Life in Focus

Wicked

2008-11-09T19:47:00.001-08:00

Wicked was awesome. The whole night was a lot of fun. We went with a small group of people but McKay was the only kid. I could tell he felt like big shot. He acted so maturely, I was very proud of him. We went to dinner at 25 Degrees. Delicious.

The show was great, and funnier than I expected.

Since it didn't even start till 8pm, McKay was up way later than usual. He made it as long as he could but crashed in the lobby after the show while we waited for a few people to use the restroom.

We had walked about a mile to the theater from where we had dinner. We were planning on getting a cab back to the car since it was late (Hollywood late at night scares me a little) and walking in heels sucks. But then we found out that no cabs were were running in the direction we needed to go because the street had been shut down for a gay rights protest (an anti prop 8 rally, basically). So we walked.

I've never been in the middle of a protest before. It was kind of cool except that my feet were bleeding from my stupid shoes. Plus I had to carry McKay most of the way. But there was an energy in the air and it was nice to see people standing up for something they believe. It may not do any good, in fact I'm fairly sure it wont but at least they felt like they were doing something.

Thankfully it was a peaceful protest. Everyone was behaving.

Well, except for this guy

He was repeatedly yelling "GAY PEOPLE SHOULD ALL DIE".
(And I was thinking, no sir, that outfit should die)

In response someone kept yelling back "One day we will", which I thought was a very mature way to handle such a stupid remark.

McKay was a little freaked out by the crowd and all of the police in their riot gear so we didn't hang around long. Plus it was really late.

What an interesting and fun night.

Minus the bleeding toes.

Next I'd like to take the kids to see The Grinch. But we'll park closer and I'm wearing flats.

The Wizard will see us now!

2008-11-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

I am not one of those people that shops early for Christmas. Sometimes, but rarely, I'll go out on black Friday but I don't think I've ever bought a Christmas present before Thanksgiving. I'm that frantic shopper the week before that's desperately trying to get the last few things I need.

But today I bought the boys a Wii. For Christmas.

And now I'm trying to resist the urge to give it to them so that I can play with it.

McKay and I have a date tonight. We're going to see Wicked. We're going to get dressed up and go to dinner before hand. I'm not sure who is more excited, me or him.

Also, I had a great birthday yesterday. One of the best ever. Thanks everyone.

Maybe he's right

2008-11-06T20:39:00.000-08:00

Today Gentry told me that he doesn't think Joe Biden looks like a Joe.

"He looks like a Leon."

That boy has a way of making me smile every single day.

Change

2008-11-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

I am proud today. No matter how the election turns out I am proud that the people of this country have cared enough to come out in record numbers and make their voices heard. I'm proud of myself for taking the time to get educated about matters that are important so that I could cast my vote with confidence.

Today is a new beginning and I see many opportunities ahead to fight for social justice. I anticipate positive change for our country and that is exciting.

This is a historical day. I'm proud to have been a part of it.

(The fact that Starbucks gave away free coffee to voters wasn't too bad either.)

(And Anderson Cooper is foxy.)

Fall

2008-11-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

So another Halloween is over and for the last few days it has actually felt like Fall. I'm enjoying it while it lasts. We went to the pumpkin patch a few weekends ago and it was 90 degrees! It depressed me. You'd think I'd be used to it, growing up here and all, but I feel myself longing for more noticable seasons. More and more often I find myself thinking about moving out of California. It's ironic that the weather is what draws many people to this state and it would be a big factor in making me leave.

Anyway, we're here for the time being and I can't believe it's already November again. This past year has flown by. I think I say that every year around this time, when Christmas is right around the corner and I think didn't we just do this?? Before I know it it'll be time to get the lights out and start buying presents and enjoying all that the Christmas season brings...and then in a flash it'll be over again. I'm trying to live in the moment and enjoy now and for that reason I'm not thinking about the fact that my birthday is coming up and I'm inching my way closer to 30. Nope, not thinking about it at all.

Or maybe I can't stop thinking about it. It's one of those two things :)

Now, pictures. (Please excuse that fact that Elvis's hair came un-hairsprayed about 10 minutes into trick or treating and he ended up with an afro. We know Elvis didn't have an afro, I promise. Funny thing about trick or treating though, you get candy regardless of if your hair is accurate.)

Happy Fall!

They weren't even solid gold pajamas

2008-10-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

Mckay and Gentry have some good friends that live in Albuquerque...Tori, Tylor and Travis. We met them when Tori and McKay were in preschool together and quickly became inseparable. My cousin Leah was in their class too. Together they were the 3 musketeers. (It's kind of interesting to note that McKay was totally drawn to girls at that point and played with them way more than he played with boys...4 years later it's quite the opposite). Tylor is the same exact age as Gentry so play dates were perfect. (Travis hadn't been born yet when we lived there. He's two now). Anyway, when we moved away it was really sad for the kids. McKay missed Tori (and Leah) horribly , and vice versa. To make things a little easier on them we would send little packages back and forth from time to time. Mostly just little notes, pictures they had drawn for each other etc. They exchange gifts during the holidays and birthdays. Every January we go back to Albuquerque to see them and celebrate Tori's birthday. We usually see them once during the summer. I love that their friendship is still solid. Their mom, Yolanda, is wonderful and puts out an equal amount of effort to keep the kids in touch.

Anyway, I had put together a box of Halloween stuff to send them. Nothing extravagant...just Halloween pj's and some cupcake mix and a few little odds and ends. I've had it packed and ready to be mailed for at least three weeks. So unlike me! I got as far as taking it to the car. Where it sat on the back seat for a week. Totally like me. So on Friday I finally made it over to the post office and went to get the box out of the car and it wasn't there. I checked the car and trunk like 20 times. Nothing. I went home and looked everywhere for it. The whole time I was looking in the house I knew it was in vain. It was in the car. I know it. The boys commented on it being in their way multiple times. I could picture it on the seat waiting for me to get my act together and mail it. I felt like I was going a little crazy. Especially when my mom and Carrie both kept saying "Are you sure you didn't mail it?" and I kept insisting that I hadn't. But by yesterday afternoon I started to doubt myself. Could I really have mailed something and not have any recollection of doing it?? I was questioning my own sanity. The box couldn't have just vanished. I had to have moved it. But to where? I emailed Yolanda just to double check that they had in fact not received a package from us.

Cut to this afternoon. We were walking Oakley and found the box in the gutter about two blocks away. It had been ripped open, the card opened, the pj's gone. The cupcake mix and a few other things still there, soggy from the gutter.

So, basically someone took it out of my car. They took what they wanted and left the rest.

How naive am I that I hadn't even really considered that possibility?

I can't figure out when it would have happened. Ever since my purse was stolen over the summer I'm anal about locking the car.

People really suck sometimes. Obviously it was a package for kids. It wasn't worth anything. I mean, you could take the pajamas back to target and get the cash, but they weren't made of gold. You'd get maybe $25 total.

It's really annoying.

The upside is that I'm not crazy!

