I captured Aiden sleeping in the car.
With his little tongue peeking out. lol All slumped over and passed out. He has some big lips doesn’t he?
Whoa! What the hell?! Mom’s got her camera in my face! Dude! lol
His eyes flew open after the first shot so I took another.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Do I even need to comment on the coolness of this hair??!!! It’s so Dazed and Confused. lol I love that Jason is so silly. He cracks me up and drives me crazy.
I love him.
In America sex is an obsession, in other part of the world it is a fact. ~ Marlene Dietrich
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Halloween started with a soccer game that Jeromy scored a goal in!! Woohoo!! Oh ya, go Jeromy! We won 6-2, I think.
The boys spent the next several hours playing with the neighborhood kids and then we did this:
Free miniature golf! As long as you were under 12 and in costume. Sweet.
Tigger was there too! He’s finally getting more smiley. Maybe he’s excited about the teeth that we can see coming in. That means less mush and more texture! Yeah!
Jeromy was supposed to be Hellboy, but it got a little crazy trying to find stuff at the last minute. So he opted for a sorcerer dude. He didn’t take his staff with him for the golfing. Between the red costume and the sun, he looks like an orange oompa loompa! lol
Trying to get a shot of this one, even el natural is next to impossible these days:
See her peeking at me? So cute. Cute became this:
She’s yelling at me, “Don’t take piteeer (picture)!” “No!” lol She means business when she’s pissed.
Sam managed to hit the ball right onto the top of this little hill. It was awesome! I had to get a shot of that!
Sam is a whacker. lol You know the kind that just wants to whack the ball and get it in. Jeromy is too. Maybe we should have gone to a driving range.
We all had a great time. It was nice and warm too.
The rest of the evening was filled with candy goodness. Miranda loved walking up the houses with her big brothers and saying “Trick or Treat!” Or she’d tell people, “I’m cute!” “I’m pretty!” lol Jeromy and Sam are the coolest of brothers to let her hold them back. We have some amazing kids. I love them to pieces. My parents kept Aiden at home in his Tigger costume and passed out our candy. We have a TON of kids in our neighborhood. The Littles and I fell asleep early and Jason and the boys stayed up late playing cards. I always get teased for falling asleep early. lol Sometimes I fall asleep during a game. That doesn’t go over very well. lol Oops! I guess that’s my sign to go to bed.
From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! ~ Scottish saying
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Friday was a big “get ready for Halloween” day, with two class party’s and a dress-up parade. We have an Annex of K-2nd and a Main Site of 3rd-8th. The Annex lets the kids dress up and do a parade around the playground. This is Sam’s last year at the Annex. It’s the cutest thing. All the kids are so proud. Sam was a Ninja. This costume has been worn several times over. For Halloween and just for fun. We had Miranda and Aiden in their costumes too!
This Tigger costume started with Jeromy when he was two years old and has been passed down the line. Sam is the only one that didn’t get to wear it. I’m not sure why. I think it was packed away in a box or something.
Our Miss M being Tink. I love her little wispy hair. Miranda was so excited to walk with Sam and Sam was pretty proud too. How sweet is this picture:
So happy and joyful to see each other!
There were quite a few younger siblings and even some parents dress up. Halloween is so fun!
The kids drew themselves and wrote what they were dressed as.
Oh! I’m sorry! Sam is not a Ninja! He’s a Shadow Ninja!! Be afraid. Be very afraid!
After the parade it was back in the classroom until recess and then the teacher and parents had planned a carnival for the kids. Jason and the Littles stayed for this and I went to the Main Site for more fun in Jeromy’s classroom.
My friend, Tammy, made her fabulous candied popcorn. This stuff is so freakin’ good! I had her put red food coloring in it for a bloody look. It turned out hot pink! lol Regardless of color it was good stuff and the kids loved it. I put it in individual bags with a little tag saying “Dracula’s Candied Popcorn” in drippy font. I should have taken a photo. They were cute.
Jeromy enjoying the snacks and sugar rush:
Malissa Mom brought a fun craft for the kids to get creative with. I love Jeromy’s two different eyeball sizes.
Fun stuff! No dressing up for these kiddo’s. It’s such a bummer to grow up and they don’t even know it.
New subject! Jason’s show that evening was awesome! The place was packed, we had great support and we sold a bunch of merch. Good times were had by all! Maybe more than others. lol I had a really good time… giggle.
