Friday Fun Auntie NuNu Day

louise
is here visiting me:) hooray! We're testing fun things to do on the blog...

We had a yummy movie night with homemade popcorn.... the kids really liked it - we switched from Netflix to Blockbuster for the convenience so we got Open Season - it was cute.

Earlier in the day we went to the Family Day at Chandler's Cub Scout Camp - they were the Purple Monkeys.... he had a blast and it was really cute to watch him in action doing their beloved skits....gotta love cub scout humor.... :)

Our Town

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kkdm-2AoFw

Here's a fun video of our home town.... our 8 minutes of fame so to speak! Not sure about the "smoking" bit though :)

Can't figure out how to download a video.....

Went for my MRI today - I looked at my pictures but it is all black and white to me!!! Linda brought me a yummy chocolate shake today!!!

The kids had their last day of swim lessons for this session....until next week just to start again!!! They don't seem to progress from one level to the next very quickly... but I suppose how good do you get for being in the water for 25 mins. a day????

Rehab

Well I have been staying in bed the last few days and doing a whole lot of nothing which I am sure is terrific for my hip but BORING for me. I've been doing the Health Insurance dance where I have to keep jumping through hoops to make sure things progress. I have to get an MRI, but before getting it, the Doctor had to authorize it, which he did, verbally, but the staff can't do anything until he writes it up, but he has to dictate it first, and then the person that types it has to type it up, then give it to the office, then they call the insurance, then they fax it to the MRI imaging place, then they call me to tell me to call the MRI imaging place for an appointment!!!!!! Yikes! And then I still have to make an appointment with the dr!

Well I kept up on it so everything is progressing and have the MRI tomorrow and an appointment scheduled for next week for the dr. to read it!! Nothing like living in limbo. It's always misleading because you start to feel better one day, think you can move around, but then it still knocks you off your feet! So today unfortunately my mom had a funeral to go to - one of her friends had been in a car accident and was the only one that died - she was the lady that did the flowers for our wedding. Very sad - so Lucas and I were on our own - he had a runny nose so he was pretty crabby - didn't want Dora, or Diego, or Lightening McQueen, I couldn't understand him this morning. Finally Backyardigans fit the bill and he was appeased! So I was out in the living room a bit more and it was exhausting - plus I haven't been sleeping because my back kills just being on my back all night long.

Ah well. The great thing about this though is you are reminded of all the blessings you have and all the great friends and family you have. My friend Beth brought dinner for us tonight, my other friends in the neighborhood also brought us dinner the other night, my next door neighbor has been driving my kids both ways to summer school each day and one of the girls in the ward has been taking chandler to cub scout camp every day. All my neighbors came to visit me and brought me magazines, candy, flowers, fruit, cake! - so much! That's probably why I'm tired too! :) But a good tired!

Wipe Out

Well, here is my new post, and I have absolutely no pictures to document the event - just as well because as my husband put it, "my foot was turned the wrong direction".....let me go to the beginning though....

Saturday a bunch of friends asked if we wanted to do a training bike ride up Mt. Diablo, in a couple weeks a whole group was doing a reunion ride so since I had not done it before I thought it would be a great idea to do a training.

Saturday morning started out terrific, I was pretty tired though as we went to the Alameda County Fair the night before and we had so much fun, it was opening day for the fair and the kids had a blast. We went on all kinds of rides and ate greasy fair food and bought icees & kettle korn and cotton candy, and my favorite, carmel/chocolate apples!

So Saturday morning I get to the base of Mt. Diablo at 7:30 am. My coach is a doll, she is AMAZINGLY fit, she teaches 3-4 classes of all kinds in one day and can still do a "quick" 2000 ft ride up Mt. Diablo! She was really sweet and stayed with me the entire ride. As you know I'm still a novice. I totally made it to the 1/2 mark (that was our goal) which is 2000ft, and for all you bike enthusiasts, I did it all without clips (special shoes with clips that clamp your feet to the pedals, but gives you more power to ride). Well our descent was going well, I was enjoying it and taking the blind curves slowly, we were almost at the bottom, I think I only had 2 more curves, and I lost it - I was going 20-25mph, I was adjusting my breaking hand, didn't break fast enough on the curve, skidded on gravel, watched my left leg hit the ground to break my fall, and the rest of my body and my bike go to the right - I looked like a Wish Bone!!!! Not kidding. I fell, HARD, then I couldn't move anymore. My girl friend came back right away - they called 911, luckily rangers with radios were on their way up the hill anyway - the firefighters came, the paramedics - I told my girl friends to only call the firemen if they were cute, I only remember seeing their wrists and forearms, and those looked cute!

