Fun In The Sun

Just a few photos of my kiddo's having fun in the yard. Enjoy!

It's important to accessorize before entering the pool - even if you decide to go shirtless. Oh - and that tongue sticking out? That's what she does when you say "Smile!" Silly girl.

Goofy Boy

Taking a Dive!

Playing Together

Upside Down Boy

Sibling Love!

Once again - this is "looking happy". Go figure.

My teething baby girl

My poor baby is working on getting four new teeth....and she has been a miserable ball of unhappiness over the past few days. Hopefully soon they will be through and she can get back to the business of being happy. At least she manages to have fun with her big brother for a few moments here and there. Nothing like having someone make you laugh to help you cope. :)

A Cool Day

And I mean that literally. It only got to 81 here today - what a relief!! So what's a girl to do on her first cool day in five days? Get ready - this is almost too much excitement.......






Are you ready?



Are you sitting down?










Laundry. Yep - laundry. Seven loads, to be exact. Just think - next time we have a stretch of unbelievably hot days I won't have to wait to do laundry. We'll have air conditioning. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Oh - and in other exciting news from the day....I chopped down a bush (well - one completely down but there was another that received a serious trim) to make room for the a/c unit and I cleaned out a huge area of the garage so the workman get access the attic crawl space and the circuit panel.

I know...........I, too, am blown away by the HUGE amount of fun I had today.

And let me not forget to tell you that little missy is teething and was a complete velcro baby today. While I feel for her, I was relieved to put her down to sleep tonight. This is the first time in hours my arms have not contained my incredibly unhappy daughter. How, you ask, was I able to chop up a bush and clean out the garage AND do seven loads of laundry with a velcro baby? The physical labor chores were done during her hour nap (I rocked it, if I do say so myself) and the laundry was done with a screaming child pulling on my pant leg. I didn't fold it until after she went to bed tonight. I just couldn't take the hysterics of her not being held. Poor little girl. :(

So there ya have it. My fun-filled Wednesday. Are you jealous? No? Ok - I have one more bit of news that might push that jealousy factor a wee bit further..........we planned a return trip to Disneyland. Oh yeah baby. We're going back! When? In SEVEN short weeks. Seven seems to be my lucky number today. :)

Hot, Hot and Stupidly Hot!!




It's hot! And tomorrow it's supposed to be hotter. Is that possible???!?!?!?!! Notice how the first temp says 77 degrees? That in the living room WITH the window a/c unit on full-blast only a couple feet away. The living room is manageable....the bedrooms? So not!! I'm afraid to take the gauge in there - it's a case of "ignorance is bliss". UGH.

Have I mentioned how much I hate heat? Oh yeah - this is not fun at all for me.

But.....good news is coming. Can you say "heat pump"? Oh yeah baby - this time next week I'll be saying "bring it on!" because I will have a heat pump and the house will be at whatever temperature *I* want. The WHOLE house. Every square inch of it.

Can I hear an "Oooooooh yeah!" from you all????? :)

Only 5 more days to get through and it should be up and running. Thank God!

PS..keep reading - there are still new ones below. :)

Camping in the Backyard

This weekend was the annual "camping the in the backyard" event and it was a hit! Baby K didn't actually sleep in the tent but D and K did and they had a great time!

The temperature here today is 93 - ugh! So as I type this, the three of them are playing in the pool to cool off. Then, later, it'll be bbq for dinner (probably hamburgers as we had hotdogs last night) and s'mores over the campfire (once baby K does to sleep). Then it'll be story time and time to once again camp under the stars.

My boy is in heaven!






PS..Keep reading. I just posted another one below. :)

I LOVE Garage Sales!!!

I scored!



Check this out.....for less than $40 (I don't know exactly how much since we used some of the left over cash for lunch.....) I got:
17 shirts (16 for baby K, 1 for big K)
1 pair of super cute snowman jeans
1 pair of snowman overalls
2 shorts
1 Pooh book
1 Autumn table runner

13 of the items are brand spanking new from The Childrens Place, tags still attached. The shirts and shorts are various sizes - running from 18 months to size 7. I'm one of those wild and crazy people who buys ahead (bigger sized clothes) so that when the child in question moves into a bigger size all I have to do is walk out to the garage, pick the bin marked with the appropriate size and start filling drawers (I wash everything as it comes into the house so that the container is completely ready to go).

I love garage sale season. Love, love, love it!! I dropped $24 at once on the new items - The Childrens Place stuff was all marked $1 and $2 each so seriously, how could I not?? Sometimes it is frustrating, digging through stacks of stained clothes but the pay-off of finding that one item in perfect condition is such an incredible feeling. The finds today were amazing!

