Little Catching Up....

I don't have much to say and I also don't have a ton of time to spare but I wanted to upload a few new pics and make sure I kept whoever might be reading this up to date on the happenings of the Crazy8!

So here goes!

Little bit of silly park fun...while Jared decided to get his nap on.

 

 

 Planted some more flowers in the little planter in the backyard. Made some quick pot changes also as our old wood barrel was falling apart. Literally.

 

 

 Even added a hummingbird feeder but so far all we caught was Jared. Guess he had to make sure it tasted good. Silly!

 

 Sent Neya off to Coloma for a 2 day 3 night trip. She had a blast!

 

Took Rian out for Monday Slurpees. A tradition he has at his daddies that I needed to uphold for him! We had my kiddos all week so we got to do lots of fun things we don't get to during the week. Yay for extra time with them!

 

 

 All 8 of us headed out to cheer Tyler on during his concert/recital at his school. Pretty neat to see how far he has come this year, even since his last recital. Amazing!

 

 

 Jared's littles had Friday off but my kids did not so we decided to take them to the Race Track and had a great time. I might add that Aidan and I had an extra great time because we won. However if you ask Jared he will say he 'let us win' and Tyler will say his car broke. Of course.

 

 On Saturday May 24th we got to go out for my girls birthday (the big 32) and not only did we have lots of fun and get dressed up, she also decided to show her guns a bit during Karaoke. Hehe.

 

 

Sunday we went to a BBQ with two of my three littles (sadly the Luoma Littles had to go home on Saturday) and we had a blast. I am sure we will be back again and this time with everyone! Assuming of course Sharidy and Erik are prepared for us. Haha.

Little lady HAS to have her goggles.

Rian jumping in. He is such a water kid!

 

 Sunday night after a long day of swimming and while it was just us two I did the impossible. I got Jared to go Sushi with me. Not only that but he even used chopsticks....WELL. Like. No longer does he look like a rookie. Seems I may slowly be rubbing off on him...giggle giggle laugh laugh. He did eat a few pieces of each sushi roll and although I don't get anything particularly scary and raw it was still a big step for him and I am extremely lucky that he doesn't mind stepping out of his comfort zone for me. Small gesture. Great appreciation.

 

All that about sums up the last week or two. Not to crazy but still a blast. I have to say that after having a house full of kids for more than just a couple days that this week has already been super boring! BOO!

 

Also. I swear we do have a teenager also only she barely comes out of her little cave and although we miss her I am sure she will return to pics soon! Or at least I hope so because she has a very important day coming up...8th Grade Graduation! So grown up!

 

Lastly. I have to remember that this weekend there was a holiday celebrated. One that has always held near and dear to my heart. Memorial Day. A day to celebrate those that have given their lives or who have lost a love one all in the name of freedom. Our freedom. My uncles, grandfathers, cousins, step father and now my hunny have all proudly served in the military. It doesn't matter the branch, the reason they joined or the length of time served. What matters is that they are appreciated that for the life they lead and the sacrifice them and so many others have given for us as Americans. I love you all. So very much.

 

Thank you.

 

Mothers Day Weekend 2014

I had big plans for Mothers Day. Wake up to birds chipping. Sip a mimosa (or three). Have the kids volunteer to take showers and get dressed. Get myself dressed and showered. Head to the Dixon May Fair. Spend oodles of money frivolously. Come home. Spend time with my hunny. Go to bed.

That my friends. Is not how it played out at all.

I woke up and after realizing I had actually slept in I ran to the store to fetch my mom flowers to go in the vase that we had for her (sorry no pics of it...bummer). Once I got back 2 of my 3 kids were awake and so we waited for the 3rd to wake up while I got the flowers for my mother trimmed and put into the vase. They were beautiful and bright and the vase of course helped them look even more awesome. By the time we were all done my 3rd baby woke up and I got to tend to the ceremonious opening of gifts! Woohoo!! I got three sweet cards, a cute little handmade pottery from Rian, a cute flower picture from Laneya and from Carina I got a jar that on the lid said 'I love...'and then inside it was a bunch of cut out hearts with little notes from all six kids and Jared. They each wrote their own note and it was amazing. Not only did I realize then that all the money in the world couldn't have bought a gift so sweet but that my daughter really knows me. She had to know how special this would be and it really was. I mean, she also got me a Starbucks card which I of course am super appreciative of, but that little jar of love was the best!

