Strawberries.

The Transamerica Building.

There is an untold story here.

They Really Are Mine.

Yesterday at Nursery school, the aunt of another child said to me:
"She must look like your husband."
And I thought, gee thanks, whatever lady.
What I wanted to say to her:
That's funny, most people say she is my clone.

Three Princesses.

All three of my girls are princesses to me.

Missing People.

I spend more time missing people than being with people i care about and I think that's why I had a dark cloud hanging over me this weekend

next

Eva has a drinking problem. She is hyper-hydrated you might say. It goes like this: chocolate milk [instant breakfast] for breakfast. About every hour she makes a request. First she chooses apple juice, then soymilk, then cranberry juice, chocolate milk again, then orange juice. The problem is that she doesn't eat so much because she is busy drinking all day and that fills her up and leaves not much room for hunger. We thought that by throwing out all the sippy cups, her insatiable need to drink would ease up, but no. She now uses cups with a lid and a straw, specifically restaurant kid cups. And the straw must be red, unless we run out of red then she's mum on the straw issue until we need a new box then it's red only again. Anyway, about lunch time she stops asking so frequently and she munches here and there on actual food. She eats pretty healthy foods, she likes all fruits and vegetables and the only sandwich she will eat is tuna. She likes bologna also but only plain without the bread. Cereals and oatmeal also go over pretty good with her.

Chalk It Up.

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

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

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

Thankful.

Today I am thankful to be able to provide warm, hearty, tasty nutritional meals to my children. There are so many less fortunate. This is a blessing which I do not take for granted.

march on.

soccer ended
basketball began
baseball began
my pair of girl scouts are still selling cookies, we have 1.5 cases left
we weekended in the snow with our friends
we hired a plumber
i watched food inc. and have been feeling sick to my stomach for five days, maybe i'm just coincidentally sick.
i have lived in california since i was in second grade and can't remember ever having so much rain
starting to doubt whether i will ever get myself or my kids anywhere on time
less than two weeks away from spring

Perfection.

I'm not perfect. I've never claimed to be. I don't always get there on time. I don't always get there. I do my best. I try. Everyday. I do one thing well and it's all you need to know about me, I love my kids. My kids know how much they are loved. My kids know that I am not perfect. My kids know that I expect them to do their best. If I don't meet all your expectations, it's because I don't need to. I just need to try my best to meet theirs.

Serving.

May 2014 piano

Sitting at piano lessons with Eva and her teacher Lisa.This is Era's third lesson and she likes it so far. We have been taking lessons from Lisa off and on since Emily was in third grade eight years ago. Sarah only did a couple of years and Wyatt not a full year. They are all different . Emily has not played at home for a few years but rightnow she is trying to perfect that song that goes, "say something the KA couple of months she has had a renewed interest And she plays often at home. . say something l-m going up on you. 

Parade!

Time for a Christmas picture right? Last night while tony was working late I got the kids into the car and we headed downtown for our town's Christmas parade.. We were not disappointed. Although it was raining lightly we had our umbrellas stay dry and enjoy

His tender heart.

People say.

When they are little, people said they are all so different. And I said no they are all very much the same. As they grow you see that yes, they are different. Then people say oh you think its hard now just wait until they are teenagers. And I say okay but it's really hard right now. Then you have a teenager that is one of those teenagers and you understand. You understand, how someone you cherish with every breath, can bring so much grief and fear to every inch of your life.

So you push through it. Sometimes it gets better and you have hope.

You remember yourself in those days. You try so hard to understand.

You cry. You yearn. You hope some more. You take it one day at a time. Every week a relief to make it through seven more days of this hideous kind of pain without utter unravelling of yourself.

New Year's Eve 12.31.15

Memories of the Bicentennial Year

My earliest memory of politics was Watergate. I remember it was a constant on the TV in Granny’s living room in Hendersonville, Tennessee, during a hot Watergate summer. Walter Cronkite and others droned on about events I didn’t understand, but I could sense something serious was happening in faraway places.

The next political memory I have is from 4th grade at Sylvan Elementary School in Modesto, California. By then, I was living in my eighth or ninth childhood home, right across the street from my sixth or seventh school. That fall, we held a mock election across the school. I voted for Jimmy Carter and felt so disappointed when he lost to Gerald Ford in our little school election. At the time, it didn’t feel like much of a consolation that Carter was the actual winner of the presidency.