Walk fast Susan! Walk fast!

(you know......."Run Susan! Run!" but I don't run.....I just walk really fast!)

10K.........CHECK!

last Saturday I did my first 10K!!! I figured since I intend to walk a half marathon in May that I should probably get a 10K under my belt first. (though my original plan had me doing that 10K at the Sacramento ZooZoom on April 14th)

instead........a friend mentioned The Spirit of Benny 10K/5K Fun Run & Walk and I couldn't resist! (seriously........who am I to answer the siren call of exercise??) but I loved working in Placerville oh so many years ago.......a small wonderful community and gosh, it is gorgeous up there! so why not? this way I will have TWO 10Ks completed before I make the leap to a half marathon!

a friend, Lori, was suckered in to joining me at the last minute. crazy girl didn't think she was up for it........I had the fastest pace ever with her!

the course wasn't as flat as the race lead you to believe.....but having worked in Placerville, I pretty much knew that ahead of time! my FitBit told me I had climbed 24 flights of stairs by the end of the 6.2 miles! not bad, huh?!?!? the weather was PERFECT for the race! a little breezy in the shade and not too hot in the sun. the path went across a wooden bridge and through the woods. wish I could walk there every day......even with the inclines!

David was happy to do the 10K too.......once he found out he didn't have to s-l-o-w-l-y walk with MOOOOM and could run off on his own. how did he fair? we don't know. his number is all bunched up in his backpack so the announcer couldn't see it......and the timing equipment didn't pick him up crossing the finish line. on top of that......he isn't in any of the photos people took and posted on Facebook. this is the only proof that he did it......and the photo isn't even in focus!



as for me........I finished the race second to last (poor Lori got that honor) and last in my age group (obviously) with a 1:41:14.......but there were only 300ish people running and I was just happy to have not needed a handsome EMT's attention during the race! honestly, kinda bummed by the great time. it is going to be hard to beat at the ZooZoom!

next year........I'm taking Dolly!

of mice and men.....and boys and books.....

so as a "good mom" I try to keep up with what is happening in school so I can help the boys out with their homework. J is a great dad and very helpful, but R passed him in math skills in 5th grade or so. I will even admit to having R call Auntie Misty earlier this year. we can still handle D's math, thank goodness! science is completely beyond me. I won't tell you what I did to pass science in high school.

but when it comes to english and history, I am spot on! and as R has started reading what I would consider "classics" I have read along with, or ahead of, him so that we can discuss the points of the stories. I have read most, if not all, of them before, but it has been a couple of years (ha!) and some of the more minor details have escaped me. I am sure I will have to read them again in 2 years to go through the same thing with D. I like talking about books with the boys, especially books like "Of Mice and Men" and this year's earlier assignment "To Kill A Mockingbird."

so my purpose for blogging about this: I am glad that the schools haven't been so beaten by political correctness that they don't teach our kids the mistakes of the past so that they can grow up to not repeat them. I realize these books are fiction, but within them are the kernels of society. I want the boys to know that things weren't always fair and that people don't all live and feel like we do. I hope it will make them grow up to be open minded, thoughtful, and appreciative. all the things we want from an education!

no habla espanol!

(yeah.... not even sure I spelled that right)

but on with the story....... several months ago we started getting 2 phone calls every time the boys' school district sent out a broadcast message. I figured they just had a real basic phone calling system and couldn't figure out that we had 2 kids in the same district even if they were at two different grade groupings (elementary and middle) and at two different schools. so we get the same phone calls twice.

then a few months ago we started getting only one phone call from the school district....... in english......... and our second phone call........... in spanish!

and starting just a few weeks ago we have started getting solicitation calls from one of our credit card companies...... in spanish! WTH?!?!?!?

so, now, why is this happening?!?!? we have joked that since R has started taking spanish in school that the district wants him to practice! lol! and when D moved in with us, we had him tested as possibly bilingual because his prior foster care family spoke primarily spanish (welcome to California! lol!). anyway, he failed and they determined he had no problems with english and didn't know much spanish. but that really can't be it because D has been with us for 5 years and these spanish calls have only started in the past few months.

the question remains........... is there something about our family that makes people think we speak spanish or have they decided that everyone in our lovely state speaks spanish?

no se! (lol!!)

