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Saturday, October 16, 2010

Hillcrest Farm Slideshow

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Zoo Pictures

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Happy Journaling…

Zoo Day

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When hubby and I went to the zoo yesterday we were at the Orangutan and Siamang exhibit when we noticed one of the Siamang was eating a Pepsi can… We were saying that can’t be good for him and how did he get a soda can…

I’ve always seen but never thought about it that there are signs all around the zoo with a phone number to call if you see one of the animals being harassed or needing assistant… Hubby and I do not have cell phones so one of the visitors around us must have called the number as several zoo associates came to the exhibit calling the animals by their names…

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The black Siamang sitting atop the Orangutan was the one eating the Pepsi can which he immediately dropped when the zoo associates called them… He also ran over the to this Orangutan as if to say don’t tattle on me…

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The zoo associates are not able to get close to the fence as the animals have a very large arm reach which is probably how the soda can was obtained… However they told the female Orangutan that the Siamang was sitting on to get the can that they needed it… At first she brought them a leaf… They were holding tomatoes and oranges to trade the can with her… It took a few times of telling her but just a few minutes for her to get the can, reach through the fence with it and drop it on the ground as the female zoo associate dropped a tomato into the Orangutan's hand… She wanted an orange though and dropped the tomato… So the zoo associate gave her the orange instead… To distract her from the fence they gave her another orange farther down and they were able to get the soda can… The orangutan later came and got the tomato too…

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Here the zoo associate is showing the soda can and saying how dangerous it is to the animals and that visitors to the zoo should be more careful and responsible… It did make for a few exciting minutes at the zoo though…

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Meet Jabari, our new three month old Giraffee…

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And our zoo will be going through extensive remoldings over the next ten years or so with the money raised from Measure Z… Our reptile house is currently being remodeled… These two pictures are the same window at different angles… Where there were once three or four little windows there is now one big window with extensive decor for the reptiles… There are four in all with two opening tomorrow…

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Happy Journaling…

October Sixteenth

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Saturday morning before  6am and I am the only one up, trying to sneak in a bit of me quiet time… Of course the lady behind us was yelling at her dogs, which made Holly want to come in, and then she woke up hubby who came out to check on me and then Holly was running all over the house like a crazy cat getting her bees out and enjoying the coolness of the morning… I sent hubby back to bed and Holly is sitting quietly next to me now… But now I hear Danny getting up causing son1 to stir… now the man and the lady behind us are yelling at the dogs… it’s always a production when they let their dogs out to potty…

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The pirate pictures in this entry are decorations from our zoo… I got off at 10:30am yesterday, so hubby and I went to the zoo… Just have to pay for parking as we get in free with our membership… The decorations are to get ready for the Zoo Boo on Halloween… Trick or Treating at the zoo at business sponsor tables… We only went once and son3 wasn’t impressed trick or treating at tables for free samples and candy… He’s a door to door kind a guy… We’re still in the low 90’s but it was a nice day…

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At work I just had time to set the ad, print out missing signs, stock a bit of men’s shoes and open a few boxes….

While I was eating breakfast hubby was telling me about his conversation with son1 from the night before… Son1 was showing him his Jeep that he had finished putting on the seal coat paint inside the Jeep, today he just has to finish putting all the seats and such back into the Jeep and it is done… Son1 was telling hubby his plans for the next two years… His first plan is to work the additional part time job to pay off his bills and save money to go to school to become a fireman… He and girlfriend have just passed their one year anniversary but he has plans to propose on their two year anniversary, then they will get a place together and be engaged for a year… She knows of the plan and is in agreement… My reaction…. So he’ll be living here at least one more year… and does her mother know this plan… I’m not easily surprised and son1 has a tendency to drop one plan and start another on a daily basis so I will wait and see…

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Hubby and I had a nice couple of hours at the zoo… I have more pictures to share and couple of stories that I will put in a separate entry… Hubby also showed me a house in the neighborhood that was all decorated for Halloween with 20 foot posts with shrouds and scary masks mounted on the posts… I will try to get pictures later when we take the boys by… We are also taking the boys to Hillcrest Farm today to take a hike and visit the pumpkin patch… Too early to buy pumpkins yet though…

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We came home and had lunch and it was time to pick up son3 from school… Friday! No homework! He got a 75 on his spelling test… It was a desert theme this week and the words were a bit hard, like tarantula and nocturnal… although he got camouflage right… Son3 was on video games, son2 was helping son1 with the Jeep, I was playing Frontierville on Facebook and hubby took a nap… I also swept the kitchen floor, washed the kitchen counters, washed the kitchen rugs and made dinner… Although we did not eat til after 7 as hubby had to help with putting the roll bar back on son1’s Jeep… and son2 and son1 had already eaten Carl’s Jr as son1 had a friend over helping too… We watched Emergency, The Big Bang Theory and Bones… Girlfriend came over as son1 hadn’t seen her for a week and she was getting a bit miffed with the Jeep taking all his time this week… son2 and son3 went to bed, hubby and I watched another episode of Emergency in our room and I don’t remember falling asleep…

