Is It Naptime Yet

On Thursdays the Springs Preserve host the Las Vegas Farmer’s market in the pavilion there. You don’t have to  pay or have a pass to get in and go to it, but you can’t go into any of the exhibits unless you’ve paid and gotten your hand stamped.

Jon and I thought it would be fun to go, so I told Sam, since she had also mentioned being interested in it, and we met up with her and Britta that night. It goes from 4-8 and we got there around 6:30pm. All the produce vendor’s were from Southern California. Their were also hand made items like necklaces, bears and other more natural products. I thought of my BIL Brien when I saw the handmade necklaces because they had colored fresh water pearl necklaces and he buys those for Andrea. She has like twenty different pearl necklaces that are all different colors. OK maybe not twenty but a lot.

The produce prices weren’t too bad. We bought most of our produce for the price of sales we’ve seen around town.

Avocados: $1.25 each
Cucumbers:$.50- down from $.75 each
Cantaloupe: $1 each

Then what we paid the most for:
Peaches: $3 a basket, a basket held 4 small peaches
Strawberries: $3 a basket, or 3 baskets for $8. A basket being around 16 oz. (The small strawberry baskets that strawberries use to come in.)
We were buying the 3 baskets for $8 but the guy only had 7 baskets left, so he tossed in one more basket, so we got 4 for $8 and then he had only one more “deal” left. He also told us a reduced price for asparagus, but we didn’t need any asparagus.

I learned if you go later in the evening the vendors start reducing their prices if they still have a lot left or if they’re trying to move out the last of it, so I think they just reduce their prices as a whole.

I got my cucumber for $.50 because she was talking to a man there who buys a lot of cucumbers and she reduced the price for him, no doubt to encourage him to buy more. I think they were gonna buy 15, then I bought one and the vendor said they were going fast, so then I heard him say around 20.

The produce we bought has been delicious. Literally the best peaches I’ve ever tasted and the strawberries have been sweeter than we’ve gotten at the store. Sunflower Market has had some pretty good strawberries, but these were much better as a whole.
The cucumber was also very tasty, I wish I had bought 2 or 3 and the cantaloupe was ripe and ready to eat when we bought it.

My avocados are still ripening but that’s normal. They’re nice large avocados so I can’t wait to put them in a salad or on a sandwich.

After the market we went and looked at the animals with Britta and Sam. Lilah wanted to show Eden the fox. It hadn’t been in it’s cubby hole when we went there as a family but she saw it on her date with Jon. Sam hadn’t even seen the fox yet because it’s always hiding. We were lucky and it was awake and in the display area. The girls loved watching it and loved it when the fox  would yawn. They love it when any animal yawns for some reason. I guess it’s just funny to kids. Then we let them play and they had lots of fun before we packed up and went home.

Jon was also a doll. He took Eden to the bathroom since you have to lift her onto the toilet, carried our bags of produce, and held my purse for me.

I’m so happy my husband is manly enough to carry/ wear his wife’s purse.

Jon went back to work today. Eden asked where Daddy was this morning since he’s been around so much. He had left while the girls were still asleep and he let me stay in bed and rest rather then get up. She was a little sad that she wasn’t able to say goodbye, which they usually are whenever he leaves while they’re alseep.

I really like having Jon around. At Christmastime he takes a mandatory week off and it’s always nice to lounge around, do whatever and leave parenting to him. Well, not all to him since I get impatient quicker.

My shoulder is already bothering me a little this morning. Who knew 2/3 of a gallon of milk could be so heavy? Jon’s been pouring milk and pushing Eden up to the table so I had forgotten how heavy she was too. I know I also overdid it last night before bedtime . I wiped off the table, left handed but you still have to bend over and use your back muscles, and I swept. Two things that were greatly weighing me down. (I like to keep my table crumb and spot free and a crumby floor really gets to me too. ) I just hated the thought of asking Jon to do those two chores because he had so much he’s had to do and I know how hard it is to have no help. (He helps often, but when he’s gone on business trips I get pretty down on all I have to do.) Eden was also being very difficult and not going potty before bed so I put her on the toilet and then I picked her up to get her to wash her hands. It was a very difficult bedtime and probably one of the worst tantrums she’s ever thrown.

I’ve learned that icing my wound really helps to relive any aches it might have, though I’m sure I’ve already stretched out the wound with all I’ve been doing. She tried to reinforce the wound with stronger stitches, no doubt because my other scar is so big.

