Hey - who stole AUGUST??

ummm... My name is Janet and I've been an absent blogger. It's been 34 days since my last post. Sigh. So much for confession being good for the soul... I just feel guilty. The above pictures are some cute ones from the last month or so... Love the one of Sophie in her new swimsuit - what a ham, huh? Then there is "the fashion show" when they both had to try on all their new clothes that Nana Dolly sent them for their birthdays. Cute stuff - thanks so much!!!

That last one - well, one night we decided to take the kids to the park, have a picnic and then get some ice cream... the picnic didn't work out so well (the yellow jackets were swarming EVERYWHERE... we beat a hasty retreat and ate in the HOT car!), but then the kids got to play at the park and got their ice cream... chocolate all around. What a MESS! Good thing I keep a package of baby wipes in the car! (and just in case you haven't seen it... Jack's shirt says "Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Get in Trouble TOO!)

Maddie is back to school on Wednesday. She will be in a 1st / 2nd combo class and I'm not sure how I feel about that... especially given that she didn't have any areas of "needs improvement" from her 1st grade report cards. I will be patient and will see what they have planned... for now.

Sophia and Jackson will start pre-school on Thursday with Miss Mary (different Miss Mary than Madeleine had - but same pre-school). They are very excited to wear their backpacks and new school clothes. I will post some first day of school pics later this week... Sophie will also start ballet classes soon too... I'm sure there will be some serious blog fodder from those!

Ok... The long awaited Hawaii photos...

I will probably have to figure out how to add Flickr (Sarah???) so that I don't overwhelm the post with photos. I will post a few for now. The update on the trip? I learned that I would probably cruise again, although I'd like to check out different cruise lines. While NCL was great for a first cruise - and if a bargain is found, it can definitely be a great value - the overwhelming consensus I found from fellow cruisers was the food was the worst cruise food they'd had.

PLEASE NOTE: The food was fine. Most of it was perfectly acceptable (notable exceptions would be the lunch / dinner buffet - very low standards) and the upscale restaurants (where you pay a small per person upcharge to dine) were anywhere from good to great in my opinion.

The Freestyle Cruising approach on NCL was a welcome intro to cruising, since we were free to dine whenever, where ever we chose, and with whomever. If we wanted to nap in the afternooon and eat late, we could. We mostly chose to eat lunch in port, and then have dinner on board. We did go to a Luau and to see a Hawaiian Cirque du Soleil type performance - called Ulalena - in Lahaina. Both were very entertaining.

Only spent time by the pool a couple of times - this particular ship we were on was not very well equipped with lots of extra-curricular features - small pools and a few hot tubs were present, but not a lot to entertain / challenge more active folks or kids.

We had a blast exploring the port cities as we docked - just walking around and finding cute little shops and places to enjoy lunch.

One of the nicest things for me was to be able to relax and read (lots!) and spend time with a great friend who also got to RELAX and enjoy the freedom of a true vacation.

Pics: The Ship - Pride of Aloha (christened 07/04/04 - how WEIRD is that???)

Susan & I at the luau on Kauai

A HUGE sea turtle lounging on a beach near North Shore on Oahu. There was a red velvet rope and signs posted everywhere for people to stay back. Must be nice to be a celebrity! ;)

Apologies & Excuses...

Okay, so most of you know that I've been home from my 2 week sun-worshipping sabbatical for a few days now...
And I'm quite sure that a few of you have been diligently checking in to see if I've posted ANYTHING - any little scrap of information to fill you in...
Well, I'm sorry. (That's the apology part...)

The desktop computer (you know, the one that has all my pictures, photo editing software and those little slots I can plug my memory card in to???) apparently took a little sabbatical of it's own while I was gone...
So now, it is at the rehab center for naughty computers and is HOPEFULLY being tended to in a timely manner. (that, for those of you that haven't caught on yet, was the EXCUSE part...)
So, just as soon as my friend Chris gets my computer up and running again (for those of you that may have contact with Chris and can influence his speed, feel free...) I will be posting plenty of photos and stories from my journey.

