This is Perfect--

After 4 kids, and 15 years of marriage (in less than a month!), this is absolutely perfect.

Miss Congeniality

Grace under pressure--that's me. I'm trying to imagine that I actually LOOK like Sandra Bullock (yeah, I'm a comedian), but I was walking into the Club and right in front of a huge group of members, I managed to hook my heel inside the strap of the other shoe and went FLAT on my face. I've never fallen so quickly, and my feet got all tangled up. You know that scene where Grace Hart falls? Sigh.

Wow! What a week!

What a crazy week--it started off with DJ's dad's funeral--he passed away last week, and everyone came in to see him and be there for the funeral. We had 3 of the Seattle Risks staying at our home, and we had a blast. DJ and crew went to the water park every day, went on two desert hikes (and only got lost on one), captured some freaky kind of tadpole from the springs on the San Andreas fault line, and stayed up WAY past everyone's bed time. Reagan's already planning her way into traveling to visit her Seattle cousins again.


Everyone left on Monday, and Tuesday was the RIMS district science fair--that's the Riverside, San Bernardino, and two other county sci fair (for you non-California types, the population of that area is close to 5 million people). Because we had all those pictures from this summer, and we wanted the judges to know that our kids had done the projects themselves, we had built a digital picture frame into each of the board. Given the electrical requirements, DJ went up to make sure the projects were set up correctly, but the kids wanted to ride the bus up with the other kids from our district. While he was waiting, the person from the school district asked if he wanted to judge the 4th grade projects at the fair. DJ jumped at the chance--he had a wonderful time and enjoyed talking to the other judges. He saw Reagan and Tre' talking to the judges and giving their presentations. They both seemed to have extra interviews.

The next day was the awards ceremony. We got there, looked at the projects, then found some seats. First the organization went through some special awards--Reagan got one of three awards for outstanding solar research and Tre' got an award from CREEC (which has environmental education somewhere in there). Next came the actual placing. Reagan was disappointed with her Silver, but Tre' got gold, which means he gets to go on to the State Science Fair next month. He's so excited--

The next day Reagan got a letter letting her know that she was accepted to Tech Trek, a summer science camp at University of California Irvine campus; the fee is covered by a local women's organization that tries to "inspire" young women to go into math and the sciences. Her regret over Tre's gold and her silver was washed away.

Later that day we left for the Taylor Swift concert--that's what she got for Christmas. We were on the floor, and as we looked over to the celebrity section, we saw Kobe Bryant, Katy Perry, Jake Gyllenhaal (sp?), Justin Timberlake...wow--we were in the place to be Thursday night in LA. Reagan had a great time, waving her glow stick, jumping up and down, etc. All of a sudden, the lights focused on the stairwell leading down to our section, and there she was. She walked down and 2 feet from our chairs did another set. You can see the picture below. Reagan's the blue glowstick waving frantically (you can see the bracelets she wears all the time).


After the set, she went back front and did a set with Katy Perry (Reagan was able to touch both Taylor Swift's and Katy Perry's hands as they went up front). We got home at almost 3 am--and went to school and work in the morning. I may get my hearing back in the next month or so. 15,000 screaming girls tend to do bad things to your hearing.

Earthquake

It's just too cool of a picture not to blog about. Easter Sunday, getting Easter dinner ready, when Reagan yelled from upstairs, "EARTHQUAKE!!!!!" I shoved the two little ones under the bar and ran to the computer to see what the magnitude of the earthquake was (yes, wrong priorities there). However, I was rather proud that I reported the magnitude more quickly than CNN did!
Here's a picture of the mountain range by our home--the dust was flying from the movement caused by the earthquake.

[Queue in the gloomy, dismal music. ]

[See the lightning crash across the screen.]

[Hear the ominous thunder roll.]

OK--enough with the stage directions. My sweet little 6-year old just had 3 (yes, 3!) root canals and 2 fillings. For the past year (yes, I skipped the 6 month checkups), he said he was brushing his teeth. He was even gone long enough for it to be reasonable. Evidently, he stood in front of the mirror and looked at himself, because he had enough tooth decay to qualify himself as an example for dental school. Maybe even one of those public awareness ads.

Oh well--they'll be falling out soon anyway.

Heidi

Nestle Phone Number

It's been a while since I've blogged (Yes, Mom--I know). However, instead of working the way I should have been doing this afternoon, I saw a Facebook post regarding Nestle's phone number. You really, really, really want to do this.

• Call 800-295-0051
• After it answers and asks if you want English or Spanish, wait quietly for around 6-7 seconds.
• After that, press 4
• The best option is #7.
  
• Laugh hysterically, but quietly. Tears will run down your cheeks.
  
• Stop laughing when the member of the Board you report comes in and asks if you're OK and try to appear professional.
• When he listens and starts laughing know that you're OK.