I’m taking it easy for the rest of the day. Lunch should be pretty easy and I’m not sure what I’ll make for dinner, but I’ll try not to lift anything more than a pound. I’ll just try not to lose my patience with the girls. They’re in their room playing so I’m gonna let them be and put on a movie to distract me. Hopefully they don’t make too big of a mess, and even if they do they’ll just need to willingly clean it up.

I actually have a few different blog post to catch up on or do, but I figured I’d do them throughout the week since I have nothing else I’m allowed to do.

This is going to be the birthday post for May. Jon and I both had our birthdays so here’s what we did.

Jon didn’t like my idea of bowling so we went to the Springs Preserve for his birthday. Lilah had gone earlier in the week with Britta so she was a pro at showing us around.

 

Getting ready to hit the road.

 

Posing for a picture in the “canyons”.

The lizards were fascinating.

Jon was looking at Eden for this shot and Lilah was looking at me.

 

Jon likes stopping and moving the stone.

I’m tired of walking.

I’m happy to walk.

In the garden demonstration area.

Playing with the oranges in the trash place. (This was Lilah’s favorite and we didn’t find it until on our way back from the gardens. It was about recycling and energy use.)

We spent most of the day at the Springs Preserve and the girls and I got Jon’s cake in the oven after we came home.

Lilah choose the blue sprinkles and Eden choose the orange.

Happy Birthday Honey!

For my birthday we went bowling. They didn’t have a shoe for Eden in her size, the smallest size they had for children was 9 and Eden wears a 6 1/2. Eden started crying and the nice attendant let us use a size 9 on Eden free of charge. She did wear them even though I was sure she was going to trip and fall a few times, but she always caught herself.

The battery went low after I caught these few shoots.

 Lilah had a blast.

Even before we left she was talking about how much she was gonna love bowling.

I don’t remember the scores but Eden and Jon actually got a strike and I’m pretty sure Eden’s score was higher than mine and Jon’s was the highest.

After bowling Jon and the girls baked my cake and I took a nap.

Then for dinner I picked us up a pizza, that’s what’s on Lilah’s face.

It was a fun birthday.

Was my last day of work. Like real work in an office, not taking care of children work. I worked for Distance Ed at UNLV as a student worker and my due date for Lilah was a month away or June 27th.The contract ended on May 23rd 2003 and rather than put people through  the work of renewing a contract for a lousy 2 or 3 weeks I decided to quit the final day of the contract. ( They renewed student worker contracts every semester and once at the beginning the summer. )

Today I am filling in as the receptionist at my sister’s work. Theirs called in sick, Jon’s home and my mom was already at her other job, who is the normal sub. Any money is good money and this happens to be easy money.  (Jon’s getting the bedroom organized, but most of it’s his books and I have a few boxes, so I don’t feel too bad leaving him to the resettling of the room after I painted it for two days.)

I’m at the office now, but I don’t have my password for my blog so this will not be posted til I get home tonight.

I was a little nervous, but I know the people in the office and they’re very nice, even if they swear like sailors and watch you while you answer the phones to make you nervous. I don’t know real-estate lingo or what goes on so when the people on the phone fire off questions I really wish I could answer them, but all I can do is redirect.

I just think it’s funny. Five years from the date of my final day at work I’m subbing  and “working” at least for the day.

Note from home: Jon had dinner ready when I got home and most of the stuff back in the bedroom and the dishes done. He even did some laundry, and folded it! (I admit I don’t always fold the laundry when I do it.) When Lilah was at the table waiting for dinner to be served and she had overheard some of my thank yous she said “Yeah, Daddy’s such a good housekeeper.”

The end of April is when the season of Birthday’s begins for our family.

We have a lot of birthdays in May, June and July. At least for the family we keep in touch with. (Since there are 21 grand children on Jon’s side I have no idea when any of them are because we don’t keep close tabs on most of them, though I’m sure I could get the list of birthday’s from his mom. I also only know 3 of his siblings birthdays. Dara and Jason’s, whom we keep close contact with and his brother Conrad’s, but only because it’s the day after Eden’s and the day I wish I had Eden because it’s the same day as mine, just a different month, and I use to always say the wrong day for Eden’s, though I think after nearly 3 years I’ve gotten her birthday through my head. I know this is all pretty vague, but this is the internet after all.)

Then there are some in the Fall, but now are the ones I worry about.

Jon turns 33 at the beginning of May. He’s getting so old.

I’m turning 25 at the end of May. (I’m getting old because I feel like I should only be 22 or 23.)

Lilah turns 5 in June. FIVE. I’m going to be the mother of a school aged child. Yikes!

