you're invited for homemade cinnamon rolls and lattes (or mochas or hot chocolate)

i was up much too early this morning - mr wigglesworth was squirming into me and my kidneys on one side and probably doing similar (if not worse things) to his father on the other side. but i woke up with after a million and one water dreams (which of course was b/c i had to pee!) - the last one being more along the nightmare water dream than pleasant water dream - it involved my children and much water and being up high and stormy seas etc....anyway, i realized that i'd left the fan on downstairs - oops! so i was heading down to fix that and scraped/gouged/banged my leg with the corner of my hope chest. so when i got downstairs, i decided that i'd just enjoy the silence. it was lovely. and one of my good friends was online back east so we got to chat a bit.

i made some cinnamon rolls yesterday afternoon, so i got them out of the fridge to rise in a warm-ish oven and relaxed a bit more. irene woke up at 5:30 - i don't think she actually went back to bed, but rather got dressed and then crawled in w/rhys and rob. goodness but the child does wake up early.

i went upstairs hoping to snuggle in and go back to sleep for a wee bit...HAHAHAHAHAHA. um, yeah. that didn't so much work out for me. irene was awake and reading, rhys was wiggling and rob was trying to sleep. so i grabbed the kiddos and downstairs we went. rhys asked for hot chocolate, so i got that started. then i preheated the oven and eventually got to put the cinnamon rolls in the oven. while that was happening, i made regular coffee as well as a mocha - usually i do lattes, but a mocha sounded yummy. i used a different kind of chocolat which is yummy in hot chocolate, but doesn't mix quite as well with mochas. oh well. should have stuck w/my latte and honey. actually, now that it's tasting better - perhaps it just needed to rest for a bit.




so, when should i expect you? i have another batch made - it can be hot for you when you arrive.

because *somebody's* got to win, right?

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

i've got a theory...

i LOVE the answer i got from the superheroine quiz!!!!

You Are Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"We saved the world. I say we have to party."

What Superheroine Are You?

truly - isn't this the coolest??? and i didn't change a single answer anywhere. there weren't any questions over which i vassled (which does happen sometimes and so i go to see what the results would be with xyORz as the answers.

can you tell that i loved loved loved buffy? i was also an angel fan. and, while we're at it, i also enjoyed xena (though i stopped watching at some point - maybe b/c rob's schedule had changed?).

which superheroine are you??

for star wars fans everywhere...

while i was out one day, rob played Battlefront II with Rhys (let me say, i'm not anti star wars - i LOVE star wars...i was just trying to keep the gun violence down in the house for as long as possible). oh my dog. it's all star wars all the time.

and so...here are some snippets from rhys' world of star wars...

episode V may be The Empire Strikes Back (and is clearly the favorite in this household), but Rhys calls it Episode Five

and obviously, A New Hope is actually called "The Vampire Strikes Front!"

and did you know that they guy w/the "Life Saver" with 2 sides is called Dark Mauve?

he will tell you all about General Grievous (though he has not seen any episodes besides the original and empire strikes back). it's really funny to listen to him talk about it all.

friday fill in and friday feast and CAC

so, it's BARELY friday anymore...that's okay - right? :)

I got this from janet over at FondOfSnape (check out her photography - it's quite lovely!)

1. Last weekend, I was thinking that there is a lot going on in the month of august.
2. If the weather continues like this, i might melt. it's been dang hot this month.
3. Will my sweetpeas ever grow? (they are not blooming - just stretching the greenery...i want the flowers! anyone know how i can get the flowers???)
4. Often, on a summer's night, I think "wow it's beautiful. i'd love to sleep under the stars".
5. Right now, I could use a good strong lovely and large iced latte - with honey and whipped cream.
6. My favorite summertime meal is hmmmm - it depends on the meal time. probably pork ribs, watermelon, potato salad or homemade macaroni salad, and a yummy drink.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to perhaps some mojitos, talking to mom (she gets back from a vacation today), listening to Irene read some of her book, and hopefully watching Eureka, tomorrow my plans include taking the kids to gymnastics, cleaning/straightening the house, welcoming Pat and Bob (rob's folks), visiting with them and having hamburgers and Sunday, I want to go to the Atlantis for sushi and visit more with Pat and Bob :)!

do you want to play? let janet (and me too) know in comments :)

the *following* is part of the Friday Feast - i found it over at MissMeliss' blog.

