Saturday, December 29, 2007

Another Christmas come and gone

It's been 4 days since Christmas. 4 noisy days. Our house has come alive with a multitude of sounds. It seems that Santa wasn't thinking...at all...and brought almost no quite toys. In fact, we now have a live band living here. Well maybe not a band so much as dueling guitars and LOTS of singing.


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Adam flew in on Christmas morning which was great because there was no one on the freeway and we made it to LAX in record time! Then his flight left yesterday morning at 6am which meant we left for the airport at 3:45. I'm making a new rule that I will only pick people up and drop them off at LAX if they fly in on Christmas and out at the crack off dawn. I've never driven faster than 40 on the 405. It was lovely.

We had a pretty relaxed Christmas (most of the noise was still packaged-speaking of which, who decided to start securing toys to their packaging with screws?? Like the plastic twisty do-hickeys weren't bad enough). We spent most of the day visiting friends and then had a quite dinner at home.

I finished Carrie's quilt just barely (meaning I was working on it all Christmas eve night after church and in between Santa duties). I think she loves it so it was worth the work. I used black and white fabrics and added black and white pictures from 2007 with a baby blue fabric for the back to throw in a little color. Picking the pictures was a fun process because I sat and looked through all of my pictures from this year. That was so much more time consuming than the actual quilting!

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It is supposed to rain next week so I think I might take the boys up to the mountains for a night so they can play in the snow. We need some sort of activity so I don't lose my mind.

2 weeks of Christmas vacation down. 1 to go. I hope I can make it with at least some of my sanity left.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

I have issues

In true me fashion, I decided this morning to make my best friend a quilt for Christmas. Ya know, cause I didn't have enough to do to prepare for this holiday that's in TWO DAYS. wow.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Christmas stuff

I haven't posted in awhile. Partly because of the holidays and the fact the I've been super busy with everything, but mostly because even though I'm busy I never have anything interesting to say. How sad is that?

I read other people's blogs and it seems that they can turn even the most mundane happenings into enjoyable reading. Me, not so much. Here it is anyway.

I finally took the kids to the mall today to see Santa. Not the REAL Santa, as Gentry kept reminding me. "The real Santa is too busy to sit at the mall. This guy's just here for kids to take the picture."

I've been avoiding the mall, because I don't find it enjoyable during less busy times...and the Christmas shopping crowds do nothing to help. But it's been raining for a few days and the kids were going stir crazy so I figured we'd go. Thankfully we found a parking spot right away. But we found a sign when we got to Santa's spot that said "Santa is feeding his reindeer, he'll return at 2:00". It was only 1:15 but people were starting to line up. I decided we better join them but not till after we went to the San Francisco Cookie company and got some cookies to make the wait less painful :) I'm so glad we got in the line when we did. After about 10 more minutes 30 or more people were in it. By 2 it was ridiculous.
Anyway, the time passed rather quickly and the kids were well behaved and the icing on the cake was that this year the Santa actually looked like Santa.

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Last year at our old mall the guy they had playing santa weighed maybe 160 lbs, was in his 30's and had black hair. And he was so not friendly! It was comical.
This Santa talked to the kids and asked them what they wanted and seemed to enjoy his job. The boys were happy. Their take on the whole thing is that the mall Santa knows the real Santa and will pass on the requests. Plus they sent letters to the north pole weeks ago. Hopefully they wont be too crushed when they get very little of what was on those outrageous lists! An Xbox 360? um, you're six. A Quad? not gonna happen. Drums? no no no no. I'm honestly not sure that they remember what they wrote anyway. Gentry wants EVERYTHING he sees advertised on tv.

My brother called yesterday to tell me that he bought himself a plane ticket to come out for Christmas. That was a nice surprise. I didn't think he was going to make it because he can only come for 3 days and the price of a ticket wasn't worth it. But he got a flight on Christmas morning for pretty cheap. Yay! The kids are soooo excited. They adore him. Hopefully he's not planning on seeing friends are going anywhere that kids can't go because I'm pretty sure they'll be glued to his side the whole time.

I hope it's not raining tomorrow. I have so much to do and I need the ol' "go outside and play" option!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

irony

The sweatshirts turned out great (if I do say so myself) and the coaches both seemed to really like them. Phew.

One of the most expensive photographs every sold was taken inside of a 99 cents store. Oh the irony! I really don't see the appeal. At least not 2.48 million dollars worth, but thats what makes the world go round.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Wally World

Tomorrow is McKay's last soccer game, followed by a little party for his team at Chuck E. Cheese. I'm making sweatshirts for his coaches with pictures of the team on them as a thank you gift (even though one of the coaches sort of skipped out on the "coaching" part of being a coach about 3 games in and pretty much just sits on the sidelines...but that's beside the point. Kinda.) So of course I waited until the last minute to start this project and ended up running around all afternoon trying to find iron-on transfers for dark fabric.

Michaels was out.
Office Max was out.
Target was out.

So I ended up at Walmart. (Go ahead, judge me. I judge me too). I am typically not a fan of Walmart. I'm a Target girl. Yes Walmart is cheaper...but Target is just, well, it's just better. It's cleaner and less crowded and the quality of stuff they sell is better, plus the employees (and the customers) are, (how do I say this nicely?) more likely to have all of their teeth. Oh and there's the added bonus that both of the Targets nearby have Starbucks in them now. And I heart Starbucks.

I'm getting off the subject.

Walmart had the transfers that I needed. So I grabbed them and headed to the checkout and got into the line that looked the shortest. I should know by now that's never a good idea. Everything was going smoothly until the person in front of the person in front of me got ready to pay...and didn't have enough money. Which in and of itself is ok with me. That happens to everyone. But I was growing less and less patient with her circumstances when she took 10 minutes to decide what to put back. But still I'm thinking, ok I'm almost next in line. All of the other lines were busy so it didn't seem logical to get out of my line and try another. UNTIL it's time for the guy in front of me to get rung up and he starts disputing the price of half the stuff he was buying. And now is when the cashier does the dreaded flipping of the switch that makes the light above her register start flashing. And my heart sank. Are you kidding me?? really?? Sir, I'll give you the 86 cents that is the difference between whether or not you want that toothpaste. And I'll throw in the 30 cents that you think you are being overcharged for wrapping paper. Heck, I'll give you a whole 2bucks if we can just get the show on the road. We waited for a few minutes for someone to run and check the price of a few things and then come back and tell the guy that he was wrong. UGH!

Generally I try to have more patience then this but I was tired of shopping and I was hungry and those two things together will pretty much never equal patience for me.

These sweatshirts better turn out cute!

yes, that's right. It's after 10 and I haven't finished them. Whatever.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Sanitary Potato

This is story is like something from a far fetched movie. I can't even imagine how their sons must feel. Geez, people will do crazy things for money. Not me though, I'm just going to win the lottery. Sometime in January. Yup, that's my plan.

Apparently 2008 will be the International Year of the Potato. As well as the International Year of Sanitation. Oh and a leap year. How fun.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

dear friend

Oh Ebay, my long lost friend. I have missed you. It's been awhile. But remember why we stopped hanging out? You were not good for me. Yes, you were fun to be around. but addicting. and costly. and time consuming. (But oh so much fun!) I want us to be friends again. The kind of friends that see each other every once in awhile. And I need you to be an accommodating friend...the kind that gives me what I want. I think that's fair. Now, what I need from you is that ridiculously cool old Polaroid camera. For a reasonable price. Please. Deal? ok, super. thanks.

