Addiction

It's happened. My computer has crashed and I'm having major withdrawals. No internet, no Perez Hilton, no online shopping but worst of all...no blogging. I couldn't even sleep last night thinking of the worst case scenarios. What if the geek squad can't come to my rescue? What about the pictures I haven't saved? What if I get an email? How can I read ahead of time who gets kicked off of dancing with the stars? I don't want to watch wondering. I have to watch alreading knowing the outcome. I had to shamefully admit to Mark that yes, I'm addicted to the computer and I need it badly. I feel restless. It's a sad, sad day. :(

Market Watch

I've gotten many phone calls from friends and family so I thought I'd write a note to update.

Merrill Lynch was bought out today by Bank of America. The merger should be finished the end of the first quarter in 2009 and although there are so many unanswered questions I'm actually quite excited by this news. I get to say I work with Courtney again, woo hoo, and the Bank of America investment side is supposed to come under the wing of Merrill Lynch. Change in such a big company is always scary and the stock market has been extremely volitile, especially with todays news but I feel confident we'll make it out in the end. For the time being, all is to remain the same. I'm sure we'll see some changes of the merger in early 2009.

Art work

Everyone knows I'm a horrible decorator. I'm extremely indecisive and will look at something that I like then quickly put it back thinking to myself I'll get it another time. Only for it to then be sold and won't be re-stocked. After 3 years in this house it's still a pretty empty so I've been trying hard at getting little things here and there. I stumbled across a website where you can order custom letters, pictures and sayings. Perfect for a weekend family project. The kids got to beat up a piece of wood, sand it and take turns painting. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out and the kids had so much fun doing it. And yes, those are doorknobs but I thought they would be cute for guests to hang a coat or a purse. That is, until a friend so nicely reminded me that we don't really wear coats out here. Right. I forgot........ So, um, maybe it can be for hats and purses?? Dang it. This is why I hate decorating.

First day of School

We made it through our first week as parents of a first grader. We are happy with the school we chose and are so excited that 3 of his classmates from Kiddie Kollege are in his class. It made the first day a little more comforting. Even so, it's still been a rude awakening for all of us. We were used to being able to pick Peyton up anytime before 4:30; never had to worry about minimum days and are now figuring out what to do during Christmas break and a week at Thanksgiving. I sound so old but I remember we only had 2 days at Thanksgiving, now a week?!?

Peyton has had a few bumps himself.

The positives: He loves the basketball courts, buying lunch, playing handball and his uniform. Even homework wasn't a problem.

The negatives: He has learned very quickly that you can't yell across the classroom, you have to raise your hand if you want to talk and if you've been given enough warnings you'll have to turn your card and that means sitting out for 10 minutes at recess. He got to do that on Friday. Yikes.

Hopefully this coming week he'll be able to remember the new rules and have a better week :)

Labor Day Weekend

Carly and Sonny made a suprise visit last weekend and although I didn't get very many pictures I did happen to get one of adorable Reese who's getting so big. I love her all of her rolls and her crooked smile.

A very Happy Birthday

Surprise! Well, Sort of. She kind of suspected something.

Friday was Jen's birthday and Christophe planned a very nice suprise dinner. He literally worked all day setting the table, decorating with balloons and cooking an amazing prime rib, huge crab legs, potatoes, asparagus, etc. You get the picture. It was my job to make sure she stayed out of the house until after 6:00. What better place to go than a casino? Such a bad choice on my part because although we met at 4:15 I was out of my alloted money by 4:45. Luckily theres a machine called ATM and you win every time!

We got back to the house, everyone was lined up and yelled suprise and the festivies began. I bought party favors for the girls that I found on Lillies blog. They are really cute pendants made from scrabble tiles. If interested go here, you won't be disappointed. We had dinner, cake, champagne, then danced the night away with the kids. What a great way to burn off the chocolate cake they all devoured. Happy Birthday Jen. May we have many more to celebrate.

Who wants prime rib and crab legs? Not the kids, Dominos is so much tastier.

Funny how she's never hungry for dinner but the cake was gobbled up.

Break dancing the night away.

Del Mar

Last weekend was the annual trip to Del Mar Race Track to celebrate Jen & Christophes birthdays. It's something they've done for the last 10 years but this was only our second time. It's perfect for families. You pack a picnic, bring your chairs and make a day out of it. There are jumpy houses and face painting for the kids and the ponies for the adults. It's something we look forward to all year. Unfortunately the weather was a little like here, hot and humid but we managed. We stayed the night with Randy and Katie and got to see there new addition, Keimo the Bulldog who is so cute. It made want a dog again.......for like a second. Thanks for having us though!

