Back to School

This might be the first time in MANY, MANY years that I was actually anxious to start a new school year.  After having a difficult year last year with students, and parents (we must never forget the parents), I was ready for a new batch of kids and to start fresh again.  And what a delight they are.  I love my class. They are all such sweet, nice kids.  It was like someone knew last year was rough and wrapped this class up for me with a big red bow and a card that said, "Enjoy, you've earned it!"  

With the beginning of the new school year, it marked the beginning of middle school for Matthew. We had the first day of school all mapped out.  I would take Ryan in the morning, and Rich would take Matthew.  The night before the first day, Matthew came to me and said he wanted to talk.  He asked if it was okay to be nervous, and just a little bit scared.  I immediately said yes, and that it was completely normal to feel that way and that I too was nervous, and a little be scared for him. He didn't understand that I had been living in this huge security blanket called Reese School for the past seven years, having him no more than seven classrooms away from me at any given time, and now I knew nothing about his school or about his new teachers and I was anxious about everything.  Immediately after we talked, I went to my bedroom, patted myself on the back for not crying in front of him, and emailed my principal to tell him I was going to be late on the first day of school because I was going be with Rich when he took him.  And because my principal is very supportive, and really considers family first in all situations, he said that was absolutely no problem.  Which was good, because I was going with or without his permission.  I just felt like I needed to be there and that was the end of it.

So patient with me and letting me take his picture.  Because NO ONE else was taking pictures at the sign and he made sure to tell me that several times.

In all of my anxiousness for him, it never really hit me that he really wouldn't have a lot of friends there.  I was so worried about school and the stress of this school's reputation for being so hard, I had completely forgotten that he really knew hardly anyone walking on campus that first day.  We only knew of one other friend from Reese who was going, and her little face was like a ray of sunshine that morning.... for me, not for Matt.  He seemed fine.  I apparently needed Maggie more than he did.  I walked up and gave her a huge hug and told her I was so happy that they had each other.  Truth be told, I needed Maggie more than Matt did that day. And because he is a boy,  Rich was like..."Dude, lay off.  Back up and give him space.  They'll be fine."  And they were.

And to celebrate surviving the first week of school, we booked a girls trip to Tahoe to unwind and sing our hearts out to Elton John.  Why Elton John?  Simple.  I grew up listening to his music thanks to my parents. There wasn't a song he performed that I didn't know all the words to (well, at least the ones I could understand). I feel the same way about Neil Diamond,  Barbra Streisand, Air Supply (who I saw in concert and they were AMAZING), etc. When you have no control of the car radio growing up, you don't fight it, you join in and sing.  And sing to Elton is what we did all night!

Lunch at Reva's Grill.  We were only there for the Wet Willie.

Meet Wet Willie.  One was more than enough.  This place turned into a "must return to next time in Tahoe" very quickly.

This is what day drinking looks like.  Good times.

Look who scored a ticket at the door!!!!  I was SO HAPPY she successfully tracked down the guy, who looked like he came straight out of an 80's time capsule, scalping tickets in the parking garage.

And soccer season has finally started back up!!!  YAY!!!!!

Number 11.  Fierce.  Competitive.  And extremely confident.  

And here he is after scoring.  I told him if he does a round-off  (that's right, a cartwheel) at mid field, he would lose his electronics for a week.  He decided to just run back.  Smart boy.

And finally.  The countdown has started.  Wait, who am I kidding...the countdown started three years ago.  But we are in low double digits people...this is huge!  I spent Sunday working on our itinerary, because I don't go on a vacation without one--it's my thing.  I feel like I have overbooked us again, but it's okay we can do what we did last time...just cancel the day of and run up a bar tab.

I am in that panic mode where I am fearful that something is going to happen or come up, like the boys getting hurt or something and we can't go.  I already told them we would leave them home if that is the case.  I am only partially kidding.  I am so ready for this vacation and yet I won't let myself get too excited about it yet.  Remember when I said I was crazy excited for school to start?  That's because the quicker the year started, the quicker break would get here.

Itchy fingers across the keyboard.  

July at a glance....

Ugh....It's that time again.  Back to school.  These two months have flown by.  In the past it seems like we have had weeks where I have begged for school to start because the kids were bored, but not this time.  This is the breakdown of our summer....

June-- Two week class for me; Father's Day; Trip to San Antonio; Tennis camp.
July--Fireworks in Fresno; 20 year reunion; Fishing trip with boys; Vegas; Basketball camp.

All of a sudden, I blinked and we are back to school.

Fishing Trip to Half Moon Bay--

This was a fun trip.  Originally we had planned to take the boys deep sea fishing, but after gathering more information we decided it would probably be best if we waited until they were a little older to go and spend eight hours on a boat in the open seas.  The great thing about the boys is that they can fish anywhere and bee happy.  We had been crab fishing in HMB before, and they loved it, so we thought it would be a great plan to go back and go crabbing and fishing there again.

After we learned that Mason couldn't join us, we quickly tried to divert the sadness with a friend invite.  Luke loves to fish too, so we were so happy he could come.

Lunch before heading out to the pier.

That's the pier we fished from.  This was our hotel room.  It was walking distance and a perfect location.


Truth be told, the boys had just as much fun in the hotel room as they fishing.  Why is that?  My kids love a hotel room.

We had to bring Luke to our favorite restaurant.

Up and fishing early.  Don't let those fools in shorts fool you.  It was freezing.  I was dresses in all of my warm clothes as well as wrapped in towels I found in my moms car.

No keepers.

Fishing is exhausting.

My 20 year reunion.  Talk about a fun night.  Too fun.  Too. Much. Fun.  I had a blast.  I loved seeing friends that I haven't seen since high school. And I was most thrilled that my best friend from high school came back from Chicago (with a little coaxing) because that night would not have been the same without her.

