Can you believe we're done with 2007? I must say, for me it started off pretty crappy...but it has ended on a high note. And, I can say so many good things about the year now. Lots and lots of hard work at the ranch, finally seems to be coming to a head...and there seems to be a tiny little light at the end of the tunnel. We made it out on one camping trip wich was really fun and relaxing. Then we went on a real family vacation...for a whole week!...to Kauai! That was unforgettable. And then I got to go on vacation by my self. No children, no husband. No real responsibilities for 3 whole days! And I had a super great time with a good friend :) But probably the best thing for me this year...Well, I realized something when I went through my mail on Christmas Eve...My mailbox was FILLED with Christmas cards..All from friends I've met throughout the year. It made me so happy, I can't even tell you! Thank you so much for our friendship, I really do treasure it! You all mean so much to me...really. But then after looking through my flood of cards, I began to feel really bad. What kind of friend am I? I didn't send out any Christmas cards. To anyone. Actually, I haven't sent any out in years. I think this is why: About maybe 10 years or so ago (I was still living at home with my mom)we decided to hand make our Christmas cards. I was really into stamping at the time so mom and I bought this really cute stamp with a snow man, the we got a nice Christmas message stamp for the inside, a "hand made by" stamp for the back. We spent days and days, cutting paper, stamping, painting, and glittering. It was exhausting. And I don't remember anyone saying anything about them. Not that they would I guess....but I just didn't get any satisfaction out of it. It was work. And I didn't enjoy it. So I think that kind of did it for me. But now I'm feeling so energized about it...Next year I'm sending out cards. Come hell or high water!
So what else is new for 2008? Well, I'm not really a resolution person. I have a hard time commiting so resolutions just don't really work well for me. But I do have a few things that I kinda want to just "work on" this year.
* get back on my 1700 calorie a day thing. This was much easier when there was an acutal goal (Kauai) but I still want to lose another 15 or so pounds. I feel like I need to give something else up...last year it was soda but I don't know....my heart says I should give up coffee...but I dont think I'm ready for that.
* I want to do some sort of weekly journal/scrapbook/photo project. Thinking I might try this.
* Try something completely photo related...take a class (yeah right!), some sort of a challenge...thinking of either this or this. I don't know..seems like a lot of commitment and as I mentioned...I have an issue with commiting!
* Go on another trip by myself. That was just too fun!
* one last thing..I'm just praying, praying, praying for the ranch to open and be successfull. Lord have mercy, if nothing else just pray for that!
What are your plans, goals "resolutions" for 08?
Have a happy and safe New Years!

Merry Christmas!!!

Hope your day was filled with love and happiness!
Here is a slide show of a few pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. (Santa brought me a new 50mm lens! I LOVE it!)

I am the biggest dweeb...

Ever.
We drove all the way to the ranch, got out of the car with my camera to take a shot of the newly finished cabins, turn camera to "on" to see "NO CF Card". Dang it! Crap!
It never fails.
So, sorry no pics to share. Grrrr. I'm still mad at myself for that one.
We had a nice day though. A crisp morning turned warm in the sunshine to where we didn't even need jackets. We took a ride around the fence and helped Pete put up the last gate. Ok so maybe I just stood there and looked pretty. But that's helping, right?
I left Jake up there with Pete and Megan and I came home to start laundry and get some more stuff ready for Christmas. I guess the boys will be home soon. Megan is handful though! This girl is into EVERY thing. And if I tell her "no" she just laughs and keeps doing it. She's started to get a few spanks for getting into things she's not supposed to...she cries for a second (only because her feelings are hurt) and then goes right back to doing what she was doing. She wears me out! She is so cute though...if you say "I love you" she blows you a kiss. "mmwah!" I love it.
I'm listening to Christmas music on Yahoo.com right now. I think there is possibly only 3 Christmas songs ever written and all done by various artists. They keep playing "White Christmas" "Rudolph" and "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". They even play the same song back to back. Enough of this crud. It's supposed to be "classic Christmas" and they haven't even played anything by Nat King Cole. What the heck?
Jake funny-So we're at the ranch today and we go into the bunk house. Pete has it stocked full of food for him and the guys he has up there working. Jake opens up a can of honey roasted peanuts and starts munching.
Me: hey bring me a nut, Jake. Please.
So he walks over, I hold out my hand and he drops ONE peanut in my palm.
Me: that's it?
Jake: well, you said A nut. so I brought you A nut.
Dang literal kid. Just like his dad. Who just happened to find that little scene hilarious. Ha. Ha. Ha.
If I don't post before...Hope you all have a very, Merry Christmas!!!
I seriously can not wait to see my kids faces Christmas morning!

3 More days!!!

Can you believe it? Christmas is just around the corner. Literally. I just bought my last gift today. Yep. Well....it was a gift card and I knew I didn't have to go anywhere special to get it so I purposely left it for the last one.
I feel like I've spent more money in the last month than I have all year long. It's like a never ending thing. Well until now. I think I've been to Toys R Us more time in the last month than I have in my entire life. No joke. Finally I'm done. And wrapped. I stayed up until midnight last night wrapping everything. Let me just say...I am THE worst wrapper ever. I can't wrap a present to save my life! Many of my boxes have little strips of extra paper because I couldn't measure correctly! Oh well. Luckily, not everything will be wrapped. Santa does have some work to do Christmas eve. He and I have a few things to put together before morning. I'm kind of excited. In all the 7 years Pete and I have been married....this is the first time we've ever had Christmas at our house. We've always stayed the night at my mom's and have done Christmas there. I don't deal well with change. And it's hard that this year I won't be with my mom on Christmas day. But at the same time it's also nice to start some traditions of our own.
Mom did come down to spend the day here today though. And she litterally brought a wagon full of presents for us all! When the kids were napping she and I brought them in from her car and hid them in a closet. They are going to be SO surprised Christmas morning! My mom never ever put ANY presents out until I went to bed Christmas eve. And that's how I intend to do it with my kids too. It's that magical element of surprise. I can't wait to see their faces!
We got up real early and me and the kids went to Safeway to get our Christmas groceries. One hundred forty five dollars and an hour later, we were home and mom was here to greet us. She and I decided to make these little heavenly muffins pictured above. You can find the recipe here. (this lady just cook things I like to eat!)They turned out really yummy. Kind of like hot cinnamon sugar doughnuts. The butter and cinnamon sugar kind of make a nice little crust on the outside. mmmmmmm. We ate 5 or 6 and put the rest in the freezer for Christmas morning. They're going to be perfect with warm coffee and hot chocolate :)
I also started my Christmas dinner. I have to work Christmas eve (Blah!I know!) and the day after Christmas so I need to be as prepared as possible now. So, I have my meat marinating (yes for 2 days) and tomorrow I will pre bake my potatoes so I can make twice baked ones. mmmmmmm...
That's about all I got for now. Tomorrow the kids and I are heading up to meet Pete at the Ranch. He's got the fence and the cabins done. I haven't been up in a long time so I'm anxious to see how far everything has progressed.
I have a few funnies from both Jake and Megan...but that will have to be for another post. I'm off to bed!

