Good Things

yes after all the bad of april some good in may is very welcome.  the big news is that my oldest got engaged.  we are all so happy for B and D!  it was a beautiful, romantic proposal, that was what every mom dreams of for her little girl.  D is a great guy and i am overjoyed to have him be a part of our family.

 

aisy has been very busy dancing.  on the 30th of april her production group danced at the spring festival.  in between performances they sold bottled water to earn money for their disneyland trip in the fall.  this past weekend she danced in the mother lode round up parade and on sunday we celebrated her 10th birthday as well as mother's day.  as you can see it is non-stop around here.  

gilli finally got her hard cast on the 2nd and we have a recheck on the 18th.  she seems to be doing much better and complains very little of having pain so thankfully she seems like she is on the mend.

 the girls were also busy at school with plays and tent town (a school project that recreates a town during the gold rush).  i was so impressed with how they manage to juggle their busy schedules and still manage to excel in school.

    so nice to be able to share some positive things!!!!!

Yeah for May!!!

Thank goodness that April is over!  It was a really rough month around here and while some of it can be considered a minor annoyance, on top of all the big stuff that was just too much.  You all know that our beloved Bandit died on the 5th and that my dad had a stroke on the 7th, both of those events alone were bad but together overwhelming.  On that same friday, the dryer broke!  I know what your thinking, 3 girls with tons of sports and dance, and no dryer, i had the same reaction.  On the 18th while getting ready to cook dinner, my oven caught fire, the element shorted out and proceeded to flame up.  To top off that night, our bird, Tango, a nine year old cockatiel died.  I know what your thinking... but there's more...on the 20th my youngest, Gilli, tripped over a backpack and broke her arm just below the elbow. And all the while we were dealing with softball, volleyball and extra practice at dance.  So i say good riddance to April and Yeah for May!!!!

While this will be a busy month for us I have every hope that it will still be better.

here we go again!

well it was another red letter day at our house.  after a near kitchen fire that scared the bejeezus out us (the oven's heating element shorted out) we discovered our cockatiel had died. i know what your thinking and i am not slowly but surely killing off our animals but even i am starting to wonder, what the hell is going on around here?  seriously, if there is a gypsy out there that has put a curse on me, or some voodoo priestess that is poking some doll with needles somewhere because i have offended them, i am so very sorry.  whatever i did to you, cannot possibly warrant what is going on around me and to the people i care about.  now if it turns out that this is just how life is... i say FML!!!!!!

2011 sucks

yesterday was another red letter day for us. joey had come home sick with a cold and i was at dance with aisy in the afternoon, gilli had stayed for p.m. club as she has been taking eukele and drum lessons on weds and fridays.  while i was at dance i got a phone call from joey saying that gilli had fallen and hurt her arm and that she had missed the bus home.  i decided to call the school and spoke to the after school program director who said that she would check on her.  she called me back at the dance studio and said that gillian was fine and that she would be taking the bus home at 4:40.  when i got home at 5:30 gilli was there and said that her arm was hurting so i threw dinner in the oven and went to check her arm.  as it turned out she wouldn't let me exam it because it hurt too bad and she couldn't move it without pain. so off to the emergency room we went.  after 5 hours, multiple xrays and a consult with an orthopedic surgeon, gillian has a broken arm.  the break is just below her elbow on her left arm and she is soft casted for a week then will have a hard cast on for another 4 weeks.  this will definitely throw a monkey wrench into dance, drums and eukele.

needless to say, i am playing a very poor game of hide and seek with "trouble" lately so i am gonna step up my game and hide a little better.

tough time at the zoo

well as you know we lost our beloved Bandit last week which was devastating for our family.  on thursday my dad had a minor stroke, so we spent most of thursday and friday at the hospital and it was quite the scare for all of us.  he is recovering but some of his speech issues are likely permanent and all in all we count ourselves lucky that it wasnt worse.

