No Disneyland today....

Zachary woke up at 5am with a 101 fever. Ugh. He always gets a fever when he's over tired. I gave him some medicine and he seemed better until 4 hours later and the fever peaked back up. Now he's napping. Glad I went with my instinct and skipped it, even though I really really wanted to get on that darn Nemo ride. So instead I've been cleaning like a mad crazy person. I think that was my way of keeping busy to not eat. Day 2 of the points. Going good so far. Now I'm going to break out some scrapbooking stuff. Today I promise to take pictures and upload some layouts.

Another week

has flown by! Since Austin started school last week it seems as though I've been bombarded! I'll try to work backwards: Today-first day of school for Zachary. YEAH!!! He's been so ready to go. I worked while he was at school. So much to do....so much new scrapbooking stuff to put out. Picked him up, came home started laundry, took a break and watched Oprah, left for soccer practice and while Austin was at soccer, I ran to the supermarket, ran home and dropped the groceries off, drove through McD's for dinner and got Austin all within 1 hour! WHEW!!!! Dinner-bath-bedtime all by 8:30. Oh and Ryan is in Florida. And I decided this morning to do "points" to lose those 6lbs. CRAZY DAY! I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Going to Disneyland for a few hours with Illyse.

The weekend-worked Friday night. Saturday I was exhausted and that's because I didn't get much sleep from getting home late and my new medicine makes me sleepy. (just until I adjust to it) Opening day at soccer, that was a lot of fun! Out to dinner with friends at the Yard House. The company was awesome....I think I'm the only person that doesn't really like the Yard Houses' food. The guys drank lots at dinner, and when we got back to Cherish & Dustin's house they continued with more beer and shots. We got home at midnight...not early considering we met them at 5:30. Kids were gone for the evening, YEAH! He paid dearly the next day.

Sunday-scrapped with Illyse. What a perfect quiet day. Love stuff like this. I've been in a crazy shopping coma for scrapbooking stuff the last two weeks and I can't shake it. JoAnn's is having coupon commotion going on, Target has new 2-pack Autum Leave stamps and then at my work the new stuff just keeps rolling in. Oh and Scrapper's Bliss is closing their store. (online) I got some amazing deals! So that's kind of what I've been up to. I'm pooped today, gonna head off to bed soon. I need to upload some pics to share, here's some my mom took while at the beach house.

Me? High Blood Pressure?

I went for a check-up this morning and dreading the fact they were going to weigh me. I know I've been bad this summer. Real BAD. No exercise......not even once. I have totally slid off my routine and I keep promising once the kids are back in school I'll get back on track with eating and exercise. Well nothing like a 6 pound weight gain and your blood pressure being too high to motivate you. It isn't horrible, just not what it usually is. In fact the last few times I've gone it's been kind of on the higher side. So my doctor put me on a very low dose of blood pressure medicine and wants me to get right back to eating healthy and exercise and lose the 6lbs by my next appt in a month. She said I really need to lose 25 pounds.....something I already knew, but would be happy with the 6 and lower blood pressure. I'm too young for this, so I will be back to healthier ways!

First Day of School

YEAH!!! It's so quiet.......no fighting, no bickering, no loud TV shows.....almost back to "normal". Zachary starts on Monday, so we're half way there. Austin was super excited this morning. What kid wouldn't be with all these great new clothes, shoes, and a back pack and.....no school supplies? We couldn't ever find the "list" for Fourth Grade in our area. So I got it today. They didn't have any more at the school yesterday. WHOA! It's a big list. I hope him not having any of it today won't be a problem. Ryan has softball tonight so I told the kids we'd go supply shopping and out to dinner. Oh, and Austin's teacher is a lady who's son was on our soccer team last year. And this is the first year Austin has been in a classroom with 30 kids! We've been the "class" that managed to get K-3rd with 20 to 1. I think it changed after first grade and they bumped up K & 1st and lowered 2nd-3rd. Those poor kids are on top of each other. Eeeish......well happy Back to School!

Today we have a meet & greet the teacher day at Zach's school. Poor baby thinks it's his first day. I really blew it this summer by missing the sign-ups for a summer Tiny Tots program. Next year I'll know now to look around Spring Break.

