Trying to play catchup...

I missed a few days blogging. Then I missed more b/c I knew that catching up would take a long time.

Should I start at the most recent and work my way back? Or start where I left off and work my way up?

I'll only be able to write about the things I was smart enough to take pics of, b/c I won't remember anything else :( Luckily I carry my camera with me everywhere!

August 25th

This was at the Valley Fair Shopping Center in San Jose. We had a heat wave, which is hilarious b/c it was the coldest summer in 40 years, then all of a sudden at the end it gets hot! To escape the heat, the young moms in my ward went to the beach. I neglected to take pics, but we had a BLASTITY BLAST BLAST BLAST. Lily loves exploring sand, watching it pour through her fingers, tasting it (but she doesn't eat much of it so I don't bother trying to stop her....I think making a big deal out of it would do just that, make a big deal out of it and end up making her eat more), swishing it with her hands, squishing it with her fingers, kicking her feet in it, etc etc etc. Add a big bucket of water to the mix and you've got hours (literally) of entertainment! Jack liked to make the perfect mix of sand and water in a bucket that would look like sand but really be water to the touch, and drag any object tied on the end of a string through the sand and watch the trail it made, and drag same object through the little creek that emptied into the ocean and watch it get carried away by the flow of the creek and watch it be pulled back by the string. I could hardly compete with that string for his attention; he only stopped to eat b/c I repeatedly demanded that he do so, and he was the first of all the kids to be back up and playing. I had fun chatting with the other moms, and playing with my kids in the sand and surf. I sat with Lily in my lap and let the surf wash over us a few times, and had the high honor of getting to watch her face as the cold water washed up to her chest and back down again. I tried to convince Jack to come join us, but he was absolutely not interested. He was way too busy with his string :D I love watching his intense focus when he's doing string physics (as I like to call it...). He is MY son. (I guess he's Tim's, too, but I don't know Tim's childhood quite as well as I know mine!)

Anyway, those silly ladies made beach trips twice during the heat waves, and both times they went in the morning. Morning-time is the nice, cool time, the time that our home was actually bearable! It was evening-time that it was too hot to live in, so we just went straight to the mall from the beach. It was a pretty nice mall, with a play area as good as some of the ones around Dallas, but the best parts were the family lounges. Rooms with play tables and magazines and soft chairs, and booths with curtains for private nursing, and changing tables and sinks for washing hands. But my kids preferred for whatever reason to be out in the fray, battling the crowds to explore the mall. I was glad to get to go home, even if it was hot :P

Next post: Diplomas!

Happy Six Years!

We were united in marriage 6 years ago :D

From the day I demanded to be introduced to him at that stake dance 11 1/2 years ago, I had a crush on him. I thought he was way too good for me. (With one exception), The only guys who showed any interest in me were the ones with nefarious intentions :P Then, 5 years later, we found out that we both liked each other! We settled things quickly enough :)

In 6 years of marriage, we have moved 4 times (and that is counting the first move into our first apartment). We've borne, birthed, and brought up 2 delightful children. We've laughed, screamed, pouted, giggled, tickled, vegetated, cuddled, and worked side by side. We've grown together, which we all know isn't the most fun thing in the world, but worthwhile. And by the blessing of heaven, as we've grown, we've loved each other more.

I don't know about Tim, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I wish I could convey in words what this last 6 years have done for me, but it is simply impossible. Heavenly Father gave me a life I did not come close to deserving, and I will be forever grateful.

To celebrate, we went to Rubio's, then drove over the "hills" to Montara beach, then came back and ate cake and ice cream and ordered gigantic New York pizzas. I kinda had the idea that our kids should enjoy our anniversary as much as we do, since it was our marriage that brought them into this world :D I think they had fun; I know we did!

