Weekend With Friends Part Two

I'm always a fan of a good surprise, So I plotted with Blaine to keep our visit a secret from Tamra and the kids.  It was a little dicey for him trying to hurry the family through Costco to get home to meet us, but it was priceless hearing her excitement as my kids walked into the kitchen nonchalantly carrying groceries from the car.  (See below)

They live minutes from the beach-- sad for them huh?

So fun seeing them reunited playing with their buddies like ol' times

Getting drenched and dirty-- yep- just like ol' times

Her jeans were soaked, I don't know how she could stand it!

We were so tired that night from 3 hours of sleep we got that morning, we ended up crashing at their house.

Playing kickball and soccer at the park the next day

Anya and Bella excitedly showed the kids all the snails in their front yard. Yes, snails are foreign entity to my little desert rats. They nicknamed their play "Going Snailing. "  JJ offered a cash bribe to anyone willing to put one on their nose. I disapproved of taking advantage of the kids for personal entertainment, especially when he ended up having to pay them in Euros. But they said they didn't mind. I love these photos of Anya.

Anya--Going Snailing!

Cade Oliver-- or "Cado" as the nickname goes.

He is the cutest little guy. Such a sweet disposition. The jury is out on who he most resembles,

but he has Bella's cute little lips!

Pretty Momma!

I enjoyed much baby snuggle time!

After four years of being carpool buddies we sure miss seeing them every day,

but it's nice to see them settled and happy.

And... it just gives us more excuses to visit California--

We'll definitely be back!

That afternoon we head back to my folks and enjoyed more time playing on the beach.

Here is JJ going in for a swim, and.....

Coming out 5 minutes later. It was cooooold!

And even more beach time on our last day

I just love sitting on the beach watching them play

I get a little Deja vu of my childhood beach days

Burying his arm in the hillside

The kids found over 3 hundrend mini clams-- They counted them all

I loved watching the little clammy bodies slurp out of the shell looking for food.

What's a beach visit without a burial?

Despite the rocky start we had such a nice trip and a thankfully uneventful drive home!!!

Weekend With Friends Part 1- Bumps on the Road

Since our dear dear friends moved to Cali a month ago our kids, and admittedly myself have been heart sick to see them. Tamra just had her newest baby a couple of weeks ago. We decided to head over to my folks last weekend so we could stop by and see the little bambino. I was happy to discover they are a mere hour from my parent's house ( as the JJ drives).

Unfortunately we got a bit of a late start Friday due to Jordan's music recital, and even more unfortunately we heard the rumble of our tire blowing out a meger 30 miles past Gila Bend. (I remain unconvinced it was not due to the oil changers ineptitude at tire inflation. Either way it's them or their tires crapping out after less than 2 years. Curse you Fletchers!) So we pulled over and got to work getting out the spare and tools and discovered we had no jack. Talk about unprepared, we must have forgotten to replace it at some point. With nothing but sage brush to prop up the car, I began waving our glowing cell phones for aid. Might I say there are a shortage of good Samaritans out there. The only ones left come in the demographic of Mexican men between 40-50 years old . A semi driver stopped first, but could offer no help, and after about 45 min. of flagging, another guy stopped to help and lent us a jack. Even after all that time, we were back on the road before the highway patrol made it to us-- so much for road side assistance. Thankfully our good Samaritan who had also lost a tire on that stretch informed us of an all night tire place in Gila Bend. Sooo... after getting a new tire we were back on the road at Midnight and ended up crawling into our bed at my parents house at 5am-- just in time to see the sunrise. Oh happy day!

All the waiting and late night driving gave us a chance to reflect on the numerous other times we have found ourselves stranded on the side of the road ....There have been many....

--Our first little car left us out of gas several times until we realized the gauge was off and ¼ tank was really empty. It continued to strand us as that margin of error marched from ¼ tank to ½ tank throughout the years of ownership.

