Prayers for San Diego

These are pictures from our back yard in Oceanside-Looking south.

It's really scary down here for lots of people. My friends were evacuated this morning. Most of the schools in the county are closed. Except ours-the kids are pissed about that. We don't know where Paul is right now. He was still in Malibu early this morning waiting for a new assignment. That could be to stay there or come down here.


It's very smoky even here in Oceanside. I could see the glow of the flames this morning before the sun came up.

Ta Da!!! Irish Curls

Not bad for a first try at the whole head.

Red Flags At Morning Firefighters Take Warning

Most people fear the middle of night phone calls. I fear the early morning phone calls. I knew when the phone rang this morning and the caller i.d. said it was Paul that he wasn't at the fire station. I know so well now that I answered the phone, "Where are you?" rather than, "Hello". And of course the answer is a location. "Northbound 405 heading to Malibu." Malibu is on fire again. If you read down to "Shopping center on fire" you'll find out exactly where Paul was at 10:00 am. You'd think after this long I'd be used to brush fire season, but I'm not.

A Little Reel

Just a little bit of practice for them.....

....and for me.

This is how we make Irish curls. Hopefully we'll get a good result in the morning.

To Curl Or Not To Curl

This is my first try at making Irish curls. I only had time to quickly do a pony tail. I'm going to try the whole head today. I won't buy a wig (yes most of the girls wear wigs) until I know Kendra will stay with dance for a while-a long while. But it might just be worth the $85.00 for my time and Kendra's pain. It takes a seasoned hair curler about 2 hours to curl a girl's hair. And another 45 minutes or so to unroll it the next day before a competition. We'll see if Kendra can sleep all night with curlers in her hair.

This is a wig close to Kendra's hair color. It would require tying her hair down close to her scalp and putting the wig on. Hmmm, almost three hours up and down with curlers, sleeping on them and maybe getting a not so great result or forking out $85.00. I know what my decision would be and I know what the money keeper's decision would be. Oh well, maybe it will be fun to watch a movie and curl hair in the hotel on Friday night before the competition.

Mick knows best?

"Kids are different today,"






I hear ev'ry mother say







Mother needs something today to calm her down








And though she's not really ill





There's a little yellow pill







She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper






And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day.





It's dinner time. "Kyle, where's Kieran?" "He's climbing the shed." "Whaattttt!?!"




Kieran did this all by himself, then called me to take pictures of him. Yes, very impressive. It's the taking pictures while trying to control my urge to yell something along the lines of, "don't run with scissors", "you'll poke your eye out with that stick", "if Johnny Milligan jumped off a cliff....." All those things somebodies Mother said.



Kieran is amazing. His brain works in mysterious ways but he exhausts me. Thank goodness for Guinness and Preference by L'Oreal.

How did WE survive childhood?

I didn't have access to three tv's, leapsters, Game Boys, or a PlayStation. I think we have every Lego and K*nex known to mankind. I've stepped on that many. There are bikes and scooters and billions of crayons. Toys pouring out of a room dedicated to just toys. There's a dog, a cat and a brand new kitten.

6:30 am and Kyle announces he's bored. There's a hard and fast rule that no one is allowed to be bored before Mommy has a sufficient amount of caffeine.

Paul dragged the bored ones to the "hiking park". The rangers let them hold Mr. Pibb (a tarantula found in the soda machine) and feed a 4 foot long gopher snake. My girly girl dropped a tiny innocent mouse into a snake's cage. Yuck!! If she has nightmares someone is going to have a lonely night on the couch.

And this is where Kyle and the Leapster became friends again-For the rest of the day. Mushy brain boy!

Kendra and Kieran were forced to be creative by the evil Mommy!

That's a motor speedway.

Dogs have owners, Cats have staff

Apparently Elsa has settled in quite well. She has no problem invading every one's personal space.

When I purr Don't infer

It's because you pat.
No, you pat Because I purr.
I am the cat,Don't forget that.

