Responsibilities, Remonsibilities

What to do when it is going to be 80*F. Do I be responsible and get the car washed and gassed, run to the bank, the grocery store and clean my desperately needed to be cleaned house? Or do I just push it off and say it can be done tomorrow? Definitely tomorrow. Except......

After my gym workout a friend and I decided to take our girls to the beach for a beach day. We had fun and the girls loved digging in the sand. It was almost perfect down at the shores yesterday. Not a cloud in the sky, a light breeze and nearly perfect temps. It probably could have been 2 degrees warmer, but I am not complaining. We had a picnic lunch and let the girls enjoy their "freedom". They think we don't watch as they head down to dip their toes in, but really we are ready to spring if anything looks threatening. Lily taught her friends how to roar at sea gulls. Good times.

So what has happened to all the errands that needed to be run "tomorrow"? Well at about 5pm yesterday I started to feel all achy and hot, but cold. Damon put me in bed at 5:30pm and I haven't really left. So the errands aren't getting done today either and I have to put my faith in Damon that he won't burn down the house while cooking for the kids. (just kidding Dams!) I was a bit worried when the smoke detector kept going off last night at dinner and this morning for breakfast. I really hope everyone survives.

Field Trip Thursday

Forgot to blog this so I will just add it to this post. I watched a friend's kids on Thursday. We had lots of fun. We went to the yogurt shop for our field trip and then to the park. The kids had a blast at both. All the kids just play really well together. After we got home we finished planting the garden with some peas. Everyone thought that was great. One more thing left to plant, zucchini.

This is to my Father in law who said we had a messy garage. It can be cleaned!

Family, Friends & a Funeral

This is a late post. It was written back in March before I had pneumonia. I was waiting for some pictures to put up with it. I am feeling better by the way.

With those three F's going on for the past 2 weeks it's no wonder that I am walking around feeling like a zombie. I haven't even been able to pick up a book because I just don't have the mental stamina for it.

My BFF from growing up and high school was here last weekend. We had so much fun together. We pulled out old photo albums and giggled and laughed and whispered when it was something that Damon shouldn't hear. We laughed at our changing clothes, hair styles and height as we flipped through pictures from 1st grade to high school. We stayed up til odd hours of the night. Not quite as impressive as when we would have our Rachel/Amanda marathons during the summer, but not bad for some old farts now. I don't get to see the friends who know every bit of me and still choose to be my friend very often so I have to live it up while I can get it. It was fun having my kids meet someone I have known almost my entire life. (I have some great pics from when we were little, but still haven't figured out our scanner.)

The day after my friend left we made the trek to Riverside yet again. This time for the funeral of Damon's uncle. I wasn't sad about his passing, but the loss of another truly good person. I just feel like there aren't enough of those around anymore. He was buried at the cemetery next to March Air force Base and we had the guns go off and the flag folding. That did bring tears to my eyes because I know how easily that could be any of my friends whose husbands are in the military. I am thankful for their sacrifice and for that of Damon's uncle to serve our country. We will miss Uncle Tom's laughter.

I just thought I would put this one up from the funeral.

I bought a new bike today. It is very fast. I can't wait to race in it. It weighs mostly nothing. My dad is driving me crazy with stuff from my accident. Mentally I know that the arbitration is 3 weeks away, but why do I have to prepare now? I lived through it. Why do I need to pour myself over my notes and the insurance company's notes until I am sick to my stomach. I have more important things to do. (to bad I haven't been able to ride it yet because of my recent illness.)(on a side note, the arbitration was pushed back yet again. I really hate my insurance company's lawyer.)

My friend did a post about the guilt-o-meter. I feel like I haven't been a very good mom lately. Everything else is just taking to much time so my kids are getting the shaft. I am sure my kids are very sick of cereal in the morning. I haven't even done the boys piano lessons in 2 weeks. We used to have lots of fun. I read older posts and know we did. I must try harder. I am glad Damon is around to help pick up the slack when I fall short. I am so ready for spring break!

New Growth

To all those doubters that thought I couldn't do it I say, "HA!" It may be a little premature, but so far so good. The garden is growing. We are all so very excited about it. I entitled this post new growth because that's what these plants are doing. I am also growing in my knowledge of gardening. We still pray for it every night just in case I screw it up. Still no sign of the carrots or onions.

Enjoy the pictures!

Tomato Flowers!

Bell Pepper

Lettuce sprouts

Fun with Nana

Nana was in town for the week. The kids always love it when Nana is here. We all enjoy her visits. On Tuesday we went up to Riverside so she could visit the family. Lily and I went and visited my dad. Lily loves being at Grandpa's house. He always has banana bread and yummy treats. It was a quick trip up because we had to be back in time to get the boys from school, but it was nice.

