The Great Pumpkin Hunt

Our family was supposed to go to "the real" pumpkin patch last Saturday. It is something we really look forward to. Every week at the grocery store we passed bins filled with perfectly shaped pumpkins anticipating what our pumpkins would look like when we picked them at "the patch". Well, the fires changed things. On Saturday the pumpkin patch was in the middle of an evacuated area...what to do? We decided (for FHE) to go to "the fake" pumpkin patch up the road...you know the kind...more carnival than patch, a little straw thrown on the ground for ambiance. We spent $30 in about 20 seconds and still didn't have our pumpkins. The only pumpkins left were in the $30-$50 range (with 4 kids you do the math)...again, what to do? Well, let's just go down the street to the grocery store...there are hundreds of pumpkins there...we get there... NO pumpkins! Our kids started to panic...a Halloween without jack-o-lanterns...what is this world coming too?! I promised them pumpkins and dadgum I was going to get them pumpkins! Of course Melissa was also making this promise to her children...we would find them pumpkins! The next day (Tuesday, only one day left until the big night) we went on the prowl...Melissa and I were conferencing on our cell phones and we finally found 7 pathetic...that might be too harsh...let's just say these pumpkins had been overlooked by many people (we each visited 2 different stores and each had about 5 pumpkins to choose from...slim pickins)! Once we carved them they actually looked cute...gotta love Halloween miracles.

Overall, it has been a very sticky week (class parties, trunk-or-treating, trick-or-treating) but, Harry Potter, Witch, Ladybug and Reluctant Cowboy had a great time...they'll have the cavities to prove it!

Smoke, Urgent Care, Santa Claus, Sanitation Department, Shoes

Yesterday was less smokey...sure there was still a faint campfire smell and general haze in the air, but the sky was bluer...the air was getting better...that is what I was telling myself until I looked up and realized what color the sky is really supposed to be. I was getting my mail when I looked down the street and this is the view I had...

Yesterday evening 5 minutes before bedtime Jack slipped, fell, plummeted (we don't know the real story...no one is "fessing" up). He hit his eyelid and split it open...so I made my bi-monthly trip to Urgent Care...turns out that he is going to be fine...it is in a difficult place to stitch so we'll just have to let it heal by itself...he can tell all his friends about the time he fought an alligator and won...look I have a scar to prove it!

When I got home from Urgent Care Adam gave me a letter to mail...

Dear Santa Claus,

I only want a little bit of presents this year so you can give the people who lost their homes a lot of stuff.

From,

Adam, age 9

What a good kid!

I have been having nightmares about trash, garbage, refuse...only natural considering Tuesday is GARBAGE DAY (a big day at our house...we usually top off...and I do mean top off our garbage dumpster and our recycle dumpster every week) and it is now 4 days later and no news as to when trash pickup will resume...visions of our trash piling up are getting grandiose. Then what is that sound...could it be...my heart skips a beat...yes, I know that sound like I know the sound of my own name...it is a sound that makes me and all children under the age of 5 giddy with glee...a GARBAGE TRUCK...I wanted to run after it blowing kisses...Thank you! Thank you! San Diego Sanitation Department. Thank you for saving me from a mountain of garbage!

Maybe I should be more specific when I tell my 22 month old to go put shoes on...

Kids and Chaos

I think the smoke is finally getting to me. It might be that I have been cooped up in the "little Bird house" with all these baby birds for too long. I have been digesting chocolate at an alarming rate...I am pretty sure that eating a pound of chocolate a day is not considered "healthy"eating.

Anyway, my kids are getting stir crazy...I have found writing on my pillow, on my bed, on the walls, and on their bodies...maybe they are trying to tell me they are bored. So, today is my usual day to watch my friends' kids (we have a school volunteer swap), but because school has been cancelled for the past week all the older siblings are home too. What to do? Have 8 extra (bringing the grand total to 12) kids over for a Nerf War, Dress Up and general chaos. It was great fun and very loud...especially when we got the Halloween tunes going. It was a wonderful, and at this point necessary, diversion from the smoke filled air, watching the news and the concern we feel for friends and loved ones who were evacuated. Thank you for your prayers, emails and phone calls. We feel very blessed and know that Father in Heaven is watching over us and our entire community.

Birthday Boy!

October 17, 2007

Today my Adam is 9! It sounds cliche, but I feel like I had him just yesterday. I remember how happy and suprised I was when the doctor said..."It's a BOY!"...I remember how small he was (a little shocked that I had not succeeded in having the world's first 55 lb. baby--where did all that weight come from and where was it going to go?)...how soft and round his fuzzy little head was...how relieved I was that he was healthy and perfect and that I could sleep on my stomach again! Now here he is with feet almost as big as mine, a mind of his own and sweetness that doesn't stop (unless it's time to practice the piano). Happy Birthday Baby Boy...that's right you will always be my baby...Mama loves you. xoxo

Sunny is Happy?!!!

Sunny: Mom...

Me: Yes?

Sunny: Today I am happy.

Me: (with a lump in my throat) Why are you happy?

Sunny: Because I went to church and sang.

As a parent this is exactly what I want to hear...especially because she is usually such a little SMATCHET!

Jack is afraid of Halloween

Jack is afraid of Halloween. How can this be? I've done everything a mother should do. I tell him how great all the fake spider webs are hanging from our neighbors' houses. How the scary decorations are really fun! How it's perfectly fine to take candy from strangers. I say all this with a smile on my face and yet somehow he doesn't understand, or maybe he just doesn't believe me. Would I lie? I try to tell him that mothers are incapable of telling a falsehood. I try putting the soft, adorable, precious elephant costume on him...he yells at me and runs away. All this from a child who carries Halloween Costume Catalogs around the house (he doesn't see the irony in this). I did find a little cowboy running around the house though...he looks like Jack...maybe a little taller...perhaps there is hope. Maybe he will come to realize that Halloween is one of the best nights of the year for kids and parents...Mommy needs chocolate!