Camera uploads

Also on my Weekend List was for Brian to teach me how to upload pictures from our new camera to Picasa. My mother in law had talked me through it Sunday night, so I decided to give it a shot on my own yesterday (or Friday night, the days are blurring together already). It was just as easy as she had said it'd be.

I'm going to try to take some random shots of our days to post along with the boring text. Perhaps it will be easier to stay on top of things that way.

Also on the Weekend List is for Brian to show me how to save and import the pictures from other people's albums and from our e-mail. I know this isn't super difficult, but it does require him teaching me.

The list is growing shorter and longer all at the same time. There are so many things that need to be done and as we finish one project, I come across another that needs to be added.

Our master bedroom ceiling fan started squeaking horribly this week. So after exhausting all efforts to 'fix' it, we broke down and bought a new fan yesterday. Brian spent the better part of this morning installing the new fan. He did a great job and I'm looking forward to using the 'remote' that came with it.

Introducing,

My new sneaker!

I put new sneakers on my Weekend List and I finally got over to Famous Footwear 1 hour before closing. I hate trying on shoes even more than I hate trying on clothes, so this was NOT a fun trip. I arrived armed with socks and I immediately got busy. I knew I needed to not even pay attention to the color or how hideous they looked. I simply needed a sneaker to walk in and go to the gym in that would be comfortable. I am VERY big on comfort and I haven't had a comfortable sneaker in years. I tried on several different pairs and brands. I finally settled on two and had to decide between them, without letting color or cost be the deciding factor. I tried them with socks and with just the 'footie' nylon, since I really prefer to go sockless. After 45 minutes of intense scrutiny, I finally decided on this pair. I'm actually quite excited for it to cool off so I can go test them out tonight. They are really squishy, comfy and they aren't too tight around my foot, nor does my toe rub.

I then headed over to Home Depot to pick up paint for Ciera's room. I'm thrilled that she finally decided on a color and am debating whether to get started right away or wait a week until they are out of school. Just a few years ago I could go crazy and paint all night, but my body just doesn't quite care for that type of abuse anymore. It takes me much longer to recover when I mistreat it.

Totally off topic, but has anyone seen the new Jonas Brothers show on Disney? It's playing in the background and I happened to catch parts of it last weekend as well. I'm not sure whether it's really neat that they are doing such a 'down to earth kid' show or totally creeped out by it. I Fell In Love With the Pizza Girl is not one of their better songs.

Got Milk?

I typically don't post the same thing on both blogs, but I have difficulty deciding which things belong where. This seems to belong in both. I get a little 'crazy' excited when I see all the milk I've been able to freeze. It keeps me very optimistic that there will be enough to get the babies through their first year.
I forgot to take the before picture. This is my empty freezer that had 22 days worth of milk in it this morning. Each shelf holds about 40lbs of milk. I believe there are about 112, 16 oz bottles. I'm filling 4.5-5 bottles per day.
The bottom two pictures are the chest freezer my mom brought over this afternoon so I can store the milk easier. I'm a little surprised that it's almost full already. I can probably fit 4-5 more days worth of milk in it. I should have enough room to store the milk until mid to late June. Hopefully by then STE has more room in her freezers.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Even after completing so many of my list items, there was still time for some trampoline fun.
The net is in the way, so it makes the pictures look really 'dotty', but you get the idea.
Brian stands on the patio and throws the football into the trampoline. Typically the kids have to 'fight' against each other to get the ball.
Fun times!

Catching up, again

I'd been doing a great job of walking my 30 minutes- 1 1/2 miles per day up until this last weekend. With the heat and softball there was no way I was going to get out and walk, although I did bring my beat up sneakers just in case (I still haven't gotten to Famous Footwear to try and find a new pair).

So on Monday I had some making up to do. I walked Monday morning and Monday night. The dog is so happy to take these walks with me, although I still haven't been able to get anyone else to walk with me. I made a trip to Costco for more bottled water and some other necessities, like milk. The kids have started drinking milk like crazy. Ciera had a lesson that night and I finished up the unpacking and laundry from our trip.

Tuesday it all finally hit me. I dropped the kids off at school and went back to bed. I woke up feeling SO much better. I got in a double walk that day as well.

Ciera's class went on a field trip to John's Incredible Pizza on Wednesday. It wasn't entirely educational, but it was an end of the year trip for the 6-8 graders. The kids had a great time. Brian now gets to pick his furlough day, so he spent the day at his mother's, helping her get the yard ready for open pool season. Then he and Logan headed to basketball practice. Once again, I got in 2 walks and am getting faster every day (maybe every week is more accurate).

Thursday I got my morning walk in the morning while it was still cool. I spent most of Thursday in Ciera's classroom finishing up some typing for her teacher. Ciera had practice that evening. I had hoped to walk the track while she was at practice, but it was just too warm still. So I walked around 8:45 at home once it cooled down.

Friday I was up at 5am to pump and decided to stay up. I got in my walk at 6:30 when it was nice and cool. I was a bit surprised to see so many people out walking or running at that hour. There's hardly anyone at 9am. I was feeling very ambitious since I was up and moving so early. I grossly underestimated how long it would take to do everything and ended up rushed by 10. I got laundry done, dishes done, cupcakes baked for Logan's class, pumped again, showered and was out the door at 10:45 to pick up pizza for Logan's class party. We are definitely celebrating the end of this school year!

