Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! Hope you all had a wonderful day!! :o)

Dan, the kids, my mom and I all went over to my in laws house for Thanksgiving dinner. Avalon had got a super fancy dress from GGMA and she had been waiting forever to wear it. So, I got Nolan a nice outfit to wear too. They were so cute!! Although Avalon will happily pose for the camera. Nolan, not always. So, it was hard getting pictures of him in his outfit. I kept trying to get a good one of both of them together. Oh, well. Maybe Christmas. lol.

Click here to see all our pictures.

Bass Pro Shops Winter Wonderland

Last weekend my mom and brother took my kids and my niece Savannah to the Bass Pro Shops Winter Wonderland. Then they went over to Victoria Gardens to ride the train. Here are some pictures from the day.





Click here to see all the pictures.

Updates

I was at Best Buy today after work. Researching some more on what camera I was gonna buy. And they had my same model camera on sale. For a really good deal. And I had been looking at hundreds of Black Friday websites and every single store possible. And this was even better then the advertised deals for Black Friday. So, i decided to just go ahead and buy it now so that I will have it for Thanksgiving. I called Dan and asked him what he thought. And he agreed. Just buy it now. I also had some gift certificates to Best Buy and some reward discounts too. So, I asked Dan if I could purchase photoshop elements 7 while i was there. :o) It actually was on sale too!! He said yes, go ahead. :o) But that is my xmas present. So, I wont get anything on Christmas. Which was totally fine with me. lol. We can re wrap the box or something if the kids make a big deal out of it. :o) So, I have been home night trying to figure out how to use it. Oh my gosh!! It is so hard and so confusing when you have no idea what you are doing. So, I think I am gonna buy this book I saw. Photoshop Elements for dummies. ha!! But I seriously need it because I can't figure this thing out at all.

This morning my sister Vicki was in a car accident. But thankfully, she is totally ok and was not hurt at all. Just a little scared. I think the rest of us ended up more worried for her then she was. Since she knew she was ok and we could not see her. Only talk to her. Thankfully there was very minimal damage done to her vehicle also.

I finally got my DSL installed and turned on at home!! yey!! I feel so disconnected not having the Internet.

And finally. I will leave you with yet another set of kitchen pictures. :o) I know, most of you can just close out now. lol. But for the 2 people left who actually care, hehe, here they are. Dan so did not want me to post these because we are still unpacking and trying to get stuff done. And he wanted me to make sure everything was cleaned and put away first. But I just want to show off my pictures. lol. While everyone else is having fun camping or going out of town or whatever vacation you all have planned, we will be spending 3 of our 4 days off finishing unpacking and cleaning and organizing. lol. So much fun! :o)

This is the bottom of the cabniet that is over the sink. Dan put up tile and moldings so that it looked nicer. :o) I thought that was an aweseom idea!!

Some kitchen pictures with dirty appliances. lol. I have not yet found the box that has all my cleaning supplies in it. I think if i dont find it by friday. Then I will break down adn go to the store and just buy more.

My washer adn dryer set up. :o) My new cabniets :o) We also have some tall celing to floor cabniets for storage. But we have nto put them up yet. They are still sitting in teh boxes on the other end of the garage. :o(
Dan installed a step from the house into the garage. Here he is letting Nolan help him do seomthing. I don't know. Make it level? Then Dan let the kids each put a handprint in the step and he also put '08. But then after it dried it was not the clear. You can barley see it. Dan said he should have put portlands cememnt on top or in it or soemthing? So, we will try again when we redo the concrete in the backyard. Hopefully it will come out then. :o)

Neighbors

The most exciting thing for me when we moved into our new house was actually getting to have neighbors!! yey!! At the condos we never even saw our neighbors. I don't even know if they actually exists.

