SchlegelRock

I don’t want this post to take away from my earlier post about the boys going to school, it’s just of a time sensitive nature.  I am a huge fan of Mythbusters.  I have seen every episode, even the early ones where they had a mechanic girl instead of Grant (not meaning the girls was mechanic, meaning she was a mechanic).  I love this show.  It’s such a good mix of total geekdom and comedy.  The idea is that they take myths and put them to the test to either prove or disprove them.  Mythbusters is usually on the Discovery Channel, Wednesday nights at 9pm; though if you’re just starting out watching, they rerun their shows all the time, even during the day.

I’m so intent on writing this post because at 10:00 tonight they are re-airing their NASA Moon Landing episode and it is fabulous!  So they’re taking the myth that we’ve never actually been to the moon and testing it.  I wont tell you the ending though you can probably guess for yourself how it turns out.  I’m not saying this was the best show they’ve ever done, I just thoroughly enjoyed watching it and thought it would be a good one for you guys to start out with.  Unfortunately nothing explodes in this episode but it’s still fun.

Now check out my pictures of the kids on their first day of school then check out Mythbusters tonight.

This morning Max started 2nd grade and Tru is a big Kindergartener. Tru wanted to make sure he showed off his Transfor

mers backpack. Max is still sporting his tagged backpack from K. We’ll see if it holds up through the year. Tru has half days for the next couple of weeks and then he’ll be on a full day schedule with Max so they can ride the bus home together. Tru seems pretty excited to ride the bus by himself too but the boys were totally excited about sitting together and walking home together. Thank goodness they get along. They’ve really grown close over the last couple of weeks. It’s been really sweet to watch as they do nice things together or play with each other. What good kids we have.

So it’s just Oli and I now at home. I told him he’d have to wait a while to watch a movie so he laid down in the hall and moaned, “Mommy. Mommy.” Over and over again. This is definitely going to be an adjustment for the two of us. Thank goodness preschool starts next week.

Scott was nice enough to go to Safeway the other day and do all of the shopping.  I was unloading the groceries when I found this tasty little number.  I was shocked that Safeway would have something so pretty.  Turns out there’s a bakery in the same shopping center (Bernardo and El Camino) that he stopped by and picked this up.  It’s called Sugar Butter Flour and the treat was beyond delicious.  It was a flourless cake with some kind of mousse on top with raspberry sauce mixed in.  Just thinking of it makes me drool.  I wanted all of you to know about this place.  I will definitely be making visits there now that I know it exists.  Yum.

First, Scott did another Tri two weeks ago and he bettered his time by a minute. It was the same course as the last one he did so he knew what to expect this time. He was even so fast that the shutter on my iPhone missed him as he ran past. How ridiculous is that. Do you have a problem with that? I can never time my iPhone shutter right on action shots. Anyway, good job babe.

Then I had to go to Kaiser to drop of a Medical form for Oliver’s preschool and ran into a van with all these Indian wolf stickers on it. Of course it immediately reminded me of Jacob and his pack of werewolves (or shape shifters if you want to get picky on me). It just totally tickled me. I really doubt that I’ll run into any stickers that remind me of Edward. What would they be? A picture of a diamond? I seriously don’t know. Have any ideas?

Then, an update on swimming.

I was terrified to get back into the pool after that first encounter. Every time I thought about going back in any kind of water I was gripped with fear. So I started out slow. I took the kids down to our pool with the idea that I would just get in and not do any swimming. Well once I got in I was totally fine so I did laps for about 15 minutes with occasional stops to play with the boys. It was a really fabulous experience because Tru would wait for me to turn back to the shallow end and then he would swim towards me and shoot me. This was just so hilarious to him that it really brightened my experience.

So it was time for a trip back to the big pool. I didn’t touch the 13 feet. I swam in their smaller pool that’s meant for water aerobics so it’s shallow all the way through. But I swam for about 30 minutes without getting scared once. Now I just have to get back into the big pool and the circle will be complete. All I have to say is thank goodness I tried swimming before doing the Tri. Now I can try to prepare myself for the breathing and the open water factors. Although, I do think the open water is going to freak me out. At least I know if I can swim I can make it through it if I stay calm. I’ll keep you posted.

Scott found this great triathlon for me to run at the end of Sept. It’s a mini triathlon so it’s a 200 yard swim, 5 mile bike and 1 mile run. Easy right? Well everything but the swimming is easy, right? That equals 4 laps in the pool. Now that doesn’t sound so scary does it? That’s what I kept trying to tell myself. Anyone can do 4 laps can’t they? Well I was pretty scared to get in the pool today. That’s an understatement. I was really scared to get in the pool. It’s been 12 years since my short lived stint on the Wilcox High School swim team. Twelve years! I was totally psyching myself out. Telling myself that my body would give up halfway through one lap and everyone would be swimming past me and get mad at me for being in their way. I told myself lots of other bad stuff too. I’m not very nice to myself.

