Unveiling the New

My family blog has a new name (you may have noticed).

It started like any other day, except it was cold (brrr!!!). We woke up, had lots of things to do (like actually cleaning) and picking up Michelle at the airport. Michelle Branch is one of our great family friends and my "mentally" adopted daughter. We've known her since 2003, and now that we've moved to Texas, the normal thing to do is to send her a ticket every now and then so she can visit and unwind for a few days. This is her third visit- I feel so loved!

Ok, on to what this post is about...

Despite all the stuff we had to do, our day, to me, seemed too calm and too slow- almost like I was watching a typical day (already boring) on a slo-mo screen showing. It was unreal! Needless to say, I had a moment to think about how our life truly is... (Overstuffed and Pink Ink had great posts and got me thinking more- my brain hurts, lol)

My hubby and I do not have many bankable talents outside of his actual job that Southwest Airlines (thanks, Gary Kelly!) is training him for. I am a student- full time, so for now, we enjoy a routine: homework, work, race to see who can nap, eat, shower, race to see who can fall asleep first (he always wins), etc... But our children, boy, our children- they run us! Not take advantage, but run us as in we plan the day according to their schedule! (I'm sure I've posted about this before)

LISA has AP US History & Calc BC; Math UIL,Choir & AC/DEC competitions and practices; a healthy social life and homework load that most college students drop out of college for.
JASMINE has Safety Patrol, Choir and LEAP. She keeps joining in all these extracurriculars and have a swarm of friends who constantly knock on our door asking, "uhm, can, can... Jasmine come out?" Her homework load is almost as daunting as Lisa's while still needing to read about 30-45 minutes a day, plus she loves to watch TV and the Wii!
IAN has LEAP and a constant battle of "sitting still for a stamp" with himself. He's such a bundle of energy that sometimes he finds himself hitting every corner he rounds (hilarious and scary). They are so much fun and they mostly dictate how we end the day- normally with an extra somebody in our house, eating our food, and playing our games. JUST THE WAY WE LIKE IT!:-D

Ooppss! Ok, back to the story behind the new name...

I was talking to Charlie about getting ready to pick up Michelle and where to take everyone to lunch after, when the "sticky note" (as Pink Ink called it) from the top of this blog came into my head with the downplay countermove of, "but you complicate it!", and voila! the name "CompliCated s1mpl1c1ty" sprung in my mental bank as if it was a million dollar note waiting to be deposited into the vault I call my brain. I didn't want to forget it so I asked Charlie how he liked it and he did so I had to quickly make a title graphic for it and post about it. If you noticed the C's are both in caps- that represents me and Charlie while the "1's" in simplicity represent our three little "ripple starters" we call our children; Lisa, Jasmine and Ian. With them, our life is beautifully balanced; without them, our lives would be empty.

So, if you ever wonder about this new name, it's because our simple life is complicated with the love, faith and laughter we share with our three other "mahals" or beloved. Charlie and I are simple folks with lots of big dreams, but sometimes simple is just too simple, it needs to be spiced with the miracle of children.

There you have it, "Complicated Simplicity"! I'm sure you noticed...