And one more thing.....I love when I get to scrap the day away with my friends and I did exactly that on Monday. Glad you girls could all make it! We beat the heat by staying indoors. I'm still scrapping at home. Last night Zach decided to help me and took my adhesive and placed about 50 tabs all across a finished layout. Ugh. My fault for leaving it out and going and starting dinner. Have a great Wednesday now that it's cooled off considerably!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I hope everyone is trying to stay cool~this heat is just miserable. Last night when I got off work the tempertature in my car read 81 degrees!!! Today my mom & I shopped the day away. Found some great sales at Macy's. I found a Kathy Van Zeeland bag that I've been wanting ever since I saw my Grandma's a few weeks ago. I dug under the clearance tables and found the last one. It was regularly priced $80 and I got it for $32! I'll have to take a pic and share it later. Any ways....we're just about to watch Wild Hogs. I heard it's funny. I work tomorrow and then we're going swimming at my moms. Monday afternoon I'm scrapping with my friends. Can't wait! Have a great weekend!

Red Power Ranger in the House

Ever since the Disney Halloween catalog showed up the other day Zachary has been carrying it around talking about being a Power Ranger. I'm not a huge fan....but whatever makes him happy, ya know? On Sunday while I was at work, my mother-in-law bought him some Power Ranger sword and mask and he's been on fire with it, so this catalog was the icing on the cake. Last night we went up to the mall to finally purchase this costume. I couldn't handle him talking about it any more. I know I could have gone the cheapie route.....but there is something about a Disney costume and the quality you get. I had a 15% off coupon so it saved some dough. The thing is pretty darn cute. The mask has blinking lights and all you can see is Zach's nose and eyes. He's already asked to wear it since he's been up. I'm trying to delay the inevitable.

Today we're going to my parents to wait for the cable guy. Lucky us. But I guess that's the trade off for them always babysitting. They bought the biggest TV, 52"! My parents have not had a new TV in their living room since I was 8...................I'm 35!!!! So this is a pretty big deal. My mom thinks it's too big.....no, she's just used to this old thing encased in wood. How they've put up with it all these years. It's just funny that they'll do other remodel things, but not buy a tv.

Tonight I'm working.......we don't really have any "fun" weekend plans other than trying to stay cool!

When is it going to cool down?

This heat is making me and my kids cranky. After being gone all day on Tuesday, yesterday I decided we should just lay low and stay home in the nice air conditioning all day. All they wanted to do is leave and do something. So at 3pm I took them swimming and what did they do? Complain that it's "too hot" and want to go in. No way....not after I got my suit on and I'm ready to lay out and tan. Zachary laid in the shade for an hour and Austin decided the pool was too dirty to go in. Ugh. You can't please everyone. So today to beat the heat we went to the movies at 10:15 a.m. and saw Underdog. It was cute....definitely a boy movie. Then off to WalMart for some school supplies. Oh wait....let me just say that when I left the theater I backed up into a pole.......my second time doing this in 3 weeks! It did nothing, thank god! Back to Wal Mart, why don't they have the lists for supplies like Target? So we only bought lunch bags because I don't want to make ten trips for school supplies, so I figure we should just wait.

The museums were awesome! We had such a great time and we literately spent the whole day in LA. My mistake...we did not go to the LA Children's Museum, we went to the Natural History Museum and the California Science Museum. We could have spent the whole day there! (sitting on those steps were burning our butts!) My mom really enjoyed walking through the rose garden, and I wish I would have taken more pics there, but the boys kept running off. The roses were so pretty!

As most of you know, my ex-husband is remarried and right before we left for the beach house he told me that he's divorcing her. I couldn't be happier, because she has just been one of those people that always stirs up trouble. It does leave a bitterness where I want to say to Mark, "see....I told you it wouldn't work!" He thought the grass was greener (actually just younger and skinnier) and now he's left with a huge mess and four kids to support. FOUR KIDS! Just needed to vent a little because we talked today about our weekends for the next month. It's sad that Austin isn't his first priority, but that's nothing new.

I'm going to set up and scrap...I know I owe some layout uploads....maybe later. :)

Field Trip

My mom called last night and asked us to go to the Natural History Museum & the L.A. Children's Museum today. I'm excited considering I haven't been to either one since I was? Gosh, I had to have been Austin's age? It's been a long time! So we're off onto our little field trip!

My celebrity look-a-likes

I found this on Nan's blog...http://www.scrappynan.blogspot.com/.I was really curious. I can see some similarities. Now when someone asks me which star do I look like, I have someone to claim to look similar to.

This & That

Nothing really exciting going on for us this week. Just on the countdown to when school starts. Austin is set & so is Zachary.