I am off on a ’staycation’ this week! Yeah me! I’ll be doing some silly photo posting for my faithful readers. lol I’m looking forward to being home and getting some much needed chores done. Maybe.
Joy is not in things, it is in us. ~ Richard Wagner
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Have a spooktacular evening!
Photos coming soon…
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Meet the boys of The Awful…
Mike Brideau - Lead Singer and Guitarist
Mike is the loud one. Mr. Make Friends. lol He talks about the funniest stuff. And loudly! Cracks me up.
Eric Mello - Bassist
Eric is like family. This guy rocks. He is such a good guy. What I like about him is how he makes himself at home. He’ll sit on the couch, next to the unfolded laundry. No prob. Just scoots it over. He play chess with my boys, one of them being Jason. Jason loves chess and likes to play Jeromy but its nice to have the challenge of an adult sometimes. He listens to whatever the kids are babbling about even if he can’t understand it. What 20 something Dude does that? lol Oh, and he’s a very talented musician. lol
And the BEST for last…
Jason Renter - Drums and Backup Vocals
Jason and his tongue action make me laugh! It’s so KISS. lol I love, love, love this man. So freakin’ much. I love watching him play. The passion he has for music is over the top. He truly deserves to be doing this for a living. Man, that would be an adventure. For all of us. lol He’s been playing the drums since he was 10. He plays the guitar too. Uber talented.
I’ve seen so many couples struggle with their partner in the music scene and I am so blessed to say we do not have these issues. And believe me, I’ve seen it first hand. lol The blantant being hit on stuff. It’s kinda funny. I think the biggest reason for this level of trust is this: He would walk away from it all if it meant losing his family. In a heart beat. That means so much to me. I will never ask that of him and he knows it, but the point is he would. I love him for it. And he has our full support to balls out, rock out. Yes, I did just type that. lol
As for their sound, they have a punk, dance-y, rock feel. I’m really not good with musical descriptions. They practice in our garage and I love getting to hear all the new stuff. I don’t know if the neighbors do too, but so far it hasn’t been an issue. Because we have kids that need to go to bed, we are pretty respectful and usually they shut it down around 8pm.
I like to talk like I’m a part of the band. I think I help out enough I’ve earned the right to! I load stuff, set stuff up, and take stuff down. I burn CD’s, sell tee shirts and get them water for onstage. Honestly, I’m just happy to take a break from my life! It’s like a mini vacation when I get to go to a show. It is so rare. I detest being left behind. More than anything else, being left behind sucks.
Take a LISTEN. It’s good stuff. And the new good stuff isn’t even laid down yet. It’s really good stuff.
I will be adding a widget on the side for their upcoming shows. I’ll be updating as often as I remember. Tomorrow, the 30th, they play at Hero’s in Modesto. The show starts at 8pm. The Awful… go on at 9pm. Cost is $8. Hero’s is an all ages venue with a bar for the 21 {yeah for me!} and over crowd. Come and check us out! See, I said us, not them. I’m so a part of this band. lol
Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of one’s chosen form. ~ Stephen Nachmanovitch
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Holy wow. It’s Wednesday and I’m still worn out from it all. I’m finally starting to wind down…
No. Not really. It’s still crazy around here.
Let me start with Friday. Lovely Friday. The end of the week. The calm before the storm of weekend fun.
It started with a text from my Mom, saying she had the flu. Crap. She is the one watching the Littles while we go Disneyland! We have NO ONE else to watch them. She ended up being ok-ish enough. But she is amazing and I owe her and my Dad chocolate. Lot’s of chocolate. Dove Milk and Dove Dark. lol
Anyway… The Littles and I were headed out to Modesto Friday evening for some party supplies. What I didn’t add to my October Schedule post was the surprise party we were having for my mother in law, Roxanne! I didn’t want to give it away, right? She is a faithful blog reader and everything!
Back to my story. So, I’m driving, when my driver side tire starts making a noise. What the heck? Our other car is already dead in the water at the moment. You’ve got to be kidding me that something is wrong with our van too!
I get out of the van and take a little look-see. I touch some stuff. And guess what happens next? A lugnut, with part of the bolt falls out in my hand! The other half is still in my rotor! I only had ONE tight lugnut. This story gets very long so the short version is this: American Tire in Modesto over torqued my lugnuts by over 20 pounds! Not 5 or even 10 pounds. 20! I recommend NOT going to them. They don’t know what they are doing and tons of people are driving around with lugnuts that could loosen and break at any moment. My tire could have fallen off on the freeway! Don’t even get me started. Let’s just say, after many tears and a couple of beers (lame rhyme. sorry.), I was feeling better by 10pm. All this crap started at 5pm!
