angel island

I think it is great when my kids are able to go on field trips and such. Paige has been to Stanford, the Google headquarters and just recently she went on her big trip to Olympic Park in Washington.
DJ, being younger, hasn't had as many opportunities as Paige yet.
He did remind me that he went to Napa last year for five days.

He reminded me of this when he was saying goodnight to me Thursday night and (I guess) I was looking pathetic since I wouldn't see him until Saturday night.

He is camping on Angel Island with the rest of the 6th graders from Breakthrough. I know he is having a blast. They rode the ferry over and they are sleeping in tents -- Can a kid have more fun than that?

I will tell you though -- I am tweaking hard. I always do, especially when (like this time) they can't even call to say good night. I know he is fine. I know he is having a wonderful time.
I just miss him.

I like to have my kids with me --
(I don't even like it when they go to school)

I know.
It's not even like we are doing anything. The rest of them are watching Wipeout...

I am thrilled that he is getting to do this. I am. I have never been camping there. And since I have decided that I will never go camping again,
unless I can have my Tempur Pedic Bed, HD TV with tivo and a full sized bathroom,
I will never get to do it with him.

How do parents cope when their kids actually leave home? I seriously can't even imagine.

We tease Paige that we are going to move to wherever she ends up going to college -- and we probably will!

But right now, I am missing my little nerd that packed a book to go camping.

amazon

I have been buying things on amazon.com for a long time. A seriously long time. Like, I was the person who shopped online when everyone else was scared to shop online -- Yes, way back then.
It started with books.
I didn't have to go down to Waldenbooks (yes, before they were Borders) in the mall anymore. I had my books sent to me.
Awesome.
Did you know back then that they mailed out new releases the day they came out instead of getting them to you the day before they come out -- like they do now?
Didn't care, it was still awesome.

When I figured out that you could get things for the baby...
(back when they were friends with Toys R Us)
I became an even bigger fan!

Amazon was the place I went to to send gifts to anyone/everyone who lived far away. I even would have it wrapped!

I have bought shoes for the kids, kitchen supplies and I have added updated my baby registry 3 times.

Amazon.com was extremely helpful to me when we lived in Hidden Valley Lake.
(no stores there)
But I think the UPS guy there hated me.
The one here in the city knows me by name and just laughs at me every day in December.

Oh, and when Amazon came out with Prime -- Yay!
Prime is free 2 day shipping.
I love having Amazon Prime.

I still get a lot of books from them, but mostly for my Kindle.

And now --

you

can

read

MY BLOG

on your Kindle!

La Familia Aissa on Kindle

legacy

 I am so glad to be finished reading
Legacy: The Beloved Novel of Elizabeth, England's Most Passionate Queen -- and the Three Men Who Loved Her
{sigh}
It was good, but I just had a hard time going back to it after reading it for a while and then putting it down. There wasn't really anything new to the familiar story and it jumped ahead in an odd way. It would talk about one thing and just jump to another subject without any sort of flow.
I don't know why my opinion is so different from all the reviews I read. Everyone seems to think this is the "best book ever" about Elizabeth.
Hmmm
It was good. I liked it.

I did put it down to read the newest Sookie Stackhouse book.

My friend

Sandra got me hooked on these.

Now this one I flew through and it didn't seem nearly long enough!

Not sure what I will end up reading next. I keep going back to books about the Tudors -- but a lot of the time it seems that all I am doing is trying to waste time until the next Diana Gabaldon book comes out!

sookie

I hate putting a book down without finishing it. I rarely do it, even if I am not enjoying it all that much. I have a strange need to see it to the end.

I like the book I am reading now,  and I especially like reading between my Kindle, my laptop and my iTouch.

BUT the latest Sookie Stackhouse book is out!

   And thanks to my friend Sandra, I am hooked ~

I hope I will be able to return to the one on my Kindle and not end up putting it on my 'never finished' list, but I am thinking that Sookie will be worth it either way!
At the very least, it should fill in a little time until True Blood is back on...

So, if I am not around for a couple of days, you know where I am.

the worms paige

Paige has been wanting to "blog too" but couldn't decide what she wanted to blog about.

Have you dealt with a 13 year old girl yet?

She is constantly trying to tell me about the book she is reading. I am sure some of them are good books, and I may get around to reading some of them, but really, I've read my vampire books.
The Vampire Lestat cannot be compared to  Vampire Academy regardless of what my enthusiastic teen thinks.

She did ask me to read The Hunger Games,   

which I loved!

Paige's bedroom is surrounded by windows. Mike and I found these great markers that are for drawing on windows and thought they'd be fun for her. She loved them -- and wrote her name (and hearts, and flowers) and book quotes on all over them.