Fabians, we love you guys and we miss you!

Probably doesn't qualify me for a biker gang.

2008-09-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

From 9-26-2008

It was either that or this

From 9-26-2008

Maybe I'll join a biker gang.

2008-09-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

I had several things that needed to get accomplished today. None of those things included washing my cell phone with my sheets or getting a tattoo. But guess what?! I'm an overachiever.

So now I have no phone, till tomorrow when Verizon promises the new one will be at my door. And why is it that I feel sorta like I'm missing a limb?? It's not like I get that many calls. I mean, really. And how 2008 is it of me not to have really important phone numbers written somewhere instead of just stuck in my really clean phone? And all of my saved texts from like the last year? Gone. I suck.

And in case you missed that casual mention...I GOT A TATTOO. OMG. I'm not sure I can pull of a tattoo. Can I pull off a tattoo??? I'll post a picture. You can decide.

It's the last weekend of the fair. So we're driving out to Pomona tomorrow and I'm gonna eat something delicious. Something fried, I'm sure. And at the rate I'm going, maybe I'll get something pierced. Or just get shitfaced.

Probably not, though.

Semi famous

2008-09-13T00:23:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in traffic today listening to the radio and the DJ announced a giveaway if you were caller 25. I swear to you I never pay any attention to those things but for some reason I called. And I won! I didn't even know what the prize was at first but I honestly didn't even care. I was looking around at all of the other cars thinking Do you all realize that I just won concert tickets off of the radio? That's right. Me. Right here.
Surprisingly, nobody looked back at me or cared. But that didn't lessen my excitement. Since there was like a two minute delay before they actually announced my name, I celebrated in my car, alone. But then the texts started coming in Hey, you just won tickets on the radio. They just announced your name on the radio! You won! Take me with you!!

You guys, I was like semi-famous for a second. Yay me!

It's Travis Tritt tickets for some acoustic concert he's doing in November. I might actually just give the tickets away. But I can give them away, cause they're mine. Cause I WON them!!!

It totally made my day.

But I also wanted to say that my heart goes out to anyone affected (effected? ugh. Jennifer, don't hate me) by the Metro crash today. I was on Chatsworth st. very nearby when it happened and I could tell by the amount of police/fire/paramedics that came raising passed that it was something major. For the record, I know concert tickets are totally trivial. Winning them was way cool but in no way life changing. Also, I think it's a tad bit insensitive that the people giving the news conferences keep making special mention of the off duty police officer that was killed. While that is tremendously sad, I don't really feel like it's more of a loss to the community than anyone else that died. Being a police officer is wonderful. Maybe there was a teacher, or a nurse, a garbage man, mail carrier, waitress, receptionist or artist among the casualties. They were all people. I would imagine that each one of them has a family, neighbors, coworkers and friends that will be equally affected (? here we go again) by their death. It's a horribly sad situation all the way around.

Did you like how I went straight from Woohoo! to Boo. without any warning at all? Sorry bout that

But hey, look who just posted something on their "blog" aka thing that just sits around taking up precious Internet space.

Nostalgia

2008-08-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of June I shot a wedding. I said I would post pictures and never got around to it. I'm doing it now!

This is Tiffany.

She grew up down the street from me. She's 7 years younger than me so we weren't friends growing up until like 1998 my best friend developed a crush on her brother Austin. We found ourselves down at their house a lot in those days and I realized that Tiffany was a pretty cool kid. And actually I thought Austin was kind of a jerk! Eventually Carrie got over the crush (cause Austin was kind of a jerk...) but we stayed friends with tiffany. She tagged along to concerts occasionally, or the movies or whatever. Kinda like a little sister, only less annoying.

Then she met Jeremy.

And we didn't see as much of her. But Jeremy was a nice guy and we were happy for her. Then she went off to college (Jen, she went to Cal Lutheran!) and we saw even less of her. In the meantime, she and Jeremy got engaged and planned their wedding for two weeks after her graduation. And I was honored (and totally scared) when they asked me to be their photographer. It was so much fun to shoot their wedding because I've known Tiffany for so long and watched her grow from a little kid into a gorgeous woman.

She and Jeremy are perfect together and totally in love and although I'm kind of a pessimist about marriage in general, I have a lot of hope for them.

Oh, and I think they're gonna have really cute kids (get on that, Tiff).

Which brings me back to Austin (the jerky brother). He's not a jerk anymore. In fact he's married to a great girl named Brenda and they just had their first son, Logan.

I went out to Vegas earlier in the week to meet the little guy and take some pictures of him for his birth announcements. He melted my heart.

He reminded me so much of McKay when he was that size. The night before I left I offered to be on LoganWatch so that Austin and Brenda could get a full nights sleep and at about 2 am he and I were hanging out and I considered stealing him.

Well, not really. But I am in love with this baby.

I mean, look at that face.

It doesn't seem like that long ago that the boys were that little. But Gentry just started Kindergarten and McKay is a second grader! I tried to tell Logan not to grow up too fast but I doubt he'll listen. They never do.

I'm no good at titles, no good at all

2008-07-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

For awhile now I've been feeling like I'm not living up to my potential. I've sort of been on a quest the last couple of weeks to figure out why that is. I've been trying to be more honest with myself and basically just reevaluate where I am in life and where I'd like to be.

I haven't uncovered any amazing solutions are even any really major problems but I'm realizing that I've been hiding behind some stuff for a long time and not really letting myself shine in areas where I could be. I'm also becoming very aware of the fact that I'm not good at showing weakness or asking for help (or even admitting to myself when I need it).

Anyway, I've decided to take some steps to accomplish a few main goals...get healthier, more organized, and more financially stable. Overall I just want to feel more at peace with who I am and feel more fulfilled. Does that make me sound like some kind of spiritual freak?? I'm not. I'm just realizing how quickly life is passing by. I think when I was younger I always had a sense that there was plenty of time to accomplish anything that I wanted. I worked jobs that I was bored with and kept friends that I shouldn't have. I didn't take my goals seriously enough to actively pursue them (or some of them, at least) because I figured I'd get to it at some point. Actually I don't think I let myself even have any concrete goals.
I was just living day to day without really thinking too far ahead. Basically I was immature.

All of the sudden it's hitting me how big the boys have gotten and how quickly time is flying by. I think a lot of this is coming from the fact that Gentry will start Kindergarten in the fall and my 30th birthday will be here before I know it. It's not that 30 is old but it feels like a "grown up" age and I'm realizing that in many ways I'm not very grown up at all.

It seems like in the blink of an eye 10 years have gone by. I don't want the next 10 to pass without doing something meaningful. I want the almost 40 year old me to be proud of the accomplishments I made in my 30's.

I'm not very good at dealing with change and I tend to lack follow-through so we'll see how this goes but I feel motivated and that's a start at least. Right?

Stay tuned.

Nothing is getting done.

2008-07-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

I'm becoming mildly obsessed with this.

