Walk with God, Uncle Rick

Yesterday was Uncle Rick's memorial service and the family celebration of life. Some might find it difficult to celebrate the life of one who was so addicted to alcohol that even his closest family members felt distant. But, Uncle Rick was a happy soul with a loving heart and a smile that wouldn't quit. We had a wonderful day with family and friends sharing stories of Rick and things we remember best. I chose not to share my story of Shayna and Jessie barking their little fool heads off at him and the eventual bite Shayna blessed his hand with, but it was nice to hear other stories.
I think the best part of the day was when we hooked up with Dave's brother Wes over the internet with the webcam. He is stationed in Korea and couldn't make it out for the funeral. He was overjoyed to see us all together and shared with us the one thing he remembers best about Uncle Rick. They used to play their guitars and sing together. The craziest song ever....it's about a bird and his pecker....and his broken pecker....don't know the song? Me either really, but it was a favorite of Uncle Rick's and he used to play it any time he pulled out his guitar. So, anyway, Wes pulls out his guitar and finally (after much cajoling) agrees to sing it for Rick's daughters Sonya and Kristie. Well, EVERYONE gathered around for this performance and only AFTER Wes sang for us, did anyone tell him that the room was PACKED! Poor Wes...pretty sure he was embarrassed by the shear number of people listening to him. But, he was a good sport about it.

Toast to you, Uncle Rick! You are loved and missed by family and friends. May your soul rest peacefully in a place happier than you were on earth.

So much happening...

and yet surprisingly little to say.

Dave is getting used to his new car. I can't say he is particularly excited about it. Perhaps it's the timing (he wasn't ready), or maybe the outrageous sum of money that we can't afford, or I suppose it could be that he really loved his truck; but, in any case, he is not nearly as excited as one should be when they purchase their very first brand new car. Honestly, I think I am more excited about it than he is.

Jayden is challenging me daily. I need to hunt up a book on 4-yr-old behaviour so I can figure out what makes his little head tick. I am not good with the little ones...I hope when they are teenagers I will have a better handle on how to deal with them.

Eliana is an angel. She is such a happy child it makes me smile to just think of her. Which is good because I am going to start school next week and I will miss them both terribly while we all adjust to new schedules! Plus, I am going to be gone to LA next week for a couple of days while I record my songs on CD. I am pretty excited and nervous all at the same time! It's a whole new world for me...the music biz! More info on that next week.

Thank you ...

to everyone who was able to join us in our big birthday celebration today. Jayden and Eliana have been bouncing off the walls all afternoon from the excitement of having so many friends visit and spend the day with us. The pirate cake, decor, and treasure chests only added to their excitement. And spending the day in the pool with friends was too much fun for words. Ellie sat with my mom in the rocking chair at bedtime talking non-stop about the rocket ship that they launched up on the roof. Ok...so you can actually see the little plastic toy rocket sitting on the awning from the bedroom window, but still, she talked about swimming with everyone and all the fun they had. Jayden talked about all the fun he had swimming with his friends in the pool and about his pirate birthday. He must have said "Thank you for my really great Pirate Birthday party that I shared with Ellie" to Dave and me a hundred times since everyone left today.

We played three of the games that Jayden got for his birthday today. He wasn't crazy about Crocodile dentist because he didn't want to get bit and apparently he lost one of the bean bags from his Tic-Tac-Toe bean bag game already. I will have to hunt that up before the trash goes out. But, he LOVED the Diego numbers matching game that he got. He is even learning to be a little graceful about not winning. I hope he learns that soon!

