T-ball

Maren had her first game on Saturday. After she had gotten dressed I couldn't resist taking her picture. She reminded me of the kids from the movie "Bad News Bears". She just cracked me up. T-ball in her league is extremely boring to watch, I can't even fathom how the kids can stand there while each player comes up to bat. There are no outs, each kid hits each inning and takes a base. There are cute moments like when the tiny boy goes up to bat and the helmet is so big he looks like the mushroom guy from Mario. It's basically watching the kid in the pitchers spot throw the ball to first then back to the catcher. The balls rarely pass the pitcher so all the other kids are left standing around the bases, playing in the dirt. I know these are one of the necessary evils we as parents must all face. It doesn't help that she's the third child to play T-ball and I'm feeling all the familiar dislikes coming in. But, it's really for Maren, she loved playing and when I asked her what her favorite part was she said of course, "snack". I keep looking forward to next year where we'll be in a different league where T-ball there has outs. Until then, I know what I'm doing on my Saturday mornings, I'm watching her play in the dirt, having the time of her life.

Play Ball!!!

So, I was on drugs or something but since I say no to crack, of any sort, I must have been on something. Anyway, I decided to sign up three kids this season. I thought Maren would look so cute in her uniform and she'd just love it. So, I went ahead, even though I work nights and Ryan's still finishing up his credential (luckily, he's only in school on Wed nights). Today was opening day and we got up early to make it out for the parade. I've done this opening day four times now and know that you should never get there when they say. The parade never starts on time we end up standing around for hours waiting for some unknown reason. We got there, 40 mins late, which was perfect because we walked up and they started walking. I must have been what they were waiting for!!! Anyway, it was hot, it was boring, and it was long. Then we got the schedules for pictures, it was as follows; 9:50, 11:20 and 12:40. Could they have spaced it out any crappier? Atleast we didn't have any games to sit through. I also got the schedules for Taylors games and it looks like she has three a week which is AWESOME ::rolling eyes::. I do love the sport though and I'm glad they get to play this year, last year I was smart. :D Maren's only games are on Saturdays. The real fun is going to start when I get Joshua's schedule on the calendar and I get to see just how crazy my life is going to be. Anyway, I'm posting the pics I took on my front lawn, I'm cheap and figure I can do just as good a job as the people with their fancy camera's. I'll put those up.

Pinnacles

Last weekend my womens hiking group went up to the Pinnacles National Park by Hollister, CA. It was a perfect day to be out hiking. It was also one of two weekends in the Spring when the caves were open to the public. We started out really early and got up there before it was too hot. We decided on the 5.5 mile hike instead of the 10.2 one, mainly because of time, but really because no one wanted to hike that far. It was so green and beautiful, we all enjoyed ourselves and declared it the funnest hike we've done. I wouldn't mind doing that hike every weekend for a month. It started out all uphill for the first half, that's almost three miles up. But, it was at a reasonalbe incline. The best part was at the top, it was super steep with railings to hold onto and steps clawed out of the rock. Then we descended and eventually made it to the caves. We first went the wrong way and after about the third person told us it wasn't a good idea to go backwards, we decided we should find the right entrance. The caves were fun, there were some tight spots where you had to balance on rocks over a stream while holding your backpack in front of you and practically squat. It wasn't too long though and we turned around and did it backwards since the large crowd that was stuck in there previously had gotten out. So, anyway, it was great, we loved it. I can't wait to see what we do on our next trip.

Sworry

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while, I will when I get some new pictures on my computer. That's all, I'm feeling in a posting mood so there you go. :D

I love Amazon

I just love that site. I had to order textbooks for Ryan and I was able to save $75 on the already cheap prices through his school. But, I also signed up for Prime membership through them which allowed me to get free 2-day delivery. I was kind of skeptical signing up for it because it was one of those deals where you have to cancel or it'll upgrade for $80 a year. I'm sometimes bad about remembering to cancel those things and end up paying for it. But, I checked on my account and I am able to turn off automatic upgrade for the membership so it will not renew in April. I just thought that was a cool option for us forgetful people and showed how cool Amazon really is. This is the first time I've bought from them, I'm an eBay junky, but I'll definately go back. Anyway, I just wanted to give a shoutout for Amazon, I love em.

