Merry Christmas!

I feel like I am posting this too late, but that would be on par with my life lately...

We had a great Christmas. Since both of our families live close to each other, we went up to the desert and spent Christmas eve with Jeff's Family. It was a casual thing-we read the Christmas Story and the kids performed songs. Cara sang "All I want for Christmas-My Two Front Teeth" and Natie sang "Santa, Santa."

Then it was over to my parents where we spent the night. The girls woke up to find that Santa had brought Cara a Mia American Girl Doll and Natalie had received the American Girl Holiday Sleigh she had asked for.

It was a great day and I was so happy to spend it with such an awesome family. Jeff did a great job, as usual, picking out thoughtful gifts for me and the girls were happy with all the new things they received.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Marathon Week!

This week has been a whirlwind and it all started off with a marathon-well actually a half-marathon. Jeff and I spent a long weekend in Vegas to celebrate my birthday, our anniversary and I ran my first half marathon.

For my birthday, Jeff took me to see Cirque Du Soleil's KA. It was absolutely amazing! Aside from the performers' unbelievable talent, the set was just as impressive. When I had heard that it took over three years to build it, I had figured that it was because they had been slow workers. Once I saw what the stage was expected to do, I completely understood why. The stage was on a loft and it moved in several directions, including a vertical 90 degrees and would rotate while doing so. I can't do it justice in my description, but it was fantastic.

Then Sunday morning was my run..I hated getting up at 4:30. It started at 6am but with 15,000 people running, we had to get there early for parking.

Before the start-I can't believe I'm smiling that early.

I finished in 2 hours and 23 minutes. (My goal was 2 1/2 hours.) I finished 3941 out of the 10,076 who were running the half. Some of the things I liked about this were the many different people participating--lots of fitness levels; the running Elvi; the run through marriage chapel; running up the strip without those dirty Mexicans harassing you with their "cards"; the massages after the finish line and who wouldn't find humor in the crowd cheering you on at 6 in the morning with beers in their hand (only in Vegas right?) So I'm crazy enough to have done it and I think I'm crazier to want to do another one :) I think I can do better since I had been fighting a monster cold the week before-thank you Zicam for getting me over it in record time.

So after the run, we spend the day relaxing. That evening we went to see the Tournament of Kings. It was basically the Medieval Times show with a little Vegas added to it. It was fun though. Then Monday was time to leave. We had to get an early start since I had a class project due that evening that I hadn't even stared. Besides, my mom was ready to get back to her real life since she had taken the last 6 days off so she could watch the girls for us (yes, I know I have the best mom ever). I barely got finished with the assignment and to class on time.

Tuesday I got to go to a birthday lunch with some of my friends-I love spending time with these ladies. Then it was a Holiday party that evening for a school group. Wednesday was a rehearsal for our Friday night church party (the kids were in the program), study for a final the next morning, and work on getting ready for Thursday evening party that started at my house.

Thursday was crazy busy starting with my first final exam. I'm happy to say I passed and got an A in the class. Then, getting ready for the evening which I was happy with how everything turned out.

Friday was more relaxing with an awards program for Cara in the morning.

Then I worked most of the day and had a Church party last night. Cara played Mary in a Nativity play

She was such a good Mary. She loves playing with babies so she just spent the entire program playing with her doll.

Natie played an angel....

And I had to post this lovely picture of our friend Adam with the awesome hairpiece. His son played Joseph so he was playing with the costume...(Adam, Kaye was the one who promised not to post a picture :)

And of course the evening wouldn't be complete without a visit from Santa...

Whew...That is my week in a nutshell. I am looking forward to tomorrow. A nice relaxing Sunday, complete with a nap :)

Absentee Blogger

I just visited my blog and realized that it has been over a month since I've posted or visited any blogs. I'm almost through with this semester and I've turned in the big projects so hopefully I can get back in the habit of posting :)

Take An Intern To Work Day

I'm a student member of a national interior design association and they have an annual job shadowing week. Students are paired with designers all over the country and they get to spend a day following them and learning how they work.

I signed up to follow this cool designer named Deborah who is working as a consultant for E!, Style Network and G4 Channels. Since she is doing so much for them, they had her move her office to their headquarters down by museum row in LA. So On Friday, I got to spend an entire day there.

