What a year

a goodbye to two amazing little boys
a later goodbye to two great toddlers
a forever goodbye to 3 people who had a part in my life
a goodbye to my parents house
a goodbye to living at home

a hello to my first house
a hello to my new puppy
a hello to a new job
a hello to being closer to adam

Overall it was a triyng year but some great things in the process. I bonded with two amazing toddlers, I spent some time palying wallyball and dominozs with a church college group, I bought my first house, There was a lot of death, a lot of disappointment, and a lot of goodbye. But in the end I will try and look back on it and try and remember the happy memories even thouhg i will miss those in the memories a lot.

crazy as always....

well there is a lot I want to put on here, like the pictures of me racking up all the leaves that have been burrying my yard for the last month. like me fixing my washing machine all by myself. like the girls weekend we just had that was shockingly pretty fun, like things about my puppy, like things about a great guy that may not be perfect but the fact that i still think we are perfect makes it all right.
but instead for many reasons I will just jot down a few tid bits of life, mainly because i cannoy upload pictures at the moment because i seem to be misplacing a lot of things lately, and memory card readers are on that list.

so last saturday afternoon my mom, cousin, and aunt came out to vist and have what was supposed to be a girls weekend but turned into a girls afternoon/night.....
i was not really looking forward to it because lets face it, i don't really enjoy long periods of family, and they got there and all of them seemed angry about something so i got even less in the mood for the rest of the day....
but it turned out we had a lot of fun, or at least i did. We drove around town seemingly aimlessly a bit, looking for a few things. We got lunch which was yummy, we got Mac's picture taken with santa which went well and gave mac the chance to see other dogs which she desperately needs, we then went and painted for a few hours which I turly enjoyed doing and I think our creations came out very well, we then went and got our traditional starbucks drinks and headed out for christmas lights, we ended up only looking at one street of lights but let me tell you, it was absolutely AMAZING!!! and I was impressed which is very hard to do. Then we went shopping for some random things as well as for some dinner muchie/ appetizers and headed home to eat and watch how the grinch stole christmas at 10 o clock at night. we then ate and cooked and laighed a bit and and had a little surprise birthday thing for my mom and it was a good day. Then next morning we pretty much woke up and got in the car to drive home...but it was a very fun afternoon.
The night before the girls came I was not looking forward to something else that was planned...i should have been but after my night before and his day i just wasn't. I thought we would both be in a bad mood and it would be a super short unfun few hours. However, yet again I was pleasantly surprised.....i picked him up, we laughed together, he bought straps because he needed them and we looked for more lights, because he is slightly obsessed, and then we grabbed dinner. THen was the part I wasn't looking forward to...between rain, mud, me being unsure, him having had a bad day, me not caring and not wanting to put up with anything, it just wasn't set up to go well...but instead it included me being in awe of trees...ive never seen trees that big, it was weird to be so interested in them. then he said he liked a certain kind, i was like okay i don't really care, then he looked at a few but i picked one, we looked some more, but i still liked that one, and then he told the guys and they loaded it on the car and he said I was a good tree picker outter (we are very fancy people). and then we headed home. He was nice and sweet when we unloaded it, hleping me not making comments that that nigth I would have taken very personal. THen we set up the tree put ligths on and hung ornaments....there was great conversation, a lot of laughs, a puppy being amazingly good, and a good night looking at what we had done together for the third time.....it was a great night.

well so much for tid bits of life, but i don't want to forget these memories...the pictures of lights, raking leaves, mac and other things will come later......

Mac's first race

So I have been to many races and often times there are many dogs...but this was my puppies first race.

she did AMAZING!!!!

she only got scared once, and got so much more confident around all the people it was awesome.

she was not a fan of me leaving her to work on the car, but she is never a huge fan of me leaving.

she was fine on pit row, she was fine up the hill by the track, she was fine wandering through the pits, she was fine with the parites at night in the track.

it was a great weekend. She was awesome, i was hesitant because you never know what they will do, and I didn't want her to be terrified and if she would have been scared it would have been a very very very long weekend.

but it all worked out amazingly and she was defiantely the hit of the race, everyoen thought she was adorable and well behaved and being great for a puppy at the race.

and this picture is pretty cute considering what we were trying to get her to do and all....

overall a great experience and i can't wait for more races next year.

my first place...

