School Days

Ah that glorious time of year where the kids go back to school and you get a chance to regain your sanity. The first week of school went pretty well. Monday we woke up to flood ravaged roads, so I planned for extra time to get to school. Kyle usually gets up in a good mood in the morning and so was the case on Monday. Kyle comes out of his room wearing his new uniform and looking very sharp. He is supposed to have navy shorts or pants and I found some Dickie’s from Wal-Mart online for $10.00 which was more than half the price of the school’s uniform shop. I didn’t know what size Kyle wore in that brand so we went to a store that had them and he tried them on. He wore a size 6, so I went home and ordered 5 pairs then thinking ahead I ordered 3 pairs of size 7. All was going well until I got a closer look at his shorts. The pockets were gaping open because they were too small. I don’t think Kyle has ever had shorts that were too small. I sent him to school with them on anyway, because I had washed all of them so there’s no taking them back now. When I asked him how his first day of school was he said I got a wedgie at recess because my shorts are too small. I thought he meant kids gave him a wedgie because he looked nerdy with those shorts on, but he said no one gave him one it just sort of happened. Poor kid, I asked if he could just wear them long enough until it gets cool and he can wear pants and he thinks he can. In honor of school starting Metro Pizza had a “kids make it we bake it” night. So we went before Cub Scouts on Wednesday and the kids had a good time. They had a pizza man come around and show the kids how to stretch the dough and spread the sauce. There’s nothing like playing with you food before you eat it. Kyle was excited to have leftovers so he could take them to school for lunch, he thinks he is in high cotton since his school lets him use the microwave. Ronnie and I got a chuckle one night while looking over Kyle’s homework, he had to define evolution. I read his answer and asked where he got it from and he said his history book. Puzzled I looked in his book and found he was right it said: the false teaching that man evolved from apes, exactly what he wrote down. I always thought well I guess some aspects of evolution were true, not the parts about species jumping from one to another, but how insects can change their coloring to blend into their surroundings or how bird’s beaks adapt over time depending on what there are eating. Then it occurred to me that I didn’t believe in parts of evolution at all but I did believe in adaptation. My beliefs hadn’t changed just the way I would express them. It was just nice to see it in Kyle’s book. He may have some problems if he goes to a State college, but I’ll let him cross that road when he comes to it. Now next week Lana will start preschool again. She goes on Tuesday and Thursday between 9:00am-12:00pm and I get a whole six hours a week all to myself. I have no idea what I’m going to do with myself but I sure will enjoy the silence.

