The many sides of Josh

Josh is a fascinating to watch because I'm always wondering what he's thinking and how he sees the world. Much more comfortable with sand especially the fine wet kind that sticks everywhere. He used to dislike beach sand quite a bit where he would limit his movement to avoid touching it.

Here is Josh making lots of footprints by stomping and marching around for about 5 minutes. Or maybe he was trying out for the Ministry of Funny Walks.

Another view...

Taking off his shirt to head off into the ocean (again).

Legs covered in sand.

Quick Thinking

I forgot to mention that on Sunday before we went to Soak City we had lunch at McDonalds. I drove to the usual one we go to but for some reason they were closed. So we went over to the nearest one and had our lunch. The night before Josh didn't eat very much dinner so he got busy eating. He scarfed downed the chicken nuggets right away and was working on his fries when Hector pretended to eat Josh's fries. Josh turned his back on Hector trying to block him from grabbing the french fries and even laid his hand on top on them so none would escape or get stolen.

Meanwhile, Tyler and I were sitting there looking out the window and I saw a man appear outside on the sidewalk. He was in his 40's or 50's and it looked like he was unsteady as he stepped onto the grass. I even mentioned it to Hector because it looked like he was going to fall. The man was at the edge of the curb and from my view he was looking to his left to cross the street which is very busy, about 3 lanes on each side and he didn't bother to walk another 50 feet to the street light. He was swaying looking/ checking when he decides to cross, steps off the curb and falls face forward! The man managed to flip over but he was clearly in trouble....he couldn't get up. Hector and another lady ran out there to help him up and get him back on the street. They were talking to him and it appeared that he had some kind of movement disorder. I was still inside watching the kids for about 10 more minutes and bought them ice cream to keep them busy. Hector called 911 and a firetruck and ambulance arrived. Hector described what happened and later said that the man had problems talking but he had a cell phone so hopefully the hospital will be able to straighten everything out.

It was kind of scary just because he could have fallen anywhere and got hit by a car but thankfully there were no cars coming toward him at the time.

more beachy goodness

Can't resist posting a picture of Josh jumping.

The kids running...Tyler too..impressive.

Tyler modelling his kelp boa...the latest in beach fashion.

View of Palos Verdes...

In this picture, Tyler tried to approach these 3 girls to chat. A little bit later, Tyler's shorts were pulled down by the waves so who knows if the girls saw his booty or not. :)

Day at the beach

We went to the beach for a couple of hours today and it was great. The weather was awesome, warm with a nice breeze and the water was pretty warm too. The kids and Hector headed right to the waves where they enjoyed the waves. Tyler stayed for the most part in the water while Josh took some break from the sea to warm himself up, play in the sand then head on back to the ocean. I'm sure it was much more crowded during the weekend so it was nice to arrive before 3pm, find a great parking spot and walk to an open beach.

Leftovers

I managed to finish a weekend project. Yay. I found this on Ravelry and it is a cute scarf using up all those bits of leftover sock yarn. Here is the link.

http://piecefulewe.blogspot.com/2008/06/random-scarf.html

It was a fun project to knit...picking our random balls of yarn for each row. I made it narrower than the original but it's very cute.

Another project for leftover sock yarn are these adorable baby booties. I don't have the link handy but I'll look for it. I'm thinking I'll give this to She-ra who is expecting a baby around Thanksgiving time. This yarn has nice fall colors like red, rust and green. Plus it has that unisex vibe since She-ra and He-man do not want to know the sex of the baby. This makes my knitting very limited in colors and types but oh well.

I still have leftover yarn even after the scarf and booties so I'm off to find something else to knit using sock yarn. Too bad I'm so slow at knitting socks but these give me a good diversion until I do tackle another pair of socks.

Night out on the town

Friday was a fun day. We took the kids to Wall-e and they enjoyed it. It was cute but Hector did not find it as enjoyable as other Pixar movies. Oh well, it was still good. The kids got to spend the night at Grandma's so Hector and I could do something.



