Still Crazy After All This Year.

2009, please don't go! Was it something I said?

I am a little sad that this decade is closing. Our decades go too fast, like everything else in our lives.

My sentiment and love for lost decades began on December 31, 1979. My folks had friends over for New Years Eve, I don't know if you'd call it a party though. We were in our beds, Renee and I. We couldn't sleep. Maybe it was the noise of the grown-ups, maybe it was something else. But I remember as clearly as if it were yesterday, Jim coming into our room. He probably came in to tell us to settle down but he ended up on his knees at our bedside telling us something like:

"You have lived your entire life in the 70's. That is all over now. You have a brand new decade right now and whatever you remember in your life was in the decade that is now passing. The 80's are here!"

It was one of those moments that I sort of took a mental picture in my head and it stuck with me. I think he was inspired and hopeful about the new decade. Or maybe it was the New Year's Eve liquor. Either way, it was a tad doomsday, but mostly something positive and enduring that always stayed with me. He had this way of highlighting the greatness of a moment [he always did that with the Olympics too.] I guess it gave me sort of a grand global perspective that I needed and appreciated. It also made me feel hopeful. Kind of like I do right now.

I do miss the 70's, they were so much fun. In the decade of childhood, being a kid was fun.



Yep, you are looking at the original Barbie Townhouse in that bottom middle photo, that elevator was such a marvel; an extraordinary feat of engineering!

Happy New Year!

Found Today: Two Gems.

One. On living in the moment:

One day some people came to the master
and asked: How can you be happy
in a world of such impermanence,
where you cannot protect your loved ones
from harm, illness or death?
The master held up a glass and said:
Someone gave me this glass;
It holds my water admirably
and it glistens in the sunlight.
I touch it and it rings!
One day the wind
may blow it off the shelf,
or my elbow
may knock it from the table.
I know this glass is already broken,
so I enjoy it -- incredibly.

-Achaan Chah Subato


Two. On growing our children:

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?

We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move.

You may become a Shakespeare, a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel?

You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.

-Pablo Casals

My Running Man.

He ran 20 miles yesterday!



Can you read the display? It says:
Distance: 20.01 mi.
Time: 3 hr 12 min
Calories burned: 2771
Avg. heart rate: 155

I remain in shock and awe.

It was kind of tough this time because he says that his Christmas day diet did not aid him in his conditioning. He told me that the last two miles he could hardly feel his legs. Damn! After plenty of time spent stretching, massaging, and doing a bit of yoga, I am happy to report that he is feeling just fine today.

In a couple more weeks he will go for another max, 22-23 miles I think. I'll continue to brag keep you posted!

The Little Angels That Could.

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a warm and wonderful day. We sure did. It was nice and sweet and easy. I wanted it to be slow but it passed very quickly just like all of December has!

I want to share with you a couple of short videos. Last night at the Christmas eve children's mass, three of my children had parts in the nativity scene. Emily thinks she is too old for such things now. Boo. Although Eva had a few issues with her costume and her overall well being before the mass, she pulled it out and played her part beautifully! Hey, at least it was not as painful as last year when Wyatt fell on his face and dropped the flaming incense at the feet of our priest. And certainly not at all horrifying like the year Emily played Mary and Sarah pulled the fire alarm!

Eva was the youngest participant. Take a look, Sarah and Eva are angels and Wyatt was Joseph. I love it.

5 Girls + 1 Boy = Joy.

I'm pretty sure the first few hours I had my nieces here they experienced mild culture shock. I took them to my in-laws home where Tony's family was celebrating Tomasa's [my mother-in-law] birthday. We left there and took them to mass with us. A big group from our church then went caroling around the neighborhood.



They gave out candles and we had a posada [a candlelit ceremony performed as a song that symbolizes the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born] in Spanish and English. To me it was beautiful.



I love this next picture of Sydney, she is such a pretty girl [and yes, she is exactly as sweet as she looks].







After the posada, we had tamales and hot chocolate there. I really enjoyed it, I think the kids enjoyed running around outside in the dark, oh and also the buñuelos, sweet bread, cookies and candy!

Emily and Allison made us all breakfast in the morning.



Wyatt didn't stand a chance with 5 girls, pobrecito!

Bonus: Sydney watched all of them for us so we could go out to dinner with Carmen and Oscar! Thank you Sydney!

Renee came to get her girls yesterday morning and she brought Starbucks! Thanks for that Nay, and thanks for letting me enjoy your sweet beautiful girls for a couple of days. xo.

Adventures in Sacramento.

With my family, we skated in downtown Sac. It was cold, but the sun came out from time to time.



I don't think he minds me telling you, but Jim is 74 years old. He was once a pretty good skater, so he tells us! Kidding! I know it's true. I remember seeing him skate when I was really small, like 6 or 7. Anyway, he laced up for the first time in many decades. He looked a little wobbly the first time around the rink but after that first tentative lap, he was floating like a butterfly. He surely impressed us all! I guess you never forget; proving the old 'like riding a bike' adage. When it was time to go, the kids got off the rink without too much of a fight, but Jim? He refused, he whined and he pouted and finally he gave in and took off his skates. I thought I saw a tear in his eye, or maybe it was just a twinkle.

After the skating, we headed over to Chevy's on the river for lunch and it was really good, the kids even behaved! At lunch, I had an idea. I asked if Sydney and Allison could come home with us. Renee said yes, and just like that my tribe of small [although Sydney is as tall as I am and Emily is close] people increased from 4 to 6!

To be continued...

Family Time.

We spent a good part of last weekend at my folks'. We were so disappointed that Tony could not get away from work, but we headed up north without him. It's always good to be at mom's. My kids love it and never want to leave. A few messages...

Merry Christmas Nana and Papa! Thank you for a wonderful Christmas dinner and all the goodies you bestowed upon us. We love you so.

Renee, if I got to spend every day with you, that might [maybe] be enough for me. I love you sis.

Jimmy, you're not on the internet but mom can pass this along. Merry Christmas! I hope it's loads of fun for you and Chase. I love you little brother.

I Believe in Grandmothers.

About five years ago I picked up these two frames and put my grandmother's photos in them for our Christmas tree. It was a small but a very meaningful tribute for me to do it. This year I could not find Granny's [Eva] frame.

I stayed up to finish a few things last night after everyone had gone to bed and I was thinking about Granny and it being her birthday today. I had already checked it a few times but late last night it occurred to me that I needed to look in our now empty ornament box one last time. I said to myself, "Granny please tell me where you are."

And there it was, at the bottom of that lonely box wrapped tightly in tissue. I was so relieved to find it! It felt as if she was with me at that moment and that I was meant to put her up there beside Meme [Theresa] on the eve of her 89th birthday.

I loved those beautiful ladies both, so much.

Small miracles.

I believe.

