One day I will look back and laugh

But now I'm pulling my hair out
This is the second time today the entire bucket of legos has been dumped out

video if I can make it work..

Pictures from the past week

Sonia and Joey had "birthday" pins on. During the parade Mary Poppins came up and wished them "happy birthday"
Sonia and Kayla got to be part of the parade and dancing..


And of course, we had to see the princesses. You can tell from how high Kayla was jumping that this was pretty exciting...




We planned a "party" on Saturday, each had 2 friends we planned on inviting. We only tracked down one of Joey's friends who backed out at the last minute. But he still had a cake and Daddy went out and got him a special birthday gift. We felt pretty bad that his friend didn't come.
Sonia's friend came and brought a friend, which made her very happy. We were glad to meet her friend and friend's family

And the future All-star- we can't get his siblings to practice, but while I was getting him a clean/dry pair of pants, we went and got the ball, bat, tee and hat and walked out side and started practicing batting. Frankly, he's pretty good...

So.. Monday got off to a rough start, there were record high temps and we had to go through the ticket line twice. And it was HOT and it didn't bode well for us. On the bright side, the twins' free birthday tickets were upgraded to free 2 day tickets. We haven't been back. I have until May 20th to use them. It will probably BE May 20th when we go, knowing my ability to plan ahead. Larry won't have a day off between now and then that he could go, so I'll probably be attempting it myself. The thought of getting the the tram from the parking lot to the amusement park alone makes me a bit nauseated, since it requires folding up and holding the stroller while keeping VERY excited kids sitting and from not falling out of the tram.. And while it takes about an hour for us to drive to the general area of Disney, it took nearly another hour to get from what appeared to be the parking entrance to the parking garage to the tram to the park itself.

Anyway.. after that rough beginnning. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. HOT but the school vacations were over and the lines were very short. Except for the meet the princesses line. THAT line moved SLOWLY. I think that one took an hour, but it was thrilling for the girls.
We didn't do a fraction of the rides due to time, but we saw 2 shows, the parade (which the girls were part of and Sonia and Joey had several characters wish them a 'happy birthday' since they had 'it's my birthday' pins on from Disney) We went on the roller coaster train one (uh.. forget the name, but they have one like it in Florida, too..) 4 or more times. Kayla and Joey Loved it. Sonia went once and decided she had enough, but there wasn't a line, so as soon as we got off, they ran around to go again. (and again and again.. if we'd let them..)

We didn't get home til after 10 pm, all the kids fell asleep on the way home, which is pretty unusual these days.

And in the most magical place on earth contest... that's a tough one. Disney was really cool. Would we go again? sure. get season tickets? uh.... probably not. Legoland is far closer, more convenient and is still very cool. Smaller, but still too big to do everything in a day, even if you are there all day and there aren't lines... but I'm not sure we'll get season tickets there, again, either. But we have 2 more years we can soak in as much fun as we can...

I promise

I'll update later today. Ok, well.. maybe tomorrow.
Or as soon as I have a few minutes I'm not juggling 50 things..

We're.....

Going to DisneyLand!!

Never one to turn down a good deal, Disney has a promotion this year that you can go free on your birthday. So.. I'll take advantage of the fact I have 2 kids born on the same day. Larry gets in free as part of the active duty military gets in free.. so that leaves 2 tickets to buy, which we could buy discounted. Still not as cheap as chuck e cheese but far cheaper than my stop sign ticket. Even if we eat in the park it will be cheaper than that dumb ticket.

Pictures to follow...

We went to the Avacado Festival today. It was 100 degress. I kid you not. The bank clock said 102, the car said it was 101 and my skin said it was "Africa HOT". It was a particularly arid day, to boot. It would have been more fun if I left the kids home with a babysitter since they complained it was too hot and crowded the entire time they weren't eating a snow cone. As soon as the snow cone was gone, they wanted another or to go home. And at home.. it was 82 degrees. Boy.. I'm thinking hard about moving inland... I can't get over the temperature changes in such a short distance.

