We're Back!!

After several weeks of life without my laptop, I'm back in business! I installed my new hard drive last night, hit the power button, and was thrilled to see the Windows icon appear on the screen. Once I set up the basics, I logged into Dell Safe back-up online and kept my fingers crossed that after 8 hours of uploading, I'd get it all back.....and I did!! I woke up this morning to find all of my files and programs installed on my computer. Words cannot express how happy I am! It's ALL there!!

So, now for my week in review. Last Sunday we celebrated my birthday with the Mazur family. We had enchiladas and a birthday cheesecake for dessert. They brought me a Kohl's gift card (my favorite!) and a microphone for my Wii so I can rock out to Guitar Hero.....so fun! We enjoyed beer, wine, and MarioKart for what seemed like forever. As always, we enjoyed the company and the boys had fun with their friends.

On Monday I was back to work to deliver performance reviews to my team. I generally look forward to this task as it is a time for me to express my gratitude for a great year. Unfortunately I was down to the wire so I had to cover half of them over the phone....no good! At least my team was very appreciative of my feedback and kind words. After a long day, I received a phone call from the Daycare that little Matty was ill and needed to come home. Upon arriving to the daycare, I found that both Matty and Dominic were suffering from a gastro-intestinal bug and that I would need to keep both home with me on Tuesday. The good news is that I was off.

On Tuesday, we took Dominic to get a hair cut. Since Joshua had removed a large portion of hair from the back of Dominic's head, I knew that Tim would have to remove quite a bit to make it even. Thank goodness Dominic is a good sport, and is rather handsome to boot. He has little hair left, but he wears it well. Dominic had a dentist appointment in Atascadero so we headed that way after leaving the Barber. Since we were in Atascadero, I decided to stop by the Bakery and order Matthew's birthday cake....one more item off the checklist for the big day. Dominic was a champ at the Dentist. He got his teeth cleaned, a fluoride treatment, and a big high 5 from Dr. Cottrell. At least I have one little guy who is agreeable to most anything.

Because the boys were ill and I had to venture to Los Angeles, Jim had to return home from work on Wednesday morning. Our friend Jake was gracious enough to sit with the boys from 6-8am until Jim came home as I had to get on the road. Needless to say he has decided he does not want kids for a long while. He couldn't believe how much work goes into the morning every single day. Jim told me later that Matthew pooped and when Jake changed his diaper, he put it on backwards....yes, the tabs were in the back.

I had a meeting at the Westin Bonaventure hotel on Wednesday and Thursday. What a neat place! The only downfall was that it had lot's of stairs, multiple elevators (I could only take the red circle elevator to get to my room), and a bit of nonsense to the design. I really wish I had taken a few pictures but, oh well. We are rolling out quite a few new things at work in the next 6 months; all of which will make the lives of me and my managers better! I returned to Bakersfield Thursday night and spent the night with my mom. Unfortunately I didn't arrive until 8:30 due to traffic, so I didn't get to visit very long. We will do more catching up next weekend.

I arrived home last night and was happy to see Jim and the boys. I arranged for our babysitter, Kimrah, to sit with the boys so that Jim and I could visit our local Sushi restaurant for dinner. I ended the night at the Mazur's house picking up our Wii (which Dominic dropped on the floor last week so it wasn't working). It got a good bill of health so Joshua will now get to play MarioKart all day today while I am at work.

I hope you all had a great week!

Still Trying to Catch Up!

I have so much to add to my blog, but today is not the day. We've had an eventful week, and have a few pics to share. I promise to add content tonight to catch everyone up. I'm also happy to report that my laptop arrived from the Dell repair center on Wednesday, and the new hard drive arrived yesterday. I think I will be back among the technology savvy people by tomorrow night...YAY! Stay tuned..

Jim Makes the News

For four weeks over the summer, Jim attended a Haz Mat course to certify him in this specialty. Yesterday he was called to put his newly acquired skills to work. Click on the below link to see the new story, and then click on the video to see him in action. You will have to watch a brief commercial before it opens up the news clip. Jim is at the very beginning in his uniform and orange vest walking across the lot with two suited up workers.

http://www.kcoy.com/Global/story.asp?S=9705096

My New Favorite Magazine

I know what you're thinking; another magazine to add to the stack on the table. But wait, this is a great magazine! I ordered a subscription through a fundraiser Joshua's school was having and I absolutely love this one! It has tons of coupons and great recipe's in it, and has articles that pertain to things I'm interested in. I will most definitely extend this one as it is a good read.

