Volunteering is fun?

So this is why some of you have not heard from me in a while.......

Back in August, I volunteered to be historian for the JV Cheer team. I had an idea of what my duties were....take pictures and put together simple photo albums for each girl at the end of the season. Little did I know that that would entail alot more. In total I have done 23 of these. Cutting, pasting, more cutting, more pasting, glueing 24 individual rhinestones on each album which totals 552! Not to mention the over 800 pictures that I had to print out and divide up amongst the girls. Now all I have left is to tie ribbon around each one and I'm all set for Wednesdays Cheer Banquet! I wanted to add something on the inside for the girls so Ali wrote a poem about cheer.....some of it is stuff only the girls would get but it's still pretty cute.

Jack update: Tonight we were unable to track down any me-me's (binky) so Jack went to bed without one. He cried for about 20 minutes and is now sound asleep. Should I dare go back if I find one tomorrow?

AJ update: scored 4 out of 8 goals last week in roller hockey! He owned that game!

Ali update: tryouts for cheer are next week and she's working on her tan

Ryan update: He tried growing his hair out but Ryan has really thick hair so instead of it looking really cool, he kinda started to look like a chia head.....his head just gets bigger and bigger! So tonight I talked him into shaving in...not too short but shaving it none the less. He also worked on his tan this weekend at the beach thanks to our 98 degree weather. Also, we found out last week that he is allergic to wheat, soybean, corn, and walnuts....fun!

Doug update: leaving for Chicago in the morning for an investor meeting. Home on Wednesday....things are looking up! :-)

Laura update: all of the above since right now THAT is my life!

Happy 2nd Birthday Jacky Bear and more....

I have been soooo bad at blogging lately! It's the kids' spring break and so this week has been a blur. My dad came to visit on Saturday and stayed until Monday. Doug's mom fell and broke her hip the week before so he flew out to Cleveland to be with her and get her settled in a care center so I was single mommy all week. Sunday was Jack's 2nd birthday and we really didn't do much since we had done stuff the week before with my mom. I can't believe my baby is 2! His well check was the other day and he weighs 34 pounds and is 34 inches tall. ( 97% percentile for weight and 50% for height) It is so amazing to watch him at this age! He talks almost nonstop which is different from my other boys...they were fairly quiet at this age. He also LOVES sports! He plays hockey in the garage mostly with the big boys but also loves his new bball tee that Gammie got him. Grandpa got him his first big wheel and now that's all he wants to do as well. My biggest hurdle now is going to be to get rid of those darn binkies which he calls "mee-mees" We have 3 left in the house that I know of and they are all nasty! He has absolutely no interest in going potty in the big potty but I'm not worried.....I mean, if you could poop and pee at any time and have someone clean you up wouldn't you? All my kids were potty trained a little after 3 and never went back so I am not stressing it. The crib is also not a big deal right now. He totally loves his bed and makes no attempts to climb out so I'm not rushing that either.

Also this week I took Jake (our dog) to the vet for a check up and found out that he needs to lose 15 pounds so here we are at the park :-)

Some pics of Dad visiting......you know you are old when you go from having daddy take you shopping for new clothes to having daddy take you to Lowes for sconces and a new showerhead...thanks Dad! XOXOX


So AJ is transitioning from ice hockey to roller hockey so he had his tryout last week and made the spring team for now but will tryout again in June for the official Capo Valley High School team. Hard to believe he'll be a junior next year!

Living in Southern CA one of the perks is that alot of shows are taped in our area. There's a website that gives away free tickets and the twins and I got tickets to go see "America's Got Talent" last night. Pretty fun but REALLY long night. They began taping at 6:50 and we finally walked out at 9:15. Everyone freaked out over David Hasselhoff which was kinda funny to watch and the acts were so-so. People are so mean when they boo the acts! Watch to see us on the taping of the show from Chicago. (that's where they said we were supposed to be taping) Lastly, AJ had his driving test today and passed so now I have an official errand runner for me. Anyone need a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread?? :-)

Swim lessons, baseball games, and birthday parties....

oh my! :-) So Jack started swim lessons last week with the same guy that taught Ryan how to swim 7 years ago. I was worried that Jack would have a hard time getting in the pool with a stranger but, much to my surprise, it was getting Jack OUT of the pool after the lesson that was the problem. Luckily there's licorice on hand! :-)And today we had a small "just the fam" duel bday bbq/pool party for Ryan & Jack. Adam, Jenn and the girls came along with Gammie, of course. It was a perfect day and the kids had a blast swimming and beating up the dinosaur pinata and then munching down on some yummy cupcakes! Ryan is totally into this new thing called Bakugan (sp?) so he got some of those along with some $ that will most definately burn a hole in his pocket before the end of the weekend. Jack's big obsession is Buzz Lightyear so he got a costume, a Buzz Lightyear action figure, and a bunch of other Buzz stuff along with a new Mr. Potato Head and a Baseball tee with bat and ball.

Before the party, Ryan had both a hockey game in which he scored the only goal for his team, and a baseball game where he struck out twice and then got two singles!

