Rufflebutts

High Fiving Myself!

2012-02-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

I fixed my mini-van! ALL BY MYSELF!!! Woot!

Wonder when my husband will notice? I'm not going to tell him, I'll just wait it out. Back in November, my left tail light went out. I haven't had a rear left blinker since! Santa put new bulbs in my Christmas stocking and Keith said he would change them.

In fact, my husband said he would fix my blinker at least once a week since November. It is February now, and I no longer believe him. I told him I was going to do it myself and he laughed.

I figured this repair was complicated. After all, my husband hasn't had time to devote to the project in months (and he had a 2.5 week break over the holidays from work). Curiosity got the best of me though, and I googled. The first thing that came up was a youtube video.

I watched it once, ran to the garage and got the tools and scurried out to the driveway.

Ten seconds later (give or take) I came back in the house rejoicing and high fiving myself! I did it! And it barely took any time at all. I can't believe it was so easy. My husband was home, but in his "man room" so he has no idea.

My tail light works again! My blinker works too! I fixed my van!

Double the fun at the Orthodontist

2012-02-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

I'm over a year into this orthodontic torture, and I've forgotten why I wanted straight teeth.

The other day I went to the orthodontist for my regular 4 week tweek. Fenna and Gracie were at school, Charlie was at his dad's house, and so I only needed a sitter for Libby. None of my friends offered to take her except one, and she was pretty busy so I didn't want to add Libby to her busy day. I'm getting tired of trying to find a sitter every month for a 90 minute time slot. I am starting to feel like I have to bed and plead. At first, my mama friends were eager to swap babysitting a little here and a little there, but they've gotten tired of that I guess. I'm going to have to start paying a real babysitter to cover my appointments. Anyway, I was lucky enough to get an offer from my next door neighbor and so Libby had a place to play while I went to the dentist. The neighbor has three dogs and so Libby was pretty excited to go to her puppy playdate. She took a bag of milkbones; she had a great time.

I told the sitter I'd be gone an hour, maybe a little more. My appointment was at 10am and I'm usually done by 11am. Ok, off I went.

I arrived right at 10:00. I was called back at 10:50. Seriously? What was taking so long? They must think the clients have no lives; everyone has ample time to sit in the waiting room endlessly. And they must think people enjoy it. Why else would I be there 50 freaking minutes? So far, the appointment isn't going well.

Finally, I was called back to the torture chamber and I waited for so long that I was happy about it. Maybe that's why they make people wait so long. Clever trick!

Leonard is my favorite assistant. He's big and strong and quick; he's smart, polite and has skills. The girls that work in there are too afraid to hurt me so they take forever and that just hurts more. The orthodontist came and looked me over and told Leonard what to do. He said to put on four more brackets on my very back molars and then change the wires to a thicker one. Leonard questioned him on the wire size, said ok and he got to work. First thing first, I must have the cheek spreader on today. Oh no! Not that thing! My face does not spread out that far. I've been told I have a big mouth, but it's not big enough for the face spreader. Torture!

And then he crammed triangle wedges in my jaw. Those things hurt! He blew dry my teeth, scraped them a bit, rinse, blow dry again. Then he glued on the brackets. Oh that glue stinks! Even worse than Leonard's bubble gum smelling gloves! But, he finally got done installing more mechanics in my mouth and I was good to go. My mouth wasn't happy but I was glad to finally leave, at 11:30! yikes.

While driving away, Ping! One of the brackets popped right off! Seriously? Nooooo! I pulled over and applied a wad of wax to the end of the wire and spit out the bracket. Great, now I have the end of a very sharp wire stabbing the back of my jaw.

I went and picked up Libby and offered her a picnic lunch at the park because she was such a good girl for my neighbor. My neighbor taught her how to play angry birds and use a drawing program on her iphone. Great, spoil my kid, thanks. She claims she didn't, but my kid already knew how! Amazing, kids take to electronics so easily.

A Happy Meal, a picnic blanket and a park made the afternoon almost perfect. The wad of wax on the end of my wire would not stay put so I was being stabbed, but otherwise the day was looking up. Until the other upper bracket popped off. Now I was being stabbed by sharp wires on both sides of my mouth! Ouch! I tried using french fries as padding. They were getting mushy and bloody. That was just gross. I decided to call for another appointment, and it was going to have to be today.

The appointment desk said I could come in but I had to be there after 2pm and before 4pm, no way could I go at 2pm because I wouldn't have enough time before I had to do the school pick-up and that usually takes an hour. I told her I'd be there at 3:15. Yay, only three hours of being stabbed. Wait, yay? Ugh, these braces are making me crazy!

When I went to pick up the girls from school, Libby fell asleep in her carseat. This worked out great! When she is asleep, she's a floppy ragdoll. Fenna was kind enough to take Gracie to the Starbucks next door to the dentist while I put Miss Floppy in the stroller and went in. They took me straight back.

The lip spreader went back on and the triangle wedges shoved back in. My mouth was still sore and tired from the first round of torture and now I'm laying here doing it again. The orthodontist came by and I should note, he's not the regular guy, he's the alternate doc. Leonard asked him if he should use a smaller wire since the larger wire was too strong and pulled the brackets off. The doc agreed, that was the problem. Geez, I'm laying here enduring a second torture and its all the dentist's fault. I remember my favorite teeth tweeker asked him about that earlier! Leonard worked fast with his stinky "fun flavored" gloves and stinky glue. Leonard rocks.

While I was laying in the chair in pain and trying not to gag, I thought to myself, "I should have gotten a boob job instead of braces. Same result: better looking. Faster. Probably less painful. And if I had a boob job, nobody would notice my crooked teeth."

Little Bo Peep and her bleeding sheep

2012-01-27T13:19:00.001-08:00

Listening to "Little Bo Peep" song in the van.
Libby, "Noooo! I don't like this song!"
Me, "Why?"
"The sheep are dead and bloody".
Me, "Oh, this is gonna be good".
Libby, "Is not good! The sheep are bleeding!"
I'm trying to listen, Libby is screaming, and sure enough in the second verse the song says "Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep, And dreamt she heard them bleating".
Me, "Bleating! The sheep are bleating!"
Libby, "I know! Cuz they're dead."
And so we discuss the linguistic difference between bleating and bleeding; and we discuss how some of the old English has been lost in translation over time. Who says you can't have a meaningful conversation with a 3 year old.

The Ikea Project

2012-01-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

I made it my mission for the day to clean up my kitchen and dining room. After getting the kids off to school and downing a half a pot of coffee, I went to the kitchen to tackle the problem of the day. I went in there and just looked around and thought, "ugh". And then I spied it, the real reason my kitchen never feels good.

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I don't know who designed this house, but it was obviously a man who didn't appreciate his wife. There is a "breakfast nook" that honestly shouldn't be there. It should be cabinet and counter space. I have a nice large kitchen but everything is crammed into one corner and the rest of the space is poorly designed. We use the breakfast table (it came with the house) as a counter and we've stacked the microwave and pizza oven on it. Then, we added a "snack table" next to it for cereal and chips and all that sort of thing. There is never room for it in the cabinets. Sure, it works, but it's not pretty.

And then I turned to look at the dining room. The table is covered with Kindergarten homework, crayons, markers, etc. The kid really needs her own space to study. She can have Fenna's desk and chair next year, but in the meantime her mess might drive me crazy. I had no idea Kindergarten would require a study space at home. The world has changed and I did not plan for it.

Just looking at my messes inspired me. Finally. Sometimes inspiration takes too long. I should have thought of this years and years ago! I'll run to Ikea and buy a cabinet! And a little table and chairs set for homework and little tea parties. What time is it? Yes! I can make it! Libby, put your shoes on!

Off we went to Ikea. It's an hour long drive on a good day, so if we are lucky and don't get in any traffic jams we should be able to get there, shop, have lunch and drive home in time to pick up the girls from school. Score!

And that's how it happened. I bought a kitchen cabinet, a desk and a chair. The little table and chairs sets were too small for my tall Kindergartener.

Little did I know that Ikea things come in hundreds of pieces. And they take hours to assemble. Days, actually. And tools. Tools! I don't know how to work tools! To top it off, Ikea assembly instructions have no words, just a picture booklet. I needed help. Keith is gonna love me for this!

Keith spent two days putting together the cabinet. He understood the instructions and got that puzzle put together! It's so nice!

I put together the desk. It also took me two days. I spent $20 on the desk and it took at least 20 hours to assemble. I ended up with four extra pieces and a lot of extra screws and gizmos. Keith says there shouldn't be any extra pieces or screws. Well, there were. I had holes that didn't line up! I followed the instructions, but it still happened that I got four pieces attached upside down resulting in screwholes in all the wrong places and no screwholes in the right places. Since Keith told me to glue as I went, I couldn't take it apart and start over. Oh well, it seems solid enough without all of the extra parts. The kid is going to do her homework on it, not jump around on it; it is solid enough.

The chair was hard to put together too! I spent a few hours wrestling with it, but after crying for help it finally came together. Thanks, Keith.

The Ikea projects are done. They look great and they work great! But, the sink is still full of dirty dishes.

Someone bit me in the checkout line

2012-01-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

I was standing in line to pay and got bit! I was at Ikea, does that detail matter? On a whim, I hopped in the van, gassed up, and hit the road. On the way, I decided to call Katie and have her meet me there since I had this sudden urge to buy something big and heavy. She's skinny, but she's strong. Lucky for me she was free and able to meet up at Ikea! Of course she brought her cute little guy, Henry. He has 4 or 5 teeth now. A month ago he didn't have any. I was holding him and getting some really good hugs while we stood in the checkout line and then YOUCH! The kid bit me. I guess I didn't mind too much.

Our trip to Ikea wasn't without incident, of course, I wouldn't be me if I had an uneventful day. Libby wanted to go into the ball pit. Ikea offers free child care for one hour and they have a nice play room with a huge ball pit. Libby has never been big enough to go in, but we tried today to see if she grew enough. She did! 37" is the minimum and she made it! First time in the ball pit! So exciting! We got our matching identification wristbands and she went on in with a great big grin on her face. Ok, big girl, see you in an hour.

My how time flies when you are free of all children and running through the Ikea maze. Wheeee! Katie called me when she arrived; Libby had been in the pit for 20 minutes or so. I told Katie that I left her in the child care and I was upstairs in the kitchen section. Katie looked in and said, "Mom, she's crying."

Katie said Libby was just standing there in the play area looking sad and pouting. Nobody was paying any attention to her. Libby turned and saw Katie through the window and really started crying. She wanted outa there! Katie couldn't get her out since I am the one who had the matching wristband. I ran wildly through the store back to the child pit. I was farther back in the store than I thought I was.

I got her out of there as quickly as I could, she had been in for 30 minutes. I figured she was hurt; I swear, this kid is always getting creamed on playground by bigger wilder kids. I asked her if she was hurt and she said between sobs that her feelings were hurt. Why? "Gracie wasn't there." Ohhhh no. Big sister is at school! Libby calmed down and decided to shop with us instead of staying in the child care. I don't think they wanted her back anyway. Next time we'll bring her sister.

I showed Katie the three display items of the things I was going to buy. She approved, mostly. We had lunch and then went to check out. I was really pushing it for time. I had to get back home to pick up the kids from their schools.

I bought everything I needed, after being bitten. Then we sat and waited for the big kitchen cabinet to be loaded onto a cart for me from the back room. I put the van in the loading zone and tried to pull the boxes off of the cart and put them into the van. I couldn't budge them! Super-Katie to the rescue! She just put the boxes in the van like they were no big deal. I don't know how she does it with those skinny little arms!

Luckily, I pulled into town just in time to pull up in front of the high school and not leave the teenager wondering if I've forgotten her yet again. Oddly enough, this is much more difficult to do when I have all afternoon free. Went to pick up the kindergartener too, and all was well.

That reminds me, they decided to let Kindergarten out at 2:30 now instead of 2:45 because of the increase in class size. This makes no sense to me, but it does make it difficult to pick up both kids at different schools at the same time. I told Gracie they are giving her an extra recess at the end of the day. She totally bought it! Score one for Mom!

Anyway, I pulled into the driveway with a van full of kids and Ikea merchandise. My next door neighbor pulled into her driveway too. Sweet! I hollered, "Hey, come over! Yes, right now. Come're!" Then I opened the trunk and said, "Thanks for coming to help me unload these really heavy boxes. Just put them in the house." She said I was kinda tricky but she was more than happy to help and she moved those boxes in like they were nothing. I tried to help but couldn't lift anything. I think I hurt my shoulder trying. Really, it still hurts.

Except for being bitten on one shoulder and straining the other one trying to be as strong as normal people, it was a great day. Libby almost had a great day too! It was really nice to have people around when I really needed them. I don't know how I thought I was going to load and unload my van. Apparently, I wasn't thinking. Totally lucked out! Yay!

An Awkward Memory

2012-01-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

It's 7am, I just poured my second cup of coffee and a silly memory popped into my head for no apparent reason. But it made me laugh at myself so I'll share!

Katie and Lexie were young, but I don't remember exactly how old they were. Must have been around age 5 or 6ish. Maybe 8. I dunno, something like that. And I don't remember which kid this was; let's blame Lexie.

We were eating at a buffet restaurant and Lexie (probably) had to use the bathroom. She was just old enough that I let her go by herself. I was nervous, but we were seating right next to the bathrooms so I could see if anyone else went in or if she was having trouble with the door, or I could just stare at the bathroom door with anxiety until she came out. Sure, go by yourself, big girl.

She did. She went to the bathroom and went in. I waited and waited and waited.

She was taking too long. She was in there way too long. I tried to give her ample time to take care of business, but she'd been in there way too long. Maybe she fell in. Maybe she can't open the door to get out. Maybe... oh, let's not go there, crazy imagination!

I went to rescue her. I'm sure I flew out of my seat and sprinted to the bathroom after finally freeing myself from the restraints of parenting an independent child. Mother bear took over. Mother Bear and Freespirit Mom often duke it out in my head. One wants to hover and protect at all times and one wants to let 'em live and learn. It can get ugly between them.

I flung the door open and ran into the bathroom only to find it empty. Nobody was in there! I started calling her name. Nothing. Nobody. PANIC!!! I ran out to go tell someone to call the police and let my husband know that our child went missing, and there she was at our table.

"Hi Mom. Why were you in the Men's bathroom?" What? Oh, geez, I was! That's why there was a urinal in there, I hardly noticed it. Husband was sitting there laughing hysterically. I bet he saw me go in the wrong door.

My rescue skills have improved since then. I think. I'm not going to let the little girls go into a public restroom by themselves anytime soon though.

What a crazy memory to start off my day!

I need to learn how to stick the landing

2012-01-08T17:01:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you let a teenager hold your camera...

Yup, she will catch your most photogenic moments and then laugh at you. She will. Teenagers are like that.

Kindergarten, Take 3

2012-01-05T12:24:00.000-08:00

Yup, another kindergarten for Gracie.

Sorta.

There was a sudden change at her charter school and two teachers were cut from the budget. Gracie's teacher moved to a different class and the two kindergarten classes were merged together with the other teacher. So, Gracie is now with a new teacher in a new room, but same school and same kids. It sucks because now there are 29 kids in the class!

I'm sad because I really loved her teacher and she was a great fit for Gracie's personality. She moved up to 1st grade, so I'll be requesting her next year!

The good part of these changes is that the two Kindergarten teachers worked closely together and used the same curriculum. Plus, she's had her half of the class for months and knows them well; she really only needs to get to know the new half. I'm sure she has seen them here and there and isn't completely unfamiliar with the students. Of course, the students all know each other as well. This takes a lot of the "new" out of this new setup.

Amazing as it sounds, the teacher's aid was able to keep her job! Usually, these people are the first to be cut out of a school budget. She's an important person though. This makes two adults in the room with 29 five-year-olds. I don't even want to think about what it would be like without the assistant!

Honestly, I don't think my outgoing loud kid will have trouble adjusting socially or emotionally. A bigger crowd just means she will be louder and more demanding, but she will get attention if she wants it. I do worry about academics though. She thrives on individual attention, lacks focus and needs a teacher to guide her and keep her on task. Left to her own devices, I'm afraid she won't get much done. She's five.

I loved that her Montessori class had 18 students as opposed to the 25 that were in her class at Tovoshal. Well, now that bubble has burst!

She had her first day in her new class today, also the first day back after the winter break. She was so excited to go back to school! I explained the changes to her and she seemed to understand. After school I picked her up and asked her all about her day.

It was crowded and there were too many kids, but it was fun. Miss Tiffany was happy almost all day long (the assistant). Timothy brought a piece of candy in his lunch box and he wasn't allowed to eat it because it is a no-sugar school, the teacher reminded all of the kids not to bring candy. Sarah was grabbing Gracie's dress and pulling it up so she could see Gracie's underwear. Gracie told her no ten thousand times and she wouldn't stop and the teachers didn't notice. Everyone can tie their shoes now except Gracie and Elsa, but Elsa wears shoes with velcro. Velcro is really cool. They didn't have art, just markers. It was so super awesome - they got to have recess three times instead of two! When is my real teacher coming back?

My goodness, the overcrowding problems sure didn't take long to surface! Some kid yanking my kid's dress up to look at her undies? No bueno! I know they can't see it all with that many kids. I bet the kid with the candy ate it anyway, who would ever know?

I talked to the teacher this morning about the underwear incident and pointed out the lack of attention to it. My kid is wearing pants today and will be wearing booty shorts or something under her dresses from now on. She wears dresses, that's who she is. I understand the kids are five, the other one probably just wanted to see. Panties are adorable these days with all the colors, stripes, polka dots, princesses and stuff all over them. I'm giving the kid the benefit of the doubt and assuming there wasn't any weird reason for wanting to see, just being a little kid who doesn't understand the rules of our social culture. I just hope she knows which kid is mine and which one is the pantie peeker.

With any luck at all, my kindergarten kid will end the year smarter and still happy as can be. Three kindergartens isn't her fault, but she's the one who has to deal with it and adjust to the changes. Maybe this will be good for her! You never know which childhood experiences will be the greatest influences on your child's adult life. I'm hoping this will be inspirational and not something that sends her to therapy. Keep your fingers crossed!

I'll miss you, Disneyland

2012-01-02T13:21:00.000-08:00

Guess how much I love Disneyland? Guess bigger! More! You've almost got it! But, we must part. I am sad to say our Disneyland days are done for a while. There's still hope that we'll become besties again, but even the best of friends are sometimes separated.

Disneyland and I just do not agree on something, so we must separate from each other on principal. The love is still strong, but a girl has to stand up for her opinions and stomp her foot down from time to time.

When I got my annual pass for the first time back in March 2009, my mom bought it for me and it was $134. I went again a few months later and bought a pass for Gracie who was 3 years old. We paid for parking each trip and I think it was $12 per day. When I renewed my pass, I bought the parking pass too for $75. Gracie and I renewed annually and each time we did, the price went up up up! Parking went up each year too. The amount of days allowed in the park went down. We have only purchased the cheapest of the annual passes, The SoCal Select. This pass lets you in the park M-F, no weekends or holidays and other random days are blocked also. There are 170 days out of 365 that are valid with this pass. Fenna also bought this pass for $199 (and used it 6 times).

Now we are up for renewal again and this time, Libby is going to have to pay to get in too. She's three now. This means $199 for Gracie, $199 for Libby, $199 for me and $99 for parking. $700 for the three of us!

Sorry, Disneyland, but for $700 I cannot justify the damage to my credit card. If we go 10 times during the year, it comes to $70 per trip. That's not good enough. I might be easy to please, but I'm cheap.

Goodbye, Disneyland. I love you. We had some good times, 26 to be exact! But, we must bid farewell to you and your exuberant ticket prices. My husband has two jobs to pay for our fun and he just doesn't have time for a third.

Let's go to the zoo!

My Favorite Photos of 2011

2012-01-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

Resolutions for 2012

2011-12-31T22:31:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! 2011 was a great year, what will 2012 bring?

My predictions:
Charlie will run faster than me.
Gracie will pass swimming lessons.
Libby will not change one bit.
Sandy will grow more gray hair than I will.
Lexie will turn 21 and start buying beer for me.
Katie will announce a new baby on the way.
Henry will walk, talk and yank the gate off the wall.
Me, I will get a year older, a year wiser, but end 2012 with a youthful big braceless smile on my face!

2012 Resolutions:

1. I will read 12 books this year! But, I won't buy any for myself.

2. I will complete 12 sewing projects this year.

3. I will conjure up some willpower to resist temptation to fast food and sweets, most of the time. I'll also get off my tush and get some much needed exercise once in a while.

4. I will seriously consider going back for my teaching credentials, or my masters, or update my resume for a job hunt.

5. I will be brave and be tough at the dentist.

6. I will make sure to keep Gracie up with her homework.

7. I will let Libby spend the night away.

8. I will try to hold it all together when Fenna leaves us in June. I am not looking forward to that part of 2012.

9. I will use more sunscreen. Gotta remember this one, I'm getting wrinkles before my time!

Who keeps New Years resolutions anyway?

2011-12-29T12:48:00.000-08:00

I tried to keep my 2011 resolutions, but like everyone every year, I didn't manage to do it. I gave it a good try though and for that, I feel pretty good about it. Shoot, I'm happy for remembering that I made resolutions and where I wrote them down! That in itself is an accomplishment to be proud of.

How I ended 2011:

1. Read 12 books this year.
I read ten and a half! I was doing great until our household went from 4 to 7 in a matter of a few weeks. Suddenly, I was a lot busier and my reading time was greatly reduced. Yeah, I'll blame the kids.

2. Do more sewing and get my serger fixed (or me, one of us isn't doing it right). I'd like to end 2011 with my current PHDs (projects half done) all finished!
Well, I had problems with my serger and my two sewing machines off and on all year long. It was a struggle to keep them running. I actually managed to get quite a bit of sewing done for the little bit of time that I have had to spend doing it. I sewed Halloween costumes and I sewed a couple of Christmas gifts and new stockings. Plus, I altered a dress for the neighbor and for my daughter. I made baby blankets for my second grandson and for a baby of a friend. I am happy to report that I made a huge quilt top out of the baby clothes! All in all, I think I had a good sewing year. PHDs are just going to always be a part of my life, I resolve to embrace the unending projects!

3. Get my kids to school on time (most of the time).
We're doing better! This is not easy. I think there is a time warp in my driveway. We step out the front door and by the time I turn the key in the van, 10 minutes has gone by. Where does it go?

4. Potty train and wean Libby, yes, folks, I promise to quit breastfeeding after nearly 5 years.
Almost potty trained the kid. She has a weak bladder when she sleeps so she is still wearing a pull-up at night, but she doesn't want to. I have to sneak it on her after she falls asleep. She wakes up mad and yanks it off, but it is usually soaked. Occasionally, she wakes up dry. I think she just needs to grow and then her body will figure it out. I quit breastfeeding in May. Done! Went a little over the 5 year mark so it took some adjusting to get back to normal for me. Libby had no problem weaning, but she did have to learn to eat more real food and how to fall asleep and console herself. These were harder for her, but she's doing just fine. I'm not sure I would be a good cheerleader for extended nursing, it just sort of happened.

5. Get my money's worth out of our Disneyland and Zoo passes (meaning lots of fun!). Might even get a SeaWorld pass this year!
Oh yeah! We are stretching our dollars spent on our entertainment passes. Fenna purchased passes too, and she's getting the most out of hers as well. We bought Sea World passes and used them three times. I wish we would have used them more, but we did our best. We used the zoo passes a handful of times. Mostly, we spent our outing days at Disneyland. We were blocked out in July and most of August, but we had a few days that we were allowed in August, but it was too hot. When it is over 100 degrees, it's hard for an outdoor all day outing. We opted not to go in August. We went in Sept, Oct, and three times in November. Plus the first five trips of the year in Jan-May. I think we did well using our passes. Gracie's pass expired in December and it costs $199 to renew. If I renew her pass, I'll want to renew mine when it expires in March, and now that Libby is three I'll have to get her a pass as soon as she looks like a three year old or opens her mouth and gives her real age away. Another $199. And $99 for a parking pass. $700 for our family! I decided to explore other amusement parks instead. As much as we love Disneyland, I prefer not to go broke getting in the gate. We went to Disneyland 11 times in 2011. Loved every trip!

6. Send my 2011 Christmas cards out before Christmas.
Didn't happen.

7. Do something with all of my photos and videos. Print them, back them up, put them on dvd, make photo books, I don't know, but something!
Nope. Didn't happen.

8. Keep blogging. I would like to archive my Momathon blog since I kept it up for three years, and I'll have to keep this one alive. Often times, I just blog mentally and never get around to actually posting.
Well, here's a blog post! I might try to do more family updates since we killed Schuworld.com this year. It is being redirected to my blog now.