Friday, November 30, 2007

feeling happy

Rain rain, don't go away.
Stay for a few more days.

We just got done baking some chocolate chip cookies. The house smells great, it's nice and cozy inside. We're going to put jammies on in a bit and watch Polar Express and drink hot chocolate.

The boys have been obsessed with Shrek the Halls for the last 2 days. I'm ready to watch something else!

The Christmas season is so much fun. It can get stressful sometimes, but it also brings out kindness in people and togetherness and all that fun stuff. Plus, there's all that good food :)

I'm glad it's Friday. Tomorrow lights go up on the house.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

teeth

McKay has been on the verge of losing his two front teeth for some time now. In the last 2 days it seems that almost all of our conversation somehow get rerouted to the subject of the tooth fairy. This is very important business, clearly. This was the conversation tonight at dinner...

Gentry: "Where does the tooth fairy get the money that she leaves under your pillow?"

Me: "um, I'm not sure exactly"

McKay: "maybe she sells the teeth she collects to God for new babies to use"

Gentry: "When Tessa gets teeth we should look and see if they are our old teeth"

McKay: "yeah, we would have to look really careful. Like with a telescope."

Gentry: "no, a magnifying glass"

Me: "sounds like a plan"

Gentry: "Maybe the tooth fairy just gets her money from having lemonade sales"

McKay; "Can we have a lemonade sale?"

Me: "sure, but you can't use the earnings to buy old teeth from people. Deal?"

Both boys: "deal."



They make me smile.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

I am

so full...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Thanks

In case I don't post anything tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe the holidays are already here...it's seems like I was just complaining about people putting up their Christmas decorations way too early, and now it's just about appropriate!

I posted a while back about some things that I was thankful for, and while they were all very true...many were just random conveniences in my life, some were even plain silly. In the spirit of why we are celebrating tomorrow I just wanted to say that in all honesty and sincerity I am very grateful for so many things.

It's overwhelming sometimes to think about all of the things that I take for granted. It's hard to comprehend the circumstances that people in other countries (or other parts of this country, even) are faced with every single day. I complain about traffic, and bills, and not having enough time in the day...and in fact I am extremely blessed to drive a safe car and have electricity and running water.

I'm grateful for my education and for the the choices that my parents made while I was growing up. I'm grateful for my friends and my family because I have people that support me and care about me and that is priceless.

I couldn't possibly even begin to say all of the things that I am thankful for...I have so much more than so many people both tangible and non, and while I also have a lot less than some...I feel very blessed at this point in my life to be where I am.


I'm excited to spend the day tomorrow with people that I care about, laughing and cooking and especially eating! I'm going to try a few new recipes and hope that I don't make a fool out of myself :) (I'm certainly not the best in the kitchen!)

And if I can con anyone into going with me, I'll be shopping on Friday! For some sick reason I love the madness of Black Friday. Not even so much for the savings but just for the energy that people give it and for the fact that it means that Christmas is near!

Now, I've been neglecting my Tivo this week...and it's calling out to me...so I'm off to catch up on all of the nonsense that I find so enjoyable!

Goodnight, and gobble gobble!

Monday, November 19, 2007

I'm expecting social services any minute.

I was playing soccer in our front yard with the boys and the ball went under a rose bush. McKay went to grab it and got a thorn in his finger.

And thus began 45 freaking minutes of screaming and yelling and carrying on. This wasn't even one of those splinters that's stuck way deep in your skin. There was plenty of it sticking out so that if he would just have held his finger still I could have grabbed it with the tweezers and it would have been out in 10 seconds. But he was having none of that.

His first reaction to seeing the tweezers was to high tail it out the front door and announce that he was running away from home! I was able to coax him home eventually and almost immediately began to rethink that idea. I have never in my entire life seen a child so out of control. He was kicking and screaming and flailing about and turning all sorts of shades of red and purple. It got to a point where I wouldn't have been shocked if his head spun right around.

"STOPITSTOPITSTOPITYOURHURTINGMEAHHHHHHITBURNSSTOOOPPP!!!" And I kid you not I was not even touching him yet! I started out nice and calm, trying to talk to him and even let him try to get it himself. But after a half hour I was getting so frustrated and starting to lose my temper because he was being so unreasonable. I was going to let him keep the darn thing in his finger, except that he had a splinter in his foot once that I didn't know about and it got infected. So I figured we should remove it. Besides, give me a break kid...it's a thorn. Stop freaking out and lets get this over with.

I'm sure the neighbors think someone was being mistreated. I almost wish someone would have come knocking...I would have welcomed the help!

Anyway, we did get the silly little thing out and he calmed down but I'm so drained! I'm not a drinker, but tonight almost changed that. Man oh man. I may keep him inside for the rest of his life just to prevent him from ever getting another splinter.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

like Christmas morning.

It wasn't gone by morning (the sore throat that is...). It wasn't worse at least. But I've developed a cough. McKay thinks I have Pneumonia (I don't, but he's cute).

Anyway, so I did what most people do when they aren't feeling well. I gutted the garage. But not all by myself, Gentry helped. Which meant that it took hours longer than it should have! But that's ok.

When we moved in May we left a few boxes of toys in the garage. I was planning the let the kids trade out some toys every couple of months to avoid the black abyss of toys everywhere...

This plan didn't work for two reasons.
1. they each had a birthday since then, which meant presents, which meant things were no less cluttered without the garage toys. and
2. The boxes of toys got buried behind other boxes, camping gear, furniture etc. They would ask periodically about certain things that they remembered were in those boxes and for months I've been saying that I would dig them out.

Today it finally happened. It was like Christmas morning for Gentry. There were toys in these boxes that I would just as soon throw away, but he hugged each one and was so excited to see his old "friends". It was cute. It almost made cleaning out the garage not suck. Almost.

So we put the boxes aside and continued to get out Christmas decorations and some of McKay's winter clothes from last year for Gentry When McKay got home from school we made a deal that they could bring in any toy that they wanted, but for every one that was rescued they'd have to replace it with something from their room. An even switch. And any toy that they didn't want anymore would get donated.

Oh my gosh. This process took forever. They pondered and went back and forth and tried to decide what would stay and what would go...oh, and they got distracted every 5 minutes and played with their "new" toys. I finally had to set a time limit because it was getting dark.

I'm proud of each of them though because they didn't try to bend the rules and they actually willingly gave up some toys and threw some broken ones away. In all it was a success.

This garage thing has been looming over my head for awhile. I'm glad that it is done. But I'm exhausted.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

don't want it.

Ugh, I do not feel well. I've been trying to ignore this sore throat all day...but it's only 8:30 and I'm totally ready to be in bed, not a good sign. I have no time to be sick. I hope it's gone by morning.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

wow.

It doesn't matter what your thoughts are on the war, this is so sad.

Monday, November 12, 2007

dinner

We had ribs for dinner (so delicious!) and I'm going to spend the rest of the night paying the price. Dental floss here I come...

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Control your kids

We took the kids to see the Bee movie. That's 2 movies in 2 days. It might be a record! Well, for me anyway...considering that I can't remember the last movie I saw in the theater before yesterday. It was good movie weather today because it was kind of rainy all day. I thought it was pretty cute, except that the whole bee+human romantic relationship was a bit bizarre. The boys liked it. Come to think of it, they like every movie they see in the theater because it tends to include popcorn and candy!

