CA Girl

Raised to believe you would one day be a King, and then to be told you were adopted!  Oh and get this, you don't get to be King.  (You little snot!)  Your brother is better.  Geez, even fictional families are messed up! If you have no idea who I was just talking about, it's all good...I am merely demonstrating a a point.  Look at The Little Mermaid.  Girl wants to marry a guy and the only reason she knows his name is because she heard someone say it.  Props to King Triton for telling her NO!  What was she thinking!?  I mean it all works out in the end. Look at Harry Potter...that kid is an orphan in the most deplorable of family situations.  His Aunt and Uncle should be throat punched.  He has more family in his friends than anywhere else. What's my point?  So glad you asked.  Although, you might not be.  I am more and more becoming disenchanted with my family.  The one I grew up with.  The one I am ra...

We all remember when Thumper was reminded by his mother what she always taught him, right?  "If you can't say something nice.  Don't say nothing at all."  Of course we have all been taught this simple rule haven't we?  Hopefully we also teach it to our own children as well.  It's not something that gets taught in every home.  If it were, there would be no bullying and kindness would abound the world over.   It just so happens that the Sunday before last, we were issued a challenge in our Relief Society class.  The challenge seemed simple at first:  to be nice for twenty-four hours.  But wait!  There's more.  This means, no criticism at all.  Which means you can't even criticize bad drivers!!  Oh did I mention you can't even use sarcasm!!!  I live and breathe sarcasm!!!  This was not going to be easy.  In fact, it was going to be hard, difficult, taxing, exhausting.   I will be honest, ...

Standing in line for a roller coaster, your heart begins to beat a little faster as you wind your way through the line.  Then the butterflies start flitting in your stomach.  Nervous chatter is a way to lamely calm the nerves.  Yo watch the coaster do its initial climb and drop.  Your breath catches as it turns upside down and the riders gleefully squeal in delight.  Or is terror?  Steadily you approach the train, its now or never.  You board the train.  The harness is locked on.  The brakes release and your heart drops into your stomach as it begins its 90 second journey.  You laugh, scream, shut your eyes and hold on for life.  Or maybe you ride with your eyes open, laughing and arms in the air because you know the ride.  But what about life?  What about the roller coaster of life?  When it tossing us up and down, upside down.  We don't know this ride or its effects and yet we waited in line with anticipati...

Am I weak?  Am I crazy?  Do I love a good challenge?  I am not sure what the answer is, but we rescued two brother kitties yesterday.  They are three years old, current on shots and fixed.  A good fit for us as we have the needs for cats over a year old, and these boys needed a home ASAP.  So I took them in.  We got the pleasure of naming them and everything. This is Sheldon.  Yes, we are Big Bang fans.  He was busy last night rubbing everyone and everything. So yes, much like Sheldon he is making it known what is his.  (No, no marking!) Just rubs. Spencer is shy.  And well he is scared.  As soon as he is comfortable and the pecking order is established--Sheldon! I am sure he will come out and meet people.  He's pretty. But not ready to socialize. But on the day of his return, he will be top cat no bones about it.  He will make it known.  We are still looking for you!!!

Summer has officially begun for my family- for CA Girl her kids are almost done but we decided to start the summer off early with a weekend getaway for our two families in Indio, CA. As departure day grew closer the kids got more and more excited and then the fun began. From here on out- Emmy's comments will be in blue- Lourie's in red Emmy: I was very jealous you were already leaving and I was stuck in the pick-upline. Lourie:  I was questioning my sanity at this point.  I picked up the kids early from school so that we could get there nice and early--like right at check in.  Thus leaving us with time to get settled, pick up dinner and have time to swim.  Of course in my haste, I didn't think to ask my teen if she had any assignments to catch up on or any tests that day!  D'oh! Not only that, but I missed packing an extra pair of capris for me.  Ooops.  We made excellent time just the same.... But soon we would find out your early depart...

My church hosts The Crystal Apple Awards where our Seminary students get to nominate their favorite teacher.  It can't just be a favorite teacher either.  This teacher has to have gone the extra mile, made the student want to better themselves and improve those around them.  Sounds like an impossibility doesn't it?  But 65 teachers in three high schools were nominated.  Three teachers were awarded the Crystal Apple in each school and 6 teachers from each school were given an honorable mention. One teacher from a school that was not my daughter's school was an Air Force Retiree.  He is an ROTC teacher now.  What I found interesting about him was, he was headed to Homeland Security about the time my husband was to retire.  He would have been doing the same job.  He told me he found no satisfaction at that level.  That he wasn't reaching anyone.  His commander then told him, it was teens he needed to reach.  He was adaman...