I won't say that it was gourmet cupcakes and free massages all day, but it was awesome. This facility is HUGE. It's like a giant maze with 2 entire floors, and part of three other ones and is designed very cool with the exposed ceilings and bright colors. We got to go through the studios where they film some of the shows and saw lots of the editing spaces that look like these dark caves where people work. I did get to have some hands on design work as I did some space planning for the expansion where Ryan Seacrest's "team" will be moving their offices. We also met with several of the team members for the buildout during the day.

It was a very busy day and I was a little sad that I had to go home. However, once I drove the hour home in traffic, I was happy to see my girls with Jeff who had taken the day off work and played Mr. Mom-well, sort of :)

DONE!!

I made a deal with Jeff because I really hate my sliding glass patio door (you don't know how many ways I've contemplated "accidentally" breaking this beast). The bargain was that I would paint the trim on the house because it had not been done since we bought it (going on 10 years ago). In return for my services and saving us all that money, he will install my french doors to the backyard.

I was all fired up and ready to tackle this project. I'm certainly not afraid to get my hands dirty and I really like using power tools. I spent several days scraping off old paint, patching areas that needed it and sanding everything down. Last Friday Tarja was so cool to come over and help me paint...at least that was the plan.

We got an early start and I figured all we needed to do was tape everything off and we'd be good to go.

See Tarja at work :)

It was about 5 in the evening when I realized 2 things: 1) we weren't going to get to paint that day because taping off took so long and 2)it was going to RAIN!! It hasn't rained since ?? and of course it has to rain when I'm all ready to do my project. So, much of our hard work was ruined when the wind and rain pulled down the plastic. When the new week started, I was determined to get this finished. One problem: you can't use an airless sprayer in the wind (unless you want to make all your neighbors really angry at you).

So Friday morning I was finally blessed with a morning of no wind :) I went outside and I heard that western showdown music in my head. I was armed with my spray gun and I was going to win this little battle. Using the sprayer was actually pretty fun and it went very fast. So after a long day of painting, I am just happy I'm finished!!!

Now it's on to my next project--Halloween costumes :)

Creepy Phone Calls

I have a separate land line here at the house for business calls and the last 2 weeks I've had a couple of strange calls come in. They occur between the hours of midnight and 3am. The first 2 times it happened, I just hung up on the calls without answering because who should be calling my business line at midnight? I couldn't just let it ring because I didn't want to wake up everyone in the house.

When it happened again last night, I decided to actually answer it. I figured it may be a sales call from another country who is completely unaware of our time zone... And I was going to answer to educate them :)

So I answer the phone and it's some guy. He calls me Kim (not Kimberly, which is what I usually get called by salespeople) and asks how I'm doing. He told me his name (but right now, I can't remember it because it was 12am and you know how when you get woken up in the middle of sleep it's hard to remember details?) So this guy wanted to shoot the breeze with me and wanted to know what I was up to. Um...it was the middle of the night and this was totally ticking me off. Not so much that I got a strange call, but that he was talking all throaty and acting like he knew me. This conversation actually lasted a mere 30 seconds (if that). When I told him that now wasn't a good time to talk (I guess I'm extra polite to creeps when I'm woken up) he asked why it wasn't a good time!! Why?!! I just hung up on him then.

Something you may not know about me is that when pushed into fight/flight mode, I'll usually fight. I don't know why, but I can't stand the thought of someone getting away with that kind of crap. So first thing, I decide to *69 this guy and see why he's making calls to me in the middle of the night and disturbing my much needed sleep. Of course he's got his number blocked. So I decide to call the phone company to see how I can get a hold of him and/or block his number. No help there. They were happy to try to sell me additional services. Some guy there named Kenny Wagner (yup, I was takin' names) was especially rude and unhelpful. They referred me to their "call annoyance line," whatever that is. You don't get to talk to a real person but they'll send you some stuff in the mail...yadda, yadda....

I know I could file a report, but honestly that seems a bit overkill. I won't change the number because I'd have to change all my business cards and materials. Besides, the number is posted on our website, so it's not like it's private or anything. This is just creepy and annoying....Anyone else have experience with this type of thing?

Perfect Hike Weather

I was supposed to spend Saturday finishing my latest project, but that was delayed because of the weather (stay tuned for my post/rant about this). I decided to take the girls for a hike. Tarja brought her kids too and and we dressed them for a hike in the mud since it had been raining and was threatening to rain even more.

The morning turned out to be perfect. The rain had brought nice cool weather, but it hadn't soaked everything so much that there was much mud. In fact, the moisture had just wet the dirt enough to keep dust from blowing everywhere when the kids ran through it.

