big laughs and a lot of sugar = a great night

You know I love Dramagenics and The Mixed Nuts, a family-friendly improv group here in town. I love how talented, creative, and funny they all are; I love that the shows are pretty inexpensive, and I love the idea of just doing something different with a Saturday night.

This past Saturday night, a group of us went to see their Second Anniversary show (remember how Dan got called up on the stage during last year's anniversary show?). We enjoyed ourselves immensely and wonder-of-wonders, Dan got called up onto the stage again, along with Chris' son Joey. Dan admittedly blanked out a bit but Joey did great and got some laughs.

Later, we hit the Dairy Queen.

(I swear she's already grown bigger since I stopped babysitting her a week ago *sniff*)

Incidentally, this was both Danny's and Chris' first jobs and at this exact location as well! How rad is that?


Ok well maybe not that rad, but interesting.


They shared stories and histories regarding past co-workers and bosses. Chris told us what to never order, ever.


And Dan told the story of how he was fired from there when he was 16. Some customer complained of him 'swearing on the job.' Not only does Danny not swear, but he wasn't even working the night in question. He was fired anyway.


I think he was ok though--he quickly moved along to McDonalds where he was made Employee of the Month quite early on. That's my man. A go-getter. :)

So another successful night out. Anytime anyone is interested in attending a Dramagenics show, we're always up for it! We won't turn down more ice cream at the DQ as a follow-up either. Just don't expect us to order the...well...maybe I'll let you find out for yourself. ;)

thursday's crystal light blog is up!

Go read it here.

I mean....Please?

I didn't mean to be pushy. :)

it's off to school i go!

Wednesday's Crystal Light blog can be found here.


So yesterday was my first day back to school--the first time in an actual school since 1996. Have I mentioned that already? I like to point that out because it demonstrates how truly old I am. ;) Lovely.

I was really nervous actually. I always get afraid that I am going to be a social outcast, too shy, too withdrawn, too old, too out-of-the-loop, etc. Class itself was fine but a little dry. From there I went to the 3 hour lab and things got much more interesting.

I sat with a group of ladies who were all different ages. 5 out of the 6 of us were there in pursuance (did I just make up that word? let's try "pursuit") of our nursing degrees. Several of them had already taken Microbiology (which is the next class for me) so I felt a tad behind there. But I was one of the only ones who was already on the waiting list for a nursing program, and thus ahead of the game there. There was even one gal in our group who had taken 201, the previous class, from this professor, so she was able to give us some great tips as far as his teaching and testing style, etc.

The whole table was very social with each other and also proved to be very hard workers. I feel pretty confident that we'll have our own study groups and meet together for open labs and such.

So, Day One was a success. Onto the semester!

tuesday's crystal light blog is up!

Go here to check it out!

Yesterday was my first and last day of freedom, sorta...No kids, no hubby, no daycare kids, and school hadn't started yet. So I did a bit of everything: ran some errands, did some major housework, put some things up for sale (and sold) on Craigslist, started a new book, layed out on the trampoline, played on the computer for a couple of hours...just enjoying my last stressless day before getting back to the school grind.

Today's my first day of school--anyone else starting back to college today?

For those of you who have been asking, Ethan has been doing much better in kindergarten (knock on wood!) and had 3 'green' days in a row. I'm hoping that's not just a fluke, but we'll see!

Saturday night, a big group of us are going to Dramagenics for their 2nd annual Anniversary Show. Tickets are only $5! Join us!

Head on over to my review blog to join the Water Challenge. Do something good for your body.

crystal light water week challenge

All this week my blogs will be found over on my review site, as I'm doing a week-long review of sorts for Crystal Light.

This includes a water challenge that you yourself can participate in. Please go see the first installment of my blog here and then Monday's blog here.

Happy Monday everyone!

adieu to daycare

For several years starting in 1997 I worked as a sign language interpreter in a nearby school district. I liked what I did, but I never liked having to leave my two young kids at home to do it. Dan and I were always lucky enough that our schedules worked out just right in that we didn't have to pay for daycare. That was both a positive and a negative--as you can imagine, working opposite shifts, we didn't see each other much.

In Dec 2003 he got hired on as an EMT and we knew that his schedule would be changing to 24 hour shifts. At this time I was pregnant with Ethan. We did end up having to put the kids in daycare for a few months until I had the baby and was on my maternity leave. But in the meantime, I decided that I was done working outside the home.

