Christopher's recorder concert

Today was Christopher's recorder concert at school. He did such a good job! I am so proud of him!!

The sweetest and most thoughtful daughter

This is such a sweet story. A few days ago, on the radio, I heard an advertisement for a Mother's Day contest. You can enter your mother to win laser eye surgery by submitting in writing why your mom deserves it. I was telling Jim about it and I guess Katrina overheard, because she came in the next day with an entry to be submitted about why I deserve laser eye surgery. Here is what she wrote:
I want my mom to have this treatment because this will change my mom’s life forever. She has been wearing glasses since she was eight years old. If she doesn’t have her glasses on or her contacts in, she can’t see anything. At night, if she hears a creepy noise, she can’t see anything without her glasses, and that scares her. I feel horrible that a great mom has to live with that.
I think my mom deserves this a lot. It would be so great if she didn’t have to worry about losing her contacts or breaking her glasses any more. She would be able to see perfectly. That would be amazing for her. I have always wanted the best for her. This might be the chance for her, to change her life.
From Katrina, age 11
She came to me and asked me to help her submit her entry. How sweet and thoughtful is that?? I am so grateful for her and I want her to know how much this has meant to me.
I really do have terrible eye sight. I can't even imagine how amazing it would be to wake up in the morning, open my eyes, and see perfectly. For now, it's only a dream, but maybe thanks to Katrina, it could come true a lot sooner than I ever imagined!

Post vacation blues

You know how it is when you get home from a wonderful vacation, it's always so hard to go back to the grindstone. I am having a rough week. First of all, we came home to cold and rain. I already suffer from a little seasonal depression, so coming from 80's to 30's has been hard. On top of that, Christopher came down with yet another case of strep throat. This is the 5th time in the past 16 months. I am definitely going to schedule a tonsillectomy for him this summer. He'll thank me some day! I have been passing these rainy, sick filled days the best I can. I finally finished one of my "pass it forward" gifts. I will be sending Betsy her surprise soon. I have to wait for my sicky to go back to school so I can get to the post office. I read a book, it was only so so, but at least it was an escape. Today I am venturing into the world of curry. Just the smell of Indian food cooking is therapeutic for me. (It is SO GOOD! I posted the recipe on my recipe blog.) Hope you are all having a good week. I know mine will get better as the weather improves over the weekend.

Easter

Mike and Leah invited our family and Eric's family to their house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt tonight. It was so fun! Thanks for feeding us!!

Swimming and sun, so much fun!

Swim, lay out, swim, repeat. That's about all the kids did the three days we were in Phoenix. Jim managed to get in some golf and I relaxed and read. Our perfect idea of a vacation.

Arizona in the Spring is beautiful

Everywhere we look there are cactus, wild flowers, and citrus trees. The kids were running around taking pics of every growing thing they could find. Here are a few of their pics:

Hoover Dam and Willow Beach

We decided to take the longer route to Phoenix via Las Vegas and Hoover Dam. The kids were excited to see the dam because it figures prominently in the movie Transformers. (That's where the cube and Megatron are hidden. So cool!) It was incredible to see, but the highway was a huge parking lot. It took us so long to actually get across the dam that we decided we didn't want to go back that way on the way back. Seeing the dam once, was enough for a lifetime. As we left, we realized we weren't going to be in Kingman, AZ for lunch like we had planned, so we pulled off of the highway at a sign for Willow Beach that said it had picnic areas. We headed off into the sagebrush, unsure of our final destination. We were seizing the day! It turned out to be an amazing oasis in the middle of the desert. It was heavenly. We had a wonderful time with a picnic and throwing rocks in the lake. The weather was perfect!