So the bad news is. It was worse than I thought it was going to be. I hadn’t factored in the hyperventilating and the fear of deep water. When I jumped in the pool and saw that it was 13 feet deep I literally freaked out. Oh man, did I freak out. So I throw my head in the water and push off and start swimming as fast as I can and the first breath I get water in my mouth but keep going and I keep gulping down water. That’s not right. That’s not what’s supposed to happen. So I do side stroke the rest of the way across the pool and try it again. It happens again. Over and over. So I just hung out at the side of the pool for a while trying to figure out what on earth I’m doing wrong.

The good news. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I was swimming too fast. That sounds weird, I know. I wasn’t giving my out of shape lungs the appropriate amount of time to take a breath in. I was stroking my arms too fast. So, I slowed way down and just took it easy across the pool and I actually made it to the other side. The other thing I had to do was look forward not down because the deep pool really did freak me out. So the realization now is that I can probably do the 200 yard swim, I’m just going to have to do it really slow. My goal changed from finishing the race in any place but last to finishing the race, period. And you know what? I think I can live with that. If I have to I’ll side stroke my way through the course. Why not?

The even better news. I got to go to lunch with Scott. We walked into Le Boulanger (I get the California Fresh sans onions) and he said, “We’ll get you a Coke.” Music to my ears. Does my man take care of me or what? I even talked him into buying me a bundt cake on the way out. That’s what I’m holding in my picture. My Coke and bundt cake. Clisty, I’m sure it’s not as good as the ones near you but as Gary says, “It’s not a gold medal but it will do.” So all I’m saying is if my swim sessions end with lunch with my husband, plus a bundt cake, sign me up.

Now, I’m writing this post because I want to see my progress over the next couple of weeks. I’m hoping there will be some. This is such a big journey that I wanted to share it. It’s so weird how the running and the biking have come so easily to me but the swimming is kicking my butt. I think I have the method down now so this should get easier.

Is anyone interested in doing the tri with me? I don’t expect you to go as slow as me. I want to make that clear. Go as fast as your body lets you. It would just be fun to see each other at the beginning and end. Or, if you have a bike that someone could borrow, let me know. I know that’s what holds some people back. I think this is going to be hard but totally worth it when I cross the finish line. That’s what I’m holding on to.

So on a side note the picture was Truman’s picture taking debut. My kids are the ones that usually take the pictures of me and for 5 and 7 year olds I think they do a great job.

Also I was pretty defeated when I came home today until I found my friend Clisty’s blog post for the day. She found a site called Cake Wrecks where they feature professional cakes gone wrong. Hilarious. I think I spent an hour cracking up looking over all the cakes. My favorite is the fireman which you have to go pretty far back into older posts to find. Well worth a look. I even added them to my blogroll and rss feed, I enjoyed it so much. Thank you, Clisty.

Oh, Michael. That’s exactly what we thought. Ridiculous man. I mean, he fell in love with a catalog model, right?  I love it.

This commercial also gets to me because for the first week of the Olympics every time I turned on coverage it was women’s beach volleyball. I really started to get annoyed after the first couple of days and thought to myself, “You know, I bet they wouldn’t be on prime time if they weren’t in bikinis.” I did see that during last night’s beach volleyball game this commercial aired. How beautiful is that?

I can not wait for The Office to start up again. This Fall is going to be awesome with all the great shows coming back. I’m really looking forward to Pushing Daisies and Chuck. Not to mention Survivor. Let’s get a poll started when that premieres. Hopefully it wont suck. I do love Jeff Probst though. He’s a great host. Always stirring the pot.

So what show are you looking forward to?

My friend Lisa talked me into checking out So You Think You Can Dance. I was skeptical because I assumed the level of talent would be mediocre and the choreography lame. Boy was I wrong. Once I got through the first initial weeks of tryouts I was hooked. It was this dance that hooked me. The choreographer is Mia Michaels and her inspiration is Tim Burton’s wedding. I wish I knew more about dance so I could tell you exactly why I like but all I can say is it moved me. I loved it. My favorite part is when Chelsie is folded in Marks arms and her puffy dress is everywhere, then he slides her onto the floor. Fabulous.

I have several more of these that I’m going to post over the next little while. I wont have any better explanations for them other than they moved me. I hope they move you too. I love dance. I think it’s very powerful and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the show. I will most definitely check it out next time.

