another day in paradise... or in my case, Loleta

kids are back in school, soccer season is in full swing, the weather is turning to fall... life is pretty good. I'm looking forward to hanging out with friends tonight and playing bunco... (or is it bunko?). can't beat an evening of dinner, drinks and throwing dice with a bunch of rowdy chicks, and all for a $10 buy-in! woo-hooo!  :D

his name is

KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!!

Kid Rock that is. Jack and I went down to Lakeport to see him in concert last weekend and we had a total blast! the really good news? it wasn't too loud -so I guess that proves we aren't too old, right?! {whOOp-whOOp!} as a matter of fact, I was kinda surprised by how diverse the audience was -there were kids, about 12 years old (parent of the year awards going out, there) right up to oldsters in their 70's.

I gotta admit, I like me some KR, but I wasn't sure what to expect at one of his concerts... headbangers? ghetto rappers? he's been known to hang with Hank Jr. so, maybe some good ol' boys...?? I dunno, but I was excited because this was a weekend away, without kids (cereally... can't remember the last time we've gone away w/o kids) and we walked on the wild side.

starting out, our friend tells us he'll leave our tix at the golf course, we can pick them up in the pro shop. cool... we decide since we're there, we'll just eat dinner at the golf course restaurant and head on over to the concert. we have a little bit of trouble tracking down the tickets but finally get them in hand and decide we'll just sit in the bar to eat, hoping it'll be faster than being seated in the dining room. the hostess is great and realizes that we're kinda in a time crunch so she gets our orders right in and gets us started with our salads.

meanwhile, there are a handful of peeps bellied up to the bar, among them, these 4 older gals. they're playing liar's dice and apparently, one of the gals is a newbie to the game, so there's lots of coaching going on and they're having a good time. I think it's safe to assume they've probably been there for a good part of the afternoon. dice are flying and it's getting wild.

over at our table, Jack and I are cracking up, listening to these gals shouting their bids and slamming their dice on the bar as we scarf down our salads. we exchange a few quiet little comments about how cute it is that, at their age, these gals are out, partying down. and then, you know how you hear someone say something, and it sounds like it's coming your direction but you don't know anyone else there, and what they're saying doesn't seem to apply to you so you assume they're talking to someone else?? yeah, but then... there it is again: "hey -you like tequilla??" so we both crane our necks around and sure enough old bird #1 is turned around on her barstool asking US if we like tequilla LOL! not wanting to seem lame beyond our years (I mean, c'mon... we're going to a freaking Kid Rock concert!) we both nod (probably not very convincingly) yes ...oh, us, yeah... hells yeah! and before we know it we have a couple of overflowing shot glasses along with some wedges of lime and a giant salt shaker plunked in front of us as we, (okay me) get that deer in the headlights look...

okay, at this point, I feel it's important to share the fact that, as much as I joke about needing to get my drink on, I actually very rarely drink, and when I do, it's usually nothing stronger than a margarita or a Smirnoff Ice, which is on par with a wine cooler -NEVER straight up liquor. NEVER. well, at least not since my bachelorette party, nov. 1989 -when, after way too many Kamikazi's, I filled up the map pocket on the inside of my friend Terri's passenger door with the contents of my stomach ...it wasn't pretty, and I haven't forgotten.

I was afraid to make eye contact with Jack because I have a bad habit of laughing hysterically when I get nervous ...so, I grabbed my glass, Jack and I did a quick cheers and tossed 'em back. -and I'm happy to report that I didn't puke or even fall out of my chair.

at that point old bird #3 turns to old bird #1 and says "c'mon, leave 'em alonnnne, they're trying to eat their dinnnennenner". then, old bird #2 starts yelling "who'sh turn ish it, anywaysh?"... and so it went. as we were getting ready to pay our bill, old bird #3 comes over to the table and invites us over to her house to hang out and bbq with all of them and their husbands, not that she normally just invites people over, she says, but it might be fun to have some new people... then she goes on to tell us they got there (to the bar) by boat so she's got to give us instructions to get there by car (at this point we'd already told them about 6 times that we were going to the concert) so we just smiled and thanked them and then ran like hell...

