The End of a {Glittery} Era

First of all, as I was looking at my past two posts, I realized how confused I've been this week. I posted Cabo Countdown on WEDNESDAY. I'm supposed to post this on Thursdays, my friends! On Wednesday, I assure you that I thought it was Thursday.

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It felt like Thursday, anyway.

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Perhaps because on the real Thursday I took August to the Flyaway to fly away to Canada for a gig, and the real Thursday felt like Friday, because that's usually when he goes out of town when he travels.

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Anyway...

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Today was Friday, for real (right?), because it did feel like Friday all day and I'm not planning on waking up and going to work tomorrow. Brooke was invited to a playdate at Gemma's and the mom decided she would take Gemma and Brooke to Club Libby Lu.

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Club Libby Lu is all sorts of pink and fluffy and glitter. When Kennedy was small, she loved it. Her 8th birthday was held there.

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There have been many other parties attended at this store. The girls always come home so glam, so blingy, so dang cute.

Well, today Brooke went with Gemma. Tomorrow the store closes forever. Who knew? We certainly didn't, and by sheer luck, Brooke got made up, glittered up, glammed up one more time.

This style is the "royal" style because "this is how Cinderella wears her hair".

Is it because of the economy? "The economy" people say, as they shake their heads. "The economy" is to blame for so many things these days and I suppose randomly showing up at a store to pay $20 for a 6 year-old's makeover may be considered unnecessary in "this economy". To be clear, I always found it unnecessary, even in our "before" economy, thus we only went for birthday parties and you can only book so many birthday parties on the weekend; therefore I imagine it would be hard to make the rent in a prime mall location. Oh, Libby Lu, I will be sad knowing you are gone, but thank you for sticking around through two little girls and providing your pink goodness for so many years. Thank you for being there for one last time for Brookie, who really hasn't outgrown you just yet...

First Grade Texting - LOL

Brooke enjoys sending text messages from cell phones. She's six. She does not have her own phone (that should be a "duh" statement, but I have seen first graders with cell phones so I felt I should clarify), but she will ask to borrow ours to send out a message. She types away, in her own little world. I have decided to occasionally share some messages for your entertainment.

Message TO: MOMMY from DADDY'S CELL

dear mommy. we whent to the duck pond you shude of seen it the ducks went crazy we fed them 3 hole bags of bread can you amagine whoa love your 6 year old Brooke and your ** daddy. chow...i mean bye. oops...sorry...my bad. se ya

{Uh, I removed the age from right before the word "daddy" so as to protect the innocent..meaning save my own you-know-what.}


More will be posted later!

Cabo Countdown - 6 weeks to go!

Six years ago was Brooke's first time in Cabo. She was six months old. We have six weeks to go. See a common denominator today?

I'm sure she remembers it vividly, too.

It's our tradition to check in & drink a "welcome" margarita (not necessarily in that order), put the bags in the room, and go straight to the beach to look at the bay!

Here she is with her first look at the view we love so, so much.

She looks right at home sitting by the pool!

Just look at the big smile. Six more weeks, and we will all be smiling like that, too!!! (But with more teeth.)

Lessons from Samoa

LESSON ON HOW TO GET A CHILD TO LEGGO YOUR EGGO

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Once child is seated at table, seat yourself as close to child as possible.

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Look cute.

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It's the same thing every day...Eggos, with peanut butter.

Fidget anxiously as food is held high above your head. Resist urge to jump up and remove food from child's fingers, as accidentally removing child's fingers in process might occur and that would definitely be grounds for a "bad dog" reprimand. Which would equal...no treats.

Oh, sweet relief. Take food gently, as this greatly impresses those handing out the food (much more so than, how do they say, biting the hand that feeds you) and will almost certainly earn you a few more bites as they ooh and ahh over how "gentle" you are.

Look cute. Repeat entire process.

THE END

Peace to you today

May your week be peaceful and full of love.

Happy Birthday Dear Keisha

On January 25, 1990, a puppy was born. A female blue Chow Chow. I named her Keisha. From the moment she was born, she was mine. I held her to my neck before she ever opened her eyes. At 5 weeks, I brought her home to live with me. Her mother, Tasha, and brother, Einstein, visited us often.

When Keisha was one, I moved to Los Angeles. Two months later, my mom took Keisha to DFW and put her on a plane so she could live here too. She was our first baby, mine and August's.

Every year on her birthday I would buy the stinkiest can of cat food. (When I lived at home, she loved to eat my cat's food; when we fed him, she would hover over him until he got annoyed and left, usually leaving some food for her to lick up.) We would stick Puperoni treats in to look like candles and we would sing Happy Birthday to her.

