note to self

when sick in your car, be sure to have a bag handy for emergency type situations. also, be aware that bags with holes in them are less than effective. finally, make sure your iphone, amongst other important things, is not directly below said emergency bag with hole in it when it is in use. especially not when you're driving madly down quince.

yes. there is a new mitch being added to the mitches. as you can tell by the picture we are all very excited... and nauseated. that's enough about that. talking about it makes me sick. yes. i know i'm writing right now and not technically talking but the crooked picture on the wall also makes me feel ill so cut me some slack okay?

yes. we are pregnant. no. i don't want to tell you how i'm feeling. see above conversation. no. i don't want to hear how wonderful your pregnancy was... or how horrible your morning sickness was. and no i don't want to hear your brilliant advice on how to cure morning sickness. i'm just gonna regroup over here in the corner by my desk with my lemon drop candies and a trashcan and i'll get back to you at recess.

but yes. we are very excited. =)

happenings

wow i'm lazy. how hard is it for me to pry the computer away from hubby, close out all the sports windows, and write a little something now and then? right? right? love you hubby.

so we've had a fairly busy summer... we went camping up at hume the week after school got out, per usual. very different with someone who can run now.... jack's favorite part, i think, was collecting sticks and running EVERYWHERE. that kid can move. came home and then hubby and i took off to vegas for a couple days. it was hot but lots of fun and very relaxing! i tell you what, i love my boy but it's nice to be able to go an hour or two without changing a diaper or getting hit in the head by an empty sippy cup ("moooooore, honeeeeee!!!"). oh you heard that right. my boy has started calling me "honey". we're working on it, okay?

through it all we've been working hard on our "yard" situation. actually, papa has been hard at work. hubby and i are doing our best but my dad has got it covered nine times out of ten. i'm happy to say that we now have cement edging around the front yard, all the sprinklers are hooked up to the timer thing and working, and we have a brand spankin' new dog run for big dog. thanks papa!

so this week we're gearing up for the scoob's cowboy party, one last trip to disneyland for hubby and me, and i start back to school with trainings and such on wed. whew! here we go.

Papa Mitch

The last few days I've felt bogged down with my feelings and emotions on this whole Chelsea King saga. As a father, a teacher, and as a human being I naturally care for and want to help others, especially children. I am saddened and discouraged by our current "justice system". They let a man, I use that term loosely, who has committed lewd and lascivious acts with a minor out after only a few short years, only to commit more crimes and hurt more people.

I feel as a society we are being blackmailed by our prison system. We pay close to $45,000 a year to keep these animals away from us. But we can't afford to properly fund our education or support those that are less fortunate. I don't have any answers on what we should do to stop this insanity. I'm just venting that its frustrating that $45,000, enough money to pay for one more teacher, is spent every year in California to house someone that we fear to put back on the streets.

I just want the money to be spent better and in places that will have a positive affect on the future of this state. I only hope that in the next few years we begin to make better decisions and invest in the areas that are most beneficial to all Californians.

dog training

we finally did it. we admitted to ourselves that we had a problem. hi. we're the mitches, and we have dog problems. actually, it turns out that WE have problems but who didn't know that already, right? more on this later. so little dog decided to break that darn camel's back the night before the superbowl by eating - oh, i dunno - HALF A BAG of hershey's kisses! wha!?! yep. i spent a good part of the game playing "find the chihuahua upchuck". he actually made it quite easy what with all the foil that was imbedded in it... mmmmm.... chocolate chihuahua puke.... so, he got the bootscoot from the big bed. he now enjoys a glorious view of the back of our garage door in his BRAND NEW DOG KENNEL!!!! (thanks for the loaner, sumners!) this does not stop him from yelling at us from the garage at 3am. good times.

on to big dog. who we brought to puppy training at petsmart (plug!) last night. right off the bat we were singled out as having the "overly energetic" dog of the group (read: ADHD). i really thought that tony (our trainer/teacher) was going to kick us out as our big dog rolled all over us and the room. but we were allowed to stay. then tony says:

so how often are you walking big dog?

gulp.

a couple times a week...

lies. i sit upon a throne of them.

oh, no! that won't do. your dog needs to be walked twice a day at the very least.

okay... how long should these walks last?

hmmm.... for your dog? about 2 miles.

i KID YOU NOT, my friends. 2 miles??!! no. so we've completed day 1 of dog walk 2010. mitch takes the am shift and i bring up the rear with the pm shift. 1 down, 364 to go. so, it turns out that actually we are bad dog parents because we don't give big dog enough exercise or something. but i honestly don't know about the little one. he's spiteful. and that's coming from someone who knows about spite.... but more on that later. another post, another day.

