Sunday, May 31, 2009

Big Bear

Today we took a trip to Big Bear. We had a great time. I haven’t had such a nice day in a really long time. We started at the Big Bear Discovery Center. We took a look around there and went for a hike in the woods. We stopped and ate our picnic lunch. Then we took a nice drive around the lake. We stopped in the village and walked around and looked in a bunch of cute shops. Then we went for a hike by the lake. After we left there we stopped at Lake Arrowhead and walked around there. It was cute too. It was a fabulous day. Here are some pictures.

Here is everyone at the Discovery Center.


Gibby on the trail.


David and the girls by the lake.


Me, my dog, and the girls by the lake.


Lake Arrowhead Village

Thursday, May 28, 2009

We Are The Champions

Tonight was the city championship game for Catherine's softball team. They finished the season in first place last week, tonight they played for the city championship against the A's, who finished the season in 2nd. It was a nail biter of a game. We started of strong with a 5 to nothing lead, but they made a comeback and it was A's 7 and Dodgers 5 with two innings to go. We held them at 7 and took the lead 9 to 7. The last inning we scored 4 runs and there was no point in the A's taking their last at bat. We were ahead by more than 5 and you can only score 5 runs in an inning. The Dodgers are Apple Valley City Champions!

Here they are receiving their championship trophies. The say Softabll on them, but they don't care. They are champions!

This is Catherine with her BFF Alex. They are in the same class and Alex's mom is one of Catherine's teachers. Alex is obviously on the other team. They got #2 trophies.

Here we have Catherine and her two trophies. The smaller one is for the season and the big one is for being the city champs.

Carley's parents own a shirt shop and made these shirts as gifts. Each of the girls on the team got one, and David and I got them too.


We had a great time. This was a fun season. I can't imagine a better team and for Catherine's first sport. She is very excited about playing again. It was a great group of kids. We met a lot of very cool people, the parents were awesome. I hope we get to all play together again. Here is a video of their season. I made a similar one for the team and burned it on DVD for all the kids. Go Dodgers!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Championships

Catherine’s softball team ended in first place. This Thursday they will be playing in the championship game. There might be one more game after that. They are having their team party on Saturday. I think Catherine had a good season. She is not the best player. She jumps when the ball is pitched to her. She is regularly out in the outfield picking the grass or watching the clouds. But she seems to enjoy going to the games and practices. Besides, she needs the exercise. I think I will continue to sign her up to play.

I have been off for the last two days. I got some stuff done. I don’t think I will have another day off for awhile. Last night I made a baked chicken and some blackberry crumble. It was a good dinner and dessert. We ate the crumble warm with vanilla ice cream. Tonight I am making burgers and fries.

The weather is sure feeling like summer. I took Gibby to the park for a bit so he can run on the grass. I threw the ball for a bit until it got too hot. Now I am watching HGTV and folding laundry. I plan to get some lunch soon.

Excited are you?

Saturday, May 16, 2009

The End Of An Inning

Today was Catherine’s last regular season softball game. They were playing the Red Sox, who didn’t have enough girls (again) and they forfeited. We offered to play them anyway, but they didn’t want to. I guess they forfeited 8 games this season because they didn’t have enough girls. That really sucks for the girls who do show up. After the Red Sox left, our girls took the field anyway. They grabbed some parents and some friends and played a funny little game. A couple of the Red Sox players stuck around and joined us. Carolynn’s friend, who plays in the bigger girl’s league, was playing in the game right before Catherine and she joined the game. It was the only place you would see an Astro pitching to a Red Sox with both Red Sox and Dodgers in the outfield, as well as a few parents. They played for about an hour and a half. They had a blast. Anyway, here are a few pictures.

Carly on base and Priscilla in the infield with a parent out there in the outfield.


Carolynn waiting her turn to bat while her friend Shayla from the bigger girl's Astros gets a hit and runs to first. Coach Art was catching.


Catherine playing second and Shayla at shortstop.At least I think that is what they were trying to do.


Catherine at bat. She actually got a hit. Finally, a hit! (in a fake game, but still..)


The Dodgers
Back row-Coach Jorge, Katlyn, Erin, Priscilla, Morgan, Carly, and Coach Art
Front Row-Jasmine and Jaime (I can't tell which is which. Twins are too hard.), Diana, Catherine, and McKenna.


After that, Carolynn went to a friend’s house for a birthday. They went to Scandia and they had a blast. Her friend was turning 14. She is in the 8th grade. They met on the bus. They live just down the street. I am so glad Carolynn is making better friend choices.

