I estimate that I'm about halfway through this hat and so far I added another stripe. Maybe I'll finish it by the time we hit Mammoth.

How Big They Grow

Last week, Tyler and Josh took a really cute pic and here it is.

Latest hobby

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, my mom taught me how to knit and crochet. I really enjoyed it but all I could make were flat squares. I don't think my mom knew how to follow patterns so I never learned. I did make lots of nice blankets for my dolls and later a scarf in college.
So I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday to check out some books on Italy. We are thinking of an Italy trip in October so I found a couple of books to keep me occupied. While I was there, I browsed the crafts section and found some knitting books. There is one called Knit Hats! that has 15 different hats that are so cute. Since I bought the books, I had to go to Joann's to get yarn and knitting supplies. I chose an elf hat pattern that uses 4 colors of yarn. Tyler's hat is my first attempt at real knitting so he is excited about it. The hat will be red, blue, cream and gray.
It took me a while to figure out how to knit an I-cord then switch to different colors and knit in a circle. Once I got the hang of it, the hat started coming along. So far the hat is taking shape into a cone that will fit a doll and has 4 stripes. I need to knit about more stripes and hopefully it'll be done in a few days. Pictures to follow.

Extra Day Off

As some of you might know, we're taking off for vacation soon to Mammoth Lakes, CA. We planned on leaving March 7th which takes about 5-6 hours travel time then start on snowboarding the next day. I received an email from Dr. J who does Hector's schedule. He had tweak the schedule a bit but it turned out to give Hector an extra day off starting March 6th. Woot! Hector and I had to think what we could do. Hector has a dentist appt on the 6th but we can reschedule that. Of course, I had to find lodging for the night since the condo we're renting is way too much just for us one extra night so we will staying at the Holiday Inn in Mammoth on the 6th. That will give us an extra day to spend with the kids and play in the snow. We are set then. He-man & She-ra don't know of our early head start but they will be joining us the following day. We plan on doing some sledding and sliding (same thing) and having quality time with each other (our family) then have our group vacation. I'm excited!

Happy

Hector arrived home last night and we all are very happy. I kept the kids busy Saturday by starting the day off at Kids Concepts where they could run and play for a couple of hours. Home for a quick lunch then we're off to the O.C. to shop at the Block for Tyler's Hawaiian shirt. Monday is Hawaiian day at his school and he has outgrown his shirts. So we went to Hilo Hattie's to check out their assortment. We found some shirts and luckily the saleslady caught the price difference. I had grabbed a Medium shirt which said $39.99 and she mentioned that they had childrens' sizes which are less. I found another Medium (kid's size) that was $24.99 so I was happy she noticed the price otherwise I would have spent $15 more.
Hector came home around 8pm so we're happy that he is home and that Hector had a great time in Tahoe. Only 2 more weeks til Mammoth and more snow time.

Countdown

Only 2 more days until Hector comes home. He called to update me on their trip. They are taking the day off snowboarding since a storm is coming in. He said it is snowing and they were headed to a casino for a buffet lunch. This year only 3 guys are there when they were expecting about 6 guys. Oh well, Hector won't rent a big cabin again next year and let the others find their own accomadations. That's a big drawback when planning for a group. Oh well he tried to organize a trip where all the guys could stay together but it just didn't work out as well as he thought.
That will bring me to our next mountain trip in early March. I usually plan the vacation and book the condo & ski lessons. This year we included our friends He-man & She-ra with their recently added kiddies so it was good that I booked a spacious condo with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. Hopefully the next few weeks will dump lots of snow before we arrive in Mammoth. Tyler is excited about his ski school and he gets to miss real school too.
I was catching up on Tivo last night and I focused on CSI Miami episodes. I was shocked by the episode where Delko gets shot in the head and appears dead. Then it was to be continued but thankfully I had 3 episodes to catch up on. The next episode info says that a CSI is dead so I'm thinking,"Noooooooo! Why would they say that?". So I'm expecting Delko to die as he is rushed to the hospital, when they have to use the defibulator (sp) paddles on him 3 times, when the MD plunges a syringe of epi into Delko's chest and rushed off to surgery. Of course, he did technically die when they jump started his heart but I wasn't sure if he could still be a CSI after being shot in the head (temporal lobe). Well, the 3rd episode shows him back on the field with a buzz cut and a surgery scar on his head. Then they talk about Delko being back to work too soon only a few weeks after getting shot! Ugh....puhleeze. I think he would need a LOT more time before he was allowed back. Oh well, it's good TV. Infuriating but good.