I consider myself a good friend.  The kind of friend who will listen when you are having a bad day.  The kind of friend who will send you chocolate when the chips are down.  The kind of friend who will help you hide the body.  And if needs be, I will shoot you.  So yesterday, when Emmy asked me to shoot her...I obliged.  See, I am a good friend.  I got your back.  Have a great weekend everyone!

As you know, I am having trouble loving my neighbors.  I want you all to know, that I am trying.  I went and spoke with the guardians of the boys who were also involved with the smashing of the Christmas lights.  It turns out they are being raised by their grandparents.  That would be a rough gig.  They are not old grandparents but they are older than I am.  These boys are 7 and 9.  It was a completely different feel when I went to that house.  It was one of shock and horror at first.  And then a total assurance that an apology would be made.  I almost felt bad.  Almost.  I mean they did do something wrong after all. The grandfather brought them to me and had them apologize for what they did.  I asked them what happened.  They told me they had smashed the lights.  They lowered their heads in shame.   I thanked them for telling me.  It was just a totally different feel.  Grandpa apologized ...

I need to get something off my chest.  I am having a real hard time loving my neighbor.  And it's getting harder and harder.  I have tried very hard to take the high road.  To be the better person.  I know I need to lead by example and lately my example has been poor. A couple of days ago, Kristin came tearing downstairs to tell me that the neighbors kids plus a couple other kids from down the street were wrecking our Christmas lights(yep we've gone redneck!).  She said they were pulling the bulbs out and smashing them.  These are little kids mind you.  No older than 10.  I jumped up to see/catch them but it was too late.  And the damage had been done. As you can see, the lights are gone.  There are many other places along the fence where they were pulled as well.  I just chose not bore you all with the pictures. This is only part of all the damage done to my fence.  On the other side is a green belt.  They g...

It doesn't seem possible, but I did not watch Dancing with the Stars on Monday.  Not only that, I didn't vote and I didn't watch the results show.  Can you believe that???  I do know who went home.  Jack Wagner.  I am sad about that.  I liked him.  He needed my vote.  But as my BF Emmy asked,"Holy cow!  What has been going on!"  Well, let's back up to December just before Christmas.  One of my cousins died suddenly.  He was very young.  Not even 40.  It was quite a shock.  And so now fast forward to last Friday when I find out that another cousin of mine (age 35) died.   It just blew my mind I think.  I actually said, "What is going on with my family?"  In a last minute decision, my mom decided to go to Utah for the funeral.  She would be riding with her brother and sister in law.  However, I needed to bring her to them.  That meant driving up the windy road.  That was ...

I wanted a pixie cut..... Almost!  

To Whom it May Concern: Have you ever felt this way?  I am feeling this way today.  No, maybe it's been building up.  I am not sure.  Just one of those times where you have to what is the expression...put your big girl panties on deal with it!  But man sometimes I just want to forget about it.  Lay low for a while.... Of course I would need lots of supplies.... A girl has to have chocolate.... And I have to have my Diet Coke.   It's all good.  I will snap back.  Don't we always.  Especially when there is chocolate in the world.  ;)

Missing in Action:  Ca Girl Last known sighting.... One of three public schools.  No she is not some weirdo she has three kids in three different schools.  Yeesh! Description:  Six feet tall and disarmingly beautiful.  And incredibly modest. She has been MIA for the last 4 days.  If seen please leave some comment love. *Disclaimer:  I am not really MIA.  I am however recovering from some nasty stomach thing.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I am going to try and catch up on blogs now!*

My morning has been rough!  Let's just say I am glad Ryan still needs Good Night's as a very unusual thing happened in his sleep.  My oatmeal exploded. Emily woke up feeling sick to her stomach.  Awesome.  I fix myself some regular cereal since I don't feel much like oatmeal anymore anyway.  And check my latest Facebook notifications as I do every morning often do.  And there is a notice on a picture of Kristin's.  I had commented on it, so of course I get to see all comments.  Plus hey, I am her friend yo!  She is pictured with her friend who is being transferred to another school.  It was his last day.  (I cut him out for privacy) Some so called friend made the remark that she looked like a drug addict. Didn't even spell it right!  Oh no he didn't!  I now understand why moms go off! And just snap!  It clicked.  In that single moment of time.  I was ready to strike.  But then it hit me.  As...

