Mom Network

One thing that I love about my life here in good ole' CSTX is the network of moms I have become friends with.

I've met most of the moms through Dannika's school during pick up and drop off, and classroom parties.

It just so happens that our neighborhood is walking distance to the school, so all the moms that I have become friends with all live within a mile radius of my house.

It's also pretty convenient that all of our kids just happen to be around the same age.

It's awesome for play dates, or days when I accidentally forget to pick up D because it was an early release day (oops!).

But there's always another mom that I trust with my kids who will happily text me and offer to bring them to my house, or take to their house for an impromptu play date until I can get my sh&! together. 

 These group of moms are awesome.

Most of them are busy raising 2, 3, 4 kids...taking them to dance, soccer, gymnastics, football, etc. all while running a home.

This group of moms are engineers, business owners, military wives, college students, stay at home moms, doctors, dentists, etc. etc. etc.

They take care of their families, AND they take care of each other.

I've never felt bad asking any of them to watch my kids so I could run an errand or just have some peace, and the favor is always returned.

I can tell when one of them is having a rough day, and without asking, I just offer my home to their children for an impromptu play date.

It almost feels like being back at Camp Pendleton where I had a network of awesome military wives that took care of one another when our husbands were deployed.  

Although not ALL of these moms are College Station natives like I am, they have all lived here long enough to understand the community here. 

I am so grateful for these women and their friendship...
 I am so grateful to be amongst such awesomeness! 

I hosted a playdate at our house this week with our neighbors and a friend of Dannika who lives a few streets down from us.

Since the first pumpkins were out at the grocery store, I picked a few up for the girls to decorate...
Oh, and I decorated one too...

Mattis joined in on the fun.

Sweet little K and her pumpkin!
She lives a few streets down, and her and Dannika are in the same grade!
Surprisingly, they've never been in the same class together, but have become friends through me being friends with her mom (from pick up and drop off at school).

Our street's "mama bear", AB.

She is like a mini mama to my kids.

She lives across the street from us, and comes over to our house to basically babysit Mattis.

The wild and free EG!
She is AB's little sister, and just started Kindergarten, and has the same teacher Dannika had last year!
She's full of energy, and loves to play pretend with Dannika!

I love our little life here in College Station.
We have the greatest friends and neighbors ever!

Wedding Showers, An Aggie Win, & Grandparents

It's Monday again!

We are back at it...school (for 3 out of 4 of us), nap schedules, gymnastics...

This was the first weekend since Aggie football season started that we didn't have a tailgate or a game to attend.

Our beloved Ags played in Dallas, and won a heart stopping game in overtime against the razorbacks!

That makes us 4-zer0 this season so far!

As much as I love tailgating, it was really nice to finally get a break this weekend from all the chaos!

Nick and I attended a wedding shower on Saturday before the game started for our beloved realtor and mortgage loan officer.

They had a really cool wedding shower where instead of typical wedding gifts, they requested all the guests to bring a bottle of alcohol to "stock the bar" for their wedding!

I thought it was such a cool way to cut down the costs of having an open bar/partially open bar seeing as how that is one of the costliest parts of a wedding.

Us and the soon to be married couple!

Don't ask me why Nick is looking off into nowhere instead of the camera...

Or why he's doing the "Kim Kardashian" chicken wing pose....

Afterwards, we headed home to BBQ, and watch the game with our neighbors.

Saturday was my dad's official 60th birthday!

We took a quick trip to Houston to my parents' church on Sunday and surprised them during their worship service!

I've said it a MILLION GAZILLION times, but I really am SO thankful that we get to be stationed here so close to my parents.

So many military families don't get the opportunity to be stationed near family.

I am so grateful that my babies get to see their Papa and Gigi more than once or twice a year, and in person instead of Skype.

We are soaking up every minute that we are living here, and taking full advantage of my family!

Hope everyone's weekend was amazing, and y'all are tackling this new week!

Lately...College....

I hardly have time to blog anymore.

School, kids, Dannika's gymnastics, school, life, house, marriage, school...

Did I mention school?!

I am waiting on a letter from A&M saying that I will be a FULL TIME student there in the Spring.

The anticipation is killing me.

In the mean time....

I am taking a math class (along with a few others)....college algebra to be exact...

