Tis the season and a short vent

First off it's summer.. so yes it is time for swim suits. Unlike several of my friends I not just enjoy going to the beach, I actually enjoy getting wet there, as well as at pools. This year I've declared the need for a new suit. Yes last years(that's more than one year) suit still works (mostly) I deserve a 2nd functional suit.. I hit wal-mart tonight for other items and browsed. ummm.. people I've had 5 kids, I'm not wearing anything that doesn't cover ALL of my poor stretchmarked tummy. And WHO decided the little triangles for cups could get smaller???  After reading two other friends' blogs I've decided to hit Eddi Bauer.  I am lucky enough to have a store of theirs near my home. I have some time.. while our church beach bash is NEXT saturday the BIG event for the second swim suit is not until the beginning of August. I will celebrate 14 years of marriage that weekend, we are doing so by going to Catalina Island.  Parasailing, Scubadiving, Snorkeling, and assorted other activities of fun. We're saving a bit of funding by taking our bicycles with us for on island transportation.  I'm truly excited.. not just to get a "real" bathing suit, but to have a really fun place to wear it. hehe

Now my vent. I hit the P.O. as planned Wednesday when the time opened. I got there, waited 15mins. to be serviced, was informed I had an outdated form. While filling out the correct form another family came in. A very nice family, with 4 kids attempting to get passports, mom didn't speak fluent/clear english and there were issues. I waited, and waited. at 10:40 the employee informed me that he would not be seeing me at that time as he had to go to lunch. Excuse the $#@# out of me, I sat there for an HOUR waiting to be told sorry I have to go eat my pistrami on rhye. Needless to say I'm still pissy about it. And have not been able to get back there yet. I'm going to make every effort to do so tomorrow, BUT, my Darling Mom-in-law is picking up Drew at 10am. Drew is not fully packed.. and I learned this evening I have to follow Tim to the mechanic and take him to the car rental place as his cars' brakes are seizing.  UGH!!!!  And finally, I still have no clue who is going to care for my 4 children while I go to Ireland in 4 months.. that's not that far away. I am getting anxious about that.

Everything works out..in the end

We had a playdate scheduled this morning, it's been postponed. While a huge bummer, I'm going to take advantage of the freed time. I'm heading to the post office in about 10minutes to put the paperwork in for my passport.

The rest of the day should be VERY interesting, I signed up to be a room mom/chaperone for Beth's ballet class for TONIGHTS' show. Not remembering that would include my participation in this afternoons' dress rehersal. I hope the kids are good, as I'll be chaperoning Beth's class WITH Tori, Katie, and (heaven help us) Drew, in tow.  Betcha I don't get asked to room mom again. LOL.Seriously I am thinking the teacher forgot I have  3 other kids, and noone would be here to watch them. It will be interesting. Tim will watch the kids for the show tonight, we'd already planned that.

Last night was C's dd's show followed by Beth's show. Both were well done, but I must say that Beth's was more entertaining. The first show was all the jazz and tap groups and it was a piecemeal of all the different groups doing their own dances.  Beth's show was a "story" as most ballets are. They did Yellow Brick Road (wizard of oz) it was really well done!  Beth did fantastic, but um, when did she get so tall?? she's at least 3 heads above the other dancers in her class. She's nearly as tall as 2 of the girls in the highschool class. WOW!

Ok.. time to go get me ready to get out of here.

a complete Success!!!!

Tori's party was a ball. The girls had tons of fun on the boat. I heard from a few girls the it was the best Party they'd ever been to.  We got there a bit late, so extended our time to a 90min. ride. The girls fired pretend cannons at passing boats and we "overtook" several other boats that surrenedered to the Pink Pixie Pirates. hehe.

Then we came home for a follow the clues that lead to the pinata (it almost worked), they got through the clues faster than the pinata got up, but it was good enough.  They enjoyed it. The pinata was fun, (a treasure chest) the kids each got a turn, then Tori took a second try, and then Tim tore it open. :o)

We had cake and ice cream, and Tori opened her presents and the kids started going home. It was a marvelous day for our Pixie. 

After the bbq-ing was done we gave the kids a bathes, and tucked them in, and I went and took a lovely hot bath, and crashed!!!! Today we're going to the pub to hear Gypsies Kiss with the kids. Mom and Dad are bringing cupcakes. Should be a second half of a super celebration!!!