The only problem was that we had to sit in the third row even though we got there 20 minutes early. That coupled with the fact that we happened to be sitting in front of the 4 most obnoxious kids in the universe kinda put a damper on things. I don't expect to sit through a kids movie without hearing kids talking or babies crying. It comes with the territory. But, I don't think you should let your kids talk through the ENTIRE movie like they are in their freaking living room. And you definitely shouldn't allow them to kick the seats in front of them repeatedly. And most of all...please don't let your kids hit people with their stuffed animals. At least attempt to stop them. Oh, and pulling people's hair...NOT OK.

Other than that though, it was an enjoyable time.

Tomorrow we will either go to the Children's Museum or clean out the garage. Funny thing is, I'm not sure which the kids would prefer.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Here's a picture of the hair. If you hate it, keep your opinion to yourself. :)

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Saturday, November 10, 2007

Free and girly

Before I cut my hair I wore it in a ponytail every day (for years). No matter what. Even if I took the time to do it in the morning (instead of the shower and go thing that happens way to often!), even if I thought it looked cute down...without fail it would be in a ponytail within an hour. It was kind of ridiculous, really.

On the rare occasion that I would accidentally leave the house without a rubber band, I would would be frantically looking for one under the seats in the car, in my purse, my pockets etc...I've actually stopped to buy one when my searches were unproductive. It was borderline psychotic.

Now it's too short for a pony tail. In fact that was my only request to the girl that cut it. NO PONY TAIL. I'm not completely sure that I love the haircut itself, but it's freeing not to rely on a rubber band to keep me sane.

Plus, it has some style now which has prompted me to wear a little more make-up, buy some new earrings and care a bit more about my appearance.

It feels good to be a little girly.

Maybe I'll post a picture tomorrow.


In some totally unrelated news:

I spent way too much money at Target today.

Saw Dan In Real Life tonight. I enjoyed it. It's been awhile since I've gone to a movie. I had fun.

I'm trying to figure out something fun to do with the kids on Monday since there is no school...

Friday, November 9, 2007

feelin the love

So my friends don't suck after all!

I was going about my normal business today at about 4:30 and Carrie called and said get dressed. we're leaving in 45 minutes.

Leaving for what??

She wouldn't say. But it turned out we were going to Micelli's in Hollywood for dinner with a bunch of friends.

It was a blast. I had a feeling we would do something this weekend. But I was expecting some of the people that showed up and then there were some that I really was surprised to see (I guess not all surprises are bad). Some people drove hours to be there. Very sweet.

The food was excellent, the company was terrific, and I got some great gifts. I'm feeling very loved.

So far 28 isn't too bad!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Happy Thursday

I've been in a funk lately. I don't know why. But I can feel it and I don't like it. My attitude has been very negative, I've been complaining a lot, nothing seems to make me happy. It's ugly.

I've decided that it has to stop. Instead of trying to figure out where it's coming from I'm just going to work on changing it.

So, I cute off all of my hair. I'm not really sure how that will help, but it feels like a change might help drive the funk out of town.

And in an effort to look at things on the bright side, here are some things that I'm thankful for...

1. Not being lactose intolerant.
2. Having all of my teeth.
3. Literacy
4. Being an American
5. Not having cancer
6. Both of my parents are still alive
7. The boys never have to go to bed hungry
8. Parks
9. Public libraries
10. good friends
11. the internet
12. health insurance
13. Nobody in our family has a major food allergy
14. having a reliable car
15. feeling loved
16. my camera
17. my gym membership
18. McKay and Gentry are kind, loving kids (for the most part!)
19. not having to use a laundry mat
20. being able to be home during the day
21. Both kids are potty trained
22. Our dog doesn't bite, or bark unnecesarilly, or run off when the front door opens
23. I don't know anybody in jail
24. the kids artwork
25. unexpected hugs and "ilove you"'s
26. my dishwasher
27. sarcasm
28. positive childhood memories
29. family vacations
30. my home

This is just a random list off of the top of my head and I'm grateful for being able to think of 30 things in 2 minutes to be thankful for. I have a blessed life.

Funk be gone!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

28 years later

Ok, this may come across as being bitchy, but it's my birthday and I'll bitch if I want to.

I hate surprises.

Unless they are well planned and executed. Suprising someone by planning something for them and getting yourself all stressed out and thus making the surpisee miserable is not fun. Yes, the end result may be fun...but the process sucks.

For example, the age old situation where people act like they forgot your birthday because they have a suprise party planned and they think it'll be funny to make you sad/mad/disapointed all day long and it'll all be worth it in the end.

It's not all worth it. Yes, surprises can be fun...but they don't erase all of those emotions you had whilest you thought your family/friends forgot your birthday. You realize in the end, of course, that they hadn't forgotten at all. But you still spent the day in a shitty mood. And then you're a bitch for not being appreciative. Is that fun? No it's not.

That being said, in case you're wondering...nobody had a surprise party for me today and most of my loved ones remembered my birthday. But something is in the works and I can tell because people are being vague about things and not answering questions directly. Nobody seems to be able to go out to celebrate this weekend and they're all being buttheads.

Surprises are better than crappy friends. Someone better be planning some sort of surprise!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

to whom it may concern

Dear naked women in the gym locker room,

I appreciate the confidence you possess and your willingness to let it all hang out regardless of your size, age, and skin elasticity (or lack thereof). It's perfectly fine with me if you don't want to use the changing rooms or bathroom stalls to dress yourself. More power to you, really. But here are some activities that I feel are more appropriate after you have dressed yourself (or there's a technique for wrapping towels around one's body, it quite simply...it would suffice). These activities include but are not limited to:

1. blow drying your hair.
2. carrying on 15 minute long conversations with strangers
3. rearranging your gym bag
4. stretching
5. putting on your make-up
6. bending over (for any reason)

To those of you who have mastered the art of undressing and dressing in a timely fashion, please know that you are appreciated. I thank you. My eyes thank you.

sincerely,
Modest me.

Monday, November 5, 2007

fog, a sweatshirt, and a booger

Mother Nature obviously heard me complaining about the unseasonable weather, because we woke up this morning to a chill in the air and a ton of fog.

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In fact, I wore a sweatshirt to drop McKay off at school! It was lovely.

The fog didn't last too long, probably just long enough to cause a headache for people driving to work...so it was nice and clear for the rest of the day. Still, I don't think we saw 80 degrees. Much better, mother nature. I thank you.

I took the boys and Oakley (our dog) to the park after school to try and get some pictures of them. Gentry was being a pill and acted exactly like a 4 year old (which is exactly what he is). Without fail, every time I took a shot he'd make a face.

This is just a small sample of what he gave me to work with.

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BOOGER.

It wasn't a complete loss though because I kinda like this one.
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Plus they played on the playground for awhile and that meant that I was avoiding all of the things that I needed to be doing which was quite enjoyable. Of course, that means that I'll be doing them tomorrow. But I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Time.

One of the downsides to daylight saving time is that the kids were half asleep at 6:30 tonight. It was all I could do to stretch bedtime to 7:10. Bedtime stories were a little more animated than usual, because otherwise neither of them would have made it past the first page. This of course means that they will be up extra early tomorrow. Oh joy.

Also, on a totally unrelated topic...I went to visit some friends last night and on the way home I passed a house that had. wait. It's hard for me to type this.

Ok.

They had Christmas Decorations out.

