sweet time with my little man

Lately Zeke has been having a hard time, we attribute it to us moving. IF you don't know we are moving to Redding CA in January. We are excited, sad, stressed, anxious and more. We told Zeke about a month ago and he was actually really excited, he wanted to know if we would drive on the 60 freeway to get there! And he wanted to know if he would be close to Ava and aidia, NAte and erica and Trisha. He knows they live there and I think it helped to have familiar friends already there. But in this last month we have had many, many many ups and downs and I think he grasps small pieces of our life changing.
But yesterday and today we had two distinct moments together that I loved. Yesterday we were at his nana and papa's waiting for Sofia to wake up from a morning nap and it was just he and I. We layed on the couch together facing each other and just talked for like 10 minutes. We talked about school, and dressing up for Halloween, how the colors of our eyes were different and he said mine were green and orange and brown so so pretty. THen a minute later he asked if my teeth were gray! You gotta love the honesty of kids, Dan says it is just because in the Lorax they talk about the Onclers teeth being gray. I am going to go with!
THen today he crawled into bed with me and whispered "mama it's your birthday today you are 30 years old" It was so sweet and he just layed beside me and asked me how I slept and if I was doing ok, it was so so sweet and I cherish these times that seem so few lately. It makes me tired and sad to think about the months ahead and how hard they might be for him, he is so sweet and sensative I am just praying for a smooth transition for him!

Best husband ever!

This weekend my husband surprised me with flying my best friend Annette down for the weekend, for my birthday! It was so amazing, they kept it a secret and I was so excited when she came to the door! We had a party on Saturday with tons of friends and Sangria! Thanks everyone for celebrating with me! It was funny because I kept giving Dan a hard time for not taking me to see Wicked which I had been wanting to see forever! But of course I felt like a jerk later because he had already planned for Annette and I to go! He planned it with my great friend Andrea who hooked us up with 4th row seats!! It was hands down the best musical I have ever seen, can't say enough great things about it!
It was a great birthday and Dan went all out in planning it and giving me everything I wanted for my 30th! He went to so much trouble to think of all the details and plan everything out, I am so so so so so lucky! He is exhausted from weeks of going non-stop, work and planning a party and surprises, watching the kids a ton so I could gallivant around town with my best friend. Thanks babe I love you!

taking things for granted

It is funny the things you take for granted until they are missing and can't be used! I woke up today to the normal sounds of my daughter chattering in her room at around 6:50am, but to my surprise my alarm clock was blank! My very first thought was how am I going to feed my baby? She is very very picky and will only eat her cereal hot and her bottle hot, not warm, hot. So I hopped in the car in search of somewhere with power to fill my thermos with hot water. No such luck, I began to call family and friends to use their hot water and realized all of Riverside was out of power. I came back home and thought the water heater has to have some hot water stored up. It did and it got hot enough to get us through our morning feeding. Then I wondered what am I going to do all day without power? Luckily it was only 3 hours without, not bad at all considering all of Riverside was without it. But I began to think about the chaos and stress of a mother in New Orleans, during Katrina. How excruciating to not be able to provide your child with food, or a clean diaper. They had nothing to give and nothing for themselves, I cannot imagine the pain that those parents must have felt as they searched and tried to provide for their children.
It made me want to stock pile my house with supplies, and I think it is good to be prepared but at the same time we can' t get crazy. I have that tendency!
It just made my heart ache again for the people of Louisiana and Mississippi. How many people are still suffering there, 2 years later, way too many. It is so easy to be selfish and forget others in need. I do not want to be that person and I don't want my kids to be those people.

Sorry mom!

