Summertime!!!

We have only had 2 weeks of summer and it has already been filled with fun! Here's a recap:




On her last day of school Megan had a party at the park. After that I took her and her friend Madison to the Fun Zone to ride the Merry-Go-Round and have lunch. She was really excited to wake up to a sign that said "You're in Kindergarten now!"




Dylan's class had a pool party at a beautiful home! The kids all had a great time and I got to sit pool side and chat with my friends since we hired a lifeguard.


Our friend Dave came y to install our new entertainment center. He does beautiful work! It is our first "adult" piece of furniture. I hope to have the house done before the kids leave for college!




The day after school got out I did the mud run. My foot still hasn't recovered but it is coming along. I already posted pictures but I wanted to share 2 more. The first is of the trees. As I was driving through the base there was a convoy of tanks with the guys sticking out of the top. They all had machine guns. I thought the kids might think that was cool so I grabbed the camera. As I was about to click the button I realized the men with loaded weapons might be suspicious of someone pointing something shiny at them from a car window. So I quickly dropped the camera on my lap and this is the shot I got. I did, however, get two great shell casings during the run that I held in my bra for the kids. They really liked those.

The second picture is of the lake we had to swim across during the race.

The next day was Father's Day. I don't have any pictures of our day. Actually...I do, but I know my husband well enough to know he would not be happy if I posted them here! The kids made him breakfast and we went to Church. After Church we went to see Kung Fu Panda. Everyone liked it. Especially me because I got to take a nap! Jon's dad wanted to watch golf and my dad was recovering from knee surgery so we didn't have to make any rounds this Father's Day. After the movie we went to lunch (Sushi---ick!). Jon went to work and I had a softball game.



We went to the skate park with some friends. Dylan is getting more daring every day! Here he is in the "pool" It makes my belly ache when he goes in there. I do not want him to be a big kid (or a skateboarder!)



We went to San Diego to visit Jon's sister and her 3 kids. Her youngest is right in between Dylan and Megan age wise. Here they are goofing around in their beautiful pool. We brought Annabelle home with us overnight for a bit of cousin time. They all played so well together. It reminds me of when I was that age and the connection I had to my Cousin Dawn.



Dylan had a bike ride with the Cub Scouts. After the ride there was a family BBQ at Bolsa Chica Beach. Dylan is getting some roasting tips from the Cub Master.



Jon went to his sister's 40th birthday party. It was an 80's theme. He got right in the spirit.






We had a day all about Megan! She was thrilled to be the center of attention all day. She was in two recitals. The yellow was for tap, and the green was for ballet. She did a beautiful job at both!





The kids went to Mariners Church for VBS. They had a lot of friends from heir schools to connect with there.


At the end of the week, there was a Jana Alyra concert. We met up with some other friends to celebrate the ending of an awesome week!


I guess My kids love concerts as much as I do! They both danced and sang non stop for 1 1/2 hours!!!



Somewhere in the mix of all this fun, my in-laws were in town. I have no idea how but I do not have 1 picture of their visit. Grrrr....
All I have to show for it is this. The kids had to sit in the far back of the van to accommodate my in-laws. Somewhere along the line they managed to sneak my camera out of my purse. The result was about 50 pictures similar to these all taken of them, by them. Lesson learned. Their seats are now back up front where they belong!

Unexpected Bliss

Both my children slept until 7:30 today. I feel so refreshed!

Icky Picture

I am not sure I want to post this. But, I did promise it. So here it is. please excuse my fat belly hanging out. Unfortunately there are no other pictures of me from the race. About 10 of my super cute sister-in-law though! Next year, I plan to have 20 of me! Off to do some sit-ups.

I am married to the BBQ Master!

The Eagles

I am a HUGE Eagles fan! They are in my soul. My daughter was even born during an Eagles song. So Pastor Bruce decided to lock in my Church attendance this summer by planning a sermon series using their music as a theme. All I have to say is this...I almost turned into Concert Gina when Curtis sang Take It Easy today. Jon had to hold me in my chair. It's going to be a great summer!!

Done!

First, let me apologize for my language. I have already said my forgiveness prayers, but the forgiveness of my friends is important as well. The words of the day are Crap! CRAP! and CRAP CRAP CRAP!!!!! I might have snuck a SH**T in there as well but only once (maybe twice she says with shame!) I will make it short and sweet.

1. I finished 4 minutes faster than last year YAY! That was only 3 minutes behind my ultra athletic sister-in-law so that made me feel good!
2. I didn't walk the hill. OK...I didn't walk the first hill. The second one I crapped out 3/4 of the way up, and the 3rd one was almost a success. I am ashamed that I walked a little bit but at least I power walked it. My back was just hurting to much to continue running.
3. I stink so I am going to shower. Enjoy the pics. I hope to get some professional ones next week.

