oooh!! aaahhh!

Build-A-Bear-Palooza

wowsers! we just had our build-a-bear fun day with my brownie troop (and rhys). it was great fun. the girls had a great time (at least it sure seemed like it) and we had plenty of parents to help drive. yea! we had pictures a plenty taken and i think the girls all got just what they wanted. double yea!

and - on another yea - Erica had baby B today. YEA YEA YEA!

exciting exciting!!

tomorrow my cousin erica will be having her third baby boy!! they are turning off all the "potions" as erica is calling them and she should go into labor pretty quickly (i say this b/c the mag drip really hasn't stopped all the contractions).  so!  tomorrow there will be a Baby B!!!

YEA!!!  now i'm off to Prayers Without Ceasing to put them both on the buddhist prayerbooks.

rene bean & nana planting

mario kart!!!

the whole reason for buying a wii!!

i'm tired of the earthquakes around here...

i'm a california girl. what's my problem?? i think it's that i did not expect any earthquakes that i could feel around here...but last nights' was a 4.7 - 4.9 depending on what you read. it woke us both up - i said to rob: you get irene, i'll get rhys. so off we went. we stood in the door jambs with the kids for a little bit and then headed back to bed with the kids in our room. neither of us could really go back to sleep. there were several little wee aftershocks (and one not so little) so we stayed awake...for a long time. two days ago we all felt some tremors as well (in the 3 range). just crazy. so, i know for sure where the gas turn off is. next i need to get some water. our just in case contingencies.

Friday I'm In Love

1. When I fell in love i was almost 21, had just returned from a year in Spain, and was at the last party of the summer before college started up again. In walked Rob and that was that!
2. i get a little thrill of joy (and hope that the heat outside doesn't get too hot as the summer comes) when the flowers bloom and it heats up outside!
3. Oh no! The internet connection is down, PANIC! no, really? read, play with the kids, box, play plant tycoon.
4. hmmm - perhaps the real world (though i haven't watched it since the las vegas season*) or maybe the wife swap thing is the craziest tv show ever.
5. Cheese and just about anything make a great meal!
6. if i can get full day sun somewhere i can grow veggies in a garden.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to sleep and some lovin', tomorrow my plans include being a delegate at the annual meeting for GSSN and Sunday, I want to play with my family!

wanna play too? you can go here. lemme know if you do and i'll check out your answers too.

*does anyone remember the first season of The Real World? when the cast actually did some things that mattered? when they weren't all having sex with each other? when julie met a homeless girl about her own age and befriended her and went and spent the night with her and many other homeless people? when they show the cast actually, in their real life, helping people - mentoring people. they go to a pro-choice rally, when they have arguments, they actually worked them out like people, not showboating for the world and adding fuel to the fire etc...ah well. apparently i'm old.

lizard watching at IGT

Awww, I got appreciated!

Yesterday was Leader Appreciation Day for Girl Scouts. It was also Earth Day. I was thinking about Earth Day and the fun things to do at our meeting. I'd forgotten it was also Leader Day, and honestly, I wasn't expecting anything for it when I *did* think about it previously. But my girls (and the parents) DID get me something! I got a gift certificate to a lovely dinner in town AND a massage, and some wonderful homemade cards! I was done whelmed over! And, to top that off, we had a really fun meeting. We talked about our upcoming Build-A-Bear excursion, we went and picked up trash and recycling from the playground, we played a fun game called Octopus Tag, and we made safety cootie catchers.

