Required

It's summer time. The weather is looking good and this desert is starting to look dull. It's time to get out. David and the girls have been wanting to go camping so I think it's about time.

But where?

I need a place that is not too far since we can only go on my off days and if I am lucky I might even get two together.

It has to be green. I am all set with desert.

We need some hiking. That's my favorite part of these adventures. I would like some place pet friendly so my Gibby can come too. He also enjoys hiking.

Some place that's not a million miles from civilization, in case I forget to bring something. I do that.

Finally, we'd like to try some fishing. I haven't fished since I was a little girl and don't even know what I need to do it. But we want to try it. David and the girls never fished before.

So who knows a good place that meets those criteria? Anyone? I need help. If I have to look at this brown for much longer, I am going to scream. The plan is to go midweek to avoid crowds and hopefully sometime next month.

Nights To Days

I have realized that I have been neglecting this here blog. Yep, I know there are few readers even left at this point. But, for you few that have stayed, I am sorry. I think I have realized what the problem is. See, when we lived in San Diego, I used to write about my job and fun stuff I did on the weekend. When that ended and I moved to the desert, I was writing about the move, the new area, the hunt for the new job. Then there was some small adventures we took along the way… The LA County Fair, trips to Las Vegas and Palm Springs. Then there were the thrills of finding that job and the super adventure to Georgia for training. But now… I work. I work strange hours. I work a lot. I haven’t time or money for fun trips. I can’t write about work, because most of my day is not for public viewing, and trust me, you don’t want to know. I occasionally post newspaper articles that are work related, but that is about it.

Anyway, I intend on changing that. Now that I am done working the midnight shift for the rest of this year, I have more time and energy. We were going to try and take a vacation to San Francisco, but I was unable to get vacation time. So instead we are going to take a camping trip. We leave first thing on October 6 and return the next evening. We will be camping at Yucaipa Regional Park, right outside of Oak Glen. There is a lake and hiking, as well as the apple picking and fall beauty of Oak Glen. It should be a fun time.

Catherine should start softball again soon. Carolynn was going to sign up, but she opted to get her nails done instead. She is still driving me nuts. She as band issues. She has PMS. She has pimples. She has attitude. She has terrible friends. It’s just a super fun ball of excitement. If you know where I can take her to have her adjusted or traded in, I’d appreciate it.

Tonight I am making fish for dinner. I am on a healthy kick. I finally have the time and energy to try and eat better. I feel a little better the last couple days.

Anyway, there is much to do. I will try and get more stuff on here. Maybe I will pick up a couple of new memes. That will help.

Life's A Beach

Nothing new still. Just hanging in there. I heard from that interview from last week. She gave me some story about how she has no idea what was going on and that some supervisor was the one who got to pick and she had no say in it. It sounded like a blow off to me. I could be wrong. Today we are having pork roast burritos again. Everyone loved it when I made it last Sunday and the leftovers were good too. Anyway, on with random picture that has nothing to do with my craptacular life. (Yes, craptacular is a word.)


This is Carolynn and Catherine at Torrey Pines State Beach in 2005. That has to be one of my favorite places ever. A long time ago, I used to go there a lot to get away from my house and all that video game noise. It was a pretty rough time then too, but not financially like now. Anyway, I was stressed a lot and I wasn't eating or sleeping. I would go there and hike and hike all over the cliffs. Early in the morning there would be old folks walking on the trails. In the evening moms with strollers would be hiking. It wasn't all bad. I went from a size 20 to a size 14 that summer. Even after the video game was gone, I would still go there and hike with the girls or let them play at the beach. After we moved to Northern San Diego, I didn't go there often anymore. If we went to the beach, we went to the beach in Oceanside or Carlsbad. Once we even drove north and went to Huntington Beach. In May we went camping at San Onofre State Beach. The beach is a calming place for me.

Thursday Thirteen

Ever since I moved here, I feel like I lost my life somewhere. I miss my life. I’d like it back. Here are thirteen things about my life I miss. If anyone sees my life anywhere, can you please send it back?