12 of 12 July summertime break weekend edition

hello and welcome to this month's edition of 12 of 12! with inspiration from Chad, the idea is to take 12 photos of your day on the 12th of each month.

this past week was a rough one. unhealthy air, long hours at work and taking a horribly torturous notary class and exam, and the fact that J and R were gone to Scout camp left me not sleeping well. so this morning I was thankfully able to sleep in this morning......until.........

Tessa decided to bark at something and woke me up......... but hey! it WAS 3 1/2 more hours of sleep than I had been getting! and a week of exhaustion had resulted in me actually sleeping quite well finally! lol!!

but.....since R was gone I had to feed Stubbs........Princess Stubbs. I couldn't resist trying to snag a few photos. sadly I couldn't get a shot that wasn't ruined by some stuff on the side of the cage. I think it is the vitamin stuff we dust the crickets with before sacrificing them to the Gecko Goddess! lol!! (be thankful I missed the shot of her snagging her prey. has taken me almost an entire year to be able to watch her)

D fed Tessa. too bad this isn't a video so you could see her nosing out the *inferior* nuggets so she could eat her favorites......... those little golden squares. in a few minutes there are pieces strewn around the her food area and all the golden squares are gone.

I did my daily Webkinz and even helped a friend a bit. course, got myself a cheesy price for my own spin...... but she'll be happy to know I got her a Wish Token.

then I took some time to clean the fridge. oh boy oh boy what fun! lol!! it actually looks pretty organized now......and hey, I needed a food shot since I didn't show you my breakfast (that I forgot to eat! lol!) after cleaning the fridge I decided we have WAY too many pickles and mustards! there is half a shelf of pickles and a door shelf full of mustard. insane! totally insane!

after my cleaning I finished up work on a recipe swap I am doing. these were a whole lot more work than I expected them to be......but I think they came out cute!

yeah! finally J and R got home from camp. be darn thankful that this is not Smell-O-Vision because they STUNK!!! they were freakin' STINKY!!!!

so after they were showered, we headed out to Weiner Works for dinner. here D is posing at our table while we wait for our food. as you can see, the walls are covered with photos and writing, etc. you can see some of it on the side.

FOOD!!!!! these guys make the BESTEST french fries!! this is a large order.....just ONE large order! lol!! we rarely finish them....though this particular order seems a bit larger than the normal large! and you can't believe how wonderful those hot dogs are!

since I had taken the two photos here with my cell phone, R wanted to try and take one......so I got a good smoochie phone of me and dh! much better kissing him now than before his shower! lol!

the traditional odometer shot. my mileage is going back down now that I am not doing carpool in the morning. even better than before I think since I don't have my car at lunch I don't use up gas running errands. and hey, Light Rail is $4 a day......less than 1 tank of gas!

as for the temperature........ the high was only 91 degrees today. earlier this week it was over 110! so much for drama. not that I LIKE blazing hot weather, but it would have been a lot more exciting to post a photo of it being that hot instead of a boring 91! lol!!

ah shoot! I didn't even think about changing the orientation of this next photo. another one I took from my phone. and maybe now is where I should mention that our desktop is having a Zone Alarm problem and I can't get on the internet with it. so I am doing all this on the laptop.....with no photo program.

anyway........don't be too fooled by this photo. prices have been dropping the past week or so. this is the lowest I have seen....probably the lowest in all of Sacramento. I was excited to pay $4.25 a gallon earlier this week courtesy of my 10 cents off at Safeway.

Dairy Queen has Thin Mint blizzards. we had them tonight for dessert. we deserved them, right? another sideways one...... sorry!

anyway......that was my day. I think I actually had 13 photos.....but between using the camera phone and e-mailing them to myself and rigging up the camera to the laptop to try and use, I was thankful to have any!

bookend birthdays.....

things have been crazy around here. trying to get in the swing of the new job has taken quite a toll on my free time. dh is working on taking over making dinners and R is helping out a bit more around the house. thankfully summer is almost upon us and that means that atleast I won't have to do the morning carpool before catching Light Rail to work.

today, being June 2nd is the calm in the eye of the storm. R's birthday was yesterday and D's birthday is tomorrow. we celebrated this year with a miserable day at Great America. it was cold and windy and the boys lasted about 5 hours before wanting to head home. on top of that lunch almost killed us all it was so gross. if anything might push me to becoming a vegetarian......it was that hamburger! all in all we spent more time driving back and forth than we did at the park.

yesterday we went to Melting Pot for the next part of the ongoing party train. we joined a grown up couple for a lovely dinner. thankfully no hamburger there and the food is always superb!!

today was our day to rest from stuffing ourselves and tomorrow we will be off to Red Robin for the last of our great birthday parties. seems silly but Red Robin is our traditional place of celebration. we go every year on Gotcha Day and for birthdays.

