Happy 4th of July!

Today our day started off with walking in the annual City of Corona 4th of July Parade. We have participated in this parade for a couple years now. I was fortunate enough to be able to miss the long staging periods in past years because Jeff would do it with Isaac while Max and I would wait for them at the end of the route. This year I was not so lucky. I seriously think they need to pick a shadier street for the staging area. It was way too hot for 9 am.

Our pack has 3 soapbox cars for the scouts to ride in. Here's Isaac in the Eagle 1 with his friend, Tyler pushing...or rather making sure Isaac doesn't lose control and take out any spectators. Brakes are not included on these so accidents can happen. One of the dad's offered to provide a kit for us to make a car...all we have to do assemble it. That actually sounds like a lot of fun! Then we'll be able to give the scouts more turns at riding in the parade.

Charlotte and Max hopped in to walk the couple of blocks with us. Max was so happy about this...being part of the action is what he really likes. He looks up to Isaac so much and doesn't want to miss a thing. We were fortunate enough to have friends along the route spray us with super soakers. Never thought I'd be happy about that but it sure felt good! After the parade, Annette joined us in seeing the new Transformers movie. Loved it! The computer animations/graphics are amazing!

We finished off our day with a family gathering at Pinki's. I took a little siesta while the kids had an all out water war including climbing on the roof of the house with a hose! Okay, not my kids but the big teenage kids thankfully. It is amazing how well they all get along with each other seeing how the age gap is up to 16 years. We're blessed with such a wonderful family. Here's the boys hanging out with Aireylle and Bree.

Aunt Doni and Uncle Randy were able to make it as well. They had just finished up their fire watch duty at Mt. Wilson. It sounds like an interesting job just looking out at the wilderness keeping an eye out for fires. They always have such fun stories about people they meet out there hiking through.

All in all we had a great time and enjoyed not only our fireworks shown here but the neighbors as well. Lots of illegal ones shooting up in the sky but still pretty to look at.

Skate Park Play Date

After months of bugging me, I finally agreed to set aside a day for the boys to go to the skate park across from church. So off to buy helmets and send out the evites to all the mommies I know. I didn't want to be alone at the park if something went drastically wrong and I'd have to do a hospital run. Moral support was a must! My nephew, Alex, happened to call the other day to see if the boys were available to play. They weren't that day but told him I'd be happy to have him spend the night and go to the skate park with us today. I'm sure Michelle and John will love me for this now that he has had a taste of new fun and adventure.

At 10 o'clock we took over the skate park and the teens that were there decided it was a good time for them to run home and get something to eat. Thankfully they did...the little ones were dangerous moving obstacles in the skate pit. We had roller blades, scooters, skateboards and kids just climbing around. It was close to chaos! Max actually was able to stay on his scooter in this shot. I thought he was going to fall off.

I never really knew how deep a skate pit was until I saw it today. As you can see...it looks pretty much impossible to get out of without a lot of speed and talent. I have now opened up a whole new world to the boys. They want to go back soon...like NOW! Wonderful. I told them they have to wait until their MediCal cards come in so I don't have to hassle proving insurance.

What Happens In Vegas...

really does stay in Vegas...especially the money you bring. Nothing like a short super hot road trip to Vegas. I'm not sure if we could have picked a hotter day to go. As usual we try to guess the temperature in Baker. Isaac was the winner at 109. I've been there when its been hotter but anything over 100 all feels the same to me. Anyhow, we decided to stop at the Alien Fresh Jerky store and saw these guys. I might have hitched a ride with them but they already had baby aliens in the back seat. At least they were buckled up for safety in car seats! Isaac and Max thought this was the greatest. Nothing like something weird to put a smile on your face. Annette decided to buy some of the jerky. I wasn't too sure about it....was it mutilated cows? or was it alien? or was it human? Kind of iffy if you ask me. She said it was the best she ever had. I have to agree with her now...on the way back I bought some Sweet and Spicy. Yum! If you're ever in Baker stop in and buy some.

