Zero to 18 in no time flat

Zero to 18 in 22 seconds. That is truly what it feels like when my oldest child is now OFFICALLY an adult. I am one lucky mom. Even today he asked me “Does it feel weird we are all growing up?” My answer was……DEFINITELY.

He has always been a dirt biker

I have been struggling with Jackson this year. Not with him but the fact that he is now 18 and a senior. The fact that my oldest kid is going to join the Military after Graduation. The fact that he isn’t a little boy anymore with big ears and an even bigger smile.  I guess every parent struggles with the fact their kids are getting older. I sometimes look at him when he is speaking and can see WAY down the line when he has a family of his own. I see the growth. I see his caring nature. I see his joking side. I see how much he has grown. I see him turning into a man.

Me and my Adult Son

For Jacks 18^th bday he wanted to go to an All you can eat Sushi place. There is nothing like that around where we live although we do love us some sushi. His Mom and I talked and decided we would bring him to Reno so both sides of the family could meet up. We wanted him to have a big birthday with her and her side of the family plus Ryan and I and our side of the family. It was going to be great! Sushi, bowling and staying at a Casino. Cousins everywhere. I think Jackson was worried it was going to be a little babyish but in the end he said he really liked it.

We did the all you can eat sushi with 21 of us. Everyone chatted and had fun. It was all for Jackson and he was the star of the show. I wished I would have gotten a picture of him when the whole restaurant sang to him. The embarrassed look on his face was classic. We all laughed, ate and had a good time. After filling our bellies full we went over to Grand Sierra Resort to do Black light bowling.

A whole bunch of us

 

Jack with his mom on left and MIL on right

 

Cassie, Josh and Aunt Kelly loving Sushi

 

 Jen and some of the younger Cousins

 

Ryan and I loving Sushi

Ok I am going to stop for a second and say something important to me. I may not be Jackson’s biological mom. I am technically his step mom and have only been in his life since he was 10 but I love him like he is my own. He has my heart. I am thankful that his Biological mom and family understand that. They even call me the “other mom” as I am just that. The other mom. I am not the wicked step mom in Cinderella. I love Jackson and have since I laid eyes on him and his brother. Ryan and I have never treated the four kids differently. They get loved the same and punished the same. We are very blessed they get along so well and they view each other as brothers and sisters. My heart aches when any of them are hurt and is over joyed when something happens good to any of them. I am also very thankful that you can take two families that have been through a divorce and still be there for the kids. And have fun mind you too.

Ok so back to my kid turning 18. We all went bowling for two hours. It was a blast. Not only was it fun for the little kids but it was fun for the adults too. I laughed so many times. I laughed when my dad took off his shoes because he was afraid to slip. I laughed when Jacksons Uncle John told me how he was a great bowler but only on Wii. I laughed when any of us would get a strike and see the ultimate joy in our faces or rather surprised look that we did it actually. It was a good time. I loved getting to know Jackson and Jason’s Mom side better. Everyone was really nice and never made anything awkward. I loved seeing my nieces Kylie and Mariah bowl with their bumper pads and thinking to myself maybe I would do better if I used those too.

Jacob and Jackson going head to head

The thing that I hope Jackson saw in the end was there were so many people there who loved him. So many people who wanted to share in his bday of turning into an adult. He had Uncles and Aunts from both sides there, His Grandma Sally, His Papa Vaughn and Grandma Andy and then he had a slew of cousins from young to old there plus his siblings and all his 3 parents. I think that is how every big birthday should be. Full of fun and love for your child. Not many divorced families can pull that off but if you truly love the kids....you will.

It was an amazing night. Lots of laughs and lots of love. Jackson later went out with his older cousin Jacob to have a little one on one time too. Also shout out to Jacob. I like that kid (whelp technically adult) and I promised him if he won in bowling I would give a shout out! HI JACOB!

It was a good night. My son is finally 18. The skies have opened up for him and he is an adult. Just a couple more months and he will be graduating too. I love you Jackson. For the next couple months I may hug you a little longer and a little tighter…..you just have to stop growing up.

Venice, Freakshow, Cassie 17th Bday

Freak show, Sushi, Venice and lots of fun. Today was my daughter Cassies 17th Birthday. I had to come to Santa Monica for my one month testing after Surgery and since it was her Birthday we thought what fun lets bring her down here!!

Our day started off with sleeping in which none of us have done in forever. We got a vacation rental near the ocean as they are inexpensive compared to staying at the hotels. Check out Airbnb if interested. You can find homes all over the world to stay at. So fun. Our place is a cute 2 bedroom apartment one block from the Venice Boardwalk! So we made the treak out.

