A really long ramble about our vacation!

We had so much fun. It was also pretty stressful as the kids were not very cooperative a lot of the time. They did not do well with all the waiting around for various forms of transportation and ds was going through something while we were there and was being a general pain in the rear and being pretty mean to his sister the whole time.

We left on Saturday the 19th at 7am PST. Went and picked up MIL so she could drop us off at the airport and keep our car in her driveway for the week. Got to the airport about 7:20am to find that the airport had just been evacuated and everybody was lined up outside to leave. Our flight was scheduled for 8:59am and it's not a big airport so that should have been plenty of time! Finally got into the airport closer to 8 and got in the long lines of people waiting to also get boarding passes. Got our boarding passes at about 8:40 and then had to go get in line for security. Got in line and walked up to the plane at 8:55. Flew to Houston. Had a 45 minute layover so basically just got off and on to the next plane. It was pouring buckets in Houston!! It does NOT rain like that in California!! Arrived in Newark, NJ at 8:49 EST. Went to baggage claim - NO LUGGAGE!! Were told to wait for the next flight arriving from Houston that it would probably be on it. Went and got dinner in the airport, went back to baggage claim. No luggage!! It was about 11:00pm by this time. Filled out a claim and prayed hard that luggage would be delivered by next morning - no such luck. Got up and we still had nothing. Hotel sent up toiletries. I called the airline - no record of anything happening. DH and I decide to shower, get redressed, and take the train into NYC and do some shopping - a couple of pairs of pants and some t-shirts and underwear for all. Stopped at the baggage claim office on the way and was told luggage had been delivered! YEA!!! No shopping needed!!

On to the fun stuff! Took the train into the city and decided to do some sightseeing. Picked up a pop up map at a souvenier shop that also had all the subway lines on it. We walked up to the Empire State Building and went up to the top. BEAUTIFUL!! The view is just incredible. If you ever get the chance to do this and have never been there before the audio tour is a MUST!! Even if you think "oh we will know what we're seeing" get the audio tour! There is so much information given to you by Joe your friendly New York tour guide - it was quite informative and entertaining!!

Took the subway from there up to Times Square and had dinner and shopped at the HUMONGOUS Toys R Us. The kids enjoyed this more than the Empire State Building - crazy kids!! Went back to our hotel and got out luggage! YEA! Clean clothes for all!!! Well, all of our underwear were wet - they were in the outer pocket of the suitcase and obviously it had sat out in the rain somewhere!

The next day (Monday the 21st) we went to the Statue of Liberty. By the time the kids were up and ready to go and we got into the city and had lunch it was about 3:30 before we got to the ferry. Unfortunately it was too late to see both islands so we missed Ellis Island. I was a bit bummed about that but what can you do? After spending some time on Liberty Island we took the ferry back to Battery Park and then took a bus up a few blocks to the World Trade Center sight. WOW! It's such a big area - it was really sad. The area all around has really picked up and looks to be operating at full capacity from what I could tell. We then went back to the hotel and went to the pool for a little while. DD had fallen and skinned her knee at the Statue of Liberty so she didn't want to get in.

Tuesday the 22nd we were woken up at 7:30am EST (at this point we were still pretty close to PST - this day changed all of that for me and I'm still paying for it! ;-) - the fire alarm in the hotel started going off. And it wasn't a beeping it was an air raid siren! At least that's what it sounded like to me "wwaaaaahhhhh wwwaaahhhhhhh an emergency has been detected in the building, please make your way to the nearest fire exit, do not enter the fire escape, do not enter the elevators waaaaahhhhhh waaaaaahhhhhh" over and over again with NO breaks in the message!! DH and I went back and forth about what to do since we didn't see or smell smoke. It went on for long enough that we finally got dressed and gathered up everything we could and started to wake the kids up. We could NOT wake them. Their little bodies thought it was 4:30am and they were NOT getting up!! After about 5 minutes of trying to wake ds - (we figured dd was small enough to pick up and carry asleep if need be) - the alarm went off and the manager came on and said "the emergency situation has been corrected, you may now return to your rooms."

So that was how our day started!! We took the train into the city again and while we were sitting in Penn station having lunch a man fell over and passed out in front of us!! Nobody bothered to help the poor guy - I was on my way to check on him when the station police showed up. We went to Central Park and rode a horse drawn carriage and went to the zoo. Then we took a bus down to the Met. It was 4:00 before we got in and they closed at 5:15. DH and I were both sad that we didn't have more time there. We LOVED the area around there and we really were enjoying the museum. We decided to take a bus back up to Penn station rather than a subway and I'm glad we did. It went all the way up 5th Ave. and we saw all the shops and Trump Tower, etc.