There were a bunch of cyclists riding the trail that day, so to keep the kids moving at a reasonable pace, we challenged them to see if they could catch them. We were surprised to turn a corner and see that indeed the kids had caught up with them while they prepared to bike this hill.

Racing the bikers up was motivating-Reagan and Cara even beat them to the top :)

The hike was so much fun with the perfect weather and thanks to the bikers for giving the kids something to work for.

The Circle of Life

We just returned home from a weekend up in Apple Valley. Jeff's brother was having his new baby girl blessed. It was such a nice meeting. It was actually Fast Sunday for their congregation and I was impressed with the great testimonies given. Often this meeting can turn into "open mike" day and you get some rambling/irrelevant speakers who like to go about stories having not much to do with really anything..but I digress with my pet peeve. It was a great service.

So after the meeting, we got to spend time with his family which was great to visit. Before heading home, we had planned on visiting Jeff's grandma who is in the hospital with cancer. We had seen her a few weeks ago and she was doing quite well. So we figured we would be able to spend about an hour or so with her again on Monday before heading home in the early afternoon.

So we got to the hospital and we discover that she had taken a turn. I have never seen someone in any advanced stage of illness--or really anyone who we knew was dying. We arrived and she had one of Jeff's cousins there as well as two close friends. They let us know that she was at a point where she did not like being left alone and one of the friends told us that if we could stay longer-now would be the time. Since Jeff and I were there, eventually the others left and we were alone with Grandma. We would hold her hand and Jeff was wonderful with her. He even helped her when she had to throw up (sorry if that's T.M.I. but I have to give props for that. I can't even handle when my own kids do that). I have never felt so helpless watching this sweet grandma who I've always known to be happy and a bit feisty (in a good way-not that grouchy old person way) in such pain that the morphine couldn't even help. Eventually I had to leave to pick up the girls who were at my mom's while Jeff stayed with her a little longer until her friends came back in the evening.

As of yet, she is still with us, but when the doctor is asking if we have a minister to come see her... we know it won't be long. And upon reflection, I think that will be a good thing. She has a husband and son waiting for her and I know she will no longer be in pain.

It feels a little like our happy weekend meeting our new niece was a bit overshadowed by sadness of what is inevitable, but like Disney says, it's the circle of life.

What's on your Ipod?

I need your help. I'm trying to recover from a completely lazy summer where I did almost nothing healthy for myself. I'm back to my running regularly but I have to say that one of my biggest annoyances is a lame song coming on right in the middle of a big hill (for some reason Les Miserables doesn't motivate me to work harder). I have it on shuffle and I just put whatever would fit on it on when I set the thing up. I also have an older play list but I'm sick of most of those songs.

So I don't want to have to think too hard about this so I figure I'd ask you all. What songs motivate you during your workouts? Leave as many ideas as you want in your comment (and if you're just secretly stalking my blog-leave your songs anyway. I won't judge). I get so easily bored and since music is such a big motivator for me I need lots of ideas :) I like just about ALL kinds of music....

A Sweet Motivation

I really enjoy going to the temple. Yes the experience is great and peaceful and I love it. But I do have another motivation for spending a Friday night down in Santa Monica. Ditty Riese. Pam told me about this place in Westwood and I've been hooked ever since.

Even Better when you can enjoy it wth friends!!

Our Little Pet

I've always said how Natie exhibits many canine behaviors. The other night we had some people over for Jeff's Fantasy Football draft. I looked under the table and I saw this:

Yup she is eating her food like a dog.

This is the kind of pet I prefer though...I don't have to clean up "waste" in the backyard and she doesn't get hair on the furniture. And I do think she's pretty cute though she did leave crumbs all over the floor--aren't dogs supposed to clean underneath the table?

Oh Happy Day!!

It's that wonderful time of year of the year when summer must come to an end and we go back to school. It seems like summer really flew by and I was even a little sad to send them off for such a long day. I got over it real fast spending my first free morning working then going to eat and shop with Tarja.
Both girls really like their teachers and have have had a wonderful first week.

Ha Ha, I totally hijacked Kims blog. She should really use different passwords for each site. Anyways, I play an online game alot, and it is fun, and they are handing out some goodies if I post this on our blog. I play the first one. My game name is Rocinante #1216122

Unification Wars
3700AD - A space MMORPG

Jeff

Holy Smoke!!

