The Chronicles of Sisterhood

Whale Watching!

2011-01-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

We got a fantastic deal on Living Social or Groupon - one of those conglomerate coupon sites. It was SOOOO much fun. We got to see a plethora of whales and tail flukes. It was one of the best whale watching trips I've ever been on, and I really attribute it to the captain of the ship. Seemed like he'd been doing it forever and he really know his stuff! For those of you interested, it was the Hornblower Events line here in San Diego. Highly recommended! Here are some photos.

Natural History Museum

2010-10-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

We are now proud members. You know your kids are getting older when you trade in the Children's Museum pass for the Natural History Museum pass. Here's a pic from today.

And Estelle with a gaggle of fowl today in our back yard.

The time has come

2010-10-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

It has been many months since I have so much as looked at this blog. I had written it off as a dead thing, a project of the past. Yesterday I was looking at my dashboard, enjoying the concept of blogging and revisiting old projects. During this reflection, it occurred to me that this blog was worth revival! I was surprised to find that I had started it in 2006, a good 4 years ago! Another surprise to me was the fact that I had consistently put up a decent number of blogs each year. I mean, nothing like some people who post multiple blogs a month, but a good amount of pictures and dialogue to reflect upon. I started this blog to be a journal of things in life as my children grew, and that really and truly is what it has morphed into. I can look back at pictures of my babies from 2006 and watch them grow to now. This blog has succeeded in being what I initially hoped it would be, and revisiting it has made me realize that I don't need to blog daily or even monthly to give me something beautiful and fantastic to reflect upon for many years to come. Here are some pictures of our life over the past year, and also a shout out to our other (more current) collaborative blog and metaphoric picture into our life at www.radioacresfarm.blogspot.com.

hiking mission trails with friends

Summer mudpies

we did a silk worm summer project

and found the cutest princess hair cut place- making heart braids is part of their deal!

late fall camping trip - 2009

Bang Bang!

2009-02-23T07:51:00.001-08:00

The ladybugs in our yard are mating like crazy this week.

My cousing Ernie got married this weekend. Yeah, we got a text message on Wednesday asking if we could come up on Saturday morning for his wedding. On friday he finalized details and married Tanya on Saturday morning at 10 am. I think that may be the quickest wedding planning I've ever experienced.

And I got new hair, thanks to my sister.

I haven't blogged since Disneyland!

2009-02-15T15:46:00.001-08:00

And so much stuff has happened! Isn't that the way it always goes? Since then, 1) Camille has started a preschool class at the La Mesa Rec Center that she absolutely LOVES 2) we have officially gotten rid of our car 3) My sister's house closed escrow (yay!) 4) I got certified to teach Group Cycling classes at the gym 5) Valentines Day has come and gone 6) well, I always forget something...

As stated above, Camille LOVES her preschool class and I am so happy about that! I was worried, and especially apprehensive since she asked to be pulled out of the last preschool she was going to. Also, she is supposed to start Kindergarten in the fall so I was worried that she would just hate preschool so much that I wouldn't know what to do about kindergarten. Now, I really think that homeschooling is the way to go IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR SANITY and be a great teacher for your children. I am not sure that I have it in me to do that. This whole kindergarten thing has been a real struggle for me and I am still not sure what the answer will be or what the future will hold for that. Currently, I have applications in for the Innovations Academy (part time school, great idea for me), Liberty First Charter (also half-day kindergarten, which is a biggie for me), San Diego Language Academy (Spanish language immersion program) and Hardy Elementary (just a normal school, close to my house). I am not sure which, if any, of these schools she'll get into. I initially also had an application in to the San Diego Cooperative Charter, but since selling our car and thinking about the reality of going to a school so far away we've decided it's not such a hot idea. We'd be better off to stay somewhere close and walkable, or at the very least bikeable.

So, yeah, kindergarten. Fun times. We'll just have to see what happens in the fall!

we went to Disneyland on Friday

2009-02-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

My kids are so spoiled. This is the 3rd time since September. We also have SeaWorld passes, Zoo passes, Childrens Museum passes, (thanks, grandparents, for all of these by the way!)the beach a stone's throw away... How lucky are kids growing up in Southern California with all of this stuff within an easy drive? They have no idea. Sometimes I think we should just not ever go so it could be more of a treat than "the norm." Here are some pictures.

My lovely #2 with her hand in the Swiss Family Robinson tree (now Tarzan - WTF?!)

# 1 and her daddy, my beautiful husband

My kids with my mom

My sister and her baby-daddy in the honeycomb from Winnie the Pooh

Our car hit 100,000 on the way home!

We went to Trolley Barn park today

2009-01-28T15:06:00.001-08:00

At C.'s request. I am savoring driving places for the last few days. I measured the mileage on the way home - about a 5 mile bike ride! Yikes =) I know it's do-able, but I am not looking forward to that pain just to take my girls to some of their more favorite, farther-away parks. I talked to insurance lady today and we are not renewing our auto insurance for the month of Feb. It will expire about half way through the month, and then we are done! Anyone want a nice, cozy, family-style CR-V?

Here are some flicks from the park picnic we had today! Thanks, friends, for meeting up with us. It was really nice to see you there and catch up.

E. enjoying some lunch

the # 1 reason why C. loves this park

New blogsperiment

2009-01-20T21:58:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to point out that I have started a new collaborative blog that is linked over on the left under "tread lightly". We kind of have a tentative blog title but are still experimenting with that and colors/layout. Pop over and let us know what you think!

