120: the brothers 5

Jim flew to Denver for the weekend to surprise his Dad on his 65th birthday. It was the first time in over 10 years that all the brothers had been together. 

{they are lined up in chronological age..jim's the 2nd oldest}

Jeff..Jim..Jaysen..Joel..Justin

119: buggy ryder

Every month I go to Ryder's kindergarten class to take pictures of the kids. This month they are studying insects, hence, the antenna.

118: showering brandy

My dear friend {and visiting teachee and Skyler's piano teacher} Brandy is about to pop! A few of us got together to throw her a shower honoring her and baby Jackson. Her double BOB jogging stroller was the group gift! The party is done, now this baby can come!

117: sky's on the wall of fame

With Skyler in middle school, I don't find myself in his classroom very often {if at all} but I had to help with something and had the rare chance to check out his language arts class. To my delight, I found his book report project featured on the "Wall of Fame"!
{he did Stuart Little..yes, I know that's a 4th grade book..but it's the best he could whip out in 3 days! His strongest trait..procrastination!}

116: dish diva

I find doing dishes with pretty dish gloves on makes it not so bad!

115: crappy patchwork

So..we had some lighting put in and they had to make some holes in the wall. I called their drywall person and never got a call back {technically I got a call back, just not as quickly as I needed to get a call back or wanted a call back} so I took matters in my own hands and tried to fix the patches myself. I looked up all sorts of tutorials and thought this looked basic enough. After several coats of spackle and sanding I finally said enough and just painted. Ironically, the drywall person called just as I finished the last spackle. I had a party at my house in a couple days and needed it done..they will probably have to come out and redo my mess. Note to self..patience is a virtue!

114: easter fishing

 Just thought this was a cool picture..crab hunting on pebbly beach.

I have found that fishing can be a little addicting. It's kinda therapeutic. Everyone got a turn today and everyone caught at least 3 fish..Skyler was the only one who caught {with the drop line kit} one long enough to keep (12 inches) and he did. It's in the freezer at the house. 

 The Moody's

chantal, carl, crew, jax, and milo

113: fishing belt loop, check!

 It was Jayden's turn to earn his fishing belt loop so he and I went to the pier to fish Saturday morning. {see above..blue skies, no marine layer, warm!} Jayden caught this one not even a minute after we casted his line. He was so excited and reeled it in fast, hence the tangled line. After spending 20 minutes untangling the line we were ready to go again.

2nd fish of the morning and a very confident boy.

 The 3rd fish gets a close up. Poor thing doesn't even get to keep the bait.

112: glorious catalina

 We're here!! First things first, we must have ice cream! Look at that sky..I don't see any of the heavy fog and cold temperatures that were forecasted for the weekend. That's the beauty of Catalina..it's always beautiful! Happy Earth Day!

The Good Friday procession that closed down the streets for awhile. Blue skies and Jesus..it doesn't get any better.

111: opps, we missed the boat!

We decided that for Easter we would go to Catalina for a long weekend. We invited some close friends {who also have 3 boys} to join us. We were scheduled for the 5:45 boat, the last boat of the night, but missed it by 7 minutes {we could see it sailing away}. Not wanting to drive all the way home, we decided to get a hotel room for the night..so 10 of us squeezed into a single hotel room. I'm sure that housekeeping was a little suspicious as they came to our room 2 different times bringing us extra blankets and pillows. The boys had a blast and we were only minutes away from the boat, that we would be taking at 6:15 a.m.

110: let there be light!

It's pretty bad when my mom comes to babysit and brings her own lamps. We've been needing lighting forever but I just never got around to it. Don't know why it took me so long {yes I do, I hate calling around and getting bids}, but in the matter of 2 days {day 1 call electrician who comes out the next day for bid and 2 days later comes and installs in a few hours} we finally had light in our family room! Don't know why these homes were built with switches that turn on nothing..but now, it's a glorious switch that brings us great light!

109: official badge of honor

Finally got the car washed after our weekend adventure and promptly attached my badge of honor! {I think I will see white specks on my car for the rest of its' life!}

108: jaydens creation

 For a boy who has a hard time focusing, Jayden's creations always amaze us. He is the artist in the family. Jim and I were thinking of having him repeat 3rd grade and just as I was getting ready to go talk to the principal his teacher gives me a letter telling us that he passed the GATE test {gifted student program} and scored the highest in the class. Finally a test that's made for him! This little guy constantly surprises us!

107: lazy day

Today I woke up at 1:00 p.m. then laid on the couch and worked on these..invites to my friend Brandys' baby shower.

106: ragnar day 2

 

Van #2

Jim, Carl, Chantel, Erik, Erika, and Peter

All showered and fresh ready to start their final legs..they won't be smiling for long!

It has never felt so good to check something off as it did during this race!!

I have never seen so many white, 15 passenger vans in all my life! Imagine the entire parking lot full..I didn't have a wide angled lens so I only got about 1/4 of them!

FINISHED!! Yay, we are done! Time for the beach!