Appetizer
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how polite are you?
i try to be quite polite - probably 8ish is about where i usually am. there are times that i'm probably down by the 5s...perhaps even lower. but, you know, sometimes it depends on the company i'm keeping. :)

Soup
What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
okay - it's not the very last thing - but something that made me laugh long and loud was rhys talking about the bad guy from star wars -- you know the one. the one with the double sided light saber? his name, of course, is Dark Mauve. hee hee hee hahahahaha!!!

Salad
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
hmmmm -- well, in old school cartoons, i'd have to say Pinken Panfer (aka The Pink Panther). but online -- HOOPS AND YOYO!!! do you know them? they make me so so so SO happy! my favorite is the mother's day one...what kids say "oh mother, i can't seem to find you. mother, are you here? i think that i will go quietly from room to room looking for you calling your name ever so quietly." and what moms hear "MOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! I CAN'T FIND YOU!!! WHERE ARE YOU??? MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Main Course
Tell about the funniest teacher you ever had.
funniest? uh. hmmm. i had some funny teachers, but i'm not sure which was the most funny. perhaps one of my professors in spain (gads! i've blanked his name!) . it was mostly his intonations and phrasology and the fact that we had another student who could mimick him exactly "Fíjense como ese catedral tiene tal y cual"

Dessert
Complete this sentence: I strongly believe that ______________________.

i strongly believe that the world is full of good people doing good things. i think that the news focuses a bit too heavily on all the crap that is happening. i strongly believe that one person really CAN make a difference. by starting small we can all make the world a better place.

and...here's the create a connection from july 17th courtesy of Holly

1) When you were going through a rough time in your life, what did someone do to help get you through that period. (you don't have to tell us about the rough time if you don't want, I just want to hear what helped you through it)

mostly just talking to me and listening to me. one time during a particularly rough period, my mom gave me Lonesome Dove to read - she knew i needed a tome to just lose myself for some time. it was a great help. but really, listening to me and caring about what i'm saying.

2) Have you ever been on the receiving end of a RAK? What was it? How did it make you feel?

yes! :) i've received some special things from special people very randomly. each thing has made me feel special and picked me up when i was feeling down, put a bigger smile on my face even on days when i was already feeling good

3) Have you ever sent out a letter/greeting/bunch of flowers to someone, just to cheer them up? Did you do it anonymously?

yes i have and no it wasn't anonymous. oh! actually, i DO do anonymous things!! i pay for people behind me on bridges. if i had ever won the california lotto, i wanted to pay for all the commuters during rush hour traffic for 1 hour on the golden gate bridge...i didn't win, but it was fun to think about it.

4) If you were not familiar with Random Acts of Kindness before now, are you more inspired to go out and do something nice now?

i was already familiar with them and i still think they are wonderful.

5) If you know of another good website that encourages spreading joy and love, please pass it along.

i hadn't heard of this site before now - but it looks good. it's The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation


and finally.....
don't forget to go and listen to Scott McMorrow and listen to (and hopefully vote for) his 1-minute play here :D

Scott McMorrow

so - i know some pretty cool people. period. it's true. i am darn lucky to know these pretty cool people. one of those pretty cool people is Scott McMorrow.

Scott is a playwright (and he's a fire fighter too!). a few of his plays were even translated and performed in italy - does it get much cooler? NO you say??? well, yes it does!

Scott is a finalist in the Ivey Awards. these are one minute plays. you can hear his play if you go here - go. i'll wait. listen to it. now VOTE for him!!! isn't it brilliant? that one minute play truly tells the whole story. not only that, he's got the 8 year old down perfectly. and mrpertation - that was really quite clever. i've heard malaprops like that from 8 and 10 year olds.

so please go - and vote for him! because, while he's pretty cool now, he'll hit stratospherically cool winning this (which could maybe make me pretty cool just by knowing him -- right?).

seriously - it's a very well done 1-minute play. it deserves to win. period.

