Friday, February 29, 2008

Note to Self....

I didn't set out for an adventure today, but Phyllip and I ended up on one.

We left the house at 6 AM today for an appointment in Newport Beach (a 2 1/2 hour drive without a lot of traffic).

This is what we drove in from Riverside all the way to Newport Beach. Crazy! I'm used to sunshine 99% of the time.

We get there just fine. While Phyllip is completing a test, he complains of dizziness and then passes out falling into the specialist. Can you say "panic"? Kinda but not really because I pretty much knew why it had happened. The Lord was good enough to prepare me thru Lyndsey. His blood sugar had dropped too low and he needed to eat something. He didn't tell me that he was hungry before his appointment so I thought he would make it until after we were done there. I left him at the office and ran a couple of blocks to Burger King and got him some food. Pretty soon he was just fine.

We finished his appointment and I took him to get a full meal and I was hungry too considering we hadn't eaten since 6:00 this morning and it was 10:30.

In the meantime, I called my friend Laurie to chit chat and to find out if there was an easier way home. See, I really don't like to travel some of the freeways here in SoCal (especially the interchange of the 91, 215, and 60 freeways). (If you live here in SoCal you will understand what I am talking about on the directions) I got on the 405 N and I was supposed to exit onto the 57E and take that to the 10E and then I would meet up with Laurie for lunch. However, I never saw the exit sign. I kept driving until I finally saw the 10E exit. But guess what! I was in downtown Los Angeles!!!!

I again talked with Laurie and she laughed at me because I went WAY out of the way. I got off of the 10E and onto the 605N and then onto the 210E and it dumped me back onto the 10E (for those of you who don't know that was a faster route than to stay on the 10E all the way) to home.

I ended up getting home 2 1/2 hours later than I would have if I would have just gone home the way I went!

I started counting all the cities I went through. Man, it was a lot!!!! Banning, Beaumont, Moreno Valley, Riverside, Corona, Chino, Yorba Linda, Irvine, Newport Beach, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Rosemead, El Monte, Baldwin Park, Pasadena, Azusa, Irwindale, Upland, San Bernardino, LaVerne, Redlands, Yucaipa, Calimesa, Cherry Valley, etc. These are just the ones I can remember!!!


Laurie's husband, Delmas, said that if anyone wants to see SoCal in one day they need to ride with me!

So the note to self is.....DON'T TAKE ANY ALTERNATE ROUTES! THEY AREN'T ANY QUICKER!!!

My 180 mile trip turned into a 300 mile trip today!

I was so tired when I got home that I had to take a nap!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Not Your Average Flossing!

The kids love to play with Ruby! She happily indulges them about 99% of the time.

I don't know how all of this got started but one day Lyndsey was playing with a rubber band and Ruby at the same time. Ruby decided to bite the rubber band and hence the "flossing" of Ruby's teeth began!

Every time Lyndsey has a rubber
band now Ruby loves to have her teeth "flossed." These pictures were taken the other day.



I know it's totally goofy but very
funny to watch in person!















Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A Loooooooonnnnnnnggggg Hike

It was a gorgeous day today! Walter got home from work early today and decided to take the boys for a hike in the foothills above our house.

They also went looking for signs of the flood from Noah's day (we love to discover things about creation and biblical accounts of our Creator). They found 2 trees that were petrified (is that how you spell it?) and had a great time. They were gone for a long time, too (don't worry,
I didn't panic this time *smile*).


Here's a picture of the hill that they climbed from our house. They ended up on the top hill in the center of the picture.

Anyway, here are the pictures. You will have to click on the pictures to see all 3 of them on top of the hill. I think it is over 1 mile that they hiked to get all the way up there.





Here's a picture of them just before they started their hike.


Monday, February 25, 2008

Would Somebody Please Tell the Dog Which Ball Is Hers?

Tonight the boys were rolling a tennis ball back and forth across the living room for Phyllip's exercises. Everything was fine and dandy until Ruby got woke up.

You see, Ruby has a tennis ball all her own and it is her favorite (and pretty much only) toy (by her own choosing). Hers just so happens to look not-so-new, uh, kinda like it has had lots of doggie slobber on it. Hers is the one on the right.


She came over and sat by me for a while just watching the boys rolling the ball back and forth. Then all of a sudden, pounce, and she had stolen their ball! This, of course, made us all erupt in laughter.

We found her ball and would throw it so that Phyllip's exercise could continue. But Ruby kept coming back. She thought the ball was hers for the taking! An exercise that should have only taken about 5 minutes ended up taking about 15!

Here's Tyler trying to distract Ruby with her ball.


Here he is again and she is trying to steal their ball.


Friday, February 22, 2008

I'm Glad This Isn't Real Life!

Tonight we had a game night at our home for the teenagers of our church (which happens to be only 2 right now but that's ok).