On Venice boardwalk we looked for some breakfast. Walking along the Ocean and people watching is so much fun. Found a good place to eat and Cassie was excited we let her have a RedBull. Hey why not...its her birthday. We loved watching the people as they go by and all the "characters" of Venice.

Ryan and I have been to Venice before as I had my surgery in the neighboring town. We got to know it pretty well since we were here for almost 3 weeks a month ago. We wanted to show Cassie the sites on the walkway like the famous skatepark, muscle beach, all the shops and lets not forget the Famous Venice Freak Show that is on AMC and Netflix all the time. As we were walking to show her the skatepark....we were walking along the actual bike lanes (its hard for me to walk in grass or sand right now) we saw the singer PINK and her husband Cary Hart and their daughter. Its not like we were watching for famous people. I saw the little girl first because i thought oh how cute she is on front of bike with pink helmet. Then I looked up and it was Cary Hart (dirt biker) and before my mind could register to grab my camera PINK was right behind them! I was like OMG and told Ryan and Cassie to look look look as they peddled right next to us but then by us. By the time we got camera out. This is the shot we got haha! We were starstruck probably because we all love her music so much! So talented! Thank goodness for recovering from Surgery or we might not have seen that.

PINK!

We went to the skate park to show cassie as all her brothers called to say happy birthday to her. She was telling them about this cool Batman Character she saw and how their were rollar blade guys dancing in front of her. It was pretty fun to see so many things. was happy boys called her as they are with MIL back at that house. They were happy because they said they could do "man things" haha.

Taking Call from her Brother

Our next adventure was going to Venice Freak Show were you see oddities and two headed animals. You also see Larry the Wolfman, The smallest man in the USA, Bob the Bubble Boy, Sword Swallowing and other interesting things inside the Museum. This is something Cassie really wanted to go see. It actually changed our lives in a positive way but I am going to write about that in my next blog as want it to be a feature. Lets just say it was amazing and we met the most fantastic person in the world. Make sure to subscribe as I will be writing it tomorrow with tons of pictures! We had a great time there. Its been featured on AMC and its on Netflix also. Cassie was amazed and we even went back to retalk to some of the people later. AMAZING so stay tuned tomorrow. You will be so thrilled.

This took a couple hours of our time. Even though the show is maybe 15-20 minutes. Here is a sneak peak though....

Morgue is amazing

Larry The Wolfman

It was a good day. We saw a lot of acts on the walkway. A 17 year old boy flipping over 4 people, glass walkers and saw tons of artwork and shops. It was a fun walk for sure. We went out for breakfast and it was already almost 5pm. Had to rush to get to our massage appointments. Love Venice as they are only 35 dollar an hour!

To end our night we took Cassie to her favorite food of all time. All you can eat Sushi! I think she loved it as we left super full and she got sang to by the whole restuarant. Got that on video it was so funny! Love Embarrasing our kids.

All in all I would say she had an amazing birthday. I cannot believe my only daughter is already 17. As of today I now have two 17 and two 15 year olds. For couple months it will stay this way and then bam we end up with 18,17,16 and 15 year old. Crazy how that works out. Cassie is growing up to be a strong, independent, fun, smart, beautiful young lady and we are so proud of her! Happy Birthday Cassandra!

To Subscribe to this blog you can do it several ways. By going to the top of the page and putting your email in. Then check your email and confirm. By google plus or by bloglovin. Its up to you but remember tomorrow I am writing the amazing events and people of the Venice Freak Show. You WONT want to miss that!

Family Day

Sometimes you just have to get up and get away with your family. Since I got a new car (to me) this week I thought what would be more fun than going on a mini road trip. We had a couple appointments at Lens Crafters to get the kids their eyes checked and to see who needed new scripts or if they needed glasses at all. Since it is two hours away we wanted to make a family day out of it.

After testing eyes it ended up Joshua and Cassie needed glasses. Cassie already had some but her script had changed a little. I love watching the technology they do to make sure the eye is healthy and also that they have the right prescription.

After getting the glasses for these two we walked around the mall as prom is coming up this weekend to make sure that Jackson had the bow tie he wanted. Cassie already had her dress and Joshua doesn't want to go this year. I am thankful that both my kids who are going are going with friends. I think it makes for a fun dance where you can enjoy yourself and hang out with all of your friends. I am proud they both decided to go alone and to just have a blast.

