HELP PLEASE

i've been horrible at this blogging thing. i know, i know. what's even worse is that my laptop self destructed last week (may 5 to be exact). i lost everything. pictures, videos, letters, all my school work, resumes, recipes, my entire outlook program that had all my contact information (that includes you and your information) and emails for the past 4 years or so. i'm sick over it and quite lost.

if you see this post, PLEASE EMAIL so i have your email and please include your address & phone number too. please email to both these addresses:

cynthiawnixon@consolidated.net
cynthiawnixon@gmail.com

i will be forever grateful. thank you. i hope to recover some stuff but i'm not counting on it.

pictures and the general what's cooking will be updated soon. no, seriously. it will.

just relax

type a. oh the curse. even a "relaxed" day for me must have in it some sort of accomplishments that i can visibly see. i often wonder about the days of june cleaver. seriously? the days of all our media and electronics has just about sent me to an early grave. my life was most peaceful when hurricane ike left me to my own devices to entertain my kids and do things around the house. back in the cleaver days, houses weren't ginormous, you called when you wanted to catch up or visited with your friends, kids played outside ... it just seems like the crunch was different. june had to press all her clothes to wear daily and look polished. thank GOD that's not the norm now. ward would be highly upset with me.

i'm just hoping that i can find the time to just relax. maybe enjoy the beautiful house i live in. sit and not worry about the toys or the messes. one day it will get cleaned. one day.

2-22

2:00 am. what crazy numbers. 2-22 at 2:00 am. what sad numbers. dan lost his biological grandfather, philippe roux, to these numbers. in fact, it was philippe's daughter's birthday today too. *sigh* jack's middle name is philippe after his great grandfather. philippe roux was married to roberta for 68 years. a man who has seen tremendous change in our country and others. served in the United States Air Force, fluent in french & spanish, a WWII veteran - he was a brilliant man and leaves behind 3 grown children. i know it's so hard on his wife and children. we, too, hate to see him depart this earthly land.

while dan didn't get to know him until he was in his twenties or so, it's been a wonderful reunion of family blood.

these pictures are from our cross-country from washington, dc/northern virginia to las cruces, new mexico in september 2006. it was a long journey with lilli, who was then 8 months old, but well worth the trek. i wish jack had the chance to get pictures with his great granddad. philippe held tight to photos of jack up until his passing.

i'm hoping he has united with my parents in the shining light of heaven. my dad (would be 83) and dan's grandfather (88) are about the same age. my dad was 45 when i was born. i'm sure they could share some crazy stories about the service and all that life brought them. this is my wish...

i pray for gram roux and her children. death is brutal to the living soul. time is the greatest thing.

mcgill & lill password is...

bunnylove

mcgill and lill

my precious lilli, my high maintenance lilli, my little lilli is growing up... we went and did pictures with lilli on sunday, february 15th. she has just one picture that was deemed a success from a professional photographer when she was 1. i just can't bear the thought when she's older of not having at least attempted to do some more. my little ham, jack, will have an over abundance but lilli could fall behind. i can hear it now when she's 16, "why does jack have all those great pictures and not me? couldn't you have at least tried or forced me into the studio?" and so i did. this time i stuck to my mantra of, "only buy the 'bunny package'", "only buy the 'bunny package'". it worked! the link to the photos will be up for about 3 months. llilli got to take pictures with REAL bunnies. mcgill and oreo. too cute. BUT get this? the studio allowed me to put one of my flameless candles in their place, so i called yesterday to check on if they liked it or not. of course, they are loving it. so, as i'm talking to the young marilyn manson (minus the make up) looking artsy photographer guy, he tells me they selected lilli's picture with mcgill to use for their advertisement in the mall. they were ordering the monster print yesterday. once it's up for display, i'll be sure to post a pic. :) i'm feeling like a proud mama. they are using picture #17 - nose to nose with mcgill.
www.s121.com
go to portraits online
go to the woodlands mall
name: nixon (don't worry about date)
just search
photo date: 2/15/09

and the winning goody bag is...

i figured out yesterday that there is no longer a simple exchange of a simple boxed valentine's day card among children. lilli's little class did a party like everyone else in the world. not only did i totally blank on giving her a valentine's for each teacher, man, do i look like the chintzy unprepared mom. she got goody bags with candy, pencils, stickers and one little girl even made her heart shaped hand-painted magnet with her name on it - even spelled lilli right! note to self: STEP IT UP MAMA! candy is a competitive sport these days.

one down

or should i say one up? jack FINALLY sprouted a smidgen of a tooth on wednesday, february 12th. that was a lot of work on his part for one front lower tooth. now we have only 19 more to break ground. here's to unleaded chewy toys and the blessing of a fridge with the crushed ice option.

GQ Jack

february 5, 2009. oh my precious son. i went into the studio telling myself, "only buy the $11 offer. only buy the $11 offer. only buy the $11 offer." wow. that did NOT work. please enjoy these photos as they cost me a lot more than that!

karoake virgin

yes, it's true. i WAS a karaoke virgin until a week or so ago. i promised the world i would never torture it with my horrendous singing but i gave in at a mommy gathering at a coffee shop. i know, sounds strange not to even involve shots of malibu rum or no less than 4 glasses of conundrum (the best wine ever!). i broke down when i saw "rappers delight" flash across the menu screen of the karaoke machine. i ran up and grabbed the microphone. from there, i proceeded to sing 3 more songs or so. too funny! here's a tiny snippet at the website: http://www.woodlandsmommy.com/community_photogallery.html. i couldn't open this on my laptop but only on my PC.

