My college top 10

We all know that kids have been getting back to school over the last couple of weeks. This is not only for grade school there are also kids heading off to college, some for the first time. All of this back to school fever got me thinking about my 10 favorite and not so favorite memories from college:

10. My very first college frat party at University of Wyoming. I was so proud to sign in as a G.D.I. By the way don’t drink the jungle juice at a frat house, stick with the beer, trust me on that one!

9. My roommate my Sophomore year getting pregnant after only having sex with her boyfriend once, and the kicker was it was her first time ever having sex. Let that be a lesson to you all, it really can and does happen on your first time.

8. Watching Fear one night with all the other people who lived on my floor. Right as Marky Mark shoved that dog head through the doggie door somebody pulled the fire alarm. When that fire alarm went off I jumped about 5 feet out of my chair and nearly peed myself.

7. Freezing on my stats final my freshman year. It was an open note final, but I forgot to write down one freaking equation I’d needed. I needed to get at least a B on the final so that I could get a C- in the class. There was no way I was taking that class again if I failed! Luckily I was sitting next to my friend, she saw the look of panic on my face and pointed to the equation on her notes.

6. Being dubbed the “coolest chick ever” after barfing in a garbage can. I had come back from a frat party and my boyfriend at the time wasn’t happy that I went. So after I got back I was sitting in the hallway talking with some of the guys on my floor. One of them farted and I don’t do good with smells after I’ve been drinking, so I barfed in one of their garbage cans.

5. Being put on academic probation after my first semester freshman year and almost losing my scholarship. Lets just say staying out late partying and drinking does not equal a good GPA. I didn’t even think it was mathematically possible to get a GPA of 1.8, but I suck at math so there you go! I wasn’t the only one though, half my floor was right along with me, I’m just glad I wasn’t the one with the lowest GPA.

4. Walking in on my roommate and her boyfriend having sex. I had come back from a day of shopping and noticed a blank sticky note stuck to the door. I remember thinking “What is this doing here?” Ripped it off the door and walked in. Oh yeah, it was “The Sign” (those of you who’ve ever had a roommate know what I’m talking about). I regret that moment to this very day, ouch my eyes!

3. Going to the Wyoming football game against BYU, sorry Jules, but we would have been enemies in college. We weren’t allowed to have alcohol in the student section, but my friends always snuck some in. It was a night game in the winter and the best way to keep warm of course is a nice beverage. I thought I was drinking rum and coke, turns out it was everclear and coke(oh baby). I don’t remember us beating BYU, but apparently we did and am told I wanted to go jump on the field and help rip the goal posts down. At this moment I want to thank my friend “J” who was my babysitter that night and probably stopped me from getting trampled.

2. Transferring from Wyoming to Cal State San Marcos. Best decision I ever made, because it let me be closer to my love, Bryan. I did a lot of partying those first two years of college so I was more than ready to slow it down some!

1. After I had gone to bed one night my roommate decided to call her boyfriend. And lets just say they had a little bit of phone fun while she thought I was sleeping. I was so mortified I didn’t even know what to do. Do I get up and pretend I have to go to the bathroom, do I just stay here? So I put my pillow over my head and prayed for it all to be over soon. And then of course the next morning I told everybody all about it!

*I didn’t say they were all good memories, some of these memories have seriously scarred me for life!

My baby is walking!

Yeah he's officially walking!

No longer a virgin.

That's right ladies and gentleman, I'm no longer a virgin, a public temper tantrum virgin that is. I'm no stranger to my kids acting up in public, some of you may even of read about a recent Target experience. But last night I was officially inducted into the embarrassment hall of fame.

We went out to dinner last night with family and brought Dylan with us. We left Justin with my mom because it was just easier that way. After dinner we took her into Geppetto's, a toy store, which was close to the restaurant. I should of turned and ran while I still had the chance. All of the toys were easily within her reach and there was a Thomas the Train track set out for kids to play with. All of these things screamed at me "This is a disaster waiting to happen!" Dylan was being so well behaved though, holding her Auntie's hand and asking about the waiter we had at dinner, I thought everything would be fine.

Everything started out that way, until it was time to leave. Dylan had made her way over to the Thomas the Train set and we were all ready to leave. I told her she could go a pick out a couple of little plastic zoo animals and then it was time to leave. Nothing, she didn't even acknowledge me. So I tried again, and again nothing. I then went up to her and told her it was time to leave and she could either come with me and hold my hand or I was going to pick her up and drag her out of the store. Nothing, so I took a deep breath, picked her up and so the nightmare began.