Even after we had children, the birthday tradition continued. However, in the picture below, it appears that Kennedy insisted on a lighted candle. And balloons. We take birthdays seriously around here! The date on this picture is 2003. I think this was the last birthday we celebrated with her. The following July, Keisha passed away.

Keisha, you were such a good dog, and you were very loved. We think of you today, and we miss you.

Blah Blah Blah(g)ing - or "Why I Blog"

Why do I blog? How did this come about for me, a busy-full-time-working-mother-of-two-who always-volunteers-at-school-as-well? It all started last August 2008...several things happened almost simultaneously.

1) My brother got married to a bee-yoo-tee-ful girl and I came straight home to load all the lovely pictures onto Shutterfly to send off to my grandmother who wasn't able to make it to the wedding in Cozumel.

2) While loading many (many) photos from the wedding, I noticed a little Shutterfly side-ad for "share sites". I checked into it. I GOT into it. I made a share site for my family...each of us has our very own tab! Pictures, quotes, stories...I was diggin' it! {Sort of funny, apparently this was not a NEW Shutterfly feature, because it seems I'd already set up a share site two years ago and put some Easter pictures on it, then made one for August's music gear....then promptly forgot the whole thing as if I'd had a complete mind sweep.}

3) Then Kennedy comes along and asks if she and her friend can set up a website and post funny videos. Of course, terrible thoughts entered my head just thinking about bad people viewing my 11 year-old and her friend acting like silly kids so I started to investigate ways they could have a "site" in a safe, controlled way. And I found Blogger and signed on, and even did a little practice post. {The girls never did pursue this, by the way, in case you think you are missing out on some 11 year-old girlie humor...I promise I would never deny you that pleasure, provided you are a blood relation.}

4) I continued having a grand time adding things to the Shutterfly site. I posted HI-larious stories about Brooke losing her tooth! Charming stories about how Kennedy's 5th grade teacher loved her so! Then I realized...when those stories became outdated, I would have to remove them from the page and they'd be lost forever! Say it isn't so! I went around this by making another page for "archived" pictures and stories. Yet, something was missing. Something, something.

5) Then I noticed a news story about a small plane crash (read story here) and how the blogging community (I really knew nothing much about blogging at this point) has rallied to the aid of a young mother and her husband who suffered severe injuries in the crash. Dude, there are two things that scare me in this world...two types of links I will click on no matter what...small airplane crashes and alligator attacks.

I was immediately captivated by this story (even though it did NOT include an alligator attack, thankfully). A lovely young girl, 27 years old, with FOUR children. Aye carumba! She started a blog a number of years ago when she and her husband moved to New Jersey, away from her family (she's one of 9, I think) and she started blogging to keep them in touch with her and her children. She was a cute and clever blogger with funny pictures and funny captions. She had a funky vintage style to dressing and decorating. She was interesting and entertaining, and you could see how her blog progressed in style through the years and, along the way, she developed followers.

As I sifted through her blogs in the weeks following, I read about how she gave her husband flight lessons as a gift. Then I saw pictures from a flight in which she writes "if we crash, the children go to my brother". Then "we didn't crash". Ominous. And when I looked to find the post to link to, I cannot. I'm wondering if it was altered because it is just too, too scary. Then a post about really wanting some moccasins in a New Mexico store that she saw the last time they visited the family ranch, and hoping her husband would fly her there. Next post, a picture of her and her son wondering if anyone would like to buy some ad space on her blog. Next post...her sister has posted news of the plane crash. Heartbreaking... She is burned over 80% of her body...but she lives, her husband lives. The next five months are nothing short of miraculous because, despite the odds, she indeed lives. Her sister continues to post on her behalf, benefits are held, money is raised.

I am inspired by her and the way she celebrated the everyday. She has just resumed, tentatively, posting on her blog. She celebrates being alive, yet she is open with her challenges. I have a button on the right - "I read Nie Nie". You should read her too. Her sister is pretty funny and I've become attached to her blog, she can be found on the "Cjane" button under Nie Nie's.

6) In October, I decide that this blogging thing could be the way to combine my Shutterfly share site with my desire to tell stories about the day-to-day...just as this girl did, just as many, many others do.

I figured that if I were a grandparent, I might totally enjoy seeing random pictures of my grandchildren going about things in their daily lives. I might enjoy hearing funny stories that might never make it my way because by the time we connect on the telephone, the stories are filed way away in the back of a busy mommy or daddy's mind.

I figured that I personally would love to read about my friends and family, if they were so inclined to create a blog! I very much enjoy my sister-in-law, Stephanie's, Shutterfly site. And my friend, Lori, has a fun blog which posts fun things about places she and her husband have traveled to and about her projects about the house. I've never seen her house. I like getting a peek into her world.

And guess what else...I like looking at the blogs of complete strangers, too! I love looking at the photography, and reading the stories. Some sites are craft-dedicated, others are family-oriented, some are just about whatever. On my lunch hour at my desk at work, sometimes I look at blogs.

