Disneyland Day 2 Cont.

When I first arrived to meet hubby and the kids at California Adventures they were playing in the water park area for kids. At first KK wouldn't go in but once she saw her big sis having so much fun she joined in too.

After playing at the water park we decided to head over to the Under the Sea carousal. The girls love this carousal and we hadn't had a chance to play there yet.

Then it was off to bugs life to do a few more rides before going to a store to buy Aly and KK's souvenir. Grandma T gave them each $20 to pick out something special. Wouldn't you know it, they both picked out the same thing! They picked baby Simba stuffed animals.

After picking out their souvenirs we decided to head back to the hotel to check on Grandma and see if it was possible to give the girls naps. While the naps failed it was a good rest period. Shortly after 3 we decided to bring Grandma back to Disneyland to get her park hopper ticket turned in for a new one. Then we headed over to meet Daddy and the girls at Rainforest Cafe.

The girls were too scared to eat inside as the animals made a lot of noise and they didn't like the thunder storm. Grandma bought the girls cool light up cups. You can see KK enjoying hers! Grandma bought herself one too. Too bad it was the only souvenir she had a chance to get. Poor Grandma. Hopefully we can bring her back when her ankle is all healed.

After dinner we made it just in time to see the parade at Disneyland. This is one of their favorite things to do! They were so tired after the parade that we were only able to ride the dumbo ride and we had to take them back to the hotel to go to bed. That was the end of our trip.

Disneyland Day 2

On our second morning at Disneyland everyone slept in till 7. After we all woke up we checked on Grandma to see how her ankle was doing. It was swollen and bruised. Hubby talked to Grandma and said we could take her home now if she wanted. She didn't want to do that to the girls. So he offered that we take her home around noon but she didn't want that either. She was really worried the girls would be sad to leave soon. So we compromised to leaving first thing unday morning.

In the meantime, Hubby would take the girls to Disneyland while I called around to find some crutches for Grandma. I was shocked that hubby was up for taking the girls by himself to Disneyland. He usually likes to have a one to one ratio in crowded public places. So off he went and had the girls in the park by 8:3o. I began making numerous phone calls to various CVS Pharmacies, Target Pharmacies, and Walgreens. One of the CVS Pharmacies said they had crutches. I told them I needed them for a 5'6" woman. They told me they were adjustable. Since I have never used crutches in my life I didn't question it and drove the twenty minute drive out to the store and purchased the crutches.

To our surprise once I opened up the crutches and Grandma tried them out they were way too big. After looking carefully we discovered they were for a 5'10" man or taller. So I had to call around and find someone else who would carry the right size. The only place I could find was a Medical Supply store in Orange, CA. So I returned the crutches that were the wrong size and drove out to the medical supply story to get the correct size crutches. At last, we finally had what Grandma needed.

After returning, I got Grandma all set up with the crutches and decided to join hubby and the kids at California Adventures. I think by this time it was nearing 12:00.

Disneyland Day 1

The girls were very excited to go to Disneyland! In fact Aly woke up at 6:30 in the morning begging Grandma T to go. Grandma tried to get her to go back to sleep but she was wide awake and ready to go. The park didn't open until 9:00 a.m. that morning. We managed to get there by 8:45. The park was pretty empty so we were able to have just a short wait on their favorite ride Dumbo. After that Grandma T and I went on Peter Pan while Daddy took the kids on Casey Junior train. We met up with him and did the carousal together.

After the carousal we decided to go on the Storybook ride. That is the ride where you are on a boat that goes through the whales mouth! Once we finished that we were headed to Toon Town since KK wanted to ride the Mickey Mouse Roller Coaster. Aly doesn't like that ride so KK, Mommy, and Grandma went on while Aly played in Goofy's house. After the ride was over we took KK to the bathroom. Yes, this is where our first problem began. KK was terrified of the automatic flush toilets!

After going to the bathroom we met up again with Daddy at the Mickey Mouse Fountain. KK was really clingy with Grandma today and wanted Grandma to hold her. Aly decided she wanted to try out Donald's house so we all began heading over there. Before I knew it I looked over my shoulder and Grandma was on the ground. There was a curb on the Mickey Mouse Fountain and Grandma couldn't see it since she was holding KK. She tripped and fell. She did an amazing job protecting KK. KK got up and walked away without a scratch. Unfortunately Grandma scrapped and bruised her knee and elbow as well as twisting her ankle.

