Todd totally surprised me!

Todd totally surprised me this weekend with a surprise party for my 40th birthday. I didn't expect it at all. There were times thru the past few months that I thought something might happen, but at the end of the day I didn't think he'd pulled it off so I wasn't expecting it at all when Dina and Susanne and I drove up to my house after a day in Livermore wine tasting, to finding my closest friends and family waiting for me in my driveway! It was awesome.
The theme was Las Vegas. Todd had rented a craps table, hosted by our tax guy Larry and his wife. We had poker, 21, lots of great food and appetizers brought and made by Susan and some other friends. We had dancing (of course), and just overall the best time.

Another huge surprise was that Jeannie, my friend from grammer school who had another party to be at this weekend), located our old friend Aaron Maes from high school. Aaron walks up with Todd in my kitchen and it literally took me seconds to register it was him. The next day he came with his wife and 2 kids so I was able to meet them.

In another post I'll type out specifics of how my dear friends and family tricked me that day and months prior leading up the event, but for now look below for some of the pictures (I say some because we know he takes like a 1000) from that night.

Sandra's 40th Surprise Party

Photobucket Album

Not Funny or Witty

In general, I would not call myself funny or witty. I'm silly, definitely silly. I WISH I was funnier and witty. There are some people I meet who bring out what little funniness I have. I love when that happens. It's usually because they're more serious. That "opposites attract" thing.
My husband tries to be overly funny. It actually annoys me. Around him I'm more quiet because you just can't compete with someone who needs to be the center of attention. He'll tell me I'm too serious, I never smile. Yeah dude, when I'm around you! At work I'm always smiling and joking around. My friends think I'm fun to be with. I'm very friendly at work and when I'm out in public. I go out of my way to help people. But at home not so much.

I like to frequent blogs of women (I don't find men's blogs to interest me. Isn't that odd? I wonder why) who I find Witty and interesting. They would find me totally boring. I mostly just blog about my days which in truth are boring. Let's be real. I go to work where I spend most of my awake hours, go home, sit on the couch, drink wine and go to bed. yawn. Even I'm bored with myself. I don't hang around people who have a lot of drama because I don't like those people. I've made a conscience effort to remove negative people from my world. It's one thing to have situations that arise where their might be temporary drama or issues, but that should be rare. If your the type of person who always complains about your job, your husband, your life, then you need to get a life and fix those issues. I'm not interested in hearing about it day in and day out.

I don't over think the world. I'm not into politics. I have thoughts about how think things should be, but I don't let those thoughts stress me out or take over my life. I sort of live in my little bubble. I use the Internet to stay on top of local issues and do branch out into some Int'l issues, but rarely. I was one of those people who could have never imagined the terrorist attack on 911. Terrorist's were not a threat to the US. At least that's how I felt then. Now I know better.

I'm overly panicked by my kids being kidnapped. I rarely let them in the front yard without supervision. Meaning I'm there or Todd is there. I don't even trust their safe in our garage if we're not outside. Sad but true. When we lived in a cul-de-sac I was less noided because there is only one way to escape and you could view the entire street. Now we live on the top of a loop where the streets are narrow, a million cars are parked on the sidewalks and they could be tossed into a van in a second and take off and I'd never even see it. In that sense I hate this world in respect to dangers are kids are in, and how it's evolved but I won't get an ulcer over it. I just handle the situation in the best way I know how and that's to keep my kids close.

So, I apologize to my readers (the few of you there are) that my life is not that interesting. I'll try to spice my posts up a bit.

Dress Up Fashion Show

First off, Tuesday and Wednesday did not go as well for Paula in summer school as Monday. Some of the kids didn't want to include her a couple times. Once she talked, not knowing they were going to pray, so the kids near her yelled NO at her. She got teary from that.

Then on Tuesday Todd got pissed at her after swim lessons for not getting changed after repeatedly telling her while they were in the girls dressing room. He made her walk to the car naked, with just her towel around her and she had to drive home like that. She was mortified. I'm hoping school went better today.

While driving home after picking up the girls Todd called to say Shawna told him they're having a fashion show at her school tomorrow. huh? Understand that our Shawna LOVES dressing up and it's not too far a fetch to think she made this up just so she can wear a fancy dress to school. Todd asked her "Do you have any paperwork backing up this story". LOL She said no. There was no papers. Calling the school at this hour will connect me to an afternoon teacher who not always knows what the day classes are doing. She's basically after school daycare. Thankfully she did know that Miss Mary was doing a fashion show and the kids could borrow some of her outfits or bring their own. Shawna will collect a few items tonight but knows she has to wear play clothes to school.

My friend Jeannie from grammar school called today. She lives in San Diego with her husband and daughter age 8. Our birthdays are 4 days apart. I'm July 4th and she's July 8th. Our friend Terri is July 6th. Terri called me last week and then those two hung out that day. Terri lives in Huntington Beach, sort of near Jeannie. We don't talk often or visit often but we do keep in touch and care about each other. We're good about remembering each others birthday too!! LOL

The latest and greatest softball game pictures. Paula whacking the ball. She writes right handed but hits left handed.


