Lori's Blog

How I Spent My Summer Vacation By Lori Zimbardi

So here it is June 12 until now:

 

PA promoted to high school, can’t call it graduation which is weird to me.

  

 

Gracie turned three and the light switch of love turned on.

 

 

Not much went on this summer… PA went to camp.  PA went toNew York.  PA spent a week at the beach.  Summary:  I want PA’s life.
  No pix of camp or the beach. I backed off of taking a picture of absolutely everything she does.  PerryAnn is with her brother Billy at Yankee Staduim.

 

Played some Rock Band.  Very fun!

(Posted this pix in honor of the Jaurigue's and my family in general...Sing it Deb!)

 

I got a part time job.  Very happy about it, so is my family since I think I was making them all miserable with my misery.

 

Gracie started school.  Middle Three’s at Riverside Christian.  The best move we have ever made.  She loves it and I think it helped contribute to the light switch of love!

 

 

Dan had a B-day in August.  He is now 38, but will always be younger (and cuter) than me.

 

 

PA started High School.  I can’t believe she is old enough.  She is still at Woodcrest Christian and loves it.

(First day of school pix.  Some picture taking moments I can't give up on yet.)

 

I turned 40.  My husband threw me a party. I don’t feel any different but I do have my…40? Reeealllly? moments. 

 

That’s it your caught up.  Ahh, no wonder you didn’t blog this summer is what you are thinking, I know.  It’s not much for almost 4 months but it’s all I got. 

Back to the Blog

I was reading a blog at http://jesscreadsbooks.wordpress.com and it is all about books.  Jessica reads them and reports on them.  I love that she is focused.  I love that her blog is focused on what she loves not the daily crap or craplessness of life.  

 

I stopped blogging a few months ago since I was realizing my blog was focusing on what an almost bad Mom I was since I let my child wreak havoc around the house and then I would lament on my blog about it, trying to make it light and funny but in reality, I just sucked at motherhood for a spell and by spell I mean all of year 2 of Gracie’s life.  PerryAnn was easy, Gracie…not so much.  

 

Gracie is 3 and 3 has been good so far.  So I think am ready to get back into it.  I sort of missed spilling my guts and having my opinions stated no matter whom was or wasn't reading.  It is good for the relatives to keep track of us since we don’t see our family in Georgia enough.  Grandmas and Aunts and Uncles can keep track of what the kids are doing.  I now feel bad that I did not record the last 3 1/3 months for them.   So I suppose my focus will be the kids and I will not worry so much about how I am portrayed.  I love my girls and love being their mom. So my next post will be a catch up post. 

 

 

If You Don't Know The Culins, You Should.

Eddie and Cheryl Culin have to be two of the most amazing people I have ever met. They are loving and sweet and fun and caring and every other word that means wonderful.  Cheryl has been PerryAnn's small group leader for 2 years and has made such a significant impact on her, it is unbelievable.  To top it off, she and Eddie came to watch PerryAnn's play today (Cheryl also came last year when PA was in Hamlet which was very special then also).  It just means so much to me that they care enough about PerryAnn and the other Sandals kids that were also in the play to take time on their day off to support them.  This will stay with PerryAnn forever...that they thought she was important enough to want to see her perform.  I love them.  They are awesome.

PerryAnn's Big Day

Today was Perry Ann's Big Day.  Not her 8th grade graduation, that is next week.  Today was her 8th grade Language Arts Festival play at her school. Really, if you talk to PA graduation will be second to her performance in "Lagooned".  A play about a cruise ship that gets wrecked on an island that a fantasy vacation company uses to stage shipwrecks for paying customers.  The vacation company actors think the actual shipwrecked people are paying for the "experience" so they keep up the act of being savage tribal warriors preparing to sacrifice a young girl from the ship to the volcano. There are also military personnel on the island to test missiles since the commander lands on the wrong island and thinks it is deserted.  PA played the role of The Little Old Lady from Pasadena, a tourist on the ship.  It was so funny and really, really good.  They all find out about each other and sort out the miscommunication right as missiles land in the lagoon where they all are standing and the play ends with a huge explosion and the curtain closes.  We assume they all perish.  Not the ending I expected.  It was really cute.  PA is the old lady in the hat.