our schedule is quite frantic right now as i warned you all it would be.  Joey had her first softball game on monday night after volleyball practice and while Gilli and Aisy had dance and this will continue for at least another week.  cant wait for volleyball season to end.  now on the plus side, joey got a hit during her first game and she managed a serve over the net during volleyball yesterday, both big accomplishments for her and her teams both one.

aisy is getting ready to dance in the spring festival and the round up parade so we are doing additional practices and private lessons to get her caught up after missing dance for almost 3 months.  so nice to have her back dancing and to see her so happy.

gilli has taken up a drum class (provided free through our schools p.m. program) on weds and fridays, thank you for not needing transportation.  so as you can see spring is incredibly busy around here and it really doesnt end until the end of june after the dance recital.  did i mention that J is playing softball on thursday nights?  so no help there.

happy hump day!!!!

Bandit

Aisy and Bandit   Valentine's Day 2009

Joey with Bandit at school, showing off his best moves!
2010

Yesterday was a sad day for our family.  Our beloved dog, Bandit, passed away. We are so very thankful to have had this most precious creature be a part of our family for the last 13 years.  We will never forget him!

Gillian with her "big dog"
2006

Bad, Bad, Blogger

ok, so now that that has been established i will try to explain.  between the 18 feet of snow that has fallen over the course of this winter and the 14 days accumulated without power and the frustration that i suffer from having dial up internet it is fair to say that blogging just hasnt been a recent priority.  it also could have something to do with the fact that, joey is playing volleyball AND fast pitch softball and gilli and aisy both are back dancing, so let's just say that mommy's aspiration to be a small town blogger has been put on the back burner.

so lets catch up.

the last storm dropped about 6 feet of snow over a 5 day period, yes that is a lot of snow.  the plow man and i are no longer on speaking terms due to his insistence of daily burying us alive.  i know it's his job to keep the roads clear but he would literally wait until my husband had left for work and then commence with putting up a 6 ft high by 5 ft deep berm across my driveway that i would then have to shovel out so that J could get back in every night.  the other issue i have with this is that on my property is a main power pole that PG&E has to have access to in order to restore power.  this was explained to him politely and after day 4 of him doing this it was explained again, by banging on his door and waving a shovel.  safe to say our friendship has ended.

aisy was finally cleared to go back to dance!  thank you to whatever higher being heard my prayer as i am not sure how much longer she was going to be able to go without dancing and manage to not explode.  she has her first make up lesson tonight as her parade class is getting ready to perform in the Mother Lode Round-Up Parade, the second largest parade in California.  so fingers crossed all, lets hope it goes well and there is no pain.

we have had some serious sibling issues around here.  it has genuinely been like watching the movie, mean girls.  joey and aisy seem to have this exclusive little clique that doesnt include gilli and i am downright tired of it.  it wouldnt be so bad if they were just unaware that their behavior was hurtful but when i talked to them about it, they let me know that they were well aware and the really just dont seem to care.  this left me know choice but to intervene.  one example, is that aisy and joey like to have sleepovers in each others rooms but refuse to include gilli.  neither one of them will do a sleepover with her individually or when they are together and the fact that she feels left out and hurt doesnt seem to bother either of them.  i gave them a choice, either you include gilli or there will be no more sleepovers.  they chose not to have sleepovers any more.   i dont think i have ever been more disappointed in my children than i was at that moment.  :(   i think if they could have given some kind of reason, like, gilli picks her nose and eats her boogers, or she smells because she refused to bathe, i might have felt differently and seen some reason for their behavior, but this is not the case, they said "we just dont want to."  i have to say that this was a blow to my ego as a mom and a heartbreak for my littlest girl.  thankfully, i was wise enough to discuss this with them when she was not around because i dont think i could bear the look on her face if she could have heard them.   i have officially disbanded 'the mean girl' club and if they apply for another charter they will find out in no uncertain terms that they are not welcome here.

