Reasons to love summer...

Well Pete is home and all is right with our world again. For the moment anyway. I went to go pick him and the guys up at SFO last night. Their flight didn't get in till 10. I got there at 9. I drove around about 5 times before I finally found the "cell phone lot" which incidentally is like 2 miles away from the airport. I love going to the airport. Maybe that's because I don't go very often. When I was a kid I couldn't wait to go pick someone up. Back in the day where you could actually go up to the gate and wait for your person to come off the plane, or say good-bye to them and watch the plane from the ginormous windows. There's just something about the airport. The hustle and bustle, the excitement to go somewhere or to welcome loved ones. Plus, it's like the best place to people watch! It makes me want to go somewhere. Anyway so Pete's home, the kids actually gave me a whole 2 hours this morning without wanting to sit on me, run around me, or just roll around like monkeys on the floor and so far it's been a pretty awesome day.

On to the picture...I hardly ever talk about scrapbooking anymore, but it is still one of my most favorite things to do. I came across this flickr group the other day and it really got me thinking. Summer is absolutely my favorite season. And I love taking pictures, and I love scrapbooking so naturally all these things came together and I decided to make a mini book about all the reasons I love summer. My scrapbook friends all know I tend to shy away from the mini books, but I really enjoyed doing the December Daily album last year and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make a similar project only focused on summer instead of the holidays. My approach to this project is just to simply fill it in as I go. I made a list and I'm going to try and attempt to photograph each thing or event and then just add it to this book. Very simple, just the picture and then words to describe it. No fuss. Cuz I totally won't ever finish it if I over think it. Here is my list:

flip flops * tank tops* capris* sidewalk chalk* bubbles* sprinklers* swimming* camping* smores* campfires* popsicles* drive-ins* smoothies* strawberries* corn on the cob* BBQs* 4th of July* fireworks* birthdays* road trips* beach towels* suntan lotion* homemade ice cream* warm nights* gardens* iced tea* lemonade* baseball* county fairs* hiking* long days* farmers markets* sparklers* water guns* sunflowers* water slides* ice cream cones.

The cool thing is I already have photos for a lot of these things. Also, it's totally flexible. I'm sure I'll add stuff as the summer goes on and I know there are a few that I'll end up skipping. But it's a great starting point.

Anyone else want to play along?

Day....i don't even remember anymore

of Pete being gone.

Let me take a step back for a minute. I feel a little bad and somewhat self centered about my last post. I didn't intend on it being a whine fest about me being all lonely about Pete being gone for 12 days. I mean, yes I miss him very much. But 12 days? Right now to us...12 days feels very long. But in reality twelve days is nothing. When I think about all the men and women who are across the world in Iraq or Afghanistan for months or even years, or life changing events like COT training for 5 very long weeks all while leaving their families at home....What the heck am I whining about 12 days for?

That being said...Oh my gosh are we ever ready for him to be home! I'm pretty sure, but not entirely positive that he'll be home on Monday. And I'm also pretty sure I will have to go to the airport and pick him and his buddies up. I dropped these guys off the day the left. The level of testosterone in that vehicle was--insurmountable. A bunch of guys all pumped up on going out into The Wild to be MEN and fish and hunt....Yeah-testosterone overload. {picture: Tim Allen on Tool Time with that manly grunting thing he used to do..times like 100} When I got out of the truck to give Pete a hug, I whispered in his ear: "don't make me do this ever again" hee hee! He just laughed.

Anyway, what was I talking about?

I don't remember either.

The week has been pretty boring. It doesn't feel like summer vacation at all except for the fact that I'm not driving back and forth to school 2 or 3 times every day. It's been cold. And windy. Well, not cold...but definitely not warm. So we've kind of just been hanging out. We did go to the park once and yesterday out of I think pure desperation for something to do, we went to the pool. It was warm enough to hang out and be comfortable outside of the pool. But too cold for my taste in the pool. So we basically hung in the hot tub. Which Jake was like SO ecstatic about. The kid is so much like me. He hates to be cold!


Oh and my computer crashed again. Well, I think I {read: Dell tech guy} may have saved it before it actually crashed. Let me just say this: If you don't have an external hard drive--get one! Get one and store all of your important documents and of course all of your pictures on it. And back it up every month. The sad truth is both Pete and I have become very dependent on this stupid machine. It's funny for me to even say that because we didn't even have the internet at home 3 years ago. I'm not kidding. But how quickly we have succumbed to it's devilish grip! Unfortunately, this is the only computer we have. We store all of our pictures, all of our business documents, I do a lot with photoshop (I've really become dependent just on that one program for both personal and business use), I pay about half of all of our bills online. Not to mention all the shopping, blogging and social networking! If this machine goes down for the count...we might as well lay down with it. Sad but true.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get all my important stuff off the computer before the Dell tech completely restored the system. For $129 bucks I basically have a brand new machine. The cool thing is, with all that junk gone...this thing runs like a champ! So far anyway. Everything seems so much faster.

Anyway..how random is this post?! Gosh I'm good at random. :) And boring. I promise I'm not this boring in real life.

Day 6

Without Pete here.
I'm still trucking along just fine on day six. However, I do feel that downward spiral just beginning to spin. I still have 6.5 days until he comes home so I guess I'm half way there. Like I've said before, I'm used to it. At first I kind of like it. The fact that I don't feel pressured to have the house all picked up all the time, or a big dinner on the table every night. But after awhile eating out, being lazy and not being in a routine just gets boring. Not to mention the stress of dealing with everything alone while he's gone. Single parents have a LOT on their plates.
The kids are really starting to miss him. Megan has asked me every day "Daddy's gonna be home?". It just about kills me when she asks. And Jake...well, he understands a lot more than Meg does. Sometimes that's good, but sometimes it's bad. Today he said twice "I wish Daddy would come home. I miss Daddy".
So anyway to give us all something to do, the kids and I headed up to my parents houses for the weekend. First stop Grandma Katy's:
We didn't do much but hang out all day Saturday. We went to Target in the morning and the kids picked out a few things from the dollar spot. We spent all afternoon in the back yard just playing and hanging out. Mom has a great back yard for that. :)

I love these new flip flops I got from Target. They're SO comfy. :)
Water gun wars with Grandpa.
Being silly. Orange stained tongue from a Popsicle.


Sunday morning we got up, got dressed and then headed up to my Dad's.

Getting attacked by Dad's dog Sadie.
Being weird.

I really do love going there. It's the house I grew up in and though lots and lots of changes have happened through the years, every time I'm there I think...why don't I visit more often? Plus the kids love it too...there's frogs and fish and dragon flies and llamas and dogs and cats. It's always lots of fun. Dad wanted to take us all out to the movies, so we headed into town and went to see Up. Not my favorite Pixar flick, but definitely a good story. There were 2 or 3 times where I just wanted cry..it's a little sad. But a great story.
On our way home last night we stopped and picked up Caitlin for another sleepover because her mom was still out of town. We were all so tired. All 3 kids had had such a long weekend. It wasn't the best sleepover. Lots of whining and tattle-tailing and of course they were all up at 7am this morning. Today was kind of a long day. ;)
So here's to the next 6 days. I hope they go by fast. Tomorrow I'm getting these kids out of the house for a couple hours at least.

