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August 20 In loving memoryOur friend and gifted artist, Lynlie, passed away yesterday. We are honored that we had the gift of knowing you in this life. We'll miss you.
To view more of Lynlie's amazing works, click here. August 12 BDay GirlToday is my 31st birthday! Yes, I’ll admit it, I’m 31. I’m no longer on the cusp of or entering my 30s – I’m IN my 30s. And I have a three-year-old. And I own a house. I’m like a grown up.
My birthday day is nothing special, as it seems that it’s the final day of what turned into a birthday weekend. My in-laws had a dinner on Saturday night, complete with a lovely pair of Swarovski earrings waiting for me (I told Trevor I wanted these, so my initial reply when I got them from his parents was, “Well then, what did YOU get me??”).
Yesterday, I was treated to a free dinner (and margaritas) at Z Tejas by our friends Julie and Nikki, while Julie’s husband Davin, their two kids, and our other friend Billy came over to the house to keep Trevor and Casey occupied (read: Mario Kart and toys). We came home to witness the mass devastation that Hurricane Three Kids in your House will accomplish. I’m still finding Play-Doh crummies on the kitchen floor.
This morning, I rolled out of bed and visited my local Starbucks in my jammies, then came back home to wait for the bug guy to come and kill the ants in our kitchen. I know, I know, it’s almost too glamorous to read! We went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch and then combed the mall in search of new black Ray Bans. Brown doesn’t go with everything, so black is a nice backup. I came home to find a gift bag in the dining room. That sneaky-pants husband of mine got me a beautiful necklace and matching earrings. I love them! And I was so proud of Trevor. He got me something I didn’t already point out, mention ten times, or write down for him, complete with directions to the store and the item’s SKU number.
Tonight, I think we’re going into Scottsdale to continue my search for said Ray Bans (Chandler didn’t carry the style I wanted). All in all, a great celebration!
*By the way, if Mr. Microsoft is reading this, you need to update your dates. 5:19pm on August 11th is not an "August 12th" post. Get it together. August 05 Gold Medalist 2020Casey went to a toddler gymnastics class at The Little Gym last Saturday. Here are a few video snippets that I pasted together.
July 30 Happy Birthday!Casey is three years old today!
I shake my head every time I say that. Time goes by way too fast, but it seems to go even faster when you’re a parent. It literally seems like yesterday when we brought her home from the hospital and said, “Okay, now what do we do with her?” Now, she’s a potty-trained, self-feeding, dog tormenting, big-girl bed sleeping, gold-medal chatterbox.
Casey opened presents last night, since Daddy had a work function to attend tonight. I picked up a birthday cake with the Genie on it (her request) and a princess balloon bouquet. We ordered pizza and I spent the next hour assembling her new play kitchen set. In the meantime, she played with her new Barbie horse, tea set, and digital camera.
Today, I took her to Libby Lu for a birthday makeover. That was a better idea in my head. She was excited to wear her Tinkerbell dress to the mall, but apparently, Tinkerbell prefers bed head to a gorgeous and glittery princess updo. We picked up Daddy at work and had a nice birthday spaghetti and breadstick lunch at Olive Garden.
We’ve spent a quiet afternoon at home, playing with toys. I thought I overdid it, which I tend to do, but she’s been having so much fun all day. I figure she’s got enough new stuff to keep her occupied until at least mid-October!
Happy Birthday, my sweet monkey! I love you! July 26 I are a graduate!I should post about my big event last Saturday. I’ve been in graduate school since July 2007, and even though I have one class left, I had the opportunity to participate in graduation ceremonies!
Graduating with your Masters is a whole lot different than the Bachelors graduation. For one thing, I actually studied this time and have the GPA to prove it. Earning an MBA took an enormous amount of effort, not to mention an enormous amount of writing. By the time I finish, I will have written approximately 56 papers. That’s at least a lengthy novel. The ceremony was really nice and filled me with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Stedman Graham (Mr. Oprah Winfrey) was our keynote speaker and delivered a nice speech. We walked across the stage individually to “graduate” and pick up our fake diplomas, which were actually reminders to submit your application for your diploma along with the application fee. It’s college. Would you expect anything less? I also got the cutest shoes to wear for the event. After I walked across the stage and the ceremony was over, I made sure to ask Trevor, "Could you see my shoes?" On a personal and more serious note, I’d like to thank my daughter Casey for being the primary reason that I did this. I had been toying with going back to school for quite some time. After thinking about it more, I realized that I never want to tell her that I thought about doing something and never did it. I want to show her that she can do anything if it’s what she wants. So thank you, my sweet angel. Thank you for helping me to achieve one of my goals so that I can help you to achieve yours. June 04 Curb the languageI was fixing dinner tonight and caught a quick glimpse of Casey playing on the patio. She stopped, looked down, and realized that she had an accident in her shorts. She crawled back through the dog door (I say "back" because that's the way she got out in the first place - she prefers that to the actual sliding glass door).
She came into the kitchen, looked at me and said, "I went peepee in my pants. Dammit."
