Earth Day and a Predicament

So Ethan's class did an Earth Day performance of sorts with singing and poems. I was able to catch Ethan's on the camera.

But on to the second part of my title. I have a problem that I'm having a hard time with and I need your help. I drive carpool with two other woman in Ogden. One of these is a girl in fifth grade. I drove Friday morning to her house and when she stepped into the car she was crying. Not just a little like a lot. And her eyes were puffy and all that. So, my drive is about 20 minutes to Ethan's school. My heart has gone out to this girl since I started driving because her parents are divorced. And it was an ugly divorce with her dad ending up in jail for trying to meet an underage girl that he met on the internet. This girl turned out to be a cop. So, her mom and her left Arkansas and traveled around for a year or so living with friends, boyfriends and the like until the ended up here. In Ogden. Her mom had a lot of depression issues and so this little girl has had to grow up too fast. Her mom is now remarried to a guy with whom they share a little girl who is 18 months. Sorry for the long back story, okay, so she's told me all this over the last year because I think she feels safe riding in my car and talking to me. So this Friday she got into my car after getting in trouble for not having her room clean because she spent the night having to watch her little sister in her room while her step-dad took a nap. When she tried to explain to her step-dad that she couldn't because she was watching the baby her told her not to back talk. She got so frustrated that she started crying. Her told her that she needed to stop crying or he would take her outside and give her something to cry about. That's when I pull up.

Gulp.

Then she confides in me that her step-dad is really mean to her and spanks her a lot and all that. I asked about her mom and if she's ever talked to her about him and she said that she just cries when she tries to talk to her. And then her step-dad gets mad at her for telling. Uggggh. Even writing this is making me mad.

Now understand that I spank my kids. Not a ton, but I do on occasion. My problem is when step parents physically discipline their step kids. I don't know why. It bugs me. When I was a new parent I was a lot more harsh with my step daughter than was necessary. I didn't realize this until I had kids and realized that kids are kids and to, well, breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

There's a lot more that she told me that I think are not okay, but not would not necessarily warrant a call to Child Services. Do you know what I mean? So help from all is needed. Thanks. I'm going to go throw up now. Not really I just don't like to think about how much children suffer because of crappy adults. It makes me sick.

Here's my pregnant belly for all you people who like the idea of seeing someone suffer through a pregnancy while you aren't. Bucky was a good sport and put his belly out there to make me feel better... :)

Phew!!!

I'm so excited for this last week to be done and over with! In order of difficulty I would rank said projects as:

1. Sprinklers, yet to be finished...

2. Sod, looking good!

3. Nani's funeral, Bucky's grandmother passed away last Thursday and I will miss her a ton.

4. Trenching for sprinklers, poor Bucky trying to manhandle that piece of machinery!

5. Being pregnant. Enough said. It's so different being pregnant after 5 years, but it's nice to savor the little things of it. Really. :) Now that I'm so mature and stuff...

El Capitan Theater

We bugged the lady we were staying with and asked her what some of her favorite things were to do in LA and she suggested the El Capitan Theater. I had never heard of this place, but it was amazing! It was one of the three original theaters that they built in 1926 along with Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Egyptian. The theater is owned by Disney now and thus plays Disney films. We saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D. The tickets were reasonable for a 3D picture, I think they were $13 for kids and $15 for adults. They had a man playing this awesome old organ at the beginning and downstairs they had a lot of the actual props from the movie. One of my favorites was the Mad Hatter's costume.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera in the car so I have no good pictures of it. The theater was right next to where they film Jimmy Kimmy Live and across the street was the Kodak theater where they host the Oscars. It really is an amazing part of Hollywood. A few times I had to cover the kids' eyes or distract the kids' with something because unfortunately there's a lot of homeless people that were really scary and a lot of transvestites that were dressed pretty skanky. But don't let that deter you. There's great shopping and lots to do and see.

Legoland and the Land of Dysfunctional Parents

One of our other stops was Legoland. I have to preface this by saying that the day we went was maybe one of the biggest fighting days that Buck and I had on vacation, we just couldn't decide on what to do and when to leave the house. If you don't know Bucky and I's personalities, let me give you a heads up. We are both products of our upbringing. My family (my dad) is VERY punctual. One of the things that I heard growing up was, "If you're on time, you're late." So, I am usually a VERY punctual person. Now, on the other hand, Bucky's family, I love you all, cannot make a decision and execute it to save their lives. They take their time. SO, you can imagine how our vacation went. I wanted to get get get. And Bucky wanted to hash hash hash out every decision and detail. Which is FINE. It's just hard to work it out on a vacation. Or life for that matter.

So, we spent nearly the entire morning trying to figure out where a grocery store was where they had discounted Legoland tickets and thus making us there about an 1 1/2 hours (late) after the park opened. It was cold and windy there so we were all kind of grouchy. But, we still managed to have a decent time by the time we left that night.

Big News to Most of You...

I'm too excited to finish posting vacation pictures today. I will resume tomorrow. But today, I have gigantic news.

I'm Prego! And at my appointment today ( the 1st) I was 15 weeks along and just for giggles she checked to see what the sex was and it's a BOY! Hallaluyah! I know, that's not how you spell it, but whatever. I'm so excited I can't stand it. I knew this little boy was supposed to come to our family 2 years ago when I miscarried and has just been waiting for me to be ready for him. And now we are and we are so excited.

Disneyland

I don't know if I mentioned this, but we got to drag along Bucky's daughter, Alyssa. She is now 5'7" and like totally skinny and cute. Like totally. I can't believe I just said that. oh well. California rubbed off on me. She was a good sport and great helping with the kids, and that's not an easy task when you have to ride in the middle seat with a car seat and a booster all the time!

Monday: Disneyland
Ev had been asking when we were going to Disneyland since we crossed the California state line and so Monday morning, I got so excited to go, yes I just said I, that we decided to go. Even though we knew it was going to be good weather and Spring Break. The kids LOVED it. If you are going to Disneyland this year I would recommend participating in the Give a Day, Get a Day program that Disney is doing. You basically give a day of service and get a free day at Disneyland. We did it and donated baby wipes to Haiti and earned 4 free tickets. It only cost about $70. And if you know Disneyland ticket prices, that's not even the cost of one ticket. Evie didn't qualify because of her age, so we bought her ticket at bestticketshere.com for $55. Not bad for Disneyland. :) My kids loved the rides. Only the big ones though. Evie cried on Splash Mountain initially, but she went on it a second time and loved it. Ev's favorite ride was the Matterhorn and E's was Space Mountain.

Catch-Up

So, breathe a sigh of relief. We are home. It was the best of times it was the worst of times. But, we survived and had a pretty memorable trip to boot. The internet that was promised at the place we were staying only lasted one day, then refused to work. So, that's why I haven't been keeping up. So, here is the BIG catch up...

Sunday: Crystal Cove State Park
Great recommendation by my sister-in-law Molly. This beach was beautiful. There was sand, but mostly rocks and shells and tide pools. The weather was perfect and only about 30 minutes from where we were staying.