Where did the month go?

I'm not sure where the month of May went. I think I have been absent from work more than I've been there. The kids had strep throat the first week, I had jury duty the next two weeks, Zachary was sick on Friday, and now Kailani has strep throat again. We were home today and will be home again tomorrow. Luckily I am able to do some work at home, but meetings keep getting rescheduled. We're running out of time before the end of the school year.

Happy Memorial Day!

This morning we went to the park for a meetup with some of the other moms. The kids made pirate hats and searched for a treasure chest full of gold coins (vanilla wafers). They had a good time playing at the park afterwards.

We spent most of the day at Becky's house. She had a picnic and invited many of the wives from George's ship over for one last lady's event. George's ship will be pulling in to San Diego soon.

Low Key Day

Since we're used to being on the go, it was hard to sit around the house. Zachary didn't have a fever all night and he was doing fine all morning. We decided to go run a few errands. We first headed to the mall to make arrangements for Kailani's birthday party. She decided to have her party at Build-A-Bear Workshop this year. She'll invite 10-15 kids and each one will get to make their own animal with clothing. They'll do games and other fund stuff with the kids during the party. Afterwards, we'll head to the food court in the mall to sing happy birthday. There is a Nestle Toll House store right there and we'll order a cookie cake to share with the kids. She is very excited about the party. We met up with Becky and the kids at John's Incredible Pizza, which is just like Chuck E Cheese, but it has a really awesome all-you-can-eat buffet. The kids played games for a while and then traded their tickets in for prizes. I wanted to do a few more things, but Zachary seemed to be feeling a little warm and tired, so we headed home. Kailani went home with Becky for a sleepover.
It's just me and Zachary tonight. He took a late nap, so I was able to sit and watch tv for a while. I haven't had the chance to do that since we've moved in. It felt good to relax. Once Zachary got up, he was ready to play. He spent some time alone playing in his new tent.

Changes for Zachary

I feel like this is the story of my life...Zachary is sick again. He came down with a fever on Thursday night. I asked Becky to watch the kids on Friday so I didn't have to miss work. I just missed 6 days for jury duty. It's getting close to the end of the year and I just can't miss anymore time. My work is piling up!
We went to the doctor this morning and she said it's just a cold. Zachary is still running a fever tonight, but I think he'll be okay. We cancelled our plans to go to Legoland tomorrow. I felt really bad to cancel because I offered to give free tickets to a friend and her kids since they've never been before. The tickets have to be used with us because we have the passes. Hopefully we can find another day to go. Her two kids are around the same age as mine and they get along well together.
Last week Zachary moved up to the 2-year old room at daycare. He's doing really well with the change. He knows some of the kids from the 1-year old room who moved up earlier. The teacher is really nice too. Zachary is signed up to start music next week. The music teacher allowed him to "visit" the music class last week and said he enjoyed it. He'll do music until the end of June and then we'll be on summer break for all of July. When he goes back to school in August, he'll pick up with music again and maybe I'll sign him up for cooking too. Kailani really enjoyed both of those classes.
We got a letter the other day from Heritage Elementary (where Kailani will go to school) stating that they will offer full day kindergarten next year rather than 1/2 day. This is such a relief for me because otherwise, Kailani would be in pm kindergarten and there would be an issue with childcare. she'll go to school from 7:45-2:45 Monday through Thursday and 7:45-12:45 on Friday. She can be dropped off at 7:15 for breakfast in the morning. She will be able to attend the YMCA care after school on the school site. I am excited that the cost of that care is about 1/3 of the cost that we are currently paying for daycare for her. Zachary's tution also went down significantly now that he moved up to the 2-year old room:)

