Tuesday.....and Wednesday

Okay, hopefully this will be a better day right? WRONG!
While doing laundry I transfer my son's clothes that he put in the washer into the dryer. I notice his ipod shuffle and head phones in the heap of clothes...just GREAT! I turn the power button on and no light comes on. I go to my compuer and google: ipod shuffle washing machine.... (isn't google great?!) I find out that this happens quite often to people and there is some hope. IF, ou don't turn the power button on and you let it dry out for a few days to a week it will start working again. Too bad I didn't google first then try it out. I turned it on. So...i'm just hoping and praying that it will work again even though I turned the shuffle on.

I go to pick up my son and his friend from school and inform him his shuffle was washed with his clothes and no longer works so say b-bye to your shuffle! Good job taking care of it, it hasn't even been a year since you got it!!!!

We get home and my son informs me how bad his day has been (I guess the shuffle news was just icing on the cake). He had his science teacher kinda reprimand him for something she thought he did (she thought she saw him pretend kick his friend while in line waiting to go into the class - when he was actually showing his friend how he did this skate trick at the park and hurt his leg). So he was all upset because she made him stay outside the class and talked to him while the rest of the class went inside so she could discuss it with him. He was all worried that she thinks he is a bad kid etc. etc.

Then at lunch he couldn't find his friend to eat with so he had to eat by himself. Then last period, he was talking to a friend and saying how he got honor roll 2x last school year and some kid he doesn't know says "honor roll in what? the retard class?" I swear kids are sooo mean! I asked my son what he said back and he said he told him "dude, you don't even know me!" and then the kid just turned away and talked to someone else. I guess he is just one of those kids that just randomly picks on other kids to see who he can push around.

Then..... it gets better. My son realizes that he left his brand new hat in his math class and he had just gotten it back because he had left it in his friend's mom's car when he spent the night and his friend had just given it back to him in 1st period and he already left it in his 3rd period class. So we got back to school so he can see if he can get it from the teache r and the doors are locked. The janitors were really mean to him and kinda yelled at him when he asked if he could be let in to get it, he was so upset at that point he almost burst into tears when he got back into the car...it just really was not a good day at all. I did call his science teacher and talk to her about the incident and we worked it all out. She just thought he was horseplaying but didn't actually think he would really kick someone.

Thankfully yesterday (wednesday) was a better day. He found his hat, the mean kid didn't say anything to him and overall he had a good day. Jr. high is such a big difference from elementary school. Kids at our jr high are pretty rough. And have been exposed to alot more than they should at their age. My son has been pretty sheltered so it's an eye opening experience to say the least. We're taking it one day at a time and hopefully things will get easier......

Monday....

So the downside of the week started on Monday night....
I go to run some bath water and I hear this noise "blub blub blub blub"
I remember that noise from a month or so ago and look over and sure enough the toilet water is bubbling. So, I shut off the shower. And start calling my husband. By the time he gets there the water coming up in the toilet is grey and soapy. It doesn't smell bad, more like soapy water but what the heck is with the grey water????? This can't be good. We plunge the toilet and then the water backs up the bathtub drain. I run out to Lucky's to pick up DRano, we try the drano, it gets rid of the grey soapy water but about 15 mins later when I flush the toilet to test if it goes down, the water just rises. I run to my friend's house to borrow a plumbing snake (her husband has every tool ever made!) and come back and my husband tries to fix it. No luck. So he finally calls a plumber who comes out at almost midnight to professionally snake the drain. I guess some really small roots were in the pipes about 30 or so feet out from the toilet drain and caused this to happen. I was scared when I heard roots cause that usually doesn't sound like an inexpensive problem. I was in bed at this point and just kinda listening to the conversation between my husband and the "drain doctor" (really, that's the company he is from!) only problem in listening to what they're saying is the repairman is filipino so they are speaking tagalog and I can only pick out a few words here and there. So all I hear is Oh here's your problem. Then 30 feet out, and look Roots!