Wednesday was a travel day - we flew up to Buffalo, NY and rented a car and drove up to Niagara Falls,Canada and stayed in Canada until Saturday. We got the 3rd degree at the border - where's home, did you just get to NY, are those kids yours, where'd you get this car, why are you coming here, etc etc!! We went to dinner that night and walked over to the falls and saw them all lit up. The Falls are so pretty!!

Thursday we took the Maid of the Mist boat to the bottom of the falls and also walked the "Journey Behind the Falls." We drove around a bit to find a few of the places we wanted to go the next day. Then we went back to our hotel and let the kids play and swim. Our hotel had a big courtyard with an indoor pool and indoor play place and an arcade. Our door opened on to the courtyard so we could let the kids go out and play. They had a good time.

Friday we took the Whirlpool Jet Boat Tour up the Niagra River to Class 5 Rapids! If you watch The Amazing Race you know what I'm talking about - it was the same company that the contestants went to on the show - just on the Canadian side, instead of the NY side. This was a total blast and the one thing both of the kids are still talking about!! We also went to the Butterfly Conservatory - wow, what a place. Thousands of butterflies flying around - brilliant colors, just amazing!! We then took the White Water Walk along the edge of the Niagra River - that was really pretty too.

The area where the Jet Boat Tours were was called "Niagra on the Lake" and it was the most beautiful little town. DH and I fell in love. It was so GREEN! Just beautiful. Tons of little fruit stands and vineyards and orchards. We stopped and bought some fresh fruit at a fruit stand. We also came across this little tiny chapel - "The Living Water Wayside Chapel." The door was big enough for one person at a time to use and there were two pews facing each other that would each seat about 3. It was so cute!!!

Saturday we flew home - from Buffalo to Atlanta. Then Atlanta to Orange County. There was hardly anybody on the last flight so we had lots of room to stretch out. It was our roughest flight though - we flew through a lightning storm and that was a little freaky seeing lightning right outside the plane windows!! It was really pretty once we got through it and could look and see it in the distance!! The pilot must have been in training because the landing was horrible - the plane really bounced around when it hit the ground! It was good to finally be home and sad to be home at the same time!

I'm sure it'll be several more years before we do a major vacation like that, but this one, for the most part, turned out pretty good. Next time dh and I said we'd take our own kid free vacation AFTER the big family vacation so we could recuperate! LOL!!

Any interior decorators out there?

So my office (still sounds weird to say!) is looking totally empty and boring and needs some major help! It's got floor to ceiling built in shelves on one wall that are totally bare. And there's a whole 1/3 of the space that is just crying out for a table or bean bags or something!!

Anybody better at this than I am?? Time to go shopping I guess! I'll probably use my first months salary fixing the place up! LOL! I want it to be kid friendly and kind of modern looking. I like modern deco and all the other offices upstairs are kind of homey-y feeling. I like to be different. ;-)

Took the girl child to the optometrist - not bad eyesight but inefficient eyes was the diagnosis. So she'll get glasses but it's not imperative that she wear them unless she starts having trouble at school. Maybe once she's reading it will be a problem since she's a bit farsighted. Doc ordered glasses to be worn at home for homework for now.

Can you believe only 2 days until NY? Time went too stinking fast. I'm excited it's here but sad that my summer is pretty much gone. Only one more week when we get home and then school starts!

So 2 days (well today is over so I'm calling it 2 days) and 21 days until school starts.

Kindergarten Physcial (and other things)

Why do they do this to kids? It seems cruel to tell them they can't go to school until they have one and it just happens to correspond with them sticking needles in your body a thousand times!!

Poor DD had her exam yesterday - she got finger pricked twice since they didn't like the results of the first stick, only to get the same results the second time!! Then she had to have a tb test and the nurse didn't do a very good job of it because she's got a bruise on her arm there now! She also had to have three immunizations! I'm glad that part of it is all over.

She didn't do so well on the vision test so she's got an appt with the eye doc tomorrow. She'd be really cute in glasses but how do you make a 5 year old keep them on?!?! Maybe she won't need them and I won't have to worry about it!

In other news - the preschool director at the church told me flat out yesterday that she went to the pastor and told him she'd take over as children's sunday school coordinator! Not only that but she did it with a little smirk on her face and then said "so I'm sure he'll be talking to you this week." She doesn't know that I already knew she did that, and as far as the administrator is concerned that will NOT be happening. I've got an appt with the pastor on Wed morning so we can talk out all the details. I'm just going to tell him what I'm willing to do and what I envision myself doing and ask him if that's ok with him. And according to the finance committee I will be getting paid so we need to talk about that too. I don't want to have to clock in every time I'm at the church - that will get annoying!

