William's Week

I'm a little late with this, but my William has this week!

I know you want more :)

While digging through my hundreds of California photos and videos, I knew I forgot one. This is Emma during the parade when the kids were invited to join. She is like a jumping bean! I like how she keeps going, even when her pants start to fall down.

My new favorite

While Tommy and I were dating, one of our dates was to see an exhibit of Van Gogh's paintings. It was incredible to see, and I wished I could remember which ones were there. I do remember they seemed rather small, but the colors were just so brilliant. Fast forward to this month. My newest TV show is called "Dr. Who" (yes, I know, it's been around a while) and they had one where they visit Vincent back in time. As I was looking at the paintings, this one caught my eye and I had to look it up. I love the colors in this, the blues are just so beautiful and I love how simple it is, yet so elegant. I don't usually go this crazy over art, but I think I would like to make my master bedroom feel like this painting. We have never painted our vaulted ceiling-ed bedroom, and I was hoping that this year would be the year. I would really love to find a picture in a magazine and say "THAT is what I want" but I have yet to find it. I would love something with a blue and chocolate brown theme, but how to execute it, well, that's another problem.

Any of you artistic, creative types have any suggestions for me??

San Diego and the Midway

After our great day at Seaworld, we drove to our final destination: Tommy's conference in San Diego. As I was preparing for bed, I realized that we had a balcony. And what a view we had!

All I could think of was that Tommy is going to get to enjoy this view more days than we are, and I was feeling quite jealous. While he checked in for the conference, the kids and I enjoyed a chilly breakfast on the balcony. 8 floors up doesn't seem that high, but it was so lovely!

The kids loved being outside, and we did lose one toy off the edge since they spent most of their time out there. We were able to do a little more sightseeing with Tommy as he skipped, I mean finished his conference early. Our next stop was the Midway.

Now, I am not up on all my history, but I did learn that this was the main place for Operation Desert Storm (there is another name for it, but I can't think of it right now.) It was an incredible tour and even the kids learned a lot!

Patrick peeking out the porthole.
Look at the size of those links for the anchor! This is in the "folksole" or forecastle. Be sure and pronounce it the first way, otherwise they will leave you on a deserted island with only one bullet and no rum. Oh wait, different movie.

Tommy had to do a lot of ducking on the decks and especially going through the doorways with the knee-knockers.

We almost left the kids in the Brig, but Patrick's face was just too sad to leave him there alone with a perky cell mate.

There were all kinds of cockpits for the kids to explore, and we really just wore them out. It was a chilly day, as you can see by the sweatshirts and the wind whipping through the decks.

Old Town San Diego was next for some really neat feel of old west. I kept waiting for John Wayne to come walking out of a saloon or to come through on horseback.

Dinner at a mexican restaurant while we were even seranaded by the Mariachi band! William just loved it!

Our last night in California was a good one, and we really enjoyed our trip. Tommy sent me and the kids home early, and I am pretty impressed that I made it home safely and sanely with all three kids. I wish there was more for me to post about our trip, but this is my final posting on California. We do miss the weather, the family and the fun time we had together, but it is so nice to be home.

Tommy

Would you add an extra prayer for my Tommy this week? It's his week on Paul's blog!

In Virginia??

We had an earthquake this morning! No, I didn't feel it, but I would like to blame it on my Patrick waking up super early.

Down they go!

All of them. All three children are on meds. I should have guessed that they were all sick by the amount of bickering and whining that has been going on lately. I suspected at least Emma of having something, but I had no idea that it would be all three. I merely took them all in just to save myself the trouble, thinking that I should do them all while I was there. I didn't even think that it would be strep- even though I had it first, I can be a little slow on the uptake. I just thought Emma had some kind of cold and stomach virus. Fever, vomiting. Sure, all made sense. But when lunch came back up in the van 2 days after all that, I had a clue that something wasn't right. I am glad I took them all, and I am so grateful that I have so many great moms that will point me in the right direction.

So, time to get the family well. I have been staying close to home quite a bit in the last week (and more, if you count while I was sick) and I have to admit, with the coughing and the fighting (to be honest, they haven't been acting that sick, but I have noticed that there have been way more meltdowns lately), I have been a little stir crazy. Would you believe that I went to Target twice this week, just to have some "me" time? Aren't you jealous?? Don't all moms want to go to Tar-jay to enjoy themselves and do some retail therapy? It's so much better than the Lysol, comet and bleach therapy that I am forced to do at home. Let's get healthy so we can enjoy the weekend, and perhaps get out of the house and get the big "Unclean" sign off our foreheads.

For the Child in me

I absolutely loved this part of the fireworks show. It gives me goosebumps to watch it again! The second video actually caused me to squeal so loud that the man in front of me turned around and laughed at me. Nothing new there! :)

Kids keep your humble

I had to sing at Church today, and I made some serious mistakes - and not just some that only I would notice. As it turned out, Tommy had to stay home because Emma wasn't feeling well. Since I am my worst critic, I came home and said "I did terrible today." Emma picked right up on that and said, "So the people came up to you after Mass and told you that you did terrible?" I said, no, most are too polite to do that, but I know that I made mistakes. (I had to laugh because I read a prayer for humility before I sang at church and I was able to offer that to God today. My Grandma always prayed to be humble, and boy, did she ever get her prayers answered! LOL) Emma continued to ask questions, and said that "when there are more people singing at Mass, it goes better." Thanks, Emma, you are right. More people, less noticeable errors. Sigh.

