Thankfuls

Well, it has been forever since a post and I am thankful for lots of things. It just seems like the negative has been outweighing the positive so I haven't wanted to post. So here is my Thankfuls for the month so far.

1. My family
2. Going to church on Sundays. It just makes the week that much better
3. Fall weather (finally)
4. A free government with elections
5. My mother who I can call when I am way frustrated with life
6. Surprise carpools
7. My trainer who is helping me get my skinny on and makes me do things I really hate doing (like leg pressing 200 pounds. who knew?)
8. Church dinners-I don't have to cook or clean up
9. The primary program. It's an easy church day
10. Volunteering at school. It is so fun to work with the kids
11. For veterans who have served the country that I love
12. For school. I enjoy my kids being gone and glad they have the opportunity to learn
13. For Damon and all he does and sacrifices for our family. He is great!
14. Pizza Fridays
15. The end of Soccer Season!!
16. I love my friends. They are super great Life would be boring without them
17. I am really thankful for the Twilight Premiere because that means the movie is almost here and I can't wait.
18. I am very thankful for Lily. She challenges me
19. I am very thankful for my piano students. They keep me entertained.

There are my thankfuls. If I were more creative I would have pictures posted, but alas, I am not.

Halloween Night

Trick or Treating always brings out the excitement in all of us. Noah was off with the neighborhood kids as soon as we finished off our yummy pizza dinner. He and 4 of the other kids from the culdesac were gone for about and hour and a half. Damon volunteered me to take Lily and Adam out and I assigned him to clean up from dinner since I was out. After the 1st 5 houses Lily was done so I actually carried her to all the other houses we went to. Adam would have gone all night had I not gotten tired from carrying Lily. Adam proudly announced that he was not going to any houses that had No on 8 signs or Obama signs in their yards. I told him we had to respect people even if their opinions were different than ours (and wrong). So we went to their houses as well. After the big kids got back we had some of the neighborhood kids over for apple cider and Halloween cartoons. We also made more Frankenstein pudding and witch cupcakes. By 9pm the little trick or treaters were all nestled in their beds while visions of all the sugar they could ingest the next day danced in their heads. We had a fun Halloween.

Earlier that day Lily and I went to visit Damon at Motorola. His company sets up trick-or-treating for the kids of their employee's. We were able to go around the entire building and meet some of the people Damon works with. Everyone just absolutely loved Lily. How can you not. After we were done Damon treated his girl's out to lunch at this place called the Oasis. Thanks Damon. Your girls had fun.

Thursday Field Trip on Wednesday

Well, carnivals look better at night so the Thursday field trip took place on Wednesday night and Damon was able to join us. We had a lot of fun at the pretend pumpkin patch with carnival rides. The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven. After my second spinning ride I wish I had died. The rides last forever. Adam loved the big jumpy. Noah loved the fun house with the big hamster wheel and Lily loved the Strawberry ride. Damon was quite happy just taking pictures.

In these pictures Noah was walking in the hamster wheel and Adam was yelling, "I can see the freeway from here."

It was my week to teach preschool and what a week it was. My brain is mentally done for the day and I am happy preschool is only 2 days a week. We learned about Halloween and Halloween safety. We had a costume parade and made lots of fun treats. We made Frankenstein pudding, witch cupcakes, scary apple smiles and spider crackers. It was very messy. The kids were all so cute in their costumes. We had a dance off to win prizes and played lots of fun games. The kids were all tired afterwards. So was the teacher. (and the last thing to make this a really wonderful day is that my piano is being tuned right now. it really is the most annoying thing to sit through. aaaaagh)

Our real Thursday field trip was getting flu shots. Not to exciting, but the boys got to get out of school early and that made them happy. Happy Halloween everyone!!

A visit with G&G

Grandma and Grandpa came down on Saturday for a visit. We stopped by the Temple and then went over to Balboa Park. Grandma had never been there so we thought we would take her to one of the museums. We went to the Fleet Science Museum. They had a great "Grossology" exhibit that had to do with random things like the 4 cow stomach's, flies, tapeworms, poop, cat hairballs and a few other gross things. The kids loved that. We also took them into the shadow room which they thought was really fun. Growing up we used to visit the shadow room that they had at the Phoenix Public Library. We used to have loads of fun in a huge room with the shadow boxes in them. After the museum we walked around the grounds and Lily found her "Lily Pond." Unfortunately the lilies were not in bloom so it wasn't very impressive. We spent the rest of our time staring at the Coy fish in the fishpond. We had a great dinner later that night and my mom helped me find a marriage certificate in England so I can continue on in Damon's mom genealogy. I was stuck after 5 generations. I have ordered it and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival. It was a fun Saturday.