And we still had Disneyland to look forward to at 12:30am!
My Dad drove us to the college campus because he didn’t want their car sitting all day. I can understand that. Seeing how neither of our cars were running. He gets us dropped off and there is already a line of people! All of us were there and checked in so we left a little before 1am. We made one stop in Newhall for breakfast and still arrived at the park by 7:30am!
It was so gorgeous out! Sunny and balmy. I love California.
Our view from the above photo:
Isn’t that the BEST?! My heart just swells up when I get on Disney’s Main Street. It’s like I’m six years old and in heaven!
We headed to Space Mountain first. AWESOME! I could ride that all day. They had it Halloweened out, but it wasn’t scary. Just different and fun. There was a fire dude graphic flying around different parts and reaching out to you. You can see more of it if you sit on the left side of the car. So much fun!!
Because we didn’t have the kids, we pretty much flew to all the main big rides we wanted to go on. We didn’t wait more than 20 minute for anything. It was great.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Indiana Jones
This Oogie Boogie was turning the popcorn machine, moving up and down. I managed to take the perfect picture of him! Jason loves Nightmare Before Christmas and even has some tattoos of the characters.
Outside Haunted Mansion
After we did some more fun stuff, we headed over to California Adventure. I should have taken a photo of the pumpkin and candy corn covered bridge. It was so cool! Most of the photos I took are in the California park.
Giant sun in the back of the courtyard area:
The whole place was decorated in candy corn! I loved it.
We realized when we saw some characters that we didn’t see any in Disneyland. None. We had to get some photos with the characters!
Look! It’s Mickey the Candy Corn farmer! lol
The Goofy photo is my favorite! When we walked up to him, he put his arms around me and shooed Jason away! People were in line, laughing. Jason pretended to kick him in the booty. lol
It cracks me up how far away I am standing from Pluto! Like I don’t want dog hair or something.
We headed over to the new Toy Story Mania ride. AWESOME! We waited over an hour but it was so fun! It’s a 3-D arcade style ride. Like Buzz Lightyear but not. lol Mr. Potato Head talks to you and cracks really bad jokes while you wait.
We saw these cool Green Army Men too:
We rode California Screamin’ three times! This is a biggy for me. I don’t do roller coasters. I’m terrified of them to the point of making myself sick. It’s bad. I had been on this one before but still, I was not looking forward to it. The first time it was fun and I kept my eyes closed. The next two times…eyes open! Even in the upside down part!! Jason bought me ice cream, he was so proud. lol
Giant Candy Corn being eatin’. Do we look a little tired? Just a little bit. Zzzzz…..
Look who is eating the candy corn!
Not great photos but it was cool that the caterpillar popped up in the shot. lol
Our view eating chicken salad with apples and walnuts (yum) from a bread bowl (double yum):
It even changes colors!
Leaving from California Adventure and hopping back into Disneyland I had to take a photo of Jason with the letter R!
He looks so exhausted. lol
We wanted to see the Halloween Screamin’ fireworks show. Man o man. It was great. I fell asleep standing up just long enough to start falling over. lol I’m not kidding! Jason was irritated and laughing all at once. I’m sorry! Tons of people, loud music, very little sleep in the past 48 hours. What’s a girl to do? lol I didn’t take photos of the fireworks. I was having a hard enough time hold myself up, let alone our camera. It was a great show, with all the villains and Zero flys out.
It was 11:30pm when we boarded the bus back to the Modesto campus. In true add-to-the-craziness-of-the-weekend style, we arrived two hours early! Hey, that’s great right? No. It’s not great. We didn’t have a car! I had to wake my poor Dad up and have him come and get us. Thanks Dad!
We get home and crash on the couch. I got 30 minutes before Miranda and Aiden were awake. That’s it. Jason slept till 11am. Lazy bum. lol Just kidding. One of us had to function. We were about to throw a party for Roxie Mom’s 60th birthday!
In the end, it all went well. The party was super fun, she was totally surprised. Yeah for us! 
I fell asleep at 9:30pm, only to wake up twice with Aiden. He has been waking up two and last night three times in the night! I was really getting used to sleeping all night too. His teeth are really coming in and I think its one of those things where he’ll get them all at once.