So after months and months of searching i finally found the perfect house!!!!
the house has everything i need for a good resale, 3 bedrooms nad 2 bathrooms. and its set up if i ever get brave enough and desperate enough to find a roomate with the other bedrooms on the opposite side of the house.

it also has everything i wanted to make me happy while im here...it has a great backyard, a front porch and a fire place. and it was move in ready, not a think needed to be done to move in.

the front has a nice front porch which will eventually have 2 rocking chairs and a table so i can sit on my porch. the backyard has a nice covered patio just big enough for my picnic table and hammock and more importantly it has two GIANT trees that im in love with. then inside it has a room for a pool table, a good size kitchen for me, the bedrooms a ok sized but still big enough to be functional. and the living room has one of my favorite parts and defiantely what sold me on the house the first time i walked through the front door....

A FIREPLACE!!!!

overall...i love the house and its close to all the good stuff...close to the lake for picnics and walks with the puppy..close to both playgrounds which is cool for me. close to pools nad basketball and tennis courts...the orchards are not as close as id like but still just a short walk...
and...as ive lived there i have discovered that the guys across the street work on cars a lot...its a bug, but they still work on cars, and the guy on the corner has a verypretty old 70's ish camaro that is gorgeous and just makes me happy. so i am so excited about what my move and MY own house.

NEW

lots and lots of new

new house
new county
new puppy
new job
new class at school
new concept of living on my own
new situation with the boy friend
new stores to shop at

just lots and lots of new....
its all going pretty well so far....
but i gotta say....i think i really miss my kids....but maybe the new ones will fill the hole soon.

goodbye little ones...

well after 7 great months today is my last day...
they are currently safely tucked in bed and sleeping, finally...
i got to feed them dinner, put their jammies one, tuck them in, read them a story and say goodnight...but it was the last time i will see them most likely...
they are leaving thursday and today is my last day..
so lets see when i met them they each had about 5 real words, now they have over 150, I counted. they have grown a lot, they are way more mobile and physical, they climb on everything. They are now feeding themselves with utensils not their hands, they love me and go to me over mommy and daddy once in a while, they listen to me wonderfully the large majority of the time, we go to sensory time a lot which they love, we go to the library, which not even mommy has done with them. we went to penny pickles which was an intersting adventure, we play games, we read books, we do projects, we watch movies, and other than the last 2 weeks, they slept pretty good most of the time....
they are really good kids, i have truely enjoyed getting to be a part of this part of their lives, but tonight saying goodbye was hard. weird that it was hard, because stuff like this doesn't bug me usually, stuff like this is never a big deal, and yet with these two it is sad, i genuninely will most likely never get a chance to see them again because they are going to be states away. its sad. but they will be closer to family and im not willing to move to oregon despite being asked so nothing we can do about it. i have enjoyed the last few weeks with them, just enjoying the little moments of up and laughs over little things like "get you" and "side down". its been fun. they have grown a lot. i will miss them.

so excited...and yet so sad...

well...my current position is over in 2 weeks, sooner if i need to start another position.
it is ending because she quit her job, they want me to come to oregon with them...
they really like me, it has nothing to do with me...
but none the less it is ending...
no more time with these two will be sad, no more chances of evening babysitting in the future considering they will be in another state...
its sad to know i won't see them again...
they are awesome kids, who seem to really have bonded with me...
its sad thinknig about the other kids ive really bonded with two, but those ones i could see if i wanted, but the twin,s i really won't have the option....
so that is so so so sad...
but on the other hand....after some confusion and indecision...i found the PERFECT!!! house.
i got a home inspection on one house and right after went straight to see a second house for sale, not because the inspection went poorly, but just because...
and oh my!!! i walked in and it was perfect,
an amazing fireplace,
two giant trees in the backyard
a good sized back yard, already dived for a garden and dog,
a 2 car garage,
the third bedroom i want for resale,
a nice kitchen with a bar,
absolutely no work needed
a workable driveway
walls drywalled
and a decent pricetag...
so we made an offer, and in 6 hours it was accepted....and we are moving forward,
did an inspection there which went spectacular...
signed more and more and then some more papers......
and now just waiting for some final things to happen and then I get KEYS!!!!
that I am very excited about!!!

but how can I be excited and truely enjoy shopping for things for my house, and looking at the house, when all i can really think of is I can't pay for this, how will I pay my bills, where will my money come from, bye bye to savings acount AGAIN, i can't buy anything for my new house, i may not even be able to move into my new house....
so im trying to think positive and remember that God would not have provided this oppurtunity if he didn't also have a plan to provide something to make it work out. so i need ot trust and have fiath and just be patient and he will work out me finding a new job with the same pay and all that....but trust is not something that comes easily....and PATIENCE is a complete joke for me, so im having a bit of trouble, but doing my best to still just have fiath and enjoy the process of finding things and planning out my new house...

so im excited and sad at the same time....

