California!!!

Today we took the kids to the beach, and forgot our camera, so we're stealing some pictures from Jill's camera. :)  Florence and Mike offered to take Lacy to church with them so that we could take the older kids to the beach.

Our family

 Talon had a blast playing in the water.

 Hailey liked playing in the sand the most.

Here are Hailey and Lauren sitting in the shade

After we got home the girls took a bath in the HUGE master bathroom

Hailey wanted her towel, "like mommy do"

We're having a great time here and the house that Dennis and Charlotte picked out for the family is perfect.  It has 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, a HUGE kitchen, living room, family room and a community pool within walking distance that has even has a kiddie pool.  I don't think our kids have had this much fun...EVER!  And we haven't even gone to Disneyland yet. :-) 

Sooo close to home...

When I saw the heading of this article it made my heart skip a beat. I feel so bad for the family of this little girl and appreciate every time Joe didn't let me do it when I wanted to take the kids out of swim lessons. This happened today less than a mile from our home...

Girl, 2, drowns in backyard pool in east Mesa
by Gary Nelson and Ali Pfauser - Jul. 25, 2008 02:50 PM

A 2-year-old Mesa girl drowned in a backyard swimming pool near Power and McKellips roads Friday. Mesa Fire officials said the child was underwater for up to five minutes and was not breathing when pulled from the pool by her mother about 12:40 p.m.
Both parents were at home at the time and it was unknown how the child wandered into the fenced pool area, police said. She was transported to Bannner Baywood Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Jeff Stieber, a fire department spokesman, said emergency responders arrived in the 6900 block of East Ivyglen St. at 12:45 p.m., about three minutes after receiving a 911 call. They found the girl's parents doing CPR on the child, who was not breathing.
Stieber said the parents reported there was about five minutes of "unaccounted time" before they found the child in the pool. The pool was protected by a fence, but Stieber said, "A fence is only as good as the locking mechanism on the gate."
Officials did not immediately release names.
This is the ninth child drowning in the Valley since April.

Atkins Diet

Have any of you ever tried the Atkins (Low-Carb) diet? Jono, Joe's brother, was dieting and working out for a month and a half and lost 10 pounds, then he started Atkins and lost 15 pounds in a week. (Maybe I have those weights backwards??) Anyway, I was sold! So, Friday night I started it. Let me tell you...I felt like I was STARVING all weekend, even though I think I was eating constantly. At one point I told Joe, "I'm starving...I want to eat a whole loaf of bread!" He just laughed at me and told me that maybe this wasn't the best diet for me. When I was at the Dairman's for Sunday dinner I said something to Charlotte, Joe's mom, about being so hungry and she told me that Jono has felt hungry the whole time too. That stinker!! He didn't tell me that when I asked him about it!!!
So, the good news is that I have lost 7 pounds since Friday. The bad news is that it costs a lot more money to eat this way. I was at Walgreen's for a Rx the other day and found some Atkins bars...they were 3 for $7, but I was STARVING so I bought 3. Holy crap!! They were soooo gross, disgusting, BAD!!! Every time I thought about it I would taste that crap again, for the rest of the day! Do you know how much food I could get at Taco Bell for $7??!!!
Obviously, I'm not a very good dieter...it affects my mood too much...have you ever seen a post with so many !!!'s? Plus, I ran out of eggs at home, so I had some cheese for breakfast, and that sucked!! But, at 7 lbs/4 days I guess I could do this for a few more weeks. AAARGH!!

Softball Tournament & Florence

We lost our 7:00 game at Rose Mofford, had a two hour break, then played at 10:00 and won that game. Then, we headed to Victory Lane (43rd Ave & Pinnacle Peak) to play at 11:30. We lost that game, so that's when our night ended. After the looooong drive home, on the 101 at 55 mph most of the way, I was home a little before 2am and was completely exhausted! I am pretty sore today, and I'm sure I won't feel much better tomorrow, but I had a great time and it was nice to get off my butt and back into the game!
Florence is here! Joe's sister Florence came into town on Saturday afternoon to spend a week with the family before we go to California next week (unless you're a burglar, then we're ALWAYS going to be home!) Dennis, Charlotte and Florence came Saturday and had lunch with us and the kids, then we went to dinner at the Dairman's last night. It was really nice to see some of her friends that we don't get to see anymore since she has moved away. Dennis and Charlotte always do such a great job of welcoming everyone and cooking so much great food (and packing it all up to take home afterwards). I am so lucky to have such great in-laws!

