It Sucks!!

I'm not a big fan of appliances but I feel that if I have to do a job around the house, I want good equipment to make a boring job easier. I've had my Dyson for several years and I'm still impressed. The other day, I was vacuuming and I noticed it wasn't picking up as it normally does. So I quickly checked a couple of the hose areas and I when I opened one area, I noticed this:

Yes, it's a pen! Who vacuums a pen up and 1) doesn't notice it and 2) leaves it in there? Well, judging by the drywall material found with this pen, I have a good guess.

But regardless, I'm still happy that my vacuum really sucks :)

Budding Chef

Cara always has to be busy doing something (I wonder where she gets this from?). While my mom was visiting for a couple of days, Cara was in heaven cooking up a storm with Grandma. Last night, we were treated to a special dinner planned and prepared by my 8 year old.

It was a tasty meal of fruit salad and Dizzy Dogs :)

Church Socks

Jeff and I have an ongoing debate. I hate clothes with holes, snags, etc. If you have a pair of socks with holes in them, when you take them off THROW THEM IN THE TRASH! Sounds logical right? Why waste the energy washing them just to put them in the trash? However, my husband feels that the laundry is the place to put things that need to be thrown out.

So Jeff has a few pair of socks that have worn through on the bottom (however, he does have many pair that are perfectly acceptable). When I am being the wonderful wife that I am and folding his socks, I am just matching pairs up and putting them in his drawer. I don't have time or the inclination to inspect his socks before lovingly folding them and placing them in his drawer. :)

The last time I saw him wearing a pair of these "holey socks" I stuck my finger in the hole and gave it a nice pull. Who would want to wear socks with a big hole on the bottom? So today, I look over to see him sitting on the bed...what do I see? Those dumb socks with a huge hole on the bottom!

So I walked by and gave a nice tug on the hole...Here's what happened (note the hole in the left sock as well).

Let's see if they make it to the laundry again. I have a feeling they will.

Dream Job

It kind of seems late to actually post about my job since I've technically been there since February. But since it's now official that they're actually going to PAY me to design, I thought it was post worthy :)

I had the opportunity to intern with Deborah Davis for a day in October last year. In January, she called and asked if I was interested in interning for her. So for the past three months, I've been working on Mondays and Wednesdays, but I've been earning course credit instead of a paycheck. I was happy to continue working for free since I was learning so much and actually loving what I was doing. But when I asked Deborah about continuing my internship, she said that based on my work she just wanted to hire me (before I've even finished school!!).

As of Friday, I am officially gainfully employed working for Deborah Davis Design. The firm does both residential and commercial design but most projects lately have been commercial. Her biggest client is actually E! Entertainment, (which also includes Style Network, G4 and I think the new Fear channel too). So her office is located in their corporate offices, which is a bit of a commute, but I actually appreciate the time I get to myself while I'm driving (plus I get to satisfy my love of the city by working in the heart of LA).

I'll continue working two to three days a week in the office and I'll be able to work from home other days-my boss is super cool and practical about this. I've done work on some interesting projects and I've already been given lead on two designs (including Joel McHale's office).

Here are a couple of pictures from one of the jobs I worked on. It's a shampoo room for Chelsea Handler.

So, if you think I've fallen off the face of the earth, I haven't. It's just been busy around here with 9 units of classes, the internship and all the rest of my mommy/wife jobs. Even with all the craziness though, I am loving every minute of it :)

The Bribe

I don't know how many of you parents have experienced this phenomenon when you have a child who loves and article of clothing and it it is worn no matter what.

Natalie has been wearing these brown boots since I think Kindergarten (apparently, my kids have my feet that don't grow very fast). She wears them with pants, skirts and (my personal favorite) shorts. She wears them when it's cold and when it's hot. She wears them for hiking, running and you name it. With the exception of church, she wears these things everywhere. I have grown quite tired of these boots. She has an entire basket of shoes (if you know me, you will find this entirely plausible) that she never wears.

Well, they were beginning to look pretty ratty and I have been searching for an acceptable replacement. I have no problem letting her wear boots in the summer, but they need to be presentable. Unfortunately, now is not the time to be looking for boots, unless you want rubber ones for the rain.

