Thoughts for Thursday

Hello, people of the world!

I am finally sitting down after a super busy morning. 

We go to a playgroup every Thursday morning at our church and even though I try my hardest to do all the morning duties, it seems like I am always running out of the house with my head cut off! I guess it is the way it goes when summer is over and things get rolling!

1. I have been considering getting an iWatch for different reasons, but have yet to make up my mind. My old self would have purchased one (probably on credit) and not even give it a second thought, but my new budget-conscious self is telling me I need to rrreeeaaalllyyy think about how much I need/want it before I invest in something that is not a necessity rather a luxury. I am feeling the same way about new running shoes, but that is a whole other story! Either way, I am proud of myself for leaving my reckless spending self behind and learning how to manage my funds like an adult!

2. Speaking of play group and other kids close to the twins's age... There is another child who is saying SO many words, it is making me feel like F&S are behind on speech development! I am more concerned that I am worried about it, but the kids mom keeps telling me that the twins are doing great as long as they understand what I say, and can say some words (which they do).  It's part of parenting, but it is really hard to not compare the twins development to other children, AH!

3. Football season has started again and the Mr. is in full swing with practice, scrimmages, and so forth. It is an exciting time of year, but also a stressful time, as I don't have the extra help and it gets kind of boring by myself. The good thing is I know so many more people now than I did last year at this time, the bad thing is that it is difficult to haul the kids back and forth by myself, so I'm not looking forward to having to leave the house much if I want to get out. These are the times when I wish I lived near family :(

4. Is anyone else just not into the olympics? I get it that it is incredibly difficult to make it to the olympics and the talent these athletes display is remarkable, but should I feel bad that I am just not interested? I can watch a few minutes, but race after race, meet after meet, I just find it so repetitive, and BORING (please don't hate me if you disagree!). As much as it pains me to say it, I LOVE trash reality TV, give me some Bachelor in Paradise, or a Real Housewives of anywhere, and I am happy!

5. I recently read an article about gym "selfies" and how people who post them are narcissistic attention seekers who use working out as a way to gain acceptance. I follow an awesome trainer, Emily Skye, and she addressed the article trying to defend her hourly posts with workout tips and videos. The thing is that I am not bothered by fitness posts at all. I think the trainers who post are smart for business reasons, and people who sell fitness products (such as advocare/herbalife/shakeology) more power to them! As much as I wonder why some people post excessively for no purpose, in reality, I DON'T CARE!

So random, and probably kind of boring, but thanks for following along!

Hope to hear your thoughts!

~Mrs. S

Weekend Update

Hi!

Its that time of the year again, SCHOOL is here!

I haven't mentioned on here, but I am the new strings teacher at East Central University and even though it is a part time job, I am so excited to get some experience teaching at the college level. 

The campus is a jump, skip, and a hop away (literally a few blocks away) and last week I took the kids by to get to know the campus a bit.

It is a mid size school with the traditional "collegiate" look and the kids really enjoyed running around and looking at the fountain. I can't wait to take them to SMU's fountain!

Friday evening, we met up with the in-laws to celebrate my FIL's birthday at Smokin' Joe's. It is a BBQ place in Davis and it is our favorite here in Oklahoma. Ford got a hold of my sunnies and was looking pretty rad if you ask me!

This is the best attempt at a family pic, the Mr. didn't make the cut, and mine and Sloane's head barely show up! Over the past few years, it has become very difficult to get a good family pic since the Mr. hates pictures and I'm not really allowed to ask strangers to take them because he gets annoyed! Ugh, the struggles of being obsessed with pictures!

Saturday, we took it easy all day as the Mr. had a scrimmage and didn't get home till the afternoon. We watched the Cowboys game and I finally got to watch "Brooklyn" that evening. Greatly directed, great acting, but "C+" on storyline. It was not nearly as good as I was expecting and was kind of disappointed. 

Sunday, we went back to church for the second week in a row (yay us!) and despite our rough morning, we were so glad we went. We are currently attending Trinity Baptist and I really like it. There are a lot of college kids who attend since ECU is so close, but I can tell it will be a good fit for our family. 

After church shenanigans. 

I hope you all had a great start to your week, 

thanks for stopping by!

XO

~Mrs. S

5 for Thursday

Hello My Friends and Happy Almost Weekend!

I have been thinking a lot about amazing people in my life, whether they are close to me or strangers, it is pretty remarkable the ability some people have to be good people despite their circumstances. 

1. My first amazing person to showcase is my father in law, Michael. He is probably the best person I know. He has always been so loving and caring and the way he treats people is just something that is so rare and uncommon nowadays. He is so patient and supportive of everyone he comes across and last but not least he is the best care giver to my brother in law, Drew, he puts some parents to shame on what a good dad he is. For 11 years now, I have seen him put others before himself, and now that he is a grandfather to my kids, I appreciate him and love him even more. No words will ever be able to describe the kind of admiration and appreciation I have for this man, he is just one of a kind.

2. Although I don't see him often, I have always been inspired by my cousin Toñito. He was born with a condition called Prader-Willi Syndrome which causes obesity, intellectual disability, and shortness in height, symptoms that were all pretty obvious at a very early age for him. I don't remember the exact numbers but at 12 years old he was at least 250 pounds, and as much as he had trouble with controlling his hunger, he was the happiest kid especially when there were animals or music around. He always asked for some sort of pet for birthdays or Christmas and he learned to play accordion so he could play with my grandfather. Around age 18 when he graduated from high school, my aunt and uncle decided to send him to a rehab center where he was able to go down to 120 pounds and improve his health immensely giving him a better chance at living a long and healthy life. 

