Twinges.

Lately I've been having twinges.  

[twinj] a mental or emotional pang:  a twinge of guilt; twinges of sorrow.

I've heard that lots of people have twinges around the holidays, but that's not it.  It has nothing to do with Christmas or the new year, rather everything that is consuming my next few months.

Maybe you've heard, but I'm going to be a Grandma ... to a grandson.  Absolutely amazing.

The moment that I heard of this little man, I squealed.  I ran through the house squealing.  And then I squealed some more.  I don't ever remember feeling more excited ... maybe equally as ... but never more.

After my squealing was done, my first twinge came.  I wanted to call my sister.  I wanted to tell Kristi that I was going to have a grandson.  She would have run right out and bought him his first pair of Converse.  And she would have listened to me squeal some more over lunch.

She loved her nephews like no other Aunt could ... and this would be her first great-nephew.  Twinge.

A few minutes ago, the little mama of this grandson-to-be sent me this picture ...

Another twinge.

Kristi was all about education.  It was so important to her, that she made sure to leave behind an opportunity for a Bachelor's Degree to each of her nieces & nephews.  This will be the first success story due in large part to her generosity.  Big twinge.

I'm so blessed.  Blessed to have a grandson on the way.  Blessed to have a daughter who emulates fantasticness with every fiber of her being.  And blessed to have a sister who sends me twinges from the other side.

Big twinge.

IT'S A BOY!!!

I can't believe how exciting this is getting!  I think every household should start with a boy ... when that's what heaven sends.  When heaven sends a girl, then it should definitely start with a girl.  BUT I REALLY WANTED A BOY!  Ahhhh!  I can't wait!  Let me squish his cheeks ... let me at 'em!

Place your bets ~

TODAY IS THE DAY! 

 Today is the day that we find out

 if our little grand-nugget is going to be

 a boy or a girl.  

I'm about to explode.  

Any guesses?

Sunday Night Live 11.27.2011

To Elder Shaker -

P.S.  I met Nie Nie this weekend.  She was lovely.

Happy Thanksgiving!

And to all ... a good night.

Sunday Night Live 10.23.2011

From Corpus Christi with love y'all ...

Y'all come back now y'hear!

Sunday Night Live 10.16.2011

This is not my best performance. 

 Please don't feel obligated to watch. 

 I feel so ashamed.  

My life in movies might be over.

Sunday Night Live 10.9.2011

It only took us 15 takes to get through this one. 

Take 1.

And finally ...

Please share your October favorites!

GO DIAMONDBACKS!!!

Come on boys ... Arizona needs a little boost right about now.

You can do this!

P.S.  I'm the proud mama of the 'E' and the 'L'.

We have spirit how 'bout you?

Sunday Night Live - 10.2.2011

You will enjoy this week's show much more if you simply play a little bit of

  this in the background.  Because we are CELEBRATING over here!

A little sneak peak of the day Gary and I were told that our whole world was about to change ...

clearly, I had no idea I was being filmed.  So unprofessional of me!

Scout Campish

Today, my house felt like Scout Camp.  Remember this post?  Well Wall-E 2.0 has gone missing.  He managed to chew through a renovated (with duct tape) portion of his condo.  Jake tried to remodel the little guy's residence and give him a TV room.  Instead, it enabled the escape of 2011. 

So now we have traps set up ... all over our house.  Mark my words, Jake is going to be an Engineer of some type.  Just look at the creativity mingled with perfect balance!

We'll try with all our might to catch the little fella'.  

Apparently they like corn.

It better not end up in my bed.

But just in case it doesn't work out with the hamster, Jake came home from school today asking if we could get an Australian.  I waited for him to finish his sentence.  Australian Shepherd?  Australian licorice?  But that was it.  Just an Australian.   He is begging for us to be a host family to an Australian boy.  

Clearly, we do not entertain our children nearly enough.

Have you ever been a host to a foreign exchange student?

P. S.  You are not going to want to miss the next Sunday Night Live.  Seriously.

Visiting up North ~

As you may have heard on Sunday Night Live, I took a trip up with my sisters to visit the parents last weekend.  It was lovely weather, lovely scenery, but mostly ... lovely donuts.

 Right out of my Dad's garden!

