3 Men and a Lady

2009-11-26T13:51:00.001-07:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I have much to be thankful for today, such as my loving circle of family and friends!
~Tanya

First day of school!!!

2009-08-17T12:21:00.004-07:00

Its that time of year again, where the kids get all excited about starting school and getting back to seeing their friends, and most of all homework!! I can’t tell you how excited Rylan was to start Kindergarten. For the last week he has been asking how many days (or nights) it was till he could wake up and go to school.
We shopped for school supplies, picked out our favorite backpack, and lunch box. Thanks to Grandma Rachel, they were both hooked up with some cool new clothes as well.
Last night we went over the new house/school rules for the year. Re-instating our Accountable Kids Program with reward tickets. Practiced how we were going to get into our lunch , what to throw away, what to keep. Pack our backpacks, set Tanner’s alarm clock for 7am, and were in bed by 8:30pm.
I came home from the gym this morning around 7:15am. Mind you Chad was just getting out of bed. Both boys were up, dressed, shoes on, and emptying the dishwasher. Amazing!! How great it is to have an older sibling who is totally willing to help out his younger brother on his first day of school. Tanner told me he woke up at 6:15am, excited for his first day back.
This is our new schedule Chad and I have set up for the boys this school year with hopes of the days running smoothly and efficiently with how crazy our schedules are.
7am Wake up, get dressed and do morning chores
7:30 Breakfast
8am finish morning chores, load backpacks with lunches, give out tickets for completed chores
8:30am leave for school
8:45-3:20 Peace and quiet (for Chad since he works out of the home), I go to work, run errands, shopping, lunch with friends or get things done around the house.
3:25pm Pick up kids
3:45pm After school snack. Tanner get dressed for football
4:15pm start small homework projects.
4:45pm Leave for football practice
5-7pm Football Practice
7:15pm Shower & do evening chores
7:30pm Dinner then brush teeth
8pm finish any homework
8:30pm Give out tickets for completed evening chores & Rylan Bedtime
9pm Tanner bedtime…any unfinished homework will need to be done at 6am next morning.

The morning went great. They were ready to go way ahead of schedule. We’ll see how long this last. ;-)

Chad and I walked the boys to school. Of course we had to take our pictures in the front of the house where we have been for the last 4 years. Tanner was starting to see kids walk down the street with their families and was feeling slightly embarrassed. So I tried to make it quick. Now of course when we got onto school property with both of them starting I had to get more pictures. Then in the classroom. Really mom?? Embarrassing! Oh yes, but aren’t we supposed to be?

My good friend had set up a Whoo Hoo Kids are Back to School Breakfast for some of us moms. Got together, met some new moms in the neighborhood, had good conversation lots of great food.

The kindergartners get out of school about 5 minutes before everyone else, so Chad was waiting for Rylan. Then out pops Tanner, he got to leave the classroom a few minutes early for good behavior. That was really cool! Both the boys had a really good first day, enjoyed their teachers, and met some new friends.

The evening progressed with no problems. Tanner doesn’t really have homework yet, so the night went smoothly after football. It gave the boys some extra time to run around and play football in the front living room with Chad before going to bed. All and all, it was a fabulous day!!

4th of July California 2009

2009-07-05T21:58:00.004-07:00

Chad, I, the boys, Rob, Jill and Ethan all drove to California to see Scott and Sema for the 4th of July weekend. We piled into our van and made the 7 hour trip over after work arriving very late. Thank goodness for DVD players, PSP, and Nintendo DS.

We stayed in the beautiful Los Feliz area. According to Scott, this is the Beverly Hill before there was one. The houses were amazing, all different and had such character. Every morning we got up and walked through the neighborhood hills.

We met up with Scott, Sema, and friend Shiho for breakfast at the Griddle cafe in Hollywood. I have been dreaming about my breakfast since we decided to go on this journey. Black Magic pancakes. This deadly recipe consists of (probably one sleeve of) crushed Oreo's in each flapjack topped with whip cream and more oreos. Sounds gross, but really its so yummy!!! I debated getting the muscle builder omelet which consists of healthy eggs and veggies. I was told that I should just order the pancakes as I would not be able to eat like this for 6months while training for my next figure show. They didn't have to twist my arm too much for me to give in. We split it with Tanner and Rylan, gave a bunch away for the others to taste, and we still brought home a quarter or more of it. The boys had it the next morning for breakfast. They were in heaven, I am currently still trying to walk it off.

Later that day we went to Marina Del Rey to check out the beach area. It was a bit windy and chilly for us hot desert folk. They boys had a lot of fun running from the waves that were crashing up onto the sand. They got all wet, dirty, and loved every minute of it.

We spent the 4th of July playing on the beach in Santa Monica. Tanner and Chad played alot in the ocean. Rylan went in once, swallowed a big gulp of the Pacific waters and never returned. He hung out with me and built lots of sand castles.

Later that night we went over to some friends house who lived in Marina Del Rey and watched the fireworks over the pier. It was a spectacular show. We could see LA in the background and the other displays going on.

Our last day there, Scott suggested we go to the Hollywood Farmers Market for breakfast. He told us of a vendor there that makes the most wonderful quesidilla breakfast burritos. They were fantastic! Good thing we split one. Again another food that would have been lethal to my body, but well worth it!

Afterwards we went to the Hollywood walk of fame and the mall where the kids got their pictures taken with the movie actor characters. Bumble Bee was their favorite.

This all fell on the weekend after Michael Jacksons death. I told Chad I didn't care if we did anything else, but I had to go see MJ's star on the walk of fame. I wanted to see the house he was renting as well, but we ran out of time. There was a huge memorial set up for him by and around his star. It was very sad..."Gone too Soon". His music, videos, dancing...it was a big part of my childhood. I remember waiting anxiously to watch his "Thriller" video when it was first being released on MTV.

Our last stop on the way out was a cool little Cafe where writers go to work on their projects. Chad and Scott have been there often working on their new book.

My Family visits Phoenix

2009-06-08T11:26:00.009-07:00

Mom and Dad, Marc and Jennifer and my nephews came to visit us. We had a week filled of fun things to do. My family arrived Friday afternoon and we all went straight to the Atlanta Braves vs Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game only to watch the Braves spank the Diamondbacks. Which my brother and his sons were very happy about being the big Braves fans that they are. Saturday we left for Show Low, AZ to visit my great Aunt and Uncle and spend a couple days up in the mountains. Took the family to see Woods Canyon Lake and the Mogollon Rim area. Pretty sites!!

Their first hiking trip in Sedona. Back side of Cathedral Rock

West Fork trail in Oak Creek Canyon

Family picture after taking mom and dad out to dinner for early Birthday and Father's Day at Flemmings Steakhouse

We had a quick little birthday celebration for Rylan.

Marc, Jennifer, Christopher, and Cayse

Played cards...screw your neighbor. Chad, I, and Marc were big pot winners!! Sorry Mom and Dad

Easter 2009

2009-04-12T23:40:00.002-07:00

Easter baskets filled with goodies. Tanner got his next book in the series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He was very excited and couldn't wait to get started on it.

Rylan ran feverishly all over the house looking for his bag of treats.

Rob, Jill and Ethan came over for Easter dinner as well. Little E is checking out his Little People toys.

Celebrated Tanners birthday 9 years old!!

NPC Figure Show

2009-03-28T23:13:00.009-07:00

Today is the big day. I head down to Mesa for the Natural Western NPC Bodybuilding, Figure, Fitness Competition.

Its been 3 months of intense training in the gym. 5 days of weight training and 7 days of 1 1/2 hour cardio sessions morning and night. Total dedication is required in this sport and can pay off in the end. 3 months of eating the same things over and over. Lots of lean protein and green veggies. YUM! I had to pass on my favorite desserts and sweets while all my friends and family chowed down in front of my face. After a while I got used to not eating with anyone and brought my food with me everywhere I went. It became a way of life for me. I passed up going out with friends and skipping get togethers so I would not be tempted to eat or drink anything bad.

Friday night I met up with a few girls from my posing clinic at the hotel nearby. One of the training gals sprayed about 10 of us down till we looked like chocolate coco puffs. I have never been so dark before in my entire life. Every little nook and cranny of our body was sprayed and there we all stood naked in front of fans for 20 min to air dry. If you were modest before your not now!

Saturday was a long day. I had to poof my hair all big and curly and put on about 10lbs. of makeup along with big false eyelashes. I felt like a drag queen all day long! We had an 8:30 meeting to go over the morning events. Pre-judging started at 10am and lasted for about 3 hours. I was in Class "C" which were all the figure girls in the 5'5" range, 15 girls in all. We all walked out in a line and went through all the turns and poses. Then we go back into a V formation and they call out he first 5 girls. Little did I know that if you get called out in the first 5 that is a good thing. Means you have a really good chance of placing. I was called out 3rd.

Leading up to this day I was depleting on my water and eating straight protein adding in simple carbs to soften my muscles for the show. Lots of rice cakes and peanut butter. I stopped drinking water the Friday afternoon before. So when I had a lunch break in the middle of the day, to carb up again, one of my trainers wanted me to go out and eat 1/2 cheeseburger and french fries. Wasn't quite sure how my body was going to react to something it hasn't eaten in a long time. It was the best tasting burger I have ever had!

At 4:30 we had to meet back at the auditorium for the night show. 15 of my friends and co-workers plus Chad came to watch me. I wasn't so nervous in the morning judging because I knew only my trainers were there. When all my friends showed up later...it made me a bit more nervous. I had to go out and strut my stuff while they read my bio. I don't like being up in front of people to begin with so being on center stage everyone looking, was a bit nerve racking.

After the intermission I found out that I made it to the finals. I was in the top 5 and had to go back out on stage to see where I placed. Back out on stage I went for a final pose down. Out of 15 girls I took 3rd place!

The show ended around 11pm and of course it was time to go out and eat some real food. When we were out for lunch we passed and UNO's pizza. 8 of us went for nacho's, pizza, and of course dessert. A bazookie (1/2baked chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and cool whip) YUM, YUM!!

Game day

2009-02-09T11:45:00.006-07:00

Super Bowl Sunday, it's the Arizona Cardinals against the Pittsburgh Steelers. First of all Chad was out of town on a conference in Tennessee. His boss was a huge Titans fan and she thought they were going to the Super Bowl. She had all the employees come out a day early so they could attend the party at her house. Too bad for her, the Titans did not make it. Chad was bummed that he had to watch the Cardinals play in another state and not here with his family and friends. I mentioned to Chad that we have been together for every major game and if we lose this game because we are not together watching it, it would be all his fault! HaHa

It was my official last day to "cheat" on my diet for my March figure show. All day I ate clean and had a great workout. The boys and I were headed over to our friends house at 3:30pm with a few of our other neighbors in Glendale for the festivities. I decided to bring all the "bad" treats in my house over there so I would no longer be tempted to eat them. I started with a box of brownies. I made them and ate with a big glass of milk. When we arrived there was so much food out and everywhere. I started with the wings, nacho chips, cheese dip and salsa, 2 taquitos, triscuits, and cream cheese with Raspberry chipotle sauce...my favorite! I sat down to watch the game finally after chit chattin with the girls.

The first half didn't look to good. Things just weren't going well for us like they had been in the playoff games. Arizona turned the ball over at 2nd and goal and the Steelers ran it all the way back for a touchdown. I got up and had 5 brownies. I was getting text messages from friends all over the country and Chad and I were talking back and forth. My only thought was to go get more food and that would take care of my frustrations. During half time I ate more chips and dip, carrots and dip, big piece of chocolate cake with 3 scoops of ice cream, and a small slice of cheesecake. I was so full. But that helped me get over the first half of the game and I felt so much better! (yea right)

The kids were playing and having a great time with their little buddies. Watching the game themselves and playing other board games to keep occupied. Every now and then they would pop out and ask for food. Otherwise we didn't see them much.

During the second half things were looking up for the Cardinals. It looked like a real football game. We had possession of the ball more and were actually completing passes instead of turning the ball over. Everyone was so into the game, watching it with hopes of a win. When Larry Fitzgerald scored that last touchdown we all jumped with such joy and excitement, gave one another hugs and kisses. People had tears in their eyes. Wow, we can actually pull it off. One problem...too much time left. The Steeler's were getting closer and closer to scoreing and we just couldn't hold them back. One of our friends noticed that every time he had a brownie, our team would do really well. He kept going back for more and more. He just couldn't eat one more, that is when the Steeler's scored the game winning touch down with 35 seconds left in the game for a 27-23 win over the Cardinals. AHHH BUMMER!!!!