Crap. Oops! I guess I can't say that one either. May 16 Best. News. Ever.May 04 Tough LoveMeet Spooky - Nonny and Poppy's cat.
Oh, if cats could talk. Her exact words? "Kill me."
April 20 Video FunThe two phrases I'm LOVING right now:
Let me know if you need a translation, but I think she was pretty clear. :-) April 12 Pooper ScooperLately, Casey has had an obsession with dog poop. Not in a bad way, but in more of an OCD-type, this-shouldn't-be-in-my-backyard type of way.
Now, this is sort of a good thing, because it gets me to clean up doggy poopy on a more consistent basis. The bad part is that Casey first tries to scoop the poop herself. I've got one of those nice "jaws of life" pooper scoopers. You squeeze the handle, the bucket opens around the poopy, and you simply put it into the bag. No muss, no fuss. Well, Casey doesn't get the whole squeeze-the-handle thing, so I look outside from the kitchen to see her pounding Bailey's piles of poop into the grass with the scooper. Once she gives up, she'll come to the door and say, "Mom? Scoop the poop. Get a bag."
At least the grass is clear more often. April 11 The cure-allI'm in the kitchen cooking dinner. Trevor comes home after a busy day at work.
Me: What's wrong?
Trevor: Long day and I'm getting a headache.
Me: I'm sorry about that.
Casey: He needs beer! March 28 Is it April yet?March has been a whirlwind for us and it hasn't seemed to slow down. Here's a brief recap:
- March began with our anniversary and week-long trip to Disneyland (see previous post).
- Upon return, we decided to replace the carpet in our house since ours is officially trashed. It'll be installed on April 7th. In the meantime, I put an ad on Craig's List to possibly sell our living room furniture. Within 24 hours, I was sitting in my living room with nothing but a couch and our entertainment unit (which is also for sale!). No replacements yet, it'll probably take us a good few months to make up our minds on what we want.
- We're also replacing the kitchen sink, garbage disposal and countertop. A lady from Lowe's called today to make an appointment to come out and take measurements next Friday.
- After the home improvements are complete, we're putting the house up for sale. Even though the market isn't so great, we figure we might as well try our luck.
- Easter came and went and was really a nice holiday. We hid eggs three separate times because Casey enjoyed it so much. She also got "Enchanted" in her Easter basket and we can pretty much recite the movie now!
- Bailey had emergency surgery yesterday after the tumor on her ear burst. She also had a tumor on her gumline removed. Poor thing is just laying around the house now, recooperating. We should have biopsy results back in a week, but even if anything turns out bad, the vet assures us that he got it all.
Throw in a half a dozen papers for graduate school, a busy month at work, and you've got our March. I'm really looking forward to turning the calendar on Tuesday. Here's hoping April is much less chaotic!! March 12 Vacation RecapI haven’t updated this in a little while since we’ve had a lot going on. I’m pretty sure the following will be a short novel, so here you go:
March has been eventful so far. On March 1st, Trevor and I went to a Suns game to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary the next day. I got him really good tickets for Christmas and strategically combined attending the game with a child-free anniversary celebration. We had a blast, even though the Suns lost. I’m sure we’ll be attending another game when we get an opportunity.
On our actual anniversary, we boarded a plane headed for Disneyland! We arrived at the park around 4:00 that afternoon and stayed until the park closed at midnight. Casey was on excitement overload but didn’t pass out until around 11pm.
We spent the next five days in the park and had the perfect family vacation. Casey pretty much directed the entire trip, selecting each ride as we went along. We went on the “Pirate Boats”, “Ghosts”, “White Rabbit” and “Dumbo” more times than I can count. Our daughter also has a new affinity towards the Teacups – something Trevor and I never expected. We went on the Teacups at least 10 times, although we refused to go into full-spin mode.
On Wednesday, we had an ironic opportunity to spend the day with friends we haven’t seen in years. The previous week, Trevor got a call out of the blue from Brian Frye – a friend he’s had since kindergarten. Brian said he was thinking about Trevor for some reason and that they are living in Anaheim. Trevor told him we were planning to be in the park the entire next week. Brian is an FBI agent and had free passes to the park for assisting with the Orange County arson investigation. So, on Wednesday we met Brian and his wife Elva in the park. We had a great time with them, and it was wonderful to connect with friends that we haven’t seen since our wedding! That evening, we were meeting Trevor’s dad at Steakhouse 55 since he was working in Pasadena all week, so we asked Brian and Elva to join us. Trevor’s dad was absolutely floored to see Brian, and proceeded to talk his ear off all night.
In all, we had a wonderful time. We’ve got tons of stories, but I’ll list my top five moments here:
- The “child swap” pass. This comes in really handy when traveling in a group of three. One person waits in the normal line while the other stays with said child. When the first person is finished riding the ride, the second person takes the child swap pass and boards the ride through the emergency exit. We combined this with Fastpasses, so both of us rode Space Mountain and Tower of Terror within 10 minutes.
