Monday, May 14, 2007

All of this gorgeousness is a five minute walk from the shop. This is one of the beautiful things in my crazy life:

Mother's Day 2007

I have such thoughtful and creative kids!! (I can brag here because it's my blog and it's all about me!!) They surprised me with a Mother's Day video. They spelled out MOM with their bodies and wished me a Happy Mother's Day. They also made coupon books for me to redeem when needed. Very sweet!!

At church this morning, there was a special time of dedication for the Ritchie family. They are very important to the life of this church and very much appreciated. Gil and Louise stood up for them as "mom" and "dad" and blessed them. Shawn talked about the importance of the church family standing in support of them and being a family to them and their children. It was a good reminder of how important it is to me to be a part of a loving and accepting church family.

Lori ran sound (and did a great job!!!) and took these 2 pictures from the balcony. Rob was able to play ok but was in quite a bit of pain. He needs to go to the doctor so he doesn't end up with permanent damage!!!


After church we went to Municipal Park for a picnic with my side of the family. We had lunch and played a game of Bocce Ball. It's a great game that everyone can play and even the youngest kids can win a round once in awhile.

I love this picture of my dad with the four grand kids walking back from the playground:

My mom, my sister, Gloria and me:

This is a picture of all the moms at the picnic (except Gloria, of course!). Pictured L to R is Carol (Shelly's husbands brother's significant other), Me and Gloria, Shelly (my sister), Karen (my mom) and Rena (Shelly's mother-in-law). I don't think Rena cared to have her picture taken but we didn't give her a choice!!

After the picnic we headed to another park to celebrate Mother's Day with Rob's mom and family as well as my little niece's' 2nd birthday.

The kids had fun chasing M. around this great playground:

We went back to Rob's parents house to open gifts and eat again. She is such a cutie!!!

When we got home, Rob went to work on a bunch of home projects that have been neglected for a long time. He and Zach mowed and cleaned up in the back yard, we moved everything out of the garage/family room and laid carpet (HUGE job) AND he hung the blinds on the back window that Gil and Louise gave me about a year ago. It was a lot of work, but very satisfying to sit back and admire our accomplishments!! It was a very nice Mother's Day.

Saturday at the Y

When Gloria took swimming lessons over Spring Break, she recieved a "full facility pass" for herself and 4 friends to the YMCA at some future date. That date turned out to be today!!

She especially wanted to go off the high dive, so we went to the West Y. This was the first time I've seen her do this, so it was a lot of fun. I'm more resolved than ever to get her on a swim team. She's a great little swimmer:


There were 3 boys and 3 girls and most of the time they played really well together. I'm not exactly sure what Gloria's problem was in this picture!!


I love this picture:


I think everybody had a good time:

After swimming, I took everybody home and went to the church to practice. Gary set up the sound and we had a really quick and easy run through. Rob hurt his finger pretty bad on Wednesday playing soccer, so I'm hoping he'll be able to play the piano tomorrow.

And then. . . I saw the future. Rob had been keeping an eye on a spool of cable at the auction off and on all day and so we went to the auction after practice to see how close they were to start the bidding on the ONE thing he needed. When we got there, I wandered off to the other end to see if there was anything interesting over there and when I came back, I found this:

That's Rob in the middle in the blue and gray. He is surrounded by buckets and boxes and tubs of gazillions of nuts and bolts and fittings and you-name-it. He seemed to be the expert on all of this stuff and the auctioneer was getting the auction description based on Rob's assessment. That's when I knew I was seeing the future. When Rob is 65-70, he'll be spending all of his time at the auction: sitting in his lawn chair with his John Deere hat, his auction number prominently displayed in the hat band. . . bidding on things he'll never use, but will love to possess. . . but at least he'll be out of my gray hair every Saturday!!!

He did win his cable for a really good price and just couldn't help himself at $2/box for these rusty nuts and bolts:

Friday, May 11, 2007

Gloria went to the zoo this morning with grandma and grandpa and my 2 year old neice. It was a special treat and she had a great time. She got back to the shop shortly after lunch and she and Zach spent some time drawing:

Once again we were home for the evening. My sister called to see if she and Ethan could come by and bring us all dinner. It was very fun just hanging out with her. Zach gave Ethan a bunch of Pokemon stuff which was such a bonus!! We had dinner AND got rid of stuff!!!

