We have a new baby in the family

Erica and Ryan welcomed their second child on November 20th. Presley Jane is a healthy little girl and weighed 7 lbs 6 oz. and is 19 inches long.

She and Mommy are doing well after a long labor followed up by a c-section. Big brother Luke is very excited about his baby sister even though "she is too little to play baseball". We are all thankful that they are both ok and looking forward to spoiling Presley just as much as we do Luke.

Wow, sometimes they really do listen!

This week Riley is the star student of the week. She brought home a packet over the weekend to fill out. Telling about herself, likes and dislikes and her family, etc. Then she got to pick some photos, and personal items to take to school to share. She chose to take 3 of her webkinz along and she got to take them out at recess today. So she was telling me about her day and how much she is enjoying being the star of the week, go figure Riley enjoying being the star. LOL! So while she is telling me about her day she mentions that her friend Jennifer throws "lots" of temper tantrums. She said "mom, she throws tantrums all the time. I had to sit her down today and tell her. Jennifer, look last summer when I was throwing lots of temper tantrums my mom told me that I was going to second grade and I could NOT throw temper tantrums in second grade or I would be pulling lots of cards. So you are going to have to pull it together." LOL!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

My little witch was all ready in her costume to go off to school and collect lots of goodies at her Halloween party. Zachary did not wear his costume to schoo, but did wear a Halloween t-shirt, unfortunately he did not collect any cash.

Then this evening with the rising moon, he transformed into a werewolf. Now he is off to a friends' house for pizza and then they are going trick or treating as a group (yes he ditched his parents and sister this year).

HAPPY FALL!

Last night we attended our friends' annual fall/halloween party. We all had a great time. The kids picked out their pumpkins for carving, first thing. The carving became a family effort since both the kids picked out complicated patterns to carve. And of course they did not want to pull the guts out of the pumpkins.
After their carvings efforts, it was on to more fun. Riley had her face painted. They both bobbed for apples and got soaked in the process, but they did not mind a bit. In fact I think that if I want to get my kids to eat apples I need to place a large tub of water on the floor and fill it with apples. Not only did they eat the apples they bobbed for (without complaining about the skin still being on), but they also went back for seconds and ate those apples too.

Then they participated in the donut on a string eating contest, no hands allowed. There was a band for dancing, but Riley chose not to participate in the hokey pokey or chicken dance. When I asked her why she said, "because I don't want to look ridiculous." I told her that she was not going to look ridiculous (what did she think of me out there hokey pokeying?) that it was called having fun. She looked at me very seriously and said "mom, I'm 8 I don't chicken dance". After that they just had fun running around and being kids.

Nine years ago today....

There's a special angel in Heaven,

That is a part of me.

It is not where I wanted him,

But where God wanted him to be.

He was here just a moment,

Like a night time shooting star.

And although he is in Heaven,

He isn't very far.

He touched the hearts of many,

like only an angel can do.

I would've held him every minute,

If the end I only knew.

So I send this special message,

To Heaven up above.

Please take care of my angel,

And send him all my love.

In loving memory of Nicholas Henri Johnson, born into heaven October 21, 1998.

Gone, but never forgotten.

Riley's team won their first game yesterday

Technically they are in a "non-competetive" league, but let me tell you those girls always know which team wins. Scott pointed out, "well they can count and add so of course they know who wins". The girls are great on defense and constantly get the ball downfield, but they just can't seem to get goals so yesterday by the time the team had their third goal all the parents were out of their seats. The girls were beaming and high fiving each other. They were so dang cute. The team mom happened to bring her video camera that day and got it all on tape. I told her it must have been a good luck charm and she had better bring it next week too.
Way to go American Tigers!

Zachary is back from 6th grade camp!

The buses were supposed to arrive at the school today at 11 am. Like all the other parents I was there eagerly waiting for him. The bus arrived 45 minutes late amid rumors of "bad fog" in the mountains and then alarmist parents worrying about the bus crashing. Thankfully, they were just late and everyone came home safe and sound. Lots of the girls were crying when they got off the bus and saw their parents, but the boys had to put on the tough act. Zachary said he had a great time and my normally quiet child has been jabbering non-stop all day about the wonderful time he had and all that he learned. Below are some pictures that he took with the disposable camera that I sent. Yes, he actually remembered to use it!
So all was right in the world for a few hours since I had both my children home, but now Riley has abandoned us for a sleepover at my sister's house.

Busy weekend (part 2)

Today we made our annual trip to Greenspot farms for pumpkin picking, hay rides, horse rides, hay mazes and lots of fun. Luke, Erica and my Mom came and we all had a good time. The kids had fun in the bounce house even though Luke was not sure of it until his cousins got in and started having lots of fun.

