Happy 4th Birthday!!

yes, i'm backdating. I've been out of town but the 27th was rhys' birthday. I had this photomontage all ready to go but didn't have time to put it up. 4 is a harder rhyme..so rob sent a few things to add to this - on the paper that i printed out, i wrote We Must Dance Some More, Rhys has Turned FOUR!

we spend his birthday in La Jolla at the beach. I will add pictures from that once i find my connector so we can download the pictures. It was wonderful and thanks to the super sunscreen (we have UV Naturals) that my girlfriend sent to me while we were down there, Rhys and I didn't get burned! unfortunately, i JUST missed catching Irene at the right time for the reapplication and she got a wee bit burned, but NOTHING like what usually happens to me and Rhys. THANK YOU, JULIE for sending it to us. Julie's son, Andrew, also turned 4 on the 27th! Andrew was born at almost exactly the same time as Rhys, just on the opposite coast!! Rhys also shares his special day with our nephew Jake who turned FOURTEEN!!!!! holy moly!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAKE!!!!!

anyway, i'd forgotten just how much fun it is to go to the ocean in southern california and have real waves that are WARM! it was huge fun and one of my cousin's friends met us there. she had a ton of boogie boards so all the kids got to use them as well.

when we first got there, rhys said "all these people are here for my birthday and will say happy birthday to me. I invited them all." a bit later he was very sad and said "i guess we won't have a party here at the beach after all." oh the sadness! so when everyone came for a bit of a break, we opened presents and i explained that the cake would happen at our campsite. he was SO SO "concited" (that's excited for those of you that don't know). i was so sorry rob wasn't with us because it would have been even that much better.

the kiddos are starting the bathtub so that Rhys can play with his amazing new pirate ship from Papa and Gramma in the water!!! I gotta go see *beam*

scattergories take 3

debR made another scattergories on saturday :) she's so damned cool that of COURSE i had to do it. it was NOT easy...i'd never HEARD of kala-azar. but it was very fun. are you going to do it too??

Your name: kristen (as ever *smile*)
A type of tree or shrub: kapok
Something an astronaut would study: (johannes) kepler
Eight-letter word: kala-azar (a severe, often fatal, tropical fever caused by a parasite that enters the body via a sand fly bite)
A sports team (any sport): kansas city royals
A character in movie or play: kathy palmer
A nickname (or endearment) for someone you like: kitten
Something that could get you arrested: kissing lewdly in public
Something you’d take to a picnic: knives for kiwi
A reason someone might get an award, medal, or trophy: kissing?
Something that makes you smile: kissing

i really wanted to make kissing my answer for everyhting -- but that didn't quite work. ah well.

camporee turned out to be quite fun - it was worth the bits of stress. the girls had a really good time and beth and i did as well. i think they got a lot out of it. i'll try to post a picture of irene in her pioneer bonnet and spinning a little bit of yarn.

she's in camp invension right now and enjoying it very much. she was also very very tired.

okay - time for bed.

busy and treading water

bear with me please. days are busy around here. i'm running on tired and looking ahead at what needs to happen and how we'll make it happen.
tomorrow is irene's last day of school. it's also the first day of camporee. my co-leader and i are taking 6 of our girls with us. there will be 88 participants. it's supposed to be ridiculously hot. fun times! nothing like cranky girls and cranky leaders in the heat...hopefully that won't be the case. we'll see. anyway, we get back on father's day and then irene starts Camp Invention. that ends on friday. saturday is her Super Circus Gymnastics Thing. sunday, we leave for escondido for a week of camping with my cousin and her boys, sometimes my mom, sometimes oma (cousin vicki). some of you might remember that last year we went to a cabin. this year we want to be closer to the grannies, so we're camping. it will be great fun and the campground sounds wonderful. the weekend after we get back, we're celebrating rhys' FOURTH (denial! denial! that can't be happening!) birthday!

i've also just discovered that i need to take some classes in order to keep my subbing license come january. ugh. it's not the classes that worry me, it's the tests. i am, quite possibly, the worst fill in the bubble test taker there is. truly. so i've got a little bit of anxiety about that...eeeeek!

so, i've been busy. wish me luck for this weekend.

scattergories take two and another sunday quiz

debR always has the cool quizzes. *beam* when you go to her blog, be sure you look at her DATs (daily art things). she has a night blooming cereus that is just amazing! she saw it when it bloomed and happily took lots of amazing pictures of it.

so, here is the scattergories that deb created:

Rules are same as before - each answer has to start with the same letter as the first letter of your name and if an answer is a place name it should be real, not fictional. If someone who answers before you has the same first letter, try to come up with different answers than they did. Now on to…

