Pat and I will be friends for 20 years this December the 25th. Not Really in celebration of, but just because, we have started a business together. We were working at ServiceMaster together. He Managed the Electronics Division, I was a Marketer, but also assisted him as needed. We decided to start a Business of our own within the Restoration Industry. The start Date was 09/01/2007 and we've embarked on another business endeavor - It looks promising, and a lot of fun! :)
My cousin Andrea on my dad's side went North to Berkley for school. She met a cool guy up there, dated for a couple years and announced there wedding date, August 18, 2007. This was a special time for the fam to get together as a whole and celebrate while having some fun on the way. Dad helped by sponsoring the trip and donated toward some extra road stops on the way. So this blog is about our trip :)
Beth, Bella and I left a couple days prior to the happy day to spend some fam time together. We've found it best for Bella's sake to leave in the middle of the night so that she sleeps through all the driving. So, after a midnight stop to Walmart we took off for our first destination, Sacramento. We arrived at 7am, and I swear I didn't go a mile over 120!....(maybe once, for about 45 minutes...jk!!). Neither of us had been to Sacramento, so we made the usual stops. We spent 4 hours in Sacramento viewing "old Sacramento" and downtown. We then headed toward Napa valley for a Drive. Found a hotel and spent the night. The Next day we toured the Jelly Belly factory, Budweiser Factory and headed off for Sausalito. We stayed in a place within Sausalito, the entire family down the hall in rooms next to, and across from us. It was a lot of Fun.
The Next Day, My cousin Andrea Git Married. It was on the Bay and It was Beautiful. We partied the night at restaurant also on the bay. We shared The road trip home with Brian, my bro. We stopped at the Winchester House, Hearst Castle, a couple wineries, a nice bed and breakfast on the beach. It was a great trip!! I think it really brought the extended Fam a bit closer too :)
So the Ultrasound announced another girl on the way. What can I say, but girls love me?! We are excited! "Siena" will be her name. Annabelle has already declared her love for the name and is working on setting the middle name in stone. We already have our options for a middle name, but in all seriousness it depends on the details down to the day of the year :) ... We're weird like that ;) ....
"Sienna", not Siena is commonly known to be a color, and it is. We however will be spelling it S-I-E-N-A after a little town in Italy known for its fountains and red clay floors, in which the color "Sienna" derived... Because We're cool like that ! ;)
It was late. I was doing the dishes. Yes, me. The window was open and I continued to here the cry of a kitten. I really didn't care, so I just continued on with the dishes. As The night went on, a couple hours had passed and the cry continued. I decided I just wanted to shut the kitten up... I went outside and searched for the innocent, helpless, and cuddly Lil furball. When I had gotten outside the cries had ceased. [spooky] The next morning I heard the kitten again.. this time I was going to get him. Outside I found him on the fence. I decided to bring him inside to show the family. Of course, everyone fell in love and wanted to take care of him.... "NoOoOoOoOo!!!" My compromise was to keep him while we posted signs until the owner called. In the mean time, this kitten, "cute as could be" before AnnaBelle, Bethany, and Laura had a hidden agenda to altogether annihilate me. At first, it was slightly cute. We called him "Recon" because of his ability to secretly pounce on me while sleeping or relaxing on the couch. We quickly renamed the kitten to "Dracula" because of his urge to feast on my blood. I'd Simply walk by and flying through the air the lil kitten would attach to my leg piercing the very flesh that protects me. Again the name needed to fit the beast. I currently call him "death kitten" because I fear for my very life at this point. Today I tried to reconcile any hurt feelings the kitten had against me by drawing close to it. The cat leaped up and bit me on the nose! We are approaching day 3 of safeguarding the Little monster and I truly believe the owners disposed of him on our very fence to rid themselves of the death kitten curse. [see actual picture of Death Kitten above Article]
SoOoOoo I was going to work, listening to Jeff & Jer, and not paying attention when out of the blue... the sirens came on. The most embarrassing part... it was on the 125!! :/ Everybody knows there's always a lineup of highway patrol on the 125... I just was in outer space.. The worst part is I was going with the flow of traffic, even in the slow lane ..and there she came to write out the citation. She asked me why I was going so fast, so I told her I was just going with the flow. She asked why I braked, so I told her she "freaked me out". Well, we got to talking, and she admitted she was having a hard time ticketing me because I was so nice. I thought that was a great compliment, but realized she was still going to ticket me. So she continued on to say that she was sorry she was doing it, but its a job and she had a family. I told her that I understood and asked her about her family. She too had a little one and was trying for another. I told her about Annabelle and thanked her for being such a nice police officer, even though she still gave me the ticket. The radar clocked me at 76mph.. but what did she write on the ticket, "80mph" .. what the heck, I've been had!
(all my other instances with law enforcement have been equally amusing)
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The Ultrasound: We went for our first Doctors visit on June 26. These snapshots of our baby are at 11 weeks one day. Just like AnnaBelle, our kiddo was already running circles! We saw a couple cartwheels and what looked like the Mamba! The Doctor said the baby looked very healthy. We'll find out Boy or Girl in September. Enjoy the Pics!