Oh what fun it is to...

ride

win a love-ly give-a-way! Hey!

I entered a giveaway contest from an amazingly talented artist, and I won! Her name is Sarah Ahearn Bellemare and she makes these beautiful collage pieces that are just dreamy; a real treat for your eyes. I found her blog through her art about six months ago and I entered her giveaway last week. It was for a calendar that she makes and sells in her etsy shop that feature her artwork in each of the 12 months on a cute little clipboard.



It's so pretty in pictures but much more so in real life, as I found out when my package arrived in the mail yesterday. *Squeal!

She also added all these special little touches, I had to open it layer by layer so carefully and savor all the sweetness of it!



She sells these calendars and also prints of her work in her etsy shop. Her prints are really beautiful and affordable too! Go Sarah! I hope you have a fabulous 2010! I'll definitely stay tuned to see what pretty things you create in the new year! Thank you for making my December even more full and fun!



jingle bells, jingle bells...

Determination Baby!

I wanted to shout from the rooftops weeks ago when he hit 10, and 12, and 16! But now 18 miles! WOW! I took this picture at the university.

No, I'm not following him around, it's just that he can't carry enough hydration with him so he calls us when he needs more liquid. We got the call around 12 miles. Emily used to ride her bike with him and carry extra bottles, but after about ten miles, she dropped out.

His stats for this run:

Distance: 18.02 miles
Time: 2:39:58
Calories burned: 2,486!!!

With the nearly three hour run and all the stretching and preparation, it's almost a half-day event for him to run this far. He did this 18 mile run in light rain the whole way.

I know! Who does this? Do you know someone?

If you haven't guessed, he's training for a marathon. I think he is on month three or four of his preparation. He could have run a half-marathon by now with his training to this point but he hasn't. A marathon, for those of you who forgot like me, is 26.2 miles so he still has a way to go but he is so darn determined, I know he will make it!

Is it easy for him? No. He works hard! He is focused and persistent, especially with a goal like this. He pushes himself. He gets up between 4 and 4:30 most days to go run and he is usually at work by 7. He has a foot problem and sometimes a shoulder issue, but he works it out.

He isn't registered for a marathon, or a half yet but he sticks to his training. There are several of them around the state each month. In two more weeks he will do 20 miles and then he will hit his max at around 22-23 miles before he attempts the really BIG run!

GO Tony! Your so freakin' awesome I can't stand it!

'Tis The [Busy] Season.

Hello there! I'm still here, just can't find any extra hours in the day to get it all done. Are you feeling that way too?

In just one week we have done all of these things:

*taken a [late night, freezing, mile long walk in a dirt field in the town of Ceres by torchlight] Journey to Bethlehem. We were harassed by Roman soldiers and eventually found the holy family in a stable. It was beautiful. This photo is us waiting in line to start the journey. They took us in groups [families] of 30. Did I mention it was cold? It was cold.



*the downtown Christmas parade

*a birthday party

*a party where I had too many of these:



...and took a lovely picture of my elf-looking self in the pretty bathroom.

[Bonus: I got to wear the same dress I wore to my in-laws 50th, you are not experiencing deja-vu, you saw it already on facebook just about a week ago.]

*Emily's Christmas piano recital

*Sunday mass on Sunday

*mass for the Immaculate Conception on Tuesday

*Christmas caroling at the retirement home with our Girl Scouts

*award ceremonies at school

I have also been:

*journaling my days of December in hopes of completing an nice album for the month

*fretting over what to give teachers and leaders [we have nine wonderful ones, including nursery school, piano and girl scouts].

*working on PTA stuff

*decorating the tree and getting the house Christmas ready

*dreaming of New Year's Eve in Monterey

*donating as much as I can find

*getting our angel tree gifts and gift exchange gifts ready

*wanting to make more wreaths and coptic journals but not making the time

*missing friends and extended family, hoping and wishing for time with them

and even more things on my calendar in December...

*Family Fun night at the school tonight, should be fun...

*CCD Christmas practices and program

*nursery school Santa Celebration this weekend

*a performance of the Nutcracker

*a well anticipated weekend trip to my mom's

Can someone please just tell me how to freeze time?

About the 20th, things will begin to slow down and I hope I will be at home with my kiddos enjoying the memories of all that has been this busy December. Heck, maybe I will even get to make wreaths and journals! What a whirlwind it is. It's already the 11th and I find that so hard to believe. We have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to blink.

It's hard to keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas but I'm one mom trying. It makes everything so much more beautiful. The sights and smells of the holiday are more wonderful and the lights are more twinkly when I see Christ's love in my children's hearts. They're not perfect kids, but they are spectacular in my eyes. I hope that perfect love is a gift that they always take with them wherever they go in life. *Sigh*

I do love this month, I love the fullness of my calendar. I know it doesn't last, I know it will pass and I will have rest time and family time and it will all be worth it.

I hope you are enjoying your busy December too. xo.

Looks Like I Made It!

I found this beautiful wreath made from book pages and had a burning desire to make one of my own. It was really easy and really inexpensive too. After only a few hot glue burns, I got the hang of it and finished it in only a few hours on a rainy day after Thanksgiving. It was so much fun. Sarah had a friend over for the afternoon and Tony took the rest of my kids visiting relatives. I sat with my coffee and whatever was on TV and enjoyed the relative peacefulness of the post-holiday wonder.

I even inspired my friend Kim to make it too! She saw it hanging on my wall, loved it like I did, and she actually bought the supplies to make 8 of them for Christmas gifts! I probably spent five dollars and that's only because I did not own a glue gun and had to purchase it. If you love it as much as I do, let me know. I would love to make one for you. If you want to have a go at it for yourself, the tutorial is at Living With Lindsay who put together a very excellent tutorial and made it easy for me. I found it via Paper Crave.

I'm thinking I would really like to make one out of sheet music and hang it near the piano. One with colorful pages, like from an inexpensive or dollar store children's book would be nice too.

I made it!

It's Not Thanksgiving Anymore...

"Mommy, it's not Thanksgiving anymore because they started Christmas!"
- Eva

It sounded much sweeter when she said it the day after Thanksgiving! Actually, I believe "they" started Christmas the day after Halloween but I have not paid them much attention. Until now.

[Bear with me, I promise my next post will put me into the current month!]

Thanksgiving was really good. We had it at my house this year, a first. Our thinking was that if we had it at my house, my sister Alicia, who has not been coming for the holidays would be able to come with her family and we could all be together for the first time in many years. My nephew Jake has some serious allergies to animal hair and they can't risk spending time in homes that have pets. I am pet free, so it was the perfect solution!

So the plan was set into motion, but then it fizzled out just a tad when Renee told us that her in-laws were in town staying with her for the week and although Renee invited the two of them as well, they turned us down flat. So we had a great Thanksgiving even though Renee and her clan [and brother Brad too] were very much missed from our day.