Logan had a few friends over after the minimum day. They seemed to have quite a bit of fun on the trampoline, playing with the hose and water guns. By 4:30 they had all gone home and Ciera and I headed out to get a jump start on my Memorial Day Weekend List. I have so many things that I've been meaning to get done and just no time to do them. So I decided to list them all out so that we don't forget to do them while we're busy sleeping in. Brian is a little less enthusiastic about my list. Ciera and I got my Target returns done (some items I'd had since March), headed to Home Depot to get paint samples for her room and look at ceiling fans. Logan has been asking for a ceiling fan for 2-3 years and we never get around to doing it. Everyone else has a fan, I think we need to make it a priority this summer. We also stopped by the AT&T store to look at phones. The kids would both really like a phone to text, but we just can't seem to figure out how to go about doing it without spending an extra $60 a month. They both get about $20 for allowance and that's really as high as I'm willing to go for it. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of options for $20 a month. I have a very bare bones plan that meets my needs and offers a ton of minutes. I can't modify it at all and keep my minutes, so we're a bit stuck as to what to do. Someday we'll figure it out I'm sure. Ciera also thinks it's a tad unfair that she has to pay for it. So we may never do it.

Ciera has softball practice Monday afternoon and she still has to go out each day with her day, but we have no other obligations this long weekend. My nephew, Jackson, slept over Friday night, so Logan has been busy jumping on the trampoline and playing Wii with him.

It's still quite warm, although weather.com claims it will only be in the mid 80's this weekend. I'm optimistic that we can get a lot accomplished this weekend and still relax quite a bit as well.

I know, I know

I really left things hanging last week.

Most of the time I don't even think twice about putting all of my information out here for everyone to see and then there are times that I have a bit of paranoia, like last Friday. I started to write about us being gone to Stockton all weekend and the fabulous deal we got through Priceline, but then paranoia hit. What if was telling someone to feel free to come rob my house since we'd be gone from Saturday to Sunday night? Are burglars really reading through all of my mundane tales, just to know when my house will be empty? Probably not, but you never know. It's just like the cars that will park across the street from our house and just sit there. They are probably just parked in the shade, near the park, enjoying their lunch or making a call. But every now and then I think someone is staking out our house to become familiar with our habits and that any day now someone is going to come try to rob us. Paranoia or perceptive?

We received game times for Ciera's weekend tournament on Wednesday night. They were going to have to be at the field in Stockton at 7am, which meant we'd have to leave home by 5:15 and Sunday's game times would also be early. So Ciera and I decided to try to get a room. Priceline here I come! I was able to get a room about 15 minutes away from the field for only $44 a night. When we arrived Friday night, we were both SO pleased! It's was a beautiful, new Best Western. The water pressure was amazing and they had pillow top mattresses with soft blankets! Since my neck had just finally started feeling better from our last hotel stay in Fresno, I was thrilled with our Priceline outcome. Since we got such a great deal, we decided to stay Saturday night as well.



Logan and Brian had a basketball game Saturday morning, so it was just me and Ciera on Friday night. We had a very nice drive down together and enjoyed a Panda Express dinner.

Saturday was an early morning, but we were thankful to not be playing in the late afternoon when it was 104. We were back at the hotel and in the pool by 3:30. The girls played great and won all 3 games on Saturday.

Brian and Logan made it to Stockton for our last game of the day on Saturday. Logan had played at 9am and since Brian is coaching he is the one that gets to go to all of the games. I was bummed to have not been there. I heard it was perhaps Logan's greatest game ever. He scored almost all of his team's points and he did a great job at point guard. He was aggressive and a team player. His team is still not winning much, but he's had a great time and really learned a lot. He's been applying things he's been taught before but never been confident enough to use in a game. I have to miss next weeks game too. I'm hoping Grandma or Papa will take some video for me though.

Sunday was another long and HOT day. The girls won their 9:45 game, but didn't play again until 2:15 (and really they didn't start until almost 3:15). The winner of the second game went on to the Championship game. The girls did a great job of hanging in there and not giving up, but ultimately the other team won. They had a girl hit it over the 205 fence and that about did us in. Ciera got to play 1st base during this game, which is why you can only see her feet in the pictures in the other post.

Logan kept busy playing with the other siblings. They got water guns and kept cool with them for awhile. They then got really spacey and started just squirting the ground. They had a ton of fun playing in the dirt and mud (a waste of good water gun water in my opinion, but it kept them happy).

We stopped by Grandma and Papa's to swim on our way home. I even got in with just my clothes on, it was THAT good! (I have since found a swimsuit). After cooling off a bit, I left the kids with Brian and I headed home to get unpacked and the laundry done. It was a long, hot weekend, but we all had a good time-and nobody robbed the house!

This is my excuse...

This is one of the many reasons why I just can't seem to finish updating the week.
I'm very aware of what a bad blogger I've been. I've thought about all the things we've been doing, but I just haven't had the time to actually record them. I will get caught up by the end of the 3 day weekend, but there's a ton of things on my 'mental list' to get done. We'll see if this makes it onto the 'finished list'.

Today was the last Friday of school and Logan's class got to have their FIRST party of the year. Their teacher bought them pizza and milk. She allowed me to bring in ice cream cone cupcakes and Capri Suns. We got to make "oobleck" (cornstarch and water-fun stuff) and have a water balloon relay.

Try to find my kid-it's much harder with the new hair cut.

Playing with his retainer. He claims he never does this, but here is picture proof.

Oh look, Logan's playing with his retainer AGAIN!! It's going to be a long summer with mom on 'retainer patrol'. (The green stuff is the oobleck).