It sucks....

Why? 

Because, contrary to popular belief and stereotypes, I'm the only Asian on the face of this earth that hates math and was never really great at it.

Nick thinks I was awesome at it, because I did WAY better than him in math.

But really, I just took harder math classes than him in high school (13 years ago), and I had Asian parents who MADE me do "ok-ish" in math (ever heard of Kumon? yeah...I did it).

Nick took what was required to graduate, barely passed, AND his mom was not Asian (obviously). 

And for all y'all "non engineers", scientists, and mathematicians, college algebra is pretty difficult for the average "jane" or "joe".

I'm surprisingly doing OK-ish in it thanks to YouTube tutorials and my trusty iPhone.

As a 31 year old working on her undergrad, I am SO thankful for my experience as a wife, mother, and Marine.

My time management skills rock (no all nighters here), my priorities are straight, and I roll my eyes constantly at young 20-21 year olds that I think would have benefited from a good 4 year stint in the good ole U.S.M.C before embarking on college (which is like 80% of them).

However, as a 31 year old, one of the "suckiest" parts of being in college is taking classes like "college algebra" that would have been WAY easier when I was 18 and fresh out of my high school calculus class. 

Anyway, 

Life's been busy.

Between my classes, Nick's classes, ROTC commitments for Nick, kids, marriage, life, mortgages, bills, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.......blogging is on the backburner. 

If you don't follow me on Instagram, here are some pics!!

 

If y'all have followed me long enough, y'all know how much I hated New England winters.

I prayed and begged for heat, and when God put us back in HIS COUNTRY (Texas, for all y'all non Texans), I was over the moon.

It's September, and it's still warm enough (hot actually) for my kids to be naked outside in the sprinklers!

I love "punny sayings".

I found this shirt at Target, and HAD to get it for Mattis, because it's such a LIE.

LIE. LIE. LIE!

lol.

Mattis has been a little under the weather, so we took him into the doc to get looked at.

"It's viral"....

Something I hate to heart from the doctor, because there is NOTHING we can do....no antibiotics or magic pill.

We just gotta let it run its' course.

Dannika loves American Girl dolls.

She had one that Nick got her as a gift after he graduated OCS for being such a great helper to me while he was gone.

They're like 100 bucks, and I swore it's the only one she'll ever own.

But a good friend of ours has a teenaged daughter who was selling some of her old ones to buy a new Macbook.

I jumped on the opportunity, and Dannika got her second AG doll for a fraction of the price. 

Meet Bella, Dannika, and Annaliese (goes by Anna).

Anna is her new one.

 Mattis loves his "ya ya" (aka his paci).

People tell me all the time that it's time to wean him off of it.

As much as I would love to, a part of me loves that he still loves it.

It's the last little part of "baby" that he has...

And lastly...

Remember when I told y'all about the Vancouver vacation/cruise that I got for my mom and dad for my dad's 60th birthday?

Last Thursday through Sunday sightseeing in Vancouver and are on their cruise now headed to Long Beach, CA.

From the looks of my mom's Instagram photos, they've been having a great time!

I miss y'all, and I've been doing my best to catch up with y'alls blogs, Facebook, and Instagram!

My Facebook Love/Hate Relationship

Ahhh Facebook....

It's a topic of many blog posts, news articles, social media outlets....it's every where.

I love Facebook.

As a military family who is always stationed away from family, it's been a great way to share our life with our family and friends who don't live near us (specifically my immediate family).

My neighbor just had a baby, and her mom talked about how much she wished she lived closer to her daughter so she could see her grandchild more often....

She lives an hour and a half away....same as my parents. 

I totally understand how living in a different city as your grand kids for a civilian family could be difficult. 

As a military family, we have always been in a different state as our parents, and my kids were lucky if they got to see them at least twice in one year.

Facebook has been such an amazing tool for our family to keep in touch with my family and friends back here in Texas.

Since moving back Texas, it's become more a tool for me to keep up with old Marines and their families that I have served with, since my family is right here (an hour and a half away).

Today, I deleted my FB app from my phone.

Why?

Because I let FB hurt my feelings.

A really close friend of Nick's wife blocked me on Facebook.

I found out because they recently got married, and being the girly girl that I am wanted to see their wedding photos.

