For a moment

I've only got a moment before Ikey's show is over and we head back out shopping (we came home to unload groceries and make her lunch), but I wanted to post a couple pics of Mike's Christmas performance last week. I didn't get many good shots because A.) my son was instructed to sit on his knees and thought this meant down as far as he could get, behind the head of the kid in front of him, B.) despite our being in the front row, every other parent in the building took on role of paparazzi and could not stop running in front of us to snap shots of their kids (can I help it that I love my son more and got there early enough to get good seats?... I kid), and C.) Ike was insanely grouchy after taking a short nap in the car, and giving her the camera was an easy bribe to keep her from screaming bloody murder during the short service.

FYI: Point C did not work so well and I'm pretty sure we won't be allowed back. ;)

(he's the smiling, blurry face in the middle)




Notice Big Hunk's hand beckoning him in, despite the teacher (that you can't see) trying to round up all the kids in the other direction.


And I could post more, but just how many shots do you need of a bunch of kids looking around the room in bad lighting?

It really was so cute though, and I'm glad Mike was part of it. Tomorrow night (Sunday) the children's choir will come up for one song as well, though I won't get to see it. I am in the choir (the big kids' one though) and we are doing the worship for the Sunday & Monday evening services. :)

Well, I wanted to post more pics but it's taking too long to upload and I need to get some shopping done. I am DETERMINED to be done today!!

Is it really Christmas??

I seriously cannot get that Christmas is almost here. What is that all about? Like, in 11 days we will all be sitting together celebrating our Savior's birth, but to me it still feels like we should be worrying about Thanksgiving!

I only have a second as my coffee is almost done and my onion bagel (mmm, breath) is waiting for me. Let's take a poll here. Mikey has his very first ever Christmas program tonight. How many times do we think I will cry?

If you answered a gazillion, you're probably right.

New week

Well, I have SO much to do this week. But I figure I'll sit here and type out a quick blabber or it will never get done, because heaven knows I'll barely have time to breathe for the next 5 days!

Thank you so much for your prayers on the fire. I appreciate them so much, as I'm sure so many others in Malibu do as well, even if they don't know. ;) Wow, what a weekend! As of this morning, the fire is 90% contained, praise God!!! 53 homes were destroyed and another 34 were damaged, it's so heartbreaking. Thankfully our apartment complex was perfectly fine, but it is so horrible to look at the addresses of destroyed structures, and just see this HUGE list of homes. BH heard on the news that there was one family that just moved to Malibu from Italy the day before the fires, and at that time they didn't even know if their home made it. :( But of course, the biggest blessing was that they were okay, and homes can be rebuilt.

A couple weeks ago when we visited Malibu for the first time since the previous fires, it floored me how different everything looked. We drove past Pepperdine University and couldn't believe how incredibly close the fire had come (right up on the lawn of this beautiful school!). There were several homes and a beautiful church that had been destroyed at that time, and it was so weird to drive through the canyon and see nothing but black, burnt trees and hillside. I took a few photos, so I really should post them (seriously- why do I take pictures? I never do a thing with them! lol). Now it will be so sad to drive through there once again (except a different part of the hills were affected this time) and see so much more destruction. In reality, the fire from last month was just as large (that fire burnt 4500 acres, whereas this was about 4700), but that one had only burnt 6 homes (and 2 businesses and a church) because it was mostly hillside. It's so sad. Even worse, the fire was caused by human activity. It just hasn't been determined yet if it was intentional or not.

So please, continue to keep these families in your prayers. I cannot even imagine losing everything I own in a split second, and being forced to start completely fresh.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and things went really smoothly. We had dinner over at my house with my parents, my sister-in-law and my nephew, and everything came out really good. I couldn't have asked for a better dinner! It seemed like we had tons of food, but really we didn't hardly have any leftovers! :) God provided the perfect amount, as He always does. My sister-in-law brought over a ham, green bean casserole and veggie tray so that helped me out a great deal, as well as tons of appetizers that my mom brought. So I was in charge of the turkey (my husband couldn't stop raving about it!), yummy sweet potatoes, rolls, corn, stuffing (homemade for the first time ever), and I think that's it. I actually had started garlic mashed potatoes, but they were taking too long so I just called it quits on that until after dinner. Now I have a TON of them in the fridge and they're sooo good. All in all it was a great day because I was really organized with it all, and I'm finding in my old age that I just have to allow tons of time to do things and I don't get overwhelmed. This all even included my dad breaking a glass in the middle of my turkey cooking, and causing me to slash my foot.

