Friday Five

Friday is almost over and I'm just now getting around to my Friday five list.

1.  Monday morning Tracy arrived home with a surprise. He brought me home a new phone. He got one a week earlier and then he decided to get me one too. Love our new phones.

2. We've had a couple of play dates this week. Tuesday we invited James' friend over to play. They had a blast. I love how they play together. They are way too cute.

Then we went to a larger play date Thursday morning. James had a blast playing with other kids. He sure needs this to be a regular thing. I think he gets lonely being an only child.

3. We did an extra day of school pick up. James loves taking a car ride with the boys I pick up. They help him play his car game on our tablet. He thinks they are the best.

4. Tracy and James went swimming the other night. It is nice when they can get some father-son time in. We get lots mother-son time all day long, so any break is great for me. Plus father's are just as important as mothers.

5. Tracy and James are off to father and son(s) camp-out. I haven't done as much cleaning as I was thinking of doing, but there's always tomorrow right? At least my pile of laundry is folded, dishes are done and laundry is folded. Maybe in the morning I'll feel more productive.

Friday Five

I almost forgot to do my Friday Five list.

1. Laundry day is always a big ordeal at our house because I don't have to luxury of our own washer and dryer. I wait till we have close to nothing left to wear or till all the baskets/hampers are full. I usually end up with at least 4 large loads of wash. It also means a lot of folding and putting away that takes over an hour and sometimes days because I or James can't take it when the whole day is spent on laundry. But this system also means I only am doing laundry about 2 times a month that can be a good thing right?
This is James's idea of helping me:

This time I had an extra "helper" too.

James does do a very good job at putting his clothes away and is almost always eager to do it.

2. We had some plumbing issues in our apartment this week. Luckily it didn't effect our toilets. Now that would have been crappy (pun intended). Any water that went down a drain came back up our downstairs bathroom drain. Well because I discovered the back up before doing dishes, I had a sink full of dirty dishes. That meant dinner wasn't happening at home. Good thing we have some amazing food places only a block away. While I was explaining to Tracy about our plumbing issue, James started saying, "All drains lead to the ocean." Sounds like someone has been paying attention while watching "Finding Nemo."

Waiting for daddy to meet us for dinner.

3. James has been sleeping in till 10 all week. It's been lovely. Most mornings I spent hanging out in bed surfing the web or watching a show. One morning I actually got right to work and cleaned the living room. It was actually nice to get my chore of the day done with out a kid "helping" or getting upset that I'm not playing with him.
I'll even admit I slept in till 10 one two days this week as well.

4. Last weekend Tracy took the leap and got a smart phone. We haven't considered making that jump before since we shared a phone plan with his parents which saved us a ton of money. He decided it was time for us to break off, plus it helped that our two year contract is coming to an end. Mine ends next month, so I'll be getting my new phone in a few weeks then I'll be smart too. :)

5. Today James and I made chocolate chip cookies with bananas. They are delicious. The recipe made a about 5 dozen, so now we more cookies than we can eat.

Summer is Almost Here!

Tracy has just about 3 1/2 weeks till graduation, but he'll be done with school a couple days before graduation day. I'm excited for our upcoming summer adventures, but first I need to write up our Summer Bucket List.

You should join the fun and make one too. Check out The Happy Family Movement for what the summer bucket list is all about and ideas in creating your own. 

I did one last year and we had a lot of fun working on our list. You can read about our last year's list here. You can also read about how our summer activities went here, here, here, here, here and here.

I'll be sure to post our 2014 Bucket List once I have it all complete. What fun things do you have planned for your summer?

Trying...

I'm trying, we're trying;.
I'm trying to be patient.
I'm trying to continue to be hopeful.
I'm trying to not break down each month.
I'm trying not to worry that something could be wrong.
I'm trying to be okay with what ever happens.
I'm trying to reach out to others more.
I'm trying to become a better me.

The Friday Five

Hooray it's Friday! James and I will be spending the morning at the park. Maybe pick up lunch on the way home and enjoy the greasy goodness of fast food. Got to fatten my skinny little guy up some how, right? ;-)

Well, here's our 5 highlights of the week:

1. Tracy's graduation is a month away. His graduation robe, hood, hat, etc has been purchased. This week his thesis defense got scheduled for June 10th. Wow, his Master degree is almost complete. It seems like just yesterday he was heading off for his first day at UCR.

2. We attended a Family Movie Night on campus Wednesday evening. They showed "Ratatouille", had a picnic dinner and some activities.

