the bus, subtitle: laziness is awesome

On Saturday, we went down to Balboa Park for the Guacomole Bowl.  This is a fundraiser for Sports for Exceptional Athletes which is a foundation that supports sporting programs for handicapped children and adults in the San Diego area.  Robie's sister, Jani, has done sports with them for years and his mom is a major part of the program, so we figured we could at least just show up (that's right, we are slackers!).  Anyway, it was a beautiful day so after the kids helped hand out goodie bags at the Guacomole Bowl, and the rest of us ate as much guacomole as we could possibly handle in one day, we wandered over to the rest of Balboa Park.  

After a brief foray into the Organ Pavilion, we headed over to the zoo.  We haven't taken the bus tour there in years, but I found the free passes the kids get with their zoo passes and decided, why not?  It was awesome - we saw tons of animals, we didn't have to walk at all, and we pretty much got off and went home - lazy day!  I mean, don't get me wrong, I still enjoy a nice stroll around the zoo, but I was definitely supportive of the lazy version, too!

The polar bear put on quite a show and the tour guide let us just sit there for a while - Fox was waving at the polar bear and the girls were busy taking pictures of pretty much everything (and so was I, I guess.. )

 

Warmth of the sun, again!

Geez, that was a little bit heavy of a post.  It's kind of been a heavy week - lots of drama with both of the girls soccer teams they have been on.  Nothing truly earth-shattering, but it did involve me being yelled at (for trying to make sure one of the coaches and program director were following the rules), which is never fun.  Not fun!  Did I already say Not Fun?!  And it was kind of all-encompassing - I was getting nasty phone calls and trying to draft not-so-nasty, but effective emails numerous times and it just takes your focus away from the things that really matter.  So back to the good stuff this week, right?!  I was sitting in Relief Society today and she handed out a paper that talked about how you feel if you have the Spirit with you and on the "non-Spirit" side was listed things along the lines of "hopes for bad things to happen to others." and something along the lines of "feels angry" and a few other similar things, all of which I have felt this week - but it's so hard when people are being dishonest and rude to just shake it off!  It's sure easier when people are being kind back to you!

Anyway, that's enough on that sort of topic.  Another thing that helped me shake it off this weekend was the sun.  I love the sun - there is something about a beautiful day that helps clear everything out.  We took the kids to the pool yesterday afternoon.  It was such a beautiful afternoon.  The kids were cracking me up with their random antics.  We went to Frog's gym pool, which is also supposed to be our local community pool.  The only problem is they don't let you use floaties, so like the fun floatie rings and other fun toys, so that is kind of a bummer, but we brought the soft water volleyball we bought when we were in Hawaii and the kids were cracking themselves up trying to spike it into each other's faces.  Later they even let Fox in on the fun and would purposely knock it out of the pool so that Fox could retrieve it and then throw it back in to them and they could fight over who would get it.  No one got injured and everyone had fun, so that's success, right?  They even went over and did some laps at one point.  You will notice I say "they" because I just lounged on the pool deck and enjoyed the warmth - the breeze had picked up just a touch by then and it just wasn't quite warm enough to make me or Robie want to get in but was the perfect temperature for lounging and the kids thought it was great for swimming :)

Good times!

zoo time...

I promised Fox last week I would take him to the zoo. I woke up with a cold on Monday morning, but darn it, I was going to take him. We ended up meeting a friend and her son there, too. The animals were being quite cooperative, but as usual I was the one who liked that part the most.  Fox had to get to his helicopter again - he loves the helicopter down by the polar bears.

He also loves the sky ride, so we finished up with that (plus then we don't have to walk all the way over to the exit).  I thought we had a great day, and I think Fox did, too, but of course on the way home, I said, "Fox, did you have a good time?" and he said, "That was lame."  Totally dead serious, too!  I think he was mostly just holding a grudge because a friend that he thought was coming with us didn't end up coming, so he was kind of bummed out.  Seriosly, though, he has to tell me it was lame on the way home?  By the evening, he was telling his sisters and his dad all about how much fun he had, so I guess he forgot how lame it was...

disappointment

I was surprised this week with some major disappointment.   It wasn't even something I had control over, and I sort of thought I would feel relief when I got the news, but instead I started crying, a lot.  I'm keeping my kidneys.  I know, weird thing to be sad about, but I'll explain.  My mom's kidneys are failing and she needs a transplant.  She is very healthy otherwise but the kidneys just aren't cutting it anymore so she needs a transplant.  Immediately when I heard that I just knew I was the person that would give her my kidney.  Before you think of what a saint I am, though, you should know that I didn't even call to get the paperwork for a LONG time.  Seriously, months - they tested almost everyone else before me.  When it was finally me, though, I was really convinced I was the key, right up until I wasn't.  I guess my mom has a high PRA (which is a measure of how many antibodies you have in your blood), the higher your PRA the larger the percentage of people whose tissues your body will reject.  That's why I thought I would feel relief - no surgery, no loss of kidney.  Instead I felt like I was trying to do a good deed and just got a big fat, "absolutely not!!" (2 exclamation points for emphasis)  So, I guess if you need a good kidney, you know where to look....