March 30 (Mon) My Sisters' Retreat was this past Sat. We all got to mom's around 11am & just hung out, talking. We went to The Melting Pot for an early dinner then came back to mom's & fondued our own milk chocolate & dipped strawberries. It was WONDERFUL. We had a really nice night. The next morning, I sat out on the back patio facing the sun, trying to get a little more color in these pale cheeks of mine. I smelled the orange blossoms. Brought back a lot of memories of growing up in that house. Mom measured all 3 of us on Sat. She is always measuring everyone - her kids, grandkids, even sons-in-law. The measuring wall is loaded with all of us growing up. Surprisingly, we each grew one inch. We don't know how that happened. Quite a strange coincidence that 3 fully grown women just grew an inch each. I think mom may have slanted the ruler on our heads. I don't feel taller. Cath was always 4'11". She is very excited to have finally reached the five foot mark at the age of 51.
The Kowals came over to our house yesterday for Sevilan's birthday. They brought a new game called The Joke Game. Lots of fun. Alex won. He had some really original answers. We went to Nick's (Italian) for dinner. I had so much leftover. Took it for lunch the next day. Everyone liked the place. Lewis, Alex & I were the only ones who had been there before. Sam, Sevilan, Allan & Madison liked it too.
Caleb & Ailani are both home now. According to Tarah, doing very well. Such sweet little darlings. Tarah is so good about sending pictures everyday. I downloaded 1 of the pictures of the 2 of them snuggled together & have been showing it to my friends at work.
Martha & I were supposed to meet for dinner tonight but I forgot Monday is Alex's Jewish youth group night. That's when Lewis & I go to dinner for the hour & a half that he's at the JCC. So Martha & I rescheduled to Tues. I'm meeting Rosalie for happy hour on Weds. I really need to stay at work late a couple times this wk so I can do my self-paced Visio training.
Hilda put one of the new sheet sets on Alex's bed & it looks really good. It's a deep burgundy color with the dark blue comforter on top. Those colors are great together.
April 2 (Thurs) I have not been able to post all of this because I really wanted to add some pictures, & I still can't find my camera. Looks like I'm going to have to post without pictures.
Alex has finished a babysitting course & is now hanging posters all over the neighborhood. We went out last night. I stayed in the car with the headlights pointed on mailbox clusters & posts while he taped them up. Now I'm reaching out to everyone I know to see if they know anyone who needs a babysitter.
I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but one of my cans of Arizona Air sold on eBay. I can't believe someone bought it. Air. Someone bought air. I've got California Air & NY Air now too.
Martha & I met for dinner on Tues. Had a very nice talk. After dinner we went across the street to the book store. I picked up a couple books - one recommended by Martha & the other I had been wanting for a while.
We're going to go to Brandon & Tarah's on Sat & see the babies. This will be the first time for Lewis & Alex. Lewis did go to the hospital a couple of times to see them, but everytime he was there something was happening that they had to be resting or something & he could never get to meet them. He certainly made an effort though - several times.
April 7, 2009 (Tues). Ailani & Caleb are beautiful. I've never seen such tiny human beings. We were there for about an hr on Sat & I held Caleb for a while. He looked at me with those beautiful eyes. Ailani was eating when we got there & then she fell asleep on her mommy. It was so exciting. Tarah's mom & dad were there. Tarah's dad was grilling hot dogs & hamburgers. The babies' rooms are so cute.
My website is up & almost ready. All I have to do is put the PayPal button on it. All of my items are not yet on the website. So it's in the works right now. Here is the website:
http://ArizonaAirForYou.webs.com/
Just remember, it's not ready for people yet. It's only a rough draft.
I still can't find my camera, so the pictures of Tarah's shower are still missing. You are probably going to get this blog with no pictures this time.
April 13, 2009 (Mon) Day after Easter. I'll go backwards now, starting with Sunday, going to Saturday, then Friday.
We were at Cath & Dennis's for Easter yesterday. Full house. Everyone was there except Adam who is at college in Northern AZ. Tarah & Brandon came over with Ailani & Caleb when Brandon got home from work. They live close enough that they walked over with the babies in 2 strollers. Ailani is still too small for a car seat. She has a special seat for the car in which she is laid down completely. They figured it is easier to just walk over. Took about 5-10 minutes. Caleb was sound asleep when they arrived. Ailani was awake & looking around, enjoying her first Easter. Terri made an interesting point; She said yesterday was still not even Tarah's due date. I believe the due date was April 23. And here are these 2 sweet, healthy, beautiful babies celebrating their first Easter with their family, dressed in the cutest little clothes! I cannot begin to tell you how precious these babies are! Tarah was feeding Ailani from this tiny plastic bottle. I said it looked like a part of an Easy Bake Oven. Everything is in miniature. When those babies open their eyes & look at you, look straight into your eyes, it is the most incredible feeling! I could just put little kisses all over them! I could even stare at them forever. I'm getting corny, I know, but they are so incredible. Such tiny human beings. Such wonderful little people. So very lucky to have the parents they have. And so loved. We're all very lucky to have them in the family. Jonathan would adore them.