The rest of the weekend we just relaxed and did NOTHING. For a couple hours on Friday (you know, that black one) Big Hunk & I went to a couple stores while my SIL watched the kids, but nothing major other than that. It was a great weekend! I loved just having nothing planned and being able to enjoy our family. I think the only other time I left the house was yesterday- for church and to go shopping with my mom.

So today marks our new week and I'm looking forward to all the things planned. It will be a lot. Today I am moving the office back downstairs and the kids' playroom upstairs. When my grandma came to live with us last year we moved our office upstairs (when BH was still working from home) and what used to be my grandma's room is now the kids' playroom. But, the kids always have it SUCH a mess (not to mention every time we have guests their kids help mess it up but never help clean- augh) and I'm sick of seeing it down here. And, with my desk upstairs I am totally unable to organize or do anything because it is impossible to spend any time up there without the kids needing my attention and/or trying to kill one another. I am so looking forward to having order. :)

Well this has turned into a huge post, so I'm out.

Prayers

I just wanted to ask really quick if you would mind saying a prayer for this new fire in Malibu. It has been only about a month since there was a huge, devastating fire out there and so much of the beautiful canyons are covered in black- as well as old churches and beautiful homes. Now there is a huge fire again that started this morning, and they have evacuated the apartment complex that we have out there (my husband's company has a lease on two units). Before, the fire was far enough away that it didn't effect them. But now it's right there and we are praying for the people in the complex, the homes around, and the firefighters. They just said there is no containment at all and this just breaks our hearts.

I hate to see this area that has such a special place in our hearts be up in flames.

Thankful for it all

Happy Turkey Day!! I have been wanting to make a bit more organized post before now, but since it looks like that will never happen, guess I'll just settle for the thrown together type. ;)

Today was Big Hunk's birthday (39!) and we had a great day. Hopefully he feels the same way. We started off the day by letting him sleep in til about 10am (or later, I can't remember now since 12 hours have passed), then smothered him with a few presents as soon as he had the sleep wiped from his eyes. ;) It was totally his call to spend the day as he wished, but he was so sweet to choose to do stuff the kids would want to do, and we all had a blast. We headed out to Arcadia (where we used to live) to first see a movie, then went to this awesome play place that the kids would live in if they could. We stayed there for almost 2 1/2 hours (getting incredibly worn out in the process) and then ate out so the kids could fall asleep in the car during the 40 minute drive. They were so wiped out!!

I'm having a hard time this Thanksgiving. *sigh* It helps that I have the distraction of getting my house and food ready for Thanksgiving dinner, but it's still a sad time. First, tomorrow marks the 2-year anniversary since I lost my precious baby. :*( The approaching date has already been fresh in my mind, but it hit me hard when we were sitting at dinner tonight and Ever the Same by Rob Thomas came on. Every time I've ever heard that song, it has been a constant reminder of the little life we lost, and it makes me miss her so much. You see, it was the song playing on TV during my actual miscarriage, and it has been an extremely special song to me ever since. It's such a beautiful song anyway, but it just touches my heart so much. So hearing that in the middle of our dinner was kind of mood killer to an otherwise awesome day.

Second, because music is such a huge part of me, we will change this evening's soundtrack to Homesick by MercyMe. ;-) Ah, so many things going through this little head of mine. Well, as some of you may know, my grandma passed away on December 29th last year. She had been diagnosed with gallbladder cancer in January, and did pretty darn well until about September, when she went downhill rather quickly. On December 1st she came to live with us, and I had no idea how little time I'd have with her before she went to be with the Lord. Last Thanksgiving was the last time we all had together as a family before she got really bad, and when she was herself. I remember the day so clearly. My uncle dropped her off at my house and it was her first day using her walker because her strength was starting to go. She was so happy about being to eat a good Thanksgiving dinner, because for months she had deprived herself of the foods she'd loved because of the vomiting and nausea she had endured, but by now she was on medication to help and knew to just eat in moderation. We had a really good day. My grandma even brought Christmas presents for all her great-grandkids because she didn't know if she'd get to see them for Christmas. :*(



I have just have so many emotions right now, but I need to get some work done before I go to bed. I have a big dinner to cook tomorrow (woo hoo!) and still have stuff to do to my house before everyone comes over.

I hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving Day!! Love you all!

To my one reader ;)

I have been waiting for 2 hours for Home Depot to bring my new fridge (that's not counting the 4 days I already had to wait! Come on people!) and it's killing me. They gave me that 4 hour window and stupid me rushed back at 10am thinking they'd be here on time. LOL Why is it we never learn?? I could have had all my errands run and my grocery shopping done in this time! But I guess I can't complain because I did get my kitchen completely cleaned top to bottom (both today and yesterday, it was THAT bad- not dirty, just disorganized) and mopped today. And cleaned out the old fridge so it can be moved into our garage.

