They say it's your birthday

Happy Birthday now have the flu. I turned 36 on Saturday. Felt great. I told my husband I was so glad I survived another year. Then he was became so sick. We cancelled all plans for dinner out. I received no card from D or cake for my birthday. My husband is one of those people that likes to shop the day of your birthday. Wanted to take the kids that morning to shop and was going to bake with them. Then he started getting a horrible stomach ache. I doubted it. Men can be so dramatic when they are sick. Later though...he was sick. Icky intestional bug. So my birthday was spent with my three children, who I love dearly, but I wanted a break.

D was recovering on Sunday, so we went to a minor league baseball game we had tickets to with the kids whole t-ball team. Everything was going well. Then Sunday night came. All hell breaks loose.

LC started throwing up around 8pm and didn't stop until sometime around midnight. GT was crying and having horrible stomach pain. He ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor. Then Monday came and my birthday present arrived. I had the worst stomach pain and couldn't stop going to the bathroom. Happy F*****g birthday! I couldn't move all day. Thank God LC was feeling better. GT still had stomach pain. My poor kids didn't eat breakfast until 11am because I couldn't get out of bed for fear of throwing up everywhere. Luckily GE helped me out and got breakfast ready. I love my daughter for wanting to be a chef and always willing to get some food out for her brothers. D ended up coming home early and I laid in bed for two days. The kids all went to school on Tuesday and it took everything in me to pick them up that day. The teacher told me some exciting news...two kids went home with 103 degree fevers. Lovely.

Wednesday around 10am GE started throwing up. Poor thing she gets sick and it lasts and lasts just like me. I was just starting to feel better and cleaning up puke all day made me want to throw up. I seriously had to lay down. LC looked at me and he had such glassy eyes. I knew he had a fever. I took his temp and he had a temp of 102. WTF???? Make it stop! The poor thing just had the flu and now that damn fever from school hits him.

We cancelled our kindergarten roundup and t-ball practice and between me cloroxing and washing everything I was starting to feel really sick. Derek came home and I went to bed. Luckily GE finally stopped puking and LC's fever was taken care of with Tylenol.

Today, we are on the mend. I feel better. GT just had a really bad bout with constipation. GE was back to her normal talking non-stop self and LC still has a fever, but through the day it has gotten lower and by tonight it was only 99.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday and this week of illness is coming to an end.

Happy Birthday to me.

April Fun

Boy have we been busy. D ended up finally taking some time off from work. We decided to take a trip to Disneyland last week. We went on Monday and stayed until Tuesday. We were in the park for a good 12 hours and driving home after that was too tiring. D had never been to any Disney park so he had so much fun. The kids are at a great age to enjoy every ride we went on and we went on almost every ride! They were more into the big kid rides then the kiddie rides. We even took them on the Matterhorn and Space Mountain! GT had to be brave and ride on those rides by himself, well sitting in his own row at least. Since we are a family of five most rides we had one man out. GT had no problem sitting alone. On Space Mountain he was a bit scared, but survived just fine!

It was a beautiful day and most of the spring breaks around here were over. We never waited in line more than 45 minutes except for the Nemo submarine ride. The kids were so good about waiting in line too. No complaining and by far the best behaved kids I saw in the park. We saw the parade around 4:30 and GE loved seeing all the princesses. That was her favorite part. We waited in line after to see Belle, Jasmine and another princess. She loved it. The boys loved the Pirates of the Carribean ride and Autotopia. We stayed to see the fireworks at 9:30 over the castle. They loved that. GE's highlight was seeing Tinkerbell fly over the castle.

We spent the night in a hotel by the maingate and woke up, ate at IHOP and came home. I thought I would be exhausted, but it wasn't so bad. I rested most of Tuesday and was fine by Wednesday.

Thursday we drove down to Carlsbad where they have the Flower Fields. They were absolutely beautiful and it was such a pretty day. We then went over to the outlets and I found a lot of clothes for me. An early birthday present since my birthday is next weekend. It was a great week with D and spending time as a family.

D convinced me to start more home improvement projects. God help me. We ordered the same cabinets we have in our kitchen for all three of our bathrooms. They are a cherry Kraftmaid. What started it is our countertop guy said he had enough silestone counter left over from our kitchen for our downstairs bath. Then he said we could have any of his silestone or granite remnants and we would just have to pay labor on them. That is a HUGE savings. So we ordered the cabinets and they should be in mid-May. It really is never ending projects around here and never ending money going out. At least we have a really nice house to show for it!

Change

I came by this dusty old blog and found that my old design was taken down by the designer. Nice that she notified her old customers. Whatever. So I tried to re-do it the best that I could.

