Creations

10/5/2010, 9:04 AM

October fifth already? Time is flying. Fall break is next week, and then Paige's birthday party is the next weekend.

Today might officially be the first cool weather day. It has been over 100 degrees, it seems since June. Today is only supposed to be in the high 80s, we'll see if that holds true.

Halloween is coming. Veronica and Paige have both decided to be princess Peach. This is the first halloween they are dressing alike. My blue Alice costume just came in the mail. I just need to find some white boots. Matthew has yet to decide what he will be. So far the only thing he wants is an authentic darth vader costume. He needs to decide, because I think halloween is in three weeks.

Speaking of Vader, our dog Vader is growing by the day. I put him out in the back yard and when he comes back in, he's bigger. Does it hurt to grow that fast.?

Veronica and Paige are in the Nutcracker. We went to the Nutcracker cast meeting and received our schedules. We will have four hours of practice, between both of their schedules, every Saturday, until it increases in December. It's worth it. Just wait until the performances and it will be worth it.

In the past few weeks, we went to ABQ for Matthew's parents' 50th anniversary, took my mom to Needles, CA for my Grandma's 90th birthday, and it seems I'm forgetting something else too. Oh yeah, our anniversary and Paige's birthday are in sept too.

Some people are saying my blog is having difficulties and I have had problems w/ it too. Let me know if you see a warning that says this page cannot be found. Thanks.

Veronica and Paige got their letters of acceptance from the Nutcracker cast!  Veronica is a mouse and Paige is a dolly doll!  Woo Hoo!  If it's anything like last year, that means they will each have four performances.  We could potentially have 8 performances, unless they overlap, which would be nice.  This is going to be so much fun. 

We bought a puppy last night from a family who breeds labs.  He is all black and his eyes are black too.  So, we named him Vader.  He's cute.  He loves us all, however he has a special place in his heart for Matthew.  He follows Matthew all over.  I'll post pics when I upload them. 

My mom is flying in tomorrow.  We have a lot of catching up to do and we're going to Needles for my grandma's surprise 90th birthday party.  I'm pretty sure I can say that on my blog, I don't think she's too tech savvy. 

7/6/2010, 8:23 AM

Friday night we went to see The Last Airbender. It was pretty good. I hadn't ever sat down and watched a whole episode on Nick, so I was impressed at how they didn't lose me in the story line.

I called the theater before we went and asked which movie has the new Harry Potter preview. They said it is showing before the twilight movie Eclipse. I kept joking w/ Matthew that I wanted to sneak in and watch the preview while we were there. After Airbender was over, Matthew, Veronica, and Paige ran into the bathrooms, while I waited in the hall. I told an employee my plan to sneak in to Eclipse just to see the preview and she said she wanted to also. She took me to one that was just starting and we watched the Harry Potter preview and I ran out before my family came out of the restrooms. SWEET!

Saturday I went out to talk to Matthew in the garage. I held a piece of countertop-board while he sawed it. When the saw released the board, I realized I didn't have it centered and the whole thing dropped on my toe. Matthew kept saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." but it really wasn't his fault. I told him it was ok and I came inside. That's when the pain really hit me and I sat down on the floor and started crying. The pain kept increasing until I was really crying and the tears were pouring. When I looked up, Matthew, Veronica, and Paige were standing over me. It hurt so much I couldn't sleep that night.

The next day was 4th of July and I was not going to miss the fireworks. We went to chandler to celebrate at the tumbleweed park. I love the chandler fireworks. I even wrote a story w/ the chandler fireworks as the scene of the story. Matthew's brother, his fiance, and his son Marcus came to watch the fireworks w/ us. Earlier Sunday, we had a bbq lunch and they went swimming. When we got to the tumbleweed park, there were more people than we have seen there before. It was totally crowded. We set up a blanket and Sherry and I took the girls to slide the water slides. The lines took so long and while we waited, two people stepped on my hurt toe. Ow. While we were in line, I called my dr.'s after hours number and they told me they couldn't prescribe pain pills over the phone. I should have figured that. Plus, they told me they were going to be closed Monday, too, for the holiday. Of course I got hurt on a holiday weekend. They told me to go to urgent care. We went back to sit down on the blankets and ate roasted almonds, kettle korn popcorn, and icees. We snapped all our glowbracelets and put them all on. The sun went down and we watched the fantastic fireworks! I love these fireworks. Twice we thought it was the grande finale. Then we started calling it the middle finality (Paige's word). The grande finale was VERY fantastic, just as we have learned to expect from Chandler.

It took probably 30 minutes to find our car and maybe another hour and a half to get out of the parking lot. Matthew's poor brother still had to drive to tucson. We kept his kid though. Lol. Marcus stayed w/ us Monday and Tuesday. He has kept Veronica and Paige so busy. They go swimming all the time. Paige convinced him to make crafts w/ water bottles, tape, glue, popsicle sticks, and paint. They play super smash bros brawl and godzilla on the wii, eat snacks, take naps, and we even played apples to apples. All three of them just pass out at the end of every day.

Today, Ray and Sherry are coming back to get him and we are going to a very delicious restaurant called Arriba's.

Yesterday, I went to a sewing class at the store I bought the sewing machine from. I learned all about thread and needles and my machine functions.

On a positive side note, my toe has gone numb, so it doesn't hurt anymore.

