Taco Bell

I hate to do fast food...but if I'm forced to, I will usually choose Taco Bell. I feel like there is at least some lettuce & cheese involved! And no fries required! After church yesterday, Shea & I went through drive-thru and as I was putting taco sauce on my taco I noticed all these cute sayings on the wrapper of the sauce. I know that I am easily amused but I thought they were quite funny! Here are what some of them said:
I collect straws.
Tah Dah!
Can I drive?
Help! I can't tell where I am. It's dark and I can hear laughing.
Scratch & sniff: Gotcha!
Thanks for rescuing me, HOT was getting on my nerves.
I'm taking the day off. See next packet.
The feeling is mutual.
& my favorite...
Will you marry me? (I'm saving that for my honey!)

Pastry Diet

Before I left work for Christmas vacation, there were so many "goodies" that we had been munching out on! One morning Tony brought donuts, Suzi made apricot tarts, Cherie baked pumpkin bread, etc...Al made me giggle because he said, "I guess we are on a strictly pastry diet!" His next comment made laugh out loud..."So far, I have stuck to it religiously!" I remember we got chicken from El Pollo Loco that day, just to get some protein in!

"Baby"

I can admit it...Kanye West is not my favorite artist. I don't have any of his CD's or really know much of his music other than the videos that they have on VH1 & MTV. The few interviews that I have seen him do have not impressed me at all but...He has a song out right now called, "The Good Life." I did not take to it right away but after watching it a few times on VH1, I have to admit to feeling it a bit more than I did in the beginning. I think what drew me in was that it actually shows you the lyrics so you could understand what he was saying. In my opinion, the greatest line of the song comes near the end:

"And my Grandma-ma ain't the only girl calling me Baby!"

I just love that...Baby!

Groovin'

Shea & I were listening to the radio as we were driving the other day and once again she made me crack up! The song "Groovin" came on (lots of artists have recorded it- WAR, Young Rascals, Manhattan Transfer) and we were both belting it out. Towards the end of the song it says:

Life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly

And she says, "Who's Leslie?" I laughed so hard...she thought they were saying, "you and me and Leslie."

Christmas 2007

I love Christmas but I have to admit that I am a bit happy when it's all said and done. I do love sending out all of my Christmas letters & photos. I sent out about 460 this year. Now that Shea is older, I have struggled with having to "share" opening up the cards that we receive. It's one of my favorite things to do each day when they come so I have not been very giving theses last few years as she has wanted to open some. I did however, share somewhat...as much as I could. I let her open all the friends that she actually "knows" and it was fun for her. My favorite "thing" at Christmas is our tree. Suzi found one last year that has white (I love)& colored lights (Shea loves) and you can use either white, colored, or both! It is a beautiful 7 1/2 foot tree and even though I swore I would never get a fake tree, I love it! We put up almost every ornament we own and I just love the lights at night when it is dark! It always reminds me of when Shea was a baby and I would nurse her in the middle of the night with the tree on! I love it and although I took all the other decorations down, I think I will keep it up until New Year's! Chris gave a great sermon on why we should say, "Merry Christmas" as opposed to "Happy Holidays" which I needed to hear because I had argued with Cherie & Minda before we left for Christmas vacation. I always like to say Happy Holidays because I feel like it covers all the holidays all year long but Chris made me realize why Christ's name is in the saying! We went to church on Christmas Eve and it was such a great celebration...lots of singing which I love. As opposed to the whole "gift" thing at Christmas, I did cave and bought a few things for our family. Shea had plenty of gifts to open but I just hate buying crap that people don't really want or need just for the sake of giving a present. Ya know? I would much rather buy things throughout the year and just give "I love you gifts" as Shea & I call them. Anyway, one cool thing that we did was buy presents for "Sylvia." Shea chose her name from a tree at church and she is 7 months pregnant and has a 7 year old son. We did have fun buying for the baby, her son and for Sylvia. We went and gave her the gifts personally which was a nice way to connect with her. I thought it was ironic that out of all the families, Shea chose her. With my surgery earlier this year and all, it was fun being able to buy for a baby! After cleaning up the last few days I have noticed one thing that makes me crazy! Why do the CD's and DVD's make it almost impossible to get into those darn things? Plastic and those damn, sticky, break a nail, to get into wrapping just drives me nuts!!!! I know that the stores need it to protect them and use as security but dang it...it took me longer to unwrap all of them that it would to watch the movie! Just as I thought I was done..."Christmas With The Kranks" had 2 more security strips on them! C'mon now! I guess I have to watch the thiefs in the store open them because it is my least favorite thing to do! lol

Oatmeal Cookies

Up to a few weeks ago, I had never made oatmeal cookies. Shea doesn't like them and I don't really like them and being that my favorite are peanut butter, I have never had any reason to make them. A friend of mine that loves oatmeal cookies was coming over and I thought, "Hmmm...how tough can it be? I think I'll give it a try." So, I made the cookies and I thought they tasted good but they are a bit dry for me. When I asked Shea if she wanted to try them she shrugged and said, "nah!" When I told her that I thought they were dry she said, "Like your personality?" to which I replied, "No, like your humor!"

Nice Buns! Hot Stuff or Wild Thing?

