Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

We went to Los Banos again this year for Easter and it was fun fun fun! We visited with Grandma Jean, Grandpa Bud, Aunt Rhonda, Uncle John, Barbara, Elias Sr., Elias Jr., Tori, Sally and Katie. There was egg decorating, tons of deviled eggs (Allison’s favorite) and an Easter Egg Hunt after church. The weekend was beautiful; sunny and bright. Thank you all, we enjoyed the time together. 

The Happiest Place on Earth!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

I am taking pictures again! Not a whole lot but a start is a start and I decided to debut my comeback with the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland! Allison is growing up so fast, I was surprised when we pulled into the parking structure and she yelled out, “Mimmie! Mimmie Mouse!” She was right; we were parking in the Minnie Mouse section.  She notices so much but just recently she has been able to articulate a few of her thoughts about all that she notices.  

We met up with Uncle Tim and participated in the first ever Easter Egg hunt at Disneyland and California Adventure. We got a map for each park with a location clue as to where 12 eggs hidden and stickers to correspond with the Disney characters decorated on each egg. The hunt was on and as we found one egg after another Allison noticed them too yelling “EGG!” whenever she found one.

She is not only getting more mature she is also growing up! Up, Up and Up! She is now 36 inches tall and she rode her very first roller coaster, the Gadget Go-Go Coaster with Terry.  This time she enjoyed the Teacups because she could see out of the cup and waved at us as she swirled by. The Egg hunt took us into Critter Country and she decided to ride with Uncle Tim only getting a little bit scared when it got very dark at one point, she just grabbed his hand and sat closer. And of course she rode her very favorite ride King Triton’s Carousel. We all had a great time and Allison can’t wait to got o Disneyland again.

Remember this vacant lot? Well it's not longer empty, someone has filled the entire space with a humongous house. They have left the broken bottom half of a gargoyle, I hope they keep it for memories. 

We are going to Los Banos this weekend to spend Easter with Aunt Rhonda and Uncle John. Last Monday I was texting Aunt Rhonda and reminded Allison that we were going to go and visit, this is the face she gave me. I just had to snap a picture. 

Enjoy your Easter weekend everybody! Jenn

Weekends are full!

Weekends are full!

I still have not been taking pictures. I have been running around like a crazy person, I work a lot more these days and in reaction to that I have been trying to live my weekends to the fullest. I do nothing but make dinner and then go to bed on the week nights, so from Friday night to Sunday night I am literally cramming as much of the REAL things in life as I can into that small space of time. So in my hectic race to love life I forget to pull out my camera and capture it.

So what have I been doing since the last time we spoke? Well I turned 36 on March 23^rd; I celebrated with lunch at Storytellers Café at the Grand Californian Hotel at the Disneyland Resort with my family and then Terry, Allison and I hurried over to celebrate her friend Zoe Caldwell’s 2^nd birthday at Seascape Kids fun.  A short little lament for my birthday lunch that I really wanted to be a birthday brunch, Knott’s Berry Farm Chicken Dinner Restaurant no longer has Sunday Brunch Buffet. They have it once a month on the first Sunday of the month starting; you guessed it, in March 2014. Oh the humanity! I was lost and a drift, I wanted a fountain of fried chicken, biscuits and broccoli salad for my birthday but it was not to be. So I called around to other brunch buffet options that I know of in Orange County and I could not get a reservation. Since I was trying to get a table for 11 the pickings’ were slim. Then I got a reservation at the Storytellers Café and was very excited, soon I would be able to saddle up to the carving station and get fresh roasted turkey, prime rib and ham. When the day finally arrived we got there early and waited patiently for our table and then I noticed it … the buffet was NOT set up! On No! Again my dreams of free flowing vegetables and meat were to be squashed because the buffet does not run through lunch. There is a breakfast buffet and a dinner buffet. ARGH. Now the Roasted Turkey Sandwich and Crab Cake appetizers that I ordered were outstanding but I was really looking forward to scooping treasures with silver tongs and deciding that a second bowl of corn chowder was a good idea.  Although this story sounds like it may have a bit of a melancholy ending it in fact has a glorious rainbow and a pot of gold at the end. The very next Sunday I went out to Sunday Brunch Buffet at Casa Gamino and all of my expectations were fulfilled. I had the best chicken floutas, ever. It was fun and loud and everyone got their fill. So next time I get a craving for brunch buffet I will make sure that I put a little more planning into it and make sure that I have a list of buffets that includes Casa Gamino on it.