All in all, it has been a very exciting day. Not all of the excitement was for the kids though. Dave and I left the kids with my parents for a couple of hours while we went car shopping. Yes, I said cars. Dave's truck broke-down AGAIN! He thinks he blew a head gasket. If that's the case, he is not getting it fixed! Plus, as I said in a previous post, I am not fixing that POS again! I was rather hoping it would wait until the house was done to announce its demise, though. In any case, Dave was hoping for a used Prius with carpool stickers. Since those are so rare these days and outrageously pricey for the ones you can find, we looked at the new Prius' today. I really liked what I saw! I think what we save in gas money from his 4Runner will pay most of the payment on the Prius. We didn't buy anything today, but it gave us a great place to start seriously thinking about what to do. We are still torn between a used Prius at a lesser cost, a new Prius for just a few thousand more (really a difference of only 2K-3K), or a cheap used something else until we can really afford a new car.

UPDATE: We bought a 2007 Prius today. It took FOUR AND A HALF HOURS!!!! I have never purchased a new car before. I didn't know it was an ALL DAY adventure. We are glad to be home with our new baby. :P

Playmates

Jayden has made friends with the boy next door. Shocking, I know! My open-hearted, friendly, happy, out-going little boy made a friend. ;)

Yesterday, he wanted to go play with his little friend so badly, he asked every 20 seconds if he could go play. Finally, it got to the point where I forgot why I was telling him no and said he needed to put his pants on (he doesn't like to wear pants) and shoes. Then he could go ask if his friend can play for a half-hour outside. Well, I'll tell you! No one has ever seen a little boy move so fast! He got dressed, shoes on, opened the front door and ran next door before I could blink!

Not one minute later, he was running back to our house. I met him on the step and he had a funny look. "What....", I started to ask. "He's not home!", Jayden wailed. And, no sooner did the words fall out of his mouth than did the tears start pouring out of his little eyes. He was absolutely devastated that he couldn't play with his friend. We went inside and the sobbing continued for another 10 minutes before he could finally get a hold of himself. I forgot that Jayden's buddy has swim lessons on Wednesdays. I knew I was saying no for a reason, but I forgot what it was. That was it.

I took the kids out to dinner at Red Robin as planned and after a good meal of grilled cheese, french fries and chocolate shake, Jayden was a happy kid again. When Daddy brought them home, Jayden's neighbor friend was standing outside the truck before Jayden could even get his buckles off. They had a great time playing for a little while before the sun went down and they had to get to bed. All in all, it wasn't a bad evening. I suffered a terrible broken heart for my baby though. Playdate rejection is difficult for us at all ages, but to see your children suffer heartache causes much more damage, I think.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY BOY!

My baby is 4 YEARS old today! I can hardly believe it has been that long! Where does the time go?!?

We've had a wonderful day so far. Jayden woke up pretty early this morning and came tip-toeing in to my room. He asked in the sweetest little voice, "Is today my birthday?" :) I couldn't help but laugh he was so cute! I said yes, but then I told him to lay down and rest some more because it was really early! But, he was too wound up already. I let him watch TV until everyone else was up. About 8:30, he couldn't contain himself anymore. So, we got Dave up and came downstairs "for breakfast". Little did Jayden know that his presents were waiting for him. He was very excited to see the huge box that Grandma and Papa had waiting. He played a bit with the little Diego bicycle we bought for him. But, he couldn't wait to open the wrapping paper! He got a little toy Sarge that Grandma has been hunting for for weeks; the bike from us, and Grandma and Papa gave him his own mini-jumping house. It's shaped like a boxing ring and 7 ft square. We have yet to set it up, but we probably will this evening. He was very excited by all of this, but he liked the Sarge the best. Go figure!

After breakfast, we headed down to Gilroy Gardens for the afternoon. It was a nice family birthday event. Dave got tired before any of the rest of us, but Eliana is the one napping now. Thinking I might take Jayden to the park later to meet up with some of our friends. Then, we will come home for a family dinner and Spiderman birthday cake that I made myself! Yeah...I didn't think I would venture one of these fancy cakes, but I did it and it doesn't look TOO bad. I'll have to post pics later. In fact, I'll get some pics of the whole day in a while so check back for them.