1. A Job
2. Money
3. Gas In My Car
4. Paid Bills
5. Netflix
6. Ability to Purchase Things
7. Fast Food
8. David’s Job
9. Living Near Civilization
10. Going Places
11. Camping
12. Relaxation
13. Being Headache Free

Happy Campers

We got home from camping this afternoon. We had quite an adventure.

We left here on Friday evening after I got home from work. It was not very far to San Onofre. We got there, set up camp, and roasted hot dogs. Saturday we went over to the beach. The beach at San Onofre was hosting a surf contest, so we went up the street to the beach at San Clemente State Park. It was nice and the girls had fun. David got a wicked sunburn at the beach. Look at this watch line.

I have this school project where I have to show 6 minutes of footage of people talking about and doing an activity or at a specific place. I am not allowed to use my own family, make a “How-To” video and must use original footage. I have been having so much trouble figuring out what to do. Jo Anna suggested I do it on camping. Therefore, Saturday, Carolynn and I went out to chat up campers. And you know what… people suck. Okay, not all people, but a lot of people suck. I only got 3 minutes of footage. Most people refused to be a part of it. The few people that participated were nice. I do not know why exactly people sucked, but I have a few theories;

1) People are suspicious of strangers in general.
2) They were worried I would use the video for some illicit purpose.
3) They were concerned I was scoping out their camp stuff for later thieving.
4) They wanted to make sure that if I used it for commercial purposes they could be paid. (Seriously, someone actually said that.)

I told them what it was for, but still had very few helpers. Anyway, I did not finish my project. David suggested I make it about my job. I do not know, it is not that exciting. I had better think quick.

Well, here is my video. I incorporated some of the people I met into it. They were good sports. There is no video of the beach in my movie because I ran out of room. I have some, just could not fit it, so I stuck to campers. Enjoy the movie.

We Gotta Have More Cowbell

I’d like to thank all of the well wishers that left comments on my early week stress. Just so you don’t worry, a very pleasant woman named Maria from the property management office called me back the next day and assured me I wouldn’t have to pay the extra rent and there would be no late fee. I was also not required to sign anything and I will have no problems before I move on June 30. Also, the government gave me $1200 today so there is a huge help in my moving expense. After some serious research, we are going to end up renting a truck to move. It will be fine.

As for work, I am getting caught up. Yesterday, I sent a nasty e-mail to my boss, and I felt better. Luckily, he is understanding of stress and easily got over it. Besides, what is he going to do, fire me? I guess he could, but I don’t see that being very helpful to his business. Thursday marked the two year anniversary of my being at this job. Woo.

Today I applied for 30 jobs in Austin; 21 jobs on Craigslist, 7 jobs at the University of Texas, and 2 at Careerbuilder.

Finals are almost over. I took one yesterday and I have a final project due by Thursday and one more final test on Tuesday. Then WOOOOOOOO! DONE!!!!

Catherine has been doing better. Sometimes, she just needs a little kick in the butt. Or a massive kick, either way.

I sure got a lot of comments and opinions on yesterday’s Thursday 13. I love it when we have discussion. That is why I am joining the iReply Movement. Check out my new badge and their website. You comment, I reply. I am going to make more of an effort to leave comments on other blogs I frequent too. I don’t like to leave comments unless I have something specific to add. Trish was exploring this topic on her blog the other day.

Today we are going on our camping trip to the beach. I am sure there will be a video. Carolynn tried to call the video for her website, but she was denied on that one. She called pictures from her running thing on Saturday and has yet to share them. I am also going to attempt my final project at the campground. I might share that with you too.

That’s it until Sunday. Have a great weekend!

Happy Memorial Day

Random

Spiderman 3 was good but a little over crowded. There was so much stuff going on and too many villains.

Netflix is so wonderful. This past weekend we watched The Flintstones movie. I have not seen that one in ages and that was the first time the kids saw it. I just loved it when it came out. My mom had these drinking glasses from McDonald’s with The Flintstone’s on them. I wonder if she still has them. We also watched Night at the Museum. That one was not so great. Today we should be getting Dreamgirls. I cannot wait to see that.

