Bad Blogger/Good Blogger

Ok, besides the fact that the entire house has been sick at one time or another for the last month, I have been a bad blogger lately. There hasn't been a whole lot of exciting stuff going on, since we have barely left the house.

The other reason I have been bad is my newly discovered iPhone application, Kindle for iPhone!




I kind of vowed during lent that I would make more of an effort to read in my downtime, instead of watch TV. I now have cheap access to 1000's of books that can be delivered to my phone wirelessly in seconds. Muahahaha! The power!

I have pretty much stopped watching TV all together. In the last month, I have read about 12 books, including my ever faithful audiobooks I love so much while I do my chores.

Some people have been curious about the size of the screen. How can I read on such a small screen? It's actually easier than a book and I have it with me where ever I go, so I don't have to cart a book around.

What a typical page looks like. Text size is adjustable. I can make it larger or smaller, but the default is perfect. Yes, this is one of my kooky new age books. I've been facinated by that subject lately.


The controls appear with one tap of the screen and you turn the page by sliding your finger across the screen.





Now, reasons for me to be a good blogger...

Found this great application in the iPhone Application Store called BlogPress. Now I can manage and post easily from my phone. I can include multiple pics, tag and edit previous posts and save a new post as an offline draft. Best $2.99 I ever spent! Cheaper than a Starbucks and works much better and faster then using Blogger's slow web application I love so much! NOT!! I flat out have refused to post pics that are not embedded objects or processed thru email. It takes too long and stuff fails half the time.

Here's a screen shot








Seriously, is there anything these phones can't do? My laptop is starting to get dusty. If I can't do it from my phone these days, I basically can't do it. Kaylee is not big on me having laptop time.


-- Post From My iPhone

g5 Weekend Report

Ok, I missed last weekend. I was being a lazy blogger ;) We did have fun at Natalie's 33rd Bday Clambake.

Let's see...Friday, I had coffee with the girls in the morning. It was nice to hang out and chat. We'll have to do that more often!
Friday night we took it easy. I made smoked sausage and yellow rice for dinner. Always a fav in this house. We relaxed and watched movies as usual. I read more of my book, that I finished this morning called Soul Mates. It was an interesting book. It was all about past life regression/hypnotherapy and the existence of soul mates and what the author's definition of a soul mate was. It was very enlightening. A different book from what I would normally read, but gave me some things to ponder. I love a book like that.

Saturday, we went to one of my BF's surprise birthday party. You would think that this party was more for kids! They had a blow up slide that they turned into a water slide courtesy of Grandma squirting everyone with the hose ;) It was 84 degrees in Temecula where they live, about 45 minutes northeast of us. They have a great house for entertaining and they always put on great parties. I got to visit with a lot of old friends, in between chasing Kaylee all over the place. We had a lot of fun. "Uncle Brian" carpooled with us and we are usually his adopted family at these functions, as he is unmarried and with out children. The only one of our friends. Mark took the day off, as usual when it comes to these functions but, he deserved a day off after three weeks straight working ;) Uncle Brian had fun with the kids. For a single guy, he is really good with them. He carted Kaylee around the yard, took Ethan swimming in the pool and even took him to go potty. Pretty impressive for a single guy! Single ladies, any takers??

Here are some of the pics from the party...

The Birthday Girl, Brook

Javi helped her with the candles.  Stand by with a fire extinguisher!!  Man, mine will have that many candles this year.  Ugh!

Hey, Can I squirt you with a water gun Uncle Brian (light blue hat)? 

Ethan frolicking around the yard.

Javi yelling at the girls to go down the slide, meanwhile not having the guts to go down himself and get sprayed by grandma with the hose.

Sunday, I ran some errands, took Ethan to Target and went to Trader Joe's solo. He needed some alone time with mama. He's been in a funk lately, wanting more alone time from the other kids. I can't say I blame him. We mostly just hung around and played with the kids. Mark colored with them. I made tacos, beans, rice and salsa. Ok, so the meat was a little over seasoned. Mark called it "meat tenderizer". I told him if he didn't watch it, he would be cooking his own meals all week!