Dance Party

2009-01-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

We took the kids to their first high school dance this past Friday - what a blast! J., as most of you know, is a teacher at a small charter school here in San Diego. They had their winter semi-formal on Friday and we decided to go and chaperone. As it turns out, they told him that the kids could come because some younger siblings would be there and some staff were bringing their kids as well. Did I mention that this school was a bit unconventional? Anyhow, they had the time of their lives dancing it up! Camille even made me find the "Cha Cha Cha" song online the next day so that she could practice her steps.

Here is a video, I'm sorry it's pretty dark. It's what I've got and it will forever remind me of the fun that they had on that night. None of the pictures that I took quite capture the essence!

On another note, I officially sent in my first query letter today - yikes! I have been throwing around the idea of trying to write more for a while and decided that there was no better time to try than now. I usually have Tuesdays completely free of children so my ambition for that day is to send out one query or unsolicited article (publication accepting) per week. I actually wrote this query last week but had been sitting with it so that I could re-read it and I finally stuck it in the mail today. That leaves me the rest of today to write another...

here, chickie, chickie, chickie...

2009-01-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

Crazy Birthday Month

2009-01-14T21:45:00.000-08:00

So, j. celebrated his 34th this last Saturday and we spent it with some good friends at none other than a Roller Derby bout. Yeah, you read right! Once Jeremy found out that the next bout of the San Diego Derby Dolls was on his birthday, he would have it no other way. Needless to say, it was loads of fun and a night we won't be likely to forget for a long time. Did I mention that Chizu paid for face painting?

Pre-derby pizza @ Zia's Pizzaria

@ the Derby

With a "Doll"

With Chizu and their painted faces

So sad, so long.

2009-01-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

I was just skimming some news articles and came across this sad piece on Friendship Park/ Borderfield State Park. Friendship Park embodied the essence of San Diego at its roots. It symbolized so many things at once - oppression, love, strife, connection. It is truly a tragedy that this powerful place will no longer be something that can be experienced by anyone. San Diego now is a little emptier.

"The Border Patrol will replace the plaza with a dirt road sandwiched between fences 130 feet apart and off-limits to the public, said spokesman Tom Younghusband."

RIP

A cross-border family sharing a picnic on either side of the fence

Another picnic shot

Estelle standing on our side

The obelisk mentioned in the article

From the obelisk looking westward

Camille playing in the sand on the US side

Looking up into Mexico

Them taking photos of us

Wooo-hooo!

2009-01-06T21:29:00.000-08:00

3 nights in a row of cleaning up with the girls before bed! We are on a role. I've even been doing all of the dishes in my sink before I call it a night. Now, how many days in a row do they say before it becomes habit? Hopefully not too many more =)

Today was uneventful but nice. The girls and I lazed around home, rode their bikes around the street for a little bit and hung out with the chickies in the back yard. They took a long bath, nap, had some dinner and then we went for a nice family walk around the 'hood, probably about 3 miles all together. We had to stop by the grocery store to pick up some pectin and sugar because Heather and I will be conquering marmalade in the next couple of days. Anyone want a jar?

Here are some pictures from Camille's party and her actual birthday-day.

Birthday Princess

Estelle taking a crack at the pinata

Wet Children with Candy

Pinata Frenzy in the Drizzle

one more

2009-01-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

NYR #5 - clean the girls room every night before bedtime! never too late to start a good habit, right? we'll see if this one sticks.

New Years Resolutions

2009-01-04T18:57:00.000-08:00

NYR #1 - get rid of car

NYR #2 - write more

NYR #3 - if (1) and (2), create a blog (or co-op a blog) about being car-less (or car-sharing)(or reducing your carbon footprint in general) in San Diego and post in it on a regular basis.

NYR #4 - exercise more regularly! This should come as a natural consequence of (1).

Here is a cute picture from around Christmas of the girls decorating the tree that I didn't post earlier because I am lame about blogging.

chickies, coops and partying it up!`

2009-01-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, all! Hope that it's been great for you thus far, as we are only a couple of days into it... It's been a busy but awesome start for us this year. We always get slammed with everything at once- everything is kind of a blur from Thanksgiving through January 10th. We get 3 days of celebration during the 23rd, 24th and 25th of December between all of our family members, followed by New Years Eve a week later and New Years Day, which also happens to be my mom's birthday. Camille's birthday is right behind her on the 2nd, which we celebrated today, the 3rd. One more week exactly until Jeremy's big 34th on the 10th! Then we get to breath for a little while =)

We started off our New Year spending it up in Redlands to celebrate with my mom for her big day. Upon waking on New Years Day we decided to throw the kids into the car and drive up to Forest Falls to see if there was possibly any snow left from a couple of weeks prior. We didn't want to get our hopes up, though, so we were prepared just to hike the falls if the snow didn't pan out - boy, we had no idea what we were in for! As we approached the valley we were stunned to come from sunny Redlands 15 minutes prior to houses absolutely covered with feet of snow. It always amazes me, just how much snow dumps at that place and how it STICKS for so long. Needless to say, the girls were not disappointed. We made our way into a little parking lot and tromped around for a while and then decided to go for a short hike down to the creek in the snow, and what an adventure that was! The day was beautiful, sunny, snow-filled and topped off with a fun party back at my parents house for my mom's and Camille's birthdays.

