fire pit

Drew has been wanting a fire pit for ages, and finally got one yesterday. We sat outside, gazed at the flames, and ate chocolate chip cookies. Tonight, roasting marshmallows! Can't wait to have some friends over to enjoy it with us.

Xmas day

I forgot to put these here--put 'em on Facebook, but not my blog. Thanks Kate! ;)

Day-after-xmas with friends

On Friday we traveled to Willits to visit with our friends the Francis family, and then spent the night with Charles & Denise Raasch. We played with the Franicses' new Wii, visited with their sons who now live on the East Coast, and Elsa got the royal treatment at the salon where Denise works. Groovy!

Some 2008 pics

Some pics from this past year. Enjoy! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

snow pics

Blogger was being a

pain today, so here are the pics that were supposed to accompany the post below. Enjoy!

Snow day!

We took the kids up to the snow yesterday. We were a bit worried, as it continued to just be rain almost the entire way up the mountain, but when the temperature fell to 36 degrees, it turned to snow! The kids were totally excited, since they had never seen snow actually falling before. My poor California kiddos!

We had to stop and put on chains, which was a big pain in the butt for for Daddy, who had to crouch in the slush and dodge big rigs and people from San Francisco who were also pulling to the side of the road to install chains. Once the chains were tight we were on our way. The max speed limit with chains was 30 mph on highway 80, but since Drew spent about 30 minutes cheating death to install them, he was bound and determined to drive through a bit more slush, dammit!

Finally we reached our favorite (and secret!) FREE snow play area, and it was playtime! We even brought the dog who, as far as we know, may have never seen snow before. She loved it! Drew and Elsa did a fair bit fo sledding, and Emma spent the entire time throwing snowballs at "Daddy's tushie." She thought that was hilarious. Evan was not super impressed with the snow play, as we awakened him, pulled him from his carseat in the nice warm car, and he was thrust into 32 degree weather and shoved down a hill on a sled. He took a while to warm up to the idea...poor little guy!

Anyway, we had a good time, until the kids got totally wet from rolling around in the snow. Then they got all crabby and mad. Note for next year: the kids need real snowsuits.

Cindy's party

My hairdresser, Cindy, had a party at her new house in El Dorado Hills on Saturday night. The house was fabulous, and Anne', Maria, and I had a great time. Check out the pics. Check out Cindy's closet!! I tried to take a picture of the amazing view, since we were basically at the top fo El Dorado Hills, but the camera wasn't going for it. You get the idea, though.

Thanks Cindy, for a great evening out!

Girl scouts

We'll be selling cookies soon, y'all! Brace yourselves! I'm the "cookie mom" meaning I'm in charge of cookie sales for our Daisy troop. AAAACK!!!

Another tragedy in the CHP

OfficerJoseph Sanders 18781 CTC II-07 was at the scene of a disabled vehicle. There was a 2 car T/C behind him and 1 vehicle hit him. He was air lifted to county USC hospital where he was pronounced dead. Officers at the scene were performing CPR prior to transport. He is married with 3 children 7 and under with another on the way. His wife is being taken care of by the Dept and Assn and other family is on the way from Nor Cal. I will post details of memorial fund and funeral when I have them.If your husbands were in his class or work SFS please remember there is an employee assitance program available to officers and their families. I will post the details later on it.

The above is copied and pasted from the wives' group I belong to. Just pray for this officer's wife and kids!

I have been tagged

Kate tagged me. Now I have to post an entry with 7 facts about myself. 7?!?! I may not have 7 interesting personality points...hmmm....

1.) I am loud.
2.) I am addicted to the internet.
3.) I am overly helpful. :)
4.) I have been married for almost 12 years.
5.) I love science.
6.) Sometimes I give my kids popsicles for breakfast.
7.) My personality outweighs my looks.

There. Not so bad. Now I'm tagging Stacey and Carolina... GO!

Dinner with grownups!

On Saturday we went out to dinner with Chris and Stacey. NO napkin dispensers! NO clown-themed dining areas. Wow! This is very likely the first time we have gone out without our kids since all became parents.

We went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse at the Galleria here in Roseville. Pricey, but worth it! Possibly the best meal I have had in a long time, made better by the fact that we were kidless. :) And, I introduced Chris to the "Ask A Ninja" comedy program--Stacey and Drew are now convinced that their spouses are big dorks.

I must be crazy

Have you been to the Roseville Galleria lately? Neither have I. I tried to go yesterday with Evan while the girls were at school. No luck--no parking. So I went to the Fountains and hit an awesome sale at Anthropologie. Yay me!
Tomorrow the girls and I, along with my mom, are driving to the Bay Area to visit my friend Jenn and do some shopping. It's supposed to rain. We will be shopping at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto.
Palo Alto, folks.
On Sunday.
11 days before Christmas!!
Hence the title of this blog entry. Thank goodness I only have to score a few iTunes cards, and maybe something for Mom.
Pray for us. :)

Are these my REAL hormones? Well, they suck!

Any men or squeamish women may want to leave the room at this point.

I have been on birth control since I was 17, and basically pregnant or post-partum since 2001. Needless to say, I have become a stranger to normal-fucntioning female hormones. Well, they're ba-aaaack. It's awful.
Now, I am perfectly healthy, and for that I am absolutely grateful. No major complaints or issues, just knit-picky bitching on my part.
My skin is breaking out like never before, my period has turned from light and predictable to HEAVY and on its own crazy schedule. A week swing in either direction is not what I call "convenient." The little "teaser" spotting that I have for about a week before the real thing hits is driving me bonkers. My PMS now has its own time zone.
A lot of my friends report similar changes after having children, but that doesn't make it any easier.
I'm done now. You can all go back to your lives!'
:)

myPod

Okay, so, I just ranted a couple of entries ago on how I hate iTunes. I still do. It is very clunky to use, and nothing is as it seems...it's an Apple mystery!
Well, that didn't change the fact that I am, at heart, a gadget geek and when Drew got his new car I went right online and ordered the Project Red 8GB iPod nano. I LOVE IT! I have it all working properly with iTunes on the new computer, I have gotten Drew's iPod Shuffle sorted out, and I am in love with all the free video podcasts. G-E-E-K.
I still take issue with how the commands and prompts on iTunes are phrased, and searching could be a little easier.
The video podcasts come in handy--I have children's stories, horse videos, rodeos, Discovery Channel, etc.--for the kids while we are waiting for our food in restaurants, or waiting at the doctor's office, or whatever. The girls can work the iPod quite well, and they're at the age that I don't think they'll smash it into 100,000,000 pieces.
I love being able to watch my horse stuff on it, and I like being able to see the music videos or album art when I listen to music. I do wish it had a shuffle-like clip, but I'll just have to get an arm band.
So, I still am mildly annoyed with iTunes, but I love my new iPod.

My new hero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPdllcnn_Dk

Clinton Anderson is my new favorite sexy Australian horse guy. *sigh* Anyway, this is a video of him riding his horse Diez WITH NO REINS, and no BRIDLE. Like, seriously, do not try this at home! :)

Drew's new new car

Black Friday deals, what can I say? :) I can't decide if I'm going to start calling Drew "Steve McQueen" or "Frank Bullitt."