(I know, gross, huh)

OH, ps. We're going to disneyland in 19 days. WOOHOO!

6/25/2010, 9:58 AM

Oh My Goodness! I'm so excited. We got a dish network upgrade! Matthew's brother has his own business in tucson and he drove up w/ one of his employees to install it. We got a new sat dish, a new receiver, two new remotes, and added it to the game room. Now the girls can watch cartoons in the game room and watch the recorded stuff too. I'm totally psyched! We just doubled our tv watching experience. Doubled, tripled, quadrupled.

Veronica and Paige just finished two weeks of swimming lessons. We are proud parents. They learned breathing, breast stroke, scissor kick, and back stroke.

We went camping in the white mountains for fathers day. It was fun. We drove through rivers, slept in tents, went potty in outhouses, made fires, cooked on the fires, fished, Paige caught her first fish, ate smores, played apples to apples, froze, I even took a shower in a camping shower. Fun Fun. I can't wait to do it again next summer. I do have to toot my own horn, just a little. I put up the tent in the dark. Also, I can still make a fire completely from scratch, w/ just a flame (usually it's a match, this time it was one of those lighter sticks). Another time on this same trip, I made it from just smoke. Don't know if you can't tell, I'm extremely proud of me.

We got our dance pictures from our photog. She's the same girl who took our Christmas pics. She is going to email three of them to me in digital form. When she does, I'll post them here. She is absolutely fabulous! Veronica and Paige are beautiful.

Today, we are taking Veronica's friend to Organ Stop pizza. And then a sleepover. Organ stop is always an event. It's fun to see the kids watching him play on such a huge scale. It's especially important for these three girls who are taking piano lessons.

This weekend we are going to see Toy story 3. We have one month until we go to Disneyland.

Oh, PS, use your search engine to look up "NASA solar storm". We have some interesting times coming.

6/2/2010, 9:13 AM

OMGoodness! I had a computer virus. You would think I'd have learned since I had one about six months ago too. It took me three days to remove this one. I did it, by myself. I am very proud of me. We renewed our Norton and I just have to install it on my computer now. Whew.

We went to Comicon Sunday. That was a lot of fun. We took a picture w/ Stan Lee, met LeVar Burton, saw Lou Ferrigno, bought comic books, saw lots of costumes, watched a life size remote control R2D2. Matthew had fun, I had fun and the girls had fun. We stood on a balcony so the girls could look at all the tall buildings downtown and ate burgers outside at a very fancy restaurant. Thank goodness they were selling $5 cheeseburgers cooked right there on the grill. Yum.

We are on day three of Summer vacation. We're already sleeping in. Urg. I am trying to keep them on some semblance of a schedule. We'll see how that goes. So far the girls are either extremely busy or extremely bored.

Matthew is on a business trip to Iowa. There's somewhere I have never considered going.

We have a dance recital a week from Friday so we have about four practices from now til then. I just got an email from Ballet Etudes, the Nutcracker dance company. They titled the message "Dear Nutcracker cast". That has a beautiful ring to it. I haven't heard that since December, so it was a nice little jolt.

We're going camping in June too. I can't wait to eat smores and sit around the campfire.

Then we're going to DISNEYLAND! We're going to watch all our disney movies this summer to refresh our memories of all the character's names and stories.

Speaking of movies, we just got Alice in Wonderland on blue ray and a digital copy, yesterday. We need to sit down and watch it. Yesterday I finally watched the princess and the frog. It was better than I expected and I expected a lot.

Well, time to get the girls to read their daily requirement, play piano, and probably go swimming too. Lots to do and only one summer to get it all done.

This is the last day of school. In fact, the last day of school has already ended. We said our goodbyes, cried, caught the last teachers to sign yearbooks, and drove away. I thought I was taking the girls shopping, but when I was waiting at the light at Power/Queen Creek, I listened to my messages. One was from Matthew, calling me back, and the other message was from my neighbor across the street asking me if I could watch their son for about 15 minutes after the bus dropped them off. I changed lanes and told the girls we had a change of plans. I got to our house and there was a total lack of neighbor boy. I asked the other bus kids if they had seen him. They said they thought he was on the bus (he wasn't). I rang doorbells. I called his mom in a panic. It turns out the message was from yesterday. (whew). It must be we were supposed to be right there right then, because while we were standing there a car drove up w/ a mom and a girl from Veronica's class. They came to get Veronica to take her to an end of the year swimming party (what are we in high school?). I hadn't seen the invite so I hadn't planned for it. Veronica ran inside and grabbed her suit and ran out the door to an afternoon of fun. Paige and I walked in the house to find a message on the phone. Her little friend wanted to go swimming. So we called her back and she came over so they swam for about an hour. We never went shopping, and if it hadn't been for that holdover phone message, we would have missed all the fun.

I finally did call Matthew back and later we took the girls to water and ice for ice cream. Yum

WooHoo! We're going to comicon this weekend. Stan Lee is going to be there! Then we have a recital the next weekend, camping the next weekend, and Disneyland in July. Fun Fun.

5/2/2010, 4:17 PM

It's almost the end of the school year. What a wild ride it's been. Veronica hasn't missed a day (not even a half day or tardy) all year. She's been trying for that attendance award, and so far she's got it.