Pumpkins!!!!

so last Friday we went to the pumpkin patch, I asked first to see if parents wanted to be the first to take them but they didn't care, and I wanted to make sure we got it in before they are gone. So I asked if they wanted to see pumpkins and wow!!! Henry stopped in his tracks, jumped up and down and yelled pumpkins so excitedly waving his arms in the air in the process...im not even sure he knew what a pumpkin was at the time. but off we went...and it started slow, they weren't quite sure what to do...but eventually

he discovered that touching the pumpkins was fun, apparently he liked the texture...but here he is trying to roll the pumpkin, but its the best picture i got that day...

Abbie, was a bit unsure of what to do with the pumpkins that it took a while for her to discover they were pumpkins not apples. but with a lot of correction she figured it out, and decided eventually that sitting on the hay with the pumpkins was fun....

they eventually got brave and explored on their own, not just following me around...but they liked the green pumpkin..

then came the hard part...attemping to get two toddlers, who were not overly interested to smile and look at the camera at the same time...so this is one of many attempts....

and sadly...this is the best of the bunch...but hey, i did try, and maybe if we go back again it will be more fun...who knows? maybe we can get a better picture.

overall though it was a fun morning activity to get us out of the house, and in the end they spent the rest of the day telling everyone "pumpkins fun"...and no I was not saying that to them over and over agian, they came up with it on thier own.

picnic table

so I got lucky and got a free picnic table from freecycle.....but this is what it looked like. it had been a family with 3 small kids craft table. and clearly they did a lot of painting, with purple. but it was free and other than the paint in good shape.....



so i set off with the sander and with not as much effort as i was expecting i turned it into this...and i absolutely love it. there are still little bits of paint left here and there but i think they give it character and i left them on purpose....

i think it turned out very well. it was a fun project, that hopefully will get some use when i move.

washable doesn't always mean from hands...

so today we decided to try out stamps.....I knew it was kind of risky because ink could be messy, and their fingers would be a mess and lots of other reasons....but we are trying very hard to find new and mommy approved things to do so i thouhgt I would give it a try.
I found some cute stamps for a buck of things they were into and some semi cheap stamp pads that said washable, easy clean up, and non-toxic. so i decided to believe the package and get them, it was also nice because they were not as expensive as some other ones i found.
so today i set up the high chairs at the table and buckled the kids in and it took a minute for them to figrue it out...but they got it...

of course first henry wanted to put it on his hand. which he clearly tried, but no ink was on the stamp yet so it didn't work. but once he figured out the paper part we were off and running...

see, he figured out what the goal was...

as with everything, he was pretty serious and focued on what he was doing.

Abbie had it down to. she went from the sstamp pad to the paper between each stamp and caught on very quickly, before herny in fact.

now you see everything was going fine, until....

we ended up with a flower on the dining room table, and ink on hernys fingers. so i went to try and wipe the WASHABLE and EASY TO CLEAN ink off the table, well it was nto very easy at all. so I figured i should try henrys hands before things got worse. but that went okay.

Then, we came across the hard part....Abbie ended up with ink on her face, all over her hands, and on her BRAND NEW dress that was moms FAVORITE purchase yesturday. so i was a little worried that the ink would not come out, so i threw it in the washer and thankfull it is now completely ink free and clean which is good. however, i got the ink off of abbies face adn high chair with a simple washcloth, but her hands.....oh my...

I have tried soap, someone suggested comet, a lot of water, baby wipes were suggested, and just endless scrubbing....and her hands are still pink!!!!

I have looked online and there are lots of options: windex, salt and soap, toothpaste, baby wipes and greasy lotion, and many others....so i may try those after nap time.

but the label said it was washable, henrys green and red hands are back to normal, her cloths are clean, her face is clean so what is up with her hands?????
in the end though....they really enjoyed it and seem to want moer...I just have to figure out how to keep their hands out of the ink next time apparently..gloves?

one of those weeks...

