CRAZINESS

     That is pretty much the one word to describe my day! Most of you know that I'm a HUGE bum. It's okay, I will admit it. I usually get up at about 9 with Emily every morning to start our day. Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting half of the day but when you really look at it, we go to bed at 11 every night so really...we get a little over an average nights sleep, but it's no 12 hours. I had planned on going to coffee with my friend Jill and Aarons aunt Bonni at 8:30, so I had gotten up at 7:30 to get ready. I knew my dad would be up so I called to see if he had gotten the video that I sent and this is how he answers the phone: "KAYLA?! IS EVERYTHING OKAY?!" Thanks Dad! He's like "You never call before 9 when you roll your butt out of bed. I was worried"  That just seemed to kick start my day. It felt like I was about 2 hours off for the rest of the day. 

     I made it coffee...late. I let Emily play in the bathtub for a bit while I got ready for my day.  For those of you who have been reading this, you know that I've struggled with these bath tub crayons. They are amazing and Emily loves them BUT they are a mess. I officially have the worlds cleanest bathtub! Well I had given up on them...and then I came up with an idea. I sat down and explained to her that if we make a mess, we need to help mom clean it up. I handed her a wash rag and showed her what to do. and GUESS WHAT?! She did it! She had as much fun cleaning them up as she did making the mess in the first place. Of course if Aaron would have done as good as a job as Emily, I would have been upset, but she did a very good job considering she's not even 2!!

     We got ready and went to coffee. After coffee we drove to San Luis to go to Costco. I normally don't shop at Costco because of their bulk items and my not so bulky house, but we needed some meat so I decided to stock up. They are amazing. I ran around with Jill and her sister Holly and her two kids Silas and Luke. Silas is 3 and the size of a 6 year old and Luke is almost 2 and twice the size of Emily. They are the cutest future football linebackers I've ever seen!. After we were done I went to see one of my best friends Meredith, who married one of Aarons many cousins. Her son just turned 4 months old and is 17 lbs. I don't know what it is about this family and big boys but they are BIG. It makes me look at my Emily and realize that she really is my petite little girl.

    On my way home I decided to drive the legendary Hwy. 1. I figured it would be beautiful and sunny since it was everywhere else but as I turned into Morro Bay it was cloudy and overcast and I wasn't in the mood so I took a short cut across the hills back to Paso. I don't drive this road often because of it's switch back turns and my obnoxious car sickness...sure enough, I was about ready to lose my lunch after 10 minutes into the drive. Needless to say I made it. and the few times I stopped because I thought I was going to be sick I took some pictures:

Morro Beach

Fog coming over the mountains

Rolling SLO county hills

Thistle, for the longest time these were my favorite "flowers" They remind me of Scotland everytime I see them and even though I've never been there, I would guess that when everything is green here, this is the closest I might ever come

Oh the irony! Right next to the Thistle is this beautiful but pesky flower slapping me back to reality telling me "HEY! you're still in California" 

The good ol' golden state's California Poppy

My munchy sleeping through it all

     I realized two very important things on this drive. I have two things that make my life more difficult. 1) My motion sickness. It's out of control. I couldn't even enjoy a great drive home. Actually I got home and curled up in bed because I was spinning like I had just got off of a horrible fair ride and then slept for 3 hours to get rid of it. 2) My fear of mountain lions. Don't laugh. It's really bad...I wouldn't venture more than a hop, skip, and a jump away from my car because as soon as I did I thought for sure I was being watched and ran to the car. Then I felt like something was chasing me. I've never even seen a mountain lion here, even though I know that they are prowling all over these hills. Maybe if I saw one and saw that it would be scared of me just like I am of it then I would understand that not every one of this is looking for Kayla Van Patten to eat. I think I need counseling! I'm kidding of course but this is probably one of my most legit fears.

     As I said before, I got home and slept off the effects of my windy drive. We will see if I ever get up early again!!

    A couple of quick updates on Emily:

-People keep asking so I thought I would let everyone know...the potty training has been postponed. I have complete faith that my daughter is very capable of learning what she needs to but I just don't think that she's ready. Understandable and not disappointing since she's only 20 months. She has the toilet part down packed BUT she doesn't know when she needs to go, therefore she can't tell me and I end up with a dirty expensive pull-up. So Aaron and I are working hard on teaching her when she does go, so that in the near future it won't take any extra work to train her.

-Emily has several new words and is picking them up like a sponge. "papa" for Aarons dad and grampa. "ow" for about anything that hurts just a little. (she learned this one from me. Every time she touched my sunburn it was OW!...she got that one quick) "i want that" which is nice because now instead of crying for something she points! There were a couple more but I can't think of them at the moment

-Emily is an escape artist. She has figured out the sliding glass door. GREAT. so now we have to have it locked all the time. I ran outside to grab something out of the car this morning and as I was digging through my mess, I heard "MOMMY" and looked over and she was hanging on the fence looking at me. Thank God for the fence :)

     I am so thankful that this day is almost over!! then I can get back to my regular schedule.