If I had only known

THAT is dinner. All homemade. Even the rolls! What you can't see is the pork roast that had to be "braised" what ever the hell that is!

I am being spoiled like you wouldn't believe here! I don't know how I will go back to macaroni & cheese, hot dogs and chicken nuggets. Oh wait, yes I do, I will be the one cooking, so its out of the box, easy stuff on my menu!

These women are amazing. Pies! I only have pie at holidays and that is because someone else made it. Home made rolls, same thing. My mother-in-law makes rolls for holidays and I scarf them down like candy! "Braised" pork roast ... riiiiiiight. Not in my house. If it has some kind of marinade its the one that came on it in the package. Sad, I know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I headed south toward Newport today. I had to stop at the Rogue Brewery for more Dead Guy Ale. Guess what happened there? They were having a Columbus Day sale. I bought a different variety, Dads Little Helper, instead of Dead Guy Ale this time (since it was 1/3 the price). And I found one more reason to love the Rogue Brewery, they thought I was 27! HA! I haven't been 27 in over 10 years. I love those guys. The guy serving beer samples studied me hard, asked me if I was 21 and then guessed me at 27. Yeah, I love those guys!
------------------------------------------------------------------
AND, Oregon. I don't know what to do when they pump my gas. Do you tip the guy, do you wash your own windshield? What do you do? I hate feeling helpless and that's how the gas attendants make me feel. I am used to pumping my own stinking gas and I don't know what to do when someone else does.... Its just so weird.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Ahhhhhhhh

THAT, my friends is my path to the beach! Actually its a spit, but same difference, right? Its just a few yards away from our deck!

I made it, even though my internal compass is screwed up. Thank goodness for the one in my rear view mirror! Seriously, south feels east to me and west feels north, I am totally unreliable to get myself someplace!

There is a hot tub, there is quietness, there is a TV, if I so desire (which I don't) and books. Chairs by the windows looking over the spit to read the books in, and a second house where there is a lot more activity going on if I want a break from the quiet. There are also several outdoor fire pits. I am pretty sure we're gonna have a fire one of these nights, just gotta get us some dry wood and pray for a clear night. Last night would have been perfect but we weren't prepared. Oh yeah, and internet access.

Preparation

Camera - check
iPod - check
Batteries - check
Wine & beer - check
Cash - check
Phone - check (in fact its brand spanking new!)
Books - check
Books on tape/cd - check

What have I got left to do?
Pack- still waiting on laundry to be done
House cleaned up - not gonna happen :) Well, some of it will, but I am not going to do a huge cleaning, the kids and My Honey are staying home.
Clean out the car, pack the car
Haircut, that happens at 2, but I think that's it. Oregon Coast, here I come.

Happy Fall

Sunnybank Farms, Lake Chelan, WA
Sunnybank Farms, Lake Chelan, WA

Nefarious Cellars, Lake Chelan, WA


What a great weekend!

My sister arrived safe and sound on Friday evening. We had dinner, got my kids to bed and then went to get our cousin from my Mom's house.

The three of us went to my favorite wine bar and had some wine and great conversation! It was amazing how much the three of us have in common. I learned some fun stuff about my sister, and lots of things about my cousin.

She lives in southern Oregon and we don't get to see each other much. When we were kids we saw each other a few times a year, then her family moved to Minnesota. We kept in touch by mail off and on through school. It was a treat to spend a lot of time with her this weekend.

Saturday, my sister and I picked up the rest of the girls (Cousin, Sister and Auntie) and we all went to Lake Chelan for wine. Lots of wine. I was actually wined-out by dinner if you can imagine.

We visited six wineries and then came back to town. It was a lot of fun. There are some beautiful wineries, some po-dunk wineries and some average wineries. I only bought a bottle at one of them. I REALLY wanted to like with wine at Vin du Lac, because their labels are so cute, but it really wasn't that great to me. It was "earthy" and we had a few more descriptive words, but I don't want to dis them too bad, someone out there likes them!

All in all, it was a great start to my vacation! My cousin reminded me at the first winery that I was on vacation, I am still having trouble remembering. Come Tuesday, when I start to pack I should be pretty well there!

Ahhhh

My work day usually ends at 3 provided someone isn't out sick or on vacation.

