Metal Mouth

Well, I finally got them-braces! I had to wait a long time, but I decided now was a good time for me to get them. When we moved to Tucson, I took Eric and Erin into the orthodontist to get them started with braces. But our ortho said he doesn't do Phase I and Phase II anymore. He wants to wait until they have lost their baby teeth to start ortho treatment. Since they have to wait, I decided to get them myself. I have been lucky so far and the orthodontist is trying to just put them on my bottom teeth. He said he doesn't think he will have to do the top since they look great, but he isn't positive. It depends on my bite in a few months.

So, maybe by time I get mine off (Christmas 2010) Eric and Erin will be able to get theirs. I am thinking maybe we should hold off on Erin getting them. Maybe when she is about 16 and starting to date, then we should get her braces. Maybe that will discourage any potential suitors.

Disturbing photos

Mario and the kids are having a lot of fun with my new imac and its photo booth features. I find these pictures disturbing and to make matters worse, each day I wake up to a new photo as the background on my computer. What happened to my picture of a white sandy beach?

Extra Large Underwear

My kids are always cracking me up. They do and say some of the craziest things. Zachary heard a story a while back that talks about extra large underwear. So now when we are out, he occasionally gets the urge to embarrass the family by yelling "extra large underwear."

One day I took the boys to Ross. We walked out without buying anything. But as we were walking out into the busy parking lot, Zach asked me "Mom why did you steal that purse?" Of course, I didn't steal my purse. But then he said very loudly, "Mom, why did you steal those panties?" I was shocked. I don't even use that word. I always say "underwear" which probably stems from having 3 boys and only 1 girl. I am sure everyone outside that store must have been looking at me and wondering if I really did steal panties from Ross.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day Mario. This post is for you. Mario keeps asking if I talked about this in my blog. I think he wants to make sure we never forget it so we can tell his girlfriend/fiance about it and maybe she'll think twice about this silly guy she is dating/marrying.

Anyway, having Nathan and Zachary really add to the craziness at our house. Eric and Erin really enjoy all their shenanigans. (Mario loves that word)

Life

I haven't blogged for awhile.  Sorry.  My sister is coming in July and we have a friendly little competition going.  We both want to lose about 10 pounds so we have started a new weight loss blog to track our progress.  So all my blogging has been on there.  

Life is good!  We are still loving Arizona.  Our family recently took a hike in Sabino Canyon.  It is quite different hiking through the desert.  Most of our hiking as been done on tropical islands. What a change.  But it is great.

Eric and Erin finished up 4th and 6th grade with straight A's.  Erin wasn't excited about moving here but she is Miss Popularity.  We have not been here two months yet and she has been invited to many birthday parties.  She was voted most fun to hang out with in her class. Popularity isn't exactly what we want for our little girl esp with the boys as she gets a little older.  We'll have to keep an eye on her.  Eric was excited about the move here but he misses his Monterey friends. He has yet to make any good buddies.  But there are lots of kids to play with in the neighborhood.

Eric and Erin start with a new piano teacher on Tuesday.  Wow, is it nice to be out of Monterey. The lessons are longer and $100 cheaper a month!  I hope the kids like the new teacher.  She is much more structured than the last one.  They really liked Mr. Garcia and so did we.   The bad part about hiring a teacher that we know from church is quitting to find a new better one.  It can create hard feelings.  Believe me, we know, we did it once before.

The kids have decided they will forgo other sports and all try martial arts.  It was an all or nothing thing for our family.  With four kids, we can't go four different directions for practices and games.  So for $200 a month, all the kids (and Mario and I if we choose) can go to martial arts.  There goes a $100 that I saved from piano.

