And we finally learned to use sunscreen

Summer has arrived. With a vengeance. We had a weekend in the hundreds. Can't you tell?








Yesterday we headed up to the lake to swim and take the edge off of the heat. We had a lovely time. The day however, was full of oddities.

#1
Patrick swam. It's not that he hates water.....ok, it kind of is, but yeah, he usually prefers not.

Look I even got proof.




#2
Caliana swam, a lot. Like for hours. She takes after daddy and typically shuns the water. Cold water anyways. She loves baths and showers. But now, Cali and swimming have forged a friendship. They might even be BFF's. She was really upset when she had to leave her friend.





They gazed longingly at each other.





She was depressed, forlorn even




the lip may never recover




#3
Emily did NOT swim. I repeat, did not swim. At all. This has not happened in the history of her lifetime. I was very confused. And then her and Patrick played scrabble. And he won. And then I was like "where am I?" and checking to see if the sky was still blue and asking random people who the president of the united states is and if sausage mcmuffins still exist.

#4
Damien passed the swim test and got to go past the buoy line. Not that Damien isn't a decent swimmer. He is. But that swim test is difficult to pass. You have to swim a certain distance under the careful scrutiny of the lifeguard. Overhand swimming only, and you can't stop, or pause, or struggle in the least. I remember being terribly nervous about it in my teens. So while it was a surprise that he passed, it was a good surprise. And he got to feel really big and competent as he zipped back and forth across that line all day, while many other children, older children even, were being ordered back to the shallow side.


When the end of the day finally arrived, Patrick and Damien headed to the car first. The girls and I followed more slowly behind. We were about halfway there, when Emily, who was carrying the diaper bag and the ever present pink potty, stopped suddenly.

"My stomach feels weird all of a sudden"

Because I'm a terribly sypathetic parent, who was carrying a purse, a bag of food, a container of lemonade and toting a forlorn toddler, I said

"Oh, that sucks, we're almost there, come on"

3 steps later, vomit, on the sidewalk, and then on the side of the sidewalk, and then eventually in the garbage can that was 5 feet away.

I'm a really considerate citizen, and there were about a hundred people looking at me, so I washed it off of the sidewalk with the rest of the lemonade and then with 3 more containers of water.

We eventually caught up with the boys, who are just sitting and waiting for us so they can get the car keys, except I don't have the keys, and he doesn't have the keys, and they're not in the car, or in the giant tub of sand toys, or in the diaper bag, and are you sure they're not in the bag of food, and I say

"Darling, I'm moderately confident that they are not in the food bag" (yes we talk to each other in such a sophisticated manner. It comes from all the scrabble.)

We eventually gave up, and used the spare key. We just wanted to be home already. Patrick found them later, in the food bag. All's well that ends well, right?


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In an unrelated little blurb, I noticed this weekend just how big my littlest is getting.

This picture was taken at 15 months





And this one in almost the same spot yesterday





Just look will you, with the long legged sophistication. It's the worst kind of pleasure, seeing your children grow.




"Don't worry mommy, I'm still your baby"

R.I.P. Michael

If you're on the internet reading this blog, you probably have been informed by 12 thousand sources already that Michael Jackson passed away today. I was born in the 80's and grew up on his music. No matter your opinion on him personally, he was a phenomenal artist and influenced music and dance in ways that we will never even know. The world has suffered a great loss today, and I am truly saddened.

Siblings

Oh, the love....can you feel it? Can you see it? In the contented look on his face. In the way her dimpled little toddler arm wraps around his neck. He loves her. She loves him. I've said it before, big brothers, little sisters, a beautiful thing. I'm jealous.





But come on now.



Enough is enough.



Stop following me.



I can do things for myself.











YOU'RE SMOTHERING ME!

