Yep- I wussed out!

So I had gone back and forth so much about cutting off my hair, because I was sick of it being in a pony tail everyday. I made my appointment ready to go drastic with only a few lingering comments holding me back. (Mainly Annie's!) When I got to the salon, Amy, my hairdresser, said this (she is my same age and has long hair too) " You have the rest of your life to have short hair. Not very many women can pull off long hair after 40 and if you tried to grow it out after this short a cut, you would be about 36 by the time you got it to the length it is now." That was roughly the comment that my friend Annie had said, which had really stuck with me.
So that was it. I decided not to cut it off just yet. If I really can't stand it I can always go back and cut it when I am more confident!-

Thanks for all the support and kind comments! I am very grateful to have friends who care!

Before -------- ------- After

Swim Team Is Done!!

So this summer the Jade and Cambrie have been doing swim team. They were part of the Riverbank Barracudas. This was a first for our fam and we had lots to learn... like driving to Patterson and Delhi for meets is rediculous! But it was a great experience for them. I was proud to watch how they progressed over the last few months. Jade was a strong freestyle swimmer and Cambrie rocked at the back stroke. In the end they both got ribbons for the relay teams they were on and Cambrie got a overall bronze medal for back stroke. Brian and Colby made it out to the home meets, and Becca and I usually carpooled to the away meets. (It's great to have your friend's kids in the same activities!)

Overall I think it was a great experience for them and they had a good time!

Help me pick!

Ok- so I want to cut my hair and I can't decide on a style so I am looking to friends to help me! Do you think I should go short or keep it long? The long pic isn't very accurate, but basically my hair would stay the same as it is now. Leave your vote in the comments and I will post the before and afters later!
Long 1

Short 1

Short 2

Short 3

Short 4

Short 5

Short 6

Little Mc Colby's Birthday Party

So I finally pulled it together and did Colby’s 3rd birthday party. The format I used last years seemed to almost work, so I figured now that he was a year older, it would work even better. The theme we chose for this year was “At the Farm” Here is the invitation:

I got a bunch of cowboy hats for the kids to wear while they were rounding up the “animals” on the farm. They would hunt around the family room until they found an animal puppet. While we were waiting for everyone to get there and find their animal we had some snacks set out for the kids. Obviously their round up must have taken a lot out of them because they attacked the snacks like a bunch of…. well animals!

Then when all the animals were gathered we sang some songs and did a few animal and farm finger plays. Then we danced to some movement songs. Once the kids starting getting into it they seemed to have a blast. Colby loved it! He was bouncing around being a worm, a fish, a bear, a snake and anything else the songs told him to be. I loved that he had fun with all the activities. It was right up his “animal” alley. Brian came home for lunch to be there for some of the birthday party and was a great sport about acting things out with Colby too!

Colby really seemed to have “rounded up” quite a few presents as well. He is at a fun age where he was really excited about everything he opened. I love that he knew all of his friends and when I told him who his gift was from he would go tell them Thank You!

Then of course is cake, or cupcakes in this matter. One of Colby’s favorite songs of all time is “Happy Birthday”. He was so excited when everyone started singing to him! When I put the cupcakes in front of him, he was so excited he started blowing out the candles before we were even half way through the birthday song.

In effort to make for easy clean up, we took the kids outside to eat the cupcakes. By the green on their faces, they all seemed to really enjoy them. Especially Colby! I think in all he really enjoyed his birthday party! Thank you to all those who came and help make it such a fun event!

We Know What Matters Most!

Lately Brian and a bunch of Buddies have been on a PS3 "Call of Duty 4" kick. There has been lots of time spent gaming with different friends and on-line. (too much time if you ask me... but of course nobody is asking me) Anyway I thought it was truly a defining moment when Matt strapped their baby Ella on to his chest and kept on playing! I guess there is not much that will slow them down. ... except maybe Brian's homemade peach cobbler. (I will have to elaborate on that later!)

Colby is 3!

Yes- My baby is 3! Being the slacker Mom that I am, I dropped the ball about planning a party for Colby on his birthday... I might pull it together later, but I didn't make it for today. But when push came to shove, I remembered about Colby's "Happy Place". So to help make it a special day we went headed to Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner. Colby absolutely loves Chuck-E-Cheese, and Brian dis-loves it as much as Colby loves it. I guess it can't be everyone's happy place. Anyway, Colby had a great time. He kept telling us... "I lika chucka cheese"! His favorite ride was a Derby horse. The horse rides in a race on a screen and you can control the horse with the reigns and the saddle. I have to admit it was pretty cool. He seemed to have a great time. Pizza, playing, and prizes what else could a 3 year old want? Happy Birthday Colby! We Love You!