Stats:
#51 for age group (out of 191)
#843 overall (corrected)
Time 1:18:38

Oh yeah, the biggest CRAP came when I landed really hard coming off one of the walls. My knees are very angry with me!



Before the race, in front of the course map








After the race with my sister-in-law and her friends








That's not a tan line, my legs were really that dirty!!!

Got Mud?

I am leaving for the Mud Run. I am not physically or mentally ready. I have 2 goals:
1. Do at least as well as I did last year
2. Not walk up the hill at any point
I will report when I get back late tomorrow. Think of me at 6:30am!!! :0)

HELP!!

I am stuck at my grandmas' friends house listening to four 80 year old women talk. Mostly in Italian. Please, somebody post a blog, e-mail me, send me a drink, something to make this day go faster!

For the ladies...

...this is the look I think we should go for at Journey!

Just for laughs

Ladies and Gentlemen...

...it was magical!

I had my gays behind me, my stud at my side and disco in my soul!

Highlight:
Meeting Renee, a ridiculously tall drag queen who got me down to the third row.

Lowlight:
Having to return to my seat when I realized Jon might be getting worried. It was 10 glorious minutes in the third row!

Thank you to my hubby for dressing up with me, taking me to the after party, helping me up when I fell down and driving me home!

It was a FABULOUS night!!!

JON SAID I CAN WEAR THE CRAZY DRESS!!!!!

JON SAID I CAN WEAR THE CRAZY DRESS!!!!!
JON SAID I CAN WEAR THE CRAZY DRESS!!!!!
JON SAID I CAN WEAR THE CRAZY DRESS!!!!!
JON SAID I CAN WEAR THE CRAZY DRESS!!!!!
JON SAID I CAN WEAR THE CRAZY DRESS!!!!!
JON SAID I CAN WEAR THE CRAZY DRESS!!!!!
JON SAID I CAN WEAR THE CRAZY DRESS!!!!!

I AM MORE THAN A LITTLE EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michell Madness

Friends, there is something strange that happens to me when I go to a concert. It's almost like I become a different person. Seriously, you would not recognize me. My husband and I both picked concerts to get tickets for. Coincidentally they fell on the same week. Last night was our first adventure in concert going this week. We went to see The Doobie Brothers and Chicago at the Gibson Amphitheatre. Here are the highlights (or the low lights depending on your perspective!):

1. Mistake #1, listening to hubby when he said to turn right in the parking lot. We ended up in a deserted parking lot at the far end of City Walk. It was a good 10 minute walk to the theatre. We seemed to be the only ones parked there. This ended up being a good thing...read on.

2. I packed a picnic dinner and a bottle of wine. We climbed into the back of the mini van and ate our grub. I forgot the bottle opener. Resourceful hubby used all means possible to get the cork out. The end result was an explosion of wine all over us and the van and the pencil penetrated the cork. We had to push the cork in to pour the wine...pencil attached. We are saving that bottle for when we need a good chuckle.

3. Decent seats, but right in the middle of conservative lane. We were surrounded by people not talking to each other, arms folded over their chests, staring straight ahead. Oh, and the lady 2 seats down from Jon with her stinky feet that smelled like stale nylons, on which she eventually sprayed a liberal amount of flowery perfume. All was calm in our atmosphere...until the sisters sat down. I say the sisters because they reminded me of the fun sisters that sit in front of us at Church. They were out to have a good time last night! They breathed life into our section.

4. For the first 20 minutes we were cracking up laughing and trying to figure out if we were being "punked". A very passionate Italian man took the stage. I just can''t even explain what it was like. Part comedy, part tragedy, part romance. All I do know is that he means every word he sings, sometimes emphasising it with a slam of the mic stand in the middle of a ballad, a bowed head or raised fist, stripping off his jacket mid song, or my favorite, crawling along the floor apparently begging some girl to love him. The sisters thought he was hot because he's Italian. I was having a giggle fest. I really thought we were at the wrong concert.

5. The lights went down...and then it happened...I became "concert Gina". The sisters and I stood on our feet and danced our rears off. For the record, there was NO ONE ELSE standing except for a few die hards near the front of the theatre. Eventually Jon joined us but I am sure we were getting some mean looks from the people behind us. I think we were technically sitting in the no standing zone. I even spent some time dancing on the landing after coming back from the bathroom, mostly because I couldn't find our row, but also because it felt like a huge Gina stage!

6. I WAS SO MAD when some really nice official guy came over and gave the sisters backstage passes for being so enthusiastic! WHAT???!!! I told him I was with them but he said just them. I could have kicked him in the teeth. The sold me out. We had been buddies for almost an hour and they didn't even try to get me back stage with them. So off they went their their stinkin' backstage buttons. I figured it was time to make my own fun!

