Summer Time

Well summer's upon us and the weather has been soooooo fabulous here in the desert... not so much this past weekend in Redlands where it was freezing! The kids had a soccer tournament all weekend... lots of fun and great games... Shawn's team came in 4th and Sarah's didn't really come in any place, but they had a great time :)

Shawn has his promotion ceremony for 8th grade this Thursday... I'm so proud that he worked at getting his grades up this last quarter... although I noticed it really didn't take him much effort.... so it seems that it would be easier (on me at least) if he would just stay on top of things from the get go :) I'll have to continue to encourage that option next year. I can't believe he's going to be in high school!!!!

Sarah turns 12 on Monday and both kids are leaving with the grandparents for 2 weeks... Sarah will be hanging out with her grandma and the golden retriever in Auburn, while grandpa, Shawn and the Alaskan Malamute take a road trip to Canada.... I so wish I was going! It's sooooooo beautiful there! Don't know what I'll do for 2 weeks with no responsibility --- and peace and quiet... I haven't been alone that long in I don't know how long maybe since before I was married....no wait I lived with my mom before I was married... so that would be never!!! I've never been alone for 2 weeks... I probably won't have a clue what to do :)

Been a long time....

Wow I haven't been on the blog in ages... just busy... Both kids are in Select Soccer, so they've still been practicing and playing weekly - One more tournament to go and we're done!

In April we went to Auburn with Mike and Melanie (kids dad & step mom) to visit the kids Grandparents. I stayed with Tami one night and Cynthia then next. Cynthia & I met up with Denise for a visit in Colfax. It was a great time... much too short of a visit. Oh and we did a totally fun treasure Easter egg hunt on Easter for the kids :)

Sarah on grandpa's eBay find

Be-headed statue - hiding place for eggs

Sarah & the old Fiat aka hiding place

Shawn up in the library - yet another great hiding place

Over the rest of Easter vacation, Shawn spent a couple of days with our cousin Matthew, Auntie Dee Dee and Amy at their timeshare in Carlsbad...

And then the highlight of Shawn's life - which he actually missed a soccer game for (which is unheard of for him) ---- I took him and his friend (and met another there) to the RC Car Expo in Pomona. They were sooooo excited and giddy I thought they were going to come out of their skin... It really made me wish I had a hobby or something (anything) that made me that excited!

Shawn got measured at the doctor's office the other day and he's 5'6" now!!! Sarah's not far behind... her legs go on forever.... not sure where she got those!

Jim's been back and forth to Tunisia a few times over the past few months -- he's there now, so I'm bored without him :(

That's all I can think of right now!

Nobel Prize Winner's Message: The Economy Sucks (tell me something I don't already know)

Last night Jim and I were fortunate to attend a lecture and dinner that was part of the Desert Town Hall Lecture Series... held at the Renaissance Esmeralda. The speaker was Nobel Prize wining Economist Paul Krugman... I thought we were going to gain some great insight on the state of the current economic crisis and when we could expect the start of a recovery... what I got is what I already knew... The economy sucks... its going to get worse before it gets better and there's no real indication of when we might pull out of this. He also stated that its really important for everyone to continue spending and quite hording their money... and when asked where he's keeping his money these days... he said he has a lot of cash - Ya, probably hording it in his mattress like anyone else who has any money left! The least he could have done was end with a joke! Still it was a very enjoyable evening and the lamb was exquisite!!! I do have to say the highlight of the evening was picking up the car from valet.... there were probably 500 or more people at this dinner who all needed to get their cars from valet and the young blond valet guy was hysterical - with mic in hand comically announcing each car and its owner as it arrived.. I think you may have had to be there - but trust me, it was a hoot!

Trouble in paradise....

Okay..... I haven't been on in forever because I've been a little stressed out!!! I'm still working at La Quinta Resort, but they've been cutting so many jobs and have cut our hours back and I've just been freaking out! Ya, I know - what's new? Anyway, its still sooooooo amazingly beautiful at the resort and I just recently noticed that we have a bunch of purple and white orchid trees on the property! I had no idea we even had orchid trees in the desert!!!!

Anyway, with my cut hours, I have to take a whole extra day off each week, which may sound great in theory, but when its without pay - its a huge problem :( And of course during this personal economic crisis I have to have a dental crisis - of which my portion costs as much as a house payment! And this week I took off Wednesday off and didn't do much of anything except a few errands and of course laundry and go back to work on Thursday and get a call in the morning (couldn't have happened Wednesday when I'm hangin at home) that Shawn is sick... so off I go again... to the ER again for head trouble (loss of peripheral vision, numbness in face and hands, sever headache, loss of balance).... which they say is just a post-concussion migraine... from the "minor" concussion he got way back in December...and could happen for up to a year or longer after the initial concussion... and they did tell us he could have headaches for a while after he first got the concussion... and he's had plenty of headaches since then, just none for about the past month and none nearly as bad as this one! I'm hoping this was just the grand finale freak headache.... and we're done with it :)

Busy, busy, busy

Been sooooo crazy busy lately haven't had time to keep up the blog. Shawn's in Soccer All Stars and Select which goes another 10 weeks and Sarah's still in tryouts for the Select team, so she may be going on too :) Cousin Julie was in Palm Springs for a seminar this weekend, so she came over to visit today... it was so nice to see her :) And Jim just got home from Libya for 2 weeks... Finally :) I was so happy to see him and so relieved that he made it home safely. Sounds like he got a lot accomplished and he hopes he won't have to go for that length of time again... Me too!!! He took like 600 pictures while he was there... this one is my absolute favorite!