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.

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you get up at 5 am.

I had to take Scott to the airport this morning at 5 am. He had to fly to Rhode Island because his Aunt passed away unexpectedly. When I got home I was wide awake and knew there was no chance I would be going to sleep. By 7 am I had cleaned the kitchen and living room. So I decided to FINALLY paint my master bedroom. I had stripped the wallpaper months ago and could not seem to get the motivation to paint. Well, since Scott was gone and paint fumes give him migraines I figured this was a good time. Plus, since Riley was at Disneyland today with my sister she would be spending the night there and I could sleep in her room if the paint fumes were just too much. So I bucked up and got to work. By 10 am I had the whole room (with vaulted ceilings) primed. Then I was off to Home Depot to buy the paint and more rollers. I picked up some lunch on my way back and got back to work. I had finished painting by 3 pm. It helped a lot that my mom came over and would put more paint on the roller and hand it back up to me so I did not have to climb up and down the ladder every time. So now it's finished and the furniture is all put back. I'm so glad that it's finally done and I can stop looking at the ugly bare walls.

First day of summer break!

Today is the first day of summer break here. It's gotten off to a great start for the kids and a rocky start for Mom and Dad. My niece, Madison, is staying with us for a few days. So the kids played outside last night until dark, then watched a movie and did not get in bed and go to sleep until almost 11. So I was up even later because I need time to relax after the kids go to bed. Scott, of course conked out as soon as the kids did. So anyone want to hazard a guess as to what time those exhausted children woke up???? 5:30 AM!!!!!! Yikes. They popped out of bed with the sun and were ready to go. Scott got up with them, but they were so noisy I could not sleep anyways. By 7 am they were riding their scooters on the back patio right past my bedroom window. At that point I gave up the good fight and just got out of bed. We are going to spend the afternoon swimming at my sister's house and then barbecuing afterwards. Then tomorrow we are going to the waterslide park. I don't know if I will survive the next couple of days. LOL!

Keri

The poor prehistoric tooth fairy

The other day when I was driving this is the conversation I overheard as Riley was reading a dinosaur book...
Riley: oh my gosh Zachary I feel SO bad for the prehistoric tooth fairies.
Zachary: Why?
Riley: Because dinosaurs teeth are so big and they must have been so heavy for the tooth fairy. She must have thought "why did I ever get into this business in the first place".

Then tonight she was telling me about how big sharks teeth are and I told her that I would never want to see one up close while still in the sharks mouth. I was informed that sharks only bite people by accident when they mistake people for their prey and they only make that mistake because "sharks have little brains and can't help it."

Beauty sleep?

Everything is more exciting when it belongs to mom. That seems to be the theme in our house. I buy an exercise ball and the kids spend more time bouncing on it than I do exercising with it. I buy hand weights and I have to pry them from their little hands to use them. So it should not have been any surprise to me when I dug out my rarely used eye mask tonight and decided to see if it would help with my headache. Well, you can see for yourself where it ended up.

Girls day today

I have been wanting a pedicure for a while now so today my niece, Riley and I went. Riley was way too cute with her little strawberries and creme from starbucks (a real rare treat) and browsing her magazine while her feet barely reached the tub. She picked out purple polish (I talked her out of the gold glitter hoochy mama polish) and got white flowers painted on her big toes. She got her first pedicure at two when I took her along with my sisters, nieces and I and she decided she was not having any of that watching stuff. She took her shoes off climbed onto my lap and plopped her toes in the water. The lady was so nice and let her pick polish and then painted her toes for her. Her first pedicure was much earlier than my first pedicure which was when I was pregnant with Riley. Hmmmm, maybe she caught the bug in utero. LOL! Now I've got a pedicure buddy for life.
Now we are heading to the pool for some relaxation in the sun while the party pooper boys stay home.

Riley was a search and rescue subject today

My friend Randi is training her dog as a search and resuce dog. Ali'i is almost completely certified and is now working on 48 hour old trails. So she asked if the kids would like to help Ali'i train and they and they were both excited about it. So Saturday morning we met at a park withou Ali'i and basically walked all over the place and left a trail. Then we went back tonight and Riley and I waited at the designated spot. While Scott and Zachary went along to see Ali'i in action. Zachary got to hold the GPS device that Randi would use when they were out in the wilderness.