Oriental Trading

I have ordered from Oriental Trading Company many times, and not really had any problems, until this last order. My kids have recently gotten into painting, and rather than continuing to buy the 4 oz bottles at Target I decided to try to save some money.
The 6 gallon size paint jars that I ordered did not come with the first shipment, and instead I got a box FULL of flowers (the colorful, flat kind that you have to glue on to stuff). I called them, and they told me that I should donate the flowers to a preschool or something (anyone interested?), but the paints were on back-order, so I was told to keep checking online and call back when they become available. After a couple of days I decided not to wait anymore and got back on their website and wrote down each order number to order the paints individually, and called them back. After they told me the paints couldn't be ordered that way, and I gave them the item numbers, and they said my paints were on the way. A few weeks later here is what I got. Needless to say, I wasn't too pleased...

Who throws bottles of paint in a box that is too big with no packaging to hold them from banging into each other?? Anyway, I called them back and told them what happened, and my paints are on the way...again. I did, however, put on some grubby's and clean those bottles off. Although a few of the colors leaked BEFORE the white bottle busted I managed to get them cleaned (and taped) and I think we'll be able to use them. =)

...and the moral of the story is...paint does not ship well, buy them at Michael's where you can get the same size for about the same price (which I found out over the weekend in their store).

Update: OK...crazy! I'm at work and I get a phone call from OT and the lady says that she saw my blog and wanted to apologize for what happened. She said that they have talked to the ppl in shipping and talked to the person who didn't know she could order them individually. She said that paints are fairly new to them, so they have had some problems, and she is going to send me a $20 gift certificate for my next order. You might be saying what I said, "Um...how did you see my blog?" Well, they have some automatic thing where anytime anyone write's their name they get a notification. At least they really do care...I'll definately use that $20!

Lacy went swimming

We finally took Lacy swimming, but she wasn't that happy about it. Joe took her in first and she cried. I guess our pool is not as warm as bath water yet, although it feels like it to us sometimes. When I got in a few minutes later she had calmed down a little bit, but still wasn't enjoying herself.Finally, Joe took her out, dried her off and put her where she loves it most, and she went right to sleep. I guess swimming was a lot of work for her. =)

I do not type as fast as I used to

I type 63WPM with 98% accuracy or 66WPM with 97% accuracy. I used to be much faster than that, but I think I have gotten quite a bit faster with the 10 key over the past few years. Here is a cool site to see how fast you can type: http://www.typingtest.com/

I actually do have a few things to post about today, but I haven't downloaded any pictures, so I'll wait until I have the pictures to go with the posts.

Also, I'm going to jump right back into softball head on. I haven't played since I was pregnant with Lacy (a little over a year ago), but I am playing in a Women's tournament that starts at 7pm Saturday night. We are guarunteed 3 games, but could be playing all night. I would say that I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet, but I AM sure that I'm NOT ready!! Wish me luck, and have a great weekend!!

Update: I just did 70WPM with 98% accuracy! Maybe that was a fluke??

I'm bored

I'm bored, but at work, so I don't have many options. I found this while blogsurfing, so I thought I would do it.
One Word
Answer the following with only one word.
1. Where is your cell phone? ...................purse
2. Your significant other?........................work
3. Your hair?...........................................streaky
4. Your mother? .....................................generous
5. Your father?........................................trustworthy
6. Your favorite thing?............................family
7. Your dream last night?.......................dog attack
8. Your favorite drink.............................iced tea
9. Your dream/goal?..............................debt-free
10. The room you're in?..........................cold
11. Your children?..................................fight
12. Your fear?.........................................spiders
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years....home
14. Where were you last night?.................home
15. What you're not?.................................busy
16. Muffins.............................................chocolate
17. One of your wish list items?................steamer
18. Where you grew up?...........................mesa
19. What you read last..............................this
20. What are you wearing?.......................dress
21. Your TV?...........................................Joe's
22. Your pets?.........................................Sandy
23. Your computer? ................................works
24. Your life?............................................good
25. Your mood?........................................bored
26. Missing someone?...............................kids
27. Your car?...........................................covered
28. Something you're not wearing?............panty hose
29. Favorite Store?...................................Costco
30. Your summer?....................................hot
31. Like someone?.....(I'm like them, or I like them?)...Adelina I guess
32. Your favorite color?.........................purple
33. Last time you laughed........................today
34. Last time you cried?..........................a month ago

