Time MARCHes On

March was no less busy than February with sports, school, work and life.

One thing new we did was take a self-defense class. One of my co-workers was mugged/assaulted earlier in March so this was at the forefront of my mind.  I missed the class in February due to Presidents Day Weekend but I knew I wanted to take the girls to the March class.  We learned how to get out of 3 different choke holds. I was so proud of my girls.  Paula felt very empowered afterwards and told me how much she appreciated me taking her. Shawna had a basketball game later that day and shared all her new skills with her teammates. She even asked her coach to "choke me" to which he said a quick 'Uh, NO".  haha He eventually played along and was impressed by her new skills.  Our next class we'll learn the Super Slap!

This month we also attended my nieces 4th birthday party at a jumping type place with lots of trampolines, side trampolines, and did I mention trampolines?  The kids had a blast and want to go back.  Allison was super cute and funny with her swimming and preschool friends.  I can't believe she's already 4!  My brother and his wife are now pre-approved for a home loan so they're on their way to owning their own home.  This is a huge deal for anyone, but especially them.  I'm very proud of them. 

We also went camping over Easter weekend.  Ever since Todd's family stopped regularly getting together on Easter we've gone camping instead.. They used to do a money hunt for kids and adults. No one wanted to miss that!  Todd's dad would hide about $400 in 1's and maybe a few 5's out in the side yard for everyone to find. We also chipped in plastic candy filled eggs and other Eastery stuff to find.  But, his dad is 79 TODAY and over the past few years his parents haven't felt like getting together with the family for various reasons so we go camping instead.  This time we went to a KOA we visited over Mothers Day weekend that has TONS of amenities like a pool, hot tub, jumping pillow, store, petting zoo, rock wall, playground, etc, etc.  The kids had a blast. It even rained a bit but no one cared.  Trailer camping is the best.


I'm totally hooked (again) to West Wing TV series on Netflix.  OMG it's a total obsession and I'm already on season 3.  I watch it everyday and would watch it ALL DAY if I could.  I just love the characters and story lines. The humor is great.  I wish we had another show like it now, because when I've watched the entire thing I'm going to be soo depressed. 

I'm super proud of my girls and who they've become. 

Paula is such a sweet soul. She babysits neighbor twins almost every week and does such a great job with them. The parents compliment and praise her often.    She's so helpful around our house too.  Her grades are great and she has really good friends.  Friends I hope she keeps a lifetime. 

Shawna's loves for animal's is wonderful.  She keeps saying she wants to be a vet, but time will tell.  Her teacher emailed me recently how proud she is of Shawna's accomplishments, grades and just overall conduct. She really enjoys basketball this year and I think works much harder and stays more focused than she did last year. Shawna's grades are also very good.  She still loves kisses and hugs from me, which I hope never ends! 

Life is so good right now.  I'm very blessed.

How for the pictures!

 

Allison (black shirt) turns 4! 

Shawna in love with her farm animals at the KOA

Paula dye's eggs for the Easter egg hunt

The girls and their loot. The Easter Bunny hid eggs in front of the trailer but he forgot baskets this year so we improvised.

Paula helps mommy make Easter dinner with homemade scalloped potatoes. 

Paula Deen's recipe.  

It was really good!  I recommend it!

Paula and Shawna at their 12 and 10 year well checks 4/2/13.

Paula's stats (she's now taller than I am!)

Shawna's stats

Beach and Butterflies

If I don’t get this down I’ll forget so here is what we’ve been up to for the past few weeks.  This won’t be interesting to you unless you’re me.  J

Last weekend of January:


January 26th my baby turned 10. DOUBLE-DIGITS. This was huge of course. Shawna talked about the big day for weeks.

We invited several of her friends to a bowling party at a local bowling alley, which I’d never been to prior. Thankfully the place was great. We had our own party person who handled the shoes, lane computer, drinks, pizza and cut the cake. I LOVED HER!!!! Birthday parties stress me out. Especially when I have to be the host.


Later that night Shawna was invited, along with her entire class of 30 kids and their families, to an ice skating party for a birthday party. My parents were in town for Shawna’s birthday and didn’t want to go to the ice rink so Todd stayed home with them while Paula, Shawna and I went out. The girls had fun skating while I watched. I can sort of skate. Not great. I don’t need to fall and injure myself. There was an open bar in the lounge, along with tons of food. The mom of the daughter went over and beyond, I was told, because she wanted to thank the school families for their support for her and her family after her husband died in October.


Sunday was open house at school and the final volleyball games for most teams. Todd helped at the annual pancake breakfast all day. He brought mimosas for everyone working. Weee.

Shawna brought home a play date. Overall a great weekend.



1st weekend of February:

Friday the 1st the girls and Todd went to a Father-Daughter dance which was beach themed. The girls had a BLAST. Todd did too, he said it was the best one yet.

Saturday was Paula’s volleyball party at a pizza place where she got to play video games and Shawna played her last volleyball game that day.