Eden turns 3 in July. So my next child will be at least 3 1/2 years younger than their closest sibling. That’s such a big age gap, and it’s only getting bigger since I like to have children in the Spring or Summer months so they’re more likely to be nearly four years younger than Eden, if not more. Plus the thought of packing away the crib next year when Lilah gets the top bunk and Eden moves to the bottom is so exciting to me that it almost overrides any desire for another child.

We also have other family members in there. My mom’s, MIL, FIL, BIL’s, a sister, SIL, and a niece, though I’m sure there are more.

Plus some friends.

This year I’m going to give Lilah her first friend party. We’ve always done family parties, and the kids in her class have done friend parties so I’m going to venture and try to entertain about six 4 year olds for 2 hours, plus some older cousins. Though it may be a swimming party and the mom’s will have to be there with their kids rather than just dropping them off. I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but I should get started on my plans soon.

So lets get this cake season started.

This week has turned out to be a busy one, not intentionally, so it’s hindered the potty training, but I’m still letting Eden give most of the direction as of now.

Monday I cleaned our back patio, to a degree since we still need to put one more brick in and add the sand to the sand box.

Tuesday Lilah’s friend Britta had her “Grand Opening” of her restaurant and invited all her class friends. It was so fun for the girls. Sam had made menus and Britta got the orders and served all the kids. Lilah now wants her own restaurant, but I tell her I have to clean my house first.

Wednesday we needed to go sign the papers on our life insurance. It turned out UNLV was doing some Earth Day events for elementary aged kids and it was open to the public so we headed over a little early to pick up Jon and changed our appointment to a later time. It was a windy day and there were only so many things to see so we just made our new appointment on time. Jon was a doll and parked my car in the boon docks, other wise known as the Thomas and Mack, and he got it for us, so we only had to wait for him to come back.

Thursday I cleaned my bathrooms because Lilah’s class was canceled due to do half the kids being sick and another mom being out of town, so it left two kids for Lilah’s class, including her and two kids for Eden’s class.

Today I was flipping through the channels, which I never do in the morning, it’s always just on PBS, and the weather came on. Today was to be in the 70’s with it being 79 by 5 pm and light breezes. I decided that I hadn’t spent much time with the girls and a morning at the park would be fun. ( I think I was confused with our bad attitudes last week being a sign I hadn’t spent much time with them.)

I called Sam and we had a long morning at the park, I mean long, like nearly 3 hours. It was the perfect day and the girls had a blast. It seems like the weather heats up so fast sometimes so I thought Jon would be happy that I took the opportunity to take them outside and enjoy it. (I have a tendency to get stuck in a rut and not take the girls outside even on beautiful days.)

Tomorrow who knows what we’ll do with this beautiful weather.

So I have lots of pictures on my camera, some of caterpillars, some if a wedding, some of butterflies, but I’ve been to busy to do anything with them.

I’ll recap on our trip when I do that post, maybe by the end of the week, but for now I’ll tell you why I’ve been busy, or not at home.

Monday Lilah had a birthday party. It was for one of her classmates, Isaak, and the girls had a blast. I took Eden along because one, she loves birthday parties two, she’s too little to understand why she can’t go to her sister’s friends parties and three, she was invited and had Jon not been home she would have been there anyways. Jon had until today, or Wednesday, off so I almost left Eden with him, but since I had to babysit for Kristi so she could take her scouts to the recycling pant Monday afternoon, I thought I’d give some time to my hubby for him to be by himself.

So it was a birthday party in the morning and then babysitting for 4 hours in the afternoon.

Tuesday we took Jon’s car in to the mechanic. His brakes were making bad grinding noises and it turns out were metal to metal, why they didn’t catch this two months ago I’m not sure and makes me a little suspicious, but we still like our mechanic or at least the owner.

After the car was dropped off we headed to my parents to drop off a couple things to be shipped to Andrea because I forgot them this weekend. (I do have the Wonder Woman cake pan now Shauntae so you mush visit me within the next year at least. 🙂 ) We ate lunch and then dropped my dad off at Kristi’s so he could get his truck back. Then off to Kohl’s, my favorite store to shop at for me. We found Jon some shirts to beef up his wardrobe and a belt. It’s been over a year since we’ve bought him clothes, so he badly needed some new shirts to help out his depleting wardrobe. It was fun for me and the girls were OK.

Then we went to JoAnn’s because it’s sale time! I found a pattern I liked for a skirt, $.99, and the pattern I wanted for the girls was gone. 🙁 So I bought my pattern and went to look for Jon and the girls at Petco which is next door, since I thought that might be a fun distraction. They didn’t have any dogs or cats, but plenty of birds, lizards and other things.

