Feliz Compleaños - September 23, 2004 -
I am in the midst of September “birthday blitz”. Three b-days within 8 days makes for a hectic week. I have had success with one Ninja Turtle birthday party for my now 4yo, Quinn, aka “Hombre Arana”. 
Next is a Pokemon/pizza party tomorrow for Cody, soon to be 7. He has invited 7 kids, so adding my 4……well, you do the math. This will be a two car transport. Watch out Pizza Hut!
Last but not least is my wonderful husbands 47 birthday! He will experience it next Tuesday. Not sure if he will have a theme for his party. I am hoping that his foot will be better by then. He injured it jumping over a fence on the way to the creek to fish with Cory. What IS it about that creek!!!!
Two parting shots of the most adorable kid on the planet:
On Allie Scott and life in general - September 21, 2004 -
So long since I posted! I was sick with the stomach flu last week and it totally knocked me out.
Then, I stumbled upon this website (if it doesn’t come up right away, try again later…they are getting huge amounts of traffic and it won’t load at times)through my March play group on FF. Please, if you have time, read Jenny’s journal from start to finish. You will be blessed by it, as hard as it is to read. It is so very sad and I am just crushed for this family. My heart is broken for them. They live in the Dallas area and I am from the Metroplex. Jenny’s writing really brought Allie alive for me, and I can’t help but parallel her life with Mia’s. They are about 3 months apart in age.
It really made me think hard about some things. Life is so fragile and the time that the Scott’s had with Allie was so precious. Each day spent with Allie was one so full of love and adoration. I look at my own life and see time spent on things that are of no real importance. I see myself wasting precious moments on things like the computer and material things……time better spent with my children.
So, thus the break from my journal. I needed to think and re-organize my priority list.
I want to start back here with a new outlook. One full of joy and a positive attitude. One that celebrates the happiness and the pain of life and does not take one moment for granted. I want to study my children and husband in a different light. I want to know my daughter the way Jenny knows/knew Allie……..every hair on her head, every gesture, cry, squeal, facial expression.
Don’t get me wrong. Bill, Mia and the boys have always been the loves of my life. I know each of them intimately. I just want to change gears and slow down a bit to enjoy each and every moment of my children’s smallness and my husbands gentle spirit.
Thus, I will try and post short updates each day, focusing on them. No rants on topics that don’t concern me. No PMS, computer style. Just the smallness of my world here at the Marr house.
Life is short. Love hard.
Oh, and I look at Lance Armstrong in a whole new light now. What he is doing for cancer research and for the families affected by it has truly rocked my soul. You go, Lance!
Closing with a few scenes from Casa del Marr from my new Canon Power Shot A75!
Good morning sweet girl!:
“I love my big brother”:
Pretty in pink:
Ahhhhhh choooo - September 9, 2004 -
I have a cold. A sneezing, achy, stuffy nose, fever, can’t rest kind of cold. The kind of cold that will spread like wild fire, first to Mia, then on to the rest of the family. As for Mia, all I can do is nurse, nurse, nurse her and hope some of that good breast milk immunity will keep her well.
All is great with everyone else. No more run-ins with longhorn cattle. My car is fixed. I got a new cell phone (thank God for warranties) and I took the advice of the Toyota sales man and moved my tooth brush away from Bill’s (I was wondering about that! What a smart man!).
On the wine front, I am on the hunt for an elusive bottle of Texas wine. It is a Fall Creek Vineyard red called Meritus, and it is heaven! Harvested in 1999, it is a heavenly red with just a hint of spice. Mmmm. It is a special wine, at around $30 a bottle. I am hoping to find it in time for Bill’s birthday at the end of this month. The hunt is on!
Ugh, I feel horrible. Off to find a spot next to Mia to nap while the boys are at soccer practice.
This is THE END of the most boring post in history. Snore!
Daggers through the heart - September 5, 2004 -
Mia slept in her bassinet next to the bed last night. I kept expecting her to wake and cry our for me, but she didn’t. Dagger…….through……the heart.
