Memorial Day Weekend... the aftermath.

From this to................................................ this in just 2 days....
... oh the joys of kids getting sick...I started with Owen on Sunday, who missed out on the pool (see the above picture) altogether, but Morgan still got to go. Then this morning around 2.30am she crawled, as she often does at that time of the night, into our bed and I could tell we were in for the same thing as Owen over the last two days. Fever, headache, sore throat. It occured to me yesterday afternoon after Owen was so much better but still complained of a sore throat, that perhaps he had tonsillitis. Upon reading it up on the internet that it was highly contagious, I wasn't really that surprised when this morning Morgan came down with it. So here I was thinking that the kids would both be back in school today, it's likely one or both will be home all week with me. Which isn't to say nice, but when you have doctor's appointments lined up all week during their school time it's actually somewhat of a pain in the backside.

A visit to the doctor, at least confirmed it WASN'T strep, which was a great concern, but it also isn't a traditional form of tonsillitis either. It turns out they both have a virus and it can and will run it's course but there is nothing you can give for it to speed up the process. Owen will be going back to school tomorrow, and hopefully Morgan by Thursday but more likely Friday, just in time for the Spring Dance, which she is really looking forward to, unfortunately she won't be there to make her costume so I hope the teachers will make one for her or I can do it at home.

Of course, I had to postpone a number of things including a workshop, although my new client will probably be coming over later this afternoon to sort through photos while the kids watch a movie. Owen at least finishedthe drawing part of his art project this morning and hopefully the rest of it tomorrow as I cancelled their piano/music class for tomorrow anyway.

Darren's show aired again last night. It seems they keep changing the format and now it's becoming very American Idolish, which even though the movies are interesting it isn't much of an exciting reality show as you don't actually see the contestants make the projects. I thought that process was much more dynamic, but I guess it depends on what the American Public think of all this. We can only wait and see.

Okay this is it for today... more on the trials and tribulations of my life later.

Approaching Memorial Weekend.

Well it's hard to believe in little under 3 months we will no longer be in sunny california. That is just plain scary.. no other word for it. The kids have only 3 weeks left of school. Which is really sad for us. We had the most amazing open house the other day at school. Morgan's classroom was like a little farm resplendent with a pasture of cows, pigs, chickens and goats (made from paper, painted by the kids and hanging from monofiliment from the ceiling). Two of the chicks that had been in an incubator actually hatched that morning and by the time Open House started 3 more had hatched much to the delight of the children. The wall s were just covered with Farm related work the children had done, including Morgan the farmer from Oregon who had milking cows. Of course, the one time I should have had my camera with me, I left it at home. I could just kick myself. It was just incredible. Owen's classroom was a little more subdued. They had just finished Star testing. But they had all their artwork displayed all over the classroom, including timelines that the children had created over the past 5 years. Now his class are getting ready to do an end of year play called "Rumpus in the Rainforest" . Every afternoon, Owen comes home and is singing the song and telling me he wants to be the Sloth... okay this really doesn't surprise me too much as sloths tend not to move so much. Still I keep telling him if he wants that part, he needs to tell his teacher. SO we will see in a couple of weeks at the performance, what part he ended up with. School is beginning to wind down. Next week Friday is the Spring dance, were all the kids from all the grades perform a dance for the parents. It's a long process, but the kids have a fantastic time. I will definitely bring my camera that day.

Last weekend Darren did his 200 mile bike ride and as he likes to tell everyone he's bum is pretty sore, and apparently, (though I haven't verified this) looks like a baboons butt. Anyway while he was off injuring himself, I took the kids to their art show where they displayed their work they had been creating over the past few months. Owen with his seal that he created with Oil pastels and Morgan with her Swan, also in Oil Pastels. These were done entirely by them with a little guidance from their teachers. I just hope I will be able to find a program like this up in Portland. Who knew they were capable of this.... I'm quite blown away by these pictures my self.

On a whole other note, Darren's dad has now been released from the hospital after breaking his cheekbone and nose in a freak softball accident. He was in the outfield and misjudged the ball and it hit him square in the face. He will require some reconstructive surgery but it's not as bad as we all first thought. It will be done in an outpatient clinic but not until all the swelling has gone down. The bigger issue was that he won't be able to drive, but his girlfriend Nancy is having Jim stay with her, and then next week a local friend of Darren's and Jim will take care of him starting next Tuesday. Of course we aren't telling Owen how this happened as he is only now finally catching the ball in baseball and we don't want him to once again be afraid of the ball.