Recap: Go Diego Go was a great show! I was surprised at how good it was. The only thing that baffeled me is that Diego looked a little like Donny Osmond? and about 45? Weird. Great production, so glad we went. I accidentlly snapped this photo of the show <-----with the flash. You weren't supposed to use flash photography. I was messing with the settings, trying to see if I could get one in the dark and I forgot to turn it off. OOPS!

On a heavier note, without getting into too much, do you ever feel like everything is going wrong? Just everything? I feel overwhelmed personally. Physically too...with my ankle and then we've had four major things break in our house that need fixing. I just feel so overwhelmed and confused. Onto happy stuff.....I scrapped Saturday night with some friends and managed to get 5 layouts done! I'll post pics later. Have a great day!

A Bad Accident

We sort of witnessed a really bad accident yesterday. We were driving home from the store heading down Bastanchury. As I'm driving down the hill there are cars stopped, people running on the street and something laying in the street. My gut is telling me it's a bicycle accident. Cal State just went back into session on Monday and it's been very crazy in our area with students. The closer I get and slowing down because now I hear sirens, I realize there is a guy that was hit on his motorcycle. Now I'm stopped on the side of the road, right in front of the whole thing. It's bad....really bad. The guys' motorcycle is at least 50 feet or so away from him, the side of an Escalade is all messed up and this guy is laying right next to the wheel of the drivers side of the Escalade. All I can say is thank God he has a helmet on, a leather jacket and pants & boots. Seeing this really freaked me out. All night I was thinking about it.....hoping that guy is ok. Fastforward two hours and Ryan is getting home. Says that Bastanchury is all shut down. :( Oh no.....that doesn't sound good. So first thing this morning I found this.

Motorcyclist injured in Fullerton crash
Cal State Fullerton student goes head over handlebars after Escalade pulls out in front of motorcycle.
By KIMBERLY EDDS
The Orange County Register
FULLERTON – A 22-year-old motorcyclist is in stable condition Thursday evening after he was sent flying through the driver's window of an SUV that apparently pulled out in front of him on Bastanchury Road, authorities said.
The Whittier man was on his way to a class at California State University, Fullerton, about 6:40 p.m. about when an Escalade suddenly pulled out on to Bastanchury near Vista Grande, authorities said. The motorcyclist couldn't stop in time, and the motorcycle slammed into the side of the Escalade, sending the motorcyclist over the handlebars and through the window of the SUV.
The motorcyclist, whose name has not been released, was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange with internal injuries, Fullerton police Lt. Danny Hughes said.
The 16-year-old girl behind the wheel of the Escalade was taken to St. Jude with minor injuries, authorities said.
Bastanchury was closed for several hours while officers investigated the accident.

Wow. This definitely has left me praying for this young man to be o.k.

I have a real knack for.......

hurting myself. Last night at Austin's soccer practice I was walking back out to my car to get something and as I stepped down off the curb I rolled my left ankle almost falling to the ground. I instantly could feel the pain and see the swelling. There I am trying to catch my breath and Zachary is asking me if I'm O.K. putting his blankie on my back and kissing me. I'm trying not to cry as the pain gets more intense because I don't want to freak him out. He's already a little worried asking me if I need a wheelchair and to go see the doctor. Ryan is on the freeway....no where near us. My dad is at softball and my mom & brother are at a football function. I really felt stuck. So I suck it up and get in the car and drive home. I can just feel the throbbing pain and see the swelling. Why tonight? We're seeing a show tomorrow (today) and I have to go back to work on Friday....ugh. This is a bad time. I ice it off and on for a couple of hours. Most of the swelling has gone down, but it still hurts. Soon as the doctors office opens today I'm making an appt. I'm sure it's sprained, just hope it isn't anything more.

Today we're seeing this

our show is at 10:30 a.m. Zachary is so excited and has already plan his outfit to wear. Of course it's his Diego vest, shirt and pants!

Day two at the Beach house. My cousin (red hat) Charity and her daughter Hailey came and spent the day with us. Charity and I are only a year a part....it's hard to imagine I could have a child that is 14! And my goofy boys as usual.

Beach House Pics

Here is the view from our balcony

Our first day......
My sister & I. She decided to barely wear sunscreen and ended burning the back of her legs so bad that she could barely walk all week. I'm really glad she came out. When she left to go home, the plane was over booked and offered her a $400 voucher to leave in the morning.....she took it! Smart girl....that will pay for her plane ticket to come home at Christmas time.