This morning I went to the tire store. Luckily, there was a three year warranty n my tires and it had only been two. So they replaced my tire for free. It made me very happy. Tires for my car run about $200 each. Stupid fancy rims. They had it fixed in no time too. I was in and out in just about 30 minutes.

Well, I have to go to work soon. Until tomorrow or something…

Friday, May 15, 2009

Stuff That Happened And I Forgot To Mention

Carolynn’s wrist is fine. After her trip to the doctors and an x-ray, turns out she just had a bad sprain. They gave her a brace to wear until it felt better.

Let’s see… Oh it was Correctional Workers Week last week. It ended with the festival I took Allison and Catherine to. There was a bunch of prizes given away all week and lots of free food. I am still rocking the midnight to 8 am shift. I am not a fan, but it’s my job and someone has to do it. Here is a work related story for you to read. Just for your information on what exactly my job includes.

Having A Bad Day

May 3 was Trisha and Casey’s Anniversary. Congratulations… Better late than never.

Catherine’s softball has been going good. She isn’t the best player, but she likes going. He team is doing really well. They are in first place with the final game tomorrow. However, they are going to be playing some post season championship games. I will try and post that information when I get it.

Mother’s Day was rather uneventful. I took a potted plant to my mom and we stopped by to visit Chris and Sherri. We went to the Best Buy to buy Carolynn an iPod. Yes, I know it was Mother’s Day, but here is what happened…

Someone important forgot Carolynn’s birthday. (It wasn’t me.) She was pretty pissed. As a matter of fact, she asked for permission to swear about it and used the words asshole and douche bag. Teenagers…. Anyways, when it was pointed out that the birthday was forgotten, again, as this is an occurring theme, a gift card was sent. However, this same person doesn’t know Carolynn very well and sent her a $50 iTunes gift card, somehow assuming she just had an iPod. (They should have asked before they bought such a specific gift.) I pointed this out to them, but to no avail. I have an iPod so I was just going to trade her $50. But she was so disappointed. When she got the gift card she was very hopeful that an iPod would be soon to follow. She had already been disappointed so frequently by the gift card sender that I couldn’t stand to see her disappointed anymore. I bought her the little iPod Shuffle. (The old one. The new one looks like a stick of gum.) It is blue and looks like it is half of my Nano. It doesn’t have a screen. But she really loves it. Plus she got to use the girt card to download a bunch of junk.

Anyways, speaking of birthday’s… My Grandma had a birthday on the 13th. I think she may have been on vacation in Florida. My Aunt Christine had birthday on the 14th. I wonder if she did anything NASCAR related? Is there even NASCAR right now? I have no idea.

Also on the 14th, Catherine went on a field trip with her class. I have no pictures, but she said she had fun. They went to the Mojave Narrows. David went with her class as a chaperone. He led a team of 6 kids on a nature adventure. Their team was called The Squirrels. They learned about Indians, beavers, and plants and had a presentation from the Big Bear Zoo. David really enjoyed the park and is hoping we can go camping there and go horseback riding there soon. Maybe if I ever get days off that make sense.

That is about all. I have to work tonight or tomorrow morning, however you want to say it. Tomorrow Catherine has her ball game. Carolynn is going to a birthday party. David has to work. I have to go to the tire store and then back to work again. Perhaps I can get some sleep in there somewhere.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Spam and Eggs

It has been brought to my attention that many people I know have been spammed with invites that seem to be from me to a website called My Life. I don't know what a My Life is. I didn't authorize them to send invites to anything on my behalf. Basically it's just spam. Feel free to delete it.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Broken

It’s going to be one of those days. I just know it. It just started crappy.

Everything is broken. Let’s start the day with Carolynn’s alarm clock. She insisted that she set it and it was working when she went to bed. Of course, when she woke up at 7:15 this morning, long after she should have left for school, she isn’t so sure.

It wasn’t a huge deal though because she had a doctor’s appointment. Last Friday she fell and hurt her wrist. She said she was fine. The nurse at school taped her wrist up. I called the doctor on Friday and they advised me to bring her if it got worse. Well, turns out, it may have been worse than she let on. If you will check out Carolynn’s blog, you might see that Carolynn had quite the exciting weekend. She wouldn’t have wanted to miss that for something as trivial as a broken wrist. This morning she saw a doctor and got an x-ray. We will know for sure what the deal is tomorrow. If it is a break, it is minor, but it is more likely a sprain. Either way the treatment is the same, only the length of treatment differs. She still insisted she needed to go to school after all that. If I had a possible broken wrist, I would have skipped school.

