sheesh.

What do you do when you get so much unsolicited advice and opinions? I went to my grams house this morning for some coffee and chit chat with my aunt and uncle before they left back to orange county, and was bombarded by tattoo comments. let me mind you that i have ONE, SINGLE tattoo, it's not even a big deal at all. and even if I had more, it wouldn't be a big deal because who cares? my grandma never really said anything to me before, just" oh thats kind of big i thought it would be smaller" " its really pretty for a tattoo" and similar comments. today it was an hour of... "well in prison"...(i dont think she's ever been)
"sailors like".....(never been in the military) "tattoos are such a fad" (thanks) "well if you even plan on being a professional"
( i am, a professional mom) and i got so annoyed, I wanted to yell at her and tell her to stop. All I could muster up to say was
" I would never say things like this to you about anything you do". and I left, to starbucks....for some real coffee. blah. I feel bad for being so peeved, but I can't help it. I guess this is what I get right? I have an opinions about everything. Facebook is an open battlefield for my opinions, and I leave them on a lot of status updates. People I don't even know personally! Who DOES that? Oh I know I know...ME. I am sorry for giving you unwanted advice on childcare, birth, politics and so on. Sorry for being such a creep.

green thumb.

I am late on the garden planting, but our backyard was dreadful until about a month ago. It went a very long year with little to no maintenance and needed some major TLC before anything could survive back there. I also planted some potted plants on my deck and have to thank my neighbor Tasha for letting me borrow some of her planters to use, I promise i'll give them back when the plants die :)And our neighbors, behind us, have a massive fig tree that has come through the fence, and I will be picking those when they are ripe, but here are a few pictures of our garden. in seed: broccoli, green beans, carrots & spinach plus some mini-planters of herbs; in plant: mellons, bell peppers (all colors), red chile pepper, zucchini squash, yellow squash, heirloom tomatoes 2 varieties) patio tomatoes, lots of strawberries. I've heard of the birds destroying the fruit, but thanks to our lovely dog Buddha, the birds are terrified to be in our yard. Here are some photos of "Garden of Content(e)".....

future.

I have been getting major baby fever. It seems like everyone is pregnant, or just having babies, and I'm not and I'm pissed. I had a really crappy c-section with Rowan and was told that 3 cesareans is enough for my uterus. I have this issue with children not being in even numbers, like if you have 1 child, you should have a second because it will make them more rounded and not have single child syndrome. I have three, and now my issue is, someone will be left out or someone will not have anyone to ride with at disneyland. Major life crisis, I know. I had Mason super young (19 yikes) and then I had London almost 3 years later. I was done. Boy and a girl, perfect pair, perfect duo, perfect family. Call me fertile myrtle, London was 5 months old, I was exclusively breast feeding and on the pill and she stopped nursing one day and wanted NOTHING to do with my breast. I bought some formula and worked through that disgusting mess and made an appointment to change my birth control from the pill to IUD, 1 week after she stopped nursing. So 9 days later, at my appointment I was told that I was at least 8 weeks pregnant. Shit! Joe ran into the bathroom and threw up hahaha. But Rowan came, and he is a perfectly perfect little redheaded boy with gorgeous blue eyes and a smile that makes your heart melt. We had just moved into this super tiny house that we were doing a rent-to-own with Joe' uncle. It was this adorable 1920's house on a HUGE 13000 sq. ft lot. My husbands a carpenter, we thought of the possibilities of it. But making 4 of us work in it was tough but cozy. Add a new born baby to that, sooooooooooooooooooooooooo small. like 890 sq ft. small.......outrageous. We did it, we made it work for 9 months, 9 crazy months. Then we got this great opportunity with our home, a home of our own. ok back to where I was going with this. sidetracked. ha.
I think that next year, when our house is done with his it's major fix ups, we are going to do foster care. We have room for another little girl in our lives. And I am sure there is a little girl out there who is all alone and needs a loving (& crazy) family like ours. I think next year will be good timing. We are buying a new car this summer that can seat us more comfortable with a third row ( not a mini van ) and we will be more financially set. Moving into a new (old) house is financially draining but rewarding at the same time. Anyways, i'm excited for the future.

goodies

I went on a little thrift store adventure last week, and I was so pumped on it because my kids were @ school/daycare for the morning and I thought that it would be a blast to have some "me" time. There is also this awesome antique store in Hanford that I wanted to go to, but never dare with all the little beasts because I know they would break something and of course it would be outrageously rare/expensive and I would be stuck with it...broken. So off I went, and to my despair, I found nothing great. A few cute little mugs, a few gold frames and that was about it! So I thought for sure I would score at the antique store, walked down to it just to see a written sign saying, "closed for the day see you tomorrow!" No, you won't see me tomorrow because I have 3 kids that are under the age of 5 that I won't have a babysitter for! bummer. So I went to work at my MIL's office that afternoon, went into her spare room and saw this adorable antique dresser and night stand. I decided to ask her where she got them and she said do you want them? yes? and she said thats not a night stand, its a sewing table....double score. I was going to paint them, but I decided they look charming as is. I also got around to hanging up some pictures in my barren front room. We haven't put up the crown molding/baseboards in here yet because we have 2013958230984 projects going on in this house right now! but here are some pictures of my finds :) I also found this adorable tablecloth at target.com and I searched for our store but the closest was in tulare, so I packed up the kiddos and drove to Tulare and bought it. I bought it much bigger than I needed because I figured I could use the extra fabric to make a cute pillow or something else. I also have been noticing for the past few weeks that my neighbors have a rose garden that has the full potential to be beautiful, but instead it's overgrown with weeks and they are holding so many flowers the branches are hanging on the ground. So I did the good neighborly thing, and made myself some lovely bouquets, and even found a peony shrub amongst them in a beautiful champaign color, perfect.

loner.

Sometimes I long for friends that are like me and Joe, into the same/similar music, politics, movies, activities...etc. I have some really nice friends, and this is not referring to them. I don't like lifted trucks, and rhinestone crosses on my hats and studs on my pockets, bling. It's just not me, and I know that crap doesn't define you, but more than likely, we have nothing common. I love that my friends are diverse, I am just meaning more on a superficial level I guess. Do you ever go anywhere and think, wow I would really fit in here? I feel that way in san francisco, or even when I am in san luis. Unfortunately, I can't move. Mason's dad has a dairy here and I can not possibly even fathom trying to co-parent while living that far away. So here we are, stuck, in this small conservative town, where everyone looks alike, dresses alike, looks like "bros" listens to country music, has vote yes on prop 8 & mccain palin stickers on their gas eating lifted trucks. And no, these things do not make you a bad person or a good person, just nothing in common with me. boo hoo