Not Guilty

Well, my jury duty experience finally ended today. The case was handed over to the jury this afternoon and it only took about an hour and a half for us to come to a unanimous decision (although in a civil trial, only 9 out of 12 jurors have to agree). We discussed the case for a while, each giving our opinions on various testimonies and pieces of evidence. When we finally decided to take an initial vote to see where everyone stood on a verdict, we found that we all agreed in favor of the defendant.
Now that the case is over, I am allowed to spill all the details. In a nutshell, the case was a medical malpractice lawsuit. A man (38-year veteran lawyer) was suing a cardiologist for what he believed to be negligence after he performed a cardiac procedure on him. In the end, we just didn't believe everything the plaintiff said and didn't find that the doctor did anything below the "standard of care"; therefore, we had to rule in favor of the doctor.
Although I wasn't very happy to have been assigned to a case as a juror, I really learned a lot about the court system and about the anatomy of the heart and legs. I am impressed with how much knowledge the lawyers had about the medical terms and the body. I am also suprised at how well the court report was able to do in typing every word that was said with all of the medical terminology thrown around. It was very interesting to see what really goes on in a court room and compare it to what ideas I had based on television.
It's back to work tomorrow, and back to a stack of work I'm sure. At least I was able to go in on Friday and sift through some of the paperwork. This will be a busy week for me...
Tomorrow night is military appreciation night at Chick-fil-A, so after ballet we'll be headed there for dinner.

Happy Birthday Zachary!

I can't believe my little baby is two today! I got out of jury duty early today so we were able to go to dinner with Becky and some of the other moms whose husbands are on George's ship. They were having a fundraiser for the ship at the Corvette Diner. We'd never been there before so I am glad we were able to go. It was a 50s-style diner. They played music and the kids danced. The waitress brought Zachary a birthday boy hat and they all sang to him. After dinner, we stayed for a few minutes to play games. They have a whole section of the restaurant filled with games. The kids each played a few and were able to get enough points to pick a small prize. At the end of the night, I dropped Becky and the kids off at her house and we spotted a coyote on the site of the freeway off ramp right near Becky's house. Its crazy how close they'll get to civilization.

Zachary's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Zachary's birthday. I decided to have the party at our house since he's still too little to have a birthday party at a place like Pump it Up, etc. Lot of kids from our meetup group came to celebrate. We had lunch, made zoo animal puppets, broke a pinata, ate cake, and opened presents. Zachary was falling asleep at dinner...he fell asleep at 6pm. I hope he stays sleeping for the night.

Zachary's Birthday Pictures

Here's a sneak peak of Zachary's birthday pictures. We went to Picture People this afternoon for a session. He was such a ham! He was running round throwing the ball and having a good ole time. The photographer was really good at getting him to do what he wanted. Of course, I had a hard time choosing which prints to buy...

They actually asked me to sign a release form to use Zachary's photos as model photos because his pictures turned out so great. I'm not sure if they ask people to do this often, but I've had the kids' pictures taken at Picture People many times, and I've never been asked before.

When I Grow Up...

"I want to be a mommy and a princess". Kailani said this to me tonight and it was so cute:)
Today was day 4 of jury duty. We are off tomorrow because court is not in session on Fridays, so I can actually go to work. The judge expects the case to wrap up on Tuesday before lunch. This means the jury will start deliberation after lunch. As long as we can all agree, we'll be out of there on Tuesday. Since this is a civil case, only 9 out of the the 12 of us have to agree. If this were a criminal case, all 12 would have to agree. I'm not exactly sure what my vote is going to be yet...
We have a very busy weekend ahead of us. Saturday I have to work and then Sunday is Zachary's birthday party.

Jury Duty

A few months ago I received a jury summons in the mail. The date I was chosen to appear for jury duty was not convenient for me because of a work committment, so I rescheduled for a date when I didn't have anything on my schedule. The day I chose happened to be Monday this week. I appeared for jury duty at the downtown San Diego Hall of Justice. I thought I would hang out in the jury lounge all day and then go home at the end of the day; end of service. Well...after lunch, my name was called along with 49 other potential jurors for a case. By the end of Monday, a jury had not yet been selected, so the judge required all of us to return for service today. After the judge and both lawyers finished questioning the potential jurors and excusing those who they felt couldn't be unbiased in the case, I ended up being part of the jury for the case. The case is expected to last 6-7 days, not including Fridays (court isn't in session on Fridays). This means, I will be out of work for the remainder of this week and probably all of next week as well. This happens to be horrible timing because it is a very busy time at work, but I don't have any choice.
Parking is terrible downtown. The last two days I've paid $22 per day to park. I got a free trolley pass today to possibly try this week. I just don't like to rely on someone else for transportation. I want to be able to leave right away if there would be an emergency. I may try to park at the trolley stop before the one I would need to get off at so I just ride the trolley for one stop. This would eliminate the need to pay for parking. I'll have to check the trolley schedule. The one positive part of this is that court doesn't start until 9:30am so I have plenty of time to get the kids up and ready in the morning without rushing.
It is a little interesting to see what really goes on in a court room. The only knowledge I have is from television shows and so far, it's pretty similar. Hopefully the case won't last too long. For now, I will be reporting for jury duty every day.

