Humidity versus Hair

I had forgotten how my hair and humidity are not friends! There is the crazy frizz....and the fact that it takes twice as long to blow dry....and yes...I have fixed my hair twice since we've been here....for nights on the town!

Speaking of nights on the town....tonight we went to Planet Hollywood Waikiki....major yuck! My fil had a huge problem with their pink lemondade that was not pink....my mexican chicken had sweet bbq sauce on it.....my bil's sandwich came with 5 whole french fries on the side....Greg's lasagna looked like....well it was round and looked like it had been plucked off a rock from the sea....basically I was totally disappointed and felt bad because it was my idea to eat there!!

Other highlights of the day.....went to Blowhole (love that name) and searched some tide pools...found a teeny hermit crab....Keira was the only one that would touch it....the 4 older ones just looked on as she let it climb up her arm....Kade was a major snorkeler......Keira and I walked down the beach to the Royal Hawaiian and watched some hula.....

Back to the hair though, the good thing is I can also just embrace the frizz! The chances of running into someone I know are pretty slim....there are the pictures....but I am the gatekeeper of those.....so you may never know just how bad my hair looks!

Just Another Day in Paradise

Today - started by sitting out on the lanai watching an outrigger canoe race.......ended sitting out on the lanai gazing at the stars and eating hula pie.

There was great stuff in between though......a trip to the Waikiki Aquarium.....swimming....dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise....and of course some shopping!!

Aloha!

If You Need Me

If you need to find me I'll be here..............................

It's time for some much needed rest, relaxation and rejuvenation.


See you all at the end of July!!

These Boys Rock!!

Check out this Little League All Star Team! They took third place in their tournament this weekend. Everyone of them played their hearts out.....Kade had a triple in the last game of the tourney to tie it up. We are so proud of all of them!!

My New Word of the Day

overwhelmedness - I'm going to stay it's a noun verb combo.....I know this his horrible coming from a teacher - making up my own words - but it's also creative expression, which a friend reminded me is a good thing.

So what's the definition - well, it's a suffocating state of being....a place where everything is out of control but you feel like if you could stand on your tip toes you could reach everything and grasp it and pull it back into control. But no matter how tall your high heels, no matter how big the chair you stand on everything remains just out of reach.

So I've disappeared......let everything spin......feel like I'm looking up at a whirlpool.....I'll swim out but I just need to sit back and watch for a little while.....be invisible.....embrace the uncertainty......

So here's some lyrics from DMC - formerly of Run DMC........ponder on these.....

"I have a lot of thoughts like who the hell am I, what is the truth and what is a lie.
But I think about my life and everything is okay,
I've got to pave a way brighter day....
Because it's really plain and simple when it came to me
There's a lot of people just like me."

So I know.... this is random....this is odd.....but today - this is me.

Five Things I Like About Me!

This month Annette from ScrapAddict is running a blog/layout challenge. The first task is to make a list of five things I like about myself.....

1. My faith - I really do truly believe that God has a bigger plan than anything I can imagine. I have lived through some really difficult, life-changing events....without my faith I see no way I would have made it through.

2. My creativity - I really like the fact that I can be creative. It's such a joy to sit down and make something from nothing.

3. My humor - I think I am funny. Greg thinks it's funny that I think I am funny. My sense of humor is not the same as many others....but I get a kick out of myself.

4. My top teeth - Years of braces did the trick!

5. My eyes - Not so much as how they look as what they see. I see beauty all around.....


Now - time to work on the layout!

Focus on Sibling Love not Rivalry

The last few days of this week were fairly brutal when it came to brother-sister relationships in this house. Kade and Keira were fighting about anything possible - who was taking up more space on the couch, who was going to shower first, who would be in front while we were bike riding. I'm sure most of it is normal stuff but I can't stand it! I want these 2 to grow up tight....knowing they can always count on one another. I start to fret....but then I find these pictures.....

