I guess I am not in a phase of posting often here! It honestly does not seem so long since I last wrote something, so who is messing with time and the universe?

Life is busy here, as is typical. We just finished up a weekend of back-to-back, late birthday party celebrations. It is hard with both girls having their birthday so close to the beginning of school, especially at a new school where they don't really know kids yet. We ended up doing a sleep over for Becca on Friday night with 10 girls today. I think a good time was had by all, there was pizza, movies, popcorn and Madlibs, and of course great quantities of giggling and shrieking, that only 10-year-olds can manage. Saturday Becca's friends went home and a new group arrived for Megan's party, which included a pinata, lunch at Burger King, and the girls each making a stuffed animal a local place. By 6 pm on Saturday, Joe and I were totally wiped out and grateful that Becca and Megan were going to spend the night with Gene, so we could get some sleep and clean up.

This week is a big lead-up at the girl's school to the annual Fall Festival on Saturday. There are pumpkin decorating contests, game booths, food and a silent auction with all sorts of goodies. I am supposed to help run the frog ring toss booth for an hour and of course the girls will be busy running around playing games and having fun.

Today I am starting to sew Halloween costumes for both girls. Megan is going to be a black and white kitty and Becca wants to be a red and gold dragon. I hope to get Megan's costume all cut out and started today, since there will be a lot of other things going on this week as well. Megan has Girl Scouts tomorrow and I am supposed to take girls down to the beach to work on a project where they are learning about buildings. Tomorrow they will be making a sand city using found rocks, driftwood and such. This is towards a badge they have been working on.

Parent-teacher conferences are also this week, so I have the girls getting out of school early for part of this week and all of next week. Whee! But on the good side, it gives both girls time to work on school projects they have. Becca is doing a book report and Megan is preparing an oral presentation on Maple trees.

In other news, I was offered the job at Michael's, but it turned out I would have to be a lot of weekends and nights, as well as being required to work the weekend of  Thanksgiving. However, we had already planned a trip to Washington D.C. over that weekend as part of my birthday celebration. So I had to turn down the job and was a bit bummed about that. I would have enjoyed having an excuse to just be crafty part of the week, but then I suppose sewing Halloween costumes is crafty too.

Oh, and I have also discovered this wonderful service called Dream Dinners. You go in and pre-mix up all the stuff you need for dinner, putting it into ziplocks and disposable pans, then freezing them until you are ready to cook dinner. It is so nice! I go in for about an hour, come out with around 12 or more meals and there are no dishes to clean up, no odd amounts of leftover ingredients, no shopping, no having to run out to the store again because I didn't have some unusual thing I needed for an ingredient. And the food is so good! We get things like pork chops with sweet ginger and apples and herb crusted flank steak. Everything I have cooked has been just delicious. I know I sound like a commercial, but I have been so happy with it. It feels like we are getting chef quality food and I am learning a lot about cooking in the process!

So that is a brief summary of the current chaos we call life. I enjoy the fall and while it sounds rather busy, I think it is just trying to condense a month of things into one blog! We are really settling into the new house and the new school and routines and it feels good to have things falling into place. They have finally started to do our yard landscaping and it doesn't feel nearly so much like we are living in the middle of a dirt lot. I hope everyone is doing wonderful and enjoy the fall weather!

My mini meeting last Saturday was great! I got several pieces of mini furniture built for my little English cottage and the whole things is close to done now. I really need to get some photos done and posted.

This week they did the final paving of the roads near our house, and managed to totally block off auto access on Tuesday for 3 hours, without any warning. It was a mess since we were expecting a replacement freezer door for the fridge and the guys could not get to our house. Luckily my car was stuck on the 'outside' of the paving work, rather than in our driveway, so I did have a way to pick up the kids from school. All in all however, I was very grumpy at the poor planning to not leave at least one access point open so we could drive in and out.

The girls started two after school programs. Once a week they have a one hour art class and once a week they have a one hour 'mad science' class. Of the two, the science won most favorite. They made air rockets and are working on model rockets which they will finish next week.

I have been busy following up on all sorts of things that need doing, such as returning some clothing to the store that ended up not fitting, paying bills, fixing our bed so it didn't wiggle, etc. Really earth shaking things, but stuff that needs to be done.We have been back and forth to the immigration attorney several times getting all the paperwork to him, so he can finish filling for Joe's immigration. Today we did final signatures and everything is off to INS on Monday. Woohoo, one step closer. For now though, Joe can't leave the U.S., so that means he can't go see his kids for Christmas this year, which is a real bummer.

