Uncategorized

...now browsing by category

 

Things are Moving

Friday, April 14th, 2017

Moving is nothing new to me.  During college I lived in 5 different places and then when I moved to San Diego I lived in two different apartments before we bought our house.  I alway had moving down to a pretty good system.  I was able to fit most of my stuff in the back of a truck.  Clothes went in trash bags and got stuffed wherever they would fit.  All my other stuff would go into file boxes.  Pretty simple.  Now that we have been living in our house for 10 years and have two kids, things are a little different!!  I have been slowly packing as much stuff as I can into moving boxes and putting them in the garage.  It’s amazing how much stuff you can amass in 10 years.  Now that a large portion of our stuff is nicely organized in the garage, thanks to me, it doesn’t seem to be as overwhelming.  We still have a lot to do, but every little bit I do gets us closer to Colorado.

Hey, Pat here. I can’t let Shae fill this post with lies. Nothing is “nicely organized in the garage.” There is a massive pile of boxes on one side of the garage, which used to be nicely stacked (by me), and then all kinds of random crap thrown out in the garage. I guess Shae got tired of actually putting things in boxes. Also, it’s a good thing that Shae and I haven’t had to move in the past 10 years or we may not have made it this long. Have you ever tried to pack things up with an ADHD spouse who wants to do anything other than pack? We were in the middle of trying to get the garage packed up when she said she had to take something inside. About 10-15 minutes later I wandered in to find out what was taking so long and she was cleaning out the drain in the sink. She will do pretty much anything to avoid packing. It’s the best! Okay, sorry for the interruption. Back to Shae’s rambling.

Another thing about moving that people don’t really think about is all the things we need to do to the house to get it ready to actually sell.  Painting, patching, carpet shampooing, etc.  There are also things that need to be done like some electrical work and plumbing work.  After spending 2 hours on a GFCI outlet, we finally said fuck it and decided there are just certain things that the new owners will have to do.  Hmmmm, I wonder how many “fuck it” moments the owners of the house we buy will have that we will have to fix?

It was actually more like three hours spent on the damn outlet before we put the old one back in and decided that’s a “next owner problem”. We moved on to replace a different outlet instead just so we could get a win on the books for the day. That outlet went much easier and we got it replaced in about 10 minutes. We were really proud of ourselves until we turned the patio light on at night and tripped the outlet. Yup, we even screwed up the easy one. Fuck it.

I have to say, I think Pat and I have been working really well together so far.  He goes on travel, and I pack shit up.  He comes home and says, “good job, Babe.”  Hopefully we continue working well together when he is actually home for more than a few days at a time.

This is pretty much accurate. In my defense, sometimes I text her while I’m on travel and “remind” her to do things while I’m gone. 

Big Changes and Big Moves

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017

Ok, so now that things are official we can finally tell you about our next big adventure: the Lorigans are moving to Colorado!!  This has been in the works for quite some time now and it has been pretty stressful.  Basically, San Diego is just too damn expensive.  Don’t get me wrong, I love where we live and I love our house, but there is no way we could ever move up and we are just outgrowing our house.  The kids are still sharing a room and the guest room is in the attic.  It is a tight fit when we have family staying here and we just don’t have the seating or space to add more.  An opportunity presented itself in Colorado and Pat is able to transfer there.  I’m sure there will be some changes, but for the most part he will be doing the same job and he will be traveling back to San Diego and Lompoc, just as he does now.  

 

In January I tagged along on one of Pat’s work trips and holy fuck!!  Of course we end up being there during a super cold snow storm!!  I was without a car so I had to Uber over to the mall and get some snow boots and long underwear.  It didn’t occur to me until that trip that I have a thing for ripped and distressed jeans.  Who knew those rips let in cold air?!?  At least I had a jacket!!  There was one night we walked over to a restaurant for dinner and it was below 0.  The wind chill was so bad it was actually painful to breath.  The next day it was just as cold, but we didn’t have the wind, so it was actually bearable.  I am used to winter weather being in the 50s and 60s, not the single and negative digits!!  Despite the cold, I absolutely loved it!  The city was beautiful and it had that smaller feeling I was looking for.  That trip really reaffirmed that we are meant to be there.   

