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?

Wednesday ramblings.

*Two of my really good friends are at Disneyland right now and I really, really wish I could be there. I was supposed to go for a day last week but ended up getting really sick. I'm better now, but still can't go :(
*We are planning a family trip to Disneyland though!! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Just need to work out the details with Pete.
*Tomorrow is my one year anniversary of being a stay at home mom!
*We're going with the Kindergarten class on a field trip to the hospital tomorrow.
*I've written about my neighbors Towering Terror of Dirty Dishes before. It's pretty insane. Even Pete has noticed. Again..I certainly don't mean to judge her. She could easily come in my house and ask why there are 3 loads of clean laundry in my laundry room not folded. She could ask why there is still Cheerios under my table from breakfast. She could ask why the pile of junk next to the phone never seems to get any smaller. My point is, I'm not trying to say I'm better than her in any way. It's just that I SEE the HUGE PILE of nastiness dishes every time I walk up or down my stairs. There is a huge window there and I see it. I'm not trying to see it...I just do. If her dishwasher is anything like mine, it's the smallest dishwasher known to man. So I get that. I have to run mine at least once a day. Mine is full to the brim running right now and I still have a sink full of dishes. However, my dishes are rinsed. There is no evidence of the food that once lay upon them. The thing that really gets me though....she has 3 kids. 7,9 and 13. Why aren't they helping mom out?? Why don't they have chores? Jake is only 5 and he already has chores. Oh well. At least I don't have to clean her dishes.
*Not to get all political...but what the heck is going on? I read the news just about every day and every day it just sounds worse and worse. California especially. The state has no money. In fact they will be sending out IOU's for tax refunds. There is no more money in the unemployment fund. They are getting 2 billion dollars in bailout money from the feds and that will only last until the end of February. (!!!) Oh and get this...the schools are struggling every day to keep supplies and teachers and all the important stuff for our kids...they're laying people off left and right and then I read that the Superintendent of one of the larger districts in Northern California just got 4% raise in wages. He already made over 200 thousand dollars a year. They're talking about cutting out music and P.E. and this idiot is laughing all the way to the bank. What is up with that??
*enough of that. I really don't know what I'm talking about anyway.
*Megan is fully potty trained now and uses the potty as an excuse to get out of anything she doesn't want to do. She's pretty smart. I say "Ok, time to clean up!" and she says "I need go pee pee." I say "Megan, finish your food" and she says "I need go poo poo!" And I say " Meeegaaan this is not a game you need to eat your food and then you can go potty " then she starts screaming NEED GO POO POO! so of course then I just let her go because sheesh it's only been like 3 weeks and well, maybe she really does have to go and then what if I don't let her go and then she craps her pants and THEN well..what fine mess that will be.
*She's horrible at cleaning up. horrible. If she doesn't tell me she has to go potty, she walks around in circles with one thing in her hand to make it look like she's cleaning. Tonight she even tried barking orders at Jake to clean up her toys.
*I keep finding ants on my kitchen counter. Not a lot, just like 3 or 4 at a time. I can't figure out where they are coming from. It's like they just fall from the sky. I spray and spray and they just keep coming back. It grosses me out. I do not like ants.
*I can't think of anything else.
*This is enough random for one Wednesday isn't it?

Computer crack addiction.

I can't believe it's been over a week since I've posted to this blog. I guess I just don't have anything to write about. Same ol'-same ol' around here.
One thing that has been keeping me....well, occupied I guess...is Facebook. OMGosh. Who turned me on to this computer generated, time sucking crack addiction?? It started out as just another place to hook up with my online blog buddies and has quickly turned into a place where all my old friends live, and Pathwords and Wordtwist games, and status updates, and movie quizes, and pictures from 6th grade and prom night, old boy friends, and people who I'd completely forgotten about..... Computer Crack!
Someone help me.
I'll be back later.
I have to go check my Wall again.

well that didn't take long.

I seriously thought it would be a few more days before I could get back online. But I got all fixed up today. :) Luckily, I didn't lose anything on my hard drive---which is a total blessing, because the guy at Dell said "you probably should back up your hard drive before the technician comes out" but didn't say anything about the fact that if I didn't, I wouldn't even have an operating system. As in Windows. I don't know a whole lot about computers, so you really need to spell this stuff out for me, ya know. Jeesh. Anyway, no worries. All is good. But seriously, why would they send you out a new hard drive with nothing on it? Especially if they thought the reason your computer is not working is because of 'a failure with the hard drive'. It makes no sense to me.
Anyway the computer crashed Saturday when I was right in the middle of uploading and editing some pictures I took at the San Francisco Zoo, and the beach that afternoon. I'm so glad I didn't lose any of those pictures! Pete's sister Rachael asked me on Friday if I wanted to do something with her over the weekend and we decided to go over to the city. It was such a beautiful day over there! Seriously, we both got a good case of Spring Fever. (and it's only January!) This time of year San Francisco is often much warmer than it is in the valley were I live. I think it's probably one of the best times of the year to visit SF.

This is Caitlin. I think she's so photogenic. Snaggle teeth and all. :)

Jake with his big goober face. : Megan's not looking much better!