Paige had a singing recital at school Friday. She was beautiful standing up there w/ her class. Matthew gave her flowers and we celebrated at cold stone afterward.

I have been the lunch lady the whole school year, which has been more fun than I could imagine. The kids are wonderful, fantastic, complicated and brilliant, and there are 1000 of them, each with their own mind and ideas.

Veronica's birthday party is May 15th, everyone is invited, of course. The last day of school is May 27th, Paige and Veronica have a ballet recital June 11th, we're camping in June too. Then in July we're going to Disneyland! Somewhere in there I still have to fit in swimming lessons and weekly movies at the summer movie kids program.

I have a cold. The sneezing, runny nose, coughing, sore throat cold. I sound like a nyquil commercial. I think my immunity has been down from trying to recover from my digestive "stuff", so the cold moved right in. Plus, not being able to take sudafed means this is the first cold in 5 years I've had to deal w/ the runny nose and the sneezing. Grr.

As far as recovering from my hospital visit, they are considering I might have ulcerative colitis (ulcers in my intestines). We have to run the regular tests to find out.

Matthew is leaving tomorrow, to Texas. We will miss him. He is going to miss Veronica's speaking part in her 2nd grade play Thursday. I'll record it and send it to him. I'll have to get the flowers too.

In the past three days I have learned:

Platinum solitaire is a fun game to pass the time.  Once an IV hurts, I can ignore it all I want, it still hurts.  There are only a few positions on a hospital bed that are actually comfortable, unconcious being the best position.  I wish I discovered the tv had ambient sounds on the first day instead of my third.  The hospital food is actually delicious.  The coffee quality depends on the day.  Morphine makes me think I'm having a conversation, when I'm really lying there w/ my eyes closed and my mouth open.  Morphine also causes a 13 hour migraine.  Thank goodness percocet doesn't.  The leprechaun does not visit Paige's class project-leprechaun trap when mommy is in the hospital.  My bank acct can go negative while I am sitting on a hospital bed.  Julie and Julia starts out to be a really funny movie, though I have no idea how it ends.  Taking ephedrine every day for five years can cause blood shortage in non vital organs.  People really do care, strangers really do care, neighbors really do care.  brushing my teeth is the greatest feeling in the world, taking a shower is the greatest feeling in the world.  I can't hug my kids enough.  "Joe Boxer" written in sequins across the back of my underwear shows through every abdominal cat scan. 

Monday, after my dr. office telling me on the phone I need to go to the er, I called my next door neighbor to see if she could watch my girls.  She took veronica and paige to her house, drove me to the hospital, stayed w/ me from 2:00 pm until 1:am when they checked me in, she kept my kids the next two days, brought me tooth brush/ underwear, deoderant/magazines, slept on the couch in my room, contacted her church to bring me dinners while I recover, made all the kids homemade blueberry muffins, texted me when she was gone (thank you everybody for your texts), took the kids to walmart, let Paige pick out flowers for me, bought them little toys, picked up my prescription, and cleaned my house!  Another neighbor just NOW brought dinner for our family!

I have learned a lot, especially that I am not an island and it is ok to depend on others. 

That Bernina store I mentioned, had a Saturday sale, so I went down and put a deposit on a wonderful machine.  So, then we had the price set where we wanted it.  Then, Matthew took a business trip to CA and his co-worker took him to a casino.  That night Matthew won $1000!  He called me and told me he had the money for the machine and brought it home to me.  That weekend I drove down and picked it up.  *swoon* How romantic!

It's a fantastic machine.  It'll do the dishes if I find the right button.  It actually comes w/ three free classes to learn how to use it.  I have used it enough to figure out how to fill and set the bobbin and thread the machine.  I even made some scarves.  Just wait until I really figure out how to use it.

I mentioned to Matthew that I want a bike to ride back and forth to the school.  The parking lot is tiny and the spaces are tiny.  I drive a truck and it's frustrating to park every day.  Plus, it's a great chance to excercise.  If you know Matthew, you know he took it on as a personal challenge.  He took me to three bike stores in one weekend and we ended up picking beautiful street ready mountain bikes.  We actually went w/ the bike store by the target on Power/Ray.  This store owner really has his stuff together. 

Then, Matthew took the girls out in front of the house Saturday, and taught them how to ride their bikes.  I'm so proud!  We even went to Cold Stone to celebrate their accomplishment! 

It's Spring Break, no school this week.  I don't know what to do w/ myself.  At least the weather is beautiful.  It rained, seriously, three months straight.  Everything has been flooded for THREE MONTHS.  I've lived here fifteen years and I've never seen anything like this.  We actually really used our windshield wipers and our umbrellas and our long sleeved shirts.  Finally, just when we need it, the temps are going to be in the 80s this week!  Now the kids can go outside.  It's perfect timing too, because I'm babysitting a kindergartener over the break and Matthew has built a new playground in the back yard.  I'm not babysitting today (Monday) though, and it's a good thing too.  Paige and I are waking up w/ sore throats.  Hopefully, tomorrow we will feel better. 

Matthew is in CA for the week.  We miss him, and he'll be home Friday to enjoy the weekend together.