D turns 10 this year. it isn't as shocking as when R turned 10. I wonder if that has anything to do with being the second child or because he hasn't actually been with us for all those years? not really sure other than it is still strange to think that he is 10.......

so anyway........hopefully I will be back up to speed and blogging AND scrapping more. I sure hope so!

batting averages and DMV....

we are having problems with a certain young man in our household. he prefers to not follow the house rules, not get ready for school in the morning, and not do his homework. this week so far he has gotten ready 2 out of 4 mornings. so far this week he has done his homework 1 out of 3 days. if he were a baseball player he would have a 500 average for mornings and a 333 for homework. not bad......if you are a baseball player. bad if you are a 9 1/2 year old who wanted to go to a sleep over birthday party tomorrow night.

DMV......the weather was too nice to go yesterday morning. however this morning I woke up to glorious rain! lol!! so I grabbed myself a mocha and went over to hang out in the DMV parking lot until they opened at 8am. when I got there it was about 15 minutes til and there were 5 or 6 other cars there. a few moments later, even though it was raining, someone decided we needed to go stand in line.......in the rain. like dominoes.....or maybe lemmings......we all ended up out of our cars in line waiting for DMV to open. I had a hood so while I was chilly I didn't really get wet. I was done, picture taken, and to work by 8:30. not bad, huh?!?!? I just hope my picture looks good!

the grateful 12of12......

yep! it was the 12th again. funny how that day rolls around about the same time every month! this month's bonus picture is based on *grateful.* but how does one really limit being grateful to just one photo?!?!

courtesy of all those who served in the military and the merger of my employer with a company that recognizes Veteran's Day.........I was grateful to sleep in to 7:53. J wasn't so lucky and had to work. the boys didn't have school and slept in even later than me.

at a little after 8am the temperature was 48 degrees. not bad but made me grateful to be able to walk back in to the heated house! lol!!

D wasn't grateful to have to do homework. but atleast he was grateful that it was being done at home instead of in detention.

and I am grateful to be the mother of two able boys. notice I didn't say willing! lol! but they raked both lawns and R mowed them both. I guess J should be grateful for this too......without the boys this would be his job!

R actually enjoys raking leaves. I think he gets a sense of accomplishment seeing a big pile of leaves emerge from what doesn't look like much across the backyard. I am grateful that he doesn't complain (most of the time) about doing work around the house.

I taught this weekend for Cosmo Cricket and one of the things we used were their Buck Naked Ornaments. I decided they would be perfect for a project I was working on so made myself a few. and since I am using the Cosmo Cricket Be Good paper line......I sure am grateful that these match!

almost forgot to take this picture! can you believe it?!?!? 1100+ miles last month! UUUGH! looks like that is my new norm. guess I should be grateful that I have a running car and that R is smart enough to go to a special school even if it DOES take on the miles, right?!?!?

the Scouts were doing a fundraiser at a local pizza place last night (see next photo). we got there early and R found a couple playing the game Magic. course he got himself invited to sit down and join them. by the time he came home that evening he knew all about the game and wanted to play himself! he should be grateful that they were so nice and helpful!

the Scouts were really there to bus tables, deliver food, etc. R did a good job taking around pizzas and cleaning up after people. but there were atleast 2 Scouts per customer so things were slow most of the time. the nice thing was that Round Table donated 20% of the take for the evening to the Scouts. talk about something to be grateful for! gotta love companies that are really willing to do things like this.

here is my own personal Primo Supremo! lol! do I really need to say why I am grateful???

croak! gag! blech!!!!!! this is killing us.........seriously killing us! AND this is the price at Costco. the regular stations were at $3.44 a gallon. that is 19 cents per gallon of being grateful for joining Costco! lol!!