on a lighter note, harley is getting huge and such a sweetie.  we all still adore him, however, we are having some serious behavior issues relating to seperation anxiety.  everytime we leave the house without him, he gets into stuff and chews.  my philosphy on this has always been,  "if you dont want it chewed then put it away".  harley is actually getting in to things that are put away, he has figured out how to open cupboards and manages to get up on my desk, so any help that anyone can suggest, i am sooooo open to some advice here.  on the upside we have been doing more walking now that some of the snow is melting off and he is doing so much better on the leash.

well, i think that gets us caught up for now.    happy saturday!!!!

busy march

the snow is finally melting off and we have had a distinct warm up, actually its been a heat wave of about 45 degrees for the last week so it actually is starting to feel like spring.  in light of this amazing weather joey, gilli and i took harley out for a walk yesterday.  i know its been weeks since we've done this but apparently he has no long term memory.  we left our drive and he literally drug me down the road for over 5 mins before I was walking HIM.  however he did calm down after that and the exercise was good for all of us.  

aisy's cast came off friday, she said that her foot was still hurting her, but i think it is stiffness from the cast as she is walking better and better on it.  she has a recheck in two weeks and if there is no pain then off to dance we go. if however, there is still pain in her heel then its and MRI and possibly and orthopedic surgeon, so fingers crossed.  

joey is starting volleyball this week and softball next week so it should be a very busy april.  she is "way excited" to quote her and honestly with all that has gone on lately with her sister, she has been awesome and deserves to have a little attention and definitely some cheering.  

seems like everything else is good, but time is scarce so i will post when i can and try to keep you all up to date.  

Happy March!

more snow and other random stuff

do you believe it...more snow.  how is that even possible? but yes we managed to get another 15 inches overnight on thursday.













 also this week right before the storm we found out that aislinn doesnt have plantar fasciitis, her growth plate in her heel is pulling away from the bone and that is what is causing all the pain in her left foot.  they wanted
to put her in a boot to immobilize her foot but the youth xs was almost 3 inches to big so enter the newest member of our family, aisy's cast.







on a lighter note, my friend that was so ill with her pregnancy appears to be on the mend and doing so much better and our puppy, harley, is turning into the best dog even without any attempts at leash training, which is virtually impossible right now with 5 ft of snow on the ground.

a little crazy

first my monitor went out, my 9 year old was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis (she's the dancer, so this is serious), one of my best friends has been having serious issues during her pregnancy and she ended up in the hospital, her 5 children (yes that is five) ended up at my house for a 4 day stay AND we had a major weather event.  now you might ask if i felt the need to turn to alcohol, drugs or some other form of artificial sanity and the answer is no.  jay picked up a monitor on sale for me, aislinn has been resting her foot and should be able to go back to dance in a week or so, j and the baby are just fine and were released from the hospital on saturday, the 8 children (my 3 and her 5, ages 3 to 13) were on their best behavior minus a few skirmishes with the 3 year old over not being able to play the wii (no power makes spencer a little cranky) and the major weather event that dropped 4 ft + of snow in 48 hours has ended.  so as i said, things have been a little crazy!

first nights snowfall

2nd nights snowfall

now on a lighter note, i live in one of the best places on the planet, now this is not because its beautiful (which it is) or because we have no traffic (which we dont) or we have amazing schools (which we do) or within 20 mins in any given direction there is a lake or a stream or a hiking trail or a place to camp (which there is) but genuinely it is because of the people that we have been privileged to surround ourselves with.  neighbors who clear your driveway with their big snow blower, friends who call to make sure that you have enough to eat, or firewood for heat, others who volunteer their washers and dryers when the power is out (which it was for about 24 hours) this is the real reason why i live here...i cant imagine what my life would be like without all these amazing people.