About a month ago I woke up in the middle of the night and I swore I smelled something burning. I was so sure of it that I got up like 3 times to make sure I wasn't imagining things. After I woke Jeff up and he investigated and found nothing, we went back to bed and in the morning everything smelled fine.

So a few days ago we noticed that the receiver kept shutting off and there was that strange smell coming from it. Jeff thought his receiver was going bad. He pretended to be really sad that he was going to have to replace it if this was the case. On Sunday when we got home from church he decided to look into it. He went under the entertainment center and unplugged the power strip. Here's the result:
When he unplugged it there was a little flame that he blew out. Scary!! I would have been so sad if that entertainment center had gone up in flames. He replaced the outlet and so far, no burning smells. I'm so glad that Jeff was worried about his electronic equipment and he checked it. Otherwise, I might be posting from a hotel room.

Me

Ok, since Kaye tagged me, I'm going to post about Moi. (Though it took me a couple of days to actually come up with anything remotely interesting :)

These are the rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 surprising facts and then tag 5 other people. Leave a comment for the people you tag so they know they have been tagged.

Here it goes:

Joys......
1. "Girl time" with Cara and Natie
2. New shoes
3. Good chocolate

Fears....
1. Something happening to my kids
2. Getting my front teeth knocked out
3. Snakes--I hate them and will never allow one in the house. Especially if they eat live animals.


Current obsessions/collections:
I would like to think I'm balanced enough not to have OBSESSIONS, so I will think of these as hobbies and I can't think of anything I collect since I hate chotskies :)
1. Reading
2. Design/Restoration--I'm finishing a degree in interior design and I want to restore an old house one day (pre 1940s)
3. Running-my favorite time to go is at dusk when its cool outside:)

Surprising Facts....
1. I used to play paint ball with Jeff. Those things hurt when you get shot!
2. I am actually a bit shy--until I get to know you, then good luck getting me to shut up :) I think this is sometimes mistaken for snobbery.
3. We moved a lot as a kid until I hit High School.

I tag:
1. Liz R.
2. Suzanne
3. Andrea
4. Julianna
5. Rose

Have fun!

Natie's First Riding Lesson

Natalie had her first riding lesson yesterday. I thought I'd post some pictures-especially for Grandma to see!!

Happy 6th Birthday Natalie!!

I just can't believe that my baby is 6 years old. Last weekend, we had Natie's birthday party at a local farm which was perfectly suited to her love (a bit of an understatement) of animals. She had a great time with her friends first on a Clydesdale horse drawn ride around the farm and then lots of fun feeding the animals, riding on the ponies, climbing on the play equipment, getting muddy, etc.
She said that she wanted a pinata for her birthday. Thinking ahead, I asked her if she would be OK with the pinata being hit and broken. Her response was that it would be fine because there was candy involved-a good enough trade off I guess. So we pick out a cute white pony pinata. We have cake and it's time for the pinata.

She is more than happy to take her turns at it with a stick...

Until it is decapitated...

Can you see the head swinging from the rope? This is when it hits her..."we ripped the pony's head off!!" I didn't get to capture the look of horror on her face as she comes to the realization...

She was so sad for a bit. She just sat there--trying not to cry at her party. Luckily, a trip back to visit some animals cheered her back up. She is still wearing the wrist band that all the kids received at the party. It is getting a little thin, but she refuses to let me cut it off. So the trauma of the pinata is all but forgotten and she had a very happy 6th birthday!!

Beach Time!

We finally carved out enough time in our summer schedule for the kids to have a couple of days at the beach. Cara is quite the boogy-boarder and spent the majority of Tuesday and Thursday in the ocean. Natalie loves to dig but on Thursday, she finally decided to spend some time in the water and really started getting the hang of catching the waves. Thursday was especially great with getting there early. We were there before 10 and we got to see lots of dolphins and seals playing in the water-but of course none of my pictures of them turned out.

Getting ready to go out. She was in the water before I could even set my chair up.

I had to post this one. Yes, I know I should have probably grabbed a towel instead of my camera, but she didn't seem to mind. Thankfully, it wasn't her sister who did this to her :)

Amnesty

In a spirit of goodwill, we had a day of amnesty for toys that had been confiscated.

A while ago, in a creative parenting effort, we decided to make an impression on Natalie by taking away her toys that she loves the most--her ponies. One by one, they slowly disappeared to the "toy time-out spot."

I figured I had suffered enough with looking at all these toys not in their rightful place so it was time to return them. We've curbed the behavior that sparked their removal, so overall I think it was effective. And got to be "fun mom" when I gave them all back!