got over to the concert, which was at an outdoor venue, stood in line (forever) to show our ID's (as if my gray hair and wrinkles aren't proof enough) for wristbands so we could get drinks. then stood in line to get in. while we were in line we actually ran into a couple of friends from out of the area so we hung out with them for awhile while the opening band (Rehab) played, and we stood in line (forfrickenEVER)to get drinks. funny thing ...while we were standing there I actually had a guy grab me and pull me out of the way because his very LARGE and tall and big and sweaty-and very drunk friend, was about to fall on me. LOL ...I'm telling you, it was crazy.

we finally went to find our seats, and omg... we had such awesome seats -8th row baybee. honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to be any closer because, even with all the security, the crowd has a way of surging forward and it becomes more like a mosh pit and when it's 90 degrees, I don't want to be squished up against a bunch of sweaty strangers... ick ... I'm just sayin'.

so, the stage goes dark and where u at Rock, where you at? starts playing and the crowd goes wild. Kid comes out, dressed all in white, with his trademark aviators and he's looking just like the bad-ass dude you see on tv or CD covers... and by the end of the night he's in black jeans, no shirt (yyyeeeeaaooow!) and he's just this amazingly talented guy who puts on a helluva show. I was really surprised at how down to earth he was -the show wasn't full of chest thumping and macho posturing, which honestly, coming from him woulda been kinda haaawt... but he does show what a diverse performer he is when he jams on the electric guitar, then jumps in and plays the drums... he even hops up and does some old school scratching on the turn tables.... Rev Run (from Run-DMC and Runs House on MTV) comes out and he and Kid rock some of the old Run-DMC hits.

there were some mellow moments during the show, no doubt strategically timed so that old folks like me could catch their breath and maybe puff on their asthma inhalers before they keel over... like when Kid sings Picture, (the duet he did with Sheryl Crow) with one of his backup singers (who, ironically, looks like Sheryl Crow) and then when he sings Amen while a slide show of patriotic pictures shows on the big screen behind him... that was really cool. I also really appreciated that he got out there and did his thing without spouting off one way or the other about his political views... I saw an interview recently, where he said something to the effect that, that's not what he's there for... he's knows singing and song writing, not political science, he's here to entertain and just because he's a public figure it doesn't make him qualified to tell people who they should vote for, that's up to them to decide.

something else that really impressed me, because of how great he sounded, was the fact that there is no backing track... all the stuff we heard was live. I'm usually not a crazy about live shows because often times performers have so much engineering done on their studio stuff, when you hear them live they really sound like crap... but that definitely wasn't the case for this show.

*technically* no cameras are allowed at the show... but once it starts there's no way security can keep up with everyone who's whipping out their cell phones or point & shoots... so, that said, I'll leave you with a few of the pics I managed to get. ah, goooood times!

.

and finally... a pic of us old (sweaty) folks.

the conclusion of WEDDING WEEK

it always amazes me how much work and money goes into weddings - an elaborate dress, flowers, cake, photos, reception hall, caterers, booze, -oh yeah baybee its all about the open bar! bottom line, it's a butt load of money and effort and all for just a few hours of "showtime".

Jack and I had a typical wedding with all the trappings and when I stop and think about how much money we could have saved and put towards a house, or maybe even towards that honeymoon we never took (because we were so po' after that big stinkin wedding), it makes me almost ill. seriously, when the big day is over and the guests have all gone home (or passed out in the parking lot) what do you have to show for all that money that was spent?? well, I can tell you what I have; a giant album that I flip thru every 5 or 10 years -usually when I need to prove to my kids that I did, in fact, used to be thin and Jack did, in fact, used to have hair. oh, I also have a luuuurvely gown, complete with reeeeally big poofy sleeves, that has been carefully heirloom packaged and is waiting in the attic for me to offer up to my dot when the time comes. pffft! I can just see her now -begging not to have to wear it! aaaaaaahahaha... poor kid!

anyway... the wedding we went to last weekend was a really refreshing change. the bride's mom made the wedding dress, the groom's mom made all the bridesmaid's dresses, there was no church, no reception hall, no superficial BS... our niece Katie & her fiancee Graydon (aka: Grady -Katie & Grady... isn't that cute?!) were married at my in-law's ranch out in Bear River, way up on a hillside overlooking the Bear River Valley with the Pacific Ocean for a backdrop. aside from the hellacious wind that threatened to carry us right off of that hillside, the ceremony was absolute greatness. not only was it very brief and pretty freaking hysterical but it was very personal and so THEM.

