SchlegelRock

I guess it would have been smart in my last post to mention the actual perfume that I went to buy.  So here’s more information than you could possibly want.  It’s Ed Hardy by Christian Audigier.  Ed Hardy is a clothing designer that I love.  He was the designer that the 17 year old dad was wearing on his first day back to school in 17 Again.  I admit the kid looked ridiculous but I love the tattoo inspired art of Ed Hardy.  Tatto art is some of my favorite.

And since it’s such a stretch to think of me wearing perfume I thought I’d put the list of fragrance notes:   apple, mango, strawberry, red grapefruit, freesia, watery muget, linden blossom, warm amber, musk, tonka bean, and vanilla puddin.

Ed Hardy is listed as a casual perfume though I plan on wearing it wherever the heck I want to.  I’ve had a tester of it for almost a week now and I am totally in love.

On a side note, if you go to Nordstroms they will fill a tester vial with any perfume you like so you can take it home and try it out.  I did not know this before a week ago though I’m sure you’ve all been going there for years.  I’m a little slow with the girly stuff.  I think I’m going to go back and find the most expensive perfume I can and try it out.

What’s your favorite perfume?

I decided this year that I wanted perfume for Mother’s Day.  I’m not a big perfume wearer but I happened upon some I loved the other day and I just had to have it.  So I went home and asked Scott if he would get it for me for Mother’s day.  I’m not quite sure but I think he actually told me that the laptop we just bought was for Mother’s Day.  What?  That was not in the negotiations although I’ve been meaning to blog about Laila (my laptop) and how wonderful she is.  I’m on her right now and she is my new love.  How did I ever live without her?

Anyway, I pouted and whined and eventually Scott said I could get some perfume for Mother’s Day.  Yippee.  So I haven’t been able to get to Nordstroms all week and I knew I’d never make it on Saturday so I piled the three kids in the car and had a long talk about how they were to behave in the store.

As we’re walking to the perfume section a lady from Chanel stops us and asks if I want her to do my eyes.  I stared at her for a second because nobody ever approaches me at Nordstroms.  Usually in the shoe department (I love Nordstroms’ shoes) the sales people literally walk away from me when I walk near them.  If I actually have shoes in my hands they’ll stop and help me but no “Hello, how are you today.” or “Are you finding everything OK?”  Nothing.  I feel like such a leper when I’m in there.

But this lady actually stopped me with my three kids and asked if I wanted my eyes done.  After the shock wore off I looked at my kids and she said, “Oh, they’ll be fine.  I’ll go fast.”  I stayed silent for a moment longer and then realized I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.  I pulled my iPhone out of my purse sat the kids on the ground and hopped in the chair.

Oh my gosh.  It was exquisite.  When I was a massage therapist my favorite part to massage was the face.  I always believed that even if all you got was a face and scalp massage everything else would fall into place.  So I sat there as her soft brushes slid across my face and just let my body melt into the chair.  At one point she asked me to open my eyes and look up and I thought, “Why?  Why would I do that?  I’m in heaven right now.”  But I did anyway.

During our visit two other Chanel ladies came over and asked about the boys.  Are they mine?  ”Oh my gosh, they’re being so good.”  One of the ladies said she saw me walk up and thought there was no way I was going to stop.  Fooled them, didn’t I.  I saw the opportunity to be pampered and I took it.  Kids and all.

Then we finished up and I bought the lip gloss because I had actually been looking for the exact thing she put on my lips.  How’s that for amazing?  We headed off to the perfume aisle and I found what I wanted and as I was checking out EVERYONE wanted to talk to me.  ”Three boys?” “Are the oldest ones twins?” “You’re so brave for going for the third one.”  ”Aren’t boys just wonderful?”  And so on and so on.  I honestly felt like I must have been videotaped or something because those ladies were so doggone nice to me I almost couldn’t stand it.  They actually treated me like I belonged there.

So I’ve been thinking since then about the outfit I wore and I just had on a v-neck t-shirt, some jeans and my new flip flops.  What could it have been that made everybody treat me so nicely?  I know Mother’s Day is coming up so they probably got a stern talking to about being nice but I honest to goodness actually felt like I fit in there today.  It was incredible.

So I took a picture for posterity of me with all of my make up on since no one will ever see me like this again.  Mascara and lip gloss has become my staple.  The Chanel lady did more than my eyes.  She did full coverage.  I don’t care.  I’ll wear it for the day, it doesn’t bother me.

So all in all with Oliver’s special Mother’s Day presentation at school and a huge card complete with stick figures that Truman made me this is turning out to be a pretty spectacular Mother’s Day.  And it’s not over yet.  How’s yours going?

We’ve lived here for 2 1/2 years and it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I finally hung a clock over the TV.  I’m really glad we waited though because we just got this fabulous print from and artist online, Cameron Moll.  Apparently he’s a really good web developer who decided to try out some fine art.  We bought his Salt Lake Temple letterpress.  He takes different letters and different fonts and composed the Salt Lake Temple.  It is really stunning.

The two pictures on either side are watercolors that Scott did when he was in school  The one on the left is a rose the one on the right is a banana and a peach.  