Then Zachary took a turn for the horseback rides. Luke wanted to give it a try, but he was too small. Then he told me "I want to ride the pig". What a sight that would have been.

Then we went for the hay ride which was missing the hay this year and instead had padded benches. Bring back the hay!! It was fun anyways and Luke kept telling Riley "hold on Riley, hold on". I told his very cautious mom that she would have been proud. We bought a wagon full of pumpkins including our favorite Cinderella pumpkins which make the best pies and bread. Of course I completely forgot to take a picture of the kids with their pumpkins. So I will have to remember to take a picture of them carving the pumpkins.

Busy weekend

Saturday morning Zachary and I went to our second archery class. We are both really enjoying the class and I love that it's something that just the two of us get to do together. This week we got to spend much more time shooting instead of learning about safety and form. We got to shoot at balloons to pop them and I got 7 bullseyes. Not bad for my second day.

Then it was off to Riley's soccer game. It was a perfect day for sitting outside watching her play and enjoying the view of "our" mountains. Riley got to play defense, forward and then goalie the last quarter. She never let one get by her. She is really becoming quite the soccer player and I love watching her play.

After the game we went to Erica's baby shower. I told Riley the night before that if she wanted to come to the shower then she would have to be on her best behavior. Well, she did a great job and looked so cute sitting and visiting with Kendall and playing with the little toddler girls that came along. She was like a little mother hen to them. She even consoled Kendall when Kendall's mom needed to leave early and Kendall had to stay with her grandma. When Kendall was crying Riley went over and put her arm around her. Then she told Kendall "don't worry, even though your mom is far away her love stretches all the way to you." Awwww.

A big day at our house

Zachary got his braces off today. So of course I had to take before and after pictures. He only had to wear the braces for 10 months and we figured he got off lucky considering Scott wore them for 3 years and I had them for 5 years. He requested a caramel apple to celebrate and I already went to Rocky Mountain chocolate factory and got his favorite grasshopper apple.

Our "baby" turned 8 today.

This is the cake the Riley insisted that we (read I) make. We saw it in the Rachel Ray magazine and I showed it to Riley. I said, "hey Riley isn't this a cool cake and it's got your favorite cotton candy on it". She decided then and there that she needed this cake for her birthday. Those of you who know me well know that I don't bake cakes. Paint a house? Sure! Use my power saw to install molding or baseboard? No problem. Remodel a bathroom? I'm there. Cake baking is just my downfall. I cannot get the friggin' cake out of the pan without making a mess. I'm not good at frosting and I just plain don't have patience for things like preheating an oven, mixing certain ingredients in a certain order, waiting for the cake to cool. I could go on and on about my baking issues. So this was a true test for me and I can't tell you how relieved I was that it turned out and as you can see from the picture below Riley was truly pleased with her cake. Oh, and it was delicious and we did not have a crumb left.
























On to the party details. We had about 20 family members over for dinner which was hamburgers, pasta salad, chips/dip, veggies and dip. All simple and all also requested by the birthday girl (maybe she was making up for that cake request). So the kids all played in the backyard, the men were glued to the USC game and the rest of us sat outside and enjoyed the perfect weather. Then she opened her large haul of presents. Thankfully she got lots of Barnes and Noble giftcards to feed her book addiction and tons of totally cute new clothes. Scott and I gave her a pink nintendo ds which she opened before we even woke up this morning, the little sneak.
Right now she is in her room with her cousin snuggled in sleeping bags with the lights off watching a new DVD on her portable DVD player and having a great time.
All in all she had a great birthday and now I have just over 2 months to get ready for Zachary's 12th birthday, the last one before the big teens. YIKES!

We now have a trumpet player in the house

Lord help me!!! This does not seem like a quiet instrument. We went out today and rented his trumpet, got his music book and cleaning kit. He starts band on Tuesday and will have practice twice a week. He will practice every night at home for at least 30 minutes though. Maybe I should have picked up some ear plugs and tylenol while I was out. At least to get me through those first few weeks. LOL!
Seriously though I'm really glad that Zachary is getting more involved in extra curricular activites this year. He has applied for student leadership, joined an archery class and now band. When he decides to get off his duff he really gets off his duff!

