Well, I am annoyed with dh for suckering me into the Rat movie yesterday. Sure, it was cute, but he knew it was a 2 HOUR MOVIE!!!!! I just do not know what the hell he was thinking. & now that I think about it next time it is his turn to take out the squirmy/screamy child. The only other time we took both kids to a movie was last year (Cars?). But when LM freaked out I was the one who left the movie. Though granted I didn't miss a ton, our plan was that he would sleep through it and I had to take him for a walk to get him to go to sleep mid-movie. But at least I saw the end. Anyway, yesterday I was very impressed how he did and figured he might sit through the whole movie. About an hour into it was his limit. He wanted to walk around. Every time I threatened to walk out he screamed, "no! I watch rat movie!" But since he clearly did not want to watch it we finally left. HE argued and tried to turn back a few times, but the lure of going to the pet store was enough for him to forget the rat movie soon enough. I said, "Let's go see the real rats!" It was 100 degrees outside and it was quite a walk across the parking lot to Wal-Mart & the pet store. We went in and looked at pets forever and had fun. Mostly fish, but lizards, birds, rodents, and cats too. Plus many dogs with their owners. I noticed the staff ignored us. I think we are clearly in the "kid couldn't sit through the movie" category. We are obviously not the only ones who use the pet store as free entertainment. LOL.

After about 45 minutes I was wondering what in the heck was going on so I called dh and I could clearly hear the movie when he answered. OMG. How long is the movie??? He tells me about 2 hours. I am just flabbergasted. Did he really think LM would sit through a 2-hour movie???? Gah. I assume it was a little thing. Of course now if I think back I thought Cars was ridiculously long as well.

Still waiting, we headed to Wal-Mart and looked at toys.

Finally found the fam and picked up MIL's cheap crappy pictures from Wal-Mart. She paid like $5 and I am not even sure it was worth that. LOL. People out here have an obsession with professional pics. I find with our equipment we can produce as good quality, certainly better than Wal-Marts so I don't bother. But MIL gets all upset and drags the kids in for pics (poor kids). Granted she has had some nice ones done at Sears on ocassion. But for the second time I was NOT impressed with Wal-Mart. I think we took BM there when he was 2, as a break/surprise for MIL. They had some special. But I wasn't really impressed in the least. However, we got some nice pics then. This time was way cheaper and not much to show for it. I am just not a big fan of Wal-Mart. If they have stuff that is the same stuff as Target and cheaper, fine, I'll buy it. But everything else is pretty much just CRAP if you ask me. In the Wal-Mart wars I don't really have that much problem with them as a business. I think they are the fall guy for modern retail. But as a business to shop at, I have never been a fan. I mostly try to stay the hell away from that place - LOL. Say "wal-mart," and all that comes to mind is insane crowds, dirty store, crappy stuff... Now I can add to the list - horrible pictures.

In the evening we headed to the Cal Expo for fireworks. In the past we would drive there at the last minute and try to find a free patch of grass at the local mall or one of the local businesses. I have to say the plan wasn't the worst. We decided to be a little more fancy and actually go pay for the parking at the expo and see the free entertainment. What was not clear was that the free "seats" was simply the ground. LOL. I have to admit, regardless, I had a great time, and BM rather enjoyed it, but LM was in hell. Poor kid. I think it is worthy for future years, but was a bust for LM. We sat on a blanket on the ground and I tried to entertain LM for a couple of hours while dh ran around. He ran to get the blanket we keep in his car for picnics and such (left in their from the park playdate days) - phew. Then we sent him for ice cream. Then I sent him for nachos which apparently was an hour-long line. HE didn't get the memo that the hell he went through for my nachos wasn't worth it. He just thinks I am a nacho nazi. But I guess he waited like an hour in the wrong line and they were REALLY disorganized, so when he was in the right line it was too long because everyone else in front of him was in the wrong line. ??? Oy vey. He eventually emerged with nachos about just in time to see the fireworks. Of course they freaked out LM, but I was optimistic since I don't remember him minding them last year. Dh ran him inside and missed most of it but it was absolutely SPECTACULAR. A very long show. Well worth the $7 to park and get up close. We had in the past watched them quite a few blocks away and don't remember them being so grand. Bm was a little frightened by them as well - we were just SO close. But he did okay - he really liked it.

Anyway, we got out of the parking lot within 15 minutes and home not long after so it was perfect. PArking was $7, All the food we got was $13. All that was certainly worth the show (plus talent show and a live band before the fireworks though LM could care less).

I have to say though, I have been really frustrated lately when we try to plan fun things with the kids and everything backfires. I finally put my finger on why recently, and not sure why I didn't notice before. We are big on routine and all that, as most kids need to be, but the second you break the routine they just freak out. In yesterday's case I think keeping that in mind I was a little more relaxed. Plus I guess it was obvious LM was going to have a hard time with all of these activities. I guess the moral of the story is to plan fun activities as much into the regular routine, as possible. Then again when we took them to the zoo the other day they completely missed their naps and had a blast. I guess they get a little more flexible with age. Phew.