K & G were married by Rick, a close friend of the family, and who, for this occassion had the esteemed title of "Reverend Rick". I don't know all the nitty-gritty details but rumor has it Rick sent away and became ordained via some kind of mail order deal and now he's legit to do something like 3 weddings, 1 funeral and 5 baptisms... if I'm lyin, I'm dyin! LOL!

the reception was back at the ranch, where friends tackled the chores of setting up tables, cooking and serving a wonderful meal of spaghetti, meatballs, hot wings, bread, salad,... I don't even remember what else, but it was great food -none of that crappy, dried out chicken cordon bleu like you get at most weddings. the cakes were from Costco, delicious, and GONE by the end of the night... the music was played over speakers that were hooked up to a computer with a pre-programed i-tunes playlist. there was even one of those giant bounce-house things with a slide for the kidlets -as well as a few of the more erm, ...adventurous (read: drunk) adults!
after it got dark and things were getting mellow, we all gathered around the firepit, listened to one of Katie's bridesmaids, Jen, play the guitar and sing -wow! what an incredible voice that chick had- and then as the guitar was passed on and my FIL busted out his ukelele (yes, a ukelele!) we busted out the marshmallows, and got busy making s'mores!

the kicker here is that K & G live in Utah, and yet they managed to do a heckuva job planning this thing all the way out here in CA. they had friends and family who traveled great distances to be at the wedding, coming from Utah, Las Vegas, Iowa, North Carolina... all over the freakin place, many of them camped out at the ranch, either in tents, RV's, out in the bus barn that was turned into the "womens dormitory" and a few peeps even stayed in a horse trailer! some of the older folks stayed at the quaint little B & B's in town... but the point is, they came all that way just so they could be here for K & G's wedding week -and what a week it was!

The bride and her daddy:


The wedding party:


"Reverend Rick" performing the ceremony:


exchanging the rings:


smoooches!


Kendall with Chicago (groomsman) & Daisie (bridesmaid)


the bouncy house (this thing was worth it's weight in gold!):

where the hell have I been?

I mean, seriously.

Last Friday, I met up with my niece Katie -and about 15 other crazy chicks- for a "spa day". Now, honestly, I'm not really a 'spend the day at the spa' kinda girl but we'd all been invited to spend the afternoon together as part of Katie's pre-wedding festivities (in lieu of a bridal shower/bachelorette party), so how could I refuse? Having never gone to a spa (oh yeah, I was a spa virgin), I didn't really know what to expect... in fact, about 5 months ago, when we were given a list of different services we could try, I more or less closed my eyes and pointed to one -I mean, I don't know a Vichy Shower from a Seaweed Pack so, what the hell... eenie-meeny-miney-mo... I ended up getting a shoulder/back/neck massage along with a spa pedicure. oookay, fine, sounds safe enough, doesnt' it?

not so much.

please talk amongst yourselves whilst I make a valium cocktail with a chaser of prozac.

I gotta tell you that, while I love being hugged by my peeps and love snuggling with my kids, I'm not a thuper-dooper touchy feely person by nature and the idea of peeps I don't know touching me, weirds me out -I mean, it's not like I freak if I happen to bump into someone, but I'm just very concious of the whole 'personal space' concept that we learned way back in preschool, so, when I realized a perfect stranger was going to: a.) be touching me in a more intimate manner than oh, lets say, a handshake and 2.) I'd be nekkid from the waist up while they were doing that, not to mention c.) someone else would later be touching my FEET -eeeew, feeeet! I was a tad put off so, needless to say, I spent the next four and a half months trying to catch a cold, pneumonia, malaria ...anything, so I could gracefully skip out on spa-day. sigh... no dice.

fast forward to "spa day". I seriously consider taking a couple of beers... possibly an entire 6 pack, with me to shotgun in the parking lot before I join the girls, but I worry that stumbling in, slurring at 10am, I might draw even more attention to myself than I will with my sweaty palms and the huge sweat stains that are showing up under my pits.