Riley and I just waited and watched. It really was amazing to see Ali'i following the same path that we took two days ago even though countless people had been through that park over the holiday weekend.

Then when Ali'i found Riley she got to reward him with his treats and the kids got to play with him for a while. Now Zachary wants to be the subject next time and Riley wants to go along while he tracks.

I'm so sleepy today

Scott and I were up until 11 last night watching the season finale of Lost. Then while watching the 11 o'clock news we had an earthquake. Not a big one, but it was 3.8 and centered right near our house. Then a few minutes later there was another one. So then I was so tense.... waiting..... waiting for the next one that I did not go to bed until after 1 am. I did manage to finish the book I was reading, but now I'm so sleepy today and I have a headache. I always end up with a headache when I don't get enough sleep. Oh and it did not help that both kids and both dogs were up at 6 am tromping through the house like a herd of elephants. LOL!

My boy is not quite as old as he was yesterday

It's so strange to see Zachary's struggles back and forth from... I'm too old to need you back to being the little boy I knew. Just yesterday we were struggling with his attitude and him shrugging away when I would put my arm around him, etc. Then he wakes up today and is telling me how much he loves me, that I'm a great mom and giving me tons of hugs. Even when we went out for a walk he came up and took my hand. It was such a nice moment that I dare not point it out for fear it would end. We walked that way for the longest time. He is growing up so fast and I'm already seeing how his friends are becoming more and more important and influential, but then there are those wonderful moments when my boy is back and I know that he still needs us.

We have an armadillo in our house

Every day Riley is a new animal. We have had a tiger climbing the sofa, a bunny hopping through the house, a kitty rubbing on our legs, a puppy bouncing through the house, you name it… she has been it. Today she is an armadillo. She popped about of bed this morning and said, “mama today I’m an armadillo, but I don’t know what to eat.” I told her that I did not know what armadillos eat and she said very seriously, “but mama how can I be an armadillo if I don’t know what to eat?” So we discussed what armadillos look like and where they live. She said that armadillos have long claws and like to dig so we came to the conclusion that they must eat bugs and worms as part of their diet. So she had bugs and worms for breakfast which was really waffles and blueberries. I tell you she has quite the imagination. So my little armadillo is off to school and tonight we will read the armadillo books that I checked out from the library and YES, they do eat worms and bugs among other things.

My best Mother's day present

Riley wrote a journal entry that her teacher typed up for me and Riley gave it to me for Mother's day. So here is what she wrote

My Mom by Riley Johnson

My mama is special because she brings me books from the library. She is kind of like me. She loves me a whole lot. She makes good food and buys me strawberries. Her hugs are warm and cozy. I love my mama!

Awww, I told Scott that I will be very sad when I no longer get things like this on Mother's day. Zachary is already way past that and I know those days are just around the corner for Riley. It makes me appreciate this all the more. Riley even made a home made banner that said "I love you" and taped it up before I got up, made streamers to decorate and gave me tons of hugs/kisses and I love you's all day long. I couldn't ask for more.

Laguna Beach

We spent our afternoon at Laguna beach. The kids had fun playing in the waves and I wish we had brought their suits. I figured the water would still be too cold for swimming, but it was actually very warm.

So Zachary and Riley just chased the waves and played in the sand instead. They both had a great time doing that and Scott and I loved watching them play together.

Then we visited the tide pools and looked for sea anenomies and hermit crabs. There are not nearly as many as I remember seeing when Scott and I were dating (almost 20 years ago). I think too many people visit the tide pools and do not follow the rules about not disturbing the sea life or taking anything away with you.

Here is one small tide pool and if you look closely you can make out the anenomies on the left side.

On our way home we stopped at the pacific marine mammal center. They rescue, rehabilitate and release sea lions, seals and elephant seals. We learned a lot from our very helpful volunteer. Zachary may even attend a summer camp there where he will learn to care for, feed and clean up after the animals. They have a website with a live webcam at http://www.pacificmmc.org/

GOAL!

I'm walking this Sunday in the March of Dimes walkamerica and I finally reached my fundraising goal of $3,500. I did not think I was going to make it since I received some pledges and did not receive the checks, but in the end other pledges came in at the last minute. WOO HOO! This is the most I have ever raised for MOD. I'm always relieved when the walk weekend finally arrives because I spend two solid months so focused on fundraising and I become more and more obsessed with it as the date approaches. So I can now hang up my fundraising belt till next year.