It's nice when meetings go well. And it's nice to get acknowledged. Some days, being a Brownie Leader is really difficult (much like parenting), when the girls aren't getting along, when everyone is talking but no one is listening, etc. Other days, it's just a joy. Happily (again, like parenting), the good and fun days outweigh the difficult ones.

happy swinger

a smile?

and a haircut.

mother/daughter bake and bowl luau

erica update

okay - baby B is actually 35 weeks - but a new JAMA study apparently says REALLLLLY try to get that baby to 37 weeks. erica is now on a magnesium sulfate drip. i don't want to research it anymore online b/c it sounds like not so great. the short term goal is still to get the baby to stay on the inside until tomorrow...long term is still the same as well - 37 weeks.

title schmitle

so - my cousin, erica, is in the hospital right now trying to convince her unborn baby to stay inside for a bit longer...this is her third baby and none of her pregnancies have been what i'd call easy. with cameron (who will be 3 in june), she was in the hospital on bed rest for a little more than a month, i think. this time around, she was able to hang in there until last night. she's had her first steroid shot, so this baby just needs to stay put. the short term goal is for him to stay until saturday. long term "wow that would be freakin' fabulous" goal is 37 weeks. we just all want safe birth, healthy baby, healthy mama.

we went to the book fair today!

here is a small sampling of what we found.

snow?!?

rob up at bat

he was walked

trying to keep warm

at the 1st game of the season

at the new field

beanie in motion

alllllllllllmost to the bay bridge

good times in 6th grade pt two

capitalization in print

good times in 6th grade pt one

quotations in print

...

gramma rallied when i was down there with mom. yea! she wanted to go outside and take some air. sunday morning she wanted to be dressed and in her wheel chair. astounding.

but...

my dad called me on saturday. my 18 year old 2nd cousin, Christina, died on friday. she had marfan syndrome like her mom, my 1st cousin, who died of this when i was in college. it is beyond awful. Christina was in college and working at starbucks. 18. that just seems wrong on all levels. her sister, colette is 20 and goes to school at the University of Redlands. Their dad lives in San Carlos. I was really hoping to go to the funeral, but it will be this friday at 4:00 in San Carlos. I have to be back here by 8:00 am on saturday morning.

school went well today.

i have an awful and then some headache right now.

so - there you go - the ellipsis of my life today.

heading home and...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEIRDRE!!!!

lovely coiffed gramma

jalen in a tree

change of plans

i am heading to concord tomorrow morning. gramma is doing - worse - differently? don't know how to explain it. she's with hospice due to congenital heart failure (chronic? ugh, can't think of the word right now - just spinning a bit). mom is down there on a planned visit. she got there this afternoon. so i'll miss the girl scout training, but i have parents that will be at the jump to juniors event with our girls - phew!! hoping to be back on sunday.
can everyone else please stay healthy for a long while? that would be great.

monday through wednesday - EEEK!

my subbing license is finally all back in order - finished the last part yesterday. got a call today from the fabulous secretary at jesse hall. she needs someone for monday, tuesday, and wednesday. tuesdays are usually bad for me b/c of girl scouts...so, i called irina to see if she could watch rhys. she can. so yep, i'm going to sub. and i found out that it is going to be a SIXTH grade class - argle. 6th grade is not my favorite. oh well. it will be fine. why worry, right? i mean, the kids are tracking back on, most of the other 6th grade teachers are going to be at a conference, so wheeeee!

Rhys blows bubbles

blowing bubbles at the park

Irene's Fairy Entry

i am so proud of Irene. the contest notice came in my borders rewards e-mail that children from 6 - 11 years old could participate in making a fairy and describing his/her attributes. i don't know if i can show irene's fairy or not...it says that the picture can't have been published before - does this count as publishing? gah. i don't know. anyway, i'm extremely proud of irene b/c she had to do it over several times - once she had the perfect picture, but the attribute part had some misspellings. so she had to do it over. the next time, the writing was beautiful, but she didn't like her fairy picture. i think she drew/wrote it at least 6 times, probably more.

her fairy is an Earth Talent fairy and her name is Gaia (she wanted an earth name - i gave her several choices and she was free to make up her own name as well).

Irene is very hopeful that she will win...i'm trying to let her be excited about that but also trying to explain to her that hundreds and thousands of kids will probably be entering the contest so she might not win...i think i'm more nervous about it all than she is...we sent her entry in the mail this morning with lots of kisses for good luck. 5/22 will be when we can see the name of the winner at the bordersrewards site.

this is george

i got nothin' to say.



(okay - so this is the total cheater cheater pumpkin eater post...sorry...it's late and i'm tired.)