Can’t believe a month or more has passed since I last posted here. Life is busy. My children our busy. The Senator is busier…especially since we are heading into the Legislative season soon.
We took a breather from the busy last month and hightailed it to New Mexico for Thanksgiving. Such a beautiful place. Peaceful. Serene.
Wishing I could find the peace of that place right about now….
A few weeks ago we went down to Dallas to watch the OU-Texas football game. The kids went with us as has been our family tradition for the past few years, and this year was no exception.
We stayed at a really fun hotel right next to several fantastic restaurants and shops. This is the shop where I bought my wedding dress several (16) years ago.
But, what made this hotel even more fun was the fact that Blake Griffin was staying there. For those of you who have no idea who Blake Griffin is, he played basketball at OU and now plays for the LA Clippers. Very popular and famous young man in my great state. Not only was he staying at our hotel, but he was staying on our floor….right next door. And, we actually ran into him a couple of times back at the hotel. Once in the lobby and once getting off the elevator to be exact.
I think it’s safe to say we are still a little star struck around here….and, hoping the NBA lockout ends soon.
So, I took a visual tour of my own, dormant blog the other day and loved re-reading some of my older posts. Not because they were some brilliant masterpiece or anything, but because it was a brief record of the past few years and some events that I had forgotten about.
I have been busy lately. Really busy. Last May, I was elected to serve as the board president for this organization. It is a national non-profit that has honored outstanding moms across the country for roughly 77 years. I have written about it here. This was going to be a huge responsibility and in an effort to budget my free time, I had wiped my plate clean. Well, rather I had dropped off some non-profit boards that I was currently serving on and had scaled back on some other activities like blogging, exercising, socializing, basically anything that filled in the blanks between mom responsibilities and Senator’s wife responsibilities. You get the picture.
This blog has been neglected and that made me sad. Until I read a post from a terrific young mom (pictured center above) that I met last April in Salt Lake City. She writes a blog and had been named the Arizona Young Mother and subsequently, the 2011 National Young Mother of the Year by none other, than American Mothers. She is just a fantastic spirit of energy and I was thrilled to be working with her in this organization throughout the next year. So, I started reading her blog and immediately decided that is one smart momma.
Recently she talked about being so busy and how blogging was consuming more time than she had to give- and so she was going to limit her posts to fifteen minutes. Basically, allowing herself only fifteen minutes to write them and post. I knew I liked her.
Hence begins my new strategy. I know I have not suffered from a lack of potential content lately, just a lack of time management skills and the ability to prioritize what is really important to me in the big scheme of things. This seems like a simple solution in my attempt to continue to manage it all!
I’m thinking I should apply that to exercising too. A forced fifteen minutes a day could go a long way…
But, these fifteen minutes are almost up!
SW
We have just returned home from a road trip through the deep South and I must confess, it exceeded all my expectations.
I am not one to like car rides, but to see this lush country-side, their historic points of interest, and major universities combined with some of the most hospitable people you will ever meet – made our journey down south absolutely awesome!
I am still catching up on the laundry and mail and all the things that get neglected when you are gone that long……but I will post a few of my favorite pic’s from a long the way for now. Enjoy!
Arkansas!
Mississippi………..
Tuscaloosa.
And, just across the street from the tornado at the University of Alabama…..
Tennessee for a legislative conference….
And Elvis!
And, Alabama again….but not in that particular order!
Then there was Florida….where I should like to live forever.
But, seeing that I don’t have that option, it was certainly nice to see this common and beautiful sight on the long road home.
More tales from our trail soon……..
Recently we took the Senator’s 85 year old mother to Colorado to see her 6 month old great grandchildren.
It was really neat watching them all interact and even more fun when the Senator and I babysat the twins. You talk about hard work. I had totally forgotten about how challenging the baby stage is – but my niece is a champion. She manages those two little people with such patience and style.
And, she is young……
And I am missing her this morning. Quite possibly because I was up with the birds and I imagine she was too….up early with those precious babes because sleep is not on their top ten list of favorite activities!
The Senator’s daughter wants a trampoline. She has wanted one for as long as I can remember. In fact, the word trampoline has been included on every Christmas and Birthday wish list for as long as she has been able to write…. Yet, there has never been a glimpse of a trampoline or glimmer of hope for one to magically land in our backyard.
The reasons are simple. The Senator has a real phobia about these contraptions. He thinks they are a liability and an apparatus just begging for children to break something. My father, who is a physician, concurs. In fact, he has always insisted that no child or grandchild of his shall own a motorcycle, trampoline or go sky diving. Ever.
