Tagged Again

So I have been tagged again and here goes.

1. 10 years ago:
2. 5 things on my to-do list today:
3. Snacks I enjoy:
4. What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire:
5. 5 places I have lived:
6. 5 jobs that I have had:
7. 3 of my BAD habits
8. 5 Random Things people don't know about me:

1. 10 years ago: I was newly engaged to Nick and 20 years old. Oh little did I know what lied in store for me. I worked for my dad at Smith & Chapman and I drove a 1989 Gold, Chevy Celebrity. (That's a grandma car) I was lucky enough to pass it down to my sister when I got married.

2. 5 things on my to-do list: 1. pay my bills, 2. return to the gym after a week off, 3. catch up on a weeks worth of laundry, 4. clean my bathrooms, 5. start my diet again. Going out of town really messes my schedule up. I have to play catch up.

3. Snacks I like: raw almonds, celery w/ peanut butter, string cheese and pretzels, and lets not forget chocolate, a girls best friend.

4. If I were a billionaire: I would travel the world with my family in our private jet. Live on the beach and have homes in New York, Hawaii, and Italy. I would pay off family's mortgages. I would buy a Range Rover just for me to run errands in, it would be kid free and have another car for the fam. I would have a housekeeper and chef to do the things I hate doing so I could spend all my time with me kids. And I would open some kind of business. I don't know what but something. And invest millions apon millions so I would never worry again.

5. 5 places I've lived: San Diego, Los Alamitos/Seal Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Huntington Beach, Chino

6. 5 jobs I've had: Nordstrom(sold expensive sunglasses & scarves), Smith & Chapman (law firm clerk) YMCA (after school daycare director), Nanny(for many different kids), Mom(most important)

7.3 Bad Habits: I snore/badly. Nick said today when I was taking my Sunday nap that I was snoring so loud that he couldn't hear the tv over me. I think I need to hear it myself. Next, I'm fanatical about hosing down my back patio. I don't know if that's a bad habit, but I'm certainly not conserving water. I hate seeing even a little dirt out there, and right now our yellow lab is shedding. Nick says I like to water concrete. And last, I am always pulling up my pants. And not really because I have to. For some reason it drives me nuts if my pants even sort of sag, weird I know. I am always yanking them. Nick says I should just buy some mom jeans. Maybe I should work on that.

8. 5 things you don't know about me: 1. I love Hot Tamales candy, I could eat them all day. I especially crave them when I'm pregnant. I buy the big costco size bag and chow on them. 2. I can't swim very well. I hope I could save myself but I don't know. And I hate the ocean, I am petrified of the water. I will not go in past my shins. I'm not scared of the ocean animals just the water. 3. I love to read. I read all the time. I am always looking for a good read. Right now I'm reading some Mary Higgins Clark. 4. I am a closet Guiter Hero fan. I love this game. I can play for hours at a time if I could. 5. I love, love, love Jack in the Box tacos. Greasy, yes. Delicious, for sure. And how do you beat the price, 2 for .99. Yummo!

Dana Point

We are back from our little vacay at the beach. It wasn't long enough. I thought 6 days at the beach would be enough but alas I was mistaken. I believe we are going to make this our Spring Break tradition. So much fun. We had Easter dinner with Nick's family there. Sorry no pics of that. And we just spent the rest of the week relaxing, going on family bike rides, (my personal fave) and enjoying each other. The only down side, coming home to clean out the motorhome. Took me a while this afternoon.
Here are the pics, Enjoy!

Some things never change, Whiny tired kids,

Piles of stuff ( I hate stuff)

Piles of dirty clothes(i hate laundry more than piles)

And dirty dishes

But some things DO CHANGE. Like the view. This was my front yard for the last week. I am standing on our picnic table in the sand of the beach. Heavenly. This view made all the other things a little more tolerable. Ok, a lot more.

Having a Cheetos fest outside in her jammies.