Anyway, they asked me if I wanted morphine, I was fearful, but I screamed when they tried to put me on the crash board. So they said, "how do drugs sound now?" Now I'm the kind, with 3 of my kids I didn't have any drugs, by choice, so you know it had to be pretty bad. So I got the morphine 2 cc's at a time until 10 in the ambulance because they didn't know how long I would have to wait when I got to the ER.

When I got to the ER it was just like the TV show, people moaning all over the place - mind you, it was only 10am by then, people in the hallway. My husband got there by then - time was extremely foggy for me. I just hope someone got my sunglasses!

They got me in a room and asked if I wanted my $95 bike pants cut off me - I was screaming in my head, okay, but apparently I didn't answer fast enough so my husband was like, Yes, please! I truly think my pants saved me - I only got one scrape on my knuckle - I was also wearing a light weight jacket because going down the hill is pretty cold so I really really was lucky. My whole side would have been totally scraped up.

So they gave me barbiturates, I don't see why people become drug addicts because it is horrible! you feel totally nauseous! I threw up as the dr. was talking to me - just water, but still!! It was embarassing.

So they did xrays, a pregnancy test so they could do CT scans - all that happened was that I dislocated my hip! Scary, I say "only" but my gosh it could have been 1000 times worse. I could have broken my hip, my arms, legs, etc. With the barbiturates I was out for the count so didn't even know when they put my leg back into it's socket. The surgeon on call that day said I may be laid up for 6-8 week!!! Guess no more Triathlons this season! I'm going to make an appointment to see an orthopedic specialist tomorrow morning so I'll cross my fingers I don't have anything else. And hope that when I get old I won't need a hip replacement!!!!

So I've been in bed (in my downstairs guest bedroom) all today really sore, can't sit up, I can only lay on my back, not my good side, can't even lift up my own leg really, I have crutches to help me to the bathroom, but even doing that is hard. I got a chair in the shower so I could do that at lest - luckily my mom came into town to visit on Wednesday, little did she know she was going to have to take care of all of us! Things are going well though - I hope that my kids will survive and I won't have any complications. So I'll have plenty of down time to catch up on all of your blogs - thank heaven's for my laptop!

Day Three

I just got emailed the 3 pictures from the actual race people (hence the proprietary markings!)
Well here are my oh so unattractive pictures of my training. They are all at three different days - the one of me running is when I was finishing the Mermaid Tri. It was so fun, we are hooked and are planning on doing another in August and another in September! Now if I can just work out a little more often, 3x a week (barely) isn't quite enough.

A good day today but I'm tired - because Lucas got up at 6:30am so I'm kind of tired so this one may be short. I went for my MAC class today to learn more about downloading movies from my camcorder.

Actually not that I think about it more the kids have been driving me crazy - does summer school start yet??? The first week is so hard for them to get used to each other - they drive me crazy! I guess I just choose to forget about that part right now.. Lucas was really cute today though, he said, "ClubSport?" I said, no, we're going to the "Library", so all day - even after we came home from the library he said, "we go library?". It was so cute! I'm glad the kids love the reading program at the library.

Oh well I think I'm just talking in circles now because I'm exhausted. But my mom got here so now the kids get to really fight because Pau Pau spoils them - like tonight - Mike had to "work" late - well he went out to a "business dinner" - so we took the kids to Sweet Tomatoes - Lucas had such a great assortment of croutons - when mom said no more, Pau Pau went and got him a big bowl full......oh well, at least their grandma is here. Too bad my mom & dad couldn't coordinate their trips and come together - oh well, my dad is back home taking care of the house and working......

I'm hoping I'll get to sleep in until 8 tomorrow!!!

Donna - I work 2 days a week at Clubsport - www.Clubsports.com - it's a (crazy!) workout club - they try to consider themselves as a Resort....and people really use it as such - so I work 9-2:30 ish and can bring all my kids and I get free membership - there are tons of mom's off the business track that work 1-2 shift in all kinds of departments for the membership!!! During the school year it's okay, but i've only done it since January so we'll see how it goes this summer....

Day Two

Well so far it's been good - had to do the whole ClubSport thing again. It was kinda nice because my office mate took the day off so it was pretty quiet. My job is okay, but I like it best on Tuesdays at about 2:45!!!! (I leave at 3!)

