Gromies

Adventures in surfing:
Heading out for the day








Heading back in

The end of summer

This week has been my first week as a student again. I am taking sociology, anthropology, and philosophy. I really, really, love it so far but feel super old. Luckily for me there have been elderly folks in all of my classes making me feel a lot less decrepit. A woman in my anthropology class is in her eighties and just got back form traveling the entire world. I think she is awesome and will become my adopted grandmother. She told our class that her two favorite places in the world were France and India. She said she loves France because it is charming and India for its religion. I totally love her! Her face shakes when she talks and it freaks me out a little but I can overcome that due to her cool factor.

Here are some pictures of Amelia and her BFF Fletcher.

The kids in August

oldest

middle

The baby

Katie Holmes is a fan of the tight roll

Back in 5th grade my friend Jessica and I thought we were the trail blazers at our school for the stupidest trend ever: the tight roll, or as we called it, the French roll. We started doing it before it was super cool and stopped before it was super lame. We then proceeded to make fun of the clueless people who continued to french roll past it's prime. In 7th grade we started cuffing our jeans loosely as opposed to tightly. We paired them with ugly penny loafers (with a penny stuffed in) with no socks. We thought we were awesome! I had braces and the body of a string bean and Jessica had really crazy out of control hair. Yet still we believed we were super chic and stylish.

Anyway, the tight roll and the simple cuff on baggy jeans are making their way back in the celeb world. I'm cool with the baggy jeans but not with the cuff. I always say that and eventually cave to stupid trends. I am going to crack up when I see trendy girls across the world sporting the french roll.

Another visit from the tooth fairy

Jake lost tooth number three today. Only problem is he has no idea what happened to it. I think he may have swallowed it. I told him to check through his poo next time he has to go or else there will be no visit from the tooth fairy. Luckily for both of us, he can tell when I am joking. In a few weeks or months Jake might look like a whole new kid sporting huge front teeth on a little boy face.

The road trip

A cold sore, two scrapped knees, one massive blister, and a cut hand are all the casualties we encountered on our trip. We saw one condor in a tree, one gray wolf, two whales, countless cows and horses, elephant seals, and squirrels that would eat food directly out of your hands. Aaron and I got into two fights, one over his constant hovering while I was trying to take our tent down and the other about a soft drink because we believe in fighting over stupid crap. Considering we traveled across California with three small children two fights seems pretty reasonable if not saintly.

The kids are infatuated with Yosemite. They think it is the greatest place in the world. The second day we were there we got into are own little inner tubes, with the exception of Amelia who sat in mine, and lazily made our way down the river. It was a great way to spend the day. The view was literally one of the most beautiful sites of my 29 year life. After seeing a group of teenagers jump off a tree limb that was jutting out over the river the boys decided to abandon their tubes and follow suit. Jake was the first to go. He didn’t even hesitate. He just climbed onto the branch and let loose with a quick, refreshing jump. Andrew was a lot more hesitant. He would brace himself for the jump and then chicken out. Only due to the fact that his younger brother followed through, did he actually decide to jump. When he did he couldn’t get enough. We had to force him to move on. I am always freshly amazed over just how different my two boys are. Andrew’s personality is just about identical to mine and Jake is one heck of a lot like his dad. <

The very next day we came upon a bridge that just about everyone was taking turns jumping off of into the river. Again Jake jumped off without a thought. It took Andrew about 1 hour and a serious pep talk from a 4 year old little boy, and a promise of an ice cream cone, to finally jump. I’m not kidding about the four year old. later that day Andrew told me that the little guy said to him “everyone is afraid of something; you have to just do it!” What a wise little person. I actually snapped a picture of the two of them up on the bridge. Both Jake and Andrew were so proud of themselves and talked about jumping of the bridge for the remainder of the trip. They want to go again next year.

Andrew and the wise little boy

After Yosemite we headed to san fran where I got to meet my adorable nephew for the second time. He is always smiling. It was so great to spend time with me brother and his family. I love watching Roger interact with my kids. Their admiration for him is similar to mine. I just love him. I couldn’t have asked for a better brother.





After san fran we drove to Big Sur and stayed at this really cool campsite called limekiln. It was so beautiful. Unfortunately I didn’t take many photos because the one day we went exploring I forgot my camera at the campsite. I honestly believe that Big Sur is the most beautiful place in the US.

We went to the Hearst castle because I have a fascination with filthy rich people. My dream is to one day swim in the Hearst castle outdoor pool. Also when we pulled over to the side of the road to catch the view I saw whales. We actually saw one breach the surface. Seeing them out their in the ocean was one of the very best moments of my life. I truly believe that road trips and camping are the only way to go while on vacation. There is just so much beauty to be seen. I am looking forward to next summer’s trip. I’m hoping that we go to Lake Tahoe.

