My Sweet Grandma!!!

Well, we had my grandmother's "going away" party last month! She moved to LA, actually Riverside, to live with my aunt. As I know it's the best thing for her, it is still very sad at the same time! I spent a LOT of time with my grandma. She was always baking and bustling in the kitchen or doing her crewel stitching. I have so many fond memories of being at my grandmas. When I had Chayce she took care of him for the first few years while I worked. And my daughter, Ciara, had the same sweet luxary. But now she's very old and her health isn't the best and she just needed to live with someone, so it was time! So we had a little get together and took some pictures of our family! The one of top is our immediate family. I'm so grateful to have these pictures as our family rarely gets together! My son couldn't say her name, Vivian, so he called her "Mumu" and that's kind of stuck as her name from my family!

The other pictures are of my cousins, Nicole, Kelli and Tara. And there's a cute picture of Ciara and her cousin, Hunter. They look so much alike. I had to laugh though b/c Wendy's blog talked about the "red eye" in her pictures and ALL of these pictures have it, and of course, my blind eye gives off the "white eye"....

Everything is good, just trying to keep up with work and kids and husband....what a challenge!!! But in November we'll be in Hawaii so I do have something awesome to look forward to!

too busy to blog!

Well, I'm not sure what happened, but boom, it's September already!! The last month has been a total blur; working all day, soccer, kung fu (yes, my son is finally in an activity besides computer/video games), ballet, girl scouts, who has time for dinner, baths, reading 30 minutes a night and homework!!! Jeez!!! I feel tired all the time lately...been taking lots of vitamins...also it's still so warm here. So what am i blogging about...i don't know. I guess to try and remember to breathe and not let life overwhelm you...Try to get some exercise in there too! That's why i started walking 2 miles a day on my lunch break. It's kind of a pain, but i just can't seem to get up early enough to do it in the morning....and you know what my evenings are like...impossible! I do feel; however, haggard and old, that I am doing a good job; keeping my kids involved; having them try different things and hopefully somewhere over they rainbow they'll either a) use some skills they've learned, i.e., helping a person with their groceries, being aware of our community or b) learning how to be a team player and work with others or c) staying physical and healthy; or d) ALL OF THE ABOVE.... I just want my kids to have a healthy and happy life...is that too much to ask for???? Maybe...I hope not...Anyways, i got a cute picture of Ciara and her friend Madi this summer so I wanted to add it to this page...

School Days, School Days!

I always laugh when moms say to me "I'm so freaking glad the kids are back in school", although these are stay-at-home moms who say this. I know I would be saying the same thing as too much of a good thing, usually isn't. But for me, a full-time working mom, it brings on all sorts of stress for the next nine months. Number 1, you have to go get all the school supplies (and don't go off the lists that the stores provide, because you will end up buying more than you need or things that you don't need). We were lucky this year because Ciara's teacher sent a welcome letter and put her supply list on the letter. Such a great idea! My son, on the other hand, who is in high school, we usually have to wait until he gets home on the first day and of course, needs all of these items by the next day...well, this year his high school sold supply packets, which is a great idea...but because he was last to get his classes they were out...Oh well....so we are going tonight with all the other high school parents.....Number 2, you have to do the school clothes, backpacks, lunch boxes, shoes, which this part i don't mind doing, because I like to shop.....Number 3, this is the worst part for me....you have to read all of the send homes and emails from school.....and most importantly, write them down and remember them.....if I don't write down, i am screwed!!! And you don't want to miss things like Back to School night...no way....our school has a sign in sheet and the kids get credit, etc......also you don't want to forget crazy hat day....you start to drop off your kids and everyone is wearing hats....except your kid.....and the sad puppy eyes come out....and at first I say "no, just make a paper hat" (i don't really say that, but its funny), and then i turn around and drive home and get her favorite hat....the one under her bed or in her drawer somewhere.....yep......Number 4(did you think i was done?).... trying to answer and help some of the homework, especially Math!!! This is the worst part if I don't know the answer and if Math is involved I usually don't.....I am not a teacher....I don't remember this stuff.....thank God I have an older son who can help my 10 year old sometimes! Number 5, figuring out how they are getting to school and coming home from school.....that's not so bad if you have a carpooler or you live next to school, but if you kid gets sick on a bus you try really hard not to subject your kids from being sick every day. Number 6 (wow, i didn't realize there were this many), making sure your kids get good grades...now, this one is really difficult.....you ask "did you do all your homework?"...they reply "yes, mom" and then your done, right? Wrong!! You actually need to look at it, so they know in the future they better do a) it or b) a good job or hopefully c) both!!! Thank God for edline. I actually get emails with the kids updated grades and homework they miss; if it wasn't for this program which both of my kid's schools have, i would be completely underwater, by just checking with my kids... I'm sure there are more items but it's really a lot of work for the parents when kids are back in school....there just not under your feet anymore, but there is a whole lot of other stuff to deal with....so that's all i got....hope you enjoyed it....if you didn't, that's okay too....

