A Scrap of Life

The good news today - the rain stopped! It was wet when we woke up but by 10am the rain had stopped and the blue sky peeked through. The bad news - we decided to head to Universal Studios today. The day started out a little late, as everyone was still sleeping at 8am. But we headed to IHOP for a free short stack of pancakes (it was National Pancake Day! LOL). After breakfast we hopped in the van for the 45 minute drive to Universal Studios. Halfway there Chase starts complaining that he has a headache. I give him some Advil and eventually that goes away. But about 20 minutes before we get to Universal, Tristan is complaining that his stomach hurts and he thinks he is going to puke. Great. We are NOT prepared for that. But we manage to find a grocery bag in time to catch most of it. He did manage to get it on his shirt though, making this day 2 that he goes through a park with just a jacket and no shirt. He did feel better after puking, but I wasn't thrilled with holding a bag of pu...

Woke up this morning to overcast skies and knew that the weather forecast showed showers for today. But we weren't exactly prepared for the torrential downpour that happened. We went to California Adventure today and the morning was great. Our first ride, Monsters, Inc., was sort of a bust. Not that exciting of a ride but it ended wonderfully. At the end of the ride Roz, the head of the CDA, said "Hey you, 2nd row (that would be the row Brian and I were sharing), is that your husband? I think you should know that he was winking at me. Sorry sir, but you're not my type." Sent all us adults into fits of laughter! Next we went on Tower of Terror. That ride rocks! It was aweome and we all enjoyed it. Chase loved it so much that he bought the pin and t-shirt for Tower of Terror. After Tower of Terror, we headed to Grizzly River Run. We rode it twice in a row. BIG mistake going on a water ride when it's morning and not sunny outside. We got SOAKED! Chase was the wettes...

Our first day of Disney was long, but great. We were up at 3am so that we could dress and get to the airport in plenty of time for our 6:30am flight. There was a lot of turbulence during the flight, which didn't seem to phase the kids but made me feel a little green around the gills. We arrived LAX just before 9am and quickly got the baggage and bus to the rental car. We drive away by 9:45am, jump on the freeway and immediately get pulled over by a cop. We crossed into the carpool lane, crossing the double yellow lines to get into it. We'd never seen double yellow lines and thought they were just the divider between standard and carpool lanes. Unfortunately, that wasn't true. The good news is that the kind officer let us off without giving us the ticket (which was a $350 fine by the way ... OUCH!). We made it to Disneyland with no further difficulties but giving Brian a hard time the whole way. We had lunch at McDonalds outside the park and were inside Disneyland by 12:30pm...

So, we're off. The plane flys away in just under 10 hours. We're getting up at 3am (YAWN!) to get to the airport and have extra time before our 6:30am flight. Can I just say YAWN again. Hopefully we will all be hopped up on the excitement of the day and will be able to stay up for the 9:00 Fantasmic and 9:30 fireworks shows. I'll try to post photos a few times while we are away, pending the state of the internet service at our hotel. If not, you'll see a post from me on the 6th with some of the best shots from our trip. Take care all!!!

So first Carissa gets an ear infection. We find out on Friday, which means we have plenty of time for her to take her antibiotics and to feel better before our vacation. Then this weekend Brian's mom trips over a their brick fireplace and strains her ankle. Add this to her already busted up knees and it means that she's definitely going to need a wheelchair for Disneyland. Again, we can deal with this. Then this morning Tristan falls at school. He slips on his own shoelace (untied, of course!) and lands on the hard school floor hitting his head and twisting his neck. The school calls to let me know it happened but I decide to let him be and see how he does. The teacher calls after lunch to tell me that he's complaining, crying when he moves his neck and holding on to the back of his neck. So I go pick him up and take him to Urgent Care. 3 1/2 hours and several x-rays later we find out he has whip lash. The Dr. says it's very uncommon to have whiplash at 7 years old, but...

I just realized today exactly how much Chase is changing. He comes home from school with his best friend, Brenden, and they decide they want to listen to music in the front room. Then they decide to dance in their crazy like-a-chicken way (stepping forward then backward, moving their necks in and out). Only they don't know they look like chickens ... and I think they are slightly offended when I can't hold back the giggles. So they ask me the "cool" way to dance (by the way, "cool" is the word for everything these days!) and I show them a more relaxed, side-to-side, no-chicken neck way. They're thrilled with that and request new songs ... Black Eyed Peas, Nickelback, Staind, Jack Johnson and James Blunt pass their "cool" song inspection and are instantly turned into dance tunes. They request one of their old favorites, "Summer of 69" before retreating to Chase's room. Once in Chase's room they decide to make up their own song....

Only 6 days left until we leave and I've officially hit panic mode. Thankfully we visited Bek and Brandon yesterday and borrowed some suitcases from them, so I can pack now. I have piles of stuff that I plan on taking just filling up my front room. I think even Brian has hit the panic mode, as he suggested I make a list of things to do. A list. This from the man who has the absolute take-it-as-it-comes attitude toward our vacation! He even agreed to it was a good idea to pack the kids clothes and label them for each day (which is what I was going to do anyways ... they need to have coordinating clothes for all the photos I'm going to take! LOL). (Bek- He couldn't say it in front of you, of course, but he thought it was a good idea.) Carissa has an ear infection. ICK! But at least we found out a few days ago and she has been on antibiotics for it. She'll be nearly done with them by the time we leave for Disney. Brian's mother sprained her ankle yesterday thou...

