Stale Peeps and other delicacies

Stale Peeps. There is just something about the texture and taste of crystalized sugar in the form of Easter animal icons that just makes me happy.
Growing up, my sweet Grandma would leave a package a Peeps out for me with the bag slightly open so they would be perfectly stale and delicious. She laughed until she had tears in her eyes each year as I delighted in my Peeps. Grandma also made her famous Easter bunny cake - white with coconut for fur, jelly beans for the face and pipecleaners for the whiskers. She'd make one for us, one for the nuns and usually one or fifty for families she helped out. Grandma was also famous for her Easter egg bread. I'd love to tell you more about it, but all I can remember is the picture of her in paper with her famous bread and how proud she was of it. Proud in a nice Catholic girl way, of course.
This was our first year without Grandma. As much as I miss her laugh, I can only imagine her joy celebrating with her Savior. Her favorite song was "How Great Thou Art". If you haven't heard the Carrie Underwood/Vince Gill rendition...do so now on YouTube. This year, when I heard it, the following words pierced my heart. It were as if Grandma wrote the words herself...

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

Grandma, I know you are watching us all. I hope you are proud. And I hope you will have some stale Peeps waiting for me one day. Until then, I'm loving my life, my family and giving thanks to God that you were mine for awhile. 

Hope y'all had a happy Easter.

Welcome to the world Baby Jack Scully

Today, my sister and John welcomed John Joseph "Jack" Scully into the world.  At 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 20.5 inches, Jack and his mama are doing great. Of course, Titi is already on hand to show the first-timers the ropes and start whispering all kinds of love, sweetness and guidance into her second grandson's little ears. Somehow, I think whatever she whispers to her children and grandchildren stays imprinted on each of us.
My sister was in labor a day and a half, pushed for over two hours and is my new hero.  I hope that, as I write this, Nikki, John and baby Jack are all resting and sleeping soundly. The adventure they are embarking on is awesome, amazing....and exhausting!

Sweet Jack, I cannot wait to meet you, rock you and tell you all about all the fun you and your cousin Nick will have. Until then, know I am counting the moments....and I am head over heels in love with you.

P.S. Teddy. Prepare to get your world ROCKED, pup.

Bite Me.

Soooo, I had dental anxiety. Then, I found myself in the chair of an endodontist BEGGING for a root canal. Unfortunately, my damn teeth tested "within normal limits". Really? Then, WHAT THE HELL IS MAKING THE RIGHT SIDE OF MY FACE FEEL LIKE DANTES INFERNO?

The diagnosis du jour is "trigeminal neuralgia". Now, when you Google that, you get alot of unfun phrases like "most painful chronic condition", "depression" and "suicide". Not to worry, I just get super annoyed, and while having an "attack" tend to hide or go silent of hot minute. Yes, it's THE most painful experience I have gone through, but it's also been humbling. The times, especially if I have hours, without pain, I am so incredibly grateful. I would have never even thought about it before, but now, I send up prayers of gratitude. More than anything, even in times of pain, I focus on how much more pain I would be in if there were something wrong with Nick. I'll take the teeth and face thing.

In other, unrelated news, we've been building "El Ranchito Romano"...or as you gringos may call it "an outdoor kitchen and patio". I hope you will stop by and check it out. And, I hope by then I can bite something without wanting to kick a puppy.

Lucky 7

A couple days ago, on February 28th, Jason and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. Previously to celebrate, I would usually put on my wedding dress, we would open a bottle of champagne and watch our wedding video. Before Nick, we'd usually go away for the weekend too.

This year, Nick got in trouble at the dinner table for spitting out his milk. By the way, dinner was turkey chili, instead of steak, because I didn't want the ground turkey in the fridge to go bad.

However, I am still chalking this up to a perfect anniversary. In biblical times, "7" was thought to represent perfection and completion. This is one reason the number 7 is now associated with being lucky. Of course, in marriage, it's also associated with the "7 year itch". That's one type of "getting lucky", I suppose, but not exactly one I would want my husband experiencing! Ok, back to the topic...
I felt my anniversary to be a perfect day full of the reality of two imperfect people working together to build a life and a family. My house was slightly messy, my son was acting like a chimpanzee, and even my poor dog was licking the spot where he lost his fur literally one year prior. And there we were, Jay and I, proud of it all.

We did end up popping in the wedding video.  And we laughed remembering the saxophonist filling in for the violinist played "Killing Me Softly" during the vows. We laughed even harder talking about how our videographer gave us a homemade "adult film" video instead of our wedding video, and stared in amazement at the fact that we looked like two 15 year old's playing dress-up at a shotgun wedding. 

