Get Carried Away

We've started a new night time tradition in the Braunalicious house that I am LOVING.
Every time one of us open our laptops, A-girl says, "Mew-sack" (music, for those of you who may not speak her particular dialect of toddler-ease). Normally, we oblige and turn on something boppy on iTunes and she shakes her adorable little booty.
The other night, just before bedtime, A-girl came up asking for "mew-sack." We turned on iTunes and instead of the normal booty-shaking ditty, we picked "Let Them Be Little" by Lonestar (which is an AMAZING song- check it below) and she snuggled up with me, put her head on my shoulder and let me hold her for the whole song. Then I got an awesome good night kiss, and she went upstairs with her daddy for night-nights.
It was great.
Every night since then, we've repeated the process.
It's my favorite 3 minutes of the entire day.

I had a great lunch date today with a fellow young, working mom. We shared the trials and joys of life; balancing kids and a career, child care woes, trying to find time (and not have guilt over) date nights, and the idea of having another baby while living in a two bedroom condo.
Then, the conversation turned to talk of Haiti; the poor orphans roaming the streets, how some people are incredibly generous and others incredibly apathetic, that we both wish we could adopt a thousand Haitian babies.
Suddenly the aforementioned tiny two bedroom condos don't seem so tiny.
And we laughed about how in the course of an hour, we went from one extreme to the other. Perspective.
Later in the afternoon, I sat bawling at my work computer after watching the video below. It's the incredible story of a young man who was born without eyes and can't walk, and his amazing father. The bawling was not because his story is sad or depressing (which is more than I can say for the Haitians) but uplifting and encouraging and humbling. Perspective.
Seriously- don't watch it unless you want some perspective on life.
Which I personally think we ALL need, but far be it for me to thrust perspective on the unwilling.
Thank you Patrick. You are amazing. Today, you have helped me be grateful and awestruck.

In an OC Register story about the upcoming MV recall election.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/recall-230406-cox-morton.html
For those of you who may not know, I work for a telecommunications company in the Community Relations department, and I have recently taken on producing a 30-minute public affairs show called Cox Forum on channel 3.
I really, truthfully, and honestly can say that I enjoy my job. And I love the people I work with. And I can't ask for much more than that!

Wow, I just used the word sexy in a blog title. I am such a grown up.
Came home tonight after a great weekend feeling a bit sluggish-full of yummy food (thanks Mom) but the combo of yummy food and no workout today was dragging me down mentally.
Stupidly stepped on the scale and DID NOT like the number looking back at me.
I HATE that the scale has the power to take away all feelings of goodness from me. It's a leftover from my super-big Weight Watchers Days, where if I didn't post big numbers, I felt like a failure. It's silly, and somewhere in my brain I know that, but I don't know it.
Then the decision to not allow that silliness to ruin the rest of an evening lead to me the thought...
'I need to feel sexy..and fast.'
Why sexy? And why fast? In the interest of not completely grossing out anyone, it had nothing to do with what may (or very likely, may not!) happen later on in the evening. It's just my way of turning what could have been a sour evening into an enjoyable one- thank you very much, New Year's Resolution!
So, here's MY recipe for quick sexy.
Nice HOT shower- leg shaving included.
Bath and Body Works Japanese Cherry Lotion and Body Spray
Lip Smackers Gloss in my favorite flavor of Coca Cola
Cute, but comfy PJ's
Voila! Instant sexy.
Really, clean, comfy, and smelling good are now considered sexy?
Yes- because while they each might happen every day, they RARELY happen at the same time.
And they are rarely followed by a cozy blanket and a good snuggle, which are my last two sexy ingredients.
Hope I didn't gross you out too much :)

When do you feel your most sexy?

Well, that's not entirely true. I think attempting my New Years Resolution of having a positive attitude and a joy to be around HAS been a joy... for other people.
For me...
it sucks.

Well, it doesn't suck totally.
But it's hard.
Seriously REALLY HARD- much harder than just typing it.


Take New Year's Day, for example. Day 1 of 365 jolly Joy-filled days to come. It was morning, A-girl was sick, and I DID NOT feel like driving for an hour up to LA to see the Braun side of the family with a runny-nosed, coughing, clingy toddler. So Nick went alone, and A-girl and I snuggled at home. Sounds joyful, right?