You know you are getting old when.......

You forget to blog when your kid turns 10! Oops! Well, I'll blame it on the fact that I spent the whole day at Disneyland with Ryan and so THAT'S why I didn't blog. And...you know you are a bad mom when........you can't remember the last time you spent one on one with one of your kids! Seriously, it was before Jack was born I'm sure. Things since then have just been crazy....good, but CRAZY!

March 17, 1999: I was 37 weeks pregnant and soooooo done! The "happy to be pregnant" stage had totally worn off and the only thing I wanted was for the little one that had taken over my body to be born already. Doug was working the car lot still and had crazy hours but on this particular day he had the day off and was taking the twins to get their haircut about 25 minutes from our house. Before Doug left I remember sitting on the edge of my bed and just crying while he stood there staring at me and I think I said something like, "I just want this to be over!" I was so uncomfortable! I had had a pretty uneventful pregnancy but I was at that stage where my body was not my own anymore. I had to pee constantly, my feet were swollen so bad that the only shoes I could fit into were my birkenstocks on the last hole, and I barely slept because I was so uncomfortable. So, Doug left to take the kids and I thought I should give my doctor a call just to see what he said. He said get to the hospital. So, unshowered, I threw a bag together and headed to the hospital. I called Doug on the way to let him know but told him I would let him know what the doctor said before he should head over. I got to the hospital and they determined I was 4 cm dialated and in labor.......Doug arrived about 45 minutes later after dropping the twins off with Charlotte. My mom immediately left Oregon on a flight to Orange County but got stuck in San Jose. I went into the hospital at noon and Ryan was born at 4:33pm and weighed in at 8 pounds 3 ounces. Pretty good for 3 weeks early! The doctors said he would have been well over 10 pounds had I carried him to full term....ouch! My mom made it to the hospital later that night and the twins were able to come visit that evening as well. It was not until 4:33 that a nurse said to me "are you going to name him Patrick?" that it dawned on me what day it was. Until that day we didn't really celebrate St. Patrick's Day and to be honest, if you had asked me any other time of that year when St. Patty's Day was, I probably would have said sometime in March but didn't know the exact date. Now we have our own personal leprecaun! :-)

Ryan and Mommy 1999

March 17, 2009 : Ry and I went to Disneyland all by ourselves! We had such a great time hanging out together and running from ride to ride. The day was perfect....about 75 degrees. We went on every ride Ryan wanted to go on which for Ryan meant every ride. Earlier in the day he had said to me that he wanted me to go on a ride called "California Screamin'" in California Adventure and I had heard that it was pretty crazy so all day I was nervous. As the time approached to head over to California Adventure I got more nervous and more nervous. We walked through the park and as we got closer to the ride I noticed that the row of cars with people on it was stopped at the top of the ride. I asked Ryan if that was normal and he said no...and then we heard a lady talking on her cell phone to someone saying that the ride was stuck. Oh Darn! It was shut down for the day! :-)

A Bug's Life Ride(below) and the ride that never happened :-) (above)

New Hat!

Driving behind me at Autopia

We were sitting outside watching a Jedi Training show and suddenly Darth Vader starting walking towards me.....scary!

Driving and the longest post EVER!

It seems that is what we've been doing alot of lately. Whether it be driving to and from school, driving to baseball, to hockey, to a cheer competition at Universal Studios, or just driving. AJ and Ali are in full swing driving mode. AJ is scheduled to take his "behind the wheel" on April 9th and Ali's test is TBA . Now time for catch up......

March 5th: Ryan's field trip to the mission in San Juan Capistrano

I am embarrased to say that I had never been to this beautiful place that is just 10 minutes from our house. The architecture was amazing and it was so fun to hang out with Ryan's class and learn about all that history!March 7th: Ali competes at Universal Studios City Walk and they take 2nd place!

(note to self, manual focus in on your kid NOT the giant guitar in the background)

March 7: (no this is not a repeated day....just a continuation of our busy weekend) Ryan's baseball game which we were late to because of traffic coming from Universal in Hollywood

March 8: Anaheim Ducks game AND Ryan's team plays on the ice afterwardsThis was the pre-game event out in the parking lot that Jack thought was a blast. You should have seen (or heard) us trying to get him away from this when it was game time.

This was Jack's first NHL game and he was soooooo excited! He actually got a little too excited at one point and fell off his chair and almost into another aisle...ooops! Here we are at Ryan's game after the NHL game. The boys had so much fun and even got some special appearances by Scott and Rob Neidermayer. (Scott's kids were playing also) This is Jack wondering "what the heck kind of call was that?"This weekend was a little more laid back. Ali had a cheer competition all weekend in Irvine but she didn't compete so we didn't go. Ryan had a hockey game which they tied, he also had a baseball game which he had to miss because it was at the same time as the hockey game and until we find a way to clone him that just won't work. And that leads us to now. Today is my day to get a ton of stuff done (including this post) because tomorrow Ryan and I are going to Disneyland for his 10th birthday! I can't believe that kid is going to be 10! It should be fun since I don't think I've ever gone with Ryan by ourselves. Doug is going to work from home so I don't have to take Jack so that will be nice. In case any of you are wondering where AJ is....he's still around. :-) He is currently looking into playing on his high school roller hockey...stay tuned...

