Coming soon

Guess who's getting braces on Monday?

They were having "Spirit Week" at the office when Nick went in for his initial consultation.

It was 80's day.

The cute assistant convinced Nick to turn up his collar and peg his pants so she could pose for a picture with him. (I think Nick has an itty bitty crush on her even though he knows she's too old for him)

And then cause they looked so awesome we got Dr. Chamberlain to pose with him. (he also happens to be a friend of the family)

Sigh...

blogging is going to annoy me if I can't space things out they way I want to. It seems that I could write a whole stinking novel, and it will end up being one giant paragraph. :(

Challenge #8

A habit I wish I didn't have. Easy. Zit picking. I'm pretty OCD about it. I can't pass a mirror without checking out my reflection (and not in a vain way, but in search of zits) and if I see one, I can't not pick it. Same goes for my loved ones faces. Poor Nick has hit the ripe old age of puberty and has started taking preemptive measures of picking his own zits, cause "it hurts more when you do it." Which, ironically, is how I got started. Paranoid my dad would hold me down and pick mine, I took matters into my own hands. Of course, I took it to a whole new level, and many family members think I'm slightly crazy. But there you have it.

AAARGH!!!

It drives me insane when blogger messes with my line spacing!!!! I must have tried to edit that last post several different times, trying to put a space between paragraphs, but no line spacing between the items in my list. I either get it all mashed to gether- Gum keys wallet chapstick pens pillboxes or it puts huge spaces between lines. Gum keys pens pillboxes. Are you kidding me? These are my choices?!?!? I finally settled for no spacing between paragraphs, and huge spaces in my list. GRRRR. Edit (10 seconds later) - this post was full of all sorts of line spaces to illustrate my point, but blogger took them out!!!!

Challenge #7

What you would find in my bag. I had some time to kill at the dentist office today while waiting for Maddie to get her teeth cleaned, so I decided to make good use of my time and work on that (cough, cough) thirty day blog challenge. Here's the bag- It's a fake. John picked it up on one of his various travels. I'm not afraid to admit it that I like the fakes. After having 4 kids, and having carried around you-name-it in my purses over the years, I get anxiety over thinking about buying a purse that cost more than $20-$30 (usually less). And it has to be small-ish. I can and do cram anything possible in it. The contents-

Sunglasses case- (empty- the sunglasses are on my kitchen counter, I think)

Camera (I'm taking the picture with my cellphone which I usually carry in my pocket)

Wallet with various cards, receipts, etc.

Gum

Sunblock

Drugs- Heartburn, Ibuprofen, and Excedrin. Don't you love my little pill cases? Tissues

headphones

Keys. Both sets to our one and only car. John hates when I do this.

Phoenix zoo ticket stubs

various other receipts

5 pens (including one sharpie)

Chocolate flavored chapstick

Dental appt. reminder cards

As Nancy would say "Party favors of the feminine nature"

A helmet for a Lego guy Loose change

and last but not least, an "invitation" for more cub scout training.

Happy Birthday Daddy

In honor of my dad's birthday today, I thought I'd just share a favorite memory of my dad from my childhood. Technically I think I was 19, and not really a child any more, but that was half a lifetime ago, and before I had children of my own, so I'm counting it as part of my childhood.

My dad has always big on outdoorsy stuff. Huge, really. Still is. Camping, backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, canyoneering, white water rafting, skiing (that's how he spent his day today). (I would not be surprised if he lives to see a hundred, and still manages to die while doing something he loves like falling off a mountain or something) I'll be honest, most of the trips he goes on sound less than fun to me, and so I didn't tag along on most of his adventures. But one year, there was an extra spot on a river rafting trip down the Hell's Canyon section of the Snake river and somehow I was the lucky one to go. Just me and my dad. And one of my dad's friends and a bunch of strangers.It was so fun. Three days of 100+ degree heat, floating down a refreshingly cool river. For safety, my dad gave me a pretty scary looking knife (I think it was like 6 inches) to carry with me, you know, just in case I fell out of the raft during some pretty wild rapids and got stuck in a rope or something. I think I carried that thing with me night and day, even when there was no chance of drowning. I thought it was a pretty cool knife.

When my dad gave me that ginormous file of over 1800 pictures for Christmas this past year, I asked him about the picture of me sleeping on a beach. I couldn't remember ever sleeping on a beach. His comment was something to the effect of "That was from our river trip. Don't you remember the butt holes?" Of course, as soon as he said it, a memory was jogged, and I had to laugh because how could I forget that? It's not as crude as it sounds, by the way. Our sleeping arrangements literally consisted of digging holes in the sand for our butts and sorta shaping it into a recliner, then lining with our foam pads for comfort. I don't think I have EVER slept so well on the ground before or since.

Anyways, I think that's got to be my favorite memory of spending time with my dad. Besides being a ridiculously fun trip, it was also nice cause it was just the two of us.