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I have not been eating well at all… I have felt so frazzled lately and out of control… with all three boys, a cat, a dog and hubby home all the time I don’t have any quiet time lately… I know I’m the Mom and must multitask and be always available, it just seems more so lately… I’ll just sit down to dinner, just put the fork to my mouth and the phone will ring, the dog will want out and one of the boys, usually son1, will yell MOM… I thought with hubby not working, so no spending, going out or shopping… things would be way simplified and quiet… but they seem more hectic then ever… I just need to reestablish a new routine with hubby being home… of course as soon as we get settled he will be back to work and we will have to establish a new routine again… but that will be a good thing… also with son1 starting his part time job next week and working full time and having to spend his free time with girlfriend.. things will be a bit quieter on his end… son1 is very high maintenance and always doing and needing… son2 is very low maintenance although needs constant reminders to do chores and homework… and son3 is happy to play video games or watch TV once we get past the three hours of homework…

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Oh but I was going to talk about my not eating well… I have been having too many chips, too much chocolate (a coworker likes to bring treats and hubby has been getting chocolate covered raisins and chocolate covered peanut clusters), and I have been having seconds on dinner and an extra soda a day… and ice cream… I have been fluctuating between a 29 and 32 pound weight loss so I shouldn’t complain as I did lose 30 pounds… But I still need to lose 5 more pounds to get to my goal… Next week I work 36 hours at work so lots of lifting and walking, and all the walking son3 to and from school and hubby and I are trying to get a walk in on the weekend too… I need to get back to my crunches though… I just wish our weather would stay in the 70’s, we have been back up in the 90’s again, heading to the 80’s today and then the 70’s but will we stay there…

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It’s just 63 degrees now and the sun is just starting to come up at 6:40… The birds are chattering away outside…

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So today we will be off to the pumpkin patch… I also want to drive by and see where the company is located that called hubby about the job… I think it is over by the apartments we lived in before buying the house… I need to straighten the house, although I haven’t done any serious cleaning in quite a while, laundry, have son3 set up the Halloween cemetery and haunted house decorations on the front desk in the front hall, work on son2’s Halloween costume, and check my list to see what other Halloween preparations I can get started… Only two weeks til Halloween… Son1 will finish up the Jeep this morning and then he promised girlfriend they are going out today/tonight…

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Yesterday I ate: vitamins, water… cola… breakfast~yogurt over Honey Bunches of Oats and Oatmeal Squares cereals… lunch~two hotdogs, BBQ chips, water… dinner~turkey burger, baked beans, potato salad, curly fries, fried rice with ham, lemon lime soda… chocolate covered peanut clusters…

Happy Journaling…

Thursday, October 14, 2010

October Fourteenth

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Today Hubby got a nibble… He’s been job hunting and filling out applications almost every day online but no one has called… Until today… it was just a phone interview from the recruiter who does the initial calling for the company… it’s more money than his last job at just an entry level position so chances for more money… we will wait and see if he gets called in for an interview… at least just by them calling hubby has a boost of confidence that someone noticed his resume/application and that he is even worth a bit more money for his experience…

Dinner is done and the boys and hubby are watching F Troop…

The Big Bang Theory, Bones and Fringe come on tonight…

Still have to read with son3 but his homework is done… Spelling test tomorrow too…

Son2 hasn’t had much homework this week…

Hubby was working on the scarecrow frame for the front yard that son2 will stand on Halloween night…

Son1 has been coating the inside of his jeep all week with some special spray paint…

I am so busy with work with all the shoes that have come in… and piled up while I’m doing other processes as well… Today I stocked the floor a bit, put out some clearance shoes, prepared the signs for tomorrow, went to lunch, had to have lunch in my car as they were waxing the break room floor and I didn’t want to go in the mall, located women’s boots in the stockroom and opened boxes…

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Today I ate: vitamins, green tea tablet… lunch~chimichanga, yogurt, cola… popcorn… fruit punch… dinner~chicken noodle soup, fried rice with ham, potato salad, lemonade… and probably ice cream later…

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Wednesday I was off… got the boys off to school and work… and hubby and I went grocery shopping… there was barely anyone at the grocery store, so nice and relaxing… came home, typed up my entry for The Motivation Station, had lunch, watched Emergency and it was already time to pick up son3… I have gotten no housecleaning done this week…

