Went to lunch with Mom and Cooper yesterday at OPA~

We had some Opa!

One of the  things I like about living in T.C.

Everyone likes to participates.

When the waitress lit it the whole restaurant yelled OPA!

Emptying Charlie's homework folder we found his plan to be physically active.

See how he plans to work out next Friday?

Can you read it?

I'll translate: Beat up sister...

What makes it even better.

See the fourth column?

They list the requirements to complete the task.

Play and shoveling takes strength and endurance...

Beating up his sister takes all three...

Strength, endurance AND flexibility.

At least he isn't underestimating her.

I love my life.

I am spoiled ROTTEN!

I think I've told you that before.

Ben got me an inexpensive underwater camera I had been eyeballing since Christmas.

We took it to the pool last night. We try to take the kids at least once a week.

NO... we aren't rich, I just have a husband who makes GREAT work exchanges...

Wanna see what I shot?!?

Tough, I'm gonna show you anyways...

It was dark so some of them came out blurry but they still look cool.

Is this the face of an Olympian or what?!

Working those muscles, Cooper was out of the water I was in.

Charlie head...

I am going to have SO much fun with this new toy...

Charlie- "Mom, spell up."

Isabelle stands by grinning.

Me- "U-P."

Isabelle giggling behind hand.

Charlie laughing and holding gut- "spell ip."

Me- "I-P."

Charlie practically rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter...

Isabelle laughing- " Mom, Mom, spell cup!"

Me- "C-U-P"

Kids both falling over with laughter...

Oh, to be so easily entertained...

I was putting away decorations tonight when I witnessed  an actual Huck Finn moment.

Charlie has an extensive nutcracker collection. After he had taken them all down from the piano, he sat staring at them, then turned to Isabelle and said "Is,  you wanna start wrapping them? Your SO GOOD at it."

She did.

I made him go make dinner. ;-D

A successful few hours at the beach.

Take...

A DOG,

ONE,

TWO,

THREE CRAZY CHILDREN,

Get off my bucket!

Where was I... three crazy children...

A DOG, sand chair, Profitable Glass and Games magazines',

beach hat, owned and worn since high school, a must!

sunglasses, a bucket and a frisbee.

These are the ingredients for a great few hours.

FIRST try to exhaust the dog...

Isabelle had Cooper and George running after the frisbee.

Works for me.

Come on throw it again...

Good air catch

Occasionally throw it in the water so you can see this.

Shall we see that a little closer?

Ick...

Keep throwing frisbee until it looks like this...

Second, watch the kids build dams and moats that are doomed from the start...

But still they carry bucket after bucket of water...

He was huffing and puffing the whole way...

They told him to keep em coming...

Finally he was done.

Hey me... what about me... more pictures of me... remember ME!

Trying to take picture of beach hat to show everyone, since it is one of my favorite things.

I CREATED A MONSTER!

A true camera hound...

Cooper did this to himself.

A LITTLE HELP HERE!

Yes... he loves his bucket.

It is going to be a GREAT summer.

Hope you all are having even HALF as much fun as I am...

ANG

My friend seedsower is in the (unofficial) Xanga video contest.

She has entered a video of her little niece and the first quilt that she made for her coming sibling... It is so SWEET!

  <~ click the link... you know you wanna...

 I promise, her's really is the cutest... check it out and please vote.

Today is the last day, so get your votes in now.  Thanks you guys. ANG

Now back to my regularly scheduled post!

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We last left our monsters at the dock, running towards a waiting boat and Grandpa.

The fog drifting slowly through the harbor, sailboats anchored in the background.

Life jackets were donned and off we went into the FOG...

The tall ship Manitou at dock.

Usually I'm on the shore and she's in the Bay.

We crept slowly out of the harbor.

Then away we went!

When we got out aways Pop said "Here Ang, steer towards the buoy."

To which my response was "WHAT buoy?"

I'm not good at steering normally, I need a land mark to steer towards.

SO in the fog I was worse, much worse.

See the pink lines... all of the straight ones are when Pop was driving, all of the crazy circles...

Yup, that was me.

My Pop the Captain.

 He is taken ladies, hands off!

He and my Mamala have been married for 38 years...

No wonder he fishes...

Just kidding MOM!

The rods were in and we were trolling. Four poles in the water.

Pop played pick a number between one and five...

To see who got to real in the first fish, just in case... 

Major childhood flashback since that is how my Pop used to settle anything between D and I.

Finally the Buoy!

No bites here.

We went to a different spot.

Remember this picture?

Well this is from the other side.

No matter how nicely we talked to them, the fishies weren't bitting.

So we headed back to the harbor.

Me driving the boat while Pop reeled in.

I can hear him in my head saying

"No wonder she couldn't drive straight... She was taking pictures! "

I wasn't!

Only like two... maybe three...

Back in the harbor the kids read the boat names...

We were only out a couple of hours.

No bites at all, we had a great time though.

We entertained ourselves by making faces at the camera

(I'll save those for another day.)

and just enjoying being together.