After our appointment we decided to take the kids to the new Avengers movie. They were pretty excited. I personally don't LOVE, LOVE Avengers like my family does but it was a good movie. I think Cassie and Ryan are probably the biggest Avenger fans as they wear some of the clothes even ha! I love going to the movies with my family. We don't do it often as its really far from our ranch so it truly is a treat. The kids loved it. I loved having popcorn ha! Okay Thor and Iron Man aren't hard on the eyes either. Mid movie I leaned over to Ryan and told him that Iron Man makes me think of him. Maybe I will start calling him Iron Man and see what he does :)

With Joshua Bday, Jasons 8th Grade Graduation and Mothers Day coming up we decided to go to Kobe Steakhouse. This is a BIG treat for us. It was a great end to our day however. All of us sitting around a hibachi watching them cook and do a show. Delicious food. Its funny because we are at this super nice restaurant and Jackson asked to go to Taco Bell after. I told him I wasn't going to sit next to him if he said that and moved my seat jokingly. Of course after the food was served and we had an amazing time....Taco Bell was well forgotten. Hey when you live so far from restaurants even Taco Bell is a treat (yuck).

It was a good day. Lots of laughs and lots of fun. Just us and a memorable day. We love being able to treat the kids once in awhile. They were thankful and by the time we drove home there was a lot of silence from sleeping teens. It was a good day! I loved it. We are blessed to be able to do that once in awhile and thankful to God for those blessings.

Subscribe to my blog....its fun~! Always something new happening. You can subscribe by email on the home page, Google+, Bloglovin or even just by visiting my link. Have a Blessed Day.

Rae-Rae's Brain Dump

Brain Dump can be crazy, weird, funny, interesting. Its when you write out what you are thinking for a certain amount of time. I thought I would do it and see what this ol brain has to say. So Ready...Get Set....GO! (5 minutes worth)

Okay seriously I don't know what to write but I want to make sure I have fun blogs and more subscribers everyday. Its important to me since this is my passion and at the same time it becomes a journal for me or even or my kids in the future. Who knows maybe I can be the next Blogging Crazed person. Wait...I think I am already. I think about Blogging all the time. Besides thinking about that I am thinking about how I should of changed my pants before I sat down to blog because I have lamb and cow drool on me. I really love feeding my animals. Its always super fun. The only time I don't like it is when we have to go somewhere or do something and I have to make sure its within 4 hours so I can get the next feeding done. I am worried about tomorrow. Oh ya tomorrow is my anniversary and after my Dr appointment I am hoping to have a Sushi lunch with my husband. I want to do something super cool for him but done know what yet. He deserves it.  I hate putting people out but I am going to have to have someone pick up the kids to take them to school because we have to leave at 6 am. I have to make sure my feeding is done before we go and then Becky will be feeding them at 12 and the kids can feed at 4. I hate putting people out. That is the one thing I miss is having family close by to help or we can help them. We are lucky because we will be gone for a week and my mother in law will be feeding everything. I worry about her hands though and the lambs and calf bombarding her. I am going to have to separate them. Its hard for one person to feed sometimes. Easier to have two with all the bottle feeding. Hence why I have milk on my pants and drool. Yep I even say Hence in my head. So weird.

Wonder how Ryan is doing with working on piping for Irrigation today? When Christines grandbabies come here we should make him lunch and bring it to him. I think I will bring canvas and we can paint outside with the kids because its such a perfect day. I really need to tan before the cruise. I look like baby powder. I wonder if this is going to be boring to others? You know how you start to read something but it doesn't catch your attention so you move on. Life is so like that now a days. I wish that we would put down our cell phones and shut off our computers more. I am bad about that too. I look at facebook a lot and am always trying to get my blog out there. Wonder what people think of it? Its so new. Cant wait to see how it does in years to come. Its going to be so cool to look back at the kids and see what they were doing all the time.

Hoping Jack, Cas and Josh don't get home too late tonight from their leadership conference. Even with phone calls I hope they had a good time and learned some stuff. I feel closer to Jason just after this weekend. Its nice to have one kid to spoil just for a weekend when you have four. Definitely going to have to take turns. I let him drive the car from ranch to ranch by himself and was worried the whole time even though we practiced a lot. He was so happy to do it and even turned up the music. Then when he drove me he slowed way down I felt like we would never get to the house. Has 5 minutes been up? I wish I thought more about cool stuff or intellectual stuff like a professor or something. Where is Christine anyways? Worried the Grandbabies aren't here yet for me to watch today. Man my mind is boring. Guess I will have time for another cup of coffee and to change my slobbered on pants. Its such a nice day outside. Don't think I will do a brain dump post again.
I feel like I am getting bored myself! Hope people subscribe anyways on the blog or google or bloglovin.

