New Orleans Inspiration

Last weekend John and I went to New Orleans for a conference John had to attend. The first day we were there I ran on a treadmill assuming that Bourbon Street and New Orleans wasn't a safe place for me to run. That treadmill run was the longest of my life...a crappy treadmill set to make you view yourself in a mirror the whole run. The next morning as John and I set off for Cafe Du Monde (beignets...yum!) I saw a lady from our hotel leave to go running outside through New Orleans. I happened to run into her at the pool later and she convinced me that running through New Orleans in the morning was fine.

So I did it and it was awesome. I started my run by going down Bourbon Street where, although it was 7am, some guys were coming out of the bar and they sang me the Rocky theme song. I then somehow found Canal Street and ran down there and planned all the shopping I was going to do later (poor John). I ended up back on Bourbon and went towards the River Walk and that is when my run received the title of "coolest run ever". Running by the river was spectacular, but what was really cool was on the way back looking at all the street performers before the tourists arrived. The guy who was spray painted head to toe in gold was making plans to go to the bar later with the local artist. The two guys dressed as transformers were buying coffee. All these people in crazy costumes were acting so normal...like planning to act as a statue all day was as normal as me going to work to teach.

As I arrived back to my hotel I realized that the run I just went on was "Bucket List" material. How many people can say they ran Bourbon Street? I quickly came up with some more items I want to accomplish. I think my life is going to need 2 Bucket Lists. One for me to accomplish before I hit 50, and another one to accomplish between 50 and death. So here goes Bucket List One:

1. Run Bourbon Street (accomplished!)
2. Sky dive (I know this would terrify me...)
3. See a Hawaiian sunset with my husband (hint hint John)
4. Surf (I'm positive with how uncoordinated I am I would injure myself but still I want to try!)
5. Run a half marathon
6. Go to Disneyland...the right way. Where you go for a whole week and do it ALL.
7. Get my masters in Elementary Education.
8. Be on a reality television show (because nothing says classy like reality television)
9. Go on a spa weekend.
10. Start a charity...I have a great plan for one that gives money to kids whose parents die without having a life insurance plan.
11. Successfully grow a garden.

Have you made your Bucket List yet?

Mommy Dearest

My son and I have a special bond. We are each other's world. Every night it is me he wants to put him to bed and he makes me promise that I will be the one who gets him up. He asks me all day long to play with him and if I can't he follows me room to room. He helps me make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He even helped me clean toilets the other day. I think the picture below (made in a photo booth at Chuck E. Cheese) really sums up our close bond.

Because really, if you can't bite your own Mother while she is innocently posing in front of the camera, who can you bite?

My two-year-old...the most frustrating person I've encountered so far and yet being his mom is my favorite job I've ever had.

To Err is Human...

Lately I've been feeling almost like I'm in a state of mourning for the people I've lost. Not really to death (I mourn those people in a different way), but for the people I've lost touch with. All for different reasons...moving, my immaturity at sustaining relationships, depression during and after pregnancy (sometimes I just wanted to be left alone), and bad decisions made on my part.

I have learned that throughout the years no matter how remorseful you might be there are some relationships not meant to be fixed. There are people that did you wrong or that you did wrong in a way that can't be made right. There are people who you are not sure how to apologize to and so you continue missing them. There are many childhood friends that you lose touch with (however thanks to facebook it is getting easier to reconnect). And there are people out there (family included) who you might miss terribly, but they refuse to let you back in...and you might not ever understand why.

To try to get myself out of this "funk" I've been feeling I try to stay positive and remain thankful for those who've stood by me. I have a best friend (and her family) that I have had my whole life. I have a CRAZY college friend who although she lives far away, I still stay in touch with regularly. I have some old track buddies I talk to (both from high school and college) and (once again thanks to facebook) I am able to communicate with almost everyone I graduated high school with (quite the accomplishment when you went to as big of a school as I did).

I've also been trying to forgive. Forgive myself for any wrong doing I did people to make them think negatively of me. Forgive others for any wrong doing they might have done me. But mainly to forgive myself for bad decisions made in the past and promise myself to make wiser ones in the future. I try to make sure I am a good friend to everyone I meet, and I make sure to keep all commitments I make.

Because in the end what good are words without actions to back them up?

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."

-Paul Boese

Potty Training Blues

I am slowly failing as a parent at potty training my child. This is especially ironic since as a preschool teacher nothing annoys me more then parents who don't potty train their child all the way then try and sneak them to my class in underwear...I think we all know how that ends.

My fear is that the apple might not have fallen far from the tree. I actually remember being potty trained. For my non-parent friends I'm sure you don't understand why that is a bad thing. I remember being potty trained because I was well into my threes. I just couldn't give up my Mickey Mouse diapers and wouldn't until I was out shopping with my mom and we found Mickey Mouse underwear...I remember it vividly (It was in Boaz at the outlets).