It was- except when Nick got home and I wanted 3.5 minutes of quiet without snot dripping on my shirt and A-girl WOULD NOT go to her dad. She screamed as though I was handing her over to CPS instead of her loving, doting father who single-handedly cares for her the majority of the week. Nick, as most fathers in this situation would, shrugged and walked away, thinking 'Oh well, she doesn't want to come to me.'
It was not a joyful moment.
In fact, I was just a little annoyed at them both. Silly, I know, but true.

Since this was New Year's Day, and Day One of jolly jolly Joy-filled 2010, I took a moment and closed my eyes and prayed for some sanity and clarity. And this thought came to me...

'This resolution DOESN'T mean that-
*life is instantly going to be transformed into a utopia where everything is joyful and happy.
*there will no challenges, and...
*that a positive, joyful response will be easy, just because you want it to be.'

I'm learning that, in fact, it means quite the opposite.
It means...
*Finding the joy in the small things that I may not have noticed before.
*That wanting to be joyful and positive means that I will have to take situations that are NOT joyful and positive and respond to them in a joyful and positive way.
*I will, most of the time, have a negative or selfish or un-joyful thought and have to stop, think, and move past that thought. Umm, that's no fun!

It's like praying for patience, and then instead of life getting serene and peaceful so you can be your perfect, more patient self, it becomes hard and grating and you HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRACTICE YOUR PATIENCE.

In conclusion, I don't know WTF I was thinking when I decided to do this. I may have doomed myself for a ridiculous year of tough, negative, difficult times where I am destined to swallow my pride, anger, and selfishness to allow the positivity and joy to enter in.
And actually, that doesn't sound that bad.
Do you have a secret to remaining positive and joyful? It's welcome here :)

Didn't you think that by 2010 we'd all be riding in hovercrafts and I-Dream-of-Jeanine blinking our way to work? I sure did...
A little throw back to before our time, with Disneyland's version of the House of the Future.
You can read about it here... and while I'm not a huge fan of EVERYTHING being plastic, I can't say I'd mind being able to hose down the house every so often.
Alas, here I am driving my car with boring wheels that touch the pavement and cleaning a house with carpet and fabric sofas. How old school.
But things sure are different here in Twenty Ten (that's my attempt at hipness for the new decade. Nick hates it!) I'm a married woman with a career and a toddler- there, I said it. A toddler. Which means she's no longer a baby. Which means I'm wavering between enjoying every second of her growing-up-ness and longing for a baby again. But, as Nick pointed out quite astutely, I don't really want ANOTHER baby yet, I just want A-girl to go back to being a baby. Touche, sir.
I know everyone has their own take on New Year's Resolutions, and since you're here inside my head...I mean...reading my blog, I'll share mine.
I like New Year's Resolutions in theory. The theory being that you follow through with them. I tend to make resolutions only to amend them at the start of Lent and then again at my birthday.
I do have to give myself props for following through on last year's resolution to start running. (I'll update with my total miles since Auguts and a before/in progress picture later this week.)

So in thinking about Twenty Ten and how I'd like for it to be the best year yet, I don't have a lot of things I'd like to drastically change. I'm already exercising consistently, pretty happy with my body (of course I'd love to drop more weight, but it's just not my main life focus), happily married to a really amazing person who I crave more time with, mom to a smart and sassy one-year-old who I adore, living and constantly decorating our first house, with a great and supportive group of family and friends...
Here's my 2010 Resolution: To be a JOY to be around. That's it. I want to be a happy presence everywhere that I am. At home, at work, playing with A-girl, on the phone with friends, on this blog, to strangers and ESPECIALLY to family and friends. I want to focus on being happy with where I'm at and what's happening in my life and sharing the joy that comes from that through my happy, positive attitude. PMS be damned and SUCK IT bad moods! 2010 will be JOYFUL.

Can't leave you without a few pictures of our cruise to Mexico for Christmas. It was awesome- more to come. A-girl hated Santa. Classic.
All the grandkids and great grandkid with Nana- isn't she gorgeous?
Happy New Year to you and yours!