I'm back....

Okay, so I've basically all but abandoned this blog for the past couple of months... let me fill you in!

It all started at the beginning of July... Nana and Papa swooped up our kiddos and took them up north in the RV for a few days. This meant that Joe and I had a few days to ourselves.. no kids... no lunches to pack... just the two of us again. Needless to say, I did not use my free time during those days updating the blog! Nana and Papa turned this into a really special time for the kiddos... they got to go horseback riding, fishing... it was fun for all!

We headed up north on the 4th of July to spend a night with folks, Uncle Andrew and Aunt Stacy, and the kids (of course) before heading home. It was a great way to spend the 4th... 4th of July is a very hard holiday for my family (another story, another day), and this one was pretty memorable because we all had the chance to enjoy ourselves.

We came home, did laundry, and then turned around and left for an 8 day vacation in Puerto Vallarta. It was a fabulous trip. We stayed at the Crowne Paradise Club- an all inclusive resort.. and it was fantastic. We enjoyed every minute of the trip, from swimming with the dolphins, to the pirate cruise, Joe para-sailing and taking the zip line tour, to swimming every day in the pool and in the ocean. Words cannot describe how relaxing and enjoyable this trip was. Here are a couple of my favorite pics... way too many to share them all...








As you can see, we had a fab time!

Then we came home... and Joe and I were sick. Joe's passed within a couple of days, but here we are, 7 weeks later and I am STILL having stomach issues. Needless to say, I've spent a fair amount of time at the doctor, in the ER, and in bed just generally feeling like crap. This doesn't leave a lot of time to blog or anything.... I saw a great GI guy last week- he has a new plan which involves some massive doses of antibiotics as well as a colonoscopy to biopsy the inflamed portions of my colon, which should, hopefully, provide answers to the question WHY?

That's all for tonight... I'll fill you in on the kid's first day of school and all of the other fun stuff thats happened during the last couple of months in my next post! :) Adios!

Our House... the Barbershop!

Gave Colin (and Daddy) haircuts tonight. Just started doing this a couple of months ago... added up what I was paying for someone to buzz clippers around their head every four weeks and decided that I could learn how to do that! So, we ventured off to Target and bought an inexpensive set of hair clippers just to see how Momma would do. So far so good... haven't injured anyone yet, and the haircuts have been... well... mostly okay. :) We have learned that Daddy is better at doing around the ears... so he does that for Colin and for himself (Daddy is one talented man)

So, once a month, we turn the shower stall of the master bathroom into a barbershop.... and between Daddy and Mommy, haircuts get accomplished. just had to share some pics!

Daddy loves it because it is easy and convenient... Colin misses going to Cool Cuts because he gets to play video games there while he gets his haircut. I've promised him a 'real' haircut before school starts again!

Lasagna

Okay, this one is just to brag!

I knew it would be a crazy week this week... kids are heading off to the Rim with Nana and Papa, we're trying to get ready for our vacation... lots and lots going on. So, decided to heat up the oven (not a decision taken lightly when it's 115 degrees outside) and make a lasagna that we could have for dinners and lunches during the week.

Just had to post this pic of how pretty it turned out! Used my best friend Karen's recipe... a little different than most because there's no ricotta cheese... you substitute cream cheese and cottage cheese. Sounds odd, but it's so yummy! If you want the recipe, just e-mail me!

Daddy had the first piece tonight and he said it was delicious... hungry anyone? :)

Krispy Kreme/ Nana and Papa

Saturday mornings are my favorite. No place we have to be, kids can sleep in, kids have finally learned that it is okay to let mommy and daddy sleep in a bit, overall a fantastic day!
This Saturday was no exception. Daddy was up early (5 a.m.) to go caving with some friends... which left just the kids and I to fill the day.
We started the morning at one of my FAVORITE places... Krispy Kreme. If you've never had one, you have no IDEA what you are missing. I think the most interesting thing is that I don't actually eat the donuts anymore (okay, every once in a great while I give in, but for the most part...) It's still fun to watch the kids gobble theirs- they both love the original glazed as well as the chocolate iced with sprinkles. Julia likes the cream filled and Colin likes the chocolate cake as well (as for Momma, well.... the chocolate cake rocks as does the creme filled, but there's always the lemon filled or the original... now do you understand why I usually just have a diet Coke?) I also like to watch the donuts move through the machine, and it's a great place to people watch. A couple of photos below.. the ones with the kids just didn't turn out, but this will at least give you a sense of what it's like. Don't you wish you could smell what was on your monitor??


