The not-so-subtle way to vehicular upgrade.

So, once upon a time, I had a 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser in Marine blue. It wasn't anything special. It didn't have air conditioning for the first two years I owned it. Indeed I suffered much disparagement from several of my friends (mostly male car enthusiasts. You know who you are.) but it was MINE and it got me where I needed to go.
It looked like this:

Pulled this photo from the interwebs. I honestly wasn't fond enough of
my car to take pictures of it while it was still intact. 

Now it looks like this:

In a word: Wrecked.

Crunched up. Sad. Lifeless.

The bottom line is that driving in a storm on FM 1960, with a car that doesn't have the tightest brakes, doesn't mix well with blue pickup drivers who stop too fast at yellow lights.

The craziest part was when I finally got over the shock of an airbag exploding in my face, and got out of my car (climbing out through the back door since the front doors wouldn't open) and went to inspect the damage, the driver I hit was GONE!!
He totally drove off! The driver in front of him that he bumped, chased him down! The whole day was a mess and I don't care to think much about it. I was shaken up, but got away with only mild scrapes from the airbag deployment and a bit of a sore neck. The kids were thankfully, completely unscathed!

What was REALLY frustrating was the prospect of not having a car of my own anymore. Especially since I was pretty sure, even then, that it was a total loss.

FINE! Whatever! I totally wanted a new car ANYWAYS!

{It is at this point that I really need to give a shout out to USAA. We are insured through them and I have to say, everything AFTER the wreck went perfectly smooth! They set me up with a rental car immediately and set about working on the claim. If you are eligible for USAA, whether by former military service, or having a family member who served, I HIGHLY recommend them. We have fantastic coverage and a lower premium than any other company can offer, plus they are all really nice and helpful!}

After determining that the car was INDEED a total loss, we determined it was time to go car shopping! Once again USAA hooked us up with everything we needed to go about purchasing a NEW CAR!!

...Okay it's not "new"(certified pre-owned) but it is new to me!!!

MY 2012 Chevy Cruze!

mandatory 'car pose' pic (Rob's idea.)

This is the first car I have ever owned, that I feel a little sense of pride driving. For one its the 'newest' I have driven, and I actually had a hand in selecting it! I kind of, sort of, really love it.

Now I have the task of naming it and finding decent replacements for my good car seats that I  had to trash after the wreck.

A few things.

Well boys and girls, its been a rather significant amount of time since I have posted anything. I am absolutely positive that no one cares but, I am BACK to my blog!

SO, as you might imagine some THINGS have occurred in the seven months since I've posted. Also some STUFF and EVENTS have transpired!
Are you on the edges of your seats?
You should be.

These are some highlights of some things you might have missed (and some things I almost missed):

• I worked at Chili's. A lot. 
• I didn't sleep much during the night.
• I did most of my sleeping between breakfast and lunchtime.
• (did I mention I am an insomniac? And working nights at a restaurant made it worse?)
• Some HOLIDAYS happened!
  
• My kids were themselves

  

  which in this case means stealing my phone and taking 327 selfies.

• I was in a PLAY guys! Both of my sisters and I got to be in Seussical the musical, and I was the most AWESOME piece of living scenery(Ensemble) EVAH!!!!

Right?!?!

• I discovered my life had become a chaotic mixture of work/parenting/play/holidays/attempted sleep/hair ripping.
• I learned that Rob was being given a new route to fly that would require him to be gone several days a week.
• I quit Chili's.
• Now I get to once again revel in the life of a stay at home mom and do exhilarating things like: Laundry, and Mopping, and Organizing my closet!!! (I can hardly STAND the excitement!!

So, with my time freed up as such, you should all look to see more frequent posts from me. 

Awesome, right.........?

Rule #1: Cardio.

With the upcoming presidential elections looming ever closer, we as a nation have been taking a lot of time scrutinizing the issues at hand; the economy, foreign policies, immigration, the middle east, gay marriage, and for some reason Sesame Street is now an important factor in determining who to vote for....
     Facebook has become a veritable battle ground for would-be political debaters. I personally find that keeping my opinion off of facebook helps me to maintain my ever-dwindling sanity (not to mention many of my friends).  However, I have noticed in the past few months that a very important issue has been blatantly, if not purposely, ignored. I for one find myself VERY concerned with this particular topic and would repeal my personal rule to keep political opinions off of facebook in order to discuss the ever growing threat to ALL political parties. If we are to be a nation OF the people, well then we all need to be concerned with raising awareness for......

