I LOVE my Curves Trimming Pants!

I'm not kidding! I love these pants! I bought them months ago (I think it was late last year), and didn't bother to wear them until recently. Why? I have no idea, but I'm just glad I finally bothered to try them. I've been wearing them for the past three days while walking the track, and they work! I lost two pounds just walking the track them on the last three days (I walked a mile). Sure, you have to hop into them, and you have to zip it up, but--it really takes off the water weight-it's like sauna pants. Don't laugh, but you know it when you unzip and take them off... It's all tingling....it feels good!

I bought them as a demo from Avon (of course), and they sell for $24.99. I usually don't really do testimonials, but I LOVE these pants! :) If you want to buy a pair, let me know--I'll ship it over to you free. (There is always that 100% guarantee.)

Right now I'm drinking coffee, and watching a movie with my husband, The Weather Man. Nicolas Cage is in it, and my God---it's a weird movie. Have a good weekend!

Busy Month...part 2

I haven't written in awhile….I’m afraid I’m being lazy, or perhaps, just too involved in various things. Like I said, the month of May has been quite a busy month!

Well, I finally got to the mall and got Andrew his suit for confirmation.





Just imagine the suit you see here in white and lavender. Apparently, this is not a joke- the suit pictured here is considered “high fashion” in the website I found.

No, I did not buy this suit for Andrew---I’m joking. He is wearing black slacks, and a grey pin-striped sports jacket, because according to him it looks “gangster”. That’s as “gangster” as we are going to get. Oh, and he is wearing a tie---Andrew of all people picked it out. This surprised me-my little boy is growing up! The whole shopping experience went very quickly. Andrew is so tall and thin, everything looks good on him, and is very easy to shop for. My mom bought some black loafers-she insisted to contribute in some way. I think she really thought I would let him get confirmed in white basketball sneakers. Confirmation day is Sunday-I will post pictures.

My step-son, Matt had a prom last Saturday-he looked very handsome, and his grandparents were here from out of state to see him off. I won’t post his picture, until his mother gets a look at them. He has another prom this Saturday, and Andrew has a performance for that day too. He and his “crew” were told that they could perform at another café in town. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but Andrew and his friends make beats, and sing rap. It’s not my favorite type of music, but Andrew really enjoys writing and performing. Hope to see him perform this weekend—will try and record it and post it.

Oh, and have I mentioned that Tania is back with us? Yes, she flew in from Portugal earlier this month. So, I have my “other” daughter staying with us now—but she is so busy all the time, she is like Lizzy—comes and goes. Sometimes there are days when I just see them zoom by in the hallway. They are older and going on with their busy and eventful lives…going to the beach, jumping in pools, road trips.. It must be nice. We’ve had some great weather the past few weeks, so they might as well enjoy it.

So, the month isn’t over yet, and I think June is going to be even busier.

We have a high school graduation (Matt’s), end of school, swimming lessons, Andrew’s birthday and a family reunion on my husband’s side in Laughlin, Nevada. His family from Texas will be there, and I’m looking forward to meeting them all. According to my mother-in-law, it will be a real treat, and I’ll probably leave the reunion with a Texan accent. I adore Texas accents-it shall be interesting y’all.

Playing Catch Up on a HOT day...

Above are the shoes of our children, from size 14 (Matt) to size 2 (Nicholas).

Yes, it's been very warm over here. Saturday it was a high 100 degrees, Sunday it was hot in the 100's again, and today, a very balmy 85. I was in San Francisco on Saturday for one of my cousin's baby showers, and it was in the high 90's-kind of unusual for San Franciscan weather. I was near the beach on Sunday, and it was perfect, but as soon as I drove back over the hill, it was still in the 90's. Yesterday I dressed for work thinking it would be at least in the 70's but, I ended up freezing in only 60 degree weather. When I got home, the house felt like a sauna. Today the weather was much more tolerable, and not as muggy. I hate muggy weather. Note: It has taken me 4 days to write this entry; yes, I've been that busy.

I'm playing catch up. I am so far behind in writing in my blog, and reading your entries. The month of May has proven to be a busy month: Mother's Day, Andrew has his confirmation this month (I still haven't bought his "pimp suit" yet), Matt has prom, Lizzy just finished her finals, and my cousins are either popping out babies or getting married. I also got word yesterday that one of my nieces (the one in the military, stationed in Alaska) may be getting married very soon. Also my husband's parents are coming down this up-coming weekend. All that, mixed with youngest end of the year school activities, work and my commute--I'm really pooped! I've also had this really annoying headache that finally decided to go away yesterday.

Here are some pictures to share. You can see by the expression on my mother's face-she did get her "boxer shorts", although she refused to hold them up in the restaurant for a picture. Lizzy refused to help with the cause.



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After lunch, we had ice cream on the wharf...


Andrew, his friend Cyrus, and Nicholas


Our three generation: Lizzy, Mom & Julie (me).


This seagull was eyeing my ice cream.


It was a beautiful day in Santa Cruz.

"All I want for Mother's Day are boxer shorts!"

Yes, my mother wants me to buy boxer shorts. Not for herself, but for her grandsons. According to my mother, my sons don't not have big enough boxer shorts, and it will give her more joy than ever for her to know that they have proper underwear on than anything else I could ever give her. So, at the front door this afternoon, she waved her pointer finger at me, and told me:

"Don't buy me anything! All I want is boxer shorts for my grandchildren!"

Sigh.. My mom drives me crazy sometimes. Anyone hearing that would think I make my children wear holey underwear or something. Too bad I already bought her a present. Should I include the receipts for the new boxer shorts in her gift?

