Go Blue! Oldest son's first football game was this weekend.
Even more priceless than seeing him in that adorable uniform was seeing his horrified face when he realized I was on the sideline taking pics of him!

I've always wanted to wear a varsity jacket in high school but never really liked--and therefore never dated--the jock-type myself so that didn't work out. Now maybe I can wear son's one someday. LOL. Do they still do that????

Nothing else around here is new except the remnants of a huge swell on my favorite side.

The first day we went, I was practically peeing my pants on the way. There were waves breaking where there usually weren't any at all. It was BIG. I told myself it was too big for my amateur self and stupid me believed it. I paddled out and pulled out of a few that freaked me out. Thankfully, a friend happened to be there and cheered me on, well, more like forced me to go on the scary ones by peer pressure...I didn't want to look like a fool out there. I'm happy she was there. I was challenged to do more than I thought I could. It was the most beautiful day there ever.

So I had high hopes when we went out that way again the next day, but majority ruled and we ended up at another spot that I DON'T LIKE. I played the diva role all day and sulked and threw my little tantrums. It wasn't pretty.

On the way home I was still seething in anger, but even then I realized that "HEY, dingleberry, you just spent an entire day in paradise and WASTED IT!" (But don't tell hubby that! I'm still mad. Why can't the queen have her way?)

Now it's back to work tomorrow. la-di-da

There are never enough hours in the day when you need them eh.

  ¶ 2:56 PM 8Mana'o

  Neither Here nor There Bits n pieces of our lives:
The twins first day at preschool.

Last week I started the graveyard shift. What I hadn't realized is- working one night ruins two days. Because the day of my shift I have to make sure I get a nap in, then the next day I have to sleep in. But I do have to say that after it slowed down in the wee hours of the morning, I enjoyed getting paid for doing NOTHING. Day shift, you get no such pleasure.

The thing about sporadic blogging is, I can't tell you everything all the time! For instance, over the past couple of months, we've bought a paddleboard and a kayak. Today hubby and I took them out for the first time together. I got a little scared when the wind picked up and I felt powerless in the big wide ocean...especially since hubby was a half mile away from me! But it was really fun and good exercise. I was hoping it could be something I could do while everyone was at work or school, but it turns out to be so heavy I wouldn't be able to load/unload from the truck myself : (
(Hey, I also need a name for my kayak. It's red. Any suggestions?)

Something I DID find to do all by my lonesome is make jewelry. My friend and I took a wire-wrapping class together, and I also like to make other kinds of jewelry. It's too easy to spend too much money on supplies though.

The Active for Life progress report came out and MY TEAM IS WINNING the other team from the ER! It's funny because it's not because we are exercising more, but that members from the other team haven't been signing in and logging their hours, while we are all logging in and putting in our sad little "30 minutes" here and there. We are SO the underdogs that it makes it hilarious that we are winning.

Middle son started soccer practice yesterday. It was really weird sitting there watching MIDDLE SON do drills. Oldest son was always the one into team sports. The one time we enrolled middle son in basketball, he was off in his own world chasing bugs in the corner while he should have been playing on the court. We decided he must not be into team sports and left it at that. Now I am feeling badly we didn't try again sooner, as some of his team mates have been playing soccer for years and this is his first season!
Oldest son is at school right now trying to see if they'll take him on the football team. He's known all summer that they have been practicing, but told me he wanted "a break from sports." I was a little frustrated and hoped he would change his mind, because isn't high school the most important time?? So, I'm glad he's trying now, though it might be too late. We'll see. I'd be so proud to be a football mom! I never enrolled them in pee wee football because those games were always on Sunday. So, fat chance, yeah, since he's had no experience and no practice!  ¶ 5:43 PM 9Mana'o

  The (seemingly) Neverending Swell Since I had so many days off and the boys were about to head back to school, we went off for adventure elsewhere for a few days. On the plane there was a newspaper with a coupon for 100 free tokens at Chuck E Cheese with a meal deal purchase. Hey, I had to feed and entertain six kids (some friends came along, of course) and so we headed there.
I. Love.Chuck. E. Cheese.
They even have a super yummy salad bar. They have these plastic cups to put all your tokens in, when they were empty, we grabbed some more and had cup stacking competitions.

The mission for this trip was to show the boys waves at different beaches.
Except for a day at the waterpark, we spent the whole time at my old favorite spots.
Back home, there has been a swell on our favorite side so we have been heading out to surf everyday. The twins are now officially fish. They have overcome any fear of waves and now run into them, rolling in the whitewash until they can pop up for air, laughing the whole way. I have to stand right there in the water and step in front of them sometimes to stop them from being sucked back into the deeper water.
Being too tired from long days at the beach to do anything else, like say, be a responsible parent, I never got around to getting the required school supplies. Last minute shopping netted me a sorry assortment of glue and crayons. It was a mad search at several stores, who were all completely sold out of composition books, wide-ruled folder paper, and markers. My poor children went to school today without everything they needed.
But that's okay, gives them character, right? lol.
After school today, we packed everyone up and headed to our favorite spot, but stop & go traffic + ambulance with sirens on sent us on a detour to the closest beach and it was a good thing, this place was just as fun. Middle son caught waves from the outside and rode them in standing up on his bodyboard. a bunch of teens who were riding in the shorebreak hooted for him on one wave and I was so proud of him.

I asked hubby to watch the twins while I put my exercise time in for Active For Life by walking down the shoreline. The long long stretch of beach was totally deserted and veering inland just a few yards brought me to a pond with beautiful stilts (birds). The view of the pond with the mountains in the background and the late afternoon rays of sun streaming through the clouds took my breath away and I thanked God for blessing me so completely.

  ¶ 8:35 PM 10Mana'o