I think I'm just about cookied out. I've made cookies every weekend since Thanksgiving and I think I'm done. These here are Pepparkakor. I think it's just the Swedish way to say "gingerbread". I could be wrong. Pete has been requesting pepparkakor ever since I've known him...His best friends mother always made them and he has fond childhood memories of it. I'd never heard of pepparkakor before. Anyways, I was on the SIStv MB the other day and came across someone who was making this for her Holiday treats. I asked for the recipe and she ever so kindly emailed it to me! How sweet! Some people are funny about sharing their secret family recipes so I thought this a very kind gesture to a complete stranger. :) Anyways, like I said, I think they're basically just like ginger snaps. But I could be wrong. Point is..the kids love em! Miss Megan pushed a chair to the counter, climbed her little butt up on it and snagged a hot one right off the plate. When I caught her you should have seen her face! She'd stuffed a whole cookie in her mouth and was reaching for another one. She turned and looked at me like "what?". The girl is sneaky! We'll see what Pete says when he gets home from the ranch tonight and see if this is the cookie he remembers.
All of a sudden today I kind of started to panic. Christmas is in 9 days. Nine days. I still have presents to buy. Just when I thought I was ahead of the game, I realized now I'm a tiny bit behind. And then I talked to one of Pete's sisters yesterday...Jake and Blake wanted to play and Sarah needed to do some shopping so we swapped kids for a while....Jake went to her house for a while and then she brought both boys over here so she could go shop. Anyways, she comes back and asks me what Jake wants for Christmas...I say "oh, do you have us this year?". See, we agreed to pick families and then just buy stuff for that family. She says, "no, but I'm going to get all the kids something anyways....Kim is doing it too." Ahhhk! Ok so I can't be the only auntie that doesn't bring something for everybody. Now I've got to go get 4 extra gifts...plus the stuff I hadn't already gotten. And before you say, "no you don't", YES I do. I also feel completely lame for thinking I didn't have to do it before someone else suggested it. So back to Toys R Us I go...
Friday was my first day of working 7-4. Oh my, it was awesome! First off, when I got to the office I felt like I'd been initiated into a new club. The girls who were there already (who are usually in a beeotchy mood by the time I come in at 8)were so happy to see me and were so nice! See I got there before all the crap started so they were all in good moods! LOL!! But the best thing was...I was home and in my PJ's by 5:15! The kids were fed, had baths and in their PJs by 6:30. (ok, so I only made them PB&J...but still!) This is going to make a huge difference in our family life. I sincerely thank my boss for that. Dear Lord, thank you for Su. May she find peace and happiness in the year to come. Amen. For reals.

Brrr!!!

It's cold! It's only 40* right now! And by morning it will be down in the 20*'s. And there's no snow. It's cold without purpose. I'm sure my Canadian and Northern US friends are laughing at me right now...saying I don't really know what cold is. You know what? You're right. But it's still cold to me! I think I'd like to live in Minnesota or somewhere like that just for one winter to see what it's really like...but then that's it.
I'm ready for 80* weather again. Well...right after Christmas. Christmas can be cold, but then after that bring on the heat!
Nothing new here...but I'm gettin booted of the puter.
See ya! It's the weekend!!!

Ok, I'm supposed to be upstairs folding clothes....remember those ones I mentioned piled up on my bed yesterday? Yeah. Those. Procrastinating...agian. But I had to come back and say I'm sorry for calling my boss a B*tch. Well, I still pitty her daughter in laws...but she's kinda really awesome too. Today she asked me if I wanted to start coming in at 7 instead of 8. Seriously, this is like huge! That means I get to leave at 4. Which means I'll be home by 5. Which is an our and a half earlier than I'm getting home now. Yes, I'll have to get up and get the kids up earlier too...but I'm totally ok with that if I get to get home earlier. Pete and I are both pretty excited about it! Yipee!
Ok off to fold before I get busted!

I have not posted in 12 days? Wow. Time flies I guess! It's probably a good thing. I've been in quite a mood. And not a real good one. Don't know what my problem is really...but it probably has something to do with hormones and PMS. She gets me every time. Probably the other reason why I haven't posted is that I don't have a whole lot to talk about. I've been sitting here watching my cursor blink for like 2 minutes, wondering what to type next!
Christmas shopping is almost done. I just need to order Pete's present and get a couple more things for family. I finished my kids up today. I feel so much more organized this year for some reason. I'm usually the one panicking the week before Christmas. But I am the master procrastinator. I can always find something else to do rather than what I'm supposed to be doing or should be doing.
Take for instance tonight....Instead of emptying the dishwasher and filling it back up, I decided to make more dirty dishes by making a batch of chocolate chip cookies. (I had a serious craving! I'm telling you it's got to be the PMS!LOL!) But I did, however, clean up the kitchen afterwards. But now I'm sitting here typing my blog instead of folding the pile of clean clothes sitting on my bed. I tell ya, I can always find something else to do!
Everything else is just kind of going along like normal. We are actually really busy at work...or I should say busier than it's been since I started there. I don't think I've worked harder in the last 9 months than I have in the last week. Don't get me wrong though...being busy is WAY WAY better than being bored! I won't complain about the work load. But I will complain a tiny bit about the sometimes nasty ladies I work with. And my b*tchy boss that came back from LA that I can't stand. She's been running an office down south since July and is now back and back for good in our office. It's just kinda weird getting used to having her back. She's very uptight...expects 110% all of the time. The thing that really ticks me off is that she never ever sees when I'm doing a good job. But she never fails to notice if I screw up...and then point it out to everyone in the office. And then she talks to me (and others in the office) like I'm a kindergartner or something. You know, kind of in that condescending "mother" tone. She's got 2 adult boys and I pity theirs wives. I could not stand her as a mother in law. (dear Lord...please don't make me be like her...and I'm sorry for calling her names on my blog. Amen.)
See, I told ya...I got nothin!
Oh wait! I almost forgot! This totally made my day today! I was picked for this weeks Catwalk at SIStv! It's kind of a big deal for me...even though you know, it's not huge or anything...but I don't post a lot of layouts and it's nice that I got recognized. I don't go out looking for praise or anything, but I won't lie...I sure does feel good to get a little recognition!

Dec. 1st

I've got all kinds of things running through my head today. It's kind of hard once I sit down to actually formulate them into rational sentances. Does this happen to anyone else? It's like as soon as I log in to Blogger, my mind goes blank of all the things I thought I wanted to write about. I'm going to start off with a list of just some random stuff.
*Christmas is coming! I got my tree up today. Actually, Jake and I put it together last night and then he and I decorated it today while Meg was taking a nap.
*She was SO cute when we came down stairs this morning. I had left the lights on the tree on. When we came around the corner and she saw it, she did a big *gasp* and said "woha!" I told her in my happy voice "its pretty, huh?" then in my stern mommy voice I said "DON'T TOUCH". And...so far, so good! :)
*Megan hates to sit down in the tub. I have no idea why. I guess I should just put her in the shower?
*Jake rearanged his room today. Basically he took all the books off the shelf and toys out of the closet and kinda just put em all where they don't go. But he was so proud of himself. He said "momma look, I did my room".
*I need to stop eating crap. It's practically impossible to eat right this time of year. But I need to watch it. I just do NOT want to get those 27lbs back. It's seriously like a huge fear of mine. I think about my weight all the time now. Something I've never ever done in my life. I never had to. I was always a "skinny-mini" as my mom would say. And though I'm not fat now, it seems like I'm always sorta thinking about it.
*Yesterday was a good mail day! I got a big envelope from my friend with all kinds of cool 7 Gypsies stuff: paper and stickers, oh yeah and some HS ghost flowers. I LOVE those! Thanks Chrissy!!!
I also got my order from Old Navy with stuff for Christmas. Even though it wasn't for me, it was still good :)
*I also got the new CK magazine in my mailblox. There's been a lot of talk about this issue because they have kinda rebuilt the whole magazine. I can't say that I hated it. But I kinda don't like it too much. There's an article in there called "Your 2008 Life Plan". I'm not sure I want a scrapbooking magazine to give me my life plan. Do I need a life plan?? I really like scraping, but....I guess I don't view it like the people writing the articles? Not sure exactly how I like the new mag but I'll tell you this....Megan got a hold of it, ripped a page out and colored in it.....And I sat and watched her do it. So obviously I didn't care too much.
*Changing the sheets in a crib has got to be one of the most annoying and time consuming things ever! I just put Megan to bed. And I hate to admit this...but she takes a sippy cup to bed. (never did that with Jake!) I only put maybe 2 ounces of water in it. Anyways, about 20 seconds after I lay her down she started screaming. I go in there and the sippy cup as failed and she's soaked as well as the entire sheet. Who knew 2 ounces of water could make something SO wet? I had to change everything. It was not cool.
*I'm not sure why, but ABC.com is playing the pilot episode of My So Called Life on their full episodes part of the website. Well, of course I had to watch it. That show was on when I was a Junior in high school. I remember really liking it back then. (Jerod Letto was so HOT!) But when I watched it today, I was like whoa...this show is soooo....heavy. It was so very dramatic and...controversial. I mean her friend was getting drunk, her other friend is bisexual. I dunno...but my teenage years were not so dramatic. And I wasn't so depressed. Claire Danes character was really kinda depressing. And her relationship with her parents! My gosh...I'm so thankfull my parents and I had such good relationships. I know many people can't say that about their teenage years...
*I'm going to plug ABC again because they've got another show I really like. Octber Road it's just a good story. And the guy that plays Eddie is pretty hot. That helps eh?!
*24 days till Christmas....are you done shopping yet??
Me niether.