Veronica and Paige tried that ballet school for two months and they learned at a fantastic rate.  The problem was Veronica's class was so early in the day, I had to pull her out of school.  Our asst principal mentioned it concerned her and Veronica had a hard time transitioning from school mode to dance mode.  Finally it got to the point she didn't want to go.  I drove her to the dance school and we sat in the car and looked at it.  We decided not to go in, but to spend the hour looking for another location.  We drove to three dance schools and spoke on the phone to another private instructor.  We're going to try a new school w/ a dance time at 6:00 pm that both Veronica and Paige can be in the same class.  So, let's see how this works out.  I wish I could find a class that meets on the weekends.

I've been doing silly things for Matthew lately.  I took 10 of his shirts to the dry cleaner.  He was so overwhelmed, he didn't notice they were gone.  He came home determined he was going to iron Friday night, to find his shirts in little bags, already ironed.  I read about a wife who always hides scratcher tickets for her husband to find, so I started doing it.  I buy 10 $1 tickets at a time and hide them, one a day, all over where he will find them.  I was at Safeway punching the buttons on the scratcher ticket machine, when a snowbird couple walked up to me.  The lady asked me if I ever win anything w/ those tickets.  I thought maybe I was going to get a lecture on wasting my money, or maybe gambling.  I told her I buy them so I can hide them in my house to surprise my husband.  Her expression changed and she said "Oh how romantic!".  lol.

10/12/2009, 6:51 PM

We have been busy. How's that for the understatement of the year.

Veronica is practicing every Saturday, for her part as a little doll in the fight scene in the Nutcracker. She will be in four of the twelve performances in November and December. Here is the e-mail I just sent out about it:

Veronica is performing as a little doll in the Nutcracker!

We've had a lot of requests for more information, so here's what we know:

Veronica is performing on these dates:

Saturday, Nov 28th at 7:00 pm

Thursday, Dec 3rd   at 7:00 pm

Saturday, Dec 12th at 2:00 pm

Sunday,   Dec 13th at 2:00 pm

We are going to see her

Saturday, Nov 28th at 7:00 pm

We would love to see you there.  Tickets are $10, $20, and $30 at:

https://boxoffice.mesaartscenter.com/Online/seatSelect.asp

Let us know that you are going, so we can look for you. 

I'll let you know if we plan something afterward. 

See you there!

The weekend before last, we had a going away party for our cousin going into the Navy. It was a big family party with lots of extended family we haven't seen in a loooooong time. Plus, we made new friends too.

He left for the Navy Wednesday, and now he's in full fledged boot camp.

So many family members came for our cousin's party, we took the overflow. Matthew's dad, his mom, and her two sisters stayed the week with us. Cousin Vivian was the event coordinator:

Monday - overnight in Prescott

Tuesday - shopping in prescott, come home late

Wednesday - shopping in Phoenix, abondigas (mexican meatballs) for dinner

Thursday - casino and enchiladas for dinner…

Only, Thursday didn't quite work out that way. We woke up Thursday morning to find out Tia Nicha wasn't feeling well. By the time I got home from work at the school, it was clear Nicha needed to go to the urgent care. By that evening she was checked into an ER. No casino and no enchiladas for dinner. Her kids drove in from Tucson and stayed with us on and off the rest of the week until Tia Nicha was checked out Saturday.

She wasn't the only one sick. At our grade school, 15 % of the school was out sick. That's roughly the equivalent of two grades. One fourth grade class had 10 kids attending. One day we were so low on substitutes and students that we blended a kindergarten class into the other four classes.

Both Veronica and Paige have had the fever, plus almost every kid on our block, plus almost every kid who stepped into our house. This flu this year is so absolutely contagious. Our school has a high amount of swine flu too. Every day, kids are telling me their brother or sister has the swine flu or that kid just got back from being sick w/ the swine flu. Thank goodness we are on fall break this week. Maybe now our school will get a chance to clear out the viruses.

We had Paige's birthday party Saturday. We didn't really get the chance to prepare for it until Friday. We made the cake, bought the pinata, and set up the decorations. I took Veronica to her practice while Matthew stayed with Paige to wait for the guests. By the time Veronica and I got back, the party was on.

We played stick the flower stickers on the Hello Kitty poster, hit the pinata and the limbo. My castle cake was a hit, everyone ate all of it.

Sunday we said goodbye to all of our company and by the end of the day our house was sooooo quiet. We enjoyed visiting with all our company over the last week and a half.

Today, we worked on getting back into the normal swing of things. We woke up later since there is no school and waved goodbye to Matthew when he drove off to work.

Halfway through the day, we got a call from ABQ. Matthew's dad checked into the hospital today. He's ok, however Matthew decided to drive there, and I agree with him. He came home from work and packed while I made dinner. He ate and kissed the girls goodbye. Right now, he's on his way there.

Paige had a birthday!  Thursday she turned 6 years old!  Can you imagine, our baby is six!  We celebrated w/ 99cent cones at coldstone.    yum.

Her party will be Oct 10th at 2:00 pm and you are, of course, invited. 

Paige uses both hands at the same time to eat and color, however she might have finally decided to write w/ her left hand.  She has decided she wants a Hello Kitty birthday party and that we are going to be the power puff girls for halloween (w/ Matthew as the professor).  I think that means I will be buttercup.  Paige will only wear pink from head to toe, unless it's black/orange Cortina colors friday.  Her favorite food is goldfish crackers.  Why oh why can't goldfish be a vegetable.  Even though we are well into Sept, she cannot decide if she wants to take soccer, cheer, or karate.  She's usually very determined and always states exactly what she wants.  She has decided she wants her hair to be cut very short.  As it is now, it almost reaches her butt, she informs me in the shower.  She's independant and watches an action until she decides she will do it correctly the first time.  At her last piano lesson she played the song she practiced since last lesson, played the next song correctly, and informed the teacher she didn't want to learn anymore this lesson.  Her teacher was surprised, to say the least.  lol.  That's Paige.

