One year older and wiser too....

This week I was doing my normal house stuff and I heard some noises from the chinchilla cage...hmmmm

I go to check on them and I find more BABIES!

What!!???

I guess Chimi had a back to back litter of babies! 

Immediately I started putting the netting around the cage again so they didn't all escape. Then I separated the boys from her (the baby from the last litter is getting old enough to mate too)!

I looked once and saw this guy nursing,

I looked again and saw this guy sleeping in the cup of hay.

These guys looked like twins, small and wiry running all through the cage just a couple of hours old.

There was one last chinchilla in the box house.

It was big and cute but very sleepy. We pulled it out and it didn't squirm it just sat there and kept going back to sleep. I figured it was tired after being born but I noticed it wasn't nursing and kept sleeping. Its breathing looked labored and I warned the kids it might not last through the night.

We thought maybe the other two were too aggressive and I even tried hand feeding it but it wasn't even interested in swallowing. I could tell that it was getting weaker by the hour and probably had something wrong that we couldn't help. I felt bad for momma because I saw her nudge her baby and try and nurse right next to it but it wouldn't even turn around and try. She was trying her hardest but there wasn't any more she could do.

(Reminded me of us mommas that try to nourish our kids spiritually and intellectually but sometimes they are unable or unwilling to take it and there really isn't much we can do about it)

Taylor and Ashley and I held it and pet it while we could but it didn't last through the night. :(

This week I also had a birthday.... hopefully one year older equals one year wiser....I should be getting pretty wise now.

The day started out like any other including homework that didn't get done the night before...

and a trip to the school to stock the nurses office with Taylor's medicine and bring him what he was supposed to wear for spirit day...a shirt and tie with his super short cross country shorts.

He was too chicken to wear the shirt and tie (of course he wore the shorts no problem) ...until he got to the school and he was the only one NOT a shirt and tie.

Peer pressure reigned and mom was called upon to rescue...(I already had to go down there anyway)

I got this in the mail from my mother-in-law and I can't wait until the year is over and I can use it!

Perfect with stickers representing most of my daily routine that I can just put on the calendar and everything is split up between family member. Perfect for us!! (She must be a mind reader)

Then I got an unexpected visit from Mary Ann bearing gifts of chocolate, a balloon and a purse better than anything I own or would imagine to own...very cute and the perfect size!

I think she's been eyeballing my scruffy looking wallmart special and thinking about me ;)

Thanks for elevating me from crappy to classy ;)

Ana Merrill my neighbor and person I visit teach never forgets my birthday because I never forget hers (which is right after mine)...what a sweetie.

As I did housework that day I got a calls from friends and lots of facebook wishes, housework flew and didn't seem like drudgery...

Then Jeff got home and we got the kids pizza and he gave me a present from him and the kids. An i-pod! Yeah, it was a replacement for the two that we strongly suspect got picked up by the thief that came through our house a couple months ago.

Thank you honey...I'm hoping it will keep me working out longer :)

The night was capped off with dinner at Duanes at the Mission Inn.

Very good food!

We were trying for a movie but it got too late and we are too old and tired now days for a late late movie. (I had to be up at 5:20 to get Taylor to his Xcountry bus the next morning)

Bright and early I brought Taylor to the bus and then went back home to bed for a bit before we got up to drive Jacob and friend to his merit badge clinic and then drive out to Cerritos to see Taylor run.

We got there 1/2 hour before Taylor was supposed to race...good thing because they switched the times and Taylor was running just as we walked up! Jeff had just enough time to pat him on the leg and let him know that we were there.

The weather was much cooler than it has been lately. Great for some of the runners...but for the others they got hit with a huge rainstorm (happened right before we got there)

Go Taylor....come on Taylor!!!

He ended up finishing in 17:58 breaking 18 minutes which was better than he had done before.

Here's a group of his sophomore teammates but where is Taylor???

I was enjoying talking to the other moms....but where is Taylor????

I guess he was in the bathroom "cleaning up"

So a lot of times he'll run and feel sicky after well this time he actually got sick. Right as they were lining them up after he passed the finish line. They have to stay in order to get their place and he was losing his breakfast while trying to walk through the line.

I said "what place did you get?"

"45th but they said I got 46th...one guy passed me up while I was throwing up."

Nice

Well Taylor got a medal (the top 60 or so get them)  We were so proud of him.

He was excited too...until he realized he has to do it all again next Saturday :)

The bad thing was finding these stinky, wet, muddy, grassy running flats in his bag two days later.

Peeeeewwwwuuuu

I rinsed them out and had to keep the window open for two days trying to dry them out. Blah!

Back to School...

Why does it always feel like when the kids go back to school...I'm back at school.

Could it be all the homework I have now

filling out emergency cards,

buying lists of supplies,

the to do's 

keeping everyone on a schedule.

My exercising with Cindy has been pushed to 5:10 in the morning that is on the days that we don't have piano (first lesson starts at 5:30) or she isn't teaching preschool. Days are packed now starting at anywhere from 4:55 to 5:30...and all those projects I vowed to do when the kids were back in school...get started...then it's time to pick someone up, get them started on homework, sit down for hours trying to keep one from getting distracted while doing homework, make dinner before back to school night/parent meeting/booster club meeting/mutual/family night/cross country practice...take your pick.

So "my" projects sit in little piles around the house waiting to be finished...someday.

I can't believe we used to throw soccer and dance in there too.

I should've known when on the first day of getting the kids to school I came back to this....I think there is some Murphy's law that states that a mom's "free time" is never free for long...

pretty much foreshadowing life as I know it :)

This last week was Pack Meeting for the boys. Jacob got his 2nd Class and is on his way up the ranks to work his way to Eagle someday as well.

