Well, I don't have much in the way of pictures to post and we haven't done much this week. We took Kim to John's Incredible Pizza last night, got her, me and Bec in for free, and the total cost for the 8 of us was about 20 dollars... talk about Incredible! LOL... Whoohoo. We had a good time. We ended up going to the Dollar Tree beforehand, we were supposed to meet up at 7:20, but Kim got a ride there, and her ride decided to detour to her house to change before they came, so we decided it would be easier to kill time beforehand than try to sort out how we'd get her the free meal, when she needed a kid to get it (it was a Mother's Day promotion). So at the Dollar Tree we found some really neat sea salt mixtures, one was a BBQ mix, and the other was a Pizza and Pasta mix... they're basically sea salt with other spices mixed in, and they have grinders. So we tried those today, and YUM...
We have been working on modifying our diets some more. Jerry is having veggies every day. We cut up a watermelon this morning and left it out all day for everyone to snack on, and that worked GREAT, because it's gone. It was GOOOOOOOD watermelon, but we ate it a couple of days after buying it, so that may be why. I am probably going to have to do a tiny bit of shopping tonight, because Jerry's out of coffee and creamer, we ate 5 cucumbers in 3 days and are out, we're nearly out of milk... yea. We've gone through a CRAZY amount of veggies. We also finished off a pound of strawberries, and I'm not sure if we still have any grapes left or not. And I probably need to buy some oranges, because I totally forgot them the last time I went to the store. We do enjoy our fruit around here. The kids, however, are getting SICK of vegetables. I've been preparing Jerry a veggie tray just about every day and we've been eating plenty of salads before our meals. Plus, I've simply been trying to find ways to add veggies into things, but I don't typically "hide" them, I just add them into things I might not normally. Like tonight, I made tuna noodle casserole, and it didn't call for any veggies, but I added in frozen broccoli and cauliflower. It was good, but probably had a TON of carbs. If I'm going to lose weight, I can't be eating like that too often. I did get out for a short bike ride this morning, and I've asked for the WII Fit for my birthday, which gives him about 5 weeks or so to find it. I hope he can, I hope he remembers. It can be hard to find. I KNOW for a fact that it's much easier to lose weight when you're exercising than it is when you are just dieting.
On Monday, Alex has her first birthday (WHAT? Where did the year GO?) and on Tuesday, I am going to go in and have some labs done on me to check my blood sugar, my thyroid, and I'm not totally sure what else. Then, at 10, Alex has a doctor's appointment, and then at 2:30, she has an eye doctor appointment. We went on Thursday, but there was a problem with the insurance, so I had to clear that up, and I had to reschedule. At first they were going to give me an appointment that was FOUR WEEKS out! AGH! I've been waiting FOUR MONTHS for this appointment! I don't think I could take another month. I even said in my most "Oh NO" voice "A MONTH?" which was when the office manager found me an appointment next week. Thank goodness. And we're definitely good for the insurance, I already cleared it. Sigh... I just want to know what's going on with her eye.
Well, I guess I'll get to bed and wrap this up. Sorry for the lack of pictures as of late. I'll try to get some in the next couple of days.

Jerry got back from the doctor's office this morning... He's diabetic. He handed me a packet on it and I said "You're kidding!" He said "I'm not." He was expecting it, but I wasn't. I don't know how to put what I'm feeling into words. It just brings his mortality to the forefront... mine, too I suppose. He asked if there was any diabetes in my family and I said none that I know of... but because my mother was adopted, there's just this huge HOLE in the history on that side. Eye problems, yep. Diabetes? Who knows? Neither my mom nor my Aunt suffer from it, that I'm aware of. Mom's in her 60s now, but you'd hardly know it. She wants to live into her 90s, and I'm SURE I'm going to live into my 100s. Jerry says he can't die, he has things to do tomorrow. LOL, a good philosophy. Still... it can't last forever, can it? It's not like the death warrant's been signed! Diabetes is VERY controllable. He's in decent shape... we can all stand to exercise. I've got my bike (though I DO need a carrier for the two younger ones, which I've now asked for on Freecycle)

I'm doing some "spring cleaning" in that someone asked for baby items on Freecycle, and I'm cleaning out all the canned food we won't use/eat and giving it away as well. I've got a LOT of baby clothes to give, plus I'm giving the bouncer, walker, playmat, baby tub, blankets, a few bibs, that's all, I think. Evidently only 5 women showed up for this woman's baby shower! Ah...
I am also going to give her some baby cereal and formula I was never able to give Alex (it had to be used up in 2 days, and I never gave her that much formula, it was always 4-12 ounces, and this is a 32 oz can). I have a Boppy, but I'm not sure if I should give it to her or someone else.
Okay, I'm giving the Boppy to Melissa, but she's not due for another 20 weeks, so I've got some time to get those to her. I've also found her some clothes for the baby, but most are going to this woman on Freecycle. It feels good to be giving these things away, 1) to get them out of my house and declutter and 2) because it keeps the Universe going around. Give a little, get a little.