Pictures of the 2 of them content in being a brother and a sister....pictures that remind me they really do love each other.....then a few things happen....

Kade gets stung by a bee at baseball practice and Keira is soooo worried about him....he leans down and assures her that he will be fine......Keira can't find the stuffed animal she wants to sleep with so Kade helps her search it out......

These are the moments that I need to remember and focus on more! The moments of Sibling Love.

Perplexing Tweets

One of the things I enjoy about the breaking of dawn are the cheerful tweets of the birds in the trees. I don't expect to hear the chirps and twitters between 9pm and 3am - that's hoot time!


But somehow, we have a very confused bird living somewhere in our backyard. For the last week once it hits about 9pm, he starts singing. It goes on for hours! I was scrapping until 1am last night with the window open and this bird was in full opera mode!

I can't figure out exactly where he is. I really want a picture of this mixed up fellow. There is something about him....he sings when he wants to......right time or not......I'm sure there is some lesson for me in his song.

Ode to Technology

Technology can be great - there are some things about it I love - my PC, TiVo, Caller Id....and then there are ways that technology can go strangely awry......as in the invention of The Fart Machine.
This lovely piece of electronic adventure was given to my son by my husband........Of course this little gadget always seems to appear on play-date days and the boys like to see just how many times they can sneak it into the office behind me and have it bellow in all it's splendor via the remote control in their possession. They end up on the floor rolling around holding their sides in laughter the first time, the second time, the third time, the fourth time....you get the picture So what's a mom to do??? Well first I will publicly apologize on my blog to the mother of the other boys for the atrocious habits they are picking up from my son {Sorry K!} and second, turn my back to the door so they can sneak the machine in again - because as horrible as those fart sounds are the pure, unadulterated, joyous laughter coming from these boys is music to my ears.

Bizarre Skies

The temp has dropped about 10 degrees since I got up this morning and the skies have gone from our beautiful So Cal blue to slightly eerie. According to the weather man there is a monsoon off our coast....quite far away I'm sure.....but it's affecting our weather. Super breezy, cloudy, cool....in fact the kids wanted Chicken Noodle Soup for lunch!

Even weirder is how the colors are different from the front of the house and the back. Behind the house things are brighter and a little orange tinged.....in the front their a little more grey. Wonder if rain is on the way?

2 Cool Dads!

Happy Father's Day to any dads who happen to be reading this. Today I celebrate my two favorite dads - my own and the father of my children!! These two are sooooo alike - they like many of the same things, are hard-working, cherish their wives and kids.....I am truly blessed to have a dad like mine and then to see what an amazing dad Greg is to our kids!

How I Spent My Thursday Night or Ice Can Cause Head Gashes

Last night started out soo fun! It was time for Kade's end of the season baseball party. We were having a great BBQ and the kids were having fun and then we heard it........."Kade's hurt!" Well that could mean any number of things so I waited for a few seconds before getting up to walk towards him. He was holding his hands over his face...as he lifted his head....blood - dripping, gushing and really red! Then all the kids freaked, Greg and I were trying to calm Kade down and figure out where the blood was coming from and why. Well it turns out the boys were having an ice chunck fight and Kade got pegged right above his left eyebrow. Ugh!!

It would not stop bleeding so we scooped him up and headed for the emergency room. He was covered in blood, I was covered in blood......when we got to the hospital they were great! They fast-tracked Kade which meant he didn't have to wait in the lobby or anything...they took up right to a room and got him into a bed....he had 2 nurses all to himself....in fact many member of the hospital staff stopped into his room to see exactly what a chunk of ice can do to a little guys head. The gash was only about 2 inches long but pretty deep. The dr. came in and put on some topical lidocaine to get him ready for sutures. I knew Kade was feeling better when he asked Greg to go back to the party and get his trophy. Anyway, 2 hours and 3 stitches later we were home! And now Kade is totally excited to show his new battle wound off to his friends!