Yesterday afternoon she was really upset because of my new voicemail on my phone. We have the pre-recorded voice (it's a man's voice) answering our voicemail. For some reason, my mother thinks that we purposively do not answer the phone when she calls (we don't have call screening), and we let the voicemail of the "strange man" answer her calls so we can avoid them. She says the man's voice is "scary" and that it always makes her think she is calling the wrong number. Sigh. I need to remind myself to change my voicemail.

My son, Andrew's confirmation ceremony is at the end of the month, and it has now become my mother's personal pre-occupation. What is he going to wear for this important day?! My mother immediately opened up the JCPenney catalogue, and proceeded to look for proper church confirmation attire. She suggested a white suit. A white suit?! I'm sorry, but I am not going to dress my son in a white suit! This is not Fantasy Island! When does anyone wear a white suit?! Then she said that is what Andrew wanted: a white suit, with a "lilac tie". I could not believe for one moment that my son would suggest a "lilac tie" and a white suit. I confronted Andrew later about this conversation, and of course he just started smiling. He said that he thought a lilac tie would be really "sick" and suggested that he get a matching hat to got with it. Would you like a nice purple feather in the hat to match your tie?! Andrew just thinks it's all hilarious, and my mother is taking him way too seriously. He is going to look like a pimp in church if I don't do anything to stop this insanity.

Sigh..the joys of motherhood and grandmother hood..

I'm going to have a busy weekend, but just wanted to wish you all a good weekend to all the mothers and grandmothers out there, and those who have mothers, living or who have passed on. Do something special for yourself in memory of them.

Wearing Two Left Shoes Hurts Your Feet

I never cease to amaze myself, folks..

The other day I went to the mall with both of my boys and had some mother and son time at the mall. We went to Target, and afterwards we went walking around the mall and window shopped, and Andrew needed new ear phones, and we had to stop and look at the new sneakers..you know, boy things. As I was walking about, I noticed that my feet started to feel sore for no particular reason. I was wondering to myself, "Oh my gosh, why do my feet hurt so much?" I do have a small bunion on my left foot, but I walk a lot, and I was wearing comfortable flat shoes, so I didn't understand. Then I just came to the conclusion that my foot hurt still from when I ran it over with my mom's trash can days previous. (I always move it for her on Wednesday nights so she doesn't hurt herself doing it herself, of course I'm the clumsy one who hurts herself anyway-go figure.) We proceeded to go back to our car, and then we had a nice lunch, and afterwards we went homeward.

It wasn't until the next day did I discover WHY my feet hurt. I was in rush to go to work, and there were my black flats waiting near the garage door-just where I left them last. Low and behold it was then that I realized that I had been wearing TWO LEFT shoes the day before. Incredible! To my defense, I have two pairs of black flats that are identical, so I'm not going completely crazy--I just chose two of the same-the lefts.

First I go to work with my shirt worn backwards and now I wore two left shoes. Lovely! What's next? Will I wear my pants on backwards?!

Which brings me to another story.... (I'm just full of them today!)

We have some men working in our front yard doing some much needed paving near our driveway, and I had to make a few calls to husband at work to answer some questions I didn't know how to answer. Nicholas was driving me a little crazy with his "experiments" he was conducting in the bathroom sink; he is in that stage where he likes to play with water. Well, of course he got himself completely wet, and tried to hide the fact that he was. He ran upstairs and changed his clothes, and as soon as I got on the phone to my husband's work I exclaim:

"Your pants are on backwards!"

"They are?" answers my husband's co-worker on the phone.

It took me a moment to realize what had just transpired. I didn't even hear a ring tone, and of course Andy (Rich's co-worker) picked up the phone and heard me tell Nicholas his pants were on backwards. Oh how lovely! Now Rich's work buddy thinks I'm crazy.

Rainy Friday

My son's kindergarten class had a field trip today, and I took the day off to volunteer to be a driver. Because I work (the majority of the mom's in his class don't seem to work outside of the home) I often feel that "mom's guilt" of not being able to volunteer or take part in class activities like the other mothers. There is a certain circle of mothers that are always there, who seem to know eachother well, and at times, although they are friendly towards me, I feel like the outsider--the mom who no really "knows". So, today, I took the day off to be one of "them".

It was a fun day, despite the rain, although I don't think the teacher was aware of all the transient people who were making camp at the field trip "site". We went to an open field looking for insects, and there are various people camping out under the trees. It kind of confused the kids a bit, and then it started to rain, and after a hour of "exploring" and looking for lady bugs, beetles, caterpillars..etc, we all headed back to the school.

It's going to be a busy weekend! I have major grocery shopping to do (the teenagers in the house have managed to eat a week's worth of groceries in record time yet again), and I have cleaning to do, a birthday party on Sunday at my brother's house, and Tania will be flying in from Portugal as well-due to arrive late that evening...

The Swine Flu has closed one local school here, and both of the teenage boys were given antibacterial soap at their school. I haven't seen anyone around here wearing masks over their faces however. It is a serious concern, but the media does tend to over-dramatize the situation in my opinion, just a tad bit. Local medical clinics waiting rooms are full of people thinking they have the swine flu, and most of them are being told to go back home. So far, we are all feeling well. My daughter, who works for Bath & Body told us over dinner that the antibactieral soap at the Target at the mall is completely sold out, bringing lots and lots of customers to their stores for their scented antibacterial soaps. Two cruise ships who were scheduled to stop in ports in Mexico have been adverted to San Francisco. Imagine being all packed for a sunny getaway to Mexico, only to have to be stuck in San Francisco, on a gloomy day in the rain? Oh well, San Francisco is a beautiful city--although today is not a day to wear flip flops.

Have a great weekend!