I have felt SO swamped lately. And there's no particular reason that stands out to me as to why we are so much busier than normal! As it was, I missed my Bible study Tuesday morning because Big Hunk needed to go to Malibu and so we just stayed out there for the night. We'll be doing that again tomorrow morning and I'm missing a servants seminar at church on Saturday morning, for which I feel quite guilty. Then they kids have their usual Awana meetings on Wednesday evenings, but no new, unusual activities that are taking up our time. I think that if Mikey weren't homeschooled I would have a bit more free time (to do errands or things around the house), but can't dwell on that. ;) All I know is when I look at my house, I see nothing but a to-do list a mile long. I actually had to make a list yesterday of day projects I need to get done! Stuff like cleaning out the garage (an ongoing project that is still not done), hall closet, etc. That fun stuff.

Well, guess I've done enough rambling for right now, and I should get back to my house. I want to completely wipe down the old fridge so I don't have to do it later, and I haven't started any laundry yet today. *sigh* If we are heading to Malibu again tomorrow, I'd like to make sure I come home to a clean house!

Great day

It's so funny that we couldn't go to Big Bear yesterday because it was too cold to take a boat on the lake (61) so instead we headed over in our shorts and flip-flops to a different lake in the 92 degree weather. Who says we don't get seasons in Southern California?? We just get them all in one day! ;)

We had a great weekend, though it went way too quickly as they always do. Hunkie let me sleep in yesterday and it took us a while to get out of the house, but we headed out to this new, man-made lake. It was gorgeous and so peaceful. We were only out there for about an hour and 20 minutes, but it was just what we needed to spend time alone, enjoying our little family.

Today, despite the time change, we decided to go to the 3rd service at church instead of our normal 2nd, so BH could sleep in and we could relax a little. So I hung out with the kids this morning (and headed to the store for some much needed coffee creamer! I'd gone without long enough!), and we all left about 11am. We had originally planned on just relaxing today and not making plans, but when we saw my parents at church it turned out my mom wanted me to go shopping with her. Seems to be our new Sunday tradition. ;) We shop while the guys watch football! It's a win/win! lol

Well, just wanted to pop my head in! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

late night

It's been so impossible to even tackle in my blog all the things that are going on, so I haven't even tried. How in the world did we get to be SO busy, seemingly overnight?

Now it's 10:30 pm and I'm exhausted, so don't expect much from me. ;) I'll be shocked if I make sense at all! We got home from couple's study a little while ago and the hunk is playing XBOX (something he rarely does), so I figure I'll stop breathing down his neck and let him enjoy himself. lol

Gosh, where do I even start? Well, our dog Roxy almost died two weeks ago, how about starting there? ;) She's 5 months old and came down with Parvo, but didn't show any signs until we were on the long 7-hour drive to AZ to see my stepson. We kept hoping it was just something she ate (being a puppy, it could have been anything!) but when she was getting worse instead of better I got extremely worried. My normally rambunctious, affectionate puppy wouldn't even lift her head- let alone get up- when I called her. So, late on a Saturday night in a strange town I headed to the emergency vet to find out what was going on. Poor thing would barely walk to and from the car. :( I felt so horrible for her. None of her symptoms gave the vet a red flag at all (being her stool was not bloody, as are most parvo cases), but I agreed to the parvo test just to rule that out. I thought for sure that we would have to do test after test (resulting in a hospital stay) to determine what was wrong- I was shocked when the test came back positive!! So because she was severely dehydrated from her constant vomiting, diarrhea and non-existent appetite, she stayed there right away to get an IV and meds to help her fight this- as well as get rid of the nausea. (Are you beginning to get an idea how much this cost?!) I was SO worried about her! I never dreamed before Roxy that I would ever be a dog person, but my goodness how I love that dog. I have bonded with her more than I thought possible and she's my little baby. ;-) Anyway, she stayed in the hospital for two nights/one day. And it cost almost the same as one month's rent. But you know, I wouldn't change it for a second. When we picked her up (on our way back to California) she already looked so much better, and within just a couple days she was a million times better. Now you can't even tell she was ever sick. Such a horrible experience that I would never wish on any pet owner!

The kids are doing well! Mikey LOVES school (aka our dining room table) and is doing so amazingly well. He has already learned the entire year's worth of sight words that I had planned, so we're on to the bonus words! He is such a smart kid, something I can take no credit for. He just has such a precious heart; he is such a sweet kid. So many times lately he surprises me by offering a toy or game he's playing with to his sister (when he could so easily tell her no!), or wiping down my kitchen table because he knows it gives me less work. :) It is just breathtaking as you watch, almost overnight, these kids grow into these strong beings that take in so much around them. He amazes me with how perceptive he is about things I so easily take for granted!