This is Megan "reading" to Jake. She's so funny. She's just recently started doing that baby/toddler jibber jabber talk. You know where they "say" all kinds of stuff with voice inflections and everything, only, you have absolutly no idea what they are saying. Yeah, she's doing that. It's so cute. She does it all the time "da da be bo ba.." And she's also started "saying" what ever you ask her to say. And she's pretty good. Some things she says the exact same sylable, just in a different tone so to her it's a completely different word.
me: say Kitty
Meg: ta ta!
Me: say Daddy
Meg: Da da!
They almost sound exactly alike. Anyways you guys with kids know what it's like. :) Oh yeah! She says Bye-Bye perfectly. Just like that old sketch from Saturday Night Live with the airline flight attendants...remeber that? when they say "ba-bye" member? It's just like that! I've also noticed her comprehention has just really increased in the last few weeks too. She knows exactly what we say to her. She even follows 2 step directions. You know.."pick that up and put it in the box". That sort of thing. She's SO not a baby anymore :(
Not much else is going on around here. But hey, isn't it amazing? I'm posting in the middle of the week! Holy cow! Anyways, I'm trying to get ready for Christmas. I moved my living room furniture this weekend in order to accomodate the Christmas tree. Thatis going up this weekend. I actually like the way I rearagned things. And I'm totally convinced, there are too many dead things in this house. And by dead things, I mean wild life mounts. You know, stuffed deer and ducks and....the list goes on. I'm seriously thinking of charging admission here. The house will be known as the "Wilcox Wildlife Museum". I'm going to have to do an entire post with pictures walking you all throuh the house. I'm not kidding you, it's bad. I wish I had a video camera. (well one I could hook up to this computer) You'd think I'd have creative controll over the place since you know, I am the lady of the house and all. I'm going to have to work on that.
Speaking of Pete, and hunting and all that....The ranch is supposed to open up in Februrary! That's like 2 months away! It finally hit me this weekend that this is really happening. That I'm married to a pig farmer. I got a call here at the house on Saturday...a friend of a friend...He wanted all kinds of information on the ranch. Prices, location, services..yadda yadda yadda. It's the first time I've really felt like I'm a part of this whole thing. It's kind of exciting actually. So we're making up business cards and this weekend I'm going to go up and take some pictures for a brochure. It's been a very long year setting this up and now it's finally becoming reality. Scary and exciting all at the same time.
Well...that's all I got for now. Got to go to sleep so I can be all restful for my boring job. woo. hoo.
ETA: you've got to see this! This is my favorite Christmas song and this version will give you chills! It is REALLY long. 9 min. 9 sec. but I promise you if you hold out for all 9 minutes you will not be disapointed.

Thanksgiving ...

Was SO good. And too short. This is my mom and Mike bringing the bird off the grill. I'm tellin ya, this is THE best way to cook a turkey. Holy smokes, every year Mike never ceases to amaze me with his turkey cooking talents. It was so juicy, and tender...melt in your mouth goodness.
Anyways, as you can see, we went up to my moms for Thanksgiving. It was just the 6 of us...us four and them two. But it was nice. Years ago we used to have big crowds, it used to be a weekend event, you know? Family from out of town here all weekend...Big dinner on Thursday afternoon with a table stretching from one end of the house to the other, movies and games. Leftovers Friday night, more games...then antique shopping on Saturday and counting all the Christmas trees on tops of the cars coming down from Apple Hill (a local area for fresh trees). Those were some of the most memorable Thanksgivings and memories that made this my favorite holiday. Though the crowd has dwindled, the company is still good (and the food more than excellent) and it's still my most favorite holiday. Thanks Mom and Mike for making this year just as special as all the rest. :)
I had to work today. I think that should be like against the law or something. It just doesn't feel right! Plus it messes up the whole rhythm of things when you have a random day off in the middle of the week! And Pete did have the day off today, so that made it all the worse when the alarm went off at 5:30 and only I had to get up. There was no traffic this morning so I made it to work in record time. I actually had about an hour to spare before I had to be in the office. So, I stopped at Khol's. I don't even really like that store, but heck they opened at 4am..they have to have something good,right? Well, I pull into the parking lot and whoa, it's full. But surprisingly, I have no trouble finding a spot. I see the TV station van parked out front of the doors. I walk in and it actually doesn't look that bad. There didn't seem to be THAT many people in there. Boy was I ever wrong! I started walking around and noticed there was actually no one shopping...everyone was standing in line. There were HUNDREDS of people that wrapped around the store probably 3 times waiting to check out. They all had piles and piles and PILES of stuff. And they were all just standing there like a herd of turtles. I've never seen anything like it. I turned by butt right around and marched right back to my car! I still had about 45 minutes to waist before I had to get to the office so I decided to try Michael's. It wasn't too bad but I honestly didn't know what I wanted or needed there so I kind of walked around aimlessly...Ran into Michelle from work who actually had today off...Then I found a shadowbox that I'm going to make up for Megan's room.
So no real Black Friday coolness for me...Oh yeah! I DID go online when I went to work and got fabulous deals at Old Navy. I got each of my kids 3 outfits for less than $100 including shipping! And THEN I went to CK.com and bought Ali Edwards Life Artist book...such a deal! 16.50 with tax and shipping!
So I guess today wasn't so bad.
Except for when I got home...Dang Pete ate all the left over mashed potatoes! Every last smakrel of em! oooh he got an ear full from me!
Tomorrow:
possibly some shopping
maybe moving of some furniture to accommodate the Christmas tree
maybe some more baking
we'll see
Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Jake

Sometimes I forget he's still a little boy. He's such a big kid in so many ways. He speaks very well. He can go potty by himself. He can dress himself. He brushes his own teeth. He can almost tie his shoes. He gets his own drinks from the fridge. This morning though, I looked at him sleeping...he still sleeps with his tounge out like he's sucking on a binky. And I looked at his arms and he's still so tiny. Not tiny like a baby of course, but still a little boy. Sometimes I think I expect too much out of him. I expect him to look after Megan and watch her when they play outside. I expect him to behave when we're in public. I forget he's still just a little guy. Tonight he was all cuddled up with Daddy on the couch. He was so quiet I forgot he was still not in bed. I turned and looked at him and he was sound asleep, snuggled into Pete's arms. It was the sweetest thing! He's still my baby. It's hard to believe he's going to be in school next summer.

Real life. Right now.

There she is...taking every last bit of tupperware out of my cabinet. Again. This is life for us every day.
Hold on, this post is all kind of randomness!
I can't believe it's Friday already. And I've been a bad blogger. And Thanksgiving is less than a week away. I could have sworn we had another week. I'm ready for it though. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I suppose it will be a little strange and a little sad without my grandma though. hmmmmm. Ok I didn't come here to cry. (not today anyways)Let me change the subject...
We bought a new car. Well not a new car. A new old car. A little Honda for Pete. Turns out driving the big ole truck from here to SF every day and to the ranch 3 or 4 or more times a week was costing us ohhhhhh I don't know $1000 dollars a month. Yeah. Need I say more?
Remind me never to go on a scrapbook cruise. I was checking out Donna Downey's blog and she just got back from one. I didn't realize there were so many ummm...old people on cruises. And, I'm totally NOT against old people. Heck no. I guess that's not what I would call a good time. It seriously looked very boring. I could be wrong. Oh and I really have nothing against Donna Downey either (except that maybe she's pushing her "stuff" way too much on her blog) Ok now everyone thinks I don't like old people. My grandma was one cool chick. Seriously all I'm saying was that the pics on DD's blog looked like everyone was about to fall asleep. Donna and her husband were the only ones having fun. So it appeared. Of course, if I were to go on a scrapbooking cruise with say...all my blogland scrappy friends....WELL that might totally be a differnt subject! Now that sounds like a good time!
Yoga pants are the best things ever. I'm not kidding. They are so comfortable. At least the ones I have are. And no..I don't do yoga.
Speaking of exercise...You know how like a month ago I was like "hey my pants don't fit and hey I've lost 15 pounds" or whatever? Remember that? Ok well the truth is, I totally made that 15 pound thing up. yep. The thing is, I don't have a scale. It's one of those things were I just never got one. You know, I didn't put it on my wedding registry so I never got one. So I just figured it was about 15 pounds that I lost. Anyways, the other day I was at my friends house and she's commenting on the fact that it looks like I've lost weight...yadda yadda yadda...She happens to have a scale in her bathroom...long story short: DUDE, I have lost twenty-seven pounds since January. TWENTY SEVEN. 2. 7. wholey crap! I thought the scale was broke. I had to get on it 3 times just to make sure.
While I was at my friends house I took some pictures of her new baby girl. If your interested, you can see them here The first half are unedited and then the 2nd half I kind of photoshopped...well as much photoshopping as I know how to do. But I think they turned out pretty okay.
I'm planning on a pretty crafty weekend. I've got all kinds of little projects started. We'll see how far I get with it. And maybe I'll post again over the weekend. Have a good one!