Back to the happenings, it was Gabriel’s 10^th birthday on 03/29/14. He is now a double digit and an entire decade old. AMAZING! On the day of his birthday it was baseball bonanza at the West Garden Grove Little League we went and watched Gabriel play his game first and then ran over to see our cousin Jax play his game and then Xander’s game rounded out the afternoon. Afterwards we went to Blake’s BBQ for Gabriel’s favorite ribs and chicken wings.  Then the next day he took 3 of his friends to Knott’s Berry Farm, boys and roller-coasters. Emi came to play with Allison for the entire day. We went to brunch at Casa Gamino, went to Sephora to pick out birthday makeup and came home to cook Mac n’ Cheese while we watched Bubble Guppies. Those girls had the best time together.

To kick off the month of April I went to see “Kevin and Bean’s April Foolishness” which is a charity comedy show that the radio station KROQ has yearly around April Fool’s Day. So I went with my friend April because OF COURSE who else would I take to a show name APRIL FOOLISHNESS? Well I did take her brother Tom and my husband Terry but really it was imperative that April go. We had a really fun time; April’s chair was broken so we got to move to an area that was much less crowded. More leg room is always a good thing.

So that pretty much sums up the fun I have been cramming into the weekends. I’ll catch up later and HOPEFULLY I will have taken some pictures.

Oh and Happy Rex Manning Day!

To Reading!

To Reading!

Here is a list of books that I got from THE INTERNET, it told me these were the books best read aloud to children and the best books for children to have on their bookshelves. Currently there are no books on Allison’s bookshelf; all of the books are on the floor. Every day I stack the books back on the shelves, not in any sort of order and most of the time just in an untidy stack and every day she saunters on over to the book shelf and pulls every last one on the floor. She also “reads” the books so I am not too upset about picking them up every night. She pulls out a choice book looks at it talks in a sing-song voice that I am sure sounds just like me when I am reading aloud and the looks at me with raised eyebrows. She is waiting for me to give the appropriate response, which is an enthusiastic, “Really? That sounds like a good story.” Then she flips to a page and starts the sing-song narrative over again each time pausing for me to make a comment. I hope this continues as she truly learns how to read.

I have to admit as much as I love reading now; I devour books with frenzy. Terry gave me a Sony EReader for my birthday a few years ago and I used it so much that I ended up breaking it. I don’t break electronic equipment, it might get obsolete or the battery may give out but it doesn't die from usage except this thing did. OMG! Terry then got me a NOOK which I am currently putting miles on. But as a child I was not a prolific reader. I remember before I could read my hunger and desire to understand what all of those letters meant, there are literally thousands of signs everywhere all around with words plastered all over them. I was DYING to unlock the secret of those signs. I have a Cabbage Patch Kids Scrapbook from when I was a little girl, before I could read. This scrapbook has stories in it with pictures; I drew pictures and used stickers to tell the stories that were in my head. As I learned to read the world seemed to open up and I was thrilled to get at all the wonderful words that went with all of the story books I had, all the strange pictures that I could not quite comprehend were beginning to be explained. The Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes book for example had the story of Persephone, the picture of the beautiful girl getting dragged to Hades had always fascinated me but I just could not make up the story in my head to my own satisfaction and now I would be able to understand it all. Just as this was all unfolding for me we moved from Oregon to California, in the middle of first grade. In Mrs. King’s first grade class in Oregon I was at the same place as all of the other students we were learning our sight vocabulary and going along swimmingly. In Mrs. Waslowskis’s (I am guessing. It was long, European and started with a W, I had a really hard time remembering it.) in California I was behind the other students. Most of the children already knew how to read and with phonics, I did not understand phonics and I was really falling behind with everything in school. I would day dream and then my classmates would accuse me of cheating. “She’s copying from my paper!!” Well, I wasn't the teacher and the teacher’s aides could see that I wasn't cheating; I had nothing but my name on the paper most of the time. After that I felt dumb and I just fell behind in reading for fun. I was trying to read to get through 1^st grade. Reading became something UN-FUN. Looking back I feel a little bit sorry for that little girl that had her wonder stolen from her by some bratty kids and an overwhelmed teacher. Eventually my parents worked with me every night, before going to bed I would read a few pages of Little House on the Prairie, eventually I was able to get through the entire series of books. The box set that was given to me for my birthday, I finally finished it all. I felt so accomplished. As I got more and more confident in my school work and my ability to read I slowly came back to a place where I wanted to read and then I just couldn't stop.