So many changes going on in my life. 2008 brings me kids who turned 5! When did that happen? I have three five year olds. Crazy. Yes, they do drive me crazy. The sibling rivalry drives me batty. They do get along for the most part and have been more involved in role playing. They call each other...Mom, Dad and Papa. They never call each other by their names. Is this weird? Or they pretend they are a whole different family like their T-Ball coaches family. I don't understand it. The boys are really, really into fighting and Power Rangers and shooting...everything boy! I only had one sister growing up and we were into dolls and playing house so this is all new to me. GE tends to join right in with the boys though. Or if they want to play with her they make her Barbie's beat up on one another. Always beating and killing. Where do they get this from? We have never even seen a Power Rangers show! I rarely let them watch tv, so it must be influences from school.

We had a huge birthday party for them at a place called Pump it Up...a bounce house warehouse. We had 24 kids and all the parents. It was a good time. The kids came home with an abundance of presents. We now own every toy known to man. My kids even told me to call the Easter bunny and Santa because they don't need any more toys! What kids says that?

We started a backpack program at their elementary school. Once a month they get to go and get a new backpack filled with library books and get a story read to them. This gets them familiar with the school that they will attend in the fall. I love it. They are so excited about reading all their new books and going to visit "their" school! In May they will meet all the kindergarten teachers. I already talked to the principal about keeping them all together. I think it is important for at least the first year. It is already going to be such a big change attending school every day that I want them to keep the support system that they have with all three of them together. I don't have one leader so I think it should be fine. At the end of the year I will reassess and see if they should be split up for first grade.

The kids had their first T-Ball game last Friday. It went great. They really love the team sports. It is so much fun for them. Their coach is a friend of ours and is so sweet. Three other kids on the team were on their soccer team. GE was very shy at first during the first two practices. She hates being in front of people and performing. The first game though she went right out and hit the ball and I was so proud of her. It was so cute seeing my kids on first, second and third base all at once! Loved it.

We finally finished the remodeling of our whole first floor. The kitchen is now complete and we have all new wood flooring on the first floor. It is a dark floor and looks great with our new cherry cabinets in the kitchen and all our cherry furniture. I am so pleased. I never want another home remodeling project though. These projects have been ongoing since 2005! Enough is enough! We just better never move.

D has been selected to be the XO of his squadron. He takes over that job in April I think. That should keep him out of Iraq for the rest of this year. I can't wait for him to end his current job this week. He is in charge of maintenance and he is rarely home. He works such long hours and it drives me crazy. This has been the job from hell for an entire year.

Some sad news is my friend who was my first friend out her in CA passed away on Tuesday from Leukemia. She found out last June a day after her 35th birthday that she had it. She did everything possible to fight it and live for her three beautiful children and wonderful husband. I will be attending her funeral tomorrow and I don't know how I am going to get through it. I am shocked and devastated by her death. It is going to be such a hard day of sadness. We have had so much death in our lives lately. My grandma passed away last summer and then D's grandma passed away in November. My aunt who was only 65 passed away in December. I really wish the death would stop around here. It really makes you treasure what you have and even when I am having a bad day due to my Lupus I realize how lucky I am.

Catch up

Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Winter...geez once again I fell off the face of the Earth here. Things are so crazy this time of year. Halloween was great. The kids were so into everything this year. GE was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, LC was Buzz Lightyear and GT was a Red Power Ranger. Great fun! This is what I waited for for so many years. To see the holidays through my children's eyes. I love it. They immerse themselves in every aspect of every holiday and it is so delightful.

We had two Marine Corps Balls thrown in between Halloween and Thanksgiving. I went to one of them. Fun times to see old friends and a chance to dress up and look pretty. A great friend of ours watched our kids for the night so we could stay at the Hyatt in La Jolla. Mmmmmm is all I can say about that hotel. Yummy bed, bedding and room service. Lovely.

My brother-in-law came in and surprised the kids for a visit the week before Thanksgiving. The kids were ecstatic. What fun we had with him. We visited the Wild Animal Park and that was the biggest outing we did. The kids really enjoyed that day. I thought they were bored on the tram ride around the park because I didn't think they were listening to the tour guide. On the way home in the car GE and LC recited everything she said though as they played tour guide. I was cracking up. GE told her uncle that I never let them out of the house and that she feels trapped! I had to explain that when the fires were going on we couldn't play outside because of the air quality. Some of the things they say, I need a recorder!

Thanksgiving was very low-key. We went over a friend's house whose husband is in Iraq. Her family was crazy and it was a fun day. Plus I didn't have to cook but one dish. I loved that part!

