Zoo Day!

Today we went to the zoo and saw the new baby elephant. We had a blast! The zoo was totally full, we had to take the shuttle bus, which even there was hard to find a place to park. When we got to the zoo it was easy entry because we are members, then zoo mobile thing came and asked if we were headed to the elephant and I said Yes! So she drove us all the way down to the Elephants... isn't that awesome! We stood in line for about 30 minutes, but while we were in line they did the bird of prey show so we got to see that. Then we got in to see the little tyker, he's bigger than I thought. It was a quick loop through and then off to play on those cement animals and eat lunch, at which time it poured rain like crazy, but hey we were under a canopy so it was kinda cool. I told the girls we would have to leave because it was raining to hard, so we went to wait for the zoo mobile and suddenly Alexa said, "mommy, it's stopped raining.." I hadn't even noticed, so ofcourse we took a stroll through the zoo! In the end we even stopped at the gift shop so the girls could get the butterfly shaped umbrellas that they wanted. Check out the slide show, I tried to make it enternaining. :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our weekend.. so far

Well our weekend has been crazy.. Friday I got us all up early and went to my Aunts to babysit my nephew, got some cute photos of him - he is growing so quickly. Afterwards we picked up Julius and counted our dough for the Mrs. Philippines contest.. We drove to the first canvassing and turned in $325, only two other contestants turned in any money and I had the most by about $50. The kids had a good time and there was a puppy there when we got there.. no one knew who's it was and they were saying just to put it outside and shut the door.... not very nice. So I picked him up and he was super lovable, he didn't try to nip my face or even lick me, just sat in my arms like he belonged... I really love dogs and I wish I could have kept him but I told everyone I was going to walk around the neighborhood and look for an owner (leave him outside, are you kidding me?!?!) So I found the owner who was sitting on his porch waiting for him to come back.. That's my good deed for the month..

When it was finally over we came home and decided to run the dishwasher (which we rarely do), while we watched tv. This morning we got up early and made waffles, they were very good, I even made an apple topping with whipped cream, YUM! Then I decided the floor was disgusting and swept it. Julius said "there's enough food on the floor to feed a family.." to which I replied, "more reason to get a dog who can clean it all up!" But it didn't stop there, I decided to mop too because it was somewhat sticky in some places, and when I mop I have to mop the entry way too because it always gets dirty where we remove our shoes. Then we had a birthday party to go to, in Beaverton.. by the time we came back the kids were asleep so we went house hunting, looking at neighborhoods and trying to decide what we want. We finally came home and I felt our livingroom was being taken over by half naked barbies, cracker crumbs, and I swear every single play kitchen item we have... the food, the utensils, pots, pans, the works... scattered all over. When I was done returning things to their proper homes I decided to vaccume and then you see the stains (don't even get me started on the nail polish one.) so I got out the folex and sprayed, and sprayed, and sprayed... now I feel it's pretty darn clean in here. Although I still need to unload the dishwasher, maybe we can just use the dishes straight from there.. it's like a steril little room without the chance of dust.

Not sure yet what is in store for tomorrow, but I am sure it will be just as eventful as today. :)

Fresh, and week one complete!

So here I am, it's just past midnight and guess what I am doing? Baking! I am making apple and blackberry turnovers for a fresh breakfast tomorrow. How domestic. I am so glad to have completed the first week of my first semester back to school. I have really learned alot, not in book sense, but more on the common sense side.. Yes, I have grown wiser in common sense.

First I have found that although the teachers seem tough with their syllabus' that say "assignment due on Day ONE" they don't really mean it, infact all three of my teachers postponed the first due date to next week.. yay for me, because another thing I learned is how to work the schools online message board where the assignments are listed (good thing to learn early on).

Second I have come to the conclusion that I do not have to pay for parking, wonderful! Atleast I feel I have gotten my monies worth from those previous incidents. Also I can park in the closer lot (designated for parking passes only) and not be ticketed. Woo hoo! No more hiking for 15 mintues to get to class.

Third I have had a very enlightening journey which has led me to see why it is important to find out what building your class is in, because although you have the room number you may just be in the wrong building all together... hmm, not my most impressive moment.

And fouth what you do during the orientation will come back to haunt you, as I posted previously about being the only one wearing jeans... turns out that many of those whom sat at my very table are actually in my classes, and guess what they remember: The girl who was TOO casual... Great, although I am sure that this "label" will wear off soon. I hope.