So you may have already seen these on Dan's blog this morning, but I wanted to show them off as well. We went to Sid's tattoo parlor yesterday to get them done. I have wanted an anchor tattoo for about 4 years and never knew where I wanted it. After we got Sofia I thought I need 2 anchors to represent the hope God has given me, and the gift of our kids. So I went for the shoulders. I am not gonna lie it hurt like the dickens, but I did so much better than I thought I would! I told Dan not to be surprised if I cried but I didn't, I just took it like a true sailor! They took about 2.5 hours and toward the end it got really hard!
Anyway my mom is not happy about it, sorry mom.
But I am so excited with how they turned out, they are more beautiful than I thought they would be! If you need a tattoo Sid is your man!

4th times a charm!

So I had posted about Zeke's first real haircut a couple of weeks ago at Fantastic Sam's, but they did not really do anything at all. So a week ago Dan's mom cut a lot off of the back and made it kind of even all the way around, but there were some parts left over because Zeke turns to look at you while you are trimming. So then a few days ago i trimmed it more and made it even finally. But after this we realized we don't like it as much as when it was really long so we had it cut for the 4th time! Heather Weppler came over and gave both Zeke and I awesome cuts. She did a great faux hawk for Zeke and he looks so different now and we love it! Thanks Heather it only took a month of cutting his hair to get it how we wanted. I am actually really impressed that he sat still for her to give him a hairstyle! We probably sound kind of vain to work this much on his hair, but in his lifetime we have only cut it 2 other times! We grow it out all year and cut it in the summer, we were just a little late this year!

family pics

Today we went to the botanical gardens to take family photos with the Lance family. Dan's parents and Mike & Becky. Of course we pick a day when they are having a sale at the botanicals gardens, so there is no parking and like 50 people lined up waiting to get in. The morning went not as planned so when we got there I was a little stressed. We needed to leave at 8:40am and I was up at 6:45 feeding Sofia, so you would think 2 hours would be plenty of time to get a family of 4 ready, not true. In our case anyway, there were a few tantrums, poopy diapers, can't find my shoes etc. My favorite was Zeke in the bathroom crying just because, we asked him to go potty so we could go he says in a whiny crying voice, "mama I can't I am far too busy to go potty!" Wow and so the whole first 20 minutes of our hike through the botanical gardens was on eggshells as to not disturb the monster that was lurking inside Zeke.
The pictures actually went great once we got warmed up, Jon and Kathy took the pics, Jon took them Kat was the assistant. Thanks guys!
I am looking forward to seeing the finished product especially the ones where Mike and Becky were climbing in the tree, there were some interesting situations in getting up to the limbs!

I love Jimmy

Don't worry I still love my husband most of all, I was speaking of the band Jimmy eat world!! If you read my husbands blog you know we went to go see them last night at the Wiltern in LA. First of all the Wiltern is so beautiful and cool. It was built in 1932 and it has all of this cool filigree (Karen how do you spell that?) all over the place. Anyway I was very impressed usually we see a show at a ghetto location with a dirty building, this was a pleasant surprise! And we had cool comfortable seats, yes I am old, I like to have the option to sit while at a concert. I am way past the age where it is fun to stand squished on the floor next to 21 year old boys and girls who can finally order a beer at a show and thrash around uncontrollably! Don't get me wrong I will absolutely subject myself to that, but for only a select few bands, U2 always and forever, Jimmy eat World, The Killers, and Death Cab. There may be a few others you could talk me into.
Anyway Jimmy is so amazing, they sounded great and just put on a darn good show! My favorite of the evening was 23 off of the Futures album. They played some from the Clarity album like, crush, Blister, and For me this is heaven (can you still feel the butterflies is what I call it).
And I have to give love to Karen and Steve I can't think of anyone I would rather see Jimmy or U2 with than you guys. We love you.
Even though I am getting older and more cranky about shows, I still love to go and feel the energy in the place and how the music moves you to get up and dance. We were in the balcony and you could feel the whole floor bend and move with everyone as we danced! I love that music can do that for you, it has been a while, thanks Jimmy.