She fell asleep and I placed her in the bassinet, thinking she would wake before I went to sleep. When she didn’t, I just let her stay there, not wanting to wake a sleeping baby.
She woke around 4am, nursed, and I put her back in the bassinet to see what would happen………..she had the nerve to sleep there the rest of the night. Sheesh.
I am soooo not ready for her to be in her own bed. Bill is cool either way I want to do it. He enjoys snuggling with her in the morning, but since we are in a full sized bed, it is a bit cramped. I ventured into the “we need a king size bed” conversation the other day. He is sure that we don’t need one, but we did get a bit spoiled on our vacation when we stayed at the Drury Inn on the River Walk in San Antonio. We had a king bed, and it was heaven.
I found this one and am seriously considering it. I just love the bed that we have, and am not sure I want to move out of it. It was my great-grandparents bed, then my grandparents and now Bill and I sleep in it. Mia was conceived in it, as was my father and his father.
If we do get a new bed, I think I will put the heirloom one in Mia’s room.
Decisions, decisions.
Worries and cows. - September 4, 2004 -
A bullet list of suggestions will bring you up to date with my week:
1) When your children are an hour late getting home from the creek, it does not always mean that they died trying to save one another from drowning…….even kids forget to update their watches to daylight savings time. Especially when they only wear them a couple times each year.
2) Kids and longhorn cattle do not mix.
3) When you call your husband at work and tell him your 9yo is at the creek surrounded by bulls, make sure you check under the cows tail first. Husband leaving work frantically=there damn well better be a good reason….especially since he left work the day before prepared to drag creek with net.
4) When you give your $200 cell phone to your 9yo, expect it to not work when you get it back….especially when they take it to the creek to fish.
5) Try not to panic when your 9yo whispers into the phone “mom, they have horns longer than my body, and they are all around us…help”.
6) Chianti wine is reeealllly gooood.
7) Little Lambs eat ivy…..and if you keep buying them obsessively because they look so cute on the baby, they also will eat up all the money you are saving from not buying disposables.
A dozen red roses from your husband of 14 years really does feel amazing.
9) He got sooooo lucky that night.
10) If your voice is calm and firm, you can usually get what you want…..especially if the sound of crying children drifts from the back of your loaner car, as you say through clenched teeth to the service repair manager “Bob, I can call you Bob, right? Bob, I have made 4, count them, 4 round trips of over 50 miles each way, to come pick up my van, and each time I find that the problem has not been fixed. This is the last one. I will do this one…more…time. Next time you will be delivering my van, washed and waxed, with a full tank of gas, to my driveway back home. Do you understand me???” Apparently he did, because not only was my van fixed, but it was washed and waxed and had a full tank of gas when I picked it up.
11) If you tell Bob, the service repair manager, to go ahead and lock the keys in the car because you will bring a spare set with you when you come to pick up the van after hours, 50 miles away……..don’t forget to bring them.
12) When you call home to ask your husband to load the three kids in the car and drive 50 miles to deliver the car keys that you forgot, remember to use your sweet voice.
13) Thank God you married the man, as he reminds you that you have Onstar.
14) Onstar is really cool and is worth every penny. How DO they do that!! Beam me up Scottie.
15) Babies of 5 months of age do not have object permanence yet. So. understand that as they sit, rear facing, as you drive, for the HUNDREDTH time, to go pick up your van, they feel alone and abandoned . They hear your voice, and THAT’S IT.
16) A cup of Chianti wine in marinara sauce is the next best thing to sex.
17) Next time the strange car salesman from Toyota leans all the way in your car window and, seeing that you have 4 kids, blurts out, “Thank God you finally had a girl, now you can stop!”, please remember that you have automatic windows at your fingertips.
18) As phase two of house restoration begins, keep several bottles of Chianti present.
19) Unsupervised children (not your own) and buffet style Chinese food do not mix.
and last but not least…..
20) When living in a house with 4 boys, always check the seat before sitting on it.
