Look, Mommy! Blood!

Those were the first words out of Jacob's mouth when they got home from the Fathers and Sons Campout. He then proceeded to tell me that he learned that when you go up a mountain it's ok to run but when you go down a mountain you should walk. I'm glad he learned that lesson. I'm hoping there won't be anymore rocks that get in his way the next time he falls. He's a trooper!

The first words out of Brandon and Blake's mouths were, "Look, Mom. Guess how this happened!" That would be a bear. One of the two bears that were walking around their camp. The same two bears that later on climbed onto Dan's truckbed. (He took a picture with his phone but it didnt' turn out.) I'm thinking we need to reconsider the location of these campouts......Thanks, Dan, for taking care of our boys!

Today I felt like this.....

I know that for some of you this may be a typical day but for me I normally struggle just trying to figure out what we're having for dinner so I just had to post about my day......


I woke up this morning determined to get a few things done. I ground up some wheat and made 2 loaves of whole wheat bread, made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, cleaned the downstairs bathroom, mopped the kitchen floor, practiced a new song for a Stake YW meeting, sewed a baby blanket for a baby shower, made salmon, brown rice, and veggies for dinner, took Blake to his baseball game, and read my scriptures. But I'm tired now so I'm going to bed!

"Don't worry, before I joined the Church I was a drunk"

I never thought those words would be reassuring but they were. Dan and I flew to Houston this past weekend, alone! We were asked to participate in a wedding and baptism for an amazing family we met in our Spanish Branch here in California.

We got to the airport and learned that our American Airlines flight was delayed a few hours. They quickly put us on a Continental flight that departed within an hour. We were excited because it was a direct flight and put us in Houston sooner than our original flight. However, we couldn't get too excited because we were selected for additional screening. Yes, that's when you step aside and they pat you down to make sure you don't have anything that will harm the flight. Luckily I left all of my dangerous stuff at home and we were cleared to go. We arrived in Houston and picked up our rental car and drove to The Woodlands. There we had dinner at Brio Tuscan Grille. We really enjoyed this restaurant and were sad to learn that they are not located in California.

We got to the church the next morning to help decorate and set things up. The wedding was scheduled to start at 2 and the baptism was scheduled to start at 6. Dan and I joked with the sister missionaries that the wedding wouldn't start until 3:30. Well, true to Latino fashion the wedding didn't start until 3:30. I was concerned because the baptism was in another building and they still had to go and change. But apparently Dan and I were the only ones concerned with the schedule. After the wedding we learned that nobody really knew what to do with the food that had been brought. Everyone thought that somebody else was taking care of things so in the end nobody knew what to do. Luckily, I'm married to Mr. Efficient so he took it upon himself to warm the food, warm the tortillas, take out plates and stuff, and get the dinner started.

So this whole time, Dan and I were kind of unsettled with the organization of the whole wedding thing. (If I had it my way I would have made an itinerary with 15 minute increments.) We were concerned that it was getting late, the cake hadn't been cut yet, and we still needed to clean up.

The couple had brought some bottles of Martinelli's for each of the tables. However, there wasn't a bottle opener. I thought that you could just twist the caps off but that didn't help. We searched the entire kitchen for something that would open up the bottles. Then I started panicking that we were never going to be able to finish things up in time for the baptism. That's when one of the men we met earlier, while waiting for the bride to show up, came into the kitchen and said, "Don't worry, before I joined the Church I was a drunk." He then got a bread knife and hit the bottle cap with the handle, then he put the blade on the cap as if he were going to slice it in half and then he turned in clockwise and the cap flew off! Hurray! He saved the day. We quickly passed out the Martinelli's, Dan helped pass out the wedding cake, and started the clean up process. After a long search for the bride's car keys, we finally made it to the other church building. The baptism started at 6:35. Not bad.

The Escobar Family

We truly are so grateful that we got to go. Thank you, Sister Cortez, for watching our boys. Even though it was a crazy trip and I got sick, it was fun to travel without children. We were truly blessed to witness these ordinances and we look forward to next year when we'll be able to go to the temple with this amazing family.

A Little R & R.....

My sister Edna and her husband Chris spent a few days in Palm Desert and we got to watch their girls, Ryan and Reagan, for a few days. We had lots of fun! Here are a few pictures that document just how exciting these days were....