Kindergarten, sleep over and Alaska

Jake's Kindergarten graduation was Friday. This is unfortunately the best picture I have of the event. I didn't realize the 'ceremony' was going to be a school wide event, so even though I got there 20 minutes early, there was no place to sit. So I had to stand in the back to have a chance of getting any decent pictures. Well, not having a good zoom on my SLR and bad gym lighting equals really sucky pictures. :( Oh well. At least we got this cute one with his teacher Mrs. C.

Yes, she is the tiniest person I've ever met. Not tiny as in short (because she's almost my height) but tiny as in ti-ny. Seriously, her hip width is as big around as my arm. When we first met her we thought the kids would knock her down, run her over and surely kill her. But this woman is much stronger in so many ways than she looks! She was an awesome teacher. We were so lucky to have a really great experience for our first time dealing with public schools. I've heard horror stories, and I really feel like we were blessed. Jake did really well on his report card. The Kindergarten report card is basically a list of all the standards: ABC's, sight words, gross motor skills, social skills etc... Well, he got an X in everything which means at or above grade level. The only thing that wasn't marked with an X was music. He got an X the first and second trimesters, but in the last he got a --- which means below grade level. Ummmm......how does one get below grade level in music? In Kindergarten?? I just kind of had to laugh at that.

So yeah. That is that. Kindergarten down, 12 more years to go.

After school was out I ended up with 4 kids. My two and two of my nieces. Apparently during the school BBQ, the girls cooked up a plan to come spend the night at Jake's house. How could I say no? I have to admit, I was a little freaked out. I mean 4 kids all to myself? Pete had hunters at the ranch so it was just me. They were actually really good though. They were up at 6:30 am the next morning (!!!) but they were good. No one cried and asked to go home at 2 in the morning! I call that success. But by around 8 or 9 Saturday morning, Jake had pretty much had it with all the girly-ness. It's hard when there's 3 anyway, someone is always left out. So there was much whining and hurt feelings and pouting going on. Of course there was even more when the girls had to go home. Why does that always happen? They fight like crazy, but then don't want them to go home either.

Oh and as for the crate of camping gear on a boat on it's way to Alaska....you guessed it. Pete is on his way up there for a hunting trip. He leaves tomorrow morning, in fact. He'll be gone for 2 weeks. I've done this many times before but this time I think will be a little different. 1) I won't have work to distract me from the children. 2) School is out, so there is nothing to occupy me in the middle of the day--all kids all the time with no relief. Which, I mean, I deal with a lot anyway, but after the middle of the 2nd week it really starts to wear thin. So I'm hopping to find us things to do. I'll probably go spend a weekend with my dad, maybe go to the movies once or twice and find some play dates somewhere along the way. Hopefully it will all go by fast.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Here's some recent scrappy pages :)

I'm probably going to make this sound bad...

but we really DID have fun despite it all.
We went on our first official camping trip this weekend. What a great way to start off the summer! I say first official, because yeah the kids and I went with my mom in April, but this time didn't include trailers with beds and satellite TV's and heaters. :) This was camping in tents, with snow on the ground and vault toilets and no water and outdoor cooking and marshmallows. Oh, and dirt. (and puke...but I'll get to that later) It was awesome.
I started to get a little nervous Thursday afternoon. We were supposed to leave the next morning after Jake got out of school and head up to meet our friends. I decided to go online just to make sure I had the directions right to the campground. Well, everywhere I looked--every website said the campgrounds didn't open until late JUNE. Uhhh...that could really suck. Since our friends were going up a day before us, I figured if there was anything wrong they would call and let us know. I waited all night for the phone to ring and it never did. *whew* We picked Jake up from school at 11:30 and off we went.
We got to the campground around 2:30 and were relieved to see it open and our friends tent trailer all set up and waiting. They'd gone off for the day so we headed down to the lake after setting up camp. Oh and I should mention a bit about the tent...First we love camping. And we have a lot of camping gear. Good camping gear. However, at this moment most of it is in a crate, on a boat, on it's way to Alaska. Yeah. (another story for another time) So we had to borrow Pete's mom and dad's tent. It's a nice big tent, but this thing is about 20 years old I'm sure. Anyway, his sister dropped it off at our house Thursday and said "it's funky." Yeah. I don't know what happened to that thing, but we rolled it out and it smelled like death. Funky was an understatement! We let it air out and went down to the lake.
See all the snow on the mountain above the lake? There was still quite a bit of snow all over.






After wondering around a bit, we ran into our friends who had returned from their day trip. It was back to camp to start dinner.
We ate so good on this trip. Way better than we ever eat at home! LOL! Friday night was rib-eye steaks and potatoes...YUM! All cooked over the fire too. :) My friend Erin and I are all about cooking outdoors and making good stuff while we're camping. I picked up a Pie Iron at the WalMart last week. This thing was so cool. We made apple pies and cinnamon rolls...you can do just about anything in this sucker! And they were goooood! If you camp or spend any time near a camp fire, you gotta get one of these.





Anyway, Friday night we sat around the campfire for a while and then hit the sack. It was pretty cold that night. I was so thankful I threw in our big Mexican blanket just in case. I think I might have died if I didn't have that thing! But Saturday night....Saturday night is when the S hit the fan. I thought it was cold Friday night...I was wrong. Saturday night was FREEZING. Literally. We woke up the next morning with ice on the trucks. It was the coldest I ever remember being while camping. (no wonder there is still snow on the ground!) The Mexican blanket was no use with the frigid temps. I lay there for at least 2 hours just shivering. I couldn't get warm and I could not sleep. I was miserable and to top it off I had to pee. I layed there forever trying to will it away, but it was no use. I finally got up. When I came back to the tent Megan was awake. I tried to cover her up some more, but I could hardly move besides the shivering of my entire body. She said "i don't feel good mommy". I told her to lay down and go back to sleep. She whimpered a little and then.......BLAHP. Uh huh. Throw up, all over her pillow and in the tent. Lovely. Out of my sleeping bag once again. I have to say though....Pete is awesome. He hates puke almost as much as I do, but he got up (in his underwear mind you) and cleaned it up, cleaned Megan up, got a bucket, and then made sure we were all bundled back up each time we had to get out of bed. It was a total of about 6 times of getting up, cleaning up, going potty etc... Finally she stopped and fell asleep and I just layed there shivering and prayed for the sun to come up so we could go home. Megan got right up the next morning and was so much better. She recovered quickly. But as we were cleaning up camp I could tell Jake was next. The poor kid didn't make it 15 minutes in the truck. :( He pretty much slept for 2 whole days after that. He's better now though.

Anyway, so yeah, the ending sucked big time, but the time leading up to it was great. I can't wait to go again!