Ikey is the little diva of the house, and she wears her title proudly. We are currently trying to curb the snotty mouth when she doesn't get her way or wants something NOW, but she is such a sweet girl at the same time. So many times she will say "Mommy, I want to tell you something in your ear" and will then whisper "You're the most beautiful mommy in the whole world!" She melts my heart. Lately she's also been saying "I want to be like you when I grow up." Well, either that or Belle, it changes often. ;) It's just so cute to watch the kids together, their mutual adoration is just so sweet. I love watching them hold hands in the car or see Tommie lay her head on Mikey's shoulder when they're watching a movie. My cup overflows.

Big Hunk & I are doing well, but the poor guy is so busy! His business has been so blessed, and now he is so excited to be opening a new venture in his business. Now instead of doing just weekly/monthly vacation rentals, he will also have another part of his business that does vacation memberships. Basically, people will buy a yearly membership at any of the offered price levels, and with that will get a certain amount of time in any of the beach houses available. It's a bit more complicated than I'm making it, but that's it in a nutshell. Suffice it to say I am just so proud of my husband, and I am continually blown away by his brains and business knowledge. You could never know by looking at him that 1)he's never owned a business before, and 2)he has only been in business a little over a year. God has undoubtedly had His hand on this business from day one, and we are overwhelmingly thankful.

Well, just a lot of surface updates there, but I'm so tired tonight. :) I need to post pics of Halloween and stuff, so I'll see if I can get to it tomorrow. Who knows? We were thinking of heading up to beautiful Big Bear, but it's a tad chilly so I doubt that will happen. But, I hope everyone has a very blessed weekend!!

Cheeese

I'm sitting here in the kitchen while I wait for dinner to be ready. Considering it's in the Crock Pot, I may be waiting a while. LOL But it smells so goood. Cheesy Ham & Potato Soup. Yum. We got our carpets cleaned today so my house is relatively clean, except for the bathroom I started this morning and my bedroom, so I'll take a break for now. I'm beat! The kids and I left the house at 12pm and only got home about 5. We took the dog to the vet (going in for a rabies shot turned into a $91 visit, lol), then after dropping the dog back off at home we went to lunch at Chick-fil-A, then ran errands (looong errands) to Kohl's and Target. The good news is though I'm finding awesome deals on stuff for my house at Kohl's, so that makes me happy. :) Love clearance!

Can I just say how thankful I am for Big Hunk's company? My goodness, in the past year I have been so blessed to stay in areas that before that, I had never even visited, let alone stayed in. Before a few months ago I had never even been to Malibu, but now I've been there several times and I sooo love it! I never used to understand why anyone would want to live there with all the mudslides and fires, but now I can absolutely see why. It's so beautiful and isn't overrun with housing tracts or department stores. It oddly still has a small-town feel despite being home to thousands of celebrities and rich folk. But oh how I love those celebrities! ;) Since Tom got the apartment in Malibu (he leases it through his company to rent out) in September, we have met a couple Baldwin brothers, then we have seen David Arquette and Joey Lawrence at the store! Hehe Quite funny. Well, I didn't see Joey Lawrence. We were at Target out there and it was packed, so I headed to the car with Tommie while The Hunk paid, and he saw Mr. Lawrence on his way out. He got the friendly nod and "What's up?" :) And Brody Jenner (from The Hills) lives in those apartments as well. I don't know why I'm talking about this. LOL

Well, guess I should unpack my purchases from Target. I have to hide a cool candle thing I got from Kohl's because it's a gift for my SIL. ;) They are staying with us right now, but are moving around the corner the middle of this month. The kids are ecstatic that their favorite aunt and cousin are going to be a minute's walk away. Anyway, ciao! ;)

Back in the swing of things

I'm going to take a few minutes to attempt to update right now, though I've still yet to have my breakfast or do my Bible Study. But, it may be the only quiet moment I get for the whole day! It's just me and Mikey for a couple hours because Big Hunk took Ikey to the office (yesterday was Mike's day), but when they get back my friend Gabe is coming to clean the carpets- so I'll have to hang out with the kids outside of the house for a while.