Carolynn is getting ready for her elementary graduation. The school is taking fifth graders to The Wave, a nearby water park. They are also having a teacher vs. fifth Grade softball game. In addition, there will be a graduation ceremony. I will be there with my cameras so be prepared. My regular (still photo) camera seems to be having some trouble. It does not seem damaged and it turns on fine, but the screen looks all blurry and like how it used to look when you turned to the HBO channel when you did not have HBO. I have not had that camera too long. Maybe like 4 years. It is a Sony Cybershot.

I bought my mom a mother’s day card right before we went to Las Vegas. I found it still in my desk on Monday while I was looking for something else. Oops. Better late than never.

Make sure you watch Catherine’s Story. She is a little hard to hear because the video camera I use is cheap and not good. One day, when I have more money, I will get a super cool one that makes DVD’s or something. But, not today. Carolynn did a similar video too, so be sure and check her out.

I am totally addicted to Rosie O’Donnell’s blog. I came across it one day, about a month ago or so. I was looking at the LOL Cats, they were nominated for a blog award, and then I clicked on the blog award site and happened to see hers. I clicked it and have been reading it since. I am not really sure why. Politically, she is very left of me. Her views tend to offend others. I personally think that she has a right to think or say whatever as long as it does not cause harm. If you do not like it, do not listen, turn the channel, surf another webpage. Whatever. Some of the stuff she says I do agree with and I think it is nice to see someone who is a “celebrity” be so real. I do not think it’s fake at all. She has a very nice family. So anyway, if you want to check it out: Rosie Blog. However, I warn you, those who are extremely republican, very right wing type of people, you probably will not like her blog. In addition, from the information I have gathered, it maybe illegal or sacrilegious or something else horrible, to read her blog while in the state of Texas. That fact has not been confirmed, just my opinion. P.S. There will be no major political discussion on this blog. It is a family page.

This weekend we are seeing Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I got free tickets from Albertson’s. I have six tickets so far. According to my last receipt I am $10 or so away from 2 more tickets so if you need some, let me know. People with kids get first choice.

We are also going camping this weekend. I get Monday off so we are going to be camping Sunday to Monday in Julian. It should be fun.

That is about it I think. If I sent you an e-mail about pictures don’t forget to send me some. If I did not send you an e-mail about pictures, it is because I already have some or I just have not yet and I will.

A Million Little Things

First, it was recently pointed out to me that on two occasions over the past few weeks, I had said on here that I would post pictures and information about some adventures we took. Then I did not do it. Well, EXCUSE ME! I have my reasons.

On March 30, I posted that we were going to Seaworld that night. Then nothing. Well, people, there are no pictures because it was NIGHT TIME! Shamu is black, it was dark… what can I say. We did have fun though. We went because it was passport member’s night and we got to see the sneak previews of two new night time shows they were starting for their “Spring Into Night” event. We saw a very funny show with the sea lions (that is my favorite) called “Sea Lions Tonight” and then we were the first ever audience to see the new Shamu show “Shamu Rocks”. I must say I liked it a lot more than I liked the regular Shamu show. Not that the regular Shamu show sucks or anything.

I had previously posted that we would be going camping on Easter and I did not post pictures or anything on that either. Well, the reason for that is, that camping trip was sort of a dud. First, David almost had to work so we could not go. He did not find out if he could work different times until the last minute. Then, once I had finally made the reservation (Thursday night before Easter), we found out he would have to work both Saturday morning and Sunday night. They seem a little short staffed at PetsMart. They have a sign out in front asking for applicants. If anyone knows anyone who is looking for a job in the Oceanside/Tri-City area, send him or her over or tell him or her to apply on line. Anyway, we decided that since we were not going very far to camp, we would just go late and come home early. We were camping at Lake Jennings in Lakeside. The girls and I got everything ready Friday night and Saturday morning so when David got off work we could go. We left and got a little lost on the way (Thank You MapQuest!). We made it though without too much hassle. The campground was nice. The lake was pretty and they had a playground, horseshoe pits, and hiking trails. We had already reserved our campsite, but because we reserved it so late we ended up with a terrible one. It was all gravel and had RV hook ups in the middle of it. We made do though and put up our tents and made some hot dogs. Carolynn and I took a little hike and then she and Catherine went to the playground. David was asleep in the tent most of the time. The girls and I had a nice campfire, roasted marshmallows and told ghost stories. On Sunday, we got up and had breakfast, but before we could hide eggs or anything, it started to rain. Therefore, we decided to just pack up and head home. By the time we got home, David was on his way back to work. We ended up hiding eggs in the house that evening. It was not the worst trip ever or anything, it just was not worth talking about. Nevertheless, apparently, everyone is interested anyway, so there you go.