I may have to start going to Starbucks

Every morning I stop at the Chevron near my work to pick up a cup of coffee. On Monday, when I went to pull into the driveway, I noticed weird guy's car parked at the pump. You guys remember weird guy, don't you? Weird guy encounters #1 and #2. I didn't want to have encounter #3 so I drove past the driveway and pulled into the Valero station next door. Ha, aren't I clever. I'll just get my coffee over here today.
I park at the pump and am almost to the door when it opens, and out steps.....weird guy. The look on his face is "hey!" and the look on mine was probably somewhere between "deer in headlights" and "oh shit".
I tried not to make eye contact and breezed right past as he yelled "good morning" to my retreating self. So much for my clever avoidance.

Today, I went back to Chevron. There were no cars in the parking lot, so I was safe. Got my coffee. Chatted with the cashier for a minute, and head back out. And who is parked right behind me. Yeah, him. I walked straight to my car, get in and buckle up, and there he is, at my window. I don't roll it down, but it is cracked a little, so I hear him when he says "Hey, don't you come here every morning?"
"kinda" I reply and put the car in drive.

"Ok, bye!" he yells with his hands up like I threatened to run him over. I thought about it, but that would probably make me late for work.

Pin princess

Friday night, Emily went skating with a friend, so Patrick and I decided we should do something fun with the other two. His suggestion, bowling. I didn't pay for Cali cause I figured she was too young and she'd maybe help Patrick once or twice, and then spend the rest of the time running amock. I was wrong. She took over his game. She bowled the whole 10 frames. Thanks to the bumpers, she actually scored over 70.





I still won though.

Thursday redeemed

You know you're loved when your husband reads about your sucky day on your blog and makes efforts to improve it.

It started with a love song played to my voice mail. Then when I arrived home, a kiss hello, designed to curl my toes. Sometimes in a marriage, a kiss is just a meeting of the lips, in greeting, in farewell, sometimes followed by a disgusted swiping off of lip gloss, but sometimes, a kiss can bring me to my knees and show me that all is right in my world.

Then he packed a picnic dinner and suggested we go down to the park and spend the summer evening reclining on the grass, sipping wine, playing catch and just doing nothing, which is exactly what I needed.

Thanks Love, you make all the difference.

Snore-ishness

Dear Thursday,

why must you mock me so? You're everything that Friday isn't, boring....tedious.....leaving nothing to anticipate, save another work day. You don't even provide a new episode of Grey's or private practice anymore. What good are you? You're nothing. An irritant. A space holder. A nuisance. Your only redeeming qualities are:

A. I get to leave an hour early to take Emily to gymnastics

and

B. So you think you can dance results show

Besides that, you're boring me to death. I am yawning and I just downed 20 ounces of coffee. That doesn't bode well for the rest of my day. I am a sagittarius and as such, I require excitement....change of pace.....something, so get it together Thursday and provide me with some decent stimulation already.

Oh lord, I'm fading quickly....

Model material

Ok, I may be biased because she is my kid after all, but Emily could totally be a model. Not that I would ever do that to my kid.....OK I had her evaluated once, when she was like 3 and they were all like "oh yeah, she'd get tons of work, she has that classic American girl sweetness about her" but they wanted us to pay for head shots and representation and I started thinking.....maybe not such a good idea, and her dad totally was against it.

But my point is, I take each of the kids to get their pictures done once a year around their birthday, and then we do family shots at Christmas. And out of the four trips to the studio, Emily alone is by far the most painless. She knows how to pose, she knows how to smile.

Evidence.....Emily's 10 year pictures.

Birthday party season

Yesterday completed 4 birthday parties in 2 weeks. Whew, that was a lot of cake. I think I gained a few frosting filled pounds. I'm wearing my "forgiving pants" today though, so I can't really tell. Denial, it's the treadmill that we love to run our lives on.

This party was for my niece Jasmin, who is now entering the "two zone". She has a 6 week old baby brother, so all I can say is.....Good luck Jen.

It was a rather laid back party.