She started kicking and screaming "Get me outta here, let me down!" I walked past Bryan and said "Her shoes are back there somewhere grab them we're leaving." I tried talking to her outside of the store but she wouldn't stop screaming at me, "I want a toy." Then that's when the hitting began. Bryan took over at that point and we started the long march back to the car.

The kicking, screaming and hitting continued with Bryan. We tried sitting her down again, to talk to her and get her to calm down. It was at that moment I noticed a man sitting in his car staring at us. While we were trying to talk to her I could just feel his eyes burning holes through me and just waiting to see how these "horrible parents" were going to handle this situation. There was no reasoning with this child at this point she was too far gone in her tantrum, so we continued on through the parking lot with eyes all over us. I could almost hear the voices "Look at them, look at their kid. Oh my god what are they doing to that poor kid?"

We finally made it back to our car and I thought things at that point would be okay. Oh no, why would they be? We then we had to wrestle her into her car seat. Let me tell you that kid is freakishly strong. If Bryan hadn't been there I don't know what I would of done. I wouldn't have been able to carry her from that store all the way to our car, while she was having a wild tantrum. And I know I wouldn't have been able to get her in her car seat. She finally stopped screaming about 5 minutes from home. I turned back to see if she was asleep, nope we just had one very pissed off child in the back seat.

After it was all over and we were back home, Bryan told me, "You did good, you didn't give into her or give her what she wanted even though she was throwing a fit." Deep down I know he's right and I'm proud of myself for that. I know there are some parents who would have caved and given their kids what they wanted just to save themselves the embarrassment of a public tantrum. Still for some reason I can't shake the "I'm a failure" vibe today.

And why is this so exciting to me?

This weekend I was getting caught up on my movie watching and finally got to watch Children of Men, yeah I'm a little behind. If you have not seen this movie and don't want to know the ending, then stop reading.........now.

I would say my daughter's name, is very unique. I've never met another girl named Dylan. I met one or two people who know a little girl named Dylan and that's about it. I know it's Drew Barrymore's character in "Charlie's Angels" and there was a TV show on a few years ago called "Good Morning Miami" where the main female character's name was Dylan. And that's actually why we picked the name Dylan, because of that TV show. Well that is until today anyways, I'm telling people we came up with her name another way now!

So basically in "Children of Men" humans can no longer have children. Somehow a woman ends up pregnant and Clive Owen's character, Theo, tries to help her out. How's that for a simplistic plot run down? At the end of the movie the woman is talking with Theo and she tells him, "I've decided on a name, I will call her Dylan" (Theo had a little boy named Dylan who'd died years ago). I was so excited I when I heard the name and I really don't have any idea why, it's not like they chose to name her Dylan after my daughter or anything.

Now I haven't read the book, so I don't know if the ending is the same. It's probably not because they always change everything for movies and end up totally screwing up the book. Then I won't be so excited anymore! But still I just found it so exciting to see my daughter's name in a movie. Kind of like it makes up for all the strange looks and comments after she was born; "She's a girl...named Dylan?" Yes she is, she's my beautiful little girl named Dylan!

If you're chicken and you know it....

I'm very proud to stand up and shout from the rooftops that I'm a huge chicken. I'm scared of everything. The dark, horror movies, ghosts, alien abductions, The Candy Man (oh crap there's once). You name it, I'm scared of it. Does this stop me from watching horror movies, going to haunted houses or reading scary books, nope, I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.

Last night I finished reading The Ruins, by Scott Smith. All over the inside cover of the book are reviews about how scary the book is. This didn't stop me from reading the book however. I actually didn't find the book that scary at least until I went to bed last night. I had dreams all night about this book, I won't say exactly what for those of you who haven't read the book yet. Then around 2 am this morning I was woke up to Justin laughing like a maniac in his crib. Normally this wouldn't scare me, but it did. I thought of going up to his room to get him to stop playing and go back to sleep, but no, it's dark in the middle of the night.

Plus the night before Dylan almost gave me heart failure when I went in their room. I went to help Justin out and when I turned to leave she was sitting up in her crib, with her blanket over her head like a creepy kid ghost. So I decided to stay put in my nice comfy bed next to my knight in shining armor (who was snoring away). Justin kept playing with this little glow worm toy that plays music, but the batteries are almost dead so a twisted sounding twinkle, twinkle was playing out over the baby monitor. After I realized he wasn't going to go back to sleep and he was totally fine, I turned the baby monitor off and went back to my dreams of The Ruins.