Above Everything - 7/11/05

Above Everything
a poem by Irene
age 5 1/2

Above the trees
Above the birds
Above the butterflies too
Above the flowers and the bees too
But not above the rain
Into a rainstorm, but having lots of fun

Above the ladybugs and above the grass
And next to Shainda who we can barely see
We picked pretend flowers too
But we weren't above the sun.

*Shainda is Irene's pretend friend. Shainda made her very first appearance on Easter morning of 2002 (which i didn't remember until we saw some video). I don't remember her being around again until after Rhys was born - but she's still with us occasionally. She and Rhys' pretend friend, Harry, the Pteradactyl, sometimes play together.

Virtual War Protest

Gerrie, who has a very pretty new website and blog, had a call to protest back in may. offered to send out many Endless/End This War bumper stickers for people to put either on their bumpers or elsewhere (as long as they were placed legally) as a virtual protest.

This is mine. I took it after shopping at trader joes. i try hard to bring my own bags (thus the target bag and the black bag and several others as well).

What i want to make perfectly clear - i support all of our soldiers in iraq and everywhere else. i just want them to stop dying. i don't think we (the US) went into this really knowing what it was going to be. many of us never really understood why we went at all. we have a base closeby and many of the kids in irene's classes have dads and moms who are over in iraq. when she was in kindergarten, there was a plane that went down that had several men from stead air force base in it. one of the kids in irene's class was potentially on that plane. many of us moms were trying to figure out who they were b/c one of the men who died was the father of a kindergartener. god - that brought it closer to home and just made me so sad. it was NOT the child in Irene's class who lost a dad that day, but there was another kindergartner who DID.

just the other day, irene and her friend were having a rough time together - irene's friend hurt irene's feelings and so her friend, in turn, hurt irene's feelings. i think it ended with "Irene, we're THROUGH!" which is pretty strong for 7 year olds! i got them both out of the pool (which is where this was taking place). irene decided that the two of them should talk it out. and kids being kids, they were over their differences in minutes. later, i tried to explained to irene that it was not okay to hurt someone else's feelings just because they hurt yours. even though you are mad inside, it is SO much better to talk about it - whether that's with your friend or with your parents. then i tried to explain the war to her in those terms. i said "the leader of iraq hurt the leader of our country's feelings. we then, in turn, hurt the feelings of iraq. it escalated and now we are at war. people are not dying trying to make things better. this is just not okay. we need to work hard at being peaceful first within our family. and with our friends. it needs to go out from us. we need to try and be the best people we can be. this is something you will work on for the rest of your life. i *still* have to work at it! but the important part is that we try."

hopefully it will continue to sink in. it's something i often have to remind myself as well. we need to work on our little family and hopefully we can be a ripple in the pool and affect others. because, really, why the heck can't we just all get along?!?

pac man fever and happy family

Rhys doesn't play pac man nearly so much as he did a while back (it's the Pac Man World 2 or something like that), but Irene suggested early this year that he have a pac man birthday party. so that's what he wanted. happily rob's office group had recently changed themes and we got the pac stuff. we decorated our back yard for our very low key birthday party.I was VEDDY pleased with the pac man cake i made :D the frosting was from scratch. the cake was a box mix. it was irene's idea to use whipped cream for the ghosties mouths.
rhys was most insistent that skyler come to his party *smile* and happily she and her family were able to come. nana and sensei were also there. so it was small and low key, but a good time was had by all. the cake was a big hit and we had bubbles for the kids to blow. the kids seemed to like the shish kabobs and their sparkly lemonade. rhys got some really great presents and was a happy 4 year old kid.

after folks left, we went out to the front yard to hang out. the lighting was nice and it wasn't too hot.