I arrive (un-inebriated, damn it) and we all go thru the introductions, hugs and niceties and suddenly, I'm thinking to myself, hey, there are so many people in here, maybe I can just hang out and chat and no one will notice if I don't actually get anything done, I can just plaster the same mellowed-out smile on my face that all the other girls seem to have, and no one will be the wiser, right? -okay, good plan. a few minutes later, I was completely caught off guard when my name was called out by a gal, who apparently takes her fashion cues from the late, great Johnny Cash, because she's dressed in black from her head to her toes... hmmm, I don't remember meeting her -and then my eyes drift down to the little design just above her left breast where I see the words: The Spa at Personal Choice. DAMN IT, again -I'd forgotten all about that friggen sign up sheet, and my number was up!

Head hung low, I follow Johnny Cash, Jr. thru the catacombs where we finally arrive at a candle-lit room with soft Celtic music playing, there's even a little waterfall to add to the ambiance -I mean, they really go all out to create a calm, relaxing atmosphere. I kid you not, I had to choke back a nervous laugh because my first thought was, dayum, I hope Jr's not gonna put the moves on me back here -which I realize was completely random but eh, that's pretty much how I roll ...and as I'm kinda cracking myself up, it dawns on me that the Celtic music reminds me an awful lot of the pan flute CD that I used to tease my homegrill about after finding it in her collection. Zamfir, anyone. ...anyone? ah, but I digress... I'm on the verge of nervous hysteria when Jr tells me to take my shirt and bra off and get comfortable up on the table (SEE?! I knew she was gonna put the moves on me -I KNEW it!) -then, as if sensing that I was a spa newb, she added, "face-down". pfffft. yeah, ok, I knew that -and then she excused herself so I could disrobe.

I got myself undressed, carefully hiding my boulder holder in the folds of my discarded shirt -don't ask me why, but I've always folded my clothes, being sure to tuck my underoos out of sight anytime I have to undress (I'm talkin like undressing at the dr's office etc... NOT whilst in the throws of passion... wait, passion? pfffft... nevermind.). I turned to get on the table but it was too high to just back up and sit down on, so I looked around, but there was no stepstool. So, I start to panic that Jr is gonna walk back in any second now, and not only see me standing there half nekkid but witness me trying to hike my fat ass up on the table that is too high... ugh, I finally make it up there and as I'm trying to get myself turned around and flipped onto my belly, I reach out and grab something, which turns out to be the face stirrup thing, for a little leverage and the freakin thing completely falls off! O. M. G.! so, now I'm on my belly, trying to hold my head up so I can see what I'm doing, while keeping my bewbs plastered down on the table, as I try and reattach the face thing without getting up off the table... I sure hope the spa doesn't have any hidden cameras in those rooms, because I'm tellin you, if they do, I'm sure you'll be seeing me and my boingly-doinglies on one of those shows where you send in video clips for cash. I was seriously thankful I hadn't forgotten my deodorant because I was starting to work up a sweat -and that's the moment Jr chose to come back in. now, completely mortified, I tell her that I've broken the face stirrup (what the hell do you call that thing anyway?) and she calmly tells me "oh, ...don't worry, it's not broken, it. just. has to. go in liiike... uhm..." and then she procedes to fight with the stoopit thing for what seems like several minutes, until, thankfully, it *finally* clicks back into place. by this time, I'm so busy concentrating on not spontaniously combusting, I just bury my face in the newly repaired face holder and pray I don't do anything else embarassing... like fart.

heeere we go... Jr splashes some oil on my back but before she actually begins the massage, I hear her take a series of what sounds like deep cleansing breaths like they teach in Lamaze class -I'm guessing that was to fortify her for the work ahead because once she got started she really worked my muscles, to the point of it being almost painful. I kept hearing her taking these deep breaths in and slow breaths out and I wondered if maybe she was doing that to cue me to breathe that way in order to relax... meanwhile, I was busy praying I wouldn't become so relaxed that I'd let one fly -gaah, talk about the coup de grâce, eh? by the time it was over, I felt like a lump of clay after it's been smooshed and kneeded until it's smooth and pliable -I was completely relaxed, and I realized as I was getting dressed, that I had survived, and so had Jr., who's name it turns out, was Alisha... and I had in fact really, really enjoyed my first massage.