Arizona Cardinals are Super Bowl bound!!!

2009-01-20T21:48:00.002-07:00

WOW is all I can say. Chad and I were lucky enough to get our hands on the NFC Championship Playoff game tickets. The game between the Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles sold out in 6 minutes. No one picked the Cardinals to win except all of us fans. It was amazingly loud and crazy. Who would have ever imagined that we could or would make it to the Super Bowl? All the announcers and ESPN are in shock. We had hope, but there was still doubt. Everyone was against us from the beginning. Well, who would be for us anyway if you watched how we played all year. Our record was only 9-7. We made it to the end and got through the big games. We did what we had to do when the time was right.
My parents made it possible for us to go because they paid for our tickets as a Christmas present. Chad didn’t know it before he bought the first round playoff tickets. They told me to get good seats and don’t worry bout the price. This game we got 50 yard line, lower level, 10 rows up for $2500…. hahaha yea right. I’m kidding. We were up higher at the goal line toward the corner behind the visitor’s bench. There isn’t a bad seat in the stadium plus we prefer higher up. It was perfect! I am so grateful and thankful (to my parents) that we were able to be there and experience this.
On our way up to our seats we ran into a few friends along the way.

2 days later my throat is still sore. I can barely talk without a squeak because of all the yelling and screaming we were doing. The minute the Eagles were in a huddle or had the ball then entire stadium was on their feet yelling. The only sound I could make was a blood curdling yell. The lady next to us came back with earplugs shortly into the 2 quarter.

It was a nail bitter in the end. The Eagles were scoring, bad calls were being made, Chad was starting to sweat, and I thought I saw a tear as he was thinking we were slowing going down the tubes. I was getting text messages from friends and family asking us what’s up with our team, the boat is slowly sinking, or we’re blowing it. It just got louder and louder as the fans were getting more anxious. The Eagle fans came out of the woodwork as they thought they could pull off a win or something. It seemed like they were all sitting behind us. They were especially loud when Arizona had the ball at the end. Didn’t really hear a peep from them earlier when we were kicking their butt.

Arizona held onto their 7 point lead in the 4th quarter to win the NFC Championship and once again we were there to witness this incredible event. The Cardinals beat the Eagles 32-25. A former longtime Cardinal player along with Terry Bradshaw presented the trophy to the team.
Then it was time to head back home to pick up our kids who were at a football party with neighbors. Holy smokes...we're going to the SUPER BOWL!!!!! I can't believe it!! GO CARDINALS!!!

Training for my first NPC figure Show Prt 2

2009-01-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

The diet doesn't seem to be too bad for me yet. Got through the holidays and officially started dieting on Jan. 2, 2009.

Today is another measurement day. 14% body fat 114 lbs lean weight 20 lbs of fat weight. Yeah!! Going down in numbers is always good.

Here are my before photos to document my progress. I am trying really hard to stay away from the bad fats and sugars. I still tend to slip. But I also see good numbers so I am not worried yet.

Happy New Year, Happy Birthday

2009-01-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my awesome, handsome hubby!!!! Oh yea, and his twin brother Scott...haha

Love you boys!

Family visits Phoenix for Christmas

2008-12-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

Scott, Sema, and Shiho came out the day after Christmas to spend some time with us. We opened more presents together and played the Wii Fit alot. We also had a few tennis, bowling, and boxing matches. Rylan kicked butt on bowling with the highest score and had KO's against everyone in boxing!
We took them out to our usual spot, Sol Y Sombra and Armitage in Scottsdale. Shiho had never been and its beautiful to see all the lights from up there. We really didn't feel like clubbing so this was a better option.

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

Tanner woke up around 7am blasted through our doors and whispered in my ear with a big grin, "Mama, mama, wake up Santa came last night!" Now first of all Tanner found out that Santa wasn't real and we confirmed it. But he has a part of him that still believes a little bit I guess. This year all the presents that came from Santa were unwrapped by the tree. He said that he figured it out last year cause they were wrapped in the same paper as the others and the handwriting looked like ours. OOPS! There were no tears or mental breakdowns when he found out, didn't seem to bother him.
When Tanner came in we told him it was early and Rylan wasn't even up yet and we would get up when he did. Tanner raced back into his bedroom to wake up Rylan and we heard, "Rylan, come on...look Santa came, look at all your presents, hurry!" After Rylan was dragged out of bed, he ran into the living room to see what was out there. "Wow, Tanner this is awesome, so cool. Wow look at this, yeah, Santa came, Santa came!" Now they both run in our room as Chad and I have been listening to all the excitement laughing at their remarks. It was classic.
We logged onto Skype with Chad's brother and began to open our presents together.
It took us quite a bit longer. We open one at a time and if its a toy for the boys we take it out of the box and put it together for them before we move on. Unless its a big Mega blocks knight castle that took Chad 2 hours to assemble for Tanner.
Tanner got a zillion books, clothes, psp game, Wii games, puzzles, and fun toys. Rylan got pretty much the same except Santa brought him a Nintendo DS. What Santa didn't know is that this was going to be pretty hard for a 4 yr old to play if he can't read yet. Maybe in a year or so, he can play it with no help. He and Tanner will share their little hand held games. The PsP is much easier to play for Rylan.
Throughout the day we just relaxed in our comfy clothes and listened to Christmas music, helped the boys with all their games and toys, put together puzzles, read some books, talked to family on skype, and watched a little basketball. It was so nice and peaceful. We didn't have anyone over and did not go anywhere. It was too cold and rainy anyway. Chad got me a pink Cardinals jersey and tickets to the first playoff game next weekend. The whole family will be making a trip to the University of Phoenix Stadium in their new Cardinals gear to cheer them on. It would be so awesome if they pulled a win off.
I won an authentic signed John Elway framed picture from a Toys for Tots auction. Donated to children and scored with my husband. He said receiving this gift was almost as good as sex...hummm. HaHa! Yes, he loved it!
We spent the evening playing the Wii fit. Chad rarely works out, his BMI was high, he was overweight, and had really good balance. His Wii fit age was 24. Whatever. I work out all the time, have horrible balance, was in perfect weight/BMI shape, and my Wii fit age is 42. Chad laughed his butt off. Tanner had a wii fit age of 28 and Rylans was 29. We had to help Ry with some of the balance stuff, but he did a pretty good job. We all trained for a while to get used to some of the games.

Tanner played his PSP John Madden football 2009 game for most of the afternoon while wearing his Steve Nash jersey that he absolutely loved! Rylan was totally involved with his Space shuttle blasting it off into space and fighting the aliens.

Merry Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

Finally...Santa is coming to our house tonight. We looked on line to track him and see where he was. The boys are overjoyed & bouncing off the wall with excitement. They could barely contain themselves when we took off our last ring. The last four years we started a new Tomasso tradition of making rings or "links" so the boys would know how many days it would be till Christmas. We have a little picture we drew of a Christmas tree that Tanner decorated when he was 4 yrs old. This year Rylan signed his name and 2008 at the bottom. The children are off to bed and the cookies have been laid out for the jolly Saint Nick.
This is the first year since moving here that we have not had family in town or gone anywhere. A Christmas all by ourselves. Could be nice. Possibly a little sad. Well thank goodness we have skype video conferencing. We already opened a couple presents with my parents the other day and saw family that was over tonight for dinner. Its always so nice to see everyone. But it makes me sad that we can't be there for the festivities.
The boys have been out of school all week. Chad now works from home which is nice. He did take the whole week off except for today. They boys have been spending some quality time with their dad going around town shopping, out to lunch, visiting the Arizona Science Center and logging in plenty of video game time. I have been working these last few days which were my days off so I could take off after Christmas when Scott and Sema will be here. We went to the Christmas Eve service with a co-worker and here husband tonight and it was awesome! Lots of great music and reminder of what this time of the year is really about. Since we didn't have anyone coming to our house this year, I wasn't planning on doing a big dinner. So after the service we went out for...yep...Chinese food. We sang Jingle Bells just like in the Christmas Story movie. It was funny.

Early Christmas with Family

2008-12-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

Since Chad's brother and wife were going back home for Christmas, they had us over for dinner and gift exchange today. As always Jill makes fabulous meals!
The boys just adore their little cousin Ethan. Tanner makes him laugh so hard and loves playing with him. I can't wait till little E gets bigger and they can really play together.
Tanner got a Star Wars Space ship and Rylan a Imaginex toy boat. As a joke they also gave us Billy Bob jacked up teeth. That was a big hit for the rest of the night.

Rylan's last soccer game

2008-12-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

Its been a rough couple of months. The Rattlesnakes only scored one goal the entire season. Not one a game...one for the entire season. (did I already say that?) Now, they did score on themselves a couple of times, does that count. ahhh nope! Ry was doing pretty good there in the middle of the season, playing the best he could with the older kids. Then I think as the weather got cooler he was not into all that. He would pull himself out of the game again and take breaks. Today he didn't want to play at all. Of course we told him Santa was watching and if he played well and was nice there was a possibility that he would bring some presents. Worked like a charm! They gave out medals today. Rylan was sooo proud. And we were too.

Training for my first NPC Figure Show!

2008-12-12T20:25:00.002-07:00

I have decided to do my a figure show. For real! I have been pretty wishy washy bout actually going through with it. With support from my hubby and a great trainer at the gym, I think I can pull it off.

I am not going to like the diet part. That is why it has been a challenge for me in the past. I love sweets, carbs, pasta, and anything fattening. I at least have some form of a cookie or dessert on a daily basis. To cut that out completely for 3 months might kill me. I think I eat somewhat healthy other than that.

Back in November when I decided that I would train for this I joined a new gym that was built by our house. Signed up for a nutritionist and a personal trainer. My body fat was 19% and I weighed in at 140lbs. I am at a healthy weight and body fat. Feeling pretty good about myself.

I got hooked up with the right people at the gym and they are giving me all kinds of great info on healthier eating tips and better ways to make my body transform into the shape it needs to be for show time.

Now its time to hunker down and get busy. I have to eat pretty clean during the week and only have cheat days on the weekends. Lots of protein, veggies, good carbs, while staying low on sugar and cutting out processed foods. Ohhh very challenging for me! I have to admit, I have been sneaking some chocolate in :-( I can't help myself.

This morning I measured in. 17% body fat. 116 lbs of lean weight, 22lbs of fat weight.

I am happy to see my numbers going down.

Do I have what it takes??

2008-12-10T22:12:00.001-07:00

I hope so. I can't believe I am actually going to do this! ! After a long time of going back and forth in my mind, and encouragement from my husband, I have decided to compete in the March 28th NPC Max Muscle Figure Show(the day before my birthday!) that takes place in Mesa Arizona. Now this doesn’t mean I have to get all big and bulky like a body builder…that is the first thing people ask me. Its FIGURE. My muscles need to be defined and cut, but soft and smooth. I have to get a suit that I can floss my booty with however. I tried one on the other day and that was enough to make sure I get my butt in gear so I don’t embarrass myself on stage in front of friends and family.
I enjoy working out and am at the gym daily, sometimes twice a day. Most days I am at there by 5:30am weight training and doing cardio. I am on a pretty strict diet for the show and its only going to get worse. If you know me, you know that a diet is the hardest thing for me to follow. I love to eat sweets and carbs. I miss eating all those crap foods...for example one of my co-workers took out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (I had mixed veggies and chicken) and I almost started to cry! They all laughed at me and said, think big strong lean muscles, you don't need that stuff, eat your veggies instead!!! At least they are encouraging me to do the right thing. Since there was no way I could stay on track with all the goodies around the holidays I started after the first of the year. Since January 2nd I think I may have fallen off the wagon once at a baby shower. Otherwise I have been doing pretty darn well. I feel like all I do is eat. My whole day is pretty much planned around me stuffing my face with lean protein, meal replacements and veggies every 2-3 hours. Now that I am starting to see changes with my body it makes it easier for me to stick to it. I was told that in March I will have to cut out all carbs and I will be a monster to be around...we'll see what happens.
In middle of December when I first got measured, my starting weight was 139lbs & 18% body fat. Every month at the same time we’ll do it again. Since then my weight dropped to 134 and my body fat is now 15%. I lost 3lbs. of body fat! I also lost and gained inches in the all the right places. I still have a ways to go before the end of March. My trainer wants my body fat to be at 10% and mentioned that I could possibly weigh under 120lbs when its all said and done. Everyone seems to ask me…isn’t that unhealthy to be so low? Well kinda when the average is 20%, but to compete that is where I need to be. Its not like I will be there forever. When my show is over I am going out to party for my birthday, have a few drinks, and then head to Cold Stone for a gigantic chocolate covered waffle cone with the Oreo overload creation inside! Then I am sure to be real sick for the next day or two.
Stage presentation is everything. Soon I will be working with other women who have competed on how to pose and walk in my 4inch heels. This should be interesting. I have been told to practice daily and watch myself in the mirror.
Check back later and I will keep you posted on my progress.
To see me compete in the evening show, purchase tickets at http://www.npcmilesproductions.com/ticket_info.html

Putting up our Christmas tree

2008-12-01T00:24:00.001-07:00

For the last 12 years we have had the same fake 7 ft Christmas tree. Last year while we were opening presents it took a nose dive onto our couch and broke in half. That tree was handed down from my parents who had if for lord knows how long. This year it was time to get a new one. Costco has awesome pre-light trees for a great price. I can't tell you how nice it was not to have to put lights on the tree. This puppy is a 9 ft tree that almost reaches the tippy top of our ceiling with our angle on top of it. We let Tanner and Rylan start the decorating ceremony.