Today we had a birthday bonanza for Camille with friends and family here in San Diego. It was a breakfast and it was cold and drizzly but oh so much fun. We have this small house and we somehow had 50ish guests slammed into this tiny space and it all worked out! All I have to say is that I'm glad it didn't rain TOO hard, because I don't think we could have all fit inside at the same time. All of our guests were total troopers and didn't mind too much that they had to wear raincoats and get a little wet. It always makes me a little sad, though, that our house is so small and we can't just have a giant bash and invite everyone we know. I always hate having to whittle down the guest list and with everyone having kids and spouses - wow! You don't even invite that many people and somehow the turnout is just huge! Maybe one of these years we will have a kids-only party and make all of the parents leave - then we could have all of their friends come at the same time! Okay, maybe I would ask a couple of you parents to stay...

One thing that I have been meaning to post about is our chickens! We are now proud parents of four hens (at least I hope they are all hens at this point). Yup, that's right. We have a coop and everything. Super cute, super fun and I can't wait to have my own home-grown EGGS! Thank you, Sarah and BJ for all of your time and energy and brains to help us design and build this coop, may your eggs be abundant! Here are some pictures of the little ladies:

At a couple of weeks old

And with Sylvia, the Australian Hen Herder

Bundle of Joy

2008-11-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

Well, as the title insinuates we are indeed expecting a new one in our family next summer! A cousin for Camille and Estelle, that is. My sis broke the news to us all this past Friday and I have to say I think she kind of blew everyone away a little. I think my folks both thought she was sitting them down to tell them she was getting married and instead she's like, "umm, me and Jeremy are having a child". Her boyfriend's name is Jeremy, too.
Although my dad may need a little more time to recover from the almost-heartattack, we are all excited to have another babe in the family! Can't wait to meet the little him/her sometime in June. I know it's just gonna fly by and I am tripping a little because I only see my sister once every couple of months or so. With the holidays coming up I will see her a bit more frequently through dec/jan. but after that I know the next time I see her she will actually look pregnant, and then after that she might actually have a baby! Not too much time between now and then, and she's my little sister!

I had the funniest conversation with Camille and Estelle on the way home from Redlands in the car, it went something like this:

Me: "Soo, we are going to have a new baby in the family soon! Auntie Megan has a baby in her tummy!"

Camille: "Mama, is auntie Megan married?" (dammit - what were the chances of this one coming up? And right off the bat!)

Me: "Noooo. You don't actually have to be married to have a baby."

Estelle, after a contemplative pause and with sudden awareness in her eyes: "I am gonna have a baby! And I'm not going to get married."

Me, giggling quietly: " Ummm, usually it's nice to get married before you have a baby..."

Haha! soooo funnny! Estelle has stubbornly declared since she could TALK that she didn't want to get married. I think it's hilarious, Camille always pretends to be a princess and a bride and CAN'T WAIT to get married. As soon as it occured to Estelle that she could have the best of both of her worlds (NOT get married and still have a baby) she couldn't wait to declare it. Oh well, we'll see how this pans out in real life =)

Bugs!

2008-10-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know what got into me, but I decided to make the girls' Halloween costumes this year! No matter that the only thing I've ever sewn with a machine was the hem on my curtains, I was convinced that I could do this AND that my kids would have the cutest costumes ever. Let me tell you, it is definitely NOT cheaper to make your own costumes. We already had much of the stuff at home for Estelle's costume, such as the leotard and tights. We made the wings out of foam board and fabric and then stitched them with fabric glue and stuffed them with bamboo filling. How cool is that? They now have eco-friendly bamboo fluff at Joanne's to stuff pillows and stuff with. It was a bit more expensive, but totally worth it from my perspective. Besides, how many ladybugs are going to have bamboo-stuffed eco-wings?

Camille's costume was super non-complicated to the pro sewer, but it took me forever! Don't laugh, but it took me THEIR ENTIRE NAP TIME to try to remember and figure out how to thread my sewing machine. I finally succumbed to the internet and downloaded the manual that I couldn't find around my house and once I got the damn thing threaded it went pretty well. The bobbin ran out of thread halfway through so I had to stop and refill that, but other than that it was pretty smoothly. Basically, I just sewed a tube dress that was strapless and put some elastic in the top to hold it up. The shimmery wing material lent itself well to fabric glue, so we utilized that for the rest. The sleeves are just tubes and the material bunches up and flows down the back. The dress has buttons down the back so she can get in and out. Overall I think they came out pretty cute!

2008-09-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

Soo, yeah, I still haven't gotten any better at keeping up with this thing =) Gonna try to update before my kiddos wake up from their nap. Got me a new bike yesterday, you can check out the post over here about that. Our house still isn't done, we got going pretty good and then J had to start school again so things seem to have slowed WAY down. Our weekends seem to be freeing up here in the near future, though, so hopefully we will get it done sooner than later.

I recently quit my job- yeah, the really great one that I was braggin about not too many posts back. J is working more this semester (and consequently getting paid more) so it was either work and pay for preschool or stop work and spend more quality time with my kids. Hmmm - seemed like a no brainer! It's the first opportunity I've ever had to actually not *really* work. I am really excited to sit down with them every day and do kid stuff and art stuff and just bond with them a little bit more before I send them off to kindergarten. So, yeah, wish me luck on that!

That said, I have decided to take on a babysitting job =) Nothing hard core, just one day per week I am watching a little girl who lives around the corner. It's tough because we are still getting used to each other, but I know it'll be awesome for the girls in the long run to have some closeness with one of our neighbors. She is one and even though she seems like quite a baby now I know that soon she is going to be chasing after the girls with full force! They are great with her and I just hope that it all works out.

Oooh- it's time to start thinking about the fall garden and here is a pic. from one of our recent "yields." That's always fun! We've had okra coming out of our ears and I found this great recipe here. This is a picture of what it looked like after it was done cooking. It is super tasty and we've had it a few times in the last couple of months. If any of you have any good vegetartian okra recipes, throw them my way!