Today was kinda cool, I signed up at the local Michael's to take a class in floral design to make a fall centerpiece. It was my first attempt at anything floral and I really enjoyed it! The store florist liked me work so much that she asked if I would be interested in working as a floral assistant for the holiday season on a part-time basis! I am seriously considering it, it was really fun and well, to get paid to have fun? Could be cool and I bet I would learn a lot working for her! Here is a picture I took of my work:

I like it, but I am probably a bit prejudice! (Click on picture to see better detail)

Tomorrow we may go to an art festival the city puts on each year. It is free and there are crafts and things for the kids as well as "A Taste of Carlsbad" which raises money for the local schools. You get 15 tickets to try food at your choice of 25 booths. I also have to help Megan work on an "About Me" poster for school. The teacher will pick one child a week to be featured and their poster will go up on a board and that child will bring in things and tell the class more about themselves, etc. It helps the kids get to know each other and helps them improve their oral presentation skills.

Next week I go in to get my driver's license with my new name and Joe finally gets all his stuff that was shipped over from England and has been in customs and warehouse limbo for a year and a day (or at least it seems). And next week is Megan's 8th birthday, so we will be busy with that. I am also setting up parties for both girls with their classmates, now that the school year is not so new and they have made some friends at the new school. Becca wants to do a sleep-over with pizza, movies, etc. Megan wants to create stuffed animals and have party games. And I will be a busy mommy!

Okay, guess that is about it for now. Nothing real earth shaking, just lots of busy everyday things!

Things have been busy around here, but definitely getting more organized. We are starting to get back into the swing and pattern of the girls in school again, doing the homework at night, etc. It helps a lot to have the girls home right after school rather than at 5 or 6 pm. There is a lot less pressure to try to do the homework, play and still get to bed at a reasonable hour. I also make sure to have at least 30 minutes each night to read a book to them. I really like that time, cuddled between the two of them as I share some of my favorite childhood books. Last night, we started the first of the Nancy Drew books and they both seem very into the story.

Today I organized the whole garage, tearing down boxes from the move (to save to move things out of the old house, once Gene is out), sorting things, organizing a bunch of stuff for Salvation Army to pick up, etc. Joe assembled two bike holders as well. The end result, a very neat garage and you can find everything! Yeah!

Then I headed over to the Social Security office to apply for a name change. I had called the night before and after 30+ minutes on hold, I was told they don't give appointments for that, that I should just go into the office. Today I went to print out the PDF version of the form and found my Adobe Reader had become corrupt. I tried to reinstall it, but had the same problems. So then I rolled way back, totally uninstalling the software and then doing an install from scratch. That did the trick and I was finally able to get my form. Once at their offices, I learned that Social Security offices are apparently a huge red bullseye for terrorists. A prison guard stopped everyone entering, demanding photo I.D. to sit in one of the old sticky seats in the waiting room, but only after a speech where he told us we were not allowed drinks or electronics in the waiting area. It was like trying to get on a plane, but no interesting destination at the end. Anyhow, over an hour later, my number was finally called and I had my 5 minutes with a grumpy federal worker who quizzed me on where I was born and what my father's full name was,  just in case I was one of  those sneaky illegals trying to get a card. In two weeks, I should have the actual card, then I can move on to getting a new driver's license at DMV.

This afternoon, I started to sort all the files, tossing out old and/or irrelevant data, finding the documents we need for Joe's immigration visa and just trying to figure out where everything was and get it in some sort of organized manner so it will be easier to find things in the future. There is still a lot of that to do. Joe wants me to organize all his paperwork in our office as well, so I will be tabbing for awhile.

Tomorrow is back-to-school night for the girls, but otherwise not too much on my plate. One of my big jobs still left in the house is organizing my closet. It ended up being a dumping ground for a number of noncritical boxes when we moved and I still need to unpack, sort and organize all that. Bleh. But it can wait for another day.

Oh and I did get to work on minis for part of Sunday and part of  Monday! I did a bunch of landscaping around my thatched 1:48 cottage, put lace curtains in the windows and window boxes with flowers under the two lower windows. I also made a kitchen table and decorated to look like someone was getting ready to make a pie. For the living room I made a small arm chair and upholstered it in a tiny green plaid print. I had never tried to upholster a chair only 1/2 inch tall, it was a bit of a challenge! I want to have two chairs, but I will save the second chair for a bit, when the memory of the first is not so vivid!