We have been SO busy lately! And because it makes no sense to me whatsoever to come onto my blog and write about how busy I am (and how many other things I should be doing other than blogging), I have just flat out refused to make a half-arsed post. ;)

We got back from our cruise last Friday morning, and we had a blast. The first full day into it we stopped in Catalina (this beautiful little island 26 miles off our coast- on a clear day you can see it from Malibu and other beaches), and that was my favorite part of the trip. It's just so peaceful and gorgeous, I would love to retire there! Anyway, the following day we went to Ensenada Mexico, and by that evening we were so ready to go home. I couldn't believe that we still had two nights left. :( We missed our babies!! So by Friday morning when we finally got to see the kids, we were SO happy to be home. They really missed us as well, and BH & I agreed that there will be no more long trips like that until they're (a lot) older. Two nights, max. I guess I'm just one of those people that really does not like being away from my kids!! Well, I guess most of us are like that, but I just don't enjoy myself when I'm away from them. Of course I need my time away (and we need our couple time), but they are our life and we don't feel complete when our family isn't a whole. But it was a great trip and we met some awesome people. For dinners we were paired up with only one other couple, and we really hit it off. They're in a different season than us, with their only daughter having just left for college, and they have been married 20 years. They were really great and we may visit them up in the Bay area sometime.

Being back this week has marked the return to our normal schedule, and it was hectic to say the least! The kids were monsters after our 4 days away, and we are just now getting things back to normal. But homeschooling is going so awesome, and I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to do this with my son. He is doing so great!! Honestly, that is my very favorite time of the day- just sitting with him, teaching him to read and seeing how excited he is to learn new things. I was a bit fearful at first, but now I honestly cannot imagine someone else sharing all these memories with my child. (*this is not to say AT ALL that everyone should homeschool- it's just what is working wonderfully for our family and I am so happy God led us to this decision!) So right now we are working on sight words, and there are 18 that I'd like Mikey to learn by the end of the year. But because he's doing so well- he's already learned the 5 for September and October- we may add to that. My kids both have always loved to read so much, and I am so thrilled at the idea of seeing Mike reading on his own. Anyway, because I could go on and on forever about it, I have started a homeschool blog that I will be doing more in-depth entries about what we're doing. Probably boring, but stuff I don't want to forget. ;)

Well, gotta get up and moving. I want to get my house picked up and eat so we can do some school work before we have to take the dog to the vet. :) Have a g'day!

Quickly

I SO do not have the time to be on the computer, but I wanted to make a quick update while I'm eating my lunch. Even though I'm done eating... ;)

We are leaving on Monday for a 4 day cruise! I never even got to write about this, but for our anniversary Big Hunk bought us the cruise (down to Ensenada Mexico and back, stopping at Catalina on the way) and I have been so excited to go! At first I was super excited, then freaked out about leaving the kids, now I'm back to excited again. LOL Originally my SIL was going to watch the kiddos, but Big Hunk knew I was having a hard time leaving them and actually decided to fly out his dad and step-mom (from Ohio) to watch them. I am so happy. :) And also, my SIL Mandy will be flying in as well (from her home in Utah), and the kids will have a BLAST. They will all be staying at the apartment in Malibu (BH just leased it through his company, to rent out) and will spend their time swimming and just having fun. I have had no trepidations about this trip since learning the kids will be with my in-laws, and know they will be just fine.

The dog we found the other day is all gone; the next morning Big Hunk drove around and found a sign for the dog, and we took her back to her owners that afternoon. The kids had a really hard time leaving her, but they understood it was the right thing to do. And I'm happy to be back to one dog! Potty-training one is hard enough!

In other good news, the car we had stolen about a month ago (an '87 Honda Prelude, funnily enough LOL) was just found on Tuesday! All in all it was still intact, despite the loser thieves trying to sabotage it. A bunch of hoses were unhooked and pointed every which way (as well as a tired having the air let out) so that gas shot everywhere when the car was started, but thankfully BH was able to get it all squared away. I'm so happy they found it. We had lost hope! We paid very little for it when we bought it in December (for my step-son that thinks he's too good for it), but we've put quite a bit of money getting it running right-- not to mention it's a cool little car! So, that's a good bit of news.

Hopefully I'll have time to post some pictures soon; with homeschooling and my daily house duties, I have NO time anymore. And packing for the trip has taken any spare moments I usually would have. (Which is what I should be doing right now.) I've got some cute ones to share! Between our trip to Disneyland, Sea World and the beach with our friends from Arkansas, and Disneyland yesterday, I've got tons!

Well, gotta teach for a bit today. :) We normally do school in the morning but today I wanted to get some work done on my house, so we need to do it now. It will probably be a light day though and we'll focus on Bible time for now. Then we head to the LA Fair tomorrow for a field trip with our school!

