Flip That Room

We are busy this weekend updating Claire's room into a Big Girl room from a nursery. When we moved in, we put her in the yellow room as we thought that would buy us some time before we would have to paint. It went well with her (previously Olivia's) Hey Diddle, Diddle theme.

I took a picture here as I was taking the wall decorations down. Yes, I painted that picture of the cow jumping over the moon.

Here is a picture during painting. The green (Sherwin Williams Great Green) you see is actually the 2nd color I chose. I chose a lighter green (Sherwin Williams Gratifying Green) earlier but it was too bluish so I ended up switching to a darker and more yellow green. I think it will look nice with pink. I actually got Claire some bedding from Pottery Barn Kids called Cherry Blossom. It's got a pink background with green leaves and some other colors.

I finished painting, it looks better in person, I promise. Tomorrow, I will have to paint the trim. The room already looks so much better, it had really taken a beating from the previous owners.

It's day!

6:23 a.m. pst

Our door creaks open. I hear the pitter patter of little feet. And "It's day! Mommy. Daddy, it's day!" I feel something climbing onto our bed.

It's Claire. Although she has a blackout shade in her room, the light creeps in through the sides and apparently is contributing to her increasingly earlier wakings.

She is 2 1/2 years old and has now started climbing out of her crib more and more. She is getting her new 'big girl' bed on Monday...finally.

We will be spending Memorial Day weekend painting her room.

Sesame Street Stomp

We went to 'Elmo Makes Music' Wednesday night. My neighbor was trying to get rid of their 4 tickets because his wife and kids ended up going out of town. We paid him for a bit less than they were worth and they were great seats. Claire had a great time, pointing and clapping....as usual, Olivia just sat back to watch. Olivia just doesn't get as enthusiastic about these things, but she enjoys going.

The girls learned that 'everything makes music' so they have been 'making' music ever since! Banging on walls, slapping their knees, singing, you get the picture...

Claire tells a joke

Claire: 'Knock, knock'

me: 'Who's there?'

Claire: 'Banana.' giggle

me: 'Banana who?'

silence.

I think she forgot the punchline!

bows, bows, bows

I made these yesterday afternoon, aren't they cute? They're not perfect, but I'm donating them to a fundraiser. My moms group is having a raffle to raise money for an elementary school in need of playground equipment. I won't get to go to the 'spring fling' because we will be out of town.

Growing a Garden

I've been trying to garden a little. That's what I love about California, people here really know how to garden. And it's fun to grow stuff!

While my in-laws were here helping out after I had surgery, my father-in-law helped us with the yard. We had this huge stubborn birds of paradise we were trying to dig up next to our house. We also wanted to move a camelia to a shadier spot (sadly, it did not survive the move). So my father-in-law finished digging those plants up for us and transplanted them.

Here are the birds of paradise, okay the first set of plants in the first picture don't look like they are doing so well, but I'm hoping they will 'take' and look better later in the year. The second one is a plant I moved about a month ago or so.

Yesterday, I finally planted some herbs in my 'herb garden'. This is where the birds of paradise and camelia used to be. In the fall, I'm also going to grow peas here. I'm thinking of planting some flowers around the edge to make it look nice.

Right now, the herbs I am growing are mint(in the pot), basil, italian parsley, sage, oregano, cilantro, and rosemary. I also want to plant dill, I've heard it attracts ladybugs and ladybugs are good for your garden!

Oh and I also have 2 tomato plants..a better boy and big beef. It's fun to see the tomatoes growing!

The only trouble I have is with the snails that like to eat my plants. A mom from my mommy board who happens to be a farmer gave me some advice. She said I could use eggshells, set them out to dry then crush and scatter around the plants. She also suggested some traps, I might try this too. You fill an empty can with some beer and bury it in the ground with just enough room for them to move in. They are attracted to the beer and then drown.