Gloria loves my sister. She hung on her for most of the visit. I don't think Shelly minds. . . much.

May 10, 2007

We had our last ISATs today at the resource center. We have been part of a charter school for the last three years and I made the decision not to enroll again next year. We'll be back on our own. Yay!! The first two years were great but this year was very oppressive. Next year they are "tightening the reins" even more and while I understand why they have to do this, it just isn't the right educational choice for our family. We're all very happy with our decision.


We don't officially "do" school on test days, but the kids are often involved in "educational activities" anyway. They made these drawings while I was off helping Rob. I had to copy them since they gave the originals to grandma. The first two are Gloria's:


By Zach:





Rob is running sound tonight for a gospel-opry group. He's using the existing sound system in a newer high school and it has a few problems. I spent a little bit of time helping him, but he is mostly on his own. (Note to Lori- this is the same gospel group we ran at the Nazarene church last year. Rob told me he was going to call you to come and help him because he knows how much fun it was for you last time!!!)

Rob's mom and dad came and picked up the kids for a movie night with their cousins. I had the whole house to myself for the whole evening. It was lovely.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Gloria's had a very slight cold/allergy thing going on for a couple of weeks. Nothing major- just a clear drippy nose, a dry cough and lots of sneezing. I've mostly chalked it up to spring allergies. The last two nights, however, she was awake for a good portion of the night with a very stuffy nose. Children's Benedryl, motrin and Vics Vapo Rub didn't even touch it. When she got up this morning she said that when she coughs it feels like someone is ripping the skin off of her throat. Ouch! She also complained that her ears were plugged up so I decided to call the doctor. We already had an orthodontist appointment scheduled so we barely made it to that (way too early- 11:00 a.m.!!) After two sleepless nights it was difficult getting around this morning. Both kids did fine at the orthodontist and Zach got a pretty good report on taking care of his teeth. Not a great report, but Dr. Gold is very picky (think Simon on AI) so when he says "You're doing better" it's a great compliment. From there we went to Walmart for popsicles because it's a given at our house that you get to choose your favorite frozen treat when you're sick. We splurged and had Blimpies for lunch and headed home. I was hoping to have a really productive day working on the garage but we were lucky we got some school work and some paper work done before heading out to see Dr. Mike. I had a feeling he would say it was just a viral infection rather than bacterial, but I was hoping he would have a cure so we could all get some sleep tonight. He did placate us with some decongenstant chewable tablets and some nose spray, so I have hope that sleep will come quicker and will last longer tonight. The afternoon and evening disappeared somehow and suddlenly it's 11:00 p.m. I did manage to play a game with the kids after dinner so at least I have that to prove I accomplished something today!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

A couple of months ago, I got a phone call asking if I would be available to sing at the commencement ceremony for the local George Fox continuing ed program. It's not like my name's "out there" and people are knocking the door down to hear me sing- the person in charge wanted someone from a local Friend's church and called BFC. Sheryl graciously recommended me, hence the call. I decided it would be fun to have a quartet of Quaker women sing with me, so I called a few other people and tonight we had our first official practice. The kids had fun playing outside while the women sang inside. It was really nice to sing again. . .

Later, at home, the neighbor kids came over and played awhile.

I've enjoyed a couple of uneventful days and relaxing evenings this week.

May 7, 2007

I went to lunch with Victoria today. She is such an amazing woman. We had a nice time chatting and catching up on stuff. I just love spending time with her and plan to make it happen more often.

Yes, this is Gloria. . . soaking up the sun. . . inside. . . Don't ask.

The kids had a couple of hours to play with friends again tonight. By bedtime, they were both ready to relax and settle down with a movie.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Today was a pretty laid-back day. The kids and I went to church in the a.m. and then went to lunch with Rob at Chapalas. I spent a good part of the day cleaning and organizing the shop- it needs it desperately. We were still home at a decent hour and both kids went down the street to play. Zach has been venturing out into the neighborhood more often these days to hang with the neighbor kids. They are all younger than he is, but they really like it when he plays.