BFF.

We had a little liquid courage pre-party at Melissa's.  We looked at old pictures, laughed so hard that drinks came out of our noses, and talked about all of the stupid stuff we did that we would kill our own children if they ever thought about doing it.

Jenny and Melissa---my college roommates.

Emilie and Jen--Emilie also a college roommate.

After a few drinks.  (Really, you can't tell???)

My date.  I made Rich go because he NEVER goes to anything.  I told him that people don't actually believe I am married because I always show up to things alone.  It was nice he made an appearance.

Ignore my droopy cocktail induced eyes, but this girl and I have been together since the first day of kindergarten.  I love and adore her.  And I hope Matthew marries her daughter.  That's all.

And this guy.  We had to take this to send to our former favorite teacher.  She was thrilled.  It was a good night.

Lastly, was our Disneyland/Vegas whirlwind trip.

So, flashback to 10 years ago when Rich and Steve slept overnight in California Adventure to be there when the doors opened for the 50th birthday of Disneyland.  Now, Cindy and I were there too, with Matthew, but we were smarter and slept in until 5:00am, before going over and getting in line.  With this being the 60th, there was no way that Rich and Steve were not going to be there.  Cindy and I decided to skip the festivities this year and not join them.  And truth be told, I couldn't have.  I need sleep.  And a lot of it.  Rich and Steve do not.  At all.  More power to them, but there was no way I was joining them.  I was simply the drop off and pick up girl.

We pulled into Anaheim at 12:15am, drove by the entrance of DL and the guys could already see there were people lining up, which put them into freak out mode.  So, we went and checked into our hotel and then I took them back and dropped them off at 1:00am.  From there, they were in the park until 10:30pm the following night.

Here they are with a few thousand of their closest freaks.

We had told the boys, especially Ryan who was devastated that Rich was going without him, that Rich would not be going on any rides.  That this was just a trip for him to be there and buy things that were associated with the 60th.  And at 8:15am, this was sent to me.  Ooooppppsss. Looks like they wasted no time getting on their first ride.

And this is Rich in line on the ride Ryan told him to ABSOLUTELY NOT GO ON.

They had a blast. Got into Club 33 and all.  I was totally and completely jealous.  I made up for it by going down to my sister's for the day and having breakfast with her, my cousin, and his girlfriend.  We picked Natalie up from school and we just hung out for the day.  That's totally the same as getting into Club 33.  Totally the same.

I mean look that face.

The next morning we headed to Vegas to meet our friends for our annual back to school shopping trip.  We had a blast.  We started off at all of our favorites, and ended the trip trying new places.  The best find was the Aria buffet.  I more enjoy a nice dinner than a buffet, but when a buffet offers unlimited cocktails for an extra fee, they become my new favorite buffet.  And the food was just okay, but again, we (Lynn and I) were not there for the food, we were there for the sangria.  All night long.

He was playing "Alice in Wonderland", you know "for the boys".

Game Face.  Don't mess with her and her penny slots.  Truth be told, we all hit a couple little jackpots this trip.  I actually won a little and brought it home.  That NEVER happens.  Ever.

And on our last night....Look who joined us!!!!  Our friend Sharon was in Vegas on business and we said that there is no way we can all be in Vegas at the same time without meeting up.  Luckily for us, she joined us for dinner and it was great to see her and hang out.  Dinner at Carmine's was great.

And then we are back and getting ready for school.  I had to take a picture of Matthew's closet.  This is Rich.  If you were to walk into our closet, Rich's side looks exactly like this.  A thousand shirts that he never wears.  I made Matt clean out 75% of it and said..."Didn't that feel good??"  Hint. Hint.

San Antonio Trip

I have often said that I would love to move to a different state and live there for a while.  California is WAY too expensive, and I think there are other parts of the United States that offer a great lifestyle at a much cheaper price.  Having said that, Texas is not the place.  And I think it is safe to say we can rule out any other high humidity areas.  Me and humidity do not get along.  We've tried to make it work, but we are not meant for each other.  It happens.  As jealous as I was to fly into a VERY green and luscious San Antonio (drought living has taken its toll on us), I soon felt it was a great place to visit and then leave.  Quickly.

The first night we arrived it was so late that nothing was open as far as restaurants around our hotel.  We took off down the River Walk and tried to find something, anything, and came up empty.  The only place open at midnight was Denny's.  Yep.  Denny's.  I feel SUPER sorry for my kids, because they LOVE Denny's, and I'll never eat in another Denny's again.  We were so desperate to eat, that it was kinda, barely kinda, worth it to eat at a table where I asked for napkins to lay down on the table so that when I wasn't using my fork, it had a cleaner place to rest.  No joke.  The entire restaurant was filthy and the first thing I did when we got back to the hotel was take a scalding hot shower to clean my entire body.  No bueno. 

Here is the River Walk at night, when it's midnight, and nothing is open. :(

Here is the view from our hotel.  You can see part of the River Walk and all the green beautiful trees. :)

The next day, we headed out for lunch.  Aaron, one of the other guys who is at the shows with us, said that he wanted to go and see The Alamo.  Little did we know it was two blocks away, so we took a walk through downtown to find it.

Cool old hotel.

 
The Alamo.  I turned to Aaron and said....I think this just became a work trip for me too. ;)

Lunch! Because a German restaurant in the middle of San Antonio makes perfect sense. 

And, On-The-Go Margaritas.  Nothing else to say.

The last day we were there, we sought out some Tex-Mex food.  Success.

My carnitas enchiladas.

Rich's BBQ brisket nachos.  Enough said.

We braved the weather on the last day.  It was hot and humid and gross.  But the walk along the River Walk was so cool, it was worth it to be out and see all the shops and restaurants.