when daddy's away...

Poor Nate is freezing in Salt Lake this weekend. Some people are 'freezing' here in San Diego, too. Though I must point out these people are not us. Its been in the low to mid-sixties here and frankly I think its perfect. Lots of folks who live here though are putting on their parkas (for real). Many have turned on their heat. Our home has been a comfortable 65 and I love it.

To party on this Friday night in the absence of The Great Defender of Fun, the kids and I ordered pizza, have watched many an episode of Little Einsteins (well, I read a book instead), and washed it all down with a shared slice of chocolate cake (or brown cake, whatever you want to call it).

Tomorrow will involve wearing pajamas most of the morning, a Christmas movie, pizza leftovers, four fabulous hours either spent with a babysitter (if you are James or Grace) or Christmas shopping (if you are me), dinner with the other Pages in town, and hopefully some on time bedtimes for one and all.

What are you doing this weekend?

the turkey did me in

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Giving Thanks has tired me out. I'm hoping to catch up soon.

dedicated

Rain or snow, sleet or fog, this boy here is always on the job.

Sometimes there are railway emergencies that need to be tended to stat.


At least he attended to business before he tended to train business.

Jimmy' girl and Jon's girl

We dropped Grace off at school this morning. As soon as the door was closed and we began to drive Jimmy said, "I aldeready miss Gracie. I aldeready miss my girl."

I suppose they've had a lot of bonding time lately. You can't help but feel close to those you conk out with in the back seat of the car strapped into car seats attempting to catch flies while your parents zoom through the desert in the night hoping to reach your Nana's house before your mom resorts to singing Bon Jovi songs to keep herself an attentive driver.



Thanks to Jon, we successfully navigated an unmarked detour (realizing the big trucks are most likely headed to the interstate, I stuck with them (and several other cars decided to stick with me) and wouldn't you know my new truck driving friends lead us straight through desert farmland right to the interstate - love those truckers, they won't lead you astray) and pulled into the drive right around midnight.

As a side note, during the next few days Grace sang "Never Say Goodbye" a lot.

More details and facts from our fact finding trip are bound to appear on this blog at least sometime in the future.

in transit or J is no van gogh

J: I not go to preschool.
Me: Its Tuesday and we go to preschool on Tuesdays.
J: I not want to go to preschool AGAIN!!!!!!
Me: Why not? Its fun! And you can see your teacher. She's so nice.
J: No, she bad.
Me: She's bad?! How come?
J: I. DON'T. WANT. TO. PAINT!!!!!!!!

We arrive in his classroom -

Teacher: Hi Jimmy! Its so good to see you! Do you want to paint?!
Me: Uhh, no. He rather emphatically explained he was not interested in painting.
Teacher: Uhh...

talk about trouble...

These five wild ones met and havoc wrecked all over Peach Tree Lane last week. May I say, these darling trouble makers make mischief look good!

We somehow managed to coerce them into some family pictures. That is a significant accomplishment. I think you should all take note of that!

scary some more

hanging in the family tree

What happens when the entire family gets together for 24 hours? Hilarity, fun, wild times, tasty food, trick or treating cousins, grown ups in coustume, and very tired (but happy) kids.

we want facts and we will find them

Tonight begins the beginning of another fact finding mission. As you may remember, our stint here in San Diego is most likely temporary. There are a few places on our short list and two of them happen to be in Phoenix and Dallas.

Tonight we trek east to Phoenix. The great thing about this is that our entire families (both Pages and Morrisons) will be within 1 hour and 10 minutes of each other. So we'll be doing Page stuff on Saturday and Morrison stuff on Sunday.

Later on in the week, Nate and I will visit the great state of Texas to see what its all about. Should be interesting.

I'll try and keep you posted.

emergency preparedness

This past Monday night, Grace was in charge of our family lesson. She was supposed to teach us all about being prepared for emergencies, what emergencies are, and things we can do to be safe. This was done in light of a recent church activity for the children on the same subject. The following is her lesson she wrote out. I wanted to share it with you so you can feel just as safe as we do:

Today I will talk to you about emergencys.
Emergencys are great danager.
There could be a fire tomarrow!
You never know when a emergency comes!
Like an earthquake or a tsunanis or a fire or an
explosion!
They can cause trouble.

Whatever you do, don't get
near them!
They can hurt you.
Reilly bad.
Relly super, superduper bad!!!!!

Raise your hand if you want to do an activity.

An activity?! I sure hope the activity involves putting us all in the middle of a danger-free zone with our 72 hour kits, haz mat outfits, swine flu masks, and gallons upon gallons of water. Well, and a little chocolate wouldn't hurt either.

scary

Super J (revisited), Witchy Woman, Leopard Girl

a serenade

a taste for work

Obviously Gracie thinks this gal is something special. Well she sure is! Besides being our favorite grandma in Chicago, my mom, and the go-to-gal for all things Beatles and/or chocolate, she is a published author! Mom has been a career coach and resume writer for years. She and two of her colleagues have put some of their wisdom and best practices into print. And if that isn't enough, there are some tasty dishes to cook up to help you along the process of job seeking.

A Taste for Work is a delicous read. And if you aren't in the market for work, you certainly are for some serious chocolate cake. See, this book fits all your needs. Click here to get your needs met!

Way to go Mom!! We're so proud of you!!!

clarification

What do you mean there are four whole quarters to this game?!

neither by plane nor by train

This is me on a date. I thought I cleaned up rather nicely.

