Turning Charlie's world upside down

Jason and I have been trying to find a dog trainer that would come to us for awhile, but no one we know in Arizona has done that, so recommendations were scarce. Well, BarkBusters had a sale for July, so we took advantage of that and had our first training session with Charlie on Friday night. Boy was he in for a shock. He went from having few rules to having lots of them. We were really happy with the trainer because she took a lot of time to teach us about pack mentality so we could understand how Charlie thinks. Some of the things that I didn't think were such a big deal (like petting him when he comes up and noses me) were giving him the idea that he was the alpha around here. So now poor Charlie is kind of confused, trying to figure out his place in our family. He's doing pretty well, he seems to be pretty smart and catches on pretty quick. Tomorrow will be another wrench in his little life because the kids will be back, and I'm sure that they'll try to train him to death. :) Hopefully I can get them to understand that mom and dad are the bosses, not them. Yeah, right. Who am I kidding? I can't wait for them to get home. :)

More pics

Cole was fascinated with carrying the map and knowing where we were the whole time. Not a bad quality for sure, but I think next time we need to get more than one map because they fought over it a little


Lindsay found this little sweater that's supposed to go to a dress that I gave to my friend's daughter in the car and decided she wanted to wear it. I told her that she was going to get hot and take it off and that I absolutely wasn't going to carry it. So she improvised.


While it wasn't Arizona hot, it was somewhere between 85 and 90 the day we went. Not so bad if you're just hanging out, but the LA zoo is on a huge hill so it gets pretty hot while you're hiking all day. The kids liked our idea of how to cool off.


Not sure which exhibit this animal came from but they should have a fence up to protect people from him. He looks wild.


For some reason Bailey didn't want to go in the misters to cool off but Lindsay and Cole enjoyed them

This bear was probably one of our favorites. He was nowhere to be seen when we passed by at first, but then he came out to eat. He was just going to town on this celery


Despite Bailey and Lindsay's expressions, we all had a great time

Pictures from the trip

Swim Lessons

Cannon ball at swim lessons from Bailey

Cole preparing to jump

I love the way Lindsay dives

Independence Day block party

My niece Ella (Josh's oldest)

My niece Hannah (Josh's youngest)

My niece Randi (Jordan's daughter)

Cole and Jason taking a break to play rock, paper, scissors

Bailey and Grandma hanging out

That's my girl! Exactly what I would have done when I was her age

Cole doing some fireworks

Lindsay watching the show that her dad and uncle put on


Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana


The pin wall (Bailey and Cole are on the right, Lindsay is pushing the pins back in)

Learning how storms happen in the atmosphere

Cole on the rock wall

Lindsay on the rock wall

Bailey with her new boyfriend

They found a monster to hang out with. Oh, wait that's just me

Cole on the bed of nails

Bailey on the bed of nails

Lindsay wouldn't lie on the bed of nails until I showed her it was safe

Lindsay's turn. She almost freaked out

Downtown Disney

Dinner at Rainforest Cafe

Cole getting attacked by a huge Bionicle

Bailey found a hat that matched her face at the Disney Store

Lindsay found a pretty hat

Our annual Independence Day trip

Fourth of July weekend, we drove out to my parents house to see the kids and have our annual block party. Friday we took off early in the morning because I was anxious to see the kids. We got there around noon, and my mom saw us pull up but didn't tell the kids. Instead, she told Lindsay to just come outside with her, so it was great to see her face just light up when she saw me. The other two quickly followed, and we got in a bunch of hugs and kisses that we've been missing. While we were still outside, Cole showed us how he's finally riding his bike (and all five of us are happy he's doing it because now they can ride bikes to school instead of walk--this year we had decided that they could start walking both ways, so this will make it much nicer for them). We didn't do much other than visit with the kids and took them to swimming lessons (and it was nice to see how much they've progressed this summer) that day.

Saturday was Independence day, and we had a lot of fun at the block party. I felt like it was so nice that my kids are older now, I don't have to worry about where they are every moment anymore. And if they want to run down the street to play with friends, we can let them do that without tagging along. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the family: my grandma, Aunt Pat and Uncle Ray, my cousin Ryan, my cousin Amy and her kids Faith and Cameron, my brother Josh and his family, my brother Jordan and his family, and my sister-in-law Angie's dad. I really didn't take many pictures of the day, but we had a great time.

Jason and I both took a couple days off work so that we could extend the trip and spend more time with the kids, so Sunday we took them to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. We had a great time learning (and the kids are finally old enough to not just play with the exhibits, but they wanted to read about them and learn how they worked too) and messing around. After that, we went over to Downtown Disney and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. I think we kinda got gypped on where our table was, all there was to look at was a big aquarium, but the kids had fun, and that's what's important. Next we went over to the Lego store because we knew Cole would be chomping at the bit to go there. I think we spent almost an hour just in that store (and luckily they had lego tables for the girls to play at so they were content). We had decided to let each kid pick out one thing that was reasonably priced from the stores at Downtown Disney that would be their only souviner from the whole trip, and of course Cole wanted something from the Lego store--I have to say, I was impressed by his first selection that we decided not to buy for him. He didn't ask for the $400 Lego Star Wars sets (I think there were two, a huge death star and a Millenium Falcon, and both were so cool, but c'mon, $400?), so at least he knows the meaning of reasonably priced. He did want to get a limited edition Lego set, and I don't remember now what it was, but it was pretty cool. I just thought he was using his brain because this set is one that is only available in Lego stores for a short time, so he knew he wouldn't find it anywhere else. Unfortunately, it was $50, so we told him it was more suited for a birthday or Christmas present and we weren't planning on spending that much per kid for their little present. He was happy with the Star Wars set he ended up choosing, and I had him fill a container with odds and ends of pieces that you run out of often so that he has extra of those types of pieces. He wanted to grab some more Lego people, but those suckers are expensive! You could build your own set of three for $10--for the little tiny Lego people. I told him I'd try to find some on the internet for cheaper. Anyhow, we walked around the rest of Downtown Disney, Bailey chose a pretty little necklace with an angel and Lindsay chose a Hannah Montanna bag.
Monday we took the kids to the LA zoo, which I've shared my story here about my brother's medallion at the zoo. We had a good time, and again, I was happy because the kids wanted to learn about the animals too, particularly about what types of food each animal eats.

