Wind, fire, smoke, yuck

Well it has been an interesting time the past few days. These fires are beyond comprehension. Starts out as one and explodes. Hardest hit was San Diego County where 1300 homes have been lost and 500,000 are still evacuated. CRAZY. I am lucky. My brothers home was surrounded by fire Monday night and came out ok. The only affects we have had are from the wind which blasted everything outside and covered everything with dirt and ash. I also have 3 kids who are stir crazy because they can't go outside due to air quality. Hopefully that will change soon. Anyway here are a few pics. Some I took and some I just thought represented the craziness well.

Here is my niece (heart necklace)before homecomming on Saturday night. Now those hills behind her are all burnt.

This is the view from Lake Mission Viejo of the Santiago fire near my brothers house.

This shows how the winds blow the fire. The smoke is almost flat.

Our pool. Yuck.

My favorite bush :(

Out front, smokey air.

Time flys.

In two and a half short years we went from this:

To this:

Where did my baby go? Wahhhhhhh wahhhhhhhh. I miss her. :(

Why?

Why do people do things like this? Saturday I am visiting with family and we get on the subject of Disneyland. I tell my SIL (who has taken her son 6 times and he is 18months old) that we really want to go but the $500+ it would cost is not in the budget right now. OK so 3 days later we get this pic.

Yes it is cute. But really. I mean really. It is just toooooo coincidental. Maybe the idea sparked after our convo. I am sure in one way it did. But to call and tell us to check out your pics when you know that I would love to take my family is rude. At least that is how I feel. I mean if you said hey I wish I could go to Hawaii and I left the next week and sent you pics wouldn't you think that was rude. Your kids are 2 weeks and 18 months. What is really the purpose of taking them to Disneyland. Really? Plus is a 2 week old supposed to be in such a public place during cold and flu season? I don't think so. Is it fun rubbing it in others faces.

Yes I am jealous. I wish we could afford to go. But the think is they can't afford to go either. They just charge it. So why brag?

Not gone, Just busy

Well, things have been really crazy lately so I'll post a little update.

Charles has been sick with this horrible cough for 2 1/2 weeks now. It has been quite stressful. In the beginning I was quite worried that it was his lymphoma comming back. His doc was a bit worried too so they sent him in for chest xrays. Well after too long a wait we found out his chest was clear thank goodness. It was a relief but he still has that cough and the doc isn't doing much. He goes back in on Wed bcuz they are also doing a physical so hopefully Charles will speak up and get new meds.

In the mean time the boys and school have been keeping me pretty busy. They just cannot finish their work in class on time. I don't get it. I really don't know what else to do. If you promise them something they finish it in no time. Other wise it takes them forever. Michael has been having a harder time with this than Anthony. It will take him 40 minutes to do his spelling test. But when his teacher found a grasshopper and told him he could keep it on his desk for the day if he finished his spelling test quickly, he fininshed in 5 minutes. When are they just going to get there stuff done so we don't have to go through this anymore? When are they going to understand that the quicker they do the work, the quicker they get to play? I don't know. They are also having a hard time finishing their math. Yes 30 math problems on a page don't look appealing but just finish. It isn't that they can't do it. We have math races all the time and they blurt out the answer quickly. I don't know why they just wont do it. It is soooooo frustrating. Anthony is getting it a bit better than Michael. He finished his homework in 20 minutes last night. Michael however, took and hour and a half. He mostly turned around in the chair and read things on the desk. I finally had to make sure that nothing was on the desk and he was standing and then he started working a bit better. So frustrating. I am so tired from trying so hard to get them to do their work. I really don't know what else to do. We have promised trips, and treats, and movies. But at the end of the day I walk up and see that look on their teachers face. FRUSTRATING.

In other news. Emmy wanted to be a monkey and so we went to the costume store. Couldn't find a monkey but she wanted this:

She thinks it is DeeDee Doodlebop but it is really Stephanie from Lazy town. I have never heard of her but anyway Emmy is happy thinking she is a Doodlebop. I ordered a monkey online and Charles is going to kill me. But I just want her to be what she really wants kwim. Besides this can go in her dress up box anyway.

Mixed emotions.

Well I got the text this morning that my BIL and SIL were at the hospital in labor. I am truely excited for them and their new additon. But I also have mixed emotions.

I feel a bit sad because I will never do that again, especially after everything I went through and knowing that I truely don't want another. But I will miss the new baby excitement. I don't know if that makes sense.

I also am prepared for the fact that we will lose babysitters. My MIL is our primary babysitter. She drops everything when my BIL calls and will babysit my other nephew at a moments notice. I have a lot of resentment because she openly favors my BIL and his son. She ignored Emmy for the first year of her life because Emmy would cry when she held her. So anyway when their first son was born he had an awesome disposition and won her over in a split second.

She is prepared to do everything she can to help them out because she is worried they can't handle two kids so close (17 months) apart. They had marriage issues about 2 years ago and my MIL thinks she needs to save them. But when I was pregnant with Emmy, Charles had cancer and we moved and I did it all by myself. She never helped. After Emmy was born Charles took one day off and I was on my own. No one worried about me. Now don't get me wrong. I get that she didn't think I needed help but it still annoys me. Mostly because we never get out except maybe once every couple months and my BIL and SIL will drop their kids off whenever and head to a game or dinner. Annoying. On the other hand my SIL does pay the price with having them in her house and business alllll the time. My MIL is heading over there after work to clean it for them so the baby comes home to a clean house. She won't leave until asked and because BIL is such a mamas boy he won't. Last time she stayed at their house 3 days until finally my SIL had a breakdown. So I guess I need to focus on that.

And I also need to focus on a new baby and new cousin for the kids. I do love it when our family gets bigger. End of rant. I feel a little better. At least until she does something to piss me off.