On the Threshold

So today I had an experience that has made me ponder and contemplate the next few years of my life. I know most people when they get reflective tend to look at the past and maybe even wonder about the future. I however felt like I was looking right down the barrel at the path ahead, and what I realized was....
Actually I am getting ahead of my story. This story is set in JoAnn's Fabric store. I wanted to pick up a few patterns that were going on sale today (that's one of my new things pretending like I know how to sew---I don't) and needed to pick up a few supplies for the office. It was just me and the twins right at 9 waiting to open the store before blissfully carrying on with dozens of other errands I had so smoothly planned out in my head. It was going to be a busy day the 3 of us, but we were all smiles. One confident smile, one mischievous smile and one devious smile equals 3 people with 2 very different opinions on how the day was gonna go ( 2 opinions because I am convinced at this time in the twins lives they have a collective conscience much like the Borg).
So in review 1. I am a closet Trekkie 2. I am blissfully optimistic and 3. I am at JoAnn's
Now the panic attack, or maybe the epiphany sounds better. So the epiphany (which was accompanied by sweating, rapid heart beat and the visual imagery of that super cool camera trick in Lord of the Rings when the path stretches weirdly far away) was brought on by a combination of things. First the valuable experience few lucky parents get to have: the joy of a child locking you out of your own vehicle. Priceless. I learned today that if you leave the keys in the ignition so the car will stay warm and the Disney radio will keep playing- after all you still have a few minutes before the store opens was not a great idea. Come to find out the time it takes you to unbuckle one baby is the same time it takes the previously unbuckled cherub to climb into the driver seat, and the time it takes to exit out the side door and reach for the front door is the exact same time it takes cutie pie to push the lock button. But lets be honest when are we ever granted time to slow down and play charades or even say pantomime for your toddler these days. Never right? So this was a gift. There is such joy to get front row seats to a child's learning progress....
Mommy using big happy smiles and large arm movements: Push this button sweetie
Child with mischievous grin: This one? - on go the wipers
Mommy: No this one on the door
Child: This one? - on go the blinkers
You get the idea.
Another factor leading to the paniphany might have been that JoAnns has chosen to fit as many aisles into the store as possible requiring small flimsy plastic carts to fit down said tiny aisles, that when loaded with two two year olds creates many challenges. My inner dialogue at this point said: "Your mission should you choose to accept it will be to drive down the exact center of the aisle with less then a 1/16th of an inch margin of error to prevent either child whom are now coordinating with each other and reaching from opposite sides of the cart for anything to grab including a branch from a display of topiaries ( yeah that display came down today)." Despite that I didn't do half bad if you ignore the topiary thing which seriously who need a forest in the middle of a fabric store anyways? I say they had it coming. But the twins got bored randomly adding things to Mommies cart, a game of rock the cart perhaps. Mom wasn't in the mood to reenact Humpty Dumpty, after all a trip to the ER not on the perfectly planned schedule. So the Borg I mean the babies thought throwing things from the cart would be just as entertaining.
Children's thoughts: Mommy goes and fetches shoes which we have freakishly thrown very far. Lets do the math 4 shoes, yep 4 different directions. Then we quickly dismount cart and run in opposite directions ourselves while laughing manically loud up and down all these awesome tightly packed aisles. This should work. Ready set GO!
There were a few other minor contributors to the paniphany (in case you didn't catch that the first time panic and epiphany had a baby). The toxic and un-ignorable diaper 5 minutes into the store which caused a delay to change. The little sleep and lots of Diet Coke and Zero breakfast may not have helped. Tangent in 3...2...1...
  Thank you Mitt Romney for drinking a Diet Coke which lead some to question you on your commitment to the word of wisdom which might have influenced your religion to make a statement on its website that Soda is not technically against the WofW. Many sleep deprived Mothers thank you. 
Back on track. If anyone is still with me it was somewhere in this AWESOME experience that I called in backup THANK YOU BRENT. May or may not have been added to the stores wall of flyer's of people to not let back in. And while resisting the erg to curl into a fetal position over in the Nutcracker Christmas display I realized the girls are happy. Laughing. Believing we are all playing a game together. That's right people I was not screaming  but trying on my firm but composed Mary Poppins, which was being ignored.And they were having a blast. And then it hit me. They are 2 we are just scratching the surface of many years of energy. I realized:

 I AM JUST ON THE THRESHOLD OF INSANITY. NEXT STOP FULL BLOWN CRAZYVILLE.  