So what an interesting week. It really doesn't seem to be as hard as I thought it would be, but I'll make an official decision about that at the end of the semester when I hopefully pass with flying A's.

Well, the turnovers are finished and I should go to bed since I need to get up early and go to my aunts house to babysit for my nephew.. Fun. Happy labor day weekend.

Early Riser

This morning when Julius was getting ready for work Alexa woke up. Now on days when I use the car then we get up and take Julius to work, but today isn't one of those days. It was a day when we could have slept in and rested up, but no. So Alexa gets up and says she is hungry and begins her early morning whine routine until I get up... all before 8am. This is really early for us. So we go and eat breakfast and Alexa is chatting to much that even Adrianne crawls out from her hibernation state to find out what is going on.

With the early start came alot of free time. Infact we had done two loads of laundry, picked up the living room and kitchen, moved the newly painted dresser to my room, and watched Lion King 2, all before 11am. So what to do with the rest of our day, up early, no car.... so we do laundry. I meticulasly refold all of our clothes to fit perfectly in the dresser, all while washing everyones bedding. Quite a day and it's only 2:30 p.m. Dispite all that I have yet to take a shower, mostly because I go to my class tonight and if I shower first thing then do all that cleaning... I can get messy, actually yesterday I went to class with paint on me from the dresser. Thankfully I was late and no one really noticed for the whole 20 minutes that we were there. And yet again I was robbed by the parking fee of $3, I think that $3 is a bit extream for the 20.. okay 30 minutes (including trecking my out of shape self to and from the classroom). I think I should get to use the rest of my time tonight at class, technically it's $3 for the whole day, so I should be able to use it for like nearly a week.

I decided that today I would make ham. So I guess I should put it in the oven, it's one of those round ones that is pressed into a shape with no bone and it's supposedly fully cooked, I just need to heat it up. And I even got ambitious and bought a sweet potato because it sounded good, and if I play my cards right I can even make fresh apple sauce to go with the ham... What a feast!

My New Romance

I have just fallen in LOVE!! My goodness, I love Oreo Cakesters, the vanilla ones, they are delicious and I think I could eat the whole box.. I won't, but gosh they are good. If you haven't tried them you need to! They are just like cake, really delicious.. mmm.

In other news, it was MOMS Club today (most of you reading this know already, but some don't.) We went to a park and Alexa made her first 'friend'. It was so cute, her and another little girl (forgot her name) ran around and played together. That was the first time she's ever done that. I was kinda sad that Adrianne didn't have anyone to hang out with but she isn't as friendly right now. I got to sit and feed the twins, and the other kids who came over and snuck little handfuls of Cheerios. It was really fun. The girls have gotten much more outgoing at parks and such, I am glad they are becoming more independent, I was always really shy so I sort of want them to branch out a little bit.

When we got home we had lunch and then they were supposed to take a nap but they just played together and read books to eachother in their room. Which is why I had time to update my blog (finally.) I also had time to do the mountain of dishes, and paint my dresser some more. It's nearly finished, one more coat of blue on the top and that's it.

Tonigh is my first class... Technical English.. yay, not. I am not a big English fan, it's just too strict with what to write and how many words you can use. I prefer free writing like this where I can just clear my mind, not rack my brain for the perfect describing word. I can't believe it's back to school for me. It makes me wonder if I will ever finish. Julius is even talking about getting his Masters... I can't even imagine spending that much time in school.

And some sad news, Julius didn't pass his first section of his CPA exam :( He got 74, and he needed 75. That is wrong on so many levels. So he's bummed out now. Hopefully his mood does not dampin the rest of us.

Okay, I am off to do my last coat of paint. I can finally cross something off my "to-do" list. Next I will return to those thank you cards which I have yet to finish... *sigh*

Today is a Day of Change...

Do you ever have those days when you think to yourself, "The decisions I make today, will change my life forever." Well I have those, many of them. And today just happens to be one. It's kinda scary, but nice to be embarking on a new journey.

Today I went to the school and found that:

a. I was the only person wearing jeans (everyone else was in business casual..) hmm, not good.

b. I was the only person at my table with kids. Grrrreat.. Young mom beats them all again!

c. I should not have paid the $3 parking, seemingly it slipped my mind that its SATURDAY!

