P.S....

O.k.forgot to mention-the footpull at The Yardhouse was counter-productive. That was the funny part. Great concept. However, the door weighed a TON and NONE of us could pull it open with our foot. So, you would have to use your hand on the door to brace yourself to pull with your foot-defeats the purpose. Good concept though....need a lighter door, however.

The pic of Toby is one of the many ways my daughter tortures him. It is my ode to the fou fou dog in bag. Maybe I should try taking him out in public like that....

Just had birthday number 37! My neice, Megan, was born on my bday. Had an ice cream party in my classroom to celebrate earning 20 points! Went out to dinner at P.J's Abbey (yum!). Then, on Friday went out with my friends, Diana and Avis. Hung out at the Spectrum, ate too much at P.F. Chang's, admired the bizarre bathroom with a foothold on the door at The Yardhouse, and made fun of ridiculous people and gaudy jewelry at Forever 21! What is up with people bringing their frou frou dogs into stores? UGH! Saw about 6 teenagers being written up by the Police at the Spectrum and wondered what is up with kids these days. Only hope my child doesn't get into trouble when she goes out in a few years. Maybe I will make her stay in until she is 18....think it will work?

Not much else new. Can't WAIT! 4 more days till school is out!!! YAHOO!!! Taking a road trip this summer to Sequoias, Monterey, Santa Barbara, etc.... Toby the kitten is getting big-I will include a pic. Left my camera at the hospital with my stepdad-so I will have to post pics of the baby later....

P.S. Devyn got Panther of the Month at school and Honor Roll! I am so proud. She asked me to "do her hair" at the last minute. As you can see by the pic, I don't "do hair". My friend, Avis, said I torture her with the hair bows, flowers, etc. I admit it looked dorky on top of her head-However, after she fell in Avis's pool fully clothed that afternoon, the flower looked much better :)

Conquer your fears!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. The last few weeks have been bad! I feel like a cloud of bad luck is following me around. Here is a quick re-cap: Devyn got sick and the nurse made us go to E.R. on a Sunday night for possible Meningitis (it wasn't but don't EVER go to the E.R. unless you are bleeding profusely. It was a terribly frustrating experience), Ron went to Urgent care with a severe ear infection, and Casper (my cat) got really sick-all in the same week!!! Casper now had Diabetes and needs human insulin shots twice a day. Then, he got a secondary mouth infection and now needs an experimental drug in shot form (but much bigger needle than the insulin) that costs almost $100 a shot-once a week! Thanks goodness Ron can do needles, cuz I can't. Meanwhile, we couldn't go visit our friend who was dying because we didn't want to expose him to the sickies. Unfortunately, he passed away that Saturday without us saying goodbye. Guilt does terrible things to you. I wish I could have told him how awesome I thought he was and how thankful I was for the way he treated my daughter. The next week was rough-I wanted to help, I didn't know what to do, I didn't want to smother, etc. Then, came the memorial-super sad. About 200 people came.Isn't it weird how you can truly tell the impact someone made AFTER they die? Seems a little late....The next week was full of many many many school dramas-should I just send my daughter away to a boarding school????? This week brought an unexpected death of a friend's mom and various other dramas that now seem insignificant. Death sure makes you re-evaluate your life. SOOOOO....I am drinking a random mojito my husband mixed up (banana mango something or other) and feeling a little ill because I don't think it mixes well with my blood thinners....

On another note- still LOVING our new kitten, Toby. He is hyper but super sweet. He crawls under the covers with me and makes the most pathetic meow. One night I commented that he hadn't come in the bed with me. My husband laughed and thought I was kidding. Apparently, he had been sleeping on my stomach but the sleeping pill I took REALLY knocked me out!

Devyn conquered TWO fears! She did rock climbing with her youth group. The last time she went she would just give up and drop down to the bottom. This time, the Rabbi cheered her on and told her where to place her hands and feet. She made it to the top EVERY time. YEAH! Also, (she will kill me for telling you this), she learned how to ride a bike this evening. Yes, at 9 1/2 years old! Because we live on a hill, and there is a blind corner, I could never teach her by our house. We took her to the park years ago, she fell, and gave up. She has this awesome bikeboard so she was just as happy with that. She would ride that thing everywhere! Now she is outgrowing it, and it is time to learn. Thanks to my friend, she gave her a short bike where she could put her feet down if need be, and off she went! First try. Now she wants to go riding tomorrow. I see some long rides to the beach on the bike trails....Guess that means I will actually have to go in the sun! The bike pics aren't loaded yet but I will include one later. I have some cute pics of Dev in an outfit my mom brought home from England though in the meantime....