We followed this feeding frenzy with a great afternoon with Nana and Papa. We went over to swim and then ate out at YC's Mongolian BBQ. Another one of my favorite establishments... this will have to wait for a future post (seems like a lot of my posts involve food of one type or another!) Kids had a fantastic time in the pool with Papa- it is so great to watch their faces light up- and to watch him enjoy them so much. My kids are so lucky to have their Nana and Papa as part of their lives. :) Here's a couple of pics....
They had a blast, as you can clearly see from this picture. We headed home after that for a movie and a ton of books before bed. Again, just another great Saturday!

Friday Night BBQ

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is to grill and eat dinner outside. This is really the first time we've done it this summer... and it was excellent. Kids got to swim, Joe grilled some excellent Chipotle Flat Iron Steak (Trader Joe's and it is highly recommended), asparagus, corn on the cob, and we had the other summer treats, fresh fruits and veggies. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking....
We've had several fires in the past few days, this picture really shows the smoke and pollution in the air....
Again, Chipotle Flat Iron Steaks from Trader Joe's ... get some today!
Check out Julia's hairdo... that's what swimming will do to a girl.....
Even Ellie got in on the action....

Once Upon a Lilly Pad

Julia finished up her four weeks of Summer Academy on Thursday. For those of you not clear on the new educational vernacular, Summer Academy is the equivalent of Summer School for us old timers. However, I will admit that Summer Academy kicks it up a notch!

I was at one of our elementary schools running the Title I Summer Academy program, and I thought it would be tons of fun to have both of the kids at the school site where I would be. You know, mom the administrator, kids in tow.... a woman who can do it all! Well, after much reading, researching, etc... it was determined that there was no way to have Colin there with me (being that he will only be entering Kindergarten this year, and he is not yet 6). So, we had Colin stay at the program that he attended all last year, but I hung onto the dream for Julia.

The whole Summer Academy process starts with a HUGE catalog filled with classes. You then must narrow down that catalog into the classes that your child is eligible to attend, and then match those classes against the hours in which they are offered to build your child's schedule. Basically like those days of scheduling classes in college... only you just don't have the opportunity to say... screw it, I really don't want to take that 7:45 a.m. class. Anyway, after much time with the catalog, Julia (and Mommy) settled on her four classes- South of the Border (seems a little inappropriate for a title, but hey...), Summer Choir, Junior Chefs, and Journey through Science.

Then Mommy paid for these lovely classes (let me tell you, not a cheap experience for my child) and we were off. She got up extra early with me each day because I had to be there by 7:15ish to serve breakfast to the kiddos in my program. She was a good sport about this (mostly), and loved 'helping' Mommy. She also had to wait around after school was over until I made sure that my kids were safely on the bus and that my teachers had everything that they needed for the next day. She quickly realized that waiting with me in the hot sun was less than fun and she quickly wrapped the ladies in the front office around her little finger. By the end of the 16 days, they were taking her for ice cream! It also turned out to be a good opportunity for us to have a lot of alone time in the car- on the way there and then at the end when I would take her to Manitas to join ranks with Colin at his program.

She hated it for the first few days- not much action- and a lot of 'getting to know you', but began to warm up to the entire thing by the end of the first week. Note those were precious days lost as the entire program was only sixteen days long...

The finale of Summer Choir was the performance of a musical entitled, Once Upon a Lily Pad. Cute story about a frog trying to find himself. Julia was a firefly who encouraged the frog to 'let his light shine'.. oh yeah, totally corny. But, Julia was quite proud of knowing all of the words to the songs as well as remembering her speaking part. This choir was made up of 2nd through 5th graders, so Julia was one of the youngest kids in there and I think she did pretty well. Here's a couple of photos...
Note Julia would not wear the Firefly mask that the other Fireflys wore....
(Not quite sure what this face is... but she REALLY was enjoying herself!)

She really enjoyed this class in particular. Needless to say, she was crying at the end of the day on Thursday because she just wasn't ready for it 'to be over'. Now the kids are off for the rest of the summer- ready for vacation with Nana and Papa, vacation with Mommy and Daddy, and then a couple weeks of hanging out with Nana and Papa before school starts.

TV Debut

Made my debut today on television. :) Here's the link. They say they'll pull the video in the next day or two, but if you happen to be here today you can watch it.... Channel 12... Of course I had to be talking about sex.... sigh.
Okay, what is the deal today??? Sideways pictures and this annoying box???