C'mon people. Time is already flying by. Please don't help it by getting ready for Christmas weeks before we've even made ourselves sick on turkey and pie. Please. I'm all for holiday decorations, so fly a pilgrim flag or put together a cornacopia or hang a turkey made from your kids handprint somewhere. But please please please don't put out your Christmas decorations just yet. The Halloween Candy isn't even gone yet. And that's not for lack of trying, let me remind you.

And with that another weekend is behind us.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Fall, why have you foresaken me?

Everyone expects California to have fairly mild weather year round. It's one of the perks in many people's minds...

But today is November 3. NOVEMBER. And it's in the upper 80's. The leaves haven't really even started changing. It doesn't feel right.

While I was talking to a friend who lives in Albuquerque yesterday I asked how their halloween was. Apparently they cut their trick-or-treating short because it was too cold. I can't even imagine it. It was so warm here that McKay spent most of the night without his mask on because he was so sweaty.

I'm not asking for below zero temperatures...I'd be happy if it appropriate to wear a sweatshirt outside. We haven't even put the boys shorts away to make room for pants because it's still short weather. In November.

I don't like it.

Friday, November 2, 2007

evil.

As much as I look forward to Halloween, for the excitement in the kids faces, for the fun of thinking up costumes and carving pumpkins and taking tractor rides at the pumpkin patch and hearing Gentry's little voice at each and every door Trick or treat. Thank you. Happy Halloween!! And watching the joy as they both run from one door to the next....there is one thing that I absolutely despise about this particular holiday.

ALL OF THE CANDY IN MY HOUSE.

Of course it's here so I eat it, sometimes without thinking about it even. And eat it. And eat it.

Until I want to vomit.

I know what you are thinking, have some self control. Yeah, there's none of that around here.

All I can say is thank God this only happens once a year.

Of course there's Easter, but that brings mostly jelly beans which I don't enjoy so it's safer.

Ooh, but on the bright side, when Halloween has passed I can always count on my birthday to be right around the corner.

Hope I'm not in a sugar coma by then.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

just a thought

I wish music played in the background of real life situations like it does in the movies. That would be fun.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Spellcheck can't even help me.

Ok, I know I'm not an idiot...but lately I've noticed that I've been typing the wrong words in my posts....not mispelled, just wrong. Like, "Onces" when I mean "ones" and "that" when I mean to use "the". What the heck???

Happy Halloween

We have been so busy the last few days. Thankfully everybody is healthy again! The kids are sooo excited for trick-or-treating tonight! We had a few Halloween parties to go to over the weekend so they've gotten good use out of the costumes. Actually I have a feeling they will keep wearing them for dress-up long after Halloween has passed. That's how it usually works around here. Gentry still digs out and tries to put on his Superman costume from 2 years ago. And McKay turns into Harry Potter every now and again even though most of the costume is now way too small (except the glasses and the cape...which is all you really need anyway, right?)

On Sunday I took the kids to the L.A. Zoo for "Boo at the zoo". It was crowded, which didn't thrill me. But, every hour or so they would have "chomp and stomp" which meant that they would give pumpkins to some of the animals to play with. It was really cute to watch them explore these new orange toys, especially when the monkeys figured out that they could throw them and they would break open!. The lion cubs were adorable. They had also put together some "fun houses" which were mostly just a few little games and a some people handing out candy...but of course the kids loved it. They did each win passes to see the Bee Movie which I can't complain about!

We've been to the pumpkin patch twice, once a few weeks ago and again last night. The pumpkins we picked the first time would never have lasted if we carved them so the kids painted the first bunch then we carved the newer ones last night. They had a blast. They did most of the design and carving with little assistance, so the final product is iffy but they love them anyway.

After pumpkin carving, I had to make cupcakes for McKays school bake sale. It was a busy night but things were running fairly smoothly until I put the first 12 cupcakes into the oven and about 5 minutes later heard a horrible noise coming from the kitchen. It was that unsettling buzzing/zapping sound that you hear when something is being electrocuted. I ran in to check it out, the oven was brightly lit and smelled horrible. Apparently the heating element malfunctioned and was on fire! Not good. Especially because I needed to get the cupcakes by morning. It was a little late to be knocking on neighbors doors asking to use their oven while I baked endless amounts of cupcakes...so I had no choice but to laugh it off.

Then for good measure (and purely for the fun of it) I decided to see how a microwaved cupcake would turn out. Hey, I had a huge bowl of batter and you can only eat so much before you want to puke. It turns out that you actually can microwave a cupcake! The only real problem was that since I couldn't put the cupcake pan in, I just put five on a plate and there was nothing supporting the paper cups. They all sort of flattened out and joined together in the middle of the plate, creating an interesting cupcake/flower creation.

So, I took a picture. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
and then we ate them.

Needless to say, we were up extra early so we could get some good ol' fashioned store bought cupcakes!

Now...a new oven...

Aw, memories.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

a day off of school

Because McKay is sick (still so much guilt!!), he was home from school today. In some small way I wish that this Pneumonia thing would present itself in a more blatant way. He still has no symptoms beyond the cough and it's driving him crazy that I wont let him do the normal things that he loves so much. It's hard to keep a 6 year old that doesn't think he's sick resting all day. It's complicated further when you throw a healthy 4 year old into the mix.

For instance...we have tv rules in our house and the boys are used to them. Gentry is allowed to watch an hour of tv in the morning after McKay is at school and then they are each allowed an hour in the afternoon. Sometimes if I have something that I need to get done I'll extend it a little, but for the most part they don't watch that much tv. But I was trying my hardest to get McKay to rest all day so I was allowing more tv than usual. He enjoyed it for a little bit but then began to whine. He whined at me for the rest of day because I wouldn't let him ride his bike, jump on the trampoline, skateboard, scooter, walk the dog, sweep leaves (thank God the wing has died down!), or play hide and seek.

"Honey, you have Pneumonia". Like he cares.

Nevermind the fact that we played checkers, painted stain glass animals, read books, colored and played on the computer. By 2 pm he was going a little stir crazy. At one point he actual said "I wish I could just go to school".

I think it may have stemmed a little from the fact that the air quality hasn't been great the last few days because of the fires and we had already been spending less time outside this week (even recess has been indoors).

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that he basically feels pretty good...but I wont lie, I was silently wishing for the typical sick kid that wants to stay in bed and sleeps off whatever is ailing him!

Does that make me a bad person??

Bring on more guilt!

I feel so bad!

McKay has had a pesky cough for the last week or so. During the day it wasn't too bad but at night he has been coughing quite a bit. A few days ago I started giving him cough syrup before bed and hoping that it would go away.

It seemed to me that it was getting better. He never had a fever or seemed lethargic or anything...

Then we had to see his pediatrician yesterday to get a form filled out for his school so we figured we might as well mention the cough.

Long story short, 1 breathing treatment and a chest x-ray later...

He has Pneumonia. And a sinus infection.

I feel like the worst person in the world. He played soccer, jumped on the trampoline, road his bike....with Pneumonia. Oh my.

Monday, October 22, 2007

A short asian man

On Mondays McKay has music class, which means that usually we are graced with some lyrical accompaniment during dinner and baths and any other evening activity that we have going on. Sometimes, I have to say that I tune him out. I think it's cute that he sings the songs he learns at school...but he sings the same song over and over (whatever he learned that day) and it does get a bit annoying.

So today all afternoon he was singing a song. Over and over again. And my brain just wasn't paying attention to it. Until about 5:30 when he was sitting at the table doing his homework and I was in the kitchen and I'm hearing

"There's a short asian man...a short asian man..." to the tune of "The cheese stands alone".

