They call me Lucy....

I swear, I felt like I was living one of those episodes right out of "I Love Lucy" Saturday. That show could so easily represent part of my life. Some of my friends would know.

Ok, so I had a nail appt at 1:00 p.m. Saturday. This was my 3rd trip to the salon, 1st appointment. I figure since I'm becoming a regular, I better start making appts. Well, we were at the mall until 1 and home by 1:30. Any normal person would have called to let them know they were running late. But no, I am not normal. See, I thought "They don't know who I am. I've only been there twice, right?" How would they know I wasn't Brandy, the 1 o'clock french manicure appt? Oh, how wrong I was. My first clue was when I pulled up to the salon, they see me and then look at the clock. Ok, Brandy, now's the time to leave. Nope, gotta go in...must get nails done. As I'm staring at the sign-in sheet, something comes over me. I sign my name Marie Vargas. Marie was my middle name prior to marriage. Hidalgo Vargas sounded fake. So, Marie I am. I am here, a walk-in off the street wanting a french manicure. I wasn't even there 5 minutes when the lady I had requested came in from a pedicure and asked "Are you Brandy?". Ugh, I stared at her for what felt like an eternity and shook my head no. "No, I'm not Brandy". That's all I could muster. I couldn't even look her in the eye. Busted! She proceeded to talk in their language to the lady who was doing my nails. I knew I was busted. I knew I would walk out of there with the ugliest nails ever. I am trying to so hard not to laugh. But my hands are about to go in the little hand warmer and I'm furiously thinking about how I could have a twin, who is Brandy, who has kids. Nah, that won't work. I'm cracking a smile. How could they recognize me after only 2 visits?!?! Man, these women are goooooood. I keep thinking how sad it is that I found this great nail place and now I have to find another one. I know I will never be able to show my face again there. I enjoyed every minute of my manicure, from the arm massage to the nail dryer. In the end, I did end up with a beautiful manicure. Even though Marie was charged $15 and Brandy only paid $12 last time. Oh well, I don't see Brandy ever going back. Marie on the other hand....LOL!!

Corpus Christi and Diving off the deep end...

We hit the road Saturday and went to Corpus Christi. It wasn't that bad a drive afterall. What I thought would be 5 hours was only 3.5 hrs. But boy, was I glad to be home Sunday night! :) We saw the grandma, aunt and uncles and even some cousins. We stayed at the Embassy Suites and Happy Hour = Free Drinks = One Happy Momma! LOL! The kids had fun swimming in the pool and although we ended up getting around 4 hrs sleep, it was a great trip.

So the kids are swimming just about every night. Olivia jumped off the diving board without floaties! WOW!! :) Seth is having a little harder time giving his up, but that's ok...he's got a bit more growing to do. And here I almost spent hundreds of dollars for lessons at the Y! :) I'm a bit surprised they aren't as tired as I was hoping..err..thinking they would be after swimming. They seem to be wired when they get back around 9, which is not a good thing when bedtime is around the corner. Weird....

We also had the kids' pictures taken at JC Penney a few weeks ago. Here are their proofs.

Here are all 4 kids:


Here's Miss Valerie:


And Miss Olivia:


Sethman (sshhh, he insists he is just Seth now!):


And Nicky:


And yes, we worked out to get those pics and although I would have loved to have seen teeth, it was much better than some of our other proofs! haha...oh well, I thought we did pretty good for 4 kids. :)

4th of July Weekend

Well, we had a very active and tiring holiday weekend. I took off Friday, the 1st, so it really did extend my normal 2 day weekend to 4. I love waking up and greeting each of my kids as they wake and seeing their smile as they realize mommy will be home today. That's a cool feeling.

I did play Betty Crocker. I made a Banana Nut Bread from scratch along with a homemade cream cheese frosting. So, I've poured my batter into the loaf pan and I am waiting for the oven to reach 350 degrees. As I am putting away my ingredients and supplies I notice my unopened, brand new box of BAKING POWDER. YIKES! I decide to toss the baking powder into the wet mix. Maybe no one will notice. An hour and a half later, we are enjoying how moist and rich my bread is when I suddenly bite into this bitter part of the bread. Uh oh, there's my baking powder! LOL! I am such a goof! And that's after starting over after adding the baking soda because I misread my measuring spoons and put too much in the flour mixture! Oh well, there's always next weekend. :)

The kids went swimming Monday afternoon and we ended our long weekend with a bang. Literally. We popped some pretty cool firecrackers in our driveway/street and the kids enjoyed watching them. Of course, by then Nicky was fast asleep and Valerie had just gone down for the night.

Did I mention how the kids are swimming with no floaties? Seth is a fish underwater and Olivia can swim the entire pool length x 3. wow, they are growing up too fast. :)