You Hit me First! No! You Hit Me FIRST!

So I've been noticing all of the visitors to my blog and I'm grateful ya'all took a minute to stop by.  I'm guessing that you probably hopped here from a comment I left on your blog or a blog that you read.  And yet when you arrive you have been greeted with messages that are months old and truly the last year I have not posted much of substance or consequence.

Well that is all about to change!  (maybe I'm feeling grandiose and motivated at the moment just in case you couldn't tell)

I'm Writing it on the Wall (so to speak) to give myself a wee bit of accountability.
  So If I fall behind comment and get me back on task.


So here are some bullet points of what I've been up to:

*  The Tyrant embarked upon the great adventure of potty training and he has mastered all the necessary skills in record time (that is what you came her to learn isn't it?  :P )

*  The Engineer has been working with his hands of late and learned how to use sand paper, a coping saw, paint and some tape to create his first Pinewood Derby Car.  The big race is tomorrow night!  He is SO EXCITED!

*  The Comedian has been dabbling in the literary world once again.  He has written, illustrated, and published several short books about dragons in addition to the short stories he has shared here on the blog.  He is also embarking on a journey of writing and illustrating  a 6 chapter book about different kinds of dragons and how they help children work through their fears and problems.  I've promised him that when it is done we will see if we can get it published in a real book format.  He's also invited two of his dragon friends to come and live with us for awhile to help him with some of his worries.

*  Mr. Music Man had the opportunity to present at a DJ conference a month or so ago and came home totally reinvigorated and full of ideas on how to improve our business.  He's had some great ideas and is really throwing himself into steering the business in a new direction.  It must be working because he's booked practically every weekend for the next couple of months.

*  I have been so excited to be a little bit involved in some of the planning and even more excited to be able to attend the 2011 Utah Mom's Retreat the second weekend of May.  So excited in fact that a couple of weeks ago I told the children at church that we had to really work on getting ready to sing for Mother's Day because it was only 5 weeks away.  It only took me 48 hours to come to the realization that I want May to be here so much that I had in fact misled them as at the time Mother's Day was 9 weeks away.  But whose counting?

So for now there's the update on us in a nutshell.  Thanks for stopping by!


But uhm....hitting isn't nice!

Retreat Reflections

The retreat was wonderful!  I don't think I truly understood how stressed my body was until I had three days of not juggling the boys and their needs and being able to really sleep and let my body relax.  I was lucky enough that the organizer of the retreat, D, lived here in the valley so I rode down with her and we were both a bunch of chatter boxes all the way to the airport.  Once we got to the airport we met another wonderful mom, S, from Arizona.  Then the three of us were chatterboxes all the way to the retreat.  In fact we were chattering so much that we may have missed a few turns and had to do some backtracking in order to get back on the right road.

Before even dropping our luggage off I got to have a wonderful massage and then soak in a hot tub filled with mineral water for quite awhile.  It was amazing!  I could feel the layers of tension melt away, while at the same time I was also becoming aware of exactly how tense I had been.

The quaint and really perfect ranch house that we stayed in was a short walk from the resort so after I was done soaking I walked down to take a look and start to get settled in. By late afternoon everyone had arrived and we all sat around the living room sharing bits and pieces of our lives and why we had wanted to get away.  I think we all knew that everyone coming was carrying heavy loads but the reality of all of it was almost overwhelming.   So then we did what any group of girls do when overwhelmed we ate a yummy dinner and then sat around the table and played silly card games.

I don't know what time it was once we all finally turned in.  Even though it was a late bedtime I slept so well.  It had been weeks since I had been able to sleep through the night without being woken multiple times to deal with a crisis of one kind or another.  It was unbelievable to wake up fully rested and able to just "be" until I was ready to function.  It has been an unusually cold and wet spring in Utah so of course you know it snowed just a bit on Saturday morning.  It made the house seem that much warmer and cozier to see the blanket of snow outside while we were all snug inside.

We had uhm...cookies and cake and lots of other sugary sweet things for breakfast.  Then we decided to have lunch.  Because we had no children with us and we could.  *grin* C, brought some incredible tortilla soup (better than I've ever tasted before). . .I still need to bug her for the recipe.  Then we taught D how to play Settlers of Catan.  I'm not sure if she liked the game or not but I think we all had a good time laughing and teasing throughout the game.

That afternoon we went to "The Crater" a natural geothermal mineral hot spring inside a limestone dome.  I thought it looked like a Volcano Crater.  You could see the sky through the opening above and inside was filled with water at the perfect temperature. There was a couple of enclosed areas to soak in.

as well as the other open area where we could "swim" or float.  The pool was over 60 feet deep so we were all required to wear the fashionable yellow float life preservers to keep us safe.  There were also a couple of groups scuba diving while we were there.

When we paid for the swimming we thought we were only going to be allowed to stay for an hour but we were all surprised when we got out and over 2 hours had passed.  I think we were all grateful that they didn't kick us out after our hour was up.  When I got out of the Crater and we were headed back to the ranch house I realized that for the first time in an untold amount of time I was completely relaxed and feeling like a human being again.  I think the other moms felt the same way.  I was so relaxed that I think I took a nap when we got back to the house and then we were off once again for dinner.  Saturday night is the only time we ate out.  The food was delicious and we were lucky (?) enough to be seated a few feet away from a local life singer/guitar player.  I really enjoyed the instrumental portion.  *grin*  I'm afraid that my body just wasn't sure how to deal with not being all stressed out so I kept zoning off into my own little world.

I met some wonderful ladies and I hope that they all had as great a time as I did.  I really look forward to being able to get together again.  Hopefully next year!

Well my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. . .

                                           photo courtesy of David Ruiz via stock.xchange.com

Well not really.  I do however have a list of things to pack and a shopping list for things I need that I don't have on hand.  I've got the preparations for the dinner group tomorrow night underway.  The Comedian approves of my wardrobe choices.  He told me this morning "No Mom, you should wear some of the cute clothes"  I was given some darling clothes by a friend, V (who got them through someone else) and I was doing a mini-fashion show last night.  So I changed into one of the tops before I picked him up from school today.  Who knew that my 6 year old cares about how I dress.   He was oddly enough appreciative and told me with a great smile that is going to make some very special person's heart flutter when he's older that he was so happy that I was wearing the cute clothes and that I was the best mommy he ever knew.  (did you notice that run on sentence?  Well I hope it makes sense somehow to you because I'm not going to edit it.  Instead I'll just write this really long commentary about it and surely that will take less time and energy than going back and sorting it out.  So there :P )  Guess maybe I need to reevaluate my own clothing sense and see if I need to step up the cuteness factor a bit, especially is it is going to be noticed.

Since I'm being truthful and all I've got to tell you I'm full of nerves but really can't wait to meet all the ladies at the retreat this weekend.  My batteries are so low and I'm really counting on them being recharged so that I can come back at all this jumbled combination of appointments, stress, grief, and facing the long road of recovery ahead with some new energy and fresh perspective.

I am grateful to my friends who are helping to juggle the boys and my  husband for making this much needed break to happen.  Another friend who is helping through all this mess asked me if I was feeling guilty about leaving them and while this may change, truly right now I don't.  I know that they will be in good hands.  K and C will love and care for them like they are their own children on Friday and I think it will be nice for them to have some one on one time with their papa for the rest of the weekend.

Although, you know that feeling of just waiting for something to fall to pieces around you because you are planning something just for yourself?  That's me right now. . . .

But there is not much right now that could keep me from going and anything that would is highly unlikely so watch out world because mama needs a break!

Anyone want to volunteer to hold my hand and calm my nerves between now and Friday?  Huh?  Please?