You may have noticed that there is a new adventure listed in our Upcoming Events. On April 27, 28, and 29 we will be in Las Vegas. Before anyone asks, no, that is not the vacation we have been planning from March. In fact, the vacation we had been planning in March has now officially been postponed indefinitely. There are several reasons for that decision.

1. The timing was not working. Between everyone’s work, school, and other activities we just could not find a perfect time to go. It was getting somewhat frustrating.

2. We figured with all of our passes to various places, our camping, and all of our regular lives we’d be pretty busy anyway.

3. The money we saved for vacation we spent. Carolynn wanted her own computer and a turtle for her birthday. She got both and neither was cheap. She also wants to have a birthday weekend adventure with two of her friends to Seaworld. She gets that too.

I think I made the right decision. Carolynn is going to have a great birthday and we will still have plenty of fun.

Las Vegas should be fun. We were not planning that, it just sort of happened. The opportunity presented itself and we said “Sure, why not?” The hotel is paid for. The gas money is paid for. Viva Las Vegas! Since David is the only one of us who has never been, he is planning the fun. I hope that he will not have to work and miss out. The girls want to go to Circus Circus and Excalibur. I might do a little gambling. If I hit it big, I will think of you all… while writing this blog from my mansion.

As I mentioned before, Carolynn is having herself a birthday this weekend. She already got her presents. She has her very own computer. Well, not exactly. She actually has to share the computer with her sister. She also got a new expansion for her Zoo Tycoon game. Therefore, with her having her own computer, I think we should expect a lot more on her Ocean View site. She also got a new turtle. Anyone who knows Carolynn or has read her webpage knows about her turtle obsession. I will not tell you about the turtle though. She is planning that for her website soon. This week we are going on a birthday adventure. I am taking Carolynn, Catherine, Kina, and Jessica to Seaworld this Saturday. Friday night the girls are sleeping over at our place. Saturday we are going to Seaworld. This is looking to be an all girl adventure. David will probably have to work. (Isn’t he lucky!) The girls want to stay until it closes and see all the shows. Then the girls will be sleeping over again Saturday night. Carolynn has been planning this for months.

Speaking of birthdays being planned for months, Catherine has seen what Carolynn has gotten for her birthday and if you know anything about kids… she is looking to her birthday to be like Carolynn’s. However, I pointed out to Catherine that Carolynn is turning 11 and to be fair (as Catherine insists) she should have a similar birthday to what Carolynn had when she turned eight. When Carolynn turned eight, she had a small sleepover with about three of her friends. They made super nachos, watched movies and played games. Catherine has deemed that as un-fair. Therefore, we are working out a compromise. She wants a hamster. I am against it because I do not think she will take care of it. She is still planning… her birthday is not until September so we shall see.

On the work front, I finally finished that catalog I had been working on. (That is what is giving me the time to write this at work today.) 84 pages of baskets… it is thrilling. We went through rounds of proofs and changes and finally it is being printed as we speak. They say they will have 3000 copies to me by the end of the month. We will see. I never did anything like this before so I cannot wait to see how it turns out.

In school news, both of my classes are going fine so far. Math started out easy but I think now that we went over the basics it will begin to get harder. Math is just not my strongest subject. I have a test tonight.

Well, I think that catches us up. I will try to update more often.

