8 of my favorite things...

My BFF the Queen always has such great blog ideas so I'm totally stealing this from her. I haven't blogged in a while. Now that I am newly self diagnosed insomniac, I thought blogging would help clear my head so I can get more than 4 hours of continuous sleep....so here goes, 8 of my favorite things..why 8? Well, 8 has always been my lucky number, so it fits. Kind of like my shoe size in 5th grade! We can talk about my early growth spurt and the extreme body issues it caused me later..

It is hard to choose only 8 things as there are so many things I love. Hell, I could make a fortune reviewing all of the beauty products I have tried and loved! Anyhow, here goes, 8 of my favorite things:

1. The sound of my daughters laughter. Baby girl has the most infectious giggle on the planet! I remember the first time I heard it. I was putting lotion on her after her bath and I leaned down into her beautiful face and made a silly sound and she rewarded my silliness with the biggest belly giggle, and by reaching up and pulling my hair (ouch). Me, my son, and my husband spent the next 6 weeks making the face and the sound. If it was on video, Bob Saget would be handing me a $10,000 check!

2. Waking up to the sound of rain. Living in the desert, rain is a rare thing. Rain on a weekend when you don't have to get out of bed and go anywhere is a treat! Rain has an amazing affect on my mood. It may put some people in a funk, but it lifts my spirits in a way I cannot describe.

3. The smell of lilacs and orange blossoms. When I was little, my nana had lilac trees in the front of her house. The smell was incredible. To this day, the smell of lilac, if only in the form of an air freshener or a candle, brings me back to being 5 years old and outside playing in her yard and climbing her giant trees. She had the BEST climbing trees in her yard!! Lilacs do not grow in the desert, however, citrus trees are in abundance, and in the spring, they blossom. The smell is absolutely intoxicating, and they are like smelling salts to me. It only lasts for about two weeks in March/April and I look forward to it every year. Gold Canyon candles are the only thing that come close to recreating both scents albeit artificially, I still love the smell.

4. Reading . I've blogged before, my passion for reading. If I could, I would read all day long, every day of the week. Not sure why, but I do most of my reading from May-September. I will read close to 20 books in this 4 month period. I will sit on my patio or by the pool reading for hours. My mother instilled my love for books. It started the summer in between 4th and 5th grade where I read every Helen Keller book the library had to offer. What I now love is that my daughter LOVES to read too! I'm an awesome parent!

5. My electric mixer- Probably one of the best gifts my husband ever gave me. To say that I love to bake is like saying the Mona Lisa is just a piece of art. Baking is the one thing that truly makes me happy and relieves stress. I use my mixer more than I use any other appliance in my house! I love recipes that actually call for the use of an electric mixer.  I've been called Martha Stewart, Betty Crocker, etc. I love finding new recipes to wow my friends and family with. Baking is good for my soul....maybe not my ass, but there's always risk I guess. :)

6. Iced Skinny Vanilla Lattes: this one is a new addition to my favorite things list. More like an addiction. I have at least one an afternoon. Seeing that they are $5 a pop at Starbucks, I've had to start making my own! Note: I've been warned by my team that I am no longer allowed to have caffeine after Noon. I guess I'm a bit ab with too much caffeine...whoops..

7. The beach- every summer we take the kids to the beach in San Diego. I'm not sure why, but more than Disneyland and Sea World, I look forward to these trips just for the ocean. There is something so calming about sitting on the beach watching my kids play in the water and the sand, burying my son in the sand, digging ditches that get washed away as fast as you dig, and or building sand castles. My dream is to own a house on the beach when I retire so I can sit in the sand with a glass of wine and watch the sunset every night...well, maybe not wine every night...but you get my point.

8. Being 40...I know this is not a thing, but I love the feeling of being a strong 40 year old woman. It just feels powerful for reasons I cannot explain. I have learned so much from my last 3 decades, built a family, a career, a life, gained some friends, lost some friends..etc..... I am actually excited to see what my 4th decade on this planet holds for me. Having lost both of my parents in the last 5 years, makes want to enjoy every moment of my life! Which probably explains some of the decisions I have made this last year. And while I am currently in a transition period in my life, I know I can use the wisdom I have gained in the last 40 years (well 20 years because let's be honest, who learns anything about how to deal with life before they are 20?) to make smarter choices in my life to be happy.