Saturday is the monthly mini meeting. I have said I will go, but the last two times I said I was going, it didn't happen. Perhaps three is a charm and I will really get to go this time. And perhaps I will be up to that second arm chair and tiny bits of fabric to upholster it. Perhaps.

Anyhow, it is about time to do bedtime stories and see what Nancy Drew is up to. Hope everyone is well. In regards to the comments about our wedding: 1) Joe is wearing the tartan of the Armstrong clan. Armstrong is my maiden name and family clan. 2) We were married at the Bernardo Winery in Rancho Bernardo in San Diego County. Afterwards, we went to the Rancho Bernardo Inn for dinner and that is where the photos with the fountains were taken.

Rather than post all the pictures here, I will just share the link to them on Flicker. Click here to take a look at the rest!

So, life. Let's see, no wedding pictures yet to post, but hopefully those will be here soon. The kids are back in school, thank goodness for that. Having even a few hours a day to do stuff without them, such as cleaning, is very productive. And not having one or the other complain they are bored every 10 minutes is a gift from heaven.

Yesterday I went and had my hearing tested. I say "What?" way to often and it seems especially bad in areas with other noise, like a car engine, ocean, people chatting in the background, etc. The end results, I do have mild hearing problems but they are not significant enough to do any sort of treatment. I guess that is the good news. But she said I show definite hearing problems, especially with high pitches (or was it frequencies?) that are common with the voices of children and woman and that is not normally seen till you are elderly. Last I checked, 42 was not yet elderly. So does this mean I will be stone deaf later in life? Ugh! Anyhow, they said if I have more problems to call and they will send me to a ear, nose and throat doctor.

Becca had her birthday, she is 10 now. God, I can't believe how fast time as gone. She asked to go to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla for her family celebration, so we did so on Saturday. The weather was really nice, blue sky and white fluffy clouds. We gave her an American Girl doll for her birthday and a little, inexpensive, digital camera set with a book for kids on how to take nature photos. Both seemed popular and well received.

Megan is now very busy with plans for her own birthday and what she wants. Some how everything seems to involve kitties. I have had to say no a couple times to the idea of a new pet kitten as a gift, explaining that both Joe and I have allergic reactions to their fur, so one is more than enough.(Yeah, anyone that knows me, knows I adore cats, but they do make my eyes itch and water -- go figure.)

The big fad with the kids right now is these things call WebKinz, these are stuffed animals that come with a special secret code. You go online, put in the code, and you get a virtual version of the same 'pet' to play with. You can buy them toys, make them houses with rooms, play with other people's pets, etc. Both Becca and Megan are totally addicted. So if you have a daughter in the 8-10 range, beware.

What else? Oh we got all the weeds pulled from the bare dirt yard, so now we have clean dirt. I had to send a letter back to the HOA saying we complied. I added a note about how this was an incredibly stupid waste of time and money. Wonder if anyone will read it or care. Our landscape guy is coming by today. It looks like everything is ready to start. Yesterday, all the utility companies came and marked where the lines were underground, so nothing is accidently cut. I have come to the point that it is actually hard to imagine a yard that is not dirt. It is hard to imagine grass and plants and using it and enjoying it. I guess it will seem real when it does finally happen.

Tomorrow I start meeting to get three appraisals on the old house so we can finally get it sold and the profits split between Gene and me. I suspect the real trick will be getting Gene to actually move out. He signed an agreement to be out by May 1st, which has obviously come and gone. He claims he can't find a place to rent with his income. Arghh. I suspect he is just not trying, but perhaps I am wrong. Meanwhile, he has had free rent at the house for over a year now, with Joe paying the mortgage so it would not be foreclosed on. We are also paying the home insurance, the taxes, the pool maintenance, health insurance and until last month, his car insurance. All Gene has to manage to pay is his utilities, groceries and gas/maintenance for his car.

Speaking of Gene, out of the blue, his mom called me last Friday (on Becca's birthday), her first contact since I left Gene over a year ago. She acted like Gene and I broke up last week and she couldn't understand what happened and why. I don't know if Gene never told her or what, but it was a weird and uncomfortable conversation with her saying over and over how she hoped things worked out, despite me saying this was a done deal. Then she quizzed me on if I had a job and so forth. I told her I wasn't working, but I didn't go into details of why. I figure that is not her business and if she wants to know, she can ask Gene. I also figured it is up to Gene to tell her I am now remarried, since it does not even seem he told her we had broken up till just recently. I just have no idea what is going on, it was one of the most surreal phone conversations I have ever had.