here is my very handsome husband. the love of my life. *happy sigh*

here is my beautiful 7 1/2 year old and here is my silly 4 year old

and here is a picture of me and rob

4th of July

after finding out that THIS year the fireworks weren't going to start until 9:45 (which meant it would probably be more like 10:00), and taking into account how busy the kids have been for the past several weeks, and how tired they were likely to be, rob and i decided that the better part of valor would be to do our OWN fireworks show at home - nope, not with sparklers or with piccolo petes, but rather, with the glow-y necklaces and bracelets that can be put together in several ways.

also, the fairies heard our revised plans and they snuck into the house and got the glow in the dark stones i'd bought and put them outside on our patio table!! sneaky fairies!!

this is clickable so you can actually see the pix a bit better

For Lydia

lydia has mentioned once or twice that rhys would look great with spiked hair (a la benny). and it's true - he does look pretty great. unfortunately, he doesn't like me spiking his hair. this spike job is done with no gel, but rather, good ol' sweat on the fourth of july. she's in the wilds of pennsylvania right now, so she might not see this for a while, but i hope she gets a kick out of it when she does see it. and for everyone else, enjoy!! :D



in case you're wondering, he's wearing his very cool martin & co guitar shirt from sensei's trip.

getting to know me even more - with Holly and Deb

over at create a connection, groovyholly is pinch hitting this month for the getting to know you day.

she wants to know about birthdays and celebrations.

1) What is your most memorable birthday? Tell us what you remember, your feelings, why it stands out in your mind.

there are a few...my 30th was fabulous because Rob set everything up and we had a party in connie's (rob's youngest older sister) barn. dad, moni, and matt came up for it. irene was 9 months old and just delightfully sweet and cute, nick and dianne came - nick made amazing mai tais, so many of our friends were there - it was really fantastic. we even had some dancing (and you all should know that i LOVE to dance - i mean love love love L.O.V.E. to dance!!).

my 22nd birthday was fabulous because we celebrated at Friar Tucks in cotati. it was this great pub that sometimes had real irish music on saturdays. i grew up with irish folk music, so i knew all the words. as i recall, it was just me, rob, judy, and her then boyfriend. i had everyone slamming on the bar when they were supposed to for some of the songs, i was singing (probably loudly) with the singer and joking around. he sang The 7 drunken nights -- well, he sang 6 of the nights -- i'd only heard the first 5 prior to that. i giggled heartily at verse number 6. the singer wouldn't sing the 7th verse - no matter how much i asked. toward the end of the night, judy and i danced with each other as rob and sean danced with the bartendresses (i did also dance with rob - have i told you that i love to dance? and that i really love dancing with rob? oh, did i mention i had a yard of beer? yeah. that too.

2) What is the best gift you've received for your birthday?
can i write that down? giggle. just teasing. i'm not really sure. it could be when i turned 9 and moni and dad gave me james and the giant peach, charlie and the chocolate factory, and charlie and the great glass elevator. god - how can i be drawing such a blank? i've gotten lots of cool things for birthdays and such. i can't believe that my mind is being so rude!

3) How do you celebrate July 4 or July 1?
hmmm - i was in canada once for canada day. moni and dad thought we'd watch the fireworks...we didn't get to see them because it didn't get dark until about 11 that night...i was probably almost 11 when we went there. we've celebrated independence day in a number of ways - when i was little little, we'd go to my gramma's house and that was back when we could do fireworks at our houses. i remember some of the really cool (to a 4/5 year old) fireworks they had. at dad and moni's i can remember doing lots of sparklers. at mom and ken's we did those worms one year and the black stain never went away on our front walk. when irene was 4 1/2 and rhys was 1, we were at the grannies and we brought a number of sparklers and worms and the rose thingies. we did them in the back yard. the grannies had such fun and the irene thought it was way cool. rhys was nonplussed. the year rhys was born, he was only 1 week old and slept through our setting off of little safe fireworks. it was still light out, but irene had fun. last year we went to a local elementary school and watched the fireworks over sparks. this year we didn't because the fireworks weren't happening until late late - so instead i had lots of glow sticks and we played with them in rhys' room. the fairies also left irene and rhys' name and a smiley face in glow in the dark 'rocks'

4) What do you value most about where you live? What do you do to show
your appreciation? If you've never thought about it, what could you do
to show your appreciation?

do you mean about the country? or about sparks? about our country, i value the freedoms that we have and the hope that we get to keep them. we show our appreciation by trying to be good people. we try to be good to the earth and share our values of recycling, being green when we can, and being peaceful.

