Hubby baking rolls, beach, pool, dinner

When the smell of the fresh baked rolls filled the house, we took off.
We haven't been on the beach for months, so it was about time to go there again.
At Crystal Cove we walked along the beach for a couple of hours, trying to find beautiful little treasures like rocks and shells. Guess what! We found a lot!
Some rock climbing, some wet clothes, some pictures and some happy kids later, we headed for the pool at home.
The ocean wasn't to cold, but none of us jumped in intentionally even though lots of people around us did. We saved it for the pool.
The kids got to swim today. The boys swam 500 yards each, and the princess did 200 yards. That's pretty good. But it always reminds us they should have some lessons to learn the technique.
Playing in the water is always fun.

We all showered quickly and ran off for dinner at our neighbors' place. Delicious food were served and we had great company and the kids had a blast playing around with lots of garlands.

A long and very good day!

Hummingbirds

Today I've been trying to capture some hummingbirds.
It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time. Almost three hours gave me this material:

I worked very hard on getting the red one. But he was so shy, and spent the most of his time hiding og chasing the other hummingbirds.
Wouldn't say I'm satisfied, but better than nothing.



There sure were some other creatures there too, and while the hummingbirds hid, I hunted the bumble bies instead.

iPad

"Wow! There is a huge iPod on the table!"
It wasn't an iPod, it was an iPad.
Hubby bought it for his job, but of course the whole family can and will enjoy it too!

Free as a bird

Today I had my very first real walk after the accident.
I did about half of my regular loop and I am proud.
Usually I get to meet lots of beautiful birds and rabbits on my way. Sometimes I'm not walking as fast as I could be because there is so much to see along my path. Often I bring my camera. Today I forgot it. And of course I saw the tinyest and most beautiful little rabbit sitting there staring at me. And even the red necked hummingbird was there on his show off today. Maybe they missed me? I missed them for sure.Now I'm so looking forward to Wednesday and my next loop. I can hardly wait!
I am in desperate need of some new pictures, so Wendesday I'm bringing the camera.

The advise of today.

For those of you who want to leave your cars for a while, I have an advise.
Turn the headlights off. That will make it all so much easier when you come back.

I felt really blond today when my car didn't even crank and I had to ask a man for help to jumpstart it. It turned out to be even more embarrassing because he had to call another friend nearby with the jumper cable.
Do you have a jumper cable in your car? Do you know how to use it?
The two of them were making fun of this blond lady, but they made my day!

Maybe I made their day too?
Wether I did or not, I'll make sure I turn my headlights off tomorrow!

And here's how to do it:
1. Connect one red clamp to the positive terminal of the dead battery.
2. Connect the other red clamp to the positive terminal of the good battery.
3. Connect one black clamp to the negative terminal of the good battery.
4. Connect the other black clamp to a piece of grounded metal that is attached to the engine on the dead car. As a last resort, you may connect to the negative post of the dead battery, but this risks a gas leak.

Start the working car. Start the none working car ;-)

Remove the jumper cable when the car starts. Do this in the reverse of the order in which they were attached.
Make sure that none of the cables or clamps touch each other.

The important things of life.

Sometimes we complain about small things.
Sometimes we feel like life is going to hard on us.
Sometimes it feels like there is no light in the end of the tunnell.
Sometimes we need a beautiful reminder about not to give up, about seeking the good things and try to hold our heads high in spite of what we are going through.

This video was posted in my favourite forum today, and I want to share it with you.
No legs, no arms, no worries.

Constitution Day!

Happy bithday Norway!
Norway's national day has been celebrated today, even here in California.
We invited some friends to celebrate with us.
Unfortunantley we didn't have a children's parade or a band of music marching around the area.
But we had good friends coming over, lots of good food, lots of kids playing and Norwegian flags.
And of course we had BBQed hot dogs and ice cream.
Playing Volleyball is quite fun!

By the way the Californian weather was sypathizing with the Norwegian weather today, so it was quite chilly with only 18C/64F and overcast.

But altogether we had a great afternoon.

My oldest daughter graduated today!

We are so proud of Mali!
She has completed her Bachelor.

We were so happy to celebrate this day with her and her friends and family.
And for the very first time being a part of a Graduation ceremony here in the US.

The mom got to use her brain today!

Wow!
I never learned this. It's not always easy to do my kids homework - not even to me.
Today it was all about Antonyms.
They have this puzzle to complete using the antonym of the boldface words in the sentences below:

The meat in the dish is cooked
Do you think that raccoon is tame?
Susan is always early to school.
My grandmother is very sick.
Everyone who is going on the trip is absent.
A vacant house is a very safe place to play.
This has been the best day of my life.
My brother never finishes the food on his plate.
The children were very noisy today.
Chrissy wore a very fancy dress today.
There are so few fish in the aquarium.
The water is very shallow at this end of the pool.
These pants feel too tight.
Will you lead me trough the spook house?
The grass is very wet this morning.

Nope - it wasn't easy to me, but the kids could do all of them except absent and fancy. Now they know the antonyms of all the words - for a while at least ;-)
Do you know them?

Sitting on the floor

One of the eight year olds is reading. We only have one "big book" for reading, so we try to plan that one starts with reading while the other one starts with the rest of the homework.
Today we didn't plan well enough. Both are done with the math, one is done with the writing. But the reading with all it's questions is a lot of pages today, so it takes some time.

So while sitting on the floor the other one actually finds his guitar and starts palying.
This week the Star Wars Darth Veider theme goes over and over and over and over. Hopefully he will find the "Tir na noir", the "Minuett in G major", the "Ode to joy", the "Yesterday" or what ever all the songs they are playing are.
During their last guitar lesson they begged for the Star Wars stuff, and "The oh So Big Nick" wrote it down to them. Lots of flats and sharps - but who cares? As long as they want to learn it, they are able!
I have to record it for you one day. They are getting quite good!

Identical twins

Having eight year old identical twin boys give you all the attention you ever wanted, and all the one you never wanted.

When they were still stitting in the stroller they attracted an other kind of attention. You know when totally strangers are walking up behind you and want to cuddle you babies. Or when people praise God loudly for NOT being the one blessed with twins. Or when they ask you the most personal questions about nursing, wether or not they are "homemade", for how long you were in labour and so on.

I remember this old lady, barely walking on her own, stopping by the baby carriage, looking at my slight darker kids saying: "You haven't bought them here!"
She was right - we were in a grocery shop, and they don't sell babies there...


Well, now they are eight. They don't wear the same clothes, they don't walk hand in hand. Still it looks like people can easily spot them and figure out they are twins. Maybe it's because of their black, big, curly hair?
Or maybe it's their loud voices, their high level of activity, them being very outgoing, the way I seem to not care at all when they start arguing or even fighting...
Well, anyway, I just don't like it. People are looking at us, commenting and shaking their heads.
I don't know how, but everything just escalates around them.

Then again our friends and people we know are so nice! They keep excusing them and telling me they are normal. And some people even tells me how much they admire me for the job I'm doing!

I never had a choise. The fact that there were two of them I never chose. They absolutly are more than double the work of one. But they also are a lot more than double the blessing! I just love watching the interaction between the two of them, love watching their bond growing stronger and stronger. They have and give something other siblings never can fully understand!

Good friends

One of the things we value the most is spending time with good friends!

My son's hair certainley grows in ;-)

I came over this one

The swim suit and bikini season is coming up, an finally I figured out how to balance myself the right way!

No more diets or starvations for me!

I can't believe why I have been doing wrong all these years!



The picture is not my own - but borrowed.