What Goes Around, Comes Around

It's strange how history and fads tend to repeat themselves over and over again. For example, just when you thought George, Edna, and Ernest were "grandparent" names, you hear friends and family members naming their children those names. Alice has become the new Mackenzi of 2010. I can't help but walk into some of my favorite stores (i.e. Target) and see the stretch pants, neon colored long shirts and LARGE belts. Do we really need to relive through the 80's era again? Ick! What's even more strange is my daughter is wearing the things I wore in her very same grade, 7th. Colored van shoes. Who didn't have a pair of those growing up? I know I had about every color in the rainbow to coordinate with all of my outfits. Hair bows are starting to trickle back in style and I think I even saw a evolved version of a banana clip in the store the other day.

Having said all of this some things in history may go in and out, but an old fashioned car game never seems to get old. Remember getting into a friends car and playing corners? On occasion, I find myself still pushing myself into Doug when we turn and put all of my weight into him shoving myself and yelling, "CORNER!" When I was a teenager, it wasn't uncommon to get into a car and yell "SHOT GUN!!" Of course the first person who managed to blurt it out got the prime seat in the car, the front. And then while driving if you saw a Volkswagon bug you would yell, "SLUG BUG!" and the best part was getting to slug your friend as hard as you could. Because you know if they saw it first they would do the same to you. The unwritten rule was the person who saw the most won. There never was a prize other than, the prideful statement of getting to say you won.

Now, my kids don't normally yell shotgun, do corners, or look for slug bugs, BUT we have gotten seriously competitive with yellow car. I suppose you could pick any color your family wants, but for us it is yellow. It doesn't matter who is in the car with me, but lately Weston and I have gotten into having our eyes peeled for this particular color.

The rules are if you see a yellow car, you need to blurt it out before the other person sees it. This earns you 1 point. However, if you see a yellow FJ cruiser this earns you 2 points. And the bonus is if you happen to see a yellow Honda Odyssey (which I am not even sure exists) you win the game. Buses, Construction machinery, moving trucks and taxi's are not allowed to be counted for. Doug and I always joke that it would be cool to own a Volkswagon bus, I think it reminds him of his highschool glory days (his friend owned one), I personally think they are just cool cars. I couldn't help myself the other day while playing this game and came across a yellow one. Luckily, I have been keeping my camera handy and happend to capture this one......

How cool is that? Or should I say rad? I believe cool and awesome have made it's way back into the vocabulary word of slang terms, hmmm maybe dude should too. Do you play this game?

The Long Stretch Home

We headed out early Sunday morning in hopes to make it home by a decent hour. I think even Weston was ready to head home for some regular sleep time, along with his own bed. I couldn't pass up stopping off at the Cabazon Outlets which were right off the freeway. They aren't exactly as good as San Antonio. I have yet to find a fabulous outlet that included Pottery Barn like the one in Texas, but it did have a True Religion store.

I scored a great deal on some jeans. I have no idea why in the world their mascot is a budda man. Does anyone? Weird if you ask me. My boys got a pair of Sketchers and we were on our way home. Luke was the only one willing to pose. At this point of the trip, I'll take what I can get.

Our ride home took us past the lovely fans and across the desert along interstate 10. Knowing our kids wouldn't last an entire 4 hours without food we opted to stop in Blythe. Not my most favorite neck of the woods, but I will be forever grateful for that Carls Junior pitstop.

Cheese for cheeseburgers!

We quickly scarfed our food down, walked back to the car not only to find our van tire completely flat. It's actually interesting that we never even noticed it to be low. I was so thankful that we didn't have a blow out on the freeway. You always here about people getting killed trying to change a tire along the highway. Which, after surveying the rest of my tires could have TOTALLY happened. It appeared after inspecting them three were completely balled! Secondly, what a blessing that Doug was with us. I can only imagine how scary it would have been if this had happened to me driving out alone with the kids. Scary!

We pulled into an empty lot right next door and were on the road in about 30 minutes. As Doug was changing the tire I remembered this was one of the things Jared needed to pass off for cubscouts. What a perfect opportunity. You have to make the best of the situation eh?

Jared and Doug changed the tire. The only bummer part was we were still about 140 miles away from home and couldn't drive any faster than 60 miles per hour because of the spare tire on the car. As I was documenting the moment my boys yelled, hey take our picture. I couldn't resist. The best part is the background. It almost looks like we are in Mexico. Nothing like ending the trip with a bang!

my cute little boys

Five For Friday

1. It seems as though I have been slacking on my daily posts. I used to be so disciplined to sit at the computer to blog, but between keeping up on my house, car issues, and running the kids to x,y,z, it seems blogging has taken a back burner. It's not that I wanted it to, it just happened. So, I am happy to report, I am back sometimes more than others, but here. I have been keeping up with American Idol and following it religiously each week. I was both surprised and disappointed last night. Michael Johns being voted off last night was such a bummer. It was definitely one of the few times that I disagreed with Simon. I thought he sang "Dreamer" awesome. But, who am I?

2. Doug and I have been watching Good Eats and other cooking shows lately. Good Eats in particular is interesting because he gives you science back ground as to what ingredients make things taste better. Does anyone watch this show? We learned that much of it depends on the mixer. (it turns out my non-kitchen aid mixer really can be important) Who knew? Anyways, Doug's mom makes seriously the best cookies. We have experimented with these on numerous occasions and like her bread we have FINALLY mastered the Dorothy recipe. The unfortunate thing is we end up eating the entire batch in one sitting. This can be dangerous!