 This was right after Julie smacked my hand down.  Please click on this picture so that you can really see my ridiculous face.  Aye yi yi!

 It really was lovely, but I was ready to get back to my hood.

What is your favorite town outside of the city?

Boys & Girls ... it's Sunday Night Live!

We're Baaaacck ~

Sunday Night Live ... on Wednesday!

Because we're crazy like that.

Teachers & stuff ~

Last week, I went to visit Kacey in her real, live classroom.  

It's finally here!

She is in her last semester of school and is in the middle of her student teaching.  

Look how fun it is when your kids grow up!  

You get to go on field trips to visit their careers 

and eat sandwiches with them at the grown-up tables!  Yes!

Speaking of teachers.  I got my second email yesterday from one of my boys' teachers letting me know that he didn't appreciate this child's behavior in class.  He told my Freshman that he was annoying and that he was surprised that nobody had beat him up yet.  I'm not sure that teachers should tell their pupils that they are annoying.  I'm pretty sure that they are supposed to save that for those special times in the teacher's lounge.  And just look at these faces ... you know they're completely innocent!

Surely I jest.  I'm the first to admit that my children can annoy.  They've pretty much perfected that verb.  We'll have to work harder on the more pleasant adjectives in the world and try to make the teachers less annoyed and confused as to why they haven't been beat up yet.  I should take some pride in the fact that they have never been beat up, right?

Continuing on with the teacher topic.  

Look at these cute boys that are out teaching the Gospel! 

Oh, Keaton. 

I like teachers (usually).  But I think I hate school.  

Do you like school?   

P.S.  Did you miss Sunday Night Live last week?  

For those of you who did, don't worry, we'll be back.  

For those of you who didn't, we'll still be back.  

I fall. So what?

So, I fall.  

Yep, like I fall a lot. 

Some are just baby falls, 

others are monumental ... 

but let me assure you, I fall.  

The most memorable "incident" would probably be off of the school bus. Whenever I mention that I fell off of my school bus once, people inevitably have a sad little picture in their minds of an elementary student trying to make it down those enormous steps.  Well, the steps were still enormous, but I was in High School.  Yep.  I rode the bus in High School.  So what?

Sometimes reliving my past is quite painful.  

Anyway, it happened again the other day.  Jake was sitting in the truck waiting for his morning transport to school.  I knew that we were on a time crunch, and I was scurrying.  Scurrying is usually where something goes askew.  As I headed out the door (no pun intended), something (like air) got in the way.  I dove over the threshold like there was a million dollars just waiting on the other side.   I dove out head first, arms outstretched in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable and I believe I caught some air for a moment!  You'll have to ask Jake ... he saw the whole thing.  I landed in plank position ... and didn't dare move.  I hit every part of me ... and my phone.  Moment of silence please for the Droid.  May he rest in peace.   I finally discovered that I could get to my feet, maneuver my way into the truck, and get the boy to school on time.  Because I'm a mother and that's what we do!    The bruises and scrapes have healed, I've replaced my phone, and I'm ready to blog about it.

I don't understand why some people are more coordinated than others.  I never have been.  My dream of being an Olympic badminton star was always dust in the wind.  I'm over it.

Sometimes it really bothers me, but then I see videos like this and I realize that even the most sculpted athletes sometimes fall.  And I feel better ... because I laugh really hard.

I fall.  Do you?

      

Hot Mess ... or confess?

And in case you're super young and curious ...

The new and improved KKK ...

Another Sunday ... another "show".  

What shall we name this show of ours?

* I forgot that I got TWO comments last week on our show.  Pardon my absentmindedness ... this week's show is dedicated to my second comment and loyal friend, Diane. 

Well that was fast!

 Watch out young mothers.  

It happens fast ... real fast!

Life as Matthew

A few weeks ago, we got to go see Matthew and his band play at the Hard Rock Cafe in Phoenix.  It's always fun to watch him perform, but this was a superb venue with magnificent seating around the stage.  Loved it!

Last week, Matty began an additional adventure.  He and his buddies decided to paint their tummies and go to a Diamondbacks game with the goal of being seen on the Jumbo Tron.  Aim high my boy!  They were playing the Dodgers that evening, so it was decided that the painted tummies would spell #Beat LA.  If you know Twitter, you know that the # sign is known as a hashtag!  This would prove to be genius! 