Shawna running to first base. She cracks me up at how stiff she looks. haha

Summer School Rocks!

Paula loves her summer school. There are 26 kids in her class, they get to wear free dress EVERYDAY and the school work was easy and fun. Not only that but they got to play in the playground which is HUGE. She's thrilled. Oh, and they get to go SWIMMING in summer school. She also learned she can have her finger nails painted which is another thing she doesn't get to do in regular school.

This weekend was busy. Friday Paula came home with my mom. We just hung out alone and relaxed. It was a very hot day. It hit 100+ outside. My cubicle at work was 79 degrees so I left at 4:30pm. I don't know what the deal was with our air conditioning but my car and house were cooler so I took off.

Saturday Todd wanted to see an air show at the Hiller Aviation Museum so we went to that. It was HELLA HOT, with no seating and no shade. OMG just shoot me now. Thankfully we brought an umbrella but I was definitely cranky. The museum they have was really neat. Lots of original airplanes, helicopters, engines and simulators. Plus it was inside and cool. LOL

That night we went to our good friends 8th grade graduation party. They live in our old cul-de-sac so the girls got to go into our old house. Todd helped the new family in our old house fix a bathroom shower faucet that was leaking. Shawna and their older daughter Bella played really great together that day. Anna, the mom kept saying how much they love the house. I miss my yard. We had the best and hugest backyard at that house. I don't miss the small size of the house though.


Sunday Paula went to a classmates birthday party at a Bounce place. Kind of like Pump It Up. I was able to chat w/some moms I don't normally talk to which I liked. One of the moms I talked to is the parent of the boy Paula kissed in kindergarten. Paula got in a lot of trouble for that. The mom said how they really over reacted to that and her son felt bad about it. I told her how I was a terror as a child/teenager and expect lots of payback from my 2 daughters.


Last night the girls had a softball game. As is usual, Shawna steals the show with her silliness. She wouldn't wear her visor, kept spinning in the dirt, kicked dirt, made pits in the dirt. One of the coaches, Sam, was cracking me up because he's so darn nice when it comes to her. One time he was holding her visor because she refused to wear it. He said "I didn't sign up to be a hat holder." I'm like, Sam, treat her like she's your daughter. Yell at her if she's not listening, make her wear her visor. He replied "the funny thing is this is how I used to be with Sierra when she was this age. I'd just say "Okay Honey" if she didn't want to wear her hat."
At the end of an inning him and Shawna were the last ones on the field so he scooped her up and carried her to the dug out. Todd got a pic of it. I love our team. Our coaches and families are the best.

This is a plane simulator. It moved side to side and back and forth. The girls loved it. Only Paula wanted to drive it. Shawna was happy being a passenger.


The girls sat in a Blue Angels cockpit. It didn't move but they enjoyed it just the same.

We have a lot of fires in N. Calif now. The air is awful. Smokey and just plain grey skies. On Saturday there was a lightening storm that sparked a few fires. Our friends Dina and Susie were camping at Mount Madonna. I was watching their 2 dogs and 2 cats. They called us to say they'd just been told by a ranger to evacuate with only 15 minutes notice. Yikes! Mount Madonna was on fire. Some of the fires are arson. I don't know this for sure but there are soo many that not all of them are natural. It's crazy how many are blazing right now.

Raccoon Story

This Raccoon Story...is a MUST READ if you want to understand men. I adore this blog.

http://madmadhousewife.blogspot.com/2008/06/raccoon.html

My baby moves on to Kindergarten

Last week Shawna graduated from preschool. They had a cute ceremony where the priest blessed some rosaries and each child received one as they shook hands with their teachers. Shawna wears it almost everyday. I don't hold much hope in it not breaking given they're pretty flimsy.

The class also sang some songs and did some dancing with this one song that was a crack up. Here are some pics.

Shawna with one of her teachers Miss Karen


Dancing to the song




This is a shot of her from Monday's game. She's so tiny. LOL

Adults Only

What's been going on?

1. I'm feeling much better. I'm still on antibiotics but they didn't have to "clean out" my sinus'. I am back to work as of yesterday (Monday). I saw the ENT on Friday and he did another probe up my nose. I'm all clear in the upper sinus'. I'm still draining and could relapse but I'm hoping I don't. My implants also look good. I saw the periodontist on Thursday who wants to see me again in 2 months.

2. Friday night we had a fire in our hills. At night it seemed much closer than it was so we got our important papers and things together in case in the middle of the night they said to evacuate. We didn't even let the kids know there was a fire or Paula especially would have been panicky and very upset.
I made Todd prepare the trailer for easy hookup. Normally it can take him 45 minutes to get it ready so he did some set up so in case he needed to hook up the truck we could leave faster. My mom was there to keep him on track. He didn't think all our preparation was necessary and kept saying so, but I didn't want to risk it. By morning the fire was out so he was right. Still...you can't be too prepared for that! We had ashes all over our cars, house etc. Even in our computer room where we'd left the window open.