9. I will try not to destroy or lose any of my electronic devices. You heard that right! Cell phone, bluetooth, camera, laptop.... I wish you all the best of health and happiness in the new year. And may you all stay out of the crevices of the furniture and survive the year! Good Luck.
My poor electronics. This year I lost my bluetooth, destroyed my camera, wore out my laptop and replaced all of those. I didn't replace the bluetooth, I just use my phone on speaker and set it on my shoulder or I hand it to one of my passengers. My phone is still in good shape! One electronic device survived the year! Not bad.

Wump Wump

2011-12-26T23:19:00.001-08:00

Today, I drove the kids to the park... yadda yadda... so I'm driving along in the neighborhood going between 20~25... and this kid comes flying out into the street on his skateboard RIGHT in front of me! He came flying off the curb between two parked cars. He's lucky I saw him! I braked and at the same time he saw the van and he hopped off that skateboard and landed square on his feet out of the way.

But, his dismount was forceful and he shot that skateboard right under the van. I was hoping I would straddle it, or that it was going fast enough to roll under. I was barely moving at this point, but since he wasn't in my way I didn't stomp on the brakes.

Wump Wump. Whoops. My back tires ran over that stupid skateboard. I looked in my rear view mirror and it was still in one piece, no harm done. He picked up his board and gave it a quick once over and just stared at me. You should have seen his little face. He looked astonished.

I'm not sure if he was grateful that his young life was spared, or amazed that his skateboard successfully survived a mini-van drive by, or if he was sad and ready to cry because I broke it. I have no idea. As I glanced in my rear view mirror the board appeared to be in one piece with all the wheels still attached, but then again I didn't stop to inspect it. I'll bet it has a tire tread mark on it at the very least.

Let this be a lesson, kid. Play at the park and keep your toys out of the street!

Christmas Prep

2011-12-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

I think we've been shopping every day in December. I can safely say I'm sick of shopping. Probably not done with it, but tired of going to the stores! I still don't feel ready though. I'm sure I will be out shopping again today. Sigh.

We went to several malls, Targets, Walmarts, and other stores. Of course, shopping around means eating out too. Girls need some shopping sustenance! We've walked a lot of miles through the merchandise and down the malls, except Libby. That kid has it easy! I want to ride in the stroller for once.

Christmas shopping is fun though. Crowds, lines at the checkouts, picked over merchandise, things out of place, filthy public restrooms, no decent parking spaces... ah, good times.

I love all of the Christmas trees and decorations in the malls. So very pretty! Really, you can't get that experience online. The stores are all decked out with pretty ornaments and displays. Christmas music playing. I love that.

What I didn't find in the crowded malls, I found online. I only ordered from three stores, but all of my shipments came in plenty of time, all correct, and none too expensive. Love it! The problem with ordering online comes when the package arrives. Luckily, they are wrapped well and nobody can see what is inside. But, the kids are excited for packages. The first box arrived and I told the kids "It's soap", of course, they wanted to see it. Darn, that was supposed to work! "It's toilet cleaning soap". Ohhh, never mind. Excitement gone. The next package, I said it was for Dad. Well, no excitement in that! The next package arrived while we were all in the driveway so the kids saw the box. It says Disney on it, has Mickey and Pluto on the box... it was hard to squelch the excitement over what was in the box. I just shoved it into the van and locked the doors, in fact, it is still there. Apparently they forgot.

We saw Santa twice. Once in Disneyland in mid-November and yesterday at Shakey's Pizza. I saw him in the malls, but steered the kids away from looking in that direction. I just didn't feel like standing in line to visit Santa after we'd already seen the best Santa on earth at Disneyland. The Santa at Shakey's was great though. He could have been more animated, but his costume was the best and his authentic hair and beard couldn't be beat! He even had glitter in his beard! His visit with Gracie was magical so I'm glad we went to see him. Two great Santa visits this year, sweet!

Make that three. I almost forgot about the Santa that comes through our neighborhood to collect food for the needy. We ran down the street to meet him. Gracie noticed that he wasn't the real Santa Claus and she had a lot of questions about that! He didn't have a real beard, that's the tip-off. Faker.

I've been sewing every chance I get! I'm not done yet, so I will be at the machines burning the midnight oil the next couple of nights. I made stockings for the whole family about 6 years ago. We have five stockings. We've been doubling up in them to make them stretch for all of us, but with ten of us this year (and the dog) I decided we just need new stockings. I set out to find just the right fabric and lining to make ten stockings, plus I should make a few extra since Katie will probably give us lots of grand-babies in the future and I'll never find matching fabric again. I had to go to three stores to find exactly what I wanted, but I found it. I have five done, several more to go! I also could not find a yellow dress anywhere. I did find some very pretty yellow fabric, so I bought two yards, which is more than enough.

The kids did a few crafts. It's hard to do crafts with a wild toddler who loves to jam crayons in his ears. Luckily, we got Henry to paint his hands and feet and make some tree ornaments. My gift from my grandson. I love my new decorations!

Once again, I didn't get Christmas cards sent out. I love Christmas cards; I had every intention of getting them all done, but it didn't happen. Maybe next year. I didn't do any baking neither. I'm not much of a baker, so this should be no surprise. I am pretty good at buying baked goods at the grocery store, and I did that pretty well!

One of our favorite things to do before Christmas is to just drive around to see the pretty lights. Some neighborhoods are lit up nicely. Our neighborhood is fairly dark, just a few lights and inflatable yard decorations. We found a cul-de-sac of 13 homes on the other side of town that were completely lit up and set to music. They were all connected and had a radio station for the music, plus speakers as you walked. The neighbors handed out candy canes. It was wonderful!

Christmas will come whether I am ready or not, and I'm mostly ready. Plenty of food, presents, the whole family will be here. The house is clean enough, the sewing machines have been running and whatever I don't get done, I'll finish in later days. Maybe.

If I had a job....

2011-12-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

If I had a job, and I mean a job in which I would leave the house with my hair brushed and go to a quiet place to sit in front of the computer and write my blog while pretending to create incredibly boring spreadsheets, the boss is an adult, I would wear nice clean clothes, and I would get a paycheck rather than a headbutt to the face... yeah, that kind of job. If I had a job like that, I would get fired every week at least!

The kids have been passing around one germ after another. This year has been the worst ever for the 5 yr old. When she was a baby she was never ever sick. I took her to the doctor for an illness for the first time when she was 2.5 years old. Now, she's got one thing after another. I'm chalking it up to Kindergarten cooties, but really, who knows, it might just be a bad year for germs. Or, a good year (from the perspective of the germs).

All I want for Christmas is a houseful of healthy kids!

Don't get me wrong, I don't really want a job with an adult boss and a paycheck. The lack of monetary pay more than makes up for the lack of job stress and pressure. A greater sense of sanity would be kind of nice, but then I'd miss out on so much with the little ones and they are only little once. Soon enough they will crave time away from their mama and they will wish I would just keep my distance. I know the drill. They turn into snotty preteens eventually, so I might as well enjoy them while they are still cute and loving.

Maybe by then the kids will be more resilient to germs. They should be. They are building up all kinds of immunities this year with one crappy cold and flu bug after another. Maybe then I'll have a job and I won't have to call out sick 3 or 4 days a week like I would have to now, if I had a job.

I've had jobs before. All sorts of jobs. They suck. I've had a job and kids at the same time, several times. It's stressful and difficult on the very best days. I don't miss any of the jobs I've ever had. I do miss contributing to the family income even a little bit; I liked the feeling of helping bring in a little money. But, I never was able to earn much, the financial burden has always been my husband's. Good thing he doesn't value me for my financial contribution! I am a lucky wife.

One of these days, when the girls are too cool to hang with their sparkly haired mom, who drives a mini-van, I'll write up my resume and fill it full of well worded ways to express my mom magic skills, I'll add my volunteer babysitting for friends and hosting an exchange student as volunteer work, and I'll pretend I know how to use Word in a format beyond 2003. I'll be like Nemo's dad going out on a great adventure into the frightening unknown. I might have to learn new analogies; Nemo might not be the most professional way to illustrate a point.

There again, good thing I don't have a job!

Sinter Klaas was here!

2011-12-05T08:28:00.001-08:00

Sinter Klaas and Black Pete were here! And they left lots of treats!

Poor Fenna. She is living with us. She is halfway around the globe and far far away from the place where Sinter Klaas and Pete give presents and treats to good children. We're in California, the land of "just another boring day". Gracie was feeling sad for Fenna knowing that her heart would break when she didn't get anything from Sinter Klaas this year. He doesn't come here!

We put our shoes by the fireplace just to humor Fenna. Gracie told me later she just knew Fenna would cry when nothing happens.

On Sunday the 3rd, when there was no school and almost everyone was home, I took the little girls to the park for a couple of hours while Fenna stayed home. She was going to her room to pout because Sinter Klaas didn't come during the night. wink wink. She still had high hopes since it was night-time in Holland while it was daytime here.

Surprise! Sinter Klaas rode his white horse all the way around the world just to bring treats to our house! Pete was running along side him. He must have some amazing endurance, not to mention really good shoes.

Speaking of Black Pete... we're just calling him Pete. He's just a weird out of date character and I don't want to go there! In Holland, white people dress like clowns and put on a black face and wig. Umm... we don't do that here! It freaks me out to look at pictures of Pete! Fenna explained: Pete is black because he goes down the chimneys and the soot made him dirty. Ok.... but his clothes are clean! So the old white man on a white horse has the black kid dressed in a clown costume doing all the work? Yeah, um, no. No. NO! She insists that everyone in Holland understands the story and it is not a racist jab. Ok, well, we're still just calling him Pete.

There was a heap of yummy treats from Holland in front of the fireplace. Luckily, nothing in our stinky shoes. We all need to deodorize our shoes; apparently, Sinter Klaas thought so too. Glad no treats were subjected to the dark smelly insides of our shoes. Eww. Most of the treats were chocolate and ginger snaps.

We had lots of traditional goodies plus chocolate coin Euros. Very cool! Also, there were two adorable dolls: Sinter Klaas and Pete. They are super cute soft dolls and they are babyproof! They have embroidered eyes and other embellishments so they should be perfectly baby safe. In this house, that's an important feature in toys.

Being the inquisitive five year old that she is, Gracie had a million questions for Fenna about the holiday, the characters, the treats and the traditions. She must have asked questions for a good solid hour. She was firing them off faster than Fenna could answer them. Fenna listened with patience and gave thoughtful answers to each and every question. I couldn't help but laugh! I would have laughed harder, but my mouth was stuffed full of Dutch cookies.

Sinter Klaas also brought something from his brother, Santa Claus. Our family got an elf. Her name is Noelle and she is magic. She's not a toy, but a messenger for Santa. She just sits in our house watching us and each night, she goes to the North Pole and reports to Santa if we have been naughty or nice that day. She returns each day and perches in a different spot. She's real, people, really! This little bit of holiday magic is a fairly new thing called "Elf on a Shelf", google it. I'm pretty excited that we have an elf to help keep the kids in line. What a good reminder to behave!

We had a really fun and delicious day! Thank you, Sinter Klaas and Pete!

Halloween Costumes: Minnie, Dolphin and Fairy

2011-11-10T17:33:00.001-08:00

Well, if this post doesn't seem a bit behind then I'm glad you are with me in the slow lane. Nice to have a buddy who is as much of a slowpoke as I am. :)

For Halloween, Libby wanted to be Minnie Mouse. Actually, I finally found some Minnie Mouse-esque polka dot fabric and brought it home. I've had my eyes out for it for two years. Why is it so hard to find? Anyway, I brought home the fabric and showed it to her and then she wanted to be Minnie Mouse. Good girl!

Gracie wanted to be a dolphin. For school, the kids could be an animal, any animal. They had an animal unit and they learned about habitats, what animals eat, all sorts of things like that. She chose dolphin and she would not change her mind. I suggested a hundred other animals that would be easier to sew, but she was determined and so, I became determined too. I bought a nice blue fleece fabric, but she rejected that right away. It was the right texture, wrong color. Dolphins are gray, they just look blue in the ocean because the water is blue. Ah, ok. Back to the store for a more realistic colored fleece.

Fenna decided to be a woodland fairy. She was on her own though, luckily I didn't have to insist that she make her own costume. She was all over it! She found a youtube video with a tutorial and the costume looked very cute. We shopped for the necessary materials, but that's as far as my involvement went.

For the Minnie Mouse costume, I used a simple dress pattern. I have quite a few that would have worked well so I chose one that I know fits her nicely. I added ties to the sides, because she's so skinny that she needs to cinch up anything around her waist. The ties also make the big Minnie Mouse style bow in the back of the dress and cover up the little crookedness from my not so talented zipper installation, haha. The polka dot fabric is thin, so I lined the dress. I used a red broadcloth to line the bodice and a white broadcloth for the skirt lining. I sewed on a piece of eyelet lace to the bottom of the white skirt lining so it would show just like the real Minnie Mouse. I decided not to make a collar. I know Minnie has one, but I was in a hurry to finish these costumes and I didn't think Libby would notice the lack of a collar. I got lucky on that too! I did make a hairbow complete with black ears, but she refused to wear it.

The dolphin costume was complicated to even begin to think about it. I researched dolphin costumes online and didn't like anything I saw, which was a limited amount of resources anyway. There just aren't very many kids dressed as dolphins out there. I asked the boss, "what do you think the dolphin costume should look like?" She gave me very specific instructions about the shape of the snout, it has to have a white belly, a tail that looks just so, and fins, don't forget the blowhole!

I had to wing it for most of the dolphin costume construction, but I did use a pattern for the basic structure. I chose an old outdated hooded pullover jacket pattern. Who knew you could get a dolphin out of that? Gracie provided the rest of the instruction and I googled pictured of bottlenose dolphins for the shape of the fins. Piecing them all together went well and next thing you know, Gracie was the proud owner of a dolphin costume! She wore it all day long at school, it was sweaty when I picked her up. Eww.

Fenna made her own fairy costume. She was a woodland fairy rather than a tinkerbell fairy. She used 12 yards of tulle in various shades of green, brown and yellow. Then, she cut a Tshirt to get the right neckline (with a tank top under of course), and finished it off with a long leather ribbon around the waist. We searched and searched for white fairy wings to complete the outfit, but they just weren't in stock anywhere this year. We did find several colored wings and some angel wings, but they weren't right. She still rocked the fairy costume without wings. Totally cute!

Things That “Piss” Me Off About Potty Training - 10 “Crap”py Products and Advice Meant to Help Me Help My Child

2011-11-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Guest Blogger today is Audrey, my friend and potty training confidant. We see eye-to-eye on this potty training stuff. She wrote this fantastic blog post and I am happy that she's sharing it on my blog as well. Audrey lives nearby, she is an amazing stay-at-home mama who cooks and gardens and bakes and all of that wonderful stuff that amazes me; she has a 3 year old son in the midst of potty training. You can visit Audrey's blog: Thatrecipe.com

Our first attempt at potty training was an abysmal failure that resulted in a skinned knee (his), some tears (mine) and general frustration (all three of us). In order to cope I could either complain or make jokes. Or better yet, do both.
So, without further ado, I present the following list of products and advice I have found along this section of the parenting journey:

ADVICE: Use the term “toilet learning” instead of “potty training”: my husband and I were potty trained, so were our parents and grandparents (ok technically some of them may have been “outhouse trained”), why did we need to invent a new term? I wish the braintrust that came up with this one would stop wasting time on this nonsense and spend it on really useful endeavors like solving world hunger, curing male pattern baldness, or convincing the NCAA that a championship tournament is needed in football.
PRODUCT: Potty targets: A friend told me about this “wonder product” designed to help boys with their aim when they progress to standing and suggested I use cheerios or fruit loops instead. Good idea, but my son might dive in after the cereal. When I mentioned it to my sister-in-law in front of her 20-something son, hysteria ensued! He wanted some and wondered if they had bull’s eyes on them so he could keep score, etc., etc. for a good 5 minutes.
ADVICE: Don’t tell your baby/toddler that his/her poop “stinks”: Warning! Warning! Political Correctness Overload!!!! “Oh, no, your lil poops don’t smell, Sweetie. Animal poop smells, every other persons’ on the planet stinks, but not yours, Precious.” This is EXACTLY what is wrong with some people today – no one has ever told them their excrement is malodorous.
PRODUCT: Training Pants that change colors when the child pees: I can only assume the panel for girls is as low if not lower on the pants as it is on boys. In order to see when the colors have changed the child must bend almost in half to see between his/her legs. Wonder how many heads get banged or somersaults are started using these.
PRODUCT: Training Pants that feel cool when the child pees: When the child switches to underwear and it is warm instead of cold, what then? Plus, these are horrid for naptime use. My Zip Van Winkle finally conked out for a nap only to be awakened 45 minutes later by an icy cold blast to his nether regions.
PRODUCT: Training pants and underwear with characters on them: I searched and searched but could not find any tighty whities. Branded products for kids annoy me on general principle, but c’mon what is this obsession with branding my kid’s behind?
PRODUCT: Potty Seats that make noise: I have been blessed with a child that hates toys that make noise. I guarantee that if he sat down and it made a noise he’d never go near it again. Which reminds me of the story of the man that got a toilet seat that played the national anthem and he could never finish his business because he always had to stand up as soon as he sat down.
ADVICE: Check your child’s pants frequently to see if they are wet: After the second day, I was nervous that Child Protective Services was going to lock us up for groping our kid.
PRODUCT: $55 potty training dolls: These are advertised for use with the 1-day potty training method. $55! For one day’s use?! Does this come with a money back guarantee to potty train in 1 day? If I have to spend that much (plus the potty seat and other paraphernalia) this kid can just stay in diapers forever.
ADVICE?: The perfect parents that revel in telling me “my child toilet learned in 1 day at 12 months old”: Be gone, before a house drops on your head! No really, go back to your perfect little planet and leave me and my kid here in this little place I like to call the real world.

When we do get back to training we will probably use some of these products and advice, but for now all I can do is laugh and keep repeating the best advice I have received, courtesy of my Great Aunt Jeanne: “What’s the rush? He’ll do it when he is ready.”

Memories... An old post

2011-11-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

I found this old post and had to laugh. It was just crazy! Was I in? or not? Getting into CSU wasn't easy, but I finally did get in and out with a degree. Whew! Here is a post from 2005:

8/26/2005 - I think I got into CSUSM, but I'm not sure... I passed my Stats class this summer, but CSU requires a waiting period of one semester (ususally the summer) before transfering in. Well, they provisionally accepted me, then denied me, then sent me a letter stating that I was accepted but didn't show up to the orientation but I could still sign up for classes. So, I did. I signed up for classes and Keith & I went there today and paid my tuition. Classes start Monday the 29th, so I guess we'll see how long I get to attend before they realize that I didn't wait out a semester and toss me out. Maybe I'll squeak through.

9/1/2005 Revolving door to CSU - Well, I got a phone call yesterday from the Admissions office at Cal State and the man said "We're revoking your admission and disenrolling you from classes" I said "oh, Pleeeeezzzeeeeee let me stay!!!" He said I could fax my transcript to him immediately and he'd pass it along to the decision maker.

So, made a quick run to Mount San Jacinto for my final transcript and got that faxed over to CSU. Then, I waited.. :?

Today, I got a phone call from the same guy. He says "This is very unusual, but we are officially accepting you and allowing you to remain enrolled. Have a good semester."

I'm Thankful for...

2011-11-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

Thirty things I am thankful for:
(I will add one each day of November, or a few at a time to catch up or thank ahead cuz that's how I operate, check back!)

This goes without saying since it an always and forever and most sincere feeling of gratitude; and yet I feel compelled to say it because every facebook status I have in my newsfeed says it too: I am thankful for my family and extended family. I am very thankful for my husband and all of my kids, yes, even the dog. Thank you, people, for being my people!

1. I am thankful that Halloween is over. We made it through another successful year of trick or treat! Costume making, decorating, parties, birthday dinner, candy and cake - it's all done! And we did it well I think. I am thankful for all the fun times we had, but I'm thankful to be done with Halloween and move on.

2. I am thankful for my friend, Audrey. Yesterday, she was almost hit by a car. The trailer she was pulling behind her bike was hit. Luckily, her little boy was not in it at the time (she just dropped him off at preschool so it was empty). I am thankful that she was not hurt, only shaken and inconvenienced.

3. I am thankful for Fenna. She is sharing a lot with us and we are learning and having fun. It is really fun to learn Dutch words, hear stories about how Dutch people do things, and get a new perspective on our American lives. It's also very cool to see her grow personally. She's having adventures that will forever change her and impact her life decisions. I am thankful that she's such a cool kid.

4. I am thankful that I got to take a nice long hot shower. Usually, I am in a hurry and dealing with crying and pounding at the door, if not an audience right there in the bathroom. Getting a nice long hot shower with no crying audience is not easy around here. What can I say? They love me every minute of the day and cannot bear to have me disappear alone into the chamber of steamy suds.

5. Friends. I am thankful for friends. I have very nice people in my life and even though I don't spend a lot of time with any of my friends, they are all good people. I'm lucky to know so many! I've got a bunch of online friends from blogging, forums, and other online social spots. They're great and some I've been friends with for 6 years already! I really do consider them to be my friends and not just online people. I have my local mommy friends. I don't see a lot of them lately with school in full swing, but they are a great bunch of ladies. We get together for parties, playdates, babysit swap, and everyone is always very happy to see each other and support one another. If one needs help, there are a handful that are more than willing every time. So wonderful to be part of this group. And, I have my husband's coworkers as friends. They are special people. I only see them a few times a year, some I don't see but once a year if that. But, they always are a bunch of great people who include me on their fun even though I'm not one of the coworkers and in on their every day lives. They are the friends who inspire me; they are great!

6. Coffee. Really, my life would not be the same without my morning caffeine.

7. My teakettle. My friend, Kristin, gave me a tea kettle not too long ago after mine exploded like a bomb. I really appreciate the new tea kettle! I use it every single day and lately, several times a day. I cannot live without a tea kettle on the stove, that is a fact. I'm also very thankful for my friend too! She's awesome in many ways, not just with saving my sanity with a tea kettle. Thank you, Kristin!

8. Once again, I am thankful for Kristin! And Keith! Between the two of them, they rescued me when I had a flat tire. I was meeting Kristin at the park for a much needed playdate with our little girls. Fenna said she'd come along. Lexie and Charlie weren't doing anything so they came too. Six of us in the van! We were two blocks from the park and I heard sprinklers but I didn't see any. Odd to have sprinklers going this time of year. But, I heard Psh, psh, psh, psh.... A block later, I stopped at the red light and the noise stopped. My tire air pressure light popped on. Ding. Oh no. I went around the corner and into the parking lot at the park. My tire was mostly flat, not completely flat, but it was obviously a problem. Everyone got out and went to play and I called my husband. He got home from an out of town conference 20 minutes earlier. He came to my rescue! Since the tire wasn't completely flat and he couldn't see anything sticking in it, he decided to take it to the tire store a couple of miles away through town and he left me his truck. It suddenly got cold in the park! Kristin took my teenager and my just barely big enough to legally ride without a carseat kid, and I took Lexie and we stuffed Charlie and Libby into carseats in the jumpseats of the truck. We all fit! Thank you Kristin and Keith for rescuing me and my brood! And extra thanks to Keith for the new tires. Nice!

November Snuck in

2011-11-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden, it's November! Time flies when you're having fun. I was thinking, yay, November is sort of the calm before the storm on the activity calendar but then I thought harder and I realize that it's not.

In the 30 days of November, we've got some things tentatively planned already. For example: Fenna's belated birthday party, a baby shower, Seaworld, Veteran's Day, a couple of colorguard competitions, a field trip to Pretend City in Irvine, a couple of trips to Disneyland, Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, and keeping up with school.

I'm sure glad we aren't too busy! I just love seeing a few blank spots on the calendar. Ah, peaceful days ahead!

Have you heard of NaNoNoWriMo or something like that? It's short for November Novel Writing or some such big long phrase. I could google it, but so can you. Anyway, a ton of people dedicate all of November to fulfill a personal and/or professional challenge to write a novel in one month, in November. I've been encouraged to participate, but I can't help but think, when? I don't know how people do it! Write a whole entire book in November? I could maybe do it if I had a November to November time frame, maybe. My sister wrote a book in a previous NoNaNuWewhatever it is. I'm proud of her and think it's really great that she managed to do it! But I don't know how she found the time; I cannot imagine myslf finding that kind of time. Or brain power, really, where do people come up with the brain stamina, intelligence, and energy. Are you kidding me? I can't even read a whole novel in a month let alone write one. I've been reading The Grapes of Wrath for two months already and I think I finally hit the half-way point. Write a novel in November? Those are some amazing people, but I'm not even going to toy with the idea of becoming one of them. I will try to blog more though.

One really nice thing I'm excited about for November is that my husband is staying home for Thanksgiving. Yippee! He's disappointed but I'm certainly happy to keep him home for the holiday. He's the best cook! And, the holiday hasn't been very festive without him. The past few years he has taken the week of Thanksgiving and gone hunting in South Dakota.

Well, we have 29 days left of November. Let's get on with it!

