Cute girls... long drive

Just got home from HOURS in the car picking up kids from Fontana/Ontario area - traffic going West was a nightmare... took 1 1/2 hours just to get to Cabazon (normally 30 minutes). Happy to be home :)

Things to be thankful for....

Thanksgiving was very nice this year... I dropped off the kids at Mike & Melanie's in the morning and hung out there for a while.... then off to meet Jim and his kids at his mom's house for dinner... then back to Mike & Melanie's for more dessert and Pictionary and finally home... alone for a couple of days - where I sit unmotivated to do much of anything - its absolutely wonderful!!!!

I'm thankful for this beautiful Thanksgiving morning rainbow (yesterday), and I'm thankful that I wasn't at Toys-r-us in Palm Desert today... there was a multiple shooting - right here in Palm Desert!!! This world is becoming such a dangerous scary place :( And my absolute top things to be thankful for are my health and my children's health and my job --- I'm so fortunate to have these!!! And then there are the other things that are huge as well.... having a house to live in, a car that runs well, food in the fridge, Jim, humor, and the church. I know there are more, but these are all I can muster up right now :)

Remember when we dropped that baby?

Today my friend Laurie from Junior High School came out to visit me - I found her on the Placer High School website a couple of months ago and hadn't seen her in over 20 years!!! We had a great time talking about old times... we lived in the same neighborhood our Junior High years and we have great memories of those days - and okay - a few not so great memories.... Yes, I remember when we dropped the baby!!! It was our first hands on baby sitting lesson... "don't ever turn your back on a baby on a changing table". Fortunately she wasn't hurt and I haven't dropped another since :) No wonder Michael Comstock got all the baby sitting jobs... she deserved them anyway - she's just one of those people who was born to be a mother - she has 6 kids now!

There are some pictures below from way back then...The first ones are of Laurie and I - and I'm too tired to talk about the rest... But for those of you who know us, you'll get a laugh and hopefully some great memories... Good night!

"You and Me Against the World" - Song of the day...

Okay first off... time flies !!!! I have not had one second to sit down and relax (or blog, read blogs, catch up on housework, exercised, sleep or anything else....) for the past 2 or 3 weeks... I don't know where the time goes, but there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day for me to get anything done - ever! And speaking of time flying - today is the 6 year anniversary of my moms death... 6 years! I can't even believe its been that long and so I was looking around the house and garage for a recent picture of her to post on here today and after taking sooooo many walks down memory lane looking through old photos - I finally realized there weren't any recent pictures - because there aren't any recent pictures of her (she has been gone for so long)!!! I actually didn't come across too many pictures of her at all, which was kind of a bummer. Most of my pictures from my adult life are just of the kids.... I really need to get with the program so they have more than just pictures of them from their childhood. After I couldn't find a picture, I decided I'd try to find one when she was about my age... this is the best I could do. She's around 36 here, so about 5 years younger than I am... Still - I think she looks more mature than I do... RIGHT? It's probably just the beehive :)

Anyway - I think just about all the songs that are on my play are on there because they have very specific memories tied to them - so all day today I've been singing Helen Reddy's song "You and Me Against the World" in memory of my mom as she always used to blast it and tell me that it was "our song" because it was always the two of us against the world (since my dad died when I was a baby - ya... its been 40 years - I can't even believe I'm old enough for something in my life to have happened 40 years ago!!!!!).

Gotta get some sleep now - I'm feeling old - no wonder I'm tired :)

Buzzillioins of bees......

Okay... so I called Jim in a panic about the bees... turns out they were coming into the garage from the eves - not from me opening the garage door! He thought he'd try to spray them with the hose... but guess what? No pressure :) So we went and got some bee killer and he sprayed it from the spot they were entering in the garage and tons of them flushed out into the tree next door and all over the neighborhood.....there were sooooooooooooo many more than expected!!!

He sprayed a whole can of killer stuff outside the garage where they were coming in... but there are still tons of them roaming all around the outside of the house!

Then the neighbor sprayed the huge congregation of them in the tree and they're flying all over the place going crazy!!!!

Hopefully they'll be gone in the morning :)

When it rains it pours.....

