What Day Is It?

I can't believe after 5 years of complete torture, torture I tell ya, the infamous Underwear Battle* has come to an end!

Not only does WeeklyAd happily put underwear on every morning, she has proceeded to announce to everyone, and I do mean everyone, that she LOVES her new underwear. Thankfully she caught herself just before the teacher called on her for prayer requests. I'm not sure that the 2nd grade class wants to here a classmate share a praise about "day of the week" underwear.

And yes, my friends, that was the magic solution. All I had to do was buy those cheesy "day of the week" panties and the last 1,825 days could have been as peaceful and full of bliss as the last 3!?!?

oh happy day!

*the link isn't working right now but if you want to know what the Underwear Battle is then you can check back to June 6, 2009 on my blog.

Sad Faces

Wet Shoulder~


Quivering Lip~


Lots of Hugs~


Daddy's Busy Travel Season Is Here!

And It's Hard To Say Goodbye!

But There Are Some Benefits.

Like Getting To Travel With Daddy Sometimes.


And Getting To Explore The Warm Beach In The Middle of Winter~



And Exploring New Places And Things~


But Most Of All...

We Get To See And Hear About People That Find Jesus For The Very First Time! And That Is Definitely Worth Our Time Away From Daddy!

Celebrity

As we stood in the security line at LAX, this couple behind us seemed very rushed and nervous about making their flight. We had ample time so we let them step in front of us. As we continued in line, I oohed and aahed at how beautiful this woman was. Just stunning skin and hair. Even WeeklyAd commented on her beauty.

As a People.com addict, I scoured my internal databank to see if I might recognize her from the site. Nothing came to mind. As we parted ways, I never gave it another thought.

Until now, when I saw this on People.com~


Never heard of her before today. Now I know that she was/is linked to Kanye West (definitely not her travel companion at the time) and is a model. Interesting!

Music and Meals

I can't believe we are in this stage of life~



All the more reason why I cherish our time together~

You're Beautiful

tears come every time we sing this at church~

Love This Song~

More Vacation Pictures

Here are a few more vacation pictures from California.

We spent 6 days at Management's Aunt's house and man alive does she have a beautiful home. We spent a lot of time in the spa in her backyard. It's so gorgeous back there and the spa was so warm! It was very relaxing! In fact, the spa was so nice that we really never did get into the big pool that much (pictured behind the spa).




The picture below shows HomeAudio in the middle of one of his challenges. We spent some time one afternoon making up challenges for the kids in order for them to earn some money for souvenirs. For example, HomeAudio had to fill a bucket with a hose, water the flowers along the fence, do 5 push-ups, walk backwards across the grass, skip across the patio, do a silly dance (as pictured), and jump in the pool - all in 60 seconds. If completed successfully, he earns $1.00. Ah, the joy and fun of vacation "chores." And don't get me started on Management's version of vacation "punishments" which include him telling the kids with a stern voice that they absolutely must eat 3 cookies. The confusion on their faces is priceless!

Adoption

I mentioned that I was able to go to Sesame Street Live last Sunday with my two favorite ShortOnes. The ShortOnes is their nickname on their mama's blog (my friend S) and the nickname is to distinguish them from their older siblings...TheTallOnes. I think that is clever and hysterical and the way that the Lord seems to be asking me to wait for adoption, I may have my own set of TallOnes and ShortOnes some day.

But back to TheShortOnes. They are GORGEOUS Russian beauties who adopted me as their aunt when they came home to America. I am so honored to be their aunt and I just love them to pieces! They sing me the sweetest songs, send the prettiest pictures in the mail, and bring such joy to my heart.


And they thoroughly enjoyed watching Elmo!!


We had a fun afternoon at the theater. S had tickets to the matinee which included a luncheon and seats in the Ilitch Suite. It was fun to be pampered and eat some delicious food in a beautiful theater but the best part was watching the girls soak it all in...




See, aren't they gorgeous!?!?

And this is S. She is an incredible mother of 5 and a dear friend and very FUN to be around! I think this is a great picture of her with her super cute glasses!

Guest Room Redo

I don't think I ever posted pictures of my guest room project after it was all finished? Did I?

Well, clearing off my camera I came across these pictures~

My dad and mom helped me make this headboard and a matching cornice for the window~



My dad wonders why I can't ever just paint a room ONE color!? I don't know why. I just like to mix and match and combine colors. It does take more time and energy and TAPE but I'm happy with the results. And after painting the colors, I was thrilled to find coordinating bedding at (where else?) Target.


It's small but inviting and a HUGE improvement over what it was before~

Home

More vacation pictures to come later...

but for now there are some random things to share.

Management is very very sick. He has been awake for 4 nights straight. He is going to the doctors today and will hopefully get some good treatment.

The kids were excited to go back to school today. I'm not so ready to get back into the routine but I'll get there...whether I like it or not.

I was able to go to Sesame Street Live yesterday with my two favorite ShortOnes and their mama S. We had a very nice luncheon and a fancy suite and a great time!! The girls looked adorable (will share pics once I can steal them from S's blog ;)) and we had fun!

We have a NEW teaching pastor at our church! WOOHOO! He was voted in yesterday with 92% and I am so thrilled!! I'm excited about the changes at our church. I'm excited about the Pastor and his wife and their genuine interest in building relationships and investing in people.

