"Everything Changed Today Mom"

Those were the words that Zack said to me when I picked him up at school today. Oh great...what happened? What now? As my mind is racing wondering what he means by that, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out something that has been attached to him for the last two years-

His Lucky Bracelet!!

It has finally broken and I can't say that I am broken up about it! You see he got this from his 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Wilder. She gave one to all of her students before the State testing for good luck and he has never taken it off! All the other students took theirs off after the testing was done, some even before the testing started. Not Zack, he has kept his on for over 2 years! It has become a part of him. He wore it always! Just a sample of some of the pictures of it on in the last two years. Every picture we have of him has the bracelet in it!

Track

Beach

Football

Junior Olympics

Christmas

Aspen Grove - Vacation

As you can see from the last two pictures, he has a thing for bracelets! Not only does he have the lucky bracelet on but he has the family camp bracelet from Aspen Grove on. He would keep those on until they finally fell apart. Such a funny kid! But now his wrists are bare and I am sure he feels somewhat naked without something there. And then after the bracelet fell apart today at school and came off, he ended up getting his finger on that hand jammed during basketball. Maybe the bracelet was lucky??

Volleyball Season Has Begun!

Royal Volleyball has started and I was actually looking forward to the season to begin. Out of all the sports the boys play, I think that I enjoy watching volleyball the most. For one thing the games only last an hour and that is a bonus and also it takes place in a nice gym. So it can be raining, windy, cold or blazing hot and it doesn't matter because we are inside. The games are very enjoyable and so far there has already been some real nail biters but Royal has come out of them victorious! We are looking forward to a great season:) Go Royal!

TP Explosion!

Pretty much everybody knows how Adam hates TP'ing! He can't stand it! He says it is mean and a form of vandalism (or something like that)! Now I think that it is funny that the weekend he is gone for work, we wake up to this on Sunday morning.

Whoever did it (actually we know who it is) is so lucky that Adam was not home because he would have been ticked! Now I on the other hand have done alot of tp'ing in my day. It was a weekly activity and I never saw a problem with it. In fact, the people we tp'd should have been flattered because we never tp'd someone we didn't like. In fact most of the time it was someone we really liked, if you get my drift. Which now, being older and wiser, thinks how stupid is that! I like you so I am going to make a mess in the front of your house that you have to clean up the next day and better yet I am going to do it anonymously! That really is pretty silly when you think about it.

So we spent Sunday morning before church cleaning up the mess left for us. Our trees were absolutely covered but thank goodness Zack is half monkey because he scaled the trees and helped get it all out. If there is anything I hate it is a strip of toilet paper hanging in a tree flapping in the wind for weeks on end. Talk about white trash...literally!

Fragrant Front Door

This last week our garage door has really been coming apart. The spring broke and the screws have been dropping out. Luckily for us, I live with a very handyman and he has been able to fix it so for now we do not need to get a new one. But we realized how many times we open the garage doors in a day...no wonder they are falling apart! I don't think that we ever use our front door. Now of course when our cars are parked in the garage we have to open them but I don't think that the boys even know we have a front door. Everytime they leave the house or come back in they use the garage doors. Play basketball out front......open the garage doors, take out the trash...go out the garage doors, go get the paper....open the garage doors, it really is ridiculous! So now we have introduced the boys to the front door and we are all going to try to use the garage doors less so that they might last us a little longer. So first we need to get them keys to the house instead of using the code for the garage door to let themselves in. It actually has been an eye opening change. I am now finding flyers that are put on the door the day that they are put on, finding packages that have been delivered on the day that they have been delivered and it has made me take notice of my planters in the front that I have been neglecting. But one huge plus from using the front door is the wonderful aroma! I find myself lingering at the doorway just so I can take in the nice smelling fragrance. What makes our front door smell so well? It is the wonderful jasmine that we have on our side gate! It smells divine! So if you want to smell the wonderful smell of spring just come and linger at our front door!

Spring Fever

I think that Adam has spring fever! He has been taking well deserved vacation days lately. A couple days off one week and one day the next week, it has been wonderful! It has almost been like mini vacations for the both of us without all the hassle but just enjoying being at home and hanging out together. We have taken advantage of the beautiful weather we have had and the beautiful green hills surrounding Simi by go hiking. There is nothing like the green hills, flowers blooming and sun shining to want to be outside. The pictures just do not do it justice but the hills do look wonderful right now.

Besides going hiking we enjoyed everyday by playing raquetball, playing tennis, going out to lunch, going to the movies and shopping. It really has been wonderful! I can't wait 'till Adam retires, if this is what it will be like.

Clean Phone

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Frustration

(2 times this last year)

Yeah...that's right! I have washed 2 phones this last year (actually in the last 6 months) and both of them have been ruined. And better yet, they were not my phone! One was Matthew's and this last one was Zack's! I am an idiot! Now, if they had put their clothes in their hamper and their phone was in their pockets still, then it would be their fault but no, I took their clothes from out of their sports bag or from a pile on the floor and I did not bother to check the pockets. I mean, who leaves stuff in their pockets...I don't!

I have always been bad at checking all the pockets of the clothes I wash...isn't that the responsibility of the clothes wearers?!? I have made it very clear to all in the house that when they put their clothes in the hamper that it is their responsibility to clear out the pockets. They have been very good at doing this...of course when they were small I did wash a few crayons and some chapsticks but they are now older and have been doing this well. Matthew does do his own wash now also but I have picked up doing some of his now that he is a bit busier with Volleyball season. I just cannot believe that I washed another phone so soon. I took all the proper steps of airing it out, taking out the battery and getting it really dry before trying it out...but both of them are ruined. It makes me so mad!!

So we have come to the conclusion that Mom will not be doing anymore wash.....yeah right, I wish that was the conclusion! No, the boys now know that they need to take their phones out of their pockets immediately when they get home because they have to watch out for Mom swooping in to throw their pants into the washer at all times! Hopefully, this plan will work because we cannot afford to destroy anymore phones!

Straight as an Arrow

It is official! No more Cub Scouts for the Walden family....Boy Scouts here we come. Actually Zack turned 11 back in November but we didn't have any pack meetings over the holidays so this last Friday Zack was finally awarded his Webelos and his Arrow of Light. Yeah!! We are so proud of his accomplishment and so appreciative of the cub scout leaders he had that helped him along the way. I can't say that I am sad to say goodbye to Cub Scouts but I really can't wait 'till we are done with Boy Scouts! Is that bad to say? Congratulations Zachary!

Much Better Birthday

Adam usually spends his birthday skiing up at Mountain High because you get to ski free on your birthday. He always looks forward to it. Well he hasn't it done it in a few years because 4 years ago I got a call to meet him at the Emergency Room because he was headed there with a busted shoulder. He had a bad fall skiing and it ended up that he had ripped all the tendons in his shoulder. Ouch!! To say the least, he was in alot of pain for many weeks and actually still has pain in it from time to time. The shoulder will never be the same. So here is what he looked like last time he went skiing on his birthday, this was taken the day after the accident. Not looking so good, I believe he was pretty drugged up at the time.

So when he told me that he was going to go skiing this year on his birthday, I was a little concerned. Not only was he going skiing but he was going night skiing after a long day at work! I told him that he better take it easy and reminded him of how much he hated being injured. Well, I am happy to report that he made it home safely and I received no phone calls from the Emergency Room. He had a great time and it felt good for him to get back on skiis. In this picture he looks much better and he was able to enjoy his birthday so much more:)