when I brought D home from our pizza (and gas fill up) we had a little friend waiting for us on the front porch. D didn't get a chance to see it because the frog had hidden himself before D got close, but I grabbed a couple photos. I asked the frog to turn around and pose, but his butt was about all I got! lol! it was a nice reminder to be grateful that our area isn't so developed that there aren't frogs to happen upon once in awhile. that frog is probably pretty grateful that I have a remote for our garage door so that Tessa didn't pounce on him the minute I opened the front door!

finishing up my project tonight I actually went so far as to play my iTunes Christmas mix and drink some egg nog. I had gotten it for our mock Christmas with Cecilie but had forgotten to bring it out. it is the *light* version and you can definately tell the difference......but after drinking 2 mug fulls I am grateful it wasn't the regular full fat version! lol!

and finally........I am darn grateful that Chad has this monthly challenge! so many things that might have slipped by.....every day generic dorky moments that are caught because one day a month I have a goal to take 12 (or 13) photos.

apparently.....

if someone TRIPLE dog dares you......it means you HAVE to do it!

a very un-productive productive day....

are you sensing a theme here?!?!?

D decided that he really didn't like his breakfast this morning and returned it all over the carpet this morning. BLECH!!! nothing worse in my world than puke. needless to say, we stayed home from school today. he never threw up again, but he slept until noon, ate a little chicken soup, took a nap, did his homework, read a little, ate a little more soup, and went back to bed.

I, on the other hand, had OOOODLES of work to do at the office today! one of those days where I really wish I had the ability to telecommute. and I have an important business meeting tomorrow that will take atleast half of my day so I won't get much work done then either. I don't have many in person formal type meetings in my position. a lot of conference calls, but not many actual meetings. days like tomorrow I could use a business suit. oh well! lol!!

but during my un-productive productive day I managed to accomplish a few things. the worst and largest of all being that of balancing the checkbook. oh dear me!!! I last balanced it in mid-February. when I printed the cleared information from the credit union's website it was 15 pages worth! YIKES!! took me 3 hours. I really need to do a better job of keeping up on this stuff. I also managed to mail out the April and May calendar pages for the grandparents. and yes, I know that today is the 10th of April.......I am running a tad behind! lol!! talked to our sales person about what we want to do about the carpeting and will go in on Friday to sign whatever we need to sign and give her $$ to get the ball rolling. also found the place to get R's costume for his school's wax museum in May. R is going to portray Benedict Arnold. told you he always liked the bad guy! lol! but I am really hanging my hat on the checkbook thing. for someone who usually balances it weekly, that was conquering a mountain!!

well....I have some scrappy projects to work on. oddly enough, I haven't felt motivated to scrap much. I have lots of great photos waiting for me and some fun projects halfway done, but nothing is making me CRAVE scrapping. sure hope that feeling goes away soon (and not in the middle of my meeting tomorrow! lol!).

call us the 4 dwarfs.....

slowpoke, snarky, sneezy, and grumpy. oh, wait! that last one IS a dwarf and two of those names describe the same member of our family! the only one left out was J...... call him stressed! sheesh! what a horrible day it was yesterday. I mentioned to several people that I just felt grumpy. downright, old fashioned grumpy. atleast I knew it, right?!?! yesterday afternoon with the boys didn't help. (remember those dwarf names?!?!) I can handle sneezy it is just when his alter-ego snarky came out that the youknowwhathittheyouknowwhat. slowpoke was in rare (okay, not rare.......but previously normal and thought we had gotten through kind of behaviour), then got some crummy news in the morning, the day was a head hammerer, dealt with Mr. Petulant in the afternoon, and then headed home to find out that because I didn't fill out paperwork that wasn't sent to me that I was being denied something I didn't want in the first place. follow?!?! yeah, well, honestly it really makes sense to me. but that is for another blog after a couple beers....that I don't drink! lol!! the highlight of the day.....golly, Ugly Betty! for the LOVE of Ugly Betty! I will admit my fav part was the bestexgirlfriendyouneverhad conversation between Amanda and Mark. LOVED IT!!! (with a swish)

anyway, a few have told me they were having *off* days recently. people getting snarky, on each other's nerves, etc. I am hoping it is ending. and ending quickly. and a little consolation knowing I am not alone.....heck, even Mr. Dooce had an off day yesterday. weird, huh?!?!?

