It’s almost 2011. Wow. Where did 2010 go? I remember last New Year’s Eve, our first here in NC. It was pretty quiet, but a ton of fun. Our friends were here with their kids.. including their twin girls.. Our girls were in heaven. We smoked baby back ribs, we had glasses of wine, we played games, and watched movies. Doesn’t sound like much, but spending my birthday in excellent company is my idea of fun!

Throughout the year, lots of cool things happened.

In January, I attended a totally cool event with EA SPORTS Active in Beverly Hills, CA .

February brought an amazing and truly magical trip to Walt Disney World courtesy of Hanes.

March was quiet, but a lot of fun here at home.

Easter came in April, as well as finding Tiger Rock TaeKwonDo, and signing up with them .. TaeKwonDo for me, keeping my Black Belt, and Tiger Cubs for the girls. I jumped head-first into classes, and found my love for TKD hadn’t changed during the 14 year hiatus…

May brought the awesome Air Show at MCAS Cherry Point, where we got to watch the Blue Angels in all of their glory.

June was fun, with a trip to Bentonville to see Walmart’s Home Office, meet some of the people that make decisions there, and attend the Annual Shareholder’s Meeting. I learned a lot about Walmart as a company, and grew a greater respect for them.

July brought fireworks, beautiful sandy beaches, and a visit from my parents… or Meemaw & Peepaw to my girls… The girls turned 5… and we had so much fun showing them North Carolina..

In August, I went to BlogHer in NYC... What a time that was! I met some celebs, and got my fitness groove on with Skechers. August also brought the girls’ first day of school… Kindergarten.. the official OH EMM GEEE they’re growing up- smack in the gut. I cried.. I admit it.. I’m a baby… I cried that my babies are growing up.

In September, I started a new fitness endeavor… Kisado.. High Intensity Interval Training. Along with my TaeKwonDo.. I lost 4 inches... Yeah.. I’m getting there.

In October, we celebrated Daddy’s birthday.. and Halloween. The girls were so cute. A-chan was Belle, and V-chan was a Pumpkin Fairy… She made that one up all by herself.. and I went with it.

In November, we marched with Tiger Rock TKD in the Veteran’s Day Parade. We brought breakfast for everyone courtesy of Eggland’s Best, and it was a hit!

December brought a visit with Grandpa Mark, and Christmas, and SNOW! Yeah.. it’s been a fun year… and today.. well, today is my 32nd birthday. I’ve lived 32 years.. and they’ve been amazing.

I have so much to be thankful for, especially in 2010. An amazing family, great friends, and a career that I absolutely love. I can’t wait to see what 2011 has to bring. Cheers to all, and see you sometime next year!

明けましておめでとうございます

Happy New Year!!!

Well, sorta… Friday was the girls’ Tiger Cub test… They tested for their Tiger Cub brown belt, and did pretty well. Daddy and I g

iggled because the one who adamantly refused to participate in her first couple of weeks of classes, now does super well in her classes and testing. Her sis, still seems a little shy at times, but loves her classes and looks forward to going. Their testing went well. Saturday was my test for my 1st Degree Level 2 Black Belt. I was pretty confident for this testing. I know my form. I’ve practiced my board breaks several times before testing, and even though I still need work on ECAS, I felt like it was going to be ok. I thought it went pretty well.

The big test was tonight. I’ve been spending countless hours up at Tiger Rock TaeKwonDo Academy, before and after Kisado, and attending classes… Learning every form from White belt on up to Black belt. Yes, learning… are ya wondering why I’m just learning all of these forms.. Shouldn’t I know them all since I’m a Black Belt??? Well.. no.. and yes. I don’t know if I said this before, but, when I joined Tiger Rock TKD in April, I tested in. I was a 2nd Degree Black Belt with another organization, and rather than have to start from scratch, I was basically given an assessment to see what I remembered and how I would be now. Luckily, I was brought in as a provisional 1st Degree Level 1. The deal was, I had to learn everything from White belt on up to my 1st Degree Black Belt form…. So, for the last 3 months… I’ve been cramming. 7 forms, escape skills, one step sparring techniques, and three step sparring techniques…. It was down to the wire… Literally. I went in early tonight, hoping to brush up on, and solidify a few things in my head…. and then I realized I forgot my book. Meh, minor detail. So I worked on the forms, did them almost all the way through without stopping… and then.. the One Steps.. UGH. I had been so concerned about learning forms, that I put these off till the last minute. I ran through everything and just prayed.