This is Talia, my sister's friend from NY. She lives in Brooklyn and has her entire life. Let me just say she is the funniest person I have ever met! That Brooklyn accent is so thick that it just made what she said like a SNL skit. She has the kind of personaliy that you feel like you've known her all your life. Zachary & Austin just adored her and she is amazing with kids! If you can get over ALL the tattoos and piercings (which eventually my kids did) you'll see her genuine self and not the masking of body art. She wants to move to California for a year.....I told her I'd hire her to babysit in a heartbeat......I even offered her to stay at my parents house. My sister is dating her cousin Joe. If he's anything like Talia, my sister has definitely hit the jackpot.

I'm going to post more later, I have tons of pics! Seems like today has finally cooled off....have a "cool" Wednesday!

A quick post....

Hi everyone!
We're back finally! Actually we've been home since Saturday but I feel like I've been non-stop on the go. TONS of laundry to do, grocery shopping and school clothes shopping. Today I've parked myself at home to finally finish up the last of everything. I'm almost done.....I just need to upload all my pictures to share!

The weather was perfect all week. Usually we end up with overcast mornings and sunny afternoons......not this time. Sunny from sunrise to sunset! We beat some of the inland heat; we had a nice 98 degree welcome home Saturday. Yuck! Miss the cool breezes, but not the sand. Well, hopefully sometime today I'll get the pictures uploaded, we're headed over to my mom's house to swim.

I'm sick!

Yes, this is true and couldn't be at a worse time. Ryan is too. We both have sinus colds. I feel like total crap and I need to pack. The most I've done so far is make a list. My sinuses are killing me and my throat hurts. My kids are being sooooo good by letting me just hang around and mope. I know a nap is in store shortly!

So scrapped last night after work.....I could not make it late as I started to feel lousy. Some of the girls did. I don't know how though? I did set out all the new Making Memories Halloween stuff and the new Craftersworkshop templates. If you haven't seen these, they are way cool for those of you that are unsure of your doodling abilities. Super cute! I'm outta here....need to rest now. :)

Wednesday and counting!

It is officailly hump day and we're just two days away from going on vacation! I cannot wait. We rented a beach house with my parents down in Newport and I'm so excited to just go and relax! Though the stress of packing is overwhelming because I feel like we have to take SO much. So, to relax a little I'm scrapbooking tonight at the Bee. I have a little secret to share about scrapbooking there on Wednesdays. I've been working the last few Wednesday nights and there is a pretty big group showing up.....and staying really late. Like so late I can't promise it'll be every Wednesday, but for now he lets the scrapbookers stay until he goes home. **cough, cough, 3am*** So I've been dying to crop as you can tell, so tonight I'm working for a few hours and then staying until I can't stay any more.

My sister arrived last night....can't wait to see her today. She'll be here for the next week. Colin leaves for some training to Fort Campbell tomorrow. He'll be gone for 5 days and then hopefully we'll find out more details of his deployment. **sigh**

Annie, you lobster obessesed girl, I went Gymboree today and bought so many lobster things for Zachary. I'll have to take some pics later and show you :)

San Diego

We're fresh back from San Diego and I already miss it! I wish we could spend a week there.....especially at our hotel. We always stay at the Marriot Marina in downtown. It's in the perfect spot to walk where ever you need to go. But first, let me say THANK YOU STEPHANIE! We finally made it to the Rainbow Outlet. After about a year and half of going and either getting there after they close or showing up on a day they aren't open, we finally got to go and I was in heaven! We didn't buy one, not two, but THREE pairs of rainbows! (Austin wasn't interested) I would have spent all my vacation money on different colors and styles.......but decided to go with these for the family. My straps are tight, but I can't wait for them to loosen up and be my new favorite sandal! Now back to our trip:

Friday; Sea World. Was it HOT! Had a blast. It's so nice to go to a park that isn't jammed packed with people. We got the pass where you can go back a second day, because we definitely didn't get to see all the shows. Shamu rocks was really cool. I'm always impressed with these animals. Have you seen these before? They are a type of dolphin that looks like a killer whale! So cool! Saturday Zachary woke up with a fever which kind of fouled up our plans. We were supposed to go to Legoland today(Sunday), but he still was feverish so we came home. Any ways.....we made the most of Saturday. Went and checked out the big ships, tried taking him swimming. Once Austin hit the pool he was pretty much MIA.....doing his own thing. Ryan and Zachary ended up napping while Austin & I stayed at the pool. We did get some dinner and a hot fudge sundae from Ghiradelli's. Yummy! I'll post more pics later.