Homework with son3 was better than Tuesday but he had a report to write up along with regular homework… Son3 had gone on a field trip to the ice skating rink…

I’ve been a bit on edge as I have been doing more than one thing at a time all week along with someone calling Mom constantly… son1 has been home all week too working on his Jeep… and wanting me to ‘watch’…

Hubby and I watched CSI from last season, Smallville and Supernatural…

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Wednesday I ate: vitamins, water… hot chocolate with marshmallow… yogurt with oatmeal squares cereal… tortilla chips… cola… dinner~fried rice with ham, 3 slices of pizza, lemon lime soda…

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Tuesday was a busy day at work with stocking and opening boxes… It was not a good day of homework with son3 as he had lots of regular homework and had to write an essay… so I made him do the rough draft with no help and a bit of tears… when I sat with him on Wednesday to rewrite it and make corrections it was actually very good… no rewriting needed and just fine tuning and spelling corrections…

I watched Glee on Tuesday night…

Son3 is finishing in the shower and we still have to read two books… I have both TVs taping the shows tonight… I have printed out a coupon for son1 for Raisin Hell Ranch scary corn mazes… Hubby is putting leftovers away from dinner…

As usual I have rushed through the day and this entry doing too many things at once…

Very short day at work tomorrow so hubby and I are going to the zoo while the boys are in school…

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Tuesday I ate: vitamins, green tea tablet, water… lunch~chimichanga, yogurt, cola… tortilla chips… dinner~chicken noodle soup, crackers, water… chocolate covered raisins…

Happy Journaling…

Monday, October 11, 2010

October Eleventh

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Yesterday we had a nice Sunday… I got home early at 10:30am… At work I set the ad, scanned all the shoe areas for missing displays and stocked the men’s work boots…

Lots of Halloween decorating and planning going on at our house…

The boys were busy playing video games…

Son1 was out and about in the morning and then about 2pm decided he was going to spray the inside of the jeep with a liner paint and needed son2 to help him… They bought the spray, started taking the jeep apart and cleaning it and learned that this was going to be a process of several days of cleaning, unassembling the jeep and painting…

I cleared all my emails, updated the checkbook, paid a couple of bills, made some lists, played on facebook, finished the laundry and went back and forth between all the boys…

I forgot the mailman didn’t come this Monday as it is Columbus day so one of my bills is going to be late as I was paying attention, grrrr…. However I also paid the electric which was only $154 since we did not use the air conditioner except for a couple of days set at 84 degrees… I looked on the back where they compare this year to last year… and last year for September we used double the wattage compared to this year… so just the air conditioner alone uses the same electricity as the rest of the house… amazing…

Hubby and I went for a walk…

Girlfriend came over for dinner…

We watched a couple of episodes of F Troop… Then I was in my room early folding laundry and watching America’s Funniest Videos… The boys all joined me for The Simpsons… Then hubby came in and we watched part of Hawaii Five O… Then I was asleep while they watched Family Guy…

Yesterday I ate: vitamins, green tea tablet, water… breakfast~oatmeal… lunch~chili and tortilla chips, cola… dinner~chicken strip, hot dog, julienne potatoes, peas, lemon lime soda…

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The picture above is fake candles hubby made for Halloween out of pvc pipe and glue from a hot glue gun with battery operated tea lights…

This morning son1, son2 and I were all up early for work and school… Son2 has to leave fifteen minutes earlier for the bus as there is construction delays…

At work I changed out the hanging signs, met with HR and got my vacation/paycheck dilemma worked out sort of, stocked men’s shoes/work boots and athletic shoes, went to lunch, and opened boxes the rest of the day making a bit of a dent in the mountain…

Got home, hubby and I chatted, he applied for another job today and made a lot of Halloween plans… we walked to pick up son3 and I did homework with son3 and made dinner…

Son1 had to stop at the DMV and then he was home rounding up son2 to help him work on the jeep… while he was working on the jeep the place that he applied at for part time called him finally with a start date, so he starts next Monday… I told him since he started this big project on the jeep, they would probably call…

Now we’ve had dinner and finished watching Hawaii Five O, all the boys are showering and I don’t know what hubby is up to…

I’m off to read with son1 and watch Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men, Mike and Molly and tape Castle and Hawaii Five O…

I’m sure I will fall asleep early as I am tired…

We are creeping back to the 90’s again…

Today I ate: vitamins, water… lunch~chimichanga, yogurt, cola… tuna sandwich, pickles… tortilla chips, water… dinner~three chicken legs, mashed potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, lemonade…

Happy Journaling…