Flower pics

I decided that flowers are a good subject since they don't move much, have rich colors and are interesting. Besides that I don't have anything else to say. The bird of paradise is in front of my house and I can't take any credit. They were here when we moved in and I have done absolutely nothing to nurture their growth.

The purple flowers are on my way to Tyler's school. I noticed them this morning but took the pic on my way to pick him up. How thoughtful of people to provide me with beautiful flowers to shoot.

Lots of fun

Monday

Today is my rainy day inside. I actually got to sleep in today until 9 am which is a rare treat. The boys are behaving somewhat okay...I tried keeping them busy with paper hats and a scavenger hunt (Tyler's idea). Today is a video game free zone until 6 pm because this is Tyler's punishment for lying. Last night Josh came downstairs when they were brushing their teeth and the back of his PJs were all wet. I asked Tyler what happened and he said that Josh poured water down his own back. Uh-huh...after a few minutes of questions the real account came out that Tyler poured the water. Lately he has been lying to Hector and I and even though the lies are minor, I'm not going to ignore the behavior. We are trying to convince him that it is better to tell the truth and deal with it than lie about it which makes the situation worse.
During a break in the rain, the sun came out so I took the opportunity to get more firewood from the shed. I noticed a white flower that bloomed so took a couple of snaps. So here is my flower of the day picture.

Hector is now officially on vacation for six days. I'm hanging with my boys with a nice cozy fire watching Dreamgirls on DVD. Yes, the Dreamgirls that was just released...it's nice to know people in the entertainment business. During award season, the nominated films make the rounds "for your consideration" and I was lucky to get one on loan.
So last night's little soiree was a great success with lots of great food and company. I'm still enjoying the leftovers today and probably for several more days. My friend Kat and I are so excited about the start of the Amazing Race: Allstars which begins tonight. We are starting a new point system where we keep track of the racers...it's complicated but should be lots of fun. I'll keep you posted...

Partaaay!

Have a great weekend. Hector is leaving tomorrow for Lake Tahoe so tonight I'm having some friends over for our Chinese New Year celebration with a Mexican flair. We'll have some carnitas since it's year of the Pig. I have to clean up and straighten the house.

We all scream for ice cream

Some funny pics to keep you smiling...my baby loves his chocolate ice cream. He makes the funniest faces eating ice cream I think because it's cold. Anyways, his facial expressions are a hoot!

Celebrate

We finally were able to take our helicopter ride last night that was postponed from November plus dinner. I was kinda nervous about the helicopter and then I saw how small it was. That increased my anxiety but the pilots were great and once I started concentrating on the lights and sights, I began to have fun. It was a cool experience to see all the normal buildings and freeways up to 1000 feet in the air. We went by the Hollywood sign, Sunset Blvd., Dodger stadium, Staples center and downtown Los Angeles then back to Long Beach airport which took about 45-50 minutes. Now that I survived this ride, I am considering trying a helicopter in Hawaii. By the way, LA Helicopters took great care of us and it was a blast.

Now it was on to The Sky Room in downtown Long Beach. This place has everything for a romantic dinner; great views, excellent food, impeccable service and amazing music. Their Valentine's Day menu consisted of a 5 course meal with 4 choices of entree. Everything was wonderful and I suggested that we should do this every year. I think Hector agrees too so kudos to my wonderful hubby who did an excellent job of planning our evening!

Where are you?

I found this map on another friend's site so I thought it would be cool to add to my page. Please add your location to the map!

I am still recovering my trip to Vegas, which by the way was lots of fun. Of course, I would have had more fun with Hector or some of my friends but my mom & I got along okay. We left around 1:15pm Friday afternoon and arrived in Vegas at 6pm which wasn't too bad. I haven't been to Vegas on a weekend forever and was expecting a huge mob of people travelling on the road and in town but surprisingly, it was good. It helped that we were staying off the Strip behind the Wynn hotel/casino so I drove on Paradise to the Flamingo to park and walked everywhere I wanted to go.