Part of being a big kid

2008-07-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

Gentry had to go to the pediatrician today to get shots for Kindergarten. 4 shots to be exact. He screamed BLOODY MURDER and kept asking the doctor "why are you doing this to me??" It broke my heart.
He used to love his pediatrician. Most of the time he just has to see her for minor things and he hasn't gotten a shot in a long time. He loves to get measured and weighed...and the stickers at the end are somehow cooler than any other sticker ever. But I think his affection for her may have lessened a little after today because he's suddenly claiming that she's "evil".
And he holds a mean grudge. She's going to have to do better than stickers next time. If I can even get him in the door!
It really hit me today that he's about to start school. I'm excited for him...but a little sad at the same time. I think that first day is going to be tough for both of us.
This summer is already flying by. They go back in a little over a month. What happened to 3 month summers that we had when I was little??

Safe and sound

2008-07-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

We're home.

There are no words to describe how excited I am to sleep in my own bed tonight.

Pictures of the trip coming soon.

enjoy your day!

2008-06-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Jen!

I hope you have a great day. And we should get together. Don't say no.

What I'm not doing...

2008-06-14T01:58:00.000-07:00

I never sleep anymore. It's really annoying.

Change

2008-06-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

So...the wedding went fine. I shouldn't have worried so much.

Story of my life, basically.

I'm relieved that's it's over with and that nothing horrible happened. None of the worst case scenarios that I had running through my head for the last week became reality. I'm glad that Tiffany and Jeremy (Bride and Groom) had a good, easy day and that none of their crazy relatives caused any major problems! But mostly I'm just excited that I loved shooting it so much.

One of my worries was that once I actually shot a wedding I might start doubting whether or not it's really what I want to do. But I left at the end of the night exhausted but totally excited because I loved it. It was so much fun to be a part of such an important day and to be able to capture the emotions that everyone was feeling.

I have a lot to learn. A lot. I mean, seriously...a lot. But I want to learn it and I want to face all of the obstacles and do this thing. That's a new feeling for me. I usually shy away from things that are really difficult or that I think I might fail at. I hate that about me, actually. But I'm working on it. And I'm excited to learn and to fail and to push through it and become the best darn photographer I can be!

That was cheesy. Deal with it.

I'll post a few pictures from the wedding later today.

But right now lets move to a different subject...

This is Bridget. I love her.

I started babysitting for her when she was about 7. Over the years she went from being a little kid that I babysat to one of my best friends. She's 5 years younger than me but I don't notice the age difference anymore. She's the oldest of five and is pretty much the most responsible person I know. She's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. She's stubborn and opinionated, but goes out of her way to help people. One of the things that I've always admired about her is how much of her time she volunteers. She works full time and goes to school full time...so on a rare day that she has to herself I would expect her to stay home, relax etc...but instead she volunteers for the special Olympics and at the pound. She has integrity. She's the kind of friend you can count on without hesitation.

She's leaving on Thursday. I'm going to miss her more than I can say. Although I wish she wasn't going...I'm proud of her. She's excited and ready. She'll do an amazing job over there. She'll be in North Carolina for 6 weeks and will deploy to Iraq from there. I was an emotional wreck at her going away party yesterday. I cried anytime anyone else cried (which was lot). Thank goodness the boys were in the pool for like 5 hours straight so they didn't have to see me lose it. Bridget was tough though. Here she is about to go to another country in the middle of the war and she was consoling me. I'm lame. I'm just going to miss her so much and I want her to be safe.

This weekend took a toll on me. I'm physically and emotionally drained.

can't sleep.

2008-06-07T01:25:00.000-07:00

It's 1:26 am. I can't sleep. In less than 12 hours I will start shooting my first wedding. I'm so nervous you'd think I was the one getting married!

I really hope I don't ef this up.

I really hope I fall alseep at some point tonight!

ok, that's all.

Oh, and happy birthday to my brother. Who doesn't read this (I don't think). And technically I suppose it's not his birthday anymore. So, basically just forget it.

Goodnight.

Give and Take.

2008-06-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

I found something today that I thought I had lost. It's been missing for like two years.

Yay for that.

I paid $4.23 for gas today.

Boo.

I'm shooting my first wedding in 5 days.

Yay.

I kinda want to throw up a little when I think about it.

Yuck.

We are leaving for our road trip in 17 days.

So excited.

Gas will probably go up like 20 cents by then.

No good.

My brother turns 30 in 4 days.

Celebrate.

I'm not far behind him.

Panic.

That's all.

Five

2008-05-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Happy 5th Birthday Gentry Bean!

I have to admit that I'm a little sad. Five seems really old to me. Like he's out of the little boy phase and into being just a boy.

But he's a cute boy. Little or not.

And he's excited to be five.

He woke up this morning and asked me if his voice was any deeper. And then made me measure him.

The voice was the same. But he did grow an inch and a half since last year, which thrilled him, naturally.

He had a Spongebob party on Sunday. It was his first real birthday party where there were more kids than adults. He loved every minute of it.

And he got spoiled rotten. But he deserves it. He's a good kid.

A wild, funny, caring, energetic, sweet, lovable boy. A boy that keeps me on my toes, and says random things that make me laugh, and gives hugs without being asked and plays the "I love you more than..." game at least once a day. He's wise beyond his years, has an amazing memory, a contagious laugh, the worlds smallest teeth, and a sarcastic wit.

And he's 5!

I kinda can't believe it, actually.

Time seriously flies.

It's been an awesome five years. I hope he thinks so too!

My boy.

Happy birthday, buddy!

I hate you, flu. Even the 24 hour version of you.

2008-05-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

We are now going on thirteen hours of no one throwing up.

Today is a vast vast improvement over yesterday!

Anyway, sometimes people want to hear funny things kids say, right? I mean didn't Art Linkletter have a whole show based on this premise? Ok then.

Friday night we went to the Dodger game. It was a late game. It didn't start till 7:40 which is exactly 20 minutes before Gentry's bedtime. And these games aren't short. Generally they last 3 hours or so. Which is exactly 2 hours and 59 minutes and 30 seconds longer than Gentry wants to sit still and watch a baseball game. Plus it was cold. He was hating life.

(That is all irrelevant information. I'm not sure why I shared it.)

All you really needed from that was 1) we were at a Dodger game, and 2) it was cold. Actually you really only need to know that it was cold. Oy.

Around the third inning he climbed onto (into?) my lap and I was rubbing his back. We had a little converstaion. It went like this.

ME: You have to sit here for the rest of the game, you're keeping me cozy.
HIM: why? Cause when you love someone it makes your heart warm?

(and I wanted to say "no, basically just because of your body heat" But, I thought it was a sweet little question so...)

ME: yep. Exactly.

HIM: I bet when you get married together with someone it feels like your heart is wearing a sweater.

ME: yeah, an itchy wool turtleneck.

Oh wait. I didn't say that. I think I said "You're the cutest little thing". And he is.

Then today the other boy had something to say. He was watching something on the cartoon network. I'll be completely honest and admit that I have no idea what it was. But a commercial came on...

HIM: I wish I was rich.
ME: Why, buddy?