Anyway.. we came home with 3 sun hats. Will come in handy tomorrow. JM already had a few and I got one for myself tonight at Target. So we're officially like the locals with the wide brimmed sun hats. I've had more than enough sun for a while. Such a difference from my teen years where I'd purposefully go sit in the sun to get brown. Now I know sitting in the sun just gives me football skin. And freckles. And it highlights my wrinkles.

The pictures from the Carnival

Carnival

The housing authority on base had a big ole carnival today. And we were invited by residents of base housing, so we went.

Joey got to meet up with a kid on his Tball team and had a great time bonding with a boy. And Sonia and Kayla got their faces painted. And their mom got a sunburn. I have now burned 4 times in my life. I can't believe it. I sun-screened them, my neck and face but apparently missed the front of my neck and arms. ouch.

But.. it was well orchestrated. VERY. In true military fashion- there were remote parking lots, marked by colors and charter buses to take you from the lot to the area it was held in. There were 40 porta johns, sparkling clean and even running water sinks to wash your hands at (pump the water with your foot). A train, inflatable things, cotton candy, face painting, carnival games, food- really really yummy food, drinks, give away treats and toys, crafts, etc... I planned on going for an hour, maybe 2. We were there for almost 5 (probably explaind the sunburn).

It was a record accomplishment day today. We had a 8 am Tball game, followed by my realization that I forgot my wallet at home, so went back home, finished up a few packages and went to the carnival, stopped and aired up the tires on the stroller, took the shuttle bus to the carnival and back, went to the carnival, went to the ticket agency to get tickets for Disney for Monday (yes, we decided to go for the birthday. It's a surprize, don't tell them)

I also got the van's oil changed. I'm embarrassed to admit that it was almost a year since it had been changed. The last time was at Shelor in VA when the van's head cracked- so- Easter last year...

Made birthday invitations for the 2 friends the kids have. I still have no idea how to track down Joey's #2 friend, but I have 7 days to do it.

And now.. I'm avoiding the "chase the kids back to bed 15 times" routine. Sheesh.. with all the activity and early start to the morning you'd think they'd be passed out by now.. nope. Not even close.

I wish I knew the logic there when God endowed kids with limitless energy and endowed their parents with such limited energy...

Anyway.. when they're in bed I'll put up a few picture from today.

And Tomorrow's the big Avacado Festival in the Avacado Captial. We'll be going. Sonia's dismayed that she may be expected to EAT something with avacado in it. Either way, I'll be able to say "I went to the Avacado Festival" We're hoping to move to Avacado Capital (Fallbrook) this year. We've pretty much put our eggs in the short sale house (#4) basket -which is in Fallbrook. I passed on the guest house one, the other didn't really appeal as much as this one and welll.. we'll see... there's a great amount of blind faith happening here. The "projected close date" on the mortgage is May 29th. Our lease is up June 1st, I think (or 9th, but I think we signed papers for June 1). It's going to be close. The bank hasn't given the approval, the owner was supposed to turn in his taxes from the past two year and... didn't file them. After just ripping my hair out over filing ours and on time.. how does one do that- not file at all and get away with it?!! So much is still up in the air and May 29th is a mere 5 weeks away.

Yikes! 5 weeks! I better get packing!

I'm starting to really warm up to the idea of living in Fallbrook, anyway. It's a more rural town, homeschooling is more common place, as are families with horses and goats. Not super thrilled that it's going to be hotter, but hoping it's not going to be that much worse.

I'm becoming such a baby about weather- listen to me- 9 months here and already anything under 65 and over 79 is too hot or too cold.
God, you're really spoiled me this year- please oh please don't follow this year up with time in the Great Lakes- please ease me back into dealing with more than 1 season. Or not. I could stay here a little longer. Just move some family out here. Thanks!

Random thoughts...on schooling and my kids' school in particular

So.. there was a "anonymous" survey sent out to all the current parents of their school.

And if you've known my past.. please don't ask me what I think unless you REALLY want to know- because I'll tell you.

And yes. I told them.

I'm not sure how anonymous it was, since I had to put my name on it, but.. whatever. I don't care. Well, maybe a little. I might care more if I was really thinking it was a great school and I wanted to keep my kids in there without retaliation...

But I come from a long line of people who burn bridges while I'm still on them. And while I've gotten wet a few times, I still haven't quite learned my lesson, so to speak.

