The "A" Team Update

Playdates....

2008-08-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

It seems that our play dates have evolved...

The days of changing our princess dress-up costumes 5 times in an hour seem to have passed.

Although we still have our days where playing princess is a viable alternative, for the most part this is what we do now.....
Have a great day!

Back to School....

2008-08-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

SO, We are officially into week two and I am just now sitting down to blog.....

It seems that the PTA is a full-time job!

The good news is that M loves her teacher and is thrilled to be back at school. The great news is, at first glance, it appears that our homework will actually be less and easier than Kindergarten. This is a big deal for all of us, as the amount of homework last year had me a little alarmed that "my" second attempt at Elementary school might not be a smashing success....

I am also loving the PTA. It is a bit overwhelming. I have to keep reminding our Ways and Means VP (Chief Tech Geek...) that my last computer class was in 1992. Thankfully, I had fabulous tech support teams for the 10 years I worked. It's amazing how much they could clean up my well-intentioned messes.... Apparently, there is no tech support in the volunteer world... I keep fearing that I am going to shut down the whole school system with one wayward keystroke. Other than my technical difficulties, and my inability to be multiple places at once (with toddler in tow, of course) it is a great unpaid job!

So, because I have dinner to cook, a playdate to supervise, and 30some volunteer interest forms to enter, I will close with a couple of shots of Princess M's triumphant return to the halls of education.

All dressed in the new Back to School clothes from Grandma and Papa....
Thrilled to share a desk with one of her best buddies from last year. Who doesn't love new school supplies?

Summer Fun....

2008-07-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly this summer has flown by.

Princess M starts 1st grade in a week and a half, and I already have $40 worth of school supplies to prove it. We don't even have the individual teacher request list yet, I can hardly wait.

We have covered so much ground and fun in the last month, I hardly know where to start.... I think I'll just show you a few of the highlights and save the in depth anecdotes for future posts.

We spent a very busy week with my folks doing Disneyland, a 4 day Mexican Riviera cruise, and Knott's Berry Farm all while carrying and spreading pinkeye....(right Papa?) We had a blast and definitely were unanimous in our wish that time would stop somewhere around Catalina Island.

The only good thing about vacation coming to an end was the impending arrival one day later of our dear friends the Sides. We had two whole weeks of fun, fellowship, Wii Mario Kart battles, and tons of food (not to mention a fairly obscene amount of drinks and desserts....) It's amazing how you can fit 8 people into a 1250sf townhouse when it's the right people!!!!! Before they even left, it was back to work for C, but we squeezed every possible second of fun out of our two weeks and wouldn't trade a second of it for the world. Boy, it was hard to drop them off at the airport....

We also had a very important birthday celebration for a certain Princess L....

In the last 4 days, C and I have devoted a total of 17 hours to the PTA and I have another meeting this evening, so I guess we know how our "spare" time will be spent from here on out...

We Need a Vacation....

2008-06-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo, anyone still out there?

Yes, we are still here. A little tired, and a lot ready for our upcoming cruise, but here none the less.

In the last two weeks we have....

starred as a Golden Hen in Jack and the Beanstalk....You must here 4 of the shyest girls ever sing "We lay, we lay, golden eggs...." to the tune of We Will Rock You. Definitely one not to be missed. Freddie Mercury would be so proud!

We have graduated from Kindergarten.

We have had a wonderful but all too short visit from Granny and Gramps.

Played Buckethead???

Showed Granny and Gramps beautiful Pfeiffer Beach during a sandstorm.....
Yes, that's my awesome Mother-in-Law wrapped up like a burrito in that towel trying to avoid the pelting sand....

We hosted a gourmet meal on the lawn for their visit. Happy Meals for everyone.

Never let it be said that we don't show our guests a good time!

We had our 3rd annual Ballet and Tap recital...

And note the left eye, our first annual recital with pinkeye.... Good Times!

Welcome to the PTA.....

2008-05-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

NO, I haven't been devoured by some rare West Coast disease...

I have taken a position with the PTA.

My new title for the upcoming year is Volunteer Coordinator. Translation: Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. It's my job to get already overextended parents to VOLUNTEER their precious time for the good of our school. And when they don't show up, I get..... to do the work.

All jokes aside, it's a perfect job for me. In spite of the fact I am already exhausted, and my term hasn't yet officially started, I am loving every minute of getting to use my brain and big mouth for something so very worthwhile. Funny side story, I actually volunteered to be the treasurer, because I thought it would be painless. Oddly enough, when an accountant stepped up for that job, they didn't want to let me off the hook. For some strange reason, they thought I would be better suited to a job that involves repeatedly approaching complete strangers and politely talking (browbeating) them into donating their precious time for the good of the school. I cannot imagine what possessed them to think I would be well-suited to this position. It's funny, those of you who have known me since before children know my last professional job was in PR for a non-profit blood center. I am fearful it was easier to talk people out of their blood than it will be to get their time....

Anyway, I am already loving every minute of it! C may not be quite so thrilled as he is suddenly getting LOTS of "quality" time with a certain toddler angel.

Yesterday's 7 hour shift included prepping, serving, and cleaning up after we served 450 grilled hot dogs, and 400 grilled hamburgers to the entire student body and their families. In theory, I should have been walking around greeting parents and schmoozing them into positions for next year. In reality, I never want to handle another hamburger or hot dog, and my hair still smells suspiciously of charcoal. Also, never wear Target rubber flip flops to stand for many hours on blacktop...... And still, I loved it all! Maybe I have a future as a professional volunteer, sounds incredibly lucrative.

Here are a couple of recent shots of the girls who have especially bonded recently. They really are two peas in a pod. Of course, there is no shortage of shrieking and squalling but neither can stay out of the other's business for 5 seconds, so all is GOOD!

Party Time!

2008-05-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Last week was a GREAT week!

Thursday, C and I went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary, sans kids, WOOOOHOOOO.

We got to eat Japanese food and finish entire sentences without interruption. Does it get any better than that?

Friday, Princess M and I got to spend the whole day together, without our favorite tagalong. She's stinking cute...but sometimes it's hard for my big girl and I to get any togetherness time with "little jealousy" along.

I chaperoned M's class field trip to see my favorite things.....NOT!!!!!

Later in the day, M's favorite boy, you remember the one, had his Bday party at the pool. Fun was had by all. They got to swim, I got to take pictures, and not wear a swimsuit....

What a Day.....

2008-05-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

So, here's how we spent last Saturday. It was a much appreciated family day of fun in an absolutely gorgeous place.

Check out Pfeiffer Beach, just down Big Sur Highway from us.

There's a freshwater stream that runs down the beach to the Pacific and the girls had a blast playing in the water and catching tadpoles by hand. My, how things have changed for Princess M.....

Things have also changed for this one, who, when we first arrived did not care for sand....

Trying to get the sand out of her bum after this day made Mom not so crazy about it either....

It's a Good Thing.....

2008-04-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am giving a shout out to "Martha" today in honor of my Great friend K over at One Crazy Adventure

Thanks to her creative abilities, Princess M is now a very happy camper with this...

This shot is just to show Princess L and her "coaching" M with her modeling... That's all I need, another perfectionist with bossy tendencies....

Thank heavens I have friends with such skills and talents so my girls can enjoy such lovely things, otherwise they would forever be deprived as my artistic abilities are completely nonexistent. The other great thing about this beautiful gift is that M's buddy Princess E has one just like it and of course having a best buddy twin all the way across the country makes it all the more awesome!

I do have one other quick thing to share.

I want to introduce the new "loves" of my life...

What more can I say. Life is sweet. I have almost forgotten how much I hate technology (or how much it hates me rather) with these new beauties. Who knew laundry could actually be fun?

Ahhh, Success....

2008-04-11T17:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, This picture represents a smashing success in our household.

As most of you know, oddly enough, C and I have incredibly food-averse offspring. How does this happen to two people who truly have a love affair with food? Don't get me wrong, as the mother to two girls in today's world I am extremely grateful that likely my girls will never have weight and body issues. However, I cannot understand how they can have absolutely no interest in food. They simply eat when we insist, which we do, three times each day, just to keep the screaming meanies to a minimum. The "screaming meanies" for those of you not in the know, are the beings that replace our otherwise lovely girls when they are so hungry they can't function, but would never consider simply asking for a snack...

So anyway in this picture you see Princess L indulging in 4, count em four, separate foods. Now, as adults, you and I know that Chicken fingers, Mac and Cheese (yes, the devil in the blue box kind)corn on the cob, and an apple does not necessarily a well-balanced meal make. However, for us this is HUGE! The first of you to point out to me that corn, pasta, and a complex carb are no substitutes for something green and leafy are officially off the Xmas list and the Blog roll, so if you ever wanted to run us off, now's your chance!

And IT Begins.....

2008-04-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my friend G at Princess M's school. We were discussing our surprise that her third grader was going to be allowed to participate in an after school dance....

In third grade????

We were both surprised and somewhat shocked as a boy had already invited her Gorgeous (yes, with a capital G) girl to said dance. G had explained to her daughter that although she would be allowed to go to the dance, she could expect to see her Mom there as a chaperon, and her date would be strictly her girlfriends, not any boy!

Since this conversation it has come to our attention that it is an all school dance... I am still not sure if that is better... Kindergartners through 5th graders at a dance? Should be entertaining at least.

Skip to this morning when G stops me as I am dropping off M. She mentioned she overheard a very interesting conversation between two of her children. It seems that Princess M's buddy B had said to his sister "It's too bad you can't go to the dance with a boy, because I am going with...(you guessed it) M!"

Here is the object of our affection, who coincidentally just yesterday M told me was the cutest boy in her class, and asked if I agreed. (I do...)

So it appears on Friday, I am going to a dance!

Lest We Forget....

2008-04-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

As a proud military family, it's very easy to consider our assignment here to be akin to one big vacation. It's not that C's workload isn't taxing and difficult to say the least, it's just that we are together everyday and....Safe. Having no possibility of deployment sometimes gives you a false sense of security, like what's happening over there doesn't really exist for this moment.

Then along comes a real life reminder of why we are here in the first place. We are here for C to get more tools and resources to help protect all of us. We have met some fabulous people here and many of them have already graduated and moved on. One such family we were lucky enough to meet on a few occasions has now moved on and are in the midst of a tough deployment. He is doing some wonderful things to help the people of Afghanistan and would love help.

I am including a link to his new blog.
If you can help, please do so. We are all lucky to have such a caring (and very funny) man out there protecting us and helping them!

www.navygoesarmy.blogspot.com/

Thanks Craig! We'll be praying for you!

CHIPS off the "relatively" old Blocks.....

2008-03-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

So, I am happy to report that Princess M has requested and received her first "REAL" guitar. It took some real smooth talking on Mom's part to convince her to go for the traditional wood grain (like Daddy's) and not the Pepto Bismol Pink one with the silver plastic flame on it..... I can only take princess pink so far...... Thus far we are not attempting any real lessons, just a lot of raucous strumming and posing.... SHE has the makings of a real rocker... Style first, substance later....

So here she is in all her Bohemian glory.

Obviously, any real talent for guitar will come from her Dad. I did take several years of lessons and can still slowly pick out the basics, but as all who know me well know, I hate being second best.... Seeing as I was never even remotely in the same league, my guitar days are mostly a happy (and sometimes painful) memory.

There is one thing that both of my girls have received from both sides of the family tree... They are carrying on the tradition of being die hard UofL Cardinals fan! Tonight we face off with the Tarheels and we will be supporting the Cards in style. Chris and I are both in CARDS shirts (mine of original vintage as I am a bit superstitious) The girls are decked out in new finery delivered for Easter from Granny and Gramps. Traditionally of course all CARDS gear should be RED and BLACK, however those marketing geniuses know that little girls LOVE pink.

So be it....

Spring Break!

2008-03-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

Who knew that a two week Spring Break could be so much work and so little.... break?
No doubt anyone who has ever had school-aged children.. Since this is my first year fitting that demographic, I must admit to being a little surprised at the amount of energy it takes to entertain a child who is used to having 22 other children, a teacher, and three (yes, 3) recesses a day to do the job. So, we have been go, go, going and I have been so tired at the end of the day that stringing together witty sentences to tell you about it seems like a LOT of effort. That being said, we'll just forget about attempting wit and show you some two week old pictures of my folks' visit. Maybe once Spring Break is nothing but a happy and hazy memory I will actually be able to blog about it....

This was a trip to the Coast Guard Pier to see...

....a wall full of seagull droppings.... No, really, look where her binoculars are aimed....
We did see this guy as well, so as always the trip was a success.

We also made our first successful trip to Pfeiffer Beach down the Big Sur Highway. We attempted this once before, but had to retreat that particular day as the circuitous route along the Pacific caused my Big Princess a small bout of car sickness....

It was worth the second effort as this is what we found.

This last shot is not an attempt to show off the beautiful scenery. This shot is to highlight our only souvenir for the day. You see that rock in the foreground? We brought that home... Because Princess L said so.... ENOUGH said....

Long Time No See....

2008-03-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry we have been so conspicuously absent for the last two weeks. It seems that between my folks' visit and Princess M's Birthday extravaganza, I have had no extra time to collect my thoughts. Much less write them down, edit them, add pictures, edit them again, and then just say "what the heck" and press Publish Post.... Now everything seems so past tense, it feels odd to still be sharing it with you. However, since some of our favorite people in Kentucky, England, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland couldn't be here to party with us, I will share with you a couple of the 286 (no lie) pictures I took at an all afternoon Birthday soiree. This rapid shutter photography is going to run us out of computer memory and external hard drive space quickly at this rate.... Of course, it has nothing to do with my lack of discrimination as a photographer. Doesn't everyone take 10-15 shots of the same scene hoping to get one worthy shot to post or share?

We started the shindig with the delivery of the Pink and Purple Bounce Castle at 10am. The last child unwillingly climbed out at 6pm when Mr. Bouncy insisted he must return the Castle to Salinas. The kids were sorry to see it go, C, not so much. His love for all things safe and orderly was definitely tested with an afternoon full of roughly thirty kids ranging from age 1 to age 13 and a couple of us in our late 30ish years testing the rules on bounce house capacity. We had brought along our own small version, allegedly for the "small" kids. You can imagine how that worked out. The small tykes were most often right in the middle of the big bouncy with a mere dozen other kids doing pikes and pile drivers all around them. The small bouncy was full of ambitious boys trying to dive over the sides.
This is only 6 kids, right?

Let me out, please?

As I said, FUN was had by all. C had his fun when we made an adult run to the Mini Mart after the crowd dwindled down to the most hearty of friends and cleanup crew.

We did learn one other invaluable lesson. When you invite an entire class of 23 Kindergartners and their families, including siblings, to an all afternoon birthday luncheon, DO NOT, for any reason have a real (aluminum bat required) pinata. The bat was actually not the problem, no small thanks to my friend Beth, who repeatedly risked life and limb to jump in the fray and wrestle an aluminum bat from a blindfolded, swinging, sugar-hyped kid.
The problem was eventually (after we finally let the 13 year old take a swing) the pinata will break. At this point, I cannot describe the chaos that ensued... Suffice to say, if I had not had an extra jumbo bag of goodies on the side, they're might have been a mutiny. For all future parties, pinatas are for ten or less small, hogtied children.
That's my girl!

Ultimately, the birthday girl decreed the party a TOTAL smash success. That was more than enough repayment for the ten+ hours my Dad and I spent chopping and mixing to feed the masses. Incidentally, 66 cupcakes was exactly 1 cupcake too many... Party ON!

Just Doing Our Part....

2008-03-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

We are so "green" since we moved to California....

We water our weeds...

and our mulch....

and occasionally something we actually want to grow.....

Other than that one random day of sun, we have recently had almost continual rain and fog. Thus our normal attire has been this.....

I have always been the "glass half full" girl but I will fully admit I may have some Seasonal Affective Disorder going on. I need sunlight.... So, if in its infinite wisdom the USAF is ever considering sending us to England, or Seattle for that matter, I may have to be medicated....

Seriously though, our lack of blogging has really just been because weather has kept us in. There's only so much you can photograph and talk about that happens in 1250 square feet, without completely rendering your audience catatonic. That being said, the weather is improving. Princess M has a birthday this week, and my parents arrive on Tuesday. Surely, with all this going on we will soon have stories to tell.

Have a great week!

I've Been Tagged...

2008-02-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

OK, being a relative greenie in this whole blogging universe. I am not really even sure what being tagged means exactly, but I am a stickler for playing by the rules so here goes my effort.

Blunoz tagged me with a meme.

THE RULES:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Post THE RULES on your blog.

3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.

4. Tag 7 people and link to them.

5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

As you all know, talking is never difficult for me, but oddly enough coming up with seven things I am willing to reveal about myself is actually tough.

Here is my best effort.

1. I have an irrational and obsessive fear of snakes. I have fought very hard to tackle this since I had children, as I would never want them to feel frozen with the kind of fear I do whenever I encounter said demons. I have actually taken Princess M to touch a real live snake just to show how "pretty" and "interesting" they are. Yes, those were quotes from me to M. I guess it goes to show, I will lie to my children when under duress.

2. I am a die hard Green Bay Packers fan from as far back as I can remember actually watching football. I have never been to and have no ties with Wisconsin. I met Paul Hornung at a friend's house when I was a kid and the rest is history. Sadly, most of my years as a fan have not been so productive. This year was looking to be an exception and then those darn Giants had to beat us, at home, in the snow....

3. I love to read, almost to the point of obsession. I will read anything I can get my hands on. I like everything from People Magazine to Poe, Sean Hannity to the Bible. I have been known to read the back of a shampoo bottle in the restroom. It's one of the things I miss most as the parent of young children. I hope by the time they are both in high school, I will have caught up on the last few years in the world of fiction as for now I seem to only have time to read my favorite few blogs a day and to quickly peruse The Monterey Herald.

4. I currently am listening to KLOVE Christian radio almost exclusively. As a lifelong music lover, I have just recently discovered how many REALLY talented musicians are in the Christian genre. In my opinion, there are almost NO good new rock musicians out there anymore, but KLOVE has some great artists with amazing, rocking, and actually inspiring songs. It's seems an odd twist of fate as most of the other music I listen to is old 80's hair bands, metal mania fare, and a few favorite country artists. It's definitely quite a contrast in content but at least I am able to answer M's questions about the lyrics....

5. I am a rabid editor, not for grammar (quite obviously), just spelling. It makes me CRAZY to find misspellings in print. Chalk it up to being the child of two teachers with some obsessive, compulsive traits of my own thrown into the mix.