- The Princess Fantasy Faire. You wait in this massive line, but get one-on-one time with each princess. Casey LOVED this. Like I said, the line was ridiculous, but offered us plenty of time to get pretzels, ice cream, and face painting. Snow White was my favorite, as she struck up a conversation with Casey that lasted at least 10 minutes. We looked back, and they had created a second line of people waiting to meet her. Snow White couldn’t have cared less. I appreciated that, as Casey couldn’t stop telling her how much she loves “Doopey”.
- The Dream Fastpass Scavenger Hunt. Trevor and I scoured the park for these things. Apparently, each park gives out about 300 of them each day, at an undisclosed location shortly after the park opens. We missed them by no more than two minutes each day. We did manage to snag collectible pins and an invitation to a dessert buffet, as we were literally following employees with large black bags and communicating to each other via cell phone like a couple of private detectives.
- The lady with Tourette’s. Elva lost her cell phone at lunch, so we went back to the scene of the crime to find it. There was a lady sitting at our table, so she asked what I was doing looking under her chairs. I said we lost a cell phone, to which she replied, “OH SH*T!” Not exactly the response I was prepared for, at Disneyland no less.
And my personal favorite:
- Casey deciding to drop a #2 right before boarding Finding Nemo: Submarine Voyage. Nothing like poop to add to the stink of an enclosed and crowded underwater submarine for 20 minutes.
Casey is already asking when we can go on the “pirate boats” again, so I’m sure another trip will be in the not-so-distant future!
March 02 And we're off!!Who's on vacation? Me, that's who!!
I did all the laundry today, pulled out the suitcases, and turned in my research paper two days early. Trevor and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary (a day early) by going to the Suns game and watching them take a beating at the hands of the 76'ers. The hot dogs were good though.
Tomorrow afternoon at 2:10pm, (actually today, since I just glanced down at the clock and it's 12:14am), all three of us are boarding a plane for Disneyland!
I figure the shuttle will drop us off at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel by around 3:30pm, figure 15 minutes to check in and drop our bags in our room, and we should be in the park and in line for Dumbo - Casey's request for the first ride - by 4:00pm. I'm guessing we'll ride Dumbo at least nine more times by the time the park closes at midnight.
We'll be back on Thursday night, after five fun-filled days in the park. No school, no work - I'm in heaven already!!! February 26 ConversationTonight, sitting at the dining room table:
Casey: Mommy, wanna go with me?
Me: Sure. Where are we going?
Casey: To see Jesus.
Me: Sounds good. Where is he?
Casey: At the zoo.
February 22 Casey-tainmentWho needs a TV??
In case you're wondering, she's screaming "Streetrat," from Aladdin. Sing with me, won't you? "Riff raff, streetrat, I don't buy that..."
February 11 The RepeaterWe're right in the middle of the "terrible two's," and I think it's becoming obvious. Casey repeats pretty much everything we say, and this weekend I think I got a glimpse of what she hears the most. Here are a few examples.
Serving her lunch in the living room: "Daddy, I want 'Alice in Wonderland' RIGHT NOW. You understand me??"
At Target: "Mommy, you want some candy? Mommy, you need to listen."
Playing around: "Don't tickle me, Daddy. That's not very nice!"
Sunday night in the living room: "Daddy, you need to listen. I will spank you - in the booty!"
Daddy obviously gets in trouble more than Mommy does. At least two of these occurrences made my mouth hit the floor. I had to leave the room when she said she'd spank Trevor, because I could feel the tears of laughter rising in my eyes. And of course, you can't laugh in front of a two-year-old, because next thing we'd get is a note from school telling us that she was spanking everybody. February 06 Question of the DayI bought a pair of Seven for all Mankind jeans recently. I'd heard (or read somewhere) that they were voted the "best fit" of 2007, so I had to see what all the fuss was about. True? Absolutely. I'm not a fan of low-rise jeans whatsoever, and these offered an extremely comfortable fit with enough backside coverage so that I wasn't giving the entire world a free show whenever I sat down. The price tag? $178. Ouch.
Here's the problem - these jeans are amazing, yet they're about two feet too long. I took them to an alterations place and had to fork out another $20 to get about $45 worth of my expensive jeans cut off.
That's when it occurred to me that this was the third pair of jeans I've dropped off recently. Why exactly do really expensive jeans require an additional expenditure? I've never had to get a pair of my trusty $25 Old Navy jeans altered. I don't think I've even needed a shorter hem on a good pair of Luckys. But if you head upwards of that, you'll be visiting the tailor once a week. It's like they know that you're crazy enough to spend a considerable amount on one pair of jeans, let's getcha for just a little bit more.
These better last awhile, that's all I'm sayin'. February 05 Happy Birthday!Bailey turns five today! (February 5th, in case the blog screws up the posting date)
Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet girl. I can't believe you're five already. Five years of attitude, chewing up picture frames, drooling on my pants (and the bed, couch, chairs, etc.), and licking yourself until we can't take it anymore and have to yell at you to cut it out. I wouldn't trade you in for the world!!
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