Tuesday, August 31, 2010



Woohoo! We had a great summer, as always, and now my FIFTH GRADER and SECOND GRADER are back in the saddle again. Or in their case, back on the bike.
Since they are all grown up, they are riding their bikes to school this year.  You can't imagine the excitement over bikes locks!  With keys!
Oh the joy of the first day of school: picking out clothing-okay Hannah was much more excited over that part, and putting on new backpacks-Taylor was really happy with his new messenger bag, new shoes. Meeting new teachers and friends. They were both a little nervous but by the time they got home, they were fine.
I woke up with a horrible headache, so my wonderful husband took the kids to each of their classes, met teachers, dropped off supplies and gathered all necessary paperwork.  I am very thankful to have a hubby that so easily steps in where I can't-I'm glad we believe in team work!

As I write this post, the only noise in the house is the washing machine. Wonderful.
Now on to grocery shopping, by myself.   Then on to working-with no interruptions.
I have to say though: I am glad to see their happy faces at 3 o'clock every day.



And the second day of school:


Tuesday, August 24, 2010



The end of August means summer is going to be over soon.  And I am always ready for it to end.  Don't get me wrong, I love the sunshine, the swimming, less schedules, going to bed later, walks at night because the sun is still out....but I also LOVE fall. It's my favorite time.  I get to settle in like a hibernating bear and enjoy the kids at school, baking, more time to read and prepare for the quietness of winter.  My very sweet mother-in-law found me an elliptical trainer, so it will offset the extra calories from all the baking nicely...

Anyways, what was I talking about? Yes, on to August and the last week.  My two big brothers both came for a visit this summer-I was so lazy and got no pictures of Rob's stay in July, but here are some of Sean and Chinatsu's stay.  Hannah really loves Chinatsu-talked her ear off the entire time-make that we ALL loved having Chinatsu come with Sean.  The family vote is that we would all like there to be a wedding invitation in the mail very soon.
Mike celebrated turning 35 (!), and Hannah is losing teeth faster than I can blink. 
Mike opening one of Hannah's packages
Mike wanted a berry cobbler instead of cake-good choice!
The three boys, I love this picture of them.
Rendi brought over ladder ball and everyone had a good time.   
Mom enjoyed the game from the sidelines knitting.
Karsten entertained us with some songs.
The happy couple....
one front tooth gone
and look at that, the other one is gone,too!! Her 's' sound pretty cute!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Maybe I'm getting old in my ways but it seems like many people have really no respect for other's privacy. 
Yesterday I had a man from a business organization drop by my house at 8:15.  Of course I was up, but in the shower!! Hannah answered the door and he said he would be back.  Yikes.  If I had a business office, that would be fine, but um, this is my house.

Yesterday, I put a post on Craigslist looking for someone to re-do my business website (it hasn't been updated in 5 years! ) and I get a text from someone at almost 11pm wanting to talk about how they can help.  I don't know who they are or how they got my number, I only had the e-mail on the craiglist ad.  I texted back it was unprofessional to text someone I never gave my number out to at 11 o'clock.

I've had clients call me at 7:30-8pm at night, expecting me to take their call, or will e-mail requests at night, expecting me to reply.  I have had to make a 6pm cut-off time for my family or I would be at anyone's disposal.  Weekends and evenings are my personal time thank you very much.

We get several door to door sales people/religious groups/students selling something in our neighborhood, almost everyday.  Since I work at home, I get to talk to them all (sigh). I was working in the garage one day and this guy I didn't know just walked right in there and started telling me about his pest control service.  I nicely told him to back on up to the driveway and I didn't need the service.

Maybe I am just over reacting, but it is started to bug me.  That's my rant for the day.

Monday, August 9, 2010


We went to Nevada last Thursday to visit Mike's family for 9 days.  It was a lot of fun, we hadn't been there since last October for Mike's brother's wedding.  As the kids get older, the car ride is much easier, besides the dvd player (we have only had that for 3 years, what a saver!) we played some games and to mix things up, I got a pack of world landmark flashcards. Mike and I thought that was lots of fun, but the kids not so much.  I must be getting old.  Anyway, the 8 hours through Oregon/Nevada is really BORING.



It's not a vacation without a nap and Mike provides the perfect pillow for Isa.
This photo doesn't do Lake Tahoe justice-it's a beautiful bright blue.
Hannah and Mike with Cecee-Carol's dog
Carol and Charlie just moved into a new house 2 weeks before we came, so Carol had lots of home projects for Mike-he installed 2 new toilets and a dog door, hung some hooks in,  moved furniture and hauled some stuff to the dump.  In between helping unpack boxes, we managed to go up to Lake Tahoe twice where his sister was camping, take the kids miniature golfing in Reno and on Monday took the kids on a "surprise" adventure! 
Survivor: The Ride  (Hannah did NOT like this one)
Off Highway 88 in California-look at that beautiful background!
My favorite ride: the sky tram-easy, cool and slow!
This carousel was 2 stories high!
Taylor walking through the waterworks course

We drove to San Jose via a beautiful scenic route on highway 88 through the El Dorado National Forest (that might be our next overnight trip) to stay the night and took them to Paramount's Great America.  I used priceline and got a sweet deal on a 4 star hotel-the kids thought it was very "fancy", as Taylor said.  It was so much fun, we wanted to stay longer at Great America.   We were there for 9 hours, and then had the drive home back to Carson City, and didn't get home until 1am.  Taylor and Mike road all the big roller coasters, I couldn't believe they did them all.  They were pretty brave!!  Hannah and I stuck to the smaller rides, but my little adventurer tried 2 rides that even I wouldn't go on and got off the ride upset and crying.  We diverted her with cotton candy and all was well. 


We had a great time and really enjoy visiting all of Mike's family.  The kids always love to visit and play with their cousins. Kody, Jacob and Katie are all growing up so fast-we really enjoy getting to spend time with them on our visits. Hannah and Taylor got to spend a night at camp with them, and we took them all swimming Friday night before we left Saturday morning to a great pool with a waterslide.
Kody and Taylor chillin'
Jacob and Taylor practicing a tackle
The cousins hanging out after some fun swimming
These bathing beauties could spend all day at the beach and in the water at Lake Tahoe.


Now back to reality-unpacking, cleaning and LOTS of work.  Boys and Girls club is over and I have 2 kids at home with me for the next 3 weeks while I try and get tons of work done!!!  That will be fun.  Hopefully I can wrap up work and do some fun activities before they start school on the 30th.