3. Last week Taylor got her hair cut. The funny thing was her only request was a trim with layers. Sara ended up cutting about 5 inches off and I can't believe how much easier her hair is to do. There is just something about long hair that becomes heavy and flat. Here she is modeling her new do and outfit I bought her (for $13!).

4. After 64 days of being without my car, it is now parked in my garage!! I can't tell you the euphoria I had driving it today. The best was the reaction from my kids. When Luke climbed in for the first car he proclaimed, "I LOVE THIS CAR" When my kids got off the bus they both came running in screaming, "OUR CAR IS BACK, OUR CAR IS BACK!" If anything good came out of this it was to be a more cautious driver and to appreciate the simple things we have and often take for granted. (aka a nice car!) Many thanks to our friends (Wirthlin's) who helped me by lending me their car and being my taxi driver (Gordon's). I don't know how I would have done it without you!!

5. In honor of #4 we met up with the Gordon's at Tiago's for dinner. It seems like it has been forever since we went out just as couples to eat. After a rough week, it was exactly what I needed.

Are You Kidding Me?

This post could have been written yesterday. However, I chose not to write this out because I felt like I was about to scream. Now that it is behind me in the past I can laugh about it. It went something like this.........

Angie, Jenny, Bridget and Tracy
Taking a tour of Angie's new house

My sweet friend Ellice agreed to kid swap with me so that I could go to lunch with Angie, Bridget and Tracy at Chuy's. I specifically made sure we had Alberto and had one less child in tow (Luke). This should have made the experience grand, right? NOT. You see, my son has decided on a daily basis (without fail) to mess his pants regardless if he has already gone for the day into the toilet. Yesterday was no different. He was underneath the table, being quiet and decided to come up to me in a calm voice, "mom I need to go poop." Great! He is getting it. Much to my surprise something was awaiting me in the bathroom as I assisted him onto the toliet. The restaurant bathroom of all places. ICK! I'll spare the details. My nice lunch with my girlfriends suddenly ended. I left feeling bugged, annoyed and helpless. Seriously, is it going to stop?? Help me.

This needs to happen more often!

Weston did take a nap willingly, which literally saved his little hiney. Jared got home from school and I decided to trim the boys hair. I haven't cut them for a few months so their hair would style for a "punk" do on Saturday. I have decided to grow them out because I am oddly liking the long "California" style hair on them. I decided that I was just going to trim the ears and neck line. It was getting a little frightening looking, you know that in between stage--helmet head. Jared agreed to go first since Luke started freaking out. **Note, Luke freaks out over everything. He sat and watched Jared go through the process. I was done in about 5 minutes. Jared and I tried to assure him, it wouldn't take very long. He complied for about 10 seconds and began to scream. I pulled his shirt back trying to get him to hold still.......then incident #2 occurred. As I let go of his shirt his smacked his head on the back on the concrete. Ouch. The sad thing is (other than he hurt himself) was the minute he felt the blood he said "MOM I'M GOING TO DIE!" (in a panicked voice) I tried to calm him down the best I could, but we are talking Luke drama people. I got a hold of Doug and had to trek down to the Ortho Institute. Not the closest location, especially around 4pm. And if you see the linked post, I am beginning to think cutting hair on or near a Friday is a jinx!

Luke's nasty wound

I loaded the kids into the car and noticed that my car was not starting as easily. I had noticed this the day before, but didn't think anything of it. I then made the mistake to voice my opinion out loud by saying, oh great now my car is dying. This of course got Luke in a frenzy. He mistakingly thought I meant he was going to die. Here we go again! I managed to start the car and went on my way to Doug's location. The minute I drove up and he saw "daddy's work" we experienced the freak out. And screams of "NO I'M NOT GOING IN THERE!!" He thought for sure he was getting stitches or something. After Doug looked at it and determined it was just a superficial wound, I was beyond relieved. Phew!

Do you think we frequent this place enough?
Jared, Weston and Taylor taken a few weeks ago.

By this time the kids were complaining of hunger and Jared had to be at practice in 45 minutes. The last one of the season---woo hoo! I stopped at Chick Fila since it was customer appreciation week. They were giving away free milk shakes with the purchase of a value meal. With the Honda Dealership being right around the corner, I had a gut feeling I should take my car in to have them test my battery. I was so glad I did, because it was on the verge of dying. They asked me if I wanted to have them replace it for the cost of $140? That is highway robbery. Are you kidding me? You can guess what my reply was, umm no thanks I think I will take it to Wal-mart. The man gave me a weird look and I was on my way.

Kathy wasn't headless, I was just trying to be discrete about my photo.

Which leads me into incident #3. I dropped off Jared at football practice and made my way up to a Super-Walmart to get a new battery. I asked the mechanic about replacing a new battery and he said it would be about 2.5 hours. I didn't have that kind of time so, he lead me to the next closest Auto Zone. I was fully aware I wasn't in the best part of town, but I was desperate. I went inside (feeling a bit out of place) everything was in spanish and I was the only blonde girl around. Not trying to be prejudice, just feeling a little self conscious here. I think the shift was changing because I watched about 4 guys walk out and say, "see ya later". I wasn't expecting a woman to be helping me, but Kathy saved me!! She walked out to my car like a pro, took out the old battery and I was on my way. (Hey, and I learned how to take a battery out) I would have bought her a soda, but there wasn't a machine around. I gave her a $1, it wasn't much but it was what I had in my purse. She refused it but I told her it was a must. I had to laugh because another co-worker (a guy) says man I should have helped you out. Too bad buddy. Girls rule! It's a good thing I believe in the theory that bad things come in three's because I couldn't have handled another incident yesterday. And yes, I do know it could have been MUCH, much worse.

good deed: balanced the check book/organized bills