It's not easy being green

So today all of blogdom is supposed to blog about being green and saving our planet. Thanks Patti for the reminder!
So I thought I would just tell a little bit about what the Lance family does to be as green as we can. As you have all read about my cloth diaper complaints, you know we are not adding to the 2 million diapers thrown away daily in the U.S. (disposable diapers take 500 years to break down) YIKES! We use g diapers with a cloth inside during the day and the g diaper flushable at night.
WE have always been recyclers but my dear friend Karen inspired me to be a crazy recycler about a year or two ago. SO now we rinse out anything and everything that can be reused and recycled.

One of the hardest things for me has been giving up paper towels, you don't realize how much you use them until they are gone. So we use some towel type cloths from Traders for spills on floors and what not.
Dan went on a crazy rampage and replaced every light bulb in our house, I was kind of annoyed by it, I wanted to wait until the light bulbs burnt out then replace them. He did not agree.

We unplug everything when not in use, even just plugged in things take up a lot energy. Especially cell phone chargers, things with clocks, like coffee makers etc.

We educate our kids, Zeke knows what things to recycle and we read books to learn more and instill the green thinking in our everyday lives. We are still trying to change his mind about hummers but to no avail. Dan's mom said don't worry about it remember Mike (dan's brother) loved (really loved)wrestling and the wrestler figurines, but he got over it. So we will hope this obsession with Hummers will pass!

Using canvas bags at the grocery store and target. People still look at me funny at Target and try to ring up my own bags from home, asking do you know how much this was? I have to say beforehand these are my bags can you please put my items in there instead of plastic bags? It is getting better!
We started composting also this summer, I have to admit we have slacked lately with it, but someday I will make some soil and put it on my flowers!

We hardly water our lawn, it looks really brown all summer but come fall it starts to green up and the neighbors forget that we were the ghetto lawn on the block!

We try to do all laundry and dishwasher running during the evening or morning, not peak hours.

This one might be kind of gross but we have the "if it is yellow let it mello, if it is brown flush it down" motto. You waste less water by not constantly flushing, maybe that is too much information!
So these are just some of our everyday things we do to be green, it is a learning process and a sacrifice but so worth it when you read about water bottles taking 1000 years to break down! Use a nalgene bottle!
Happy green day!

Back seat driver

(This picture has nothing to do with the post, these are just my signature post pictures because they are stinking hilarious!)

So I guess I am getting a taste of my own medicine. I admit up until about a year ago I was a horrible back seat (passenger seat) driver. I would always and still do tell Dan to slow down or watch out. I would grab the dashboard for dear life like my mom and sister do in an anxious fashion. So it is coming back to haunt me through my son. If you know Zeke he talks a lot!!! He always has an opinion and lets you know if you are doing something wrong. He tells me to go faster, to slow down, to go the speed limit, don't drive on the dirt, watch out for the curb, don't run the yellow light, your sposed to slow down on yellow! Then he goes into the rules of driving, Mama remember green you go, yellow you slow down, and red you stop ok mama. Other rules include, going fast on the bump (speed bumps), use your windshield wipers, honk your horn if someone is going to slow, did you get on the grass a little bit mama? Our driveway curves and I admit sometimes the tires brushed some grass, and each time Zeke knows and points it out. It is funny most of the time, but there are times when I get tired of being bossed around. I admit I pay attention to driving a lot more because I know I am going to get a comment about it if I slip up! He keeps me on my toes that is for sure! He also knows his way around town better than I do, if he knows where we are going and I go a different way he will let me know I am wrong and off path. Good times.

