Happy 7th to the Madster!

So, I learned my lesson that we can't invite every single friend of Maddie's to her birthday party. (See the post from one year ago.) Apparently, that wasn't an issue when I was a kid and my only friend was the girl across the street (who actually kind of scared me into being her friend).

So this year, we only did her girlfriends from school. And it was still a big party, but a great success. She was a happy little ice skating seven year old.

From City Boy to Country Boy in Just One Day?

I love my Joshie. He is so cute, and we have a lot in common. One of which is that we are both "city" folk. We both like having a Target nearby, and good restaurants, and more than one movie theater to choose from, and paved roads. These are the luxuries of life.

But he went to San Luis Obispo to his cousin's ranch and had such a blast that he is now trying to figure out how he can move there.

Maddie had a blast too and came home with a pet frog.

Uhhhhh......Thanks Ryan and Leanne? (Said sarcastically and menacingly in regards to the pet frog.) :o)

As soon as I get over this nightmarishly long cold that seems to come for three days, leave for two days, come back for three days, etc., I will have to come visit too.

After looking at the pictures, I guess having a PF Changs and an HOA can't compete with a good group of girlfriends and a frog named "Cinnamon" for Maddie, or playing paintball in tree orchards and shooting squirrels from the back of a four wheeler for Josh. :o)

These other things:

I saw this picture of myself the other day, and I remembered that I'm actually not very cool. (I am the one in the cat sweatshirt and mom jeans on the left.) It is so awesome because I sometimes wonder how THIS:

Created THIS. Maddie is so cool and elegant and chill and did I mention gorgeous? Just comparing the two of us at the same age is hilarious. It makes me hopeful for the future of the world that so much improvement can occur in just one generation. :o)

Maddie played a Christmas song at the Halloween piano recital. I can't really complain, because the only songs I know how to play on the harp are Christmas. Apparently, the only time people want a harp is during the holiday season, so I've gotten away with it for twenty years. (Sorry mom, I will practice more SOME day.)

Josh and I took Maddie to Disneyland. Remember when I said Maddie loved the Tower of Terror? She talked about it the whole day and we caught it on our way back to the car. I KNOW she loves it and I KNOW she can be dramatic sometimes, so when she started crying and shaking and freaking out in the line, I kind of rolled my eyes. But then I got some seriously dirty looks from everyone else in line, and the ride conductor person wanted me to go to hell. But after the ride, Maddie said "it was the most awesomest and funnest ride." That's nice Maddie. You can tell that to Child Protective Services when they show up.....

Baking like it's going out of style...

As I stated earlier, being room mom kind of sucks. Now, don't get me wrong. I like baking cupcakes or volunteering in the cafeteria or helping in art class. But when you are room mom, you have to harass all the other women to do these things and then do whatever doesn't get a volunteer. So Halloween morning, I made these....

And these....

And this....

And these....

....And showed up early to set up....and stayed late to clean up. I was pooped trying to be Suzy Homemaker. Thank goodness for Pinterest or I don't think I would have been able to fake it so well. :o) But this little Cleopatra Cutie makes it all worth while.

Happy Halloween from the Harrises

Josh REALLY hated the costume that I picked out for him this year. But he was a good enough sport to put it on for three seconds while we took this picture. I was supposed to be a spider, but my costume was admittedly kind of lame. Maybe I will do better next year. It depends on how lazy I feel in early October. :o)

Maddie had a freaking blast trick or treating. Our buddies came over too, which always makes holidays more fun. Here they are being patient on our doorstep. Our neighborhood is the bomb trick or treating neighborhood. I have never had so many trick or treaters in my life. I am so glad that I bought an insane amount of candy to hand out. I had just enough for every trick or treater, and a bag of Baby Ruths left over for myself.

And then, like all OCD children across America, Maddie sorted her candy by color and then wrote a list of what candy she got. Luckily, her buddy enjoyed this activity too.