Well we had talked about going to Vegas in August...yes, that's when it's usually hotter...but Annette wanted to get away for the weekend to celebrate the settling of our mom's estate, being able to pay off our debt and close a chapter in our lives. Nothing like losing money to get my life back into perspective! We stopped at Buffalo Bill's to have lunch and to take the kids on the log ride. I actally liked the ride until we had ice cold water shot at us by a rattlesnake! Max was not too happy about that. He's lucky...I got squirted by the black bear as well.

Max drew Auntie Nette a picture while we were there. I'm not too sure exactly what its suppose to be about but it sure looks like her reaction to Charlotte winning a lot of money on the machine that Annette just got up from! Too funny!

My friend, Janee and her daughter, Hope, joined us for the trip. They were able to go to Hoover Dam to sightsee and then to drive The Strip. Hope had never been there so she was excited to see it. The three kids were night owls....they stayed up til 2 or 3 am watching tv. Nothing like summer vacation to break all the rules.

Tent Camping 101

Let's just start with I haven't tent camped in over 6 years. Man! I forgot how much stuff you actually have to pack when you tent camp. My little Pathfinder was packed to the gills and even some on top! My friend, Janee, and her two kids joined us for a fun weekend. We decided to go to Table Mountain up in Wrightwood by Mountain High Ski Resort. It's a nice campground with some really nice spots that overlook the Palmdale lights at night. We went there for the annual yard sales on Memorial Day weekend. Lots of really good bargains. Unfortunately with all the gear packed into my car I couldn't buy too many big items. Bummer. Looking back I should have bought the storage platform that attaches to the hitch on my car. Now that would have given me more space for hauling yard sales finds or allow me to tie a misbehaving kid on to.

This little guy next to our tent is our infamous camping gnome. He keeps a watchful eye on things while we leave camp. Watch out! He'll get you if you mess with our site! Jeff bought us a new tent and air mattress last year when he went on the First Annual Mathmen Campout. Wow! It sleeps 7 and is easy to put up. The mattress rolls up into its own little pouch. Yay! Life is good.

Trailer camping is a lot easier but tent camping has its own charm. Well another new thing for me is actually cooking. I never really realized all that Jeff did for us. I do now! I was pooped out just from all the food prep, cooking and dishes we had to do.

I decided to buy a dutch oven and had to buy a Dutch Oven for Dummies book to learn how to prep these cornish game hens and get them cooked. I later made a peach cobbler that was to die for! My kids and I don't really eat chicken but Maxwell ended up eating a whole one! Wow! He said they were fantastic. Thanks Max! After dealing with all the cooking and taking over the whole picnic table I went shopping online at Cabela's and bought us a deluxe camp kitchen. I cannot wait to use it! I feel like Tim Allen in Home Improvement with the Binford model. Hoo hoo hoo!

Our evenings were spent around the campfire and one of the desserts we made were banana boats. Yum! Just cut a banana up the belly and stuff it with mini marshmellows and chocolate chips. Wrap in foil and heat over the coals. Isaac doesn't partcularly like bananas but he does love chocolate! He ate two boats that night.

All in all the trip was great and we're looking forward to doing more this year with other friends and family.

Scout-O-Rama 2009

Oh the joy of scouting! I wished our council did this fantastic event. We joined up with Michelle, John, and Alex for Orange County's Scout-O-Rama. It was at a much better location this year...Irvine Lake. Lots of shade and less chance of heat stroke! Our day started off with a little canoeing. Alex and Isaac hopped on in for a quick little paddle around the small man-made lake. This was Isaac's first attempt at paddling. Thankfully there were experienced Boy Scouts to navigate and control the canoe. They probably would have ended up in the middle of the lake and never get back to the dock. The Orange County Register had one of their photographers there and actually posted photos of Alex and Isaac in the online paper. Pretty cool!

Here's Isaac climbing to the top of the rock climbing wall. He made it to the top to ring the bell! Way to go Isaac! We made our way through half of the exhibits and even earned a beltloop on Weather for Isaac. All three boys were able to make rubber band guns....so watch out! They're pretty sneaky!

The best news for us that came out of going to Scout-O-Rama is that Alex's pack has given Isaac a full scholarship to attend Camp Wiley! Praise God! We aren't able to make it to either one of ours due to our vacation to scatter Jeff's ashes conflict with both camp weeks. I'm so happy that John has volunteered to take Isaac with him and Alex to overnight camp in the mountains. We'll have to wait and see if he'll volunteer again in the future.