Suddenly I think to myself, that's a weird song for first grade. What is the relevance??

It turns out what he was really saying was "there's a short A in Lamb, a short A in lamb..."

Clearly that makes more sense. I should pay closer attention.

The problem is that now I have "there's a short asian man" stuck in my head.

Fire

Oh my gosh, these fires and this wind are out of control. The poor firefighters can't even get a handle on it because the wind is so strong and unpredictable. The fire dropping planes can't really fly which is really hampering the efforts. And it's seems like fires are popping up left and right.

Sadly, these are perfect conditions for arsonists. They feed off of the attention and they know that these fires are getting national coverage. As far as I have heard there is only one that they know for sure was started by arson. But I would bet there will be more.

We are supposed to be going camping this weekend. I have a feeling the plans are going to change. Unless the fires all get contained, which isn't likely. This is probably the last chance before it gets too cold. Bummer.

On the other hand at least my house isn't in danger of burning down. I can't even imagine how freaked out those people must be. People tend to casually ask "what would be the first thing you would grab if your house was on fire?". The answer is usually universal: kids, pets, pictures computer etc. Obviously if I had like 2 minutes to get out I would get the kids and the pets. Everything else would have to burn. But the thought of that really freaks me out! I'd want my camera,pictures, my computer, important paper work, quilts that I have made, scrapbooks, the boys artwork. Their baby clothes...ahh, the thought of it is overwhelming. If everyone I love made it out alive I would feel eternally blessed...but you can't replace certain things and it would be devastating to lose years of mementos and memories.

Earthquakes are the disasters we tend to worry about around here, but even then, houses fall, things break, it's horrible but you can usually salvage things. When your house burns to the ground you tend to lose EVERYTHING.

I guess I have no right to complain if the fires ruin my camping trip. It could be so much worse! My heart goes out to all of the people that are having to deal with the "so much worse" at this very moment.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

I hate wind.

Back to the real world. The weekend was amazing. Now it seems like the world is on fire. The wind sucks. Here are some pictures.


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The under side of a bridge.
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A fountain the kids would have loved.
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BOATS
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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Time of my life

Traffic was horrible last night. It took me about 4 hours to get down to San Diego. And yet, even though I hate traffic with a fiery passion...somehow it didn't seem that bad. I think mostly because it was just me alone in the car. I got to choose what cd's I listened to, I rolled down my windows and enjoyed the alone time...with nobody in the back seat fighting or messing with their window or whining about how long it was taking, or begging to listen to a kids CD!

Don't get me wrong, I miss the kids. But I miss them in a good way, like just enough that I'll be glad to see them tomorrow but not enough that I would cut the trip short!

I was a little sad this morning when I woke up at 10(!) and thought about McKays soccer game starting. But, I'll be there for all of the rest of his games and being able to sleep till 10 was amazing. I can't remember the last time I slept past 8 (and even that is a rare occasion, most days we're up by 7).

Today has been excellent. I went to lunch with my friend Jenny at this fun sports place and then went for coffee alone and wandered around downtown taking pictures and enjoying the scenery for hours. Then Stacey and I went to a bar where my friend Kari (from highschool) works. Totally out of my comfort zone, but it was a blast!! It was so good to see Kari, she's always fun.

I love San Diego! I really needed this trip. I'm so glad to be here.

Something about this city makes me feel very patriotic. I think it's all of the Navy ships in the harbor or something, who knows...but I feel it for some reason. And there is so much to do here, so much to see. Too bad it's so expensive or I would move here in a minute!

Pictures to come later.

Tomorrow, back to the real world. I'll be ready.

Friday, October 19, 2007

SD here I come

It's Friday! I'm making this a weekend for myself. I decided this morning that I'm going to go down to San Diego.

Just me.

I'm excited, but it's been like a year since I've been away from the boys for more than a few hours. They'll be fine, they have a weekend full of activities...so as long as I can handle it everything will be good.

I have no idea what I'll do down there.

But it'll be nice to get away for a little bit.

I need to do some thinking, without distraction.

And take some pictures!

I better pack!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

just wondering....

Is this book completely creepy to anyone else?

I can't want it. I know the point is just that the mother loves her son, but hello, you don't drive across town and make sure that the lights are off in your adult sons house and then climb in and slide across the floor and pick him up. You just don't!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

links

Let us see if I can follow simple directions.

Shall we?

Jennifer is smarter than me.

My brother is cooler than yours

The Rockies are the National League Champs.
On to the world series.
Maybe if the Dodgers could get their act together we could see them headed to World Series one day.
Then again, maybe not. That's not really their style!

Anyway, back to the Rockies...

Adam did a Rockies mural for a bar right outside of Coors Field, and the local news came and did a story on him! He called to let us know and my mom was really excited so she was calling everyone that we know in Denver to see if someone could record it for us. Thankfully she did get a hold of someone at the last minute, so we should be getting it in the mail sometime this week.

Then yesterday the local newspaper came and interview him and they ran a little story about him with this picture


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I think it's really cool. He really does have talent, and it's good to see him using it for good instead of evil!

If I knew how to put links in here, I would link the story...unfortunately I'm just not that cool.

Anyway, good job Adam. You're the coolest guy I know (today).

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

a snails pace

Chris came to visit (from Albuquerque) this weekend. He got here on Friday night, which happened to be the same night as the big semi truck fiasco on the 5. It took 4 hours to get from the Topanga Mall to Sylmar (where his hotel was) and back home. It should have taken, at most, 45 minutes.

Welcome to LA!

Then we dragged him to the dinner from hell on Saturday night and sat in traffic the whole way there.

To Venice Beach on Sunday...you guesses it, traffic.

We went to City Walk yesterday afternoon and surprisingly didn't hit any traffic!
So being the gluttons for punishment that we are, we decided to go to Barney's Beanery in Hollywood for dinner.

TRAFFIC! THE WHOLE WAY.

Thankfully we were there long enough to avoid rush hour going home.

But guess what time he left this morning. Go ahead, guess.

11:00am.

From LAX.

Right down the freaking 405 freeway. We had to leave at 8:00. Can we say RUSH HOUR???

I feel bad for him, he spent about 40% of his trip sitting in traffic.

Nobody should be allowed to book flights into or out of LAX between the hours of 6-11 am or 3-8 pm. It's just not fun for anyone involved.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Sunburns after summer

I'm sunburned.

We went to Venice Beach today, and why would I wear sunscreen just cause I'm going to be walking around in the sun for 4 hours?

I'm an idiot.

I think in my mind you can't get sunburned after August, cause that's when summer is over. Clearly, not the case.

And I don't really understand the appeal of Venice Beach. Except that I just spent
my day there, voluntarily...so what does that say about me?

And so the weekend is over.

Oh and I didn't go to my reunion, chose instead to go to dinner for a friends 30th birthday.

It was not the best choice.

The thing is, nobody knew details of the reunion until like the second week of September. At which point I had already committed to going to this "party" for a friend of mine. It was supposed to be a big deal. Then I found out that the tickets for the reunion were over $100 bucks and I wasn't convinced that it would be worth it. Nobody I cared about was going and I kind of thought it would just be people getting drunk and being fake...which didn't sound like too much fun. Plus it was on a boat, which meant that once you were on you couldn't leave until the boat docked again. So I attempted to be cheap about things and stuck with the plan to go to the party (which I assumed would cost only the price of a gift). Plus I had already said I would go...and it felt like the right thing to do.