I again injured a knee.  I hurt my right knee about 5 years ago when I ran an 8 mile race (that I barely trained for) just a few months after having twins.  Then I injured my left knee when I fell from a horse.  The ER dr told me that it was just bruised and it would be fine.  It healed along with my right knee and I went back to running.  Then about 5 or 6 months ago, my left knee started hurting when I ran.  So I took a long break from running and tried to heal it.  But then I started walking and running again.  On Tuesday as I was finishing up my run, my knee decided it was done.  I think I tore the meniscus again.  So now I will be back to resting.  But I have confidence that I will be back to running in a few months, or at least I hope.  But for now, I will just enjoy the breakfast in bed and pampering I get from my family.

Life is good and we are grateful to be here in Tucson.

Pooh's birthday

Nathan has loved Pooh bear for as long as I can remember.  He used to take Pooh everywhere. So it became time to get a new Pooh.  I took him to every store I could think of to purchase a new Pooh.  He didn't like any of them.  One day while in Build-a-Bear, the employee overheard me trying to convince Nathan to replace his old Pooh with a new best friend.  She told me that they were coming out with a Pooh in a few days.  Fortunately Nathan loved the new Pooh and has had him ever since but rarely takes him anywhere so he stays nice and clean.

Last week was my birthday and so Nathan was very curious about his birthday.  Of course he was hoping that his birthday was soon, but unfortunately he has a long wait.  So Saturday he had a new idea.  He told me first thing in the morning that tomorrow (Sunday) was Pooh's birthday and we needed to celebrate.  I had some Chuck E Cheese tokens left over from going earlier in the week so I asked him if he thought Pooh would like to go there to celebrate.  I wish I had a video camera to record how Nathan's eyes lit up at the thought that his plan worked.  We were really going to celebrate Pooh's birthday.  He figured that since he got that out of me, he may as well try for more.   Next he told me that we needed to get Pooh presents (like a new guitar that Nathan has been asking for).  The funny part was when he told Zachary that the presents could not be made out of paper.  Zachary is an artist and almost all his gifts are made out of paper.  So I felt a little bad for Zach.  I didn't go with Nate's plan to get Pooh a guitar but I did have plans to buy the kids some marbles so that is what I would get Pooh.  Again, Nathan's eyes lit up.  

Nathan never did ask for a birthday cake for Pooh, but I decided that if we went this far with Nate's little game, I may as well finish it off.  I baked Pooh a birthday cake. 

We celebrated all this on Saturday since we go to church on Sunday.  But I am afraid I created a monster.  By Sunday, I was done with celebrating Pooh's birthday and Nathan got upset when I wouldn't make "Pooh's" favorite lunch-mac and cheese.   Is it just a coincidence that mac and cheese is Nathan's favorite food?

We told Zach we would have to wait until July to celebrate "Nothing's" birthday.  That is a long story in itself.  But since this is my journal maybe I will blog about that sometime.  

Wedding invitation

Today over lunch Zachary said that he was going to invite me to his wedding.  Then Nathan chimed in and said I could come to his too.  I asked if they thought they  were going to get married the same day.  Zachary said no because he is younger.  Wow, that 13 minutes makes all the difference.  He sure gets a lot of mileage out of being the youngest in our house.  He thinks he should go first whenever we play games and he wants all the other privileges of being the youngest in the family.  

 Poor Nathan, he gets all the disadvantages of being a middle child.  

UGH! A Utility Bill

I got my first utility bill today.  You get a little spoiled living in base housing and never receiving a water, electric, or gas bill.  Now it is time to start really conserving.  Despite being 95 degrees outside, we are trying to hold out like the neighbors and not turn on the air conditioning.  The neighbor told me that they try to wait until the triple digits.  Looks like that will hit by Thursday this week.  This morning I was using my treadmill and Mario came in to shut off the light.  The sun was coming up so I guess he figured I didn't need that light anymore.   It is a little depressing in my house with all the windows and blinds closed.  But I guess that is necessary to keep out the sun and keep in every ounce of cool air we have.

But I am not complaining.  I still love Tucson!  I will take the heat and utility bills over the cold weather and small house(but free utilities) any day!