Another goofy face from Jake. *sigh*

And then we stopped at the beach. It's just a block from the zoo. You would have thought Jake had died and gone to heaven. He got out of the car, looked out to the sea and said with all his heart, "oh mommy! this is AMAZING! This is a dream come true!". When we got down to the water he immediately started his search for 'treasure'. And Megan....she didn't quite know what to do. She just ran around and circles for about 10 minutes before she settled in with some sand digging.






It felt good to get out and do something. I've felt so cooped up lately. I'm hoping there are more days like this to come!

Crash and burn.

My computer completely crashed. :( I'll be back in a week or so.

My days are all messed up.

I keep thinking today is Monday. But it's Tuesday. Right? Right. It was bad having holiday's in the middle of the week. Thursday felt like Saturday. Friday felt like Sunday. Saturday felt like it should really be Monday. And by Sunday, I had no idea what we were doing anymore. Everything was all screwed up. I was SO looking forward to yesterday. Yesterday was the day I was going rewind and start over. I had plans of taking Jake to school, coming home and going on a walk (which I haven't done in forever), running a few errands and getting life back on track. Back on schedule. Even before the holidays I had been slacking on a bunch of stuff and yesterday was the day I picked to get it all back in order.
Sunday night I printed out some cute little note cards so I could make my lists, and started planning out my week. This was going to be good, I thought. A fresh start with the new year.
Then....the school called. They cancelled school. I knew right then this wasn't going to be good. It felt like a tiny hole had been pricked in my bubble and I could feel the air slowly seeping out of it.
They cancelled school due to a gas main break, which was a good thing to cancel school for.
Anyway, sure....sure I could have still done all my list stuff even if Jake didn't have school. The school factor shouldn't stop me, right? Well right. Except...except it was raining yesterday. And *poof* just like that my bubble had completely burst.
I did accomplish a few things on my list. Like, I did end up cleaning Megan's closet out. And I did get the laundry folded. And I did get myself to the store for more milk. So, I guess it didn't turn out all that bad. Except for that walk. That's what I was really looking forward to. It's one of those things that I know once I just do it, I'll like it and I'll keep doing it. At least for a while! It was the rain that stopped me. I know, poor excuse. It's not like it was hurricane or anything!
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will walk! (said like Bravehart with my sword held high)
Today finally, everything is sort of back on schedule. Tuesdays I help out in Jake's class, which I really enjoy. But it kind of messes everything up for the rest of the day. I go in at 8 and stay until 10. But school gets out at 11:30. So it doesn't really give me much time to do anything before I have to run back out to pick him up. Tuesday's always end up being a wash for me.
Hello...could this post BE any more boring?
Anyway, here's to getting back on track for tomorrow. :)

Woops!

Comments are now open on my photo blog. I always forget to set that up at the beginning. Anyway, it's good. Comment away if you want :D

That wasn't so bad.

It's been just over a week since I decided to start potty training Megan. And dare I say it?? But...I think she's got it. I was just about to give up. Let it go for a week or two....I mean, she peed on my chair, she pooped on my floor, and it seemed like absolute torture every time I set her on the potty. But something caused me to just keep going. It felt like she was sort of getting it, but there was just something missing. The answer was time, consistency and leaving her alone. It's funny how it ends up being a learning experience for both of you. It really seemed to click on Tuesday. I set her down. She cried and cried. I said "I'll be right back". She cried some more and then got real quiet. All of a sudden she goes "MOMMA! I GOING!" And that was it. She just needed me to leave the room. It's been 4 days now of dry and no accidents. Which also includes an entire day away from home and long car rides. Yeah. I'm pretty happy about it. *I knew I shouldn't have said anything. Right after I wrote this she peed on the floor! LOL! oh well, she's still doing pretty good!*

New years eve was pretty uneventful. It went just about like I wrote in my last post. We didn't make it to midnight, though I did get woke up by our neighbors blowing their horns at 11 and then again at 12. It was cool. But they went on and on for like 20 minutes with the horns and screaming. The next day we got up, had a big breakfast and then headed to the ranch. It was a fun day just hanging out up there and watching Pete work, and me cleaning up the cabin a bit.

Today I took down the tree and put all the Christmas stuff away. I just hate that chore! But it feels good now to have it done. Time to get on with it. I can't help but look in living room and think there's something missing now though! And it's dark in there...no more light from the tree and the garland on the mantel.

I decided to go ahead and attempt the 365 project once again. There's just too much good stuff that comes out of it to not do it. I need to do it. So I created a new blog: With Love, 2009 for my daily pictures. Which brings me to my word for 2009. I wasn't even going to pick a word this year. I wasn't feeling it. But then I read something today (on a food blog, actually) and it just kind of clicked. The author said whatever you do in 2009, do it with love. If you do it with love, it will always be great. And isn't that so true? If you really put your heart into something....it just turns out better, every time. So that's my word. Love. I would have NEVER picked that word on my own. It seems so cheesy and lovey dovey. But that one little sentence really stuck and it just seemed to fit. So I'm going with it.

Are you doing the 365? Did you set up a place for your pics? Link me up so I can check it out, ok?