I created an Etsy page.  I'm excited w/ my new toy.  Here's the website:

www.aboveallbelieve.etsy.com

I've been trying to figure out a good name for my pink and black ponytails.  For instance, brown and pink is chocolate covered strawberries.  What in the world is black and pink?  Maybe "Pink Ladies".  hmm.

Veronica auditioned and was chosen for a part in the Nutcracker!!  She will be a little doll in the fight scene (which I can't remember for the life of me).  This is the nutcracker put on by ballet etudes and performed at the Mesa Arts Center!  10,000 people will see the perfomances for three weeks in Nov and Dec.  She will have free dance lessons, free costume, and a makeup crew!  This will be so much work and it will be a huge self esteem boost for her.  We are so proud!

How do I love you, let me count the ways:

Over the summer I started crocheting ponytail holders. My SIL liked them, so I made a few and left them w/ her. When I got home, I made more for the girls and me. When school started, the girls on the playground (it was 110 degrees) asked if I had rubberbands, so I started carrying them in my pocket every day. Now, someone in every class, from Kindergarten to fifth grade, wears them every day. I started selling them on the weekends, for two for $5, and so far I've sold $50 of ponytail holders.

Ok, I can't tell you why yet (I don't want to jinx it), however, this Saturday is going to be exciting. Not only because Paige has two birthday parties to attend (one is at buildabear), and not only because Matthew will finally be home from his business trip to St. Louis (for some reason I always want to spell Lewis), but for something I can't say. I might tell you in a week and I might not ever get the chance to tell. I'm so nervous and so excited and it's not even about me. I'll give you a hint, it's not about anyone I've mentioned so far in this paragraph. HeeHee.

Tomorrow is picture day at school. Veronica and Paige are finally old enough they are telling me what they want to wear and how they want their hair. We're going to get up early and get them dressed up. Then today I found out I have to take a picture, because I am going to be in the yearbook TOO! OMGoodness. What am I going to wear and how will I do my hair…

The great part is, since I'm an employee, my kids packages are half off. SWEET.

Tomorrow is our 10th Anniversary! Holy smokes! How in the world did we make it to Ten years?

I have the greatest idea for a gift. Its not tin or aluminum, like the modern 10 year anniversary gift is supposed to be. Its iron. I'll give you a hint:

Eaksta andingbra iron-uh-a

That was a pretty good hint. Good thing he doesn't read my blog anyway. He will love stamping everything in sight. If you know Matthew, you know this will be a great gift. There will be no reenacting the scene from Harold and Kumar 2, however.

Thank you Matthew, for spending all your weekends, building shelves in Veronica's room, for taking me to get fish tacos when you don't like fish tacos, for taking us to see Ponyo after Paige made us watch the preview until the DVR said 30 minutes, for loving Atomic comics as much as I do, for loving Star Trek as much as I do, for loving super heroes as much as I do, for your absolute appreciation for Godzilla, for believing in my writing, for Wii Wednesdays, for keeping the pool clean, for caring that I'm afraid of the dark, for date nights. These are just a few of my favorite things about Matthew.

my phone doesn't work, so after realizing that in gallup nm, I collect called matthew from a payphone.

we just stopped in I-don't-know-where to find veronica's dsi charger and to use the restroom. hopefully, she will be nice to the rest of us at least until we get to abq.

we made it to auntie Debbie's by 10:30 pm. of course it was 11:30 local time. all four of the cousins played until they practically passed out. by then, it was after midnight.

this morning I took the four to the park for free lunch. they ate and played. it's a great program. not only do they eat healthy, they run it off too. Paige and Veronica rode the zip line and crossed the monkey bars. good job girls.

went to smiths grocery store and picked up some instant coffee and everything for a lasagna dinner.

I don't know where the clean dishes go, so I rinsed off all the dirty ones.

its almost time for dinner, church school (the whole reason for our abq trip), showers, and then time for bed.

we actually ended up staying up watching Igor, which actually ended up being quite good.

shoe shopping while the kids are at church school. I fell in love with a pair of shoes, back at the expensive store. so far, though, no love at this one. no money = no shoes.

the verizon store fixed my phone today. get this, my phone has a setting for "home only". why even have a "home only" setting!

veronica lost a tooth last night. I was nervous because Matthew is usually the one who works with the tooth fairy. It was easier than I thought though. She's still asleep, so it will be fun to see her wake up.

it's raining. it rained half of yesterday and all night. Its beautiful, only I packed the girls for summer. we are completely unprepared for rainy, windy, and 70 degrees. maybe I'll have to buy some walmart special clothes today.

we skipped the lunch at the park today, since the ground will be wet and it will be too cold for our summer clothes.