Sunday was SUPER BOWL. We had a party. I even let Todd buy a new TV. That’s huge since I swore until the ancient projector one we had broke, he couldn’t buy another one. But the projector TV you
need to be sitting practically directly in front of the TV to see it clearly and I would have 13 people in my living room so I needed one that was viewable from all sides. Our new TV is a SmartTV. You can talk to it and it responds with an action. omg.

We have Amazon subscribed to the TV and we’re prime members, so I’m now watching season 2 of Downton Abbey all week. I’m sooo hooked to this show.


2nd weekend

Not as exciting as the previous weekends. Shawna went on a play date to her friend’s house on Saturday. Sunday Girl Scout Cookie sales began! I have two girls in Girl Scouts which means I have a lot more cookies than some people.

Although, I’m amazed how many cookies a single girl can sell. We aren’t power sellers. Shawna and I went around the neighborhood Sunday selling 40 boxes while Paula and her friend made cakes in my kitchen. Todd changed the oil in his hoopty.

Let me know if you want GS cookies. I’m selling thru March!



3rd weekend

Presidents Day weekend we headed with the travel trailer to Pismo Beach. We stayed at a new RV park that packed you in like sardines. We didn’t even bother opening our awning because it almost hit the trailer next to us. LOL

We also had to park the truck next to the trailer and almost couldn’t open the trailer door all the way.

The Jacuzzi was the best part of the park. The kids LOVED the pool and Jacuzzi. They also met a friend age 9 from Riverside, who had her own bodyguard. She told Shawna her mom is overprotective. Yah think?! Her brother, age 10, had his own bodyguard.

They were sort of glorified nannys. The girl’s bodyguard was very friendly and talked about himself to us a lot. He’s an ex-sheriff. He’d sit outside my trailer when Shawna and her were inside. I got so comfortable with him I didn’t even worry about my kids since I knew he was watching over them since his ‘ward’ was with my kids.

They would play in the pool and he’d watch them. It was great! I met the parents, who were nice and they even invited us to dinner one night, but we refused as we’d bought meat to BBQ. This was before we knew he was a bodyguard and not a “family friend” like he said at first. I’d might have said yes just for that since I’m so nosy!

We went to the beach for a couple hours one day and drove the truck on the sand. Paula hung out in the freezing cold water for awhile. Shawna dug sand with a shovel, then Paula joined her. Rosie ran around and got sandy and wet. She was cute.

We saw a bunch of the monarch butterflies on our way back to the campgrounds. There is a monarch preserve that has thousands who fly in every year for a few months. It’s amazing to see.



4th weekend:

This weekend we’re selling girl scouts cookies (surprise) and going to our good friends’ 2nd annual soup party. You can enter your own soup for $10 or just show up and taste the soup, then vote on the best ones. The winner goes home with all the money. I was considering

Making a soup but I never make soup. And with GS cookie sales in the afternoon I won’t have time to do anything. So I’ll just go and eat.

My mug leaks

This weekend my niece, Allison, came over for a sleepover.  Her mom had a chiropractic seminar she needed to attend all day for her yearly credits and my brother, the cop, was on duty from 2pm on. The girls always have fun together playing.  But, boy oh boy is this girl bossy and full of attitude.  She's in a preschool class with 5 year olds now even though she's only 3.  The reason is she does better with older children. I think they tolerate her better than the younger ones.

We had one time-out and a few threats of time-out this weekend, all which were not received well.  Go figure. 

Apparently, peanut butter on a spoon is her favorite snack, which was a surprise to her mother. 

I spent most of Sunday working on Shawna's scrapbook project for her 4th grade mission.  She has Mission Santa Cruz.  Whoever thinks these projects are done by the children is sadly mistaken.  Whoever thinks a child of the age of 9 can do this without parent help and produce anything worthy of a decent grade, is also mistaken. 

Two years ago Paula did a scrapbook for her mission.  She gave great input and did a lot of the work herself but I definitely helped the entire time.  It took us 8 hours but we did it together.
Shawna was available only in spurts. Her concentration level is less than her sisters. She did help pick colors of paper and used some of my scrapbook supplies to punch out shapes to add to the book, and placed those shapes on the pages.  She pulled off every letter and handed it to me to apply to the paper.  But mostly she wanted to play with Allison or go outside, or watch tv, or do anything other than sit at the table and help with the scrapbook. 

I was determined this scrapbook would be complete this weekend so I trudged along.  It came out nice and it's DONE. 

We have a model that she did too.  Their class has to do two projects.  Her dad helped with the model.  I got to do the scrapbook. Teamwork. We have it. 

I need to complain about my coffee mug.  I have an old Thermos brand coffee mug I use for work.  Sometimes after I wash it, water gets trapped under the plastic and drips each time I take a sip.  Today my keyboard & desk are getting wet. Why why why.  So annoying.