#kids | multi-hyphenated-me

Baker’s Dozen July 23, 2013

Filed under: Family — multihyphenatedme @ 8:45 am
Tags: #13thweddinganniversary, #2013, #danapoint, #engagement, #flowergirl, #happiness, #johannes, #kids, #love, #palacehotel, #palmsprings, #ritzcarlton, #sanfrancisco, #sisterchristened

Happy 13th Anniversary to my husband and me! A Baker’s Dozen sounds much better than the Dirty Dozen we celebrated last year. I didn’t post last night because I couldn’t find the photo that I wanted to post. Grr. The photo was from our family trip to Palm Springs. We rented a house, left Jess and the boys and went to dinner at Johanne’s. We had one of the best meals of our lives for anniversary #12. This is a photo from 2011, we spent our 11th anniversary going to the gym (before we started dating, we were workout buddies), getting facials (which explains my shiny no makeup face – Vince grew up with 3 sisters, he is spa savvy), eating sushi and going to the OC Fair.

This is one of my favorite photos from our wedding (photo credit: Mark Beat). We were married at the Ritz Carlton, Dana Point in a buddhist ceremony (see my buddhist prayer beads on my hand) on an incredibly hot, still day.

Jessica was 4 years old and our beautiful flower girl. My mom made her dress, my sister arranged all the flowers.

We’re not sure what we’re doing tonight. The boys have had lots of ideas all weekend. Andre suggested we leave immediately on a cruise, dropping them off at the airport so Trace and Niko can fly to their friends, Kyle and Ryan’s house and he would fly to his friend Lachlan’s house. Bon Voyage! Niko, a traditionalist, suggested dinner and a movie. Trace had no recommendations but loves to tell our engagement story, which he finds hilarious.

We met Vince’s sister and brother-in-law in San Francisco. They were flying home from Oahu, Hawaii with an extended layover in San Francisco. His brother-in-law had never been to San Francisco and we gave them a full tour. Vince and I spent many (at least 10) weekends in San Francisco in the two years prior as I worked with the San Francisco Starbucks Development team. My Monday morning meetings conveniently created weekend trips to San Francisco. Our trips were budget conscience is boutique hotels. This trip we all stayed at the incredibly stunning, historic Palace Hotel. That night, at dinner at a restaurant I can’t remember the name, we clinked our wine glasses in a toast and I, naturally, dropped my full glass of cabernet on the table. The glass shattered and the entire contents spilled on to Vince’s sister’s lap. I was mortified! She, thankful to be wearing black, took the disaster in stride, mopped up the mess and we continued with dinner. Christening his sister must have been the nudge Vince needed, he proposed that night.

Vince’s family flew home and we continued our travels to Seattle to celebrate our engagement.

Here we are, thirteen years later, in love.

Comments (1)

T-16 Persevere June 3, 2013

Filed under: Family,Gardening,Life — multihyphenatedme @ 8:59 am
Tags: #, #2013, #betterme, #braveheart, #cheer, #cheerleader, #family, #hellweek, #ink, #kids, #looneytunes, #moving, #paceyourself, #parenting, #persevere, #tats, #tattoos, #tweetybird, #williamwallace

No ink on my skin, just so you know. Tattoos are interesting and have a great history. Tattoos fascinate me. Tweety Bird or other Looney Tune characters always make me look at the person twice. Personally, the importance or connection to one specific character is odd. Why not the entire cast or a funny scene depicted instead? Why people choose the tats they do could be an endless research project for someone other than me. For me, there isn’t a picture or symbol that is meaningful enough that stand the test of time, forever. Words, however, are more powerful to me. Though not enough to brand into my skin. The Inspector Gadget digital display hat band is more my style. Or if rotating tattoos were possible, my forehead would be the location of choice. Today’s digital display would read: Persevere.

My youngest said when he started kindergarten, “Why do we go to school 5 days but only have 2 days off? That’s not fair”. No son, it isn’t fair, welcome to the world. If sports have Hell Week, this is our Butt Dragging Week. Coming off a busy weekend and late nights, we are definitely in prime butt dragging mode. My house, me included, did not want to get out of bed this morning. There are 10 days left until school is out, this is the last week of “work”. Sixth grade has final tests all week (as if they have any brain power left), second and third grade have tests and plays to perform. Homework all week as well. The kids are mentally checked out.