So will this keep me from reading scary books or watching horror movies. Oh no, and you may laugh, but one of these days I will find myself in a situation similar to those in horror movies. And just you watch, I'll be the only one out of all of my friends or family who lives. I'll be the smart one who won't go on vacation there, won't go up stairs, won't pick up that hitchhiker and so on. Oh who am I kidding, I don't have any friends!

Another year, another birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday (happy birthday to me) and as the years tick by, I find it's not as scary getting older as I had imagined it when I was a kid. However, I do find that I don't get excited about my birthday 6 months in advance like I used to. But I do love celebrating my birthday with my hubby and our kids. It's so much more fun than having a big birthday bash with friends (although I wouldn't object if hubby put together a surprise bash for me).

I spent the majority of my day in the car driving back from Vegas, which was not the highlight of the day. When I finally go home I was so happy to see my kids again, even though the first thing out of Dylan's mouth when she saw me was "Mommy what did you bring me?!" And of course Justin waiting until 5 minutes before I walked into the door to make me a special dirty diaper surprise for my birthday. We had a nice dinner, Dylan helped me open my presents and then we had cake. My favorite present was that the kids went to bed without putting up a fight for once!

The best part of my birthday is knowing that I share it with: Bill Clinton, John Stamos, Matthew Perry and Mei Sheng (the Panda here at the San Diego Zoo).

The bumper sticker says it all.

While driving to Dylan's dance class this morning I merged onto the freeway on my favorite on-ramp, and nestled myself in between a large truck and granny who was driving about 35 mph. Once I got myself nice and cozy on the freeway I noticed the truck in front of me was carrying HUGE rocks. Not just one gigantic rock, but many gigantic rocks. Rocks so big that if one would have fallen out of his truck and I ran into it, it wouldn't have been pretty.

Immediately I started playing out a scenario in my head, very much like those seen in Final Destination. Of course I'm waiting forever to get around this truck because people on California freeways don't know how to drive. Speed up or slow down people, don't drive the exact same speed as me right next to me or in my freaking blind spot!

So as I impatiently wait for my turn to get around the truck of death, I notice a bumper sticker on the back of said truck. I have never seen a more perfect sticker for any vehicle on the road..."Fear This."

Message received truck of death, thanks for the warning.

Damn you Diego

Either TV has turned my daughter into one smart cookie or the biggest two year old smart ass on the planet.

My daughter is obsessed with Diego, she got over Dora pretty quick thank goodness, but now it's all about Diego and his Rescue Pack. Last week Dylan and Justin went to their Auntie's house so we could go to dinner with some friends. Dylan brought her new Diego movie with her to share with Auntie. When we went to pick the kids up Auntie asked how many times she'd seen this movie. "Never" I said, "We just bought it for her the other day." She told me Dylan spent the whole movie correcting her about what the animals were:

A: "Look at the kitty Dylan"
D: "That not a kitty, it's a jaguar!"
A: "Isn't that a pretty bird Dylan?"
D: "Its a macaw!"

And yesterday at lunch she again corrected somebody, "Look at the picture of that frog Dylan." This was my little girls response, "No, it a red eye tree frog." I almost died from laughing so hard. My friend just looked at me and I said, "Well it is a red eyed tree frog, she's just telling you."

There has to be some good from cartoons, I can guarantee you I didn't know what a red eyed tree frog was when I was 2.5. So thanks Diego for turning my daughter into a smart ass. I can't be too mad at you though, the kid can count to 5 in Spanish already, which I would have never even thought to teach her.

I've finally figured out what I'm worth.

And it amounts to all of about $4, how did I come up with this earth shattering price? While folding laundry today I found money hidden throughout the pile of our clean clothes. The first dollar bill I found was curled up at the bottom of the dryer. "SCORE!" I thought to myself as I did a little happy dance with Dylan around the living room.

I found two more dollar bills and was trying to figure out where the money came from. I never have cash on me, so I figured it was from hubby's pockets. My pay day had finally arrived! Then as I uncovered the fourth dollar bill my idea of it being my payday came crashing down. Suddenly it all came rushing back, last night going to get dinner, my mom handing me four crisp dollar bills.

No payday for me, guess I'm back to being worth zero! Although I should keep her money. Kind of a payback for when she washed my clothes growing up and I'd leave money in my pocket. "Sorry Jennifer, you left the money in your pocket. It's now in my dryer, just think of it as you paying me for doing your laundry." Grrrr, mom wins again!

The Calm After the Birthday Party

I made it through birthday weekend and it wasn't as traumatic as I thought it was going to be. I didn't cry that Justin was now 1 and no longer my baby.