--There was the time the transmission went out, when we were driving JJ's Dad's car home from a trip for him. We limped along off the freeway and into a hotel parking lot. When we got off the phone with JJ's parents, we came outside to a charred front of the car surrounded by the police and the fire department. Apparently it spontaneously caught fire while we were calling. Luckily someone near by had an extinguisher and put it out before it burned all of our stuff and/or exploded. Twin Falls, Idaho you will forever live in infamy. (note: it actually ended up being a blessing in disguise for his dad, as insurance companies pay for fires, not broken transmissions)

--Then there has been the trailer on our sailboat-- a consistant source of adventure, starting with the first tire we watched burst into flame in our rear view mirror, come loose and roll along side us as we pulled over, with a final turn in front of us as it ended in a collapse on the side of the road. (I swear I am not making any of this up).

--Our “sailing” trip to San Carlos began with the barrings going out on one of the trailer wheels, 10 miles outside of phoenix (which took an entire day to fix) , ended with two flats on the drive home through Mexico (note: those llanterra tires are not to be trusted) and contained two days in the middle of being stranded out on the bay with a broken motor and not one lick of wind.

There have been others, but these are some of our favorite memories.  As I thought about them, I realized we were able to work through all those moments with some resourcefulness, patience, and the help of Good Samaritans-- oh, and a lot of laughter-- which I guess is the recipe for managing through most of life's bumps on the road.

--It also helps when the destination is well worth the trouble,  in this case, it definitely was...
see Part Two for details....

Flowers for Mother's Day

This year I got flowers for Mother's Day-- a whole yard of them.


My parents were in town last week and my Dad helped us color our backyard. Now our backyard, as big and wonderful as it is, has been a source of embarassment at how horribly we take care of it. --Well, we are turning over a new leaf (no pun intended) and I decided it's time to crack down and cover those army barracks with something more inviting. The whole family pitched in and spent saturday digging, planting, dirt mixing, and drip lining our backyard. It looks much better, and now that I understand our drip system and how to properly add plants to it, I feel much more confident that some of these plants will actually survive.


 As an added back up, I took careful measure to choose plants that appear, well, idiot proof. Or should I say lazy proof? To give you an idea of what they are up against.... JJ informed me a couple of days ago that the water has been off in our front yard for months because he needed to fix a drip- Nice, right? Yet our Lantana and honey suckle have been growing beautifully and fast all this time-- Yep- idiot proof!!! So, let's just say I picked a lot of Lantana,  also Bouganvillea, a couple mesquite trees (love those things) and since our Rosewood is the lone survivor from our last attempt, I got one more to boot. We also ventured to an orange tree. Jordan got so excited, he asked if we could get a basket so he could pick the oranges. I told him if there are EVER any oranges on it to pick, I will buy them each a basket. He excitedly passed on the news to his sisters. Here's hoping for oranges and general plant prosperity.  If nothing else, now that my Dad fixed our timer, we should at least be seeing some grass growing soon-- yeah!

My great little Dirt Mixers!

JJ, Herculing through the concrete ledge underground.

Drip lines here we come-- Thanks Dad!

Mud Trauma

Taking a break to be with her Grammy

Here are some of the results

This little nook should be really pretty when it all fills in :)

Someday, that Hibiscus will be able to shop in the Big and Beautiful

Section!---hopefully

The start of our Mexican Heather Hedge

My lovely Mother's Day Dinner

Lasagna,Asparagus, and Bruschetta

Who could ask for anything more?

It was a wonderful Mother's Day weekend, and I especially love the little notes and gifts from my sweeties. They each picked out such thoughtful things that I needed like lotion, hair clippy claws, squirt bottle (perpetually lost), and Isabel wrote me a thoughtful Poem and put it in a frame with a picture of a flower.

It is a nice reminder of my weekend so I will share it:

Mother's Love

Garden so pretty

Flowers full of love

More colorful than the rainbow

as beautiful as a dove

As wonderful as a sunset

If each flower was part of my mother's heart

My garden would go on forever

Here's hoping our little garden may go on forever.... Well at least until next week.

Easter

 We had a lovely Easter Weekend in Las Vegas with JJ's family Here are some random photos of our fun...

  Number one fun--Swimming! 