Uncontrollable urges

Riley got her first ticket of the school year. Not bad for my girl, she made it almost 3 weeks. Her ticket stated that she "had the uncontrollable urge to take one of her neighbors chicken nuggets at lunch." So I'm asking her why she did this and it goes something like this

me: Riley why did you take someone else's food?
R: I don't know. I could not help myself. They looked so good
Zachary (yes he had to chime in): Were they McDonald's chicken nuggets?
R: No
Z: Were they cafeteria chicken nuggets?
R: yes
Z: Those SUCK! Why would you even want to take one of those?
me: Ummm, excuse me. Can we focus on the real issue here? Why did you take someone else's food Riley?
R: I told you.... I COULD NOT HELP MYSELF!!
me: Well, what happened when you took her chicken nugget?
R: She got upset and told the proctor. The proctor (insert big tears here) made me go sit at a table by myself for the rest of lunch and then I could not eat anymore because it made me sad.

So hopefully a lesson learned that you don't get to help yourself to your neighbors lunch no matter how good it looks.

Laundry woes

My dear husband who still insists "I don't know how to do laundry". Was sorting laundry today. He told me to come double check the sorting before he put stuff in. Now I will openly admit I am totally anal about how the laundry is sorted, but I figured he has been doing the laundry for a while now and I was not coming to double check it. What was the worst he could do? Put some lights in with whites? I figured he knew enough that there would not be a laundry disaster. Well, think again. I had a pair of pants sitting on my dresser, which to me is a clear indication that it does not go in the laundry. It's not IN the laundry hamper right? It's not even on the floor near the laundry hamper, which seems to be where all of Scott's clothes end up. No, it was clearly placed on my dresser. It was on my dresser because they are nice lined dress pants from Ann Taylor that I wear to work and they have to be dry cleaned. Well, Scott did not interpret their location as I would have and he threw them in with the darks AND dried them on the regular cycle. Aaargh!! I really do appreciate him doing all the laundry, but I am so bummed about my pants.

I'm bored!!!!

Ok, it's too friggin' hot to go outside (108) and today was my first day off with the kids back in school. You would think it would be exciting to have the day to myself. Nope, I was bored out of my mind by 1 pm. Usually I would run errands, work in the yard, or go out and do SOMETHING, but since it was so hot I just stayed inside. I did go out for a coffee after the kids went to school at 8:30, but it was already over 90 so I came back home after that. Now I have 3 more days ahead with no plans and it will be just as hot. I would go to my sister's apt. to swim, but she is going out of town and I don't like to go without her. So I don't know what we will be doing to keep busy for 3 days.

What I learned tonight

These are the things I learned at BTS night at the kids school...

1. Both kids are in combo classes because they are well behaved independent workers. Who knew? LOL!
2. Teachers can no longer plan parties (pizza parties for example) and send home notes asking parents to contribute $2 towards the cost. Apparently the state has determined this constitutes "teachers selling food to students" and it is no longer allowed.
3. Schools now lose money when children are home sick even though teachers still have to run off the lessons, teach those lessons to the kids when they return and grade the work. Because of this new rule one classroom last year alone (that's one out of 30) lost $13,000 from their yearly budget.
4. 6th grade camp sound really awesome and I wish I could go (Zachary would die if his mother came to camp with him).

I'm sure there is more, but I'm sleepy.

Back to school-2007

The kids went back to school today. Zachary is in 6th grade this year and has grown so tall over the summer (and therefore is skinny, skinny) and Riley looks more grown up every day.
Zachary had a great first day and says his teacher is "great". I'm so relieved after our bad teacher experience last year. Let's just hope he continues to hold this grand opinion of his teacher. My first impression of his teacher was very positive though and I'm hopeful for a great year. Zachary is in a combo class, but there are only four 5th graders in his class and the rest are 6th graders. His teacher told him they were "hand-picked" because they were all very bright, independent, well behaved kids. So I am trying to keep a positive attitude about the combo class thing as well.
Riley has the same teacher that Zachary had for second grade and we love her. She also had a great first day and proudly announced "no tickets". LOL! This is an achievement for my girl who just can't seem to stop from sharing her thoughts out loud when she gets excited about something.
So one day down..... 179 more to go!

Riley's stage debut

Riley has been taking acting/improv. classes through our local community theatre. She had her stage debut today and played Sarah Kate from Afternoon of the Elves. She did such a great job and is a great little actress, if I do say so myself. Afterwards we gave her a bouquet of flowers, because every good actress gets flowers right? When I asked her how she liked acting the said, "it's great, I never even got stage fright".

My girl is growing up.