6. As I am coming dangerously close to the end of my third decade, I have a new found love for cinnamon. I have had an aversion to the stuff most of my life. Suddenly, this year I can't get enough. Go figure. (Remember, the rules state, these items are supposed to be random...)

7. I apparently am much better at talking about things of which I have no idea, than things I actually know something about. Why else could I have spent the last 35+ years with rarely a lull in the conversation, and today when asked to talk about myself, this is all I could come up with?

I guess we just stumbled upon the previously unknown way to shut me up....

I hope you all found this little exercise enlightening in some way. I found it a little painful and fun just the same. I hope that some of the folks I am tagging will share much more exciting and entertaining tidbits... Unfortunately, I don't know seven other people to tag at this point, but here are those I do.

Elizabeth at Oxford, Abridged

B at Slightly Irregular

Glynda at The Richters "Party of 5"

Shelley at Williams Family

Thanks Blunoz!

P.S. I did NOT order a new computer because I am cheap and stubborn and not yet quite ready to throw in the towel. Today I used this lovely machine three separate times without getting the boot, so here's hoping she has some more life in her until someone who knows something about these monsters can come save me from myself.

Computer Blues...

2008-02-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

I can't honestly say that a lot of exciting stuff has been going on around here. We have been rather boring the last couple of weeks. However, we could have discovered the answers to all of the questions of the universe and we wouldn't have shared them with you due to frustration with our computer. I should say my computer, his works just fine and to keep it that way, I NEVER touch it. So I am tempting the fates again by trying to complete one short entry. I believe we, and I mean he, have almost selected our, and I mean my, next computer and hopefully the UPS man will be winging my way soon. Of course then there will be setups and installations and all sorts of things I will not in any way get involved with in the interest of family harmony. We work VERY well together. We both know our strengths and otherwise stay out of the other's way. It's a beautiful partnership!

We did finally have a Valentine's date on Friday afternoon as our babysitter had recovered from an earlier illness. You know you are anxious for some adult time when you call your babysitter the next day after she has had to cancel to tell her to heck with giving our two year old some rare bug, just come on over. In all honesty, we THINK, it was just allergies. Anyway, C and I are so out of practice for this date thing that after a lovely childless lunch overlooking Monterey Bay, we couldn't decide what next to do with our remaining hour. Wouldn't everyone have gone to the Med group at the Post to pick up the Medical records they keep calling to harass us about? For those of you in the military, it should be no surprise.... When we were leaving Altus, I made a VALIANT, and I mean politely demanding, attempt to hand carry our medical records knowing we were going be using civilian providers here. OH NOOOOO, that is never possible. "These records belong to the US Government and you are not allowed to hand deliver them. We will send them when they are officially requested by another Government agency, blah, blah, blah." In December, four months after we arrived here, we started getting the calls from the Army Med Group to please pick these up as "we don't want to lose or be responsible for them."
Imagine that. Needless to say, I have the utmost faith in the integrity of the system. I almost typed that with a straight face.

Anyway, it wasn't a wasted trip. I now know thanks to a big sign at the clinic the three days a week on which I can go to a clinic specifically to have my warts and/or toenails removed. Apparently, there must be quite a demand for those services....

We did enjoy seeing some of the local wildlife on the trip up there. When I say up, for those of you who haven't been here, the Presidio sits on the top of one of the highest hills here. It has a gorgeous view of the bay and a plethora of quite tame deer.

Small disclaimer... I didn't have my new camera with me....

C snapped this yesterday, again old camera, but check out the wee princess' expression...

DOGgone Great Days....

2008-02-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

First, let me say I am sorry for the scarcity of posts recently. We have been quite busy as Princess M has had two weeks of shortened school days due to conferences. It's amazing how little you can get done when you have two kids and all of their assorted buddies to entertain all day long. Top that off with a Daddy feeling quite under the weather and in midterms and we haven't been home much.

I don't have a lot of great anecdotes to tell, most of our activities have just centered around getting outside and enjoying the fact that we again have sunshine.

So here are some shots of our most recent day at the beach.

This was one happy kid. She had 7 canine companions to play with on the beach.

These two did some serious shelling... This is no easy task here as very few shells make it to our shores through the incredibly rough and rolling surf.....

Here's the newly shorter haired princess with some of their finds....

L and I also met friends at the aquarium this week. The only part she was really interested in this time? The slide outside the otter exhibit. She really knows how to milk an educational experience for all it's worth. A true chip off the old block.

Finally, we visited our 2nd favorite mouse this week as DisneyLand is a bit of a drive for a midweek visit....

Technical Difficulties...

2008-02-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

Sorry to All.

I have been trying all morning to post a much overdue entry but am currently contemplating throwing my computer in the Pacific. I will attempt again later when my anger issues have subsided....

Thanks for your patience in my time of fury.

I love technology, and it loves me...

P.S. I think AT&T Yahoo, my beloved ISP, is out to get me because I had the nerve to mention I was a voting Republican....

Mondays are Reinstated...

2008-02-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have relented and am again allowing Mondays to proceed.

If you know us REALLY well, you know that last week actually got crazier (worse) by Wednesday. We are however closing the chapter on last week and moving forward, Mondays and all.

When I stepped out on my front porch this morning, I was greeted by the following images. If these don't make you optimistic, even in the midst of a presidential election, nothing will.

I never did make it to Big Sur to see the Gray Whales last week, as every time we were set to head out it started pouring. The Bay was also visited by a resident pod of forty Orcas from Puget Sound this weekend. So, my goal for the week is to complete a trip to Big Sur and attempt to take some pictures as well. Cross your fingers for us and of course we'll share any and all successes.

Hope everyone has a great week. For those of you in Super Tuesday states, don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Mondays are Officially Cancelled...

2008-01-29T14:28:00.000-08:00

I am cancelling all future Mondays until further notice. Do not expect said notice to come anytime soon!

Why am I so anti-Monday you ask?

Because yesterday was so horrid it has rolled over into today and I can't really go on strike, so I feel the need to come here and share the love with you all.

Sunday night at 7pm our transformer blew as we ate dinner. I will spare you all the interim details but it was 7:05am Monday morning before electricity was restored. We were actually very grateful it was at night and thus not did not greatly interfere with our Webkinz World computer time... SO, Monday morning we woke up, regained our power, found Princess L to be on day two of a fever accompanied by a HUGE case of the grumpies, and Princess M to have an onset of some rash in her hairline causing her to scratch like she has the cooties. This was all before 7:30am. The day rolled on mostly uneventfully until I picked up the mail. This is where it all went south, quickly. Imagine my surprise and glee to find not one but two new credit cards. The only not so minor problem, I had not applied for nor did I want either. That's right, my identity had been stolen. After having spent the better part of last evening and this morning on the phone with credit bureaus and fraud specialists, it appears my financial life is sealed up like Ft Knox, then again I didn't think I was careless before. It blows my mind how easily someone accessed and used my personal information to gain credit fraudulently... Apparently, it went all the more smoothly for them because I have such good credit. Comforting thought isn't it? If I had just been a little more reckless with my spending over the last twenty years, the crooks would have had a tougher time.

Wait, it's not over yet. This morning while I was taking a break from informing all of those I do business with to require a DNA sample from both me and my firstborn before extending any further credit in my name, I decided to fill out my California primary ballot. I received an absentee ballot because apparently due to low enrollment in my area there is no actual polling place for me to go next Tuesday. I am not making this up, it was on the letter... It's so comforting to know that I am in the minority of people who actually vote... Anyway, after reading the ballot for 45 minutes, I decided maybe so few people vote in the primary because California makes it too complicated. Finally, I figured it all out and completed my ballot. I left it sitting next to me on the computer while I finished my calls. The next thing I knew, my darling, ever-so-helpful Princess L had proceeded to shove it in the shredder sitting next to my desk. She knows how to do this because she helps me shred all of the address labels on every piece of mail we receive everyday. No, I am not exaggerating. We do this everyday, because we wouldn't want to be the victims of identity theft. Are you feeling the irony yet? So, now that my karma is apparently in the crapper (and yes, that is the most family friendly word I could come up with at this point!) I have to decide whether it is worth the risk to head out next week and try to find an actual polling location that will accept my vote? Currently, I feel like my vote could put a jinx on my candidate of choice and since you all know I am a staunch Republican, we don't need any more obstacles to overcome.

I believe I am through venting. I am getting ready to take a drive down to Big Sur to look for gray whales. Luck may not be with me, but my new camera will, just in case.

P.S. Protect your credit!

P.P.S. GO MITT!

The New Generation of Rock...

2008-01-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

It appears we have passed the torch....

I will spare you the live video version as the musical score from the omnipresent Barbie Guitar is a never ending version of the Britney chorus "Not that Innocent." Who at Mattel thought this song was an appropriate selection for a toy rated for and marketed to 3-8 year old girls? It's just so darn heartwarming to hear a toddler, kindergartner, and first grader belting it out in all their glory...

Why does this picture remind me of Hanson? MmmBop anyone?

Rock On!

Word of the Day...

2008-01-23T09:29:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note today about my mini-princess, L.

Yesterday, we had to stop at the Mini Mart to get milk after taking M to school.

As we were leaving the store, I informed L of our itinerary for the rest of the morning. It included returning home to exercise and bathe before going to the Commissary for some weekly restocking. How is it when I lived two blocks from the Commissary I could go every two weeks? Now that I actually have to drive the interstate to get there, I barely make it five days... Anyway, L was not impressed with the plan...

L... " I want to go to the Commissary now Momma!"

Mom... " We can't go now L, it's not open."

L... " If you say abre it will open."

I am now officially excused for the countless hours my princess has spent watching Dora... She can teach me Spanish. Who knew when they said you learn something new everyday, that it would be a foreign language tutorial from your toddler?

Just for good measure, a couple of recent shots...

California Conundrum...

2008-01-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

I just can't get used to this California weather.

Two weeks ago I told you about our "Winter Storm 2008". It's still being discussed daily in the editorial pages here because a few "poor" souls who live in Carmel By The Sea (otherwise known as the high rent district) were without power for over five days.... Seriously, these folks live in "cottages" that start at about $1million. I really found it difficult to muster up much sympathy. Anyway, you may remember the "storm" gave us about 4 inches of rain, some gusts of wind up to 65mph, and temperatures firmly in the.... 50's. Not really blizzard conditions, but extreme for here just the same.

Now, the mornings here along the coast ARE doggone cold. When L and I head out on our morning walk, she is attired like this.....

or this....

or often this....

However, by mid afternoon most days, the temps are at least in the 60's. That, I can get used to. With C's class schedule this quarter, I can walk to school to pick up M in the afternoons, to be able to do so in the middle of January wearing flip flops and short sleeves is not too rough. Wednesday, when I took M to ballet in Carmel I decided to take some pictures to show you the scenery along my walking route.

For those of you in KY and places further north, it may be a few months before you see this again....I hope they can brighten your day!

Festivus, for the Rest of Us....

2008-01-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

Not sure if I spelled it right, but the title for you non-sitcom fans out there is a shout out to an old and oft-quoted Seinfeld episode.

Since we are now over a week past the Epiphany we can't really call it Christmas anymore but the gifts just keep coming at our house.

Princess M's most recent favorite is yet another poodle. Who's shocked? This one is pink and is a Webkinz, and it is a gift from the most awesome people in M's world: Madison and Austin. The sun rose and set in these guys for two whole years, and that shows no sign of changing, ever. Seeing as my first best friend at age six is still one of my most favorite people on the planet (Hello, KB! Sorry, I'm even worse at real contact than I am at updating the blog...) I feel quite certain that these two folks will always be at the top of her list. Mom's too for that matter.

Anyway, the Webkinz' name is Marigold and Mom and M will now be spending a lot of time on the computer reaching out to our other friends in Webkinz World (from now on to be referred to as WW as I believe we will be mentioning it a lot.) In the interest of full disclosure, I am already somewhat addicted to one of the arcade games in WW. C had to pull me off the computer last night to put the girls to bed. Usually I am the one doing the "Yippeee, it's bedtime dance" a full half hour before absolutely necessary. Don't get me wrong I treasure every minute with my girls. I also treasure quiet and relative sanity.

Here is M with Marigold, and her custom made crown. Also note the new jammies that could in no way wait to be pre-washed before they were worn....

C, like me is receiving the bulk of his gifts post holiday because also like me, no one likes to shop for him. All he ever really wants are more instruments and their accompanying gadgets. Like all musicians, he scoffs at the idea of someone else picking them out. Now that he has moved back out of the garage and into the house, largely because we no longer have a garage, he chose to update his recording equipment. The ability to record again, in no less than 16 tracks, forced us to also need a new bass guitar, because the old one is damaged, not fixable, and no longer of anything other than aesthetic value (thanks, younger bro J). I have been assured we are continuing to move it because it will one day be very cool as mounted artwork on the wall of his future music room. That would be the one we will have when we again live in over 1200 square feet. So even though, he still complains about the few times he was forced to play bass live as opposed to "real" guitar, he is the proud owner of a rockin' new one.

Here is a shot of the test drive...

and yes, for those of you who can recognize these things, this pic was cropped because his ensemble included "Tarheel blue" shorts and I just couldn't have that outfit on my blog!

and the new recorder......

This last pic is totally unrelated, but as I was snapping the other two with their new gifts, using my new gift, L streaked into the room. She is obviously not a fan of the flash as she blinked and then yelled at me. Upon looking at the pic though, I decided to keep it just to show off those darn eyelashes. Now if she'll just get her Dad's hips too, she'll be knockin' em dead.

Time Flies...

2008-01-10T13:16:00.000-08:00

Wow, who would have thought that sending my husband and daughter back to school this week could have made me more busy?

I have no idea where the time is going, but it seems that the days are flying by. M started back on Wednesday to find two new girls in her class. This was a welcome sight as she is still in mourning over her best buddy moving over Christmas, not to mention her beloved Madison being all the way in Virginia. I can hardly wait for the first time we have to leave a boyfriend behind somewhere.... If it's this hard to say goodbye in kindergarten, the high school years may be the bane of my existence. As if that weren't already going to be true since we will have seven straight years of at least one daughter in high school! I can't blame her though, I am still feeling the sting of leaving behind, or being left by all my closest pals too.

Luckily, she has found a great new buddy in the daughter of one of C's classmates. His family arrived to join him here right before the holidays and I believe we are all going to have some good times. They like Wii, wine and chaos. These are our kind of people.

The girls were playing dress up on Saturday with M's new makeup from Christmas. They started out making themselves quite elegant and beautiful and suddenly it morphed into this....

I think they are quite ready to shoot a horror flick.... I was just waiting for heads to start spinning...

I feel the need to show you the girls after I used half a bottle of Clinique makeup remover on their faces....They were greasy, but beautiful once again.

They look so harmless here, hard to believe it's the same girls. Lizzy was looking for an excuse to sleep on my bed, so she appointed herself guardian....

On a more pleasant note, M has beat her first video game. I am certain her Dad has never been more proud. She purchased the Wii Disney Princess game with a gift card two days after Christmas. After quite a few hours of devotion and a small amount of assistance from Dad and oddly enough, even Mom, she has conquered and become a princess.

Here are some shots of her efforts.

Look at that concentration...

Sometimes you just gotta get comfortable...

So as not to be accused of favoritism, here are some shots of L when I was playing with my new camera. I should be a master in approximately 10 years. Nothing like a new technological toy to make you feel quite mentally challenged.

I think this was L's expression when the big girls were doing their Exorcist impersonations....

Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll try not to be a stranger....

Never Mock Mother Nature....

2008-01-05T09:29:00.001-08:00

So, I realize my tone in my last entry regarding the forthcoming California Winter Storm might have come across as mildly sarcastic. I did not mean to offend anyone, most especially Mother Nature. I am well aware of her touchiness. Apparently, she was not impressed with my lack of respect for her abilities....

This is the tree removed from my neighbor's roof...

This is the plastic covering my neighbor's new skylight....

Best I can guess they must have been even less respectful of the weather goddess, otherwise it might have been our house. All jokes aside, thankfully no one was injured. When my neighbors and I spoke across the fence separating our backyards they said they thought it was an earthquake. I was actually more frightened for the three men who worked on the roof in the thick of the storm. They threw off the tree (again felt mildly like an earthquake), swept off the worst branches, and covered the hole in plastic all while ducking additional debris and pouring rain. I would have taken pictures, but was too busy waiting to dial 911 as I was certain their peril would end in tragedy. We also lost power for two separate extended periods during the day. There are similar trees and large branches down all over our neighborhood. It still amazes me that this much damage was done in what seemed to be an average thunderstorm, minus the thunder and lightning. Had this storm occurred in KY, FL, or OK no one would have even slowed down, much less commented on it. All the same, we are glad the power outages were isolated and relatively quick. We will attempt to get to the water in the next couple of days and hope that the swell damage and beach erosion are more limited than what was expected.

On a MUCH happier note, in the last two days I have received my favorite Christmas presents. For some strange reason, no one likes to shop for me.... I can't imagine why? I guess it could possibly have something to do with the fact that the things I love most are absolutely free or absolutely too expensive for ME to buy much less ask someone else for.... So in a long standing tradition of letting me pick out my own presents my dear parents and dear in laws all gave me the means to go shopping!

My in laws know I love Pottery Barn, but also know that I am unlikely to go shopping there because I can't justify the expense... So they gave me a very extravagant gift card and quickly I used it!

Here is my beautiful new duvet cover....

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I LOVE it!

My parents just went all out and gave me cold hard cash. Ever since I started this blog I have been pining for a new camera. So here is my new baby....

Prepare to see lots more pics and hopefully a great improvement in my skills as well. Note, none of these pics were taken with my new love because my 1G memory card did not arrive. Obviously, I will be taking a trip to the store today, because I cannot wait another week to start snapping!

Happy New Year....

2008-01-03T18:35:00.001-08:00

The "A" Team wants to wish you a belated but wonderful New Year for 2008.

Obviously with two small children at home and all of our favorite people, not to mention approved babysitters, on the other side of the country we did not do any big celebrating. We did stay up way too late with new friends on the 30th... I believe it was the first time my girls saw midnight without there being sickness involved. This could also have something to do with the reason we were all in bed by 10pm on New Year's Eve. There is something anticlimactic about watching the ball drop in a delayed broadcast so we decided to skip The Rockin' New Year extravaganza. Somehow, I am certain we can catch a similar broadcast next December 31.

Today we donated several pennies to Chuck E. Cheese so the girls could both have a new pink troll doll. They make lovely additions to our ever growing poodle family in residence....

