Stormy Saturday

OK, so I woke up this morning to the nice, peaceful sound of rain hitting the roof. WRONG!!! I was awakened to the sound of the world ending, cats scrambling to get under the bed and trying to figure out why this "earthquake" we were having was so loud. In the 5 seconds or so that this noice lasted (which seemed like FOREVER) it's amazing how many things can go through your head. What - you are asking - was that incredible noise? THUNDER people, yes thunder. It's not like I've never heard it before, yes it has been a little while, but man it was LOUD and close. Over the next 10 mins or so it seemed like it was right over our house. Lightening lit up the bedroom and I didn't have the chance to get the "Ho" out of "Holy" out before the thunder cracked, so you know it was really close. It seemed like Heavenly Father was cracking the whip or something right over the house, maybe trying to get my butt out of bed or something...didn't work. I went back to bed after I fed Summer and took her for her walk - she, by the way, slept thru all the thunder.

Just thought I would share my morning. Of course there was NO WAY I was going outside so the only picture of the storm is the one I stole from the LB Press Telegram.

A Week with Mason and Thalea

So Thalea and Mason came down on Sunday the 11th for a working (but fun) trip to San Diego. Thalea had to work, and Mason and I had to play. I actually had to work a little, but I did that during nap time - until I caught Mason's cold. Thalea took him swimming on Monday night. We must have walked by the pool about 8 times on Monday and Mason kept asking to go swimming . . . but he waited for his Mom. This is him after the swimming - he was a little cold.

We (as in Mason and I) hit the bookstore every day. I was amazed after the first day that he knew exactly where to go to get the books he wanted to read. The one afternoon we took Thalea with us, he showed her exactly where to go to find the books he wanted her to buy him. Thursday, Thalea didn't have late meetings, so we hit Sea World - Mason's and my first trip there. I've lived here all my life and have never made it Sea World or the San Diego Zoo. We had thought about going to the Wild Animal Park, but with winter hours and the heat, Sea World was the better idea.

When we first got into Sea World we were headed to the Elmo show but got side tracked by the Sea Lions and Seals. This Sea Lion was sunning himself - he was nice and quiet on his rock, like he was King of that rock until.....

I saw a sign that you could buy food to feed them, so I took Mason over to buy some for he and I to feed them. The nice lady gave us an extra container since not many people had bought any... who knew that Seals and Sea Lions have ESP because as soon as we turned around they started barking and jumping out of the water...even the birds were flying at us trying to steal the fish.

If there hadn't been alot of people around (including Mason's mom) I think I could have gotten him to eat some "sushi", but I want to be the cool Aunt so I had him act like he might have taken a bite if I let him.

We also got to feed the Flamingos. Who knew those things were SO big. I don't remember them being that tall before. We saw a baby one too, but I just don't remember the pink birds being that big, maybe I have the size confused by the lawn ornaments!

The Shamu show was excellent. I remember seeing the shows at Marine Land, but I guess the older you get the more you realize that these animals are amazing creatures and one wrong move and you're literally fish food. Yet they are so gentle and loving and look like they are enjoying themselves.



We ended the day at the kid's rides and I got to enjoy my fear of heights. I'm usually ok with a little height, but it must have been the cold medicine and the fact that my life had been threatened if anything happened to Mason, that it freaked me out and I would only do it once. Thalea got to ride the rest of the rides with him.



We made it back to Long Beach Friday night and hung out with the family. We got up Saturday morning and I had to do a Relief Society thing. Afterwards we (the three muskateers) went to Disneyland. I hadn't been to Disneyland in almost 12 years....man has it changed, but some things never change like hanging with Mickey Mouse.

All in all it was a FUN week. It took forever to get here and went by WAY too quick!!!

HAPPY 2009

Well 2008 went just like it came in . . . NICE AND QUIET. I think I was asleep by 12:15 and believe me, midnight didn't come fast enough. When you have a snoring dog and cats and goof ball Ryan Seacrest on TV it doesn't take much to want to close your eyes and go to sleep. Here is a picture of a spoiled Summer dog. We didn't do much today except I did take down the majority of Christmas decorations inside and out. I managed to actually put them away instead of leaving them scattered in Michael's office for a month or two. Summer decided she was going to be in the living room for a while today. Since it has been so foggy around here it was still pretty cold and damp so Michael made her lay on the blanket . . . what dog has her own heating blanket? The same one that lives in the house where the cats have two heating blankets.


I forgot to add this picture in the last post - Carl and his dog Bailey. Bailey wasn't very happy with him for not sharing some of his Prime Rib and he wasn't sure what to do about Carl while he was Wii skiing, but he's really a good dog and fun to play with.


So I thought about writing my resolutions down here, but man what a major downer that would be when I don't do any of them and then the whole world knows it and not just me. So that ain't happening for sure!! I'll just have them in my head and somewhere else for me to keep score on, but for sure some of the easier resolutions this year are: not to get food poisoning and to not wait to go to the doctor about it for 3 weeks, and to not break any bones this year. WA HOO!! 1 day down and I've kept that resolution. Yeah for me!!! So here's to keeping your resolutions or goals and having fun this year!! May we all be exactly who we are - no more, no less - in the coming year. Who we are, what we love, what we do, is always enough. Believe me.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas from Long Beach.
This is our first attempt at a lighted Christmas Tree. With the cats and Summer's tail we have never had anything this big for a Christmas tree. This year I got this one and set it up and never decorated or turned the lights on for a week, letting everyone get the smells from it and deciding it wasn't going to bite them and they were good to leave it alone the rest of the time. Now the packages were a different story with all the bows and ribbons.

The morning started off with Summer opening her gifts from Santa. Not being able to see the packages this year, she didn't get her usual excitement from opening them, so I had to help more. Little Desmond showed up to see if there was anything for him, but he's way camera shy so no pictures of him.

Here's Carl and Grandma ready to open their gifts from everyone.

Here's the yule log fire with Christmas music playing in the background. We recorded this early Christmas morning. Two of the TV stations here had a yule log burning with Christmas music playing in the background. It made it nice not to have to go and keep adding wood to the fire since it was raining a little and the wind was blowing like crazy.



This Christmas tradition is in its second year and so far it looks like its going to be a long lasting Christmas tradition. PRIME RIB AND LOBSTER BABY!!! I had gone with Mom on Monday to secure the lobsters to only find 2 of them available to buy. Luckily the fish monger dude said he would be there the following day. I had to go into work that day to pick up the following week's work. I was later getting home then planned and was worried that I wasn't going to get all that I needed. Well as luck would have it I was able to get enough for Christmas dinner for everyone and a few to spare to practice on before Christmas. These lobster were so BIG that Michael and I ate only a half of one that day and had leftover the next. You won't ever hear these words cross my lips but I'm just saying (actually typing this) after eating lobster for 4 days in a row now...I'm ready for a little lobster break..but not for long.

All in all we had a good day. Thanks everyone for the presents and I'm looking forward to sharing Thalea's present with her. I guess mostly I'm her present since she gets to spend the weekend with me when we go see "WICKED" in SLC. I'm just hoping there isn't any snow like they had yesterday and today. I used to like that stuff but when it comes down and down and down all day long, I'm just happy I live near the beach and have sunshine and an occasional rainy day. Oh and here's to Carl getting the champion run on the Wii fit ski slalom game - 26 seconds!!! I'll have to practice ALOT to even get that close. Who knew Carl was that balanced?