273: belts

Honesty..how many belts does one man need? It's hard to tell, but there are 16 here. There are also 5 in the downstairs closet! They all look the same to me!

272: monumental first

We went out on date night with Jenn & Micah to Famous Daves.  See this plate..Jim and I shared it! Yes..we SHARED it. The first time in our entire marriage that we have shared a meal, and we both left feeling more than satisfied, in fact, we were down right full! This is progress! That, or we're just getting old!

271: ryder's birthday party at get air trampoline park

 {the goodie bag swords were a hit}

 {Ryder's front flip into the foam pit}

The newest craze here in Temecula is the trampoline park! It's wall to wall trampolines. Perfect for kids with boundless energy. Ryder invited 12 of his friends for a jumpin' good time. Needless to say, it was CRAZY! The place was packed and you can only imagine the lovely smell permeating the air with hundreds of sweaty bodies jumping all over the place. It was nearly impossible to get a non-blurry picture. Ryder's 8th birthday is officially over! I will now take a rest for a season.

270: cross country

Went to one of my students {Kemren} cross country meet today! It was terribly hot and dusty and I commend anyone for putting forth any effort to run in such conditions!! He did awesome..and I loved the goggles. It set him apart for the other hundred runners! Smart kid!!

269: it's official...finally!

They told us up to 15-20 days..to my pleasant surprise, this was posted 6 days after I filed it!! Finally..something in our favor, in a timely manner! Our renters have till Tuesday, Oct. 2nd at 6:01 a.m. to vacate and the house will once again be ours!

Annual birthday balloon shots! I still can't believe he is 8!

268: feeling a little crafty today

Spent 4 hours updating my blog today...no picture of that, but instead, I'll post a picture of my latest craftiness. It may be September, but Halloween decor is starting to pop up!

267: the never ending birthday

So in Ryder's world, it's not a birthday if you don't have your birthday dinner. What? Breakfast isn't a proper fitting meal for a birthday? So the birthday celebrations continue. For family night and birthday dinner night, we headed to pizza factory. Not sure if he ate more than a breadstick..he was too busy spending all his birthday money on arcade games. Basically, he bought a very expensive slinky for both him and Jayden. 

{camera phone didn't do to well in the light}

266: is it still a retreat with the kids?

After our 3 soccer games, we decided we can't leave the birthday boy with a babysitter, so we packed up all the boys and headed back down to the resort. Jim and I had dinner obligations and couldn't take the boys out but it didn't matter!  They got to order room service, which they thought was better than any restaurant! A movie, 3 cheese pizzas and a side of fries and they were in heaven. By the time we got back, Ryder was sound asleep and Skyler was going fast. The next morning, they got to play at the pool and chill out before we had to go. We ended the adventure at IHOP..and with Ryder, it's always an adventure! 

265: happy 8th birthday to my baby

The birthday fairy was out of town so his trusted assistant had to take over the reigns. I think she did pretty good. 

I just can't believe it was 8 years ago that Ryder joined our family..all 9 lbs. 3 oz. of him. It's been an adventure ever since. We are so lucky to have him as our caboose..it's pretty fitting with his red hair and all. He constantly keeps us laughing and guessing what in the world is going on in his head. Yes, he is stubborn, but I'm hoping that will take him places someday!  He's my snuggle bug and I love him to the moon and back!

{he scored a birthday goal during his game today!}

264: work retreat at the four seasons carlsbad

All the kids are farmed out to friends houses for the night {thank you furlough day..no school}, and Jim and I traveled the mighty hour distance to the Four Season Aviara in Carlsbad for his work retreat. It will be short lived for me, as I need to come home Friday night and get ready for Ryder's birthday and soccer games. We have eaten incredible food, and been pampered with incredible perks! I chose the day at the spa, Jim took the gift card. It was very needed, to say the least!

263: my wonderful students

My seminary kids! Love this bunch!

262: ?chicken pox?

Jayden came home from school today with mysterious looking bumps. Our Dr. friend thought they were chicken pox. How can that be? He's had the vaccine and the booster to the vaccine. Guess he'll be staying home for a few days just in case!

261: more running...

Our cute friend Amy was heading back to Utah in the morning..but not till she killed us with one more run! It was a late night for a seminary teacher. Not only that, but it had been months since I ran 5.5 miles! The things we do for friends! :)

260: rocks rock!