Laying like a big girl and kicking her feet.  She looked like a teenager.  All that OT is paying off.  She holds a crayon better than most 10 year olds at 20 months.

Here daddy, let me autograph that for you.

It was a nice weekend. Relaxing. Next weekend Mark said he would let me try to hypnotize him with the script from my book. That should be interesting!! LOL  Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Twilight, what's your opinion?

Ok, so I know I'm a little old, but I have become a Twilight junkie.  I am dying to see the new movie and read all the books.  I went to a Twilight party in January and I was ashamed to say that at the time, I had not read the books or seen the movie.

I think what I find most amusing is what we (meaning most people) find to be romantic about the story.  To any of those that have seen the movie or read the book, the main characters Edward & Bella, share what we in reality would consider "obsessive behaviors", not love.  Yet, I am strangely moved by it and find it romantic.  I guess it's the reason that it's so entertaining.  It couldn't be farther from reality ;)  If Bella were my friend in real life, I would say WTH?  Call the cops on that psycho and get a restraining order, but as fantasy it works.  Kind of funny that way?  My only question is does it teach it's impressionable young viewers/readers that that type of behavior in a relationship is normal?  Or is it total fantasy because he is a vampire? Now that I have a daughter, I find myself analyzing stuff like that a little more.  What's your opinion?  

G5 Weekend Report

Rain, rain is here again. We are pretty happy though, because we need it badly! It sure didn't slow us down from indoor activities. Friday afternoon we had a bowling birthday party we attended. It was so much fun!! Javi had only been bowling once before, but he did fantastic. Guess all that Wii bowling is paying off!!



STRIKE!! On the very first frame!!


Kay was my arm jewelry the entire party and Ethan slept in the stroller all the way until it was time to have pizza and cake. He did manage to get to bowl in the game after eating. He bowled one frame right before we left. He hit one pin and was thrilled ;) To bad I couldn't get any pics because I was helping him bowl.

Mom and Dad had a movie night after the kiddos went to bed. It was nice to relax and listen to the rain while we watched our movie.

Saturday, we had another bday party to go to. This time it was at Playtown, which is an indoor play place. We had a really good time and got to meet some new friends. Javi made friends with a boy named Ethan, who is a celeb in the Autism Community. His team won an award for money raised for the San Diego Autism Walk Now. They were like two peas in a pod. I made friends with his mom, Lisa. We plan to get them together to play again really soon.



Our Ethan had a great time too! The big boys included him in there dramatic game of Sonic the Hedgehog, where they each decided to be a different character. Ethan also had fun playing on this motorcycle. He even put some gas in at the play gas station.



Sunday was a lazy day for the kids, but mommy spent a good portion of it cleaning after we made breakfast. The kids played and watched Boomerang Network. Kay helped mommy dust the living room. It was too cute!





We had a pillow fight, which Ethan enjoyed immensely!


Then mommy got a much needed break to go see a movie with a friend. We got to see "He's just not that in to you". OMG, what a cute movie, but definitely a chick flick!! Good thing it was just us girls ;) Can't wait to see it again.

Hope you all had a great weekend too.

G5 Weekend Report

Better late than never! I actually had this post ready last night, but had one video that had to be uploaded. I got a migraine and never finished it ;) Hope everyone had a wonderful Superbowl weekend.  Friday and Saturday were pretty uneventful since two out of three kiddos were sick.

Friday, I made some Greek chicken avgolemono soup for Mark and I for lunch.  I had prepared chicken souvlaki (Greek marinated chicken breast) for dinner for ladies' dinner and a movie night on Thursday, so we had a lot of leftovers.  It was d'lish soup!  We also had some leftover pita and tzatki that we munched on with the soup.  