Wow, Yeah it's been a long time since I posted! The computer has been monopolized by Pete every night this week so I havn't been able to update.
Seattle was so much fun! Chrissy is great. Seriously, I saw her sitting on a bench waiting for me and it was just like I'd known her forever. No akwardness whatsoever. (in case anyone was wondering!) We walked all over Seattle on Friday, (yeah, we were kinda lost) and then we walked all over Bellevue on Saturday (but we didn't get lost over there!) My legs are still hurtin' from it! (uh huh, I'm a little out of shape)Ok they're not hurting anymore, but they were when I wrote this...like 4 days ago. LOL! But it was really a lot of fun. We met Nicole and Jaquiline on Friday night....Nicole is just as sweet in person as she seems on her blog. And Jaquiline and I were on the same flight home back to California! She lives near me in Santa Rosa and told me about a scrapbook store in Berkeley that I'm going to have to go check out. Seattle was a beautiful city, and I really felt at home there. If it didn't rain all the time, I could live there. It was like a little miniature San Francisco..but better! Pete did great with the kids while I was gone...but I guess he hit up one of his sisters to watch Megan on Saturday. That's ok though. :) He told me he could never deal with me being gone for like a whole week or anything. He said breakfast and lunch was no problem, but he'd have a hard time with dinner....He said he'd have to think about it all day, and that he'd have to stop what he was doing in the late afternoon in order to make dinner. Really? ya think?! LOL!! Noooo, I could never relate to that! ha ha! But in his defense, he did a really good job, and I came home to a clean house, freshly mopped floor, and all the laundry washed, folded AND put away (for the most part). So he get's an A for the weekend. :)
The time change has really screwed me and the kids up. I hate when we switch from daylight savings. Yeah, I know we get an 'extra hour' to sleep or whatever...and it is nice that it's not pitch black dark when I leave the house in the morning...BUT it IS pitch black when I get home and I can not stand it! I hate driving in the dark. It took me about 15 minutes extra to get home yesterday. That's a big difference when you've only got an hour and a half to get dinner and baths in before bed time. Oh yeah, and Megan was just fit to be tied Monday night. She was so ready to go to bed by the time we got home. In her mind it WAS bedtime. So I put her down by 7:15 and didn't hear a thing from her the rest of the night.
I think the time change has messed with my mood or something. The last two days at work I've been really cranky. You'd think after such a good weekend I'd be in a good mood. For some reason I'm just not! I guess I should be grateful for this job where they pay me a lot to do nothing. (And I am) but grrrr...I get so uptight when people don't do their own work....or expect others (me) to do it for them. And I didn't know this either...but apparently, I'm a personal fax machine. Yep. And why does the day seem so much longer, even though it's dark earlier? Every time I look up at the clock, I swear it's moving backwards instead of forwards.
Anyways, I can tell my attitude problem is seeping into this blog post so I'll end it here. Here's some pics from the weekend :)
Look! I'm touching the Space Needle! Little did you know, Seattle really IS a miniature city! ha ha ha!!!

Here's Chrissy...isn't she cute? :)

I love this one!

This is from the roof of our hotel-so cool :)

Here's one of me just for giggles...my face looks really red...not sure why other than it was kinda cold up there!


Ok, more later..someone is freaking out right now..it's bed time!

I have been a bad blogger. How is it that a week has past by already? More than a week...it's practically Tuesday. Heck, it is Tuesday somewhere.
I really have absolutely nothing to talk about. (*surprise*) We've been up to nothing except for a evening visit last week from our pastor, my good friend having a baby, regular work stuff, and the ranch. Lord help me...could the ranch be done sometime soon? Not that that will mean anything will change around here I guess. Just more work! But don't get me wrong, it's a good thing. It's hopefully going to get me out of my go no where lame job. So for that, I am thankful. It's just been a long haul that's all.
We're also gearing up for Halloween on Wednesday. Since we moved to this neighborhood we have hosted trick-or-treating for the family. Pete has 3 sisters, they all live here in town, and all have kids. So everyone comes over here for dinner and trick-or-treating. We always have a really good time. But this year because of work and stuff...it's just kind of hectic. I usually try and make dinner...like actually make it, not order out! And I usually do something special for the kids..like last year I made them some gooey punch or you know, something like that. I just can't do it this time..so we're getting pizza! Who doesn't like pizza anyway? So, it should be fun.
As soon as Halloween is over then I gotta get my butt in gear and pack for Seattle! I can't wait!! People at work are saying "oh, so your going to go see your 'Internet friend'" Like, I'm special...if you know what I mean. I just laugh at them. I'm thinking I'll wear a big sign that says I *heart* Scrapbooking! so Chrissy will recognize me in the airport. What do you think?
One more thing before I go...
So there's this guy in my building..he's on the 2nd floor. He's a total butt. I've tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but after today, I'm convinced he is a huge @$$. About two weeks ago I get on the elevator on the 10th floor. I'm riding down with another woman from my floor and she has her hands full. I mean, FedEx box, mail, her purse..all kinds of junk. She can barely hold it all. We stop just short of the ground floor on 2. A man gets in. @$$ man. Now, normally all the men in the building are like, OVERLY chivalrous. Like if I'm standing at the back of a full elevator, they will all part ways to let me, the lady, get off first. Or they will run up behind me just to get to the door to open it. Super nice and polite. But this @$$ man guy...I have no idea what planet he is from, but he is just SO rude. So anyways, me, him and the lady with her hands full get to the bottom floor. He rushes out as fast as he can..but little hands full lady is right behind him. He opens the door, and just keeps walking and the door literally slams right in her face and he doesn't even look back! So I rush up, open the door for her and then say loud enough for him to hear it, "well, wasn't that NICE?!"
I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt that day..maybe he was really in a hurry, or maybe he didn't notice her right behind him...or maybe he didn't see that her hands were full (yeah right). But then today, he did the exact same thing to me! I'm not one of those girls who expects you to open a door for her, or let her get off an elevator before you. I'm not. But it's just not nice to let a door close in someones face. It's just not. Didn't his mother teach him anything? He must have been born in a barn.
The end.
Peace out. Hold a door open for someone tomorrow. :)

You know your a redneck when...

Your brand new plastic, yet fancy, salt and pepper grinders are now held together by duct tape.(at least I used black duct tape, right!?) Yeah, plastic doesn't hold up well on the stove top when you've got the oven on underneath it. Nope. And yes, I just bought these yesterday. Where they expensive? No. Could I go back to Costco and buy more? Yes. But that would be wasteful. And besides that I'm cheap. :| Which leads me to this thought:
Since when do you go to Target to buy $30 dollar jeans? Seriously! Don't get me wrong...Target is probably one of, if not my favorite store. I go there for just about everything. But I also go there for a deal AND I expect somewhat better quality than say something you would find at WalMart or even (blah!) K-Mart. But, that being said, I still expect to go into Target and get some basic jeans for $20 bucks. Am I asking too much? I mean, I could go to Old Navy and get some less than basic jeans for $25, or GAP outlet and get some for $40 bucks. So, why don't I go to those places and get them? Duh...Convenience! It is way more convenient to go to Target than go all the way across town to a different "better" store. Is that what I'm paying $30 dollars for? Convenience? Is it worth it? mmmmm Sometimes. But in the case of these jeans, probably not.
Why did I buy jeans at Target anyways? The answer is quite pathetic. Thursday at work we find out from our really cool boss that we get to have casual dress day on Friday! Woo hoo! Well, the bad thing for me was that I actually didn't even have any jeans at home that I would wear out of the house, let alone to casual day at work. As I'd mentioned before, my jeans were falling of my butt, not to mention the nice holes that had appeared in places, well, that just are not appropriate! LOL! So anyways, at lunch I had planned on going to Target anyways for some necessities and decided to just pick up a decent pair of jeans to wear the next day. So, I got me a pair for $30 bucks (a size smaller than normal!) and guess what? I totally need a belt, cuz these new ones actually still might be too big. Can you believe it? I'm not even trying to lose weight....just still watching what I eat, and still no soda :)But even without a belt, they're pretty cute jeans.
This is totally all I've got! Can you believe an entire post revealing just how cheap I really am?

