89 cents and one year later ...

I fixed the cabinet in the kid's bathroom. It was on the original closing repair list but somehow, it must have slipped through. It wouldn't close and latch. The latch was loose and eventually got ripped off in frustration. But, talk about an easy repair to skip!!!! I was very proud of myself that I fixed it and the handy man skipped it. Although, based upon the jobs that the handyman fixed, maybe it was too hard for him! 8-)

We bought the Jeep wrangler unlimited. I drove it to home depotty today to try to buy a special drill bit (Torx head #40)to get the hard top off, but they didn't have it. Anyway, I took off the two front hard tops over the driver's and front passenger side very easily. I have to say that it is so fun to dive! I just smiled the whole way to the home depot and the wind whipped around in my hair! I love that car!! I put the hard tops back on myself too!!! Don's first car was a jeep cj, so I said I guess we will have to get a VW bug now, since that was my first car!

I am already planning a 4 wheel driving trip somewhere. Some of the state parks here have places that you can take 4-wheel drive vehicles. They have camp sites and that would be such fun! Anyway, I don't think that I will be sorry that we got this car! I really really like it! My neighbor wants to do a girls road trip! That might be good fun!

We went on Friday to Santa Monica and the hump. The hump was ok. I ate shrimp tartaRE. iT TASTED LIKE BUTTER. the SHRIMP HEADS WERE BETTER. Pinkberry was GREAT. I think I'll skip the "best" from guidebooks from now on. And we were the only celebrities there! It took us like 2 and a half hours to get home on Friday night! We drove on Mullhound Highway through the canyon. It was pretty cool. The scenery here is just gorgeous!

Off to the library, old car fix and due bill from the new car tomorrow! Due bill = cool cool tires!!!

Finished reading Marley and Me today. Every dog lover should read that book. I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was definitely a tear jerker though!

Beach baby ...

Well, how very fitting that on the first day of summer we .... HIT THE BEACH!!!

We headed right out after Max's swimming lesson. He did great. He swam like a champ and jumped off of the low dive on the very first try! We ran into his friend from Pre-k too! Our town is getting smaller and smaller, seems like we know someone almost everywhere we go now!

The beach was great. We went with the neighborhood gals and their boys. The boys (7 under 8 years old) and Maddie had a great time boogie boarding, racing waves and building sandcastles. The only problem was that all three of us got the big bad sunburns! I kept on putting sun screen on Max, but he really got burned anyway!!! I am going to check out the consumer reports on sun screen to find out which one was the best before our next trip out there. There were like four different families there that we know! It was cool and fun. They go once a week all summer!!!!

Tomorrow, we are off to Santa Monica for possibly what one guidebook calls the best sushi in LA! The restaurant is called the hump, I guess it is a vague reference to the Himalayas? It is supposed to be a good celeb sighting spot too! So who knows? We hope that we can get into the restaurant, if not there is a huge pan Asian restaurant underneath and they serve crickets!! We may head there instead. Our plan is to try to hit the LA farmers market and maybe the grove after lunch with Don. I'm gonna pack the cooler and some ice blocks so that whatever fresh goodies we find we can keep cool!!! Oh I heard a good joke today ... if you live in TO and you are afraid to drive to Los Angeles then you have Agouraphobia ... You are afraid to go past agoura hills!!!!

Looks like dear hubby is going to join us in Ohio for a few days toward the end of our trip!!!! He requested the days off and now I just have to get him a ticket!!! Yeahh!!!

We'll that is it for now!!! I love summertime!!!! Hugs, SoCal Trixie

Day two summer vacation ....

We survived Maddie's graduation/promotion. It was a very nice ceremony. She will be off to ninth grade next year!

We also survived father's day. Don got a nintendo wii. So wii play!!! It is big fun.

I survived the first day of summer with both kids home. No big fights! Maddie picked out a paint color for her room, so that project will be starting soon. Max's swim lessons were post-poned. I guess the pool pump blew out at the high school! OOPS! He should start tomorrow, if it is fixed. Max and I are headed to the library sometime today. We'll probably hit home depot for paint and I need to go to the grocery store. So that would be pretty much a full day. Oh, also need to do some laundry!