Ryder has a rock project due at school. Fortunately, Jayden received a rock kit for his birthday that he hadn't used yet, so Ryder and I borrowed it to mine for rare and beautiful stones. We collected 18 different rocks and put them in the egg carton.  We had a lot of other rocks collected from various vacations. The one that looks like it's looking at you..that came from the beach in northern california.

259: bread toast

Sourdough is a staple in the Geddie household. It makes delicious bread toast..as Skyler use to call it! The only problem, my boys don't seem to understand that we must finish a loaf before opening up another. I found 6 bags with the remains of viable slices. Waste not, want not! I turned them into garlic bread for dinner.

258: race day

RACE DAY!!

I have not been in a running mood these past..um...say 5 months. I think I've run maybe 2 times. Luckily, I chose to do the 5K and not the 1/2 marathon! By 7:30 a.m., it was already in the high 80's! Yikes! Why do I succumb to running peer pressure? 

It was a quick run, but sooo dang hot! I couldn't even imagine what the 1/2er's were going through. Once I finished, I was given the prized job of MC. They handed me a microphone and the rest was history! My big mouth was put to great use. I had such a blast screaming the finishers through the finish line. Once I got home, I crashed!! I was exhausted beyond belief.  Too many early morning in one week. It was now time for some rest!

257: she runs!

 Well...I didn't do too much relaxing this time around. I was there to help! We went to this retreat in St. George in February and told the creator that she needed to come to San Diego! She heard our cries and answered them. It was a wonderful event at the Mission Bay Hilton. We even took a Krav Maga self defense course..I dare someone to try and attack me! The evening ended with a glorious sunset spaghetti dinner along the bay. 

256: red gatorade!!!

My youngest child is going to be lucky if he makes it to 8! I nearly killed him tonight. He thought it would be fun to play swords with his friend and their gatorade bottles. Little did he know, the lid was not screwed on. The entire red bottle was spilt on my very favorite and very LIGHT colored chairs. Tears filled my eyes. I knew there was no way all this red was coming out! Red is the worst stain to have! But through the tears, I quickly remembered something I saw on Pinterest. I told Jim about it but had to leave..I couldn't stand to be there at that moment, plus Skyler needed to be taken to soccer practice. When I got home, I saw Jim working miracles. By this point, I could take a picture. The magic trick worked! There isn't even a hint of red on my chairs, or on the carpet. Thank you pinterest..you saved my child's life!

255: disgusting day in court

 Just one of many interesting individuals I saw in court today. Literally..she didn't have any pants on! Just an oversized shirt, a g-string, and her bedroom slippers. She was making a payment on her bail. 

Spent my day in one of the darkest places around..COURT! First, I had to file our unlawful detainer..to start the lengthy process of eviction. I had to pay $270 to file..which is another joke! As part of the process, both plaintiff's needed to be served. I ran over to the jail and had the sheriff serve the husband, then I sat in the courthouse and waited for our renters arraignment. I wanted her to see me and see that I'm not going to be one of her many victims. I asked the bailiff if he could serve her the papers and he was happy to oblige. I got to personally watch that one. Then I sat to make sure that she was staying in jail. It was another 2 1/2 hours and hers was the final case heard. I don't know how anyone could choose to be a public defender. How do you defend people who clearly, according to their record and past history, are criminals! I sat and tried to understand all that was going on..it was a lot of legal mumble jumble. The only thing I heard was that she was being released on probation and work release. WHAT??? You mean you can have 3 DUI's {of which she skipped out on bail}, 1 hit and run, assault of a police officer, lewd act in front of a child, identity theft, domestic violence, and walk out of jail? I pulled the prosecutor aside and asked him how that could be. He told me because all her counts are only misdemeanors and our jails are too full. So apparently, she one of the better criminals because she can be let out. Give me a break! The most disgusting and disturbing realization from this day, she has every legal right to go right back to our home! What is wrong with our laws that people like this have so many rights?

254: little layla

Had lunch with Mari today and she brought along little miss Layla! I can't believe she just turned 3..where has the time gone! She is 100% girly girl!

253: beautiful morning

It was a glorious morning! Snapped this shot on my way home from my seminary training. One of the blessings I get for being up so early everyday!!

252: my baby sleeps

Ryder was so crabby this morning! Now I know why..he was exhausted. Not only did he sleep on me during Sacrament, but throughout all of Gospel Doctrine and most of Relief Society! How can you not love this sleeping beauty! 