Which way did they go?

One night in Disneyland we had some phone problems. We were supposed to meet up after a ride to switch off with the kids. I came out of the ride, and waited and waited, and couldn't find Tommy anywhere. Each time I tried to call it went directly to voicemail. I didn't realize he was having the same problem, so we just kept calling and walking around the park trying to catch up with eachother. I knew they couldn't leave without me because I had the tickets for the bus. But I had a little dilemma. If I try to describe my husband, it's going to sound like every other dad in the park: tall, good-looking dad, wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt, with 3 kids, a stroller, and kids wearing ears. Hmm. Narrows it down a bit. While I am going through that, Tommy has been hunting, and says out loud "Where is your mother?" A lady walking by looks at him and says "Oh I saw her leaving with a younger man." She must have known she picked the right person to tell that joke to, because of course, my Tommy starts bantering with her "Hopefully he makes more money and is cuter too!"

Happy Fourth!

Happy Independence Day! What a great weekend we had, with fireworks, slip-n-slide, good friends, neighbors, family and fun. We had fireworks in our yard on Saturday, and initially William was excited about them.
We had the Iveys and Wilson over, and some neighbors showed up as well to enjoy the show.

William was happy with them until they made noise. Then he prepared himself, even with the sparklers.

My stinkers on Sunday. We were going to go to my newest nephew's baptism, but due to a communication error with Tommy and I, we missed it and only made the party.
Jenn and her family invited us for dinner on Sunday, and her oldest boy was so excited about fireworks. It is a far cry from my "Mr. Safety" Patrick, who spent the majority of the show inside or up on the deck - far away from the noise and sparks.
Look how intent they are on the sparklers! Patrick did get a little more daring when he realized they weren't going to be the big ones that make huge booms, so he did come down a bit later in the show.
In looking at this photo, I realized that the propane tank looks quite close, but I assure you, it was a safe distance away. LOL I am grateful that we had a really long weekend to enjoy family time. Happy Birthday, America!

Summer Salsa Recipe

I have been making this salsa quite a bit lately, and it is always a hit. It goes perfectly with Lime tortilla chips which Tommy loves.

Fresh Pineapple Salsa
2 plum tomatoes
1/2 small red onion
1 4-inch piece seedless cucumber
1/2 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves
1 jalapeno pepper
1 medium pineappled (I usually use the canned sliced)
1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

1. Hull and seed tomatoes. Dice onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers, chop cilantro. Remove seeds from jalapeno (unless you want the heat) and dice (I used my Chopper to dice the pepper and cucumber). Combine in a bowl.
2. Dice pineapple. Juice lime to measure about 2 tbsp juice. Add pineapple, lime juice and salt to the bowl and mix thoroughly. Enjoy!

(From the Pampered Chef Season's Best Spring/Summer 2009 cookbook)

Seaworld

Seaworld day! We drove from Anaheim and met up with Tommy's cousin Tim and his wife Cindy. The kids were so happy to have more company and new ears to listen to all their Disney stories. We enjoyed a full day with them, including a mexican seafood dinner.
We swam with, I mean under some sharks. Can you hear the appropriate music? I loved going through the tunnel with the sharks overhead. It was an amazing experience!

I like this self-portrait of William and me, but I especially like Patrick's face in the background while we were visiting the penguins.

We had a lot of fun feeding the sea lions (or seals, I don't remember which) since they would bark and call to you to get food. Emma had a fish in her hand, but a bird came and took it before she could throw it in.

There was a Sesame Play area for the kids, that had some really fun rides which Mommy didn't ride. We were lucky enough to have more adults than kids at this park and it was so great to have a few extra sets of eyes to watch and hands to hold. The kids absolutely loved having Tim and Cindy there, and are still cuddling with the stuffy-wuff turtles they bought for them!

I love love love the Beluga whales. So beautiful, and fascinating.



We saw a dolphin and a "Shamu" show, and the whale was so cool. William and I were the only ones not in the "soak zone" but be could have joined everyone else because they were just as dry as us.

Kicked while I'm down

I missed it. A whole week of beautiful temperatures, no humidity and outdoors just calling to me, and I had to spend it inside. I had strep last week. Even the doctor said it was a bad case. I started feeling better just in time to catch a cold. And not just a simple cold. The kind that makes you sound terrible and feel like you are in a fog. Are you kidding me? My house is a disaster, literally. And I have no energy to try to make it better. I am starting to get really overwhelmed, and would like to just go back to bed. Tommy has been super dad all week, and I feel so bad adding to his work load. Again. Now, if we can just keep the kids healthy....