They Are The Champions!!

There they are! Saticoy Little League Minor B Champions - the GIANTS!

They WON!! In fact, they went undeafeated in the playoff tournament. Everyone was gunning for them but these boys pulled together and played some serious ball! We spent a lot of time at the Little League field, I mean a lot! And I grumbled about it at times...but the looks on these boys faces today made it all worthwhile. And now I'm wondering what I'm going to do with myself every night between 4:30 and 7:00 and all day on Saturday!!


Kade had a really great playoff series - his bat came alive and he had 5 RBI's - which I am told is very good. He even made a double play in one game last week. But for some reason the field umpire let one of the kids stay on base. The umpire was wrong - but he stood by his call - much to the dislike of the coaches, fans and players alike! So we just let Kade say he earned the double play!

It's been so much fun to seem him mature and blossom into a tough little ball player this season. He's already looking towards next season and the crack of the bat!

Pentecost Sunday

It's Pentecost Sunday today. Growing up I never really thought much about Pentecost...Easter was more the focus....not the days leading up to it or the days following it. A lot of things happened in those other days. One of them is symolized on Pentecost Sunday. It's the coming of Holy Spirit.....

I find significance of Pentecost in the idea of broken boundaries. Holy Spirit was a unifyer on that day......there was a coming together. I'm still pondering this so here's a link to a Wikipedia article you might find interesting.

Pentecost

We {heart} Poptarts!

Poptarts are big in my house.....Kade loves the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon - not toasted; Keira love the Strawberry or Blueberry - not toasted; I love the Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Unfrosted and toasted; and Greg usually has to eat whatever is left over. We've tried all the new flavors, S'mores, Cookie Dough, SpongeBob Berry but for us it seems the original tried and true flavors are the best.


I created this layout for a challenge from

The Freestyle Blog

and used a great

ScrapAddict kit

. I think I'll go have a poptart now!

Everyone Can Be Obscure

Annette posted her second blog challenge....3 things that no one would know just by looking at you.....so I will bare my soul and share some skeletons that I have hidden....go easy on me okay?!?....confession is good for the soul, right??

1. I almost did not graduate from college. { Mom I hope you aren't reading this....it's been 14 years and I still don't want you to know :) } In my last semester I had a pyschology of human culture or some other horrid class like that and it was at 7:30 am. Because I couldn't stand the class and the instructor was quite sanctimonious I did a lot of sleeping in and missing class. A few weeks before the end of the semester he asked me why I would even bother to show up on the days I did because he was going to fail me anyway. Holy Cow! It took mucho groveling and a lot of extra work but he ended up passing me with an A. Talk about lucky!

2. When I get really mad I have a potty mouth.

3. I was sexually harrassed by my boss at my first job out of college. It was mortifying. When I finally decided to go forward with a complaint the good ol' boys insulated him and he was totally protected and I was left with a freakin' hostile working environment. Needless to say there wasn't much whistle blower protection there and then so I was out of there!

Do you still love me?

Coming Home!

Going away is great....but sometimes coming home is even better. I spent the last 4 days in an amazing cabin at Big Bear Lake with 21 girlfriends. What a time we had!!

We slept in....ate well....shopped....went to the movies.....played Dance, Dance Revolution and just connected with each other on level that is always hard to do when you are involved in the 'hurry up and go' attitude our society seems to live in. I think the trip up the mountain, although exhausting, has refreshed spirits and we all will be better because of it.

Then we get to come home and that was completely amazing.....we met up at a park...where all the daddies and children had gathered to spend the morning together. These guys rock!
Can you imagine what people at the park were thinking when these 22 daddies and their lots of kids showed up...the daddies toting diaper bags, blankets, sand toys, ice chests....phenomenal! They all spent Friday evening, Saturday and now today together with all the kids. They totally bonded just like we did. Greg even remembered to put sunscreen on the kids and my house is totally clean!!