Then I hear okay it's all cleared out! So I figure well if it's something major my husband will call me, but he didn't so I went to bed. Found out the next morning, they were really small roots that look as small as sprouts that you get on your sandwich. Still weird and kinda scary that they were in our pipe but hopefully we won't see them again! We've been in our house for 10 years and never had the pipes cleared / snaked out and the man told my husband it's good to have this done every 5 years or so in older houses. I'm just glad it's fixed now...did I mention our house only has 1 bathroom? That's right! So this could've been a really big problem! And with money tight right now, that's all we would need!!!! So starts the crappy week...aren't mondays lovely?!?!?

Another Up and Down Week.....It HAS TO get better!!!!

So it's been another up and down week. Started out good with our weekend.
Friday night my husband wanted to go see a movie (Resident Evil) with our son. He doesn't quite get that just because the parents go along with the child to the movie, it doesn't make it okay to let them see an R rated movie.... I was like um, that's rated R. He said well we're his parents and we'll be there with him, I'm like okay.......so if we sit and watch a porno with him too does that make it okay??? He got the point. =)

We're pretty tight on $$ right now so I suggested we go to Hollywood Video and rent some movies and pick up something cheap for dinner. I had a rent one, get one free coupon and everything would still cost less than going to the movies. (I also had a hidden agenda, I needed to finish a mini album I was making so this way I could do that while watching a movie at home!). The album is a long overdue bday gift for my brother's fiance. I wanted to make a cute album of their baby's first month (pics from the hospital with family and some from his first month)

Here are a few pics of the mini album I made:




This page I like because I documented all the text messages that went back and forth between my brother and I while she was in labor, there's some pretty funny stuff in there and I thought it would be fun for them to look back on all the texts and see the times they were sent, etc.)















There's more pictures but it would take forever to upload them all so I just added a few of the cutest ones!

Saturday we drove to Brentwood to visit my brother and his fiance and my baby nephew Ronnie. We had a great time, ate good food, watched on the of the movies we rented and just relaxed all day! I was happy to finally get a picture of my husband with baby Ronnie since he wasn't there to meet him when he was first born:



Here's a pic of Ronnie on the quilt I made him, he wasn't in such a good mood to have his picture taken cause I think he was hungry at this point.....oh well



Sunday was a kick back day. My husband usually tests his r/c boats to get ready for the races on Sundays so I usually get some housecleaning done and relax.

Sunday evening was "Girls Night Out" - aka Justin Timberlake Night!!!!

Here are some pics of us before the concert:





the concert was awesome. As always JT puts on a hell of a show!

I wish we could've brought our cameras in, we should've tried to sneak them but some other ladies parked near us came back because they were told you can't have cameras..... It's funny, you can't bring cameras in but lots of people were able to smoke weed, it amazes me.... I felt so bad for the 10 year old with us because this guy kept lighting up 2 rows in front of us...who over 40 does that and at a JT concert no less!!!!

Apparantely some people did get cameras by security because there are some good you tube videos online:





JT apologizing to San Jose for postponing the concert....(okay, he's forgiven!)





We were so EXCITED to see Timbaland come out! that was a surprise!!!

All Grown Up!

The other day I went to the credit union to close out our bank accounts. We've been banking with WF ever since we opened our business and it's just gotten to be a hassle to get to the credit union which is on the other side of town (in this city, it takes at least 30 minutes to get from one of town to the other). I put off doing it because I have all these auto-payments set up that are coming out of that account which I would need to change over to the WF account. Well I finally did it. At the same time we closed out my son's savings account and immediately went to WF to open up a new account for him. They told us about a new account they have just for teens. He has a checking and savings account (that has $0 fees) and a visa check card (which I will be keeping for when he wants to use it). It was pretty cool. I was kicking myself for not having a camera with me so I had to use his camera on his cell phone.....to remember his very first Checking account - such a big deal!!!! (i know....I'm crazy - but who cares!!!) ha ha!

