Few out of a million

I had 159 pictures to chose from, so here is a select few from our vacation. We had a great time, but good to be home. Today was spent picking a record amount of weeds from my yard. I love my yard, but man it's high maintenance. Hope you enjoy the pics - some of my editing didn't go through, but I've already got an hour into this, and I'm done dealing with all these pics. Now I have to get these (plus all pics from Sept to current) printed - a job I'm avoiding.

Enjoy!

Home at Last!

Well, we made it home safe and sound rolling into our driveway at 7:00pm last night. Man, yesterday was a long day. Why do the trips home seem longer than the trips TO vacation?

First, we got lost in LA on the way to return the rental car. Got there on time, thankfully - but managed to leave Nathan's cell phone in the rental car which we didn't realize until sitting in the airport terminal. So they're FedEx'ing that back to us.

We get to the airport and Maysen starts doing the "I'm going to reject anything you want me to do" attitude. Throwing himself down, going opposite ways than us, screaming when he's redirected. Yea, let's just say that the 100ft walk to the terminal seemed like 100 miles. We get there, sit down and Maysen (the ham he is) starts just chaaaaatting away with everyone seated. There were two girls in particular he was making them gut-bust with various cheesy smiles, "tricks", counting. One girl even commented "Oh my, what's next? Somersaults?" Well, it just so happens that Maysen DOES indeed know how to do somersaults, so he proceeds to do repeated somersaults down the stretch of clear pathway through chairs. Afterward he stood up, walked over to a sleeping woman, patted her (not so gently) on the leg and said "See?!" One gruff man talking on the cell phone had to get up and walk away because the business associate he was talking to only could hear "HELLLLLO???" as Maysen walked up to the man and insisted on being let in on the conversation ...

Our flight was fine. Maysen slept the first hour, so that was good. We landed, got picked up by the hotel shuttle, and I've never been so happy to see our van. We met Jenn for dinner and headed home. "Hmmm" we thought, "should we pay Delmar $25 or $30 for watching Bailey and Bird this week?" Delmar is our neighbor boy, who comes over feeds, waters, and walks Bailey when we're gone. He's about 11 and thinks $10 is super-cool cash. We get home, immediately walk over to Delmar and Jackie's house to get our key. "Bailey's been a good girl, but we did have a few accidents". Here is what "a few" entailed:

1. Tearing down one of our fence gates (literally the whole thing), which had to be rescrewed onto our fence by Delmar, Jackie and Brian in an all-three effort.
2. Ripping down 3 of our fence boards. Didn't escape mind you, it was just the act that she wanted the fence tore up.
3. Bailey having 3 bouts of diarrhea on our carpet, so they had to go get carpet deodorizer to help mask the pleasant odor, scrub my carpet, then vacuum.
4. Bailey found the Costco-size StoveTop Stuffing in my pantry, helped herself and ripped 3 bags open up and down my hallway/livingroom. #3 time Jackie had to vacuum my house.
5. Tore up remainder (just a few kleenexes) in my bathroom trash
6. Day #6 peed in my living room.

Uhhh ... we quickly said thank you, handed them $50 (not the measly $25 we had originally pondered) and couldn't have said "thank you" enough. I have wonderful neighbors to withstand my "I'm going to pay my parents back" dog, Bailey.

Needless to say we're pooped, Stanley Steemer is coming this afternoon to clean ALL my carpets, Maysen is going to Bob and Bonnie's so Nathan and I can sneak away for a breather- movie, Fracture. Looks great! I'll give you the review. Welcome home, Leslie!

Day 5 & 6

I'm lagging on this post-during-vacation thing. Which is good, in a way, I guess - it proves we're having a good time. So, where did I leave off?

Yesterday was our last day in Lake Elsinore with dad and Jo. We stopped at the local laundromat while Dad and Jo were at a meeting. It's amazing the strange cats you can see at laundromats. Instance 1: Two women sitting in half shirts and daisy-dukes (remember those?) talking on cell phones and smoking outside. We were sitting near them once they came in and I thought that perhaps they were roommates. Well, I mentioned to Nate about washing the beach towels because I couldn't stand to have even one grain of sand if I needed to use it again. "Oh, I know..." one of them starts out. "... I feel the same way." Which somehow led into how 2 days ago her husband kicked her out, but that's ok because she's living with her son and "soon to be daughter in law" - and points to what I thought was her sister. It was just .... strange convo to have with someone you don't know. After we got done with that - it was quite warm at 83. So we went to the lake and let Maysen swim and we had a great time. I was good and put sunscreen on every part I could reach - but got busy and forgot my back. Well ... needless to say OUCH today. We had a great time with Dad and Jo and I can't wait to see them again.