What do you think?  It’s quirky, I know.

I’ve gotten several inquiries as to why I haven’t posted about this yet.  Sorry.  I know it’s seems very unlike me not to be posting about this and squealing with joy but it’s kind of bittersweet.  The story goes that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was bumped back six months leaving an opening which Twilight picked up on Nov. 12th.  So we get Twilight earlier but no Harry.  It makes me sad to be honest with you.  As far as the movies go I’m into Harry Potter more just because I’ve seen what they have to offer.  I’m still really skeptical about Twilight just because I don’t know what they’re going to do with it.  At the concert Stephenie did say she saw a rough cut of the movie and loved it enough that if she were at a theater she would have bought another ticket and watched it again.  That’s pretty high praise so it makes me feel a little more confident in the movie.

Bottom line, I’m really excited to see Twilight.  Sad not to see Harry Potter.   We will definitely have to make sure to get together to see the movie though.  I’m not sure I’m up for a midnight showing with all the screaming girls but I definitely want to see it right away.  If everyone else wants midnight though I’m sure I can talk myself into it.  I just want to make sure to see it with friends.  What are your plans?  Do you even have any yet?

I was a fan of last season so of course, I decided to check it out again. This season looks even better. The premise is that a bunch of washed up pop, rock, movie stars get together and compete for a chance to cut a country album. The group of people they got this time around include Jermaine Jackson, Chris Kirkpatrick from NSYNC, and Sebastian Bach from Skid Row. I just want to say right now that I am totally naming any male child that might come our way Sebastian Bach Schlegel. Awesome. The Sebastian Bach from Skid Row totally makes the show this time. He’s so excited and explicative about everything.

This is not one of my absolute favorite shows, but definitely enjoyable. It’s on Friday nights on CMT. I need a rating system so you guys know how much I like a movie or a show.  What do you think I should do.  I’m totally open to suggestions.

Sorry I couldn’t find some bigger pictures.  I know it’s hard to see who is in them.

This is my last post from when Mark and MarKaa were visiting. We headed down to Rio Del Mar which is my favorite beach so long as the river isn’t running through it. Unfortunately the river was in full effect so we just trudged through it to get to the beach. Actually, my favorite beach might be Seacliff. I never go there because you have to pay for parking but I think I’m over that. My big thing is I don’t want a big trek to the beach from the car or to the bathroom from the beach. Some of the people I go to the beach with lug a lot of stuff with them (sometimes taking two trips) so a hike to the beach is not a good idea.

Anyway, back to family. We had a really good time hanging out and playing at the beach. The kids continued to get along really well. Mark, MarKaa and Scott got some time to body board (Scott looked wicked hot catching those waves). I didn’t go because I don’t like cold water. Really don’t like cold water. I used to do it when I was young and my nerve endings weren’t so hyper developed. I’m resigned to being the mom on the beach with a book while Scott and the boys board to their hearts content. I don’t think Scott’s happy with that but all I have to say is, you go skydiving with me and I’ll go body boarding with you. Fair trade as far as I’m concerned.

So, which beaches do you go to? Do they have a trek to the car? Do you pay for parking?

Pulease tell me you guys are watching Wipeout. In my humble opinion this is the funniest game show that has ever been on American TV. My timing is off on this post because the season is over but ABC is playing the season over so you can still catch it. The show is pretty much one ridiculous stunt after another. Like the name decrees there are a lot of wipeouts. I know there are some of you who probably don’t think it’s funny to see another human being make a fool out of themselves but I’m not with you. I love it. My gosh, they know what they’re getting into when they sign up so laugh away as far as I’m concerned. The video I picked is of Ariel Tweto my favorite contestant for the season. “Where’s the pole?” This is just a clip of the qualifier. She goes on to do other funny things during the show but I couldn’t find it on YouTube.

Besides the major spills my favorite part of the show are the two commentators. Either they are naturally funny or they have great writers. Either way they have me rolling while I watch. I love the way they pick a characteristic of a contestant and then just exploit it all the way through their run. I just can not get enough of this show.

Let me get a shout out from all of you watching Wipeout!! And if you’re not, check it out next week and let me know what you think. It’s freaking hilarious.

So I’m back from Twilight land. Time to blog about family again. When Mark and MarKaa were in town we took all the kids and the grandparents to Great America, which is now California’s Great America. Remember when it used to be good old PGA? Oh well, enough reminiscing. We had a good amount of adults with us so even though we did a lot of kid rides we were able to do some of the bigger rides too.

We practically walked right on to The Flight Deck (Top Gun). Jake did a really good job on his first upside down roller coaster. He loved it and wanted to ride again.