funny people, a.k.a.me

i'm not gonna lie.... i'm freakin' hilarious. i crack myself up ALL the time. anyway, i was feeling a little nostalgic today and decided to read a couple posts from the "old" blog. weird that it still exists.... we just don't visit anymore. =( so! i thought i would share one of the old posts because i'm so funny you need to read it too. so this one is from august 29, 2008 so scoob was just over 1 week old (oh! the scoobiest of scoobs was soooo little then!) okay, here we go:

i can't explain to you my hatred of ants. it's obscene. i absolutely loath ants. this is my story:

last night i'm sitting on the couch with the little guy when an (1) ant crawls across my arm. i murdered it immediately before it could tell its friends where we were. i told matt:

"i hate ants. i feel like they are all over me now."

"don't exaggerate, sam. you just feel dirty because you didn't get a shower today." (it's true).

flash forward roughly six hours. i'm in the kitchen with the boy and it's about 5am. we are just coming off of a marathon fuss and we are both exhausted. i'm trying to fix his medicine up (you suck, thrush) when i feel those god awful little feet marching up my arm (no, not jack's). i quickly turn on the lights and am met with a horrific sight: ants. everywhere. all over the counter. i run and put the boy down in the living room (he's crying because it's 5am - crying time) and then i run back into the kitchen. it's obvious that someone found out about my crime from earlier and has rallied the troops to exact their revenge. i take out my weapon, windex, and the battle begins. i find that they have broken in through a light switch plate (??? really??). the slaughter rages on for 2 maybe 3 minutes before i see an end. i return to my young son and we cry it out for another hour before we fall asleep for the "night". hear my words, ants:

you are not welcome in my house.

haiti

i know that everyone is talking about haiti right now and how terrible the devastation is and what we can do to help. so i'm gonna just jump on my soapbox for a moment and say my piece. don't worry... it's not gonna be like this guy. first of all. i'm sick to my stomach over what has happened in that country. just thinking about all the loss makes my heart break and my stomach flip.

so i watched this sermon that one of our pastors gave a couple weeks ago. we missed it because the brockhaus weren't at church to make the pastor call us... but then amy came home and told me to watch it here (it's the 1/3/10 sermon, holla!).

i was in tears for most of it. it was filmed, i believe, two sundays before this earthquake in haiti and it showed chris brown (our pastor) walking around haiti and showing the poverty that abounds there. at the end he asked the congregation to please consider sponsoring a child from haiti (side note: it turns out that our church ended up sponsoring something like 700 children that weekend).

so then about a week later this earthquake came and wrecked havoc in haiti. tearing it apart from it's very roots. and reading or listening to the news makes it seem like they (haiti) are falling off a cliff into a pit of awfulness with no safety net. and in the end i thought:

God obviously knew what was going to happen. and although thousands of people are still unaccounted for and we still don't know the full extent of the devastation... God knew this was coming. and he set up a foundation of people that couldn't be torn down. and a network that won't lose service or connection that weekend at our church. all of these people got onboard to help that country just before this disaster - and now they already are connected to help. right?

so i don't know. i guess i just wanted to write and say... how awesome is God? that even though it seems like the horrible news from haiti won't stop - it will. eventually. because He knew what was coming and He started to pull together the threads of that safety net.

brunch with the mitches

here at the mitches house we celebrated the new year by ... watching a movie and barely making it to midnight. =) matt pooped out at 11:45 and i stayed up with ryan seacrest and the saddest dick clark. poor man. =( we woke up at our usual 6:30 the next morning and i stayed under the covers as long as matt and jack would let me (per usual) but then we had our first annual "brunch with the mitches". i have to say it was a success! the starks came over and so did the ups' and lenny beh made it late but i think everyone had a good time! i made these jalapeno and cheddar scones, french toast, and home fries and matt fried up some bacon for us all. it was yummy and great. i hope to see you all next year.

on another note, scoob has decided to start opening doors on his own. God help us all. i'm not really sure what to do about this... suck it up and hope for the best? change the door handles to round knobs? attach butter to his hands? (thus making them too slippery to open doors?) we shall see.

as for the new year. 2009 was pretty good to me. not going to complain. we were able to buy our first house. got our big dog, greco. scoob turned one. all good stuff. that being said. i can't wait for 2010 to be even better to us. ima try to take it slow and steady. ima try to take better care of myself. and maybe do a little bit more movin' and shakin'. and some more home cookin'. in the words of matthew wilder:

"Ain't nothin' gonna breaka my stride

Nobody gonna slow me down
Oh no, I got to keep on moving"