I am dumb....

Today I went to my closet to get my uniform shirt for softball. I noticed that on both shirts, the tag was cut out. UGH! I HATE when Hongo does that!
So with both shirts in hand, I stomp over to him in the shower and yell "Who gave you permission to cut the tag out of my shirt!" He said "it doesn't matter!" I told him "yes it does, because now I can't figure out which one is mine!"

And then he said "Are you really that stupid? Turn them both around!"

So I did.

And one of those damn shirts says KIM #25 on the back.

Yes, I am stupid and the kids are going back to public school tomorrow, lol.

I needed a smile

so I made time to go through some of my DisneyWorld photos. Can you see what a pain that LQ was being?

Its not supposed to be like this...

I really love playing softball. I do. But lately I have been dreading it this season. There are three new girls on the team. Three sisters. Two of them glare at me every chance they get. One is really nice to everyone. One of the sisters that glares at me plays my usual position. So for the past two games we have had to switch off, and neither of us has been very happy about it. Especially me, since I have been getting the raw end of the deal.
During practices I would bring my friend Christina and she also plays first base. We would switch off every inning and it was fine. And that is the way it was last season. All us girls would switch positions and give fair playing time to each other. I usually played first base, but I would switch with the manager's wife and play outfield too.
So I guess what I am saying is that it really isn't all about sharing...its about having people on your team that you can't seem to get along with.
I coach girls softball (and T-Ball last season) and one of the things that I worked really hard to teach was that even though not everyone is going to get along 100 percent of the time, you still have to be polite and a good teammate. So I've tried so hard to be a model for that (some of the people on my team have daughters that I have coached) but privately I find it so difficult.
Ugh, I just needed to vent.I have faith that this will all work out. I keep reminding my manager that it would be really great to have Christina on the team because she's reliable and everyone likes her. But for right now I have to just keep going and deal with this situation and the weekly dread it brings.

Good, good....

Ah, what a busy weekend! The party on Friday went really well. The kids were having fun, and the little girls spent the afternoon dressing up and coming downstairs to model.
I have pictures! I will send them out to the moms tomorrow, and DramaQueen is going to dress up again so I can have some to post here.
Saturday's adult party was fun! Ladies only and we had a really good time. It was not a raunchy and gross party at all, which I am glad of. The lady who gives these parties is known to be kind of that way, and I didn't find out until AFTER I had booked her. Everything we bought should be here Friday.
Then on Sunday, that party went well too. The hostess called me today to tell me she was SO happy about it and that everyone really liked me. I was on Cloud 9! Then after that party, we played softball. I skinned and bruised my knees sliding into 3rd base. I haven't slid in about 14-15 years and it showed. It was an ugly slide. But I was safe!
After the game, we called up family friends and went to the park to have batting practice. We played until it got dark! We had a lot of fun.
Yesterday I was determined to get our family back into the swing of things. We spent a little time at the park with my friend and her 3year old daughter. She kept hitting the Hairy One and he would hit her back. Finally she pushed him and made him fall, so my friend had to leave. My son looked ready to smack her again, and stopped himself. But afterwards we went to the library and I checked out some cool books for myself to read when I massage Hongo at night.
At the last minute, I decided to go to knitting night. I wasn't going to - I had been away from my family a lot all week and I was feeling the guilt. But they all insisted that I go, so I did. I had myself a double chocolate chip frappacino and it was gooooood.

Whichbrings me to today. It was one of those days where ya want to pump your arm and give high 5's. Well, at least *I* did.
Hongo got paid, so I went shopping, lol. We went to Target to get some small baggies for his lunch, and I went over to the school supply section because I knew they had some folders on clearance. Well, everything was 75% off! I got those 5 subject notebooks for 44 cents each, the packs of markers for 37 cents each, packs of highlighters, and some activity posters for super cheap. We made out well. The cart was full and I only paid about 15 dollars for it all.
So to my friends, go to the VV Target!
Then I got that phone call from the lady about the party, and I was happy about that.
Then I got caught up on all the laundry and most of the cleaning, so there are brownie points there because I was feeling like I was neglecting my house.
I made an appointment with my friend who also happens to scrapbook, and she is going to make me an album of my pictures for dirt cheap.
I've also had 3 good emails to read.

Now if my kids would JUST go to bed, the day would be even more awesome....grrrr.


Now watch - tomorrow is going to be the crappiest day ever, lol.

Its a good day...

Want to know why?

Because my crummy neighbors across the street are finally moving! YEAH! I have waited 7 months for this!

