Random acts of change

Well, if you didn’t notice, Lani held down the Diapers & Divas fort while I was out… well, quite honestly, losing my mind. To begin with, I lagged on planning Will’s 3rd birthday party, and when I went to book the park for his party, it was booked up already. And then so were literally ALL of the other parks within a 15 mile radius… Mommy Fail. Instead we planned a little birthday dinner instead. Here’s a quick run down of the craziness that has been my house the last three weeks:

3 days before Hubby’s truck registration was due, and about 2 days before his truck payment was due, we decided to trade it in…
  
Sadly we said Buh-bye truck, and HELLO! Scion XB! We talked about trading in Hubby’s truck off and on for the last year… and why not wait until the last possible second to make a decision. [insert eye roll here]
So far, we are really happy with our decision! The truck was great. It was a 2006 Toyota Tacoma and had been in 3 accidents, while it was parked. The poor thing had a lot of replacements, but kept on truckin’. But it was sucking up the gas. Since it’s basically getting driven everyday now between Hubby & I’s work schedules, vs. 4 or 5 days a week, it was becoming a drain on the ol’ budget. Rumor has it gas is supposed to quickly get over $5/gal soon here in SoCal (some say even up to $6/gal this summer! AH!), so that’s unacceptable to be filling up at least once a week. This Scion gets close to 30 mpg. Which is basically double what the truck was getting. Not to mention dumb stuff like door locks and air conditioning that decided to quit working on the truck. No a/c will make this momma very cranky on the way to work, especially in the summer.
The Scion is super fun. It looks like a toaster, or Eve from Wall-E, or a storm trooper, depending on who you ask. It’s SUPER roomy inside. Lots of room for some major chair dancing… The bonus is that we got the warranty and even including that, the payments are less than the truck’s. So savings on the car payment AND gas was a no brainer. Yay for making successful grown-up decisions!

Then I prepped for some house guests, and also did other super random things:

At first glance, you’re like “Ok, Heather. It’s not that random… bought a new blow up bed, made the bed, cleaned the bathroom, set out cute little box of toiletries, set up little coffee station…” but for some reason I felt it incredibly necessary to bust out my Martha Stewart chalkboard labels & label my jar contents. Anyone else do weird random things 10 minutes before your guests arrive? I’m really excited that I figured out I could use one of my Goodwill containers for my coffee K-cups. I had been debating on one of the many organizers that are out there, but you know I love a Use-What-I’ve-Got repurposing! And I used my new Target $1 bin tray for toiletries in the bathroom.
House guests! My mother in law stayed with us for a few days, then we had a little break (like 3 days, but of course we were working all 3 of those days), and then these clowns rolled in:

Notice how the locals are bundled up in jeans and sweatshirts, while they’re wearing shorts. We’re such wusses.

It was really a test to find things to do that are typical SoCal, for Uncle Steve and Sierra that are Chicago natives. What can you do here that you can’t do in Chicago? So we went to the Balboa Pier. Checked out the birds, our one legged seagull friend let us get pretty close. Saw pelicans diving for their lunch, schools of fish swimming in and out of the pier’s columns, and a few dolphin friends, too! We walked the boardwalk and had some ice cream. And since we were pretty close, had some yummy Mexican food at Mario’s in Huntington Beach.

Will fell asleep on the quick drive from the pier to the restaurant. And then stayed asleep while we waited for our table. And stayed asleep in the booth between Sierra and I as we ate. That was a first. I won’t argue that! I got to eat my entire meal while it was still hot, and drink my margarita in peace. Thanks Will!

While I was at work, everyone went and played at Disneyland on Will’s birthday.

Will and Uncle Steve were BFFs 2 days in. I’m sure Will showed them all the important stops at Disneyland since he’s an ol’ pro these days.

That night, we went to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor for some more birthday celebrating.

We had 15 people there between our family and a few close friends. It was quite the crowd, it was loud, and it was a blast! Will LOVED the big drum and his birthday song. They also sang and banged that drum at least 10 other times for other birthdays, but of course it was for Will, every time.
The kid didn’t go to bed until almost 11pm the night before. I think he was too excited to sleep. Then he was up at 6:30am on his birthday morning, spent the day at Disneyland, and a rockin’ evening at Farrell’s. No wonder everyone passed out as soon as we got home and in our pjs. New Darth Vader pjs, no less. (See bottom left pic above)


Part of Will’s birthday present from us, was a fish. Will had been talking about a pet and a fish, off and on for a few months now. It probably didn’t help that it seemed like every other episode of the Bubble Guppies we happened to watch was when they got Bubble Puppy.
We don’t have a yard for a dog, so a fish it was. Uncle Steve and Hubby went to the store to pick up everything. Will named him “Fish”. We were hoping for Darth Vader or something cool since he’s black… so we’ve been calling him Fish Vader. The first Fish Vader came down with ick about 6 hours into his new home, and didn’t last 48 hours despite our best efforts to treat the ick… Fish Vader “went the doctor”, and came home looking like he had a Big Mac because he was a tad bigger than #1. Now Fish Vader II – The Revenge of the Sith lives in our living room. He’s successfully made it a few more days in our house now without a hint of ick, so hopefully we’re in the clear.


Our last little excursion was mini-golfing. This was Will’s first mini-golf venture. He did pretty well, and only got sick of it around the 15th hole. He thought it was pretty amazing that he could drop the ball in some holes and it would pop out in others. We’ll have to work on his form… or maybe Poppa will have to help him with that. Hubby won in the competition between me, Uncle Steve, Sierra, and him. For someone who isn’t a fan of golf, Hubby is a champion mini-golfer. He even got a hole-in-one! But he kicks my butt every stinkin’ time!

All in all, it has been sheer chaos around here, but a fun ball of chaos. Will has been asking where his friends are… everyone is his friend… and we are still talking about Uncle Steve and Sierra. What their favorite Squinkies were, what guns they used, and Fish Vader they helped him get. It’s always fun when family (and dear friends) come to stay and you’re sad to see them go. I think our house is finally returning to normal as far as putting things away, but it’s just a little too quiet still, in the evenings.

Have you been up to any Spring Break shenanigans? Any new adventures? Any fish deaths?