Layouts

I scrapped yesterday......finally. It seems like forever. After our vacations I plan to get back into it on a regular basis. I'm now a year behind. I know, I know....I'm anal about scrapping in order. So here's what I did yesterday and some from the 24 hour crop.

We started another session of swim lessons for Zachary. He's becoming such a little fish. Oh, and I took the boys for haircuts. All that long wavy hair of Zach's is gone......it was just getting too messy.

Celebration

Yesterday we started the day off at my Aunt Mildred's 90th Birthday party. Doesn't she look great? I now know what I can look forward to.....great genes! I also want to point out the mere fact that I'm wearing those 4 1/2" shoes....and I'm not even as tall as my aunt! We had a German luncheon.....my Great Grandparents are from Germany, so it's only befitting we had lunch at the Phoenix Club in Anaheim. I liked my sandwich, but the smell of the cabbage and saurkraut was not appealing.

After the party we went to go get the kids to go to party #2. My dad's 57th birthday. We went to the swim club and had a BBQ. Always a great time swimming! My boys are doing amazing. Austin is diving so well, such great form. And Zachary.....what can I say? He's like a little fish now and barely needs help.

I found out a little more about Colin and what's going on. He's still not sure why he's "active", but it's not like you can really argue with the government. His unit (apparently he's been reassigned) is already gone in Kuwait doing some sort of training......something about rescue, can't remember what it's called. So he's supposed to go to Fort Campbell later in August for Soldier Readiness Training for a few weeks. There are 34 guys that are to go. Then sometime in October he's to go to Kuwait for a few weeks and then to Iraq. His "unit" is on a 15 month tour. When he goes in October there are 9 months left of that tour and that's how long he'll be gone. We're kind of hoping for a miracle that he doesn't go and here's why. Colin had a job working in a steel factory cutting metal and they held his position until he got back. About two weeks ago when he and another guy were loading a piece to be cut, it dropped on Colin's finger.....his right finger and smooshed the heck out of it. He went to the doctors and it's isn't broken, but apparently there isn't blood circulating in it very well and he has no feeling in it, which in his follow up appt's they'll be checking for that, which means he could lose the tip. Are you catching where I'm going with this? His right finger is his trigger finger. This could be the miracle or a way out. All of this just leaves me feeling so surreal....my baby brother going off to war. I won't go into the politics of the war other than we're not for it and think the troops should have been out of there a long time ago.

I won't leave on such a sullen note, here's a funny story from yesterday's dinner. I'm sitting there with two of my brothers, Colin & Garrett. I keep looking at Garrett's forhead and notice this dark circle, a practically perfect circle. Werid? I ask what happened? Colin whips out his cell phone to show me a pic from a week ago.......HUGE KNOT! Yuck! What happened? Well, Colin doesn't have a car and was at a party and asked Garrett (who's 17) to come get him. When Garrett shows up, Colin is fighting with some guys and getting his butt kicked pretty bad, in fact really bad. Garrett jumps in to save his brother and somebody hits him in the head with a beer bottle. Nice. They're both laughing, especially Colin who has always thinks he's so tough saying how he had to have his baby brother save him. Unbelievable......boys.

Happy HOT Friday!

Man is it yucky out today! We finished up our first session of swim lessons this morning, Austin passed and Zachary is to repeat. (check Zach jumping off the diving board...he's not scared at all!) Which is totally fine, he's just learning and doing awesome! We spent the morning with my mom running errands and having lunch, which is always a good time. That is.......until she dropped the biggest bomb on me. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. My brother Colin is being deployed. I'm so confused because they wouldn't let him go "active duty" when he came back from boot camp. They said there is a "6 month waiting period". Wow......that was a superfast speed up. He's going to paramedic training in a few weeks and then he's off. We don't know how long, but I'm really scared and sad about this. I'm praying it's not in the middle of any "hot spots" of war and that it's not for a long time. Oh please let it be a mistake, I'm having a hard time bearing this thought of him being in a war. My mom is a mess. There we were crying and hugging in the middle of Costco.....not the best time to tell me, but she said she had to tell someone. I'm the first to know.

(that's Colin on the right)

Well, I work tonight and tomorrow we have 2 birthday parties! My Great Aunt turns 90! and my dad turns 57! Scrapping Sunday at the Bee.......come by and say hi sometime this weekend if you're in the area.