2nd Birthday for Oz and Lacie!!!

Freak me out! I was woken up this morning by a little finger poking me in the back. I rolled over and saw Sean laying in Rach's place. What the?! Although welcomed, is scared me. Rachael left early this morning for boot camp and Sean normally comes in to cuddle with her. So I got to spend some time with Sean this morning that doesn't usually happen. Sean likes to hoard up his toys in bed covers. So Rachael sent me this picture

This is what Rach found in our bed when she went to take a nap. He's like a little pack rat. All the ice-cream cones have bubbles in them. I think he's set.

We celebrated Austin and Lacie's 2nd B-day this past weekend! We had both families and friends at our place. Rach did a great job of putting it together with some goodie bags, extra toys laying around for the kids, food, and tons and tons fruit. They got lots of great gifts! By the time we were done opening everything the room was a disaster area! I'll have to post some pictures later when we get them loaded on the computer. It was fun to see Ali's daughter Ada and Billy's kids again. It's crazy how fast they grow up. I never really knew the level of amazement when someone like my Grandma would say that to me. Now I know... We opened presents, ate cup-cakes and just let the kids have fun outside in the pool. Rach made these cool cookie cupcakes where she put a Mickey Mouse cookie on top of the cup cake encircled by oreos.

I've been playing a lot more tennis. I played last Sat morning expecting to get crushed, but it turned out to be really competitive and was a lot of fun - I won, in case you were wondering. Gary, the guy I played, called me and asked me to sub in for him at his league for tonight. So I'm excited about that. Hope I don't screw it up because if I remember correctly if I win I can get him a point or two.

Autozone Deceived Me

I was deceived twice by the same place! I went to Autozone to get some oil and I figured it out that it would be cheaper to get the 5qt jug of oil than to by 5 of the little bottles. It was even cheaper because a $5 off coupon was hanging on the bottle. I thought score! Mostly because I was saving money but also because I was using a coupon, I never use a coupon! The guy rang me up but the $5 off didn't work. There was another coupon for $3 off behind it and that worked. Regardless of the money saved and the fact that I would've bought the jug w/o the coupon, I still felt taken. Then yesterday I had to buy a new battery for the van. The guy at Autozone (I know! Why did I go back? Because it's really close to the house, leave me alone!) pulled the battery off the shelf and attached were the felt battery protector things for the terminals. So as he rang up the battery he asked if I wanted to buy them for an extra $3. Immediately the $3 off coupon popped in my head. Now it's like the coupon didn't even exist. I asked, "So they don't come with the battery?" "Nope" "So you're just going to rip off my battery huh?" "Yep" So I said no I don't want 'em. They weren't making any more money off me!

Rachael has decided to start this boot camp deal early in the morning, inspired by P90X and how she couldn't stand how boring and annoying the workouts are. She likes being up and getting stuff done in the morning, but like the rest of us has a really hard time getting up. Making me proud she got up this morning (I'm not sure, but I think it was 4:30), first of many I hope, and did the workout. She said it was intense. Unfortunately, she has to drive 15-20 min to get to the place, which can be an obstacle later when you are trying to motivate yourself to keep doing it.

Sean has a little bag of toys filled with little bottles of bubbles and things. There's a hole in it so he keeps losing things in it. It was really annoying trying to get him ready for bed and he kept losing stuff saying, "Where is she?" Then I would say, "Don't say, where is she, say, where is it?" I must have said that at least 10 times. It's funny how they make everything a he or she. You can also notice the processing power in their little brains. For example: they set their brains to saying, "Hold you mommy." all day long. It's fast and automatic. So when I get home they know they need to say, "Hold you daddy." So I wait as they say to me, "Hold you mom ummm aa hold you daddy."

If it were to hail here in AZ right now being 111 degrees, how many feet would it travel before it melted?

Grandma Grandpa and Emily = Sunbirds

Let's get together yeah yeah yeahhhh... With family in town who knows what will happen! There were crazy parties with so much alcohol I don't think anybody was sober the entire weekend! Well, in many other families this may have been the case, but ours does not indulge in such activities. It's as useless as playing a harmonica I guess. There was much done over the coarse of 4 days. We tried to do as much as we could in hot Arizona. Almost everybody who reads this was a part of what happened, so I won't go into too much monotonous detail. I'll just list a few items we did to jog the old noodle for when we're older: swimming, video games, movies, BBQ, card games, AZ science center, church, fixed car, killed scorpions, cheered for USA in world cup, Rach and Joe had a date night, B-day celebrations, Father's Day celebration, smores, eating, eating, eating...

For Father's day I got Mario Kart for the Wii. Which we all enjoyed, except for Brandon and Greg. Grandpa got a DVD set about the planet earth, some pistachios and some other stuff I'm sure but can't mention because I wasn't paying attention. He couldn't enjoy the nuts due to him ruining his dentures while bobbing for apples at his 60th B-day party. Actually, he got a stomach bug for all of Sunday. Who knows why. I have a few theories: mentally turning 60 the body wanted to revolt, he never really got a stomach bug and just wanted to sleep all day in the recliner (I ruled this one out as soon as he threw up), or he got a bad hop from the Bud Light he drank. It's a wonder people who drink beer are still alive with all those bad hops around!

