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first day

Josh is eager to order his soda at the bar.

The guys wasted no time in trying out the pool and slide. Unfortunately, Josh was too short but they still had a good time. Hector tried out his new waterproof camera which came in very handy.

A beautiful Saturday on the harbor with lots of sailboats.

Our cruise ship, the Carnival Elation.

Downtown San Diego taken from the cruise ship.

Home Sweet Home

We had a wonderful time on our cruise and the kids loved their Camp Carnival. More detail later in the week but here are a few pictures...

Mystery

As you may know, Hector and the boys usually go for a nice walk after dinner. On the times that I don't go, they tell me of a strange mystery that revolves around Josh. The time is near dusk or later when Josh suddenly has one or both hands (palms) blackened. Like when you touch a car tire and your finger gets dirty. This weird occurence has happened more than once and Hector can't figure out where or how Josh gets his hands black. They have named this phenomenon as Hand Black (hey, don't judge, Josh came up with it). Hector says they're walking and then Josh shows his black hand(s). Josh can be kinda sneaky and stealthy. So far,no clue.

Last night it happened again, so Tyler wants to take Hand Black Lessons. Apparently Josh doesn't know how to explains what he does or he's keeping it to himself (laughing). It's a definite mystery.

interesting

too much time on your hands

progress

My Be Mine socks are coming along. I finished the 4th repeat of the cable pattern and started the heels last night. Now the only problem I will have is finding a person with super skinny legs because there isn't much stretch because of the pattern. Ha silly me.

8-21-08 Note: I decided to frog these socks. You know, forget they ever happened and rip it all out. They fit Josh's little legs and they are supposed to be for a women's Medium. So I'll go on to other projects for now and try again later.

random stuff

Some pictures to catch you up on what is going on at Chez Fromage. First the paint colors for the family room. I used the darker gray on the paint chip for the walls near the TV.
The middle gray is what is on the other walls of the family room. Overall the room looks much better.

Here is the bags of bedding etc that my mom and I cleaned out of our linen closet. My mom gave it all away to Salvation Army. It feels so good to get rid of excess stuff.

The kids playroom is a mess as it doubles as storage too. The kids are okay getting around tables to get to their toys but they've enjoyed the arcade machine again.

Here is our latest camera. This is the water and shock proof camera that we will be taking to Mexico with us. We can take this camera in water, to the snow and not worry about it.

catch up

Okay picture time. I haven't devoted enough to my ceiling scraping adventure. I'm sure plenty of you have the lovely wonderful popcorn ceiling texture. Hector told me it was easy...remember how the guys did our kitchen? Ummm, no I don't recall. Anyway, it took me a week to get all of it off the family room. With a day off here and there. I started off very slow because I used a hand sprayer with warm water to moisten and soften the popcorn. That took forever. Hector ended up getting me a pressurized sprayer used to spray insecticide (it was empty so it was safe). We filled it up with water and so easy to spray a good size section then scrape it off.

Hector did the best thing and hired dayworkers to sand, patch and paint.

So I contributed my part to the remodel of the family room. I was proud of myself but man, dayworkers are THE BEST.

clutter

Okay, I admit we are a cluttered household. Papers, various things lay around because there it no organization. Every so often I go through an area and clear it out but the clutter comes right back. Part of the problem if having a space to put things so yesterday I went through our linen closet which is packed full of bedding, sheets, blankets and towels. I organized the sheet sets that I didn't want plus blankets. My mom and MIL give us a lot of blankets and now we're at our limit. NO MORE PLEASE! I bagged up 9 bags worth of stuff to be given away. It was a nice feeling to clean out a small part of the house. So I'm resolving to tackle our bedroom next month in hopes of establishing some order again. It's a slow process but it'll be worth it.

FYI

As we were watching the Olympics today (beach volleyball) we saw a red mascot in the background. So of course I had to find out the official mascots.

Click here to read about the Olympic mascots.

Kind of interesting.

