Amazing the way it all works out..

So as I have been posting on here, the search for a public (aka free) school for Amanda this year has been a long and arduous journey.  But finally this week, I can say it's OVER!  We finally have a school!

To recap, starting last November, we applied to a magnet school (you can only apply to one), then we toured the local schools in March, followed by applying to two local charter schools, and a school for advanced studies (last minute find thanks to the librarian at our local library).  As of the end of March, I was super frustrated and believed:

1. Magnet schools were impossible to get into, with nearly 1,000 applicants for only 80 spots, a complicated points/lottery system, and limited campuses.
2. Charter schools were impossible to get into, with lots of applicants (they couldn't tell me exactly how many) and a complicated lottery system that was supposedly random, but still gave priority to certain people.
3. GATE and SAS programs were impossible to get into because it's hard to identify a child as 'gifted' in Kindergarten, so most schools don't even offer it until 2nd grade (so why even try?).
4. Getting a permit OUT of LAUSD is impossible, especially since we don't work anywhere near the school districts we were considering, and we don't qualify for any of the other reasons.
5. Getting a permit to go anywhere but our local school is impossible, as we don't qualify for any of the applicable reasons.

Yet, as of last week, we were accepted at a magnet school, a charter school, a local school not our own, AND an SAS program.  I also discovered Mike works within another (good) school district I didn't even know existed (Culver City), so we could have viably applied to get out of LAUSD if we really wanted to.

I love choices :)

In the end, we chose Playa del Rey Elementary School School for Advanced Studies (SAS) for lots of good reasons I hope we'll be happy with.  I spent yesterday calling the rest of the schools to decline their invitations to attend, which felt both scary and relieving at the same time.  I guess we'll never know for SURE if we made the right decision, but I hope we don't end up regretting it.  I am super happy to have made that decision and have it behind us though.

In other news, the same time we were getting acceptance calls, I got a call from preschool on Thursday that they had to call 911 on Kevin.  He apparently was riding those 'flinstone' like cars and ran it headlong into another kid.  It threw him from the car, did a flip and landed on his head.  Luckily I was home that day (getting our house checked so we can get solar panels installed), so I drove over and rode in the ambulance with him.  Talk about scary!  But he was fine in the end.  ER doc gave us the all clear and told me what to watch for that night.  I leave you with a picture of him strapped to the pappoosa just after we arrived at the ER.

New Look!

As many of you know, I had been growing my hair out for the last several years.  I was doing so with the intent of donating to Locks of Love, a wonderful charity that makes wigs for children with cancer and other diseases that prevent them from growing their own hair.  Well, last week I realized my hair was just not growing any more, and I was getting sick of the upkeep the long hair required.  So on Saturday I headed to the salon.  I don't have a regular hair person, so I just went down to Fantastic Sam's.  I told the lady what I wanted to do, and where I wanted to cut it (basically only my longest layer was going to be the required 10 inches, and the rest was just going to have to go), but she started brushing out my hair and convinced me we could get a full 10 inches out of the whole thing.  So she started chopping.  And chopping she did.

The pic to the left is how I came back.  SUPER short, like even shorter than I have ever had before.  Amazing!  Mike hates it (he likes long hair), but I assured him I intend to grow it out again.  I was super self-conscious about it for several days, but I am slowly getting used to it now.

On Sunday, we headed out to the beach for a bike ride.  Here's the only pic I took of the kids when we stopped for ice cream:

Big weekend for us!

We had a big weekend for everyone this weekend!

1st- Amanda gave up her nap.  I'm pretty sure she was ready to give up her nap a while ago, but I was being stubborn (I need the down time too!).  Also, they still make them lay down at preschool so I felt like if I didn't continue that on the weekends, it would throw her whole schedule off.  Ironically, I picked her up from school yesterday and she told me they weren't required to take a nap because they found mice droppings on their cots.  So they had to wash the bedding and the kids just got to watch tv instead.  This won't happen every day, but it was funny that it happened on the Monday after she went a whole weekend without naps!  She did pretty well.  Still had a bit of a meltdown on Monday night.  But she goes to sleep better (no more coming out of her room every 5 minutes for an hour!), and sleeps later (at least until Kevin woke her up), so that's nice.

