Belly Buttons

My Christmas cards finally arrived yesterday. I ordered 40 cards but only had 25 Holiday Letters so not everyone gets the story of my life that you can read below.
I put the final addresses that I have only at work on the last couple this morning and put them in the mailbox here at work. Hopefully they get delvered on Monday.
Next year I'll order 50. It's just that I normally have extras that sit in the box for years, so this year I went with less. Turns out I needed more. We met several families camping this year plus made friends with some fun school parents.

Shawna will turn 5 on Jan 26th. She's really excited and wants a Cinderella party at Pump It Up. I need to remember to book that.

Here is her 1 year portrait. That dress was made by my grandmother for me when I was her age. I love that Shawna got to wear it.


This was her and I at her 1st birhthday party in our old house. So cute! Dang how she's grown.


She's about 1.5 yrs old here. Holding her milk bottle and riding her Harley.



I tell her and Paula all the time their not allowed to grow but they doesn't listen. Something else of Shawna's that I totally adore and is all mine is her belly button. She has the biggest outie ever. Her belly button would not fall off as an infant. It took weeks for it to drop off. Even when it did it came off in pieces. Some mornings when I'm dressing her for school she says I can kiss her belly buttom. I LOVE when she says that. She loves that I love her belly button so much. I give it rasberries and make funny noises on it. Well last night she was mad at me for ripping off the final part of her bandaid that had been on for days....maybe weeks! Todd had been working with her using vegetable oil to get it off but it was still sticking. She came over to me and my mom at the table to talk to us and I saw it dangling so I ripped it off. (mean mom). Oh was she mad! She was crying and saying she would never like me again. We went into the living room eventually and she was still crying. She told she would never let me see her belly button again. (GASP) I was like NO Way honey. I took her and tickled her and gave her button a squeeze. She was still mad but was softening up. haha Eventually she sat on my lap and we were friends again. I really love that belly button.

Animals and Such

Today was my first day back in the office. I worked from home yesterday but had a really sore neck. Thankfully today I felt much better.
Although there is a chic in my department who sneezes constantly. For some reason I'm really bugged by it. It's like, lady! Take something already! Today is even worse than normal. That and she sings along with her MP3 player while it's in her ear. (where is the roll eyes smilie when you need it?)
Anyhoo, onto other topics. So, my friend was going to watch Rosie while we went camping this time. Normally we'd bring her but it will be wet and muddy and no place for a long haired dog. But at the last minute her dh says they are staying the night at his sisters. Thankfully my mom has come to the rescue again and is taking Rosie home with her tomorrow. Todd worries my dad will want to keep her. Fat chance, but my dad does love Rosie Smosie.

This was her yesterday.



On a separate animal topic, or at least a reptile one for sure. We have The No Name Snake who lives in our shoe/computer/shipping/receiving room off our kitchen. Snake pooped on me the other day so I'm not too happy with Snake. It is a gopher snake Todd found in our backyard. I just love living in Wild Kingdome.

Here is Snake




Shawna and Paula played a ton yesterday and at this moment when I was learning how to program my new camera, Shawna came in for a potty break.

Here is my warm and snuggly Shawna Lynn.



Tomorrow we leave for Santa Cruz. It's supposed to rain tomorrow thru Sunday. We come home Monday. Oh Joy.

We survived Christmas

Every year I feel like getting thru Christmas is something I have to survive. What with working full-time, buying presents, wrapping the presents, decorating and all the family activities, chaos emerges.
This year was no exception. Todd always takes care of the men's presents and I handle the women in the family. We like to have everyone over on Xmas Eve so we're not driving to Redwood City twice in 12 hours. My turkey arrived on Friday and was delicious. It was HUGE and fed the 21 people we had over, plus fed 7 of us again on Christmas night with my brother and his wife. Paula doesn't eat turkey but Shawna liked it. I got to use my Spode Christmas China tons this year which I love. My mom gave me a new piece that I'll get to use next year.
The girls made out like bandits this year. Shawna got Butterscotch Pony (it's 3 feet tall!) and Paula got a new bike. They each also received tons of games, toys, clothes and have to share a doll house from Grandma.
Todd got me a necklace, carpet steam cleaner and a toilet seat. LOL I got him pillows. He's been complaining we need more pillows so there you go. He was thrilled. He also opened the mini camera we bought ourselves to use instead of the huge one he normally uses.
Yesterday my neck was really stiff and through out the day got worse. By evening time I had Jennifer, my SIL, doing her chiropractic work on me but it didn't improve. I'd fallen asleep on the couch and by midnight when I woke up it hurt soo bad I was literally crying. I took codeine to sleep. This morning was no better. In fact, I can't drive the way it is. It's kind of like whip lash. I have to keep heating it and use a massager on it. I hope it improves soon because it's killing me. Also, we leave Friday for Santa Cruz to go camping.
Todd hasn't uploaded pics yet but when he does I'll post a few.