Boring Post

This is going to be a pretty boring post, because I don't have any pictures to go with it, but I'll write about our day yesterday anyway. =) We went to our usual Tuesday night dinner with Donna and Brandon last night, except this time we were joined by Jono (Joe's brother), his kids Ava and Gavin, Christopher (Joe's sister Fran's stepson), Dave (my brother) and his son Tyler. We went to Applebee's, and it's a good thing because we weren't a very quiet group. The plan was to get some dinner before we went to the loop 202 celebration, but dinner took so long we barely had any time to spend on the freeway. We got a great parking spot though! We put Lacy and Hailey in the stroller, and gave Talon his scooter. We went down the off ramp, and then back up. That was the perfect amount of time for our little ones. Hailey would get out of the stroller every once in a while to ride her scooter and then start carrying it. She's so goofy. I told her every time that she didn't have to carry it, she could get back in the stroller and she said, "o-tay". Oh, I forgot to mention that Joe's shoes were broken too! As we were getting in the car at Applebee's Talon stepped on the back of his flip flop and the strap broke. He rigged it with an eyeglass repair kit I found in the diaper bag (maybe that was yours mom???), but it didn't hold very long.

I've been tagged

A-Z Tag
A * Age: 30 something
B * Birthday: Christmas Eve
C * Cake or candy: chocolate candy
D * Desserts I love: Yep, I love desserts!
E * Easiest Person to Talk to: Adelina. My favorite is when she's telling me something and then she just says, "OK, I'm done talking know" and we hang up.
F * Favorite Song: Hmmm...I can't think of one because I hardly ever listen to music anymore.
G * Gold or Silver: Definitely silver
H * Habit: I crack things when I'm not even thinking about it. Knuckles, neck, wrists, back and ankles mostly.
I* Instruments you play: I can play a couple of songs on the recorder, and probably the same couple on the clarinet. Yah, that wasn't my thing.
J * Job Title: Staff accountant, softball coach and mommy (not necessarily in that order)
K * Kiddies: 3
L * Lust or Love: Love
M * Married, Single, or Taken: Married
N * Next to you: Yoplait Peach Yogurt and a heater (they keep it FREEZING in here!)
O * One Wish: Hmmm....just one? No debt.
P * Person you called last: Mom called me and I called Joe
Q * Quote: Don't tell me what to do
R * Reason to smile: my kids laughing and playing together
S * Steak or Pork: Nope. Chicken
T * Turns you on: good manners and good smells
U * Unique Talent: Just about everything on my body cracks..j/k. I guess I can pitch fast pitch pretty well, even though I'm 30 something.
V * Veggie: corn on the cob
W * woke up at: I woke up (briefly) The first time I woke up was breifly when Joe got home, then again sometime in the middle of the night when I moved from the pull-out bed with Talon and Hailey to my own bed, gave Lacy a bottle at about 4, gave her back her pacifier a few times, woke Joe up at 6:08, gave her back her pacifier a few times and finally got out of bed for good at 6:40.
X * X-rays: Teeth and ankles, both numerous times.
Y * Your favorite color: Purple
Z * Zodiac sign: Capricorn

I'll tag Laurie, Lindsay, Jill...and Jessica Jones (write something already!)

Lacy

Here is a picture Erica took of Lacy on Saturday. She's getting so big and she loves smiling. She'll smile at you just about every time you say her name.

Getting potty trained...finally.