Haircut!

I hate it when Jeff lets his hair get long, I think there are some guys who look good longer hair, but for the most part, I think men should keep it short--especially when I have to look at him every day with what I call "helmet hair."

So he was long overdue for a cut and my friend generously offered to watch the girls for a few hours so we could enjoy a Saturday afternoon to ourselves last weekend. First on our agenda was getting Jeff's hair cut. Now a disclaimer: I have no influence on his hairstyle...it has been the same since I met him 14 years ago...

I have never been with him to get a haircut and I think I may be banned from ever going again.

Doesn't he look like he's having fun?

Have I ever mentioned how much he likes having his picture taken?

New Parents :)

Jeff's brother Ryan and his wife Kelly, had their first baby this last week. Little Riley was born on June 30th and we are so happy for them.

Now it took me a while to get the details since Jeff was the one who received the message. He had called me from work for something else and mentioned, "Oh, by the way, they had the baby." No details! Is my husband the only one who can't relay important information like weight, height, name?

Since this happened on Monday, throughout the week I was thinking about them being new parents. I was reminiscing to before we had kids and when were brand new in this parenting adventure. I thought about how smart I thought I was back then. It seems like such a short time ago I was passing judgement on other parents thinking "My kids never going to act like that." HA HA! I think it really hit me this week when I said to Natie (you don't want to know the back story on this) "If a friend told you to jump off a bridge, would you?" I think I have eaten every word I ever said about what kind of a mom or how my kids were going to behave. I have no judgements about parents of teenagers :-)
...Ahhh new parents. What an great time you guys are in for. We love you!

Whew!!

It feels like forever since I've posted but in reality it's only been 2 weeks. I can't believe that summer is already under way (and going fast). Here's what we've been up to the last couple of weeks:

After Father's day weekend with my family in the desert, the days flew by until I had a special weekend with my mom and sister in Las Vegas. My mom took Sara and me for our birthdays (mine was an early gift). We saw Phantom of the Opera and had some fun girl time shopping.

We ate lunch at the Treasure Island Buffet one day and I have to say they have one of the best dessert bars I've seen. They had everything from cotton candy, to fresh doughnuts and homemade malted milk balls I had to post this picture for my friends who went on the cruise with us last fall..

Jeff had some father-daughter bonding time with the girls as he took them bowling and they saw Kung-Foo Panda. It was nice to be missed I was happy to return to their sweet little faces.

I finished my crazy, 6-week, 5-hour-per-class AutoCad course. I have to say that after the initial brain shock I really enjoyed the class and I think I'll take advanced AutoCad just for fun-yes I know my sense of fun has become very warped lately. But next time, I think I'll take it over the normal semester so I can have more time to digest the material.

No sooner was my class finished, it was on to another project. My friend Allison has me redesigning her bedroom. We were feeling adventurous so we laid the hardwood floors ourselves. I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with the results. (I'll post a picture when I get one--we were too tired after that day to think about a picture).

This week has been a big catch up around the house...whew!! I can't believe it's already July!

R.I.P. Marsha

We just returned home for a quick visit with my family for Father's Day. I went to feed the fish and I see our newest addition at the bottom of the tank. Not a huge surprise since we never saw her eat when the other ones did.

So my dilemma is, do I spare Cara the sadness of her loss by secretly replacing it, or do we do the whole "circle of life" thing? I lean towards the secret replacement plan since it's just a dumb fish and not a cat or something warm and fuzzy.

Weekend O'Fun

Jeff's brother Ryan and his cute wife are expecting their first baby next month and the shower was this weekend down in San Diego. Since we don't get to see them as often as we would like, Jeff and I decided to make a fun weekend out of it.

On Saturday we took the girls to the the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was a lot of fun as the girls got to see many different forms of life that can be found in our ocean.

We got to touch some fun creatures like urchins and sea stars.

Natalie was very interested in touching some of the larger creatures, like the rays and sharks (she kept trying to grab them as they swam by). She was ready to jump in the water to get her hands on this Ray. You can't see by the picture, but her hair was wet from getting so close.

We loved the lorikeet forest where you have to duck as these birds go flying right past your head...and always be on the lookout from above. Natie bribed a lorikeet to sit on her arm and eat. Cara was not too interested in touching the animals, but liked watching them from a distance. But probably our favorite group of animals were the sea lions.