Gillian's 7th Birthday

Ok so i have girls....but we don't often get to do really girly stuff, so when Gilli said we could do a tea party birthday i thought what a blast!  Then i had to start planning it all and discovered the reason that my girls don't do girly stuff....i am horrible at it.  But i managed to persevere and we had a great time.  The girls did a fashion show with their baby dolls, we had little crustless sandwiches, spritz cookies that my mother made and tea.  My older girls and my niece were the servers, and they did an amazing job. The girls made tissue paper flowers for their craft and my husband (the candy man) made little cameo chocolates for Gillian's thank you's.  All had a great time and surprise, surprise, we all survived our very girly day.

i am sorry there are no pics....they will post later but currently the uploader is uncooperative and i have been trying to post since yesterday.

when to be quiet

i am known in my circle as the person who is going to tell you.  this means that there is an unspoken rule, 'don't ask me, if you don't want to know'.  now i am not cruel and i do not necessarily express my opinion if i am not asked for it but when i am asked when do i remain silent?  a recently divorced girl friend asked me about a guy she met online and i didn't hesitate to tell her, this particular person was a bad idea.  now don't get me wrong, i am sure he is nice, but i am a firm believer that if you divorce someone there is a reason and you shouldn't start dating his clone (looked similar with similar personality traits).  so i told her.  but i have another girlfriend who is currently experiencing a medical crisis during a pregnancy and i truly love J, but when asked my opinion i kept it to myself.  i felt that this situation it wasn't my place to influence.  so my question, did i let her down?  i hope not, but all the same, somethings are just not your business.

is it fall?

before

after

now i know that most of the northeast is suffering under some kind of arctic blast but out here in california we are unseasonably warm.  now dont get me wrong, we have had some cold weather, we actually had 3 feet of snow the week of thanksgiving (which resulted in a 5 day power loss and some very creative cooking strategies for the big day) but now we are sitting in the 40's and 50's daily and spent our weekend raking and burning.  now this usually gets done in september and october and believe me i did my fair share then, but the early snows caught us all unaware and the trees hadnt finished dropping their leaves.  so after two weeks of good weather
that allowed all the leaves on the ground to dry, we spent saturday finishing the yard clean up.  although i am grateful for some sunshine i am worried about the lack of rain and snow.  so now that everything is finished, bring it on mother nature.

fabulous friday!

i love friday!  i know everyone loves friday,  but i am not sure that they love friday for the same reasons.  it's not because its the end of the work week, as i don't work outside of my home.  it's not because i want to go out and party on friday nights, as i am no longer 20 or single.  the truth is i love friday because my girls love friday, they wake up happy, they have a great attitude in the morning while they get ready for school and they always hug me on their way out the door.  just the mere words, "it's friday" holds promise for them, no homework, no chores, friday is the gateway to the weekend and around here that means fun.  sleepovers, dinners with friends, playing outside, or just having a jammie day.  their enthusiasm for friday is downright contagious and apparently i've caught the bug.  friday is fabulous!

leash training

aisy, gilli and i did some leash training with harley down at the school today. this is something that requires persistence and patience both of which we exercised in abundance.   we were less than successful.  however, we did teach him something...




                                                                        how to drink out of the drinking fountain.


















we were pretty impressed that he could master the fountain so we had a little play time.





guess we'll have to try again with the leash training.

party planning

i am the mother of 4 so this is not my first rodeo when it comes to party planning, however i realized the other day that this is the last 7 year old birthday that i will plan.  my baby turns 7 at the end of this month and although her first birthday i had the realization that i would never have a 1 year old again, i brushed it aside and didnt think about it again. but for me 7 isnt a baby anymore.  this is when they truly start making some of their independent choices, like soccer vs dance, this friend vs this friend, chocolate vs vanilla, anyway you get my meaning.  the crux of all this rambling is that i feel like this birthday party should be special so i have been giving it a great deal of thought.  gilli would like a sledding party and so we discussed all the ways that we can make that great it will be a bust if we dont get some snow in the next 2 weeks. so we had to have an alternative and her idea was to have her little girl friends come over and we would have a baby doll party.  her friends can bring their favorite dolls and we will fabric paint some baby t shirts and they can have a fashion show and a tea party.  if by chance we get some snow we are thinking a snowman theme for the cake and we will do sledding, and have hot cocoa.  any ideas would be welcome for the tea party cake.

