The Fun Friend Trip

Have we unpacked our luggage yet? Well... no. Ordered prints of the 400+ photos I snapped while visiting Disneyland, California Adventures and Legoland? Well, you see... no. Cleaned the pillows and blankets out of the van? Um... uh uh. Told our friends how much fun we had, and how cool it was to have them adventure with us? Gee... no. Luckily, the laundry and van will wait for us, and hopefully our friends will take our belated thank you. My only excuse is that we've been really busy, and someone silly (yeah, me) decided we should tear up our library and living room floors and put in new flooring, so we're buried and busy! Besides, we've only been home for twelve days...

Miah's best friend and his family had never been to Disneyland, and we all know it's the Magic Kingdom - and magic was made to be shared! We loaded the mommies and the kiddies into the van and hit the road for the 12 hour drive to California. Hopefully, Miah's best friend's mom doesn't think I've gone off my rocker - I did manage to get us lost a few times... not on the way there, just in the Disneyland area. Even with the new GPS in the van. Oh well, I guess everything I lack in DIRECTIONAL SKILLS I make up for in charm! ;)

The kids and I had never visited Legoland before, despite considering it every time we go to Disneyland. It was really exciting to discover something new. The kids were a tad bit disappointed with the rides at first (we started at the kiddy end apparently) but after riding the one that looks like a robotic arm that flings you around, the park was redeemed. I was in love with the huge Lego constructions. I want to make the dragon to go in our side yard! I bet our neighbors would love that...

I thought the Lego scene depicting the inauguration was very impressive, especially since this is such a monumental time in our country's history. We had the hotel give us a wake-up call on Tuesday morning so that the kids and I could watch the television coverage of the real thing.

Southern California was having unseasonably warm weather while we were there. It was a tad over 80 degrees. Perfect! The weather was beautiful, the lines weren't long, the food was good and we had wonderful company... what a great trip!

Every day I'm grateful that my children have a wonderful group of friends to pal around with - even the days when they're all at my house. I know from my own experience how much influence a peer group can really have at their age, and I adore 'the Group'. It has been fabulous to watch Miah and his friend's relationship change and get stronger as they both grow into their adult selves. It also doesn't hurt that they both think they're comedians, and they are funny, funny, funny when they're around each other. The best overheard line of the trip: "It's not a lab, it's just the Legoland parking lot!"

Goodbye California. We'll see you again soon!

The What Truck?

Well, well, well. This is not something you see everyday. I was driving to school last week (it's a long drive - I do whatever I can to keep myself entertained) and found myself behind the Bimbo Truck for about twenty five miles. I giggled the first two, spent at least the next six miles trying to figure out how to turn on the camera on my phone without driving off the road and dying, resumed giggling for the next two miles, took the picture - with much trauma - which took at least two miles, memorized the phone number on the back for three miles, spent the next four miles trying to figure out what they might be hauling in the Bimbo Truck, tried to use the voice dial setting on my phone to call my mom to tell her how funny it was to be behind it, which burned up the next three miles, gave up and dialed her number and left a message - one mile, and hummed a little ditty to myself about the Bimbo Truck for the last two. Tragically, bimbos might be fast, but the Bimbo Truck is not. After keeping myself entertained for such a long time, I had to zoom around it because they were driving more than five miles an hour under the speed limit. Not even a good joke is worth that agony for very long!

Crazy Kids!

I seem to recall when my children were younger, I loved kids their age. For example, when Miah was four, I remember thinking, "I just adore these kids, they are so much fun to watch." I wasn't particularly fond of children older than mine, just the ones the same age. Well, my kids are teenagers now *gasp* and a funny thing has happened: I adore the group of friends that my kids are hanging out with. They are so much fun to have around, and they are funny! Suddenly all of the things that bothered me about teenagers when my kids didn't fall into that group are the things that tickle me the most with this group. I love to have them all over at our house (yes, sick, I know, especially since there are about a dozen of them at a time!) We even load up both vehicles and take them out in public quite often. (As an aside here, if you ever want to have a really, really fun time - go to Dollar Tree with them. Give them a two dollar limit each, and then watch the havoc they can create. The crowning moment of that trip? They thought it would be funny if all of them called me Mom in the store. Loudly. Often. I think I grounded at least ten of them that night! Okay, I lied... the real crowning moment of that night was watching them try to sneak their two dollars worth of treats into the movie theatre. THAT was funny.)

I had a long, long day at school today (classes started this week, and I'm old) and I forgot I'd told Miah everyone could come over tonight. For a few minutes, I seriously thought about making him tell everyone they couldn't come. My feet hurt, my brain hurt, I really just wanted a nap. Instead I suppressed my little tired whimper and stopped to pick up pizzas on the way home. Enter the kids. Enter the noise, the giggles, the movement, the chaos, the multiple games of hide and seek in the dark, the dishes and drinks and excitement that is "the Group". I thought I'd just chill and let them do their thing... but then, I started chatting with the girls and snapping photos of them trying to hide, and the next thing I knew, I was having a fun time, and they always make me laugh. I stopped being so tired, and I stopped noticing my feet hurt. And at the end of our evening, they handed me a thank you card signed by everyone with the sweetest things to say inside. I didn't burst into tears in front of them... but it took everything I had not to.

I want all of you kids (I want to name you all, but I'm a bit hesitant to put photos and names of other people's children on the Internet, so... figure out who you are: Miah, Erin, the Step, Erin's Sister, the NOT Brat, my four favorite twins, the NOT quiet boy who's also not Japanese, and the quietest boy who's very funny when he's not quiet) to know that I'm proud of all of you, and I adore you all. I think you guys are the COOLEST!

And I loved my favorite silly twin's Harry Potter reenactment!


These photos aren't from tonight - I'm too tired to upload the new pics - but these are both good examples of how much fun these kids are. The first photo is obviously Twister, and the second is Sardines.

The Book List

When Trav and I got married fifteen years ago, we both brought different things to our marriage. It seems kind of silly these days, but I recall that back then we were both a little bit proud of our respective book collections. We didn't have gobs of discretionary funding at that time, but we managed to scrape together enough dough to buy a three shelf bookcase. We put our combined collection of roughly two dozen books into it, and we felt pretty well-read because we filled almost two shelves!

Fast forward about a year, and it was time to cull the book collection, as all three shelves were full. I told Trav to decide which books he wanted to keep, and which ones he didn't. He - always pragmatic - asked me if we couldn't just buy a second shelf.

Fast forward again to 2009. Our home is a library. There are 34 bookcases in the living room/library (formally known as the dining room), and another 8 in the music room. At our last official count we had over 8,000 books... but we've added 11 bookcases since that count, so the number is larger now, I'm sure.

With that being said, I suppose it comes as no surprise that all four of us are voracious readers. We have never been television watchers at our house because we never got in the habit of it. It's not uncommon to find one, two, three or even four of us curled up on the couch or a bed with our noses in a book.

I do have to admit that I'm a tiny bit disappointed with myself this year. I keep a 'reading journal' where I jot down interesting things - for example: in my library, the book "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov is on the shelf directly before "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi - and I keep a list of the books I've read throughout the year. This year was so busy, I only read 89 books in 2008. Only!