2nd- Kevin started potty training.  We've been encouraging him for a while, but he was never really interested.  Lately though he has started wanting a diaper change at every pee-pee, so last Thursday I put him in some BUZZ! underwear, which he promptly soaked.  By Friday, he started to get it and after a few accidents, he went on his new froggy potty (won in a silent auction at preschool).  Saturday and Sunday were huge wins, and at school on Monday they said he did really good too!  Yay for Kevin!

We are trying a new cleaning lady this week as well.  The old lady has apparently dissappeared.  She was supposed to come on Good Friday, but called the night before to cancel.  Then she didn't show up for the next two weeks.  My neighbor, and her sister both tried to get ahold of her, but she has apparently moved out of her house and cancelled her phones.  So my neighbor knew someone else who we are trying today.  We shall see how this one goes!

Thirty-four

That's how old I turned last Friday (6th).  The whole thing came up about age at work during the week before.  I don't care who knows my age, nor do I try to hide it.  I have never understood why people do that?  Do they just want the attention it undoubtedly garners?  People used to tell me it would change as I got older, but it hasn't.  I still don't care.  I will shout to the world I AM 34!

Anyway, my birthday fell on Good Friday this year, so the kids & I had the day off.  I had originally thought we'd go to the zoo, but then decided on a playdate with a friend instead (the zoo was probably going to be super crowded!).  The kids had fun, and then we went to McDonald's for lunch (yes, I had McDonald's for my birthday lunch!  That's how I roll...).  After naps I took the kids to see "Mirror, Mirror" which they both really enjoyed.  We were supposed to go out to dinner with Mike afterwards, but it was getting late and we had filled up on popcorn, so he made us Spaghetti instead.  Then we went out on Saturday night.

We had a good Easter that weekend as well.  The kids had FOUR egg hunts.  One at school on Thursday, then at a Church party on Saturday, then the Easter Bunny on Sunday morning and the last one at my parent's house Sunday evening.  I was surprised at how little candy they got.  Obviously I could control the Easter Bunny eggs, but the Church one (all donated eggs) consisted of mostly toy-filled eggs, and the one at school was pretty light on candy as well.  The only one with heavy candy was the one at my parent's house (Grandma couldn't resist I guess).  Then we went to the dentist on Tuesday.  Luckily, no cavities this time!  Hurray!

Another 5k!

This last weekend I ran another 5k in San Diego - The Hot Chocolate 5k/15k.  Such fun!  Above is a pic of my two friends & I as we approached the starting line.  Running with friends is a lot more fun than doing it alone :)  Not my best time (37:10) but I also didn't get to train much, thanks to a BAD cold I caught in early March, and I twisted my ankle just mere days beforehand.  Not to mention it was a super-hilly course and my legs were sore for days afterwards!  But what matters is I did it!

Bath time fun!

So I joined a couple mom-inspired groups on facebook that post some interesting fun ideas for kids.  One of them was to make their bath glow.  They actually put highlighter ink in the water and used a blacklight, but seeing as how Kevin has a tendency to drink the bathwater still, I decided not to do that.  Instead, I purchased on Amazon some submersibe LED lights.  They are like the flameless candles, but waterproof and they rotate between colors.  The kids had so much fun in their bath!  I have also heard of using the glow sticks, though they are harder to find this time of year.  Here are some pics:



My OCD daughter had to line them up in a row

Update

So apparently Blogger doesn't support my browser at work anymore.  And unfortunately because of security risks, I am not allowed to install anything on this computer either.  So guess what, that means I can only post from home!  Yikes! So definitely uploading pictures doesn't work.  We shall see if posting just words works...