All-encompassing October post

2011-10-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Let's pretend I keep up with my blog and don't let 20 days slide by between posts!

We've been busy and having fun. The kids were all sick one week, and that was a trying time for all with fevers and all that goes with it, but we made it through.

There have been three outings this month so far: Pumpkin Patch, Disneyland and Safari Park (Zoo). I have my pictures up on Picasa, but I don't have the posts done on my outing blog. I'll catch up someday and backdate the posts so that it looks like I'm on the ball.

Fenna has been busy with high school. She had a colorguard/marching band competition where they won first place in three catagories! Awesome! There are performances or competitions every weekend for a while; the next one is at her school so we will all be there with cameras charged up and ready to go! She is looking forward to a fun night at Knott's Scary Farm with her friends soon and she has a birthday coming up! Lexie put bright blond hair extentions in her hair and now she looks like a California teen. It is fun having a teenager in the house.

The little kids are gearing up for Halloween. We are busy preparing costumes and shopping in the Halloween decorated aisles in the stores. Very fun to see them having some Halloween fun. We've already eaten all of our Halloween candy, and by "we" I mostly mean me. Gracie gets to dress up like an animal for school, she picked dolphin. She decided I could sew a dolphin costume for her and she gave me specific instructions for the shape of the nose and fin and all, plus told me what kind of fabric to buy. She wants to be the Little Mermaid for trick-or-treating though. Libby wants to be Minnie Mouse and a pink princess. Charlie has a Mickey Mouse costume and a monkey costume. Fenna is the only normal kid around here, she will only have one costume! She's going to make it herself too: a woodland fairy. The girls think she will look like Tinkerbell, but she wants to be more earthy and less Disney. I think it'll turn out great! We're sure to have the cutest Halloween ever!

Gracie switched schools. She was doing just fine at the school where she was, but it was overcrowded which causes problems that I was uncomfortable with. So I looked into a charter school and decided to move her over. She is now at a Montessori/Homeschool hybrid school where she goes three days a week to Montessori Kindergarten and has two days a week of homeschool. So far, she is really enjoying it but she misses her little friend with the pretty hair at her other school. We'll have to arrange some playdates. On her first day of Homeschool, the school had a field trip to the Safari Park (zoo), so we went. Since it was her first day, we didn't know who was with the school and who wasn't, but the homeschool families were all on their own anyway. We had fun and she could talk about it at school with her class too. Off to a good start!

Gracie's word of the month has been "Awkward". She says it 20 times a day at least. It's getting old fast! Awkward!

I'm getting excited for my friend's baby's first birthday party this weekend. I'm only excited because my friend also has a little boy and he is a devoted Cars fan, just like Gracie and Libby. Lightning McQueen is like a Disney God to these kids! I figure his one year old little sis is also an avid fan since she was immersed in her brother's Cars world since birth. I picked up the same Cars fabric that I made my girls' Cars dresses with and I am making a Cars dress for the birthday girl! It is impossible to find girl things that have Lightning McQueen on them, so I know her mama will be pretty excited to have a dress for her little girl. I might even ruffle some Lightning McQueen socks if I can find some red ribbon that will work well. I have a few pair of new Cars socks that I haven't given the girls yet. I can't wait to see Lisa's face when she sees the Cars dress for her little girl!

I should get back to sewing. My serger is difficult to thread, but I have it running with red thread in it right now so I can make the Lightning McQueen dress and the Minnie Mouse costume. Not sure if I can rethread it for the dolphin costume, and then I need to get busy on some baby blankets for a friend who is having a baby shower the first weekend of November. Good thing my trusty sewing machine never lets me down.

With all this sewing to do, I'm not reading much. I read almost half of the Grapes of Wrath. I fall asleep every time I pick it up. I do enjoy the book, but it's never ending when I fall asleep after every page. I might have to switch to something with more action than dust blowing.

I'll leave you with a quote from my husband's facebook page. A former student (aprox 10 yrs ago) wrote to him with a very nice comment. It was great timing too, because my poor overworked husband was all kinds of crabby after working two jobs and ending his long hard day with a two hour traffic-hell commute home. He was not a happy camper! And then he read this which melted his heart and made all the stress of the entire day worth it:

"Do u remember u and jo esther gave me a ride home after i was expelled? u gave me some good advice thank you sincerely. Well u said that my todays create my tomorrows no matter how small a decision is... And Jo Esther didnt have to say anything!!! She juss had to look at me and that was enuff... U brought out the smile in me i fought so hard to conceal u saw the diamond way inside of me and i thank you Mr.Schumacher."

Fwee Yeez Ode!

2011-09-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

Finally! It's official! Libby is three!

She's actually been telling everyone that she is three for a long time. I thought I blogged about this six months ago, but I can't find the post. This means you get a backstory! (Heinz Doofenschmirtz would love me for all of my backstories).

Precisely on May 10, 2011... Libby announced, "Today is my Birfday. I'm Fwee Yeez Ode. You will buy me a present and it will be a tea set." On the agreement that she would stop wearing diapers during the daytime and stop breastfeeding, we made a deal. We sang Happy Birthday to You and gave her a tea set. Who says you can't be three when you wanna be?

Now, six months later, she actually did turn three. For the past six months, she's been telling people that she is three. How old are you? Three. Never ever did she admit to only being two. The calendar caught up to her after all this time and now she really is three. Try telling her that! She gives a look of "What? Are you just now catching on? Good Lord, woman, I've been three for a long time!" In the weeks leading up to her birthday, she was very confused. She was fine with having a party, but for her 3rd birthday, are you kidding? She insisted that she was already three.

We had a party anyway. She was fine with that. She really didn't care about having a birthday party or getting presents or anything, because in her mind, it wasn't her birthday. She's three already and she remembers getting her tea set. It is one of her most favorite toys!

A party ensued. We invited her little friends for a casual cake and playdate style birthday party. Since Libby is sufficiently spoiled already, I told my friends "no gifts". The response to that was "what size does she wear?" and "does she have this toy yet?". I sent out an addendum to my "no gifts" request. I told my generous friends, "Fine, bring gifts! I know you love to shop for birthday gifts and I can't stop you. We will have a gift exchange: bring one, get one. It'll be fun!" This was genius!

We put all of the presents on the grass in a little cluster and had the kids hold hands and play ring around the rosy. When they all fell down, they got the gift that was right in front of them. It worked great! One boy just wanted the gift he brought so he reached over and grabbed it. His mom said he threw a fit in the store when she told him he couldn't keep it. It was a Memory game, in fact, we already have it. He wanted it; he got it! Another boy got some Little Mermaid pajamas so he traded with a girl and he took home a dinosaur book. Sweet! The little girl who got the pajamas loved them but her mama told her to leave them here for Libby since she had plenty of pajamas and they were moving her up to the next size. Libby got a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt, plus the pajamas. She loved her presents! Gracie got a box of crayons and a coloring book. Charlie got a Lightning McQueen book that makes sounds. Everyone was thrilled with the gift exchange and some of the moms said they are going to do that at their next birthday parties too. The kids were pretty excited and the birthday girl didn't feel like she wasn't being spoiled enough. She got a present too! They are too little to feel entitled to 12 gifts while nobody else gets one. With the gift exchange every kid was all smiles and it was fair but not overwhelming. No tears, who could ask for a better birthday party than that!

We all came in and had cake. Singing Happy Birthday to Libby was great, she loved it! I wish I could say the same for her big sister; she never has enjoyed a crowd of people singing at her like that. Too much pressure I guess. Libby loved it and she blew out her three little candles faster than I could light them.

We had a little family party the next day just to give her the presents that we got for her. We had leftover cake, sang again and gave her three gifts. She got two soft princess dolls and a doctor kit.

On Monday, we took her to get her very first haircut. Her hair is so thin and wispy and it doesn't grow very fast, so I really didn't want to take her in for her first haircut, but she's three! It's gotta happen sometime! She wanted to go too. She loved it, she was thrilled that she got to get her hair cut and she likes her new hair too. She didn't get much cut off, just had it evened out and trimmed straight across. I didn't want her to have bangs and didn't want her hair to be very short since she likes to have a pony tail once in a while. It was fun, she loved getting her hair cut!

So, now she's really truly three years old.

Belle Dresses

2011-09-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

I finished the Belle dresses just a couple of days after starting them. They were so much fun to make!

For Gracie's dress, I used the same pattern that I used for her Little Mermaid fabric printed dress and for her orange preschool graduation dress. I really like the way those dresses fit her and she enjoys wearing them. For the Belle dress, I just added another layer to the skirt and improvised a shoulder thing. I have no idea what that shoulder thing is called. Is it the "yoke"?

For Libby's dress, I used a cute little peasant dress pattern. I love it because it doesn't require any buttons or zippers. It's super easy for her to dress herself! I also had to improvise a bit to make it princessy. And I totally messed up with the off-the-shoulder piece; I forgot! I added a waistband before I realized I had it in the wrong place. Oh well. So far, Libby hasn't noticed. Shhh!

Both dresses are from the same fabric. The under layer is a yellow glitter infused satin and the top layer is a bright yellow glitter infused taffeta (I think, or maybe its a tightly woven tulle, I don't know). I added little store bought red ribbon roses. By the way, glitter infused fabric leaves a trail of glitter everywhere you go. After one wearing, the dresses are no longer glittery. However, the interior of my mini-van may forever sparkle!

Luckily, both dresses fit like a charm! Gracie said her dress was itchy, so she had to wear a cotton camisole underneath it; she didn't complain once about any itching after that.

Mostly I used my serger to sew them up. It sure is nice for satin and taffeta! Quick and easy, looks nice too. I think my husband is happy to see me getting more use out of it; he paid a fortune for it and its been hard to find the time to devote to learning it well. I'm beginning to get the hang of it.

Chapter 9

2011-09-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

I finished reading Chapter 9 and just couldn't get it out of my head, so I read it again! And then I made notes in pencil along the margins and circled my favorite paragraph. It is just brilliant!

Fenna has to read The Grapes of Wrath for her American Literature class at school. I've never actually read the whole thing, so I went to my bookshelf and picked it up. She got a copy from the school so we are reading the book together, sort of. I don't think we are on the same page though. According to her reading schedule we should be on Chapter 17 now, but I just finished Chapter 9. No worries for me though, I don't have to take a test on the book. Reading along sure does make it easier to have a conversation about the book and it is nice to have a literature conversation with someone. It has been years since I asked anyone what they thought the turtle symbolized and actually received a thoughtful response.

But I got stuck on this one paragraph in Chapter 9. It's incredible. It is stuck in my head. John Steinbeck earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel prize, now I see why. I've seen the movie and I've seen another movie based on one of his other books. I didn't think much of either one really, and I remember reading something of his in high school, and bits and pieces of GoW when my older girls were in high school. I don't remember having time to think about what I was reading or reading anything that really thrilled me though. Maybe this is why its a good idea to reread the good stuff.

Maybe we can start again, in the new rich land-in California, where the fruit grows. We’ll start over.
But you can’t start. Only a baby can start. You and me – why, we’re all that’s been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that’s us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can’t start again. The bitterness we sold to the junk man – he got it all right, but we have it still. And when the owner men told us to go, that’s us; and when the tractor hit the house, that’s us until we’re dead. To California or any place – every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day – the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they’ll all walk together, and there’ll be a dead terror from it.

It's true. Starting over is never truly starting over. A person can get a fresh start in life, but you always have your experiences to influence you. And you bring in your memories and your feelings, whether they are good or "bitter", they are in you.

Fenna and I talked about how the characters in the book were starting over, and how they really couldn't since they have a history within them to compare the new life with the one they are leaving behind. And then we talked about anyone anytime starting over. This concept can be applied to so many situations.

Steinbeck doesn't really say it, but what about the people who know or knew you before your fresh start? They won't erase their memories which makes a new start impossible. To start over, a person would have to eliminate all ties to everyone. Who can do that?

Have you ever started over? Think back, did you really start over or did you get a fresh start? Because starting over cannot be accomplished when you have previous experience to compare the fresh start with. Isn't this mind bending? I love it!

Nothing in Particular

2011-09-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

This blog post has no topic. Like the thoughts in my head, it is a jumble of ramblings and thoughts that go every which way.

The kids are almost all over their colds. Yay! And I still didn't catch their cooties which is amazing. I've been washing my hands like I have OCD, but usually that only helps fend it off for a day or two. When a snot nosed kid sneezes in your face, washing your hands doesn't make a difference.

Fenna asked her mom if she buy a new laptop while they were on sale over Labor Day weekend. While discussing this with Keith, Fenna says to him, "you could buy a new laptop for Mary too". Ba-da-bing, I have a new laptop! And Fenna didn't get one! She can have my old one while she is here, it works fine (usually). It's led a long rough abused life, but she is more careful than I am with the electronics so I'm sure it will work out this way.

The new washer and dryer are awesome! I cannot figure out how much soap to add to the washer though. All of the instructions say "a measured amount of detergent". Sure, I can measure it, but how much should I measure? I've just been winging it and the clothes are coming out great. It would be nice to know if I'm using too much or not.

Our trips to the doctor, lab and pharmacy in San Diego have been really fun. Well, not as much fun for Fenna as the rest of us, but we've been making sure to have a good time each time we go. Also, I know my way around much better now. I hope that once Fenna kicks this infection and finishes the treatment for it, we can go other places and limit our outings to once a week or so. In the meantime, we're having a blast!

The medical community at UCSD in San Diego and La Jolla is the friendliest place on earth! I am just amazed each and every time we go or get a phone call, the folks in the clinics, hospital and pharmacy are sweet as can be. They truly care about Fenna and that just warms my heart. They've all been very accommodating and helpful. The facilities are beautiful too (And, they have an awesome playground). I am more in love with San Diego now that we've had this experience. The hospital where Katie had her baby in SD was also very nice and friendly.

Homecoming is in two weeks! We have a closet full of formal dresses but Fenna hasn't "shopped" in our closet yet. She's pretty sure nothing that my tall skinny daughters wore will fit her, but I think she will be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully the dresses are still in style.

She's actually more excited about Halloween than Homecoming. I took out two big Halloween boxes and the girls had fun digging through them, trying on costumes and giggling.

Libby's birthday is coming up quick. Her real third birthday! I was feeling confused about what to do since Libby already celebrated her birthday back in May, and she is convinced that she is already three years old. Finally, the calendar is catching up with her! Keith said we need to have a party for her though because Charlie's party was a lot of fun. So, we'll have a party! I have to hussle up and get it planned because her birthday is soon! Not sure how we'll explain it to her, but it will be fun anyway.

We've been learning a lot about Holland: The flag is red,white and blue but the royal color is orange. Kids and teachers smoke on the school grounds, even right by the doors. People in general smoke a lot more there than here and so there is a lot more second-hand smoke to deal with. The Netherlands, specifically Amsterdam, is known for drugs. Katie and Lexie both knew that and Keith and I didn't. Hmmm. We are learning about each other too! Kids sing a song when they trick-or-treat in Holland. We've been discussing how the education systems work there and how they differ here. The food there is the same, but it is cooked and eaten differently. I'm still not sure what that means; I might have to go to Holland someday and find out. They do not have Starbucks on every corner like we do, nor do they have fast food everywhere.

We've also been learning a lot about Cystic Fibrosis. The condition affects respiratory and digestive systems which in turn affects everything else. I thought it was just a constant cough and you hawked up a loogie once in a while. I had no idea it was so involved! It is really eye-opening to learn so much about CF and it makes me count my blessings. A lot of people have asked me if I have to pound her on her back every day. The answer to that is No. Fenna has a lot of medications she takes daily and with her infection she had a picc line placed (an iv that goes in the upper arm and a tube is in the artery all the way into the chest) and she "shoots up" some iv medications three times a day. It's amazing to see her manage everything with so much ease and grace. The picc line is supposed to come out next week. Whew! Just in time for homecoming!

Keith is teaching two evening classes this term, back to back. And he's teaching 63 miles away in Azusa. 63 miles doesn't sound like a lot, but it can take him 90 minutes to get home depending on traffic. After teaching middle school all day and then college, that drive is a long one. Poor guy is pretty tired by the end of the week. But, he's still running the Champ or Chump game at his school! This silly game takes up a lot of his time, but he enjoys it and it helps bring the staff together in a friendly way at work. It's a good thing even though it drives me nuts.

I finished the Belle dresses a couple of days after starting them. I love my serger! And I finally hand-sewed on the little red roses for embellishment. The Belle doll the girls have has red roses on her dress, but most Belle dolls don't and most Belle costumes don't. But, I really like the red touch! I will take pictures when they both put the dresses on. Gracie tried her dress on and it fits, but she said it was itchy and she wanted to take it off. Libby loves hers. I went to JoAnn Fabrics to look for Rapunzel fabric but I didn't see anything in the right color that cost less than $12.99 a yard. I'll have to wait for a sale. But, I did buy a ton of fabric anyway! I got Minnie Mouse red polka dot fabric, I couldn't resist! And I picked up a lot of baby boy soft flannel prints to make receiving blankets for a nice lady at Keith's school who is having her first baby. Now, if I could just find some sewing time I'd be set!

I will briefly blog about our latest outings on my outing blog, with pictures. In the meantime, I will leave you with some of the questions that Gracie has been asking me at the most inopportune times but she thinks every question requires a thoughtful intelligent answer. I usually do not have one.

What are teeth made out of? Like what's inside them and what's the outside called?
What are hippos afraid of?
Are there more kinds of talking like Spanish and Dutch and English? What are they?
Where do farts come from?
Why do we call brown people black?
How do airplanes fly?
What's an exclamation point?
Why aren't there any girls on Mount Rushmore?
Why are the clouds gray and yesterday the clouds were white?
What's under the carpet?
Why aren't there more red cars?

We survived the Great SD Blackout

2011-09-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

Fenna did it. I told her it sure is fun to have someone to blame for all the crazy things that go wrong around here. She just laughs.

On Thursday, we needed to go to San Diego to the pharmacy to pick up some medicines and then to a lab in La Jolla for a blood draw. Neither appointment was expected to take long at all, just quickies but they were very important. And, we had to be at the lab at 4pm but had to pick up the meds before going to the lab. Ok, we can do that (maybe). The timing was going to be tight with school letting out at 2:30 and mucking through after-school traffic always takes a while. There would be no time for Starbucks.

Fenna wasn't feeling well on Wednesday night, she looked like she was at the low point of her miserable cold. It was just after midnight when I suggested that instead of going to school from 7am - 2:30 feeling cruddy and sleep deprived and then heading out to San Diego again how about this idea: Stay home and sleep and eat some soup and sleep some more and then we'll go to San Diego. She didn't have to think very long about that one. I figured she would either miss Thursday at school or Friday. Either way, she needed to take care of her cold. She did just that, stayed home on Thursday to take care of her cold and it really helped a lot.

Since we were racing the clock, we loaded up the little kids and went to Gracie's school to take her out ten minutes early. That turned out to be a very good decision. We hit the road and made it to San Diego in an hour! Fenna opened the door to the pharmacy and rang the bell for service right at 3:35 exactly.

As soon as she pushed the button, the power went out. Poof! Fenna broke it!

Fenna picked up her prescription and we started across town to the lab. The traffic light that we had just gone through was now dead. Not even flashing red. So was the next one. Fenna, being funny, said "I hope I didn't do that!". Stoplight after stoplight was dead. The streets were becoming more and more clogged because of the four way stops. We were realizing the magnitude of the power outage the further we went. People were pouring out of buildings and everyone had a cell phone in hand. I couldn't get any cell service though. Traffic was going from clogged to pure mayhem. Emergency vehicles were trying to get through but every street was a sea of vehicles. I started to wonder if we were caught in a terrorist attack.

When we finally got to the lab, we found out that the hospital was closing down. Emergencies only. The lab was closed and the people working there were all sent home. People were all on their cell phones trying to get service, and talking together. We found out that they thought the power might be out all across the county. How can that be? San Diego County is huge! I asked if the power comes back on, would they like us to come back? They said no, they were calling the day over and it would be best if we just come back tomorrow. Ohhhh, no. My brain started spinning trying to figure out the logistics of a Friday trip.

The people in these San Diego medical offices never cease to amaze me with their friendliness. They were so nice! Gracie had to use the bathroom and a lady said she'd check first to make sure there was a light on in there, and there was. (Backup emergency lighting) This lady also gave Libby a little book and Libby was thrilled. They were very nice and apologized for cancelling the lab appointment. No apologies necessary, it's a freak thing that happened. At least we didn't have to pay for parking this time, the parking permit machine wasn't working.

Before we left the house, we had decided that our fun thing to do today would be to spend some time at the beach. The kids could play and we could put our feet in the water and watch the sunset over the Pacific. Luckily, the power outage didn't spoil our beach plans although it did make getting there quite a challenge due to the traffic. Instead of going further into San Diego, we called Katie and told her not to meet us and we went to Oceanside.

Finally, we arrived at the beach just after 6pm. The kids had so much fun playing in the water and sand. Fenna and I played lifeguards. The sea was angry. Waves were pounding into the shore and the water was loud. It even threw rocks at us. Libby didn't want anything to do with the angry ocean, but Charlie and Gracie were fearless and they didn't care if the water had a bad attitude; they ran in anyway. Luckily, I brought lifejackets for Libby and Charlie and I had a leash, er, child harness, for Charlie. We put the lifejacket and leash combo to good use!

We took lots of pictures. The kids were adorable and Fenna too, the waves were huge and the sunset was beautiful.

After twilight, we started to go for a walk down the pier, but the lights weren't coming on. Power was still out! We decided to head for home. My friend called, her husband works for the electric company, she said that the power will be out for hours if not a couple of days. She was concerned about Katie and Henry. I told her I would pass along her concerns. Katie called too, and I told her what my friend said and Katie decided to drive up to our place for the night.

Jokingly, I said "I'll race ya!". Darned if that didn't jinx me! We took the 76 home and it took forever! I didn't realize how many stoplights were on that road. But none of them were working. It took us 90 minutes to get from Oceanside to the 15. From there, it took us 15 minutes to get home. We got home after 9pm Katie beat us!

Murphy's Law continued to be the strongest force of the day. If something can go wrong, it will. All of the photos we took mysteriously disappeared off the camera! . How weird. Luckily, they were just beach pictures and we can go there again. It's good to learn that the photos are super easy to delete on this camera. Nobody knows how we managed to lose the photos but nobody is upset over it since they were just fun pictures of the beach. We'll have to do it over too.

Luckily, the power was back on in San Diego on Friday so Katie was able to get home. I called the lab and they didn't want us on Friday because the power outage caused chaos and they had to catch up from that. They suggested Saturday or Sunday. Sunday it is!

I'm Armed; They're Dangerous

2011-09-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

The kids are sick. Three out of the four are little cootie-monsters. I'm ready for the battle though. I have the new washer, the rug dr, and a bottle of bleach on my side!

Gracie has been battling a fever for several days. Along with that, she's been vomiting and coughing. My little firecracker has no energy. She's sleeping a lot and when she's awake, she just lays and rests. If that wasn't fun enough for the kid, she shared it!

Libby has a fever too. She doesn't have any other symptoms, but she is a bit "off" with her energy level.

Fenna has a cold too. Hers is different though, and I'm waiting for them all to swap germs. Fenna has a sore throat, stuffy nose and plugged ears.

She also has the picc line and all of her IV medications to battle her lung infection. The medications make her tired and kind of nauseous too. Only two more weeks of this and then the picc line can come out. Hopefully it will make her feel super wonderful and keep her healthy for the rest of the school year!

Charlie is the only survivor. He's healthy as can be, but he gets his 12 month shots on Friday, so he will be sick all weekend. I wonder if he will get Chicken Pox from the vaccine like Gracie and Libby did. Our family seems to be extra sensitive to that virus.

I'm very happy to report that the new washer and dryer are awesome! Gracie puked on a quilt and I just tossed it in the washing machine. It came out so nice and wonderfully clean! This particular quilt is one I didn't like to use much because I didn't want it to get dirty (or puked on) because it just barely fit into the washer. With the new washer, there was plenty of room for it! I even tossed in a towel and it wasn't full.

Having the rug dr ready and waiting at any given moment is a godsend. It is the only way to spot clean some good old fashioned puke on the carpet and couch.

Gracie missed two days of school so far with this round of germs. I looked in the school student handbook and it states that a student is allowed 5 absences per year. This has got to be a typo! Five? My kid has missed four already! And it's only the first week of September. Poor child is doomed. Her future as a Kindergarten student is secure for many years ahead. Wonder if I'll ever see her graduate.

Fenna tried to go to school, but I had to go get her after an hour of toughing it out. When I wheeled the double stroller of toddlerness into the nurses office, I wasn't one bit surprised to see that it was packed with sickly teenagers. The line of waiting chairs were full and a few sick ones were standing. The health clerk was swamped!

This evening we have an appointment to get that picc line checked, a new bandage and restock the meds. I guess since the kids aren't in school today and we have to go, we might as well leave an hour earlier to make the best of the day and go to the aquarium. Maybe I'll let them lick the glass this time. Hell, why not, they're already sick! We'll test that Darwin theory: Survival of the fittest!

