Jumping around snakes

The weekend of July 4, Ridgefield WA has a wonderful festival for families.  I decided as a cheap day out, I'd take D.  For $5, I purchased a wrist band allowing him to have unlimited access to all of the fun which included 4 different bounce houses, food galore (had to pay for that) and a reptile man. 

I found some old and long lost friends there, so we got to chat for a while and catch up which was nice.  D had a blast in all the bouncers!  There was a regular bounce house, a small slide, an obstacle course and a very tall slide.  He bounced from one house to another and in between he rested and watched the reptile show.  HOLY MOLY that was fun!  Not only did D get to, again, hold a giant albino python, but we got to see extremely poisonous snakes - LIVE!  It was AWESOME!  D didn't particularly like knowing that the poisonous snakes were out and about and not behind glass, but I was all over it! 

We saw a rattle snake, a king cobra, and a Gaboon Viper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitis_gabonica (absolutely beautiful snake!). 

Rattle Snake

Albino Python

King Cobra (and no, I'm not petting that snake)

Gaboon Viper

 

 

 

Snakes have never bothered me.  Just about a month ago, while walking along the river walk, the kids were all a twitter b/c there were 3-4 garter snakes slithering around.  Guess what?  I walked into the weeds and picked one up!  It was very small - only about 6-7 inches long and tough to catch! They sure do stink!!  PEEEEEUUUUUU!!  We tried to get a picture, but I didn't have hold of the snake's head, so it swung around and tried to bite me.  Although they are not poisonous, I really don't want to be bitten by a snake - especially a wild one, so I let it go - quickly.  C just about puked knowing/seeing that I was holding a snake. 

Florida 2010

Ok, I know that it's been almost 2 months since returning from Florida - I'm FINALLY finishing my blog about our trip!

After 2 days at Disney (1 at WDW and the other at Wild Animal Kindom), D was exhausted.  The day after returning Dad and S planned a pool party at their complex.  It was a lot of fun!  D was so tired that he actually fell asleep in a lounge chair for about an hour at the pool!  I need to back track a few weeks prior to coming to Florida, D developed this "spot" on his temple and during our stay it got bigger and more painful, so on Monday I took him to Urgent Care and they prescribed antibiotics as they thought it was a boil.  After the dr. visit, D and I headed to the beach.  HOLY COW!  The water was absolutely calm - and no oil (the Tampa area hasn't been affected).  We spent several hours at the beach playing in the sand and water.  D had the best time "playing" with the small mussels that bury themselves into the sand.  That evening we headed out to dinner and a bird sanctuary.  Our final day was spent with Grandpa and Grandma, the pool and then off to see Shrek's Final Chapter movie in 3D.

It was a wonderful vacation!  Can't wait to go back!

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Disney World 2010

I know that my blogs are out of order and Disney actually happened in May, but the saying does go: Better late than never (right Sheri? it's been a year since you went and I'm still waiting)

Disney was SOOOO much fun! I really wondered if I'd have fun b/c it was just David and I. I thought I'd really miss on sharing the day with another person other than D. While I did miss that connection, I still had a blast!!

Sylvia's daughter has a house just 20 min from Disney, so on Thursday afternoon, we headed to the lake house. BEAUTIFUL house BTW. Anyways, it was late and almost dark when we got there, so no swimming in the lake for us. Up early on Friday morning to get ready for our Disney day. The weather called for 90's and very humid. We got to Disney just before 9am and there were no lines!! Thank goodness for Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day program because my ticket was FREE!! I had been volunteering at Habitat for Humanity which was a qualifying charity for the free ticketing program.

After a short monorail ride into the park, we got our stroller. I have to say, renting that stroller was the best $15 spent at the park! I hooked the backpack onto the stroller and D climbed in. In the Main Street square there were characters to see. We had a choice of Chip & Dale, Pluto, or Pinocchio and D wanted to see Pluto, but after waiting for 5 min, he was done and wanted to really get into the park.

Our first ride was Splash Mountain. First, was a brief stop to see Donald Duck. The wait times for rides was pretty short - 35min tops!! D wasn't too sure about the ride, but was also a little excited for it. 90% of the ride is fun and cool. The last 50ft drop, D clung to me and didn't like. However, to this day, if you ask him what his favorite ride was, he'll tell you Splash Mountain. After getting cooled off with water (2nd best thing we did that day - get wet in the morning and it keeps you cool for the day). We were off to experience Disney for all it was worth. We rode Dumbo, Its a Small World, Buzz Lightyear, tea cups, Snow White...and the list goes on, but I can't remember. Sylvia had packed us lunch, so we sat in the shade and ate. We shopped, played, and just had the greatest time!!

D fell in love for the first time. Belle captured his heart and the pictures show it. Whoever the woman was playing Belle was WONDERFUL! She made D feel like he was her one and only. He stayed with her the longest out of all the princesses.