There was a really great balance during the day as the cousins all got to know each other again and we got to know Jake and Ryan. My kids were practically glued to Jake’s side. Tru and Oli wanted to ride everything with him and he was very obliging. Great older brother.

The day ended with all of the kids having a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa Schlegel’s and the other four adults going back to the park to ride the bigger rides. This is a horrible thing to complain about but there were no lines. That means we went straight from one ride to the next. Luckily I have a hubby who gets sick just as easily as I do so we sat out a bit to calm our stomachs down.

I will say the Demon used to be my favorite ride growing up. I would ride it over and over and never get sick. The corkscrew did me in this time. Yikes. Now my favorite ride is Invertigo. No neck breaking action there. Just fun dangling backwards action.

I just took my kids back to GA today and we checked out Boomerang Bay, the water park. It was pretty fun. We spent most of our time on the lazy river since Oli was big enough to do that. I sat too far back on my inner tube and got dumped

into the water. Good times.

We had a great time with Mark and MarKaa and their kids when they were down. We’ll have to do this again.

Well you know the story. A long, problem riddled drive just to get to the desert. A frustrating drive to get to UCLA including running a red light and almost getting into an accident. All the screaming. A great but much shorter than I thought it was going to be concert. All for this. Meeting Stephenie Meyer and professing my love for her and her books. I went over it a million times in my head what I would say to her in the two seconds that it takes to sign a book. It went something like this in the end, “Thank you for the incredible journey.” Simple. Tasteful. To the point. No gushing, no crying, no blubbering. Just a simple statement. Of course I had a million questions I wanted to ask but I didn’t think I’d have the time. So I stuck to my statement.

Here’s how it actually went down. After the concert ended 1800 people gradually got in line to get autographs. There were strict rules. You had to turn your book open to the first white page. Only one book per person would be signed. The line needed to move quickly so that Stephenie could eventually get to bed. All doable. So we get in the line and there are only about 50 people behind us. We stayed in our seats until the line was manageable because Laura could barely stand. The whole process, after the concert, took about 2 hours.

So we get to the table and Laura gives the helper her book who slides it over to Stephenie. Stephenie looks at Laura and says hi. Laura is trying not to vomit at this point so she says hi and then just stands there. Stephenie keeps looking at her so I’m thinking, wow, there’s tons of time to ask a question. I put my book down and lean down and quietly say, “Did you model the vampires bodies after celestial bodies?” She said no. That she’s heard that theory before but it’s not like that for her. I then said, “It’s like that for me.” She looked at me and said, “Really?” And I said, “Yeah.” Then I turned and left.

As I was walking away I realized I asked my question wrong!!!!! I didn’t mean the vampires bodies. I had meant like their acute senses and the ability to run without tiring. Not that they were hard and cold. Argh. Now (not that she even thought of me a second later) she’s going to think that I think I’ll be hard and cold like marble in the afterlife. What a disaster. The worst part of all was that my question took so much time that Julianne didn’t even get a chance to talk to her about the Merchant of Venice. What a loser I am. I don’t plan on ever having the opportunity to talk to her again. That was it. Oh well. I knew it would happen like that if I didn’t stick to my prepared statement.

It’s so funny. This is the only time in my life that I have been star struck. Seriously. I made it through the preteens and teens without ever once freaking out about a movie star or singer. Sure, I loved LL Cool J, but who didn’t. I never went to a concert though or hung a poster in my bedroom to make out with. So now I’m 31 and I’m goo goo for Stephenie Meyer. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to give her a hug and a kiss. You guys know by now how much these books mean to me. I wanted her to understand that. But I reigned myself in. Mostly because I knew security would probably take my book away and throw me out. But also because the poor woman needs her privacy and personal space.

So anyways. Has anyone else ever lost it in front of the person they’re star struck by? Ever had a chance to meet them even?

So after another day of our comedy of errors which included me running a red light and almost getting in an accident we made it to the theater. Unfortunately when we got to the theater Laura got sick. Really sick. About to throw up and pass out sick. Poor girl. So we sat on the steps in front of the theater and people watched. There were 1800 people there. Most of them young girls but there were a lot of Twilight Moms (An actual online group of fans. We’re thinking of starting our own group so stay tuned.) and there were quite a few guys there. They were attached to girls of course whether they were dads, boyfriends or sons. Once we got into the theater it was set up to look like the book ends of all of the books with the center one saying Breaking Dawn Concert Series. (Sorry the picture isn’t very clear. You get the idea though.)

