San Diego Recap.

We had a great time in SUNNY and WARM San Diego. The only thing that confused me was that there was this giant glowing orb in the sky that emitted heat and light. It was nice. I think I may have even gotten a little sun.

Highlights of the trip:

We drove through downtown L.A. with the fifth wheel and lived to tell the story. Sure, we didn't get off of the freeway, but we could see Dodger Stadium.

Sea World was great! Little Monster had a great time watching the whales do their thing. He loved going into the tunnel where the sharks swim over head. Unfortunately, he fell asleep just as we got to the 'kid' area with the splash zone and fun playground. We waited forever for him to wake up, decided it was going to be one of those several hour nap days, so we headed home. He immediately woke up. It was tragic. We drove over the Coronado bridge countless times and visited the beach on North Island. We visited the Wild Animal Park, and while it was very enjoyable for Not the Momma and I, it was too much for Little Monster, so we skipped our plans for the zoo the next day. Instead we went back to Coronado and caught the ferry over to downtown and walked around downtown for a while.


I think I could see myself living in San Diego. The only problem is finding housing we can afford there. That, my friends, is not such an easy task.

We're thoroughly exhausted now, and I regret being such a jerk about the whole trip. I should have been more excited. Little Monster is happily napping in his own bed. (He let out a big cheer of HOME! HOME! when we pulled up to the house.) I'm thinking about doing the same thing. But there's all this laundry staring at me. I have stuff to put away. But napping... that sounds like a much better idea for now!

Technical Difficulties

After there were some technical difficulties involving iTunes, an external hard drive 3+gigs of data, and the recycle bin (as in the 3+gigs went into it):

NTM: I'm going upstairs to check on it. If it's bad, I'm going to go Vista on the computer.

ME: Wait, you mean you're going to suddenly stop what you were supposed to be doing, your clothes aren't going to fit, so you'll reject them, then turn blue and pass out on the ground? And then when I try to recover you, you'll only revive half-way?

NTM: Yeah. That's exactly what I meant!

A week of fun!

I purposely put more positive things on my list the other day.. I had to stretch to remember some of those. It's a good exercise when you're feeling like everything is wrong. At one point, I was thinking how grateful I was that mice were mammals and didn't leave eggs like lice. Because at least I could vacuum the turds and not worry about new little mice hatching on me while I sleep. I know -- how sick is that?

At any rate. I have been pretty anti-trip to San Diego. But now, the closer we got to pulling out of the driveway, the more excited I was.

Our plans are packed. We're visiting Sea World, the Zoo, and the Wildlife Park. We're also going to run around Not the Momma's old stomping ground. Hopefully there will be some relaxing. And maybe some swimming too. OH OH OH! And it might actually be warm. I think, for San Diego and the surrounding area, it might be slightly cool, but for me, it will be a verified HEAT WAVE! yeah! In other words, it may be a nightmare toting a toddler around. OR it could be absolutely wonderful. Only Little Monster can decide.

Pray for us. We'll need it!

Happy Birthday!

From a terrible daughter. Well, one who is habitually late. I'm sorry. Your card should be mailed from the road. We love you and hope that you have a wonderful weekend Dad!

We all miss you and can't wait to see you in December!!!!

LOVE YOU!

And again, I'm sorry I don't have anything better to say. Just know I'm thinking about you as we're hurling down I-5 on our way to San Diego. This trip wouldn't have been possible without all of the help we've had from you. We wouldn't even have found the fifth wheel without you. We wouldn't have roadworthy tires -- well, we might, but we'd also be less a few more hundred bucks.

I really appreciate everything you do. Have a good day!

Friday Fun

This is probably the worst and funniest blog I've ever seen. Cake Wrecks. I'm sure lots of you have seen it. At first I was offended, thinking HEY! I've made some cakes that resemble that! -- But then, I realized that ALL of them are cakes people have paid bakeries to make! How terrible is that?

I spent some time looking at every. single. cake. They are awful!