Ahh the finished product...wait who are those two handsome boys?? I think they are waiting for Santa to come on his train. Yep, last year I got Chad his Polar Express Christmas train that he wanted for as long as I can remember. It has all the bells and whistles.

Here is our little Jack-Jack. I hope he is a good kitty and stays out of my tree. "I see you eye-ballin my tree mister" When we lived in Nebraska our two cats every Christmas would knock our tree over almost every other night. After the 3rd year of that, I nailed the sucker to the floor.

Family pictures

2008-11-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

Grandparents, my parents, aunts and uncles

Valls Family Guys (4 generations) Cousin Todd is missing because he was cooking the turkey dinner and Uncle Shannon is in the back on the board because he is serving in the Iraq War

Valls Family Girls (4 Generations) My sister-in-law Jennifer is missing because she had to go home early and work

The only girl cousins

Daytona Beach

2008-11-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

Friday was the last day before we go back home. My mom was wanting to take the kids to the beach. Just our little family went. My dad and cousin Todd rode up on their Harley’s. We ate on the pier where it overlooked the entire ocean and beach area and it seemed like we were constantly being attacked by birds wanting our food. I believe that was one of the highlights for the children
On our way down to the beach we put the kids swimsuits on. Of course they couldn’t wait to get into the water. Never mind the fact that it was a pretty chilly temperature.
The sun was shinning and it was warm enough for them. They played in the waves for quite a while. Rylan isn’t a dummy, he took one step close to the water and felt how cold it was, wanted nothing to do with the ocean so he made friends with the sand instead. He had no problems playing by himself while the rest of the kids were having a blast in the water.
My mom, sister, Chad and I watched and took pictures.

Chad and I drew our names in the sand with a heart around our initials…come on, you have to do that! Then my (single) sister saw our masterpiece and stomped all over it. Guess she thought she was being funny or something??

After playing on the beach we headed back up to the fountain area to wash off, get some ice cream and go shopping. We were trying to get back home in time to watch the Nebraska vs. Colorado game.

The guys watched the game at my cousins house. I took the boys back to the hotel, bathed them, packed up, Tanner did his homework, Rylan streaked in the halls, finished the laundry, watched the Nebraska game and got ready for our 7am flight out.. I can only imagine what was going through the guys mind as Nebraska was throwing interceptions, fumbling, kicking looonnng field goals, and finally squeaking out a win. It was pretty exciting just watching it by myself.

I got together with my cousins in the hotel lobby so we could chat some more before we all left. Before we knew it, it was 12:30am and I needed to be up by 4:30am to leave at 5am. Get back to my room, settle into bed and Rylan is coughing up a storm. And wouldn’t ya know it, we have nothing for him to calm his cough…go figure. I try to prop him up, I try to hold him up in my arms. Nothing worked. This went on for hours. I kept telling myself, the next time he coughs, I will get up, get ready and go to the store and get him medicine. Around 3am I was still rubbing his back and he finally calmed down and slept. Before I knew it, it was 4:15am and Chad was up and getting ready to leave. UGH!

Thanksgiving Day/60th Wedding anniversary Party

2008-11-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

On Thanksgiving day the entire family was at my cousins house for the 60th Wedding Anniversary celebration. The gals went over early to set up and start cooking while the guys stayed back at the hotel and watched all the kids and played cards. My cousins husband was a great and cooked for the whole family all week long including turkey day. My mother gave the toast, my cousin Tanisha read a poem, and I said grace.
After a very filling dinner we started the festivities. First came the great-grand kids and younger grand kids, they were part of our mariachi band.The boys played instruments while the girls danced around in their cute Mexican dresses. My sister and I played the part of Regis and Kelly hosts and my other cousins played the part of my grandparents. “Grandpa” had in a fake belly with a white tank top and white button down shirt on and “Grandma” was wearing her favorite Michigan sweat shirt. My Aunt Tammy had asked my grandparents a series of questions a few months back and jotted down their answers. We interviewed them as a couple and asked questions about how and where they met, having children, life as a married couple, how they lived and so on. We played some of their favorite songs from back in their day throughout the interview in the background. They really got a kick out of the whole thing.
Aunt Yvette continued to introduce the following acts. “the rest of our Mariachi band has shown up and they have come all the way from Phoenix and Omaha….here are Juan and Paco!!!
Of course that was Chad and my brother Marc dressed up as men with their fat bellies hanging out and doing a dance to Mariachi Loco. It was so funny, people were falling out of their chairs laughing so hard, my grandfather had tears in his eyes. My grandmother used to clean the house to her man ELVIS! What would a party be without not one, not 2, but 3 different generations of Elvis’s. Two of my cousins and my dad played the part. This time Grandma was falling out of her chair trying to reach out to the younger Elvis just like she would try to at his concerts. Another favorite of hers was Michael Jackson. She had also gone to his concerts. Well guess what? “Michelle” Jackson was played by my cousin Nicole.
After all the belly laughs and tears of joy we had to get all sappy on everyone. Uncle Art read the words he wrote to his parents and then we played the Family Tree song. One by one all of us got up, went to the front “stage” area and sang out loud to my grandparents. The song has deep meaning and it was a perfect fit for our family. It was very emotional for all of us. My grandparents were so happy, excited, thankful and overjoyed that we put all this together for them. They have very special children (my parents & aunts and uncles) who spent months putting this all together. It was the perfect anniversary gift for them just to have the entire family in one place from all over the country.

Of course you can’t end the party without playing more poker. They had some pretty large pots going. Up to couple hundred dollars I think. Even the younger kids had their own table going. Except they played with fake money! Hey that’s how we roll!

Family Gathering, Day 3 & 4

2008-11-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Chad, I, and the boys spent the first part of the day going back and doing the rides we missed at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We went to Islands first and immediately ran back to the Pteranodon Flyers where we soar through the air and get a view of Camp Jurassic. Its always a 60min wait and it was only 30 when we got there. Was it worth the wait for a 60 sec fly by...the boys would say it was cool! Tanner just couldn't contain himself any longer and just had to go back on the duelling dragons. Over and over and over! Tanner and I went while Chad took Rylan back on the Jurassic River adventure. Here is a little snip it of Tanner on the Duelling Dragons ride.

Then it was back to Suess landing to the Cat in the Hat ride.
There were only a few things we had to hit at Universal and that was Woody Woodpecker's Nut Coaster, Men in Black where we were able to test our alien-zapping skills, and Disaster which took us into the world of filming disaster movies
and then on a major motion picture ride...starring everyone!

In the afternoon and the next day we went back over to my cousins house to have dinner and hang out with the entire Valls family. Poker and Sing Star on the PS3 were the main attractions of the evening.

We were practicing our skits that the family had put together for my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. It was going to be quite the production!

Family Gathering in Florida, Day 2

2008-11-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

8:00am Family gathers in the hotels breakfast area where we meet up before going to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

9:30am Arrive at Universal/Islands of Adventure
Our first ride we experienced the rage of the Incredible Hulk as Dr Bruce Banner's gamma-ray accelerator launches us on a high speed roller coaster rampage. Next we head over to the Amazing Adventures of Spider Man. With our 3-D glasses we careen through the streets for an eye popping, pulse-pounding, high tech 3-D thrill. Chad and Marc took a couple of the boys on Doctor Doom's Fearfall where they were shot up 150 feet in the air and then dropped faster than gravity itself!
11:30am Its starting to get warm enough out for us to try out a couple of water rides. Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges is where the gang was brave enough (in their ponchos) to hit the white water rapids splashing raft ride.
To keep with the water theme Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw falls took them on a wild and wet
flume ride with one of the steepest water drops ever created.

1pm We discover dinosaur skeletons and footprints...AHHHH I think a hungry T-Rex might be on the loose!! You didn't happen to see any did you??? Great, I think we need to go on a thrilling river raft ride through primeval dinosaur habitats just to make sure they didn't get out. Vamanos!!

2:30pm Our parents took the little,little kids over to Suess Landing while the big kids soared on the fire side of The Dueling Dragons through hair raising loops and twists across the sky.

4:30pm Its time to cross over the bridge and head to Universal Studios. We stepped into one of the most action packed movie of all time as the swirling vortex of tornado blew my poor little nieces right out of their skin. Yes, they were scared...poop-less! All I heard from little Julia was.."i want out, lets go, I want out, lets go" I believe if my sister and I weren't holding her down, she would have crawled over and through many many people to get away from this tornado. We had to take turns going on the Mummy ride where we plunged into darkness on this indoor roller coaster facing fireballs, scarab beetles, and an army of warrior mummies. Jaws is always a classic favorite...you never know where he might POP out of the water and scare the begeebers out you...or the children! Now the Woody Woodpeckers kidzone was a hit with all little kids who were not tall enough to get on big rides. Also we got to help E.T. save his dying planet as we got on his starbound bike. Last but not least, the new Simpsons Ride was quite entertaining as we swoop, soar and smash our way through Krustyland.

7:30pm Leave parks, hit major traffic on the way back home. Oh wait and accident pulled off to the side of the road, but EVERYone has to stop and look..rubberneckers! GEESH! Luckily my mom called and warned us, so we took the scenic route on the back roads while stopping at Chick-fil-a for some food and cookie shakes...yummmm! Did I say I was still on vacation???

Real quick, we had 30 family members that joined us today at the park. My grandparents and a couple more cousins were still at home. The big Jurassic photo above was just all of us first cousins only. AMAZING I tell ya!!

Family Gathering in Florida,Day 1

2008-11-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

5:30am Wake up, get the whole family ready to leave for the airport

6:15am After Chad has yelled at me several times to get out of the house cause we are going to miss our 8am flight, we run out the door...all 50 bags packed and loaded in the car for a 7 day trip.

6:50am Arrive at Sky Harbor, check in and proceed to gate

8:05am Everyone is safely on the plane boarded for Orlando

1:45pm Arrive in Orlando, get bags, rent vehicle

2:30pm Still waiting in line to rent our car

2:50pm Call my friend who is coming down to meet us in Downtown Disney for the day, make plans to hook up...still waiting in line.

3:00pm We see my parents, sister and nieces get off the elevator on their way to rent their vehicle...Tanner runs over and tackles them with excitement.

3:30pm Head to downtown Disney to meet Jacksonville friends

4pm Dinner at T-REX cafe...very cool place. Very much like Rainforest Cafe, but all dinosaurs!!

6pm Finish dinner and walk around shops in Downtown Disney. Hit the Lego store where we met up with a Lego Santa

6:45pm Pass the Ghirardelli ice cream shop...cant help myself and neither can Judy...we're on vacation, I we say to ourselves. We hang out, discuss religion and politics for a while.

7:00pm Walking around some more..then we discover Rylan is nowhere to be found.
We aren't panic'd yet thinking he is right near by. We all split up and look for him.

7:10pm Still cannot find Rylan and it seems there are thousands of people around and a ton of 4yr olds with short blonde hair and red hooded jackets everywhere I look and no child of min.

7:20pm We all four meet up again, talk to guest realations and security. We split again and run into all the kids enticing stores franticly looking for a little lost boy

7:30pm After many tears and horrifying thoughts, the security guard and a Disney employee brought Rylan to me. They found him sitting right where he could no longer find us, on a bench in a well light area with a lost look on his face. After running all over the area thinking to myself, I am going to kill this kid when I get ahold of him, I could do nothing but give him big hugs and kisses. I asked him if he was afraid or scared and he said..."No mommy, I wasn't afraid or scared, I am a big boy now."

