happy birthday, mommy!

today is my mother's birthday. she's, well, seventy-something-ish.

(that's her in the cute white hat!)

she's amazing. so vivacious, and vital to my life. she loves my husband,

feeds my kitties when i'm out of town,

and cares so wonderfully for toby at a moments notice.

and boy, does that kid adore her. he constantly asks

when he can go to nana's house. just the other day,

he said that we needed to go over to her house so he could

tell her something. i said, what do you need to tell her?

he replied, just wait 'til we get there and you will see.

apparently, i'm not cleared for their top secret conversations.

she's always been supportive- even when i was being a spoiled

youngest child that needed to change from ballet to tap to

gymnastics back to ballet then on

to whatever else caught my fancy that month!

she knew when to discipline, and when to cuddle,

how to be strict, and how to be lenient when fitting.

she's accomplished so much, and never looks for recognition,

even though there are thousands that owe her a standing ovation..........

happy birthday, mommy- love, tt shaun shaun

we wish you a merry christmas!!!

you better have a merry christmas- 'cause, apparently, toby will sock you if you don't! just kidding- he's just very excited about the hand motions!

the gym

i've been working out. a lot. i started slowly, a couple treadmill sessions a week. then, i got a trainer, upped my sessions to 4 per week. then, said trainer tells me to come twice a day in order to "really get this off". awesome. it's december, which, for musicians, is like april for tax people. insanely busy. and who would get excited about going to the gym twice a day?!?

i came up with a compromise, in that i could do 3 times over 2 days. here is the resulting schedule:

sunday, late at night, cardio

monday, noon, weight training and mini elliptical session

tuesday, early morning, zumba dance class

tuesday, late at night, cardio

wednesday, noon, weight training and mini elliptical session

thursday, early morning, cardio

thursday, late at night, cardio

friday, noon, weight training and mini elliptical session
saturday, no gym, but activity, like hiking, or tennis, etc.

count 'em. that's nine workouts a week. i figure i can keep this up til my birthday. give it a good solid push, and see what happens. of course, now that i've put it out in the cyber-universe, i'll really have to keep it up.

but today, i got the best surprise, a big smile to end my time. santa came to join me on the elliptical machine right next to me!!!! he usually tries to keep a low profile this time of year, but allowed me to snap a quick photo. not the best quality, but, heck, it's santa! at the gym!

birthday ideas.

all right. i know i have some very talented friends that read this blog. you are all smart, and creative. so here's what i need.
i want to throw my adorable toby an incredible birthday party.
since he's a january birthday, i usually get lost in the holiday stuff and then when i come up for air, it's practically a week until his birthday. so i figure out all the details, and we have a nice little gathering. mostly family, with maybe a couple friends.
but this time, he's turning five. that's such a big deal, and i really want to make it awesome for him.
he's such a cool kid. completely nuts and full of more energy than i've ever seen. he's happy all the time, gets excited over the littlest things, and is a grateful little person. sure, when he's upset, he's really upset. but that is truly so rare.
he is all boy. loves cars and trains and airplanes and babies. yeah, babies doesn't really fit, but he does love them.
so, friends and family, you have the comment portion of this post to tell me your best stuff. locations, themes, what worked (or didn't) for your kids parties. things you thought of, or enjoyed by others, or even read about online or in a magazine and thought, "that's a cool idea"
let the creativity flow...........

Christmas, really?

let's get something straight before i start. i love christmas. seriously, i start listening to christmas music in july, am ready to put up my tree in october, enjoy every minute of crowd fighting/shopping, have my cards addressed and in the mail by dec 8th. i purposely wait until after matthew's birthday, so as to give some priority to the occasion.
not this year. it really snuck up on me. and i wasn't ready for it. i just put up the tree on wednesday, still don't have all the decorations on it. put three whole strands of lights outside, and the two wreaths are up. i am starting to address my cards today, and have vetoed putting up the christmas village this year.
no cookies have been baked, though that is partially so i don't have to hear them calling me to them and the milk. and only about a quarter of my shopping has been completed.
i'm not really sad, just not as excited as i usually am by this point. yet.
you see, this year, i was expecting to decorate a new house. not happening. waiting until may for the new house. i think subconsciously i didn't want to decorate our same house again. i know, i need to be grateful that i have a house. i am. i'm just mourning the idea of my idealized christmases that i have been waiting to have room to create. next year.
again, not sad, just not excited.
i should get back to said cards. they won't address themselves. i'm sure my usual christmas spirit will kick in eventually.
maybe the cookies? a little sugar to liven me up? fake it til you make it? no, it will come. it will.

happy birthday, gooksy!