Today I had a meeting at 1, so I was scheduled off the floor. The meeting was canceled, which was fine, but I just kept thinking of all the things I could do with 2 hours ... Grocery shopping being number 1. It's not that big of a deal, I really should have done it yesterday, but just didn't get it done and it was stressing me out, "When am I going to get it done? Tonight is Karate, tomorrow I will have to take both kids to Safeway AND Costco. UGH." So now its done. I made a menu at work for the next two weeks, planning easy stuff for the days I am out of town and even remembered to plan for this weekend while LK is here! Took the time off, hit Safeway and Costco (alone) got it all put away and had time to spare before Bubba was out of school! I may even walk down and pick him up instead of drive ... I know, "what a stud!" :)

Two more work days! Yay

Plans

Only 3 work days left till I am on vacation! That is if I don't lose my voice first. I had a sore throat last week for a couple days, no biggie, I worked through it, but now my voice is totally froggy. No, more like a 12 year old boy whose voice is changing. Hopefully (?) I have enough voice to get me through the next three days. If not, oh well, at least I will "feel" fine while using sick time, I just won't sound great! Its the weirdest thing when my voice does this. I remember all through school when it happened to other people (you know when they would get laryngitis, or yell at a football game till they were hoarse) what a bummer it was that it never happened to me. Now its my turn. And I didn't even go to a football game or anything. Just a change in the season or a cold that caught hold of my throat somehow. Oh well.

My weekend plans are coming together! LK and my cousin will be here Friday! Yay! Several of us are planning a drive to Lake Chelan to visit the wineries. There are 13 of them, not that we are going to visit them all, but maybe 4 or 5. OOOOH, and its "crush" time with special events going on the first weekend of October, lucky us!! That should work out to be fun.

Vacation plans are all set. The house is rented, I just have to check the weather and pack. Kids are all taken care of while I am gone (My Honey took a couple days off work) but I should plan some meals. And that's about it. Hopefully there will be internet access this time and I can post the hundreds of photos I am going to take!

Fall into ...

Well, it came and went. The first day of fall. It was a windy, cold day here. Didn't get above 60 degrees. Makes me sad. I hate to see summer end. Oh well, I do have a lot to look forward to this last quarter of 2008.

For instance, starting October 4th I am on vacation from work for 10 days (I know, "again?" How lucky am I?) 5 of which I will actually spend ON VACATION, with a gaggle of girls, in Oregon for our Second Annual Female Family Gathering. Yay! My cousin will be in town for part of the days I am off, and my sister (LK) may come over too. That will be a great time, my sisters, my cousin and I ... oh yeah!

The part of the trip I am most looking forward to? Taking the jeep, my ipod and whatever music I want for the drive down. Alone. All by myself! And then the return trip, the jeep, my ipod, my music, all by myself. I am also looking forward to seeing the relatives, getting to hang with the girls I don't see very often, sampling some yummy wine and taking some great photos - weather permitting. My plan is to drive down through the Columbia River Gorge, it was so beautiful when I came back last year, but I was in a hurry and couldn't stop to enjoy it, or I would have been late for dinner!

In November I have another 10 days off work at Thanksgiving. We are making our bi-annual trip to Guemes Island to spend the holiday there with my Dad, his wife and her family. It is always a good time. And of course we have birthdays in November; my mother and father in-law, Miss I, and me, plus Bubba in December and Christmas. So this 4th quarter should keep us pretty busy. Not to mention work, school, karate, and I was thinking that Miss I might like to be in either a swim or dance class ...

(See girls, I just needed a little encouragement, now you can't shut me up!)

Encouragement

Thanks Girls! With that little bit of encouragement in the comments, I will tell the Cowboy story. (PS I am totally jealous of LK quitting her job, but on the other hand, that means I get to see her more!)

Last week ... lets see, where to start? My Honey was going out of town Thursday through Sunday for a golf tournament with a group of guys so we had to do some creative planning to get the kids taken care of. Since I work at 5 am, we asked his mom to keep the kids overnight Wednesday and Thursday, she was a lifesaver, as usual, and helped us out tremendously. (Thanks Mom V!)