I can report that the twins managed to turn three with nary a hitch, and seem to have mastered that *difficult* transition from the Terrible Twos to the Throttle-worthy Threes with no issues whatsoever. And Madeleine - what a trooper... she has been well trained in the loading and unloading of a wheel chair in order to facilitate Grandma Carleen's movements since her arrival. Latest news is that the wheelchair is soon to be a distant memory and the *fun* grandma will be back in play in no time.

That's it for now... sorry again (double apology for those of you still smarting at the apparent lack of photos...) and I'll be in touch ASAP. :)

(uh Sarah... WHY am I feeling so guilty that I am up posting this at 4:30 am???)

Mother-Daughter Day / Father-Son Day...

So, Sophie and I went on a Mommy-Daughter day with some of our Mother-Daughter friends... some scrapbook stores, lunch and some more scrapbook stores all in Portland for our itinerary. Rob & Jackson stayed in Salem, and I think they got in to more "trouble" than I did! :)

So, when I got home, I see Jack, kickin' back in his shades watching a Blues Clues video (see above - how CUTE is he???) and there's this case in the living room...

As it turns out, Rob's mid-life crisis is not a blond, nor a fast car, but a six-stringed instrument... kinda cool actually. It would be nice if one of us had some musical talent to inspire the children (I have good rythym but NOT one musical bone in my body).

So... stay tuned (ha - a musical reference!) for more information on our family's budding maestro. Might turn out that knives and fire are not his only passions!

Newest Family Member...

My cousin Sarah, and her husband Ryan welcomed their first daughter, Harriet Rose Miller, last week on June 16th! Her nickname will be "Hattie" or "Hattie Rose", continuing our love of the middle name "Rose". When I told the Sacramento Simonsons (my Uncle Rick, Aunt Sue, Cousins Sarah (not yet married), Stephen (also pre-marriage), Deven and Mary Rose) that Rob & I were expecting our first child (WAY back in 1999!) Mary Rose very wisely suggested that we use Rose as the middle name (if we had a girl), and since we had been considering a few first names that worked beautifully with that, it stuck. So now we have a Mary Rose, a Maddie Rose and the newest... Hattie Rose. Can't wait to meet her in person (they live in San Luis Obispo, so hopefully it will be before she's in Kindergarten!) - she looks absolutely beautiful.

Madeleine's Travel Adventure

Well, Maddie made it to California - flying all by herself for the first time. Of course, in typical Janet fashion, there is a "story"!

We had it all planned out - dinner with Diane & Devin in Clackamas on our way to the airport, Jack & Sophie would stay with D & D while I ran Maddie up to catch her flight (getting through security would be so much easier without the twins, right???).

So, after a nice dinner and chat, I realized we had best be on our way, so we hit the road (yes, I left a little later than I had planned... quite frankly, WAY LATER, but how hard could it be?).

Well, just for those of you that haven't ever done this, there is a LOT of paperwork to fill out for an Unaccompanied Minor. And, when that Minor needs to pee - REALLY REALLY BAD - you have choices to make. I sent Maddie off around the corner to use the restroom while I completed the shipping manifests for my daughter's first solo flight.

Back she comes, a few minutes later - about ready to unleash her bladder with a stricken look - "Maddie honey - why didn't you wait for me at the bathroom????" (I had given her STRICT instructions to go potty and wait for me IN the restroom!!!). "The line was REALLY long Mom - and I have to GO BAD!!" (forget trying to question the wisdom of not STAYING in the line at this point).

So, cutting in line to drop off her checked luggage (thank you grumpy lady and her husband for letting us in!), and then racing off to the security line (oh no - it's LONG...). A LARGE family in front of us was going to California too *albeit NOT on Maddie's flight* that was leaving in.... AAACKKK - 15 MINUTES!!! Excuse me... would you mind if we cut in front of you? She's flying alone and we are running really behind... Oh thank you so much... NOOOOOOO.... the grandma of this little (read that with sarcasm) group had already handed her boarding pass to the very gruff TSA employee checking identities before we are permitted to be screened. Sigh - unfortunately, grandma doesn't speak much English (family was Asian - wasn't relevant until now, which is why I didn't mention it earlier) and she didn't understand why this large black woman is yelling at her to provide her ID in order to "pass". Who has grandma's ID??? where is it? Mom? Dad? Please, someone find her ID...