They had so much personality and we found that if you hold something up to the window, they will come right up and inspect it. The girls would hold their pennies and move them around on the glass and this little guy would follow it. It reminded me of how a cat will chase string. They were so cute and playful.

Then it was down to San Diego for the night. The girls love staying in hotels so this was highly anticipated. On Sunday morning before the shower, we got up and went for a swim before checking out. I won't go into my thoughts about the pool experience because this is my happy post...I may save that rant for another one.

After check out, it was off to the baby shower. Though I didn't really know anyone other than Kelly and her family it was so nice to spend some time with her. It's fun watching them get ready for their little girl. They are going to be such great parents.

Good luck Ryan and Kelly. We are so happy for you!

Marsha

Ok, so I'm a pushover--and a sucker. After I explained that goldfish wouldn't do well with our angelfish, Cara explained how she needed another fish. She reasoned that she had another at one point, but Dylan the fish went to heaven one weekend and was never replaced. Being a fan of even numbers anyhow, I conceded and we went to the fish store and picked out Marsha. Hopefully Sparkle, Zoe and Marshmallow will be kind to her :)

Loser Mom

I know this could be the title of my entire blog, but this post will suffice (until my next screw up). Earlier this week, Cara brought home a permission slip to bring home one of the classroom fish. They have been raising goldfish and had a few that have survived who needed a home since summer is rapidly approaching. We already have a fish tank that houses our three angelfish (thanks Uncle Michael for those) and I didn't think goldfish would do well with angelfish.

I explained to Cara that we would not be bringing a fish home. My thinking was that since there were only 3 or 4 fish left, why not have them go to a home where they could be have a good tank by to themselves or with other goldfish.

When I pick up Cara today she is visibly upset. I ask her what is wrong and she tells me (as the tears start to flow) that she was one of the only kids who didn't get a fish. She tells me that she was sad because she felt like she missed out. What the crap?! There were only like 3 fish when I was in the classroom this morning and there are 17 kids in her class? I know they don't reproduce that fast.

So in my questioning, I find out that there was such a response from the kids that the kind room mom went and bought enough fish for everyone who had wanted one. So here I am with a 7 year old, crying over a dumb goldfish. If I had known that 13 other children were getting one, I would have let her bring one home to put in a bowl until it died a few weeks later. I know I could go to the store and spend the 20 cents to buy her one, but I don't think that was the point. I think she just felt bad because she was 1 of the 4 kids in class who did not get a stinking goldfish. Ugh!

My New Favorite Store

I just got back from my new fav grocery store--and I usually hate grocery shopping. It's one of my least favorite chores. Have any of you been to that store Fresh & Easy? This was my second time going and to be honest, I kind of liked it the first time, but this time I decided that I really like them. Maybe it was because I didn't have my kids with me. All errands seems more enjoyable without having drag around 2 kids. But here's what I like about it:

1) They have reserved parking spaces for parents with small children--if Vons can reserve spaces for their Starbucks customers then why not those who have to haul around kids.

2) Good deals!! At first glance I thought their prices were kind of high, but going the day after my regular grocery store, I notice that they are pretty good and I don't need a dumb card to get the better price. Plus, I had a $5 of $20 coupon and they gave me another one when I checked out. In addition to that, they had lots of stuff that was marked 1/2 off. I don't get that at the regular grocery store when their eggplants are close to expiration.

3) Their produce-they have it all pre-packaged with the price right there..none of this "$1 a pound". I can look at a package of pears and see that it $1.50 for 4. with the packaging, they include a sell by date. Plus they have a good selection of organic stuff that doesn't cost an arm and leg.

4) Free Samples: who doesn't love free food and I don't have to go to the $100 store to get it. I got a yummy recipe for this yogurt granola thing that I went home and had for lunch. They always have the samples, but since it was morning, they had an assortment of different breakfast pastries and other good stuff. mmmm...

5) Friendly Workers: This can be a deal breaker for me. I hate unhelpful or crabby employees and I refuse to shop at a couple of stores for this reason. Everyone seemed happy to be working there and acted like they actually wanted me to shop at their store. What a concept!!

Overall, it kind of reminds me of Trader Joes, but they also carry national brands as well as their own brand. It's smaller than Vons or Ralphs, but they seemed to have a lot of the kids of stuff I buy. So I encourage you all to go by if you haven't yet. The only downside is that it's on the other side of Simi at Alamo and Tapo, but it was worth the drive for me.

Lost it!