By the way, I will most likely be making this blog private in the next couple days. I never really thought about how much info I put on here and though I don't mind sharing it at all, I would like to at least have an idea of who's reading it. So if you'd like to continue, please just leave a comment with your email address and I'll send ya an invite. ;) Comments will be private, so no fears there. God bless!!

My husband just came home with this...

He found it running in and out of traffic by my nephew's school when they dropped him off a little while ago. I guess my husband almost got hit by a car trying to save her. lol She's the tiniest little thing and was starving, but now we will try to find the owner. ;) I'm sure someone will be looking for her!

It's so funny to see her size compared to my other dog (a St. Bernard/Husky mix puppy) through the glass because even though my dog Roxy is NO WHERE near close to grown, she's a freaking giant compared to this one! This one (who knows how old she is) is the size of a very small cat, but she sure holds her own! She thinks she owns the house already! LOL

*sniff*

As I was sitting here at my laptop to (very) briefly check my email, I hear the kids in the next room. Mikey was getting ready to pray while my nephew M (shall I call him Mars Bar? lol) and Ike listened. I hear Mike say "Lord, thank you for this day. Please let us have a wonderful day and thank you for dying on the cross. Thank you for forgiving our sins. Amen."

:-) My heart swells.

It has been such an amazingly crazy, stressful morning and I so needed that.

oh yeah...

I actually just sat down to check my email real quick before I work out (I am totally slacking lately!!), but after seeing my post from yesterday I couldn't just leave it at that.

Could I be any whinier? And the thing was, I wasn't even really sad about how things turned out because I know it's for a reason, and most likely if we had had to force Cracker Jack to come over, he would have been less than pleasant- and I didn't want to deal with that this weekend. I think in trying to cap all our goings-on into a short blog entry only make me sound like a ranting, venting whine-bag. ;) I'm not, really. Big Hunk read it and said "You sound like you're upset with your birthday" and while I don't think I said anything that straight out said I was sad, I did sound like I was complaining. So I'm sorry! lol

Actually I am totally looking forward to my birthday- just relaxing and spending time with those I love most, at the place I love the most! (Which is totally why I could never live far from the beach-I'd lose my mind!) It will be a lot of fun.

The kids are watching a little tv right now as they eat their breakfast, and I'm all dressed and ready to work out. I have been doing so badly with working out (I have only done one other workout this week), so I need to get in gear. Makes me feel awesome that I'll be in a bathing suit tomorrow. AND I just found out that our friends and their two kids are coming out tomorrow as well. "Hi again, how are you? Have you met my cellulite?"

Because that's totally ALL you can see. ;)

Kids are a blessing, right?... Right??

I just don't even know what's going on right now! Things are so freaking weird right now and between my head spinning to keep up and being on the verge of tears (or full on sobbing, it goes back and forth), I feel like I'll be admitted to the funny farm anyday. Let's just say I had a huge post drafted earlier, and in just the past couple hours things changed and it all became old news. ;)

In a nutshell, because I have no desire to dwell on ANYTHING right now... My 30th birthday is on Saturday and despite original plans to have a nice birthday party, it has now become a trip to Malibu (that part I'm super excited about) with just the 4 of us and my parents because no one else can make it. Even Cracker Jack, because he ever so sweetly let us know today that if we didn't pick him up at the time HE wanted (instead of our court-apointed time, 3pm), he would not be coming over. (Then telling us that he didn't want to come over anyway, and that it's his decision if he comes over, not ours. He's sweet, I tell ya.) This is all after I specifically asked him last weekend to make sure he doesn't cancel on us, because it was important to me that he be here for my birthday (I can't even remember the last year he was here for it).

What else? Oh, my sister isn't coming this weekend either because she already made other plans to visit a relative of her husband's (hello- we're celebrating ON my birthday. It's not like she didn't know!).

I think that's it. Besides being kinda broke and I don't even know if I can go get my toenails painted (I'm not even asking for a pedicure!), I think that's it. And really- it's not a pity party. Just a lot to take in at one time. I was totally on the ball earlier and had no problem with all of this, but it all just snowballed and now I'm in a crappy mood. ;)

AAAaaaugh.

My head is pounding right now. I just got done working out, and most times (if I've really pushed myself) I end up with a terrible headache from getting my heart rate up so high. I know that's the sign of not being so smart, but on the other hand if I don't push myself hard enough, then I lose motivation and quit. Being I'm not losing a single ounce, who knows which is worse. *sigh* Tonight I did Plyometrics, which is hell. It's pretty much an hour straight of nothing but squats and jumping. I love it though at the same time because you're sweating like a freaking pig and you feel like you've run a marathon when you're done.