But despite all that I am going to throw myself into school, juggle my life, kids, and future all at one time! Mean while my little Adrianne has picked up a new saying.. "Oh goodness." As in "I dropped it, oh goodness." and "You didn't eat all, oh goodness.." It's cute, but I wonder if perhaps I don't say that phrase one too many times.

Oh and remember way back many moons ago I posted that I was stripping the paint off my dresser? Well procrastinator me is FINALLY putting the paint back on... haha, only took me about 4 months to decide to repaint it. It's coming along nicely and I only have one more coat of blue before my creation is complete and we will no longer keep our socks and unmentionables in shoe boxes. YAY!

We also signed the girls up for a music and movement class, it was the only one where they could be together (due to their ages). I think I am more excited than them. I know they will love it. Okay well, that's all I can post for now because it's time to eat. What a day of change.

My Child

Well I haven't really had alot of time to post photos, but I feel today really needs a recap to be fully understood...

THE CULPRIT

THE CRIME

THE PUNISHMENT


THE FAILED CLEAN UP PROCESS

So about a month ago my little darling wanted me to paint her nails.. and I said "yes, just a minute." Well apparently she felt that I took too long and decided to 'get started' on her own...

Not pretty.. Infact the nice pink streaks where she dumped the nail polish in somewhat of a striped pattern are still there... on my carpet.... haunting me... every.. single... day!!!

I have tried everything, today I even went to the drastic and dowsed the area with nail polish remover then went over it with the steam cleaner.... No luck.

Stain wins again.

I just want to say "F-it!!" and leave it there. But tomorrow I will see it and will come up with some other brilliant plan to enact. What have I done to be punished like this.... :(

Ahh.. Rain ;)

So it was really hot again yesterday and I was in the pool with the kids when adventerous Alexa decided to go off the deep end! I saw her and grabbed her pretty quickly but she was definitly scared, now she doesn't want to get back into the pool. I might have to make her or else she may be scared for a long time. I know she loves the water, may just have to pay for those lessons after all :)

Today we spent the day up at Great Grandma's house, it was nice and cool and the kids were good. On the way out there was two small deer right near the door but my chatty kids spooked them before I could get a photo! After we got home we decided it was too muggy inside so I took the girls to their favorite shady park where they played with some other kids until it suddenly was thunder and lightening followed by quite a shower. So we came home and I took to putting away all of our newly acquired kids clothes, yay! Ofcourse I had to purge the closet and dresser to make some room, in the process I organized all their shirts into nice little color piles, very cute, now their drawers look like little rainbows.

Now it's off to bed for us, another day, another dollar... goodnight.

Ahh.. Park Days..

To think that one year ago I dreaded driving is CRAZY!! We are all over the place these days. We spent Thursday at the park where we met some new kids who my girls enjoyed playing with (wow MOMS Club has really made them outgoing!) Then it was off to Coffee Lounge and then I took my brother to the Health Department where we waited and waited and waited almost 3 hours while drug addicts sat too near and stoners stared off into space, great for kids huh.. Yea I know, I tried to avert there eyes and kept them distracted for the most part but when the lady started cussing like a sailor I had to flee. So we braved the 100 degree weather outside in a tiny patch of grass with thank goodness some shade! Where I drilled the kids from a Pre-K workbook we got at Costco. At five we picked up Julius and came home to our haven of an apartment which was nice and cool (thanks to me closing it down early in the morning).

Today we went off to the library to get some much needed new books, then over to Coffee Lounge for some cookies and ofcourse coffee, then off to Esther Short again where we spent about an hour playing in the water, it was nice, there wasn't very many kids. The girls splashed around a little while I had an iced mocha and thumbed through a 'decorate you kids room' book. We made it back to the car with only 2 minutes left! (perfect) Then we came home for the dreaded 'N.A.P.' time. Only Alexa took a nap, Adrianne was happy as a clam to eat and watch Aladdin while I cleaned up out disaster of a house because Julius had a client coming over. Then tonight after Julius' client came we went to my Aunts house for pizza and pool!! My brother came with his kids too and we all played in the pool. It was great fun, Adrianne is so calm in the pool, we put her in a fish shaped ring and she will just sit and float around, she never moves of wiggles or tries to get out, it's very cute. All she needs is her sunglasses, a book, and a coffee and she'll be in heaven. Alexa on the other hand loves to walk around in the pool, she can touch the ground but she chatters away until her mouth gets filled with water and I get scared she will dround. She gets me so agitated because she won't just stay near to the edge and hold on... She needs swim lessons, she is just too brave in the water, it scares me. Afterwards we all had pizza and hung out and now we're back home and ready for bed. I couldn't make it through the gymnists last night and I know I will not make it through whatever is on tonight.. So goodnight all, tomorrow is another hot hot hot day. I will enjoy it while I can. :)