Camille and Estelle are doing really well, although we seem to be hitting a bit of a rough patch with Camille. I think she is bored/slightly jealous of Estelle. We've just been having a rough time with tantrums and stuff and I think we need to work on more one on one time together. It keeps crossing my mind to split them up here and there on a saturday (have J take one and I'll take the other for a while) so maybe that would be a good thing. She has always been such a trooper and she's never really complained about always splitting the attention, but I think it would be good for her. We'll see how it goes. I know probably partially having school would help, but I just feel that it's also a little something deeper than that and we need to work on our relationship together instead of just sending her off to school for the stimulation. We need to work on the stimulation here and also work on more structure.

Speaking of structure, just signed up for a tumbling class and are planning on another swim class soon. Cool thing about the Kroc center is that it has swimming year round...

The other pictures are from the Children's Museum (which we recently got to get passes for.) Fun times!

I'll post more soonish.

2008-07-28T17:25:00.001-07:00

More stuff from today...

Yeah, Our neighbors might hate us a little. What do you think?

And a video of Camille, the master hoola-hooper! This is the first time I've ever made a video with my camera, so half of it is sideways. Oops - forgot about the fact that you can't flip the video when you are in the middle of viewing it =+) Oh well, you get the idea!

Color

2008-07-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

So much stuff! We've been prepping and painting our house for almost two weeks now and I am TIRED. We are finally getting down to the last stuff and it's pretty exciting. today we completely finished with all of the white paint (the base color of the house) and I couldn't wait to throw on our first splash of color so the garage door got it, too! At this point, our neighbors may be freaking out a little. I almost started hyperventilating when I saw the color, but I am super excited about it. It's pretty! Along with this, we will have some splashes of yellow. Our house is going to look like a sunset. I love it! It will definitely be the brightest house on the street, but now it will be easy to explain to anyone coming to visit which house is ours :) Here is a picture of some prep work.

We went to the Orange County fair last week and that was super fun. Usually we make it to the Del Mar fair, but this year we missed it so we decided to meet up with my sister, her boyfriend and his nieces up in OC. She lives in Long Beach so it was a good place to meet and we had a really great time. The fair itself was beautiful, they had a great garden section and I think it inspired us to plant a cherimoya tree in the front yard where we were going to have the strawberry tree. The kids loved the animals and even though that section wasn't quite as big it was cool because it was a bit more interactive than the one in Del Mar. Also, all of the booths were outside instead of in a building which was really nice because the weather was beautiful. Yum, the girls LOVED the cotton candy (thanks, mom!) Sigh - I guess you've gotta give in every once in a while.

It was ComiCon this weekend which means that San Diego was crazy and we've had my family here since Wednesday. My folks stayed with us wed-thursday night and my cousins stayed with us on Saturday night. I love them all and it's been so fun for the girls to be with everyone and to do some fun stuff together. We got to hang out and swim at Ernie's hotel room on Friday night with them and they have been loving every minute of all of the madness. It's good to keep them occupied since we are painting the house as well, they don't get so bored with all of the other stuff going on. Here are some other random pictures from the last couple of weeks, Estelle modeling here mama's stuff and the girls helping to prime the garage...

as of late

2008-07-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

We went to SeaWorld on Monday - what a treat! Thanks to Nana & Papa Blough we now have passes for a whole year! The kids totally love it, it's awesome to live in a city where there is so much fun stuff to do with them all of the time. Here are a couple of pics.

And, of course, the classic SeaWorld fireworks to top it all off. I thought that they stopped doing that? Oh well, it sure is pretty!

New hair

2008-07-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

what do you think?

Per-go-lahhh

2008-06-29T17:02:00.001-07:00

So, we put up a pergola this past week. We are now OFFICIALLY working on making our front yard look nice. My folks came down this past Monday and we started working on it on Tuesday and finished it up on Wednesday. Okay, admittedly my DAD and husband did the majority of the work, it didn't take too much muscle power on my part. It looks really nice, though! I am starting to get pretty excited about it...

And our house still is pretty ghetto. I will post pictures over the next couple of months of "the transformation" and we'll see how pretty we can make it look! Next week we will work on the sprinklers, then the fence. After that we will begin painting the house... we all know how enthusiastic I can get about colors! I think Jeremy has finally learned that it's okay to be a little afraid at first, but that it always seems to turn out kind of pretty in the end. He is finally learning to trust my eclectic sense of color enhancement. Awesome. It should be fun! Oh, and after all that comes the planting, but that probably shouldn't start until the weather cools down. Maybe October.

pedalmamas

2008-06-29T08:35:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to point out that our good friend set up a collaborative blog for us mamas biking around San Diego. The link is on the left, so check it out to hear about our biking ventures around town!