Aside from that, it has been a good day. Our playdate for this afternoon was canceled, but we made the best of it and went to the park with friends this morning. We were going to invite them for lunch ( I had everything ready anyway) but they had to go pick up the dad from work. So we went to the grocery store instead and picked up a few odds and ends. I have been perusing the sale ads to see what stuff I can stock up on during the winter. Today it was cereal. We have enough Cheerios to last all winter, lol.

The only problem with my yearly stock up is that Hongo wants to move in December. So all that food has to be packed and transported. The pantry stuff is bad enough, but the giant freezer in the garage - yikes!

So anyway - we are going to spend our afternoon doing some lessons. We have library tomorrow before we head to Park as well.

And Friday - well...its funny how things work out. My friend was supposed to have her son's birthday party at the park in the morning, and we were going to Lego Club in the afternoon. But on Monday, we found out that the weather is supposed to be bad Friday, so I offered to let her use my house to have the party. Today she confirmed that we would have it at my house, and then I came home and checked my email, and the lady who was going to host Lego Club couldn't do it! So I offered to have it at my house, lol. Now I don't have to leave my house all day! It will be a stream of friends from 10am to whenever....
I am looking forward to seeing everyone.


Time for me to get back to my day - tonight we are roasting chicken and the house is going to smell sooooooo good!

Showtunes in my house

My kids are in a singing mood...and I take it as a sign of hunger, because they always end up singing about food!
This particular song I had to take notes while I listened - it really cracked me up:

DQ: I had a dreeeeeeeeeam.....
HB: She had a dream....
I had a dream I was a tacoooooooo
Oh good a tacoooooooooooo
But I hope that no one eats MEEEEEEEE because then I would be SAAAAAAAD
I will eat you....
YEEEEEEEESSSSSSS
*Then they begin to run around the table*
Don't eat me, please don't eat, because now I am a hot dog....
That's ok, because I love hot dogs toooooooooo.....
Oh no!
Oh YES!

* AND THEN they did some kind of dancing thing where they look like tap dancers and then they did the finale*

I am still dreeeeeeeeeeaming I am a tacoooooooooooo....
And I am dreaming of eeeeeeeeeeating tacos......
Then they hugged and looked at me with puppy dog eyes, and I laughed so hard.

Dreaming of being a taco....hmmm. Well, what a coincidence - we had tacos for dinner. And they were yummy - better than I think DramaQueen tacos would taste.

I think the kids are getting cabin fever - we have been inside for 1 1/2 days, and they were inside for a good portion of the time they were at MIL's.

Today I had an appointment, so I took the kids over to my friend's house (she lives 2 doors down from where I was going to be) and then after my appointment, I went to her house and we chatted. She said the kids were VERY good, so I was very glad to hear that. We stayed for a couple of hours and then I took the kids home to have lunch and do lessons.

OH, and I was worried a little bit about my homeschooling group for a little while. There is one lady who was removed from the group, so the owner of the group had closed it off for a bit while everything was getting taken care of. I thought she might have shut it down. But no - she was just kicking the one lady off. I can't say I'm disapppointed. The woman never came to park day unless there was food involved and made it clear the group was not a good fit for her. Why she continued to stay, I have no clue. Except maybe because she just wanted to bash the group any chance she got.....
Ah, now if her little sidekick buddy pot stirrer would go with her......

I had a good workout today - and I hope to have another good one tomorrow!

Good morning Monday!

Yesterday was not a good day - I want to put it behind me and just move on!

Today has been pretty busy! I got up right after Hongo left and got started on some work that I had left unfinished. I've also taken the time to update my calendar for the week....Today we are staying home and catching up, tomorrow morning we are going to visit a friend and her daughter, Wednesday we are having friends over, Thursday is Park and Hongo's softball game, and Friday we have a birthday party in the morning and Lego Club in the afternoon. I already finished re-arranging the kids' study times, so as long as nothing unexpected happens, it will be smooth sailing into the weekend.....where I am hosting an adult party on Saturday evening, and then on Sunday I am attending a party and then right after I have a softball game.

I anticipate the next week to be just as busy, and I don't see it slowing down until October. But its a good kind of busy! But if I am lucky, I will be able to put up some pictures from our vacation this week!