Stole this from Felicia's blog. This is a little chart of some of the most used words on my blog. The bigger the word, the more often it's used. Interesting ...

I haven't scrapped in 10 days or so, which is absolutely PATHETIC for me. So I thought I would leave you with a few LO's that were released publically today. They are from one of the awesome new kits from www.scrapaddict.com . Of course, pink, grey and black are PERFECT for my favorite kind of pages ... girly ones! Here they are:

OK, so I know it's a day late, but what do you expect? Just trying to keep my head above water here! LOL So yesterday was Valentines Day and it was fairly pleasant. A little lonley, as Brian had to work his normal 12 hour shift yesterday. The good news is that I totally got out of helping in all the classroom parties. Usually I love helping out in the parties, but I am so busy right now that I didn't offer... I figured the teacher would call me if she needs help, since I've previously always been there. I did my normal 1 1/2 hours volunteering in Tristan's classroom in the morning but that's it. After helping in Tristan's class I picked up Carissa from preschool and headed to grab some lunch. We took it to Brian and got to sit and eat together for a whole 8 minutes (which is pretty long for his work to allow... he's supposed to stay inside to help in case of an emergency situation). I came home to a sweet email from Brian and got tons of hugs, kisses ...

So I know I've been negligent in posting here lately. It seems as if I've been negligent in all of my life. My laundry is piled high, my kitchen is a mess, my blog hasn't been updated and *gasp* I haven't scrapped in over a week! I think coming down off of the HOF scrapping binge and into the vacation-ready mode has been soaking up all my time. Lately I've been trying to get all my school work done for vacation. I have something like 12 chapters to read, one midterm to take and 4 weeks of Microsoft Word to do before we leave for vacation. I spent ALL DAY yesterday doing that and completed 3 chapters and 2 weeks of Word homework, so I'm getting there. Beyond that, nothing new is going on here.

I think we all have days that we feel like we aren't doing our best as parents. Yesterday was one of those days for me. A recent dentist visit showed that Carissa had 2 small cavaties and yesterday she had to go have them filled. She was scared leading up to the appointment and even had a stomachache, a sure sign of nerves for my kids. They used laughing gas, which I think helped her remain calmer than she normally would have been. And she saw a wonderful pediatric dentist who talked to her every step of the way and explained to her what was going on. But she was scared. She cried ... tiny tears streaming out of her eyes that just broke my heart. I just felt like such a horrible Mom for allowing her to get cavaties in the first place. I know I could have done better. I know I should have been a bit more vigilant about brushing. I just felt like such a horrible mommy.

The UPS man dropped at my door a wonderful surprise - the layouts that PaperKuts had when it shut it's doors. They were returned to me safe and sound and I am THRILLED. I'm just glad they are back in the albums where they belong.

My Hall of Fame entry has been mailed and I'm thrilled about it. I feel really good about what I created and think it's a good entry for my first try. So wish me luck!!! Here are the final few pages that didn't make the entry.

3rd grade and already breaking hearts! Chase came home a few days ago and told me that Tiffany had kissed him on the cheek. I played it smooth and asked him what he thought about that, to which he answered that it "embarassed him" because she kissed him in front of his friends AND she told him she loved him. I honestly thought it would be a one-time incident, but today he came home and said she had done it again. Now Chase just wants to be her friend. He doesn't want to hurt her feelings, but he's not exactly thrilled with her kissing him either. And Mommy's not exactly thrilled that her little 9 year old is already attracting the girls.

YEAH! We purchased airline tickets. We were planning on driving to Disneyland, but we got a bit more back in tax return than we expected so opted to fly instead. I am thrilled! 2 hours in an airplane sure beats 16 hours in a minivan! It also means that we have another entire day to spend somewhere ... maybe relaxing, maybe hitting the beach, maybe another day at Universal Studios. Who knows. I took my first college test yesterday for my business class and got a 90% on it. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. I'm doing well in my MS Word class also, though to be honest it's because I already knew 90% of what they were teaching so far. Now my Management Fundamentals class ... let's just say I'm not doing so well. I have yet to do the required reading for it even. UGH! Beyond that things are good here. Wet but good. I think it could be even better if the sun came out and the rain left us for a while!

I was tagged eons ago but never filled it out. So here it is, late as usual. Four jobs you've had in your life: (I haven't worked in lots of years, so these are jobs I held before I was 20.) 1. Wrote obituaries for a religious newspaper (officially, I was the receptionist) 2. Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable for the food service office at OSU 3. Sold kites 4. Worked in the gift shop of Ripley's Believe It or Not and the Wax Works Four movies you would watch over and over again: 1. Sweet Home Alabama 2. Dirty Dancing (the original AND Havana Nights ... love them both) 3. Footloose 4. Beaches (and yes, I still cry every time) Four places you have lived: 1. Coos Bay, OR (born there) 2. Newport, OR (grew up there) 3. Oregon City, OR 4. Scappoose, OR (home) Four tv shows you love to watch: 1. Grey's Anatomy - this is my absolute favorite show! 2. Amazing Race 3. Survivor 4. Alias - I'm sad it's going/gone :( Four places I've been to on vacation: 1. DisneyWor...