Alright, so I lived with that growing up and turned out ok. Bikes and planes were never my thing and the neighbors had a trampoline. Sorry dad.
Yet, the Senator’s daughter….well, she refuses to accept this. Although, I’m sure if any of the neighbors had a trampoline I wouldn’t be having this online conversation.
But, this girl has some serious sass and determination when it comes to finding solutions….and, she wants to jump on a trampoline. Her trampoline. Before she is too old to jump.
She also realized early on that it wasn’t going to happen in the traditional manner considering her overly protective family situation.
So… the Senator’s daughter has been working hard, saving her money and has now banked enough pocket change to purchase a trampoline for herself…plus tax and shipping if necessary! She made the announcement around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday evening in the presence of the Senator, and her grandfather. It was fun to watch. Even more enjoyable was watching her take them out into the backyard to show them the site she had selected for the trampoline she was going to purchase. Priceless.
Her grandfather approved with one condition; no flips. As in, you can and will not do a flip, forwards or backwards of any kind. Period. The Senator’s daughter agreed without hesitation, realizing this was nearly a done deal.
The Senator….not so much. He is still trying to figure out how he lost control over the situation. I imagine he will soon realize, if he hasn’t already, that his daughter is one sharp cookie and had this one all figured out before he knew what was happening. She will also jump using extreme caution. I hope.
Like I said, feel free to jump on in the conversation. I’m sure it will remain an ongoing debate around this joint even after the trampoline has magically landed in the backyard!
I’ll keep you posted.
SW
Every year, the night before Easter we invite friends and families over to our house for a pre Easter dinner of sorts. I don’t know when this became a tradition of ours, but it did and we wouldn’t trade it for the world. Lots of eggs are hidden in the yard for hunting, only now the eggs are filled with coins, cash and candy. We usually orchestrate an egg toss or other crazy Easter games, and always the combination of delicious food and fun friends. This year, many of us had given up things for Lent and agreed the evening would be the perfect time to enjoy the contraband. Shall we say, it had been a long 40 days…
The adults stayed late around the table, discussing our different church traditions, Easter celebrations, summer plans…and, of course our kids, who at this point were chasing each other outside with flashlights.
Sadly, this is the only photo I have….but, I think it’s a keeper!
Enjoy!
So…the Senator’s daughter and I managed to sneak in a little road trip to New Mexico over Spring Break. Just us girls.
Along with my mom of course, because we stayed at her place!
We took in the sites..
It was just breathtaking.
And spiritual….
And serene.
And….interesting.
And unusually warm that week, so the Senator’s daughter grabbed her paints and we headed toward the river.
It was the perfect place to spend the afternoon…
And special time together.
Thanks mom!
So, is there a rule that states when my Christmas vacation is officially over? We have had the most wonderful time spent with family and friends and I am certainly carrying the five extra pounds around to show for it! Lots of new traditions this year….
The Senator’s son managed to take some beautiful photos….
As did the Senator’s daughter…….of our dog!
We rescued our sweet, little dog two years ago at Christmas time and we all just love him! Can’t imagine what we did before he joined our family….once you get past some of his bad habits….like digging in the trash! Such unneccessary, bad behavior! I keep telling him he has no need to do this anymore….but old habits die-hard. Somebody get this dog a napkin, quick!
We have had lots of fun moments …
Like when the Senator’s daughter caught me and my favorite cousin-in-law chatting it up at my mother’s house on Christmas Eve! Usually, we are chasing children, but somehow this year we managed to escape to the back room to catch up! Love that and love this girl. Am most grateful to my cousin for bringing her into our family!
And, the Senator’s son let me take a photo of him with his special friend (is that the politically correct term?) at an impromptu gathering of family friends a few days before Christmas at our house.
And, my other daughter…..
Well, not really, but she should be! She has helped us in the summer with kids and campaigns and we just love her to pieces, so I have unofficially made her a member of our family! The Senator’s son just likes it cause he is much taller than she is now!
Aside from torturing myself with Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred and entertaining the kids who are on vacation for the rest of the week, we have a legislative session coming up and an Inaugural Ball for the first female Governor of my great state. I also have a new iPhone – so my up to the minute reporting of these events just got a lot easier! Please send any and all tips for the iPhone my direction. I will need all the help I can get!
Can’t wait!
Love, SW
