Spontaneous planning

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I have always believed that a closed door to a dream in your life is really just an opportunity to pause and look at your aspiration from a different vantage point.

Perhaps you should try a window...

It seems as I grow older I am slowly losing a little bit of the spontaneity that I have always effortlessly maintained. Perhaps it is the stress of raising a family or maybe just the sheer act of aging but regardless… I am becoming so much more of a planner. (Mom, are you jumping for joy?)

I am learning that planning does have its perks. Planners make lists and get to experience the happiness that comes with crossing something off a list…man, that feels great! You can actually see visible proof that you are moving closer to your goal… I love this. In spontaneous living there is that immense drive that comes with delving into a project and just seeing where it leads you… the unknown can be so invigorating… anyone with me here?

So, I have decided that I would like to have both and make it a combo, please. It may not be something that I can control but the planner in me is going to try. In life there are few things that you can completely predict the outcome. Lists and goals help set you in the right direction and give you a start to something potentially amazing. And when that door closes to the path before me (as it often can) and I am faced with something new, unplanned and foreign - my spontaneous person will stop, look out the window and just soak in the endless possibilities... because sometimes the biggest surprises…

can bring the best kinds of joy…

And then the planner can bundle that joy and steer us in the right direction to grow.

Spontaneous planning? Sounds good to me.

Pumpkin

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After a full week at home, Molly is finally well on the road to recovery (Kelly too!). She actually is doing great (fever free for a LONG while). The hardest hurdle has been the fatigue. She just doesn't seem to have her normal Molly amount of energy. I know that sounds silly but a parent can tell when their child is not up to their norm ---especially when their abnormal looks VERY normal to a stranger. What can I say, I have an busy Molly.

Today, we were finally ready to get out of the house. Okay... the others were fine at home but MOMMY needed to get out of the house. The perfect blue sky was just too enticing! We took it slow today and ventured out in small amounts so that Molly and Kelly wouldn't feel exhausted.

To celebrate this fall (quickly returning to summer) weather, we visited the pumpkin patch at the Dallas Arboretum. We sure do have some cute pumpkins who unfortunately, do not like to smile simultaneously.

Take 1:


Smiling at Daddy not the camera...

Um, we will just leave it to the professionals.

Such a happy boy at the patch!

Her eyes are still tired looking but she really seemed to do well with getting some fresh air!

After a handful of fun...

It was off to home! I think that the relaxing part might have just been a nice little change-up to birthday week...sans sickness.

Hooray pumpkins!

Homebound

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I always seem to forget how nice it is to just take some time at home and avoid the chaos of the outside world. A little fall weather and open windows definitely added to the enjoyment of home. I am not going to lie... there were some times we had to be REALLY creative to keep the boredom at bay.

Luckily, we are a fort-loving...



potato head playing group. We definitely saw all types of fun!

*** The child life specialist in me knows that she is utilizing play to adjust to the copious amounts of medication I have crammed down her throat this week. What a champ.

The cool weather could not have come at a more perfect time! Molly's fever had finally dissipated and we were ready for some backyard fun.

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Gabriel is an avid fan of tree/sky watching.

sidewalk chalking...

matchbox car racing...

Peek-a-boo playing sort of fun...

And Molly, well--- she likes to pretend she's a tree.
I think we all benefited from the fresh air. Oh fall weather, if only you could stay!!!

Now that the Mays are better we are directing our love to one other sweet family member that is on the mend!



Miss Meggie had her tonsils and adenoids out today--- such a brave girl! We are sending SO much love to her and the rest of the fam while she is recovering tonight at the hospital. We love you Meg and wish we could be there to LOVE on you!!!!

Amazing Grass Giveaway

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My friend, Heather, is having a really nice giveaway of several Amazing Grass Products. It features one 8.5 oz bottle of the Organic Wheat Grass Powder and one 8.5 oz bottle of the Green SuperFood Powder. The package retails for almost $40 on their website.