I filled the dishwasher, I'll pack us lunches and we'll head out to grandma's.

grandma loaned me a book. it was wonderful, beautiful. called "out of the dust". im exhausted.

last night I made burgers for dinner, Deb came home and we ate, took the kids to church school, shopped at walmart, picked up the kids from church school, drove home, gave them showers, and went to bed. At about that moment, I wrote I was exhausted. Thanks to victoria for making breakfast yesterday and john paul for playing with the girls all day.

today is thursday. we are going to meet grandma at the park for the free lunch, drive to pick up victoria from her summer class (started today), have dinner, and take the kids to church school. whew.

lunch at the park.. free chicken nuggets, carrots, melon, and chocolate milk. paige is lying on the blanket eating, while john paul and veronica play relay races on the playground.

10:00 pm and paige is about to fall asleep. veronica, however, is still on the floor reading her "Up" book, about Dug the dog, by the night of the night light (a lamp).

either she finished reading or she's too tired, because veronica is climbing into bed.

its almost 9 pm and its still light out.

we saw witch mountain today at the dollar theatre (our first date and the place Matthew asked me to marry him), and we watched happyness while the kids were at church school.

showed debbie coldplay's video "life in technicolor II". she loved it, of course.

we're going to try to get to the store tomorrow at 8:30 am. apparently they are giving away bike helmets. then we're going swimming at a local pool with a kids section.

8:30 am. waiting in line a kohls for free helmet day. debbie dreamed this last night. veronica and paige are freezing. i'm not cold at all.??

we're at the pool. its a beautiful day. paige slid down the water slide. we didn't know she was too young and the slide threw her all over. I saw her once with her arms and legs out. she was upside down and rolled out of the end. life guards were blowing whistles left and right. they told her she cannot slide any more. she loved it, of course.

We just ran into cousin Cindy, her daughter and her grand daughter. it was so nice to see them. it's a nice pool, if only Paige was a little older.

paige and veronica actually ended up jumping off the diving board (about a hundred times). the jumped until paige was too tired to climb out of the pool any more, and then they jumped some more.

I don't know what Debbie (our event coordinator) has planned for this evening.

we saw a double rainbow this (almost) evening. it was one rainbow right over another. pretty cool.

girls are still sleeping, long enough that I had the opportunity to drink coffe and take a shower with a little peace. We're going to church in two hours. maybe I'll even get another cup of coffee in before they wake.

church is over.

i'm trying to keep the girls busy while victoria and her friend catch up. we're watching sponge bob.

its hailing. it hailed last time we were here too, at easter. we bring the hail.

9:16 pm.. at smiths getting milk and snacks for the week. The air smells and feels like summer nights I spent here in high school..(almost) twenty years ago.

tomorrow we have swimming lessons, lunch at the park, showers, pick up the niece, dinner, church school, and finally bed. whew, goodnight.

I found swimming lessons. today is the day for finding new locations. the girls are in the same swimming class. They announced no one can use goggles. paige valiently handed her goggles over to me. next we have to find the new park (closer to the pool) for lunch.

well, we found the new park, however I don't see anyone giving away lunches. There is a total lack of lunch line. ack.

lunch at home for today. pokemon diamond and pearl are playing all over the house.

walked 3.3 miles while we waited for church school to end.

Its way past bed time and veronica/paige are still up playing. I thought for sure they would be exhausted after their first day of swimming lessons.

the bug guy is coming for the ants tomorrow.

day two for swimming lessons. hopefully they enjoy themselves. I'm asking so much of them on this trip.

after swimming, we're going back to the house to get ready for the bug guy. fun fun..

poor paige. the swimming instructor handed her off to the next class down. which is fine, except he didn't explain it to her at all. he just physically handed her to another teacher. here she was thinking she did something wrong. she cried the whole way to the car. we have been talking about how this new teacher might understand her more, and that this new class might be just the level she need to learn to swim.

waiting in a car line to pick up victoria. Veronica and Paige say they can see her playing kick ball.

I can't believe I caught a wine charm on fire in the microwave today (i didn't see it on the glass of water I was trying to warm up), and I cracked a glass when I was doing the dishes. I just need to go back to bed.

I called the bug guy after we waited almost two hours. he rescheduled for 5 today. he said he didn't have our information.

bug guy is done and gone. we ate dinner, took the kids to church school and walked three miles while we waited for it to end.

now it,s 10:00 pm and the girlies are still awake. time for bed.

we're at swimming lessons. paige is in her new class. we hyped it up all night. she took a few minutes sitting on the bench, before she jumped in and now she's having a great time. She's showing them how she knows how to do the things they ask her to do. Veronica is learning how to throw a ring to save a life. good job kids.

after unsuccessfully looking for lunch at the park by the swimming lessons, it turns out we can drive back to the original park and still make lunch. problem solved.

dinner and the dishes are done. so very tired.

at swimming lessons we saw a rainbow circle around the sun. is that a corona?

I think paige might be sick. she sniffed all night last night. today has been harder for her, since she missed that sleep. she's been crying and sniffing for the last ten minutes, so we're taking a break in bed for now. I think tonight might be a tylenol cold night. I'm an avid no cold meds (just to put the kids to sleep) mom,but tonight she's really sick. so I will.

we started making matthew's fathers day card four days ago, but if you know veronica, you know she is so particular, she just finished her card tonight. the problem is its already thursday. matthew's fathers day package will be late. fortunately, he knows veronica. so hopefully, he'll understand. The good news is..they made fathers day gifts in church school, and since we haven't yet mailed the package, we'll get to add these new creations too.

we found the post office today and mailed the fathers day package.

