Jack's shirt is finally finished! I had a bad sewing machine experience with this one, but Ryan fixed my machine and I was able to finish it. Jack just had his 5th birthday and loves camo. I also know for a FACT that little boys between age 4-7 love their initial on their shirt. I don't know about younger or older ones, and I don't know about girls. So, Happy Birthday one month later!

Other notes:
I still love Ugly Betty and can't wait to see the next episode. It's something I look forward to, which is kinda weird since I have never had a show I followed in the past. I love Betty, and Justin is great, and Marc says some of the funniest things ever!

My friend Kibbe said she likes to read my blog because it's not just about my kids. Yea! I DO have a life outside of mommyhood! (Although you will still see a ton of them...)

I still look at all those blogs on my list too... even if I dont' comment all the time. I guess I have lurking habits.

Off to contemplate my existance (aka: think about taking a nap) and maybe do some more digital scrapping. Whoo-hoo.

What we did today

Ed ate dirt. I mean, Ed "played" in the sandbox.

Kacy and Will played on the swings.

Kacy and Will looking at tadpoles. This is what we did at the playgroup we go to on Tueadays. It's great- the kids love it.

oh, delusional me... at least i'm happy!

No news is good news, right? Not according to my mom who is hinting that I need to post some more pictures of my kids. All in good time, m'lady. Like next week maybe. Otherwise, we are survivng up here in out mountain-desert place. I tried biking up a mountain today and have made several conclusions. One, I don't have biking muscles yet. Two, I don't have biking technique. Three, riding up a mountain in sand that is at least three inches deep isn't fun, and really it is almost impossible. Four, I didn't know that sand could slow you down so much when you are going downhill. Five, I really think I am delusional to think that I am an athlete and can possibly do this triathlon in June. Six, and last, I am not a quitter. I think it might be nice to quit, but then I try and I just can't. So I am sticking with it until I get it right. Oh, and I need to carry a first aid kit with me. I didn't run into any cactus, but they were awfully close to the road. We have some nasty looking cactus that Ryan calls "choya". I just call them something you don't want to touch!

a funny conversation

Here is part of a conversation I had after lunch today with Kacy and Will. They were both sitting on my lap and Kacy was looking at my rings. We started talking about getting married and I said that one day when she is grown up she will get married.
Her reply: "Yea, to Will because he's my age"
Me: "No, brothers and sisters don't get married. You marry a friend."
Kacy: "Like Sami?" (Sami is a little girl Kacy is friends with)
Me: "No, girls don't get married to girls, girls marry boys and boys marry girls."
Kacy: "Oh. Then Trevor. I'll marry him because he is a boy." (Trevor is Sami's little brother)
Me: "That sounds good."
Kacy "Hey Will, who are you going to marry? Sami? Because she's a girl."
Will "Nope. Mom."

Creative People KILL me!

My goal is 4 a week, and I've met my quota, and won't post them all. Unless someone finds them interesting, in which case it's a snap to post these things.

As for the title of this post, I'm not going to dismiss anything I do when I try to be creative, but I am just not original or creative at all. It is DIFFICULT for me to be creative. I was looking at the list of blogs that "blogspot" noticed, and they are so original. Fun names and titles, cool art work... I better stop because it sounds like I'm whining. I'm not, I promise. Kibbe and I agree completely that Amy P has this innate talent/gift for making things look good. She's a great decorator without trying, she has a great eye for design. She has an excellent wardrobe that Kibbe and I get the next season (for free!). Kibbe is naturally organized. Me? I naturally eat lots of food. I like to run and do sporty things. Kendra laughs easily and likes to be social. Dany will try anything new (except at El Portal where she always gets carne asada tacos a la carte and a diet pepsi, which I do too). Cousin Amanda- killin' me with the invitations and party throwing skills I've seen. Jocelyn- killin' me with the sewing and fun color combos that seem to work. We all have our talents, and I guess I'm just a little envious of the creative ones. One last rambling thought- Amy P. doesn't know it yet, but Kibbe has this GREAT idea. Amy should have her own show on HGTV where she decorates a house in and out (she's a landscape designer by trade), Kibbe can organize it, and I can sew the curtains. (Amy can sew too, but I need a part in the show.) If that doesn't pan out, I think I'll hire her to be my personal shopper.

Stock Update

I know to some of you this is probably the most boring thing I write about. But I continue! I love the idea of the stock market, and I love having my money make me money. I do put in some time in researching my companies, and part of it is still luck I think. I have made some mistakes, but my winners are way more winning than my losers lost. My mistakes: buying into Dow companies. They are tried and true, will usually keep up with inflation, but you might as well have your money in a FDIC monet market or CD. At least that is insured. My other mistake was investing in one company that shortly went down to my 8% loss rule. So, I lost money (about $65, including trading fees) on that one. Didn't do enough homework. But my successes! They are doing so well! I bought Jones Soda and it has almost tripled. THAT is my one true Vegas stock. The two others I have are doing well, one went up 9% today, and has steadily increased after a small dip after I bought it, and the other went up 3% today. Of the Dow stocks I had origianlly purchased, I sold three and held onto one, ATT, only because it made SOME money. A little. It has made enough (finally) to pay for it's trading fee with enough profit for some french fries. It's leaving my portfolio and I will search for a new company to invest in. My whole portfolio is at 34.75% after today. That doesn't include some trading fees I didn't calculate in, so maybe more realistically it's like 25%. I'll have to do some math. But not now. Now it's naptime.