According to Heather, "The drink powders are a GREAT addition to smoothies, offering all kinds of vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, probiotics and protein- without the nasty supplement taste. They also mix well with plain old water or juice. It’s a good insurance policy on the days that you might not be able to fit in all of your fruits and veggies." --- SOLD.

You should check it out... but, I hope that you don't win--- for selfish reasons of course!

Getting Better

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Dear grandparents,

I just wanted to send a quick message to let you know how much better I feel today. Mommy says my spunk is coming back and I am definitely feeling a little more like Fancy Nancy. I still feel tired when my Motrin is wearing off but I will be back to my dancing self in no time. I just know it! Mommy and Daddy bought me my FAVORITE jello pudding pops aka "Cake Popsicles" and I am sooooooooo excited! Gabriel sure is acting strange though. He keeps getting mad when I steal his toys from him--- He must be sick. Why else would he be getting so upset?

I guess I picked a nice rainy day to be home.

In case you don't feel like reading this love letter, I sent you a video message as well. Pardon my hair--- I wasn't quite up for hair-washing last night.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Love you!
Molly

Daddy Birthday!

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Kelly is taking his "5 minutes" to mourn the Cowboy loss - so I will take my own 5 minutes for a quick post!

Birthday week has officially kicked off! HOORAY!!! This weekend was a blast and today was all about celebrating this guy...


yes, he WANTED to pull weeds on his birthday. I promise.

I have a bunch of pictures below so I will try to keep the writing to a minimum.

The kids got really crafty with making Kelly's card this year. I was pleased because we did reach the intended daddy watery-eyed moment that made the mess all worth it. Oh. Did I mention the mess?

Gabriel = BIG mess... (yes, that is finger paint in the hair and crayola in between his two front teeth)

Molly made a equally large mess -perhaps a little more contained...

Then Gabe sort of regretted his mess for about 5 minutes...

and then resumed painting his right arm.

Friday night, we ventured out to one of our favorite festivals, Oktoberfest, in Addison. Molly and I toasted our two favorite boys...

and that made them happy.

Saturday night, Kelly and I made it to the ranger game where several FIRSTS happened. This was the first time that I had attended a game that only lasted an hour and half. Wow. We were home in time to see my longhorns to victory (although, I also freakishly checked the blackberry from the stadium too...hook em'). That was amazing.

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But wait--- even better---

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Have you ever seen a tomato this big on a Wendy's Jr. burger?!?!?!

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* please note that the burger is the size of the bun which is why you can't see it. wow... too bad I asked for no tomato.

and yes, I did take a picture of my dinner but none of us... don't judge.

We had a blast at the game but unfortunately, returned home to one hot ta-molly. She is fighting something. We stayed close to home today and had to cancel birthday burritos at Freebirds with family. Don't worry- we still had bunches of fun playing around the house and planting flowers...

I promise it was fun...

just perhaps Mommy took a few too many pictures...

Molly has heated back up to an alarming 106 tonight but after a frantic call to our pediatrician she is asleep and her fever is back down. It has been fiery finish to a fabulous birthday weekend. I mean how could a little sick stop us from celebrating such an AMAZING (and studly!!!) man?

Happy Birthday, Kel----we hope that all your birthday wishes come true!

Looking forward to all the birthday week fun to come... and the nice visit to the pediatrician in the morning.

Baby Weight

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It seems that baby weight comes in all shapes and sizes. Mine comes in the nice form of an 18-month- old overly clingy lovechunk. Let's see... would that make me pear or apple-shaped?

Oh Gabey, why do you look so sad?

Oh, that's right. You HATE the gym.

This morning was a little discouraging for me. I took the extra effort to make it to a class at the gym today and the plan quickly met its demise. VERY quickly. Gabriel handled about 10 minutes without Mommy before they beckoned me back to rescue him. Lucky for me I was right in the middle of a class literally in the MIDDLE of the room. No sneaking out quietly here. I am disappointed because I really thought that we were over this hurdle- apparently, we are not. Gabriel does love him some Mommy and Daddy time. I was so shocked last week when he lasted 2 hours away from me while I went to a Mother's Club meeting. He was such a champ! I took the sudden change of behaviors to mean that he could tolerate a 45 minutes away from me.