fully relaxed, I floated out to the pedicure bench to sit with my feet in water that was so warm, I instantly regretted not having relieved my bladder beforehand -especially in my newly relaxed state. after a nice soak, I had my feet scrubbed, and then got exfoliated all the way up to my knees (thank goodness I had thought to shave that morning... I would have been mortified if she'd seen the Yeti legs I had been sporting!), feet and legs lotioned, nails and cuticles trimmed... and then had my toenails painted Stilleto red... and finished off with a spritz of yummy smelling almond oil -B.E.A.-youuu-tiful! I was so distracted by talking with all the girls durring this process, I didn't even have time to think about how weirded out I am by people touching my feet... long (boring) story there, but it has to do with some surgeries I had 20+ years ago.

so now, that I've experienced (and survived) "spa-day" I'm thinking I may indeed be a "spa-day" type of girl after all... and Jack may have to work some extra hours, do some side jobs, maybe even sell a kidney to keep me in the style to which I'm quickly becoming accustomed.

ahhh... life's good.

today's blog post is brought to you by...

the letter B.

B is for BFF. My homegrill Shayna Lou and her stud-muffin Doyle brought their motley crew up to visit us earlier this week. It's always great to see them and I love love love that our kids are BUDS and have no problemo picking up where they left off the last time they got together.

B is also for BEACH. We went to a couple of local beaches while the crew was here and the kids had a blast playing in the freezing-ass surf. I'm pretty sure they each smuggled enough sand home in their pockets (not to mention their nether regions -helleeeew??...chaffing anyone?!) to create their own personal little beaches here at home! Good times. :)

We've had absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather the past few days. I got raccoon eyes from getting BURNT at the beach while I was wearing my big ol' glasses and then yesterday, I managed to flambée myself to a complete friggin' crisp whilst I was finishing up yet another BOOK out on the front patio. *gaaah* I seem to have knack for looking like a complete dork whenever we go out in public and last night was no exception, I was practically glowing neon red when we went out to dinner to celebrate Jack's BIRTHDAY. We celebrated with some of our family who are in town early for our niece's wedding next week. Jack opened all kinds of fun gifts and cards, but the kids and I gave him his big prezzie a couple of weeks ago. We got him a new stainless BBQ -and I think we've used it almost every night since then -it's a real step up from what we had, lemme tell ya!

B is for BIRDS -the kids and I have started keeping a list of the ones we see around here. We saw BROWN Pelicans at the beach the other day so we've added them to the list and then the day before yesterday, we saw some Quail in the backyard -ordinarilly that wouldn't really be that big of a deal except that they had a whole bunch of BABIES with them -they were so stinkin cute running all over the place!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to this awesome little BIRDING shop down in Old Town Eureka and bought some new hummingbird feeders. We've had lots of different kinds but these are by far the best yet because they're so easy to clean. I'm so excited that the hummers have started to visit them pretty regularly. I got a couple of decent pics of a Rufous Hummingbird at the feeder in the BACKYARD but I really wish I could manage to take a pic of the little hummers that I've been catching in my garage window lately. For some reason they come into the garage when the big door is up and they fly to the back window and hover there trying to get out. Eventually, they exhaust themselves enough that all I have to do is go put my hand underneath them and they'll land on my fingers and I can scoop them up. The funny thing, (funny -duh! not funny haha!) is that not only is there a full size roll-up garage door wide open behind them, but there's also a regular door about 3 feet away, that's wide open too! Derrr!

And finally, B is for BLABBERMOUTH... 'nuff said.

funfunfun mail!

WOOO-HOOO! I got some fun mail this afternoon from my pal Bethany! :) She surprised me with this awesome little {note}worthy spiral notebook from Making Memories that I've been drooling over for weeks!

I've already got an idea of what I want to do with it and get this -I'm actually excited about doing something crafty! (yay me!) THANK YOU SO MUCH BEFFY!! you da bomb, baybee! *muuuah*

pffftt! who needs daytona beach??

Things are finally winding down and getting back to "normal" here at Rancho McBirdie. We had a kick ass spring break -totally different than any of our other 'vacations', because the family went in different directions (which may be the secret of our success!? lol), but we were busy and it was fun.