- so i'm going to answer those too :D

debR made up some questions as well because melba asked for some emergency questions and debR sent some. and here they are:

It’s a summer holiday and you’ve been invited to a big family-and-friends potluck celebration. What would you bring? (Feel free to share the recipe if it’s super-good!)

maybe we'd bring over the fixin's for margaritas b/c i enjoy them and they are fun. we could bring our cool blender so people could have them on the rocks or blended.

Once you’re there at this imaginary holiday party, how would you spend most of your time?

i'd probably be the one taking a lot of pictures and talking to various people, but able to hide behind my camera. it's funny b/c i really didn't used to be any kind of an introvert. very odd.

The person in charge of music is taking requests. What song would you like to hear? Would you get up and dance to it or just sit back and listen?

DUUUUUDE!!! there are SO many songs i'd request! maybe White Lines by Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five (duran duran redid this - it loses a little something). Love Shack by the b52s, She Goes On by Crowded House (so i could dance with rob and he'd sing to me), R.E.S.P.E.C.T. b/c eveyrone needs to get their Aretha on! I Will Survive by either Gloria Gaynor OR cake. and if we didn't go with cake for that one, i'd go with Short Skirt and Long Jacket by cake (i think that's what it's called) so that's just a little bit. and, hmmm...i don't know...maybe i'd sit it out. HA! not in THIS lifetime!!! i really wouldn't care if i were out there dancing by myself. and truly, i wouldn't be alone b/c as both my brother and rob can tell you, i will drag your ass onto the dancefloor and there IS no saying no to me. *beam*

They’re having fireworks! Would you enjoy them or endure them? Would you help set them off or sit back and watch?

i love fireworks. i like watching them. i do NOT like firecrackers.

It’s getting late and the party is breaking up. Would you be one of the first to leave, or the last person the host is pushing out the door, or somewhere in between?

if this is the same party where the margaritas are flowing and there is dancing happening. no doubt about it, rob and i would be among the last! hopefully the kids are sleeping over...perhaps we're all sleeping over. it's a goooood party.

thanks, deb :D these were fun questions!

forgot to add

rob's started a mobile blog called shots from sparks, nevada like lydia's - so he can send pix from his phone to the blog. cool, huh?

pictures and more pictures - l o n g

in may, we bought praying mantis eggs. almost 5 weeks later the ones we kept in a glass bowl finally hatched! here is one of the many many babies from the egg (isn't that a cool egg? i had no idea that's what the eggs looked like). i was VERY very pleased that we were HOME when they hatched. as much as i love praying mantises and as good for the garden etc as they are, having 100 of them in my dining room would have ooged me to no end. so here is one of the little guys before we took them outside to eat aphids etc. we're hoping that some of them survived and didn't get eaten by birds or ants before they got big. they are good at hiding, so it's quite possible that we have some happy mantises in our garden.

