Happy Birthday to Me!

On this day 40 years ago I was born. It's so hard to believe I am 40 years old. We had a great party over the weekend. Here you can see me blowing out the candles. As a special treat I also took today off from work and my mom and sister are taking me out to lunch. It's a lovely day here in the Bay Area so Happy Birthday to me!

A bathroom or middle school, a moving tale

Well we are getting ready to move. The land lord of the 3 bedroom 2 bath (very large) home we have been renting the past 5 years has finally jacked up the rent beyond the breaking point and we are looking for new digs. Let me give you a few point of background, we live on the Peninsula area of the SF Bay, it's not cheap. I work in SF so we aren't moving any further south where it wouldbe cheaper. We have 3 kids, all school aged. Finally we are still moving slowly back to financial stability after my husband starting his own company, hence not ready to buy.

Now, with that background we did find a house. Note that it is not the cute one posted above. I only wish. It's extremely cute but totally tiny. It has 3 bedrooms but only 1 bathroom. There are 2 major upsides, it will save up almost $1000 a month, not a small sum and finally it puts us in the good middle school district without having to worry about a transfer. That as far as I am concerned is worth a bathroom.

My oldest son is almost 10. He'll be in 4th grade when school starts in September. Middle school is 6th grade out here. My husband found a house with 2 bathrooms but it feeds to the worst middle school in the district, the transfer rate is almost non-existent. My son is a very sweet, totally cute looking, sports obsessed guy. The kind of kid who gets stuffed into lockers and garbage cans. He also has dyslexia and because he doesn't act out when he is having trouble could easily fall through classroom cracks.

So all in all, I'm willing to trade that extra bathroom for the good middle school. I think it's worth it.

Troop 32599 and our First Camporee

This past weekend my daughters Daisy Troop attended our first Spring Camporee. For those of you without girl scouts, Daisys are like pre-brownies. All the girls in our troop just finished first grade. We will be Brownies in the fall. I confess I was really dreading it. Would you want to spend 2 nights in one cabin with 10 7 year old girls and 8 other mommies where you all slept in bunk beds and had to out outside (a 5 minute walk) to the closest potty? Not to mention eating camp food?

Well it was really fun, we rode horses, hiked, canoed, roasted marshmellows, sang songs, did arts and crafts, went swimming. Frankly I was so tired I thought I would drop by Sunday when we got home. The girls had a great time. Amazingly, no one got hurt, there were very few tears and everyone got along pretty well which is saying something for 10 girls. All us moms had a pretty good time too. I don't have any outfits of the day or fashion tips because frankly I wore the same pair of cut offs from Friday night till Sunday afternoon with various grungy tee shirts. I did manage one shower (late Saturday afternoon).

OK J Crew, WTF?

OK, whatever Jenna and company are smoking over in the Jcrew design studio, I want some. Serriously what is this? A copper bubble skirt? It's 15 inches long for goodness sake! My 7 year old daughter has skirts longer than that. When I add this weirdness in with all the sad colors and tattered ruffles I'm just not feeling the crew.

The last day of school! Sniff, sob

It is so hard to believe another year has flown by. Today was the last day of school and my "baby" is now a first grader. It's so hard to believe my first little baby will be 10 soon and in fourth grade next year. Here they are, first, grade, second grade and fourth grade.

San Mateo Blueclaws, Division Champions

I've posted a couple times about my son's minor division little league team. Well they pulled off a huge upset and won the division. We had a record of 9 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie. But more than the winning it was a super experience. The boys were so nice and supportive of each other and the coaches were both great coaches and tremendous motivators. Great parents too. It was the kind of team that makes you proud to be in kids sports. Here's a shot of the boys celebrating on the mound.

Yes, those are ducks

Yes, those are ducklings, yes that is my living room. At the elementary school my kids go to every spring the kintergarden class studies the life cycle of ducks and they actually incubate eggs and they hatch in class. During the last 2 weeks of class they can come home overnight on "sleepovers". At the end of school, they go back to the farm where the eggs come from to take up their ducky lives. All three of my kids have had the same teacher so this is my third duck sleepover and thankfully my last. I am always afraid they will die on my watch. I've been lucky so far so hopefully we will make it through. This pair are named Trigger and Sunny. They are cute.

In which I stop drinking Crewlade and sample Banana Bread

I have sobered up from my latest bout with the crewlade and found a new obsession with the Banana (Republic) Bread. I know i have posted in the past about my ongoing issues with my feet and the impact it has had on my usual work uniform of pencil skirts and heels. Well I went to the podiatrist last week and he was very blunt. Stop wearing heels or I am looking at drastic foot issues. I have a decent size bunion on my left foot, a bone spur in the same big toe on that foot and degenerative arthritis in my left ankle. Long story short, time to wear flats.

The over the long weekend I wandered into a Banana Republic. A very nice sales lady offered me an instore coupon. I opened it and low and behold it was good for 50% off! I ended up with 3 new pairs of super trousers which look great with my flats and cute blouses. All for less than $150. I also bought 2 new belts. I already had the blazer in the picture above so these cute pants are among my new acquisions. I still love the Crew but I have been progressively less thrilled by each recent rollout. Banana Republic had the classy, stylish, polished look I was after. I think their stuff is well made and of equal if not greater quality. Not to mention the fact I always get free shipping if I use the Banana card and if I don't then it's a flat $7. All in all, I may be eating more Banana Bread and drinking less Crewlade.