I of course, gave hugs and then we invited my mom and dad over to get the mimosas started! We sat at the table and just chatted over bagels and mimosas. My mom loved her gift and then my little brothers showed up. I weighed out the pros and cons of going to the Fair and ultimately my recent car debacle had led me to decide to not go. The extra money wasn't in my favor. Where normally this would have bummed me out, what it resulted in was an entire day of laziness! We all sat in our jammies, drank mimosas (2 bottles of champagne down the hatch) and we ate deli sandwiches and just caught up! It was amazing! I really couldn't have asked for a better Mothers Day.




To also make it a teeny tiny better, the Luoma kids momma sent me a sweet text and a pic of her babies :) I really feel loved and I mean that!

The day before Mothers Day on Dia De Las Madres (Mexican mothers day) we also had a busy day! We went to a surprise party for my cousin Marci. It was her 40th and my cousin Jose really pulled it off. I got to help set up and it was neat to have her pull up to the house with all of us standing there and we sang Happy Birthday before she could even get out of the car! Haha. She was as surprised as she could be I think, she said when they turned on the street of her friends house it kind of gave it away but hey, that's still pretty good! We ate Hawaiian food, grubbed on cupcakes and just hung around family and had a pretty nice time.

 

That evening we went to see my dad perform at Jarvis Conservatory with his Ballet Folklorico group. This was a huge accomplishment and despite some differences with another music group that was there it went off great! Seriously. My dad opened up the performance by singing a song and honestly, I forgot how amazing my dads voice is but recognized it the second he sang the first note. Then they went on to dance and I got a couple videos but mostly I just enjoyed the show. I got to take my kids and Jared and it was just really special to share that experience with the most important people in my life. We took a few photos, we shared a few laughs and then we headed out to go to a super late dinner and have a couple drinks together with my dad, my mom, my brothers, my man and my littles.

 

 

 

We took a few photos, we shared a few laughs and then we headed out to go to a super late dinner and have a couple drinks together with my dad, my mom, my brothers, my man and my littles. This whole Mothers Day weekend could only have been a little better perhaps if Jared got to spend the actual day with his mom but he did get a couple days in where he had a blast so that was perfect.

I didn't even really mention that but they went to an old Mine and had a blast there as well as spent some much needed quality time with his momma. He sent me a few pics so its ALMOST as though I was even there :)

 

 

 I think that all mommies this weekend were taken very good care of and I can't wait till next year :)

Well that stinks....

So as I mentioned previously in my blog, my minivan decided to take a poop on me. It has a busted transmission and I do not have the money to fix it, nor do I have the patience to try and haggle my way to some cheaper fix. I am at a loss. I have had the car for less than a year and to have it already take a dump on me is just crazy.

So today in an effort to see what my options were I decided to post an ad on Craigslist, mostly thinking it was my last ditch effort and then thinking "maybe someone will bite and give me a couple grand". Well, my as-is ad worked and I have already received 11 emails in a couple hours and been offered a few cash offers. Crazy how things work. This is now the time that I decide if I am going to go ahead with this or if I am going to hold off and see what happens in the future. I mean. I could win the lotto and somehow manage to have the money to fix my car AND buy a new commuter car. Oh. Wait. No. That won't happen.

Thank heavens for the perfect man because instead of also freaking out with me he helped me realize this is nothing. That I needed to have perspective and remember that this is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Then thanks to an amazing boss she has a car I can  use in the interim and has agreed to see about letting me work from home on Wednesdays to cut down on my gas usage. Things do have a way of working out. I am certain of this now.

So where I nearly got all my stress worked up I quickly realized this is really not the worst thing to happen. I witnessed a man lose his life this weekend and I just heard another tragic story of a mother and father having to bury their only child. My heart aches for these families and I am certain they would give anything to have my problem as opposed to their losses, grief and heartache. So instead of feeling sorry for me lets take a little time to remember these family.


Failing Car. No problem. We got this.

