Say Cheese!

Isn't he getting so big. I can hardly believe that my little boy is going to be 3 in less than a month!

This evening starts the beginning of Steve's night shifts. SO far the sleeping in the day has gone fairly well, but I will get back to you next week and let you know how the week continues on. Some exciting news.... Steve is now Full time instead of Per Diem. Wahoo! We are so excited. Now that we are getting settled back into the swing of things, I hope to start updating our blog again.

Things are crazy 'round here

Yesterday was Steve's first day at Loma Linda. Of course everything went wrong that morning. His alarm never wt off, thankfully I had set an emergency alarm, but he only had 15 minutes to get ready... he even had to shave. If he wasn't late enough getting out the door, he hoped in his truck to find that the windshield was iced over. After all that stress getting out the door, he still made it to work with 5 minutes to spare. Here's the best of a few pictures that I tried to get as he was getting ready.

Yesterday was also my friend Hannah's b-day. At Disneyland this year they are giving you a free ticket on your birthday, but if you have a pass (like we do) you can chose to get a gift card with the price of an admission ($69) on it to use in Disneyland. Sammy and I headed out and joined with with the Cowen's to celebrate Hannah's day. We had so much fun. It was a beautiful day, not too crowded
.Happy Birthday Hannah!The boys playing on Dumbo

Sammy just loves his mickey hat, and cries when he has to take it off!

Later that evening we stopped by CVS to get some pull ups, and I left my purse in the cart and walked away. We came back like 2 minutes later once we realized it was gone, and it was nowhere to be found. After much freaking out and calling banks and credit card companies, I think we have it all taken acre of. There are just a few more things, but not too bad. I think the thing that shocked me the most was that the people who stole it were really out to steal. They had already tried to use our credit cards. Man, what is our society coming to? There is some light at the end of all this, they found my purse, very rummaged through and empty of everything but a few business cards and my empty wallet at a gas station in Beaumont. After I was done filing a report at the police station I headed out to see what was left. Nothing much, but hey, I got my great $7.00 purse back!

We are up and running!

WOOHOO! I have finally finished putting together my vinyl lettering website. I have been working tirelessly for the past couple of days to get everything together and we are finally active. Please stop by and check it out- I am so proud!

www.myrefineddesign.com

On another note, things are still really crazy 'round here. Sammy is getting super big. He has been counting to 5 lately, a big accomplishment. We are still trying to potty train...one day, I hope. We are loving life down here in Yucaipa. Sammy especially is loving being around the girls ALL the time, they are such great teachers and Sammy is learning so much from them. I will leave you with a pic from the a current trip to the park.

A Few Things

So I know it's pretty obvious that we have fallen off the face of the earth the past month or so, It's been a little crazy 'round here. I keep making mental notes that I need to blog about this or that, but do I ever get around to it? Of course not. So here are a few things that are going on in our life and thoughts that I have been having.

• Steve and Jacqui- That is what Sammy has been calling us lately. Come on kid... Mommy and Daddy! It was quite funny at first, but is now getting a little old. Poor Steve is starting to really get his daddy feelings hurt :(
• BFF- abbreviation for our Big Fat Family. Our dear friends who we love so much have so amazingly and graciously opened their house to us to live until we can find a house. Have I mentioned yet that they are amazing? They have 3 of the sweetest little girls in the whole world. Tim and Kristy are such amazing friends to us and I can not ever express how much they mean to us and how extremely thankful I am for all they do for us- We love you guys so much! So watch out, here come our BFF!
• After 6 years, I do not bother to ask why my husband desires to be a crazy fool. Steve is a very daring, fearless adrenaline junkie, so am I ever surprised when he hurts himself doing something that he probably shouldn't be doing? Nope! I will try to post pictures of his daring stunt when I can figure out how to upload the new pictures to my computer w/out a cord.
• I have a very hard time fully believing that we are really in that much of a recession when we go to Disneyland and.it.isPACKED.
• I am starting to relieve my before child days. It has been so long since I have stayed up till 2 am, and I am kinda getting back into the swing of things :)
• Sammy is growing up so fast now. With having to keep up with 3 little girls, Sammy has grown so much. He talks so much, and says the funniest things.
• On the tram ride into Disneyland today Sammy pointed his finger at me and I bit it playingly and here is how our exchange went:

Me: Yummy finger tastes good.