I made Emily my photographer for the day






Which is why there are zero pictures of her. But I was busy, busy sitting on my butt and hanging out with this fellow




Can you blame me?





You know you'd do the same, just look, with the cheeks and the precious and the fingernails!




I did get manage to grab a shot of Cali with her grandpa though




Happy birthday Jasmin! We love you.





Don't drive mommy too crazy, and kiss that baby for me!

Insanity- the proof is in the pudding

Animated spouse

Patrick and I had a discussion once, about if we were a cartoon, who would we want our husband or wife to be?

My choice was Aladdin.




He's my type.
Dark hair.
Nice body.
Likes kids and animals.
Adventurous.
Bad boy exterior, with a heart of gold underneath.


Prince Eric from the little Mermaid is pretty hot too, and he does like redheads, but he's a little too proper for me. We'd probably butt heads.



Patrick's answer......are you ready?...........Daisy Duck.

It's been a running joke between us ever since.

It prompted me to take this picture in toon town




And just last week, Patrick grabbed this shot off of a bounce house at a birthday party we went to





Oh Daisy, coy as you may be, he's mine and you can't have him.



How about you guys? Who would you pick? It doesn't even have to be a Disney character.

Queens-who and other name mix ups

For those of you following along at home, we now return from the commercial break with a variety show of weekend events in no particular order of importance or terribly creative storytelling, because it's Monday and my brain has yet to upload completely.


Thursday was the kids' last day of school. Emily got a class award for "Best Creative Writer" and she got a school award for "outstanding writing achievement".

Her introduction from her teacher went like this:

"Once in a while you come across a student with an innate ability to write. This year I encountered such a student. Her writing is informative when necessary, entertaining when appropriate and always composed with a strong voice. This year's award for Outstanding Writing achievement goes to Emily Sharp."

SO proud.



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Friday we celebrated the first day of summer vacation by taking all 3 kids to the dentist! So fun. Honestly though, it went just fine. 3 cleanings, 3 great checkups, 0 cavities or issues. Cali actually keeps asking to "go to da dentis, and hold still"

Right after, we went to see "Up". It was great and I cried no less than 3 times. Pixar has outdone themselves once more.

We dropped the kiddos off to spend the night at grandma's and Patrick and I drove the hour and a half to Konocti to see Queensryche in concert. Patrick won the tickets and even though we both have pretty eclectic musical tastes, neither of us had really heard of them. We both vaguely recognized one song, but free tickets are free tickets. We were part of this VIP private acoustic set, meet the band thing-y, which was pretty cool. We got a picture with the band. Exciting huh? (I have no idea what the guy next to me is pointing at)




We hung around for the next 3 or so hours until the actual concert, but only made it through the first set. The band was ok, but the atmosphere was a little......off-putting. There were a lot of 50-ish men, in Playboy bunny tee-shirts yelling things like "Hell yes, Queensryche rocks mother fuckers!"
and maybe we're too old.....or too young in this instance, or something else, but we decided we'd prefer a few hours to ourselves at home to sitting through the rest of this awkward show. I think we made a good choice.






______________________________________________


Saturday was the much anticipated dance performance. It went well. I had a great time. I got only half of it on video because my camera battery died halfway through. Such is life, but here's the first half, planted on Youtube for your eternal amusement. (p.s. I'm the one on the right)





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Yesterday Patrick took the day off, and stayed home alone while I brought all three kids to not one, but two birthday parties for 3 year old girls. It was a lot of cake.
The second party was for my niece Kylee who is 6 weeks older than Cali. Everyone was stuttering the whole time..."KY...Cale....Cali....whew"

Ky and Cal



And Kylee's big brother Jeremiah, who you would never guess is actually 9 months YOUNGER than his cousin Emily






And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Consumer beware

I regularly try to think before I speak, or act, or buy. It's something I tend to pride myself on. Self control, right? I'm usually pretty sure I want to say what I say, I don't fly off at the mouth and hurt people's feelings......unless I'm sure.

