'Cause I miss her

Dear Juliana... I miss you. I hope you are okay in the storm. I really want to pick up the phone to hear your voice. Mommy loves you.

Spring break

Spring break, so far......

I can not count how many parks we've been to. Ok, maybe I can. We've been to four parks at least twice each. Clearly Juliana is lovin' it!

Soccer began for Kevin this week too.

We headed to Bodega Bay yesterday. Beautiful, but extremely windy. So windy that it actually hurt to be outside. Tons of fun though.

Kev ready to leave the beach.

Skipping on the bridge over the Russian River.

Juliana is headed out of town for 3 days. She leaves in a little bit and is absolutely terrified to camp. Let's all send her some good vibes so she does ok.

Finally, I'm keeping myself together today. I had a snotty, sobbing cry this morning, but then reality hit, and I just hopped in the shower and moved on. I knew breakfast still had to be made, doctor appointment had to be done, camping gear needed to be packed, and all of that fun stuff. Sooooooooooo, April 9th is here, and amazingly I am still functioning... imagine that.

Happy weekend! Maybe we'll do something fun with just Kevin this weekend. Who knows. I'm sure we'll be a little lost without Juliana.

Oh bother

I'm feeling Pooh-ish today. I may pick up "The Tao of Pooh" at Borders, just for the heck of it. I'm feeling like a little black rain cloud these days, and it's not fun. A couple of you know the REAL reasons why I feel like this a lot lately, but today is a little different. Today, I'm feeling guilty that April 9th is around the corner and I feel like shit again. Yup, I used a four letter word, oops! I despise April 9, I hate all that came from that day 8 years ago. Actually the whole first week of April makes me somewhat sick. I remember the decision to pull feedings from my grandma on April 2, and waiting day after day after day for her her starve to death in the cold nursing home. I remember getting the call that she finally succumbed to it, I remember getting the phone call hours later about my uncle, and realizing that within 12 hours my father's family was poof... gone. Gone forever. I swear that every f-ing year I will feel better, or maybe get used to it. I don't. I certainly do not dwell on it, 'cause each April 10th, somehow I feel like a weight is off of my shoulders for a while. I just f-ing hate it, that's all. Thank goodness I have a husband that held me last night while I cried. He even paused Cougar Town to do it. :) I know I'm a lucky girl, I just need to focus on that for now.

Phewwwwwww, I feel better.

I have many many many pictures to post of our spring break thus far. I will have more today from our adventures too. I'm not exactly sure where we are going, but I'm gonna make it fun, no matter what.

A Splash of everyday life

The last 3 or 4 days have been full of activities. Some of them, I have taken pics, and others, ehhh, not so much.

Dying eggs. Of course we did that, how did I leave it out of my Easter post? :)

Rock climbing too. Yup, that's Juliana almost at the top. She made it! Oh, I haven't mentioned that I gave up our gym membership. The gym itself was 25 minutes away, and God forbid if there was traffic, it took FOREVER. I also left for other reasons, but once life settles down, then I'll join another gym much closer to home.

Elena's birthday party! BFF's!

Visiting Auntie Meara... her new puppy Parker and Kevin are buddies now.

Visiting friends Katherine and Nikki, and their son Kaden today too.

Juliana stayed overnight at my mom's house last night, so I decided to make the most of our visit to the area which my mom lives. So many people we love, so we can not see everyone, but I try to see a few each time we visit. We also dropped off taxes at our accountants office and picked up Shadow's medications too. Got a lot done today!

Hip Hoppity Mornin'

Hoppy, Happy Easter! Easter around here includes the Easter Bunny, and I am not ashamed to admit it. Even Father at mass today joked about the Easter Bunny and it's fun adventures for the children. THAT'S RIGHT, we can have fun with it, sooooo we do.

We woke up about 7am, and of course, the kids pretty much staked out all of the hidden eggs around the house. It was a quick hunt, until the last 10 eggs or so. I think there are still about 4 hidden somewhere. Yikes! :)

Here is our our Easter morning....

The kids posing for their annual photo, or two, or three.

Outside church. Juliana sang in the children's choir this morning.

After church, Kevin was convinced that the Easter Bunny hid a yellow egg under the entertainment center. He reached and reached for quite a while. He actually has his plastic sword under there reaching for it too. It turns out the yellow egg was actually a plastic ball that has been missing for about 2 years. HILARIOUS!

Happy girl with her pretty eggs, candy, and even a few pennies in the eggs too.

MORE about our weekend, and the happenings tonight too. Juliana has a special overnight away tonight. She is super excited! More later....

Opinions are like a****les, everybody's got one

Haaaaa, nobody commented or responded to MckMama's post. Hopefully you commented on her blog regarding your feelings on her experience and thoughts on socialism. My thoughts, ummmm well, I think the post is hilarious, but absolutely F A R fetched and ridiculous. It did make me laugh though. I think I am going to go the immature route in the next election, and vote for the most radical point of view, and then cross my fingers that ALL the right decisions will be made. Clearly, Obama can't do anything right, after all he is a socialist... oh wait, I just heard from the peanut gallery in the background that he is a communist. I'm on my mission now, Palin in Twenty Twelve! I'm joining the Tea Party!

By the way, this has absolutely nothing to do with Republicans, Christians, or anyone that disagrees with me. After all, I consider myself to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal, along with being a Pope lovin' Catholic too. Ha ha! This has to do with far fetched ideas and made up road blocks to getting this country on the right track. Those that disagree with Congress or Obama seem (yes, I said seem) to be nay-sayers and not exactly good listeners or wanting to give anything new a try. The hatred is overwhelmingly frustrating and debilitating to progress, in my opinion. Disagree with Congress and/or Obama, please do. It's healthy if that is your belief, it is a healthy thing to do. My issue is with made up scare tactics and the name calling, not disagreeing.

Who would have thought, "asplashofsunshine" would occasionally lead to a splash of political frustration!?!?!? :) That's a rhetorical question.

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If you have about 10 minutes of time, go to "my charming kids" link on the sidebar. Tell me what you think of her post today. I'm not going to give my opinion YET, but if you know me well enough, you probably already know. Just read it. It is political, funny, opinionated, and did I mention funny?!?! Seriously, read it and let me know.

Oh, by the way, if you are offended by the title, then, ummmm oh well. Just came to me and I wanted to be obnoxious.

No foolin...

it's a big day today! April 1st on our family calendar is so full of birthdays, that I have to smile each time I flip over the month to April. I LOVE IT!

((insert singing voice here))

Happy birthday to cousin Tim,

happy birthday dear Elena,

happy birthday Colleen,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SADIE! (munchkin in the middle)

and many many more.......

Also, happy birthday to my mom's super duper friend, Florrie today too. No pics for some strange reason. Hope everyone has a fantastic April 1st! Welcome to April, welcome to spring, welcome to Easter egg hunts too.

Finally, the baby ducklings in the photo from yesterday are no longer with us. Mommy and Daddy duck are sad and walking around aimlessly. I am not sure what happened to their babies, but we have our suspicions. Sad. We've seen a lot of empty eggs on our walks, so I hope we see many more cutie ducks waddlin' around too.