 

IMG_9852 IMG_9851  IMG_9837

 

While I was there, I rode around town with our realtor so I could get a good idea of the area and the different neighborhoods.  I narrowed it down to two areas and I got a better idea of what kind of house I was looking for.  As much as I love the idea of walking into a brand new home, I really hated the backyards and neighborhoods that came with them.  I really want trees.  We decided that if we were doing this move to improve our lives in the long run, then we were going to get what we want damnit!!  And I want trees!!!  We do have a house in mind and I’ll write about it if we end up getting it, but since we are just starting to list our house I don’t want to rule out any others that might pop up.  I will say that if we end up getting this house, I will have a lot to write about as we work on doing some fun renovation projects.  

 

So, as long as things keep moving forward and all the timing lines up, we will be Colorado residents at the end of May!!  

 

With all the upcoming changes, we’ll be trying to get back into write about our adventures and misadventures a lot more.  

 

Christmas Shopping Sucks

Wednesday, December 10th, 2014

UGH!!!!  I am so frustrated with toy makers!!  So, there is a Star Wars show that both Jackson and Ella really love.  Two of the main characters are females.  They are strong and fierce, and Ella just adores them.  Here comes the problem; they sell all the action figures of the male characters, but none of the female characters.  I mean, you can go to target and buy a full set of characters from the show, but they still managed to leave out the two females.  What the fuck toymakers?!?  Boys are not the only ones who what to play with this stuff.  Just ask my little girl who left Target in tears because, once again, all the cool toys are male Characters.

The “heros” of the show

No females

No females

Now that it’s time of Christmas shopping I wanted to get Ella a Gamora figure from the new Gaurdians of the Galxey movie.  Well, guess what?  Since she happens to be a female character, I can’t seem to get one.  Sure, they make the smaller size ones that are more for collectors, but nothing in the larger size that a 6 year old could actually play with.  So lame!!

Gamora is even at the front of the movie poster

Gamora is even at the front of the movie poster

 

I went through this when Jackson was really into the Imaginext stuff.  Ella really wanted to play with him, but she wanted to be a girl character.  As I’m sure you can guess, they don’t make any for girls.

For their birthday, we went to Toys R’ Us to check out some toys and gauge what they are interested in now.  Have you been to one of those stores lately?  There are twice as many aisles for the “boy” toys, possibly even more.  Ella walked down all the girl rows and didn’t see a single thing she wanted.

 

So to all you toy companies out there, Girls like playing with castles and dinosaurs too.  Girls like action movies and tv shows that have strong female characters.  Boys are not the only ones who watch these shows and movies and want to play with the merchandise.  Maybe you should keep that in mind when you all are sitting around a table and you decided to leave all the female characters out because boys might not want to play with them.

Sad Trend

Wednesday, August 28th, 2013

Those of you who know me personally know that I take extreme pride in the quality of everything I make, whether it’s a dress or one of my welded mosaic tables.  I have very high standards for myself. Because of this, I am saddened by a new trend I have seen pop on Facebook and Etsy, and the other craft and sewing sites I follow.  Basically, people are buying a bunch of merchandise from sites like Alibaba and Dhgate.  These sites have direct access to the “factories” in China so you can by a dress for $6.  The sad part is that I’m seeing a ton of children’s boutiques pop up that have bought from these sites, then put their own tags on, and call them handmade and sell them 1/3 of the price that the rest of us who actually make good quality are selling stuff for.  I hate that people are being sold poor quality items that have been made in sweat shops over seas and they think they are getting a dress that was handmade in the seller’s living room.  Sad how dishonest people are.

Oh, and to add to it, these Chinese site have been stealing patterns and photos from handmade designers and covering up the watermarks.  There is a popular maxi dress pattern made by one of the designers I like and she had hers stolen.  The knock off dresses are now all over Etsy and being sold as substandard products.

Pics on the Bridge

Sunday, August 25th, 2013

So, recently I have been doing some pattern testing for a couple designers (sewing).  I just finished testing the Pepper Dress by Brownie Goose.  Part of testing it means I get to go take some new pictures of the kiddos.  Yay!!  I even dragged Pat along with me to help because photographing my own kids can be a major pain in the ass!  Sure they look cute once they are done, but you should see what it takes to get there!!  I had to bribe Pat with lots of beer and fish and chips from Hooly’s because he knows the hell he was about to be put through.  Anyhoo, I adore this dress pattern and this dress will be up in my Etsy shop soonish.

