Miscellaneous

No Need for a Title

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How is everyone holding up? School is out so that has to be a little relief right? I was not in love with homeschooling our girls. We have been trying to keep busy with plenty of beach days, cooking and A LOT of games. Here is a glimpse at the past two months.

Last day of Kinder and 3rd grade.

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Kaili helped me make Tzatziki, which we mopped up with beef kabobs and pita bread.

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On the warm days we got shaved ice and wandered the beaches.

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To escape the repetitious days, we headed to OC for a little break.

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There were sunburns and kayaks.

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Then the wind picked up and we almost lost grandma and Averi to the sea.

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Luckily, a full recovery was made.

At night, the girls challenged us to some Uno and displayed their piano skills before we all fell into bed.

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As long as the sun is shining or even if it’s hiding, we will be spending our days at the pool and beach this summer.

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I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

Thanksgiving and Homebound

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We had a very nice and low key holiday. I don’t know why I say “low key” because there were 17 of us but since the kids were so entertained it felt, well calm.

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The girls had so much fun with their cousins, it’s too bad we don’t live closer.

No one went hungry. We had Brie en croute and plenty of snacks,  ham, turkey, all the side dishes and a plethora of desserts which I couldn’t even manage to eat until late that night.

I didn’t take any food pictures which is very odd and I have no excuses.

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We  woke up way too early the next morning to hit the road, home bound. We drove from 6:00 in the morning until 6:00 at night, went through five states and saw much of nothing but the girls did amazingly well considering. A good book doesn’t hurt either.

imageWe stopped for the night in Bishop, Ca. Luckily there was a Holiday Inn express with one room left that suited our needs. Once we were checked in we headed to a small Italian place for a decent pizza and then to bed so we could do it all over again But since we went so far the first day, the second day was much shorter. We pulled into San Diego by lunchtime.

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Not Bad

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We took full advantage of our Sunday, starting with checking out that shopping center I mentioned a few days ago. It’s got everything, restaurants, a grocery store, hardware store, a dentist and even a Subway.

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We chose to eat an early lunch at the place where the locals were. Some grilled meat, fries and cold cerveja.

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It was a pretty decent meal. After lunch we took full advantage of our pool, it was very cold but still very nice.

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And then we did the worst thing possible. We FaceTimed the girls, it was rough as Kaili was upset and trying to hold back tears. It really put a damper on my day. I tried to shake it off and we got dressed to head out for some tennis. Wags got us all passes to hang out in the family lounge…

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It was really nice to sit in the air conditioning with free beer, I mean who would complain about that? We got to really enjoy each others company for a few hours before the match started.

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When time came we made our way to our seats for Wags and Nicks first doubles match. The atmosphere was brilliant.

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They played some great tennis and pulled out a win.

We then headed to the other side of town for a very late and not so great dinner. Even the drinks were bad, but the company was worth it!

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Life Lesson

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“You can’t depend on anyone but yourself.” That is a tough pill to swallow and a hard lesson to learn, at least for me it was. When I moved to the OC   I quickly learned that there were some very flaky people, something I hadn’t encountered before. I remember my dad trying to console me after some of my new friends just “flaked” on me. That was the first time I ever experienced anything like that and I was hurt. I quickly learned that some people are just that way and it doesn’t bother them.The tricky part is trying to teach our kids that lesson. In the past few days I have had to explain to Kaili why someone wasn’t there or why something wasn’t happening, it sucks. I know it’s a life lesson, not everything works out and not everyone shows up…but she is four. Ugh, parenting is hard.

Kaili had her last soccer lesson of the month. They had a little scrimmage…if you can call it that. There were hand balls and wrong goal scoring but they had fun. I missed a few minutes, Averi dove head first off of a large rock on to the cement and I ended up inside the Y attempting to apply ice to her head. She had a really good goose egg on her forehead. Luckily it went down pretty fast, she was fine.