Invasion

Bright and early this morning, Hector went and hired some guys to help with the family room. They swooped in, moved our heavy furniture and now are sanding/patching the walls/ceiling.

My darling husband planned ahead and moved the satellite receiver into the game room so our kids will not be deprived for one measly second of their precious shows. It keeps this house sane. I set up a knitting area in the play/dining room with a fan so I'm cool. It's only 9:30am and I am blogging in the comfort of our bedroom with A/C. Such a good investment!

Did you see that insane win by Michael Phelps last night? 1/100th of a second which is unbelievable to the entire world. Craziness but he earned it. Congrats on your gold medal.

Okay, now I need to pick paint and since I couldn't decide, Hector said I can pick 2 colors. Wow, in my limited thinking, that's huge. It just doesn't come to me but thanks for that because now I can pick a darker color & lighter color and be perfectly happy. Yay.

You asked

I got a promotional email from Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas yesterday and it looked pretty reasonable. I forwarded it to my SIL since we've been trying to find time to go. Well, she suggested her birthday which is early December and it still qualified for the promo. Sounds good to me. So I had to check the other casinos to see what their rates are and we finally settled on the Paris casino. Mostly for the great location and price. Both of us have stayed there before and it seemed like the best choice. I booked the room last night and it's a go. Yeah!

Hector brought up the subject of our wedding anniversary which is coming up in November. Gotta love his planning strategy! Should we go somewhere special or is there anything I'd like? Hmmmm, I need to think about that one. I did mention another lens for my DSLR but I couldn't think of anything else offhand. He pressed further so I did mention a French Bulldog which got me a sarcastic comment. Boo. I already have enough diamond jewelry to sustain until our 15th anniversary....if we fixed up the side yard we could store another car there. Maybe a cute convertible? Ha...those are probably things out of the budget but hey, he asked!

Wouldn't that be awesome ? Tooling around in my convertible with my dog? :) Or maybe a nice romantical trip for two? What would you want?

thursday

Nothing exciting going on....Hector has been working lots of hours at both Kaiser locations so at least he making moola (gotta get that family room done). He will be working all the way until our vacation starts and then he can relax and sleep.



My plans are to finish up the ceiling by the bar and hallway. The kids get to visit Grandma. Oh and yesterday my MIL had her hip replacement surgery. From what I know everything went well and I wish her a speedy recovery! :)


GET BETTER SOON!

walkabout

Our nightly walks are usually full of unexpected adventures. Sometimes it is just a stroll through the neighborhood to spot as many cats as we can and see what houses are for sale. Sometimes we head to a 7-11 for a snack or Slurpie or we can go in another direction toward the marsh, Target and the mall.

This time we chose was the mall. It's great to walk wherever and have fun. Of course we had to have Hot Dog on a Stick and Dippin Dots.

We went past a building that has a huge anchor in front so that is a photo op.

Hector discovered this shelf fungi on a tree.

And strolling by the marsh we found where "X" marks the spot. The possibility of buried treasure. All this within a mile of our house.

Olympics

I (we) have been watching the Olympics a lot. I was pleasantly surprised that I watched the entire opening ceremony without getting bored although the parade of nations was a bit long. The kids even watched a bit of it since it was interesting and involved lights. With the time difference, Hector checks the results on the computer but still watched the coverage which goes late until midnight. This week he had to stop since he needs sleep...so last night he went to bed around 9:30pm (he has a 16 hour day today) and I watched the exciting mens gymnastics. The USA team did very well considering their Olympic inexperience and managed to snag the bronze medal. Go USA!
Then the night before, we watched the mens swim relay that the French were the favorites. There were reports that the French were talking smack about the Americans but Team USA settled all that in the pool! USA beat them for the gold medal and set a new world record. So that was pretty sweet.
On another note, I finished more of the ceiling. Hector bought a pressure sprayer which made wetting the ceiling sooooo much easier which then makes scraping easier. I had to push the sofa around to do this but we got it done. Hector started on the sanding. Our plan is to begin painting this weekend. Yay.

huh

Signs that my kids watch too much TV or play video games:

"Move it Grandma! This isn't a funeral!"