Peaches Anyone?

For Real... I really thought I loved having a peach tree. The idea of fresh peaches anytime you want seems very appealing, even to me, and I am not the biggest peach fan. What I seem to forget every year is that the peaches don't come when ever you want. They come when ever they feel good and ready and then they start falling faster than you can pick them. We went up to my parents for the weekend holiday because Brian had Monday off. We took a large bowl full of peaches with us when we went up since they were starting to get ripe. When we came back quite a few of the peaches had turned ripe and then some. There were so many peaches! Brian hauled in about 4-5 shirt loads FULL! They practically covered most our counter top and that's not even counting all the one's that we gave to neighbors or that were on the ground that we chucked. I know what I'm doing tomorrow... can I say: peach pie, peach jam, peach cobbler, or peach fruit shakes? If you have any good ideas of what else you can do with peaches please let me know!!

Brian's Surgery

Today Brian had his hernia surgery. Last night Alex was over talking to Brian about his procedure and Brian was getting all worked up about what they were going to do. He could have cared less that they were going to cut his belly open, but he was all upset that he was going to be intubated (have a tube down his throat), and have a catheter (a tube up his pee pee). So really the surgery wasn’t a worry, but the pre-op stuff was stressing him out. We had to be at the hospital at 5:45 in the morning. After a slow check in, they took him to the back to get him prepped and ready and then they let me come back and stay with him until he was taken in to surgery. When I came around the corner and saw him in his gown and cap with a big smile on his face. At first I thought it was because he was happy to see me, even though it had only been about 20 minutes since I was last with him, but then I met his nurse! Yep, he got a cute nurse! “Jaime” had been very kind to Brian and was making him feel pretty at ease. After she left the room, he informed me that if for some reason he did end up having to have a catheter, he wanted her to be the one to do the procedure. Well at least I knew he was still feeling like himself! After we had been waiting awhile Jamie informed us that Brian’s doctor had to do an emergency surgery this morning and so he was running behind. We ended up having to wait an extra hour and a half longer before they took Brian back into surgery. Boy was he the wrong patient to have waiting. About an hour into the wait he was starting to work himself into a mild panic. The doctor had come by to check in with him and he looked at his stomach pushed on it a little and was done. Brian asked if taking the hernia out would get rid of the bleeding bumps in his belly button. The doc responded that the bumps and bleeding weren’t the hernia. Now Brian was starting to get upset.
“What if I don’t really have a hernia and they cut me open for nothing.”
I kept asking Jaime if they could give him his happy juice while we were waiting so I didn’t have to deal with him. (just kidding babe! – well sort of)
Finally they were ready to take him in. So one last visit from Jaime with the happy juice! Brian wondered when and if it would make a difference, or when he would feel it. Before they even had him to the first set of doors, he yelled back to me “oh yea, it’s working, I feel pretty good!” And then he was off.
Thanks to my Mom, I was able to stay at the hospital and wait for Brian and to hear what the doctor had to say. Just over an hour later, the doctor came out to talk to me. Sure enough there was a hernia, but it was a small one. The reason his belly button had been bleeding was because it was such a deep belly button that it was almost touching the hernia and new blood tracks had been formed up along and through the belly button. His belly button was about 2 inches deep, which is pretty deep according to the doctor, and probably part of the problem. They removed the hernia and decided to remove about ¾ of his belly button to get rid of the bleeding tracks and so that this shouldn’t happen again. Then they cauterized the rest of the tracks. Now his belly button is only about ¼ - ½ inch deep. The doctors final words of encouragement were: “ Well, at least it should be easier to keep clean now.” (meaning the belly button) – Great!?!?
The nurses came and got me from the waiting room as soon as Brian woke up from the anesthesia. – Talk about chatty cathy! I was impressed how wide awake he was, and just chattin’ up the nurse. He had kindly asked for a little water and they brought him a cup with a straw. He then barely lifted his arm, like he was trying to reach for the cup but was too weak. He then looked at me with his little pouty face and a help me expression. It was then that I knew I was in trouble. There was going to be some serious milking going on. It was ok though, at least temporarily. I was just glad to see he was awake and alive. (you never know) It wasn’t very long after he woke up that they were discharging him. I brought him home and we got him drugged and tucked into bed. That was interesting! Trying to help him lay down took a few tries and some manipulative moving, but we did make it. So far he has been really good about doing his walking and keeping up with his meds. He says the strangest part is that he feels like there is a lot of pressure on his belly and his guts are going to pop out. Since the incision is only about an inch long I guessing that won’t happen, but I’m sure it feels weird. Your body probably just doesn’t like being cut into. Hopefully he will have a speedy recovery and all will be well… for both our sakes!