i already apologized for not getting this up yesterday, so let's all pretend that it's still sunday, december 7th. sunday being why i didn't have the where-with-all to post this. my husband's 33rd birthday! i let the boys off the hook with coming to first hour of church so they could have a special daddy-toby breakfast at ihop. they look pretty happy about it..........
then after we all got home from church, we polished of the last of our turkey in barbeque sandwiches. matthew and i watched a movie, we all just kind of hung out together. matthew said he didn't want anything special this year. he was a little disappointed with the lack of cards this year. but he did get a couple good phone and facebook birthday wishes.
now, avert your eyes, everyone except matthew:

i love you, gooksy. i'm glad that we have;

stayed committed to our marriage,

joined forces to raise our gorgeous, loving son,

had a shared vision for our present and our future,

put in the work to stick together through the muck,
enjoyed all the blessings in our life together,

had fun on the journey, so far...........

happy birthday, matthew!

lizard face!

so, matthew and his brother, mark, have this thing called lizard face. it involves smiling very big, pulling one's cheeks very high on the face, forcing the eyes into squints, then darting the tongue rapidly out, as a lizard might do.
i don't know where it came from, how it started, or why they do it. but as young teenagers, it came to be. they don't do it as much anymore, since they live with their wives and children now, not each other. but, we are doing our part to pass on the grand tradition of lizard face. here is one of toby's first attempts:

thanksgiving

first, check out these adorable photos from toby's preschool. the pre-k 5s had a mini-macy's thanksgiving day parade on wednesday. all the other classes came out to line the parade route (around the playground) and cheer everybody on. could not have been cuter. they even had rolled out cribs with 3 babies per crib standing out there too. toby was playing the recorder, the preschool director, pat sullivan, was the grand marshall, there were clowns, wagon floats, and even some big balloons. i love that he's waving to the crowds!!!

then, for thanksgiving itself, we had decided to make it a different year. matthew wanted to switch some things up, and so we cancelled the usual family commitments, to make our own day.

we started by donating our time at the salvation army in tempe. matthew and toby were serving meals, and i was busing the tables, getting drinks, etc. it was great to have toby there helping, and we have decided to make it a coates tradition to give our thanksgiving mornings.

added bonus- we watched the parade in the afternoon, and got to fast forward through all the cheesy banter and get to all the good stuff. i cooked us a modified dinner.

turkey, roasted red potatoes, steamed green beans, creamed corn, and pumpkin pie.

here's how the turkey came out.

to end the day, we went to a jester'z comedy show. it's an improv show with audience input, a la whose line is it anyway. but, it's a family friendly show- nothing racy, no cursing- just clean and still really funny.

couple more pics, from this weekend, toby's latest lego creation. a pretty awesome airplane- that career as a lego designer ever-closer.

and from last weekend, we saw santa for the first time (we go see him a lot!) at an event in downtown chandler.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-klahoma!

we were very fortunate to be able to attend the funeral for our sweet grandma betty in oklahoma city. it was important to us to go, and toby was so excited to go on an airplane!

i was worried about traveling for such a long time, then going straight to the service with a tired, cranky four year old. matthew wanted to make the most of such a far trip by adding some time after the family stuff to give ourselves a mini-trip. we were super blessed to be staying with family, matthew's father's first cousin, carol cooley. who toby would eventually name mimi.

here are a few pics of our family after the service, as well as some of mimi's house. (and precious dog, sassy!)

sassy and toby became fast friends and playmates.

family time after the service........

we also got to go visit my first university, oklahoma baptist. it was lovely to see all the things i remember, and to see all the new things i had been reading about in the alumni newsletters. it was one of those experiences where everything was a little different, but still just the same, too.my old dorm and raley chapel

look, arizona- actual fall!!!!

being silly....

going home........

stella elisabeth, and grandma betty.

i have been very distracted this fall, and feel i have been remiss in not sharing a couple of huge events that have happened in our close/extended family.

matthew's cousin liz and her partner pete had a baby girl. she arrived at 7:26pm monday October 6th, 2008. her name is stella elisabeth mcguinn. she looks just like pete, so far.