Except that it ended up not being a party. It turned into a surprise dinner. At an expensive restaurant.

Off of the 14 freeway.

Which, for any one that lives around here knows, was effected by the huge accident on the 5 on Friday night. So, what should have taken a half hour took more like and hour and a half.

And only 11 people showed up (and 8 of them were dull). And the food wasn't that good. And we each paid for ourselves...except that you know that moment when a check comes and everyone pitches in what they think they owe but inevitably it's always short. It's like people don't factor in tax or tip or a drink and their steak was 22 bucks so they give 22. Come on! So a few select people end up chipping in more so we don't have to sit there any more.

In the end it cost me 50 dollars. Five zero. For one mediocre meal. Plus a gift.

And then this morning I found out that the reunion was a blast. Urg.

Oh well, I guess what's done is done.

Now I need aloe vera. And sleep.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Character counts

He got a character award!

The only character award for the whole class, in fact.

For "doing the right thing" every day in every way in all six Pillars of Character.

I could not be more proud. Seriously. I want him to do well in school. If he's smart, that's wonderful. But in my opinion there is nothing more important than character. The fact that he struggled in the beginning makes it even sweeter, because it means he had to really try to turn it around. It had to matter to him.

It's a good day!!

(except that he'll get to pick where he wants to go to dinner tonight, and there's a huge likelyhood that we'll be at McDonalds. yuck.)

But who cares. He's got character!!

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everyone's on two wheels

When McKay was in preschool in Albuquerque his class had a trike-a-thon to raise money for St Judes. He was 4 and a half. He had heard about 4 days prior to it that one of the kids in his class had learned to ride his bike without training wheels. He was green with envy. He begged us to take his training wheels off so he could learn to ride before the trike-a-thon. So we took them off. But we gently told him that sometimes it takes awhile to learn how to ride a bike.

We were at the park every afternoon for four days straight. Me hunched over holding onto his seat running along side of him and him trying very very hard to ride that bike, but not really getting the hang of it.

We ended up putting the training wheels back on for the fundraiser. Diego rode his bike without training wheels, and you could tell that McKay was bummed, but he handled it. And they raised money for St. Judes which was the point of the whole thing anyway.

He didn't give up trying after that. I can remember days when he would be begging me to take him to ride and I would groan silently to myself because as much as I wanted him to learn and I was proud of him for sticking with it, running alongside of him always left me with a backache and he would be frustrated and it didn't feel like it was ever going to happen. Plus Gentry was still little and always got bored.

But, a month or two later something seemed to click and he was riding his bike alone and the days of backaches and frustration were behind us. But I kept thinking we'd be going through the whole thing eventually with Gentry. I was just thankful that it was a few years away.

This all seems like it happened yesterday. Gentry was 2 at that time, he's four and a half now. Man, time flies. I really think that McKay started trying to ride his bike too soon and if we had waited awhile maybe it wouldn't have been so hard for him. But, who knows.

But someone had told me back then that if they could ride a two wheel scooter they should be able to ride a two wheel bike (same balance issues etc.) and vice versa. So the Christmas after he learned to ride his bike, we got him a razor scooter. He had no problem with it. By the time Gentry was 3 and a half, he could ride the Razor also.

But I was in no hurry to go through the bike thing again. And Gentry had NO interest in taking his training wheels off. At all. He said he wanted them on forever. I was ok with it. I figured we'd just have to special order training wheels to fit an adult bike but, hey that's fine. :)

Then last week we were getting ready to go to the park and I was sticking his bike in the back of the car when for some random reason I said "wanna try riding without your training wheels today?". And for some random reason he said "ok".

So I grabbed a wrench and off we went. When we got up to the park, I pulled the bike out of the back and took the training wheels off. I asked him to hold his bike for a minute while I put the wheels and the wrench back into the car.

A minute later, I close the hatch and look over to the sidewalk where he was standing and he's gone. Gone.

HE WAS RIDING HIS BIKE. Without training wheels. Without help. Just riding, like he'd been doing it all of his life. No backache, no endless hours of running next to him. None of it. He was just riding the bike.

He's so proud of himself. He tells everyone he sees, everywhere we go, that nobody in our house uses training wheels anymore. So cute.

And I can't help feeling like this may be the way things work in life for them. McKay has to try very hard for things, and usually they come easily for Gentry. Once McKay sets his mind on something he doesn't give up very easily. And Gentry just gets things a little quicker. But he doesn't seem to care as much. They're basically polar opposites (in so many ways). It's very interesting to me.

Now it's time to get ready for the award ceremony.

It's Friday again. Yay.


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Thursday, October 11, 2007

A good surpise.

McKay is basically a typical 6 year old boy (if such a thing exists). Sometimes at school he gets carried away and plays a little rough with the other boys. And he struggles a little with the "stay in your seat" rule. His teacher says he concentrates pretty well for the most part but occasionally he'll get into a mood where he will use every trick in the book to get up and wander (bathroom, sharpen his pencil, pick up something he dropped, clean his glasses etc.)And at the very beginning of the school year he seemed to be in trouble quite a bit.

I was hard on him those first few weeks, he lost a lot of priviliges at home and it was rough on him. Even though to be really honest I think he was just adjusting to school starting up again and maybe the summer hadn't worn off yet. Plus, he's at a new school this year and he wants to make friends so badly so I think sometimes he just got carried away.

So, on the one hand I understood his behavior and on the other hand I didn't want him to get into the habit of acting up at school. And I definitly didn't want him to get a reputation for being the "bad kid". So, like I said...I was hard on him those first few weeks.

And things started to get better. And better still. The bad reports got fewer and farther between. And then yesterday when I talked to his teacher after school she said that he's doing a lot better. That he has slip ups, like any kid, but that he's concious of his behavior and he's kind to his friends. And most importantly she said he's never disrespectful to her (which can be a problem at home sometimes). It made me proud.

Then today (and this is the point of this post!) he was standing in line to come out at the end of the day and Mrs. G handed him a note and said something to him and he nodded with a bit of a worried look on his face.

My heart sank.

He was staring at this quarter sheet of white paper, I'm sure just wishing that he was a better reader! And I stood there for those 3 minutes until the bell rang just praying that the news wouldn't be too bad.

He walked over and said "I was green today" (which is good). Then handed the note to me and said "My teacher said that this is really important."

I paused before I looked at it. And when I finally did this is what it said.

We will be having an award ceremony tomorrow at 11:45 am
. McKay is going to be recieving a special award.
Please join us in the auditorium and bring your camera!
SHHH! It's a surpise! And to be fair to the children that
are not going to be recieving an award, please do not bring
balloons or other treats.

WHAT?!? Oh my. Holy moly. Seriously?

ok, honestly you'd think that this note said "McKay will be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow".

I have no idea what this reward will be. I don't even care. It can be the "Doesn't pick his nose much" award for all I care(which it wont be, cause...well....he picks his nose ALOT!) The thing is, the note wasn't bad. And that was my first assumption. And I feel badly about that. Like really really guilty. I saw him with a note from his teacher and I assumed it was going to say something bad.

I don't think I give him enough credit. I want to appologize to him for that. Except he doesn't know that I assumed the worst. And he doesn't know the note was good (he didn't ask what it said, surprisingly. He just kept saying "I was green").