Sun, blessed sun and awesome Mexican food

We arrived at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs resort in Phoenix, AZ on Tuesday evening. It was 92 degrees. It felt heavenly to us! We checked in and toured the resort. We were really looking forward to having some good Mexican food while we were in Phoenix. We asked a woman by the pool if she could recommend somewhere. She suggested a place called Carlos O'Brien's and gave us directions. While we were driving there, it seemed to be taking longer than it should and we were worried we had the directions wrong. While stopped at a light, with our windows down, Jim asked a guy in the car next to us if he knew the restaurant and if we were headed in the right direction. I added that we were looking for some good Mexican food. He said that they were actually headed to a better restaurant close to the other and we were more than welcome to follow them. You bet! We weren't disappointed. Aunt Chilada's was some of the best Mexican food we have ever had! We ended up eating there Tuesday and Wednesday nights. It was SO GOOD! Here are some fun picks:




Burritos, enchiladas, chimichangas, fish tacos, chile rellenos, oh man, I am still craving it!! I really love Mexican food! They even make their own tortilla chips, half corn and half flour, with homemade pico de gallo. MMmmmm...
( I am going to post a few other posts about our trip. Sorry they aren't really in chronological order. Basically they will be one adventure at a time. Keep reading for more excitement.)

Phoenix, here we come!

We are headed to Phoenix for Spring Break. The kids have a whole week off of school for spring break this year. I convinced Jim to take us somewhere warm. We are so excited to have this time to spend together.

We HAD to stop in St. George for In-N-Out. So good!!

We are staying the night in Mesquite, NV at a nice hotel. Here is a pic of the kids swimming.

I will post more of our adventures another day! Wish you were here!!

Another thing to blame my kids for!

There are a lot of things we can blame our kids for. For example, stomach flab that won't go away no matter how many sit ups we do, sagging you-know-whats, gray hair, anxiety, sleeplessness, etc. Have any of you found that the more kids you have, the more cavities you have? Did you know that the pH in your saliva changes when you have children and causes cavities? It's true, my dentist told me so when I, at age 30, got my first cavity. Now I have another kid caused physical malady to add to my list, I need to get orthotics!

I am really having a hard time accepting this. My feet, mainly my heels, have been hurting on and off for the past 5 years or so. Every time they start to hurt, I go to my chiropractor to get an adjustment. I figured that my scoliosis, which is not to be blamed on my children, but probably a cute ESPRIT bag in Jr. High, was causing my hips to get out of line making me walk funny and causing foot pain. Or, that I just walked heavy on my heels like my dad. This week the pain has been more than I can ignore. They ache all the time, even while sitting. My chiropractor finally recommended that I go to a podiatrist, and sure enough, my feet are the problem. UGH! Not only do my feet hurt, but so do my knees, hips and lower back. Basically, I have fallen arches. The tendon that runs the length of the bottom of my foot has relaxed and my feet are too flexible, which is a bad thing. The doctor said that they are seeing a lot of women in my demographic with this problem. There is a hormone that our body produces when we give birth that helps to relax our muscles and uterus during child birth, that same hormone also relaxes the tendons in our feet. So not fair!! They sent me home with a link to a website to order special therapeutic shoes and told me that I should probably get a pair of crocs to wear as house slippers, no more going barefoot.

I was so traumatized by needing orthotics, special therapeutic shoes and crocs, and not being able to go barefoot, that I didn't order any and wouldn't commit to not going barefoot. I did let them measure me for the orthotic inserts for the shoes I already own, but that's all I could manage. I have so many pairs of cute strappy shoes, what is a girl to do when the podiatrist says not to wear them any more? Rebel, that's what I did!! And no offense to any of you who already own crocs, but I think they are so ugly! They are chunky and foamy and I don't care how comfortable you say they are, they just aren't for me. Most importantly, I have clammy feet, I can't imagine how sweaty and stinky my feet would get encased in foam.

So, two weeks to wait and my custom made orthotic inserts should be here and ready for me to try in the shoes I already own. I have decided to suffer through wearing cute shoes when I need to. Some things are just worth the pain! I just hope my feet stop hurting. I hate getting old!!