I'm going to post this. I need to get back to my finding things to give away. I'm torn about the swing... I want a swing that will hold a heavier child, but I don't want to give this one away until I HAVE that one... and yet, I know giving this one away will open a hole that will want to be filled (or at least that's how it's SUPPOSED to work). I just need a swing that Sammi AND Alex can both use, and I've wanted one for quite awhile.
Argh... I'm getting bugged from all sides. I'd better go.

Daddy and Sammi

Sammi, Sydni and Renee watching The Simpsons Movie (hilarious!)

Renee w/ Alex at her feet... Renee enjoyed feeding her cake and ice cream (hey, what's not to like about a baby who looks like a little bird waiting to be fed?)

Jerry w/ Alex, watching The Simpsons Movie. Unfortunately, we had to leave during the middle of it, it was getting late and Bec had to be at school the next day.

Pat cutting cake for everyone's birthdays (his, Wanda's and Melissas are all in May, plus they celebrated Mother's Day.) Wonder what Shabree is saying?

Jonathan and Melissa, who are expecting their first baby, she's 20 weeks along. I won't say the gender.

Jerry and Wanda

Shabree and Sammi (of course!)

Jonathan hanging Sydni upside down (he'll be a good dad!)

Renee and Jonathan swinging Sydni (they're brother and sister)

Jonathan doing... what? to Sydni?

Jerry eating... Oh my GOD the food was good. Pat made steak!

Pat

Jonathan and Sammi

Alex and I

Jonathan, Syd and Sammi

Again

Bec in her Grand Bethel? dress

Again

Sammi and Mommy!!!!

We had a GOOD time. Renee called me about 1:30, asking if we had plans for the afternoon. I said no, what's up? Well, did we want to come, Pat was going to bbq, and there'd be cake and ice cream for various May birthdays. YES! So we left a bit later than I wanted to, but we got there around 4 (I'd said we'd be there by 3... oops.) We chatted, munched on chips, and Pat grilled up some sirloin for me, and Jerry started with a T-bone, but actually ended up eating about 3 cuts of really good steak. Pat's old property was an acrage, so they had some cattle that they had butchered, and this was some of that... yum. They were none too happy about their new abode, but glad to be living closer to their son and dil who live down the road, and some friends live pretty close as well. They got a really good price on the house. Along with steak, there was some WONDERFUL corn (which I almost, gasp, liked better than the steak!), and watermelon which was the best I've had all year, and salad, which I skipped, oh, I almost forgot the potato, yukon golds... YUM!
After dinner, we all had cake and ice cream, and everyone opened their presents. Renee and I were feeding Alex cake and ice cream, which Alex was LOVING... she's going to be an ice cream fiend, lol. Pat got The Simpsons Movie for his birthday, plus a Nightmare Before Christmas towel that we envied a bit. We decided to watch The Simpsons, but after about 45 minutes, decided that we'd better get a move on... Alex was tired and cranky, and Bec had school in the morning.
At some point, probably earlier in the evening, Becca modelled her Grand Bethel (I believe that's what it's for!) formal dress. Grand Bethel is in the end of June, and we just figured out tonight that Syd can't go...and if Becca has summer school, she may not be able to go either! It's too bad too, because they spent the first half of their Sunday raising quite a bit of money at a pancake breakfast so they could go, plus Syd had baked cookies to sell at a bake sale. She's gotten REALLY good at baking chocolate chip cookies... they are SOOO yummy, to die for yummy. If she underbakes them JUST a bit, they are all gooey and yummy, but even at 10 minutes, they're REALLY good. Trust me on that one. YUM.
We had a good time... now I just have to scrap these pictures, and good luck on that one! LOL...