We had a little family celebration on his actual bday. We had brownies and opened presents. Justin didn't care about the presents, but Dylan sure enjoyed opening them and playing with them. Poor kid doesn't even get to play with his own presents. Dylan plays with all the new toys, but he's happy because he finally gets to play with all the old toys he's been trying to get his hands on for months.

Saturday was the big party with all the family and few friends. We don't have many friends (we're big losers) so it was mostly family! For once I'm glad to report the Italian family behaved themselves. Nana & Papa didn't scare the kids (or me for that matter) with kisses. That's only because we avoided them like the plague. It wasn't hard to avoid them we just hid outside and Nana won't go outside because she thinks it's too cold, even though it was 80 that day (the "coldness" she always feels will have to be an entry for another day).

Everybody had a great time, as I knew they would, because I planned an awesome party! Tears for Justin and myself for kept to a minimum and I will never forget the look on his face when we sang happy birthday to him. He was dancing, laughing and clapping his hands together like a lunatic! It was a great and memorable 1st birthday for my little man.

I again want to say thanks to everyone for Justin's birthday wishes!

What a difference a year makes

Exactly one year ago today I was staring into the face of the newest addition to my family. Justin Michael made his stage debut at 1:19pm on August 10, 2006 at 7lbs 6 oz. and 20 inches:




I can't believe he's already a year old. I miss those baby days so much and now I have another toddler, yikes! While I miss snuggling up to my newborn who didn't back talk or do much of anything for that matter, I love hearing him crawling up behind me saying "mama, mama!" I melt when I see his face light up when I get him out of his crib in the morning. And most of all I love watching him chase after his sister, so badly wanting to walk and run how she does. I love you Justin, my precious mama's boy and Happy Birthday!

4 Years Ago Today...

This is what I was doing four years ago today:

Three years ago today we were celebrating our first anniversary in Laguna and were expecting our first child in September:

Two years ago today, you know I actually can't remember what we were doing. We were getting ready to move to Utah, so we'd probably just gone out to dinner. So exciting I know!

One year ago today we were enjoying a delicious dinner at our neighborhood Applebees. Again so romantic, I know, but I was going to be induced the next morning to deliver our second child:

Okay so that photo is from the month before, and I know I look mad in the photo, but I'm really not. I'm 8 months pregnant, living in Utah and it's about 1,000 degrees, I was dragged along on a hiking trip and I was hungry.

And finally this is where I'll be today celebrating my 4th wedding anniversary:

Well I won't really bet there today, it'll actually be next weekend. And it won't be at this particular hotel, probably somewhere much cheaper and not as classy!

Oh and here's a little secret for you all! This photo is not from my acutal wedding. We actually took photos for a wedding brochure about 3 months after our wedding. So some photos I have in my wedding album are not from my actual wedding...Shhh!

"Where the turf meets the surf..."

"...down at old Del Mar." That's right all of you horse racing fans. Mommy went to bet on the ponies last Saturday. I didn't realize that the thing I would miss most about California while in Utah, would be racing season at Del Mar.

I'm not a big fan of gambling (at least that's what I try to tell the voices in my head), and I have myself convinced that I'm not going to bet on the races, "I'm just going to watch."

That logic lasts for all of about one race. I watch everybody else yelling and screaming as the horses near the finish line and get goose bumps when they all go racing past. Most people of course end up throwing their tickets into a crumpled ball of fury at the end of a race, then I decide I want in on that action. Suddenly I'm grabbing the race book and picking horses and putting them in a trifecta box, or a superfecta box.

I didn't do so hot though, I think I need to pick a better method than going off the horses name. Turns out the horse imagamblerbaby is a big fat loser. And also I think I drank more in the signature Del Margaritas than I actually lost betting on the horses. So in that case I'm marking the day down as a winner!

This kid rocks!

It's official, my daughter officially rocks. We were in the car driving back from the store on Saturday. Bryan and I were talking when suddenly Dylan pipes up from the back seat: "Mommy I love this song!" I just figure it's the Maroon 5 song that's on the radio every 10 minutes or the "Hey there Delilah" song that she likes to sing.

But to my surprise it's neither of those songs. It's the Beastie Boys' song (You Gotta) Fight for your Right (to Party). "When has she ever heard this song before?" Bryan asked me as Dylan is rockin' out in the back seat.

By the time the song is over you hear a steady stream of "Paaarrrrrrty," coming from her. No Kidz Bop for this family thank you, we'll stick to the hip happening tunes!