Our date night last night was awesome!!!! My husband is so great. We couldn't decide what do-- boring old movie & dinner? ice skating? mini golf?-- so Tom just told me to be ready in 15 minutes and we would be leaving. He wouldn't tell me where we were going until we were almost there (all he would tell me was that it was in Orange County and had an "A" in the name. Not so helpful.), but he took me to see Mamma Mia. I didn't really know what to expect because even though it's been out for years and I knew it was based on the ABBA songs, I didn't know any more than that. I guess that's why I had had no desire to see it before now. But good gracious how I've been missing out!! It was SO freaking great. It was so much fun!! Besides having a cool story line and being hilarious, then end was almost like a cool concert with all the songs and dancing (even the audience!), and I didn't want to leave. :) I told Big Hunk we have to see it again! Of course they are only in town until this Sunday so that's not likely, but hopefully another time. But, we are going there next week to see Go Diego Go Live. ;) Not sure how happy I am about that, but the kids will love it. So anyway, it was such a great night! It is so hard being away from my kids though, and I need to get used to it. I guess maybe because it's been so long since we've left them, but I was trying to figure out last night how in the world we'll be gone in November for 5 days! I was reassured though reading my book A Wife After God's Own Heart (looove that woman!) and being reminded how important this time is for us.

Well, it's 10:30pm and I need to get to bed. I had planned on taking a shower after working out but I'm off my workout high and am content going to bed stinky. ;)

just blabbin

I have about a million different things I could be doing right now. But I'm not.

I was supposed to go to a women's bible study tonight at church (that I was actually really looking forward to!) but hubby and I just decided to have a date night instead. I don't remember our last date! Hmmm. Valentine's day? No, couldn't be that long. I don't know, it's definitely been a while. We still have no clue what we're going to do though, so should be a fun one. ;) We always just go to dinner and a movie and I do want to see Rush Hour 3 (LOVE Jackie Chan!), but that's not really quality time. Maybe we'll just go knock over a couple of old people. That's always a fun time. ;) (I'm totally kidding. I love old people. Really. We'll knock over little kids instead.)

Not much has been going on for us. My stepson leaves on Thursday for college, and turns out we aren't going to see him again before he leaves. MAJORLY sucks and I've been very mad about it, but it's not going to change. In a nutshell, he made plans with us for tonight (I was going to miss my church event so I could see him), then he cancelled last night saying he forgot he had made other plans. Uh huh. He's really overwhelmed with everything though, and we are, as always, the first ones to be cut out. So, I'm bitter and hurt, but really not all that surprised.

Speaking of bitterness, I'm having an off day. Eating like crap and haven't worked out yet (nor did I last night), and I'm tired of seeing no results. It's only been like a month though, so I know I'm just jumping the gun. I mean, I can see results in my arms and legs (beneath all the cellulite) and I can see a difference in my endurance and strength, but seriously- I had Ikey 3 years ago!! Will this stomach ever go away?? I finally broke down and just made an appt for a trial session of Arasys and I'm eager to see what happens. Dude, I'll spend a million dollars (okay, or not) if I can get in shape! What's so stupid is I don't even mind doing the work-- I enjoy working out!!-- but I'm just getting so discouraged! But I suppose this happens to everyone, and right about this time. I know it's happened to me in the past. Right when you're in that "in-between" stage of working your butt off and seeing progress, you just want to throw in the towel. Well I guess that's not totally true. Because as much as I love working out and am frustrated with what I see in the mirror, I know that no matter what the working out is good for me health- no matter how little the results. So, I know I'm still bettering myself. But I can be mad today. ;)

Well, gotta get something done!! Or at least do my hair for my date night! :-p

Once upon a Toosday

Well I had every intention last night of sitting down, posting a couple pics and writing an entry about all the sadness of my day (we dropped off R after his 5 day visit, and he is leaving for college next week *sniff*), but our evening suddenly consisted of a trip to the mall with all 6 of us (the 4 of us plus my SIL and nephew), dinner, and a late-night workout (as always) for Big Hunk & I. Now here I sit with a whopping 2 minutes to myself after just doing today's workout (half-arsed if you must know) and about to get in the shower. Big Hunk ran out to get a haircut and the kids are napping because we are heading BACK out to the desert in a little bit. We just got back from Palm Springs on Sunday, and now we head back out- to La Quinta, a bit further this time- to hang out with some friends of ours that have a vacation home out there. It will be lots of fun though and we should be back on Thursday morning, when we pick up Cracker Jack (younger stepson) for our weekend. The kids are SO looking forward to spending time with their new friends and swimming for another 2 days straight. I wonder if they'll eventually grow gills with all this time they spend in the water?