Perhaps he can- just not at the gym

He began to cry the minute we hit the check-in counter. I really chalk this up to the fact that the gym was the first strange place I left him when he was in the heart of his separation issues. I think he has mentally branded it as a terrible place---even though they have ALL of his favorite toys.

So, I have devised a new little scheme to warm him to gym-life. I will once again return to the 5:45 am workouts (UGH!) and then try to come to the gym for like 10 minutes EVERY day to slowly introduce him to positive experiences at the gym. Ok, I will be realistic... almost every day. I think once he stops crying he will see that there are so many fun toys to play with. We are also going to try with Molly there to see if that helps at all.

It is not that I LOVE to workout by any means. In fact, in many ways the gym and I are enemies too. But, I have to start taking ownership of my body and making healthy choices... and time away from the kids can be a nice healthy choice too. I think that Gabriel might see that time away from Mommy can be exhilarating. Let's hope! Keep you posted!

Sunshine

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This afternoon something exquisite happened! We actually saw the sun. It was lovely and not rainy and even a little cool (for Texas). Gabriel, Molly and I celebrated with a nice long walk around the neighborhood... sans strollers for them. That is right folks, they walked. I would like to take a moment and truly soak in how far we have come. Gabe and Molly walked side by side each pushing their allotted barbie in their designated baby strollers without fighting, losing interest or venturing into the street. That alone might have been even more exciting than the sunshine... although, the vitamin D was a nice little added boost to the day. I think the kids benefited from the vitamin D too because they sure had a surge of stamina. Their little legs walked FAR... they never cease to amaze me.

Hopefully, you had a chance to play in the sun today too--- even if just for a moment!

Ballet Day

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And a very happy ballet day to you. (I don't know why it came out so pixelated...I might have just invented that word.)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tired Kid

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I have always believed that children have a perception of the world that we adults could only be so lucky to retain. In the midst of hardship, fear and pain a child can still find the will to play. This resiliency continues to amaze me on a daily basis ---especially at work. A child can often see the truth long before an adult. I truly believe that children view the world in the way it was meant to be seen. In building relationships a child just makes one simple choice… they choose love. Well, that and laughter, running, singing, playing…

I think that we as adults try to embody the belief and attitude of our youth but get so lost in the pressures, expectations and deadlines of adulthood that we forget what we were hoping to return to. Certain professionals continue to embody a gift to connect to children and I am so thankful that there are adults out there that use their gift to foster the development of our children.

Today Aunt Maxey asked Molly what her teacher looked like and I loved the response. Molly took a slight pause and then informed her that she looked like a “tired kid.” I later asked Molly why she looked tired and she said it was because she has lines around her eyes and mouth. I think that it is such a testament to the amazing teachers out there that my child feels like her teacher is as much fun as a kid… with a few laughing, worrying wrinkles from adulthood to boot.

If being a tired kid is the closest I can get to retaining a joyful, trusting, loving spirit then I’ll take it…I guess a few laughter/worry wrinkles will be my nice reminder I’ve lived!

The Cheese

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Well, it is official folks--- The May children have finally visited "The Cheese".

It is actually quite shocking that we made it this long. We almost went there last March for our niece's birthday but the birthday location changed last minute. Friday night was a little bit cloudy and so we took a chance with some indoor chaos...er, I mean fun. We did shamefully venture out to Rockwall's Chuckie Cheese because for some reason we imagined that it would be cleaner, newer maybe and perhaps a bit less crowded. Dallas is big and dirty, you know.

Insert the theme song of Jaws.

Kelly and I may have been a bit terrified but not the May children! They were in HEAVEN. Pizza infused, kid chaotic, tubes-on-the-ceiling heaven. Molly initially kept telling me that she wanted to see the "Bear" aka Chuckie. I informed her that Chuckie was actually a mouse. Kelly then took this opportunity to explain that originally back in the day of Showbiz the mascot was a bear. I think that Molly was over at the skeeball tables by the time he finished. Oh, the priceless history kids today take for granted!