"Bigger & Better" all started with Chris taking a special liking to the "one red paper clip" story recorded here. We had our church group give it a shot! The rules were going to be a little bit trickier than the true story. We only had an hour, we couldn't visit anyone we knew personally, and we couldn't visit two homes on the same street! First we drew names and divided ourselves into two teams. Myself, Amanda, Liz, Kaydee, and Bella formed team one. Chris, Beth, Paul, Tommy, and Emma formed team two(the bad guys). The game started with a blue FSB Church pen. The point of the game was to get the biggest and best thing by bartering from the pen up. This is how the game went.
Right away Team one (the goodguys) found a nice lady who offered to trade a tealight for our pen. Deal! We walked into a couple closed doors and some non-english speakers but pressed forward. We then encountered a nice family that gave us what looked like an antique baking pan with some fish molds. So, we traded for the tealight! That was a pretty cool trade, but not good enough! Our judges are tough, and are opponents included Christopher "Pablo" Guess. He probably already had an entertainment center or something, we needed to continue on. Next, We found a tatooed dude that was willing to participate. I proposed he donate his new BMW, but he was a bit reluctant. Instead, he gave us an alluminum skateboard he thought to be limited edition. later we found It was valued at $50-70 on the net. Well, We took it! This is where the game got a bit tricky. We should have just stopped there but we felt we had to tred on for the win. The next doorbell we rung revealed a teen who had a serious interest for our skateboard deck. Bingo! His offer was a breadmaker. Wow! it looked like a pretty good breadmaker, it was big. "Sure!" We traded the deck for the breadaker.
This is what they don't teach you at church... Nobody wants a Breadmaker!! and we simply couldnt shake that breadmaker(it was a kitchen appliance!!). We pressed on. Soon we ran into a friendly couple that wanted to help us out. A bit too friendly, they chatted away precious time, probably about 15-20 minutes until they presented a hearing device for the deaf. That's "better", more "unique", right?! it helps people, ok we'll do it! Leaving the home we started to realize the harsh reality that nobody would want the headset. Nevermind that, time was ticking and we needed some good trading material, we had a headset to ditch. We ended up trading to get rid of the headset and got stuck with a crockpot. Surely there was time for one more trade... Nope, Game Over! Time was out and we ended our night with a crockpot. bummer! Chris and team would surely win...
...We came home to Chris and the evil "Team two" to find an Entertainment Center strapped down in the back of their truck!! aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!! BUT WAIT, its not over til its over. We still had the judging, and this wasn't any crockpot...haha
"This crockpot served Ronald Reagan though the term of his presidency. It pulled us out of the cold war and later went on to provide supper for a poor family as a gift from Ronald himself! Finally the crockpot would bring our bigger&better team to a solid unity and trust relationship, a gift from the youngest son of the struggling family."
Yep. We were definitely the Winners!! Sorry Team two... Wahahaha
My Brother the nice guy that he is bought Norah Jones tickets last year for my grandma and himself. Unfortunately , the USofA has him training for his vacation in Iraq this September ..so in his goodness he let me enjoy the extra ticket with grandma.. It was a cool concert - M. (Matt) Ward introduced the night with Norah in a couple of oldies that were Awesome, but not on record anywhere.. "Blue Bayou" and "Guess things happen that way" were so very good I searched every corner of the net to find a bootlegged(?) recording on somebodys website for my enjoyment. Norah was very good, but I think I liked Matt's style better. I guess they call it front porch music?? All in all it was good - I think my grandma might have been feeling the effects of the dental appointment the day before, but we still had a good time. So, we drove to the concert, caught a bicycle cab, listened to the concert, and went home....
My grandma is always such a good date- We have fun, and she always wants to pay for everything - thanks Grandma!! (maybe she doesn't know the extent of my riches :)
WE are expecting again! Beth is 7 weeks along as of this blogs post date. We will find out whether it is a boy or girl when the time comes.. :) Beths first Appointment with the Doctor is June 26. Ironically our child will join us around the same date that AnnaBelle was born! Which means, we will only have to throw one birthday party a year! (JUST KIDDING :P Haha) ... We are confident this all started with a Big Bear trip... We joined the Guess' and the Nichols' on a trip to Big Bear. We had a 3BR cabin and we held a little texas hold em' tournament between the guys to see who would win the Master Bedroom. Well, I Won!!...and the prize was good for a lifetime! ;)
The Volume doesn't work until level four, but go ahead and turn it up. Then manuever your best through the maze without touching the walls. Be careful it gets tricky!
SoooOOOoooo We took AnnaBelle to Disneyland for the 2nd time. This time she was old enough to enjoy and remember everything. What a blast. We went to celebrate Beths moms B-day and she treated us to a day at Disneyland. We were able to get Club 33 passes again for an awesome lunch. Annabelle went on Dumbo, Alice in wonderland, the tea cups, peter pan, winnie the pooh, small world, and monsters inc. All the rides were about a fifteen minute wait, it was great! Annabelle fell asleep at lunch, so we really got to enjoy our three course meal at 33. She got to see the princesses in the parade and take a picture with mickey... It was a good day.
