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. ;)

Throw Momma on the Train

Jeff had a campout this weekend for Scouts. This gave me a rare opportunity to have "Girls Night" with Cara and Natie. So I was speaking with my mom Friday afternoon and since she was off work and dad was studying for midterms, she decided to come down for a quick visit. She was hesitant at first (my guess-because gas is almost $4 a gallon), but then I suggested taking the train. So she hopped on the metrolink train and was here by 4:30. It was a fun time just relaxing and spending time with just us girls. Thanks for coming down mom--hope you had fun!

Wooo-oooh...Living On A Prayer!!!

MMMM....Bed of Roses

So my dear Jeffrey surprised me and bought me awesome tickets for the Bon Jovi concert on Wednesday the 9th at Staples Center. For Easter, in a moment of weakness, I bought him a year subscription to XBox Live. He said that he had gotten me something too, but wouldn't give me any details. I had asked him a couple of times the weeks following, but he would just give me a weird smile. I figured he had lied to me because he felt guilty--but that was strange for him--being Mr. Honesty and all. So on Monday (two days before the concert) he gave me the tickets. He said that he didn't want me to be too excited for such a long time about it and drive him nuts.

Daughtry opened and Chris sounds just as good in person as he looks :) Now I won't go into details about my feelings about watching Jon Bon Jovi dance around on stage--Jeff might read this and regret taking me to ogle hot, sweaty, rock stars:) but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures. Many turned out blurry or too dark...

A couple of things that I did love about this show--they had these amazing 2 sided screens that came apart like horizontal and vertical blinds (while playing video) as they moved around above the stage. The other cool thing was that it was a pretty clean crowd-meaning that I wasn't surrounded by drunk/high losers :)

These are the cool screens. But my camera for some reason makes things look farther away than they really are. So he didn't really look like a black and red speck from our seats.
Chris Daughtry and Jon singing together.


Needs no words... :)

Take time to SMELL the Flowers

So I got a message today from the school. If I could figure out how to post a voice message I would. But here are the basics: "Hi this is Dori from Natalie's school, I was just calling to let you know that Natalie is up here in the office. Her teacher sent her because they were reading out on the grass and Natalie decided to eat some of the flower petals. When her teacher asked her why, she said it was because she was hungry. We have her sitting with the nurse and she says she doesn't feel sick, but we just wanted you to know."

So, I had a little laugh...funny huh? Well, when I got there to pick her up after school, I find that it wasn't just the school nurse who was concerned. Apparently, the nurse form the district office had to come down to the school and had been on the phone with poison control to make sure what she ate wasn't poisonous. As for Natalie, of course she was unaffected by the incident and actually seemed like she couldn't see what the big deal was. This adds to my theory that I have a child who is very in touch with her animal side...

Not-So-Boring Performance

Cara and Natalie's school puts on a variety show every year. Students can put on a 2 minute act about whatever they want and Cara was insistent that she wanted to participate.

I racked my brain and found this little song that I remembered from like 5th grade, called A Not-So-Boring Minuet. I found the music and words and taught it to them. The practices (every week for like 2 months) were painfully boring to sit through. But the girls did great-except for the regular monopolisation of the microphone--they would both insist on being directly in front of it. So how did everything go the big night? I think I've figured out how to upload video so you can see for yourself. Hope it brings a smile.

Sorry for the far off shot--I wasn't behind the camera. When I get the official video, I'll try to post it.