phone problems

it was one of those hours.  you know, the hour when you are constantly making silly mistakes, or running into things with your hip or arm, or when you drop your phone in the pool !!!!!

oh my gosh.  yes.

i was helping wyatt get into the pool for his swim lesson and bent over, allowing my phone to fall out of it's designated pocket straight into the nice, warm, chlorinated water.  BOO.  i'm so sad.  i can still text people and browse around (for who knows how long?), and i can call people, but there's no audio. so my phone might call you, but i can't hear the ringer and i can't hear you if you pick up and happily (or grumpily) greet me.

i can't find a small, really small, screwdriver to open my phone up...but i'm still burying it in a bowl full of rice, hoping it'll do some sort of magic.  the flash has been lit up ever since i dropped it in the pool, won't turn off.  i'm getting worried.  my renewal date isn't for another nine months...NINE months.  ahhh!

panic mode, panic mode!!

last celebratory day of spring break

i wrote this about a week ago, and promptly forgot to post it, so here ya go!  i never finished it, and i'm not going to.  my brain has already lost some of the memory.  grr...

good week to you all!  i love your comments, they are so nice to read.  please keep them coming!  i love it, and i love you!

how lucky am i to live in such an amazing and beautiful city?  i realize that i am lucky, especially when i leave my nest and explore the city.  friday the kids and i decided to go to sea world.  last week day of a spring break, so we went.  unfortunately, so did the rest of san diego visitors and residents.  it was crowded!  even so, we had a lot of fun.  wyatt even held up pretty good.  he only ran away a handful of times, once while watching the beluga whales, once in one of the smaller aquariums there, and one other time.  he did pretty good.

my favorite at sea world is always the beluga whales.  they are so beautiful and so graceful in their swimming.  i love seeing them above, but below is the best.  they come right up next to the glass and get so close.  i love it.  some of my other favorite things at sea world:  the turtle exhibit (the turtle game is pretty cool too!), touching the bat rays and sting rays, the dolphin show and the sea lion and otter show.  i know, shamu should be a bigger deal to me, but he's/she's not.  the show is uber cheesy, which i can't stand, and i can't deny that i am always waiting to be horrified by another trainer-killer whale accident.  i'd rather not.

wyatt got pretty into the beluga whale, for all of ten seconds.  but still!  that ten seconds was so cute.  he'd say, "whooooa," like a dude surfer would.  or like crush from "finding nemo."

the turtles are so awesome.  i want one.

following sea world, i decided to go for a drive.  i wasn't ready to go home, so we headed west, and then south.  this led us to sunset cliffs in ocean beach.  i love it there...it's so, so pretty.  i discovered sunset cliffs natural park, which i had no idea existed at all!  i'd love to go take pictures of someone down there.  the spring flowers abloom and the ocean behind would make a beautiful backdrop.


after seeing that side of the hill, we went up and over and found ourselves on top of the cliff in point loma.  so i turned right and headed up to san cabrillo.  i happened to have a national park pass leftover from last summer, when we went to bryce canyon, so i busted that sweet pass card out and breezed into san cabrillo.  as i drove in i saw a sign "tide pools" with an arrow pointing down to the right, and that sounded fun.  so we went.  i was pretty brave that day.  i normally wouldn't dare hike down to the tidepools without someone to help me with the kids.  especially wyatt.  but, i was feeling good so we went.  and it was a perfect day and so fun!  wyatt did get soaked, of course, but he was so happy that i didn't care.  the girls took of their shoes and trounced around in the water and had a blast.  chloe loved touching the "enemies" over and over (anenomes).  she loved the sticky feeling you get when you touch them.  sienna, not so much.

getting healthy

aside from my goal to lose the needed twenty pounds, there are many things on my mind for the upcoming week.  i will be making a weekly meal plan.  i figure this is the best way to get myself to cook for my family.  i've been feeling so uninspired to cook dinner most nights, pretty much since i had wyatt.  poor husband.  poor me, my body feels the lack of good cooking.  and my poor children who have come to think that the quick, rushed mommy running around the kitchen at the last minute, is so normal.  i need to change this.

so, on my to-do list this week:

make a weekly meal plan tonight (as in, after i post this.  got it, self?)

make dental cleaning appointments for the whole family

make appointment with an occupational therapist

appointment with a chiropractor (my tailbone...ouch)

celebrate eight years with my honey!

get our garden in in the backyard finally.  geez!

appointment with an allergist (for wyatt's excema)

i think that is a good start, don't you?  now, let's see where the rest of this week takes me.  i already dropped two of my classes for this semester, leaving me with one.  i kept having this insanely strong feeling that i shouldn't be in school right now.  i ignored it til yesterday, because i WANT. TO. FINISH!!!  but it became apparent that that was not right.  i dropped the two classes and felt a huge lift in spirit.  so i will only be taking a family history class this semester, which feels good.  i need this.  i think it will be good too, considering this is the push our stake has been pushing for a while now.

aaaand, here's a few pictures from our weekend in joshua tree, just for fun:

jumbo rock

yes, it was hot, and wyatt was already driving me crazy going up lots of steep rocks.  so i snapped this true blue shot of my happy face.  we were waiting for friends to arrive and were unable to grab a campsite the first night, super bummer.  the next night we did grab a sweet campsite at jumbo rock though!

