Pinewood Derby

It was a crazy morning at the Pinewood Derby. Our pack was up and weighing in their cars at 9am. After some last minute adjustments, everyone was ready to race. Look at all these cars!

I was impressed with all the hard work and imagination these boys put into their cars. The races were fun and surprising. J-man's car did pretty well some of the time, but the wheels weren't stable so it was kind of slow at the end. Everybody got a ribbon for participating and of course a segment to put onto their shirt, too bad his Mom is one of those that can't figure out where to put the patches, so hasn't bothered to add them. Hey, he's got the shirt though. It should have come with put badges here markings so I could figure it out. Maybe I'll study the pictures I took today an look at the other scouts shirts and figure out where to put the stuff. Maybe I should just go plan my next den meeting...................

Happy Birthday to me....

Me and Cheryl
Jason and Daniel
Kristie and Frank
Christine and Ryan (and baby, LOL)

We had a good time at dinner last night! We went to Bucca de Beppos. Dinner for nine, with no children in sight. I drank way too much, but it was good to spend time with friends and laugh. I obviously brought my old camera so some of the pictures, well they are crappy. Oh well, good time had by all. Just took me a long time to get moving this morning..............or should I say afternoon?

Today T-man had a special Birthday surprise for me. As we were driving down the freeway to go to Grammies house for dinner he decided to throw up all over himself and the back seat. Yuck. We pulled over on the side of the freeway and striped him. I put J-man's coat over him and had him wait in the front seat while we attempted to clean the yuck out of the car. Luckily J-man doesn't need a booster any more (technically, although we are going to do it until he turns 8) so we switched T-man into J-man's and let J-man ride with just a seat belt. Grammie still wanted us to come, so we swung by Target real quick and picked T-man up some new clothes and also stocked up on car cleaning products and Lysol. I also bought some new Rubbermaid containers - 2 big ones - just in case anyone else wanted to throw up on the rest of the car ride.

We survived dinner and got everything else cleaned up and laundry going when we got home. Now we just have to wait and see if T-man makes it through the night with out getting sick again and decide if he can go to school or not. Can't wait til tomorrow...............

Pineapple Express is Here

I guess I would rather get my weather from Hawaii than the Alaskan cold. Rain and lots of it is falling and more is heading our way. At least it is warm rain and I can take the liner out of my coat. Boots and raincoats are standing by in case of the garage flooding again.

Spring has sprung here and the trees are starting to flower and bud, it is great. Now we just need to get the pineapple express out of here so we can enjoy spring!

Swim Meet Camera Test

Happy Birthday to me, I got a Nikon D50 SLR. I can't think of a better test for a new camera than a winter swim meet. Low light and action shots, if this camera can take good pictures here, well then its a keeper. It is not the latest and greatest, but its good and I could afford it. It was nice today taking pictures of the kids swimming and not missing shots. Some were blurry, but that was probably me, maybe I should start bringing a tripod with me (would that be too geeky??). Anyway here are some shots from the meet today and J-man had not one but TWO first places, one in backstroke and one for freestyle. We get the ribbons on Tuesday and he is so excited!! He has a second place ribbon, but no first places, so this is HUGE! Go J-man!Oh yeah, I had to include this one of T-man, he is the goofball of the day.

Snow, snow go away

I never thought I would have such a bad attitude about snow. It's beautiful flakes falling from the sky to blanket the earth in white. I have even said, everything looks nicer with a coat of snow on it. Well, I have changed my mind. I am not sure if it was the fall I had on Tuesday morning or the 6th missed day of school that did it for me, maybe it was the feeling that we were trapped at home, too scared to drive anywhere - but I officially hate snow. My yard is a big slushy mess, my whole body is bruised and I will be cursing this snow in July when J-man is still in school. I can't believe I am praying for 40 degrees and rainy!

This is the only remaining family member that still likes the snow. Y-dog likes to go out and roll in it and eat it. He asks to go out side several times a day, goes out and tastes some snow, and then wants to come back inside. It was cute at first, but now I just tell him how dumb he is to WANT to go out and roll in that stuff.
Hopefully tomorrow it rains.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Well the commuters that got stuck in the 5:00 snow don't really think it's much of a wonderland! J-man and I had gone to the club to workout, he is on swim team for an hour - and the workout room is just outside the pool area. At 4:30 it started snowing and by 4:45 it was sticking and coming down really hard. I raced up to the YMCA to pick up T-man (as fast as you can race in the snow) and then pulled J-man out of the pool - lets get home quick before it gets worse! We were home by 5:15 and there was already an inch!

After dinner we went out in the snow to play and there was about 4 inches! Y-dog was LOVING the snow. We walked through the neighborhood to see if anyone wanted to come out and play with us, but J-man's friends had just sat down to dinner. So we went back home to build a snowman. You can tell we don't have much snowman experience, but it was fun to try!

Living Room Update

Not done yet. Here is the LONG list we still have to do:

1. Install baseboards

2. Switch out light switches and sockets (to white).

3. Finish triming around the windows

4. Fix trim around the fireplace (slight accident while removing plastic)

5. Pictures on walls

6. Frame Art and hang on walls

7. Put everything back in bookshelf

Of course I want new tables and my tall lamp fixed and a new chair for the corner, but this is a good enough list for now.................. and in the mean time we are enjoying our new couches and soft, clean carpets!!!