Back From Vacation

I'm back! I took a week off and we camped out (stayed in a cabin) for four nights. It was fun. The first night, there was a crazy thunder storm with torrential rains. I woke up at 3 in the morning worrying that the kids were sopping wet. They were sleeping in the tent. Brian and I got up, found a tarp, ran up the hill in the freezing cold rain and threw the tarp over the tent hoping they would stay dry. Apparently the rain didn't bother them. We saw their lantern go on for a little bit, but they never came down the hill to sleep in the cabin.

The next day was lake day. Unfortunately we picked the wrong day for the lake because it started raining and pretty much didn't quit until, of course, we left. Regardless of the blah weather the kids played in the water, built sand castles and we BBQ'd shrimp on the wet sand. Even the baby had a good time, though she doesn't like rain and while it rained sat in a folding chair with a towel pulled over her head. When it wasn't raining she was down at the water, knocking over the kids' castles and stomping in their handmade moats. At one point she was standing knee deep in the water, which makes me nervous. She started roaming out a bit more. Now I'm frantic. Riley runs out to grab her and she starts to run away from him, towards the deeper water. She falls under water and Riley helps her back up. Of course, none of that bothered her. When it started to rain again, however, she wanted to go back to the car.

The next days of our stay were perfect lake weather. But we, meaning the adults, had had enough of the lake for the time being. The kids were begging to go back. Sorry! Not this time. Instead we drove to Tamarack, which is a fancy little resort near the cabin. We wandered around to see what kinds of activities we could do on our next vacation week up at the cabin and ordered a pizza at one of the restaurants. I can't wait until next year. We can go hiking and rafting and biking. The possibilities are endless. Woo hoo!

Anyway, I won't go into all the details, but I must say I love going to the cabin. It's so relaxing and nice and there isn't anything to worry about and you don't have to have anything done. You don't have to have many plans you just hang out and enjoy. Even when the weather isn't wonderful it's still nice to be up there.

The funniest thing I heard on my week home with the kids. "That isn't a nose hair, it's a hair up my nose." Okay.

Well, there was one more silly converstation: "I killed a cow once." --"You did?"--"Well, no."

Signs of Aging

Well, it's that time of year again. The time where I turn a year older. I'm going to be 31. 31 years old and let me tell you it's much more depressing than 30. In fact, I was very excited to turn 30. People make a big fuss about you when you turn 30. 31 however, is nothing to make a fuss about. Your just old-er.

And now there are all these horrible things I notice about me that I think needs to be fixed, though I probably won't fix them. And just a couple of years ago all I wanted was a boob job. That's it. Have a little something added and now, it's been pushed down the list just a tad. Because I was sitting in the dermatologist's office the other day looking at pamphlets for something called Thermage, a skin tightening procedure that tightens your skin without surgery. And I thought to myself, "I could really use that on my tummy and thighs". And I'm seriously running numbers in my head on when I might be able to afford something like that.

And then my dermatologist mentioned to me that these patches under my eyes were getting worse than the last time she saw me. There's a name for it, but I don't remember what it was. Anyway, they look like I was out in the sun too long, but they're pretty dark in this one area. And she said that it was a combination of things that causes this, one of them being age! Can you believe it. (No they aren't sun spots.) The other two factors are too much estrogen (from the pill) and the sun. The spots will fade I just have to use a certain sunscreen and she also suggested this make up that costs more than my favorite pair of jeans. And I'm actually considering purchasing it.

Regardless of all my old age problems I'm experiencing I still love birthdays. Because I get spoiled on my birthday and Brian, whether he likes to do it or not, I'm still not certain, will drag it out for days at a time. Which I love. And there are presents and cake and lunches and shopping and every thing is always perfect. And besides all these physical changes going on, that absolutely suck, I have a lot of other great things going on in my life that have nothing to do with my physical appearance but every thing to do with getting older. Things that I didn't have when I was young and 25 or even 28. Like my baby Jillian. I guess I can live with another number added on. It won't be so bad. Besides, I still have a couple of weeks to enjoy 30.

I haven't had anything good to post lately. Not a lot has been happening. Jillian is recovering nicely from her trauma (see below). And I think you guys are right, I will probably hear about the real story when Jillian turns 20. And perhaps we will laugh about it. Maybe.


Right now I'm getting excited to take a week off and head for the hills. In two weeks we are going to try a few nights at the cabin with all the kids. The older kids are very excited. Jillian is pretty indifferent until she gets up there, but she has fun while she's there. They get so dirty. I hope we can survive. We have a few little plans like going to the lake and BBQ-ing one afternoon. I'm very happy that my poor little white legs are finally going to get a little sun exposure. Even with sunblock on.

Speaking of sun, my little baby spends so much time outside with her grandma and grandpa her hair is getting blond streaks in it. I can't believe it. She had pretty dark hair when she was born and now she has blond streaks! It is cute, though. I need to be taking more pictures of that little baby. Because she's almost 2!!!!

Brian says when she turns two we have to stop calling her the baby or people will think we had another one. Hmph!

This afternoon I bought some M&M's out of the vending machine and then went to Brian's desk to see if he wanted any. He wasn't there because he was at my desk looking for me.

I couldn't sleep last night because every time I laid down I would start to cough uncontrollably. I went and laid down on the couch and ended up sleeping there all night. No coughing. What the heck does that mean?

It's taken me all day to write this lame post. Sorry!

A Funny Thing Happened

Well, not so much "ha ha" funny as "what the heck is going on" funny. Last Friday Brian and I attended a retirement party that took place after work. That meant we needed babysitters. And it just so happened to conveniently be scheduled on a week we had all the kids. Thus, it took some very creative maneuvering in order to get everyone supervised for the amount of time we needed for the party.

I arranged to have my sister pick up the older kids at daycare after she got off work and take them back to our place for dinner. This would have been the perfect set up, except she had a concert to leave for shortly afterwards and we still needed to do something with the baby. Then, I had the bright idea that we would pick up Jillian and drop her off with my mom and my mom would then drive over to our house in order for my sister to make her concert. It all seems easy enough right?

I thought so. Brian thought so, kind of. He did have some doubts. Regardless, we went to our party and had some yummy drinks and delicious food and a pretty good time. We drive home. When we arrive we expect to see my mom's car. And that's it. Instead, we see that both my sisters are there as well as my mom. What the hell is going on? I get out and it seems that my mom locked her keys in her car and couldn't get a locksmith out in time. She said something about a police officer coming out and they had to break the window. Then she had my sister pick her up and bring her and a very scarred Jillian to Nampa and my other sister was still there because obviously they did not make it in time for her to go to her concert.

Are you getting all of this? Well, after my three Cosmo martinis and some other fruity, sweet drink I didn't really get it at all. I just wanted to hug my upset baby and get the kids to bed. Everyone left.

After contemplating the evening some more Brian and I concluded that our baby must have been locked in the car. Nothing else made sense. I wasn't going to ask my mom because it would be too upsetting for her if that was the case, but it so obviously must have been the case. Because the police do not come out to get your car unlocked unless it's an emergency. They especially do not break the windows on your car, I'm pretty certain, unless there is some sort of emergency. I'm guessing that my probably screaming Jillian was the emergency. And we still didn't know for sure, we were just guessing.

Then yesterday we were watching the news and they had a segment on how hot your car gets this time of year and don't leave your kids or animals in the car. And they mentioned that last week they had two incidents of a child locked in the car. Hmm...our little Jillian maybe? And then they ended with "most of the time a child being left in the car is an accident. Like when someone locks their keys in the car with the baby." Yes, Jillian was locked in the car. I'm almost positive now.