One of those weeks....

It has been one of those draining weeks. The kind that make you wish for Friday and crave a pedicure and back rub. Want to hear some of the highlights?

--here's a hint -- say yes. Otherwise you'll get a long drawn-out whine-fest which doesn't come with the rosy cheeks and pleasant attitude I generally get after having a glass of wine.

• Washing vitamins in your pants pocket -- that doesn't work too well.
• Neither does not noticing the vitamin 'mush' that got stuck under the rubber cover in the washer.
• Laundry washed with vitamins reeks of pee-pee diaper.
• Washing an entire MOUNTAIN of CLEAN (but stinky) clothes is not fun.
• Neither is fining mouse turds in the sink of the fifth wheel.
• Or on the bed.
• Or in the cupboards (even though we expected them there).
• Finding the nest near the hitch -- unexpected surprise with it's ups and downs.
• Spending an entire afternoon vacuuming mouse turds out of every possible place in the fifth wheel -- NOT fun.
• It is however fun to soak every surface in a fifth wheel with Lysol.
• I may possibly be high on Lysol.
• Preparing for a trip to San Diego -- tiring.

I'm now looking forward to the trip to San Diego, even though I wasn't. And I probably should point out all of the GREAT and absolutely wonderful things that have happened recently.

• My friend got out of the house and attended Bible study this week. She enjoyed it and got a lot of information she needed and many prayers as well.
• My attitude about the trip to San Diego changed, I want to go. I'm looking FORWARD to it.
• I found out that the chapel may pay for part of my conference trip in November! yeah!
• This is the FIRST week in a month I've let the housekeeping slip.
• We've made it to church every week for a month!
• I got a giant check from my job! It's gone already, but it was great while it lasted.
• Tomorrow Little Monster is going to get to BOUNCE! IN! A! BOUNCE! HOUSE! at Faith's house!
• Not the Momma bought me dinner after seeing all the work I did today.
• Saturday morning we're getting donuts, and Not the Momma will be done with his finals...until next quarter.
• None of the clothing got stained (except the pants that held them) by the vitamins.
• The dogs have only dug 2 holes this week, instead of the 30 they normally do.
• The organic veggie guy who delivers my veggies -- HE RAWKS! I asked for No chard and an extra thing of raspberries. I got 3 pints of strawberries. AND three pints of raspberries. And the box had all kinds of squash and oranges and baby spinach and lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, cherry tomatoes. So. MUCH. goodness.

Oh, and some of you may find this amusing -- Not the Momma said he was going to throw me in the dryer the other day. He didn't even know how much that rocked! YEAH! I'll tell that story another day. Ah, Carrie. I miss you gal!

PrompTuesday # What?

SanDiego Momma's wanting poetry again. She didn't want to hear about intimidation, but yeah. Poetry + Me = Dis-ASTER!!

So... Here's the prompt:

Today, write a poem including the following lines in any order:

“I tie a ribbon in a foolish way”

“The delicious fragility of this travesty”

“Where we still laugh and wish”

The Rules: 250 words or less, 10 minutes max, have fun, and put a link back to the site.

---

I try to put my hair up -- hoping the hot will come.
I tie a ribbon in a foolish way, but it's difficult.
The hair inside falls, my hair won't be tamed
Summer has come and gone.
I know I'll miss this weather eventually, the temperatures that linger near sixty
the delicious fragility of this travesty.
missing summer. missing heat.
missing the swimming parties and Popsicles enjoyment.
those childhood summer days, I reminisce of the places and times
where we still laugh and wish for cooler days, building snowmen.

---

We have the heat on right now. Yes. the heat. It is cold outside. I don't think it got above sixty, and now that fall is approaching the nights are getting cooler faster. So, here I sit, feeling like it's November rather than September. I'm feeling a bit let down by the central California's lack of summer heat. I was told it was arriving. And we did get one blissful week of warm temperatures. And now the return of the clouds, and the chill. At least I'll be happy in January when everyone else is freezing and it's warm enough here to play outside.