Alicia and her husband Brad along with my nephew Jake [he's 13] and niece Hannah [she's 9] drove the long way up to spend the holiday with us. They live about 3-4 hours south of us in Paso Robles [if you don't know California think Cal Poly or a bit further south the Santa Barbara area]. Mom and Jim and Jimmy and Chase came from [north of] Sacramento and we just soaked up the sun and had ourselves a beautiful Thanksgiving day. We even fought off the onset of turkey induced comas and opted for a walk to the park, which was brilliant. And pretty. And fun.

Between Alicia and my mom, I hardly had to work! They did everything! Alicia even added her Greek spaghetti to our menu and it was super yummy. Thanks Alicia for coming so far and spending so much time with us, you always make everything fun! And thanks mom, you always make everything memorable, and delicious!


Just one more November quote from Eva:

"you like me because I play with you and I help you cook the cookies and I help you cook the cake and you love me."

Yesternight.

Yesternight is a beautiful word that rolled right out of Eva's mouth last night at bedtime when she was relating a story about the previous night. When she said it, I looked over at Tony who also heard it and I just closed my eyes and savored the sound of her four year old voice saying it. It was like she had said it a hundred times before, so matter-of-factly as if it were already part of all of our vocabulary. Well, I can assure you, it is now.

Eva was child of the week at her school and this is the board I made for her last year when she held the honor. My printer has been out of color ink for a while and I actually forgot that I could send photos out for printing so I didn't update her board from what it looked like last year. I liked it, I thought it turned out sweet.

It has hung in her room since April or May and we took it in again this past week. She had been expressing herself to me for several days that she intended to "share" her Snow White Bear with her classmates. So Monday morning we took it in to school and she shared her bear which by the way was a gift last Christmas from her Nana [my mother.]

So, last night when it was bedtime, and after we discussed the events of yesternight, she realized that we had left Snow White Bear at school. She was already tucked into bed with her bunny blanket [her most prized possession, used by baby Em, baby Sarah, and baby Wyatt before her] snugly around herself and her face became distorted and she cried such a painfully sweet cry. It completely tore me up. It was such an honest and transparent sadness that she experienced and it sat right there on top of her face. This is a kid who hardly ever gets upset, she can somehow make the best of any situation. She doesn't wail, she doesn't fuss much. And if she whines about something, I tell her that she is whining, and she repeats herself for me in the most calm and intentional way. She is a star.

Anyway. The first thing that popped into my head was Corduroy. So I reasoned with her that her bear was having a wonderful adventure like Corduroy in the department store. I also assured her that we would stop by and pick her bear up first thing in the morning and make sure she was alright. It worked. She smiled and laughed through the tears that were already there and turned over away from me and snuggled deep. But, even then I could see her fighting off the distress. Lights out, not another word heard.

We dropped off all the big kids at 8:30 and went straight to her school. She skipped up the sidewalk and happily proclaimed to me that her bear had such a great adventure in the night. We went in and looked in the cubbies and it wasn't anywhere. I started to panic a little and went over to her teachers and inquired. I was so relieved to hear that they had put it away in the adult storage area [aka: adult bathroom] on top of a stack of bins. As Eva bounced off to look for it, I told them the story of how I calmed her down at bedtime with a parallel of her bear and Corduroy.

Eva's teacher Julie's face lit up like a light. She told me to look in the bathroom and show Eva who her bear was sitting next to on that stack of bins. Well hold on to your socks people, it was Corduroy! Freakin' Corduroy the bear from the book! Eva was so beyond thrilled! I don't know if I have ever seen her with a bigger smile. It felt like a happy little miracle, I am not kidding.

I was the happiest momma in the world for a moment, I truly was. All the mysteries of the universe suddenly made sense to me. And then I receded to being just me, a very happy momma but probably not the happiest on the entire terrestrial ball.

So of course the first thing I did after arriving home was search out our copy of Corduroy and pose it with the sweet bear. The two adventurers reunited again!

A Few of the Things That Made This Week Great.

We finally rounded out the annual kid check-ups with Eva on Monday and Emily on Tuesday. All four of them received flu shots this week too. Imagine each one of them as they stepped up to the table, all watching one another, watching the nurse, watching me.

Emily, "the brave one" confidently went first and didn't flinch. Sarah, "the little trembling one" was second and choked back tight-faced tears. And my boy Wyatt, "little brave and trembling one" was last with a brave face and a trembling wince.

Eva watched it all, reliving the horror of the day before when she received hers. She actually received three of the five shots that she was due for. We decided to spare her the pain of all five in one go. It's definitely going to be hard to get her up on the table for the next round though.

You know, whenever I think of vaccinations, I always remember the scene in Raising Arizona where the wife of the swinger couple was talking about the "dip-tet." I'm pretty sure RA is at the summit of my funniest movie list and I can't even think of one that would top it.

Monday I made lasagna. I love my lasagna, Tony and the kids do too. Well, Eva is not much of an eater these days so I'm not counting her. She is more of a heavy drinker and a fruit eater.

Tuesday we ate leftover lasagna and it tasted better than on Monday.

Wednesday we were invited to Tony's cousin Ricky's birthday party, at dinnertime.

Thursday, Emily had her soccer team end-of-season pizza party.

Just merely having Friday in a week makes every week great. Tonight we went to astronomy night at the kids' school. We saw beautiful Jupiter and its four largest moons through the university's high powered telescopes. Our PTA sold tamales and we all ate them, even miss picky pants.

Notice I have not cooked a meal since Monday. *sigh* *smile* *contented feelings*

Tomorrow is the last day of soccer games. Three games and two pizza party's remain. One pizza party is at lunchtime. One is at dinnertime.

I will cook breakfast in the morning. *more contented feelings washing over me*

It was a really really good week.

Scooooooooorrrrrrrre!

Yep, Emily actually made this goal. She's a ninja, just like me.

The Very Tardy Halloween Post.

I love love love this: did you know that Halloween literally means "the eve of the holy day?" I am so over the top uber psyched by that fact.

From Wikipedia: The name 'Halloween' and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English era. The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scots variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even, that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hálȝena mæssedæȝ, the feast of all saints)

[Don't tell the man who likes it the more gory-and-horrifying-the-better, aka my father whom I love and completely adore but] I am not into the gory part of Halloween and honestly am pretty much turned off by it. It's my day too, so this is a small consolation for me and I know I deserve it. I am though, totally in favor of the little kid-fun dress up part of it and definitely the candy part of it! Oh yeah, I also don't mind the Saturday night aspect that came with it this year with neighbors having parties with pit fires in their driveways in evening weather that didn't even require a light jacket. It was a pretty awesome night, not just because it was my birthday. But, I do have a cool birthday. [Thanks mom.]

