Good evening! We had a very productive day today. Paul didn't get home until 7am! The girls and I were up and doing our morning routine by 915. I mowed the front and side yard while the girls drew chalk pictures on the walkway. Paul woke up around noon. After lunch, I helped him take the cover off the pool. We didn't use chlorine last year. Instead, we used Biguanide. It's not as harsh on the skin and eyes. So, when we took the cover off, the water was pretty damn clear. The kids wanted to go swimming! Yeah, right.. NOT. Tomorrow, we will add the rest of the chemicals needed and we will probably be swimming by the weekend! YAY! Dinner tonight was quite simple - grilled steaks, mashed potatoes, fresh veggies for salad... yummy. After dinner, the girls wanted to go in the sprinkler. They lasted about 15 minutes. Well water is cold! Bath, book and bed! They were both in bed by 830 and I haven't heard a peep out of them! I have to teach Sunday School tomorrow and next Sunday. Then - I get the summer off from teaching! I need to find a craft for tomorrow - better late than never, eh?

Interesting article found on FoxNews - NEW YORK — A "lady" doesn't ask a man for a date, eat grits, forward joke e-mails or cuss at work — and she always knows which teams are playing in the Super Bowl. Some quotes from this article are: "According to the slew of new books on women's etiquette, a gal must follow the above rules or her reputation, and possibly her career and love life, will pay the price." and "Many men have thanked me for writing this book," she said. "They say they feel overpowered by female aggression and would love to see more ladylike behavior." Fucking dream on.

Another thing... Does anyone else find the "Pet Psychic" disturbing? She's a freakin nut. And.. I just love all of the DirecTV commercials. Heee.

I am watching Making Marines on the Discovery channel. The Drill Sergeants are very scary. I can't believe they have any voices left, judging by the way they scream at the newbies. They are filming the new recruits at Parris Island. The poor bastards. Paul got called into work about 20 minutes ago. Damn it. I did get to read some of my book club selection "Invisible Monsters". What a freak-ass book. Oy. VERY disturbing indeed!

I took Moira up to her allergist today. Poor kid - she is so full of snot (gross, I know). Her allergist is SO cool - he gives tons of samples and hands out scripts with NO problems. I take Olivia back next week for HER visit. They will be doing a RAST test (skin prick) and re-testing her food allergies. Ugh - poor baby. I have class tonight. We are staying home this weekend and (hopefully!) opening the pool! YAY!

As promised, I am posting pictures from yesterday's beach trip...
Olivia was having so much fun collecting shells.

I managed to get a picture of the 2 of us but it was tough.

She wanted to chase the sea gulls.

This is the front and side view of the MTV beach house. As you can see, nothing going on here.


Olivia passed out on the couch around 430pm yesterday. I had the hardest time waking her up for dinner!

Overall - it was a great day. Moira was upset we didn't take her but there will be plenty of time for all of us to make it to the beach soon. I grilled hot dogs last night and the kids had watermelon for dessert. What a mess!

WOW! Harry Potter ROCKED! I want to watch it again!

Hi! Just got back from the beach! Olivia and I got down there around11am and we wandered around the beach. It was a nice day although a bit foggy down by the water. Olivia was a little freaked out by the water, giving a little scream everytime the water came up close to her. It was pretty funny. There was one wave that snuck up on us and got our feet all wet! Of course, I was wearing my sneakers! Olivia was wearing her water shoes so she was ok. I took a bunch of pictures and I will post them up later. Oh - we also saw the MTV beach house. Nothing going on there but a lot of security and cops just hanging around. Gee - and I was hoping to see P. Doody or Diddy or whatever his name is today ::snicker::

I started work on my family tree last night. HOLY crap - I have a LOT of work to do! Thank goodness I have a lot of it written dowm. I wonder how I can (IF I can) search the Iranian databases. I will have to try to get my cousins or my uncles email addresses so I can get more information.

I picked up the new Harry Potter widescreen DVD for $14.97! Yeehaa! I know what I will be watching tomorrow night! I also bought Family Tree Maker so I will be starting to work on MY family tree and I want to attach Paul's extended family (which is BIG!) to it as well. I hope I am able to do that. Anyone use this program yet? I had class tonight. Jeff, the instructor, is really a nice guy. I like him. He gets off into some serious tech jargon every once in a while but we manage to veer him back on track. Not much else new tonight. Olivia is sleeping.. thank God. Moira, on the other hand sounded gross as I was leaving for school. I hope she is ok in the morning.

Liz aka The CandleLady is on hiatus. I will miss you sweetie. Keep in touch!

There is a man who attended the same HS as I (graduated 2 1 year ahead of me) who is being charged for aggrevated sexual assault of a child. Disgusting. I know of this person. I was friends (at one time) with his sister. I want to vomit. Scumbag

Around 1245am last night, I was having a grand old chat with Erin when Olivia woke up again. I gave her a second breathing treatment (during which she fell asleep) and finally got her back into bed by 2am. I woke up again at 715am to wake up Moira for school. Paul was home this morning so he took Moira to the bus stop and I went back to bed. Olivia woke up around 915am and then my Dad called. I am so glad I managed to get a little more sleep (I am yawning as I type) because I have class tonight.

Comedian Bob Hope is 99. Happy Birthday Bob.

A friend of mine who lives in the middle of Silicone Valley, CA just emailed me regarding a huge underground explosion at a large company, Novellus.She said she lives about a block away! I hope things are ok with her and her family. I have been checking the online news sources and there is no information as of yet.

Oh my God - I will be ::gulp:: 32! Or, as I like to say "20-12" or "I will be celebrating my 12th anniversary of being 20." ::sigh::

I wonder if my comments are now updated. I had a bunch of error messages before...

Just got Olivia into bed about 20 minutes ago.. the past 4 hours were filled with crying. The sad pathetic type of crying... the kind that breaks apart your heart and makes you want to do anything to fix whatever is wrong....

We just got back from the doctor's office. I took Olivia in just to be sure. I was right - post nasal drip. Lungs clear, ears clear. Damn - this is SO frustrating. Basically, she has a cold.

I was busy all day yesterday and by the end of the day, I felt so gross. I must have caught a cold from the kidlets (the little plague carriers). My nose was all stuffy and I had a sore throat. Olivia must have had those plus she has an awful post-nasal drip that is making her cough so hard she gags. Poor baby. She had a tough night last night. She coughed for a while before we finally got her up and sat her out with us. Olivia sat and watched Trading Spaces with us and got a nebulizer treatment. She coughed so much that she was wheezing. We got her back into bed around midnight. Paul is still working on our room. It's been a difficult process because we cannot empty the room. I have nowhere to put the furniture. Plus, the walls are pretty messed up. He had a LOT of spackling and patching to do around the room. So, he would alternate between painting, priming, spackling and sanding. At one point, he painted a happy face one of the unpainted wall and the kids went NUTS! They thought that was the coolest thing!