There is something about the word "buns" that just makes me giggle every time I hear it! Immediately I think of Dean because anytime I am holding any kind of hotdog/hamburger buns he says, "Nice buns!" I love that! Likewise, I do the same! It has just become our thing now for years. When I was a little girl, My Uncle Adrian, (my namesake) would come in late at night with freezing cold hands. He would always put them on my legs, back, neck or belly and I would just love it! As soon as he would touch Cindy, (anywhere) she would just jump out of her skin! Even though the weather has been a bit colder, I am still always warm...I'm a hot mama, what can I say? Suzi came up to me the other day and said, "Ahhhh...there's my hand and bun warmer." She then proceeded to put her ice cold hands on the back of my neck to which I replied, "Ohhhhhh, that feels so good!" When I asked her if I needed to warm her buns she just told me that we probably shouldn't do that kind of stuff at work! Too funny are my friends! I told her that we could start some good rumors!

Lavender

On the way to work the other day, I literally GASPED out loud! I was relieved that I was driving alone or I would have scared my passenger! I came up from behind on this truck that had it's tailgate down and was full of bunches of lavender! I actually said, "Ohhhhhhhh" out loud! It was so gorgeous and I just couldn't go around it because I was in my happy place! I love the look of lavender and the smell is just so amazing! I have a small vase as I walk out of my house and it has dried lavender in it. I always enjoy that little bunch as I leave home. On Christmas day at Cindy's, I immediately saw her vase filled with little lavender sprigs. She was surprised that I noticed and she showed me out in her yard...it was filled with it! Cin told me I could come over and take a bunch home for my Christmas present. I think I'm good with that gift!

Technology vs The Good Ol' Days

Over the holiday season, Shea & I have had our fair share of eating out. It makes it easy to go and grab dinner rather than cooking since it is just the two of us. Don't get me wrong, I love to cook...and not just in the kitchen baby! LOL Truly, I do love to cook and so does Shea. It was cool because we had gone to Pizza Cookery (the best rolls & butter on earth and they should be available 24/7!) and they have the old time vending machines that sold candy & cigarettes. I explained to Shea how you would put your coin in (no dollar bills to spit out) and then pull the little knob and out the item would come on the bottom. It is always fun to tell her about the good ol' days. I also mentioned that when I was younger, we didn't have drive-thru fast food. We actually had to get out of the car and off our butts to go inside and order our McDonald's hamburger, fries, and small coke (no free soda refills- remember?) and give them our $1.00 and still get change back! Just when I think I can feed my kid a bit of culture we go into Mission Burrito in Simi Valley and they have a jukebox! I am so excited and give her money to play some music. I had to laugh outloud!!! They don't even play 45 records anymore! The darn thing plays CD's!!! Too stinkin' funny! I love technology as I type away on my computer but I do long for the good ol' days when you could actually handwrite a letter and the receiver would not think to themselves, "Hmmm...I guess their computer was down!"

Ralphs Gift Card

For Thanksgiving my bosses give each of us a gift card and tell us, "Here's your turkey!" It was so funny because I went to Von's to pick up the few things that I was going to take to Cindy's for Thanksgiving and was so excited to use my gift card. So as I was checking out the clerk says to me, "Oh, this is for Ralphs not Vons." Shea & I just looked at each other and started cracking up! Here I was so set on not forgetting to use it and I went to the wrong, dang store! Shea has continued to tease me until Christmas about it! The reason I can't even defend myself is...I'm the one who ordered them from Ralphs and wrote the check! Duh!

Gettin' My Nails Done

One of my simplest pleasures in life is getting my nails done. I close my eyes and pray and think of all kinds of fun things. I truly use the time to reflect and enjoy all the blessings in my life. My nail lady, Kieu, knows that I don't talk too much because I just like to relax. Most of the time when Shea gets her nails done, I wait in the car and catch up on phone calls, etc... Last week while I was there, Kieu said to me, "Everyone who knows Shea loves her, huh?" I just smiled and said, "Yes, they usually do. She is sweet, huh?" Kieu went on and on about how she just lights up the room when she comes in to get her nails done and how she is so friendly and happy. I thanked her as she also complimented me on my make up, usually I go in wearing sweats, a baseball hat, and all natural! It always makes me just beam inside when someone compliments me on Shea...you see my friends, I always see how incredible she is, but when someone else sees it as well, it is one of the coolest things in life!

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Marcus Aurelius

It's Raining Men...Halleluia! I Mean...It's Raining Leaves...Halleluia!

I love that the weather has finally cooled down! Yay to being able to wear a jacket without sweating to death, yay to not having the air conditioner on in the middle of winter, and yay to seeing the beautiful colors on the trees and not just the every day of the year green that we all know and love! Today as I drove Shea to school, I started singing that silly song, "It's raining men, Halleluia, etc..." And then as a whole mess of leaves rained down, changed the words to, "It's raining leaves, Halleluia", etc... She knows that I love seeing the leaves fall like rain. I always remember one of our first Oregon trips when Bryce was out raking leaves, over & over, and over again! I never understood why he even did it because just as he would finish, there was a huge pile waiting for him! The trees are just breathtaking right now and I never get tired of saying out loud, "You did good God! Wow, look at that one & Oh geez, that is gorgeous!" Now that I think about it, I say those same things every time I watch all the cute guys on the Clippers & Lakers!

There is seemingly so little love shared in this world, it is not surprising that we ask, "Where have all the lovers gone?" Since love is the most vital energy for good that is within our power to utilize, it is puzzling why we so seldom do so. Love is just a useless, abstract idea until we put it into action... Unless we are always actively living in love, we are not utilizing the greatest gift we have been given and which we, in turn, have to offer.

Leo Buscaglia

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.