so TODAY!! today should be a good day, right?!?! to balance things out, right?!?! a phone call to clear up that paperworkIdon'twant problem. and then bought the fam tickets to see All American Rejects in May. FOURTH ROW.......pretty darn exact center stage!! now I will admit that ifthe powers that be told me I could once get such close tickets and to pick the concert, this wouldn't be near the top of the list. BUT......if the same amount of money gets me these tickets versus 100 rows back, who am I to complain?!?! the boys will love it......especially Mr. Petulant. hey, maybe I should give the fam all these kind of names and call them by that instead of their initials?!?!

hoping for a splendid weekend! busy as always, but I am thinking a good wonderful kind of busy. the kind that returns you to work Monday morning feeling like you actually DID have a weekend!

12 of 12 - the LUCKY edition! lol!

once again, I have surprisingly remembered to take my pictures!!! if you are clueless as to what I am referring to....please check out CHAD!! also check out some of the others who play along each month.....really kinda fun to read what other people did today!

alrighty, here we go....I wasn't coherent enough to take a picture of the clock this morning when J woke me at 6am (really 5am, huh?!?!?) so my first photo is the obligatory odometer...which happily shows the temperature as well! (it warmed up to the mid-80s today....should have waited to take this shot, huh?!?!?)

forgot to take a picture of the boys so I tracked them down halfway to school. please notice that one boy is wearing a helmet and riding his scooter while the other isn't. guess which one left his at school on Friday and instead of saying anything was RUNNING to keep up?!?!?

got to work late......but the phone system wasn't reset yet....so was I actually EARLY!?!?!? lol!! and yes, yes I do have a penguin squeezy stress ball/doll. (thank you still to Sharon!)

my healthy and nutritious breakfast (atleast it was a non-fat mocha)......and hey, isn't that straw GREEN?!?!? did I mention the bonus pic this month has a GREEN theme?!?!?!

at lunch time I cruised over to Target to try and get J something for his iPod. didn't find what I think he thinks he wants.....but does that ever really stop one from spending money (aka GREEN) at Target?!?!? took a picture of the sign because I can't show you what I bought......secret!!!

then hit the drive thru at Jack in the Box. I won't show you or tell you what I had for lunch. just pretend it was healthy and nutritious, okay??? I will promise you that I didn't get one of the Andes Mints milkshakes.....hurry Easter! hurry!!


yeah, well, speaking of GREEN.........I won't have much thanks to the price of gas! can you BELIEVE IT?!?!?!

this guy is trying to drum up business for a new deli. I have seen him every day for the past week or so....and every day I think "golly I hope he is still there on the 12th so I can take his picture." too bad he would rather me think "golly I want a sandwich right now" lol!

our city recently lowered the speed limit on several major roads. every day last week I watched some fool get a ticket for zooming along....... I'll agree 40 is darn slow but I wanna keep as much GREEN as I can so I have slowed down!

here is the stack of layouts I have completed recently thanks to a class over at BPS and this weekend's Extreme Crop over at LM. pretty nice stack, huh?!?!?

here is Mr. Dork himself....working on a plaque for R's Arrow of Light. the ceremony is Thursday. nothing like putting things off until the last minute, huh?!?!?

and his lovely wife, Mrs Dork, showing you a nifty little something that the boys found and begged me to buy for a friend. if you know me, you KNOW who that friend is. and either he will be thrilled or he will have already received a dozen packages. either way, the boys LOVE him and wanted to send him something..... but shush! try and keep it a secret, okay?!?!?


and, the BONUS PICTURE!!!! yes, I have become a tad obsessed! I LOVE these mint ones! they are the BESTEST!!! and that whole limited time only thing kinda freaks me out! as if it weren't bad enough that they discontinued the valencia syrup....now I have to deal with this kind of pressure?!?!?

anyway, hope the pictures were a decent size. this is my first month with the new blog so I am still learning!

right here.....right now....

it is 12of12 day! so far I have taken 4 pictures. not bad but I am going to have to find stuff to take pictures of today....I just know it!!

here is a work funny.......I had an early conference call today. with the time change, I wasn't sure for sure what time it was where the call was set for (in Arizona) so I checked our company home page....uh, yeah, THEY even messed up on the whole time change thing and I called into my call at the wrong time! lol!

