Happy Birthday to my SUPERGREAT Sister!

For 4 glorious days each year, I am the same age as my sister. I am quick to remind her of this every year. Karen is a Halloween Baby and says she always loved getting to trick-or-treat AND celebrating her birthday. Karen and I are extremely close. We have never, ever really fought over anything. We have always been each other's best friend. I am so lucky to have my sister. When I had Rose, I hoped that David would have been a girl so she too would have a close sister like I have. Then when I had David, I wished Joey would be a boy so they would be close. Rose never got her sister, but fortunately, she does have her cousin Madeline right around the corner, and they are really as close as many sisters. Karen's birthday has changed a little since we both had kids. Now we take the kids out trick-or-treating, then we celebrate her day. It makes for a long, but fun night. My Mom stayed at Karen's to hand out candy while we were out with the kids. We all headed back to their house to celebrate Karen's birthday with Mom after all the tricks were played, and treats were collected. The kids love the fact that they get to trick-or-treat, then have birthday cake too. What a perfect night!

Happy 45th Birthday Karen, I love you!

Fight On and On Ye Aztec Men

Rose and I went with my sister Karen and her family to the San Diego State Aztec / BYU football game a few weekends ago. I figured it would be a lot of fun, plus the tickets were free. Rose has never been to a football game before, and since she would be with her cousins, I knew she would have fun. It happened to be Homecoming, which we had no idea. Karen and I were in the marching band at State for 4 years. They always invite alumni band members to come play with the band for homecoming.....but apparently they forgot to let us know when it would be. Come to think of it, they have never let us know...... hmmmmmm. Now I have to say, I was pretty lousy on the flute / piccolo, but Karen was REALLY good on the french horn / melaphone, so SHE should at least have been asked.

The Aztecs had a promising start, but in the end choked and gave the game away. There was a BIG BYU crowd, which is usually the case. In the end, it was a fun game. There wasn't a big half time show with the band as they did all the king and queen business, but they did get out on the field and played a little. This was a big disappointment for my nephew Owen who LOVES marching bands and all that comes with them. Rose and Madeline spent the game entertaining each other and could care less when Karen and I regaled them of days gone by spent in the Marching Aztecs. SNOOZE-O-RAMA, Mom! Just wait till YOU are the band geek, Rose!!

Mike Bittner

Could our faces be any shinier?

The packed stands

A really bad picture of the band in the stands. I had better seats when I was a band geek......

Silly Things

This is an entry for me, so can remember funny things that probably only I will laugh at.

The other day I turned on Disney Channel for David. The movie Happy Feet came on about the dancing penguin..... we have never seen it. David turns to me and says, "No, too penguin-y."

David loves the word 'beautiful.' Here are a few for-instances: We decorated our tree out front with orange lights and pumpkin lanterns for Halloween. He and I were looking at it after dark the first night and he said, "it's so beautiful." We went to visit my Dad at a convalescent care facility where he is currently rehabbing from back surgery. As we were leaving, he said "it's so beautiful here, why do we have to leave?"........... "Mommy, isn't it a beautiful day?" ........."Granna, your flowers are beautiful." It's so nice to hear him say it as he genuinely means what he is saying. He is such a sweet and thoughtful boy.

The neighborhood kids were out with sidewalk chalk drawing and writing riddles on the driveway....like: what do you get when you cross a river and a brook? ...wet. I was reading them all out loud the next day with Rose. There was one that got sort of washed off.... so I was reading it and asking Rose the punchline.....what is a whale's favorite thing to chew? She looked at me and said " I don't know, I can't read!"

Every morning when I carry Joey down the stairs as we hit each step he says "Ow... Ow.... Ow..." It's funny and sweet. When Rose was a toddler, whenever we would walk down the steps she would always say "Mommy, hold my hand".... I miss those days.

Joey is currently into adding the sound -ia to the end of a lot of words. My favorite is Mommia. He also pronounces popcorn as caw-corns. "Mommia, I want caw-corns." I know this is only something his mom would find adorable.