We were pretty busy afterward - the cubscout thing is still every week - but it was fun, it was Father/Son day at the BMX park. Tyler had Girl's Achievement Day - she brought her friend Katie Rose - and she had to bring snack this time - I had to run out last night and grab snacks because I had very little - then I had to drive back and forth to get it before bringing them to GAD. Well, then they show up - and only one other girl showed up for it, and she had to leave early!!!! Good thing she brought Katie Rose! Otherwise poor Tyler would have been alone! And she didn't call me to pick her up, I felt bad for the Leaders - there's so much planning and time commitment for the ladies - and they're both empty nesters! What a drag!

Then swim lessons - I have to post those pix - Lucas did great! Looking forward to my day off tomorrow though - my mom is coming so I've been cleaning!!! I cleaned out the kids homework area - had 3 bags of trash, that's scary!

Did I mention my stupid SEARS washer is broken AGAIN??!!! Never buy from Sears or the Kenmore front loader -the first and last time I'll buy from them!

First Day of Summer

Well I survived the first day of summer. I had to work at ClubSport so the kiddies had to come with.... Tyler was lucky because he good friend Katie Rose got to come - her parents truly use the place like a Resort - which I love because they entertain my kids!

The girls worked out, did the "rock wall", ate lunch "by the pool", went swimming.... what a life! The boys played ninetendo, game cube, WII system, played basketball & capture the flag. I however spent my 5.5 hours at CS in the dungeon - the club is palatial, but the offices are a dump, everyone shares, it would be such a fire hazzard - we'd all get stuck without an exit, with 2-3-4-5 to an office.....

Anyway, then I had the joy of still taking my munchkin's to piano - oh I would love to have some cheese with all the whine I get each week - ha ha, actually they were pretty good today - they can see the end of the tunnel until summer break!

Then it was off to swimming - Lucas' first swim lesson - they have 3-1 ratios - cute Lucas got to swim with 2 screaming girls, he liked the water - alas I had forgotten my camera, but there's always tomorrow. The other two boys got to swim too and they were lucky, I had to sit in the heat!

We got to have good ol' left overs for dinner. I went back to CS for a celebration for our Tri-training, most of the girls are going to look toward doing one called, "See Jane Tri" another women Tri in the fall. We'll have to see.

Last night for Father's Day we had Linda's family over as is our tradition. The kids were really good, they all played all over, outside, inside, the babies were having a great time too.

Tomorrow is back to CS. My mom arrives for 3 weeks Wednesday and Louise comes home for the summer from Italy also on Wednesday! Hooray!!!!

Get Set....

Well we finished!!! Hooray! Mike did great on his first Tri - and I pretty much met my goal as well. Mike probably did his race in 1:25, and I came in at 1:33 my goal was 1:30, much improved from 2 weekends ago....I did the 1/4 mile swim in just under 12 mins. Last time I was around 1:40 but it was a mile shorter race too.... we saw our friends and it was fun to see so many people from town we knew. I should have pictures Monday from my team, it's just hard to take our own since we're in the water and there is no place to lay the camera! Now we're debating if we should sign up for the August race.

The only sour note of our day was - when we came home (our fantastic babysitter spent the night to be with the kids) our poor babysitter found ANTS all over the kitchen - I don't need to say much more about that - you know what it's like....

The rest of the day was nice - we went to visit some old friends the Kirks - their daughter graduated High School - time flies so quickly, I remember when we all first met - 5 kids ago - ha ha - Natalie was only 6 years old! Grace always over cooks - she easily had food for 175 people - I so miss her, she was one of those neighbors that always brought over left overs or took the kids at a drop of a hat. One of my closest friends I'm happy to say I still talk to regularly even though we're so busy and live 20-30 mins away from one another in different towns.

We're both converts and both asian, and both married utah boys - so it's always been common links that we could share - I know it sounds funny but it's true when you find a person that is so similar to you - you keep them as one of your closest friends... she's the best! We both have 4 kids, and both 3 & 1, but she has the opposite - 3 girls!

Fun day though - Mike got to go Golfing with Tim - I love when Mike gets to have guy time, I know some wives don't like it when their men go out, but I love it, I think it's just as important as girl time (plus then I don't feel guilty for going on my many GNO's!!!) Always thinking....

I took my kids & Tyler and her BFF's - the twins - to see Shrek the Third tonight - that was fun, I was a little leary taking all 6 kids, but they were all great and Lucas sat through the whole movie! I just made sure his popcorn was filled and he had water to drink, and of course the bonus is that it is only 1 1/2 hour movie! It was cute & entertaining. I liked the part when the queen (Julie Andrews) started humming, "Just a spoonful of sugar"....... I like all the adult puns! The kids didn't get it but I thought it was funny....

