Alone With My Thoughts

I'm never alone. Really. Never. In the last oh...18 months, I think I've been alone in my house for maybe an hour, at the most. Don't get me wrong. I love having my family around. But there's something to be said for being by your lonesome. And this is exactly what I plan on doing tomorrow when Wes takes the kids with their Grandma to the beach. I am so excited, I can hardly contain myself. I'm actually a little nervous too, strangely.

Here are some things on my to-do list for tomorrow:

*Float around in the pool

*Go for a run....if I feel like it

*Do some cleaning/organizing....if I feel like it

*Float around in the pool some more

*Watch a chick flick, probably something starring Meg Ryan, and steering clear of any programing on Noggin and/or Spike

*Listening to music....Nothing by 'The Wiggles'

*And topping of the day by, you guessed it, floating around in the pool

It will be a wonderful day, indeed.

Below are some pictures and video of our summer so far. Lately we've been bumming around the CA Science Center, Lake Pyramid, the Ventura Harbor, and had a really fun play date with my friends and their kids (Girls I've known since Jr. High. I get a little teary eyed just thinking about it.) We also spent a day decorating our play room with an ocean theme. We keep busy, and I like it that way.

Tent Talk from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

Untitled from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

Form...Technique.. from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

Here's some video of Taylor singing. I posted the first one of her singing at 24 months old, and the two after it are from this week. It's funny to see the change in her. And believe it or not, I do NOT ask her to do this. She's constantly telling me to, "Record me! Record me!"

Taylor 24 months singing from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

Taylor Singing the Beatles from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

suddenly seymour from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

FAMILY Song from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

Corinne, being her adorable self.

Untitled from Nikki Pollard on Vimeo.

Oh, Cruel, Cruel World!

I could have easily given it back, instead of letting it eat me up inside. But even today, 20 years later, I feel a sharp pang of guilt whenever I use chap stick.

When I was ten, I licked my lips a lot. They would get so chapped that I'd have a raw, red arch under my nose. Well one day my friend, Janet, invited me to her house. Her mom offered to let me use her chap stick. She went to her purse, got it out, I used it, and she put it back in her purse. About 10 minutes later though, after I licked the chap stick off, I needed more but her mom wasn't in the room. So I nervously went over to her purse, put the chap stick on and right as I was going to put it back in the purse, she walked in. I quickly turned away and put it in my pocket, afraid that she would be angry I was in her purse without asking. I have no idea if she saw this or not or if she ever noticed that it was gone. Actually, if she had half a brain she probably figured out that I took it. But I'll tell you this...I held on to that chap stick for a few months after that. It killed me to look at it, and I couldn't throw it away because it wasn't really mine to trash. Every time I saw Janet's mom after that, I walked right past her with my head down. Ready to throw myself at her mercy at any given moment. Carrying a heavy burden of guilt on my shoulders that weighed my ten-year-old soul down like a ton of bricks.

So when we looked at our account tonight and found out that someone, somehow used $2,000 of our money at a flippin' Walmart (of all places), I started to wonder how someone could do that and still live with themselves! How do they sleep at night? Do they ever wonder about the kind of people they're stealing from? If those people have kids to feed? ....I doubt it. If you read my blog last month, you saw that I called the cops on some car thieves who were all arrested and now serving time. Between car thieves and having my account hacked into, I'm totally convinced the world is going mad. I don't know who to blame. That's a whole other discussion for a whole other blog. But I do believe in karma, or whatever you want to call it. You can't take something that's not rightfully yours and not have that come back around to you in some form. So maybe our money was stolen because I accidentally, permanently 'borrowed' some chap stick as a kid. But I tend to think Wes and I are good people in general, so this just pisses me off. And I hope whoever did it has some serious bad 'luck' in the near future. Herpes, small pox, flat tires, splinters, foreclosure, telemarketers, worts, pimples, bankruptcy, gonorrhea, diarrhea, and all other manner of crappiness is what I want to wish upon them. But I'm trying to stay positive. Hey. At least we had $2,000 for them to steal.

Stay Classy, San Diego!

