Dear God

Yep we got another letter under the pillow. We had Disney on Ice all week at the Sports Arena and the kids got to go see the last show on Sunday. We usually befriend some of the Disney crew through out the week so Haley got to get her picure taken with the "Ariel". This morning I found a letter under her pillow along with the picture.
It said, "Dear God, Can I be like Ariel without a tail. Which means a voice like her, hair and skin like her Please. Love, Haley

So Mom had to write a response from God. I am not sure if that is appropriate or not but I feel like I know exactly what He would say to her so I am just helping get it across to the seven year old!

Ella's Song

So Ella entered a contest to win a limo ride to see the hannah montana movie. I am begging everyone to vote because has this not only taken me all week to accomplish but for my 5 year old it is hard to process her chances so in her mind she has already won. I don't think I have ever won a contest, maybe that is why I am trying so hard for her. Or maybe I just enjoy seeing her so happy. Anyway check out her video and please vote for "Ella's Song" on www.star941sandiego.com. Thanks

Good Times

I was thinking since Tara already did a blog I wouldn't, but Lauren is definitely worthy of more than one post. I also realized that as I was reminiscing I kept thinking of more and more cherished moments to recall. Here are just a few that stuck in my memory...

Our shared obsession over LOST

The Office-"That's what she said"

Watching American Idol together

Trying on clothes at Target (Are the sleeves supposed to be like that?)

Did you have your Filet O Fish today?

Girls night at the Chocolate Factory and her amazing creations with marshmallow and cherries

The "nail in the boob" situation in Vegas (okay maybe not fun for her)

Soccer practice at the park- What happened to our team?

Her wonderful skill with doctoring horrible pictures of her friends

Wiggling cotton candy stick at my husband!

Filling in as the Tooth Fairy

Calls to every single phone number she knows until she locates me.

Her basil chicken and Steve's soy sauce chicken

Serenading me Usher's "Let it Burn"

I will miss you my crazy friend! I will be praying for your adventure and that you will be blessed. I love you!

One of Those Days...

Sorry this is going to be one of those whining, complaining posts but you can all blame Kristy for wanting something new to read. By the way I am so glad I decided to like her!
Anyway my day started at 7am this morning being awakened by my beautiful son pawing at my face. I quickly reached for my cell phone to text my husband to come and get him. Just to give you a heads up I usually end up sleeping in the nursery at some point during the night. My wonderful husband comes and gets Ty in the morning so I can sleep for a few more hours. So at 7am I am texting him awake but unfortunately I wasn't quite alert enough and accidentally sent the text to my neighbor who is the next name down in my phone book. So needless to say not a good start and I am sure I will have some explaining to do.
After a few hours sleep I get the three kids ready for church. Quite a task in itself but thankfully with the new road we can get there in no time. So I think I was only 15 minutes late instead of my usual 30 minutes. I drop Ty off then Ella and Haley. I look inside for some friend or relative to sit with. No luck! I decide to go get a bottle of water from the "fried egg" cafe and then resign myself to sit alone all service. On my way back inside I hear a screaming infant in the hall and decide to pop my head around to make sure it isn't my son. It was. Back to "fried egg" cafe.
After church we head off to work where I discover my "strong" employee for the day has gotten someone else to cover her shift. I spend the next hour running around trying to get the store in shape. Meanwhile Ty is screaming, Haley and Ella have Clifford blaring on the TV, the store is full of people and I realize that it feels a lot like the opposite of heaven. From there we are off to Grandma's house to unload kids so I can make my way to help at Jingle Ball.
I arrive with 15 minutes to spare before doors open. I smile at the Girl Scouts inside the doors passing out programs and then frown as I turn around to see six very skimpily clad women walking by dressed as go-go dancers. Little did I realize that for the rest of the evening they would be dancing next to me in a cage. Yes a CAGE! Now just to give you the visual their dresses barely covered their "cheeks" and as my husband pointed out in order to be a dancer you had to be able to fit through the bars. I guess there goes my shot since my "cheeks" definitely would get stuck halfway through. Why would they have girl scouts and go go dancers? Not to mention barely clad Charger girls signing calendars and Bud Light girls with white high heels, teeny tiny white shorts and ski caps on! Lovely! As Kristy kindly pointed out my husband was very lucky he worked there tonight!
I drive back to pick up the kids at 9:30 pm and get a gift bag handed to me. It is a baby gift for Ty from my grandfather who passed away last week. I guess he didn't have a chance to give it to me.
Now I sit here at 11:45 with some sort of stomach bug finishing my night off in fashion! Hopefully as always tomorrow will bring a lot more joy!

What Should I Be When I Grow Up?

Haley and I had quite a fascinating conversation about what she should be when she grows up. After all according to her it is fast approaching because she only has 11 years until she is 18 and she would like to know by the time she goes to college. Her first thought was that she wanted to be a doctor. She quickly changed her mind because she told me she "doesn't want to touch everyone" and "especially if a lady is pregnant I don't want to check her pee pee!" Her next thought was a scientist "but if I mess up it will get all over me". Then came a garbage woman. That was quickly squashed because of course "I don't want to touch all of that trash". Then was the final revelation. A Mailwoman! There are so many positives of this. I asked her what they were and she said, "Well I would get to travel all over the world and if someone mails a letter to Santa I would get to meet him!" Ella even chimed in that if someone mailed a letter to God she could go meet Him too. Haley informed her "No you just put those letters under your pillow. (see Dear, Jesus post). So it looks like as of today she will be working for the postal service. The only down side she could think of was the paper cuts but she thinks she can avoid that if she is careful.