*Two more days of Kindergarten!*

Ok, so I got my camera out today :) I finally took Jake to get his hair cut. I always, always wait until it looks so bad, that we come out of there with a brand new kid. He hardly looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo anymore! He's already getting so tan. That kid browns up like a cocoa bean every summer. Megan is getting there too. Jake has taken to taking his shirt off pretty much ALL THE TIME unless we're in a store. He says it's because he's a man and that's what mans do. You got a long way to go, bro.

I still can not believe that school is out in 6 days. It's crazy. How can that be? I never really thought that Kindergarten was a big deal. But it is SO a big deal. And he has done incredibly well, I am just beaming with pride for him. To think he barley knew the alphabet when he started and now he's reading and sounding out words and writing. The boy can write really well. He has great handwriting for a boy. He can add and subtract and tell time and not just by the hour either.

He's such a cool kid. I was having sort of a mommy moment last night watching him play with Pete before bed time. He was telling some story he made up about robots and lasers and I just sat there thinking...how did this happen? He's my baby, but he's totally this big kid. This smart, imaginative, creative kid.

And then there's Megan. Oh Megan. When she wants to be, she is THE sweetest little thing. I adore her. He gives the best hugs. She holds on tight and she means it. And when she kisses me, she holds my cheeks in her hands. Man, I love that. At night when I'm tucking her in, she looks at me lovingly and brushes my hair out of my face...just like I do to her. She is also extremely sassy. She's 2 going on 12. She wants to change her clothes every 5 minutes. And she pretty much argues with me about every single thing I want her to wear. A 2 year old is not supposed to be this opinionated! She takes after Pete's sisters for sure! The one thing I sort of worry about with her is that she is SO outgoing. Which I mean, is good. But it could be kind of scary. The girl has never met a stranger. She talks to everyone we encounter. She waves at everyone in the store, she says "hi" to everyone, she tells everyone her name. I worry that if there really were someone that tried to lure her, she'd go in a heartbeat. The other thing is, she LOVES men. She likes all of Pete's friends and wants them to hold her etc... Like I said, she's never met a stranger. When we were at the pool the other day there was this big dude hanging out with his kids by us. He was a dad and totally nice...don't get me wrong, but she just started talking to him and playing with him and we we didn't even know him. I don't want her to not be outgoing, but I'm not sure how to make her more aware of well...not being so friendly with everyone she meets. I think it makes me more nervous because she's a girl.

We're getting ready to go camping again this weekend! I love camping. I'm so excited! We definitely won't go hungry, that's for sure. What is it about camping where you always take enough food to feed an army for a month?! I actually think that's the best part :) We're going with our friends that have 4 kids so I'm sure we'll look like we're running a small daycare at our campsite! It'll be fun though, the kids are going to have a great time.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Pete is on his way home from work and I need to get the kitchen cleaned up. Fun stuff.

I've been sort of taking a break from my camera lately, so there are no pictures with this post :(
Anyway, we've been busy around here. Just seems like there has been tons of stuff to do lately. We had Open House and the music program at school, then a wedding, and then mothers day, then paperwork and more paperwork for our house, then I designed another brochure for the ranch. I think this is brochure #3. We've now graduated to a tri-fold. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult, but it kind of is. And very time consuming.
Mothers day was pretty ok. I can't complain. We rushed home from the wedding Saturday afternoon, changed clothes and headed out to the ranch. We had kind of a family weekend up there with all the wives and kids. (our family and then Pete's partner Johnny and his family) We took the kids to the pond to fish and then had a BBQ, watched a movie and then went to bed, got up the next morning and did more of the same. It was relaxing and fun to just hang out. Monday my mom came down for the afternoon and that was fun too.
One day during the week I got this wild hair to get all the kids toys out of the living room/dining room and put them upstairs in their rooms. They had about 90% of their toys down here. I'm really not even sure why I even started doing that now that I think about it. In our old house we had a formal living room and then separate a family room so I kept all of Jake's toys in there. And he was a baby then so it was just easier to have all the toys in the same room we were all in. I guess I just did the same thing when we moved here. Jake was still only 18 months old when we moved in. And then when Megan came along, all of her toys were added to the pile. It's not like they were all over the place...I did have two toy boxes and I got it so everything could be put away tidy. But I was just sick of looking at them. It was time to reclaim my own space. So I spent the better part of an afternoon cleaning out Jake's closet to make room for the downstairs toys. Boy, was that ever a chore. I won't even tell you how much junk I pulled out of there and how many bags of trash/donations I got from just one room. Where did this stuff come from??! Pete helped me bring the heavy stuff upstairs that night and immediately it was like -WHOA -so much nicer down here! Why did I wait so long to do this? the only thing is...the kids seem to be somewhat confused by it. Jake was like, "so...we're not allowed to play down here anymore? if we want to play with toys we have to play in our rooms?" Which is not at all what I was going for. They can play down here all they want...just put the toys back in their rooms when they're done. I explained that to him, but so far there has been very little playing down here and slightly more arguing between the two of them because they just tend to roll around on the floor like monkeys a lot more now.
We had our first trip to the community pool this weekend. It's been smokin hot again. I'm so proud of Jake. Remember last year, I could hardly get the boy in the pool? And then when I did he'd pitch a fit? or cry? or just sit on the side and pout? It's such a difference this year. He's much more confident, less scared, less worried about being cold, more into having fun. He's still sporting the arm floaties, but that's ok. What ever makes him get in and have fun, right? I mean, he'll even jump in from the side. Megan is like a little fish. I just stick her in a little floatie ring and she just kicks her little feet and keeps right up with me. She did kind of go under the water one time and came right back up and said, "I'm ok! I'm fine! I'm ok Mommy!" After we'd had our fun in the big pool, I decided to let the kids go over to the baby pool area. I've pretty much kept that off limits for Jake because 1: he's just too big, and 2: I want to encourage his confidence in the big pool/deeper water...but there was only one or two kids over there (left all alone by their parents) so I said ok. Plus, I just could not leave those babies unattended. These kids were 3 years old and left alone. I don't care if the water is only a foot deep. I don't care if your kid knows how to swim. It's never ok to leave a kid that little all by themselves around water. And it wasn't even like the parents were just on the other side of the fence. No, they were all the way down at the other end of the big pool (which is a Jr. Olympic size). So they wouldn't have even been able to hear if anything was going on in the baby pool. What is up with parents these days? Maybe I'm overprotective?? I kinda don't think so. Anyway, that's all I have to say about that.
It's 10am and already 78* so I think we'll be heading out to the pool again pretty soon.
Happy Sunday.