Have some potential jobs in the hopper. Just need to get the resume all polished up!

Have been exercising some the past few days. Am feeling good!

Posted some pics on the website ... Sent it off to dear friends and family and heard from some people I hadn't heard from for awhile! That was very nice!

Well, I need to shower! Still have community pool water in my hair. A huge dog almost went swimmiing with us yesterday! I guess that is why it is called a community pool! Searching for a decent hat now to keep my new hair color stronger!

May head to Santa Monica for lunch Friday. Looking for something to do after, may hit the farmer's market and the grove!

Toodles for now, shower is calling! so cal, trixie

Flag Day

Today is flag day, so Max and I hung up our old glory on the house this morning! The wind was blowing it and it looked great, but now, I just noticed that it is all stuck on the beam. I'll hafta fix that!

I have a hair appointment for cut and color on Saturday ... thinking that the posh do may be a go.

Maddie is at Magic Mountain today. I was reviewing with her the emergency procedures etc. that she needs to take into account and she was so annoyed with me. She was huffing and moaning the whole ride to school. Then she says ...

"you are really stressed out about this, huh?"

I answered "No, if I was really stressed out, you wouldn't be going."

Last night, she came up with the brilliant idea of leaving her extra supplies here! I really think that that girl just doesn't think sometimes. If she had some problem and didn't have stuff with her, I'd have to drive out to flippin' Lancaster, CA ... That is like an hour away. I kiboshed the idea of not taking the supplies! GEEZ!

Anyway, I think that she will have a good time and I am surprisingly calm about the whole thing. She should be calling to check in soon. Poor kids, it is supposed to be like 100 degrees in the desert today!

Tomorrow is her Eighth grade promotion. It should be fun. They sent home a note that said (along with other items,) "please be patient in the parking lot." I guess that is a nice way of saying don't get into an altercation with other parents who have the so cal attitude of I own the world while parking. This especially true in the middle school parking lot. Apparently, some driver's children are more important than others and they can cut the line to drop off Biff and Buff in the Hummer. Of course, the subtly of the patient parking message will be lost on those who believe that they own the world. Mostly everyone is very nice, so I should not judge. I'll let you know how I feel about the whole parking lot issue tomorrow. Another little message, be courteous to others when arriving and taking pictures during the ceremony. I guess this means don't try to save the whole frickin" first row and stand up while the ceremony is going on. I feel sorry that today's fine educators feel that it is necessary to instruct parents how to act in parking lots and graduation ceremonies!!!

Strange thing happened yesterday, M, M and I decided that we would go to Wal-mart in Oxnard and while we were there they called a code Adam. Code Adam is a store wide alarm for a missing child. All associates must stop working to look for the child. Now, I had left my beautiful teen aged daughter trying on clothes in the dressing room to take boyo to the bathroom when they started calling this code Adam. So that left me a little unsettled, thinking that there was a child abductor in the store and I did not have both of my children with me! Anyway, we all met up a few minutes later and more happy endings are in order, because the code adam was cancelled and child found safe and sound. But, after that the walmart trip just got worse and worse. I think I was just unsettled and uneasy, but we did get some stuff, but I think that I'll avoid that walmart and stick to Simi valley, even though you have to drive on the huge 118/23 connector to get there ! Even Maddie said, did we like Walmart in florida, cuz I don't like this one.



This is the simi overpass after Northridge! Ahh, California ... you gotta love it!

Father's day is coming up this weekend. Don has off on Friday so that should be fun!

I LOVE LA just came on the itunes!