Tonight we are prepping for Winter Storm 2008. You heard it right. The Central Coast of California is expecting a winter storm working it's way down from Alaska over the next three days. I don't mean to make too light of a serious subject, but it strikes me as odd when the headline of today's paper is to watch out for the coming RAIN storm. If we do get the 50 mph winds and 2-4 inches of rain they are forecasting, then we will be closely watching the row of townhouses sitting on the hill above us. As long as they don't suddenly become our third story, I think we will persevere. It may be trying though, to be rained in for a couple of days. Our big Princess is REALLY ready to go back to school. It seems that the many, many new toys received one week ago on top of the hundreds she already had are not enough to alleviate the boredom....

Here is what the girls are doing right now as I type (other than asking me to do something for them every 1.5 seconds....) and yes, that is 3 different types of filth on L's shirt. It's been a long day....

These other pics are unrelated but too cute not to share.

M and her buddy E at their December gymnastics open house.

These last three show Princess L in her true Princess form...

No. 1 looking very royal.....

No. 2 looking slightly less royal....

No. 3 now that's my girl, really letting it all hang out.....

Santa, The Optimist...

2007-12-29T07:50:00.000-08:00

I am really thinking the Big Jolly Guy may have gone a little loco this year.

Seriously, you people know me. I am the single most ungraceful, clumsy, accident-prone klutz ever. It's really no secret, so why try to sugarcoat it?

By M's age there is no telling how many times I had already visited my local ER for stitches, splints, ace bandages, etc. Now, the good news is I was blessed with a VERY strong and resilient body which has carried me exceptionally well. I have actually broken very few of the big bones in my body. Yes, I am still sticking with the "big boned" claim. Why else would a 5'6" girl have size 9 feet? (Thanks again Mom!)

Anyhoooo, back to my point...

My beautiful Girls thus far are apples that have not fallen far from the tree. They definitely have gifts and talents that they did not get from me. M is becoming quite the artist. THAT did not come from me. However, they do quite resemble me in the not so good with the walking, talking and chewing gum at the same time department. Walls just seem to have a tendency to jump out in front of us. I only wish this was an exaggeration. You have all seen and know it to be true.

SO, what did the Head Honcho of Elves do?

This......

Please, cross your fingers for us! Pretty Please?

Christmas Blessings....

2007-12-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

Even as we cared for a very sickly toddler on Christmas, I was constantly aware how lucky we are as we plowed through all of our loot. To look around and see my little family, healthy (in the big sense of the word), and all here together was a greater Blessing than I can express. We have so many friends and family this year who have struggled with health issues. We continue to remember them all in our prayers. As a military family, we are always keenly aware of how Blessed we are just to be in the same place for the Holidays. So many who share our path are apart. We could not be more grateful to those families for their sacrifices.

Here are some of our favorite moments from this year's festivities.....

This is seconds before the onslaught....

The dogs enjoyed their goodies too....

Princess M with new jammies, new necklace, oh yes and new hair.....

Our house added 7, that's right 7 new poodles to the mix this Christmas. Thankfully, none of them are of the breathing persuasion as Momma is not a fan of poodles. The princesses, however are in poodle heaven....

This one is actually yesterday, when Princess L had one quick burst of energy and went out to explore the new playhouse....

To keep the festive spirit alive as long as possible, we celebrate The Twelve Days of Christmas. Starting with Christmas day and continuing for the next eleven days we each receive a small gift to unwrap. The gifts are generally along the lines of stocking stuffers (except Daddy A always bends that rule on my gifts) am I a lucky girl or what? So we will be celebrating the season for several more days and hoping the Spirit remains with you all as well.

Christmas Traditions....

2007-12-26T17:44:00.000-08:00

One of our longest running and most consistent Christmas traditions involves one or all of us being violently ill on Christmas. Usually while traveling through airports trying to get to or from KY. After last year, L is banned from even travelling through Memphis Airport, more specifically she may never frequent the Blue Note Cafe again. All jokes aside, sadly we are keeping the tradition alive as L began with the dreaded stomach bug at 1AM Christmas morning. Although this has seriously dampened her particular enthusiasm for the Holiday, the rest of us have done our part to take care of her and keep the Yuletide spirits glowing. Thus far the rest of us have avoided the dreaded bug and are keeping our fingers crossed that our luck remains.

So think good thoughts for this little angel to be fully on her feet tomorrow.....

On to a happier Christmas tradition. On Christmas Eve, we always make cookies for Santa.

Here are some shots of our efforts.

Our perfectionist....
Buddies at work...

Group project....

Assuming we all get some rest tonight, I'll be back tomorrow with more details of our very Merry Christmas. We hope all of you were as blessed as we were.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas....

2007-12-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

Look closely, that fuzz in the picture is SNOW!!!! (oh Ok, it's artificial snow, but who's splitting hairs...)

We spent Friday evening at the Gilroy Gardens. Gilroy CA is famous for one thing. It is the garlic capital of the world. As a few of our previous guests can attest to, there are times driving through the town will cause your eyes to water. The aroma of garlic really is that strong. Happily all we smelled Friday were Hot Chocolate and Christmas Cookies. It was actually only 35 degrees when we left the park. It felt cold enough to us confirmed Southerners to bring down some of the real white stuff. That could also have something to do with the fact that our Chief Outing Planner did not prepare the adults of the group for the weather.... Somehow I let C leave the house without gloves and hat, what was I thinking? I, in fact, did not even take a jacket but luckily had gloves in the diaper bag and stole M's scarf. That's a fun conversation..

"Yes, dear. Mommy knows it matches your hat beautifully, but Mommy is freezing and is going to use it to cover her ears.... No more whining about fashion or we're leaving this instant...."

Joyfully and Triumphantly we carried on to have a wonderful time.

The girls are ready for Roadsters. I told them to hit up Papa for that request...

On the third round on the carousel, L finally relented and actually rode a horse. It was ultimately a success!

On a final and separate note, we haven't begun opening presents yet, however we have begun receiving packages. As has always held true with kids, some of the gifts to come will likely be ignored after the first five minutes. The packing boxes, especially those assembled by Gramps with Duct tape, will be a fave as long as Mom can stand it in her family room...

Merriest of Christmases and Love to you all.

Princess "M" Milestones...

2007-12-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

Wow, what an exciting week we have had...

This weekend C told M he wanted to help her practice tying her shoes. Now sadly, apparently among the "tiny" number of shoes the princess owns, none of them actually have laces. I guess this could have something to do with the reason she was not yet adept at tying.... All of you who are parents of small children know what a blessing Velcro really is. So, C supplied M with one of his runners and left the room for a second.

Upon his return, this is what he found....

Being her Mother's child, she is likely to have big feet, but hopefully not quite this large...

Today, M and I were making fudge for her to take to school tomorrow for their Christmas luncheon. She was asked to bring something that is a family tradition and to stand up and tell her class about it. Who among you is surprised that our most favored tradition would be chocolate?

While doing her most important job of licking the spatula, she suddenly said "Mommy, what does this look like?" Surprise!!! Our first lost tooth! She was so thrilled that she was not even bothered by the speck of accompanying blood. It looks like we will be having an early magical visitor this year.

Here's the new grin...

Here's the tooth...

Just a note, when she went to school this morning she did have two braids. This is the way she came home. Kindergarten is hard work.

Sweet Celebrations of the Season....

2007-12-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

Sunday we started a new family tradition. We attempted our first Gingerbread House. I am not Martha, and we didn't actually bake anything this year, but we think it was a huge hit!

For those of you who don't mind a messy kitchen and even messier family, this kit is the way to go....

Here's our crew.....

Dad was Chief Frosting Spreader....

It's a really precise, scientific process, can't you tell?

This is our finished masterpiece. Note the strange look on M's face. Her first loose tooth is very wobbly at this point. I fear this may be the only expression we see until it falls out. The Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus may well be crossing paths at our house this year.

One Last Blast....

2007-12-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

We had one last get together with our friends headed to the East Coast on Thursday night.
As tough as it is to say so long to such good friends, we know how blessed we are to have found them.

Here are a few last shots that illustrate why we enjoyed their company so...

That's real friendship, taking turns taking bites of the last brownie.....
Anyone remember "Mahna Mahna" from the Muppets? It's the kiddos fave download from Youtube...

That's one tiny mouth with one HUGE piece of candy cane....

Hard to believe from this shot that they are both firmly in the "terrible" toddler stage....

Not that we're biased, but what a couple of beauties!

Super Dad.....

2007-12-13T13:27:00.000-08:00

Today C performed for what he might consider his toughest audience yet. The great Dad that he is, he volunteered to play Christmas carols on the guitar for M's class. He chose all the classics... Rudolph, Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Frosty. The kids sang along loudly and mostly on key. It was extremely cute to watch and I must say that I was every bit as proud as I used to be watching him play for a few hundred drunks. He did mention that it wasn't quite as easy to master Xmas carols not written for guitar as it was to master his usual faves of 80's metal. Apparently Frosty is tougher than Master of Puppets, who'd have thought it?

That's one Jolly Elf....

What a cute audience....

Of course the Bug was loving hangin with the "big" kids.....

One last glimpse of M's class as a whole. Today was the last day for three of her best buds whose families are moving soon. It's always hard to see friends go, but it seems especially tough to say so long at Christmas.....

That's one happy teacher. That's the smile of a woman who just received a $225 gift certificate from her class. Beats another "World's Best Teacher" apple ornament any day....

Jack Frost nipping at our nose...

2007-12-09T15:16:00.000-08:00

Apparently it's rare for the daytime temperatures to drop below 60 degrees here. I am not complaining because I love to get outside with the girls throughout the year. I also love to be able to wear flip flops EVERY day (never mind the other few dozen pairs of shoes I own....)

I also love what I call "football weather". This requires being able to wear a big sweater and jeans without breaking a sweat (flip flops optional).

Recently we have had a couple of days of football weather. For my two little princesses, both born and raised in the deep south, this translated into a chance to break out the snow gear....

Heaven help us if we ever get stationed in Minot...

Has Anyone seen Frosty?

2007-12-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned my love for Christmas decorations. A few years ago, I won a Frosty as a door prize. He became our bathroom Frosty. He is cute and off white and matches our guest bath decor.... Our new home has a rather small guest bathroom. Funny how a bathroom seems small when you cram the washer and dryer in there. Who designed this place? Welcome to our home. Welcome to our guest bathroom. Check out our dirty unmentionables..... So anyway, because the room is so small, the only place to put Frosty is on the back of the commode....

A certain friend, who shall remain nameless, he knows who he is, has a problem with utilizing the facility with an audience.....

"Someone" has it in for Frosty...
I will never look at Frosty the same way again!

Kitchen Elves...

2007-12-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

So, this morning M and I were making brownies to take to an open house at her gymnastics center.

Very quickly "the Bug" jumped in to assist.

This is the work in progress....

Why do we use Egg Beaters in our brownies? Because they are much healthier of course....

Oh and because we must do this.....and Egg Beaters are pasteurized...healthy schmealthy!

That's a happy Bug!

Adventures in Napping...

2007-12-07T18:30:00.000-08:00

As adults, especially those of us who are parents of toddlers, I believe most of us would pay BIG money to be "made" to take a nap.

Why is it my toddler likens it to water boarding? You know, not really torture, but darn sure not fun!

On a recent lovely afternoon, yesterday to be exact, it took me 55 minutes to get my beloved down for a 90 minute nap. You do the math. If I sound desperate for that little slice of heaven during the day when no one is yelling, and the kids are quiet too, so be it! I feel compelled to share with you the limits to which L will go to avoid the dreaded "n" word. Never let it be said that my girls are not slaves to a routine. We already have a 15 minute ritual, unique to each child, that must be strictly adhered to before every slumber. L's involves being tucked just right, under the only acceptable blanket, and kissed on exactly the right spot. This never takes less than 3 attempts "NO, not there, right here" with a finger firmly planted on said spot. After finally planting an acceptable smooch, you must then make sure that every last hair is meticulously brushed back from her face, exactly. So back to yesterday, I completed the ritual, and went on my way. The first callback was to re-tuck the blanket. The second call was to remove the bunny-eared Carebear from the room all together. The third call was to return the bunny-eared Carebear. The fourth call was to remove the giant M&M, not one to be a pushover, I refused. The fifth call you ask? I removed the M&M and threatened to remove the one and only acceptable blanket if the little manipulator didn't lay down and go to sleep! I'll show her who is boss..... Ultimately she went to sleep, but funny thing about a kid who has to be awakened from her nap at 4:45pm? For some strange reason, they resist going to bed at 7:30pm. Go figure.

I have discussed this conundrum with a lot of other moms. Some of whom have had the gall to suggest I should just concede and give up the naps. I do believe they have lost their minds. I may not be able to out will her forever, but for the time being I will prevail. Sanity demands it!

A few months back she caved...

Last week when this one was sick with strep throat, I couldn't resist....

They look so cute and harmless, when sleeping.....

Ghosts of Christmas Past....

2007-12-04T13:41:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas.

I love Advent Calendars, Santa Claus, Nativity scenes, Inflatable Rudolphs, Carols, The Grinch, etc., etc., etc.

You get the picture. If it's red and green, I love it. I am a Griswold (Christmas Vacation anyone?) when it comes to Christmas. The rest of the year, I try to maintain at least a smidgen of decorum... Not at Christmas! In my opinion, it cannot be overdone. I spent $37.00 at the Dollar Tree today. That means 35 more absolutely necessary Christmas items.

Generally, we try to return to KY at least every other year. The adage is true. There is no place like home for the holidays. However, we quickly learned that the USAF would give us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the holidays in style at each new "home".

I thought I would share a couple of samples of some of our past Christmas moments.

This was a Christmas village sand sculpture at the mall near our house in Florida. I was pregnant with M. These were our first USAF friends.

This was Christmas on The Riverwalk, You can't tell from this shot but Texas really does do everything BIG. They use over a million lights to illuminate the river. Hopefully you can tell that again, I am pregnant. This time with L.

In OK City, Santa arrives on a wagon driven by extremely rare black Clydesdales.

Last year we took a trip to Disney World to celebrate the season. M would have waited all day for this....

Epcot knows how to decorate a tree.....

MGM was my fave. We went at night to see the city streets sync'd up to Mannheim Steamroller music. It was amazing!

Here's hoping you all are enjoying the season as much as we do!

Monterey's Finest....

2007-12-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

One of the things I have found most surprising and interesting about our latest home is the population of California Sea Lions that live here. These guys pop up everywhere along the coast here and are incredibly entertaining. They are quite mouthy barkers and we often hear them at home in the evenings. I have heard frequent warnings that they can be unpredictable and less than friendly toward humans.... As you can tell from the following pictures, I have taken this warning to heart.... kind of.

This guy looks too sweet to mind if I hang over top of him to snap his pic while he snoozes...

I nicknamed him Snaggletooth.... Handsome devil isn't he?

This is the local US Coast Guard Pier. It's obviously misnamed because you can tell who it really belongs to...

This is the best action shot I could get the day Dad and I went whale watching. Captain Noel guessed we were among about 200 sea lions. They didn't seem to mind.

Who does this kid look like, part 2...

2007-11-30T08:52:00.001-08:00

Go Team Mom again!

I am on a roll today. I think I'll go buy a lottery ticket.

On a side note, now that a computer has decided that both girls look more like me, by a hair...
I will add my earnest request that this means more of their genetic code on the intellectual side is from their Dad...

You know the one who loves school, is on top of all politics, can recite any important date from history by memory, and oh, by the way can play just about anything you could request on the guitar, by ear.... (and coincidentally would never write a run-on sentence like this doozey!)

I think when it all comes down to it, they are both already completely unique. We wouldn't have it any other way!

Who does this kid look like?

2007-11-30T08:48:00.001-08:00

Go Team MOM!

I now have "proof" that I am her Mom...
It has always been the consensus that she was strictly her Dad's kid. A computer can't lie, right?

Thanks Elizabeth for this supercool idea!

Whales, Whales, Whales!!!!!

2007-11-27T16:02:00.000-08:00

I could be talking about myself and the rest of my crew after our Turkey Day feast, but happily I am not! Although it would be a different story if we ate like that more than once a year....

My Dad and I went Whale watching on Friday. What an incredible trip and this time I do have pictures. Now my Dad and I would have been thrilled just to spend a day together on the water, even if we had seen nothing. Luckily we got to have the quality time and an amazing opportunity to observe the wonders of our Monterey Bay.

Here are the seafarers...

Here are some Humpback whales....

Here is the blowhole of a Humpback whale. It doesn't smell the greatest, but we'll forgive that!

Here is the tail of a Humpback whale...

Here is an Orca or Killer Whale. Never let it be said I don't educate my readers.... Fun Fact... The Orca is not really a whale at all, it is the largest of the dolphins.... Kind of makes you rethink all that cute "Flipper" stuff huh?

Needless to say. We had a blast. We actually saw a Blue Shark and some more Orca's including a Mother and Calf, but my little camera and limited skills were not up to the task to share those with you. Come on out and visit and we'll show you!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

2007-11-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had as wonderful a Turkey Day as we did!

The reason for my recent (and uncharacteristic) silence is my parents' visit for Thanksgiving. They got here early on Tuesday and we haven't stopped going, or eating yet....

We just returned from the Cannery Row tree lighting and the arrival of the Big Guy in Red (on a Harley by the way). He came right by and said hello. M was thrilled. L's immediate response to his greeting, I quote....

"I don't like Christmas!"

I think the long beard was a bit over the top for one little bug.

I am going to cut this short to get back to the festivities. There's Wii bowling to be done!

I am including a couple of pics from our trip to Big Sur last week and will resume my usual mouthiness after Tuesday when sadly, my folks must return home!

It's always a gorgeous view, even with the frequent fog....

M rolled down her window to "feel the fog"

This pic is allegedly here to show off the moving fog, really it's just an opportunity to show off our new love, the behemoth....

The Mole...

2007-11-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

No, we are not talking about the reality show, or even the creatures tearing up my yard. The entity I am referring to is the object of both of my girls' obsession. The mole below my left eye.

Now I don't remember ever not having the mole, or ever really caring about it for that matter. I guess I am lucky that it never bothered me or apparently anyone else, prior to my children. Now, it may be true that any of my middle and high school unrequited crushes were totally appalled by the mole, but thankfully none of them were ever heartless enough to tell me. The worst thing a boy ever did was make fun of my hairy arms.... Remember that shaving incident Mom and Dad? Oooh boy, they weren't amused. But I digress. From as early as M could talk, she would sit in my lap and touch it very gently and say "mole, mole, mole, mole...." incessantly. It was mesmerizing, for her. I considered it a cute and hopefully passing fascination. When L started talking it was not quite the same reaction.... She also had the "mole, mole, mole" refrain down. Her physical response, however was not nearly so gentle or sweet. L is convinced if she pushes or scratches hard enough she can either smash or remove all together this heinous flaw.