 

More Swimming!

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012

Well, the kids finished out their first batch of swimming lessons. It looks like it won’t be their last time taking “pike” swimming lessons though, since their teacher recommended both repeat. In summary: they don’t use their arms enough. Also, she didn’t say it, but Jack is not very comfortable in the water. Ella seems extremely comfortable; so much so she keeps trying to take some home in her ears.

After keeping notes for the first lesson, I decided for the last two to use Twitter to “live tweet” their last lessons. I hadn’t actually tweeted since 2010, so I figured it was time. Here is a reposting of my tweets, or you can click on the titles to go view them in all their Twitter glory.

26 June (#loriganswim)

5:18: It’s swim lesson time! Time for my live tweeting!

5:21: Teach is getting them used to water by floating and saying “motorboat, motorboat”. Wonder if she does that for her man

5:23: J is totally kicking on the kickboard. And smiling. There goes E, kicking like a rockstar! I think she also just copped a feel

5:25: I’m not gonna say the other kids aren’t as good as ours, I’m just saying you can tell which two kids haven’t missed a lesson.

5:28: I think E and the other girl may throw down over who gets to go first. I wouldn’t mess with E in the pool. She’ll drown you.

5:29: (from Lunchbox) Anyone know where the people are? I’m hungry. Anyone?

5:31: The other kids are doing stuff. Boring. Back to mine!

5:34: Right before I got here, the other boy was running and wiped out. J laughed at him. Loudly. That’s my boy.

5:39: I’m pretty sure E is trying to get water in her ears so she can slam her head into the couch to get it out. WTF!?!

5:37: Teach just told J she’ll “hold on to the noodle” if he does the arms. Son, it’s not every day a girl offers to hold your noodle

5:41: Teach just let the other girl go first. Death stare from E. Other girl may mysteriously find herself under water soon.

5:43: It’s jump time!!!

5:46: Jumps done. My kids’ “jumps” were closer to falls, but they both jumped and went under. Class done. Last class is Thursday.

5:49: All done. (pic of cold kids)

5:41: (from Lunchbox) Seriously…Humans? Food? Anyone?

 

28 June (#twinswim)

5:08: Time for kiddos last pike swim lesson.

5:19: Teach just asked if they wanna work on jumping in or motorboating. I know what my vote would be.

5:20: Teach recommended both kids take pike again. Both need to work on paddling. Boo!

5:22: Green light/red light time. E thinks red light means kick harder. I think she’s been riding in mom’s car too much.

5:26: E rocking the kickboard (pic of Ella kickboarding)

5:27: Scoop arms. Teach just asked E to show the other kid how to do it.

5:42: Both kids did good barrel rolls. Unfortunately, they were supposed to stay on their stomachs.

5:43: I may have to agree w Teach. Kids swim like they last both arms in an ice cream truck incident.

5:50: Jumps! Ella totally cut in front of the other girl. (the video starts up right after she cut in line)

Swim Time

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

I know it’s been a while between updates (again), but today was the kiddos first swim lesson and I couldn’t resist the chance to write up a recap of the event. Shae and I signed the kids up for the swim class a while back, and have been getting them ready for it ever since. Yesterday, we finally told them that today they would get to go swim and they were really excited (especially Ella). I took off of work a little early so I could tag along and witness the fun.

As excited as Ella and Jack seemed to go swimming, I kept thinking back to our trip Sedona last summer and Ella’s “swimming”. If you don’t remember (and don’t want to re-read the entire trip recap), Ella kept telling us how much she wanted to swim, and then started crying and refused to budge the second her toes touched the water. As soon as we got back to our room, she’d tell us how she “swam! and kicked! and splashed!”. Sure you did baby girl, sure you did. As excited as Ella said she was, I couldn’t shake the feeling we were going to have a repeat. Sitting there waiting for the earlier class to end, both kids (especially E) got really quiet and seemed a little nervous. Uh oh.