On this particular occasion, we were meeting some ENT friends to ferry across the harbor, eat dinner and ferry back. Due to some major miscommunication we arrived at the wrong ferry crossing, took a peddle-taxi (you know, the kind with guy who rides a bike with you in a trailer attached) to the other ferry location, missed that ferry, then took a cab across the harbor to the 'island' (sorry, its really a peninsula, but island does sound much cooler). At this point we finally met up with the friends, had dinner, and then took another ferry back to our car.

Lessons learned:

1. Nate and I should really get out more. Its a lot of fun.

2. When someone tells you there is only one ferry, they are probably wrong (I feel I must clarify that neither Nate nor I were the ones to make that claim).

3. Fancy restaurants aren't always what they are cracked up to be. This one was beautiful, the food isn't even worth discussing.

4. Peddle taxis aren't as much fun as one would think. You never know when the driver might hit a curb (or something else).

5. Ferry boats are lots of fun (and so very inexpensive). We are certainly going to do that again. Prepare yourselves (those of you who choose to visit us), you will find yourself on a ferry for sure!

conversation tactics

If only you were pool-side today. You would have heard the following interchange:

Grace: "Mom, you look like a short, fat woman underwater! No, really!"
Me: "Uh, thanks."

Thursday check-in

Thought you should all know I am quite content with life at the moment. Grace is having picture day at school and there was no argument over hair or clothes. Nate is happy, he gets to do a great case this afternoon. Jimmy is sleeping on the living room floor (at least its a nap, even if its not in his bed). And I actually went to the temple this morning. I suppose it has helped me put things in perspective.

Hoping all of you have found contentment this afternoon.
-me

the apple didn't fall far from the tree

This young gentleman takes a bit after his mother. He loathes change, thus his dislike for preschool. I think someone should write a picture book version of "Who Moved my Cheese?" Perhaps it could be called, "Who Moved my Cheese-Stick?"

He loves his teacher and calls her "my girl, Mrs. ___." She's joined the ranks of "my girl.." with Grace and I. She should take note of the company she keeps in that category. He has friends at school. He is excited to check on the preschool pet turtle, Frankie. He is happy to play with the toys and even does the art project. He participates at circle time. He sings the songs. But he doesn't ever want to go back.

There's another little guy having a harder adjustment. Apparently last week this guy just started crying. Jimmy walked up to him and gave him a big hug to "feel him better."

He may not eat any vegetables, but at least he's empathetic.

hacking or stuffy? come to SD

This is the best weekend in San Diego to choke on a fish bone, stick some tiny legos up your nose, or tell you mother you stuck a dried bean down your ear about a month ago.

Its the national ENT academy meeting! Right here at the convention center. (I think it has had just enough time to recover from comic com, they've cleared out all of the Spock impersonators - well at least the ones that aren't Elvis on the weekend and the Storm Troopers have headed up the coast to San Fransisco).

Woo hoo

Actually, I do think its rather cool because several friends and acquaintances are making their way to this fine city and we get to see them and visit!

Last night Nate got to play chauffeur and tour guide to some serious fancy-pants ENTs. In his car (well, really mine. I just didn't think the Fancies would appreciate being driven in a car with its front bumper being held up by industrial-strength (read: those annoying ones that you wrestle with on Christmas morning which are binding your child's new toy to its original packaging) twisty-ties), what was I saying? Oh right, in his car was a fancy doctor from the UK, one from Germany and one from New Zealand. His favorite line of the night was as he was driving them back to their various hotels, they passed the temple on Hwy 5. Dr New Zealand said, "is that there the Mormon temple?" Nate responded in the affirmative. Then Dr NZ said, "Crikey."

Tonight we're meeting up with the family that has graciously offered to host our belongings we left behind in St Louis. Trouble is, it seems that its up to me to figure out where we're going to dinner. That will be four adults: two eager to discuss an assortment of doctorly things, two who are weary from child-related things, and four kids: one exhausted from not sleeping well last night, one thrilled with life and needing to tell everyone everything about her world in the 2nd grade, and two zonked from a day's adventure at Sea World. Any suggestions?!

ps did I mention its Endoscopy Day? Where's your party hat?

we're certainly not in Kansas anymore

I realized tonight that I don't live on the outskirts of what most people would really categorize as a ghetto. This came to my attention as Nate and I were sitting on our balcony which overlooks an under-used fire alley (this is a paved driveway to the main road (and really, it is not main but there are actual cars that drive on it) that is blocked off for traffic and fire and other emergency personnel can use it in case of well, a fire or emergency).

As we sat there an individual (cloaked in black I might add) walked up the drive to the gate and retrieved paper bags (grocery variety). This person (it was difficult to determine gender) then took the bags and hid them behind the bushes lining the drive. Our balcony light was out (its easier to see the stars if there are any, but alas there were not) and no one else was around. We were the only witnesses to this incident.

What could be in those bags? Well certainly drugs. It must be some crazy covert operation and anytime now someone will nonchalantly walk up the drive and pick up the bags. Action needed to be taken.

Armed with a flashlight Nate set out on a most dangerous task - to investigate the illicit bags and retrieve my goggles I left behind at the pool (well, he was going out anyway, so I asked him if he wouldn't mind getting those). He hopped the fence and investigated. What did he find you might ask? Bags of weed? (there is a lot of that here) How about some harder stuff?

No. It is just grocery sacks full of empty bottles. Call off the narcotic squad. Don't worry about those overhead helicopters either (those are just from Miramar). We just have empty bottles in totally recyclable paper sacks behind some bushes.

Although, they are quite serious about their recycling here, I bet the Reuse, Renew Recycle Squad is on its way. I'll keep an eye out for their green lights and sirens.