Grandma Ve (aka. Bog Bing)

My mom visited us while Daniel was away. She came at a good time and was a blessing. Thank you mom for all of your help.

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Sarah says quite a bit, but sometimes the pronunciation is off A BIT. Grandma Ve morphed into something that sounded like "Bog Bing".

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Earlier this week, the boys pointed out what she has been saying when she pushes her shopping cart around..."Watch Out, Watch Out!" Once you know what she's saying, it all becomes clear.

The 2 Minute Hair-Do

These special hair-styles take about 2 minutes to do. Unfortunately they also only last 2 minutes.

What would you do with hair like this?!!?

(Yes, Sarah is attempting to climb the wall. She really tried hard too. It must be boring at our house if she's resorting to this.)

I like this latest hair idea I had. I fought hard all day to keep it in. Surprisingly, I ended the day with the clip. Most of the others have been lost.

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I. WILL. WIN. THIS. BATTLE.

High School Musical 3

I decided to take a much-needed computer break. I didn't realize it had been so long!

I have been busy. Right now, Daniel is out of town and my mom is in town. Sometimes ,when Daniel goes out of town I try to do some surprise project. I don't think the current one is going to get done in time. I'm excited to post pictures when I finish though. One of my paint colors just has to go.

My mom stayed at my home with the kids while I got to see High School Musical 3. I laughed and laughed and laughed. It probably helped that I was sitting next to Kaitlyn (my 15 year old neice). It was both entertaining and hokey at the same time. I think the key to enjoying it is having low expectations......I actually think that's the key to enjoying just about anything, including life. Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed.

I've Been Tagged. I'm an Official Blogger.

Robyn G. tagged me. Wow. My first tag. It was kind of fun to think about what I like and such. So here goes:

5 shows I love to watch:
1-Ha!
2-Ha, ha!
3-TV?
4-I used to watch one show, but even that's gone now. There. Is. Not. Enough. Time. To. Do. Everything.
5-(But if I was willing to spend money on cable, I would spend ALL DAY watching HGTV. That's what I secretly wanted to do while we were in San Diego. Um, maybe we shouldn't get cable. But if YOU have cable, be sure to invite me over.)

5 (or so) favorite restaurants:
1-Thai Wild Ginger
2-Rumbi's, Jason's Deli
3-Olive Garden
4-Subway, Gandolfo's
5-India House

5 things that happened yesterday:
1-I drove the kids to school.
2-I went shopping at IKEA with Sarah to get accessories for my new bookcase.
3-I apologized for being short with someone.
4-I finally finished cleaning out the garage so Daniel could park in it.
5-I blogged and read blogs.

5 things I look forward too:
1-Daniel getting home.
2-Free time with no obligations.
3-Comments on my blog.
4-Shopping at IKEA. (Can you tell it's on my mind?)
5-Going wogging (walking/jogging) with the girls.

5 thing I love about fall:
1-The LEAVES. Crispety, crunchy, gorgeous red, orange, yellow, green and brown LEAVES!!
2-The crisp (not freezing) fresh air.
3-Not having to feel guilty about not taking my kids swimming as much as everyone else.
4-A better wardrobe.
5-Everyone starting to lose their tan so they look more like me. :)

5 things on my wish list:
1-Daniel to come home earlier from work, work less in general and be able to sleep more.
2-Happy children all the time.
3-A house as clean as Natalie's.
4-Being able to wiggle my nose and have dinner appear.
5-A more sustainable lifestyle.

5 people I tag:
1-Kerri G.
2-Sherilyn R.
3-Suzanne P.
4-Most of the others I could tag don't really even know I read their blogs.
5-I really need to link to more people! It's on my to-do list.
6-(You don't really have to do it unless you want. I don't like to pressure people.)

It's About Time.......We're Tied!

The Bowen Boys:

L or R: Jacob, Isaac, Matthew, Adam, Daniel

Horizontal: Bruce (being a good sport)

The Bowen Girls:
L to R: Malisa, Sarah, Dixie, Sydney, Julie, Denise

6 on 6.

(Thanks Matthew and Dixie for adding the latest darling girl.)

Now , hold on, there are some very important people that didn't make it in the picture. They live SO FAR AWAY in NYC.

I present to you....Jonathan and Lani

How nice. We're still even.

P.S. Check out the card Isaac made for his Uncle Matthew's 30th birthday. (Those coins add up to 30 cents btw.)

P.P.S Happy super, super, super belated birthday Lani. I NEVER forget things!

What Matters Most

Sarah may not keep her pigtails in...






But at least her shoes are CUTE!

SeaWorld

We had a good day at SeaWorld, but the boys were definitely more tired. The shows were good (but I thought not quite as good as the ones at SeaWorld San Antonio that I went to with Dylan a few years ago). The "Bay of Play" was a favorite for the kids.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

A post I read about self-portraits inspired me to try to get one of myself. So, in honor of my birthday, here's the attempt.

Self-portraits are hard.

One of the Things I Was Not Naturally Blessed With

I have never had a great memory. It's sad, but true. There have been a few times in my life that it has worked better for me than others, but it's been especially bad since I had kids. I forget names, faces, details, conversations, you name it. Just ask Daniel. My memory - not so good.