Photoshop note: Melanie, I will send you an email :)

Another cool one..

Well, I think so anyways. I totally have a scrapbook page in my head using this pic. We'll have to see what comes of it. I had a few inquiries about the actions and links and such. So I will post some here in the next day or so. I'd do it right now, but um...well there's a pile of other stuff that I keep conveniently avoiding that I need to do.
More soon. Peace out.

Pranks, photoshop and other stuff

So, our house got egged. Yeah. Our pretty little red house got egged. And apparently it happened like 3 weeks ago and I just noticed it today. (LOL!) That's what happens when your driveway is in the rear of your house and not the front. My mom, Jake and I went out front today as my mother was doing her yard work at my house. (Luv U Mom!) Anyways, I turn around and see this huge dried up eggy mess running down the front of my house. So me, being a red head and all...I start ranting..."Our house got egged?! Stupid, freaking! GrHA! What the heck!!!" Apparently my kind neighbor heard me (I was so embarrassed!)and came over and told me that it did infact happen about 2 or 3 weeks ago. It was random as about 5 other houses were hit. It was a drive by egging...by some teenage girls. Girls! Gaww I hate girls sometimes. They're so mean. You know, I might have actually seen the humor in it if they had TP'd my house. I've been known to roll a few houses here and there in my youth. But egging? That is just not funny. I mean, we're going to have to paint over that spot. There's no getting it off. It's egg. Dried egg does not come off. So yeah, I'm kinda pissed. And kinda really embarrassed that I didn't notice it until now!
In other news...not a whole lot to report. Jake ended up being really sick last week. I took him to the doctor on Wednesday and he had an ear infection. And sice he had an other one less than a month ago, he's on some pretty heavy meds. He and Megan both still have bad coughs, but thankfully, they seem to be doing better. Thank goodness because I seriously need a break. I honestly don't know how I could handle being home all day every day. Megan is into everything. And I mean everything. All. The. Time. There is constatly a string of stuff all over the entire downstairs, all. the. time. I'm in the kitchen picking up everything she threw on the floor at breakfast, and she's in the dinning room pulling everything off my scrapbooking table. It's a never ending cycle and it makes me insane. And then I get mad, and really it's no one's fault, but it just makes me crazy.
Photoshop: So in the past week or so in my "spare" time I've been kind of messing around with Photoshop. I have PSE5. After doing some research I found out that you actually can run actions in PSE. And I found several free ones to download and I've been playing ever since. It is so addicting and just so fun! Here are some examples:
You may remeber this photo from way back in March:

And now here it is again after I cropped it and added a "soft focus" action:

I think it kind of has a dreamy look to it.
I also found a pretty neet but basic color popping action. Here is the before:
And here is the after: cool, huh? Just subtle enough to notice.

And here's one more just for fun...Pumpkin Patch Guy before:

Pumkin Patch Guy after:

Neat.O.
So do you guys wit DSLR's shoot in RAW or JPEG? Just wondering. Because I don't really know the difference, and during my research I saw several people saying it was better to shoot in RAW. But like I said, I don't really even know what that means. Less resolution?
Anyways, off to put these crazies in bed. Have a great week!

ho hum

Feeling kind of blah right now. Feeling like I kind of want to scrap, but that might take too much energy. Feeling like I need to start some laundry, but don't really want to wake Megan up right now, you know, since her room is right next to the laundry room and all. Thinking, maybe I should mop the floor. Maybe I should clean my bathroom. Maybe I should just sit here and write another boring blog post.
See, this is what happens when I get locked up for...what?...four days now. I lose all ability to do anything but veg. I hate admitting that I'm lazy to all of you. Well, today I'm lazy anyways.
It sounds like an infirmary in here.
Jake has the bug now too. He started looking all glassy-eyed yesterday and I took his temp. Yep 101*. But he's acting just fine. Coughing, yes, but acting like the same old Jake. So we're staying home another day. We're missing church and a friend of the family's wedding today. That's kind of sad...to miss out on something as wonderful as a wedding. But these kids really need to get better. They both sound horrible. I've always had a really bad sounding cough, so it doesn't really surprise me that the kids do too...but man, they both sound like little baby seals barking away. If the coughing and fevers don't subside by tomorrow, they are both going back into the doctor. I hate going to the doctor and being told, "don't worry, it's just a virus, give them lots of rest and fluids, put a humidifier in their room." and then just knowing 2 days later it's an ear infection or something like that. I know that antibiotics aren't the end all cure all, but it's like, could you please give me something to make them feel better?? Not only for their sake, but for my own? That sounds bad. Selfish. But it's true, as a mother you just hate to see your kids sick or hurt. Anyways...
Halloween is coming up soon. Jake could not be more excited about it. Everyday he's asking me if it's Halloween yet. And he remembers last year and our neighbors decorating with "bone hands" and ghosts. "Membo dat momma?!" Jake is going to be Spiderman this year (of course) and I still don't know what Megan is going to be. I thought it would be really cute if he was Spiderman and she was Wonder Woman. I found a really cute WW costume, but it was just too big for her, and with the weather being chilly like it has been, I think it will just be too cold anyways. So I still don't know what she's going to be. Any thoughts?
Uggghhhh, I hear her. She's up already from her nap.

Lovely, huh? This is what I've been dealing with the last 3 days. The girl is sick. I picked her up Wednesday evening and thought she felt warm. When we got home I took her temp and it was 102*! It just kind of came out of no where. So far it's just a virus..no ear infection or bronchitis or anything...yet. I'm supposed to bring her back Tuesday if she still has a fever. Tuesday?? That seems like a long time to wait to me. But anyways, so we basically been shut-in's the last few days. It's making me and both of the kids go insane. Sometimes I question my ability to be a SAHM if I really got to be one. I mean I love it, but at the same time it just makes me goofy. I CAN NOT stand the crap that just accumulates everywhere. It's like a never ending battle. It's like I pick up stuff all day long but at the end of the day there's still a huge mess. It makes me crazy. But what can you do? I'm not a neat freak by any means. But I do appreciate tidy-ness. Something I just can't seem to achieve these days!
I realized today I really need some new clothes. Ok, when does a woman not need new clothes? But really I do. I mean...it's pretty bad when your skinny jeans don't even fit you anymore...cuz they keep falling off my ass. I guess that should be a good thing. It IS a good thing! But I'm sure it looks pretty funny when I'm constantly pulling them up. I just need to break down and buy some that fit. I used to be able to wear jeans everyday, but at my job it's business casual, so it's all about the khaki's. I've procrastinated long enough, I need a pair of weekend jeans that actually fit me. I also noticed today I don't have much winter/warm stuff. I couldn't even find a decent sweatshirt to put on.
Isn't this the most funnest post ever? (enter sarcasm here)This is what happens when you lock me in the house for 3 days! Ok, obviously I have nothing exciting to talk about so I'll sign off for now.
Hey, what are your kids going to be for Halloween?