Same goes for my consumer habits. I take a conteplative look at the next up and coming before I decide "yes, I need that" whether it be shoes or electronics or what have you, which is why I currently own only 7 pairs of shoes, and am just now thinking it might be a good idea to get an ipod and a flat screen tv.

Part of it is laziness, I'll admit. It's like "do I really want to get involved in all that, figure out how to work it and whatnot?" I mean, a cd is so much easier to figure out than how to sync with itunes. Except I got my kids ipods, so I had to figure it out anyways.




Part of it is a desire to not look like an idiot? If you jump in with every trend, chances are you're going to have some regret. Like parachute pants? So glad I never went there. Although I did take a fairly long ride on the neon spandex wagon, but we don't have to talk about that.

Part of it is I'm fairly certain the price is going to drop significantly in a fairly short time, and right now everyone is just paying the "impatient price", and who doesn't like to get a good deal. Like instead of paying $500 for an iphone, I have a nifty motorolla razr that I got off of Craigslist for $75. Neat, huh?


Consequently I tend to be 5 or 6 years behind the times in almost everything. Like wow, have you guys heard of this new-fangled thingy called the internet? So totally awesome!

For reals though, blogging, been around a little while now, but I just jumped in last year. I have a Myspace, but haven't hopped over to facebook, and I've definitely never twittered. That's probably because I don't have an iphone.


Crap, just file this under "posts where Brandi makes herself look completely lame"

Misunderstood

New Cali obsession: Tom and Jerry, formerly referred to as Tom and Jerry on demand, as in "I wan watch Tom and Jerry on demand"
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Cali: Mom, Tommin throw that, thas not NICE!

Me: Tommin?

Cali: Yeah, Tommin. Thas not NICE!

Me: OH! Tom?

Cali: No, Tommin, Tommin Jerry



______________________________________________________


Damien: Emily, wouldn't that be funny if we were cartoons and every time you walked by, you like threw something at me?

Emily: Yeah, haha, like every time I walk by, I throw an advil at you?

Damien: yeah, hahahaha

Emily: Do you even KNOW what an advil is?

(*this is where I stop and cross my arms and listen, cause she's getting all smarty pants, and she doesn't even know what she's talking about*)

Damien: Yeah, it's one of those big black heavy things.

Emily: yep

Me: um, excuse me, actually that's an ANvil, an advil is a tiiiiiiiny little pill

(*Ha, I still hold the title for ultimate smarty pants in the family*)

Grace not required

I had dress rehearsal on Saturday. It went alright. We were missing a few people and my shirt didn't come off super easily in the "ripping the shirt off" part. What's that? You want to buy a ticket now? It's not that kind of show. I'll be wearing another shirt underneath, ha!
Barring those few things though, the dance part went pretty good. Just before though, as we were making our way out to the stage, things got a little hairy.
The director led a few girls out a door marked "stage right". My experience with this theater I had always used to "stage left" door. So I stood undecided for a few minutes. Just long enough that when I eventually did try to follow them, they were nowhere in sight.

If you've never been backstage in a theater, let me tell you....it's dark. Very dark, and confusing. There are stairs, ropes, equipment, narrow passageways.....

I followed the stage right sign, and found myself in a dark dark narrow passageway. Hmmmmm, I guess this could be the way....*step* where's the ground? Not there, and I'm falling, and falling. I landed on my right wrist and right hip, and my left leg stayed 4 feet up..... on the "stage?"
I'm actually lucky I didn't break my leg. It now sports a lump and a baseball sized bruise.

I hopped back up, dusted myself off, thanked my lucky stars that I was all alone, and went back the way I came. I went out the stage left door.

After our rehearsal we were approached by a woman who had watched. She told us we "were amazing and so inspiring, and wow, how long have we been dancing?"


I smiled and thanked her, and didn't mention my bruised leg.