I got an email from our dance studio. they are closing. We have been going there for four years. what a loss. Even sadder are the circumstances surrounding the closure. one of the two owners is having a brain tumor removed and relearning everything: walk, talk, eat.. the other owner is selling her house and moving away, due to the economy. this school and all the people involved, have been so good to us as a family and as a community. we are losing a piece of our hearts and our childhood.

saturday, i'm so very grouchy. we went to the mall and the girls rode the merry go round. now we're going to the civic plaza and they say we need jackets. we didn't bring jackets. its june.

turned out we didn't need the jackets, but they were comforting for the little girls in the back seat on the way home. the blow ups were free, so veronica and paige got completely dirty. they smell like puppies. paige is in the bath now and veronica is next. tomorrow is church and the zoo for fathers day. veronica is the candle bearer at church.

1:15 am. Paige threw up. without going too much into detail, I cleaned a lot of dry-clean-only linens in the shower just now. tomorrow i'll clean everything else, and put paige on the "brat" diet.

b = banana

r = rice

a = apples

t= toast

considering she only tolerates apples on that list, tomorrow should prove to be an interesting day.

omgoodness, so far I have broken Debbie's pampered chef pizza stone, lit a wine charm on fire in the microwave, cracked a glass washing dishes, and now this.. a sparkly gold dry-clean-only comforter and a tempurpedic pillow.

today veronica was the candle bearer at church. she was a wonderful candle bearer.

we tried to go to the zoo today. there were thousands of people there. we didn't make it through the gate. david and connie came over to debbies house for kentucky grilled chicken.

I cleaned the gold comforter paige threw up on. it came out clean. thank goodness.

ghost busters is on. its a great movie. I haven't seen it forever.

its monday. we're at swimming lessons. I think the kids are doing great. today starts another week of swimming lessons, lunch at the park, showers, pick up victoria, church school, walk, and bed. five days we do this, then saturday we're going to santa fe for victoria's birthday.

sunday we drive home.

I have a sore throat.

tuesday, swimming lessons again. its a warm cloudy day. last night I was so hot. I woke up at 4 am and couldn't sleep for hours. of course, that made me sleep too late too. we made it to swimming on time. we were even early, just the way john paul likes it. not me, that just causes us more time we have to try to be good and patient.

let me just say, Rachel is a very popular name in abq. everywhere I go, some one is talking about or yelling out "Rachel".

I haven't been able to get any schoolwork done. it's frustrating because the deadline is in august and while i'm spending the whole summer with the girls, it's hard to find time to study.

matthew got his fathers day package yesterday. he loved his "dad built ford tough" tshirt. he loved the gifts the girls made for him too. last night paige said she missed daddy. I asked if she wanted to call him. she said no she only wanted to see him.

I feel like those people who take a week long trip to disneyworld. I personally have never been on disney property long enough to catch everything in one trip. I have read, however, about families who spend so much time at disney,they start fighting and resenting the long lines and wishing they could go home. this is the happiest place on earth and they want to go home.. I think we've reached that point in our trip, when even though we're having so much fun, we want to go home.

we're at the park for lunch. it's thundering. though it hasn't started raining yet. the kids are eating and hoping they have time to play at the park and with their bubbles.

we're at swimming. veronica is practicing saving a life w a ring and paige is bobbing. we loaded our itunes card, so we'e downloading movies right now. We already loaded princess bride and now we're adding enchanted.

John paul has an extra class on wednesdays, so we have extra driving on wednesdays. today is wednesday.

what a weird day. it's cloudy and hot.

i'll have to see if they want to go to the park today. the bubbles worked out great. they used all the bubbles and shared w the kids at the park.

thursday..we're at the new park that just opened this week. veronica's little friend angelina is here. i'm glad they get time to play together. poor paige gets left out though. thank goodness john paul is here to keep her company. it's victoria's birthday today. she's going to meet her friends at a smoothie store and then we're having pizza with the family before church school. She's 14 today.

so much has happened in the past 24 hours. first of all, I got sick. I have a head cold with a bit of chest thrown in for good measure. i've lost my voice too.

yesterday Debbie left to get victoria and the family showed up. grandma and grandpa came first, followed by uncle chuchie. while we waited for victoria to get home from school, we discovered Michael Jackson died. Farrah Fawcett died earlier yesterday too. I was texting Matthew to ask him about it at the same time he was calling me. victoria came home to see it on the news and noted he died on her birthday.

the thing is, I thought he was a has been. After those boys in court described certain somethings, I just wrote him off. now, since that moment, I have seen, through the media, how many people he has influenced. do we remember him for the good he has done or not forget the people he has wronged. I wonder how God sees Michael Jackson?