Catalina vacation

2008-06-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

June 8th - 16th of this year. We had so much fun! These aren't really in order of our trip, but I'll tell a bit about each one. The first three are from Two Harbors. The top one is our campsite at the campground in Two Harbors - BEAUTIFUL. I think this was my favorite spot. It was truly a pain in the ass to hike up and down from the town to the site, but just the fact that the town (and therefore hot showers, food, kayak rentals, etc.) is hikeable gives it a big boost for me. The spot truly is beautiful and you have a really nice beach right at the bottom of the sites. That's where the following two pictures are taken. The beach isn't really sandy, more like teeny tiny rocks - maybe the step right before they turn to sand. Not to rocky to be uncomfortable. Also, you can take the boat right into Two Harbors so it saves the hassle of having to take the bus to the other sites.
The next 4 pictures are from our first campsite in Little Harbor. Don't get me wrong - super beautiful, too! Not really hiking friendly for the kids, I wouldn't recommend going here unless you really want to do NOTHING but lay on the beach all day. There are two coves right next to each other and you can easily go between them both and pick where you want to hang out. Virtually no one else there, with the exception of the few other campers. This would be the perfect spot to take a group of playgroup kids for a few days. The beach is really sheltered, no big waves and just nice sand for the kids to play. The one of me standing with the girls is at our camp spot and literally right to my right about 50 yards is the beach. There is also a nice little stream that flows and you can hear the frogs when dusk hits - that's why the girls are wearing headlamps! We took them to look for frogs when it got dark. Super fun, didn't find any frogs, though. Lots of bats! Not easy to get to - I wouldn't recommend going here with the kids if you were just going to stay one night. Minimum 2 nights just to make it worth lugging all of the junk. You have to take the bus once you get off the boat.
The last picture is from Avalon. Avalon can get old pretty fast, it's just a very typical tourist town. The great thing there, though, is that there are tons of fun and touristy things to do. This picture is from the semi-submergible boat ride that we went on. Very cool! They feed the fish as well. I know, not very eco-friendly but the kids got a kick out of seeing all the fish swarming the boat! Catalina is pretty good about all of the eco-stuff in general. The whole island is a conservancy with the exception of Avalon, which is the only incorporated town. No one else is allowed to own property anywhere, so the entire island is pretty barren which is what makes it so beautiful. Buffalo herds are still prevalent (we got to see some) and a deer walked right up to our campsite. Fish are everywhere. All in all, a nice little place to visit. Ooh, we also had a blast kayaking here with the girls and we took them on a flying fish boat ride. Look at how well we are all sleeping in our first bed in 6 nights!

The kids totally didn't even fuss about sleeping on sleeping mats for that long, either. They were happy as clams to be dirty and un-showered and curled up in the tent. It was great and we all really had a lot of fun. If we were to do it again, I would do three nights in Little Harbor, 3 nights in Two Harbors and 2 nights in Avalon. This time we did 3 in avalon and 2 in two harbors.

It's been a long, long time

2008-06-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

And I miss you! So much stuff has happened since last Halloween. It's almost Estelle's birthday (again) and I can't believe my baby is going to be 3. Life just flies by entirely too fast. Rylie is no longer with us here in San Diego, her family decided it was time to move closer to their own family and so they up and left to Boston sometime last September. We miss them so much! She was such a sister to Camille and Estelle, it's something that makes my heart hurt a little every time I think about her.
More recent news - Sarah (Jeremy's cousin) is about to get married this weekend! She's kind of been MIA since they started dating and after they get married they will be relocating to Utah. We will miss them and it will be sad that the girls won't really get to grow up with their cousin Trinity.
My aunt Debbie is in the hospital, something about an infected diverticulii (ughh) so we are just praying for a safe a speedy recovery for her.
We just got back from an AWESOME vacation in Catalina where we spent 8 nights there and 2 nights in Redlands on either end of the trip, so we were gone from out home for 10 nights! Camping in Catalina is awesome, I think next time we should mainly camp the whole time and steer clear of Avalon. I will post pictures and a more detailed blog on that once I upload them. Just trying to catch up!
I have a new job - well, one I started in March. Actually, back up. I worked at Barnes and Noble from sometime in November until the end of February and then I "went seasonal" to take this job. It's with the Faith and Work Ministry at my church and I love it! It allows me to work from home and be flexible and it's wonderful because I feel that through my work I am now contributing to serving God in a way that I haven't before. I feel that life is so busy that I don't get the time to put all of my energy into my church and my community, but this way I can at least surround myself and make my work my faith.
On the topic of church, we have been going to Harbor for a little while now and it's such a wonderful group of people with amazing hearts for helping each other and our community. It's just been truly a blessing to see it grow and to fall into such a wonderful community of people. We have been doing our bible study regularly, though it's manifested into something totally different than it was 5 years ago. The Wilcoxes (mike and joan) will come to visit us next week which will be very cool. I know Camille and Estelle will love to see them.
So, this is rambling and I was going to delete some of it, but then I thought the reason that I am doing this is for something to look back on and something for my girls to look back on. This seems like just random goings-on in my life, but really all of it pertains very much to them. They know these people, they know my jobs, my current life is also what they live every day. It will be a good log for them to be able to look back on one day! Next post will be more kid-centric, I promise.

HALLOWEEN!!

2007-10-31T22:04:00.001-07:00

What a crazy, weird, random day. Today is Halloween and I feel as if instead of savoring it we kind of just rushed through it. Always so busy. All of this anticipation leading up to it (for the girls) and now it's over! We went to Camille's preschool today for their Harvest Festival which was kind of a disappointment (!). I guess I probably am just expecting too much - it is, after all, only a preschool! My only experiences thus far have been in a more organized, bigger public school setting. Anyhow, the girls had fun and got to run around for a little while. Claudia and George came over after nap-time to see our house and hang with the girls. They brought along some little outfits for them as gifts, which was sweet. After they left, Steve and Jennifer came over for dinner along with Kimberly, Allison, Eddie and Allison's mom. Dinner, then trick-or-treating with all the kiddos. The neighborhood was less than "poppin'", but I suppose times are just changing. I seems like when I was a kid there were so many other kids out! Today was just a lazy Halloween, I guess, thrown into the chaos of the start of the holiday season just a week after these crazy fires happened here. Just kind of a strange day. Well, the kids looked CUTE and had a great time, were super excited for the CANDY and didn't even throw a tantrum when we told them they could pick out 4 pieces and we would get rid of the rest :) A little bribery helps, I suppose - tomorrow we will go shopping for a toy in place of the candy that they traded us. Here are more photos!

a funny story

2007-08-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

So the other day, Estelle comes running into the room SCREAMING and crying.

