School is in session!

Well the Wicker Academy that is! Braeden has been out of school now for a couple of weeks and has had tons of fun but as a family we realized that it was time for some structure again.

Sunday night we started a family exercise/stretch time. Although Braeden wants to do Tae Bo at this time, we keep it to a few minutes of stretches and fun exercises. We have been doing this each night after dinner to promote some more family time and exercise as it has been really hot outside for Braeden to run around.

Today we started doing some academic work. Keeping it fun of course! Sorry Kadi (and others who hate blogs about how well their kids are doing!:))! We started with some flash cards of sight words and Braeden did excellent. Out of 108 words he knew 78 of them and the ones he didn't know, he was pretty close in saying the words. We also started some Kindergarten Readiness packets that we got from Teacher Barbara a while back. Braeden was able to identify the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters and he was able to read all the colors (text) and match them up to the correct marker.

School is now adjourned for the day and I did take some pictures of Braeden working away but he is currently chasing the dog around with the camera taking pictures so I will need to post those later.

Happy 5th Anniversary to Us!

This weekend, June 21, was our 5 year wedding anniversary. We headed out on Friday morning with a small road block but we made it through! See, this trip to Palm Springs had been planned for weeks and it just so happens that my Mom (our babysitter) had jury duty that week. After getting called off Mon, Tues, and Wed, we thought we were in the clear. NSM! I get a call Wednesday night from Mom (she was not very happy) that she got called into court the next day! UGH! She went and was choosen! She had to go back on Friday! Double UGH! Michelle and Cat were both so awesome to offer to watch Braeden until my Mom was done but my Dad stepped up and took the day off! Whew, we were going to go away as planned! BTW, Mom was released from the case on Friday by noon!

Brett and I headed out to Palm Springs and stayed and the Spa Resort and Casino. The casino sucked and we were losers there but the rest of the weekend was fabulous! We had great food! We hit Las Cousuelas as usual. We tried a new sushi place there, Okura, we highly recommend it! Most of our weekend was spent by the pool beating the heat. When we got there on Friday it was a mere 121 degrees! The rest of the weekend leveled out at about 116! I was lucky enough to get a massage, sleep in and enjoy myself and my husband!

Thanks to my wonderful parents for making our weekend possible and happy anniversary to us!

Summer Fun!

The past week we have been staying busy and having sun on our Summer vacation. Monday we went with my Mom's Group to the Fountains at Victoria Gardens. I was lucky enough to find a shade tree and camp out while Braeden played and had a great time in the fountains. We had a picnic there after the water fun was over.




After the picnic we headed to the train and Nana (Lisa's Mom) was kind enough to ride with the kids!





Tuesday was spent running errands and making a trip to the library. It was SO hot out that we stayed in much of the day. Tuesday evening I went out to Casa Hotel 425 in Claremont with Lisa and Michelle and ran into my childhood friend Krista. It was a fun night and a great break!

Wednesday was another hot day.....104*. So we headed over to my Mom's house to do some swimming. After hanging out there and playing some games we headed to the pool. Taylor (my Mom's 9 y/o neighbor) joined us. Braeden had a blast as always! He is doing great with his swimming but it is still a lot of work and stressful for me. I forgot his life vest, which sucked but we made do! I got him to put the pool noodle under his armpits and he was good to go! Thanks for having us Nana, we will be back next week! :)





Today we had Cat & Caiden over for a playdate. The boys played outside on the new water slide and then inside where it was cool!

Tomorrow Brett and I leave to Palm Springs to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We are excited to get away! We are now keeping our fingers crossed that my Mom gets out of her jury duty so we can leave as planned!

Father's Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend, even though everyone wasn't feeling 100%. Saturday we had our community yard sale which was OK. Then I hit up Ashley's graduation party alone since the boys were not feeling well. Well, Braeden was feeling OK, he just had a NASTY cough and it was a pool party and I did want him swimming and getting worse.

Sunday was Father's Day! We relaxed all a.m. and I made breakfast burritos. In the afternoon the family came over. It was the 3 of us, my parents, the in-laws and my BIL. We BBQ'd (thanks Pops!) and played with Braeden's water slide. Lasso Golf was a big hit and a lot of fun. And yes, the Wii was busted out too!
Braeden filling up the pool part of the water slide on Saturday.

Happy Father's Day honey!

Braeden chillin' with Nana after playing on the water slide.

Using Grandpa as a seat.

Talking on Grandpa's phone.

Daddy and Braeden in the backyard.

Silly Nana! Braeden took this picture and many others!


Self portrait.

His famous pose taught to him by Auntie Gina.

He wanted everyone to take a 'silly face' picture with him.


He also requested that I take a picture of him upside down.