i absolutely fell in love with joshua tree!  i fully plan on camping there yearly, if possible.  hidden valley  campsite also was a cool place, but i would always be happy to be at jumbo rock.  we rock climbed one afternoon and repelled down, which i am going to admit to being completely addicted to now.  i can get into that, and i might have to now!  =)

uncle bryan and gisela

following his annual visit to run in the carlsbad 5k, my father's brother, bryan paid us a visit for some good old fashioned buttermilk pancakes (his father's recipe).  bryan and his girlfriend, gisela came over and chowed down and hung out for a while.  we all had so much fun being together.  the only thing that would've made this better was having dad and owie there.  hopefully next year!  

after bagging up some tangelos from the backyard for bryan and gisela, mom played some chopin for them.  ian actually signed up for piano lessons with mom after she was finished.  he admitted that he regrets having quit taking as a child.  better late than never, i say!  good for ian!

after bryan and gisela had to go, the girls rounded up grandma for a quick game of chicken foot.  grandma is such a fun grandma!

throwback thursday

is anyone else shocked right now?  i've posted three times in one week now.  something is definitely going on, and i'm happy to say that it's a good thing.  hooray!

to start out today i went on a (slightly embarrassing) quick one mile run.  not something to normally be proud of, but it was something.  i so did not want to do anything today, but my wonderful husband helped push me out the door, and off i went.  part of my problem is that i have no one to go running with.  i kind of really need someone to run with, i'm one of those paranoid girls who doesn't like to run alone in certain areas.  and then the other problem is finding someone to run with, someone i can count on.  it's a tricky business.  i finally bought myself some pepper spray, which i keep nice and close while running.  honestly, it's not just weirdos i'm trying to avoid being attacked by, it's the random pit bulls that are around my neighborhood.  i'm sure they can be great dogs some times, but i'm not taking any chances.  every once in a while they get out and are wandering around and i am not about to sign myself up for rabies shots any time soon!  (ever read about what you have to do for rabies?  it's a certified nightmare.  check it out).

after running we all, yes the whole family, ran down to the fedex store and each had a passport photo taken.  stephen and i will need them this year at some point, but we figured it would be good to get the kids one too.  what a fun time that was!  wyatt is so hard to get under control when we're at a place like that.  i pretty much avoid stores altogether with him lately.  there's just no point.  check out his hilarious passport photo.  at least the guy/gal at customs will be able to easily recognize his cute little grumpy face.  he has that look a lot.  =)

that's my boy!

and, here's a throwback for this lovely thursday:

stephen and sienna in our la jolla garden.  those were good times, for sure.

a late new years post

i greatly appreciate the enthusiasm from my three loyal blog readers.  thanks for sticking me with me guys!  all others are welcome, of course, too.  i just am baffled that i have anyone even reading this still with my constant inactivity.

sooo...i'm finally slowly getting my emotions in order, which is (in turn) getting other areas of my life balanced again.  included in this is my organization-ality (a new word for you).  also included is having the desire to do things i once loved.  one being taking and editing photos.  the other being playing the piano.  i'll take it!  the other things will come later, i'm sure (crafting)...maybe.

so here are some random photos from our new years at the fabulous steenblik residence.  the lighting is less than ideal, but you get the idea of what a fun time we had.  happy 2013!

and let's not forget the amazingly beautiful and yummy cake from extraordinary desserts, courtesy of the steenbliks.  thanks guys!  it was an awesome night!

a march post

remember that time when i used to write things here?  when i used to get my daily therapy in writing whatever random thoughts were in my head?  i think those days are coming back.

who doesn't need to bounce their thoughts and ideas off of others?  i seriously do, and i'm willing to bet that if you're reading my blog, you do too.  i think part of it, for me, is that i'm home all day with my three beautiful kids, whom i love.  but it gets hard now and then (or at least a few times each day).  every day is a learning day for me and for them, and during that learning we are all making mistakes and getting on each other's nerves and pushing each other's buttons.  some times it becomes all too much and you freak out.  well, i do.  some times i'm smart enough to put myself in time out in my bathroom.  the problem is, they know that's where i hide.  i have some friends who hide in their car, which is seriously not a bad idea.  maybe?

and, hey- remember that other time when i used to post pictures of my kids?  that's back too.  have you even met mr. wyatt yet?  no, no...i know you have.  it's just been so long.  he's soooo big now!  and his hair is so fluffy and it smells so good.  are you almost there?

this baby makes me laugh. he bops his head to music, he makes googly eyes at me if i act sad (and comes over to give me a kiss), he loves to wash his hair, and he is obsessed with eating grapes.  between grapes and raisins, he could honestly live off of them alone.

this next one is for my sister-in-law, katie.  her little ashley did some serious posing for me at family dinner a few weeks back.  i'm still laughing at her as i post these.

i really need to go through more photos that i have and post them.  i have hundreds.  that is my new goal.  prepare for picture overload, my friends.  but if you're like me, you prefer pictures.

ta-ta.