First, we went through the re-tests and late tests. The whole time, I’m going through forms in my mind. After that, I was up. I tried to just breathe. I went through White, Yellow and Green belts forms without much incident. I went through most of Blue, most of Brown, and Red. These three were the forms I had pretty much crammed for two weeks, and they were all melting together on me. It was so annoying. At one point, I was getting so frustrated with myself, I was ready to cry…. But I kept going. I had to get through it. The rest of the testing wasn’t without hiccups, but I made it through. Once I was dismissed, I went to the back room and changed. I pretty much burst into tears in the bathroom.. I had hoped no one heard me… Of course, I know they’ll read this .. LOL.. I was fine though. It was just 3 months of stress and frustration just completely released. It felt good. I could breathe again. I could relax a little bit. I rinsed off my face and put my hair back up, gathered my things, and got ready to run to the store. I found out that I passed. Phew! I have finally achieved something that had been a goal of mine since childhood. I am super excited!!!

And now… I want to thank everyone who helped me through all of it

Mr & Mrs Ashton, Mr Pavel, Mr Pitt & Mr Cabradillia, for helping me through all of the forms, and numerous attempts at getting things right… You have made me feel like family since I joined, and have helped me make the transition back into TaeKwonDo a whole lot easier than I thought it would be.

My dear hubby and girls… for supporting me through everything. For sacrificing dinners with mommy, and keeping up the household duties so I can go in and practice… I promise… I’ll work on the house more now

To everyone who said a prayer or kept me in their thoughts.. It worked

Phew… I feel like I won an Oscar LOL… Seriously… I do..

Next… We have our belt promotion ceremonies on Thursday night, where the girls and I both get our new belts! YEAH!!!

We like fishing.. how about you??? LOL

So, today, Labor Day… We all had a day off of work/school (mostly). We had decided to join Mr Ashton & Mr Pavel, two of our TKD instructors, out at Bogue Inlet Pier for a day of fishing… Daddy had gone out with them before and really enjoyed it, so we figured, why not?!?!? Besides, the girls have never gone… I haven’t gone fishing since I was a kid, and who doesn’t like a little fish? Especially when you catch it yourself!!!!

Well, we got home late last night from our trip up to the Raleigh area to visit with friends. We woke up a little bit later than we originally planned this morning, but we rushed out the door… We stopped at Walmart on the way to pick up some fishing stuff. Last time Daddy went, he borrowed gear… This time, we wanted to make sure we had everything we needed. Daddy and I picked out a nice, but not too expensive fishing rod. The girls *had* to have the Barbie fishing rod, and we got some other necessities… about 30 minutes later, we were on the road… to Starbucks… Had to get some coffee, tea, cocoa, and breakfast. Ok, then we were on the road to Bogue Inlet Pier… We got there just in time to get an excellent parking spot, unloaded the van, and went in the pier store. We paid for our day passes (girls were free) and headed down the pier. We found Mr Pavel down towards the end of the pier. He helped us get the girls’ rods set up, and on they went.

I don’t know what they expected, but the girls were getting a little frustrated that they weren’t catching anything. Especially after Daddy dropped his line in and literally a minute later was reeling in two fish on his line. I tried fishing with my line, and didn’t catch anything.. for a very long time. I checked their line, and ended up finding no bait on their hooks. So these sneaky fish come up, eat the bait and run… Oh hell no… LOL..