Why is it that everything has to go wrong at the same time?????? Just when I'm getting used to the messedupedness (yes, I made that up) of my entire life... I have to have MAJOR problems at home.... On Thursday we woke up to NO water pressure... so it takes 30 minutes to take a shower, 10 minutes for the toilet to refill and eons for the washing machine to fill up and you can't have two things on at the same time! And then today as we pulled up in the driveway from church....there's an enormous swarm of bees coming and going from the eves above our garage (I couldn't get a good picture for fear they would come get me)... so I think I can open the garage door and drive in and shut the door behind us.... WRONG - they swarmed right in with us... so we're stuck inside the car in the garage inside with bees all over the place! So then I have to open the door again and let more in and get us out and we park down the street and come in through the side door... now we have bees outside and in the garage and we accidentally let one in the house!!! Buzz off!!!

It's finally cool!!!

Yippi - what a beautiful weekend. I'm so thrilled to have had to take my sweatshirt to the soccer games this morning... The kids (Shawn, Sarah & we had Rachel too) all had games scheduled at 8:00 today (Sarah's ended up getting rescheduled to 3:30) and they're all #5 - pretty cool. Sarah scored a couple goals, but all 3 teams ended up losing....

But that didn't put a damper on the day... the kids dad and step-mom came to town, and we decorated cupcakes. I made pumpkin cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes and Melanie melted chocolate chips and swirled it into the cupcakes...and she brought stuff for us to make fall and Halloween themed cupcakes. They were delicious and we had so much fun decorating!!! They were also pretty cute... well except the ones with the brains and guts on it - we sent that one home with Mike and Melanie for Grandma Nancy (Melanie's mom) - it started out being a clump of flowers, but as soon as Sarah painted it this weird pink color on it looked more like a brain, so we went with it... Anyway, Grandma Nancy will love it!

Melanie and I always have fun cooking together... we still spend occasional holiday's together since they have the kids for a couple holidays and that sometimes leaves me alone and bored and since I was part of Mike's family for so long and grew up in the town his parents still live it I would just tag along when they went up for the holidays. We haven't been back up to Auburn in so long... I really miss it. I'm so thankful that we're friends... It makes things so much easier. I know a lot of people find it weird, but its totally normal for us. We're all aware that Mike and I disagree on most things, (that's why we're divorced) , so we no longer have to try to agree or resolve anything; we just set our differences aside and focus on our responsibilities to our kids and trying to provide them with a little bit of stability :) I just figure if they come up a little less messed up than me... we're doing okay!

Did I really say I love soccer season????

Wow... I can't believe I forgot how hectic this time of year is! Haven't had a second to blog or do much of anything else... I think today was the first day I had a vegetable with a meal all week :) Shawn has 3 projects due for school that require my supervision/participation and work has been super busy too....

The kids had their first soccer games this weekend... It was a great day - Sarah scored 1 goal and Shawn scored 2!!!

My friend Sara was here this week to get her son Grant packed and ready for his mission to Missouri. It was so great to see her and I'm so excited for her son to have this opportunity!

I'm thrilled that its showing signs of cooling off around here!!! I actually have the windows open again tonight - now if I can just get to sleep all will be well...

PS... Jim and I went to see Nights in Rodanthe as soon as it came out... it was so sad - we were sobbing... It was different from the book...I ended up disappointed and give it a thumbs down :(

It's that time again...

Soccer season is upon us again. I love this time of year - it's so fun to watch the kids play! And the weather is starting to get nicer too :) All is well in my little soccer world.

Had a nice week and weekend too... I laughed harder than I have in as long as I can remember one night over something Jim's son said... I almost had to pull the car over I was laughing and crying so hard! I love that - wish I could do it more often!!!! Saw a couple of movies with Jim(The Women and Traitor - both were very good - Traitor is a thriller that was a little disturbing, but entertaining and The Women of course is a total chick flick - Jim's such a great sport- he'll see anything with me). One more week until Nights in Rodanthe comes out - I'm soooo excited ;)

One of the young men at our church is getting ready to head off on a mission to Uganda - for two years!!! It's exciting and scary at the same time. I remember when I went to Europe for the summer when I was 21; I was homesick starting the first night. I was up half the night talking to the front desk clerk at the hotel - he settled me down enough to stay, but I still shaved a couple weeks off the end of my trip. I can't imagine being away from home for 2 years at that time in my life. It's such an amazing sacrifice that these young men make. I know they all grow in so many ways while they're gone, but its got to be hard to get there mentally and adapt to a new environment without all the comforts of home. It's so wonderful that they do so much teaching and so much learning and then come back all ready for life!

