We all have an MJ memory.

Good or bad, we all have memories.

GOOD:
I remember crying in Free Willy. The part where the whale jumps over the little boy is just so beautiful.
I remember learning the Thriller dance so we could try to do it at school dances.
I remember seeing the video for Scream with Janet Jackson for the first time. Unreal.
I remember trying to do the moonwalk across my kitchen floor for a solid 20 minutes.
I remember seeing Captain EO at Disneyland.
I remember watching my friend Natalie dancing in pageants to an MJ medley, white sparkly glove and all, and cheering my lungs out.
I remember doing a double take during the video for Black or White... Is that Tyra Banks??? OMG it is! She's totally in the video! Ha!


BAD:
I remember him dangling a baby out of a hotel window.
I remember him making out with Lisa Marie on an MTV awards show.
I remember seeing him and Lisa Marie naked in the video for You Are Not Alone. Pretty song, but not a pretty sight.
I remember him saying the best thing in the world a person can do is to share their bed with a child. Weird and wrong.
I remember seeing pictures of him after his hundreds of plastic surgeries where it looked like his nose was just a hole in his face. Gross.


But....

I'm happy to take the bad with the good. He was and will forever be a music legend. No one will ever be able to even compare to him. Regardless of his strange behavior, the fact that he made amazing music cannot be denied. He is gone but his music will live on forever.

Camping!

TOPHER'S FIRST CAMPING TRIP!!!

Topher loves camping! He loved the campfire, watching us ride the four wheelers, and laughing at the crazy dogs running around everywhere. He wasn't really fussy and slept well just like he does at home. Everything went really well!




Topher loves his daddy



The Dixon Family: Jay, Ashley, Topher, and Rusty




My two-year-old nephew TJ just adores Topher! He wanted to hold him, play with him, and hold his hand! It was adorable.

I hate Lowe's and Home Depot.

After mowing the lawn last night, Jay told me he wanted a trimmer/edger for Father's Day.
So, like a good wifey should, I set off to find one today.
Of course I know NOTHING about trimmers, but I figure I'll show up and ask employees for help.
Argh. I should've known...

First I go to Lowe's. I stand there in the aisle gazing at the 20-something different trimmers. They all look the same to me and yet they range in price from $30 to $200. After about 15 minutes of moping around feeling confused and stupid and mad because TWO employees looked straight at me and walked right past me, I finally went and asked for help. It took about 4 seconds for me to realize this girl had no idea what she was talking about. She basically told me just to pick one that looked good and Jay could return it if he wanted. I left feeling frustrated but hopeful that Home Depot would be better.

Long story short... same thing happened.

I don't get it. If I walk down the hall of my school and see someone who obviously looks lost, I ALWAYS ask them if I can help. If it's something I can't help with, then I try to find someone who can. I would never just walk right past.

Also, I realize that these kids who work at these places only make minimum wage and definitely are not informed on the products the store sells, but shouldn't there be someone in the store somewhere that knows something about trimmers??? What if I walked into a jewelry store or a car lot and the salesman said "Just pick one that looks good"?? It doesn't make any sense.

I am so into good customer service so today was a pretty rough day.
Stupid Lowe's. Stupid Home Depot.

I am a crappy mother.

At Topher's 2 month check up he was perfectly average. 53rd percentile in height and 47th percentile in weight. Completely healthy.

Today at his 4 month check up he is 37th percentile in height which I can live with, but he's in the 8th percentile in weight! Not 80th, but 8th!!!! My baby is a scrawny chicken!!!! He's practically malnourished!!!

It's my fault, I've known my milk supply was low but I've just kept exclusively nursing hoping to increase my supply even though I could tell Topher wasn't happy with what I was giving him. I felt really bad today even though my pediatrician said it's not a huge deal, that we just need to up his calories. So now I'm doing a combo of nursing, bottle feeding breastmilk, bottle feeding formula, and we're gonna start rice cereal, too! It's a fun game called "Fatten up the Topher". Hopefully we can put some weight on the kid and I can redeem myself as a good mommy!

Dr. Seuss said...

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

mixed feelings

Tomorrow is my last day teaching.

I am SOOO excited to be a stay at home mommy. That was always the plan: teach for a few years, get my level 2 permanent license, have babies and stay home for a few years to raise kids, then go back to teaching later. Things are going according to schedule...

except...

Honestly, I am completely heartbroken to be leaving teaching. Tears rolled down my cheeks today as I started taking posters off the walls and packing books in boxes. I love Sandy Elementary. I love the kids, I love the teachers, I love my classroom... it has become my home away from home. It's always hard to leave (and I should know, this is my 3rd school in 4 years), but this time it's really tough cuz it seems much more permanent. I'm leaving, not to go to another school to teach, but not to teach at all. I love teaching. I'm good at it.

Don't get me wrong; I'm definitely not having second thoughts about staying home. I know that is what I want to do and where I'm supposed to be is at home with my sweet baby Topher. But tomorrow is gonna be rough, I can feel it. I'm not good at saying goodbye.

Seems like I cry on the last day of school every year, but I have a feeling this year will be the hardest of all.

6th Grade Actors

Today was our class play that we've worked on for 2 months. It's a funny little version of INTO THE WOODS. And they KILLED it! It was completely awesome!

Well, there were some mistakes...
one girl ran out on stage before her turn...
one boy forgot his lines so just stood there in silence...
one boy didn't even show up today so we had to hurry and fill in his parts...
and the worst of all: one girl's pants fell down on stage!! NO JOKE!! She was so embarrassed but got over it. That's something you don't forget though. I'm sure she'll be like 40 years old and still saying, "I remember in my 6th grade play my pants fell down on stage in front of the whole school!" Aww, the memories!!

Overall it was fabulous and I'm totally proud of all my kids.