Aaaaah! As I am trying to write this, she is all, "Mama. In my book -- blah, blah, blah"

Well yesterday after she send me another text, quoting another book, I suggested a blog with book quotes. So she came up with this --

the worms paige 



baby board books

Kelly is now a reader for sure!

We were just watching Shark Men (our favorite new show -- they tag and release Great Whites!) and they were showing a map of where the sharks were traveling.

Kelly yells out, "They went all the way to Hawaii!"
I'm all, "Yes, they did" -- then I realized she read that!

We have not really even worked with her on reading skills, other than giving her books and answering the never ending question of "How do you spell that?" (which goes along with the constant telling of addition facts up to 10....)
Oh, and all the kids love to read to each other, which I am sure helped her.

They were just picking a story to read to Mikey and it occurred to me that he doesn't have a
favorite yet --

Paige's favorite book as a toddler was Moo, Baa, La La La
by Sandra Boynton

She had it memorized when she was around two years old. It was the funniest thing, she'd hold it and say all the words very clearly and it looked like she was reading it. Too cute!
There is an app for the iPhone/Touch that reads it to you and you can touch it to make all the animal sounds. Mikey can't really do it all by himself, he hasn't mastered 'turning' the page, so Paige does it with him.

DJ's favorite was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
by Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle

I cannot even come close to guessing how many times Paige and I both read this to him...
He LOVED that book!
When we turned the page to the picture of the Green Frog, DJ would yell, "Watch Out!" every single time we read this story!

I don't know why, but he did it every time.

Makes me think about him back then...

DJ was such a cute little guy ~

He looked just like a little man!

Kelly has always had a strong personality.
(yes, that is what we call it)
I had all these wonderful books for her that I saved from Paige and DJ. All in pretty good condition too. They were never chewed on or colored on, and then Miss K came along and she loved destroying all the baby board books. {sigh} She'd peel the corners and rip them to shred.  Drove me nuts.

Her favorite book was Snuggle Puppy!

by Sandra Boynton

(I like Sandra Boynton)
I still sing her the song from it. I'd like to read this one and even Moo, Baa, La La La to Mikey, but
Destructo Baby got to them.

Mikey does like his Trucks book. He gets it out of the basket and sits and 'reads' it himself. Maybe it's the size or the colors, or because he can slide the tabs. It just doesn't have a story.

 I guess maybe I can count it as his favorite for now.


*all the book covers are linked to good reads

names

I was 27 when I was pregnant with Paige and read every single pregnancy and baby book I could find. I think I had 5 books on names alone and I am pretty sure I read every single name in all of them! Since I did not find out until she was born whether or not she was a boy or a girl, everything was neutral, but deliberately so. When I was younger and thinking about the family I would have someday, I always thought I'd have boys. I knew I really wanted an old fashioned name, but nothing popular, so her girl name Paige seemed perfect! Her boy name was Devon which was her father's choice. He wanted Devon for a boy or a girl, but I really didn't even like the name all that much. After she was born, I couldn't have imagined her having been a boy! Her middle name Elizabeth was for my grandmother.

When I was having DJ, I HAD to find out if he was going to be a boy or a girl... I really wanted to plan this time, mainly because Paige had so many adorable clothes that I wanted to be able to use them for her baby sister... which this time around I was so hoping for. Well, I had an ultra sound in the doctors office and he said it was a girl! (I didn't have another confirming it -- I was only 30) I was very excited to name my second baby Olivia ~ went well with Paige, and it wasn't as popular 11 years ago as it is now. But you know, it never felt right to me when people referred to my belly as Olivia. So I chose David as a boy name just in case. I do have to mention that my dad, my uncle and my brother are all named David, so it was kind of a no brain-er. I did however, think that he (if by chance it was a he) should be called something other than Dave or Davey. My other grandmother was Josephine, so if by chance, (haha) I had a boy -- he would be David Joseph and we would call him DJ.
DJ wore a lot of pink as a newborn.

Mike and I picked out Kelly's names even before her first ultra-sound. Being an >cough< older mother, I had many. Every single one said she was a girl, and every single time, Mike refused to believe it. (big sigh) We didn't really look though the name books, we both just liked the name Kelly, and it went well with Paige, David -- and Carol and Mike. Kelly's boy name was Nathan or Nathanial. With all the people saying she was a girl, we never really picked a final one, but we would have called *him* Nate. My middle name is Anne and so was Robyn's (Mike's mom) so, Kelly Anne.
On a side note, Mike did have ridiculous names that he threw at me the entire 9 months. Again, claiming she was a boy ---
Bolt.
Steele.
Galvin.
Maverick.