7:40pm Now we can't find Chad. Of course only Jason and Chad had their cell phones, Judy and I had forgotten ours in the car. So whenever we split, not only were we looking for Rylan, but also for each other. Chad still has no idea we have found Rylan and he is running all over.

7:45pm Chad runs back to our "meeting spot" shaking his head and trying to hold back the tears of joys, anger, and frustration when he sees his "little dude"

7:50 Leaving the Downtown Disney area all together, holding hands very tightly.
Heading to Sanford, where we are meeting the Valls family at my cousins house

9pm Arrive at Nicole and Todd's house where we meet 30 other Mexicans for a fiesta... lol!!

10:30pm Arrive at hotel where we will get some rest for Universal Studios on Monday. Don't worry Rylan will probably be wearing a leash or have a GPS tracking device installed in his body!

Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-11-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

Chad's brother and wife came over to our house for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, I can bake a turkey! Its called oven turkey bags. I made an xtra big turkey so that we could enjoy leftovers for the week. Then I found out that he was going to be out of town for the next 3 days. He's hoping there will be some left for him. Tanner eats like a horse, so we'll see.

My little nephew Ethan is 6 months old. He was a big hit with his cousins. Tanner at one time told me to leave the little area they were playing in cause he was "babysitting". It was sooo cute!

Its times like this when I see little babies that make me want to have another. Then I remember ...the late nights, bottle feeding...ah heck I breast fed for a year, dirty diapers...major diaper rashes, getting new teeth, & oh, oh my favorite...potty training. I'm done! I like to squeeze, kiss, and spoil...then send them on their way :-) Don't get me wrong I wouldn't change having these little guys for anything. I love babies and every little step along the way. I truly miss having an infant in the house. Thank goodness alot of my friends are all having babies, now I can get my fix!

Rylan playing soccer

2008-11-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

Rylan is now in his 5th week of soccer. He has come a long way since the first day of practice. We put him on a little bit older team so that he could be with his friends. Rylan is the youngest and smallest kid on the team. The first day he was extremely shy and had no idea how to kick a ball properly. The first game was really rough. Not only was it hot at 9:30am, but the older kids were running all over him. He came home hating soccer and not wanting to play anymore. After a couple more practices and the next game played with his buddies, he soon felt very comfortable chasing after the ball. Now he is running with the big kids and a gigantic smile lights up across his face. Even though they have not won a single game this year, its all about having fun...right?? We can score...but only on ourselves! Only a couple more games left in the season. He is getting closer and closer to being able to score. Go Rattlesnakes!!

Hollywood Party Smilebox slideshow

2008-11-12T23:28:00.000-07:00

Finally after 2 weeks I am finished with the slide show...here is my montage
Click on the play button on the video above.

Dinner Talk

2008-11-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

Tanya: "Chad, be careful when you pull the shrimp out of the toaster oven so the butter and all that CRAP doesn't spill all over."
Tanner: "OHHH Mom, are not allowed to say CRAP in this house!"
Rylan: "Yea Mom, you need to say CRAP outside!"

President

2008-11-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Chad, Rylan, and I were sitting down eating dinner tonight.
Tanner came into the room after taking a shower and blurted out "Who is our President?" (Meaning our NEW President)
Rylan, in a matter of fact way said with his arms out, "it's George!"
Chad and I looked at eachother with shock and said "your right... buddy, it is George"
Tanner: "its George Bush, duh!"
Rylan: "Yea, George Bush, I knew that"
Tanner: "No, Obama is our new President, right?"
Chad: "Yes, you are correct, its Obama"
Rylan: "Obama? Yeah, Obama, its Obama!"

We all laughed out loud cause we were still in shock that he knew George was our President.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

The movie of the year in the Tomasso household was Transformers. I took countless videos of the boys pretending to sing and rock out to "In the End" by Linkin Park, which was the theme song. They have seen the movie a dozen times and could watch it every day if we let them.
We were shopping at Wal-Mart one day and this costume popped out in front of Rylan. He just had to be Bumblebee. He begged me to get him this outfit. I thought to myself, Humm this is easy, it's cheap, I don't have to try and figure out what he is going to wear and fight over it either. Perfect, let's get it!

Tanner grew up knowing Star Wars, just like his Dad. This is Chad's dream...playing Star Wars Battlefront on the PS3 with his son. (well now its John Madden football 2008, that's another blog) Ever since the Clone Trooper movie came out, Tanner was dead set on being this for Halloween. Chad, not knowing that I was going to buy this for Tanner, went out with him while I was out of town and got the Venom Sidemen costume. When I got back home I bought the outfit he really wanted. Of course he saw it and threw the Spiderman outfit on the floor in his closet...wait...i think its still on the floor, 3 weeks later.
We went trick or treating with the neighbors. We stopped half way for some dinner and off we went again. Later that night we ended up at another friends house who was having a big street gathering with lots of food and desserts. The boys had a great time and Rylan was really into running up to the houses and using his manners, coming back and showing me what kind of candy he got.
This is just another day the kids can get into their favorite character outfits(boys don't play dress up), run around with their best buddies, and go play with friends. Its a great way for us to get out and meet a bunch of people in our neighborhood. The adults have just as much fun!

Get out and VOTE!!!

2008-10-30T23:22:00.000-07:00

Tanner just made both of his Grandpa's very happy!!! And me too!

Tanner 3 Grade

2008-10-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

Our little Tanner is growing up so fast these days. From a cute chunky dude to a lengthy skinny young boy. We just ended the first quarter of school. I met with his teacher who had some "OK" things to say about him. She said he worries about other people and things around him and he needs to focus more on himself and his own work. (he likes getting into other people's business) He has a hard time staying on task and focusing ( I told her he is easily distracted from the get go). And here is a new one...he talks back to her! UHHH...hello, what the heck? Does this face look like someone who would back talk? I know sometimes at home, he will do it to be funny, but I had no idea he was doing it at school!!! We need to nip this in the bud. Chad and I talked about it with Tanner and set up some new rules. Told him it wasn't cute or funny anymore and there will be consequences. We had a great conversation about what is "back talk", how to use good manners on a daily basis, and what is means to be respectful to others. He used to be really good at all these things...of course they grow up, pick up new things from friends, and get new attitudes...that need to be adjusted, quickly.
The teacher said he is a great, sweet kid (of course), has a lot of potential when he puts his mind to it, and did really well this first quarter. He made the HONOR ROLL and had perfect attendance. An assembly was held earlier in the week for all those to receive their certificates.

Tomasso Hollywood Costume Party

2008-10-26T18:44:00.001-07:00

The Hostesses with the mostessess
Austin Powers, Felicity, Jovie, and Buddy the Elf

Our celebrity guest list included..........

Craig and Lynn as Batgirl and the Metallic Demon

Bud and Tonya as Buddy the Elf and Jovie
Buddy the elf was a costume winner

Joan and Brian as "Holly" & "Wood"

Tanya and Chad as Felicity and Austin Powers
Austin Powers was a costume winner

Denise and Paul and Marilyn Monroe & Elvis
Marilyn Moneroe was a costume winner

Julie and Mike as Candy Corn Girl & Pee Wee Herman
Pee Wee won best male costume!

Laura and Jeff as Brett Michael's & Girlfriend

Kim and Troy as Rose McGowan & Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson was a costume winner

Chuck and Rachel and Popeye & Olive Oyl
Olive Oyl won best Female costume

John and Nicole as Sonny & Cher

Katie and Mike as Wicked Witch of the West & Incredible Hulk

Stacey and Tim as Playboy Bunny and Hugh Hefner

Mike and Jen as Indiana Jones and Russian Girlfriend

Less and Marta as Jamaican Man and Jessica Simpson gone country

The Hollywood Stars Group Picture

Words out of Rylans mouth

2008-10-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Rylan: "mom, I want a treat"
Mom: "Excuse me?"
RYlan:"Mom, may I have a treat please?"
Mom: "Rylan, I told you after you eat your breakfast and take your vitamins, you can have a treat."
Rylan: "But I want a treat now!"
Mom: "I don't think so, that is not good manners"
RYlan: "OK I will eat my eggs and my vitamins."
He takes several bites of his food...
"ooohhhh that's yummy in my tummy!! yummy in my tummy!"
As he sings it
He finishes his breakfast and takes his vitamins.
Mom: "ok you may have a treat now"
He's looking through the cookie jar to see if anything catches his eye.
He spots something tasty...
"Oh yea baby, this is what I'm talking about!" as he shows me a big piece of bubble gum.

Visiting Omaha

2008-10-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

When I go back home I like to visit a few of my favorite places. At the Westroads mall, one store in particular I need to shop at is Von Maur because of the interest free, no late fee credit card. You only have to pay the minimum balance if you want or the whole thing. They have everything you could possibly need in a department store. They have awesome sales and everyone in the family looks great. Rylan is a big help as well...he picked me out some new sunglasses!

Driving by my old high school brings back many memories.
I graduated in 1994 from Millard North. I was a swimmer there all four years.
My favorite classes were Human Physiology, Law Studies, and PE classes. I pretty much hated everything else. I didn't really care for school. But it's where I met my future husband, so it all worked out for me.

Henry Dorly Zoo is a fantastic place to take the kids. One of the best in the nation. I invited my father-in-law to join me when I took my two niece's and Rylan. It's always nice to have an extra pair of hands plus Rylan doesn't get to see his Grandpa Nano very often. The kids ran all over the place. The gorilla exhibit was exciting for the kids, they seemed to be quite active that day. They also have a new butterfly exhibit. The kids tried their darndest to keep their paws off the beautiful creatures, but couldn't resist trying.

Rylan and I went to my Dads new office the day after we found out that Grandma Andy passed away. We took him lunch and tried to cheer him up.

We had a bunch of family in town after the death of my Grandma. Everyone spent alot of time at my parents house eating lots of food, playing poker, and the Wii.

Grandma Andy

2008-10-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

In loving memory

Janet Lee Andersen

Born November 25, 1933
Laid to rest
Omaha Nebraska
October 12, 2008

Eternal Color
In spring , trees' leaves were merely buds when everything was new.
They couldn't shade, nor hide a bird, but everyday they grew.

Now autumn's here, and leaves have turned from summertime's full bloom.
They separate from branch, their home, and snow will be their tomb.

How sad that when they're at their peak, it's time for them to go.
Yet, how colorful they made this world; it was God's plan, I know.

Your life, too, was most beautiful; how brightly shone your heart.
For now, my friend, you've joined the leaved, and from us, did depart

Separated from us on earth you've joined the Lord above.
We'll miss you here, our dearest friend, but glad you taught us love.

LeeAnn Abell

Grandma Andy

2008-10-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

Grandma Andy had been in and out of the hospital for the last few months. I flew into Omaha from Phoenix on Sunday Oct. 5th to spend some time with her. I arrived at the hospital, straight off the plane, where I met up with my family. I was deeply saddened when I walked in her room as this was not the same grandmother I saw 4 months ago. I tried to be stong, but I could not seem to keep the tears from pouring out. I spent the entire day with Grandma. She was very tired and could hardly speak, but managed to say a few things. I had Rylan with me and she seemed to be concerend that someone might take him. She asked about Chad and Tanner, his school and how he was doing in football.
The doctors tried everything they could. She was getting too weak and her chemo treatments were very hard on her. She was moved to the Hospice House the morning of Monday Oct. 6th. I spent a few hours up their holding her hands, praying over her and talking a bit with her when she could. All kinds of family and friends were in and out of her room all day. Her sister and niece arrived in from Fort Worth. They were able to see Grandma and spend some time with her. Later Grandma mentioned it had been a long day and wanted everyone to leave and not come back till morning. My Aunt Debbie, my sister and Great Aunt left around 7ish. My Aunt Debbie was planning on coming back later to spend the night. She recieved a call from the Hospice House saying she was in her last stages of life. Everyone was notified and rushed to see her. No one made it in time. At 10:20pm my Grandmother passed away after a long battle of Cancer. I believe that Grandma felt that she finally got her moment of peace (we never let her be alone) and choose the time when no one was there to spare us the pain of her leaving. It was very hard to even think about losing Grandma, but she was in so much pain and had been suffering for too long. It was finally her time to go live in eternity to begin a pain-free, peaceful life with her husband. And in knowing that I am truly greatful and blesssed that God has taken over.