Scattergories 2

Your name: Kristen
A Country: Kazakhstan
A Song Title: Karma Chameleon (oh law, that song is going to be in my head all night!)
An Artist (painter, photographer, etc): kandinsky
A Reason to stay home from Work or School: knocked out tooth
Something you’d see at a Zoo: kangaroos
A Snack: krispy kremes
A Character in a Book: Katherine Forrester (Madeline L'Engle _A Small Rain_ and _A Severed Wasp_)
Something Icky: keratitis
A Six-letter Word: kibitz
Something Breakable: knee (OUCH!)
Non-Alcoholic Drink: kamikaze, virgin (so, essentially, lime juice)
Something you Whisper: ::kiss me::

here's one she got from janet who got it from O Magazine and my results (the quiz suggests that you take it and then your significant other take it as well):

The Love Quiz Results

Explorer: 19

Builder: 17

Negotiator: 22

Director: 14

Whichever is the highest is your dominant type; the next highest is your secondary type. In fact, our secondary types can play an important part in our relationships (for example, an Explorer/Negotiator may have an understanding of social skills that an Explorer/Director doesn't).

Keep in mind that personality is complex, and romantic love, ever mysterious. Looking at patterns is merely an opportunity for insight. What does it mean if you're an Explorer, Builder Negotiator or Director? Find out more about your relationship personality type!

so, it says that i'm a negotiator/explorer and WAY WAY not a director!
some of my aspects are pretty similar to Deb's, but she's more of a directer than i am.
here's a little negotiator blurb (you can see it if you go to the above link)

"Not only do Negotiators connect psychologically, they also have the ability to remain mentally flexible. When they make decisions, they weigh many variables and consider various ways to proceed; they see things contextually, rather than linearly—I call it web thinking. As a result, they tend to be comfortable with ambiguity. Negotiators can be highly intuitive and creative. And they like to theorize. Perhaps their most distinctive characteristic is verbal fluency, the facility for finding the right words rapidly. With this skill—alongside an agreeable and accommodating nature, compassion, social savvy, and patience—the Negotiator can be very friendly, diplomatic, and authentic." this of course is the upside of it...apparently we negotiators can also be wishy washy and spineless as well as back-stabbing and cloying.

and here is the explorer:

"People quickly like most Explorers. Generous and sunny, they tend to be playful, sensual, sometimes hedonistic, often unpredictable, and regularly amusing. But they can be difficult to take—especially in a marriage. They do not tolerate boredom well. So they are generally not interested in routine social or business events. In fact, Explorers try to avoid routine of almost any kind, and can trample on another person's cherished beliefs and habits—not to mention be impatient."

some of these fit, some not so much - as is usual.

scattergories from debR

I got this from debR over at Red Shoe Ramblings.

Instructions: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following…They MUST be real places, names, things…nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your Name: Kristen
Famous Artist/Band/Musician: The Killers (The Kinks was going to be my other choice b/c i love "come dancing"...i wasn’t a huge huge fan of KISS which is also a good K band)
4 letter word: kiss
Vehicle: kia sportage
TV Show: Kids Are People Too
City: kathmandu
Boy Name: Ken
Girl Name: Kaitlyn and Karly (my nieces!)
Alcoholic drink: kamikazi
Occupation: kinesthesiologist (my first choice was knee doctor - heh heh)
Flower: king-cups
Something you wear: knickers
Celebrity: kyra sedgwick
Something found in a kitchen: knife
Cartoon Character: King Kong
Something You Shout: KISS ME!!!

and now i can tell you that i had never heard of king-cups and had to look them up. i also didn't remember that king kong was a cartoon character, but indeed he was.

wanna play?

of fun, flats, and fires

i don't exactly know how much fun was involved, but it was certainly interesting...

actually, there WAS fun! Rhys drew PEOPLE and FAMILIES today!!! it's one of those big things - he drew almost all day long. it started when coco told him she was drawing a picture for rhys, so rhys said he'd draw a picture for her. i took pictures of it b/c it needed to be sent RIGHT WHEN HE FINISHED. heh heh. so, like i said, i took pictures. i need to get them off the camera and i'll post them. what's funny is that i know know know that i shouldn't compare/contrast my kids. but irene was drawing people with eyes, mouth, nose, arms, legs and hair when she was 2 1/2. when i was teaching toddlers/preschoolers and parents would come to me with stuff like this, i'd tell them something to the effect of "your son/daughter is well within the range of normal, children learn things at different times. all children are different and just because susie was doing xyz at 18 months, doesn't mean that joey will be doing that same xyz at that same time." this is all stuff i KNOW...and yet, i worry. so to have rhys, finally realllllly enjoying painting, drawing, etc is a total THRILL for me. :)

so that was definitely fun!!