I took the kids for their annual holiday pictures at P*cture People in the mall. Such a stressful ordeal. I thought we had some great pics, but I didn't like any of the three of them together good enough for a Christmas card. Then they had a upload mishap and I didn't get any good pics of LC. I was so pissed because I had to reschedule to take him back. Turns out though that it was a good thing because his pics turned out great on the re-shoot. They loved them so much they are using him as a model in the store! Too funny. We also saw Santa that day as we waited for our pics to print. He was by far the nicest Santa ever. He talked to each of the kids for about five minutes. He was so interested in each of them. It was really nice. I asked GE before we went to the mall what she was going to ask for from Santa and she told me she would have to bring her catalog. I couldn't stop laughing.

My sister is coming in for a visit on Saturday. I can't wait because the change of weather and craziness of the season has my Lupus flaring up a bit. I have been really worn down and had to take it easy the last couple of days. The extra help will be nice. She is going to stay for a week and then my mom will be here on the 17th until the 26th. Perfect.

D hung all our Christmas lights and we have them playing to the music. I am going to have to post a video because it really is cool. He is obsessed now and wants to add more this weekend. We are now the annoying house on the street with one million lights and music. The kids love it which makes me so happy. I love Christmas and look forward to fun times with family over the next couple of weeks.

Fire and ash

It has been over a week now that the fires have been burning here. We still have smoke filled air and ash everywhere. We are the lucky ones though. The fires that are close are far enough away that we are safe. Although at times I though we might have to evacuate. I long for blue skies and fresh air. My kids are dying to go outside and play. We have been crafting away and playing dress-up. Now we are onto a play-doh marathon. God help me! I feel so sorry for everyone that has lost their houses. I just can't imagine. These are some pics I snapped from around our home.

Mt. Palomar burning
The Rice Fire
Mt. Palomar
Lake Arrowhead Burning
Mt. Palomar. Too close to home!

Tired, tired, oh so tired

Today was a day I wish my kids were in school. I need a break. I have been with them too much over the past several days. Daddy has been preparing and flying in the airshow in San Diego and was gone Thursday, Friday, Satuday and Sunday. Then back to work today. I need a break like that. I wish I could have a break like that.



Saturday we had a 1pm soccer game. Finally, all my kids played well and kicked the ball and ran like mad. Every other week we have had two interested and one not so much. Never a warning as to who isn't into it that day. It drives me crazy, but this age is just like that. They have a mind of their own and that is that. Now I am thinking of signing them up for T-Ball. I think I might be crazy, but how will they know what they like and don't like if they don't try out stuff? GT has already informed me that he doesn't want to play. He is my lazy one and never wants to do anything until I force him and then ends up liking everything. LC and GE are all about T-Ball. GE even said to her brother GT why don't you play with us. You just might like it! He said no, so that is that. He will have to be there anyway since the other two are so excited about playing. I also want to sign GE up for dance. She is my little ballerina around here. That can be between soccer which ends in November and t-ball which doesn't start until the spring. They seem to love being involved in things and making new friends. As long as they are happy, I am happy. The less time we have to sit around home the happier we all are!



Saturday afternoon we drove down to San Diego for the airshow. We stayed in D's Officer Quarters on base Saturday night. That made parking easy for us. We had VIP tickets for a chalet and had the best view for the night airshow and fireworks.

Just phenomonal, but cold. I always forget that even though it is 80 during the day here it can get very chilly at night. The kids had on jeans and long sleeve shirts with jackets, but it was still cold! That night was the worst sleep I have ever had. The kids had to sleep on the floor in the main room of the suite and GE just wasn't happy. Moving all about and she still has an awful cough so it kept me and her up all night. I don't think we even slept an hour. Talk about exhaustion. We had to be up and out of the room by 8am. D headed off to the show and we had breakfast at McDonald's which my kids have only been to like twice before. They were so into breakfast there. Very funny. They called it the big M restaurant.

We then headed into the airshow. The kids were so excited and interested in all the static displays of aircraft. They crawled through every tank, jet, helicopter and plane that they could. You could just see the wonder in their eyes and they had a question about every aircraft. It was so fun. I just wish D could have been there with us. He was busy preparing for his demonstation though. We headed over to the grandstands for the airshow and the kids loved it all. They were telling everyone that their daddy was the one flying the helicopter. They were waving and saying "hi daddy" and it was just too adorable. After D flew we headed out and home. I was so exhausted and in bed by 9pm! When D came home around 7:30 the kids were talking non-stop to him about everything they saw and did. They went up to him and told him he did a really good job with no prompting from me. D said he had never seen them that excited. They really enjoyed their weekend not to mention spending some time with Daddy!

The kids in front of a C-130

GT "driving" the plane

D flying

Priceless

GE to LC this morning in their playroom while they thought I was still sleeping...

"LC, when we get older we are going to take care of mommy. We will do everything for her because she does everything for us now. Even when she is sick and doesn't feel good she still takes care of us."

LC's reply..."mmhmmm yep, we will".