job update

For those who follow.....yes - I am still employed but for how long, who knows...... This is a crazy place to be. Lot's of drama. It is like living in a soap opera on a normal day so you can imagine what this is like.

For Good

I am working on getting a $5k grant for the kids school.

My company has an employee foundation that is funded by employee donations. As long as you donate to the foundation, you can champion a cause for a charity and request a grant from $3k to $40k. With the budget cuts in California, the schools are getting less and less money. This grant, if approved, will fund reading programs - which with Gracie's reading issues - is a cause near and dear to my heart! So keep you fingers crossed that it gets approved.

Like Auntie, Like Niece

Love this pic of Amelia - she is looking just like her Auntie Chris! She is - for sure - working a big case!

Thank goodness for back up plans!

Remember the make-up/gym debacle a couple years ago? For those who were not loyal readers back then, I forgot all my makeup when going to the gym and had to run across the street to Safeway and purchase cheap makeup to get thru the day - I ended up looking like a hooker all day at work!

Because of that situation, I have carried a "back up" makeup bag in my gym bag every since! It has small containers of the bare minimum to prevent me from looking dead at work. Well......today I NEEDED it! I left my makeup bag at home. I was so happy to have it with me. But it did not solve all my problems - it had my watch in it so I have no watch today and I forgot my new bottle of mousse - so my hair is totally wild!

I guess it is just MONDAY!!!

Movie Review

Jim and I saw the movie Juno today. It was really, really good. It was a bit quirky but that added to the appeal of the movie. The young actress who played Juno was great! Definitely worth a trip to the movie theater and a large popcorn!

A trip to Toys R Us

The kids had some leftover xmas cash and saved allowance and since it was a rainy, quiet, stay at home day, we took a trip to Toys R Us - which is a rare treat!

Drew had done his research online and knew what he wanted - a nerf gun! http://www.hasbro.com/nerf/default.cfm?page=viewproduct&product_id=17889

Gracie was just there to look around and see if there was anything that made her money "burn a hole in her pocket". She asked the cashier if they had any Nintendo DS System and was dissapointed when he said no and that they and other stores wouldn't have any until next month. So she walked away and looked around some more. Just then the cashier came up and had just had one returned, unopened! And it was pink! She dug up all her money ($93.50 in cass, $7.58 in aToyr R Us gift card and $25 american express gift card!) and happily paid. With the addition of the game, she owes me $48.50 because I covered the overage.

They are happy kids.

They eat ANYTHING!!!!

I have always said our kids eat anything and lots of it. This morning was the perfect example: Gracie was begging for a grapefruit! I didn't eat grapefruit until I was well into adulthood - it was always way to sour. But Gracie thinks they are big special treat! Then after she finished the grapefruit, she moved onto sushi! Yep! Sushi for breakfast. Crazy!

And on Wednesday they ate antelope for dinner! ICK! Luckily I was not home so I did not have to see it happen.

HOORAY!

I found a lost item!!!

I had lost my nightguard at xmas time up at the cabin and I had been making myself crazy looking for it. It was like it had grown legs and walked away. And I was suffering. I grind my teeth and clench like crazy at nite so my teeth and jaw hurt!

So, when we were at the cabin this weekend, I was searching like a hound dog but was not successful until the last hour we were there. I was cleaning and putting away the vacuum cleaner and turned around to see the light catching it just right....under the dresser!!! SCORE!!!!!

I couldn't wait to get home and go to sleep so I could use it!!

Oh! The simple pleasures!

Shoulder Update

I saw my shoulder surgeon yesterday for my 6 week check up. He said I was doing better than most people and he thought in the end I would do very well. I do have some new pain which he feels is related to the surgery. In addition it is probably related to my starting full time back to my work out routine - last week I logged 18 miles on foot and 26 miles on bike! And every time I take a running step my shoulder had to work to stabilize my arm so it is working hard.

So the plan is to add some anti inflammatory meds, keep icing and do the strengthing, stretching and range of movement excercises.