At 7pm, Sylvia called and said that she and Dad were getting tired and they were coming to pick us up. I'm sure that D and I could have stayed until the park closed, but it was a wonderful day. Turn up your volume and enjoy the pictures from our day!

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Kindergarten Bound

I can hardly believe that my baby is heading to Kindergarten this fall. NOOOOO NO NO NO!! Stop the madness!! Soon, I'll be returning to work and life will be very different.

Here are 2 pictures - First day of preschool this year and the last day. Look how he's grown.

September 2009

June 2010

Friends - David, Jordan, Maura

And the school year wouldn't be complete without before and after pictures of Caitlyn. She's done with Kindergarten and on to 1st grade!! I don't have pictures of Colton, I didn't pick him up on his last day of school.

September 2009

June 2010

Scrap that car/Buy another

Yesterday morning, I met the salvage guy at the mechanic to haul away my wrecker. When I called the guy on Thursday he said that he'd pay $125 for my car. I balked at that!! PUUULLLEEZE!! I then played to his soft side and played up the fact that I'm just a single mom, had no insurance on the car and am flat broke. I need more. He then said that he wanted pictures of the car and he'd think about price. I sent him the crash pic and he texted back with a $200 price. SOLD. He said his guy would pick it up that night and to meet him Plans fell through and the guy couldn't make it and rescheduled for the morning. I decided to not only play up to the guys soft side with my story, I decided that using my god given assets wouldn't hurt either. So, I chose to wear a v-neck shirt. heeheehee - it worked. He threw down a wad of cash on the hood of the car and when I counted it, it was $100 more than his original quote. heeheeehee - men are suckers for boobs and "helpless women". I wasn't that helpless and just decided to use what I could for my gain. I didn't wear anything that I don't normally wear, but I made sure that I chose my outfit to suit the occasion.

C, D and I headed out last night to look for cars. We started at the Dick Hannah used car lot right up the street from C's house. The kid (and I do say kid b/c I'm guessing that he was MAYBE 22/23yo and very nerdy) was nice and got online to see what used vehicles the Dick Hannah group had in stock in my price range. They had a Hundai in another town, so C suggested that we test drive a "newer" model of the same car so I can see if I like it. I'm glad she was there to help think of the things that I didn't. C and I were in the front seat and the "kids" in the back. C and I had the kid cracking up b/c we slug each other when we see VW Beetles. Newer models get just 1 slug, but old (original models) get 2 and an original VW Van gets 3!! Anyways, there are tons of Bugs around that area, so we were on a slug fest. Every time we slugged, the kid would laugh. And D gets into the game by stating: Slug Bug green (or whatever color it is). No slugging allowed from kids.

We left that dealer (I have to see the actual car before I purchase, so the kid was going to have it driven up) and headed for a quick bite for dinner. After dinner, we headed to a Hundai/Ford dealer and got a weird slimy dude as our sales person. I was quite put off by the dealer right away, cuz we pulled on the lot and no one came out to greet us. Nope, I had to walk into the building and the sales team was sitting at a table and looked at me like I was disturbing them. So, slimy guy got up and greeted me. I told him my parameters and he was then flustered and confused. We walked across the street and he still looked confused on what cars to show me. Finally, he settled on a Pontiac Grand Am. We took it for a test drive and I liked it, but wasn't thrilled with it or the slimy guy. (oh, he also had a weird smell to him) I looked at the price on the car and it stated $9700. Ummm, I had a MUCH smaller budget (like almost $5k less) than that. $5000 was my budget. So, he REALLY turned me off when he said that there was wiggle room in that $9700 price tag. Ummmm, almost a $5ooo difference? That sent red flags up in C's head immediately. She kept saying to me (quietly) "just shows you how much this dealer marks up their prices". After a quick processing of what she was saying, I agree'd. And we were outta there.

Right behind that dealership was another - Alan Webb Mazda. We got on the lot and were greeted by Bob. I told him my price limit and that I'd be paying cash. He then had us walk to the back of the lot to show us a Civic that they just got in and it hadn't even been inspected yet. Having had a Civic prior to moving to WA, I was excited. He grabbed the keys and then went in to find out what they were thinking about selling the car for. I looked at the car - it's a Civic so I was familiar. After a few minutes, Bob returned driving a Grand Am (hmmmm) and stated that the CarFax on the Civic showed that it had a salvage title on it once and had a few "dings" on it's record and the dealership wasn't even going to sell it to the public. From that point, I really liked Bob.

The Grand Am was in my price range. It's a 2000 with only 75k miles on it!! HOLY COW! I knew I was going to get an older car b/c of my limited budget. We took the car for a drive and I did like it. It's silver, black leather interior, moon roof, upgraded package and the best part - a cassette player!! WOOO HOOO!! I can go find old Air Supply, Night Ranger and Winger tapes and jam to them. Yes, it also has a CD player - but CD's won't last, they're just a phase.

So, I bought the car. It's in my price range, low miles and it'll work for me for the next few years. The picture isn't of the car I bought, but it's the same color, model and year.