I'm THAT Mom.

I did it. I'm THAT mom. No, no. Not the mom who sent her kid to school wearing the same clothes two days in a row. Not that mom. No, I'm the mom who forgot it was picture day.

I got up and got myself ready as usual. Grabbed the boy child and got him ready and strapped him in his carseat and took off for the babysitter's and work. And then I get this text from Hubson.

"Today's picture day?"

To which my response was, "Oh bleeeeeeeeeeeeep." Only it wasn't a bleep if you know what I'm saying.

So instead of texting frantic instructions, I call Hubson and he puts me on speaker phone.

"Can you find the order form?"
"Yeah I have it right here."
"Ok, I want the pose with the shoulders, neck and head showing. Not the super close up of just her face or the sideways one."
"You want her shoulders showing?"
"Yes. Not the close up one. Or the sideways one. Those are weird. The one that's right side up and pulled out a little bit. I think it's pose one."
"Oh yeah. I see it. Okay."
"And make sure she wears a cute shirt. She can wear jeans or shorts or whatever on the bottom because it won't show but make sure the shirt is cute. And then pick whatever background color looks best with her shirt. Don't do a purple background with a lime green shirt or something."
"I'M WEARING MY CHERRY DRESS MOM!" (She yells from somewhere in the background.)
"Ok good. Do the red background then."
"Ok." (Hubson, the man of many words.)
"And let her take her hairbrush to school. ANNA! DO NOT SHARE YOUR HAIRBRUSH WITH ANYONE. If you share your hairbrush with someone you will catch LICE. Lice are little bugs that crawl around and lay EGGS ON YOUR HEAD. Do NOT share your hairbrush. EVER! What did I say?"
"Don't share my hairbrush with anyone..." (In her whiny pre-teen "whatever you say mom" voice.)
"Good. Oh! Write a check for the pictures."
"Which package?"
"The cheapest one that includes an 8x10."
"Uh...."
"I think it was like... $25. I don't know what letter it was. I don't have it in front of me."
"Yeah, $25. Okay."
"While you're at it, you might as well send the check for her Chess Club shirt too. She needs a YOUTH large. Make sure it's youth not adult."
"Alright."

Phew. Picture day, lice threats and chess club shirts all before 7:15 this morning. I feel like I need a nap already. Hopefully, just hopefully, if we're lucky, she will come home with a shirt that fits and we won't end up with a 3rd grade photo like this.

Also, THIS might be my favorite Google image search of all time. You're welcome.

Hubson 101

This is Hubson.

His real name is Josh but that's boring. Hubson is so much more funner. He's a funner kind of guy. Sort of. Mostly he'd prefer a snobby cup of fancy coffee, a cool morning and some kind of smarty-pants writer/philosopher book. Or maybe a Dr. Who novel. He is quite the geek.

That's the handmade Dr. Who replica scarf I bought him for Christmas. I can't make things (except maybe ugly things) so thank God for Etsy. One year, for Christmas, when we were dating, I got him an autographed photo of David Tennant. He's the actor that played the 10th Doctor? I think? Well, I'm pretty sure Josh would leave me and go gay if David Tennant asked him to. So I knew the photo would be a hit. Obviously, the scarf was a hit too. Do I know my geek or do I know my geek?

Hubson and I were friends long before we ever started dating or even thought about getting married.

This was taken probably in 2007. Back when Josh had Jesus hair and I apparently thought orange hunting vests and turquoise jewelry was fashionable. That baby is not ours. He belongs to a friend. Who knew that six years later, I'd be bouncing our own baby boy on my knee? I sure didn't.

Since we've gotten married, Josh not only became Hubson, he became Dad too. Actually, we affectionately call him Dab because Anna couldn't write her Bs and Ds right so she always addressed notes to him as Dab. <3

Anna adores him. And they have a lot of fun together. Sometimes he does the hair and sometimes he gets his hair did.

For the most part, they get along just fine. Anna introduces Josh to the world of little girl. Let's play Barbies! And Josh introduces Anna to the world of geek. Plus 50 points for cleaning your room!