and on saturday before we left for our camping trip, irene had her Super Circus with gymnastics. she hasn't ever gotten to do it because the past two decembers, it's been the same weekend as tamale day and last june it was when we were in so. cal. she had fun and was very cute. we couldn't take pictures with a flash, so they were a little blurry, but sort of cool b/c you can tell they are action shots.doing a hand stand
and here she is with her medal - it was cute - all kids got to stand on the medal stand and wave to the crowd etc. this picture was more clear than the medal stand picture.
and here we are in escondido. we camped at Woods Valley Kampground in sites 78 and 79. it was wonderful - lovely pool, GREAT site for LOTS of tents, flush toilets, free showers. and, amazingly, NO mosquitos!! oh! they also had a catch/release pond. erica took the kids down and rhys CAUGHT a fish!! i don't have a picture of it, but he really did catch one :D
this is a picture of jalen and me putting up one of the tents. put up 3 sleeping tents, one shade canopy, and a screen tent. we rocked! and site 78 had HUGE room and a cool little tunnel and trees where irene and katie (another cousin) made a fairy house.
the dirt was, of course, the best place to play!! here are Domenick, Irene, and Rhys playing under the shade tent. rhys was AWESOME about wearing his hat and i also got him several shirts w/the UVF stuff in them. poor guy is like me - he has two colors...white and red. katie and irene's tent is in the background.
jalen took this picture of me. not a bad one :D
here is a picture of mom and gramma. gramma's memory is getting worse and worse - her short term memory that is. it was hard when she didn't know who irene was. she often doesn't remember rhys, which i already knew - her memory was having a hard time around the same time rhys was born, but she's always known irene - always knew she was my girlie. but, mostly gramma is happy, so that is good.on rhys' b-day (june 27) we went to La Jolla and spent the day at the beach. i had forgotten just how much fun it is to ride the waves and to be in water that is warmer than 60 degrees like in northern california. i even was able to sort of relax and enjoy watching irene have a great time. she was really amazing out there. she got knocked around pretty good once, so she had a bit of respect for the ocean which is a really good thing to have! at one point, erica kept an eye on rhys so that irene and i could go out and have some fun together riding the waves. it was FANTASTIC!!!

this is irene and jalen waiting for the perfect wave *smile* oh! i should point out that jalen is deaf - it added another aspect to the trip - my rusty sign language got better - but when we were out in the ocean, we couldn't just call him to get him to move more to the left b/c the rip tide had swept him toward the pier a little too far - or the undertow had pulled him out farther than made me and mom comfortable. we had to get his attention or grab him :) really, all the kids had an amazing time. one of erica's friends was there and had brought a ton of boogie boards - so they got to play on those too. i don't have the pix of rhys surfing in 1" of water on it - but when i get a copy, i'll try to remember to post it.
while it looks like rhys has a big ol' booger, it's just sand that he wouldn't let me wipe off...and i inadvertantly left his hat in erica's car, so he happily wore irene's hat. when we first got to the beach, rhys informed me that he'd invited everyone to the beach for his b-day. after a few hours, he got quite sad and said "i guess that we aren't going to have my birthday party at the beach." which we'd been talking about for days on end...so when it was time for everyone to take a bit of a break from the water, we sang happy birthday and he opened presents and cards. he was a happy boy. oma, erica, the boys, and patty gave him sand toys - rhys was in HEAVEN!!!
here is rhys playing with cousin Patty and making fun sandcastles with some of the sandtoys. irene came to join the fun as well.
that evening, we had the cake that rhys had requested - an ice cream cake from cold stone. it was melty by the time we had it, but boy howdy was it good!!
on thursday, we went to dad and moni's (papa and gramma's) house in redlands - we didn't get there as early as i wanted to get there, but we still had great fun. their neighbors are on vacation and so we used their pool - it was so fun!! we all went down the slide, swam in the pool, dad worked with irene on her swimming, great gramma was there, we had yummy yummy food, matt and michelle came over for a little bit, rhys opened presents (i need to get a picture of him playing with his amazing pirate ship!), and eventually it was time for us to head back. here is irene in her goggles.
and jumping into the water (by the end of our swimming time, papa had convinced her to STOP plugging her nose and START blowing bubbles out of her nose -- i'd been trying to convince her to do that for about a year or more!)
and here she is going down the slide - papa and gramma's house is in the background. this slide is at LEAST 30 years old - i hadn't been on it in who even knows how many years - but b/c it's that old, the automatic slide water thingies (that's the technical term) don't work, so we took turns spraying it.
and here's rhys - he mostly started at the end of the pool and then bun jumped to me - but he had fun doing that, so what the heck :)
on friday we went to the San Diego Zoo - great amounts of fun was had by all!
irene, rhys, and katie at the zoo - the shirt rhys has is lightweight - so don't worry that it was long sleeved. it had the uvf stuff in it and was perfect for him.
irene as a turtle
rhys watching the Dr Zoolittle show
irene and rhys as a butterfly and caterpillar
isn't this cool? do you know what it is? it's bundles of cotton and maybe wool? it's for the birds to make nests from - at least, that's what we decided it was for. perhaps we're wrong. but it looks way cool, yes?
the kids all got to feed the giraffes - we happened to get there right when it was happening.