Coloring a picture

Enjoying the movie

3. It has been very hot this week. It has been in the high 90's and Thursday it got over 100. Luckily it will cool back down a bit for the weekend. Though I know we'll soon be getting 90+ degree days continually till about October. Maybe Davis will be cooler. I know it probably won't, but I can hope right?
So with the heat we've been finding ways to cool off. Wednesday I took James to play in the splash pad a block from our house and Thursday afternoon we went swimming. We actually went into the pool and not just the hot tub. Our pool isn't heated, so it is too cold to swim in until the summer months.

James isn't one to run around on the splash pad. He's always busy working on something.
This time someone had containers there and he was moving water from one container to another.
The fun ended when another kid dumped water on top of James.
 He told Tracy later that he got mad and then sad and wanted to leave. 

He has rediscovered his fish swimming tube. Maybe this year we'll try out water wings.
I've seen the ones that have a part that goes around the chest as well as the wings
till the kid is more advanced to use just the wings.

4. James has been sleeping in fairly late the past few days, usually he wakes up between 8-9 but he's been waking up past 9. Wednesday he slept in till 10:30 and Thursday till 10. He probably would have slept in later but I started purposely making noises so he'd wake up. Of course the day I could use the extra sleep (today) he wakes up before 7. Earlier than normal! What's up with that?

5. With summer approaching fast we've been looking at schedules and when we'll be doing what. It will be a busy summer with all we have going on. It looks like James and I will get to spend time in Utah for a few weeks in July while Tracy is there doing his field work. It will be nice not having to spend that time here alone like I did last summer. We're also going apartment hunting next month. Hopefully we'll be able to reserve a place for September. A lot of apartment complexes in Davis do pre-leasing for the fall since it is a collage town so it is smart to grab a place early while they still have some.

Mother's Day

This year Mother's Day turned out fairly well. I didn't get spoiled with presents, breakfast in bed, naps or any of those things that are common Mother's Day gifts. Our Sunday morning went just about as usual. I did get to sleep in till 9:30. The luxury of James sick with a cold. He sleeps later than usual. I got some in bed cuddles from my little guy. Then we got ready for church.

Tracy's been extremely busy with work and writing his Thesis, so I didn't plan on him making dinner. Most of the time he cooks Sunday dinner, unless I know he's stressed about school/work then I take over. After church he asked me what he was making for dinner. I hadn't even planned on him cooking or even thought what we were going to eat. But he did cook us lunch, graded papers and talked to his mom. Eventually he threw together a quick dinner too.

During church I had received some phone calls from my little sister, Clarissa, and text message from my mom asking about how to work Skype. Which I had a good laugh about since I'm far away and I have other sibling close that could help in person, but I figured they probably wanted to get it up and running before everyone came for the big phone call from my sister who is on her mission in Mexico. When I called Clarissa back, my brother had helped them out and they were currently talking to my sister. Clarissa said that after they were done taking to my sister Kandace that she would call me. I immediately logged onto Skype the minute we walked through the door. Soon we were talking to Kandace. It wasn't a long conversation but it was great to be able to Skype with her.


Hope you all had a great Mother's Day, moms and those hoping to be a mom.

Tracy's Birthday

Tracy turned 33 on Friday. He kept telling me he didn't want anything just time to work on his Thesis and then we'll celebrate his birthday after graduation. James and I didn't listen all that well. LOL! James insisted we needed to get him balloons, cars and a dinosaur cake. A slight improvement from what James said daddy should get for his birthday the day before which was balloons, cars, a car track and friends over to play (things he himself wanted for his birthday). So Friday we hit the dollar store for some birthday presents. We got some balloons and settled on candy and a hot wheels Ford Raptor (you know the dinosaur truck) for a present. We also picked up some dinosaurs for cake toppers.

After our errands Tracy called me saying there were vendors at school selling all kinds of fun things. So James and I headed there to pick out some items. I got a new bag and a hat. Tracy got a new ring and a new bag. And we bought matching necklaces for us and his family that are coming to his graduation. So I guess he got some good birthday presents after all. :)

I put the balloons in the entry way so he saw them right when he got home.

His dinosaur cake.

That evening Tracy and I had a movie night. Ah, got to love bedtime and our time to be alone.

I think he had an over all good birthday, even with the stress of everything he has to do in the next month. I tried to make it fun because of all that stuff. At least James has ended up having lots of fun with the dinosaurs and daddy truck. Not sure he's going to get them back.


Happy Birthday, Tracy! Love you lots!

Five for Friday

So glad it is Friday. Though this weekend and the many afterwards will be about the same as the weekend days. Tracy will be busy working on his Thesis, but that's OK. Soon he'll be done and we'll celebrate with lots of fun.

