Praying for Time.

I watched some of the American Idol final last week and the George Michael song, Praying for Time has been in my head since then. I looked up the original version and I like the way he sang it last week better. On the finale, in the first few minutes of the song I thought he was kind of pitiful, but by the end of it I was thinking wow. The more I hear it [thank you/curses youtube] the more strength I see in him, the more I like the song. Obviously, since I can't get it out of my head!


Nice long weekend. Tony and I became Mia's Godparents on Sunday. It's a very sweet thing. We baptized Mia at the 9 a.m. mass and later had the family at our house for the afternoon, Tony barbecued and everything turned out really nice. I made the cake, I was very happy with it. Sweet. God Bless Mia.

Then Memorial Day was nice and slow and easy. We rode our bikes to the park to play tennis. I haven't played tennis in years and I forgot how much I LOVE TENNIS. I told Tony last night that we should go play a couple of nights a week and he thinks that is a good idea, so that's number two on my list of family to do's for the summer.

1. Make lots of jello
2. Play lots of tennis

This week is a closer, the last week of school. Today we have Girl Scouts and T-ball so I have to get moving, get things in order here. Maybe we should all be praying for time. Do you think we have time? -see, there it goes again!

How Do You Like These Apples?

It's the work of my curious little freak sweetie-pie, Wyatt. I saw him with the stapler, he had a guilty look on his face but I didn't notice the apples that he had put back into the fruit basket until hours later. What a combination, staples and apples. Little weirdo darling.

Too Much Hot.

Over the last five days or so we have been over or on or under but very nearly at 100 degrees. The average here for this time of year is low 80's. This crazy record setting weather madness is too much too soon. I don't even think we had one day in the 90's before the seriously hot stuff struck. Phewwwwww! Tomorrow we are finally supposed to jump back down to normal and not soon enough, I call 100's in May unfair. This is spring for crying out very very loud!

Not much to report really, we are hanging out close to home lately. Seriously considering putting in a swimming pool, oh yes we are! I don't have details and I don't know exactly when but those wheels are a turnin'! Clickety clack.

The garden is growing strong, our four year old lemon tree is bearing fruit for the first time too which makes me really happy! We have harvested radishes, but they are mostly going to waste because they are the really hot variety and I'm just not built for that kind of heat. It's a crying shame too because I love radishes. I remember when I was pregnant with Eva, Tony would go to the store just to buy me that little red bunch. True love. We'll have to pick the variety more carefully next time I suppose. The carrots and the cilantro are not doing well, only a few sprigs or sprouts, but all the peppers, bell and otherwise [for Tony, he likes 'em hot] and the tomatoes are just fine. My gardeners have newly planted a cucumber vine, as they are my favorite garden veggie, and also a bean plant that Sarah brought home from school a few weeks ago. That bean plant is so tall already that we had to put it on a beanpole. That cracks me up, beanpole, there really is such a thing, it's not just a silly name my Mother used to call me when I was little. Who knew?

T-ball is still going strong, piano lessons are too. Next week is the last week of school and although I am looking forward to the break, it is also kind of sad. I get a little choked up at the end of the school year. It's a little like the feeling I always have on New Year's Eve, one more behind us, gulp, a little bit emotional for me. It's change. It's not because I have spent any time on campus or anything because I haven't. I'm not that kind of Mom, though I'd like to be, it's a childcare thing, paradoxically, I've always had the littler ones at home. Kind of makes me feel like a bad Momma. Maybe I'll make up for it a bit when Eva goes to school, or maybe I'll have a job and let it slip away, who knows?

Big family weekend [Tony's] up next. Our nephew is going to be confirmed on Saturday, and on Sunday we are baptizing our niece Mia. I made these little seed packet favors and I am so tickled with myself because they are [tooting my horn right here] absolutely beauty full! Toot toot! I'll take a picture and share when I get them all finished. Tooty toot toot!

Just Like Jello.

Another busy week underway. The good news is that two of the four things we have on the schedule for the evenings this week have been postponed/cancelled. Hallelujah!

Mother's Day was good and plenty busy. We went to mass, went to lunch, went to Target, went to Starbucks, then to my in-laws and finally got home around seven. It was not a restful day but it was a good day.

My brothers and sisters-in-law all get together only two or three times a year, so it was nice to see everyone in one place. Tony has four brothers and four sisters. His sisters are all local, no more than five or ten minutes away. His brothers are the opposite, they are all over, the closest is in Fresno, about an hour away. Eva had her first experience with Jello on Sunday. Hard to believe, but I don't ever make it. It was green. It was funny. She was afraid of it and at first she would only lick it. By the end of it she was shoving handfuls into her mouth!

I am definitely making lots of Jello this summer!

TGIF.

Sometimes putting together a blog post can suck up a lot of time, so I’m giving myself a time limit. If it seems like I am going fast, it’s because I am.