HIM: Cause, that guy is rich and look at all those hot girls with him.
What the?

ME: And what do you want hot girls for? (and, also, where did you learn that phrase??)

HIM: Cause they're hot.

ME: Seriously? YOU'RE SIX!

punched

2008-05-07T21:59:00.001-07:00

I've gotten so lazy about posting in this silly little blog that many times it has crossed my mind that I should probably just get rid of it. You see, I feel guilty when I don't take time to post and guiltier when I feel like my posts are second rate to all of the others I read. But then I went back and read some of the things I written about, and although they may not have been grammatically correct, witty, or even interesting it was nice to glance back at the months past and outings or occasions. And I figured that blogs are for you to connect with other people and they are a good way of staying up to date on the day to day lives of people (especially those you don't see often enough) but they are also a way to journal about things that you do, think, feel etc. And that's more for you (me) than anyone else. I haven't even had this thing for very long and yet it was still nice to recall McKays school award and when Gentry taught himself how to ride a bike and trips we have taken. I can only imagine how it'll be when I can look back at years past instead of months...

So it's staying. For me. I'm not going to feel bad if something is spelled wrong or sounds awkward. I'm just going to write.

(Here I go)

Apparently McKay got punched in the face at school on Monday. I didn't hear anything about it until bedtime last night when he casually said "so and so got expelled from school". It was a random comment, but I wasn't exactly shocked because this particular kid has been skating on thin ice all year. And yet I know his mom from all of the days of standing outside the classroom at the end of the school day. We aren't really friends. But we are friendly for sure. I like her very much and I know it tears her up when he gets into trouble. She struggles with his, um, lack of impulse control...but she tries SO hard and loves him to pieces. So my heart dropped when McKay shared the news. Anyway, I said "uh oh, what happened?"

"We were on the playground at recess yesterday and he wanted to play Star Wars but I didn't want to be the guy he wanted me to be so I said I wanted to play kickball instead but he didn't want me to so he punched me in the face instead."

Wait. What?

He told the story quickly but with a serious lack of emotion and I wasn't completely convinced that the he was telling the truth. (In all fairness on my part he's had some issues with the truth lately)

Anyway, long story short. The kid didn't get expelled, he got suspended. But the rest of the story was apparently 100% percent accurate. There were adult witnesses even.

Well, here's the thing. Kids are kids. Boys are boys. I get it, things happen. Especailly on the playground at school. But I went in to talk to McKays teacher after school today. It just seemed serious enough that I should probably say something to somebody. Right? I mean I at least wanted to know what happened. I really just wanted McKay to know that if he gets punched in the face I'm not going to just do nothingabout it. And I also wanted to know if he had maybe in some tiny way he had been asking for it.

I know that sounds bad. But, it crossed my mind. God knows that there are times when I'm actually surprised Gentry doesn't deck him (although, that's a two way street for sure).

And I was also a little irritated that I didn't hear anything about it until Tuesday night. I thought surely he would tell me right after school, or the office would call, or his teacher would mention something. Is that crazy?

So his teacher tells me that she wasn't on the yard and she didn't see it happen but from what she was told McKay didn't do anything to provoke the punch and the only reason that nobody mentioned it is because McKay didn't really seemed phased by it and they were busy dealing with the other kid.

Fair enough.

But here's the reason I'm even telling this story.

As I'm walking out of the classroom, the puncher and his mom were walking in. I smiled and said hi and she didn't look at me and didn't say a word. Just walked right past.

I'm not sure what that was all about. And I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. Could she possibly be mad at me? Does she think McKay got her kid in trouble unfairly? A thousand things have run through my mind. None of them really make sense. Except maybe she feels badly about what happened and didn't know what to say to me. I can understand that. Except I'm overly neurotic. So my mind is whirling with all these other maybes that are ridiculous (funny how I know they are, I typed it, and yet I don't fully believe it). I keep thinking how there are always two sides to ever story and maybe her kid told a convincing version of his and maybe she thinks McKay should appologize. Or something. I dunno.

But I'm writing about this so that I can try to put it out of my head and go to bed and so that a year from now I can look back and laugh with punch-y's mom about how crazy the whole thing was.

Cause we'll still be friendly. This isn't a big deal. I'm over thinking it.

Right?

the little things

2008-04-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

I have to share with you this little piece of heaven that came in the mail last week.

I'm not much of an internet shopper. In fact I think I can count on one hand the number of things that I've bought online that didn't come from Amazon or Ebay. I'm always a little leary about ordering things that I can't see for myself or try on or what have you. But I saw it on the View and then again on 20/20...so I ordered it.

I have to say that it totally lives up to the hype. Totally.

Thankful

2008-04-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

I feel like the hugest weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I don't even think I realized how much it was on my mind until the doctor said "benign" and I immediately felt such a relief!

So the kids and I were in the car after school today and instead of going home I said "lets go fly a kite".

And we did. And it was so much fun!

It was a good day :)

relief

2008-04-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

It was a cyst. A harmless cyst.

phew.

My dog, the anti lab

2008-04-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

It was hot this weekend. Not warm. Hot. The thermometer in my car said it was 96 degrees when we got to the t-ball field and I couldn't help feeling like we must've left spring somewhere and picked up an early dose of summer. I'm not complaining, really, but that's only because it's supposed to cool down by midweek and a few days of hot is totally manageable.

So we did what lots of people do when it gets hot in the valley...we headed to the beach. But we tried something new.

The dog beach.

Now we go to the dog park pretty often and Oakley could pretty much take it or leave it. She doesn't really play with the other dogs. She usually just sticks by my side or runs around with the boys. But we keep going...mostly because we (humans) like to watch all of the other dogs play, and partly because I keep hoping maybe she'll learn something from them (like how to play fetch and how it requires bringing the ball back...not just running to it and then back again or not running at all).

I should also note that she's not a fan of water.

Why then, you might ask, would you take your dog to the dog beach which is by nature full of other dogs and water?

Cause it was fun!

Just maybe not for the uh, dog.

I tried to tell her that it was supposed to be fun...that some dogs actually enjoy it.

But after a wave surprised her she just watched in disgust from safer ground.

(I suppose it's a little like someone trying to convince me that rollercoasters are fun)

She hated the sand, the ocean, the other dogs sniffing her butt. I don't think she particularly liked the 45 minute drive or the bath she got when we got home.

In fact I think she hates me a little right now.

Luckily she's a dog, and she'll have forgiven me by breakfast tomorrow.

And I promised her that the next time we go to the dog beach we'll go dog less.

Personally, I love the beach.

and the hits just keep on coming

2008-04-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

So, I'm just sitting here enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon. The boys are at their grandparents doing yard work (which is basically their favorite pastime...and it tires them out- win win situation) so I'm reading my new book and really getting into the story and my cell phone rings.

It's Bridget.

One of my very closest friends in the world.

We're chit chatting light heartedly about nothing for a few minutes and suddenly the mood changes she says "I have to tell you something"

knot. stomach.