I also hung the oil painting of the Oakland Temple that my brother gave us for a wedding present upon

his return from his mission in Brazil.  I love the colors in that painting.  The bright pink is my

favorite.  In case you’re wondering what it’s hanging next to it’s our wall of kids artwork.  All he stuff they bring home from school goes up on our big wall behind our computer.  It’s the best wall in the whole house.

It’s about time this condo got spruced up.  Do you have some favorite artwork in your house?

Can you believe it? I know. It was just yesterday that I welcomed that boy into the Subaru. He is such a special kid. Always ready with hugs or karate chops depending on the occasion.

Oliver really looks up to Truman and looks forward to him coming home from school. Tru is doing great in school. He read Go Dogs Go! to me the other day.

As you can see from my last post he loves jokes and no matter how ridiculous they are he commits and delivers them flawlessly.

We had a birthday play date with three of his friends and they had a great time.  Then we had a family party with some cake and ice cream that evening.  Tru loved the attention.

Happy Birthday Truman!!

In case you didn’t get it:

Two muffins were in the oven.  One muffin said, “It’s hot in here.”  The other muffin said, “Holy cow!!!  It’s a talking muffin!”

It’s all in the delivery.

Every day when Max and Truman get home from school I am in my room.  I have it set up so I can do everything from there so that’s where I spend most of my time.  My room is not very far away from the front door.  I can hear it open and I can hear little voices when they run in and I know they can hear me when I yell, “Hi boys!”

That’s why it’s a little surprising to me when my phone rings a minute later and I invariably hear, “Mom, where are you?”  It’s a ridiculous little game that Max likes to play with me.  He’ll walk up and down the hallway chatting to me on the phone, not looking in my room because that would be acknowledging my existence in the house.  Then the phone gets passed around so that everyone has a chance to talk to me, including Oliver who has been with me all day.

The first couple of times they did this it annoyed me because it made me feel like they felt neglected because I wasn’t waiting at the door for them with a plate of cookies but now I know that it’s just fun.  I don’t know about your kids but my kids don’t get to use the phone very often so this is a big deal for them.

Anyone else get silly phone calls from their kids?

Have you ever played a trivia game with a 4 year old.  It’s extremely difficult and you have to use all your wits because they play dirty.  Not on purpose of course but they sure don’t follow the rules.

I picked Oli up from preschool today and he had his hoodie zipped all the way up and wanted me to guess what shirt he was wearing.  You can see it in the picture.  (Don’t ask why his mouth is open.  He’s 4.) 

Here are the clues he gave me:

It’s mostly red and gold.

The guy has horns.

People, how on earth was I supposed to guess a blue Optimus Prime shirt from those clues.  To his credit, Optimus Prime is mostly red and does kind of have horns but I don’t see a lick of gold on that shirt.

I didn’t end up guessing right.  I cheated.  I turned around at a light and snuck a peak at the collar.  He saw me and told me I was cheating.  I admitted it but honestly I had no idea what shirt he was wearing that was mostly red and gold with a guy with horns.  He had me stumped.

Scott was watching TV while getting ready for work a couple months ago and happened to stop on the Today show when they introduced Carrie Fisher (Princess Leah from Star Wars).  Among other things she spoke about being bipolar.  I loved hearing her speak about bipolar because we share a lot of the same views.

She talked about the stigma of bipolar and said she didn’t understand it because to live with bipolar “takes balls”.  Amen to that sister.  Why should I be ashamed of people knowing I’m bipolar when I’m living a functioning, adult life?  Sure I have my hiccups and my bad days but I’m taking care of my husband and raising three healthy, happy children.  What more could you ask for?

Matt asked Carrie about bipolar being a daily struggle and I feel like my last episode is still so fresh and raw that I do deal with it every day.  Every little change in my body sets off alarms that make me hyper vigilant to what’s going on in my body.  So I’m not changing from manic to depressed on a daily basis but I do deal with bipolar daily.

How beautiful is it that she describes bipolar as the weather.  As moods that happen independent of the person feeling them.  They just come on and you have to deal with them even though they are not who you are or necessarily how you are feeling.

It took me weeks to get this video off of my Tivo and formatted right so YouTube would play it correctly.  I really wanted to share this with you because it spoke to me.  Mostly because I saw someone else who wasn’t ashamed of being bipolar.  My gosh, we didn’t ask for this but we sure as heck are doing the best we can.  What is there to ashamed of?

Scott’s favorite restaurant is Benihana’s so Monday night we got together with his parents and headed over to Vallco to eat.  For those of you who don’t know, Benihana’s is a Japanese restaurant where the food is cooked at your table by special chefs who put on a show for you with their cutlery and cooking utensils.  We had such a great time.  The kids usually do well at restaurants but on Monday we didn’t hear a peep from them.  We did order too much food for them but that just made dinner Tuesday night so no problems there.

Benihana’s is pricey so we only go there every once in a while but when we do we absolutely love it.  Truman is asking if we can go back for his birthday in March.  I’m totally OK with that.  Beats Chuck E Cheese’s any day of the week!

