Pam's Place

M & M Dude's Best Father's Day

2009-08-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

On Father's Day, M & M Dude and Mr. President went to Infineon Raceway in style! M & M Dude won tickets to the Nascar Race which included hospitality tent seats and driving a Toyota Tundra around the track with a couple of the Nascar drivers in the back of the bed of the truck. M & M Dude ended up not driving the truck because there was not enough trucks for the number of winners, so he ended up being a passenger (with Mr. President in the truck too). This worked out to their benefit! While driving around the track, M & M Dude saw Tom Cruise about 4 feet away and said, "Hey Tom Cruise", and pointed to him. Tom Cruise saw Mr. President in the back and said, "Happy Father's Day" to my husband and waved to my son! This was one of the highlights of M & M Dude's life. When he called me right after, he was so excited! It took a couple of days for him to come down from the clouds! And it did not help that his Nascar Driver, Kasey Kahne, won the race also!

This picture with M & M Dude's arm sticking out of the truck was taken by one of the kid's former teacher's husband, who happened to be at the race and did not know M & M Dude was at the race.

Braces

2009-07-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

Last month, Firecracker hit a new milestone. She got braces! And had them put on 2 days before her 8TH Birthday! M & M Dude and I both had braces and did not expect to have our youngest child to start with braces first and even a little earlier than we started (I had braces put on in 3rd grade). Firecracker actually has the opposite issue (underbite) than us (overbite).
BEFORE PICTURE

AFTER PICTURE

Hawaiian Luau Birthday

2009-07-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

Firecracker decided to have a Hawaiian Luau Birthday Party this year! Thanks to the Internet I was able to find lots of ideas. Her 8Th Birthday party turned out great and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. To start off the party, we made message in a bottle invitations with sand, shells, and an umbrella. (We just used recycled water bottles).

We had many activities planned for the party! Including a water balloon toss, pinata, limbo and an erupting volcano (this was the boys' favorite).

My favorite part of Firecracker's Birthday was her cake. I had so much fun with the cake. I purchased a Costco cake, scraped off the flowers, made some white and sea-blue colored frosting,added brown sugar to create the sand and blue frosting to create the waves, and added a few things (umbrella, lounge chair, plastic sea animals, palm trees and a hula girl.

Maui Week 2

2009-06-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Here were the highlights of our 2nd week in Maui:
*Upgraded to Ocean Front 2 Bedroom
*Lei Making
*M & M Dude & Mr. President seeing an 80 year old turtle up close while snorkeling; he even looked them right in the eye and then swam back down to the bottom of the ocean! And they even saw a huge puffer fish and some type of fish with vampire teeth that we cannot find a picture in any ocean books (maybe it's a new species?).
*Maui Ocean Center- loved the turtles. Some interesting facts about turtles:
1. Wait until they are 25 to have babies
2. Their shells actually tan. If they don't have any exposure to sun, their shells turn white.
3. They are carnivores at first and then become vegetarians
*Dinner at sunset at Kimos (best ono ever with coconut panko crust and spicy peanut Thai sauce and pineapple salsa & can't leave without sharing Hula Pie)
*Searching for sea glass

Maui Vacation Week 1

2009-06-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

Since I've got one kid home sick today, I thought I should start getting caught up on my blog.
We have a timeshare in Maui and we go every other year. It's a place where it feels like home and can't wait to come back to!

Here are some highlights of our 1st week:
*Found our new favorite restaurant, DA KITCHEN with the best Teriyaki Chicken and Potato Mac Salad!
*Mr. President's quote when we landed, "Boy, I really love the smell of Maui!"
*Scoring 4 FREE ticket to the Maui Ocean Center because the Marine Naturalist was a No Show at the resort.
*Playing Bingo and winning lots of stuff (bottles of pineapple wine, free kid activities and shaved ice)
*The kids collecting plumeria flowers
*Whale Watching~ incredible!!! Saw lots of activity despite being late in the season! One whale slapped his tail 7 times in a row.
*Swimming or snorkeling at the pool and beach every day
*Watching the beautiful and very different sunsets every night
*Exotic Flower Tour- absolutely amazing and educational tour
*Luau- great food and drinks; the fun, dark walk along the beach walk back to our resort
*Visit to the Grand Wailea
*Playing with the crabs on the beach (the crabs would run for any tree nuts we would throw at them). It was too funny;))
*BBQing at the resort

Concannon Winery Tour

2009-06-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

Towards the end of April, M&M Dude and I went on a personal winery tour with M & M Dude's cousin and husband. I've written about Debbie and TC before as we spend a lot of time with them and even though we are relatives, they are more like friends to us! They had won a special tour of the winery for 4 and we were honored that they invited us to spend the day with them. The tour was on the historic Concannon Winery in the Livermore valley. Our tour guide was very informative. Besides tasting wine, my favorite part of the tour was learning about the wine barrels specific tree types used and why many wine growers used to use rose bushes at the end of each of grape vine row (because the rose bushes would tell the wine growers that there might be disease in the particular row and they now just plant the rose bushes as a tradition because there are other ways to determine how the grade vines are doing.) We had a great time without the kids to just relax and chat and have some wine and had an early Mexican dinner. A wonderful day!

Mini Reunion

2009-06-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

In April, we had a mini girl's high school reunion. Many of us had not seen each other in over 20+ years, but it felt like old times! We had fun catching up, eating awesome food and wine, and reminiscing over old times.

Posts coming soon: wine tasting and vacation in Maui

A little behind... Fieldtrip to the POND!

2009-06-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm so so behind on posting. I'm very sorry! I'm going to try to catch up within the next week.
In April, I went with Firecracker's class to the "POND" in Livermore. We had a really good time with a little hike, lunch and an education on bugs by the park rangers. The kids each got a little bug net to find bugs in the pond. They found all kinds of things like frogs, mosquito larve, a dead bee, tadpoles, a couple of little fish.

Friends, Fun and a Movie!

2009-04-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

With my kids being in Year Round School, they had a very, very short Spring Break (3 days off). We went to see the Monsters vs. Aliens movie with our friends. I was a little resistant in seeing this movie based on the previews and some one's comments about the movie. But, I loved it! We saw the 3-D version and I don't normally like 3-D movies as they normally give me a headache. Not this movie! I couldn't even tell I had on glasses. After the movie, we went over to Barnes and Nobles and us girls (adults) each got a coffee!

The kids looked around at books and a few purchased books. Then we headed over to our friend's house for more fun, lots of girl chatting, food and a surprise wild rain storm!

Awesome EASTER

2009-04-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

I know I have not posted in awhile. Sorry!
We had a very fun EASTER with my husband's side of the family. My In-Laws has always had such great EASTERS at their house. This year they changed it up a bit, but we loved it!
BRUNCH
Easter Egg Hunt. This year each kid had a specific color of plastic eggs to find. Mr. President was orange and Firecracker was pink (she is no loving pink right now, but was okay with it since she is the only girl in the family). This worked out perfect in that everyone got the same number of eggs to find and $ in the eggs;))
Pinata The new Easter addition and the kids had a ball!

After brunch, hunt and pinata, the grown-ups sat down outside and just talked and watched the resident squirrels and blue jays eating the peanuts my father in-law threw on the lawn.

My In-Laws took us out to yummy Chinese later in the day. It was such a PERFECT DAY!!

NEW RIDE!

2009-03-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Remember this and this? Well, this past weekend, I got a new car! Since I'm going to need another car soon, we thought we would take advantage of the great deals and save on the upcoming 1% sale tax hike and DMV fee increases starting next month. I totally love my new van! I know there is many people who will ask why I got another van. Well, I love having a van. I'm a soccer (& softball) Mom and proud of it! My kids love to spread out and not be next to each other.Typical kids! Remember when you were a kid and did not like having your sibling touching you in the car? My Mom actually put a masking tape line on the backseat and told my sister and I not to cross the line since we were fighting/touching each other:)) I feel very spoiled with the leather seats, automatic doors, seat warmers, dvd player, etc... We still have my old van which M & M Dude is now driving to work; that is until it dies. (I predict that it will last about 8 more months:))

Let's Play Ball!

2009-03-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Firecracker's softball season has started. She has been practicing twice a week since Feb. This past Saturday was Opening Day. Her team, The Bomber Babes, have been "Smoking" the fields since. So far, they have had 2 games and the scores have been 11 to 4 and 25 to 3. This is Firecracker's sport! She is a natural and she really enjoys it, which makes it so fun to watch!! Firecracker hit a double on Saturday and she has been playing catcher for half of each game. This position is totally my Firecracker!! I'm looking forward to a great season!

Two Quick & Easy Crock-Pot Recipes

2009-03-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's starting to get to that busy time of year for us and I have 2 crock-pot recipes that I use on a very regular basis. I thought I would share them with you:
PULLED PORK SANDWICHES
Ingredients:
Pork Loin
Favorite BBQ Sauce (whole container or jar)
Place pork loin into crock-pot and pour the BBQ sauce over the pork. Cook on low for approximately hours. Take pork loin out of crock-pot and shred pork and return shredded pork back into crock-pot and stir. Keep on warm until ready to serve. Serve with hamburger buns (we like Orawheat whole wheat buns) and grated cheese (optional).

SOFT CHICKEN TACOS
Ingredients:
3 or 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Favorite salsa (about 2 cups; I just pour a little salsa on the bottom of the crock-pot and then cover the chicken with more salsa)
Cook chicken and salsa on low for 6 to 8 hours on low. Shred the chicken and return to the crock-pot. Note: it will seem like there is too much salsa, but once the chicken is shredded the chicken just soaks up the salsa juices. Serve with tortillas, cheese, tomatoes, olives, lettuce, and sour cream!
Hope you enjoy! These recipes are life savers for me on busy softball and soccer nights!!

Somebody is growing up!

2009-03-10T09:42:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Mr. President is 11 today! Where has the time gone?

He celebrated his birthday at the bowling alley this year with all of his friends. Most of his friends he has known since 2nd grade with a few even from kindergarten! They had pizza, cupcakes and Mr. President even requested that I make my bubble gum cookies for his party.

His celebration is not over, as we are taking him out to whatever restaurant he chooses tonight and then we will head over to Cold Stone! Once my sister is all settled in her new place in Granite Bay, we will all get together for Mr. President and my Mom's birthdays!