I'm Sorry!

Newest word to come out of Little Monster's Mouth:

"Sorry."

It all started with trying to wrestle him into his pajamas. He turned beet red and got all sweaty trying to fight us. "NO! NO BED! NO! NO! NO! DOWNSTAIRS!! EEEH-MOOOO (nemo). NO!" Complete with the total back arch and limp body that makes it impossible to do anything. I wasn't quite sure he'd mastered that.


He has.

Not the Momma was upstairs finishing up some homework when he heard: "Mama? Daddy! Sawwy! Sawwy! Mama! DADDY! MAMA! SAAWWY!

It's bad when Not the Momma comes downstairs wiping a tear from his eyes, running as fast as he can so as not to break down and run in there, grab the kid smother him with hugs and kisses and fill his tummy with M&Ms.

The part my husband likes...

... I talk. A lot. I used to talk even more, but sometimes, when I get excited, nervous, etc. I talk. I talk too much, reveal too much information. It's bad. So, when God tells me to shut up. He really likes it. Lately, I have been reminded by the Lord (through prayer and reading) that sometimes it isn't always best to speak your mind right away. Pray about it. Wait until the emotions are a little less raw, until the anger has faded a bit. Then speak.

I have to tell you it works. Prayer works.

When I get (irrationally) angry about the fact that there are school books and computers all over the dining room table, I now pray. A month ago, I would have nagged about how it's annoying, would you please clean that up... etc. Recently, I quit nagging about it. I started praying instead. If it was a big deal, then something would happen and it would be fixed. -------Two days ago, Not the Momma decided he needed to find a cheaper desk to put upstairs to do his school work on. Coincidence? I choose not to believe in that. I choose to believe that prayer worked in this case.

The bible study group I go to (See that link over there --> PWOC? Yeah, that's it) has an international conference coming up. A chance to learn more about myself. Something I've been considering for a while. I didn't have the money. So I prayed about it. I didn't whine to my husband about not having the money, or worry about it. I said "Lord, if you want me to go to this, you're going to have to help me find the way." Oh, does the Lord ever know me! I got a paycheck last week for enough money to cover the conference and then a bit extra. If I had gotten that paycheck any later, it would have been too late. Had it come too much earlier, it would have been spent on other things. Coincidence? I choose not to believe that. I choose to believe that the Lord wanted me to go to this conference. I choose to believe that is the reason why I received my paycheck the exact week I needed it and not a day before or after.

These are just the most recent examples. There are countless times that my prayers have been answered. Even when I was doing more asking than thanking, more taking than giving. Have you had a prayer answered recently? Even a small one?

*P.S. The part my husband likes -- is when I shut up. And stop nagging him about stuff. He likes that. A lot. And it works!

The Physics of getting injured in softball.

The other day I mentioned that we went to watch Not the Momma play softball the other night. What I didn't mention is that Not the Momma broke the rules. My rules are very specific:

1. Have fun
2. Don't get injured.

Rule number 2? Right out the window.

It was the fourth inning, Not the Momma got to first base. The guy after him hit a triple. So Not the Momma ran home. The problem was, the other team was very close to tagging him out. It's against the rules to slide into home plate for 'safety' reasons. Since he was so close to being tagged, he went all out. Since he couldn't slide, he just ran. And that's where it began.

Since the "Spherical Chickens" are a bunch of science and math nerds (I love me some nerds!), they'll understand why it's dangerous to run full on into home plate without sliding, when 10 feet past the base there is a WALL. It's simple. Newton's first law: "A particle will stay at rest or continue at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external unbalanced net force." Using the knowledge that he has learned in his college and post-graduate edu-ma-cation, we decided to figure out how much kinetic energy he had when hitting the wall. (a lot-- duh!)

So, yeah... um...you start out with F=ma, wait. no, that's not right. What page are we on?