So despite my requests, Natalie has continued to wear these horrible boots ...until today!! When we were shopping for new shoes for Easter a couple of weeks ago, she happened upon these cute red sneakers that she really wanted. I told her no at the time because I was focused on the task at hand. However, yesterday I had the brilliant idea of bribing her. I would buy her those red shoes, but in exchange, she would have to give me the boots. I wasn't sure that she would go for it, but sure enough, she loved the idea. I thought about ceremoniously burning them, but I'll just be happy to huck them in the trash.

Here are the new shoes (she loved posing for the pciture). Don't you think every girl should have at least one pair of red shoes? :)

Easter and More

It's been over a month since I've posted to this thing. Honestly, I have been so busy that I hadn't realized how much time had gone by. The last few days have been a bit relaxed for a change, so I apologize for the lengthy post, but for me it's now or never with my blogging.

Last weekend we went to the annual Easter event at the Reagan Library. We've been taking the girls every year for the past several and it's one of our favorite traditions. There are lots of games and crafts for the kids and they had a good time. However, I noticed that they weren't as into it this year as the have been in the past. Sadly, I think they may be growing up, but they still were happy to go.

Thursday, my sister-in-law came down and brought my cute nieces to spend Easter with us. That evening we had a girls night and went to see Mamma Mia. Since my best friend Tarja's birthday is later this month, I decided to surprise her with and early b-day gift. We had a great dinner at Miceli's in Hollywood. It's a great old Italian restaurant with live piano music and the waiters get up and sing. It was fun being serenaded while we laughed, dined and had a great time. Then it was up to the street to see the play. Of course the play (at my favorite theater) was awesome. Who wouldn't love the fun music of ABBA? (Especially when Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan were NOT singing)!

The next day I was off to the desert to spend Easter with my family. Saturday, we went to a small children's museum in Redlands. Cara and Natie seem to be the perfect age for this type of thing. They have both been learning about different animals in school, so the stuffed (and live) animals were fascinating to them.

Later that evening, they colored Easter eggs with their cousins.

Easter Sunday was a great day. Of course the Easter bunny stopped by. I think the twirling ribbons he left were a big hit--and I've only been snapped in the eye a couple of times :0)

They hunted the eggs they had colored and later in the afternoon, they went on an egg hunt in Grandma & Grandpa Moody's yard. It involved baskets full of plastic candy filled eggs all over 5 acres of desert so you can imagine the amount of candy they hauled away from this. Since Jeff has a new job, he doesn't have any time off yet, so it was back home for him on Sunday evening, but not before spending some quality time with our families.

Monday was more relaxed as we just found small things to do with the kids here by Grandma's.




It has been so nice to just get away for a few days to get away from the stress about all the things I need to get done at home. Tomorrow will be back to work for me, but I have really enjoyed the break and I'm ready to go back to the real world. Hopefully it won't be quite so windy there!

Treasure Hunting

So far I've had an ideal weekend. Friday night I went out with a couple of girlfriends. We had a great time, though Jeff is still baffled as to how it's possible to spend 4 hours talking...silly man.

Saturday morning I actually slept in, then went for a nice run while Natie was at her riding lesson. I barely remembered that I had a baby shower to attend, but I finally made it after racing to Babies R Us to grab a gift. After having more girlfriend time at the shower, I came home and we took the Cara and Natie on a Treasure hunt.

They had their first geo caching experience last weekend with their Uncles, Grandpa and Aunt. If you are unfamiliar with this, geo caching is where you have a GPS and you plug in coordinates (you find these online) and you are led to a small box or tube that is hidden. They are apparently all over the place and inside these boxes, are little trinkets that other people have left. So you can choose from the treasure box and you leave a small something in place of what you remove.

Since last weekend, the girls have been really excited to go again, so off we went. It was actually a perfect day for it. The hills are green from all the recent rain and it was clear and beautiful. We found one of the three we went looking for. Next time, our navigator should remember to print out the hints, or at least read them :) But it was a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon-a real treasure hunt with a good hike included.

On our way

hunting in the bushes..

What's inside? Natalie's treasure

...and mine :)

Then it was home to get ready for a much needed date night with Jeff. We had a yummy dinner and he sat through the biggest chick flick, Twilight.

Though I didn't pick anything out of the box, this whole weekend has been a treasure for me. It was perfectly busy in a good way. Now it's time for my Sunday nap.