Mommy, Where do Babies Come From? Round 1

I say Round 1 as I KNOW we will probably go all 15 rounds before we are through......

2 days ago the boys and I were walking through Wal-Mart, what a shocker, when out of the blue David asked "Mommy, how did I get in your tummy?" David isn't even 4 1/2 yet. I laughed when he asked and asked him if he was serious. He said yes and I looked at the woman next to me who gave me a "well, good luck with that" sort of face..... Hmmmmmmmmm.............. "When a man and a woman love each other very much....." No, that won't do. "It takes a man and a woman to make a baby," I started. "A woman has an egg, and a man......" I was about to start talking about sperm when Thank GOD above Joey and David were in a major fight and all was forgotten about the topic. I even tried to stop the fight and bring it up again and David was just not interested. Off the hook for this time. On to round 2, whenever that is. Not this time, Sonny Boy, not this time....... BRING IT ON!!!

Don't tell Dave........ this is the day before I had Joey.

Teach Your Children Well............

Seems like they have eliminated just about all the extra (fun) programs in the local schools. So, may I announce my new, unpaid position of the Arts Attack instructor for Mrs. Garcia's kindergarten / 1st grade combo class!! (applause, applause, applause....) I was appointed to this prestigious position after back to school night where apparently I was the only parent (schmo) who showed any interest in volunteering to help. When I wrote down that I would help, I put a huge asterisk ...... I would do it contingent upon finding babysitting for the boys. I found out about my appointment to the thrown via a handout Rose brought home from school. Congrats to me! So, I have a big old notebook I'm supposed to read then teach the art lesson to the class. I'm supposed to teach them technique, composition, all about texture, space, shape and form, pattern....all sorts of things. This thick manual helps you to do all this, but apparently you need to READ the manual. I did my first lesson a few weeks back. The teacher told me the project she wanted me to do with the kids... have them paint a reproduction of Picasso's Hands with Flowers..... it's all in the manual. I was given the book just a few days before I was to teach this lesson, so I wasn't super prepared. I figured I would just go do it and then have a better idea of what I really should be doing for the rest of the school year. I also assumed that it would really be more like assisting Mrs. Garcia as it's her class. When I got to class to set up for the lesson, Mrs. Garcia informed me that I would be doing all the talking as well as instruction and that I should give a little background on Picasso. Um, excuse me? What did you just say? Fortunately there was a page in the notebook that had his history. Perhaps I should have read through the lesson plan a little more thoroughly before I went to class? This was apparently is a new program for Mrs. Garcia too as we both seemed to be winging it as we went along. In the end, it turned out pretty good and the kids all had fun. Rose was excited for me to be in the class. Kindergarten is a little different for her, I was a regular fixture at preschool. Not at all this year. She is already asking when the next art lesson will be. I might just read a little more before the next lesson. Who am I kidding, I will probably pull it out 5 minutes before I'm supposed to leave to go teach it!

One More Saturday Night....... aka. It's a Small World After All.......

Jeremy, Brian, Mo & Andy

So here is a story for you.... This is such a convoluted story, and sort of lengthy, so try to stay with me. Helene came down 2 weekends ago so Andy and I could go to see the Dark Star Orchestra....the best Grateful Dead cover band I have ever heard. If you aren't looking at the band, you would never know you weren't hearing the Dead. Anyway, we went to a bar called the Wave House in Mission Beach to hear them. The Wave House is a great place to see concerts. It's outside right next to the ocean. You stand on sand... it's just a fun venue. Now I'm going to back up about a month and a half. I was taking David to school and was talking to the Dad of the twins in his class, Kendal and Kayla. Jeremy, the Dad, is a dead head, so we talk music sometimes. I mentioned to him that Andy and I were going to see DSO in October. The date came closer and Jeremy was on again, off again going to the show. I offered for him to go to the show with us if he couldn't find anyone to go with. A couple of his friends decided to go a few days before the show, so I figured we would see him there. I told him we were meeting some friends there too. Now, that week before the show, Jeremy and I were both volunteering in the classroom on the same day. He started to tell me about his honeymoon cruise in 2004 and how it was really a bunch of older people who were no fun. At some point they were somewhere on the ship where dancing was involved and they spotted a couple of hippies dancing. They decided they needed to meet them, which they did...along with another hippy couple who was on the cruise with hippy dancers. They ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the cruise.