Hailey wore the same pull-up all day yesterday without wetting it once! I'm so proud of her!! She asked to go to the bathroom and church, at lunch, at Jennifer's house and at the Smith's for dinner last night. The only time she wet her pants was during the car ride home. She's turning into such a big girl, but don't tell her! She'll tell you, "me no big girl!" Then she'll raise her hands way up in the air and say, "See me widdew girl!"

Breakfast with Tara and Andy

So, as I mentioned in our last post, we had dinner with a second cousin of Joe's on Thursday night. Well, here's the reader's digest version of how we met them. A few weeks ago I got an email from Tara. She had recently "googled" her last name (Dairman) and found our blog. She showed it to her father and he said he was pretty sure he's a cousin of Joe's dad Dennis, and it turned out he is. Exciting huh? Her and her fiance, Andy, were planning a trip out this way (they live in New York) and fit us in to their plans. Go ahead, tease me about my blog now Joe! Anyway, the came out Thursday night and had dinner with as many of the Dairman's as we could get together on a weeknight, stayed at our house, and we took them to breakfast at Cracker's. Man, Andy can eat! Even Joe was impressed! Here is a picture we had someone take for us after breakfast. Sorry Lacy's not in the picture, but she's asleep in her car seat.

Monsoon

Thursday night we went out to eat at Tia Rosa's with Dennis, Charlotte, Jono and Joe's second cousins who were here from New York. It rained so hard at the restaraunt that the it came inside! The room we were in had a leak under the window and by the time we left the whole floor was full of water. We thought that was pretty bad, but then as we were leaving, the entire entryway was flooding. The roof was leaking out there. When we got home, the kids wanted to play in the rain, so we gave them an umbrella and let them.

Potty time

I'm not SURE what happened in the bathroom last night, but apparently Hailey was trying something new, and Joe had to teach her a small lesson. Here's the conversation when they found me in the laundry room.

Joe - Hailey tell mommy...do you pee sitting down or standing up?
Hailey - Me sit
Joe - Why?
Hailey - me no have a penis
Joe - Who does?
Hailey - Daddy, sanon (Talon)
Joe - that's right!

Dairman Look-alike Meter

Who knew we had the perfect baby??

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family tree templates - Family reunion

Cheating tips for dieters

I came across these tips on a funny website today...because I'm soooo busy at work these days...Enjoy!

1.If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no calories. (DUH!!)
2.If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are cancelled out by the diet soda.
3.When you eat with someone else, calories don't count if you don't eat more than they do.
4.Food used for medicinal purposes NEVER count, such as hot chocolate, brandy, toast and Sara Lee Cheesecake. (Hot chocolate has calories? CRAP! How is that possible? It's mostly water right?)
5.If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner. (this explains why I get mad when Joe runs on the treadmill)
6.Movie related foods (Milk Duds, Buttered Popcorn, Junior Mints, Red Hots, Tootsie Rolls, etc.) do not have additional calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel. (I don't really use this one anymore since I can't even remember the last movie I saw in a theatre)
7.Cookie pieces contain no fat-- the process of breaking causes fat leakage....plus, "I didn't even eat a whole cookie" can last A LOT longer this way
8.Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if you are in the process of preparing something. Examples are peanut butter on a knife making a sandwich and ice cream on a spoon making a sundae.
9.Foods that have the same color have the same number of calories. Examples are: spinach and pistachio ice cream; mushrooms and white chocolate. NOTE: Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other food color. (Who eats pistachio ice cream??)
10.Foods that are frozen have no calories because calories are units of heat. Examples are ice cream, frozen pies, and Popsicles....corn dogs, burritos, pizza...I could go on and on.
11. Foods eaten while watching a major event on television do not count. Major events include: Superbowl, Hockey Finals, Indy 500, Jerry Springer show.
12. Powerbars and other type energy bars make you thinner. In all my years of exercising (at least three times a year) I have only seen thin people eating energy bars. Ergo (therefore) they must make you thin.
13. Snickers is the same as an energy bar (see #12)
14. Tasting other people's food does not add to your calorie count. (and they do NOT have to taste yours in exchange!)
15. Containers of food that list the number of servings as greater than one are lying. Every container includes one serving. Half gallon of ice cream, box of cereal, bottle of soda, bag of chips are all one serving. (4 1/2 chips HA! That's only for those skinny chicks that eat energy bars while working out at the gym wearing sports bras and spandex...excuse me, yoga pants!)