Anyway...
I voiced complaints and pet peeves. And then I had to edit it down since my typed characters exceeded the limits.. It was 10 pages long, and I filled everyone of them.

I think they might have heard one of the complaints- the one were they cancel things at the last minute and by email. So.. the cancellation on the Lego Car demonstration isn't a surprise, but they sent it out...(drum roll please)... a full school day ahead of the scheduled event AND with an apology for the late notice. Well.. A day I can deal with. It was the 30 minutes that triggered my, uh, constructive criticism about. Not that I was planing to go, but I felt vindicated that they sent it in adequate time to change plans and with an apology.

Too bad I'm planning in un-enrolling them. I have to get up the nerve to tell them.

And it wouldn't be so bad if they were on the other 2 tracts- where they go to school 2 days a week and get to use the school's resources more that 12 days a school year (which is exactly how often they went) or if I was using my ciricullum of choice, not their lousy scanned download sheets which were scanned sloppily and crooked) and have them re-imburse for it (which they wouldn't it had religious content). Of if our "educational advisor" wasn't such a dip. I can't believe she has a degree. Much less be entrusted to teach others. Or if we aren't hoping to move 30 minutes from the school, so why would I want to go 2x a week, anyway?

So.. Now I'm looking to see what ciricullum we what to use.. oh.. the choices..
I'm looking for the one that is really good to use with an avid reader who can't stand to sit still.. is there one for that?

In Celebration

Of getting my taxes done, we went strawberry picking... And right next to there was this huge Flower field. I guess it's a really big deal, since it has a name, and it's acres of flowers and they charge admission. $10 a person, so we did the hillbilly checking it out by driving by and taking pictures. And here I'm sharing them with you...

Every year I say I'll get them done sooner and every year it's right down to the line. Well.. that's since we have the business. It used to be so easy- plug in the W2's a few more numbers and voilla- done.

I think in a record for us, our tax returns were over 30 pages. And there were 3 returns- 2 state and 1 federal. Business expenses, sales, selling a home partially used for business.. and then there was the filing as a part year resident of 2 states for me, while Larry can maintain 1 state residence, yet there's common law rules saying 1/2 of his income is taxable under my CA residence.. UGH. Who made up these rules?!! That's double taxation- because he's taxed in VA on his income and then the state of CA thinks they can tax 1/2 of that again???

Figures. And in case you didn't hear- I got pulled over, in my neighborhood for not stopping long enough at a stop sign. I stopped, it felt like an eternity, since the kids were screaming - JM was tired and I was hoping he'd fall asleep and the kids were yelling that JM as crying and they couldn't hear their music on the radio. It was in my neighborhood, there are 6 stop signs I stop at to get out of the neighborhood. And the cop LIVES right there, at the stop sign, we see his car parked right there all the time.

So he pulls me over, tells me I rolled through the stop sign (which I don't think so...I swear I stopped, but I didn't stop a full 3 seconds...) And THEN tells me I need to get a CA drivers' license unless I'm active duty. VA let me keep it no problem. It's CA that the problem. The same CA that took some unique tax out of my paycheck that I'd never hear of before. The same CA that our car insurance tripled because there are so many THOUSANDS of Mexicans here illegally driving without a license.. you get the picture...

And I got the summons for that ticket- $255!!!!!! Are you KIDDING?!!! And.. in true CA fashion... you have to pay it even if you're going to go to court and plead not guilty. I am SO mad at that. And that is was in my neighborhood and the cop lived right there saying "we're getting alot of complaints about people not stopping here" Whatever. You'd think being a neighbor, you'd let them go with a warning.. or less than $255 ticket. And then he goes and parks a camper in the street in clear violation of the Homeowers assocation rules. I hope someone reports and fines him on that. Only I don't think the fine is as high as my ticket. Grumble grumble grumble.

On, and I get to pay for my drivers license and traffic school on top of that. At least we're getting some taxes back to pay for it... I would rather have spent that money on a trip to Disney... which I was contemplating for Sonia and Joey's birthday next week...

OK.. we still don't understand the trinity.