Hate New York City
It's cold and it's damp
And all the people dressed like monkeys
Let's leave Chicago to the Eskimos
That town's a little bit too rugged
For you and me you bad girl

Rollin' down the Imperial Highway
With a big nasty redhead at my side
Santa Ana winds blowin' hot from the north
And we as born to ride

Roll down the window put down the top
Crank up the Beach Boys baby
Don't let the music stop
We're gonna ride it till we just can't ride it no more

From the South Bay to the Valley
>From the West Side to the East Side
Everybody's very happy
'Cause the sun is shining all the time
Looks like another perfect day

I love L.A. (We love it)
I love L.A. (We love it)

Look at that mountain
Look at those trees
Look at that bum over there, man
He's down on his knees
Look at these women
There ain't nothin' like 'em nowhere

Century Boulevard (We love it)
Victory Boulevard (We love it)
Santa Monica Boulevard (We love it)
Sixth Street (We love it, we love it)

I love L.A.
I love L.A.
(We love it)

Hope that we can see some cool LA sites this summer!!!!!! Anyway, gotta go check on boy-o and get some lunch!

Toodles, hugs to ya'all!

Random thoughts on ...

LIFE?

Nah ... way too serious ...

the kids are playing together and laughing as a write. Is there not a sweeter sound than two siblings actually getting along? Ok, well, that was short lived ... apparently the rough housing fun turned into an elbow to the eye, but all is ok now. Mr. Bump and watching the rugrats solves it all. 8-)

Went to a few stores today ... found a lovely wine store in To today. Bought one 2 brothers Big tattoo red.

Red Red WIne
Part of the proceeds from the sales goes to various charities and these two wine drinking and tattoing brothers are honoring their mother's memory by selling wine! I hope my kids team up to do something nice like that when I am GONE!!! OOps, that would be some random thoughts on life, right?

Max and I went to the pool this afternoon. Met up with some friends there ... yes, I actually am starting to have friends in California ... Amazing. We had a good time. He does not want to share his new boogie board, but will eventually learn that if you do not want to share then ... don't bring it to the community pool! Gosh, we never had that problem in Florida ! But we rarely met up with friends at the pool either!

I am toying with the thought of getting a bob again. Something along the POsh spice aka Victoria Beckham style. Check out the photo below ....




Max found out about the Father's day surprise today. Unfortunately, I needed to take him with me to one of the stores to purchase for the surprise. I really hope that he can keep his big mouth shut.

My neighbor/friend down the street is waging revenge on her across the street neighbors. Last friday, she came by to chat and was really worked up about the situation that she has going on across the street. Rightly so, worked up, but, when she started talkin' about the feud .... I just about puked!! I was so thrown back into the troubles that I had in the old house that I was up in a bad head space all day!!! Hopefully, the troubles will calm way down soon. The camera system she is installjgn may do the trick or NOT?

I am thinking about trying out the church I see coming off the freeway. They have a sign out for VBS and I need some faith. It is so close but, it certainly is not the frozen choosen!! Max continues to pray every evening. Thanks to Miss Dawn and Miss Connie every prayer begins Dear God ... thank you for this beautiful day ... eventually it turns into a discussion of what toy is currently the coolest ...

Not much else going on, the news is filled with the paris Hilton debacle here. She is really a piece of work. They said it is costing tax payers nearly $1200 a day to keep her in prison! CRAZY. I guess our girl found God now too! I hope that she will find a better purpose than running her luxury car into the curb on the way to in and out burger!

Whatta you think posh bob or no? Let me know loyal fans .. a girls gotta have a short haircut if she has a convertible right?

Hugs and kisses ... much love to my world

We want to buy a jeep ?

Jeep Wrangler unlimited

Well, we finally tried out the Jeep wrangler over the weekend. It was fun to drive. It has four doors and it seems to be a convertible. We are wanting to buy it I think. I would like to wait until the fall, but we will see. Of course, in the event of an earthquake or other catastrophic event, we could drive on all sorts of terrain to get the heck outta so cal!! Course, with the gas mileage the thing gets, we may not make it very far.