We got to Anaheim last night at about 7:00pm. We checked in - and our room had 2 double beds instead of a King. Imagine that. Instead of fighting it we got a roll away bed for Maysen and Nate and I are sleeping in separate beds which is totally weird, but better than trying to sleep in a double with him snoring in my ear.

This morning we got up and went to Disneyland. The week has caught up with Maysen I think and he was a bit cranky today. The first ride I took Maysen on was the carousel, but he would have NOTHING to do with it. He was flailing and finally was satisfied on me just holding him as we went around and around. he did NOT want to get on that horsie. Right after, Nate took him on the flying Dumbos. It was funny - they were actually in line right behind a woman with her son, Mason, who turned out to be 10 days older than Maysen - and they were both wearing plaid shorts. We went on "It's a Small World", toured Toon Town, met Pluto, and rode on Kasey Jr Circus Train. We left during early afternoon as it was getting warm! We swam here at the resort pool and lathered up in Aloe Vera on our burns (Nate got his arms burned the day before).

Tomorrow we're doing a marathon day at Disney. We'll be in the park all day - all 9hrs of it. We'll stay until the closes at 9pm when they do the Disney parade and fireworks.

Friday we arrive back in Portland at about 3:00pm. It's been a fun week, but I can't wait to sleep back in my own bed .....

Day 4: Capistrano/Beach

Ok - loading the pictures is kicking my butt and making the night longer, so I'll refrain. today was a great day. We visited San Juan Capistrano today. It was a very interesting mission founded in the early 1800s that help found Orange County, CA. I took some amazing pictures, which I'll post later.

Afterward we went to the local beach. The weather was near 70, with a light breeze. We couldn't swim because it was too cool, but we ran in the waves, had Super Soaker fights, watched the surfers, and even saw some whale spouts. After 2hrs in the water/sand, we noted a small and discreet sign that said: Warning: Sewer Contaminated Waters, no swimming. Great!!! Not even one mention when we paid for parking in our swimming gear. But it was a blast. Then night was topped off with dad cooking great steak and another fire/s'mores. It's truly been an amazing few days with my dad and Jo. Tomorrow we're doing some laundry, I'm shopping with Jo at the outlet mall, some swimming/sun at the lake ... then we're off around 4pm for Anaheim to check into our resort. It's only about an hour drive. Will talk to you tomorrow....

Update: Day 2 pics and Day 3:

Updated pics from Day 2:


Looking at planes from PDX

Us on the plane

Lovely LA traffic at 4pm on Friday

Throwing rocks at the lake


First we lost the shoes, then pants ...


.... then the shirt


Dad's wonderful parking of the monster truck at the hotel - he owns the place :)

Maysen "mowing" with the fertilizer'er

Lake Elsinore

Dad and Jo's house

Driving the "tractor" at Ma-Maw's and Papa's.
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DAY 3: Knott's Berry Farm

So, today was Knott's Berry Farm. We left at 8:30 and got there shortly after they opened. It was a blast. It was a bit chilly and cloudy, so the attire of shorts and t-shirts was a bit misjudged. Maysen saw Snoopy, a western stunt show, Charlie Brown show, rode 2 trains, rode stage coach with the horsies, had a caricature photo done of Maysen (which was adorable), rode a giant skate board ride with Papa. We came home, had pizza and warmed up. My dad caught a cold so he's resting tonight. Tomorrow we are going to San Juan Capistrano Mission and the beach. Maysen isn't quite sure what we're doing - such long days for that little man. Weather has been chilly - 65'ish. Later this week when we go to Disneyland it will be perfect -75!

"Camp Snoopy"..... Hugging Snoopy with Papa


"Great Skate" ride with Papa - first theme ride for Maysen!

Charlie Brown Show


Riding #1 of 2 trains - in heaven!