Busy busy busy

I disappeared for a while. I started working as Josh's paralegal, got forced into "volunteering" as Maddie's room mom, and am constantly at physical therapy to recover from my knee surgery (from an old, stupid, stupid injury - not a big deal). I have come to learn a few things. Working full time and trying to maintain a functioning house is very, very hard. Being room mom/PTA lady sucks. And recovering from a surgery as a 30 year old is harder than as a 20 year old (last time I had knee surgery I was 20).

Other than that, life is good. :o)

Maddie started first grade. She loves school and everything about it - except for P.E. She constantly asks me to make up math equations for her to do. She is well beyond her age in math because she is always bugging me to teach her more. So she loves doing multiplication, division, and addition and subtraction where she carries the number to the next column. She also loves to read. I've read a book to her every night since she was a baby, and I guess it's finally paying off.

First Day of First Grade. So big!

Her guitar teacher says he can tell that Maddie loves playing the guitar, and I have to agree. She loves it. Here she is playing the birthday song for her Grandma Linda.

She also desperately wants to learn to ride her two wheel bike, but is still terrified that she will fall. It's obvious to me that she has more of my genes (music and math and reading) than Josh's genes (sports and P.E. and sports), but I won't be the one to convince Josh. (Can you see why we love our house/neighborhood?!? I bet you couldn't even tell this greenery was in Vegas!)

Our friend was moving and sold us his trampoline for a great deal. Have you seen these tramps? They are genius. They are springless, so no more arms or legs flying through the holes and breaking. And the net around it keeps kids from flying in every direction. Maddie is in love....

We also went to the Phineas and Ferb musical that came to town. Maddie's favorite character is Candace, and Josh's favorite character is Dufenshmirtz. The musical did not do justice to the show. (One of the few kids shows that I actually will continue to watch when Maddie leaves the room.)

Josh's band had another gig that they headlined. They are getting really good. I love watching Josh rock out on the drums. You can tell that it makes his soul happy.

Maddie claimed she wanted to go see Josh's band, but then sat and watched her iPad and complained that the music was too loud and that she couldn't hear her show. Oh well. At least this time she didn't fall asleep.

We also went on a fun little day trip in the motorhome with cousins to visit Josh's grandparents in St. George. We love 2nd cousins!

I found this on Josh's inter-office Bio.

It's pretty funny when you put it that way. And it's all true! :o)

Married: to Rachel Stucki

If so, when: October 27, 2001

If so, how did you meet: I was 17, Rachel was 14, and we met on a church history cross country bus trip. I finally asked her out when she was 18 and she said no. A year later, I finally got her to go out with me, and I tried to kiss her and she turned away. We got married the next year. :o)

Just some other crap going on in the Harris Household...

We went to see "The Little Mermaid" play at Tuacahn. And because she is my daughter, Maddie turned to us at intermission and said, "I just want to go to sleep now." So awesome. I didn't fight it because I was tired too (and fell asleep on the car ride home along with Maddie) and Josh wasn't about to fight leaving a Disney play early either.

I read "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" and realized I am WAY behind on letting Maddie pick an instrument. She loves the piano and will continue that, but I wanted her to pick another instrument that she could learn and enjoy. She knew immediately it would be the guitar. I am pretty sure it has something to do with Taylor Swift. So we went and got her a small, beginner's guitar, and Josh taught her "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and I pulled out our copy of Jewel's concert DVD. Let's just say that she is beyond excited (and as you can see, she is taking it very seriously).

We went to the beach with Josh's siblings and had a great time. Well, the adults had a great time. Sleeping in and eating long meals and taking a long boat ride. It was very relaxing. But Maddie thought it was very boring. (See the previous post regarding the difficulty of balancing adult time and kid time when there is only one kid.)

And Maddie got her ears pierced again.....eventually. She took thirty minutes of going back and forth between wanting it done and then being too scared. The poor lady who works at Claire's probably really hated her job that day.

Avoid the Large Cat Exhibit

We also went to the San Francisco Zoo. Besides the horrible tiger attack a few years ago, it is my favorite zoo because you don't sweat or nearly melt in the sun. (Can you tell I am just plain done with Las Vegas summers.)