Dec

Man this updating thing is taking a long time. I have things to do. Anyway, I just can't believe Dec went so fast. It was mostly spent on eBay getting items for a Wii that Santa was bringing. I never did eBay before and found that it's really exciting. I could be an eBay junky easily. I won almost everything I bid on and got some great deals. Granted, we didn't need some of them. After the end of it all we ended up with two more guitars for our Wii and 360. That's not mentioning the one we had already and the one Ryan's sister gave the kids for Christmas. Now we have four but it's perfect. I also forgot to mention that in our families we had three babies coming in three months. Ryan's brother was due in Nov. she had a beautiful little girl and the named her Ella. My sister was due in Dec and she had the cutest little boy and they named him Miles. Then his sister, Sara, was due in Jan. I'll get to that when I get there. My kids are excited to be getting three baby cousins. I was a little bit slacking on the holiday spirit this year. It was hard to do the things I remember doing as kids when I knew I had to be at work that day. Hopefully I'll be dropping some hours and I can be home more. The kids want to do sports this year and I don't know how that would happen if I still have my full time schedule. Anyway, Dec went well. I just wish it didn't go so fast. I'm missing it already. Taylor had a birthday that month and we let her have a party. It was fun, they decorated gingerbread houses and did pedicures. I am an expert on those things. :D Well, that sounds about it for the month. I'll be adding more photos. No, I won't sorry, those are stuck on the camera and I can't get them off. So, anyway, hope your holidays were great.

Nov

The first day of November was a Saturday, Ryan suggested we go up to Knights Ferry. So, I actually remembered to take the tripod this time and we got some good pictures. It was a gorgeous overcast day too, perfect. There were salmon spawning and we took a good hike. The best thing to do after a night of trick or treating. The kids brought their backpacks and filled them with their candy and munched the whole day. And we got a good enough picture for our Christmas letter. So, that was out of the way and done in enough time. That was also the month Joshua earned his Wolf. I wanted him to just get it, especially since I was his den leader. So, he worked hard and it only took him a month, since one of the requirements had a month long timeline. Then there was also Thanksgiving to celebrate. I love that time of year. My favorite day of all is the day after Thanksgiving when my mom and sisters and I get up really early and shop. I was afraid that this year wasn't going to happen but my oldest sister, Francine talked her family into making the trip from Reno on down. So, it was a great day. And then we had Christmas to be excited about. I love the holidays and I'm still a little depressed that they are over. But, November was a good month, or so I think.

Oct.

The month seemed to fly by. Nothing too great happened, though, nothing too exciting or great ever seems to happen. :D It's just work and school in our lives right now. But, there was Halloween to look forward to. I'm bad, I can't even remember what the kids were, but there are pics so you guys can just see for yourselves. That's about it for Oct. This is why I'm so bad at this blogging thing, I can't remember what I did yesterday. Anyway, here's the kids in their costumes. Oh, and I remember one other thing. Ryan, Taylor, my parents and I went to Reno for a Time Out for Couples and a Time Out for Girls. It was fun, Ryan and I went to the Friday night one and then I took Taylor to the Saturday one. Here's a pic we took. Can you see the boredom in her eyes? It was geared more for teens and she was only nine at the time. She lasted until lunch then I had Ryan pick her up. It was fun though and I got alot of good ideas for my YW.

Sept.

I can't really remember September, just that I was excited that the Holidays were coming. I seem to get excited around that time of year. I know Ryan had a birthday and I'm sure I got him something awesome, I always do. I'm just having one of those brain fart moments where everything is just lost. I'm sure I put up info on Joshua's baptism. Here's a pic, he was baptized with his cousin, Maile on Labor Day weekend. She has a brother who was a priest and he got to baptize her. It's something he's looked forward too since she was born. It was pretty cool. Now that Joshua turned 8 he finally got to go to scouts. And, guess what, they put me in as the Wolf leader. I heard that happens but I've always been in YW's so I just assumed it wouldn't be me. But, I love it and the best part, I get to wear a scout uniform. I always wanted to be in scouts when I was a kid, girl scouts, boy scouts, it didn't matter. I just wanted to wear a uniform. And, I also told them to keep me in YW's so I get to do both, I teach on Sundays and do scouts on Thursdays. Best of both worlds. That's about it for that month. I'm sure more exciting things went on, but I couldn't tell you what.

Update

I've been pretty bad, I guess I'm like the rest of you. :D I actually forgot I had a blog since I've become addicted to this thing called "Facebook" some of you might have heard of it? Kidding. Anyway, I've gotten my new computer and have worked out some of the kinks. Mainly I'm having a problem downloading pictures from my camera, I've had to insert my card into our printer to get pictures off, but even that's not working anymore. But, I have a new and improved computer. Also, during the Thanksgiving break my bro in law, Charlie, came over and fixed my old computer. So now I have TWO!! One's connected to the TV and the other is set up on the monitor. Anyway, it's been awhile and I can't really remember what's been talked about in my past blogs. I'm going to make a blog for each event I'm sure I've missed. That way there's not some extrememly long story to read when you only wanted to read from one thing. Oh, and I love it when people post pics, so I just grabbed a random one of Riley eating an apple. She didn't want her picture taken and gave me the look.