WE'VE GOT YOUR BACK!

So Tyler comes up to me last week and says we need to send a backpack to the kids that lost their homes from the hurricane. I didn't really understand what he was saying until he pestered me again and said he saw it on tv so I put two and two together and realized their cartoon channel, Nickelodeon was doing a "We've got your back" campaign. You can ship filled backpacks to a high school in Louisiana and they will be distributed to displaced students from hurricane Katrina and Rita. I thought I better jump on this - my 5 year old son taking the initiative to do something for others less fortunate?! How incredible! So we stuffed one of his backpacks (he somehow has 4 of them) with a marker set, stuffed animal, pencils, paper etc. and I did one too. We shipped them out yesterday. I think as a mother one of the greatest atributes I want to instill in my boys is compassion for others and the desire to do things for those less fortunate. It was nice to see Tyler want to do this all on his own!

Trip to Yosemite

My HS friend Janna was in town for her yearly work conference so after that we all headed over the Pine Moutain Lake and Yosemite for a couple of days. She has been coming out here every year for the last 5 years so it has been fun to stay in touch with her and her work pays for the ticket! :-) Yosemite was beautiful even though there wasn't any water coming off the falls. While Janna and her husband Chris took the tram tour, Matt and I and the kids decided to do some hiking (what were we thinking). We were doing fine until we came with the brilliant idea to corss a stream and hike up a rocky hill (off the path) and join the Vernal Falls trail. As soon as we hit this very steep trail, Tyler started a marathon whining session. For a kid that can run super fast, he all of a sudden couldn't put one foot in front of the other. We even passed an 80 year old man coming the other way and Tyler stepped dead in his tracks to stare. I told him if that guy can do you can! (and by the way - way to go old guy - I hope I am like you when I am 80). That motivational speech did not last long though and we only made it to the bridge (.8 miles but all uphill). It was beautiful anyway and we want to go back in the spring to camp inside the grounds.

AHHHH - a nice Saturday afternoon!

We enjoyed a Saturday afternoon taking in a Giants game. You'd think we were big baseball fans with the whopping two games we have been to this year but I got "free" tickets again. I say "free" because these did not include the parking pass which is $20.00 - what a rip off!! Also with food purchases it turns out to not be such a free family outing but we had fun none the less. Here are some funny Nichols memories -

When Timmy pointed out one of the Giant's players signs and said - Look Mom "ski-mid-it" which was hilarious because the player's name was SCHMIDT. When Matt was asking what was so funny I went to point to the sign and he turned at the precise moment where I almost poked his eye out - gross! He acted like I did that on purpose all the way to our seats even though I apologized profusely - I am really not THAT coordinated to pull off a maneuver like that on my own. Then there is the joy of eating cotton candy during the game and Tyler yelling at the top of his lungs "EAT LA" which unbenownst to him everyone else was yelling "BEAT LA".

So another fun day at the ball game!

My mouth feels like rubber!!

You know when you have one of those days that you think will go one way and then it blindsides you and turns into a completely different day than you expected? Well that was my Thursday. It started out with Timmy crying from pain in his tooth. Well, he had been complaining but we thought it was no big deal because he was just at the Dentist for his check up but he was really crying so I made an emergency appt. Couldn't get in until 4pm but when we did the Dr. said if he had gone any longer he would have had to have a root canal - typical Timmy he must have a high pain tolerance along with his high tolerance to not do what his parents ask. So they set him up to have a filling and he is squeezing us in between patients so we have to wait and Timmy is just lying back in the chair watching tv with this weird clown nose thing on his face for the laughing gas. I brought a book (thank goodness) so I am reading and everything is peaceful when all of a sudden I hear this "MY FACE FEELS LIKE RUBBER". Now for those of you that know my older son you know he is unusually loud plus with headphones on he couldn't hear himself so he was extra loud. So I jump and pratically drop my book and then I hear all this laughing and the rest of the staff start coming out of their offices to look at who made this unusually loud statement. One hygenist is laughing so hard she is crying. Glad my offspring could entertain them! Timmy never ceases to amaze me.