I was still feeling embolden and took the kids to Trader Joe's - I saw a friend there and when she saw I had all 6, her eyes got really big!! They were great.

So came home and watched a little show with Mike - tomorrow I have an early meeting, you'd think the men at church would want to sleep in on Father's Day!!! LInda & her family are coming over as is our tradition - should have some yummy grub! Hopefully they'll bring their AI or SingStar and we'll have more pix of our fabulous karoke skills.....

On your Mark.....

So tomorrow morning is the big Tri for Fun - Mike is out putting air in the tires now. Hopefully we will finish with flying colors.... Today was a big day and Tyler graduated from 5th grade... I'll do all my updates later - we have to leave by 5:45am!

Countdown.....

Oh dear only 2 more days of school left.......today the girls from Linda's ward went out to lunch again for the last time this school year - it was fun, we went to Cheesecake Factory - most of the girls had salads but Bea convinced me to get a yummy pasta dish!! I'm so glad!


Yesterday my dad flew into town, for ONE night! He was staying with my grandpa so luckily my dad invited us to dinner and amazingly none of the kids had activities so we got to meet them at our favorite Chinese restaurant. My yea yea (grandpa) made sure he told the passerby people that we had 4 generations at our table - so cute. My kids never get to see their Gung Gung so it was so fun to see him - and of course - you can see I take it from my dad - Go Giants!!

Tonight I went for my last swim training - I bought a new sport watch so I could time myself in the water - I did the endurance portion of our swim - the 400 meters in 10:17 seconds! Now if I can just do it in the lake on Saturday for the real thing! For the rest of our training we did fun relays and one of them we had to push an apple in the water down the lane without using your hands, it was so hard! Plus getting it out of the water - I got a cramp in my leg trying to kick it out of the water! It was really fun though - those ladies are great! Many of them are going to also do the Nike 1/2 marathon training - it will be fun!

The Weekend

Boy this weekend was so busy! Friday night there was so much to do after school - we had a Primary Activity day, Chandler's team party & Tyler had a D.A.R.E. swim party - it's just too much logistically sometimes......

Our party was at the same place as last week so that's why the pictures look a little deja vuish - it was fun - our family friends - we both had sons on both teams so we were carpool buddies this year and each of my boys had a good friend on the team - well actually - Chandler's team - most of us have been together for 4 years or longer counting different sports - and it has been so fun!! We've had a great coach and friends....

My friend Julie hosted both baseball parties - she has the party house!!! Julie's husband was the hit with the kids - he was tossing the kids into the pool! They were lining up!

Saturday's last game: Cman and another buddy are taking a break after pitching and (at the party Friday) his little sister is Lucas' age - he has 2 girl friends, but this one is his main squeeze....

Later Saturday Mike & I went for a mini - day time date - we went to the place where next week's Tri for Fun will take place and I showed him how to work the transitions - we swam for over 500 meters, did an 11 mile bike, then I let Mike run while I walked and called the kids..next week there will be 6 people from our ward doing the Tri - it will be fun!...It's nice to have big kids and friends to babysit too! It was a really fun afternoon.

Tyler had her last Dance recital of the season and then she went to Fire & Ice for dinner with her friends.

Later on we went to a Wedding reception - it was beautiful. The parents are in our ward - their new daugther-in-law is a recent convert and it was tough on her family so they went to Hawaii and got married in the temple there - we walked there with our friends Tim & Kathy as the reception was in the neighbor just behind us - afterward T&K came over to watch a movie after the kids went to bed - it's so nice because they live across the street - how lucky are we! We've actually been friends with them since our first married ward in San Jose when we didn't have kids! So it is so nice to live near each other after all these years!

Updated weekend

Here is my plethora of pictures of the weekend - I guess I didn't do a good job of explaining our crazy days......
I have pictures of Ian's Tball swim party - I forgot the part where we had just arrived at our friend's house - they have a really cool slide up the side of their hill - Ian asked if he could go I said yes, we were putting our things in the house and just barely come outside and Tyler says, "Mom, Ian looks like he is drowning" so I totally focus on him, no clue where anyone else is, he is panicking and I luckily took off my cell phone (2 years ago I had to jump in a pool for Ian and didn't take off my new phone!), took off my bulova watch (my christmas present) and jumped in, jeans and all. He isn't a strong swimmer, but I thought he could have swam that - it was pretty deep and the drop is sudden so he just got scared. Mike was like, "I would have gone in, you pushed me out of the way" - but you know moms, when a kid's in trouble you forget everything else and don't see anything else. By the end of the day he was swimming fine and luckily my friend lives around the corner - I went home and soaked in the shower!

