Aaron has a birthday!

The baby of the family is a Teen!
A turned 13 today...for dinner We all went to Chili's




A had a great time!








My great-nephew was full of energy...








N & J had attitudes...as usual.












And me & R endured!


We missed my mom, but all in all a great evening. If I only had a kitchen, I could of made a cake!

Not Anonymous Anymore

I always knew that writing on the blog made it available to whomever wanted to read it.
Today, I commented on a blog of a dear friend who had some sort of a stroke the other day. (alansrecovery.blogspot.com)
After I hit "Publish" I realized...whoopsie...now others can read this.
Then, I realized I haven't written anything I regret or haven't told most people in my life.
SO ...who cares, bring them on.
Maybe they will "figure me out" after all!
Welcome!

Baseball Photos

"N" age: 18
Varsity- Monterey High School
2006












"J" age: 15 1/2
Junior Varsity- Monterey High School
2006

Old Kitchen Photo Found!

This is an old picture of the "before" Kitchen. Notice the disgusting OLD cabinets circa 1951. What you can't see clearly is the bumpy "wood" grain. When we first bought the house, the kitchen was dark brown. The first thing I did was paint it white. Funny that now I want it dark brown again.

Senior Appreciation Game

Saturday was the "big" game...J 's team played at 12:30 and won! (First time up to bat he hit a double and the crowd went wild!)

When we walked into the field, there were posters of all the Seniors. My heart skipped a beat when I saw my son up there on that board!


Moms (who wouldn't normally give me the time of day) were surrounding me, telling me what a handsome son I had and what a cute baby he was.

I was so proud!

Of course I agreed with them and my chest stuck out a little bit more as I went to my seat. As I watched J play his game, there was excitement all around. Green and gold balloons on the home (Monterey) team side and red and white balloons on the visitors (Carmel) side. After the JV team won, the contests started. To my surprise, N was chosen to participate in all three.
The Homerun Derby (Both teams had 4 representatives to take turns hitting the ball out of the park) Carmel won that one.
The Relay (Both teams had 6 reps (two teams of 3) to throw the ball from the outfield fence -240 ft- to 2nd base and then to the catcher) Nick was the guy at 2nd base. Monterey won that one.
Finally The Base Running The guys were timed running the bases. One time Nick made it in 7.2 seconds and the next time he had a slow time of 9 seconds (he hit the "wall") .
Then they announced that all of the senior parents were to meet on the side of the field. I quickly put my lipstick on and nervously went to the field with R and met N there. We walked onto the field to the pitcher's mound and were announced one by one. My heart was beating as they read the following statement we wrote:
"Ni ~We are so proud to be your parents! You have worked hard and have achieved so much, in academics and sportsmanship. We smile everytime we think of the person you have become. You have proved that hard work and perseverance can bring you all of your dreams. May all your dreams come true! We love you, Love Mom and Dad~"

When we got to home plate, another player gave me a yellow rose.
Very sweet.
As we stood there with our son, I realized that this was the beginning of the activities toward graduation. I also realized that I am not done with this boy/man and I still have a ton of parenting to do! This time flew by quickly. I cannot say that enough. Just yesterday he was learning to walk, and now he is ready to fly.

Kitchen Remodel...When Will It End?

The kitchen remodel project has been going on for about three weeks now. I am so over it!

It is terrible living out of a mock kitchen in the living room! Eating all dinners out or from the microwave. There are only so many things you can make in the microwave until you get sick of it!
We are living off of Chicken from Costco, chimichangas, pot pies and other TV dinners from the microwave and if I have one more sandwich from a fast food restaurant I will scream. (That goes for pizza too!) Anyhoo..Here are some progress pictures I took last weekend. Since then there has been more progress, I will take some more pics later today after we get home from another day of baseball.

The Home Depot moved in the spot where our old KMart was...And now we practically live there!

R and I designed the cabinet layout and we did a pretty good job if I must say so myself! I am trying to find some "before" pictures...The old cabinets were terrible, original from 1951 when the house was built. When the kitchen is complete, we will have more counter space and new appliances...After 17 years in this house, it is about time!

Notice the new crown molding and new lighting! I know that the paint color looks dark, but I am telling you, it looks great!

Here is a sample of the tile for the counter and the backsplash. (Granite counters are way out of our budget, granite counter=$2,400 vs tile counter=$300) I am so lucky that R is so handy! We are saving so much money on labor! Of course his back is killing him, I noticed he is taking more pain pills lately... I hope he doesn't over do it too much.

The boys have been helping a lot also, I think they actually are learning life-long lessons about the electrical, painting procedures,cabinet hanging, tile and flooring. They are really proud of their work!

I will post updated pics later...

~K ~

Life Goes On

The depressing rain has stopped for today.
(Take whatever meaning comes to you)

Life goes on.

I sat in the pouring rain yesterday afternoon and watched N 's team play a muddy baseball game at North Monterey County (Castroville area). As it was miserable sitting there with a leaking umbrella (I just bought it, I am taking that sucker back!) but it fit with what I was feeling so I didn't really mind. The umpire finally called the game in the 4th inning. It was starting to get really dangerous for the kids, but the other coach wanted to keep going, he was a real jerk about it. Whatever. The umpire stuck to his guns and called the game. I guess the big deal was that the game had to be finished in Monterey on their home field. Varsity sports get really ugly. People take it so seriously. Unbelievable.

In a couple of weeks, there is a fundraiser game in Monterey against Carmel. It is also called the Senior Appreciation game. I guess they call the parents onto the field with their son, its a big deal.
I won't have my mom in the stands to cheer for me so I am hoping that maybe Stacey will come *hint hint* and I am going to force my little sister to come so I can have someone to clap for us!! J 's team will play that day too...It will be something to look forward to.

A has a game today in Seaside (my least favorite place) I hope I get through it OK. The field is across the street of where my grandfather was murdered in 1989. (A really long story, which I will post about later, but the long story short is that a 14-year old boy took my grandfathers life without any guilt. He did go to the California Youth Authority until he turned 24 years old but then when he got out he proceeded to kill a innocent guy who worked at a Taco shop in Seaside and then his girlfriend who was found buried in a shallow grave on the former Fort Ord, she was about 6 months pregnant...like I said, it is a really long story and the details are awful, someday I will get it all down)
So anyway, it is really hard to go to the baseball games at that field, when I am constantly looking across the street at my grandparents old house.

Like I said before, Life goes on.

Then J has a double header in Monterey starting at 3:30. Another long day of baseball, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love watching them play!

Let's hope that the weather holds up!

Next Post: Kitchen remodel in progress...Life as we know it is gone..Living off of cereal and microwave meals...What an adventure.