First Day of School

So my last post of the night or should I say morning is of the girls first day of school. Both Monk and Tink were very happy to get back to school. Summer proved to be too boring and they missed their friends and the monkey bars. Here are my cutie patuties on their first day. Check out Monk's new adorable hair cut. I can't believe I have a 4th grader and a 1st grader. It blows my mind how time flies.

Girls Girls Girls

I recently hosted a girl cousins sleep over at my house and it was a lot of fun. Of course we waited until the summer was almost over before we finally did it, but that is not the important thing. What is important is that the girls are creating memories together. The girls colored, made fun designs with wikki stix, sang their hearts out to Playstation SingStar, ate junk food and ended the evening watching The Waterhorse. The next morning I made french toast for everyone, sent them on their way and then made sure that I got a nap in later :-)

Girls Night Out

I made plans to see Mama Mia with my good friends and neighbors NC and HC. We had so much fun. Well in order to go to Mama Mia I had to cancel going to another girls night out with some other girl friends of mine. So those friends decided to toilet paper our houses, but they got mine the worst because our neighbor busted them when shortly after they started. NC, MC and I got some revenge by driving to their homes at midnight and using window paint on their cars. I tell you - I hope I am never too old to forget the kid in me. What fun!

Time Flies

School has just begun and I can't believe how fast the time flew by. I finally figured out how to download the pictures off my camera so I will attempt capture some of the fun things we have done since my last post (and some before).

My good friends took me to the Cheesecake Factory right after my birthday and we had a really great time. We watched the movie Get Smart and laughed more than anyone else in the theater - go figure!


My kids stayed behind with my friend D's hubby and their amazing kids and they had a blast watching Pirates of the Caribbean, the third one I think. Here are some pictures.



We also had an adventure at the Kiwanis Wave Pool. We invited some new friends to join us, the Gibson family, and we had a ton of fun. The wave pool was great - and scary at the same time. At one point HG and I were with Tink and her two small girls trying to get to the "shore" and the waves just kept hitting us. Wave 1 - Boom, I went down. Wave 2 - HG's little girl went down - I am trying to get up and the waves keep knocking me down and HG is trying to grab her little girl, while carrying her other little girl on her hip and then Boom - Wave number 3 hits and Tink goes down. HG tries to grab Tink as well and it was just so funny because I couldn't get my balance to get up and help, I just kept getting knocked down by the force of the waves. The whole experience was hilarious. There is so much chlorine in the pool that all of us were grossed out by our hair. It literally felt like Barbie hair. It took several washes for it to feel normal, but it was worth it. I definitely recommend the wave pool if your kids can swim.





We went to a friend's baptism and here is a cute picture of my girls and SD.

Monk has been a great kid this entire summer - helping out with her sissy and chores etc. so I rewarded her by taking her and her cousin J to Waterworld. We had a great time. We were there all day and were exhausted. That same week my nephew was visiting from CA and we all had a good time hanging out at the pool.

Drama Queens

4th of July was a lot of fun this year. The girls and I (Smoke was working of course) went over to my friend KD's house and had a barbecue and swam with many other good friends we love to hang out with. Tink can finally swim without assistance so being in the pool is so much more enjoyable. So we ate good food and enjoyed hanging out with 25 or so kids ranging from 9 1/2 to 4 weeks old.

So a few of the families decided to go see fireworks at MCC. I should admit here that I am not really that patriotic. Don't get me wrong - I love our country and am proud of our soldiers and respect the flag and all of that, but going to parades and fireworks to celebrate our independence has never been my thing. Well this year I decided to take my girlies to see the fireworks since I really did not have a good reason not to.

As we are driving into the parking lot, the guy directing traffic asks me for $5. I was like, "UH - I don't have $5 - I did not know this cost money" He says, "sure you did - if you know about the fireworks here, you must know there is a cost." I declared that I sure did not and that I did not even have my wallet with me and that I only came because my friends in the van in front of me invited me. So Mr. Traffic guy says, "well make them pay for you" so he starts yelling to the other traffic guy by my friend SD an KD and tells them to pay my $5. By this time the line of traffic behind me is ridiculously long and SD does not have an extra $5. I was just getting prepared to turn around when Mr. Traffic guy gets all irritated with me and basically growls, "just go ahead, you are holding up traffic"

Next we get to the spot on the grass we like and all 4 families that were there sit down with blankets, get kids situated and calmed down after major drama over who had glow sticks and who didn't and who had more than someone else. I am sure you can get the picture.

