie is the boss, and I only have to listen to Ms. Kippie, not you". 

 

Wow.

Confidence: got it

Respect: need some polish

 

As far as I can tell they've worked that little wrinkle out, but he finds way to exert control.  This week they had color themes for each day, and the kids were supposed to wear the color of the day.  Each morning Parker asks me, "What color is it today?"  If I say blue, he pulls out a red shirt.  That's how he rolls. 

 

His confidence worked for him a week or two ago when he gave his first primary talk.  He walked up to the podium like he owned it.  He was talking about things you should and shouldn't do on the Sabbath, and man he was preaching a sermon.  "We do NOT go to the movies on Sunday..."  I couldn't help but laugh, kid had conviction.

 

That same day, his primary teacher told me he said the closing prayer and he thanked Heavenly Father for the zoo, and then preceded to bless every zoo animal he could think of.  We ate dinner at April's house tonight (Mark's out of town again) and instead of blessing the food, he blessed "the zoo that is so hot".  Kid loves the zoo.  (I got him his first magazine subscription today.  "Zootles" - $10 groupon, check it out.  He's gonna love it!)

 

Right now, his biggest pet peeve (besides his brother) is litter.  When he sees trash on the ground he has a huge reaction and wants to know WHO committed such an injustice.  I love it.  I hope he never lets any injustice happen right before his eye.

 

I get it when people say they wish time would stand still, but I am honestly excited to see what is in the future for this kid.  He's got big potentional.  I want to know what he spends his time on in high school, what he majors in, what his career will be.  But that's me... always looking ahead.  For now, we need to be working on a little respect and friendliness.

Surviving Summer- Dorff Family Style (aka iphone picture dump)

First of all, three cheers to me!  This is my first time ever uploading any pictures, from any device, to the computer.  Mark's in Denver for work, so I had no choice but to figure this out.  And I hate to admit... it's as easy as he said it was.  (Does anyone else use their husband as a crutch?) 

I made myself a promise that I wouldn't complain about the heat and I would enjoy summer, so that on Parker's first day of preschool I wouldn't look back and wish I could do it over again.  Most days I'm at least complaining in my head.  Every afternoon I think, "Why do people live in the desert!  This isn't natural!"  And I understand that 95 and humid is hot.  But so is 120 and dry.  So don't tell me, "But it's a dry heat!"  I'd prefer some humidity- my hair and skin would be feeling a lot better right now.  But I'm not complaining.

We took a trip to California about a month ago- it was awesome!  Some cool weather and time with family will totally rejuvinate you! (I hope to do a post on that trip soon.)

So when we're not longing for another beach vacation here's what we're doing:

Frequent trips to Target, where an ICEE has become a necessity.

We got a membership to the Arizona Museum for Youth.  We go there maybe... biweekly.  Certainly enough to get our moneys worth.  We still have our zoo membership and I miss using it!  We went to the zoo every week, sometimes twice a week when the weather was nice.  I'm sad that Parker will be in preschool by the time I can start taking advantage of the zoo again.  He loves that place, and would go everyday if he could.

 Baby speedos! 

 Seriously, take that shirt off and you've got the cutest sight ever!  Wish I had a pic for ya.  But this one's pretty good. 

We do this never, except that one time.  Oven = cruel and unusual punishment.

For the 4th we went on a staycation and stayed at a small resort on the west side.  I thought it would be fun to see what their is to do out there.  Turns out, there is nothing to do.  It's okay, the resort had some really nice pools, and we couldn't get the kids out of them.  They especially loved the zero entry.  And Parker thought he was pretty cool "surfing".

Someone had a birthday!

Parker's impressed that Mark got all 29 candles. #priceless

Mark spent his birthday at work, came home, opened a present, didn't even eat a cupcake, then spent the night working on his car that broke down two days before. #sadtruestories

This is what we've been doing the most:

 Swimming with the cousins! 