"What's wrong Estelle?" asks I

"Camille hit me with a blanky" she sniffles.

So off we go to the bedroom.

"Camille!" I yell. "Why did you hit your sister?"

Through the tears of her own (everything is the end of Camille's world) she cries "Sissy threw my baby!". Any of you who know Camille know that she was wailing as if she almost lost an arm.

So, as seriously as possible I make them kiss and make up. Estelle is over it, but Camille is dying. She is crying so hard she can't even give Estelle a hug. Estelle has to wrap her arms around her and hold her like a little mama. It's pretty cute. Camille is still hyperventelating when I ask:

"Camille, do you want sissy to go bybye? Should I take her away?" "Do you want to play by yourself?"

And says a sniffling Camille, in a pathetic whimper "no."

"Are you sure? you want sissy here? You love her?"

"yes."

And so affirms my belief that all through the fighting and yelling and screaming, they really can't live without each other.

Disneyland

2007-08-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

I know I have been horrible about this. I really need to set it as a priority. Perhaps today will be the day that my world changes and I become an avid blogger :). I just wanted to post some photos of our Disneyland trip this year. This was the first year that Jeremy's parents took us instead of mine. It was very cool, it was also the first year that both of the kids were so excited and into it! Camille was elated to meet Tigger and Pooh, as you can see. They both really loved the rides as well, though some of the proved too scary for their two and three year old brains to wrap around. They officially woke up at 6:30, took about a 20 minute nap and didn't get to bed until around 10:30 and they were fine! My kids surprise me sometimes - they can't sit for 10 minutes at dinner with us without climbing over the tables and chairs and destroying everything in their paths, but when I expect them to be at their worst and totally melt they completely pull through as perfect as angels. Kids. What gives?

Gosh, it's been so long...

2007-05-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

I guess buying the house has just killed us, time wise. I have picked up an extra day of watching Rylie, so Tuesday through Thursday is shot and then there's the weekend. There are so many memories to fill in the lapse from the last entry until now, and I guess I really can't. I missed halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, camille's birthday, valentines day, st. patricks day and all the little events in between. It would be futile, I suppose, to try and make it up. Maybe I'll post some pictures from the gap during random times throughout the next few months. For now, I'll post a few more recent. The bathtub seen was just fun times taking a bath last week while Rylie was here. The other is me and my girlies (and new baby boy) playing on the swingset in the backyard. It was this last Sunday, the 6th of May and it was right after the baby-celebration that we threw for Mike and Patti.

During The Gap I was also working more teaching cooking classes for an after school program. That's on a hiatus right now, but I am filling my time with cake decorating classes that I have been taking for almost two months now. Our house got broken into recently and we are finally kind of getting back on track from that (happened on Easter).

So for now I will leave you with nothing profound. A few pictures to look at and hopes of returning much sooner than in the past. Sorry for being so neglectful!

Halloween!

2006-11-02T10:51:00.000-08:00

The kiddies had way too much fun! It was hilarious to watch The Pony Girl and the Monkey gleefully toddle from door to door with a tumbling Lady Bug following close behind. Estelle didn't even know what she was getting in her bag, but whatever it was she didn't care! A couple of times I tried to carry it for her because it was getting heavy, but had to give it up to a worried little voice ranting "bag, bag, bag!". She was a total trooper throughout the night and walked almost the whole route by herself, side by side with her sister.

Camille was awesome in her horsey costume, sound effects and all. She gleefully trotted around the neighborhood and was just stoked that people were handing her candy just because she looked cute. Before and after our excursion she happily handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters who came to our door, it was so cute and by the end she totally had the hang of it and was handing out BIG fistfulls.

The next day we binged on candy and Camille decided to give Riley's lady bug costume a try. It was actually her costume from last year, though it fits a little differently now!

Horsies and pumpkins

2006-10-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

Here are the picture from Victoria's Garden (finally). This week has been a crazy busy week, though it seems like I always am saying that! Today was Great Grandma Bloughs birthday so we spent most of the day up in Oceanside to celebrate. She turned 89, which means she was born in 1917. I can't even fathom what our world must have been like back then! It's crazy to think that someone so close to us has lived in a time so far away. One day I will be like that, too. It's scary and exciting and a little mind-boggling all at the same time.

I will be starting to teach cooking classes this Tuesday at Horizon Prep in Rancho Santa Fe. That's exciting and will be a good change to our life, though definitely a bit of an adjustment. It'll definitely be good for our whole family for me to get out of the house a little, I think.

