Need ideas

So, here's the deal. After a very extra hormonal week for me, I came to the conclusion that I don't do as many "fun" things with my "me time" as I'd like. I need cheap or free pampering ideas that I can do to boost my spirits.

Smart Boy

Andrew had been eyeing the dvds, wanting to watch something while it's raining today.

Me: "Let's watch Andrew stop whining."
Drew: "We don't have it."

At least he's honest.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

We went to the Wild Animal Park on October 24th. We spent 4 hours there, and 2 hours travel each way. Andrew, amazingly, was the only one of the kids who walked the whole time there. We walked about half the park. We saw a lot of birds, elephants, they moved the tigers or we would've seen them :( , the California condors, gorillas and some flamingos. We were excited this time we were able to get the kids to a little petting area, and found out they have a kids' play area! That was perfect for the end of our trip. There were over 200 pictures we took(a lot of duplicates) and I narrowed it down to 48. I was really pleased the Nikon camera did so well with the zoom.

We had a little adventure coming home. We stopped at a Fresh n' Easy a few miles from the park to pick up more drinks for the car ride home, and the battery died in the parking lot. Luckily, after a couple people, Tom was able to find someone willing to pull their car over by ours for the 30 second jumpstart.

just started up(a few weeks ago) volunteering in collin's class. just half an hour, once a week. it's been pretty cool so far, mostly just cutting out & laminating things. the cool part is there's only 8-9 kids total in collin's special ed class, so i get to see how collin is in the class with interacting & when they do their little group work. best of all, it's helping collin's mommy separation issues!

his teachers made him a little book before i started coming, all with some pictures they took. 1st page says something like "sometimes mommy comes to my class, and i can say hi mom". the 2nd page says "she sits at a table & works." the 3rd page says "i keep working." the 4th page says "then mom leaves & i say bye mommy." the last page is "i stay at school. i will see mommy at home."

anyway, it's a pretty cute book. they sent an extra copy home just for us. he almost has the whole thing memorized and has no problem saying bye to me, though the last couple times he left to lunch before i left the class.

andrew comes too. he seems to enjoy himself there. last week, i told him early that we were going to collin's class & he cried the whole way home after dropping off ivy to school(collin's bus comes first before i take ivy to school) because we had 2 more hours before it was time to help at collin's class. i think it has to do with they have some thomas train stuff in the class that we don't have at home.

Coming June 2010

Wow. Been almost a month since I last blogged. For those of you not on facebook, we are expecting #4 next year. Only Andrew got to come along with me to the doctor's today. He thinks the screen on the ultrasound machine is a tv where he gets to see the baby. We got to see the heartbeat on the ultrasound. That was pretty cool. Really hoping for Ivy's sake it's a girl.

I'm okay, a little nauseous and super tired! Also trying to slow down "muscle memory"--after each kid, the next pregnancy my body looks like I'm further along than I really am.

Operation Game anyone?

it's been a crazy month and a half. so, after having an mri 2 days after i saw the dr, the next week i was told that i had/have water on the knee. i was prescribed light walking and/or biking(to keep my knee in line with my toes more), loads of anti-inflammatory, and heat. interestingly enough, during this time, i also learned the same thing happened to my mom when she was my age. i was finally starting to feel like myself again the past couple weeks, and then i apparently pushed myself too hard on the treadmill(i wasn't really going that fast, 3.5 mph doing inclines). so, this week i've been dealing with that.

other than that, and our car drama this past week(got it fixed for the same problem--check engine light--4x's in 1 week), life is busy and going mostly well. still have our daily challenges with each of the kids, in their own way.

school

yay! school has started back up this week. both ivy & collin go to the same school now. collin starts 10 minutes before ivy but gets out 2 hours earlier. collin seems to be adjusting well to the new school, schedule, 2 bus drivers(different for morning & afternoon), and having 2 teachers.

ivy also has 2 teachers this year. i'm not exactly sure how that works. she said one of them is only there 3 days a week. wish i could say she, andrew, and i all enjoy our just over 1/2 mile walk in the mornings to the school.

i think right now, it's just andrew who enjoys it. ivy doesn't have the luxury of riding part-way in the double stroller like she did last year(she's too tall & at the upper weight limit). this year, i'm just using a single stroller. as for me, i sort of like it. ivy whines a lot on the walk, and right now my knee is in a lot of pain to walk at a slow ivy pace of just over 2.5 mph. it hurts when i stop walking for her to catch up to me. i saw the doctor yesterday, and tomorrow night i'm going in for an mri. thankfully, just in los alamitos. sooo glad they aren't sending me up to l.a. the commute would drive me crazy.