When we take the time to speak fondly of someone, it’s usually after it’s too late to let them know personally. Proudly, I can say this was not the case with my grandma. She was always surrounded by family and friends who told her everyday how much they loved her. And she would always return the favor.
You see, with Grandma Andy, SHE knew how you felt about her… and YOU knew how she felt about you…and if you didn’t, you only had to wait a moment before she told you. That’s how she was. Life was too short and too precious to beat around the bush. She was as honest as anyone I know- and most certainly she was not the shyest.
Grandma Andy was also the most dynamic woman I ever knew. As I think about her now, certain feelings and emotions go rushing through my head. No words, in any language, will ever be able to describe the incredible woman that she was or the love she had for her family. But if forced, I could use words like, candid, thoughtful, responsible, giving, loving, assertive, humorous, addictive, charming, no-nonsense, hard-working, relentless, and poised to make reference to her peerless and extraordinary personality. I was very fortunate to be a part of her life and subsequently to have been friends with one of the most intriguing and beautiful people I ever knew or will ever know.
I know that whatever happens moving forward, we will all have Grandma Andy in our hearts. And her undying influence on each one of us will continue to make us into the people she had hoped we would become…and into people she would be proud of.
Without a doubt, she was a very special woman. I miss her already, but I know I can call on her memory at anytime and she will be here with me. I will never forget her.

Phoenix Zoo

2008-09-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

On the forth of July when we went to the Diamondbacks baseball game and received free tickets to the Phoenix Zoo. They were getting ready to expire in October so of course we needed to take full advantage of this opportunity. Today was our family day to do just that. The boys were so excited to go and check out the animals. They had their favorites they wanted to see.
Every direction on a main highway that would lead us to the zoo was closed. What would have been a quick 20-25 min drive turned out to be almost an hour trying to navigate through the city, hitting every stop light along the way. That is very frustrating and the kids kept asking how much longer it would be to get to the zoo. Thank goodness for DVD player. Madagascar was the only DVD in the van and that was perfect for getting ready to go to the zoo. The minute the movie starts, Rylan sings the “I like to move it, move it” song and bee bops all over in his seat. It’s quite hilarious.

Our first stop is the Savanna area and African trail. They were very interested in the Giraffes, Watusi Cattle, and the Rhino’s. Unfortunately they really wanted to see the Zebras, but hey were no where in site. Monkeys, Orangutans, Baboons and Mandrill’s were next. Rylan gets a kick out of these guys. Especially the baboons. For some reason he can’t help to point out how colorful the Baboon’s butts are. Of course he has to make a big ordeal and say something silly when a lot of people are around and embarrass the crap out of us. I wish I could remember what he said. It was pretty funny. Chad and I looked at each other, laughed it off under our breath, grabbed the boys and ran out of there!

The Lions and tigers are always a huge hit. The lions were out playing and very lively. By the time the boys got up there to see them they mellowed out and went into their little caves. That was a bummer. The elephants are always a big hit. One little guy was out all by himself. The boys said "ahhh he is sooo cute!". And he really was, but he needed some friends in there to play with. So we threw Tanner and Rylan in...ok, i'm kidding. Chad went in!

On our way to the petting farm we ran into an interesting character...one that is seen here in Phoenix quite often. A bobcat. Just like Rylan is with our cat...he went ahead and teased this little fellow too. The kitty gave the boys a big ol' hiss right back to let them know he was scared. It looked more like a ...If I were able to break out of my cage, I would rip you to shreds hiss. He was looking pretty mean and ferocious! I think I jumped back a couple of times.

Ahh yes, the petting farm. Who doesn't love a germ infested, disease spreading area?? Rylan got out a bush to pat down his little buddy. Chad picked leaves off the trees and Rylan got a kick out of the goats eating in his hands. Tanner found his friend. His name just happened to be T.J. Tanners initials. He insisted I take a picture of them! Check out the red collar.

After we left the petting zoo it was time to rub our dirty hands in a big bag of kettle corn...did we wash them...nah! Ok we never got kettle corn and we scrubbed up to our elbows before we left the barn.

Here are some other random shots throughout the day

Despite the fact that the temperature was 105 degrees today we all had a blast. Its a dry heat!!!

12 Year Wedding Anniversary

2008-09-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Being married this long sure makes you wonder where all the time went. Reflecting, as most couples do on their anniversary, we remember being very young when we got married. Chad was 23 and me…a mature 20.We met back in high school when I was a freshman. Chad , a senior at the time, was very popular and all the chicks wanted to date the “Thomas twins” (he has an identical twin). I was 14 when I met the “twins”. He was a "hot" tennis player with a bunch of other good looking, mullet wearing guys. I always had my eye on Chad though. Outside of school, we worked together at a grocery store back in Nebraska . He was a Deli-boy and I…well I was anywhere in the store where I could see him. Whenever I saw him on his break, I would conveniently take mine. He would scoop me up a big thing of mashed potatoes and hide a couple of “free” chicken legs underneath. What a sweetie! Besides thieving for me (hehe), he always did this funny little routine with his fork and knife that always made me laugh hysterically (who am I kidding, it still makes me laugh) *INSIDE JOKE*. Despite Chad ’s refusal to date me because I was too young, we remained good friends all through my high school years. I think he was afraid of my dad. My dad was not fond of him being in college and he thought he had a "reputation"; whatever that was. I mean, he just drank a lot and had huge parties at his mom’s house, what college kid didn’t? Fathers are so protective of their daughters.
He finally gave in during the summer of ’94 when I graduated high school and we started dating. We dated for about a year and a half before he asked me to marry him! We were engaged another year and a half before we tied the knot!

My mom’s side is Mexican (translation-FUN PEOPLE) so one can only imagine how big our wedding was. 450 of our closest family and friends were there for the biggest party of the year (about 50 were there for Chad-ahhh those poor white people didn’t know what to do with themselves). The ceremony was complete with a Mariachi band and DJ who made us do the Macarena and the “train” all night long. I was told by more than a few of our guests, that it was the funnest wedding they had ever been to. I would have to agree! Of course none of it would have been possible had it not been for the greatest parents in the world; Rick and Rachel for making the wedding of our dreams happen! And Rick (Thomas) for making a beautiful cake (and making Chad and I look old in our “50th Anniversary picture)!

Through our experiences, we have learned a great many things about ourselves and marriage. Below I have tried to summarize them in a list. Enjoy!

12 things we have learned since getting married

1. We are each other’s best friends (that is, when football and my soaps aren’t on the TV-LOL).
2. The honeymoon doesn't last forever, but it’s still possible to rekindle those old feelings when you make time for it.
3. Planning your first 5 years of marriage makes life so much easier and manageable.
4. Love can be painful and brings out the best and worst in us (I think we all know this one)
5. All the stories you hear about children are true!
6. Having sons is awesome!
7. Our kids think we take a lot of "naps" if you know what I mean!
8. Opposites truly do attract
9. Women really do need 35 pairs of shoes ( Chad ’s entry)
10. Having separate checking accounts has saved us from a lot of frivolous grief
11. A California King bed is better than a Queen bed any day (I need my space!)
12. Our love is stronger now than it was the day we got married

Over the last 12 years, Chad and I have been through a lot; some fantastic peaks and some very low valleys. Things have not always been easy, but in the beginning we made a commitment to each other to stay together “till death do us part”, no matter what. We face new and exciting challenges every day. From how we manage our differences in spirituality to who gets to record on the DVR to who gets to clean up the cat puke. No matter what happens, we got each other’s back and that’s what makes being married worth while. So to my attractive, lovable, beautiful blue-eyed, man who is devoted, caring, witty & charming, polite, outgoing, comical, intelligent, loyal, trustworthy, responsible, understanding, a great father and wonderful husband…thank you for 12 years I will never forget.

Oh yeah, to celebrate we had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Tomaso's (that is with one ‘s’). We didn’t get treated like the owners, but we got treated like Italians! It was great spending time with each other; reminiscing about our past and how far we have come together. It is amazing that we are where we are today. We both know we could not have gotten this far without our love and support of each other.

Tanner's first year of tackle football

2008-09-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

For most of the kids on the Cardinal Wolfpack Mighty Mites team, this is their first year hearing the sound of helmets crunching on the field. Then you have other kids who like to keep their distance and watch from the back while playing safety. That would be Tanner's main position. August 30 was their first scrimmage game. They didn't do so well. It was very hot out and the kids were still learning all the plays. They walked away with a renewed passion to get their very young team as prepared as possible for the upcoming season. The Coach said they will learn how to execute under pressure and that things will work when everyone performs their responsibilities.

(Tanner is in the center with Coach Keith telling him what to do)

(Uncle Scott & Sema were also with us to cheer the team on)

(the drive home after the game, a very tired boy)

September 6 was their first real game against the Chandler Wolves. This time Uncle Rob, Aunt Jill and baby Ethan came to watch. It was very early in the morning. The kids had to be on the field by 6:30am, kickoff at 8am. Never mind the fact that it takes us 45 min from our house to get there. Luckily Rob let the boys stay at their house in Chandler. The field was only 2 minutes from them. Tanner looked very handsome in his new uniform with "TOMASSO" on it.
But handsome will only get you so far. Our team got killed 33-0. On a bright note they had flashes of genius against much older kids and they improved 100% from their scrimmage. In the end they all had fun and that is the main thing.

Salon Labor Day pool party

2008-08-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

One of my co-workers decided to have all the salon employee's over for a pool party today. I believe her goal was to make sure everyone had WAY too much fun, if you know what I mean. She was successful. From what I remember she had roast beef sandwiches, burnt corn on the cob, a smelly tuna salad, yummy chocolate peanut better dessert, pool volleyball and blackjack, tequila squirt gun, many jello shots, and a hookah.
It was nice to get together with everyone and hang out without all the "work stuff" to think about. We had so much fun. Scott and Sema also came with us. Poor Sema was out like a light after the first two hours. That could be because Sandy was making us all play "catchup" since we arrived a bit later than most. I am not going to go into all the details, but lets just say we only stayed for maybe 4 hours and had to go home. Sema and I were in bed by 7:30pm right when we walked in the door and slept for about 13 hours. Nuff said!

(here she is passing out more shots to everyone)

(girls having a good ol' time)

(tequila squirt gun for those who looked like they weren't having enough fun Chad and Scott....)

(Sema looks like she is having a good time not knowing anybody)

(Scott is getting ready to babysit Sema) Chad is hanging with the girls!
(and this is where Sema spent most of the day....with a few other's)

Putt-Putt golf

2008-08-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to take Scott and Sema out to Devil's Martini North, but due to the excitement of the football game we were all drained. We wanted a low key night so we decided to go play putt-putt instead. I haven't played in over a year, I was quite proud of myself for doing so well. It was Chad and Tanya vs. Scott and Sema.

We were ahead by a few strokes and they came back strong. It was neck and neck till the very end. We tied!

HUSKER FOOTBALL

2008-08-30T22:59:00.000-07:00

It's football season and that can only mean one thing...HUSKER FOOTBALL!!!

Time to put on our GO BIG RED gear and watch the game. Red mohawks and all!

We invited a few fellow "Nebraskans" to watch the game with us.

Oh wait.....TOUCHDOWN....NEBRASKA SCORES!!!! It felt like back home when we used to have our big Nebraska football parties with all our friends! This is what the kids did during half time...they play a little game of their own in the front room

We beat Western Michigan 47-24. It was a good day!

Hiking in Sedona with Scott and Sema

2008-08-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

Chad's brother Scott and girlfriend Sema are in town for the holiday weekend. I cannot believe that we have never taken them to Sedona. They come out maybe 3 times a year and never been.

Upon arriving, we got information from the visitor center that the Airport Trail would be a nice first stop. It is higher up than all the other trails and has great views of Sedona.
We find the trial head and start our adventure. This loop trail gives you panoramic views of Sedona's best-known red rock landmarks (plus the occasional thrill of getting buzzed by vintage aircraft). Little did we know this was going to take us much longer than we thought. We were doing great till we let Sema take the lead. haha (she will get a chuckle of of that) Actually I think that it was Chad that said "Let's go up the side of this mountain and see whats at the top". We all followed like puppies.

Through brush, cactus, prickly bushes, & large rocks....did I mention they were very loose? I was concentrating on my step so I don't have any pictures of us off the beaten path. There was lots of rock climbing going on and for some reason I could not get good footing. Scott was behind me & caught the fall of the rocks with his legs. He has some nice bruises to show for it.