TAFB Air Show 2014

Well hello. It's been a little bit since we posted some fun stuff on here. This weekend was a little bit of a crazy one! We had an unexpected car disaster that started on Wednesday and threw a wrench into every single plan we had for the entire weekend. Of course. My sweet minivan is in the shop and getting a little TLC. Its pretty awesome that it decided on this weekend because I feel like I had a lot going on but really it couldn't have been better and everything worked out just fine. After of course, a few meltdowns by me which my sweet sweet man reassured me were normal and that everything would be fine. While I am sure he was really thinking 'Its a car, suck it up!'. Either way he let me use his shoulder as a snot rag, still pretended to like me at the end of every day and even got me an Éclair from a yummy shop in Vacaville. Yep. That's love.

So Thursday I ended up taking off from work, took my car to the shop, got the run around, ended up getting a service done that not only didn't fix my car but also took more dollars than I would have liked from my bank account. OH well. Nothing I can do now. We ended up not even hearing from them until Friday (Boo to Napa Meineke...I shall yelp later) and so Friday we told them we were bringing it home and instead we drove it in a low gear all the way to my normal shop. Needless to say its in safe hands and should be home to momma soon. I do have to admit. I am SUPER reliant on my car. I feel so lost when I don't have my own to just hop into at a moments notice. Ugh.

So Friday was also shot but we had big plans for Saturday. We were going to head to a game early in the morning for some friends son's t-ball games (my cute little twin 'nephews') and then head off to the air show in dual cars with the Luoma clan. Well. Game ended up not being till 2:30, Middle Luoma had a carnival at school, Daddy Luoma had to tend to some grown up business, my oldest was on a time limit for a leadership function for school and needless to say our plans quickly fell apart. The good news is that everything got taken care of and Rian even ended up with an impromptu night alone with Jared and I. Pretty cute. He felt like a 'King for the night' and well...we let him. Not every night that we only have one kid to spoil!!!

Honestly, could N & A get any cuter in their little tiny T-Ball outfits. So cute and soo talented already! 

 

 

 Rian in his King thrown eating his dinner of choice...Spaghetti!

 

 

 The Luoma Trio killing some time at the park...precious!

 

 

Sunday we ended up with just me and my littles which doesnt happen to often and after a 'fun' mommy and teenager show down we headed to the air show. I have been to a few air shows and every time, whether you are a member of the military or not its always soo much better when its held on an Air Force base. Even better this year because the place it was held is my hunnies place of work. Yep. He is stationed at Travis Air Force base and I could not be more proud! Anywho, we got on base pretty quickly and the kids were already anxious (mostly Rian and Neya) and we walked to the very beginning (or end if you ask Jared) and we saw all the planes. Of course the littles didn't want to stop and look at EVERY plane and I wasn't even too engulfed in taking pics, more involved with enjoying their little faces and we had a good time. Of course, given our fun car issues I didn't get to go all out and grub down on hot dogs, sodas and beers and such but it was still fun, much to the kids (and my) dismay. We got to walk onto a few planes, including the C-5, which is what Jared works on and take a few pics, watch a few planes and jets take off and well, lots of usual Air Show type of fun stuff.

 

The best part of the show however was not even part of the show! My sweet guy took the kids and I on a sweet private tour of his plane. Now to him, I am sure this is boring, even to his own kids this might be boring because I am sure they have all done it before, but for us, this was a first! We had a blast! Just neat to see what he is on all day, up and down ladders, in and out of planes, how absolutely gigantic they are and I guess just to see a little piece of his world. He picked us up in the truck he drives around all day and that was also kinda neat. I had one image in my head and what he showed up in made it a totally different one, because I surely didn't expect him to show up in a breadbox. I don't really know WHAT I expected. Still kinda neat. It was a great time for us and we of course, took pics and acted like major newbies to all of this. I have to say that moments like this make me appreciate my Airman and what he does and although I can give him a hard time about the hours he works or whatever, he still serves our country and that makes me beyond proud. I love him each day a little more and introducing us into this piece of his life just made that grow a little extra that day!

The days this weekend were great, but I also wanted to take a minute to say that while we were at the air show there was a pilot who lost his life, Eddie Andreini. There was an accident and although it is not my place to share his story or delve into all the stories that are online I do want to acknowledge that it occurred and say that our hearts and thoughts go out to his family. A life lost is never easy but as Carina stated, he passed away doing what he loved and for that I am sure his family can smile, even if only for a brief moment.