Andrew for President

i've been learning some interesting things about andrew lately. here are a few of them:

-in music class the teacher asked each student what their favorite song was. andrew's answer; "the pretender" and when asked who sings it he answers "dave grohl" (lead singer of the foo fighters. he also knows that dave used to be the drummer for nirvana). his other favorite song; "yyz by rush". so this week the teacher took the kids favorite songs and downloaded them on her computer and played them for the class today. i'm sure andrew had a big smile on his face when his song came up.

-one of his teachers was asking the class what they would do if they were president. andrew answers, "i would pick a snail up by it's shell. i wouldn't even care if it was slimy." he also tells me that he would go to mexico everyday to eat lobster.

-he doesn't like the book jumanji. we read that and he had a look of fear on his face as the animals came to life. cross that off the bedtime reading list.

-he really likes math. he is doing addition and subtraction in his head.

-his new favorite word is "irony."

love this kid!!

rain, rain, go away . . .

actually i love this weather, i just wish we had a fireplace to cozy up to. we canceled our trip to kernville this weekend because it was supposed to snow heavily. some disappointed boys here today. i'm relieved because i wasn't looking forward to the drive up and back.

so we had no plans this weekend. but there was much to do. bobby painted our room, while i played with the kiddos. love the new color. tan, goes with everything. moved back to a queen size bed. feeling a little sad. but i have some great bedding for the queen so that's cool. and our room looks so much bigger. we are shopping for a dresser, night stands, tv. can't wait to get it all done.

we've been playing a lot of rockband lately. it helps pass the time and get some energy out.

sofia is sick, again. yucky cough, little fever. she comes over to me with a tissue and says, "i have boogers."

kids have been home since thursday at noon for parent teacher conferences. none for us though, that's a good thing. everyone is doing great. andrew is really picking up reading. he passed his first sight word test, on the first try. jordan is working on his times tables through 9. he also has a three day science camp that he is going to in April. excited for that.

bobby moved into new offices at universal. bungalows, very hollywood. we're hoping to visit soon. nothing new for me. still trying to be creative in some way. taking another online class that starts in february. excited for that.

i think that's it. i'll share some pics soon. stay dry and see you all soon.

it's been a while

and i have had a few requests to post. but i've been sick, sofia has been sick and we are dealing with a mold issue in our house. so i've been a little off over the last week and not really feeling the creative flow lately. so how about i just get you up to date and i'll share a more exciting post later? great.

like i said i'm sick with a pretty bad cold. finally went to the dr. friday and i'm on day three of zpac. everyone i know is taking or has taken it. i feel better today but sofia is coughing and cranky. she has been outright mean to andrew, poor guy. and he just tries to find a way to make her happy. we are hoping to be better soon.

MOLD - we hate it, but we have it. it seems that during the rainy and windy days water came into our room via a small hole that someone, who shall remain nameless, made to put cable in our room and didn't patch. it soaked our carpet and gave us this great moldy scent. yesterday my dad and nameless guy pulled up all of the carpet. we were going to change it eventually but now we get to do it soon. it may even lead to a room re-decoration.


the boys enjoyed a weekend in the snow last weekend with their ymca group. despite the request to stay home and avoid the "storm of the century" they went up. and of course had a great time and saw some beautiful fresh snow on sunday. sofia and i stayed home for a girl's weekend. we saw "cinderella" and "little mermaid" and had popcorn and of course got sick together.

thursday i took the kids to get their haircut. and when sofia took her turn we decided to even out her hair. i can't seem to post the pic i have but she looks adorable. i can't wait to see her in this that i got for her yesterday.

last night bobby and i saw "once." it's out on video so we watched it in our cozy bed in the living room. lovely movie, wonderful songs, sweet story. very low budget, low lighting, and it's irish so some of it is hard to understand but we both LOVED it and one of us cried at the end. you know, nameless guy.

hope everyone is having a good weekend.

new beginnings

gotta love that. happy 2008 to all. we are getting a late start today after partying until 2am. ok, we are dorks because we were playing wii, not really partying. but we were still up until 2am so that counts for something.