Life as we know it.....

has been extremely busy! Never a dull moment in the Sheridan house as most of you may know. The reason for my extreme lack of blogging is due to our main PC being updated and tweaked by a friend of our's and so I am forced to use Doug's laptop which for some reason has a power surge and shuts off everytime I plug in my cord with my memory stick with pictures. So, this is a pictureless blog which isn't quite as fun or interesting but at least you can all move on from Jack's foot pictures.
So, I know we are into March already which is crazy to me but I need to start back in February. February 17th the twins turned 16! Yeah, I cannot believe that I have kids that are 16. No one is driving yet.....without me in the car anyway. That night we told the kids that they could invite some friends and we took them all to Benihana for dinner. It was alot of fun since most of them had never been. Adam, Jenn and the girls came with us and the little ones clapped and laughed at all the fun things the cook did for us.....Mickey Mouse head out of rice, volcano out of onions including steam coming from the volcano which Ryan thought was really cool. We also gave the kids each a pretty big visa gift card so they could each go shopping and spend it however they wanted. AJ blew his on a big screen tv and Ali is still working on it because she says it's hard to spend her own money.....as opposed to Mom's. :-) Most of you know about the whole "Ali's party" scenario/drama so I won't go over that again but that was this past weekend, the 28th. From what I've heard, it was pretty successful and everyone had a good time....I didn't go but Doug did for a short time. I am SOOOOOOO glad that is behind us.
Some other things that have been going on are that Jack had his last appointment at the burn center this past week. He has no restrictions now and the doctor told me that they could even revise his scar if needed in the future but I'm guessing he will be fine.....I don't think he will be a foot model or anything so I think he's good. Ryan started bball and his first game was this last Saturday. They won but I'm not sure by how much since we had to leave in the 6th inning to rush him to his hockey game....they won that too.
Doug has also been attempting to move into another office since around Christmas because his landlord was overcharging him. Well, he finally found another space in the same building but at a much better rate so we have spent the past few weeks organizing, selling, moving, manuevering, blah, blah, blah. It's a headache but personally I've had fun organizing. Man, those men are pigs!
So, that brings us to now. I am currently trying to organize our lives so that we are more productive here on the homefront. My mom will be here at the end of the month for her spring break which I am really looking forward to AND I just found out that my dad is coming the first weekend in April. He hasn't seen the kids in a year and a half so I am very excited to get to spend sometime with him. Ryan's 10th bday is right around the corner and I have no clue what he wants to do for his bday so I'm guessing it will be a pool/pizza party with some friends spending the night. Jack will be 2 in a month (sniff,sniff) and I am planning a big neighborhood party with a bounce house and maybe a Buzz Lightyear since that's what he is obsessed about these days. His favorite thing to do is climb up onto something and say "to infinite and beyond" and then jump off. My plan is to also take him to Disneyland on his bday but I am thinking maybe downtown Disney might be enough for now.....he IS only 2. And last but not least, I will be 35 next month and am wondering everyday if this is the year of the nervous breakdown. Stay tuned..... :-) Oh, AND I finished the Twilight series......movie comes out March 21st.......why can't all men be like Edward?

One year ago today........

Some of you may remember this horrible day in the life of the Sheridan family...(see last year's post for the whole story) One year ago today, I was arguing with my lovely teen daughter and left my bathroom for a split second with my flat iron on the counter but a very determined Jack as well. Jack managed to pull the cord down onto the floor and the flat iron (approx. 400 degrees) clamped down on his little foot giving him 3rd degree burns and changing our world. Over the last year we have been through 2 surgeries...one that included taking skin from his scalp and grafting it onto his foot. (also see previous posts from last February) Soon after his operation, we had a wonderful visit from Social Services asking me questions like "do I feed my kids" and "what do I do when I need to punish them"....oh, and my favorite, "do I drink or do drugs". They pulled all the kids out of school and even questioned Doug separately, as if he was going to throw me under the bus for burning my child intentionally. The overall result was a huge apology from the social worker telling me that they were just doing their job and a small mark on my record with social services since I DID leave Jack unattended even if it was a mere 15 seconds. I have gone from washing his foot twice a day and wrapping it, having him wear a sock lined with silicone for healing, to now just putting vitamin E on it every time I change his diaper and keeping his foot out of the sun. It's amazing what a year of healing can do both mentally and physically. As a mom, I have never endured something like this and I'm glad it is behind us. On a lighter note, if anyone needs any advice on how to treat a burn or anything pertaining to burns...bandages etc....I am fully stocked and fully educated! :-) The below pics are not very good due to the fact that I took them from my phone and I was a bit hysterical in the ER




And these are from yesterday. You would really never know he had anything done to his foot unless you knew what to look for and the doctor says as it foot grows, the scar will look smaller and smaller.