Wednesday was Bubba's Karate class. Afterward we were headed home to get his overnight stuff and then to Grandmas to sleep over. As we were driving home I was reviewing my expectations of when we got home, I had a hot date with My Honey at 5:30 and didn't want to be late because Bubba was lolly-gagging around the house.

"We are going to go home, you change your clothes, get your backpack with the overnight stuff in it while I make your lunch and grab the snacks for class tomorrow. No fooling around, we need to get it done pretty quickly okay?" That was pretty much my instructions to Bubba. This is the conversation that followed:

"Oh yeah, mom, I forgot I have a date tonight." (Oh, here we go, I thought.)
"A date? With whom?"
"With ML."
"Really, well, we aren't going to be home tonight remember?"
"Oh yeah, that's right... She is going to come to grandmas for dinner."
"Okay, well we still need to get that stuff done so we can get to grandmas"

... these kinds of conversations are pretty regular when he is trying to get out of something, I don't know where he gets that creative bent (ha ha ha) and its usually all I can do not to laugh out loud at his outrageous imagination! ...

"Well, I want to dress nice, is that okay?"
"Sure, as long as it doesn't take too long." (Always focused on the task at hand.)
"And I want to do my hair nice too." (Hair, oh no ...)
"Well, why don't you do your hair at grandmas?"
"Okay."

At this point we are near home, I repeat my directions to him and we're off.

After he rummages around upstairs getting ready, he comes down and says to me "Mom, how do I look? I decided to go like a cowboy"

I really should have taken a picture! I nearly did, but I was focused on the task at hand ...

He was wearing camouflage rain boots with jeans tucked into them, a white long sleeved, button up shirt with red and blue pinstrips (the one you gave him for Christmas LK), that is nearly too small, untucked, a blue fleece vest, that is at least 2 sizes too small, and to top it off (no pun intended) a blue and red straw hat. He was so pleased with himself. And it was so cute! I really regret not taking a picture. Seriously I can't even do him justice by describing it! I told him he looked awesome and we were off to grandmas.

Funny, funny kids, that's what I have! I don't take nearly enough time to enjoy them. I am trying, it just doesn't always come naturally.

The rest of the week was just as chaotic, I picked Bubba up from school on Thursday, he had a Karate promotional test, which he did very good at. And then back to the school for open house night. His teacher did a great job of telling us all the stuff they are doing, she had a fun little scavenger hunt so the kids had to tell us about a few corners of the class room, show us the music room, the reading and computer labs. And then back to grandmas.

Friday I picked up Bubba from school, Miss I from grandmas and we were off for two nights at my Dad's house. It was really nice to get away for a couple nights.

Miss I didn't even seem phased that she hadn't slept at home in 2 days, or seen much of me. She was perfectly content to "pen da nye ah gam-ahs. I booked home and packed ... I took the kids to Issaquah for the weekend. So all in all its was a pretty busy week! Hopefully it will calm down a little this week!

Ho hum

I have a lot to say, but nothing to say. I just can't find the words. Ya know? For some reason I can't get what's inside out.

I have a funny cowboy story about Bubba, a cute story about Grandma shopping with Miss I, you know, the usual, but I also have some personal crap going on that I just don't want to talk about here and I guess that's the problem, choosing what to edit takes a lot of work.

So, until my work issues are resolved and life is easy again, I guess... Well, I will take it one day at a time. Maybe I will get around to telling the kid stories, they are definitely worth the work, but I just ain't in the mood.

Just wanted to check in, I am still around, just not writing much these days.

Bits and pieces

Well, we made it through the first two weeks of school pretty much unscathed! A few meltdowns here and there, but nothing we couldn't manage. Bedtime has worked out to be around 7 or 7:30 which gives me and My Honey a little time to ourselves at the end of the day and that works out very nicely.

So far I like Mrs. W, Bubba's teacher. She sent home a project for the fair. Each student got a piece of a puzzle to decorate with things about themselves and then she entered the whole project into the fair. Bubba thought it was great to see his project at the fair and so did his cousin whose picture happened to be included in his collage. It was pretty neat.

Miss I liked "teeing da doats and ho-hees" (seeing the goats and horses) at the fair, she is still talking about it today. Its pretty cute. She sure can chat it up, but her words are almost all hard to understand yet.

The work-part of life, it goes on. It ain't all perfect right now, but thats the way it is.