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my 35th birthday, we decided to venture to the happiest place on earth for a few days of fun. Unforatunatly, everyone else decided to join us on Sunday making for wall to wall people and a couple of miserable Riggio's. I did, however, enjoy some time with Joshua and Dominic in the Brother Bear Wilderness Playground on Sunday before heading back to the hotel for a nap. Had we remembered to pack our suits we would have hung out at the pool for a few hours. We made plans to meet the Bridges Family at 3:30pm but that fell through when Pam called to report that both parking structures were full and that there was nowhere to park....dang! We had to return to Disneyland either way for Jim to complete his annual pass, so we decided to have an early dinner in Frontierland (which was mighty good I might add - Matthew LOVED the toddler meal of rice with chicken) and hit a few rides. (make that 2 rides; Pirates and Winnie the Pooh). We turned into the hotel early and watched some television before nodding off.

Yesterday we awoke early and packed everything up. We scheduled the Character Breakfast in the restaurant for 7am so we could get an early start. All three boys loved seeing Lilo, Stitch, Pluto, Daisy, and Minnie, and Jim and I enjoyed the multitude of breakfast entrees. I waited only 15 minutes or so in the ticket line to receive my birthday gift....since we have annual passes I received a $69 gift card to use in the park rather than the standard one day pass. We were thrilled to find that we had arrived early enough to walk on nearly every ride before heading over to California Adventure at around 11:30am. Joshua braved the Matterhorn and loved it. I convinced both boys to join me on Thunder Mountain - Dominic cried. I guess we found another ride he won't go on again for a while. Matthew soaked in the sun and fed the ducks with Jim while me and the older boys enjoyed Pirates.

All in all, we had a fun trip and are already planning our return on February 8-9. We will be celebrating my niece's 6th birthday and our annivesary.

Today was Joshua's bi-annual visit to the pediatric dentist. We love our dentist, Dr. Cottrell. He has a really cool office with video games at each station, and TV's everywhere. His staff is really nice, and he is very good with kids. As expected, Joshua was very stubborn during his visit. He refused to open his mouth for the dental assistant when he learned there was "yucky" stuff going in. Dr. Cottrell was quick to calm his nerves and convinced Joshua to let him just look at his teeth this time around, so long as he promised to allow his staff to take X-Ray's and clean his teeth the next time we come in. Joshua received a token and redeemed it for a orange bouncy ball. Someday Joshua will look back and laugh at how he acted at the dentist, until then, we will try to make it a fun experience each time we go.

Like New Again

After realizing that I would indeed need a car seat for Jim's truck, I asked our friends the Mazur's if they still had an extra one. On Sunday afternoon they dropped off a really nice Britax seat. For $30 I found a new cover for it at Walmart, and ordered a new harness and buckle set from the Britax website for $25 to make sure it was in tip top condition. Although I won't receive the harness and buckle for a few weeks, this is what the final product will look like:

So much for Jim's truck. I can't wait to install this one in my Tahoe. Thank you Mazur's for sharing your treasure with us. We will put it to good use!

Do You Know How Many Toys $100 Gets You?

.......about this many!

My friend Megan called me this morning to report that Target had toys 75%off for their annual after Christmas sale. I had just been at Target over the weekend and saw nothing of the sort, but thought I'd stop by and take a look. HOLY COW!! We are all set for a years (or two) worth of birthday parties, etc. If the boys get an invitation, I can just visit the toy store in my closet to fulfill the gift requirement. I was so excited at what I found! In addition, the $50 Diego Dinosaur Mountain that Dominic wanted for Christmas was only $12.99! I grabbed it and will hold onto it for his birthday this year. If you have a Target close to you, I would take an hour out of your day to check the shelves in their toy department before they are cleaned out.

The Free Haircut

On Saturday, Joshua and Dominic decided to play barbershop and here was the final result:

Why is it always the little one who ends up regretting their decision to play this game?

...and I couldn't resist this one! He'll be the next to play barbershop and lose, but for now he's just a cutie pie. (And, yes Pam, that is Mama Mia playing in the background. I haven't finished watching it yet, but I'm trying)

Happy Birthday, Zack!

I'm a bit late on this well wishing, but a Happy 6th Birthday goes out to our friend Zachary! The boys very much enjoyed his birthday bash on the 4th, especially playing in the snow! As always, we had good food, good company, and many memories of another fantastic birthday party! The great thing about having such great friends is that it seems there is a party nearly every month for our children. Next one is on me for Mr. Matty Moose!

Joshua and Zack - the two big, bad 6 year olds!!