April 23rd was the last time I posted?? !!
I didn't think it had been that long. Woops!!
We've been busy doing all kinds of normal stuff and some not so normal. There are only a few weeks of school left so it's been major crunch time around here to get the last few things in. We had a field trip last week, Open House and the music program this week, it's also teacher appreciation week. Jakes school is very heavily parent involved so once they find out you're willing to help on one thing, you get ropped into everything else too. Which is fine. I like it. But it sure keeps us busy! We've also got an end of the year party/BBQ to plan, kindergarten graduation and a gift for the teacher. And I have no idea what to do for the gift. Some other parents have thought of doing the whole apron thing with all the kids hands prints on it. Which I guess is fine, but seems so outplayed. Doesn't it? I don't know, I was hoping for something a little more original, but are there anymore original ideas?? Who knows.
The 25th was Pete's birthday. He actually planned a day for us to all hang out together. We woke up, had breakfast, got in the car, stopped at Walmart, picked up some sand toys and headed out to the beach. It's about a 2 hour drive from here. It was so much fun. Total cheap entertainment for all of us! We need more days like that.

Last week I was feeling pretty crappy. I've had this real heavy, tightness in my chest. Kind of like when you're getting a cold....Only I didn't have any other cold symptoms. No coughing, runny nose or anything like that. I finally got into see the doctor yesterday and he thinks it's asthma or something. I've never had anything like that in my life. It's so weird. He prescribed me an inhaler, but I'm just not conviced this is the right diagnosis. I'm not sure what it is, but i just wish this feeling would go away.
Well I guess that's it for now. I've got to run and do some work for Pete, clean up the kitchen and hop in the shower before open house tonight. Here's some scrapbook pages I've been working on just because I think maybe I should post them here more often as a friend suggested :)
Oh one more thing! Nacho the dog, ripped out my bean plants! The ones I had just grown and planted outside. He didn't touch anything else, just the beans. Dang that little dog!

Brown thumb? maybe not.

I've always considered myself a brown thumb. I've pretty much killed every plant I've ever lay eyes on. Even a cactus. My mom is the gardener, not me. I've never really had much interest in it. Plus, it's like...a lot of work. When we moved to this house 4 years ago, my mom bought me an African Violet. I placed it on my kitchen counter and it's been happy there ever since. It even blooms. Which I understand is pretty rare. I also have a few plants outside...like geraniums, roses and other plants that are watered on a timer and require very little to no maintenance by me. I don't consider that being a gardener or having a green thumb. The sprinklers water them and they grow. I just look out my window at them. :)
Anyway, last year I decided to go ahead and try to grow some herbs and maybe some vegetables. I have a very, very small yard/patio so my options were limited. No watermelon, or anything that needed a lot of space. I decided to grow tomatoes and a few herbs in pots. I was amazed that I was actually able to keep them alive (with the help of my kids) and very much enjoyed harvesting fresh basil, and cherry tomatoes all summer.
So as spring was approaching this year, I considered doing it again. However, there is this looming cloud hanging over us which may lead to us having to move. You all know my house is for sale. It's always in the back of my mind that we may need to pack up. So because of that, I kind of thought--eh? why start a garden if I can't enjoy it? or give it all the attention it needs?
Well, I threw all that out the window. I couldn't help it. I figured, as long as I grow them in pots, then I can move them with us if necessary. Right? I went over to The Wal-Mart last week and picked me up a cherry tomato, basil and Italian parsley plant and some potting soil. They only had one basil plant left. I planted two last year and felt like I really could have used more. I was disappointed they only had the one. So we head inside and I see a wall full of vegetable, herb and flower seeds. I'd never grown anything from a seed (except for maybe in 3rd grade science class) and thought, what the heck?
And look! They're growing!

Anyone need any basil? I think I'm going to have plenty. I think I started these on Sunday and I put them in the window sill in the kitchen and watched every day. By Wednesday morning I thought for sure I'd done something wrong because I saw no change. But then I was preparing dinner that night and to my surprise...green! They are growing SO fast...it's almost like you could see it happening right in front of your eyes. Every hour they look different.

On the other end of the tray I'm starting green beans. These too are growing really fast. The one you can see here is almost completely upright now...and I just took this picture maybe an hour ago. It's completely satisfying to see something grow right before your eyes. In fact, I think I'm going to go back, get another tray and more seeds. This time maybe a bell pepper or jalapeno or something.

Anyone else planting a garden this year?

I've not been a good blogger lately. Not just writing my own blog, but commenting on others. Just lazy I guess. I DO read, I just haven't clicked over to comment. I'm sorry!
We've been pretty busy around here the past week or so. First it was the Easter picnic up at the ranch...which I don't have any pictures of. *sigh* Because I forgot my camera battery on the charger at home. *grrrr* It's sad, but I literally felt naked without my camera. And my family noticed it too...they've all gotten used to me being the family photographer! I found myself stealing my sister in law's camera just to be able to take some pictures. But despite all that, it was a good time. More people than we expected, good food, dirty kids...all that fun stuff!
The next day the boys went back up to the ranch and Megan and I went on a hike with Rachael (my SIL), her daughter Caitlin and their horse, Galaxy. You KNOW Megan was in heaven. She rode Galaxy almost the entire time except for the 5 minutes she let Cait ride. :)

The rest of the week was busy just with normal stuff. Jake was on Spring Break from school so we had one day as a play date with some friends from church. On Friday we went to see Monsters VS. Aliens in 3D. It was kind of a cute movie, but the 3D-ness was not so cool for me. By the end of the movie I had a major headache. Kind of like motion sickness. No more 3D movies for me. I could not wait to get out of there.
Saturday we went to yet ANOTHER Easter picnic at another ranch.

Kim, Rach, Johnny, Pete's mom
This one was much bigger than our picnic. There were easily over 300 people.

egg toss
We had a great time though. There was a big pond that Jake pretty much staked his claim on the entire day.
Jake and Grandpa (Pete's dad)
He was in heaven with fishing, collecting rocks, tadpoles, guppies, crawdads...all that fun little boy stuff. It was pretty warm that day so in the afternoon all the little redneck kids got neked and waded in the pond like good little country kids do. :)

And the liquid courage was flowing nicely with the adults...so there was a bunch jumping in the pond and many others getting picked up and thrown in! Thank goodness it wasn't me!

The last few days have been hot. And I don't mean like kinda warm. No. HOT. As in yesterday it was 100*. In April. Yeah. Now I'm all for warm weather, but 100* in April is pushing it just a little. This weekend is supposed to be back in the 70's though.
On my agenda this week:
try to get organized for Pete's business
fold a mountain of laundry
work on Pete's brochure (wah! this is harder that it seems)
find a way to keep realtor's from freely opening my door and walking in my house unannounced.
Sleep at least one night without being woke by: 1) a kid 2) a dog 3) a smoke alarm, or 4) by some weird dream. I have lots of weird dreams.
I guess that's it for now!

Crazy day

Have you ever seen a cupcake like this?! Seriously, how cool is that? A rainbow cupcake. This was from the party at Jake's school today. Please excuse the frosting under my thumb nail. :)

All you do is make a yellow or a white cake mix, separate it in 4 bowls and add the food coloring. then just layer the colors in the cupcake liners. How cute! It didn't taste all that great...but whatever. I don't think the colors had anything to do with the taste. Probably just a junky cake mix.