Braeden and Papa whistling.

A Father's Day Prayer

I came across this prayer in an email this morning and loved it so I thought I would share. I have been blessed to have 2 father's in my life at some point, some more constant than others, and now I am witnessing my husband being a Father and it is a beautiful thing.

Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful Father's out there....and to the not so wonderful ones.....get on the ball, you are the ones missing out!

A Father's Prayer

This is the best dowry of hopes, wishes and prayers I would be able to offer:

May God give you the grace of wit and wisdom to understand that rainbows are only the result of showers, dust, and hope.

May you always have joy in the morning and trust in the evening and may your sorrows be short and without scars.

May your lives have a spirit neither bent by belligerence nor broken by failure; may you simply love each other.

May you share with each other spring flowers, dirty dishes, music, rain, death, mushrooms, a measure of boredom, strawberries, and God.

May that God never make you immune to the wonderful afflictions of real love, making you instead farsighted to each other's faults, tongue-tied to criticism, and short of memory to petty hurts and slights.

May God provide the confidence and serenity that comes only from the assurance of each other's fidelity and the tolerance, as years go by, of wrinkles and gray hairs, short tempers, curlers, and Monday mornings.

May no one steal from you laughter at the top of the stairs or giggles and whispers in a dark room.

May you keep a hunger for each other, the appetite to taste tomorrow, and deep knowledge of and devotion to your past, heritage and families.

May you perpetuate trust, the radiation of vitality, kind answers to sharp questions and sharp humor to unkind attitudes.

May your fights be fierce and short, and may each truce be warm and long and held in each other's arms before the sun comes up.

May you walk with wise men, sing loud songs at late hours, share secrets, have healthy children, and provide smiles for lonesome strangers and prayers for those without hope.

May you never forget small things; smiles, birthdays, holding hands, family, old friends, the neglected, and the simplicity of saying please and thank you.

May you keep a warm, generous, and happy house where love is the insulation and God is present. May your children be friends of God's child, Jesus.

May your union bring a smile to the face of the Holy Spirit and may he live in your pots and pans, in your hope and aspirations.

- Author Unknown

R.I.P Tutoring....

Well kind of. Today was my last official day of tutoring after 6 long months of doing it 4-5 afternoons a week. I enjoyed it...to an extent, and loved the kids, but I am glad to be done. Not only did this experience make me realize that teaching is not for me but it made me realize that I do not like being away from my son that much either. Yes, he was sleeping most of the time I was gone, but he woke up everyday from nap and I was not here.

I have a couple of weeks off and then I will be tutoring again but only while Braeden is in summer school and only for the month of July then I am TRULY done. But today I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I went to Trader Joe's to get wine and celebrate!

Cheers!

Father's Day Projects

With school out we are trying to keep busy. Today we headed to Michael's to get some supplies for some Father's Day gifts for Daddy, Papa and Grandpa. From there we headed to O2BME, a cute little kids boutique store here in Rancho. It is moving to San Dimas so they are having a huge sale....of course we couldn't pass it up!

We got home form shopping and started out Father's Day projects which are 'coozies' as Brett and Braeden like to call them. It was fun!

Stacking he cozzies while Mommy gets all the letters out that we need.

Here he is working away on the first one, which was Papa's.

View 1 of Papa's coozie.

View 2 of Papa's coozie.

Braeden didn't want to take pictures of the other ones....I will try to get some later before I wrap them up!

School is Out!

Monday, June 9 was Braeden's last day of Preschool for the year. He started mid year in January after Christmas Vacation. He started in Mrs. Allen's Tuesday/Thursday class and then switched to her MWF class. Minus 2 weeks towards the end of the school year, he loved everything about his class, his classmates, teachers and First United Methodist!

Here are some pictures of his silly self on the last day after their class party.

Being silly with Miss R (the aide)



Being even sillier with Mrs. Allen his teacher.

10 Years Ago Today....

As I was just commenting on a friends blog about her daughters High School graduation, I realized something.....it was 10 years ago today that I graduated from High School and that my Mom stopped cooking....but that is another post! :)

Although it was 10 years ago, I remember it so vividly. I remember being next to one of my closest buddies Edgar as we walked. I remember the awesome feeling of hearing my name over the loud speaker. I also remember laughing my ass off at the names that were being called. I went to High School in Rowland Heights....enough said! I recall Becky Owens making me cry and the song 'I Will Remember You' making me cry even more so.

Even though High School was an awesome time and many memories were made, I was so ready to be done. I had only 4 classes my senior year, worked part time and didn't play softball anymore because I was done. I enjoyed graduation fully but was so glad it was over and was ready to enter a new part of my life as a college student.