So while I am just now finally showing you the list I hope you understand the pure joy I feel watching my daughter enjoy her very own library. I will watch to make sure that she keeps up the fascination. I will do my best to help her if she falters and I will read in front of her, I will read to her and I will get lost in the book store with her as much as I possibly can.

List of Children’s Books That Should be on Theirs Bookshelves

1.       Where the Wild Things Are

2.       D’Aularires’ Book of GreekMyths

3.       The Paper Bag Princess

4.       Corduroy

5.       Harold and the Purple Crayon

6.       Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears

7.       The Very Hungry Caterpillar

8.       Good Night Moon

9.       The Giving Tree

10.   Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

11.   The Snowy Day

12.   Caps for Sale

13.   Madeline

14.   The Story of Ferdinand

15.   Strega Nona

16.   Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters

17.   The Cat in the Hat

18.   The Tale of Peter Rabbit

19.   Make Way for Ducklings

20.   Stone Soup

21.   The Rough Face Girl

22.   The Happy Hockey Family

23.   The Original Velveteen Rabbit

24.   The Stinky Cheeseman and Other Fairly Stupid Tales

25.   Frog and Toad Are Friends

26.   Clifford the Big Red Dog

27.   The Story of Babar

28.   Lon Po Po

29.   This is Not My Hat

30.   The Invention of Hugo Cabret

31.   The Wind in the Willows

32.   The Little Prince

33.   The Hundred Dresses

34.   Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

35.   The Wizard of Oz

36.   Winnie the Pooh

37.   Little Bear

38.   Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

39.   The Big Orange Splot

40.   The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

41.   My Father’s Dragon

42.   The Sweetest Fig

43.   Charlotte's Web

44.   The BFG

45.   Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

46.   I Capture the Castle

47.   Oh, The Places You’ll Go

Enjoy your week and read a good book!