We finally did this on Halloween morning:

After the carving I roasted seeds [yum] and we hit the soccer park for about four hours of three consecutive games. Next, it was dress up time [such a busy day] and we had so much fun with it this year. We made all the costumes except for Eva. I figured she had at least six princess dresses in her closet ready to choose from so I didn't even bother to ask her what she wanted to be for Halloween. So Friday morning when it was time to get dressed for her nursery school party and I asked her which did she want to put on, you can imagine my surprise when her reply was "Buzz Lightyear."

Luckily, Wyatt has a Buzz costume that we were able to find after looking for only about thirty minutes! She blasted off to infinity and beyond  [her party] and I picked up my little Buzz from school three wee hours later as happy as she could be.

Old habits die hard and as you might expect Eva once more donned the princess costume for the big night. Sleeping Beauty to be precise. My other three, home-made with ideas swiped straight from the good 'ol internet, were a pizza, a robot, and an ipod.

Lastly, but not leastly, my birthday booty looked very much like this:

My T in SWEET, also known as Tony, gave me my favorite See's dark chocolate truffles. One of my very best bff's Nena showed up on Sunday with goodies galore and generously included a homemade choco-donut cake! And the pièce de résistance, an unbelievable five pound bag of Sconza dark chocolate covered coffee beans was a gift from my sister-in-law Carmen [wow, she really likes me!] I think my exact words were O.M.G! when she presented me with the gargantuan load of these much coveted [by me] beans. It's such a big bag that if you come to visit me I will happily share and send you home with a to-go baggie of them [one per day only] just for stopping by. Really. Don't laugh, I can be unselfish with chocolate!

Thanks for all the facebook birthday messages people! That was so much fun! In the busy business of the eve of the holy day, it was so sweet and strangely satisfying to see a new message find it's way to my email/fb page every hour or so! I loved it, it made my day even better.

Girl Scout Camp: Year 4.

Another year at Camp Sylvester behind us. It was great to be in the mountains for the weekend with the most wonderful weather I could wish for. It was fun hanging out with so many little girls, and big girls who were not long ago little girls. Why does 6th grade seem so far away from 3rd grade? Sniff.

Getting to spend the weekend with my two + 90 other energetic girls is a treat all by itself but, there were two main highlights for me this year.

The Junior Girl Scouts hike around the lake, whereas the Brownies hike too, but just to the dam. It's about four miles around the lake and maybe one to the dam. The trails are natural [not paved] until you get to the very end/or beginning, and a lot of the hike is scrambling up and down rocks and boulders. Getting seriously winded is part of the adventure, no matter how old or what shape you are in. My calves have been, let's say on fire for two days, but in a really good and worth it kind of way. It was my first time, Emily hiked all the way around two years ago but I've been with the little girl troops my three prior years and trekked just to the dam.

The other highlight was something that we have not done before at camp. The theme this year was patriotism and the symbolism of the American flag, so the culmination of the theme/lesson was the flag retiring ceremony at campfire time. The well worn and tattered flag was silently cut along the stripes, removing them one by one and each girl participating held up her piece until only the block of stars remained. Then each piece was carefully laid into the fire to its rest. I think we retired seven flags in total but only the first was ceremoniously divided up like that.

It was a beautiful, solemn, and inspiring experience and it touched the hearts [and tear ducts] of many girls and adults. It was amazing to witness, truly a special and memorable night. So if you thought these things were reserved only for Boy Scouts, now you know!

Speaking of Boy Scouts, the funniest skit this year was the one where a gaggle of girls is sitting around talking and one by one a new friend comes up shouting "a bear! a bear!" to no reaction. Then another girl "a lion! a lion!" to no reaction. Other girls come up warning of even more fierce animals with all girls showing no fear until the last girl runs up on stage and shouts "Boy Scouts!" and they all rise up in a frenzy screaming at the top of their lungs and run away. We get lots of laughs when Boy Scouts are mentioned, it's so funny. I would imagine Boy Scout groups equivocally make fun of the Girl Scouts from time to time. Silly.

These were my pictures:Emily took better pictures of the scenery so I'll add to this a bit later. Update: see second slideshow at the bottom.



If you were a Girl Scout you might remember holding up your three middle fingers on your right hand and saying:

On my honor, I will try
to serve God and my country
To help people at all times,
and to live by the Girl Scout law.

Emily's pretty lake pictures for your enjoyment:

Holy Crap!

Yesterday, I was busy getting kids ready for school and Tony had just left for work. A few minutes after he left he called me and asks if he received some kind of such and such in the mail last week. I said no. He insisted that he must have received this something or other and he jogs my memory a bit and I tell him, "oh I thought it was junk mail and I tossed it." He fussed a little bit and suggested that I look through the can before the magic truck passes through our street and takes it away. I laughed at him and said "fine, you go have a nice day." Later, the urgency in his voice did somehow wear me down and I went to the street, pulled the big blue can into my garage and closed the door so that my neighbors could not see me going through my own garbage and after I found the plump bag of discarded paper, I hauled the can back out to the curb.

Long story short, he donated $100 to the high school volleyball team [which he neglected to mention] in return for the thing I thought was crap. Let me tell you that I am all about helping out and donating whenever we can for worthwhile and needy endeavors wherever they may be. It's just that I very much dislike crap.

This is the email communication between the two of us that followed.

------------------------------------------------------------

From: Mel
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:08 PM
To: Tony
Subject: how i have wasted my time this morning

hi sweet man,

i have spent at least 30 minutes today schlepping through our trash and finally found your great rebate garbage. let me say to you that i had ripped into pieces initially because it screamed SCAM to me when i read the first paragraph and that since you did not COMMUNICATE to me that we were waiting for this big windfall document i had no idea that it was meaningful to YOU.

#1 i have read the entire document and it IF it even works it is an ENORMOUS amount of work to get this supposed rebate

#2 i have done a little bit of research on the internet and all signs point to SCAM

#3 if you could produce for me, a real person, who has ACTUALLY received a visa card that ACTUALLY WORKED i would happily do all the crapload of work for you to get the $$ in visa cards for us.

#4 if you cannot produce a person for me, you may just write this one off to a donation to whatever or whoever scammed you into it in the first place.

#5 the mail contained TWO pages of instructions on how to claim your visa card, and NO secret code, yes i said no code was there, and you apparently need this secret code to register.

i love you sweetheart, hope your day is marvelous.

mel

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RE: how i have wasted my time this morning
From: Tony
To: Mel


I am glad to see you are cheerful and full of confidence! We will get $ 50/ month if we play this right and I will split them with you 50/50.

I will find a person that has succeeded with this and will get the feedback.

Love,

Tony

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From: Mel
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:50 PM
To: Tony
Subject: one more thing

ok fine, i did find a code...i would still like to talk to a person who has been successful with this!

xoxo

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RE: one more thing
From: Tony
To: Mel

Making progress babe !


