June Camping 2009

About six months ago I booked a couple of campsites and emailed a few friends and said, "Let's go camping!" This past weekend we went up to Smith and Morehouse. It is a beautiful campground in the mountains, with lots of aspen and pine trees. We had lots of adventures. Clara split her upper lip shortly after we arrived so she has a fat lip that is pretty gross now. Josh had scrapes and scratches and bandaids were given to most of the kids. Here are some fun pictures of the weekend in no particular order!

Laurie and Jacey by the campfire.

Ryan Wilson, Dave, and Clara roasting marshmallows

Kate, Josh and Brinley digging in the dirt.

Clara, Jayden and Brinley staying out of trouble.

Ryan and Whitney roasting marshmallows.

Heidi Wilson enjoying the fire.

Dave and Heidi

Ryan and Lou

Josh and Kate goofing off.

Activity time!

Nap time!

Dave and Laurie Compton

Ryan and Gabi

Lou and Gavin

Jacey and Clara show off their braids.

Laurie sets up the beauty shop.

Kate and Damon play with worms.

Dave and Jeff working on the mountain man hash.

Kate and Michelle - ready for breakfast!

Good morning, Everyone!

Josh hanging out by the fire.

Clara with flowers in her hair.

Our Camp Kitchen - love this thing!

The Condo

A Multitude of Adventures

The past few weeks have been super mega totally busy due to end of year programs (at two preschools) as well as all of the projects that I have implemented. We also had my mom's birthday, Father's Day....well, really - does life ever slow down?

Josh and his teachers - Miss Cameon and Miss Stacee

Josh graduated from Kinder Cottage. He has been going there for two years and looooooves Miss Cameon. He's been asking me about visiting her. He also loves Miss Stacee, and fortunately her son is going to Providence Hall so we will be able to see her often. I keep thinking I need to hang out with Stacee - she's a lot of fun.

She looks sweet and innocent, but...

Over the weekend we bought Josh a new loft bed that came with styrofoam packing. Clara decided to break up a piece of the styrofoam into tiny little balls and spread them all over the living room. It was a DISASTER. I should have taken a picture, but I was too mad. We sent her to her room while we cleaned it up, and when I walked in to check on her (she was being too quiet), that's how I found her.

Dave and I decided that it was time to move Josh to his own space downstairs. We also wanted to get rid of the toy dump that has been our basement. Basically the kids just dump everything out and then leave it. So we haven't actually used our house other than the main floor for five years! We moved all of Josh's toys into his bedroom (and threw out a ton), and we are making his old bedroom Clara's toy room since she doesn't like going to the basement by herself. That way she will be more likely to play with toys because they will be accessible. Now our basement living room is toy free and ready for us to use!

Josh's desk/computer

Last year for his birthday, Uncle Curt gave Josh his old computer. Dave set it up for Josh's educational games and so when it is quiet time, he can go down and play for awhile. He hasn't shown that much interest in it yet, but when he gets going it can keep him occupied. I'm sure over the next year it will change and we won't be able to keep him off of it.

Josh's reading nook

This is under his loft and most of his books are on the shelf now. We have a little lamp so that we can go down and read with him. He loves his nook and we hope it will inspire him!

Josh's new bed

We actually cut it down on Saturday to the first support beam because he couldn't sit up in it. Now he can sit up and I am happier that it is a bit lower. When he first saw the bed he had a HUGE grin on his face and said, "I TOTALLY want to sleep there!"

Ruby's First Birthday

Ruby is my sweet baby niece and I am pretty smitten with her. Last October she loved me, but now she doesn't like anyone. I have to win her back one of these days, although I know it's the age. Josh was the same way. I smiled at her a lot and when she wasn't looking kissed her sweet little head.

Ruby loves cake!

And now we launch into summer and hopefully will have some good weather. We are leaving Thursday to go camping for the weekend with friends. It's been so cool that I can't believe next weekend is the 4th of July. Then we have another family vacation. Bring on the summer!

Tuesday, Bloody Tuesday

This is how we roll. It's going to be a long summer.

Today was Josh's preschool picnic at school. The problem with him being in two different preschools, is that it means managing two end of year school programs. I've been very confused (I'm sure that isn't a shock to most people) about what is happening when. But, I was excited about the picnic because it meant that I could hang out with my friends whose kids go to the same preschool.

About 20 seconds into it, I hear a kid yell, "Where's your mom, Josh?!" I look over and he had fallen somehow, but didn't look like he was hurt. Then he started howling. I went over to see blood gushing out of his head. Always something a mother loves to see! I stayed calm so that he wouldn't panic more, handed napkins to his teacher so she could keep pressure on it, got our lunch packed up, put the kids in the car, and headed to the Instacare clinic. I called my mom and Dave on the way.

At the Instacare clinic they put a numbing ointment on it, but he still just kept crying and asking for his Daddy. It was sweet. Finally they put more on and he calmed down and the surface pain went away. They took us back to the "procedure" room. It was the same room where they removed my big toenail back in January. Nice. They put him in the chair and raised him up and he thought that was cool. They cleaned out the wound and gave him the water gun syringe to take home. He was pretty excited about that! They had also given him an otter pop. And a lollipop.