This statement was uttered by Josh to me while waiting at a red light to make a right turn. I
did the classic double take and said huh? Tyler informed me that it was from an Ed, Edd and
Eddy cartoon. Great.



While taking our nightly walks I suggest we sing a song thinking one of the kids will pick a kids
song (maybe). I was wrong...Josh began belting out Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones. I blame
Rockband for that.

Wipeout. That MXC based TV show on ABC. My kids looooove it. They try to reconstruct
parts of the obstacle course and run around "wiping out". No major wipeouts yet.

Blue Wave baby sweater

Yay..I finished the baby sweater and I even did well on the seams. So now I have to figure out who will be the lucky recipient because babies grow so fast and I don't know who will benefit the most out of it. I might have to hold it up to a baby to get an idea of what size this is. Hmmmm.

at the beach

On Saturday night we headed over to Bolsa Chica State Beach for a BBQ/bonfire shindig. My friend Sandra and her family had about 30 people at the beach for some good old fashion fun. I've known Sandra from the early 90's from our fun days at the pharmacy and we've kept in touch over the years.

It was a beautiful night at the beach and boy it was packed. Good thing Sandra's husband Eddie snagged a fire ring because it got chilly later. The boys enjoyed playing in the sand, kicking the soccer ball around and makinig s'mores. They survived the few hours without any electronic gaming devices.


We didn't get to the beach until about 7pm because that previous day at Soak City got the kids and me a bit sunburned. I didn't want to spend any more time in the sun than we had to.

The sunset was pretty in the haze.

Tyler is showing off his handiwork. It's a castle with a bridge and moat.

Believe me the pictures later of Tyler resemble the Joker from Batman. He was just getting started on that cupcake with red frosting. Tyler has an incredible knack for getting any kind of food ALL AROUND HIS MOUTH. Seriously. It isn't pretty.

Joshua agreed to wear a sweater and looks very dashing.

Plus he is a much neater eater although not by much.

snapshots

Okay so here are some pictures I uploaded. These are from the kids friend G's birthday party. We went to Adventureplex which features a huge structure for the kids to climb, slide, jump and whatever they can think of. Oh and there was a rock wall. Tyler want to do this but he couldn't because he wanted to wear his Crocs and then blamed me because I didn't tell him that he couldn't wear them. Like I was supposed to know. Anyway he didn't miss much since he can climb at the YMCA for free anytime he wants. Well this the first time that Josh attempted any type of rock wall and here he is. As you can see in the later video he didn't get very far but he gave it a good try. After that one try he didn't want anything to do with it so that was fine. I supposed it can be scary to a little kid once they get higher than a bunkbed.

I did manage to knit up a quick hat for G. His dad is a big USC fan and I have plenty of yarn that I had for the Harry Potter scarf so it went to good use. G really liked his hat and agreed to model it for me.

So here is the video that I shot. You can tell that I shot it vertically so I have no idea if I can rotate this around but you get the idea.

Getting there

If you look closely you can make out the heart shaped cable on the sock. Only 3 more repeats until the heels. I already made some mistakes with the smaller cables but didn't notice them until several rows later so I just plunged on instead. I'm plodding along and so far the chart is keeping me on my toes (in a good way).

Okay time for bed. Big day at Soak City tomorrow with the kids...we're meeting up with my cousin Hannah & guests for lots for water fun. :)

sock it to me

I'm still here...the family room ceiling is almost done but I need Hector to move some furniture this weekend so that is on hold. Meanwhile I've decided to start knitting socks after a bried break. I'm almost complete on the baby sweater and knit a little pair of baby socks to get the knitting juices flowing. I know I'm behind in the picture department but they will come soon.