OK, hey it's me again. However this plays out I will follow up and let you know. If you know about this kind of thing please let me know. It's part of a fundraiser deal. You sign up, send them 9.95, pick a store [Costco for us] and send in $100 worth of receipts each month, and you get $25 a month in visa card. Same deal for gas, so hypothetically we would get two $25 visa cards each month for one year. Here is the website if you want to peek and tell me what you think. I told him this morning "fine, next time make a donation but don't buy into any extra stuff." At this point I don't know if it's legit or not. And I know it's going to be more crap work than I need!

Two Hundred and Fifty.

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.
-Mary Jean Iron

Found this scruffy picture of moi on Emily's camera :) which makes it a special kind of cool.

This is my 250th blog post. I did notice the hundredth and the two hundredth but forgot to celebrate my bloggy milestones until many posts later. Now, here is one I can actually mention because I just noticed that my little blog editor page said that I had already 249 posts behind me! How about that?

Background: This blog is unlisted, which means that it's not supposed to be search engine material. You only get here [so she says] if I gave you a link, or if you linked from someone else [who I know] who linked to me, or you're a Facebook friend, or one in a million will find it from a comment I left on someones blog.

I created it accidentally one day.

I was reading my cousin's blog, at the time it was the Jer & Kris blog, and I curiously clicked on a Blogger button to make my own blog. I didn't really know what a blog was until about that time. Anyway, I was playing around with it and created a few posts and some links just for fun. I had never shared it with anyone and one day I got a comment from Kris who noticed that I had linked to her blog. It took my breath away. She outed me just like that, and made my little blog official.

Why do I do it? I don't really know why I do it, it's mostly a lonely enterprise and lots of times I think eeeeew, what the heck am I doing this for? I have to admit, I do like to write and I do like to read what I have written, sometimes I look back and think, oooh, I wrote that, and, um, hey it’s not really that bad! I am not dilusional though and am frequently humbled by the writers on blogs that I read regularly and I am in perpetual awe of them [yes, I am referring to you, Jerry, Kris, Kal, and Brenda].

It could be because I am too much in love with the computer and deep down inside I miss those long days at the office crunching numbers and writing accounting programs...or not. This blog also takes a lot of my time. I spend way too much time on this when I should be cooking dinner or playing with my kids or cleaning my house and I have to reckon with that too.

This may be the reason: With the exception of photos, I am not a very good memory recorder. My kids’ baby books are empty except for the first couple of pages, I apologize to you if you are among the ones who gave me those books as a gift, I had good intentions, I’m just not good at writing things down on paper [which makes no sense because I love pencils and I also love paper]. My poor recording talent sucks more because I have a bad memory. Tony is constantly reminding me of things and I think he must be making them up because I am often completely blank about the whatever it is. Sometimes, I even pretend to remember so he will let me off the hook and stop trying to help me remember. Oh yeah honey...that time.

For the last few years, I have pretty much recorded every major outing, every trip taken, countless occasions, birthdays, holidays and more miscellaneous matter than you probably wanted to see. And look at that, I have records! Two hundred and fifty attempts at records since I'm counting. Sure, I get in my funny moods and some of my posts have been purely fun fluff and clutter. But mostly, I think, I have created something good and meaningful.

This is also an excellent reason: personally speaking, I have never been a good share-er. I think I may have made my mom proud on the playground a few times, but with personal info, no. Giving you a window into my life was scary at first, I was afraid. I was also afraid of the internet and I am still wrangling with that fear, hence the eternally unlisted blog. But somehow, slowly, giving this little window to you has brought me out of my shell somewhat and I am so proud of my new sharing abilities, I have come a long way. This blog also gives me a fun little creative outlet and that is always good and necessary for me.

I’m thinking, hey, I’m alive, I’ll be here for a while and then I won’t. Why not live a little, let my armor slip and let a few people in, what could happen? Life is short, but my life is big, and my world is really small. That makes sense to me, or maybe it's just my kind of crazy.

The part I don't like: for me blogging can be a lonely business, I never actually know who I am reaching or who is out there reading, do you think I know you are reading this right now? Unless you have told me, or have left me a comment recently, I don't have a clue. It’s not always easy to write when your audience is a mystery, so I just try to write for myself and I don’t edit much so my thoughts just trickle out and get published. For the first year or so I wanted to find a way to tell people to leave comments without begging. I gave up trying and just kept sharing; savoring up each little treasure of encouragement and love in every comment you left me. I have recently discovered one way to get around all the blog isolation and its called Facebook! It is a magical place where your nice little ego can ask for, and pretty much receive on demand, all the social validation your sweet heart desires.

So I guess the real answer to why do I keep this blog going is, I do it for myself, because I am creating a record; memories and mostly regular life everyday things that I think are worth remembering and sharing. I even enjoy it. And you’re kind of nice to let me rattle on and on to you about how much fun I had here and there, how awesome my kids are, and how much I love Fridays and strawberries and coffee. Just so you know, every time you leave me a comment, I print it up and put it in a wall hanging frame and cherish it for three whole days. Not really, but I do archive them right along with my blog posts and they mean a lot to me.

The best compliment I received was when, a few months into it I decided to share it with my friend Nena. She told me she really liked it and that I was the hippest person she knew. No kidding, she used those exact words. After these two + years of writing this blog, I would not dare ask how hip she thinks I am now!

Just for fun: My favorite post and my tied for favorite post, oh how much I enjoyed that one! Read the comments, they are simply delicious.

Gonna go play with Eva now. After that, I will finish cleaning the house, then pick up kids from school, then soccer practices, then dinner, then...just a normal day.

Moving Right Along.

If you hear Kermit the Frog singing at this moment, then you are like me. I have the Muppet movie on VHS; what a classic. Funny though, it's one that my kids don't ask for more than once. You know how our kids can watch Finding Nemo three thousand times and still keep asking for it, it's not like that with the Muppet Movie, wonder why? They find it every other year or so, put it in for a few minutes, don't finish it and don't ask for it again. I think it's great, pure magic even, which probably explains why I bought the VHS in the first place before I even had kids.

I have been just sick enough for the last ten days or so. Just sick enough to be sick but not sick enough to be really sick. Just not good, all over, day after day. It seems like everyone is in just such a boat as me. I am happy to report however, that Jim is doing much better; back to normal you might even say.

It is a beautiful stormy day here today [not so much if you are out in it, or watching your trees fall down, my apologies if that is you]. If you are lucky to be inside with a four year old sweetie like me, it is a very beautiful stormy day, comforting even if you are part sickly. Beautiful even if you are safe and warm at work and it is your birthday maybe? Happy Birthday Nena...I miss you.