Now, when we were in San Antonio, I became mildly obsessed with "the MOLE" myself for a while. I went so far as to see the dermatologist at Wilford Hall because I could tell it was growing because I could for the first time see it in my peripheral vision out of my left eye. Here's where it would have been helpful to have the same doctor for more than two years in a row... The Dr. saw no concern with the mole but couldn't speculate as to why it had grown. Umm, hello? If he had known how much the rest of me had grown, it might have given him a little insight... When you get fat, so do your moles. Who knew? I am not making this stuff up! Anyway, self loathing aside, the doctor was convinced from the myriad of other scars on my body, that removing the mole would only leave a more hideous and gaping scar on my face in its stead. Umm, no thanks.

A couple of years later in Altus, L's obsession with removing it for me, forcefully, took me back to the doctor with hopes they would see things differently. No such luck. They again were sure, that a disfiguring scar would result.

So, I have embraced my flaw. The good news, lose a bunch of weight and your mole shrinks too.

As you know from having seen my Wii Mii, even she has a mole. She is also over six foot tall, but as I told C when he wanted to shrink me down to size, it's my virtual reality and in it I will be statuesque darn it!

I have one remaining burning question. How come Cindy Crawford's mole is considered her signature beauty mark worth millions? 'Cause otherwise she and I are twins, right?

When Did I tick off Karma?

2007-11-16T07:28:00.000-08:00

It just gets better and better....

Picture it, 4am and you are awakened from a dead sleep by the smoke alarm going off in your toddler's room.

By the time you get your head around what is happening and stumble (sore knee and all) out of your bed, you can already hear your husband shouting, "Oh my God...."

What did he find when he burst through the door? He found nothing, because the room was absolutely WHITE with mist. This is NO exaggeration. You could not see the bed, or the kid allegedly in it, from the door. For no apparent reason, L's humidifier decided to go haywire and it looked exactly like morning on Monterey Bay in her room. When you visit you will understand. We had to open the window to get the fog out. That was refreshing as it is quite cold here at 4am....

The good news, L slept through the whole thing, the alarm, her Dad's yelling, the window, me putting the damp little one back on her pillow and covering her back up.

This morning even her carpet is wet.... Apparently it's time for humidifier purchase number 17.

So, Karma, I am very very sorry for whatever it is that I did! Can we call it even now?

And another one of those days?

2007-11-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

So, C says I cannot let the opportunity pass to share with you how my morning began today.

I shared the joys of yesterday so I might as well keep going....

I woke up with a tender and quite purple knee cap. The burn on my arm made C tell me I look like I work at a fast food joint.

I got M to school without incident. Yippeee.

I came home to exercise before getting cleaned up for L's Parent Place class. It's basically a Mommy and Me class where the Moms get to do most of the work and entertain their toddlers by acting as foolish as possible. Right up my alley....

Now every time I take a shower, L insists on coming in to check on me. This always sets off the smoke detector in our hall. Yes, every time! Usually the alarm sounds at least twice per shower. Today it didn't go off until I was actually out. The only way to stop the alarm is to wave something under the detector. C always uses a book, but I am not tall enough for that to work. So, I usually use a towel. With the first swipe of my towel today, I knocked the light cover off the adjacent fixture. This sent L into a cry of hysterics, as if she was emotionally attached to a plastic globe? A few seconds later the alarm sounded again. L was still crying and I went waving the towel (off my back mind you) like a maniac to stop the BLEEPING machine. This time the frayed edge of my oh so deluxe bath towel caught on the exposed screws from the missing light cover and stuck there. So imagine the sight C came to find. Me, umm, indecent, and trying to stop the alarm, calm down L, and fetch my towel back from the ceiling. Sorry, no pictures.

You just can't make this stuff up....

Here's hoping that it's all out of my system. Otherwise it could be a dangerous afternoon.

Just one of those days....

2007-11-14T19:13:00.000-08:00

Ever have one of those days where you feel it would be in the best interest of everyone if you just returned to bed and hid?

Here is the gist of my day....

7:30 am - Screaming, crying, hysterical kindergartner because hair has wound itself around earring and must be extracted

10:50 am - Lunch proctor for 22 kindergartners on pizza and Popsicle day, with a toddler in tow....need I say more?

12:48 pm - Three minutes late to get kindergartner because someone in front of me bought their lotto tickets with pennies at the local drug store

3:30 pm - Screaming, crying, hysterical kindergartner because I did not put her hair in a bun for ballet (keep in mind, mean old mom trying to avoid the sore ear from earlier....)

4:40 pm - Fall out of my car (yes, you read that correctly, d@#n flip flops...) while loading girls back in car after ballet. Bruise, if not shatter, left kneecap. Crawl in back of car and cry/cuss for a few minutes while toddler yells "I will kiss it Mama...."

6:20 pm - Burn my arm while pulling dinner out of oven

All I can say, is that in exactly 23 minutes my children are going to bed. And so am I!

Here's hoping tomorrow I can get out of bed without a crane!
Good night.

Roadtrip, Hooray!

2007-11-12T14:04:00.000-08:00

We decided on Friday afternoon that we really should do something to celebrate our Veteran's Day three day weekend. My first few calls were to some little lodges near Sequoia, California to go see the Giant Redwoods. They laughed rather heartily when I asked if there were any vacancies for this weekend. Apparently like its neighbor Yosemite, you have to book at least several months in advance or plan to pitch your own tent. Now we have been adventurous enough to camp in a tent in our own backyard in OK. When I say "we", I mean M and I and Becky and the kids.... C slept in the house, in the king size bed, with the LCD TV and the Dish network.... because someone had to listen for L you know... never mind I kept the monitor in the tent with me! C loves the outdoors tons, but camping? on the ground? without AC or any other form of electricity? with two kids under 6? [This characterization does not reflect the views of C in any way, shape or form. Signed: the man, myth and legend]

NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

So where did we end up you ask? San Jose of course. Because they have a Zoo, a huge Mall, and your choice of four Chuck E. Cheeses. The Happy Hollow Park and Zoo was an awesome place for families with small kids.

C and the girls whooping it up on the dragon ride....

It's a small zoo with an odd and interesting assortment of animals. The only large animal they have is a beautiful Jaguar. Most of the other animals were members of the rodent or marsupial families. One strange, but absolutely true "coincidence" about a few of them? They were listed as being the natural prey of? You guessed it... The Jaguar. A little disturbing discovery but somewhat amusing to C and I and our rather warped senses of humor. My favorite exhibit you ask? A colony of Guinea Pigs!

Strangely, I could have watched this little herd all day.

More and more I realize that I really am not a city girl at heart. I keep insisting on introducing my girls to all manner of livestock, up close and in person. You notice who is the one who is always doing the feeding? I can't help myself.

You know those Orbitz gum "Dirty Mouth" commercials? This guy should have been there spokesmodel... Left me a lovely brown hand.....GROSS!

I also mentioned a Mall... We definitely had a "hick" moment on this trip. The mall we went to had the largest Target I have ever seen. No, I didn't go to Macy's. Of course, I went to Target. This sucker was two stories and this is where it got funny and in hindsight, embarrassing. We were headed to automotive to get two plain black license plate holders because C could not stand to do one more minute of free advertising for the dealer we bought the Armada from. The SUV we absolutely LOVE, the dealer we do not! On our way through the store we passed the escalators, all three of them. That's right. They have a separate escalator that lifts your cart up or down for you. And there we stood, blocking the aisle, showing M and L the cool machine that escalates the carts, all of us disappointed we hadn't brought a cart along to try it out. In hindsight C and I laughed our you-know-whats off imagining what the people were thinking about the funny folks with the southern accents standing there gawking at the escalators. Boy, we know how to show our kids the world... We also visited the Disney store. Three Disney princesses, and one screaming toddler tantrum later we were done with the Disney store. They were also done with us!

Sunday, we spent a few hours contributing to the coffers at Chuck E's. We did not go to the 2 story CEC because I was afraid it would be sensory overload, for C and I anyway... The girls had a ball. I beat C at basketball. The day was a total success.

Happy Veteran's Day to all who so greatly deserve it. May we never forget those who have sacrificed.

The Champ!

2007-11-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

I just have to take a minute to brag. It's not an attractive thing I know, but when you have accomplished something this momentous, sometimes you just gotta toot your own horn...

Check out this score

That's right. That lovely Mii on the left with the telltale mole is me. I bowled a perfect game. Who cares about saving the world and other such menial matters. I have really accomplished something here. The handsome devil, with the somewhat frightening grin, on my right is you know who... It's sad how much joy I get out of having something I can best him in. It must be love.

We are off for a couple of days of spontaneous family fun. I am sure we will have pics and tales to tell on Monday.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Don't forget to thank a veteran if you get the chance!

Odds and Ends....

2007-11-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

I am going to blame my current scatterbrainedness (is that a word?) on the time change. It seems I am having a bunch of senior moments all strung together and we all know I am MUCH too young for that. Last night was my monthly Bunko with my MOPS group. That's always fun. It's a little stressful though, when you totally forget all about it until 4pm and you don't get out of gymnastics until 4:45 and then still have to cook your family dinner, tell your wonderful husband he will be in charge of bedtime, and prep and cook your food contribution for the Bunko. Never mind locating and wrapping a wonderful white elephant gift. Believe it or not Speedy Gonzalez here got it all done. Flank steak cooked and served (everyone serves that with canned baked beans and thrown together salad, right?) Beer bread baked and Spinach and Dill dip prepped and placed on platter to take. Two freebie t-shirts from KidsFest wrapped and the white elephant will be really stylin'.

The only problem.... I signed up to bring drinks, and it was on the evite reminder I never got around to reading. So old speedy here could have taken a 2liter of Diet Coke and a stack of Solo cups and called it a day. Sometimes I am just so darn on the ball I scare myself!

The real joy of it all is that today was my actual MOPS meeting and I really was signed up to bring an egg dish and a dessert. SO at 6:30 this morning I was up and cooking again. Darn happy about it too, I might add. The breakfast casserole and chocolate fudge were both successes. I rushed home and ate leftover beer bread and dill dip. C looked at me like I was crazy knowing I had just come from a potluck. When I mentioned I had been too busy talking to actually eat, he laughed, out loud! Go figure.

On the kiddo front, M went to her first sleepover at a friend's house this weekend. Her best buddy from school, E, invited her to go to The Bee Movie, paint fingers and toes, make window art, and sleepover. This is the exact itinerary I was given. E and her lovely mom K ( my best buddy here coincidentally) picked her up at 1pm Saturday afternoon. Being the wonderful presumptuous friend that I am, I asked if they would like to keep L for a couple of hours in the evening so C and I could go to dinner with some of his classmates to celebrate a promotion. Who could say no to the LBug? Probably anyone who has spent much time with the demanding little bugger.... But not K, she said yes, and we jumped on it and ran. When we returned from dinner to get the Bug, we found four very happy girls in one full bathtub. Apparently K said something to her girls about bath time and mine were also naked in 3 minutes flat. How's that for friendship? They not only watch and feed our kids, they bathe them too. We are really sad that they are moving back East in December. We will have to go back to caring for our own children. Once everyone was again fully dressed, we were extended the invite to stay and get our Wii on... Never ones to turn down an invitation or challenge we were all too happy to stay a while. M's only concern was whether she still got to sleep over. Once the horrible thought of going home was dispelled a great time was had by all. The ladies ruled in bowling. Tennis is still NOT my game. Apparently tennis just requires a lot more finesse than softball. Brute strength I can handle, finesse, not so much. We didn't leave until 10:30 and only then to put the Bug to bed. Apparently with the time change, the girls had K back up at 5:30 am. It's GOOD to have friends, we slept until 8. Sorry K and Big E.

On that note of GOOD friends, K is also a great photographer with a wonderful camera. She took us to Asilomar one Sunday and took some great pictures. I will only be showing you a tiny tease because we have already ordered our Christmas cards from these shots.

The best thing about the military is all of the great people we meet, the worst part is constantly saying "See you later!" I absolutely don't do the G***bye word, ever!

These two are going to be really sad... but not today....

Happily for me K shares my love of pics shot from the back. There is nothing cuter than this.

It takes a patient photographer to work with us..... E is the director for this shot!

Trick or Treat!

2007-11-02T09:22:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it is November!

Strangely, I don't have a lot to say today... I think I am in a contemplative mood as I bought my first four Christmas presents yesterday. Only a few gazillion to go. Shopping, wrapping, packing, shipping... I am actually close to speechless at the thought.

So today I will include a few shots of our first California Trick of Treat and let you have a quiet day!

The more observant of you will notice that M is not wearing the Sock hop poodle skirt from earlier entries. Apparently her four events so far this month in that costume were quite enough. It's always good to be a princess.....

These two really look as if they need a candy pick me up, don't they?

This was our whole crew for the big event...

L and her new friend Luke having a friendly conversation ...

L decides she is such a good conversationalist she doesn't really need a partner....
I can't imagine where she gets her gift for gab, or the tendency to talk to herself...

A side note to Grandma and Papa... Your extra Halloween green bought each girl an Island Princess Barbie. The only thing more "thrilling" than hearing the movie play all day long is hearing two Barbies repeat three lines of the theme song incessantly throughout the day. Oh and the night too, as M took hers to bed, and yes, she still has a baby monitor in her room.

Lonesome George and the Bleep Bleep Kid....

2007-10-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hello again All.

I must admit I am a little melancholy as I return to the land of blogging after taking a week off to play with my friend Jen. It was so amazing to have Jen and her mom, Wanda, here for seven whole days. I don't know how the time flew by so fast, but they are now safely home. I am now free to wish away the next three weeks until my folks arrive for Thanksgiving. These are the times when I most miss living near our beloved friends and family. Of course, that would now be impossible as you are all spread all over the globe.

Jen and I managed to prove that at thirty plus quite a few.... we have finally grown up, a little anyway. We did not get into any trouble and probably for the first time ever don't have to edit the tales of our week. We, alright I, had one minor "polite discussion of the finer points of customer service" with a manager (allegedly) at our Marshall's store. Suffice to say, the customer apparently is NOT always right and customer service is officially dead! But I am not bitter, just temporarily on strike from shopping at Marshall's. Where is TJ Maxx when you need one?

We hit all of the tourist highlights, Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row, Asilomar, Pacific Grove, Big Sur Highway, Carmel by the Sea and last but certainly not least, the Ghirardelli chocolate store. There was one minor negative to our week. How can I put this nicely so as not to discourage future guests? Apparently Fall is conducive to an increase in different types of Kelp making their way to our beaches. This unfortunately brings with it a not so lovely aroma of rotting sea life. OK, so there is no way to sugarcoat it. The beach just stinks right now, literally. It makes the drive to Big Sur all the more beautiful because driving along the cliffs you can see the beautiful shoreline, but don't have to smell it. Jen and Wanda were real troopers. Smelly or not it is still the ocean, and for the three of us nothing in the world tops a beach!

So, with our immense love of all things water we planned a girls' day whale watching. This is where we met Lonesome George and the Bleep Bleep Kid. We chose a four hour morning trip out of Moss Landing. My hope was departing out of Moss Landing (where we had observed the whales on our first trip) earlier in the day would avoid some of the horrendous swells we experienced on L's infamous vomit cruise a few weeks earlier. That captain had assured us that although our trip was uncharacteristically rough, that morning cruises were always much smoother. Thanks so much for delaying that information to the parents of two small landlubbers. Happily, when we made it to the harbor, the water was flat like a pond. This would continue for the whole day. We never had the first swell or spray cross our bough. What's not to love? A parade of Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, and Sea Otters escorted us through the Marina out toward the Bay and we were already content and thrilled with our choice.

This would be a decent shot if you were looking for a seagull, unfortunately I was trying to snap the otter underneath him....

These two sea lions on the pier were cussing each other up a storm. Lover's quarrel perhaps?

Before we even left the harbor, we had our first very rare siting for this area, we got two good looks at a Minke Whale before he took a dive and disappeared completely. Even Captain Noel was quite impressed! We rode through thousands of considerably impressive jellies. One more reason not to swim in our waters, as if Great Whites, Orcas, and arctic-like temperatures were not enough inspiration to stay dry.

Here is a decent example...

We ventured further out into the bay looking for other large mammals when the Captain got a radio transmission that a regular Fall visitor had made his annual appearance. Off we raced to get a glimpse of Lonesome George, a single male Orca, who had been spotted by another vessel. Apparently old George doesn't play well with others and has been ostracized from his pod. Every fall he returns here to fish and put on a show for the boaters. We were really quite lucky to get to see this majestic creature. His dorsal fin is estimated at six foot tall. Yes, you read that right. He made Shamu look like a porpoise. We stayed with George for about 20 minutes before our Captain decided a couple of other boats were stressing him and we moved on to search for humpbacks. I would show you some incredible pics if my battery had not died..... Shoot me now!

Before we go further, I will explain briefly and with as much PC as possible about the Bleep Bleep Kid. Our lone deckhand was a very nice and well-informed woman who happened to bring her son along on this trip. I think she is probably better with sea life than with humans....
Bleep Bleep is not my oh so affectionate nickname for this lovely child, although I could insert several colorful adjectives. This was the song/mantra he sang as he danced around the deck every few minutes stomping on my toe. Don't get me wrong. I love my kids and of course all of your kids... It's just that kids I am not emotionally attached to do not hold much charm for me. I admit it. Kindergarten teacher would be the last job in the world I would ever consider, EVER!
I would rather shovel manure, thank you. Now mind you, I don't think this child had any actual illness that a little discipline wouldn't cure. He could have been a poster child though, for whatever syndrome is in fashion this week. Pick your acronym, he fit. Charming little guy. So, although I intend to take my Dad on this same cruise during his visit, I will schedule it during the week hoping that the Bleep Bleep kid occasionally goes to school.