Not much going on here. Max had another day without school. He ssems to be settling into a little routine. Eat breakfast watch tv, play video games, play with Mom. Eat lunch, play outside. We played a guessing game for a long time while I folded the laundry. I gave clues and he had to draw the picture of what I was giving him clues about. Then he had to write the name of the thing in the picture. I would spell it out for him. I now have some cute pictures of 2 cats, flower, dog, Mom, Max. It was fun and he seemed to like it too. The last clue was rocket and he decided that he would draw the people who went in the rocket and then started to come up with who was good and bad. Then he said he could make it a rocket blaster video game. Maybe we have a future video game designer on our hands?

Maddie is good. Only a few more days of school. She has a field trip today. One on thursday too. 8th grade promotion on Friday! Summer plans are falling into place ... volleyball, swimming, free movies, trips to exotic Ohio. Eye appointments, dr's appointments, dentist appointments!!! She took her brother to the playground to play this afternoon. What a good kid she is! 8-)

I worked out to a FitTv excerise show today and have tivoed some others. So maybe after last nights giantic meal at Cheesecake factory I can lose some pounds before beach days! I had lost 15 pounds a year ago and guess what. I gained it all right back!!! Oh well, you know what they say about fat and happy ... Although, my bmi is right inside the normal range!!!

Well Don is crunching and won't be home for dinner so the kids and I have to find something. Best go look right now!

Wednesday

Max is jumping like a crab does! He is doing some strange crab walk/jumping thing. I can't beleive that he still has all that energy.

All is good here. Went to Maddie's school again today. The magic mountain trip has three buses now! I get to go back again tomorrow to help sell tickets again. Maddie and most of her friends came by to say hi today.

Max had his pre school graduation today. It was very cute. He said a line and he wants to be king when he grows up. Maybe Don will upload the graduation video to you tube?

I am trying to convince Maddie to put the taydie show (Maddie's film fest video) on but she will not.

Well, summer is almost here. Max is done with school. We may hit the mall show tomorrow or transplant our radishes in the garden. Not much going on. We realized that this is the only time that Maddie and Max will have graduation at the same time... wierd ...

Nothing else is going on ... ta ta for now ... hugs to ys so cal trixie

Weekend Fun

Wow ... what a busy weekend. Saturday was Max's last soccer game and pizza party. It was fun. Then on the way home we stopped off at the To artwalk and looked at some funky art. We found a ceramic fountain that we kinda liked but decided it was too small for the atrium. We came home an Maddie and I headed out to target and the grocery store. I got watermelon and cupcake mix for Max's grdauation bbq. That was today. It was fun they had a mega jumper there and the kids had a great time.

Next week will be super busy too! Oh well, here are some pictures from the weekend ...







Toodles luv, So cal trixie

Busy days near end of school year!!!

Well, yesterday was a busy day. We finished off the plant boxes. Rescued my neighbors dog who escaped from their fence and went to the Film fest. I was running early (amazing!), so I thought that I would stop by my local grocery store to pick up a few of my Rx's. Well, that was a big mistake. I should know that picking up prescriptions is never a quick job, but I had half an hour and thought that I should have plenty of time! OOPs, poor Max and I stood in line for quite a while and it was 1:25 when we left the local neighborhood store (which I am currently boy-cotting b/c their prices are way too high!) Anyway, we arrived at Sequoia MS at 1:35, already late and needed to sign in at the office before the film fest. We were rushing through the parking lot and splat ... Poor Max really hit the pavement! Everything went in slow motion for a moment and I hoped that it would be one of those miraculous falls where nothing is hurt and you can't understand why? But as he stood up I saw the blood gushing from his knee. So I got him to stop crying (don't ask me how?) and ushered him into the office. Luckily, they have a clinic (which they call Health Office here?) and he got all bandaged up. While we were there of course, the cell phone rings .... "Mom where are you? are you coming? " So I explained to Maddie what had happened that we were actually at the school, but only in the health office/clinic getting bandaged. So Maddie told everyone at the film fest what had happened. Meanwhile, poor Max is sure that he can not bend his knees and what I thought was one knee injury turned into two knees and an elbow all scraped up. We arrive at the film fest and everyone says "OOOH" to Max. Then Maddie's teacher, (who she believes is not so very nice), gave Max two sponge bob band-aids and a stuffed Ewok to hold onto. Max proceeded to throw the Ewok on the floor! But "princess" teacher (the teacher's self given moniker!) took it all in stride and played right off of Max. Comedy ensued and there was much giggling by all! Unfortunatley, the trauma of falling and all the attention from like 20 grown ups and 11 almost grown ups, left him feeling a little upset. But, being the big trooper, brave boy that he is, his little eyes only welled up and he did not cry. He asked me afterwards why everyone was laughing at him? Poor guy! We ate some snacks ... the lofthouse sugar cookies do wonders for a young man's mood and then we watched the movies. They were very good. Max sat next to me very quietly with hands folded neatly in lap and laughed at the movies. The taydie show (Maddie's movie) was his favorite! The girls did a good job and got it done by the deadline! Then, Princess teacher took out the new yearbooks that Maddie and her classmates have been working on all year! But, they could not keep them, so when the bell rang, back in the box they went. Anyway, the yearbook looked GREAT! I am interested in seeing it up close soon!