Here are some pics:

Rough Week =0(

Been having a bit of a rough week so far. Struggling over the decision to get another job (currently I work from home which I will still continue to do) to help make more money. The winter months for us are normally a bit tight when it comes to $$ because we own an auto repair business and well business just seems to slow down around this time of year which causes us to make less $$ which causes S-T-R-E-S-S!!!!!! I've had a few minor meltdowns this week due to the stress and worrying about the winter and paying for things (xmas gifts, bills,etc). It's been a really rough week but things are looking a little better and I am still considering working p/t doing some sub-clerical work for the school district which will help bring in some extra $$.

My husband came home yesterday from work and brought me these:



It didn't erase the stress I'm having or make the problems all go away but it did pick my spirits up a bit.... =)

What Year Do You Belong In????

You Belong in 1998

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

My weekend.....

Kind of a nice relaxing weekend. Last night my son spent the night at his friend's house. I was tired and actually got to go to bed early for a change. =)

Today we decided to spend our "family day" taking my son and his friend to the skate park. My DH had never actually been there and my son was excited to show him how he goes down the half pipe. My DH's friend met up with us at the skate park and it was funny to see two grown men try to skateboard. My DH actually tried to go down a really little ramp and banana-peeled and fell on his A**. It was pretty funny. Then his friend mentioned he used to skateboard about 15 years ago, and next thing you know he's skating around the park (in flip flops mind you) and was actually pretty good for an old guy ha ha! I video taped them, I'll have to try and add a youtube video of it later on. I'm too tired to edit and upload right now.

TOnight we took my son and 2 of his friends to the movies. To give the kids a "little bit" of freedom, we actually (with their parents permission) let them see a movie they wanted to see, while my DH and I watched this:



What a GREAT MOVIE! It was very intense, and I experienced many emotions while watching this movie. JOdie Foster is such an amazing actress!!!! If you get a chance to go see a movie, go see THIS ONE!!!! You will not be dissapointed!

Quick recap of my week SO FAR...

Monday - unpack our RV from our camping trip / r/c race last weekend - my son came in 2nd place woo hoo!!!

Tuesday - got my brows and hair did...went through STICKER SHOCK when I found out it was 180.00 to get my hair done...I was out 200 bucks by the time I paid for the services and tip YIKES!!!
**Fount out Justin Timberlake CANCELLED and RESCHEDULED his SJ concert...bummed that we can't go tomorrow....

Wednesday - spent my evening helping my son with accelerated pre-algebra (Arrrrrrrrgh!) BECAUSE he finished all his homework first thing when we got home but of course I waited til almost bedtime to ask him to let me sign off his school agenda and all his work. Noticed there were two math problems with only a ? where the answers should have been which started a discussion on why we didn't ask someone earlier for help? And how many times do I need to tell you that if you need help you need to tell me, because I do not have E.S.P.? Turns into son getting all frustrated and crying because he is at this point totally tired and wants to go to bed.(have you gone through this with your kids?? - it is so frustrating for both ends!)

So.....we pull out the handy dandy math book, and I try to review the example problems to see how the heck you solve these problems!

let me just start by saying I don't even remember ever taking algebra back when I was in school. This is all foreign to me. I *think* I have figured it out but I call my friend who is a chemist, he comes up with the same answer as me but isn't positive cause he is a little rusty with these types of problems, so I call my friend's daughter who is a year older and had the same math teacher last year. She confirms we have it right but then as I'm asking her about another problem, I realize my son has skipped steps on a lot of the problems and this leads us to redoing the entire assignment when he should be in bed!!!! SO MUCH FUN I TELL YA!!!!

So....if you feel like being challenged (if you're like me) here are the 2 questions he had which he had no clue how to do:

1. 10[8(15-7) - (4.3)]




2. 8[26+10) - 4(3+2)]


See if you can answer them.... =0)

Will write more later...my brain is completely fried! Must go do something that doesn't require too much thinking, like play my pogo island poppit game on my new nintendo ds lite!

B-bye!

Gettin Ready for Fall!!!

Just a quick post about the wreath I made for my front door. Last year I made a pumpkin topiary and had leftover supplies to make a cute grapevine fall wreath. I never got around to it so I pulled out the bag of supplies this morning and here is my finished wreath:

First Day of 7th Grade!!!!