Okay. Start over. Not the Momma is the "particle" and he's moving at a fairly constant -- and fast for him -- velocity. And we'll say the wall is the "external unbalanced net force." Yeah, the wall -- it acted upon his knees, his hands his finger and his eye.

KE=1/2(mv^2)

KE is kinetic energy, m is mass and v is velocity. So, there is KE=1/2(123*4.5^2)

He weighs about 123 kg, and an average person runs about 10mph --or 4.5 meters per second... That all translates into about 1245 joules.

Are you lost yet? I am. There was something about physics and m's. mmmm M&M's. Dark Chocolate M&Ms. This always happens when he starts getting technical. Uh oh! Wait, he's telling me something.

1 joule is the same as one watt per second. (or something like that) He had 1245 joules. which somehow translates into powering a 60 watt bulb for 20 seconds. (1245 divided by 60).

In other words. He done hit that wall purty hard. His knee looks like hamburger and his left ring finger may or may not be broken strained and/or jammed. He's afraid to find out. It made me hurt inside when I saw the blood dripping down his leg yesterday. And it still does every time I see it. So, of course I took pictures:

**PS when I read this to him we had the following conversation:

NTM: It does not look like hamburger! It stopped oozing!"

Me: In other words you're desperately injured?

NTM: NO! I'm seriously hurt!

What this all boils down to is that he broke the second rule. And he's grounded. He's not allowed to play softball again until April. Lucky for him it was the last game of the season, and the next season starts in April.

Friday Fun...

How old is your Brain?

A friend sent this to me by email... It's pretty simple.. You push Play, then a 3, 2, 1 countdown goes off. They will flash some numbers on the screen. You have to remember where they were and click on the circle placeholders in the order that they appear.

**Update**Wow. So, perhaps I should, I don't know... Post the LINK?? Here it is: The Brain Age Game.



I did this while listening to (what else but?)Cars, with Little Monster climbing on me, kicking me with his feet and trying to spill my coffee into my laptop. I got 31. I will try again a little later and update with my *REAL* Brain age.

Interesting...

to say the least.




Veeeery Interesting... Did she really know he wasn't there? This makes me wonder... Did she keep him around for political reasons after all? Hmmm... Like I said. Interesting. Veeery Interesting.

Why is it softball when the balls aren't soft?

I apologize for the randomness of this post. It is not my best work. I know. I don't care.

Not the Momma has been playing softball. This is a big deal for a guy who is anti-anythinghavingtodowithteamsports. His team is called the Spherical Chickens... Yeah, I don't know either. It has something to do with physics, and everything being a sphere. You might understand if you're a physicist or a geek or a big nerd or something. I'm a geek or a nerd and I still don't get it. I guess it makes sense for a team name, since they are made up of mostly physics and math nerds.

The rules are kind of weird, but hey, it's intramural softball. We've gone to almost every game. They started playing to have fun and get some exercise, and it's working. The guys have progressively gotten better every game. The first few games were lost due to "Mercy" rules. (15 points ahead in the first 5 innings ends the game.) Gradually they got to the point where they were playing a full 7 innings. The last couple of games have been crazy. There have been wins,and HOME!RUNS! and cheering and catching pop flies and everything. But they haven't gotten big-headed or stopped having any fun. They lost last night and knew it was no big deal. They are the kind of team I'd like to see Little Monster play on when he gets older. They are really there to have a good time -- and they do. They see the humor in a dropped ball, the fact that some of the team shows up to play in jeans, suspenders -- and once dress clothes (he forgot about the game).

The problem (and the reason why Not the Momma and I are anti-anythinghavingtodowithteamsports) is that not every team has that philosophy. There are teams that care about winning. They care so much that if someone catches their hit, or they get tagged out before hitting first base, they throw a temper tantrum. They get irritated with their own team when mistakes happen and then begin to throw a fit that puts my nearly-two-year old to shame. In fact, their fits put almost any child to shame. The obscenities flow from their mouths like water from an open fire hydrant. They shake their hands, and turn red. It's embarrassing. They must have forgotten that this is intramural softball -
not the major leagues.