At first Grandma couldn't feel any pain but I insisted on her seeing a nurse at least to bandage up her scrapes. It took about a half an hour to get the nurse. When the nurse came out she felt that Grandma's ankle was already a bit swollen and Gandma should get ice and a wheelchair. Tough Grandma said she was fine and could walk. The nurse didn't feel it was a good idea so Ed went with a staff member to get the wheelchair and we made Grandma sit in the chair.

At first Grandma felt o.k. so we went on the Jungle Book ride and headed over to California Adventures because they have much better food over there. We ate lunch and went on a few rides over at Bug's Life. At this point we thought it would be good to take Grandma back to the hotel to elevate her ankle and let the girls take naps. After naps we had dinner and we headed back to the park. Grandma wanted to stay at the hotel to rest and watch the Presidential debate.

Our kids ended up being so cranky that we were back after just an hour or so at the park. We all went to bed. Hubby and I talked over leaving Disneyland by noon the next day so we could take Grandma home so she could be seen by a doctor.

Alyssa is inside the pumpkin!

Automatic flush toilets not so good

Thursday we left for Disneyland. We were going to stay three days and return home on Monday. Our trip was cut short and I will give you the details later. For now I need to complain about automatic flush toilets!

I understand the idea behind them. Many people don't flush toilets when they have finished their business and it helps to keep cleaning down for staff. However, does anyone out there realize how difficult these toilets can be on children??? Both of my girls are sensitive to sound and these automatic flush toilets are always VERY loud and the flushing action is quite hard. Yes, my girls have been stuck on the toilet and had it flush on them. They are both terrified.

Luckily my 5 year old we are able to reason with. So with her we have showed her that you can put toilet paper or a toilet seat cover over the sensor and it won't flush until you remove it. However, my youngest daughter who just turned three doesn't really understand this concept and she is terrified of these toilets. What did this mean for us? Total bathroom issues at Disneyland. You see, the entire park only has automatic flush toilets!

So what is one to do when their three year old grabs onto you clenching her legs around your waist screaming she won't use those toilets. All the while you know she is dying to go to the bathroom and has been doing the pee pee dance the past ten minutes. I looked at my MIL for guidance and we tried everything we could think of. She tried showing KK she would keep her hand over the sensor. We let her watch Aly first. You will not believe what we resorted to. In fact, you will probably look at me in total disgust. But, alas, desperate times call for desperate measures. So we did the only thing we could think of. We let her pee in the sink! Yes, I know, how disgusting letting her pee where people wash their hands. But we didn't know what else to do. KK would have either peed her pants or gotten a bladder infection from holding it too long. She has been potty trained for almost ten months so the idea of peeing in a diaper is foreign to her now and we didn't have any anyway. We also didn't have a change of clothes at the park with us. Yes, we rinsed the sink out afterwards.

So have any of you had this problem with your child? What did you do? As much as we could we tried to time her potty breaks around being at the hotel or somewhere there were flush toilets but we couldn't always do that. So I think about three times she ended up peeing in a sink. If you have any other clever ideas please share. I would love to try something else if possible as we plan on going back in December!

Dr. 90210

For the past year I have began watching the reality show Dr. 91210. It is a reality show based in Beverly Hills that focuses on plastic surgery. Many of the clients go in for a breast augmentation but there are also tummy tucks, nose jobs, liposuction, collagen injections, and much more to list.

Before watching this show I wasn't too fond of plastic surgery. Of course the show does a good job in changing your mind. In fact, it makes you want to get plastic surgery yourself! What would I want if I dared to go under the knife? There are two things really. After nursing two children it would be nice to get a breast lift. I also would like a mini tummy tuck to get rid of the c-section flap.

What about you? Are you totally against plastic surgery? If you could afford plastic surgery what would you want done?

My New Haircut

Yesterday I got a new haircut! No, you are not going to see a picture, at least not for awhile! I don't like it and I am not ready to post it on my blog. You see, I had shoulder length hair and I was going in to get a haircut that would be half way down my neck in length. I asked for lots of layers! That was really the trouble, I asked for lots of layers. However, in my mind I was thinking long layers like the hair cut I had last summer. Instead she gave me lots of SHORT layers. Yeah, I have very short hair now. I am in shock. So, at the moment I don't like it.

Want to know what my family thinks of it?

Aly, "Mommy what happened to your hair? I liked it the way it was before. Why did you cut it?"