And check this out:

This was the kids lunch. 1/2 a bagel schmeared with cream cheese, an apple mouth, strawberry nose, blue berry eyes...and well the rest is pretty obvious. But aren't they cute? The other mom's and I were all saying how this will only be cute for another year or so and then it will be dumb. You know, to the kids. Kinda sad. Of course no one hardly ate these cute little bunnies. They were all too concerned about what was inside their eggs from the egg hunt earlier.
It's been a crazy day around here. I was ready for a nap by 1:30. First I woke up around 4:30. Our little dog, Nacho was barking ferociously at something. Nacho hardly ever barks so we knew something was up out there. And Maggie (the one who always barks) was not making a peep. Then in between the barks, we heard this other strange noise. So both Pete and I decided to get up, go downstairs and investigate. We're not exactly sure, but we're almost positive that Nacho is a Rat Terrier. When we went out to the kennel, both dogs happily came up to the gate. So we knew they weren't sick or anything. Pete said "What is it Nacho?" and he ran right over to this spot on the side of the house, stuck his nose up in the air and started barking away. What a smart dog! I guess there was some sort of critter that got itself stuck in between the slats of siding. I don't know, but that dang dog was obsessed. There was no turning him loose of that critter. In fact, he kept going all day and ended up chewing up the side of the house. Bad dog!
I went back and layed down after the dog inspection, but didn't really go back to sleep. The alarm was going to go off at 5 anyway. So I ended up just getting up after Pete left. I ran Jake to school at 8, came home and had coffee, only to turn around and go back to school at 10 to assist with the party. After school we ran to Costco and then to Safeway to get all the provisions for our party tomorrow up at the ranch. Hosting a party is really hard work! Not to mention expensive. But it will be fun. After coming home from the stores I started loading up the fridge with all the goodies and of course...I'm in a hurry because I've got to get the kids a snack...Megan is really, really whinny so I know she needs to go to bed....and what do I do?? Drop a brand new glass jar of yummy BBQ sauce out of the fridge and onto the tile floor of my kitchen. That's when Mommy Dearest first made her appearance. *sigh* It really wasn't a big deal, I was able to salvage most of the sauce. It just happened to happen at the wrong time and kinda sent me over the edge for a minute. No one was injured, just frantic screaming from me "GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN! GLASS ON THE FLOOR!!"
After that I put Megan to bed and proceeded to cut up 5 thousand strawberries for dessert tomorrow. I thought my hand might be permanently stained red. It's not.
The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. Aside from much whining and crying from 1 boy and 1 girl. Thankfully, Grandma called and invited Jake to come spend the night at her house. Hallelujah! I may have too eagerly accepted the invite and promptly dropped him off. :) By the time I got home it was time to stick the little one in bed.
*whew*
Now it's quiet. I can breath. Pete is on his way home. Tomorrow is another big day, but should be lots of fun. We have probably 300 eggs for the kids Easter egg hunt tomorrow! The guys are going to shoot clay pigeons. (I might too...it's kind of fun!)
Happy Easter everyone! Remember, it's not just about the Easter Bunny either. He died on the Cross for you (yes you) and for me.

hmmm..where to start?
Here I go staring at a blinking cursor again....
12 days ago a little girl went missing in my small-ish town. Eight year old Sandra Cantu just seemed to have vanished into thin air. Hundreds and hundreds of people began looking for her. Her picture posted on every lamp post and every stop sign in the city. We all prayed she would come home safe and sound. The police searched several homes and issued search warrants, but never seemed to indicate any real knowledge of what might have happened to this little girl. Ten days after her disappearance, her tiny body was found in suitcase dumped in a near by irrigation pond. I'm still getting goosebumps and a lump in my throat every time I think about it.
We all remember the names Polly Klaas, Elizabeth Smart, Steven Stainer and more recently Caylie Anthony. But never ever have I felt so disturbed, so bothered by, or just so affected by a child abduction. Maybe because this happened literally right on my own turf. Maybe simply because I'm a parent. I guess it's both. I've heard these stories like this many times before. But it's always someone else, somewhere else. It's very scary to think there is someone, a monster, out there right now living among us. Not to be naive...I know there are bad guys everywhere. But what happened to this girl.....it's just....not supposed to happen. To anyone.
I can not now, nor will I ever understand how anyone could do something like this to a child. Right now they are not saying whether this is a pedophile case or not. They aren't saying what happened to her, but one can only guess. But still....to be stuffed in a suitcase and thrown in a pond??! FOR WHAT?! I am so sad and I am so, so angry.
What I've been so moved by in the past few days is the real outpouring of support from the community here in Tracy. When the authorities scaled back the search for Sandra, volunteers went out posting signs and searching for her anyway. There have been nightly prayer vigils in front of her neighborhood. And since the announcement of the discovery of her body, the size of the make-shift memorial for her---I've never seen anything like it.
All this recent news has sparked a greater awareness of "stranger danger" among all of us here in Tracy, I think. I've always felt safe here in my neighborhood, but I never let my kids go anywhere without me, or without an adult. Jake isn't allowed to play outside unless there are other kids out to play with and I always have my windows open so I can hear what's going on outside. I have two sets of neighbors who are firemen. Yesterday one of them organized a party for her son and all the kids on our street to watch a "stranger danger" movie. It was a great idea. I know it seems silly to do it just because something bad happened, but if not now, then when? You know?
Well, here I am again...written all this but don't seem to know exactly how to end it. I guess just make sure you hug your kids tight and make sure to teach them about strangers. And say a prayer for Sandra Cantu's family. I can not even imagine what they are going through right now. I pray they can find some comfort knowing their baby girl is with Jesus. And I pray they find the person that did this.

P & C.

P: How do you spell certainly?
C: C-E-R-T-A-I-N-L-Y.
P: Ok that looks right.
P: But you spell certain c-e-r-t-E-n.
C: Uhhhh. No. Certain and Certainly are the exact same word only one has an L-Y on the end. (in my head: DUH!)
P: Are you positive?
C: Um no. Actually, I'm certain.
P: ha ha. no really, are you positive?
C: Yes. I am certain that certain and certainly are the same word only one is a verb and one is an adverb.
P: Huh?

*just wanted to add that I'm in no way trying to make my husband look stupid, nor do I think he is. This is just an example of a typical conversation between us: two people who never like to be wrong.