A Day at the Park

Today has been busy but awesome! First we went to the church and cleaned up the craft closet, we need to make alot of crafts, because we sure have alot of stuff!! It was nice to see all the goodies, while the kids played together and little Darien tried to sneak off with things.

Afterwards Julius said we needed to go to the Coffee Lounge and pick up the things we needed so we went there and bought our usual Frappe with a choco chip cookie (the girls love to have those so we *share*). Then it was off to Esther Short to play in the water, the kids had a good time and even held there ground while the bigger kids splashed around. We then plugged even more money into our meter and went on to the slides and swings, had some snacks and headed back to the car. Only to find we still have a remaining 20 minutes! No way am I paying for someone else's parking! So back to the water we went!! We returned to the car with 3 minutes left and I felt that was adequate since it probably took me that long to load the girls up anyway.

A quick run to drop off my insanly overdue library book and then back home for a nap (although no naps were taken). The girls played happily while I started laundry and watched Oprah, to which I found very enlightening. She apparently has this lady on sometimes her name was Suze, but what was interesting is one lady who was shopping her family into bankruptcy said, "Sometimes I will buy something that I don't even really like, just because I don't want to leave the store with nothing." That is totally me, I do that all the time. No wonder we are always broke, so I vow to make a concsious effort to remind myself that it's okay to leave with nothing.

Until next time, I am off to scrappin and there is still dishes to do and laundry to fold. And we are off to the park tomorrow, yay! We just love the park, even I love it. :)

So Little Time...

Once again all I have to say is that summer is crazy! It has been one thing after another this summer, with no end in sight. I have started adding to my OCTOBER calendar already! August is only half way past and it is packed with stuff, morning, noon, night, atleast 4 times a week! And people keep calling me, I hate the phone... I just want to go scrappin' and forget it all while I work with paper and adhesive - I need to scrap!

My mom goes home tomorrow morning, so I am taking her to the airport at 6:30 in the morning! Then MC and ofcourse I am baby sitting tomorrow (to which I had to find a baby sitter for the kids I am baby sitting in order to go to MC - I would bring them but no room in my car), then tomorrow night I have FINALLY some scrappin' time.

Wednesday it's back to the MC to clean up, Thursday and Friday *free so far, I think*, Saturday another dinner/dance, Sunday Grandma's house.... I think for Christmas I will ask for one of those personal organizer/phone/handheld things so I can keep my brain free from remembering all sorts of dates and times.

Plus it's the Olympics which I have been a huge fan of since I was a kid. I LOVE THEM ALL!! Including the gymnastics, swimming, volleyball, basketball, diving... I just love that so many countries have awesome and talented people. So much talent in one place WOW!!

Okay, almost midnight, bed time.

Do have photos too, just too lazy to load them.. Oh and if you attended Alexa's birthday party, the thank you cards are nearly complete - forgive me for the tardiness.

Home Sweet Home!

The man got out of the hospital today, thank goodness. It was a chaotic week, add on that I agreed to baby sit yesterday, which then turned into over night (we all camped out at my Aunt's house). And now we are finally back home in our nice quiet, somewhat clean, apartment. Plus I had a meeting tonight as well.. I don't know if the chaos will end, but I am just glad to have the man home. He will be giving himself daily injections and he is taking coumadin to keep his blood thin... so no leafy vegis (they have vitamin K), no running, no rough contact, and no lifting more than 10 lbs. The doctor said if he gets hit, he could bleed really bad internally (scary).

In case you were wondering exactly what he had, you know for the doctor in you, it is medically called "Portal vein thrombosis".

So August is shaping up to be a busy month as well, and September is filling up pretty rapidly too. We have really gotten involved in alot more activities these last few years. I think this is the first year where I have actually had to schedule activities months in advance, crazy. Well I'm off to bed and I really do have more photos of the girlies, if I can just remember to borrow the camera from my Aunt!