Yesterday at "school time" Kayla was drawing a picture- of the sun in the sky- and said "I'm drawing a picture of Jesus"

Ok.. so does she know something I don't.. God IS described as a blinding light...???

Jesus, Stop Burning Me!

Kayla was in the van this week complaining that the sun was making her too hot.

She fusses, pouts, puts her blanket up to shield her from the sun and whines about it. I tell her there's nothing I can do about it.

So, she yells "JESUS! stop burning me!"
ME - -WHAT did you say?
" I told Jesus to stop burning me. He's the Son."
-Eh.. The Son of God, not the Sun in the sky. Like Joey is Mommy's son, Jesus is the son of God
"But the told me in Church that Jesus is the Sun"
-Right, the SON of God, He's part of God and his son, like Joey is Mommy's son"
" But Jesus is in the Sky, He's the Sun"

And the circular conversation went on for a good 20 minutes..
I don't think I explained the concept of the trinity very well. At least we did get it straight that Jesus is not the glowing ball of light in the sky.

And in other news.. I'm STILL working on my taxes. Apparently there are millions of others doing the same since Tax Act is MUCH slower than it was a few days ago. It's taking 3 mintues to load each page. I'll have to wait until the East Coast has gone to bed and I bet it will speed up alittle.

And I'm even more convinced that continuing our business from the garage is not a good use of my time. I'm sure if I had time to figure out all the stuff I could deduct, it might be worth it, but, let's face it.. I'll never have the time to do that and run the day to day stuff of it and family.

Actually if I could just clone myself- a great solution to the problem.

Buying a house in CA and going to prom

They are more alike than you would think.

I know you're thinking..."how is THAT? has she really gone off her rocker?"

Ah, no my friends.. because much like asking someone to a prom and being turned down because someone better came along... the same goes for buying a house.

You ask them if they want you to buy them and it says "well.. maybe.. oh, wait- that guy has more money, we'll go with him..." only to find out the guy with money chose to go to prom with another house (more beautiful/popular girl or whatever) and suddenly they're asking you to prom. And you're feeling a little second rate, yet kinda feeling vindicated that you are in fact desirable, at least on some level.

OK.. maybe I have gotten a little loopy. I blame the Cadbury mini eggs I can't stop eating.

So.. back to our list-
House 1 with the guest house is suddenly available again and wonders if we'd like it back
House 2 (uh, I can't remember- oh, right cul de sac with pool) came around again looking for interest after their date moved on or couldn't find the money for prom tickets.
House 3.. ok, well, we were never really in league with house 3. House 3 married someone who will make it rich and famous someday.
House 4- the short sale house we're still waiting to hear if it's mother (the bank) will let us take it to prom (buy it)

This is insane.

Happy Easter

Easter is one of those Holidays that has been marked by some happy and some sad times. Sonia and Joey were born on Easter almost 6 years ago, my grandfather passed away Easter week 3 years ago. Today is not marked by either extreme.

But it is marked by pictures~~

IF you can't say something nice

put up pictures

I have 7 more days until tax day. Still working on it

Be careful what you wish for

So after worrying that my son wasn't speaking...

He now speaks.

And howls and shrieks "NO!!" at everything-

getting his diaper changed, going in the car seat, going in the stroller, not running infront of traffic...

I guess it's better than the crying tantrums he used to throw (and still does) but.. no...not really.

And copies EVERYTHING. He didn't copy a thing, NOW.. oh, yes.. he picked up "shut up" and "knock knock" on the same day. Lovely. So in the car he's saying "knock knock" and when the others chimes in he says "shut up" incessantly.

heaven help me.

Neither are phrases used here except for maybe once when I flew off the handle when they were out-of-control-screaming.. not my finer moment. And they're often out of control yelling and rarely do they hear me say "STOP!!!" Somedays I want to invest in earplugs. Lots and lots of earplugs.. And it was quite a while ago, so if that's where he picked that phrase, heaven help what else he'll store away for a special day...

Yesterday we went to Balboa Park for Free Tuesdays at the museum. The kids' school lessons are on dinosaurs and transportation, so I thought "what better way to get them to really understand fossils than to take them to see them.."