Train of Lights

A couple weeks ago we went on a steam train that gets all decked out for the holidays. It's called the Train of Lights. It runs from Sunol to Niles and back again. We went on it last year and the girls just loved it. This year I blew it and tickets sold out before I even knew they'd gone on sale. Thankfully a teacher from the deaf school near my house had many extra and was selling them on craigslist.

Last year Santa was on the train and the girls just knew he was the real Santa. They agreed that sometimes the Santa's in stores aren't real, but this guy was the REAL Santa.

This year Mrs. Clause AND Santa were on the train to pass out mini candy canes and take pictures.

We've lucked out 2 years in a row with no rain.

Missing Turkey

This year I decided to be organically conscience and purchase an organic free range turkey for Xmas Eve. It comes from New York over night and should have been here yesterday. Where is it you ask? I DON'T KNOW.
According to Fed Ex on line my turkey was only 20 minutes from my house in Oakland. It arrived there at 9:48am and had an expected delivery time of 10:30am yesterday. I called Fed Ex yesterday and talked to an A-Hole who said his name was Raymond Podus. He told me due to bad weather conditions my package might not arrive until Monday. WTF?! It's sunny and beautiful here...there s/b no delays. I ask for a refund on my priority overnight shipment that did not arrive on time, he said he couldn't do that because it was weather that caused the delay. omg. Helpme. Now I realize that Memphis TN could have had bad weather which is where the turkey arrived from, but since my turkey was in Oakland before 10am yesterday I have a very hard time understanding why it's not at my house even by 7pm. I ask to speak to a manager and he says there are none. I'm really pissed now. He says he'll hang up on my if I continue with my attitude. I said something else and he hung up on me. haha
I called back. Got a nice gal. First we tried to find Raymond so I could get his ass fired but he most likely lied about his last name because no matter how we spelled it she couldn't find him. Secondly she confirmed that they'd been told the reason for late packages was due to the volume they had and that my package s/b delivered on Saturday. She confirmed managers were gone until today. How weird is that? How can you have a customer service center w/no managers on duty? I'm pissed at that one. Also, she gave me the number to call on Monday to request my refund. 800-622-1147
My bird better arrive today. It's packed in some special stuff to stay cold, but I don't think it can go more than 3 days w/out being refrigerated.
Spirits out there....please find my turkey and bring it home!

Our 2007 Holiday Letter

Happy Holidays Everyone! We’ve certainly had a blessed year in 2007.

The big news is we added a new “baby” to the family. Yep, with two kids, we just had too much free time, spare money and clean carpets. Her name is Rosie and she’s a Lhasa-Poo. We all love her very much, even Todd who tried to give her away to Sandra’s brother when his dog died. She’s almost as adorable as Shawna, our almost 5 year-old potential genius, who can fart on command. Shawna spent much of this year making school projects and drawings in preschool, all of which HAD to be attached to the fridge to show their true glory. Shawna really loves preschool. Once when Todd picked her up, one of the kids said to her “Hey, your dad’s here”. Shawna replied “That sucks”. Shawna is also excelling in activities such as “squeeze the dog”, “pull the dog” and “chase the dog”.

Shawna’s older sister, 6.5 year-old Paula, is a deep thinker. She’ll tell you how the world works and how it relates to her getting her own way. She excels in school. She’s received on the upwards of 10 bad behavior notes from 1st grade. She also practices important things. Once she was standing alone in front of her mirror yelling “TYLER, TYLER, TYLER” to see what she looked like in her cute outfit yelling her girlfriends name.

Paula loves art, too. She often draws pictures loaded with inspiration and details. She can be adventurous too. At Disneyland this year she swore she would ride the Matterhorn and she did…twice, but she still fears the unpredictable dangers to getting her teeth cleaned.