this morning I was speeding along getting ready for work. managed to upload all the layouts I did over the weekend to the my LM gallery . zoom! zoom! zoom! I really feel good about the work I did over the weekend (mostly Friday night). nothing that is going to win me any awards, but some serious progress towards getting closer to my acceptable lag range for scrapping.

in other feel good news......David seems to be making some serious progress, both at home and at work. most of you don't know the specific issues (because I am not a whiner, gosh darn it! lol!) but know that we have had some major struggles with him. anyway, last night his bedtime was moved up a half hour......SUCH a big thing!!! he has been doing much better at school too and was awarded Student of the Month for his class for February. course, he has known for a week but didn't bother to TELL us! nothing phases that kid! lol!! anyway, when we went through our Pride training (fostercare / adoption stuffs) they talked about how things would get bad, bad, bad, and then eventually if you held on they would start getting better........I am scared to jinx things, but it seems like we have finally (oh my gosh..........FINALLY) started to make the turn. I am not saying things are perfect....but I am not expecting that............ and I am not saying that I don't expect problems.......but the daily struggles seem to be lightening up a bit.

the good, the bad, and the Ugly

the best good: you might have seen, C posted to let me know she is okay. still worried about her. still wish everything would calm down.

the good: we were able to keep the house opened up all day yesterday! I know it is horrible for J's allergies....but I just love that feeling of a fresh breeze. it was a little too chilly still, but oh well! lol! J also got the Silhouette software on the laptop and Microsoft Office loaded. now I just need to transfer my 5 ZILLION fonts and find out how to actually physically hook the laptop up to the Silhouette and printer. (yes, I have no clue)

more good: I was able to leave the windows open today. now, before any potential robbers get excited.....it is only the 2nd story windows and you would need a 2 story ladder to get to them and then the alarm would go off anyway! find another house, buddy!! okay, so we leave 2 of them open and it forms a nice breeze through the rooms. course, I forgot to put Buzz Lightyear in front of our door so it would stay open so I have a 50-50 chance that at some point in time it will slam shut and lock T in the bedroom. poor T!!

even a little more good (and maybe a bit o' bad mixed in): a place called John's Incredible Pizza is opening near us on Weds. it sounds like a real blast! the boys are excited and they don't even know all the fun things it has that CEC doesn't have. supposedly better food so that is a nice thing. buffet which is great if the boys actually stop playing and eat. so, what is the bad part?!?! well, each year the boys' school PTA has a fundraiser at CEC and they get a % of sales. so every year I buy a BUNCH of tokens and a huge ol' gift card to use throughout the next year. there is also a scrapbook store next door to CEC. it was nice to get there on a Sunday morning, let the boys play and then when we left make a quick stop at the lss "just to look." we all liked this arrangement. this will not work as there is no longer a lss near where Johns is opening.....and with that, a lead in to the bad....

the bad: my first scrapbook store closed its doors last week. it was a chain, but a nice chain. a generic, solid, dependable chain that carried basic, good, and reliable stuff. you knew what they would carry and could plan accordingly. it was great when I decided I needed something and couldn't wait for LM to send it! well, about a year ago they merged/were bought/hostile take over/whatever with another company that dealt more with paper products for your own imprinting and stuff. another decent nice store. nothing to write home about. the merger created a horrible garage sale type store. not fully committed to scrapping and not fully committed to paper products. just a smashing of two cultures into a horrible sloppy stew. needless to say, they just had no clue why business went in the toilet and decided to close all their California stores! at first I just figured that it was a bummer I couldn't go browse at lunch time (since it was also 2 blocks from my office). but when I saw the sign down late last week I realized I had just lost my starting point for scrapping. it was a gift certificate that took me into that store and started my "scrapping career"......... so I was kinda feeling a little lost this weekend.

more bad: our next door neighbor's house is already in escrow. they put it on the market on Monday (a week ago....7 short short days) and have a buyer already. R & D are going to lose their closest bestest buddy when they move. and yes, we have made a promise to get them together as much as possible. but in reality, the boys are all so darn busy that it really will be difficult and I wonder how long that commitment will hold up?!?!

the Ugly: I am tired of reruns. we got a new DH last night but it had been so long since the last one that I kinda forgot what was going on. I LIKE having more free time in the evenings but I want my shows back! :::whine whine whine:::