Living in the Fast Lane

2011-09-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

We've been living the past couple of weeks in the fast lane!

Since my last blog post, we've had two trips to La Jolla and one to San Diego for Fenna's doctor appointments. Since we were there, we made the trips fun and visited the La Jolla Westfield Mall, San Diego Zoo, and the beach and shopping in downtown La Jolla. Katie and Henry came for an overnight visit and she sang at a back-yard party. I attended "Back to School Night" at MVHS and Keith had his back-to-school night at his school the next day, which is an overview of the curriculum for each class. Fenna went to the first home football game. I had an orthodontist appointment. Plus, we've been busy doing homework and on occasion, actually attending school.

To top off our busy couple of weeks, we have seen a lot of improvement in Gracie's pre-reading skills, Libby's art, and Charlie runs faster with less of a wobble. Keith has gone from an amateur coffee cup salesman to a packaging expert. Henry has grown so much that he's ready for a high chair; we had a successful shopping trip to the baby store! The best improvement is Fenna is finally getting the meds she needed to get better. Yay, no more cooties!

I started a sewing project and hopefully can finish it up and give you a fresh new sewing blog post to read very soon. I blogged about our excursions on my other blog; hop on over there and check it out. In the meantime, we have declared this holiday a lazy day. We are catching up on house cleaning, homework and just recharging our batteries for another week in the fast lane.

The Whole Fam Damily

2011-08-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

I bragged about Libby, now to give Gracie equal billing here is her latest Kindergarten homework project. She was to paste pictures of her family onto a Tshirt shaped piece of paper.

First, I had to get on the computer and find pictures of everyone. We do not have one picture of the whole family, someone always needs to stand behind the camera I guess. Maybe we can resolve this problem at Christmas when we have the tripod out and everyone is together and photo-ready. In the meantime, we have plenty of pictures of everyone, including lots of group shots that include nearly everyone. We sure do have a big family!

I asked Gracie who she wanted to include and she named everyone in our house, Jillian (her best friend), and the grandmas. She also wanted Katie in it since she is her sister and of course, Katie's family. I talked her out of adding Jillian because it is a family collage, but I promised her she could make one just for home with pictures of her friends. After she named everyone, we chose the photos to print.

I printed a couple of photos of each person so that she had options when it came to cutting and gluing. Good thing I did, she had a few cutting mishaps and a couple of photos turned out too big. Gracie cut each person out and arranged them. She put herself in the middle and stuck everyone around her. I think it turned out so wonderful!

Top: Sandy, Great Grandma Gracie holding Henry, Lexie, Grandma, Andrew, Katie. Bottom: Fenna, Libby, Mom, Dad holding Charlie. Gracie in the middle.

Smarty Pants!

2011-08-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

Libby wrote her name all by herself! She knew the letters too, nobody told her what to write next. I'll let the photo tell the story.

For the record, she is still only two years old. Oh Yeah, I'm a proud mama!

Two Outings in a Row!

2011-08-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

Outings! My favorite!

Sunday we went to the San Diego Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park which is why my folder of photos is labeled WAP). After a full week of school and colorguard, Fenna requested a sleep in morning. I am never one to argue with laziness, bring it on! I ordered our zoo passes online and printed the confirmation page. We left the house just before noon. Laziness accomplished without getting in the way of our fun day!

The Safari Park was crowded, but not so crowded that you couldn't get up to see the exhibits. The line for the tram was way too long though, we'll ride it another day. I got season passes for the three of us since a year long pass was only $10 more than buying a day pass, plus it's a tax write-off. Good deal. We wandered all over the park; it was a beautiful day for walking. It was too hot to stop at the sculpture garden on the way home, so we'll add that to another zoo day. It will always be there.

Monday, the girls skipped school for another outing. Fenna had a Cystic Fibrosis doctor appointment in San Diego at 11am, so there was no point in sending them off to school when the appointment is right in the middle of the school day. We usually leave for school at 6:50am but didn't have to leave today until 9am. Another sleep in day!

We took the little girls to Katie's house to play and then Fenna and I made our way to the clinic. I only got lost once. I thought I was on a street, but it turned out to be an exit ramp and I ended up back on the freeway. I managed to get off and twirl around and find my way back to where I needed to be. Fenna found the problem, on the map it looks as if the streets intersect, but in reality one street is a bridge over the other one. Ah, there is the problem: a two-dimensional map in a three-dimensional world. We found the clinic and used their valet parking to avoid being late or getting lost trying to find a parking space or getting lost afterward trying to remember where we parked. Valet parking rocks!

The appointment went well; the doctor and his staff are very nice. We will go see them again in 10 days or so at their other office in La Jolla. Another adventure with maps! I hope they have valet parking there too. I found a new love: the parking guy. I don't know where he took my van and I don't care. Love it!

I consulted the map and found the route back to Katie's house; Fenna concurred. We were wrong. Map mishap #2, but we were able to get turned around. We took "the scenic route" back to Katie's house, but we got there just fine. It took us 20 minutes instead of 10, but I'm ok with that.

It was only 12:30 in the afternoon! We could go back and put the girls in school for a half an hour before dismissal, or we could do something fun since we are in San Diego and there are lots of things to do. Hmmm. We all voted for doing something fun. After pondering over our options, we settled on spending the afternoon roaming around Seaport Village.

The afternoon was beautiful! The weather was sunny but not hot with a light breeze. Couldn't ask for a better day! We had lunch and then we wandered around the mall. It was nice to just walk and enjoy the day. We sat in the park and watched the kite salesman fly several large colorful kites; we watched an aircraft carrier head out to sea, and we watched the seagulls scavenge for scraps around the picnic tables. Fenna wasn't shopping for souvenirs; I thought she might, but we all enjoyed window shopping quite a bit.

At 4pm, we said goodbye to Katie and Henry and we headed home. It is usually an hour long drive, but we hit five-o'clock traffic and it took us 90 minutes. I wasn't sure if I was headed in the right direction to find the freeway or not, but I was traveling west and the ocean is east, so I figured west would get me there. Fenna gave me a look that said "Really? you are lost again?" so I confessed. I have a GPS in the drawer under her seat, but I never use it because I can't figure it out. It always tells me that I'm in San Antonio, Texas. She reached under the seat, plugged it in and bingo, had it working! How did she do that? While she was plugging it in, I said, "If that is Grape Street right up there, I know where I am." It was. I wasn't very lost at all this time! She kept the GPS on all the way home though. Funny kid!

Fenna had colorguard practice at 5:30 and needed to go home to change and grab her bag, I got her to colorguard, but we were about 15 minutes late. I told her the coach was gonna make her do an extra 50 crunches for being late, but she said he didn't. Ha! Good thing, because she doesn't enjoy doing crunches.

Two outings in two days, not bad for a boring host mom!

*More photos of our outings on my picasa page.

Boring Host Family - That's us!

2011-08-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

We have done absolutely nothing fun since our "Dutch daughter" arrived. I promised her that we are fun, and all we've done is sit around the house twiddling our thumbs and updating our blogs.

She's been here for two weeks. The first week we went school shopping, registered for school and on the 11th, the girls started classes. We drove around town a bit to show her around, but mostly we stayed in and got to know one another better.

Fenna brought us lots of presents from Holland. Such fun! She brought magnets, pot holders, chocolates, candy, a beer bottle opener for Keith, toys for the babies, and pens with windmills on top for the girls. We are a big family and she had something for everyone, very generous!

Last weekend was probably a terribly boring weekend for our teenager who is anxious to explore and go places, but we stayed in all weekend. With my van needing new brakes, we were pretty limited. It was nice though (at least I thought so) because we just hung around home and visited. Keith took the van apart and fixed the brakes. They needed new rotors too, and in the back which is apparently more complicated and more worthy of garage-vocabulary (cussing).

Monday I had my ride back. We had a successful week of going to school and coming home again. On a normal day, I am going to make three school runs. Once to take Fenna to the high school at 7am, once to take Gracie to Kindergarten at 11am, and once to pick up Gracie and Fenna at 2:30. The 2:30 run actually takes an entire hour. On Mondays, I'll be making 4 school runs since the Kindergarten gets out early at 1:30. On days when Fenna has evening colorguard practice, I'll make 5 runs to the school: the normal three plus take Fenna back to the school at 5:30 and pick her up at 8:30pm. Follow all that? Ok, next week we're going to add in a Late-start day just for confusion. I am once again the Mom-Taxi! It's just too hot to make them walk.

As awful as it sounds, I don't mind too much yet. I knew what I was signing up for when I offered to be a host parent. The hour long afternoon pick up can also serve as nap time for Charlie and Libby if they would stop giggling at each other and fall asleep. One of these days they will. Charlie can face forward in his carseat now so I can rearrange the kid seating without having to flip carseats around, that should work well if I need to separate them in the vehicle.

I have three carseats in the van. The Evenflo Triumph can hold Libby or Charlie and can be flipped around backward if needed. The Graco Nautilus can hold Libby or Charlie or Gracie! It's the best seat in the house! Then I have a little Graco booster seat that can only hold Gracie. It's just an elevated seat, so the seat belt must be used on that one. The other carseats have the 5 point harnesses, but Gracie uses the seat belt even if she sits in the Nautilus. I explained the seating rules to Fenna and she looked at me like I was speaking Greek; not that it matters because I don't expect her to strap in the kids, but I offered up the trivia.

This past week was focused only on school. The girls and Keith went to school, I drove the taxi and the little ones tagged along and asked where everyone went.

On Tuesday we had Charlie's birthday party. I guess we have done one fun thing! It really was a great party - best one yet! We started the day by looking at pictures of Gracie and Libby's first birthdays - might as well knock out the jealous monster before it rears it's ugly head. They both turned one and celebrated, had gifts, and now it's Charlie's turn. The child is one popular baby! We had the party at 3pm after toddlers nap and big kids come home from school. We had 21 adults and 17 children here! Full house! It was so much fun.

The only other semi-exciting thing we did was have family over yesterday. Relatives from South Dakota are vacationing nearby, so they stopped in for a short visit. Fenna got to meet them too. She had just come home fresh from an 8 hour colorguard practice in the hot sun, so we didn't make her pose for a picture with her "new cousins", but it was nice that she got to meet them.

So, that's it. That's all we've done so far. I'm feeling a burning desire to get out of the house and take these kids on an outing - so that's what we are doing today! Yay! We decided last night what our plan would be for the day. First and most important: sleep in, then we'll pack up a picnic and strap the kids in and go to the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park. I got season passes for myself, Fenna and Gracie. The total was $10 less than if I had paid for one-day tickets, plus the memberships are tax deductible. It is still too hot to go to Queen Califia's Magic Sculpture Garden in Escondido, but we will go there another time (it is close to the Safari Park and makes for a fun little extra stop). I am looking forward to our fun day ahead. Happy Fun Sunday!

Mama's Night Out

2011-08-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

I went out last night!

First thing was first, I had to pick out something to wear. Ugh, it looks like my closet is where out of style fat clothes go to die. After weighing my options (heh heh) I passed over the comfy look for an attempt at housewife-glamorous. I donned a brown beaded summer dress which showed off my farmer's tan and frumpy mom arms. Sweet!

I drove down to San Marcos and met up with some of my classmates in a restaurant near the university. We all graduated with our Literature and Writing degrees.

I went alone. It's always weird to be in the van without any passengers. Everyone was home. I asked Fenna to come along with me a couple of times, but she didn't exactly respond so I figured she was waiting for a better offer. She's a teenager, I'm sure she didn't want to hang out with my old friends and listen to us talk about stuff she doesn't know about. I don't enjoy that type of conversation when I'm with Keith and his teacher friends neither. I encouraged her to go to the school dance, but she discovered that it was attended mainly by Freshmen, and they are disrespected. She is sure catching on to this American High School experience quickly! Since she didn't seem to have anything better to do, I told her when I'd be leaving and I announced when I went to my room to get ready. When I was ready to go, she didn't look interested and I didn't want to push it but I felt kind of awkward leaving without her when I wasn't 100% sure if she wanted to come along or not. I think I gave her ample opportunity to hop aboard though. I realize I am out of touch with having a teenager around.

Speaking of being out of touch... I heard the radio announcers saying that they were sick of the only topic of conversation these days - the upcoming Kim Kardashian wedding. I thought to myself, "Kim Kardashian is getting married?". News to me!

I got to San Marcos just fine and drove down the street where I thought the restaurant was. I looked it up on the map before I left, now if I could just remember... I drove up and down the street a couple of times and didn't find the place. Great. The restaurant is lost (as opposed to me!). I pulled into a parking lot and called Keith. He again looked it up on the computer and gave me directions. See? I don't need to learn how to use my GPS! That crazy thing is just fine stuffed away under the seat. I got back out on the street and headed in the right direction, according to Keith I had to drive west about a mile. I sat at the red light looking around and what did I see? A big sign that said "Acupolco". That's it! How embarrassing.

We ate mediocre Mexican food and were serenaded by a nearly toothless Mariachi band. It was great! I was starving, so I didn't care that the food wasn't the best ever. It was still pretty darn good and I wolfed it down. I hang out with small children every day; I have no manners.

There were six of us at dinner. We all got reacquainted and tried to remember which classes we had with each other. I think all of them were in one or another of my classes. One guy I really had trouble placing but maybe he was in one of my 300 level classes. I really do not know.

Nobody has a job using their degrees! One guy bags groceries, one gal is a clerk at JC Penny, another gal works in a Sr Citizen home, one guy runs a few paid parking lots (which is what he did prior to going to school), and the other guy wasn't working. I don't have a job neither, so I fit right in. I was afraid I'd suffer by comparison in a professional way, but that wasn't the case. None of them had gone on to the master's program or to the teaching credential program. I'm feeling better about my choices now that I know these very intelligent people made the same choices that I did, although all of our choices were narrowed by circumstance.

We visited about our lives now; we reminisced about our college classmates. We also took a few minutes to remember a deceased classmate. I went to her funeral service last summer and still had the program in my van (one would think I'd have cleaned it out by now) so I went out and got it. Everyone passed it around and they seemed genuinely appreciative that I brought it along.

After dinner, we promised each other to get together again since it was so nice to see each other. I do hope that happens. I got into my van, pulled out of the parking lot and drove across the intersection and went half a block where all lanes were merged into one and directed through cones into a parking lot. This was one intense DUI checkpoint! I couldn't believe how many officers were lined up along the cones. The vehicles were checked in groups, the first car drove up to the end of the cone lane to a stop sign and then everyone stopped in line behind; there was an officer for each vehicle to check the driver. The policeman who stepped up to me asked me for my drivers license. I handed it to him. He said "Have you been drinking?" I said, "No, not a drop." That was that. It was an amazing site to see, they had a lot of police officers, plenty of police cars lined one after another, a trailer with lit up tables and chairs just in front of it which I assume was a temporary booking station, and a line of tow trucks. It appears that they were expecting quite a haul tonight!

I made it back onto the street and found my way home just fine. I enjoyed the drive home listening to the radio rather than the Disney princess collection of songs that was in my cd player.

I got home at 9:15. Keith was sawing logs in the lazy boy in the living room and the lights were out in Fenna's room too. Really? What a couple of Friday night party animals those two are! Both of them sound asleep so early! Charlie, such a good little sleeper, was in bed but the kids were wide awake and Lexie was home. It was time for me to get into comfy pajamas and start typing a blog post! What a great way to end a busy week. :)

First Day of School

2011-08-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

The day I dreaded and anticipated with excitement finally arrived, the first day of school. It is such a bittersweet day. It marks the end of the baby years for Gracie and she was more than ready to put them behind her. It was the end of "doing my own thing" too, and I've enjoyed these past two years so very much! I was lucky to get a two year break between the schooling of my two middle kids. Not many moms can say that!

The first day of school was more exciting and happy than it was a sad ending to some good times. More fun and excitement is waiting for us with all of the opportunities that school brings. I'm especially looking forward to a year of being a high school parent again. High school is a lot more fun than elementary school, as it should be. We're all very happy to add Fenna to our family and liven things up around here. The high school here has a lot of clubs and activities, plenty of sports, dances, field trips and fun things to do. I hope there are some social opportunities for Gracie too, she is tired of being the oldest in our baby play group.

Of course the first day of school started with the kids putting on their new duds. Fenna said she went shopping for clothes at home, so we didn't shop for clothes for her, but we did stock up on school supplies (paper, pens, and that sort of thing). Gracie wore her "America dress" that I picked up for her to welcome Fenna at the airport last week. In a week, she's worn it four times. I shook it, sniffed it, and decided it was fine. I suddenly realized, Gracie doesn't have any shoes!

The child grew two shoe sizes this summer, and she only has flip-flops. I figured I'd wait until closer to school-time to buy her some shoes, no sense in getting shoes for her too soon if she's growing that fast. And.... I forgot. I searched the school web site for a dress code, but couldn't find one. Hopefully, they will be forgiving on the first day, and the second day too. Lets face it, the first day of school is overwhelming enough for this mama without adding shoe shopping to it too. Fenna is not suffering from a lack of shoes; I've seen four pair thus far.

Gracie was enrolled in the afternoon kindergarten class, so her first day doesn't start until 11:05am. Unless its a Monday, then she starts at 10:15am. Or if it's another special schedule day she starts at 8:45am. I guess they use the word "afternoon" loosely. Fenna's classes start promptly at 7:30am, except on late start days (one per month) classes start at 10am. She was supposed to meet her counselor and the other exchange students at 7:20 in the counselor's office, and she'd need 5 minutes or so to walk across campus and find the group. We decided arriving at 7:15 would be perfect. No problem! It is three miles. Three. We left at 7am. I remember leaving at 7:05 - 7:10 to get the girls to school by 7:30.

My memory sucks.

I got her there just in the nick of time! 7:28am. She was late to her group meet-up, but I figured she wasn't officially late for school. Sort of. Ugh. I prayed hard all the way home that she wasn't the only one late for the exchange student tour - maybe the counselor told everyone 7:20 so that they'd be there by 7:30. Yeah, let's go with that story. Later she told me she was the last one to join their morning meeting and I felt so bad. There was a mile of cars behind me and not one of them had an exchange student? Arg! Just my luck!

The little girls were still in bed, so I had some quiet morning time with Charlie before they got up. Sweet! Lexie went to donate blood before work. Next thing you know, it was time to gather the herd and take Gracie to school.

I loaded the little kids into the double stroller and we trudged up the hill to Gracie's school. It is probably three-quarters of a mile, but uphill the entire distance. Lordy, I am out of shape! I was huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf by the time we got to the top. Beautiful view if you survive the climb. I suppose pushing 90 lbs of stroller and kiddos was what wore me out (stroller is 40 lbs, kids are each 25 or so). Charlie and Libby gained weight the further up the hill we went too. Stinkers.

Kindergarteners line up with their parents outside the schoolyard gate, then the teacher comes out and shoos all the parents back and leads the children inside the gate where they stand on a painted straight line on the sidewalk in front of the classroom. The teacher then shuts the big metal gate which sounds just like a prison cell door being slammed shut in the movies, and then she wraps a thick chain around it and clicks it shut with a padlock as big as my head. I know that security is all for the children's safety and all that jazz, but it seemed really creepy to me. There were plenty of tears shed, but none from Gracie or us.

Three hours later it was time to round everyone up for the end of the day pick-ups. Both girls are released at 2:30, but their schools are in opposite directions so we took the van. I told Fenna earlier that I would pick up Gracie first which would give her time after school to mingle, socialize, ask teachers for help, visit the library, or whatever. I'd be there around 3pm and we picked a spot to meet that morning. Off to Tovoshal, Good Lord the traffic was insane! Cars were driving on the wrong sides of the streets, people honking at each other, cars rushing ahead to get into the long line, just craziness! I thought the high school traffic was bad in years past, the elementary drivers are worse! It took a long time to get right up to the school parking lot, but I found a spot and parked. The kindergarten kids are not allowed to leave the schoolyard without a parent walking up to the gate and taking them by the hand. So, I had to take Libby and Charlie out of their carseats, walk to the fence, collect Gracie, walk back, buckle them all in again. I can see this will be an exercise in rapid carseat buckling. Libby does not like being buckled in, she is two. "My do it! My do it!" Guess how long that takes. Uh huh. I just buckled her up while she kicked and screamed about it.

Back into the traffic. Now I have to turn left to get out of the parking lot and left again at the corner a block away. Turning left across one lane of crazy people was enough to make me reconsider private school. That second left turn convinced me that private school tuition was worth every penny. I was driving whiteknuckled But, we survived the school traffic and headed downhill to the high school.

As I pulled up to the red light about halfway between the schools, of course I hit it on a red, my brakes decided they were finished. Nice, I have a van full of runts and my brakes are grinding. Every stop sign, they got louder. I pulled up in front of the high school where Fenna was patiently waiting in the hot sun (note to self: we need to pick a shady spot) and my brakes are now grinding very loudly! Back up the street toward home and we were drawing stares from pedestrians. This just isn't good. We got home just fine and had no problems with actual slowing and stopping, but there might not be much left of my rotors.

Gracie and Fenna both had a good first day of school. Gracie made a new friend. She didn't know her name, but her hair smelled fantastic. The two girls smelled each other's hair like a couple of puppies getting acquainted (almost). Gracie said she sits at a table with David and Daniel and the girl with nice smelling hair, but the David and Daniel are different boys than the David and Daniel at preschool. Must be popular names for boys this year.

Fenna met lots of people including the exchange students. She said she didn't smell anyone's hair, but she did make lots of acquaintances. Mostly she focused on learning what the class expectations would be and where things are located. The high school is very big and a lot different from her high school back home. The classrooms here all open to the outside, and the middle of the campus is an outdoor courtyard where everyone eats lunch. There is block scheduling, so she has another first day with the rest of her classes tomorrow. Sounds like it was a good day for everyone.

First day of school was a success! Only 178 more to go!

Welcome to the Family!

2011-08-08T00:20:00.000-07:00

We went to the airport last night and picked up the first kid we saw, grabbed her and stuffed her in the van. Off we went!

That's the short version, but amazingly accurate.

Saturday seemed to drag on and on. Finally, it was time to head to the airport to pick up our exchange student, Fenna. She traveled all the way from The Netherlands and across 9 time zones. As my husband explained, "We are Greenwich Time Minus 8 and she is Greenwich Time plus one." I said, "Sure hope she likes nerds." Anyway, we finally left the house. We took the two little girls in their brand new American print dresses and we left Charlie home with Lexie. Charlie needs to keep his bedtime since he is such a good sleeper and has a constant sleep schedule; it's a very nice sleep schedule! The timing was perfect, Lexie got off work just in time for us to leave.

The four of us drove down to San Diego. We got stuck in a bit of traffic at the Pechanga exit. Apparently there was a concert. Keith reminded me it is a Saturday night. This put us a little bit behind schedule. Fenna's flight schedule arrived in the mail earlier that day (really! That day! Good thing I asked Fenna on facebook two weeks earlier) said her flight arrives at 8:04pm. We drove as fast as we could and prayed for no more traffic jams - I had visions of her standing alone in the airport feeling abandoned. We pulled into the airport at 8:12, not bad considering.

Keith figured it would be silly to pay to park since we're late and she'll be waiting on the curb in the loading zone. Oh, whoops, I totally forgot to tell Keith we are all going in like a big welcoming committee. In my mind, we'd all be in the airport standing together with big silly grins. In his mind, she'd be ready to just hop in the van while we drove by. Since we were late, his imagination won.

The airport has a loading zone but you aren't allowed to stop and wait. It is strictly a pull-in, load and leave type of deal. Security will write you a ticket and yell at you too; they are big and scary so I don't dare stop the car for more than a minute. In the loading zone loop, there are three lanes, and all cars were stopped so I hopped out and Keith said he'd drive around the loop.

I ran in and there she was, coming down the escalator! We weren't late - timing was just perfect! After a big hug, I waited with her for her giant pink suitcase to come out of baggage claim and Keith had to drive another loop around. While we waited she told me that when her mom came to America for her exchange year, her luggage was lost for two days. Oh gosh, I sure hoped that wouldn't happen! But if it did, we would have a great excuse to go shopping.

Her bag came along, and she had one carry-on bag and that's it. The girl travels light! We took her bags outside and there was Keith crawling along in the van; he stopped, we shoved her and her bags in and off we went. The little girls were so excited! They did their best to greet her from the confines of their carseats in the dark, Keith too.

We stopped at a Mexican restaurant, On The Border, so that we could visit and have a proper hello. We didn't know if she'd feel like eating or not, so she could easily get something light or a big meal or nothing, whatever. We were all pretty hungry since we skipped dinner and just snacked for lunch. Katie, Andrew and Henry met us at the restaurant. I had imagined that we would eat at the Cheesecake Factory since it has a large menu of a variety of foods, and a lot of American food. Again, Keith and I were not imagining the same scenario and since he was driving, we went to a Mexican place for local style food. I love it, so I wasn't going to argue! Turns out, Fenna has not had Mexican food before. She was a lot more hungry than she thought and she enjoyed her meal. She eats like a teenager - no leftovers! Actually, everyone at the table cleaned their plates, what a hungry bunch we were.