We all LOVE fishing with Pop.

Can't wait until next time.
Ang

I like cemeteries.

When I was growing up we had a cemetery down the road from our house called Circle Hill Cemetery. We would ride our bikes around the dirt road surrounding the hill that gave it it's name. On bright nights in the summer, we would sneak down there with our large group of neighborhood kids and play sardines among it's well manicured lawns. There was just something about stooping behind a headstone that made the whole experience that much more thrilling.

As I got older, I enjoyed rubbing headstones. NO! That isn't a new kind of fetish...

I would take a stick of graphite, some paper and masking tape and make rubbing's' of the stones I liked. I haven't really found any that are great though. I keep looking. Some day I hope to visit  a few cemeteries in Europe, maybe stop by and pay homage to Jim Morrison... They haven't kicked him out of there yet have they? I have seen some beautiful rubbing's' of stones from England and France. I can't wait to go some day. It's on the life list. Of course there are so many cemeteries here in the States I've yet to see.

Its enjoyable for me to see how people choose to memorialize a loved one. The statues and bits and pieces that are left behind. The words engraved on the stones, Mother, Father, Beloved Friend, Wife, Husband, Son, Daughter, Sometimes words from a beloved hymn or a quote, years of service and the war served.  I wonder what mine will say. When I was a teen I wanted it to say 'She's not sleeping, she's just dead.' It was that whole teen angst thing I'm sure.

When Charlie was younger, he was going through his DEATH stage, We were driving past a cemetery when  he asked about headstones and why people put them on their graves. I told him it was so they had a place to go to remember the person they loved. Usually the stone reminds them of who that person was and what they meant to the world. He pondered this. I could see the little adolescent cogs turning in his head. Then he took a deep breath. "A Transformer Mom... That's what I want put on top of me, a Transformer and maybe a bulldozer, but definitely a Transformer."

Remember The Bird Girl?

 So many people fell in love with this statue they had to remove it from the Savannah cemetery it called home. 

This fellow seems to be popular.

I'm not really in a morbid mood, these are just things I've been thinking about. I guess that once again I'm entertaining myself at your expense.

Have you ever taken the time to write your own obituary?  

That would be a great way to reflect and evaluate a life. Why not do it before we're dead?

What would you like your headstone to say?

My kids are so cool... Isabelles night mask... She sleeps with it over her eyes, but she insists on having the light on in her room.  Kids, who really understands them?

I think Isabelle is a punk rocker waiting to happen. Grandma Marty took her to get her hair cut and she came back with no hair. I'm  glad my Mom didn't let her get it dyed a different color, although it was discussed.

 I want to go when she gets the hot pink or red put in.

To be fair I should have warned my Mom. Charlie was a little upset, You would have thought it was his hair.

"Now everyone will really think we're twins." He said with disgust. They are only fifteen months apart and people ask them if they are twins all of the time. He doesn't like it.

Ben and I went on a date again last night. We went to the Old Mission Tavern.

This is the goat cheese appetizer... mmm yummy.

It's also my husbands arm waiting patiently to dig in.  You know a man loves you when he waits to dig in to his food so you an take a stupid picture...

BAY WATCH on the way home. This is a point on the Peninsula where you can see both bays. I need to figure out how to do a panoramic piece so I can show you guys what it looks like. It's so beautiful. Something for me to work on I guess. 

Oh, normally when I show a picture of the Bay, it's way, way, way on the other side of where this picture is taken.

Hope you all are enjoying all of the little bits of nothing in your lives that really are, as they should be, a whole lot of something. Ang

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See she's a punker already!

Create Your Own PaloozaHead - Visit Lollapalooza.com

Yeah, yeah... I know everybody's doing it so...

Today is a better day. I'm trying to make it a better day any way.

So here is a new happy memory.

 My Great Aunt Shirley made a special trip up to see us at Easter time. It was just an over nighter she drove six hours here and six hours back to her home... All to do THIS...

The kids were so happy... you would think she gave them GOLD or Yu-gi-oh cards.

I told them they were lucky, Aunt D and I had to graduate high school before we got our special blankets from Aunt Shirley. 

Aunt Shirley who is in her seventies, although she doesn't look or act it, said she wanted to give all of the grand babies their blankets before her fingers stopped working and that D and I had always been special to her.

Talk about making some one feel good. I get the warm fuzzies still and I need those today.

I returned the favor  I think when I insisted the kids sit for this picture. Pop printed one out almost immediately and Aunt Shirley was so happy... You would have thought we gave her... gold or lottery tickets?

NOW I feel better. Ang

The monsters and I went to lunch with Grandma the other day.

It was good to get out and about.

My Sister is here. The next few days are going to be VERY busy.

We went out tonight and got the rest of the Easter loot...

Went to the Doctor today so he could draw some blood and was given a reprieve only to be told that on Monday I will have to STARVE myself and then get poked...

If it helps figure out why I'm so frigging exhausted all of the time and still can't sleep, I'm all for it.

Ang