Above all else, we agreed we had no idea what the heck we were getting ourselves into!

Today, 7 years later I can look at him and truly know what I'm getting myself into, and he can do the same.  Thankfully, after we put the chimp in the cage and we were enjoying our overly-priced cupcakes, we agreed that we would still say yes.....with all of each other's imperfections....perfectly "YES" to us.

I love you, Romano. Here's to the next 7.

I need a hero!

Lately, if I find myself in need of a hero, I don't have to look far. Finding a three year old who wants to wear normal boy clothes, however, has proven much more difficult.

Better than the comedy channel

If you have or have had a 3 year old, you know that those little ones live in the verbal world of a happy drunk.  Whatever they feel, think or experience, just shoots out of their mouth. While I haven't been a mom a LONG time, I have been a mom long enough to know, I will forget all the moments, when in the moment, I thought I would never forget.  With that in mind, here's some of the stuff that Nick, my in-house comedy act, has said lately....

• Nick: "Mommy, what are those meatball dots on your face?" (Answer: my freckles)
• Me: "Just something Mommy hasn't gotten lasered off yet."
• Nick: (springing to action) "I'll do it!" (and he goes to get his Buzz Lightyear blaster)
• (when he wants a spontaneous hug)  "Mommy, I'll take a hug now."
• "Mommy, I need to check my feet." .....and then he stands on the scale
• "Don't worry, it was just a big toot" (said to his pre-school teachers)
• "Wow, that was a Papa boom" (as he looked in the toilet as saw a gargantuen poo. Papa, by the way is my 6'5" dad)

There are so many more, but I just wanted to put a taste of it to "paper".
Hopefully, I have jimmyrigged the video below so that it actually works. We take a bajillion hours of video but this is one of our faves. Nick LOVES music and dances like a damn fool (or again, 3 year old drunk). Jay's sneaky manuvers finally resulted in capturing Nick dancing, and may I suggest breakdancing to his toons.
Damn, just when you think you want to sell them to the gypsies, those little kids tell you they need to "take a hug" (afterall, you've been asking them to GIVE you a hug), and there you are hoping it never ends.

Breaking up is hard to do

Relax...Jay and I are fine. No other one person is involved. Just me and about 519 of my "closest" friends. Oh Facebook, what have you done to me?

I really poo-poo'd Facebook at first. Thinking it was a passing fad of college-age kids. My brother being in college at the time, I had some insight into it even when it was closed to anyone OTHER than college kids. And, as a person who had just left a career in marketing, I was intrigued by the game-changer FB could be on the quickly emerging area of "social marketing". And then two experiences intersected leaving me falling in obsessive compulsive love with Facebook.

1. I was a very recent stay-at-home mom with a newborn in an new area of town. This really limits social interaction especially since my first year resembled something out of Groundhog Day. Wake, feed, change, play, repeat. Those bundles of joy are cute but rank pretty low on interaction.

2. Curiosity meets boredom meets technology. Result: Facebook addict. It started out harmless enough. I made an account, followed the directions and then POOF....my past began pouring in name by name, connection by connection. Who got married? Who got fat? Who's ruling the world? All the sudden I had little surprises of information to pepper my day just waiting to be found at one single site.

But here's the problem. Now, I wake up and do the following:
1. Start the coffee
2. Open my computer
3. Check my email, followed closely by chron.com, People.com and Facebook.com

AND I DON'T STOP CHECKING IT ALL DAY!

I mean, really, what would happen if I didn't know that Debbie was going to Caley's soccer game or that Heather's Zumba class was super hard this evening? Probably nothing since I haven't seen or thought of either person since I graduated high school in 1994!

Then, there's the issue of Facebook etiquette. Ok, so now that I "know" my "friend's" birthday is today, am I obliged to post a happy birthday note on their wall? Or, feel badly if I didn't? If it were my actual friend, of course! But, if I don't know if we'd recognize each other in public yet we're FB friends...then, what's the rule?

Truthfully, I don't think I'll be able to make a clean break from FB. At least not at this moment in my life. I do enjoy seeing photos of my friends. Actual friends, that due to the direction of our lives or the miles between us, I simply don't see often enough. Ditto for my family in Costa Rica. Facebook has provided an amazing way to be instantly in each other's daily lives in a way even email could not.