I tell you this so that you know -- if I forget something, PLEASE do not think it's you! I just simply forget most things. I seem to have an inability to focus very well these days. My head is usually a jumbled mess of what I want to do battling with what I'm supposed to do.

My mom would maybe say that I just don't care enough to remember, but I hope that's not true. Honestly, I have the best of intentions. The sad thing is that sometimes I remember something after the fact and it's too late. There are two people who's birthdays I flaked on and I keep remembering that now. (I don't want to name who they are just in case THEY forgot - but if it's you, please know that I care about you.) Oh, I hope my friends and family can know that I love them despite my lack of rememberingness.

On the positive side of forgetfulness, it's much harder to hold grudges if you can't remember what it was the darn person did. Some things will bother me for a time, but then it's just all gone. Really gone.

I just love when other people remind me of things that I said that I DON'T REMEMBER SAYING. Please be patient with me.

I also like to stick my foot in my mouth, but that's a post for another time.

P.S. If you want me to attend something (like birthday parties, Leslie ), tell me that I have to put it on my calendar RIGHT THEN. It cannot wait until we are off the phone; by then it will be gone.

Does this have to be so hard?!!

I am very frustrated with Blogger right now. I don't dare touch the post below on Legoland. I had so many problems even getting it to the point it is. The picture placement is wacky, the text has a mind of its own, and there is NO UNDO. I accidently deleted pictures I had just spent the time to upload and I had to wait to upload them again. I don't have time or the desire right now to edit the HTML to get it to look better. I am used to a full editor and this is driving me crazy! Any advice?

Legoland

We loved this park. It was just right for my non-thrill-seeking kids. The lego structures were just as interesting for the adults as for the kids. The boys definitely got a healthy dose of Legoitis.

Hello Boring Blog Page

Obviously I fiddled with my page layout and look. ALL I WANTED was to be able to have my page span the width of the window. (I just can't stand being confined to a skinny column in the middle of the page.) Anyways, I did accomplish that, but there is too much else to fix and think about and I just don't want to spend the time. SO...here is my new boring page until I find some time and motivation. :)

Conversation with Adam

Adam: "Mom, what's this word?" (while reading a book)
Me: "Where."
Adam: "Mom, what's this word?"
Me: "Where."
Adam: "No Mom, what's this word?"
Me: "WHERE."
Adam: "It's w-h-e-r-e."
Me: "Adam, that's the word - Where."


Who's on first?

The Plane and Balboa Park

There is so much to post and I'm not sure how much people care to see. Maybe I'll just bite it off in chunks. The above pictures are from the plane, minature train museum (while the theft was happening), and the Air and Space Museum. It was great until we realized...

First of All: The Theft

Here's the sad, sad story in a nutshell:

After arriving in San Diego and picking up our rental car, we went directly to Balboa Park. We moved and parked the car a few times while we were there. We think that one particular time it did not get locked. (The buttons on the keyless entry of the vehicle were backwards from the ones we are used to, making it a very conscious effort to get it truly locked.) We had all of our belongings in the car. Luckily, whoever took what they did left our luggage in back and the kid's backpacks. Here's what we know was taken:

• Daniel's work laptop and bag
• Noise cancelling headphones
• Daniel's parent's GPS (and everything that came with it) that they kindly let us borrow
• Daniel's mountain biking GPS
• Daniel's planner
• 4 sets of ear buds
• Lots of cables and chargers
• All of our paperwork for the trip, including reservations, tickets, and other misc. items

All in all, it was $3,700+ in stuff that was taken. It was very sickening to realize what had happened. Gratefully, most of the items stolen can be replaced by money and don't have too much sentimental value. We were thankful we were able to reprint the admission tickets to SeaWorld and Legoland. Daniel had had one of his hard drives fail on his laptop recently and spent a lot of time getting it up and running again just before the trip. He lost some work files he had made too. Obviously he suffered the most loss.

The hotel we stayed at upgraded our room when they found out, which was nice. We arrived there after asking at a gas station where it was. Without the reservation, address, or GPS we were unprepared.

There really wasn't much else we could do other than report it to the police.

Despite this happening, we did manage to have a great family trip. The up side of it is that other problems you encounter don't seem quite so big. :)

We're Back; Did You Know We Were Gone?

I wasn't sure whether or not to announce that we were going on a trip. Obviously I chose not to. I didn't want to put that information out there for just anyone to read. But now that we're back I can tell you we went to San Diego for 8 days! Ironically, we weren't careful enough ON our trip and had a lot of stuff stolen. I'll try to get to that later. So, so sad.

I am unusually tired and discouraged at the moment by the prospect of returning to regular life. I've already been bombarded by school, home, politics, laundry, church, computer, social pressures, and managing our photos. The kids were really pretty great on the trip, but NOT TONIGHT. Talk about grumpy. (When you have to retype the word TALK four times just to spell it right, you know you should be in bed and not blogging.)

It was a great trip. Now that we're back, I would love to say there is no place like home, but I just can't muster up the energy right now.