If you remember yesterday's post, you remember that I said I had a meeting with Emily's IEP teacher.  My morning was busy as usual.  I got everyone where they needed to be.  I came home and read a few blogs before heading out to my appointment.  I even had time to put on make up!  I know, right! I was driving along just as nice as can be and after I turned a corner, I heard it.  The sound that only a flat tire can make.  At first I thought maybe I drifted onto the line and was hitting reflectors.  Nope.  Steady as she goes.  Nobody was honking wildly at me to get my attention.  I turned down the next street and pulled over as soon as I could. I could literally hear the air hissing out.  It is good I pulled over.  I think I prevented a full blow out.  I thought that was a big ginormous screw.  After making some phone calls, and getting my nephew there.  He told me otherwise... A spark plug!  I kep...

My weekend started off like this.  I started with a sore throat on Thursday.  I was feeling kind of run down.  By Friday night (pictured) I was at death's door practically begging to be let in.  We promised the kids shopping and a visit with Santa!  I refused to break my promise no matter how horrible I felt.  Unfortunately, Rich was coming down with it too.  So we both just sucked it up. Saturday we alternated sleeping and being a parent.  Kristin was the "parent-aide" and Emily was the assistant.  Ryan was most awesome.  I called on my visiting teacher and had her bring dinner to us.  I had to drive to Orange County to pick up my nephew--because I said I would.  Luckily I was feeling much better than that!  But I was still down.  Sunday was church, lunch at my mom's with the fam and the driving all over the place to take one nephew one place and the other home.  What a day.  Rich was in recovery m...

My name is Lourie and I am a Blog-Aholic.  I didn't know this about myself until yesterday.  I was happily reading blogs.  I even managed to comment on a couple.  All was right with the world until I noticed something was off.  I was not receiving any comments from my post.  Well wait, there were two.  But then nothing.  My anxiety spiked as I thought surely I must have offended someone...all ten  of you.  Why else would my comments be so lacking?  And then I noticed as I tried to comment, blogger told me that it was in "read only" mode.  What the what???  And well, you all know what happened.  I even set up new blogs.  I am not including the links...yet as I am not even sure I will use them yet.  But...it's good to know there are so many choices out there for addicts like me.  I hope you all have a beautiful weekend!  See you Monday....I hope! What did you do while Blogger was out?

Spring Forward!  It sounds so happy, cheery and bright.  I love the longer daylight hours.  I love how it is warm enough to wear capris and short sleeve shirts.  No hating please.  But is it just me, or is the time change knocking everyone on their butts?  I am dragging my feet all day.  It sucks.  And the kids.  Oh my gosh.  The time change has made them cranky a bit unhappy.  I know in some places kids would be going to school in the dark without the change over.  I know I would not get those lovely long days of sunshine without it.  But man, I feel downright jet lagged.  Kristin just completed a major project at school worth 300 points.  It spans across three classes:  Language Arts, Social Studies, and History.  She chose to make a film about the Expedition of Lewis and Clark.  She wrote the script and cast it.  It is just over 7 minutes long.  We filmed it this past weekend.  ...

Do you ever have one of THOSE mornings?  You know the kind?  The kind where everything goes wrong-and-you-can't-find-your-keys-because-you-were-sitting-on-them.  Yes, it was that kind of morning. First of all, I am sick.  It can leave now.  The way I am trying to cough up a lung you would think I could get rid of it.  I woke up late because I am a light weight I took cold medicine that "may cause drowsiness" last night.  In the world of me, that means I will be in a fog for about 24 hours.  And I only took half the dose.  Yeah.  I only take that stuff out of desperation.  So I am tired and sick...wait.... that would be sick and tired and trying to get the kids going. The boy is testing me more than he ever has.  I hope he realizes how much restraint I exercised.  Especially when he stuck his fingers in his ears and sang out, "LALALALALALA." I get lots of brownie points!!! Teen angst is very real, and is not to be tak...

Did you ever just have one of those days?  You know the kind, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and you get out of bed and trip?  Yeah, that is the kind of day I am talking about.  Yesterday was a holiday.  No school.  The only redeeming quality about this is being able to sleep in.  After the day I had, sleeping in is entirely over rated.  Let's a play a little Status Quote here.  This time with my own status updates: 1. "I am being lazy.  I need a dose of ambition though."  I was given a radioactive dose of ambition from a friend.  I still feel shiny.  It must have worked, because I finally took a shower, got dressed, and started a load of laundry.  Of course by now it was 11:30.  I already promised a trip to the mall to the teen.  Hey her babysitting money was burning a hole in her pocket.  I had designs on making sugar cookies.  I even bought cookie cutters.  I really am not fond...