I didn't sleep well last night.
It's spring in Tracy and that pretty much means-WIND. Holly heck, was it windy last night. Normally, not a huge deal...but last night the wind was so bad it was catching in the exhaust fan on the roof of the house....which, apparently is right above our bedroom. It was making the most awful sound. Think of the biggest mosquito you could possibly imagine. Now think of that mosquito buzzing right in your ear. That's the only way I can think to describe it. I think I could have just ignored it and slept through it. But Pete...no. Pete was having a little man fit about it. And then every time I would hear it, I was wondering if this would be the time he got out of bed and tried to shoot the noise with a shotgun. I mean....it was bad. But there was nothing we could do about it. How do you stop some weird noise on your roof in the middle of the night?? Much tossing and turning from both sides of the bed last night. Then...to make it just a tiny bit worse...about 1:30 in the morning, a second noise started accompanying the prehistoric mosquito noise. Our neighbors just recently put their house up for sale. The sound was their metal sign flipping around and smacking itself on the the wood post. *sigh* it was crazy times last night.
So not much else going on around here. Besides the wind, its been so nice outside. So we've just been hanging out, going to the park, cleaning up the yard...that kind of thing.
I'm also trying to plan our Second Annual Easter at the Ranch party. Last year we went up to the ranch, had a BBQ and Easter egg hunt for the kids. It was really fun so we decided to do it again this year......only bigger. Last year it was just our family. This time....well this time I don't even know...Pete just keeps inviting people! Which is fine....except that I've been put in charge of organizing food and the all important Egg Hunt. Do you know how hard that is when you have no idea how many people to expect? Or how many kids there will be? Any suggestions on how to do a super cool egg hunt? I'm thinking of organizing some sort of fun things for the adults too. If you have any ideas, please let me know!!
I think that's all I got for now....

Back in Business.

At least I hope we are.
Over 200 dollars, countless hours on the phone and a week later, I think, I hope, my computer is fixed.
Apparently we had a whopper of a virus. Actually once all the scanning and deleting were done, there were over 450 suspicious, malicious, trojanish, wormish, adware, spyware and all kinds of junk on this computer. Yes, that is not a typo. Four HUNDRED and 50 baddies on here. I asked the technician...what did I do? How did it get so bad? And he didn't have an answer. He said sometimes it just happens.
One thing I can warn everybody about is a trojan or something called Spyware 2009. This is a major baddie. It acts just like Windows or your antivirus telling you that you have a virus. It asks you "do you want to stop this attack?" DON'T CLICK ON ANYTHING. NOT EVEN "NO". The technician said even if you click on "no" it still downloads it to your computer. And it ended up preventing all the antivirus on my computer from working and preventing us from downloading any other program to delete the bastard. (pardon my french) I was on the phone yesterday from about 2 in the afternoon until 7 o'clock last night while the tech fixed my computer remotely (from India).
Anyway I hope we got it taken care of.
On to other things...
We had a blast at Disneyland. Gosh, I just love that place. I ended up going on a couple of rides by myself (because the kids were too little so Pete and I just traded off with them) and after that experience I decided I could absolutely go to Disneyland all by myself and have a great time. Of course, its much more fun to share the experience, but if given the opportunity I'd go all by myself. I just love it so much.
The kids had a great time too. Megan (although you cant really tell from the pics) LOVED it. She loved every ride we put her on and just soaked up the whole experience.

Jake liked it too, although I was thinking he might need some therapy afterwards. See Pete and I are kind of mean. We put that kid on every ride he was big enough to go on. Including Space Mountain and the Hollywood Tower of Terror. YEP. Space Mountain is my favorite ride and I was so excited for him to go on it. He went on with Pete and when he got off I was like "come on! go on it with me!!!" and he didn't say anything. I said "didn't you like it??" He just looked at me for a second and then said. "It was STUPID." It actually scared the crap out of him. I guess we're mean parents. Oh well, it was good for him. :) After being home for a while he's calmed down a bit and decided that he had a great time. His favorite ride was Splash Mountain which really surprised me considering it has a big drop off at the end. Megan's favorite was probably Pirates of the Caribbean. (smart girl! i love that one too) Anyway, it was a great time. I'm so glad we went and got to have some time together. Megan was absolutely attached to her daddy the entire time. No one else was allowed to push her stroller-ever. It was sweet.
Last week we were blessed with a couple of really beautiful days. Thursday I took the kids for a picnic at the park and Friday we spent all afternoon cleaning up the yard. I'm so ready for the warm weather!!

Saturday it rained again so I spent most of the day cleaning up the house and doing a little scrapbooking.

I was lucky, Jake went to a birthday party and Megan took a good long nap so I basically had the afternoon to myself. It was nice.
Oh, and one more thing...I'm pretty sure this made national headlines--4 police officers were killed in the line of duty on Sunday here in Oakland. I was shocked and saddened to find out that one of them lived right down the street from me. I didn't know him personally, but I always saw him and his wife and kids out in the yard, they always were very active in the neighborhood. He worked for the Oakland PD since 1991. Anyway, I'm just very sad for his wife and children and if you're the praying type, if you could just remember the families of these guys who lost their lives, that would be great.

*ugh*

I don't even know what to write.
I'm so irritated beyond belief right now.
We had a super time in Disneyland...and right now I just want to go back! I just want to go back to vacation!
Right before we left, I'd had a few problems with a virus on my computer. I had virus protection and I thought that it had been taken care of. But as soon as we got home I noticed there was obviously still a problem. By Monday afternoon I was on the phone with the internet security company for probably 2 hours or more. We thought the problem was taken care of. Come to find out...that was just the beginning. Monday night Pete was checking his emails and all of a sudden all kinds of weird stuff started happening and then the whole thing shut down. At one point there was even random sound bytes coming out of my speakers spontaneously. It was really crazy.
I got back on the phone at 8 am Tuesday and spent the majority of the day either on my phone or on the computer (or both) trying to fix it. At one point, I was on the phone with tech, my other line was beeping in my ear..I look at the phone and see it the school calling. I put the tech girl on hold, answered the phone fearing something terrible had happened, only to find out that Jake had spilled water all down the front of him and needed a change of clothes. I then had to grab my cell phone, text my SIL (who was super busy) to come over and get some clothes and take them to Jake. It was just kind of insane. The last straw for me last night was when I received an email from Tech Support that instructed me to unintstall and then reinstall my virus/security software. I followed the directions just as instructed to. After I'd uninstalled and began reinstalling, I was prompted for a product serial number. uh.....WHAT?! The product was installed at the factory, hence I did not have a serial number. Well, I DID have one...but I uninstalled the program and was not instructed to retrieve the number before I uninstalled the program. This might seem like common sense to some...but I really don't know that much about computers. You've got to spell it out for me. So there I was...after about 8 hours of installing, uninstalling, creating system files, waiting for emails etc... and then looking at this blinking cursor as it waited for some magic number I did not have. {insert brief period of tears here.}
It seems stupid to get so worked up about something that...really?...in the big picture....what does it really mean? NOTHING. But unfortunately, in the age we live in, it almost seems impossible. Of course, I use the computer mostly for casual stuff. But I've begun paying my bills online, and we run a business...all of Petes business stuff is stored on this machine. To think of not having a computer...well honestly, kind of freaks me out.
At this point the computer is still broke. It seems silly to even be on the internet when the internet is what is causing all this crap. But I'm still waiting for an email as to what to do next.
And now the crazy sounds are coming out of the speakers again. AHHHH!!!
Anyway, I'm dreading getting back on the phone today. I can't even bear the thought of talking to another techy. I can't even bear the thought of uninstalling or reinstalling anything else. I wish the genie could just twiddle her nose and fix it.