And the "something" she tells me is that she's getting deployed.

To Iraq.

(she's a reservist in the Navy)

Now I know that there are blogs about politics, about wars, and about certain presidents that suck and I really don't want this to be one of them.

But, I also really don't want Bridget to go to Iraq.

And I wish I didn't go see Stop Loss last night. Really regretting that decision right now.

And now I want to vomit.

Disneyland

2008-04-02T19:33:00.001-07:00

Besides the fact that it took 4 attempts to get the IV in, everything went smoothly today. Once the IV was in, it stayed put. The lump is gone. They'll test it and I should have results by next week.

Onto a happier subject.

Here's a story in pictures of our wonderful trip to Disneyland/California Adeventure last week. We had a blast! It was the first time for the two littlest kids (Carlos and Emma...my cousins from Albuquerque), which made it a little more magical and special. They were in heaven.

Ya gotta start the day nice and clean!

Next stop, the hotel lobby...we're getting closer...

Kill time with your friends while you wait for the tram.

(shake that booty, Mckay!)

Short little ride from the hotel

Grab a buddy and in we go...

We made it!

Our tour guide showed us where to go first

along the way we said hi to some new friends.

and had fun with our old ones.

rode some rides

ate a bunch of junk food

and tried to stay hydrated

We watched some parades

and the Playhouse Disney show

and there's a slight chance someone took too many pictures

It was a much needed little vacation!!

This is not uplifting.

2008-03-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

Life is crazy. Good (for the most part) but crazy.

I've been neglecting this little blog. I would really like to be better about it but it feels like lately I am either too busy to blog, or I have nothing good to say. Who wants to read bad news? Mostly no one I would imagine. But if I'm going to update this I can't avoid the negatives so lets get them out of the way first.

We have to go back a little actually in order to get current...so back we go...

So we're back in November, around Thanksgiving in fact. And I find a lump (not in the mashed potatoes...)
So being the kind of person I am I freak out a little internally...and then procrastinate about going to the doctor (I know, I know. dumb.)

Now, this can either be a long drawn out story of medical ridiculousness and frustration...but let's go another route and make it short and sweet. I've had a bunch of tests done and the verdict is still out on whether or not I should be worried (of course nobody has to tell me to worry...it's just my nature). So, On Wednesday I'm having it removed.

Here's where I tell you all that I have a huge irrational fear of IV's. I HATE them. HATE. I'm not really worried about the surgery, it's fairly basic. But I'm considering amputating my own arms at the elbow to avoid the IV. But that'd probably lead to an infection which would lead to hospitalization, which inevitably means the dreaded IV. Not to mention the fact that they can stick the IV somewhere else. But in my mind IV's are always in your wrist area and in my mind I move wrong and the needle rips through my vein and jams up through my skin and I bleed everywhere.

No, it's never happened to me (obviously). I've never even heard of it happening. But still...

I guess in a way worrying about the IV has kept me from worrying about the real issue quite as much. I'm actually pretty sure it's nothing. But the something it could be sucks so much that I can't even think about it (especially since it's been left to linger for almost five months and spread wherever it would like).

So that's that. For now.

Next issue.

I've been noticing lately that when Gentry watches tv he randomly makes this low quick grunting sound every few seconds. It caught my attention but I wasn't really that worried about it. I figured it was just a quirk.
Then last Friday after three exhausting days at Disneyland he started having these weird spasms (twitches? tics?) I'm not sure what to call them. He was walking or talking and stopped suddenly made that same noise, his head jerked to the side, and his arm shot out to the same side. Then he'd go immediately back to whatever he was doing. I don't think he was even aware that it was happening.

I'm going to go ahead and say that it was hands down the scariest thing I've ever seen.

Saturday morning we took him to the doctor first thing. They took a bunch of blood from his little arm (he was a trooper) and a urine test. We should have results from them tomorrow. The doctor didn't want to speculate about what it could be before he saw the tests results. But he did ask about a family history of tourettes. He sees a neurologist on Thursday.

Four year olds should have to see their pediatrician, the dentist, maybe the optometrist...but not a neurologist (or the oncologist or therapist for that matter).

Against my better judgement I used the almighty google and spent hours reading about all sorts of things that could be causing it. Probably not my best choice because now I'm even more freaked out then I was before.

I am thankful that he has good health insurance. I'm thankful that it doesn't seem to be bothering him. He's the same happy, energetic, crazy lovable boy as always.
In fact he's outside right now with a teenage mutant ninja turtle costume and a Mickey Mouse light saber "practicing his moves and kicking some butts". The tics have increased in frequency since Friday which is not reassuring.

I know we'll deal with whatever the problem is. I just want him to be ok.

I was going to move onto lighter topics but I think I'll post again later instead. I'd rather go practice my own moves with the turtle.

life lessons

2008-03-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

When I was younger I assumed that you have acne during your teen years and then it goes away and you don't have to deal with it as an adult.

I was a misinformed youth.

I really really really don't like wind.

2008-03-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

It's very odd that I put up pictures and they are huge and I curse photobucket but I leave them big and then the next thing I know they are normal size again...

T-ball just started up again. This will be Gentry's first time playing. There really isn't anything funnier than watching 4 year olds "playing" t-ball and not a whole lot that is cuter than little guys in their uniforms.

You know what starts right after the t-ball season? Real baseball! I'm predicting the Dodgers are going to suck less than usual this year, and I'm hoping for a repeat of the '88 world series now, 20 years later. How awesome would that be?

This has nothing to do with baseball, but I just found out that some of my family members (I won't even try to explain who's who...it's confusing) are going to come out from Albuquerque during spring break. I'm really excited because one of the people coming is Leah and she's McKay's best friend in the entire world.

They don't see much of each other and I think he's going to pee his pants when he hears that she's coming. We're going to go to Disneyland for two days which should be a blast (expensive, but fun). BUT, the excitement is mixed with a little bit of pure fear because this trip means that for 3 days we will have 11 people in our house. 4 adults, 7 KIDS. Yikes. I hope the Easter bunny brings ear plugs. And maybe Benodryl. (kidding!)

blah

2008-03-03T21:15:00.001-08:00

I think I'm going to go back to the pre computer days.
I don't know why those pictures are huge.
I want to be one of those people that loves to mess with their computer and figure out what the problem is...
but all I really want to do is throw it at the wall.
And yes, I'm completely aware that more than likely I am the problem...but I'm choosing to ignore that fact.

seriously, photobucket?

2008-03-03T20:55:00.000-08:00

I used to think that it was really loser-ish to buy myself flowers. I refused to do it. But these days it almost feels mandatory. I can't resist them when I'm at Trader Joe's or Costco. They call out to me and beg me to take them home. So I do.
I think I can stay out of the loser category as long as I don't order them and have them delivered to myself!

These just brighten my day. Somehow just having them on the counter makes doing the dishes less awful.

and while we are on the subject, may I add that a little John Mayer makes folding laundry more enjoyable!