Just love here. Who can resist that smile and crooked teeth.

Nico is so proud of the fact that he doesn't need training wheels anymore. It was just a little challenging on our bike rides when he wasn't looking.

Tree Monkeys. Our site had no neighbors to one side and we had these trees that were perfect for the kids to climb. They wouldn't come out of them. They loved them, our friends the Mercuros came out for two nights with their 4 kiddies. And the kids were all in the trees. And one of the Mercuros was a brand new little baby. I ate him up. On thursday night he and I became good friends. And I felt my insides say I needed another one of these little guys.

So sad, time to go home. Sydney didn't want me taking pictures of her because she was SOOOOO dirty the entire time, even minutes after bathing she managed to look like she hadn't bathed at all. It made me crazy, why did my kids have to look like orphans and others didn't. Why did I own the dirtiest kids at Doheny?

She'd had enough, I snapped this right before we left. Her naps got off schedule. And she is one of those babies that needs her schedule, her bed, her blankie, her binkie and her stuffed monkey. Needless to say she was happy to return to her world.

To everyone in South OC, we are coming back to stay in the next couple years. This trip made us realize how much we miss it there. Our old stomping ground. We miss our San Juan. So we will be back. And to our friends here in Chino, sorry, as much as we love it here we just feel like ultimately that is where our family needs to be.

Ta Dah!

Here is the new me. Mind you I took this pic in Nick's car on the way home while I was driving on the 57 freeway. So hence the poor quality. However I am in love with my new do. Natalie did such a great job. She's amazing. Nick of course thinks it's not blond enough and likes me with long hair. But it's blond enough for me. And he's not a mom with three kids who has to get ready in a little time as possible. But he is happy for the most part. It feels so light. Not so heavy like it was. It's soft, conditioned and healthy. I'm thinking I might stay like this for a long while, i'm that happy.


We will be gone for the next week on a little trip. Have a great Easter and Spring Break and enjoy the great weather.

So Long Brunette!

Finally after almost 2 years of being a brunette I say so long, dingy brown hair.


Hello blondie. Tomorrow is the big day. I am meeting up with Natalie at her Salon in H.B. and I am getting a makeover. I have been counting down this day for a long time. I can't wait. And I might just cut off a large chunk, you never know. I want a change big time.

No more brown, new pictures coming tomorrow.

Other good news.

I love Ebay. Last night I posted some scrapbooking and stampin up stuff on ebay and set my but it now option at $575.00 and today at 6:00 am it was sold for $575.00 and by 10:00 the money was already in my paypal account. Yippeee. Now we can buy Nico the new bunk bed he so desperately needs and wants.



And....

In the course of the last couple weeks, I have lost 7 pounds. Finally. I hadn't been seeing any results and I was working so hard and about a month ago my doctor put me back on my thyroid medication and I shaped up my diet and the pounds seem to be melting. Another big Yippeeee.



And..... Sophie is finally better.



And.... We are going on Vacation on Sunday afternoon.



Life seems to be going our way, for at least today. Who knows I have yet another day at the baseball field, so I better now count my eggs before they hatch.

What else could happen at the baseball field?

So here is how my evening went down. (WARNING: This could gross you out) I load up my kids to take Nico to his baseball practice in Chino Hills and as we're walking out the door the thought comes to my head:
Rachel remember your diaper bag. You never know. (so you know, i always seem to forget my diaper bag. It's baby #3 I guess)
So I grab the bag. We leave for practice and all is well once we get there. While I am sitting with all the other parents the boys are given their water break and this is what I hear.