 I'm pretty sure I would die without access to a swimming pool.  We go out at least 4 times a week.  And my sister has been coming up from Maricopa a lot.  Autumn, Weston, and Parker are all in swim lessons and it's been so fun to watch them become confident in the water.  They're so proud of themselves!

Check out these 2 bathing beautys: 

They're 3 months apart and ridicously cute and fun to watch together.

We've also had a good number of play dates, gone to the movies a couple times, bowling, the library, etc.  Turns out there's enough out there to go ahead and make your summer pretty enjoyable.

Here's one last picture for ya:

Keep it cool out there y'all!

Who puts their kids in white pajamas on a camping trip anyway?

I am by no means an avid camper. I plan an annual camping trip out of a feeling of obligation.  I feel like that's what you're supposed to do... take your family camping at least once a summer.  Plus, if you're going to store all that you gear, in your tiny 1,000 square foot house, you might as well use it.

So we went for our obligatory camping trip, and I surprised myself when all weekend long I kept saying, "This is so much fun.  I can't believe how awesome this is."  And on and on and on.

Even Parker, when we first got to the camp site, was very concerned and kept asking "What are we going to do?" 

"Just play outside, look at the trees, go for walks." 

"Yeah, but... what are we going to do?"

Round and round we went.

He loosened up. 

We were up at the rim campground which was amazing.  We haven't camped there before, but definitely will again.  It wasn't crowded, the campsites are spaced far apart, and all the campsites back up to the beautiful forest.  There was ample room for our dog and our kids to roam without worry they'd be trudging thru someone's campsite.  We spent a lot of time walking thru the pine forest and Parker would lay on his belly and find the tiniest creatures; he could watch them all day.  The highlight for him was finding an "iguana".  Which was acutally some small horned lizardy frog looking thing.

The weather was beautiful, the perfect amount of chill in the morning.  (Everyone in Phoenix was being urged to stay indoors for the weekend due to the heat.  Glad we escaped that.)

Something else I enjoyed but (thankfully) don't have pictures of, was teaching Parker how to roll down hills.  He very cautisouly answered, "uh...... no" when I asked him if he wanted to roll down a hill with me.  But he's a believer now.  He gets it. 

His favorite thing was the lake.  He kept referring to it as a pool though, and asked who was going to "take all the grass out of the pool".  Kid needs to get out more.

Our dog loves, loves, loves water.  And he was quite the champ.  Parker would throw those sticks far and in the middle of marsh and he'd go after it.  Never once did he not come back with it.  Both boys got a kick out of it.  And then back at the campsite the dog didn't move the rest of the night, he is 6 years old.  He's no young pup anymore.  I think this may have been the first realization for him.

I know what you're thinking...

"You have a dog?"  Everyone is always surprised to hear we have a dog.  Yes.  His name is Cannon, we've had him 6 years, and he's just about the perfect pet.  Seriously.  Couldn't ask for a better dog.

So, I'm wanting to go camping again this summer.  (Surprisng myself over here.)  Anyone wanna go with us?  This time I will pack old clothes, more socks, butter, and pajamas that are not white.

Ready for Summer

Mark and I got married in June, and I was marginally concerned about my guests and the heat (since everyone was coming from out of state)  We got married the 2nd week of June and I remember being excited that we hadn't hit 100 degrees yet that summer.  So now that's my "marker"; if we hit 100 degrees before June 10th, I panic about what a miserable summer we're in for.

We must be in for a miserable summer since we hit 100 degrees in April.

It is hot outside.

But I'm surprisingly excited for summer.  Mark says I need to get a hobby because I have 4 or 5 little vacations planned for us.  (I even started planning vacations that are as far away as 2.5 years! I should've been a travel agent.) 

I'm also excited not to be working!  And to be able to have lazy days by the pool. I signed up for playgroups, museum meberships, bowling passes, movie passes, whatever cheap indoor entertainment I could find.

