I just got a phone call that a friends ranch is burning, less than 1/2 mile across the meadow from my house, so we are on fire standby to evacuate if needed. The planes have been flying all morning but I thought it was towards the other fires up by San Jose and with all the haze from the other fires I couldn't tell that any of it was from our mountains.  I called Brian to let him know, which just puts more stress on him, and makes me a wreck too. You'd think after 5 years I would be used to this possibility, but I still don't have my fire evac list (things I need to take with us).  Gotta go pack bags and load valuables. 

Did any of the moms on here have any help after they delivered?  Nothing against if you did, you were lucky.  One of my neighbors daughter had her 2nd baby in late May and had help around the house and with the older son for 3 weeks.  I'm sorry but I was up doing my normal things around the house with an almost 3 year old within a few days of delivery, planning Halloween trick or treating, and my son's 3rd birthday party.  My 2nd son was born on a Thursday, we came home on Friday and hubby went  back to work on Monday, (or something like that I can't remember the exact day now) And Monday, (if the days are right) was Halloween, so I had Cole to get dressed and down to the church by 5:30, then back to my parents house for dinner and wait for the kids to come by for trick or treating. I just think some moms take it over board that they can't manage to take care of a newborn plus their other children without a months worth of grandma or auntie help. What are they going to do when one of the kids is sick or both kids are sick, have grandma move in til everyone is better?  Both sets of my sons grandparents live within 2 miles of us and neither grandma's were over every day to help with the boys.  Just passing an opinion, don't mean to offend anyone or cause any arguements.

Has anyone tried the steam mops? I think there are several out there, just wondering what the general opinion of them was. I know Costco has one in the store, but I don't know if it's the same one that I've seen advertised on TV.

I had an appt. with the local real estate office yesterday, turned into a 3 hour appt.  Since my license hasn't been issued yet I can't officially work in the office, but I can watch and learn how the office runs and the paperwork and go on a few calls with the 2 agents.  And since I'm having surgery in 3 weeks and will be out of commission for about 3-4 weeks, I'll start working "full-time" probably in August when Cole starts school.  I have my own desk which is going to have to be fixed, it's supposed to be an "L" shaped desk but right now it's a straight desk with the middle section sitting taller than the rest of the desk.  I get the option of facing the kitchen area or the wall, I can't see the front door from my desk, but considering it's such a small office that's not a big deal.  I'm going to have Brian look at the desk and see if he can fix it to make it "L" shaped and move it around to make it  flow better if possible. 

Brian bought me this really pretty silver desk clock for Valentine's Day a couple years ago, and now I finally get to put it on my desk, it's been in our bathroom all this time - great place for a silver clock don't you think?!!!

Breakfast time - hopefully I'll be back later when the boys take their naps.

Have a great day!

This question is for the parents with school age children - do you keep your kids on the same bed time routine during the summer as if they were getting up and ready for school in the morning? We've been struggling with Cole's bed time here lately and I don't know if I should lighten up and let him stay up til 8:30 or go to bed at 8 o'clock.  Last night he was up until 9:30 watching cartoons while daddy and I watched a movie in our bedroom and the little one slept between us.  Now mommy is grumpy today, I have a playdate scheduled for 10am at my house, then an appt. with the local broker to go to work as a real estate agent, and a ton of sponsorship money to pick up for the 4H club today - not a good day for mommy to be grumpy. 

But that's off the original subject - I need a 2nd or 3rd blog for my grumpiness today.  Cole starts school in 6 weeks - am I being to uptight for making him go to bed early all through summer? Since we don't have doors on the boys bedroom upstairs, they hear everything that goes on downstairs, so Brian and I end up in bed at 8:15 or 8:30 so we can shut our bedroom door and watch TV without bothering the boys.

My results are not in yet on my real estate exam, but for some reason when I logged onto the dre website I started shaking. I didn't think I was going to be able to type in my name and password.  I don't know if that's a good thing or just me being really nervous about getting the results. I want my license already, I'm tired of studying for the test.  Now I'm in that hanging around and waiting phase, the results may not be in until Monday. 

larger view

At this point in the day we have accomplished #2 in the potty and #1 in the living room floor twice and outside on the deck once.  We've tried the salty and sugary foods all day, kool-aid to drink (he hasn't even finished one 12 oz cup yet), and so far all I can say is I've probably gained at least 5 pounds eating all the salty & sugary foods, and my tush is sore from sitting on the side of the bathtub reading books while he sits on his cushioned potty ring.  I think I have the short end of the stick here!!!  But when the timer goes off he turns it off and goes into the bathroom without being told, so maybe that's a plus.  My mom used the timer on Cole to potty train him when he was at her house, I didn't use it at home since I didn't have a timer at the time.  The new timer keeps beeping for about 2 minutes then shuts off automatically.  Oh well, only 6 more hours til bedtime, I think I'll make it through the day and hopefully make some progress this afternoon, since neither of the boys seem to be taking a nap today (gee I wonder if all the sugar is why!!), we can still work on it every 30 minutes.