First Day Of School

Well, he's off to first grade. School from 8:40 till 3:20 every day. What a weird thing. I just don't know what to do with myself and Miss I. My sister suggested that we should go to the play gym once a week which is a GREAT idea! Miss I could use the interaction with other kids and ... maybe I would make a new friend? Not likely. But we might try it in a few weeks.

Bubba was stressed, nervous, excited but all under a veneer of calm this morning. He actually slept until almost 7, which is great, got up, got himself dressed, ate breakfast, and off we went to Grandmas to drop off Miss I so I could do the first day of school thing with Bubba. We found his classroom, met his teacher, put away his lunch (yeah, I had to make a lunch for him) and then emptied out his backpack.

I tell you their list-o-stuff for school was long. Fifty bucks worth! Crayons, pencils, scissors, erasers, notebooks, composition books, markers, twistables, a school box ... HEY! Remember those hard cardboard boxes with the lids that lifted up and eventually broke off? They don't make them like that anymore. Now everything is cheap plastic that is gonna break in just a few weeks. It was the most disappointing part of back to school shopping! They also have to take kleenix, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer. Times sure have changed!

His teacher, Mrs. W seems nice. I actually remember her from church youth group back in high school. I wasn't sure if she remembered me or not, we kind of ran in different circles (because our youth group had different circles if you can believe that, but thats a whole other post) but I think she remembered me once she knew my name. There were just a few kids from his kindergarten class in his new class, so that might be a little hard for him, but he will be alright. There were at least 25 kids in the class, way more kids than 18 last year and it looked like the girls outnumbered the boys again, in his desk-grouping there were 2 boys and 3 girls, it looked like that at the other 4 groupings too.

After I dropped him off, I went and picked up Miss I from Grandmas and we went to the park to pick black berries. I had heard that there were some on the Loop Trail so we went to check it out. Sure enough, we found tons without trespassing on private property. I should have had my camera! We came upon a cluster of three different kinds of berry bushes. It was pretty cool. Next time. I have no idea what to do with her tomorrow.

All of a sudden she seems really tall. Her legs are getting longer and thinning out. My little baby is growing up. She is also saying things much clearer. (This is good and bad!) Soon she will be potty training too. I have kind of given up. She will decide when shes ready just like everything else. I will keep offering it to her, but it's not really worth the fight. Speaking of which...

My Honey and I were talking about that a few weeks back. Miss I was doing something and one of us asked her to quit whatever it was. She kept on and we asked her again. Somewhere along the way we decided it wasn't worth fighting about so we quit worrying about it. I looked at him and said "Are we choosing the right battles?" and his answer "If I thought I could win one ..." pretty much sums up Miss I. We try, but we just don't win.

Last thing, my sister posted a rant about her new pets. It is totally hilarious to me! It is just so her! Take a looksee if you want.

And then it cooled off

Now its not so much a decision. Now its just back to chores. Laundry must be done. The weather broke, the highs are only in the 80's and I am glad I put the soft top on the jeep, it was 58 degrees this morning on my way to work at 0445.

I ended up entering two photos in the fair:


I hear they earned a blue ribbon and red ribbon... it wasn't worth it.

Priorities

I can't decide:
Clean laundry or the air conditioner?

Why do I have to make such choices? Because the downstairs A/C is hooked to the same fuse as the washer/dryer (one or both I have not figured out) so one has to go. I am choosing A/C today. When the highs are 110 and the lows are 80, its just too damned hot NOT to have every bit of A/C available. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this weather, I just wish I didn't have to make such silly choices.







I want to enter some photos in the county fair this week! Well, I have plans to, I still need to get them prepared and all that... just two days left is all, I better get on it.

7 minutes

Bubba and Miss I are eating dinner.
My Honey is golfing.
I have approximately 7 minutes to write.

They are trying my very little patience tonight. Why must a 6 year old go into the kitchen for a .... scratch that, I have a juice emergency ....

Sheesh. So much for 7 minutes. So where was I? Oh yeah, how is it that a 6 year old goes into the kitchen for a (oops had to serve seconds) he went into the kitchen for a towel to clean up a little spilled juice and had to take the long way around to get back to the table and while cleaning up the small juice spill he manages, well I guess it was THEY, managed to spill the whole dang cup of juice. Which I had to clean up, then the phone rings, Bubba needs seconds, Miss I is having a fit about a shoe (that isn't even hers) and so much for my 7 minutes.