Sometimes they drive each other crazy and in turn, they drive me crazy. I forget sometimes that Josh wasn't eased into parenting the way most of us are. Starting with our infants who only cry when they need something and escalating into the first "I hate you, Mom!" meltdowns. Poor Josh just jumped right into the middle of it. Sink or swim. All things considered, he's doing an amazing job.

In addition to Dad, he's also taken on another roll...

CAT DAD! Josh only had one pet growing up, a chihuahua, who ran away one day and joined a gang of chihuahuas. The runaway would sporadically be seen running the neighborhood with its punk friends. Peer pressure is really hard to resist sometimes. Enter our cats. Bella, the fluffy grey one and Gabby, the stripey dark one. They were both stray kittens my parents found in their backyards. Well. When Josh and I got married and he moved in, they took to him like he was a can of tuna. Actually, come to think of it, they may have taken to him because he eats a lot of tuna... Anyway. They meet him at the door like dogs when he comes home from work. Bella meows when he leaves. And they circle his feet when he heads to the kitchen in anticipation of a feeding. Then, my mom found another stray. And since Josh was now a cat fan, I got to keep the new kitten as my mother's day present.

We were excited. Anna probably the most but checkout Rafiki there...WELL. This little turd of a cat wants nothing to do with me. Mira will snuggle with Anna and with Josh but she won't come anywhere near me. Some Mother's Day present. Anyway, I digress.

Any wife and mother will tell you that sometimes, being married, is really just like having an extra, much bigger, kid.

This is no exception in our house. If only we always had bouncy cells to keep them in when they drive us crazy. If I had a dollar for every time I had to nag Hubson to take out the trash, pick up his underwear, clean out the catbox (Why should I have to do it? They don't like me!), do the dishes, etc. I could fire him and hire a maid. Hmm... that might be a good idea. I could stop nagging and my house would be immaculate!

But most of the time, we have a good time. And there are always a lot of laughs. Like the time Hubson was being really emo and then that got turned into an emu and then somehow, I ended up making a "Joshtrich."

Or the time Hubson and my Dad showed up to a Christmas party wearing the same outfit.

Or one of my personal favorites, the time we were babysitting our friend's twins. This was before Carson was born and I'm not sure Hubson had ever been around a baby much less touched one before. Both twins were crying. I was bouncing one around trying to calm her and I turn around and Josh is holding twin #2 against his THIGH.

"What are you doing???"
"She wiggled down there by herself..."
"She's a 10 pound baby with no muscle control. Pick her up!"

It was hilarious. I can't stop laughing every time I think about it. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera at the ready to grab a pic. I had the other screaming twin. But this is Hubson and the wiggling baby in a less compromising position.

I am proud to say that Hubson can now not only hold a baby but he can hold the baby, feed the baby, work on his laptop and mess with his phone ALL AT ONCE! He's practically a woman with all that multitasking!

He can even burp the boy, change his diapers, apply butt paste AND change his clothes. My inexperienced Hubson has come so far in two years. *tear* They're just all growing up so fast.

Speaking of multitasking, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Hubson works not one, not two, not three but FOUR JOBS at the moment. He teaches at three college campuses (UNT, TCC and DCCCD) and works part time for the City of Arlington Central Library. It sucks buckets because we never see him and when we do he's tired and grumpy. But wow. How can you not show the man a little appreciation? He's a trooper. And like he said this weekend, "one day we'll look back at this and say 'I worked four jobs to support my family' but right now, it just blows." In following suit with Hubson's academic manner, I'd like to use the words of a wise and colorful philosopher... "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim."

And then this. Because why not?

An Introduction

This is me.

My name is Angela. I'm currently 30 years old but not for long. Soon I'll be joining the thirty-something club. *shudder* I'm the oldest of three kids. 

My brother Tim, the youngest, is a pilot and about to be married to his beautiful bride Jessica. 

My sister Becca, the middle one, was a brilliant and creative woman who tragically took her own life in 2010. I'll share more about her story in another post.

My parents, Beth and Russ, have seen us through every moment of our lives, the good and the bad.