Chad and Scott got stabbed in the knee by a very sharp plant..same knee, same spot, probably same bush. They are twins so they try to keep it the same. It was very warm out and we weren't sure how long we were going to be "lost". All I could think about were the kids and what would we do if we didn't make it back in time to pick them up. Like a dummy, I decided to leave my cell phone in the car...great spot!
We were hoping that when we made it to the top we would find a trail. Nope, nothing up there...except for the airport runway! Yeah, we can go to the airport, get to the main road, and walk down to our car...easier said than done. It was surrounded by a fence and barbed wire. We continued to follow it all the way to the end, that seemed to take forever. Miles and miles it felt like when your on foot. That let us back down the mountain. Not somewhere we wanted to go. That was our only option. Down we went and it was not easy. Planes and helicopters flew overhead, we tried to wave them down. Chad fell a couple of times, we were still getting all scratched up and running out of water.
(here we are lost somewhere at the top of the mountain)

(right after Chad fell, Sema couldn't stop laughing at him)

(made it back to the trail, thought we were going to be stuck out here forever!)

We went to have lunch and replenish our bodies before we went on our next hike. West Fork Trail in Oak Creek Canyon was also suggested. I made sure that we stayed on the trail this time!

Unlike the Airport Trail, it's an easy stroll, but you do have to cross the stream in a number of places. Usually, that involves negotiating a few strategically placed stepping stones or taking a couple of steps in shallow water.

Majestic views soon took our breath away as we looked ahead to the red rock canyon walls that rose sharply hundreds of feet above the creek. The path is wide black dirt that takes you past ancient ponderosa pines (smell their bark... its like vanilla!), maples, oaks, ferns, reeds, all manner of wildflowers, and other vegetation. I would highly suggest this hike.

(having a little fun on the hike)

(our cover albums)

Despite the fact that we were lost for about an hour in Sedona, Scott and Sema still had a great time and would go back again and do it all over!

Tanner's big day

2008-08-11T22:26:00.001-07:00

Monday was a big day in the Tomasso household. Tanner was getting ready to start 3rd grade, which is going to be alot harder and more work than K-2 was. It was also his first full week of football practice with pads and helmet.
As usual Tanner woke up at the crack of dawn, did his accountable kids chores, made his own breakfast, finished up his chores and came to me with a ticket ready to play some video games before heading to school.
This is how Tanner's school week will be until November. He starts roughly around 6am, wakes up on his own and gets all his stuff done. Off to school at 8:25am, picked up at 3:30pm. Have a snack and do homework. Leave for football at 4:30pm. Practice till 7:00pm. Come home have dinner, finish any homework, read, wrestle or play around with family, in bed 8:45pm. Whew! This kid is going to be very busy. So if he wants to play the PS3 in the morning, who am I to deny him of his only fun time!

Tanners first day of "tackle" practice. He is in the middle

Summer Hair Repair

2008-08-06T11:26:00.001-07:00

With Summer coming to an end, its time to think about the products we need to repair those dry, brittle ends.

Teen Vogue says

"Summer Hair Special - Try Hair Repair: Bumble and bumble Creme de Coco Masque."

(Product pictured) May 2008

An indulgent masque with a trio of tropical butters which bestows intensive moisture, softness, silkiness and gloss.

Who: Ideal for dry or dull hair, but good for all types (except super-fine); especially coconut lovers and island hoppers; color compatible.

When: Once a week (or as often as you like); following Creme de Coco Shampoo.

How: After washing with Creme de Coco Shampoo, squeeze a generous amount into palm and work through clean, wet hair; leave on for 7-10 minutes (or longer); for added moisture, wrap in a warm towel or sit in the sunshine (you can even leave it in overnight).

Falling apart

2008-08-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

So why is it that I am in, what I would call the best shape I have been in, and I am falling apart? I have always been really good at working out and staying pretty fit. Was a runner and gymnast in junior high and swimmer all through high school. I go through phases where I work out really hard for a couple of years, then get pregnant or something and stop for a while. (don't need to worry bout that anymore) I go back to my old ways of eating like crap.
Before I got pregnant with my second child I was really working out hard at the gym with a trainer who wanted me to do either physical fitness or body building competitions. I could never get up in front of people and flex my stuff, but I will work out like I can. I worked out just the same all through the pregnancy and even after. I will say it did make labor and delivery a breeze. One - two pushes and the child flew out! It was awesome!
After we moved further away from the gym, it made it that much harder to go, so I was on another break for a year or two. Before I knew it, our 10 year wedding anniversary was coming up and we were going to Kauai. Better get my butt back into shape! We hired a great personal trainer (TUFFMOM) to come to our house 3 days a week at 5a.m. She was great and had us looking awesome for our trip in less than 6 months. Drop the fat, drop the weight, build the muscle... all was good!
Now wait a minute...I turned 30 then. I remember my knees where starting to go out. I was in pain almost every day. Why my knees...I haven't been injured or anything. The only thing I could think of is the heavy leg press or squats I had done in the past. Not to mention every job I have ever had was always standing and of course the last 10 years would be in some sort of heal cause it looks way better with your outfit, never mind how bad it makes your knees, legs, or feet feel. Doctors said just a little fluid in there, no need for anything major. My chiropractor also said the same thing and he works on it all the time. And after 6 months or so it kind of went away. Although it does tend to visit me every now and then, not nearly as bad as it was a couple of years back.
I was also starting to breakout more on my face. What the heck is up with that? I thought that was supposed to be a teen thing. My skin was doing so well for years and now I can play connect the dots on my forehead and chin...come on!!
Ever since I can remember, I would get headaches. Now they have turned into some form of a migraine. If I get them at work, it cripples me and I have to leave.
I have horrible IBS, it seems like whatever I eat, it makes me sick. Even though now I am eating way more healthy than I have in the past.
I have to see the chiropractor every couple of weeks cause my neck, back, and shoulders are in constant pain. I know most of this is also due to my career. The way I stand and stick my neck out and hold my hands up in the air for hours on end. My husband says that my hands look and feel like an 80 year old. They are so dry, crack and bleed and are wrinkly from all the water I am in daily. He also tells me my vains in my arms pop out so much it looks unhealthy...it isn't though....it really means I am quite healthy. HAH!
And now....Carpal Tunnel, again I believe it's job related. The blow drying and constant twisting of my wrist to make all heads of hair beautiful. I went to my Chiropractor again today and told him about my wrist. After messing with it and doing some stretching and manipulating he pretty much said its all jacked up. I think it was because I almost knocked him out when he was looking at it. Gave me all this mambo jumbo medical talk and said we could work on it. He doesn't believe in jumping into surgery to solve these kinds of issues. We will deal with this. Chad thinks I need to rest and stop working out. That is for sissy's I say. I am strong, I will push through this, I will not stop working out. I know my limits. I need to continue to build my muscles to stay as fit and healthy for as long as I can. I may complain, but that is how I will deal and get past it.
As I re-read this post I can only come to one conclusion....I need to quit my job!
OK, that will never happen!

First day of Football practice

2008-08-04T21:36:00.000-07:00

My baby boy is growing up so quickly. I cannot believe that I am allowing my son to be suited up in pads, run around a field in this heat, and possibly get clobbered by other children. Well, I guess I can. We are from Nebraska and we are growing a Cornhusker player here.

Our head coach is from Texas and according to him... the only things Texans care about is football, religion, and politics. From the people I know in Texas, that sounds about right. So you can only imagine how he is with these kids. They will eat, sleep, and breathe football.

They are not in full gear for another two weeks. Our coaches do not want them to even wear helmets yet cause of the heat. They are practicing how to tackle the proper way, running sprints, & tug of war techniques for now. They have the two hour practiced planned out minute by minute. Supposedly this team isn't like the others. They do things a bit differently and hopefully that will mean a great year lies ahead. Tanner is doing very well and seems to be having alot of fun with it. He is a fast runner! I believe he gets that from his Momma! I was a sprinter in my younger years.

Only 18 more practices to go for the month! His first scrimmage game will be Saturday August 30th at a "real" football field in Glendale...we're thinking the Cardinals stadium??? That would be awesome!

Hairstyles for boys

2008-07-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when your mom does hair...
Because I do hair, my boys have had more styles in their first few years of life than most. Tanner had his first haircut when he was 3 months old and was given his first "shoeshine" (highlights) at the young age of 3. Its been long, short, colored, and bleached all before he turned 6. Since Rylan already has blonde hair, I am not ready to color that anytime soon.

School starts August 11th...Tanner is going into 3rd grade. Rylan is in pre-school.

Tanner has pretty thick, slightly wavy hair. This season he is sporting one of David Beckham's older looks...the shaved head. Very easy and low maintenance. #2 clipper guard all over. Perfect for playing football in full gear under the Phoenix sun & 100 plus degree heat. He does not have time to comb or style his hair in the next few months. This is the best look for him at this time.

Rylan has thin and straight hair. We choose another David Beckham hairstyle. This style came shortly after David's shaved look grew back. We call it, the mini-Mohawk. As you can see it looks oh-so cute on him and he can wear it a couple of different ways. It's fun, its funky, and it totally fits his personality. I must say this look is much cuter on a 4 yr old.
Chad says all I have to do is color his hair purple and he will look like an Umpa Lumpa. That would scare the crap out of Chad...he is very frightened by those little purple men in the movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Summer Movie Fun

2008-07-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over for the kids. Today was our last movie of the summer. For the last 10 weeks on Tuesday's I took my kids and my neighbors kids to the Harkins Theatres Summer Movies. Each week they played a different kids movie. For example we saw Surf's Up, Shrek 3, Bee Movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Flushed Away, & Wallace and Gromit. The kids really get a kick out of going with all their friends and ordering Slurpee's. It was pretty cheap, a good deal you couldn't pass up in the Phoenix summer heat. 10 movies for $7!

Uncle Scott'v visit

2008-07-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

Chad's brother, Scott was in town over the weekend working for TV Guide at the American Idol auditions held in Glendale. He worked for a couple of days and then spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with us here at home. I think every time Scott comes into town for a visit, its just a little reminder for him -not- to have kids. The boys love to wake him up in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn to play or wrestle.
They like to sit by him during dinner and make him messy,
they like to be tossed back and forth in the pool,
and they like to watch Daddy and Uncle Scott go on tour with their band.

FitTv with Sharon Mann

2008-07-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

In Shape with Sharon Mann Pilates/Power Yoga 30min
Hosted and designed by four time Canadian Aerobics Champion Sharon Mann, this exercise show blends Pilates, Kick boxing, Tai Chi, Boxercise, Boot Camp, Yoga and Interval training. It's loaded with fitness information and extra fitness tips.

Since I was up really late last night, I didn't have enough energy this morning to do an intense weightlifting workout. As I was making breakfast for the kids, I was watching FitTv and saw the above Pilates/Yoga segment. It looked nice, calming, and refreshing. I never thought I would be into this sort of exercise, but it has great balance, stretching, and breathing techniques. You can check www.fittv.com for daily schedules of your favorite shows. Lately what I have been doing is recording all the episodes of Cathe Friedrich and few other Yoga/Pilate ones and doing high intensity, weightlifting in the morning, then will go to Yoga and more calming exercise in the evening to wind down.

Football shall rule our lives!!!!

2008-07-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had Tanner's first parent/coach meeting for tackle football...yes, that's tackle football, Lord help us. Last year he played flag football and really had fun with it. He practiced 2 nights a week with games on Saturdays. And ya know if he missed a practice maybe once or twice, it was no big deal. Well this year, things are different. He is on the Mighty Mites Cardinals team and things are getting serious. For the entire month of August he will practice from 5-7pm Monday through Friday. You heard me correct, Monday through Friday!!!.
We were in the process of planning a trip to San Diego for a family vacation Aug 22-26. That means he would miss 6 hours of practice and would not be able to start in the first game...Sept 6th. They have to log so many hours of contact practice before they can play in a game. Not to mention he has team pictures on the 23rd. The coach pretty much says that unless you are dying, you need to be at all the practices. And every week they will need to study for 70 plus plays in the playbook. This is going to be alot of work for Chad and I! Tanner will pretty much have no life the entire month of August, and neither will we. So no vacations for us till we leave for Florida in November.

This is our future...video gamers

2008-07-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

Tanner had a few friends over today. Like we do almost every Tuesday or Wednesday, the boys go out and get some exercise. 11:30-3:30pm, 5 little fishes swim.

After a long day of exerting ourselves in the pool, its time to really put our brains to work by playing video games. They look so into it, don't they? I wonder if they all will become professional video gamers and make the big bucks???

Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op

2008-07-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

I joined a food co-op that consists of mainly of produce. You can also order breads, nuts, oils, and teas. We just got our first basket this week. I was amazed at how much we got for only $15!! Peaches, Nectarines, bananas, plums, strawberries, oranges, big green leaf lettuce, celery, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, radishes, whole onions and carrots. Every two weeks you can place an order to be picked up on Saturday. The next delivery date is Sat. Aug. 2nd.

You would need to place your order before Wed. July 30. I would highly recommend doing this. My girlfriend kept telling me about it, I can't believe it took me so long to join. First time orders are $17 to pay for the baskets they put your food in each time. You bring bags to take your produce home in. The website below also has great information on produce storage. There was alot about storing produce I was not aware of.

http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/home.html

They also send out 5-10 recipes to use with the items you received in your basket. I tried these two and they turned out great!!

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Onions Recipe #193144

This is a wonderful, easy dish that even my husband loves and he swears he doesn't like sweet potatoes. I have served it for Thanksgiving dinner to rave reviews. I like it because it is WW core. It can easily be doubled. by Chef #372968

50 min 15 min prep SERVES 6 ·

4 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces · 2 medium red onions, cut in to 1-inch pieces · 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil · 1 teaspoon lemon pepper · 1/2 teaspoon salt 1. Preheat oven to 425. 2. Combine all ingredients in baking dish. 3. Toss to coat the veggies 4. bake for 35 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender and onions are soft.

http://www.recipezaar.com/

Sauteed Radishes Recipe #88634

This comes from Sarah's Secrets. I love radishes, so I had to give this a try......Glad I did. SO GOOD by Boca Pat

15 min 5 min prep SERVES 6 ·

4 bunches radishes, washed & quartered · 2 tablespoons butter, unsalted · salt 1. Heat butter in fry pan. 2. Add radishes and salt. 3. Saute until crispy.

A loss is mourned...

2008-07-20T22:53:00.001-07:00

Today we lost a very special friend...our pet scorpion. They boys found him belly up at the bottom of our pool this afternoon when they went for a swim. He must have gotten lost while he was wondering in the backyard last night and fell in. I thought I made it clear to everyone to be very safe around the pool. Obviously he was not listening. Ok, I am actually not sorry for this loss at all. I hate any form of bug. EWWWW!!!

What happens in Vegas...stays in Vegas, baby!

2008-07-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

Our friend, Erik was turning 30 years old. What better way for him to celebrate than Casino style. His wife Jess threw him a Las Vegas style casino party complete with dealers, Blackjack, Texas Hold em, and Roulette table. Everyone was given $1000 in play money upon entering. Now wait, not only was this a casino party, but you could dress up as your favorite Las Vegas character as well. Chad entered the house as an older, fatter Elvis Presley. Which he received best costume for by the way. I on the other hand decided to come as a girl going to Vegas ready to party since I am horrible at trying to decide on any costume. Other costumes were...pimps, gold diggers, prostitutes, lady luck, cowboy, king and queen of spades, and just married couples.

We gambled till 10pm. After the tables were shut down they gave out tickets for every $200 we had. Chad and I had alot of money to cash in! The host had cups behind $15 Starbucks, Cheesecake Factory, and Barnes and Noble gift cards. You had to put your tickets in the raffle you were hoping to win. Chad won the Barnes and Noble and I the Starbucks gift card....Thanks Jess & Erik!!! Wow, This was a lot of fun!!

I love FitTv

2008-07-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

I love to exercise to FitTv Cathe Friedrich!! She is awesome. We have Direct TV, its on channel 261. Just to name a few, her segments are under CardioBlast , Core Max, or Stretch Max. I have been working out with her now for a couple of weeks. Every time...and I mean every time I do one of her workouts I am in pain (good pain) the next morning if not before the end of the night. She pushes you to the max. I did her Kick, Punch, Crunch cardio workout and thought I was going to vomit when I was done.
I am more into weightlifting so I tend to do those the most. Each segment is broken down into sections of the body (i.e. biceps & triceps , legs & glutes, Upper Body Pyramid, Lower Body Pyramid etc...) or all over Muscle Endurance. Her cardio ones are Step Blast step aerobics or kickboxing. Love them!!!
Since it is on TV you do have commercials, but since I have DVR, I am able to fast forward and get a continuous 50min workout. Her Core Max segments are 30 min. They are different stomach and core muscle exercises using the balls. I will do one hour of her weightlifting and mix it in with a core segment or a cardio segment. I try to do about 1 1/2 hours a day. I am so obsessed with it I will get up at 5:30am (which I hate) & do one in the morning and one at night sometimes. My front living room has turned into a weightlifting/step aerobics room.

To do her routines you will need a stability ball, 8lb exercise ball, 3lb-25lb dumbbells, barbells to put on 10lb-40lbs, a step, & stretch bands. You can actually go to her website and get her videos. Since I get it for free with my satellite, I will stick with that for now. However, if you do not get FitTv and want to get into a great workout routine, you should definitely check out her website! http://cathe.com/ or check out her blog in "my links to check out" section.
If your thinking about joining the gym, don't waste your money!! Get on FitTv...she will kick your butt!!! Its like I have my own personal trainer at home. I talk about it all the time and can't get enough of it. She is an inspiration! And has inspired me to work even harder. I am getting up at 5:30am everyday for crying out loud!
Other workouts on FitTv I like are All Star Workouts Yoga Zen with Sara Ivanhoe, any of Gilad's Bodies in Motion (ex.Cardio Kickboxing, Chest Triceps, Abs), Total Body Sculpt with Gilad

Camping

2008-07-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went camping with our neighbors David, Tricia, and their girls. The guys went up Friday night. They drove maybe 10 miles up the I-17 only to find out there had been a bad accident and traffic was at a dead stop for about 2 hours. Our campsite was only 1 1/2 hour away from our home. They left at 5:45pm and arrived at the Stoneman lake campground at 10:30pm with 4 kids, a camper, and a dog.
I had to work Saturday morning for a couple of hours, Tricia and I drove up in the afternoon.
When we arrived the boys had set up a great campground for us. We had an hour or so before a 30 min. torrential downpour occurred. The dust turned into MUD...lots and lots of mud! Thank goodness David and Tricia had a pop up camper for us to take refuge in. The kids played with all their toys and drew pictures, they were perfectly content. We on the other hand, were soaked as we were trying to set up the last tent before the rain came. After a while the rain stopped and we were able to get out and slop around in the mud for a bit. This makes for a very interesting weekend.
The kids made sure they could get as dirty as possible without even trying. They are kids, what do you expect! We had very little rain, just a few sprinkles every now and then throughout the night.

The sun eventually peeked through the clouds and we were able to play some games and build a fire to make our cheeseburgers. Of course you can't end the evening without smores... lots and lots of smores. That is if you can get them from your stick to the graham cracker...and lastly to your mouth without dropping them on the floor. We had many smore camping fouls. Good thing we had plenty to go around.

The kids went to bed somewhat early, they had gone on quite a long hike earlier in the day with the guys. That gave the adults some time to reminisce and have a few drinks by the fire.
Rylan was up most of the night coughing and moving all over the tent. I had a nice night listening to all that and the rain hitting our tent, hoping it was not going to come through. The four of us didn't get up till 930ish when we smelled the breakfast our friends were making. The rest of the morning was pretty much enjoying the day and getting ready to pack things up. Tanner loves the walkie talkies so we let him take the kids on a little adventure hike so we could get things ready to go for the day. They don't get very far before he radio's in. "beebeep...Mom? Rylan has stepped in mud...beebeep...Megan also has stepped in mud." They came back with mud up to their ankles! What a mess. They had fun and that is all that matters.
From Stoneman Lake AZ...until next time....

BBQ with friends and Rock Band

2008-07-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

It was time to bring the neighbors over to swim and play Rock Band. We cooked out some good food and the kids swam for a good portion of the night. Swimming makes them very sleepy, that is when they crashed to the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks all piled up in our bedroom.
I don't know how they slept through Traci's rendition of Dead or Alive on Rock Band or Tricia singing Nirvana. They actually did a really good job. It was her first time playing, not singing though. Everyone tried out the drums and guitar, only a few of us sang. Not as easy as one might think. But fun indeed. I personally think the guitar is easier to play than the drums.

Things to do when its so hot out!

2008-07-09T22:57:00.000-07:00

OK so most of our days when I am home with the boys are spent by the pool. They just love to swim. Never get tired of it. I found this octopus contraption that my dear old neighbor Suzanne (who moved away)gave Tanner for his 6th birthday. It has been hiding in the storage cabinet in our garage for quite sometime. It was always a pain to blow up...Chad thought he threw it away...sorry Suzanne. I kept it. Look how much fun it is though!!! The boys had a blast!!

About every 45 minutes or so I have to pull the boys out and re-apply their sunscreen. With our UV Rays so intense here, its just something you have to do. I also make them sit out for awhile and take a breather, grab a snack or in this case...they heard the theme song from the Transformers movie. I heard the music get louder on my Ipod so I peeked around the corner to check on them. They were jammin out!! Playing the air guitar and drums. RyRy was singing his little heart out to What I've Done by Linkin Park. He doesn't even know the words except for a couple of them. He knows the beat and the sound of the song...how it is suppose to be sung. The rest is da-da-da, ra-ra, blaaadaaa...daaa. He cracks me up. They had to play the song over and over. After the 5th time, it was enough. They were bummed. I had to stop them. Tanner was swinging his arm so hard on the air guitar, I thought it was going to fall right off. We got some talented little munchkins here! Check them out!!

copy and paste this link onto your web browser if you cant see the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBw41SX_l50

Rylan loves to do "homework"

2008-07-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

During the summer I always get a workbook for Tanner to do while school is out. Keep his mind fresh so he doesn't forget anything he learned that year while he spends countless hours on the Wii. He earns his time playing video games by doing his workbook...so don't worry, its all good.
Rylan watches Tanner and wants to do everything Tanner does.
I was at Costco one day and got him the Pre-K activity pack.
I would highly recommend it for something fun and learning to do at home. It includes a Learn to Count CD-ROM, FUN-damentals DVD, Hooked on Phonics... ABC's, Coloring, Colors Shapes & more, Math numbers, and Letter sounds workbooks. He can't wait to get his books out and get to work. On this day he was so proud of all the letters he was writing. We had to take a picture of it.
He has been working on writing his letters for the last few months now. He can spell and write out his whole name!! He will often like to just grab paper and start writing random letters and show much excitement when we tell him how proud we are. I can just tell him to pick out any book, I will read him the directions and he just does it! Knows all his colors, numbers, letters, some sounds. For example, I will say, "what does Bah-Bah-Baby start with?" He will say "Bah-Bah-B!" His favorites... "Rr-Rr-Rainbow, starts with R just like me, Rylan, R!" (although Chad thinks we should keep that one on the downlow) or
"Uh-Uh-Umbrella, starts with the letter U!" I can't even begin to describe to you how overjoyed he is when we tell him how awesome it is that he knows his letters and sounds. He does this funky little dance, head shaking, mouth movement thing. It's pretty comical.

Happy Fourth of July!!

2008-07-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

God Bless our Nation! I want to take the time right now and give a special thanks to all our Men and Women serving in the military. I am so greatfull for their bravery and courage to fight for Americans. My Uncle Shannon currently in the Air Force, is being deployed to Iraq in just a few short weeks. His wife is my moms sister and they have 4 boys. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. His family is his strength...We love you guys!!

How about a game of baseball? We played baseball in the pool at our neighbors house and BBQ'd. After that we spent the rest of the night at Chase Field watching the Arizona Diamondbacks get spanked by the San Diego Padres. That was a bummer. Thank goodness there were fireworks to see after the game.

I am proud to be an American! Here are some pictures from our day.

Sunny Days

2008-07-02T21:56:00.001-07:00

Yet again we have another sunny day here in Phoenix. Our neighbors and friends came over for a swim.

My friend and co-worker Kim, drove all the way up from Tempe with her 7 week old little boy, Ethan. She has been on maternity leave and has been a little bored staying at home while her husband is working such long days.

Today was a lay by the pool, chat with the ladies, baby down for nap, squirt gun fight with kids, feed the baby, have lunch, get more tan, take the baby in the water, watch a movie, play with kids, have some dinner, feed the baby... kind of day. Whew!!
It was really nice spending time today with all of our friends. I am very happy that Kim and Ethan were able to join us and spend the whole day and well into the evening here at our house. She said she just might have to come up here more often especially if I am going to feed her lunch and dinner while she is still on maternity leave.