Bubba was treated to a movie today, "Journey to the Center of the Earth". He described it as scary and good, "I liked it, we had 3-d glasses."

Miss I didn't get a nap today so she is a mess. Bed time soon! Holding her off till 6:30 if I can...

I read a great book last week "The Shack". Essentially its about, hmmm, how would I describe it? A man named Mack's interaction with God. Yeah, pretty much. Only not what you would think. Kind of in the way that "The 5 People You Meet In Heaven" isn't what you think its going to be. Very interesting, very applicable in many ways in my life right now. A good read if you are looking for one.

I am also reading a book (for the second time this summer) called "Why you do the things you do". Much more a psychology book than an easy read, but there were some "similar threads" as my friend put it. We are actually reading the book together and discussing it as we go along because it is so full of stuff that needs discussing! It hasn't been a read and digest book for me at all, its definitely one I needed to talk about at length with a trusted friend. I am thankful for her right now.

Which brings up Rose Colored Glasses. I know, PUHLEEZE...

But think about it, when you look at the world, even a small part of it, through nothing but negativity, then everything becomes negative. Try looking through those RCG's and everything (albeit slowly) becomes brighter. You know its true. Its just easier to be all crabby-ass about everything. To complain rather than look for the good in stuff, like say a juice emergency thats interrupts my blogging or a 2 year old that hasn't had a nap or a 6 year old that must take the long way around (every time). Really, in the grand scheme of things how bad are these things? Uh, not so much. Even the shit at work isn't that bad. Its just the same ol', same ol' with a different name this time. It all works out in the end.

Bubba is learning that there is more than one way to get into and out of the kitchen, Miss I is asserting her independence and showing us that we don't have to hold to a nap schedule EVERY day, and work, well, its family that is there for you in the end, right? So give work your 8 or 10 or 12 hours a day then leave it at the door. I know its all easier said than done, I failed miserably at seeing through RCG's when the juice spilled, I actually made a very loud, pissed off sound (but no swear words) that made the kids jump then laugh nervously, but I can see it now ... does that count?

I could go on, but not tonight, I have been given a strict bedtime of 7:30 (although theres no one here to make sure ...) so I must shove off. Just remember folks, try to see through your Rose Colored Glasses... maybe just once a day, take one little situation and think to yourself "it could be worse". Because we all know it could.

Rough life

Its so rough when I get 12 days off from work, then work 3 days (2 of which were 12's) and have my regularly scheduled 4-day weekend! I hate it when that happens. Someone sure knows how to plan well!

We had a really nice weekend. I ran on Saturday morning, took the kids to the Farmers Market, a bike ride/walk on the loop trail, went to a dinner party Saturday night, church on Sunday, ran an errand for my Mom, golfed with My Honey and Bubba on Sunday afternoon and today I got a massage and a much-needed chiropractic adjustment after an unfortunate fall on the golf course.

I don't claim to be graceful, never have been, never will be. But I was especially un-graceful after hitting my ball to the high side of a hill, traipsing up to get it, knocking it down the hill and then taking a slider down the hill on my ass. Nice Rainey, very nice. It must have looked pretty funny Bubba was a giggling fool - not to mention me! I was cracking up at myself. But I was hurt, twisted my knee and wrenched my back. Luckily I had a massage scheduled for today and then I was able to get adjusted right afterward. Hopefully it will be feeling a bit better tonight.

My Honey played golf on Saturday morning too. Unfortunately he had a bad experience at the golf course, needless to say he's done playing there. His punch card is all done and so is he. They just don't treat their customers very well out there. Thankfully there are quite a few choices around here so we headed out to Three Lakes on Sunday. It was a little windy on the back 9, but we managed. Bubba throws his ball out, hits it, runs, hits it, runs and then tries to putt when we get to the greens. He only actually did this on about 6 holes, but it was enough to tucker him out!

