Chosen Family!

Not very often in life do you find someone who not only is your best childhood friend, but your maid of honor at your wedding, and your friend for life. I was lucky enough to find my best friend in second grade.

About a month ago, I saw this card at the store that read "A Good Friend will know how you take your coffee"..."With Booze in it". It was such a fun, cute card, all I could think of was Krysti. I dropped the card in the mail. A few days later I got a message on facebook from her thanking me for the card but more importantly telling me that she actually purchased the same card for me but had lost in the middle of moving Cole, so she bought another one and sent that instead. She knew when she received the card that it read familiarly but didn't realize why until she thought deep about it. She made it her goal to find the card.

Today, I received the card it the mail. What an amazing feeling to have a friend that lives in a different city, at a different stage in life, but through lifes ups and downs, I can count on her to be there and know exactly whats on my mind.

As the saying goes, friends are chosen family, and this girl... I would chose over and over again.

Welcome Ling!

We are so excited to have Ling-Ka visit us! She is headed our way on Thursday evening. For quite some time now, the guest bedroom has become our... laundry pile. So, today Josh and I pulled the huge pile of clothes out of the guest bedroom, put them in the living room and watched a movie while we chipped away at the mountain of clean clothes. We actually had a really nice time even though we were doing chores.

All I have to say is we are ready! Welcome Ling!

Wake Boarding Time!

Josh and I were planning on having a nice relaxing weekend at home, but when Caleb and Andrea invited us to go wake boarding on Shasta Lake, we couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Wow. Is all I have to say about wake boarding. Unfortunately neither Josh or I were able to get up, but it sure was a fun day at the lake. We tried wake boarding and then enjoyed their new 4 person tube! We stayed at the lake until dark. We had a nice day and was kissed by the sun. :-)

Happy Meals!

As I mentioned in a earlier post, Josh and I have made it our goal to do more things with Paige and Spencer. When I was a kid, I really enjoyed doing things with my aunts and uncles and want to pass that down to our nieces and nephews as well.

Tonight we decided to take Paige and Spencer to go see Despicable Me. What a fun night! We spoiled them rotten with popcorn, soda, and the movie, but that wasn't it. After a tub of popcorn and the movie was over they were hungry for dinner. Opps. Little did we know they hadn't eaten before we picked them up. We asked what they wanted, all the only thing the of course wanted was "Happy Meals!!". So, we continued the fattening/spoiling and took them to McDonald's. After McDonald's, we headed back to our house and hung out a little more. We watched Giant Iron Man while Spence fell asleep on the couch.

All in all, we had a great time :-)

The Works Bomb!

Every company has their own way of getting new jobs/customers/sales, etc. At the end of June, we moved buildings and now share a building with an engineering company. They are a fun group of people, very friendly and include us in their team events.

We, DermStore peeps, we a little intrigued/worried when they invited us to meet them out side to "blow up a plant". At 10:30 am, we headed out to the back patio where we found a homemade "bomb" made of The Works toilet bowl cleaner, tin foil, and a two liter container under the plant. The trick is to make 10-15 small foil balls, stick them in the two liter, pour a little of The Works in the 2 liter bottle as well, give it a little shake, and get to a safe distance. With a big BOOM! we were in business :-)

The story behind the Plant explosion was this: Last time they found a dead plant in the office, they threw it away. Within minutes of throwing the plant away their phones were ringing off the hook. This time after finding another dead plant, they decided to take it up another notch. Instead of just throwing it away, they thought they would blow it up and see if they could get more bigger and better jobs. Time will tell!

Fun, expected event in the work place!

Grill Master

Question: Who loves coming home after a long day of work, to a bbq chicken dinner with your hubby?

Answer: I do!

New Endeavor!

Lately, I have been having a really hard time. Work has definitely gotten the best of me. Almost 2 weeks ago, I was given an ultimatum, move to LA or lose my job. After much consideration, I came to the conclusion that I am not going to be happy in the LA office. Therefore, I sit here today, every day, worrying about when my job is going to end and if I am going to be able to make it work. I have a tremendous husband that will help me along the way, even financially, but for anyone that knows me, knows that that isn't going to sit well with me. Whether it be a good trait or bad, I am not sure, as I have seen my independence both work for me and against me.

One thing that I have always wanted was my own business. I have thought and thought, and forced myself to come up with ideas that were just never feasible. A couple months ago, I had this idea that just clicked. As with anything it will need some details to figure it all out, but it is definitely feasible, and a great start up as there is very little up front costs. I feel excited about this endeavor. I feel that my current job situation is going to be OK. I feel like my current situation will drop me straight into the front seat of this new endeavor. Without my current job, I wouldn't have had the experience, or idea to even think about this endeavor. I feel lucky to have gotten the experience that I have and continue to get until the day that DermStore decides that I am no longer needed.