His parents were kind enough to heat the pool-- it's a bit cooler in Vegas. Never in my wildist dreams did I think we would be living somewhere where we went to Vegas to cool off! Despite the heating- swimming was a bit chilly. I was surprised at the kids endurance. Saturday night after hours and hours of swimming JJ took their temp out of curiosity, the all time low was 96.1 --actually, I take that back, Jordan's just registered  "low". Can we say hypothermia? I called it quits after that. Their lips weren't exactly a healthy shade of blue.....

Our Serious Game of

Monkey in the Middle

 JJ lifting cousin Nathan

JJ Launching Jordan

JJ Launching himself,

The water was nearly 5 ft deep there.

Isabel's Tiger

Their Aunt Vanessa loves to take on the egg dying with the kids.

I love aunties!

Here are her "San Francisco Giants Pride" eggs

The big brother my kids never had-- Cousin levi

JJ loves his Mommy!

It may have been the thought of dental bills-- But I think it was an advertising slogan on some Easter mini M&M's that read "great for babies" that pushed the Easter Bunny into providing less candy and a more useful replacement....

Their very own hooded towels

-- hopefully this cuts down the green eyeing of  baby gifts!

Cute Easter Dresses my Mom bought the girls

Thank You Grandma

Too bad I only had 30 seconds to document them before we were late for church!

Probably my first successful decorative cake attempt that both looked and tasted good!

This was from The Girl Who Ate Everything Blog-- I think I have gained 5 pounds since the discovery.

So my words of advice -if you don't know it yet- Be Smart. Don't Start!

Our wonderful cousins that we will miss dearly. They moved to Washingtom this week.

Here's hoping it's not forever! They have been good pals through the years!

Dog Ditching

As a quick update on Felicity Status.

Apparently the kid's infatuation didn't extend to consistent playing or pooper scooping and even went so far as avoidance of the back yard.  Turns out our kids are, well... our kids. They aren't really dog people either, go figure.  As for me, I think the spell cast by her was broken by the euphoria of my Italy trip and the chewing of Jordan's new school shoes. If that wasn't enough to seal her fate, Dr. Nefario himself expressed utter exasperation at the first sign of night barking and impatiently asked when I was going to get rid of her.  I ruled out listing her on craigslist when I found out free dogs can often meet untimely ends. So it was off to the animal shelter where she was guiltily given up.  I like to think her future is a nice family with a big yard and big heart willing to train her and not euthanasia, but at least we kept her off the street. 

You know, I have received such unappreciative comments from JJ such as " What were you thinking?" and "I can't believe you picked up a dog."

I think instead I deserve a pat on the back. After all, at  the mere price of some dog food, a collar, and school shoes I have single handedly rid us of years of pet begging from our kids. We are no longer the bad guys, keeping them from the joys of pet ownership. Even they admit we aren't cut out for pets. I think  maybe we need to start with something more suited to our level-( level zero). I'm thinking..... The Pillow Pet. Yep, that should do.

Dog Days

 I have never been much of an animal lover, unless you count a brief stint in elementary school when I wanted to be a veterinarian, but what kid didn't at that age, along with Rock Star or Ice cream Scooper? I especially have minimal patience for dogs. I am to dogs, what most single people are to kids. While I may mildly appreciate others' dogs from a distance, I mostly think to myself why on earth would you put up with all that crap?- quite literally actually. Then I met Felicity, as we have named her (I know, I know, never name them).

On friday, Amber and I were ending our run a couple houses down from mine and we spotted this dog cowering in the front yard of a neighbor's. She looked so lost, scared and pathetic, some strange feelings stirred in my heart as Amber called her to over to us-- dare I say pity? This is coming from the girl who stubbornly ignored the mewings of a stray and hungry cat every night at our back door for weeks. The kids called him Midnight, JJ and I added Pestilence thus earning him the name Midnight Pestilence.