Saturday night came and we headed off to the show. We had a ticket to sell, and Andy sold it right near the door. It turned out the guy he sold it to was from Dix Hills on Long Island, 15 minutes from Woodbury where Andy lived. Had they had more time to talk, I know they would have found people they know in common. Forget about 7 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon, I think the whole U.S. is about 2 steps from Andrew Stitzer if you talk long enough. Seriously, he knows someone everywhere he goes. So when we were wrapping up our goodbyes with our new found friends we sold the ticket to, Andy turns and says "Hey Bill" to someone. Bill nodded his head and said "how you doing?" I turned to see which 'Bill' friend Andy was talking to. I turned to see I saw eye to elbow with Bill and looked up to see that it was Bill Walton. (Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego/LA Clippers and Celtics basketball star) I saw Bill at Target once 25-ish years ago. I think he was still with the Clippers. He and a buddy were looking for ice cube trays. Bill is a big dead head too. I had my camera with me, but not out, so I didn't get a picture. I was determined to snap a shot with him and looked for him the rest of the night, but to no avail. I would head to some part of the bar and ask if anyone had seen him and they would say yeah, he just headed that way...then I would head off that way and he would have just left... I never did find him again. For that, he would probably be grateful.

We planned to meet our good friend Ilena at the show. Ilena was Andy's babysitter growing up in Rockaway Beach, NY. They have always been friends and always will be. She is a HUGE dead head. We were also going to meet Brian and Mo (Maureen)....friends I first met at our wedding. They came to our reception after the dinner portion we had about a gazillion people there and couldn't possibly have invited a gazillion and 1, so they came after dinner along with Tom and Julie, another dead head couple, fun friends of Ilena and Andy. We had the Travel Agents play..... a GD cover band. (Andy and I both used to go hear them play long before we ever knew each other.) So back to the concert.... We went in and immediately found Jeremy and his 2 friends. We ended up hanging out with them all show. The band started playing and they were great. At some point Jeremy and I both headed to the bar. There were 2 bars and we both went to the same one, a few minutes apart. I was at the bar when I saw Jeremy stop to talk to some friends. I got my beer and went back with Andy. Jeremy came back after a little while and said to his friends that he had run into a guy he met while on his honeymoon cruise....one of the "hippy" people. I heard him say this and couldn't believe it as he had just told me the story a few days before. He went back to talk some more. What a small world! A little later I saw Jeremy talking to a friend he had brought back to where we were standing. Andy turned and said "isn't that Brian?" to which I said no, that's a friend of Jeremy's. Ilena finally found us and said hellos to all, including Brian, who was standing, talking with Jeremy. Andy was right, Jeremy was standing with our friend Brian. Mo was off visiting with some friends she knew there, and soon came along too and re-met Jeremy. So let me recap how small the world is. Jeremy told me a story of the hippys he met on his honeymoon in 2004. Jeremy had met our friends Brian and Mo and Tom and Julie. He never told me their names, so I didn't make the connection when he told me the story. He also didn't tell me they were from the area....they could have been from anywhere. Unfortunately, Julie died a few years ago. Tom wasn't at the concert, so Jeremy didn't get to see him. Andy met these 2 couples through Ilena and have been friends for years. It was a great night of good music, dancing and spending time with great friends.

It's a small world after all!

Ilena and Andy

Brian and Mo

Driving That Train.......