Hubby, "It isn't that bad. It will grow back. Some people like short hair. If you like short hair it is a good haircut. Now is a good time to get a highlight job!"

KK didn't utter a word.

So, in the meantime I will not be posting pics. Although we are taking a family vacation so after our trip I may be forced to post one or two pics with me in it just so the memory of me being present exists.

I will look forward to my hair growing back. Lucky me, it grows 1/2 -1 inch a month!

More Mickey Mouse tie Dye shirts

I have completed another round of Mickey Mouse Tie Dye shirts and yes, they are very time consuming. First of all you have to trace the Mickey Mouse head and then using white dental floss sew around the image so you can pull it tight. This took me an afternoon to do all 5 shirts. Then since I don't have dye that is already the color I want, I have to play chemist and mix the primary colors to come up with this rich true blue color. Finally I do the tie dying. Between mixing the dyes and dying the shirts it took me two hours. But I do like the results! A few of the shirts the black ran a bit outside of the Mickey head but I think they still look pretty good. What do you think? We will all be wearing these as a family at Disneyland. Won't be hard to find us huh? So now we have two days worth of tie dyes. FUN!

What we would like to be for Halloween

I have always wanted to be Darth Vader for Halloween. No, I will not be him this year but it is definitely a costume I would love to have some day. The only problem is it would scare the children so it is probably not an appropriate costume to have as a teacher or a mother of young children. Maybe someday though. Here is a picture of my ideal costume. O.k. I know it is ridiculous at $599.00 but I am just saying it is my dream costume!

I asked hubby what he would like to be for Halloween and he said the costume of his dreams would be to be a tree. Like the trees in Lord of the Rings. What were those called? Ents or something like that? Here is a picture although it is not his exact choice as he would like it to look realistic with more leaves and such. Hmm, maybe someday I could sew him something and add real leaves and twigs the day of....

Aly wants to be Sleeping Beauty which is great since we got an awesome hand me down costume that is in great condition and came complete with a wand, shoes, and a crown. Here is an actual picture of her dressed up in her costume. She can't wait for Halloween.

KK has been in love with two things lately; Dumbo and Pongo the Dalmatian from 101 Dalmatians. So she decided to be dumbo for Halloween. I just ordered her costume from ebay and it shall arrive this week. Can't wait to see her in it. I think I will try to buy a long sleeve grey shirt and long sleeve stretch pants if I can find them.

Aly's school attendance promotion

Aly's school is super strict on attendance and this year they are tying multiple contests into promoting perfect attendance. Almost every letter sent home mentions how they only get funding for each day your child is physically in class and if your child is out sick, they loose the money.

I guess their answer to the budget crisis is to try to promote all students to have perfect attendance. Some of their contests include putting a sign on the window of the classrooms that get perfect attendance for the week and doing a drawing once a quarter to win an IPOD if you have perfect attendance. I can't remember the other incentives but I just find it quite a double edge sword.

If you are a fifth grader you would probably be really interested in winning that IPOD. So does that mean you will go to school with strep throat, a horrid cold, stomach flu, etc. just so you can have your chance at winning the contest? I am lucky that my child is only in kindergarten and doesn't seem to care about the hype. Don't you think that this type of promotion can send many sick children to school spreading more illness around than if they just stayed home?

I find it going a little bit over board. I guess we will see how it works for them. Perhaps it will work great and I can insert my foot in my mouth. It will be interesting to see if they give us any kind of an update on attendance after the first quarter.

What are you thoughts on this topic? Do you think it puts added pressure on young children to attend school when they are sick?

Poor KK

KK woke up from a nap today with a 103 degree fever. I called to get a Dr. appointment for first thing in the a.m. tomorrow. I am sure she has strep throat now too. She didn't eat today and I had a feeling by lunchtime she was not feeling too well. The funny thing is there was a sub job I could have taken tomorrow from just 12-2 and it paid $65. Great pay for such a short amount of time but I didn't take it because I was afraid that KK could get sick. I guess my gut instinct was right, good thing I didn't take the job.

Hopefully they will give KK a little bit stronger antibiotic so she will get better faster. Aly got amoxicillin and it took her two full days to start feeling better. KK won't be going to preschool this week. Bummer for her but I am glad I didn't send her as she would have spread strep throat throughout her preschool.

I hope KK sleeps o.k. tonight. We will be checking on her each time we wake up to check her fever.

We got to see the Glanville's again!!!