Then while the Dr. is doing the procedure he gets all chatty and starts rehashing old teenage stories involving my husband and a mutual friend (yes our Dentist is an old friend of my husband's) which is really strange in itself because I have been going to him for over 5 years and he has never been this chatty (think he borrowed some of Timmy's laughing gas). So it's just a weird moment hearing old drinking stories of my husband (which is so NOT like him now and weird in itself) from the Dentist that is a "professional" and working on my son. I guess he just wanted to go down memory lane at that particular moment.

So it all ended well and Timmy is doing great and I recovered from my 2 1/2 hour Dentist trip! :-)

A Laborious Labor Day trip

So we couldn't decide what to do for Labor day but we wanted to get away so Saturday morning we loaded up the van and headed up to Sonora, CA. I LOVE that area, all the trees and hills. His cousin opened up another carpet store up there and Matt's parents and other relatives were there so we thought it would be fun. It was fun until Saturday afternoon when Tyler got stung by a wasp (I think that is his 4th time and that is why he is holding his hand funny in the picture). But then he got to go bowling for the first time with his cousins and he was back to having fun again. Then Sunday, we headed up to Tahoe. Timmy had been sick earlier in the week (stomach flu) and I guess it got passed to Tyler because no sooner had we been on the road for 15 minutes, he says he has to throw up and finishes his sentence by throwing up all over himself, his car seat, the car etc. It was a nice shade of red - thanks Matt for giving him red Gatorade that morning! Anyway, Matt said I freaked out, I think I took charge of the stituation and we got him cleaned up at a gas station. For the 2nd round of throwing up I was prepared and caught it all in a cooler that had a bag in it (I thought that was great Mom thinking). So the poor little kid is passed out for the rest of the time until we get to Sand harbor. He then turns into a happy little kid at the beach and we are glad he can enjoy himself playing in the water and catching crawdads. On the way back to the car, while walking in the sand, he says - Mom I found a dollar! He picks up this "dollar" and it turns out to be $10.00! (One of the benefits of being so close to the ground is being able to see treasure like this). No one else was around so I figured - good for Tyler he can keep it. He tells me - I'm the luckiest kid in the world! So cute! Then we head to Reno and stay at Circus Circus where later that night at the arcade he plays one of the games where you can earn tickets and hits 500 tickets. He is in little kid heaven and get to buy all the kid junk he wants. So the poor little guy had and up and down holiday and so did his parents (it took us 7 hours to get home on Monday - my husband's birthday in fact so I own him one)!

The wait game

Today I had a Dr. visit to check out a growth on my back. She decided to do a biopsy since I already had Melanoma once. Hard to believe that almost a year ago to date I had surgery to remove Melenoma from my arm. As I am sitting in the Dr's office (waiting!), I think - wow what if I get that phone call again and am told I have Melenoma (again!)? It was such a surreal moment before and I wonder if I would feel the same way or just be like okay well here we go again with another surgery. Now a year later, I have a 4 inch scar on my arm as a reminder (even though I am really glad it healed up really nice) of what I went rhough and I am wondering if more scars will be added. The Dr. said it could take at least 4 weeks for the results of the biopsy.

On a lighter note - the Dr. reminded me of Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter. She was thin, short with red hair and old with these big round eyes and round glasses. Wonder if she can predict what the results will be? :-)

I finished my latest knitting creation - a frilly shrug! It was fun to make and I used a free pattern from Knitting Arts and some yummy variegated pink yarn. It took me a while to do since I used smaller needles. I thought I would never get the body of it done. The ruffles part was fun to do and I like how it turned out. It doesn't go all the way across my chest like the original did in the store so I think I adjusted it too much made it smaller than it was supposed to be. I think it still works though. I rarely am happy with a finished project and usually will pull it all out and start over or do something else but this one worked the first time.