 

and for the record, that interview I did, turned out to be rather interesting. If the offer comes through I just might take it. :o)

The next 72 hours.. +/- a few

I have a lot happening, again.  3pm today an interview, this will sound funny, but I don't want the job. I'm doing the interview for "practice" for when THE job I want comes around, I'm ready with killer interview skills. Then tonight I'm 'hobnobbing' with the junior chamber of commerce organization at a mixer. I hope to practice my skills at social conversation/small talk that takes me outside the realm of 4 kids and how to best make meatloaf for 12 when noone is going to be home from 8am-5pm. hehe.

Tomorrow, my Katie-bug will "graduate" from kindergarten. YAY BUG!!!! It's the last day of school for all the kids, and a momentous one as our co-op with C and her kids is officially done. Her kids will go to their dad's on Monday after a dance recital, and then we won't see them again until August, when C will be done moving.  To celebrate, as is traditional here, we'll do lunch at Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow (plastic pizza anyone?).

Saturday is the party.. we are all ahead full, hehe. We have food stuff, drink stuff, and bbq for the after the party, party.  The boat is ready, the decorations are ready. The invites are out, that the recipients are actually coming (mostly, we have 5 girls) out of 8 invites that's pretty good!!!

 

ahhhhhh

So my hubby left Sunday morning, so I've been a single mom all week. Let me tell you, this is NOT something I'm ready to do on a regular basis!!!! while I'm enjoying some parts of the experience, overall I miss Tim. Sunday night wasn't too bad, as the kids were all exhausted and my dad and mom were here and helped me get the girls settled, Beth, Drew and I hung out for a bit then we went to bed, I laid with Drew. Monday night was the worst, though the kids were all tired none wanted to sleep. Tori didn't want Katie in her bed, Katie couldn't possibly sleep "alone"  Beth wouldn't go to bed, and Drew was exhausted and napless which for him means WILD and MEAN.  I finally got all 3 girls into bed and after a major battle, took Drew to my bed. Last night was good!! The girls shared bed, Beth went with little argument, and I laid with Drew on Katie's bed, and didn't fall asleep while he did! While I didn't take my bath, I will tonight, because Tim's home!!!  This morning I'm going to hose off and "soaplessly" wash my mom's car. She can't do a real wash for 90 days due to body work that was done on it, but it's FILTHY!!! I'm happy to do it for her, it's good exercise. After that she and I will pick up all my kids, take Beth to the orthodontist, and then go get the last of the goodies needed for Tori's party. and oh is she up in arms, I'm surprising her. She knows it's her party but she doesn't know ANYTHING about what we're doing. I just keep telling her it's going to be the "best pixie party ever" I sure hope she agrees.

During the day Monday and yesterday I enjoyed doing some laundry (yes I enjoyed doing it, as I wasn't trying to squeeze it in between reading and writing papers) and read (a magazine!!) I took Beth and Tori to the library last night and picked up a book for me and Tori, Beth got 10 books.. she's reading the entire Hardy Boys series. She's on book 25, she'll read these 10 books in about 12 days, actually less, as she'll have reading time during the day next week. I love that!!! Tori got a chapter book, the Mystical Beast.. we're going to read it together, most likely with Katie. I got a Nora Roberts book that I've not yet read. I need more authors, I like adventure/romance. No hot steamy nasty sex, but some good love, and no major suspence or horror.  Any ideas, post a comment. :o)

All done.

The ceremony was fantastic, the party was AMAZING.. and now I'm tired. LOL.  Sunday was father's day, so of course, I spent the day with my father. DH was out of town, so sadly we didn't get to play with him as well. The kids and I went to the L.A. Roadster show with my dad and his friend (from boy scouts, 50 years ago) "Uncle" Joe. The man is a saint and gave my girls shoulder rides most of the day!!!

Next Saturday is Tori's 8th birthday party.. a Pixie Pirate party. Now if only I'd remembered to mail the invites last week like I was supposed to do. Dammit. I hope we still have some guests. We've rented a Duffy (that's a boat) to take the girls on a harbor cruise before the party part. Which will consist of decorating their pirate hats, sword fighting, and a treasure hunt to the pinata.  If we've still time after all that I've got bubbles and sidewalk chalk. :o)

At least the house is still clean from my party. So I don't have MAJOR cleaning to do for this party. :o)

 

It begins

I'm running for school board, so I'm attending tonights meeting to start getting a better hands on feel for what are the hot topics are for the board members, I know what they are for the teachers and other staff.  I'm also giving a letter requesting endorsement of my candidacy to two organizations that will be represented tonight.