Happy Halloween A Little Late

Gabriella from High School Musical


And our very own policewoman and pinto horse.

The Boots

So this past weekend thanks to some wonderful friends and family,Chad and I were able to go up to Santa Barbara for a wedding. Now for quite a few weeks I was debating whether to go partly because my post pregnancy figure isn't quite where I would like it to be. Anyway I realized looking pregnant or not I wanted to go so I went in search of an outfit that I could try to look good in. Along came "the boots". I had bought a dress that I felt some really high boots would look good with. Should I have bought them at Target? Probably not but not all of us can afford expensive boots. Anyway I felt that I looked pretty good in them and at least from the knee down I felt confident. Well I probably should have walked around in them for awhile because half way through the evening my feet were killing and I could barely stand.

At one point during the night I had to make a trip to the car. There were several men from the reception out lingering and as I walked past them one of the men told me "that from where he was standing my boots looked beautiful" So pain or not I was pretty happy. I went back to the reception and was eager to tell my husband that I was hit on in the parking lot. My husband who normally shows no emotion over these rare times gives me a very incredulous look and asks "He really said that?" It was almost like he was going to go beat him up and fight over me!! I responded "yes he really did". Well my excitement over my husband's jealousy was short lived as it became aware to me that Chad thought he said "boobs" and not "boots" . After it became clear that it was just my shoes and not my body the man was after, Chad went back to his meal. Oh well....

Then came the end of the evening. The boots weren't done yet. As I stepped out of the van my heal gave way and my foot went to a complete right angle from my ankle. As I let out a scream and landed on the ground I thought for sure I broke it. My husband would say that I always think that whenever I hurt myself. He assured me it was just sprained and that I would be okay. So after several days it is feeling a little better. Here is a picture of my ankle. I am not sure if you can see it but it looks like I have a huge baseball on the side of my ankle. I would have posted a picture of the boots but I am not quite ready to put them back on yet.

The Joy of Food

I will freely admit that food can raise or lower my emotional state quite often. A simple Diet Coke delivered in the morning by my husband can put me in a good mood all day. Not getting one...well you can guess!



So the point of this post is to share my excitement about my dinner this evening. I know! Much like Tara's disclaimer on her cleaning posts you can feel free to stop reading but if you are like me and enjoy eating a great meal without a lot of work you will want to take notes.



As most of you know I do not have the time or desire to slave away on meals each day . I also much prefer when someone else cooks but since I haven't convinced my husband to pick of this duty yet I am stuck with it. We often opt for drive thru. Not the healthiest or cheapest route so I decided I would make an effort today and cook. Well not really cook but prepare.



It started with some chicken tenderloins from Trader Joes. I was quite proud of myself because with my mom's guidance on the phone I actually dipped them in milk, then egg, then a mix of bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. A little olive oil in the pan and I was good to go. One step accomplished.



I then checked the freezer and had one of my most favorite things from Trader Joes stocked which is Fettuccine Alfredo. For those of you who enjoy it you should really pick some up. It comes in the bag just like the orange chicken and it cooks in like 5 minutes. All you have to do is pour it in a pan with two tablespoons water and simmer. It even starts with these little nests of noodles and wafers of cheese. I swear I get so much enjoyment by watching those nests break up and it all form into perfect Fettuccine Alfredo. Another easy thing done.



I had notified Chad at the start of preparation that we needed some vegetables for dinner and he could go buy whatever he wanted at the store. Little did I know he was going to come home with the most exciting part of the meal. He bought a bag of Broccoli Wokley!!!! Has anyone tried this yet? Okay so exciting. All you do is poke it with a fork and put it in the microwave for 4 minutes. It steams it perfectly! You are done!



To top the whole exciting easy meal off I also had him grab Homestyle Brownies out of the freezer dessert section. They are already in a pan and you just pop them in the oven. They taste just like you slaved away.



So all in all I kind of made a homemade meal tonight. I know I cheated a lot but can you just feel the joy I have right now? And it was all so yummy like I spent hours on it when I literally had it done in like 10 minutes!

Sorry I wish I had energy to take pictures for you but I did just cook dinner so I need to rest:)

Oktoberfest

It is hard to believe it has been a year since I have been blogging. It was this time last year after Oktoberfest that I did a post on the money vault. I am excited to try to beat my record of last year. Hopefully I won't be as nervous this time and can focus better. I hope you all come see us. We will be there all weekend. It is a rare opportunity to get any treat I offer all in one place since we will have the apple cart there as well. So if you feel like a frozen cheesecake, frozen banana, or a killer apple here is your chance!!! Or you could sign up and see if you can get a turn in the money vault as well.

Feel free to park behind the Yogurt Mill in the covered parking! Come celebrate Fall!!!

The Downside of Digital Cable

I knew the day was going to come. I even started prepping my husband for it a few months ago but he seemed unconcerned.
Last night it arrived! Chad was working in the office. Haley, Ty and I were working late at the store. I guess Ella had to occupy herself before bed and was flipping through the vast number of channels that our digital cable allows. Now for a five year old she doesn't seem to go by any numbers other then 47 for her favorite shows. There must not have been anything on because she was deciding on what channel she wanted by the icons that appealed to her. She kept whining for Chad to help her because she had passed the channel she had wanted and needed help finding it again. So Chad got up to help her. He asked what channel it was. She replied that she didn't know but that it had a little bunny on it! You guessed it! My daughter was trying to watch the playboy channel. Now obviously we don't subscribe to that channel so there isn't anything there other than the number to call if you want to sign up but still it was a scary enough wake up call that I think I will call COX tomorrow and just get Basic!