So Anyway...

First Day of Summer

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. 

Today is June 21, the OFFICIAL first day of summer, which is so weird because my kids have been swimming on and off since February, got out of school May 20, and our first 100 degree day was a few weeks ago as well...

So we are in full on kick-back mode, and I'm remembering that I don't do well without a schedule, things to do, a J.O.B., so to speak...I wake up with good intentions, but dammit, the day just gets away from me and ALL I have to show sundown is the dishes done (maybe), some errands run (usually), and a whole lot of website browsing, with a tad bit of Free Cell and General Hospital thrown in for good measure...

And sometimes I play Oh Hell, Sorry Revenge, or watch a movie with a kid...(this afternoon it was Avatar with Jake.  One of my fav movies of ALL TIME.)

And maybe a great dinner.  Tonight it was California Veggie Wraps - YUM.  But this was after I fought off the kids all day from eating the expensive Sun Dried Tomato Basil wraps.....was it worth it?  Not sure...

Messy-ness is a fact of life right now...

Heat- induced plant death.

Drawing.

Song writing.  (This is how Trevor wrote this song...numbering his fingers and matching to the keys).

Just a little bit of decorating.

Kitty cat watching...

 

 

How much more fun could you ask for?

 
 
 

 

Trevor-isms and hotness

Today Trevor was watching a movie and I happened to look up and say "Oh...this is a good movie."  and he says "oh...Dancing With the Wolves???". 

Ummmm.....yeah, that's the Disneyland name, I think.  And, boy, is Kevin Costner young....and hot. 

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Me, Jake and Trevor are playing Sorry Revenge (fun game that incorporates adding to 21, which I'm thinking will be a handy maneuver for either/both boys to learn).  And...

...Jake hears Jenna and her friend out in the front room, throwing a blow-up globe around the room, of which I've yelled at them several times today to JUST STOP ALREADY.

Jake says, under his breath, '"Those damn whores..."

And I just glare at him, incredulously, (this is a new word to his cussing repetoire) - I sternly say "If you EVER call anybody that name again, you are going to...")

and as I get ready to say "...timeout!!!", Trevor beats me to the punch and yells "...JUV-ee"....

and then I just fall on the ground laughing.  I have know idea how he knows ANYTHING AT ALL about a juvenile detention center.

Ok, so back to watching Dancing With the Wolves.  Not to be confused with one of my fav shows, Dancing With the Stars. Which I could totally see Kevin Costner being a contestant on.  Wow, I'm going to totally start putting that one out there...YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!

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Oh, by the way, I bought these hot shoes today.  Don't hate me because they were $19. And because they are COMFORTABLE. Yay!

Thursday Randoms

1.  In love with Costco and their awesome return policy.  Bought a Relaxation Station
and it was a total piece of crap, so we boxed it up and they took it back no problemo!

2.  And keeping in 'return' mode, I returned my much-anticipated cute shoes from hsn.  They weren't that cute on my feet (size 10 honkers - the jewelry parts looked like flinstone rocks) and they were UNCOmFORTABLE.  I'm trying not to be too sad.  And a trip to the shoe store might help with that.

3.  There is NO ONE in my house with me right now.  YES!!!!  Boys are swimming at Trenton's, Jenna is at Sara Sue's playing with her new kittens, mom is in Albuquerque visiting her sister, Jack is at work.  I'M HOME ALONE.  This is as rare as zero credit card balances in this house.

4.  Jack's cousin Mark challenged me to go water-skiing when we get to S.D. in 3 weeks.  I AM SO IN!!!  Am working out nonstop for next 21 days and hoping the fact that he got a new ski boat coupled with me being 20lbs lighter (and maybe a little-teeny-tiny-microscopic-bit more muscular) might help get my 46 year old ass up on a pair of skis!!!  We were there about 3 or 4 years ago and I swear I tried about 20 times to get up and just couldn't.  I was depressed for months.  That was the first time in my life I couldn't get up on a pair of water skis.

5.  I have eaten my weight in tomatoes, basil (both from the garden), and fresh mozzarella in the past 24 hours....oh yummmm!

6.  I just realized Jake IS home, holed up quietly in his room eating cereal and watching tv. 

7.  I'm going to scrapbook some pages tonight for the first time in, like, 6 months.  I need to focus on something else besides Scentsy and Cookie Lee for a few hours.  I got a bunch of pics printed at Costco and am just go to CREATE WITH ABANDON and I might even SEW something.

8.  I've been wanting to make aprons for the last few months...wth? This one is super cute. from here

9.  www.relishrelish.com has changed my life.  I just love it so much.  Last night we had these delish BBQ chicken packets on the grill.  And the aforementioned tomato/basil/mozz goodness, and tonight is pasta salad with bacon, basil, and such, with corn on the cob....

10.  I'm already starting to get sad that I'm not going on the Cookie Lee Punta Cana trip.   
   I wouldn't have been too happy going without Jack, and it just wasn't in the cards for him to go, with just getting his job and stuff, plus we didn't have the $2,500 to buy him in.  I should use this as motivation to build my biz BIG so we can go to a beach JUST LIKE THIS asap!!!  No time for feeling sad, I just need to put myself out there and DO IT!!!
 

Quite a weekend...

First, Jake spent his last day as a pre-teen.

And I spent it getting all emotional and nostalgic.

Then he woke up the next day and was a teenager.  He wanted a strawberry cake with strawberry icing and he decorated it with a hand-made lego battlefield, which he planned all the way down to cutting out a piece of wax paper on which to place the topper onto the cake.

Then when you lit the candles, for a brief period of time it would look like a real, fired-up battlefield, complete with the smoke clearing when it was over.

Time for the loot!

And then Sunday, an old friend came to visit.

