I'm Going to Disneyland

(Okay, so we already went to Disneyland, but I couldn't resist the line.)

Against all rational thinking and timing and money in the bank, somehow we convinced ourselves that we needed to go to Disneyland this last weekend.  So we did.  I guess we could call it a celebration of finally being able to move on with our lives, but whatever excuse we use, it was just plain fun.

We left on Thursday right after Ella got out of school and drove down to my grandma's house in SoCal.  We got in late and were pooped!  But that didn't stop us from getting up bright and early and heading out.

Everyone knows how Disney is, so there's no need for a running commentary, and we took lots of nonsense pictures, so I'll spare you the full brunt of them, but here are my favorites in no particular order with pertinent commentary.  Enjoy!

The necessary castle picture.  I forget how small it is in real life, but I like that you can go inside of it unlike the one at DW.

We rode lots of rides.  Some were immensely enjoyed.

Some were nice breaks.

  And some were a mite terrifying to the young ones.  

(I love Alex's face there!)  As a side note, both kids proclaimed their dislike of Space Mountain after riding it, but the next day, all Alex could talk about was riding it again.  He's an adrenaline junkie!

We saw princess...

... after princess ...

... after princess ...

... after princess ...

... after character ...

 ... after character.

Phew!!  One of the longest lines we waited in was for Rapunzel, and then the actress was totally out of character and kind of rushed us through the room right after a couple of employees cut in line in front of us just to say hi to their buddy was was playing the princess.  Thankfully that was our only negative experience on the trip.

At the start of day two at California Adventure, my feet already hurt.  By the end of the day I would have a blister on the bottom of one.  Ouch!

Ella really wanted to have a picture of herself alone in front of the Ariel's Grotto restaurant (which we didn't eat at with its extortion-like prices) and she was determined to get Alex out of the way.  We have three very classic pictures of them pushing and shoving each other while we stood to the side laughing and snapping pictures.  Aren't we great parents?

There was some really cool TRON stuff as part of the night scene at CA.  They had a whole arcade called Flynn's full of '80s arcade games.  It was pretty cool.

My favorite parts were getting to eat at the Blue Bayou (the restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride) and getting to eat their famous Monte Cristo sandwhich (which was different than the last time I ate it, not sure if I'm a fan of the new one) and the World of Color show at CA.  Least favorite parts, the aforementioned blister and the leakage of leftover jambalaya all over the backpack.  In case you were wondering, apples do not taste good with an essence of jambalaya on them.

It was a super fun, spontaneous vacation!

And now in two weeks we get to join the real world of people with full-time jobs and responsibilites.  It's been kind of fun to be a bit irresponsible for the last year or so, but I'm ready to move on!

My sweet baby.

I wasn't feeling so hot today after my dinner last night decided to fight back.  So tonight while the kids were getting ready for bed I was laying in my bed.  Alex brought me in a book to read to him and then left again.  When he came back he said, "Mommy, guess what I'm going to do while you're reading to me?"

He climbed up on my bed holding my brush in his hand and then proceeded to brush my hair while I read him a story.  He's the sweetest little thing EVER!  His wife better thank me some day for her wonderful husband that is willing to brush her hair.

Self-portrait by Alex.

I think having my hair brushed is one of the best things in the world.  Too bad Alex is the only one besides myself who ever does it.  He's even learning how to put it in a ponytail.

Now if only I could teach Ella to brush her own hair!

About That Oklahoma Thing...

So I guess I should expound on the whole moving to Oklahoma thing in my last post.  It goes something like this:

Two-and-a-half years ago, after having to drop out of pilot training due to excessive pukage at high altitudes, Anton applied to be an air traffic controller, the best way to stay in aviation without have to puke his guts out.  Since that time, he's managed to finish both an associate's degree and a bachelor's degree, have three jobs, live in three states, and we've all gotten a few years older.  We knew the military was slow about getting things done, it only took them a year to separate us from the military, so I guess we should have expected this from another government entity.

We moved to Utah thinking we'd only be here three to six months and that we'd end up in Seattle once Anton's job started, since that's where the FAA hired him for.  We were just trying to save a few months' rent.  Now we've been here over a year and we're going to end up in Oakland, CA.  The surprises life has in store for us!

Oklahoma comes into play since that's where the FAA air traffic control academy is.  We were told that his class was going to start in the end of March, so we were all going to stay here so Ella could finish school while he went to OK.  Well, they called two days ago and told him his class is now mid-February.  I wasn't willing to be a single parent that much longer, so we're all packing up a moving to OK for 4 1/2 months, after which we'll be heading to CA.

And that's the story of how we'll be adding one more state to the seven places we've already lived in in the seven years we've been married.  It'll be nine places by the time we hit eight years!

Preschool - The Lazy Way

Well, I have to admit that by the time Christmas rolled around, I was pretty burnt out on doing preschool.  We actually did do some Christmas themed preschools after the ones I posted about, but they were pretty laid back.  We talked about Christmas symbols and why we celebrate Christmas and read corresponding books, but we didn't do any activities or crafts.  We were lucky to get that much done, and I sure wasn't in the mood to blog.

I was hoping by taking a break and getting through the holidays that I would be back in the mood to do preschool.  Guess what?  It didn't work.  All the planning, book finding, organizing, etc. has pooped me right out.

So right now we're in preschool lite mode.  We are still doing school three times a week, but we are just doing the basics.  We do a lesson from Saxon K, a few pages in Alex's workbooks, and if we have the time and energy we also do a little science experiment.  And that's it.  We also read a lot of books, but that doesn't feel like school.  I like this so far because I don't feel guilt about not doing anything with him, but I'm also not killing myself planning.  Plus, we just found out that we're moving in a month and I need to focus on that and not on complicated curriculum.  I might pick back up with more involved lessons once we get to Oklahoma (bleh), but no guarantees!

So sorry if I'm disappointing my millions (haha) of readers, but my mental sanity is important to me.  :)  But on the other hand, I have been feeling like blogging more about regular life the way I used to.  We'll see what happens!

Further Evidence of My Loserhood

Books read in 2010:  125

Pages read in 2010:  45,090

Average 1 book every 2.92 days

Average 123.5 pages per day

Bathrooms cleaned in 2010:  2.7 total

(If you like to read, you can come be my friend on Goodreads.)