Awards in the house!

2009-02-23T10:13:00.001-08:00

I'm not talking the Academy Awards. These are awards that are closer to my heart! Both of my kids received awards last week at their end of trimester assembly. This assembly was even more special in that Firecracker received her VERY FIRST SCHOOL AWARD! Firecracker has always struggled in school and the fact that she received an award was HUGE!! Her teacher emailed us a few weeks in advance and we decided to keep it a secret so that it would be a surprise. Even my in-laws came to cheer her on! You should have seen her face when she saw M & M Dude (he rarely comes to the assemblies), her Vovo & Papa (my in-laws) and me there, yet she was unaware she was getting the EFFORT Award. I'm very proud of Firecracker as she has worked so hard this year!
And to our surprise, (well, kind of; as Mr. President's teacher is not very good at communication), Mr. President received the Principal's Honor Roll Award for having straight A's!!
As you can tell, I'm beaming with pride! I'm just so proud of both of them. To celebrate, we took them out to dinner on Saturday night! Their choice!

Mardi Gras!

2009-02-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

Mr President went to his school's Mardi Gras dance last week. Two of his really good friends were crowned the 5th Grade KING & QUEEN of Mardi Gras! They seemed to have a good time. Firecracker did not want to be left out so she had me get her a mask and beads too and she wore them when we picked up Mr. President and his friend (who happens to be a girl;).

Here is Mr. President in between the Queen and King!

My Funny Valentine

2009-02-14T17:44:00.001-08:00

I just had to share this. I was greeted this morning with Firecracker at my bedside anxiously waiting for me to get up. When I got up and went down stairs, she started making me a "special" coffee. She called it her "Valentine's Delight". Firecracker added conversation hearts, cinnamon, marshmallows, whipped cream, splenda, and popcorn seasoning. It was so yummy! (and I did not even taste the popcorn seasoning). Firecracker also had gifts for all of us. They were wrapped and everything! I kind of figured out my gift because I could not find the jar of peanut butter as I needed to make Mr. President a sandwich for lunch. She was very resourceful in that she used things around the house and geared them towards our likes: I got a jar peanut butter and a banana moon pie, M & M Dude received a can of diet Pepsi and lots of chocolate, and Mr. President received lots of candy.
M & M Dude even surprised me last night by bringing me my favorite orange/peach colored fragrant Argentina roses!
Happy Valentines Day!

Test Kitchen

2009-02-12T21:42:00.000-08:00

I've been busy of the last couple of weeks. I've always loved to bake even since I was a little girl. I was not much into cooking, but throughout the years I've become to love it! Maybe it's because I really didn't even know how to do basic cooking like browning ground beef until I was well into my 20's thanks for the help of my husband. (My mom loves, loves cooking and did not spend the time showing us the how to's.) Anyway, when I saw the 43rd Pillsbury Bake Off on the Food Network last year, I knew I needed to enter. I was not sure what I was going to enter, but I knew I had to do it. I received an email from Pillsbury about their upcoming 44th Bake Off in January and started studying the rules and eligible products. From there, I created 2recipes that I just entered this afternoon. One recipe took for awhile to come up with the final version and another is something that just came to me in one evening and a trip to the store. Keep your fingers crossed that I get selected as one of the 100 finalists! I'm not expecting to win, but would love the experience on being in the Bake Off!

Birthday and a bit of science!

2009-02-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday was M&M Dude's 42nd Birthday! Since we had gone out to dinner to his favorite pizza place in Ripon last Saturday and his birthday was the kids 1st day back to school after 6 weeks, we decided to do something very low key on M&M Dude's actual birthday. M&M Dude requested burritos and cold stone ice cream. Worked for me!
Originally, my in-laws were just taking us to dinner (M&M Dude's choice; a tradition), but a few days before asked if we wanted to go to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco too. Well, you probably knew our answer. We had a blast! I had not been there since I was a kid (and it was called the Exploritorium then). Since we knew it was going to be very busy; being a weekend and all, we got up at the crack of dawn and headed over to pick up my in-laws.
Here are a few of my favorite exhibits/shows:
The Rainforest (loved the butterflies)
The Living Roof
Fragile Planet movie
Bugs 3-D movie
If you have a chance to go to the California Academy of Science it will not disappoint! Just get there early as it gets very busy in the afternoon!

Had to post a picture of my guys watching halftime yesterday with their 3-D glasses! LOL.

Feeling like a teenager again!

2009-01-28T14:43:00.000-08:00

I broke down and joined Facebook last month. Many of my friends including my sister had already joined and thought "what the heck!". M&M Dude actually calls it "Crackbook" since I've become very addicted. I have found many, many long lost friends from my teenage years. I'm really not sure why I lost contact with many of them, but on Facebook (or should I call it Crackbook), I'm reconnecting with everyone and kind of feel like a teenager again. All those teenage feelings came back for a bit. But, one good thing out of all of this is that reconnecting with some really good friends and realized that being the 41 year old that I am, I feel very comfortable and confident in my skin which I didn't feel when I was a teenager. Have you joined Facebook yet?

Angels Were Watching

2009-01-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

Angels were looking after M&M Dude yesterday morning. M&M Dude was on his way to work and was hit by a box truck (larger than a Uhaul truck). The driver of the truck did not have enough time to stop and hit M&M Dude on the freeway and knock him into another lane. I'm so grateful my husband is okay and only walked away with a stiff and very sore neck. But, M&M Dude's baby (his truck) of 19 years might be totalled and he is very sad. Firecracker was looking forward to driving the truck when she turned 16!

Those kids are going to Fiji!

2009-01-20T12:28:00.001-08:00

On our way to Costco this weekend, we spotted 2 police cars and 4 teenage boys sitting in a row on a curb with their hands behind their backs at a nearby sports park. 7 year old Firecracker says to us, "They are busted; they are going to Fiji!". M&M Dude and I looked at each other, trying to understand what she just said. Mr. President figured it out right away and said to his sister, "When kids get in trouble, they go to Juvi (Juvenile Hall) not FIJI!" We all had a good laugh!
I would love to be in Fiji right now, wouldn't you. (Not Juvi!))

Please Pray For Harper!

2009-01-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

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I came across a blog yesterday. Kelly at Kelly's Korner really needs everyone's thoughts and prayers for her little Harper who was just born this weekend. Please say a prayer for Harper!

New 2009 Blog Family Names

2009-01-15T09:33:00.001-08:00

I decided to do something different for 2009 in regards to my family's names. Prior I was using their initials to keep things private in their actual names. This year, I decided to use a name that resembles each family member:

M&M Dude~ My husband is so addicted to Peanut M&M's so I thought this would be perfectly fitting for him. I will always remember the 1st time I realized he was addicted to them. We were in our first house and from the bedroom I could hear the sounds of "clink, clink, clink". I kept on hearing it from the front of the house. I had to get up and find out what it was. It was just my husband eating peanut M&M's from a M&M dispenser in the den. (He can actually eat an entire big bag of these in one day:))

Mr. President~ My son has the personality of a future president. He loves to debate. Always makes sure everyone is doing the "right" thing (even down to recycling). According to M&M dude's cousin, "spend a few minutes talking to him and he sounds like a little JFK!"

Firecracker ~ My daughter is a firecracker. We never know what she is going to do or say. She has so much energy and like my grandmother, is the "Life" of the party. She keeps us laughing non-stop!

Happy Birthday to my Beloved Grandma!

2009-01-08T13:40:00.000-08:00

Today would have been my Grandma's 91st Birthday! I was very close with my Grandma so I wanted to honor her today on my blog. She had a very hard life with 4 marriages and being a single mother of 3 for many years! Yet, she was the "LIFE" of the party! She was the "glue" of our family; keeping everyone in line. She was extremely outspoken and always let you know how she felt about something! I was honored to introduce her to many of my friends, who ended up becoming friends with her also! She was known for her wonderful pumpkin pies and passion for leopard print things (including underwear, but this is another long story :). My kids had to pleasure of spending time with her before she passed away so quickly almost 4 years ago. My kids gave her the nickname of "Little Grandma" because she was smaller and shorter than my mom. She loved this nickname. So Grandma, Happy Birthday!! I miss you and love you very much!

Confessions of a Juror!

2009-01-07T20:58:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday, I had the luxury of having Jury Duty. I was to arrive in our city's court room at 10am. After having to wait outside for 30 minutes, 50+ of us herded into the small courtroom keeping in mind that our courtroom is so old; looking like something from the 1950's era without any upgrades except a metal detector, TV/DVD player, etc.. As we went to lunch, there was 18 other people in the jury seats waiting for additional questioning. I thought my odds looked good. No such luck. After lunch, juror by juror were dismissed. There was need for additional jurors to make up their 12 juror requirement. I held my breath, but I was the 2nd one called out of 6 more people. Long story short; I ended up being juror #11. The case was to go until Thursday, but today after only 1 hour in the courtroom, the case was dismissed. I'm not sure on the full story as to why it was not dismissed because a lot of the discussion regarding some evidence was behind closed doors/the judge's chambers. I glad the case was dismissed as I was starting to feel for the poor defendant who was accused of grand theft of his employer. The District Attorney did not seem to have his act together. I know that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but I had a strong feeling from the beginning that this employee was very innocent even though I did not really hear much of the evidence. Obviously they did not have proof to prove otherwise and the defendant can go home and be with his wife and 3 kids. I'm really thankful that this case was short as my kids are on off-track right now and I was having to find someone to watch the kids for the next couple of days which I don't like to have to do. Thankfully, I have a really good friend and my parents!! Don't get me wrong, I do love the legal system and love being a juror, it's just that I'm not working right now and don't have regular day-care, it's just harder. The last time I was a juror was on a 6 week civil case in Stockton. I guess I'm just destined to be a juror. My sister says I get picked all the time is because I look alert, fair, and attentive.

Happy New Year & End of Year Sales

2009-01-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

I would like to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR with peace, happiness and health!

I wanted to share with you some of the great end of year deals that I scored on:

Raider Santa Hat 99 cents!

Cute Santa Advent Calendar $7.00~ I was going to make one next year with some great ideas in blogland, but this was too good of a price to pass on.