There's too much...

going on these days to keep up! My dad is doing well after his surgery. He is still really tired, but is recovering well. He seems encouraged by the weight-loss from his surgery and is planning to keep it up. YAY!

My dear Davey had his tonsils out on Wednesday last week. Despite all of his plans to the contrary, he was laid up for the whole weekend. He was hoping he would feel well enough to work on the house at least Saturday and Sunday and perhaps even Friday. But...he slept all day on Friday and most of Saturday and Sunday. He is off to work today for a least a part of the day. He doesn't anticipate being able to be there all day.

I am off to take Jayden to his very first real dentist appointment. He had his teeth "counted" the last time we were there, but he is in for the full cleaning today. Fingers crossed that it all goes well! :)

UPDATE------------------
So, Dave, who said he was going to work a half-day ended up being there all day. And Jayden, who was all excited about going to the dentist, did a great job! He got his teeth cleaned and flossed by the hygienist. Then, she tried to put the flouride on with those little cups. But, it was too big for him and he was gagging on it. She kept insisting it would work, but he threw-up on her. But, she still wanted to get the fluoride on. So, she painted it on and held his tongue out of the way. That worked much better! All in all, it was a good visit!

Electrician anyone?

I worked my butt off at the house last weekend. Dave showed me how to wire up electrical boxes and I spent the weekend running wires to various parts of the upstairs and making up boxes. It was actually a lot of fun. I wish I had more time in the earlier stages of the project to have worked at the house because I bet I would have liked doing that too! But, alas, the kids were not independent enough. Anyway, my fingers are really sore from putting those little screw-on wire caps on the ends of the wires...Dave says they are called "pigtails". I think that is a cute little name for "manly men doing manly men things" to call the work they are doing. But, who am I to judge. :)

The good news is that Dave thinks we only have 2-3 more days of work on our part left before we can call in the inspector, the insulation people, the air conditioning people and then the drywall guy. I am looking forward to the drywall going in. That really puts a time-frame to our moving home and I, for one, really want to move home! I think not living in my own home is hindering me from making and maintaining relationships with other moms and families. It could just be my imagination, but I don't think so. I want to reconnect with my neighborhood and my playgroups. I am hoping that when I move home, I can have some play dates for both Eliana and Jayden. They are such social kids that I feel bad when they don't have any friends to play with.

Actually, I felt even worse for Jayden today because a little boy at the park told Jayden that they couldn't be friends because they didn't go to the same school. I think it broke my heart. Jayden was sad for a short bit, but then like water off a duck's back, he was back to his normal self. Wish I were that resilient.

Helloooooooooooooooo Summertime!

Well--the first bit of good news is that Dad is home! He came home this morning. He still has post-surgical aches and pains, but nothing terribly unexpected in a 73-yr-old man who just spent a week in the hospital. He seems to be moving with less and less discomfort. Although, he can't find a comfortable place to sleep. Nothing like those reclining hospital beds to spoil a man! :)

The second bit of good news is that today was the last day of summer school! YAY!! I didn't enjoy teaching this class nearly as much as I had hoped that I would. Part of the problem was that they let kids in the class whose mommies made them take it rather than limiting the class to those kids who needed it to move on in math. It's not a public school, they don't have to take just anyone! But, it's over now! I also signed my contract for the school year today. I will teach just one class from 7:50 to 8:35 M-Th. I get all Fridays and regular holidays off! :) We are thinking the extra money will come in handy when we need things like carpet and Dave's new car....oh yeah...Dave needs a new car. We are thinking a used Prius with carpool stickers. They want a fortune for them, but with Dave's savings in gasoline, we can probably afford it! He will be sad to give up his truck, but I told him we didn't have to get rid of it. As long as he drives it once a week or so, it will stay in usable condition and we should be able to afford to keep it. Any more major repairs and it's toast though!