Then there is the other part of life. For me, we have the pending move which is motivating me to get stuff done. For the kids, who are struggling with their emotions with the move, each day closer to the actual move is more and more difficult. “We must persevere” is not what they want to hear, nor what anyone wants to hear, in times of struggle. For me, compassionately parenting the woeful is my challenge.

What we need is a rally cry. Where is William Wallace when you need him? Maybe we just need face paint and kilts? (Armor, battle axes, shields, or other battle gear intentionally excluded). That would definitely change things up around here. Oh wait, that’s a battle cry. No battles against tyranny allowed in my house where we could mistakenly (in our opinion) be viewed as tyrannical parents. You must move, you must go to school, you must take tests, you must do homework. Yep, that us.

We need a cheer! And cheerleaders! Go Team Go! Give me a P.E.S.E.V.E.R.E. Yeah! Persevere! Woo!

Or maybe something in between. Taking each day as it comes, each obstacle/hurdle/emotion along with it, and doing our best to persevere.

T-17 The Land of Oz June 2, 2013

Filed under: Creative,Family — multihyphenatedme @ 8:49 am
Tags: #2013, #concessions, #kids, #lollipopguild, #munchkin, #oz, #performances, #theatre, #travel, #wizardofoz

Many people travel. We go to remote islands and exotic locales, experience new cultures and try new things. Travelling is one of my favorite things to do, but due to the expense and finding time, travelling is something I don’t get to do frequently. I happy to live vicariously through others on their travels – one friend whose goal is to travel to all seven continents. A goal she’ll reach this summer. I travel through books and magazines, reading stories set in various places and time periods. My favorite type of travel is travelling through my child’s eyes.

This weekend we travelled to the Land of Oz. Our two middle boys were cast in The Wizard of Oz. One son was the Wizard himself. The other was a Munchkin, part of the Lollipop Guild and one of the Wicked Witch’s monkeys. The youngest enjoyed the creative concessions and our oldest is beautiful even when annoyed with me.

We all had fun in Oz.

T-22 Goodbye Beach May 28, 2013

Filed under: Family,Life — multihyphenatedme @ 6:43 am
Tags: #2013, #beach, #friends, #goodbye, #goodtimes, #kids, #love, #memorialday, #moving

We gathered with longtime friends on Memorial Day. This wasn’t a goodbye nice knowing you visit because we’ve been friends long enough that they see our moves as their vacation destinations. In fact, we see them more often living further away than we do living close by.

Their 7 year old daughter returned my jam jar filled with beach sand and made a card. In the card she wrote that the sand is “to comfort you” when you move so far from the beach.

I wasn’t expecting an emotional day, let alone an emotional moment yet this little girl grabbed my heart and the tears flowed. Surprise attack. Kids are good that way.

A little bit of LBC is going to Spokane so I won’t have to say goodbye to the beach after all.

Comments (1)

T-29 Soccer Success!! May 22, 2013

Filed under: Family,Life,soccer — multihyphenatedme @ 8:20 am
Tags: #kids, #moving, #proudmom, #soccer, #spokane, #washington

Our oldest son plays competitive soccer. We have all been fortunate to be part of an awesome signature team, JUSA Crew, now club Chelsea 00 Blue, in Placentia. Leaving this team in order to move to Spokane was a really difficult decision. The coaches are great, the players are talented and good kids too for a bunch of scrappy 12 year olds.

We knew we had to get our son on a new soccer team in Spokane as soon as possible to help him through the transition. Internet research, phone calls and emails to various teams, organizations, clubs and random people were made in attempts to find the best team options for our #33.

My son and I took a 4-day trip to Spokane in April to meet and try out with three different soccer teams. One was lame, we said no thanks. The second was great and the third had potential. Tryouts with the second and third teams went well and we were told we’d know the outcome the week of May 20.

The week is here and we are happy – thrilled – to report that our son was selected for the Premier Club team with FC Spokane.

Soccer team – check. [sigh with relief].

multi-hyphenated-me

the hyphens that define my life

Baker’s Dozen July 23, 2013

T-16 Persevere June 3, 2013

T-17 The Land of Oz June 2, 2013

T-22 Goodbye Beach May 28, 2013

T-29 Soccer Success!! May 22, 2013

Categories

Archives

Blogroll

Searching