10 Day Countdown

10 Day Countdown

I can feel the baby moving. No I am not imagining it or mistaking gas for a swimming baby. I know this because I had a doctor’s appointment last week and as the ultrasound was being performed the doctor pointed out that the baby was moving and at the same time I felt the little fluttering bump, that bump that can totally be mistaken for gas but as the monitor was clearly showing was an active baby. It was a great gift to know that the sensation I had been feeling all week was a baby and not my imagination. Now when I feel it I pat my stomach or say, “HI” out loud just in case he can hear me. That’s right I now know that I am having a baby boy. Since having Allison a few years have passed, I have aged and technology has advanced. I will be 36 in just 10 short little days and that is the magic number for pregnant women. Once you pass that age numbers and stats change dramatically for complications. So today I am fine and have an even chance of something going wrong but in 10 days life spirals out of control and things look bleak, just because I will be 36 years old. I am already a high risk pregnancy because the gestational diabetes has returned, this was to be expected, and I had it last time. Now with the added advantage of being “over the hill” I have a double risk whammy! So because of my age the usual genetics tests, usually a simple blood test, are accompanied with a counseling session with a genetics counselor. She was very knowledgeable and explains the difference between a genetic screening and a genetic diagnosis, and then she went over my family history. This entire session was, to be honest, fairly intimidating. I thought I was going in for a blood test and then was told that I should not have taken Sudafed when I was sick because it can cause physical deformities specifically around the abdomen section and sometimes paralysis of the face. HOLY CRAP! Sudafed was on the list! I showed it to her. She politely stated that it had been taken off just that month and that the baby was probably just fine. Although she told me that after going through the list of possible effects my “drug use” could have had on the baby. Past tense because I had already taken it and stopping doesn't change the outcome if there was to be an abnormality. Good grief. So back to the genetic screenings, there is a new blood test. It basically pulls out genetic material, differentiates between my own and the baby's and then does a chromosome count. This is very effective for screening out Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18 and 13. Those last two are doozies and are fatal. The other added benefit is the XY or XX chromosome. They can see what the sex will be.  So instead of waiting for week 18 or so I get to know at three months. I don’t even look pregnant and I get to know that I will be having a baby boy. And from the results of the screening test I will be having a healthy baby boy. Terry and I discussed names and rather quickly decided on one, William Joseph Kyo Miller. I am so happy and excited to meet my son. Holy smokes a son and a daughter, I am pretty lucky. My life is pretty much following along with the plan I wanted.

Have fun this week and enjoy everything that is coming your way, even if it is hard. I may sound like everything is “peaches and cream” all of the time but really there are plenty of things and people (many annoying people!) that have been getting on my last nerve but really who wants to hear someone whine about that? I want to know all the good stuff that is coming your way and I want to share all the good stuff that comes mine.

Talk to you soon!

Well Hello!

Well Hello!

That’s right it’s me and contrary to popular belief I have not fallen in a well. There have been a few new developments since my last post that have taken up quite a bit of my time but really it’s because I got sick. I have started writing at least three different posts in the last month and all of them were a struggle just to get a couple of lines on the page. I get sick and my brain turns into complete mush. Now, I know what you are thinking (yes! I do!), what’s wrong with this girl a little cold and she can’t use her fingers to type? Well as a matter of fact, yes. My fingers really can’t type when my brain is broken. So for the past month almost I have been either sleeping all day long or dragging my sorry butt to work and then coming home to sleep some more. So without further ado … Right Now!

Right Now … We celebrated Allison’s birthday with a party! It was great. Thank you everyone that came and for all of the presents. Allison loves wandering around with gift bags and making piles of new toys, clothes and puzzles all over the house. And a big THANK YOU to Dustin and April for letting us use and abuse your house for the event.

Photo by Tim Miller

Photo by Tim Miller

Photo by Tim Miller

Photo by Tim Miller

Photo by Tim Miller

Photo by Tim Miller 

Photo by Tim Miller

Photo by Tim Miller

Photo by Tim Miller

Right Now … I have a budding artist! This collection is titled “A Study of Feet at the Grocery Store”.

A tortured soul? This picture makes it look like she has all the elements for a promising career. 

Right Now … Terry, Allison and I have finally moved into our house! It is so nice to come home to my own driveway, I no longer have to search for a parking spot or lug junk up the stairs while trying to corral Allison. We are all enjoying our new space, especially Allison who loves her new Big Girl bed and room just for all her toys. We had our very first BBQ on 02/22/14. It was great and the house fulfilled Terry’s prediction for the “potential to be a pretty good party house”.  Some of the kids got in the pool, even though it was only 62 degrees Fahrenheit. Chilly! 

Our first "home cooked" meal in our new house. Thanks Mom! She cooked it at her house and then I was able to serve it at my house. 

Nothing says "Home" like bacon and eggs in the fridge. 

Right Now … We found a Pho place near our new house that is really good. Thank you Noelle for giving us the Groupon that you couldn’t use, we really enjoyed it. Allison is getting better with the hashi.