I love Fall

I love fall because it means you start eating things like Pumpkin butter, it is from my favorite place Trader Joes or as Dan calls is Teeggg! If you love apple butter as I do and if you like pumpkin flavor you will loveeeee this spread! I have been eating it in the morning on toast or a bagel, it is so good. And does everyone else agree it looks cute with my halloween nails! My mom took my sis and I out last night to get mani and pedi's as part of our birthday gifts. I think I got one pedicure last year, and in the last 2 months I have gotten 2! What a treat, thanks mom!
My sister and I have our birthdays a week a part (3 years and a week) so we always celebrate together, fun now but when we were young my sister was always mad she had to wait to celebrate with me. Hers is a week before mine and we would celebrate right in the middle of them, what a good sister to share with me! By the way I am turning 25 this year! That is unfortunately not true Dan informed Zeke I was turning 30 and he periodically reminds me throughout the weeks, my birthday is still like more than 2 weeks away. I feel pretty good about turning 30 so far, I guess we will see when it gets closer, for now I am holding on to still being in my 20's!!!

The gray pride parade

So Dan and I looked at each other this morning and cracked up because we were both wearing all gray! Dan is always wearing these gray basketball shorts and I love my gray sweats, but we didn't intend to match it with gray shirts! I have to give props to Dan because he came up with the title, he is so funny! Anyway we had a little photo shoot to try to capture our hip outfits and we fell a few times and the first pic looks as if I am holding him, I am not.
While at home comfort is our name hopefully we won't ever think it is ok to head out of the house in these cool threads! Whats funny is I just looked at Zeke and he is wearing dark gray pajamas with guitars all over them, I guess it is a family thing, I am sure people are always commenting on how stylish those Lances are!

quiet house

This morning I am enjoying a quiet house. I can't remember the last time I have had that. Zeke goes to school MWF and Sofia sleeps in the morning. But I don't usually enjoy these quiet times. Mondays I work, Wednesdays I usually skip her nap to go to playgroup, and Friday Dan has the day off so we work on the house, run errands etc. So today we stayed home, and I basked in the quiet of my home. I fought the urge to empty the dishwasher, clean the bathroom, make my bed, wash the diapers etc. I sat down with my earl grey tea (with cream and honey) and read my Bible and wrote in my journal, uninterrupted it was great. I have to fight against my nature to get things done and instead do what I really need which is to be quiet. I love the chaos and loudness of life with kids but I also need a balance of time alone. I am lately trying to figure out what I need to be a better mom and wife, and time alone and stillness around me is one of them. It is not always possible but at least I can find snippets of every once in awhile. I think Scarlet needs quiet time too, she has to look over her shoulder all day with the kids around! She is peacefully snoring on the couch also enjoying the quiet!

our evenings

This last week we have spent our early evenings in this way. We wait out front for Daddy to get home from work. Zeke asks everyday "can I ride my bike out the front". So we ride the bike, sit in the grass, play and wait for daddy. Usually Dan pulls up on his Vespa and races Zeke down the street. It always helps to get outside and changes the pace because evenings seem to get long. Sofia is getting teeth and is fussy all afternoon and for some reason going outside causes us to all calm down. Even though I want cold fall weather I love that it is beautiful out in the evening for us to enjoy!

I had fun at work!

On Mondays I work at River Springs charter school as a teacher of Photography and Painting/sculpting. I have been with River Springs for over 5 years now and I feel blessed to have such a flexible job that lets me be home the rest of the week. I always seem to have to slap myself back into shape because I always end up complaining about having to work. I know I work one half day how annoying of me to complain. But a lot more goes into the classes and preparing than one day. Anyway today in my photo class we were working on our shutter speed and capturing action shots. So we went up to this field to mess around and take pictures of each other, and I actually really enjoyed my day of teaching! Lately it has been hard because I put a lot of time into the classes, but they are supplemental and the students could do nothing and have no consequences. So it is often hard to get them motivated to do anything at home, and how can they learn if they don't practice and explore their surroundings and their cameras! So today the kids played volleyball and did funny dance and jump moves in order to take shots of each other. It was so fun and we were cracking up at each other and just having fun. It was so fun to watch them feel so comfortable with each other and do weird things in order to get a good shot. By the way I teach jr. high, a grade I never thought I would love, but I do. I love that you can talk to them and that they 70% of the time want to learn new things from you! Anyway just had a good day at work and they have felt few and far between lately so I thought I would share.

