Saturday Shenanigans

Saturday morning dawned bright and way too early.

Jeff had to go to Coronado to help with a Black Belt grading and he left at 6 AM. I was excited because I figured this would give me an opportunity to sleep in. Yeah right. 7 AM and I am up, brewing coffee and walking the dog in the beach fog that reached all the way to our house.

But I figured it wouldn't be all bad. I could snuggle up on the sofa and have my coffee, watch Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman and just in general relax in the calm peaceful morning silence.

Yeah, I live in Fantasyland.

By 8 AM the happy sounds of too much time and not enough to do had already started drifting out of the bedroom at the end of the hall.

Have you met my children... Mr & Mrs Ridiculous?

"KATHERINE!!"

"JEFFREY!!"

OK they know each others names.

"TURN THAT DOWN! I CANT HEAR!"

"WHY DON'T YOU TURN YOURS DOWN BECAUSE I CANT HEAR?"

"KATHERINE! I have to hear when I throw my fishing pole in the water. Fishing is a quiet sport."

"Exactly... so turn your sound down and it will be quiet."

"NOOOOO! I have to be able to HEAR!"

"I thought you said it was quiet? If it's quiet what do you have to hear??"

"You're so mean.. MOM!!! Katherine is being mean."

"I AM NOT!"

OK scratch quiet couch time.

I figured I would take a shower because that would certainly be relaxing. Warm water, closed behind 2 doors with no one to bother me.

Yes, exactly what I needed.

There is such a fine line between needing and getting.

I did make it all the way behind 2 closed doors and into the warm water but that's when it sort of went all wrong.

Now if any of you read this often enough you know that I often jump to irrational conclusions.
One such example chronicled here.
One might think I would learn my lesson but I'm living proof that hasn't happened yet.

So there I am basking in the glory of the hot water, leaning my head back, closing my eyes as the warmth flows over my head and down my back, rinsing the delicious smelling shampoo out of my hair when it happened.

Something touched my leg. It was just a light touch at first, almost a caress. Felt like a finger starting at my thigh and moving down towards my knee. My first irrational thought was that Jeffrey had come into the bathroom and opened the door and was trying to get my attention, but as I peeked open one eye I realized the shower door was still closed so that highly unlikely scenario was ruled out. I squeezed my eyes shut and started to panic. I moved my leg slightly towards the opposite wall and the light caress turned into a full on push and scraping past my knee and down onto my calf. If it weren't for the fact that whatever it was was between me and the door I would have bolted, soaking wet and naked out of the bathroom, down the hall and into the living room and worry about scarring the children for life later when it was all over.

All I could do was jump sideways into the wall, yelping loud enough for the neighbors to wonder if they should call 911 and then listen to the extremely loud crashing noise as I forced myself to open my eyes, look down and figure out that the 2 foot high zombie that had somehow materialized in the shower with me was actually the shower stand that had fallen over and landed against my leg.

There were bottles and things everywhere. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, shaving gel, a bar of soap, a razor. There was no place left to stand because the entire shower floor was one big mess.

I'm not really sure if I was more relived or irritated. Why on earth do I panic so quickly?
It's really embarrassing.

Seriously I need more calm relaxing moments in my life to help steady my hyperactive imagination.

But considering it's only the 3rd week of June and the kids don't go back to school until the 3rd week of August, I'm not likely to be getting much of that any time soon.

And to top it off, I've got this great plan for today... it's called taking the kids shopping.

Yeah, I thought that through.

I'll let you tomorrow if I survive.

Park Day Photos

In an effort to keep the kids from burning the house down out of boredom, we try to get them out and about at least once every day.

Today we headed to the park.

Mr Watson, come here, I need you.....

The sheer joy of swinging:

Olivia:

Jeffrey the consumate goof-ball:

Jacob trying not to laugh:

I love this shot of him:

Trying to get 4 kids to all smile at the same time was next to impossible.

This was the best out of 10 shots.....

Two are easier...

Beach Day

So here we are 2 weeks into summer and I'm ready to pay the school district to reopen and let my kids go back to class.

I think I can probably find another few parents who would also be willing to chip in.

Yesterday was our first beach day of the season and even though it takes about half an hour to drive from my house to the shore, it still managed to take me almost 2 hours from the time I backed out of the driveway to the time our feet hit the sand.

I kept wondering why I was schlepping four 10 and 11 year olds to a place that would by definition cause them to get sand stuck in every imaginable crevice so they could bring it home and deposit it starting at the front door, through the living room, down the hall, into the bathroom, into the bathtub, onto the towels, back down the hall and into their bedroom and into bed. My vacuum is going to have a nervous breakdown.

This has been the toughest week to get even a second to sit down on the computer and do anything but list on ebay. I will be the happiest person on the planet when I am done with listing auctions. In the mean time though, it puts food on the table. Which seems to be a necessity when you've got 3 kids living under one roof. Especially a 16 year old boy. With size 13 feet. I should just get him a feedbag. It might save time.

I gotta get back to work but here are a few snapshots from today:

Olivia calling to the chickens on the shore:

Those waves are stronger than they look:

 I am thinking Jeffrey is doing his own rendition of "I'm a little teapot".

I do love the waves:

Katherine and Olivia looking for shells:

And then stopping for a snack:

Disney Sunday #25 ~~ The Submarine Voyage & the Mermaids

I have moved all of my Disney Sunday posts into their own blog accessible from the right sidebar.

I kept this installment here because it's the most popular with over 10,000 views!

The submarines opened in the summer of 1959.

There were 8 of them each named after a submarine in the 1950's nuclear program Seawolf, Skate, Ethan Allen, Patrick Henry, Nautilus, Triton, Skipjack, and the George Washington.

They each held 38 passengers and were 52' long. The ride took 9 minutes and it carried you under the North Pole, past a giant sea serpent and in the early days there were even real mermaids that could be seen for 4 hours a day on the rocks in the middle of the lagoon.

Here are some construction shots:

Here is the entrance which doesn't look much different today:

Here is the inauguration:

And a couple of vintage shots of the subs at the station:

This is a great overhead shot showing how colorful it used to be:

There aren't a lot of older under water shots to be found:

And now a word about the mermaids.
They held auditions for them at the Disneyland Hotel and the requirements were that you had to be between 5' 4" and 5' 7" (this cuts me out) and had to be able to swim.
Looking at the pictures I assume an unspoken requirement was also that you were thin enough to fit the costume. (this would also leave me out).

Here are a few pictures of the auditions:

And here are some of the lucky winners in action:

And finally today I found this great video:

Hope everyone has a really great weekend and is getting ready for summer!