I have tried everything: candy for going potty, cheering him on, reading books about potty training, pull-ups (which I hate), and even just throwing him on underwear and hoping for the best. My child actually begged my mom to put his diaper on him when we tried underwear. It's official, my child is going to college with a box of Pampers. Well I guess it will actually be Depends by then.

The strange thing is I'm not sure why Cooper not potty training seems like a personal failure of mine? Every time he uses the bathroom I feel great success and every wet or dirty diaper feels like I have failed. Maybe I feel like I am failing because when I tell other Moms my problem they are quick to tell me how their child uses the potty now and how they did it and it was so easy. Or maybe it's because my own mother scolded me tonight for him not potty training...like I am not allowing Cooper to use it.

So as Cooper and I enter the 5th month we've tried potty training I hope that this is going to be his big break through. That this month he is going to decide to use the bathroom. And if not I guess he can use the money he gets for graduating high school to buy his on diapers in college.

Hanging with Mr. Cooper

So I stole my blog title from a show I watched in the 90's. I actually did not name my child after it, but a girl I worked with at Spa Moksha constantly sang the title song to me while I was pregnant and even now asks me how's Mr. Cooper. Oh how I miss my spa friends...it's like having your own sorority except that group of girls could make my face look clear, my back feel awesome, and give me free manicures and pedicures. But oh how I digress...


Life with Cooper this summer has been interesting to say the least. We are in the middle of what I fear may not only be the "terrible twos", but might follow into the "terrible threes". This summer he has discovered a whole vocabulary of words that make me cringe...it's strange how even the word "shut-up" sounds vulgar when a two-year-old says it. He has discovered how fun it is to use his sister as a punching bag...especially since she doesn't hit back (trust me I encourage her to hit/bite/hair pull back...how else will he know it hurts? She just won't do it!). And he has decided to hit any grown-up who isn't following his orders. Great...just what I was hoping for, a two-year-old wanna be ninja for a son.


But he has also learned to tell me he loves me without me having to get him to say it. He has learned how to kiss and hug me when he knows he's pushed me too far. He's learned how to snuggle me just right, and he's learned how to tell me this time he really is going to behave right before he gets a spanking. Basically my son has learned how to be a guy. He reminds me of a boyfriend who treats his girlfriend like crap and then right when she is about to leave him he swoops in, kisses her, tells her he loves her, promises to do better next time, and so she stays with him. Maybe I am in an abusive relationship with my two-year-old-ha!


Either way fortunally for Cooper I have an unconditional love for him so I won't be trying to leave him anytime soon and truthfully he does do as much good as bad-it just isn't as fun to blog about!


So onto my story...4 days ago I left Cooper playing with his train table while I ran upstairs and got a "Mommy shower". Confused at what a "Mommy shower" is versus a regular shower? A "Mommy shower" is a 3 minute shower where you wash hair, condition hair, lather down, rinse, and get out of shower. Compare this to my old 25 minute showers where I walk away relaxed and feeling good and you get the picture. So I come out of my "Mommy shower" in time to do my Mommy getting ready routine which basically lets me accomplish getting completely ready in 7 minutes (yes I've timed it).


While in the middle of blowing my hair dry Cooper comes into the bathroom and he looks so excited. I put the hair dryer down to hear Cooper begging me to come downstairs and see his toys. He has never asked me to do this and I am curious as to what he wants to show me so I take his hand and let him lead me downstairs. I am all prepared to walk into toy room when we take an unexpected right turn into the half bath. He then leads me to the toilet where I am met with this:

For those of you wondering that is a sippy cup (still full!), 4 trains, 17 alphabet letters, the DVD remote (still works!), and a few other random things. To top it all off he was trying to flush it. At this point in the story I have been asked by many, "What did you do?". I did the only thing I could think of-I got out my iPhone and took a picture. I then went searching for gloves to fish all the toys out and then had a talk with Cooper about why we don't put toys in the toilet. In all fairness to him I had never told him not to...I just assumed it was self explanatory! At this point I was a little upset...I hadn't really planned that day to get toys out of a toliet, do some plumbing, and disenfect toys, but my little Romeo stood beside me the whole time kissing me, hugging me, and telling me was sorry. Just like a guy...apologizing while he watches me do all the work;-).

Living with a two-year-old is many things, but dull is not one of them!

Belly Button Rings=My Youth?

I am 26-years-old...not old at all, but out of my "fun" early twenties. However, while I am only 26, I feel like I am an old 26. A lot of my friends are not married, have no kids, are even still in school. Yet I am married, I have an almost 3-year-old, a 10-year-old step daughter, I graduated from college now 4 years ago, and my career is a preschool teacher. In my free time I wash clothes, clean house, carpool, go to parks, and cook dinners...and I sometimes find time to go running. I sometimes feel like my life resembles a 30/40-year-old and not a 26-year-old.

