March/April 2009 Update
LAST THINGS FIRST...AT TIME OF WRITING, THIS IS WHERE WE ARE...FINALLY!!!
3/1: Adrien and I went to a baby shower for my nephew, Brandon, and his wife, Kim. She's due in about a week. Ashely and her friends were in charge of the games. They did a baby food tasting. Yuk!! No wonder babies spit out this food. [Hey, I'll take a meal however I can get one]
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Kim & Brandon; friends & Ashley, my niece
3/6: This was Adrien's first outing to play golf since his illness. He went with our neighbor, Fumio. Do you think he looks HAPPY or what? [Shot better than my previous 5 games BS {Before Surgery}]
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Brandon, Matei, & Kim; proud & happy Grandma, Diane with Matei
3/8: Matt and Brody came over for lunch this afternoon. Brody knows where all his toys are and goes right to them when he comes over to visit. [Memory Operations-Pass]
3/10: Here we have some very cute pictures of my little great niece, Samantha, back in Virginia. Another very happy baby. [We get to see her in person in July]
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3/12: If you're wondering what that blue thing is on Brody's right leg it's a cast. He fractured his leg going down the slide with his mom a couple of weeks ago. One of those freaky accidents that no one could have prevented. It sure doesn't look like it bothers him, though. [Injury Avoidance-Fail], [Living with Injury-Pass]
3/17: Matt's getting ready for his annual St. Patrick's Day golf bash and it looks like Brody is ready, too! [Sorry Brody, no jeans at the golf club]
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Matei, celebrating his first St. Paddy's Day; Matei & proud Aunt Ashley with Matei [Looks a little sleepy!!!]
3/19: We went to Matt & Maureen's for dinner tonight and had a great time. As you can see, Mokie has the honors of bathtime and he loves it. [In this big tub we can do the Vortex Cyclone Swirl, where you get the water moving around and around at great speeds with the bath toys sailing by so quickly he gets dizzy and falls over...what a blast...for me, anyway. In this picture we haven't started yet, but as you can tell, at least one of us ready]
3/25: Off to Bend bright and early this morning. We had a nice uneventful drive and were greeted by Ben, Abby, & Rachel at the door.
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3/27: Adrien and I went out and did a little birthday shopping for Abby. When we got home she and her mom were in the kitchen getting Abby's birthday cupcakes ready. She's quite the little chef. [and makes quite a big mess]
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3/28: Happy 4th Birthday to Abby. It's hard to believe we were here 4 years ago for her birth. Where does the time go? [Lost in a cyclone swirl I suspect] It was like Christmas morning for Abby. She stayed in her jammies and after breakfast she got to open the presents from the family. Ben didn't seem to care at all about the presents. [Oh ya, what about the the inflatable chair???]
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Abby's big gift from her parents was a bike with training wheels. She sure looks excited! [I remember my very first bike which I got for XMAS when I was a kid. Was in the middle of damn winter...had to wait till spring to ride it...bummer!!! Parents can be cruel ya know]
Adrien and I took Abby out for a birthday lunch at Baja Fresh. She had a quesadilla & rice & chips. [I fell asleep on Abby...she takes longer to eat than I do] When we got home it was time for the kid party.
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She had invited some of her little friends, Chase, Meg, & Emmy and of course Ben was there to help celebrate.
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3/29: Rachel and I took off late this morning to go do a little shopping while the boys babysat. Abby is very much into dress up these days. You see her below in a full on fireman outfit [minus the fire breathing apparatus] and then in her old Halloween dinosaur costume [minus the fire breathing apparatus]
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Ben likes playing with Abby's blow up chair whenever she's not around. [This goes back to the party] The little princess seems to be having a little snack in our bed while she watches a DVD. I wonder who let her do that? [That would be me. Advanced deception training. Whenever an adult approaches, hide snacks under the covers and stare at the TV with that zoned out look. Works every time except for the occasional paparazzi]
Bath time with Mokie. It seems to be his regular job wherever he goes. [No Vortex Cyclone Swirl here...bath too small, and Vortex cannot be achieved without tying the little nippers together. Instead, we play spelling games with the floating letters...YAWN!!!]
3/30: It was a very nice day today so we took the kids out back to play. It's so nice when the sun shines and you can get outside in the fresh air.
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3/31: One of my regular things to do with the kids is to play some music videos on my computer. One of their favorites is the "Easter Bunny Rap" song and "Snuggle Bunny". They love to listen to these over and over and over and over again. I usually have a limit and then we go and do something else.
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4/1: It's time for us to drive back to San Jose. We had such a great time visiting and we look forward to our return in June for Ben's 2nd birthday. [No pictures of Ed this time...very busy guy...which is very good]
4/4: This morning we drove over to Matt's and walked to Los Gatos High School for a pre-Easter egg hunt. Brody was all set and had been practicing at home. Look at him go. [He also discovered that eggs already collected by other kiddies are far more in abundance than the ones scattered around. Of course this resulted in some tears for both parties concerned. {Playing Fair-Needs work}] He tried to feed me a plastic egg and enjoyed watching me pretend to eat it.
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4/5: We had Matt, Maureen, & Brody over for dinner tonight to celebrate Adrien's birthday.