I've always SUCKED at break-ups. (In fact, I'm going to take this moment and thank Mark Zuckerberg for not inventing Facebook until I was safely out of college and, even more importantly, my 20s.) I can't imagine trying to go through an actual break-up with someone and then having to essentially break up with their life, connections, etc. on FB. Trust me when I tell you, this would not have been my forte.

I wish I could be like my friend, Courtney, that just closed her account and never looked back. I'm an information junkie. I don't think I can go that route - yet. I will take FB off my phone and committ to no status updates for awhile. It seems so trivial yet, in my mind this will take FB and I from a committed relationship to casually dating.

Afterall, breaking up is hard to do.

Top 10 of 2010

I'm a slacker. I love to write but Facebook has killed my ability to write anything longer than a status. Yikes. For the 3 of you who read this blog (hi Mami, Tia Ana and Nikki), I'm giving you one last look at 2010 and a new commitment for 2011. I will write. Here. In my journal. Anywhere but on Facebook. Tomorrow I will status that I'm going on a FB hiatus to concentrate on my blog. If I get really bold, I might even post the blog site. We'll see. In the meantime, here's my top 10 of 2010 for Familia Romano. Scratch that...we are 3 people with 3 different perspectives, here is MY top 10. P.S. To make the top 10 doesn't mean it was a good thing, just that it was made an incredible impact in my life...

10. Boot camp. Holy cow. I have never felt so scared when I signed up and almost died the first couple weeks, and then so proud, amazed, strong and powerful as I became a dedicated participant for 6 months. Until my herniated discs said..." 'Scuse me...stop." For 2011, I'll take what I learned and create a sustainable plan for fitness

9. Holy crap it's Dissen! Three kids, six years and finally I just said...eff it...we MUST see each other. Only a best friendship like ours can be maintained and then picked up like nothing after 6 years of not seeing each other face to face. Chuck's carport lounge was a big plus too.

8. Our 6th anniversary. Damn, we're doing good for a couple kids who met on South Beach, had our first real date in Vegas and were engaged in Cancun 4 months later. Jay, you believe in me in some impossible ways...and I love you in a way that hopefully makes you keep believing.

7. Elvis lives! MF'r. Early 2010 was not E's best. Our favorite angry Schnauzer almost kicked it due to kidney failure but a bajillion dollars later he's still with us. Damn we love him

6. Jay's 37th bday/Memorial Day party. Who says that a small neighborhood party can't include 150 people (including kids), an ice cream truck, 10 gallons of Patron margaritas, and beer pong? Did it. Done.

5. Dove does Mexico. Part Dos. A little tropical storm can't put a major damper on our fun. And, seriously, we had Teresa. Entertainment? Check.

4. Nikki tells me she's pregnant. Awesome news, right? ESPECIALLY awesome when you factor in she had not told our parents and I had to keep that secret for almost a month! Only for my sister or brother...even I can keep my mouth shut when asked.

3. Nick decides he has a tail. Made sense...Elvis has a back tail, he has a front tail. Kid logic. Can't really fight it. Later, on the plane to Disney when sitting in First Class and he philosophizes about how he has a tail, Daddy has a big tail and Mommy has front nalgas with grass....not so awesome.

2. Disney. Shut the front door. When I decided...sometime in February...that we were going, I never knew how fantastic of a vacation it would be. In some ways, life changing. How can Disney be life changing? Well, to begin with it really is a surreal, magical experience. And, we were able to experience that fleeting moment of being children again through our son's eyes. Thanks MM. You and your gang rock.

1. Letting go and growing up. This might be a little cryptic, but stick with me. We tried for 3 years to have Nick and for three years after. I remember when my doc told me my numbers with Nick's pregnancy were low...again. I remember going to St. Anne's in River Oaks and praying all day long. I remember promising...if I could just have one child..... The numbers doubled. My son was born and we became a sweet family. This year I am letting go. The relief of knowing a month can just be a month is almost incommunicable. Now it's been 6 years....over. As for the growing up....stay tuned. I'm about to commit to something tomorrow. But, I'll need your help. Stay tuned.

Ok, I meant to keep it to 10, but two others need mention...
Bonus 1: Potty training. The upside of only having one kid is only having to potty train one kid. Big Ups to the "Elf on a Shelf" for his "Pee Pee in the Potty" star chart. Boom Boom elf...feel free to show up anytime.

Bonus 2: Grandma. Your entire life was a testimony of faith and love. I am so happy that you are with Grandpa and with the God you so faithfully worshiped. I will so miss you...but I will see you again. Your life left deep footprints in me. Grandma, watch over me. I still need you.

I absolutely cannot fail, for I am the creator of my own reality.