So proud of him :)

Taylor was running with his Cross country team so he had to be picked up and made the last 10 minutes to get his awards. He earned his Varsity letter and some pins. Loved their pose :)

This last week I was preparing for my 20th High school Reunion!  Wow 20 years already!

I missed my 10 year so I was excited to go and see friends that I haven't seen since high school (I'm not the best at keeping in contact with people)

I pulled out some old pictures for the slide show and since I didn't have a scanner...I took a picture of them.

This is graduation day. 2 of these guys were at the reunion and 2 I was looking forward to seeing but they couldn't make it. Thank goodness for facebook. I've been able to connect with a few of the people I lost contact with, and my old yearbooks helped me brush up on some of the names of people that were there.

Then I realized I should put all my "pre-digital" pictures on the computer. They are getting faded and will one day be falling apart. So I started taking lots of pictures of pictures.

Here's me and my dad back in his mustache days.

17 years later.

Just to warn sisters and friends I will be posting some old, potentially embarrassing photos of our younger years on facebook...to share...so we can all share in the memories of our big hair and crazy clothing styles.

I found myself in this shirt with the mismatched sized buttons in multiple pictures...obviously it was a favorite. Virginia was wearing it in some pictures too....so it was a favorite for both of us. I guess do remember some clothes sharing going on and some fights about it. 

Anyway brought up some fun memories of growing up.

On Friday we went to the King vs. Ramona football game. It was the first football game of the season and since we were really there to hang out with cousins we sat on the Ramona side.

We got stopped by a Ramona high school employee telling us when we were walking in that we were on the wrong side...I had no idea how they knew which side we belonged on...but we had to explain why we were on the Ramona side.

You can see the paltry smattering of fans in the background. Not a lot of King people there...good thing because we kind of got slaughtered. We got to hear every cheer quite loudly.

But, we were still glad to hang out with family.

Saturday was my reunion.

Jeff was a good sport and said "Stay as long as you want, it's your night and we'll do whatever you want"

It was nice to see old friends like Shelley who I pretty much haven't seen since our wedding. She flew all the way from Virginia and lives 10 minutes from my mom and dad, so I'll come visit her next time we're out that way.

This guy was Sergio and actually approached Jeff first. He remembered him from Jeff selling his family life insurance! So Jeff started talking to him and then he recognized me.

We both didn't remember where we knew each other from though...until we figured out it was art class and art club.  I was pretty pathetic that way.  There was someone else sitting on the other side of me I remembered I knew him and vice versa but we didn't remember what from. I realized later I had a picture of him and his now wife going to prom together.

It was nice to go but it would've been nicer to have more of the people that I used to know come. It felt like a lot of the people that I was excited to see again kept posting on the website that they couldn't make it. Well theres always next time.

In the mean time maybe they'll appreciate me posting some old prom pictures of them...hee hee hee.

This weekend we decided last minute to escape blazing hot Riverside (our air conditioning running all day can't get our house under 80) to go stay down by the beach.

We drove down in the evening and went to take a walk along the pier.

They had a "don't drink and drive" display set up complete with a car that had been wrapped around a pole by a drunk drive. A visual lesson of how NOT to drive Taylor.

Seal beach pier...hence the statue of the seal.

We caught the sunset just right.

Getting a family picture with the sun behind???....

Or the sun in front???....maybe behind was better.

Shows how much of a photographer we are.

Jeff makes it a habit to talk to the fishermen while we walk along the pier. We always take a peek at what they've caught for the day...this one let us hold their catch.

Nice and slimy (Jacob refused to touch it)

Here's the sun as it's making it's last dip in the sky.

Watching it makes you realize how fast the earth is really spinning.

The next day we had planned to go to the beach but it was raining off and on :(

So we let the kids swim and then decided to go to the Long Beach Aquarium. 

They said this pool was too cold.

And this pool was too hot...so they jumped back and forth the whole time.

We headed to the Long Beach Aquarium.

They had a new feature to touch jellyfish....what??!!

Touching Jellyfish???!!

Yeah I guess these guys have stingers too small to sting through our skin. Very cool.

The seal show...super crowded...only saw part of it from the side...

Touching the sting rays...well Taylor touching the sting rays and everyone else trying to reach them in the tank. We were here for a long time but Taylor was the only one with any luck.

Everyone could touch the Lorikeets though.

Since it was late in the afternoon and hot they weren't as interested in the nectar and we had to come to them more. Jacob even got bit a couple times on the arm when he was trying to give a bird some nectar, I told him obviously the bird wasn't interested :)

We are a cheapy family and keep switching around the one cup of nectar we bought...when we switched cups this guy climbed on Ashley's shoulder...she wasn't too sure about that.

OK get him off of me!

My favorite was watching them taking baths in these tubs of water...then they would fly over us and get us wet. (you can see him shaking off the water)

After awhile since it was labor day the place was getting very crowded and claustrophobic so we were done for the day. (Jacob was done after the second tank and kept sitting on the floor saying "When you've seen one fish you've seen them all")

I think the kids had more fun on the rides outside...we could've saved a lot of money.

On a whim we let Taylor try this gyroscope looking thingy.

It flipped all around, and back, and over,

He loved it!

Jeff tried it too....just to say he did it but didn't last as long.

Ashley was brave and wanted to try the bungee jumping one.

She's always too small to go on all the rides and stuff the other kids can go on so she was thrilled that there wasn't a height requirement for this.

Whoo hoo...she jumped high and loved it!

After seeing Ashley Jacob wasn't about to be outdone...but he said NO FLIPS.

Whooo Hooo

Ok now back to real life. There was ONE project I got done this week...baby shower invitations for the Bullock triplets.

I was trying to think of something to use for baby faces to represent the triplets...I ended up finding pasta :)

Ha ha I love finding creative uses for everyday household things!