murkle

amen sistah - it's a "murkle" as a good texan would say! ha ha! lilli is having much success at school. she even got upset with me the other day because we were running late (imagine that!). with her little 1/4 italian hands, she said, "mommy, you better hurry up because i'm going to be late for pre-school." it was the greatest thing i've heard recently. when we drove up to school, she was kicking her feet around excited to get out of the van. who is this child? and where is my daughter? it's been wonderful to see her grow and change so much just since january 6th. from 2 1/2 to 3, i wasn't sure lilli and i could ever be friends again! ha ha! we survived and so far, 3 is so much better than 2. phew! i hope i'm not speaking too soon. time will tell...

realization

here's a funny thought about a liberal and a conservative. it's ironic actually. so a conservative is HUGE on pro-life. abortion is disgusting but yet they are warriors. sending a grown man or woman to fight to possibly his/her death is an okay thing to do. then there is the liberal. where abortion is a totally an ok move and sending a grown man or woman to war is completely wrong. i guess it's really all in your heart where you feel death is more validated. even in these great differences of when death is okay, you'd think we'd be able to work together a little more cohesively.

DOH!

I'M SO LAUGHING AT MY PATHETIC PROOFING SKILLS! I meant CHOKE up a bit from the inauguration. man, what a terrible slip. i may not be an avid fan but joke was not the word i was thinking. sorry mr. president.

historical jack

jack turns 6 months old today. like i haven't said it yet but it's hard to believe how fast it all goes. *sigh* i'm a freak for numbers in birthdays and events. it's spawned from the numbers in my own family: mom's bday - 11/11. sister's bday - 3/3. my bday - 10/10. dad - 8/28. now it's all about birthdays and numbers. funny. lilli's bday is 12/23 - a 23. my mom's passing date is 6/23. my dad passed on 12/7 - pearl harbor and his own sister's birthday. now jack's birthday is july 20th - it's marked as the day we landed on the moon but i'm not in agreement with that event. there's too much proof that shows it was staged during the space race. nevertheless, it marks a historical date in our history. now, today - jack's half year mark is on the inauguration of obama. i'm a conservative cat so i'm not innately drawn to barack. i can't lie - catching the tail end of the event on TV made me joke up a bit. seeing bush depart and the transition finalize marks another term of history-for America and for each of us personally. i am interested to see his character in action though. maybe it is time for the United States to 86 the "put up your dukes" attitude. we are in no doubt in need to be greened. that's inspiring for sure.

anyway, back to jack, he's in the 95th percentile for his height and 77th percintile for his weight. he clocked in 19 pounds even and i think she said 23 3/4" tall. no wonder i can only fit him in 12-18 month old clothes. he's my quarterback jack and i can't possibly love him anymore than i already do! i know daddy dan feels the same.

tri-sickta

are you kidding me? i got mastitis AGAIN. third time with jack. i would never give up nursing because of it but it's just a big fat pain to get it again. nursing is the one thing in the positive i have to fight the risk of breast cancer statistics in both sides of my family. lilli was already sick from her start to school and then this... jack ended up with lilli's cold, and it's ended up in his chest. poor kids. then as i got a total of 66 minutes of sleep last night due to jack's lack of comfort, lilli comes home from school with a 103+ temperature. it was awful. poor thing. while we all took a late afternoon nap (my first nap in months!), i hope lilli wakes up feeling better. it's just all the joys to parenting. i don't mind being sick but seeing my kids struggle to breath or spike a fever, makes mommy sad. :(

here's to vitamin c and strong immune systems in the making. stay well out there.

cuteness

success!

lilli has been in school for a week & half now. thank the good Lord we are all surviving too! she actually likes it. the first day was a challenge. she wasn't so keen on getting fully dressed and going there. she mentioned that she was out of her spaghetti and we should go by wal-mart to get some more. i'll address wal-mart fully in another blog. my heart just can't let it go. anyway, we got there. i spent 2 months prepping the school for my "version" of a child. i was SURE she was gonna scream and make me look like a goof of a parent. i walked away and not a tear from either of us. it was a happy moment. so far so good. she's already changing into a mature little girl and becoming her own little person. not to mention, i get some awesome time with jack to enjoy him, take a nap or complete a task or two while she's gone.

i would love to share a school picture but it's been a battle each morning to get ready in a timely manner. i hope they do school pics at some point. i'm sure i'll forget to ask!

and jack. jack did his first full roll over on lilli's 3rd birthday. then on january 10th, he sat up all alone. he was so excited! he just laughed and laughed. i need to figure out how to post some video on here. he's such a giggle bug. he loves loves loves to laugh at lilli. they are doing so much better together. lilli reads to him and wants to be part of everything now. WHAT A SWITCH! it was tough for a bit but now it's pure joy to see them together. it's not always like that but for the most part, progress is moving steady.

pictures soon...

2009 resolutions to thyself

no current plans to become pinky & the brain and take over the world but some simple ideals i'd like to put in place for me and my family. now that kids are in my life i realize that all things are subject to change at anytime with or without notice and YOU MUST be flexible. if you are not, you will collapse shortly thereafter. i'll be happy to meet a quarter of these!

1) find a church home
2) lilli to start school with success (jan. 6 is the day!)
3) begin to teach lilli that one toy in equals one toy out to a needy child
4) read for enjoyment
5) be diligent in creating healthier meals for my family
6) play more / teach more / read more with my kids
7) teach lilli that somebody (her!) is responsible for the tornado-like activity in the playroom/living room, etc. daily
8) incorporate more routine in life
9) find time for me / give time to dan
10) date dan
and oh yah, fit my old jeans again.