Let us list the ways in which Grandpa did not fair very well physically during this vacation: stomach bug mentioned earlier, pulling shoulder out, and tweaking back mentioned below.

It was great to see my niece, Lauren have fun with my kids. I got to hear her say, you're crazy Brandon in her sweat voice. Sean had tons of fun at the science center. His favorite were the noodles hanging from the ceiling. The kids had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa. It kind of made me feel old to hear my son wake up this morning and say, Hi Grandpa to my dad in the living room. Grandma and Grandpa walked almost a mile with all the kids to the field with the soccer goals - without strollers!. It blew my mind! I knew the kids could handle it, but Grandma and Grandpa??? God is good they made it back to us :-)

Rachael, Grandpa, and I also made it to that field earlier in the week where we played tag. It seemed like Sean never stopped running. I was "it" and started chasing Grandpa. Grandpa decided to get tricky and swerve out of my way. He hurt his back. Thankfully it wasn't that bad. We ran into a puppy Great Dane on the way home. Austin loved him and wanted to do nothing but pet him. Lacie didn't want anything to do with it. I can see Austin coming home with a lizard or something and scaring Lacie half to death with it. I can also see him coming home with a dog or cat and having Mom force me to keep it.

Grandpa + Me + Sean + Oz = 3 men (which is better than 2.5 men)

Holy Mother! Well, this mother isn't holy, that's for sure! I heard from Mac and Gaydos (just looked up how to spell Gaydos... who knew half of it was gay) that a women from Surprise AZ didn't want her two kids anymore (11 and 6 years old). She was going to take off and leave the kids behind. She claims she just wanted to leave and have fun. Naturally the kids got scared and called the police. The police along with CPS came to take the kids but before leaving the 11 yr old boy wanted a hug from mom. Instead of reciprocating the hug, the mom punched the kid in the stomach! How cruel! Nothing like showing the police how much you don't want the kids like punching one of them in the stomach! If the mother was willing to do this in front of the police, I can't imagine what other hell they were subjected to. I know, yesterdays news, but it's against my policies as a big shot blogger to give updated news, sorry.

Does your woman ever ask you personal questions that you know the answer to but you were thinking about something else and to switch gears caused a delayed answer? Because your answer was delayed it answered 'Yes' to their question without you uttering a single word. In the future, from now on, pretend you didn't hear them so as to give ample time to hone in and prepare your answer. This also gives you the advantage. Allow me to explain. If the woman repeats the answer word for word with the same voice inflection as she did previously, then the answer can be treated with a simple, 'No, looks great kind of thing'. However, if she rephrases the question or has to further explain the question with the word, 'because', then you better drop what you're doing and answer with as much sincerity as possible! Crush any insecurity like an anvil on an ant! I would say that I should write my own book, but I don’t read other peoples books so why should I expect them to read mine?

This morning Sean ran around me and hit my butt and said, "Got your butt." I wonder which kid in class taught him that? Many more of those moments to come I'm sure. Austin's favorite things to do: eat, watch TV, blow bubbles, sit at the table and wait for more food, read, and play with Sean. Lacie's favorite things to do: run around the house looking for Mom or Dad and saying hi, read, ride bikes, color, cuddling on the couch, blow bubbles. Sean's favorite things to do: Play with his toy fishing pole, swimming, blow bubbles, watch movies, throw balls or play with the tennis racket and ball.

Ice-Cream, You scream, We All...

Holy Geeeez! Don't ever get Virgin Mobile if you plan on cancelling your account with them in your lifetime! Rach spent over an hour and a half trying to just get transferred to the right dept. She finally gave up. They kept dropping her call 6 straight times every time they tried to transfer her. So the male in me said, I can fix this. I got dropped 4 times before I had the a manager transfer me and got me through to the right department. No where on their website is there a place to cancel, and the automated guy, Alex of whom I became good friends with, did not have a disable service option. Took up my whole night Wed, I was ticked! I wanted to shoot my potato gun at every help desk person I got through to.

On a lighter note. We decided that hearing Sean say, "Tomorrow, ice-cream and gym". Had gone on long enough without actually giving him ice-cream. So we went to Golden Spoon. We usually go to the gym first then ice-cream, that's why he says gym. I know, I know, a bit counter productive, but what can you do when you have kids? Last night we decided to skip the gym and just go straight to the good stuff. It was crazy that Sean really did want to go to the gym first and threw a little fit about it. What kid would rather go to the gym than have ice-cream? He's going to be an All-Star I know it! Nevertheless, we all had a fun time. Last night was the first time since Lacie was a baby that Mommy was able to comb her hair without her completely freaking out. It helped that she was playing with a fun toy, but still, pretty cool.