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IMG_7496IMG_7502IMG_0337Last weekend Shane spent the days putting in a raised garden bed in the back yard. A few years back he worked hard to put a play area for the girls in the yard. He moved the play area to another part of the yard and put the garden in, in a of couple days, he’s a monster. I hope this garden brings us the fruit of his labor.  I planted three types of tomatoes, four types of peppers, artichokes, and strawberries.

IMG_7539I told Kaili she was going to start swimming twice a week and I didn’t get a complaint…fingers crossed she just falls in love with it.

IMG_7526Did you all take advantage of national drink wine day? Those made up days are so silly but apparently my birthday is national margarita day, so……

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Halloween Eve

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Friday, we took Kaili out of school so we could make our annual trip to Bates Nut Farm. Going the day before Halloween was a big WIN! There was hardly anyone there, meaning no lines for pony rides, plenty of room in the petting zoo and you could actually browse the store without being shoved by the person behind you.

IMG_6386 IMG_6393The kids enjoyed themselves, you goat to believe it.

After the pumpkin patch we went to a restaurant on our to-do list and I was honestly miserable the entire time. Kaili was so good and so easy to take out to restaurants. But Averi, well she isn’t. There is whining, so much whining and she isn’t happy unless she is eating or walking around. It wasn’t a very “kid inviting” restaurant and I just felt horrible for her screeching while others tried to enjoy their lunch. Meanwhile, Kaili fell off her chair hitting the ground head first, causing gasps from everyone around us…she was fine. My blood pressure was not.

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After lunch we hit a few new wineries nearby because after that lunch, we all needed a drink. The first winery, Deer Park Winery and Auto Museum was like walking into the past. Everything in the “museum” had a layer of dust on it. The wine bar was something out of the 70’s as was the decor. The wine though, the wine was atrocious. The whole experience was strange. Yes, Averi is eating off of old dirty carpet.

IMG_6406After that experience we hopped into another winery but I think we were all done and ready to head home. After baths, finally able to relax we enjoyed dinner outside while  the men watched baseball and the girls played until dark.

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Thumbs Up

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Last week Kaili had her 6 month dental check up. To say I was proud of her is an understatement. I had been reminding her of her appointment a few days ahead of time, to make sure she wasn’t blind sided. When the day came, she didn’t even question it. They took x-rays and cleaned her teeth, the dentist gave us a thumbs up and that was it. She hopped out of the chair like no big deal. I love her.

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Her school had a field trip to Oma’s pumpkin patch in Lakeside. I took both the girls and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. This place was a kids sanctuary, they had everything. Playgrounds, soccer field, corn maze, hayrides, a toddler play area, animals, should I go on? But I think her favorite part was being able to pal around with her BFF’s!

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IMG_6250 IMG_6245The kids got a kick out of the hayride that went through the farms property and stopped inside the rather smelly cow stalls. The nice driver got out of the tractor and attempted to tell us a little about the newly born calf but he was drowned out by all the kids yelling “ew, poop” repeatedly.

IMG_6254 IMG_6256They finished the trip with a group lunch and by this time, almost 1:00, Averi was beat, she was asleep halfway home. First time for everything. Kaili on the other hand, wanted me to take her to the park, the girl is an energizer bunny.

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Lately

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Have you ever had a dream where you knew you were dreaming but couldn’t wake up, and then when you do “wake” up, you’re not actually awake? It’s called False Awakening and it happened for the second time in my life last night. Scary shit. I had gone to bed early to read when I kept hearing weird noises. I used to blame them on my cat but now the cat is dead so….I got up and checked the kids once, twice, and then fell asleep. My dream was vivid and started to get scary when I lost the ability to talk. Somewhere I realized I was dreaming so I willed myself to wake up. My eyes open and I am in my bed, I get up and go out into the front room. I tried turning on the light but the power must have been out, none of the lights worked. I went to open the front door and their were two men rummaging through my car that in the driveway. I tried to scream but nothing… I realized I was still dreaming.
Finally I really wake up and I feel strange, the room is like static, my heart is pounding. That was zero fun and now I in no way wanted to go back to sleep. I read until midnight and must have fallen asleep but this time I was sleeping like a normal person and didn’t wake until the Averi alarm went off at 6 AM.