Q & A Getting to know Rae Rae's Hubby

I cant remember where I saw this but I thought it was cool to do a Question and Answer Session. I am going to do my hubby first and tomorrow while we are on the road I will be doing the kids. I actually had to put work into this ha! I had to tape record (ok on my iPhone but whatever) the conversation so I could write down the answers. Its pretty funny how we end up asking more than there is. Mind you I am going to type this WORD for WORD! Lets get to know my hubby first!

Hi Hubby what's your name? Ryan

Okay, (yes I said that when asking) would you rather watch a sitcom, a reality show, a police drama, a legal drama, a medical drama or something else and why? What were my options? (Sigh, this might take awhile and I repeated question). I don't know I guess it depends on my mood. I like the ones that make you think unless its a good comedy. You like watching hunting. Yes, that makes me think.

If someone wrote a book about your life, what would they title it? What was I thinking.

Are you a Spender or a Saver? Spend-eer.

What would you do if you had a Million Dollars right now? I would put it towards all the kids college and buy a house for us.

What is your favorite kind of music? Old style, I guess that Grandpa old style rock. None of that long hair crap. Name the first song that comes to your head? Ball and Chain. (I laugh).Who is that by? Social Distortion.

Would you rather have super strength or super intelligence and why? Intelligence. Why? Because you can think about easier ways to move heavy things. You get more done if you are smart. I think anyone's strongest muscle should be between their ears.

Name a couple of your pet peeves? (I close my ears and act like I am not listening) Wet Floors. (he hates it if his socks get wet lol) Trash in the car. You have the most trash in your truck! Water bottles full of water don't count.

What is your dream job? I don't know. I think I am doing it. Get to play around on my horse. I get to use tractors and move around dirt. I am like a little kid its just not a Tonka truck anymore its a real one. A bigger toy.

What's the strangest food you have ever eaten? Strangest? I don't know. Dog food. Ehw when did you eat dog food! I don't know it was a party favor. You ate dog food? Gross! It might of been cat food I don't know. I guess my real answer is a live Sea Urchin.

What place would you like to visit and why? Tropical Places. Just because its fun to be by the ocean and its warm. Plus you get to see cool animals.

Who makes you want to be a better person? You and the kids. I am straight up saying that you and the kids make me want to do better and be better. I want to take care of everyone.

What is your favorite way to kill time? Hunting.

When did your mouth get you in trouble? I don't know ....Five minutes ago (I laugh). Right when you said, "ok I want to ask you these questions" (I am still laughing).

When you have a sweet tooth what do you crave? Candy. When don't you have a sweet tooth though? I never liked sweets till I met you. That's not true I don't even like sweets. Ok your right I like hard crunchy candy like candy canes and lemon drops.

What would you like to learn about? Hmm...(long pause) I guess scientific stuff like computer science and experiments on chemicals. Psychology is cool though too. People trip me out. Why does one person think something is normal and another person thinks its abnormal.

What is the story behind one of your scars? I don't know pick a scar. Shoulder surgery...or do you want to go for something cool. Cool of course. I have a couple of burns on my back from dirt biking. I endowed like nose dived and the bike ended up on top of me and burnt my back. That's why you wear a good helmet because my head would of been crushed. I had a big ol gouge out of my helmet. What's an endow? Its a nose dive. Basically the bike decided to stop right where it was, and I kept going. It pushed me down and burnt me.

In what ways are you a nerd? Between Video games or Dorky Movies.

What do you think are Characteristics that make a good parent? I think being a good I guess leader and actually showing someone how to do something and not just saying how it should be done. Explain why its to be done that way. Then you have to let people make their own mistakes and learn for themselves too.

How would friends describe you to someone who had never met you? I don't know. How would I describe you then? I don't know. I would like to think I am funny. But because I think I am funny doesn't mean everyone else does. So they would say Ryan is funny? I have never thought about how to describe myself or how someone sees me so I am not sure how to really answer that. How would you describe me? You aren't asking me questions that's my job! :)

What's it like to have four teenagers? Drowning. You cant say that. You got that off a comedy show. What's your real answer. Its very interesting. How? You have four very different personalities. That's why I think Psychology is pretty interesting in how people think and how they feel because you have four people who were basically raised all the same way but they all think and feel different ways about everything. I think its pretty crazy. And its expensive (we both start laughing because its so true).

What's your favorite app? Craigslist or EBay.