Legoland, Superstar, and kitty love

Spring break came and went too quickly. Back to work tomorrow-it is going to be rough! I feel guilty because I work and can't always be at school for Devyn's events. I try to attend as many as possible-since Ron has more flexibility and can go to work late, he goes to more of them. This week she gets an award for honor roll again. I am proud of her-she does so well in school and is pretty motivated. Wish I could be there but I only have so many sick days and we don't have half day subs like my old districts did. It is hard to miss a whole day when the awards are from 8:30-9:00 a.m.

Spent break having 5 back-to-back sleepovers!!!! A new record! 3 were at my house, one at a friend's, and one at temple. Then we had another sleepover several days later. Had a great Passover Seder at a friend's house. Didn't get home until after 11:30 and her kids had school the next day! I have never seen Matzoh used so many ways! Devyn and I are eating "Passover-safe" for 7 days-it will be rough. No breads, pasta, rice, beans, or corn. Only ALL the major foods Devyn eats! My child who eats carbs with her carbs. We tried "kosher for passover" pasta-made from potato starch-not quite the same.....kind of like mushy hashbrowns. I sure miss my favorite fiber-laden english muffins!!!! I am having a carb party Wednesday at sundown. YIPEE!

Other than that-went to Legoland (with a 40% chance of rain but it held out), saw the new Miley movie (tolerable) and the Witch Mountain movie, lots of frozen yogurt and eating out, played tennis three times with Devyn, and spent lots of time with the new kitty (who doesn't let you sleep in because he wants to crawl under the blanket with you, purr, and bite your feet). He is so sweet and smart-fetches a ball and brings it back to you. However, I REALLY wanted to be lazy and sleep in. Maybe next break. I will post some pics-I managed to turn some around from the last post....Happy Easter/Passover!

teaser

o.k...sorry, that was a teaser pic I posted. I can't figure out how to rotate the rest. I will work on it. While I am at it-does anyone in Blogland know how to prevent a post from piecing itself around your picture when posted? It is really annoying to read....

Supermodel!

Forgot these pics! Dev was in a little fashion show at Nordstrom. She modeled a Juicy Couture outfit and some fun accessories. All together, the outfit would have cost over $300-WITH a 15% discount. FOR REAL???? She is 9 and still growing. I told her to enjoy it while she modeled it cuz it wasn't coming home with us! She did work it though. Funny thing-Ron made her go down the elevator to ride it back up so he could get some funny photos. While she was making her lap a guy on the floor below said "what's up, girl?". Must have been the sunglasses and scarf....Should I mention that as we were leaving, she snuck by the MAC counter and applied quite a lot of makeup?????

Devyn's new kitty

O.k....I admit. I secretly have a desire to be "the crazy cat lady". Never thought I would get away with three cats let alone FOUR!!!! Oh, I wanted to take them all when we saw them in cages on Saturday. Alas, time for a new edition. Casper is turning 13 on Wednesday and Maddie and Sebastian are about 13 1/2. Devyn has NEVER had a kitten. They are older than her! She desperately wanted a kitten. We want a dog but the commitment of walking one, dealing with barking, etc. So....we got ANOTHER cat! He is the sweetest cat ever! A little grey tabby with white paws. His name is Toby. He purrs so loudly and he is a cuddler. Good thing cuz Dev carries him with her everywhere. She even took him with her to the bathroom tonight! In her defense, we can't really leave him unattended yet because of the "big cats". They aren't really fond of Toby but we know they will learn to love him. He stays in Devyn's room for now. He is sleeping in her bed as we speak.

Not much else new. She was the narrator in her Gold Rush play. She did a great job! I could have never memorized that many lines. She is on Spring Break for three weeks (year round). I am looking forward to being off next week. Not doing anything special. However, sleeping in is pretty special to me! Looking forward to Mitzvah Day at temple next week. Our good deed is to go to Hemopet and walk the retired Greyhounds. Should be fun! Hope I have some pics to post. Kinda nervous too. I am not really a dog person and I think it is going to make me awfully sad....anyone else feel that way? Shelters, pounds, rescues...ugh! Tears me up.

WOW! Long time, no post....sorry...