It takes me a long time to come up with the right combination of sock yarn and pattern. I start lots of times casting on the stitches, knitting then I don't like the look so I rip it all out and begin all over again. The latest yarn is giving me grief because I couldn't find the right pattern for it so I laid it aside and picked up a different yarn. There is a pattern called Be Mine in 2-at-a-time sock book that has heart cables up the front and back which looks so adorable (for me). Yes, it looks very challenging because there is a big chart with all sorts of symbols on it to tell what kind of stitch needs to be done. That alone stopped me in my tracks but lately I'm gaining some confidence in the chart department so I cast on. So far so good, the ribbing is coming out nicely and the yarn feels nice.

Last night I was ready for the leg part which means THE CHART. At least I was smart and looked up the pattern on Ravelry (a terrific knit and crochet community) so see other people do the pattern then post pictures. I saw some knitters comment that the chart had several errors that made me glad I checked first otherwise I would have been in trouble. Thankfully the author and publisher corrected the errors and redid the chart which is even better that I could print out the copy. To be honest I was ready to photocopy and enlarge the book page because the chart was kind of small. Now I have a 8 x 11 page copy of the correct chart so I'm preparing myself for it later today. :)

Scraping by

Literally...since Sunday. I decided to tackle the 'popcorn' ceiling in the family room since it's a big mess already. I had my spray bottle in hand loaded with hot water to wet the ceiling then scrape it off. I'm too lazy to move all the furniture out or cover it so I work in sections. I covered the area with some drop cloths and a towel to wipe off any excess water off the walls and I'm good to go.

Of course the first day I didn't use a mask so I probably inhaled all sorts of dust and unknown particles. Plus my arm ached like crazy...it took me most of the day to scrape a couple of sections but now I know better. I just have to wet the area better to make the scraping easier. The next section Monday took me only a couple of hours and today I'm on a break.

I think Hector rather enjoyed me doing some physical labor on the house and spent his time laying on the loveseat watching TV. :) Well this is my contribution to the remodel and maybe some painting.

My goal is have the ceiling complete by Thursday so we'll see how that goes. Sigh.

more OC Fair

Tyler with our plate of pizza on a stick. We took advantage of the coupon in the OC Fair booklet. Buy 2 pizza on a stick, get 1 free. Good deal and the pizza was good. Of course the kids had dessert afterwards, a frozen banana for Tyler and an Oreo shake for Josh.

Josh dug in and I think he preferred this method of eating pizza. That way his hands don't get so messy.

As the day turned into night, time for dessert again. Strawberry shake for Tyler and Josh showed down on a Reese's sundae. Yum. See him shovel it in!

Savoring the delicious flavors.

These photo cut outs are found throughout the fair so naturally it's picture time.

The ferris wheel...one of three.

All the stuffies that the kids and Kat won at the fair. The kids won some snakes by throwing darts at balloons.

The best photos of my cheeseboys.

Phew....now we're planning to take the kids plus 'hyper' girl to the water park. I need to fortify my nerves so it's coffee time.

kiddie rides

It was great to get the unlimited ride wristband for the kids who took advantage of all the rides they loved. Some rides they rode only once and some others were 6 times in a row. They definitely got their moneys worth.

The balloon ride went around and the kids could spin the balloon as fast as they wanted. My kids were very conservative in spinning but they looked like they were having fun.

I'm looking forward to next year since both kids will have the entire summer off and we can take advantage of the unlimited ride special again. We also got free admission because we donated children books to the library so that was a great deal. The LA fair is coming up in September which is much bigger than the OC fair. The bummer is that the kids will be in school by then so we can't take advantage of the weekdays and the weekends will be ultra crazy. Maybe I can sneak off by myself to look at the knit and crafts projects.

This weekend has no fun in sight since I need to start cleaning out the upstairs bedroom and clearing the closet. Hector will be finish patching up the family room wall and catching up on sleep.

animal farm

The petting zoo at the OC Fair was really cute with a variety of animals. The usual goats, sheep and pigs were there with a couple of fun ones. Like 2 baby camels. So cute.

This piggy wants a close-up.
The baby goat was too busy to come over and say hi.

But I think this baby was the star of the petting zoo. How awesome is this baby zebra?

Precious.