Lazy Saturday

I love days when you have nothing planned, it seems in this crazy life those days are few, but this year we have really tried to keep a sabbath as many of you know from Dan's weekly update! So I won't spoil all the exciting things we did. But it was so nice because I kind of got to sleep in today! At least I was in bed until 8am!!!! I was not sleeping because the kids (Zeke) is very loud, but at least I was warm and snuggly in bed! Then we drank coffee, wrestled, built forts and just hung out together. Sofia had her morning nap and Dan suggested we watch a fun movie with Zeke. For your information the only movie Zeke likes is Cars. So we said any movie except that one, he chose Beauty and the Beast, I love this movie! It was my favorite movie in 6th grade and I know all the songs, Dan loved this since of course I sang along! Zeke actually enjoyed it until the end when he thought the Beast was dead and he started getting the quivering lip and began to cry a little, it was so sweet and I just held him and told him that the spell was broken and the beast is ok! Sorry if you have not seen it and I ruined it for you! Anyway it was so nice to relax. Then we began going through Zeke's old clothes because we know two people who are having boys in a couple of months and we wanted to hand them Zeke's clothes. This was so sad for me, looking through Zeke's tiny preemie outfits and blankets, made me miss those crazy exhausting times! Anyway it was good but so emotional for me. We figured people gave us so much when he was a baby we should pass on the love. I kept about three little outfits just to have, I feel good about the process. Dan is always wanting to clean sweep me and my things, and we often go toe to toe on quite a few things. But this was a good thing and I am so pleased to help someone else because lets face it, kids clothes are expensive! So this was our non planned Saturday, yay for time at home together!

Oh the frustration of paperwork

This morning after my dentist appointment I got to work on more paper work for Sofia's adoption. You might ask "Alyssa isn't she already adopted?" The answer is yes but there is so much more to do, it overwhelmes me just thinking about it! Since her birth certificate is in Kyrgyz we cannot read it nor can anyone else who is not Russian or Kyrgyz! So when she has to go to school or many other things you need a birth certificate for, it will be a problem. So we have to call and get paperwork, fill it out, file it with the court, get a court date, go get her name changed, do some more paperwork, send it off and then get her new birth certificate in English. This is only one of the things, there is her passport that needs changing, we have to apply for her Social security and more. With each process there are so many papers to fill out as well. So when I called to find out where to file our petition, no one, and I mean no one knew what I was talking about. I was on the phone for over an hour and I talked to, no lie, 8 people. I finally found someone who informed me that this is not what I need, but instead I have to re-adopt Sofia and do another home study, more paperwork, pay more money, and get a lawyer to do this. I am freaking out!!!! I have a call in to my agency so I am hoping and praying this is not true. I am so frustrated! Don't get me wrong, I would do this all day everyday for my baby, but it is hard, especially when Zeke is yelling in one ear about finding his hummer and getting him more cheerios, and Sofia is pulling my hair on the other side! Being on the phone for an hour is not an option with kids around. To be continued...

time flies

It is crazy to me that we have been home only 2 and a half months with Sofia. It feels like she has always been here, that she has been apart of us from the beginning. I love that.
Time goes by so fast she is almost crawling, she pulls herself along army style all over the house. When she is on the wood floor which is 3/4 of our house she just slides everywhere. She already looks so different from when we picked her up. For one she is chubby McJunkins right now! Her cheeks and thighs are so cute, I tried to put her in a pair of 9month jeans and she couldn't bend her legs, it was awesome she was already sporting the skinny jean, so in style! Also she is so active now, she doesn't want to sit still she wants to move all the time! And her hair is finally coming in, Yay!
Anyway just amazed that I have a daughter who is changing daily and is the sweetest thing. The pics are of her when we first met her in Kyrgyzstan, her cruising on our floor and Scarlet licking up her spit up, hey less for me to do right!