Today he is at the YMCA day camp program again. Next week he has a day camp called "Knights, Castles and Kingdoms" it should be fun, and we will close the week by going to a Shakespeare play! While at the Farmers Marked on Saturday, the kids in the Short Shakespeare program were doing snippets from the play coming up next week "A Midsummer Nights Dream." I happen to know the director from my childhood when her daughter and I were friends and when I did the program and she invited us to be her guest at the play! Super cool, not only do we get to go to the play, it will be free! I would love it if one of my kids were interested, likely it will be Miss I, and did the program one summer. We shall see.

Nothing much planned for tomorrow, Emilee comes over, we're going for a walk with some of the girls from work, and then the rest of the week is work, work, work. It's my long week and I think I have a 12 hour shift, or two... I cant remember for sure. August is full of overtime already and it hasn't even started, plus, you never know who will call out sick or any of that stuff.

Home sweet home

Well, we are back. I tried to find pictures of the highlights of each day. Hope you enjoy them. Yes, the kids sleeping was the highlight of the first day! It was so cute because they were in the same room in "big kid" beds which Miss I thought was the icing on the cake!

We broke our travel into two days. The first day was all the way to Portland, the second day we set out for the Portland Zoo, which was pretty cool, and then to Lincoln City. The rental house was good, but had several small details which weren't taken care of that drove us nuts (for instance no washcloths in any of the bathrooms...)

We spent time on the beach, we went to the Newport Aquarium, a lighthouse, and of course the outlet mall.

Several of us went to Depoe Bay and did a charter-fishing-boat-thing. I have only fished a few times, like 3 from the shore of small lakes. I didn't particularly care for it, but I figured I would try deep-sea fishing, I would at least like the boat ride. Which I did, until me and the starboard rail became best friends. It was a foggy, foggy day and I spent a lot of time puking over the rail! I couldn't believe it. I love the water, love boating, never, never have been seasick before. Apparently the wide-open foggy spaces and 20-foot rollers and me don't get along. So, I will probably never go deep-sea fishing again. It was such a disappointment (the getting sick part). But we did get fresh crab out of the deal! And fresh fish too.

While we were letting the kids unwind after the aquarium in Newport the guys went to the Rogue Brewery next door. We met them at the door and My Honey was carrying a case of beer. My favorite beer, Dead Guy Ale! It was such an unexpected treat! Big ol' 20 ouncers too! We first tasted the beer at a restaurant here, but the next time we asked for it they weren't carrying it anymore so we were glad to come by it and bring some home.

My Honey and I celebrated our 16th anniversary while we were down there. We went golfing and then out to dinner with his siblings and their spouses. it was a lot of fun. The golf course was pretty nice, but COLD. In fact, the whole trip was COLD. We left 100 degree temps for 60 degrees in Oregon. Brrrr. It was a nice way to spend our anniversary.

All in all a good trip! I would definitely do it again, with the whole family, but maybe not to Oregon ... too cold this time of the year anyway. I am looking forward to going down in October though!

"Lost tooth"

Bubba is an official big kid. Here is his story (as told to me)

"I lost a tooth on Tuesday. It was a night that I was being babysat and my sister."
"My mom liked it that I lost a tooth. Dad was pretty proud."

Me: How did the tooth come out?
"The person that had the wiggly tooth pulled it out. It was Harry. And thats it. Well, it bled a little."

Pretty cute huh?

It was a pretty wiggly tooth, he had been playing with it for several days and I was ready to pull it. I asked him to come over to me so I could "feel" it (with the intention of pulling it) and he wiggled it right out of his mouth. He was so excited! He did a little happy dance. Then he freaked out that it might be bleeding. It would have made a great video but how do you know when something like that is going to happen? Kind of like Miss I helping My Honey discipline Bubba, but thats another story!

We were going to a baseball game so My Honey and I were pretty glad we were still home to see him lose it!

We are off on vacation tomorrow. I understand we will have internet connections so I will try to brag, I mean post, a few pictures. (Thats for you, Mom!)

The 4th and more

The 4th was fun. I worked hellacious hours all weekend, but we did take the kids to the annual show in town.

Bubba has been every year since he was about two and it was Miss I's first show. It has been tradition that I meet them at the park because I am usually working, but this year was different, I was off for the show! I just had to be to work at 5am the next day!