That afternoon, we had a "Superhero Afternoon" boys played a little live action Super Smash Bros with their plushy Sonic and Mario dolls.  We also watched Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer.  I also worked on the football cake a little.  I baked the cake part.  I rested most of the evening and went to bed early, since I too was feeling a little under the weather.

Saturday morning, Ethan and I made the chocolate buttercream for the cake.  Yum!  It smelled heavenly.  Ethan was the official taste tester.  It is so cute to see how interested he is in cooking and baking.  He would rather cook with me in the kitchen than play video games.  He actually shut off Wii when I asked if he wanted to cook with me!!  

Javi went to Bates' Nut Farm with his cousin, Nana and Aitona for the day.  Javi's dad left for the CHP academy in Sacramento on Saturday and will be there for the next six months.  He will be coming home every other weekend, so Javi will still get to see him, but it's definitely going to be a big change for him.  It was a nice distraction for Javi to do something fun with his grandparents for the day.

Daddy brought home some McD's for lunch and a much needed ice coffee for Mama.  It totally hit the spot and I felt recharged to finish off decorating the cake.

I stayed up pretty late on Saturday night preparing food for our party on Superbowl Sunday.  I made all the dips, veg tray, etc.

Sunday the kids woke up early and we played for most of the early morning.  Then it was go time for mama.  I started cleaning, more food prep, and setting up for the party.  I made a much needed coffee run to Starbucks for daddy and I.  Since the kids had gotten up early, I was sooo ready for a cuppa.

Our party kicked off around 2:30.  We served food from just about every ethnic group.  I had made some lumpia, pizza, wings, hot artichoke dip, garlic fries, my famous roasted salsa, asian pineapple teriyaki meatballs, hummus & pita, and of course, cake for dessert.  

We had a really good time.  There was about 15 of us, including the little people.  Even did a little karaoke during half time.  Here are the pics and vid.  Mark & the boys were very elusive and managed to skip out on the pics and the vids.

Family Science Night

We had a great time at Family Science Night at Javi's school.  They did a great presentation!  They had different buildings set up with different scientific centers.  Building F, which is Javi's class building was set up with the body exhibits, another was set up with physics, another was set up with chemistry and the multi-purpose room (their auditorium) was set up with the solar system, planetary and world exhibits.  We really felt like we were at an actual museum they had put everything on so nicely!!  I was really impressed!

All the exhibits were interactive.  Kids could run experiments like look at their eyes in the mirror through a magnifying glass, measure the small intestines, do forensics on their finger prints, magnetic energy, and they learned why popcorn pops.

Javi's fav was putting iodine on the crackers to see how the digestive system breaks down food. Ethan's fav was the popcorn.  They also got a bag of really good popcorn at that exhibit ;)

My personal fav was the eco exhibits.  It taught kids what material were recyclable and which could be tossed.  They even had a trash/recycle basketball game where Javi won a pencil.  

It was really neat!!  I'm so glad that Javi invited all of us!  Javi got to go out for dinner with his step-mom & dad right after, so he got to learn about the digestive track first hand.

New Blades

Ok, so I'm sure you are probably getting tired of hearing about my sun filled outdoor California work outs, but here's one more. Mama got some inline skates!! Hopefully I won't irritate my old elbow injury with a fall. I went to the sporting goods store and bought a new pair. I had tossed over whether or not to buy a used pair. I shopped around online and found that a used pair of really good skates would probably run me about the same as a good pair of used. I went ahead and purchased some new and decided to go to Lake Miramar to test them out. I have been wanting another pair for a while, but really got motivated after seeing the bladers at the lake. Well, on my way to the lake, I discovered there was a Play It Again Sports (they sell used sporting equipment). I had checked on their website this morning, but they didn't have prices and I thought the nearest one was 30 min away.  I thought,  I may find a decent pair for $10-$20 cheaper, it's worth a look. I did find a nice pair of K2's for $29 in my size and decided to go ahead with them. Brand new, they retailed at $200. They fit so much nicer and I really noticed a huge difference in the stability and the way they rolled. Plus, they are nice and broken in, which actually reduces a risk for falls. So, the new ones will be going back this afternoon.

