Horseback Riding

Erin has been obsessed with horses. She has been begging for us to buy her a horse. I told her to find out how much it costs to board a horse since we can't have a horse at our house. She came back with "it only costs between $250-$300 a month, and that includes food." Apparently she thinks we are rich or we don't need groceries this month! Anyway, I told her that as soon as she could afford to pay the monthly boarding cost, Mario and I would buy her a horse!

Mario and I decided that since we don't think she will ever be able to afford the boarding cost, maybe we could pay for her to go trail riding occasionally. I grew up with horses and took them for granted. My parents got rid of our horses after they got sued when a friend got hurt on one of them. Then they finally got horses again a few years ago. This time I got hurt when I was thrown off the horse for trying to make it go a different direction than it wanted to go. I hurt my knee and had to go to the ER. So needless to say, my last experience with a horse wasn't a pleasant one. But I agreed to go riding with Erin.

Erin was so excited, I don't think she slept the whole night before. Our ride was at 9 am. When we got there, the group before us was just returning. The lead horse was not gentle at all. In fact, when the rider went to get off, the horse acted up and the lady fell off. I didn't have a good feeling. What was I thinking bringing my 9 year old daughter to ride horses. I was nervous she would get hurt. Fortunately her horse "Tiny" was very gentle, but not very tiny. They call him Tiny because he is good for tiny riders. Again the lead horse wasn't that great and gave the wrangler a bit of a hard time. I was extremely nervous that it was going to start rearing up and kick Erin's horse which was right behind her. But fortunately Erin and I had no problems and we had a great ride. But I told Mario he can go on the next one.

The first picture is Erin on grandma's horse five years ago (the time when I hurt my knee). The rest are from Saturday's trail ride. Isn't she adorable? She is a natural too. She is not like me, a nervous wreck on top of that horse.

Melissa's Visit

I haven't blogged in a while, so I will catch you up.

My sister Melissa and her two kids, Max and Justin, came for a visit. Justin is about 6 months younger than my twins, so it was like having triplets for 9 days. Max is the tiniest but cutest little 9 month old. We went to Chuck E. Cheese and the water park. But the kids favorite activity by far was spending almost everyday at the neighbor's (Brother and Sister Park) pool. Our family really enjoyed their visit and hope they can visit again soon. Mario and I were very impressed with Melissa. She is a great mom to her two kids. They are lucky to have her.

The summer is coming to an end for my kids. School starts on Monday. The twins will be doing another year of kindergarten due to their late December birthdays. The cutoff for 1st grade is Sept. 1. Another year for them to mature will be great, plus I am not anxious for my babies to leave me to go to college any sooner. The real tragedy is that kindergarten is only 3 hours. What can I possibly get done in 3 hours?

Most of the kids are enjoying karate. Sometimes it is a little rough for Zach. Some days are better than others for him. He can't really decide if he likes it or not. On Wed, he refused to participate. But next week is his belt testing and so part of the requirement is to go at least 2 days a week. He was really worried when I wouldn't sign his form stating he had met that requirement. He apologized to the teacher and his instructor agreed to let him test next week. Hopefully he has learned his lesson. I think he was tired on Wed. He has been getting up very early everyday to play with his cousins.

Eric has us a little concerned. He has been having some bad headaches accompanied by vomiting. It has been happening monthly until this past month and now happening almost weekly. So we took him into the dr to have him evaluated. We are thinking that it is migraines caused by eye strain from reading too much. He has read The Work and Glory Series twice over the summer break. We are hopeful that the eye dr can confirm our concerns. But the dr ordered an MRI just in case. So we are waiting for those results. I am confident he will be just fine. Eric continues to be such a great example to Mario and I. He is a very black/white person. There is no middle ground for Eric. He keeps Mario and I on our toes.

Erin has had a good summer. Mario has made an effort to give her even more attention. Anyone that knows Mario knows that he already gives the kids lots of attention. But he is trying to give her even more after reading the book "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters." He highly recommends that book for all fathers. Erin continues to be a huge help to me and I thank Heavenly Father everyday for a daughter. She has developed a love of horses from her Monterey friend, Hailey. She and I have reservations to go trail riding tomorrow. She is very excited.

Nathan has been struggling a little with our recent move. Out of the 4 kids, he struggles the most. He has been a lot more aggressive since our move and showing a lot of anger. Most of the time he is fine but once in a while he shows us he is upset. I am hoping it is just a phase. He is such a sweet child normally. In the past it has taken him 3 or 4 months to adjust to our new home.

Zachary used to be the child we struggled the most with. He is a very strong willed child. Fortunately he is very attached to me and we have a special bond. He has improved greatly the past few months. He reading continues to improve each week. I adore Zachary (and of course the other three also.) He is almost always willing to help me with whatever I need.

Mario is enjoying his new job outside of Communications. He finds his new job very challenging but in a good way. He will now get to travel a lot to South America and the Caribbean. I am hoping he collects lots of airline miles so we can go back to Hawaii or Alaska or maybe even Europe. Mario is a wonderful father and husband. What I like about Mario is that he tries hard never to become complacent. Even though he is already a good father and husband, he is always trying to find ways to improve even more.

I am excited about the kids going back to school. I have had the twins home with me since April. So I am ready! I have been going to physical therapy for a torn meniscus in my left knee. I had one in my right knee about 5 years ago. Obviously I am doing something wrong when I run. Maybe PT will help me fix my problems. Otherwise life is good. I love Tucson (mostly because I like it warm.)

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.