Midnight Goddess

Marty finally agreed to take a weekend off after several weeks of hard labor for Bart. It’s been difficult for him to take a much needed weekend off because we’re still playing catch up with our bills. I know we’ll get our debt down to nothing soon. I’m so proud of him.

Since it was opening weekend for the movie Wall-E, Memphis had been telling us about it for a few months now. We kept telling him that we didn’t know when we were going to take him because Marty had been so busy with work. Well, he sprung a spur of the moment deal on us by telling us that he was taking all of us, Jasmine included, to see that movie. Memphis was out of his mind with excitement. Both me and Marty loved seeing how happy he got. It had been a few years since we took him to see a movie at the theaters. He was about 4 when we took him to see Cars.

Jasmine didn’t know what was going on. All she knew was we were all going to watch a movie. I knew we had a lot of things to do this weekend but I wanted all of us to spend some time as a family doing something out of the ordinary.

So I bought our tickets on Fandango.com and then we had lunch at DiPuccio’s. Memphis and Jasmine shared a plate of spaghetti while me and Marty both ordered plates of rigatoni with alfredo sauce. It was quick and easy and very filling.

Jaz got all excited when we head up the escalator. She used to be deathly afraid of it before. But now she loves going up and down the escalators.

Marty bought a large soda and popcorn to share with the kids and bought me a chocolate shake. Yum!

We sat a few rows near the front and to the very left just in case we needed to get Jaz out of the theater without causing too much commotion for other people. The theater piled up fast, mostly with families of kids.

Jaz was pretty amazed with the large “tv” screen. But that didn’t last. She didn’t really want to sit in her chair. But she did eat popcorn and drank some soda as well as my shake. She kept wanting to walk up and down our row. She also tried sitting on the floor. She even stuck her head between the seats in front of us to watch the movie.

Even though I had to constantly keep and eye on her, she was prety well-behaved compared to some of the other kids. There were random shrieks and screams as well as crying. And some kids would talk out loud like there weren’t any other people in the theater.

Anyway, the main thing was that Memphis thoroughly enjoyed the movie. He said that out of all the Pixar movies, Wall-E is his favorite. More than likely we will be getting him the DVD.

Yesterday was pretty busy also. We spent a lot of time running errands and driving around in the car. We stopped at one of the very first McDonald’s in San Jose. It’s literally served billions upon billions of burgers. Then we drove to different truck places and the CHP office (Marty has a few questions regarding trucks and trailers). Then we went to Baskin Robbins and ordered an ice cream cake for Mom’s 50th birthday. After that, Marty surprised me by driving us to Ikea. We had never been there. But it was humongous! Very cool stuff. The store was designed to get customers lost in its maze of products. It was extremely crowded but we had a good time wandering around the store. The kids grabbed brochures, pencils and paper rulers while we were there.

After we left, we headed back into town and bought our groceries for the week. By then, we were all exhausted. I was glad when we got home and I was able to get into some comfy shorts and shirt. It’s always good to get back home.

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I had a pretty good day today. Got up a little after 10. The kids had knocked on my door a few minutes before but I was too groggy to go answer it. When I got out of bed to get them dressed to eat breakfast, they had gone back to bed.

I still have a cold that I’m dealing with. It’s not too bad. Jaz had a blip of the cold and Memphis is still coughing but he’s getting over it. Last night, me and Marty wanted Memphis to start earning his TV and computer time again. I just felt that he has been doing nothing but get on the computer and watch TV way too much every day.

Today, Memphis didn’t insist on TV or computer. Instead, he did his morning ritual of going to the bathroom, brushing his teeth, getting dressed and eating all his breakfast. Because he didn’t give me a hard time as he sometimes does in the morning, I told him he can have his choice of 1/2 an hour of TV and 1/2 hour of computer time, or 1 hour of TV or 1 hour of computer. His natural response was that he wanted 24 hours of both TV and computer. I had previously told him that there are 24 hours in 1 day.

So we sat on the floor in his room while I tried to explain his options. By doing this, we had naturally gone into math-mode. We dealt with addition, subtraction, and fractions with just the mere explanation of 1 hour. I had explained to him that half of an hour would be 30 minutes and that 30 + 30 would equal 60 minutes which would be 1 hour.

Memphis finally decided that he wanted to watch 1 hour of TV. He sat down and watched 20 minutes of Yo Gabba Gabba. When it was over, he said he didn’t want to watch anymore TV. I wasn’t about to object. He sat down to play Leapster, which I have no problem with since it’s an educational tool. A little while later, he politely asked to get on the computer to look at some more Leapster games so I let him. He was on there for maybe 10 minutes and then got off to do other things. I turned off the computer because it has such a loud fan.

