Summer!

So I've been out of summer classes for the last 2 weeks, and I've been living it up with the kids. The friday after finals I took the kids and their friend Jojo to the natural science and history museum. They had so much fun! We did our rounds of the museum first, and let me tell you it is not easy keeping up after 4 very active kids. Either way, we had a blast and learned a lot. We went into the dinosaur exhibit right at the perfect time, and caught the dinosaur show. It was really a person in the neatest costume I've ever seen, but I had the kids convinced that it was a real life dinosaur. Kids being kids, and with movies like Jurassic Park and Night at the Museum, definitely helped. They treated the dinosaur like it was pet (think dog), and the boys tried to be brave and sit on the floor with the rest of the group. Next thing I know, they brought the dinosaur in, and all 3 boys were hiding behind me while the girl was clutching onto me for dear life. We chased it back to it's "cave" but sadly I couldn't get any good pictures of it, tons of other people had the same idea as me.

After that we hit up the kids center for some hands on play. They got together and all 4 of them cleaned out the excavating pit with buckets and paint brushes. Here's Raymond digging in the pit.

And the girl just loved throwing the "dirt" out of the pit and directing the other kids on where to go and what to do.

And Orion had a blast trying to build a dinosaur skeleton out of bones. He was so into it that I hated to drag him away.

After the museum we headed to the pet store, that way Jojo can get hands on with some more exotic animals. The boys ran around and were holding snakes, tarantula's, and pinkie's.

On Tuesday we went to kidspace museum and had so much fun there too. Unfortunetly I don't have any pictures of that, because it was so crowded there that I had to focus on where the kids were. This week we haven't done much because I'm a bit more focused this week on finding a job. Sadly, my financial aid was cancelled, so I must find work to help support us. Fall classes are slowly creeping up as well as back to school to the boys also, so I've got a ton to get ready for. I'm hoping to get to at least 1 museum this week, and a park with the water play areas, but I'd like to give the house another really good scrub down before we start the next couple of busy months.

Happy Birthday Princess

2 years ago today, I gave birth to my gorgeous princess Olivia. We had her an awesome party yesterday that was full of family and friends and it couldn't have been better. Ollie had a great time and we celebrated her in true princess fashion with a mermaid splash! That is, her party was little mermaid themed, a recent favorite of our Ollie's. She's everything I could have imagined that my daughter would be. So, here's to my birthday girl!

Thanks for being a part of our world!

Monkey

Monkey. No other word has so many meanings. To me Monkey means loyalty, love, friendship, courage, humor, stubborn, compassionate, smart, and a whole other slew of words of endearment. I was lucky enough to spend 14, almost 15 years with Monkey and will every single bit of it. He was my first child, and I credit him to making me the loving mother I am today.

I wasn't there when he was born, but I found him in a pet store. He was taken from his mom way too soon, and couldn't eat the kibble they had in his cage. His eyes were glued shut with gunk, and he looked just pitiful. I was only 13, but I knew he was destined to be mine. I went home and gathered all my change, and walked back to the pet store. With $10 in random bills and lots of change, I walked home with a kitten in my arms. Boy was my mom upset with me when she came home to find him. After begging to keep him, and her agreeing to let me, she asked if we could at least return him for a better looking one. Yes, he had alot of gunk in his eyes and nose, his mouth didn't close all the way, and he couldn't meow, but he was mine. I bottle fed him until he was old enough to eat real kitten food, and he slept across my neck to keep warm.

So many years later, I look back on all the great times we had together, and all of his funny cat moments, and I know I couldn't have had a better companion all these years. He was my confidant who would never spill my secrets, and who was the first to let me know everything would be okay. He loved all of my kids, and never scratched or growled at 1 of them, despite the fur and tail pulling that went on.

Monkey, there will never be another you. Thank you for loving me unconditionally, and for being not just my pet but my baby. Thank you for loving my children the same way you loved me. Thank you for staying as long as you did, and letting me say good bye. I'll always feel like a piece of my heart is missing, and it hurts so bad not to see you laying around the house where you please. Even though physically your not here, I'll always carry you with me and love you forever. Lovey, Boony, Moopy, Mooshy.... Monkey.

Sick!

