Terrific Tuesday (or not)!!

Good morning, I think it is going to be a beautiful day here in sunny, southern California. I was out watering our plants and veggies this morning and Hannah has the first flower on the sunflower seeds she planted. She is so proud! Check out her sunflower:

Okay, I spoke much too soon about a "terrific Tuesday". What ever was I thinking? All started out well, I left the kids here at the house while I went and picked up registration packets for Shorecliffs (the Jr High school Xander will attend in the fall). While I was gone, Xander decided Sasha (his Russian Tortoise) needed some fresh air and put her in her outside pen. I come home, of course all the kids are in front of the boob tube and I tell Xander that it is time to get chores done. I am upstairs and all of a sudden, he is sobbing that Sasha is missing. For those of you that are unaware of how fast a tortoise can be, well, they are actually quite fast when they get up on all 4 legs and get to runnin'. So, now we are scouring the back yard wondering where she could have gone. Thank goodness daddy put mesh fencing at the bottom of our fence all the way around the yard, nothing can get out of there! I am looking for deep holes where she may have buried herself. Nope, no Sasha. Now, I worry that our German Shepherd, Athena may have "gotten" her. So, I tell Xander to go look inside while I continue to look outside for possible "remains" in the event the dog had a small snack. About a minute later, Xander comes out, tears gone and anger on his face as he found Sasha in the middle of Athena's bed. Seems that Athena DID want a snack however, those tortoise shells are harder than you think and she was sucked up in that shell tighter than well........ So, now I am trying to coax Sasha back out of her shell, we are outside, Athena's inside (or so we think) an then all hell breaks loose in the front street.

From here, my adrenaline gets going because all I hear are the neighbors kids yelling for Athena to "stop" and get her off, etc, etc. At this point I am thinking that she is attacking or hurting one of the kids but that can't be possible because she would lay her life down for any kid. I race to the front yard, with my feet never touching the ground, to realize that she is trying to "pin down" our next door neighbors dog, Shilo. Have you ever met someone that you had absolutely zero connection with and just absolutely couldn't stand to be around? That's exactly how Athena feels about Shilo. Athena gets socialized with other dogs and has no problems around any other dog except Shilo. So now I am grabbing Athena off of Shilo (who is about a 1/3 the size of my dog) and all of a sudden, Shilo thinks he's big and bad and goes for Athena this time. I am reaching my hand in between two dogs who have teeth bared, fur flying and I am yelling at both of them. It was crazy. My neighbors daughter, Mackenzie, suffered a slight grazing from Athena trying to get to Shilo and some road rash from falling down in the scuffle but other than that, everyone, including the dogs survived unscathed.

After that fiasco, I sat in my neighbor's driveway with her and just caught my breath. If you have ever been caught in the middle of a dog fight, it is a huge adrenaline rush, especially when one of the dogs is yours. I was exhausted. It was only noon but I was ready for margaritas at this point, unfortunately you don't want your kids to wonder why mommy is drinking at noon, so I refrained, but it wasn't easy.....

I cannot wait for our trip to Costa Rica in two weeks, I truly need a VACATION! This will be our first "real" vacation in over 3 years. I'll explain "why" Costa Rica in another blog update. We haven't been anywhere good since before my car accident and Christian was born, it is time! Can you believe that we have been here in southern CA for over 2 years now? In the last 13 years, we have never lived anywhere for more than 2 1/2 years, so we are coming up on a record. I truly feel like we are "home" now and can see us living here for many years to come. It is a great area for the kids because there is so much for them to do and be exposed to. Xander is finally blossoming into a wonderful young man and it is important for him to put down roots, grow and become a great citizen in this world without having to deal with being uprooted every so often. His needs are more important than our own at this point in our lives and we are definitely content in the small town of San Clemente. We are close enough to the big city to get what we need but still live in a quintessential small town with a main street right through downtown. It's like Mayberry at the beach! Now if only the real estate market would continue to fall......

Now, the kids are resting peacefully and I am trying to catch up on all the things I need to do so I should probably run and work on my laundry mountain and clear the hurdles of toys throughout the house. Looking forward to a peaceful afternoon.

After a refreshing nap, my dear friend and neighbor invited me over to her house for Carnitas and Wine, I am there! WIth kids in tow, we had a delicious dinner and great conversation. Debbie and Joe came down to join us before they headed off on a walk. It was so wonderful to spend time with good friends, enjoying good food and conversation after the long and draining day I had. It was a nice way to end the evening. So I guess all's well that end's well. Maybe this day wasn't too bad after all!!! I am blessed to have the friends that I do, they are always right there when you need them.

Missing my darling hubby tonight and looking forward to seeing him in the morning.
Good night. ~K