You see today is not just one random insane day, but everyday is for the next few years. I think its gonna be fun. After all don't all the really crazy ones seem super happy? And get to wear cool hats?

Tomorrows To Do: Go buy a cool hat.

Tooth Fairies

   So Brooke Lynn lost a tooth today. More specifically I was sick of her leaning over in church showing me a half hanging out bleeding tooth, so I pulled it out today. So tonight as I try and stay awake for no apparent reason (wink,wink) I am left to contemplate about The Tooth Fairy. 

   First you must know the Mason Family Tooth Fairy is an unreliable no good Fairy. If I ever see him or her I would probably fire them. So many mornings sad children have discovered that our Tooth Fairy simply did not report for duty. It has been such a burden on William and myself to comfort them and we are only left to "guess" why our Tooth Fairy was a no show. Guesses have ranged from weather problems; it was windy last night, or too cold for wings to fly, to giving our Tooth Fairy credit for Choosing the Right; it was Sunday, of coarse they would not want to work on a Sunday. But alas I think our sweet innocent children are beginning to think that our Fairy is just lazy and forgetful.

   So I was wondering tonight, since only 2 of our 5 children have even been loosing teeth thus far and we are off to such a pathetic start. Did I say we, my bad... the Tooth Fairy is off to such a pathetic start. Is it possible to renegotiate the terms of the Tooth Fairy? After all the Mason Family Tooth Fairy is already different from the perfect Young Tooth Fairy my family had growing up. My childhood Fairy always picked up our teeth and whisked them away to .... well strangely enough my Dad's desk drawer, but I discovered that later in my childhood and that's another story. But still she took the time to locate the tooth and then haul it off. The Mason Tooth Fairy just shoves money under the pillow. Our kids at first wondered about this, but again William and I were left to "guess" that they may have had a hard time locating the tooth. "After all my dear, your big heavy head was laying on it". Now I am pretty sure ours doesn't even try to find the tooth anymore.

   Not to mention our Tooth Fairy half the time does not even get the money under the pillow. Children sleeping in particularly tall bunk-beds with pillows ridiculously high and out of reach... did I say out of reach? I meant in high atmospheric flying zones, have come to expect the money laying on the ground in the morning.

  

  So I have been wondering tonight, what does the Tooth Fairy have against daytime deliveries? Maybe our poor Fairy is just misunderstood and tired. Would deliveries improve if say they made daytime drop offs while kids were at school? If you could be sneaky enough to come into dark rooms at night full of sleeping babies and manage to not get the dogs to growl at you, or trip over toys... Did I say trip? I meant fly over messy rooms, then surely you can make deliveries in well lit empty bedrooms. Right? 

And don't tell me that it is less magical, cause it does not feel magical to be woken up from your sitting position (never mind why I fell asleep sitting up somewhere while trying to stay awake past when the kids fall asleep) by a sad child because our no good, unreliable Fairy was again a no show.

  

   Wait... I just realized its still Sunday! yippee the Tooth Fairy does not work on Sundays. This tired Fairy... I mean Mom is going to bed.  - Night

Cherished Possession

So I pulled a new question from the question jar:

What is your most cherished possession? 

For me this was a hard question. First I am going to eliminate all the obvious answers; no living things. That's right no answering husbands or kids or pets and so forth. Second I will eliminate anything I feel can reasonably be replaced. So as much as I cherish them scriptures etc are out. Lets be honest those handy dandy boys with the name tags can get me a new set. Then mentally somewhere around deciding what was eliminated by rule two I got nervous. Nervous I was not going to be able to pick just one cherished possession. You see this week I have had the misfortune of watching a couple of those hoarding shows on netflix. If you have never seen this show, then let me tell you it is a MUST watch before you start any spring cleaning. My heart just breaks for the people in the show and I realize how much we all assign value to objects differently. While watching I  pledge to myself to not get so attached to any material thing, and privately realize I cannot keep such a promise. So what is my one true cherished possession. Assuming all are safe what is the one thing I grab in a fire? Pictures, that seems like a safe answer. Not living; check. Not replaceable; check. Could I live without them, yes. They are just a crutch for my own memory of the events and truth be told if I only had to go off the memories I would be skinnier and taller in every shot. But then again as I approach another birthday and age and gravity play their tricks they may be the only proof I have that I was skinnier and taller. So yep my photo albums win. 

Now what is your most cherished possession?

San Diego

Southern Calli trip part 2.

So after a little visiting with friends in the L.A.ish area Brent and I drove down to San Diego to attend a manager's conference. We did however manage to squeeze in a visit to the Temple.