Coronado Bay Bridge Run/Walk

Today we got up early and headed downtown for the Coronado Bay Bridge Run/Walk. We had never done this before and thought it would be fun to try. Kailani loves to look at and cross the bridge, so she was really excited. The walk (we didn't run) started downtown by Petco Park and ended at Tidelands Park in Coronado. They closed down half of the Coronado Bridge and we crossed it on foot...the only time you can do this. I thought it might be a little scary, but the bridge is so big that I didn't even feel like I was walking over water. All of the suicide hotline signs did freak me out a little though. The entire walk was 4 miles and the kids stayed in the stroller for most of it. It was actually really hard to push the stroller around the curves and up the bridge...I was pushing 75 pounds! After the walk, we took a shuttle bus back downtown and had lunch at Lolita's. We took a picture to tease daddy!

After the walk, I had plans to run some errands, but decided to come straight home to get some more things done around the house. I can actually say that I think I am done with the inside of the house. The rooms are completely set up, including pictures. As long as you don't open the office closet or the garage, you would never know we just moved in recently. I think the garage will have to wait for Jason. I can keep the door closed for 2 more months:)

I have jury duty tomorrow downtown. I would honestly rather be at work. I hope I end up being let go early.

Hero on My Arm

Tonight Becky hosted a Hero on My Arm party. A woman started this company and makes differnet things (mostly purses and bags) out of military uniforms. Apparently she is only one of two people who have permission from the government to use actual uniforms. Jason had an extra uniform here, so we took it with us in case we found something we liked. Of course everything is so nice, but expensive. Going in to the party, Kailani already had it planned out that she was getting a purse and a wallet, and Zachary was getting a teddy bear. I guess mommy gets nothing! We'll have to sit down and take a look at the website (http://www.heroonmyarm.com/) because the purses are just a little too expensive for a 4-year old:)
Kailani has been bugging me to sign her up for cheerleading. She sees Makenzi doing it and wants to do it herself. On Tuesday, she got to pick a prize at Chick-fil-A and she chose a plastic megaphone. She already has 2 pom poms from previous times she was able to pick prizes. She said that now she has everything she needs to be a cheerleader. I looked into cheerleading in our area and found that Otay Ranch has pop warner football and cheerleading too. So...I signed her up. She is beyond excited! She'll go for her uniform fitting on June 8 and the season starts on July 1. I am sure we'll be very busy once it does because they'll practice during the week and have games on Saturdays. The nice thing is that everything will be held at Otay Ranch High School, which is very close to our house. I hope she enjoys it as much as she thinks she will.
Zachary is getting so big so fast. It's hard to believe he'll b 2 years old in 10 days. Usually the daycare moves kids up to the next room as soon as they have a birthday. I requested that Zachary stay in his current room until June 30, which will be the kids' last day until Zachary goes back in August. I was surprised, but the director said she was unable to do that, so Zachary will be moving up to the 2-year old class soon. One good thing about him moving up is that it will be cheaper:) He will also be able to enroll in the enrichment classes such as music and cooking, like Kailani does now. He loves music, so we'll start with that for the month of June and see how that goes.

Happy Anniversary!

Today Jason and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary. It's hard to believe how quickly time flies. It's too bad that Jason couldn't be here to celebrate. We love to go to Roy's. Maybe when he gets home...
Today I spoke with the principal at Kailani's school for next year. I don't want to be "that" parent, but I am really concerned that Kailani didn't get am kindergarten. The school doesn't offer YMCA care for the pm class and no daycare will bus to and from for the pm session either. I would have to find someone privately to keep her before and after school. The pm session is from 10:50-2:15...such an inconvenient time. Anyway...the principal said that there is a possibility that they could offer full-day kindergarten this year because they now have the space. I wonder if many of the kids who would go to Heritage got into High Tech Elementary. They are calling all parents of kindergartners to see if they would like full-day kindergarten next year. We should be hearing in the next few weeks if they've decided to make the switch. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Happy Mother's Day

Today Becky and I hosted a mother's day luncheon at her house. We thought it would be something nice for all of the mommies whose husbands are away. We took a picture of each mommy and her child(ren) to put in a frame. We got plain wooden frames and had all kinds of things for the kids to decorate them with. The moms had a present to take home with them. We had good food and good company.