I got Monkey Do’s hooks baited back up, and tossed the line in for her. Sure enough…

She was getting bites almost right away! We hooked a fish, and boy what an interesting deal that was! It was called a pompano… and that sucker swam away! It fought her line..and when it tried to take off, it got us tangled up with someone else’s line just a few feet down the pier… It was crazy! Mr Pavel had to grab the line and bring it in while I reeled it in! Monkey Do was soooooo excited! I still don’t know how we caught that big fish with that tiny fishing pole… I wish it had stronger line on it!!! LOL

Well, here she is… with her big catch… She was so excited… Look at her little smile… She’s thinking.. “Yeah… I caught that… Uh huh.. Me… I. Kick. Bootie…. ” Whatcha wanna bet that’s what she was thinking??? LOL…

Of course, we had to re-bait, and toss the line back in.. and what happens??? We catch another one!!! Sheesh!!! I wasn’t catching squat on my line, but sure.. These little Barbie Fishing rods are catching all kinds of stuff..

Monkey See was not going to be outdone… Daddy helped her snag a few fish on her line, and even let her help him with his… She was just so funny… Anytime she saw someone reeling in a line, even if it was just to check the hooks, she’d get so excited and run to see what was going on… Oh.. check out this totally cute pic I got of her chillin’ with Daddy…

So… we bought them their own little kid chairs so they could hang out while fishing… and did they want to use them??? NOOoooo.. LOL.. But you know what? I love it when they totally want to hang out with us… There’s going to come a day when they want to totally avoid us… I’m going to cry that day… and every day after that… so until then… Snuggle away chicas!!!

Oh! So I can’t show off photos and not show one of Monkey See and her catch… She was just smiling so huge! Seriously.. I couldn’t have been any prouder of them today. They were such troopers… once they started catching fish… Yeah, they weren’t too sure they liked fishing when they weren’t hooking anything! LOL

Oh, and they are so not squeamish…

Ok, so at the risk of being picked on for the rest of my life.. I’m going to tell you a story from my childhood… a story that my family will never let me live down. When I was a kid, my family used to go fishing at the Berkley Pier in Berkley, CA, or the Avila Beach Pier in San Luis Obispo, CA.. Well, I’m not good with yucky things… My sister on the other hand, didn’t care.. Someone caught a fish and had it in a bucket… My dear, sweet little sister picked up said fish, and brought it by me. Of course, I wanted nothing to do with it, and ran.. Big Mistake… She chased me all around the pier with this fish… laughing the whole time.. That has been a huge joke in the family.. So, when my mom asked the other day.. which of the girls was going to be the first to chase me around the pier… I had no idea that neither of them would have trouble picking up a slimy fish… They didn’t even mind the fish flapping around… I stayed away from them… the fish.. not the girls…

Anyway… The day ended up being an awesome day… The girls had a great time, and we ended up with enough fish for a couple of dinners! Now they can’t wait to go out fishing again!!!!

Day two at Walt Disney World was so much fun! We got up early, and went to breakfast in the Kona Cafe. Daddy and I shared a Kona Coffee French Press. Oh.My.GAWD! it was soooo yummy. It’s definitely a must have when you have breakfast at the Polynesian! We ate and met our group downstairs in the lobby. We were going to be going out to the Magic Kingdom with our VIP Tour Guides, and the girls were very excited! They did nothing but talk about meeting the Princesses, and today was their day!

While waiting in the lobby, I had a little bit of fun with my Lensbaby lenses, taking photos of the beautiful flowers and the waterfall there. I think my favorite photo is this one with the Composer Lens. It was totally unplanned, mostly because I knew nothing about the settings I was trying out, but it looks really cool… totally artistic… well, at least I think so, and that’s what matters right? Yeah.. thought so.