I'm usually a little weird about buying used shoes, but in this case, I was willing to just go with it for the reduced fall risk and the cost factor, should I become disinterested quickly ;)

I am still glad I went to the sporting goods store, because I was also able to purchase my long overdue arch supports for my running shoes!! No more achy feet and back!

Tonight's Family Science Night at Javi's school and it's also Ladies' Dinner & a Movie with my friend, Natalie. Busy night tonight!

Have a great day!

Kay was pretty tuckered out watching mommy do all the hard work ;) She feel asleep some where in the middle of the work out, all hunched over.  Someone stopped me and I was able to lay the jogger back a little more.

All done!  Sitting in my trunk enjoying the few & cooling down.

G5 Extended Weekend Report

Hope you all had a great weekend!! How about that inauguration too? I wasn't able to catch it because we were in therapy, but I am sure I'll catch the highlights on the news.

So much to share about the weekend with it being such a long one. Friday night, we tried to go to Nickel City, a local arcade, but it was over run with teenagers by the time we made it there. Ethan had pooped out and feel asleep on the way and Kaylee was being, well Kaylee. We said we would try to do it on Saturday instead. Friday night after the kids went down, I went out for a bit to celebrate my friend passing his series 7 test.  I was the DD.  It was fun, ran in to another old friend from HS. 

Saturday was a lazy day, we played video games and hung out, went to exchange our cable box, finally!!  We had been with out cable for nearly a month because I didn't know that they were open on Saturdays and I never made time to do it during the week. We were going to go to Nickel City, but Javi has been so OCD about roller coasters and height requirements that we decided to forego Nickel City and pick out a new game, Thrillville, for the Wii. We did all our research online first to find the perfect "roller coaster" game for Javi. We also got Ethan a new GBA game called Sonic Adventure 3. Javi now has a new incentive system to stop "stimming" (flapping & clapping).  So he (his pic) will have to move up the roller coaster train to be able to play for 20 minutes.  Each car is worth 20min with out stimming.

Sunday we went to the beach for a bit.  It was a gorgeous day out.  We took out neighbor Audrey with us.  Here's some pics.  Of course we were home in time to watch some football ;)

Kids were tuckered out early from our day at the beach and went to bed early.  I was able to pop over to see a movie at my girlfriend Natalie's house.  We watched "Love, Actually".  It was really good.  I had been wanting to see it for a long time.  Mark had been working a lot this weekend, so I was on my own for evening entertainment.

Monday we had our usual therapy session for Kaylee, a play date at the park with Javi's friend, Rory.  Then we headed down to daddy's old stomping ground, Ocean Beach.  It was so beautiful down there!  I got some great pics of the kids with the sepia setting on my camera.  I had never taken pics with the sepia setting, so I thought I would give it a go.

Tuesday, we had our usual Physical Therapy session, to which Kaylee did absolutely fab in!  It is working much better for her to go back to work with Bonnie on her own.  Ethan and I sat in the waiting room (Javi went to dad's).  I checked blogs, he played and then we read a book together.  It was a team effort!  He is doing really well with the site words.  Then we had a play date with my HS friend and 3 of her 4 kids at the park.  Busy vacation weekend!!

Congrats if you made it to the end of this holiday weekend post!!  Hope you all had a great weekend too!!!

Legoland 2009 Pics

Can alternatively be viewed on Flickr, CLICK HERE.

We had such a great time! It was nice to do something with Ethan all by himself. What a special birthday treat! I really enjoy getting to spend one on one time with each of the kids. Ethan was so happy. You can tell from the pics that he was totally elated to be the center of attention, for once! We always try to make special time for him, since middle children can often feel "squeezed out". It's double duty difficult with Ethan, since he has the least needs out of the three of them. I am so glad we were able to go.