Our new baby

I wasn't planning on getting a new cat so quickly after I had Estelle put down. When I had to tell the kids what had happened to Estelle that day while they were at school I wasn't at all ready for their reaction. I Knew they would be sad. We'd been to two funerals this summer already. Their great-grandmother and their grandfather. They did really well at those. They drew pictures for both to be put in the wall with Manoo and in the casket with Grandpa. Kieran even brought his little American flag to decorate Grandpa's casket. When I talked to them that evening about Estelle Kyle sobbed. He couldn't stop, his whole body shook. Kendra cried and Kieran acted stoic until the other two had left the room. Then he cried too. It was heart wrenching. Plus Estelle's companion of 11 years, Bramble was at a loss. He hid under the bed for three days.

So, I started checking out the two closest shelters. There are so many cool cats and kittens. I've never had an actual kitten. I also figured a kitten would be better for Bramble and would not be afraid of the dog. We chose a little 2.7 pound orange tabby. I named her Elsa after the lioness from Born Free. She was spayed the next day and we brought her home. She immediately got a respiratory infection. My vet said it's common when kittens are spayed young and their immune systems are already weak from being in the shelter. Two weeks of antibiotics and shes good to go. She and Bramble play like they are both kittens. Each day they sleep closer and closer to each other on the bed. She still only weighs about 4 pounds but she can whoop some Border Collie butt. And the kids love playing with her. I still miss Estelle tons but the kids are better with their new playmate. Although my stoic boy Kieran comes to me every few days and says, he misses Estelle. It's a joy to know I have caring and sensitive children.

She's a big scary cat.

Gettin Reel Jiggy

So the kids found out Wednesday from their dance teacher that they will get to compete in their first feis (it's an Irish Gaelic word and its pronounced "Fesh". A festival of Irish dance, music and culture). All three will get to do a reel, light jig and single jig. Kendra is very excited because she will have the school's beginner dress made for her. The boys will wear the typical black trousers, dress shirt and tie. We all will get a weekend away in Rancho Mirage. Woo Hoo!
Now we have to practise, practise, practise.

I went on field trips both Thursday and today. We use parent drivers because buses are too expensive. I was shocked to hear the language coming out of these 7 and 8 year old's mouths. I was shocked and saddened to see what some of these kids were given for lunch. On the way back to school I listened to two of the boys in my car talk about video games. Pretty normal. Kyle is obsessed with his "E for everyone" games that he's only allowed to play on weekends and holidays. But then I started listening a little more closely to the talk about a game both boys played most often. I was shocked when this 7 year old said, "there was this granny and I went up behind her and shot her in the back of the head". What!!!! I'm supposed to be shocked, right? Am I just an old fart or is there something wrong with parents today? They (the boys) were also fans of YouTube. My kids don't even know what YouTube is let alone how to find it on the computer. I like YouTube. There are some great videos on it but I wouldn't let my kids go on unsupervised. I guess I'm just a boring old lady.

And so it begins...

The homework whine. They whine. I need wine. They did really well for the first two weeks. Now they're stomping, throwing pencils and making multiple trips to the bathroom. It's almost impossible to explain to a 7 year old that helping them does not mean I will give them the answers. Kyle is supposed to be getting the colored pencils for his math paper and I can hear a piano being played-Hmmm. Another stalling tactic.

I get so frustated by the whining and arguing . It's been never-ending lately. About anything and every thing. Girls are definitely the worst. How does a tiny little pink bundle of joy turn into a wailing banshee? Kendra would argue about whether the sun was up or not.

And the volume of all this whining and arguing. I just can't take it!! On a decibel scale I think they land right at about "chainsaw" which is just slightly below the range for human pain threshold and just slightly above the range for serious hearing damage. Isn't that special. I really don't think they can hear themselves. They can't possibley since they all talk at the same time and ask the same question three times while they're standing next to eachother.

So I'm guessing that in a few years this will be a permanent look for me and not just something Kieran has created. God help me.

And speaking of school, here's the first day of second grade picture.

I was just tallying how many times I said

"stop talking" while they did homework for 30 minutes.

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