Back to the grind stone

Has it really been over a month since I last posted?!  It sure doesn't seem like that long, I guess we've just been busy (as usual).  I don't know how some of you moms can go through the busy day and still have enough energy to write about it...

So we went to Hawaii, and came back.  I have photos but don't want to take the time to mess with the photo uploader (because I hate it and it takes forever).  We had a somewhat good time, we spent alot of time at my moms house helping her pack and sort through stuff.  Plus I had alot of stuff that I had saved so I had to go through quite a bit as well.  We went to the beach a couple times, and Julius took the girls to this big park they built and also to the canyon.

We brought my dog back with us, his name is Beefy, I will put some pictures next time.  Since we came back he has been pretty good, although he tries to eat my cat.  Then last night the cat came in while the dog was in and I tried to save her and she bit me pretty good on the hand...  but I was able to grab the dogs tail and keep him from getting her.  It's sort of stressful for all of us.  And I don't think J realized how much work it is to have a dog, mostly because he is an inside dog and used to being around people and sleeping on the couch.  But we keep him in the garage at night so he whines and barks, and wakes us up at 6am.  The girls are kinda afraid of him, Alexa mostly.  But they are getting better, and he has started to get used to them and the noises they make.

Okay I gotta go, it's short but I have other things to do.  Maybe I'll write more before the month is out, haha.

No more teachers dirty looks!

Would you believe I am done for the semester?!  After all that studying, I think I atleast passed (which is good).  Also for those books I took back I got $202, probably nothing compared to what I paid for them but it's money back in my pocket!  Now we can focus on our vacation, three whole weeks of purging and packing, tanning and swimming...  total bliss.

When we get back I will be back to class for the summer, I am taking two classes and hope to good gracious that they are easy ones!  And I hope to have some time to paint more of our house this summer, atleast the bathrooms.  And my reading list is long too, I just finished Twilight so I need to get some more books.

I am just so excited, I don't know what to do first...  laundry? movie? play some ds?  So many choices, I better get going!

Good Bye Books!

Tomorrow I turn my books into Cash!  Accept my accounting book which apparently you should keep for your entire career in order to be successful.  I also tell Adrianne's preschool teacher that she will miss the rest of preschool (haven't decided if we will do summer school or not).  Did you know we are almost half way through the year?!  Yup that means the countdown to Christmas is almost upon us :)

Today Julius and I spent the day studying while the kiddos went to Great-Grandma's, she is 96 tomorrow, so I guess they had a little potluck at her house.  We both got some good studying in, along with several cat naps sincew we are sick.. it's so hard to concentrate with a head full of yuck.

Yesterday I went to a Luau for another Filipino group, it's a fundraiser for their medical missions that they have in the Philippines.  It was fun, there was alot of dancing and chatting.  It was the first event that I went to without Julius, and I survived.  I didn't win any prizes but I guess that is okay.
I forgot there was an event on Friday evening that I was supposed to go to, I guess by then I wasn't feeling all that wonderful anyway.  The event was about Haiti and some work that a friend of ours did while he was there.  I'm kinda sad I missed it, I wanted to hear his stories.

Okay well, that is it, not such an eventful weekend but I am grateful for that..  today I actually got to 'sit' on my couch, not just glance at it while I whiz past, oh and I finally finished the movie Julie and Julia, it took me a week and three different viewings but all in all I thought it was pretty good.  Oh and I am reading the first Twilight book, almost done with it and hoping to start on The Help for book club.  I should update my Goodreads, I have read alot this year.  I am trying to get through 10 books in 2010, not counting my text books, just general reading for my well being.  Time to wash the girls, goodnight :)

The Amazing Past Month (and a half)

So obviously I am not the best at updating this thing.  Most of you know the reason for that is because I just don't have the time to sit down and upload photos and type anything interesting..  So here is a run down of what I can remember from the last month or so..  I left off with my birthday, and being that my b-day falls in the heart of tax season we never really do much.  I did however get some cake and snagged the birthday candles from Alexa's 5th birthday (which got left behind and never made it on the cake... MOM!)  As you can see the candles made a nice pillar of flames - I was just going to put a 'few' but the girls insisted on putting all of them.  This photo actually makes me kinda sad, because if you look on the sliding glass door you will see a heart that says "love" and some other assorted scribblings..  well that is STILL on the door, over a month later..  that is totally unacceptable!  (where is my maid?!)

For Alexa's birthday (or maybe Christmas) the girls got stick on fingernails..  however Adrianne took all the sticky paper and stuck it to random stuff, so we just had the nails.  They must have asked me a hundred times "when are we going to put the nails on?!"  but it's hard to stick them without any sticky!  So a grand idea came to me, why don't we got to Wal-mart and buy some sticky nail sticker-on-er stuff...  (sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?)  However, much to the girls' disappointment I could not find the sticky back papery stuff that you would think they would sell so you could actually Re-use the nails..  They were so disappointed and nearly in tears that I wouldn't buy the "nail glue" (can you imagine, a 4 and 5 year old with semi-permanent fake nails!).  Well ofcourse, me having that gut wrenching guilt that comes with a mid-isle Wal-mart mental breakdown, I bought them BOTH a set of nails with sticky attached..  Yea, set me back probably $10 (A BIG thank you to whomever bought the first set...)  And ofcourse as soon as we get home we HAVE to put the nails on.  So here they are, in all their glory my 4 and 5 year old with fake nails..

