The party was a huge hit!

3-1-10

Good morning!!

What a fab weekend all around. It is truly a shame I am back at the land of work. Oh well. It looks like today might be interesting since we got a new phone system and I have some training this morning. The new phones also look really pretty. LOL!

Friday night the boys and I went to my folks where they did their birthday boxes. Matt hid them and they enjoyed the hunt afterwards. We hung out a smidge later than normal, but we still headed home before 5:30 since I still had work to do.

Since it was still threatening to rain all day Saturday, Ken brought home a giant tarp so that we could set it up over a section of the yard so we could put the bouncer under it. We did this Thursday night and it seemed like it would be a good thing. It would have been, had there not been gusts of 15 mph winds.

At 3 am on Saturday morning the rain started. I heard it hitting the tarp and I just tried to settle back in to sleep. Ken, on the other hand, did not sleep past that point. At around 4, the winds picked up and he investigated the giant crash we both heard. I assumed, as did he, that it was just a cat related. I fell back asleep. Ken found that the way we had the tarp up, and that combined with the winds has resulted in the tarp pulling the phone lines so hard that it ripped part of the molding of the house off. This was all kinds of bad. The lines were still active, but what was the bad part was that the remaining line that was in danger of being ripped out was the power line. Crap! So Ken ran outside, standing in the rain with a long stick and he pushed up on the tarp so it wouldn’t hit the power line. He did this for an hour. He couldn’t let it go for fear that in his time trying to get it down it would knock out the line. He couldn’t yell to me as I probably would not have heard it. He had to just stand there all Lloyd Dobbler like with his boombox.

The alarm went off at 5:30, and I was confused as to why Ken was letting the music continue. I had not planned on getting up until 6. I then realized my husband was not there. I got up, hearing all the wind to see him standing out in the yard. I felt horrible! I quickly dressed and put on shoes and ran out there. Luckily, I was able to help him out somewhat and we got the tarp down, the lines back up and no injuries. It was now 6:30 and we were starting to question if we made the wrong decision to not cancel the bouncer.

The weather report indicated rain all day. But when we kept checking it, it would vary. No rain all morning, lots of rain, some rain. It couldn’t make up its mind. We figured at this point, we could probably cover the bouncer with the tarp and the kids would have to just get a little wet.

We got to work on the finishing touches of the house. This meant balloons, decorating the cake and getting the snack table set up. It looked good! The bouncer showed up later than planned as they got lost, but it was still set up by the time people arrived.

My folks and Matt showed up first, which was perfect since they could entertain the boys while Ken and I finished up the tarp for the bouncer. Then Chris showed up at the same time Doug and Elizabeth did.

The meeting with my dad and Doug went quite well. I didn’t see any issues and both of them when I talked to them later seemed pleased. No one said anything rude and actually, it looked like they ended up visiting a good chunk of time. I was so happy!

Friday night I had gotten a call from the twins from daycare’s mom. She had not seen the invite to know she needed to RSVP, but that they were coming. I was jazzed. It meant at least two of their little friends would be there. They showed up and so did Maria, which was good since they are all related. It allowed them to have someone to talk to since they didn’t know anyone else. The kids, Joaquin and Luke had fun and were very sweet.

Brandy came, so did Missy. Alyssa came with her son, Logan and Stephanie and Sabrina came. It was so great! All the kids played and had lots of fun. Brandy and Missy even went in the bouncer with the kids. I went in at one point only to help Dax go up the ladder to the slide portion. Doug played with the kids in there, too. So did my dad. I think the grownups enjoyed the bouncer almost as much as the kids! LOL!

Ken cooked the food and everyone seemed happy with the grub. The sun had come out and people were able to hang out in the yard along with inside. It was good!

Lycos hung outside with everyone, but Luna kept going in the bouncer. Really, no one minded except the twins, so we had Luna stay inside until they left. Then she was fine outside. Chris played with her a bunch and she was pleased to be able to hang with folks.

We did the piñata and that was entertaining. I cracked up that Bobby filled part of his bag and decided he had plenty. What kid does this??

Bobby had so much fun! He and Dax both didn’t want to stop to even eat. Bobby was so polite when the twins and Maria left. We told him to go say goodbye, and instead he not only said goodbye, but thanked them for coming to his party. My sweet little man!

Even though we had the party planned from 10:30 to noon, it was great that it was fun enough that everyone could stay longer. Ken said that was the beauty of saying it was only a short time. That way if it bombed, people didn’t have to make excuses to bail. Instead, the last guests (which ended up being aside from my folks the first guests to arrive) didn’t leave until about 2:30.

I think I managed to get to visit with most everyone for some time. I would have liked more time, which just means this summer (when there is no stinking rain!) we will need to have a bbq or something.

I am going to tell you, not to sound all mushy or anything, but I have never felt so loved in all my life! I was so happy people were there, and all looked happy to be there to celebrate my son’s milestone. It meant so very much to me for the people there to have spent time out of their day to hang out with us.

What was amazing was the timing of things. The rain started back up in full force about 15 minutes after everyone left. It was good since it meant we could tell the boys to come inside for a while and have them nap. They did for a couple hours, all while it rained. We decided we would wake them up when it stopped, but they both got up on their own a few minutes after it stopped. So they could bounce a while longer before dinner. The bouncer guys picked it up after 8.