The kids were being so well-behaved today that I was able to take a hot shower and do several hours of work online. I was happy with that. Jasmine requested Yo Gabba Gabba on TV so I found one on On Demand. She actually watched 2 in a row. After the 2nd show was over, I looked over at her to see what she was doing and I realized she wasn’t sitting in front of the TV.

I got up and checked my room. She wasn’t there. I checked the rest of the house and there was no sign of her. I started to slowly panic since our apartment is only 900 sq ft. I walked into their room again and found her passed out with her blanket and bottle on her Dora couch behind her bed. She looked so comfortable and peaceful there that I just left her. I took a few photos of her sleeping. Then I went back to work.

Since the kids were being so good for me today, I told them to get their shoes on and go get mail with me. The weather was pretty decent outside. Our mailbox was stuffed full of mail. Surprisingly, there were no bills. I was happy about that.

When we got back to our apartment, Jaz lingered in front of the playground and I had Memphis drop off our mail in front of the door. We played at the playground for about 20 minutes before it started to get dark. Jaz was having such a blast that she threw a fit when I took her back inside.

Just as we got inside, the phone rang. I answered it and Marty frantically yelled through the phone, “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN???” I asked him why he was yelling. I told him that me and the kids were outside for a little while. He calmed down after that. I guess he’s just so used to us being inside all the time. Yeah, we’re homebodies. But that’ll change a little bit as time goes on.

Sifting through mail, I found 2 checks addressed to me. I was thrilled. I wasn’t expecting to receive the check from Network Solutions for a month and a half. It showed up in less than 2 weeks. That’s awesome in my book. I also found out that the Paypal echeck that I received for the scrapbook auction on Ebay cleared this afternoon. Plus, one of my regular clients paid me for the Xmas graphics I created for him.

The kids had their bath a little while later. After they got out and got into their PJs, I cooked them Mac N Cheese at Memphis’ request. I’m so glad that he has simple tastes when it comes to food. Memphis had a horrendous appetite and had 2 bowls of mac n cheese. After he ate and placed his bowl in the sink, he took off for my room to watch TV. So much for my need to impose TV restrictions on him. He had been so good for me today. I think I was just stressed out yesterday.

Jaz wanted to watch TV with Memphis so she joined him. A little while later, she went running into the kitchen while I worked on the computer. I heard the sound of her bowl in the sink. I guess she had taken her dinner to our room to eat alongside her brother. I have no problem with that. I looked at her bowl and saw that she ate every piece of pasta.

Jaz saw me drinking Sunkist and of course she wanted some. I didn’t give in to her. I told her that her bottle is on the floor with her blanket. She started laughing and laid down on the floor with her bottle. A few minutes later, she was snoring. I took photos of that too.

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Today was Marty’s first official “day off”. He had been working hard consistently for several months, making me very proud of him. He had just finished working on a landscaping job that has taken him several weeks to complete. I thought he was going to wash the cars today. But he had other plans.

At first, Marty wanted to take the family to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. We were there several months ago when we first moved back to San Jose. Since most of the rides are closed this time of the year, we were going to spend some time in the arcade, play mini golf and eat at the Fishermen’s Wharf.

Then Marty suggested that we instead go to Monterey Bay Aquarium. I loved that idea. I keep thinking that Marty and I went to the Aquarium during our first year of dating but he swears we didn’t. We both went separately at different times in our lives. I know that I went with one of my high school classes years ago.

Memphis wanted to go to the beach but when we told him about the aquarium, he got excited. We recently bought him Scholastic’s Animal Genius for his Nintendo DS. Well, he conquered the game already by finding all 25 animals. He said that he wanted to be an “animal genius” at the aquarium. I love his enthusiasm. The best part is he doesn’t realize that he’s learning. He’s just having fun.

We got everyone fed, dressed, and packed up in the Jeep a little while later. It usually takes us awhile to get ready to go anywhere because we have to feed and dress everyone plus pack necessities like diapers, wipes, bottles, drinks, and whatever else we need. A little after 11 am, we hit the road.

Since we made the habit of taking long rides when I was pregnant with both Memphis and Jasmine, they both love being in the car, however long it may be. They’re really good about it. They almost never give us a hard time and I absolutely love that.

Marty and I had a nice long conversation about our property in the Berryessa Hills. Granted, we haven’t bought the 31 acre property yet, but in our eyes, it’s already ours. We just have to pay for it. Earlier today, we talked about and drew out a floor plan of my office building. It’s going to be 3,000 sq ft! Several days ago we had also drawn up a map of where all the buildings were going to go. I can’t wait till we buy the property.