They are little Diva's arn't they?!  So unlike myself.  But I do admit they were SOOO cute with their skirts and high heels and nails and purses and necklaces.

This photo is Alexa in the tub, and I am adding it here because this is the first time that she really has became comfortable with putting her head in the water (since her near drowning two summers ago).  She is still against swimming lessons, but I think she is starting to get her sea-legs back.

One sunny day we took an afternoon trip to the park with Julius and I am so happy I got these photos, I just have to share them (LOOK AT ALEXA SMILING!)

For once I have photos of the child not looking like I beat her into submission!  It's proof that she does actually smile, and she is just super cute with that little grin!  (don't mind those bright green socks, we are still having some 'matching' issues, haha).

The girls are ALWAYS asking to sleep in the living room.  I don't know what the fascination is, but I remember loving doing it when I was little too.  So each weekend we 'try' to sleep in the living room atleast one night (however with the late nights that J and I have been keeping the living room sleeping arrangement has been sparse).  So on this night we let the girls pick a movie, they watched Up, and I even got them ice cream.  This is really the highlight of their week, in fact Adrianne will ask me almost every night if it's a 'living room' night.  J and I don't particularly like the whole living room set up, 1. because it's painful on the back, 2. because there is a big mess the next morning, and 3. it's so hard to get the kiddos to sleep.

Ofcourse Easter came, and then was gone in a flash.  Adrianne and Alexa wrote letters to the Easter bunny, and he secretly got them while they were at gymnastics.  Alexa asked for the Tiana movie, and Adrianne asked for a "purple talking egg" which we saw one day at Safeway (and then she had a breakdown because I wouldn't buy it)...  so guess what, Saturday night who is out SEARCHING for an F-ing Purple Talking Egg!!  Me!  Four stores and one exhausted mommy and I could NOT find a PURPLE one!  I went back to Walmart (the first store) and bought a pink one instead (praying that she wouldn't have a breakdown over the color change..)  I boiled about 3 dozen eggs for the girls and their cousins, it took them maybe a total of 10 minutes to dye them all and then run off to play.  So I sat there and had a grand ol' time with all the dyes and all the eggs.. I love Easter egg dying.

  (you can see the previously mentioned writing on the door is now growing)

Here are some of the creations I made after having been abandoned by my young apprentices.

On Easter the girls got up to find their baskets, however Adrianne was extremely disappointed that her talking egg was not in her basket (it's a talking egg, shouldn't it be hidden and then she find it??)  I tried to calm her down and quickly hid the egg in the closet in the kitchen... thinking that she would hear it while we were having breakfast.  Did she hear it?  It's incessant chattering "I'm over here... You can't find me.."  NOPE.  Alexa finally heard it and together they searched for it, however they gave up looking and I had to 'help' them.  I had put it inside a glove to quiet it's chattering, and then inside a coat pocket, they looked all over on the ground but never in the coats, quite a funny event to watch.  And I am happy to say that Adrianne was happy with her pink egg, although she said with indifference, "I asked the Easter bunny for a purple egg, but he got me a pink one!!"  Later there was the egg hunt, I sent Julius out before work (yes he worked on Easter sunday, tax season you know!) to hide a bundle of eggs.  It was sprinkling during the egg hunt but the kids still had fun, apparently at that age they really don't "look" for eggs, as most of them were walking right past/over the eggs.

April 15th was a thursday so Julius was able to take Friday off, at which point he got the grand idea to make the girls a swing set, here they are digging the main hole for the support beam.

The next day they were able to put together the main support structure (thank you last house owner for leaving a ton of awesome materials to work with!).

 

Then they went to Lowe's to buy the swing set hardware and seats (holy-moley the seats alone were $70!)

This was the finished product of my hubby's ingenuity, I still can't believe he made a swing set, sometimes he is so crafty in a BIG way that I just can't fathom it!

 

So that is pretty much our last several weeks, we've also got our garden planted and a compost bin made.  When you combine all this with J's working and his studying for his 'Final Installment' of the CPA test, and me being at school and studying and trying to finish all my stuff, and the girls both going to school and doing gymnastics, and our multiple volunteering commitments and clubs we are involved with, and basketball, and the NBA Playoffs, the housework, laundry, and cooking... I think it's pretty darn amazing that we have all been able to keep our sanity, I know J's and I's has faltered several times, but I think we can successfully say that we made it through another tax season..  phew!

My Birthday Weekend!

