Blogging hiatus

I just noticed that I haven't blogged in about a week which is really unusual for me lately with all the summer activities. Actually our computer died....as well as Doug's laptop.....so I am currently at Doug's office catching up on emails, balancing my checkbook, and blogging.
My mom got here last week and we've been keeping busy with misc. stuff like getting the kids ready for school and watching a few really bad horror movies. The Sears god came yesterday thus ending our 10 day streak of hanging each piece of laundry in our garage to dry for the world to see. My gardener is coming tomorrow to fix the sprinkler system which has been broken for a week and it's like 100 degrees so I've been hand watering the entire yard everyday for about 10 days. Last but not least, our AC is still not working...boy, when it rains it pours huh? The guy is supposed to come out next week and fix that so we will see. Doug and AJ left yesterday morning for a hockey tournament in San Jose until Monday night. Doug called me today to let me know that AJ left both his jerseys in the garage and that I needed to send them FedEx. $98 later they will be there tomorrow and AJ will have working that off! Ryan had his "meet and greet" today at school and ended up getting the teacher he didn't want. For a moment I thought he was actually going to cry but he sucked it up when he found out his best friend, Max was in his class. I have to admit I was a little sad to hear that he didn't get Mrs. Jacques since Melissa, AJ, and Ali all had her. The teacher Ryan got is very sweet though and I'm sure we will have a great year. I told him a story about when I was in 4th grade and my parents had just split up. I was going to MY "meet and greet" and found out that I got the teacher that no one wanted. He was supposedly the meanest teacher ever. Mr. Mitchell was an old, grey haired teacher that looked alot like the grumpy old man next door that would take your ball if it landed in his yard or yell at you for stepping on his grass. Surprisingly, Mr. Mitchell became my favorite teacher in elementary school. School starts on Tuesday and I cannot wait! I am an "A-type" personallity so I live for the schedule! Overall it's been a pretty great summer. Of course because we live where we live, we still have a few more months of beach days and fun in the sun.

Retaliation

Apparently this is what happens when your teenager tee-pee's someones house and they find out who it was.......we were one of about 30 houses done last night by these guys. You can't tell from this picture but they also took balls of wet tp and threw it at the windows so that we had to pressure wash all the windows to get it off.....nice! And yes, there's our cat Marty checking everything out on the driveway.

It was like Christmas Day

You know what I'm talking about....the whole Christmas build up and then the let down right after all the presents are opened up and you realize it's over until next year? Well, today was kinda like that. This morning we had to get up early and head to the kids' high school to get them registered which took about 2 hours. And then I dropped my car off for some repairs, got a rental and headed home. Put Jack down for a nap and then headed out again (my mom is here so no, I didn't leave Jack at home alone). We had to drive out to where the driver's ed place is to get some paperwork for Ali and then drive over to Doug's office to get some signatures for some forms....drive over to Charlotte's for the same....and then head to the..........DMV! I have not been to the DMV in years so I think I had blocked out what a total nightmare it can be. Because of the "Governator's" budget cuts, I guess they don't make appointments anymore so we had to wait.....and wait. Finally about 45 minutes later we were called and the twins got all their paperwork in and were able to go take their permit test. So, more waiting. The build up was horrible. I sat and waited patiently but felt like I was going to barf at any moment I was so nervous for them. It took them about 25 minutes to finish and then another 20 for the lady to grade their tests. 40 questions and you could only miss 8. AJ and Ali BOTH missed 11! Talk about weird huh? Anyway, that's were the buzz kill came in and Christmas was over. Since I had the rental car I had already figured out that I wasn't going to have to hear them fight over who was going to drive because they couldn't drive the rental anyways but now I didn't even have to say that. Oh well, they can take the test again next week and I am sure they will pass this time. Most of the questions they missed were stupid mistakes or things they hadn't gone over. I thought it was hilarious....when we were waiting I was quizzing them on different stuff and one of the pages in the book I was looking at was talking about fines and that if you dump an animal on the side of the road it's a $1000 fine. So I asked them if they knew that and Ali rolled her eyes and was like "yeah, like that's going to be on the test!" Well, guess what was on her test? And luckily she knew the answer. How ironic huh? Anyway, not looking forward to another adventure at the DMV but maybe next time I'll bring a book or something. By the way, I had my camera with me just in case so I could get that great shot of them both holding up their permits in front of the DMV. After they got the results, I asked if I could still get a picture for my post and they both ignored me. What?

Therapy in a can AND something for Heather :-)

I love to paint. I grew up in an old house and with a mom who didn't particularly care if I painted my own room....it was theraputic to me. I took one art class in high school and spent most of the time goofing around and barely making a passing grade...but when the time arises that I need to paint something, I am there. A couple of weeks ago my mom bought Jack a table and two chairs from IKEA that needed to be painted or at least stained. I've spent those past weeks debating on what color or what stain. Here is the before picture which isn't such a good picture since I remembered at the lst minute to take a picture... At first I thought I'd go a dark chocolate stain to match the kitchen....then I consulted a few of my experts (my sister in law and Micah) and here's what I ended up with after this weekend. Not too sure about Jack's letters on the back there and how long those will actually stay there and not be messed with but oh well.

And as a bonus, the top is actually chalkboard paint that I had. In a few days he can use chalk on it!

On a totally different note, I wanted to post a picture of Jack in his new favorite chair. This was a gift from our good friend Heather at my baby shower. I have to be honest, this chair was not one of my favorite originally because, although it's very cute, it has also took up alot of space and just always seemed to be in the way and I could never get Jack to sit in it. About a month ago I noticed Jack going to this chair everytime he was getting a bottle and he would just lay there waiting for it patiently. So now, finally, this Octopus is getting some use and is Jack's "baba" chair. Thank you Auntie Heather!

