Is Anybody Home?

So, someone left me a comment a bit ago asking if anyone was home on my blog and the answer is yes... I've just been locked in a closet or something. Actually, there are many reasons why my blog has been neglected lately including: I have been out of the house a ton, out of town a lot, my trusty old camera bit the dust and my laptop crashed. Other reasons include lack of motivation. I fell behind my blog and then it just seemed like a monstrous feat to even try to catch up. Like trying to fill a bucket with water when there are several holes pierced into the bottom of it. Just doesn't work. Also, after all the stuff that happened to and in our family at the end of last year, I hadn't really been feeling like myself. Some days it just felt like I was going through the motions of my life but that it wasn't really my reality. I had stopped doing the things that made me feel like me...

And then one day a friend gave me some books and I started reading them - something the old me did all the time. I devoured those books in nothing flat. And shortly after that I went scrapbooking for a weekend- the first time in over ten years that I had gone without Susan. And it was hard at first, but by the end of the first day, I was feeling more and more like the old Rachel. It felt good to be getting back into the swing of my former self. There are still days where I feel like I am in a funk that I can't get out of, but each and every day it's getting easier to be me. Easier to be who I was before.

I have really missed writing and posting pictures on my blog. And I am happy to say that it is one hundred percent up to date - yay me! Here's hoping that it stays this way. (So, scroll down and read the twenty-something posts that I just published and leave me lots of comments... or not)

Circus Fun!

I remember going to the circus many times as a child and liking it. But over the years, I have grown to dislike (and have a slight fear of) clowns, so when my dad called to ask if we wanted to go to the circus my initial response was "no way." He asked if they could take Dillon and I said that would be fine because I was sure he would like it. Just because his mommy is a bit neurotic doesn't mean he shouldn't get to experience the fun of going to the circus. And then I hung up with my dad and started thinking... Just because I don't like the circus or clowns did I want to deprive myself of seeing Dillon's reaction to the circus for the first time? Heck no, I didn't! So I called my dad back and said to count me in.

We got to the arena where the circus was and made our way to our seats, passing what seemed like a million souvenir stands. Dillon had to stop and look at every. single. one. And of course I felt like the meanest mommy ever when I had to tell him that I didn’t have any money to buy him something. It wasn’t really a lie – I had no cash on me – just my credit card – and there was no way that I was about to pay twenty-two dollars for some spinning light-up toy that would break in two days. Everything was so darn expensive. Sitting in our seats was no better – there were people peddling popcorn for seven bucks and cotton candy for a mere eleven dollars. I don’t remember things being such a rip off so expensive when I was little (although it probably was). What I do remember was always getting a snow cone in a cool cup when I was a kid and within a few minutes of sitting in our seats I saw a kid walk by with one in hand. So, at intermission, I forked over nine dollars and bought Dillon a snow cone in an elephant cup. And he was so excited and loved eating the snow cone and opening and closing the hat/lid. Plus, in the long run it wasn’t that expensive… I paid five bucks for a diet Pepsi in a paper cup – at least Dillon got to keep his cup.

Dillon enjoyed the circus. He especially liked the animals and was constantly asking me when there was going to be more animals. His favorite part of the show was the horses. The first thing that he noticed about the horses was that some of them were white with black spots. “They look like cows, mommy.” He also liked the zebras and the dogs. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of clowns - Most of them didn’t have the traditional white face. Every time the audience clapped, Dillon clapped along and every time he would ask me if it was over.

After the circus was over we were able to go and see the animals. Dillon liked looking at the zebras and said that the elephants make him sneeze. Totally cute, but he didn’t even sneeze (or neeze as he would say) once.

And I’m glad that I did go to the circus because I actually had fun.

Hanging Poolside

When the temperature soars into the hundreds, it's so, so nice to head out to Corona and go swimming. This weekend it was hot and I mean Hot with a capital H!

Ahhhh... the water was so nice - it was almost like Heaven on earth!

Like father...

Like son.

Jordan's Cake

My Wilton instructor decided to have a cake decorating class for kids and I decided to sign Jordan up for it. I took her to Michael's and let her pick out the pan that she liked and she chose a ladybug. Dillon was trying to convince her to make the Scooby-Doo cake. I gave her a cake cookbook and had her look through it to see what flavor of cake she wanted. She wanted to make a chocolate chip cake but to save time we decided to use cake mix and add a bag of chocolate chips to it. While we were shopping for the mix, she decided that she wanted a Funfetti cake instead of white cake, so we had a yummy Funfetti-chocolate chip cake.

She did a great job on her ladybug! Her cake turned out fabulous and was super yummy!

Cypress 5k 2009

This morning Jason and his friend/boss Larry ran a 5k. It's the second one they've done this month and they both managed to shave over a minute off of their times. Since this one was pretty close to home, Dillon, Jordan and I woke up super early and went down to cheer them on and take some pictures. It was hot and humid and there is no way I would have run under those circumstances (not that I would run under any circumstances ha ha). Way to go guys!

a cute spectator:

Larry running (#732):

Jason running (#869):

The boys after the race:

Kelly... Again

A few days after we bought tickets to see Kelly Clarkson at the Del Mar Fair, we found out that she was playing the Orange County Fair. Even though Jason was a bit peeved when I told him this, we decided to get tickets to see her again. And since Tiffany has never been to a concert and she likes Kelly almost as much as we do, we got a ticket for her too. Our seats weren't as good as they were in Del Mar, but Kelly was just as fabulous.

The concert was held at the Pacific Amphitheater which is where I saw my first concert. As we were walking in to the show, I was telling Tiffany... "the last time I was here I saw New Kids on the Block a band that I am embarrassed to admit that I saw." Not five minutes later we over heard a lady telling someone... "the last time I was here I saw {insert same embarrassing band name here}." Tiffany and I just looked at each other and laughed.

The concert was a lot of fun and I'm glad that we got to take Tiffany to her first show.

Swim, Swim, Little Fish

Dillon has been taking swim lessons for the last couple of months. At first he wouldn't stay in the pool - he would just climb out whenever he wanted, but now he loves it and listens and does what he is supposed to do and stays in the water. He is so stinking tan, I'm totally jealous. After every lesson he runs to me with a big smile on his face - I love it!