Nope, sorry folks, there are NO scouts sitting in the bleachers watching you play hoping to catch the next Babe Ruth or Darryl Strawberry. No one is hoping to find the next Nolan Ryan or Jose Conseco. But the people who are in the stands are even more important. They are the children that belong to the players. They see this behavior, and think it's okay. Want to know why your kid throws a temper tantrum? Start looking at how you behave when you don't get your way. It's bad enough to see a kid throw a temper tantrum, but to watch a grown man throw one over a silly intramural softball game? That's a bit disgusting.

I will be on the look-out as Little Monster gets older and wants to play with other kids. I don't think I'll be too excited to let him play somewhere when the male role-model in the house behaves more like a kid than the children do. I don't think I'll be happy to let him join a sports team where fun, exercise and just doing your best isn't good enough for the coach or any other parent on the team.

Last night's ordeal got me thinking a bit. And now it has me laughing. I know I've thrown temper tantrums -- I'm not perfect. But I think I'll be a little more careful in the future about where I throw them in the future. So, if you see some crazy lady laying in the grocery store holding her breath while kicking and punching the air because there is no lemon juice -- remember that most certainly isn't me. Can you think of a time you saw a grown adult throwing a temper tantrum?

Friday Fun

Average is better than below average. But maybe I'm not as big of a geek as I thought I was.

Crazy Randomness

Normal evening conversation with Little Monster:

Mommy: Do you want to go to bed?
LM: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!!! NO BED! CA-AAHS?! (translation: cars) NAAAAAAAAAH? (translation: Snack?) MEE-OOOUUUUU? (translation: Milk?) Bwooock? (translation: he wants to ride his bike around the block) WOOOO? (he wants to play in his room) CHOOO-CHOOO!! BAAAAA? (Bath?) DAANCE?

In other words, normally he's willing to do anything so long as it doesn't require getting into pajamas, followed by going to bed.

Tonight's conversation with Little Monster in the car on the way home from Daddy's Softball game:

Little Monster, upon seeing us get close to our neighborhood: OOOOHHHM?? (home?)
Mommy: Yes, we're almost home. Are you ready to go to bed?
Little Monster: YEEES!!!

As we were getting out of the car:

Mommy: Are you ready to get into bed?
LM: Bed? YES!!!!

As we were going upstairs:
Mommy: Are you ready to go night-night?
LM: Yes! Nigh-nigh!! YES!!!!

Hmmm.. Turns out keeping him up an hour past bedtime makes bed time a little bit easier.

---

Not the Momma is grounded from playing softball. His team won a game (YAY!) for once. You see, they're a bunch of science and math nerds playing a bunch of really serious people who go out for matching uniforms. We've had people playing in dress clothing, suspenders, you name it. They normally lose badly enough that the "mercy rules" apply. Tonight they were one player short, and they were threatening to make me play in my flip flops. I owe a big thanks to some guy named Dennis for playing for me. He saved my hide. And my feets. Not the Momma's feets on the other hand aren't faring so well. They were playing so well someone actually had to run through the bases, and twisted his foot a bit.

---

My friends, it was above 70 degrees for the third day in a row here! I cannot begin to explain how happy that makes me. Because, did you hear what I wore out of the house today? FLIP FLOPS! That doesn't happen often. I've got quite a bit going on the next few days, but I hope to be back to share with you what happens during the 'summer' here on the California Central coast!

Summer!

Dear Friends,

Summer has finally arrived here. Yes, that's right. While the rest of the country is mourning the loss of the warm days, we're finally getting a few.

I am sorry blogger friends, but I'm out soaking up the heat while I can. Little Monster is playing in his wading pool, having friends over to play with him.

When the fog returns, (or maybe when the baby naps and I have something to complain about) I will too. Until then, I'll be here part time.

Love you & Miss you!

Momma Mary