Let me introduce you to my new neighbors. :o) My neighbor on the right has two big giant German Shepard's. They bark all day and all night long. They never stop barking. No one in the house is getting any sleep at all. He also lets them go out front with no leashes on. I am assuming they are good dogs. But I don't know them yet. lol. But they are always outside, by themselves walking up and down the street. The people who live there are very very nice. At lease the times we have talked so far. But, I feel like we are too "new" to go over there and ask him why his dogs bark all day and all night long. Also, he has a light in his backyard. And he turns it on as soon as it gets dark until usually about 10pm. The light is the brightest light ever!!! It lights up our entire back yard, our living room, and the other neighbors yard as well. This does not bug me or anything. But it makes me wonder a lot. lol. Why do they need a light so bright? What are they doing back there? It's just kinda funny.

Then I have my neighbors on the right. They have two dogs also. They are very nice too. But, they never ever pick up the dog mess in their backyard. And the smell is so bad, that we cant go in the backyard at all without almost throwing up. We cant even open any windows or doors that lead to the back yard because the smell gets all inside the house. Again, I feel like we are too "new" to go over there and say anything like "hey, can you clean up your backyard? I think that might be a health hazard" lol.

Maybe next month. lol

The worst night EVER!!!

sorta. :o)

Last night, my mom and i took the kids to Victoria Gardens for their Christmas bubbles snow thingy. The night started out bad and just kept getting worse.

It was out of my way to go home after picking the kids up from school. Since they are still going to school in Corona and we have not transferred them yet. So, after school i picked them up, then we went and picked up my mom. Then we were gonna go get something to eat. But the kids cried and whined about every place. So i said fine. Forget. We wont eat. Then I drove away. Then they whined and cried about how they really wanted Carl's Jr and even though when I asked if they wanted Carls Jr and they started crying and screaming no that they really meant yes. But it was too late. I was not turning around or going back. Which made them cry even more. I figured once we got to VG we would just eat there so no biggie.

When we got there Avalon wanted to be carried. But, I could not carry her because i had to pee so freakin bad. And i totally felt like if i picked her up i would pee my pants right there. lol. So, we are standing in front of Macy's. And i told her I can't carry her because i need to go potty. But if she will walk with me to the bathroom then i will carry her afterwards. OMFG! She threw herself down on the sidewalk and just started crying and screaming. And we just stood there. Nolan was totally being perfect and well behaved. So, I kept going back and forth on what to do. Obviously Avalon needed to just go home. She was so misbehaved, from being hungry and tired I think, that she did not deserve to go play in the bubbles. But, Nolan was being perfectly well behaved and really really wanted to go play in the bubbles. So, stay for Nolan? Or leave for Avalon? We have left before when Avalon was acting up. And i felt bad for Nolan. So, we stayed. We just stood right there on the sidewalk outside of Macy's for about 45 minutes I think while Avalon screamed and cried. Cried and Screamed. Tried making deals. Threatened to just leave the mall without me. Then cried and screamed and threw herself on the sidewalk again. She was not giving in until I picked her up. And i was not going to give in either. Apparently, we are both pretty stubborn. I was actually amazed at the amount of parents that walked by, kinda chuckled a little and said "Hey, is that my kid?" lol. Usually when I let Avalon just cry it out like that we got the horrible evil mother stares. I guess enough other parents were having nightmare kids that they just felt sorry for us last night. lol. Finally, she gave in a little, and i gave in a little. She agreed she would stop crying and screaming, and would stand up and walk inside the store. Then I would carry her to the bathroom. Which was right inside the door. In a way, i am so mad at myself for giving in at all. But after 45 minutes i was so tired and had to pee soooo bad. And that is not typical behavior for her. She normally does not act like that at all. Maybe once every few months or so. When she is really tired. So, i have made all these excuses to make myself feel better for giving in to her yet again.

Then after everyone gets all calmed down I get a call from Dan. Now it is like 6pm. And Dan called to say he was trying to do a load of laundry and all the pipes are clogged up. The washer wont drain. The sink is full of water. The dishwasher wont drain. Ugh!!! So, the world's greatest father-in-law ever!!! drove out to our house from Orange County at 7pm last night to try and fix the problem. Turns out the plumbing needed to be snaked. Everything was backed up from something. I don't even know if they knew what happened. So, they spent an hour or so last night doing that. Then of course something else happened and then something else. So, he was there a little late trying to help Dan get everything fixed. I love that between Dan and his family, we can get anything and everything done. We never need to call for professionals or hire people for anything. I don't know how they learned to do everything. But, I am very lucky. Even pretty much anything I want I can just tell them and one of them will custom build it for me. They are so talented. :o)