Anyway, we soon got on the bus to the Magic Kingdom with our guides leading the way. We walked in a door, that honestly, if it was just me walking around the park, I never would’ve guessed it was a door. So, when we walked in, there just happened to be some performers singing and dancing in the street, with a little trolley car just waiting for them. One of the ladies must’ve thought the girls were cute, because she came on over and talked to them and let me take a photo of all 3 of them… Of course the girls weren’t all that into it. They were on a mission, and nothing was going to interfere. Sorry girlies… Rides come first! Well, at least anything outdoorsy came first. We were watching the skies just get darker and darker as the morning went on. We were expecting rain, and lots of it.

So, our awesome guide, Zane, took us to Tomorrowland first. We had a real mission at hand! Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin! That was just too fun. I wasn’t as excited about this one as Toy Story the day before… but it was a lot of fun. We got to kick some serious robot minion ass… can I say “ass” when referring to a ride at Disney??? Oh well, too late. We also kicked a little Evil Emperor Zurg ass too! LOL.. Yup, we were Junior Space Rangers, and we took that title very seriously!

Waiting to meet the Princesses!

Our next destination was going to be the girls’ most favorite! Hands down. We went into Mickey’s ToonTown Fair and  to the Hall of Fame, and the girls were just jumping with excitement. To be totally honest, I was too… Well, not exactly jumping, but I was excited! We got a private audience with Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora! My girls were just little chatterboxes! They pretty much talked the princesses’ ears off… and the princesses were amazing with them. They talked to them, and gave them hugs… I mean, I’m sure they’re used to kids hanging all over them, but they were very nice with the girls… We were lucky enough to also have the chance to meet with the Fairies, Tinkerbell, Rosetta and Silvermist! Oh the girls were in heaven!

After meeting the Princesses and the Fairies, we headed off to It’s A Small World… Yes, that ride is a MUST DO, anytime you’re in Disney… BUT… just heed my warning. You WILL have that darn song stuck in your head the rest of the day. It’s amazing how no matter how many years it’s been since you’ve been on that ride, you still remember all of the words. Yeah.. Kinda mysterious. We also made it on to the Haunted Mansion.. always a favorite! Our last stop was the Philhar-Magic show, which was an awesome 3-D show complete with splashed water, and smell-o-vision.

Goofy posin' for me!

Lunch was next, in yet another hidden building in the park. It was awesome. We even had a special visitor! Ok, maybe two. When we first got in there, a guy was making balloon animals for all of the kids. One of my girls got Ariel, and the other… she wanted a sword… go figure. Our other special visitor was Goofy!!! He posed for photos with everyone and even let me have a little bit of fun with my fisheye lens from LensBaby.com! What an awesome sport!

The rest of the day was pretty much a photo free day. It was raining so badly, I didn’t want to take the camera out of the bag! It was a warm rain, so staying out wasn’t too bad. Zane was really cool, and took us around to a few more rides despite the pelting drops! The rest of our group had bowed out and went back to the hotel to dry off, warm up, etc. We were just fine with staying out as long as he was willing to! We went on the Jungle Safari Boat, the Magic Carpet ride, and Big Thunder Mountain… That was the girls’ first big roller coaster.. and they got to do it twice! What was funny was that when we first got there, the girls were very definite on who wanted to go on roller coasters, and who didn’t. Well, after we got them both on that first one… They totally switched. I laughed. What else could I do? besides take them on more roller coasters??? Which we did… but not till the next day.

We finally had to call it a day since dinner time was fast approaching, and considering that despite our best efforts to stay dry (by sporting the ever so sexy WDW clear plastic ponchos) we had to get back to our room to freshen up for our super spectacular dinner at the Contemporary Resort, it was probably a good idea. Rather than hoofing it in the rain, our guide, Zane, offered us a train ride! Yeah.. it was pretty cool. We took the train around the Magic Kingdom to the Main Entrance, where we caught the monorail (say it again, monorail) to the Polynesian. It was sad to say goodbye to him, especially since we knew we wouldn’t be able to get in the back way to any more rides… Plus.. he was pretty full of cool Disney Knowledge! Ahhh what a day in the Magic Kingdom!