Went to Santa Cruz yesterday

We had a GREAT time, but I am red... LOBSTER red. I got so burned. I never used to burn, but I've been spending a lot of time indoors lately, and this was the first time I really got out into such bright sun. Plus, we had absolutely NO protection from the sun. We should have brought an umbrella or something, but we didn't have one. We do now! We went to Walmart this morning, and I located a lovely beach (and I'll be taking it to the park, too) umbrella for 17.00 so NOT bad! No more splurges this month though, none, nada. We also bought some aloe vera gel to put on our poor burned skin... I need to go do that as soon as I am finished with this entry. Kim and her neice Cecliy came with us, Syd got in BIG trouble for stealing money from us (silver certificates worth more than the dollar they show! And she used it for the ICE CREAM TRUCK! GRRRR!) This after she took all our quarters. She was just helping herself! So she didn't go with us. She stayed home, folded all the clothes, cleaned two closets out, and called Kim's phone some 8 or 9 times. I think we need to teach that girl some phone manners. Jane had also been invited, but couldn't come due to a lack of money. As it was, I spent the last of our cash on gas to get up to Santa Cruz. It was TOTALLY worth it though. Kim paid for parking, so we didn't have to worry about feeding any meters, that was 10 dollars. And, we only used a quarter of a tank to get there, though it was half a tank to get back... but 3/4 of a tank to get there and back isn't bad at all! Gas prices are going up though... hope they stabilize and we don't see 4 dollars a gallon again... ouch. We won't be going anywhere if that happens. We went up there to see some free shows, and ended up not seeing anything, we just spent our whole time either in the ocean or on the beach. Sammi (as usual) did NOT like the water... but she LOVED to play in the sand. I need sand toys for her, and Walmart had NONE... I'm thinking what is UP with that? I've been there multiple times over the past 2 months, and I keep looking for sand toys, and I don't find any. She loves to play in the sand, and all our sand toys are old and have holes in them. She could use them at the park, and we hope to go back to the beach, too, at least once a month. I brought lunch stuff, sandwich makings and potato salads and macaroni salad, and a waldorf salad that I was about the only one that liked it (guess I won't get that again! It was expensive! Thankfully, I only bought half a pound) and some boneless bbq wings. On the way back, Becca says to me "I don't think you should buy those bbq wings again." I asked "Why not?" She said "Because I didn't like them. Though everyone else did." Once again, the world revolves around Becca! We shouldn't get something because SHE didn't like it! Never mind the fact that all the side dishes were GONE by the time we left! Oh... we brought two bags of Cheetos, one regular, one giant hot cheetos, and the SEAGULLS OPENED the bags and helped themselves to them!!!! AGH! They literally took their talons (or whatever they are called) and clawed open the bags. The bags got full of sand, because of the birds, becasue Sammi would dig her hands through the sand and then get herself a Cheeto... we ended up throwing away both bags. Next time... no Cheetos. The cooler was HEAVY. It was Kim's dad's, and next time, I think we'll take our rolling cooler, but it needs to be thoroughly cleaned out first because my lovely children filled it with grass and stuff, and it molded. YUCK. Thank goodness for bleach... it'll clean it out good. Kim's was a nice size... it just got heavy carrying it with all the water and sodas and we even left water at the van, but really, no one wanted to go back and get it, so next time we'll want to cart it with us.
So we had a lot of fun, but we ended up leaving early. We had our choice of spots when we got there, but the girls put us far away from the ocean, and we didn't think about the fact that the sand was going to get burning hot, so we stayed there, when we should have moved closer. And of course, we were all getting burned, not enough sunscreen was applied (I totally forgot to apply it to my back when I put my swimsuit on!) We got there pretty early, like 10:30 a.m. and we left around 4, I believe... of course, this was when the sand was cooling off... but we were burned, and I didn't want us getting any more sun. Even Shabree and Sammi, who were slathered with sunscreen got a bit burned. Sammi's back got burnt, I think we must have forgotten to put it on her back once we got her suit on (oh yea... I sent Bec to put her suit on, and she didn't think about the sunscreen... and neither did I... oops.)
Becca found a bunch of some type of sand lobster that she brought home, but the bucket was leaking water, and she had quite a few in there... they died, poor creatures. I wasn't sure how she was going to deal with them when she got home anyway, since we don't have any sea water at home. I guess it doesn't matter now though. We also found a ton of great shells, I want to make a shaker box out of some of them and the sand... that should be pretty cool, so long as it doesn't leak sand!
My shoulders hurt. I thought I was healing up pretty good, but no dice.

We are hoping to make this a monthly (or so) thing, and I think it would be nice to break up the pattern of constantly going to the park or the library.

Having fun

My new bike that I got for Mother's Day! Isn't it PRETTY???? Doesn't my scraproom look a horrible mess?