Anyways, back to VG. So, we finally get everyone settled down and happy and full of food and some hot chocolate. And we head over to Chaffey Square where the fake snow will be. And Avalon wants me to take a video so we can show it to Daddy when we get home. So i pull out my camera out of my purse. My pretty much brand new point and shoot Sony camera that i have just barley had for one year now and the LCD screen is broken!!! BROKEN!!! I just used it on Sunday. How can it be broken? But the screen was cracked and it looked like ink had spilled all over the inside of the camera. I don't know what happened. So, now, right before the holidays and I have no freakin camera!!

And that is my horrible crappy night. :o( But at least my drains got cleaned and fixed. And everyone had a total blast running around playing in the fake bubble snow for 15 minutes. So, i guess it had a silver lining.

So now Friday morning, I have to get up with all the crazy people at 5am and try to be one of the first people at Target, where i am hoping I will be able to get a new camera for under a hundred bucks. Hopefully.

Winter Wonderland

Saturday, I woke up at 3am and just could not go back to sleep. I have been like that all week long. So Saturday I woke up super early and just felt sick. Like i was getting the flu sick. But, really I think i am just totally tired. I was supposed to take the kids Saturday to the Winter Wonderland at Bass Pro Shops. But there was no way I was going. I felt way to crappy. So, my mom offered to come and pick them up for me and take them. That way I could go back to bed and get a few hours of sleep. And my niece Savannah was down also. So, then the kids could all hang out and play for a little while.

So, my mom did take some pictures of them. But i still have no way to get the pics uploaded to the Internet. Since I have no Internet at home (yet) and i lost my cable so i can't transfer them at work. :o( But when i do have them i will post them. But, I do have a scanner. :o) At work!! lol. So, i was able to scan their Santa Pics. But, they are kinda small. I can't figure out how to crop with the program we have at work. I suck. :o( lol

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday V

Yesterday was my friend Veronica's birthday. Happy Birthday Veronica!!! I got to go out to a special birthday dinner with her, her family, and a bunch of friends. It was awesome and we had such a great time. And it was so nice getting to see her family again which I have not seen since High School. BTW, Vicki, her parents and brother kept asking about you and wondering when they are gonna get to see you too. And congrats on your marriage and your two kids. I was showing off pictures for you. ;o)

Veronica loves Tinkerbell. lol. And she got a ton of really awesome presents that I just know Avalon would die to have. It was so fun to go out with everyone and have a kid free night.

Thanks for including me V in your birthday. Hope you had just as much fun as I did. Happy Birthday!!!

Unbelievable

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6508872

Finally Moved..Sorta....

Between me and Dan and our families we spent all last week and this whole weekend moving into the new house. And I will probably still spend this whole week going back and forth moving stuff from the old house to the new house. There is not a lot left. Last night we finally spent our first night at the new house. :o) For the first time ever the kids had their own room. :o( Dan and i totally thought they would have a hard time with it. But the excitement of it worked in our favor. They both slept in their own rooms in their own beds with no crying or fits or anything. We will see how long that lasts. lol.

We got a ton of stuff unpacked. Thankfully. Because otherwise i would have been crazy running around the house this morning trying to get everyone ready. We have to leave the house earlier now because now we live farther away from school\daycare\work then we did before. I think I am gonna miss the whole 10 minute drive home in heavy traffic. lol. Now it will be more like 30 minutes to get home. Which still is not that bad. When I was working in La Palma I could get to work at 5am in 30 to 40 minutes. But at 3pm-4pm on the way home on the 91. Ha!! It would take me usually 2 hours to get home. I will never make the horrible driver again!!. lol.

I also spent so much time getting the kids rooms ready and decorated that i never thought about Dan and my room. So, last night I realized I never bought us any curtains or anything. lol. So, we had to go find a bunch of blankets to hang up over the windows. So, now I am on a mission to find new curtains for our room. Which is a little hard because i have to find black out curtains so that Dan can sleep during the day. So, I will probably have to get either shades or big heavy drapes or something. I don't know yet.