Update on Dad

He is doing much better today. The doctor said that he is treating him as if his appendix burst and that's why they are keeping him in the hospital. I think it's a good thing because he needs time to heal before he comes home to the house with all of here. The dr. said perhaps Thursday...oh! That's tomorrow!

The rest of us are doing fine. Hanging in and hanging out, but nothing fancy to report.

A week full of activity!

This week was chock full of activity. I went to work on June 18 teaching summer school at Notre Dame. I started then teaching just one class of Algebra 1 skills. This week I picked up a second class for SAT Preparation in Math. This class is way more fun than the first. Both of them have one more week!

But, during this last week we had a lot of fun at Kayleigh's 4th birthday party. My mom is watching the kids for me while I work. So, she took them over to Daniela and Kayleigh's house for the party and left as soon as I got there. That was fun. Then, Uncle Max came over to babysit on Friday while I tutored. I sure am working a lot of hours!

Saturday was busy, too. I started out the day with the pile-up of laundry that I didn't get to for the last 2 weeks while I was busy with working. So, there was a lot of clean stuff to put away and tons of dirty stuff to wash. I got started on the washing and managed to put away all the clean stuff. Additionally, I cleaned out drawers and the closet of all the crappy stuff to get tossed and out of season/size things to be stashed until they come handy again. I even found a stashed bag of clothes for Eliana today at our house that is perfect size and season for her right now! I now even have room to put them away! :) After I got laundry going, I took my mom out to lunch and we took lunch over to Dave and Jayden who were stranded at my house. Dave took his truck in to get fixed AGAIN! We're hoping this'll be the last repair on the truck before we might be able to afford a replacement vehicle.

All seemed to be fine after that, but my dad was feeling less than great. He declined dinner which turned out to be a good thing, because he had appendicitis and had emergency surgery this morning. He is recovering nicely and seems to be of good spirit at this time. Hopefully, he will be home in a couple of days. My mom is not nearly as good-spirited as he is....she is worried...with good reason, but even so.

I am off to bed...I have to teach in the morning.

HELP!!!!

I don't know what to do! My kids fight all the damn time! Jayden purposely takes toys, books, food, anything away from Ellie just to make her mad and make her cry. Eliana climbs into Jayden's chair and sits right on top of him and takes his toys and books just to make him mad and steal them back. The two of them goad eachother and tease eachother and it's driving me CUCKOO! Separately they are both little angels, but together! YIKES!! Wasn't it Ghostbusters where the demon had to have the key master and the other person together to wreak havoc? Not sure how the movie went, but I feel like I am about to get beaten by the enormous Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man!

In the meantime, I started teaching summer school yesterday. My class is BORING!!! They sit like lumps and don't talk and I am not sure I have enough enthusiasm to carry all of us through the course! I hope they start carrying their own weight in the next couple of days. I have to keep reminding myself that I am there for the money and the experience will be over in just a few weeks! But, who knows, maybe I will enjoy it in the end.

Jayden is doing great with spelling!

Saturday we were driving up to the boat. It's a long drive. We talked about many things including the cows on the side of the road. Jayden pointed out to Eliana that cows say, "Moo". When we reached the lake, we pointed out the water to the kids and they got apporpriately excited. I asked Eliana if she wanted to get on a boat. She replied with a resounding, "NO! NO GET WET!" A sentiment that she stuck to all weekend. So after that remark, we got quiet. We were quiet for a good ten minutes while we paid for parking at the ranger station and found a spot for the car. As we pulled into the space, Jayden decided to show off his spelling skills.

"K starts with FUCK," he announced.

Dave and I were shocked, of course. But when we got done laughing our asses off, Dave pointed out, "Not exactly, Jayden. FUCK has a K at the end, but it starts with F." I guess it's as good a spelling lesson as any, right? :)

Houseboat weekend!

We had a great family weekend on the boat this Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We were all actually very sad to leave for home this morning. Unfortunately, Dave has to work for a living and make lots of money for us to spend on the houseboat and other things....like building our house! :)

Here's some pics of our fun:

Money well spent!

