Monday, April 27, 2009

Caught in the act

Anthony's new favorite spot in the house is in my bathroom sink. He's quite the little monkey and can climb right up the cabinets all on his own. This is how I found him earlier today. He was so engrossed in trying to eat the toothpaste, that he didn't even notice me at first.






Then he finally noticed me and immediately got the uh oh look on his face. He knows he's not supposed to be up there and is generally quite proud of himself when he gets up there without my noticing.









Just ignore the mess on my counters, I was in the middle of cleaning and packing when he made his mad dash for the toothpaste.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Note to self

Hey Self-

When you spend the whole morning sweeping and mopping and vacuuming the whole house, you should not let the kids play out in the sand and water table all afternoon. The floors will not look very good after the kids throw "snowballs" (sand and water formed into balls) into the kitchen from the back patio. And after they track some more sand into the master bedroom and through to their bedroom, the floors will look even worse. Really, you shouldn't bother.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Driveby posting

Overheard in the OC household.

Steph: Amelia, go put your blankie on your bed please.
Amelia: No Mom. I can't. I'm Limboing.

I turn around, and sure enough, Anthony is holding their play broom, and she is trying to do the limbo under the stick. Too bad I didn't have my camera close by.

(We're sloooooooowly moving forward with the home buying process, which is still the reason for my absence. Hoping to have keys next week. Yay!!)

Friday, April 17, 2009

Taking a break

In a few short weeks, we'll officially be homeowners. While I'm very excited, I'm also slightly overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I have to get done. So, I'm going to take a bloggy break. I'll be back with pictures and tales of the move when we're all moved in. I probably won't be visiting blogs much either.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

My Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday. He would be 56 if he was still alive. He passed away the year after I had Amelia, right around his birthday. Can it really be three years that he's been gone? Every time there is a milestone, a birthday, a Christmas, buying our first house, I miss him. And I'm afraid I'll forget him. My sister got everything of his when he died,so all I have is a few pictures of his.

The other day I was reading a post written by my friend Steph, and she talked about some of her childhood memories of her Mom. I am nowhere near the storyteller she is, but I thought I'd share some of my good memories of my Dad. There are some not so good memories as well, but today is about good things.

My dad was an amazing writer. Some of his poetry was really well written. The subject matter was often full of angst, stories about drug use, wars and his relationship with my mom. But he had a way with words. I wish now that I had more of his writing put away somewhere. I hope my mom still has it all.

Besides having a way with words, he was an excellent guitar player. He taught himself over the years, and could play anything, at least that's how it seemed to me as a child. When I was around 10 or so, my dad and his girlfriend moved into a trailer on the Oregon coast. The lived in the little town of Otis in this rural trailer park. It was in the hills and it was nice. At first they didn't have electricity because they couldn't afford to get the power pole put up for the trailer.( I think it was permits or something they lacked.) So they had kerosene lamps all over the trailer, and a wood stove, and an extension cord run to the neighbors to run the TV and stuff like alarm clocks. They lived that way for months. Every time I smell a wood stove I remember those times. In the evenings Dad and Gail would play guitars and sing songs. He could hear a song and play it back for me.

Another great memory I have is camping. As a teenager, we would go camping every summer. We'd camp at Spruce Run outside Seaside, OR. We usually got rained on. My sister and I would play in the mud swim in the river and sit around the camp fire. There was a huge group that would go, and we'd always have a great time. I truly enjoyed those times with my Dad. Now I wish I'd taken more pictures and appreciated it all more. I'm finally over being Angry at my Dad for leaving us. Now I just miss him.

Tackle it Tuesday

Tackle It Tuesday Meme

So this is going to be a little different than most Tackle it Tuesdays. I'm sick, Anthony's sick and neither of us got much sleep last night. However, I've got a huge list of stuff to get done. We spent yesterday at the park, and outside a lot so I have to get stuff done today. I'm going to post my list here and check back in every so often as I cross stuff off. I probably won't get it all done, but I can start!

ETA: It's 930 and I'm feeling a lot worse. My head feels like it's about to explode. I can feel myself getting sicker. So I'm off to get as much of my list done as I can before I give in and take some tylenol cold. Wish me luck!

Clean the kitchen

Do laundry

Put laundry away

Change kids sheets

Change my sheets

Deep clean my bedroom

Vacuum living room

Clean bathrooms

Sweep and Mop

Take out Garbages

Ready, set, go!!