Fun Spring Break

The first day of Spring Break was mom's birthday. We had carrot cake. It was delicious. We went to Seaworld. Last time, I got a little shark. We saw shows we never saw before. We went camping. I got to sleep in my own tent this time. Then there's Easter. We are going to color eggs, then egg hunt, then eat fried steak. I went to see TMNT with David. I LOVED IT!! We went to Boomers. I won three thing, a wand, a squishy thing and a Fun Dip.

A Thrilling Weekend

Nothing exciting happened this weekend. I did something I had not done in a long time. Nothing. Okay, I did a few things, but nothing really.

On Friday, Carolynn made me a carrot cake for my birthday. It was tasty. Then I took Carolynn over to the Wal-Mart to have her camp pictures developed. We also picked up a few things at the Fry’s for Carolynn’s computer. When we got home, we ordered pizza for dinner.

On Saturday, I took Carolynn to the doctor. She has a slight ear infection. We grabbed some tacos at the Taco Bell and just stayed home all day. Carolynn and I watched The Lake House. It was pretty good, but a little predictable. (Even Carolynn had figured it out about half way in.)

Sunday, I went nowhere. I watched Food Network all day and we made a roast for dinner. It was quite nice to just stay home after the last few weeks of weekend adventures.

Speaking of adventures, the girls are itching to go camping again. They got some new camping stuff from my mom (lanterns, flashlights, animal paper plates and forks, ect.) and they want to go out and use them. We have our next scheduled camping adventure planned for Memorial Day, but with the introduction of this new stuff, we are probably going to go sooner. Therefore, it seems likely that we will go camping on Easter weekend. Easter bunnies go to campsites, after all, bunnies live in the woods. Our vacation is still in the air. It is very likely we will not go until around Mother’s Day. However, we have a lot of fun things planned in the meantime. This weekend we may be heading back to Seaworld for a member’s only preview of the new shows. Then we will be camping the following weekend. In addition, we have another trip to Seaworld scheduled on Carolynn’s birthday with her and her friends, Kina and Jessica. It is a jam packed April coming up. Stay tuned for many fun filled adventures and pictures. (Especially pictures from Carolynn as she got her own digital camera from my mom.)

5th Grade Camp

On Monday I left for camp. I was gone until Friday. It was awsome.


Here I am at camp.


This is my cabin.


This is a picture of my three best friends. Jessica, Danielle, and Kina


This was our counselor we had in our cabin. She was weird.


I was going to climb this rock wall, but started raining so I couldn't.


This is me and my teacher. She went with us to camp.


I canoed on this lake.


Every morning at 6 I had to wake up and go out with the cabin and say the pledge of allegiance and then go to breakfast.


They called the paths weird names and one was called London. We went up the London.


We hiked up a big hill and this is what I saw from the top of it.


This a shelter we built out of sticks we found in the area. The boy sitting is my friend Daris, or "Big D" and the other boy is someone I don't know.

I also learned to shoot archery but I didn't get a picture.

The Camp Adventure

At first we started driving along the desert and it was fun and hot. We stopped in the middle of no where to let David pee. Then once we got there we set up our tents and sleeping bags and got everything in there.


We made lunch. I had some Spaghetti-O's. Then we went hiking. We saw numbers that told us what the things were at the numbers.


Then we just hung out until dinner. We made hot dogs on the fire. And then we made s'mores. Last, we went to sleep. It took Catherine a long time because she drank a lot of soda. The next morning we had eggs and bacon on our little stove. Then me and Mom went hiking again. This time it was a 2 mile hike. Then after we went hiking we started packing up and then we left. It was a fun adventure. I want to do it again.

The Great Outdoors

Yesterday we took off on our first camping adventure. We drove out to the Anza-Borrego State Park. It was quite a drive. We went up and down mountains, all along twisty turning roads until finally we reached the desert. Here is a picture we took from a look out right before we got there.

Then we went to the visitor’s center (mostly because I had to pee) and looked around the museum. I got a new magnet for my collection. After that, we headed to our campsite. First Carolynn set up her tent, then Catherine set up her tent and finally we all pitched in to set up the big tent. Here is a picture of our campsite.

This is Carolynn and her tent.

This is Catherine in her tent.

Then we had some lunch. Here is Carolynn cooking up some Spaghetti-O’s on our camp stove.