After our ADA/M conference the rest of the Rocky Mountain Dermatology staff joined us to attend the American Academy of Dermatology. We enjoyed the technical exhibits where Brent got a professional shave.

Oh and a facial

It was hard work I assure you. Seriously though we learned a lot, but did have time to show the office some fun San Diego sites. We visited the Mormon Battalion Center in Old Town.

Went on a Ghost Tour (which one of the gals from my office got a pretty freaky picture at the whaley house)

The next day we took a guided Trolley Tour to Hotel Del Coronado, got to have lunch at Balboa Park( which I learned is bigger then Central Park in NYC), and overall had a really great time.

Southern Calli

First of all let me say how much I love this guy!

I left him alone for 10 days with all the kids, pets, house etc. while I attended work conferences in California. He is amazing.

Since I fly standby I left a day early when the flights looked more open. It was nice for me because I loved visiting Spenny, Nellie, Logan and Grace. They took me to the park on the beach and I loved these fun spinning chairs.( Yes I was playing on the playground)

I was also able to drive (by myself- thank you GPS) down to L.A. to have lunch with Ang. She took me to Roscoe's chicken and waffles. That meal was the official start of my carb loading week.

I of course could not be this close to my Missy without a visit. So the Morris family and I spent the next day in Disneyland. It was so much fun with the kids.

I had to have my Monte Cristo

It was a great start to the trip. 

Happy Anniversary

William took me on an amazing Anniversary Trip.

The goal: Go on double dates

First stop was to Oxnard California to double date with Spenny and Nellie. When we got there Nellie had transformed her spare room into a Bed and Breakfast complete with rose petals. (P.S. the valentines on the bed are courtesy of Logan- thanks Logan)

We had a wonderful meal at a Steak house and enjoyed talking late into the night with the Morris family.

Next was Disneyland to double date with Missy

Disneyland was fun, we walked right on to most of the rides. But far and away my favorite part with lunch with Missy at the Blue Bayou. I had the famous Monte Cristo sandwich as did Missy and William enjoyed the Jumbalaya. We sat right on the water front and occasionally got fun waves from passengers on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Thank you Missy for being an incredible Disneyland hostess and to the Morris family for the use of your car. California was such a great treat.

Next we flew to Arkansas to double date with Sean and Brittney

Let me tell you, Brittney has amazing crafting talent (she also has it beautifully organized). I was treated to a fun heart hair clip craft as well as a truck load of inspiration. Speaking of Brittney finally introduced me to the world of Pintrest. Thank you. We had a great steak dinner at Outback Steak house, enjoyed an impromptu Youtube party. Received countless hugs and loves from Maggie and Sonya and rounded the AR trip off with gourmet Grilled Cheese sandwiches.( I have forgotten the places name). Sean and Brittney then generously lent us a car to head to our final destination.

Oklahoma to double date with John and Michelle

We had a yummy dinner at Pop's complete with crazy flavored soda's. I did not get this one, but they have a bacon flavored soda, as well as corn. Its like Bertie bots every flavored beans but in soda form. We enjoyed hanging out and relaxing with John, Michelle and Ellie. Watched Moneyball, had Michelle's delicious brownies and played with Ellie. Then it was home to the kiddo's. Huge thanks to Shelly and Chad Morris and my father in law Roger Mason for sitting on the kids. Thank you also to all our wonderful host and hostesses. It was one of my best anniversary's ever. Thank you William for marrying me!

PRINCESS BIRTHDAY GIRL

THIS FRIDAY WAS SYDNEY'S 6TH BIRTHDAY! 

We started with dress up

Then we did nails and hair. I made homemade feather extensions by attaching feathers to bobby pins and then sprayed major amounts of glitter spray. We also then did makeovers, complete with bright blue and pink eyeshadow.

Next was accessorizing with crowns and earrings

Of course once all the princesses were made up we had to have a photo shoot. 

Here is the birthday girls final shot.

Once we had photo's we needed frames so we had a craft to decorate frames followed by a craft to make wands.

After crafts we popped popcorn and started a movie. During the movie we had some of William's delicious cake. yes you read that right the princesses daddy made this beautiful cake.

All in all I believe the girls had a fun time. Happy Birthday Sydney Jean.

Twins photo Shoot

Madyson June: Talents include Banshie high screams

Super Sweet kisses

and the ability to open baby gates

 

Savanna : Talents include Super duper snuggler

Can and does climb up everything

Lover of fine shoes