Techno challenged!

So this post is for all of my e-mail subscribers.  For some reason I cannot get my feedburner from my new blog - Runamukmom.com to work.  And, of course, I am too technologically savvy to figure out how to fix it.  I'll need to ask the children to work on that one for me!

In the meantime, instead of re-posting here, I'm giving you a link to the post and you can check it out.  Here are the link and a few photo highlights just to pique your curiosity!  Enjoy!

Let it glow, let it glow . . . 

Another turning point . . . A fork stuck in the road

. . . Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.

It’s that time of year again when all the graduates are preparing for the next step, and their parents are getting weepy eyed thinking about how fast their kiddos grew up (which, by the way, also means we are one year older and saggier)!!

The lyrics to Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day have a simple message that at this time of year beautifully encapsulates how I feel.  I also love this song because:

      1)   On the album version, if you listen really carefully (and warning, DO NOT do this with kids in the car), you can hear them say “f*#&” after they try to start the song twice.  Anyone who screws up, records it and then keeps the screw up on the final version of the song is awesome!!  AND

      2)   In 1999, the week before my brother Matthew was killed, this was his graduation song from high school.  To this day, every time it comes on the radio I feel like it’s Matt sending me encouragement and love. 

Almost 9 months ago I was pondering whether to do something more with my blog.  During that time I heard Time of Your Life on the radio 3 times in two days (just randomly playing on the radio, not from my iPod).  So, I took it as a sign . . . to fill my already overflowing plate with one more BIG thing (of course, as you'll read, I didn't actually keep it to ONE thing because, well, I'm mommy and I don't ever do just ONE thing)!  

So today as the Superego graduates from elementary school and enters Middle School (which means I’m going to have A LOT of material coming up)

Which one is the mommy shoe and which one is the child shoe?? EEEEEK! Where did my baby go?

I also decided to “graduate” – and share my new status of author and mommy blogger with her very own website.

My new website www.runamukmom.com will be where I make all my new posts.  It also has all my previous blog posts as well as all my lists, tips and tricks that I’ve shared along the way.  These lists are for everything from dealing with lice to taking care of post childbirth lady parts to how to enjoy the “Happiest Place on Earth” without wanting to poke the eyes out of a life size Mouse!

The book – Adventuresof a Runamuk Mom, The Early Years . . . True Confessions about Re-inventingYourself and Raising Kids with Humor, Irreverence . . . and Sticky Notes has all of the recoveringworkingmom.com’s greatest hits and then some!! In other words, in actual print it contains all the sh*t I learned the hard way about being a quasi stay at home mom!  I will warn you that in it I say “sh*t” A LOT!! 

Of course, in a fashion reserved only for mommies as crazy as me, I decided to launch all of this the same week the Superego had a major talent show performance (that required mommy to be at school for 10 hours for 2 days), AND the same week she graduated from 6^th grade!

As I finish out this bittersweet and exciting week, I thought I would share a few lessons learned about overextending yourself and NOT EVER taking your eyes off your soon to be middle schooler:

Keep Calm . . .

. . . Or, completely freak out and cause yourself such an adrenaline rush that you have to stop the car because you are shaking so badly!

Mommy is only just now beginning to recover from the insanity of last week’s fire evacuation and then two days of what I’ll just call “practice for summer” (aka  “practice for just how much alcohol can mommy take in during a two day time frame just so she can keep her sanity in tact”) while the girls had two days off from school.

This is the second time we have been evacuated due to wildfires and the third time we’ve been through a major wildfire in San Diego (in 2003 we had my cousin who lived in Scripps Ranch stay with us for a few days).  

1/4 mile from our house approximately 45 minutes before we were evacuated.  (Mommy was sh*tting bricks too much to take a photo of the site when she pulled outside her driveway and saw flames behind the neighbor's house).

Firetrucks staged on our street for 2 days after the evacuation order was lifted so as to take care of flare ups.

I cannot tell you how in awe I am of the work of the firefighters and other first responders.  They are extraordinary and you can tell just how much of a difference additional firefighting resources (i.e. helicopters and large planes) has made in our county.  There were so many cool things that my friends did for the firefighters in our community, and they continue to do.  As a small token of our thanks the girls and I took a small basket to our local firestation to thank them!  If you have a chance, even if it's months from now, just pop in to say hi and thanks for all you do!  

We took strawberries, eye drops and chapstick.  We heard from a friend that these were good "practical" items that they can use.  Cases of water are also a good donation.

And, by the way, as further incentive, firefighters are HOT!!!  The two that greeted us were just yummy and I hope they didn't see my blushing (the girls were like deer in the headlights - I'm hoping it was because they were so impressed with the uniforms and big trucks, not with how hot the guys were)!!  To HfH - sorry honey, but I couldn't leave this last part out.

And of course, because this evacuation is like so many other things in our Runamuk lives, mommy had several lessons learned such as:

Mom where r u?

"Right beside you, always watching u while trying to resist mommy peer pressure and keep u safe!"

. . . is how I wanted to respond to one of the Superego's first text messages.  

She has turned 12, and with that comes the cracking of the cell phone Pandora’s box.  We’re still keeping a safety net in place, but the box lid is open just a bit and mommy is sh*tting bricks.  I’ve already received the “Mom where r u” text at least once (as I was sitting in the parking lot 10 feet away waiting for her).  I imagine it’s only the first of MANY.