As we moved on from George we headed further south and were very quickly greeted by several sets of Humpback Whales. We actually had a hard time deciding which whales to follow. We ultimately settled on a HUGE pair who decided to play with our boat. They would dive down to about 50 feet on the depth finder and then come back up directly under the boat and surface just a few feet off our bough. They did this several times until they tired of us and moved on. Oh and by the way, you do learn something new everyday. Humpback whales have horrendous breath. How do I know this? When they clear their blowholes just feet from you, it becomes very apparent. Don't say you weren't warned! On our way back in we saw two other fairly uncommon mammals for our waters. We were glared at by a very large and not so pretty elephant seal who apparently was not so happy about sharing his ocean with us. We also got to see a Stellar Sea Lion not to be confused with our California Sea Lions. How do I know? Because Captain Noel told us. How can you tell them apart? No earthly idea. Maybe I am the one with attention deficit disorder....

All in all it was a fantastic week with some of our favorite people. Come and see us and we'll show you around too!

Pause for a Commercial Break...

2007-10-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to inform those of you still with me on this blogging journey, that I will continue to be MIA (missing in action....) for most of the next week. My BFF Jen and her Mom are here from Atlanta. We have much to do and not enough time to do it. I am sure history will hold true that a week with Jen will provide ample opportunities for future blog posts. Most likely a few of them will involve one or both of us embarrassing ourselves... I would hope that with five kids between us now, we have left our crazier days behind us, but you just never know what kind of trouble we could get into.

So, please don't abandon me completely, as I do love to tell my stories to a captive audience. I will be back with a vengeance next week. I am sure there will be pictures from our planned whale watching trip as this time I will not have a toddler vomiting on me during all of the prime photo ops.

California Country Style....

2007-10-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we discovered the happy surprise that California does have some down-home country. For us born and bred Southerners, as much as we love to travel and see new places, there is always something extremely comforting and even exciting about finding similarities in new places to our beloved KY home. We took a 40 minute drive into "the country" to visit Swank Farms. They host an annual pumpkin patch, corn maze, and Halloween extravaganza. Although, we didn't try it, they had a "corn cannon" that reminded me greatly of a homemade KY potato gun, same theory, different vegetable. The drive through many working farms growing mostly lettuces, strawberries, garlic, and some various fruit trees gives such a different perspective of California than the expected vineyards and highbrow stuff. I have to laugh every time we drive through the agricultural districts at the labor situation. Obviously, living in a place that grows the largest portion of the country's vegetables there are a LOT of migrant workers. Now, I remember seeing the tobacco fields in KY and the cotton fields in OK with row after row of trucks and vans packed to the gills with workers. Oh no, CA doesn't fool with all that. They have official Migrant Worker school buses (painted white and labeled as such, I am not making assumptions). It seems to be a very effective way to get all the labor from field to field quickly and efficiently. The reason I bring it up is that they also have a very efficient way of bringing their facilities with them. Yep, you guessed it. Attached to each school bus is a flatbed trailer hauling no less than 3 port-o-potties. You heard it right folks. No need to worry about who's hiding behind a lettuce head... This does however bring up a good point made by my friend K yesterday. Her beloved hubby E told us last night that her only comment regarding this whole system.."You know, it's really a shame we don't wash our vegetables...." Are you rolling on the floor laughing? Because if you are not, it's because Einstein here can't tell a story properly. If I had been drinking milk when he told me that it would have shot out my nose. However, I was having a Maker's Mark cocktail, and we all know that KY folks do not waste good bourbon. Back to the premise of her statement though, how true is that? So consider this my public service announcement for today's blog. Wash your veggies, and then wash them again, and don't cuss me for making you thinking about it the next time you have a nice big green leafy salad!

Back to the farm, I really was intending to talk about pleasant things like toe-licking goats. Yes, again my friend K, found the only goat in CA with a foot fetish. There is a hilarious pic to prove it, but sadly I don't have a copy. Suffice to say if things were ever to go astray for K and E, there's a goat in Hollister CA ready to step up.

I had to laugh several times at my little city girls. Most of you know that I spent my whole life living in a suburb. However, I have always felt like a country girl at heart due to every weekend of my childhood having been spent on my grandparents' farm. It was a small family farm with no hired labor, just one well-fed, overworked son-in-law (right Dad?) To me growing up, though, it was a huge spread. We had cows, pigs, chickens, guineas, geese an odd assortments of cats and dogs, and even for two summers a male peacock... Don't ask, because I do not know how a farm in Southern IN has a peacock! With the exception of my whole adversity to, oh okay, phobia of snakes (inherited directly from my little farmer Granny) I was truly in heaven on the farm. What's not to love about fishing in the pond, hiking in the woods, climbing in the trees and hog troughs, and on tractors? I never did the whole climbing on the hay bales thing, because you know there are a lot of snakes in barns, something to do with a lot of rats in barns because of a lot of cow feed in barns. You get the drift. Anyway, there was never a dull day on the farm. I loved the dirt and the burrs and the smells and all things rural, except the snakes, I believe you are aware. Now, my girls, oh how funny are they? The goats at this farm, well they were typical goats. If it's standing still they are going to try and taste it. My girls were enthralled, but not quite sure about the whole "getting licked versus getting bit" thing. It's just like M with a bee. If she sees a bee within 30 feet of her location she is convinced that particular bee is on a mission to sting her. Apparently this theory translates to goats as well. She couldn't understand how to hold a hand full of feed to give a goat, and not be actually touched in any way by the goat. This farm had a great solution to this problem. "Fishing for Goats" That's right, you pick up an individual sweet corn stalk and hold it over a fence, and voila immediately you've got a keeper on the line. Until they yank your whole stalk out of your hand and you have to get a new pole! It was very entertaining to say the least.

L liked it best from Dad's taller vantage point....

M got the hang of it pretty quickly...

Eventually goats WILL get out of any pen, and eventually M will warm up to them and jump right in...

The corn maze was also fun for the girls. One minor problem though, corn fields are muddy. Who would have thought? My girls, L especially, are not big fans of muddy. One minor spill, two feet into the maze and the rest of the trip was a chorus of "I'm dirty Mama. Change me Mama." How do you convince a headstrong toddler that the beginning of a muddy corn maze is not the best place to plop down and change because you don't like to be dirty?

Here is our G-rated version of Children of the Corn....

The girls were greatly impressed with a wonderful gadget they had to shuck feed corn. They had two sandboxes full of corn to play in. I could have played all day myself, but darn it someone has to be Mama.

L was also very fond of the chalk house. It was a playhouse with chalkboard walls all waiting to be filled with toddler masterpieces. I am mildly concerned though that developmentally we are currently at a place where introducing her to the theory of murals may not have been prudent. Just yesterday morning, I was cleaning pink marker off my bathroom wall, and this was prior to our trip to the chalk house.... Heaven help me.

Last, but not least, were the bunnies. It's nice to see that some things never change. Before she was even one, L was the one to hold the live bunny in the girls Easter pics because M was having no part of that thing crawling up her arm. L just put a death grip on Thumper and the pics turned out great. I was very concerned the rabbit might be permanently scarred but the photographer assured me she had seen much worse... I am not sure that is really comforting, but you know we must have the good shot. Yesterday's exchange, not so much different. M gently poked one tiny finger at a bunny and she was done. L, well let's just say she tried to lock them all in their refuge (dog carrier) and was going in after them had I not intervened. I may have my own Croc Hunter in the making.

Note the big kid on the OUTSIDE of the bunny pen....

Lastly, this is what you get when a really um, not good, photographer with a really small camera tries to get two toddlers and two kindergartners to "smile pretty for the camera!"

It's good to have friends...

2007-10-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

So, I have decided one of the toughest parts of being technically "unemployed" is battling cabin fever. You know, that feeling that the rooms are getting smaller around you and one more episode of Hi5 or one more game of Candy Land will be the one to push you over the edge... I am just not a sitter, or an organizer, or a cleaner, or a knitter. I am a GOer, LOL, that's a word, right? Luckily for me, my girls have inherited this gene. L starts the day with "get me dressed Mama..." and M's first words after "where's my juice?" are always "where are we going today?" We three, are always up for an adventure, no matter how daunting the logistics might seem.

Yesterday, during L's gymnastic class, we learned our new bigger, better Super Target had opened over the weekend. Since we had my friend K and her two girls riding with us, I asked if they were up for some shopping and a McD's Playland lunch? How happy were we to be given the green light? One would think we had been offered a trip to Hawaii. So, off we go, six girls on a mission to check out the newest addition to our vast array of shopping choices. Remember, for the last two years we had to drive to the next state for a Target. We are in heaven. If you could only see us with four small girls, two blonds, two brunettes, all crammed in one of those carts with the diagonal bench seats for two. Those kids are like monkeys or to quote my friend K, "they are freaking Houdinis..." Only twice in 4o minutes did we have to do the "stop and drop." You know it Moms... You can hear 'em, but you cannot quite see 'em and only the view from your belly on the floor will give away the current rack within which they are hiding, and giggling uncontrollably. K, incidentally, would win the gold if the "stop and drop" were an Olympic event. That girl is lightning fast!

A whole lot of stuff we could not possibly live without later... We were off to McD's. Upon first entering the joint, it looked as if we were in for some drama as the kids were all very excited to be going to lunch, because at McD's you get to have Sprite. For some reason, the chance to drink something carbonated always equates to Christmas-like glee. The fountain machine was not functioning when we arrived and I thought there might be a mutiny. Thankfully, the miracle man got it up and running and the trip was not a loss. Lunch was barely touched, Sprites were drunk, and slides were slid, no tears or blood were shed. All in all, a totally successful meal for two toddlers and two kindergartners.

Today we took it up a notch and went 45 miles to Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, we have one closer, but we like to expand our horizons, and the one closer doesn't have some of my favorite games. I confess, I am a CEC addict. So, off we go, three Moms, five kids and two strollers, all in my new Armada. Have I mentioned how much I love that thing? Once again we had a wonderful time playing, eating, drinking, (Sprite two days in a row, my kids are really living it up) and .... shopping. Did I neglect to mention that this CEC just happens to be in the same shopping center as Old Navy? You can't go all that way and not make a quick shopping expedition. You haven't really lived until you have let loose five kids, age 5 and under, hopped up on Sprite and ice cream in a retail establishment. I am not sure what makes the workers happier, the amount of clearance items we can buy in 30 minutes, or seeing our mass exodus when even we have had enough. Today, my bag beeped the security sensors when we left. They didn't even hesitate to wave me on out. I cannot imagine why they didn't want me to come back in and check for contraband....

Can you see the determination on her face? Can't imagine who that kid belongs to?

This one could spend the whole day with Barney, if only the other kids didn't want to ride....

All jokes aside, as I labeled this entry, it is not only good, but great to have friends. I am very grateful that everywhere we go, we continue to find like-minded folks who are willing to risk the wrath of sales people and risk managers alike, to venture out with us and explore the world, one Chuck E. Cheese and Target at a time.

Wii Mania

2007-10-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

So, I know on more than one occasion I have extolled the virtues of our Wii. I really should be getting paid for all of the commercial endorsement. While Granny and Gramps were here, we got them into the act and I do believe we have made some more fans. We boxed and bowled and a great time was had by all.

Last night we were invited to our friends' house for dinner and a Wii-nement. We had wonderful fajitas and a few margaritas, apparently one two many for me, as this morning reminded me that my "partying" days were over long ago for a good reason. We had some great competition and even picked up a few pointers. My friend K has a mean bowling stance... She also has a killer left hook. I was KO'd in the 2nd round. I also was reminded yet again that tennis, in any form, is not my game. So, in spite of being skunked in every game except bowling, and even in that we won't discuss my last game, we had a great evening. The girls had a blast playing until 10pm with their buddies E and K. We left their house a mess and their kitchen empty and we hope we have not been banned from future tourneys... L even brought home one of K's shoes. My family really knows how to show off our social graces...

Today was spent mostly watching our "home" teams. We are very excited that UK knocked off LSU. But, more importantly our CARDS were able to upset Cincinnati... WOOHOOOOO!!!

As a funny side note, L is now the most crazed CARDS fan in our house. Granny and Gramps brought us all new CARDS shirts, pajama pants and new vanity plates for the new car. L insisted on wearing her "birdy shirt" three days in a row and was flat out mad when I insisted it must be washed before wearing it again. That's my girl!

Only one pic to share tonight, M is currently obsessed with all things poodle. Animal fanatic that I am, poodles would probably rank the lowest on my list of desired canines. I actually don't like them at all. My beloved firstborn thinks they are the best thing since chocolate. Go Figure...

For Halloween M will be a Barbie Sock hop girl because it's pink, it's Barbie, and it has a poodle skirt... To quote Seinfeld.... "Serenity now..."

Gosh it's hard....

2007-10-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

The hardest part of this wonderful roving life we have chosen is spending such little time with those we love the most. C's parents have come and gone, and it all went by in a flash. It was SO great to see them and SO hard to say goodbye so quickly.

Of course, as always holds true with our clan, we had to have a little drama to prepare for their visit. Apparently C and I are getting a little more insightful and adept at this parenting thing. We are such quick learners, it only took us a few years.... On Saturday afternoon we were in agreement that L was getting a little snotty (high class word for congested). We decided we better take a family trip to the PX to get a new humidifier as the last in a line of about 10 had sprung a leak all over M's carpet. Finally, we have carpet again so you know we had to start spilling things. Anyway, Murphy's Law was of course in full effect now as evidenced by the fact that one of our kids was getting sick less than 12 hours before Granny and Gramps were due to arrive. He (Mr. Murphy) continued to keep his grip when the oh so huge (not ) PX here had two choices of humidifiers. Choice #1 was 14.98 and would likely have lasted us three uses, not to mention it needed an additional $30 of filters and cleaning chemicals... Choice #2 was $59 and could orbit in space, maybe a bit more than we needed for a 9x6 room? SO, off we head to WalMart, C's favorite spot in the universe....I am certain that by now you all get the sarcasm in my tone. Well, a nice middle of the road $30 later, we head home fully confident that with humidity, Vics salve, and Dimetapp we are totally prepared for a rough night of coughing and fussing. All parents of toddlers know that sniffles and snot mean sleeplessness for everyone in the house. No meds or steam or propped up pillows will stop the inevitable. It just makes us feel like we are doing something. A few short hours later we are all tucked in and quiet.

Then the clock read 9:30 and the fun began. In an instant it sounded as if a very large harbor seal (I can identify these like an expert now, because you know, I'm a local...) had occupied my tiny girl's room. The bark she was letting out shook her poor little body like a seizure. She couldn't stop crying, which of course made the coughing a hundred times worse. Her breathing was so bad that her heart was pounding a mile a minute. Of course, all our confidence hours earlier that we had a grip on this thing flew out the window in a cloud of mist (this new machine makes her room look like a rock concert). So, off L and I head to the emergency room. I was confident she was having some sort of asthma attack, 'cause you know I am such a medical expert. By 1:00am we were headed home after a breathing treatment and some steroids to treat ...

CROUP?

Who knew?

Apparently, anyone but us... The good news is that it is viral, will go away, and may not ever return, and M is probably too old to catch it. The bad news is it is viral, can be caught again, and odds are M, because she is my child, will buck the age limit for this thing and catch it anyway.

SO, probably needless to say, we were starting off G and G's visit with a real bang. Happily, they don't care what shape we are in or if we ever leave the house. Our first night's effort to show off all of Monterey's wonderful cuisine? Papa Murphy's pizza, of course. We know how to show folks a good time and paint the town red. Luckily, the daylight hours for L were fine and dandy and we were able to hit a few of the tourist's hot spots in their all too short visit. We showed them how the other less than 1% live on 17 Mile Drive. They also got several good views of our seals and otters. The beach was a bit chilly, but it was sunny in Carmel and it's never too cold for M and L to do some quick digging in the sand.

My in laws are SO great, they even kept M and L on Monday night so C and I could go to dinner by ourselves... Funny side story, we chose Sapporo because we both love Japanese Hibachi places. The only other folks at our grill table you ask? A family of four with 2 girls the exact same ages as ours... They apologized and we laughed. Who really cares when it's someone else's kids? Incidentally, these kids, I think were droids, polite, too cute, quiet, ate with chopsticks, ate zucchini and broccoli and shrimp... Need I go on? C asked the older one where she lived? Her answer "Pebble Beach, CA." There really are no low rent districts in that specific area.... SO, I am choosing to believe that there are a team of nannies and etiquette coaches who prepped these two for this meal out. It couldn't possibly be that I have misstepped somewhere in my parenting. I thought all kindergartners and toddlers thrived on chicken nuggets and cheerios, oh yes, and don't forget celery because L cannot function without it and we all know how many nutrients it adds to the diet.

In a nutshell, LOL (when have I ever been brief) we had a wonderful visit and L is recovering nicely. I always have a couple of days of melancholy after our family leaves. It usually takes me about 48 hours to remember that we LOVE our life of moving around and meeting other great people who feel the same way. This life we chose constantly requires that we take a leap of faith to build a new support system in each new hometown. The fact that we have such a wonderful bond with our "real" families is what makes it possible for us to go out and enjoy making new friendships all over the globe.

Don't they look great?

We are so excited!

2007-10-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

Granny and Gramps (my absolutely wonderful in laws) get here today. Well technically, they land an hour up the coast very late tonight. We won't see them until tomorrow morning, but at least it will be very soon. As long as I can remember I have always been unable to contain myself with enthusiasm for upcoming trips, visits, vacations, holidays, parties, meals (had to sneak that one in to see if you were paying attention), you name it. If it is something to look forward to, I will nearly exhaust myself with anticipation. Christmas has always been so exciting for me that literally I have often made myself physically ill by the time the day arrives. My Mom and Dad will vouch for the number of years I spent Dec 25 on the couch, even into adulthood. My kids have definitely fallen into my pattern of uncontainable enthusiasm for the good things to come... M can ask me "hundreds" of times a day, "now, how long until they get here?" They are so thrilled that there beloved Grandparents are coming to see us. One small glitch, L totally does not get that the two sets of grandparents are not one entity. She is totally convinced that they all go together and that Grandma and Papa are on their way too. Lucky for us we get them for a week at Thanksgiving, something else to anticipate with glee...

Some other things we are really excited about right now.

My dear SIL and BIL, B and A, are expecting a new addition to their family in May. We are all very excited to welcome a new cousin/niece (I hope) or nephew.

My BFF Jen and her Mom will be here in a couple more weeks to spend an entire week with us! Woo Hoo!