Then Debbie decided we were going to watch no more death on victoria's birthday, and she turned off the tv. Victoria's birthday was super fun. paige made the money she put in the card, veronica made a card and Victoria's big present was a dell computer. we didn't see her again, since she was buried forhead deep into her new laptop the rest of the night. While we were enjoying cake and ice cream, we suddenly realized we had ten minutes to get the kids to religious education. we piled into the truck and piled out of it with a minute to spare.

while the kids were in church school, Debbie and I met to walk our 3.3 mile route. It started out sunny, making me worry about another sunburn, but soon we felt a nice drippy rain. I remember thinking it was nicer than the sprinklers we just passed. The drizzle turned to rain and the rain turned into torrents. it rained so hard it felt like hail, stinging my hands, holding the water bottle over my eyes. water pourerd off my eyelashes and stung debbie behind her contacts. Once it stopped, the front half of my clothes were soaked, but the back was bone dry. Too late to go home and change, we were forced to pick up the kids in our wet clothes. I still made sure to give angelina a card with veronica's address and email.

saturday, we're on the train to santa fe. it's actually beautiful. it was late, but so worth the wait. the scenery is beautiful and the train is comfortable. hopefully santa fe is as fun as the train. we're going home tomorrow. what a crazy trip, that's almost over.

santa fe is beautiful too. it kind of feels like shopping in mexico. I found a pair of shoes I love for $300. who has $300 for beautiful shoes.?

on the train back to abq. so very tired. paige and veronica are dirty and they probably smell like puppies. paige says her stomach hurts. I found her a ziplock as soon as I could, because we know what happens when paige's tummy hurts. so far she's ok.

tonight i'll give the girls baths and pack. tomorrow we'll drive eight hours back home.

sunday..the big travel day. Its 6:30 am arizona time. I love arizona time. it is a category of its own. in a few hours I won't need to change the time in my head constantly anymore. I wonder how long I will take to break that habit. I can't decide between taking a shower or going downstairs for a cup of coffee. I know the shower is the right choice, but can I make it.

I keep having bad dreams about losing the girls. right now, the one I just woke up from, squarely fits in the nightmare category. I might have to write it down to release some of its control of my thoughts. if it sticks around for a few days.

Today I need to focus on packing and driving eight hours. especially since last night I watched miss congeniality 2 instead of packing.

our trip is almost over. we're at the mcdonalds in payson. have you been there? it has a treehouse inside it. the treehouse in payson is one of the girls' favorite parts of any drive to abq.

we drove through rain so thick, I couldn't see past the water coming off the big trucks.

soo busy and soo tired.

My job is fantastic. 

First though, I watch our neighbor boy for two hours before they get on the bus. 

He hangs out w/ Veronica and Paige while they watch cartoons and eat breakfast.  Then we walk down to the bus and I wave goodbye.  Sweet.

From 10:00 to 1:30 I get paid to hang out w/ the kids in the lunchroom and the playground.  Sweet Sweet! 

The kids are adorable and great fun to get to know too.  The little ones need help opening their milks and cheesesticks.  The older ones really just need napkins. 

Today marks a week and a half and already I have stopped a girl fight, saved another girl from choking, and sent a headache to the nurse's office.  ..all in a day's work.

The heat makes my four recesses an exercise in endurance.  We have kids get physically sick from the heat.  Yesterday, w/ the help from a big bottle of gatorade, I finally didn't spend the afternoon in bed, from overheating.  I got my nails done instead.  do you know how hard it is to drive by the coldstone, on my way home, w/out stopping, when it's 108 degrees.? 

Last weekend we watched movies.  Lots of movies. 

We saw District 9, Ponyo, and rented the bucket list.  Fantastic movies!

Ok, first of all, I can't believe my last entry was Veronica's birthday cake.

It's been a busy summer.  I did actually write about our three-week trip to ABQ, so I'll post that as soon as I have more time.

I got a job!

I'm going to work three hours a day at the school as a lunchroom/playground monitor.

I'll see the girls on their lunches too. 

Hopefully, this is perfect. 

Tomorrow, I'm taking the girls to ABQ for three weeks (yikes!).  It'll be an eight hour drive. 

We're going to spend time w/ the family, complete three weeks of Religious Education, two weeks of swimming lessons, celebrate fathers day at the zoo (We'll miss Matthew), and Victoria's birthday.

We'll be home the week before the Fourth of July, just in time to watch the fireworks w/ Matthew. 

We will miss daddy on Fathers day. 

We will get a lot done. 

We have been busy!

Veronica and Paige completed their ballet recital. 

They've been taking piano lessons. 

They joined girl scouts. 

Paige graduated from Kindergarten. 

Veronica turned 7 w/ a bang. 

Matthew flew all over Texas and now he's in Canada (yet again, I made too much coffee).

Matthew took me to see NIN/JA (nine inch nails/janes addiction) for my birthday.

They are out of school for the summer.

In June I'm taking the girls to abq for Religious Education summer school, swimming lessons and to get their ears pierced (again).  We'll be gone for three weeks.

We're celebrating Veronica's birthday, Saturday, May 23rd, at 2:00 pm.

Bring your kids, bring your swimsuits, change of clothes, sunscreen, and especially, bring yourselves. 

We love to use these events to catch up w/ our friends, so stay and enjoy good food and good company. 

let me know if you need my phone number and address, since I'm not posting it on the internet. 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Veronica and Paige are performing their dance recital, saturday, May 16th.

Many of our friends and family have expressed interest to see the girls dance.

They've practiced all year and this is their fourth year taking dance.

If you have the opportunity to attend, tickets are $7.00 at:

http://qcpac.ticketforce.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=576&c=41&pg=

Veronica and Paige are performing during the 3:00 pm performance!

Let us know when you buy tickets.

Believe me, you are under no pressure to go.  This is for the people in our lives who find joy sitting through an hour of watching other people's children perform.