High School Friends

My 15 year high school reunion is coming up (yeah you do the math on my age), but prior to that Kludgy Mom has a homework assignment that I need to get out of the way. The assignment is to feature one of our followers and talk about how fabulous they are.

In honor of my reunion, I'd like to present you, not one, but two followers! Yes, two for the price of one! The reason why I chose these two was because they reminded me of friends that I would have had in high school. Of course, the present day me likes them also!

Behind door number 1 is Maureen from Tatter Scoops.

Maureen would be the exotic foreign exchange student from Jakarta. After a few weeks of sitting next to her in algebra class, you discover this gal is pretty smart and it'd be in your best interest to introduce yourself to her. After a few sessions of her schooling you, you realize there's more to her than just smarts. You end up spending plenty of time hanging out with her and talking about life in Jakarta and boys!


Behind door number 2 is Pop from Go, Pop, Go!

Pop would be my best guy friend in high school. You know, the guy that you grew up with, so you could never really think of him like that. Your family would have his family over for BBQs. The guy your mom wished you would end up, but you're too preoccupied with either the QB of the football team, the bad boy, or Mr. Best Looking. He's funny and he shares his life's experiences, so us gals can get the guys perspective.

There you have it, a few of the people who I would allow to enter my personal circle. Check them out and tell them MamaOnDaGo sent you.

Now it's your turn, tell me about a blogger or bloggers that you picture yourself being friends with.

Souvenirs From Hawaii

I want a vacation! I need a vacation! I want to lay on the sand, soak in skin cancer the sun (wearing appropriate SPF, of course), let the cool breeze toss my hair around as the sound of the ocean waves calm my inner being. 

When was the last time you went on a vacation? 

The last time I went on vacation was over 2 years ago!!!! H & I decided we needed a getaway. Not to mention, we were approaching our 5 year wedding anniversary. We wanted to celebrate.

Back then we only had Princess Ninja who was a little over a year old. We purchased all sorts of things that were meant to keep her busy for the never ending 4 hour plane ride. We bought various DVDs, coloring books, crayons, snacks. I was packing so much stuff in my carry-on to keep her entertained there was barely room for my wallet and lip gloss.

                                      

                                            

I even went so far as to purchase Benadryl. Yes, I was prepared to medicate my child if she turned into the Hulk. I know some of you out there are shaking your head and pointing your middle index finger at me.  Hey, don't judge!

As far as the Benadryl went, I did a test run a few days prior. It worked like a charm. Princess Ninja had a lovely evening. She woke up happy as a clam the next morning.                                              

For those of you shaking, pointing, and judging, you'll be happy to know the Benadryl didn't work. Just look at the above pictures. Does that look like a sleeping child? There are you happy?

Looking back at the pictures, it reminded me of a great family vacation. 

                              

                             

  

Oh, did I mention, 9 months later Chubs was born!

 We brought home one of the greatest souvenirs ever!

   

I'm using this as part of my B2S/B2B  homework with Kludgy Mom. I'm sending more commenting love out. Please leave a comment and I promise to love you back. 

T/F: People with Four Or More Children Cannot Be Adequate Parents To All

I'm participating in Kludgy Mom's Back To School, Back To Blogging Challenge. We're on week 2 of the challenge, to be honest, I sucked at week 1's assignment.

As usual, Gigi aka Kludgy Mom, has come up with a fantastic idea. Why didn't I think of something like this?

She's come up with the Idea Bank. A bank of ideas from bloggers, moms, and various other people to help those moments when we suffer from writer's block. She's asking that we come up with 10 ideas/questions to help inspire others. I've made my deposit and now I'm withdrawing from the bank.

The inspiration from this post is from Sarah: A Better Magnificent Mom
     
    7. Tue or False. People who have more than four children cannot be adequate parents to all of their children. Explain.


Before I answer, I'd like to add a disclosure: I'm going to answer this question from my own lifestyle, point-of-view, financial situation, etc. 
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Four or more children, the idea crossed my mind once upon a time. That once upon a time was when I was growing up as an only child. My first and only sibling didn't arrive until I was 6 years old. 


In retrospect, H comes from a large family. He is the eldest of 7 siblings. 


Although, I had neighborhood children to play with and a hand full of cousins that lived in the same city, I really wanted to be part of a large family. I vowed to myself that when I grew up and started a family on my own, I would have at least three children maybe even four. Oh, how I spent many days wishing I had older siblings that would teach me to be "cool" and drive me around. How I longed for younger siblings who I could help baby and oh and ah at. 


When I was pregnant with my first child, H and I knew immediately that we would have more. Remind you, I didn't even give birth yet. To be honest, being pregnant was the easy part compared to actually raising Princess Ninja. After she was born, H and I knew we would try to have another child. Almost exactly 2 years later, we were blessed with Chubs. 


It wasn't until my own children came along that I realized how much work, effort, patience, sleeplessness, money, and responsibility came with a human being. I've had more than my share of mommy fails and a few hand fulls of mommy high 5s. 

Two children later, I question having another. It's definitely a topic H and I have discussed.  Although, we are not opposed to being done, there is a piece of me that longs to have more. To be able to make the wish of a little girl who didn't get a sibling until she was 6 years old a reality. Then the 30 something, mom of two comes in and slaps a dose of reality into me. 


Reality:
   1.) I'm stretched and pulled between 2 children, I can't imagine adding another one
   2.) I hear it only gets harder as they grow older
   3.) Financially, how can we support another one
   4.) I want my kids to be kids and not have to take care of their younger siblings. I'm all for teaching responsibility, but it's mommy's job to be mommy
   5.) What is another pregnancy going to do to my body
   6.) I want to one day be able to get sleep
   7.) What would another child do to our current family dynamic
   
I'm sure one can go on and on. For me, I have to be honest and say I know I cannot be an adequate parent to 4 children. I sometimes wonder if I'm an adequate parent to my two children. In the mean time, we are enjoying life with the two kids. Only time will tell if more is in our future. 


For those of you who do have 4 or more children, how do you do it? 

Homework for Mama

For the next few weeks I've decided to join Gigi over at Kludgy Mom for her
Back to School, Back to Blogging challenge. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a computer, high tech person. All of this computer mumbo jumbo is so foreign to me. I'm just glad that I'm competent enough to figure out how to post. Call me simple.

The pre-homework assignment was to install a retweet button, which I'm proud to say I did. Of course, it took a lot longer than I had hoped.  Luckily, there are other participants who are willing to help those in the less than average section of this challenge.

Also, I believe I was able to set-up a fan page on Facebook for my blog. Yes, MamaOnDaGo now has a fan page, so please "like" me. It took me a few hours to try and set it up. I realize it's simple and oh-so basic. To be honest, I don't even know if I did it correctly. Hey, that's what this challenge is for. I wanted to try and improve things and expose myself to some new high tech info.

I'm also going to be realistic. At the end of this, I don't expect to have this gorgeous state-of-the-art blog or a fancy shmancy fan page with hundreds of new followers and fans. The children just won't compromise on how much time and effort should be used to improve on Mama's hobby. It took me a good long while to even write up this post between naps and quiet time. May I also add that it's football season. Enough said with that. I do hope to learn something and to meet more great people.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/mamaondago14
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