Photo Frame Ornaments $1.99 each. I saw some cute square ones from Pottery Barn but they were sold out before I could order. I found similar ones at Michael's. I bought 3 square ornaments for the next couple of years. Just need to pick up my wallet sized photos from Costco tomorrow:)

I've had this adorable picture of my husband for so many years. His picture was attached to this construction paper thing (M says it was a bee) that he made in either kindergarten or 1st grade and placed it a tiny box for his grandparents. His grandma gave it to me about 8 years ago and I never knew what to do with it. I just kept the little box in our X-mas ornament boxes since I couldn't hang it anywhere and the paper was so worn and fragile. Last night I carefully removed the little picture and added it to acid free scrapbook paper. Now we have an ornament! And I found a small photo of me around the same age. Both will now be on the tree every Christmas!

Christmas Highlights

2008-12-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

As I listen to M & the kids play Guitar Hero in our sun room, I thought I would catch up on my blog.
We had a great Christmas spending time with family. Here are some the highlights & pictures: (Warning- lots of pictures below. Sorry! My camera last year was not working and felt the need to take lots)

*Having my sister and family here for 6 days. (I have not seen them in a year and have not seen my sister's stepson in 2 years)
*Making ornaments with my nephews & kids
*Our annual ornament exchange pizza party
*The kids playing with nerf guns all of over my house. A few nerf bullets stuck to my ceiling. One nerf bullet is heading towards my head in a family picture courtesy of my little nephew:))
*Making lots of apple pie and having everyone devourer it!
*My 6 year old nephew saying, "T, you hit the jackpot!", when T opened a Lego present.
* Playing Wii all day long; every day
* My 7 year old daughter "smoking" everyone at baseball on Wii including her dad, uncle, brother and 12 year cousin. (and all the boys were so mad). You Go Girl!
* Enjoying just appetizers for dinner on X-mas Eve (a family tradition as long as I can remember)
* Playing BINGO- I inherited a really nice bingo set from my old job. I bought 10little prizes and put them in gift bags. We played at my house on x-mas eve with my side of the family and then brought the game to my in-laws on Christmas day. I was fun for everyone; from the youngest to the oldest.
* S receiving a bag of snowman poops from my mother in-law inside one of her gifts. So cute!
*Having a really nice time at my in-laws. Wonderful roast, mashed potatoes, her famous string beans and carrots.
*Realizing that my 12 year old nephew is way taller than me. I noticed this when I need to look up to him when I was talking with him. He wears a size 12 men's shoe already. Can you imagine how tall he will be when he is 18? Scary!

Monday Movie

2008-12-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

On Monday we got together with our really good friends for a movie (Bolt), Blizzards at Dairy Queen, and a little shopping. We have been friends since the boys were in first grade together. We get together every couple of months, but always do something around Christmas time. (We, the Moms, do things without the kids too like coffee and shopping). Unfortunately, our other friends were not able to make it this time as they were on their way down south to visit family. We had a really great time with lots of laughs. The movie was awesome; I loved the hamster and pigeons characters. They made the movie!

Christmas Weekend Fun With Family & Friends!

2008-12-22T16:15:00.001-08:00

We had a busy weekend with many fun family and friend activities:

*Finishing up our baking (Bakerella's cake pops, my homemade applie pie)
*Family party at M's cousin's house
*My sister and family arriving from Arizona
*Our annual Christmas Ornament Exchange at Pizza Plus in Ripon

See lots of pictures below:

Proud Mama of a poet!

2008-12-19T15:51:00.001-08:00

At my kid's off-track assembly today, my son and a few other students were chosen by their teacher to read their Christmas poem. I'm very proud of my little poet. And so is my Mom since she is someone who has written many, many poems and has even had 3 published!

In case you can't read the poem, here is his poem:
Christmas Is Here
Winter is fun,
It's no time for sun
Christmas is near,
it's coal some fear.
Christmas is here,
it's time to cheer.
Hot cocoa galore!
Presents more and more and more!

S and I have been baking up a storm. Below is a new recipe for me but turned out great. They are my friend Jen's chocolate peanut butter balls recipe. We actually made 71 of these easy and YUMMY things!

Now I'm trying to finish another type of cookie and getting ready for my sister and family arrival tomorrow. YEAH!!

Wrapping & Crafts

2008-12-18T10:00:00.001-08:00

I just finished wrapping last night!! YEAH!!

I also had some time to do some crafts. Hopefully, my sister, Mom, Mother In-Law, Sister In-Law, and 2 best friends don't see this before Christmas because it will spoil there little surprise.

Now on to making more cookies!

A new invented category of music!

2008-12-14T20:00:00.000-08:00

On our way to drop the kids off at my In Laws house on Saturday night (so we can go on a date with our good friends)we were listening to the radio. An oldie, The Tide is High by Blondie came on. My Darling 7 year old Daughter says, "This is Beach House Music". We have never heard of Beach House Music, but we happened to agree that if there was such a thing, this song would fit the Caribbean Beach House category!

Do you agree?

All I Want For Christmas........

2008-12-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

All I Want For Christmas Is SIMPLE PLEASURES.

I've always have been a very simple person with little wants. Somehow since I'm not working full-time now, my Christmas list is even more simple. I always love things that smell good or are soft to touch.

Here is my Christmas list. And Santa if you are reading this, I've been a really good girl this year!

Bath & Body Works Sleep Warm Milk & Honey Lotion

Bath & Body Works Perfect Cashmere Ballerina Slippers

Bath and Body Works Frosty Gumball Lotion (Have you smelled this?? It reminds me of my childhood. Love it!)
MAMA MIA DVD

Mama Mia CD

A Pedicure

Vera Bradley Caffe Latte All in One Wristlet

And some of the yummy Lindt Truffles

What is on your Christmas list??

Easy Christmas Craft

2008-12-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Remember this picture from yesterday's post?? S & I did an easy Christmas craft last weekend. I saw this craft on the Martha Stewart show a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect craft for us! Every year I just put our X-mas cards in a hanging wire basket near my fireplace but no one can see the cards.

Clothes Pin Christmas Card Banister Holder:

Cut wrapping or scrapbook paper to fit the top side of the clothes pin. (I cut one first and make sure it will fit and then used that one as a master to cut the rest of the paper.) We used 3 different wrapping papers to add variety.

Apply a thin layer of mod podge to the one side of the clothes pin.

Apply the cut-out wrapping/scrapbook paper to the clothes pin

Then apply another layer of mod podge directly over the wrapper/scrapbook paper

Wait for the clothes pins to dry a bit (10 mins)

Apply another layer thin layer of mod podge and shake some glitter over the clothes pin

Let the clothes pins dry over night

String the clothes pins through the tiny metal hole with a small/thin ribbon and tie to your stair banister.

Add your Christmas cards to the clothes pins as they come in the mail!

My kids have been having fun putting the cards up as they have been coming in the mail.

In the Christmas Mood!

2008-12-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

I'm finally in the Christmas mood! We spent most of our weekend decorating the inside of the house.

I love ornaments! For the past 18 or so years, we have had an ornament exchange with my side of the family. It is a blast and we love "stealing" ornaments from each other until they are "frozen"upon touching the 3rd person! This tradition started around the time M & I started dating and has gone on from just a few to as many as 20 people on the last Christmas with my beloved Grandma a few years back (we knew it was going to be her last X-mas so I invited everyone to join). And now we celebrate our 2nd annual exchange at a local pizza parlor when my sister who now lives out of state comes for the holidays since my sister and I have lots of mutual friends. So with the exchange, we gain 4 new ornaments a year which means we have a very large collection! I didn't even have room for all of them this year on our tree!

One of my favorites is below!

S & I also had time to do a craft. (More on this tomorrow)

I also have been enjoying lots of treats! I'm in trouble because I have a big sweet tooth right now and hope I don't gain too much weight during the Holidays;)

Yummy Hershey Candy Cane Kisses

These creamy Lindt Truffes (thanks to Cost Plus World Market for giving me a sample). Instant love for the dark chocolate ones; the blue ones). Love Schwan' Peppermint Stick Ice cream! Not too pepperminty; just perfect!And love this in my coffee!Hope you, too, are in the Christmas Mood!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"

Last Day 11-28-08

2008-12-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

Today was out last day. We got up very early (6am) and had our last breakfast on the ship. We were off the ship by 9:30am. We had a 20% coupon for the Disney outlet so we headed to Anaheim/Fullerton. We spent a good hour shopping. All the girls got Disney hats!

After shopping, we had a long 6 hours drive home with a few stops to eat and go potty! Overall, we had a very fun & relaxing Thanksgiving week. I did miss having a traditional Thanksgiving meal with my in-laws, sister in-law, and nephews, & shopping at the crack of dawn on black Friday with my good friend, Eria. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now I need to get in the Christmas mood!

Day 4 Thanksgiving 11-27-08

2008-12-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving. Our last full day on the cruise was a relaxing one. Beside it being a rough day at sea in which S & D getting sick, we had a fun day. With lots of hot chocolate!

Above is a picture of 3 girls with the same name. Well sort of... S's middle name is Rylee. When D was pregnant she asked M & I if it would be okay to name her daughter Rylee but would spell it differently. We were honored and of course, said "yes!". The girl in red shirt is S's new friend who is also a Rylee (spelled differently, too). I thought it was cute, so I took a picture of the 3 of them.

Since we had rooms right next to each other, we would leave little notes for each other on our doors using post its. TC being the 50+ year old kid, left us cartoons captioned notes every day. We didn't take them down because it was fun and easy to spot our room.

We did a lot of this on Thanksgiving. (No cooking, cleaning;).

As you can see all the girls had matching turkey shirts! We were the only ones of the ship wearing these cute Old Navy shirts!

S went on a treasure hunt to find the ship mascot. (notice her new friend, Rilley, in the background!)