How Is This Possible?

I never thought I would be saying this. I mean, come on...you are talking to the Queen of Coffee. Too much is never enough. Only...I think I hit my "enough" point.

See this mug? Looks innocent enough, doesn't it? Now guess how much it holds.


Ready for this? Half of my entire pot of coffee! That's right - it hold 5.5 CUPS of coffee. I would think that this would make me dizzy with happiness but the reality is, I don't think my stomach can hold that much liquid at one time.

And yet......this fact doesn't seem to stop me at all. Nope. Every morning I wake up, flip on the coffee pot and wait eagerly to pour my cup to the brim. And yep, I drink it all and then, and my stomach churns a bit, wonder what I was thinking.

Go figure.

From this.......

To this.....




Of course, she isn't sleeping there - but then, she never slept in her crib either. :) I found this toddler bed at a garage sale and, after talking it over with D, decided to buy it and put it up in her room. After all, the crib was mainly used for storage and at least now she has a bed she can crawl up on and hang out on. Yesterday, she went into her brother's room, picked a book from his bookshelf, toddled back into her room, climbed on her bed, leaned back against the wall and "read". It was so darn cute!!

It's the end of the chapter for the crib. It's actually pretty sad as its been up constantly since November of 2001. We put it up while I was pregnant with K and it hasn't been down again until this weekend (it turned into a toddler bed (but was as high off the ground as a regular crib) and K was still using it until baby K was about three months old. Then K moved into a big boy bed.

I was going to see about giving it to a friend but in the end, I'm way too emotionally attached to it and we decided to put in into the attic for now.

No more babies for us. *sigh* That does make me sad even though I know our family is complete with two children. They grow up too darn quickly!

PS....check out my scrap-blog. I *finally* completed a new page!

A Little Slice of Heaven


When I was pregnant with baby K, I was freaking out a bit about the realities of having two children to care for. I remember one of my MOMS Club friends trying to reassure me. She told me that someday, I'd be driving my car with the kids in the back seat when one of them would make the other laugh or, her favorite, they would be holding hands across the car seats and I would be consumed with love and know that everything was going to be ok.

Well.....she was completely right.

Some of my very favorite moments are in the car, listening to them laughing with each other, hearing K talk with baby K about nothing and everything (where we are, that's it's ok, where we're going, etc.) and most especially I love when I look back and they are holding hands.

My heart just flips over with love for these two little miracles. :)


(Thanks, Pam! You were so right!)

Who Needs To Go To Disneyland?

I have my own little Goofy right here. :)

The Shirts Are On Their Way!!

WAHOO!!!! The 1-800 number the hotel gave me was just the ticket! The cast member I spoke with was able to find both shirts, confirm they were available and process my payment (with no funky 100% mark-up that I found through a website that will send a personal shopper to the resort and find the items in question).

The new shirts will arrive in 7-10 days. YIPPIE!!!!!

Anyone Going To Disneyland Soon?

We bought our little guy two really amazingly fun shirts while we were in Disneyland; both are 50th Anniversary shirts which means they are only available for a limited amount of time. One has Mickey Mouse and one has Goofy (the boy's all time favorite characters). I bought them in size extra small and they were plenty big on him (read: if they shrunk in the wash he'd still have shirts a bit on the big side) however.........................they really, really shrunk.

Instead of looking like size 5/6 they are measuring right around a 4T (and that's being generous). I'm soooo disappointed. I figured he'd be able to wear these happy reminders for at least a year, maybe two, depending on how fast he grows.

This is where you all come in.

I'm requesting help in locating and purchasing new shirts in size small.

So........
Is anyone going to Disneyland sometime in the next month?
Maybe you live near Disneyland or know of someone who lives nearby?
Maybe you know (or are) a cast member?
Maybe you are a whiz at locating things on the 'net (goodness knows I've been trying for the past two days)?

Short of booking a trip for one to go down for the day, I have no good idea on how to go about finding new shirts. Maybe someone out there does. Here are what the shirts look like:

My boy looking goofy in his Mickey Mouse shirt (taken this morning - he LOVES these shirts!)

The back of the shirts have this on them:

Fresh from the laundry (because he wore this one yesterday), the Goofy shirt.

I can even tell you were the shirts were purchased. The MM one came from the gift shop at Paradise Pier and the Goofy one came from Star Traders in Tomorrowland.

Can anyone help???????

My Three Favorite People On The Planet




We had this taken this past Saturday. I adore it!! (And yes, they are all wearing Big Dog baseball shirts. Cute, right? *grin*)

Video Montage From Disneyland

Well.....I'm not all that thrilled with the music choices but it passed muster with the family (well...those who can speak, anyway) so I guess it's good enough to share. Hope you all enjoy it!

