Om.

Oh my God, oh my God, Oh. My. God. Usually if I write a "poor me" post that seems the slightest bit as if I am fishing for reassurance I just turn off the comments. Because "Wah, Poor Me" is just annoying. Well boys and girls, this time I need it. I need assurance that things are going to work out. Because, Oh my God.

We are going to Mexico, right? We leave in 13 days. Harper and I both got our passports within 2 weeks. At the end of the week we received ours I started mentioning to Pedro that he should track his and check the status of Masons and his own. He did and was just given the genaric, "being processed". That was good enough for us, we still had 3 weeks. Fast forward to yesterday, we got two letters in the mail. Not a good sign. The passport photos for the two boys were unacceptable. Holy shit. I went ape.

Are you kidding me? You pay someone a fee assuming they are trained in how to take a photo that meets all the requiremnets of the picky passport office. You pay another fee to have them processed, which to me means they proofread your application and make sure all the " i's are dotted and the t's are crossed', right? Apparently not. This morning we went back to the location where we got them and gave them the letters. Pedro specifially wanted me to come along to make sure "things got done". We got there and the same guy who took our photos was working and he felt horrible. He wanted to pay for our Overnight fee to have the new pictures sent back in. It was coming out of his own pocket. Pedro declined and we were on our own.

Pedro called the passport office again to double and triple check what needed to be sent in. They said the two passport were at the last stages of processing when they caught the error, so hopefully they will just be picked up where they left off. Hopefully.

Have you guys ever heard of this happening? We're going to get to go, right? Holy shit, where is my paper bag. I am getting myself all worked up again...

All the chocolate you can handle!

We stayed up late last night getting the easter baskets ready for the kids. Doing these things always is a little reality check that confirms, "Whoa. I'm an adult." It wasn't long ago that the Easter Bunny stopped coming to my parents house for my brother and me. I was in college, coming home to spend Easter with my family and the Easter bunny still was hiding eggs and chocolate for me to find around my parents house. I think once I started having kids, they got the focus but I still get some sort of chocolate.

This morning when the kids woke up, both Mike and I got up to watch the kids discover their baskets. Harper was a little off. Within an hour she was snuggled up to her Dada and before long, she was out like a light. My poor girl.



We headed over to my sister's house for Easter Brunch. Harper just clung to Mike and before long she was gagging and up-throwing. It was a super quick brunch! We headed home hopefully before we contaminated the rest of the people there. I spent the rest of the day holding a sick baby girl and having a quiet day with my little family.

Spring, sprang, sprung.

Guess what? It was almost spring here! But then it snowed again, and again, and again.

Last week it was so nice. The sun was shining and the snow was melting and the days were longer. Pedro would get home from work and I'd head out the door for my mega walk. It sounds all cheesy but I'd turn on my ipod and start out for my walk and there was a renewed spring in my step.

But then the snow came and it got cold again and we reverted back to being couped like chickens.

I keep telling myself that spring is right around the corner and then we can live again. Until then. The passports trickling in are all that are keeping me going. That and margaritas.

Smart? I think not.

There is one thing that I pride myself on, I don't feed my kids hotdogs, ever. Never have, never will. It's not really a snobbish thing at all. I do damage in other ways like letting them eat sugary cereals, too many processed foods and having the TV on way too much. Oh yeah, and bathing them in Purell. But by God, I'll never intentionally feed them lips and assholes. I try to not be crazy about it. Mason has definately had a few in his life. Usually, going to some child friendly event means hotdogs for kids, so if Mason wants to eat a hotdog, he eats a hotdog and I don't think much about it.

I few weeks ago I came across this idea. Really, does it get any cuter? I knew it was something I wanted to make for my kids. So today we went to the store and picked up some hotdogs. Because I hate to break a tradition, I wouldn't buy hot dogs or even turkey dogs. Instead I bought Smart Dogs. Boy, if that wasn't the dumbest thing ever. I eat plenty of meat substitutes. But these? These were hideous.

I plated them up all cute on a plate of cheesy noodles. Mason beamed when he saw it. It was adorable just like I hoped. He dug right in and once he took a bite of the octopus, the record screeched. He had a look of horror and he was done eating. I tasted a bite of the meat scented gelatin and It was pretty bad. I offered it to our chubby little pug and he backed up like he was being assaulted.

It was a four dollar waste, but you know what? I could really eat a hot dog with relish on it right now. What can I say, every now and then you've gotta indulge right? Does anyone smell a hypocrit?

The Perfect Medicine.

Lately, I feel like our little family is just functioning. It's not bad, but it's not feeling good either. I've got "stuff" going on in my family and Pedro's got "stuff" going on at work and although these things shouldn't effect our family and things that go on in our house, they do. They effect everything. Yesterday I talked to Pedro about the way I was feeling and he agreed. We just needed someway to leave everthing behind and focus on what matters most, each other.

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When I was in labor with Harper and things were getting really hard, I did something that I hadn't planned on doing. I did a whole bunch of guided imagery. Let me clarify. I sort of did plan on doing it, but once I was in the peak of pain, my body and my brain did it's own thing. It was strange and remarkable all at the same time. I would close my eyes and I would instantly visualize a family of four walking on the beach. The fourth person was a little blonde girl whom I hadn't met yet. It was like it was a tiny clip of a movie that just kept replaying over and over. It was so peaceful and beautiful.

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Yesterday we all applied for our passports and later last night we booked an all-inclusive vacation to Mexico. On April 11th, the four of us will get on a plane and fly to Cancun Mexico. Hopefully, it will give all of us the break from reality we desprately need. This time with the little girl of my dreams.