San Diego (Said in my best Madagascar voice.)

My wonderful sister wanted me to visit so bad that she paid for my gas to get there. I wanted to go really bad, but I was tired and I plan on going in August so I told her I wouldn't go...right up until Friday at 1:00 p.m. when I went home and packed! I hadn't seen her since Christmas! That is a LLLLLOOOOONNNNNNGGGG time for us not to visit! Anyway, we had a great time. Traffic wasn't too bad. It rained off and on during the drive down there, but that's about it.

Quentin got to visit his Dad while we were there. He was very excited about that. I think Addison might have been even more excited though. He loves his Uncle Rob. They went to La Jolla and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, where they apparently had a burger eating contest that Addison won.

Aubrey and I ditched the boys Saturday afternoon and ended up going to the Padres game. The Padres lost, but we got to see fireworks after the game. During the game a beligerant fan nearly got himself thrown out of the park. Of course, he's the biggest Padre fan ever according to him. You would think that he would nearly get thrown out for heckling the other team since he's such a big Padres fan, but NO! He nearly got thrown out for heckling the PADRES! Idiot! He's yelling at the Padres players to hit the ball and they weren't even up to bat! Uh, drunk much? By the end of the game I felt like I had been at a Raiders vs. Chargers game rather than a Reds vs. Padres game.

We went to see the new Indiana Jones film on Sunday. It was good. It was your typical Indiana Jones movie. Hokie parts, good parts, gross parts, and scary parts. The story line was a little surprising to me. I didn't expect it to go the route that it did. Quentin is upset with me because I won't let him go see it. Honestly, neither one of us would sleep for a year if saw it!

Yosemite Field Trip

Quentin's class went on a field trip to Yosemite today. I was quite the annoying Mom this morning while he was getting ready to go. I had to give him "The Lecture". You know the one where you repeat every single rule you've ever doled out about behavior while in public. The one where you tell him, DO NOT get separated from the group, DO NOT run, push, shove, etc. while on trails, DO NOT misbehave in any way. Oh, and IF you do get separated from the group DO NOT go running around Yosemite trying to find the group! They WILL find you! He DID NOT enjoy it, but after one or two rolls of the eyes we went over the rules of using my digital camera and all was well.

Yes, you read that right. I let him borrow my digital camera...without supervision! Gasp! Don't get too worked up, it was the little digital not the deluxe digital. What do you think I am? Crazy? Not quite there yet...


Here are a few of the pictures he took:



Half Dome in all it's glory. What a beautiful day and great photo! Good job Q!




Waterfall. I'm not positive, but I'm thinking it's the lower Yosemite Fall.



This is Quentin and his friend Hannah.




The Boys. From left to right: Parker, Quentin, Ryan and Jarrod.

Morale Booster

The facility formerly known as Tuolumne General Hospital held a fundraiser/morale booster last week. Actually, I think it was just supposed to be a fundraiser, but hey if boosts morale over there then I say we should do it more often!

For just a little cash you could throw the ball and try to dunk Craig Pedro, County Administrator or you could wait and dunk Bill Morse, Deputy HR Manager. For just a little more cash you could buy a "Guaranteed Dunk"! One person bought a $100 worth of "Guaranteed Dunk" tickets and passed them out to anyone that cared to dunk the dudes.


Here are some photos of the festivities:




This is Craig about to go in. You can see Ann in the background utilizing her Guaranteed Dunk ticket! Love the look on her face!





Bill decided he wasn't going down without a fight, so he brought a Super Soaker. It was such a hot day that the people he shot with the watergun were actually happy about it.




Here's me taking full advantage of my Guaranteed Dunk ticket on Bill. See his socks through the tank? Too funny!



And the classic Nose Plug maneauver from Craig!

Summer Health Hazards

We all know that summer is quickly approaching. It's supposed to be a 100 degrees here tomorrow. Along with summer heat come some hazards. For example:

1. Heat Exhaustion - I'll be standing in line Saturday morning in 100 degree weather so that I can register Quentin for the summer recreation programs. These programs sell out and therefore NOT standing in line opening day of registration is NOT an option. I'll be sure to drink plenty of H2O.

2. Sunburn - Usually the first round of sunburns happen over Mother's Day Weekend. We sit out at the parade and rodeo for hours and end up with sunburns. Well, this year I remembered to put sunscreen on Quentin and me! Aren't you just so proud?! :-)

3. Drowning - We're all good swimmers, but you still have to be very vigilant! Be careful everyone.

4. Fire - It's already turning into a horrible fire season. Make sure you've got 100' clearance around your homes wherever possible!