Seriously

I'm getting really tired of looking at scrapbooking message boards and galleries. It's almost all I do every day. Sad, isn't it? Pathetic, really. You'd think I'd find something better to do with my time. But, since my access is limitted at work, they let me look at the SB stuff, so i guess I should be happy about that. But I've gotten to the point where I LOVE looking at my friends stuff and I HATE looking at everyone elses. I feel like I've seen it all before. Instead of inspiring me, it's actually kind of like overkill. My brain feels dead to it. I never thought I'd feel that way. And there's really SO much good stuff. Especially on SIS. I mean really overwhelming. The message boards are all about contests that I did not enter because #1 I just don't have the time, and #2 because I'm just not too much of a contest person. And I'm just sick of hearing about it. And people getting all worked up about winning and not winning. I'm not competitive. On that note, I did submit a few pages (which I've never done before) just on a whim. I thought, you know, what the heck. (I'm a hopeless wishy-washer!) We'll just see if anything comes of it. *I hardly think so* I think my lack of intrest right now is all just a phase that will fade shortly. Scrapbooking is my thing and I'm really not ready to let it go.
Some things that have been going on lately at home:
The ranch: Is still coming along. Pete works his butt off. He really, really does. I am so proud of how dedicated and commited he is. But dang, the kids and I do miss him. You can really tell the kids do. They both RUN to him, arms out ready to embrace him every time he comes home. It's so cute! He loves it.
Megan: She's everywhere now. The girl runs everywhere she goes. And sometimes, for that extra bit of aerodynamicy (yes, I made that word up), she puts her arms back so she can get just a bit more speed. She likes to follow Jake everywhere, and loves to be in his room. He has a little tent in there that we keep up all the time and she thinks it's great to go in there and hide from me. She doesn't quite get that to hide, you need to be quiet. She thinks she's SO funny. She also LOVES the cat. Well, this is really nothing new. She's always loved the cat. But now that she is really mobile, she runs after her and then"pets" her. When I say "pet her", I really mean "beat her". She's not trying to be mean, she just doesn't quite get the whole gental thing yet. Poor Miss Kitty. But actually, she does't seem to mind too much. She'll just go hide under something if she gets too annoyed. Megan is not talking too much. She says a few things like "Hi" and what sounds like "brother" when ever she's near Jake...though I never call him brother, I just use his name. She also says "mow, mow" whenever she see's the cat. It's so cute! She loves to be picked up and she kicks her legs like a little frog in excitement. I love it! She also does a little bit of baby sign language. Like, 'more' is her arm streached out and her little hand making a grabbing motion.The girl mostly screams for everything. She's VERY impatient (I wonder where she gets that???) and screams if you're not quick enough with the food or the milk. She also really likes to "do it herself" when it comes to eating. If you try to spoon feed her, she shakes her head no. Little punk! We've been working on the spoon feeding though, and that does seem to be better this week. Oh yeah, and she HATES to be told "No". Oh boy, she throws a major fit. I love toddler-hood. If she wasn't so dang cute, I might go crazy! I do love her so much. Pete and I constantly give each other a look like "oh boy, this one is going to give us a run for our money!" LOL! She's a fiesty little thing for sure. She sure brings a lot of life and love to our family. I can't imagine what it would be like to not have her here.
Jake: He's been REALLY into learning lately. He's a really good "know-er" you know! It's like all of a sudden he just knows stuff. We came home from Hawaii and all of a sudden he can recognize a lot of letters in the alphabet, and numbers. A few months ago he couldn't even recognize the difference between letters and numbers. He is also gettting really good at writting his name. And all of a sudden yesterday he can write the letter H perfectly. He asks Grandma every day if he can do pre-school. He just loves doing it. And I love watching him. He's so precise about everything and follows directions really well, you can see him concentrating. He'll sit and color something for an hour. Just strokes of a crayon or marker up and down, up and down. He'll color a whole paper from top to bottom not leaving any white space left. He also loves to paint. The uninhibited mind of a child is amazing. He's just such a good kid. He's very sweet and kind, loves to snuggle and read books and of course, watch movies. Oh and he loves to "capbook" with me too! He used to be just like Megan when he was her age too! He sang us a "pecial song" tonight, all about Jesus. It was so cute.
Home: I'm thinking about hiring a housekeeper. I'm away from home at least 12 hours a day. Honestly, I just don't feel like cleaning all weekend. AND it seems impossible to keep up on it when there is constantly someone right behind you messing it right back up again. I'd just like someone to come in and do the heavy cleaning, once or twice a month. Then, I think I could keep up on the rest. What do you think? Any of you have a housekeeper? You know what's really funny? I have about 4 or so friends that are all SAHM's and they ALL have a housekeeper! And here I am gone all day and I don't. I'm not saying that you SAHM's work any less than I do. Heck no! Right now, ya'll are working 100 times more than I am! I just wish I could be HOME to keep up on stuff.
Me: I'm getting ready to go meet my girl Chrissy in real life! I'm so excited! I've never been to Seattle, never really been anywhere by myself before, AND no kids and no husband for a whole weekend! Just girls. I can't wait. We're also hoping to meet up with Nicole there too! She and her cousin are coming in for CKC. Seriously, it's gonna rock! I wish all my blog friends could come too! :( Wouldn't that be fun?
oh, and before I sign off here...I just want to apologize to some of my friends...I haven't been leaving a lot of comments lately on some blogs. Beleive me, I am reading, but at work I can't leave comments, and by the time I get home, I just have a hard time finding the time. SO, if you haven't heard from me in a while, I'm sorry and you will soon!
Take care!

Kauai intallment #2: The North Shore

So, is the music on here detering you from commenting? Is it like really distracting? I just thought I'd try it out for a while. I went old school this week with a little GnR. Love me some Axle.
It certainly is feeling like fall around here. Wasn't I just talking about it being 100* degrees, like two weeks ago? It's still warm I guess, but you can feel the crispness in the air. I like it, but it seems to early to be like this. It sure is making me want some pot roast or chicken soup. Why is that?
Kauai intallment #2: The North Shore
So, we finally get to the condo around 6, I think. And we are all so exhausted. It takes a good 45 minutes from the airport to get to the condo. Kauai really only has one main road. It goes from one end of the island to the other. The highest the speed limit ever gets is maybe 55. Maybe. So, it takes kind of a while to get anywhere. But that's ok, your in Hawaii bra, chill out! We stayed on the north shore of the island in Princeville. The north end of the island is the wetest. It rains quite a bit, but it is SO SO beautiful! Princeville gets 85 inches of rain a year. That's a lot. In fact, looming right behind Princeville, is the wettest spot on Earth. I forget what the mountain is called, but it gets 485 inches of rain a year. There's basically a constant cloud hovering up there. But if you ever go to Kauai, do not let the rain steer you away from the north side. It really doesn't rain that mouch and it only lasts a few minutes and then the sun is back out. Anyways, in my opionion, the north shore is THE most beautiful part of the entire island. When I mentioned staying in Princeville to a few people, they told me that was the snobby part of island. I sure didn't get that, so don't listen if someone tells you that. Our condo was right near a beautiful golf course and we had a nice ocean view. There were also tons of birds and chickens everywhere. Chickens run wild all over Kauai. They're even on the beach and at the airport! Here is a tour of some of the north shore beaches we went to. (and some of the prettiest the island has to offer)
Anini Beach:
This beach is long and beautiful and you can really see the turquoise water. It's very shallow here and we learned the reef is dead. I have no idea why. But because of that the snorkeling is not that good. No live reef=no fish. Lots of kite surfers and wind surfers at this beach.
Ke'ke's Beach:
This is where the road ends. The Napali Coast is just around the corner. There is no road to Napali as the island is so jungle like and rugged it is just impossible. The only way to access Napali is by foot (a 10 mile hike), by boat, or by helecoptor. Ke'Ke beach is where several scenes of South Pacific where filmed. It is a beautiful beach with a little inlet that is perfect for swimming. Then just beyond that is the reef where we saw tons of beautiful fish. Just like Finding Nemo.
Hideaways Beach:
They call it that for a reason. You'd never know it was there if you didn't know. We just happened to have this book that tells you all the scoop about everything! You have to hike down to it. You'd never even know the path was there. You go right inbetween to chain link fences and then down a cliff. It was super slippery because it had just rained and I fell on my bum. It was totally worth it though. Beautiful soft sand, torquoise water, practically deserted and good snorkeling.
Tunnels Beach:
This beach was freaking awesome! It is so beautiful, just look at it! This is where we had the most awesome-est snorkeling. We even swam with sea turtles! Tons and tons of beautiful fish, deep reef caves. Just freaking awesome. The only bad thing...mosquitos...or noseeums..or whatever, but dang if I didn't get eaten to hell all over the back of my legs. Do not set up camp under the trees, or bring bug spray if you do.
Ok, again, to avoid completely boring you, I'm going to stop here for now. Next stop: The other side of the island :)

Kauai installment #1...