My Winning ticket! The most I won was 20.00 but not too shabby on a 2.00 bet. I was very excited.

The kids taking a quick break before heading to the jumpy house again. Not Drew though. She stuck around with us and tried to nap amongst all the screaming.

Mark worked off all he ate and drank that day by carrying a exhausted Peyton all the way back to the car on his shoulders. If you've ever been on the infield and parked out in the dirt lot, it feels like a mile to get back.

Getting ready for

The first day of school! Peyton's is going to a new school and will be starting 1st grade in just over a week. I don't know if I'm ready to send my boy into the big mean world. He's so excited, very nervous and a little anxious. He constantly is asking me questions, telling me his worries but can't wait to meet new friends. I love that little man!


So, to get ready for his big day he finally agreed to cut his hair. All summer he'd been growing it out wanting to make sure it flopped when he ran. That's a big deal when you're a kid 'cause it makes you look faster. Drew also got in on the action and trimmed the frizzies down so her curls "bounced" a bit more. Poor thing. I'm hoping by the time she goes to kindergarden we'll be able to put a pony tail in!




Drew...before










and during. I forgot to take an after shot but it really doesn't look any different. It's more of a keepsake photo of her first haircut.










Peyton before with his 70's shag do.





And after. His "mohawk". I love that it brings out his baby cheeks. He's growing up to fast.

Lost but Found again

Koda was returned 3 days after she went missing by a nice older couple. The first question they asked us was, do you like her. Um, that's debatable. She chews my shoes, eats the kids toys and sippy cups, and jumps the wall every other day so we're left chasing her through the neighborhood. They were looking for a second dog so we agreed to let them keep Koda for 2 days as a trial. That 2 days has now been 3 weeks and tonight there was a knock at the door. They weren't returning Koda but wanted to just say hi, let the kids see her and let us know they are keeping her. It's nice that she's in a good home and has another dog to play with all day. She's a great dog and although she didn't work in our home I know she's doing good in theirs.

The Suprise

(Horrible pic, I know, but it captures the moment)

Finally, the details to the best birthday party ever. I had to gather some pictures from people so thank you Courtney, Laura and of course the best looking uncle ever, Ruben. He was the professional photographer at my party and I can't wait to see all of the pictures.

Mark had been working for months on what to do for my birthday. Although I was happy with just going to dinner with the kids, it didn't make him happy. He took our phonebook with him to work one day and started making calls and printing up invitations. He called some of my old friends from high school, my girlfriends here in the desert and my family. He planned a fabulous party at the Westin Mission Hills in a small ball room complete with a band, a DJ, an open bar and the best buffett of all my favorite foods. It helps that Mark still works there when needed, so Chef Joel made the food extra special.

Friday before the party Mark decides to tell me that I needed to go shopping for a dress. Um, I don't wear dresses and a day is just not enough time to find a cute one. Not to mention that Carly and Sonny were coming over and I needed to clean. Whatever we're doing couldn't I just wear my uniform of jeans and a cute top? Nope, I had to go buy a dress, with my kids in tow Saturday morning. It wasn't easy. At 5:15 Saturday afternoon Mark then tells me I needed to be ready by 6:00. Gees, couldn't you have told me at 8:00 this morning? We headed off to Roys for appetizer and as we're walking in Mark tells me he has a small suprise. Uh oh, my anxiety is kicking in. There waiting to suprise me were Alec and Erica. I felt relieved because it was a perfect suprise and we got to just relax and talk along with Carly and Sonny. At some point Mark realized that his watch is 15 minutes slow and demands that we finish our drinks because we have 8:00 reservations in Palm Springs. Well, we never made it to Palm Springs and detoured over to the Westin, blind folded, and was literally pushed into a room of about 70 people. Holy moly. It was a lot to take in but absolutely perfect. We ate, laughed and danced the night away. Grandpa always gets the first dance with me. :)

I wish I could describe how happy and blown away I was. It was more than a girl could ever ask for and I felt so special that all of these people were there for me. Carly took all the RSVP's and Courtney put the personal touches by decorating the tables with flowers and pictures of me, family and friends. Of course Mark gets the husband of the year award in my eyes. I can't thank him enough for making my birthday so special. It still blows me away and I wish I could do it again. It went by so fast. The biggest question of the evening: Were you suprised? Absolutely. I knew something was going on because as I said before, I'm a huge snoop, but I didn't know to what extent. As soon as he said we had reservation in Palm Springs, my thoughts were on a party at Courtneys house. I was way off.