They bought their tickets, made their way into the stadium and sat in place (fully clothed) until the perfect time was decided upon for the big reveal.  It was then, that they took off their shirts, began chanting for our home team ... and the crowd went wild.  They were on the Jumbo Tron, they were on TV, and they would become personal friends with Baxter the mascot as well as the fans. 

The next day, they were found on Twitter (the gang is now known as #human hashtag), and given some seats by the dugout to "perform" again.  Since then, they've made several other appearances and they're livin' the dream.  Mark Grace has been enjoying playing tic-tac-toe on the hashtag tummy.  Jake & Garrison were recruited for the last game as they spelled #Go Dbacks ... and they will all be taping seven promos for a large network (known as FOX Sports) tomorrow afternoon.

Only in Matthew's world do these things actually happen.

Dream big, people!  Dream big!

Perfect ending ...

We took a quick trip to California this weekend ... 

and it was the perfect way to end our warm little summer. 

I had to wear a jacket!  

Here are some highlights of our spontaneous escape. 

We also created yet another ridiculous video of ourselves 

while we were mingling with the other movie stars.  

Ooooh la la ~

 A broken wrist wasn't going to stop the scuba diving kid!

 

 

 

Now push play for your viewing pleasure ...

Batten down the hatches!

I'm in big trouble ...

It has recently come to my attention that my boys read my blog.  Who knew?!  It was also brought to my attention, that I mentioned every other child's birthday this year ... except for my baby.

That's right.  On July 9th, my baby turned 14! 

You know what that makes me? 

Yep, super old.

I remember his day of birth all too well.  I was 6 hours into some pretty intense labor, and I hadn't asked for an epidural yet.   My Grandpa McKinnon was there with me and Gary, and he was rubbing my back as I sat on a big bouncy ball at the foot of my bed.  Best Grandpa in the whole darn world.  I was feeling braver than I had the first four times and I was proud of my pain tolerance.  Shortly after this sensation of pride, I was whisked away, prepped for surgery, and experienced my one and only C-section.  Garrison was trying to come out butt first ... it wasn't working.  I have a picture of the doctor grabbing his two little feet out of my stomach.  If you'd like to see it, raise your hand.  Gary had no problem watching and taking pictures of the devastation of my tummy.   

Anyway, the rest is now 14 years of history.  I was in love with this little guy and his amazing head of hair the moment I laid eyes on him.  The red hair runs deep in my family, and belongs to some pretty special people ... Garrison included.   I was so happy to finish off our little family with this freckle faced kid. 

It's not that I forgot his birthday, oh no.  I just haven't been much into blogging lately.  Making music videos?  Yes.  But blogging?  Eh.  We had a splendid time as a family at Jump Street.  In theory, this place is as fantastic as it gets ... if you're a kid with a healthy bladder.  It's wall-to-wall trampolines that line the walls and the floor.  You can hop, hop, hop and twirl all night long ... if you have a healthy bladder.

I hop, hop, hopped for about 2 1/2 minutes and then had to make a quick exit off of the trampoline and into the ladies room to air dry.

Like I said.  I'm super old.  

My baby is growing up.

And I wouldn't trade any of this for nothin'.

Happy birthday little G!

My happy place ~

Toro Camp was calling me ... and I just couldn't stay away.  I was able to go watch Keaton shed his blood, sweat and tears more sweat every year for four years.  I was able to watch him form bonds of friendship that still carry on and support each other, even as they are spread out onto different continents.

 

There is something about football camp that completely fills my whole soul.  There is something about watching your offspring push themselves (even when they're the smallest little guy on the team) toward seeing how far their healthy bodies will allow them to go, and then being able to watch them as they see their own accomplishments and are a bit astonished at the goals that are met.

There is something about watching them respond to a staff of coaches who can demand much more than their mothers ever could.

There is something about the crisp air that we get to escape to, and those summer evenings that even require us to wrap up in quilts as we watch our boys on the field under the bold, bright lights.  It's my happy place ... and I've never seen Garrison happier as he followed in Keaton's footsteps.

Until the very last night ... when he broke his wrist.

Dang football.  Why do we love you so?