My Mom was in town last week.  She comes out every few months, but this was the first time since I became a stay at home mom, so it was the first time I was able to really host and entertain while she was here. It was a great way to kick off the summer. We kept her pretty busy; she was a good sport. (Even at 6:45 in the morning when we woke her up to go get doughnuts.)

While the Cat's Away the Mice will Play

Cat = Mark

Away = Three day business trip to Indianapolis

Mice = Me, Parker, and Ben

Play = pretending to be on our own vacation- no cooking, no cleaning, no budget

My game plan of going into three days of single parenthood was to pretend we were on vacation and stay out of the house as much as possible. It worked. Mark comes home tonight, and while I missed him, I didn't go crazy like I thought I might.

I pretty much let Parker direct the activities and gave him choices of what we could do. And Ben was along for the ride.

Hanging out with good ole' Chuck E. (Chuck E Cheese is the biggest waste of money ever if you ask me.)

Arizona Museum of Natural History. Parker loved it and has been there a few times before. But I'd actually never been. I want to go back without kids so that I can actually learn and read something. Parker just kept flying thru the place wanting to find the next dinosaur. It flustered me.

Ben's first splash pad experience. He was slow to warm up, but got into it. Parker was running around like a maniac. I couldn't get a picture.

On the way to the splash pad Ben was jibbering and jabbering in the back seat. And when I stopped at a red light Parker says to Ben, "Ben, do you see that red light? That means you have to stop. Now stop talking."

We went to Chick-fil-A one day and In-n-Out the next. Parker told me he wanted to go to In-n-Out by telling me he wanted to go the place that had "chocolate showmakes with green beach trees in them". I felt like a detective trying to figure that one out. But their cups have green palm trees on the outside. How does he know palm trees are on the beach? We have them around here and there's certainly no beach around. We sat outside at In-n-out and Parker decided to "water" the bushes while I was turned away cleaning up Ben. Luckily, everyone laughed and we didn't get asked to leave or cited!

We also went to the zoo, but we're there all the time. Didn't warrant a special picture.

Mark usually gets home from work at 4:00. The first day Mark was gone, at 4:00 on the dot Parker asked where Dad was. I reminded him where he was and how long he would be gone. And Parker said, "No. Dad has to come home and push the buttons that go beep, beep, beep, and then open the door." I guess I never realized that the beep beep beep of the buttons on our keyless entry are the cue for Dad being home. But now I'm just sitting here anxiously waiting for the beep beep beep.

Turns out nothing is mundane

(this was Christmas morning)

I often use the word "mundane" to describe the tasks of stay at home mommyhood. I realized today that there is nothing mundane about my life.

In sacrament meeting Ben was toddling back and forth between us and an older gentlemen's walker. He'd scope it out, touch it, and giggle his way back to our pew. The next thing I know I look over and Ben's hanging like a monkey off the walker.

I also got to hold him while he slept during the last hour of church. That's a rare treat that's really never happened. Primary has kept me from attending to those morning naps on Sunday.

At dinner, Parker suggested we go visit his sunbeams teacher who has been out for 2 weeks. He suspects she's at home resting and thinks she needs our help to rest.

Parker spent about an hour tonight pretending to be Tarzan jumping and twirling around in nothin but his skivvies.

But he wasn't the only one... during FHE Mark asked me if I had "something to hide" because I was the only one wearing more than my skivvies.

During the closing prayer Parker thanked Heavenly Father "for having a mommy and daddy in his house" and asked Heavely Father if he could "go play at Braxton's house".

Ben joined in on our activity of Ring Around the Rosie and giggled non stop when we all fell down. He would take the opportunity to maul us while we were all down; the boy loves to wrestle.

Today, by any other account, was just a regular ole Sunday. No special dinners or occassions, but all these little things are adding up to a day straight from heaven. The 3 handsome gentlemen in the picture above keep my life from being anything but mundane.