It's a little early for high school, isn't it?

The other day I go into the living room to find Search and Destroy sitting on the couch reading books. Although that isn't completely out of the ordinary, it doesn't happen much. So I took a closer look and noticed that Destroy was reading the thesaurus and Search was reading a novel. So I asked what they were doing and Destroy said they were going to high school. Search repeated, "I coo!" (which also means high school in two-year-old language). Destroy often takes Search around the house pretending to do things, but this was the first time they have gone to high school. Normally they just go to preschool. I'm glad that I didn't have to read the thesaurus in high school. That would have stunk.

Another funny Destroy note: The other day he was talking on the phone (pretending, of course) to "Regular Bobby". I'm not sure whether he is refering to Bobby's bowel habits but I thought it was a pretty inventive name for a friend. I often hear him talking and playing with Regular Bobby.

Happy Birthday, Search!

Search turned two yesterday (crazy, I know). Last week I asked Destroy what kind of cake we should make for Search and Destroy told me we should make him an "I Dig Dirt" cake. "I Dig Dirt" is Search's favorite movie. Search was pretty excited that there were trucks on his cake but the first thing he did after he blew his candles out was to start picking off the trucks. Thanks, Mom, for the idea for the dirt (crushed up Grasshopper cookies), it turned out really cute. His friends B, M, Ella, Julia, Ella (again), Blake, Brad, Sam, Tommy and of course Destroy, came to sing for him. While trying to blow out his candles he left a long streak of 2-year-old drool on one of the pieces. I guess he was marking his piece of cake. Yesterday I decided that I would let Search do whatever he wanted... so he got to blow bubbles while eating his cereal, wear his rainboots outside even though it wasn't raining and he even wanted to take a nap. So I let him do that too. But that wasn't too hard for me to do.

A New View of Vampires

Okay, along with a few other women that I know, I'm a little obsessed with the vampire in these books. Traditionally, vampires are supposed to scare people and not the opposite. I read the first two books (400-500 pages each) in about 4 days. The extremely romantic, gorgeous and myterious vampire makes husbands (and humans for that matter) look really bad. I guess I wish I had a vampire of my own so I think I'll have to dress Aaron up as a vampire for Halloween. Maybe that will appease me. I am counting down the days until "Eclipse" comes out!

There's no place like... a home!

Aaron and I spent three long days and two short nights out in Indianapolis this last weekend looking for our next residence. We found a great house (yes, a HOUSE) that we will fit into perfectly. The best part about it is that it's on a half an acre (don't worry, there's a riding lawn mower) with huge tall trees, green grass and a little stream running along the side. There is also a swingset for the kids and a MINIBARN! An Indianapolis must-have (everyone has one in their backyard). The house has four bedrooms, a dishwasher, washer/dryer, garage (things many of you people who don't live in student housing probably take for granted) and a beautiful deck on the back. The only thing that I don't like is the original owner's taste in home decorating. But, all of that funky wallpaper will be coming down along with the pink floral curtains. We are very excited to move from our 850 square foot apartment to a half acre area. The crazy thing is that we will only be paying about $80 more per month for rent than here. The thing that scares me the most is going to be trying to find friends out there as good as the ones we have here. I'm pretty sure that won't happen and I guess that Search and Destroy are going to start having to play together! We will really miss Irvine and all the good friends that we have here. Wow, I'm starting to get a little teary. Better stop.

Wildlife in Orange County

"Wildlife" and "Orange County" sound mutally exclusive. In the four years that I've lived in the middle of Orange County I have surprisingly seen a lot of different kinds of wild animals! The picture above is of a bobcat. We were walking home the other day from the easter egg hunt and we saw a bobcat running up the middle of the apartment complex! It was so crazy! I was a tad nervous because Search would make a perfect little snack but it ran up the hill. I did keep my kids close for a few days after that, though! We also saw one last year at a local park just down the street.

We have a new neighbor as well. There is a blue heron that comes to visit the lawn in back of our apartment frequently. The bird is about 4 feet tall and comes to stand in the same spot on the lawn every few days. It is very bizare. Destroy succeeded in scaring it away more than once. Go,Destroy (no scarcasm intended).

A few months ago I saw an owl sitting on a handrail right outside our apartment. Then, a few weeks ago while running I came across two coyotes. The route I used to take (notice the past tense) was up near the UCI observatory and there were no houses around, just lots of weeds and grassy hills. I wasn't so much afraid that they were coyotes but I wasn't sure how many and how hungry they were. So now I run elsewhere. I have also seen deer running across University ave.

I never thought I would see wildlife in Irvine but I have. It's fun to see things that don't really belong anymore but also strange because they do belong, we just kicked then out. How sad. Well, at least Irvine has a couple of wildlife reguges for the animals who are left to live in.

The Easter Bunny

On Easter morning the kids woke up to baskets full of cars and candy. I remember my excitement growing up and finding my easter basket on easter morning so I decided that I should probably start doing baskets this year so that my kids don't hate me when I'm older. Anyways, on the way home from church on sunday Destroy asked who gave him his easter basket. I told him that the Easter Bunny brought it to him while he was asleep the night before. He stopped, looked at me and said, "No, mom. You gave it to me". Wow, I was stunned. There goes Santa, I guess.

You Live and Learn...or not.

In my life I have been stung by a bee twice. That is 2 stings in 26 years... 1 sting for every 13 years. My children, however, have both been stung twice already and Destroy isn't even four and Search isn't even two! Now that's impressive. Despite constant warnings of bee stings, Destroy picked up a bee of the ground last year and was stung. Search was stung about a month ago. Destroy still remembers when he was stung and Searcg will go find the book with the bee in it and bring it to us and pretend to cry. The last few days the boys have been teasing the bees like crazy, even though I have been warning them, and they finally got stung today. Both of them on the same day! After a bout of crying, Searcg went out and resumed his position next to the bush with the bees. What is wrong with my child? We'll see if Destroy is still interested in grabbing bees. The picture of Destroy is right after he got stung. The picture of Search (snot nose) is a few hours after he got stung so he is happily showing his stung finger but he wasn't so happy earlier! Aaron kept worrying me that they might go into anaphylactic shock because it would have been their second sting but they didn't. Now they can get stung as much as they want!