I decided that somehow, some way, we were going to make this work--if we had to cancel our phone and never use our AC, I was going to stay home with this baby. This is when I decided to start doing home daycare.


And thus I have done, from June 2004 to the present, over 5 years, I have tended little ones. It didn't take me long to learn that I had a favorite age (0-2) and that a 10 hour day was plenty (6-6 nearly killed me for about a year with one family) and most importantly that as my own boss, I was going to determine how hard to let my job be.


Meaning, I basically didn't work with difficult children or parents! Over the years, I actually got really lucky. There were very few that I had to let go due to one reason or another, and even when I did, I made sure I gave it a very good fighting try to make things work.


(it's not blood, it's jello powder)

Sure, I was a bit limited and confined to home for the most part, but this really fulfilled a need. It allowed me to stay at home, be with my babies, raise my own kids during those special first years, and provide a supplemental income while at it.

This year, my youngest went to Kindergarten. And with that, I decided that my personal continuation of school would no longer happen online but in a real bricks-and-mortar classroom. Next week I start my Anatomy & Physiology II class--remember how the first online class nearly killed me last semester?--and thus today will be my last day of daycare.


I have mixed feelings about it of course, as most do when undergoing change. I happen to be at a unique place when it comes to daycare providers in that both my current sets of kids' parents are my best friends. That makes it quite ironic that I should quit. Nevertheless they are very supportive of me and my desires to further my education.


It's been great working with them on a professional level and getting to know and help raise their kids just a little bit. It will be so weird next week to not be on anyone else's time table, to not have a crib, high chair, and baby toys around. Weird that I'll be able to up and leave my house without a thought to who's needing a nap or a carseat or a diaperbag.


I'll truly have an empty nest at home during the day!


Of course Dan and I will be right back into school, so we'll be busy. And I've already started volunteering at the school again, which I love. We hope to reconnect during our quiet days when he's off-shift and have a couple of day dates together, trips to the temple, etc. It's a whole new chapter in our lives!


Thanks to all the many parents and friends who have entrusted me with the care of their children over the past 5+ years. There's a little piece of my heart with each and every one of them. ('cept for that Screamer that I tended last year *wink*) My kids are already sad about the change! I'll miss these two little cherubs but again, since I'm friends with their moms, I know I'll continue to see them often. Love you kiddos!


I leave you with this fun video of the baby I watch, having a grand old time as Cameron entertains him.

did you enter the drawing?

Today is the last day to enter the Ritz $100 giveaway on my review blog. Make sure you check it out!

Good luck!

a lil' card fer ya

I made 10 of these for a card swap held at my house this evening. If you're looking for a swap to join, I know we have openings. Just drop me an email.

guess what i'm going to have!!

A new niece to babysit!

Here's Emma Paisley, just 2 hours old.  She totally looks like her mom.

(Hee-hee. . . got you there for a sec, didn't I?)

this month's 12 of 12

 

Ethan stood on my scale that morning and said, "I weigh sixty-eighty-three."  Nice try.  Now just add a hundred (yikes!) and you have my weight!

 

The required self-portrait.  Fortunately I'd just had my hair done by the great Kaylene so it wasn't a bad hair day.  :)

 

The things Sean had earned and collected at Pack meeting:  Geology badge and belt loop and aquanaut badge.

 

The coupons I clipped on the 12th.

 

The amount of milk left that morning.

 

Had to bust out another of my cannery honey cans as I've been going through it so fast when making bread.

 

Ethan's behavior card for the day.  Basically this means he got a red (and red = bad).

 

I dejunked a junk drawer.

 

The book I was reading-and later gave up on.  Yawwn.

 

The temperature outside when I went to bed.

  The toothpaste we are using right now.  (we're using all the mini toothpastes we get from the dentist because we have about a hundred of them!)

 

The temperature in my house when I went to bed.

 

Did you do your 12 of 12 for August?

first week of school wrap up

My cutie patooties had a predictable first week at school. 

Sean really enjoys his teacher--the first male teacher he's ever had--and says that he's so nice and very funny.  It was important to have a good teacher for Sean this year (when is it not?) particularly because last year, occasionally I got the impression that his teacher didn't really like him.  So I hope he continues on enjoying his class.

