Sunsets

I'm finally sitting down to write about the weekend and we're almost upon another one.  How did that happen??  Last weekend was a busy one.  Stephen had water polo games, Ali had a soccer game and Nikki had a soccer tournament.  All of the games went well and it was a beautiful weekend.  But for some reason I wasn't into taking pictures.  At water polo it was too hot and it felt good sitting in my shade chair, so I didn't take pictures.  At soccer I took a few, but nothing fabulous.  But then as we were leaving, the sun was setting and the sky looked amazing.  Somehow, that inspired me to start shooting!

Oh yeah and as a follow up to my post about Nikki's earrings...that above mentioned soccer tournament was a problem.  She didn't know she was going to have one when we got her ears pierced.  So mid way through the first game the ref looked at her and said, "Get of the field and don't come back until you're ready to play soccer".  Needless to say she was quite miffed.  The team was already playing without subs and would play short until she removed her earrings.  Well one was infected and swollen around the back so it was really tough to get out.  It took a few minutes, but she finally got them both out and was back on the field.  Bummer!  Now we have to wait for them to heal up and find another 8 week window without games before she can try again.

Our bounty

The lemons were drooping and ready to be harvested.  Nikki went out with a grocery bag and came in with a bounty.  She took everything out, washed it all and put them into bowls.  It looked so pretty it reminded me of the photo assignment Pioneer Woman recently did.  It was all about food photography.  It sounded weird at first, but the photos were amazing.  I told Nikki she should take pictures of the "fruits of her labor".  She laughed and said I was weird, but once she started she decided it was pretty cool.  I agree, it is pretty cool!

Nikki's ears

Stephen went to Tijuana today with school for the big Epiphany trip.  Ali went to a birthday party for Jared, the boy she has a crush on.  So that left Bill, Nikki and I to do on a bit of a shopping trip at VG.  We had a few returns to make.  Well then as we walked by Claire's, Nikki asked if she could have a second piercing done.  I told her sure why not.  She then kind of chickened out, so we were going to leave.   About halfway to the car, she decided she should just do it since we were there....and.....wait for it....

On the radio!

So yesterday I was on my way out to Damien to pick up Stephen.  I was listening to KFWB and the host was talking about Ted Williams, the guy they found living on the streets and gave him an announcer contract and a house.  And he's now in rehab after supposedly being clean for 2 years.  He wanted people to call in with their comments.  Well I'd been at lunch with Lisa just prior to this and we'd talked about this guy, so I couldn't resist picking up the phone and calling.  And guess what?  I got right through!  I talked to the screener, was put on hold for a minute and was on live radio!  The host asked me what I thought and I told him I thought it was ridiculous that they would give these contracts to this guy.  I told him I thought it was wrong that all these kids go to college,  doing all the right things to break into this industry and a great job is taken away by a homeless man that has a million kids that he's walked away from, a criminal record and a self admitted drug addict and alcoholic.  I told him I thought if they wanted to take a chance on him they could have done it how everyone else would start, at the bottom.  I think it was all just a chance for publicity, but I think it's wrong.  All in all it was very funny to pick Stephen up and whisper to him to be quiet because I was on the radio!!

Cupcakes too

Last week the girls practiced filling cupcakes...hmm I didn't even know you could do that.  Apparently there is a "plunger" that you put into the top of the cupcake to pull out some cake before filling it and frosting it.  I have been very impressed with the decorating these girls are doing.  In fact, Nikki is doing a much better job than I could!  Next week is the last week of this class and then they are moving on to the fondant class.  They are really looking forward to that one!

Ali is trying out for Selects soccer, which is a step up from AYSO and a step below club soccer.  Her friends dad is coaching the team so she's hoping that gives her an edge.  She did pretty good at the tryout, so hopefully she'll have a chance.  It's a team that goes from February through June and will do about 8 tournaments in that time.  They talked about doing a lot of conditioning.  I think it will be much better for her than softball would have been.  So hopefully she makes the team and has a good experience.

Stephen did his first TJ trip with the school.  He had a great time and is planning to go again next Sunday.  After that last trip the thing we were concerned most with was the lack of seat belts in the van on the way down there.  Hopefully on this next trip he'll get to ride in a car with another parent with seat belts.  It's a great lesson for the boys, but it'd be nice if the parents could feel a little better about the safety of them!