In other news, Beth started phase II of  orthodontia (braces) she's got brackets on bottom as well as top now. she goes next week for spacers to put the wire-holding peices on her molars. And she has to have 4 teeth pulled, as does Tori, whom I took a couple months ago.... I'm calling tomorrow to see if I can get both girls in for the extractions on the same day.  My poor babies. What a way to start summer have teeth pulled and get braces.

Tomorrow is Drew's last day of speech therapy for the school year, I'm going to stop tonight and pick up a gift card for a bookstore for the speech "teacher" she's done an amazing job working with Drew!!! I'm very very happy with how far he has come!!!

Ok.. time to serve dinner.

 

OHMYGOD...oh my god.. oh... oh..

I'm DONE!!!!!!!!!!!! My final, final exam was monday. I'm done.. I've finished my degree!!!!!!!!  I'm done I'm done I'm done. I'm only a little excited.  Ok.. I'm floating.. and it's only going to increase with the approaching ceremony and party!!! :oD

Now someone come play with my son, who is a doll, and a love, and is un-doing all the cleaning I've done. Sigh~

 

I'm DONE!!!!!!!! ;o)

Two yays and a two grrrrsss

Katie received an award at school today. Teachers' choice award for Excellence in story writing. :o)  I ditched school so I could attend the assembly and take the appropriately obnoxious number of pictures of the kid. :o)

Then I pick the kids up after school to discover that Victoria received her white ribbon for reading... um, WHY did her teacher not let me know??? I could have easily made my schedule to include both assembies. GRRR. Victoria has worked rather hard to get this ribbon, she had to read 750 pages throughout the year, while that's not much to some, when you've got a kid who spent the first 1/2 of the year not able to read "go dog go" pull off 750 pages and be READING books, YAY!!!

The second Grrr, is that when I picked up Beth she informed me that she had no lunch today. Due to some idiot student pulling the fire alarm. They had to evacuate the building, reset the alarm, and then restart the food-line. Beth got to the half way point to the door when they closed the line, out of food. WTF!? I've written an email to the prinicipal. Hopefully I'll get a satisfactory response. In the meantime I fed my kid a double meat / cheese sandwhich and then she ate the leftover 1/2 of my moms' cheeseburger from lunch, and her cookie for snack. I don't think she'll starve to death.

Other than that, my life is boring..it's all about cleaning, and a little studying for school.  BUT, I must tell T. that your youngest must have mind-linked with my youngest, as Drew took ALL the books out of the bookshelf in my living room as well. LOL.. took us 30mins. to get them all back, but we had him help. hehe

Well...

It is MY blog.. so deal with me. I got my cap and gown today!!!! Between that and the cards coming in congratulating me, I'm getting really excited.  It's very surreal.. I keep thinking I've somehow snuck through, and they'll catch me right at the end, and say oh wait, no.. you didn't do ___.  And they'll not let me graduate. Reality is I've already done a final check with my counselor and there isn't anything left but to finish the current class, which I will do next Monday when I take the final exam. :o)

Last night was a blast, we saw our friend play at the pub, he was celebrating a promotion to Sargeant II in the LAPD, Very cool!!!  Got to see several friends we'd not seen in a while, and visit with them!!! Something we don't get to do enough of.

Ok.. back to reality, I have to go find a room, or two, as getting this house ready for my party is a must do.

 

The countdown begins..

So as not to totally bore ya'll to tears, I won't do it daily.. but right now I have.. 13 days until I graduate!!!!! nope I'm not excited, not me, not one bit. (HA!!!)

the weekend has been fun, and lazy, which is nice.  Friday we went out. yesterday, we melted here. Today was church, and tonight Tim and I are going to the pub to celebrate a friend's promotion to Sargeant II in the police force. :o)  One of my dear friends had her baby last night, and I've gotten all the color-laundry washed. it's neither folded nor put away. But it's washed!!! The rest will happen in a bit. I only have one load of whites, and I'm caught up! YAY!!!!  Then I can focus more on getting the clutter out of here!!! Time to get really serious about getting this place spruced up. So off I go. hehe.

 

Hot enough??

according to AOL's welcome screen it's 81* in my town... it's Hot that's all I know. With no A/C in our house it's hotter than I'd like. We do have a lovely breeze, and the fans are on.. but I'm still too warm. whine whine.

So last night DH and I headed to a concert. WAY fun, we saw Sligo Rags, the Merry Wives of Windsor, and The Fenians. Much dancing was done by my friend C. and I.. enough that my feet hurt today.

We're having a quiet, at home day. We don't have many of these. So I'm enjoying this one fully. :oD

Laundry, light cleaning, and bbq for dinner.