I took some more pictures of the kitchen now that all the appliances are in. It looks so much better. But, I have no way to upload them since I am blocked from uploading pictures at work. And I have no Internet at home yet. So, you will just have to take my word for it that the kitchen looks awesome!! :o)

I felt guilty this weekend moving into our nice new house, when so many of our friends and family were being evacuated from the fires. Luckily for us all of our family and friends have made it back and no one was hurt or lost anything. I did not even know there was a fire close to Corona until we got on the freeway to drive to the new house and i saw the smoke. Then, since we had no tv's or anything plugged in we had no idea how bad the fire had gotten until i started getting hundreds of tweets and text messages and emails from people telling me how they were and asking if the fire was close to us and if we were ok. And then Angie called and said she might not be able to help us move because the 91 was closed. Holy Moly. And i really did not know how close it was to my in laws house. But, it turned out it never got very close to their house at all. But, I am so glad to hear today that everyone we know is safe and sound and their houses and everything are all ok. And our prayers go out to everyone who was not as lucky as we were.

Holiday fun begins

This is what we are doing this Saturday. Sounds like it is going to be fun. At least i hope so. lol. Last year they even had a little train that went around the mall.
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Then, next Friday hopefully we will do this:
Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony & Santa Arrrival
Friday, November 21
Join Victoria Gardens Friday, November 21 at 7pm for the Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony and Santa Arrival. The Holiday kickoff event begins at 7pm with a countdown to the tree lighting and snow fall. Grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and visit Chaffey Town Square. See you there. Santa Photo HoursMonday-Saturday 10am-9pmSunday 11am-7pm


Click here for photo packaging prices
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Then, I think i read on Friday the 28th is the festival of lights at the Mission Inn. I definetly want to take the kids to do see that.
I think we have a fun and busy rest of Novemeber ahead for us. :o) Yey!! I love Christmas time!!!

Almost Done

Dan has spent almost all last week and this whole weekend over at the new house trying to finish up the kitchen so we can hurry up and move out of the old house. So, He got the wall cabinets up finally. Yey!!! And Friday and Sunday he spent the day cutting tile and putting up the back splash. Papa came over and helped get up all the ceiling fans, and do some more odds and ends around the place. And they got up the can lights. So now we have light. Yey!!! Before we have to leave as soon as it starts to get dark. Because we had no lighting in the house. Poor Papa. He has to go back today and redo all the electrical in the kitchen. We had another friend do all the electrical in the kitchen a while ago. But none of the switches are working. And our friend is not able to come back and tell us what is wrong or what is what. lol. So, now we have to take out all the electrical today and we route all the wires and start all over. Not a big deal. Just an all day job. So, hopefully Dan and Papa will still have enough time today to grout the back splash. Because I am super excited about how it is turning out. lol. And i want to see it all done. Here are some new pictures of the kitchen. I actually did spend about an hour last night cleaning the whole kitchen up. I should have taken pictures then. After I cleaned. But i didn't. lol. So your stuck looking at my pictures I took before with tools and everything all over the place. :o)

As usual, you can click on this link here to view all the pictures.

Here is the best I could do trying to get a whole picture of the kitchen. As you can see, our wall cabinets are up. :o) Who knew I would get so excited about cabinets. lol

Here is a close up on the back splash so you can see what it looks like. We used the floor tile as a border. And scrap granite as accent pieces. That way it ties everything all in together. It's going to look amazing once it is grouted. I just know it. :o) Well, it looks great now. But it is going to look even better! :o)

Once we install the microwave above the stove it should cover the rest of that wall. I think that opening is the exact same size as our microwave is. So you can kinda see how that is going to look all done.