Today I had two cups of coffee before I drank two sodas. I don’t know what I was thinking. The coffee I get, but the sodas were totally unnecessary. I was at a restaurant, without kids [slow grin] and blabbing my mouth when the server brought number two and I just kept sipping! It was a luncheon given for the volunteers of my Mom’s group. Sort of a thank you and see you next semester kind of thing, it was nice. It was also nice of my MIL to watch my youngest youngsters for a few hours to give me a much needed break, I thank God for her.

Thank God also for my Mom and Jim who gave us the anniversary gift of dinner alone without the kids last weekend. Our 11th anniversary was Saturday, and that night we set out alone to downtown Sacramento and had a memorable dinner at Chevy’s on the river. It was Cinco de Mayo party night for most people there and it was kind of a wild place [use your imagination] but we were seated outside on the second floor overlooking the river, far from the bar, so it wasn't obnoxious. Casual, sort of magical, dreamy even.

Sunday and we went to mass in downtown Sac as well. The Cathedral [of the Blessed Sacrament] there has been completely restored and it’s so so beautiful and magnificent inside and out. I am thankful just to visit and enter and view and take in and savor all the gloriousness and beauty of all that is visual. Add the spiritual to the physical and it’s so darn inspiring sometimes. Some Catholic churches are downright scary though, I admit that, I’ve been to a few scary ones.

Right outside the Cathedral is sort of a square that can take you, in just a few steps to the Capitol building. I have driven past but never stopped or toured it. It’s a cool building, very capitol like. I could just see Arnold hanging outside with his buddies then going in the massive doors, turning his head and giving them an “I’ll be baaack.” Wow. I still can’t believe Arnold is our governor. What’s that really all about?

It has been a frenzy of a week. May is full up with stuff to do. The brakes are going to smoke on the last day of this month when everything STOPS! I am going to be HAPPY, trust me. I can handle four kids at home better than these crazy days of running all over the place, double booked, all listed out and pre-planned everything nuts. Bring it. I received a Mother’s day card today from my Mother [thanks Mom ;)] that had an illustration of a woman answering the phone, doorbell ringing, kid hanging on her leg, dinner overflowing on the stove, typing on the computer, lists flying off the desk and dog and cat chasing each other. All but the pet part is me, some days, not all. We don’t do pets, we visit other peoples pets. I could not handle one more breathing thing to take care of. I have plenty, thank you; I really don’t even want anymore plants.

I am not doing much TV watching except for this: I am finally all caught up on Survivor [thanks to internet recaps], just in time for the finale Sunday night [I'm rooting for the nice girl, go Amanda!] And Grey's is good. Better than before the strike, I think. Maybe it was the extra time they had to think about it.

Two notable firsts this week:

1. Sarah lost her first tooth. And I mean that literally, it vanished after it finally fell out of her mouth. She had been wiggling it for months. We were staying overnight with my Mom Saturday night and she woke up in the morning with bloody hand socks [that’s what we call the socks that she wears on her hands at night so she doesn’t scratch] and no tooth in her mouth. I don’t get it. Maybe she ate it. I guess it doesn’t matter, except for the fairy. It happened to Emily once and we wrote a note to the fairy and left that under her pillow. She was excused by the fairy and received a treat [we usually do a golden dollar and a very small toy]. Sarah isn’t showing any interest in the note or the fairy so I haven’t pressed her to write it. Plus, I’m empty and need to go to the bank for golden dollars.

2. Emily started piano lessons. This is very exciting because she has expressed interest for years. When I discovered that Sarah’s catechism teacher gives lessons we signed her up. She is practicing on a toy piano that was loaned to us by her piano teacher. We’ll wait to see if her interest holds before we step out and shop for the real deal.

Tony gave me a new camera for our anniversary, that +
the places we have visited lately are hard to take a bad photo in front of +
the busy week we have had +
the fact that I never leave the house without my camera =
too many pictures this week to do anything but a slideshow.



There you go. Time's up. I’ve got to go and get this Friday night started. Peace and love and have a sweet weekend. To all the mothers and daughters, I hope you have a very happy day on Sunday. I’ll be thinking about you.

¡Feliz Aniversario Mi Amor!

Para todos los demás, feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Hit and Run.

I'm having so much fun with T-ball. These two are both very enthusiastic players! Look at Sarah's great form! She bats right, throws left and dances, jumps, and twirls in the outfield! It's really fun to watch.Wyatt races across the field for every single ball and slides into every attempt to scoop it up. He's also quite a heavy hitter. Emily played T-ball three seasons, then Pee-wee one season. Tony coached all of Emily's teams but he's retired--for now. Emily isn't doing softball or any variation of the baseball anymore, hmmmmmm. No, really, he was an awesome coach!

Zoom up [click on the picture to make it bigger] these next two of Wyatt, his facial expressions are completely zoom worthy!
I'm on the run this morning myself. Up first, get the girls off to school, then I'll hit my Moms meeting, after that who knows? Another road trip could be just the thing!

Have a great weekend! It's totally May!