September 11....

I can't believe its been 7 years since that horrible day. I remember it so clearly. I never watched the news and was feeling very uninformed, so just that week I decided that I was going to get with the program and start watching the news in the mornings - and that's when it all happened I saw it all right from the start and then it just kept getting worse. I couldn't believe it and still can't believe how much hate and destruction there is in the world. I had been here in the desert for about almost a year and my mom was still alive and living up north, so I called her right away as I always did when something bad happened - just looking for some kind of comfort. She didn't have much to say. What could she say?
It's so incomprehensible; yet amazing how so many people came together to help loved ones and strangers alike and how the states were so completely united by such a terrible tragedy. It was wonderful to see so much good in so many people. What can you say? - God Bless the USA!!!

Funny how love changes....

I can't tell you how many great people I work with at my new job. I don't recall ever working somewhere where everyone got along so well. And there are a handful of people who are around my age, so there's a lot of flashing back going on - today it started out with someone belting out a lyric from an old Foreigner song which got me taking a stroll down memory lane to my first big star love Billy Idol - I can't even tell you what a junkie I was. I had every album (yes, album) and pins, bumper stickers, t-shirts, scarves - you name it... and I remember (yes, I actually remember some stuff - especially when its tied to music - and most of the songs on my blog have specific memoires attached - which is so fun for me :) anyway, I remmber sneaking off to Oakland to see him in concert with my girlfriends when I was 16(that would be the equivalent of sneaking off to LA from the desert)- and we snuck back stage and he walked right past us - I was shocked to see what a tiny little thing he was...but no love lost - it was definitely the highlight of my year!!!! I look back now and he looks a little angry in most of the photos (this one's not bad) - I guess that's the Rebel part - must have been what I loved about him???


Now a days and as far back in my adult life as I can recall - its Richard Gere (yes, I know he's a little different - but I can't help it)... and here I am star struck again - he has a new movie coming out with Diana Lane (who I also love!!!) "Nights in Rodanthe" - I'm so excited about it I even read the book and I'm soooooo not a reader - I really try to be, but I just can't ever get into anything - which I'm finding isn't such a bad thing, as I loved this book so much that I neglected just about everyone and everything just so I could hurry and finish it up. So that's it...new times, new loves... I cannot wait for the movie!!!

Back to school

Okay - here are the kids this morning - the first day of school! Sarah's first year in middle school, Shawn's last. They were both very excited to get to school and were out the door before 7!

Shawn even offered to make sure Sarah got her new schedule and to show her around to her classes, but after she got her schedule, she ventured off by herself - and made it to all her classes on time... Success! They both had a great first day :)

And I had a great day at work too - and went to a baby shower this evening which was fun - lots of cute gifts, nice people and great food. I really need to get out more. I met this great gal there who told me that she birthed both of her babies at home!!!! She told me she used some Bradley Method and it was fabulous. Its amazing what the mind can do when trained properly! Where the heck was she when I was in my childbearing years? I went to Lamaze... Lamaze shamaz I tell you... it all went out the window when I was in labor... I remember when one of our classes was a trip to the Labor & Delivery department and there was this woman screaming at the top of her lungs and I just thought - keep it down in there lady - you're freaking us out - and our teacher assured us that we could avoid that kind of situation by being educated and following our plan. YA RIGHT - that was soooooo me!

QUESTION: Does anyone know why Shawn's eyes are red in this picture and Sarah's aren't? His eyes are always red in pictures but I just figured it was me - but why aren't hers red if its the same lighting, camera, etc?