Camille has been quite rambunctious this week, she seems to go through cycles. Usually she is so helpful and willing and curious and fun, but sometimes she goes through these phases where she is just grumpy and mean. I guess we all do. This week she has seemed to be testing the waters a lot and beating up on her sister and getting angry and lashing out more than usual, but God willing we will learn where this energy is coming from and have more success this coming week in channeling it into a more positive outcome. To her defense, I have been going crazy trying to organize the house more (we are still wrecked from the move-in) and make Baby Shower invitations for Chrissy and get prepared for my cooking class while still babysitting Riley, hosting a dinner/ bible study and hosting another dinner on Friday night for out-of-town relatives. Jeremy has had a crazy work week and not been around really at all, so it may all be from lack of attention this week. Anyhooo- tomorrow is a new day, right? :)

These pictures are great- well, the one of Estelle on the horse didn't come out so hot but I had to post it! We are really looking forward to Trick-or-Treating in another week and I'll definitely have pictures of that to put up, too!

dinner & pumpkins

2006-10-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had dinner with the Holford clan, which was a lot of fun. Camille and Porter are about 6 months apart and have known each other for longer than they'll ever be able to remember. Tonight was the first night that Camille ever has cried because she didn't want me around :) What a milestone... madness! As we were winding down the night Natalie and Jason were loading up kid one into their car and Porter was saying he didn't want to leave. They soon came back to get him and wrangle him into the car and no sooner did they get out the door when Camille began to wail "I want to go to Porter's, mama, I want to go with Porter!"

"Camille," I said "I'm not gonna go with you, though. You'll have to go by yourself! Are you okay with that?"

Wide eyed Camille looked around the room. She was silent as she was contemplating and then she figured it out. "Sissy go too. Me and Sissy go." And that was that. Boy, was she upset when she realized that it wasn't her decision to be made :)

The pumpkins are another story and it was so much fun! Sabrina decided it would be fun for our playgroup to take a "field trip" to this place called Victoria's Garden to go pumpkin picking! It was really cool, it was this farm that is set up with fun stuff for kiddos during different times of the year. During the autumn it is a pumpkin patch that's got all kinds of other fun stuff for people to do. The kids got to ride their first real pony ride and a hay bale ride. The petting zoo was awesome and Camille and Estelle got to pet their first alpaca. Estelle LOVED the duck in the petting zoo and insisted on chasing her around the pen and pointing and yelling "duck, duck, duck!" Camille fell in love with some soft little bunny rabbits and a baby goat. The bouncy house was fun, as always, and all of the kids took pride in choosing their very own jack-o-lantern pumpkin to bring home (Camille was determined to find a "yittle tiny baby one" and Estelle was just so excited to pick on out to call her own and carry it all by herself. I still need to upload the pictures from that trip and search the ones that other people from playgroup post to find a couple of good ones. When I do I will definitely post them for you to see. All in all it was a ton of fun and highly recommended for any kids in the SD area.

The pictures that I posted right now are just random - I thought they were cute! They are from the last time we painted which was Wednesday. They decided it was more fun to paint themselves then the paper this time, which made for pretty bathwater afterwards ;) I swear, that easel is the best investment we have made for them thus far! They love it, and who knows - maybe one day they will both be famous artists. Or, if they get in trouble for doodling in their notebooks in high school instead of taking notes we'll know where they learned it.

Now that I put those pictures up...

2006-10-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

Ode to the sparkly shoes, part deux. Thank you, mom, for updating Camille and Estelle's look with some new different colored sparkly shoes :) They love them and I love cleaning up red glitter from different corners of my house.

Painting was awesome and Camille has been talking about it ever since, though I haven't pulled the paint out to let her do it again. Once in a blue moon is enough for me at this point! We did get some one on one time during Estelle (and Riley's) nap time today to color, though, and that was really fun. I think today I learned the importance of coloring with my daughter. It doesn't happen enough. I once heard that working mothers spend the same amount if not more quality time with their children than mothers who stay at home. The statement made me so sad because there was a lot of truth in it. I think those of us who stay at home find that we are constantly busy with everything else in our lives that we lack the ability to step back, breath, and spend some real fun quality time with our children. Especially with two of them, I think that one on one time with each of them is almost impossible - although not really. The day seems filled with a jumbled mess of trying to pacify children, trying to get away from children to get five seconds to breath by yourself, trying to cook meals and clean house and unpack and organize and and and, well, and not really succeeding at any of it. Nothing really gets the quality that it should. I think that working parents spend all day away from their kids that by the end of the day they can't wait to see their family and they make the minutes count more. Maybe we should learn to put things on the back burner sometimes and not try ot do everything at once. Maybe we should make our minutes count more instead of trying to make them pass so fast. Maybe our children would be better pacified if real quality time was spent with them every day in the first place. Maybe a fifteen minute quality "breather" by myself would keep me going longer and stronger for the rest of the day, and maybe dishes would get done faster without two kids crawling up my legs. How do you do that, though? Maybe that's the point of parenthood - to go nuts trying to figure it all out and to become a better person because of it.

so much

2006-10-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

It seems the days don't like to slow down! Every day that passes by, I think of all the wonderful, beautiful, insightful things that I want to blog about. The days just pass so fast that by the time it's time for me to be here again there is too much to say. I write nothing because everything won't fit. I have some beautiful pictures today, though, and maybe they will update you on what's been going on in our lives. I'll try to put them in order. I just hope that one day I'll find the time to not let it all slip past so fast, to stare at the beautiful eyes of my daughters and huband and get lost and write about it and remember it and grasp it so that I won't regret it or forget it. Here are the pictures.

Can we keep her?

2006-09-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

It was the cutest thing ever! Estelle just woke up from her nap and Camille heard her, so she ran into the bedroom and jumped into bed with her. I soon wandered in and jumped into bed between my two girls and Camille reached over me and patted her sister on the cheek. "Ohhh, how cute sissy. Can we buy her? Can we buy her, mama?" Camille asked. It was so FUNNY! I was like "Ummm, buy her? You mean you want to keep her?"
"Uh huh" Camille said
"You like having your sister around, Camille?"
"yup". And she jumped off the bed, and that was that.
It was pretty cute.

sparkly shoes

2006-09-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I have this dilemma. I don't want to fight with my children over frivolous things, things that don't need to be fought over. I also don't want anybody to laugh at my kid! At what point to you draw the line? Sometimes Camille thinks she looks real hip - I think it's cute. She LOVES these sparkly shoes and wool black and white checkered pants. Summer, winter, too hot, too small, who cares? I've fought with her all summer about wearing these pants because it's been so hot but finally the weather's cooled down to the point where I can't use that excuse anymore. She "lost" these shoes for a while because they are completely too small for her, but now she's really excited that she found them again.