Sammy: Yum, tastes like cookies!

Me: (giggling quite hard) Oh cookies, what kind?

Sammy: (rolling his eyes at his goofy momma) chocolate chip cookies mom!

Duh, what else would they be? On the way back we had a similar exchange but it was the opposite way, and my finger tasted like blueberry muffins.

So this a bit of my pondering over the past days. Hopefully I will be better about my posting in the future.

Black Friday Fun

Friday morning was filled with sleep deprived shopping. Hannah had been up since 3 that morning, so when she came to meet up with Kristy and I in line at Target she provided the much needed pick up and plan to get in and get the goods. One of my favorite things about Black Friday, besides the great deals, is the initial people watching in line. We had some very interesting younger guys in line in front of us. I hate to say it but I would describe them as your typical gamer dorks. I am still unsure of how our conversation started but they were very weirded out by the fact that we really just there for the thrill and for the cheap movies, oh and a camera for me, but I think I'm taking it back. sorry beside the point. So these guys were just very strange. Kristy overheard a conversation between the two about one of their friends sucking their blood- seriously are they vampires- gross! Who does that?

It was pretty busy as expected by the time we were checking out the line was all the way back to the food area. After Target we split from Hannah who is the most amazing Black Friday shopper with her ads and list in hand. and headed to Joann's for fabric. we waited to have fabric cut for and hour. When we drew our number there were 50 people ahead- crazy. After walking the store for what seemed like days we found ourselves a nice spot on the floor in the yarn corner and just waited, slept some, and sat on yarn because the floor was quite hard. I just love the thrill of Black Friday and highly recommend going once just to experience it.

Big News

No, I'm not pregnant. But we have finally moved off our amazing mountain back down to the flat lands. It really was inevitable. Steve and I were talking the other day and were saying how frivolous we have been over the years with our driving up and down the mountain sometimes 4-5 times a week- That is so many hours and gallons of gas. Now I think, man the mountain is so far away, when only 3 weeks ago I thought it was no big deal. Steve is LOVING the fact that Del Taco is right around the corner and we have celebrated a few times :)

My favorite part of being down the hill is being so close to my bestest friends. With this brings many super fun, pee my pants moments. Here was the highlight of my week

*On Wednesday my friend Kristy and I went to Costco to pick up a few things. While there Kristy tried to convince one of her students from 3 years ago was actually someone she graduated with from high school over 10 years ago- too much! Okay maybe not so funny, but I almost peed my pants through the whole ordeal.

Karen Kingsbury News

So as many of you know I am a bit of a book dork, although I don't get a chance to read as much as I did before Sammy. My all time fav author is Karen Kingsbury. Here is an update on some of her new books for those who love her like I do:

More Baxters? Karen’s Big News!

Since the release of Sunset – the last book about the Baxter family – I’ve been deluged by letters asking me whether I’d ever write about these characters again, and whether I would at least consider writing more about Bailey Flanigan and Cody Coleman. I’ve kept you in suspense long enough. My brand new blockbuster series begins March 9 with Above the Line - Take One. And yes, it is set in Bloomington, Indiana. This series is about two producers who want to change the world with the power of film, but who must be careful not to lose themselves in the process. One of the producers has a daughter – Andi Ellison – who rooms with Bailey Flanigan on the campus of Indiana University. Bailey, Cody, Tim Reed, and Andi will be a major part of this new series. And the Baxters? I can promise you they are in scenes throughout the first book. Andi’s parents live in LA, so the Baxters will serve as her “second family”. In book one, there is even a tender dinner scene with the producers and everyone in the Baxter family gathered at the old Baxter house. So yes, the Baxters serve as background characters in this series, but for those of us who know and love them they will live on at least through the next four books.

Every Now and Then Releases

Because I feel so strongly about the importance of Veteran’s Day, today marks the release for the third and final book in my 9-11 series. Every Now and Then brings back our favorite characters from One Tuesday Morning and Beyond Tuesday Morning, but it features a new character – Alex Brady, a young K9 police officer whose father was killed in the 9/11 collapse of the Twin Towers. Alex is driven to rid Los Angeles of the heartache caused by crime, but first he must learn to deal with his own.

LOVE IT!!!!