So yeah, I’m still winding down! I’ve left more than half the details out and it’s still a long crazy post!
I’m off to take a nap at my desk…
Be a fountain, not a drain. ~ Rex Hudler
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I typical evening in our home includes lots of this:
We color. We draw. We create. Miranda does too but I didn’t take her picture. She draws circles on everything.
Just a little side note, I’m finding some of my photos are grainy. Why is that? Wrong light? Wierd colors? Wrong flash maybe? I know zilch about this stuff. Sometimes the photos are great and sometimes they are not so great.
Leaving for Disneyland at 1am tomorrow morning! Holy cow we are excited!! I’m tired just thinking about all the excitement. lol
May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter and every window open to a great possibility. ~ Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey
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Our little princess is 2 1/2 years old and I felt the need to post some tidbits about who she is now. That little sassafrass. She’s simply amazing. Everyday, watching her in the world gives me so much joy and happiness that my heart hurts.
She is a total lover and nurturer. She dotes on all her brothers and has to play whatever they are playing.
She loves hugs. When I leave in the morning she reaches out her arms and says, “Hugs! Hugs!”. I. Love. It.
She has to brush her teeth. As soon as I mention bedtime she says, “Brush!”
She wakes up between 5 and 6 am. We don’t love this. lol Jason and I are night people. NOT morning people. It’s like she has an inner alarm. We have a bit of a routine now. I’m usually getting ready for work and everyone else is sleeping. I’ll get her settled on the couch with a cup of milk and some raisins. Then I let her pick from her favorite cartoons. Mickey’s Playhouse Disney, Sesame Street (old version), or Blue’s Clues.
She is using the potty like a pro! We still have her in a diaper for nap and bedtime. She makes it through nap, but not the whole night. She wants to wear her under-roos to bed but I know better! We’ll wait a couple months for that.
She loves to dance and sing with her Daddy. She tells me, “No, Mom don’t dance. Dad dance!” Evidently I can’t dance. Something I already knew. lol
She loves being outside. Anything that has to do with being outside. Blowing bubbles, animals, flowers, etc.
She loves helping. She’ll clear the table, load the dryer or take out the recycling. The recycling is her favorite because she does it with her brothers.
She’s wearing 3T pants with the elastic band on the inside. She’s very tiny but tall. She had jeans on one day and Dad was changing Aiden. Well we had them cinched a little too tight and she couldn’t get the off to go the bathroom! Poor thing was doing the pee pee dance and freakin’ out. It was kinda funny.
She has stopped sucking her thumb cold turkey. This was pretty amazing. She was doing it so much, her thumb was calloused. Then it would crack and bleed. It was yucky and looked painful. It must have been bothering her too because she didn’t have any problems when we encouraged her to stop. She now snuggled her blanket by her face instead.
She doesn’t snuggle a baby or a stuffed animal at night. She snuggles books. And her blankie. But it has to be one of the pink ones. Not the purple one.
Don’t those big beautiful eyes just melt you? We love you Miss Miranda!
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I dropped Jeromy off at soccer practice a couple of weeks ago and decided I wouldn’t make it through the night without a Starbucks! I had Sam and the Littles in the car with me. Both Miranda and Aiden were passed out so Sam was able to talk and think and be himself without interruption. A rare thing these days. Either Jeromy is telling him what to do or the Littles need something. It has been very hard to find time with just Sam or for Sam just be in his own thoughts because so much is going on at once. He’s big on “Mom Time”. “Can I have Mom Time?” “I just need some Mom Time.” This goes for me or Malissa Mom.
Anyway…
With the babies asleep, it was very quiet in the car. Sam suddenly, out of know where says, “When I’m grown up, I’m not going to get married. I’m going to live alone. I just like being alone and not having all that noise. I could play video games or just do stuff. I’m getting older Mom.”
Evidently its marriage that makes a lot of noise, not the kids. lol All this time I thought it was the kids.
And getting older? Are you kidding? Our sweet little boy is going to be 7 in a couple of weeks. 7! He still has baby skin! I asked him what he meant by “getting older”. He said he likes doing different stuff now. More grown up stuff. Like what, I asked. “I don’t know. Just stuff!” lol Ok.
It’s good to be six. Even if it is for just a few more weeks.
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My name is Sierra. Yes, like the mountain range. lol I am passionate about my family and I love creating. This is my journal of those things.