Summer's Last Hurrah

My brother and his wife had moved to Logan, UT about a year ago and I had not been up to see them yet. So one week when Ronnie was going out of town for work I suggested to my mom that we should all go up and see them. By all I mean Kyle, Lana, my mom, my grandmother, and myself. We can’t go anywhere together and not take my grandmother along, so this adds a little bit of extra planning, which since we decided to do this on a Sunday evening and were leaving on Tuesday morning we really didn’t have time to plan. I wanted to stop at IKEA just south of Salt Lake and stay the night somewhere around there. I wasn’t planning on buying anything really big since by the time we loaded up all the suitcases and the wheelchair there wasn’t much room, but I just love to look around and eat, yes I said eat at IKEA. My most favorite thing about IKEA is not how “green” they are or their low prices on home furnishings, but rather their .99 breakfasts. This trip I actually spent more in their food mart than I did on all the other treasures combined. We loaded up on cinnamon rolls and candies to share with friends and family we would be visiting. Our first night we got one hotel room to fit all of us, not a good idea. Between the snoring and teeth grinding and Lana being up for 3 hours in the wee hours of the morning I did not get much sleep. Lana finally went back to sleep at about 5:00am and slept until 9:00am which meant we were all trying to be as quite as possible so she could get all the sleep she needed, traveling with a tired Lana is not fun! It was hard keeping everyone quite since my grandmother is VERY hard of hearing and hadn’t put her hearing aids in yet. As soon as Lana woke up I was rushing to get ready to go back to IKEA for breakfast, alas I did not make it in time, but we did get to show my grandmother what IKEA was. After we left IKEA we headed to Ogden, where some of our really good friends live. Our motel was also in Ogden, for some reason all the motels closer to Logan were all booked. We were able to get two rooms which made everyone happy. The next day we visited with our friends. We all went to a place called the Treehouse, it’s like a hands on museum. The kids had a ball, Kyle convinced his sidekick James to hide and runaway from Lana with him. Lana in turn ran after Kyle screaming “Kyle come back here”, causing us to run after our kids screaming their names. Ahh…fun times! Once I managed to keep Lana away from Kyle they had a great time dressing up in all kinds of costumes. Afterwards we headed back to our friends house and ate lunch and then put the little ones down for a nap. That didn’t last long, Kyle gets a little loud when he is having fun and boy was he having fun with James. Unfortunately, both the little ones woke up early from their naps. Lana was actually very good the rest of the day; I thought she was going to be cranky. We all stayed up until midnight, Lana and Kyle included, playing the Wii. It was a really fun day, and to top it off my kids feel asleep like Ronnie does after Thanksgiving dinner. The next morning we headed up to Logan to see my brother Jason and his wife Melissa. We couldn’t visit at their apartment because they have steps up to the apartment and then more steps once you get inside of the apartment and there was no way to get my grandmother in there. So we picked Jason up and he took us to a creek where the kids got to feed the ducks. They took their shoes off and chased the ducks too, but as long as they threw crackers out there the ducks did not seem to mind. Afterward we went to lunch and then to the Pepperidge Farm and Godiva outlet and then to a dairy where the kids tasted their first ever squeaky cheese (curds). Then we picked up Melissa and went back to our motel in Ogden so Lana could take a nap. After Lana had her nap we all went out to dinner at this place that served this monstrosity called a jacketed potato. In case a loaded baked potato was not enough of a guilty pleasure they batter and then deep fry a baked potato and then load it up with toppings. Of course I took a picture of this so if I died shortly after eating it they could easily identify my killer. After dinner we all visited and then Jason and Melissa had to head back to Logan and then everyone hit the hay for the next day we headed back to Vegas. The trip home was safe and swift and I was glad to be done with summer vacations. It’s nice to get back into the swing of things.

Practically a Teenager

Well when we got back from CA, Ronnie’s parents had flown in the day before and relieved my parents of the kids. So they were staying at our house with Lana and Kyle. They came out for Kyle’s big number 10. Or as Kyle likes to say “I’m practically a teenager”. I had been thinking about what to do for his birthday for quite some time. I had planned to do his birthday at an indoor rock climbing place, yes I said I, and Kyle had no input in the matter…lol. I figured this could be his birthday party and present all wrapped up into one thing and the best part is it’s nothing he could bring home to clutter up his room with. I swear I am so tired of stepping on legos…when do they out grow those evil little toys anyway?? For months now I had thought about what to put into the little party favor bags. I was going with the rock theme, so I thought pop rocks, rock candy, those rocks you break apart (geodes), and anything to do with rock climbing. But of course I hadn’t actually bought anything that would be called planning ahead. The next few days I was running around here and there trying to find everything for the favor bags and ordering the cupcakes and so on and so on. I always start out saying I’m just going to keep things simple and then at the last minute decided to do something more time consuming. Hence the cupcakes…I said I’m just going to get plain old birthday cupcakes and then at the last minute decided I wanted cupcakes that looked somewhat like a rock and then I could make a cutout of Kyle to stick on them and it would look like rock climbing or standing on top of a rock. So the search is on for cupcakes that look rock like. Then we come across these Over the Hedge cupcakes, they have chocolate icing with green grass like icing on top, so they will work, I think. Now comes the fun part, making the Kyle cutouts to go on top. I have these paper doll stamp things so I use them to cut out some clothes, then I look though picture to find the one with the right size head of Kyle then, glue those together and stamp on some arms and feet…woohoo Kyle is done dude. Scan it and then send a file to Sam’s to make copies then all I have to do is cut them, put a toothpick on them, and put them on the cupcakes. They didn’t really look like what I was going for but oh well. Kyle could care less what his cupcakes looked like or what was in the goody bags, I know this and yet I still drive myself crazy over it. Kyle and his friends had a great time climbing. They were all much more daring than I think I would have been at their age. It was a great little party and we had a great group of boys there. Best of all Kyle is now “practically a teenager”!