There you have it...8 random things I love...

Next on the blog roll...

• My breathtaking visit to the Grand Canyon and marking off an item from my bucket list
• The MRI experience tomorrow with my son who is going through testing for nervous ticks and to rule out Tourettes and anything neurological
• My day at the water park (SunSplash) with my son and my two nephews post MRI...( #9...I LOVE the waterpark and am sooo excited to be "cool" mom and aunt Andrea all day!

Stay tuned...

Someday....

Are you one of those people who needs to know why things happen? To have complete control over a situation or it drives you nuts? Constantly question why? Are impatient to know what your future holds when you know what you want it to hold? Or worse, wonder why "bad" things happen to you or others?

No? Well you are one lucky SOB! One of my biggest challenges in life is to question everything! I want to know exactly what is going to happen and when I don't get my answers I do the worst...I THINK the worst! My closest friend calls me a leaper! And it is true! My mind just has a "mind" of its own if you will!

Lately I have been trying to let go. Stop worring about pleasing everyone or trying to control the future...calming my mind and just letting things happen as they will and being okay if they don't turn out the way I hope.

So I'm baby stepping my way through this new philosophy and BAM, my BFF the Queen sends me the most amazing note that says it all. She got it from a fellow awesome blogger The Fat Chick and I absolutley loved it so I am stealing and sharing it with you all. It is so simple it is complicated... :)

"Someday you will understand, you really will. Someday you will understand why you had to learn things the way you had to learn them. Why you have certain people in your life. Why things had to be so hard sometimes. Someday you will understand the way things fell together. The way you were rescued from catastrophes in funny and miraculous little ways. Someday you will understand how you were never, ever alone. Even though you felt alone so many days. Someday you will understand how you were led to the exact place you were meant to be, through crazy twists and turns in the road that you weren't expecting. Be patient with the journey. You may feel completely perplexed, confused and even a little lost. Just keep going. Keep smiling. Keep being you. And someday, you will look to the sky and laugh at how perfectly things happened. And that is when you will understand that it all happened exactly the way it was supposed to, just for you."

WOW! Awesome! If I keep telling myself this, my future will be amazing, even it if isn't how I "planned" it to be. And one day, I will have the answer. Even if it isn't the answer I want, I will have the wisdom to understand it. Ya know?

Happy Mother's Day...

For the last 5 years, I have dreaded this "holiday"...I walk right past the ginormous display of Mother's Day cards and immediately delete the emails reminding me that Mother's Day is MayXX and links to finding the perfect Mother's Day gift...

This is my mom....wasn't she beautiful? She was 20 years old in this picture...People say I look very much like her in this picture.

My mom passed away almost 6 years ago and I STILL cry every time I see the perfect Mother's Day card. I miss her EVERY day. I need her more today than I did 6 years ago, and I needed her A LOT back then. I want to call her up and hear her voice. I want my daughter to meet her and know who she is instead of me telling her "that's mommy's mommy", in pictures. I want to talk to her about what is going on with my son. I want her to hold me while I cry from a broken heart or feeling like a failure. I want to hear her say, you are stronger than you know it Andrea. Get your head out of your ass and move forward! You won't fail.

While our relationship wasn't always perfect as I was a pain in the ass know it all teenage girl, we became best friends in my early 20's. As I grew up, I began to understand why she pushed me so hard. She saw my potential. She never realized her dreams in life and she was damned if she was going to let me repeat what she viewed as her "failures"...She was hard on me. Harder on me than my sisters. Growing up, I resented her for it...being a mother of a little girl, I THANK her for it. She made me who I am today. Confident, beautiful, kind, funny, sarcastic as hell, successful.....

We can't pick our parents, but I know in my heart I would pick my mom. She was strong, funny, big hearted, and gave me the gift of 6 amazing sisters and 1 brother, taught us all the value of family. I know I wouldn't be who I am without her.

I love you and miss you so very much mom. Thank you for all the blessings you gave me in life!

Happy Mother's Day mom!