Everyone's Okay . . .

There was a car accident this afternoon:
It was a slow moving accident in a parking lot . . . we were turning left and another car was cutting through and we hit head on.
No, my head did not hit the windshield. The compartment that holds the airbag flew up into the windshield, but it sure looks like my head hit, huh? JP even thought it. The cop was sure of it . . . even though my head was not injured at all.
The kids were with us and of course they were both pretty upset. The Little Guy started freaking out immediately trying to get out of the car which caused Pickle to get upset. My door was damaged so it took me a few minutes to get my bearings and get out to get her. In the end the only injury was too my leg:Due to the stuff we had in the front seat with me, my legs were propped up a bit and the air bag cover scraped my leg causing a nice contusion/ abrasion. I believe it was also "burned" by the airbag because the pain feels like a burn and there is a bit of blistering.

We were on our way to go swimming with friends so I called to have Jer come get the kids and JP and I hung out for about 2 hours to handle the aftermath. Police response time was slow until a concerned citizen with some serious local connections called 911 again for us and two officers arrived within minutes. We are really grateful to him not only for helping us speed things along but also for buying water for us and being so generously caring.

Now we get to wait for the $$ estimate and navigate the insurance labyrinth. We'll keep you posted but I'm afraid we've seen the last of Wagon.

More Posts and Pictures Coming

Who wants to see vacation pictures? I feel a little cheesy sharing my vacation pictures . . . like the old sitcom scene where you make your guests sit and watch 300 slides of your trip. Well, this is what this site is for so I will be posting them soon whether you want to see them or not.

And how long have I been promising updated pictures of the house? I will take some snaps today and put them on to view later this week with an update on progress.

Last night we had our good friends over for dinner. I was in a mood to cook so I made these ribs again, a new baked bean recipe from Pioneer Woman, and a potato salad with vinaigrette dressing from Cooking Light. The ribs were tasty but the meat wasn't falling off the bone like last time. I will take more care in the boiling process the next time I do them; I think that makes all the difference. The baked beans were really good and there were lots of compliments . . . even JP liked them and he is not a huge baked bean fan. The potato salad was okay. I think I would tweak it to have some roasted garlic or something to give it a bit more flavor.

We had lots of tasty snacks to munch on pre-dinner and we could have probably stopped there. I made what I thought would be a cheesy vegetable dip but it turned out to have more of a cheeseball consistency so it was good with crackers at least. Lo brought Brie and crackers which was a nice treat and a yummy jar Bruschetta mix that was good on bread. I think we ate well last night!

The food was good but it was quite a zoo in here! With my wild children plus Lo and Jer's (almost) 4-year-old and another (almost) 2-yr-old it was pretty wild! The crazy thing is that there is an infant and another on the way (Kel is due in December) that will make our get together's even louder and crazier. It's kind of fun and they all get along really great for the most part. Pickle and her "boyfriend" (Kel's son) just fight over toys because whatever he has in his hands, Pickle wants and then she steals it and runs away and he chases her. I think it's hilarious.

Her Favorite Place

Thought I was going to have to call the Fire Department . . .

The Little Guy spotted this Gato in our tree this morning . . . she did look a bit panicked . . . .

Me and the Kids at the Zoo

I took the kids to the Zoo on Sunday . . . just me and the kids. We went really early (left the house around 7am) to avoid the crowds and the heat; not as successful on the latter as I would have liked. The Phoenix Zoo is an ever-changing place which makes it fun to go because you will always see something new or different and you can see the improvements constantly being made. The Zoo is now offering a new Giraffe experience where you get to feed the giraffes! Giraffe's are my favorite so I was totally excited about this.

The "experience" takes place every day from 9 am to 10am so we made our way around the zoo and ended up in the area around 8:40. I knew we were in the right place because we were greeted with this:

Can't you just hear them saying: "Nack, nack, nack . . . ." I am pretty sure they know what's about to happen. It was a really awesome experience.

After seeing the farm animals and playing with the "Little People" we were pretty close to melted so I let the kids play in the "Yakulla Caverns" but it was a bit stressful for me because I kept losing Pickle in the cave area. I know she can hold her own because she was usually the one pushing the kids (bigger and smaller) out of the way, but I didn't want her to hurt herself (or someone else) since we know she is pretty skilled at that. The Little Guy was pretty nice about helping me find her and then sliding with her or guiding her to another area. They had a lot of fun but she was clearly exhausted at this point so we headed home!

August

This month has been wierd for me . . . I can tell you more about what's NOT happening than what is happening since we got back from Colorado.

What's not happening?
1) Blogging - just not in the mode . . . have lots of vaca pics to share but no motivation
2) Working out - been giving my mornings to work, or sleeping, or reading
3) Working on the house - can you say stalled?

What is happening?
1) Hanging out - had some good times with friends (and their pools) over the weekend
2) Playing the Wii - we go through phases and we're in a Wii phase
3) Baseball - watching, playing, thinking . . . seems to be the hot thing in our house

I'm trying to be more . . . how shall I say it . . . "chill" since getting back from vacation. I was working such crazy hours before we left that I am trying to be okay with relaxing and doing nothing. Maybe I'll post some pictures . . . maybe I won't . . . .

The First Day

School is back!

The Boy returned to school today but this time it is a little different. It counts now! Everything from now on will be on his permanent record.

Although he still attends the same Montessori school he has frequented for the past 3 years, today begins his kindergarten year. I guess he has to officially color in the lines and share more or else there may never be a first grade post like this one.

The send off was not all smiles for everyone involved. Although I was grinning ear to ear to have the little guy ensconced in something that will stimulate him enough mentally to ward off the bad choices born of boredom; Pickle was not so happy to see her "bubba" leave the car this morning without her. There were tears and cries of "bubba, bubba". She cried like I just sold him to gypsies! it was made worse because she grabbed her lunch bag on the way out the door and thought for sure that she too was going back to school. A quick trip to Target though erased all memories of the Boy and she played with all the forbidden toys of the summer upon our return home.