just what I needed
By Tara Zandra | August 6, 2008
After sitting in traffic for 5.5 hours over two days, I came home today wiped out. My whole body ached- even my ears hurt. Tabitha definitely won’t be taking a day camp at this location again. Thankfully I have Chris who not only massaged my neck and let me sleep for a bit, he also cooked dinner. So my afternoon/evening has gone much better and I’m getting ready to jump into the shower and then I’ll feel 100% again. And, of course, be ready to do this for another 2 days.
Today was the last Kindermusik that I participate in with Daisy. Next month she’s going to move up to the 3-5 year old class. *sniff* She’s had a great time during the summer session. I’m glad she decided to go back because she has so much fun. I really enjoy watching her get into it. By the same token, I think a semester off was what she needed in order to appreciate the class more.
Sorry, not much else is forthcoming tonight- my brain isn’t in the mood but I didn’t want to go two days without posting.
Oh I know, I was thinking about this yesterday but never posted. This has been a busy summer, obviously. Busier than any other summer I’ve had with the kids so far. So in two weeks the girls’ gymnastics school will be closed and our fall activities won’t have started yet. So I’ve decided we’re going to take a vacation from life. We’re not going anywhere at all and Chris won’t be able to take time off so it’s not that kind of vacation. But Daisy will only have one dance class and Tabitha will only have violin. Other than that we’re not going to do a darn thing. No alarms, no play dates, no lessons, no outings- absolutely nothing. I would like the chance to be bored during the day which is not a luxury I currently have. I’m really burnt out lately and that week will be just what I need to recharge. And the kids could use a week of no obligations as well.
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Finished!
By Tara Zandra | August 4, 2008
The girls’ room is done being painted!
It’s not done being decorated, of course, since we’re still adding to the walls with themed items, but at least the big paint job is done. I must say again how much I love these colors together.
Tabitha started yet another day camp today. So after Daisy’s dance class this morning we headed out to her class. It’s near enough to The Grove that Daisy and I popped over there to kill some time. I’ve never even been to The Grove twice in one year, let alone twice in less than a month! We just went to Barnes and Noble as it was far too muggy to walk around outside. Daisy must have checked out every single book there. I bought two baby books for a gift and also picked up a Curious George book for Daisy because I thought she would like it. We didn’t get a chance to read it to her tonight though so not sure how she likes the actual story; but she seemed very pleased to get the book. We also walked through Pottery Barn Kids, but it didn’t have the same magic as the one we went to in San Jose.
Last night Chris and I watched “Other Boleyn Girl”- very interesting. It was one of those movies where at the end I just go “okay then.” Don’t mistake me, it wasn’t bad, it’s just that when you know the movie is about one of King Henry VIII’s wives, it’s not exactly going to go well in the end. I’m glad we watched it as it made us do a little research on Henry and Anne Boleyn and so we learned some new things.
We’ve really stepped up our movie watching this year. I’d say we’ve watched 3 times the number of movies we usually watch in a year. Off the top of my head I know we saw all three Mummy movies, Get Smart, Sliding Doors, The Devil Wears Prada, Troy, Dan in Real Life, Idiocracy, National Treasure 2, August Rush, Emma, Ocean’s 12 and 13, and Jane Austen Book Club. Now the latter doesn’t really count because we were on plane at the time. Also, we have previously seen Sliding Doors so that shouldn’t really count either. There’s probably a few more in there that I’m forgetting. I’m glad we’re taking the time to watch them and I guess we have the writer’s strike to thank.
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Play ball! (and paint)
By Tara Zandra | August 3, 2008
The other night while watching the Dodger game, they advertised an upcoming game that included free Dodger Build-a-Bears for kids. Did someone say free toys? We found a great deal on tix and today was the day. Of course it was a 1 o’ clock game so we slathered on sun screen and donned hats. The shade was only 3 rows behind us when we sat down and thankfully by about the middle of the third inning we were firmly covered by shade. But it was still hot and Daisy was very whiny. She just doesn’t do well at games and then we have to leave early which cheeses Tabitha off to no end. So we can stay and listen to Daisy whine or leave and listen to Tabitha whine. We chose to leave after the seventh because at least we’d be in air conditioning while Tabi whined, lol. I think in the future perhaps I’ll stay home with Daisy and other times we’ll have her stay with a grandparent. It’s either that or we don’t go to games for 2 more years. At least the Dodgers won today 
When we got home, I jumped back into the painting game. This morning when we looked at the walls we painted yesterday, it was apparent one wall was going to need a second coat. So Chris took care of that this morning. This afternoon we worked on the lower part of the walls. I did all the edging and then Chris came in and did the roller brush. When that was done, I did the wavy line along where the blue and green meet to be the rolling hills on the horizon. I really think the blue and green look lovely together. I could already tell some of the green was going to need to be touched up, but we were losing light and I absolutely had to go to Target for general stuff so I’ll try and get the touch ups done first thing tomorrow morning before we head out for the day. Then tomorrow evening we should be able to take the plastic off the floor and put furniture and toys back in place. And I really do think I’ll be painting a tree. I don’t know that I’ll have time this week so it may have to wait until Saturday morning, but I’m very impatient, as always, so I may try and cram it in this week. You know, in all my copious free time.