Maddie read us every word of every information board on every animal. And you know what? I didn't care. We took all the time in the world because it wasn't 110 degrees outside. It made me realize that I would be a much more patient mother if I didn't live through Las Vegas summers. (I am just plain done with Las Vegas summers. Did I mention that?)

And because I was a teenager before digital cameras and camera phones, I can't pass up a photo booth without going in.

Wear a Flower in Your Hair

We try to do something special right before school starts with Maddie every year. Last year it was Disneyland. This year it was San Francisco. The last time we took Maddie to that lovely city she was about 2 years old. And we promised we would never take her back there because she was a psycho, and it was obviously more of an adult city. (Actually, if I never did anything that was a miserable experience when she was two, I would never let her out of her room again...It would be a very Repunzel/stuck in a tower sorta situation.)

Anyway, we decided that since she is now six and much more reasonable now than she was as a toddler, we would try again. And I am happy to report that it was a success. We showed her some of the things we love about that city. (Of course, that included the Golden Gate Bridge, but the insane fog didn't cooperate long enough for me to get my picture.)

Chili in a breadbowl at Fishermans Wharf

The bush man. She thought this was hilarious.

The Giants. I was very nervous about this because Maddie hates sports. So I told Josh to invest some time into teaching her the sport and then maybe she will like it. Josh was the most patient, informative baseball teacher I have ever seen. He sat and taught her all about runs and fouls and stealing bases and everything else about baseball. (As you can tell, I wasn't really listening the whole time. I was eating my Cracker Jacks and enjoying sitting outside without sweating and melting in the sun.) They filled out an entire scorecard, and as you can see from this picture, Maddie took it very seriously. She is now a hard core Giants fan.

We also walked around Union Square. It was here, among all of the homeless people, that I realized that my daughter looks homeless. Besides the cute little bow in her hair, you would have no idea that she actually has two parents who love her. She still dresses herself, and this day she chose to wear her too short pajama bottoms and her white coat that got covered in chili and her favorite pair of shoes. Oh, those shoes were horrific. They are 2 sizes too small and no longer sparkling. So we then decided to get her a new pair of shoes before the new year. We walked to three different department stores to find some "Bella Ballerina" shoes that she saw advertised on Nickelodean. Of course, they are sold out in every store because every kid across the country also got suckered in by their massive advertisement campaign. When she was near tears and I started to get blisters from all of the walking, I got on my iPhone and bought some on Zappos and had them overnighted to our house so we would have them on our first day of school. (Oh how I love Steve Jobs for making my life easier.) Anyway, that big old long story is the explanation of how I was finally able to throw these lovely shoes away and that is why you will never see them again. Phew.

I like these two people.

I like these two people. They are pretty darn cute, in my opinion. I hang out with them every chance I get, and luckily, that's pretty often. But a few years ago, I realized that the two of them almost never spend one on one time together because I'm always there, right in the middle. Josh and I have a lot to talk about, and Maddie and I have a lot to talk about. So when I'm there, they both talk to me. I sometimes feel like a rope in a tug of war game, being pulled in one adult direction of law office management and impending trips, concerts, or sporting events, and being pulled in the opposite kid direction of stuffed animals and art classes and fairies. I sorta hate it. It is very difficult in an only child family to find that perfect balance of adult time and kid time, adult conversation and kid conversation, adult activities and kid activities. So I encouraged them both to do daddy daughter things WITHOUT mom there.

At first it was almost a little awkward. They just kinda looked at each other like the other one was obviously an alien from outer space. But over the years, they have bi-weekly daddy daughter dates and an annual daddy daughter trip without me. At first, I kind of felt left out. They looked like they were having fun! But I wouldn't butt in for anything. These two have a lot to learn from each other, and a lot of love to give to each other, and a lot of experiences and inside jokes to share with each other.

They just got back from their daddy daughter camping/jeeping trip in Colorado where they slept side by side and played games together. How cute is that?