Owen is actually turning into quite an exceptional player, considering the first couple of years. He is finally coming into the game. He is quite the slugger when he makes contact with the ball and that is happening more often than not. He made quite a catch the other day too and got one of the opposing team players out as a result. He won't ever be the greatest player but he's not bad that's for sure.

Okay that's it...will get back to writing again soon. Tata.

Sometime in May

It's been a interesting few days. Life is still moving forward with this move. I'm trying to motivate myself to pack a few more things and follow up on inquires made. Darren is busy working on his show "On the Lot" that premieres next Tuesday. Then I'm sure all hell will break loose and we'll rarely see him. He's also going up to the bay area this weekend to ride in a 200 mile bike race? (not sure if it's a race or a ride) Kids and I are staying home.

Mother's Day was nice. We joined the Dietles for Sunday brunch at the Smoke House, in Burbank. It was a nice fun place for the kids who could pick out what they wanted to eat and it was also an appropriate way to spend our last Mother's Day together as we did our very first. Mum I don't know if you remember but that was when we first met Lisa at my very first Mother's Day. After that Darren took the kids out and left me in peace for a little while, of course I headed to the back house to work there.... after they played mini golf and bought Owen yet another pair of shoes (I swear that boy goes through his clothing and shoes faster than anyone I know) they got back and we headed out to see Spiderman 3. Okay I know that's a strange way to spend mother's day but both kids really wanted to see it. It was okay.. long... good visual fx but the story was just not very interesting. TOO many characters for you to become emotionally involved in the 2 hours and 40 mins they had to tell the story. Still it's breaking all box office records. It will be an interesting summer of movies as they are quite a few I'd like to see. The next one opening is Shrek 3 this weekend...

All in all it was a fun day. More later.

I have no clue what day this is... it's now a weekly blog.

So here I sit waiting for my friend Lindy to pick me up so we can go get a shipping box for Darren's bike. He's riding in a 200 mile bike ride next weekend up in Oakland and he needs to ship up his bike... We're staying home... It's been a fun week. Darren's birthday was on Tuesday and I actually was able to cook a decent meal for him. Even my cheese sauce didn't go lumpy. Oh this is so uninteresting. My car is once again at the body shop as I discovered that my rear seat wouldn't fold down as the latch was not functioning properly ( I should say - not at all) so while they managed to fix that, one of the technicians then broke the pull that lowers the seat rest, and now it has to be replaced. They are taking care of that today. Hence no car.

I've been trying to figure out paint colors for Portland. The big question is about whether when Morgan gets her chalkboard wall, if we use magnetic paint, the problem is does that effect electronics like computers, because once that goes up on the wall, it will be magnetic forever. Does anyone know the answer to that? I can't seem to find anything out about that.

We're slowly moving into the finish packing stage. It's all been so long and protracted that there are days when I don't know what to do next. I think in truth I am still in denial about this. I know we're moving but I don't REALLY believe it. Even after the photos came down in the house I still can't truly get my head around it. Denial is a great protector!

On a different note, I'm loading this scrapbook layout that I did with Morgan's own photos that she took. To get a better look make sure you click on the photo. It's very funny and Morgan took all the photos herself. Take a look.

Day 32

Wow... well we have had our garage sale, (did very well thank you - sold a good amount of stuff), my car was egged (horrid people) and I finally broke down and took down all the photos and pictures from the living room, dining room and partly from the bedroom. I couldn't bring myself to take them all down. It's definitely starting to look very empty around here and echoey too.. it's been a strange few days and I know I don't really get on to write that much these days, but time it does slip away.

We had Oona and Eamon over for a while and the kids got into bathing suits to run around in the sprinklers. It made me somewhat sad to know that this will all end soon. The Lee's are going out of town in June and won't be back until September. So we decided to go to the beach with them next Saturday. Of course, it's mother's day here next Sunday, and we're spending it with The Dietles as we do every year. That should be interesting. Our last one. Sniff.

Well I know this wasn't very long. Not much else to say. Had 3 different classes last week. It was quite tiring. Next one is on Friday. After that we'll be winding down at the end of June. Summer is fast approaching. GULP. Busy busy busy.