A Baby Blanket

Well, you know, I started knitting several months ago and have been trying to learn about patterns and such. I found a free pattern for a baby blanket that seemed perfect for a beginner. Ha! I've been working on it for months and I'm only about 1/5 of the way through it. My problem is I want the blanket to be perfect and I kept messing up the stitches and I had to unravel several rows and start over several times. I think it's good practice though because I've made alot of progress in the last couple of weeks.

I'm not sure who will get this blanket, I have lots of friends that are having babies and my sister-in-law is having one this summer. Of course, this one will have to go to a girl. Maybe I should do yellow next time!

I'm thrilled I can see

I just wanted to follow up with more about my surgery. It's been a few weeks. I had my 1 week follow up appointment about a week and a half ago. I was at 20/20 with both eyes...20/20 in my left eye and 20/35 in my right eye. Before surgery my vision was 20/200 (20/400 in my left eye and 20/200 in my right eye). I will go back in late September for another follow up. I was told it could take about 3 months for my right eye to catch up with my left eye since I had PRK in my right eye. I'm happy, though, I don't have to wear glasses for driving, I can see if I get up in the middle of the night.

In case you were wondering why I had PRK in my right eye, it was due to a risk of ectasia. The shape of my eye put me more at risk for developing ectasia after Lasik and it is a condition very difficult to treat. I had 4 opinions total and found a doctor which offered me the best option.

Easter

Here is a picture from Easter and a couple from an Easter egg hunt. The picture of me with the girls is taken in our backyard, we have lots of roses.

The girls enjoyed the egg hunt in the park that was organized by my moms group. The girls did 3 egg hunts together...the moms group, church, and a friend's house.

Bye Bye glasses!

I finally did it! I finally had laser vision correction surgery yesterday. It is amazing to be able to see without glasses.

I was really nervous about the actual surgery and recovery. I was to have Lasik in my left eye and PRK in my right eye. This was the safest option for the shapes of my eyes. The PRK is more painful and the recovery is longer, but it is so worth it.

Thank God for valium, though. They gave me a valium to take a half hour before my appointment and when it was time to get on the operating table, I didn't care that they were going to cut my eye and laser on my eye.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the excitement I am feeling of being able to wake up and see!

Host Family

For the past couple of weeks we were a host family for 2 teenage girls from Japan. We had H the 1st week and M the 2nd week.

Here is a photo of the first group of students at the Sayonara party they put on for us.

Here I am with 'the girls'. H was really hard to get to know, her English was really limited and being only 14, she was a bit immature. She was more interested in shopping than looking at the majestic Giant Sequoias, including the General Sherman tree (the largest tree in the world). Nonetheless, we all had fun.

Here is the 2nd group of Japanese students. We had M for a whole week, she was 16 and had a better command of English than the other Japanese students we have hosted.

Here we are making pizzas. M loved helping the kitchen and learning about American foods. She was very enthusiastic about being here and one of her first questions to me was 'Can I call you Mom?' I loved that she really enjoyed her stay and she didn't seem very homesick.

We took her to the beach in Ventura where we built sandcastles, the water was too cold to get in.

M's last day, I took them to the local museum and we had a picnic for lunch.

Later that evening we had to take her to the bus that would take her to the airport and then home. I had to literally put her on the bus, she was sobbing and so emotional about leaving. This was the first time (out of 4) we have had a student cry so hard about leaving.

Yard Work

Here is one of 2 flax bushes I removed from our backyard.

Here is the dwarf Eureka lemon tree I planted in place of one of the flax bushes. In place of the other bush, I planted 2 tomato and 2 basil plants.

Here is a Camellia bush I plan to move in a spot that might be shadier. Next to that is the Birds of Paradise I can't stand poking me when I walk by the pool fence to the backyard. We moved most of it, but there is one huge part that we are having a hard time digging up.

The previous owners left this wall decoration with cheesy fake flowers. I finally put real flowers in the pots. Unfortunately when we went out of town for a few days the flowers wilted and have never fully recovered.

Here are our front doors, I did spend some time sanding them down, but have a little bit more to do before I finish them.

Here is a very old Little Tikes playhouse someone gave us about 3 years ago. It was in really bad shape, rusted screws and faded colors. I decided to try painting it with that new Plastic spray paint.

