A post 9 years in the making.

Today, I'm going back. Not waaaay back, but back 9 years.  

If you follow me on twitter, which I think you TOTALLY should (shameless plug), I’m about to unmask one of the infamous Ruiz mini-mes that grace my feed.

Twelve years ago, I fought a battle that I wish on no one. I fought cancer. And I won (knock on wood, Thank You, God.) Part of my fight was with the help of radical, experimental chemotherapy mixed together into a potent and potentially deadly chemo cocktail. There were no fancy umbrellas with this cocktail and the side effects were potentially devastating. My dream to be a mommy may have been just that … a dream.

Almost a year after we finished chemo, my oncologist, the ever brilliant and uber amazing Dr. Chawla, said we could start trying to have children. A couple of months later, we got pregnant! The high of being able to get pregnant met with a soul crushing miscarriage on Christmas day. I thought for sure it was because of the chemo. I thought certainly this was going to be how Mark and I spent the next few years.
My brother, Patric, disagreed.
He said, “Mindy, he’s just not perfect yet and he’s stubborn. He’ll get it the second time around.”

I’m not sure how Patric knew the baby was a he.

I’m not sure how Patric knew we would try again, because, at the time, I was certain I couldn’t go through the loss again.

But three months and two pink lines later we were, surprisingly, pregnant.

I held my breath for ten weeks!

And then took only short quick breaths for the remaining thirty weeks.

On November 8th, 2003. Jacob Anthony Ruiz was born.

And just as his Uncle Patric had promised, he was PERFECT!!!

He still is.

He has the tender soul of his Grandpa Doc.

The righteousness of his Daddy.

The adventurous spirit of his Uncle Patric.

The best hugs ever like his Granny Bea.

The persistence of his Granny Carol.

The wiliness of his Uncle Daniel and Uncle Maty

The LOVE for the USC Trojans like his Uncle Josh and Aunt Kat

And he has my smile and imagination.

Happy Birthday, Jacob.

Love, your Momma!

Thursday Throwback.

Simple and Sweet this week.

(to be continued...)

Lie, Lie, Lie, Lieeees! There gonna getchya!

THURSDAY THROW BACK!!!!

Remember this song?

The Thompson Twins!

The mini-mes are quite the gifted storytellers!

They must get it from their momma, who started at a VERY young age spinning tales.

(first story or what some may call a lie)

As the Minis started their journey into storytelling,

I didn't want to repeat my dad's mistake/doctrine:

"If it's not the truth then it's a lie!"

If the Minis had a story inside them, I wanted to hear it. At the same time, I didn't want them to think it was okay to tell a tale and let someone think it was real.

So we came up with a trigger statement.

Before any spinning begins, the phrase: THIS IS MY IMAGINATION STORY, must be proclaimed.
Of course, there are times when they forget to use the trigger statement. It usually takes about five or ten minutes or the arrival of a purple dragon to clue me in, but I ask, "Is this an imagination story?"
And I usually get an impish grin or nod of the head.
I saw this picture online: .

So here's the question:

What was the first/grandest or most believable lie you ever told or were told?

If it's a doozy, leave it in the comment section!

Throwback Thursday takes on Heros

Last week, I did an homage to heroines.
This week, I take on the heros.
Next weeks posts will be: Why Your Hero Shouldn't Wear a White Hat.
I will most CERTAINLY be referencing this video... and it won't all be about 80's hair.

My Favorite Things + Thursday Throwback!!

MY 10 FAVORITE THINGS:

1.  Spell check
2.  Customer Service reps who actually service customers.
3.  My ubber-twitter that was on my old BlackBerry
4.  Jason Witten & The Dallas Cowboys
5.  Old movies that still make me cry!

6.  Mighty Putty ... okay anything that has the logo "AS SEEN ON TV' I'm a sucker
7.  Drive thru Dairies.
8.  My little boys when they wake up in the morning and make sweet kitten sounds.
9.  My iPod Nano!
10. People who leave comments on my blog... even if they're a happy face. *HINT HINT* LOL

Thursday Throwback that Rolled into Friday.

Alright, they the second time is always better so I will try …again… to post Thursday’s Throwback song on Friday. C’mon Blogger, NO WHAMMIES!!!!
RECAP:
On Wednesday: I, along with the rest of my besties, had a CRAP day. Heads down we weathered the storm. I wrote a poor me blog post, crawled into bed and threw the covers over my head like every good, yet slightly defeated, writer/mommy needs to do every now and again.

On Thursday: I woke up, which is always a plus, with a much better attitude.  After giving the test-the-waters morning a mommy glare along with the don ‘t-try-it head tilt, I wracked my brains for a Thursday Throwback. 
Scouring Youtube is such a hard task!
Nope, didn’t say that with a straight face. 
After, what seemed like HOURS of searching … OK I found the song in two clicks but got hung up on book trailers… I came up with:

DA-DA-DA-DUM!!!!!

Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping!!!!!

I know!

You can’t say it without smiling!!!
Wrote the post, attached the you tube video and scheduled the launch.
I picked up the mini-me’s, cooked dinner, checked homework, played networked on twitter, climbed into bed and asked my darling hubby:

 “Did you like my Thursday Throwback?” He’s a Chumbawamba fan.

“No?”

“You didn’t?”

“No, I didn’t see a post.

Bed covers went flying as I ran into my office pulled up Blogger to see when did I have that post scheduled for and found this:

To get Blogger back to normal, all posts since 7:37am PDT on Weds, 5/11 have been temporarily removed. We expect everything to be back to normal soon. Sorry for the delay.

Posted by at 04:25 PDT

Somebody screamed.

Somebody said, “Mindy, don’t scream you’ll wake up the kids.”

So… without any further ado…

Throwback Thursday/FanFlippinFreakinTastic Friday’s Video is:

 Chumbawamba's Tubthumping aka I Get Knocked Down

Ps… not your normal music video and
Pss… I have a feeling the mini’s were watching this video. There’s a hoop in my kitchen.

Everybody Has a Random!

Did ya notice there was no Thursday Throwback? Probably not, but that's okay! The reason why there wasn't a TT was because this post needed to be a FF!  Yep, a FREAKY FRIDAY, cuz we 'bout to get some freak on.

Two days ago on twitter, the girls and I were giving another YA writer friend a hard time about an erotica novel that we all know is inside her ...(no pun intended). Yep, our twitter stream took on a dirty-giggly-slumber-partyesque tone.  Then to my complete and utter surprise on my Tivo was two-- yes, count 'um 2-- Glee episodes.  The first one was with Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holiday, which is only too perfect a stripper name. LOL

As I was watching the Sex episode it got me thinking about my peaches-n-cream-wholesome-fresh-faced-friend who we all know has a slutty character hiding in the depths of her artistic character catalog.   
So here goes ...
This first ever FREAKY FRIDAY Random is for you missy. 
From all your questionable friends on Twitter... WE LOVE YOU!!!!

What Are Words?

It's Thursday and I usually flash back to some song that's playing or played a role in my life.  This Thursday, I thought I'd flash forward.  I'm not much of an AMERICAN IDOL watcher. I didn't even know about Chris Medina or his story until this morning when a local radio station had him debut his new single, WHAT ARE WORDS, with Ryan Seacrest.
In the green room listening were Topher Grace and Ryan Kavanaugh.  They  were so moved by Chris and his undying devotion to the love of his life they pledged 1% of the film TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT's box office gross to the recovery fund for Chris' fiancee, Juliana.

I hope you enjoy the video and go see TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT this weekend with a loved one.