Well that is about it. Probably TMI (too much information) in this letter but I needed to vent. No doubt Gene will read this and get pissed at me all over again. That is his problem though, I don't make him read my blog.

Becca caught a baby lizard. Isn't he cute?

Joe, ready for some serious hiking.

The kids looking for treasures down at the beach.

Megan, the ham

A pretty view of the river that feeds down to the ocean.

In other news, the girls started school Tuesday and they both seem happy. Becca has a really nice young teacher who seems full of energy and very 'cool' with the kids. Megan has a male teacher, which I think may be good for her as a change. We will see.

We got a letter from our HOA saying we need to weed our dirt. As common with a new house, ours has no landscaping yet and we are in the process of getting our plans approved. But apparently, in the meantime, you need to have neat dirt! (rolling eyes) Whatever! I think some people have way too much time on their hands.

And last, but not least, Joe and I got married this last weekend. It was all done on rather short notice, because his visitor visa was running out and his immigration attorney freaked out and was worried he would have problems getting back into the US, etc. Sooo..somehow I managed to plan and execute a wedding for us in just 4 days. It was insane and chaotic, but it happened and the deed is done. I will post some pics once we have them back.

Hope all is well, hugs to all.

We are back home and it feels good. Don't get me wrong, camping was wonderful, fun and relaxing, but I was running out of room for the mosquitoes to bite! So where to start on the recap of the trip? We had a bit of a rough start, arriving at 3 pm to check in, only to find our cabin was not ready and apparently the campground was short on staff. We had to cool our heels for almost 3 hours, till they could get someone to clean it for us, but once we were in, it was lovely. We had the cabin at the farthest end of the camp, way up in the canyon, so we had a lot of quiet and probably more animal sightings than most campsites managed. One night we even saw two dear, less than a stones throw from where we sat! That really had Becca and Megan excited.

The first night Becca and Megan decided that since they have claim to some Native American Indian blood, they needed to sanctify the camp. This involved them dancing around our campfire with walking sticks that they pounded against the ground periodically. Then they created 'spirit' creatures from found twigs and leaves on the ground and tossed the completed objects into the fire. Becca announced that one hour after they burned, that spirit would watch over us. They were having fun, so who was I to argue?

Joe learned what s'mores were and also that putting the marshmallow securely on the roasting stick is a good idea, but this was after one caught on fire and then fell off, onto his arm, as he was waving it about, trying to put out the flame. He ended up with a hicky-looking burn on his forearm, but seemed to recover enough to eat several s'mores that night and the following evenings.

The girls got to do a Jr .Ranger program at the state park across the road from our campground. One day they learned about the native Indians who had lived in the area (the Chumash) and the next day they learned about the marine life in the area. Appropriately enough, there was a large school of dolphins playing off the coast for several hours that we had fun watching as they played and jumped out of the water.

Down the road from our camp was a horse ranch, so we arranged to go on an hour-long horseback ride. Up to this point, the most the girls have done with horses has been pony rides at the fair. Becca was especially excited finally get to be on a 'real' horse. The weather was lovely and we joined another family with girls almost the exact same ages as Becca and Megan. Becca loved it so much, that she managed to talk Joe into taking her again the next day. Megan opted out for the second ride so I stayed with her and she did the Jr. Ranger program.

We also spent one day in Solvang, a Danish village nearby, where we found a beautiful set of quilts for the house. One is for our bed and the other we want to hang in the stairwell as a decoration. I will try to post some pictures of each, the one for the stairwell was made by an Amish woman and is all handstitched in lovely deep blues, golds and yellow. It really is a work of art. The one we picked for the bedroom is done in the wedding ring pattern and is warm shades of cranberry and evergreen on a cozy light coffee colored background.

One our last day there, we drove up to see my grandma who just turned 101 last week. She seemed to be doing pretty well, although her memory has obviously been affected by age now, as she told us the same story several times in a span of 30 minutes, etc. She was also too weak to stand up to give hugs to the girls and I, which she has always managed in the past. She got to meet Joe and Joe also was able to meet my Aunt Dolly and Uncle George, both who seemed to be doing well.