Living in community is a huge thing to us right now....being deeply connected with our friends and living a life of total involvement with each other....it's a good thing!

ScrapAddict Challenge #1

I'm on vacation but I got the wifi to work so I decided to check SA and found Annette's new challenge....I needed to update so here we go.....

favorite color: robin's egg blue
word I most liked to be described as: having integrity
best meal I cook: if you ask my kid's it's Mac & Cheese
favorite dessert: Mud Pie
favorite book: The Ragamuffin Gospel
favorite outfit: a skirt, t-shirt and flip flops
usually in bed by: 9:30
favorite sounds: laughter
I wish: an end would be put to human trafficking
What I crave: living in peace
Surround me with: things that smell good

It's Sunday.....

we woke up to rain today....weird because yesterday was gorgeous! in the high 70's......but the rain is good....my garden needs it.....it's always just a nice cleansing.

We still have no decision regarding my friend's son and the death penalty....11 days.....still waiting to hear after 11 days.....waiting sucks.....when you have a concrete decision it's so much easier.....the not knowing.....I hate that.

Greg's softball team lost the championship last night!
After about 7 years at the top of the league they did not get to bring home the first place t-shirts. It's kind of cool because this team is considered "the old guys"....they're only in their 30's and 40's but they always whopped up on the 20 year olds. So when a team actually beats them it is huge bragging rights. This season they added 4 young-uns to the roster....19, 20, 21 and 25 year old guys.....but that didn't do the trick. Summer season starts soon so I'm sure these guys will come out swinging. They're okay with letting another team have some bragging rights....but not for very long!

Then there's Kade's team....they also enter the playoff tournament as the team to beat. They are very, very good. They lead the league in runs scored and have the lowest total in runs allowed. It's been a tough season for my little guy though.....being the youngest and smallest has it's disadvantages. We keep telling him though, if they didn't think you were good enough to play up they wouldn't have drafted you. His batting average is about .500 which is great....but he still dwells on the strike-outs. They have this upcoming week off and I think that will be good for him. He and Greg can hit the batting cages and just play around for fun. I'm hoping that will help him out....bring some more joy back into the game for him.

Have a great day - and live in peace!

Momma Told Me There'd Be Days Like This

There'll be days like this my momma said!! Wowzers! That's my theme song today.

I have a dear friend who suffers from debilitating migraines.....the last two weeks have been very rough on her poor head so today Keira and I brought her son home after preschool with us to play. It was great! Kade was excited to find his little buddy here when he got home from school too!

I have another dear friend suffering from a yet to be determined autoimmunological disease that is just crippling her body. Really bad day for her today so I got her 2 little girls and brought them over too.

Then a neighbor and her 2 kids and their dog came over to have lunch with us all. It was chaos...but lovely chaos. Here's a little sample....

The neighbor had to leave to pick up another friend's kiddo from school so she took her son and Kade with her.

They weren't gone but about 2 minutes before I heard a slam and a scream. Rushed downstairs to find one of the oldest girls bringing in a hysterical Keira. I looked at her finger and totally froze....it was flattened in the middle and had absolutely no color....thinking about it now I feel so lame...I couldn't even decide what to do......finally grabbed an ice pack from the freezer.....called another neighbor to come over and sit with my kids....called my Dr. and told them I was on the way.

Of course I met every red light and slow driver that were to be found.....but we got there....dear dh was waiting for us....I had called him at some point and so had my really nice neighbor.....

After checking her out our Dr. decided it wasn't broken....just very badly smashed.....expect it too swell a lot.....expect it to turn black, blue and purple......expect it to hurt.

My poor baby....we got in the car to come home and she said "Mommy you need to tell the kids that I can't play anymore. I need to lay in my bed and sleep with ice." And that's where she is...snuggled in her bed with ice on her finger, napping, while 7 other kiddos are playing downstairs.

Enough drama for today! Bring on the weekend!!