So the weather in CA has been really ugly lately. By ugly, I mean cold, with some rain, muggy, and gloomy. All in the last 2 weeks!!! Before that though, we were enjoying some early summer weather in the high 80's and 90's. So going from the hot to the cold, to the rainy, to the muggy, and back to the cold, has gotten us all sick. It all started with the littlest Raymond, he had a cold with a horrible cough. I caught it this weekend, at the end of the weekend Orion and Big Ray caught it too. The only one who seems to be unaffected is the girl. Lucky her! To be honest, I'm really happy she didn't get it. When Olivia gets sick, she gets super clingy x 10, and me being sick, it's not pretty for either of us.

Besides that nothing much else has been going on over here. I went shopping with my coupons last week like usual. I stocked up on pull ups at kmart and took advantage of their double coupons, and another deal they had. I did pretty good. I'm making a few things too, that I'm quite proud of. I'm almost finished with the first nieces fourth of July outfit, and starting to work on the second nieces outfit. Then onto my kids stuff. And I'm actually sewing stuff for me, but that's all technical and stuff. If you want to take a gander at what I'm up to sewing wise you can visit my crafty blog www.sewcrafty.today.com, it's pretty awesome if your into that stuff lol. I'm off to go search out more tissue for my nose and maybe take a nap.

So.....

I've come to the conclusion that I mess around too much. I've come to that conclusion, because here I am supposed to be doing homework that's due tomorrow, and making Hawaiin outfits for the boys that their supposed to wear on Friday, and what am I doing? Well, I'm making bows for my daughter and nieces. Oh well, it looks like its going to be a long night for me!

I know I haven't been on to post much, but wow have I been swamped! It's the last 2 weeks of the semester and I'm trying to finish all of my assignments this week, because next week is finals. Besides that I've been all over the place helping my cousin register for school, taking my son to his appointments, baseball, and my sewing projects. I haven't really sewed much as of late because I sort of have a full plate at the moment. But I did get a few little things done that I'm proud of.

The boys will be on summer vacation in 2 weeks, so I'll be busy with them all day soon. I signed up for an on campus math class, and my sil's will be watching the kiddos for a few days out of the week while I go to class, but thankfully it's only a month long. I haven't ever had anyone besides myself and my husband watch our daughter, so I'm a bit nervous about leaving her for a few hours a day. I hope it passes quick and I'll get to enjoy the rest of the summer with the kids doing lots of fun things! I'll have more interesting things to post about in the coming weeks.

Target

Last night I went to Target to get the best of last weeks deals before the new sales would start. I have mixed reviews. I love the deals I got, but I had a difficult time with the cashier. Being the optimist I am though, we'll start with the great deals first.

In this picture there are 2 packs of cottonelle toilet paper (12 rolls each), 4 boxes of always pads, 14 velveeta shells and cheese cups, 14 mac and cheese cups, 8 bar-b-que sauces, 5 Garnier shampoos, 5 Garnier conditioners, 6 mayonnaise, 2 A1 sauce, 4 packs of Kraft cheese slices, and 4 boxes of 100 calorie snack packs.

Now onto business, with the cashier. At first she was okay, chit chatting and all, but once I brought out the coupons that was it. She started acting rude with me. She didn't want to take my coupons and started complaining to a nearby manager, who told her to take the coupons. The problem was with my bar-b-que coupons. The sauce was $.99, and the coupons were for $1 off, making them free. Well the cashier didn't want to do complete the transaction, and the manager told her to go ahead with it. They argued in front of me for a few minutes, with the cashier telling the manager, "you do it", and the manager telling her I can't I'm busy. So the cashier rings up my stuff, grumbling the whole time and saying, I know where this is going, and I can't believe this. She even told me I couldn't use 2 coupons for the same product, and I told her that I could use 1 store coupon and 1 manufacturer coupon per product, again grumpy. Finally we get to the paying part. I hand her my 2 gift cards that I got from the first 2 transactions, and she practically yells at me that I can't use them because I haven't paid for them. I very politely tell her yes I can, because I paid for them in the first 2 transactions, and this was my third. Now's the fun part, she grabbed the gift cards out of my hand and gave me one of the dirtiest looks you ever saw! I paid and left, and was in practically tears when I loaded my car. Here I am trying to save my family money, while I have a grumpy cashier making a huge scene of it, and making me feel like I'm putting her job at jeopardy. Makes me feel so crappy!