As the first set of fireworks goes off we see that we are literally right underneath them - it was fantastic and amazing. Because we were so close they were actually very loud as well - everytime they went off it sounded like gunshots. So picture the fireworks begin and then picture a 6 year old blonde girl named Tink begin to have the most traumatic and shocking reaction to them. Tink lets out the most blood curdling scream you can imagine - it was something right out of a horror movie. As she is screaming she begins to cry hysterically as if she is being beaten or like someone is performing surgery on her and they forgot to give her anesthesia. Tink keeps on holding her ears and burries her head in my shoulder.

I look over at Monk and though she is not crying, she is covering her ears too and looks pretty scared. I was in absolute shock. My girls aren't afraid of much, they both love to watch scary movies and don't get scared at all and then here they are acting like the biggest drama queens I have ever witnessed. Tink continued to scream and cry until I literally grabbed everything as quickly as I could and took off like a bat out of you know where. All I could think about was getting out if there as quickly as possible to avoid any more drama or embarassment. I also wanted my friends to have a nice time and there is no way that was going to happen with Tink flipping out publicly.

So I ushered my kids back to the car with a very "unhappy" face and we watched from the car. The next day they had the nerve to be disappointed when I said I would not take them back the next year.

So our celebration of Independence Day ended with more from the Drama Queens, a very very late night.

Happy Belated 4th of July to all of my friends!

Sloppy Joe's

So anyone who knows me knows I don't like to cook, but I have really been trying to cook more at home so that we eat better and save money. Well everyone has to have a few "quick" dinner items and since I am very much against Macaroni and Cheese (albeit that once in awhile crazy craving for it) I thought I would try sloppy joe's. Believe it or not, I have never made them before and the last time I ate one was at my friend KD's house last Halloween. They were very yummy.

BTW - I should mention here that Smoke LOVES it when I cook anything. He loves coming home and having actual food in the house to eat. So Smoke sits down and eats one sandwich without much ado. Then all of the sudden, Smoke lets out this loud grunt and literally begins spitting sloppy joe mix onto his plate (okay I am alreay laughing hysterically as I remember it). He is just grossed out and keeps spitting. In between spits he manages to say, "it tastes like dish soap" Once he says this, I begin laughing uncontrollably and my mind wanders back to a few hours before when Jade was in the kitchen washing her dish out in the sink. I remember telling her to stop playing in the water. I also remember going to the kitchen sink and taking the "tupperware" container that was sitting in the sink and seeing that it was clean, I put the leftover sloppy joe mix in it.

Well Jade must have poured a little dish soap in the container and I could not tell it was there and Justin must have mixed the dishsoap in with the second batch of meat he took out. *Flash Forward - My hubby literally did eat dish soap. It was a priceless memory that I had to blog about so I can laugh often when I re-read this. I'll never forget his face as he was spitting out the sloppy joe mix and wiping off his tongue (much like Tom Hanks in the movie "BIG" - my total favorite scene in the entire movie - just ask my friend Stacers...)

The moral of this story.....there isn't one, except maybe I should wash out my dishes before storing leftovers in them.

ABC's

If you read this blog - you have to keep this going.

ABC's

A- Attached or single? Attached
B- Best friend? Several
C- Cake or pie? NEITHER - ice cream all the way baby!
D- Day of choice? Saturday
E- Essential item? Deoderant
F- Favorite color? Yellow, Hot Pink
G- Gummy Bears or Worms? Worms
H- Hometown? San Bernardino, CA
I- Favorite indulgence? Pepperoni Pizza
J- January or July? January - nice weather and my daughter's B-day and my Anniversary
K- Kids? Monk and Tink
L- Life isn't complete without? my children, family, friends, happiness
M- Marriage date? January 11, 1997
N -Number of Siblings? 2 brothers
O- Oranges or apples? Oranges when they are in season, Apples all year long
P- Phobia and fears? Phobia of extreme heights and tight spaces. Fears - something happening to one of my children, fear of not living up to my true potential
Q- Quote- "Maybe God has bigger plan for me than I have for myself"
R- Reason to smile? My sweet girls Monk and Tink
S- Season of choice? Spring (which is March and April in AZ) and Summer only for swimming.
T- Tag 10 people. Anyone reading my blog who want something to blog about
U- Unknown fact about me? My first real kiss was when I was 10 years old - I know CRAZY!
V- Vegetable? Cucumbers
W- Worst habit? Diet Dr. Pepper and crunching QT ice
X-xylophone:) because what else goes with X? not recently
Y- Your favorite food? Pepperoni Pizza
Z- Zodiac sign? Cancer