I came to the stark realization today that Riley is getting so big. What caused me to come to this conclusion is that one of my absolute favorite times seems to be gone. At the beginning of summer vacation Riley still came in my room most mornings and crawled into bed with me. I loved that quiet cuddling time in the mornings. Well, she has not done that in weeks. Now she gets up and heads out to the living room to play with Zachary or make her own oatmeal for breakfast. I'm constantly asking myself how these things happen and where does the time go???? So if you still have a morning cuddler enjoy every moment while it lasts. It will be gone before you know it!

Sleepless nights!

We got a new mattress on Friday and Scott was making fun of me laying on the mattress this way and that. I had to lay on my stomach because that is how I go to sleep. Then I had to lay on my back because that is how I lay when I'm reading. Finally I had to lay on my side because I always wake up that way. Scott wondered if I was going to nap on the mattresses too. He layed on the mattress for about 2 seconds and declared it fine. So we got the mattress home and Scott could not sleep that night. He said he was uncomfortable and could not get used to the mattress. Hmmm, who's laughing now. I refrained from an "I told you so", but just barely. He slept a little better last night, but it is going to take time for him to get used to the mattress. Maybe next time we go shopping for a major purchase he won't think I am so silly with all of my testing.

Cruise-Day 3

Our last destination was Ensenada, Mexico. The guys went golfing in Bajamar while Debbi and I only got off the ship briefly to shop a bit. This is a big difference from 4 years ago when we headed to Papas and Beer for tequila poppers and a wildly drunken afternoon. I guess we are getting old or we still have vivid memories that lots of tequila and a rocking ship don't mix well. LOL!

We were docked across from the Black Pearl (from the Pirates movies) so I had to get a shot of this for Zachary. I knew he would think it was pretty cool that we got to see it. Even though there was no way I was walking all the way over to get closer pics. So this would have to do.

When we set sail again we passed this sunken ship in the harbor that has become home to many sea lions. If you look closely the deck is littered with them just laying around taking in the sun. I spent several hours out on our balconey hoping to catch sight of some dolphins since Debbi's husband, Scott, said that he had spotted some everyday, but I never did find any and I still bummed about that. It was still very relaxing enjoying the ocean breeze while reading my book.

We had a nice last night aboard the ship. I had a wonderful hot stone massage while Scott napped after golfing. Then after dinner we went to the nightclub and watched a bit of karaoke. Those people were awful, but I've got to give them credit for getting up on the stage and willingly making fools of themselves for our entertainment. Brave souls! Then we watched a hilarious comedican before heading back to our cabins. Now I'm dreaming of a Meditteranean cruise for our 25th anniversary. We have been saving for a trip to Rome for our 25th, but now I'm thinking I would rather do the cruise which includes Rome and several other wonderful stops. So I'm off to dream of my next vacation.

Cruise-Day 2

Day two, which was also our 15th wedding anniversary, we took the tender over to Catalina Island. We did some shopping and thought the painted eagles were a good photo opportunity even though we still don't know quite what they represented??

Then we had lunch at the Landings overlooking the ocean and with a nice view of the casino. After that we headed back to the ship for a relaxing afternoon by the pool (again) before dinner. We also played bingo that afternoon which we had never done before and Scott won $241. Lucky guy! I never even came close to winning any of the pots, but it was fun which surprised me.

15th wedding anniversary cruise

Scott and I took a cruise to San Diego, Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico for our 15th wedding anniversary. Our friends Scott and Debbi came along with us. Our first stop was San Diego, CA. We were docked right bythe Star of Inida and below is a picture from our balcony.

We decided to split up for the day and the guys went on a tour of the USS Midway while Debbi and I took in all the sights along the pier before we took the ferry over to Coronado Island. Of course we had to have our picture taken in front of a statue dedicated to the soldiers who served in WWII to show how impressively large it is. Had Scott been there we could have recreated the statue's pose like this adorable older couple did when they asked Debbi and I to take their picture.

Then Debbi and I were off to Coronado Island and the Hotel Del where we had lunch while taking in the fabulous view below. The hotel Del is so beautiful that I could post 10 pictures just of that. Of course Debbi and I split a ham and cheese wrap and got two bottles of water and it was $18. So it's a bit rich for my blood. It really reminds of old world hollywood. Beautiful architecture with tons of dark mahogany, old elevator with the metal cage around it, sprawling grounds that lead to the beach where they have private cabanas. Nice!!!

After lunch we caught a cab back to the ferry landing and headed back to the ship where we changed into our suits and headed to the pool. We had a nice time relaxing at the pool and drinking plenty of bahama mamas before we had to change for dinner.