Right Now … I am pregnant again. See this sweet little bean? Later this year it will be a sweet little baby. I’ll keep you posted on the development as it progresses. Hahaha

Well, this has not been a very long post but I need to get back into the swing of things and get my blog moving, so small steps.

Can you see it? My nose was STUFFED. This is a sicko selfie.

We still look pretty cute even when we are sick.

Don't mess with the sick baby.

Have a great weekend everybody! Enjoy the rain in CA. J

OH NO!!!

OH NO!!!!

The SD card in my phone has a problem and I can’t access any of my pictures. I feel like my arms have fallen off. I have been using my phone to capture the happenings of the New Year and now I have nothing. I was going to stroll through the first 20 days of the year, including my daughter’s second birthday, but now I have nothing. A big blank error message! How am I supposed to swing back into blogging when all I have is a big blank error to look at? I think I need to go and get a tall cool drink so that I can work on this dilemma.

So I have decided to do this as my husband would say “the analog way” or as I would say “with words”!!!

Right Now … And right before the start of the New Year my friends got a toy haulin’ trailer and INSISTED

that we all take a weekend trip to the dirt at Cal City near Edward’s Air Force Base. A large caravan with two trailers, a motor home and two additional trucks swooped out of town just as the sun was going to bed. A more modest version of the caravan consisting of one trailer and a teeny tiny Scion xB (that’s me!) followed a little while later after waiting for some pants to dry and packing to get completed. The small caravan had a grand adventure circling the area where we wanted to be in the dark for an additional hour or so with interesting directions like “find the best western and then go on the crappy road”. Eventually we all made it to the correct camp site and immediately began our camping adventure with sleep. The next two days were filled with lots of dirt. I would show you here the picture of my daughter with a mud and booger moustache but I can’t. Let’s see … her blonde hair was sticking straight up from the static electricity, her face and hands were completely black and when she walked a cloud surrounded her like Peanuts “Pig Pen”. She had a blast.

Right Now … Happy New Year! It was a pajama party this year with an all-night game of “Cards Against Humanity” played outside as the night air got colder and colder. The children were smarter and went inside to play and watch the countdown.

Right Now … Still living in my friend’s guest room (THANK YOU APRIL!!!) but the house is nearly completed and I do have a few pictures from the new house that I can access. In fact these are the only pictures that I can access. So here are a few of the After pictures that I promised. If you want to compare here are the Before pictures, pay close attention to the kitchen. Terry and I spent an entire afternoon strolling through a granite warehouse, now if you have never done this I have to say since we were there to buy it was a fun experience, even Allison liked it. The machines to move the big slabs of rock were mesmerizing her.

Right Now … Well about 5 days ago my baby girl had her 2^nd birthday. We celebrated with a lovely Mom and Daughter birthday breakfast at “Kimmie’s Coffee Cup” in Cypress after going to the doctor for her checkup, the doctor said “No shots and no blood tests, Happy Birthday!” what a great present. Then later in the afternoon we had a pizza party at Grandma’s house and played with her cousins. Emi and Allison conspire and try to drive Xander and Gabriel a little crazy. She had a blast. We are going to celebrate with a party next Sunday. The decorations are coming together! So much fun.

This is my big girl, already two! We were having breakfast.

Right Now … List of Jams! I am adding this because I have finally given out all of the Christmas presents. I want to make sure that I keep a record of all the yummy things I was able to make with all of the fresh gifts I was given last year.

1.       Strawberry Jam

2.       Plum Jelly

3.       Fig Preserves

4.       Lemon Lime Jelly

5.       Key Lime Jelly

6.       Key Lime Syrup

7.       Persimmon Jam

8.       Asian Pepper Jelly

9.       Ghost Pepper Jelly

So as soon as I can get the SD card on my phone I will start posting pictures. In the mean time I need to dig out my other camera and begin to take pictures the way I used to. I only stopped in December and started primarily using my phone, guess that was not the best idea. Oh well.

Talk to you soon and have a fun week!