I had to take a picture of their semi-matching outfits!

Here are Joshua, Ryan, and Reagan

Joshua and Reagan

Reagan and her Evel Knievel moves....

(or her interpretation of Menudo's Subete a Mi Moto...you decide)

And no backyard play is complete without headlamps

Ryan and Jacob

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated two birthdays in April in our family. Brandon turned 11 on the 17th and Joshua turned 2 on the 28th.

We love our boys and we're so happy they're in our family. Brandon is such a great older brother and Joshua always makes us laugh. Happy Birthday!

We're still here....

We've been busy lately but just wanted to let you know that we're still here. We've had a few birthdays to celebrate, a trip to Houston, sweet nieces to take care of, and life itself. I'm sick now so I'll post in a few days. We hope you are all doing well!

Take the key and lock her up.....

We went on our morning walk today and I made sure I grabbed everything I needed. I had my sunglasses, visor, ipod, stroller, 4 kids and my keys. I locked the front door and then came out of the garage. Blake closed the garage door and jumped the sensor on his way out and so everything was locked up. The boys rode their bikes to school and I followed them with the stroller. It was a nice morning and it felt good to start my Monday on the right foot (no pun intended).
When we got home I took my keys out and I realized that my house key was not on my key ring. I had taken it off and hadn't put it back on. I checked all the windows and the back door and side garage door and then checked them again and there was no way of getting back in. Our garage has a keypad but I don't know the code to open it. (I know, I know.....We rented our house before we bought it and the previous renter never passed along the code so we have never been able to reprogram it.)
I went to our sweet neighbor's house and explained my situation to her. She then said, "Well I guess you'll just have to call a locksmith." It had never occured to me that I could call one! I thought we were going to spend the whole day in the backyard eating the leftover toast the boys took on our walk and drinking from the waterhose waiting for Dan to get home. So I called the locksmith and he said he would come by in about 25 minutes.
I've decided that I want to be a locksmith. All you do is take out a key from your box, put it in the door and turn it and in 2 seconds you have made $125! Imagine that!
So when the kids are all grown up and out of the house I won't go back and get my Master's, I'll just go and get the special key that unlocks all the doors and drive around and help people like me get into their homes .
And just as a side note, it's been said that things come in three and today keys came in threes. First, I left my key at home. Second, Dan was waiting for me to get home from my walk so that I could take the keys of our friend's car over to the mechanic who was going to fix it. Ok, and thirdly, I know you're waiting to hear how I can tie in the word key one more time but here goes...The new Backyardigans episode that was recorded this morning on our DVR was none other than The Key to the Nile. (That's right folks, I'll be here all week......)

The Twilight Zone

Yes. I've been reading Twilight. That's why I haven't done anything the last two days. That's why the kitchen trash can was in the middle of the family room and I didn't even care how it got there. That's why the blueberries I gave Joshua spent most of the day on the floor. That's why I left early to go pick up the boys so that I could sit in the car and read. That's why I wasn't all there during Cub Scouts last night.

It's been fun reading but in a way I do feel bad because last week I read The Holy Secret from James Ferrell. I really enjoyed it and felt inspired to really study the scriptures and spend more time doing meaningful things. And then General Conference was this weekend and I felt the Spirit and felt like I was going to do everything I have ever felt prompted to do. But I'm sad to admit that I didn't even make it to Tuesday!!! I had no intentions of getting hooked on a new book. But I have. So I'm now trying to make myself read just gradually. A chapter here, a chapter there. I don't think it's going to happen.......

The Grand Canyon

We did some traveling for Spring Break and we had a great time. We started our road trip at the Grand Canyon. The boys were so excited because we had found a great caboose to stay at.

This was our hotel for the night. I'd never slept in a caboose before and if you have little boys in your family I highly recommend this.

The Canyon Motel and RV Park in Williams



Brandon, Dan, Jacob, Joshua, and Blake

And apparently I've done some damage in Williams, Arizona.

After the Grand Canyon we drove down to Yuma. I was hoping we wouldn't have any more barf episodes but that wasn't to be. We pulled into a gas station to fill up and as soon as Dan put the van in "park" Joshua threw up. This time I came prepared. At least he waited for a convenient time! We cleaned up the mess and continued the drive. We had a fun time in Yuma and were glad to be able to be with family. Hurray for Spring Break!