Oceans 11 - day 3

For our third and last day on the field trip, we started off by heading to the Cabrillo Aquarium for a fun little private tour.

There were lots of fish in tanks to look at,

live fish you could actually touch,

whale bones you could touch too,

fishy photo opportunities,

and even fishy costumes to dress up in.

After lunch, and a group photo on the beach,

and then we headed over to a marine mammal rescue center, where we saw how they were rehabilitating sea lions and such.

Finally it was time to head home.

Believe it or not, it was on the return trip home that my favorite and least favorite moments happened.

When the kids got on the bus, they were given a booklet to fill out with games and activities and such concerning the trip. One of the pages was a blank lined page in which they were instructed to write something about their trip- a song, a poem, a story, or even a top ten list. Maddie started off writing a song to the tune of Smash Mouth's All-Star, and also worked on a top ten list when she'd get a bit of writers block.

Starting at the back of the bus, they had the kids come up to the front one at a time, and read what they wrote. 95% of the kids had written top ten lists. (it was pretty much the same list over, and over, and over again.) Maddie included. She kinda chickened out and wasn't brave enough to sing her song.

Until after one of the pit stops. She approached her teacher, and announced she had not one, but two songs she'd like to sing, one of them was oceanography related, and the other was just a silly song she learned at girl scouts. She did such a good job, I was so proud of her. She had the attention of the whole bus as she sang and acted out lines like "wrapped my arms around my waist, got so fresh I slapped my face". She was brave. She was cute. She was funny. She was entertaining. I couldn't believe we were related, I never in a hundred years could have done that.

Then of course her bravery inspired other wanna-be pop stars to come up and plug in their earphones, and sing along to their favorite song on their ipods (so, so very painful to listen to- is it wrong to say my daughter was hands down the best? Of course in second place would be Katarina's dad- Brian, who at the very end sang a song he wrote about the trip to the tune of "My favorite things" and got a little choked up every time he mentioned spending time with his daughter.)

So my worst moment. There aren't a lot of eating options in the town we stopped at for dinner- Blythe. Usually, they stop at Burger King or Taco Bell, but this time we all agreed that Sizzler might be a better option. I know, what were we thinking? I forgot there is a reason why I can't remember the last time I've ever been to Sizzler. The food was lousy, the service was worse (the manager was mad at us because we didn't all sit together, but when we got there, they said the tables they had planned for us weren't ready, and to just go find any empty tables to sit at) and to cap it off, at one point a waiter tripped and splattered clam chowder all over me and Mrs. Hamlin (the teacher who organizes this trip). It was on my shirt, on my face, in my hair. I think it would have been funnier if the manager was nicer, but I got the impression he was annoyed with us for getting splattered on.

Moral of the story? Sizzler is NEVER the better option.

Anyways, despite the clam chowder incident, I'm glad I went. I think I spent more time studying my daughter in her natural environment than I did any fish. What I observed- all sorts of kids like her, and adults love her. She's brave and funny and can command an audience when she wants to, but doesn't need to make a scene and act like an idiot to get attention (like some of the other girls I observed).

Oceans 11 - day 2

Day 2 was a busy day.

We spent the morning on a floating lab (big boat) out in the bay. We were supposed to go out farther into the ocean, but with the tsunami wreaking havoc all over the Pacific ocean, we elected to stay in the calm(er) confines of the bay. (Which means no dolphin sightings)

It was still fun. They dropped a net into the water, then we all helped pull it up and then had a little show and tell about all the animals they collected from the ocean.

We got to see a sponge, a couple different kinds of flat fishes (I forget their names) , a crab, an octopus, a lobster, a sting ray (I can now tell if it's a boy or a girl) a sea star (apparently they aren't called star fish any more) and a couple other things I can't name.

Maddie got to touch the lobster. The boat guide/instructor person had Maddie feel this long thing protruding from the lobster's face, and when she told him it was kinda slimy, he then told her she was picking a lobster's nose.

We also saw some sea lions on the way back to the dock. There's usually a whole bunch more, but apparently the tsunami affected them too.

After that we headed over to Sea World. We were divided into groups, and sent on our merry way. In our group there were nine of us- 6 girls, me, and two dads. We seriously couldn't ask for a better group. They were really well behaved and a lot of fun to be with. After being stuck on the bus with some of those other kids, we chaperones were in total agreement that we clearly got the best group. I found most of the other girls to be totally obnoxious. (and a lot of the boys as well)

The only not-so-positive thing (in my opinion) the girls were all about getting wet. We had our ponchos, but most of the girls managed to soak themselves pretty good. The lines for the rides didn't seem too long and the girls were able to ride the Atlantis ride three times in a row. They might have considered going again, but the ride broke down while they were on it the third time, and they were stuck on it for about a half an hour. (As I had already gone twice, I was taking my turn babysitting the cameras and backpacks on a bench nearby)

One more little thing I wanted to mention- While riding the Atlantis ride, I happened to notice that only Maddie and I had our arms up when going down hills. Like mother, like daughter I guess.