I think I have mentioned that I have known Mike since he was in the 8th grade. His best friend, who introduced us, is also named Mike. Everyone back then always called my husband Mikey. I called him that up until maybe 10 years ago. Well since I turned 40 during my last pregnancy, I had no less that a million ultra-sounds and every single one said BOY!
Well I just had to have my own little Mikey ~
But finding him his middle name was so difficult. Mike went back to suggesting Maverick, etc... ugh. I wanted Tristan after Brad Pitts character's name in Legends of the Fall -- one of our favorite movies. Didn't seem right though. It came to the point where Mike just told me to pick something. Well that didn't make it easier! Now all the name books are online sites, and none of them very helpful.

For years Mike has been quoting a line in Point Break to the kids, when ever he wants them to to bring him two of anything he says, "Utah, get me two!" or just "Utah" and they know what he means.
As sort of a joke, along with changing DJ's name to Forrest and naming the new baby Bubba, I threw out Utah as his middle name.

Mikey Utah.

Nobody really understands it but us.

Oh, his (always have a back-up!) girl name was Isobel.











Here is the clip from the movie Point Break!

Book Reviews and Life by DJ

DJ was on a site called guys read  posting reviews of books he has read. He was getting really excited when he found a book that he had read that wasn't on it -- and wanted me to read his reviews and asked if I could tell *everybody* to read them too. So I suggested he start a bog, and helped him set it up.

Book Reviews and Life by DJ

He would be so thrilled if you left him a comment, and overjoyed if you follow him!

keeping track of... books

I did it again today. This time it was for DJ though. I put a new book on his Kindle that he already read as a paperback. I found a new website http://www.guysread.com/ that gives you ideas for books for boys and I thought I found something new for him to read... maybe should have asked him first, but I like to surprise him with fun things when he has shown good behavior and DJ loves new books.
I have done this to myself more times than I can count. Most recently it was The Help. Had it on my Kindle and went looking to lend some books to a friend and I found a copy of it on my shelf in hardback -- unread, because I forgot about it! Ugh.
I have also bought the same book over again because either I want to lend it, or I have lent it and never got it it back. (I know, I just need to have the full series)
One good thing about not being able to keep track of the books I have read, is that I could probably re-read any of the ones in the back garage and it would be like reading it for the first time!

books

Vic (my father in law) bought himself a new Kindle and we gave Paige his old one for her birthday last October. Got her a new skin and lavender cover for it --  she loves it. Gave DJ mine for his birthday. Did the same for his -- new skin, red cover, looks really cool.
Now we can all share the same library!

Paige has never been a huge reader until I let her read Twilight... now she reads all the teenage vampire books out there. DJ inhales books like I do. It is so freakin' cool that they are getting to where we can all enjoy the same books. I am usually the one who does the recommending -- can't WAIT until DJ is old enough to read Piers Anthony, but Paige has been bugging me to read The Hunger Games

Well, I finally did, and ended up reading all three in the trilogy over the weekend!

It is such an odd feeling getting such a great book recommendation from the kid who could recite "Moo Baa La La La" before she was two, but took forever to actually read it...

Of course Kelly wants one for her birthday too.

La Familia

I have tried to blog before, but I always feel like I need to fill in the back story. Then, I never get to it, or feel like I leave too much out (or say too much) This time I am just going to start it and see how it goes.
I met my husband Mike when he was in the 8th grade. He went by Mikey then -- yes, I am a couple years older (26 months!) and even I still called him Mikey until after DJ was born. Now he is Daddy and "Daaaad!!!" to the whole crew. Mike played football in HS and college and still holds records for it in the city.
I don't know anything about football.
I was an Army Brat. Moved to San Francisco when I was 13, so I started high school here. I am crazy about my kids and head over heels in love with my husband. I like to garden, but I am not very good at it, I love to read and I am obsessed with taking pictures of the kids. I post them on Picasa http://picasaweb.google.com/carolaissa and I am usually more up to date on them, but I have felt very scattered lately.

As I finished the last sentence, the oldest one (Paige) came home from school with a migraine and as I was taking care of that situation -- since she can't go to her after school enrichment program, but we still need to give a ride to her friend -- Mikey, the baby, turned off my laptop and switched off the wireless connection. Meanwhile, daughter #2 (Kelly) is annoyed with me because I paused her show and can't seem to wait one second more for it to be turned back on. Mike is picking up DJ from school and now I am one-hand-typing trying to nurse the baby... This is it, this is my life.
I wouldn't change a thing.