We had a nice drive home, but it was too dark for her to see much except the other traffic. We counted the lanes and talked. Eight lanes in each direction in a much wider road than what they have in Holland. We got home and she found her room right away. She loved it! I am so glad she will be comfortable in her room, she will have some house and neighborhood noises to get used to but she was too tired to be wakened by random strange noises. At least, we all thought she was tired. She was pretty excited and needed to explore a bit and get her bearings before settling in for the night.

Today, Sunday, was a planned day of laziness. With a 9 hour time change and a night in a strange house, I figured a lazy Sunday might be just the thing. It is our usual Sunday thing anyway. Fenna got to explore the whole house and get to know each of us better. She met Charlie and Sandy gave her some love and tail wags too. She didn't seem to be tired at all; sure wish I had the energy of a teenager!

Best part of the day: Presents! Fenna brought lots of gifts for everyone from Holland. She spoiled us generously. The little girls and Charlie were so excited, they were squealing with joy and had so much fun opening presents and asking "what is this?" I think the concept of different cultures and different geographic places is out of their reach just yet. But they love their presents anyway. It was very sweet!

We went grocery shopping at Sams Club in the afternoon. I didn't think she would want to come, maybe she'd like a break from the little ones, but she came along. It was nice having someone come with me for groceries, especially because I had all three wild ones and none of them enjoy grocery shopping. Today they were all behaving so nicely! I could get used to this. We used this opportunity to drive around town a bit and take a quick drive-by tour of the school.

Burgers on the grill, OreIda fries and a green salad were on the menu tonight, very American. We all ate together on the patio while shooing away flies. After dinner I decided to take the little girls to the park and let them run off the rest of their excited energy. Fenna wanted to come along, so we loaded up the little girls and said goodnight to Charlie. He was going to have some quiet playtime with Lexie while we went to the park for noisy playtime.

We've had a wonderful past 24 hours. Fenna is a good fit in our family. Her English is great, so we are able to communicate very well. She is already teaching us about the Netherlands and learning about the USA. She also told us a bit about her daily medications and how she cares for her Cystic Fibrosis. It sounds very complicated but she seems to know exactly what she is doing.

Tomorrow we'll be registering Fenna at the high school and registering Gracie for Kindergarten. After enduring hours of paperwork at the schools, we will go shopping for school supplies and whatever else we need. I'm excited to introduce her to Super-Target; I think she'll like it!

We're Ready!

2011-08-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

Our "dutch daughter" arrives tomorrow! Her room is finally ready. Again.

I had "the pink room" ready for her a couple of months ago but we decided to move the little girls into that room instead and we moved Fenna to the white bedroom. Lexie and Charlie have the green room. Keith and I stay put in the master. The white room is downstairs, the master, pink and green rooms are upstairs. I painted the pink room two summers ago, and the green room last year. I think... or maybe it was three and two years ago, anyway, I painted them and not the bedroom downstairs. It was still the white paint that was slapped on in every room of this house when the house was built twenty years ago or so.

Lexie wanted the green room, so we moved the little girls to the pink room and put Fenna downstairs in the white room. But, the white room was just too ugly. We've been working on painting our house one room at a time and we've been in no hurry to get the whole thing done. Since we would be emptying the downstairs bedroom to rearrange furniture and things for Fenna, we might as well paint it while it's empty.

The week before she arrives we finally got it painted! It is now a cream color like the rest of the main floor (except the living room, it is still on the waiting list). The room turned out beautifully! It is just amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do. I really wanted to get it done but time slipped by too quickly until I finally felt like the clock was running out. I had a chance to paint it while I had help with the kids, so I did it. I painted it at night, in the dark, while drinking a beer.

I thought I did a great job, but in the morning, it looked like I had painted the room in the dark while drinking a beer. I told my husband, we'll just hang lots of pictures. He shook his head and told me to get my paintbrush. He was right, the second coat of paint went on very smoothly and the drywall wasn't sucking it up like it had a great thirst. Painting in the daylight also served me well. Much better! I put all the furniture back up against the walls, and then ran the rug doctor over the carpet.

The girls and I picked out some bedding, turquoise bedskirt, polka dot sheets and a pink striped blanket. We laid down a pink fuzzy rug. It sort of matches in a confetti sort of way. And then I remembered the girls had a throw blanket with the high school logo on it. Perfect! I tossed it on the bed. The school colors are red and black and I had a pink and blue thing going on already. Oy, not a good combination. But, all bright cheerful colors so I just left it as is.

I have a dream-catcher in every bedroom but I decided to trade dream catchers in this room with the little girls' room. At the moment that I took the photos, the dream-catcher was not up. It's there now; we can't have her sleeping without a dream-catcher on her window!

We put in a desk, chair and small bookcase for her study space. I gathered up a dictionary, thesaurus, and an MLA handbook too. I think I'll add my American Literature Anthology to the room too. I am going to print a picture of her family and put it in a frame. The router, printer and the house phone are in her room because that is where the wiring for these things happens to be located.

Here is her room, bouncing little sisters and all. I am excited that this seemingly empty room will soon be occupied by an excited teenager!

A Day at the Beach

2011-08-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

I took all six kids to the beach yesterday. Six is misleading, one is just a tiny baby and two are all grown up now, but they all say "Mom, mom, mom, mom..." Maybe "six" isn't the misleading part, "kids" might be. Syntax aside, I took them all to the beach yesterday to relax and have fun after a couple of days of hard work.

Katie came home on Sunday for one of her friend's baby shower. She took Gracie back to San Diego with her to help the poor child get over a serious case of boredom. When Gracie is bored, we all suffer. I said I'd pick her up on Tuesday, so she got a two-night slumber party with her big sis!

Lexie had Monday and Tuesday off, so I was "off-duty" for watching Charlie. I figured I'd better make good use of the time I had with only one child to look after, Libby.

I took the rug doctor out and shampooed the carpets and seats in the van, I washed down the outdoor toys and the patio, cleaned the coolers and put them in the garage, took the trash to the curb (but I forgot one, whoops, it's gonna stink like crazy waiting a whole week for another garbage day in this heat), and I moved the furniture in Fenna's room to the middle and painted the whole room. Plus, I conquered a mountain of laundry and a kitchen full of dishes and cleaned the floors.

Painting took a lot longer than I thought. I thought it wouldn't take long to tape, but that always takes forever to get done. By the time I was ready to paint, I was exhausted from all the work I did but had to paint just so it would be done. This room needed a fresh coat of paint before we moved in, the walls were dull. I painted the other bedrooms last summer and I really wanted to get this one done too. I started painted at 8pm, in the dark, while drinking a beer. I finished at 2am. Tuesday morning I went in to look at it in the daylight and sure enough, it looks like I painted in the dark while drinking a beer. We'll just hang lots of pictures.

After working so hard on Sunday evening and all day Monday, Tuesday was my "day off". I needed to go get Gracie in San Diego. I woke up sore and wishing I could just lay around in my pajamas all day. My knees hurt and one was a little swollen. I'm just not as young and agile as I used to be. I think climbing over all the furniture and up and down the ladder was hard on these old bones. Old age can be repressed with ibuprophen and coffee! Yes!

Lexie wanted to come along with Charlie and have some fun too. Good idea, we packed up the kids and the beach towels and off we went. Yay! A day at the beach! It was 103 degrees when we left, wow, too hot to stay home.

The beach parking lot was packed solid, with a parking shark in every row. Katie and I both needed to park and it wasn't going to happen, so we drove across the street to the bay side. Katie didn't want to go there, but I told her I didn't want to drive up and down the beach any more, so we went across the street to Bonita Cove. Plenty of parking and not any more crowded than the beach. I like the bay for the kids anyway because there aren't any tides, the water is nice. Bonita Cove also had restrooms, showers, and a whole bunch of play equipment. We didn't end up letting the kids on any of the playground structures though because we went right to the water's edge.

We parked next to each other and turned Gracie loose. She had the biggest hugs for me! So sweet! She hugged Libby and Charlie with all her might too. That was it, mushy stuff was over, back to normal. It was just like she was never gone.

We found a shady spot on the grass right next to the sand, and we were still close to the water. It was perfect. Lexie put a good amount of sunscreen on Charlie and then he was free to run in the sand and sun. I put sunscreen on Libby before we left the house to let it soak in so that sand wouldn't stick to her, she doesn't like that.

Gracie ran right out to the water to splash around and the two little ones wanted to go too. I let Libby go on her own and I took Charlie to the water's edge. They were all thrilled! Lexie and Katie were visiting, setting up "camp" and putting on sunscreen too.

Charlie, or Mr. Daredevil, was super happy to be in the water. He was shoving his face into it all the way down to the sand and coming up smiling. He "kisses" whatever he loves, and he apparently loves the beach. And he kept crawling/walking out into the water a little farther. I'd pull him back and off he'd go again. The layer of sunscreen made him very slippery, it was like trying to catch a 25 pound fish!

In the meantime, Gracie was farther into the water splashing and squealing and giggling and having a good time. The water has such a slow slope that she had to go out a few yards to get where it was a little deeper and could get her legs under the water.

Libby was staying close to me, but Charlie was splashing too much for her tastes. She decided to venture closer to Gracie and I hollered at her to stay close. Now that I think about it, what does "Libby! Stay close!" mean to a two year old? She probably had no idea what I meant. Abstract commands aren't interpreted well by toddlers.

That's when it happened, while I was taking pictures with one hand and controlling wet, slippery, happy Charlie with the other and trying not to get wet. That's when Libby got away from me and tried to catch up with her sister. She was in water up to her hips and I saw her fall forward, just like she did in the driveway earlier in the day, she lost her footing and fell forward with her hands straight out to catch herself.

Libby was face down in the water with her arms out to the sides and her legs dangling; she couln't stand up. She couldn't turn over; she just flailed in a panic.

I panicked too.

I shoved my camera in my hip pocket, scooped up Charlie with a sudden disregard for getting my clothes wet, I planted him on my hip and ran out to scoop up Libby. I took about three big strides and bent over to scoop her up with my free arm. She was sputtering and coughing so I think she got water in her mouth and nose, but I got to her quick enough that she didn't get any in her lungs. I have no idea why, but I was screaming to her and I was screaming "Gracie!". Didn't make sense but in the moment that's what I did.

Gracie was confused. I was screaming her name and her sister was "swimming". She is such a good big sister, she clapped and cheered for Libby and told her "I'm so proud of you! You put your face in da water!" I like her optimistic viewpoint so very much!

I was soaking wet up to my middle (how did the water level at Libby's hips become the water level at my hips?) and I had one dripping wet kid on each hip. I waded back to the shore and told Gracie to come too. We all went up to our little towel camp where Katie, Lexie and Henry were visiting. Lexie looked over her shoulder at us approaching and I heard her say, "Oh my God. Mom is soaking wet!"

I laid Libby down and she was shivering, so I covered her and let her recuperate from her ordeal. Told the older girls what happened and they didn't see it at all. It happened so fast, it doesn't take much to miss a kid slipping under the water, and it's a quiet catastrophe. I'm glad I didn't let Libby go to the water with her sister while I stayed nearby on our spot; I may have been tempted to do exactly that thinking she wouldn't be brave enough to go in past her knees. I am surprised she went out into the water, but with Charlie and Gracie so brave in the water she was being brave too.

Libby and I rested on the towel, I moved a towel out of the shade and into the sun so I could try to dry off. I wore khaki shorts and a yellow shirt. I suddenly wondered if my clothes were see-through when wet! Yikes! Luckily, they weren't but I didn't bring any extra clothes for myself so I just had to air-dry. My camera had to air dry too! It was wet, but not dripping soaking wet. It still seemed to work ok for a few minutes and then it just died. It works again now, a day later, the battery was wet and needed to dry and recharge. Whew!

Libby wouldn't go near the water again after that and I didn't push her. I did take her back out and waded in ankle deep water just holding her. Charlie went back out with Lexie and Katie took Henry. We stayed and played at the beach long enough for me to dry off and Charlie to completely wear himself out. Lexie looked exhausted too. Not Gracie, she was still full of energy as always! Henry too!

I brought dry clothes for the little girls and Charlie. We changed them all and headed to Ikea. I wanted to do some fun shopping too. Katie, Lexie and I were so cute pushing our strollers into Ikea! I wish my camera would have worked to capture us in our little family stroller parade. Gracie ditched us at the ball pit, and then we went shopping. The child care area gives you one hour to shop, so we made our way through the store as quickly as three stroller pushing mommies could go. Afterward, we walked across the parking lot to Costco for a cheap meal.

Lexie was too tired to do anything else, actually we all were. We said our goodbyes to Katie and Henry, buckled up the kids and headed north. All four of my passengers were asleep right after I got on the freeway. I had alone time! Sort of. I did get to listen to the radio instead of Disney music. Traffic was great, but I wouldn't have minded if I got stuck in a traffic jam just because it was a nice quiet drive after a wonderful day.

Once I got home, I realized how exhausted I was. I was suddenly completely worn out! After working so hard for two days and then taking all six kids to the beach and shopping all day, my old bones were barking at me. Going to the beach to relax and unwind was a lot harder than it sounded!

By the way, cleaning the van one day and then taking the kids through a fast-food drive up and then to the beach the next day is totally backward. Totally.

One week until we are an international family!

2011-07-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

Only one more week and we will become an international family. We are hosting an exchange student from the Netherlands, who happens to be the daughter of a friend I had in high school. I love that we are part of one family's multi-generation exchange experience.

Mother and daughter will have very different experiences though. Bridgette went to my high school in a small town in Montana back in 1982-83. Life was different back then, no internet, no cell phones, no facebook! We live in southern California in a city with three very large high schools. The culture difference between Montana and California is striking, and the climate difference is drastic. Suffice it to say, Fenna will not be reliving her mom's experience even though I am a common person for both of them. Just thinking about hosting Bridgette's daughter has really made me think a lot about the dramatic differences in my life from then to now.

We only have 7 days until she arrives. I was nervous before, but now I'm feeling more confident that things will be great. My main concern is that we are so much more chaotic, busy and loud than what she is probably used to.

I finally decided to make a list of what I wanted to get done before Fenna arrives and school starts. We always save our house projects for summer because that's when my husband finally has time to devote to anything that needs attention. He was sick for a few weeks this summer and his projects were not getting done, not at all. In fact, he still hasn't done anything on his list. Oy. But, I made a list for myself and felt a lot less overwhelmed with life in general once I had my scattered worries all typed out in a nice neat list.

I was knocking things off my long list and feeling like I might actually be able to survive the summer without losing my mind. And then, I did myself a huge favor and divided my list into sections: stuff to do, stuff to do after school starts, and stuff for Keith to do. Ahhhh, my list of things to do before next week not only became manageable but it is very possible I might get it all done! Wouldn't that be something!

Keith was supposed to start back to school on Friday the 5th, but he has to go in on Monday the 1st. That gives him today to finish his list. No worries, I told him if he doesn't do his stuff he can hire someone to take care of that. Hit him in the wallet, that'll motivate the boy!

Since our daughter moved home with her 11 month old tornado of destruction, we've had to make a lot of changes around here. She works, so I am often herding all three runts by myself. This does not help me get anything done. I deleted things off of my to-do list just because they were going to be impossible. I removed all of my summer sewing projects from my list. There just isn't time. Maybe after school starts, maybe I can hire a babysitter for Libby and Charlie so that I can sit down and sew. In the meantime, I'm trying to run the rug doctor in between naps.

The biggest change with adding them to the household was shuffling the three bedrooms. What a big job! The room I had ready for Fenna became the little girls' room and their room became Lexie and Charlie's room. Now the guest room is being transformed into Fenna's room. It sounds a lot easier than it is.

Fenna gets a bigger room with a bigger window than she would have had. She will be the only bedroom on the main floor, but that might be nice for her too. She'll have more privacy in the mornings when she is getting ready for school, and the bathroom downstairs is the best one. Plus, if she has friends over, they won't have to go upstairs to her room and pass by all of our rooms. This should work out just fine... seven people in one house and Fenna ends up getting her own room and it is a nice sized one too! It isn't pink though, that's the big sacrifice.

I let the exchange student company know about the additions to our household. The main YFU representative that I have contact with delegated the responsibility of running a criminal background check on Lexie to another YFU rep. After a week of not hearing anything, I contacted YFU again. She delegated the job to yet another YFU person. So far, her emails have included five or six other YFU workers (since the beginning of our contact). I have no idea who our rep really is since it seems to be a different person each time we have any contact. We completed our on-line host family orientation too. I'm glad I didn't drive all the way to Orange with three kids to watch a power point presentation of the parenting handbook. Anyway, that is done and there were no surprises in the information. Pretty straight forward common sense type things. The information was good though, it just wasn't anything I couldn't figure out on my own.

Now that there is only a week left, I'm trying to think of the last minute things that need to be done too. I found a dictionary and a thesaurus to put in her room, and last night I found my MLA handbook. That's what she'll need for school! I hope her reading list is a good one, I probably have some of the books already, we'll see.

What a difference a list and a week make! Last week I was nervous and this week I am just excited. I'm still not ready though. Good thing I have a few days yet!

Where are my shoulders?

2011-07-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

I think all hairdressers should be required to take an anatomy class. Basic anatomy, nothing overly complicated. I honestly think knowing the difference between shoulders and ears could be a valuable tool of their trade.

I went to get a haircut. Why do I torture myself? I should just let it grow and not worry about damaged ends, it would be less irritating than getting a haircut.

I said to the lady with the tri-color mohawk, "Shoulder length all the way around". I told her, "It is really important to me that I can pull my hair back into a pony tail, so no layers can be shorter than shoulder length." She acted like she totally understood. I pointed, she nodded, I hoped for the best.

My shoulders are apparently somewhere between my neck and the top of my head. Odd, I thought that's where my ears were. Who knows, these hairdressers don't seem to!

She gave me a cute wedge cut that is a little bit longer in the front. My daughter said it was an A line and stacked in the back. The hairdresser said my curls will make it seem shorter, but its just what I wanted. Hmmm. Really? I didn't want a Dorothy Hamel cut, I wanted a shoulder length all the way around cut!

I cannot pull it back into a pony tail now. I've tried, it's too short and the pony tail stump that I can get with about half my hair won't hold. I have hair hanging on my neck in the middle of a hot summer. This does not make me happy, but it does make me sweaty and itchy. My neighbor told me it was cute. I don't care if it's cute, its covering half my neck and it's hanging in my face. Grrrr!

Actually, it is kinda cute and I do like it. It could be worse, and it has been. Too bad it's the wrong time of year to have hair I can't pull back.

I'm so glad that I taught all of my children the different body parts. All of my girls knew nearly every part before they were even two years old. Neck. Shoulders. Ears. Chin. They could all teach hair school! I wish they would so I could get a decent haircut someday. Sigh. Next time, I'll let Gracie and Libby trim it. Of course, I have to wait several months because its so short it won't need a trim for ages.

Why do women like getting their hair done anyway?

Gave up Dairy Farming

2011-07-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

On May 10th at 6:00pm (I know, it's July now. I'm not sure how that happened so fast!), I quit breastfeeding. Yes, I did. I am no longer the milk-cow!

It sort of happened by accident. I've been wanting to wean but not really knowing how to go about doing it. You'd think after four children I would be a pro, people keep telling me that I must be one, but some things are just hard to do no matter how much experience I've had.

Contrary to popular belief, you don't just decide to quit nursing and that's that. No. Much to my husband's surprise (and plenty of other people too), it doesn't happen like that. It's not as easy as going out to the back yard and turning off the water faucet to the sprinklers. There are a lot of factors involved that make the whole breastfeeding thing harder than it looks. There are hormones and feelings and complicated crazy things like that with every meal. And there is very little support for weaning! No, I take that back. There is NO support for weaning!

I started this addictive habit over 5 years ago on March 14, 2006. The day Gracie was born! I had a hard time weaning her too, but I managed to quit just in time for my third trimester of pregnancy with Libby. After the 3 month break, I started nursing again on September 30, 2008. But because I was super pregnant when I quit nursing Gracie, my body just stayed in dairy-cow mode.

With Gracie, who is my third baby, I weaned her on a roadtrip. We drove 3800 miles round trip and nursing in the vehicle is impossible. When we weren't driving, we were busy. She had so much fun that she slept hard at night and ate really well when we sat for meals. Incidentally, most meals were in restaurants and by that time I had given up nursing her in public (much). Being on vacation helped us both to fill the days and nights with activity, food and sleep. It was the perfect way to wean!

I thought I'll do the same thing with Libby when we go on our annual summer roadtrip. But, we decided not to go this year - crazy as that sounds! We decided to act like normal people and not haul our family halfway across the country in a mini-van. There went my weaning plan.

Luckily, Libby got a stomach virus. Wait, that wasn't lucky. Well, it sort of was. You be the judge. She was a puke fountain, poor kid. Keith told her it was because she grew too big for boo-boo. She said "am I fwee yeez old now?" He said "yes". She was very thoughtful as she processed the cause and effect in her little head. She didn't want it all night; she'd wake me up and say "boo-boo is for babies" and then whine or ask for a hug and go back to sleep. My poor baby!

And who are we kidding, poor me too. My body was not listening to what was going on in our little world. It was still making milk, and then making more. Oh, mama, I was looking lovely! And I was in a lot of pain, couldn't sleep, but it's worth it, right?

In the morning, I kept Gracie home from school because I was worried she would start puking too. They usually do these types of things together. Mostly, I was afraid if Gracie puked it would throw off the too big for boo-boo story that Libby was wholeheartedly believing.

Gracie did get sick, but Libby was too self-absorbed to noticed her sister's mad dashes to the bathroom. Whew!

With the sudden "birthday", the boobie bar was closed. Libby announced over and over again that she was now "fwee yeez ode" although she wasn't quite ready to grow up so fast, she handled it well. First, she demanded birthday cake and presents. We told her that she needed to stop puking first and then we would have a party for her. She climbed up into my lap and said "I'm too big for boo-boo now. I just want a hug." We hugged and then she said, "you will get me a tea set for my birfday today". Bossy little thing now that she is three. But she stuck to her decision to be three, so we played the game. The puking triggered the weaning, but turning three cinched the deal. Apparently, when you are three, the milk is no good. I won't argue.

Noon. Libby had explosive diarrhea, I had ice packs on my chest, and dang it, Gracie was puking like a college student on a Saturday morning. Day 2 of weaning was looking rough. I WANTED to give it up, why is this so hard? Because I was closing a long chapter in my life? Great, the kids are sick and I'm having a hormonal weeping attack.

2:30. Libby was really tired and couldn't manage to fall asleep without being nursed. But, she's three years old now so we had tough it out. I was dead tired. Hope she falls asleep. If Libby would just go to sleep.

4:30 I don't think I can take the crying. She's just crying! And crying! And crying!!!

6:30. Daddy came home and told her Happy Birthday, she explained how she needs a cake and a present. It should be a teapot. I'm just glad she quit crying.

They are both sick and feeling yucky. Poor girl, sick on her fake birthday. I'm looking mighty fine. Getting some lovely cleavage from this sudden end of an era. In fact, I was barely recognizable.

24 Hours!!! She was not asking for it at all. She had some water and she had rice for dinner. Gracie looked at her rice and went to the bathroom and threw up. I was hoping tomorrow would be better for everyone, and that Libby would still be "Fee Yeez Ode" and really, I feel like this last year went by way too fast! Whatever, if she wants to be three, I'm ok with that, but she's gonna stay three for a year and a half at least!

Daddy rocked her to sleep without a battle of any kind. No resistance. But, she said, "When I was little, I was a baby and I used to have boo boo. Now I big. I free yeez ode." Ah, reminiscing about the good ol' days.

Day 2: She slept through the whole night in her own bed! I think I am gonna like having boob freedom! Speaking of my boobs... my cups runneth over. Damn, I was sexy!

Libby asked for it in the morning and I reminded her that she is too big. She cried. She said she is sad. But she moved on to the breakfast table without a problem. We had blueberry muffins for breakfast and Libby was so excited! "My Birfday cake!" Oh, kid, this birthday thing is just too much fun! At least there is some fun to the big changes going on in our lives.

Both girls were to be feeling good that day. No puking or poop explosions. yay! To celebrate their return to normal digestive processes, we went shopping and found a little tea set. Happy Third Birthday, Libby-Lou.

It has been almost three months since we weaned. She still insists that she is "Fwee Yeez Ode" and one of these days the calendar will catch up with her. She's eating and sleeping like a champ, but still enjoys some lap-time. My voluptuous figure shrank; I'm looking droopy but feeling normal. We have tea parties often; I've drank more than my fair share of imaginary tea! She has trouble falling asleep, consoling herself when her feelings are hurt, or conquering boredom, but she's come a long way since the old days when she nursed.

