"Winter Break"

Chasey had a week off last week...It's "Winter Break" or "Presidents Week"...whatever they call it, It's nice to not be tied down to a school schedule for a week!...We slept in most days...did a lot of lounging...and had some fun in between! Here's one or two...or so...pics from the week!

It was my "Every other weekend" for the first part of the break and I took a trip to Big Bear with 15 girls!! Yes...15!!! We stayed in a huge gorgeous cabin and had so much fun just having some girl time! This picture cracks me up...It's the 2nd one that was taken and Carolina was getting in the hot tub and jumped in the pic behind us. We didn't know until she started laughing!

Since I'm having a "rotating issue"...here is the 1st pic!



Then the girls left and James came up for a day!



Spent a nice Valentines Dinner at home with my 3 favorites!


Met up with some old friends at the Long Beach Aquarium. The Lorikeets there are SO friendly! They would get on your finger even if you didn't have food! Loved them!



Had a "Bowling, Bieber and Sushi girls day!"







A nice big Fat Lip...



A little bit of "SingStar"



And finished it up with some Motorcyle Racing at the San Diego Supercross!! It was Cash's first race and he loved it! It poured rain, but luckily we had seats that were covered...so we stayed completely dry!



As much as I loved a little break...it's nice to be back on a schedule...but I am looking forward to summer vacation! :)

A sign? I think not!

I pinched my finger in the corkscrew opening a bottle of wine the other night...I even got a blood blister!

James says "I think it's a sign"

I say...."I think I need more practice!" haha

My new FAVORITE wine! Worth the blood blister! :)

"You can make new friends...but you can't make old ones!"

One of the...well...maybe the only reason I love facebook! Reconnecting with old friends!


It's seems crazy to me how much I lost touch with some of my BEST FRIENDS! Through our twenties we all kind of went different directions and completely lost touch. There was a group of us in high school that was together constantly...for years on end! I did stay in touch with about 4 of them...but there were a few that were just as much a part of the group that we lost touch with. I'm still amazed that we were not at each others weddings!! Now that we've reconnected, it's like we haven't missed a beat! Yes...we spent about 15 years doing "other things" but now we are all mid-30's...have husbands (or have had them at some point), have kids and really, truly appreciate great girlfriends!

I can't even express how thankful I am for great friends!! I was at Marshalls the other day (one of my favorite places!) when I saw a sign that said "You can make new friends...but you can't make old ones!" I should have bought it! But now it's my new motto! I love to make new friends...but I will NEVER EVER take for granted the lifelong friends that I have!

James even tells me how much he appreciates the fact that I have great friends and I make such an effort to see them! His ex only had 1 friend...He says that should have been a warning to him! Live and learn...another motto of mine! :)



The five of us...have created all of this...plus 2 more that are missing from the photo!


There's a couple more that live out of state...Emily, Bridget...I can't wait until they come visit so we can all get together and cause some havoc somewhere!

A New Chapter

So...my divorce is final! FINALLY! It only took so long because my ex and I drug our feet on a few things...but it's over. And I'm actually glad it took so long! I opened the letter last week and read it....and not one single emotion came over me! That is exactly how it should be! I didn't feel like a bowling ball had hit me in the stomach...I didn't feel happy about it...It just was! Ahhhhh......I'm over it! It's nice to know! I've been over it for quite a long time, but little things would creep up and it would still hurt...Like going to Costco a couple of Christmas's ago and the photo guy gave me "his" Christmas cards and not mine...When I opened it...It was MY kids....him....her...and all of her kids! I about died! If that happened now, I wouldn't care at all...but at the time it still hurt a little! Him and I get along fine now and I even sent him a "Happy Divorce Day" text! I told him he could finally start dating!! haha....that was funny since we both live with other people now! I wouldn't quite consider us friends...but that's not because of me...I want to be friends with everyone!

So...with my new chapter...I'm getting organized! Trying to at least! Here's a pic of the new toy storage in the living room....and a before and after of the toy storage on Chasey's half of the bedroom! Living with 4 people in 1100 sq. ft can get a little tight! We are trying to make the best of every square inch!



and this is my living room on a typical night....Cash trying to get naked...Chasey making clothes out of napkins and doing gymnastics off the couch!


Here's to Chapter 3 and all of it's possibilities! Bring it on!
(chapter 3 because...chapter 1...before marriage....chapter 2...marriage...chapter 3...my life now!)

Fuzzy's Christmas Vacation!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Wow...it's been over a month since I posted! We've been busy! Super busy! We spent 2 weeks in Illinois and Michigan with our families over the holidays! So much fun! I love spending time with my family! James family and friends got to meet the kids for the first time too...now they have even MORE family! They are the most loved kids in the world!

Chasey turned 6 on December 19th! My goodness...my sweet little preemie is SIX YEARS OLD! SO much has happened in the past 6 years...It feels like she's been here for a lifetime already! I don't really remember life before her! Because it was her birthday, she got to take home "Fuzzy" the kindergarten class bear! Each kid gets to take it home for a weekend and then write a couple of pages in his book and then bring it back to share with all of the kids. Well...we were lucky and got to take him for TWO whole weeks! He flew on an airplane, spent birthdays, Christmas, New Years....all with us! We loved having him and here are the 2 pages I made to put in his book! I wanted to include a ton of pictures without taking up 10 pages!




We are so happy to be home! It was a great vacation but with little ones, it's nice to be on a schedule again! We have friends coming for dinner tonight and we are trying out our new "salt slab." It's a 7 lb block of himalayan sea salt! You heat it up on the grill and then cook your seafood on it! We got it here. I bought grouper and scallops. Grouper wasn't my first choice, but it looked the freshest!