Gambling was okay...overall I gave it all away but I had some luck hitting 4 of a kind on a few video poker machines that kept me entertained. I would play for a bit then walk around to Caesars and Bellagio to check out the mall and conservatory. At the Bellagio I was mildly surprised to see a banner in Chinese over the entry and I assumed it said Happy New Year. Inside they had red ball-like things all over the place and the conservatory had a pagoda and red bridges. They had interesting signs that explained feng shui, zig zag bridges and flowers.

Here are some of my pics including the beautiful glasswork of Dale Chihuly that is displayed in the Bellagio lobby.

Viva Las Vegas

I'm off to Vegas tomorrow so this'll be my last post until Monday when I come home. I hope to get some good pics there and hopefully win some $$. Ah, it'll be nice to get away for a couple of days although my mom will be busy with other things.

I've been lagging on the photos so here are some to catch up. These are from last week when we went to California adventure. Joshua doesn't look very happy with Minnie Mouse but he chased her down to say hi then posed with her so I think he was happy inside. :)

Tyler loves riding the zipline at Redwood Creek and Josh is a tad short to ride but hopefully soon.

Tyler and Hector are in the purple swinging gondola on the Sun Wheel. I usually choose the red stationary gondola but Hector convinced Tyler that the purple one was more fun. Tyler is still deciding whether it's true.

I don't usually have a lot of time to see movies either at the theatre or at home but this weekend I managed to see a couple at home. We had company so we were hanging out in front of the TV when Roll Bounce came on. I didn't know anything about this movie but I remember the title. It's about a group of teens who hang out at the local roller rink which gets closed down so they go to the uptown rink. They enter a skating contest against the rink's local cool kids. It wasn't horrible but amusing, mostly it reminded me of growing up. I remember loving going to the roller rink starting when I was in 3rd grade. We had one nearby so my church and school had events there a lot. Good times.
The second movie I saw was Benchwarmers and I saw some of it. I wasn't paying close attention to it but it's filled with potty humor etc and had some funny parts. That's all I can say about it.

I'm gonna be in Vegas this weekend. My mom showed me a pamphlet for adults with endocrine disorders and she really wanted to go. Of course, she didn't show this to me until last week but Hector is off this weekend who was sweet to watch the boys while I drive my mom there. I do have another reason to go....I can gamble or shop while she attends her conference. Lucky me. Then I can show her some of the sights at night since she doesn't gamble. Hopefully we won't drive each other batty.

Yesterday, the planets aligned where Hector was off work and we had absolutely nothing to do ie. errands. So when both kids were in school, we went to the Del Amo mall and browsed for a small kitchen table. We're thinking of getting a bigger bed (Cal King) so we got to lay on some mattresses which are soooo nice now. They have that really thick pillowtop on the mattress which will need huge deep pocket sheets. We should remodel our bathrooms before we get a new bed but it was fun getting ideas.

After that we decided to try the Lucky Strike bowling that opened recently. The last time we tried to bowl there, the wait time was crazy on a Friday night. Well, this time was Monday at noon so the place was practically empty. It's one of those trendy places that have big screens at the end of the lanes and dim lighting. Other than that, it was still bowling. I sucked at it so I'll stick to video game bowling because it's much easier on my wrist. I then chose the Lazy Dog cafe for lunch and it was a busy place. I had a chicken club sandwich (okay) and Hector chose the Bahama chicken which was not that good. We might go again but try a different entree.

Since we had the day off, we were invited to an impromptu birthday party for my friend's niece (from previous post). We met at Kids Concepts which is a huge indoor play area/ jungle gym. The kids just went bonkers in there for a couple of hours and it was great. They practically had the whole place to themselves. Then it was back to our house for some Baskins Robbins ice cream cake. Oh, it was so good. Chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream. C had a great time especially with her new Bratz doll and clothes. Oh, to be 5 years old again!

Instant family

Phew...what a day. A friend of ours have inherited their niece & nephew for at least 90 days due to family issues. They went from zero to 2 kids in 24 hours. No preparation whatsoever. We try to help out with clothes and toys where we can but most of the baby clothes we have are already gone. I can really feel for them since I know how much work 2 kids can be but to be thrown in this situation must be overwhelming at times for them. The children consists of a 5 year old girl and an 11 month old boy. We had the kids over today all day and it's been an experience. Tyler is excited to have another friend near his age to play with and for the most part, they get along. It is the least we can do to ease the stress and make the children feel safe & secure. So far a lot of people with kid items have been donated so that has been a great help. I am just thankful that these children had their aunt & uncle willing to take them in who will love and protect them.