Monday, April 06, 2009

Weekend Update

We had a great weekend! Saturday, we wandered around Target in the morning, then we went to a birthday party out in the boonies. (Okay really it was in Upland, by Mt. Baldy.) We managed to get lost on the way there, two freeways meet for a few miles and branch off again, we ended up the wrong one. Oops. We took the 60 all the way to Riverside before we realized we were way far from where we should be. So we back tracked about 20 minutes and were only a half hour late. It was nice to spend so much time outside, even if Jeff and I did get a little sun burnt. The kids had a great time playing in the bouncer and eating cupcakes. We were there all afternoon.

On the way home we stopped at Lowes and spent at least an hour there looking at things we want to get for the new house. Checked out our dream kitchen, ha ha. Not gonna happen anytime soon, but it was fun to look. We came home at 6, I cleaned a little and did some laundry. Then I gave the kids baths and put them to bed. It was a tiring day! :-)

Sunday we went out to Oak Canyon and went for a hike. We've been taking classes there during the week, so Amelia had a good time showing Jeff around. It was really nice, hiking is not something I do much anymore, and I miss it. I need to get a pack for Anthony, there are more trails we could explore if we didn't have the stroller.

After our hike we had lunch at Rubios, mmmm fish Tacos, then went to Trader Joes for grocery shopping. Both kids fell asleep, so now they're sleeping and Jeff is out doing something in the garage. I need to go clean out my car, and take it get vacuumed, then Jeff and Amelia are going to wash it for me after her nap.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Pasta Meatball Soup Whole Wheat Rolls, Salad

Tuesday Pesto Chicken, brown Rice, Veggies Salad

Wednesday Oven baked Pork Chops, Sweet Potatoes, Salad

Thursday Veggie Quiche,

Friday Stew, Whole wheat rolls, salad

Saturday Breakfast for dinner,

Sunday Salsa Chicken (Recipe below)


Salsa Chicken

1 large Jar of Salsa
2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 can black beans
1 can corn

Put the Salsa and chicken in the crockpot, and cook on low for 6-8 hours. When it's about finished, shred the chicken, mix in the beans and corn, and it's all done. I sometimes eat it in a whole wheat tortilla with cheese, or just in a bowl. Yummy!

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Everything I need to know, I learned on the Wonder Pets...


Overheard in the OC Mama's car the other day.

"Look Mom! There's the statue of Liberty."

I look over and see him standing there. He's dancing around trying to drum up business for the tax place I think.

"Yes, that guy's in a Statue of Liberty costume. Did you learn about her in school?"

"No Mom. She was on The Wonder Pets."

"Of course she was. I don't think you need to go to school anymore, you can just watch the Wonder Pets."

"Can I watch it all day long? But not Anthony. He should take a nap."

Friday, April 03, 2009

Every day?

So Michelle is doing a blog post a day for the next month, and I thought I'd try it too. I'm not sure if I'll make it, but it can't hurt to try.

We're going to see some of our playgroup friends today, Amelia is so excited. With everyone being in school, we haven't been doing much as a group lately.

We're still waiting on house stuff. Inspection was a week ago and still no word on if they'll fix the stuff required for our financing. I'm disappointed in how slowly this process is moving, but maybe it's good for me. I probably needed to learn some patience anyway. :-)

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Plugging along

Between Jeff and I, we managed to track down the info on the HOA for the new house. When Jeff called them, he got some interesting info, the house was painted without their permission. And dues haven't been paid yet for this year. Hmm. And the HOA was under the impression that the house was being lived in by the owners. Huh. But none of that should affect us, as they can't transfer the back dues to us, and they are okay with the new color, even if they were not informed.

We are hoping to hear back from the other agent today on our list of stuff that needs to be fixed. And we've been told the gas should be on by Friday so we can have it reinspected. I'm beginning to think I should offer to go sit there while the gas company comes. It may be the only way to finish the inspection before we close! Sheesh.

In other news, I love our agent. She is very patient with me and my OCD about understanding everything. I emailed her a question at 930 last night and she called me back (while she was at Stater Bros ha) immediately and explained it to me. She is always telling us to call any time with questions or concerns, and she has been really helpful with things. When we have had to do paperwork or stuff at the house (inspection etc.) she helped watch the kids so I could take pictures and measurements. So even if this whole process is driving me batty, at least I feel like we have an ally in this.