What's your favorite food? I think I am a meat eater. A good steak. We never go out and have a steak. That's because we can have it at home and when we go out we have sushi. Ya true..Yum...I want sushi right now. Its almost midnight. My Birthday is in a few days.

Who do you look up too? My Grandpa. Why? He was the man! He could do anything and figure anything out. He could go out and take apart half the motor of the truck and put it back together. Even though he said a million times that he didn't know if he could do it this time. You are like your Grandpa. No I take stuff apart and don't put it back together sometimes.

What's it like to be married to me? That's not written down. Yes it is. Let me see your paper. No you cant see it. I am interviewing you remember. What's it like being married to you? Its an Adventure. Never know what's going to happen. Its like a box of chocolates you never know what you are getting next. I love it.

Ok say goodbye. Say goodbye! :)

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A new family member

I am behind in writing because I have been so excited about the website that my friend Rachel and I have finally launched after working on it for four months. cushingstories.com

We have a new family member....meet Molly!

Ryan and I went to our old stomping ground to do some paperwork. Grandma Sally, Ryan's mom, so generously watched the kids for a couple days so we could make the trek to Placerville and get that done. THANKS MIL!!! Lets go back a little bit. My mother passed away four years ago and lately more than ever I have been really missing her. She used to have this dog named Azuma that was a Shih Tzu. So the other day I got the great idea to get one that looked just like Azuma but a girl. I don't know why I thought this would make me feel better but well....honestly....it does. I looked on Craigslist all the towns on the way to Placerville (which is a lot) and actually found one. She is a pure bred but we didn't get her papered so she wasn't as expensive. You know me....I like to save money.

We decided to leave early so we could spend the night at our good friends house Carla and Greg. They had a new puppy too so I knew she wouldn't mind if we picked one up along the way lol. We were going to get a hotel but Carla wouldn't let that happen. Made it better anyways since we could chat for awhile before the next morning when we had to do all our errands. My dad wasn't going to be home so I didn't want to bug my step mom since they go to sleep early anyways. Carla and I had a great time. Greg and Ryan are good friends too so they were laughing it up too. We went to Denny's which used to be our little stop when we wanted to get out with them and leave the kids at home. We can be a little rowdy sometimes because we laugh so much. It was a fun time! We talked and had fun watching the puppies be with each other.

The next day after our errands I knew my step moms birthday was coming up. We went and got her flowers, candy, balloons and a card. She loves Chocolate so that worked out well. I drove by the house three times but she was always out lol. I had told my dad we were coming but not to tell her because we wanted to surprise her. Finally we ended up just leaving it on the stoop for her to see once she got home. :)

All our paperwork got signed and we were off to head home. Ryan and I.....and Molly :) We tried waiting around town as long as possible so we could drive and go see my BFF Laura when she got off of work. I knew we wouldn't have much time since we were going to drive 6 hours home but I couldn't go through there without seeing her and her family. Her kids (my babies) loved Molly. They played with her the whole time and just had a blast. Wore her out for us for the drive home. I love seeing Laura. We have been friends since we were 12 years old. I cant believe its been 26 years of friendship and she still loves me haha! We didn't have tons of time to stay and it was almost dinner for the kids so we headed out with promises of them coming to the Ranch this summer to feed the new lambs and calves. I cant wait to see them!

Apparently driving home seemed too long so we called Grandma and asked if she would watch the kids till the next morning. She said yes. She is always so amazing and helpful. Seriously some days I don't know what we would do without her. She drives 3.5 hours just to help us. Anyways we decided to stay half way in Reno and do some food shopping the next day on the way home. I found this super cheap hotel room at Circus Circus for 29.00 for a King Suite. I know they do that so people will come and stay and gamble but....we don't gamble so we just got the great deal. Molly was behaving the whole time and we decided to give her a bath for the first time. Man oh man did she look different HA!

By the next day we headed off to home after doing food shopping and normal shopping of clothes for the kids. I swear we arrived 30 minutes before we had to get the kids and go to their basketball games. Only Jacksons team was playing this time but Joshua's class had the bake sale. Jacksons class had the feed of which we were working. It was a long couple of days but good ones. I miss my friends already but was so happy to see them even if for a very short time. I am glad we got Molly! While I was in Placerville I went to my moms grave and showed her my puppy. I also gave her a pepsi which is something my mother was so addicted too. She LOVED Pepsi! I know in my mind she is not there that she is in heaven but it felt good to be there and just say hello. I love and miss my mom. Now I have a little puppy that will stay little that reminds me of her everyday! Sounds crazy since we have other dogs.....but it makes me feel better.

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