You must excuse my brain!!! (This one's long. You don't have to read, but watch the videos)

Wow, can I just say slacker? I haven't blogged in ages. So for all two of you family members who check out our blog . . . I am so sorry!! I guess that I will play a little catch up here, and the best place to start is with . . . my brain issues.
Yes, I have brain issues. Everyone who knows me knows that I can be a little spacey sometimes . . . okay well a lot spacey sometimes, and usually I just sort of chuckle at myself and move on . . . but every once in awhile my memory and my limited brain capacity kind of freaks me out!!
A few weeks ago the homeschool year was coming to an end and we were having a year end performance where the kids would perform songs that they learned throughout the year, recite quotes they had memorized, share reports they had written and artwork they had created etc. with family and friends. Drew and Hayden were given parts to memorize for the performance and they did such a great job memorizing them. I was so excited to watch them recite their parts in front of everyone. Well, the day of the performance came and it was quite the busy day. We went to school from 11:45 until 2:00 where we practiced for the performance that would be at 6:30 that evening. Right after school I had to take Drew and Hayden to the Dentist. So I had Jeanine take Ada and me and the boys went to the dentist. As soon as we got done with the dentist at about 4:00 I had to rush Drew to a primary activity . . . so I dropped him off at the church and went to go pick up Ada from Jeanine's house. After I got Ada I went back to pick up Drew from the activity and went home. It was about 5:00 and Lamon was home. I realized that I had committed to give blood that evening at the STake center so I asked Lamon if he could get the kids ready and make some cookies while I rushed over to give blood. I don't know what I was thinking at this point. I obviously thought that I would have enough time to do it. But anyhow, I got to the stake center and filled out the papers and got in line and was having fun chatting with a neighbor down the street while I waited to give blood. The whole process was taking a while, and I would glance up at the clock often to see what time it was . . . but the only thing that I was thinking about as I contemplated the time was that Lamon had scouts at 7:00 and he might be mad at me if I made him late. I finally got up on the chair ready for them to stick me and I looked at the clock. "Oh no, it's 6:45. They better hurry . . . Lamon might be late . . . " And then it hit me all of a sudden. "6:45 . . . the performance . . .! " I hadn't given a thought to the performance the entire time I was there. I had completely forgot about it like it wasn't even happening. My whole body started to shake . . . and a few minutes later Lamon walked in with a plate of cookies in his hand, a puzzled look on his face, with the boys following behind him dressed up looking so adorable. I tried my best not to break down balling in front of everyone there. The boys had practiced their parts for weeks and I ruined it! As soon as the bag was full of blood we went home and I started crying . . . a lot! . . . Spencer called me in the middle of my crying episode wondering where we were, and I assured him that I have brain issues and told him what happened. Everyone was still there and they were nice enough to listen to the boys perform their parts over the speakerphone, but I still hung up and had a good cry out. There's nothing like a good cry where you can really just feel sorry for yourself . . . okay so not really. But I was feeling sorry for myself for a moment there. It would be one thing if this was just and isolated event, things like this happen to me quite often. I had read about my brain tumor and similar stories plenty of times, and had read about how memory loss and memory related problems can happen with a colloid cyst . . . and I had never really felt sorry for myself too much until that night. It just sort of clicked suddenly in my head though that . . . this was something that really does stink . . . but it isn't going to go away. I needed to find a way to live with it, and make life work despite it. I knew that Heavenly Father would bless me in this too. And he has. I have since thought of a few ways to help me with my brain problems and so far they have been working quite well. Heavenly Father has also helped me to recall the feelings I had after my brain surgeries when I realized the great blessing of having a brain, and having the ability to think and study. I was grateful that I still had that ability. I feel like this experience was given to me to humble me and help me to renew that desire to take advantage of every opportunity to learn and use such a wonderful gift. And I feel that more than anything the cure to my brain problems is simply to use it more!!!
So since I missed the performance I thought I would post a video of the boys performing their parts. Hayden sort of is singing his though . . . funny kid.

Full of Mischief

My little boy Drew is full of mischief!
Drew was on a roll today. The incidents were indeed mischievous but had a hint of innocence that made me think they were more funny than maddening.
Drew has a bit of an obsession with my hair. He is always wanting to play with it. It drives me crazy sometimes. What really drives me crazy though is sometimes when he is just filled with rambunctious energy he grabs my hair and bites it. Ooh, it drives me crazy. Well . . . today he did that. He was being silly and he grabbed my hair and bit it . . . He stopped being crazy immediately and quite worriedly said, "Uh oh Mommy . . . my gum got in your hair." Yes . . . he wasn't thinking about the fact that he had gum in his mouth at the time! Luckily for us both I didn't have to chop my hair off and we got it all out.
Then later in the day Drew came running downstairs and Lamon said, "Oh great Mary, Look at Drew. He has your mousse in his hair." I looked at him and his entire head was white. I was like, "Holy Cow Drew, how much of that did you put in your hair?" He said, "Come see Mom . . ." He ran upstairs and brought down the Cetaphil cream bottle to show me. His hair was completely saturated with Cetaphil cream. What an expensive hair do! Crazy kid. I sure do love him though. He makes life fun even though at times we want to shake the craziness out of him!