It's my birthday weekend, that's right "weekend" why should birthdays be celebrated for just one day out of 365? Might as well make the most of it and have a whole weekend! This weekend has been awesome, first on Friday I went out with some of the MC moms and their hubbies to see the play The Producers at Clark College. What good fun! I loved it and I laughed the entire time, it was too funny. Not sure if the others laughed as much as I did, but I was just cracking up the whole time. If it's playing again I will definitely see it again, no questions. In fact I had such a good time I am thinking of doing it more often, for $15, it was totally worth it! Much better than going to a movie. But I've always loved those kinds of things, too bad I cannot sing or dance or I would probably sign up too!

It's also been a nice sunny weekend so I have been able to get some gardening done, which I am grateful because it is really getting out of control. The garden area in our new house goes around most of the perimeter of the property, so there is a TON of garden space (which I am hoping to rework into something smaller and more manageable). But I need to get everything cleaned out because there is already some plants and a ton of bulbs out there which I have to find amongst the weeds. This makes my job a bit more tedious trying to find the beginnings of Easter lilies, and clumps of tulips, and all the tubers from the iris' inbetween giant globs of unwanted grass. So slow and precise goes the gardening.

I let the kids go outside yesterday and paint, I put big plates of paint out and rolled out a 4' by 8' sheet of paper for them to do hand prints and foot prints and BIG art on, they had a good time. Julius also came home a little early and had the kids help him wash the car (not my car, his car, but no hard feelings... okay maybe a few, I mean it is MY birthday weekend.. but I digress). Adrianne has been having on and off earaches, not sure what the cause is, but she doesn't mention it all the time... Which I find odd.

Last night I went to another MC moms house for some scrapping, it was very nice of her to open her house to us and let us hang out and get some things done. I finished a whole mini book and I love the way it turned out. I am so glad I went and I hope we can do it again, even if it's just a few of us it's still really fun. And there was chocolate pie! That is like heaven..

So I had an awesome Friday and Saturday night, thanks to all the great MC moms out there. In other news, our laptop died, I have to get it fixed or atleast see how much it is to fix, I think I can fix it on my own (like I need another job!) there are some very detailed directions on line and it looks like the part I need will be <$20, so I may undertake another task in the next couple weeks. But for now I am just using J's big computer, which the monitor is ginormous, I feel like my eyes are going in opposite directions just trying to view the entire screen. But I'll make due.

Today is a little cloudy but the sun is peeking through a little. I should really focus on my homework and my test that is coming up on Tuesday (thank goodness it's Tuesday, and not Monday, or I may be having a heart attack right now). Julius said we were going to go to Roots for dinner, but I guess we've had a change of plans and instead we are going to take the bikes down to Beaches and have an early dinner and go bike riding. Which I think is a wonderful idea! Very thoughtful! I'm sure my booty will be in severe pain after riding for a while, so hopefully when I get home I will just sit down and study -yea right, wishful thinking huh-

My house really needs to be cleaned, especially with all the dirt I tracked in during gardening. But it'll have to wait until after the Tuesday test, and I don't think waiting a couple more days will kill me, or it?, either way I think it'll be fine. I am washing the blanket that Alexa got her bloody nose on, apparently Julius threw her and her knee hit her nose and it started bleeding but Julius thought she was just whining, so he paid no attention, until he saw the blood. And the girlies are getting a bath because after the painting yesterday they are very colorful (it's just SOOO hard to hit the 4' by 8' sheet of paper without getting it on yourself.. yea right!)

Alright well I need to ski-daddle, alot to do and too little time. It's March already people, the year is 1/4 gone, time to renew those new year goals! (I don't remember what mine were..)

R U Busy?

We've been doing alot around here, most of it seems mundane and repetative but I supposed we have done a few things out of the ordinary. Like after MC this week we went to the park, the kids had a great time and they were so happy to be outside and enjoying the swings and slides. Then we took a walk around the entire park, and the girls worked on their running/racing. And ofcourse they picked up pinecones and sticks which we just HAD to have.. then we came home and gardened for a while, gosh we have alot of garden.

We also went to the store yesterday, to get those eggs that we've been out of for the past couple weeks. Then we came home and they "helped" me clean up the main part of the house, since we've been having alot of tax guests lately. After dinner we made some sugar cookies, from a bag. The mix was really flaky but I added some water and made it happen. The cookies came out pretty good (however crunchy-ish) we made one for each of their teachers, and I got out my little decorative bags and some ribbons and little cards for them to decorate.

Tomorrow we are going to a friends house, I know they will like to play with some other kids for a while. And then I am going to go out to bunco and see if I can actually win something this time! Saunday Julius is going to take another CPA exam, so maybe on Saturday (Cross your fingers for good weather) we can go to the zoo and let him study. And I was thinking tonight we would go to the library for a while, give the kiddo's something to do and get some new books.

Thank goodness spring is around the corner because we need to get out of the house more often!