We had a blast at the beach. We played with the sand, watched the waves beat on the sand, watched surfers, got our feet wet (but no more than our feet, b/c the riptides there are so strong and the beach slopes so sharply that people have literally been swept away and drowned when they got deep enough to be wading in the water...), hiked and climbed, chased and tickled and played freeze tag, joined a game of kickball, and took lots of pictures!

We came home and ate chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream, from the awesomest grocery store in the world, Trader Joe's. (We figured, birthdays are anniversaries of birth, why not do cake and ice cream on anniversaries of marriage?) We ordered the biggest pizzas we'd ever seen from New York Pizza. Those things are 2 feet across! We watched Anastasia on Netflix. And now it's the end of the day. I'm working on uploading the pics to Picasa to share with everyone :D

BUT! Lily was very cute yesterday and I took pics :D so here is one of those! (It was a strange day, Jack napped while Lily was wired and hyper and happy!)

"I'm not sleepy, Mom!"

I'll put up the link to the Picasa album when that is done :)

Productive Day!

I had a lot to get done today. I was looking down the barrel of my overfilled day, this morning, and I just knew that I was going to get stressed and take it out on my poor innocent kids. So after we got all loaded up in the car, I told Jack we were going to say a quick prayer; I prayed for guidance in choosing which things to do, and help in staying patient and cheerful. I had a great day :D The things that didn't get done were the laundry and dishes and tidying. The things that did get done were the car repair, the playgroup, the La Leche League meeting, the reading to Jack, the playing with Jack, the playing with Lily, the grocery shopping, the dinner cooking, the cookie making (more about that later), and the German neighbor and his Japanese wife coming for dinner. Oh, and the blogging :D

I'm so glad I went to the LLL meeting! Not only was it fun, and nice to get to meet with a bunch of crunchy moms again (I don't get my crunchies from the moms in my ward, sigh), but as we were leaving I was talking with the leader in charge, and she said "You'll fit in a lot better once you find a good homeschool group." She said I just looked like a homeschooler, and she loves her group and would love to see me on Wednesday afternoons at a park close to me where they meet! I checked them out online and they seem like a good group: Mid-Peninsula Homeschoolers. I've hesitated to go seeking a group, first b/c of the sheer volume of groups out here. Seems like I'm not the only one who rejects the "great" schools out here :P I get overwhelmed with too many choices sometimes! But also, the one mom in my ward who used to homeschool but quit last year, said that the groups she saw nearby were just "weird." (I keep forgetting that I'm "weird" to most people, so I shouldn't be scared by that description!)

Our neighbors downstairs are quite international. On one side, we have a mom who's half Mexican and half Persian. On the other side, we have a couple who have the husband from Germany and the wife from Japan. (And our next-door neighbors are an interracial couple with two kids. I have to admit I do love the diversity here!) Since Tim is going to Germany in 5 1/2 weeks, I thought it would be neat to ask our neighbor to teach us som German. Tonight they brought us dinner, which I thought was hilarious b/c we're the ones who wanted them to teach us, so shouldn't we owe them dinner? But it was yummy and WAY different from our usual fare! Rice and edamame with tofu, then tomato cucumber radish salad with peanut butter vinaigrette dressing. Craziness! The rice was delicious, the salad was just different. Hey, it wasn't nasty! I happily ate it all and was grateful for it :D

I discovered how to not overeat my delicious chocolate chip cookies (made with organic butter, organic evaporated cane juice, and M&Ms): WEEVILS. That's all I need to say.

Tonight's photos!

a picture of me in my blog, oh no!

I love this view...

The end of a little creek emptying into the ocean. It was tons of fun to wade across!

There was a driftwood teepee that was just right for taking pictures in!

These are from San Gregorio Beach, one of the beaches near us. We went there on a day I was feeling pretty homesick; Tim said "You need to see the good things we live near!" and took us all to the beach :D It was beautiful! And COLD! We laughed at the one person we saw there in a bikini :P And happily snuggled in our sweaters :D

Tomorrow is our 6-year anniversary! We're planning on taking another trip to the beach.