Happy hump day

2008-02-27T17:40:00.000-08:00

The weather was beautiful today. It was in the 80's. It's almost 6pm and this is the first time we've been inside all day. Love days like this.

I took Gentry to the park this morning. It was full of people. Mostly moms and their preschoolers.

As I watched and listened to everything going on I noticed something kind of interesting. People don't call their kids by their names! I mean they do occasionally but for the most part I heard more nicknames than real names being called out (unless a particular kid was doing something really rotten...then the whole real name came out-first and middle).

I started to think about it and I'm totally guilty of it too. I'm surprised the boys even know what their names are! McKay answers to Kay-Kay, cake, cakie, Stewie, Bubba, and chubs, just to name a few. And when I say he answers to them I mean without skipping a beat he will respond to all of those. Same thing with Gentry. He's Bean, Turtle dove, monkey, doodle, Wallace, Beanicus, and G-E-N-T-R-Y (because he tells everyone everywhere how to spell his name). As a duo they will respond to Boise Idaho (I don't even know how that started), Lankers, and DD.

I would say they are probably called by one nickname or another about 85% of the time.

And yet somehow they know their real names. They never question the nicknames.

I hope I'm not setting them up for some sort of identity crisis in the future!

Just another perk of living in CA

2008-02-25T20:07:00.000-08:00

I have this really weird feeling that we are about to have an earthquake.

I think it might be stemming from the fact that I just realized that since we have been back from Albuquerque (as in moved back, not back from vacation- so almost two years ago) we haven't had one that was big enough to make me take notice. In fact neither of the boys has ever felt one. We have talked about them plenty, and discussed what to do when it happens (cause it will happen...) but I think living out of state for a few years sort of made me let my guard down. I was looking around the house today and realizing that I probably have WAY too many picture frames on the wall.

I remember after the Northridge earthquake I slept with my shoes by the bed and knew where at least 10 flashlights were at any given time. Now, I know where exactly two flashlights are and I'm lucky if my shoes are together as a pair somewhere.

The only positive thing that would come from us having an earthquake right now is that you wouldn't be able to tell in the boys room. It already looks like some kind of natural disaster has occurred.

Little road trip. stupid photobucket.

2008-02-23T22:47:00.000-08:00

I'm back! It only took 9 days this time...that's an improvement.
Actually, I wrote a big fat post yesterday that was full of nothing nice and I deleted it. So, since today was a zillion times better than yesterday I'm back to post about happy things!

We went to Santa Barbara today. It wasn't a planned thing. My plans for the day consisted of laundry and grocery shopping and possibly a trip to library. But we were eating breakfast and my mom called and said she was bored and wanted to get out of the house. She's been wanting to go to the Santa Barbara zoo for awhile now, so even though it was chilly and cloudy we decided to go. I'm pretty much always game for anything that gets me out of doing laundry!

We had so much fun! I love the Santa Barbara Zoo. I know the San Diego zoo is supposed to be so phenomenal, but I'm really not that impressed with it. It might have something to do with the fact that it's so big and we usually end up going on really hot days when none of the animals are very active. But anyway, I totally prefer the Santa Barbara zoo. For one thing, even though it's more than an hour away the drive for the most part is pretty. I love driving along the coast (even when it'd drizzling, which it was today). The other thing is that the zoo is right on the coast and you can see the ocean in the background of some of the exhibits, which is super cool.

We were there for about 4 hours and got to see everything.
First thing was the train ride.

(I tried for 20 minutes to put pictures of the kids on the train right here. But, even though I was asking Photobucket very nicely to resize them it was choosing not to. Instead of enormous pictures right here, we're going to use our imaginations. k? There was a train. We rode it. You've seen trains...you've seen cute kids...so imagine it.)

We spent a long time at the Giraffes because you can pay to go onto this platform to feed them!

I'm not sure who liked it more, the kids or my mom!

Giraffes have freakishly long tongues! I knew that, but had never been licked by one until today!

Check out the ocean in the background

I wont bore you with 800 pictures from the zoo but here's one of a rare breed of huge (clothed) baby birds

We found on empty stage on the way to the monkeys...and there is only one thing to do when you find an empty stage.

Breakdance.

When we were done at the zoo we drove over to the beach. The boys were begging to play in the water and I was trying to remind them that it was 50 degrees outside. We compromised and walked on the pier and got some dinner at a restaurant at the end of it.

We froze as we walked, but it was worth it. The restaurant was nice and warm and the food was soooo good. While we waited for out seats, the boys checked out the lobsters.

We sat at a long bar facing a window. The water was really choppy and it was raining but the view was still good and we were happy.

Here's McKay and my mom right before they cracked open their crab (Gentry had grilled cheese)

It started to pour on our way home, but we made it and now we're in our warm house and the boys are sound asleep. I'm listening to the rain and contemplating which pay per view movie I want to watch.

It was a good day.

too random for a title

2008-02-14T18:02:00.000-08:00

wow, I'm like the worst blogger ever. It's been two weeks.

Here's a rundown of what's new. In no particular order.

I broke my sewing machine. In my defense it was from like 1950 (slight exaggeration) and probably wanted to die anyway. But still. blah.

This was particularly sucky because I'm in the middle of making a quilt for a friend to give to her mom for her birthday on Monday. (I don't care if that's a run on sentence or whatever, I really don't). So, I bought a new sewing machine. It's fancy and computerized and pretty. And confusing and frustrating. But pretty.

changing subjects...stay with me....

We have this neighbor that lives down the street. She's very nice, but full of issues (who isn't really, I suppose). She has panic anxiety, sleeps really weird hours, rarely leaves her house, and is a hoarder.

Of animals and things. (like 12 cats, birds, sugar gliders, 2 dogs, a rabbit etc.)

She has 4 kids that love her, but have moved away and started families of their own, and because of the state of her house rarely come to visit.
McKay and Gentry actually love to visit her because some of her obsessions that have lead to the hoarding are 1. Things that light up 2. Coca Cola 3. Titanic 4. Christmas decorations plus many other random things. She has tons of things to look at and touch. That along with her animals make it a fun place to go. They don't even seem to notice the clutter or the fact that even though it's a 4 bedroom house, there is a roughly 2 foot wide path from room to room and nowhere to sit. I on the other hand get stressed out the moment we walk in. But, because she doesn't let many people in, and because I know she's lonely...we stop by occasionally when we are taking walks or riding bikes or what-have-you.

Anyway...

Last week she said she realized that she needed to do something if she ever wanted to see her kids and asked me if I would come down and help her if she paid me. I told her I'd come and she didn't have to pay me. I was just glad she's finally ready to do something about the situation. It's not healthy for her or her pets.

Holy Moly. I should think before I speak.

Like I said, she sleeps weird hours. Pretty much, she's awake while the rest of the world is sleeping. So, every night after the kids are in bed and Carrie is home from work I've been going over to help her. I planned to go from 8-midnight every night but it seems like midnight comes and goes and I never leave before 2am. It's one of those situations where things got way worse before they got any better. I'm finally starting to see some improvement but it's still ridiculous. I know I can't bail on her now, but I'm feeling overwhelmed by the whole thing. I just can't imagine how someone's house gets so out of hand. I'm exhausted and frustrated. I've had less patience with the boys, which I feel guilty about...my own house needs some attention, I haven't even started my book club book and everyone else is probably done with it. Blah.