Ethan's favorite ride was the "driving ride" where he got to go all by himself like a big boy! He was cruising in his mini Lego convertible Volvo. Sweet ride!! You know, chicks dig Volvos :) His least fav was the roller coaster. I took him on the Dinocoaster against his will, thinking he would enjoy it once he got over that initial fear (Javi was always like that at that age) but, nope!! He is not a thrill ride kinda guy, just like Mark. It was actually a very mild roller coaster, geared for little kids, but he still didn't like it. My favorite part of the day was the boat cruise. Our first ride. It was so cute to see the excitement in his face. I also loved the Inaugural LegObama Exhibit in Miniland. Complete with moving parade! It was amazing!

Thank you to Jamie and Mark for helping out with the other two kids so I could get out with Ethan. Also, thank you to my friend, Ryan for getting the tickets for us off the base. Gotta love those military discounts!!

Ethan's Birthday Pics

Ethan had a nice family birthday party.  Since he is a little on the shy side, we opted to do favor boxes for his class, have a family party and do Legoland with Mommy on Wednesday next week, in lieu of a big party.  We had a pajama party with "breakfast for dinner", Ethan's favorite meal of the day.  Grandma came to visit from LA and our neighbors, Audrey and Burke stopped by for some cake.

I managed to find Mario Bros jammies at Target yesterday morning.  What a find!!  I thought, maybe I'll see if they have some Mario pj's while I was there getting bday wrapping paper and to my surprise they had them in his size!  The other surprising find...they had a Sonic the Hedgehog tshirt for Javi!  My mom had already purchased some Wii pj's for Mark (you can see them in the pic of Ethan opening his presents) for Christmas, so all the boys had their gaming jammies on ;)  Cute!

We had biscuits and gravy, hash browns, eggs, and bacon.  The adults had mimosas too, with the left over champagne from New Years.  Cake for desert, of course!  I'm still stuffed from all the carbs.  

Ethan received all gaming presents, of course!  His favorite past time!  Thanks everyone!

Thanks for all the cake tips, Sharon.  Couldn't have done it with out your wealth of cake knowledge!

G5 Weekend Report

I know it's been a while since I had a nice newsy blog post so here I go. Warning this is going to be a long one, so congratulations in advance if you make it to the end ;)

Friday was just a relaxing evening. I wasn't feeling very well, so I took a nice hot bath and read the book I have been *trying* to read for the last two months with little success. I was having a discussion with a friend about books, so it prompted me to pick up the copy of "Eat, Pray, Love" that I still have on loan from Carrie. I have a deep admiration for reading, but it is one of the few pleasures that I can't commit to these days. I am not a patient reader. If I love a book, I will forego sleep and "crack out" as Mark calls it until I finish it. This is the reason audiobooks have worked out so well for me. I can multitask. I can clean, fold laundry or even listen while I am driving. Needless to say, books are one of my favorite guilty pleasures. There really is nothing like relaxing in a hot bath, enjoying the fragrant bubbles and the crisp feel of a paperback page turner.

Saturday, Ethan and I went to Target to do some returns from the holidays. We took a look at some toys while we were there. Ethan picked out a Star Wars Light Saber as one of his birthday gifts. Not my first choice, but we had a mom and her college age son chuckling as we discussed what not to do with the light saber. We discussed exactly how, where and when it was appropriate to play with it. I'm sure they must have been reminder of when he was a small boy asking for a similar toy. After Ethan made his promises not to hit the kitty, sister, brother, parents and any other animate or inanimate object in the house, we tossed it in the cart. Nothing like a light saber-wielding four year old! I'm sure he'll forget all those promises made. This saga to be continued.... Saturday evening, we watched the Chargers game, or rather listened to and watched the stats online, since our cable box is still out. With all the holidays and festivities, I haven't had a chance to return the box and get a new one. We aren't that big on TV around here, so I can go weeks with out really missing it (and have since it's been broken for about three weeks). I have tried reseting it twice with no luck.