The Kindergarten Registration That Didn't Happen

2011-07-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

Gracie is supposed to start kindergarten this year. Let's hope that happens!

I have been to the school twice to register her. Both times I was turned away.

Before I went, I checked the school web site and printed out the registration forms. I think I have it all. Maybe.

The first time I attempted to register the kid, I went to the school and found the office. We went in and there was another family in there and a very flustered secretary trying to help them. She told me it would be a long wait because she is the substitute secretary and she was trying to register a family from out of the country. I asked if I could just give her Gracie's name for the kindergarten list and she rolled her eyes at me in this "if it were only that easy" sort of way. Ok, fine, we'll come back another day.

Attempt number two: I went back to the school a few days later. The substitute secretary was still there. She rifled through my folder of papers and informed me that I didn't have everything I need. And, I had papers I didn't need. She wouldn't accept those because they they would be handed out to the students at school and then you fill them out and send them back. It's the same form and I already filled it out. Doesn't matter, they want it sent home and returned to the teacher. Can't you just stick it in her file and then it's done? No. Well... Ok. I didn't have enough proof that we live here. I needed one more utility bill, my drivers license wouldn't work as ID. Hmm, well, Ok.

And then she looked at Gracie's immunization card and said, oh no. We can't register her at all. You can take all of your papers and go. What? Yes, the substitute secretary told me no way for registering. So I asked to talk to someone else, maybe someone who isn't a substitute. She called over a couple of other ladies and they all agreed that Gracie was missing six shots and if she's just missing one, she cannot enroll in school. They can't even take her name down as a student who will be coming in the fall. I told them I'll sign a vaccine waiver so we can at least get her registered and I'll get her shots over the summer before school starts. Nope. No waiver. Since I showed them her immunization card, it is obvious that my religion does not prohibit shots. I was given the "don't waste our time" look in triplicate, so I left. Again, not registered for kindergarten.

That was all last April, or maybe it was May.

Now it is the end of July. I think I have enough paperwork for them, lets hope so anyway. I have a folder full of stuff to take them, and they can take whatever fits in their file.

I took Gracie to get her shots too. She's all caught up! I checked on the California Dept of Education website to see what shots are required for kindergarten entry, and sure enough, she doesn't need six stinking shots! She only needed three and three is all she got. I printed that page and put it in her kindergarten paperwork packet just in case the school does not agree. I also found out that I can sign a "Personal Choice" waiver instead of a "Religious Beliefs" waiver for the shots if they want her to have more shots than required. Cool. I am all for getting the shots, but not all at once!

Kindergarten starts August 11th. I'm hoping to get her registered before then, but we'll see. The office might be closed until closer to the start date, but I will swing by the school and check next week. I am really hoping to get her in our neighborhood school before it fills up and they start turning students away. Private kindergarten costs over five grand! I'm not so sure I'm up for home schooling. Overcrowded public school sounds so much better! And I'm shooting for the afternoon class. What are the odds that I can last-minute register my daughter and get my first pick time slot?

Getting Nervous!

2011-07-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

This summer has been flying by so fast! We haven't done anywhere near as much as we thought we would accomplish this summer; we say that at the end of every summer. I wonder when I will learn. In two short weeks, my husband will go back to teaching and Fenna, our exchange student, arrives from The Netherlands!

Recently, our second daughter moved back home with her baby too. This house is always hopping!

When I volunteered our family to host an exchange student, there were only the four of us in the house. We had two bedrooms being used for storage and toys and guests, but they were available for someone to inhabit for a good long time. I had hoped beyond all hope that Lexie would come back home, but after two years, I sort of gave up. At 20 years old, she is more stubborn than ever and I felt like it just wasn't going to happen. We agreed that our family of four would grow to five by taking her as our exchange-student daughter. Yay!

Of course, after all of the arrangements were made and agreed upon to have Fenna move in with us, Lexie moves home. We certainly aren't going to turn Lexie away, but now our host family agreement is off kilter. I better inform the exchange student company who arranges all of the host student and family pairings. Our application to host reflects a family of four and we had a family interview where everyone who lives in the house had to be present. YFU also called our friends and neighbors and checked on our character and checked to see if we are criminals or anything. It wasn't until after those were approved that Lexie and Charlie moved back home. In fact, Lexie is still unloading things from her car. Now I'm feeling a little weird and wonder if I need to amend all of the applications and interview process and all of that. I'm pretty sure that the timing is too tight to make any changes, and I really don't want to mess up her exchange year by being suddenly denied as a host family.

I think we will still be a good family to host her. Even though there are now six of us instead of four. She will have her own bedroom and share a bathroom, those arrangements are the same. Although, we did decide to give her the main floor bedroom rather than an upstairs bedroom. She is actually getting a bigger room. But, the interviewer and the application required photos of her room and I submitted photos of a different bedroom.

We moved the little girls from the green bedroom upstairs to the pink room. They will share a bedroom just like they always have done. They get lonely, so they need to share. Lexie and Charlie are taking the green room, which was Lexie's room before. It is a bigger bedroom and will be better for the two of them. Charlie needs an upstairs room so that he can go to bed earlier than the rest of us and our noise won't be keeping him awake. The bedroom downstairs was their other option, but the house is too active down on the main floor for a sleeping baby. That's why Fenna gets the room downstairs and Lexie and Charlie are taking an upper floor room. It works out anyway you arrange it, Fenna would have her own room either up or down stairs.

Hopefully, YFU will be in favor of us moving her from an upstairs room to a downstairs room. I can send them photos if they want them. She'll have a bed, dresser, desk, chair, closet, window... all of the requirements from the company. They don't require that she has her own room, but they require that she has her own bed in a bedroom with a window that meets fire code. I guess we qualify for all of that. I just don't want them to think we are really flaky before she even arrives. Watch, they'll stick red flags on our family file. Egads! The difficult family! See how crazy nervous I am?

Why am I so nervous about being a good host family? Well... because! Someone with a pen and a clipboard is judging my momness! This girl is the daughter of one of my friends from high school. Fenna's mom was an exchange student and we were friends in 1983! How cool is that? So of course, I want to be Fenna's host family and I don't want YFU to tell me we aren't good enough. I have no idea if they have rules about how many people per sq ft in a house or not. We will have 7 people and 1 dog living under one roof. Hopefully the exchange company and Fenna will still be ok with this little change in family dynamics.

I don't see how it really changes much as far as normal daily life goes. Adding two more to our household won't impact Fenna's place in our family much. The biggest difference will be the baby-proofing that we've had to do around the house, and she will have to learn to keep her things away from the destructive curious toddler. Otherwise, she'll go to school, make friends, go fun places with us and fit right in. Actually, she might really enjoy having Lexie around; Lexie is pretty cool.

If I get some things done before she arrives, I won't be so nervous. Aside from calling YFU on Monday to report my changes, I need to: get new brakes on the van, shampoo the carpets (again), powerwash the patios, paint her room, clean out a couple of bathroom drawers for her to use, dust the ceiling and mop under the couch. I don't want her to arrive and say, "Oh no, I'm not living here!" in the same sort of way Gracie said, "No way! I'm not doing that!" at swimming lessons when her teacher told her to put her face in the water.

All nervousness aside, I really am looking forward to hosting Fenna. We will take her all sorts of fun places and explore Southern California as best we can. This is what we do anyway, the little girls and I venture out as much as we can. I get bored easily and I love to go out and play tourist, so we go to lots of different places and we're always looking for something new. I am used to taking the kids out on my own, so I'm not expecting her to be my new helper. I just think it will be lots of fun to have her join our big loud family. I hope it all works out well and she actually has time to study.

I think I'll go have a glass of wine and go scrub something. That will shake off my frazzled nerves.

And then there were Three!

2011-07-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Three Musketeers. Three Little Pigs. Three men in a tub. Three bears. Three Stooges. Three Amigos. Three wise men. Three Blind Mice. Three's Company.

Three runts living under my roof.

My 20 yr old daughter moved back home with her 10 month old son (who is now 11 mths). I just love having them here every day! This does change the family dynamics, and adds chaos, confusion and expense. Adding two people to the house also makes us all bump elbows once in a while. Isn't that what family is all about?

The conversation in the house now is consumed by sudden bursts of "No, Charlie! No!" Babyproofing had to be done in a fast and furious way. Gates are up, remotes are hidden, legos are packed away, bathroom door is shut, etc. There is always more babyproofing to do as he finds new things to take down and destroy.

The boy loves to destroy whatever he can get his hands on. He is fascinated with his super awesome pinching, pulling and yanking skills. He also has fantastic biting, drooling and chewing skills too. If there was a baby Olympics, he would bring home a lot of gold medals!

The kitchen lightswitches in this house are in the oddest place: Under the counter! I don't know who thought that was a great idea, but there isn't really a way to babyproof them. Charlie likes to make strobe light effects in the kitchen at all hours. So fun. And when he's in his high chair, he can flip the switches with his toes. He's uber cool like that!

Libby and Charlie are so close to the same size, they could be mistaken for twins. I suppose it would help if they looked more alike, but Charlie actually looks a lot more like Gracie than Libby. The three of them are like peas in a pod. They are pretty good buddies and the girls take care that Charlie is safe and not eating Barbie shoes or something. They love to feed him. So far, they are feeding him actual food and not Play-Doh or other bizarre things. I'm sure they'll get to that later.

With three little tornadoes in the house, I'm doing my best to be the one-man clean-up crew. So far, they are winning the war. Diapers, food, water paint, bath bubbles, toys, crayons, shoes, sprinklers, laundry, smears of jelly, hair tangles, wet swimsuits, and that describes any given normal ten minutes of our day.

Keith and Lexie are usually sleeping or at work. It's me against the triple tot twisters. The secret to wearing them out and keeping them happy while letting the dust settle in the house is to ignore the pile of sippy cups in the sink and get out and go!

The 4th of July - First Real Parade

2011-07-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th! I corrected a lot of my parenting wrongs today. My child is 5 years old and has no idea how to celebrate the 4th of July. Whoa, how did I manage to let that happen? I decided to fix my errors and introduce the little ones to some good old fashioned Independence Day celebrations.

I realized that I've never taken my girls to a parade. A real parade. They've only seen parades at Disneyland, and while those parades are awesome, they aren't the real street parade that everyone knows. My girls should experience the real deal and catch some candy from a float made of chicken wire and napkins, see the marching band walking in crooked rows, and see the big red fire engine at the end. It's an all-American childhood kind of thing that every kid should do!

The parade was at 10am, so we had plenty of time to wake up leisurely and get across town for the parade. We got there at 9:30 and parking was looking bleak. I followed the line of traffic and people were filling in a Wells Fargo parking lot a couple of blocks from the parade route. Not bad. We parked and walked to main street. Luckily, there was a shady spot just waiting for us right at the end of the street. Score!

We had a about 15 minutes before the parade start time, and who knows if they start on time. It isn't Disneyland! Plus, we were at the end of the route, we might waiting half an hour. We noticed all of the red, white and blue that people were wearing. It was fun to people-watch with the girls. Libby saw three little girls wearing "Ponyo dresses" and she was wishing that she would have worn hers. They were cute, but those little girls were sweating like crazy in those red satin dresses and I'm glad Libby didn't wear hers. It was way too hot out for satin!

By the way, a "Ponyo Dress" is a red dress with white trim. Libby has a Christmas dress that looks just like the dress worn by the little girl in the movie "Ponyo". It's a little Japanese anime movie that is super cute. We love the movie. It's sort of an environmentalist's version of "Little Mermaid".

Just before 10am, I sensed that everyone behind us in the shade was going to move around us and sit in front of the girls. So, we moved up to the curb and sat in the sun for a bit. Gracie sat in the stroller with the shade over her head and Libby sat in the shade of the stroller. Even in our make-shift shade though, it was still awfully hot. 97 degrees, but it felt like a lot more in the sun on the concrete.

The parade started on time and it didn't take long for the police vehicles to reach our end of the street. The girls loved the cop cars and motorcycles! They even loved the cops on horses! They were first, and after that, the girls didn't think much of any of the parade entries. They were very disappointed.

There were lots of pageant princesses, but they were just girls with crowns on their heads riding in cars. Car after car of them. A few walked, one in high heels! Poor girl. There were cars with politicians waving. Not impressive to a couple of little girls who don't give a hoot about who sits on the city commission.

There must have been three or four clusters of Boy Scouts walking. And a couple of Moms groups pushing strollers and pulling wagons. We waved, but Gracie and Libby were more than tired of these not so exciting parade entries. Where's the good stuff? Where are the floats?

Some soldiers! Yes! Now that's exciting! A big vehicle pulling a tank went by and the "Young Marines" walked by holding up a huge flag. We all clapped and cheered for them along with the crowd.

And then a semi-truck with a flatbed came along. That was exciting too. Guess who was on the flatbed, yup, more pageant princesses. How many girls are in those crazy pageants anyway?

After an hour, no marching bands had gone by and nobody threw candy. The girls were hot and bored. This wasn't at all as good as a Disneyland parade and they let me know it. I dare say, I've raised opinionated little girls. And they sure aren't shy expressing their criticism to their captive audience: me. They begged to leave. We are at a 4th of July parade and you want to leave before the end? I blamed the heat and agreed to start hiking back to the parking lot and prayed the whole way that my van wasn't hauled off by the tow truck pirates.

Whew! It's still there! We drove up the street and there was a great All-American dream come true - I know the girls will love this! I pulled into In-N-Out and ordered burgers, fries and pink lemonade. We came home and enjoyed our 4th of July treat! Ah, saved the day!

Five Generation Photo Shoot

2011-06-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

One might think that in order for five generations of one family to get together, the family tree would have to be very twisted. Or a long line of teen moms. But, we are just your average ordinary family. One of us just happens to be a very healthy determined 103 yr old.

I am the generation in the middle. I am a grand-daughter and a grand-mother. I am a mom and a daughter. I am the middle one and it is incredible! The middle is the best, just like the stuffing in an Oreo. That's me!

My grandma is the head of this five generation thing we've got going on. My mom is her daughter and then me. My daughters are the 4th generation and they each have a baby boy. Five generations that branch out two ways. Pretty cool!

To celebrate the new 5th generation baby, my mom and grandma drove all the way from Wyoming to visit the new baby in San Diego. Three week old Henry was pretty excited about meeting his great grandma and his great-great grandma. You could tell.

We had a five generation visit and photo shoot 8 months ago right after Charlie was born. Now Henry is here and we decided to do it all over again. I'm so glad we did! Luckily, both Charlie and Henry are good weather babies and the grandmas were able to travel to see them.

This photo shoot was no easy feat. First of all, the grandmas had to travel over a 1,000 miles just to be here (one way). I take that back. First, we had to plan this whole shebang! We struggled with picking a day to do this. We didn't want it too soon after Henry's birth; gotta give baby and mama a chance to recover and get a few hours of sleep! And we had to dodge the busy social calendar of the grandmas. They had a window of opportunity to travel without missing out on some festivities at home. We also needed to schedule a date with the photographer. The hardest thing to work around was the work schedule of Katie's husband, Andrew. He was on paternity leave up until the day before the photos and he didn't know what his schedule would be. We wanted him there but we had to take a gamble and just hope he would be available for the photos. It turned out that he wasn't able to be there, but we sure tried.

We also had to pick a place to shoot these photos. This was an important thing because we wanted the pictures to be pretty, but we had requirements for the setting and since none of us are familiar enough with San Diego, we had to sort of shoot in the dark to pick a spot. This wasn't easy. And let's just not even talk about how hard it was to find a restaurant for after-photo-shoot dinner!

We all had to have something photo-worthy to wear. The grandmas had their blouses and slacks all clean and pressed and ready to go. They didn't need to shop before the trip for anything new, their closets were stocked.

Lexie and I weren't as lucky. We had to go shopping! We both needed something to wear and all of the kids needed something too. We took the kids to the mall in Escondido and we just hoped we would find something. It's a big mall with lots of stores and a nice play area. As soon as we walked in we found a store to explore called H&M. Neither one of us had ever shopped in an H&M store before; I vaguely remember seeing an ad for it online. This place was so awesome! Lexie found an adorable dress that fit her perfectly. And she found some cute white jeans and a navy blue Tshirt for Charlie. I found a white sun-dress for Gracie.

On our previous shopping trip to find photo shoot clothes, we found a pair of shoes for Charlie and a blue dress for Libby at Gymboree at the Temecula Mall, but the shoes were pretty casual and they were more just because Charlie could use a new pair. And the blue dress wasn't really on my mind for the photos because I really wanted the little girls to match.

Since Charlie and Lexie were wearing blue and white, I thought Gracie and Libby could wear blue and white even if they didn't match each other. Good plan. I didn't find anything new for myself, but I know I have something in my closet even if it isn't jumping out at me saying "Pick me!". With little ones, our shopping trip was cut short by boredom - boredom multiplied by three! Off we went to the play area. We only went to one store but it was a huge success. We also picked up lots of other things besides photo-shoot outfits. Score!

The day of the photo session, I found a dress in my closet that I've only worn once before. I wore it to Katie's bridal shower two years ago. I put it on and my mom came in to peek. She squinched up her face and shook her head. Ok, that's going back on the hanger! I tried another dress. I liked it when I bought it but then when I got it home I changed my mind and never did wear it. My mom gave this one the nod. Eh, ok.

Then we all had to do our hair and make-up too.We spent all morning and half the afternoon getting ready!

Men have it so easy! My husband just went to his closet and randomly picked out a shirt and he was dressed. I want to be a man in my next life!

Poor Katie. She only had an hour of sleep the night before the photos, no chance of a nap, her husband just went back to work (that was always hard for me when I had a newborn), and she didn't have a thing to wear. I don't know how that girl pulled it off, but she managed to run to Target and yank something off the rack, slapped on some make-up and she looked like a magazine cover girl. She sure didn't look tired.

We had to take two cars to San Diego. We were meeting at Balboa Park for the photos. Our photographer had one certain bench picked out for us in the park. We talked him into considering another bench, closer to the parking lot and it worked out beautifully. He was able to shoot most of the photos at the nearest bench, and took other photos just a few yards away for totally different backgrounds. Balboa Park is beautiful, even more so when the photographer has his favorite spots with his favorite angles.

The photos are icing on the cake, really. The best part is that we were all able to get together for a big visit and enjoy each other's company all at the same time. It was amazing to look down the dinner table and see so many people having such a great time, and knowing they're all family.

Bedhog

2011-06-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

Five Years (or so) Later...

2011-06-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

We hosted an exchange student from Germany five years ago. Wait, maybe it was six years ago. Really, it doesn't seem like very long ago at all but I guess it was. Time flies!

We'll soon be hosting again and I was thinking about what we would be doing in the next year that would interest a teenager. Our lives have changed so much in the last 5 years. When Anna was here, we had two teenage girls, I was going to college and we were fairly new to Southern California. Now, we have two little girls and I don't work or go to school any more. Most of our activity is aimed at the interests of the preschooler and toddler. This could be torture for a teenager!

The school year of 2005-2006 was the year we took in Anna. She was originally placed with another family but it wasn't a good match between them and she needed a new host family. Katie came home and said "Can we keep her?" My kids never brought home puppy dogs or frogs and begged to keep them, but kids, they brought home one after another after another. The other strays were always local kids who stayed for night or three. Anna stayed with us for the entire school year. She had only been with the first family for a few weeks.

We've kept in touch with Anna. She sends us the best German chocolates every Christmas! Yummy!

I asked her (in a facebook chat window) what were her favorite things we did and where were her favorite places we went while she was here.

I cut and pasted her response:

Dear Mary, I thought about all of my amazing experiences:

such as

Halloween Party & Trick or Treating

the Blocks coming over for parties or we going there

going to san diego, karlsbad, oceanside

I love the beaches!

being part of a movie

visiting Hollywood and L.A.

Quoir trip to S.F.

Sea World

Shopping in Temecula and San Diego Mall (it's so colored and huge!!!)

meeting all of katies friends and hanging out with them

making music in the band room

PROM and Homecoming

dsigning customes for mvhs performances

taking photos with you and making them pretty on your p.c.

getting your FAMILY CERTIFICATE ( awesome gesture)

being part of your homepage

Homecoming Football game at mvhs

Thankgsgiving dinner and Thankgsgiving shopping

making popcorn & cookies and watching movies

DDR - dancing

my suprise birthday party at the pizza place

mexican birthday party next door: hitting that colorful ball with candy

your graduation

trip with mrs. jeffersson to plam springs and their hills

OUR TRIP

MONTANA; WYOMING and VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mvhs swim meet and volleyball

drama performances

mvhs award ceremonies

(it was very special to me that you came there, too)

you giving me rides everywhere - thx so much!!!!!!!

it was such a special year for me... I'll never forget that time- THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!

the only thing I missed was a baby shower but since your family knows so many mommies I am sure that your exchange student participate in one of thise

and... birthday party in oceanside

love, hugs&kisses Anna

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yeah, That's what I meant.

2011-06-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Libby came up to me and said, "Mom. I have butt worms"

Me: Butt worms? (heart attack) Worms coming out of your butt?

Libby: Yeah.

Gracie: No, Libby, you have butt GERMS.

Me: Oh, thank GOD!

Libby: butt worms. I mean, butt germs.

Jah, Jah, Germs.

Me: Bathtime, let's go wash those germs off your butt. (and check for worms)

Tea Kettle Explosion

2011-05-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

My teakettle exploded! Really! Isn't that just bizarre? It must be because I googled and googled and could not find another incident like this. Mishaps and accidents, sure, but bomb-like explosions? No.

I use my tea kettle almost daily. I like to have a hot drink before I go to bed, and I often use it for hot water for oatmeal, soup, and other instant convenient foods. Or just to bump up a strong cup of coffee. I use it often! But we don't use it so often that it has had an abnormal life. It's a tea kettle for Pete's sake!

Keith bought it for me for Christmas in 2004. He got it at Sams Club and it has a lifetime guarantee. Oddly, they don't sell them anymore. I found the listing on Sams Club though and so I printed it. We no longer have the box nor the receipt. Really, who keeps a receipt for a tea kettle? It's not like it would ever explode or anything!

Keith filled the tea kettle about 3/4 full and we sat in the living room watching tv waiting for the whistle. We heard a little noise; I thought it was the neighbors bumping their trash can as they took it out to the curb. A minute later we were shocked to hear a loud explosion in our kitchen! We both whipped our heads around and saw a cloud of vapor billowing in all directions. We were very confused!

We bolted to the kitchen and found the tea kettle was in pieces all over the place and the entire kitchen was drenched in boiling water. We picked up the pieces and mopped the ceiling and floor, gave the cupboards and counters a wipe-down and were in utter awe about the whole thing. We both took pictures with our phones of the mayhem. It was ridiculous!

The bottom of the tea kettle is triple-ply. The inner ply must have developed a gap allowing water to get in between the layers of the kettle bottom. And that water must have come to a super hot boil and blew the inner ply into the kettle. The lid blew off the kettle and with such force that it broke the very sturdy handle right off and continued to fly up and crashed into the ceiling. The whistling spout lid flew off and came apart flying all over the kitchen as well. The handle flew too. Of course the water must have come out of the kettle in an Old Faithful sort of way. The kettle wasn't on the stove, so the force of the explosion must have sent it into the air for a short flight too.

Had anyone been in the kitchen, they would have been burned very badly. Boiling water was everywhere. We were very fortunate that this accident did not occur in the daytime when the kitchen is a very busy place. If any of the kids had been burned, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to explode in the same manner. Really, this mama bear would have been a force to be reckoned with. But, as it happened, no one was injured. We were lucky.

Rambling

2011-05-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's been 2 weeks since Henry was born. Seems like just the other day. He's so cute! I just love being his Grandma. I took the girls with me to San Diego to go see him last week and we just had a short visit. Really short, like 20 minutes. Luckily, Henry convinced his parents to come visit and spend the night so we could all get some good quality time together. Yay! Baby snuggles!

While we were in San Diego for our short visit, we also went to Sea World. Fun! I got us season passes so that we could go back several times. It'll be nice to have them and add another good excuse to go visit Henry.

I weaned Libby. It was hard at first, but it's a lot better now. She's been weaned for 3 weeks. She got the stomach flu and she was sick, so her dad told her it was because she was too big for boo-boo. Boy, she was no longer interested! That's all it took to motivate her. She doesn't like to puke. She asked him, "I'm too big? Am I three?" He said yes. I'm not sure he understood what she was asking. So, she decided it must be her birthday and she is three years old now. So be it. We celebrated her third birthday at almost 32 months old instead of 36 months old. Mere details. She is convinced now that she is three years old and will tell anyone who asks that indeed she is "Fwee Yeez Ode."

Since weaning, Libby has been eating a lot and trying new foods. She's been adventurous with eating which is great. She's really learning! She discovered a new sensation. I told her it's called "Hunger", time for food. She said, "Mom, why is my tummy making that noise?" Poor girl. I think she's allergic to dairy products though, because she is still having tummy issues and there's just no way she could have a stomach flu for 3 weeks now. Yuck. I just took dairy off her menu, we'll see if that helps.