1. James doesn't usually like sleeping in our bed, which I love not having a kid sleep with us all or most of the night. Though lately if he wakes up early, like before 8 and sometimes 9, I have been able to convince him to lay down next to me. It is nice, especially Wednesday morning when he woke up around 6. I was able to get him to fall back to sleep on my bed till 10. We had a very late night Monday and didn't arrive home from our trip till mid-night. He didn't sleep in very late on Tuesday morning, so it felt great to get some extra sleep on Wednesday.

2. James and I had our monthly lunch date. Like I've said before we usually do them while daddy is gone on Scout Camp. This month is father/son camp out so there won't be a Scout Camp.  I decided to go to Chick-fil-a since we had to do some other shopping and it was by one of our stops. Plus James practically lives on chicken nuggets, so why not choose a place that does only chicken?

3.  James has ended up with a cold. He was pretty cranky and whinny yesterday. It was driving me nuts because I was trying to get lots done. I've decided today to be a little more lazy. We do have some errands to run this morning, but later we have 2 redbox movies to enjoy and relax.

4. Today is Tracy's Birthday! He requested not to get any presents that his present will be celebrating his graduation next month. I will still probably get him something small. James said we have to get daddy balloons, cars and a car track. Same things he wanted for his birthday. LOL!

5. This Sunday is Mother's Day. I hope every one has a great day. Here's a couple of videos to help you celebrate. Happy Mother's Day!

Utah Trip

Friday we woke up before the sun, 4:30 AM. Tracy dropped James and I off at the airport and soon we were on our way to Utah. I had a couple of firsts this trip. It was my first time taking a trip with James by myself and it was the first time I'd ever taken a plane with out Tracy. It was also the first time I have ever had to change planes. Our layover on Friday was in Las Vegas. While waiting the hour for our next flight we ate breakfast and played games on our tablets.

At Ontario Airport waiting for our first leg of our trip.
James got to play with his new car.

James did great on both plane rides. He had a bit of a melt down when we first got on a plane that morning after I buckled him in. But I explained to him it was just like riding in the car and he has to be buckled in, then he was fine.

We arrived in Salt Lake close to noon, my sister Melissa picked us up at the airport and dropped us off at my mom's house. Once at my mom's we had a split second decision if we were going to go to my older brother Allen's graduation or not. James voted to stay and play so that's what we did. Not sure he would have sat through a ceremony after sitting on planes and in airports all morning. After the graduation we went to my brother's house for his graduation party. We had a lot of fun at the party and ate lots of really good food.

James started having his dinosaur walk his dog. It was so cute.

That night we both crashed pretty hard, but after skyping with Tracy. It was nice to still be able to do family prayers while apart. We talked to him on Skype every night.

Saturday was a very busy day with lots of family things. One of my nephews was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. After the baptism we had a small big (nothing is small with my family) family gathering at my mom's. James had tons of fun playing with all his cousins, 14 of 22 were present.

Then Saturday evening I left James with my little sister, Clarissa. With my mom joined my older siblings at the Mount Timpanogus Temple where my brother, Allen, was receiving his endowments. I'm so glad that it worked out for me to be there. He had been trying to schedule to go for weeks, but it only worked out for him to go that evening. Coincidence? I think not.

My mom lives near train tracks.
There's a commuter train that goes by about every 30 min., plus freight trains occasionally.
James's favorite thing was to sit on the back of her couch and watch for the trains.

Sunday, we went to church with my mom. The same ward that I grew up in. It was fun to see so many familiar faces. James was nervous going to primary alone, so I sat with him. When it was time for me to go to Relief Society and him to go to class. He cried and clung onto me. So he came to Relief Society with me. Before it started, I went over to visit with my one of my old Young Women advisers and one of the Relief Society Counselors came over and asked me to give the closing prayer. Guess I looked liked I belonged. LOL! After church I was able to go over to a neighbors house who also happened to be one of my old Young Women leaders and visit with her. She is one of my favorite people in the world. I'm so glad to see her doing so well after the stroke she had a few years ago. It will be a sad day when she is no longer here with us.

Sunday evening my little brother, Curtis, came over to visit. It was great to see him and hear about the going ones in his life. After he left I walked over to my friend's Sara and her boyfriend's house (around the corner, practically) to visit with them. James fell asleep while we were there. He was one very tired boy.

(I didn't take very many pictures Saturday or Sunday.)

Monday afternoon James, my sister Clarissa and I picked up Rubios (in celebration of Cinco de Mayo) and had a picnic at a park. We had a ton of fun at the park for a couple of hours.

The view from the park Clarissa took us to was amazing.

James loved these microphone things.

James wouldn't go on any slides unless I came with him.
But that's ok I wanted to play too.