5. Popsicle Dangers - Yes, you read it right. I said Popsicle Dangers! How on earth is a popsicle dangerous? Well, do you remember the movie A Christmas Story? The one with Ralphie and electric sex glowing in the window. You know the movie. (No, there are no popsicles in that movie.) There is a scene where a kid gets Triple Dog Dared to stick his tongue to a light pole in freezing weather. He doesn't believe it will stick, but of course it does! Well, I just ate a popsicle and my damn lip STUCK to the popsicle and when it became unstuck a little layer of skin went with it! So, beware my friends of all of the popsicle dangers out there! Don't let anyone Triple Dog Dare you into eating a dangerous popsicle!

Be safe!

Oops!

I got busted! By my nine year old son. What did I do? It's not what I did...It's what I didn't do.

Quentin lost a tooth a week or two ago. He kept forgetting to put it under his pillow. Well, apparently four or five days ago he put it under his pillow and decided not to tell me. He says it was his little test! He checked every morning and there sat the tooth. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights when he told me. I can't believe he did that!

I remember thinking a day or two this week, "I wonder what he did with the tooth? I better remind him to put it under the pillow before it gets lost." I even kept cash in my purse so I would be prepared!!!

Jeez! He was so proud of himself! He kept saying, "I knew it! I KNEW IT!" Luckily, he was laughing while he was saying it. I was hoping he wouldn't be too disappointed when he finally found out.

Are the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause next? I thought for sure that the Easter Bunny was busted this year, but he talked himself into believing in him still. Oy vey, my Little Man is growing up.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope that all of the Mom's of the world are feeling especially appreciated today. I, was appreciated yesterday because Quentin thought Mother's Day was Saturday. He gave me my gifts on Friday after school. He couldn't wait! He made me a bookmarker, which I am really using. He made me a little laminated poster thingy that he colored with markers. It's flowers in the shape of a heart and in the center he wrote:

Dear Mom, I wanted to tell you how much I love you. Think you for...sporting me, doing the dishis, feeding the fish, the longry.

I love it! Spelling errors and all! He also gave me a candle and another little poster with his hand prints and a poem.

Saturday, Mother's Day according to Quentin, we woke up and got ready to go to the MotherLode Round-up Parade. While I was getting ready to go Quentin made me breakfast. It was a bowl of Total Cranberry cereal...my favorite at the moment!

During the parade Quentin was on the Awana float. Well, he actually wasn't on the float except when he was getting a refill of the flyers or candy he was passing out to the crowd!

Here are some of the pictures from the parade:

Me and Lily patiently waiting for the parade to start.

This is a picture of the Therapy Dog that Quentin reads to in his reading class. His name is Arson and Quentin loves him!

Here's Quentin running towards the crowd to pass out flyers.

Sonora High Golden Regiment Band. They ROCK! No, I'm not a band geek, but these guys are really cool.

And all I can say about this parade entry is...What hell??????!!!!!!!!! This is a family parade people!!!!!!

National Scrapbooking Day

Yes, you read it right. May 3rd was National Scrapbooking Day! (See there are LOTS of us out there...It really should be INTERNATIONAL Scrapbooking Day).

I didn't scrap on the 3rd, but I did receive scrapbooking supplies in the mail that day. Hey, it was meant to be! I did make time to do two layouts today. A group that I am a member of on the Two Peas in a Bucket scrapbooking web site is hosting challenges all weekend in honor of the special day.

Here are the two I did...



Aren't those two cuties?! I love them. And, they love me. :-)





This layout is about the damage that Quentin does to shoes in record time! The journaling reads: These poor shoes didn't stand a chance against Quentin! They lasted about 2 1/2 months. This is what they looked like after that short period of time. He goes through shoes faster than any other kid I've seen.

Money for my Honey

Gregory and Quentin have an "arrangement". Whenever Gregory goes gambling Quentin reaps the rewards! This is a very lucrative arrangement for Quentin. What reward does he get? Well, if G.O. (Gregory) plays the table games and gets a fifty cent piece (aka Super Quarters), Quentin gets to have them. Whatever big money is won, G.O. gets to keep and rightfully so!



Now, the first time this happened not much time was spent at the tables and so Quentin got about $6.00, I think. However, since then G.O. has gone and spent a few days in Reno and a day at The Black Oak Casino. The Reno trip earned Quentin $26 and the trip to Black Oak earned him $20.


Quentin and I have an "arrangement" also. It is this: Quentin has to save whatever money he is given by Gregory and use it during his vacation this summer. He was completely fine with that up until he saw the commercial for the new Mario Kart game for Wii. Now, he's trying to talk me into buying that instead of spending it while on vacation. So, yesterday when he was given the Black Oak winnings he told me that he'd decided he definitely wanted the game. I told him he had to save the money for vacation. His solution is this: He's going to buy the game while he's on vacation!


What a smart boy he is!