On the way to the doctor’s office, I got a flat tire. It just blew out about 3 miles from here. David came quickly and we traded vehicles. David changed my tire and I took his truck to the doctor. He came to the doctor’s office a short time later and we traded back. I got four new tires just about 2 years ago. I wonder how long tires are supposed to last. Tires for my car are expensive because I have some kind of fancy rim size or something.

Well, today WILL get better. I know it. Yep. Better already. Except I have to go to work later. But technically that will be tomorrow.

Missing


Today I missed the bus. So I'm missing school it started, but I guess it works because I need my wrist x-rayed it my be broken:( so now I'm just here waiting for my mom to wake up and take me. Then I can go to school and see all my friends of curse every time that one of use isn't there they think the worst like I got hit by a bus or something. So when I get there it should be funny.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Knott's

On Friday I went to my friend Nikki's house it was really fun. we played on the computer and walked around and play DDR (were so interesting). The next day we went to Knott's Berry Farm. We all met at the school.

That's Nikki, Merissa, and Serena all of us we were all waiting for the bus to come. Finally when the bus got there we had to put all 75 kids on the bus three to a seat.we were squashed. Then we got to the High School we were performing for band and we got a silver metal for are songs. Silver was just below gold and the Alto saxophone's got a musicship award and I got to go up on stage and get it. Unfortunately we couldn't have cameras in there.

Then we went to Knott's it was so fun.


Here we are at the line for lunch I had a hot dog.


Nikki and me


In the back you can see ghostrider. it was fun to ride. So was silverbullet.


All my friends again. In every picture Serena looks funny.

It was funny at the end of the day we all split me and Marissa went to Silver bullet but the rest were scared. So when we went off we thought it was time to go at six. We didn't know were to meet at the gate or bus so we went all the way out to the bus and we found out we needed to meet at the gate and the check in time was seven we were waiting for a hour were so stupid.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

It's Not Fair

Last weekend we went to the Renaissance Faire. It was our first visit and we liked it. We weren’t sure what to expect and truly, we were not prepared. But we had fun anyway. Next year we will return with more cash and fabulous costumes. They had so much good food. They had lots of shows. Here are a few pictures.

Carolynn and her big bread bowl of soup.


Catherine the wizard.


One of the many fine performances at the faire.


The girls watching one of the shows.




Today they had a kind of carnival/picnic at my work to celebrate correctional workers week. Carolynn was at Knott’s Berry Farm with her school band. So Catherine, David and I took Allison and went to check it out. I forgot my camera, but I got a few pictures with my camera. They had crafts, games, face painting, and bounce houses. They had pony rides, a little car ride, and laser tag. They had door prizes and great barbecue food. They had cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn, and funnel cakes. They had piƱatas. Catherine gave one a good whack and candy flew everywhere. They seemed to be having a good time. We had to leave early because Catherine had a game in Barstow. They played a good game and it ended in a tie.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. We have no plans. I don’t have to work. That rocks. Next weekend we are thinking about going to the county fair. That could be fun.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Sleep

I finally got some. I slept yesterday when I got home from work, and then I slept all night. It was amazing. I finally feel all the way awake. I have a few errands to run today. I have to get over the PetSmart because Gibby keeps beating the stuffing out of his toys. I am going to do some yard work. We are planting a veggie garden in the back yard and sunflowers in the front yard. Plus I have some housekeeping to get done.

David is taking Carolynn to see the Wolverine movie later. Catherine has a softball game tonight. It’s going to be a start to a fabulous weekend… which I have off. Yes, me, I get a whole weekend off. I almost did a happy dance right there in my unit when I saw that on my schedule. Tomorrow Catherine has another game. We will finish our garden. We will finish our housekeeping. Then on Sunday, we will go to the Renaissance Faire. It is going to be fun. Then on Monday, it’s back to work. I can absolutely guarantee I won’t miss those inmates a bit.

The girls have been doing a little writing on their blogs. Be sure and check them out. They love comments. David is going to make them some new summery designs.

Catherine In The Zoo

Carolynn’s Ocean View

Well, I am off to enjoy my fabulous weekend. I hope the weather is great too. So far it has been. It’s May for heaven’s sake, warm it up already!