When Jayden was about 4 months old, we bought him an Exersaucer for about $40. This lovely little jumpy toy was his favorite place to be when he wasn't curled up in my arms or sitting with Dave. He would jump and jump for minutes on end! When Jayden started crawling, I would put him in the Exersaucer to keep him from roaming too far when I needed some down time. He still loved it. We watched baseball games together while he was in it, we watched football; we watched Wheel of Fortune...ok...so we watched a lot of TV. I was working an awful lot of hours for someone who was only part-time and by the end of the day, I was darned tired! Unfortunately, there came the day when Jayden discovered that he could crawl out of the Exersaucer and regain his freedom. That was the day we had to put it away.

But, when Eliana was old enough to hold her head up, we pulled it out again. This was a joyous day for everyone...except Eliana. She HATED it. I could put her in there for about 5 minutes before she would start WAILING. Jayden, of course, didn't mind that, because once she was out, he could get in again and play. He still loved it. Despite Ellie's lack of interest in this toy, we continued to use it. She was ok in there if we fed her Goldfish or other little finger foods...until either Jayden or Shayna came along and stole her snacks. She really liked being in the toy when we took her outside, though. This was usually the only way she was allowed out back with the pool.

Well, the time came that Eliana was too big for the Exersaucer too and I put it away until a friend had a baby. Then, I dug it out and loaned it. We visited this friend many times in the last year and neither one of my darlings paid it the slightest notice at her house. Last night, I brought it back home. Before I could put it away today, it caught Ellie's attention. Check it out:
Eliana spent a good half hour playing by herself in there and then when she was done, Jayden just had to have his turn. LOL...as I am telling this very story, Eliana is back in it!!! :)

HAPPY POST THIS TIME!!

Really, not depressing like the last post. Marcy's impending move was only part of the inspiration for the last post. Mostly, though, it came from all the time I log hanging out with no adult interaction! This weekend, however, I had a completely unreal experience! I went to a reunion.

Not the "LIVE OAK HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1990" kind of reunion, but a much better one. Every year for about 20 years, my high school drama teacher would host a Drama Club Alumni camp out. The idea is that all the alumni (who wanted to) would meet up with Mr. K and and current students who dared venture out to camp and there would be a weekend of camaraderie and reminiscing. This was the second time I ventured to one of these camp outs..the last being 15 (or so) years ago. Mr. K is retiring at long last from a 32 year career of teaching drama. This camp out was billed as his last official camp out and much effort was put into gathering as many alum as possible for this trip. Thus, there were several people from my years at LOHS that I got to visit with, share stories, and catch-up with. It was a good weekend, albeit LONG! Between dinner and the beginning of the traditional "Capture the Flag" game, was a mind-blowingly slow couple of hours where the die-hards spent time planning our "winning strategy" (no one has ever won this game) while the dramatic ones were seen planning our campfire skits. Once the game began, the time seemed to drag on because our "strategy" was to sit and wait for them to come to us and we would capture most of their team and then rush in and get the flag. Thing was...they had the side of camp with the fire. They didn't come to us, they sat and chatted while we hid in the bushes and waited. An old friend and I were on the same team and "stationed" next to eachother. So, we decided (an hour into the game) to move out into the field and look at the stars. It was a GORGEOUS night out there before the moon came up (and after also). Perfect for star-gazing...and not the Hollywood kind. Gave us a chance to catch up and talk too. That was the best part of the game!

The fun began after the game when we gathered around the campfire. We started out with introducing ourselves (name, grad year, plays, roles, etc.) and well over an hour later (there were a lot of us and some people dragged on), the skits began. We had some of the funniest, well put-together skits I have ever seen around a campfire. I laughed out loud for all of them. Didn't hit the hay until way after 1 and up at 6 to get my butt home! Good LORD and I tired! But, it was a great weekend and I missed my hubby and the kids very much! Glad to be home! :)

DON'T READ THIS....

unless you want to hear my misery.