I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Creative Writing from the University of Texas at Arlington. Although, I started my education as a third generation TCU Horned Frog, I ended up finishing my degree at UTA but my blood will always run purple. I work full time as a receptionist at a retirement center. I don't have any living grandparents so working with my old folks fills a big hole in my heart.

In 2004, I had my daughter Anna and for the first six years our family looked like this.

We're both total goofballs so we have a lot of fun together. Anna is an imaginative, creative, compassionate kid with a LOT of energy and curiosity which means life is never slow or boring. She just started 3rd grade and had her first homework meltdown on day one. Like me when I was a kid, she'd much rather be outside riding her, actually, MY bike and climbing trees than sitting inside. Unless there are cartoons involved. Then she will gleefully lounge all day on the couch, rising only for bathroom breaks and snacks.

In 2007, exactly 2437 days ago, I met Josh.

We were both at UTA in the Creative Writing program and we ended up in two classes together. At the time, single Angela would wait till most students were already there and class was almost starting and find the cutest guy in the room to sit next to. In my Fiction class, that was Josh. In my Biology class, that's how I met Gay Greg. Turns out not all attractive guys are straight and single. I digress. Josh and I were friends for a long time. Then I gave him his first kiss. Yep. First kiss. Me. Then we went on our first date. I ended up being his first girlfriend too.

Then May 14, 2010 he took me to browse engagement rings.  I found one I loved and he said, "we'll take it." What what?!?!? The jewelry store very nicely sized the ring for us right away and we sped off down the highway to my brother's college graduation. I ended up announcing my engagement to my parents at a gas station on the trip to graduation. "Can you grab me some sunflower seeds? Oh by the way, we're getting married."

A little less than a year later, on March 12, 2011, we tied the knot and our family got a little bigger.

We moved to Denton, Texas shortly there after so Josh could finish his Masters degree at the University of North Texas. When he graduated in May 2012, we packed up and moved to Arlington, Texas where I had gotten my job as a receptionist.

Then in October of 2012, I told Josh a secret. Our family was going to change again.

Eight and a half months later, on June 10th, 2013, Gargantuson was born. Weighing in at 9 pounds 6 ounces and a whopping 22 1/4 inches long, when my epidural didn't work, I was fully aware of just how big this "little" boy was.

Carson (His name is not ACTUALLY Gargantuson.) was SO big, in fact, that he had a bit of a rough start and spent the first week (and the hardest week of my life) in the NICU.

But fear not! He is coming up on four months and he is doing just fine.

See? He's learned to smile and we're very near official giggles. Life is good. So now our family looks like this.

That was taken on our very first family of four vacation to Colorado, my favorite place on earth.

So my little family of four is just doing what all families do, living life. When I'm done with my eight hours at work, I head to my other full time jobs- wife and mom. Oh, and don't forget daughter and sister. And friend. Although that's more of a vacation rather than a job. 

These are my bestest besties. From left to right, there's Amanda (holding Kenzie), Robin (holding Ava who actually belongs to Megan), Megan, myself, Holly and Mary. This was taken at the awesome Harry Potter themed baby shower they threw for me (and Carson!). Between the six of us, we have eleven kids. ELEVEN. I have no idea how this happened. Well, I know HOW it happened. But I don't know when. One minute we were in college dancing away our Thursday nights at Billy Bob's (the biggest, most famous, most amazing honky-tonk in Texas for you non-Texans) and then suddenly instead of boot-scooting, it was more like booster seat-scooting. (I refrained from using boob-scooting. You're welcome.)  So now, we've got nine girls and two boys between us all and some of us aren't even done. There will be MORE at some point. In the meantime, we lean on each other for support through everything from dumb husbands to hospital visits. I'd be sunk without these ladies. They keep me from poisoning my kids both on accident and on purpose. They also, on occasion, keep my husband from meeting with his untimely death. Haha. Just kidding. But only kind of.

So this is pretty much my life. It's not exceptional. It's not unique. But it's mine. And even on bad days, I love it and I look forward to sharing our stories with you as we grow.