Jack had to work (work, Jack, work) and Andrew was busy building fence with his cousin Nate out at the ranch so Matt, Kendall and I left Friday after they got out of school and made the trek down to the clov-i to hang with Shayna and her gang. It's always SO good to see her and I love how the kids seem to pick up right where they left off ... it didn't take them long to figure out that they were on their own as far as entertaining themselves. They swam, played video games, and did a pretty good job of staying under the radar, freeing up the adults to drink margi's, tip back some beeyahs, and play a few cut-throat rounds of dominos (because, according to Bennett, that's what old peeps do), oh yeah... we're wild like that.

Saturday the kids colored eggs and the Easter bunny, along with her trusty sidekick, did a smashing (literally) job of hiding them. The next morning, the little grills pranced around the yard, hunting down the mangled eggs that the dogs hadn't already managed to liberate. After a delicious Easter dinner, we all hastened on down to the local bowling alley where a) we were entirely too high maintenance when it comes to renting shoes 2) were a little challenged by the automatic scoring machine, and c) Shayna kicked me arse in a bowling throwdown. I must say though, I was one proud mama when my girl managed to loft her ball onto the lane NEXT to us and then later, had an apparent 'early release' and sort of erm, threw the ball behind her... can't even imagine what might have happened if we hadn't been using bumpers! No doubt the PBA scouts would have our phone ringing off the hook ...if only our number weren't unlisted. *sigh*

As usual, I hated to leave so we stuck around for an extra day and got to see some other friends who came to visit (pffftt! go figure -they live within 10 minutes of me but I travel 8 freaking hours and see them!). I'm wondering if Shayna's fully recovered yet... at one point there were 5 adults and 9 kids bunking in her house. Crazy as it sounds, the kids were great and it was loads of fun! I laughed me arse off with Shayna over our retarded inside jokes, Doyle's goofy faces, Renee and her velcro pajamas and omg her 'my mom only has one eye' story will be a classic I'm sure. ...gooood times.

After a long drive home Tuesday night, I saw Andrew for about 20 min. before he headed over to Nate's house for the night, so they could get an early start over to Redding/Mt. Shasta to snowboard and stay with our friend Michelle (my kids' godmother). Thursday night Jack hooked up the boat and he, Matt and Kendall headed over to Shasta Lake to fish ...and to stay with Michelle. I had a few things to do so I stayed home and ran some errands with Pop, and then drove over on Friday night. We haven't seen these guys since last July/August so we had lots of catching up to do and we stayed up way too late.

Durring the days some of the guys went fishing and some went snowboarding, the girls just hung out and in the evenings all the kids played video games. Michelle and Jim took me around to show me some of the houses they've been looking at -kinda cool to see what's out there, totally can't believe how much the Redding area has grown.

Saturday night we took everyone out to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner to celebrate Tatum's 11th birthday. I'd never been there but it had a fun atomsphere and what's not to love about a place where you can throw peanut shells on the floor?! On a personal note, I learned it's not wise to start a peanut fight while wearing a low cut blouse -the upside here, is that with all that I brought home in my bra, I will be set once winter rolls back around.

Jesus take the whee-eeeel...

'cuz if I'm driving, I just know I'm gonna get a ticket! Wooo-dawgies!! -this baby is soooo much fun to drive!















For the past few months we've been toying with the idea of getting a car that's easier for Pop to get in and out of than having to climb up into the Tahoe, we were also hoping to find something that would get better gas mileage since I do so much driving with taking the kids back and forth to school and running Pop to all his appointments. This week we finally started searching. Monday we looked at Malibu's but they were a little too small. We found a decent Impala but the salesman was a pud... we went to another car lot and met a really great salesman but they didn't have anything on the lot that we liked. *sigh* So last night Pop finds an add in the paper for an '08 Impala SS -fully loaded, with a 'too good to be true' price. Just for kicks I called the lot this morning and the car was still there so we took a drive up to see it. We hopped in and took it for a test drive and about an hour later we were signing papers and driving it off the lot!