Create your own video at One True Media

We're Home!! Did you miss me????

We had an amazingly great time and while I don't have time (or energy - we all came home sick and I'm feeling pretty darn cruddy) for a full update, I did want to share a handful of the 300+ photos we took. :) And if you are wondering, our little guy did indeed go down Splash Mountain and while he wouldn't do it again, he is still saying that it was "so much fun!"

He had a blast! They both did, actually, but he is at the perfect age to soak up all the magic and wonder. Small World (or "Fall World" as our little man called it) was a hit with both of them and we went on it at least four times. The joy on their little faces was so much fun to watch.

He had no anxiety what-so-ever about walking up to characters and really got a kick out of getting autographs. So much fun! We had SO much fun!!!

More later - enjoy the pics. :)

Arriving at Disneyland!

Outside the Monsters Inc. ride. One of the favorites for the week. :)

The view from our room. We overlooked the California Adventure park.

Pirate Girl

All of us plus The Big Cheese himself.

Shakin' his booty at the pre-Block Party parade warm-up. He was too freakin' cute!

Goofin' around in Toon Town

The lobby of Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel (where we stayed).

P.S. I'm planning to put together a video montage with more photos - so keep a watchful eye out for that. :)

OH YEAH, BABY!! We're on our way!!

Have a great time while we're gone. :)

We are a lottery winner!!!!

First off - we have never, ever won more than a buck or two in the lottery.

Secondly, it's been years since I've played at all. It got hard to see that money go out the window so we stopped because after all, there are better ways to blow through our money...but.....

The other day (or a few weeks ago...whatever) we received coupons in the mail for free lottery tickets so D threw them in my purse in the hopes that I'd remember to pick up the free tickets. (Yeah yeah...I hear you all snickering when I said purse. It's true. I have one. It just became necessary and, last year, I finally gave in)

Anyway...today I had to run to the store to pick up Zip-Loc bags for our trip (they are excellent for packing outfits in and they compress nicely for ease in packing) and on my way out of the store I remembered the coupons. I turned the cart around and the kids and I went back to the counter.

I have no clue about lottery tickets so when the person at the counter said "How about *this* one?" I said "Sure...not like it matters really." Well.....it did matter! :)

D and I scratched the ticket tonight and voila! We won $30.00 just like that. Quite the payoff, don't you think? The ticket cost us nothing and now we have $30 more in the Disneyland money.

Who knew?? :)

Interview

Ok ok - I'm getting off my butt and I'm answering the interview questions from Cristin. Here goes:

1. If you could go back to school for anything what would it be?
Sure- start out with a heavy one. Sheesh. Let's see....what would I go back to school for....hmmm.....ok I got one: A degree is "speaking so your children will do what you want them to do when you want them to do it." I just might minor in Multi-tasking. :) Hey - that wasn't so hard after all. :)

2. What's the first thing you're going to do after D finishes law school?
Party!! First privately, them with family and friends and then....we're going to Disneyland to celebrate as a family.

3. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? (aside from Kaylen sleeping through the night)
That's a difficult one because by changing any one thing, I would alter the path my life took and would most likely end up somewhere other than I am. I guess for an easy answer though I'd say I'd like to be a size 5. :)

4. If you could have lunch with any living person who would it be and why?Dakota. Alone. Because we don't get enough alone time.

5. What do you most look forward to in your children's futures?Watching them find their place in the world. Seeing the love in their eyes when they find the love of their lives and then seeing that love double, triple and quadruple when they have babies of their own.

More Random Photos Of My Family

D and Kelton enjoying the pool.

Peek-A-Boo!

This is what I get when I say "Smile, honey!" :)

Little Computer Girl

Our Little Drummer Girl

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! The air has cooled!

Finally. A day without the temperature hitting the 90 degree mark. Thank God.

Yesterday morning K decided he wanted his pool blown up and since the sun was already pounding down on us, I agreed. Here are a few pics I took. Of course, there are lots more from yesterday afternoon and evening but they are still on my camera. I'm sure I'll have a few more to show off in the next couple of days. (I know, I know - hold your excitement people. I know you all live to see my cute kiddos. LOL)

Yes - she really IS wearing her jammie top. What can I say? It was early morning and none of us were dressed for the day. :)

My goofy little guy. This is the "smile" I get these days. *sigh*

Bombs away!

Another great photo!

It's Damn Hot!