Both girls love the travel trailer we purchased this summer. We’d been borrowing the
In-laws motor home fairly frequently and decided it was time to clean our own mess. We also thought it would be more fun during long trips with potty emergencies to stop in heavy traffic on narrow roads, rush out of the truck, unlock and climb into the trailer in just the nick of time, or not. Once Todd heard Shawna say to a friend “our trailer is cool but there is nowhere to drive from” Dad “you mean there is no steering wheel?” Shawna “Yeah”, The truck we had surprisingly wasn’t strong enough to pull the trailer so we sold it and picked up a used Diesel truck. Todd was thrilled to hear Paula say “Wow dad, I love your new truck, it looks just like all the rest.”

Well, that about wraps it up. A pretty quiet year, really, except for that Trailer Trash Party we had for Todd turning 40. The real outhouse & clothes line out front, mullets, Spam carving and loud music made the neighbors a tad bit nervous.

Love,
Todd, Sandra, Paula & Shawna

I'm a ham

Today Paula has her Christmas lunch with her 8th grade buddy. I was in charge of bringing the ham. Thankfully Todd went to the store last night and picked up the hams (two 8lb ones) along with 2 aluminum pans. Plus he purchased 2 huge boxes of those little mini oranges called Cuties. My kids adore them. Shawna especially. We went thru one box in under a week.

My department has our pizza lunch today (we such the splurgers) and a white elephant exhanchge. I'm re-gifting the lava lamp Todd got for his bday. haha Go me on saving money. I actually did really well this year on not going overboard with gifts. I didn't have to cut anyone out either.

Hangin' with the cows

Saturday afternoon Todd took Paula to cheerleading and I hung out with Shawna. I decided to bake some brownies that were expiring in my cupboards. I had 2 boxes so I poured them in a bowl. We did the oil, water and OOPS! We only had 2 eggs but I needed 4. Now I was committed since I'd already dumped the wet ingrediants. I called down to Dina and Susanne's house and thankfully they had some to spare. Shawna and I walked the 3 houses down. Susanne's neice is staying with her and she just had a baby on Monday. So cute!!! We stayed awhile, then headed back up to the house to do the brownies. I needed to have them ready to bring a few back over to them...Susanne insisted! That night Dina, Susanne and I were volunteering at the Family Giving Tree http://www.familygivingtree.org/ and I was driving us there since I knew where it was. I am a huge supporter of theirs thru my company. I've never volunteered there though.

When we got to the FGT they had us go off a list to verify if the childrens gifts were in fact delivered. Sadly, many weren't. In fact, the FGT is down 20% or 15,000 gifts this year. Last year they supplied 68,000 low income children with presents. This year they cannot do that.

After we got home we hung out at my house watching Evan The Almighty with Todd. So funny!!! Then on Sunday Dina, Susanne, her sister Adriane and I hiked up behind my house. I live in a canyon but have never hiked the hills. Until November it was technically illegal. We hiked a couple hours and walked amongst the cows until we came upon a bull who was in a corner drinking. We had to pass him in order to move on or head back. He didn't look like he wanted to move or have us go by sooo we turned around quickly!~ I called Todd when we were behind the house. He went to our top balcony and took our picture. I'm the 2nd one on the right.

Busy week

Every week seems busy this month but this week especially.

Monday must have been mellow because I have nothing on my calendar for that day.

Tuesday I had my ortho appt and got my bottom braces off. Yay! They will take the tops off once I get my implants done. I have 2 teeth on top that need to be done in January hopefuly. I need to call and make the appts. That night Paula had her school Christmas program where she got to be an angel. So cute.

Wednesday I managed to get tickets for the Niles Canyon Train of Lights. They sell out fast in October and I missed the date of when they went on sale. A teacher from the deaf school near me had extras and was selling them on craigslist so I lucked out. It was fun because many kids from the school were on the train all signing to each other. I really wish I'd learned sign language. I had a total fascination for it as a child. My mom even thought I'd do that as my career.

Thursday my department went on a team building lunch where we played bocci ball (Italian game) then ate a huge yummy lunch. I'd never played before so it was fun. I really recommend it for a fun night out or something.

This morning after dropping the girls at school I came to work and stood in the freezing cold near the work van where I collected the Family Giving Tree gifts for our holiday drive. We did really well this year. Plus lots of people donated money which helps a lot too.

Tonight is Shawna's Christmas program at 6pm. She sings "Little Drummer Boy" and gets to hit her homemade drum made out of a chalk tub all decorated. I need to leave early to make it there to get a seat.

Busy busy.

Movin' over here

I had another blog but it wasn't as fancy as this one. For the life of me I could not figure out how to post pictures.