Anyway, as I was watching all of this I decided to keep a list of notes as things were happening. Here’s my recap (100% accurate with no embellishment, of course):

5:00: Sitting in the bleachers waiting for the previous classes to finish. Both kids are very quiet. As nice as it is to have some silence, they must be nervous. I just hope we don’t have a meltdown or a nervous poop once it’s their turn. Oh crap (literally), at this point I guess I’m rooting for a meltdown. I do not want to be a parent of the kid that shits in the pool.

5:10: We watched the kids in the earlier class do a little “wall crawl” where they had to hang on and pretend their hands were covered in glue. A little while later, they all got out, ran to the edge of the pool, and took turns jumping into the teaher’s arms. I watched all of that thinking, “it’ll be pretty cool in a few classes when our kids get to jump in, too.”

5:15: The teacher who had been leading the earlier class we watched just called Jackson and Ella. It’s go time. Of course, both of our kids run around confused by who to go to. Apparently “girl in red” isn’t descriptive. At least the other girl in their class seemed confused too.

5:17: Here we go! After some quick introductions the kids hurry over and climb into the pool. After being told to sit on one of the steps, they both do a half-crouch/half-sit thing that looks like they’re squatting to poop. Oh shit! NO! Please don’t poop. Please don’t poop…

5:20: Whew! No poop! Way to go kids! Keep it up. Now that we made it past that, it’s time to swim. Ella gets to go first. This should be good. C’mon, baby girl, no crying. There she goes, out in the water. No breakdown! She’s blowing bubbles and everything. She likes it, and she’s smiling.

Ok, now it’s Jack’s turn. Let’s make it two-for-two. Yes! We have bubbles!

Now it’s the other girl. She isn’t ours, so let’s just say she didn’t drown and move on. Fine, she can have a quick summary: our kids blew better bubbles.

5:22: The teacher just asked our kids a few questions. Both of them just stare at her and give a confused nod. Come on guys, you can say “yes’. Try it. Well, I have no idea what the kids just agreed to but apparently the nods were a good enough answer.

We have kicking! And bubbles. My kids rock bubbles.

5:24: Jazz hands! I don’t know how this applies to swimming, but kiddos did awesome.

5:25: The teacher just grabbed something from the side of the pool. What could it be? It’s kick board time! Yes! This should be fun. The other girl got to first this time, and she did pretty good; I hope my kids took notes.

Ella’s turn, she did awesome on the kick board. Jack did great too, but he needed a little more help. Both kids are still smiling though.

5:27: More kicking. The kids have the hang of this and are having a blast. Ella just did her excited tongue hanging out thing. She is the Michael Jordan of pike swim lessons.

In other news, we’re about 10 minutes in and we haven’t had any sort of crying or meltdown yet.  I don’t want to jinx it, so let’s just move on.

5:28: The teacher just asked if they knew how to do something, and both of my kids raised their hand. They have no clue what she’s asking, they’re little liars. The teacher believed them and asked them to show her, and of course they had no clue what to do. Busted!

Oh! Arm swimming! They do know this one. The teacher just tried to trick them by asking them if she was doing it the right way (she wasn’t). E wasn’t fooled, she’s been doing the arm motions and pretending to swim since before last summer’s Sedona trip. You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to get a trick question by her. I’ve found “what did you do today” usually stumps her.

Ella just had this exchange with the teacher:
Teacher: “Make scoop arms. Like ice cream. Do you like ice cream?”
Ella: “I like strawberry!”

She wasn’t offering you ice cream Ella, just focus on swimming.

5:29: Right after Shae says, “Our kids are doing way better than the other kid” Jack does a face plant in the water. Way to jinx it, mom. After getting over the shock of having his face in the water, he’s back to arm swimming. Good recovery!

5:30: Now it’s time to do some “swimming”. Basically, the teacher holds them up and helps them as they kick and swim out to pick up a toy. Jack goes first, and he’s great at the arms but needs to kick more. He must get that from me. Ella rocked this part. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering she’s been practicing in the bathtub for months.

Now it’s the other kid’s turn. Yup, she’s still there. Ok, enough of her. Let’s get back to Jack and Ella.