I've started and deleted this post about three times in the past week. I guess the long and the short of it is....I just don't have anything real interesting to write about. And I keep staring at a blinking cursor wondering what to type next.
One thing that's been on my mind lately...my neighbors. We have some really great ones and some really snobby ones, and some really irritating ones. One thing I will not miss if we ever move from here is the neighbors with the crazy dogs. You remember...the Attack Dog that jumped on Jake? The thing is..they're actually really nice people. They always say "hi" when we see each other. They've invited us to BBQ's. They even throw doggie biscuits over the fence to our dogs. But they drive Pete and I absolutely NUTS. Here's the thing...and I admit, some of it is my issue, because it really involves MY dog....But these neighbors come home at like 1 o'clock in the morning. And as soon as they open their garage door, MY dog starts barking like crazy. And of course it wakes us up. We lay there for a minute hoping they'll just go inside and she'll stop. But then the neighbors let their Attack Dog loose in the ally-way. (because it's the only 'safe' time they have to let the dog out lest it attack someone) And that just makes my dog go even MORE crazy. And the people just stand out there in their driveway and talk and laugh and....whatever like it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And my dog just keeps on barking. And then I get up and bang on the window. But she still barks because the Attack Dog is now sniffing on the other side of the fence. And then Pete gets up and goes downstairs, then outside and yells at Maggie to be quiet. And the people still stand out there like it's no big deal. But it is a big deal at 1 in the morning! And then then they finally go in and I lay there wide awake. And then I decide I need to get up and pee. So I get up again and go. And then I lay back down and stare at the ceiling for another hour before I finally fall back asleep.
*whew* well that was a rant, yeah? It's just so annoying. I will not miss that.
Only 2 days until we leave for Disneyland! Jake is finally getting the concept of time. We've been talking about, and talking about, and talking about this trip for weeks. And we keep saying "soon!", "soon!" "couple more weeks!". But you know to a kid...really that hardly makes any sense to them. Finally on Friday Jake understood just how soon the trip really is. I told him just 5 more days. "Five more weeks!?", he said. "No, five more days", I said. "ooooh", he said. But I could tell he still didn't quite get it. So I put it kid terms: "two stay-at-home days and two school days and then we're going". And that was the ticket. So all this afternoon he's been going around yelling...One more school day! One more school day!
Today I went and picked up a bunch of snacks for the drive down. It's only about 5 or 6 hours from our house, but regardless....Road trip=major snack fest! I also picked up lap boards, coloring books and crayons for the kids to keep them occupied. We have a portable DVD player...but it's pretty much a P.O.S. so I'm planning ahead in case of DVD meltdown. And as Pete says, (in his big man voice) "we never had that kind of stuff when we were kids! They will learn to behave in a car just like we had to". Which of course, he's right....but all of us moms know how handy that little machine is sometimes!
Anyway, so I guess that's it. I'll be back next week with pictures! :)

It's no secret...

I love food.
I think one of the coolest things I've been able to do since being home is actually learning to enjoy cooking. To enjoy the process of it. I remember when I was working...around 4 o'clock I'd look up from my desk at the clock on the wall and would almost start panicking about what to make for dinner. I'd pray that I actually remembered to take something out to defrost. I'd hope there was a jar of spaghetti sauce in the pantry. At 6 o'clock I'd run in, take my shoes off and immediately get a pan going on the stove. (meanwhile kids running around the kitchen island screaming at me...they hadn't seen me all day and I still couldn't give them 100% of my attention.) I hated it. I dreaded it. Not always, but most of the time anyway.
Anyway Pete and I were talking about it the other day...In the past year I've almost eliminated "boxed" food from our house. Except for the occasional box of Mac-n-Cheese, I almost always make home-made. No more Hamburger Helper, frozen lasagna, pasta in a bag. Don't get me wrong...I don't make everything (I still buy jarred spaghetti sauce--it's good!), but our consumption of pre-made, packaged food has dramatically decreased. And we all like it. I enjoy the process of making it, and my family enjoys the process of eating it. :)
I still have plenty of days of dreading making dinner, or not having a clue as to what to make but it is so much less stressful than it used to be.
Two things I've made lately that my family really liked:
Steak Fajitas-in the crock pot. Mmmmmmm! I really wasn't too sure about this one, but I decided to try it out anyway. The best thing is, it cooks in the crock pot, but not all day. I put this in at 2 on high, and it was done by 5. I turned it down to low until we were ready to eat.
Throw some steak cut into strips (the recipe called for flank steak but I used tri-tip b/c it's what I had) into the crock pot. Slice up some onion and bell peppers, put it on top of the meat. Salt. Pepper. Open a can of diced tomatoes and dump it in. Dump in about a tablespoon of chili powder and a teaspoon of cumin, a clove or two of garlic, and some cilantro if you have it. Put the lid on and turn it on.
The meat was SO tender and yummy. Inside a tortilla with cheese and sour cream--YUM.

The 2nd is a home-made alfredo sauce. Sure they make it in the jar, or even in the 'fresh' pasta at the store, but this is so easy. Plus my kids totally love it.
2Tbls butter
4oz cream cheese (I use the low fat stuff)
Melt the butter and then add the cream cheese. Melt it all together until it's creamy. Add a cup of milk, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, a little garlic powder and some black pepper. Use a whisk and stir it all together. It will thicken up if you let it sit for a bit. By the time your noodles are done cooking, the sauce is ready. It's so good!
Anyway, just thought I'd share.
I'm still patiently waiting for our vacation, but my mood is much much better this week. I'm still sewing like crazy. Who knew I would like it so much? Why did I wait all this time to get the machine out? My grandma taught me how to sew when I was a little girl and I really didn't enjoy it. It wasn't enough instant gratification for me. But that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
Oh, and I'm still doing Pilate's just about every day. I think it's been almost a month now. I'm seriously loving it. It's so weird to say that... I don't think I've lost any weight, but Pete swears my tummy is flatter. I really don't know, but if he says so well I guess that's good enough!
Ok now I'm just starting ramble so I better sign off before this post loses all it's luster (ha ha)

Crabby Patty.