The girls on the piano (May 9th):





Pictures from the play/sprayground (these were taken today):











The girls and I have been having a BLAST! Jerry got the van open the other day without the aid of a locksmith, he simply strengthened his tool and used it to open the van from the inside. Thank Goodness! So we went to Wal mart and got water, and a bunch of other stuff. When we left, we were approached by a woman who wanted money for food. I told her "Well, I don't have cash, but I can buy you some food using my card, if that's all right..." She was SO thankful. I got her about 20 dollars worth of items, including hamburger, milk, bread, cereal, and some Oreos. She asked if she could get them, and I said "Sure, no problem." I'd have probably bought her 50 dollars worth of stuff if that's what she wanted... only thing she wanted and couldn't get was an onion. They don't sell onions at our local Wal mart, no produce. They have a decent food section, but food that spoils, they do not sell. So that was Sunday night, and we didn't get home til about 10, in time for Bec to go to bed for school the next day.
We've been all over the neighborhood. On Monday, we went to the library, then went back real quick before they closed at 6 to return the books Shabree got earlier, and get a few more to read that night. She's been reading a LOT, but I think she chooses books that are too easy for her because she finishes the QUICK. We have gone to the spray/playground a couple of times this week, at a couple of different parks. There is one that is pretty big at a park a little ways away, and a small one that is over by the girl's school. I took pictures at the big park, but forgot my camera when we went to the little park... we have always biked to the smaller park, and we drive to the bigger park. We COULD ride over to the bigger park, but there are timing problems with naps and such, plus I don't have anyway of taking Sammi and Alex on the bike, so they can't go when they're awake. I can't leave them with Jerry when they're awake because he's working, and can't deal with the noise in the background... it's unprofessional. Anyway, today I ended up taking both Sammi AND Alex to the big park. Sammi won't go in the water. You can kind of tell she SORT of wants to, but she's scared or something. She even stripped down to her pull up today to go in and then changed her mind, so I put her clothes back on her eventually. Now Alex, she went in to the water w/ Syd or Shabree, and had a BLAST. She was pretty tired and thirsty, mostly thirsty, so that was making her cranky. Once she got some Gatorade into her, which she drank straight from the bottle, she was MUCH happier, and she LOVED the water, she was grinning from ear to ear. We had to leave all of a sudden though, because Syd was supposed to go to Modesto, but the girl that usually picks them up in Lodi had to work, so we ended up not going after all. I want to get a one piece swimsuit, so I can go in the water more comfortably, but the one I want is 33 dollars, which is a bit much for our budget right now.
My brain is a bit befuddled right now... got up early, though I did get a nap from 9ish to 12ish. But the reason I/we got up early was to go to the DMV and see about getting an appointment to get a drive test so I could get my license back... well, she had me do the sight test again, and after about 15 minutes, I was able to read the whole line, so I PASSED! I got my license back without a drive test! WHOOHOO! My poor vision though was SO blurry, I was glad Jerry had driven, I could NOT see straight.
We took a picnic to the park, that was fun, but we ate on the grass, and I didn't enjoy that much. I would rather have been sitting at a table or on a bench.
I went to the scrapbooking store the other day, and I got some Prima flowers (basically paper flowers for you non-scrapbookers) They are SOOOO cute. The first ones I saw were orange with polka dots and circles...well, they were pretty, but I thought, WHAT the heck can I use THOSE on? I don't do a lot of orange. Well... THEN I saw the PURPLE ones w/ polka dots and circles, and I HAD to have them. I bought those, some stickers for a Pirates of the Caribbean shaker box, and some black glitter glue and some purple glitter, actually, Syd bought the purple glitter for me. I only had 10 dollars on me, so couldn't buy the purple glitter.
Then shopping at Wal mart the other day, went into fabrics and crafts and spotted the new ribbon, and I found the PRETTIEST ribbon with different colored primative hearts on them (that is actually what they're called, primative hearts. I don't know why.) I also found some Disney Princess ribbon, which I HAD to have. It was sooo cute. So now I'm going to have to make some layouts so I can use my cute Prima flowers and my cute ribbon and my cute glitters. LOL... Yes, I am SUCH a girl sometimes. While at Wal mart, I got Shabree a new swimsuit, and a size 7/8 did NOT fit her, we had to take it back and get a size 10 instead... remember that this kid is still 6. The 7/8 fit, just she will outgrow it by the end of summer, maybe sooner. So we bought the 10 instead. Hopefully it still fits next year. She and I both need to lose some weight, and so the bike riding has been good for us. I wish the weight would come off quicker... I need to quit eating Sydni's cookies, which are DE-LISH-US. YUM. LOL, yes, I know I spelled that wrong.
Well, I gotta go... Alex is in here, and that's not a safe thing. So will get her out. I can't believe it's already 7 p.m. Today FLEW by.