Excitement on our way to Hearst Castle

Well, any of you who know much about California have surely heard of Hearst Castle. It is this spectacular mansion (castle) built by William Randolph Hearst who was this huge newspaper publishing guy back in the 20's and 30's. It is located over on the coast near Morro Bay. Sari's class went there for their field trip this year and I got invited to go as a chaperone. So after much work I was able to secure a babysitter and get my schedule cleared so I could spend the day with Sari at Hearst Castle. We met at the school at 5:30 in the morning and finally got on the road around 6am. All of the 5th grade classes went so we were in 3 different chartered buses. We were about half way there and our bus driver pulled the bus over to the side of the freeway. We were in the lead and had just merged onto a new freeway so we thought she was just waiting for the other buses to catch up. After a minute she merged back onto the freeway and about 30 seconds later she pulled back off to the side of the road again. She immediately stepped up and told us she wanted us all to get off of the bus and follow the teacher to a road sign a few hundred feet away from the bus. We then noticed that there was big black clouds of smoke billowing up from the back of the bus. The kids all remained very calm and we were able to get off of the bus and down the freeway to the road sign. It was then that we turned around and saw the flames coming from under the bus. Indeed, our bus had caught fire while we were driving down the highway. Luckily we had just come into a town and so within about 2 minutes the highway patrol and the fire department had already responded and they were able to quickly put out the fire. The bus driver and the firemen were able to get all of our belongings off of the bus. Luckily, there were a few children who hadn't been able to go on the trip so we had extra seats on the two remaining buses, enough so that we were able to all fit on the other two buses once we split up. The whole incident only put us about 45 minutes behind schedule and Hearst Castle was able to split our touring groups up so we were all able to get through the tours and were able to get back on schedule. After the Hearst Castle tours we were able to take the kids on a tour of Cal Poly, a well known 4 year college located in San Luis Obispo. Sari found this especially enjoyable because it is very close to Cuesta College where Craig went through nursing school which is also in San Luis Obispo. We got back to the Visalia about 7:30 that night without further incident. It was funny while we were all standing on the side of the road watching the firemen work on the bus the only thing the kids were talking about was their games, cd's, mp3 players, etc. that they had left on the bus. No mention at all how lucky we were that we all got off of the bus without any problems and that no one was injured at all. Funny what matters most to 11 year olds. Unfortunately, I left my camera on the bus and so I was unable to take pictures of the fire or of Hearst Castle. We were unable to get to our belongings until after Hearst Castle when we finally had time to sort things out, :(

We did it!!!

Well, our college semester is officially over!! We both managed to complete Statistics with better than "just passing" grades. I ended with an A in the course and Craig got a B in the course. A little unfair I think because I worked my behind off to get my grade and Craig just cruised along not studying or doing practice assignments and still got a B. Oh well, maybe it's better he didn't work at it because I would of been bummed if he hadn't gotten a A easily. Oh well, we are both very happy with our grades. I am still waiting to find out my final grade in Psychology. I think I did good but I still feel in limbo until I see the final grade posted.

We have a busy week coming up with the end of the school year. Plus I'm starting a summer course this week too. I get to go to Hearst Castle with Sari on Wednesday as a chaperone for her field trip. Ashlie is having a pool party at our house on Friday for all of the kids in her class. I will keep you posted on all of the fun stuff we are doing.

This is for Chris!!!

A: Attached or Single: attached
B: Best Friend: Cragi
C: Cake or Pie: Cake with lots of yummy buttercream frosting.
D: Day of Choice: Any day Craig is off
E: Essential Item: cell phone
F: Favorite Color: blue/yellow
G: Greatest Accomplishment: ??? Surviving married life?
H: Hometown: Visalia, CA
I: Indulgences: ???
J: January or July: January, I love cold!
Where did K go?
L: Life is Incomplete Without: friends
M: Marriage Date: June 23, 1995
N: Number of Siblings: 1 sister
O: Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P: Phobias or Fears: little black dogs and balloons in ceiling fans
Q: Quotes: "Mothers of little boys work from son up til son down"
R: Reason to Smile: My kids
S: Season: Fall. Halloween.
T: Tag Four Friends: Anyone who wants to answer
U: Unknown Fact about Me: My fingers swell at night
Very Favorite Store: Target!!!
W: Worst Habit: Taking on too much
X: X-ray or Ultrasound: ultrasound, i like the cold jelly stuff
Y: Your Favorite Food: lasagna
Z: Zodiac: Scorpio

Life is Crazy!!!!

Hey Everyone!!! I know it's been awhile since I've posted. I haven't forgotten I promise. Life has just been so crazy!!! I'll give you a short glimpse into my life the past month. First of all my sister and I took on this crazy idea of making tiles with the vinyl craft lettering and selling them at my dad's bookstore and also entering craft fairs. So we spent most of the month of April making tile after tile after tile. So far we've done 3 craft fairs and we've done okay. We've got 3 more on the books, one this Saturday. So I've eating, sleeping, dreaming vinyl!!! We also carry them on the bookstores website so you can go check out our work if you'd like. It's www.zionbooks.net. On the left is a list of categories and we are at the bottom under Vinyl Craft Lettering Products.

I have also been trying to keep up on my school work. On top of my regular weekly classes and homework I had a powerpoint presentation on a Psychological Disorder due this week for my psychology class. I chose ADHD. I'm not sure what my grade on that is yet. Stressful!!!! In my statistics class I had another test last week (97/100, yes!!!) plus we have a huge research project due next week. I'm still in the middle of my survey for that one. It is so scary to go up to people and ask them questions. I'm trying to find out how happy peoples marriages really are. Funny for me to be doing that I know!!! So I've been soliciting all of my friends help trying to get this stinkin' survey done so I can get my paper done. After I finish the survey I still have to do all of the work to figure out the statistics on it and figure out how to get it in this paper! Yikes, I'm stressed can you tell?

Then, I still have the regular "mommy" stuff. Tennis for Sari (we just finished, whew!), dance for Ashlie (in overload right now getting ready for recital), Tyler is general is a handful, plus all of the kids extra activities they have going on getting ready for the end of the year. Assemblies, field trips, extra projects, reward parties. Then Ash springs it on me a couple of days ago, she invited a bunch of friends over for a pool party. She did tell me though that she told them to call before they came. Lol!!

So, as you can see, I've been a little busy and while I've had lots of stuff to put on my blog I just really haven't had time. Plus, I'm sad when I can't put a picture on cause I think it's fun. So that's why this one is just plain old boring :( I'll work on that.