Total Cop Out

OK, I'm totally copping out on this post - since I haven't posted in awhile, and I couldn't think of anything cool anyway - I am going to cut and paste a questionnaire that I was just asked to fill out for Mom of the Week on my local mommy's group website. Enjoy...hehe

What is your REAL first name? Crystal

How old are you? 29 (dun dun dunnnnn - 30 next year eeeeek!)

What is your profession: Project Manager/Account Manager/Business Analyst

Are you married, single, or dating? Married

How did you and your DH/SO meet? Through my mom - she worked a at a vet clinic in Fountain Hills that was having a new location built. My husband's company was the general contractor on the job, he showed up, saw my picture and asked who I was. He gave my mom his number, I called him, we went out on a date, and the rest is history...hehe

How do you feel about being a mommy? Awesome, overwhelmed, happy, proud, scared -- a bunch of emotions

Kids names that you didn't get to use? None, I actually ran out of names after my second daughter, I had to get creative after that

How long have you been a Mom? Almost 12 YEARS, holy crap!

How many children call you Mommy? 4 currently - but another one on the way

Girl? Boy? or both?: 4 Girls, and we don't know what the new baby's sex is - but we can probably guess!

Did you know what you were having? Yes, with all my girls I found out the sex, this is the only time I'm not going to find out until the baby is born

How old were you when you became a Mom? 17.5

How long were you in labor? 9-ish hours I think with the first one

What's your favorite thing about being a Mom? Having help around the house - haha - j/k, but that is pretty cool. ;) Watching my girls' personalities develop, teaching them new things, helping them develop their faith, discovering their talents

What's your least favorite thing? Sibling rivalry - it blows - hard

Do you want more kids? Well, whether we wanted more or not, another one is coming, LOL

Do you plan on having more soon? After this one, we are definitely D-O-N-E

One thing you will not give up just because you're a mom? Ummm...that's a tough one, I think I've given most things up because I'm a mom, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing - because I've picked new things up :)

What are you looking for in a playgroup? Moms that I get along with who have kids that my kids get along with. Nothing suckier than having a mom who you like, but your kids hate each other.

What value do you hope to instill in your kid(s)? Self Confidence

How many times have you been pee'd on by your kids? Too many to count

Barfed on? Again, too many to count

Is your child named after anyone? Sereana has my middle name (Leigh) as part of her middle name (Ashleigh), Mya has my mom's first name (Lisa) as her middle name, Audra has Aaron's grandma's middle name (Mae) as her middle name.

How did you come up with their names? I always knew I was going to name my first child Sereana - I had a summer camp counselor in the 4th grade who was named Sereana, and I thought she was the coolest. Then, when I was about 14, I started writing a book, and my main character's name was Morgan Taylor (so that's where Morgan got her name), I came up with Mya's middle name first (see above), and then started thinking of names that went with the middle name, did the same thing with Audra - middle name first, then chose a first name that sounded good with it.

When your child gets in trouble, who is the bad guy? Both of us

What is the longest you have been away from your children? Couple days

Are your toes painted? Nope

One thing you did give up now that you're a mom: I gave up my pursuit of dancing as a career - but that was a lifetime ago, so I don't really think about it too much anymore

Best Mom perk: : We have perks?

When the kid is napping, you are: Napping too

Where is your child(ren) now? sleeping

Store you can’t live without? Target

What (or who) is your favorite:
Food? Cheese enchiladas and Fried Ice Cream (not mixed together)
Author? Don't have a fave
Book? Anne of Green Gables, but I'm re-reading Time Traveler's Wife now that I found out a movie is coming out, and it's really great too
Season? Spring
Day of the week? Saturday
Snack you sneak bites from your child: Puffs
Pizza topping? Ham and Pineapple
Number? 7
TV show of all time? Gilmore Girls, but now I'm addicted to NCIS

Last movie you saw in the theater? My Sister's Keeper - saw it today, it made me cry - but I purposefully didn't bother wearing eye makeup

Your favorite thing to do in your mommy time: Get a massage, go to a movie by myself, read, get my hair done

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why? I don't know, I haven't seen much of the world - but I kind of like the US - I would live in a San Diego beach city if I could afford to live there comfortably with a house right on the water.

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be and why? I would prefer to not have a job - I'm so over working – I would rather just be a philanthropist that gave lots of money to children’s causes (I changed this answer slightly from my answer on the mommy website – my other one said to own my own business)

Are you from Arizona? If not, where are you from and what brought you here? Nope, originally from California, and my grandparents moved me here when I was 8 - I've since left and moved back a couple times

What was your first PM event? Dinner at Cheesecake Factory a couple years ago - I was actually pregnant then too

Event’s you would like to see here on PM I think the events they have are good - I can't make it to all of them as it is, so if there were more, I'd be overwhelmed. hehe

If you had an afternoon of time to yourself, what would you do? Take a nap, maybe go to a museum, or walk around downtown Scottsdale or something

What's the difference between moms & dads? HAHAHAH! Don't get me started - way too many things

Tell us about your child(ren) and your journey to becoming a mom. My journey started when I was 16 almost 17, I was a senior in high school, and I got pregnant by who I thought was my high school sweetheart that I would be with forever. That was not to be so. Sereana was born 10/28/1997 - she's going to be in 7th grade in the fall. Morgan was next, born on 03/30/2002, she's going into 2nd grade. Mya was born 11/14/2004, she's starting private kindergarten this year. And Audra was born 02/09/2008 - she's just about 17 months. Baby #5 is due 02/08/2010 - but he or she could definitely share a bday with Audra - that would be funny. :)

Michael

So, below is the link to one of my favorite Michael Jackson music videos. I have always called it "Annie are you OK" - but it's really called "Smooth Criminal".