rhys fed them AND got a kiss!
these are what rhys called "daddylion leg spiders" and they would congregate on the OUTSIDE of the tent in a few spots - you should have seen the ooginess when i (gently) used the broom to remove them all the next day when we were taking down the tents. many many many spiders - hurry scurrying EVERYWHERE! i'm good with spiders - really - but when they were scurrying everywhere, i was not so very good.
much like last year, the boys discovered the rocks on our last day as we were packing up. here they are - they were hollering "WE ARE THE KINGS OF SHEEEEEBA!" it was funny.

and here is irene - she was wiped out by this time and needed some time away from most everyone - so she sat on a rock w/nala (the lion she got at the zoo). it was quite hot.
we arrived at Patty's house and filled up some pools and tubs with water. here is rhys enjoying the cool of the pool - er - tub.and here we have two sacked out children!

we left the next day for tracy (where erica lives). it was a long/hot drive. we stopped in castaic when there was a sign that said "traffic jammed next 18 miles." mom rented a room at the days inn so that we could go swimming for a few hours and miss that traffic. we got to erica's house close to midnight as there was bad traffic 1/2 hour from erica's house. i woke rob up and he told us about highway 33 - which parallels 5 - so we took that and were at least moving. we left the next afternoon around 2:00 pm and finally got home 6ish. i'm still pretty tired, but boy howdy did we have fun!

The Big Wheel

here is rhys on his super cool big wheel

Happy 4th of July

we started the day by giving Rhys his present from Grammie and Gramps. he got a BIG WHEEL! i don't know how many of you are of an age that you had big wheels, but i remember mine as well as rob remembers his. i LOVED it. i remember riding all around our block on it. there was one driveway in particular that i remember (with my 5 year old mind) as being quite steep. that was the one that was especially fun to go down and then pull the brake and spin (the new big wheels don't have the brake on them...it must've been hazardous). I have scars on the top of my feet from using them as brakes (when i didn't want to spin, i just wanted to stop) because, and this may come as a surprise to you (haha), i often went without shoes.

rhys thought it was MIGHTY cool!

after getting sunscreamed, we headed to the pool around 10:00. rhys rode his new toy. we met up with skyler (one of my brownies), her brother and her folks. it was great! we had the entire pool to ourselves for quite a while. when baby niko was done, he, stacy and dustin crossed the road to their house and we kept skyler for a bit longer. around noon, more people started coming to the pool and so it was time for us to leave the pool. we dropped skyler off, came home and got some food into the kids. rob found out that the fireworks weren't going to start until 9:45!!!! wtf??? that was just frustrating to the nth degree. so we decided that we would NOT be going to watch the fireworks. the kids are fairly exhausted, so that just wasn't going to work at all. and can ANYONE tell me why it is that even though "Capital Fourth" happens on the east coast - maybe around 9? i don't know - they don't show it HERE on the WEST freaking coast until 9:00?!? what happened to the 7:30 prime time?!? fireworks are for KIDS to enjoy (well, not JUST kids, but they think they're cool too), so why the heck NOT have them shown early so that those that want to actually GO and see the fireworks in their own town CAN go and see them.

bleh. just frustrating.

sorry about that...back to the story...

irene went back to sky's house to play for a few hours and i made an angel food cake. we then went over to mom and ken's for hamburgers, potato salad, and yummy dessert :) we're back home now. i need to get rhys to bed very soon.

i hope you all had a happy 4th - weather you are in the states celebrating independence day or elsewhere just enjoying a wednesday.

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!!!