7. About this time I analyzed the situation and discovered that security is pretty lax at a concert full of people in their 60's. I said the 5 words Jon never wants to hear me say "just act like we belong". We walked down the aisle and secured ourselves some awesome seats about 10 rows off the floor. A few songs later, I discovered security also was not covering the floor. We danced about 2 songs on the floor until security asked us and some of our fellow dancers to return to our seats. We went back to our fake seats. But within 2 minutes that guy disappeared and we were back on the floor. The guard that was there was totally cool and just let us dance away! So Jon and I were one person back from the stage. Ahhhhh....this is how you are supposed to be at a concert. I danced and screamed and had a great time!!! Oh yeah, I also drank 3 beers but I think I burned off 5000 calories in dance and sweat so I think it's OK!

8. When the lights came back up I became normal Gina again. We hiked back to our car and I immediately climbed into the back seat. I was way too tired to drive home. It was midnight and I am not used to being out that late! I needed a nap. So there is our deserted parking lot Jon listened to talk radio while I took a nap. Eventually he gave up on me and decided to drive home. He was fine to drive sobriety wise but he is a wise man to have tried to stick it out for me. I get very car sick when I am not driving. I am a horrible passenger. AND I hate his driving. The man wanted to go home so I let him drive. I even kept him company the whole way home. A luxury he rarely affords me at those hours!

We returned home at 1:30 am to barking dogs, a daughter that had puked all over her bedding and my Mom asleep in the living room. Life is back to normal...

...UNTIL SATURDAY!!! DISCO FEVER BABY!!! I promised Jon I would be even more embarrassing at that concert. I think he is currently trying to sell his ticket on eBay.

For The Curious

Dress I bought for my concert date with hubby on Thursday! No name brand with tags still on.



Denim dress you will see a lot of at Church this summer. Ann Taylor loft with tags still on!




Crazy disco dress. Hubby was not a fan. He is not in a Disco state of mind obviously!




Retro Shirt









Shiny Short Shorts

Oops!

I made a mistake today. it is the type of mistake I do not make often and I am very disappointed with myself. It was a mistake the involves money. This is not like me. Let me set the stage.

After a really good workout on the Edwards Hill (I ran up and down 5 times!), I set out with my list of Thrift Stores in hand to find a Disco Dress. (Thanks Connie for the hot tip!) My first stop was to get gas. While it pumped I realized the Goodwill was across the street. I decided to give it a whirl even though I truely did not believe I would find anything there.

I didn't get a cart, I really wasn't going to find anything. On the way over to the dresses my eye caught a brown 70's polyester striped shirt that I thought would be perfect with a retro skirt. I grabbed it just for giggles. Over at the dresses I found dress after dress that would be perfect! I couldn't believe how many tacky disco dresses there were! Before long my hands were full! I went over to the skirts, stopping to get a cart on the way. I found a few options and a pair of shiny shorts. I went into the dressing room with an enormous pile of clothes! I was getting gitty!

After half hour of separating into yes, no, and maybe piles I had narrowed it down to 3 options (actually 4 if you include the extra dress I am buying for my date with my Hubby on Thursday). There is a wild dress with a plunging neckline, the shirt I spotted with the shiny shorts, and a denim dress belted in the middle. The last one would need the right accessories to really make it Disco worthy, but I thought my hubby might like the "tameness" of this option.

I call my stylist Kristi for help but she is not available to answer the phone at either of her phone numbers...figures. So I have a brilliant idea, buy all 3, see if Kristi can come by sometime in the next few days to help me pick one, then take the other 2 back. So I carefully read the return policy, and go pay for $53 worth of clothes. I come home, squeeze into my girtle, and start trying them on with my shoes. After that, I casually looked at the receipt to see how much each piece cost and them WHAM...it hit me! I had completely misread the return policy! I thought it said the only thing you can't return is electronics when in fact that is the only thing to CAN return! OOPS!!!! I am stuck! STUCK STUCK STUCK!! I am stuck with these clothes and now cannot even think about going to look for another outfit that I might like better. I am sooooooooo mad at myself. I do not make mistakes about money. I don't have enough to just throw around like that!

Thankfully hubby likes with shiny shorts with the shirt, the denim dress will look really cute at church this summer, and the wild one will fit one of YOU when we go dancing for my 35th birthday! I am happy about the shiny shorts option because I love my legs and I don't have to wear a girdle with the outfit! YAY!

Did I mention the shiny shorts are actually a bathing suit bottom? HAHAHA!! But hey, it works!

A Little Help From My Friends!

HELP! My favorite disco dress does not fit yet and Disco Fever is in 5 days!!! Anyone know a good thrift store in HB where I can get a new dress? Time is running out! It can zip a lot further than last time I tried it but there is no way this baby is fitting me by Saturday! HELP!!!