Remember the swim class Kaili was enjoying? That has taken a 180. The class got a little bigger with a 1:5 ratio and there was a lot of “standing” around. Although the pool is heated she was getting really cold, shivering cold. It wasn’t fun for her and she would get upset and we ended up leaving class early. Along with that her ear started bothering her and with a fever we took her to see the doc. Turns out she had a double ear infection that started with swimmers ear. She is on a 10 day dose of antibiotics and drops but 4 days later she still complains her ears hurt. Not quite sure what to do about swimming, the YMCA has left a bad taste in her mouth. I want to sign her up at another school where the ratio is smaller but she doesn’t seem thrilled about it. Maybe they will let me do a trial run before paying for a full month of classes, what do you think?

Averi had her 9 month baby check. She is 17 lbs, only about 10 lbs lighter than sister. Average in length and head size and got a stamp of approval from the doctor. She only had one vaccine injection and she didn’t even flinch, thats the sign of a good nurse.

Photo courtesy of Brian Kerr
Photo courtesy of Brian Kerr

Kali’s birthday party is this weekend and half of the kids she invited have not RSVP’d. What the hell is wrong with people, these are kids, if you can’t or don’t want to come, let us know. I feel bad because she keeps saying “so and so” is coming because she invited them but doesn’t comprehend that I haven’t heard from their parents. Ugh, I just hope she has a fun day and can the rain please stay away.

Above Average

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It was in the 90’s this past weekend. You would have thought it was summer if we all weren’t in different stages of fighting a cold….Because everyone knows you don’t get sick in the summer. Kaili woke with a lowgrade fever Sunday morning but by the afternoon it spiked up to 104, I only mildly panicked. In my mind 104 is no joke and its higher than she’s registered but the nurse assured me she would be fine. Some Advil and a nap later she was feeling a bit better and by Monday afternoon she was fever free. 



I told Kaili that on St. Patrick’s day we can only eat green food all day or the Leprachauns will break into our house at night and steal all our chocolate. Okay, the second part isn’t true but the first part is and she responded with “yuck! I don’t like green food”! This was once my good eater. Speaking of chocolate, I haven’t met a kid that will turn down candy and sweets, she just doesn’t really care about it  unless it’s chocolate, that she will devour. It isn’t parenting until you have hid chocolate from your kid.





Three wine corks taped together makes an excellent shamrock stamper. Pin this for next year!

That was the extent of our Irish celebrating, being a mom, alone, on a Tuesday I just couldn’t muster that much excitement. I probably should start thinking about Easter, you know the day where all you eat are eggs or…..

Sip and Paint

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Poor Averi still has a bad cold making nights reminiscent of the newborn days. I have been sneaking into Kaili’s room at all hours of the night to get some quality sleep.

Saturday afternoon all the girls went to Brushes N Brix and we had a blast.

IMG_6072 I was a tad terrified when I found out we were going to be painting trees, unless they’re palm trees, it’s not quite my forte. I wasn’t thrilled with my final project but for the first time it wasn’t terrible. I could totally do this on a regular basis, and the wine truly does help. It numbs the pain when you realize you just fucked up your painting with black paint and makes it easier to just brush it off.

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Sunday, after taking Kaili for a run in the park headed downtown to sneak in a few wine tastings. We hit a handful of wineries that were new to us and most of them were really good.

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We were told to hit Trust Cellars by a couple of ladies and it was the best decision we made all day. We loved everything about this winery, we quickly became wine members.

Trust Cellars
Trust Cellars

We ended the day at a friends house. Telling stories over wine and football, we had a great time. ( HOW BOUT THEM HAWKS!!)

We did a Pepsi/Coke challenge with three syrah’s, one being a San Diego county wine and it held up like a champ against some very delicious Washington wines.

IMG_6120I guess it’s time to start getting ready for Christmas. I am not even done wrapping, are you?