We arrived at the park with PLENTY of time to waste so we found the cotton candy vendor and sugared up the kids. Bubba kept asking every 2 minutes "how much longer?" and My Honey made a big production of getting his phone out of his pocket to check the time and making him do the simple math of figuring it out for himself. It was pretty cute.

Miss I had no idea what to expect. She was in her stroller all snuggled in a blanket, reclined back waiting when IT happened. The first fireworks. She shot up with her eyes, huge as plates, glued to the sky, her fingers went into her ears and she watched in awe. When the first few ended she said "NEN MAMA! NEN!" (Translation: again mom! again! and quickly!) And so it continued for the first bit, then she wanted to make sure everyone else was enjoying the show, so she went around to Bubba, Grandma, Grandpa, me and My Honey and sat with each of us. It was really sweet. Bubba did his usual plugged his ears and waited it out. Hes a good sport, but the loudness really gets to him.

On our way out of the park we saw a small brush fire across the river. Thankfully the fire department was able to get there in a few minutes and not much was destroyed. Why are people careless though? Just because there is a river nearby does not mean that water is easy to come by, especially in the dark. Oh well, hopefully someone saw something and the people who started the fire will get into trouble. Hard to say though.

The rest of the weekend was shot for me. I worked 5am-5pm on Saturday and Sunday so those were pretty much my days. My Honey took really good care of me, he had dinner started on both nights when I got home and worked on laundry and vacuumed and all kinds of stuff!

Today was busy, I took Bubba to Emilee's to play for the morning, Miss I and I went to pick raspberries (she has pink-eye so I didn't leave her with the other kids). Then she and I went to my moms house for lunch and her nap. While she napped I took Bubba to Super Cool Science Camp (SCSC) where he learned about the parts of a flower today and that leaves give off oxygen. They put leaves into a mason jar of water and watched them bubble. Pretty cool experiment. I guess they are keeping some kind of a log of their experiments so it will be fun to read that at the end of the week. They even got to do a painting of the parts of a flower today. It was everything he loves! While he was there and Miss I was at my moms I took a few hours to shop. I wanted to find a portable DVD player for the car. I had to look at 5 stores before I found one that had 2 screens. After that was Karate then pick up Miss I to see the doctor, then to Safeway for a quickee dinner and to get her prescription, then home to eat and now everyone is in bed, it sounds like they are even asleep!

Tomorrow is not nearly as busy, but still a lot going on. Emilee comes here in the morning, I am taking all 3 kids to a swim lesson, then we are meeting 2 gals from work for a walk in the park. Lunch, SCSC and a baseball game tomorrow night. I guess it will be busy. Then back to work on Wednesday for 3 days and then ..... VACATION! More time off, just what I need! Can't wait, it should be a fun one too!

Before & After

Amazing what you can do in two weeks!

Yes it was

The water park was a blast. I got fried though, AND I was wearing sunscreen. I think it might be expired or something. Bad news, my back is red, red red, and so are my upper thighs - you know the place where my shorts usually cover, toasted on the front and back! Oh well, we had a lot of fun.

They put in two new features at the water park; a lazy river ride where you just float along on an inner tube and a surf/body board thing. The lazy river was fun and the surf/body board thing looked fun too, but we didn't try it. Dani MADE me go down a water slide. Twice! Okay, it was so fun I went a second and a third time! Bubba is too short for the big water slides, but there is a whole section of little kid stuff so he didn't feel left out or anything.

Today is an Emilee Day. We left the house for a swim lesson this morning at 9 but it has been re-scheduled to next week so I brought the kids home, vacuumed the pool and let them swim here. Amazing how tolerable the water gets after 3 or 4 one hundred degree days!

Its a little cooler today, its actually refreshing to have an eighty degree day. Dani keeps saying "its freezing here" now that she is used to the 100's. Silly girl, she has to go back home where its overcast and 70 on a warm day! I told her she can stay longer if she wants to. I ain't kicking her out!

We went and had our toes done last night, then stopped for ice cream on the way home. It was fun. We came home giggling like school girls! My Honey thought we were cute. "It was cute to see you acting like sisters" is what he said. It was fun to be like sisters :) I will miss her when she goes. It is nice to have her around for the convenience but also for the 16-year old energy. Positive energy. Maybe having a little girl won't be so bad after all!