Our Thanksgiving turkey meal was not very good. I'm still craving real thick fluffy mashed potatoes, thick flavorful gravy, and my mother in-law's awesome carrots. I guess that what we get for escaping Thanksgiving. Since I didn't stuff myself on turkey dinner (I only ate about 1/4 of the meal; it was that bad), I saved room for the wonderful warm chocolate cake (see above)

Then they surprised me by singing Happy Birthday to me! (Having a candle in pumpkin pie brings back so many memories of my past birthdays with my extended family. My cousin and I are only 9 days apart and when we would get together for Thanksgiving someone would always put a candle on the pumpkin pie for us! To this day, I HATE it! It feels like it's just an after thought mixed into the holiday. Thankfully, my family knows how I feel about this and always make sure I don't have pumpkin pie for my birthday. (Don't worry I had the yummy, big, chocolate cake from Costco this year. Thanks M!)

Day 3 of cruise 11-26-08 Mexico

2008-12-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

Today was our warmest day because we went further south to Ensenada, Mexico. We actually treated this day as just sea day because we didn't want to get off because of all the stories we heard of Ensenada. Don't get me wrong, we do enjoy Mexico and have been to Cabo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, & Cozumel, but we just didn't feel safe bringing the kids especially the 3 and 5 year olds. So we spent most of our day doing this:

And this:

And this (when the kids went to kid's camp). Note: this was the first time M & I played Sequence. We had so much fun playing. (hopefully M doesn't read this because I just purchased him the Jumbo Sequence Game for X-mas). The picture below of us playing was taken by T who didn't want to go to kid's camp so he tagged along with us and snuck my camera and took a picture of us playing. T ended up playing with us the following night after we found the Card Room which was a much better place to play the game instead of a small ledge in the lounge (where we actually played our game when there was 2 shows going on).We also enjoyed our day by making mudslides (adults only) and bringing our drink with us around the ship in our cute plastic cups with lids and straws. (Note: to save on $ this trip, each family actually packed a suitcase of drinks like bottled water, soda, bullet to make mudslides and wine for the adults. I know it makes me sound cheap, but we try to cut corners when we can since I'm not working full-time.)

The kids dressed alike for dinner!

And did more dancing during dinner with our waiter and assistant waiter!

Stayed turned for day 4!

Cruise Day 2 11-25-08

2008-12-02T19:30:00.001-08:00

We spent our next day in beautiful Catalina Island! We loved this little island off the coast of California. We tried to go on a glass bottom boat but the company we wanted to go with do not have any glass bottom boats going out today. So we walked around and shopped. D (M's cousin) won the grand prize drawing at Del Sol. If you haven't been to a Del Sol before they sell all kinds of stuff that changes color when you go into the sun. T purchased a lizard key chain that changes to orange in the sun.

After shopping we headed back to the ship and ate lunch at the lido deck. D's 2 little ones headed down for a nap and the 4 of us went miniature golfing on the top of the ship. It was fun and T got 2 hole in ones; one of them courtesy of his sister who happened to knock his ball in the hole on her turn. Mid-day the kids went to Kid's Camp and the adults had some alone time to relax.

Tonight was Elegant Night. We had the best lobster and shrimp dinner with our favorite warm chocolate cake that we had almost every night because it was soooo yummy.

T & Celine having fun with our waiter, TuTu!

Brotherly/Sisterly Love!

Stay tuned for day 3.

Thanksgiving Cruise Day 1 11/24/08

2008-12-02T10:02:00.001-08:00

DAY 1
We started our day off by sleeping in a bit. We all headed to the parking lot to load our luggage into our cars and TC's SUV would not start. We determined it was from leaving the DVD player on all night (oops). M quickly got out our jumper cables and we were on our way in no time We stopped by IHOP for breakfast and then had a half hour drive to the Long Beach pier. We were on the ship in no time as this was the fastest embarkation process ever! (A little side note: I should let you know now that this was not our favorite cruise because of the the cruise line. We tried this cruise line in 1996 and decided to give them another try. We will never go on this cruise line again for their lack of service, un-organized ship layout, and uncleanliness! We we made the best of it and were so grateful that we were with family who happen to be really good friends.)
After on the ship we walked around a bit and then had lunch at the lido deck. Then we went to discover our cabins and unpack. Next was our favorite: the muster station drill ;))

Then we went to dinner. We were assigned a table for 12. We were wondering who would fill the extra 3 seats. After about 20 minutes, a family of 3 showed up. They were a husband, wife and their 12 year old daughter. Quickly T and their daughter, Celine, determined they had so much in common with Club Penguin, Pokemon, gaming, intelligence, joking styles, etc... T and Celine were across the table from each other and most of our dinner conversation centered around T and Celine talking back and forth so fast that we felt like we were at a tennis match. All the adults agreed that we would place them right next together the next night. This worked out so well the following nights that we didn't even hear them talking (it also helped that both kids brought their game boys and played while connected until dinner came to the table).

After dinner we headed to Rex's disco for the Kid's Club Welcoming Party. The kid's had a really good time dancing. Rex's disco was very interesting with animal print walls. I'm not sure I would have liked to be drinking in this disco/bar as you might be very dizzy.

Picture of the kid's busting a move with the cruise mascot!

Stay tuned for Day 2!

Pre-Cruise 11/23/08 Downtown Disney

2008-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

We started planning this trip in late 2007 with M's cousin and family. We decided to escape Thanksgiving this year and go on a cruise. We left for our trip at 6am on 11/23 and headed down to southern California. We decided to go a day early. We stayed at our favorite Anaheim hotel. We arrived at the hotel, unpacked and headed over to Red Robin for lunch. Then we went across the street to a Target to get last minute items (I forgot S's nail polish at home). Then we headed over to Downtown Disney. It was so nice to walk around without having to feel rushed to get back in the parks. T was in heaven at the Lego Store. I think we spent over a hour in there.

We also went to the Disney Store and M's cousin (D) and I were able to get some X-mas shopping done as soon as we had the guys take the kids outside for a bit.

Picture of M's cousin, D, her husband TC, and their kid's, R & S.

S being Silly!

Next we went back to our hotel and watched the fireworks! M & the kids spent a good 2 hours building things from the GREAT bargain grab bag ($7.99) from the Lego store!

More of our trip later!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

2008-11-29T21:57:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We just got home late last night. I decided to have a relaxing day today (since it's my 41st b-day). I slept in until 9am which is late for me. My husband made me breakfast and then I went shopping all by myself while M & the kids straightened the house. Then my parents came out and took us to dinner. It was a nice way to spend my birthday! Look for more posts about our cruise tomorrow.

5th Annual Teddybear Tea Party

2008-11-22T20:33:00.000-08:00

Today S & I attended our 5th annual Teddy Bear Tea Party in our town. This is something that we really enjoy doing. For the past 3 years we have been attending the tea with our friends from Discovery Bay. I really enjoy going to the tea with either my mom or mother in-law. This year, my mom came. She loved it! The tea consists of a sit down tea with a server. Our server was a high school senior who will be attending San Jose State next year. He was very nice! We had good food that consisted of muffins, these awesome chocolate filled croissants, cute egg salad, bacon & corn, and cucumber finger sandwiches, and mini cheesecakes, brownies and S's favorite, cream puffs! This year we even got to keep our Christmas china tea cup and saucer. We will get much use out of these during the Holidays! After our tea, we headed over to do crafts. And then S and her friend E went into the kids only shopping area. This is where they can shop for family/friends and they even wrap the presents too. S shopped for 6 people for only $8. What a bargain! (A few years back S decided she needed to buy herself a gift. She came out with a gift tag saying to S from S. We all got a big laugh about that, but she now knows better.)

My Mom, S & I

S & her friend E. (They have been friends since Day Care when they were babies and are only a few weeks apart.)

S's favorite decorated tree for the year because it's her favorite color.

Well, this will be my last time to say Happy Thanksgiving for a bit! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Look for some long posts when I return with pictures of our mini- Thanksgiving cruise.

OMG!

2008-11-21T18:58:00.001-08:00

OMG!! I went to see Twilight this morning with 2 of my friends and one friends husband. All I can say is that I was just like a teenager and my friends were laughing at me making comments, sighs, and yes, crying! It was such a great movie! In fact, we didn't want to leave our seats and wanted to see it all over again! I know that some critics did not give this movie a good rating, but I believe that these critics did not even read the book. You need to read the book to appreciate the movie. I'm so looking forward to the next movie which they are already filming. Edward was so dreamy!! I'm still in la-la land! Hope you enjoyed the movie too!

Giveaways!

2008-11-19T10:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday Baker is at it again with her awesome giveaways. This time it's all about the homemaker. Check it out and enter her giveaway by Thursday. Don't you love these adorable gloves!

I can't Wait! Tickets already purchased

2008-11-18T19:31:00.001-08:00

I hate it when that happens

2008-11-16T14:01:00.001-08:00

I found a really great recipe for lemon lavender shortbread cookies about a month ago. I searched and searched for culinary dried lavender and finally found some in Cost Plus. S and I decided to try out the recipe last night. They smelled so yummy with the lemon and the lavender scents combined. We waited and waited for them to cool off. Then we tried them. YUCK!! They did not taste what I was hoping for. The lavender was so strong and not to my liking. Oh, well. Live and Learn! I think I will stick to my normal chocolate chip, snicker doodles, Russian tea, and peanut butter cookies!

Stocking Stuffers and Giveaways

2008-11-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

Check out this blog . Sunday Baker has an awesome Girly Stocking Stuffer giveaway!

I love stockings and have loved them since a kid. My Mom would find the most unique and very girly stuff for my sister and I. This has always been my favorite thing! I start shopping for cute and unique things to fill my kid's and hubby's stockings around August. I try to find things that are multi-gender since I have both a boy and a girl, but I love the girly things!

Do you have things that you always buy to fill stockings, year after year.? I always fill my kid's stockings with socks, underwear, a new toothbrush, and their favorite candy. My hubby always gets a bag M & M Peanut's. I always try to get my kids stuff that they are currently into. This year I have found some cool stuff at the Dollar Stores. I can't say what I've found because my son reads my blog on a regular basis.

Do you buy too much stuff that it will not fit in the stocking? I do! Every year I try to not buy too much, but I do! I guess I just love all the little stuff!

Do you have any cool ideas cool ideas of things to add to stockings?

Easy, Cheesy, Yummy Recipe!

2008-11-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

Inspired by a posting in blog-land, I made an easy dinner last night! I modified the original recipe just a bit. It was so Yummy that 3 of the 4 of us had seconds. (sorry no picture; everyone starting eating before I could take a picture).