Some digital scrapping

So, this isn't the owl I hit, because this owl is sitting safely in a tree. The owl I hit tonight flew from the side of the mountain (for lack of a better word... the part of the terrain where the road is carved into the side of it. Oh my mommy brain!). Now, technically, the owl hit me. I wasn't going that fast, and I think it bounced off and was okay. And if not, some lucky coyote is going to have an easy time coming up with dinner. The creepy part? I turn into our driveway one and a half miles later and an owl is sitting in the middle of our road. Waiting. Staring. Ready to get it's revenge for me killing it's brother. Just kidding. That's a little Hollywood psycho right there. But you can bet it crossed my mind for a second when it's BLACK outside and I am coming home to an empty trailer and all my kids are asleep...

Sewing, shopping, and sickness

First, the sickness- everyone in our house has some kind of illness. Good times! At least we are all getting it out of the way now. I guess.

Next, the sewing- I am coming out of retirement! I am going to have Ryan look at my machine and fix it. He's really good at things like that. I started packing up all my sewing stuff to put in storage and had second thoughts. Plus, Randy and Jocelyn are too, too kind.

Lastly, the shopping- mostly why I am going to keep on sewing. I went shopping for Kacy for church dresses. I kept thinking "Doesn't anyone make a cotton dress with sleeves of some kind?" My two simple wishes for dresses- that they have a sleeve of somekind and that they be breathable, melt resistant cotton.The answer is NO. No they do not. Not at department stores. Maybe at boutiques where they would be really cute and REALLY expensive. I just can't pay more than 20 bucks for something that will only last one season. The girl grows so fast and she has really long legs. And anyone who knows me knows I hate shopping. Of all kinds. But especially clothes shopping. I thought it was because I was too critical of what I thought fit me right. But it turns out I hate shopping for others as well.

Other stuff- I kinda/sorta forgot Oscar's birthday again. And again. You would think I would remember since it is the day before our anniversary. But the funny thing about our anniversary is that I always remember the day before, and mostly the day or two after, but the actual day always seems to slip my mind. We don't really do anything anyway, so I didn't have plans to think about. Plus I was sick. Plus it was Easter. Blahblahblah... we'll have another 50+more of these to go, so no big deal. As for Oscar's birthday, I know what to get him now. He'll just have to wait until Sunday to get it.

Easter picture of my kids...

Love this picture of my kids. It is suppossed to be a "group" picture. This is why I don't take my kids to a photgraphy place and pay lots of money. I photoshopped these guys together. Kacy was trying to hold Ed, who fell down, and Will got up and planted his cute little bottom over there. Away from the "group".

Richard Simmons is our son...

" Before" All Will needs is a red tank top and some really short stripey shorts.

"After"

"After"
This just makes us feel so much better!

I quit!

I quit sewing today. I am going to go into semi-retirement from it. I was doing a simple project, something I have done four times before, and this one is just not working. I was applique-ing a letter J onto a t-shirt for my nephew's b-day present. I did do one thing different this time- I used double sided fusible interfacing, which keeps the "j" in place well. The problem is my machine (or me, most likely). My thread keeps breaking. I tried different thread, a larger needle, a combination of both. I tried tension adjustment, but I haven't ever had to fix that since I got the machine. I somehow think that the little off-roading trip my sewing machine took a couple of weeks ago in the back of my van with Ryan driving has hurt it. He didn't know it was back there, and I didn't know he took my van out. He came back and said "What do you have in back of the van? Things were flying everywhere!" AND while I was changing needles today, Ed grabbed the foot pedal and sat on it. The machine was ON. I'm lucky not to have any holes in my hand. So, I quit, unless someone has a brilliant idea to fix my machine. This is my rant and now I'm finished. Good thing I have left over chocolate from YW last night.

Will and his motorcycle

...and his dreams. I feel I should explain why Will isn't on a quad in the pictures. Will WAS on a quad earlier that morning. The first thing he did was peg the throttle and t-bone one of our cars. He wasn't hurt, the vehicle wasn't hurt, the quad took a hit though. His steering hasn't caught up with his need for speed. He likes to go FAST. Ryan fiddled with the adjustable throttle and slowed it way down. That made me happy, but Will went about 10 yards and said "Done now." and started to get off. Ryan made it go a little faster (he told Will it would really fast again...) and Will got back on and rode some more. This is why Will is not riding with other riders and pedestrians around. He is just too dangerous. This is Will (and his 'fro) on Benjamin's PW50. Maybe next year...

Motorcycle fun

A picture of everyone except for me and Ed. I was wearing him in the baby back pack. This was Monday, April 2. Ryan got out the tractor and modified our little circular track to make it more interesting. The kids LOVE it.
Here are the daddies and their girls.
Kacy going around the track. A few laps later Ryan started up one of Michael's motorcycles and did a lap or two. Kacy is still a little scared of the big motorcycles because she thinks they are loud and too fast. She got scared that Ryan was going to catch her and ran into this barrier near the end. She tipped her quad over on it's side, with her under it. She cried a little because she was scared, but she got right back on. In fact, she got on and started going really fast. We had to tell her to slow down. Too much adrenaline!