This next tidbit should fall under the "truth is stranger than fiction" heading. Now, those of you who know me well, know that I love a challenge and am no stranger to hard work. However, an overly clean house has just never really been my thing. That's so an understatement that I laugh out loud as I type it. By the way, you all should know that my typing skills fall even lower on my skill set list than house cleaning... So, this little blog venture REALLY is a labor of love to keep you all so actively posted on our foibles and follies. Now, don't get me wrong, we do not live in filth, and I must have organization. Beyond that though, I can overlook dust with the best of them. I do not collect things, largely because I don't want to take care of them. I like minimal, it soothes me. If there is too much furniture or too many decorations in a room, I get restless. I like to see some open space and yes, even bare walls. Oh the horror... Anyway, sometime ago I did have a point. I think it was that I would not expect my girls to grow up to be neat freaks, unless it skips a generation. I can honestly say I never made my bed until C and I bought our first home.

Here's why I rambled into all of this...

Each week M's class compiles a "Kinder Cronicle" (no, I do not know why it is spelled that way, and honestly I am afraid to ask...) This is a great little newsletter of tidbits from the week. This week their reading stories were about families. Mrs. S always includes a couple of quotes from the kids. They feel like rock stars to be in print and we get one more thing to shove in a box for that baby book I am going to compile one day....

Here is M's exact quote about our family...

"Sometimes my family works. We clean up and put things where they go."

Now doesn't that just warm your heart. I am SO not sure how to take this. I am torn between wondering if people think she mentioned it because it's a total novelty for us, or whether they think, now that's a family who really knows how to live it up!

It did make me laugh. I guess I am a little crazy about the picking up part. The smaller our homes get, the harder it is to keep that little bit of open space I mentioned needing. So, we do have an ongoing family pitch in time to keep Mama sane, but really is that so bad? And seriously folks, my obsession is only surface deep. If it can be shoved in a box, basket or bin, I am all good... If you choose to open my closet doors or inspect said bins, do so at your own risk, because definitely for me, out of sight is out of mind.

Some other odd news from this week, Karma is out to get me. I mentioned to C that my Mom liked the pic of L "digging for gold" that I posted the other day. He thought maybe it was over the top and a mom should not ridicule her children... what else are they for if we can't use a few random things to pay them back occasionally. Anyway, he said, funny you should mention that because she came to me saying Dad I have something in my mouth (spitting at him, of course). Needless to say, what he fished out could have come from the aforementioned pic. We are so proud.

I thought I should leave you with a better visual, so here are the girls playing with their new friends this week....

Everyone have a great week and please forgive me if the entries are scarce while we have fun with family!

Lunchtime Fun

2007-10-03T14:49:00.001-07:00

I have a lifelong BAD habit of fast eating, not to mention rapid talking, walking, etc. My Mom is convinced that this vice originated with the minimal amount of time we were allowed for lunch in my elementary school. Often, by the time you had your lunch and were seated, there would be less than 10 minutes left before you had to line up for recess. Never one to skip a meal, I would gobble and go. In recent years (since M's birth) this habit has proved all the more detrimental as mean old Mother Nature (and Father Time...) played some very dirty tricks on my metabolism and shape. So, when M entered school, I was seriously hoping this would not start a pattern for her. Now, in all honesty, M's pace at everything is not exactly what you would call speedy. I like to tell myself she is a methodical thinker like C. Otherwise, the snail's pace would drive me a wee bit mad...

Today, I had a light bulb moment about those rapid school lunches. Wednesday is my day to be the class lunch helper. Wednesday is also "Pizza Day", as such there are a substantial number of hot lunch versus sack lunch kids. My job includes escorting the class from the classroom to the cafeteria and anything else they need until I escort them to the playground for recess. Piece of cake, right? After six weeks of doing this, I just figured out that 20+ kindergartners can finish all the eating they are going to do in about 10 minutes flat. Obviously my thought process is not always so quick either. Sadly that never slows down my speech, but that's another blog that will be titled "Open Mouth, Insert Foot." So, anytime beyond the aforementioned 10 minutes is just used for touching, poking, tickling, standing on the benches and yelling at your sister's best friend as she enters the cafeteria. Oh, and don't forget the sudden onset of multiple bathroom emergencies. Now don't get me wrong, these kids are actually a fantastically well-behaved and respectful group. It's just that beyond that 10 minutes all they can think about is recess. You remember they only get 3 such recesses a day, so their social time is severely cramped...

So, I think my point is that I can finally let my dear old catholic elementary school off the hook. It appears that even if I had my full 20 minutes to eat, I would only have wolfed it all down in 10. Heaven knows I had a very busy social schedule to adhere to. Just ask Sister A who spent a whole year telling my parents I was a gifted student who just talked WAY too much. GO FIGURE!

Now, on a totally unrelated thought, I just got back from M's ballet lesson. I fear those of you that peruse the pages of Glamour may see me in an issue soon. You remember that section in the back with the black bars over the faces of real people on the street caught sporting a fashion "don't", apparently I now fit the bill. I decided that the best way to spend my hour each week in Carmel was to push L up and down all the hilly streets in her jogging stroller. It's really a nice cardio workout... However, I am afraid my UofL t-shirt from my actual college days (remember those were quite a few years ago...) and my black jogging shorts do not pass the required dress code. You know that feeling when someone turns to look at you and you're quite sure it's not because they are wishing to ask for your stylist's name? I could have actually counted those looks today. I must admit rather than dampening my spirits, it made me more determined to come up with a similarly fab getup for next week. Sometimes I crack myself up. It seems usually these are the times no one else gets the joke, except for all of you of course. It's good to know I am among friends here in cyberspace. Otherwise, I might have to go shopping.

Finally, some more older unrelated shots, just because....

Can't you see why we are so proud?

She may not be fast, but she gave her all in soccer....

They just sit like this nicely, all the time....NOT!

Can you blame me for taking so many pictures? Look how sweet my family is...

Have a great night!

Just a quick note...

2007-10-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

It seems we are getting back to our regular routine of too much to do and too little time. So, if the blogs are a little less frequent please forgive me... still plenty to tell, just less time to type.

Saturday C had a golf outing with some of the other new students here in his program. It wasn't Pebble Beach, but they had a good time in Salinas and got to see a free air show to boot. The girls and I had a fun morning of shoe shopping and a field trip to Petsmart... On Saturdays they have the obedience classes and the girls love seeing all the rambunctious puppies.

I was eyeing the bird section... No, I do not want another body to feed and care for. I overheard M's teacher this week speaking with another parent about the possibility of adding a snake to her classroom zoo. As you all know, snakes and me, not so much. Absolutely not, and oh he** NO! She did say she was concerned about finding something that doesn't have to be fed it's dinner live.... Can you say really yuck? Besides, poor Mimi, the classroom mouse, would be living in constant fear, as if daily handling by 22 kindergartners is not cause for fear enough. SO, my master plan is just a tiny bit duplicitous. I figure I can offer a bribe of providing the class with a bird and all of its necessities in lieu of said slithery creature. Here's hoping...

If this plan doesn't work, I will survive. I am actually thrilled that thanks to Ms. S, M is now requesting that I help her catch bugs... She has broadened our horizons tremendously in an amazingly short time. What more could you ask from a teacher? So, if they get a legless reptile and M wants to handle it, I will cheer (from a great distance)! However, the first time "Slimy" (I know already, they're not really) gets out, and you know with 22 kindergartners handling him, he will... I will no longer be volunteering in the classroom until he is located and put back in captivity. I do have my limits, and fishing a snake out of a cubby is WAY outside them.

Well, I am off to Bunko... don't even remember how to play... but it's adults only so I'll wing it.

Here are a couple of pics...

These first two shots show off our Halloween spirit... There's still about two more feet of unadorned space, so we may not be done yet...

This was the girls on our way to Petsmart on Saturday. A couple of keepers for sure.

Ever since M could first run we have had a family game call the "PINYA". This involves a small child running and throwing themselves at you at a full speed (and full contact...) tackle as you sit on the floor. Often this comes with no warning. You eventually develop a heightened sense of awareness anytime you choose the floor as your chair of choice! Well, M is obviously not so little anymore, and she has recruited L into the act so,

Voila...

Hope everyone has a great day!

My Job...

2007-09-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I must admit every once in a while I have a twinge of regret that I am no longer gainfully employed. I would be dishonest to say that I don't miss having my own paycheck. Even more than that though, I miss using that part of my brain. I am sometimes fearful by the time I am available to go "back to work" ('cause you know all I do now is eat Bon Bons and shop; Peg Bundy, anyone?) that I will have forgotten how to have an adult conversation, much less actually manage adults. I know that many of my friends have found great satisfaction and financial reward working as independent sales reps for some wonderful companies. Unfortunately for me, I have absolutely no interest in selling anything ever again... Nine years working for different divisions of Lazarus/Macy's forever cured me of the sales bug. So, I guess recently somewhere in my subconscious I have been getting a little restless...

Until this morning...

As I took Princess M to school this morning, I encountered some middle school children harassing a child from M's school. "F" words were flying, and I was not having it. Long story short, apparently there is some history among these neighbor children. I don't really care what the history is.... No child is going to be bullied in front of me. So, as another Mom helped the child in question, I got a school administrator who hopefully was able to take ALL of the necessary info to handle this particular incident.

What a moment of clarity for me! All of a sudden it was abundantly clear why I MUST be here for my girls. I know I cannot protect them from everyone or everything. I also know no one else can and/or will advocate or outright fight for them like C and me. So, while he is providing for us, I will continue to do what I do. I think my Dad (one really smart dude!) is exactly right. He commented the other day when I called myself a sucker for getting myself wrangled into the Fall Festival, that he spent his entire career as a school principal pushing for parental involvement. So, until further notice, I will continue to be "just a stay at home Mom" who happens to spend a whole lot of time REALLY involved in my girls' lives. I am sure they will be thrilled (especially by high school...) Can you imagine the techie gadgets C will have by then for surveillance? I guess we will have to get rid of the baby monitors by the time they are in their teens.

On a side note, we are getting our decorating for Halloween done this weekend. Doesn't everyone have a six foot inflatable ghost mobile and pumpkin landscape lights for Halloween? In honor of this most auspicious holiday I am including some oldie but goodies Halloween pics.

Who wouldn't love this Care Bear? Circa 2004

We spent a day at a family owned pumpkin patch in Lawton OK in October 2005. These kids had the time of their life...

My pick of the patch....

Halloween party at our church in 2006. What a cute pair of devils...sorry R (not really) and yes, I did take my child to church dressed as a devil...

School Days

2007-09-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we are all officially settled in our new routine. C has begun his classes and it seems he will have no shortage of reading and writing to keep him occupied. He is happy to be a student again. I am happy Uncle Sam is paying for it...

Our other star student is making great progress in kindergarten. It seems her transition to full- time student has been almost effortless. Her only complaint is that she misses our regular play dates with all of our old pals. Apparently a full day of school, complete with three recesses, does not fulfill our play quota.

L and I, it seems, will have multiple opportunities to entertain ourselves with volunteer projects at the school. I agreed to "help out" with the upcoming Fall Festival. I was thinking you know donate a cake, work an hour in a booth etc.... Suddenly I find myself the "Booth Coordinator" for the whole shindig. I feel fairly certain they saw my "Sucker" name tag from a mile away.

I thought you might like to see some examples of what M is doing in school. Apparently 5 year olds are much smarter than they used to be. I know for certain that I was not reading, writing journal entries, and doing "book reports" in Kindergarten. In all honesty, some of her work taxes my brain now...

The following is a journal entry for the letter C. They have to write one sentence about anything they choose related to the letter and draw a picture. M chose to write "Carina the camel lives in the desert." She drew the pic complete with cactus and flies totally unassisted. I have mentioned that I have NO artistic ability, right? The only thing I did was sound out each word so she could spell out her sentence.

The second example is a book report. We read the book together and then she draws a picture of her favorite part and writes a caption. Her book was Cinderella Penguin. Her caption reads "The Great Fairy Penguin dressed Cinderella for the ball." Again, all I did was help her sound out each word so she could write her sentence. Who needs spellchecker if you have a kindergartner around for Pete's sake?

Obviously, C and I are thrilled that M is loving school so much. My only concern lies in how quickly she will surpass my ability to assist her. At this rate, it may be soon...

There's always next year...

2007-09-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

It seems the longer we live away from Louisville, the harder we take our Cards' losses. I am not quite sure how in the span of one year we go from true contenders to be National Champs (darn you Rutgers!) to a 2-2 record and a loss to Syracuse? I am just glad we don't live there today to see all the flaming write-ups in the CJ. I am sure they are going to be gunning for Coach K's head. Personally, I blame Coach P but he has his own worries down in Atlanta...LOL

Since a good number of you probably have no interest in Cardinal Athletics (shame on you!), I will move on.

I don't have any more antics to share with you as it is only 7:45am Pacific time. Nothing exciting has happened so far this morning, so as Grandma says the pics are always welcome, I thought I would insert a random sampling of faves.

This guy did not like me...
Footloose and Fancy Free....
Can you say CHEESE?

Now, that's quite a hatchling...

I am off to get ready for Church. I hope you all have a Blessed day!

Plans, Shmans...

2007-09-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome Home R!!! I have just been waiting for an opportunity to use the pic of you and C, the Barbie Pole and the whoppers you caught.... What better opportunity?

In honor of our happiness that our dear friend R returned safely to OK yesterday after four months in a lovely, scenic corner of the Caribbean, I got the bee in my bonnet to organize and arrange our front patio to accommodate our fire pit. You see our two families spent many an hour around that fire pit in our two years in OK. Songs were sung (badly), stories were told (and retold after a couple of refreshments), plans were made. R even had his very own designated "fire stick". Truth be told, he has a little pyro in him. That stick was one of the very last things I disposed of as we cleared our patio to pass our out inspection. I actually laughed and was a little sad at the same time.

So, last night was to be our first fire at the new home. We cleaned the patio, collected kindling, bought firewood (and refreshments, of course), and we were set (sorely missing our partners in crime, of course). The kids were bathed and tucked in bed and guess what? The very first rain we have seen, since we arrived on July 30, began to come crashing down. Wouldn't you know it? I must admit, it was nice to listen to the rain through the open windows all night. It's a much more peaceful sleep accompaniment than the slamming of the garbage cans by voracious raccoons. I was actually excited for the rain until C mentioned the notorious CA mud slides.... You see our luxurious purple townhouse (still can't believe my home is lavender) is nestled right into the side of a hill. Directly above us (straight up) is another row of townhouses... Needless to say, we will be watching all future flooding situations closely. I guess this is another reason to justify our purchase of the Armada. If need be, we can use it as our ark. C already called it our new mobile home. (Private note to Scott and Delight, you knew it was just a matter of time....)

Since our fire plans were rain-delayed, we were forced to move inside to have another rousing Wii challenge. I don't think I will ever physically bowl with a real ball again. It would be crushing to score less than 190. Cyber bowling is the way to go. Sadly, cyber golf doesn't improve my handicap at all, and let's just say that former softball players should stay away from all forms of tennis...

A couple of pics of M doing some Wii bowling the other evening. That's my girl, check out that form!

Another unrelated pic, but check out the cool chick in the shades...LOL

Yes, We're still here...

2007-09-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all of those who have been anxiously awaiting the latest A team news. No, the mountain lions haven't carted us off. We did incidentally follow a six point buck up our driveway the other night. The real reason for the lack of blogging has been my mood. First our Cards had to go and lose to UK this weekend. Second, we have been car shopping. Remember our flawless logic about selling both cars and buying one new one?

Well.... Forget about all that.

I really should backtrack a bit. When we made our original plan, it was under the assumption we were going to be here 18 months and then moving on. Now we have discovered we will be here roughly two years. The extended stay will involve a little more uphill (very big hill) travel that C is not anxious to do a couple times a day on a bike. So, we are back to keeping our lovely little Volvo. Needless to say, the not so beloved van still had to go. Voila, here we were this weekend doing the dreaded car shopping with two ever so patient princesses in tow. I must admit, they were actually angels for the three hour stint Saturday at the Nissan dealer. Mommy however, needed a couple of glasses of Monterey's finest by the end of the evening. Still no new car, mind you. I will skip over the sordid details of the subsequent three days. Suffice to say my wonderful husband took the reins and we have a beautiful new SUV. I hope to never speak to a car dealer ever again.

What sporty little wonder did we select you ask?

Why, the biggest car on the market, of course. I think there may be a little overcompensating going on here for moving into our smallest home yet. We may now have to sell blood to pay for gas, but we are the happy owners of a new Nissan Armada. Princess M fell in love with it instantly. Her exact quote was "look Mom, it has enough seats for all of us and Grandma and Papa and Granny and Gramps..." This was totally unprompted and should be worth some good brownie points. She also was very impressed with "the really cool cup holders". Those definitely take the sting out of the sticker shock...LOL.

So, now my mood has lifted and I should again be able to regale you with all of our thrilling exploits. Sadly after much introspection, the aforementioned deer really was the only other highlight of our week thus far. Now that the car shopping is done, and no blood was shed, there is still hope for the rest of the week.

Hope you all have a great one!

Here are the requisite shots of the girls for all those back home.

Grace in Motion.

2007-09-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

I am so glad that Princess M is still very focused on her goal to one day be a real ballerina. She has just begun her third year of formal lessons and is truly loving it. Now in all honesty, I truly have doubts that any daughter of mine, remember I am 5 foot 6 and have never been referred to as lithe or statuesque, will make prima ballerina level. Genetics aside though, the drive is there. What I sincerely hope is that it continues to give her joy and maybe, just possibly, a smidgen more natural grace than her mother. As you all well know, I am the proverbial bull in the china shop.

Point in case, the other night. My new friend Kirstin invited me to her jewelry party. I had a perfectly lovely time. Great food, wonderful wine (all from Monterey and not a box in sight), and terrific company. What a pleasure to get to gab with other women and shop without a rugrat in sight. So, three fast hours later I headed for home. One would assume I could make it a quarter mile home without incident. One would assume wrong. I have mentioned before our lack of parking. I believe I have also mentioned our hills and mountain lion sightings.... Okay, so I really wasn't concerned about big cats, but I am still pretty much a chicken in the dark by myself. Suffice to say, my run up the hill in flip flops and a skort did not end so gracefully. I have a very sore hand. I will have yet another scar to add to the always growing collection. I blame it all on my lack of interest in dance as a child. Why, oh why, did I insist on only competing in sports which involved projecting myself at the ground at high speeds?

So the scabs will heal, the scars will fade (not really...) but I will still be lacking anything even resembling grace. There is hope, however, for my girls. I am including a pic and you can guess which one is most closely following in my footsteps...

.

This is NOT a democracy...

2007-09-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

No fear. This is not a political entry.

Today's title refers to our household.