Charlie is growing like crazy! He has a mouthful of teeth, just needs some chompers in the back. He's starting to eat table food now too. He can stand on his own, and doesn't seem like he's too far from walking. Although, I doubt he will ever walk. I predict that he will go straight to running and never slow down. He got his first haircut and left a big pile of hair on the floor of the salon. He is 9 months old now and the same size as his Aunt Libby.

Gracie is growing leaps and bounds too. I helped her get her shoes off after school one day and low and behold, she had a blister on her toe. I asked her if her shoes are too tight and she said she thinks so. They were a size 11 and I replaced them with some size 13s. Lordy! She's going to graduate from preschool in a week or so. Seems like we just started the program and she's all done now! I'm going to keep her in preschool for the summer just to make the transition to Kindergarten a little easier. A little structure is good for her.

My husband is out of school for the summer. Yay! I have a ton of things for him to do at home and he can't do them if he's always working. He will teach college classes, but at least he will be home during the day to work on his list. Poor guy thought he was going to get some vacation time - haha. No way, he's got husband duty!

We had our Disneyland outing this month. The girls wore their Jessie outfits without boots. They've both outgrown their cowgirl boots and I did go looking for more, but didn't find any in the stores. Guess they are a fall item, not a spring item. The wore Jessie the cowgirl costumes with pink sandals. Oh well, they were still very cute! And we had a wonderful time in Disneyland.

I think Libby has a milk allergy. Not my favorite kind of thought to have bouncing around in my head, but I can't seem to shake it. I will see if I can have her tested and find out for sure. Until then, I'm trying to justify my fears and I keep hoping I'm wrong. I mostly give her juice to drink. It seems that juice is frowned upon by the new social rules of parenting. Ugh, really? Lots of moms brag about how they do not give their kids juice like they are saving them from certain doom. I've heard some say it has no nutritional value and it's just empty calories. Nothing but colored sugar water. No, that's kool-aid and soda-pop! This is juice, it comes from fruit. Why is fruit good for kids and juice isn't? Makes no sense to me, so I just let people give me the stink-eye and I pour my kid another cup of juice.

We didn't get the house. I'm still bummed out about it. We were supposed to move in April or May. Sigh. But, it turns out that the family who lives there gets to keep their home. The dad was able to hang onto his job. I know, that is a very good thing! But, I'm disappointed that we didn't get to move into that incredible home. We're keeping our eyes out for something else, but I don't really have my hopes up that something will come along that we love as much. Good thing this house isn't a bad one; we do have a good place to live in a nice neighborhood and plenty of space for the whole family. That must be why finding a new house is so hard.

I'm making a quilt on my serger. It is turning out to be the worst quilt ever. Very crooked. I can't seem to get my corners lined up or very many of my lines straight. I cut the squares so perfectly and promptly sewed them into irregular trapazoids. Oh well, it'll just be my crooked quilt.

Gracie graduates soon. Her preschool class is supposed to wear orange to the graduation. Orange? There isn't anything orange in this house (except in the halloween box) and I didn't see anything orange in the store. I did find some wild orange and yellow fabric at Walmart, so I bought a couple of yards and some solid orange too. I'll have to make a graduation dress for her. I'm thinking I'll make the same pattern that I made for her Little Mermaid dress, but I can't remember which pattern I used for that one. I know I altered the pattern quite a bit. I might just grab a pattern out of my stash and get started. She will have an orange dress for graduation!

That should be about enough rambling for now. I keep thinking "I should blog about that!" and then I never get to the blog with my thoughts. I will try to be a better blogger over the summer, but the month of May is just too darn busy to sit down and have uninterrupted typing time. Even a few minutes is hard to come by. I should take my laptop and run away once in a while, but I'm afraid the poor thing couldn't handle very many outings. My laptop is in delicate condition because it's old and lived a tough life already.

Hitting the publish post button now....

Hank

2011-05-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome, my little grandson, Henry Alan. He's just perfect!

My daughter went to the hospital to have this baby three times, three days in a row. The third time was the charm, they finally admitted her and put her in a labor and delivery room. Her husband called me to let me know and I scrambled to find a babysitter for my puking little girls.

Do you know how hard it is to find a babysitter for a couple of pukers? It wasn't happening and my husband was at work. He had to work at Saturday school and babysit the hundreds of middle schoolers in Saturday detention. Those darn kids! He was getting off work at noon, but he called at 12:40 and said he was just getting on the freeway and traffic was terrible. Ugh.

He got home at 1:20 and I hit the road at 1:40 and left him home with the sick little girls. Off I went to San Diego so I could pace the hallway or lobby and wait for word that baby Henry was born. I was hoping I could see him an hour or two after he was born and see my girl on her first day of being a new mommy. If not, well, she would at least know I was there if she needed any extra moral support. Her husband was there of course and she hired a doula (paid for by the Navy since her husband was deployed (but now he's back)).

I arrived at the hospital at 2:40. Traffic was easy! I managed to get in the gate at the Naval Hospital and found the parking structure. Then I had to find the right building and floor. That wasn't as easy. I walked all over the place! I finally found it and was directed to her room. And then I got really nervous. I didn't want to just barge in! I went and found a nurse to go in and check with Katie and Andrew and see if I could go in, ask if the baby was born already, and just give me a quick idea of what I was walking into.

All was well. Katie and Andrew were happy I came and they wanted me to come in. She was contracting but no baby yet. It was 3pm and they both looked great for being up all night and dealing with early labor for 2 days. Too great. My first thought was that this was going to take all night and maybe another day. She's just looking too wonderful.

She wanted me to stay, but I hid in the corner when the nurse was working on her and adjusting the baby's monitors and such. I told Katie and Andrew to just let me know when she wanted me to step out because I want to respect their family experience and not be in the way or whatever. All I got from Katie was a plea to stay and Andrew agreed. Ok, then. I'll stay as long as they can stand having me in the room. Andrew was alone with her mostly since the nurse was running from patient to patient, and the doctor and others would only show up at the last minute. The doula wasn't there and I didn't want to stir up anything so I didn't ask where she was. Best to just leave that story for later.

Poor Andrew had been rubbing Katie's back for hours on end. I took over and we took turns. Henry was "sunny side up" and giving Katie horrible back pain. He finally twirled around and gave her back a bit of relief. Andrew and I took turns wiping off her forehead with a damp washcloth, and telling her to breathe. She was really having big contractions so the nurse checked and said it was almost time for him to be born. Really? Already? Wow!

The doctor and a few more nurses came in and we all welcomed Henry into the world together. Katie did such a good job of having her first baby without any pain medications at all! Andrew was the proudest daddy I've ever seen aside from my own husband when our girls were born. The doctor and the nurses were full of praises for Katie for having a nearly 9 lb baby without an epidural.

I have to say, being present during a birth of a baby was an amazing experience. I've been present at 5 births before but never as a bystander. The first one, I was the baby and I don't remember it. The next four, I was the mama and I only remember bits and pieces thanks to the natural amnesia that helps a mother decide to have another one. This was a very special experience for me as well and I'm thrilled that Andrew and Katie shared their experience with me. Such a joy to be one of the first to say "Welcome to the world, Henry".

Henry weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces and he was 20.5 inches long. He was born at 5:30pm.

After an hour, the nurse had Katie get up to use the bathroom which was about three steps away. Katie took two steps and fainted. The nurse caught her and Andrew sprinted across the room and they sandwiched her to hold her upright so she didn't fall to the floor. The baby's nurse ran over to help so I stayed by Henry (why I thought he would roll off of his little table I don't know, he's not big enough to roll yet but I stayed by him to make sure and let the professionals tend to Katie). They moved as a group closer to the wall and the nurse reached in a cabinet and grabbed some smelling salts. As soon as she waved them under Katie's nose she came right to. She didn't know what happened and then she just kept apologizing.

They laid her back down and the room filled up with doctors and nurses, some hauling equipment on wheels. They put stickers all over her and did an EKG all the time she was apologizing and denying that anything was wrong with her. She said she faints sometimes but its not a big deal. I felt so bad that I didn't think of her fainting spells, I totally forgot! Plus, the same thing happened to me with two of my babies and one was Katie. How can I forget that and just let them let her up to walk?

The EKG came out ok, guess she wasn't having a heart problem. Her blood pressure was fine. They drew blood to check for other things and they brought her some brownies and juice to bump up her sugar. She earned herself an extended stay at the hospital too. Two nights instead of one for the girl who faints!

She is just fine now and should go home today. Here are pictures of Henry. I took a few and hoped I would get some good ones. Got home and found out that I took 169 photos! Haha! Off to a good start in my new job as Henry's Grandma!

Here is what you've been waiting for: Hank!

Update - 2011 Resolutions

2011-05-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

Way way back in the distant past, January, I made some promises to myself. Here is an update of where I stand on these. Honestly, I had forgotten what I resolved to do this year and had to look it up.

Happy New Year - 2011 Resolutions

Hmmm... what sort of empty promises shall I make to myself this year? Lose weight? Get in shape? Not buy any more strollers? Oh, who knows!

I sold a stroller and bought a stroller. But the one I bought was for Katie! I am down to three strollers now, a double, a full single and a jogger. I sold the umbrella.

I think I'll stick to resolutions that I can actually see through to the end. Therefore....

I resolve in a conservative manner thus leaving room for chaos and craziness...

1. Read 12 books this year.
I've read five! And it's May, so that's not too bad considering I rarely have time and when I do, I fall asleep.

2. Do more sewing and get my serger fixed (or me, one of us isn't doing it right). I'd like to end 2011 with my current PHDs (projects half done) all finished!
I got my serger fixed and I have been sewing more. I rearranged my sewing area just yesterday. One of these days I'll find the perfect way to set it up. I think I've moved it a hundred times in this house.

3. Get my kids to school on time (most of the time).
So far, we aren't doing too bad.

4. Potty train and wean Libby, yes, folks, I promise to quit breastfeeding after nearly 5 years
She is mostly potty trained! She still wets when she is asleep, and has an accident once in a while. But for the most part she is trained. I sneak a diaper on her at night; hopefully we can give that up soon. That would be so nice to quit buying diapers. Making no progress on weaning.

5. Get my money's worth out of our Disneyland and Zoo passes (meaning lots of fun!). Might even get a SeaWorld pass this year!
We went to Disneyland 4 times so far in 2011. We didn't get to the zoo before our passes expired in Feb. But I didn't renew them. So far, no Seaworld pass. I don't know when I thought I would have time for that.

6. Send my 2011 Christmas cards out before Christmas.
I still have time! I should start addressing envelopes soon.

7. Do something with all of my photos and videos. Print them, back them up, put them on dvd, make photo books, I don't know, but something!
I backed them up to the server, need to back up the server now. Hmm.

8. Keep blogging. I would like to archive my Momathon blog since I kept it up for three years, and I'll have to keep this one alive. Often times, I just blog mentally and never get around to actually posting.
Still mental blogging. Are you still reading my mind?

9. I will try not to destroy or lose any of my electronic devices. You heard that right! Cell phone, bluetooth, camera, laptop.... I wish you all the best of health and happiness in the new year. And may you all stay out of the crevices of the furniture and survive the year! Good Luck.
The laptop is dying, slowly, but it is going to go. The phone is in great shape! Bluetooth was lost but then found it in plain sight in the van, haha. Camera nearly took a plunge into the ocean last week. Thank goodness my hubby gave me a lanyard for my neck! So far, the electronics are all doing well, despite the dangerous life they lead with me.

10. I can't think of anything else. Nine resolutions is more than enough anyway. We'll see if I can keep one or two of them. Happy New Year, Everyone!

Mommy Hat Parade

2011-05-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

I celebrated with my 5 yr old at her preschool on Friday. The school had a long program for the moms and it was a lot of fun.

We got a note home saying that the moms had to wear a decorated hat; oh dear, what am I going to do for that? I had a very busy week and really didn't have much time to think about it. I did look at sun hats at Walmart, but they were so floppy. And $8 for a hat I will wear for an hour. Eh.

I decided to get a piece of posterboard for 99 cents and make my own hat. I'll bet lots of moms will have home made hats.

At midnight on Thursday, I cut the posterboard into a big brim and folded some grocery sack brown paper around for the hat part. Glue and tape and there was the hat structure. I had to cover up the ugly brown grocery sack, so I used the generic leaking diapers that I bought for Charlie. Those diapers were great for cleaning up spills, but not great for diapering Charlie. They leaked like crazy! I ended up using them as cleaning rags, that's how bad they were. I had two left, and so I wrapped them around the top part of the hat. Perfect! I glued on some of Henry's baby shower decorations too.

To the brim, I glued on little photos of all my girls, Charlie and the dog. I even stuck a picture of Kaelyn on it. The photos looked good. I decided it wasn't flashy enough, so I glued on a glitter border and tied a fabric scrap around it. Looking better.

It won't stay on my big head. Ugh. I took inspiration from Mary Poppins and added a tie on sash. I just used a fabric scrap. Since I had the tie, I stuck on some baby shoes to the ends to finish it off. There, the world's corniest Mother's Day hat!

Morning came and Gracie was super excited to see my hat. She loved it! But she thought it needed more pink and stuck a wad of gift wrap on top. The gift tissue looked pretty good so I added another piece and fluffed it up. I suddenly realized it was huge. Too late now, we gotta go!

Since it was a special day, I donned a sundress. I never do that! I put on my white sundress, decided it was just too white. So I put on a yellow maternity sundress, no, the white one fit better. Back into the white dress, ok, it'll be fine.

I loaded up the kids and the hat and off we went! First stop, gymnastics. I met my friend there. She and her little girl were kind enough to accompany Libby during gymnastics class and babysit her for a while afterward so that I could attend the preschool thing. I was putting Libby's carseat in her car when she said to me, "Did you know that your dress isn't zipped?"

Isn't that the perfect way to dress for a Mothers Day event? In an unzipped dress? How embarrassing! I am so glad I had to drop Libby off first! We all walked into gymnastics together and we were the only ones there. Leave it to me to go on the wrong day. Wait, it was Friday at 9:30. That should be right. The teacher came in and said we were just too early. Class didn't start for another 5 minutes. Ok, then. Gracie and I left for her school.

First we went to the school chapel where the pastor lead the kids and moms in some children's church songs. Then the teachers read a story and put on a skit to illustrate the story. That was cute and the kids sure enjoyed it. Everyone was excused to the classrooms to make craft projects. We were to go into each classroom and make three or four different things.

Gracie and I made a "Helping Hand Bouquet" and a teapot necklace. They were both time consuming with the cutting and gluing and beading, so I helped Gracie and felt guilty for helping her since I don't like it when she brings home art projects that the teacher obviously made.

Then it was time for the Mommy Hat Parade. All of the children went outside and sat down, judges were put in place and the moms lined up. We were paraded around the playground and told to bend down to allow the seated judges to view the hat and do a dance for the judges. A dance? Oh my. I swooshed my arms up and down. There were some nice hats, most of them hand decorated with photos and flowers and such. I really liked their ideas and wished I had thought of this and that. Some of them looked slapped together and some looked like they spent a week or more on the project.

The judges handed out prizes for Most Creative, Most Outrageous, Promises Top Model, and Silliest. I won Most Outrageous! I got a laminated award certificate and a Starbucks gift card. Gracie was thrilled to pieces!

After the hat parade and the awards, we were herded indoors for a luncheon. I was starving! The buffet table had quite a spread: chips, little coldcut sandwiches, cold spaghetti salad, jello and cookies. It was awful! Yuck! Thank goodness for the cookies. My friend showed up with her daughter and Libby, so we took this opportunity to leave our picked over lunches and head out. We had to move the carseat back to my van. Libby and Nora each grabbed a cookie, Gracie grabbed two more and off we went. A successful and very fun Mother's Day morning!

Mother's Day Questionnaire

2011-05-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

My adorable little 5 yr old had to answer questions for her Mother's Day projects. I have to share! Her answers show that she knows me well.

My Mommy is a Chef. I love it when she makes "spaghetti".
- yesterday she told me she likes spaghetti but not the noodles, the sauce or the meat. And this is her answer? That made me laugh!

My mommy is a Magician. She can always find lost things. Once she found "a little doll".
- Once? Child, I've found more little dolls in little hidden places than you can count!

My Mommy is a Princess because she "is nice!
- Oh, thank goodness! I like this answer! I can't believe her response wasn't "because she treats me like a servant".

My Mommy is a Chauffeur. She drives me to "the park and to Child's Play."
- among other places, this is true. Child's Play is an indoor playground.

My Mommy is a Nurse. She makes me feel better when she "puts the tv on for me so I can watch cartoons."
- Cartoons make me feel better too.

My Mommy's eyes are the color "maybe it's brown,maybe".
- nope, my eyes are blue.

My Mommy's hair is the color"brown and black".
- Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for not saying gray!!!

My Mommy is as pretty as " a heart".
- I hope she means that in a Valentine sort of way rather than a medical sort of way.

My Mommy's favorite thing to eat is "salad".
- I do love salad.

When my Mommy grows up, she wants to be a "Just a Mom".
- True. I want to be a mommy forever! And a Grandma! And an English teacher. I'm still working on that one.

My favorite thing to do with my Mommy is "sit and watch cartoons on the old couch".
- Really? That is your favorite thing? Not going to Disneyland or the zoo or the park or making crafts or any of the other hundreds of things we do? Your favorite thing is vegging out on the old couch? I didn't realize you were so easily entertained. hmm, this could make my life easier!

I love to make my Mommy laugh by "Saying Oxnard"
- When I read this I nearly fell off my chair because I burst out laughing! It's true! She thinks "Oxnard" is the funniest word ever and she's got the delivery to make it true.

What my Mommy loves most is "Me".
- Yes, You. And your three sisters and your daddy. And your Grandmas and your nephews. All of you are what I love the most!

My Mommy is good at so many things, but I think she is best at "Seeing the Easter Bunny."
- What? Hmm, I didn't realize I was so talented at that. I figured you would respond with "sitting on the old couch".

My Mommy is so smart she even knows how to "Do rhyming games".
- We sure do have lots of fun rhyming while we drive!

My Mommy's favorite thing to do in her extra time is "Go to the Mommy place for Mommies only".
- I do enjoy going out with the other mommies, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it is my favorite thing to do. Far from it! My favorite thing to do is spend my days with you!

I can show my Mommy how much I love her by "saying I love you".
- Awwww! I love you too!

*P.S. I sure wish your preschool teacher knew that the word "Mommy" is not capitalized unless it is at the beginning of a sentence or used as a name. Oy.

Road Rage - Jogger Style

2011-05-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was 100o outside and way too hot to play at the park. Lexie suggested we load up the runts and go to the beach. Great idea! So, we did.

The traffic was easy and there were plenty of parking spaces on the street, so we decided to try our luck and see if we could park on the lower street right by the beach instead of having to walk down the pier. The lower street is a skinny two-way street with a sidewalk on the beach side, and then the sand, of course. Speed limit is 15.

I was tootling along at 15 mph and the sidewalk had a few people on it, a guy on a goofy looking bike was in the oncoming lane and a guy was jogging in my lane coming toward us. I didn't give him a second thought because 1. he looked agile enough to move out of my lane and onto the sidewalk like the other pedestrians 2. he was an adult and I assumed had the brains of one and 3. I'm going really slow and he has plenty of time to get out of my way.

But, that's not how it went. He must have thought I should move over into the oncoming lane (nobody was coming so I suppose I could have, but the goofy bike guy was in that lane). I kept going at top-speed, 15. And the guy didn't move over. Instead he fist-punched my side mirror on the passenger side! Yeah, he did!

I stopped and hopped out, ran around to the passenger side to see the damage and the guy starts yelling at me! He was mad at me? He punches my mini-van full of mini-people and he's mad at me? What? Then I thought, "Oh God, what if he punches me now?" I quickly ran back around and hopped in the van. He seemed to be fine and the van was fine, Mr. Raging Fists turned around and jogged away still yelling.

He knocked the mirror right out of the mirror holder and the whole unit was folded in to the door. They do fold in, its a pretty common feature on big vehicles, but it takes a good solid push to fold it in. The mirror was hanging by the wires that allow me to adjust it with the button on my dash. That goodness or it would have fallen to the street and broke.

We did get lucky and got to park right there at the edge of the beach. I popped the mirror back together and it's good as new. Lexie was shaken a bit because it was all on her side of the van. I was just hoping the crazy jogger didn't jog back and see our parked vehicle unattended. It was fine when we got back to it.

Next time I see a jogger in my lane who has plenty of room to move over into the pedestrian space, I will not assume that he will. Lesson learned. Silly me.

My Beautiful Daughter

2011-05-02T00:42:00.000-07:00

All of my daughters are unbelievably beautiful! And they are mine! Not sure how our gene pool combined in such wonderful ways, but the girls are all healthy, smart and gorgeous.

My oldest daughter is 22 years old and 38 weeks pregnant. She's beautiful!

If you ask my littlest daughter what her big sister is like, she will answer in her best Ponyo imitation, "She's big and beautiful!"

It's hard to believe that not so long ago she was my cute baby and she looked like this:

Spongebob Twirly Skirts

2011-05-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

I whipped up two cute ruffled skirts for the girls yesterday. I can't believe I got them done in one day! That is amazing for me. I went from finding a cute skirt tutorial online, to picking fabric out of my stash, to cutting, serging and by the end of the day, the girls were twirling around in their new skirts! What a day! I'm sure it would only take an hour for a person who has no interruptions, but I expected it to take a few days at least.

The skirts are two-layers. There is an upper skirt (Spongebob fabric) and an underskirt (solid yellow). They are sewn together with an elastic waistband, which I managed to sew on upside down on one of the skirts. Oops. I like that they are two layers, but I'm not thrilled with the waistbands. I think they are too bunchy and I will have to topstitch them later. Next time I make the skirts, I will shorten the width of the waistband so that when the elastic pulls it together, it isn't so bunchy. "Bunchy" is a technical term. It is!

I tried to topstitch the waistbands to flatten them out a bit, but my sewing machine is being rebellious! It was sewing some really wonky lines of straight stitches that were anything but straight. Eh, I'll deal with that later. I made the skirts on the serger only! That is kind of cool!

The photos on the blog where I found the instructions to make the pattern and the skirt are much better. I don't know if those skirts were made of a fabric that lays down better or if my sewing skills just need some work (I'm rusty, I admit it), but my skirts didn't turn out with the same "hang" to them as the skirts on the instructions. I also cannot see the waistbands on the instructions, I may have done that wrong.

Me? Measure wrong? Hard to imagine, but it could have happened with the waistbands. I measured wrong on the ruffles and took me hours to figure out why my ruffles were so much shorter than the width of the skirts. The ruffles need to be longer in order to ruffle! The instructions say "For a ruffle take the length of the bottom skirt portion and multiply by 1.5. Divide by 2, and measuring on fold, the width that you just came up with." Well, I had the lower skirt folded since I just cut it on the fold, and did the math from there, which means I divided by 2 before I even started to figure out how long the ruffle should be. Whoops. It was an easy fix, I just cut more ruffle but each skirt has two more ruffle seams than it should. I decided not to tell the girls.

While I'm not totally thrilled with the skirts yet, I do love the pattern and I think I'll be making a few more before I give up on it. Next time I'll shorten up the waistband width, and double the width on my ruffle pattern piece that is only half of what it should be.

I think the girls need shirts too. Another project perhaps?

Hoppy Easter

2011-04-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

Easter prep was just as much fun as the holiday.

A friend hosted an egg hunt in her back yard. That was a ton of fun! My girls had never been to an egg hunt before ( I know, I'm a slacker like that). Gracie ran so fast and she was scooping up eggs as if they were made of gold. The girl was on fire! Libby did pretty well too and Charlie enjoyed all the activity.

That was sure good practice before the city-wide egg hunt. There was more competition for the treasure filled eggs. Gracie got two eggs, but they were good ones. She got two coupons for a free kids' meal, one at Chik-Fil-A and one at Farmer Bros. Nice!

We also went to visit the Easter Bunny. I wasn't very happy with the way they force you to buy photos, and they totally rip you off. I've been emailing the company for a refund but not getting anywhere. You can buy a portrait package or a USB with three images. The problem is that the images are really tiny, only 300KB! Of course, they don't tell a person that the images are super tiny. Arg. Good thing they're cute!

After we saw this bunny, we were at the city recreation office buying a really cool cup that says "Parks Make Life Better", when Gracie turned around and saw right through the open door of an office and got the shock of her little life. She gasped and started in with "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!" I turned around to see what she was freaking out about and she just pointed, "Look!" There it was, the Easter bunny costume. There was a big giant rabbit head sitting on the desk and the flat body folded over a chair. On the floor were several large clear trash bags filled with colorful plastic eggs. This little girl's eyes were nearly popping out of her face and I could just see the wheels turning in her brain. Then she looked at me and said, "Mom! The Easter Bunny is just a person who does a makeover!"