Motherhood is a lonely job. We give up our jobs, our husbands, our friends, and our lives to take care of our babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. When they are little, we are trapped in our homes by diaper changes, feeding times, and naps. Then, they get older, start school, make their own friends, and leave us for their own fun. We get left at home alone then too.

When we do get out, we meet other mommies who have babies our kids age. We may have nothing else in common with these moms, yet we try to form bonds over our children. When the children drift on to the next phase, so do we. Lasting friendships? Maybe. But especially in the Silicon Valley, what is a lasting friendship good for anyway? Phone calls and overnight visits hours away when one or the other of you moves to a new location. How many of us really have someone to call up and say, "Hey, let's get lunch!" or "Want to meet me for coffee?"

Ok..that's the end of my rant today. If you got this far, thanks for reading. If not, I totally understand. It's very negative today.

One step forward...

...and two steps back!

Yep, we had progress on our house. Dave went over there this morning to get some tools to put some fans in my parents' house and guess what?! Yep...you guessed it! It was our FOURTH break-in since AUGUST!!!!! There are no words to describe how angry I am at this moment in time. Dave is so mad that we are heading to Home Depot in just a few minutes to get several 2 X 4's to put over the doors in the back and front of the house. Fortunately our steel door is hard enough to break into that we are going to beef it up with extra locks, but no barricade. My mood right now....GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Oh yeah! And the bitch cop that came to take the report accused Dave of being on crank because he was pacing! Dave said at least her partner was nice.

Anyone know a deserving mom...

who has a story to tell for a cool prize in Palo Alto? Silicon Valley Moms Blog is having a contest to find the most deserving mom for a makeover, 3 months membership at Vivre with 2 personal trainer sessions; a brand new outfit from Romi Boutique; and a romantic dinner for two at Mantra! Sounds great! Check out the link:


But, here's my thing....How would I determine that I am more deserving of this than any other mom? Yes, I am a stay-at-home mom of 2 kids under age 4. Yes, I am still carrying extra baby fat from pregnancy #1 as well as #2. Yes, I wear my hair in a ponytail most days. Yes, it has gray showing through. Yes, I am still wearing clothes I bought in the 90's! I've had my shoes even longer! And, yes, Dave and I have enjoyed ONE SINGLE night alone since the kids were born. I wore a BORROWED dress for the occasion because I own NOTHING!!! In case you missed those pics, I refer you back to http://lstahlfamily.blogspot.com/2006_12_03_archive.html where we stayed in the fancy hotel with the in-room jacuzzi tub.

Come to think of it...that was not really a romantic night out. I froze my rear off in that slinky dress I borrowed from Judy and we could hardly talk over the music at the Symantec Christmas party. The best part of the night was eating sandwiches from the gift shop while watching some random movie ALL THE WAY THROUGH! I don't remember which movie it was, but I do remember waking up thinking, "Wow! Is it morning? We had better go clean the puke out of the car before we pick the kids up from Aunt Judy and Uncle Gary." This is all coming back to me now that I recall both kids puking in the car on the way to Judy and Gary's house. Oh, the fun times! :)

In any case, I don't think any of this makes me more special or more deserving of the great prizes SVMB is offering in their contest. I mean, so what--my hair is long over-due for styling (2 years); the gray is showing through (but I've never had it colored anyway); my clothes are jeans and tees; my shoes are either old and falling apart or sneakers; my marriage has seen better days (as has my fat ass); and I am carrying more weight than ever before. Oh...but did I mention my house??

Speaking of my house..there is progress. Today Dave met with the stucco guys and they are going to fix our leaky windows. As a bonus, the way they are going to fix them is by adding decorative trim to seal the problem spots and keep water out. We have figured out the loan issue and as soon as the money comes through we are going to make the house livable again and move home! YAY!!!!! Ok...I know...I am getting excited about it way too soon. But, we have been living here at Mom and Dad's for 430 days! Yes...I am counting now and it's been the LONGEST 6-8 weeks of my life! :)

Time is A-FLYING!!