Tuesday was the day we were coming back home, so again we didn't do much, but we did take the kids to Ruby's at the Seal Beach pier for lunch. While we were there, we could see out the window that a guy was catching a fish. He was having a really hard time bringing it up, and it turned out to be a huge stingray. The kids got to go outside and see the stingray up close, so that was cool, but I don't think the poor stingray was going to make it. The guys who caught it did their best to try to help it, but it was just goughed from the hook bringing it up. After lunch, I took Cole to a pediatric specialist who told me that he'd be better off just waiting until he gets home and having the tooth pulled because the adult tooth is getting ready to come in anyway. That way we can save him from having to have the nerve work done and he said the abcess was draining, so it was looking like he'd be able to make it another two or three weeks without having the work done.

One thing that was really nice about this trip was getting to spend so much time with two of our nieces. The day before we came out, my sister-in-law Angie was in a car accident. She was making a left turn and some guy driving a U-Haul ran through a red light and nailed her pretty bad. She did have the girls in the car with her, but they were both in their seats so Ella just bonked her head since she's in a booster, but Hannah didn't have a scratch on her. Unfortunately, Angie broke her hand, but we were happy that no one got more seriously hurt than that. While we were there, Angie was still in pain and had a soft cast on, so my parents were taking care of the girls a lot, so Jason and I got to spend a lot of time with them. Ella we've both got a good relationship with, but Hannah has been so young, it's hard when you only see them a couple times a year. Well, by the time we got to see her again, Hannah has just blossomed and has such a great personality. She is seriously a crack up, and we loved getting to know her the way that we know and love Ella. I felt very lucky that she would just give hugs and kisses and tell me she loves me. Only getting to see the girls a couple times a year, I don't just expect them to automatically know and love me, especially when they're little like that. So it was a great treat for me that Hannah just loves people and attention and gave her auntie lots of loves.

All in all, it was a great trip, and we had a great time. We both wished that we could have stayed a couple more days, but neither of us felt we could take more time off work. When we left, I really expected Lindsay to be crying, but she was ok....until Bailey started crying. I could tell she was really upset, but she was trying to hold it in until I asked her if she was ok. My poor baby. I guess she felt like she didn't get enough time with us, and was sad to see us go. So of course when Bailey started it, Lindsay joined in. Cole was completely oblivious of course (huh? you guys are leaving? ok. see you later).
The kids are now with Jason's family on their way to Wisconsin, but they'll be back home in less than two weeks now. Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes me to complain about them? I'm so anxious to have them back, but I'm really trying hard just to enjoy the time I get with Jason. I guess this is what it will be like when they're all grown and gone.

Happy birthday J!

Today is my best friend's 29th birthday. If you can believe it, this is the 10th birthday that I've celebrated with him, and I've enjoyed every one (yes, even the two I was heavily pregnant during). I've got some surprises in store for him this weekend, so hopefully we can make it a special day for him.

For J:

I love you. Happy birthday babe.

A tribute to my oldest brother

For those of you who read my blog and don't know, I have three brothers and a sister. When my oldest brother was 12, he died suddenly. I was around three at the time, and I don't have a lot of memories of him, probably just some imaginings of what people have told me about him. He's technically my half brother--he and my sister share a dad with my two other brothers and have different moms. To me, they're my brother and sister, I don't think there's really such a thing as a half brother or sister. Anyway, when he died, his mom insisted that Jimmy be cremated and his ashes spread in the ocean. For her own reasons, she also didn't want a grave marker, so unlike my grandpa, there's nowhere easy we can go to honor Jimmy and show my kids where he's laid to rest. The only tribute that he has is actually located at the Los Angeles zoo. His great aunt (I think) donated to the zoo when they were building the koala exhibit there in 1982 when he died, so there is a little medallion outside the exhibit that reads "James L Middough 1969-1982 * From all who loved him". Although I've known of the existance of this tribute, I've never seen it, there are just too many of these little medallions outside this exhibit to be able to go all over looking for it--you'd have to look through thousands of medallions from all the people that donated to the zoo then. This past weekend, while we were in Southern California visiting the kids, we decided to take them to the zoo. When we got to this exhbit, I was showing Jason and the kids all the medallions in the ground and telling them about Jimmy's medallion. Of course the kids though this was great and wanted to find it. As I was telling them how we'd never find it, I realized that I was looking right at it. So there we are in the middle of the zoo, and suddenly it's like I'm visiting his grave somewhere, and I began to cry. Luckily they had closed the koala exhibit that day, so there weren't a lot of people around us because it took me a little time before I was ready to go back to enjoying the kids and the day, but it was so nice to be able to find that. I'm grateful I got to show it to the kids and Jason--the kids even made us laugh. They couldn't understand why, if Cole is named after Jimmy, his middle name is James, not Jimmy. It's funny how you can miss someone that you hardly knew, but I miss him so much. I'm so grateful for the plan of salvation because one day I'll get to be with my brother again.