 

Dressing Up

In my attempts to find activities for me and Gracie, I pulled out PerryAnn and her cousins old Halloween costumes that I had in the garage.  I forgot how many really cute outfits we have.  PerryAnn was always into dress up and we have quite a collection of outfits in Gracie's play closet.  Since PA had grown out of these, I put them away and did not even think about these until Gracie mentioned that she wanted to be Tinker Bell.  PA was Tink when she was four so I went looking for the costume.  We also have boy costumes that belonged to their cousin Reggie who is 15 now.  Batman, Superman, Spidey, Ninja, Swat and a few that I don't recognize.  The dinosaur one was Reggie's when he was 2, I think.  

  

 

Cover Girl

My baby is growing up.  Today is a day to document in the baby book.  PerryAnn's first day of wearing makeup for appearance enhancement.  She has worn makeup for plays or for dress up fun but never just because.  She is in a play that requires it so she has been wearing it for dress rehearsals.  She has received some nice compliments from friends about how pretty she looks.  So she asked if she could start wearing eyeliner and mascara.  I think the hassle of it all may make it less appealing especially with swimming everyday but we will see. 

Yes, I still take picture of all her firsts.  First day of school, first day of swim, first day with braces....all of them.  She hasn't asked me to stop yet so I will ride that wave as long as she will let me.

California Summer

Blueberries, bathingsuit and talking on your cellie.  What could be better?

Potty Training SUCKS

I was sitting on the couch beginning to type my post about my day at the mall with the girls and post a cute picture of them eating $11.00 in pretzels and lemonade when I smelled that all familiar aroma of urine and poop fermenting in cotton.  I had been asking Gracie if she needed to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes since dinner and usually she is good about feeling that she has to go.  It was my mistake for not making her go and try but I didn't ...lesson learned.  So there she is standing in the living room...thankfully standing, saturated and stinking and says nothing about the fact that she is sopping wet with an abundant load of poop wedged between her cheeks.  Luckily she was wearing three pairs of her Ariel panties and a pair of shorts so the cesspool of filth stayed in her pants and did not get on my carpet or furniture.  So into the bathroom for the cleanup and lecture.  It was horrible.  It smelled like one of those construction site port-a-pottys, it was that bad.  I am still posting the cute picture of them at the mall so we can all remember the happy times.

That's My Girl IV

The closest thing Gracie has to brothers are her friends Luis, Victor, Aiden and Bash.  Since she is out numbered, she plays the boys games.  At least they let her be the Pink Power Ranger.  Gracie has deemed me the Green Power Ranger, Daddy is Yellow and Sissy is Blue.  We have not come up with our cool outfits yet and we still need her to teach us her moves.

 

Hanging with G

So this is week two of Lori and Gracie full throttle.  No more keeping GG home when she is in a good mood and then dropping her at the babysitters when she is in tantrum mode. She is all mine.  An absolute blessing, yes.  I know there are many Moms that have to work and would rather be home with the kids so I am lucky....right?   "What ever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your might".  Been perusing Ecclesiastes and among some other verses about my lot in life and toilsome troubles.. but this one seemed to inspire.  So, though my hand would prefer to find a manicurist, I am embracing the stay at home Mom role.  In my striving to do it with all of my might...we went to the park to play. 

Yesterday it was Bergamont park by Mark Twain Elementary and King High School-ish a block off of Van Buren at Cole.  It was a great park but no one was there.  Only me and GG which I thought was weird.  Where was everyone?  It has older but great play equipment and a great track for the trike and grass and trees with shade...but no people.  We went again today and again at 10:00 am no one.  We decided to try Orange Terrace Park and there were tons of kids and Moms and Dads, playing, running, screaming and crying just like a park should be.  The parks are within a mile and a half of each other.  True, Orange Crest is booming with homes and the park is easy access but Bergamont park is surrounded by homes and close to schools so why was not one single sole there? 

A stay at home Dad with his triplets and a baby (yikes) at OT park gave me the scoop.  Apparently it is where drug deals go down and at a certain time of the day the bad element from King and surrounding areas go there to smoke pot and get in fights.  WHAT???  He said it was common knowledge that after school fights were always set up to go down at that park and that he stopped going there when some kids were smoking pot near the playground and when he asked them to please move they told him no and to go ahead and call the police, that they would not do anything to them anyway.  Again I say...WHAT?

So like, apparently, all of the homeowners and parents in the area I will just go to Orange Terrace Park and ignore the fact that unsavory goings on are happening there.  My brother in law works at King.  I am going to ask him if he knows anything about this.  I will let you know.