I am sitting here on this glorious Mother's Day all by myself with the peace of early morning wondering WHERE THE HELL IS MAY RUNNING OFF TO???????? I can't believe how fast this month is flying by! We have been so busy. It seems we are running around nearly every day with tons to do! So, here is a little catch up on us:

Jayden is a busy busy boy! He can not sit still for the life of him. We need to get out every day and burn tons of energy to keep him from climbing the walls and terrorizing the household. On the bright side, something happened about a week and half ago. We were visiting with Marcy and gang. I told Jayden that if he pooped in his pants, we were going home. Lo and behold...he pooped in his pants not 5 minutes after we got there. To his credit, he knew he had to go and tried sitting on the toilet. But....I told him we were leaving and he needed to get his things and say good-bye. Marcy was right there while I was dealing with this and talked me out of it saying that we shouldn't punish him for an accident and he tried and....bottom line...We ended up staying. Here's the major event right here.....That was the LAST day he pooped in his pants! Every day since then, he has gone to the potty ALL BY HIMSELF, on his own choice, with no help from anyone, sat down, pooped, and on some occasions even wiped his own butt! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! Milestone ACHIEVED!! Thank you, MARCY! We rarely have peeing accidents anymore either, but we need to work on our nighttime accidents now.

Eliana is growing like a weed. She is getting more and more little girl and less and less my baby every day. She loves to have her hair combed and put up in clips or a little (and I mean little) ponytail. She usually pulls it out about 5 minutes after I put it in, but she likes having it done. Her hair is getting thick and long too. I can't wait to see what challenges it will bring in the next few years with all those adorable curls. She is also starting to talk a big bunch. Jayden was not nearly as vocal as Eliana is at her age. He would babble up a storm, but had much fewer words and less desire to be understood as she does. She has sentences like, "Me, eat!" "I'm thirsty." and "Me go out." These are usually coupled with actions like climbing into her high chair to eat, pulling on the fridge door for a drink and carrying her shoes and sweater to the front door and pulling on the door knob. I don't know what I am going to do if she figures out how to open the front door! :)

As for me, I am working up a storm these days. I am still tutoring 8 hours a week, but I am also working for Notre Dame as my mom's personal assistant 10 hours a week--writing tests, grading papers, making photo copies, etc. Maybe this has a lot to do with why I am so busy these days. However, I just bought myself a new stroller (the Baby Trend Sit-n-Stand) so that I am ready to go to Gilroy Gardens (formerly Bonfante), SF Zoo, and neighborhood strolling all summer long. I am working on my motivation for the SJ half-marathon that I am signed up for in October. I figure if I get started on walking, perhaps I can work up my stamina to start putting on the miles. I didn't get very far in the last month, but I think I have done better than the month before. I guess it's a place to start.

Dave is working hard. He works 5 days a week at his regular job and most weekends he is at the house both days. He is trying to figure out how much money we need to get us back in the house and then working out a loan for us to get it done. Our new plan is to be completely finished by Thanksgiving. If it works, we will have Turkey Day at our house again. Fingers crossed!!!

Progress is progress

Jayden pooped in the potty yesterday---ON PURPOSE!! But, today he didn't. So, we had some progress....someday it will all work out.

We are not up to much or doing anything terribly exciting. My choir has our annual spring concert this weekend. It will be fun. I think Dave is coming and his mom plans to come out and hear us too. Sherryl and Anthony are planning to come hear us on Saturday night. That should be nice.

My prayers go out to the Shuman clan tonight. They are crossing a bridge over rough water. Safe passage, Shumans!

Hugs to Julie! She walked her team through the Relay For Life this weekend. WAY TO GO, JULIE!

That's all I know. Peace out!