He was not excited when they put in the staples. The surface skin had been numbed, but it was deeply bruised. He about came out of the chair and I was about to lose it because I was worried they hadn't numbed him enough. They gave him a big dose of motrin and we hauled him out of there.

I took him back to the park so that his teachers could fuss over him, and that distracted him long enough for Dave to go buy a new movie (to keep him distracted) and pizza. I'm happy to report he is on his second round of "Bee Movie", his tummy is full, and after looking at the pictures he said, "That's not a big deal, Mom."

Sitting in the big chair

The wound. It is pretty deep.

Flushing out the wound

The Staples

Monday

This morning during a conference call with a client, Clara came in to me with her head hangin' low and said, "Mom, I flushed Josh's toothbrush down the toilet."

Things like this always inspire fear and despair in me. Always. I put the phone on mute and ran into the bathroom. Sure enough - no more toothbrush. And apparently we have good pipes because the toilet isn't clogged. I am pretty sure this will backfire soon.

We went to pick Josh up and after his little whimper from the back seat, we stopped at the grocery store to get him a new toothbrush. He said, "Mom, I need to get Clara one, too. So that I can forgive her." Not sure what the correlation was there, but hey - forgiveness lesson!

After lunch Clara came in to me with her head hangin' low and said, "Mom, the tv's broken." Now this put me into a panic of sorts. I ran into the living room and she showed me how the dvd player is now broken, with the tray halfway in and halfway out. This house is cursed when it comes to dvd players.

And I have a really bad headache.

Why I Want to be Mexican for a Day...or Two.

I just watched "Tortilla Soup". Wait, let me back up.

I grew up in inner-city Phoenix and the vast majority of my friends were Mexican. If they weren't Mexican, they were black. If they weren't black, they could have been white, but they probably were a mix of something or other. In other words, I don't actually know. And I've already told my friend "Real" this, but it didn't even occur to me until later in life that she is black. It's not that I was/am color blind. I celebrate the differences and love different cultures and quite frankly, miss the diversity that was my world in high school. I find myself gravitating to anyone and anything Hispanic because that was the primary culture I grew up in.

Which is why it stinks that I am not fluent in Spanish. Something I someday intend to remedy.

Anyway, three of my best friends in high school were Monica Holguin, Monica Valdez, and Tanya Sandoval. All three were/are feisty women. All three of them are gorgeous, confident, and slightly crazy. As I watched "Tortilla Soup", a movie about three sisters whose chef is a father, I suddenly had this urge to spend an evening in one of their kitchens cooking Mexican food and learning Spanish. Because after six years of Spanish I think it could be possible for me to be fluent in one evening. Don't you?

My first job was as a hostess in a Mexican restaurant called Carlos O'Brien's. It's still my favorite restaurant in the world and the first place I go when I go home to Phoenix. The owner still remembers me and thinks that I still look 16. He's grumpy and grouchy and scared me when I worked for him, but ever since he told me that I remember him fondly on my more wrinkly days.

My first boyfriend when I was 16 was half Mexican and half white. His mom was crazy and wonderful and loved me. And boy could that woman cook.

My Dave served a mission in Mexico. My mom went to college there for a year at the University of Mexico. Probably 80% of my extended family is fluent in Spanish with service experience in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Peru. My mom, aunt, and uncle are all fluent. Do you see where I am going with this? It's in my blood - or should be! I should be a dark haired, dark eyed, pear shaped Mexican woman.

At the very least, it could explain my personality.

Under Pressure

I have had two gentle reminders today that I need to blog. And by gentle I mean screaming statements like, "Why haven't you blogged?!" with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. It can get ugly when you don't blog.

The past week has been a hazy blur of yard sales and rain. It has rained every day for I don't know how long. And it's cold. My garden is saying, "What the heck?" These aren't the right growing conditions for zucchini and tomatoes. I've been checking the weather to make sure that it isn't going to actually SNOW. The kids have been cooped up inside driving me and each other crazy, and I have had little motivation to do anything but eat cookies.

The other day we did go to Josh's great and final preschool graduation. I think he has graduated about 8 times by now. But this is it. No more preschool. He is starting Kindergarten in a little over two months. He's ready to launch. Just kidding. They asked us if he could skip K-12 and go straight to Harvard due to his bright and shining intellect. We said no.

Josh & Clara & Blankies & Sunglasses

Josh's preschool class

The proud graduate!

Daddy & Josh

Josh & Miss Kris

Plans for the weekend include a good solid run with Melissa tomorrow morning. Then brunch with Jenn. From then on it's up in the air. My mom's birthday is Sunday so we may be doing something for it. Dave wants to take Josh to the driving range, but it's supposed to be thunderstormy. We have mountains of projects to work on. I'll keep you posted.

Funny Farm 6/5

Sorry friends, family, and readers three.

No pictures of the burgeoning farm today. I am up to my eyeballs in foam boards, writing with thick black markers, creating arrows of grandeur. In other words, I'm getting ready for the yard sale. Someone should have warned me what these things are like. I figured, throw some stuff out there, see what sells. But no. Instead it's like I am opening a thrift store and praying for rain to go away. Oh wait - I AM opening a thrift store and waiting for rain to go away!

Anyway, I'll post pictures of the sale so you can see it in all of its glory. Let's just say it is capped off with a prelit reindeer on the front porch and a Paris Hilton cut out on sale for $1000 or best offer.