I'm just so excited for him, because I know that when he sees us there tomorrow and he gets his named called for whatever the award is, he'll be on top of the world. He's going to be proud of himself. I want that for him.

Good behavior seems to perpetuate good behavior. He's on a role and I hope it continues.

I'm excited for tomorrow!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Sometimes things work out.

So yesterday I took my camera in to Hoopers and explained the problem I was having with the lens. Howard, the guy that I usually deal with, unfortunately wasn't working. So somebody else helped me. Except that he was no help at all! He gave me the run around about how he couldn't even think about taking the lens back unless I had the original box and that he was almost positive (without checking) that they didn't have that particular lens in stock anyway. I was getting annoyed, and usually I fight these fights with a passion and conviction, but yesterday I was tired and didn't feel like getting into it. I was told that Howard would be in today and that I could try talking to him, but "he has no pull with these kinds of things" so not to get my hopes up.

I went back this morning. Howard was there. Within less than ten minutes he had exchanged the lens. He said they've had at least 30% of people bring this lens back complaining of the same problem. I may decide in the near future to pay an extra couple hundred dollars and upgrade to the 18-200mm VR lens which hopefully wont have these auto-focus problems.

I like it when things work out. I'm glad that I didn't go ballistic yesterday. I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered anyway, and most likely I would have had to go back today anyway.

In other news I'm 90% done with Celebrity Detox. It's not as controversial as the hype suggested, at least in my opinion.

I enjoy Rosie O'Donnell. She's outspoken and there are many many times that I don't agree with her point of view. But, she's an advocate for children, a philanthropist, and she's passionate about photography. All good things in my book.


I wish I was more interesting.

Here are some random pictures of the day.

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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

I was bored until a house (or 5) exploded.

So I ran out of the house with no shoes. But I had my camera (which still has a faulty lens, urg.) and drove towards the smoke. I got about two block down Woodley before I had to park because the traffic was so horrendous.

I know you aren't really supposed to go towards a fire...

I walked (barefoot) as far as I could before I got to the police barricade and I couldn't really see anything except fire trucks and police cars. And smoke. And hoards of people.

It's funny how things like this bring people out of their houses and suddenly they are talking to their neighbors. On a normal day where nothing horrible happens they probably wouldn't give each other the time of day.

From what everyone was saying, a house exploded. Or it was five houses. But nobody was hurt. Or a whole family was home and they didn't make it out. It was a meth lab. Or they were storing fireworks in the garage.

If only people knew facts before they started blabbing.

I guess I'll wait for the 10 o'clock news. That may be a slightly more reliable source of info.

I didn't get many good pictures but at least I had some excitement tonight! Now for those books...

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All alone...

Carrie and the boys are out for the night. This hardly ever happens! Usually we are all together or I have the kids and she's at work or with Jeff or what-not. Very very rarely (in fact I can't remember the last time it happened)am I ever home alone.

It feels weirder than I would expect. God knows there are times during most days where I would give anything to have some quiet time to myself, but when it happens I never know what to do with myself. Actually, I'm kind of bored!

They left a half hour ago and I started putting away laundry and doing dishes...I really had to stop and remind myself that this is my chance to do something fun! Although I have to say it's nice to do those menial chores without having to stop every few minutes to break up a fight or redirect some bad choices or administer a time out!

Coincidentally I happened to buy two books today (Louder Than Words by Jenny McCarthy and Rosie's new book Celebrity Detox). I hear them calling my name. I might even read more than one chapter without falling asleep. I usually don't read until right before bed and sleep always comes quickly, no matter how hard I try to fight it.

I should go to the gym.

I doubt that it will happen.

Whoa, there is something majorly on fire very close to the house....sooooo much black smoke in the sky. I'm gonna go take pictures. Bye.

Monday, October 8, 2007

no energy to think up a title.

Today has been emotionally draining.

the weekend

The weekend goes by too fast. Seems like it was just Friday and all of the sudden here we are at Monday again. yuck.

It was a good weekend at least. We were busy busy.

Friday night we went to the Alemany homecoming football game, which was a little boring actually not to mention we were freezing! But at least it was something to do. The kids played soccer on Saturday morning and then we went with the Shanahans to Irwindale Speedway which is always a good time...and it was about 10 degrees warmer than it had been at the football game 24 hours earlier. Thank God.

Sunday morning we shopped for a little while at the outdoor mall in Simi and then went to Cowboy Day at Underwood family farm in Thousand Oaks. It was warmer than I was expecting but otherwise it was really fun. First stop was the hat stand to get them cowboy hats and then we spent 4 hours walking around, eating junk food and picking pumpkins. I think their favorite part was the tractor ride around the farm or drinking lemonade through licorice straws.

My least favorite part was when my camera lens starting making a familiar squeaking sound when it tried to autofocus and I realized that I was reliving the death of my last 18-135mm lens. Apparently I'll be going to Hooper's today. I'm hoping that they are going to be as nice about it as they were last time because I did a little research and discovered many many people have had the exact same issue with this lens. I'm not happy about it.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the farm.



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Thursday, October 4, 2007

house full of Tommy lovers

Carrie is with Jeff tonight so I thought I might take the kids to the homecoming pep rally/bon fire over at Alemany. But it didn't start till 7:30 which would obliterate the 8:00 pm bedtime we have around here so we went over to the Shanahans instead.

We haven't been over there in awhile and I forget how much the kids idolize Tom. In their eyes he can do no wrong. The cool stuff he does is good, the bad stuff he does is good. He could eat dog hair for dinner and they'd be asking for it the next night.

He climbs the flag pole in front of their house like it's nothing (it's taller than the house!) so Gentry has been trying and trying for the past year or so to climb it. He can't ever get more than two feet or so off of the ground but he definitely gets an A for effort. I think he worked at it for about 45 minutes tonight before ditching the pole to go ride scooters with McKay and Tommy.

They would race up and down the sidewalk on their razors and then wrestle in the grass for a bit or kick the soccer ball around and then go back to racing. Non stop action for at least 2 hours. They are exhausted.

Not many 15 year olds would give a 4 and 6 year old the time of day, but Tom always makes time for them. Sometimes I cringe at the choices they all make together but I usually just let it go because they don't have a lot of male influences and I don't want to be a party pooper. Tonight I'm extra grateful for the energy that was burned because I'm in kind of a bad mood and they took baths and read stories without arguing and have both been sound asleep since 10 minutes of 8.

Tommy's my hero too.

And I went to the gym this morning. In case you were wondering. That's two days in a row. As in back-to-back. And if I go again tomorrow?? and the day after that? That'd almost be like not wasting the 40 something dollars I pay every month. Hmmm.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Pink shoes to the bank.

At least once a day this scenario plays out.

I say

"we are leaving in ten minutes, find your shoes and get them on"

and I hear

"I can't find my shoes"

and I say

"you haven't even looked for them, you have ten minutes. Find your shoes"

"I can't find them and I've looked EVERYWHERE" (really, from that spot where you are sitting with your Lego's you've looked everywhere from THAT spot....hmmm"

"it doesn't even have to be the last pair you had on (although that seems easiest and most logical), find any shoes. 8 minutes."

Someone usually ends up in tears and I usually end up finding the shoes. Hence the crying technique...they aren't stupid. blind yes. stupid no.

If I said there is a chocolate bar somewhere in the house Gentry would have it in half eaten in under 10 minutes. Guaranteed. And McKay could find his crayons or his bike helmet in no time flat.