When Husbands Are Away, The Wives Will Play

Brian and his friend Ryan headed up to my Dad’s house last night to stay the night so they could go dirt biking up in Arnold today. They were meeting up with Alex this morning, who was already up in Yosemite with his family. So last night, to start off my husbandless time, I got together with my friend Kara, who’s husband was off golfing. We decided to get together to swim and BBQ at her Mom’s house. Her husband was on call for work.

We let the kids swim for awhile, and then they discovered some of Sue’s, Kara’s Mom’s toys. It started with a pink mini quad. Colby was instantly obsessed. He also had some sort of fascination with some kid size flippers. He can be really random. Anyway the kids all rode the little pink quad until it died, and I mead dead as a door nail. We knew it was shot when Colby started asking for us to push him. These spoiled kids don’t even know what it’s like to have to make toys move on their own.

We had a yummy BBQ with some nice flame broiled hamburgers and hot dogs, fruit and a great pasta salad. (by the way I want that recipe Kara) Then Kara brought out the big Barbie jeep. The kids played around in the yard on the slip and slide and the jeep until it was time to shower up.

Luckily the Winter’s have an outside bathroom with a shower. I was going to quickly throw the kids in and shower them so I could just take them home and put them in bed. It was a great idea until we were about half way done and found out that the water heater was only meant for a one man shower. Jade got a nice hot shower, Cambrie has a mostly hot shower, Hailey felt the warm water, and Colby had a pure ice bath and screamed through the whole thing. We did learn a lesson however… next time put everyone in the shower at once turn on the water, get wet, turn off the water, wash, turn the water back on and rinse everyone. That or just go inside and use the bath there! Now we know! It was a fun time and a great to have friends to share it with. After I got home and put the kids in bed, Kara came over and we watched “Bride Wars”. It was a story about best friends and it really made me grateful for the wonderful friends that I have!! We even watched a few clips from this season of “So You Think You Can Dance”! I am so excited!
Then today we wanted to have as much fun as the boys so we headed down to Evan’s house to play. We made a quick stop at Costco for lunch plus a few items, where Karen and her kids caught up with us to head to Evan’s as well. I love having friends whose husbands play with mine! When we first got there the kids headed straight for the pool. Due to the fact that I brought everything but the kitchen sink; I had to make a few trips back to my car, one of which was for Colby’s life jacket. As I came into the backyard with the life jacket in hand I can see Colby headed down the pool steps. Before I could even yell his name he was under water. I b-lined for the steps, reached in and pulled him out. His poor little eyes were peeled wide open and he was just looking up in a panic. He was kicking some but it didn’t help much. His arms were just reaching up. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. I know this is a little sick, but I almost wish I had a picture of it. He was really only under for a couple seconds, but it was an ohhhh moment. After that he didn’t fight me to much on wearing a life vest, although he ended up wearing Abby’s suit vest which was pink with blue flowers because he liked it better. I think it was easier for him to move around in. Luckily the inside was blue, so we turned it inside out so it didn’t look quite so girly. Not that he even cared.

For the remainder of the day we basically sent the kids out to play while we caught up on our blogging. Karen brought her computer, but it never quite made it out of the bag. Liz and I were practically glued to our chairs, almost literally for Liz. She had shorts on so just about every time she got up from her chair she had a leg peel! We watched the kids play and have a good time as we did what we enjoyed doing, working/ blogging on the computers. We set out a bunch of snacks and fruit ahead of time and figured when they were hungry they could graze. (and not bother us). It worked pretty well until the afternoon started to wind down. Then we held them off for as long as we could by giving them sporadic finger fulls of chocolate chips if they would ask nicely and smile for the camera. After awhile I noticed it had been a little bit since I had been pestered by Colby. Curious where he disappeared to, I called out for him. He was quickly by my side with a big red grin on his face. Some of the kids had found a stash of Red Vines. I guess I learned that if you don't help them, they will help themselves! It really was a fun couple of days! Except for Colby almost drowning of course!