Cinderella's Castle

Dinner came too fast. We got up to our room, dried off, changed and headed down to the lobby. We went over to the Contemporary and were just amazed by our dinner location.  We were high above everything, and could see the park from the windows. I was able to take some amazing photos of the Castle from the walkway outside. I only wished that I had thought to lug around a tripod. I could’ve gotten some amazing photos of the castle all lit up at night. It’s ok though. I did get to enjoy the awesome fireworks show with my family… which the girls definitely loved. Dinner itself was amazing. It started off with an appetizer, goat cheese ravioli… Some flat bread pizzas that were deee lish.. Then a salad, and later the main courses… yes.. plural. They started off with some Salmon and cous cous, then brought out some grilled chicken and a beef tenderloin. Oh.My.Gawd. They were all so good. I know I’m not supposed to eat absolutely everything that is put in front of me… but I couldn’t help it. I had to taste a little bit of all of them. I did good though. I just took a taste

After dinner and dessert, we went outside for the fireworks. It had started to rain, but we waited it out just a little bit and it moved on. It was perfect.

When that was finished, we gathered up our things and hopped on the monorail back to the Polynesian. The girls were so tired that they almost fell asleep on the way over… and it wasn’t a very long ride! All in all, it was a wonderful day.. despite the rain. I think I said it best when I said “We’re not gonna let a little rain ruin the Magic”… and we didn’t!

To see the full photo gallery for Day 2 in Walt Disney World, check out my gallery.

** Thank you to Hanes who paid for our trip to Walt Disney World (my airfare, my family’s hotel, park tickets and most meals). I covered Airfare for my husband and girls and some incidentals (souvenirs) while on our trip. I was sent to WDW as part of the Hanes Comfort Crew**

So I’ve debated which blog I’m going to write all about our first trip to Walt Disney World on, and I think I have it all figured out… I’m going to do it on both… but in two very different ways. This blog is all fun and jabber, where the other one is all about business… so here goes..

When I got the email from Hanes, asking if I’d like to be a part of the Hanes Comfort Crew, and join them in Walt Disney World, (most) expenses paid… for a week.. with my family… I couldn’t say no. We figured out a way to buy airfare for Hubby and the girls, and went from there. We didn’t tell the girls anything… except that we were going on vacation, and we got to take airplanes to get there. I wanted to tell them so badly… but didn’t want our night before to be anything like this one:

I mean really.. it was bad enough that Daddy and I were up till 2 am the night before… barely tired, packing, and really “too excited to sleep”. We did get everything packed and together before we finally went to sleep that night… Thank goodness because the next morning was a crazy blur!

Monday morning, Daddy and I woke up, got ready, packed up the last of our toiletries, got the girls up and dressed, packed up the van, and were off to the airport. I couldn’t help but think I had forgotten some things, but it was too late… There was no turning back now! We turned in our luggage, made it through security and waited to board our first flight out of Jacksonville, NC… The girls were beyond excited, and so were we.

Our first flight was quick and smooth… We landed in Charlotte without any crazy deals with the girls. They watched a movie on our iPhones, and that was good… They used their new MyPhones, and loved them! We grabbed some Jamba Juice in the airport… a small treat since we don’t have one of those anywhere near us in Jacksonville… and went on to our next gate. Ahhh Jamba…

The flight from Charlotte to Orlando was a nice one too. The girls had some fun coloring and working on their workbooks. The flight went by so fast… not including the anticipation of our Magical ride to our Magical resort! When we landed, we didn’t have to worry about our luggage. We had a trip aboard Disney’s Magical Express, thanks to Hanes… We made our way to the shuttle, and let them take care of everything! One of my fellow Walmart Moms, and author of ChicShopperChick.com,  Erika Lehmann arrived at about the same time as us, and joined us on our shuttle ride over to the Polynesian!