Easy Cheesy Chicken
4 skinless/boneless chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cans Cheddar cheese soup
1 taco seasoning packet
1 cup sour cream
Fritos chips

Mix the 3 cans of soup and taco seasoning in a crock pot. Add the chicken. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours in the crock pot. Take chicken out of crock pot and shred with fork. Return the shredded chicken to the crock pot into the sauce. Right before ready to serve, add sour cream and turn crock pot to warm setting. Serve on rice or noodles. Crush a few Fritos chips and add to top of chicken.

Hope you enjoy!

I can't believe I won!

2008-11-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I won Sunday Baker's Blog Apron Giveaway!! I decided on the red one on the right (see picture below). The apron will be for my S, who wants to be a chef when she grows up! If you know S please don't say anything because I might give it to her for Christmas. I'm so excited because the apron is sooo cute and S will get lots of use of of it instead of wearing one of my old ones. Check out Stitchygirl's great Etsy shop here! Great ideas of Christmas presents!

YEAH!!

Great Giveaways!

2008-11-03T16:24:00.000-08:00

Check out these great giveaways at Sunday Baker's blog. The aprons are adorable. I might have to get one for S since she loves to cook.

She also has great cooking recipes. T loves her Taco Ring recipes!! Check out her awesome, creative candy turkey! Great stuff! Check it out!! I hope you win!

Halloween Week of Fun!!

2008-11-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a great, jam-packed, fun week!

It started with 5th Grade DARE Graduation for T.

Then a school Halloween Dance!

Then pumpkin carving! S actually did most of the carving all by herself this year! T's was his own design; a Star War's storm trooper. (see pics toward end of the post)

Then creating curls for S's Elizabeth Swan (pirates of the Caribbean) costume! (first time for me! not very good with hair)

Then the Halloween parade at school.

T and Alice from Twilight!
With a little time in between the parade and volunteering in class, I headed over here for my much awaited pumpkin muffin and a cup of coffee (I look forward to these muffins every year; they are my favorite! cream cheese, pumpkin and pumpkin seeds, oh my!!)

After school, we made some awesome, easy Carmel apples (inspired from Our Best Bites)! Rolled in chopped up Peanut M & M's (m's favorite!), snickers and Reese's peanut butter cups! So, so yummy!! Then we headed to T's best friend's birthday party. Yes, his birthday is on Halloween! He's the Freddie below. We had lots of pizza and treats and then the birthday party headed to the Red Bridge Community for Trick or Treating. (loved trick or treating in Red Bridge; this was our first time going here. Loved the small hometown feel of the streets, great decorations, and felt very safe. M made it home in time to go with us. We had so much fun!

T was a Domino's pizza delivery man! M used to work for Domino's when he was in high school back in the 80's. M kept his pizza warming container, his hat and shirt, but we could only find the warming container. So, I went over to our local Domino's and asked if I could borrow a hat and shirt for T's costume. His costume was such a hit! He used the warming box for his candy while trick or treating. When people opened their doors, they would say either, "I would like a pizza with cheese, sausage, etc.. or "How did you know I was just about to order a pizza!". It was too funny! A couple of his friends said they are going to be this next year.

Then we headed home (8:30pm) to quickly put out our pumpkins and hope for a few trick or treaters to show up. We only had 2 sets come to the door, but the last set was our old day care provider's daughter and we were all excited to see her!

After yesterday's 2 soccer games in the rain, lunch with my parents, and a end of season soccer party, I'm enjoying a relaxing day with just S. Since M & T are on their way to a Raider Game with my father in-law and one of our good friends. (M's old boss hooked them up with club level seats).

Four, Four... I've been tagged!

2008-10-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by friend and fellow blogger Jen to post and describe the 4th picture in my forth folder. Since I lost a lot of my pictures awhile back (thank goodness for saving them on disk and Shutterfly), this picture is from July 9, 2006. M and I were on our Alaska cruise (no kids). We were in Juneau and this is a picture of some of the glaciers at Mendenhall (spelling?) Glacier Park. This was an awesome cruise and would love to go back again with the kids this time.

Look for more postings in the next couple of days as there has been lots going on with Halloween and DARE activities.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Your Favorite Christmas Cookie??

2008-10-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm already in the Christmas mood. Since I now have more time, I'm planning on making lots of cookies for Christmas this year. I need your help in creating the best of the best cookie collection. I would love to hear what your favorite holiday cookies are? Which cookies do you have to make each year?? Or is there a special candy or fudge that you make. I would love to see your recipes. Every year, my husband begs me to make his favorite cookie. I've been making these for him for since 1992 when I found this recipe in a Family Circle magazine which featured the best cookie recipe between Barbara Bush and Hilary Clinton. Wow, that was a long time ago!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup solid vegetable shortening (I use Crisco)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 oz bags of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside. Beat together shortening, sugars, and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs, beating until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour mixture and rolled oats. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop batter by well-rounded teaspoonfuls (I use the small Pampered Chef scoop) onto cookie sheets (or baking stones). Bake 8 to 10 mins or until cookies are done. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 minutes before placing them on wire rack for further cooling. Yield 7 1/2 dozen.

A little spolied?

2008-10-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

My in-laws called earlier in the week to ask if they could come out and watch the kid's soccer games and take us all out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Oh course, we said yes as we love being with them! Well, my in-laws had some other ideas planned too! In between both soccer games we ended up going out to a late breakfast. After S's soccer game, we went to Dell Osso Pumpkin Patch. My in-laws spoiled the kids with pumpkins, horse back riding, face painting, and the corn maze. My Father in-law and T had a fun time getting lost in the corn maze. After the pumpkin patch, they took us out to dinner; our choice. We went to Famous Dave's! We love their ribs!

S had so much fun yesterday, that this morning she went up to her room and feel asleep. She is still sleeping as I write this and that was 2 hours ago!

Happy 13th Anniversary!

2008-10-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

13 years ago today, I married my true love and best friend! I can't believe it's been 13 years. Where has the time gone? It seems just like yesterday except it was much warmer this day 13 years ago! We have actually been together for 18 years. WOW! Since today is my crazy day with kid activities from 3pm to 7pm, I made M his favorite meal and homemade (and my own recipe) apple pie last night.

Happy Anniversary, M!!!

With all my love!!

P.S. I really wish I could have posted one of our wedding pictures. A photo scanner will be on my birthday & Christmas list this year;))

Crafty Weekend

2008-10-12T18:17:00.001-07:00

This was a crafty weekend for us. In between the kid's soccer games, we headed to Michael's for their annual Great Pumpkin Event. T & S each created a pumpkin. T decided to have "BOO" carved out and added some decorative things on top. S went for a mummy pumpkin but had to add some decorative things on top like her brother. I did a few crafty pumpkins borrowing some ideas from blogland (thanks to all of you for inspirations). My next craft is a chalkboard.

Lots of very generous give-aways

2008-10-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would mention a few great awesome give-aways that I found.

If you love Halloween, check out these awesome Halloween accessories here. This very creative blogger has great ideas for your home and yard sale finds! I now have a few ideas to decorate my house and most of you know that my house is sooo plain! I'm off to check out the craft stores tomorrow when the kids go back to school. Maybe when you come over next time, you will see some new decorations/accessories.

If you love purses, check this one out! I love the black one!

Happy Fall!

What would you be?

2008-10-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

My kids were having an interesting conversation a few evenings ago. I think S started the conversation. She asked T what animal he would be if he could be any animal. Here are the final conclusions after much talk:

S would be one of the following:

Hippo
Penguin
Koala (she made sure to tell me that Koala's are not bears; thanks to the education from the S.D. Zoo:)

T would be 1 of the following:

Whale
Penguin
Gecko

Since I got into the conversation, here is what I would be:

Dolphin
Whale
Giraffe

What would you be??

Mission Accomplished

2008-10-04T16:53:00.001-07:00

Both of my kid's accomplished major goals over the last month. S finally learned how to tie her shoes while we were on vacation in San Diego. After many years of not wanting to even try, T decided on his own that he did want to learn to ride a bike while we were on off-track. Yesterday, he finally was able to ride many laps at our nearby park without any assistance. I'm very proud of both of them for setting goals and accomplishing them!

Grandparents

2008-10-04T15:16:00.001-07:00

My kids have the luxury of having both sets of their grandparents only 30 minutes away. This week we saw both sets of grandparents in back to back days. On Thursday, we had lunch at our favorite restaurant with M's parents. M was even able to get away from work for a bit to have lunch with us. On Friday, we went miniature golf with my parents. I'm very happy that my kids are close to their grandparents and get to see them on a regular basis. I'm glad my kids really know their grandparents and know little details about their favorite things. I only had this experience with one of my grandparents growing up. M & I just recently lost our last grandparents this year and it makes me want to cherish my time with our parents/the kid's grandparents more because life is short!

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween.....

2008-10-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

S has been asking me over and over for the last couple of weeks if we could decorate for Halloween. I told her that she would have to wait until October before we could put up our decorations. S is very, very organized in planned activities. S has a calendar in her room and marks off every day with an "X" and keeps track of how many days until major activities or trips. So S knew that yesterday was October 1st. All day she kept on bugging me to decorate. So we did! Here are a few of our decorations.

Below is S & T's joint creation! They spent about 45 minutes creating this table.

I do have to admit that I love Halloween!! I love the fall colors! And I love how the weather is starting to change; I love it being cooler in the morning and evening, but still a little warm in the day. During the Fall is when I love to start baking and cooking!

Sweet Tooth

2008-10-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

With only 1 week left before they go back to school, I took the kids to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield on Monday. The kids have never been to the J.B. Factory and had a great time. We waited about 15 mins for our 40 min tour. The last time I went was on a weekend and they were not making any Jelly Belly's. This time they were making and packing all sorts of candy. I could tell right away that my favorite jelly belly was being made by the smell. (by the way, my favorite is Buttered Popcorn. I know it's weird, but I love it! In fact, when I was pregnant with T, I was so addicted to these! M thought it was so funny!) They were making 3 different flavors when we were there. Besides Buttered Popcorn, they were making Juicy Pear and Lemon and you could smell out each flavor as we walked down the upper hallways of the factory. The tour was very informative and we learned a lot about jelly bellies.