Oh well, amazing enough I have something for my wish list. I haven't had much on there lately. Not really much I want. I guess lately my struggles have been trying to cut costs down on eating out and little splurges, not so much on material things. There is just not much I have wanted for which always drives dh and his family batty come christmas and all that. They can't fathom that I don't want *stuff.* But I will oblige them this year. I have my eye on a nice used Stairmaster. Something I would really enjoy and be positive. I had had the idea for a while but I am scanning Craigslist and they have all this unused equipment bought new for thousands and thousands of dollars, selling in the $200-$800 range. Best yet I saw there is a used workout equipment store that sells, delivers AND has a 30-day money-back guarantee. I might even checked that out - they were priced competitively with the private party stuff, at first glance. & well part of the reason we got the van was so that we could more easily buy & transport more used things. I figured exercise equipment was the epitome of the used deal. People buy it and don't use it, and sell it years later. So you can get practically new equipment at a fraction of the cost. I Feel the same way about most baby stuff, furniture and appliances, but exercise equipment is just top notch on the list with the abundance of "new" stuff just never really used. Yet worthless enough you can score some decent equipment for $200 if you shop right!

Oh well, I think it would be a bit much to buy right now. But frankly, it might be worth it. Spending a little money to get off some weight now. I'll talk to dh about it. You don't know how many times I went to the gym just to use the Stairmaster. I love them. But using it at home in front of the t.v. sounds even better & easier. Dh wants to get a bike. I think we can probably get both this year for Christmas if nothing else.

Well today we are going on a hike and MIL is taking the kids overnight. Our gas budget for the month ended up being $350, or $50 over budget. Still not bad considering all the driving (LA, SF, and SJ twice). We were saved by lower gas prices which I was just discussing with dh. I figured we were in trouble when they were up so high in the winter and spring, but they had mercy and dropped instead of the usual summer rise. Phew. MIL though said she was bored and wanted to keep the kids. We said sure since we have not done ONE THING for the party. IT is really unlike me to procrastinate like this on one hand. On the other hand I don't plan to do much and was keeping it low-key. So it goes. But tomorrow we really need to clean the house and go get groceries and see what we need, etc. Bake cupcakes, and on and on. So it is great she'll take the kids! She is semi-retiring this year from teaching, and retired after this last year. She does not have to prepare for a class though and usually she has a million things going on, so no doubt she is bored. I think it is great that this will be the second week in a row she'll take both kids overnight. we are certainly spoiled!!! For the long haul I am not sure how the gas and wear and tear on our cars and all that can handle this. I always liked the distance between us because she can be a little over-bearing, but I am starting to think maybe it would be a lot better if she moved up here. Who knows I guess, FIL will not retire for a while. She is scared to make the drive up alone so it created more problems. Otherwise I think we could just say, "sure, you're bored, come get them." LOL. Anyway, the year ahead will be interesting. For the most part it is really nice and freeing for us to have so much free time. My mom and dh's grandma don't work and take the kids on occassion, but neither can keep up very well. MIL is the only one who will take them hours or days at a time so I see more breaks for us in the future. & when she takes them the kids have more opportunity to visit with extended family than we usually have with our random weekend visits when everyone is busy. So it's good for them.

Well the next 3 days will be LONG... & busy!

Oh yeah - but today is s'posed to be 105 degrees and we are skipping town. Yikes!!!!!! I left the upstairs a/c set to 85 so the cat doesn't melt. She'll be okay, there are some cool spots. Turned off downstairs. We'll see what we come home to tonight. Last year a friend came home from a long heat wave to a 100-degree house and a dead fish. Can you imagine???? I had always left the air on for the cat and that was a good reminder as to why! As for this week, today is s'posed to be the worst and it is s'posed to cool down a bit the rest of the week. Phew. I told dh hopefully we get home late enough we can just let the downstairs cool off overnight. It might get to 90 or something if it is that bad out. It's already 81 in here since it didn't cool down much overnight. But leaving means we don't have to run the a/c on max all day today. When we get home it will be 85 upstairs and we can pop open a window. The heat sucks but at least we get cool night breezes usually... Since we don't have to cool the kids' rooms tonight - the window should do. I laugh at some of the comments on how we bought a bigger home before we had kids - and the comments that it was a waste to cool/heat the rest of the house in the meantime, the empty rooms. Um, not exactly. We have an upstairs and downstairs system, and so before kids we would only run the downstairs a/c and heat which would waft up to our bedroom at the top of the stairs. We NEVER heated or cooled the other 3 upstairs rooms in the house. But now with kids in mind we have to run the upstairs a/c and such. But not tonight!