777

Living in Vegas I got to hear all about the 07-07-2007 hoopla. I must say I thought it was all pretty stupid. I couldn’t figure out why people felt compelled to get married on that day over any other. I think if you found someone you want to marry then everyday of the rest of your life will be “lucky”. Then I started thinking about my upcoming anniversary. It just so happens that we have our own little 777 thing going on. We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on 07-31-2007. We had been thinking about taking a family vacation somewhere during August, but we hadn’t made any plans for certain. Then Ronnie and I started to figure out what we wanted to do. We thought wouldn’t it be nice to go away, just the two of us. So, we checked it over with my mom and everything was set into action. Then the next thing was where are we going to go? We had so many options without having to worry about Lana’s naps and kid friendly restaurants and so forth. We didn’t decide where we were going until the day before we left. We are not really the planning type we just go and figure things out when we get there. We decided to go to Monterey, it’s a nice break from the heat since the highs there are in the low 60. The next morning we headed out and we made it to Tehachapi ,CA for lunch. They had the cutest little place called the Apple Shed where we stopped for lunch. They were famous for their apple pies, but their little turkey pot pies were the cutest thing, I had Ronnie take a picture of mine with his phone. We got to Monterey safe and sound, and I learned a few things about my husband I hadn’t realized during the drive. Like how much he resembled a chicken. Yes, I said chicken. I was driving and he was in the seat next to me falling asleep. He had his hat off which made is hair stand straight up in the middle kind of like a Mohawk. Then his lips were kind of pouty looking like a beak. And of course he had the nod going on so in all he looked like a chicken pecking at something. How I wanted so bad to get a picture of it for you all to see, but taking photos while driving is too complicated for me. So back to Monterey, one day we went whale watching and we actually saw a couple of humpback whales. I think the ride out to the whales was more exciting than actually seeing the whales; it was like an hour long roller coaster ride. Although not everyone like the choppy ride, the back of the boat was full of sea sick travelers. We had a biologist on board telling us interesting facts about some of the birds and dolphins we also got to see. The most humorous part of the whole trip came at the end when we were getting ready to turn back and go back to shore Ronnie’s cell phone rings. It was just so odd that we had to laugh.
One night we went to the Hogs Breath Inn, it used to be owned by Clint Eastwood, but I don’t think he has much to do with it anymore. I had to get the Dirty Harry Dinner because it was the only thing on the menu that had any Clint Eastwood references. It was quite a cozy little place with fireplaces in almost every corner and low ceilings. I think there were only 10 tables in the whole place. They had a gorgeous outdoor seating area also, but they only served drinks and appetizers out there.
On our last day there we ended up at the aquarium. They have quite a nice aquarium there. I just love their jellyfish exhibit; they seem to have the lighting down perfect so you can see every detail.
When we were on our way home to Vegas we stopped at a fruit stand and got some of the best grapes I have ever eaten. They were so sweet, but it was really kind of bitter sweet since I can’t find any grapes that compare to them here. Grapes just don’t taste as good as they once did. It was a wonderful trip, even though half the time we kept thinking we were forgetting something…the kids. It was weird to get into a car and not have to buckle up Lana and when we got out half the time I still opened the back door out of habit to let Lana out.