WELCOME, SWEET LITTLE ONE. WE ARE BLESSED TO HAVE YOU JOIN OUR FAMILY. WE LOOK FORWARD TO WATCHING YOU GROW- YOUR PARENTS ARE GONNA BE GREAT GUIDES, AND WILL SHOW YOU THE WAY, WITH PLENTY OF FUN ADDED IN!

the other major happening is much less joyful, but so important and sweet. matthew's dear grandmother, betty morris, passed away on november 7, 2008. she was the ideal matriarch of the coates clan. mother of 6, grandmother of 17, great-grandmother of 23 (not 100% on the last number). she was loving, and kind, baked like nobody's business. after battling emphysema for several years, we knew her time was short. we are sad that we have to lose her, but glad for her comfort and relief she now has in heaven- and we'll get to see her there. we will miss you dearly, grandma!

simple joys

we've been busy. we had an awesome halloween (see facebook for pics), and a couple of really fun weekends together.
this weekend, we decided to join in on the neighborhood garage sale. we knew there were gonna be roughly 100 homes having a garage sale in our square mile- sponsored by some other realtors in the area. so, we starting looking through some stuff we needed to unload. pulled some things out of storage, etc. when suddenly, matthew says, how about my pots and pans. the set he is referring to is the one we got when we got married. 10+ years, and many, many meals ago. i had told him about a year ago, that this set was getting pretty tired, but nothing had come of it 'til now. i asked him about what i would use to cook dinner if we sold all my pots and pans, he said, well, we'll go get some new ones. tomorrow? i reply. sure, he answers.
anyway, saturday comes, we sell all but 2 of my old pans, and i start getting excited.
matthew stopped at the grocery store for me, and brought home roses. nice, right?
we close up shop around 1, deciding to donate everything we didn't sell to a thrift shop.
then it was our turn to shop. i've been trying to convince matthew to buy a blackberry for a while. because he is a successful businessman who carries a phone that's at least 8 years old! i know! and a refurbished palm pilot. he's been researching and procrasitinating for about 3 months. so i say, let's do it today. big present for mommy, big present for daddy.
so i went to our neighborhood mervyns first, just in case they were clearance-ing (not a word, i know) any great sets. no such luck, just some no-name sets. you know, the kind with a few pots and some cheap utensils that they then add into the set number. 11 piece set! well, no, 3 pots with lids, 2 pans without lids, and 3 plastic spoon-type things.
we then head over to costco. i fall in love with and we buy the circulon anodized set. gorgeous, and very durable. matthew had to ask how long we'd have this set, to justify the price some. i assured him that if i could make our set last more than a year past its glory, i could make these last quite a while. a little more shopping (and sampling, of course) at costco, and it's off to the verizon store.
we get matthew's new toy, and finally head home. then, our friend jay comes over in the late afternoon to show and let matthew drive his convertible bmw! he was so excited, and jay really taught him some things about sports cars. (matthew wants to buy a "fancy" car in the next 6 months.
is that not one of the most fun sounding days? all good, except i was feeling cold and sickish. i felt it coming on friday, and am now dealing full on with a strong head cold/sore throat. i'm even typing this on nyquil, so if i fall asleep, don't be alarmed.
today was lovely, too. church was great, we got to give back in thanks for our lord's blessings in october. we hung out and napped in the early afternoon, then went out to charleston's for dinner, and dropped some things off at the storage unit before heading back for bath/bed time for toby.

photo update from last weeks musings

it's been a while

since i last wrote here. lots of things have happened. good, bad, ugly, and lovely, too.
i had a concert series with phoenix symphony chorus,
dealt with an unfortunate neighbor feud,
waited to hear about our new home loan (which, after the above, seems even more urgent),
painted and picked up a big pumpkin at as you wish,
went to see a fertility doctor (!)
cleaned out and donated some clothes from all our closets,
had to add more paperwork to the bank for our loan,
went to our family vacation home in prescott for four days (!-thanks matt and jo, for letting me "ditch" sunday),
talked matthew into keeping the beard he started on our trip,
waited to hear about our loan,
went shopping and out to eat too much,
went to a pumpkin festival,
made a new friend,
waited to hear about our loan............

are you noticing a theme to the month of october so far?
apparently, banks are a little wary of handing out money right now. and people have to jump through about 1000 hoops to buy a home. and since we own 3 businesses, they have deemed us lucky enough to jump through 2000 hoops! lucky us! pray we hear soon, i'm getting itchy to move and get settled before all the holiday stuff starts sneaking up on me.

i may post pictures of some of the above mentioned events. probably not, but maybe. the pumpkin is awfully cute, if i say so myself. and so is toby at the cabin, and matthew's new facial hair foray. i'll try to take some soon and post them eventually.

preschool classics

in the last week, toby and i did a couple fun activities that are pretty standard, preschool-y types of things. first, we did shaving cream painting. i put down some press-n-seal wrap on the counter, to make clean up easier, squirted out some good old white shaving cream, then added a couple drops of food coloring for him to mix in. and mix it he did......

notice the green belly- i'm glad i made him take off his shirt to do this.

then, early this week, we had our neighbor, jaelyn, over to play. we decided to make playdough. in keeping with the time of year, we made it orange, and i added in pumpkin pie spice and extra cinnamon to make it yummy smelling!

they played with the playdough for a long time that day, and almost everyday since!