Earlier that day we had all the kids helping us clean up the backyard. The boys hate manual labor and were just trying to have some fun. They mounted their rakes as broomsticks and were riding them around the backyard. It was pretty funny to see.

A Happy Day for Mom

Well, I must say that this year's birthday was much better than last year. Last year was spent watching all of SoCal burn and having to be evacuated from our home. This year although another hot day and very windy, which is fire weather, we managed to stay in our home and have fun. Lily and I went to the beach after a session with my trainer at the gym. We had a lovely time except the sea gulls kept attacking our stuff. Lily was my go to girl as she ran towards them screaming, "roar" as loud as she could. It was pretty funny.

When we got home and "desanded" Damon was home. That made us girls happy. He came home early and then walked to school to pick up the boys so I wouldn't have to. He made a wonderful dinner and an even better chocolate cake and baskin robins ice cream. He even mixed up the numbers on my cake to make me feel better. (although I admit to myself that I can't pass for 23) He then cleaned up the whole kitchen which was a huge mess (I hadn't done dishes all day) and I got to sit and watch all the TV shows that I had recorded from the past few weeks. I also got to talk to everyone in my family and some really good friends. It was a great day!

My friend Kelly from Phoenix had these mailed to me

My friend Wendy brought me flowers

My wonderful husband bought me these babies!

It was a good day! Thanks lovely for making it nice. And to all those who forgot. Shame on you. Just kidding.

A Magical End

Well the kids weren't to pleased that we had gone to Disneyland without them so I decided to take them just one last time. So field trip Thursday was an all day and late into the evening event. The boys got to miss school as we headed off to the happiest place on earth just one last time. We had a great time. It wasn't to crowded and the weather wasn't bad either. Lily even managed to stay dry all day so that was a plus too. The only downfall was when Lily decided to get her leg wedged into a wood fence while we were waiting in line for the go coaster in ToonTown. After 5 minutes of listening to her aggravating screams these two nice gentlemen decided to help me. We ended up getting her out and no real damage was done. The boys were so excited because I let them go on Star Tours all by themselves since Lily is to little to go on the ride. They thought they were so grown up. They can't wait until they are a little bit bigger and can run all over the park by themselves. We loved the new Toy Story ride. The kids got a kick out of Turtle talk with Crush. The cars are always a personal favorite of Noah and Lily's lone request of going on Alice in Wonderland was even doable. I think I need a break from field trip Thursdays for a week.

A Small Date After All

Damon and I had a nice little escape on Friday. I arranged for our babysitter to drive with me to Damon's work and drop me off and take Lily back home. She watched the kids the rest of the day and night. Damon met me at the car where I had yummy Subway sandwiches waiting. We headed on the 5 North while we ate and Damon wondered what in the world his crazy wife was up to. I hadn't informed him of our plans. It wasn't until we hit Irvine that he had an inkling that we were headed to the happiest place on earth. It's fun right now with the park all decked out in Halloween attire.

Our passes expire soon and I wanted to get one last trip in with just Damon. We had lots of fun. We went on Soarin over California, the new Toy Story Mania ride, which was so fun, and Screamin'. Those are our favorite rides in California Adventure. After trying to get shakes at our favorite shake shop and finding out it wasn't open we headed over towards Disneyland. The place was a little more crowded than what I had hoped, but we still had fun. We went on Star Tours, the monorail, had dinner in downtown Disney at the Rain Forest Cafe (Damon met a parrot from there), walked back to Disneyland, went on Haunted Mansion, Pirates and then called it a night.

We get so tired after a while. It is funny to think that we used to be able to open and close the park and then drive the 40 minutes back to Riverside. We didn't even stay to watch the fireworks. It's nice to go there kid and worry free. We didn't tell the kids that we were going there because we knew they would complain. The next morning they woke up to some fun surprises though.