Yesterday reached 92 degrees.....today will be the same or slightly hotter. It's MAY, people - this is insane!!!! I'm hating, hating, hating this. Last night, at 11pm, it was still 81 degrees outside. Ugh.

Let me refresh your memories from last summer........57% of the popluation in the area in which I live does not have air conditioning. We are among that 57% and I'm telling you - this house heats up. Already this morning it is hotter inside than it is outside (and it's 75 outside right now (it's 9:30am)) because we are still dealing with yesterdays trapped hot air.

D, bless her heart, put in the window a/c unit last night. It helps - at least in that room. So....if you're looking for me, I'll be standing directly in front of it all friggin' day long. :)

Stay cool out there.

I'm still around....

I know it's been forever since there was a new post to read - sorry about that. I've been concentrating on spending time with my family instead of cyber-space. As much as I love you all....I love my family more. :)

D is officially done with her first year of law school. Unbelievable. I'm SO proud of her and all she has accomplished.....and I'm even more proud of her because I know at times she really struggled to find a balance between school, work and family. I'm sure the kids and I didn't exactly help that struggle for balance since, as you can imagine, we wanted her with us and weren't shy about saying it. I know that made it hard for her - and I'm sure, at times she resented it. Who wouldn't? BUT....we all survived and we are all in one piece.

One year down. Three more to go.

At least for year two the kids will be older (18 months for the baby as compared to 6 months and 4 compared to 3 for my big guy) and I will have had a taste of what it's like and what routines work and don't. Sure - the evenings will probably remain a challenge since well...let's be honest, evenings are a challenge with kids even when BOTH parents are around. The days were manageable for the most part - the evenings, well...it's all about routine and sticking to it.

Oh - and I'm off my PPD meds. Want to know something ironic? I think I actually feel BETTER without them. Go figure. I guess it could be a combination of things but even during rough times with the kids I feel better equipt to handle it and goodness knows I have oodles more patience than I did over the past 8 months. I can't say it was all due to the meds (maybe it wasn't the right kind or dose for me) but I do know that I am feeling TONS better overall.

Weaning and then withdrawal wasn't terrible but it had it's rough patches. The dizzy spells really caught me off guard but they are cleared up now and I am home free. Now I just need to dump the weight I gained while taking the stuff (oh yeah....funny how no one mentioned, even when I specifically complained about it to my doc, that excessive sweating and rapid weight gain were side-effects of the medication. Oh no....instead of saying they were side-effects, she only upped the dosage which compounded the issues. Let's just say that being a sweaty-fat chick doesn't exactly do wonders for the struggle with depression. Grrrr.

Anyway.........

Friday night I got a sitter for the kids and D and I headed off for a much needed and much deserved night out. We went to our favorite grown-up restaurant, Beaches, and enjoyed amazing foods, drinks and conversation. It was fabulous and something we absolutely need to do again soon. The kids did great with the sitter, though baby K only stayed down for about 30 minutes after we left the house. Both kids were up when we got home at 9:30 but everyone was happy and having fun. And both moms were rested, well-fed and feeling good about life. A win-win situation if ever there was one.

Saturday we spent the morning in the yard with the kids (they played and we drank coffee and played with them) and then headed out to Powell's book store. It was a great day! The kids went down easily at night and D and I were able to have some time together without being interrupted. Always a good thing! :)

Yesterday we spent time again in the yard with the kids and then we started getting ready for Mother's Day brunch. We decided to set up tables outside since it was such a beautiful day. D's mom, step-dad, sisters and their husbands come over and we had a great time! After they left, we cleaned up, got organized and headed out to D's class picnic. It was nice to meet the people she has been going to school with and talk with partner's and spouses, swapping stories about how hard the year has been for us. It was both reassuring and sobering to know we weren't the only ones struggling to maintain a relationship. We, non-students, agree on one thing: year two has GOT to be easier than year one.

I'm thinking we should start a support group for partners/spouses of law school students. There was a lot of relieved venting that took place yesterday. And....I'm only half-way kidding about that. :)

So that's the latest from this part of the world. I can't promise daily updates but please do keep checking back. I'll post as often as I can.....oh...and I have lots of kid photos to share. :)

PS......Anyone else watching the season finale of Greys Anatomy tonight? We only were able to keep our eyes open for the first half of last nights episode so tonight we'll finish that one and watch the second part. I can't wait!!

Does Anyone Else Watch Ghost Whisperer????

I'm dying to talk about this with people who watched the show......do you have any thoughts on the season finale?

All I can say is: I was SO not expecting that!!!! WOW WOW WOW!!!

I've been obsessing over it all day (watched it last night - thank you DVR!)