Like...go to Staples Center for our Select-a-seat time. We already bought our season tickets and this is the night we can go inside Staples to see any of the other available seats that can be purchased or swapped. We like the section we are currently at but would like to move a few rows up closer to the ice. There were several to choose from in our section but none of them were the aisle seat which can be convenient to come and go but a pain when you have to get up to let someone by. We liked some seats in row 7 (we currently are in row 12) but then went to the section directly across the ice to see how those seats were. It turned out that a lot of the ice and goal would be blocked by the players on the bench making all those line changes etc. Back to our first choice...in row 7. Much better to be 5 rows closer and hey, no price increase! We waved down a rep who fills out some paperwork which we have processed and voila', all done. Time to get our free food like hot dogs and sodas at the concession stand. Also a lot of the store merchandise is 50% off. Hector found a Kings hat to replace his old one he lost in Montreal, I got a hoodie and a bigger jersey for Tyler. Good deal. They had used player jerseys which ranged from $50 to $1000 and used equipment like sticks, goalie pads etc. It was fun to try on the gloves and blocker to get an idea of what it's like.



After that it was on to Hollywood Park (horse track) to catch the end of the races and the English Beat concert. We met up with Hector's former colleague and his girlfriend to hang out and enjoy some music. We were only a couple of people back from the stage so I tried taking some pictures which came out blurry and a super short video clip. All sorts of people were there with a couple of rowdy guys, you know the usual. But it was lots of fun to hear the music like Save It For Later and I Confess and stay out late on a date. :)

So that was it...

Hola

Some pictures from our day to downtown.

Trains, Pimps and Churros

The last couple days have been interesting. Okay maybe just yesterday...we decided to take the light rail into downtown LA and had the most varied day. Sherri and her kids tagged along which made the trip very memorable for them and us. Picturey goodness later.

To sum up in a nutshell, we saw 'crazies', homeless, the pimped out, tourists, and barfing. With gas prices so high, we went to the Park n Ride by LAX and the lot was FULL! Hector was surprised but I wasn't....cars were parked in spaces that weren't spaces so it was a challenge for us. Luckily we have a super secret parking weapon and also Hector was driving which gives us added parking karma. Shhh.

The train ride to downtown was uneventful except for a very loud, vocal woman in our car who proceeded to yell and cuss at anyone she saw fit. Yikes. There are young children aboard. This person had to get off the same time as us (of course) and I saw her say something to Sherri as she was holding Amber. According to Sherri, the woman said, "Take care of your baby, don't kill her because I'm a beautiful black woman." WTF? This happened as we transferring to the green line so she disappeared (thankfully) to another car.

We rode the train to Union Station where it is still maintained in its original design (I think) and on we went to Olvera St. where we had all the kids pose for the touristy photo with a donkey (fake), sombreros and serapes (?). The first pose came out the best so of course we had to get it. I need to get it scanned to show but I have a poor picture of the picture.

We had lunch at some restaurant and the best part was the huge margarita I shared with Hector and the chips and salsa. The service was extraordinarily slooooow so the kids got full eating Goldfish and their drinks. Oh well, the food was just okay.

Most of time was wasted at the restaurant so we wound things up by stopping by Mr Churro which everyone enjoyed. Of course we try to eat at this nice open plaza area and found a place for the kids to sit. That didn't last long when Hector alerted me to the homeless drunk man sitting 6 feet away from us was throwing up. Ugh. Time to move. And head back to the train.

We saw some unusual characters like the man all 'pimped out' in a coat with leopard lapels, fedora strutting around. I guess the pimpmobile used too much gas. The train ride seemed to take longer getting back especially when the train would make a scheduled stop and we'd sit there for about 5 minutes, go to the next stop and wait another 5 minutes. this happened for the 3 stops right before our stop so we were all hot and tired.

Overall, we had a fun time with some local flavor thrown in. But I don't think we need to do this again for a long time! :P

Shoes and more

Here are the shoes that I got at the Skechers outlet the other day. Aren't they cute?