Summer Storm

This weekend we have had such a delightful change in the weather. Saturday morning I awoke to a wonderful thunder and rain storm and tonight the most amazing lighting storm I've ever seen in my life. I was so thankful Elizabeth called to tell me about it as I would have missed the whole thing without the heads up! I tried to capture it on my digital camera, my cell phone camera and my cell phone video camera, but I got nuthin!!! I'm sooo bummed! I copied this photo of similar clouds from the Internet where someone had it titled "nasty lookin' clouds" - Can you believe it? The cloud cluster here was a little smaller, but still magnificent and so bright and beautiful and there was lots of lighting going on inside of it - it was unbelievable! And - I think it lit the funk I've been in since last Friday right out of me - hallelujah!!! Mind you - this is not the Friday two days ago - it's the one a week ago... a major funk accompanied by a pesty little headache (I rarely get headaches - so this was a double inconvenience) - with no apparent source - just a shift in perception I suppose. You know how every thing's the same - you have all the responsibility and challenges and whatever that you've always had (kids, bills, no money, working full time, being a single parent - ie, no relief or backup - this stupid pain and swelling in my hand (good news is - this go round its only in my hand and its not carpal tunnel, lupus or rheumatoid arthritis - bad new is - it sucks and limits my ability to do normal stuff!!!) and then there's Shawn :) - he's completely on overdrive lately - his impulse control is nil - but on the other hand his Tourette's seems to be pretty well under control - or maybe we're just so used to it we don't even notice anymore? Neither of us can figure it out... It's so hard - I just don't know how to handle it. And then I question - maybe its me??? Anyway - I guess we'll be off to the doctor this week for some pharmaceutical help - which neither of us like as we haven't had too much success with it in the past, but we have new insurance, so it will be a new doctor this time and maybe they'll have some new suggestions. In the meantime I've begged him to try an herbal supplement for 1 week to see if there is any improvement - otherwise one of us will need something to get through this... No wonder people drink :) anyway - so nothing has really changed in life but them bam - all of a sudden you're completely overwhelmed by anything and everything? You do know - right? Anyway - I get like that occasionally for a few days here and there, but this was such an extended amount of time I was getting overly frustrated!!! At Target when I was returning an item the other day - I stepped up to the counter at my turn (there's still at least one person behind me as well) and took my merchandise out of the bag and set it on the counter - meanwhile the clerk steps aside and is casually chatting away with her co-worker and finally turns around and says "oh, do you need help" - so I say OUTLOUD "no, I just thought I'd stand here" Ya - right in front of my kids - they just look at me like you have sooooo lost it lady! And then - my house payment was way over due, so I'm waiting for payday, etc to get enough money to pay it (28 days late - I've rarely paid anything late in my life) I was so excited to finally have the money to pay it I did a check by phone and begrudgingly paid the extra $35 in late fees and the $15 pay by phone fee and that was it - whew - another hurdle cleared - YIPPI! But then - two days later I realize I didn't pay anything else - that's right I completely forgot about the bills that were actually due - not that it would have mattered as I'm out of money, but just the fact that I didn't even realize there were other bills to pay is very disturbing to me - now I have 5 more unpaid bills all with late fees and my head is spinning (like you can't tell) and I'm ready to vomit. My ability to function in public along with my perfect credit score are going down the tubes right along with my sanity! I guess I'll be looking for a weekend job here as soon as season picks up??? Anyway, yesterday I finally thought to pull out an herbal supplement I use for PMS (even though its a week too early for that - that's what I have to look forward to next week - that should push me right over the edge:) - and whether its the weather or the herbs - I'm just thrilled that I'm snapping out of this funk!!!

So I'm sitting here typing and I hear a weird grinding noise behind me and it's the cat - chewing/tugging on the hair of one of my old dolls! Crazy cat!!! And then a few seconds later, she's cuddled up right next to it!!!

We've been cleaning out closets and such, getting ready for the school year, and we came across a few of my old dolls in Sarah's stuff that I'm just not ready to let go of yet...so then when she protested against me telling her she could only keep 5 stuffed animals (not counting Webkins) out of all the dozens that we dug up - how could I argue when she wanted to keep 10 or maybe more? I think I still had some of my stuff animals up to about 5 years ago or so and I'm still having trouble parting with these old warn out dolls. The good news is - is that we still managed to get rid of 2 loads to the Good Will and we have at least 10 big trash bags full of garbage that was stuffed everywhere!!! It didn't seem like there was that much stuff when it was all crammed away. Maybe I'm one of those crazy hoarder people and don't even know it???? Someone call Oprah!