*sigh*

Ivy was SO right. The dog puke stain in the master bedroom came back. Ick.

I'm not sure why I even bothered to get them cleaned. We could have done that good of a job ourselves.

Yuck yuck yuck!!!

And just for kicks......

.....the dog threw up all over the house last night. I swear to you - I am up to my eyeballs in bodily fluids. Gross!!!!!!!

The dog went to the vet this morning and is not on antibiotics (not exactly sure why except the doc said he temp was slightly elevated) and anti-nausea medication (thank goodness!).

Spot Magic failed to remove dog vomit stains as did our handy dandy steam cleaner (which I'm not impressed with. It's only a year old and just doesn't cut it. I miss my old one.). I had to call in the big guns....the first place that came to mind was 1-800-STANLEY. I think I've seen that commercial a bazillion times and the number is seared into my brain. For a mere $200 they came out and cleaned the whole house. All but one stain is gone - the stain that *didn't* come up all the way? The livingroom, of course. Grrrrrrrrr.

Here's the kicker though: carpet wicks which means the stains may actually NOT be gone. They may actually work themselves to the surface again. WHAT? Why in the freakin' world did I just pay $200 to get rid of stains that just might not be gone? Craziness.

Please let me have a few weeks of barf free days and nights. I really don't think I'm asking all that much.

MomSalary.com

Guess what I'm worth? $190, 154!!!

Oh yeah - I'd be living the high life if that were true.

They compute your salary based on the area's income range....I actually exceeded my ceiling based on the hours I put in . I tried to be accurate....I don't cook much but I DO assist with computer learning and problems. I don't spend as many hours cleaning the house (thank goodness for housekeepers) but I put in more time as a day care/preschool teacher. I just changed the hours from one to the other so that the base amount of hours remained the same.

Now how can I get these mini-bosses to ante up? :)

Hey Moms....WE ROCK!!

Here is the official link but I'm also going to cut and paste it for easy viewing:


Study: US mothers deserve $134,121 in salary
By Ellen Wulfhorst
Wed May 3, 9:11 AM ET

A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released Wednesday.

A mother who works outside the home would earn an extra $85,876 annually on top of her actual wages for the work she does at home, according to the study by Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts Salary.com.

To reach the projected pay figures, the survey calculated the earning power of the 10 jobs respondents said most closely comprise a mother's role -- housekeeper, day-care teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive and psychologist.

"You can't put a dollar value on it. It's worth a lot more," said Kristen Krauss, 35, as she hurriedly packed her four children, all aged under 8, into a minivan in New York while searching frantically for her keys. "Just look at me."

Employed mothers reported spending on average 44 hours a week at their outside job and 49.8 hours at their home job, while the stay-at-home mother worked 91.6 hours a week, it showed.

An estimated 5.6 million women in the United States are stay-at-home mothers with children under age 15, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.

NOT 'JUST A MOM'

"It's good to acknowledge the job that's being done, and that it's not that these women are settling for 'just a mom,"' said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. "They are actually doing an awful lot."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, some 26 million women with children under age 18 work in the nation's paid labor force.

Both employed and stay-at-home mothers said the lowest-paying job of housekeeper was their most common role, with employed mothers working 7.2 hours a week as housekeeper and stay-at-home mothers working 22.1 hours in that role.

"Every husband I've ever spoken to said, 'I'm keeping my job. You keep yours.' It's a tough one," said Gillian Forrest, 39, a stay-at-home mother of 22-month-old Alex in New York. "I don't know if you could put a dollar amount on it but it would be nice to get something."

To compile its study, Salary.com surveyed about 400 mothers online over the last two months.

Salary.com offers a Web site (http://www.mom.salary.com) where mothers can calculate what they could be paid, based on how many children they have, where they live and other factors. The site will produce a printable document that looks like a paycheck, Coleman said.

"It's obviously not negotiable," he said.

On average, the mother who works outside the house earns a base pay of $62,798 for a 40-hour at-home work week and $23,078 in overtime; a stay-at-home mother earned a base pay of $45,697 and $88,424 in overtime, it said.

In a Salary.com study conducted last year, stay-at-home mothers earned $131,471. The potential earnings of mothers who work outside the home was not calculated in the previous study.




Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.

I love my kids with all my heart...I really, really do...and I love sharing every minute of their lives but in all honesty, my feelings would NOT be hurt in the slightest is they opted to never again share the contents of their stomaches.

Yep - you read that correctly: I would be a happy, happy mom if they would STOP THROWING UP ON ME! Groooosssssss!!

Two times in as many days is two times too many this week. Blick!

Yeah, yeah - I feel bad for her but still. :)