After lunch, David and Catherine relaxed at the camp and Carolynn and I went on a hike. Here are a few pictures.



After our hike, we built ourselves a fire and roasted hot dogs and then some marshmallows for s’mores. After our fire died down, we all got in the big tent and played with our Game Boys. We played card games too. Then we all went to sleep. Everyone slept in the big tent. The little tents were just for fun. This morning we woke up early and made some eggs and bacon for breakfast on our camp stove. Here is a picture of David cooking eggs.

Then Carolynn and I went on another, longer hike. Here is a picture of Carolynn on the trail.

We saw lots of lizards on the trail, but they were too qucik to get pictures. Luckily, the lizards on our porch are not so shy.

After we got back from our hike, we packed up and headed home. It was great. It was peaceful and there was plenty of fresh air. We have already made plans to go camping on Memorial Day weekend. We already booked a campsite in Julian.

Disappointment and Adventure

Well, we are not going on our vacation this weekend. Everyone is a little bummed about it but it was unavoidable. Unfortunately, my boss had to leave town unexpectedly due to a family emergency. His mother has been hospitalized and is already in poor health. Therefore, he will not be back until next week sometime. I think we would have felt worse had he stayed for our vacation and the worst happened to his mom. However, we are a resilient family. We have already rescheduled our vacation for April and are planning a fun adventure for this weekend.

This weekend we are going on our very first camping trip. I am not an avid camper. I have only been camping twice before. David seems more experienced in the camping knowledge. The rest of this week, we are gathering supplies and on Saturday morning, we leave for our trip. We are going to Anza Borrego State Park. It is in the desert so it will not be cold, but it is still early in the year so it will not be too hot. We have the site reserved and the kids are excited.

Even though we are postponing the vacation we had planned, we are still going to have a fun and exciting adventure this weekend. We can’t wait.

Camping

This weekend I'm going camping to the desert. We're going to need lots of stuff. I want to get a tent all to myself or I can share one with Mom and David. We're going to make delicious s'mores

Tomorrow I'm going to a book fair from 5:00 to 6:45. 6:00 to 6:45 is a story teller.

Today nothing exciting happened at school.

We had excellent chicken today for dinner.

Promises...

I know if have been promising to write something for a while and I have not been delivering. I just have not had time. That and I have had very little to say. If anyone should have something to say it would be Carolynn, who also does not write anything on her page either. I will force her into it later. She has been going to friend’s houses, getting ready for camp, and going to middle school orientation. We will see what I can get her to write about….

So, about all the stuff I was going to write…

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

It is a stupid show. It is not funny. Moreover, they felt the need to hold up the city of Boston for a promotional event. What is so funny about a square guy giving the finger? NOTHING! I hope the idiots who thought up that promotional tool were taken out and shot. I mean even my cat would have known better.

Vacation

We have not made any major plans on this. I wanted to go see the other side of the country, but my budget says otherwise. So, new plan. Maybe we are going to give camping a try. Camping gear will not been too expensive a little at a time. Then for a small amount of money, we can take many weekend vacations. We can get the exercise we need. In addition, we can see many different things. We are going to try somewhere close first, to see how it goes and go from there.

In addition, since we already have annual passes for Disneyland, we were thinking it might be fun to go there for a few days and stay at one of the hotels there. We go frequently for a day, do a few things, and come home. However, it will be nice to stay and relax a few days.

Work

It is work. What can I say? I work there. I even worked a couple of Saturdays. However, since I like my job, it is okay.

American Idol

What is with all the terrible people they let through to the judges? Some of those people were just so strange. How about that girl who expected them to teach her to sing? Or that girl who gave an “I have a dream” speech. People will do anything to get on TV. This week is Hollywood week and soon the vote will be in our hands.

That should catch us up.

Yesterday we went to Disneyland. We rode a few rides, did a little shopping, and had some dinner. We have been keeping to a great budget and I am so proud. There is money in savings. Bills are paid. I even have plans to buy a CD and not the music kind. I am so good.

Well, that is it. I saw something on my friend Trisha’s blog that I need to investigate and/or steal.