Wacky Wednesday

The boys had silly dress up day at soccer camp today. They woke up at 6am insiting that I help them pick out thier outfits. Andrew went as a skater punk and Jacob is supposed to be super Beckham. When we got to camp most of the kids had their clothes on backwards or simply mixed matched socks. No one was as dressed up as they were. The boys were super heistant to get out of the car dressed the way they were. Luckily they spotted a kid dressed up like a pirate and decided to go ahead to camp. Amelia got in on the fun as well. You should've seen the dirty looks people shot me at the grocery store when Amelia and I ran in to get some eggs. I thnk people honestly believed that I dye my three year olds hair in real life.

Family trip

We just returned from our 8 day family trip up interstate 1 last night. I plan to post a blog about it this week but for now here are the sights from Yosemite, san fran, to big sur!
 

I almost got my ass kicked

Today in the parking lot of food for less I came close to getting my ass kicked. I think the funniest part of the story is that it all went down immediately after my kids attended vacation bible school where they learned about Jesus, and love, and actually held baby chicks. Directly following their wholesome activities I found myself in a verbal feud with a lady about three times my size while innocent onlookers stood with their mouths gapping open.

Basically it’s Aaron’s fault, only because I like to blame my problems on other people. I had to drive his car today. He has unusually heavy doors. This is off topic but I think his car may smell worse then mine, if that’s at all possible. Because of his Isuzu amigo (funny name for a car!), I innocently opened my door and banged the door of the person’s car next to me. Unluckily for me, the woman who owned said car was sitting in it yapping on the phone. You should have seen how quickly she whipped around to glare at me

“I am so, so, sorry!” I told her

She proceeded to get out of her car quicker then I realized a human being could move. She started yelling that I better pray that I hadn’t scratched her car, “Oh, You better start praying!” she kept saying in a really hostile tone. This is were I feel the need to add that her car was a total piece of junk yet she acted as if I had messed with her brand new BMW.

Upon inspection she pointed to an undamaged area on her door and proclaimed there was a scratch. There was clearly no scratch. I looked and there was nothing there, noda, zilch!
I argued that there was absolutely no scratch. Then I made the cardinal sin of telling her to calm down. Bad move! I say the same phrase to my mom nearly every time I see her because she is constantly overreacting. She has told me time and time again that there is nothing more insulting then telling someone to calm down. The big lady lost it, and I mean lost it. She started screaming in my face and waving her fingers about. When people behave this way I am always super calm to the point that the person freaking out is insulted by my calmness and in turn gets more and more pissed off. I’m kind of a smug asshole. As a result crazy lady started to really use her lungs. At this point I am frightened and my kids are kind of cowering in the back seat. Then she made the mistake of calling me a Bitch. “Listen lady, my kids are in the car, don’t talk like that! That's trashy!”

Again , big mistake on my part, apaparently calling someone trashy is just as bad if not worse then asking someone to calm down. Her anger was so intense that I was ceratin she would knock me out. Yet, For some reason I refused to back down and continued a ridiculous yelling match with scary lady. Finally she walked off and I yelled after her that she is insane and a few other choice words! While I was yelling it I was almost positive that she would turn back around, reach her hand through my open window and start sucker punching me. She didn’t though. Instead ,she took out her cell phone and started taking pictures of me. I waved and drove away. She yelled after me “That's right, run away little girl!” and I did just that!

From the back seat Andrew said “She was scary but wow, mom you were rude!”

It’s refreshing when a 9 year old can make you feel like an idiot.

I'm kind of obessed with thrift stores

I have gone thrift shopping three times within the last week. It might be becoming a problem. Over the last few days I have scored a ton of really great books,clothes for the kids, Aaron a yellow 80's t-shirt that says "man eater", which he didn’t think was as funny as I did, and myself the most excellent dress of my life. It is seriously the greatest dress I have ever owned! It's an old dress from the 60's that fits me perfectly.

Over the weekend I hit up two local thrifts near my home, the first one was truly disastrous and disgusting. There were piles of clothes, toys, and household items all over the floor. It was filthy and smelled oddly like puke and farts. It’s possible that I may have contracted an STD just from setting foot in that place. I found one decent dress that had a big stain on the front. I was willing to work with it but then the cashier told me that it was $5.99, can you believe that. Gross!

I also hit up the animal protection thrift store and scored a bright pink obnoxious skirt and an even more obnoxious 80's Liz Claiborne substitute teacher style dress that is so reminiscent of my friend’s mom, Mrs. Webster. I could so see Mrs. Webster wearing it in her wood paneled station wagon circa 1991. Last but not least, I also scored three free stickers professing just how evil the circus is. I love thrift stores!






I am super excited about cannery row! All of the boks were between $1.00-$1.50

My favortie off all the thrifted clothing itmes I scored for the kids.