I was a little bit late to pick the kids up from school, but the look on their faces when I pulled up was priceless! We had to sit in the parking lot for a good 10 minutes while they played with the XM radio and opened and closed the sunroof -lol! LOVE LOVE LOVE the new car smell! The little monsters are already begging me to take them to school in the new car tomorrow morning ...my poor Tahoe is gonna think I don't love it anymore!

Highlights from yesterday...

*eta -not sure what's up with the formatting here... maybe I'll fix it later. But then again...
Yesterday was Matt's birthday -the big one-four...
























He opened presents early, then spent the better part of the morning dorking around with his new moving target system -this thing is pretty cool. When the rain started back up, he headed down to the shop with his new motorcycle stand/lift -it'll come in handy while he's tinkering on the BIG new Yamaha his Uncle Joseph handed down to him earlier this month -gaaah, he's a lucky (spoiled) kid!


Here's the birthday card we got him -anyone who knows him understands just how perfect it is:












inside it says:


There's one in every crowd...and you're ours!

Pffftt! perfect, I tell ya!


Mid-afternoon Jack and I took the boys to see Meet the Spartans (Matt's choice) -a spoof of the movie 300 - I like some pretty off beat movies but this was *so* incredibly lame... It'd be a safe bet that this one won't be showing up in my Blockbuster queue anytime soon. Surprisingly, I heard that it beat out Rambo for the top box office spot this weekend... crazy.

We had some of the weirdest weather yesterday -at least for those of us at, or near, sea level it's weird ...but SO MUCH fun...

















































yep -it SNOWED! We had lots of the white stuff coming down but it didn't really stick here at our house so we hopped in the family truckster to take a look around. About 5 miles up the road, when I stopped to snap a couple of pics of the scenery, the boys bailed out and had a blast bombing eachother in an impromptu snowball fight. There was lots of talk about 'yellow snow' but I think it was so darned cold, neither one of them was willing to, erm... brave the elements.

When we stopped to pick up Kendall at our friends' house, we all decided to head out for some chow at the Oriental Buffet -and seein' as how it was a special occasion and all... we decided to splurge! I tell you, nothing is too good for my family -lol! We ate and we ate and we ate till we couldn't pack away another egg roll, then waddled out to load up for the ride back over the mountain and home... Halfway back, we couldn't resist one last stop for a few more snowballs and a couple more pics of the white stuff before it melted.









































I think the sweetest part of the whole day -for me at least, was when I tucked Matt in and we had our ritual evening chat, he kept going on and on about how fun the snow was... I gave him a smooch and wished him happy birthday again. Then, as I turned out the light he said "Mom, I had a really good day". Gotta luv him!

Good times ...gooood times.

I spent the last few days with my bestest pal Shayna Lou, chatting about everything -and about nothing at all, just chillin and laughing at the stoooopidest stuff -there's just nothing like hangin with a good friend ...good times. Honestly, any chick who would brave 9 hours in the car, with 2 of her offspring, to come visit me and my hooligans, ...erm -family, in the fog and gloom, is pretty freakin cool, don'tcha think?!

We had lots of fun just layin low, not doing much of anything -which is one of the things I totally dig about her -we don't have to *do* anything but we still manage to have fun. We're just cool like that. :) One afternoon we managed to sneak into town (kid free! oo-weee, ooo-weee!) and browse the aisles of the local scrap store. Notice how I say we 'browsed'? Yeah, well, that's because I refuse to admit that I purchased even so much as a really cool set of giant paperclips to alter... nope, not gonna admit to anything. See, it was brought to my attention (more than once -lol!) that I am currently the weiner in the unoffical scrap-crap hoarding competition that we always seem to be having -lol! WHATEVER -I still think it's a pretty close race. Yeah, my name is Leafa and I'm in denial.

On the plus side of things, I was inspired (or was it pressured -lol!) to alter a picture frame, whilst Shayna knocked out the key-utest little altered box the other day. It's a plus because I haven't touched my scrap stuff in MONTHS! -just haven't had the creative mojo workin lately... felt good to get in and create a little bit and the ideas definitely started flowing the more I picked through my scrap stuff. My frame isn't completely done yet -just a few little touches to add... might be able to get in and finish it up tomorrow. I'm actually looking forward to creating again. :) I'll miss having my partner in crime to chat with while I play though.