Day 2: Lake Elsinore

Phew. We're now on Day 2 of our vacation. Thought since we have wireless internet at the hotel, I'd make use of it. Here's a brief recant of the last 24hrs:

The flight was great! It was only 2hrs from Portland to Los Angeles. Maysen did great. He has a portable DVD player and watched Dora and The Backyardagains the whole trip. Towards the end we got out snacks and books and he was fine. I had mapquested directions from LAX to our hotel here in Lake Elsinore, but didn't realize that we actually had to take a bus from LAX to Enterprise to pick up our rental car. So our directions were all off. We landed at 1:05pm and by the time we were on our way on the freeway it was 3:30pm. Oh. My. Word. We hit LA rush hour traffic. Let me spell it out. It took us 3.5hrs to go 17mi. The whole 70mi trip from LA to Lake Elsinore took us almost 4hrs. We got here, met up with Dad and Jo for dinner and then checked into our hotel at 8:45. WHICH - they screwed up our room. I had specifically reserved a King size bed (Nate and I are spoiled having one at home, can't go back) and roll away (for Maysen) which I reserved over 3 weeks ago. I go to check in and I get some teeny-bopper 17yr old "Instead of your king and rollaway I just put you in 2 queens". Uhhh... huh? I proceed to tell her no thanks, and I needed my original reserved room. "Well, now I have no King non-smoking". My patience was tested ... and I proceeded to tell her how I did not appreciate how she just "decided" to change my reservation, etc and that we "would" accept the 2 queens for tonight (at an insisted discounted rate) but I'd need to switch rooms in the AM.

Today: Got up, changed our room (apparently what happened was the rollaway bed broke and #2 bed the own had a super jacked up mattress ... whatever). We grabbed lunch and went to the Lake Elsinore RV where dad and Jo work. Since they are the managers they had today off pretty much. Maysen enjoyed what seemed to be hours of riding on dad's manager golf cart. We drove to the top of the mountain to get a good view of the lake, took the long way down and stopped at the lake's beach. Maysen got his feet wet - which led to taking his shoes/socks off. Then his pants got soaked so I took his pants off - which led to him laying down in the water, so took his shirt off ... diaper was 348 pounds of water .. so he was naked for a bit. He loved it.

We made snores tonight in dad's fire pit. Turns out dad and Jo don't have to work tomorrow so we're actually going to Knott's Berry Farm. The weather is supposed to be chilly but I think in the park, sun, and walking we'll be warm enough. Getting up early, so off to bed I go. Talk to you tomorrow!

WiFi at PDX

Currently sitting at PDX waiting for our flight to LAX. Maysen has his monkey leash because I would be in a panic if we didn't have it. He has his own luggage which he refused to "check" so we have our Lightning McQueen suitcase with wheels that he is lugging around the airport, with monkey leash on. I'm sure you got the visual. Couldn't snap a pic of it because my camera was in bag #7 and I wasn't going to snag it. I'll take pics on the plane.

Weather when we land is supposed to be chilly and rainy. Wait! Isn't that what we're LEAVING in Oregon? I'm hoping the sun comes out, they're wrong, and it's super warm!

Meanwhile I got new Orbitz gum - Mint Mojito or something like that. Yea - it takes like orangy-all purpose cleaner with a kick of mint. Would no recommend it. What's up with the Orbits' commercials, anyway? They're just ... creepy-weird.

Better go track my boys down as I'm hoping we get to preboard soon ....

Vacation Time!

Sorry I've been sorta MIA on the blog-scene lately. This week has been crazy. We are leaving for vacation tomorrow afternoon. After I have a pedicure and wax at London Spa at 2pm I'm going to pick Maysen up, pick Nate up, then we'll drive to Portland and stay in a hotel near the airport. I plan to just relax ... get there in time for dinner, maybe order room service or we may go to the lounge/restaurant in the hotel and eat. Afterward, take Maysen swimming at the indoor pool, then hit the sack. We'll get up Friday AM and take the hotel shuttle to PDX to catch our flight to Los Angeles at 11:00am.

LA traffic is something I'm not looking forward to. We're renting a car and then driving the 70mi to Lake Elsinore where my dad is residing for the moment. They have a giant 40ft fifthwheel they said we could stay with them in, but ... um. I need my own space, especially with a 2yr old. But we're very excited. We're going to stay at the lake Fri-Tuesday then we're heading up to Anaheim Tuesday night - Friday AM and go to Disneyland. We'll return home Friday afternoon.