There are two lobsters in my house

BOTH, the kids have sunburns. My in-laws took the kids to the beach today and brought them home sunburned again. This is the third time in their lives they have taken them to the beach and this is the third time they have come home sunburned. So, three strikes and their out. I told Scott that his parents are no longer allowed to take our kids to the beach. I even commented to my MIL when I picked them up (and before their sunburned really showed) that they looked a bit pink and she commented that "my mother had lots of sunburns and lived to 89 without getting skin cancer". Excuse me? That's the reasoning behind not bothering with sunscreen. We have even spoken to her about it in the past and Scott put sunscreen on the kids before he dropped them off and gave her sunscreen to put on them at the beach. She did not even take it with her, but left it at home. I am religious about wearing sunscreen and putting it on the kids. We spend lots of time in the sun and I am very tan, but we never go out without sunscreen on and always reapply it every couple of hours. So it makes me really angry when someone else takes our children out and disregards our wishes. Aaargh!!

Baby names???

NO, we are not having another, but my niece is. Erica found out that the baby is a healthy baby girl. So during baby name discussions Riley came up with some wonderful suggestions and was seriously offended when Erica chose not to use any of them. So in case anyone needs some future baby name suggestions here they are.... Tangerina, Crepe Suzette, and Tea Blossom. I'm not quite sure where she gets these ideas, but I'm guessing the Strawberry shortcake dolls have some influence. LOL! Erica says she is going to write the names down and suggest them to Riley when she has kids. That would be a hoot!
Oh and the winning name is...... Presley Marie. Her big brother Luke says "Pressy"

Last night was the March of Dimes awards dinner

I took my mom as my guest since it was her birthday and I wanted to spend the evening with her. It was rather appropriate since the March of Dimes was originally founded to develop the polio vaccine and my mom is a polio survivor. It was a nice evening out and I met a lot of really nice people. One of our friends is the Southern California ambassador family this year and I finally got to meet his wife. Their 3 year old daughter is the ambassador child. Lauren was born 6 weeks early with the cord wrapped tightly around her neck twice. She suffered a brain hemorrhage and all her organs shut down. She was in the NICU for 40 days with many ups and downs. She is doing great now. She has been diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy, but she gets therapy 5 times a week and is thriving. She is a very inspirational little girl.
I ended up being the number 3 top fundraiser (I raised $3,610) and I'm happy to say that we have a new fundraiser in our region who took the #1 spot and raised a whopping $10,000. We have to keep her fundraising for us. The total raised in our region for MOD was $735,000 which was up from $695,000 last year.

I love the 4th of July

This year we had a really good 4th of July even though Scott was out of town. The kids, Erica, Luke and I went to the Quakes (AAA team for the Angels) game on July 3rd and they had fireworks after the game. Luke loves baseball and there is nothing cuter than a two year old bouncing up and down on my lap yelling, "go Quakes" and "catch the ball". Then on the 4th we swam, BBQ'd at Erica's and then we went to the Fireworks show at my old high school. It was lots of fun. You just spread a blanket and chairs on the football field. They had a band, bounce house and slide and tons of carnival games. All of which were free with your $6 admission. So the kids played in the bounce house, ran around on the track, danced to the band and we even played frisbee. I ran into tons of people I know since I work for the city. The kids even ran into their principal and you would have thought Riley saw a celebrity. Who knew it could be so exciting to see your principal during summer break. Then it was time for the fireworks. A 12 year old girl sang the National Anthem and I still get goosebumps everytime I hear it. Especially now thinking of all the men serving in the middle east that could not be home to celebrate the freedom they defend and the families who are missing them.
On the lighter side... Riley lost a tooth on the 4th and being the horrible mother that I am I forgot to play tooth fairy. We got home so late and I was so tired it completely slipped my mind. So when she got up this morning and said the tooth fairy did not come I reminded her that it was a holiday and the tooth fairy gets holidays off. LOL!

The new and improved bedroom

Well, here is the almost finished product. I spent most of the day installing the blinds on the windows since it required three trips to Home Depot in the 104 degree heat. We had absolutely horrid 20 year old vertical blinds in there that had yellowed plastic on them they were so old. I can't tell you how good it felt to get rid of them. I still want to get curtains that have the same stripe as the dust ruffle on the bed, but since I have one large window and then three in the bay window that will have to wait. I will probably ask my mom for those for my Christmas present six months from now. For now the new blinds are in, painting is done and the new bedding is on the bed. The picture above the bed says "Always kiss me goodnight" which is sort of a joke with Scott because I give him a really bad time if he ever forgets to kiss me goodnight. So I found it at Linens and things and it had a small scratch on the frame so it was 50% off. I paid under $10 for it. What a steal! Now I can hardly wait for Scott to get home and see what I've done.