For those of you who were forced to sit by us on Sunday in church. I thought I'd share that Cara finally lost her tooth. For those of you fortunate not to be near us, Cara was showing anyone who would watch, how the tooth was hanging on by a thread--and some of you were lucky enough to have a bloody finger shoved in your face when the tooth would bleed. Sorry about that Cosbys, Ohs and Oberenders....

And by the way, that stupid toothfairy came by a day late!

Random Acts of Kindness?

It seems that lately I have been the recipient of random acts of kindness and I can't figure out why. When I spoke with Lori about this, she had no insight and couldn't understand why people would be nice to me either. :)
Now what is kind of throwing me off is that the people being nice to me are people that I don't really know very well or at all. I am so lucky to have awesome friends and they are always doing sweet things for me; watching my kids, letting me ride with them all the way down to San Diego, cutting my hair, or just acknowledging me in public.
But earlier this week, I got mail from someone who went on vacation and thought enough of me to send me a postcard. It was kind of her to think of me but she was not someone who I speak with all that much and I know when I went to Mexico last year, I didn't even think about her (rude of me to admit that isn't it).
Then again yesterday I was dropping the girls off at school and Natie comes running up to me with this cute canvas bag that another mom had made for her. It had her name in glitter and little ballerinas appliqued on it. Again, It was nice to think of her/me. The mom came up and asked me if she liked the bag. Of course she was thrilled, and I was touched that she would think to do that for her. But before this, I had never met her or spoken to her and I don't remember Natalie ever mentioning the little girl. She is another class altogether, and she didn't make one for other kids in Natie's class so I was a bit baffled by her kindness.
Am I just totally cynical for even posting about this? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that people are kind. Maybe it's my own guilt that I don't randomly select people to be nice to....

No Picture....

Yup, I'm posting about not having a picture, not because I'm a recovering scrapbook addict but because I'm so annoyed that my kids ruined the moment. Not that I really enjoy being in pictures all that much. They never turn out well--I usually blink or half blink (even better, right?) But last night I was being awarded a scholarship from the Conejo Association of Professional Interior Designers. Not a huge monetary award, but I was pretty excited that a group of designers were impressed enough with one of my projects that they were actually willing to give me money to continue my education and a membership to their association.
So there was an awards reception at the college where they were presenting all the recipients of the different scholarships. Up until we took our seats, my girls were both pretty happy to be in attendance. However this changed as soon as the program began. Natalie was the worst offender, complaining (not quietly) that she was bored and hungry. So I got out of my seat and went to get her a snack from the refreshment table. Things were pretty picked over so I scrounged up what I could-after all, we were going to have dinner in a mere 45 minutes or so and it wasn't passed our normal dinner time.
Well, as soon as her treats were gone, she immediately began whining and acting like a total toddler having a pre-meltdown fit. It was so bad that if I wasn't sitting directly next to my professor and the scholarship donors, I may have committed child abuse right there. After about 10 minutes of agonizing embarrassment about how my 5 year old was acting, I asked Jeff to take her away. He had to leave the area completely because it was outdoors and she was protesting so loudly...
So I had dragged my family to this, hoping it would be nice experience for my girls to see that Mommy does well in school--you know something to set an example for their college years ( yes I know that is so far away, but you never know what kids remember.) And I left wishing that I had not even taken them. Ugh...So Jeff was out with Natalie when I was given the award, hence, no picture.
Natalie did redeem herself later that night when she realized how much she had embarrassed me. It's hard to stay angry when they give you those sweet sincere apologies. Isn't motherhood ridiculous, crazy, and amazing?!

Better Video

As promised in my earlier post about the Variety Show, I got my hands on a better video of the girls. Though it's not their most perfect performance, its entertainment value is priceless =)

Vacation??

This morning Jeff sent me a link with the subject of the email being "make some money" I was immediately intrigued when I saw how much money I could earn. I was more interested when I learned what was involved.

http://www.bedreststudy.com/Bedrest.aspx

Would any of you do this for $17,000. I'm thinking a nice "vacation" might do me some good....just look how happy those women look.

New Shoes!!

Anyone who knows anything about me gets how much I love shoes. I'm sure my obsession has something to do with an early childhood experience of losing a new pair of shoes in the mall because I insisted on carrying the bag....or maybe it's because I feel so deprived because I have such a hard time finding my size--and when I do, I usually get the display.

But I had to post about these because I am just too excited that I actually have made time to get back to dancing. I took ballet in college (and that was over 11 years ago). But its been about 20 years since I've taken tap and sadly the shoes still fit (if you do the math, yes I was 12 years old when my feet stopped growing) but the leather was starting to disintegrate.