So to avoid completely boring you about one subject and because I feel like maybe I have other things to talk about, I figured I'd give you the Kauai run down in sections. And then I'll move on to other stuff if I feel the need.
Kauai installment #1: Getting there:
Our plane was supposed to leave at 8:30 am from San Francisco International Airport. Since SF is close, but not that close to our house, we decided to stay the night near the airport Friday night to avoid having to get up in the middle of the night. Also, the hotel would keep our car for the entire week and shuttle us to and from the airport...all for $150 bucks. Cool deal, huh? Anyways so we get up at 5:30am, get on the shuttle at 6:30 and get over to the airport. We check in and find out that our plane will be delayed by one hour. The plane got in late the night before and required a crew rest. POOP. Oh well, right? Right. Just for to put this in your head for now: we have a connecting flight in Honolulu to Kauai.
The flight over went amazingly well. It's a 5 hour flight from SF to Honolulu. Megan was asleep before we even took off and stayed asleep for maybe 45 minutes or so. Jake was of course really good. I knew I didn't have to worry about him. The only problem we ran into was once lunch was served, Megan was in a playful mood and I just could not eat. I was making a mess and there was just too much junk and so I decided not to eat. Finally, after my sandwich was completely smashed flat, Megan decided to take a nap. She slept for the remainder of the flight. Thank goodness!
We landed in Honolulu at 11:30. Our flight to Kauai was at 12:05. When we got off the plane we were instructed to go to the inter-island terminal via the Wiki-Wiki Bus. Just step off the curb onto the bus, it will take you to the terminal, when you get there, just look at the monitor to find out what gate your flight is at. OK. So we go out to the curb....there is probably 500 hundred of us standing out there. I'm not kidding you, there were about 5 Wiki-Wiki busses that just passed us all by and did not pick any of us up. So obviously we missed our flight. Grrrr. We get to the inter-island terminal, expecting there to be someone from Hawaiian airlines to tell us where to go, or tell us to hurry they're waiting for us or.... something. Nothing. We ask someone and they say "oh Kauai flights leave out of gate 60" We go down to gate 60, there's no one there. There's a sign saying the desk is closed and go back to the Maui desk. Well there's about 100 people standing at the Maui desk. A Hawaiian airlines person comes by and asks if we have our boarding passes. "Yes we do, but...." and then she cuts us off and says "then just go to the gate". What gate? there is no gate # on our pass! AND we've already missed our flight! We wait in line some more and discover there is about 20 of us who missed our flight due to the late plane and the stupid Wiki-Wiki bus. A while later another HA emloyee comes by and says "I don't know why you missed the flight, because everyone else made it on". Basically, they were blaming us. They put us all on stand by for another flight...we waited some more. Then all of a sudden someone comes and collects all 20 of us and says they're putting us on the next Aloha Air flight. So we walk all the way down to the other end of the terminal and wait some more. (Are you tired of reading this yet? That's how I felt too...only 10 times worse!) Wait it gets better! So we finally get on the plane. We start taxi-ing out to the runway and then the capitan comes on..."Sorry folks we're gonna have to go back to the gate....there's a Blue Angles air show and the FAA has shut down the airspace above the airport for an hour". FREAKING HECK! So we all de-plane and wait another hour. It's now 3:30 Hawaii time, 6:30 California time (and remember how I didn't eat lunch on the plane?) Long and short of it is...(ok maybe the long) we finally get to Kauai at 4:45. We were supposed to be there at 12:30. We were so tired and exhausted. We finally got to our condo around 6:00 Hawaii time. LONG, LONG day! Amazingly, the kids were SO good through all of this. Such troopers they are. Jake even made a friend which helped a ton. The 2 boys played while we waited to get back on the plane. And as soon as we got in the rental car they were both out like a light!
To be continued......
I PROMISE the rest of the week WAY makes up for this. It was such a crazy day though, I just had to get the memory down

Feeling a teensy bit overwhelmed with stuff right now. I feel like I really need to tell you all about Kauai and not just show pictures. It really was an awesome trip...but see everyone is hungry, and someone has a stinky diaper, and there are two circle journals sitting on my table that need to be done, and I just got 300 pictures developed at Costco, and I just commited myself to a family project that I need to get done before Christmas. AND I still need to go get cought up on everyone's blogs. Oh yeah, and I need to do a layout for Unpubbed. And why am I still sitting here? It stinks! P-U!
I'll be back.

Home again, home again

jigity jig.
We had a blast! SOOOO much fun. Here is a slide show. More later!

*Aloha*

I'm sure this will be my last post before heading out Friday night. Just wanted it rub it in a teensy bit. tee hee!! We are so excited! Jake is really excited to go on a plane. He thinks it's going to come land at our house and let us get on and take us to "da beach". Crazy hectic around here figuring out what to do with 2 dogs, one cat, 5 gupies, and one lizzard named Fatty. I need a vacation to get ready for vacation. And then I'll need another vacation to recover from vacation. I think this is why they give Europeans the whole summer off. Pete told me I look pretty today. *glowing* He told me he can really see how much weight I've lost, especially in my face. Awww, he's so sweet. Then 20 minutes later "uh so, like when we get back from Hawaii, are you gonna like completely fore go what you've been working on? uhh you know, like with your weight?" Men. :p No, by the way, I don't plan to fore go it....but I do plan to eat what ever I want while on vacation. And you just can't help that the holidays are around the corner. Or, "Eat-Fest 2007". I don't plan on endulging quite as much in the eat fest as I did last year. We'll see.
Well, I had a bunch more to talk about, but alas, someone is crying and I've already been asked once to go help fold clothes. uhhhh. Well might not be here for a while. Have a great week...or 2.
Aloha!!

Pools, paper, movies and moose

September....is it the end of summer already? Can't be. It just can't be. It's just now getting hot around here! We've had a really mild summer for the Central Valley. It's been over 100 for about a week now though. Though it will stay warm through October, this is probably the last heat wave we'll have. Summer is definitely my favorite season, but I do also look forward to fall....The food in pots, warm baked goods, that slight crispness in the air. Love all of it. I'll even take the first rain. But after that, I can't wait for flip flops and tank tops again. September for some reason also seems like a time for new beginnings. I think it must be the kid in me that remembers the new year starts in September, not January. I feel the desperate need to organize and reorganize. I've got a list going already....organize pantry and pots and pan cupboard, clean out the junk drawer and cupboard below...go through Jake's clothes and bag up the ones for donation. Stuff like that. I've had 3 days to get started on this...do you think I've done a single thing? Nope. But hey! I've made the list...the list is better than nothing, right? Right. I will get it done though, it all needs to get done.
Pete is still gone in Idaho/Wyoming (he's right on the border of both states). He's been hunting for moose. (what the heck am I supposed to do with moose?!) He called Friday night and he'd found one to pounce on the next morning. So Sunday he calls and he got it. So you'd think he'd be on his way home, right? Well, no. He's got two other guys there he's got to guide. uhggg. He'll be home by Wednesday or Thursday. And then one more week until we go to Hawaii!!! Woo hooo!
Does anyone know of any good movies to rent? Whenever Pete is gone I take the kids to the video store to pick out a couple to watch and of course I get me one or two too. I was walking around there though and nothing really looked good. Do you have any recommendations? Seriously, I probably haven't seen 1/2 of the movies that have come out in the last year. And I'm sick of watching Air Buddies. I mean they're cute pups and all...but good lord if I see it one more time I might go nuts! I did rent Bridge to Tarabithia...and if you haven't seen it yet, it's a really great story. I remember reading the book as a kid and the movie is just great. Totally reminds me of being a kid...missing having that unstoppable imagination. Where did those days go, huh?
That's all we've really been doing this weekend. Hanging out at the pool and watching movies...Jake has learned if he plays in his room, Megan won't bug him. So I've had a few quiet afternoons with him upstairs playing by himself. It's kind of cool! Saturday we met my friend Kathleen and her son and went over to Berkeley to the Paper Source. Kind of a wasted trip. I mean, it's a cool store I guess....I guess if you have lots of money. Cuz it's pretty darn expensive. It's more geared towards stationary and card making but they had some BEAUTIFUL hand made papers that were hard to resist. Except for the price. uggg! Some of them were 12 dollars a piece! 12 dollars! They are pretty big...maybe 14x18 but still. The 2 I got were 8 dollars a piece. I still can't believe I bought two pieces of paper for 16 bucks. Crazy.
Well, I'm getting bugged for Air Buddies again.....help me!