So I find ways to hang on to my youth. I stay the same size I was at 20, I still go to the tanning bed once every two weeks (begin the lectures), I color my hair every 6 weeks (I have made my hair dresser swear to never tell me when my hair goes grey/white), I wear ridiculously short shorts (I debated this one but the husband requested they stay), AND I still have my belly button pierced from when I was 18 and snuck and got it done.

That's right-I am a belly button pierced Mom and preschool teacher. And I like it.

Recently I had surgery and was asked if I had any more metal on me. I said no until John pointed out my belly button ring was still in-I had forgotten I even had it. It has become more of a part of my body after 8 years then an accessory. I took it off, handed it to John, and he lost it. I think he did it on purpose. When I brought it up 5 days later (once the pain killer fog lifted) he told me he didn't want me to wear it anymore. It didn't seem like a bad request so I agreed and moved on.

Then last week while John was out-of-town, I decided to surprise him and clean out his car for him, wash it, and vacuum it...quite the job if you've seen his car! While cleaning it I found my belly button ring in his car door. After thinking about it for a few minutes I decided not wearing it was like giving up my big rebel move of my youth when I turned 18 and snuck and got it pierced. A piece of my youth I am not willing to give up yet. So I slipped it back in and made the deal with myself that I will wear it as long as my stomach is still flat. Pending that body change, I will take it out. Until then I will hold on to one of the few things that reminds me I am ONLY 26:-).

My advice at 26-years-old

I was talking to one of my long time friends (we've known each other 12 years) the other day. We were "discussing" (okay maybe gossiping) about a mutual friend who recently divorced. She actually dated the guy longer then she was married (I can breathe a sigh of relief, I hit that benchmark month 5 of my marriage-ha!). The friend I was talking to will be tying the knot pretty soon and I instantly assured her that marriage was the opposite of what our other friend made it out to be. Marriage is a blast. And I truly mean that.

When I met John I knew I had met my match. I fell in love quick and hard and was married on August 1st, 2008...5 months after our first date. I have never thought I made too hasty of a decision (although I'm sure some thought we were) and I am married to my best friend. Cheesy but true. I told my friend all this and could tell she was glad to hear it. I believe in marriage. I believe in my marriage. And I believe that being married has made my life completely fulfilled. I'm positive many do great single (I did before I met John), but I believe life would be lonely if I had never met my husband.

That said we then moved on to the topic of babies (after doing some random catching up gossip...typical girls!). Another one of our mutual friends who we have known almost as long as each other is pregnant (and another testimony to being in a happy marriage). I was so excited for her and found myself campaigning for my friend who hasn't even gotten married yet to hurry up and get pregnant (I blame it on working for the Birmingham diocese!).

Considering I have been married a whole 21 months and I considered myself the marriage expert surely I could dispense a compelling argument for birthing a child; I've been a mom 33 months (note the sarcasm)!

To explain my argument for being a Mom I must first tell you some about my day. I had told my friend that for me (others might differ) one of the biggest benefits is getting to relive your childhood (this is especially true because I take the kids to the same zoo, parks, and so on that I grew-up with because I live where I grew-up). Today Jaylyn and I took Cooper to my church for a 2 hour cooking class (I can only imagine what it was like-it was for ages 2-5...they are so brave). We left Cooper and went to the new Treetop Family Adventure. Where $20 later we had played enough arcade games to win 450 tickets and go bowling. Now don't be fooled. I was not sitting there watching as Jaylyn played in the arcade. I was playing every game she was and I had a great time doing it.

We then picked up Cooper (who told me he had "made dinner"...so cute!) and went grocery shopping (blah) and came home. The kids and I laid down and watched the movie "UP" (another perk to having kids...you get to watch all the cute kid movies) and then ran some errands. Cooper went down for a nap, I cleaned house, and then Jaylyn left for her mom's house. When Cooper woke-up he requested snuggle time (which I gladly gave) and he told me how much he loved me, how he was Mommy's boy (not Daddy's boy), and gave me kisses. Then I remembered one thing I forgot to tell my friend...that having a child is great because for all you do for them, you get it all back when they kiss you and tell you they love you.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not disillusioned. Will John and I have fights? Yes. Will Cooper and Jaylyn make me crazy as they get older? I'm sure they will. Will other problems arise that will never make it on this blog? Most definitely. Do I feel blessed and know that John and I will walk through this world hand in hand dealing with whatever comes up? You better believe it (unless our hands start to sweat and then I might walk beside him instead).

Moral of the story to my friend of 12 years (who I'm sure will read this blog)-get married, reproduce, and enjoy life;-). Oh and I am sooo ready to sing at your wedding...Celine Dion here I come!