Now I am getting emails about our 10 year reunion coming later this year and I just cannot decide if I want to go..... The people that I love and care about I still keep in touch with. Do I really want to see everyone else? Does everyone else really want to see me? Probably not and I am good with that!

Anyway, time flies! I think it is fun to reminisce every now and then about the good ol' days! Some highlights about my High School years;

*I became best friends with someone who I never thought in a million years I would ever speak to. (Love ya B!)
*I had the same boyfriend for almost all of High School. Some may think this is not a good thing, but I did. To this day we are friends and I love him and his family dearly.
*Driving around in Roxanne's Beretta! I just LMAO thinking about that. We were so cool that we had the windows down at night driving around town but the heater on too because it was frickin' cold.
*Friday night games and In-N-Out after.
*Playing softball and arguing with my coach everyday.
*Getting my first car, a Toyota Celica that I hated and my Mom MADE me get.
*All the parties and TPing at Sunny Rae's.
*Drinking Zima's with Nicole, Edgar and Robbie.
*Mr. Phillips psychology class.
*OK, I could go on forever. Those were good times and I feel blessed to have those memories in my mind and in my heart.

Over it now! :)

It has been about a year now (or close to it) that I stopped talking to a 'friend.' I use the word loosely because after 7 years of friendship and having her in my wedding, our friendship was over just like that. When I say, 'just like that' there is no exaggeration. This person was like a sister to me and because of her insecurities and issues we are no longer friends.

I can honestly say that I am over it and I feel that losing her as a friend was a blessing in disguise.....as harsh or rude as it sounds, that is the way I feel. She was an angry, selfish person. So what's my problem?? Well, the problem is that her husband was one of my husband's best friends and they have been friends for over 13 years. The 2 of them no longer speak and not because I do not want my husband talking to him, but because his wife is such an angry person that she cannot handle him speaking to someone that she has ill feeling towards.

My husband has expressed to me time and time again that he is over it and feels that this all happened for a reason but I still can't help but feel bad for him, because anyone who knows me, knows how much my friends mean to me.

There was no real 'reason' for this post, but to vent, as it was on my mind tonight.

Braeden is a Semi-Finalist!!

For quite a while now people have been suggesting that I need to enter a certain picture of Braeden's in to a contest or something. I always just took it as a compliment as moved on. Well, one day I came across something and decided to upload the photo. It was quick free....my kind of stuff!

Well, I did it and totally forgot about it until I received an email today telling me he was a Semi-Finalist for June!!! How fun!! Here is the link to check it out!

http://nocache.homestead.com/imtherealthingint/credits.html

Proud Mama!!

Well this may come off as bragging to some.....if that is the case, you can redirect yourself to a new blog at this time!

Braeden and Brett were doing art tonight on a big blanket on the living room floor. As Braeden was cleaning up, Brett wrote, "Time For Bed" on the paper and Braeden looked at it and said "Daddy, why did you write, 'Time For Bed' on that paper?" Of course we got so excited!!!

We spent the next 30 minutes writing differently things for him to read, such as 'play ball,' 'tie your shoes,' 'look at me,' and quite a few others. He read about 95% of everything we wrote correctly! He just turned 3 on May 1 so we feel so blessed to watch and listen to this!!

Just in time....

For school to be out, Braeden decides to be excited about school again and is no longer crying! We have 2 days left of school (Friday and Monday) and then he is out until July 1. He still better be loving school when summer school rolls around because Mama is not ready to go through that mess again!

My child has things down to a science. Especially his 'phases.' They all usually last about 2 weeks and this one was right on the money. 2 weeks to the day the 'separation anxiety' stopped. Not too sure how or why he does this but that is how he does it!

But at any rate, I was SO happy to drop off a happy camper today at school. Today was also his last day of sports at school. He was fine with this....again, he did what he was supposed to when it came to sports, but didn't express any undying love for them. Maybe one day!?!?!

First Beach Day of the Year!

On Sunday we headed out to Newport Beach for a bike ride. We were there nice and early because Braeden was up at the crack of dawn anticipating the beach!

It was fun but a little chilly when we first got here so we hit up Starbucks to warm ups up. Then we were off on our bike ride. The bike ride lasted about an hour, until we could no longer handle the cries of, 'I want to go in the sand. I want to go in the water.' from you know who!

So we headed for the sand! A little bit later, Cindy and Jamey were down at the beach with some friends so we joined them. It was good times, even when Braeden wiped his boogers on a strangers towel and when he wouldn't say good-bye to Lauren but only her husband Mikey!

We look forward to many more fun beach days this summer!!

Chilling on the sand!

Patiently waiting for Daddy to get the beach toys from the truck.

Jogging on the beach.

He loves the beach!!!