After Atlantis we ate lunch -and had the misfortune to dump two cups of over priced strawberries, and two glasses of fruit punch within the space of about 5 minutes. The funniest thing was the last glass of fruit punch was dumped by Katarina's dad, Brian, right after he had taken it from a girl so she wouldn't dump it. I swear it leaped right off his tray and down the front of the other dad chaperoning our group. Fortunately Sea World gave us free replacements for the strawberries and drinks.

We watched a couple shows- the last bit of Shamu, (lunch took longer than expected) a pretty funny sea lion show, and a dolphin show. Brian was kind and "took one for the team" and sat on the front row with the girls for the shows, while Aaron (the other dad) and I kept the cameras (and ourselves) high and dry. They got drenched. I happened to glance over as Brian was getting a wall of water right in the face.

Then because they apparently weren't wet enough, (or so wet it didn't matter) the girls wanted to go down the river rapids next. I went once, and that was enough for me (yes, I am such a party pooper) and everyone except one of the girls went down two more times.

I forgot to take a picture, but I was pretty impressed with Sea World's new way to get more money out of you. They have these giant dryers at the end of the rapids ride, and for $5 you can get 5 minutes worth of heaters and blow driers coming at you from all sides. Of course after $10, Maddie was still pretty damp.

For dinner we had pizza and salad at a bonfire on the beach and listened to "scary" (and true) stories with an oceany theme to them. For dessert we had s'mores. In an attempt to be practical and save time, they used those tomato cages, and stuck 5 or so marshmallows on each of the metal spikes that go into the ground (naturally these had never been used for that purpose) and had the chaperones roast up 20 or so at a time. Then they served them on those chocolate stripey cookies instead of the separate (and more expensive) chocolate and graham crackers.

Efficient? yes. Economical? yes. Practical? yes. Lame? yes. (Sorry, I'm old school when it comes to s'mores)

After dinner we hopped onto the bus for the trek up to Los Angeles where we would spend the night.

stay tuned for the next (and last!) exciting installment!

Oceans 11 - day 1

(that's a cute and clever way to say "Oceanography field trip 2011")

Given that I got to go with Nick, Maddie would have been totally heartbroken had I not gotten to go with her (she burst into tears when I mentioned it was a possibility with John's work travel schedule) but we were able to make it work, and I'm glad we did.
It was fun spending those three days with my girl. And it does this mom's heart good to know that my little pre-teen still wants to spend time with and be seen in public with her mom. And she was ridiculously excited when I surprised her at Sea World with matching friendship bracelets. (squeeling and hugging and all that)

Ok, so, Maddie has been attending oceanography club after school for a couple months now, and at the end they do this big field trip to San Diego. It's all put on by a teacher Mrs. Hamlin. Which I think is an amazing opportunity, and when I asked Mrs Hamlin about it, she said that she loves doing it, but there's not another teacher in the whole school who would take over for her if she decided to quit. In other words, it takes a really special kind of teacher to give up afternoons and a whole weekend to devote to this kind of thing (without pay).
They get a big charter bus, and we have a tour guide (his name is Tiny), and he's the one who takes care of all the details. Tiny also brought his son (6 yrs old) his name is Griffin, but since he looks so much like his dad, Mrs. Hamlin calls him Teeny Tiny. I should also mention that Teeny Tiny developed quite the crush on Maddie, and followed her around for a whole day, and insisted on giving her a present. She is now the proud owner of a new plastic Shamu dinner plate. (He has a matching one).
The first day we stopped in Yuma for dinner and had the choice of either In n Out or Panda Express, and then headed to San Diego for our final destination of the day- The Hotel.
I was supposed to get my own room. I got my own room last time, and it was glorious, because then I could watch whatever I wanted on the TV, and take an extra long shower without annoying anyone or having them judge me. I was told this time that I was going to get my own room again, which I was totally stoked about, but then this little nagging thought popped into my head that either I am incredibly lucky to get my own room twice, or there's something wrong with me. Like I stink. Or something. But in the end I ended up with a very nice room mate, and I enjoyed her company. And I didn't mind too much that I had to keep my shower short and sweet, because she let me go first and so she was waiting for me to get out.
That's my room mate Kari. (Carrie? Kerrie?) and I look so fat cause I'm wearing a giant ski parka. Just sayin'.

Maddie shared a room with three other girls. Which sounds weird, having no parental supervision, but there were security measures in place, and night security guards patrolling the area, and the threat that if any kid caused trouble, their parents would be paying for a plane ticket home for that kid.

Also in attendance were some friends of ours- Katarina and her dad Brian. They were in our group too, so that made it nice to be with real friends, not just a bunch of casual acquaintances.(However nice and friendly they may be.)