Things are going pretty well for the most part - I stepped up my exercise routine today and I plan on sticking with it. Yesterday was just a mess at the softball game. I made great contact with the bat and ball, but everywhere I hit it, the infielder played it well. The last at bat, I was SURE that I would hit it over the dang shortstop's head. The placement was off by 2 inches and he barely snagged it. UGH. Then I let a grounder go between my legs, which was embarrassing.
The whole team stunk, pretty much. Hongo struck out, and flied out. The manager couldn't get a hit and then he missed a fly ball and it bounced and hit his face. We were all pretty much mad at ourselves and each other (our team had a lot of errors) so we all left the park without saying much to each other.
So that is why I am stepping up my routine - I need to be stronger and faster in my game.
Well, back to lessons for now!

My family is dumb....

I mean my extended family, not my kids and my husband.

Last night Hongo and I were at the pet store buying feeder fish. My cell phone went off and I had a picture message. After looking at it carefully, I was able to decipher that it was a picture of my dad in a frame, with a white piece of paper over his face. But I recognized the picture - it was one that I had blown up to an 8x10 for his funeral.

Anyway - I thought it was some kind of sick joke, so after texting back and forth with this anonymous person, I found out that it was my cousin Melanie, and the white piece of paper was the back of a picture.
SO basically what she wanted me to think was that "my dad's spirit" put this picture of her and my other cousin on top of his face.
I simply asked her to remove the picture from his face and place it somewhere else. I find it inappropriate to cover up the face of a deceased man, especially when it happens to be MY dad. She wrote back that she had already. Then I changed the subject and asked her how she and her baby were doing.

And she never wrote back.

Oh well, I figured. Then I went upstairs and the first thing I see on my desk? A picture of my dad, LegoQueen, Melanie, and her brother Matthew from Christmas in 1997 or 1998.

Funny.

Hongo asked me what I thought, and I told him that it was just probably one of those things where they want to prove that my dad loved them more than me and that is why all these "signs" are appearing at their house.

Whatever. I dont think any of us will ever know who my dad loved the most.

And if by SOME weird chance my dad's spirit is lingering around, I feel sorry for it.

WE ARE HOME!!!!

And let me tell you - there truly is no place like home.

But this was truly a vacation worthy of being called "an N family vacation" because just when you think we got past being exhausted from the flight, a cranky 11 year old who made everyday painful at some point, a woman who crushed my knees, poor transit, rainy evenings, and lack of delicious food conveniently located, SOMETHING ELSE had to happen.

The morning that we left, we could not find our vouchers for the bus trip back to the airport. But they gave us a letter to give to the driver, and I swore that Hongo had thrown our passes away or something. So we strolled around the hotel, in limbo after checking out and waiting for our bus to arrive. The bus arrives and we get on, make a few stops, and then head to the airport.
Halfway to the airport, Hongo looks at me with horror on his face and says "I LEFT THE CAR KEYS IN THE SAFE AT THE HOTEL!!!!" Sure enough, the key to the safe is in his pocket, and OUR keys to get home are in it.
So I call the hotel and speak with them. She tells me they will hurry and they may have to break the lock, which will take more time, but that they will try to get the keys to us before the flight leaves in ......two hours.
I call MIL, and tell her that she may need to go back to our house and get my spare set, then bring them to the airport where we are arriving. Oh wait - I think we locked the keys in our bedroom, so maybe she and FIL could bring our other car to us instead?
The hotel called back - they have our keys and are sending them on the next bus to the airport.
HOngo waits at the welcome center, while I must now take 3 kids and carry-ons through the airport by myself and reach our gate. We had planned to have a meal at the airport, but all I can think is if Hongo could get back in time, we can all eat together. A hour passed, and I was on the verge of tears. I was knitting furiously to keep from thinking about missing my flight, and there are some STRANGE people that they let go on airplanes, BTW.
At 3:20 we went into the conveinience store to get some snacks and water. I was going to buy a bunch of stuff, but then I thought I saw Hongo get off the shuttle so I told the kids to grab what we had and made the guy ring it up. Turns out that it wasn't Hongo at all.
The flight began to board, Legoqueen is saying that we are going to have to leave without Daddy, and I told them "WE ARE NOT LEAVING WITHOUT DADDY!!!" They call for our zone, and still no Hongo. Finally, I see him. The keys got to him and he ran from one end of the terminal to the other to make it to the flight.
The rest of the journey was long and uneventful. Except for us scarfing down food in 15 minutes during the layover in Atlanta. The kids were well behaved and we made it home around 10pm. OUr house was still standing, and my fish are still alive.
I have a lot of catching up to do, today we went to the grocery store and Costco, and did laundry.
I do have to tell everyone the story about the keys, though. LOL!