What started out as a way to help someone has really put me in a bad mood. That is totally the opposite of the intention. It's no good. No good at all.

Join me please as I change subjects again...

About a month ago McKay won the reflections contest at school. They had an assembly for the winners and gave them ribbons. We missed it. Apparently they were supposed to send home a letter to all of the winners and somehow forgot to give McKay his letter. I was mad about it at the time but the lady that ran the contest called and apologized and McKay didn't seem too upset so I let it go. But, apparently his entry went on to the district competition and he won that too!! We got an invitation to go to the District ceremony in April. Way cooler than the assembly at school! I guess things work out. I'm proud of him.

His school also does this neighborhood program where they offer different classes at a nearby church. I guess it's not technically through his school but anyway he's going to start taking hip hop dance classes. It might be the funniest thing ever. He really wants to do it and he actually has more rythm than you would expect from a white boy. Should be interesting...

and that is all. See you in two weeks.

I don't need MORE noise.

2008-01-31T22:30:00.000-08:00

Thank you Kelly for the offer. Almost nothing I worry about is logical...so I probably wont need him too often. I'll just remind myself not to be a neurotic mess and hopefully that will work. :)

Now, onto a new topic. My Tivo remote.

It hates me.

The pause button has decided to become volume up. Volume up is still volume up. Fast Forward is Volume up. Volume down turns the tv off. All of the other buttons are preforming their intended function. Leaving me exactly 3 ways to turn the volume up and exactly NO ways to turn it down (aside from getting my butt up and doing it the old fashion way).

No one in the house will fess up and tell me that they perhaps dropped it in the tiolet, ran it over with a monster truck, put it in the microwave, the dishwasher or the washing machine...and there are no signs of foul play. So who knows?

I may just throw the stupid thing at the wall.

If I do, I'm not appologizing to the wall or the remote.

I'm a freak.

2008-01-30T19:39:00.000-08:00

I'm such a worry wart. It's seriously annoying. I annoy my friends and myself!!

I worry about everything. I overthink EVERYTHING. I rethink every decision I make. I worry too much about other peoples opinion of me. I worry about the past, the present and especially the future.

You know that saying "don't sweat the small stuff"? Yeah, I don't follow that at all!

I have a couple of friends that are totally easy going. Sometimes they come of as seeming like they don't care as much, but in reality I don't think that's the case. I think they just have an easier time adapting to things and they are ok with whatever happens. I wish I could tap into just a little bit of that.

I want to be able to worry when it's appropriate and just let the rest go. I want to be less of a people pleaser and be more genuine.

Also, I have noticed a few times in the last week or so that I appologize way too much for things that are either 1) out of my control entirely 2) that I'm not actually sorry about or 3) don't even require an applogy.

For instance...today at the bank this lady was distracted and wasn't watching where she was walking and bumped into me. My reaction? "oh, sorry". For what exactly?? For standing in line? For not jumping out of the way when she absently walked into me? I wasn't really sorry. I didn't need to be. But that was my first reaction.

There are countless other times that I do it.

See...so now I'm worrying about how much I appologize. I guess I should just face facts. I have issues.

Well, that's that then. Sorry if this bored you. :)

yum

2008-01-27T21:31:00.000-08:00

I'm a fan of dessert. Especially the homemade kind.
But sometimes a plain ol' scoop of vanilla ice cream really hits the spot!

I owe you one Holly

2008-01-25T23:46:00.000-08:00

Some days are boring in a good way. Sometimes there's nothing better than knowing I have nothing that needs to be done, nowhere to be, no pressing responsibilities etc.

Today was not one of those days.

Today I was just plain bored. It's been raining for like 5 days and it was starting to get on my nerves. The boys are spending the night at their grandparents, so by 4 o'clock I didn't even have them to distract me (I'm not really complaining about that, just trying to convey the extreme boredom).

I called all sorts of friends to see if they wanted to do something, but everyone was busy. It's like they don't realize that sometimes I need them to drop everything to keep me company. Geez.

But then...my day took a turn. For the freaking fantastic.

You see, two of the friends (Bridget and Stacey) that I had called gently reminded me that they were going to the Garth Brooks concert tonight. I should have remembered this since I've been sort of bitter about it for months! But in my boredom I forgot. (Not bitter at them really. They asked me to go before they bought the tickets but I couldn't justify spending the money at Christmas time).

Then at 4:30 Bridget called back and said that the third girl that was going suddenly couldn't and if I could be ready in ten minutes I could have the ticket.

I was ready in 3.

Talk about luck. I had just dropped the kids off. I was sitting at home by myself wondering how I was going to pass the next few hours before I could go to bed without feeling like a complete senior citizen. Within minutes I was on my way to the Staples Center to see an amazing concert.

And it was amazing.

I don't care if you don't even like country music. Garth Brooks is a spectacular performer. Trisha Yearwood came out and sang with him which wasn't really a surprise. But then Huey Lewis came out and sang. It was so random but so great! He ended the show singing American Pie. Random? yes. Great? YES!

I had a fun time with friends, got to see a great show and because I'm not much of a drinker I didn't have to pay $11 for a beer. Perfect night.

Oh, and I'm sleeping in tomorrow and I don't feel bad about it.

There are worse things than being a goat.

2008-01-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

I had a date on Friday night. While this is a rare enough occurrence to be blogworthy on it's own, it is not the date so much that is inspiring this post. Not directly at least...

It was a first date. A blind date actually. It was a last minute thing.

So, in an effort not to reveal my goat like characteristics(mainly my hairy chin. I don't eat tin cans or anything) right off the bat, I thought I should probably wax the little suckers. Usually I have it done professionally, but not on a regular enough basis, mostly just when I start feeling extra manly. And I haven't been in awhile. This occurred to me as I was getting ready. So I dug the store bought wax out from under the sink. I've used it before, once I think. I remembered that it was really messy and a pain because you have to use the wax quickly because it hardens in seconds, and since I have a lot of hairs to get rid of that is no small feat. But, I also remembered that hairy faced girls aren't attractive so I carried out the painful messy task. Problem solved.

Or so I thought.

My face was smooth as could be, and I guess that's all I can really ask for, right? I went on my date and he didn't offer to let me use his razor or anything so I figured I was ok. I was really tired when I got home and just washed my face and went to bed. Saturday morning I woke up with a rash all over my chin. An ugly gross red rash. ON MY FACE. A rash much more noticeable than any hairs ever were. It's just barely better today. Which means that for the last three days I have had to answer several versions of this question "Wow, what happened?" many many many times. Each time I just bleat and go on with my business.

The date was fun. Hopefully I'll see him again. But not for a few more days.

The wax is in the trash.