Other things happening this week - 4 days until we leave for New York!! YIKES!!! Today the goal is to go through all of our clothes and see who needs what. The kids need clothes for school anyway so it won't matter if I have to buy them a few extra pairs of jeans this week. I need another suitcase too. I guess I should ask someobdy if we can borrow one. I don't want to buy one right now when we use them so rarely. Normally we can get all of our clothes into one suitcase but we don't usually go away for a full week!!

Time to get moving I guess!

Wonder when they were going to tell me??

I went into the church office this morning to get something off my desk and all my stuff was gone. "Hmmmmm" I thought, "that is odd, where did my stuff go?" Turns out they moved it all into the children's directors office - guess they were going to share that information in the morning when I came in. I guess they still want me to take the job too!

Then I went into the service - front of the bulletin says there's a special called business meeting on the 27th to finalize hiring me for the position. Hmmm, wonder when they were planning on telling me about that one too!! Our plane arrives on the 26th pretty late at night - guess we're going to have to be sure and be up for church on the 27th.

I'm starting to feel kind of anxious about the job. Mostly because I have NO idea what is expected of me. I feel like I'm being thrown to the wolves - all the parents are expecting some thing, the staff seems to be expecting some thing, my family is expecting some thing, and I'm expecting something - and none of us seem to be expecting the same things!! I just keep holding onto the fact that God does not call you to do anything without also equipping you to do it. I feel VERY ill equipped at this point - might be God's way of reminding me to continue to rely on Him.

I also learned that the preschool director went to the pastor and told him she'd take the job - hmmm! We've talked about things we were going to do so it's odd that she kind of tried to get the job out from under me. The only thing I can figure is that two of the Sunday School teachers were talking to me at a Pampered Chef party I went to the other night. The preschool director happened to come into the conversation when I was asking them what they wanted for Sundays' etc. Well the one says kind of jokingly "we want her back!" Well they liked the way she did things so they were just saying they wanted things back the way they were when she did Sunday School. But I don't think they were saying they didn't want me to do it - I hope not anyway.

I'm kind of feeling the stress of taking over a position of somebody who was much loved and nobody wanted to leave. I don't want to take her place and I'll never be her! She was young and single and energetic when she had the job - it'll be different with me. I guess I'm getting a small taste of what a pastor must go through when coming in to pastor a new church. This was only the first Sunday she was gone so I know we're all going to need to adjust - me, the kids, the teachers, the church.

I got a small taste of being at church and being on staff too - it's not the same. It's weird to feel so much responsibility rather than just getting to come and enjoy the service. I'm getting a whole new appreciation for all kinds of things taking on this job!

I guess I need to spend more time on my knees giving this all over to Him. I'm also asking Him for a supernatural love for these kids that they'll feel from me - especially for a couple of them that might be a little harder to love! ;-)

Happier News . . .

After lots of finagling we found somebody to watch our kids for the few days we wanted to go to Vegas. We ended up asking my friend who has MS and she agreed. I felt so bad asking her because she gets tired so easily but I'm so happy she was willing. We got back about an hour ago and the kids are fine, my friend is fine, her family is fine, all is fine! ;-)

DH and I had a GREAT time!! We arrived about 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon and got checked into our room and got all settled in. We then decided to play some slots and walk up to M&M World and The Coke Store. We also walked around MGM Grand trying to figure out how to go to one of their prescreening shows. Then we went back to our hotel and had the buffet for dinner. It was very good.

We stayed at the Tropicana and they were having "Bodies: The Exhibit" along with "The Titanic Experience." I talked dh into seeing the Bodies exhibit and I was just fascinated!! It was very cool and an amazing look at our bodies! How you could see that exhibit and still believe in the big bang and evolution is beyond me!! The intricacies of a person could not have happened by accident. Did you know that every single person spends the first 1/2 hour of their lives as a single cell - imagine - that single cell holds ALL the information necessary for you to grow up into the adult that you are!! AMAZING!! You can check it out more and see if it's coming to your area at the following web address: http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/

Thursday morning we got up at our own leisurely hour and walked over to the MGM Grand and sat in on a prescreening of a tv show called Recovery - a Mark Burnett production about a group of people who go after kids who have been kidnapped. Quite interesting and I'd tivo it if it was on tv. We walked around the casino and had lunch there. Walked back to the Tropicana and went and hung out at the pool. We read and talked and just enjoyed a quiet afternoon. Then we went and got ready for dinner and the show that evening. We got a good deal on some all day monorail passes from a guy who didn't need his anymore and we took the monorail up to The Venetian.

We were going to take the canal ride but we didn't have a lot of time left so we skipped it. We ended up going to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's cafe - it was quite good!