I am really hoping for a snow day on Wednesday.

I'm excited about Valentine's Day! LOVE it!

It's good to be back home.

Old Town

One of the first places that Management wanted to take us was Old Town near downtown San Diego. There were streets and streets of Mexican artifacts, architecture, culture, and food. It was so beautiful! And the streets smelled so good!!


We went into a few of the small historical museums and of course, the candy shop~


Did some people watching~


And learned a lot about life in the 1800's~


After leaving Old Town, we headed down to the harbor to walk around. We saw some HUGE ships, military jets and helicopters, and a place to go whale watching which I am sad to say my family was not interested in at all. They were happy to stay on dry land and just look at the ships.

Below is a picture of the Midway Museum. We did not go onto the ship but did enjoy seeing it in the harbor.

LAX

We flew in to LAX Thursday night and arrived at 6:00 pm their time. Since it was really around 9:30 our time when we got settled in the rental car, the kids immediately fell asleep. 2 hours later (remember that horrid LA traffic?) we were at the restaurant where we were to meet our gracious hosts from the University. It was now 11:30 our time and HomeAudio was out for the count. He slept through dinner (wish I had a photo of that!) but WeeklyAd perked up and charmed our host. We were exhausted but dinner was spectacular!

After dinner we went to a campus apartment where we would spend the next 2 nights. It was a nice, 2 bedroom apartment. The highlights for the kids included a huge gift basket FULL of candy and snacks and a trundle day bed for them to sleep in. They thought the bed so was cool. And boy did they ever flip over a record player that they found in their bedroom. They were so amazed by that thing that they sat in the room and listened to records for a great deal of time.

They wanted me to get some pictures of them with "this cool bed." They just think they are so hilarious!




The next day, while the kids and I were on our excursion to Hollywood, Management was speaking at Azusa Pacific University. 30 students made a first time decision to follow Christ that morning! After chapel, Management spent the rest of the day attending receptions and meetings. As a family, we celebrated the 30 students later that night at a fantastic Mexican restaurant. The next day we left the beautiful Azusa Pacific campus and headed to San Diego.

San Diego is where Aunt Vicky lives. We have only met her once but we were excited to meet again. She is the family historian for Management's mother's side of the family and was as eager to share her findings with us as we were to learn about them. But that is for another post....

We're Going To Hollywood

There is NO WAY that I would want to ever ever EVER live in LA!


The traffic alone would put me in an early grave. What should be a 30 minute drive is really 2 to 3 hours and I am not exaggerating! In fact, when we finally did get a little break in traffic I searched for a speed limit sign to no avail. It finally dawned on me that they don't have or need speed limits because no one ever gets over 40 miles per hour. ugh! And despite reaching for my phone a dozen times and cursing the HandsFree law, I actually see why they made that law! Traffic is just horrible! horrible!

But the drive was worth it! The kids and I had a day of adventure while Management was busy in some meetings. The first adventure was just trying to parallel park. Let's just say that it included about 12 attempts, the windshield wipers going full speed, my kids ducking with embarrassment in the backseat, and a window full of 6 employees pointing and laughing at us through it all.

But once we were settled, we had so much fun! First we walked down Hollywood Blvd. and looked at the stars. I kept pointing to stars and saying "wow, look guys, here's....Patti LaBelle..." and the kids would say, "just tell us people that we know." "wow, look guys, here's...Tom Hanks...you know him. He was Woody in Toy Story..." "MOM, we don't want to see them. We want to keep looking." "wow, look guys, here's...Tom Cruise!!" The kids were totally unenthused...until HomeAudio yelled excitedly, "MOM, WAIT, I have to take a picture of this one!!!!" As I looked down I thought to myself, you have got to be kidding me!! He skips over Tom Hanks, he doesn't give two hoots about Tom Cruise but he throws a party over David Hasselhoff!?!? This is not my kid! He also took pictures of Bill Cosby's star, Winnie the Pooh's, and Donald Duck's.

The first star that caught WeeklyAd's attention was this one...


It was so amazing just to be walking on Hollywood Blvd. To actually see the Kodak Theater in person and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and Capital Records and more, was just so unreal!



I could have spent all day walking around or driving around and looking at the sights, but I was boring the kids and Disney Soda Fountain caught their eye. It was directly across from the Kodak Theater and just such a fun place!



After we finished our ice cream we decided to drive up the Hollywood Hills and try to find the Hollywood Sign. We saw it from the freeway and the fancy Target that we stopped at...see it up in the right hand corner? Well, the kids were adamant about getting closer and taking pictures for their teachers. So we gave it a go.


Here we are approaching the bottom of the hill~


It was a scary ride up the hill. No pictures of the road because I was white knuckling it the whole way up. WeeklyAd was crying and begging me to turn around. And who in their right mind would build homes in the hills like that?? They are right on top of each other and right on the side of a steep hill which makes me wonder what in the world they do in earthquakes. Also, I was wondering how ambulances get up those steep hills and turns and tight roads. It is treacherous!

But we made it!! Well, we made it as close as I was willing to go. The winding roads finally got the best of me and I declared us close enough! It was so cool to see it in person.



After the 3 hour (only 37 miles) car ride home we were back at our campus apartment, reunited with Management, and headed to one of the best Mexican restaurants on earth. It was an exhausting but most memorable day!!