Boy have I been in a cranky mood lately. I have been in a funk over a week. And honestly, I can't even begin to say why. I don't know. It's the kids, it's the weather, it's the fact that I've wiped the same counter over and over and over again every single day, it's the fact that I just cleaned the floor yesterday and now it's sticky again, it's the "but moooommmy"s after every single thing I say, it's the never ending dishes and laundry......
I need a vacation. WE need a vacation. March 11th can not get here soon enough. Two and a half more weeks.
Today I vowed to get myself out of this funk. To not be so short with my kids. The morning started off a little rough. I lay in my bed at 7:30 just barely awake when I hear Jake in his room banging on the wall. I don't know what it is...but neither one of my kids will get up without me telling them they can. They will both stay in their beds and yell at me (or bang on the wall) until I get up and tell them to get up. Isn't that weird? I don't think I've ever said "you're not allowed to get up". But they don't. And seriously, why is Jake pounding on the wall at 7:30 in the morning on Saturday, but I can't drag him out of bed at 7:15 on a school day?
So yeah...the banging on the wall did not start me off well this morning.
But this afternoon seems better.
Jake is outside playing with the neighbors.
Megan and I have been playing nicely together.
I bought some remnant fabric at WalMart this morning (why is WalMart the only 'fabric' store in my town??) so I could practice sewing a bit more. I made Meg a little blankie for her babies and then she and I sat in her room and played with all her dolls and her little kitchen set for about 2 hours. We had a good time. And now, thankfully, she's taking a little nap. And....I think I'm going to take one too.....

Rain. Rain. oh...and more rain.

It has been raining. All. Day. Long. And the day before that. And the day before that.
That's all I have to report.
We've done nothing but watch Nim's Island and Flicka 45million times each.
I'm tired of winter.
I'm ready for warmer weather and sunny skies!
See...this is exactly how boring it's been around here.

Sometimes (ok maybe all the time) I really hate having a lock box on my front door. Our house is still up for sale. We haven't had much activity on it at all. (hello, the economy sucks, real estate market sucks, etc..etc...) But every now and then I get some idiot real estate agent who thinks just because they have a lock box key, and just because every other house with a for-sale sign in the neighborhood is vacant, they think they can just unlock my door and walk right in. Walk. Right. In. Without knocking. Without ringing the doorbell.
YEAH.
This has happened twice in the past 2 weeks. TWICE! Since when do you just go tromping through neighborhoods opening doors? Aren't you supposed to do some research in the office before you take your clients out? Call the listing agent? Look at the MLS??? Our listing clearly says to call first. I know the market is different now, but COME ON! Do I need to post a sign on the door? "THIS HOUSE IS NOT VACANT"
I feel like taking a sledge hammer to that freaking lock box and throwing it at someone (not to be named).
*Ahem*
In other neighborhood craziness....Jake comes home from playing outside the other day and casually says "I got in a dog fight today mommy". A dog fight? Yeah. Background story: My neighbors behind us 'rescued' a stray dog a while back. The dog has previously shown very aggressive behavior. I have no idea why they keep this thing. I love dogs, I really do...but if they are dangerous to others than something needs to be done. The dog has charged at Pete once and once at Jake. And I'm not being overly dramatic. I'm not afraid of dogs, but this dog scares me. So anyway Jake says "I got in a dog fight" and come to find out it was this particular dog. Apparently Jake was just walking home and the dog charged down the ally, barking with his teeth showing as it ran and jumped on Jake from the back and pushed him down to the ground. Jake has a huge scratches all the way down his back from this dog. The owner came running out of her house, sicks her dog off of him, and then tells Jake to stay away from the dog. HELLO! Keep your freaking attack dog in the yard! They know the dog has issues, and yet they keep it. This is the 2nd time it has done this to my kid. They are SO lucky nothing major has happened. Their going to be really sorry when some body's kid gets bit. And it better not be my kid!
In happier news...
I've been planning our Disneyland trip. Pete didn't find my notes all over the house too humorous. ha ha!! He laughed though. He says "women always have to go over the top to make a point". What ever works, dude!
Anyway, we're all getting really excited for our trip. Jake keeps telling Megan:
"And we're going to sleep in a hotel!"
"And there's going to be an inside pool and an inside hot tub!" That's all he seems to really care about. There's been no mention of Mickey Mouse or magic or rides, just the inside pool. Kids are so funny.

Pilates and Disney

I just finished a 30 minute Pilates work out for the 3rd day in a row. For those of you who know me, you might be wondering who or what invaded my brain to make me do such a thing. I do not exercise. I do not like it. I especially hate to sweat. But you know the fact of life is...if you don't move a little, you're eventually going to turn into Jabba the Hut. And well I don't wan to be Jabba the Hut. I went to the doctor last week and discovered that I had gained back about 12 of the 27 lbs. I lost in 2007. Ok, so I didn't just discover it. I had just been ignoring it. But seeing it for real on that blinking digital screen made me say "yep, I don't much care for that number." So, I was at Target the other day and I found this Pilates video for 10 bucks and decided to go ahead and buy it. Why Pilates? I don't know. But I know it's not cardio. I was going to try yoga...but I don't think I'm really in to the whole "clear your mind and be one with the Earth" thing. Which, I'm sure is a complete stereotype. I have no idea. But I have visions of Hippies from Berkeley wearing Birkenstocks and hugging trees doing yoga. Forgive me if you actually do yoga. I'm not making fun of you at all! This is just me trying to be funny and talking about something I know absolutely nothing about!
Anyway so it's been 3 days. I'm not sure your supposed to do the same type of exercise 3 days in a row. But I'm kind of afraid that if I skip a day....then that will be it and I'll forget all about it. And.....please don't repeat this because it could totally ruin my reputation.....but..... I kind of really like it.
What does any of this have to do with Disney? Nothing really. Except that we're going to Disneyland in 38 days. Do you think my tummy will be flat in 38 days? I didn't think so either, but one can dream, right?
So here's the story about Disneyland. We've been trying to plan a trip down there for a while. Like seriously over a year. First we were going to go in December. I really wanted the kids (and Pete) to see the holiday decorations. Disney just goes over the top at Christmas and it's just so cool. We were very close to going and then decided against it for financial reasons and just being too close to Christmas. At that point we decided definitely: February. We usually always go in February anyway so we'd just stick to that plan. So last week I started finalizing our plans..looking for hotel and ticket deals and securing the dates of Feb. 11-15th. When all of a sudden I hear Pete talking to his business partners about getting this shipment of pigs for the ranch....coming all the way from Canada...should be here the 2nd week of February. Ever since I've known this man he has been notorious for double booking himself. Constantly. Anyway I don't mean to blame Pete. It's really not his fault. He's getting these pigs for a steal and there really is no set date as to when they'll be here. SO we are pushing back the trip AGAIN until March 11th to be on the safe side. But I told him I'm not delaying this anymore. We're going in March and that is that! And he agreed. But he also said "Put a note on the fridge with the dates so I don't forget". I don't know why he constantly needs to be reminded, but he does. So today I put a sign on the fridge....Then I went to Michael's and bought a huge poster board and wrote DISNEYLAND MARCH 11-15TH and taped it to the garage door. Then I went and got a pad of sticky notes and proceeded to stick Disneyland reminders on: the computer monitor, the phone, the coffee pot, next to the toilet paper in our bathroom, on the bathroom mirror, in his sock drawer, on the lamp next to the bed, on his pillow, on the dashboard of his car, on the rear view mirror, and in his lunch box. Do you think that will do the trick?