Jon is softening to the girls plea for a pet. I’m still a firm no. A hermit crab and gold fish are much as I’ll allow because I can’t stand smelly pets, like, birds, rats, dogs, cats and practically any animal. Plus some caged animals are high maintenance, like iguana’s, which can get huge, and I’m against that also.

I’m just not a pet person.
If we had a spot to put a litter box I might say yes to a cat that doesn’t shed too much, but that’s even a hard sell for me.
I liked my SIL’s Yorkie, but they spent $800 to buy her and that was at half the normal price, so I think even a small dog that doesn’t shed is out since I’d rather have certain home improvements than a pet.

We came home after JoAnn’s but I was still to tired to do pictures. Not to mention I had things around the house that needed to be done and Lilah’s gymnastics class that evening.

Today, or Wednesday, I watched Britta while Sam taught her dance classes this morning. We had to pick up Jon’s car so Sam left the car seat and we piled the three girls in the back of mine. They all fit wonderfully and had fun “giving” each other different flavored ice creams. It started out nice, like peppermint and chocolate and then progressively got worst, like feet and dirty trashcan gum.

Mmm, mmm good.

After paying a lot for four new brakes Jon took Eden to Sunflower Market and I got gas in my car and went to the JoAnn’s by me that is less traveled since it’s so small. ( I was not going to go with three girls.)

I got in trouble because I let Britta and Lilah run around but, I found the pattern I wanted to make dresses for the girls and an apron pattern I liked, both were for $.99 each. I also found fabric the other JoAnn’s didn’t have and got a great deal on everything. Now I just need to finish my drapes so I can make the cute summer dresses for the girls before the summer is over.

Sam got Britta and we had lunch and then I had a stomach ache all afternoon. Literally all afternoon and into the evening. Thankfully Jon was here so I could refer the girls to him, but sadly he goes back to work tomorrow.

I really want to post pictures but the thought of editing is too daunting of a task, especially since I still have travel laundry to do, receipts to check from February, so I also have March and April receipts, and house cleaning to do.

I think they should make one of those vacuum robots that just goes around your house, but one that sweeps and mops for you and instantly dries your floor at the same time.

I’d totally buy one of those.

We went away this weekend for my cousin’s wedding.

We left Friday and got back today. I’m so tired of driving and so happy to be home. Now we can spend a weeks worth of money on  groceries rather than on one family dinner at a restaurant.

My sister Carolyn came with us because her husband was not allowed to take the time off. I’m so happy she was able to come and I know the girls had fun with her.

I was also able to share a bed with Jon while Carolyn shared a  bed with one of the girls and the other got the adventure of sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag.  (The two of them in one bed probably wouldn’t have worked too well.)

I’ll post a few pictures later and give you more details. I just wanted to let you know we’re alive and safe.

Sunday Jon was scanning pictures from his mother’s photo album. We’re trying to get them copied so we can distribute Cd’s throughout the family and have a copy of them.

Lilah’s looked through the album with Grandma  before and just last week we went through them before we brought them home.

Lilah noticed the picture of Jonathan’s uncle who was accidentally killed because of a fight while only in his 20’s. She asked if he was the one who was dead and then how he died. Jon told her about the fight and how alcohol was involved, though he couldn’t remember what party was drunk or if both of the men were. Lilah asked about alcohol and Jon described it as something that causes a person to make less rational choices, not bad, but not always good.

A few minutes later Eden starts singing alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. Then Lilah chimes in, partially because I told Eden she shouldn’t say it and Jon responded that it was just a funny word to her.

So then I had two girls singing alcohol, alcohol to the tune of Jingle Bells. (It’s what Elmo does at the end of Elmo’s world. Sing the word they were learning about to the tune of Jingle Bells.)

It was a little funny.

I just hope they don’t start singing that tune while at a friends house.

Eden told Jon he looks like Uncle Rawlin.

Then yesterday Eden told me I looked like Aunt Kristi.

I know that most of you only know who one of the two people are so I’ll see if I can find a couple pictures to post, but I find it funny that she’s making associations with us and who we look like.

I’ve always gotten that I look like Kristi.

Rawlin is 20 years older than Jon, and why I have a niece who’s five years older than me and why I thinks it’s too funny that she calls me Aunt Lacey,  so I find that connection funny. But I have joked that  Rawlin and my FIL give me examples of what Jon might look like 20 years from now and then 46.

It’s my own little look into the future.