Click here for photos.

You guys probably already know this but the aquarium is one of my favorite places to go.  We had a season pass a few years back before Max started school and I would take the kids every two weeks or so and I absolutely loved it.  Scott’s cousin and his family were down after Christmas so we headed down to the aquarium for the day.  It was so much fun but it was pretty crowded so our family was totally wiped out by the time we got home.  Thanks Gary and Elaine for dinner.  Scott also bought me fudge at one of the shops on Cannery Row.  Just one more reason to love him.

Have you guys been to the aquarium?  Do you love it?

Click here for photos.

We had a really great Christmas this year.  All three of the kids were old enough to know what’s going on and experience some anticipation and excitement.  We split Christmas up between my mom and the Schlegels and it really worked out nicely.  Brandon and Maria were down from Sac and it was fun to have all the cousins together again.  The biggest hit of the season are the Nerf guns the Walker’s gave us.  So much fun  We had the kids up in the hallway and the adults behind the couch and madness ensued.  It was wild and crazy fun.  It only got crazier when Scott took apart all six guns and modified them so that they shoot further and harder.  I’m telling you we have never had this much fun with at Christmas before.

Grandma Sandy and the grandkids

Grandma and Grandpa Schegel with our kids

Max, Tru, Emma and Reuben with the new Nerf guns

Scott and I have been married nine years today.  Nine years!  Holy cow.  We were talking and nine years doesn’t seem long enough for all the stuff we’ve been through but it also seems too long.  How could nine whole years have passed?  We have been through some tough crap together and to be honest, like the rest of you, we’re going through some crap right now with the downturn in the economy.  And you know what?  I know we’ll be good because I have Scott and he can get through anything.

Scott brought me back from the gates of hell two years ago and we’ve been fighting a good fight ever since.  And if you think that’s an exaggeration, the gates of hell, you obviously weren’t around when it happened.  He was my anchor, my compass, my guiding light.  He nursed me through a time when I didn’t know if I had the will to live.  He put up with so much garbage from me it’s embarrassing to even think about.  We made it through the darkest of days together.

Scott has nurtured my love of comic book movies and spends a ton of time explaining back story to me.  He even lets me tag along with his friends every time a new movie comes out.  He takes me to Chipotle almost every Friday night because that’s my current favorite.  He even goes along with my crazy plans to eat at certain places and then go somewhere else for something else.  He brings me the most delectable pastries and doesn’t get mad if I accidently eat the one he bought for himself.

Scott holds our family together.  He is our rock and our foundation.  There isn’t anything that I could do to repay him for all of the love and hard work that he puts into our family.  He is custom made for me and I hope he feels like I am custom made for him.

I love you Scott with every beat of my heart.  You are my universe.  My world revolves around you and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I’m putting Come What May from Moulin Rouge on here for you.  When they say that “I will love you until my dying day”, you remember that we never truly die.  So I will love you forever and always.  ”Until the end of time.”  Happy Aniversary.

If you have not been to Stan’s Donuts you haven’t had a truly spectacular donut.  Stan’s Donuts is in Santa Clara on Homestead in between Kiely and San Tomas.  I’m telling you.  If you go to Stan’s you’ll never want any other donut again.  The only drawback is that they keep the operation small so there’s only one fryer.  Some days you may have to wait for a glazed.  And I would suggest waiting for it.  There are always cake donuts lying around but that’s not where the moneys at.  The money is in the glazed.  The donuts are on the big side and they have a wonderful thick texture to them.  Like you’re actually eating something.

Fridays for Seminary (early morning church) were donut days and that meant Stan’s.  No substitutes would do.  Stan’s has obviously been a family favorite for years.

Now I know at least one person who’s been to Stan’s and lives out of the area.  Found anything to compare?

It’s all about Oli again.  He got the warmest t-rex jammies from Grandma Sandy.  He just looked so warm and snuggly in them that I wanted to share.  He wouldn’t cooperate with the picture though so this is what I got.

Oli’s class had their Holiday Party today and I went to check it out.  You guys, it was amazing.  He actually sang all of the songs with the other kids including hand motions.  He was totally animated and several times, no joke, he winked at me and gave me the thumbs up.  Who taught him how to do that?  He is a totally different kid than he was back in September.  He doesn’t fight me at all to go to school.  Not a whimper, not a whine, nothing.  He happily gets his shoes and coat on and very calmly walks to class with me.  Today he was totally interacting with the other  children.  He would go up to them and ask them to play with him.  He would have conversations with them.  It was incredible.  He is totally and completely immersed in his class.  I can not tell you how proud I am of him.  I’m sure this has been a struggle for him to break out of his shell.  I fought with him tooth and nail to get him to go before and now it’s second nature to him.  I am so happy with our decision to put him in to preschool a year early.  I think Oli needed this.  He needed a more firm nudge than our other kids did to get out into the world and explore.  He’s a very shy, timid kid and this has remarkably helped him at least get past that in a classroom setting.  My heart is bursting with joy right now.  It was just so spectacular to see him this morning.  Yay, Oli!!