Wednesday Adam's class had a field trip to Sea World. Nana and Lily and I joined the class. We had lots of fun. We fed the sea lions, saw Shamu, the polar bears, penguins, manatees, dolphins, touched star fish and bat rays and took a trip to the Artic. The best part was running into two of my cousins, Mary and David, and their families. One cousin was in town from Phoenix, and the other from New York. It was good to see them and their kids. I would have like to have visited more, but I had some of the other kids from Adam's class with me. It was still a nice surprise. We were pretty tired when we got home and all of us had a little more color in our cheeks.

Thursday we received some sad news. Damon's wonderful uncle had passed away early that morning. He led a wonderful life and he will be missed. We are grateful for the knowledge that families are forever and we can see Uncle Tom again someday.

Nana let Damon and I sneak away for an evening and the next day to have some quiet time away from "real" life. We went up to Carlsbad and stayed at the Sheraton near Legoland. We had a great time even though the weather was quite junky. It was a nice break even if it was short. All we did was eat and shop so there aren't any fun pictures.

Friday brought Papa and the weekend. We all enjoyed a nice dinner at our family restaurant, Red Robin. Papa calls it the Robin that's Red. We had a great time.

Noah and Lily are both sick with coughs. I am about ready to rip my ears off my head. This too shall pass and spring break is just around the corner. Yippie!

St. Patty's Day Fun!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Did you know that St. Patrick was an Englishman who was kidnapped and taken to Ireland and made a slave laborer? He then escaped back to England, but had already fallen in love with Ireland and then moved back. He died on March 17th and was later sainted by the Catholic Church. There is lots more that we learned in preschool, but after 5 minutes the kids stop listening.

At preschool the kids went on a leprechaun hunt and found their gold. They turned themselves into leprechauns, made Irish flags, ate Lucky Charms and green grapes and found the gifts the leprechauns left. Good times.

Yesterday brought Nana and lots of fun. We had a girls day and went the the spa and got manis/pedis. Lily was hilarious and silly mom didn't bring her camera. She sat perfectly still while she had her nails done and loved picking out her color and talking to the lady. She was such a pro. Then we went out for Chinese. Lily was hoping to squeeze in some shoe shopping, but sometimes there just isn't enough hours in the day.

For FHE on Monday night we made shamrock sugar cookies and enjoyed eating those. Of course after we ate them the kids were all crazy and wouldn't actually settle down in bed until 9:30pm. It completely threw off our Jack time having to run to their rooms during commercials and telling them to be quiet and go to sleep. Who wants to watch 24 with all those interruptions?

This morning we had our traditional St. Patty's Day green pancakes. No one caught a leprechaun. Maybe next year. No pictures. To busy.

On a political note, What's up with Mr. Obama now claiming Irish ancestry? How many places can this guy be from? Maybe my church should give him a book of his genealogy like they have for every other pres. That might answer a few questions.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

We love our Nana and we wanted her to know that especially on her birthday. Happy Birthday!

Busy Bees

This is going to be a long post just because I have much to post and it's been two weeks since the last one. Now, where to start. Two weekends ago Damon's dad came to help do some projects around the house with Damon. The man, at 74, is a total work horse. He and Damon dug up sprinklers, ripped out plants, put in new sprinklers and sanded 2 doors and door frames (the previous owners put water based paint over oil based paint. Not very bright.) Everything looks so much better now and the kids loved having Papa here. Thank you Papa for coming. While Papa was here I was able to put in some of our new garden. It's a first for us and I am hoping we do well at growing things. Damon will tell anyone who asks that I don't have a great track record.


We had opening day of baseball. Adam is on the Angels and Noah is a NY Met again. Opening day was hot, but the boys had fun. We are so looking forward to another season of baseball. On the 7th of March Noah had his first game. He played against the Padres and he had a good game. I also worked the snack bar for my one shift of the season. I'm glad that's out of the way.

Noah had a science experiment due this past Monday. He built his own thermometer and demonstrated how it worked. I got a call from the school nurse on Friday at 9:20am. School starts at 9:05am. Someone had shoved Adam into a wall and it split his lips and knocked his teeth lose. It was an accident, but still. That's the fastest I have ever gotten a call from the nurse.










Last and very much the saddest was having to say goodbye to some dear friends of ours. They are leaving San Diego. Melissa was the first friend I made when we moved to San Diego. We had a small girl's get together on Friday night. It was fun, but sad. My favorite thing of the night was watching some of the girls engorge themselves on my whip cream maker. I only got a picture of one (love ya Heather!) Damon and I went over to our friends house for the last time today to say goodbye. We will miss them so much and wish them well in their new adventures.

I told Lily she couldn't watch a movie and after the tantrum that followed she went to her room to play with her poly pocket princesses. I went in to see what she had been up to and she had the princesses in each others clothes. When asked why they weren't wearing their normal princess dress Lily told me that they were sharing their clothes. So funny. I guess even a princess needs to mix things up a bit.


Sorry about the long post. Now leave a comment and then go do something more important than blogging!! xoxoxo