Flower Fields

Today I decided to take the kids to the Carlsbad Flower Fields. I've been wanting to go for a few years and every time I think about it, it's closed. They are only open for a few weeks during the spring. Actually, this was supposed to be the last weekend, but they will stay open one more weekend because of how well the flowers are blooming.

I thought it would be nice to give Becky a break to get some things done. She watches Kailani and Zachary for me a lot...so I asked if Jaylynn and Makenzi wanted to go along. We met up with another mom from the meetup group and her two girls.

The first thing we did was take a wagon ride around the flower fields. Then we played at the park for a while and did the flower maze, which was really hard to get out of! Each of the kids had a passport that they had to get stamped in different spots throughout the fields. Once their passports were filled, they could get $1 off panning for jewels. All four kids were able to find a bag full of colored rocks in the bucket of sand they got.

I am glad we were able to make the trip to the flower fields today. We had a nice time and the kids were all very good.

Keep the Germs Away!

Well, here's an update on Kailani...She seemed to be doing fine all day yesterday. Before dinner she was sick again and that's when I noticed that her face was swollen below her eyes and at the top of her nose. I decided then I should take her to see a doctor. I went to our doctor's after hours clinic rather than the ER because I thought it would be faster. It wasn't too bad, but it did take about 3 hours. Luckily Becky met us there are took care of Zachary while I was in the room with Kailani.

It turns out that Kailani has strep throat. The doctor said her swollen face could be from getting sick, but nothing to worry about at this point. He prescribed medicine and we were off.

As we were leaving for the doctor last night, I noticed that Zachary felt warm. I gave him medicine and he seemed fine for Becky the whole time we were at the doctor. On the way home, he was burning up again. I decided to take Zachary to the doctor today to have him checked out. He did get sick on Friday, but seemed fine since. The doctor said kids under the age of 2 don't usually get strep throat because their tonsils aren't fully developed yet. Well, I guess since Zachary will be 2 in three weeks, his tonsils are developed enough because he also has strep throat.

We'll be home from work and school for the third day in a row tomorrow. Hopefully the kids will feel up to going to school on Thursday. Once they have medicine in their systems for 24 hours, they aren't contagious anymore. They really aren't acting sick, in fact, they're still enjoying playing outside. They are still running fevers though, and when the Tylenol wears off, you can tell. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I am hoping I don't get it. I'm not sure how I'd take care of the kids if I were sick.

Here are a few pictures of the kids playing outside this afternoon. It was really hot today. Earlier when I got in my car, the thermometer read 108 degrees! I filled the sand and water tables and they were out there for hours.

Sick Again

This school year has been terrible for the kids. I feel like at least once per month one or both of them were sick. Zachary was sick on Friday night. He was fine the rest of the weekend, so I though maybe he just ate something that upset his stomach. He did eat about 4 bowls of blueberries and blackberries:) Well...the kids were at Becky's last night because daycare is closed today. She offered to have them sleep over so I didn't have to run them to her house in the morning so she could watch them today. When I kissed Kailani good bye, she felt a little warm to me. I took her temperature and she was fine. About an hour later Becky said she was still fine. I was beginning to think I am just paranoid when leaving the kids with anyone. I was about the get into bed around 11pm and the phone rang...it was Becky, so I knew something was wrong. Apparently Kailani got the same stomach bug Zachary had on Friday. She woke up and was throwing up. I ran up to Becky's to pick up the kids and we're hanging out at home today. This was our first day of state testing at school today, which is why I didn't take off (not to mention I don't have any sick days left); however, I don't have a choice on this one. Kailani seems to be doing fine now, but she does still have a fever. I hope she recovers as quickly as Zachary did this time. I hate to see them sick. Maybe after this one, we can make it through the end of the school year...