Through my half-sickness though, I have accomplished a lot. In the last few weeks I have started a new walking regimen with my sweet friend/cousin-in-law Monica. We have been walking twice a week in the morning, alternating starting points [her house, my house]. She is a great person to walk with because while I, after 20 minutes or so am ready to head for the home stretch she pushes us on and we go for miles and miles. Seriously. An hour and a half later we will have four miles or so behind us and she still wants to go one more around the block! She is a good influence on me. If you know Monica, you know that there is never a break in your conversation. This is also good because it keeps my mind busy and I don't worry, in fact could care less, how far we are walking or how long I have been away.

Another major development: I have finally finally FINALLY f i n a l l y...begun to repaint my [apparently not more ugly than I could bear] baseboards. A task I have put off for 2.5 years longer than I should have. The short version is that we took all of our carpet out, put down wood floor, nailed baseboards back up on walls and then stopped. Ugly yes, yet motivation zero. And then one day [Friday if you insist] I picked up my paintbrush and my blue tape and got started. Guess what? It so not a big deal, I could have done this eons ago. It's not done yet but I just know that I am rolling. towards. getting. it. done.

Intermission: I just enjoyed a 1.5 hour power outage. Eva and I lit candles, [for ambiance] made hot tea because I figured out that I could light my gas stove with a match, then sorted an enormous questionable pile of outgrown/underused girl clothes and now I am back to the computer, but not for long. I can't afford the luxury of a giant time suck today [read: I am not going over to Facebook for a peek], I really have things to go do.

When Eva looked outside this morning she exclaimed "who painted our fence?" because of the new color it has become with the saturation, very pretty really. The pool is quickly filling with leaves and my charming decorative turtle that Renee gave me in July just blew off the fence. I need to go outside and get him under some protective cover.

I took some pictures at the pumpkin patch over the weekend and I will get them up in a few days. Hope this is a good week for you. Yes, I mean you whoever you are.

Mooo-ving right a long...

Hello October!

I don't think we could have planned a party on a better day. It was, or so it now seems, the last super-hot day of the year. Yeah, it's fall already, but don't tell last Sunday who rolled in here and gave us another 95+ degree day. Tony has such an awesome family, they gave our birthday girls plenty to smile about. And, thank you Janet for bringing your girls and taking lots of pictures for me!

It does make for an incredibly chaotic weekend though. Our Saturdays are consumed with soccer games and other busy things and then party day is always crazy. Lucky for me I have Tony who does not have micro-breakdowns like me and nudges me through my moments of "I cannot freaking do this!" So I am typically a great big ugly mess until party time, then Tony hands me a beer and I calm down significantly. He is a good man and puts up with a lot from me. I'll say no more, trust me you have to admire him for that!

My folks couldn't make to the big tandem bash because Jim is not feeling so hot these days. He has had some back troubles and a flu or something like it has kept him unusually sedentary. If you know him, you know exactly why I say unusually and italicize it! Anyway, if you are of the praying sort, please add him to your list. If you are not, good thoughts and vibes and wishes are helpful too. Thanks a million.

Just like I predicted [amazing I know], fall has landed abruptly. For weeks, we have been hanging on to our 90 and 100 degree days, then yesterday it was barely 75! Suddenly we are scrambling for sweatshirts as we leave for school in the morning and watching the wind play its little games with the swirling leaves. I'm ready. It's time.

Hello October 2009, you are so very beautiful! Now tell me, just what do you have in store for us?

Chocolate Inspiration.

We hired a painter to paint the trim and doors this past week. The trim, fascia boards, around our home were overdue for an update as well as the two sets of french doors in the back that were beginning to look dilapidated. We moved in right after the builder finished building our house 12 1/2 years ago and have never used even a drop of touch up, so yeah we were past due on this.

The fascia boards were beginning to look very tired and droopy and pretty much unpainted. Plus one of our garage doors was two different colors since we had a panel replaced a while back, OK it was almost a year ago. Shut up.

Our front door was still in great shape, probably because the sun has never hit it and we don't use it that much. We only open it when friends or relatives come over or when one of my favorite people [my fellow carpool moms] brings one of my kidlets [spell check wants me to change that to cutlets or giblets and that just cracks me up] home from school. Maybe it gets opened once a day. Maybe. So i just wrote a whole paragraph telling you that my door still looked good. I do have a point, and I'll get to it now.

I have never liked the pasty blue color we chose for that door. Never. I can't even remember why the door was that color. I know it was me because Tony gave those decisions to me and then we gave the final say to the builder together. I do remember a swatch board thing with colors on it but my exact intent with that selection is lost in the recesses of history and who cares.

So getting to select a color at this point to splash over that nasty blue I have suffered with was so excellent. I savored the prospects, pondered the possibilities, and then languished over the fact that I am not really a good color picker. Or maybe I just thought I was not a good color picker because I could not forgive myself for the stinky blue door, or a few other awful paint color choice mistakes nightmares that I have endured over the years.

Anyway. I thought I had finally come to a selection when looked down at my dark chocolate that I was about to consume and it hit me. A few hours later when our painter asked if I had chosen the color, I asked him to wait a minute while I went inside to retrieve for him my inspiration. I handed it to him, along with his ten pound book of swatches and told him that I wanted a door that looked just like my dark chocolate.

It ended up being one color darker [on the same page] from one that I thought was the right one before the chocolate epiphany struck me. It was so meant to be.

I'm glad we went with the darker one, I don't like milk chocolate anyway [unless it is a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup]. I love it. I really love it!

Summer Won't Let Go.

I'm torn. I love fall, but we have had the most wonderful backyard summer, and I don't want to let it go either. Our near hundred degree weather day after day does not make fall seem eminent. But, around here our seasons change on a dime. One day it's summer and the next day it is fall, I think I usually make some comment to that effect every year.

We spent six hours, [well, Tony did, I was an intermittent spectator, he let's me and Eva get away with that] at the soccer field Saturday with three games and picture day it was a marathon and we all baked to crisps.

This is going to sound trivial and ridiculous but I am going to tell you my deep dark [alright beige] secret anyway because it was a kind of a big deal for me. Ready? Here it is: I have never worn a sleeveless top in public. Never. Never bared my arms outside of a swimming/boating type circumstance. Nope, not even once.

Well, there was Maria's wedding five or six years ago but it was not an option for me and it was a bridesmaid dress that had a small wrap so it doesn't count. Oh yes, and Chandra's wedding too. Anyway. Notice how I can remember if/when it has ever happened?

So, as hot as it was on Saturday I made the big decision to go for it. I wore two. An orange and a red, layered. I felt so naked. But it felt good too, and cool-er. I was looking around at the hoards of parents and grandparents on the soccer fields to see if anyone was paying attention or if anyone even noticed me, and of course they didn't! I was just as invisible as usual. It was just me inside my head. Tony didn't notice either but he sees me at home sometimes with my tank top so I don't really blame him for not observing my little breakthrough.