A couple of weeks ago we picked up the new boat from the mechanic and took it out for a spin.  It worked pretty good, though the ballast system seems to be somewhat impaired.  Mike & Nate went in the *freezing cold* water, and the rest of us laughed at them :)

Other than that, it's business as usual around here.  I am trying to get Amanda into a school for this coming year that isn't our local one.  I've applied to 3 different schools, and I have 3 more in mind.  None of these are private, by the way because Mike is 110% against it.  I actually asked him "on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is adamantly opposed to any private school whatsoever, where are you?"  And he replied a 12.  Lovely.  So I trudge on...

Customer Service just isn't what it used to be.

Remember when you were young and your mom would say, get a phone bill with the wrong amount billed?  She would call AT&T and have it ironed out in 5 minutes with a credit to the bill and a gift in the mail.  They were desperate to keep your business.

I have *never* had that experience.  But the latest one is a doosie.  I belong to various deal sites where they have a deal a day at 50% off or more.  Just before Valentine's Day one was offered for flavored popcorn.  I <3 flavored popcorn, so I jumped on it.  I ordered a 3-way tin in a Valentine's heart pattern.  Here's what arrived yesterday:

Where are the Valentine hearts?  And why exactly is the popcorn OUTSIDE the tin?  See those two stickers sticking off the sides?  That was supposed to hold the lid on, and it obviously didn't.  *sigh*

So this morning, I e-mail customer service.  Their response?  That it was 'disclosed' that you may not get a Valentine Heart tin (I finally found it after digging around the website, in extremely tiny print off in a corner somewhere), and they are very sorry but they aren't responsible for what happens in transit.  Really?

This comes after the wake of a similar experience at work where a dormant check is now lost in a black hole and no one can find it, and no one is claiming responsibility.  And I'm left shaking my head wondering what happened to good customer service?

Everyday around here



So it used to be that every night after bath, I would read Kevin a book while Mike read Amanda a book, and then we'd switch.  Well, now Kevin *insists* on being in Amanda's room while Daddy reads to Amanda, so here's a pic I took of them on Amanda's bed, reading.  Kevin is also asserting some independence and insists on picking out his pajamas nowadays.  Thus, the thin, summer pajamas in the heart of winter.  Good thing we have a space heater in his room!

And this next picture was taken on Lincoln's birthday. I headed to the Pepperdine College campus to pick up tickets to 2 great kids shows coming up in the next couple months.  Outside the theater is this great fountain.  The kids threw in some pennies and enjoyed the water for a bit before we headed home for naps.  The entire day turned out really nice despite having to lug the kids around running errands.

Say hello to my little friend!

Meet the new boat (yet to be named):

The above picture is at the gas station near the guy's house we bought it from.  The tires needed to be filled before embarking on our 90 minute journey home.

We officially picked up the new boat yesterday (Sunday) and brought it home.  The guy insisted we pay him in cash, so here's Mike holding all that cash before we left.

It was seriously nerve-racking getting so much cash out of the bank on Friday!  The teller counted it all out for me too before he gave it to me, so anyone watching could see I was taking a WAD of cash out.

Overall the entire transaction was pretty painless.  The guys was very trustworthy, and even though we had to pay off his bank directly and they sent the title to him, he came through and signed the title over to us.

Then we got home, and discovered the boat is too wide to fit up our driveway :(  While Mike had worried it was too long, he assumed it was the same width as the Midnight Mist (or only slightly wider, but not enough to worry about).  Turns out, we were wrong and there isn't any easy way to get the boat into our backyard.  So after trying to squeeze it through for about a 1/2 hour, Mike gave up and left it parked there for a bit until the Super Bowl visitors left from in front of our house.

Meanwhile, the kids played in the boat, hanging from the new tower.  Here is a pic of them "just hanging out".  Both kids love the new boat and can't wait to go out on it.  I love the extra room it affords inside, and it has TONS of storage space.  Mike is more than excited about the wakeboarding 'extras' like Perfect Pass and a ballast system.  Looking forward to a fun summer on the new boat!