Here is the baby wave jumper after I washed and blocked it. Now I just have to add the buttons. This is too cute and I hope it fits the baby when winter gets here. It is Noro Kureyon sock yarn and the colors are fantaastic. This project took me about a month (?) to complete but it was worth it.

Now on to that dreaded never-ending Harry Potter-esque scarf that is about halfway complete. Or more likely I'll put that aside for something more fun to knit.

Short stories IV

illustrated by Tyler

Torchic's Vacation by Tyler

On Friday Torchic was waiting at Gate #23. When suddenly the door opened. Torchic walked in and through the tunnel. Then he got in his seat. One hour later he was in Thailand. He went to the Hilton. And then he wanted to rent a room. He paid the money and went to his room and took the waterproof shield. Then he went swimming and he had fun!

The End

Short stories III

Untitled by Tyler

Piro Tyler Pod is an herbivore with sharp teeth. It's feet and tail are red because they can burn you. It's pretty fast so it can get away from it's predators. It's a little taller than me. It weighs 2000 lbs. (Much more than me.)

Improvisation

Today, the kids had a play date at Sherri's but as we were slathering on sunscreen Sherri called to say that the pool fence is being painted again so the pool is closed. Noooooo. Hmm, wait our next door neighbor has a pool which we are welcome to use so let's do that. Problem solved. Sherri brought her kids over and we had a blast swimming and splashing. The heat wave is over so it was a nice and pleasant day. While the kids tried out the new Subskate thingies, the grownups played nerf football.

We spent the rest of the morning/afternoon hanging out, playing darts and blowing bubbles.

Now I need to improvise a scarf pattern for this great yarn my cousin Hannah gave me. It is a ball of recycled silk yarn and from what I can research (on Ravelry) it looks like sari silk. The yarn has gorgeous and vibrant colors with varied textures so I think a scarf will show off the yarn at its best. But I've tried a couple of ideas and had to ditch them after a couple of rows. Just wasn't feeling it. Sigh. I'll have to do some more digging around for the perfect pattern. Wish me luck.

Quickies

The weekend was WAY TOO HOT which had us sweating but I think the hotwave is over for now. Our bbq was a hit and now we get to enjoy the leftovers.

The kids and I are heading over to Sherri's place to romp in her pool. We really could have used it this weekend if we were not so busy with other things. Oh well, it's still warm and the kids love the water.

back in the old days

Our kids are spoiled with microwave popcorn...a little over 2 minutes and a nice fresh hot bag of popcorn appears. When we were in Target the other day, Hector spotted some Jiffy Pop in the $1 section so he grabbed a couple. He and Tyler decided to make it the other night and do popcorn like Mom and Dad had to in the old days.

Tyler really enjoyed the popcorn, claiming it was the best ever! Yep he is a true connoisseur.

Today is Saturday and yes, Hector hooked up the portable AC unit in our bedroom. It is already much cooler. He is taking the kids to the Beverly Center to catch another viewing of Speed Racer before it disappears from the movie theatres. Meanwhile I will straighten the house as much as I can in this awful heat (yes, I start to wilt at 80 degrees) and make a shopping list of stuff we need to get later. We will have carne asada, chips, salsa, guacamole, 7 layer dip, maybe a Chinese chicken salad and spinach strawberry salad too plus a dessert. Nothing that requires me to use the stove or oven hopefully.

I gave the window and door in the kids bathroom another coat last night and this morning. It should be presentable for our guests that will come over tomorrow for the bbq. I heard that it will be cooler on Sunday and I definitely hope so. Like I said before, I'm spoiled with mild weather. I already know that I will be extremely warm when we take our cruise to Mexico in August where the temps will be in the 90's. My friend Kat and her family are taking a cruise next week to Alaska where it will be a pleasant time in the 40's and 50's. Oh well.

I can't believe how much "stuff" the kids bring home. It quickly piles up to huge amounts of homework, tests, art and reminders. I try to save a couple of things but most of it goes into the recycle bin. Even the wall where we hang the kids' projects is full so I need to weed some of those out. We still have some of Tyler's work from preschool so I have to get more of Josh's stuff up there. Seriously it never ends.