Nico: "Mom, Mom, MOM. "
Me: "What Nico?"
Nico: (yelling) You forgot to put my cup in my pants. And I have to pee.
Me: Beet Red, "um, it's ok, I think you're safe today"
Nico: "mom, you can't forget to put my cup in my pants next time, what if I get hit in the balls? and I have to Pee still?"
Me: "I won't forget and you can hold it."
Nico: "kay thanks mom"

So that was enough for me. But Sophie didn't think so. Sydney came up to me with about 10 minutes of practice left and told me Sophie didn't smell so good. I looked, and sure enough Syd was right. I figured well I'll just hold her for the next couple minutes and change her in the car before we went home.
Well I picked her up and the next thing I knew there was leakage coming out of every crevice she had. I don't think any baby in the history of the world ever leaked this much out of one self. So I quickly grabbed my keys, while holding Sophie like Superman so it wouldn't get on me and I made a mad dash to the car. Well as I'm running, it's dropping everywhere, on my jeans, my sweater, the top of my bare flip flopped foot and the ground. Oh yes and people were everywhere, this was not something I could even sort of hide.
We get to the car, and thank heavens I listened to myself and grabbed the diaper bag. But I don't even know where to start, if I try to take her clothes off over her head it will get in her hair. So I bust open the wipes and just start wiping and when I had done my best I stripped her clothing. Luckily I had my gym towel still in the car so she had something to lay on in the parking lot. Cause that was not coming in my car. We succesfully declothed, got wiped up and got a clean diaper on. Mind you that we went through the entire pack of wipes.

Ok we survived. I went back in gathered my kids at this point and headed to the car to come home. As I'm texting my sister Kelly (what up Kelly, this post is for you) to tell her the gross story and loading kids, Nico hits me with this.
"Mom, I still have to pee."
Ok, he's a boy, there are some bushes.
"Just go in the bushes in front of the car." (no big deal we do it all the time. ladies with boys you know what I'm talking about)
So the next thing I know I hear this:
"Excuse me mam?"
"yes?"
"Are you aware that your son in urinating on school property?'
I turn around, It's freakin Chino Valley Unified School District Campus Security.
"Oh, you're kidding, he's peeing over there?" Totally playing dumb.
"Mam, this is a school and he should not be doing that, you need to tell him that if he continues to do that as he gets older it's a crime and punishable by jail time."
I'm really trying to hold in laughter at this point and I say
"Yes, sir, you're absolutely right. We'll have a conversation about it right away. I wouldn't want him to do hard time because he peed in a bush. So sorry, won't happen again."
He glared at me, I smiled at him, winked at Nico and got in the car.

All I needed was for Sydney to vomit on the way home to come full circle. I'm hoping tomorrows trip to the ball field isn't as adventurous. I'd settle for a couple dirty kids and a runny nose. But maybe that's asking too much.

So tired of sick kids

I have been meaning to post some great pictures of softball/baseball opening day from Sydney and Nico and share some funny little stories about Nico's base running but sick kids keep tripping me up. That's what I was planning on doing tonight but Sophie had other plans for me. It all started three days ago when Sophie began running a fever, and not sleeping. I just thought she was coming down with a cold, no big deal. It was beginning to ware on me but I was surviving. Then yesterday she tripped and fell and split her lip open, so big and fat lip we were still hanging in there. Today I got called into the gym kids klub and Ryan (the baby I watch) was feeling warm and running a little temp. That should have tipped me off right there. So we left the gym with Laura's Kinsie in tow, (helpin a friend out) and we headed home as soon as we walked in the door and after I got Ryan down for his nap, Sophie began screaming her head off and I couldn't calm her down. She didn't want her binkie, bottle nada. And she kept grabbing her throat and putting her finger in her mouth. So it dawned on me to look there. Sure enough, blisters all over her mouth and her tonsils are white you can't even see pink in her mouth. But I'm stuck home until at least 3:00. So we survive and at 5:00 Nick gets home taking Nico and Sophie to baseball and I leave with Sophie to Urgent care.
Fast Foward 3 hours later. Sophie has a fever of 104.6, double ear infections, a viral form of herpes in her mouth that is related to chicken pox, and an eye infection. She screamed almost the entire time at the doctor. Cause she was hurting so much. Poor, poor baby. When she wasn't crying she was holding her throat. I wanted to cry. The doctor put her on 3 different perscriptions plus Tylenol. Cross your fingers she feels better tomorrow, because I have yet again another doctors appt. This time for Sydney, and I have to take Sophie and Ryan with me. sydney has some skin problems that are getting worse and have to be seen like now. And it took me forever to get this appt, with this doc. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to post those cute pics.