The top 3 flavors are very cherry, buttered popcorn (see I'm not weird after all), and licorice
They invented blueberry just for Ronald Regan so that he could have a collection of red, white and blue for his election
They built a special holder for a jar of jelly bellies in Air Force One that is still used from the 80's.

After the tour, we were able to sample all of the flavors of jelly bellies. The kids had a great time doing this. All 3 of us loved the new Cold Stone flavors especially the Mint Mint Chocolate Chip one. We purchased some jelly flops (jelly belly rejects) and we headed home and out to lunch. After eating a lot of candy, I could feel the sugar rush!

My poor, old van is getting very old & tired!

2008-09-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

We had an interesting Friday night!
My almost 8 year old van has been acting up since we got back from vacation. Last Sunday, while on the way to make-up soccer pictures for S, my van would not start. M was working and the van was blocking our truck (even though I can't drive it since I never wanted to learn how to drive stick:)) since our dear neighbors like to take the van's parking space on the street all the time (this is another story). My great, wonderful friend was able to help us out and drove us. She is such a sweet heart and I owe her big time!! To make a long story short, M played with the van a bit and got it to start the next day. M took it to work for a couple of days and it worked fine. On Friday, we went to Costco in the evening. (for some of my friends who are counting, yes, I did go to Costco 3 times last week as I somehow kept on forgetting things on my list). Everything things was fine on the way to Costco and after we loaded the back of the van, it would not fully start again! We tried a few times after fiddling under the hood, but it would not start. It's a good thing I still have my AAA card. I called AAA and after 30 mins we had the van towed to the dodge dealership. The very nice tow truck driver was even willing to take all 4 of us in his extra cab truck and drop us off at home after unloading the van at the dealership. Keep in mind, we had our Costco stuff in our laps and hands. It was a funny sight, but I was ever so grateful to the driver! I wish I had remembered his name because I want to send a thank you card to him.
M and I have been talking about my old van and we were hoping that it would last another year. I really like my old van as I can see so much better in the van with being up more and they kids have more room with the bucket seats and don't like driving M's car very much. And I really don't want a car payment right now. We really like not having any car payments. We did agree if the cost to fix my van was over 1k, we were going to just donate or junk it.
We got the results yesterday and it's the fuel pump and will be less than 1k! Yeah! I will have my van back by mid-week! I really happy and can't wait to have my van back!

100 things....

2008-09-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

A few other bloggers have done this, so I thought I would give it a try. I will try to get to 100, but we will see. So here it goes...

1. I was born in San Jose, California
2. I lived in Santa Clara until I was 4 years old.
3. I grew up in Pleasanton, California
4. My husband and I went to rival high school's, but did not know each other until we were in our 20's.
5. I have one sister (who is 21 months younger)
6. While growing up many people did not think we were sisters because we were so opposite in looks (dark brown hair vs. blond, almond shaped eyes vs round eyes, fair skinned vs easy to tan, etc....)
7. I was named after a radio talk show host (thanks, Dad)
8. I did not travel much as a kid except for the every other year trip to visit relatives in Oregon and Washington
9 I live to travel
10. Traveling is one of many things that hubby and I have in common
11. My dream trip would be Australia/New Zealand
12. I love Mexican food
13. I could eat Mexican food every day
14. I love chocolate
15. My favorite soda is Diet Cherry Coke
16. I also love coffee!
17 I started drinking coffee around 12 when my uncle let me try a taste of his coffee (with cream and sugar)
18 My first job was at Swenson's Ice Cream
19. Ice cream became my theme job for the next 3 years
20. My favorite, but most rewarding job is being a Mom
21. My favorite color is red
22. My Grandma was neighbors with Bing Crosby
23. My Grandma was a natural in playing baseball (she could have played in a girl's league)
24. I believe that my daughter has this gift too!
25. Both my kids were named by my husband; I came up with the middle names
26. We had our daughter's name picked out during our first year dating; she is named after a Fleetwood Mac song.
27. My son is named after one of my husband's favorite camp counselors
28 My first concert was a Madonna concert
29 I did not get married until I was 27
30 I had my first child at age 30
31. I went to 3 different colleges and graduated from 2
32. I was the first in my family to graduate from college
33. My husband and I are 10 months apart to the day
34. Both my husband and I are the oldest in our families
35. I love to create photobooks on shutterfly
36. I did not like mushrooms until I met my husband
37. I had braces for 5 years
38 I got my braces off on Halloween when I was in 8th grade (and I had a carmel apple to celebrate!)
39 I love to have popcorn with lots of butter when I go to the movies
40 I cannot sing; many people ask me to stop signing becuase it's not very good
41 In high school my friends called me "Sing Along Pam" because I would create new words for the songs but not for fun; I just heard the words incorrectly in the song:))
42. I was in drama in high school
43. I ended up finding my best skill in drama was being the make-up artist and not acting
44. I was also the Sports and Clubs editor for the high school yearbook
45 And one of my 2 page spreads in the yearbook won an award
46 I got in big trouble in 4th grade for chewing gum
47 I love getting pedicures
48 I love being barefoot; I don't like to wear shoes
49 One of my favorite vacations is being on a cruise
50 My favorite cruise was in 2005 when I went with my parents, sister & family, and my family
51. My favorite cruise excursion was horse back riding on the beach with my family
52. My favorite cruise destination is the Caribbean
53. My favorite cruise line is Royal Caribbean
54. I once ate 3 helpings of Tiramsu on a cruise
55. I can be shy at times, usually when I first meet you
56. I prefer small gatherings instead of large ones
57. I have trouble hearing in crowded areas
58. I popped my eardrum in high school and lost about 10% hearing in that ear; all from an ear infection that I did not know I had. (I have a high tolerance for pain)
59. My blond hair is natural; I do get it highlighted about twice a year
60. I'm the only natural blond in my family (my sis and mom dye their hair)
61. The first thing my father in-law asked me when I met him is if my blond hair was real
62. My son is more like me
63. My daughter is more like my hubby
64. I love details
65. I love to plan our travel trips by doings lots of research
66. I love ladybugs
67. I love children's books
68 I love to read
69 I love reality TV shows
70 My favorite movie is the Wizard of Oz
71. Grease, Mama Mia, Wedding Singer and Valley Girl come in 2nd
72. My favorite place to be is by the beach
73. I love sunsets
74. I love to hear waves
75. I sleep the best when I'm on a cruise; the waves just rock me to sleep
76. I love Fall
77. My favorite holiday is Christmas
78. Second is Halloween
79. I love to cook and bake
80. I don't like to mop floors
81. I like doing dishes
82. I love to read a good book
83. I had my tonsils taken out when I was in 1st grade
84. I stayed back in Kindergarten; I started when I was 4 years old & we just moved to a new town
85. My husband and I have been to Disneyland/Disneyworld every year except one since we met (didn't go the year our son was born)
86. My daughter went to Disneyland at 3 months old
87. I was in drama with 2 people who became famous (David Yost~the first blue Power Ranger, Kristin Baer~Romi and Michelle's High School Reunion
88. I love anything with cheese
89. In the winter, I love to curl up with a blanket and my family and watch a movie
90. For the last 20 or so years, we have had an ornament exchange during Christmas with my side of the family
91. My favorite flower is the rose
92. I wish I could be about 5 inches taller
93. My feet grew 1/2 a size with each kid
94. My middle fingers on both hands are very crooked; unfortunately my son inherited this
95. I love the smell on baking apples, roses, citrus, and clean clothes
96. I love going wine tasting
97. I don't like to drive when there is another adult in the car; I guess I'm self-conscience of the way I drive
98. I did not get my driver's license until I was 19 years old
99. I almost hit a power source when I was learning how to drive
100. I'm a very cautious driver
oh my... I made it. I did not think that I would make it to 100! Hope I did not bore you!

Still on Vacation Mode

2008-09-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

I'm still on vacation mode. I've been spending all my free time creating shutterfly photo books to capture the memories. If you want to take a peak at my finished books. The links are below.

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=9cd48cee212d48cf&sid=8EcNG7Zy1bsQe

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=0d82fa9aad0353bc&sid=8EcNG7Zy1bsQ8

I promise this will be my last post about our vacation;))

Day 8 San Diego Vacation 9/13/08

2008-09-22T17:20:00.000-07:00

Day 8 of our vacation 9/13/08

Legoland, Claim Jumpers & Outlet Shopping

Today was the last official day of our vacation. When I was planning out our days, I found out that this weekend was Star Wars weekend which both the kids & M love. We arrived to the park before it opened and it was pretty crowded but neat to see all the Star Wars characters. Lots of people even dressed up as their favorite characters. We participated in a Droid Capture Contest and a Stormtropper Letter Hunt. For the hunt, we had to go to the mini village area and there were mini stormtroppers action figures holding letters hidden within certain areas. For example, in the Las Vegas area we needed to find 4 stormtroppers holding 4 letters. Early on in our letter hunt, I figured out the puzzle. (May The Force Be With You). T and M were impressed that I figured it out before them since I'm not really a big Star Wars fan. Legoland was not my favorite park and I feel it's better suited for little kids who are 6 or younger. T did have lots of fun spending his $ on 2 Star Wars lego sets. He is now addicted to legos as has joined their lego magazine club, played with his legos a million times since we got back, on the lego website daily, and created a lego wish list for x-mas.

After Legoland, we headed to Claim Jumper (my Mom gave me a coupon right before we left and noticed that there was one near one of our vacation stops). After dinner, we headed to the outlet shops that were across the freeway. S got her first pair of Vans. They are totally her with flames and skulls.

This is the end of our vacation! The next day was just a long travel day home. I hope I did not bore everyone with our adventures. We really had a great time and are thinking about another San Diego vacation in the future!