My sister crosses the finish line.

Team "We got Jimmer'd crosses the finish line together!"..Can you tell who our last runner was? Just look at our feet!

Jim got me into this and we finished this together!! I am in such a need of a shower and some clean clothes!!

Just to give you an idea of some of the crazy costumes teams wore!

This teams name was: Barely Running! I say it's confidence at it's best. 

Noah's Run-Away Ark..the second vans costumes with
Alligator, Giraffe, Flamingo, Turtle, Bunny, Zebra 
were even better! Can you imagine running in all this get-up?

105: ragnar relay so. cal 2011

 The official starting line of Ragnar So. Cal 2011

Huntington Beach to Coronado

200 miles

{are we crazy or what..and we paid $ for this!}

Van #1
Dan, Me, Julie, Theresa, Tom, and Daphenie  {Eric..not shown, was our fearless driver}

Ran into my younger, but taller sister a few times along the way. She was racing on another team.

The end of Jim's first leg..he had an 8 mile, hilly run in Lake Elsinore and it happened to be 95 degrees out! Miserable..I thought he was going to have heat stroke!! This is only 1 of a couple of times I got to see him along the race.

I just finished my 5.6 mile Temecula Run and feeling pretty good even though it was still about 78 degrees out! Isn't our team "bright"!

104: carb loading

The night before our big race! We hit the Old Spaghetti Factory to carb load and we didn't waste a single carb..their bread is to die for! Afterwards, we crashed at Jim's bosses house in Huntington Beach {4.5 miles from the start}.

103: goodbye uncle jay

My uncle Jay passed away Monday night in Kona, just hours before my Dad could get there! Aloha and may life be sweeter for you on the other side!

102: dmv

I was dreading this day, but was pleasantly surprised! I was in and out in less than 30 minutes!

101: coming down to the wire

We had a t-shirt making party and last minute Ragnar meeting tonight. Afterwards, we decided to soak our tired bones.

100: designing our t-shirt

Theresa and I designed our Ragnar teams' t-shirt tonight! Only 4 1/2 days till our big debut!

99: youth conference

Jim and I were in charge of a couple of games at youth conference. Of course ours had to be the only "water" type games.. {on the coldest day ever} .  With hands frozen, we spent the morning filling up 500 water balloons for the grenade launcher. With extra balloons left, we, the responsible leaders, began launching them into the crowds of people..until I hit, dead straight on the head another adult. Opps..not a very good example was I!

98: 4:30 a.m. denny's run

Today was Jenniffer's birthday and she was going to be in town for approximately 3 hours before leaving for her tropical getaway! So we decided to hit the only place open 24hrs. in Temecula, DENNY'S, and have a little birthday celebration. Of course Jenn looks beautiful at 4:30 a.m., she's always put together..me, not so much! I'm the roll out of bed in the clothes I was wearing and throw a hat over my matted hair kinda girl. 

97: tent of boys

Sleeping beauties! 

Forecasts of rain in the afternoon solidified my decision to pack up a day early and head home! The kids still got to play all day, we just avoided the night time.

96: cousins

The day started off cloudy {in Temecula there was rain}, but by the afternoon, the beach was gorgeous! We drove down to San Clemente beach, where there were less rocks, so the kids could boogie board in the FREEZING water! Grandma & Grandpa joined in on the action.  Hit Pedros tacos on the way home and had a big bonfire and smores to end the night. Good times!

95: natures best

 A seriously noisy, dirty, and smelly breeding ground!

Nature by day..nature by night! Wasn't much of a huge run, but I can now say I've seen one. 

{we waited till 10:45 p.m. for this}

Grunion run: during hide tides, grunion wash up on the shore to bury down in the sand and lay their eggs. Then the men grunion wash up and fertilize..something like that.

94: beach camping @ doheny

We packed up the car and headed to the beach for a week of camping with my sister in law and the cousins! Surprisingly enough, as I was setting up camp, a friend popped by and said, "I thought that was your voice I heard!"(I guess I do have a loud, distinctive voice) It was a mom of one of Ryder's little kindergarten friends who happen to be in the very next campsite. What are the chances? Ryder and Danny had a great day but sadly they were only there for 1 more day. Didn't matter..there were enough cousins for everyone!

93: christie's in town

Our dear friend Christie {to my left}, who moved to Georgia last year, flew out yesterday for her daughter's wedding next weekend. We couldn't miss an opportunity to catch up and visit. She is a lively one..I have so missed being called "Geddie" and listening to the way that only she can tell a story!

92: topsy turvy

It's that time of the year again..time for the topsy turvy! I laughed at Jim when I saw that he had actually purchased this last year and set it up (kinda looked like something you'd see in a mobile home park). He got the last laugh! The topsy turvy yielded more tomatoes than we knew what to do with! It was an incredible investment..tacky, but wonderful!

(this year we added some cilantro and basil w/ the tomatoes)

91: finishing the job

After a couple days of play, it was time to finish the daunting task which was the downstairs tile floor.
Today I sealed it.