it was just one of those weeks,
the kids were whiney,
they were restless from not being able to go outside,
we didn't leave the house 2 days because we had no car,
they were picky eaters,
not good nappers,
hard adjusting back from dad for 4 days
it was miserable hot outside,
i wasn't sleeping,
i was just drained after a very long weekend,
things with the house are not going well, or at least not moving forward,
my parents have been crazy this week,
jusst a long week where nothing seems to be working out how i wanted...
but now it is almost over...in 67 minutes to be exact...
i am very happy for it to be done...hoping for more fun and relaxation next week.

girls weekend

this weekend I went up to ojai with my mom, cousin, and aunt.....
we did it once a few years ago and it was a fun trip....lots of paitence but fun.
so this year we headed back and there was one thing that we knew we haqd to do when we went back.....

we had to have strawberry shortcake.....we had it last time and ti is huge and amazing...and the fact that the resturant also has pesto sauce is just an added bonus.

we also rode horses....at am amazing place....I would love to stay there and next time we go we just might. my horse was really good this year, his name wasRocky. we rode in the "woods" a bit and up on a hill where we could see the ocean, it was fun, i was on a horse, there were cowboys....i enjoyed it.

we also picked blueberries that are apparently amazing...i did not try any.

but it was fun to pick them and there were so many more than last time which made it much more fun.

we also did a making strides cancer walk which was very fun....it was the first anual one walk in ventura county and it was a fun thing t oparticipate in....and amazingly everyone made it so i was very proud of them for finishing.

here are the 4 of us with our homemade t shirts before we started the walk.....it was very cold that morning.

overall the trip was fun, but was also very very very stressful and required a ton of patience which is someting i greatly lack, so i am now out of patience for a while.

we also went to a great farmers marker and got some homemade breads that were great and some fresh strwberries that were amazing and soem salsa for my dad to try.

The Fair!!!!

well there are only a few things i look forward to every year...and none of them are holidays or birthdays.
and last sunday i happen to go to one of my favorite places...THE FAIR!!!
i always have a great time, and always come away very happy and generally with my arms full.
this year it was an exciting month because i got to be reminded of it multiple times, which was absolutely amazing because i was reminded not the one doing the reminding so i knew it was important to someone other than me which was AMAZING.
then we got there and thankfully the drive there had no traffic, found a great free parking spot, got in easily no lines,...and then it began.
we wandered around for a while as always checking out the games and seeing which prizes we wanted. then we did out first play on the giant water prize game as we do every year...unfortunately this year wasn't as good as last year we didnt win the first time but that was okay. we continued wandering around to more games...
first he won me the moneky in a banana simply because that way i would have what my brother wanted which was cute and sweet in a weird way.
then he won a blue dog, then he won a husky that was adorable and who is now sitting in my room with the monkey...
finally after many failed attempts from both of us at the giant prize water game we simply watched and we noticed a trend...every time number seven won...so we waited and wandered some more...until finally number 7 was open so i sat down and magically i won...yay!!! i got a giant teddy bear that was a lot of different colors, he is very big and very soft and now sitting in his room with other momentos from out adventures...i love it.
we also had funnel cake because we are at the fair and funnel cake is a must, we did include strawberries this time...it was yummg.
then as always, not sure why, we got fresh squeezed lemonade in a special fair cup.
then we went on the giant ferris wheel with all of our new friends and it was a great night....
finally we headed home for a movie and sleep...it was amazing as always..

I LOVE THE FAIR!!

my weekend...

well...now that ive done some stuff for the kids, i think its time to tell you about my weekend which was GREAT!!! there are still more posts of what the little ones and I have been up to but for now...my weekend.