Rose was invited to go to a pumpkin patch with Lexie and Tyler a few weekends ago, so I took the boys over to Old Poway Park where they were having a Train Song Festival. They have built a new Train Depot in the park and this was the big debut. There were booths, arts and crafts, 2 stages with people singing "train songs"....very folksy (snoozer) stuff, the steam engine running around the park, and a nice model train display. We of course ran into Emily from David's class.....we see them all the time. Poway really is pretty small....plus her Grandparents live at the end of our street. The boys LOVED the model trains. We were in looking at that display for so long that we missed the last run of the train. The boys were disappointed, but we ride it pretty darn often so they didn't completely freak. It was a nice afternoon in the park with just the boys. I'm starting to have lots of time with just the boys, which is nice, but we all agree we are really starting to miss Rose now that she is in school full time. Rose even said she misses David....but that could have been a ploy to stay up longer one night. Helene came down that weekend too, which is always a pleasure! (Helene came down so Andy and I could go to a concert Saturday night.) I think Helene misses her too as Rose's dance card is usually full on the weekends these days with birthday parties and sleep-overs.

I'm a Little Girl Scout Short and Stout......

My sister and I were Girl Scouts when we were young, and went pretty far... Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes and then Seniors. If I remember correctly, we stopped just before High School. I remember it being a really good group to be involved in. It seemed like we did so many fun things. As an adult I can appreciate that when I was a kid, I was probably an A #1 GEEK, but I sure had a good childhood. I want Rose to experience all the fun things I did, so I signed her up for Daisies, the first rung on the GS ladder. Madeline has joined too, but they do it a little differently now and don't mix grades. The girls won't be in the same troop, but I know they will have a good time. I am a little disappointed that the very first thing the parents had to decide was whether or not we were going to start sell nuts right away as a fund raiser. The girls hadn't even had a meeting yet and we were already talking fund raising! I'd rather write a check and skip it, which is what I think we are going to do. Argh..... Anyway, Rosie is a little Daisy. I went to the Girl Scout Store to buy her uniform. When I walked in it was like a kid in a candy store! There was every badge ever, patches galore, shirts, hats, uniforms, handbooks, scrap booking supplies, dolls, you name it.....all Girl Scout themed. When I was a kid, we bought our supplies at the local JC Penny's. I think the leader's had to send away for badges as we earned them. I sure wish I had saved my uniforms. Wow, I sound like my parents...about how it was when they were kids. Anyway, I'm excited for Rose and all the great new things she will experience now that she has started school and is able to start joining different groups. Can't wait for her to start earning badges! Hell, perhaps I will just go back to that store and buy myself some badges and a sash and re-live my GS days!

The Pumpkin Patch

Ah, the best part of school...... substitute teachers and field trips! David's class went to Oma's Pumpkin Patch in Lakeside, CA 2 weeks ago. It was his first time on the big yellow school bus, and he loved it! Joey and I drove separately. We went last year with Rose's class too, and I was amazed when I saw how beautiful the drive out there is and area surrounding the farm. Makes me understand how people love country life. (But then I think about how far of a drive it would be to Wal-Mart, and think how lucky I am that I live right down the street.) You would really never know you are in San Diego if you were just dropped down to this place. The farm is great. They have TONS of games and fun for the kids, including a cotton seed hill the kids slide down on snow sleds. It was a beautiful day, maybe 65 degrees out. Last year when we went with Rose's class, we were in the middle of a heat wave and it was 102 degrees. Rose got jipped this time as she had school and didn't get to go......the downside of getting older! David picked out the first pumpkin he touched..... he doesn't waste time picking and choosing. We had a great time! As a side note, Rose had a sub for a few days last week. Her class is too young to actually to appreciate Ye Olde Substitute and play tricks. Well, I never actually did anything like that ever when I was in school, but on sitcoms, it's always HILARIOUS!