Cameron has decided that second grade is not as much fun as first.  Understandable, being that last year he had quite possibly the best-dang-teacher-on-the-planet the end, so...anything after her is just different.  However, he's had a week full of homework (neither of the other boys had any!) and is in a higher level 2nd grade of sorts, so although the work is going to be tougher, the benefits will be greater.  Or something.  =)

 

Ethan.  Ethan Ethan Ethan.  He makes me laugh.  He's hated school since day one.  He says he's learned it all already and he doesn't need to go back.  Though my darling third child had 2 years plus of preschool, he's had a very rough return to education this week.  He's had red cards all week (red = bad).  He's hit, been beligerent, broken crayons, and been defiant.  I asked him one day why he had a red card and he said, "Because the teacher keeps asking me to write my name over and over and I don't want to!!"  Yesterday he told me that he 'cheated.'  I asked him what he meant.  He said, "I had a red card but I changed it back to green!"  The turkey!!

 

I've been in dialogue with the teacher and bless her heart, she has a boy-heavy class (all the kindergartens are that way this year for some reason) and several just like Ethan.  She takes it all in very good spirits, but says she tries to be pretty strict and tough on them the first week so the kids quickly learn boundaries and rules.  More power to her!  She's going to have an interesting year with my little Trouble Maker Ethan!

 

the great carseat debate

There are many great things about your kids growing up, getting older and taller. You move from cribs to toddler beds to twin beds. You stop needing strollers, electric swings, and high chairs. As your kids leave infancy, you get rid of exersaucers, walkers, rear-facing and forward-facing carseats.

But even though my kids are now 5, 7, and 10, we still have not gotten rid of our vehicle booster seats--for any of them.

This may sound crazy, but let me explain why, and first say, that my kids would have it no other way. I am not forcing them to sit in booster seats in the car, it is not a struggle to get them buckled in, they do not fight it. They like the booster seats.

1--because it helps them sit up higher so they have a better view. My kids are on the smallish side, so the extra 5 inches really helps them be able to see better out the windows.

2--because it helps the seatbelts fit better. I can certainly attest that when you're short, that shoulder strap sometimes has a habit of cutting straight across your neck or cheek. Oomphing them up those several inches helps the seatbelts fit better across their chest where they are supposed to.

3--and along those lines, because the seatbelts are fitting better, they are doing their job much better. Having been in two serious car accidents, I can testify to the importance of wearing your seatbelt and wearing it correctly. With the kids in the heightened position, the seatbelts snug across their chest and laps, they are much less likely to get thrown or hurt in a wreck. It's just safer this way.

By Arizona law, none of my kids need to be in carseats any more, and I'm sure there are many of you out there that ditched yours as soon as your children crossed that legal limit--heaven knows it makes your vehicle look cooler without them, but let's face it. I drive a minivan. Coolness has never been my concern. ;) And if they happen to carpool with a friend and travel in someone else's car, I don't force over the booster, unless they want it (or unless it's a long drive). So it's not manditory by any means.

But I'll let them sit in their boosters until they decide they are ready to go carseat-less and I have no qualms about that whatsoever.

What are your thoughts on the issue?




(Don't forget to enter the Ritz $100 giveaway on my review blog--entries will be accepted through the 20th of August!)

christmas card swap: 24 of 36 done!

I got 12 of these done at our last crop night at Jessica's house. And that's about it! But it was sure fun!

basketball season is over

Ethan spent an average of about 3.5 seconds in possession of the basketball per game...but he sure had fun while he was out there. And he really entertained the crowd too. Here he is getting his medal on the day of his last game on Saturday.

we're off to school!

Have a great school year everybody!

dear blog fans

I apologize that I had nothing to post today.

I know it came as a bitter disappointment to few, discouraging to others, and down right maddening to the rest.

Believe it or not, I do not publish every little thought that comes into my head!

And guess what? Today, I just had nothing to say...shocking, I know.

We'll all adjust, adapt, and come out better for it on the other end.

;)

(Total tongue-in-cheek following up a conversation that took place this evening on my lack of blog post today; too funny! But in all seriousness, thanks for reading, folks. It's nice to know someone reads! Have a great weekend!)

lately uploaded on my ipod

Here's what I'm listening to these days...how about you?