Here is the sink. We have no window or anything here too look out of while washing dishes. lol. We could have moved the sink to another wall. SO that at least we could look out into the kitchen. Like where the bar is. Or even moved it to the other wall so that it faced out into the living room. But in the end, Dan and I drew up plans with the sink in several different spots. And we decided this one worked the best for what we wanted. So, we tried to do a little something different here so at least you had something pretty to stare at while you wash dishes. lol. Gma and Angie pretty much came up with this idea. And we really liked it. I think they did a great job. We ran out of light outside. So Dan could not finish cutting the tile. But, you can figure out how it will look from this. And here is a close up of it also.

Finally, before we left last night, Dan got all the under cabinet lights installed and working. And here is a picture of it. Doesn't it just look fantastic. :o) lol. I am sure you all can't wait for us to be done so you don't have to listen to me go on and on and on. lol. But I am so excited because we doing this ourselves. So it feels more exciting I think seeing it all come together.

And, once we move in, the very first person I am inviting over is Desiree. lol. Because she keeps asking. And she is just as excited about his whole thing as we are. Ok Desiree? lol. I promise you will be my very first guest. And we can bake cookies or something. In my new kitchen. :o)

And, just in case you want to do something like this too. Or anything at all, my father-in-law that did most of this work is available for hire. :o) This is actually his business. He does this all kinds of stuff. Pretty much anything and everything you can think of. And he is very reasonable. So, just let me know ;o) and I will send you his phone number. He works mostly out of Orange County but he goes anywhere. Bill's Handyman Servies!! :o)

Happy Birthday Haley

Saturday was my niece Haley's birthday. She is turning 8 this week. It's amazing how fast she is growing up. It seems like just yesterday she was 3 years old. :o(

Anyways, we all drove up to Vicki's house on Saturday for the big party. Even Dan took off work to go. Which is a big deal. lol. Because usually he can't go because he has to work. Mark and Vicki surprised Haley this year with this real cook princess bounce house they rented. Haley asks for one every year. And this year they got it for her and did not even tell her until they guy was there setting it up. She was so excited. Up there, in Central California area, if you say a bounce house no one has any clue what you are talking about. They look at you like your crazy. They call them Jolly Jumpers. I laugh every time I hear that because I think Jolly Jumper sounds so funny. But they think bounce house just sounds really weird. lol.

By the way, has anyone else noticed ever how much Ryan looks just like Vicki? I mean, it's amazing. They have the exact same face.

Haley had a ton of fun opening up all her presents. She got a lot of Hannah Montana and High School Musical stuff. Which is what she really wanted. Pretty much every gift she opened was her favorite gift. And all the little girls were around her just as excited about all the Hannah Montana stuff too.

Mark and Vicki even bought Haley a new bicycle for her birthday. While she was opening one of her presents (which i think was a bell or something to go on the bike) Mark wheeled in the bike. Haley was so excited about whatever she was opening she never even noticed Mark bring it in. Then with all the kids in the room she just never saw it. Finally Dan got on the bike and was riding it sorta in the living room when she finally looked up and saw him. Her mouth dropped and she was so shocked. It was cute. She was soooo excited about her brand new bicycle.

Another gift she got from Grandma Kathy was a Hannah Montana guitar and headset microphone. Everyone loved this. Even the adults. lol. Haley put on a little concert for us.

We all got to sing her happy birthday and have cake and ice cream. Every year Mark makes the cake. This year they made a cake out of cupcakes. It's really good. Mark's cake always look like they were made by a professional. I always can not believe he made them and did not buy them. lol.

Later on Dan was trying to be the good daddy. And he was in the room playing with all the girls some game. For whatever reason Dan thought he could go on the top bunk bed. Which I think the beds have a 150 pound weight limit? I forget. But even I won't go up there because i get nervous. Well, He sat up there and played dolls or something with Avalon for about 30 minutes or so. I left to go lay Nolan down because he was getting tired. Vicki and Mark keep a baby gate in front of Haley's bedroom door to keep the dog out of her room. Well, I was in the living room with Nolan, all the girls were outside jumping in the jump house. And all the adults were in the kitchen. And we all heard this loud crash. I figured Dan must have tripped over the dog door climbing out of the room. Vicki said everyone in the kitchen heard it but no one knew what it was. Although, if I was a good wife. I should have noticed that Dan never did come out of the bedroom. lol. Anyways, I called to Vicki to get me something if she could. So on her way out to the living room she peeked in Haley's room were the crash came from. Dan said he saw her look in and look around. Then as she started to walk away she looked again and looked right at him. Then I see Vicki running ot the kitchen yelling" Hold on Dan!! I will be right back to help you!" Then she ran back to the room with the camera. So, of course everyone got up to see what was going on. This is what we saw.Poor Dan! lol. He was doing so good up there. But I guess when he was trying to get down the stairs he started to lose his balance and sat down really quick. Then the bed broke. Then he was trying to get out and fix it without anyone seeing him. lol. But then he got stuck. Poor Haley. She was so upset when she saw her bed. So, I have a feeling Haley will be getting a new bunk bed from Uncle Dan for Christmas this year.