Wow, the Charger game was a real nail bitter!! The game went in to OT, tied at 17 all. Chargers picked up the win 23-17. Woohoo!! I was invited to go out with some friends to celebrate the underdog's victory at the local pub, but preferred the company of my snugly sweetheart. We *tried* to watch "The Good Shepherd" with Matt Damon, but Mark fell asleep as usual. He tried so hard to stay awake this time too!! Mark can rarely make it through watching a movie with me without falling asleep. He says he just gets bored when he isn't doing something else at the same time. I completely understand this because I can rarely sit still long enough to watch a movie with out doing something else like folding laundry or doing dishes, or picking up. He's always telling me to sit still. I can usually make it through one movie with out falling asleep though ;)

Sunday, I took Ethan to Toys R Us to return a video game and also checked out some video game options for a bday present. We also decided on "grab bags" for his bday party at school. This is the concept we came up with:

It's a container with lego blocks, Lego Fruit snacks and Nilla Cakesters (some of Ethan's favs), and it will also have a juice box and a napkin inside. I thought it was fitting since we plan to go to Legoland in lieu of having a birthday party with friends over. We do, however, plan to have a family party on Friday evening (Ethan's actual birthday). We are going to have breakfast for dinner. Ethan's absolute favorite meal of the day is breakfast, so I plan to prepare a breakfast buffet of biscuits and gravy, pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs and hash browns. Then top it off with a Game Boy cake. Ethan's choice of cake theme this year. I don't want to get too ambitious, since we have other things going on this week also. It will probably be a round cake with a life size Game Boy made of rice crispy and fondant on top. I was thinking of putting the #4 on the screen.

Sunday afternoon, we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. We had a lot of fun. It was great to go, since we hadn't been in so long. It was a really nice way to close out the vacation too. Mark has the pics, so I will have to post them to flickr later. I've been waiting for two days to get the pics, so I' just going to post with out them.

Javi was away in AZ at a family reunion with his dad. He had a great time while he was away. He got to meet some of his family on his Nana's side.

Last week I took some pics of the new arrangement of our family room that I never posted. We decided to move the playroom in to the family room and make a little play nook in the corner.



I moved my office back in to where the playroom used to be and made it in to the study. We plan to put my mom's small dinning set in her also, but for now we are enjoying having the extra space so Kaylee can test drive her walker. As you can see in the pic, we also have a kids desk set up for the kids to share.



Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Ethan's Field Trip Pics

We had so much fun at the Children's Museum with Ethan's class.



The IEP after for Javi, not so much, but I will update about that later.

G5 Weekend Report

Happy December everyone.  The countdown is ON!!  This year I wasn't as prepared for Christmas as past years.  For the first time in like five years, I didn't decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving and I also did not go out on black Friday.  

This year, I decided to stick to a very specific list of items for Christmas, which usually does not coincide with Black Friday deals.  I did do a little Christmas shopping this morning and I have been doing some internet shopping also.  We are taking it easy this year on spending, just like the rest of America.

Let's see...Friday we obviously did not go shopping early, but we did go to the arts and crafts store to get gifts to make for the teachers and therapists.  Later, we went to my friend Carrie's house to do yoga and we took the kiddos to lunch.  Ethan's new favorite thing to eat is hummus and pita.  I am so proud of him for trying new things.  I am also happy to report that he took a bite of everything on Thanksgiving, which was a first.  He usually just has plain mashed potatoes and a roll.  Friday night we got a call from Carrie that she needed help with her flat tire, so I took Kaylee with me.  I thought she might fall asleep in the car, but no such luck.  I ended up taking her tire home with me to take to Costco to get it patched on Saturday.  We came home and watched a movie.

Saturday I made Biscuits and Gravy for the fam.  Then we helped Carrie get her tire patched and back on her car, then she took her daughter, Lucy, Ethan and I to get some Mex food to say thank you.  Saturday night, Ethan and I went to our friends Brook and Matt's for Matt's 34th bday party.  It was a poker party, but I wasn't really up for playing, so I helped Brook play hostess, since she was playing cards.  Had fun playing with the kids at the party too.  I hadn't seen a lot of them since they were babies.  Brook ended up winning the first big pot.  Woohoo, you go girl!