Anyway, when we got to Monterey Bay, I could smell the ocean breeze coming in through the sun roof. We took a quick lunch break at McDonald’s. After that, we headed over to the aquarium. We couldn’t find any outdoor parking so we parked the car in one of the public garages. We only had to hoof it about 3 blocks through the construction (they’re building a hotel I think to get to the aquarium.

Once we got there, I noticed there were a lot of people walking into the building. It’s a Saturday. Everyone’s off. We walked in and the reception area where we paid for our tickets looked almost like a reception in a hotel.

Here are the photos I took of our trip.

We spent several hours there, fighting our way through crowds of people. The area designated for people to touch real live sea creatures like sting rays and star fish got Memphis very excited. He kept grabbing the poor star fish and poking it hard. I had to keep reminding him to be gentle. I don’t think he realizes that he was being too rough.

After that, we walked through Fishermen’s wharf. We wanted to buy some fish to take home but amazingly enough, we couldn’t find a place that sold them. So we had a quick dinner in one of the mom and pop restaurants. Memphis had pizza and me, Marty and Jasmine had fried calamari and fries. Yummy!

We all had a great time today. I love doing things like this with the family.

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Last Saturday, Marty took his first day off in over 3 weeks of hard work to take me and the kids to the fair in Pleasanton. We had planned to go for several weeks now.

Unfortunately, it started to rain on us so we had to go buy umbrellas for the first time ever at Longs. For the most part, the kids were well behaved which allowed us to have a nice long conversation on the way over to Pleasanton.

I was rather shocked because we used to go to Pleasanton for the Good Guys’ car shows and the whole place would be packed. Instead, we drove all the way to the very front where the swap meet was normally held. I think it wasn’t that crowded because of the rain. But the rain didn’t stop us from having fun.

I wanted Memphis to have fun so I decided to get on some of the rides with him. The first one was the teacup ride similar to the one at Disneyland. After several years of not going to amusement parks, I got dizzy spinning in circles. I did have fun though. And the important thing was that Memphis had a blast too. Marty hung out with Jasmine on the sidelines and took lots of photos of me and Memphis on the rides.

We did a lot of walking around and looking at the indoor exhibits. The food was ok. Not the best. I did like the fries. We also did stuff like decorate foam hats and foam cups, painted mini pumpkins, and planted flowers.

The only ride Jasmine was able to get on was the slow moving train. I took her and Memphis on that ride and we chug a lugged on a 2 minute ride around part of the fair. Did we all have fun that day? we sure did!

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I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not the best person to teach anyone how to cook. My childhood was laced with my mom and grandma telling me to get out of the kitchen or I’ll burn it down. They never wanted to teach me how to do anything in the kitchen not even to help with small tasks. Then when I turned 16, my mom wondered why I didn’t know how to cook anything. Gee… I wonder why.

I didn’t want my kids to be afraid to cook. I don’t cook much as it’s not my “thing”. Usually, Marty does the cooking. He’s mastered the skill. He learned to cook because he’d ask his mom how to cook a favorite meal of his and she’d write it down. This was after me and Marty had moved to Las Vegas.

My kitchen “skills” go as far as frying stuff and nuking stuff in the microwave. If a recipe was simple, I’d know how to cook it. I’m a big fan of tv dinners, boxed meals like Pasta Roni, and simple stuff like grilled cheese. The only actual meal I know how to cook is spaghetti and meatballs. Luckily, the kids aren’t picky and don’t require that I cook traditional meals like most moms do.

Lately, I’ve been allowing Memphis to nuke his Kid Cuisine meal on his own. Usually I do it. But I figured, why not let him start to get comfortable in the kitchen.

Today, Memphis wanted Pasta Roni Fettucini Alfredo. So he got a box out of the pantry and read the instructions out loud with a little help from me. I had to show him that he needs to do each step in order and not rush into anything. I showed him how to read fractions on the box. It called for 1 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup of milk. I showed him how to pronounce each fraction and he showed me where each fraction was on the measuring cup. Then he correctly poured the amounts of water and milk into the pot (math lesson along with the pasta and seasonings. He then mixed the ingredients himself. We waited until the water started to boil. He noted that the water only starts to boil after it gets hot enough (science lesson). Once it started to boil, I turned down the heat to low and he learned how to set the timer on the microwave to 6 minutes as defined by the box. As the minutes went by, I asked him how much time we had left and with a bit of help, he was able to say “4 minutes and 30 seconds” or ” 2 minutes and 5 seconds” and so on.

Let me tell you, he was very proud of himself for cooking his lunch himself. In just a few short minutes, Memphis learned science, math, some basic cooking, reading, and independence. Not bad for homeschooling I know a lot of parents, teachers, and others may scoff at that and say it’s not learning and that Memphis should be in school learning. I disagree.

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