A couple more pictures from Amy

Talon & ShyannHailey & (her best friend) TrulieI LOVE this picture that Amy took while we were on our walk. They were holding hands, and everytime we went to take the picture they would wrap their arms up like that...it was too cute!

July 5th

Amy, Tyler, Branson, Shyann, Trulie and Jarvis stayed with us Friday and Saturday night (sorry traffic was so bad getting home). Here are Talon and Shyann, and the bottom half of Trulie, eating popcorn and watching TV in the bedroom.On Saturday, while Amy and Tyler went to visit some friends that were also staying in Payson, we met the (Glade) Smith family at the Taylor Pool. Here are Talon and Hailey in the kiddie pool......and Glade with his two youngest.Here are the bigger kids playing in the big pool with Joe.And most of the Smith kids playing in the pool. I wish I would have got one of their legs up during one of their handstand contests...man that brings back memories! Then Talon got really brave and wanted to jump off the looong diving board. Here he is in line with the "big" kids...that's him, the litte short guy in red trunks third in line.It only took a little bit of talking from the end before he jumped with daddy and Hailey watching. Later that afternoon we went for a walk out the back doorand up the hillHailey and Trulie walked hand in hand almost the whole time...Hailey said Trulie is her best friend. =)Then daddy let the kids blow some poppers...you can barely see the streamers above Talon's headThis nasty tarantula ruined the fun, because I was not about to stay there for one more minute with that beast aroundThe guys asked me if I got a picture, and I told them I did, but you wouldn't be able to tell how big it was without anything next to it. Joe suggested a quarter but nobody had any change, so Tyler threw an old card down. It was hilarious when he realized he would have to get that card back before we left.A long stick did the trick, but I made sure to be far far away when he upset that sucker! It creeps me out to even post the pictures of it. I would rather deal with cockroaches, crickets, beetles, or pretty much anything other than a spider; and that was the mother of all spiders in my book! Thanks Tyler for repeating that it can jump over and over again while Amy was trying to get a picture of it. So here's a stinking cute picture of Lacy holding her head up to bring us back to all that is good in the world.

4th of July

We went to Payson with the Smith's for the 4th this year and we had a blast!! Hailey broke her bag of cheetos in the grass and it became a free for all for everyone who wanted any. I made a comment to one of the other mother's about how I was glad I wasn't the only one who didn't care that my kids were eating cheetos out of the grass, and she said, "I sent my kids over there!" EXCELLENT!!Hailey got a little bit tired because it was sooo hot when we first got there, so she decided to find her juice and take a little rest. Then, it started raining, and I mean it was REALLY raining. Some friends that were there with the Smith's had to move there canopy TWICE because they were in the path of the current of rainwater that started running through the park.

Thanks for those pictures Laurie! Luckily, we were REALLY close the house in Payson, so we got to go there, put on some dry clothes, pack up some jackets and sleeping bags to share and get back in time for delicious burgers (thanks Glade) and watch the fireworks.
The fireworks were fantastic as promised. =) We were about 150 yards from where the were being let off by the lake, and Talon even walked closer with me so he could see better!The kids were all bundled up waiting for the fireworks to start when it started to drizzle again, so they got to share a big umbrella. Amy and Tyler stayed with us at the house with their kids and we loved having them! Here is Amy, Tyler and Jarvis. John, Sherry and their kids watching fireworks all bundled up...we wished we could have spent more time with you guys while you were there!...And Lacy slept throught it all!! P.S. I'll also create a post for July 5th so you can see the huge tarantula we saw on our walk.

Gavin's Birthday Party - July 3rd

Happy Birthday Gavin!
We had a great time at your birthday party!!
Talon and Ava in the swimming pool
Talon LOVES birthday cake!
Hailey loves her cousins...here she is with Ethan. Thanks for the pictures Fran!!