Sleeveless tops have just never appealed to me, no matter how hot and tempting it is. I thought of photographing myself to document the monumental silliness of me but I didn't work up the nerve. So there you go...my big beige revelation. I don't think it means that I will do it often, but who knows, maybe I'll try it again next summer!

We are still swimming every day of the week. The girls and I have worn our swimsuits down to thin shabby little coverings. Do you know how hard it is to find a female bathing suit this time of year? It's practically impossible, even on the internet!

Eva recently finished up a round of swimming lessons with our friend Debbie who ultra graciously came out of swim instructor retirement to work with our littlest child [she taught Wyatt and Sarah how to swim last year]. Eva is all over the pool now, life jacket and floaty free, and I am a mother who is over the moon with relief that I have four kiddos who are water safe! I am so confident that even the ear bleeding alarms have come off all the doors. Phheeeew!

For now we will just hang here like this, sit in the pool that even now seems like a beautiful dream, and wait for a change; for a little new color, a cool breeze, a little crunch under our feet. Am I allowed to use that many commas? Oh look, now I have added a semi-colon. I guess by now you have discovered that grammar was not what got me into honors classes [or for that matter what got me out of them as that would be another story for another day]. Oh well.

This doesn't happen much around here but Tony and I had the best date night last night, I hope we get to do that more often because it was pretty great. Happy summer/fall or whatever season it feels like where you are!

That's My Boy.

Luggage love: when my mom was here a few weeks ago we made a spontaneous stop at an estate sale and I found this snappy little red suitcase for $1.00! I thought it would be perfect for my boy who didn't have one. I usually toss his things in with mine or squeeze them into a backpack for him to carry. He was so excited when I brought it home and told him it was for him. It's old and it makes that *click* *snap* noise when you slide the latches to open and close it. It's totally a classic!

Saturday, after a swim, he emerged from his room with this shirt, jeans, and clip on tie. I instantly thought of his red suitcase and could not get to my camera fast enough! He was such a good sport too. Can't you just picture him telling me that he is running away and carrying his suitcase down the street with his bare feet?

Saturday morning was so much fun with all the thunder and then the brief downpour with the biggest raindrops I think I have ever seen! As soon as we noticed the rain, Wyatt pulled off his t-shirt and ran around the pool squealing with pure delight, we all were.

He had his first soccer game Saturday. See that lower lip? That helps to sum up his 6 year-old personality; feisty, spunky, fiercely independent, cool, fearless and fun.

Or, to put it another way, I have to keep a close eye on him at all times!

Watermelon Pie?

Some recent odds and ends. So exciting I know!

Emily is taking cello again this year at school. Last year, a couple of months into the cello, Emily wanted to quit. I reminded her that she had made a commitment to stay in until the end of the school year, and that if at that time she still felt the same, then that was ok. I'm overflowing with delight that she chose to play it again this year. Whadduya know.

She does not have a music stand so Eva is happy to help out while Emily practices.

Sarah and Wyatt made art for me the other day. My kids do their best to please me and they know that my favorite animal is the giraffe, so I get loads of giraffe pictures. I absolutely love Wyatt's latest version with it's big butt + no tail!

I think Sarah's animal [I always get my jaguars and cougars and leopards and such mixed up] is breathtaking. I really do.

I found this in the kitchen a few nights ago after we had tucked all of them into bed.

I'm not sure whether to call it "health benefits of the yogurt raisin bath" or "why you shouldn't leave your three year old in the kitchen unattended." Anyway, though she has lost her dignity, Polly made it through the dishwasher just fine.

Wyatt has recently started his own recipe book. He writes/creates things like bread and mustard sandwich, banana milk mush in a cup, and so on. He makes his snack, then writes it in his book. Sometimes he enlists Eva's help with his creations, usually he is trying to convince her to try one of them. They were conspiring for a while in the kitchen one day when Eva then came over to me and said, "can you buy watermelons to make watermelon pie?" I told her that we could buy them but wasn't so sure about the pie part. Gotta love that creative thinking!

My kids are so helpful [they really are, and so sympathetic too] when I am in distress. I think I have gone outdoors without sunglasses about five times in my adult life. So, distress for me is not being able to find them, or the back up, or the back up's back up. We were trying to leave and were all packed into the car one day when I tearfully pathetically stated for the 15th time "I can't find my sunglasses!" To that Eva said so sweetly, "I have a great idea, you could just use your eyes." I then swiped her pink sparkly ones and we hit the road.

Short & Sweet.

Just like this week, short & sweet. Short, for sure. Sweet, let's hope so!

Sarah's birthday was more like a full birthday weekend. When Tony got home from work Friday night, she opened a few presents from us then we went out to dinner. Sarah chose Chinese food and it was all good! I can't even begin to tell you what a joy it is to take my four children to a restaurant and be able to enjoy the experience without one major incident. Finally...I have waited so many years [eleven if you're counting] to be able to say that.

Then we went home to eat cake, but instead, we hauled our folding lounge chairs and blankets to the sports complex just as it was getting dark, for an outdoor movie on the big blow up screen. It was so late when we made it home that we kept her cake in the freezer and opted for bed instead. Saturday was busy and we didn't make time for it so again, it stayed in the freezer.

Why the freezer? Let me tell you! I made her a little round devils food cake Friday afternoon and had this brilliant idea to fill it with ice cream instead of regular frosting for filling.

I was inspired by this commercial that seems to play non stop when the tv is on. My kids pop up and run to the tv whenever they hear the song.

The trouble with my idea is that my cake was cooled but still significantly warmer than my yummy vanilla ice cream so it melted [duh] into the cake soon after I laid it on. I tried to salvage it by quickly giving it a nice home in my freezer, then frosting it later. Next time: freeze the cake first, then add the ice cream filling.

The act of leaving it in the freezer for an extra two days didn't matter, not one bit. I was mighty delicious on Sunday evening, though, um, a little hard to slice. Baskin Robbins must have some secret recipe for cake that can go into the freezer and still remain sliceable at party time.


Eva has a birthday this month as well. We will probably have a party for the girls in a few weeks and invite friends and family. I can't believe my baby is going to be four. She is at school this morning, her first day back. She goes two mornings a week. She loves her school. As soon as we arrived, she made herself right at home.

Make the most of your short week! I will do my best! Step 1. turn off the computer!

Keeping Up + Catching Up.

Hey y'all! Sorry I have been MIA. Things are gettin' busy around here! First it was school, then all the things that follow soon after. PTA, Girl Scouts, soccer, nursery school and CCD next week. To that I add my house things, some of which are old things that I just have not gotten around to finishing and some new that are way overdue. Those I try to work on during the day when the kids are at school but have not made much progress, it actually seems like I have made bigger messes. This is because I start, then don't finish right away [generally weeks or months later, I am ashamed].