First time for......

Yesterday was full of Firsts.....


First... Fight. Well sort of. Nico got injured at the gym yesterday. He and another boy's head collided. The boys head was fine, Nico not so fine. I was called over the intercom and I thought Sophie had yet again messed her pants. She does this daily, and I get called out every time. But no, it was Nico all bloody. Split his lip open big time, blood all down his shirt, big fat lip. He'll live. But the other boy was crying he felt so bad so I spent a couple minutes comforting the attacker. Kidding. I felt bad that he was so shaken up over an accident.
Here we are, blood and fat lip and all.
Say cheese Fatty Lip. It's looking much better today but still very noticeable.
Next was the FIRST time my kids have ridden in these shopping cart bus things. I felt guilty because we came straight from the gym with the wounded boy and I just wanted him to feel good, so I volunteered this thing. It must have been my endorphines from the intense workout that left my inhibitions in the car. Never again. Althought they had a good time and were relatively good, Sophie the Sneaky, was able to take off her shoes and drop them throught Vons. So that when we got to Register #5 to pay some kind lady had turned them in there and her shoes were waiting for us. Now I did not see this happen. Which is why I prefer Sophie the Sneaky to be right in front of me. And I almost knocked down like 15 different displays, because those darn carts are so freakin huge.
Sophie the Sneaky's FIRST time out...... She has figured out how to open the XBox while Nico is playing and end his game and she kept doing this yesterday. She got warned, and warned and failed to listen so she got timeout. She would make it for about 15 seconds and then think it was time to jump up and play. So I kept sitting her down so she would sit the full minute. So the next couple pictures show how time out went down. In the pic above just a little irritated. in the pic below a little angry.
Next is tears. And then....

The full blown tantrum. She finally figured it out and sat there for her full minute. Not liking it, but doing it. I'm actually suprised. It all was a little funny to watch.

Then her FIRST piano lesson.

Ok, so Nick and I are implementing this new rule in our house that no one can yell at all for any reason other than sports on TV. (that's for Nick) And if they do what they're asked w/out complaining then they earn extras, like tv and video game time, playing with friends, getting smoothies at 7-11 etc. So Nico wanted to play XBox and I told him if he went and read in his room for 20 minutes then he could play video games for 30 minutes. He agreed and disappeared. I didn't actually think he would follow through, so a few minutes later I went to check on him figuring he would be playing with toys in his room and sure enough he was curled up on his bed reading for the full time. He didn't even fall asleep doing it. I was shocked, maybe this no yelling/reward thing could work. Wish us luck. Below is the pile of books I found him reading.
And here he is enjoying his reward.

Sorry no FIRSTS for Sydney. She was playing with her friend next door and wasn't bothering me. So I guess that is a FIRST.

Why I love March....

Tanya asked what we loved about March so here goes...

1. I love Spring Break. Any time I don't have to get up early and rush to school is a good time. This year we are beach camping at Doheny down in Dana Point. It's so much fun.
2. I love Easter clothes like Tanya. My kids are going to look so cute this year. When my mom was here she outfitted them for Easter. The girls are matching. And Nico coordinates.
3.The weather is almost perfect. Cool nights and lovely days. Mixed in with some rain. I love rain.
4. Hopefully I get to attend Tanya's big 3-0 party at the end of the month.
5. Basketball starts to get really exciting as the NBA heads to the playoffs.
6. Did I mention I love Spring Break.

We had an exciting day today and I took pics. Look for them tomorrow.