Day 7 San Diego Vacation 9/12/08

2008-09-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

Day 7 of our vacation 9/12/08

Wild Animal Park, Fudruckers, Gaslamp walk down 5th Street, Ghirardelli

Today we went to the Wild Animal Park which was about 40 minutes from our hotel. I didn't like the Wild Animal Park as much as the zoo, but we still had fun and saw some animals that we would have never seen up close if we had not gone. The Journey to Africa Tram ride was cool (and similar to one at the Disney World's animal kingdom, but larger). I loved seeing the baby giraffes, cheetahs, mercats, and lions up close. We learned that cheetahs are very close to being extinct and the Wild Animal Park has a very successful breeding facility on site that might help with them not becoming extinct.
After the Wild Animal Park we headed back to our hotel. We were very hungry and decided to walk over to Fudruckers which was right behind our hotel. I have not been to a Fudruckers since Mitch and I were first dating (18+ years). I loved my hamburger. The kids ordered little cheeseburger sliders and had fun assembling their burgers.
Since we were so full, we decided to walk down 5th street for awhile and window shop. We walked down to the Petco Park area again. On our way back, we stopped to the Ghiraradelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop. The 4 of us shared 2 sundaes: Hot Fudge and Mint Bliss. They were awesome and fixed my chocolate craving!!

Day 6 San Diego Vacation

2008-09-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

Day 6 San Diego Vacation 9/11/08

Belmont Park, Flowrider, Phil's BBQ, & Giants/Padres Game

Today we went to Belmont Park which is like Santa Cruz but smaller. We went on a few rides. One of them was the Giant Dipper which is the same roller coaster in Santa Cruz (which is one of my dad's favorite rides. He even drove to Santa Cruz on his 70th b-day just to ride the roller coaster;) We were the only ones on the coaster and they guys working the coaster let us go twice in a row without getting off. It was a lot of fun! We also went on the bumper cars and the crazy cars (see S's picture above). On the Belmont Park property is a Flowrider which is the same as some of the Royal Caribbean cruises. Once we watched a group of boys/young men doing it, T had to do it! (This was also included in our Go San Diego card~well, almost everything we did on this trip except for food was included!) T & I ran to our van to get his swim trunks and rash guard and off he went on the flowrider. T was the youngest on the flowrider and he had a ball. He wiped out a few times.

Next we headed to Phil's BBQ which I had read a few places was the best BBQ place in San Diego. Phil's did NOT disappoint. The BEST RIBS I've ever had! Everyone loved the food! I wish we had Phil's nearby because I'm craving the ribs and mac salad right now.

Next we headed back to our hotel to drop off the van and walked over to Petco Park. The Padres won 11 to 2. Since my dad is a die-hard Giants fan, I called him during the game. Since it was 9/11, they had a Navy unit bring out a huge American flag onto the field and their band played the national anthem. It was nice to see something in remembrance of 9/11! Every time the Padres had a home run they would shoot off fireworks in the Padres' colors of blue, white and beige. We actually ended up on TV believe it or not. We watched a delayed version of the game that we found on TV when we got back to our hotel. Because we were near 1st base, every time a left handed hitter was up at bat, you could see us. We were able to spot us out because we saw my red jean jacket & S's light pink sweatshirt.

Oops!

2008-09-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

Oops! I almost forgot. September 10 was my nephew's 6th Birthday. We all called and sang happy birthday to him over the phone. Happy Birthday, buddy!! We miss you! Hopefully soon you will be back in California! ( my sister sent me pics from his actual birthday and the crown was from his teacher who has the same birthday);)

Day 5 San Diego Vacation

2008-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Day 5 San Diego Vacation 9/10/08
Padres Petco Park Tour, Harbor Tours, USS Midway, Double Decker Bus Tour & Old Town

Today was one of my favorite days of the vacation even though it was jam-packed with activities. We did not plan for it to be so jam-packed, but it just kind of happened because of location of the activities and our willingness to do more.

We started out by walking to Petco Park for our tour. The tour was awesome! Our tour guide, Don, was so informative about the park. We only had 6 on the tour; the 4 of us and a couple from New Jersey. Don showed us all around from the press box, a luxury box, the green room (where those who sing the national anthem wait), food delivery area, speciality restaurants, dug out, and walking on the field (not the grass). The picture above is us sitting in the Padres dugout. There is even air conditioning vents on the wood benches! Don even gave T & S padres tee-shirts which they both ended up wearing to the game the next night (see Day 6 entry coming soon).

Next we happened to meet a man (who we later found out was homeless) near the trolley station by Petco Park. He was so nice in showing us how to purchase tickets and how to ride the trolley. He actually rode the trolley with us to Harbor tour section. Mitch ended up giving him some $ and we offered to give him some food, but he refused. He made sure we were headed in the right direction and then said goodbye. We went on a 2 hour harbor tour which was 2-1 hour opposite direction tours. I love being on the water! It really relaxes me. We saw lots of seals, boats, helicopters, navy ships, coronado bridge, airplanes, etc... on the tour.

Since the USS Midway was right next door to the harbor tour we decided to take a quick tour. I wanted to see their sleeping quarters and M and the kids wanted to see the planes. It's amazing how much they can fit on the midway in way of people and aircraft.

We decided we wanted to go to Old Town for Mexican food for our "LaDinner". We saw that the double decker bus was stopped near us and knew that we could use our Go San Diego cards for the bus. So we hopped on and went to the open top of the bus and headed over to Old Town. I had read that there was 2 places that were comparable in way of Mexican food, so we tried the Cafe Coyote. The food was great! M ordered carne asada tacos, S had taquitos, T had a huge adult sized carne asada burrito, and I ordered a combo plate of a beef taco & cheese enchilada (not as good as our favorite Tracy Mexican resturant, La Villa). We walked around Old Town and then took the trolley back to the Petco Park station and walked back to our hotel. This was a long, but fun day:))

Family Photos at the Hotel Del

2008-09-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well, our disc arrived today. I've only viewed the 134 pictures twice, but here are a few of my first favorites.

I hope I'm not boring everyone with my vacation. I just live for vacations! Look for more postings of the rest of the days of our vacation soon;))

Day 4- San Diego 9/9/08

2008-09-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Day 4- Aquarium, Miramar Speed Circuit, Boomers, and Family Photos

Aquarium- the best parts of the aquarium were the tide pools (the sea cucumbers felt soft & slimy, the unemies (Nemo's home) felt like the kid's sticky hand toys that stick to walls and doors) and the feeding of the sharks off a pole with a clothes pin. They actually make sure each and every shark is feed and keep track of what they eat, including the vitamins that they stuff in the fish that they feed them;))

Miramar Speed Circuit~ next we headed to Miramar Speed Circuit. M and T had a blast. It was neat to see T driving a car!
Boomers~ since we had time to do something else today, we checked out Go San Diego Card booklet and saw that Boomers was close. We played a round of mini golf. T got 2 hole in ones & I had 1!. After Boomers, we headed to Red Robin for "LaDinner".
We had an appointment for family pictures at the Hotel Del Coronado at 5:50pm. We were a little early and so was our photographer so Michele started taking pictures of us early in the hotel garden area and then we were off to the beach for pictures. The sand on the beach was one of the softest, finest grain sand! I can't wait to see the pictures! I should have the CD in the mail any day now. (I will post some once they arrive). Michele was very nice and patient. We saw a seagull knock over a man's Corona beer and started drinking the beer from the sand. It was a funny sight. M informed the wife of man so that she knew what happened to his brand new beer. Michele recommended that we walk around the hotel and shops after our photo shoot. I loved the hotel and would love to stay here someday! It was so beautiful! We had ice cream at the hotel's own ice creamery (like Coldstone). T and S shared a choc/vanilla large ice cream cup and M & I shared a chocolate/peanut butter with Recees' pieces sundae. YUM!!

A Little History!

2008-09-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

A little history about our hotel (timeshare) in San Diego.

The hotel, Gaslamp Plaza Suites, was built in 1913 and was known to be the city's first "skyscraper" - 11 stories of marble, brass, mosaic tile, and Australian gumwood. The building was first occupied by banking, financial and jewelry businesses. Many of the original architectural aspects are still evident such as original marble on walls and stairways, coiffured ceilings, brass elevator doors, and Australian gumwood carpentry around the etched glass windows and doors. All are preserved meticulously in keeping with our status of being listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was like going back in time, especially going from the very contemporary Aloft hotel the night before to this historic hotel.

I was a little worried about staying in downtown area of San Diego when we first exchanged our timeshare, but the location was perfect for us. We were able to walk to many areas, there was lots of places to eat nearby and the kids got an education (homeless, nightlife, smells of things that were not cigarettes;))

Day 3- San Diego Vacation

2008-09-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

San Diego Vacation DAY 3- Sept 8

San Diego Zoo, Museum of Natural History & Corvette Diner

We started off all of our days at the top of our timeshare hotel, the Gaslamp Plaza Suites (more info on the old historic hotel later) for breakfast. The views were incredible!

Next we headed to the San Diego Zoo. The last time we went to the zoo as in 2001 (sept 12, 2001~ yes, the day after 9/11. We were on vacation in Anaheim and thought the zoo would be a very safe place to go.) S was only 3 months old. So this was all new to her. We loved seeing all the animals. My all-time favorite is still the giraffes.
A few more wild animals!

We took the double decker bus tour and the sky tram along the zoo. Other animals that we loved seeing where mericats, an eagle (eating a rabbit- YUK!), and a peacock that came right up to me and I did not have my camera on (darn). It was so beautiful and the bluest cobalt blue I've seen around it's neck.

After the zoo, we went next door to the Museum of Natural History. The new H2O Exhibit was the best. We learned/realized that there is not very much drinkable water in the world and I got grossed out by the unsafe drinking water organisms living in water and can kill someone within 3 days. Scary! We actually got in trouble at the museum because we were having a lot of fun in the H2O area and did not realize that the museum had actually closed and were told to leave.

Next, I surprised the kids by taking them to a really neat old 1950's type diner called Corvette Diner. I had read about it on-line and decided to not tell the kids anything about it. All the employees dress in 50's style type of clothes, they have an old corvette inside the diner and all the decor and music is in 50's style. Our waitress decided to wait until we were not looking and threw straws all over us and the table. The kid's and M laughed so hard! M and the kids had homemade ice cream milk shakes and they looked yummy. I decided to order a diet cherry coke. Well, it was more like a bowl or cherries with a little diet coke. (see picture below). We all got a laugh at this along with the waitress throwing Bazooka bubble gum all over us at the end of our meal.

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel and the roof hoping to see the sunset but some buildings got in the way. Instead, we had a bubble blowing contest with all of our bazooka gum from dinner.