"18th Floor Balcony" -- Blue October

"Smile" -- Uncle Kracker

"I Gotta Feeling" -- Black Eyed Peas

"Four Months" -- Kaleb Nation

"More Than Words" -- Extreme

"When I'm With You" -- Sheriff (my favorite song of all time)

"More Than Words Can Say" -- Alias

"I Do Not Hook Up" -- Kelly Clarkson

"Colors" -- Amos Lee

"Girls Just Want To Have Fun" -- Greg Laswell

don't you point your guns at me, i'm a good guy

So I had a bit of an interesting evening a couple of nights ago. I had gone out to a Wal-Greens I don't normally use to pick up a Redbox DVD and was standing in line to do so. As always, the person in front of me was taking forever {what is up with that? seriously? I'm always in and out in one minute!} and so I was just standing there waiting. Other customers were coming in and out, making purchases, whatever, I wasn't really paying attention.

After a couple of minutes, I overheard the cashier (who was about 10 feet from me in the checkout stand) say quietly into an inhouse phone "Can you please come up here, I've just been robbed!"

At first I could barely believe what I heard, then I figured I'd better double check and see if she was all right.

Sure enough, she was looking very distraught and so I repeated to her, "Did you just say you'd been robbed?!" She nodded, but didn't want to say anything until her manager joined her, which she did, seconds later, and then the poor thing broke down sobbing.

"He pointed a gun at me and everything!"

Holy cow!

By now, people were starting to gather as this was making quite a scene (understandably) and I passed along what I had learned. I couldn't believe that this had all gone on about 10 feet from me without my even knowing! I mean I'd seen the guy and everything, but evidently he did everything very smoothly as to not cause attention!

Well one of the other customers who had just come in mentioned that he'd seen a guy run off towards a Bar & Grill just down the street, and so collectively we agreed that that must have been the guy. That particular Bar & Grill is just west of where Danny works, so I called him to let him know what was going on, that I was 'sort of' a witness to a robbery, and that he should be on the look out for a guy on the run.

A couple of minutes went by and so I got back into line to get my movie. Within 3-5 more minutes my turn came, I got my stuff and left the store--only to be staring into the guns of 3 policeman crouched behind a patrol car as they were evidently looking for the perpetrator.

"Move to the side! Move to the side!" they gestured, and I wide-eyed and obediently took a few paces to the right--kind of non-chalantly because I knew that they weren't going to catch the guy in the store and there was going to be no shooting--I guess they hadn't realized the robbery had occured at least 10 minutes ago and the guy had already left. So another customer mentioned this to them and they broke formation, one of them coming over to me to get a quick story (but not an official statement, I was not on the police report as I found out later, in fact, none of us customers were!) and then they told me I could go to my car.

I had to call Dan again to quickly inform him about this latest adrenaline pumper! I'm so grateful that I had not had the kids with me when all this happened, not only for the obvious safety sake, but also due to the fact that Sean would have freaked out. It's funny, I guess I'm so naive about stuff like that...ya think you're safe, that your town is safe, that most people are good--and I maintain that they are--but there are those scumbags out there who get desparate during hard times and make poor choices.

It didn't really hit me until last night when the movie was due back that I guess it was kind of a dangerous situation. I looked at the clock at 8:30 (which is about when the incident occured Monday night) and the last thing I wanted to do was go back out to a Wal-Greens at night. Perhaps this will teach me to be a bit more cautious, aware, and careful. And I said a little prayer of thankfulness that they guy hadn't been a raging lunatic and gone on a shooting spree while he was at his 'grand-theft-at-the-wal-greens' escapade. My thoughts are with the poor twenty-something cashier who was just doing her job yet was faced with what must have been one of the scariest moments in her life.

As per the police report, the guy was not apprehended that night. He is still at large.

san diego or bust

We've been talking about going to San Diego just for some beach time for months and months. Finally, we gave the kids the choice of either one more camping weekend this summer before school started up again, or a weekend at the beach. The vote was unanimous. So we headed west.

Let me say next that there's something to the whole let's-not-tell-the-kids-and-make-it-a-surprise thing-though that definitely backfired on us in May during our Disney trip-because our children, Ethan particularly, asked us each and every day, several times a day for weeks "When are we going to San diego?" and "How many more days until San Diego?" They even prayed about it days and weeks in advance; ("please bless that we'll have a good time in San Diego.") Well, I guess they had it covered. The day finally came and off we went.

Now none of my pictures are great. . .my little camera just doesn't do well in this kind of environment, doesn't have a good zoom, etc etc. But you get the point.