Also, my friend over at the Mama Mary Show, wrote this about Michael - it's such a vivid description of what it was like to have been affected by him in our generation. I will truly miss him. I know there are people who will think he was just this really weird guy, and won't miss him at all - but I don't think anyone will ever truly understand what it was like to be Michael Jackson, except him. Rest in Peace Michael.

Pregnancy Update

I totally forgot to give you the update on my pregnancy. All my tests came back OK, so we are back on track and I'm less stressed out. And now I can go back to fussing about the minor annoyances of pregnancy...such as...the zits. I mean, seriously? I don't think I've had this many pimples since I was 14 years old. And they're everywhere, not just my face! But my chest, my back, my neck - What the Heck??!! My weight gain has stabilized though, and I haven't really gained anymore in the past couple weeks. I have my regularly scheduled appointment tomorrow morning - the one I scheduled several weeks ago before I had the complication last week. I think this is the one where they are going to take about 10 vials of blood. Oh Joy.

As if you Needed More Books to Add to the Pile (but there's a giveway!)

I jumped on the bandwagon from San Diego Momma's website, and I'm linking you to a Summer Reading List - if you comment, or blog about the contest, or tweet about it, you get entered into a drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card. YAY!

Sniff...Sniff

Do my armpits stink?

Two posts and no comments. :( Where is everybody?? ;)

When is a job, not a job?

So, I'm having one of those moments...you know, those moments where you wish you could find what you love to do and do it for gobs and gobs of money? But then I start thinking of some of the cool things I would like to do, and then I follow it about 5 to 10 years down the road, okay, like 6 months actually, and I think to myself 'Would I really still like to do it after it's my job? Because doesn't something being your "job", take all the fun out of it?

Say that your dream is to become a rockin' hair stylist (which was one of my thought patterns for cool things I'd like to do, even though I way suck at doing hair...but I could go to school right?)...so you go to Vidal Sassoon school for hair, and you become totally awesome and you go work at a cute little trendy salon. You get to wear way cute clothes, and have a hairstyle that you would never get away with at a 9-5 suit job. But then, after months and months of washing, and styling, and sweeping up hair particles, and fighting with your salon co-workers because they keep "borrowing" your styling wax...then, is it still fun, and your dream? Or do you start thinking about something else?

As you're working as a hair stylist you think...wow, I'd love to be a massage therapist...because it'd be really cool to work in a fancy schmancy spa with soothing music all day and helping people relieve their stress. Everything is going great, until the first day you get Mr. Super Hairy Back Guy on the table...what do you do then?? My girlfriend's daughter is a massage therapist and I ask her questions like this all the time...and she's totally cool with all the funky stuff she encounters, and she handles it quite diplomatically...but she's like 22, so will she be cool with it for the rest of her life, or while she's massaging Mr. SHBG is she daydreaming about...

Becoming a famous singer?? (this is also on my list, as was the above mentioned Massage Therapist) So, you get vocally trained and you play in a band and you get stage experience and you make an album and you try and get heard by a bunch of different recording labels. And you finally get signed! YAY! That's totally exciting, but then you're whole life is booked for you from the time you wake up, to the time you go to bed, with radio appearances, autograph signings, performances, charity events...yada yada yada...and then don't you get burnt out?

So, you become a writer instead. You have this great idea for a book, and you stay up all night for weeks getting it finished. And you track down an editor and a publisher and stuff...and then they tell you...well, you have to take 30 pages out...by end of business tomorrow. So, you're so close to being published, but then you have to do all this work...do you really want to sit there and figure out which lines don't absolutely need to go into the story...or would you rather be reading other people's blogs about how cool and awesome their artsy fartsy life is? Because that's what I'd wanna do.

Is there a way to get paid lots and lots of money for reading other people's blogs? :)

Two Posts in One Day!

OK, I took some pictures and wanted to share them today instead of tomorrow...so here we go.

The first is of my cats sleeping on my bed...while I'm working. They all know when my husband is not home, otherwise they would never be up on the bed. Isn't it totally cute though that they would all rather be snuggled up in the same space as me, instead of dispersed around the house on various lounging apparati?



The second is of SAM, holding her long tail of hair that was cut off yesterday. (Oh and it was a little over 10 inches, we measured) And Yes, we are donating to Locks of Love. :)