California Adventure

I thought I was so clever in the way I was going to post these but it didn't work. You will have to start with Death Valley and go up to have them in the right order.

Geocaching

One of the other fun things we did, or I should say that our husbands did, was take the boys geocaching. They had a lot of fun, and I can't lie . . . we enjoyed their outing probably more than they did! Betty and I had fun chatting while they were gone. In fact we were quite sad when they came back and our girl talk had to end! :)



What a fun trip! We didn't want to leave! Thanks Todd and Betty!!!

Monterey Bay Aquarium and Geocaching

The funnest part of our trip was by far the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is kind of pricey but the kids had so much fun! It was perfect. We decided to bring our own lunch, but it wasn't your average brown bag lunch. Betty brought us all spaghetti and meatballs and a yummy salad to go with it! . . . Wow! She is amazing!

Todd and Betty's

Although we had tons of fun driving through Death Valley and up the coast, our trip received a tremendous upgrade once we got to Todd and Betty's. They have got to be the best hosts ever. I pitched the idea to them (and I really do think that it is a good one), that we could sell vacations to their home in Palo Alto (with Betty's Mexican cooking thrown into the deal of course) for a hefty sum on the internet. I think it could be very profitable. We had such a fun time. I was going to be really clever and write this entire trip blog entry like I was a travel agent describing our fabulous adventure and trying to sell it, but it was way too much of an effort for my brain. It was hilarious . . . take my word for it. I am funny okay? Just kidding. I may not be so much funny, but I can do some pretty funny things. I had quite a few embarrassing moments while we were there which were entertaining for us all. I will relate those as I go.
One of the embarrassing things I did happened at Todd and Betty's. The kids were outside playing in this little enclosed park/common area place behind their house, and Todd and Betty had their sliding door open that leads out back. We were sitting there talking and I realized that it had been quite a while since we had checked on the kids, so I decided to run out there. And I did. I started running out there through the sliding door. Only I didn't quite realize that the screen door was not open and I ran full speed right into it, and it projected me backwards into the kitchen like it was a standing trampoline. It was quite hilarious, and we all laughed for awhile. At least it was pretty funny until I realized I broke the screen door in the process. I decided to do a photo reinactment afterwards.

One of the fun things we did while we were in Palo Alto was go to this really cool childrens center where they had all of these fun interactive activities for kids, and a little zoo. While we were looking at the animals I was telling Drew what the animals were and different things about them. We went over to the pond where the ducks and different duck-like birds were and I didn't know what one of them was called. Luckily for me though there was a sign with a picture of the bird on it and it's name. I said, "Drew! Look at that bird! It's called a 'May Bite.'" I was totally serious, and it took me a second to realize how dumb I really am. But seriously, look at the sign and tell me that someone else might not have made the same mistake. The Caution part of the sign is totally washed out! . . . Okay fine, I really am just a little too spacey. It was funny.

The Coast and Motel 6

We didn't really have a plan of where we were going to stay the day we drove through Death Valley. Shocking I know! We just knew that we wanted to drive up the coast on Highway 1 the next day and wanted to stay the night somewhere close. I suggested that we find a city not right on the coast since the farther away most likely the cheaper we could find lodging. We pulled off about 30 miles away from the coast and I don't even remember the city's name. But after driving to a few relatively decent hotels which all wanted well over 100 dollars for a room with two beds, we decided to find the Motel 6. We were sure to lock our car, I pulled the stained bedspreads off the beds, and I bought some sanitary wipes to wipe everything down, just for my peace of mind. I think we slept about the same and as long as we would have at any other hotel, and we saved like $60. I told Lamon the next day that I wanted to take a picture of the Motel 6 sign to remember the experience and how we survived it, and he just said, "Mary you are crazy. I stayed in so many Motel 6's growing up." And you know what? I'm sure we will too. Equipped with Sanitary wipes, and blankets of course.

The next day we drove up the coast on Highway 1, and it was so beautiful! It was spectacular. The road curved a lot, and luckily no one threw up! At least not on that day . . .

We stopped to do a hike at Big Sur, and that was a lot of fun. It was beautiful.