My best friend Amy came for a visit to town again. Her step daughter Stephi had a baby at the end of June so Grandpa and Grandma came for a visit! On Sunday we spent the day going to some local ranches along with all of the step children. Since we had a birthday party to go to we only were able to see them for a couple of hours.

On Monday against my better judgement we hung out together again and did some shopping. Aly seemed fine once she had taken some ibuprofen and Amy was o.k. with taking the chance that her kids might get sick. Too bad we didn't know it was actually strep throat. Aly didn't even complain of a sore throat until lunch.

We had a good time together and here are some of the photos we took. Aly and Taylor had a great time and you can tell by all of the photos. They really missed each other too!

I don't know why but I didn't take any pictures of Tanner her youngest son. Bummer! We were so sad to see them go! Two days isn't long enough, we need you for a month! :-)

Weekend of birthday parties

September must be a popular month to have a birthday! Already Aly's class has celebrated four birthdays and Aly was invited to two of the parties. Both parties happened to be the past weekend. Nathan's party was on Saturday at a gymnastics place and Eileen's party was at her house.

KK was invited to Nathan's party too since we are all family friends. The girls had a great time at the gymnastics party and Aly asked if she could have her birthday there too! I forgot my camera so unless Annette or Kristi forward me some photos I won't have any shots from that party.

I did remember to bring my camera to the birthday party on Sunday at Eileen's house. The party was held in her yard and the girls had a great time. Since it was a party at Eileens house they allowed KK to join. It was a small party with just three girls so they had a lot of fun playing together. Eileen's mom made some fun party games such as a sack race, find the beens in the flour while being blind folded, and dressing up your partner. That is a picture of Aly being dressed up by Eileen. It was cute to see how competetive Aly was at wanting to win. Eileens mom even made paper lanterns and barbie dresses as the pary favors. Eileen had a fun yard with chickens, birds, and ducks. They even took a boat and made it into a yellow submarine. It was a lot of fun.

Aly has strep throat

Aww, poor Aly. Sunday night she came down with a high fever and it hit her hard. She was visiting with her friend from Montana, Taylor. She wanted to sleep instead. Over night she woke up a few times not feeling well. Never really complaining of anything other than her stomache hurting. On Monday she didn't start complaining of a sore throat until around lunch time. She still had a pretty high fever though. I decided to take her to Urgent Care since I couldn't get an appointment with our regular doctor. When we got there her fever was at 102. The Dr. said she had strep throat and sent us on our way with a prescription for antibiotics.

Poor girl has been miserable since. She isn't eating and is constantly complaining her throat hurts. Well in her words, "My neck hurts mommy." I have offered her popcycles, milk shakes, and ice cubes. She didn't even take more than one drink of the milk shake. She said it hurt to swallow....

Unfortunately I think we may have spread it to many unsuspecting people. Aly went ot a birthday party on both Saturday and Sunday. My guess is she was contagious then. Most of the children at the parties were from her class. I let her teacher know and apparently it is going around the class.

Hopefully by tomorrow she will start feeling better. We have missed two days of school already.

KK singing

I thought the Grandma's might enjoy this clip on KK singing "Baby Beluga"

Aly's second soccer game

Well today we had our second soccer game. It was early at 9:00 a.m. which meant we had to leave the house by 8 as the coach wanted all the girls there at 8:40. I made sure Aly went to bed early and had plenty of rest. I was hoping this would help her be more of an active participant in the game.

Here is a picture of Aly stretching with her teamates. Do you know they only have seven girls on their team? Plus they play two games at a time so three girls are on one field and three on the other. This only leaves one sub. Well today one of the girls didn't make it till half time so we didn't have any subs. Aly wasn't into playing that long. She gets frustrated running after the ball and not making a goal. In her own words she says, "Mommy there are too many kids on the field. I just want it to be one or two other kids. It is too hard to make a goal."

The second half of the game was really tough again to get Aly to go out on the field. We also notice that if we are close to the sidelines trying to cheer her on or helping to ref the lines, Aly turns her emotional play on with us and tries to get out of the game. So we found it better to sit back in our chairs and keep a distance.

You know if her team was larger I might consider letting her quit soccer. But with only seven girls if she quit there would never be a sub. Plus there is the whole thing about seeing a commitment through. She wanted to play and we paid quite a bit of money for her to join. So in the meantime Daddy and I will sit down and the coach will take Aly by the hand and try to encourage her to play.