So, in summary, I blog to share our world...these kids grow in a blink of an eye, and this is my way of stopping to reflect and enjoy the moments for just a little longer.

And those faces, oh those faces...who of blood relation (and even beyond!) could resist logging on just to see those faces?

It Never Rains in California...

Oh, but it is TOTALLY raining in California right now, let me tell you! The ground is wet and the dog's paws are muddy.

And yesterday, when I picked Brooke up from school, this is what I found...

Perhaps you cannot tell, so let me describe the scene. The child? Soaking wet. You may ask, because I sure did, how did this happen?

"I stood under a raindrop," she answers.

Meaning, she stood under the eaves of the school while dirty rainwater rolled from the roof of the school onto her little girl self.

Sweet.

Blah Blah Blah(g)ing

I have changed the header of my blog from The California Zadra Family to something less personal, and a little bit funny (inspiration directly from my clever husband, August). Why the change all three of you who are semi-regular readers may ask? Many multi-faceted reasons....

1) Every time I typed the word "August" in my blog, Google would rat me out! Because "Zadra" was in the title, and "August" was in the blog, Google sent him an alert to totally rat on me and let him know that I was talking about him.

Geez. I mean, it's one thing if he logs on and reads it himself, but can't a girl dish on her husband without Google being a tattle-tale?

And it's not lost on me that this post will totally get back to him, what with all the first name/last name combinations in the previous paragraph. Hi honey!!!!!

2) And along those same lines, I noticed a few visitors to the site that came directly from Google which led me to believe that someone was probably googling our name and found us this way. Stalkers? Probably not. Ex-girlfriends of my husband, most likely. And, no, I'm not paranoid...many an ex-girlfriend has googled him, found his band websites and sent an e-mail.

Not that I can blame them...if I hadn't married him, I'd probably be googling him right about now, too. :) He's a hottie, and a nice boy too. Hi honey!!!!!

So, I thought about that and decided that perhaps I didn't want to make it SO easy for people (ex-girlfriends) to delve into our personal lives. Not that I'm shy or anything...I LOVE reading other people's blog and looking at their pictures and don't mind them doing the same. I invite ALL friends and family to log on and read away! But let's not have it out there on a silver platter or anything. {And if you happen to be an ex-girlfriend reading this now...Hello! Welcome! And, yes, he IS still so hot 20 years later, and aren't those children just beautiful?}

and lastly,

3) I might start posting some of my crafty work (once I get back into producing some crafty work) on the site, and I noticed other people's crafty site blogs have clever names and since my blog might become something just a tiny bit more than a family weekend recap, I wanted a clever name too!

The children and the husband like to poke fun at me..."mommy is over there blah blah blah-ing" they will say. They think they are quite funny. So, when I started blogging, the clever, clever husband (hi honey!!!) made up a little funny...blah blah blogging. And in my head it stuck.

And that's the end of my story. For now. Tomorrow I intend to write about my inspiration for actually starting a blog. It will be a good story. Stay tuned.

Happy, happy Friday!

Cabo Countdown - 7 weeks to go

When Kennedy turned four, she went parasailing with Daddy in Cabo. (Her birthday often falls during the week we are in Cabo.) She also went again when she turned 8 (no pictures, camera malfunction on the boat!) This year she turns 12 and she's made parasailing an every four year tradition. Perhaps this year a solo ride? {I'd feel better if she went with Daddy, just one more time.}


She was not scared, not even a little bit.

Not sure I can say the same for Uncle Marc...

Is that the smoke monster from Lost behind his head???

Remember when...

Remember when...Kennedy was two? And she sucked her thumb? I do, I remember it like it was yesterday.

Cabo Wabo Countdown

7 weeks from tomorrow...we will be here.

Dog Blog

Today the puppy has to go to the vet to be fully sedated for x-rays. I can still call her a puppy because she is only 10.5 months old. (I defend myself because, you see, I like to keep the littles little for as long as possible...so Brooke is still the "baby", our "tiny girl", etc.) The puppy is large. She weighs approximately 59.8 lbs. She didn't stay little for long.



But back to the subject, the puppy is limping and seems arthritic and usually wakes up stiff like she's a 14 year-old dog.

We are not exactly thrilled about the prospect of hip/joint problems for the next decade-plus. This on top of the fact that she has a grand time destroying the back yard, pulling plants right out of their pots.



In fact, she is on the side of the house right now tearing apart a box with an old umbrella in it. I've scolded her for this. She doesn't listen. And just now, she was barking and I opened the door to tell her to come inside. And she spit a rock at me. A rock. In her mouth. While she was barking. Then she picked the rock back up and ran off. And didn't come inside.