Happy Saturday night my friends! I'll let you know how the seafood turns out!

YOOOOO Gabba Gabba!

We spent Thanksgiving at home just the four of us...it was not really a Holiday..just another day of the week since we sit down at the table for dinner almost every single night. So...we tried to make up for it the rest of the weekend.

San Diego did NOT disappoint the tourists this weekend! It was chilly...actually REALLY chilly, but the sun was shining and it was gorgeous! We have woken up to frosty white grass every morning, but by 10am, the weather is close to 70 degrees!

Here's a little rundown of the rest of our weekend...

Mexican food picnic at Torrey Pines Beach on Friday




James was golfing so I was alone with the kids all day Saturday...thought I'd brave the crowds and take the kids to see the "Surfing Santa" at Seaport Village. The crowds won...I drove around the parking lot with all of the other parents looking for a spot that did not exist and finally gave up. Cool mom mode kicked in and I said "Hey kids...You want to go to Sea World?" I won the cool mom prize that day! We have passes so going for a few hours does not hurt the wallet!

This is now my FAVORITE thing at Sea World. It's kind of hidden, but it's the underwater viewing area at the "Dine with Shamu" tank. It's awesome to be so close to such a large animal! I have so much respect for the trainers. It really sucks that they don't get in the water with them at the shows anymore, but hopefully someday we will see that again. The interaction between the trainers and the whales is amazing. (I always dreamed of being a Shamu trainer when I was young...can you tell?)

This Dolphin was SO friendly! It wasn't feeding time and they normally don't come up to the sides unless you have a $6 tray of fish in your hands...but this guy was different! He just wanted to be splashed! We splashed and splashed and he was "eating" the water! The people next to us were petting him. I couldn't get Chasey close enough and keep a hold of Cash too. But...he was right there and we had such a great time watching him entertain us!

and my last picture from Sea World....look how cute my kids are! They were being so well behaved for me! They fight a ton these days so it was really great to get out of the house and not have any issues for the afternoon!


Then...something we've been waiting for since May! YO GABBA GABBA LIVE! at the Sports Arena! I bought tickets the DAY that they went on sale back in May and we never told the kids we were going. Chasey wasn't too thrilled when we first got there...she's a little too "cool" for Gabba...or so she thinks! About 20 minutes into it, she was up dancing and singing and yelling YOOOO GABBA GABBA!!! Such a fun (expensive) night with the kids! At least the tickets were paid for months ago...when I sitll had a job! ha Cash had a blast! Well...he sat on James lap the entire time clutching the balloon that came down from the ceiling...but...his eyes were fixed on the stage and we woke up this morning to Cash singing "There's a party in my tummy...so yummy" in his bed!

Late lunch at Phil's BBQ before the show...SO good!


DJ "Cash"




Whew...that was a long one....If you made it this far...Have a great night! Time for bed...

ps-I'm now writing for www.babyrazzi.com too! Nothing posted yet, but I'm their new product review mom! I love this!

Table for Four!

(photo from flickr)
Can you believe something this small has caused such a NIGHTMARE in our house?? Do you have any idea what this thing is? It's head lice...well this is a louse because it is just one, but LICE came home from school with Chasey and it's been an absolute nightmare! (Six other cases at her school that we know of...so were almost certain that is where it came from) I wasn't going to say a word about these damn things because the stigma associated it with them is not good. But..I want to come out and say that these things can happen to ANYONE? Clean, dirty, rich, poor...it doesn't matter! It just happens! If your kid is around other kids...you have a very high chance that you will have to deal with them at some point in your life.

And the WORST part about this....Chasey crawls in bed with me almost every night...so the only reason I even knew we had lice was because my head started itching! Once my head was itching I just knew! I had a nurse look at me at a baby shower that I was at and she confirmed that she saw a few eggs. At that moment, I left the shower, bought RID and treated us both immediately! Well...that was over a week and half ago! The next day I saw eggs in Chasey's hair againso we did a home remedy. 2 hours of Listerine on our hair, 2 hours of vinegar....helped...but still eggs....did another round of RID on my hair....still eggs. Spent THREE straight hours picking eggs out of Chasey's hair and was hoping I got rid of every last one....My aunt came over and did the same to mine.

2 days later...eggs! James even found a live one in my hair! UCK! This is after 3 chemical treatments and hours of handpicking the eggs out!

Bought an "electric bug zapper" comb! Don't know if this works or not, but the comb sure feels good on my head. Our heads are have tons of little scabs on them so we itch even when the bugs are gone! Lice feed off your blood....they bite you 2-3 times per day to live. They also lay 6 eggs per day...that is why they multiply so fast! The eggs DO NOT wash out...they are super sticky and have to be pulled out...you grab a hold of it with your fingernail and pull it all the way to the bottom of the hair strand. That literally is the only way!

2 nights ago...(10 days into this process) I SLEPT with my head covered in Vinegar. Vinegar is supposed to loosen the glue on the eggs. I woke up and washed my hair and knock on wood....Haven't seen any since. It's harder on me because I can't check my own head. I diligently look in Chasey's hair so she is good. If I happen to see anything, I pull it out immediately and I think were good on her hair!

All the stuffed animals, dress-up clothes...even the couch cushions are bagged up in the garage in "Quarantine!" I have spent so many hours fighting these damn bugs! My power bill is going to be through the roof with all the laundry that I've washed in "hot"! My hair is breaking from all of the crap I've put on it and we had to cancel our Thanksgiving plans....I would not wish this on my worst enemy!

Table for Four please? A little lonely, but at least we had each other!



Took the kids to the duck pond before we ate so they could run off some energy!



Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for...even if these bugs are trying to kill me! haha