O.k..so I have fallen behind on the blog thing. As others can attest to-I have been pulled in by the ever-addicting Facebook. Besides this, I have been heavily stalking EBAY lately. I guess I just have a pretty addictive personality. I get on a kick and stay there-a LONG while...

Truth is, I didn't have many new pics to post. I find that I take less pictures the older my daughter gets. I know it is sad-but there aren't as many of those "firsts" anymore. Plus, would I be a mean mom if I said she was kind of in an awkward stage? She has an expander on her palette and only two brackets on top teeth but a huge bungy looking band across the top. This is only phase 1-STILL....it is going to be a LONG road. She has my screwed up teeth. When I was litte and had no room for teeth, they just pulled those suckers! So, I am short a couple of teeth. I also never lost any teeth on my own-they were pulled. Well, Dev is just like me. Lost 1 on her own (she knocked it out) and the other 6 or 7 were all pulled. They are just expanding her palette rather than pulling teeth. This preventative method is a little scary because I am afraid she may need a second whole round of braces when she is older.

New stuff:Last month she went away to camp for the first time! Super scary (For me). Just kidding. We were both nervous. She was fine as soon as she got on the bus and got home saying she had a great time. I worried the whole time-mostly about the camera I allowed her to take-such a scrapper.....It was a camp in Simi Valley run by the Jewish Bureau of Education. She missed school on Friday and they came back Sunday afternoon. It was a good practice for longer camps down the road. She slept in a cabin with 12 other girls. They had 2 toilets and 2 showers inside....she didn't think the cabins were very nice though. She isn't much of a roughing-it kid. What if she had to actually camp in a tent??? OMG! Would she just die? She even asked me if she had to use a porta-potty....Hee heee-bet she wouldn't have gone if I had said yes.I will post camp pics-there aren't many...

Also, only time she could get away disobeying the dress code at Irish dance so she wore green for St. Pat's of course....

Spent Purim at temple for a carnival. Took Devyn's friend Grace with. Had a lot of fun. They played games, jumped in a jumper and slide, did the sack race, crafts, dunk tank, etc. They were taking bids to dunk the rabbi. Top bid was like 75$ to dunk her! Devyn dunked a parent. The rabbi would only sit up there so long. But all the money went to charity. In two weeks we have Mitzvah Day at temple (good deeds). We are working at the Hemopet center. We walk retired Greyhounds. The dogs donate blood for other animals, I believe. It has been a rough past few weeks. Too much going on.....

Devyn was in a play today-she was the narrator-25 lines to remember. I will post pics later. She is in a fashion show at Nordstrom's on Saturday and the following week has a speaking part and sings in the choir at temple. Glad to know my child isn't shy.....

December recap and a sickie

WHEW! It has been a while...so, posting some pics from December. Can't believe January is flying by. Devyn's best gift would have to be her pink Dell laptop. She loves it! We were mean and wrapped up the pink mouse-tried to pull it off as "the gift" but she was too smart to buy it. She laughed hysterically and then said "o.k. guys, where is the computer?". Kids these days. Can't be happy with a super cool pink mouse. I mean, not every kid has a pink mouse, right? Besides that, she got a ton of clothes and scarves, purses, earrings, etc. Typical girl stuff and not any of it did she "need". Does anyone feel like their kid is truly a tween now? Sometimes I look at her and think she is a kid still-plays American Girl with her friends, Polly Pockets, doll house, needs mom and dad-sometimes more a teen-wants to dress up, wear make-up, have a cell phone (cuz EVERYONE in 4th grade has one-REALLY???)have sleepovers, is SASSY.....not sure about this in-beTWEEN stage.

New Year's- spent with our friends and their kids, ate WAY too much, played lots of games, talked, and then screamed up and down the neighborhood at midnight(my husband did-along with the huge blow horn he had). Sure the neighbors loved us. Devyn loved Katey's human gerbil ball (see picture)

Now Devyn is sick. Was at a sleepover and they called my husband to come get her. She had a fever of 102. I was scrapbooking, of course. I would have come home too but she was asleep. No point in ruining my scrapbook night, right? This a.m. the fever was gone only to come back after she was moving around more. I hate how fevers do that. My friend said her kids had it for 5 and 6 days. I am glad it is a holiday weekend so we have time to re-coop. She had better recover soon. I can't miss work on Tuesday. Hope everyone stays well!