Somewhere along the way it seems the inmates, our totally beloved offspring, got the impression that they were running the asylum. This is NOT the case. As such C and I have adopted our new mantra.

THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY.

This is our new answer to the age old question. Yes, we are, in fact, the boss of you. As you can imagine, we have not totally worked out the whole hierarchy between C and I. There is some question of ultimate authority, but really those are minor details.

Take for instance this morning. I had just returned from dropping M off at school. C and I were in some very important conversation (I have no idea what...) when my precious little L marched into the kitchen and announced "stop talking Mama!!!!" Excuse me? Much bigger people than you, my little one, have tried unsuccessfully for years to shut me up. I must admit that momentarily I was stunned into silence, but I recovered quickly. We have recently discovered with L that only completely ignoring her will stop a fit. Our new method of correction is to move her to a nice soft spot on the carpet and let her rip. She will then throw herself down face first, again on the carpet mind you, and raise the rooftop. Thank goodness we no longer have the old Altus hardwood floors throughout. The child would be purple. Anyway, now when she gets mad, all we have to do is say go to the carpet L and away she goes. It's very hard to be too annoyed at a tantrum when you are so busy laughing at her as she locates a nice soft spot to land.

This morning's "request" though does follow a recurring theme with L. If any of you have ever travelled with me, you know I must sing in the car. You most likely also know that I should not sing...unless you are tone deaf (lucky you!) The radio stations here are a little sketchy. The only thing we can get with great regularity is classical (not a fave of mine) and Tejano. The only Spanish I speak is from Dora, and I don't particularly care for the accordion so Tejano is out for me as well. SO, we listen to a lot of kids CDs. "If you like to talk to tomatoes," sing along all you Veggie Tales lovers. (I know you're out there Aunt Elizabeth!) Anyway, I know them all and proudly I sing. Usually within the first two stanzas you will hear a loud little voice from the backseat yelling..."Don't sing Mama!" How rude can you be, really? I gave birth to this little runt. There is one exception. I am always allowed to sing "The Wheels on the Bus". This is only because I am the only person who will do all of the verses with all of the hand motions, and yes, while driving. Makes you glad not to be driving in CA doesn't it?

Another funny little aside to our car radio adventures. This past Sunday in church C informed me one of the worship songs was the wrong tempo. How does a rocker know this you ask? Because one of M's all time fave CDs for the car is Worship Jamz. Boy the times have changed.

Today's pic is just because I can hear Grandma and Granny now insisting that the little angel L would never need a time out. I think the look on her face says it all.

As a final note today, I tried to think of a way to best address today's date. I finally decided that it goes without saying that none of us will ever forget. I will leave the proper tributes to those who are so much more capable. I think the best I can do is to just continue to contribute some levity when I can to an otherwise very serious world.

Can You Follow the Logic?

2007-09-08T10:50:00.001-07:00

Let's start with some personal history. I have owned four vehicles in my twenty-one years of driving. Not a bad average, I must say. In 1986 my Dad allowed me to appropriate his 1985 Toyota Corolla. In 1993, I finally gave it back. I had just purchased my brand new Cardinal red and black (I still insist it was not orange, no matter what C says! Ford called it "Vibrant Red") Ford Explorer Sport! I loved that car to death, literally. Eight years and four, yes four, clutches later a dealer mercifully gave me approximately $1600. in trade-in value towards my new Hyundai Santa Fe. Luckily the dealer's test drive of my old rust bucket was just around the block. They never discovered it had been missing a 5th gear for over a year. Don't ask, don't tell you know... All jokes aside it was going straight to the wholesale lot. I did not knowingly or otherwise defraud anyone (if C ever does run for office, I guess these blogs could come back to haunt me if I don't clarify...LOL). So, back to the Santa Fe. I loved this little SUV. We were expecting M and this was going to be our little family truckster. I was adamantly and vehemently and ? (what else means Hell NO?) opposed to any suggestion of a minivan, EVER! The Hyundai was a perfect little car, only an idiot would trade it. Skip forward two years and enter one aforementioned idiot.

We had just moved to San Antonio and were planning a week long trip to South Padre Island with my folks. They were flying in to SA and we would all ride together to the coast. Needless to say, four adults, one car seat, one pack-n-play, and luggage for five for a week would not all fit in the Santa Fe. When I started researching rentals for a week that would accommodate us all, I nearly had a fit... Have I mentioned before my propensity to be somewhat um thrifty? So, suddenly the wheels were turning. This is always dangerous. This is how I found myself having the following conversation with C.

Me: "I want to make a proposal. I want you to say yes or no. Under no circumstance may you laugh at me or call me crazy."

C: " Oh my God, what did you do?"

Me: " I am serious."

C. "Just tell me, what did you do?"

This went on for a while, and yes, this is pretty much verbatim. I have a very good memory for the conversations in life I most wish I could forget.

Suffice to say, I talked myself into buying a minivan. Have I mentioned, I HATE minivans. My apologies to Kim, Becky, Jen, and my folks. You are all of my favorite people. You all love your vans. I am so glad that you all are so thrilled with your vehicles. On this one topic we will have to agree to disagree... I was SO sure that if I bought a really cool minivan, you know black, all leather, sunroof, tinted windows, etc. it would be just great. Not so much. It seems you just cannot trick out a minivan enough to make me overcome my deep-seated loathing. I have now driven this monstrosity for nearly four years. C has done his best to not say "I told you so" more than a couple of times a week for four years. We have been telling everyone we know since we found out we were coming here that when we left CA, the minivan was not coming with us. We now realize that we are really only going to use one car here. We only have one designated parking spot, so we must play a cat and mouse game with our four neighbors over our two "guest" spots. Rumor has it that when C does actually start classes in two weeks, parking is so scarce at the school that those in the know have already started walking. Joking aside, it seems most everyone bikes to school. This is quite a testimony to their fitness as the hills here are murder. Never push a jogging stroller here in $3 Target flip flops... (that's another blog entry all in itself)

SO, we now have listed for sale...

Wait for it....

You guessed it...

The VOLVO ?!?

Now you just have to bear with me for a minute to get to the whole logic thing. Yes, this is the vehicle we actually do like. It is also however, somewhat cozy to be our only mode of transportation at this stage. Jogging strollers take up a lot of room. As do sand buckets, coolers, chairs, dogs, etc. You get the drift. SO, we are going to ultimately get rid of both of our current rides and head back into the world of the SUV. Do NOT ask which one as we are only dealing with one process at a time. We are hoping this whole mess is done by Christmas. All I know for sure is that if I ever again speak of changing my long held opinion on something as big as oh say, a car. Somebody shoot me.

By the way, if anyone is interested in an awesome car or a much loathed, but perfectly functional, minivan, you know who to contact.

I do have a couple of additional commercial announcements today!

First, we have a dear friend celebrating a birthday this week. So everyone join us in wishing Rachel a great Birthday!We are so sorry Rachel that we could not find a more recent digital pic of you. This one from the Christmas of 2002, though was too cute to pass up. Besides when else can I post a pic of my Mom in antlers?

My second commercial is about one of my favorite topics, shoes. I have recently discovered TOMS shoes. This company gives one pair of shoes to a needy child for EVERY pair they sell. The shoes are great and the mission is better. They have given out 10000 shoes to kids in Argentina and are planning on giving 40000 this year to kids in Africa. Check them out at http://www.tomsshoes.com/ . They are even cute in my monstrous size 9.

When I received my pair they sent me a discount code to pass along to my friends... So, if you are in the market enter 1PAIR4FEET in the special code box on their website and you get $5. off. Note to you other parents of little ones. The kids patterns are adorable, and look no laces or velcro... I am on the waiting list for two pair of pink camo....too cute.

My last ad of the day is purely narcissistic. When you stop in and read these little nuggets of my wisdom. Wait a minute, I must stop laughing. You may notice a small place marked comments at the end of each entry. Huge thanks to Jen, Elizabeth, and Kirstin who have all had nice things to say. I am open to, and asking for, all comments. Even criticisms are welcome. I am strong. I can take it. I can also stick my tongue out at you on screen and you can't see it. See, I am mature too. All kidding aside, I would love to know you're out there and still getting my warped sense of humor. (PS, Mom, You will be thrilled to know that I just ran the spellcheck on this post and I got narcissistic right on the 1st try all by myself. Aren't you so proud?)

Off to get ready for church. Have a Blessed Day!

A Long Time Coming....

2007-09-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

So, today's entry is going to be a little different. I need to start with a warning. Any of you of the male gender who are still reading this blog (except probably Papa) may want to go ahead and log off now. This is going to be long (surprise...) and sentimental (sappy...) Any one who REALLY knows me, knows that deep down (and sometimes right there on the surface) I am a VERY emotional person. As C will attest to, I cry at all things patriotic. I cannot even watch the military flybys or the National Anthem on Sunday NFL games without shedding tears. It's almost impossible for me to make it through a church service without waterworks. This Sunday it was "How Great Thou Art". I cannot hear this song without hearing my dearly beloved late Uncle Roy belting it out at the top of his lungs while my Dad accompanied on piano... It was usually followed by "Amazing Grace" and then some assorted medley of Conway Twitty and Charlie Rich. So, the point is, I know myself. I often avoid conversations of gratitude to avoid embarrassing myself. I have decided now though, that this blog is the perfect forum for me to say some long overdue public thank-yous. This way I can get through it and stay on track!

First and foremost, I am blessed with C, M, and L. They are, without a doubt, the reason I was put on this earth! There is nothing more I can say. This particular blog is not, however, about them. I do try to make sure they know they are appreciated everyday.

This blog is about some of the incredible women in my life. There have been times in my life when I thought many of the women around me were primarily catty and not worth my time. All girls' schools and sororities seem to bring out a lot of not so attractive female traits...
It is only now as I am struggling daily to raise two strong beautiful girls, that I am so aware of how blessed I am to have so many great female influences!

There are actually too many people to mention by name, but a few absolutely cannot go unnamed so here we go. (In no particular order...LOL)

Kim B.

Wow, we have been friends for over 30 years. We have definitely seen the good, the bad and the ugly (short hair with perms..what were we thinking?) You are such a blessing. As kids we had our ups and downs. How could we not have? We are still two of the most hard-headed and competitive women I know. I guess it's finally okay to just own up to it and embrace it. I am thankful everyday to know that you are out there still choosing to be my friend. I know that your 3 precious ones keep you on overdrive. I am humbled that you still take the time out to catch up with me. I expect that we really will grow old together, even if we physically live across the world. Time has shown that very few others will put up with me that long!

Becky S.

You may be the latest addition to my list of unforgettable women, but I feel like you have been with me forever. You (and your beautiful family) made Altus OK the most wonderful place to live. You have given me so much perspective. I look at you and the way you interact with your kids, and I see the woman I want to be. There are so many things I feel I never thanked you properly for (most recently the beautiful going away presents you gave us). The biggest gift you gave me was your willingness to share your time and your family. Some of our lazy, totally unproductive days at the park, pumpkin patch, lake, etc., will go down as some of our most treasured family memories. Time and distance will separate us now, but catching up with you will always be a priority.

Jen.

Where do I start? If I had been blessed with a sister, it would've been you. The times we have weathered together have bound us for life. I can only hope that my two girls will share a similar bond as they go through life's trials and tribulations. I know that the tough times we have survived together may define us, but I must admit that the fun times are what I remember most. Give us some good music girl and clear the floor. We will always be the last ones standing (dripping with sweat and ravenous, but standing all the same).

Kenwyn W.

You have shared so much JOY with me. Your friendship with my Mom has set the standard by which I judge my own relationships. The times it has been most difficult to live so far away from my folks, have always been made more tolerable by the knowledge I can reach out to you and have a direct pipeline to home. I can only hope that I might someday influence some young woman as much as you have me.

Regina

OK, I tear up before I even start. You are the most wonderful blessing to me. First and foremost, you created and nurtured a beautiful son. You made him a man who loves and respects women. What better gift is there that you have shared him with me? Beyond the obvious though, is the person you are in MY life. How many women can truly consider their mother-in-law a best friend? You inspire me daily with your devotion to family, work, friends, and of course, God. I am so proud to be a part of your family!

Lastly and definitely most importantly, my very own hero, my Mom.

Everything good I have and I am are a direct testimony to the woman who made me. Like all mothers and daughters, there have been ups and downs (my teenage years...) but I am certain with every fiber of my being that I would not have the beautiful life I love without your example. My mom was the first one to support me when I decided, at the last minute, to quit work and stay home with M. It had never been discussed and she was most likely quite surprised. Truth be told she may have actually been a little alarmed (knowing my personality fairly well...) However, her support then and since has been unwavering. She is the one who taught me to give and demand respect. I can only hope that I can pass that most essential lesson along as well to my girls. I am so proud of my Mom and forever proud to be her daughter.

So, I feel better now. I have done my best to share my thanks with a few people I may have often taken for granted. As a true sign of my friendship, I am not including pics in this blog. As I was going through our library of thousands of pics looking for the best one of each of you, I found out that I must be a very bad photographer. As gorgeous as you all are, all of my pics are not so, shall we say, favorable. I assumed all goodwill would be lost if I included said pics, so I will refrain in the interest of harmony. I promise from now on to stay on the lighter side of our daily adventures, but hey it's my blog so who knows? I warned you.

Homework...

2007-09-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

OK, so who knew that when your child enters kindergarten, YOU start getting homework? I have now cut out frogs, stapled rainbows, collated several early readers, and even assembled 64 felt mice with 128 googly eyes. I am actually leaving out a few things, but you get the idea. Kindergartners these days complete a LOT of projects in a few short hours each day (and according to C we must keep ALL of these masterpieces for posterity). Now someone must do the prep work for all of these projects. Our beloved teacher, Ms. Shugars, cannot possibly do it all as well as teaching 20 five-year-olds and caring for our classroom zoo of one "Cosmo" chameleon, two frogs "Hoppy" and "...The Other Frog", one field mouse "MiMi", and several spiders (and yes, the spiders were caught by hand and are hand fed...YUCK). Oops, mustn't forget the aquarium full of crickets to feed Cosmo. So, it falls to us Moms and Dads to fill in the gaps. Each day as I drop off M, I check the parents' homework counter to see what needs to be done. I have managed to dodge a bullet twice now, where the project at hand came with directions which included the words "be creative". Keep in mind, although I was blessed with some musical talent, some athletic talent, a gift for gab, and even a tiny bit of my Dad's poetic skill, I am in no way an artist! I am not sure where M's artistic leaning comes from as I have played Pictionary with her Dad (once...) and let's just say we were not the victors. (Go Team Sides..) Anyway, I have gone seriously offtrack here, but if you ever speak with me directly this is making perfect sense.

So, I was doing my homework this weekend and M wanted to know why I "HAD" to do it. I explained to her that I actually enjoyed it (apologies to Mom and Dad who only had to wait for my mid-30's for that to happen). I went on to explain to her how once she and L are both in school full-time I would like to go back to school again. Her immediate response... wait for it... "you mean a school for old people". Yes, my dear M, that's exactly what Mommy meant. SO, now not only am I still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up, but apparently I will qualify for the senior citizen tuition rate. You know me, anything for a discount! On that same note, I am looking for a future career that will combine my love of chemistry (or cooking, essentially the same thing), my previous management and public relations skills, and allow me to move with my family every 2 years. I also consider it a requirement to actually be home with my kids and husband for dinners and homework. So as you can see, employers and venture capitalists will be lining up at the door to interview me. I think my dear friend Becky is right. By the time my kids are both in school, if I have any brain power left, it may be best spent working part time at a cool store with a huge discount. Watch out Pottery Barn, here I come...

Well it's time to get dinner together and get ready for our homework. C and I both have lunch patrol at school tomorrow. I am betting one 20 minute lunch with L's assistance and they won't be requesting us both anymore...

A couple of random pics from our Labor Day jaunt...

"Labor" Day...

2007-09-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

We have had another lovely couple of non-laboring days... Nothing really earth-shattering has happened here, so I will just share a couple of random things.

Friday night we went to the beach after dinner. M was wishing to check in on the plight of the sand dollars. Happily I can report that a few more lucky dollars were returned to the sea. We even got C in on the search and rescue mission this time. The water was beautiful. We were treated to a real show of acrobatics by a few dolphins. I don't know who was more excited, M or me, to see them jumping through the wakes. They were completely clearing the water. Of course, I was not fast enough with my tiny digital camera to catch any pics. I am afraid, that all of the incredible photo ops here already have me pining for a new camera. You know one of those "cheapies" with the telephoto lens... Dear Santa... Oh yes, back to the beach, I know those of you sweltering in OK and KY won't believe this, but we eventually left because we were freezing.

It has actually been pretty warm here the last few days. It has made it over 80 which is hot here on the coast. We are always at least 10 degrees cooler than they are inland. NO ONE here has AC. It is just not done. I had to laugh at the school the other day when another mom said this humidity is killing me... It was all I could do not to snort. Obviously, these folks have never been to San Antonio, Louisville, Atlanta...

Yesterday was C's volunteer day at Pebble Beach. His armband identified him as "environmental services" you read "trash bag collector". Apparently though, he was actually not at the bottom tier. That honor belonged to those with "ecology" on their bands. You guessed it...they had the port-o-potties. All jokes aside, you know it is a seriously upscale place when volunteers replacing garbage bags to raise money for the elementary school are required to wear collared shirts and dockers. He did mention they had the best popsicles ever !?! The exact quote was "it's like a smoothie on a stick". I have to admit in 10 years I have never seen the man eat a popsicle or a smoothie for that matter. You learn something new everyday. Those of you who know me well, already know I will spend the next few weeks on a popsicle quest. When C actually comments on how good something is, I kick into overdrive to replicate it. This is not to say that he is hard to please. It's just that in all matters food-related, he has been spoiled all of his life by Mama P and his mom R. I believe I can count on one hand the number of times he has really been impressed with anyone else's cooking. Luckily my Mom is also a culinary master and passed along just enough skill to me to suffice! Back to Pebble Beach, he was very impressed with the junior female entrant from KY. He said her drive was phenomenal! Go Girl!

So, if you want to play here when you visit us, and you don't mind mortgaging your house and selling your plasma to cover your greens fees... C can drive your cart and give you a personal tour. He will have to be your caddy though, as we do not have a house to sell.

Have a wonderful day!

Times Have Changed...