Well this dog, was so pretty and clearly not a typical stray. She looked healthy and well cared for. I figured someone must be missing her. Amber was going to take her to help her find a home but as she started to head toward her car, I surprisingly heard myself saying, “I'll take her.” I admit it felt a little like an out of body experience. I don't pick up stray dogs, I sneer at their idiocy for getting lost in the first place. Not this girl though, the thought of her being put to sleep at some pound or hit by a car, made my stomach churn. For the first time I came close to wanting a dog-- but I reminded myself I was only finding her family--we don't do dogs.

 The kids of course were excited to meet her and immediately embarked on a quest for a name. I reminded them she was a temporary yard guest, but could find no harm in having something to call her-- the first step down the slippery slope. I thought of Serendipity, because of the nature of our meeting, but it seemed too long, which led to Felicity. After I explained it meant happiness, the kids were sold due to her playful happy nature and the immediate fun she brought to their life.

We've visited some neighbor's and put up signs around the neighborhood, but I've started to think she may be abandoned. Although who could abandon her, I don't know. Over the last few days I have been at war with myself. I feel like one side of me is Gru in “Despicable Me” coming home from the fair with my face painted like a cat and arms fool of carnival goodies saying to a disgruntled and pragmatic Dr. Nefario “I've got the shrink ray...” To which my Dr. Nefario alter ego says sternly that I have to send them back.

I have phsycho analyzed my feelings with explanations such as:

“You just feel more comfortable with a dog in the yard while JJ is out of town.”

“ She's filling the growing void in your heart at the thought of your dear friends moving out of state soon.”

“ You just like the idea of having a dog.”

I tell myself:

“Dogs are expensive”

“You have to find somewhere for her to go every time you go out of town.”

“She'll chew things, (already has)

“She has big poops which the kids have yet to be willing to clean up. (although they said they would if we get a pooper scooper-we shall see)

“What about the summer? Are you going to keep her outside then too?”

I know all these things and more, are valid arguments against her. But yet I still find myself wanting to buy her a soft bed, clean up the yard so it's nicer to roam in, and worrying about her when I am out and about and it's raining. I keep trying to put up a wall against getting attached to her, but it crumbles every time she looks at me with those deep brown eyes that say in a devoted doggy voice “ and I will love you and serve you and be your best friend and you shall be mine, please keep me.” But mostly I am so utterly fascinated by these strange feelings, I just have to wait a little longer to see how they play out. I know I don't have time to find her a proper home before I leave. And I know I just can't send her to the pound. She is so joyful, loving, and devoted, she does not deserve to be snuffed out of existence. Our neighbor Sarah offered to feed her while I am gone and my mother-n-law has dogs,-- she probably won't mind keeping tabs on her outside during the week, right?

Most likely these feelings will disaparate at the first sight of a vet bill, or even more likely, at the first meeting of Felicity and the live version of my Dr. Nefario alter ego – JJ.

But, call me crazy, I just can't bare to part with little mutt just yet? Am I crazy????

Here she is with her new fan club:

Spring Swim

When I found out the temperature has been reaching the 90's this week, I decided instead of complaining about it, I would embrace it. Turns out some pools are open in town for spring break (I won't even mention what's wrong with those words co-habitating the same sentence). So we picked up our good friends to enjoy the sunshine and one of few remaining days before they move to California-- sniff, sniff.

Here we are embracing the weather...

Swimming has always been my #1 favorite bonding activity with the kids. Growing up by the beach has made me more of a dolphin rather than a desert rat. So any chance to re-hydrate in water is a welcome one, especially if it involves my best little friends. I have many fond memories of spending the summer days teaching the kids how to swim.... only to start over the next summer after they'd forgotten. I loved evey minute of it. Today when Laney and Jordan climbed in the water and comfortably swam like no time had passed-- I thought Hallelujah!

We had a buddy system....

 My little Buddy

I am amazed at what a different experience the pool is from a few years ago trying to juggle my little non-swimmers, it was surprisingly bittersweet. I felt happiness at the sight of Isabel growing up and running around with her friend, but also some trepidation as I looked around at all the teenagers grown up and alone there with their friends and boyfriends.

I found myself grateful for another day of the kids, despite their growing independence, still anxious to hang on my back, show me their tricks, and happy to be my buddy,

-- even if that day came in the middle of March!