A day in the life of a Supermom: July 2009

Sunday, July 26, 2009

I couldn't resist :)

Please enjoy my yearbook photo montage courtesy of yearbookyourself.com (the most fun I have had in a while!)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

One thing I miss about New England was the look of the houses. It get's pretty boring out here looking at nothing but stucco and varying shades of beige and browns. I know this is to help with the heat and the stucco is durable. But there is nothing like the look of brick, or siding, and different colors of homes when you drive through neighborhoods back home. And I LOVE homes with lots of windows and porches etc! Which you also don't see often out here, again because of the heat.

The other day I went into a custom home neighborhood and literally thought I had just pulled into a neighborhood back in Massachusetts. Timewarp! The homes actually made me a little homesick and I had to pull out my camera. It was so weird, and I instantly wished I lived in one of these gorgeous homes. But until I do, I know these neighborhoods and these homes are hidden all over the place around here and are my little taste of home whenever I see them. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did...

To Blog or Not to Blog?

That seems to be the question for some of my friends lately. For some it seems overwhelming, they don't know where to start. Others wonder if they will have the time or anything to say.

Someone asked me recently, why do I blog? Why not just use facebook or online photo albums. Those things are great for sharing photos with family and friends online. But I want more than that. To me this blog is the best gift I can think of to give my girls. Since blogspot archives all my posts and my photos up to 1GB, I can literally archive and catalog my children's childhoods in this blog. They will be able to go back through my old posts cataloged by year, month and date and not JUST see photos, but to be able to read my thoughts. They can read all about my trials and tribulations and my joys and accomplishments, their own milestones and funny moments and good times.

Eventually when they each enter Kindergarten they will have their own blogs dedicated to discussing their schooldays and their extra curricular activities and showing off their artwork and their photos. Yes it is daunting sometimes and hard to make time for, but since I suck at keeping a diary and don't know how to preserve it and don't want them fighting over it or losing it, for me this was the best way.

Anyone who wants to get started it is so easy now. You just choose minima as your template when you sign up and then go to www.thecutestblogontheblock.com to choose a design that you like. They tell you exactly how to go about setting up your blog background with step by step instructions. The rest is just trial and error. And of course if all your friends have blogs, I am sure none of them will mind helping you figure out how to do something or where to put something...

So to anyone out there who is considering it, all I can say is, go for it! And do what you can. Don't feel obligated to keep up with the Jones'! Don't feel obligated to share every photo on here. Or every moment. Don't kick yourself if you post once a month while others post one a day or week. Just do what you can with the time you can allot to it. Some is better than none. Your kids might really thank you some day for it.

Happy Blogging.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

True Story

Ok so the last night we were in San Diego the kids were exhausted from our day at the beach. So Jimmy and I put them to bed and started packing. Ella was in a Queen Bed by herself.

When we were done packing Jimmy and I sat down on the other side of the room away from the kids and started playing chess. After a while we heard this loud bang that we thought came from upstairs. We both looked at each other a little annoyed that the "elephants" upstairs might wake our kids. But neither of our kids stirred or made a peep so we went back to playing. When the chess match was over I went to check on the kids and couldn't find Ella in her bed. I went over to Ryen's area to see if she was on the couch or messing with Ry and I couldn't see her there either. Something suddenly clicked and I realized maybe that loud bang we had heard had not come from upstairs after all and sure enough, I was right...

Poor little Ella had fallen right off the bed smacking the wall on the way to the floor. But apparently landed on her back still clutching her pillow and never even woke up. lol. We tried not to laugh, but the site was just so unbelievable that we had to grab the camera. She actually fell out one more time before the morning (even after I piled a ton of blankets and pillows behind her) but that time when she hit the wall, she did wake up screaming.

Poor kid. The next morning we told her "Ella you fell out of bed last night twice and landed on the floor." And she was like "No I didn't." We asked her, "you don't remember that?" and she was like "I didn't fall." We were like ok... you didn't! :)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Last (but not least) of Our San Diego Photos

Thanks for putting up with my delayed posting of photos. As you can imagine we took a ton, and I didn't want to put like 300 photos on the web. So I tried to pick my favorite 15-20 shots from each day and post them. Here are the last of them. These are some random photos taken over the 3 days we were there. We have already started booking our 2010 trip at Capri By The Sea. We can't wait. Jimmy was even tempted to head back out there for another 2 nights next month, but we just had to pay $400 to fix one of our Air Conditioners last night when it stopped working, so that plan is out the window. =( Oh well! At least we still have Vegas next month! Enjoy...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

San Diego Photos Part 3 (Day at the Beach!!)

We spent our last day in San Diego at Mission Beach. We LOVED it. Imagine being able to go to the beach year round? And there was a cute area called Belmont Park with amusement rides, roller coasters, arcades, shopping, ice cream and other junk, games etc. It was so fun! My best friend Greg from LA played hookie and got in his car and drove down to see his "nieces". He spent the day at the Beach with us and Ella latched onto him like white on rice. Poor Greg's back was killing him from bending over to get her water and dig in the sand (about 1,000 times!). He had not seen Ella since her 2nd birthday in Nov and hadn't seen Ryen since her birth last Oct. So it was a special treat! Here are photos from our day at the Beach and Belmont Park.

(you can click on any photo to view it larger. If the photo doesnt open in a new window hit the back button to get back to the blog...)

Mommy with Ryen and Daddy with Ryen (her 1st time)!

Ryen tasting sand... and yuck face- she didn't like it! ;)

Mommy with Ella and Daddy with Ella!

Ella playing with her Uncle Greg:

My Favorite shots of Ella frolicking on the beach!

Both Girls go W-e-e in the waves!!

Mommy and her Girls!

What a fun day!

After at Belmont Park:

Uncle Greg w/his fav girls!

My favorite photo of the day:

Last set of photos to come tomorrow!

Monday, July 13, 2009

San Diego Photos Part 2 (Sea World!!)

Jimmy and I have always been sort of mesmerized by dolphins, whales and ocean life in general. So Sea World was the place for us! We had a blast. The kids were great considering we were there from 10am to 8pm. It was SO hot sitting in the stands to watch the shows and humid so it felt like 95 even though they said it was about 80... We also missed Shamu because the Internet said there was an 8pm night show and we wanted to go to that one, only to find out it was not happening till 9:30! There was no way we could keep the kids out that much longer. Ryen was starting to lose it. But oh well, guess that just gives us an excuse to go back next year! ;) Here are some photos of our AWESOME but LONG day with two youngsters at Sea World!