When I searched her name, I realized she was no longer my friend on Facebook, AND she had blocked me.

I knew she blocked me because Nick is still friends with her on FB, and she was unsearchable on my account.

I've met her and her husband (Nick's friend) ONCE in my entire life at IHOP for breakfast.

I thought that because her husband and my husband were such great friends, we could at least be FB acquaintances. 

I post a lot on FB.

I post tons of photos of my kids, my work out selfies, my day to day life, and random thoughts.

I don't post (anymore) politics, religion, or controversial topics on FB.

The last few years, I use FB to share my life, and stalk all my friends' lives.

I want to see their babies, baby announcements, pregnancy photos, date nights, thoughts on football games, their mascara videos, and so on and so forth.

I hide and unfollow my friends who share too much politics, religion, or controversial topics.

I like my newsfeed to be happy.

So I couldn't for the life of me figure out why this woman would not only unfriend me, but block me as well.

I barely knew her.

I do my best to post things that won't offend anyone.

I am a self proclaimed "oversharer", and I have told people time and time again to 'unfollow' me or 'unfriend' me if my posts are overcrowding their newsfeeds.

But if you're gonna block me????? I feel like you really hate me.

Hate is a strong word, right?

So I let my feelings get hurt over this lady who I barely know today.

I said mean things about her just to make myself feel better....even though I barely know her and have nothing mean to say about her....

So I deleted FB from my phone.

I'll check it once a day when I am on my computer.

I realized how ridiculous I was getting butt hurt over being "blocked" on Facebook.

Seriously...

I'm a 31 year old 10 year combat veteran of the damn Marine Corps....the fiercest fighting force in the world.

If I am letting myself get butt hurt over being "blocked" on social media, I have some bigger issues to worry about.

But wow...

That felt great to vent.

Do you get offended on social media?

Aggie Game Day Experience

Today, I got to take Nick, Dannika, AND Mattis to their VERY FIRST FIGHTIN' TEXAS AGGIE FOOTBALL GAME!

I've grown up watching the Aggies play, and living here in CSTX, Kyle Field has always been at my fingertips.

I mean, my high school used to play our big rivalry game AT Kyle Field!

As always, the Semper fi Society of A&M had their tailgate before the game, so headed out a little early.

It was an 11am game (the only morning game the Aggies play).

After tailgating (for all of 10 minutes because the kids made us late), we headed over to Kyle Field for the game.

It was HOT....like really HOT....HOTTER than HAYLL HOT.

But, it did not stop us from enjoying the game.

Already to watch the Aggie BTHO Nevada!

First photo at the famous Kyle Field

Did I mention it was ridiculously hot?!

Our shirts were soaked from sweating! 

We ended watching the majority of the game in the back of our section where there was shade standing up.

I still can't get over the size of Kyle Field!

From what I remember as a kid, I feel like it has quadrupled in size!

I was super impressed with the newly renovated Kyle Field.

So the Aggies may not win every game, but we ALWAYS win halftime.

The Aggie band is one of the world's largest military marching bands.

Their movements are so precise, and just jaw dropping.

When I see other colleges bands playing, I'm always a little underwhelmed....

Because the AGGIE BAND will make ANY marching band seem irrelevant. 

My kids actually LOVED the halftime show...like LOVED. 

It was so hot, and they really didn't enjoy the game, BUT, they truly did enjoy the halftime show.

My two boys' first Aggie game!

We sat in the alumni section next to the student section.

Every time the cute little college girls saw Mattis, they gushed and "ooh'ed and aah'ed" over how "adorable that little Aggie" was.

He was enjoying the attention (and so did Nick, I think...lol).

We all made it to halftime, and had to be 2%'ers today and leave because our kids would not have survived another half in that heat.

Nick and I plan to attend several more games SANS KIDDOS, so we can fully enjoy the actual game.

We were definitely not "REDASS" today.... (if you don't know what redass means, you're definitely not an Aggie).

We got home in time to watch the ND vs GaTech game, and ordered pizza.

I am so happy to have shared the Aggie game day experience with my family today!

Even with the heat, Nick told me that the experience was "somethin' else". 

I am so proud to be from this town, and so proud to be part of the Aggie family!

GIG 'EM!