so this weekend, i really had no plans. but somehow I didn't do much sitting around this weekend...
it started right after work with my mom and I heading to the bank to situate my bank accounts which somehow got my name taken off of them, we also applied for a credit card...hope I don't get into to much trouble. then it was home where Taylor was and he all on his own said " so we are seatbelt shopping tomorrow right" i was very surprised, i had only mentioned it to him the weekend before and he has a reputation for not remembering ANYTHING. so when he brought it up I was super excited. he had even made a plan of more than just seatbelt shopping.
so we woke up semi early for a saturday morning and headed to cars and coffee which is a fun place for us to see cool cars and generally just chat and catch up since we don't always see each other often. then we headed to my grandparents and got breakfast on the way. while there we cleaned up the garage a bit while waiting to sell soem wheels. then after that it was off to pick a part...or 2 pick a parts...we wandered around the aisles of half torn apart cars and unfortunately only found one Z and no seatbelts were in it. so it ended up not working but we will go back and hopefully succeed in finding me seatbelts for my goal of making my own seat belt purse(with some help from a friend). then we headed home where we talked online(yes we are weird but he was upstairs and i was downstairs, hard to yell that far). then that night I went and watched two little boys, 6 and 7 years old. this is only the second time ive watched them but they are cool and really fun. they are both "all boy" which is what i totally love ,so it was really fun.then sunday morning I got up and watched the new PBR that was recorded and then started getting stuff crossed of my to-do list. I cleaned my car: got the junk out, vacumed the carpets, dried up as much water as i could, got the wood chips out of the back, checked and refilled all the fluids, and dusted off the dashboard. then i did some homework which needed to be finished. then i got lucky and got a free DVD shelf off criagslist so i set up a pickup time for that (and can I tell you how excited I am to see the shelf full and in my new house, i really like it). then i went on an adventure to go pick up a wii. I have wanted one for a while but have always second guessed whether or not I would actually use it...but I finally decided to make the plunge when I found one for pretty cheap and I told my self that if I do not use it in a month, then I can sell it for at least what I paid most likely more. so we will see what happens. then last night I picked up the dvd shelf, filled it up with the DVDs i have and then got everything ready for this week.
overall it was a good weekend, got all my to-do list done, got some cool new stuff, relaxed, got to hang out with my brother, and it was just a great weekend....

lately life has been really good. I enjoy school. I love my job, and im loving finding things for us to do. I enjoy my free time which gets filled up with reading, movies, rodeos, cars, friends, and a lot of fun lately, everything has been amazing with a certain someone ....and just life is good......now to get a house and it will officially be PERFECT!!

thats my rambling for the day...but i had to share my weekend because i really enjoyed it.

Swimming...

so we have gone swimming a few times this summer and im sure we will more but some of the pictures are really cute so I thouhgt i would share them...

Penny Pickles

so in an effort to get out more we decided to go check out a childrens museum in temecula. we were pretty sure most of it the kids would be to young for but we wanted to check it out anyway, and they said that you can touch everything, and what almost 2 year old wouldn't enjoy that...so off we went.

there really was a lot of things that were way over their heads, but they still had fun. most of our time was spent in two rooms...the music room and the "gear" room. Abbie loved playing the piano. and they were both mesmorized by a wall that was full of giant gears all turning together. and they enjoyed getting to turn some smaller ones themselves. they also enjoyed the glow in the dark room which was fun. i thouhgt they would be scared because it was so dark but they weren't. they loved the neon pictures, and they enjoyed looking at the pictures I had drawn on thier hands in highlighter that lit up under the black lights. over all it was a fun day...but probably not a place we will go back to for a while...here are some pics.

....sorry about the mess of pictures...i don't know how to set them up better, it won't let me move them how i want to so thats what we get.

what we did today...

well its been about 4 months since i started working here and its been good. we added another day of work, and we have been going out more and more...but today we just hung out at home after a nice morning walk.
here is what our walk looked like...

it started when Abbie said blue sky as we walked out the garage, and it led to...
seeing how many colors we could find...here we found some green leaves, which they got to touch for some texture in their too...

We saw the grass because Abbie repeats grass all the way to the park half the time so we took time to stop and look at the GREEN grass....

Henry enjoys counting and will count to five once in a while so we stopped at the mailboxes to count, to which Abbie kept saying "more, more"

we picked some YELLOW flowers

and we saw some black, blue and white cars.

overall it was a fun little walk that got us outside for some fresh air and we entertained ourselves with colors and numbers......then it was back home for all of this....

we played with chalk....I outlined them....we did it once last week and today Abbie came up to me after a few minutes of drawing by herself and said "Abbie" and so she laid down right there and we traced her again, she stood up and again said "Abbie". it was fun...we did Henry too....

who knew playing with corks could be so much fun. They have a few jars of corks and somehow it entertains the kids for a long time. you dumb them out on the floor and they enjoy putting them back in the jar. Henry will count them, Abbie sees whats on them and stands them up which I think is pretty good considering some of them are not very flat.....

Henry got a turn too...

we played in the sprinklers...

it didn't get much past them putting their hands in it today...

we played with bubbles...

sometimes its more fun to put your hands in the bubbles than to put the wand in and actually make bubbles

Henry made some bubbles too...

that was our day...it has been fun. they ate a good lunch, and then went down for a slgihtly early nap. it was a fun busy, relaxing day...oh ya we colored for a little bit to. to which Henry said every letter in his name when I pointed to it...he is doing so good with his letters, he seems to love them which I am really looking forward to.