Then the whole reason we went to Vegas - The Blue Man Group!! One word - AWESOME!!!! DH and I LOVED it!! It was an awesome show and we've been wanting to see it for YEARS! We're so glad we finally did! It was really really cool and it was definitely worth the $$! We were in the 6th row - PERFECT place to sit if you ask us!! It was funny and entertaining - one of the Blue Men used my head to hold onto as he climbed over the audience. Whatever it is they're using on their hands sure feels weird! It was a total blast!

DH and I decided to walk around and see some sites - went up to Treasure Island and decided to skip the show. Went up to Ceasar's and walked around in the shops. It was getting late, and we being the party animals that we are, were getting tired so we decided to head back to our room. We got on the monorail and happened to get into the car with 30 French teenagers (DH says they were German) who were singing at the top of their lungs the entire length of the trip - only in Vegas!! ;-)

The most annoying part of our trip happened when we returned to our room and our keys wouldn't work - security had been called by some other ladies down the hall so she let us in and there was a message on the phone saying all keys had to be re-issued. So at midnight I went down to the front desk and got a new key. Then at 3:30 in the morning the same (stupid) security guard who had already let us in our room a few hours earlier woke us up to make sure we got into our room ok - does that make any kind of sense to anybody else? I'm pretty sure something was going on that the guests were not made aware of - some type of security breech or something. Either way it was annoying.

DH and I got up this morning pretty wiped out but decided to drive up to the other end of the strip and see about this place called "The Drive" we had seen advertised. It was worth it! For $10 you got to drive two vehicles of your choice on their tracks, plus you could be a passenger for free. So I drove a corvette and dh drove a Saab on their street course. Then we both got to drive Hummer's on their offroad course - I drove the H3 and DH drove the H2. The course was pretty radical and I LOVED the H3!! I might actually want one now! ;-)

We then headed home. It was so nice to spend time with my hubby without being interrupted 50 times by the kids. My goal for us for this new year of our marriage is to go out on a date at the minimum once a month - twice a month would be better but I'd settle for once a month for now. It's just a matter of planning it and doing it, and I don't like it that it's so hard for us to get time alone. I'm going to start asking the teenagers at church and paying them - they always want $ and I always want babysitters so it seems like a win win situation to me!!


8 days until New York (should be interesting with the new flying restrictions!), 26 days until school starts!

Vegas or Bust (it's looking like Bust :-( )

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse me, I needed to scream. My sister, who was suppose to watch the kids while we were in Vegas (leaving in less than 48 hours!), called to say she can't watch the kids now. She can't get it off of work. Nevermind that she said she'd ask for it off when she took the job and never did.

I'm ready to write an email to all my stupid family to tell them thanks for nothing - thanks for never being willing, thanks for never being able, thanks for making me feel like a heel for ever asking, thanks for making me afraid to ask because I've been rejected so often and I'm tired of the pain of rejection, thanks for not caring if my dh and I ever get to spend quality time together, thanks for offering to support this marriage 15 years ago when you came to the wedding ceremony and then never bothering to do it, thanks for never inquiring about your grandkids or how they're doing, thanks for not caring if you don't see your grandkids for months at a time, thanks for all of it!!

How come other people can drop their kids off with people at the drop of a hat but it takes a freaking act of God to get my kids watched for a couple of hours and forget ever getting them watched for long enough to spend any quality time together whatsoever.

I miss my husband. I don't want to take the kids with us. I want to spend time with HIM. I want somebody to want my kids besides me. I want somebody to want them to come over and will be happy to have them. I want somebody to care that dh and I never get to go out because nobody is willing to take them without it being a big freaking ordeal.

Anybody out there want to adopt me? Or want to adopt my kids as their grandkids? Anybody?

2 days until probably no Vegas. 12 days to hopefully New York. Maybe school will start in 29 days. I'm not holding my breath that anything I was looking forward to will happen ever again!

Growing up . . .

DS (9) left for camp yesterday. This is his first time to be away from home this long. It's so hard to believe he's old enough to do such a thing. I, being the good Mom that I am ;-), almost burst into tears when I walked away. Luckily for me I was walking away into the church office to go to work and all heck broke loose the second I got to my desk. So I didn't have time to burst into tears!

I'm really excited for him. I know he's having fun and I know he'll come home on Friday more mature than he left here. It's good for kids to have some time away from their parents. It's hard to grow up when Mom is around stopping you from doing things you need to do to grow up.

DD is so lost with him gone. She doesn't know how to be an only child! LOL!

7 days until Vegas. 17 days until New York. 35 days until school starts. (I'm subtracting a day since today is pretty much over. ;-) )