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4/6: Happy Birthday, Adrien. [Made it!!! Phewwwww] He played golf today with his friend, Matt Barletta at The Villages. They had a great time. Tonight we went to our Dancing with the Stars dinner at Margo & Skip's. Adrien had requested burgers for his birthday dinner, but there was an issue with the BBQ so they made a wonderful Chile Verde and flan for dessert. It was a fun evening as usual, especially since Skip got his DVR.
Somebody looks like he's about to do something he's not suppose to do. Look at that face! [Yes, I've been working with Brody on mischief in general. We have not as yet tackled the innocent "who, me?" look required to successfully get away with stuff. {Who, Me? Look-Fail}]
4/8: Maureen brought Brody over while she went to lunch with some people she used to work with. We went down to the lake to feed the ducks and play on the rocks.
4/12: Happy Easter: Adrien wasn't feeling very well this morning. He's had some congestion and coughing the last couple of days so he decided not to go for Brunch. [Caught a cold] I drove up to the San Jose Country Club to join Matt, Maureen, Brody, Mike, Rose, Phil, Cathy, & Caitrin for a delicious Easter Brunch. Afterwards they had an egg hunt for the kids and Brody was right in there gathering his eggs. I got home about 1:00 and Adrien was resting while watching golf. It was a nice and quiet day.
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4/18: Matt & Maureen dropped Brody off late this morning for an overnighter. We walked to the lake and chased the ducks. Brody likes sharing his snack with Mokie. [Excluded from the pictures below is me giving Brody his bath again. Small bath, no Vortex Cyclone Swirl, but spelling practice. Parents and Grandmere nixed the photo. If you all want to see what he spelled, drop us an email which could be used as a petition to post it here. Brody doesn't care one way or another, the desensitization training is finally reaping it's rewards. {Spelling-Pass}]
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I made Top Ramen [What???] for Brody for dinner tonight and he had a great time with the noodles.
4/19: Brody hung out this morning for a while watching some Noggin'. He had a great sleep last night. [all the training wears the little devil out...we're making progress though] We didn't hear a peep out of him until about 7:00 this morning. Matt & Maureen picked him up late this morning. They had a very nice day yesterday and did some wine tasting and then out to dinner with friends. You could tell they missed their little Brody, though. We sure had a fun time with him.
4/25: Matt, Maureen, Brody, Mike, & Rose came over for dinner tonight to celebrate Maureen's birthday. Brody was really enjoying dipping his chips in the salsa. He loved it!
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4/27: Up bright and early to catch a flight to Honolulu. We flew out of Oakland this time and it was an easy peasy check in. We had some breakfast and then waited for our flight. We flew Hawaiian Airlines and it was a very nice flight. They even had a meal service. We arrived in Honolulu about 11:30 and picked up our luggage and then picked up the shuttle to Alamo. The line was out the door for people renting vehicles. I guess they had the best rates. It took almost an hour to get our car but we're in the land of "island time" so you just go with the flow. On our way to the marina we stopped at Safeway to pick up a few things before our big shopping at Costco tomorrow. Arrived at the Marina, loaded up our stuff in a cart and down to the boat we went. We saw Cheryl as we walked down the dock. She gave us great big hugs and we chatted a little bit and then got to the boat and unloaded everything. The boat looks great, inside and out. Cheryl did an amazing job of taking such great care of her while we've been gone. [L'eau Life never looked better. All the stainless is shining and the decks are glistening] The first thing to go on was the refrigeration. Started up just fine. I got the groceries put away and then did my nesting. Jim and Cathelyn came over for a little visit this evening. She leaves for the Philippines tomorrow for a couple of weeks. Adrien went to start the BBQ and discovered that the regulator wasn't working so Jim went to his boat and got the regulator off his BBQ for us to use. We had a nice dinner and then watched a couple of episodes of LOST from our box set. Then off to bed. [It's great to be here, but it may be the last time. She's going up for sale...very sad, but not as sad as her just sitting here when she could be out at sea.]
4/28: I made a nice breakfast for us this morning and then we walked to the Hotel and had a coffee. In the ponds at the hotel we saw a manta ray and a hammerhead shark swimming around, not in the same ponds, though. [they could be though, I don't think they're on each others menu]
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We walked back to the boat and then got in to some heavy duty sorting. We're going through every locker, cubbie, drawer on the boat and making piles. What gets shipped home, what gets donated, and what gets thrown away? It's a big job but it has to be done before we put the boat on the market. We did a big Costco run this afternoon. Food prices are so expensive at Safeway, it's worth it to go to Costco to get all of our meat and some of our produce. I got everything stowed and did some more sorting. Adrien took a much needed and deserved nap.
I made halibut for dinner tonight with asparagus and sliced tomatoes. We watched Dancing with the Stars off the internet and then another episode of LOST. I couldn't stay awake so I went to bed. I'm so tired. [shoulda had a nap too Deary!]
4/29: Another walk to the hotel and back this morning before getting back into the clearing and cleaning mode. It's kind of interesting to see all the stuff we have had on this boat. Jim came over for dinner tonight. We BBQd pork chops, boiled a couple of artichokes, made rice and a salad. After dinner we played a couple of games of PARJ. Adrien won both!
4/30: Adrien and Jim went to play golf this morning at Makaha. [We both played badly score-wise, but I had some good shots and a couple of pars] I stayed behind to get the update written and go through some more stuff.
That's it for now.
Love,
Paula & Adrien