Spring Break...week 2

This week had its ups and downs. It did go by pretty fast. We are having so much fun, but I am getting a little tired of being the director of fun. Here is our week in review.

Monday nobody wanted to do what I had planned. I live with a bunch of deadbeats. I had planned to take them downtown to the Children's museum and then out to lunch, but no one was interested. I then informed them that they would be riding their bikes around the lake so I could get some exercise. That's when the, "but we want to go to the museum" started. TO BAD! So I got my exercise in for the day as well as 8 loads of laundry. How in 7 days do we accumulate that much laundry? I have no idea. Adam and I were able to plant some green beans and some zucchini in the garden. We hope they grow.

Tuesday ended up being a cloudy day here, but we made the most of it and headed up to Carlsbad to see the Flower Fields. They were as beautiful as ever and we had fun tracking down all the flags and getting our passports stamped. The kids also enjoyed mining for gems. This year we had lots more fun because we went with friends. It rained later that night.

Wednesday it was horribly windy and cold so we had to adjust our outside plans to be inside plans. I asked the kids if they wanted to go BOWLING or to chuck e cheese. We went to the Cheese's. yea. They had lots of fun and I got to sit and work on a suduku puzzle while they ran around to their hearts content. I also got to go to my spin class. It was the first time in weeks and I was so happy to be back even though it was really tough. The boys were able to go play at a friend's house while I was at the gym and they enjoyed that. Adam had a game that night. I am getting a little tired of baseball.



Thursday was a fun day. We just relaxed in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to the Miramar Air Museum and then to see the mad scientist show at the library. We enjoyed both so much. That night Noah had a baseball game. We didn't get home until after 7pm so dinner was provided by Jack & the box, el pollo loco and taco bell. yum.

Friday I was pretty much tired and had errands to run and needed to meet with my trainer. I declared it movie day and we went to Blockbuster and got the movie "Bolt". The kids seemed to enjoy it. Damon was gone all afternoon and night at a show so the kids and I had a simple evening.




Saturday was full of more baseball, errands and house stuff. I planted some new plants in my courtyard. Looks much better. Damon and I went out that night and I really enjoyed my time away from being party planner.



Today was a special day. 9 years ago Noah entered our lives and changed them forever. I can't believe he is 9. He is such a big help to me and to his siblings. He is not perfect, but he does try. Grandma and Grandpa and the Mortensen's came over for dinner and playing. At one point I walked outside to find the hose going as well as all the squirt guns and found some very wet children. I just went back inside and didn't say a thing. They had fun. After cake they all crashed and watched "Bolt".

The house is clean, the kids are asleep, I watched "Amazing Race", and now I need to do more laundry. Leave a message and have a nice day.

Spring Break...week 1

EASTER IS HERE!!

This week just flew by. I don't know how other people do it with only one week for spring break. Maybe I have just gotten lazy knowing that we have four weeks off. Maybe I just plan to much fun and one week is just to short a time to squeeze it in. Here is our first week in review.

Monday was spent cleaning, doing piano and playing with friends. Not a fun day for the kids, but very necessary. Damon was home half the day fixing a window that fell inside the jeep door. I really hate American cars. I am all about supporting our own country and economy, but honestly we have never had so many things break on us that need expensive repairs than we have on our American car. I think Chrysler deserves to go bankrupt because they make such crappy products. So instead of paying the service department to fix the window Damon figured out how to do it himself. Go Damon!

Tuesday was a fun day. We went to the movies with our friends, the Shoffs. We went and saw Monster vs. Aliens. It wasn't bad, but I didn't love it. The kids did and they had lots of fun. I took the kids to Henry's before the movie and the got to raid the bins. We came out with lots of chocolate covered goodies. We also went to the lake and Adam got to ride is bike around the whole thing. 5 miles. Good job Adam.

Wednesday brought Grandma and Grandpa down for a visit. We are trying to see all 21 California Missions before Noah goes into 4th grade. So we started with the San Diego Mission. It was interesting and I think Noah enjoyed it. My dad did steaks that night and that is always a bonus. The best treat of all was Grandma and Grandpa taking both boys up to their cousins house that night for cousin camp. Damon and I got to be parents of one child for two nights. That was great. Damon took the day off to go golfing. He was so happy all day long.

Thursday Damon took his "girls" out to breakfast. Lily was so cute. She wanted to go to Denny's. She looked at the picture menu and ordered exactly what she wanted. We then went to the bike shop to get me clip shoes for my new bike. That night in the garage I got to figure out how to clip in and out of my pedals. So funny. I kept screaming as I lost my balance and Damon kept laughing.

Friday had us heading up to Redlands for the Easter weekend. We stayed at Mortensen Manor. The boys were happy to see us, but didn't look like they missed us. We dyed Easter eggs (7 dozen of them), had a huge egg hunt and BBQ, played with the new baby chicks, ate to much candy and went over to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. Saturday morning Damon and I were able to go on a bike ride. We got three miles in before it really started raining on us. I love my new bike. It rides so much easier than the last one.

Easter Sunday is always a little crazy with trying to find Easter baskets and getting to church on time. I hadn't been in much of an Easter mood so I spent the morning reflecting on our Savior's life, ministry, death and Resurrection. We try to emphasize that with the kids. Easter is about Christ rising from the dead, not about a bunny. Maybe one day they will get it. We had another big dinner Sunday night where we all ate to much again. Now we are home and there is much sleeping from the kids.

Stay tuned for week two!

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.