HOTEL MOTEL

Happy Thursday! The work week is almost over! Let's see, Matt and I went to Los Angeles last weekend. We stayed at the weirdest hotel. It's called Custom Hotel! It looks like they painted over this old brick building, black in color. We walk in and it's very modernized and then in the lobby there are stuffed sheep...kind of weird, but we venture to the elevator; the door opens up and "hello" there is this big brother like face staring at us. There are faces in all the elevators; totally random people; kindof strange, but whatever; we proceed to our floor; it's totally black in the hallways...i started to laugh becuase i think i'm going to get mugged or something and i laugh at things like that...we get to our room and it's nice; small, clean, the bathroom is sortof high school locker room; the bed is very low and i guess the theme is dogs or cross-stitch, not quite sure, but above the fridge is this basket of goodies; i must check out!!! Let's see there were cookies and pretzels..yum! And condoms..ok for some people, ky jelly...a paddle ball, red tube socks....radish seeds (Like you would plant) is there a farm nearby? And Pink duct tape??? What the heck is pink duct tape for??? IF anyone knows the answer to this, please, let me know??? At first i was a little tripped out about the hotel, but seeing other people staying there seemed to relieve my suspicions of S & M things going on....and Matt and I did try to find the video camera somewhere hidden in our room, but to no avail! After we made it through alive the first name basically unharmed we went to their tiny little restaurant; it was incredible; so incredible that we came back that night and had dinner there! Fabulous!!! BTW-I had their dessert of warm cinnamon donuts (which I haven't had in 20 years) with coffee ice cream; TO DIE FOR!!! And they upgraded us the second night to a suite which was even better!!! Apparently this is a "boutique" hotel we stayed at (if that helps anyone) and they are trying to copy some other famous "movie star type" hotels....
All in all we had a great time which is what it's all about, right??? And I have my own roll of duct tape now........... kidding!!!

Smoky!

Is everybody tired of this smoky weather? Poor firefighters! And it's supposed to be 106 in Folsom on Wednesday. Jeez! Okay, enough of my rant. Let's see..we had Ciara's recital and she did amazing. It's really cool to watch her grow and become more of an experienced ballerina. Fourth of July was not to exciting, but we never do much anyway. Ciara was camping (for the first time) with her friend, Madi, Matt was working, so it was just Chayce and I! We went and got a burrito, i picked up a movie and, hold your breath here...ironed for 1 1/2 hours. I hate ironing! It's such a pain, but when I iron, I suddenly realize that I have a lot of clothes (more than I already have)and I can suddenly wear them, because, they are not wrinkled anymore!!! Took the jetski to the lake on Saturday, where it died! Speaking of lakes, Folsom Lake is soooooooo low! How low will it go? I don't know, but it's low enough!!! Anywho.....going away this weekend!!! Woo hoo!!! No kids! Double woo-hoo!!!! Happy July everyone!!!

Blogging Blunder

Okay, here it is.......... my first official blog....... Two of my friends, Tammi and Wendy have both said that this is the rage, and honestly, I really don't like to be out of the loop, but i'm not too sure about the blogging part...

How am I doing so far???? Let's see, what's new with me....oh, we got a new dog, who is absolutely wonderful; his name is Achilles and he is so well mannered...so now we have three dogs!! Am I crazy??? Yes, no doubt about that! But Aci loves Ciara and follows her around, sleeps with her and it's just a great thing to watch.

Speaking of Ciara... she is doing her dance recital this Thursday. She is in two dances; one is called School of Rock and it's so cool to watch. The other is her ballet class and her song is called Spring; it's very, very beautiful and she looks so lovely...i took some pics so i'll try to post them....

Matt and I are celebrating 12 years of marriage (to each other)...Ha! We are going to go to LA for the weekend. I won another radio contest and we got a free room, universal studio tix and Hollywood city pass and $100 American Express card....Woo Hoo! It'll just be nice to get away and have some alone time...know what I mean....with two kids and 3 dogs....

Chayce is just chillin' right now...just turned 16 and Matt bought him a moped...he needs his license first, but whatever....it's pretty cool...

Alright.....that's all I got right now....