Ya right...

So late last night I'm catching up on blog reading and I come across Lisa's hilarious description of letting her 3 year old painting her finger nails... I couldn't believe it today when Sarah asked if she could do my hair in pig tails!!! So, remembering what a trooper Lisa was, I decided to give it a go. And there Shawn was laughing hysterically with camera in hand. Fortunately Sarah noticed the error of her ways straight off and allowed me to remove the pig tails....

Monterey - Cousin Julie turns 50 !!!

We had a great weekend in Monterey with our family. Cousin Julie turned fabulous 50 and had a birthday bash at Del Monte Golf Course. We met our new cousin Landon for the first time -he's already 6 months old (Craig and Marina's baby). It was fun to see all of Julie's friends - she's so lucky - she's got this wonderful magnetic personality and has sooooo many great friends!!! Julie's cousin Sue also had a pool party out at her home in Carmel Valley - the kids had a blast. We wished we could have stayed longer. I didn't get too many great pictures as my camera seems to be on the fritz since I dropped it on the pavement :( OH - and it was the weekend of the Concours d'Elegance and the Concorso Italiano so there were Ferrari's and Lamborgini's all over the place - Shawn was beside him self every time we were on the road! I can't figure out how to organize these pictures and type by them, so in order they're: Sarah & Cousin Kaitlyn. Amy, Cousin Syndey, Auntie Dee Dee, Toby. Cousin Matthew. Landon, Marina & Cousin Craig. Matthew, Shawn & Sarah. Shawn

Solvang

First trip to Solvang... not much time since we were just passing through on the way to Monterey, but a quaint little town I'd love to return to when I have more time. Stayed at a great Hampton Inn in Oxnard right on the harbor the night prior - this Hilton employee hotel rate is fabulous!!! And I just got my health, dental and vision benefits - It's so great to have a job :) I think I might like to go back there as well.

Huntington Beach

Went to Huntington Beach 2 weekends in a row... Lots of fun. Lunch at Ruby's diner on the pier and lots of dolphins in the water -not while we were swimming but very cool to see from afar!!!

Shawn turns 13!!!

Well I've been oh hiatus from blogging due to trouble with my hands... its mostly under control now, but I'm still limited to how much I can use the computer for fun since I'm on all day for work. Anyway, I'll try to catch up a bit here and stay current.

Shawn turned 13 this month... and I took he and his friend Caleb to Boomers for the day. It was sweltering, but they seemed to have a great time - so all was well.

Young Men - Patio Project

Yikes... one of the posts of my patio cover was totally water damaged and ready to collapse..the Young Men's group came to the rescue for a service project... Yippi !!! It's good to go now. Thanks to all!!!

You say tomato I say tomato

Okay - so I'm talking to Jim and referring to my "Auntie" Peteranne and he decides its necessary to let me know that "Auntie" isn't even a real word!!! WHAT you're kidding me? So of course I head straight to the dictionary to look it up - sure enough its nowhere to be found - but thank goodness for the Internet - there it was "a pet form of word aunt" - but knowing my family, it really stems form the gambling term "ante" as in "ante up" - which reminds me of the story of my cousin Julie who's parents were called into the nuns office when Julie was in kindergarten because the nuns were concerned about her counting skills. It went something like this " 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-Jack-Queen-King". So, you see, the "ante" theory is not that far fetched after all.

My whole life I've only known Aunti - on my moms side all the Yugoslavs - Auntie Peteranne, Auntie Arlene, Auntie Dee Dee, Auntie A, etc.... and even on my dad's side plain old white folk - Aunti Marge, Auntie Lorraine, etc... Who calls their aunts "Aunt so an so"? Evidently everyone but me and my family. I've just never heard such a thing my whole life - so I'm just sticking with Auntie as I know it. Perhaps its simply a northern California thing?

Good night!!!!

Happy times...