Let's start with this picture of me approximately 2 hours after we got to San Diego. It's the most normal you'll ever see my hair, as my locks got increasingly crazy and frizzy and Monica-esque the longer we stayed in Southern Cal. Man, if I ever lived there, I'd have to invest in some major anti-frizzing serum or conditioner!

We started off in Mission Bay on the Boardwalk where we met up with Dan's sister, brother's family, and parents. We found a spot to eat and then let the kids lose on the beach.

The water was fuh-reezing. But somehow, they got used to it quickly and everyone ended up nice and wet and sandy. Sean got his first mouth of seawater, then threw up his first swallow of seawater, and from then on I assume he learned how to body surf with his mouth closed.

Have I ever shared with you my funky toes? I blame ballet as a child. I kept this shell to scrapbook it, of course. :)

This is pretty much what they did the whole time we were at all three beaches. That. . .and get lost. It was awesome.

As you can see it was fairly overcast on Saturday, yet we all still got just a bit pink before slapping on the sunscreen.

We only stayed on this beach for an hour or so before cleaning up and heading up the coast a bit to Del Mar, which is a really pretty beach and a bit cleaner.

On the way we passed the San Diego temple, and I realize these aren't great shots taken through the window of a moving car, but it's all I've got. It's a gorgeous temple and just pops out of nowhere on the 5 between Mission Bay and La Jolla. Love that place.

Onto Del Mar, where I kid you not it took us about 45 minutes to find a parking place. Insanity!

And again, the pictures aren't that great as I was up on the beach and the kids were backlit by the late afternoon sun.

But I do love this picture of the three of them. Definitely gonna scrap this one!

Everyone but me and my preggo sister-in-law totally went for it and body surfed and everything. Isn't she adorable? She had to totally push out her gut to get even a hint of preggo belly (and she's 4 months along!); I told her it looked like she'd just eaten a taco.

Have I mentioned my aversion to the ocean? I'm not a huge fan. It's dirty, you can't see the bottom, and when you stare out at the horizon, it feels like you're getting sucked out to sea. Not to mention sharks and all the sand sand sand sand. But I was happy to sit on the beach and soak up sun, occasionally snapping pictures of my young.

Ethan and Cameron decided building sand castles was much more fun than surfing.

Though Cameron had fun teasing the waves.

Notice the hair. Oy.

So when the boogie board rentals were up, Grandma and Grandpa took off and the rest of us went back to the hotels to clean up before getting together for dinner.

We went to a place in downtown San Diego called Dick's Last Resort. Anyone ever been there?

The 'charm' of this place is that it's disgusting. Well, not on purpose. The gist is that the waiting staff is totally rude and you are allowed to be totally rude back. There is much wadding and throwing of paper, lots of rude quips, teasing, napkin and paper ball-throwing fights and messes made. Notice the floor on the picture above? Ew. This place must be a complete mess to clean up every night.

But you know what? Everyone had a ball.

...'Cept for Sean.

Who said that the rudeness and paper throwing was 'a sin'.

Anyway, there was loud live music and loud neighbors and I must have been hit with paper (all of us were) at least 3 dozen times, but it's part of the fun. The kids can be as misbehaved as they want and it's ok. Encouraged even.

Our waiter made these hats. Among them:

"I throw like a girl."

"I eat my boggers." (sp!!)

"I pee the bed."

"I fart in the tub."

"If I had wings I'd be an airport."

"Puberty sucks."

And more. :)

Cameron and Ethan even got up to do a little dancing.

It was super fun! (I'm totally on my toes in this picture)

Then we walked downtown a bit and the boys got to handle a parrot!

Downtown San Diego is a happening place, let me tell you. There's nothing like it in Phoenix. Tons of clubs and parties going on. The line outside the Hard Rock Cafe club wrapped around the building and I did not see one pair of shoes any shorter than a 4" stiletto. Just the walking around with the cousins was probably my favorite part of the weekend.

The next day, we got back together with them and headed back to Mission Bay.

Dan finally got Ethan into some swells, though it wasn't his favorite thing.

All in all, we had a great time! The weather was awesome, the kids were pretty well behaved (except for the time we lost Ethan on the beach for about half an hour-I was *this close* to telling the Coast Guard that I'd lost my kid) and we didn't break the bank to do it. It was nice to have one last hurrah before school starts back up next week and the best part was seeing our cousins and family again-hadn't seen them since Christmas!

Thanks for meeting up with us guys, we had so much fun!