3. Saturday afternoon my mom drove Paula to her house for the week. Already I've talked to her each day and she's having a grand time. Yesterday they swam in the pool at the club and she met a little girl who might be there again today. Too cute.
That night Shawna had a sleep over at Tyler's house which she LOVED.

4. Saturday night we had an adults only party at our friends the Coulthards, one of our school/softball families who we've camped with and adore. There were 8 of us. We had so much fun. For awhile the ladies chatted together and the men chatted together, then after dinner we all hung out around his backyard bar. They have the best backyard set up for summer parties. I laughed so hard my sides ached from their stories about Paula and Shawna during softball practices. I never make the practices since I'm at work so it was fun to hear what my kids do. We definitely need to do that again. Below is a picture of us all.

Left to Right: Danielle (married to Sam), Patty (married to Brett), Me, Johna (married to Steve), Todd, Brett, Sam, Steve.

5. Tonight starts swim lessons for the girls, although only Shawna is here this week. She's excited since she's been asking me for a year when do they get to go back to swimming. It's hecka expensive for the place I like to take them which is why I didn't sign them up for an entire year. But Shawna needs to learn her strokes and Paula hasn't graduated yet from the school so it's time.

That's it for the past few days. Busy busy as always.

Sinus infection from hell

I haven't posted in awhile because I've been in a lot of pain after my titanium implant surgery.

I had surgery on Tuesday, May 27th. I had the normal discomfort associated w/that type of surgery. He raised my sinus on my rear molar and added bone. By Saturday I started having pain that wasn't there before. By Tuesday I had a 100.5 fever and saw my periodontist who did the surgery. He did an Xray and it all looked fine but he was worried I was getting an infection. Keep in mind that from the hour before surgery and 7 days after I was on a low dosage antibiotic to prevent infection.

He put me on Kevlar. That night was up there w/the few in my life that I'd rather die than go thru that pain. My entire left side of my face was so painful. Not even the vicodin he gave me helped. The next morning, Wednesday the 4th I called him to ask if I could take two of the Rx instead of 1. He said yes. He would check on me again later. I slept all day. That night he called after talking to some of his ENT colleagues and changed my meds to Biaxin. Todd went to get that. I was off work from Tuesday to Thursday. I did go in Friday afternoon but w/out Advil or tylenol every few hours the pain was too bad. The nights were better than that one Tuesday night but still I'd have pain, even being woken up from it. I'd also have bad mornings until 10am or so when the pain would finally subside. Friday and Saturday were no better. In fact, Saturday I talked to one of the parents on Paula's softball team who is an RN Nurse among other things a director for San Francisco Medical. She said the antibiotics should have provided relief by now and that most antibiotics kill 80 percent of the bacterias out there, but there are some that kill 100% and I should request that. I called Dr. Lim and told him more of what was happening. He said to double up on the Biaxin and to give it a full 72 hours. Which now that I look at it, it had been 72 hours. Also, doubling up the Biaxin was nasty. OMG I oozed the Rx taste in my mouth. Ick.



On Sunday, today, after another night of being woken up from pain and my morning with major headache, clearly my sinus infection hadn't eased up much after being on 3 different antibiotics in 2 weeks so I went to the ER this afternoon once Todd got home from work. I should also mention that I've been blowing out green stuff that smells, for a week. Nasty. They did a cat scan and discovered that I have puss from above my left eye to the bottom of my face thru out my entire sinus. Basically, my entire left sinus' are filled with puss. ER dr said this would have been coming on for a couple months for it to be that full. I never felt or noticed a thing. The sinus lift from the implant surgery set it off. I'm still not sure how that could have been storing in my sinus for so long and me not know. When I see the ENT I'm gonna get his view.



I'm on 2 new antibiotics. 875MG of Amox-Clav and 750MG of Levaquin. That's a lot of drugs. I also received more hydrocodone. I called my periodontist who did the implants telling him the newest diagnosis. He was going to call the ER to ask what the CT scan showed as far as the implants failing. That's a major concern too obviously. If this can't be cleared up by the antibiotics then they'll have to go in and drain my sinus'. Let's hope it doesn't go to that. I have to make an appt w/an ENT tomorrow. I'm also supposed to stay off work for 3 days. I'll probably have bad diarrhea w/all the meds and one of them makes me a bit lightheaded I noticed but it didn't last long. Geez, who knew dental implants would cause all this?! I'm just glad to be truly diagnosed and that my brain is no longer at risk which could have easily happened since your sinus' lead right up into your brain and a sinus infection reaching your brain usually ends with death. (thanks to the internet I had that knowledge to scare the crap out of me) I even asked him if that was still something I should worry about and he agreed that it could have gone up into my brain but that w/the antibiotics I'm on and how they're closely monitoring it I won't have that problem. Let's pray! Oh, and I'm not going on my work trip to PA obviously. I'm bummed about that but I cancelled all my arrangements this morning after the headache wore off. I knew I couldn't risk it w/my not healing. Now I know for sure I couldn't have gone. The pressure in the plane would have been awful. That was my exciting day. Hope your Sunday was better!