Saturday was "The Day of Alex". He & his friend, Ryan both went to the drivers institute for their 6-hr driving course. They both passed. When I picked them up, I had to take a picture of the 2 of them. These 2 guys have been through all of the highlights of their lives together. They met when they were about 11 months old, at a Jewish pre-school, Gan Yeladeem. They have been in the same schools & camps ever since then & remain the best of friends. They are now freshmen, in the same high school & eat lunch together every day. It's a coincidence that they were both registered to take this driving course this past Sat. They didn't know they were both in the same class until last Mon. When I dropped Ryan off at home I had Alex get out of the car & took another picture of the 2 of them. Lewis is going to try to take Alex to the MVD to get his permit on Weds. He passed the test, & that particular school is subcontracted with the MVD to issue the test, so he will only have to go in, pay his money, take the eye test, & get his picture taken. After he has his permit in hand, we can call the school to sign up for the completion of the course - two 3-hr driving sessions with the instructor. They will come to our house & take him out for 3 hrs at a time. They will have him drive on the freeways, the airport (that scares me!), & various other areas. Yesterday, when we got home from Cathy's, I took Alex to the acres & acres of empty parking lot at Westworld & let him drive. We discussed parallel parking, u-turns, speed, parking, anything Alex could come up with. There wasn't another person or car there the entire time we were there. He's feeling better behind the wheel now. He can't wait to take the road portion of the test. I'm so glad he isn't terrified. But at the class on Sat, the first hour of it was "those" movies. You know what I'm talking about. The movies we all saw in drivers' ed in school that terrified us. Those bloody movies. They do serve a purpose though. They also have these cool goggles now that are called alcohol goggles. Alex put them on & was supposed to try to walk a straight line. They imitate a person being drunk at a certain level (I think it's .08 or something like that.) Anyway, Alex is very excited about getting to this new stage of his life. He will do the first 3-hr driving session as soon as possible. They said they are scheduling about 3 wks out. But he won't be able to do the 2nd session until after his surgery.
I want to mention another coincidence. I am a big believer that there is more to coincidence than just coincidence. Eleven yrs ago, Lewis & I went to Jamaica for our 10-yr anniversary. We stayed at a SuperClubs adult resort for a wk. At the very same time, the same wk, Alex's friend, Ryan & his family were in Jamaica staying at a Superclubs family resort - the 4 of them. Now how often do you go to Jamaica? And how often do you end up there with the same family of your son's best friend at the SAME TIME? This is major synchronicity. Rosalie would understand this completely.
Friday night we had our Passover seder a few days late so Allan & Madison could join us. (Candy was working & couldn't make it). It was a really nice night. The food was delicious too. Alex & his cousin Madison played DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) for a while. We have 2 mats so they both did it at the same time. Madison loved it. I made the charroset, but it isn't as good with blackberry wine as with the concord grape. Not as sweet. But it was a pretty good meal.
Busy wk-end. Now it's time to get back to work. When we got home from Cath's I did some laundry - towels. When I put them in the drier I noticed a heat smell before I walked out of the laundry room. I looked behind the drier & noticed that silver tube was no longer attached to the drier. Called Lewis to come in & work on it. We never got it back on. Had to take all of the towels out & hang them all over the place. He will call someone today to look at that. So within the last couple of wks we've had to have the garbage disposal replaced, spent a bunch of money on Fri having things done to both of our air conditioning units, had the garage door guy out to work on the keyless entry in sync with the openers in the cars, had Alex's new bed repaired, had a new oven door put on, & replaced all of those very high lights in the kitchen. We built the house 11 yrs ago. Never thought we'd be in it this long. Long enough for things to start falling apart. We bought new blinds last yr in the family room & kitchen with the intention of putting the house on the market. But Lewis seems to think we will not be able to even show it unless we upgrade our kitchen counters to all granite. And I suppose we need to clean up all of the clutter. We were in our first house 9 yrs. I loved that house & that neighborhood & wanted to stay there. I did not want to move. The house we are in now is larger but doesn't have the character of our old house. We want to move into a larger house with a larger yard. Now is a good time to buy but a sucky time to sell. This is where "You can't have your cake & eat it too" comes in.
We are having a yard sale on 4/25, along with the rest of McDowell Mountain Ranch. It's the twice a year sales the homeowners' assn says we can have. I really need to get the garage cleaned out so we can fit Alex's car in there. With a 3-car garage, my not-so-incredible goal is to be able to fit all 3 cars in there eventually, instead of just 2. Alex's car now sits in the driveway. It's in his way when he's out there playing basketball. My neighbor just re-did his whole house & it looks like a model home. I go over there & take it all in, then come home to my little cluttered area & get a little depressed. Blanca has told me many times that she & Hilda will "gladly" clean out our closets for us, but I tell her no. I told her I don't want her to because she will throw everything away. She just tells me, "You don't need all of this stuff." Needless to say, I am not letting her clean out our closets or garage. She may not understand the importance of 2 huge black plastic garbage bags full of match books to me. So it's either I sort through the clutter or it doesn't happen. I do not find any motivation to do this. Although I want to sell the house & move onto a better one, my laziness overcomes my reasoning.
April 16 (Thurs) So we had to have the garbage disposal replaced a couple wks ago. Last Fri the air conditioning guy came out to check our 2 units for sort of a summer check-up. Found something wrong with 1 of them & had to replace some part. Then the cable was screwing up & showing all shows in little blocks so the cable guy came out. Told us it was our tv. We've only had that tv for about a yr. So now the tv guy has to come out. Everything always happens at once. Oh, the garage door openers & keyless entry pad still don't work. Well, the keyless entry pad works, but that's all. We have to have the garage door guy come back out too. I hate our house. This Aug will be 12 years since we had it built. We never thought we'd be in it that long. I suppose some people would like it, but I don't think it's large enough. We need a larger house & a larger backyard. Moaning & groaning & complaining again.
Sorry about the lack of pictures. I still haven't found my camera. I did find the old camera. I can use it to list more junk on eBay.
I think I had better post this entry before it gets even longer than it is.
Hope everyone had a nice Passover or Easter.
Hugs,
Candace