It may have been busy but we really did have fun.

Bob the builder was Gabe's ride of choice. I think he tapped out at about 11 rides and one kiss fest with a plastic bob character. LOVE.

Another love was drinking pink lemonade out of BIG cups. Molly was convinced she was really drinking coke. I shudder to think what a Molly with caffeine would look like.

Wow. I never realized how salty the pizza was. We were drinking water all night long. It was yummy though at the time--- perhaps a bit sauce-less. I will save the full review for my friend, Heather.

There were two little catastrophes but we muscled through them. First of all, we might have lost Molly for about 45 seconds. She was up in the tube and just never came down the slide... apparently, she went exploring.

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We quickly recovered and hit up the carousel for about 9 laps. Molly just might be the biggest carousel nut out there. Well, seconded only to her Papa John.

Gabriel was quite taken with Molly's adventure in the tubes. VERY TAKEN INDEED. So, while Molly and I were over at the carousel and Kelly was completely immersed watching this kid play the whack-a-mole, Gabe sought his opportunity to check the tubes out for himself. It may have not been Kelly's finest parenting moment but we will cut him a little slack because the whack-a-mole kid was a bit intense and definitely distracting.

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And here you have our nice little mini-melt. About 2 seconds later, Kelly looks down and can't find Gabriel. He had apparently mountain climbed up the slide and was living in tube land. Did I mention that tube land is on the CEILING?

A little coaxing, some frantic pacing and an almost daddy climb to the ceiling later, Gabe was back on the ground. And we were heading for home. It was a bit of chaotic moment but it ended with HUGE prize.

Our new pet.

Molly's pink plastic fish that cost 10 tickets. Her beloved. At home the fish was quickly placed in water because a fish can't live without it...duh. According to Molly her fish swims around only when she is sleeping. Sounds good to me- as long as we don't try to feed it.

Such an adventurous start to the holiday weekend!

Water slide!

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This week Molly and Gabe had their friend Caroline over to play! We decided to try an end-of-summer invention and had such a blast! Had Kelly and I been in the under 100 lbs crowd we totally would have tried this slide out after the kids were in bed... and maybe we still did.

We had so much fun with Sweet Caroline and can't wait for her to come back and play with those Crazy May kids... if we didn't scare her to death with the water slide!

Can't ever get enough of the pool time fun! We very well might be swimming until October so the water slide should get a BUNCH of use!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Routine

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So it seems that the May brood is a bit more adaptable than I had originally given us credit for. I cannot believe how quickly we have developed a new routine revolving around school, ballet, rugby, and that thing called work! Although the weather may not indicate it, our busy calendar sure does look a like lot Fall. The fall ALWAYS seems SO busy. Perhaps, maybe this is why I love it so much -well that and sweaters, hot chocolate, birthday week, holiday fun, longhorn football... you know... all the stuff that is still to come.

It seems that we are all learning new and wonderful things this season. Molly learns something new every day at school. She tries to tell me her entire day in the 30 seconds I am buckling her in the car seat. Today she apparently learned two VERY important lessons.

Lesson 1: The letter A says "eh" (which has a WHOLE song that she will sing over and over)

Lesson 2: Apparently someone (perhaps Molly) might have had an escape toot today at school because Molly asked me, "Did I know that every bottom has gas in it?" Apparently, there was a little tutorial on flatulence.

Gabriel seems to have just taken off with all the extra attention. Today we went to this little gym program at a Dallas Recreation Center and it was SO much fun and a perfect activity for Gabriel. The program uses lots of mats and bunches of balls---his favorites! We are both learning that a little quiet in our day is actually a nice thing. When I am driving though, I do have to remind myself that Gabe is in the car (he normally just likes to look out the window).

Kelly has decided that he just might the best kept secret in the world of Rugby. He has never played but now has jumped right into the Dallas Rugby life and is having a blast! He is learning the value of eating before practice, how to not break his body and various clothing he can transform into ice packs. Did you know that a cut up sock makes the best ice pack for you knee? Apparently, it does.

See, now you learned something new too!