ZOMBIES.

Yes, the growing zombie threat is one that our country's leaders are ignoring to our GREAT detriment. I believe that the zombie apocalypse is closer at hand than any of us would like to think about and the time has come to draw awareness to this issue and prepare ourselves accordingly!

Lets look at the facts:

1.) Zombies are dead, and gross, and scary.

2.) A Zombie's only desire is to kill you and eat your brain and/or infect you (though, on second thought they probably don't really have 'desires' being zombies and all)

3.) Zombies probably smell really bad (you know, because of the whole 'dead' thing).

4.) According to a handful of zombie movies (or as I like to call them, 'Important study materials') zombies might be able to run, which quite frankly, is scary as %$*#.

And finally,

5.)  This article.

There are many important measures that ought to be taken into consideration by ALL citizens of the United States who do not wish to become zombies, or zombie food. I will support any candidate who can appropriately present a platform that will help this country prepare for the impending zombie apocalypse. 

I feel that this is TRULY an important issue and I want to see it addressed ASAP!

Also I am pretty sure the majority of Congress are already zombies.

Working Girl.

 It is now October  and I haven't updated since the end of May. I think that may be a manifestation of my deep and abiding hatred of Summer.
Okay, I don't hate ALL of it, just most of it, like 98% of it. The time between June and October seems unnecessary to me . Sure it's broken up by a couple of sporadically 'fun' days; Independence day is alright with the barbecue and fireworks, Andrew's birthday on July 23rd (He is FOUR now!!), and I like swimming before the pools start feeling like bathtubs but that's really it. Because 'summer' really starts in late April/early May in southeast Texas and summer in southeast Texas means constant heat and humidity, and I am over it by June.
Anyways, My summer so far:
                    1.)  Apparently I am addicted. To running. All the time. I find myself unbalanced and off if I don't. I never had this issue before, indeed I used to HATE running and now, well now I need it. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever, because I DO hate the summer, and the heat but somehow I still find myself running in it for five miles every day and do in fact feel really good afterwords. I guess there are worse things to be addicted to.
                   2.) My kids are awesome.

Do I really need to elaborate further?

                     3.) I acquired employment. Yep, I got a job. My 'official' title is "foodserver" at Chili's. All I really do though, is ask people which kind of baby-back ribs they want, or which kind of Chicken crispers they want.

Admit it though; despite the generic "bathroom-pic"
quality, you'd still want me to take your order ;)

That's pretty much it for my summer.

No really, it was THAT boring. Sorry I don't have more to tell but between learning the difference between a 'presidente margarita' and a 'PLATINUM presidente margarita' (one is more expensive)  and trying to avoid eating all the tostada chips I didn't do much. Now that it's officially autumn though (YAY!!!) I should have more motivation to blog stuff!

 If not, there are always about 350 pictures of my kids on my iPhone!

        

Are you not ENTERTAINED???

Corinne: Hey baby, come look at this!

Rob: What is it?

Corinne: Look at the rug! Do you see the spider?

Rob: Yeah, you want me to kill it?

Corinne: Not yet, look! It's stalking that fly!

(There is a fly just sitting on the rug a fair distance away from the spider)

Rob: Oh cool!

Corinne: There is no way it will get it though, its like two feet away and the fly can like, fly you know? holy cow, its still going! It's closing the gap! DUDE! That fly is just SITTING there!

Rob: Oh man!

Corinne: I KNOW! 

(Spider jumps on fly and a struggle ensues)

Corinne: HOLY CRAP, he got it! Did you see that? He totally just pounced on it!

Rob: (moving to hover over the carnage) The fly is still struggling! 

Corinne: Get your phone out and take some pictures!

Rob: Oh yeah! (pulls out iPhone and takes LOTS of pictures and video)

Corinne: I feel like Caesar watching the gladiators in the ring! "Are we not entertained???"

Rob: Oh man, I can see the where the mandibles punctured it! This camera is awesome! The fly is still struggling!