I guess 1/2 of San Diego county had the same idea. It was standing room only in the museum, they made you leave the stroller outside and I forgot my baby carrier in the van which was a tram ride away so it was frightening at best to nearly loose my kids 10 times in 5 minutes. I could have sworn with the amount of people there was a door prize for going yesterday.. so much so that I asked - what were they giving away to entice so many people in.. and the lady said she'd never seen it that way before. We hadn't either- we've been there for several Free Tuesdays and pretty much had that particular museum to ourselves.

We moved on to the Train museum which was closed by the time we got there...

But they played on the dragon sculpture and walked around enough that I had 3 kids "tired of walking" and a 4th who wanted to run off and screamed bloody murder if one of his siblings sat in "his" stroller.

And.. I like to live on the fine edge.. I forgot to get gas before we left for the Museum so I was downtown and KNEW if I got on the highway, I'd get stuck in traffic and run out of gas. The gas light was on and chiming "hello, get some gas, you dummy"
So.. I figure let's drive toward the water on this main road and see if there's a gas station along the way..

No. There was not and No, I didn't have our GPS in our car.

My anxiety prone son pipes up "mom, do you have your phone?"
yes, I do
"well, why don't you just call the tow truck now?"
because we'll find a gas station
"but we'll run out of gas and have to call them, so why don't we call them now?"

And I start thinking.. how many 5 year olds have as much experience calling the tow truck as we've had in the past year..??

So after several dead ends and anxious boy getting increasingly anxious, I remembered I had GPS on my phone- not nearly as refined as a "real" GPS but enough for us to get to a gas station and fill up.

And the entire time we were driving around looking for a gas station I heard from the back seat "knock knock" "knock knock" "knock knock"

1-800-876-4766

It's programmed in my phone. It's the poison control center in CA.

WHY?

Because lightening fast toddler has the uncanny timing to find trouble the second his ADD sister starts climbing the walls at "school time" and needs a little more attention... he abandons the color wonder markers and wisks off at light speed, with puppy in tow

My back turns and he's eaten (just today)
+1 tube of lipstick he's also colored the dog and carpet with it
+1/2 a tab of triaminic
+2 capsules of nyquil (or bit them, realized they taste bad and spit them out, also coloring the carpet)
And he's colored the carpet with a bottle of hand cream and another tube of lipstick (I didn't realize I HAD 2 tubes of lipstick...)

Yesterday he fed the dog the entire bottle of my homeopathic migraine remedy. Literally. The entire bottle. Plastic and all.
Apparently Beagles do not die or suffer ill effects from said remedy

Yesterday he and puppy emptied my entire plastic drawer unit of ALL my serger thread. Tread was everywhere. 2 tubes were chewed to bits.

SO... here's my cleaning tip of the day..
To get lipstick out of the carpet, Fantastic works well. Spray, scrub, repeat.

And in review-
- hot water and oxyclean for toothpaste in carpet
- car wash high pressure washer for car sick car seats
- Totally toddler for markers that claim "washable" but lie


I don't know what will get it off the dog, and right now I'm ready to post a "free to a good home" sign on her.. and the toddler...

Pictures added from yesterday

(Joey immediately after being splashed by the dolphin above and below the spasher)







(showing off my new super duper cool lens from my dad's old camera until I filled the camera card and had to use the crummy point and shoot)

House update:

House #1- I don't remember which this was, but the one with the guest house went to a stronger buyer

House #2- Is still in an escrow mess, when/if the mess is cleared up we're #2 in line

House #3- the 4 car garage one- has soo many bidders we're not even in contention

House #4- the short sale- looks like it's going to be the one. We're the only ones in contention for it.

Sea world was pretty fun even though we didn't go the rides or see the shows. Sonia got to touch the Bat Rays and a Dolphin. - How cool is that? I've never touched a dolphin. It was in the dolphin tank, there wasn't a dolphin feeding area like there was in Florida. And no, I didn't sneak food in to feed the animals other than the rice cakes and PB sandwiches I fed my animals.

Joey got soaked trying to reach into the pool to touch the Bat Rays and then in trying to get to touch a dolphin it splashed him. He thought it was funny. I felt kinda bad since it was a little cool yesterday. He said he wasn't cold at all.

Anyway.. I'll post pictures later