Update for Gregory

Hello! This is an update that was requested by my good friend Gregorino. Updates, updates...what to talk about? Hmmm...

Okay, one thing to update everyone on is the fact that Little Miss. Lily is five years old as of today! Wow, time sure does fly. I remember when Justin and Chandel met, eloped (we all got in trouble for that one) and had Little Baby Lily. She is quite a character. And this picture of her looks just like her Aunt Aubrey at that age!

Another update is that there are only seven more days until we leave for San Diego! Yeah! I can't believe I haven't been there in a year. Seriously. I used to go down there every 6 to 8 weeks. I miss my sista'! I'm coming to visit Aub!

And the final update is that Quentin's soccer season is almost over! One more game to go and we're done until next summer. Although he has been asking if there's some way he could play soccer all year. I don't know if I have the energy to be a soccer mom all year, but there is an indoor arena just across the freeway from my office. I should look into it, but it's probably too much dinero.

Pumpkin Patches

Happy Fall! What a start to a new season. We had a major storm this past week. I love the rain, but the wind that accompanied it I definitely could have done without. Two huge trees came down at our apartment complex. One smashed a carport, and the truck underneath it, and the other came down over the sidewalk and grass area at the end of our building. Other than all of the mess we came through it okay.

The previous weekend, Quentin and I went to a couple of different pumpkin farms near here. One was not too impressive, but the other was pretty neat. We got lost in the corn maze and we went on a tractor ride out to the pumpkin field and picked our own pumpkin.

Quentin picked a huge one that he could barely carry. He was just a few feet from getting out of the field and he tripped over a vine. I felt really bad for him, but this chick that was sitting on the back of the tractor just kept laughing at him. Later on the ride back to the main farm I just happened to look over at her and what do I see? Hmmm....paybacks are a bitch. Don't laugh at my kid mercilessly. Now, I know that when someone falls it is funny. I will laugh with the best of them, but this was out of line. She never even asked if he was okay between her snorts and laughs.
Yesterday, Quentin and I met Justin, Chandel and Lily at the pumpkin farm in Lathrop. It's so cool. They have pumpkin blasters, a haunted corn maze, a regular corn maze, horse rides, bounce houses, zip lines that were added this year, oh yea and they even have pumpkins! Miss. Lily enjoyed her horse ride. She talked the ear off of the guide the whole way.

She danced her way down the pumpkin aisle. There was music going in the background, but I couldn't hear what it was.

Aren't they just the cutest kids? Lily told Quentin, "Quentin, you're my favorite." I said, "Lily, I thought I was your favorite." She informed me that I was her 2nd favorite.

After we left the pumpkin farm, which by the way was on the news today for having reached a visitor level of 25,000 people yesterday, we went to Bass Pro Shop. What an amazing store. While we were there we saw one of Quentin's teachers from Sonora. Small world huh? Here is a picture of Justin and Lily playing in the ORV department. Justin is fake crashing, and Lily is loving it.
Now, Lily is driving and Quentin is fake crashing. Again, Lily doesn't care. Ahhh....good times!

Good Times

Quentin and I had a really good weekend. We went to his soccer game Saturday morning and Quentin played very well. I really love to watch him play.

Then, Saturday evening we went to the Dierks Bently and Brad Paisley concert. I had gotten a deal on tickets, but they were for the lawn section. Once we got to the venue I went to one of the people checking tickets and asked if anyone was selling upgrade tickets (like they did at the Fray). They directed me to a man holding a small supply of tickets. I asked him if he was selling upgrades and he said "No". I was slightly confused, but then he said he would GIVE me upgrade tickets! I love free stuff!

Anyway, the concert was great! If the tour comes to your hometown you've got to go check it out! Jimmy Wayne opened the show and he did really good. But, our favorite was Dierks.

Don't get me wrong, Brad was awesome too. All three of them really engaged the crowd and they sounded as good live as they do on their CDs. At the end, all three of them sang Brad Paisley's song Alcohol.

We left then, beause I wanted to beat all of the drunks out of the parking lot. We were tempted to stay because Jimmy Wayne was going to be signing autographs and we thought maybe the other guys would come out too, but as they say "safety first".

This morning we went down to the river and hung out for a while. Quentin didn't have any water shoes and didn't like how the slimy rocks felt on his feet, so he put his socks on and played until it was time to go home and watch the Charges beat the Dolphins! It wasn't a very impressive game, but at least they won. Philip Rivers did have a couple of good passes though.

Sunday Drive

Andrew and I went for a quick drive around town the other day. There are so many places I failed to explore while I lived there. Here's an old barn that we came across:

And a cool windmill:

Andrew took this picture. I was taking pictures of weathered fence posts and whatnot and he said he preferred the rocks. So, I gave him the camera to take pictures of the rocks. Doesn't that rock on the right look like the profile of a face? Somebody must have done that on purpose. I'm not convinced that it's natural. Anyway, I'm glad I gave him the camera...my pictures of the fence posts sucked and the rocks look cool!

Surprise Party

Quentin's birthday is in a week, but we had his party today. He didn't know it until he got there and his friends ambushed him at the door of the pizza parlor.

He's been homesick and last weekend he asked if we could go back to Sonora. I told him I didn't know. Then, Monday I called and emailed and did what I could to make contact with the people I knew he would want to be at his party that he didn't know he was having.

It was last minute and a holiday weekend, so I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. But, it was really successful!

He was so completely happy to see his friends and especially his favorite teacher, Mrs. Neumann!

I just want to thank everyone for coming again and for keeping it a surprise! I know it was hard on some of the kids.

The Greatest Show on Earth

Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. I love it and so does Quentin! I remember when I was a little kid my Aunt Shirley loaded a bunch of us kids up in the station wagon and took us to see the circus. I figure every kid should see the circus at least once, so I asked Q if he wanted to go. He said no. I felt dejected, but said okay.

Well, a few days went by and the weekend rolled around. I told Q I wanted to go to the Circus. He agreed to go, but wasn't excited about it until I showed him a video of it on the web.

He saw those girls get shot out of the double-barrell cannon and he was all in favor of going to the circus!

He thought the guy that was in the cage with tigers was the "biggest idiot on the face of the Earth"! He was cracking me up. The guy kept hitting the tigers on the butt with his whip and Quentin would say, "Oh yeah, that's really smart! Keep smacking them on the butt. That will calm them down! He's going to die!"

We both had a wonderful time and I'm so glad that I talked him into it.

It Has Arrived

The end of Summer is here. Today was Quentin's first day of 5th Grade. He's not excited, but I am! I drove him to school this morning and we finally got confirmation that he will be staying in that school, so we don't have to worry about him getting transferred due to overcrowding. He is student #34 in a classroom that is allowed to have 34 students. :-)

He was looking quite handsome this morning in his new school clothes. I know I'm a bit biased, but really we've already had the little girls doing "walk-bys" in front of the apartment because "he's so cute"! No kidding. I hope the girls here aren't psycho obsessive like they were in the old school. Harsh? Sorry.

I started this post a little after 8:00 a.m. this morning and in the middle of it the internet went down. Free internet is not all it's cracked to be.

Anyway, Quentin did admit to having a good first day at school. He liked that the Yard Duty on the playground actually played with the kids instead of just standing there yelling at them. He liked the kids he is sitting next to in class. And, he liked his teacher.