Duck, Duck, Goose

My mom and dad had my nephews and niece on Sunday. Part of the adventures of the day included a golf cart ride to feed the ducks! There were so many hungry ducks that they didn't even need to get out of the cart. Mimi was fascinated with the ducks!

A wise bear once said.....

“A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

The same can be said about me!

Near Miss

I can not believe I forgot to blog about this....

I have been griping recently that we spent $1074 in the last month on fuel for our two trucks! That is really sick! That is a lot of money just to move around. But it does include a couple trips to the cabin, which includes trips into Yosemite. So, I started thinking about the trade off of getting a third vehicle - one to drive around town and keep the beasty Tahoe for trips to the cabin or pulling boats. I was thinking of leasing a little VW Bug or even researching a hybrid.

But this weekend changed my mind in one split second. Gracie and I were on the way to her basketball game and were stopped at a traffic light waiting to turn left. I was distracted when the light turned green, so I did not go right away (I was pointing out to Gracie that the time was 1234 - 12:34). It is a good thing because once I started going, a car ran the red light coming from our left at about 50 MPH! We missed being hit be a few feet. The car never even slowed down! If I had gone right when the green light turned, we would have been crushed - and the hit would have occurred on our side of the truck.

If we were hit, I would rather have been in my rig then in a VW Bug. So I am now happily paying for my fuel and calling it life insurance.

Body Worlds

We took Jim's folks to the Body World's exhibit today as a Christmas gift.

It is the weirdest exhibit I have ever seen. Basically they take real human bodies and thru a special process called plastination, preserve them so you can see all parts of the bodies: muscles, organs, bones, nerves.

It was literally like seeing real skinned bodies. They had a section that showed babies and a pregnant woman. And they had bodies posed in different positions so you could see how the muscles, tendons and bones worked. There were a soccer player, a skateboarder and an ice skater.

I am pretty intrigued by the human body and am not very squeamish, but there was something about this exhibit that gave me the eeby jeebies!

Check it out:

http://www.thetech.org/bodyworld/

Basketball Game

Gracie had her first basketball game this weekend. It was a riot! There was quite a bit of traveling going on. According to a 7 and 8 year old, you run, run, run....then dribble! It was a hoot to watch! Gracie got 2 baskets and made many more attempts. Even as a brand new player, she was clearly in the game!

She loves her jersey so much that she has been wearing it since the game! Stinky girl!

I will take pics next time.

Mavericks

Yesterday Jim and Drew stopped to pull crabs at 6 am on their way to Mavericks surf competition. Mavericks is a world famous surf competition that occurs once a year off the coast of Half Moon Bay. Mavericks is an unusual spot with over 20 foot waves off the coast of California. As the organizers say: "There they will face cold water, strong currents, unpredictable conditions, huge waves, and each other in a surfing contest like no other on the planet." When they call the contest, the contestants have only have 24 hours to get there! Yesterday there were about 50,000 spectators. The vast majority of those spectators are on the land which is located about 1/2 miles from the waves. Jim and Drew were in the boat close enough to see the action without high power binoculars.

Super cool experience for a 12 year old kid!

Chicken Farming

Betty has been a "kept chicken" for months. All she has been doing is eating and eating and requiring care - no giving back! After months of a dry spell, she started laying eggs again. Here is a pic of her recent two eggs. Seconds later, Grace dropped one - if you look closely, it has 2 yolks!

Whose out there?

I have noticed some spots on my cluster map in places where I don't know anyone. Who is out there? If I don't know you, email me and tell me about yourself and why you read this blog.

pontoonmamablog@yahoo.com

It is up!

Here is our new basketball hoop! The kids are fired up! In fact, everyone is fired up - except for me. They are all out playing basketball with the neighbor (Toby's dad). And I am inside safely blogging!

Basketball Practice

Gracie had her first basketball practice last nite. And as a good mom, I left work early so I could check it out and show support.

MISTAKE!

After being in meetings back to back all day and driving home in bumper to bumper traffic for over an hour.....I walked into the basketball gym to the sight and sound of over 100 kids (age 5 to 8) practicing basketball.