Corinne: You know we are still killing the spider. I just think we should let him finish eating first though. Ya know, let him enjoy his last meal.

Maternal Musings.

Mothers day. It's approaching. Stores have the big cardboard displays of quaint mothers day cards, and plastic wrapped bouquets of brightly colored daisies. Mothers day is one of those days that means a lot to many people, causes sadness and regret for others, and to some, is just another sunday. The fact of the matter is; we are all the result of a mother. Love her, or hate her, you are all here today because you have a mother. I am pretty lucky, because my mother is awesome, like, 'Store bought cheese is for squares. I am making my own cheese!' awesome. I'm pretty sure she gets the awesome from my grandmother, who is pretty much the best person I know.  I myself have earned to title of 'mom' and, if you know me, you know that I love it. (and if you didn't know before, now you do)
      I have always been fascinated with being a mom, but not just the basics of being a mom, though that is where it began. The stereotypical, feeding, washing, and rocking babies that I was so obsessed with as a small child.

And this. This is not my doll, but is essentially identical to the
one I owned. Her name was Mary Nicole and you could not convince me
that she WASN'T my baby...

As I got older, I became aware of 'the mechanics' so to speak, of being a mother. I remember being about five or six years old and hearing some neighbor lady spell out the word 'Sex' in hushed tones, which I thought strange, because a) I knew how to read, and b)  she could have said it aloud and the word itself would have meant nothing to me. I finally asked my parents and got the quintessential "talk" that satisfied me for the moment. It turned out to be the first in a series of "talks" that educated me based on my level of understanding at whatever age I was at the time. Being the strange child that I was, I found it all incredibly fascinating. I was the kid who took out books in the library that detailed all the internal anatomy and other things involving "puberty"(Is it just me or does the word itself sound weird and gross to anyone else? Say it out loud and think about it...). And while I knew the biological reasons behind them, some things ('nocturnal emissions' anyone?) still kinda freaked me out. 
           I could take time here to detail the 'emotional' aspect of my growth as an adolescent, and the contributions it had to my ultimately becoming a mother, but it includes a first kiss story that involves a fifteen year old me, in the bedroom of a seventeen year old, who had star wars sheets on his bed, and nobody really wants to hear about that...
     When I was married, and pregnant with my first child, I was working at a bookstore/coffee shop, and spent a good deal of my down time in the health section of the book department, reading about pregnancy, and specifically, what can go wrong. I don't recommend this as it can be  terrifying. Seriously, I dare you to google 'Molar Pregnancy' and not be at least a little bit freaked out.
 When it came time to evict my husband's and my little genetic mash up, I went in confident that I knew what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised that I was right: It hurt like a &#*@!&@%$*!$ and I came out of it with a cute little baby!
   Nearly four years later I have two of 'em, and eventually, would like more. And, as mothers day rolls around again, I am forced to reflect not only on all the 'mothers' in my life, (my own, and all the people I know who are mothers) but my role as 'mother' to my own offspring. I really do hope I am doing at the very least an 'adequate' job. I mean....my kids seem happy enough......

I am gonna go wash the peanut butter out of my daughter's hair now.

Happy Mothers day Everyone!

"And, Aubrey was her name"

 Having a daughter has been a very different experience than having a son. Perhaps it has something to do with the differences between boys and girls, but I am inclined to believe that her personality is just that different from her brother's. As a result, my little girl is constantly teaching me things,  such as:

how important it is for me to be holding her at least 75% of every day:

(The other 25% of the time, Daddy suffices)

She has taught me how determined she is to get her hands on my phone EVEN when I have 'hidden it' under the couch cushion:

She has taught me how important the cats are to her (and what fantastic pillow pets they make):

She has taught me that I can't trust her to be hesitant of the swimming pool like her older brother is. She WILL just climb into the water and give me a mini heart attack:

She has taught me that very few children can pull off pigtails that have absolutely NO curl to them whatsoever, and stick straight out, but she can do it and still look amazing and adorable:

She has taught me the importance of PUSHING those gender boundaries!

She DARES you to replace
that truck with a doll!

She has taught me how adorable bedtime can be!

....Okay so Andrew has contributed a good deal to the bedtime cuteness.

I kinda love her...a lot.

"a not so very ordinary girl or name..."