Rach and I, are trying to plan a vacation get-away. We've thought about Rocky Point and just going north for the weekend just the two of us. It's hard planning something you only get to do once a year. You really want to make sure you do it right. Unfortunately, it also raises your expectations for the entire experience. I guess those who only get the mattress mambo once a year must feel the same...

Pizza and Ice-Cream Equals Satisfied Sean and Oz

A little birdie told me (Katie) that Greg (brother-in-law) was working out hardcore! I think that's awesome! Keep it up man! Someday you'll be as strong as me, but it's not likely with my platinum, iron, gold, silver, uranium chest, arms, and back.

I've started playing tennis again. Soccer is done for the summer, so I must fill my sports void! I played last Saturday and it left me pretty sore for a good couple of days. Took me a good hour to get my swing back after not playing for 6 months. I hope I stick with it and we don't have another baby to get me off my game. Too late!!! hhaha just kidding. Nope, no more babies for me!

Things have gotten pretty busy this week for Rach and the cookies. She's workin' hard trying o get an order of onsie cookies out the door and get to making a few dozen other cookies. We recently moved our computer to our room to make room for a kid place in the den. We lost our Internet connection because this, bummer man! It's getting fixed, no worries. I'm hoping we can make our living room where all the kid stuff is now a place for a foosball table, maybe a ping-pong table, or maybe a poker table. Well, whatever is going to go there will be better than all the toys everywhere.

It's so cute how out of nowhere Sean will say, "Ice-cream tomorrow." Like he's trying to brain wash us so we don't forget. He had a hard time being dropped off at preschool today. We got to the door to his classroom and he quickly backed up and started to cry saying, "back a car". I still don't know what caused him to freak out. Luckily they were serving pancakes, one of his favorites. I guess Rachael told Austin that he needed to save room in his belly for pizza for when daddy got home. So he kept yelling out pizza! And would sit at the table and wait even though I was a good 20 min from getting home. It's so funny how he sits at the table and waits for food. Kind of like a dog staring at an empty bowl I guess. I'm not comparing Oz to a dog though. That's not right.

Immigrant Playground

What the F?! I heard on the radio yesterday that there was a couple who owned a store off the coast of Miami. They are immigrants with work visas and had renewed their visas and were paying their taxes. So everything was legal. I guess the Feds looked into their earnings and because they earned less than their previous year, they were deported! That's like saying, let's deport poor people! I don't get it! We deport the people that contribute to this country, but accept those that suckle every resource? ... maybe I should be Obama's friend on Facebook and ask him about this. My guess is that Obama hired someone to take care of his Facebook page. Yet another government job that's not necessary and taking away from other more important things.

I just dropped Sean off for his second day at his new preschool for the summer. He loves it! They got a playground there that puts all other playgrounds to shame.

This is just a quarter of it.

 http://childrenslearningadventure.com/ if you want to see more.

He wasn't happy when mommy came to pick him up yesterday.

I was opening my raspberry yogurt at lunch today and couldn't wait for the totally awesome raspberry chunks to hit my teeth as I was sifting through the yogurt on my first bite. Then I remembered I bought Great Value, not Yoplait! Blast it! I bought apples on sale which concerns me sometimes... I wonder if I'm going to choose 5 bad apples instead of buying the non-sale apples and get the absolute apple experience of my life. I did have a bad apple last night that I continued to eat anyway because I refused to let my money go to waste. My second apple was crisp and splendid. So I'm one-and-one with my apples. To be continued...

Don't Spill Your Food in the Pool!!!

Memorial weekend was fun! We went to Sadie's to have fun in the "dangerous" pool. Chris, Sadie's husband says you can't get in and leave without bleeding. Its just one of those pools I guess. I wonder if the water has a secret yearning for blood? I ripped up my arm a few weeks ago on the side of their pool and bled like a cow being slaughtered. Well, maybe not that bad, but it didn't feel good. Here are some pics of our fun time. More can be viewed on Sadie's facebook page.

 

 

Sunday we just chilled out and Monday for the first time the whole family went to the 9:45am showing of Charlotte's Web. We brought some snacks and they loved it. It was hard, not gonna lie, but we all enjoyed it! Later that "prevening" (time before the evening but after the afternoon) as Sheldon would say, we invited the Fenter's over for a BBQ and swimming. We bought this big inflatable pool and put in on our patio. It's pretty big for an inflatable pool. Not big enough for all the adults to get in of course, but big enough for all the kids to have a fun time. Sean dragged over our play slide and put it in our pool and a line quickly formed to get a turn on it. Sean, our little engineer.

I can't be 100% sure, but I think the scorpion that got away from me last time was back in my backyard last night. I tried killing it straight up with a knife this time instead of a spoon. It still got away from me!!! Me and my crappy jitters with those things! Rach suggested catching it in a cup first, I think that's a good idea.

I've been eating like crap and so have made myself the most uninteresting bland lunch that I'm gagging down now. Somebody save me please! Well, at least it's broccoli crumbs getting on my keyboard now instead of fried chicken crumbs.

Somebody give this kid CPS's phone number...