A Constant Work In Progress: beauty

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of you Mother's out there. I hope you all had a GREAT day/weekend!!

The weather was definitely in our favor this weekend. The kids Saturday was filled with dance, helping Pop-Up out in the yard, bike rides, signing Mother's Day cards, making mother's day gifts, and watching movies.

Damian and I headed out late Saturday afternoon to New York. We spent the evening watching Luques play with Eddie Palmieri at the Blue Note and then Zaccai playing at FatCat. Both performances were great as usual and I am glad Damian and I were able to get the chance to get away together for the night. I, of course, have very limited pics but here are a couple from Luques' gig that Damian took:

Eddie Palmieri and Luques

The band, minus Eddie Palmieri

I am really trying to get better at this whole picture taking thing. I used to be so good. And between smartphones and digital cameras, I really have no excuse.

Damian ran into several "old" friends and was able to catch up with them, and I also saw some familiar faces like Donald Harrison, Little Johnny, Lummie Span and Igmar Thomas. It's always rare when I actually know or remember some of the people that we run into when we trek down to the city.

The kids stayed with Mama and PopUp and headed to New Haven on Sunday(mother's day) to see Mama-Ma and Mama's sisters (minus Ada who is loved and missed by all of us, and I am sure her kids were treating her EXTRA special down in Florida)

We rescue Mama and Popup from Madison, Myles, and Mayci in the middle of the afternoon so they could head to New York to spend time with both Zaccai and Luques.

We stopped briefly at Grandma Virginia and Grandpa Waynes' house to visit Grandma and wish her a happy mother's day as well.. The kids got her a card and also presented me with a balloon, card, and some mother's day coupons that Myles has informed are only valid every day until 7:00pm.

The rest of the evening was spent with the kids doing their own thing outside in the backyard(Myles and Mayci played together while Madison wrote some organizing lists), Damian working on some musical projects, and me just resting because I wasn't feeling that great.

Overall, this had been an incredibly wonderful weekend. I hope everyone else can say the same!!

Wow... Can you believe it is November already? It's crazy how fast time really goes. Ive been realizing it mor and more lately. But as always, the beginning of the month is always the most exciting for me. It makes me feel like I have a clean slate to start with. I have a lot planned for this month.

I have decided to host Thanksgiving at my house this year.. Well, it's only going to be me, Damian, the kids, my older sister Lisa, my mom and dad, and hopefully my little sister Amanda and her boyfriend, Will. I would have loved to invite my in laws and some of the Curtis/Rodriguez clan, but #1 I don't know if our little house could accommodate everyone and #2 my in laws always host a rather large Thanksgiving day party type thing at their house, so I would not want to intrude on that in anyway. I am just really trying to come up with some of our own little traditions within our immediate family. With that being said, I hope it doesn't come off that I do not want to go to my in laws, because we will definitely be joining them in the later part of the day. The kids will want to see everyone and Damian and his brothers and cousins have a tradition of going to the movies on Thanksgiving and Christmas night.

I am also hoping to truly come up with a blogging schedule. I don't want blogging to feel like a job, but I would really like it to be consistent as I want to use these blogs as away to look back at our family and the little things that consumed our every day lives.

YouTube has been interesting me very much lately. I started getting into to beauty videos, and family blogs towards the middle of 2012..and it has just gotten worse, hahaha! I already have a YouTube channel that I use for videos of the kids and such. But I have created another one called, MakeupofMichelle. I have hopes of using this YouTube account for not only makeup and beauty things, but to chronicle my journey in life and all the things that "makeup" who I am. As I get closer to getting something posted on that channel, I will be sure to get everyone posted...just don't be expecting anything super fancy..we all know that is not who I am.

Now for my usual updates. Since school has started, things are slowly picking up around here. Unfortunately car trouble has been a constant in our world. The van needs several thousand dollars worth of work, and the car..well...that is a whole other story. We are slowly getting that thing back together. With that being said, I have learned how to use the city bus. Not nearly as hard s I could have imagined.

Mayci has transitioned from her crib to a toddler bed..she seems to be doing okay with that so far. She is still quite the talker and has a very strong personality. We haven't really focused on potty training yet, but I see that in the near future. I think that one we get serious about it, she will learn quite quickly, or at least I hope so.

Madison is still dancing, of course. She has been taking some extra classes since dance started in September, but because of the 2 weekdays off that she gets, itoesnt seem like she is there quite as much as she really is. She is competing again and is working on 2 solos this year. Wow..I just don't know how she manages to fit it all in and stay focused. But so far, so good. She is in the 5th grade, has a male teacher, and has signed up for the leadership and movement team. She still seems to be loving school quite a bit...BUT she is becoming a challenge for me in other areas that I may address In a future post.

Myles, what a kid. He is still home during the day with Damiann the morning and then Abby in the afternoon as is. Mayci. I am hoping to place him in a preschool setting by the beginning of 2014 so he can get some of that exposure to other kids and some of the basic rules of school down. He has been attending church on Sundays and Wednesday with Abby over the past 3 weeks...and LOvES it. he missed today due to being under the weather and was extremely bummed about it. I am thinking that maybe it is time for me to return to church and begin taking the kids with me. As a mother who claims to be a Christian, I should not be leaving the duty of getting my kids to church to my mother in law, not that she minds at all. Myles did not restart dance this year, but is starting basketball this upcoming weekend. He is super excited and Madison has made it her job to, train, him.

My goal in the near future is to get both Madison and Myles into piano lessons..just have to reach out to the teacher and make sure the funds are available. hopefully something will happen soon.

As for Damian and I, weare just trying to increase the success of our marriage all while balancing everyone's schedule. We have been doing pretty well, and have been truly working as a team!

I hope all is well in everyone else's world.