While the other kids does her “swimming”, Ella is practicing her strokes. Good work, E. Way to get in some extra work. Jack is getting cold and spent his little break shivering. Still no crying though, so that’s good.

5:33: The teacher just told them they’re going to do some “crab walking”, whatever the hell that is. This must be complicated, there is a lot of talking going on. This is a lot of instructions. Better focus kids, I don’t want any drowning.

5:35 “Crab walking” is apparently what I called wall walking. Both kids are doing great and holding on. I guess they paid attention better than I did. After the wall walking, the kids take turns going out with the teacher and doing a little back float (with some help of course). Jack was pretty nervous, but he did a great job. Ella didn’t quite understand the idea of letting yourself float and kept arching her back up. She loved the part when she got tossed up in the air though. She wanted more.

It just occurred to me that this is the same stuff we watched the kids in the earlier class do. That means our kids are going to get to jump into the pool at the end. That seems pretty advanced for the first class, but they’re doing great so far so let’s see how this goes.

5:37: More wall walking. Is it jump time yet?? Nope. Now that I realized they’re going to jump in, I just want to see how they do.

5:38: The teacher just told the kids to do “peanut butter jelly hands”. My kids eat PB&J sandwiches all the time, so they should rock this, but they only do OK. I think Ella was disappointed she didn’t get a sandwich when she did it right. Jack probably argued that he only wanted jelly. After they master the “peanut butter jelly hands”, they do some more swimming-with-help. They are getting pretty good at this stuff.

5:40: Jack is freezing, but is still having fun (between shivers). He’s still the best in the class at bubble blowing. After the bubble blowing, it’s time to pick their favorite toy and blow bubbles while they pick it up. If Ella doesn’t pick pink I’ll jump in. The teacher asked if the other girl wanted to go first, and E tried to jump in and take her spot. She seemed genuinely surprised to find out it isn’t her turn.

Now it’s E’s turn. She picked the pink toy. Shocker.

5:42: Ella has the shivers now, too. Jack is doing great blowing bubbles again, he’s a bubble’s rockstar. He picked the blue toy, another huge surprise.

5:43: Is it jump time yet? Nope. Come on! Well, at least we got to witness another fun exchange between the teacher and our kids:

Teacher: “Have you ever been to ocean before?”
Both kids: “Yeah”

They don’t remember the ocean! They’re just saying yes because they want to seem cool! Liars!

I’m not sure what game they’re playing now, but when asked what animal she saw Ella said she saw a turtle (or at least that’s what the teacher interpreted). Jack saw something, but I didn’t hear what. Knowing him, it was probably a panda. When it was the other kid’s turn (yeah, she’s still around) she said she saw a turtle, too. Ella called turtle, kid! You can’t copy her! Get your own animal! The teacher let this go, but I think she should’ve had to pick a new animal.

5:45: Jump time? Jump time!!! Yes! This is the one I want to see. C’mon kids, let’s rock the jump. Basically, the kids line up along the edge of the pool and then jump into the teacher’s arms and get to splash around a bit. The other kid went first and did good. Ella was hesitant, but she jumped in pretty well. Jack, well, he needed a little help jumping in but he got nice and wet.

5:46: That’s it, the kids’ first swim class is done. Time to dry them off and get them warmed up. As we were wrapping them up in towels, the teacher came over and filled us in on Jack’s quote of the day (during the wall walking instruction):

Teacher: “What happens if you let go of the wall?”
Jack: “You die!”

I think he’s got it. Can’t wait until the next class.

The Kiddos are 3!!!

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

How is it possible that my little monsters are already 3 years old?  I swear they were just born like yesterday.  For their pictures this year we went out to the old dam at Mission Trails Park to let the kiddos run around while I took some shots of them.  I will go into more detail about all their birthday activities next time.

Attitude Adjustment Time

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

I came across this video awhile ago and thought it was really great. I came across it again this morning, and it really had an impact on me. We may not have to best house on the block or much money in the bank and Pat and I most certainly have little issues and I have super whiny kinds, but we have a roof over our heads, we always manage to keep everyone fed and clothed, I love Pat more than life itself, and I have the most incredible kids. I realized I can’t look at the negative things in my life and I need to start looking at all the wonderful positive things in my life.

Peter Cottontail

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Thanks Grandma!