That is the trip in a nutshell, I will try to post some pictures in the next day or so. Hope everyone is well!

It's been hard to get my butt in gear to post. It is not that things are not going on. It is not that I can't think of what to write. I guess it is just life. Too much to do, not enough hours, blah, blah, blah. So, I am making some time, but I expect this will be a bit disjointed. (Is that a word?)

So I survived Disneyland with the kids, although I am still twitching. NEVER do Disneyland in July. The best part of that week was the miniature convention. It was nice to see friends again and work on a new little roombox and see Becca and Megan have so much fun in the kid workshops. Did I mention that not one, but both of them won a roombox kit in a raffle? They have had a blast decorating it. Becca did a pet shop and Megan did a bookshop with cats, or something like that.

Soon after we returned, my friend came to visit for 10 days from Scotland. She is the same one we stayed with in Orkney earlier this year. She had never been to the U.S. so we have tried to do a variety of interesting things during her stay. Of course there was the zoo and seeing the baby panda Su Lin on her 1st birthday. We also went to the Pageant of the Masters and Festival of the Arts in Laguna, Universal Studios, Legoland and the new American Girl Place in Los Angeles (as she collects dolls). She heads back today but I am hoping she had a good time and a nice visit.

I am busy trying to get ready for the kids to go back to school. Becca finally finished her math tutoring in 2 weeks and is finally up to a beginning 5th grade level in her math skills. I am proud of her, it was less than a year ago that she only tested at a 2nd grade level in most of her math. She has worked really hard.

Next week we are off for a final summer blast, camping north of Santa Barbara on the coast. I am hoping for some nice mellow time, relaxing, reading, hiking and doing crafts with the kids.

Oh, and the other night we had dinner at Claim Jumper, a chain of steak places here. On the kid menu they had trivia relating to America. Among the more scary statistics:

• Only 55% of Americans know that the sun is a star
  
• Only 20% of American 6th graders can find the United States on a world globe.

Now don't you feel like you can sleep better after that? And people wonder how Bush got into office. Oops, not supposed to go there, am I?

Bad News: 93 degrees at 6 pm, humidity at 74%

Good News: Last day I have to stand in massive, hot lines at Disneyland

Will return to humanity tomorrow night, once we are back home and I can sleep in my own bed!

Here I am, on our week long vacation with the kids at Disneyland. We are on day four and I think I am at the twitching stages. Don't get me wrong, I do love Disneyland under the right circumstances. My dad worked for the place (as a computer programmer) so I spent many wonderful days here as a kid, and I do want my kids to have that magic as well....

But, oh my god. Let's pick the week it doesn't get under 90 and the humidity is amazing, to a point I can't recall in all my almost 40 years in Southern California. Oh and add that Monday was the actually anniversary of the park opening, so there were hordes of die-hard Disney nuts here, happily waiting hours to get on rides.

Twitch...twitch..twitch...

Today, I asked, err begged for a break day, so I could get over feeling like an 18-wheeler hit me. So the kids are swimming, doing crafts, watching TV and playing on my computer with their Neopets (their big obsession this summer). Tomorrow they will go back with Joe and I will spend a day at a convention here in Anaheim for mini-minded folks, making a quarter scale Asian room box and just being with adults for awhile.

I had hoped to spend more time at this convention. It is put on by N.A.M.E. and is the annual, national convention, which just happens to be in California this year (and who knows when it might get back here.) There are all sorts of workshops, banquets, social events, sales, etc. But it ended up falling on the same and only week we could work out the Disneyland thing with the kids this summer. Oh well. I am getting to do some, so that is better than missing it all together. I will be back at Disneyland with the kids on Friday and then Saturday the mini convention is having a free workshop for kids where they get to learn to make their own special little mini setting of a library. The girls are both very excited about that.

Well, my bitching aside, we have had a nice time and Becca and Megan are seriously into roller coasters right now. They went on the really huge one at California Adventure called California Screaming. It even goes upside down and neither blinked when I suggested it might be scary. After the ride they were begging to go on again! We also did the fireworks one night, which were really amazing and fantastic for the 50th anniversary and then we did the Electrical Parade last night, one of my favorites from back when I was a kid in 1976 and they first started to do it for the bi-centennial celebration in America.

Hope the temperatures drop soon, here, across the US and in the UK, seems like the world is just cooking this week. And I hope everyone is well, happy and content with life!

We will be back home on Saturday.