Perhaps over time she will find her groove! Perhaps with us standing back more it may help her too....only time will tell.

The Mine Box

Lately my girls seem to be fighting more than ever. They are both provoking eachother too. Aly will purposely find one of KK's favorite things and show her that she has it. This sends KK into a crying fit wanted her favorite item. On the reverse end Aly will be playing with a line of toys and KK will come over and try to take one of them. This enrages Aly and it is an all out screaming battle! I am telling you on bad days it seems like this screaming is going on every 15 minutes.

So I have reached my limit of tolerance! Enough is enough. I think I actually reached my limit awhile ago but couldn't quite figure out how to handle it. This week I finally came up with a plan! The MINE box.

What is a MINE box you might ask. It is a box I found and put the words MINE on. From now on in our house anytime the children are fighting over a toy it goes in the MINE box. Guess what? They don't get it back until they are caught sharing other toys. Yes, it's true, it is not a simple 5 minute time out. It is in the box until they are caught doing behavior they should be doing!

I started this box a week ago and it seems to be working great! All I have to do now when I hear the sound of screaming is say that if they can't work it out it is going in the MINE box. They have been able to immediatly resolve the problem!

Chicken Tikka Masala recipe

I just recently started liking Indian food and this dish is my favorite. I took a couple of recipes, combined ideas and tweeked them! Great dish with a nice creamy sauce with a medium spicey flavor. Tastes great with rice and garlic naan bread.

(Marinade)

1 cup yogurt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tblsp Garam Masala

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons black pepper

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

6 breasts of chicken cut into bite size pieces

wooden skewers

(Sauce)

2 tablespoons butter

6-8 cloves of minced garlic

2 jalapenos seeded and finely chopped (you can leave the seeds for a hot, spicey sauce)

4 teaspoons ground cumin

4 teaspoons paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

12 ounces of tomato paste

2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions:

In large bowl combine all the ingredients for the marinade. Cover and refridgerate a minimum of one hour. I like to do at least 3-4 hours myself.

Once chicken has been marinated long enough stick chicken on skewers and grill on medium heat for five minutes on each side. Let cool.

For the sauce melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. SAute garlic and jalapeno for about a minute. Add remaining seasonings, tomato paste, and cream. Simmer on low heat. Add grilled chicken and simmer for about ten minutes. Put on a plate and add fresh cilantro if desired.

Subbing, my second day back in Aly's classroom

My morning definitely started off rough. I woke shortly after 5:30 a.m. and managed to get everyone dressed, fed, lunches packed, and out the door shortly after 7:30. I even made it just on time to KK's preschool. Only problem was it was locked and no one was there! I was in shock! It was just minutes before 8:00 and their business hours are 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. I had multiple conversations with the director that our days were flexible and anytime I was subbing I could bring KK at 8 a.m. What was I to do?

Given that Aly's school was a 25 minute drive from the preschool I had to do something fast. I was scheduled to start subbing at 8:30. So I called my friend Kristi whose son Nick also attends the same preschool. I knew he would be going today at 9:00 a.m. so I asked her if she wouldn't mind watching KK until 9:00 a.m. when the preschool program started. She was a life saver and said she would. Thank goodness to have such a great friend like Kristi!

Kristi only lives a block from the school so I jetted over and dropped KK off. I made it just on time for my sub job. Now that I had already subbed in this class once I knew what I was up against. I had also volunteered yesterday and watched how the teacher ran the class and how she disciplined the students. So I was ready to go. I felt more confident and brought the things I knew the students would love, art and music!

I told the class I would be doing three special things with them today; Popcorn art project, pig puppet, and singing. I told them they had to be good listeners and follow the rules or I would take away one of the fun things I would be doing today. Guess what? It worked like a charm! Even my difficult student that screamed that she hated me last time behaved much better. She wasn't perfect but she was definitely tolerable. Do you know she never told me she hated me today? I feel like going through a day with her and not hearing that is a successful day!

So the day went much better than last time and I felt much more relaxed. I called KK's preschool on my lunch break and talked to the director about no one being there at 8. Apparently she is always there at that time but today was a difficult day with her daughter and she was late. She gave me her home phone number and told me to call her when I have subbing days and she will make sure she is there on time. O.k. so that shouldn't ever happen again!