Life is a Runway

Crossroads' Womens Ministry decided to put on a Runway Event where any woman could be the star of the show. I thought it would be fun to go as Carmen Miranda. Just the thought of wearing a basket of fruit on my head made it fun. Well that was before I found out that my Mom2Mom group and would have a bigger role in the whole event. No worries...what's the big deal.

So off to my neice's apartment in L.A. I went to have her magically alter my thrift store bought clothes into flamboyant calypso style. Within an hour while I made my necklace and earrings, Anna transformed my sleeves, ruffled me up and even made little ruffled wristlets. Wow! Way to go Anna! I swear she's the next Vera Wang. I had already made the hat with tons of hot glue and styrofoam fruit. Took me a couple of weeks to find bananas. I could not go without bananas....that would have been completely pointless.

Well remember the bigger role I mentioned my Mom2Mom group had? I ended up having to do a costume change in order to walk down the runway a second time with my partner in crime, Hollis. We coordinated the Friday Mom2Mom group last year. You can't see my feet but I added little boa pieces to my heels. They looked like those "naughty" slippers they sell at Fredericks. Oh my! I'm not sure if it was the heels or the basket of fruit on my head but I am now under chiropractic care. Yikes! How did Carmen do it?!?

Here's to most of the Coordinators of Mom2Mom 2008-2009. We pulled off one heck of a good show for 300 plus women and had fun while doing it all. Funny to see us all dressed up....usually we run around looking like crazy moms with our kids in tow. Funny thing now is when I meet new women and invite them to join Mom2Mom or Ignite at church they end up saying "Oh! You're the one who wore that outfit!" You'd think that the news reporters actually covered our event. Well Mom didn't raise a wall flower, did she?

Sleep Study

Well after going in to hear the results of Charlotte's sleep test...I lost it. Sleep apnea has about 25 to 30 symptoms such as headaches, snoring, teeth grinding, hypertension, acid reflux, weight gain, sweating, irregular heartbeat, any kind of sleep disturbance (talking, walking, sitting, standing) and getting up to pee at night. After Dr. DeSilva realized that Charlotte and I were related (I don't know how he missed that one) he took a look at me and told me to get our whole family checked out. So I was blessed to get tested for free due to lack of medical insurance. They allowed the boys to come sleep over as well so they would know where I was and feel comfortable with what I was going through. Here they are watching me get wired up. They basically just laughed at me when I was done.

So I went in that night to be tested. Wow! Nothing like being wired for everything and expect to sleep with all those wires! I felt like I was under the care of Dr. Frankenstein. The wires do a 100 point sleep test. They test eye movement, leg movement, heart rate, dream patterns, oxygenation, snoring, teeth grinding, talking, etc. After I got into bed I was afraid to move thinking I'd pull an electrode off somewhere. I was amazed that I got a good night's sleep. Thankfully I didn't have to get up to pee in the night. That would have been a problem!

The next morning I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. I went home and slept another 4 hours. Kind of weird seeing how I "thought" I got a good night's sleep.

So back to the clinic I went for the second night of testing...with a very lovely mask! Don't you just wish you had one? Actually its not as bad as it looks and it is quite comfortable. I felt that I slept worse but according to the test results I actually slept better. So weird how the brain works. My apnea is during my dream cycles and its slight to moderate. Charlotte on the other hand has severe-severe apnea. She stopped breathing every 30 seconds...that's 120 times in an hour! I'm glad that I forced her to be tested. I cannot afford to have another death in our home with the boys. I don't think I could handle that again or have them deal with that again either. So now after a few week of sleeping with the mask I'm starting to feel better. Dr. DeSilva said that once you're on the mask for about 6 weeks your body actually becomes addicted to it and you can't sleep without it. I don't think I would even consider sleeping without it now that I know I have apnea. That would be irresponsible on my part as a single parent. I encourage all of you who have any of the above mentioned symptoms...please sacrifice a weekend of sleep and get tested. Your life depends on it.