We ended up playing Monopoly. It was a fast moving game with 6 players. Michael should have gone bankrupt fairly early in the game. Lyndsey decided to be nice and let him stay in the game. Afterwards Michael asks Phyllip and Tyler if he could have $1 (just playing). So what happens next????? Phyllip gave him one of every denomination of Monopoly money he had! What do you think Michael did? He said, "Thanks." That was it! Nothing else. Just, "Thanks." Phyllip thought he was so funny! He decided to share his "wealth" with Michael for the rest of the game. He kept only $1 and 3 pieces of property. Michael eventually said that he would pay all of Phyllip's rent that he owed (he was so kind!). Phyllip went bankrupt in the end.

I am REALLY glad that this isn't real life!*huge sigh* Walter and I would have a LONG way to go in teaching Phyllip if this was reality!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Tag! I'm It!

1. What is your name?



2. When is your birthday?



3. What kind of car do you want?


actually we already had one of these - I only want a car that doesn't keep breaking down and has front and rear a/c - nothing special

4. Where do you go to school?



I don't currently go to school but I finished high school in WA state.

5. What's your favorite season?


6. What's your favorite type of shoe?

I wish I could wear these but...

these are the ones I am forced to wear on a daily basis. It's all about comfort these days!




7. What's your status?

8. What's your favorite movie?


9. What's your favorite song?

It's the hymn "Mansion Over the Hilltop."

10. What's your favorite Disney character?


11. Favorite clothing line?

It's whatever fits, is feminine, and is comfortable.

12. Favorite vacation destination?

13. Favorite dessert?


Just in case you can't tell, it's Pecan Pie.

14. Favorite letter?



15. What are you most afraid of?


I'm most afraid of not learning from my mistakes.

16. Favorite TV show?


It's called "Paula's Home Cooking." Though I haven't watched it in over a year because we don't watch TV anymore.

17. What annoys you most?


It's when people show off the parts of their bodies that nobody should see!

18. What's your job?


(Homeschooler)


19. What's your favorite animal?



I used to have a purebred. However the one below is my absolute favorite right now (my Ruby).


Now I'm supposed to tag 2 other people. So here goes. Shari, consider yourself tagged.
MacKenzie, consider yourself tagged.

So here's what you do.
1.Go to photobucket.com
2.Type in your answer for each question into the PhotoBucket search bar.
3.Only use the first two pages.Choose your favorite photo to represent your answer.
4.Copy the html and paste it here.
5.You can only answer in picture form.
6. Tag two more people to do it!

Monday, February 18, 2008

Gotta Love Those Kiddos!

Saturday night after we left Legoland we stopped for dinner. We ended up at a restaurant called "The Old California Mining Company." It was a neat place. Anyhow, four of the five of us decided to have the all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar. Walter comes back with a plate of salad that included alfa alfa sprouts. Lyndsey says, "Dad, it looks like you are eating grass." To which we laughed quite a bit. This was said while Phyllip was up at the salad bar himself. When he got back to the table and looked at his dad's plate he said, "Is that hay on your plate?" Of course we all laughed for a long time and hence the picture of the infamous plate of salad!


Yesterday Walter and I taught Jr. Church during the worship hour. We have come to love working with those kids. You just never know what will come out of their mouths! Hence the following conversation with this precious gem of a girl!

Kaylyn: Hey, Mr. Pettis, did you know that you have the same Bible as my daddy?

Mr. Pettis: Yes I did know that. Pretty cool, huh?


Kaylyn: Yes.


Mr. Pettis: Does that make me cooler than your daddy?


Kaylyn: Huh?


Mr. Pettis: Does that make me cooler than your daddy?


She thinks for a few seconds.

Kaylyn: My dad is the
pastor!!!! He's cooler!!!!



And finally, tonight we were on our way home from church when Tyler said the following.

"Hey Mom, Pastor barely preached an hour tonight!"

Translation - He didn't preach very long!


When a kid says that you know he's been going to church for a long time!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Happy 9th Birthday Tyler!!!!








Yesterday was Tyler's birthday. My how time flies! It seems like just yesterday my little man was born. Now he's 9 years old! This is our last year with a child under 10.






So we decided against a birthday party this year in lieu of having a family day at Legoland. We hadn't been there in at least 6 years and we hadn't really done anything as a family in quite a while, either. It was a gorgeous day. Legoland is located about 1 mile (maybe 2) from the beach. We stopped for the view and a couple of pictures.








We had a blast. It was so much fun there. We stayed until closing (which they
are only open until 5:00 p.m.). The weather was great (not too hot and not too cold). I think I took over 100 pictures. We made lots of memories. Walter and I had more fun watching the kids having fun.


The boys rode the boats by themselves. There is a funny picture of Phyllip down below when he was in his boat.





Ahhhh! This is the life! Phyllip did actually say that while riding in his boat!

























Thought I would throw this picture in. A couple of weeks ago we had a wind storm the likes of which I have never seen. We had 98 mph winds go thru here. It was so strong that it knocked one of the windmills down.






And just to prove again that the desert does in fact turn green, here's another picture.