2007-08-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

So, as I sit here typing, still dripping with sweat from the gym, C lies next to me on the couch, snoozing. Apparently late nights are no longer his forte'. Now I think all of you know that while plodding through both his undergrad and law school (GO CARDS!!), C played guitar in various bar bands for a living. This meant many, many, MANY late nights for both of us. How we lived and managed to function on the ever present lack of sleep I am not quite sure. Suffice to say, we didn't find the newborn and infancy stages of both of our daughters to be all that intolerable. That time was like a sleep study compared to the music days.... Now we wouldn't trade those old days for the world. Even my beloved Dad came out at 1AM for a showcase once. I am pretty sure he had not been up that late since he waited for me to meet curfew... Besides how many other military kids have pics of their Dad in leather pants and eyeliner, and no jack-o-lanterns in sight?

So skip to last night when C got to go up the coast to meet Mark for the Toby Keith show. A big shout out to Mark who is the only one of our oldest friends who is still working, successfully I might add, in the music business. He is the only one who actually made it to life on a real tour bus. For those in the know, Jay W's ice cream truck doesn't count as a tour bus. So Mark is on the road with Toby Keith and a nice "little" guy named PorkChop. I had to laugh when C came home and described the show... You all know country is not his most favored genre, kind of like me with opera, nails on a chalkboard, you get the picture.

Anyway, here was the summary...

Tour buses really are cool. Everyone should have a plasma TV in their bunk.

Miranda Lambert is not too hard on the eyes.

Toby Keith is huge. "His arms look bigger than my legs."

Pyrotechnics are still cool! Except now your buddy warns you when to cover your ears, because you know those things are REALLY loud.

That's right my husband, who never met an amp he didn't love, was describing to me how Mark told him when to cover his ears.. I had to laugh, out loud, and long. Here I am virtually deaf from all of my years in front of the mains (those are the big speakers for you non-bar band lovers) Did you really think I talk so loudly just for the attention?

So now we are back to the present, still snoozing. When I came in the door and saw him on the couch, and L streaking sans diaper through the room, I asked him what was wrong. He could barely muster up the strength to tell me how tired he was. I asked him why? His answer, "what time did I go to bed?". My answer, "the same time I did.." Of course I have now fed, dressed and taken a child to school, spent 45 minutes and 500 calories on an elliptical machine, and now held an audience of perhaps 3 enthralled with my latest musings. In all seriousness, though, times have certainly changed. I know firsthand how hard he worked in those days. I have to tell you though, the effort he puts into what he does now really does make those times look easy.

I guess since it's my blog I can brag when I want to... If every student here is as hellbent on saving the world as C is, then we really are in very good company. When he came back last night, I kept thinking how close we came to music being his livelihood. I know he would have made it a great life for us. I do believe though, that although music is his first love and ongoing passion, we are ALL lucky that he ended up here.

As we head into the Labor Day weekend, and draw near 9/11, I hope you all fly your flags with pride. I am proud to be married to one who serves.

Of course any pics of him actually doing his job would not pass our censors... So we will check out a CARDINAL fan in the wilds of OK.

Home Sweet Home...kinda

2007-08-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, so today's meanderings are about home... C and I have gone to great lengths to stress to M and now L that home will always be wherever we are together. This life we chose when "WE" joined the USAF has blessed us in so many ways. One of these blessings will never however, be a long term address. You have to keep in mind that C and I had no great compelling reason to leave KY. We were living in the same wonderful city as both of our parents with most of our extended families nearby. We had lifelong friends who were starting their families there. We were both gainfully employed and one of us (Me...) loved our job. The only downside was C's growing uncertainty whether he wanted to admit to being a lawyer, much less practice. SO, of course, we decided to leave everything we knew and everyone else we loved and see the world. Now don't think for one minute that I am complaining. I would not trade our life for anyone's... really. When we do see our families, we are all actually thrilled to be together. That in itself is a big deal. We haven't quite seen the world yet, but we have just about covered the southeast and of course Texas, (they refuse to be considered part of any larger geographic region...) Anyway, I have a pretty good indication that C's course of study here (the Middle East) is likely to assure us some more exotic assignments on the horizon. I wonder how many folks are anxiously looking forward to a desert getaway... Ok, back to my point, the longer we are away, the more I consider KY home. It is definitely the point of reference for all things good. As I walked down the street in BEAUTIFUL Carmel-By-The-Sea yesterday while Princess M was in her ballet class I was struck again by the comparison. This place is beautiful and very intoxicating, yet not really....warm. I know that I am a tad bit more talkative than even your most seasoned Louisvillian (sp?) but really, is it that hard to smile, nod, or at least not frown at the woman with the stroller you just ran off the sidewalk? I may be exaggerating a tiny bit, but people on the west coast just don't seem to have much time for niceties like "please", "thank you", "excuse me",or "I am sorry that I just trampled your foot". Now it could have something to do with my Target shorts in a Prada town, but really I do pay taxes and all... So, I guess where I am really going with all of this ranting is that no matter where we go and how much we love our explorations there really is no place like home. I like to think we bring KY with us to all of these different short term homes. Everywhere we have lived we have tried to entertain the same way we have learned from our folks, with an open home and southern hospitality. I don't think we'll ever grace the pages of Southern Living, but we darn sure won't send you home hungry. I have made it my mission to warm up my little part of the world here. I have a feeling I will be getting a lot of "she's crazy" looks but really, what else is new? So, I am going to continue to wear my Kohl's attire and my Reef flip flops. I am also going to keep saying hello to everyone I pass on the sidewalk. Who knows? Maybe I'll start a trend...

My pics today are unrelated to the text, but when you have a family this good lookin' you have to show them off.

___________________________________________________________________

If you drive 26 hours round trip in less than 3 days just to see us, you get immortalized on the blog... Thanks J and K. We loved every second of your visit. I just can't believe you guys aren't still 15 and scamming 20 year old chicks for pizza and cab fare..

Her first experience with the beater was a success...

This pic has a couple of disclaimers....

1. None of the kids pictured were in anyway involved with the refreshments in the background of the picture.

2. Now that we live in Monterey, we will no longer be allowed to serve boxed wine at our soirees... You can take the girl out of Kentucky....

Birds, Bees and all things crawly...

2007-08-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

So you know a day can't go by without something newsworthy at the A house...

To preface this story, a little history on Princess M. She does NOT like bugs. That's it. What more can I say? If it crawls, flies, slides or slithers, she doesn't like it, period. When I say that M "doesn't like", you should read "abhors, loathes, is absolutely phobic of". Now this is not completely unfounded as we just left the buggiest (is that a word?) place I have ever lived and M had an altercation of some sort with almost the entire population of bugs there. Fire ants, biting flies, spiders, and the world's most aggressive mosquitoes. Don't even get me started on the Mississippi Kites, (I know they are birds not bugs but I did say flies...) that's a whole additional blog entry in itself. SO, shortly before we left Altus, M got a mosquito bite on her forehead. I know it was a mosquito bite because I smashed said bug on her forehead myself in my dear friend Dana's backyard. I have witnesses. A day and a half later the child was unrecognizable. She looked like she had lost a round with a heavyweight. Her eyes were swollen nearly shut, and the bridge of her nose was nowhere to be found. The pediatrician's response...."yep, that's some reaction to a mosquito bite..." Now not thinking clearly about the little ears in the room, I proceeded to ask him about any correlation between this and bee sting allergies. Since my mom is allergic, I thought it better to be prepared. He assured me that the two are not related, but prescribed an epipen just in case. This is where it goes south. He described how to use this wonderful device, and presto, M's fear of bee stings escalated to epic proportions. At that very moment, I knew my innocent inquiry was coming back to haunt me, eventually. Jump to our arrival here in CA, where immediately M is in love with all of the beautiful flowers blooming everywhere. Then she notices the accompanying winged creatures who are also in quite an abundance. Uh oh! Suddenly, every trip outside is an adventure in ducking, dodging, swatting and whining. After 3 weeks of reassuring M that the bees have more than enough lovely nectar to keep their attention, you guessed it. She gets stung in the Little Tikes Playhouse on the playground at school. I knew as soon as I heard C answer the phone that their was drama and with M, that usually plays out like a tragedy. So off he went to assess the situation. Obviously he found a quite distraught little girl, however with presents from the office staff for being the first official "sting survivor" of the year and kisses from Dad off she went back to class.

When we arrived to pick her up two hours later, she was feeling quite the hero. She also couldn't show me her battle scar as she wasn't quite sure which arm had been stung...LOL. Sadly, the story is not completely over as at 3AM this morning I got the call, "Mommy, I had a bad dream..." What did she dream of you ask? Mountain lions... I guess we have moved on from all things winged to all things furry. I am hoping my reassurances about mountain lions will not trigger the dreaded, "but you also said the bees didn't want me..."

As a side note to this little story, L does not share the same ideas about insects. She loves them... ALL. When a fly zooms past, she tries to catch it. She will pick up anything she can get her hands on. She has a particular favorite right now though, that may send Grandma into apoplexy. Monterey is currently having trouble with the Brown Apple Moth. This bothersome moth starts out, obviously, as a tiny caterpillar. For those of you who know my phobia of all snakes, it is matched only by Grandma's phobia of caterpillars... So, this apple definitely fell far from her genetic tree on this one.

Today's pics are totally unrelated, just cute.

Double Trouble...

Partners...

Saving the world, one sand dollar at a time...

2007-08-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

So after church and nap time on Sunday, we decided to head to the beach. After gathering our pails and shovels, and flip flops and towels, and chairs and jackets... we proceeded to spend a half hour putting on sunscreen. Finally, we were bound for the beach. I am still getting used to the difference in morning and afternoon weather temps here. We arrived in shorts and windbreakers but pretty quickly shed our outerwear to play in the frigid surf. The locals here mostly wear wetsuits... I was watching the girls build sand castles when some of the local kids body surfing caught my eye. It took me a few minutes to realize that one particular wetsuit had more authentic looking flippers than most. Right there 20 yards from the beach was a solo sea lion surfing with the kids. They also looked rather amazed when they realized he was close enough to join them on their boards. I kept remembering all of those Discovery Channel shows during Shark Week where they explain that most people attacked by sharks are mistaken for seals and sea lions, the sharks favorite prey. At this point I was grateful for the 60 degree water temps and the lack of a need to remind the girls to not go out over their ankles. Our little princesses do not care to be cold. Two years in Altus OK made them think any temp below 80 is frigid.

As I was standing at the water's edge I looked down and saw a freshly washed in sand dollar. Immediately I showed it to M, who after much reassurance that it could not in fact eat her, took it to show her Dad and L and got her pic made with the creature in hand. For M this is quite an accomplishment as she is quite squeamish, about most EVERYTHING. So we were off on a trek to find others... We did immediately find that they are quite abundant on the beach here so we were off to save those washed in above the tide line. M and I must have covered a quarter mile, (a long walk at M's speed) and threw many live sand dollars back out to sea. A very nice local lady stopped to congratulate M on her efforts to liberate the sand dollars as opposed to taking them home in a bucket and "killing" them. Obviously this has just become an important mission, so we headed back the other way to tell Dad of our "expedition" and continue on. Now little do I know what is coming but a stretch of beach where there are literally hundreds of live sand dollars washed in that appear to be stranded. It took all of my best negotiating and diplomacy skills to convince M that we could not possibly save them all. I finally convinced her that another large wave was surely on its way to wash them back to sea and we conceded the battle.

In the course of our stroll, I pointed out the remains of a jellyfish to M and warned her to avoid stepping on said jelly. BIG mistake. Now everything that shimmers or shakes on the beach is a cause of great concern... One day I will learn..

By the time we made it back to Dad, L informed me she was "too tired" and "too messy" and ready to be out of the sand. So wraps the end of another beautiful California day.

Everyday's a vacation...

2007-08-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

So, we were sitting at the table having some lunch when the phone rang and our new friend Scott said "how quick can you meet us in Santa Cruz for a train ride?" Never tempt us with an outing... Forty-five minutes and one grumpy, no longer napping 2 yr old later, we were on our way 40 miles up highway 1 to see some gorgeous California Redwoods. The drive in itself is worth it (if you can tune out the ongoing grumpiness in the back seat). Apparently artichokes grow very well in oceanfront property as well as, strawberries, romaine, and celery..who knew?

We arrived at the train camp literally minutes before departure and RAN to the train. You can imagine that by this time, L has moved on to downright angry. Needless to say, the other passengers are thrilled to scoot in and make room for us and the screamer... Suddenly, I find myself hoping that train rides do not have the same effect on L as whale watching boat tours.... You might recall that was not a total success. Luckily this kind of motion has a soothing effect and we are off on a fun adventure under some amazing trees. Immediately M picks up on the mention of possible wildlife and wants to know if the train can outrun bears and mountain lions. I assure her that we seem to be quite safe. We won't even go into her reaction when the guide mentioned the upcoming halloween trips at night, in the dark, with a "real headless horseman" in pursuit of the train. It doesn't look like there are any ghost trips in our foreseeable future!

Happily for the girls we did find some real wildlife after the trip. It's amazing how ducks and turtles will go after stale cheese nips, goldfish, and blueberry muffins. It's even more amazing how many old snacks I can find in the bottom of my purse when needing to feed said ducks. We did get to observe the misfortune of one family whose oldest child strayed too near the embankment of the pond. Dad quickly fished her out but had to go back for one shoe... All was well, wet but not injured. Thankfully, our girls do not care for mud and threw their treats from a safe distance.

I am including a couple of pics from the trip.

On a great note, we now have firm dates for visits from both sets of Grandparents. C will be joining our friend Mark up the coast this week to catch up at a Toby Keith show. Lastly, my BFF Jen and her mom, Wanda are coming out right before halloween, for a whole week! Everyone else needs to jump on the bandwagon and come see us. I promise your visit will be immortalized here with bad grammar (sorry Mom and Dad) and in pics!

Happy Sunday!

A Wii bit of Fun...

2007-08-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

So, if you know C and I, you know that we like to play. You might even call us competitive... Each move we try to reward ourselves for all of the hassle with a new family toy. This time I (yes, S not C) bought a Wii. Now of course C does have every game system he has ever owned still fully intact, but this is different. I LOVE this thing. If you have a family and you like to move around, ALOT, this is an addictive toy. We bowled and boxed until late last night. Most of you know I go to the gym faithfully 5 days a week, (down 26 pounds by the way) I am sore! My first friend here, a proud Navy spouse, inspired me to enthrall you all with these ramblings and recommended the Wii. She also warned me about the soreness after their first weekend of "friendly" competition. I will move on from my Nintendo commercial for now, but be forewarned, if you come to Monterey we will be playing.

I thought I would include a couple of pics today of our new "hometown" and immediately found one from an old "hometown" that I have to include. The girls and I went back to San Antonio with our beloved Sides friends for a last bash at Sea World before we had to part ways. We are still in mourning having to leave the Sides behind (boy, could we have had some Wii tournaments with them...) but we have wonderful memories and one officially waterlogged cell phone to show for the trip. Note to all you camera phone owners, if you carry your phone in your backpack during San Antonio's most torrential downpour ever and you do not carry the "insurance" you will be purchasing at full price a new phone. Anyway, the pic is of M and her best buddies in the world at the waterpark before the real deluge began.

The next pic is of M and some new friends we met at the housing office here. If you have never tried to get into military housing, you might not understand how someone could spend enough time together in a lobby to arrange a playdate... The accomodations are great, the process to get them, not so much.

We also recently took the girls to their first "Rock" concert. You know we had to start them early. The Monterey County fair, slightly more upscale than our beloved KY State Fair, was just up the road from our house. They had a free concert on Friday night with.... Night Ranger. Just so you know the last time I saw these guys in concert I was 14, that's right 23 years ago I saw them at Six Flags in St. Louis on my way back from a softball tourney in Tulsa OK. I have to say for those others of you out there who still acknowledge our 80's hair band roots, they still rocked... The girls had a blast. I am afraid though, L may have a future dancing on tables if we are not careful. She nearly stole the show for our section of the lawn. I think my Ozfest days are definitely over but this was a fun show for us all. M even got her face painted for the event and I am including a pic.

The last pics are of some of our local residents here. I am still not great with which are seals versus sea lions. They are all cute, loud, and considerably more pleasant smelling from a distance...

Why the blog you ask?

2007-08-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, this is a strange feeling... I guess the whole premise of a blog is that someone else is interested in my random thoughts and activities. That in itself seems a little presumptuous. But, a new friend here in Monterey showed me her blog yesterday and I immediately thought what a great way for all our dear friends and family all over the globe to periodically check in on our latest adventures. So, assuming I haven't lost you already, I am going to embark on this journey to share a bit of our day to day with you. In the interest of national security, or really just to appease our security advisor, (you know who, if you know us...LOL) I will be using our initials in all anecdotes. If someone is in the doghouse, I may use other abbreviations but will attempt to keep this a family friendly forum.

We have now been in Monterey for 3 weeks and I think we are more settled in than we have ever been. It's amazing how much you can get done in a new place when a certain unnamed overachiever has 45 days leave and nothing but time on his hands. So thanks to the USAF we are now on the absolutely beautiful West Coast. The tradeoff for having a view of the water from our upstairs bedrooms is living in half the square footage we had in San Antonio... Thank goodness the stop in Altus in between taught us to downsize pretty effectively. We are very grateful for LARGE closets and government long term storage.

Arriving here after 2 fast years in Altus, we were more than ready to partake in all of the wonderful restaurant choices. We have yet to have a less than stellar meal, and have watched dozens of seals and sea lions during dinners at fisherman's wharf. We did a wonderful whale watching tour with an hour spent watching a mother humpback and her calf. NOTE to future guests, we will no longer be taking a certain 2 yr old or her father whale watching except under the calmest possible conditions. I believe their whale watching will be limited to the Discovery Channel until further notice. Disclaimer, Dad did not get ill, just said it took much of his will not to. For the record, water baby that I am, never seen a dinghy, canoe or cruise ship I didn't love, I was grateful also for sweet still land by the end of the trip. Even the naturalist guide stressed on our return to the harbor that the seas were uncharacteristically rough that day.

We have also had some exciting wildlife sightings in our very own neighborhood... I awoke a few nights ago to the sounds of my garbage can lids slamming. Upon inspection from my bedroom window I discovered not 1 but 7 raccoons foraging in our recycling. The ringleader of this crew was huge! I am guessing he was well over 30 pounds as he made Frankie the pug look anorexic.
We have also been advised that a mountain lion has been spotted in our neighborhood this week. We have been given multiple reminders to not walk, run, or bike alone at dusk or dawn. I think we will heed these warnings closely.

So, M is due off to school shortly and I must go for now but I will do my best to add daily updates including pics of all of our adventures. I figure at this point, I will still have at least Grandma and Granny's attention.