It Was an Accident, Mom

Thank you, Pam, for reminding me that I'm slacking on blog updates. While I do realize this, I've been a bit hindered for the past three days. On Sunday night, Dominic decided to push my laptop off the couch, and the collision with the hard wood floor jarred something loose. After 40 minutes on the phone with Dell, I learned that it was not repairable by me, thus, I waited for a box to be shipped to return it to the Dell service center for repair. The best part of this is that I will have to cough up $358 to have it repaired. So much for the good deal I thought I got on the darn thing a few months ago. So it goes with little hands in your house. Dominic learned his lesson and is aware that next time he takes "fate" in his hands, I will be making a withdrawal from his Savings account to cover the fees.

Our Fashion King

Dominic has declared that Tony Hawk is now his favorite designer. On Monday he wore his new Tony Hawk shirt and pants and absolutely loved them. So much so that he insisted on wearing them again on Wednesday - thank goodness Mommy did laundry! I asked him today if he wanted a few more Tony Hawk shirts to which he quickly responded YES! You would have thought it was Christmas again when he walked into his room tonight and found these hanging on his bed:

For those of you who do not know, Dominic is also a little cowboy. Today he was all decked out in his Wranglers and boots. Next weeks purchase will be a new cowboy hat as he has worn his out. I love you little skateboarding cowboy!

Conversation with Joshua

On our way home from the YMCA today, Joshua and I had a conversation about life and how sad I was to see him growing up so quickly. I am still amazed at how smart he is. The conversation went something like this:

Pam: Mommy is sad because she wants you to stay young for a long time
Joshua: I know, but I can't wait to be big
P: Why do you want to be big?
J: Because I want to have kids
P: You want to have kids?
J: Yes, but I haven't decided what I will name them yet.
P: Mommy would like you to be married too.
J: Yah, I know.
P: Who will you marry?
J: I'm not sure yet.
P: What about Noelle?
J: I asked her if she wanted to marry me but she said she is still thinking about it.

Long Lines but Good Times

Whoever decided that New Years Day was the perfect day to visit Disneyland was mistaken. Although many of the employees at the park confirmed this fallacy, it wasn't to be. Apparently when New Years falls on a Thursday or later, the park is busy. Either way, my mom and I had already committed to a day at the Happiest Place on Earth. Despite the crowds and long lines, it was all made bearable due to the company of the Bridges family.

We set out on our adventure at 7am on New Years day and made the trip in less than 2 hours - WOW! This was sure to be a sign of a great day. Everything was fine until we pulled around the corner into the Disney parking structure and found lines in every lane. Darn!! We parked and unloaded three boys, a double stroller, and enough loot to fill the basket below. We opted to walk to the entrance of the park as not to have to fold the stroller to hitch a ride on the tram. Because we had purchased annual passes from Costco, we were summoned to stand in the ticket booth line which took over an hour. I can't believe how many people do not pre-purchase park tickets! We were pleased to find that after waiting forever to cash in our "vouchers," we received yet another "voucher" to redeem at the Bank of Disney for a photo and our annual pass. You guessed it....there was a line just as long for this task. The photo would have to wait as the boys were raring to go!

After a quick trip on the Rockets in Tomorrowland, we met the Bridges family (Steve, Pam, Ryan and Lindsay) at the exit of Space Mountain. Dominic was pleased that he didn't have to ride this fast paced ride again. Pam works with me at AT&T (as does Steve) and is a dear friend. Ryan and Joshua immediately hit it off, as did Dominic and Lindsay. We ventured to It's a Small World, followed by lunch, and then a jaunt through Reindeer Ranch and Pirates of the Carribean. After a quick snack, we loaded into the honey pots of the Winnie the Pooh Ride and rocked out to the toons.

We had had enough of the craziness of Disneyland and decided to take our chances at California Adventure. Surprise.....more lines!! We headed to the back of the park and opted to wait over an hour for the Toy Story Mania ride - my favorite!! Lindsay quickly declared she wanted to ride with me and Matty, and Joshua insisted on riding with Ryan. We had a blast!! We ended our trip with an hour and a half wait in line at the Bank of Disney and arrived home at around 10:30pm. Whew!! We were all exhausted, but truly enjoyed ourselves.

Thank you Bridges crew for a fantastic day. We need to do it again soon!!

After several attempts, I gave up and opted for the reindeer butts!

Lindsay (4) and Dominic (3)

Pam B. and Dominic

Ryan (11) and Joshua (6) prepare for battle on Toy Story Mania

Matthew pooped out after a long day of play