First off - Rachell - I love you!!!! Your comment on my sock miracle entry was witty and profound.... thank you for enlightening me! I'll be sure to seek out these messages in everyday happenings from here on out :)

Second - the letters from my dad finally arrived!!!! For those who don't know - he died when I was around 15 months old and I have no memories of him and know very little about him - so my half sister (who was grown and out on her own by the time I came along) called me on my birthday to let me know she found some old letters from our dad to her that she though I might like to read... I've been waiting on pins and needles for these letters for weeks and I finally received them today. They are from March 1968 and he passed in September 1968. It was so wonderful to read them... just to get a glimpse of his personality. I'm bummed my mom isn't still alive to share them with - she's been gone 6 years now and every once in a while I just get the urge to pick up the phone and give her a call - this is definitely one of those times - she'd be certain to share in the joy. My dad was very ill with heart trouble at the time of the letters and up to his death, so there's a little history on that and then of course - he mentioned what a doll I was : ) He also mentioned a lot of people I remember knowing as a child. I know it was a very hard time for our family but it sounds like there were quite a few people around to visit and help out... he also references a letter he wrote that was published in the Auburn Journal - I'm wondering if I'd be able to get a copy of that too????

This has been a great day! Finally!!! - I've been battling horribly painful incapacitating problems with my hands again, so I haven't been able to type much - especially for leisure which is such a huge bummer as I was really starting to love this blogging thing.

Hey - we're having a major thunder and lightning storm right now - and its even raining... What a treat!!!

Sock Miracle....

This was a stressful week - I have no idea why - it was a short work week and nothing out of the ordinary even happend, but you know how sometimes everything stresses you out? Or does that just happen to me? Maybe it's PMS... I haven't checked the calendar... Anyway when I was doing my umpteenth load of laundry (still trying to catch up from Shawn's camping trip) all the socks matched up! Yippi - a sock miracle!!! Ya know its bad when this was the highlight of my week :)

Who needs Botox?

WELCOME HOME SHAWN :) Check out those lips :( poor guy... who needs Botox when you've got coldsores???

Shawn says he had a great time at camp. I'm going to try to get him to write a little about it later.

LATER... tried to get Shawn to write about camp... no such luck. He did tell me all about it though... FUN - yep, that was it, I poked and prodded for details as long as I could, then he just got annoyed.. So FUN is all we've got to go o :) !

SUMMER TIME By Sarah

Well summer has been so much fun !!! One of my friends in my neighborhood took me and a friend of ours to Chuck E. Cheese's yesterday and we had so much fun. My friend Mackenzie is moving on 4th of july weekend so she and I have been spending a lot of time playing in and outside or at the pool!!! My summer has been going so well so far.

Today my brother is coming home from camp, while he was gone it was so peaceful it was like I was an only child. Then it comes to thought if I was an only child I would have no one to play with and then I would probably get bored. I guess could say that I missed him a little bit.

You've got to be kidding me!!!!

This week at my new job we have had "team building" in the afternoons on Mon & Tues and all day today.... I'm not sure how much team building we actually did since it was really deep cleaning of some of the meeting rooms and cleaning out storage areas, but it was certainly a necessity and most likely the quickest way to get the huge task done (and I say that lightly as I think there is much more to do - but we were only scheduled for the 3 days)..... Anyway some of it was outside and all of it was totally physical and completely exhausting!!!! So needless to say I was thrilled when those of us who had worked all three days were given first pick of the stuff that was selected to be sold at the employee sale or given to good will. I just took a few items and one (or two) was this beautiful chair and ottoman set (someone else referred to them as hideous, but I love them) - so I get them home and all set up in the perfect or shall I say purrfect corner of my bedroom and lo and behold the furball cat takes no time at all to get cozy right in the middle of my new chair!!!! Hiss hiss.... kitty kitty.

By the way - Shawn has been at camp since Sunday - and I haven't heard a word from him. I'm assuming that must mean he's having a great time. Poor thing, he's stuck here with Sarah and I all the time - I suspect he's in heaven just soaking in all the guy time :)

And - I haven't heard back from Charllis yet with the copies of the letters from my dad.... I'll have to send a reminder as I've been waiting on pins and needles since she told me about them :)
Has everyone forgotten about me already???? Or maybe they're just ignoring me - like the cat!