3. My whole musical life, I have always been in awe of natural talent. They say you shouldn't start a child on a musical instrument till they are 3, but really, they naturally start learning music in the womb. The case was especially so for Celeste Golden. who is now an associate concertmaster for the St. Louis Symphony. I met her when I was 13 years old and we were both playing in the New Conservatory of Dallas program as violinists. She was the virtuosi prodigy and star student of program founder Arkady Fomin, and she was the envy of every student there. She began formal lessons at 3 and was accepted into Curtis Institute (the hardest music school to get into in the US) at the age of 16. We later crossed paths at Aspen Music Festival, and eventually through FB I have been able to see her succeed in the music world and become a mom of 2 these past few years. She is not only a world class violinist, but is now an avid photographer on the side and has an amazing eye for family shoots. It is fascinating to me to see people who are good at everything!

4. I have had several hundred students over the past 10 or so years and parents are the key to every successful student I teach. Of the many students I came in contact with, few if any were ever as kind or supportive as my student's, Diana Zavala, mother and father Sofia and David Zavala. I have known this family for almost 8 years now and even though I don't teach Diana anymore, they are still in my thoughts and prayers. This set of parents were so supportive and adamant that their daughter (and son) get the proper well-rounded education to succeed that they sacrificed so much in the process. They always made me feel like I was their hero for teaching their daughter, and even though I don't consider myself a hero, I admired their appreciation for what I was doing for their daughter and made me feel like all the effort I put into teaching was worth it. Most people don't realize but it takes a lot of time and money to be a successful orchestra student these days and these parents made sure to help my student accomplish playing at the college level and hopefully getting a scholarship in the next few years. Diana is a great kid all around, but a even better musician and I can't wait to see what success her music brings her!

5. Women who birth premie multiples, WOW. I really can't imagine how you get through giving premature birth to your children. I am so lucky that my twins were born at 37 weeks which means that they are considered full term (rare for twins) but I thank God everyday that I didn't have to deal with NICU time or feeding/breathing tubes. I just took the twins to their 18 month check up and they are doing great in health and wellness and I could not be happier, but at the same time I am always thinking "what if?" the twins had come early, where would we be in terms of heath conditions and growing??? One of my best friends from college is expecting twin girls, but because she birthed 2 girls already, I am praying everything goes well for her! I guess since twins are more common now a days, there are more and more posts/info online about premature births and it breaks my heart to learn of tiny babies being born so early and having difficulties. My heart goes out to these moms and they have my full respect and admiration for being able to get through it!

Well, there it is, a little piece of my brain on what I consider positive and inspiring reading material. Hard to come by these days, so I hope you enjoyed it!

XO, 

~Mrs. S

Monday's Confessions!

Hi Everyone!

Today's post is all about getting real with y'all about a few things on my mind!

1. If you are not watching the show "The Night Of" then you are missing out on some great entertainment. I have always loved watching murder mysteries ever since my mom would let us watch scary movies when I was little (Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th etc, I know, I know, terrible parenting but she always gave us the option of not watching them!) so it comes to no surprise that HBO hooked us from the first episode where a young Pakistani college student gets accused of murder. We watched the 4th of 8 episodes last night and we can't wait to see what happens, the suspense is killing me! Side note: I was obsessed with watching Forensic Files when I was pregnant, I think I watched every episode because now every time I turn to it, I've already seen it!

2. Ever since discovering the amazing grocery store Aldi about 2 months ago, I am obsessed with eating their flatbread with which I make wraps with any combination of these ingredients: quinoa, corn, goat cheese, lettuce (arugula is my fav), avocado, red onion, boiled egg, and chicken. I swear it is the most delicious combination of foods ever, even though it is a bunch of different ingredients, and I eat them everyday for either lunch or dinner. My other go to dish is any of the aforementioned ingredients on Ezequiel bread. I think the Mr. is sick of me buying the same things at the grocery store every time, but I don't care!

3. I always think is is so funny when women claim to not be wearing any makeup or wear too much of it. I personally have a love/hate relationship with it as I have never liked the way mascara dries up my eyes (which are super sensitive due to wearing contacts my whole life) and the fact that women nowadays make it near impossible to feel good to wear it unless you go completely all out with the newest and latest makeup products and trends. I was a total sheep and invested big bucks on an expensive contouring kit that I think I have used twice. I bought a used Naked Palette which I love, but really the only three products I repeatedly buy are Clinique mascara, Stilla eyeliner, and Cover Girl clear mascara for my eyebrows (which is about once every 2 years...), other than that I never buy the same products and I feel like I am under such pressure to buy the newest concealer or the best lipstick (which I am horrible at choosing) so I give up! I just wont wear make up and when I do, I will use the products that I feel best suit me and are most reliable. Enough with the Instagram and FB posts and videos of beautiful, but unattainable makeup!

4. I have an incredibly nice neighbor who has a pool and even though I love me a nice dip in the water, I have become super lazy about doing it. The twins make a total job of it and it is quite the process to put them in bathings suits, carrying all of their floaties/towels/snacks over there so to sum it all up, we go about 1 time a week and I am ok with that. I always envisioned if I had a pool or access to one I would utilize it often, but maybe as the kids get older I will be more proactive about it.

5. I am dying to go back to Colorado for another rendezvous at least once more before the winter season. Everyday I look at least once at hotel deals and flights just to see if there's one I can't pass up. The Mr. is about to go into the busiest time of year (football season) and even though I would hate to leave him behind, I am totally willing to go without him! Anyone want to join?!

Hope you all enjoyed reading a little piece of my mind this AM, and I want to wish everyone a wonderful start to your week!

~Mrs. S