Until then, I will continue to keep my head up and strive for something that I have always wanted. Life works in mysterious ways, things seem to work out in a way that you want. :-) Today I was able to work on planning out the details and even working on my website!

July 4th!

Today is July 4th - Independence Day. With a tradition of family dinners and fireworks, this one was no different; with exception of the lobster tails!

Cindy and Randy's wedding anniversary was back in February. We have been wanting to do a special dinner of lobster and steak fillets since then to celebrate. Unfortunately getting them to both have a night off along with the rest of us just hasn't happened. Well, due to the 4th, they both had the day off, so this year we combined our efforts.

Andrea and I were in charge of the kitchen while Caleb was in charge of the grill. Garlic mashed potatoes, bread, corn on the cob, fillets, lobster, and even some chicken filled the counter. What an amazing dinner! I think I gained 5 lbs last night, but it was sure worth it. The lobster tail was a smidgen over-cooked, but we had such a great time making it. We've got it down for next time! :-)

On the way home from Cindy and Randy's, Josh and I stopped at a perfect corner, got out of the car and watched the fireworks. Perfect end to a nice day!

Uncle Joshie's Friend

Today, Andy turned 28! HOLY MOLY! How time flies. I can't believe he will be 30 in just 2 short years. Today was also Caleb's birthday, he turned 31.

Since this is 4th of July weekend, we have Monday off! yah! 3 day weekend! I have a lot of stuff around the house, and errands to run, but since I have 3 days to do it, i figure that I would play today :-)

In October when Josh and I got married, I inherited a niece and a nephew. Paige, 9 years old, and Spencer 5 years old. Since they were a little older when we started dating, I was just a "friend" of Uncle Josh's in their eyes, not quite an aunt. And I can say that I have that same feeling too.

I absolutely love kids, and have made it my goal to do more with Paige and Spencer. I want to make the bond between us feel more like family and less like "Uncle Joshie's friend". So today, I decided to steal Paige for some girl time. We went to the mall, the toy store and last, but definitely not least, Michaels! I wanted to do something with Paige that brought out her creativity as well as something tangible that we made together for her to have. We went up and down each isle and found the perfect project - a little shoulder bag that we could decorate. We had a TON of fun doing it, and got some much needed bonding done :-)

Cleaning? No... I say dancing instead!!

Today, lets sum it up in a few words: Friday, start of 3 day weekend, off work early. I LOVE today! I was going to get all the cleaning and housework out of the way this evening that way I could have the rest of the weekend free to do whatever with. For me, the only way to clean is with the music cranking and some dancing as you go. (I have learned that the vacuum can be a pretty good dance partner, you just have to lead and it will follow!)

Minding my own business, I was cleaning, dancing, and let's not forget singing at the top of my lungs, all when Josh comes into the living room. He began laughing at me, but didn't realize that him laughing came with some hot water.

How did he redeem himself, you ask? Let's just say that I was able to let the vacuum sit a couple of songs out!! :-)

Mr. Fix It!

2 weeks ago, I had to call our landlords and ask them to come and fix the sprinklers. While they are the nicest people in the world, I still hate having to call them to fix things. Needless to say, Bob came out and fixed our sprinklers, no problem.

Last weekend I was mowing the lawn, and yep, you guessed it, broke the damn sprinkler that Bob just fixed. Whining with my tail between my legs, I definately didn't want to call Bob and tell him what I did.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a determined individual. So, without knowing a thing about sprinklers, I head out to the yard trying to figure out #1, how these things work, #2, what is actually broke, and #3 how to fix it! Well, I grabbed the broken head and googled it. (Side note - I love that "googled it" is a verb in this day and age). I figured out #2 - the connector from the pipe to the head is what broke. With learning that, I think that to solve #3 all I need is a new connector, and now, quite frankly, who cares about #1 cause I think I can fix it now!

Now that I have all that figured out, it is time to get the connector out of the pipe in the ground to replace it. Well.... good luck. This is a major problem. I couldn't get it out. It was about this time that my Knight in Shining Armor comes to rescue me. Josh used a chisle (which I thought he was nuts for trying), and actually got the connector out! Not only did he do it, he did it in like 2 minutes flat!

So off to #3. We head to Lowes to buy a new connector. $0.28 later, and we were out the door with our connector. We got home, screwed it into the pipe and the head into the connector, and turn the spriklers on. Voila!!! Sprinklers fixed, and I don't have to call Bob! All thanks to my handsome Knight in Shining Armor :-)