Okay - so the large, angry TSA lady (maybe she needs a new job?) finally turns to me and says fine - give me your stuff while they look for her ID. She goes through the paperwork, looks at Maddie's boarding pass and says "YOU didn't get a boarding pass for her, YOU need to go to the TICKET COUNTER" well, I had, and I was told we had everything which I tried to explain very nicely, but she was loud and angry and I was scared Maddie would miss her flight (did I mention she still had to pee...) so back to the ticket counter we ran... of course, the ticket agent that had helped us was no where to be found... but I managed to get someone's attention and quickly tell her that we didn't have the correct boarding pass to get Maddie past security according to the very thorough TSA agent at the screening check point. She (the ticket counter lady) went through the paperwork and found the correct boarding pass (apparently the TSA lady found the one that said "not valid for security" thought I was trying to pull a fast one, and didn't bother to find the REAL one). Running (for those of you old enough to remember the old Avis commercials) like OJ through the airport (NOT like OJ on the 405 freeway, for those of you NOT old enough to remember Avis, but old enough to remember a White Bronco) we raced back towards the security line, hoping we could cut through AGAIN, when the ticket agent came racing up to help us get through the "Special" line with her badge (thanks again!). So she runs us through the (MUCH NICER) TSA checkpoint for employees, etc. and we get in line to be screened.

Maddie - get your shoes off honey - put them in the box... OK - walk through slowly, I'm right here. I get through (but had forgotten to take off MY shoes! OH NO!!!) and I guess I had touched Maddie's shoulder to get her to move to pick up her bags coming out of the x-ray machine (that's apparently a BIG no no...) some other TSA lady starts screaming that I touched her and that she needed to come back through and be screened again too... (like I might have transferred some explosive device in that brief nano-second - never mind that I hadn't set off the detectors EVEN with the forbidden shoes on my feet....). So back through - shoes off and through the x-ray... and off go the bells (how is it that I did that?) Back up again, and go through S L O W L Y... deep breath - okay, that time I made it through without any musical accompaniment.

Run Maddie Run... no, don't worry about your shoes - just RUN. Barefoot... like OJ (see above - think Avis NOT Bronco). Didn't think I could move that fast... OK - thank goodness she was leaving at gate C1 (and NOT C23!!!). Gate agent says I can take her to the bathroom before they take her on board (in hindsight, this was probably a very good idea on her part!). So we run to the bathroom, and Maddie heads in to pee (finally). Except she didn't follow my directions (just go honey - don't worry about the door... I'm holding it shut). Yep - she locked the door. Never been a problem before... but of course she couldn't get it unlocked. OK - so crawl out - we'll deal with that later. (Attention Airport Housekeeping staff: I am deeply sorry for not notifying you about that fifth stall from the end being locked from the inside... I was a tad distracted. I will make it up to you somehow. Maybe next time I'll drop a $20 bill and leave my latte behind.)

Back to the gate - with 4 minutes to spare! Maddie starts to cry... "I miss Grandma" (are you KIDDING ME???) well, good thing that's her issue - and not that she misses Daddy, Lucy, Jack or Sophie huh? "Honey, don't cry now - you've done so GREAT! Grandma will be there to pick you up in just about 2 hours... I love you!" Kisses and hugs, tears dried and she trots off with the VERY nice gate agent, who starts to chat about her kitten, to which Madeleine starts to elaborate on Lucy, doing her very best Ricky Ricardo impression "Lucy... you got some 'splainin' to do...." down the jetway.

The plane backs away and I wonder to myself where the "point of no return" is...

The gate agent returns several minutes later, "She did fine, she is SO smart and beautiful... and very poised. She settled right in and met her flight attendants graciously, acknowledging them as her "special flight attendants" on her first solo flight. Don't worry mom - she's going to be just fine."

And she was - 2 hours and 20 minutes later, she was on the ground in The OC, with Grandma and Great Janet. Phew - glad that adventure is over with. :)

Maddie's Birthday, Dance Recital and...

Well since we got Lucy, things have been blurred... what was I thinking? "What's one more?" I guess... We celebrated Maddie's birthday, had a party for her last weekend and then she had her dance recital today. Last day of school is Wednesday, and she will fly to California that night to spend some quality time with Grandma before the rest of us arrive on July 1st.