It looks much better, although, the paint can be easy scratched off. Still, it was free, except for the paint.

Busy...busy...busy...

I have a bunch of projects I'm working on around the house which I'll post pictures of later when I get a chance.

Here's a list:
plant dwarf lemon tree
plant tomato plants
plant herbs
transplant birds of paradise bushes (which poke us when we walk by our pool fence)
remove "spiky" plants (I don't know their official name)
divide clumps of agapanthus plants in front and back
clean up and divide ground cover plants (forgot what they are called)
plant flowers
paint old Little Tikes playhouse
refinish front doors
touch up paint in kitchen
paint baseboards in kitchen
knit baby blanket

Then of course, there is the usual, cleaning the house, doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, cooking, etc.

We also have agreed to host Japanese students again. We get 1 teenage girl in about a week, she'll be with us about a week, then we will get another teenage girl for about a week. Are we crazy or what?!

It will be a little more work, but it really is so much fun!

Splashing in Puddles in Napa

snowplay

We found snow in the mountains (in a national forest north of Los Angeles) about 1 hour and 15 minutes from our house. So we got bundled up and stomped in the snow for some snowplay. Don't the girls look cute?!

Olivia had a blast making snowballs and tromping through the snowy forest. We even slid down the small hills on our butts (since we didn't have any sleds). Claire had the most fun knocking down the tiny snowman we built, other than that, she didn't really seem to enjoy it. She had about 15 minutes of fun, then she was unusually quiet the rest of the time. We didn't stay too long, about an hour.

Culturally Impaired

My hubby came up with this description of the town we live in as we came out of the Spanish film, 'Pan's Labyrinth'. It was an excellent film, so different than other films out there. Since it is a foreign film, it is subtitled. I have no problem with that, I love foreign films. As we came out of the theater, we heard people grumbling about having to read the subtitles. I just love this description, it is so accurate of where we live and I so miss culture!

Happy Valentine's Day~

Here are pictues of the girls on Valentine's Day. Olivia had a small celebration for Valentine's Day at school. Claire and I met with friends and went to our local museum for fun.


A few weeks before, my hubby took Olivia to a Valentine's Father/Daughter dance. She was more excited about seeing her friend, E, there. She and E dissed their dads at the dance. It was special anyway.

New project

So I decided to try a new hobby, I was inspired by some very crafty moms on my mommy board so I'm taking a stab at knitting! Ha ha! I went to a local yarn shop where someone taught me to cast on and knit. It's very expensive yarn though so I'm going to have to do some learning on my own.

Here is the first thing I made. The lady helping me started me out with 40 stitches, but I started over a few times and ended up starting with 12 since I thought my first project could be a scarf for Olivia. I'm not sure, I might do it over again because I think it's still a little too wide for her. It's very plain, too. Maybe I should try with smaller needles, too.


Next I would like to knit a baby blanket. I have some friends who are having babies this summer so if I can get any done, it would make a wonderful gift.

I would love tips if any of you are knitters!

Long anticipated pictures...

Yes, I know it's been awhile, I just didn't feel like blogging...still don't, but thought y'all deserved some pictures!

We spent 2 weeks in Texas for the holidays. We spent most of our time in Dallas with my hubby's family. The girls were able to spend time with their cousins who they don't see much. We also went down to Houston to visit a few friends. We tried to get out to some museums, etc. while we were in Texas. I've included some pictures from Christmas, too.

This is from the Science museum in Dallas, they also had a children's museum. The girls had fun with their cousin.

And this is when we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. I was really impressed. When I first went there about 10 years ago they just had a few tanks of fish, they have so much more now.



Olivia's preschool had a little concert before the break, it was really cute. Olivia (in the middle with the bright pink skirt) was shy and hardly sang at all, but she was excited nonetheless. I don't see an entertaining career in her future!

This is from hubby's work kid's holiday party. The girls had a great time and even Santa and Mrs. Claus came...Claire was terrified, of course.