How do you say no to an over zealous 2 and a half year old? She's not bothered by too-tight shoes, as long as they look good. And she thinks she looks pretty hot. Which brings me back to my original dilemma...

nailpolish

2006-09-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that I was blessed with the gift of having girls. Or I suppose I could have put nailpolish on a boy. At this age he wouldn't have known the difference, right?

The joy that painting tiny fingernails gives me is unsurpassable. The chubby fingers and plump, sticky hands grabbing at the bottle, the toothy smiles and the squeals of delight just completely fill my heart with a sense of contentment that I've not found in anything else. When we first had Camille, I was in love but I had a sense of guilt. I watched her play in the middle of the rug, alone, and it tore at my heart. I felt so bad that this little playful angel of a being was alone! I mean, I was there with her but I had my own stuff to do and couldn't play with her all of the time. She never really complained, she just sat and read her books to herself and played with her toys, but it made me so SAD! I couldn't wait to make her a little sibling! I grew up in a close-knit fairly large extended family group and I loved having other souls to interact with all of the time. I grew up knowing that nothing was as important as family and that nothing could come between blood, when it all came down to it. So we HAD to make Estelle, and we did. So this picture brings me complete joy.

It's been amazing watching them interact. Estelle turned 1 in June, which makes her about 15 months old now. It's only been recently that they really are interacting like sisters. I mean, they have always been aware of each other and tried to play with each other but they were at such different developmental stages and lately Estelle seems to be catching up to Camille. It's really cool and really fun to watch their interaction as they become playmates instead of just siblings. They are growing into friends.

I guess that's really why I wanted to start this blog at this moment. I feel the desire to capture their interaction now, before it's lost and forgotten to time. I know that there are always ups and downs with siblings and that you can't force them to get along if they don't want to. I know that just because they are sisters doesn't mean that they will be best friends. From the beginning, my biggest prayer and hope has been that they will have that connection, that I could give them the best gift in the world - each other. I hope above all else that one day they realize that. I know that the only thing that I can do is try to be the best teacher I can, to facilitate and to nurture and to try to show them how important this connection and the connection of all family is. Unconditional love and acceptance and help and growth within it. Family is what you've got left when it all comes down to it. It's ALL you've got left. And sisters - pshhh - you've got a built in best friend right there from birth.

yogurt monster

2006-09-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

It was just for a second, I swear! I guess that's all it took. Check out this pic. and see what I've had to put up with while TRYING to unpack and get us settled into our nice new home. Yeah. I suppose I should have known better considering that something like this happens, umm, all the time! It's moments like these that I wish I would keep track of better and take more pictures of. Yes, for the intrinsic value of the photo, for the joy of being able to look back upon the times that passed so fast and to laugh at the hilarity of it all, but also for a reason that many of you may not be thinking of... for the shear purpose of defending myself.
Okay, okay, I know it's kind of silly, but photos like this need to be taken and stuck away as PROOF, proof that I, as a stay-at-home mom, really do have a lot of work to do all day. Something to show to Jeremy when he comes home at the end of a long day of work and asks, in disbelief as he looks around at the remnants of a house that was semi-clean when he left in the morning, "What did you do all day?" Those six little words that I'm sure every stay-at-home mom has heard at some point in her stay-at-home career, those words that make you cringe and begin to boil and lash out at the poor, aloof and unknowing hubby. Those words that every man soon learns NEVER to say, especially after you decide to leave him home all day to cook for, clean-up after and pacify children all day without even a warning to beware the yogurt monster.

MOVING

2006-09-05T21:42:00.000-07:00

Sucks. Other than that, it's pretty fun to clear out the crap and start anew. Sorry I've been away for so long, but I decided to start a blog at the most inopportune time since we just bought a house and I think I disconnected my computer the day after I first blogged :). I am finally up and running again and even though times are hectic I will try to make the time to get on here atleast every other day. I have a feeling that things never slow down. Two girls, man, they keep you running.
More on that later, though. I'll post pictures soon too!

In The Beginning

2006-08-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

First came Camille. She was little and squishy and pink with a mop of dark hair and squinty eyes. She weighed 8 lbs. and 12 oz., which is BIG when you consider how she came into this world. She took our breath away and was beautiful.

Nine months went by and I got the hang of things a little. I decided that life was good and that babies were cake and that Camille needed a little sibling above all else. Nine months after that came Estelle.

Estelle was little and squishy and pink with an even bigger mop of dark hair and even squintier eyes. She looked like a tiny sumo wrestler. She weighed 10 lbs. and 2 oz., which is HUGE when you consider how she came into this world. She also took our breath away and was beautiful.

Now Camille had a little sister, and our life was complete. So we thought. Little did we anticipate the tribulations that lay ahead, the stories and the memories made and yet to come. Little did we know the angst or the elation that accompany parenthood and sisterhood. My wish is to chronicle the lives of these sisters that we created so that one day they can look back on these days that they don't remember, the journey from egocentricism to a polycentric world and laugh and cry and love the way things were and are. Thanks for reading and letting me write.