We went on a vacation! Actually, I'm not sure if you can call any trip involving two little kids a vacation, but it was as close to the real thing as we could get. We brought the girls to San Diego for 3 days and had a great time. We went to Sea World, the USS Midway, Belmont Park and the New Children's Museum. If you ask Taylor how her vacation was, she'll tell you that she "walked a lot" on this trip. The only thing we didn't get to do was Lego Land. Taylor figured out from all the advertisements around that Lego Land was nearby. She cried when we told her we'd be saving that for another time. It's hard to explain to a 3 year-old that mommy and daddy's bank account can only fork out so much. But both girls ran around with huge grins on their faces for 3 days straight and were tickled pink that they got to stay in another hotel. And I have to mention that my kids are troopers when it comes to long car rides. Complete angels both ways.

In case you're doing research for your next 'vacay', here are my ratings for the following San Diego attractions.

Sea World: 4/5 stars. We found coupons online. Buy one adult ticket and get one children's ticket for free.http://www.seaworldcares.com/ I'd have given Sea World 5 stars, but the food is just nasty. We gagged down a couple meals there, but I'd pack our food next time. The kids LOVED their Bay of Play area, and Wes and I loved the Wild Arctic exhibit. I think we could have used another day there to fit it all in.

Humphrey's Half Moon Inn and Suites- 3/5 stars http://www.halfmooninn.com/ Wes and I agreed that this hotel was in a great spot off the harbor and was reasonably priced, but a little run down. It wasn't completely ghetto, but we'll be staying somewhere else next time. And just a little tip, NEVER touch the bed spreads in a hotel. They're not washed as often as the sheets and blankets. I'm a little OCD when it comes to that type of stuff. Ewww.

We had birds right outside of our room.

Side Note: Humphrey's restaurant was pretty good. We had a romantic dinner there our first night. Well, it would have been romantic if Taylor hadn't announced to the whole, very posh restaurant, that she farted. And if Corinne hadn't been coloring on the table cloth and screaming to get out of her high chair, we would have been swimming in romance.

The New Children's Museum- 3/5 stars

The museum's in downtown San Diego and the girls loved it. I thought it was great, but not half as cool as the CA Science Center in LA. But it had 3 levels of attractions that kept us busy for a good 2 hours.

Another coupon. http://www.randomsandiego.com/blog/2009/02/26/free-admission-to-san-diego-new-childrens-museum/

USS Midway- 5/5 stars

This was Wes' favorite part of our trip. He spotted this ginormous navy ship downtown, and when he found out it was a museum he was ecstatic. We both geeked out a little when we got there. It holds a bunch of planes and helicopters that you can actually sit in, and just a lot of history that dorks like us are into. Plus the kids enjoyed it too. Corinne was on the runway with her arms out, pretending to be a plane. Love that girl. http://www.midway.org/

Belmont Park- 4/5 stars

When we needed to find a cheaper substitute for Lego Land, we went to Belmont park. It's a little bit like Santa Monica Pier, only without the knife fights and gang wars. Taylor loved the bumper cars and laughed hysterically the whole time we were on it. We ate giant ice creams and pigged out on pizza. And to top it off, Corinne committed her first crime while we were there. We looked down at one point and our little kleptomaniac was holding a huge shell with 'San Diego' engraved on it. We found the booth she took it from and sheepishly gave it back.

Across the street from the children's museum. You can't see it in the picture, but this park is full of homeless people. They were the happiest homeless people I've ever seen. San Diego's a great place for just about everyone. The fountain behind us doubles as a toilet and bath.

I took this mischievous picture of Tay in our hotel room. Cracks me up.

She loves her daddy

Random Summer Pics:

Corinne at the beach in Ventura

The day before we left on our trip, Wes was working on our landscaping in the backyard and found a mother rat sitting on five baby rats. The sad part is, the mother just sat there even though Wes was standing over her with a shovel. Eventually she ran away. I won't tell you where her babies ended up. My apologies, mommy rat.

Lately, Taylor's been insisting on holding Corinne's hand when we go to the park or the store so Corinne doesn't get "squished like a little bug by a car." She's turning into such a great sister.










Ventura Harbor

Tay with Uncle Jimmy

Jennifer turned to Jimmy and said, "I can't wait for you to marry me." Apparently Jimmy misheard.