Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Hell Hath no Fury like Pleasanton Scorched!

I actually thought we might miss the Sahara showing up with it's luggage this Summer. We had days and nights of no air conditioning. Mornings when you picked up your newspaper and stopped to smelled the chill in the air. You could actually walk across the patio in bare feet to drag your children off the swings for dinner. Well those days are gone and true Pleasanton summer is here. This is the only part about Pleasanton I don't like. In the summer it's hot, it's a dry heat, it doesn't matter, I hate it.

So out comes the pool from last year and, hey, it's got no holes! "Pip" and "Pop" are thrilled except that Dad threw away all the cool pool toys. Sooo we all hop into the van in search of pool toys at the end of the pool season. We found a couple at ToysRUs and then mom has a great idea The Dollar Store! We find all kinds of toys at The Dollar Store and, guess what? they're a dollar! Back home "Click" and "Clack" play and play until bedtime. Dad wants to clean the pool, so he drains it but doesn't put it away. The next morning "Remus" gets out the patio door (scary enough, we've already fixed that) and thinks it's fun to drag the pool all around the yard and the patio. Now it's full of holes and tears. This late in the season, we can't find the right size patches, so now we have a bunch of pool toys and no pool. Back out to ToysRUs for a pool.

If it's the end of the season and School Supplies are crowding the aisles, why are pool supplies so expensive?? It doesn't matter. When you hear "Monkey See" and "Monkey Do" giggle until they can't stop, who cares? When you see the shocked look on "Romulus'" face when he accidentally falls in face first and then the big grin that follows. It just doesn't occur to you to ask your spouse, "well, gee, honey, what do you think? Should we get it?" You just do it without batting an eye like letting the Sahara stay in your guest room for the Summer.
til later...

Friday, July 27, 2007

Say It Ain't So!


Poof Ball
I sent these pictures out via email just a couple days ago. The boys LOVE this ball. Aunt Tanya sent it for Christmas and it is so fun for them and so good for them. OT's love it because it offers compression and bouncing for loosening of joints. It relaxes them and "centers" them so they can concentrate on their work. And of course the boys just think it's fun. After a while it got a hole in it and dad patched it a couple times, but they still found new ways to play with it every day.

Well about 5 minutes after I hit the send button to send the pictures of our favorate toy, the patio door opened and my 3 boys came in whining. "Mo-oooom, it brooooke!" And indeed it had. Ripped from stem to stern. Ethan wanted dad to fix it with the hole fixer and air pump, but that just wasn't gonna make. Finally Dad was able to distract them to the Kangaroo Balls, whispering on his way out the door, "get on the internet and FIND ANOTHER ONE! NOW" So I did and it's supposed be here sometime next week. I just hope we can last that long. Every day the boys ask, several times, to "please play Poof Ball". Poof Ball: The ball is a little deflated. Dad puts weight on one side of the ball, one of the boys sits on the opposite side. All on a sudden dad presses hard on his side and boy "poofs" up in the air! (see pic above)
til later.....

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Six Long Months


It's hard to believe it's been 6 months since I last posted to this blog. I'm sure most of you have abandoned it. Our life has been difficult with Tod being out of work since October. I haven't felt much like posting because it all seems to be bad news on top of worse. But the reason I started this blog was to keep in touch with friends and family back home, to let everyone know what's happening in our lives and to keep myself connected. I've realized that these are things I desperately need to do. So I am going to try.... as much as I may not feel like it. Right now, here are some good things happening:

Tod has been interviewing with Gateway computer and it looks promising. We don't want to get our hopes up, a lot of jobs have looked promising. This one would mean a move to southern califonia. The boys would like it, the beaches are much calmer for swimming and depending where we lived we could hear the fireworks from Disneyland every night. We are getting closer to getting meds worked out for Dylan and his seizures and night time rages. We're all getting a littler more sleep. Yesterday Tod and I got to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Our sitter gave us movie passes on our anniversary. I was fun to go out on a real date! My mom is doing much better and hopefully will be home from the nursing home in a couple weeks. And I have a doctor's appt. Friday, so maybe I can finally find out what this stomache problem is.
til later.....