I'm taking my laptop in hopes to post during our vacation. However, if I do not, rest assured that I will be writing y'all when I get home. Have a good week!!

"Today we're all Hokies"

Words cannot express the sense of sadness that is felt in this country and around the world for the massacre that transpired at Virginia Tech yesterday. Fear, anger, and perhaps even guilt have settled onto many. All we can do is pray for the family and friends of the victims of this unfortunate event. Rest in peace ... and may God bless all 32 of your souls.

Alaska here we come!

Nate and I have kicked around the idea of taking an Alaskan cruise for the last year and tonight we decided we're going to do it! I have to confirm some dates with our travel agent and my mother-in-law who will keep Maysen for the week, but tentatively it'll be June 9-16th. This is a perfect week for them also as it is Vacation Bible School (my father-in-law is the pastor of the Baker City Church of Christ) and they will have 3 other grand kids at their house. So this will be nice for Maysen as this might keep his mind off mommy and daddy being gone with a jam packed week of activities.

We are going to go on the Norwegian cruise ship, as their ships are more "Freestyle" cruising vs traditional cruising. If anyone has not been on a cruise before, the more traditional cruises are regimented with dinner times (late or early) with a dress code and a formal night. We took a Caribbean cruise in 2003 and that's how it was. And don't get me wrong, it was fun ... but this cruise ship has no agenda. 10 Restaurants to chose from, no arranged dinner times - you're free to pick and chose when, where, how you want to do things. So this is very exciting to me. The average temp of where we're going is 64. How perfect is that? Capri's and a light jacket most of the time, except of course we're planning a helicopter excursion that lands on an actual glacier so that might require more proper attire.

Anyway I'm just blabbing but rather looking forward to that. And next Friday we fly to California to visit dad and Jo ... and Disneyland for a week. I'm keeping activities light until then so my lungs are ready to trudge around a million miles around Disney. I'm excited because Maysen is old enough to "get" Disney now. We went to Disney World in Florida August 2005 (day before Hurricane Katrina hit) and Maysen was 9mo old. So this will be fun for him.

Waiting for the vibration of my steriods to calm down so I can sleep. I am feeling better, by the way. I can lay down without being woke up by my own wheezing so that's a plus. I'm following orders and staying down. Maysen will go to Bonnie's in the morning, but I have to run to the office to get a few things and check my email at work - and then I'm going to go pick my booger up. I feel bad laying in bed resting while he's hauled off. But I don't rest if he's here all day.

Nabisco Settlement?

Imagine my surprise when I was munching on some Reduced Fat Wheat Thins when I pulled this out of the box. At first I wondered what Maysen had thrown in the box, etc but then I realized that this was an actual piece of blue plastic that was baked INTO the wheat thin! I thought about how much I could get out of Nabisco with a lawsuit had I choked on this beast.

So, in other news. I have "walking pneumonia". I woke up with yet another fever and my wheezing last night kept me up. So I went to the doctor and she told me I had to take the rest of the week off. I feel like I want to paint the house .. after I clean it all. Only because I'm on a Medrol Dose Pack, which is a boost of steriod along with my steriod inhaler. So, I'm vibrating right now and look forward to trying to sleep tonight. I have been threatened by my motherinlaw to stay in bed, couch, or chair - or she will drive over from Baker City! I'd better behave. Should rain the rest of the week so I won't have to fight Maysen. He'll go to Bonnie's like normal on Wednesday and Nate might stay home one day this week. I overdid it and never rested, and this is my punishment. To the cough syrup I go ...

Unny Twacks!

Happy Easter to everyone! Although our family has been sick for the past week, we were able to enjoy some Easter festivities this weekend. Yesterday we were at Nate's mom's house for an Easter egg hunt and Easter dinner, which was very yummy.



Last night we got the kitchen table ready with flour to catch the Easter Bunny. When Maysen went to bed all we heard about was looking for the bunny tracks in the morning. He slept until we FINALLY got him up at (get this) 9:30am! I think the "being sick" was catching up with all of us because we enjoyed the sleep in, too. But we got him up and then looked for the bunny tracks and then he found his basket surrounded by the "unny twacks!".