KK's first day at her new preschool

KK had her first day at her new preschool today. She did very well. On the way to preschool I asked her what was going to be her favorite thing about her new preschool. She said the tire swing. Sure enough as soon as we got there she went straight to the playground and began playing on the tire swing.

The next best thing was that one of her favorite friends Nick was in her class. She also knew another girl named Rory. So I think this time things will be easier since she knows some children in the class. I stayed for a half an hour and she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

At the end of the school day when I picked her up she was happy. The teachers said she had a good day and she didn't cry at all. They did say around 10:00 a.m. she asked to lay down. So they decided to try a nap with her after lunch. She napped for an hour.

When she got home I asked her how she liked school. She said she liked it. I asked her what her favorite thing about school was. She said eating! Do you know what is funny, she told her Daddy the same thing. I thought that was pretty funny.

While KK was at school I volunteered in Aly's classroom. I thought it would be great to get the opportunity to see how Diane was coming along in the room and how the teacher dealt with her. Do you know what was funny? Within five minutes of getting there the teacher told me her daughter was pretty sick and she sent her to school anyway. She asked me if I would be available to sub the rest of the day if her daughter was running a fever. I said I could. Luckily though her daughter wasn't running a fever.

Diane behaved the same way for her teacher as she did for me. She even said the same things like, I hate you, you don't like me, I don't want to be in your class, I hate everyone, etc.... The teacher did many of the same things I did but there were times when she ignored her or didn't address her behavior so I think I will try that!

I got a call at 8 p.m. from Aly's teacher, she needs me to sub tomorrow because her daughter really isn't doing well. So I said I would. Wish me luck with my patience and Diane! KK will enjoy another day at preschool while I am subbing!

Happy Birthday Nathan! (Possible future son in law--hee, hee)

Happy Birthday Nathan! Your cupcakes are amazing, KK couldn't stop talking about them. Your mom did an awesome job! Since you are Aly's favorite boy and she would marry you since you are smart, funny, nice, and have black hair she made you a nice birthday card.

Pretty cute huh? She spelled most of it herself but did in the end ask me how to spell Happy Birthday and you.

Hope you had a great birthday Nathan!

School fundraisers

Today we got a paper explaining Aly's first school fundraiser. Being that it is a public school the only way they can do extra things like assemblies, bus rides for field trips, and extra supplies for classroom teachers is by raising funds from the community.

In the private sector I have not been as receptive to the idea of fundraising. In the public sector I have always agreed and supported it. However, my Uncle Kevin made a great point to me a few years ago on fundraising. He felt like it was exploiting the children and putting them in possible dangerous situations when they are expected to go door to door and ask for funds. His personal preference was just to donate a sum of money at the beginning of the year and say he was done.

I have always remembered this conversation and have tended to agree with him. I would much rather just donate funds where 100% of what I am donating goes to the school. I hate those candy/wrapping paper fundraisers where the products are ridiculously priced and the school is lucky to even earn 25-50% of the profit.

Aly's school has decided to do a fun run. This is a fund raiser where she gets money donated to walk the track. It is not a per lap donation either, it is just a flat donation. So if she doesn't end up walking the money is still donated--which actually she won't even be there on that day so good news for flat donations. Anyway, this is the kind of fundraiser I feel I can support. 100% of the money goes to the school and I will not allow my daughter to make any solicitations for money.

What about you? What have your experiences been with school fundraising? What are your thoughts about it?

Aly's First Soccer Game

Aly had her first soccer game today! The downside was Daddy let her stay up late on Friday night and she was tired as well as it being a very hot day! While we were driving to the game she was getting nervous saying she wanted to make a goal and what if she didn't make a goal. We reassured her that playing soccer wasn't about making a goal and that it was o.k. if she didn't make one. We told her she could help her teammates out and steel the ball from the other team or pass to one of her teammates.



The game was at 10:30 and the heat was already blazing. All the parents set up chairs in the shade! Aly was already saying it was too hot to play. Their shirts are reversible and double layer so I can only imagine how hot it must have felt to wear their jerseys.



Aly played the first half. In the beginning she went after the ball quite a bit. By half time she didn't want to play anymore. We tried to put her in once to see if she would play but she just stood there and watched. I told her coach to go ahead and keep her out the rest of the game. When you watch the videos she is number 8 and has a pony tail with a pink scrunchy.

While she didn't score a goal I think she did quite a good job at going after the ball. I showed her these videos to help boost her confidence. She seemed more proud of herself after watching the videos.