Case in point. My mother came last Friday to stay the weekend with us. I had started on my bedroom by unloading the contents of my closet [because we are full up in my house and have no extra bedrooms and my closet is the supreme dumping ground + my office + home to all the supplies that are not bathroom related] into my bedroom and when I surprisingly did not finish the same day, I just had to stack it up and push it all against walls and on top of dressers and such. Not what you want your mother to find. Not at all. Anyway, when she discovered it I convinced her that I had already made good progress and that I had a method to what surely looked like junk and madness. My mother wanted to help me with it, bless her heart. Thank the Lord that we didn't have time for that. We had other business to get to.

Like going out to dinner together, just me and my mom on Friday night. It was such a treat, I'm telling you. We had the best time. I can't remember the last time we did something like that but I will tell you it won't be the last! I felt a tiny bit guilty leaving Tony at home with the kids but he is such a good sport and it was so great to get out and have special alone time with my mom. Our favorite drinks and scrumptious food was excellent X 10! It was a beautiful night and she even drove and put the top down for me. We rode to the restaurant all blowy and carefree. Sweet.

Thanks mom for being here.

Saturday night was Tony's company party that comes along every other year. We got there early this time. Typically we are arriving just as dinner is being served and we miss the hors d'oeuvres and the cocktail hour beforehand. Being early felt good, less rush and fuss. Easy. We sat at a big round table for ten with some of Tony's work people that I most adore and had a great dinner. Everyone was buzzing with the big question. Who was performing? The theme of the evening was hot August nights and I honestly think it may have been the hottest night of the whole summer, and so darn humid to boot. It was pretty much a sweaty sweat fest. But we were all in the same sweaty boat so that commiseration + the anticipation of the night made it a little less painful to suffer.

Additional evidence to the theme were the beautiful classic cars parked all around the venue [tucked away deeply inside the grounds of Cal State Stanislaus]. I guess Neil Diamond sang a song about hot August nights, so the biggest rumor was that it was going to be him. I was happy with that because I will tell you that I do like Neil Diamond. And I will wave my Neil flag proudly. Big surprise coming, read on.

Mystery entertainment revealed: Are you ready for this? No, seriously, are you freaking ready for this? Jay FREAKING Leno! No kidding! For a good hour, maybe more, the stand up comedy of Jay FREAKING Leno! I am still in complete freak out shock about it. No videotaping please, but take all the photos you want! Me and Tracy from Alabama got up and got close, it was still hard to get a good one because it was dusk/becoming dark and I don't take photos with flash [because everybody knows flash is bad]. I had forgotten just how ridiculously funny he is and poor Jay was sweating his heart out in layers of hot suit clothes, God bless him.



After Leno, we danced to a good band. Yep, it was a Neil Diamond cover band and it was a whole lot of fun. You know how much I like to dance. And with one [or four] drinks behind me, I'm certain I looked like a crazy person. Anyway. It was fun.

The littlest princess has just requested the honor of my presence for a game of princess monopoly. I'm Pocahontas, she's Snow White. She is going to be the banker this time and she just handed me the stack of 2's and gave herself the stack of 5's. Looks like she'll be winning. After the game, I will try to talk her into accompanying me to Costco and Target. It's Sarah's birthday and I have to pick up a few things.

Hello Friday, you arrived just in time! My girl is 8!

Happy Friday!

If my crummy little 8 page at a time shredder had not died this morning, I would have been shredding almost a years worth of shreddables for a good portion of my day. Instead I put my little pool movie together. Thank you universe!

That is one thing I miss about working in a big office; the economy-car-sized industrial shredder. Once a year I would just park myself in front of it for five minutes and be done. Home shredding blows!

I have not put a movie together in so long and that little movie makes me incredibly happy, as if Friday wasn't enough reason to be. Going to go enjoy a blender frappuccino with Emily [+ likely a glass of wine with Tony a little later] and celebrate Friday some more. Ciao for now! Have an awesome weekend!

1-1-1

Wyatt came home from his first day of first grade with his first lost tooth in hand and the biggest toothy grin you've ever seen. I can't think of a more appropriate thing to happen on the first day of first grade!

That pesky little tooth stayed in his mouth so much longer than I ever imagined. Last spring he would ask me to wiggle it three to five times a day. And he wiggled it himself all day long, which made me crazy because that was when everyone was panicked about the swine flu and there was my boy with his fingers in his mouth at school and everywhere else! It was quite loose then and every day we thought we were on the verge of his big milestone. But it didn't happen. We waited all summer and it didn't happen. He stopped wiggling it in June and we watched as his permanent tooth grew in behind it, crooked.

About a week ago I could tell that it was bothering him again when I noticed that he was chewing like a little old man, using only his back teeth. It was kind of cute how his chin protruded out and his lips almost disappeared. Anyway, he let me give it a shot yesterday which only ended badly and unproductive because he was in such awful freakish pain.

I watched him eat his cereal yesterday like a little old man again, and then he went off to school. He came home a happy boy proudly displaying the tiny little tooth his teacher had taped to a yellow post it note.

I put it in my pocket and kept it until almost bedtime when he asked me for it. I gave it to him to put under his pillow and then he lost it. He was just a little bit disappointed and he went off to sleep. I found it this morning. We will try to get it under his pillow again tonight and apologize to the tooth fairy for the delay.

Off They Go.

Happy new year!

We had a great last day of summer vacation yesterday, we swam, we played, we made our favorite cookies - snickerdoodles. We even let bedtime slide a little bit for a family spa night and we turned off all the lights to have a good look at the summer stars.

All three of them were happy, and a little anxious, to go back. Tony took the day off because he likes to take them to school on their first day, it's his own sacred tradition. I didn't go, I am happy to give him that one, I have that honor + pleasure the other couple hundred days of the year so it's not a big deal for me.

So Eva and I are here, wondering what to do first, I guess my floors haven't been properly cleaned for weeks. It is so wonderfully quiet here this morning. Yeah, I miss them already.

I took a break from this blog post and went outside to play with Eva and have a mommy + Eva photo session. Eva is so much fun. She is busy coloring now with her brother's art set, I won't tell him if you won't!



I am looking forward to a routine again and I am hoping to stick to my plans of getting the things done in the house that I have been putting off for-ever. I also hope that I can reconnect with some old friends that I have been missing, it seems that the school year is better for that, summer break has a way of putting many things on pause.

Oh, remember a few years ago when Tony and I went to a company dinner and there was mystery entertainment? They are having that same dinner soon with another as yet unknown entertainer(s), any guesses? My mom is coming to town to stay with the kids so Tony and I can get out for the night, I can't wait!

Eva, sitting on my lap, just said, "mommy, don't you think that we should eat candy?" I better go make lunch for us! It's probably going to be a hundred degrees today but fall is right around the corner! I heart fall.