the rest of the zoo

quick update on our leash training.  'sigh'  harley totally has the heel and sit commands down.  but is not so good with the turning and only comes when there are treats involved.  of course, this means that i am constantly running around with milk bones in my pocket.

now on to something that was brought to my attention.  i need to introduce you to the human inhabitants of the zoo.
j, my husband of 12 years, we met in korea while serving in the army.  he is a big guy, and by that i don't mean fat, i mean big, big arms, big chest, big shoulders.  he makes friends everywhere he goes and truthfully it is just hard not to like him. at least the at home him, as he is a sergeant for the dept of corrections and i would imagine that jay is not so nice.


joey, is my 11 year old tween.  she is blond, beautiful and completely an out of the box thinker.  she is artistic and has the best imagination.  she paints, she sings, she writes stories.  she is also athletic, basketball and softball are her  sports. joey is friends with everyone, she is like her dad in that you cant help but like her.  she is one of the most compassionate children i have ever encountered.











aisy, is a dancer.  she has been dancing for 6 years and since she is only 9 that means more than half of her life.  she is a beautiful, brunette, quick witted and incredibly sensitive.  she can be shy, sometimes moody and she can be very driven.  she does amazing in school but she is the most concrete thinker, everything is black and white, there are no shades of gray is aisy's world

gilli, she is the baby of our family, soon to be 7 and in the 2nd grade.  quite frankly she is bright.  she started kindergarten a year early and has done very well in school.  but if i had to describe her in one word, gilli is a pistol.  she has a mouth on her and unfortunately she inherited my birth defect, her brain-to-mouth filter is non functioning.  kids think of her as honest, but grown-ups tend to think of her as a smart ass.  she also dances but she doesn't take it quite as seriously as her sister, for her its just fun. did i mention that she's a red head?








now you have met the all of the family that lives in our home.  i do have a grown daughter, b, and a granddaughter, a, that live elsewhere and you will undoubtedly hear about them from time to time. both are amazing, b, is a graduate of UT, a professional nanny that has worked for some very wealthy people in NYC, well traveled and a fabulous mom. a, is a 13 month old baby genius (she is starting to use a pottie chair already so that qualifies, right?).  also within a one mile radius of us, lives my folks (across the street) and my sister, her husband and their 4 children so they no doubt will enter into this at some point.

happy saturday!

the game is a foot

"the game is a foot" or should i say "the game is on four feet" harley and i are going to start leash training. now don't get me wrong, harley has been on a leash for most of the last 3 months however we are starting official obedience training. we were brought to this point by the fact that harley doesn't want to come when i call him. he wants to do what he wants to do! the problem is that harley has a great sad face (and as we all know by the fact that fitz lives in my house, i am a sucker for the sad face) so he seems to get away with a lot. due to the fact that i am hardly a tough disciplinarian i decided to look up obedience training on the web and came up with a great site that breaks it down for you into steps that even i think i can follow. i have also watched my fair share of the dog whisperer although i don't have Cesar's innate abilities some of his tips seem to be working for me. i will post about harley and my progress here and let you know about some of our pitfalls as well.

http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com/

meet the zoo

meet the zoo.

bandit, 12 year old, black lab/? mix, he is the most beloved member of the family and definitely the king of the castle.

mischief, 5 year old, rescue kitty, we got her from the shelter when she was a kitten. she gets into trouble regularly hence her name.

fitz, 18 mo old, rescue kitty, that came home one day from the grocery store (i have 3 little girls at home and they have the best sad faces ever).

tango, 9 year old, cockatiel, who can say pretty bird, and whistle songs, but chooses instead to do medleys of his own choosing that appear to most to be unrecognizable.

so as not to offend any of the fish population we do have a rather large gold fish in my 6 year old's room, but his name changes at her whim and the only interaction i have with it, is that i feed it every night at bedtime and clean it when it gets too green in the tank. and last but not least...

harley, our 4 month old ?/? mix, that we rescued at 5 weeks old. the speculation has been that he is everything from a lab/shepherd to a bernese mountain dog.

so now that you met the zoo come back and visit us again soon!