Oh, and BTW - the bus vouchers were in the safe with the keys and medical cards.....

Its pouring rain!

Amazing weather here in Florida!
We just went out to get some juice from the store in the lobby. It was dry when we went in, it was pouring rain when we left! So we are sitting here watching football and waiting for room service to arrive with dinner and enjoying the rain. We have the slider wide open and the kids are watching the rain and lightning. Quite a novelty to us since we have seen very little rain in California.
We visited Animal Kingdom today and the kids had a really good time. DQ had her picture taken with Minnie again, and she bought a minnie safari hat. She also dropped her sunglasses in the ciclid pond but the guy supervising fished them out for her!
Tomorrow is our final day of parks, we are headed to the Magic Kingdom again. What a way to end our trip! The kids can't wait to go, and I think we are going to have another night full of whispering and giggles, lol.

The trip is lookin up

We are finally having a good time! Today was a nice day - it wasn't hot and humid and we got to go on all the rides we wanted and looked at everything that we didn't get a chance to on Friday.
I am online for a little bit to answer some emails and to check on things, so wy not blog for a bit?
We are going to Animal Kingdom tomorrow, so we have to go to bed early. Its hard because its really only 6:45 back home and its 3 hours later here. MIL has been watching the house for us, and keeping me posted on how my dogs are doing. She also reminded me that I need to feed the fish live goodies when I get home....
I just wanted to also say that our hotel is very nice, but I don't think we'll ever stay here again. It is too inconvenient to travel with 3 kids from parks to hotel. We were spoiled by our lst trip, we had access to park via bus, Monorail, and boat. I really miss the Monorail.
LQ has been making new friends here and just being all around social. There is a little boy who always happens to "appear" near our room and the pool we visit each night. Hongo is finding very annoying, while I find it rather hilarious, lol.

Its hard 2 eat ice cream in FL

We are going back 2 epcot today we didnt finish it all Friday. Yesterday was an unemxpected rest day it rained a lot. I am still bummed about the camera but a least i brought my little one. We are all having fun but missing the dry heat of CA. You dont walk around here drenched from the rain.... Race for the cure was yesturday. My friend Amy was in it, anyone know how she did? off to epcot now!

She is choking me!

A better day

We are here on day 2. We are going 2 Epcot. Day 1 was not good. every was going wrong. I left the battery to my camera. MIL is overnighting it as i type. on flight i sat behind a brat and his mom and she crushed my knees when she reclined. Everyone was tired and crabby. LQ was a huge brat, we almost sent her back 2 the ils. We couldnt find dinner for everyone so the kids ate sandwiches. then some west coast friend called at 11 30 woke us up. MIL just called and it would cost more than the battery is worth. sigh i told her never mind.

Waiting to board. The day has been eventful. I will update later if i can

Back to pictures

I figure that I should be getting back to pictures. We've been so busy, that I really haven't taken shots of kids. And when I do, I barely have time to offload them and glance at them.
As you can clearly see, DramaQueen is all smiles for the camera. I haven't really noticed that she is pretty pale looking, and using sunblock probably is a big reason she doesn't have a little color in her cheeks.
And then we come to LegoQueen. Its been, um....rather difficult with her lately. She is going through a lot of changes in the past few months, some physical and some emotional. It appears there will be two cycling women under one roof in the near future. Just what Hongo needs!
Anyway, she was all gung ho for pictures, but I guess I drained her joy when I insisted that she wash her face because she had kool aid mouth, and I also insisted that she brush her hair. So basically that is what set her in her bad mood - she wasn't able to have control over the situation and not everyone has realized her greatness. How frustrating for the LegoQueen.
We go through this every few years - the power struggle...her thinking that she rules the earth, the moon and the stars and all of us insignificant people that share the same dwelling.
She and Hongo have been clashing daily, and its become very irritating. He keeps threatening to leave her home this week, and she backs off. I know he wouldn't be so cruel, but obviously she doesn't.

This weekend we've been getting ready for vacation. The ILs came on Saturday to celebrate our good news on Hongo's health. They asked us if they could take the kids clothing shopping and we said sure and we all went shopping out in the high desert of LA. That mall is much better than ours is.
The kids scored mounds of clothing, which meant more washing for me. Nice. I think I will be able to finish the last load tonight. I am going to start packing the bags tomorrow, so that Wednesday is not so hectic.

I am excited, but I am SO scared. The plane ride just frightens me. This time we will be flying in the middle of the night, so hopefully I will be too tired to be scared.