about stuff

*I'm warning you now..this post has no real point..just another one of my random ramblings about stuff*
Funny thing I just noticed....Just put Jake to bed a second ago. I swear, he really is more like me every day. Little things I notice here and there. I have this kind of funny thing where I can not stand if the sheets and blankets are messed up on the bed when I get in. Pete could sleep with half the comforter falling on the floor and the top sheet balled up in the middle of the bed. Me? No. Can't stand it. The sheet and blanket have to be all strait and neat when I get in. No mother, I don't make the bed when I get up in the morning. You'd think I would...but who has time for that? So anyways, back to Jake...last night his comforter had fallen off the bed so when I got him up this morning I just threw it on top of the bed and we got dressed and left the house as always. (I'm a great house keeper as you can plainly see) Tonight I'm tucking him in and he says "make sure you fix my blanket first mommy" he gets in and I cover him up and tuck him in all nice...He says "oh! it's so nice and strait!" and lets out a little happy giggle. He was so happy about it! I just chuckled to myself and smiled. He truly is my kid. 100%. No doubt about it.
Little miss Megan had her 12 month check up today. That girl is 33 inches tall! Think about that for a second and let it sink in...she's 12 months old and 3 inches short of 3 feet. Yeah, she's totally off the charts in height.I'm growing a giant. She's so funny, she holds anything she can find up to her ear and "talks" like it's a phone. For instance tonight I see her toddling around with one of my flip-flops up to her head and she's babbling "ma-ma, ba ba ba! Hi!" So funny!
Haven't talked about my job in a while...If you've been following along, most of you know I took a new job earlier this year after working for another company for the last 6 years. Well I'm going to go ahead and write it out loud....It quite possibly was one of the worst decisions. hmm. yeah. Aside the fact that I'm completely bored every day, fight to stay awake at my desk and probably within the near future will need medication to stabilize my mental health, I'm working for a company that very well might be going under. Some of you know I'm in the mortgage industry and well....if you watch any news or own a home or are trying to sell a home, you can probably guess that the real estate market is pretty much in the crapper right now. And so is the mortgage industry. And, I just happen to work for the one company that is ALL over the financial news these days. Yeah, the one where the CEO of the company looks like he sleeps in a tanning bed? Yeah, that one. I don't really have anything else to say about it, but I do wonder if my days are numbered there. I mean how long can they afford to pay me to do nothing? Not really sure what I plan to do, if anything, about it. Just ridding it out for now, but lord have mercy, it's dread full.
Our office likes to take up charitable collections for certain things all the time. Not that I'm against charity, NOT AT ALL....but sometimes we really struggle just to make it to the next paycheck. I feel so pressured to donate stuff to these things. This month being back to school and all, we set up to donate backpacks and school supplies to a local elementary school in Concord. Michelle and I went and delivered them yesterday. Wow, this school could not have been in more need for this stuff. Most of the students there are very low income Hispanics or Asian and a lot of them barely even speak English. There were parents in the office that didn't speak English at all. We walk into the office and it's sweltering in there. It was 100* in Concord yesterday and there was no air conditioning...NO AIR CONDITIONING!...and there was about 20 kids sitting in the office at 2:30 because their parents "forgot" that it was an early day. For some reason here in CA the kids get out early one day a week. And their parents FORGOT they were there! How sad is that? There were 4 ladies working as office staff...besides the fact that there was no air in there...they had desks in places that weren't supposed to have desks...one of them stuck out into a doorway. The "staff room" was about as big as my bathroom with a refrigerator that had to have been about 40 years old. It was just sad. Why is education not held to a higher standard in this state? I've been out of the education scene for about 6 years now and I guess I just forgot what crap these kids and teachers have to deal with. I saw signs posted in the same school district on one of the major streets in town saying 350 teachers left the district because of benefits. 350!! And do you think they were replaced with quality staff? I doubt it. They were probably replaced with "teachers" that are still in school and haven't even finished the credential program. It's sad. It's becoming more of a real issue to me now that I have kids going into a public school system here next year. I could go on and on I suppose but I better quit here.
Pete is gone to Idaho for the week so you know what that means....chips and salsa for dinner, staying up way too late etc...
Guess I better get my butt upstairs.
See ya :)

*Birthday Girl*

Seriously, just yesterday I finally realized just how cool it is to have a girl. Not that I haven't enjoyed Megan this whole time, but oh my gosh....After dressing her up yesterday and doing her hair...Well, I just can't stop gushing over her and how cute she is! And how fun it is to dress her up. Tomorrow she turns one. I can hardly believe it. The year has FLOWN by so fast. But at the same time, I can hardly remember her as a newborn. It seems like just yesterday, but because it's all been so fast, it's like...where did my baby go? She started walking last week...and this week she's saying stuff. She screams when she wants more food...so we tell her "say 'more please'" so she says "mo-mo". Today we were at the Dr.'s office and she dropped the sticker they gave her. I said "uh-oh!" she repeated and said "oh-oh, oh-oh!" It was cute, but it's crazy how once they hit 12 months it's like their brain development just takes off. Crazy. Crazy good and crazy bad all at the same time.
Here are some more pics from the weekend and the cake-eating:




This last one just cracks me up. She's like, "what is this stuff all over me?
Ok, now I'm going to talk about Jake. Well, Jake and me really. Do you ever feel like you're holding your kid back? Like you're holding them back from experiencing things, or being who they want to be? Ok example: Me? For some reason I've got social issues. I'm really shy. At first anyways. I've always been shy, but it just takes me a few minutes to warm up. Sometimes I make plans and then I end up "flaking" because I just feel like hanging out in my jammies all day. Or I want to do something, but I don't call because I feel like I'm intruding or something. Or sometimes, if for some reason I feel like I can completely control the environment or situation, then I can be completely outgoing. (there really is a point to all this...i think) Anyways, so we're at my best friends house on Saturday. Her little girl is turning 4. (Jake and Emily are only 10 days apart!) Kari and I have known each other since we were 3, but we haven't lived near each other since we were 7, nor did we ever go to the same school except for one year...she was in first grade and me in 2nd. So we've never really had the same group of friends. She and I have remained friends all these years, but we don't really have any mutual friends together. SOOO me, Jake and Megan are at this party, but we don't really know anyone there or any of the kids. So me, being my shy self, just kind of meander through the back yard...Keeping close tabs on Megan as she crawls around, and there's Jake....He's practically glued to me. He followed me everywhere. I said, "why don't you go play with the other kids?" Jake: oh, they said I couldn't play. So not true. All he wanted to do was go inside and watch Sponge Bob. (he doesn't get to watch that at home cuz we don't have cable) Then it was time to play games. Jake really wanted to play, I could tell he did. But I could also tell that he was nervous about the whole thing...and I could sense that he thought everyone was looking at him...and he didn't like it. But he LOVED playing the games. The thing that got me was this is SOOOOO EXACTLY what I would have done..and basically DID do and DO now. I kept looking at him and saying to myself "oh. my. gosh. He is ME." He is SO me. Did I do this? Did I make him anti-social? Have I showed him to hold back? I feel like I need to be a better example to him. I already know he's WAY more outgoing than I EVER was. I need to encourage THAT behavior. It's so hard being a parent sometimes. You just want your kids to have the best life and be good people. Jake is good people, that I know for sure. He's very well behaved and a really nice kid. I can see it when we're around other kids. Chrissy was talking about it on her blog...She has good kids too.
The good thing about the whole party was after the games, Jake really opened up. He found a buddy and they played tag and ran around together and I could see he was really having fun. Whew, that made me happy. I opened up a little too. I just dug in and helped Kari with the party. Took pictures for her, helped serve up cake and ice cream...that sort of thing. I had fun too :)
Ok,this has been a long one! See ya :)
P.S. Mom, or anyone else that's interested, there are more pictures here.