I'm feeling a bit old today. My son started 7th grade and is now officially a Jr. High School Student. This is a big deal. I'm sad because it means my baby is all grown up, but excited for him because Jr. High is so much fun! I really enjoyed my jr high school years and I know he will too. Here he is having breakfast this morning:






And a few pics outside by our tree (we do this every year!)



His cool new backpack that cost me an arm and a leg (cause he just HAD TO HAVE one that has the straps for holding a skateboard on the back - like he will ever be using that feature!)



And finally his new cool shoes that I picked out. They are the Travis Barker DC Boom Box Shoes...aren't these sweet??????

bACKTRACKING....

So the 27th was my bday but I didn't blog about it. Wasn't much to blog cause it was a weekday and husband had to work so all we did was eat out at Olive Garden....but my BF Valerie helped stretch out the celebration by sending me this birthday package that arrived in the mail today (it was suppossed to arrive on my bday but the box kept arriving back at Valerie's house every time she shipped it (long story!) anyways....here is what she sent me! Lots of goodies!



She sent me

a bunch of Love Elsie stuff! (love that line!)
2 reusable grocery totes (super cute!)
a cool photo cube with pics from our SF trip a few weeks back
a note pad
a cool camera strap for my new camera I got for mother's day
(you can get yourself one of these cool straps here:


http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5159339



a cool mini AMM tote

a new recipe magazine and
some sticky notes!

THANKS BUDDY! I love my gift and it was definitely WORTH THE WAIT!!!!!!!!

Other things I got for my bday which I love is:



love that they have it in PINK!!!! I'm gonna have to get some bling to make it all flashy!!!! I also got BRAIN AGE 1 & 2, Big Brain Academy, and Pogo Island

I also got this which I love cause I can charge up my ipod while playing it on this (it's great to blast my music while I'm doing housework!!)

Gone Fishin'

Today my husband and son had a guys day out. Our friend Lorenzo and his sons picked the guys up at 5:30am and headed to our other friend's house to get his boat and they all went fishing in Santa Cruz.

Lorenzo and his boys got really sea sick so they ended up coming back and sleeping it off in their truck.





My son caught 4 fish, actually caught 2 on one line which he was really excited about. They brought home some ling cod and roc cod. We fried it in beer batter and had it for dinner tonight...it was yummy! (well the ling cod was, I didn't care for the roc cod too much)....


Our good friend Jeff (who owns the boat) - he's single ladies, anyone in the bay area wanting to meet a really great guy??? If I had any single friends I would totally hook this guy up, he is a sweetheart!

Keepin' Cool at the Pool

Yesterday was so much fun. We invited some friends to our pool club to swim and bbq. The guys played ping pong, volleyball and relaxed in the pool. We had a really good dinner that our friend Lorenzo made (Carne Asada tacos YUMMY!)

A Day in Santa Cruz

Saturday was our "family day" so we decided to go to Santa Cruz. We ran some errands, went to Camping World in the morning and then headed over to have a late lunch / early dinner in Santa Cruz.

We went and bugged our friend's son who works as a parking attendant at the boardwalk, parked and took him to lunch then left to walk around a bit.


We didn't ride a bunch of rides, just one, I made my husband ride the ferris wheel with me. I hadn't been on one in YEARS!!! It was so much fun, and kinda scary...we were REALLY high up!






Before we left the boardwalk, we took pics in the picture booth in the arcade section (for old times sake!) My husband and I have been together for 19 years and used to take these pictures all the time....so it was fun to do this. It brought back memories. =)



After we left the boardwalk, we went to Downtown Santa Cruz and went to a skateboarding shop so our son could get some parts he needed and then we headed back to the beach to go on the wharf / pier.


Here is a picture of the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk from the pier:




We had a nice very casual dinner sitting on a bench on the wharf eating my favorite things to eat at the wharf!:we shared clam chowder in a bread bowl, shrimp cocktail and my husband's fav ceviche. It was so nice to just sit out in the warm sun and enjoy the views.

Lunch with Friends...

I had a nice lunch with two of my girlfriends that I used to work with at Sun Microsystems....at my favorite restaurant EL PATIO!!!