Top: (L-R) Ryan, Noelani, Thomas, Kai & Tommy

Front: Joey, Kendal, Kayla, Kai Leah, Lucas, David, Emily, Lana & Kyvia

Oldies but Goodies: These are from last year at the same pumpkin patch

A Stitch inTime Saves 9

David went from having a really great day to a pretty lousy one the next day. It all started the Saturday after he was Star Helper and we spent the perfect afternoon at the perfect park. My sister Karen and I took Rose and Madeline up to LA for a baby shower for my cousin Christine. Andy and the boys were going to meet us there after the shower so we could then go visit with our friends Mike, Iris, and their 1 1/2 year old daughter, Maya. We had been at the shower for about half an hour when Andy called to ask for some advice. "David bonked his head and is bleeding pretty bad...what would you do?" After going and back and forth for while, he decided to take David to Urgent Care to make sure he was alright. A few hours and 2 staples later, we canceled the trip to see Mike and Iris. Andy said the boys were exceptionally good at the office and David laughed when the doctor put the staples in, saying it tickled. He never once complained about the staples. They sent Andy home with a staple remover tool and told him to take the staples out in 10 days. I had the pleasure of doing that, and David never even flinched.

As a side note: Christine is prego with twins due in early December. Her sis, Shannon, and her Mom (Aunt Harriet) threw the shower for Christine. We had a good time seeing everyone and Christine looks great. Can't wait to meet those babies!

Girls Gone Wild Burbank: Shannon, Christine and Harriet

Karen & Madeline, Shannon, Chrsitine, Ann & Rose, Donna

(cousin from the other side of the family)

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star............

Over a week ago David was the Star Helper for the day in class. He got to share his "all about me" page (which is FASCINATING) with the class and be the line leader and teacher's helper during class. They made C headbands covered with pictures of carrots and cupcakes and a big letter C. He is a funny kid....loves to wear the hats he makes in class ALL day long. The other night I went to check on him in bed and he was wearing it, apparently VERY dedicated to the letter C. After class that day we met some classmates/friends, Joey Z. and Emily - plus families, at the world's most perfect playground. It's not far from where we live, but they don't want anyone who isn't a resident of the neighborhood to go there. (they even post signs to that effect) They have a water park... water cannons and showers and fountains that shoot up and buckets that dump when they reach capacity..... and on nice hot days, it's fabulous! There is also a GREAT play structure that is 3 levels high with great long/high slides, bridges to cross, ladders and different levels to climb.....things for all ages, there are swings and a official size basketball half court and a nice big grassy hill perfect for rolling down....and best of all, CLEAN bathrooms! It really is a perfect park. It was nice and sunny when we got there, then cloudy by the time we left. Just perfect! We had a great time there. Hopefully no one else will find out about this perfect park so I can continue to go there illegally without all sorts of riff-raff encroaching on my newly found nirvana. We played for a few hours then headed back home..... a really good day.

David and Emily

Joey Z. (Rosie's crush from last school year) He was running NON-STOP in the water from the moment he got there, I could barely get a picture.

Katia Z.

Skinny Loverboy

Oh Dear.... a Sign of Things to Come?

I was reading a book to Joey just now....no really, I was! (I had a slight lapse in crappiness at being a Mom) Anyway, I was looking at Joey's profile and saw a blonde hair about 3/8ths of an inch long right above his mouth. I went to pick it off....a good monkey, I mean Mom, always grooms her young, and found that it was attached....growing in his mustache area! Now, it would be a decent size hair for MY mustache....but I keep it groomed, so you would never know. So I assumed he had just picked up a random stray hair somewhere. Now, many of you have seen Andy with his shirt off, and after throwing up in your mouth a little :O, thought, wow....what a hairy guy! I just PRAY Joey isn't going to take after Andy in the body hair department. At least he will have a nice full head of hair when he's an old man.....you get your hair on your head through your Mom's father. My Dad has a nice head of hair. Rose's boys will be angry! Hope they like hats. Oh....and I was saving this picture of a guy I saw at the beach for an entry about finding someone hairier than Andy. I just hope this isn't a look into Joe's future!