want to catch up with so much but i thought i would start the new year off with my word for 2008. last year my word was "create." not just in the artistic sense but in creating the life that i want for me and for my family. it was fun to have a word as my anchor. and i definitely kept it in my mind all year long

this year i knew what i wanted to focus on and i found the perfect word: RESOLVE. the definition i am going with is; (n) a firm decision to do something. there are so many aspects of my life that are in need of some resolve. i will tackle them one at a time. but this is the big picture. i am the type of person that thinks too much before making decisions. whether it's a life choice, a paint color, or what kind of creamer to buy. i think and debate and question and sometimes never end up making a decision. so that is why i resolve to have resolve this year(?). i will make decisions that will have a positive impact on my life. i am ready for this. and i am excited to move forward with confidence.

ok, that's done. anyone else thinking of a word? i was inspired by ali edwards who put out the challenge last year and i loved it. post a reply if you have a word for 2008.

and finally i have a lot of pictures to share from the past week. but here is one of my favorites from yesterday. it's hard to believe we were here in the morning and back at home to celebrate new year's with my family. thank you melissa for the picture.

oh yeah and today is my biggest little boy's birthday. wow, 9! i'll post more about his happy day tomorrow. and write something touching about what a wonderful boy he is. that's my decision for now.

let the celebrations begin

we had my family christmas gathering yesterday. we do a gift exchange since there are so many of us now. i had my niece monica this year. abercrombie and fitch perfume and gift card. my sister had me, yah! gap gift card and a COACH wristlet for me. i love that no one stuck with the budget this year; ). we gave my parents a really cool album with pictures of each of us from a photo booth. have you done one of those lately? OMG, so much fun. everyone did it, brothers, sister, sister-in-laws, niece and nephews. then we filled out a questionnaire about ourselves and each of us made a scrapbook page. really fun, and my parents loved it.

tomorrow, it's christmas with the brocketts. christmas eve we will be in brea with tom and sue. christmas day we will be home all day for the first time in forever. maybe even in our pajamas all day. bob and d will visit for lunch and my parents are coming over for dinner. i'm excited to give bobby his gift, but i can't talk about it because he reads this, and talks to you all. i'll post later what it was.

i did go out shopping today. i didn't have anything to buy, i just wanted to experience some christmas-ness without the stress of getting what i need and moving on. but i did get these in red . . .on sale of course! perfect for christmas day.

hope you are having fun and not running around. see you soon.

yes

-i am stuck in the stress of the holidays
-i have been christmas shopping every day for the past two weeks and i'm still not done.
-i have to make cookies and brownies for sofia's class, cupcakes for 30 kids for Jordan's class and sugar cookies for andrew's class by next week.
-i have to get jordan's birthday present.
-i have to help jordan with his book report, due monday.
- i have been keeping up with my christmas journal. you can see it here.
-we have our christmas tree up.
-i could use a vacation.

hope everyone is doing ok.

busy having fun

we had so much fun celebrating bobby's birthday this weekend. saturday we went to burbank for surf n turf at bob and d's house. oh, but first we picked up cupcakes at yummy cupcakes. mmmm. finally, i took bobby to the movies. well, actually he had the passes and he drove, so technically he took me. but it was my suggestion. we saw "dan in real life." what a great movie. sweet, sentimental, funny. we are big steve carell fans, (that's what she said?).


sunday was the granada hills holiday parade. it's right by our house, so sofia and i walked there and met up with my parents and brother's family. it was a beautiful day. we had fun waving at everyone as they walked by. sofia loved the dogs and the dancers and all of the christmas music. lots of girl and boy scouts. and all the way at the end were the y-guides. andrew's first time in the parade and he looked like he could care less. but he said he had fun. then the gang came back to our house for tortas and tacos. and of course an ice cream roll cake. happy birthday bobby.

friday was jordan's swim team banquet. it was great to see everyone again, even the coach. they had an awards ceremony where they handed out trophies to the mvp, coach's award and most improved swimmer.
our little jordan won the most improved trophy. we are so proud. what else can we say. there was a slideshow with pictures from the season. it made us all teary eyed. jordan was "eh" about the whole night. more interested in how helium works and who invented the balloon. oh well.

finally, i am working on a christmas journal this year. part of an online class i am taking. it sounds like alot of fun. everyday there will be a prompt to get me to write about the season and really help me focus on this time. here is the first page, a manifesto about why i want to journal this christmas.


have a great week. oh and we hope the breast cancer walk in san diego was a huge success. wish we could have been there.