This greeted us in our room

We got checked in, walked the beach out our back door… (yes, I said beach!) relaxed for a little bit, and grabbed a quick bite to eat before meeting our group in the lobby for our first trip out to the park! We met our awesomely cool VIP Tour Guide, Zane… More on him later… and our girls made instant friends with another girl in our group. Her parents are lots of fun…and from North Carolina too!!! LOL.. too cool! We all got on the bus, and rode into Disney’s Hollywood Studios through the back lot. It was really cool walking into the park through “secret” doorways, and just appearing in front of the coolest ride evah! Oh yes… Aerosmith’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster.

Hanes Kids' Spot

Daddy and I took turns sitting with the girls as Zane took groups in to ride the Rockin’ Rollercoaster.. Ok, Space Mountain used to be my favorite coaster… but this one totally took the cake! I only wish it had an encore! Oh, and the kids… they were too small for this ride, so instead, they got to hang out at the craft area out front… which happened to be sponsored by Hanes!

From there, we headed on to Toy Story, and a couple of other very cool things… The Little Mermaid, and more that I just can’t remember right now.. We did get to be part of the audience at the American Idol Experience. I almost felt like I was at the real show. We were at the last show of the day, so we were able to listen to all of the finalists from the whole day’s performances, and vote for who we thought should get the “Golden Ticket”. The “Golden Ticket” was basically a Fast Pass to the front of the line at the real American Idol auditions. We heard 5 very talented singers, but at the end of the night, we had to vote for the only male singer in the group.

The winner for 2/8/2010

He was AMAZING! He sang one of my favorite Tim McGraw songs “I Like It, I Love It”, and he got the audience cheering. Everyone was pretty amazed at how close he sounded to the actual song…  We all voted  with our little dial pads on our chair arm rests, and he won! It was so exciting!

At the end of the day, we were taken back to the Animation Studios where an amazing dinner awaited us. They turned the studio into a little restaurant and it was delicious! We walked in and were handed our very own set of Mickey Mouse ears… with our names embroidered on the back! I thought it was so cool that even the grown ups got a pair!! I never had any Mickey Mouse ears with my name on them, so this was super special! While we ate Mr & Mrs Incredible came by to visit, and a little later on, Mickey came to visit! The girls even got autographed Mickey Mouse gloves!!! They were in heaven! After dinner, we went back to our rooms and were surprised by a special gift bag from Hanes full of goodies for us! Our first Pins for our lanyards with a Rockin Rollercoaster Guitar Pick, some sunglasses, lip balm, a Comfort Crew Tee for me, and some other goodies. It was awesome. Needless to say, we pretty much crashed after this day of travel, rides and tons of excitement. We couldn’t believe we still had 4 more days to go! Phew..

For more photos from Day 1 of our trip to Walt Disney World with the Hanes Comfort Crew, check out my Gallery!

** Thank you to Hanes who paid for our trip to Walt Disney World (my airfare, my family’s hotel, park tickets and most meals). I covered Airfare for my husband and girls and some incidentals (souvenirs) while on our trip. I was sent to WDW as part of the Hanes Comfort Crew**

and I still haven’t gotten off my rear and posted here… so here I am.. taking a much needed break from just about everything. My girls are watching Wow Wow Wubbzy, and I’m doing what I do best.. blogging.
There have been so many things going on over the last few months, and I hate that I’ve completely neglected Mommy Moments.. and all of my readers… I wondered if my traffic was ever going to pick up after going at a slow crawl for so long… I hope it does…
First off, the entire Christmas holiday just about made me more depressed than I thought it ever could. I barely got to see my sister (although she argues to the contrary). We got a new puppy, who is cute as heck, but now I’m wondering if I’m cut out for this. I’m so used to running errands and doing what I need to do during the day, and the puppy (Django is his name-o) has to be crated for now. This house is NOT puppy proof! So now, I’m very limited on the time I have to go out, go to the gym, or basically do anything away from the house. I’m getting through it though.