It's official...Tyler brought his report card home and he moves on to the 3rd grade. Yikes. It just means more stuff that I have to help with. This past year Tyler had about 8 oral presentations and had tests on subjects like supply and demand, the human body, bats, owls, and manufacturing. It is a good thing he retains a lot from class but we're trying to get him in the habit of studying and preparation. Ugh...then it starts all over with Joshua. If you thought you were done with homework...bad news, you get to relive it all over again with your children. :)

Okay, the video is almost finished loading and I'm off to deal with housework.

Don't hate me because I'm adorable

Excuse Josh's messy face but I finished another newsboy hat last week. Also a camera bag which I modified from a soap holder pattern and the wave jumper was done tonight. It just needs the buttons and some blocking...I hope it fits the baby it is intended for.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures of Josh and the new hat which is for Carol (Kat's mom) and I hope it fits. Maybe her head is not larger than Josh's head or I'll have to make another one.

why am I'm up so late? Cuz it's freakin hot in the house past 1 am. Anyways, I am tired now so laters...

Short stories II

My Turkey gets Rich by Tyler

My turkey was taking a nap, when something fell on his head. He woke up, he checked it and it was a treasure map! So he left his house, he to the lake for a drink. Later on, he found the treasure. There was gold inside! So he went home and started a sale, then he got rich.

how was your day?

Today was a very warm day and Tyler was invited to a bowling birthday party so I dropped him off for a few hours. Josh and I met up with Kat and her parents at the Skechers outlet to do some shoe shopping. After a hour of browsing and trying on shoes, I came relatively unscathed with 2 pairs (buy one pair, get the 2nd pair 50% off) while Kat emerged with 6 pairs of shoes but her total damage was about $120 so that was very cool. We had to pick up Tyler soon and Josh fell asleep on the way there. I was a little early so I kept the car running and observed this interesting sign.

I did not know that poodles are people. When did that happen? Is this hair salon for humans or dogs? It was too hot to pursue the mystery so we turn our eyes to Josh who was exhausted by hanging out in a warm shoe store for a hour and a half.

I continue to wait and go through my purse. Ever wonder what a woman carries in her purse? Here are some of the items...hand lotion (my hands get dry), Blackberry, iPod nano, tampon and last of all which makes no sense is a Gameworks card. Go figure. I just cleaned out a bunch of Chuck e Cheese tokens too.

Tyler is done with the birthday party and we try to cool off at home but it's still hot. Ugh. Now that it's night, I'll open some windows and get the fans to blow the hot air out.

short stories by tyler

I was unpacking Tyler's backpack and came across a stack of his class writing assignments. These are too cute and adorable so I had to share. Please enjoy.

(Magic Carpet activity)

One day I found an unusual carpet on the floor,so I sat on it. Then I said, "I'd rather go to Soak City than sit on this carpet." Suddenly the carpet zoomed out the door and onto the freeway. I said,"Whoa! This is a magic carpet." Then the police thought it was a car without wheels and it was going fast so they thought I was breaking the speed limit. Then I rose off the ground and soared all the way to Soak City. I changed and went to play.

In Consideration

Do you think that someone can put back the food they've taken out of the refrigerator when they're done? Is that too much to ask?

another scorching day

Can you handle the heat? I think it's time to break out the portable A/C unit and barricade myself in our bedroom. Or hit the beach.

muggin for the camera

Summer's Here

Here is Tyler's partner for the 3 legged race, R, a classmate from kindergarten. I told them that they would do better if they put their arms around each other but they sure do look cute together. Oh and Tyler didn't wet his shorts...we had a massive water ballon fight beforehand.

The end of the school year wouldn't be complete if we didn't post some of Josh-jumping-off-the-rock pictures. When we first moved into our house, this rock was a big ugly eyesore. But as time goes on, it has served as the coolest mountain in the neighborhood. Kids can't resist climbing to the top and in Josh's case...jumping off it.