Happy Birthday Haley!! We love you!! Thanks for inviting us to your party. And sorry Uncle Dan broke your bed!! :o)

Click here to see all the pictures from the party

Finally... I voted

But my hair is all jacked up from the rain. lol. And yes, apparently I am vain like that. So, here is Avalon with my sticker as proof that I voted. :o)

Or, here is my sticker on me. :o)

National Results

Results Live!

Supposedly this will update itself as the results for each state come in

Don't forget to Vote today!!

GI Update

Yesterday I had my appointment with the GI specialist from Loma Linda. She looked over all my medial history that i brought with me. And she said yes, I have gallstones. Which we already knew. lol. But she does not think the pain is caused from the gallstones, or from an ulcer, or acid reflux, or heartburn. lol. Because it is not food related. All of these things would have to happen every time i ate something i was not supposed to she said. And it's not. The pain seems to be totally random. Lucky for me I journaled all my food for a year and a half. So i took my food journal too her to show her. And she said there is nothing that seems to set it off.

So, after I have the baby she wants to start from ground zero she said. And start all over with all new tests. Which is what my Riverside Doctor wanted to do too. So, since he is 30 minutes closer i will just stick with him. :o) Although she did say she knows my other GI doctor. lol. And now she knows why i kept getting another opinion. She said he refuses to hand out any pain medication. Or any medication almost. She thinks my pain happens so far and few between that she would rather give me some pain medicine then perform surgery. But, I would rather just know what is going on and that I don't have like, cancer or a tumor or something. Well, either way, nothing more will be done till April 2009. So, just wait till then...

President

Avalon came home from school today and told me they got to vote for president. I asked her who won at school? She said Obama. I was telling her how tomorrow all the mommies and daddies get to go and vote. And then we will find out who will be the president. She informed me that no one is going to vote for "that other guy who is just like president bush". I don't know where she learned this from. Because I don't recall ever saying it. But she did watch all the debates with me. But she says this all the time lately. I told her that yes, lots of people will vote for McCain. She could not believe this. She asked who would vote for that guy? I told her Aunt Nikol is voting for McCain. She thinks he is better then Obama. Avalon just laughed and said "yea, mom. But that is why everyone calls her Crazy Aunt Nikol. She is craaazy!" hahaha! I just thought that was really cute.

Happy Halloween Night

Friday night we took the kids Trick-or-Treating. Me and Dan went and my mom came. And then Lance and his step-daughter Savannah and Savannah's other grandma came too. We went over to the same neighborhood we always go to go trick-or-treating. Only this year we did not do as well as the other years. Quite a few of the houses were empty. I am assuming foreclosures. Then a lot of people just were not home. Probably because it was a Friday and everyone was out at parties or something. Then a lot of people had Halloween decorations up, and they had their front porch light on. But they would not come and answer the door. I think a lot of people maybe just could not afford to buy candy this year or something. I don't know. But I am definitely looking forward to next year when we will be in a real neighborhood and get to go trick-or-treating around our own neighbors. :o)
The kids all still had a total blast. And we walked around and got candy until they were too tired to walk anymore. They got just enough to almost fill up half of their buckets. Which is more candy then they will probably eat anyways. We hope you all had a fabulous time getting candy and doing whatever it was that you guys decided to do. :o)

Happy Halloween!!

This is all the candy they got. :o( What am I gonna eat? lol