Wood chips were a brilliant idea. It kept the mud to a minimum. Heck, I don’t even know if there was any tracked in the house. It made the yard smell nice and we got a lot of compliments on it.

Ken’s light sabers were a hit, too. They turned out so well that I think the grownups were more impressed. LOL! We may need to make some more.

Even my hair got compliments, which was awesome. Especially since I was feeling a smidge self conscious since the rain and sweat from running around were slightly frizzing my hair. But yay me on taking a chance on a different look!

The boys went to bed and I set up shop on the computer to upload photos of the wonderful day. I had on socks, which I assumed would protect me from most things on the floor since we had not cleaned up from the party. Turned out I was dead wrong.

It felt like something had bit me and injected poison at the same time. It was horrible. This sharp pain in my heel took my breath away. I had slid my foot ever so slightly while I was sitting down when it happened. I couldn’t move it hurt so bad. My eyes instantly filled with tears and I couldn’t even talk. Ken was concerned and asked me what happened. I couldn’t even tell him. I finally caught my breath and told him it must be a splinter or something. I was dying here.

I put my foot up on the chair and felt around for what was causing the pain. I felt something, but it was dead center in my heel. There was no way I was going to be able to do anything about that on my own. So I circled where it was with a highlighter and hobbled over to the recline for surgery.

Ken spent a good 45 minutes working on it. It was deep and in at a horrible angle. He had to use 3 pairs of tweezers, a magnifying glass and a needle to remove it. It was a perfect time for me to work on relaxation techniques since it was all incredibly painful and horrid. But to his credit, Ken did a great job minimizing the pain I was in. Plus, he finally managed to remove the offensive foreign object.

It was tiny. No freaking joke. But it was hard as a rock and sharp. It was like a little thorn. Ken said where it was and how it went in totally made sense as to why it hurt so bad. I am sure my exhaustion didn’t help my pain levels. But once it was out I did feel like the lion. Aside from my leg hurting from it being tensed up for 45 minutes, I was 100% better.

We didn’t bowl the next morning, which was great since the kids let us sleep till after 7. Our day was set to be busy again, but this time with a lot of travel. We would be driving out to Grammie’s place for her birthday lunch. We went out there around 9:30 and then once we were there for an hour or so, we drove another 25 minutes to Bob’s Big Boy for lunch. They called it Cowboy Bob’s only because for some reason the Bob status wears a cowboy hat. I suppose it is in Norco, which is horse country, so that makes sense.

There was a creepy Bob walking around. He had no neck and looked slightly pervy. Dax knew he would not be someone to trust, but Bobby was much more amused. After lunch we had them sit by the statue when creepy Bob gestured to be in the pic with them. Luckily, Dax agreed and even shook Bob’s hand after, to which he declared of the felt hand, “his hand is so soft!”

We went back to the house where we had birthday cake. The cake, which my folks had picked up, was a giant hamburger. It was quite cute. The boys were thrilled with it, since let’s face it, that is a lot of cake in a weekend.

Since on our way home we would be passing by Disneyland so we figured we would stop. It was quite crowded, which sucked. We were going to try and do Captain EO, but it was a long wait. So instead, we did Star Tours. We had a fast pass to the Buzz ride, but we had to kill 10 minutes, so we went over to the wishing well since I had told Bobby about it. The evil queen was there, which was fun. She was awesome. After that, we hit up Buzz, then the rocket ride and then headed for the train to go home. It was a fun little visit.

By the time last night rolled around, I was beat. It was a truly wonderful weekend, even with evil poking things in my foot. The rain managed to not put a damper on the party and we had a lot of fun on Sunday even with all the driving.

There are no pressing plans for this weekend, or even this week, which is awesome. There is some kind of thing at the mall on Saturday that I think the boys could get free books, so we may do that, but it isn’t crucial. I am looking forward to some down time.

The following weekend is my Glee fest and the weekend after that my parents are gone which means we will not have to bowl. It is like 3 weekends of really nice days! I am so happy!

I do have some work ahead of me this week, though. Laundry was neglected this weekend so that will need to be worked on tonight and I still have to clean up from the party. There are wood chips all through my house. LOL! But I think it isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.

When I get home, my plan is to resume my workout. I may need to take it easy depending on my foot, which still hurts. I think it may be time to call the doc on that.

I am heading over to my meeting which will mean I am gone from my desk for a while. Lame. But then again, it means my day will be filled with interesting. It sounds like they are changing all of our phone numbers, which is a crazy expense. Not only is there just mass confusion, it means that we have to notify all our customers of our new phone number, get new business cards, change our web site, etc. I am ok with it, since really, if it means someone can’t get a hold of me for a few weeks, I will deal. LOL! But I am shocked this is the time we have decided to spend this money. Especially since our old phones, although not perfect, worked just fine. I am guessing that it all has to do with the new features like chatting that all are going to come into play.

My day seems to have hit a wall. I have things to do, but now I am too unmotivated to do anything. In a few minutes I can clock out for lunch then hopefully the day picks up.