The one thing I did not prepare myself for was the screaming. The three of us assumed erroneously that everyone would be calm like us and politely clap at appropriate intervals. Holy crap, were we wrong. Dead wrong. They screamed when the doors to the lobby opened. Screamed when the doors of the theater opened. Screamed when the lights went down. Screamed when the MC came out on stage. Let loose when Justin Furstenfeld came out. Screamed through his songs. Screamed louder when they were done. Then all hell broke loose when Stephenie came out. I honestly thought I was going to fall to pieces it was so loud. Imagine how Laura felt. She totally had her hands over her ears. The part that made me mad though is that they would scream during the interview and Stephenie wouldn’t be able to speak. I’m pretty sure they got through all the questions though.

So this is how it went down. Justin came out and played three songs acoustically. Then Stephenie and the MC came out and did a Q & A. Among the questions was what the cover of the book meant. She said the pawn was the human Bella, the weakest player on the board, turning into the queen, the strongest player on the board. And I’m sorry to say I can’t remember any of the other questions except that Jacob and Nessie will both be immortal since Jacob doesn’t age as long as he keeps phasing. Which she said wasn’t a problem for Jacob. (Sorry I can’t remember more. It was a really long day and night.)

Then Justin came back out and he played some of the songs from Stephenie’s play lists and Stephenie introduced them. My favorite of his is “Hate Me”. It’s from the time when Edward left Bella after Jasper attacked her. I really can relate to and get that one in this context. It just makes sense. The rest I had to try really hard to concentrate on. There was one really annoying point where she said this song “My Never” off of Justin’s next album reminded her of page 355 of Breaking Dawn. Everybody got out their phones and their books and started looking for the page. So it was annoying two fold. First that Stephenie didn’t give a better explanation (though the song really did speak for itself if you paid enough attention, which I had a hard time doing). Second that everyone had their stupid phones out distracting me from the song.

If I’m remembering correctly Justin left the stage and the MC came back out and her and Stephenie closed up the show. At that point Stephenie thanked Justin for being there and said he made doing this fun and that she usually hated her book signings. To which quite a few people made disappointed noises. I don’t blame them but I can understand Stephenie’s side too. I think if I was in her shoes I would hate that part of my job too.

I’m going to hopefully put a link in a future post so you can go to iClips and see the concert on their archived footage. The concert was totally worth going to. In fact I think I’ll watch it again just because my memory is so bad. It was a lot of fun. My favorite part being when Justin and Stephenie were on stage together.

I’m going to write about actually meeting Stephenie in my next post. I know this is taking a long time but all I wanted to do was spend time with Scott when I got home. Reading these books makes me love him even more than ever. Man, I love this series!

Edward + Bella 4-ever!!

Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal to drive down to LA but for the 7 of us it was another one of my comedy of error days.  Unfortunately, it spread to my friends also.  So to start of with I was running about a half hour late which worked out great because Laura L. got caught in horrendous traffic coming home from Jordyn’s swim lessons.  We finally got everything packed up in the car and made it an hour away when I suddenly realized I left the tickets for the Breaking Dawn concert at home!  As you can imagine I pretty much freaked out.  So we found a place to turn around and made the hour trip back home.  In the meantime the battery for the DVD player died and the kids were not happy, to put it mildly.

We got to my house and everybody piled in surpring Nicole, my sitter.  We all used the bathroom, changed diapers, etc.  We got back in the car and set off and got to almost the exact same spot where I realized I left the tickets when Julianne realized she forgot her purse at my house!  Laura L. and I promised to cover her money wise but her glasses and phone and, girls you know everything else that’s important in your purse, were at my house.  So Scott, that purse in our house is Julianne’s in case you were wondering.

Finally we figured out how to plug the DVD player into the van and still have it reach to the back seat so most of the kids (Julianne’s 3 and 1 1/2 year old and Laura’s 3 and 10 month old) were pretty happy most of the drive.  We originally left the house at 11:45 and didn’t get to Desert Hot Springs at 10pm.  The only other signigicant event that happened was we were driving past a big rig and at the exact moment it blew one of its tires.  Holy crap was that scary.  It didn’t swerve or anything but the noise sent my heart out of my chest for sure.

I am so excited about tonight.  I’m almost as excited about getting out of the desert where it promises to be 108 degrees today.  If you know me you know I hate the heat.  Anything above 80 is too much for me.  And Laura keeps saying that anything above 100 just feels the same.  I would agree.  It all feels like hell to me.

What kind of crazy comedy of errors trips have you guys taken?

The picture is of Julianne’s son, Bennett.  He climbed right up to the top bed and got cozy.  it was too cute not to take a picture.

Laura’s parents put us up last night and tomorrow night we’ll be here too.  They’re also watching the kids while the three of us girls go to the conert tonight.  Big thank you to them.