But anyway, yes, R will be gone in 8 days. I can't believe it, and I've spent a good portion of the last 24 hours in tears. When we dropped R off at his mom's yesterday 4 of the 5 of us (Ikey is the heartless one) were sobbing. :( But God-willing we will see R for either lunch or dinner before he leaves, and I'm looking forward to that. We are going to miss him SO much. He was receiving a lot of crap from his stepdad about visiting us for those 5 days (I think he hoped that once R turned 18 he's want nothing to do with us. Whatever.) so as much as I'll miss him, I look forward to him being on his own and really learning who R is.

Well, I have to cut this short. The kids just woke up and I still have to shower and pack a few more things, and Big Hunk's going to want to leave as soon as he gets home. God bless!!

Tho thore.

Why does working out have to be such a pain?? Why can't we just get married, have kids, and go back to the carefree, high-metabolic bliss of the old days? I remember in high school I would sell candy and literally eat like 6 candy bars a day. Reese's, Snickers, Skittles, you name it. Now, I feel like I'm going to pay a lifetime for the low-fat choice of ONE York Peppermint Patty. But anyway, I worked out yesterday morning- chest & back- and I am still so sore. I wanted to get up and do my cardio (plyometrics- makes you want to die) but I feel so wiped out that I'll have to do it tonight.

We are picking up R (my oldest stepson, the 18-!!!-year old) today, and he'll be with us for the next 6 days. He was able to fit us into his schedule a bit since he'll be leaving for college in a couple weeks. :( I get emotional whenever I think about it. Things just won't be the same. Which I guess might be a good thing being things were never that great, but part of our family will be gone. When he does come to visit it will be on his terms and when he wants (IF he wants), and it just seems like he'll be more of a visitor rather than part of our happy little family. Maybe I'm just analyzing it all too much. But he's growing up regardless. *sigh*

So as I was trying to say, we are hoping to go out of town for the time that R's with us. We were supposed to use our friends' house in La Quinta (out past Palm Springs), but they changed their mind and now we are scrambling to find somewhere to go. The hard part is that now we have to find something that's pet-friendly, so one house in Palm springs that we loved for Mother's Day we now cannot do. Big Hunk emailed a few houses (well, their owners anyway. The houses themselves are lousy at replying to emails) last night, so we'll see.

Well, just wanted to check in. I need to take the kids to Target and get some cleaning done before we pick up R. Hope everyone has a great day!! :)

DUDE.

O. M. G. Becky.

My stepson turned 18 today.

I am now a mother to a grown child.







AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK!

Happy Monday!

Augh. I actually love Mondays because I love being able to get back into my normal routine and getting my house in order (from the many weekend messes and relaxation), but I loathe getting the energy to take that first step and MOVE.

I just got done working out, for the first time today anyway. I'll work out again with Big Hunk tonight. We have begun this new workout program that is SO hard, but so rewarding! It's called P90X , and it is a vigorous, incredibly challenging 90 day program (90 days straight!) that works every part of your body for amazing results. I have only been doing it a couple weeks (but we can never commit to every single day, so I do it as much as I can) and I can see such a difference!! We took all our measurements (and photos, ick) when we started, so I'm excited to see how much I've lost when we're done. Not that I think I'll ever be truly done, I actually really enjoy it and have never felt so challenged in my life. I'll literally find myself groaning as I strain myself to finish a set of weights or pull-ups, or to complete a series of cardio, but I have never seen results as quickly as I am now. My arms are so much more defined (I've got guns, baby! lol) and my stomach is flatter. Of course my tummy is still nothing but stretched out skin, but I have my kids to thank for that. ;)

Well, I planned on posting pics of Mike's birthday and stuff, but the kids are eating lunch and I want to take a shower. Lots of stuff to do! God bless!!

Back to life!

Wow, after having a journal for so many years online (geez! almost 6 years now!) I have grown tired of the need to blog for everyone else (those people that prod you when your life has gotten to crazy to update), and have finally ventured into a blog of my own. I'm excited! There have been so many times over the past few months that I wish I could share photos or write about something going on in our lives, but then I would think "No one will read it anyway" so I just didn't bother. Not that anyone will read this one anyway, but at least I don't feel like I'm doing it for an "audience" that just doesn't care. ;)

Anyway, welcome! I am Mel and I have been married to my Big Hunk for almost 8 years now. We have two little ones, Mike & Ike that are 5 & 3. And, two teenagers that are 18 & 16. Our hearts are full! We own our own business (vacation home rentals) and are a God-loving, homeschooling, Jesus freak kind of bunch. :) God has truly blessed us!