Later that same week, we went to see that rabbit. She sure gave him a lookover before she sat with him. Oddly enough, she didn't say a word about the traumatic sight in the rec office. I knew she knew.

We had some things to do at home to prepare for the holiday too. We boiled and colored eggs. I have never done this with the girls. Mainly, because it is such a mess and nobody eats the eggs (and because I'm a slacker). But, Gracie and Libby seemed to be excited enough about Easter that they'll enjoy dying eggs. Sandy will eat them if nobody else will. Out of our 18 eggs, ten survived to the end of the decorating process. That's more than half! I expected far fewer to make it to the end.

The Easter bunny hopped by and dropped some things. Yay! He didn't drop very much candy, but he did pretty well on everything else.

They got beach towels, sand toys, back packs, music cds, cars, stuffed toys, flower pots, inflatable pool toys and more. They were pretty excited!

I didn't make a nice Easter dinner. Again, I'm slacking. But we did go to a friend's house. She was having a pot-luck Easter party all day long thing. I cut up some oranges to contribute and off we went. The kids would be able to play and run off some of their sugar high. It was fun, the kids really did enjoy the Easter Sunday playdate and because they did, we did. Lexie and I relaxed and didn't take many pictures during the playdate, but the kids did anything but relax. They played good and hard! It was great!

Here I am with my little Easter bunnies. I'm so excited because next Easter there will be one more! My newest grandson, Henry should be arriving in just a few weeks.

A Visit from the Toothfairy

2011-04-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

The toothfairy left me two crisp new ten dollar bills. Cha-ching! I was hoping for a Benjamin, but a couple portraits of Alexander Hamilton will do just fine. Gracie was impressed.

I spent the week in nervous anxiety. I tried to just stay busy so that I wouldn't have to think about it much. It was a good way to dodge thoughts of the orthodontic hell that I am putting myself through.

The dentist and orthodontist both said, "this will be easy, a piece of cake, you'll be fine" and other lies like that. I saw right through them though and didn't believe. Good thing too. I asked my friends to babysit for me and had the whole day covered between two sitters. That turned out to be another good thing, having two, because one didn't show up so the other one babysat all day.

~~Friday~~ Doomsday came and I drug myself to the dentist's office. I had to sit in the waiting room for 45 minutes. Let the anxiety build, gee thanks. I grabbed a book from my purse and flipped through it. I had with me today, "14,000 things to be happy about. The Happy Book by Barbara Ann Kipfer". It's a thick paperback and it is literally a list of 14,000 happy things and happy thoughts. It is the perfect book for when you are in the dentist's lobby wondering why you don't just bolt outa there.

I finally was called back and I had this surge of relief that the waiting was over, and a wave of panic because it was time for my torture. Only the waiting wasn't over. I waited another 30 minutes back in the chair, facing the wall, no movie playing on the ceiling.

The dentist finally came over and gave me a bunch of shots in my mouth. OW! Plus I am really needlephobic, so getting eight shots in my mouth was really hard for my frazzled nerves. I think he could tell by the uncontrollable shaking that I was doing. I also kept my eyes shut tight! He said he'd be back in ten minutes.

I was good and numb, and really I know that I'd rather have all the shots in my gums than feel any of the pain that would surely go along with extracting teeth that are too big and not in the mood to move. He came back and I told him that I have a strange request, but I want my teeth. He laughed and said, um, Ok. I told him I have a 5 yr old and she wants the toothfairy to come for me, so yeah.. then he seemed to understand. He said to open wide and immediately began yanking them out.

The sensation was weird. And, I could hear it. It was sort of a suction sound followed by a pop. Suuuuck Pop! Suuuuuuck Pop! Suuuuuuck Pop! Suck Pop!

Then the dentist shoved my new holes full of guaze and told me no smoking and no drinking with a straw. See you in two weeks.

With big eyes, the dental assistant asked me if I was ok. I shook my head no. I'm sure I was pale and looked like I'd just been through hell, maybe because I had been? But I sure wasn't ready to get up and walk yet. I was lightheaded and dizzy and I wanted to puke. I was afraid if I stood up I would pass out. She handed me a packet of gauze and an envelope of teeth.

So, I stayed in the chair for a few minutes and then I swung my feet over the side and gathered up my purse. The dentist came over and asked if I was ok. I nodded yes. He said "What do you want for pain? Tylenol with Codine? Vicodin?" I motioned yes, Vicodin. I'm not even sure what Vicodin is but Tylenol with Codine makes me puke and I sure don't want to do that! He gave me a prescription and an appointment card for a follow up check.

I managed to get out to my van and then I just sat for a bit. I changed my gauze and it was so nasty! I had a headache like no other, but my mouth didn't hurt. Yet.

I drove to Rite Aid and dropped off my prescription. I just dropped it off and left because, my numb mouth was full of gauze and blood. No idea if they would fill it without hearing me answer all of the insurance questions.

Then I went home. I walked in the door and and straight up the stairs to my room and shut the door. Gracie saw me come in but she didn't say much. Libby was distracted, thank goodness! She was doing a puzzle with the babysitter. Whew! I changed the guaze again and laid down. I must have slept pretty hard because I didn't wake up until three hours later and I was a mess. The numbness wore off too. That wasn't good. I couldn't figure out how to swallow any ibuprophen so I just tried not to move, maybe I could get back to sleep. And I did sleep more.

Keith came home a little after 5:00 and woke me up to tell me that he's home and he relieved the babysitter. Really, I think I could have heard this big news later. Oh well. Since I was pretty well rested, I grabbed my book off of the nightstand and read for a while. I managed to take a drink of water and since I could do that, I swallowed some ibuprophen. Hopefully that will help because I was in a lot of pain!

I told him to go get my prescription. He said "What's it for?" I said "Vicodin" He replied, "I have a big bottle of that in the cupboard!". Really? What on earth? And then he reminded me that I've never had it before and it might make me really loopy. That's why he had it, because he only took one and didn't want any more of that stuff. And, he said I wouldn't be able to feed Libby. Ah, forgot about that. Why isn't she weaned yet, ugh. I decided against the Vicodin.

After a close inspection, Gracie helped me put my envelope of teeth on the nightstand next to my bed. She decided that the tooth fairy wouldn't want to dig around under my pillow while I'm sleeping on it. I agree, that is awkward. She said she would sleep on the floor next to me in her camping spot to see if she could see the fairy. She wants to know if she glows in the dark. She slept too soundly to find out though. In the morning she hopped up and checked the table; sure enough there was some cash! "Mom! Mom! The tooth fairy brought you TWO dollars!" Her eyes were huge!

I spent the weekend very slowly milling around the house, napping, reading and swallowing ibuprophen. I didn't eat much, too hard to do that. But I had plenty of water and lived on my fat reserves. I knew I grew some lovely curves for a reason! The girls had a Daddy weekend and they seemed to really enjoy it. He read them lots of stories, he let them use him as a horse, he fed them (they always love anyone who feeds them), and he let them play in the dirt and take bubble baths. They would check in with me from time to time, but for the most part they left me alone to heal. That was really nice. I am more rested now than I have been in years!

It's been a week now and I'm still in pain. I can't speak clearly, I can't eat anything but mush or pudding, and I am just in pain. It's been a tough week but I can see that I'm healing. And I have the tooth fairy cash to brighten my world. Yay!

First Dentist Visits

2011-04-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

Part I - Gracie's Visit

Gracie's dentist appointment, her very first because I'm freakishly nervous like that, went GREAT! Really! The child is 5 years old now and has had teeth since she was 4.5 months old. I remember the day her first teeth popped through very vididly. We were packing up and heading out for our 3800 mile family roadtrip with a little chunky baby! And she picked that day to bust out her first two teeth.

I felt she was as prepared as a kid could be for her first dental torture. A dentist visited her preschool and they put on a little play about brushing teeth. She got to dress up like a tooth and "sugar-bugs" stuck to her. Another day, I took her with me when I went to the orthodontist. She got to see the office and the chair and tools, and she watched me lay there and open my mouth for the dentist.

Gracie loved her dentist visit! She was happy and laughing and loving all the attention they were paying to her. They cleaned her teeth, counted them, poked them, did xrays, and a flouride treatment. No cavities!

The entire time she was in the chair, she was staring at a movie on a tv that hung from the ceiling. All three of the kids were loving the movie on the ceiling. Libby and Charlie were cranking their necks so that they could see too.

The dentist was awesome. Very good with kids! I'll bet if he wasn't a dentist, he would be one of the Wiggles. He must have a whole bunch of kids because he really understood how to talk to the kids and make the appointment wonderful.

The place was pretty cool! The kids loved it. Colorful paint on every wall, tv on the ceiling, toys and video games in the waiting room, children's books everywhere, and yet it wasn't over-stimulating. The kids were enchanted but not overwhelmed. Gracie got a little mermaid spinning toothbrush and each kid got a balloon. Libby was jealous that Gracie got a princess toothbrush and got to have her teeth tickled and she didn't! So, I made her an appt for tomorrow!

They loved it so much we're going back! I am beyond flabbergasted in such a good way!

Part II - Libby's Turn

Today was Libby's turn and she wanted to go and get a princess toothbrush like Gracie did. She was in a great mood, right up until she did a faceplant in the driveway and skinned up both of her knees and bumped her chin.

That was at 9am and the appointment was at 11am. Two solid hours of crying over skinned knees! I was pretty sure the dentist appointment was doomed. She snapped out of her bad mood as soon as we got there. Whew! Just in time to go to the dentist's and play in the waiting area. We had to wait a long time today, didn't get called back till 11:35. Then she remembered that she was crabby and started to cling and cry.

I only had Libby and Charlie this time because Gracie was at school.

So, she just had a quick eksam (oh great, now my letter eks won't work on my keyboard! just sound it out.) No eks-rays and no cleaning or fluoride treatment. Mainly because of her angziety (ok, who knew I used that letter so often). The dentist and I faced each other, knees together and we held Libby on our laps. Her head went in his lap and I held her hands and her body was in my lap. She cried, but he said this was the best hold for two year olds, it has the feeling of being safe and mom is holding her. True. She opened enough and he poked all of her teeth and flossed them. He said no cavities and he didn't think she needed a cleaning or fluoride at this time due to her behavior. He would rather she just have a quick and relatively easy appointment and we can do those things when she is ready. Sounded good to me.

He said her baby teeth are crowded. He sees orthodontic work in her future. She will need an ortho evaluation as soon as her permanent teeth start popping through at age 7 or 8. He said the earlier the better, before they set into the jaw bone (oh, like mine?)

She got to sit up and get a hug and she said "that was fun". She's two and already understands the fine art of sarcasm! I'm so proud!

We went back to reception and they had a Cinderella spinning toothbrush for her. She was so eksited!

Charlie, the Amazing Baby

2011-04-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

My 7 month old grandson, Charlie is absolutely amazing! He's pretty darn cute too! Lately he has been growing by leaps and bounds. Every time I see him he looks bigger and can do more things.

We had to put up our baby gate on the stairs. Seems early, but using a temporary laundry basket baracade wasn't doing the job. And we had to babyproof the TV electronics. He already found the joys of pushing buttons.

Charlie is 20 pounds now. He crawls too. He was getting around just fine with scooting and wriggling and rolling, but he recently learned to do a real hands and knees crawl. Or, I should say a hands and knees sprint. The kid is fast! He crawls to things and pulls himself up to standing too. Yup. Standing. And if he is excited enough he will let go, stand for just a second or two on his own and then tip over. I am shocked that he can do this since he seems pretty top heavy; he seems to defy the laws of physics.

As his grandma, I just have to show you lots of pictures! Here they are:

Size Doesn't Matter

2011-03-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

The tag is all wrong. It should say 0 - 31 months, or as long as I can squeeze my skinny little butt into them.

Wax on, Wax off, repeat

2011-03-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

I confess. Six months ago I was out of my mind. Why did I get braces?

On my last visit, the orthodontist suggested that 4 teeth come out. So, he clipped my wires so that they are only on my front teeth and my doomed teeth were set free. Did you catch that bit about the wire being snipped?

I have sharp pointy wire ends poking me! One side broke free of the rubber band and is now sticking out farther than the other three pokey ends. This is uncomfortable to say the least.

It popped off the bracket on Friday. Saturday I was too busy to deal with it. Guess what, the office is closed until Wednesday. I've been being stabbed in the face for five days now and I'm growing unhappy with the whole poking business.

I have some dental wax to paste over it, but every time I eat the wax falls off. I think I've swallowed an entire candle by now. Ewww. I really don't like the feeling of the wax in the first place, it's kinda yucky, but at least it isn't poking me. Now, if I could just quit losing my blob of wax!

Grandma came to visit

2011-03-27T10:38:00.000-07:00

My girls have two grandmas and one of them came to visit! They have my mom and my mom's mom. Grandma and Great Grandma. AKA The Grandmas. They're a pair, always together, just like Gracie and Libby. They do things together.

Grandma came without Great Grandma and really threw the girls for a loop. "Where's the other one Grandma?" "Where is the Gracie Grandma?" The whole idea of just one grandma was mind boggling! But we all managed just fine even though we sure missed having Great Grandma here too.

My mom flew in on Saturday just in time to go out for dinner and left on Monday morning. Quick Trip! We had a wedding reception to attend on Sunday. It was a lot of fun! My mom wrote about her trip on her blog, so I won't repeat the same story.

The girls sure enjoyed having Grandma here, even though it was a quick trip. They were very excited and sorry to see her go again so soon. She was instructed to bring Great Grandma Gracie with her next time and she said she would. We sent her on her way home with lots of hugs to tide her over until we see her again.

I'm Serging!

2011-03-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

I am a total serger newbie, but I'm doing it!

I've had the machine for 2 years now, really, you'd think I would be serging like a pro or at least doing some advanced work by now. But, I've barely been able to get the thing to work. The machine has mostly just been a dust collector.

I had it working at one point and then ran over a pin. Apparently, that is a big serging no-no! I just took it to JoAnn Fabrics again and the very nice lady in the Viking store inside JoAnns tweeked it for me and got it going. She says there is something wrong with it since the tensions should all be on "N" but she figured out how to adjust each tension knob until the stitching was right. Whew!

For some reason, I still couldn't get it to work after I brought it home. When I was at JoAnns, I had red thread in the machine. I decided to change it to black and then nothing worked. After a couple of days of struggling with the black thread, I tried white. First try and it worked like a dream!

I serged the edges of a bunch of cute baby flannels and made some receiving blankets and burp cloths for my new grandson (he's due in May).

Next I tried a Tshirt reconstruction that I've had my eye on for two years at least. Using an adult size Tshirt, I made a dress for my daughter to play in. I really like it and she does too! It was quick and easy. I do think it needs a ruffle for the bottom because the lettuce edge didn't ruffle up enough. The tutorial that I read has a strip of elastic in the back to make the dress more fitted, but I'm not sure Gracie needs that. Although, Libby will.

I am ready to raid my husband's stash of neglected Tshirts and serge up a bunch of play dresses for summer. Nice cotton Tshirts will be perfect for summer!

Coming Soon: Orthodontic Hell!

2011-03-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! NOT!

I went to the orthodontist today for my once a month tweek. And the dentist gave me some bad news. It's always weird when the dentist discusses my treatment with me while I'm laying down in the chair. They tip me back really far and I almost wonder if I'll slide off and land on my head. This is how I have serious conversations about my braces with my dentist.

He said that my teeth are stubborn. Well, that's no surprise. I'm stubborn all over.

Hovering over me, he went on to say that my teeth are just too crowded and they cannot find the space they need. He thought they might be able to line up in my jaw, but it's not happening like he'd hoped. Therefore (yes, he said "therefore" while he wore his bubble gum smelly gloves) I need to have four teeth extracted.

There it is. The word. Extracted. Extracted means grabbed with a claw-like pair of pliers, twisted and yanked out leaving a bloody hole. Four extractions. One in each quadrant so that my teeth are balanced and I don't end up with my front teeth off to the side. Here's the good news: they can do it today or anytime I'm ready! Oh, goody. That is so delightful.

Two of these teeth just got fillings six months ago. Why am I doing this again? I should be careful what I wish for, because just the other day I was wishing I could get my braces off. Now my wish is coming true. There will be four teeth getting the braces off! Ay, yiy, yih.

This ought to really help the hillbilly in me really shine through. Can you sense my excitement? Not yet, huh? Yeah, me neither.

* Dental extraction tools from WWI in a museum somewhere. I hoisted this pic from the internet. Thank you, Google Image search and people who allow their photos to be shown publicly. Hopefully my dentist has more modern equipment.

Pooping in Ikea

2011-03-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

If you read my blog, you must know I have small children and well.... poop happens. I'm not afraid to discuss it. Skip to another post if you don't want to read about it, but then again, you are taking your chances going that route because there are poop droppings in the middle of totally unrelated posts. (Did you catch that, heh heh, poop droppings! I crack myself up.)

I don't remember if I wrote about it or not, but my toddler has a preference for using the Ikea potty chair and no other. She will use the real one if we are out and about, but she would rather use one of her Ikea potties. She has three of them: pink one is downstairs, green one is upstairs, and red one is in the van. Her white Baby Bjorn potty has been rejected and sent out to the garage.

Since we've been potty training, Libby has decided she will no longer poop. She doesn't like to do it in the potty chair and she doesn't like it in her panties. She'd rather not, thank you very much. Retaining is her game. She just pooped on Sunday so I didn't expect another bowel movement from her until Thursday at least!

Ok, enough back-story; on with the post!

Yesterday, we went to Ikea for lunch. First, we dropped off my mom at the airport and then we picked up my oldest daughter who is 32 weeks pregnant. The kids were hungry and the 5 yr old was ready to play hard for a bit. I asked her if she wanted to go to Ikea and she jumped up and down squealing about the ball pit. Can't argue with enthusiasm like that!

After dropping Gracie off at Ikea's child center with the swimming pool sized ball pit and other fun toys, Katie and I took the little ones (Libby and Charlie) to the cafe for lunch. We sat in the "family friendly" corner where there are beads and twirly things mounted on the wall as well as a play kitchen and workbench. All Ikea products! Libby stood facing the wall and played with the beads. She was quiet and content, moving the big beads around on their peg-board path.

Just as we were finishing our leisurely lunch and our hour of of hyper-free 5 yr old time was nearing an end, another family came to the cafe's play area. One little boy came up behind Libby and she turned herself around, gave him the hand and said,

"No. I'm pooping".

Katie and I had to stifle hysterical laughter. Libby was so serious! Katie pointed me in the direction of the nearest restroom (pregnant woman always know where they are) and I took Libby and her poopy pants out of the play area.

Another reason for me to love Ikea! It's a great place to play and poop!

Naughty Leprechaun

2011-03-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

A naughty leprechaun paid a visit to Gracie's preschool yesterday on St. Patrick's day. The little dude made a big mess in the classroom, knocking over toys and things. He moved the teacher's chair, left green pee-pee in the toilet (and didn't flush!), spilled his gold on the floor (corn pops cereal) and left a trail of green glitter everywhere. The kids did their teamwork and cleaned up the classroom.

Gracie is pretty sure she saw the leprechaun behind the clock in her classroom. He had one eye peeking and the other one shut. And, he was laughing at all the kids while they cleaned up his naughty mess!

Poor kid was freaked out all day long by this leprechaun business. All day long, she talked non-stop about the leprechaun. She barely took a breath, just talk talk talk talk... working it all out in her head I suppose.

At night, she had trouble falling asleep. I had to lay with her and as soon as I did, she was asleep in no time. She wanted to sleep in her "camping spot" next to my bed so that she would be safe. And she made sure to ask me several times if I locked all of the doors. She was afraid the leprechaun would come in our house and make a mess.

Sure enough, she whimpered and whined in her sleep all night long, like a little lost puppy. At one point, her dreams woke her up. She went downstairs with Daddy and they rocked for a while. But, she was having bad dreams all night even after she woke up. She was crying in her sleep too. It's awful when your kid is having bad dreams and you know you can't get in her dream to rescue her!

I just talk to her and tell her she is safe. The whimpering usually stops when I do that, but she starts crying again. Sure enough, this morning she was a big grouch! Miss Crabby pants has been rotten all day long. She wouldn't even snap out of her mood to go to gymnastics and she loves gymnastics! She stayed home with Dad while I took little sis to gymnastics; she wasn't gonna miss it for the world!

I don't understand why she has such frequent bad dreams, but I sure knew what set her off this time! It was that naughty leprechaun! If I catch that little green menace, I'm gonna make him clean up and say sorry. Gracie suggests we give him a time out too. So much for St Paddy's day around this house. This holiday went straight to the bottom of the list of fun holidays.

The next holiday is a rabbit who comes in our house at night while we are sleeping and leaves eggs and jelly beans? Oh no. There really isn't much of a difference is there?

Happy 5th Birthday!

2011-03-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

My cute chubby little baby suddenly turned 5 years old! Not sure how that happened so darn fast. She was just a ball of baby blubber not very long ago. Now she's a dancing, prancing, singing 5 year old. Amazing how time flies when you are having fun!

She really is fun. Always has been and I think she always will be. We sure have a good time together. Gracie loves to go places and we do a lot of that!

We didn't do much to celebrate her birthday, but that is exactly what she wanted. She wanted her sisters, Charlie and a cake. That's it. So, that's just what she got. We got her some gifts, but nothing extravagant or expensive.

She did say she wanted to go to Disneyland on her birthday. If that's what the kid wants, that's easy enough! No party, no extra fuss, just a fun day with mom and little sis. Awesome! I quickly finished sewing the Jessie costumes, hand sewing all of the sequin work. We planned to go and I took the day off from babysitting Charlie so that we could go on her birthday, but....

The first rule of going to Disneyland is that Mommy must get enough sleep to function. That didn't happen so we didn't go. Everyone took a long afternoon nap the day before, which messed up the whole night, which messed up the trip to Disneyland. And then of course, everyone was too tired to even make it through the day so we all napped again! Ugh, the domino effect on the sleep schedule wreaks havoc on our entire week!

On her birthday, we all laid around the living room and played with her new toys, colored in her new coloring book, and watched her new movie. We finished off the cake and put a dent in the pie. It was a nice lazy day with everyone home. Gracie loved her lazy day birthday! She said it was the best birthday ever!

I guess we'll go to Disneyland next week. She can still get her birthday button and have a fun day.

The Sky is Falling

2011-03-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

Last night my husband and I were enjoying some peace and quiet. The girls were sleeping upstairs and we were relaxing in front of the news in the living room when we heard a big CRASH in the kitchen. Neither one of us had been in there for a while.

Our first thought was of the dog. Nope, she wasn't in there, she was snoring on the couch.

Earthquake? No, that wasn't it.

Kids weren't up jumping around. Hmmm....

We actually decided to quit looking at each other for answers and get up to have a look.

The recessed light fixture fell out of the ceiling! Not the bulb though, just the metal can. Yes, the metal can that cannot come out of the ceiling without a good solid tug and the light bulb would have to be removed for that to happen. There is was on the floor along with some chipped pieces of joint compound. How on earth?

We are both still scratching our heads over this one. Keith has to get on a ladder, remove the bulb and shove the can back in the recessed light hole. It has two metal prongs that he has to pinch together to fit in slots then release to provide a type of tension that prevents the thing from ever falling out of the ceiling. We are very perplexed.

Mary vs Pit Bull

2011-03-08T15:30:00.000-08:00

I was driving all alone in my mini-van the other day, absent mindedly singing along to the Disney princess song collection that always plays in the cd player, when I saw a great big pit bull standing in the road. He was just standing there holding his ground, right there in the lane. He didn't look like he was on the warpath, but he didn't look like he was going to move just because cars were honking at him. Let's face it, this breed isn't exactly known for being warm and fuzzy.

I kind of looked around and didn't see anyone that looked as if they were looking for a dog. He was near the dog park, so who knows. He wasn't wearing a collar which is odd, especially at the dog park. I saw him wander out of the road and head toward a neighborhood of houses. It was a long red light so I had time to do all of this wondering.

The light turned green and I went on my way thinking, "someone should call the dog catcher". I quickly decided that someone had to be me because a lady with a stroller was walking in the direction of the stray unleashed pit bull! I happen to have the Police Non-Emergency phone number in my cell phone so I hit that number and reported the dog. The dispatcher said she would send Animal Control to the area and see if they could find him. Ok, good enough. I kept going.

On my way home again, about a half an hour later, I made sure to go the same way just to see if I could spot that dog or a police car or something. Sure enough, the Animal Control van was parked right where I had seen the dog earlier and the dog catcher was holding out one hand, maybe offering a treat, and had a looped leash in his other hand. Luckily, I hit the light on red so I could watch the action!

The dog catcher must be a pro. He bribed, treated and lassoed the dog all in one swoop. Then he walked him to the van and put him in. Stray Pit Bull off the streets! Yes! I felt so good watching the dog get caught. And of course, right up the street walking toward the spot where the dog had just been was a family with a little dog, a stroller and a small child. I am so very glad I called and reported that dog!