For the record, that is a USED iPhone that daddy would not have had to purchase were it not for the fact that mommy's old iPhone looks like this:

As I enter Mother’s Day weekend with an extremely heavy heart for the moms whose hearts are breaking in Nigeria, I have had a chance to reflect on what it means to be a mom.  As exhausting as my “job” as a mom is, I wouldn’t trade it for anything and everyday I learn a little bit more about myself, my kids, my husband, and most importantly, my own mom!

And just because God has a sense of humor . . . my Mother’s Day week was off to a bang.  I had FIVE conversations with other moms about their children’s behavior, TWO conferences with THE SAME CHILD'S teacher, and ONE doozy of a conversation with a mom about my kids’ behavior; and THAT was only Monday!!!

It’s now Friday, and I feel like I’ve run a Marathon and I have to get up tomorrow and do it all again.  And no matter how many blisters I get, I am going to keep on running. . . .

. . . because my girls make me laugh harder than I could imagine, cry because I’m so proud, and feel joy that is indescribable when they reach their goals.  It’s because of that, and the fact that I have an incredible village of moms to help me raise my kids that I keep running.  It takes courage, strength, integrity and a whole lot of alcohol to survive this thing they call Motherhood.  One Sunday a year is not nearly enough to thank mine for all that she has done or meant to me.

And on that “mommy’s job never ends” note . . . last Saturday night I got a glimpse of just how wild 12 year-old kids can be with just a bit of sugar and a DJ.  It was the Superego’s birthday party and in a separate post I will cover one of the best parties we’ve ever thrown.

But first, as I enter what I’ll call the “junior high of motherhood”, I’m gonna share some cell phone greatest hits and what I’ve learned from other moms this week:

Eggscelent fun!!

It's the eve of Easter and mommy is so grateful for the fun that this season brings!

Last weekend we continued our Fools Egg Cinco tradition, and this time we made it an Egg Hunt with a Heart!  In addition to all the fun for the kids (and of course margaritas for adults), we helped support Just in Time for Foster Youth, a fantastic organization for foster youth aged 18-26 who have “aged out” of the foster care system. Attendees brought dishes, home items, gift cards, bedding, and several other items to help these young adults get their first homes and become self sufficient.  Huge thank you to my Aunt Pam who is a Board member and Melissa, a JIT employee and former client who came out to share information and also enjoy our shenanigans.

We also had the party styled by Melinda Bertrand and Sparkleberry Studio (as you’ll see below, I make the messes while Melinda makes the party sparkle!).  We also had fabulous and beautiful cupcakes by Marianne Daquino!

So now that you've seen all the pretty pictures, here’s how we know mommy has been left with too much party planning time and we’re not really sure who are the kids and who are the adults:

Mommy's sooooo grateful for her break . . .

. . . from Spring Break!

Could anyone hear my sigh of relief when I woke up yesterday and realized I would NOT have to entertain these muppets for 16 hours???

Spring Break was last week.  You know that time when we all get a sneak peek at what summer vacation will look like.  Well, this mommy is exhausted from her weeklong sneak peek and there are at least two empty Skinny Girl bottles to prove it!

We had Runamuk Shenanigans that lasted all week long and ended with the second Annual Fools Egg-Cinco Hunt (which I’ll cover in another post)!

But first, here is what I learned about summer sneak peeks!  And just for grins, this post will be in Spring Break riddles:

Fool me once . . . part deux!

Ok, I had to post a P.S. to yesterday's post because this was just too good to pass up.  Here are a couple other shenanigans that even made daddy laugh out loud:

1) You know your blonde roots run deep when you are drying your hair in the morning and that huge puff of white smoke that comes out of the dryer you mistake for "must just be some dust in the hair dryer" (that I used YESTERDAY)!  It wasn't until HfH asked me as we were going to bed "did you shower today . . . notice anything?", that I realized the Superego had pulled a fast one and put cornstarch in my hair dryer!  Momma is so proud her baby is learning such good techniques!

2) You know your "stranger danger" lessons are working when you show up to carpool pick up like this:

We call her Juanita Margarita!!  It was either go like this or with a hot pink wig and call myself "Candy the Stripper".
I think I made the right choice (and HfH just revoked my blogging privileges again)

and

a) your 2nd grader waits to get in the car until she can see your license plate to make sure it's actually you (despite your gestures encouraging her to get in the car)

and

b) your 6th grader takes one look at you, turns around and tries to see if she can go home with someone else!!

And finally,

3) I STILL haven't learned my Pinterest lesson!  Last night I tried making cookie taco shells at the last minute and following a recipe that required me to "wrap the dough around a rolling pin".  What those f*&#ers left out of the recipe was "unless you work in Martha Stewart's test kitchen and have 10 rolling pins laying around, this project will take you either 4 hours to make (so you can wait for each batch of two shells to cool for 25 minutes), or you'll just have to improvise and use every plastic cup in your cupboards!  I opted for the latter.

But, those tacos were quite tasty!  Although, I always forget that Jelly Beans get hard when put on ice cream!  Yuck!! (yet another thing they leave off the Pinterest version)

Now it's back to reality and real food (something the girls were not happy about this morning when I threw out the rest of the Trix cereal - I know, mean mommy strikes again)!