Anyway, before that part of my day was Tyler's dance recitals - Thursday night rehearsals till 10pm, Friday night performance, Saturday 2 performances - 9 dances total (repeat 2 dances though so only 6 costumes) Those are her buddies - The Fantastic Four - the cutie patutie in blue is Katie Rose - they have been friends since we moved here - they were 3 - they are so sweet! Katie Rose just started dancing this year so it's fun to see her at a few events.

Monday night was the infamous Flute recital, I'm not thinking we're repeating this....to my chagrin of course.

Tonight was the Girl Scout swim party - my girls are fantastic - I wish the church supported Girl Scouts - it's a shame because we truly get so much accomplished! I have 21 girls, 18 were coming back for sure, now I think 20 are !!! I'm excited!

Tired Tuesday

I have some new pictures on my camera, but I'm super tired so I'll put them on tomorrow. Today I worked so I'm pooped. Yesterday it was work, then baseball game and Band concert (which we didn't even know until yesterday morning that it was taking place!) it's tiring trying to be in 8 places at once. Chandler had scouts and baseball again tonight, tomorrow a big day, late day - yahoo!, but I see the a new dermatologist tomorrow at 7:40 am!! yikes, it was the only time I could fit it in. Come home, bring the kids to school, check in 5th grade homework, run to costco, come back for a luncheon, pick up the kids, girl scout party, dance then finally to bed. I'm tired thinking about tomorrow.......

I DID IT!!!

Well I did the Mermaid Tri and finished!!! I was slow, but steady and I can't believe how great it was. It was extra nice because it was literally in my old backyard. The bike route took us right by my old neighborhood where I grew up. The timing chip didn't register our swim but I think they tried to manually adjust our times, I think they put me at 1:40 but I'm gonna say there was a 5-10 margin of error. I was shooting for 1:30. So who's really counting!

My friend Kim went with me, I'm so glad too because all the other ladies that trained with me were in the 40+ category and I couldn't go in the same wave as them!!! Not 40 yet!!!! The swim was hard, the 400 meters looked more like 2000, then ensured us it was an optical illusion.

I was done by 9:45am so you know I got up super duper early. Now I have to get back on the bike et al and get ready for the next one in 2 weeks. That one is slightly longer so this one was a great starter race for me. My very first one - oh what a day!

Gird up

Ever feel like you're a fish swimming against the current? This is the weekend of all weekends that I was worried about - I am so exhausted and it just started.... Yesterday started with running around like a chicken with it's head cut off - went to the dentist, then to see the "Mac Genius", then to costco, then pick up the kids, then dinner, then dance recital dress rehearsal.....but the best part was...... when I got home from costco picking up mega groceries for Mike's YM/YW breakfast tomorrow - my new car has an automatic lift gate - couldn't stop it quick enough - the 5 DOZEN EGGS I bought took a flying leap out of the back of the car!!!! Hilarious! Then I realized my cart was so packed, the mega party sized bag o' plates I bought, fell off at the store! *(&%#(*%$ Oh wel, pretty funny stuff.

Got up at 4am - I laid there awake till 4:45 - I couldn't sleep because I was dreaming about Lucas not being potty trained and him missing Gingerbread Camp, for heaven's sake, HE'S THREE, I think he'll get over not going to camp if he's not trained - but WILL I??? It's so hard to get into camp, but what is the big deal? I think I have OCD sometimes because I just cannot let things like that go.

The other day I was at the store buying mascara - and it was buy 1 get second 50% - I thought "I have to buy the second one!" I'm missing out if I don't - what kind of psycho is that???? I obviously have deep inlaid compulsion or delium type tendencies!! I can self-analyze, might as well put that degree to good use!

Well so tonight is the first of 3 Dance recitals - I'm exhausted for tyler! I used my handy dandy new tripod and camcorder at the dress rehearsal, I'll have to figure out how to put it on the blog. 2 Baseball games and party and it's my first Triatholon this weekend - it's dang cold out so I'm sure my asthma is going to kick in but good. I'm nervous - I wouldn't have been if it weren't for the lack of breath!!!! But first Friday - too many things today to list! Wish me luck!

I'm wishing I was back in Italy!!! Hence the pictures (can't figure out how to get my pictures at the end, so much for the Mac Genius)