Cassandria (as she now calls herself, we called her Cassie) was our foster child in 1998.  Her and her sister Kat lived with us when the boys were babies.  Now Cassandria has a baby of her own.

Lilliana likes to pose for photo shoots with Jenna.  Lilliana also takes AWESOME pictures herself.

I love this one especially, the angle, the rawness, the urban feel....ROCKS!

Then Lilliana learned how to swim underwater with a mask on.

And I got to snuggle.

Yep, it was quite a weekend!
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Becoming my mother.

Oh....the directions I could take this post. 

Let's just say that performing skin grafting surgery on my mother after she fell and ripped the skin from her arm (and I didn't even bother taking her to the ER cuz I'm now a PRO at tweezering skin flaps back into place, cleaning, disinfecting, and wrapping) wasn't my favorite thing I did today.

Nor was picking her up off the floor after she fell trying to get to the phone. 

OY vay....I didn't start this post to sound all whiney. 

What I really wanted to say was that I shopped at hsn.com for the first time today.  I mention my mother because she actually has an hsn credit card, and every time a package comes to the door I give her a hard time.

But today I ordered these beauties, after much thought and agonizing.  Because I really don't have any spare change laying around for new cool shoes.

Monica was wearing these when she did my hair last week, so she attested to the fact that they are GORGEOUS and comfortable, and I have about 11 events going on this summer that call for a cute pair of wedges, and I finally caved this morning and ordered them.

And I can't WAIT TO GET THEM in the mail!

I just hope my mom doesn't see the package and where it's from.....

Photogenic

My mom doesn't think I can take a bad picture. 

Of course, I have to prove her wrong. 
This just cracks me up to NO END. 

Alpine Pizza in Flagstaff, AZ.  3-5-10

Putting the 'remember' back in Memorial Day.

Looking at all these pics brings so much more meaning to the day.

Thanks to my brother, my dad, Jack's family members and all those that have served.

Trevor's one true wish is to join someday....he's watching Band of Brothers as I type this.

Love

Playing around with Photoshop this morning and got this image from the pic below.

And the totally sad thing is that I have totally forgotten how to make photos smaller in typepad without them getting all distorted and crap.  So I'm stuck with these huge-o pics. 

Whatevs....I'm liking this pic of us.

Today is Memorial day and I'm gearing up for grilling burgers with my sister and Vince.  Wine, corn on the cob, toothpick caprese salads, grilled new potato skewers will round out the menu.  Firecracker popsicles for dessert - FANCY! 

Since Gail doesn't have the boys, I'm hoping there won't be 12 kids running around here all afternoon. Here is JUST Jenna's usual posse:

Throw in the boys with a couple friends, and it can be pretty much BEDLAM around here!  

And I wouldn't want it any other way....(did I just say that out loud?) 
 

In Honor of the 100 degree temps today...

...I bring to the table:

THE DAY WE TAUGHT JENNA TO SKI! 

In the snow! 

Brrrrr!!!! (Actually it was about 50 degrees and we barely had to wear our jackets, but watch me digress!)

So this year was a record snow-falling year hear in the AZ and Snowbowl up in Flagstaff ran these Friday specials where you could ski for $10 and rent equipment for $10.

WE ARE IN cuz that is ridonkulously cheap.  And we are cheap. And kinda broke right now.

We started out with all the kids, and after about 1 minute, Jake =out.

He didn't even make it to picture stage...

Then after about 5 minutes, Trevor = out.

Here he is right before he scooched over to where Jake was playing, removed his skis and pronounced "I'm done."

Than after about 15 minutes, Jenna wanted = out, and I said OH NO YOU DON'T and I made her keep skiing.  Then after another 15 minutes Jenna was = OMG THIS IS SO FUN!!!  WOOHOO!!!  WATCH ME SKIIIIIII!

 First lift ride to the BIG hill.

Coming down the mountain.

The family that skis together.... 

Meanwhile, Jake kept himself entertained. 

SEE JAKE?  SNOW = FUN!!!
 
 
 
  

Deal or No Deal

Jake is obsessed with Deal or No Deal and has been for about the last 9 months or so.  He has the WII game that he plays with Kathy next door.  He has the board version that I got him for Christmas.  Most days at 3:29 we run into my room where we lay on the bed together and turn the TV to channel 15, awaiting Howie Mandel's arrival into our lives.

It's always the same.  "What number do you pick, Mom?" 

"Ummm....seven".... (or whatever I'm feeling is my lucky number at the time)

"What number do you pick, Jake"

And then Patricia and Tamika drop the ball and a number is chosen and the contestant comes down. 

We watch for our numbers to see what they hold. 

We try to guess what the bankers offer will be.  We are pretty good, and Jake soon realized how to average out the numbers and figure out how to get close to what the banker offered.

Then Jake started making up his own Deal or No Deal games.  It started on a camping trip in the RV.  He made the game out of a game of cards, setting them up like cases, writing bank offers on a whiteboard, using a cell phone to mimic getting the bank offers.

OH, the incarnations of Deal or No Deal we've seen in this house. 

OH, the money I've won (and lost) playing Deal or No Deal. 

It's been thrilling each and every time....

But BY FAR my favorite incarnation of the game is this one.

That little gray lego on the flat table in front of Howie actually opens and closes on a red button.

Here's the banker's quarters - it's up above the contestants.

 
 
 The crystals are different amounts of money.  The machine guns protect the money.  You know, from all those evil contestants.  Jake has actually revised this and the banker has since been enclosed in a red clear-brick room.  He's trying to figure out how to make it light up.  We've been to  every hobby store in the area looking for little red electric lights....

I need to get a picture of him WITH his creation and send it to Lego.  They put kid's creations in their monthly magazine and I think Jake could be a contenda!!!!