Warning: this is totally unrelated to the prior topic.
In Yahoo's top searches today, Michelle Williams was number 1. Heath Ledger was number 5. That's interesting to me.

I'm alive.

2008-01-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't died. Or vanished. I wasn't washed away in the "big storm" (which was pretty small, really). I am here.

I took the boys to Albuquerque last Tuesday night. It was not a planned trip, but McKay ended up not having school on Thursday and Friday (plumbing problems or something like that) so we hopped in the car and drove to see people that I've been missing.

About an hour into the drive I started to think that maybe I was crazy to go with them on my own...the 12+ hours that were still ahead of us seemed so long and the dvd player stopped working about a quarter of the way through Transformers. But, the kids handled it very well and we had some great conversations. Then they slept and I drove and listened to music and ate junk food and had a good time.

I purposely didn't take my computer because I wanted to make the most of the short vacation and not be sitting in front of it the whole time. I took my camera, but didn't actually end up taking many pictures because the kids both got really sick the first day that we were there and we spent most of the time cooped up in Erin's apartment. In retrospect I probably should have taken the computer and left the camera home :)

On Friday morning Gentry had a fever so I gave him some ibprofen and less then 15 minutes later his eyes were swollen shut. It freaked me out because I was picturing his throat swelling up and I panicked a little. But after I gave him some benodryl and he slept for a few hours they were better. I still don't know what caused it but his Pediatrician thinks it may have been the dye in the medicine.

Then McKay spent that whole night throwing up! They pretty much ran through every symptom in the book...fevers, allergic reaction, vomiting, coughing, sore throat etc. Erin was probably not happy that we brought the death flu with us! Not surprisingly, all 3 of her kids were sick before we left.

But, actually as dreadful as that all sounds we had a pretty good time. I didn't watch the news once, never got on the internet, didn't watch any tv shows. It was kind of freeing! The kids got to spend time with Erin's kids (Leah, Carlos and Emma) and I got to see some old friends and all of my family that lives there. We had a mellow trip and watched High School Musical 2 eight zillion times but it was still pretty fun.

Now it's back to real life. I'm playing catch up with current events (I didn't know about the whole Marine murder thing till this morning) but I had a bunch of blogs to read last night when I got home which was fun.

We probably wouldn't have made it to NM until summertime so I'm glad that we got to take advantage of this spur of the moment trip.

it's water.

2008-01-03T20:37:00.000-08:00

We are officially on Storm Watch 2008!

It always amuses me how Californians react to weather. Especially the newscasters. We're supposed to get something like 2 (not 20, 2.) inches of rain in the next couple of days. But if you watch the news for too long you might feel inclined to start building an Ark. It's just that serious.

They're already reporting live from various different places around the valley talking about the expectation of rain and how people are reacting. No rain has even fallen yet. And they'll no doubt be out there tomorrow with their network issued rain gear. It'll be the top story every hour. Like there's nothing more important going on in the world than water falling from the sky. I wonder if they realize that in other parts of the country water actually freezes as it's falling. Oooh, a whole other phenomenon.

After all of this build-up, I think it would be funny if it didn't even rain. Well except that we desperately need it.

If it does actually rain as much as they are predicting it'll mean that I'll be cooped up with the kids for the remainder of the Christmas break. But they're back to school on Monday. I love those little knuckleheads but these 3 weeks have, at times, felt like 3 months.

And I just realized that I just blogged about the rain. Well, this is Storm Watch 2008. What do you want from me?

2008

2008-01-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

I'm sure that I'm going to forget and write 2007 until at least February.

But I'm excited for the new year. It feels like I'm at a turning point in some regards and I'm looking forward to seeing where my life is headed. I'm not making any resolutions, so to speak, but change happens whether I like it or not so with some clear intentions and motivation I'm hoping to steer that change in a direction that makes me happier and more fulfilled.

I hope that everyone had a fun filled and safe New Year.

The decorations are down and it's back to regular life. Till next year :)

Another Christmas come and gone

2007-12-29T09:38:00.001-08:00

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.

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!

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.

I have issues

2007-12-23T21:05:00.000-08:00

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.

Christmas stuff

2007-12-20T21:48:00.000-08:00

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.

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!

irony

2007-12-09T18:15:00.001-08:00

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.

Wally World

2007-12-07T22:09:00.001-08:00

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.

Sanitary Potato

2007-12-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

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.

dear friend

2007-12-05T20:28:00.000-08:00

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.

feeling happy

2007-11-30T16:56:00.000-08:00

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.

teeth

2007-11-28T19:31:00.000-08:00

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.

I am

2007-11-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

so full...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks

2007-11-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

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!

I'm expecting social services any minute.

2007-11-19T17:28:00.001-08:00

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.

like Christmas morning.

2007-11-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

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.

don't want it.

2007-11-14T20:31:00.000-08:00

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.

wow.

2007-11-13T19:46:00.000-08:00

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

dinner

2007-11-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

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...

Control your kids

2007-11-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

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. :)

Free and girly

2007-11-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

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...

feelin the love

2007-11-09T23:25:00.000-08:00

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!

Happy Thursday

2007-11-08T15:06:00.001-08:00

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!

28 years later

2007-11-07T19:29:00.001-08:00

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!

to whom it may concern

2007-11-06T14:04:00.001-08:00

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.

fog, a sweatshirt, and a booger

2007-11-05T19:11:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

BOOGER.

It wasn't a complete loss though because I kinda like this one.

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.

Time.

2007-11-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

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.

Fall, why have you foresaken me?

2007-11-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

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.

evil.

2007-11-02T21:30:00.001-07:00

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.

just a thought

2007-11-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

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

Spellcheck can't even help me.

2007-10-31T21:20:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-31T10:17:00.000-07:00

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.
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.

a day off of school

2007-10-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

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.

A short asian man

2007-10-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

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.

I hate wind.

2007-10-21T22:20:00.001-07:00

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.

The under side of a bridge.

A fountain the kids would have loved.

BOATS

Time of my life

2007-10-20T18:43:00.001-07:00

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.

SD here I come

2007-10-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

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!

just wondering....

2007-10-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

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!

links

2007-10-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

Let us see if I can follow simple directions.

Shall we?

Jennifer is smarter than me.

My brother is cooler than yours

2007-10-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

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

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).

a snails pace

2007-10-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Sunburns after summer

2007-10-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Character counts

2007-10-12T13:21:00.000-07:00

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!!

everyone's on two wheels

2007-10-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

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.

A good surpise.

2007-10-11T18:12:00.000-07:00

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!

Sometimes things work out.

2007-10-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2007-10-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

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...

All alone...

2007-10-09T18:20:00.001-07:00

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.

no energy to think up a title.

2007-10-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

Today has been emotionally draining.

the weekend

2007-10-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

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.

house full of Tommy lovers

2007-10-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Pink shoes to the bank.

2007-10-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Maybe I'll buy a red sports car

2007-10-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

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)

Brothers

skater dude

Is anyone else

2007-09-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

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.

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.