251: we have squatters!

This is the note we posted on the door the night our renter was arrested! Jim and I decided to drive by the house this morning to see if we could talk to the alleged sub-letters. After several forceful knocks and countless rings of the doorbell, one of them answered the door.  We explain what had gone down and that they were just as much victims as we were. Unfortunately, we told them, that they would need to be out of the home in 3 days. One of the men didn't want anything to do with all the legalities and said he's be out that night. The other one, unfortunately, needed some time to think about it. He took that time and called free legal aid, which informed him he had rights! Because he signed a rental agreement in "good faith" he technically can't be thrown out!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Apparently not! This was getting beyond frustrating. We own the home yet we seem to have no rights to it at this time. After talking to my dad and brother, we decided to offer the "squatter" a pay-out! So for $200, he left and signed away all his rights to the property. Sadly, during this time, we got phone calls from 6 other individuals that had paid our renter deposits and were set to move in that week. They were understandably upset, but we told them there was nothing we could do. Again, she had no intentions of giving them rooms..the home only has 4 bedrooms.  Where were all these people going to live? People can be very disappointing!

250: nightmare renters!!

A brief story of our nightmare...

This is our renter, who has been drama from DAY 1! I can say, hindsight is 20/20. It took 3 weeks to get our first months rent and security deposit {that's another story}. Once we got the rent, which was delivered to us all in $20's, Jim sensed something wasn't right.  He hit the nail on the head. He did a criminal background search and we learned that she had 7 warrants for her arrest and had 4 alias. We knew we needed to do something, but what? Then we got an emergency call from one of the neighbors informing us to quickly get to the house! Jim and I rushed over and we learned some even more disturbing truths.  Apparently she had our home on craig's list and was trying to rent it out to people. No, not with the intentions that they would ever move in, but with the full extent to deceive them and scam them out of their security deposits. We caught her in the act. One family was about to hand her a cashiers check for $1400 but felt a little off. They saw a neighbor and asked some questions. That's when we got called. We approached our renter with this information and of course, she denied it! Her game was up. I couldn't even look her in the face. Her "firefighter" husband was not in another state fighting fires, he was in prison. I immediately called 911. 25 minutes later, the sheriff showed up. In that time, we learned that she was also subletting bedrooms to strange men. Finally, the officer brought her out in handcuffs and the entire neighborhood was in the driveway taking pictures. We also learned that her children had been taken away by CPS. Now the problem is, she still has rights! Technically, when she gets out of jail, she has the right to go right back to our home! Where is the justice..it's not in the legal system!

249: frying worms

My oldest child left the lid off our new batch of worms! I began finding them all over the next morning. This poor one didn't stand a chance..found it in the dryer!

Sermon on the Mount...Freshman Seminary Style {Morgan Hill Ward, Temecul...

Here is our actual video!  We had such a great time with this!  It only took 1 day!

248: worms

Manna for our dragon!! 

 If you think this is gross..you should have seen my upstairs yesterday! Someone, {skyler}, didn't put the lid on tight enough {or at all}. I was walking down the hall and saw 2 worms on the carpet. ARRRGGH! Then I went into Jayden's room and there were worms everywhere! Behind the door, in his closet, under his dresser. This is the price I pay for having boys. A mothers job is never done!

Morgan Hill Ward Freshman Seminary Trailer & Be Attitudes!

This is the trailer to our Sermon on the Mount video we just did in seminary.
{THEATRICAL THURSDAY}

247: violation

We've been getting violation notices all summer long from our HOA about our "bare" hill in front of our house. Relax already!! It looked better bare than what was there before. We were just a little busy this summer and it wasn't top on my priority list. Then we got sent to HOA court..oooohhhhh...frightening! There we were threatened with $100 fine for the first month and then $200 the next and so on until it met their standards. Fine..we'll plant the dumb hill. So this is the beginning of it. 

246: labor day

 This is how he labors!! {this nap is well deserved!!}

 I just love this picture..it's the deliberation and hesitation before committing to get into the cold water! It was high tides so they had to wait on the stairs..I just happened to catch them all al the same time. And of course Ryder has to strike a pose!

 My cute boy!

This has nothing to do with my study of Matthew and the foolish men building their house upon the sand! Trust me..Catalina sand is all ROCK!