I think what I'll do is buy some girls shoes as keep them as a fall back. Anyone that can't find their shoes in the allotted time wears pink shoes for the rest of the day. Something tells me this problem may be solved very quickly. And if pink shoes don't phase them I may have a bigger problem on my hands.

sponges watching sponges

I have a pet peeve, if that's what you wanna call it.

Cartoons.

Let me clarify...not all cartoons...in fact some days cartoons are the only thing that bring a calm over the house and give me a chance to do those pesky tasks that always need to be done (laundry is never ending!), but I CAN NOT stand certain cartoons especially Spongebob which are not at all appropriate for young kids and yet are played in the middle of the morning when the only kids that should be home are under the age of 5.
I know that I have the power to turn it off, and I do...but it annoys me that the people responsible for the program scheduling do not have enough sense to put those kind of cartoons on later in the day.
Not to mention the fact that I can not stand Spongebob, period. It's not like in the I can't stand Barney kind of way...Barney annoys me, the songs are cheesy and the kids are obnoxious, but at least I can see the basic goal of that show is to teach kids problem solving abilities and how to treat other people and to illustrate the power of using your imagination. I can't find a redeeming value in Spongebob. Some episodes are better than others, but for the most part the characters are mean to each other and the language is rough and I don't see how that teaches anything positive. Kids are sponges (no pun intended!) and they pick up everything. It contains endless amounts of adult humor and yet is marketed towards young kids which I think is irresponsible.
That's the end of this rant. for now :)

no pain no gain

It's been my intention to go to the gym like every day for the last few weeks and this morning I finally got my butt up and went. It's no secret that you feel better after you work out, and I can't recall a time afterwards where I've felt like "man I wish I hadn't gone to the gym today". So why is it so hard to get there? I'm pretty happy with everything in my life except my weight (and I few things directly related to it) and I know what I have to do about it. So what is my problem??? I need to get it together! I went today, I guess I'll focus on that. I'll go tomorrow and then hopefully I can get into routine with it.

This is the most pointless post. Amie should go to the gym more often. duh.

In other news my back feels better.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Maybe I'll buy a red sports car

My back hurts in an unusual way and I can't remember doing anything that would have caused it...and it started in the middle of the day so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a result of sleeping in an weird position. Don't want it.

My ten year reunion is in like 2 weeks. Ten years. I feel like a third life crisis is fast approaching.

Here are some pictures...

Cause pictures are good and back pain and mental breakdowns are not.


Gentry running through the tunnel at soccer (his favorite part, by far)

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Brothers
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skater dude
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Saturday, September 29, 2007

Is anyone else


Really really excited that Las Vegas is back? The two hour season premiere was last night. We watched it while we worked on the banner for Mckays soccer team which needs to be totally done by tomorrow morning for picture day. The show offered a pleasant distraction from the frustrations of all that felt and iron-on adhesive! Loved it, LOVED IT. James Caan is leaving the show, but Tom Selleck is joining and I adore him!! I'm not usually attracted to older men , but he is seriously so sexy. He and Ed Harris, holy moly. But I'm getting off the subject. Las Vegas is back!

In fact, that's another thing that's good about fall...all of my favorite shows start up again! I'm already hooked on Biggest Loser again, and then there's House, and Dancing with the Stars, the Hills (don't judge me!), and soon the Amazing Race will start up and of course American Idol! If only Gilmore Girls was coming back it would be perfect! Ooh, and I highly enjoy the new show, Reaper. It has major potential.

So soccer went of without a hitch today even though only 4 kids showed up from McKays team and his coach was MIA. The other teams coaches helped our boys and we ended up winning 4-1 (er, I mean...we don't keep score). The only real downside was that the fields were extrememly muddy and I was wearing flip flops and jeans that were about an inch too long and we had to walk across the whole park after McKays game to get to the spot where Gentry was going to play. Mud between your toes...no good.

And may I just say that 4 year old soccer might be the funniest thing I have ever seen! They just run everywhere in every direction! And because there aren't actual teams in his division everyone wears the same uniform and it was just a mass of blue shirts and black shorts all over the place! Gentry was adorable in his uniform. He was so proud to be out there playing like a big kid. He was loving it

Until...

they stopped letting the kids just run around with balls and tried to actually get them into a game. Madness! None of the kids had a clue what to do except they all wanted the ball...so much so that about 60 seconds into it just about everyone was crying.

Sobbing.

Including Gentry.

All he kept saying was "I quit! They wont give me the ball! Every time I get it, someone takes it!" and of course we're trying to explain that THAT'S THE POINT !! Oh, and he was extremely fond of throwing himself to the ground any time someone so much as grazed his arm. At one point McKay ran out to help him up. I think he was having a hard time watching his brother struggle with the game.

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After he was done throwing a fit he played a little better and I think he actually enjoyed it. His favorite part was running through the human tunnel at the end. We'll see how next week goes

I'm off to eat some ice cream now.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Fall

I love Fall. Although there are definitely things that I enjoy throughout the rest of the year...fall is my favorite season overall. It's gloomy today, threatening to rain but not actually letting loose. The air is cooler and I love it. This is perfect cozy sweatshirt weather...ooh and hot chocolate...and the holidays are just around the corner. This is the best time, when the kids are starting to plan their Halloween costumes and my birthday is coming up.

and the stress of Christmas shopping hasn't hit yet!

Also, soccer season just started back up and tomorrow is Gentrys first "game". I'm interested to see how this will go because both boys are playing in a new league (since we moved) and everything is very different.

Last year was McKays first and he played on a team with 7 other kids, they played 6 on 6 which meant that two kids were always sitting. It always seemed that someone didn't want to play anyway or was nursing a horrible injury (like a blade of grass stuck in their sock or dry lips) so the numbers work out fine. They practiced once a week and played games on Saturdays. They were taught the dynamics and the rules of soccer. 3 or 4 of the kids on his team were fast and talented and McKay never touched the ball, but he really got a kick out of being goalie. He'd wiggle his fingers into his goalie gloves and get this really fierce look on his face and then do his best to stop the ball (he was better at the face then he was at the ball stopping, but that's ok!).

This year, though, the rules are different. Instead of practicing during the week, they dedicate the first twenty minutes each Saturday to practice and then play a game for 30 minutes. There are only 5 kids on each team and they play 3 on 3. No goalie. While at first I thought it was silly to go backwards (these rules are so much easier) and I'm more likely to push him beyond what I think he can do rather than making things easier...it was actually a pleasant surprise to see how aggressively he went after the ball during the first game. He was the star of the team by far, which is completely opposite of last year where he was constantly outshined. I suppose it makes sense...he's faster this year and has more knowledge of whats supposed to be happening plus there are less kids to deal with...oh, and the no goalie aspect...so he scored some goals and he was really proud of himself and I realized that maybe this is going to be a good change. I guess I'm not right ALL of the time :)

So, like I said tomorrow is Gentrys first game and since he's never played (any organized sport) before I'm not sure what to expect. His rules are even more relaxed than McKays because he's in the lower division. He tends to want to run the show so I'm half expecting him to be coaching by week 3! Should be fun!

Here goes nothing



lalala, I'm blogging. Who knows if I have enough to say to really keep anyones interest but none the less, here I am. I couldn't decide on a name for this thing and the more I thought about it the lamer (haha, that's not a word) everything sounded...so as I watched Garth Kemp giving the 7 day forcast, "AM drizzle" seemed as good a choice as anything. Maybe it'll become my rap name too.