After our adventures at Sequoia MS, I took Max to soccer practice and to play at the playground. He was fine despite his injuries, until he decided to take off one of the band-aids! Then he felt injured all over AGAIN and decided he could not practice, but managed to play a little bit at the playground when practice was over. Apparently one of Max's teammates has a crush on him. He was playing chase with her and when she came over to get a drink, I asked her "Is Max giving you a hard time?" She said "Max is giving me a HEART ATTACK!". She had a huge grin on her face! She even blew off her best friend to chase after Max! The best friend was not too sure about the whole sitch, but decided she would join the chase game, so Max ended up with two beautiful young 4 year old's chasing after him! He is becoming quite the ladies man, when his knee was hurt during practice, he decided he would keep the coach's daughter company, while she did her soccer practice grass picking! He even ditched ME to go sit with her! I think having an older sister must give him some great insight on young women!

I wrenched my back trying to put him on the little kid's sized zip line! Ouch, I still feel a little stiff today!

Almost overslept this morning to delivery Maddie to school. At 7:00 am I rolled over to snooze a little more. Don turned off the alarma and at 8:20 I heard the garage door open and looked over him to see the clock. Opps! Both he and I wonder if Maddie was gonna knock on our door, or if she would just plant herself in front of the tv and be late to school. I was still so half asleep that I could barely see from the sleepers in my eyes. I was really glad that she didn't have to wake us up , b?c i would have heard about it everytime that I have to wake her up. "Mom, remember that time ...." Anyway, thank goodness for small miracles, cuz I just happened to wake up. It will be nice to sleep in when school is over. Bet, my sil will take to calling at 8 am again! 8-)

Maddie and her pals went to the mall this evening. Max and I stopped in and had some Mickey D's. He played in the mall play place and wouldcha know it as soon as he went into the play area, splat right down on the ground again. I am strting to think it may be his new shoes are too big! Luckily, it is soft and carpeted, he lost one of his band-aids though. He played for a while and then we came home.

Last soccer game tomorrow. I'll be sad to see it end, we have had a fun season.

Not much else, played phone tag with Rainey for alittle while today. Hope that she and Grandpap are hanging in during their ordeal. Picked up some see's candies to send to Grandpap, hope that will brighten his day! Anyway can't believe that it is hotter in Pittsburgh than here. It was actually cold when I picked up Max from school.

That's it for me today. Oh, Max's teachers liked their flower boxes and Max explained to them all about dusty miller, how it just looks dusty but won't really get you dirty! It turned out to be a really cute teacher gift and I saw quite a few parent's looking at me like "gee, I wish I thought of that!" It felt really good to do something nice too!

That is it .. I really mean it this time! Toodles and tata for now! Hugs, kisses, kisses, hugs, SO cal trixie