The playground wasn't huge, but it was very tall.
That slide looked pretty scary in person.
James was so scared of it he cried the whole time I took him down it.

We also enjoyed lots of rolling down the hill.

Then drove to the Mount Timpanogus Temple for some pictures. The temple was closed, so we couldn't go on the grounds.

James and I

Clarissa and James

Love this picture.

This would have been a great picture,
 but I forgot my window wasn't down all the way. :(

After that we packed up our things and my friends Sara and Kendra picked us up and took us to the airport. Soon we would be on our way home. Oh, that morning before we had decided on going to a park Clarissa asked James what he wanted to do that day. He replied, "Ride on a plane and see my daddy." He was so excited all day long that we would be going home and seeing daddy that night.

Waiting at the Salt Lake Airport to go home.

We had a fairly good view of the run way.
But the reason for this picture is because I was curious what the red rock in the background is,
so I took it to ask Tracy when we got home. Perhaps, it is a sign that I live with a geologist.
I don't think I would have wondered that if I wasn't married to one or been exposed to geologist as much as I have been.

When we boarded the plane the flight attended invited James and I to go into the cock pit and meet the pilot. It was awesome. The pilot let James say hi to everyone on the plane on the radio. He invited James to sit in the other pilot seat and said I could take pictures, but James was too scared to.  As we got off the plane in Oakland the pilot was standing by the exit so we got to thank him again and say bye. It such a neat experience, probably a once in a lifetime opportunity. If we every do get that chance again, hopefully James will want to sit in the pilot seat.

Our connecting flight was delayed an hour, so we ended up in Oakland for a bit. I found they sold Boudin's Sourdough bread there and got us a loaf to bring home. Can't go the the bay area with out getting some sourdough bread. You just can't!

During our flight from Oakland to Ontario our plane got tossed around a bit. The pilot announced that we had hit what is called a wind tornado. It is caused by the air after it flows over the plane. All planes leave wind tornadoes behind them. We just happened to be following behind another air craft going in the same direction and had hit one of the wind tornadoes. He assured us that they hadn't lost control. I don't want to experience that again.

We arrived at our home airport after 11 and didn't get home till close to mid-night. It had been a long day. James fell asleep a little on the plane and then in the car home. It took a bit to get him to calm back down once we got home. When he gets over tired, he screams and throws fits and he seems to forget how to speak which makes it difficult to understand what he wants. Finally he went to back sleep. However, it was still nice to be home. It was an over all good trip. I'm glad I got to go, but I'm glad to be back at home.

Friday Five

I was thinking I wouldn't get this list up this week because it will be a very busy day with traveling and attending family events and then more family events on Saturday. But, then I remembered I can write up my list before hand and have it magically post for me while up in the air (literally).

So here is my Friday Five:

1. Tuesday after doing school drop off I didn't really feel like going back home, so I took James to the park. He was so excited to play. He will go up to any kid and ask them to play with him. Doesn't matter how big or small the kid is, he's adorable. Just sometimes it is sad when the big kids tell him no.

Seriously I need to take him to the park more often. It's a blast. Till it is time to leave and then I remember why I don't take him very often, the melt down is unbearable.

2. In preparation for this weekend trip and airplane ride I took a trip to Wal-Mart. I was in need of new pair of jean and have decided why spend a ton of money if no matter what they all seem to wear out the same. Maybe I'm just rough on jeans. While there I was looking for some new item to entertain James on the plane ride and ended up with these items:

Well the Hot Wheels car we already had.

3. We are love Rubios and are obsessed with Taco Tuesday: fish tacos $1.50 each after 2 pm. Tracy often brings some tacos home after scouts and this Tuesday was one of those days. I love our night time snack of sitting on the floor (usually) and hanging out while James is asleep.

4. Yesterday, James rediscovered an old cell phone that has become a toy phone. He "called up daddy and started carrying on a conversation with him. James was asking him when he'll be coming him and if we should take a walk to meet him. He also said, "I miss you daddy." It was too cute. Plus this all happened while sitting on his rocking horse.

Today, I was making some phone calls and James started talking to daddy again on his phone. He told daddy he was going on a plane tomorrow. Then started saying "What? What" What do you want? Okay, Bye."

5. We were watching some Honest Trailers the other night. If you aren't familiar with Honest Trailers, then you need to get on Youtube and search for them. There are several made for popular movies. One of them is for Jurassic Park and James immediately asked if he could watch the dinosaur movie. We had to tell him it was a scary movie and he'll have to wait a till he's older to see it. Maybe I'll have to search for some less scary dinosaur movies, like "Land Before Time".