~We find happiness in the simpliest of things~

As the economy kicks our butt even more, I find myself going through things and selling things that I thought about holding onto for a while. For instance, I am in the process of moving from one storage unit to another that will cost me $100 less and decided that there was just no room for Jack's baby swing that I was holding onto along with his Johnny Jump Up, Bumbo, and several other big pieces. It saddens me to do it but why am I holding onto those things anyway? We are NOT having anymore kids! So, as I stroll through Children's Orchard while they are deciding how much (or should I say how little) they are going to give me for my stuff, I come across this little beauty for only $29. As you can tell, it was well worth the money and the hat was $2 but how could I resist? So, other things going on here.....AJ is getting his driver's permit next week which is super scary to me but I guess part of the circle of life right? Ryan started hockey this last weekend....I am so looking forward to him playing in-house this year as opposed to travel hockey. AJ also started his season last week and we are already prepping for a trip up to San Jose in a few weeks....so much for time off. Ali starts cheer practice (hell week) next week and then everyone starts school Sept. 2nd. Oh, did I mention that it's almost 100 degrees and our AC finally kicked the bucket? Yeah, it's like 85 in the room I'm in right now and no one can come out until next week....good times. I'm off to Target to buy some fans!

Happy 1st Birthday Miss Haylee!

Today our little niece, Haylee, turned ONE! Where has time gone? It seems like just yesterday we were at Kenzie's 1st birthday and now she's about to start preschool....sniff,sniff. So, party today at Adam and Jenn's with just a few friends and family which was perfect. Yummy food and just letting the kids run around was just what we needed on a hot Sunday afternoon. Happy Birthday Haylee! We Love You!

Lost and Found

I hate losing things. For those of you that really know me, I am the last person I know that doesn't know where everything is at all times. Which brings me to the past two weeks and why I have been sleeping.....or I should say NOT sleeping. It all started sometime during the week Ryan and Ali were at camp. As I was cleaning Ryan's room, I suddenly realized that I hadn't came across his PSP and I panicked that he might have snuck it to camp which he wasn't supposed to do. So, long story short, he gets home and he swears that he didn't take it and we spend the next week looking EVERYWHERE. I searched my car, under every cusion of every couch in the house, under every bed, every closet, I even cleaned out the garage in my attempts to find this darn thing. In the midst of it all, I realized that I couldn't find my favorite lip gloss AND my lake pass. I could do without the lake pass since that only meant I had to have it replaced which meant replacing the photo on my current pass that was from 1997.....ugh...but my lip gloss....never! Being someone that doesn't lose things very often...almost never, this drove me nuts. I began to think that maybe I had left my car unlocked one night and someone got in it and stole Ryan's PSP along with my lake pass and my fav lip gloss...I mean, it is pretty good lip gloss with a little menthol in it that plumps your lips and makes you feel a little Angelina Jolie-ish. So,again, long story short, my goal this weekend was to find these 3 items that were causing me to stay awake most of the night and to have very strange dreams about Christian Bale.....get your minds out of the gutter :-) I found my lip gloss AND my lake pass (darn)! It's amazing what treasures you find when you clean out a diaper bag. Then this morning, Ryan and I were retracing his steps once again and he ran upstairs and screamed that he had hid it behind some pictures on the piano........good hiding spot because I had passed that about 50 times in the past week! So hurray for the Sheridans that once again life is as it should be and tonight I am going to sleep!
***On a totally different note, saw Mamma Mia with Ali the other night....very cute!!!!!!

Catching up and Welcome Home

Today Ali and Ryan came home after a week @ camp. This was Ali's 3rd year but Ryan's first and he did great with the exception of only one letter telling us he was sad. This week flew by after coming home from Mark and Stacie's and then my mom being here until Tuesday. Here's some bullet points of the week and sorry for no pics...... Sunday, as we were getting the kids out the door for camp, Jack decided to grab Ali's still plugged in flat iron burning both hands which lead me to completely panic for numerous reasons and then spend the next two days converting the downstairs bathroom into Ali's private bathroom since it's completely off limits to Jack. Luckily I am fully stocked up from the Burn Center and was able to avoid going to the doctor and he's doing fine. Tuesday, of course the earthquake for which I am still straightening pictures on the wall and which also lead to a phone call to Allstate to add earthquake insurance to our policy. Wednesday I received a letter from Ryan from camp telling me that he wanted to come home and he hated camp....p.s. "I'm crying".....which wasn't really funny but just a little to know how melodramatic even boys can be and NO, I did not go pick him up which I'm glad because he told me he was just scared of a spider in his cabin and that because I usually get the spiders in our house it made him miss me.....aaaggghhhhhhh. Thursday I spent a good part of the day doing one of my favorite things...gardening. I also watched my cat pee about 15 times throughout the yard which lead me to take him into the vet on Friday and spend $150 because he has a urinary tract infection. For anyone that has or has had a cat, it's super fun when the vet tells you that you have to administer medication to your cat. You might as well just tell the vet you aren't going to do it and can you just pay to leave the cat there for the next 10 days because giving a cat meds is a joke. My cat is 13 years old and NOT declawed so it takes both Doug and I to give him meds and half the time we don't even succeed. Then last night I decided that I was going to clean Ryan's room from top to bottom so I could get rid of some stuff before he got home without him knowing and this morning I rearranged his room making it look awesome....we will see how long it lasts. Which brings me to right now.....the kids got home today around noon and were filthy which I think is a good sign. They both said they had an amazing time and they want to go back next year so I guess I should start saving now since Ali's camp alone costs $525! Maybe next year I can convince all 3 kids to go!