Literally - there were over 100 kids in a small gym and every kid had their own basketball!!! It was a total assault on the senses!

In bad mom fashion, I left after 15 minutes with the excuse that I would go start dinner!

ICK!!!

When I got up this morning to come to the gym at 5:15 am, I grabbed a yogurt out of the fridge for breakfast. Normally, I eat yogurt and grapenuts mixed together after I work out. When I got to my desk and was starving -- I broke out my yogurt......only to discover that it is key lime flavored! ICK!!!!!!

Drew loves that flavor so I sometimes buy some of it for him. I think it is horrendously nasty. First of all.....it is glow in the dark green! Second of all.....it tastes like bathroom cleaner smells! Double ICK!!!

I have a really busy day, so I had a choice to eat it or starve until lunch time. I woke up starving this morning and then did 1 hour on an elipitcal machine.....so I really had no choice. I am currently choking down the yogurt with extra grapenuts to cut the bathroom cleaner taste!

Update: After 4 bites I couldn't take it anymore and threw it away. I will starve!

Purchased

The kids completed their research and made their purchase - they are the proud owners of a new basketball hoop! It is costing them each $122. Although there may be an additional installation charge - Jim is trying to get them to pay him to install it!?!?! They found what they wanted and it was on sale - they save $100.

They did a great job shopping, comparing products and pricing and then pitching the whole thing to Jim and I. They listened to our input and revised their plan appropriately! It was a great lesson. I will post pics once we get it up.

Basketball

The kids called me at work today and told me that they have been looking online and want to purchase a basketball hoop. They are each willing to pay $250 of their own money! They have done measurements and know what they want and where they want it to go. They have figured out where to put it so that our cars will still fit in the driveway.

I am proud of their initiative.

The funny thing is.....the want it NOW! They are done doing their research and want to make the purchase!

Stay tuned!

New sport

Gracie starts basketball tomorrow! It will be her first time playing and we are really looking forward to it! She has the height and the interest, now let's see if she has the skill! More to come.....

Home for Wayward Dogs...

This is Vadar - he is an emotionally unbalanced chihuahua mix! His owner is my friend Deb. Deb and family went down south for a couple days and left Vadar and his sister dog, Panda, home alone for about 6 hours while the dog sitter was on his way over. This was last Friday when the weather was so bad. The dog sitter was unable to make it thru the bad weather so we got an emergency call to go rescue Vadar who was at home in their bedroom, growling under the bed!

He was already on the edge because his family was gone. Now add 50 mph winds and torrential rain and he was a train wreck. After a lot of work from one of Deb's neighbors, Vadar comes out from under the bed. We load him into his crate and bring him to our house.

After a few hours chillin' in his crate, we let him out. He seemed quite happy snuggling on the couch with us.

We took him back the next day when the dog sitter was able to make it. He seemed no worse for the wear.

Daisy, on the other hand, had a totally disgruntled look on her face the whole time Vadar was here!

Highlights from the Holidays

So all of you know I am a big Bah Humbug about the holidays....way to much work, eating and shopping for me!

But I did want to make sure I noted the fun parts of the holiday:

• Jim and Gracie caught 21 trout in one day!
• I snowshoed to the top of the world (in Yosemite) with my friend Marty.
• The kids and I saw the movie - National Treasure and really enjoyed it.
• We watched 20 to 30 Scrubs shows on DVD. Hysterical!
• Went for long walks with the dog.
• I read a couple good books - Sick Girl noted below and a book about how to understand dogs.
• Played some good games: Nibs, You've Been Sentenced, Perfection, Stackers, Cribbage, Rummikub.

All in all - a good holiday.

The weather out there is frightful!

We are having three days of stormy weather, with today being the worst. It is really windy.

Poor Betty is getting blown all over. Jim let her in this morning and toweled her off. I fed her cream of wheat and cheddar cheese. She is a happy chicken!

Jim and Drew are off to check on the boat to make sure it is not filling with water.

We had a big power surge this morning but so far we still have power and I am working!