Day 2- San Diego vacation

2008-09-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

On day 2 of our vacation we headed over to Knott's Berry Farm. The kids had never been here and M & I have not been here since we were first dating (about 18 years ago). We had a good time. The kid's favorite ride was Montezooma's Revenge which is just like the Tidal Wave at Great America. This was S's first upside down roller coaster and she loved it. When T first came off the ride he said, "Yea, that was awesome!!". Within 5 mins both kids were asking to go again. We did go again, but later in the day. I think that I'm getting older because I used to be able to go on these type of rides over and over with my dad, but my stomach did not feel so great after going on this 2 times. We also enjoyed 2 water rides and the new pony express ride even though it smashed my chest area a bit;))

After a day at Knott's Berry Farm we headed to Baja Fresh for what we call "LaDinner" = lunch and dinner together; can either a late lunch or early dinner however you look at it. We have been doing this for many years on vacation to save money. We just have a decent size breakfast, snacks along the way and then LaDinner and then snacks/dessert later in the evening.

After LaDinner, we went to the Anaheim Disney Outlet.

Then we drove to San Diego. It was a nice drive and we saw 5 hot air balloons near the ocean along the way.

San Diego Vacation- DAY 1

2008-09-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

We just returned last night from our San Diego vacation. Over the next couple of days, I will post entries from each day of our vacation as I kept a journal during our vacation. This was our first time on a San Diego vacation so everything (except the zoo) was new to us and we had a blast.

DAY 1- September 6

Soccer and travel day

Today the kid's had their first soccer games and both won!! T's team looked awesome! After S's 1pm game, we headed to San Diego. We decided to stay in the L.A. area on the way to San Diego to ease up on the long drive. Since we arrived in the L.A./Anaheim area around 8:45pm, we decided to head over to our favorite Starwood Anaheim hotel to watch the Disneyland fireworks from the parking lot (this is the best place to see the fireworks as the hotel is right behind where they ignite the fireworks). We met a father & son from Australia who gave us lots of travel ideas for our dream trip (someday:)).

We stayed at the new Aloft hotel. This is a very modern, contemporary hotel! I really liked the change to the traditional hotel. There was interesting blue water "goo" (kind of like liquid slime) on the floor board of the elevator. The hotel was organized like a loft type dwelling. I would definitely stay here again!

September 6 is also my little sister's 39 forever birthday!! Happy Birthday, Sis!! Love ya!!

The Twilight Series is now over for me:((

2008-09-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the last Twilight series book, Breaking Down. My favorite books were Twilight and Breaking Down of the 4 in the series. I know that the author, Stephanie Myer, says that this is the last book in the series, but I think that there could be another book to continue to story. For example, we never experienced Bella's mom meeting her daughter or seeing her after she transitions or seeing how Jacob and Renesme react when she gets older. Do they get married? Are they able to have children? Maybe, I just don't want it to end?? Can't wait for the movie in November and the 2nd Twilight book in Edward's eyes to come out.

Okay, I know it's been a long time!!

2008-08-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know, I know.. it's been a very long time since I've posted anything. I guess I've been busy? Actually, it feels like Summer break since my kid's just off-tracked yesterday afternoon and will be off for the next 5 1/2 weeks. Since I'm not working full-time anymore, it really feels like yesterday was the last day of school and it feels great! I've been busy with the following:

Taxi Mom- S is now seeing a tutor 2 days a week, S & T both have soccer practice 2x a week
San Diego travel plans- we leave for San Diego in 7 days and I always get so involved in planning our trips from reading reviews, spotting out great, interesting places to eat, etc.. I now have our who trip planned out by date. We decided to go with the Go San Diego Card and I've booked our days to get the most bang for our buck. The kids can't wait to go to Legoland & the Zoo. I'm looking forward to Belmont Park (like Santa Cruz) and having family beach sunset pictures.
Substitute teaching- I've worked a couple of days a week. I now have to say that 3rd grade is my favorite grade to teach! It's strange now that I run into students in town that know me from subing and say hi Mrs. W. It's kind of a neat feeling!
Pet Sitting- I'm watching my friend's 5 animals. I've been worried about the 2 outdoor dogs since the last 3 days have been 100+ days. My kid's have been wanting a dog for so long and I'm not sure that they want one now since I have been having them help with the responsibilities in the evening. They want a cat now, but our agreement before we got married was no cats. I guess they will have a wait until they move out:((
Royal Pirates 2010 Cruise- prices and more information just came out for our group cruise for June 26, 2010 to the Caribbean. A few of us just booked our rooms thanks to being repeat RCCL customers. It seems that all I can think about is this awesome upcoming cruise!
Breaking Dawn- I only have 80 more pages to read! I'm trying to make this book last since it's the last one in the series. Unfortunately, I know I'll be done before we leave for San Diego and will need to find another book to bring. Any suggestions??

Wow! I did not expect to write so much. Sorry to ramble on.

Great Weekend!

2008-08-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend! Hubby decided that he needed a weekend break from working lots of overtime over the last couple of months! On Saturday we went and saw Disney's Wall.E. Is was just okay for me. I prefer the very colorful Disney animation films, but there was 2 messages in this film that were tastefully done. The love story between Wall.E. and Eve was cute! After the movie we did some shopping in the Dublin/P-Town area and then headed over to hubby's cousin's house to bring over the new incredible "Oasis of the Seas" brochure that I got in the mail from our travel agent. We can't wait for our 2010 Royal Pirates Group Cruise!! We love spending time with D, TC, R, & S!! It's funny how D. is family, but I would have picked her as a friend; we have a lot of fun together and get along well!
On Sunday, hubby got 4 tickets from his old boss to the Raider Nation Fan Celebration at the Oakland Coliseum! We were able to go into the coliseum an hour before the general public. We went all decked out in our Raider's gear and had a blast! The kids got lots of freebies. In the evening, celebrated my inlaw's birthdays. I can't believe that my oldest nephew (age 12) is now 5 inches taller than me and wears size 11.5 shoes!!! He is playing tackle football and looks like an adult!! Scary to think that my own kids will very soon be taller than me too!
Picture of Silly S. on Friday night before we starting watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies!

Red Sky At Night!

2008-08-06T20:06:00.001-07:00

We had the most gorgeous RED sky last night!! It was so beautiful. I'm so partial to colorful sunsets. Is the old saying “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning” true, or is it just an old wives’ tale? Well, in our case last night, it would have been a sailor's delight in sailing this morning.

Breaking Dawn

2008-08-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm obsessed! I did something that I've never done before on Friday night (or should I say Saturday early morning). Some friends and I went to the book release of the final book of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer at our local Barnes and Noble. Boy, I felt so old being around all these teeny-boppers at the release party. I just finished book 2 and I'm starting book 3 today.

Maybe I should explain

2008-07-31T21:27:00.000-07:00

Some of you might be wondering about the blue ladybug thing? Well, I've always have loved ladybugs since I was young. It might have been from the year that we had tons and tons of them in our backyard and my sister and I collected some many in our bug catchers that Summer. When I was about 10 years old, I even wrote a book about a ladybug who changed colors (maybe someday I'll publish it:). Well, here is how the blue part of the lady bug happened. At S's 3rd Birthday, we had a lady come to our house who did face painting and balloons. S has always loved the color blue. She was very adamant about having the lady make her a blue ladybug balloon for her to wear on her wrist. Since it was her B-day, the lady was very happy to make whatever the birthday girl wanted. So this is how the blue ladybug thing happened. Ever since then, I started using the name blue ladybug. I even have a cute little wooden bug ladybug with a bobbling head from a lady I met on one of our cruises through cruise critic. Thanks to my daughter,S!

Twilight

2008-07-26T20:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm obsessed! A friend and fellow blogger suggested that I read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. She told me to not read the back of the book before I bought the book because I might not read it. I did read the back of the book at the book store and hesitated, but thought I would just try it out. Well, I just finished reading the 498 page book in 8 days! I can't remember how long it's been since I've been so into a book. I stayed up many nights this week not wanting to put the book down. I can't wait to start reading the rest of the series. I'm glad I purchased the 2nd book in the series, The New Moon, at Target yesterday. I'm actually thinking about going to the midnight book release party at Barnes and Noble next Friday night for the 4th book, and can't wait for the Twilight Movie in December. Thanks Jen!!

All Grown Up

2008-07-25T13:59:00.001-07:00

T went to his first dance last night. It's hard to believe he is growing up so very fast. He was so excited about the dance and it was nice to see him being so excited about something as the transition into 5th grade (middle school) has been hard for him the last couple of weeks. T actually asked one of his (girl) friends to go to the dance with him. I dropped him off a little before 4pm and he quickly went to stand in line with all of his friends. When I picked T up along with his friend, T's hair was all wet (sweaty) from dancing. For the next couple of hours, T talked and talked about the dance. They even did the Chicken Dance! T slow danced with a girl (not the friend) and I think he was the only 5th grader who slow danced. Oh my, my son is growing up!! The picture above was taken after the dance. All of the kids have been in class together since 2nd grade. (hopefully their parents don't mind me posting this picure; it was just a milestone day for them;))

It's Official

2008-07-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

It's now official! I can finally say with comfort that both of my kids can swim. T has been swimming for a couple of years now. S would only swim a few yards, until just this week. They are taking swim lessons for the next 2 weeks. As I sat in the hot sun (no shade anymore at the city pool since they cut down the old trees) the last couple of days, I was so proud to see T swimming like a pro with great form and S swimming about 3/4 of the pool length with no stopping.

Sunflowers, Sunflowers, and more Sunflowers

2008-07-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

Somehow everywhere we go, sunflowers follow us. We had lots of sunflowers at our old house that appeared one year even though we did not plant them. And, no, we did not even eat sunflower seeds outside. And every year after that, sunflowers would start appearing every Spring. Well, we have been at this house for 4 years now, and we are in our second year of sunflowers again. Again, we don't plant them; they just appear. They just like us, I guess! And we have "grown" to like the sunflowers, too!

First Post

2008-07-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

Well, here is my first ever entry on my blog. Since I'm now a stay at home Mom and substitute teacher I now have time do things like this. YEAH! I can't wait to start entering more stuff regarding my everyday life. Today is Friday and the 2nd full week of school for my kids is complete. We are in year round school and they started school on July 7th. I'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend. Hope you have a great weekend!