Sunday I cleaned house, while daddy got a much needed sleep in.  We took the kids to the mall to go see Santa.  We decided to go to lunch first, then by the time we made our way over to Santa, he was going on his lunch break.  We tried walking around and wasting time window shopping, but by the time Santa came back, the line was so long and the kids (and Mark) were getting grumpy, so we decided to try another time.  Not a total wash though, because the kids did have fun at the Apple Store, the Pet Shop where we got to hold a puppy and pet a bunny, and we also explored the Build a Bear Workshop.

All and all, a fun, but busy weekend.  I am looking forward to taking it easy this week.  I will be enjoying the holiday season, decorating and cooking as usual.  

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

Girls' Night In

Last night, my friend Natalie came over for a girls' night in. I made some grilled chicken alfredo pasta, caesar salad, and garlic bread. For dessert, pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. We had a nice bottle of wine from the Wilson Creek winery that I had been saving (Mark is not a white wine drinker, so I knew it would be consumed on an occasion such as this).

We grubbed and chatted. We had intended on watching a movie, the girly kind, but ended up talking through half of the movie. It was so much fun to just have a girls' night and gab. We definitely plan on doing it again sometime in the near future.

Here are those old pics I was talking about that she posted to Facebook:

Love those shades!

Holy moly, was I really that thin once?  I was 19 in this pic.

G5 Weekend Report

It was a nice relaxing weekend. Mark and I went on our first date in almost 5 MONTHS!! Yep, it had been that long :( We enjoyed a nice trip to Outback Steak house, courtesy of SAIC. Mark saved them about 50-70k earlier this year. They thought they would give him a $75 expensed dinner anywhere. Whoop-a-dee-do!!! Hey, but it's better than nothing ;) Some stock or a bonus on top of that would have been nicer. We did enjoy our steak and martini's and it was nice to be out with out the kiddos!! Thanks to Jamie Poppins, our Wednesday helper. She is a godsend. She feels more like a friend, than a respite person. We adore her.

Saturday, we met some of Ethan's friends for breakfast at the Hamburger Factory and a play date at the train park. We had a lot of fun, but it was a pretty hot day, so they kids were not really in the mood to run around on the playground after riding on the train.

This pic is our friend Tyler from Ethan's class last year. Down in the pic below is Ethan and our friend Ben from Ethan's class this year.  Kaylee and I are in the background.

Saturday afternoon we just relaxed.  I went to Target with Kaylee and picked up some needs.  My feet were starting to look like Fred Flintstone's so, I decided to give myself a pedicure. Kaylee, being my little girly girl, wanted to have her toes painted too. So I just took a plain paint brush and "painted" her toes with out any paint. I knew she wouldn't hold still for the drying process, so this was much better for my little princess. She was sooo cute. She wants to be just like mommy!! See her with my phone, car keys and sunglasses. We took this pic just before we left for Target. Mark did snap some pedicure pics, but they were too dark to post.

Sunday was a lazy Sunday, but we did get a few things done around the house.  I paid bills and organized some of my finances.  We are using a new system and we are trying to eliminate our credit card debt and just buy things in cash from now on.  We just want to reserve the credit cards for emergency purposes only.  We'd like to have little to no credit card debt by this time next year.  That would be nice!!  I just closed a credit account yesterday and I am getting ready to close another next month.  Mark just eliminated his school loan and I am almost finished with mine!  Yay!  It does feel nice to get rid of some bills.  I am using a program called Pennies on my iPhone to keep track of everything I spend.  It's quick and easy and I categorize all my spending.

Mark and I also played a little wii while the kids were napping. We hadn't busted out the wii fit in a while, so we decided to do a body test. I was sooooo proud of Mark to see what a difference he has made in just a few months. Here are the results of his portion control, more water intake and less junk! Keep up the good work daddy!! You are on your way to getting healthy!