flats...when i backed out of my driveway and started driving along our street, i apparently ran over a piece of debris from the flippin' houses being built across the street (the workers have not been so great about keeping the site clean). as i was driving w/the windows open, i could hear an odd sound, but it got windy and i couldn't hear it with the windows up. i got to school to get irene with thoughts of grabbing her and then heading to the Books Are Fun sale very close to my house, then heading to black rock for dinner w/mom and the kids.

while waiting for irene, the wind got stronger and we watched what looked like a tornado - WAY WAY bigger and taller than any dust devil i've ever seen, though it definitely looked like dirt/dust/debris. it went across the hills far beyond irene's school - still scary to watch though b/c it did get bigger and taller before it evaporated. anyway, irene got to the car, i started to back out to go to the Books Are Fun sale and it was really hard to get my car moving. finally, someone let me know that i have a WAY WAY flat tire. grand. so, b/c i didn't WANT to change a flat in the rain, i called AAA. "no problem, someone should be there w/in 1/2 hour." excellent! i can still hit books are fun before heading to black rock. after 1/2 hour, i called AAA again...turns out it will be at least 1/2 hour more before they are to me. so i started to do it on my own. i got the spare off the back (happily, the spare is a full sized tire). i got the jack out, i started to attempt to loosen the lug nuts on the flat...there was just no way i was going to move them. i tried for quite a while and there was NO MOVEMENT! there was a guy parked next to me. he'd been watching me for most of this. he didn't once open his window or anything else. not even to just say "bummer, huh?" lame. but, after THAT guy left, another man came over to see if i needed any help. i let him know that AAA was supposed to be coming, but i'd noticed a big fire and didn't know how long it would take them, so yeah, maybe you can get these lug nuts loosened? turns out, the guy had broken his leg and had JUST gotten his cast off and was wearing a big boot. so i told him it was okay, i didn't want him to hurt his foot or leg, but he said it was okay. he had to use his foot as leverage to get the lug nuts loosened (i gotta say, that made me feel better b/c i was feeling like a weaking before that!). and THEN, his daughter and her friend offered to jack the car up and change the tire for me!!!!!! i just thought that was fantastic and awesome! did any boys come to help? nope, these lovely young ladies (6th graders, i found out). and they got the car jacked up as much as they could, but it wasn't high enough. we needed a 2x4 to put the jack onto in order to get the car high enough. so the janitor of the school went looking for some wood. i praised and thanked the girls many times and quite profusely and told the dad how proud he must be of them :D

he and the girls stayed there as we waited for the janitor to come. the AAA guy got there before the janitor, so the girls went to let the janitor know not to worry about it. the girls stayed a bit longer and helped me out when rhys needed to go to bathroom, they went with irene and rhys (irene could have done it on her own b/c he only needed to pee, but it was very nice to have some 12 year olds going w/them as well).

the AAA guy started to jack up the car w/his big giant jack....but it wasn't working!! so he asked if he could use mine and we explained that it didn't get the car jacked quite high enough, so he got a big BIG piece of wood to put under it. while all this was happening, we were watching the smoke from the fire on los altos (about 7 or 8 miles from the school -- about 3 miles from our house). i heard some teachers talking and saying that vista (major way in and out of our development) was closed due to the fire. then Ken called to say he wasn't going to make it to Black Rock b/c he couldn't get out of wingfield springs - vista being closed and the whole world trying to get out the back way. so, once AAA guy was done and had left and the very nice guy and his girls had left, we were on our way.

the fire was looking like the firefighters were getting it under control as we passed by on pyramid highway. we didn't have much traffic getting down to Black Rock, but the opposite direction was stop and go. so, we got to Black Rock, had a yummy dinner and some yummy dessert and then headed home. it took us nearly 1 hour to get home. rhys fell asleep on the way home, rob was playing softball. as we turned off of one of the main roads, we could see the flames -- the fire had gotten worse! ugh. it appears that the fire is not near completed houses, but rather where there is some construction happening. i don't know if the fire started b/c of the lightening or from a truck hitting the front end loader onto a rock and causing a spark. according to the RGJ (reno gazette journal), vista blvd might be open now. hope so b/c gymnastics starts soon.

so that was most of our day. i'm hoping i can get to the Books Are Fun sale after gymnastics.

but, now that it's 6/2 and not 6/1 anymore.....to two of my nephews:

Happy 1st Birthday, Simon!!!!

and

Happy 20th Birthday, Ben!!!!

we're sorry we can't be with either of you on your special day, but know that we're thinking of you and love you both bunches!!!