We took a rest day today filled with movies and water trying to flush out this whatever-it-is. Thankfully I have a short week of work this week since I only work on M,W,Fs. I work a full day tomorrow, don't start until 9:30 (instead of 7:30) on Wednesday and off on Friday. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Bunny Tracks

Maysen has been getting ripped off at Easter every year so far, so this weekend we're going to make up for it. His first Easter I had strep throat and it was soggy so we didn't do anything. Last year there was a complete downpour so not much happened last year. So, this year now that he's older I hope it'll be more fun for him.

If anyone is looking for a fun Easter tradition, I have a fun one for you that your kids will remember for a long time. It's sort of a take off of Santa/Christmas. My parents used to put flour out all over the kitchen table and the "Easter Bunny" would come in the middle of the night and leave our Easter baskets on the table. To "catch" the Easter Bunny and have proof he was there, he would leave his bunny tracks in the flour (mom and dad's two fingers made the bunny tracks). We thought it was soooo cool to have caught the Easter Bunny.

I am hoping my family gets well. Nate has had congestion, fever, cough for 3 days. Maysen still has a horrid cough. And I've been nauseated/fever/cough since yesterday. So! I'm hoping everyone is well enough to go to grandma's tomorrow for dinner and the Easter egg hunt. And so the fun continues. I'm heading to bed ... maybe to throw up first. I'm not sure which.

Too Creepy ...

Regular Leslie & Old Leslie

African/Caribean Leslie & Apewoman Leslie

Drunken Leslie & Asian Leslie

Thanks to Kelly for this funny website to try. It was hilarious to do!!

No more dirt hole

Ta da!! Our cement got poured today. It's finally done! It was quite the eye sore for a while just having dirt/rock from where we pushed our fence back. Now Nathan's truck has a home instead of wherever there was room. I tried for adding a 3-car garage but with only staying here probably another 2 years or so, it wasn't worth it. That'll have to wait for the new house. I am so grateful for my bro in law Andy. He's a contractor and so handy to have around. He gives great advise and has great ideas. Since our driveway sloped, water pooled at the bottom making a flood of our yard at times. So, when he had his cement guy do the cement, they sloped the bottom part by the garage so it would catch water, and run into the drain that was originally for the gutter.

On another note, I got new pots and pans today! I got the stainless steel ones with the copper bottom. Man - they're nice ... and heavy!! I feel like Rachel Ray or Emeril.

And that was my Tuesday ... full of absolute excitment!

Fillin up the gas tank - rocks: $0.02/gall

It's official. My "baby" boy is going to pre-preschool starting September 4th. He'll be attending a a Christian school (or Christian Childcare Center) but they teach 2.5yr old - 5th grade (I believe?). He'll go all day Monday and Friday (both are days I work) and then only the AM on Tuesdays - so that will enable me to actually do a couple loads of laundry, take a walk, or whatever mommy-alone time requires for a few hours. I think it will be great for him, as he's very interested in being with other children right now. He'll be 3 in November and he loves being around other kids his age. Plus learning curriculum will be great for him. You can work with your kid all you want at home, but it's something about getting them out with other kids and learning with a teacher...


On a side note, today was his first day at Kristina's, our new babysitter on Mondays. She's the first person that we've taken him to that wasn't family or friend so that was hard. Since my motherinlaw said they couldn't watch him on Mondays anymore, we had to find something - so we found her. She watches another boy Maysen's age and then her 3yr old daughter all day until her other 2 kids (5 and 8) come home from school. Although it was hard (he cried asking where momma and dadda were acouple of times today) I think the transition of getting him around a few kids will set him up nicely for school in September.


We bought him sandals last weekend ... they were having a buy one get one half off deal .. so we actually bought him another pair - one size bigger - for his "school shoes". And just yesterday I was praying I'd go into labor to get the 10lb booger out of me.

Oh - another side note about him - he puked for the first time on Friday. Now, he spit up as a baby, but never actually vomited because he was sick. I checked on him before bed, kissed his forehead and he was burning up! Temp was 102.8. Changed him, cooled him off, laid with him ... 20min later I picked him up off the couch and "MWWWWLLLAAAAA" (puke sound - and yes I sounded it out). He just stood there - rigid - not knowing what to do. When he could breathe, puke still coming out his nose all he could muster was "Momma I scared ..." HEART BREAKING!! He bounced back like a charm the next day though and was fine. Kids are so weird like that ... (sometimes).


PS: My sister's move this weekend was successful. Poor Matt and Nate worked their bee-hinds off ... and we were all in zombo-mode by Sunday's end.