Now, I’m working on a party for my mom, and my sister hasn’t given me the info I’ve been asking for the last 2 weeks. I’m kinda stuck till I know what the heck she’s getting before I can get the rest of the things for the party! I just don’t get it. Why is it so hard? 

Anyway. We’re still trying to move across the country, but the economy has all but killed that idea. 

The GOOD news though, is that my reviews site has been kicked into high gear! I’m loving meeting all of the new people I’ve met so many great people, and I will have the opportunity to meet many of them in person! I can’t wait!

That I spent all of that money on the Wii Fit… I can just see the cold, windy, rainy days ahead.. 

Monkey See and Monkey Do had convinced me to stay home on Monday.. Monkey See had tummy aches and wasn’t feeling too well, so it was an easy convince… CLoser to nap time, I realized that by not going to the gym, we had no outlet of energy all morning, and nap time was not going to happen… It was too windy to go to the park, so out came the Wii Fit… It was awesome…

Well, I was looking in the mirror the other evening, and all I saw was this one hair sticking straight up from just behind my bangs… My hair is long, and dark.. Why would just one hair be sticking up??? It was much shorter than all of the others, and it was a different color too.. Frantic now. Must. Find. Tweezers. NOW! As soon as I found my tweezers, I plucked that hair out.. and ran to Daddy… He just started laughing hysterically… Nope, not getting any sympathy here… 

I took off, and intended to take a photo of this particular hair… only to realize that the winds that whipped though our area had blown said hair off of my vanity, somewhere on the floor.. So I don’t have a photo to share with you.. but I can tell you… 

IT WAS A GREY HAIR!!!! AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! 

ok, so it was just one… and it’s gone now… My mom keeps telling me that pluck one, and 2 more grow in it’s place… well.. just great.. We’ll see… Now this is what I get for not coloring my hair for nearly a year… I wanted to go back to my natural color, and what do I get?? A grey hair.. .

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I blame it on 3 year old twins!!! LOL It’s ok.. because when they’re older, I’ll show them all the grey hairs that “they” gave me, and maybe that’ll be the trick to get them to listen to me… 

In my dreams…

Why the heck am I awake at this hour? Because I love my husband… because he is a geek, and I understand that geekiness… because instead of really pushing for him to go to Santa Cruz with my family… I woke up at 4:55am to sit on the computer… while he sat on his behind me … refreshing the web… praying for their server to come back up… to get him a ticket to the first ever DjangoCon… 

He got one.. and now I’m going back to bed… even though I know my girls will be up in less than 30 minutes.. 

Yeah.. He owes me…

Well, the last 3 weeks have been nothing but craziness. The week before the girls’ birthday, we spent time trying to organize the house and getting everything ready for my sister and her hubby to come visit for a couple of days. We had a nice, albeit too short of a visit with them. They enjoyed some time with us and the girls that they don’t get very often. We even threw a small “family” party for the girls before Auntie C & Uncle B had to leave. They got their birthday presents from us, and some from Meemaw and Peepaw, and from Auntie & Uncle… It was pretty cool!

The following week was spent steam cleaning, and super deep cleaning most of the downstairs in preparation for the girls’ big birthday party.. That was something I wasn’t really ready for, but we made it through. I think I said we had nearly 40 people here.. It was crazy! So, after any party, there’s clean up… We used mostly regular dishes for serving, so we had to wash those. We got all the recyclables in the blue bin… Then it was steam cleaning again, and cleaning counters, and getting the upstairs completely cleaned. The next Thursday, we had Julissa Ortiz from Good Day Sacramento coming, and our inspection with our Property Manager… PHEW… now.. it’s all done… and I just want to veg out… I highly doubt that will happen, because something ALWAYS comes up… but for now… I’m resting, trying to catch up on writing… and planning a yard sale for next weekend… Fun stuff I tell ya…