I get to take a ballet/tap combo and I realize how much I've missed it. Its weird how some things come back, but the movement is a little different. I guess having kids has rearranged my center of gravity--among other things. Now if I could just find someone to take a ballroom class with me (hint, hint Jeff!)

Little things....

OK, so this is so unlike me. But I figure Jeff is probably due for some nice words and I figure I'd make them count even more by putting them in writing for the world to see.

Our garage door opener has been behaving erratically over the last few weeks. It will open or close part of the way and then just stop, leaving me to disconnect it and manually and open the door so I can get my car out of the garage, usually at the most inopportune times.

So when it happened yesterday when I was already late to pick Cara up from school, I had to get out of my car, run in the house, through the front door, to get to the garage so I could close the it. But as any of you who have been to our house know, our front door handle is a piece of crap and it sticks. So I had to fight with it just to get inside and disconnect the garage door that decided to only close halfway once I had pulled my car out.

Once I was through with my ordeal, I called Jeff at work, as I often do when things at home are annoying me, and informed him of my frustrations with every entrance to our house. So I have to say, I felt a little bad when he came home from work last night bearing a new garage door opener.

He got to work on it immediately, only taking a break to eat dinner and finished around 10:30 last night (he is normally in bed about 10). I had no idea a garage door opener took so long to install, but I guess there are a lot of steps involved. But to appreciate my satisfaction with his work, I should illustrate what a difference this is from Jeff's normal evening routine. He usually comes home from work, finds his way to his "spot"on the couch, and basically parks there and watches TV until bedtime (taking breaks to put kids to bed, eat dinner, etc.).

Now, I know I frequently whine about my husband--not about anything big, but those little annoyances that after 10 years add up. But I thought it was so sweet of him to do that for me. He doesn't even park in the garage. And it wouldn't have killed me to park in the driveway for a few days. But I guess after 10 years of marriage, I've reached a new idea of romance when installing a new garage door opener so I don't have to park outside makes me smile. Thanks Jeff!

Now, if only I can get that front door handle fixed.... :)

Caught!

So a few weeks ago, I had just dropped the girls off at school and was reveling in my few hours of freedom from sibling arguments. The music was up and this hill was calling my name--begging me to ignore my brakes for just a few moments. I was singing along until I saw him--hiding behind a huge tow truck. Dangit! I had been caught. Pulled over. 41 MPH isn't that fast for a nice hill!

Now I was dressed for the gym. No make-up, hair in a ponytail and a bulky jacket over my not-so hot gym attire. I had nothing going for me and I was unfortunately not able to sweet talk my way out of this one. I recall my younger years when I was able to do this effortlessly. I think I had been pulled over like 5 times before getting my first --and only one until now.

I was still hopeful that he took pity on me or just plain forgot to turn in the citation (does that even happen?) but alas I just received the notice in the mail. Two Hundred Fifty Nine dollars, or $283 if I want to go to traffic school (plus the cost of the school).

When he was writing me the ticket, I asked him if I were to plead "not guilty," would he show up to court. He said it depended on what he had going on that day...I am contemplating this course of action just in hopes that it's his day off.

I know I deserve it, I speed all the time. In fact, I think speed limits (especially on freeways) are kind of stupid anyhow. I know my unrepentant attitude isn't good and I admit I broke the rules, lots of times in fact...but I just hate having to pay for it :)

Our most important meal of the day

So we decided to go for breakfast as part of our "Girl Time." We chose IHOP, since I had heard they had this yummy stuffed french toast. After sitting for about 15 minutes (which, if you have kids, this is a long time sitting in a restaurant with no food in front of them), the waitress finally came and took our orders. Looking at the menu, Natalie was interested in these create a face pancakes (see picture below).
After about another 25 minutes, our food arrived. Now I won't go into details about how my french toast was burned, so I sent it back and the next one I received was cold, stale and half-stuffed. Or how the family seated in the booth across the aisle had a toddler who sounded like he was throwing up--I couldn't bring myself to look over and tried to ignore it.

But here is the "smiley face" that greeted her as the plate was delivered.

Am I the only one disturbed by this "face"? I believe that cook must have serious issues, or he thinks he's Picasso or something. Regardless, we eventually made it out of there. By the way, Cara was perfectly happy with her "Who Cakes," which actually did look appetizing. ;)