Not a mommy Blog??

So my daughter walks into my office a couple of days ago and I'm reading Top Mommy Blogs.com and she says to me 'Yours isn't a mommy blog you haven't posted about me in a long time!"

Well my child - first of all your not the only child! And 2nd of all if you would like me to post to the world the mistakes my children have been getting themselves into - I can do that!

Stephanie came home from her freshman year at college for the summer, to find a job, buy a car and save some money to go back to college.

Well she didn't find a job because she couldn't figure out how to drive stick shift, so my spoiled rotten child was waiting until after our Hawaii vacation to come home and figure out how much money she had so she could buy a car and then go find a job.

Well she came back from Hawaii with $100. That doesn't buy much of a car! So she did learn how to drive Stick shift! This was your accomplishment for the summer honey! Good Job, not being sarcastic really!

And she has announced she's not going back to college! And darling child of mine - for the whole past year my children have been telling me to get a life! I did I got one and then you guys came back - sorry it doesn't work backwards! You are all grown up.

But you are still my life - and this blog is also about my life! So I'm sure when something comes up that is all about Stephanie I will blog about it!!! Sorry you are feeling left out. Just for kicks I went through and labeled your Blog posts and Michael's - Stephanie that number is a little high compared to all the rest of them!

Plus my dear Stephanie you also have a blog - why don't you do us all a favor and do a blog post and tell us all why you are not going back to college we would all love to know because I'm really not fully understanding it. Then come back and put the URL in the comments!

Stephanie I love you - and this is a Mommy Blog - it just belongs to a Mommy that for a whole year didn't have any children that were communicating with her on a regular basis because they were busy!

My Baby is 19!

I thought I wasn't going to get to have Stephanie home for her birthday, She was supposed to be on a ship exploring Asia right now. She changed her major and wasn't able to complete a class that she needed to make the cruise on the TS Golden Bear worth the time and expense. So she will go next summer.

I'm so lucky to be able to call my family and a couple of friends and give them a day's notice that there will be a party and they all show up.







The best part they all chipped in and Stephanie got her own camera. Which should mean that I don't have to keep going hunting for mine.






And better yet, she should have no excuse not to blog while she is away at college. DID YOU GET THAT STEPHANIE?

I have never been photographed so much:







The children decided they all wanted to learn to take pictures.

And then I realized that I was surrounded by all of my Nieces and Nephews plus my daughter. These are all of my Mom's Grandchildren. She wasn't feeling good so didn't come over. (she lives next door)


Yet after the party was over they all migrated to her house to say a quick hello, and not add to her Migraine.

The house if Full

This past week has been a whirlwind I think it was so bad that I rubbed off on mother nature - here is the view that was outside my window yesterday:




The tree completely covered the street the big boys had to come take care of it. Darn you can tell my husband was gone for 7 days no one mowed the lawn :-)



Monday I woke up at 4 AM got in the car and drove, and drove and drove some more - picked up my daughter in Vallejo, CA and turned around and drove and drove and drove some more until we got home at 2 AM. Here is the room that used to have 4 desks in it! My daughter is home from college for the summer:



For those of you who read the post a while back about my son just getting up one morning and getting married to some girl we had never met - well here he is. It didn't workout and he's back home. Here is the room that used to be Stephanie's room (it's smaller than the other one):



And here is all his stuff in the middle of my "formal living area" that is my sewing area - I thought I was done with kids so my priorities shifted, and I refuse to shift them back if we don't fit in the family room because it is smaller - then they'll just have to sit on the floor!



And my husband is back:



I think I just figured out why I got into the organizing kick I was on - for the first time in my life it was just me (and my husband but he lets me do whatever I want) and if I organized it there was no one to unorganize it. As you can see from the pictures above those living with me are not into organizing. So I have a dilemma I want the house organized but I recall a lot of arguments, I don't think I want to pay that price. I'm going to have to find a way. How does one turn an unorganized person into an organized one????

I was ok when I only had to follow behind one person - but now there are 3!

Steph's at CMA

On Tuesday Sept 1st we woke up at 2 AM loaded up the pick up with all of Stephanie's stuff and headed to San Francisco. It was a long drive. We spent the night at my Brother's place (he wasn't home he was working) Then woke up early again on Wednesday to head over the Bay bridge to Vallejo CA.

It was a very busy day - we checked in with financial aid, we checkin with the Records Office, we bought books, and finish paying for the uniforms. She bowed out of a swim test and decided to just take the swim class. Then they finally let us into the dorms - by this time it was already 3 PM and we still had to drive home.

So we took all her boxes put them on her side of the room and said our good-bye's.

Don't get me wrong I'm a little sad she is gone - but what the rest of the world doesn't know is that she was having a really bad time in High School her freshman and Sophmore year she got nothing but F's. She was ditching school and making all kinds of bad choices.

So I pulled her out of school and homeschooled her - she redid everything she did four years of High school in two years (with the very big help of Dehesa Charter School).

So you see she and I have been attached at the Hip - 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the past 2 and a half years. It was time for her to move on.

Someone told me how mother eagles show there children to fly - they put them on there backs the fly really high and then they drop them. If it looks like they don't get it they pick them up mid fall and fly high again and drop them.

Steph's College Fund

Well Steph's College Fund is non-existant. I now wish that even though I believed there wasn't enough money to pay the bills for the past 18 years I would have set a little something aside, I now know that even $5 dollars here and a couple dollars there would really help right about now.

Stephanie has worked really had to get into one of the top Maritime Academy's in the Nation unfortunetly it's about $26,000 a year. She's almost there she has applied to every Grant, every Scholarship, every special Fund she knew about.

But here we sit 2 weeks away from dropping her off at College and she is still $2,000 shy of what she needs by Sept. 2nd.

So she takes some notes from Mom - when all else fails and the day job isn't paying the bills - you start your own business.

Here is what Stephanie is selling on Etsy: www.giglekimy.etsy.com

If you don't see anything that you would like to purchase but would still like to help stephanie with a few dollars - you can click here and make a donation through Paypal. This is not a Tax deductible donation it goes straight into Stephanie's Checking account.

Thank you all for your support.

Steph's Graduation

It's been a while since I blogged - I'm having a rought month of June. I just realized there's less than 2 weeks left of the month.

My daughter has graduated from Hight School I'm so glad that she graduated and that she was able to fix her grades so well that she will be going to a University.

It was a wonderful day the whole family was crying.

Steph's 18th Birthday

My baby turned 18 yesterday. It was a good day! I've been really blah for the last couple of weeks - well actually it's now turned into a month. There are just a lot of life changes going on. There good but they seem to have thrown me off my routine. I guess it's time to make a new routine!

Lake Hemet

Well we spent Thursday night and all day Friday by the lake, the boys went fishing (they didn't catch anything), it was still fun. None of us used sun screen so we all turn red. It was cold the first night, so we didn't stay the second night. Plus there were coyotes howling all night, which made the dog bark all night - so I didn't sleep at all, and well that just wasn't relaxing.

I think I need to plan a one nighter more often. Just go veg by the lake!