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La Playa
By Tara Zandra | August 2, 2008
Today we headed out to Cabrillo Marine Aquarium for some exploration. It’s been a few years since we’ve been and they’ve remodeled in that time so it was nice to see the expansion areas. One building housed their nursery and we were able to see shark eggs and when I light was shined on them, we could actually see the sharks inside. Very cool. The aquarium itself had lovely displays of tidepool animals which is good because the tides were not working in our favor today so we didn’t get to walk out to the real tidepools. We’ll probably go back another time when we can time it better. Today, low tide was 4:30AM and 4:30PM and neither was going to work.
Here are my two hams- Daisy giving her shark face and then Tabi acting scared.
Some areas of the aquarium are very dark with black walls to help highlight the beautiful colors of the sea life in the tanks.
After the aquarium we changed into our suits and walked down the beach. We went to the area that is practically waveless so it was really easy taking care of the kids. One of the sand toys we took with us is a sand sifter so Chris got the idea to dump sand on it from under the water. We found lots of really nice shell fragments. We didn’t keep anything that looked like it could be reused as a habitat by any animals but there weren’t many of those. One great find was a really tiny sand dollar- not quite a centimeter in diameter. It was empty so Tabitha was allowed to add it to her collection. The girls had a great time splashing and digging and searching in the sand. We only left because we were all very hungry, otherwise, we easily could have stayed another couple hours.
Once home I went right to work painting the blue in the girls’ room. It’s darker than I intended and actually looks a bit like one of the blues in the playroom. But it’s pretty and not overwhelmingly dark, just not as light as I wanted. I did all the trim on both walls and then painted one wall before taking a quick break. Chris woke from his nap at that time and took over the job and did the other wall for me. I’m pleased so far. We’ll see it tomorrow in the full light and decide if we want a second coat. If not then we’ll move on to the green which shouldn’t take very long at all since that portion of the walls are smaller.
Now Chris and I are going to watch the season finale of Robin Hood. I’m sad it’s ending since it won’t come back until March!
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Where’s my beret?
By Tara Zandra | August 1, 2008
The girls started their painting project today. Miss Tabitha immediately donned the coveted beret so she would be official.
This prompted a bit of jealousy in the younger one so I had to quickly improvise.
They covered the whole thing in blue today but didn’t have time after it dried to do the second layer of turquoise. They also did some activities on their own from one of the ocean books. We’re planning on going to a tidepool so Tabitha was sharing with Daisy all the animals we may see.
I got my painting job done this morning and it only took me an hour and forty minutes longer than planned. I’ve determined my roller is horrid and I don’t know how Chris has painted with it all this time. But I got both walls taped off, then spackled what felt like a million holes, then sanded all the spackle, primed all the trim and then, finally, primed the walls themselves. The room is still a little chaotic because I didn’t want to remove the drop cloth that is taped to the floor so nicely. I’m seriously hoping Chris and I can maybe work together tomorrow evening to get the green and blue done as opposed to waiting until next week. Also, I somehow got it into my head that I don’t need to purchase a wallie tree and can paint a tree myself. I don’t know. I may actually try it despite the complete lack of artistic ability on my part. I tend to go with my crazy ideas so somehow I think that’s what I’ll be doing in a few days.
So tonight my husband took me out on a date and we went to see Mummy 3. Loved it! For whatever reason i really wanted to go opening night ever since I fell in love with the first two Mummy movies. I only look to be entertained by movies and this did not disappoint. Plus, I am such a sucker for the love story. You just don’t see movies with a couple that love being married to each other. There’s always problems that must be overcome or the joy of being married isn’t overly focused on. With the Mummy movies I just smile through the whole thing because Rick and Evie convey such a joy at being married to each other and are very lovey dovey.
So it was a morning of hard work, then an afternoon of fun with the kids doing lessons, and then a nice grown-up evening with the love of my life. Not a bad way to start the weekend
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