Hubby's company picnic

We had quite a busy day today. Not only did we have Aly's first soccer game but immediately following we had hubby's company picnic. It ended up being quite a drive too. We were expecting it to be about an hour from our house and it ended up being an hour and forty five minutes away. The picnic was at a horse ranch and it was around 105 degrees! We were all very sweaty.

The good news is I won a game of bingo scoring me a $50 gift card to costco! Yeah!!! Since we are having such a problem with working DVD players in the house we agreed to use the gift card towards the purchase of a DVD player.

One of the first activities the girls enjoyed doing was the bounce house! There weren't that many kids at the picnic so for this period of time they had the house to their selves.

After some fun in the bounce house they got their arms painted. They both choose to have a rainbow painted on them!

One of our final activities we enjoyed as a family was tricycle racing. The tricycles were made for adults. So we each took a child with us. Hubby one every time. When Aly decided to race Daddy on foot she one!

Did you miss your favorite show?

I can't tell you how many times I have missed an episode of Big Brother or one of my many other favorite reality shows. This past week I have missed both episodes of Big Brother. Yes, I am in the digital age and I do have a DVR, that is not the problem. The problem is sometimes the satellite company doesn't get the time the show will air correctly. Since I use television for exercising on the treadmill I often don't find out till a day or two later. The good news is if the show is from CBS I can go directly to their site and watch it.

However do you know what happened to me over the summer. I was watching Top Chef and the last two episodes of the season wouldn't record. At first I wasn't sure why and didn't put much time into it. Then I figured it out, my satellite company took away the network BRAVO. I was so irritated. I had to go on the web to find out who won! Then I was watching Tori and Dean, Home Sweet Hollywood and lost the last few episodes because my satellite company decided to get rid of OXYGEN. Yes I am on the cheapest package and no I am not willing to upgrade $18 a month just to get these two networks back. So what is a girl to do?

Well today I discovered Hulu. Hulu is a website that allows you to watch your favorite shows and movies for free! Don't worry they have much more than just Reality TV. Check it out and don't upgrade your cable package. I heard you could actually link your computer to your TV. Perhaps if you did this you could just rely on this site for free TV?

KK's discovering her sense of humor

Lately KK has been having fun telling jokes to anyone that wants to listen. Typically that just means mom and dad since we are around her the most. This is what she likes to say:

KK: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Us: I don't know why?

KK: To get to the other side, haa, haa, that's funny! Get it?

Then she goes on to tell us another joke.

KK: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Us: I don't know why?

KK: To get to the other side, haa, haa, that's funny! Get it?

This goes on over and over and over and over again until we can turn her attention to something else! We are currently trying to teach her some other jokes. However, I think we may need sissy's help because she tends to want to learn more from her!

Aly has a new fear!

On our drive home on Labor Day we encountered a very scary roadside fire. Just before reaching Red Bluff there was a fire that broke out along the freeway at 11:30 a.m. We came through the fire at 11:40 a.m. just ten minutes after it started. The fire was already fully blazing and quite scary. Fire trucks had not yet reached the scene and we were driving through the fire at approximately 5 miles an hour. Visibility was not good and at times I couldn't see anything. We were engulfed with smoke and flames were along side us on the road. We could feel the heat of the flames inside our car.

I made the mistake of expressing my own fear outloud. When I couldn't see anything I made a comment, "I can't see anything, I don't know what to do!" I should have kept my fears inside me. This only scared Aly and she started crying. With Aly crying KK got scared too and started crying. I told both of them it would be o.k. and we were almost out of the fire. The bad news was 1/2 mile up the road there was another fire we would have to go through. Aly saw it too and was begging me not to drive through it. There was nothing I could do because there were no exits. We had to go through the second one. This time I knew to stay calm for my children's sake. This fire was a little easier to drive through and visibility was a bit better.

As soon as we made it through the fires we exited the freeway and ate at the first McDonald's we found. Aly told me later that she was afraid the fire was going to burn us up in our car. Poor thing.

Her fear continued the next few days. She told her bus driver all about the fire. She drew a picture at school and told her teacher. I feel so bad that she has this as a scary memory.

Our scanner wasn't able to scan the whole picture but it only cut off where Aly wrote to Mom and Dad. In the picture she drew a car driving down the road with fire on the side of the road. She drew the McDonald's we stopped at afterwards. Clcik on the picture if you want to see the details of it and see it in a larger format.