And she always wants to play when it's supposed to be bedtime, too.

But really, a hula-hooping dog...who can resist that???????

And the fact of the matter is...she is one of the family...see for yourself....

60 lbs of love...she has no clue she is that big. She just knows that this is her house, her family, and her yard and she thinks that it is very likely that it is all about her.

And she is going to be an unhappy beast in a few hours when I drop her at the vet. Wish her luck!!

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Other patient update...the daddy is still in pain, but getting much better. And now he has some type of cold and has lost his voice. He has a gig tonight...no head banging, can't sing. Let's wish HIM luck too!

Under the Sea we have nice printing

Today, I share this. We are especially proud of Brooke and her spelling tests, not only because she usually gets a good score, but also because her printing has improved GREATLY since the beginning of the year.

For awhile, I was certain she'd have a career as a doctor because her printing was so messy. (Not a bad thing in and of itself...but oh, that messy writing!)

At the beginning of the year, the teacher asked parents to write down our goals for our children this school year. She's six. She can read. She plays well with others. Gee, what else to wish for? She's too young to start running errands to the grocery store, or keep the family budget. She can't even lift the 20 lb dog food bag to feed the dog, for goodness sakes.

So I chose to write as a goal "improve her penmanship...and eat a green vegetable".

One out of two ain't bad, eh?

I also would like to share this. Just because it's cute and I totally dig the mermaid and how she spelled "piranha". Oops, so much for the illusion of perfect spelling that I just gave you above.

Real life weirdness

Sometimes, when going through files of pictures on the computer, one finds the strangest things...

Patient Update

Update: I think things are looking up! He's in less pain today, as long as he's careful not to do anything to aggravate his back. He even made it (with some help with the heavy lifting & driving) to band practice last night!

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Some friends of ours gave us a tube of homeopathic gel - Arnicain, which is the same base as the arnica pills that another friend loaned us. August is believing in the Arnicain gel, it seems to be the first thing that actually helps (that's not vodka-based)...so if you have muscle or bruising issues, give it a try!

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So, perhaps each day this week will be markedly better than the one before! Keeping fingers crossed...

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And no, I'm not even going to explain the photo, but I will tell you...that's not Eddie!!!

Wicked

Today Kennedy and I went to Hollywood to see Wicked.

This was Kennedy's #1 thing on her Christmas list. For the record, procrastination is not your friend when you wait until the last few weeks of a popular musical's run to buy tickets. I tell you this for future reference, just so you know. But we got lucky, we got the tickets, we took the subway down to the famous Hollywood and Vine, and we saw Wicked.

I LOVE the last scene of the first act...Defying Gravity. I am a Wizard of Oz fan from WAY back and that green witch and her flying monkeys scared me to death! The book and play show us the "before she was wicked" side of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. This is the scene where the witch has reached the end of the proverbial robe and she snaps and gravitates high up into the air...the drama, the emotion, the music, the fantastic singing. If you ever have the chance to see Wicked...do! But not in Los Angeles, the Pantages said goodbye to this play today...we saw the second to last showing and it did not disappoint! And within this story, this story that really doesn't have anything much to do with a girl from Kansas, are lessons...lessons about friendship, lessons about discrimination. An underlying theme regarding the need for unconditional acceptance from one's family. Bravo, bravo!

I'm through with playing by

The rules of someone else's game

Too late for second-guessing

Too late to go back to sleep

It's time to trust my instincts

Close my eyes and leap...

It's time to try Defying Gravity

I think I'll try Defying Gravity

And you can't pull me down

(Elphaba, final scene Act 1)

Tween-age musings

So far, this is what I know about pre-teens...sometimes they are laughing, fun-loving beings.

And sometimes they're not. And they won't smile for a picture either.

My conclusion...pre-teens are weird. But we love them just the same and never stop trying to get that picture with a smile!

I am taking the pre-teen to see Wicked today...she will be smiling for sure because that was her top item on her Christmas wish list!!

Here is an example of the perplexing nature of the preteen:

We were talking about cars. She loves the Mini Cooper. I advised her that the Mini Cooper was too small of a car for her first car, and she needed something safer. Mind you, SHE started this conversation about cars.

She then advised me that she likes those Volvos, you know the ones that look like SUVs. Wait, you are kidding me, right? My almost 12 year-old is coveting a car that even I can't truly afford if we still want to pay the mortgage and save for college? Ha! So I advised her that, while this was a very SAFE choice, it was too expensive for a first car. Please recall that SHE started this conversation and as a mother, I am respecting her interests so I am participating fully. I then tell her that Honda has a lovely SUV-like, safe option...the CRV. To which she replies, with a tone (if I'm not mistaken) of exasperation:

"Mom! I'm ONLY 11!"

Uh.... what just.... Someone please explain this to me......