Surprise - housekeepers :)

Here I am acting surprised because while I was out frolicking around with Jim this evening (actually we were delivering some water storage barrels) I left Sarah and her friend Sydnee home alone and came back to fine that they had cleaned up the house..... not only the messes they had made, but other messes as well - WITHOUT even being asked. WOW - what a nice treat for a Tuesday evening - actually - for any evening!

Did I say Tuesday? Yikes, I'm so exhausted I already feel like its the end of the week. We've been doing "team building" aka deep cleaning at work in the afternoons this week and I've had a couple of outdoor projects... Tomorrow will be a doozie for sure as we start on ALL outdoor projects first thing in the morning. Hopefully the morning will be as nice as it was today - It was absolutely gorgeous this morning - maybe even most of the day - I'm not sure - I just know it got ugly when I was outside cleaning doors and windows. I don't know how people do manual labor all day long - especially in this heat. Kudos to anyone who has to exert themselves in their jobs!!!

And kudos to the girls for cleaning the house :)

Parenting 101 ???

Ahhhhh... All's quiet on the home front. Shawn left yesterday afternoon for scout camp and it couldn't have come at a better time - I was just getting ready to start searching for a camp to check myself into. Did I say camp? Maybe I meant padded room??? Anyway - I'm already enjoying the break from the constant unsolicited job I acquired (since having children) as referee. Who knew? Why on earth doesn't anyone tell you how hard being a parent really is? Is it some kind of conspiracy??? Or -maybe its like childbirth - you forget (or block out) how painful it really was after its over and then you decided to have another one and the panic doesn't set in until the flashbacks start and you realize what you've gotten yourself into and its too late to back out!!! At least there's an end in sight with childbirth. This parenting thing goes on literally forever (I hear) - not just until they are 18. And - seriously - if I had parents I'm sure even I would have moved back home by now :)

I'm not sure how I missed out on the Parenting 101 class with all those years in school - and I never in a million years thought I'd be a single parent, so here I am winging it with no instructions and no 800 number to call for support and so far we're all surviving. I'm doing the best that I can and I figure at the very least - my kids will be less emotionally scarred than I and their children will be less emotionally scarred than them. So - its all good :)

I remember feeling so relieved a few weeks ago when I heard another mother actually admit in a talk at church in front of everyone - that sometimes she is overwhelmed being a parent - it wasn't anything in particular or a specific crisis, it was just everyday parenting. Can I just say "Thank you very much!!!" With all the gushing so many people do over their children I sometimes start to think there is something more wrong with me than just missing the class. I realize we need to praise our children and its great to talk about all the fantastic and/or funny stuff they do, but sometimes its nice to hear that other people have child rearing challenges too - it helps me not feel like such a failure when everyone else is talking about their perfect children :)

Libby Lu 6-21-08

I (SARAH) went to Libby Lu for my friend Scarlett's birthday party and we got our hair done, you can see!!! We went to the Libby Lu at Downtown Disney and had so much fun!!! After we went to Libby Lu we walked around and we had so much fun because it was all girls. After we walked around for a littel bit ,then we went home and played hide and go seek in the dark.

At Libby Lu we bought tons of things like purple hair spray and when you take a shower it comes out ,but i didn't spray any of it in my hair because i didn't want it to get mest up.then my mom came and got me really late that night and when i woke up the next morning and was sick:( That is why i was not able to go to church today. When i stayed home i just slept and it was not fun.

1st Day of Summer 6/21/2008

Yowza its a hot first day of summer - 118.... the temperature's high and gas prices are too -although they are down from last week - I only paid $4.41 yesterday. My friend Kelli (from grade school - who I recently found on our high school website) is living in England and tells me that the gas prices are equivalent to $12/gallon. She hardly drives anywhere!!!

I added a few new summer songs to my playlist. One's an old favorite Bryan Adams song (I'm feeling a little nostalgic with the recent birthday) and the other's a new Kid Rock song... who knew??? I've never heard anything from the Kid before this -its a mix of Werewolf in London and Sweet Home Alabama - talk about a blast from the past - I love it! I can't believe how talented people are - first just to write any kind of song is amazing, but then to have it enter ones mind to blend two songs and add new lyrics and get a whole new song - completely unbelievable. Thank goodness there are talented people out there working to entertain the rest of us!!!