All the kids loved to see the little baby!

Rock Band and Rylan's photo shots

2008-07-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight Tanner is having Zach sleepover. They have been together all day practically. On Tuesdays we do the summer movies. Today was Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. The kids said it was "ok". They didn't really care for it. The point is to get the kids out of the house and do something fun.
After lunch it was time for some fun in the sun. To escape the heat, swimming is the best exercise in the summer. Tanner, Zach, Rylan, and I swam for hours. The boys came in for an hour or so then our other neighbors came over to use our pool, out again we all went. It looked like a rain storm was coming in. The helicopters were flying above our house. The news people get all excited when the monsoon season comes. Because we were outside we weren't sure what was going on. We heard thunder and saw some lightning. Thought we better get out of the pool and check the news real quick. Funny how its 105 degrees outside, little wind, 6pm, and sprinkling. We were freezing cold!!! No one wanted to get out of the pool to get their towels. Turns out just north of us there was a dust storm and some good rain. News was all over it. We get excited out here when it rains....

I came home from the grocery store tonight and Chad, Tanner, and Zach were jammin on PS3 Rock Band. They were so cute. Chad was singing, Zach on drums, Tanner on guitar. I have attached some video. Its pretty funny. They mixed it up a bit and the boys were singing. Not too bad. After hearing the songs over and over, they got the beat and the notes down pretty well. I let Rylan takes pictures of them....and a few other miscellaneous things along the way. Rylan loves to take pictures now. He will take snapshots of everything!

Enjoy the show.....

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Family Night...the boys are too funny

2008-06-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight was family night. I met the boys for dinner at the Bamboo Club after I got off work. As usual the boys are ecstatic to see me when I arrive. We sit down and chat for a bit. Tanner and I went to the library the other day and got a few books. One of them was a knock, knock joke book. He has been trying so hard to tell jokes and we thought this would give him a few ideas. He must have read the book with Chad today and they thought they would tell me a few jokes. After the first two, Rylan and I were talking and Tanner wanted to tell me another. Tanner was kind of interrupting so when he said "Mom, Mom...knock, knock.(pause) Mom, Mom...knock, knock?!"I said "WHAT!" Chad and Tanner busted out laughing. Chad says..." you just said WHAT to a knock knock joke, come on honey." So now we were all laughing. Laughing so hard. Once the boys started there was no stopping them. Then of course because they are laughing, giggling so cute and getting louder...in the restaurant...Chad and I can't stop. We would pause, then bust out again. That lasted about 5 minutes. Thats a long time in a resturant! People kept staring at us. Oh well. Dont worry, be HAPPY!

I ordered Orange Chicken for Rylan with the sauce on the side. When the food arrived I thought I would dribble just a bit on the chicken. It looked so plain. When Rylan caught wind of that he threw a fit. Got off his chair put his head on the floor and started to cry...really loud. Rylan was kind of being a pistol all night. Tanner was a bit annoyed with his brother. After we got Rylan calmed down Tanner said...and quite loudly for the rest the patrons around us to hear...."See this is why we should get rid of Rylan...he's bad all the time" Once again Chad and I couldn't hold back our laughter. We had to, it was embarrassing. You just have to laugh it off.

We were able to get Rylan to eat because after dinner we took the kids to go see Wall-E. They already saw it the day before with Chad and I wanted to see it too. That was our saving Grace! Rylan doesn't clean up his act...no movie!

Here is a synopsis of the movie.
What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL*E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL*E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL*E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets an adventure into motion. Joining WALL*E on his journey across the universe is a cast of characters including a pet cockroach and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots

We all loved it and I would highly reccomend it.

Afer the movie it was time for my favorite...Cold Stone ice cream. I get the Oreo Overload, Tanner Vanilla it cookies and Rylan, cotton candy with Sprinkles. That is bright blue ice cream with a ton of sugar! Rylan gets so excited about these things. He couldn't stop saying how yummy it felt in his tummy.

Tanner-isms

2008-06-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Today Chad picked up the boys after he got off work and heard some interesting things. I called him from work tonight to see how things were going. This was our conversation...
"Hey honey, what are the boys doing?"
"They are eating Hot dogs and cheetos. Hey you wanna hear what your son told me today?"
"Oh boy, what?"
"Rylan brought home some pictures that he colored in pre-school today of the human body. It showed all the parts, lungs, liver, heart, ect. Tanner pointed to where it said bladder and told me he knew what that was."
"Well, I can't wait, did he say pee-pee or bladder?"
"No...he said it was a PAgina..not saying it correctly, but you know what he meant"...(Chad is laughing)
(now I'm laughing)"Are you serious? How on earth do he even know what that is?""That is what I asked him, Where did you hear that? He said he heard it from Zach(his friend) who's sister told him she had one."
"Oh, my gosh...that is crazy...You didn't explain all that to him did you? He is waayyy to young"
"I told him it wasn't a PAgina its a VAgina, and kids don't usually know about this till much older"

My Day off...or is it?

2008-06-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

1:00am...yes your reading that correctly 1am!! Rylan wakes us up cause he is coughing and has a fever of 103.3. We call the doctor just in case because he had his 4 yr shots last week and he could have a reaction to them. He stays in our bed for the next hour or so and keeps us up. We don't usually let the boys sleep in our bed, but I needed to be next to my baby!!
7:45am Wake up, wash face, brush teeth
8:00 Make pancakes and have fruit for breakfast. Rylan decided he did not want pancakes, but a salad instead...hummm. He got salad
8:15am-9:15am Pick up house a bit and make beds, clean rooms, watch Young & Restless, and check emails
9:20-10:15am Workout to Cardioblast on FitTv...chest, back and abs weight training
10:15am-1:30pm Friends come over to swim

1:30pm-2:15pm Get kids lunch and ready to go to their dentist appointments. Take shower. Have a snack myself.
2:30-3:30pm Tanner dental checkup and Rylans first Dentist appointment. No Cavities...their teeth look great!!
3:30-4:30pm Library: Tanner gets 2 prizes for all the books he has read. Both read in the library and checkout new ones to read at home.
4:35-5:45pm Grocery shopping at Fry's
6:00-6:30pm put grocery's away and start getting dinner ready. Rylan watched Time out Tots on DVD. Shows them how to NOT get yourself in a timeout and how to deal with your anger or tantrums. I check my emails.
6:30-6:45pm Dinner: Eat Chicken, pork and beans, carrots, and grapes. I let the kids have Root Beer for doing so well at the dentist. They love Root Beer, its a treat for them because I don't let them drink soda.
6:45-7:00pm Clean up kitchen. Tanner does all the dishes and puts them in the dishwasher!!
7:00-7:30pm Boys do their "homework". Tanner has a Summer Bridge 2-3rd grade workbook he is doing over the summer to keep his brain working while they are out of school. Rylan likes to do the same thing as Tanner so he has his letter, numbers, and shape books. Today he did letters A - F. He gets so excited cause he can write them all very well!!
7:30pm Boys want to watch the movie "Spirit" in my room. I am in the kitchen blogging and watching "So you Think you can Dance" and going through the mail.
8:00-8:10pm check Tanners homework.
8:20pm-9:20pm Chad is home from Golfing with work buddies, play, run around the house and wrestle with kids. Have a baseball game in the front room.
9:20-9:45pm Boys get ready for bed and read books...lights out
9:50- work on blog,check emails, shower,ready for bed.
11:30pm Finally go to bed!!

Traffic ticket

2008-06-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

My license registration expired on May 31st, I renewed it online May 30th. I thought to myself...I should probably print out a record of it...like they suggest and I always do, just in case. But you know what, since I don't want to waste paper I will plug it into my cell phone instead. Confirmation number, amount paid, and time. No problem, right? I mean what are the chances I will be needing it anyways. Haven't had a ticket in years.

On June 2nd, after I dropped my kids off at VBS, in no hurry whats so ever to get to work...who is hiding behind the bushes with his radar gun??? Mr. Police man. Crap!! (I was obviously in la-la land cause I don't remember speeding, but I suppose I could have been) He pulls me over and asks for my info. I knew I had written down the information somewhere, but could not find it anywhere. (didn't even think to check my notes in my cell phone) "Officer, I know I have it in here somewhere, I promise" "If you can show me proof that you renewed it, confirmation #, ect., I will take that." "OK, great. But I just can't seem to locate it, I'm sorry. I will keep looking" Meanwhile, he goes back to the truck does his stuff and comes back after a few minutes. "Good news is you have a very good driving record, so you can take the class to get rid of your ticket, Bad news I have to give you a ticket as well for no license registration. When you get home and find it, fax it in to the courts and they will get rid of it. " I was mad, cause I know I had it somewhere and was clearly registered. Oh and after I called the court to fax it, they said I had to come down and show it to them in person...uugghh!!

I went to the court house this morning to show them the proof that I had my registration. Well, the date on the tags (you get in the mail) says June 2nd 10:40am. Hello!!! If I renewed it online, of course its going to take a couple of days for them to print it!! I got my ticket at 8:30am. She said I owed $110 cause I didn't have it at the TIME of the ticket. That is a bunch of hog wash. Well, I didn't physically have it in my hands, but I did in my phone. The officer would have taken that. I could have gone to the Motor vehicle Dept and got the record that I did indeed have it and then go back to court and prove it, but you know I was just not wanting to do all the xtra running around. With gas prices the way they are, I probably would have spent that much just to go prove all that. So I paid it, then kicked myself later because I should have gone to all the extra trouble.

So moral of the story is...always print out your renewal info and don't speed at all on Carefree Hwy or anywhere, because the police are lurking behind the bushes with their radar guns..duh!!!

What to do on a 112 degree day

2008-06-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

Today we started by going to church to see guest speaker Ken Ham talk about Creation and Evolution. I mentioned it to Chad cause this was an interesting topic for both of us, Chad being Atheist and I a Christian. We went to 3 out of the 6 series. It was a great series and I am sure this will stir up even more conversation between us.

We left church around 1ish and got home with only one thing in mind...swimming. With it being so hot outside, what better way to spend our afternoon. We swam for hours. The boys do really well. Tanner has been for years. We just built our pool last summer. By the end of last summer Rylan was learning how to swim on his own since we were in the pool every day. He picked it right back up this year when it was warm enough to get in.

Our neighbors came over for a BBQ and swim to end the day.
Now its time for me to go to bed cause I start my day at 5am to workout with my neighbor!

life of a 4 yr old

2008-06-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

Today was a rough day for little RyRy. We were at a friends and when it was time to leave, Rylan decided he was not. I asked him 2 times to get up, put the toys down and walk out the door with me. He preceded to throw a fit and wine. I told him if he did not come with me he would get a spanking when we got home for not listening. We do the Accountable Kids program where you take tickets away for things like this, but unfortunately I forgot to say he would lose a ticket and spewed out spanking instead. What was I thinking?? Either way I had to follow through with what I said. He had his big wheel over there and I told him to get on it and ride home. He stomped and cried and said no. I asked him one more time and he continued to act out. So I picked up the big wheel carried it over my head and walked across the street to my house. He screamed, cried, and through a fit all the way home. Middle of the afternoon, quiet neighborhood...screaming child...oh yea...I'm evil. How embarassing! I told him to go to his room and he was having a major tantrum and said NO! I went to get the spoon and give him his spanking. he spent the next 15 minutes there. When he came out of his room he said he was sorry and he was now ready to Listen! I had to laugh. Why dont they think of that before they lash out?

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T22:25:00.001-07:00

Chad started out his day by golfing with his brother and friends. While he was away I baked him his favorite chocolate cookies and put them on a new plate that we made for him at As You Wish pottery in which the boys plastered their beautiful hand prints.

We went to his brothers house and had a BBQ, went swimming and spent most of the time watching the US OPEN. Lord help me! I have never really sat down and watched golf before. It wasn't all that bad. I didn't fall asleep anyways. We were too busy watching Tiger Woods hit his ball in the rough. Good thing I had my new little nephew Ethan too keep me company. He is such an angle. A total cutie. Rylan and Tanner are so excited to have a cousin here in Arizona, they will all be wrestling around in no time.

Kristi's visit to Phoenix

2008-06-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

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My sister and her boyfriend came to Phoenix to visit us and look for potential places to work and live. They are thinking about moving out here someday when she sells her house in Nebraska. I don't think they got very far on the where to live part. They spent most of their time swimming in our pool with the boys and soaking up the toasty Arizona sun rays.
Their journey began early Sunday morning. They left a tornado alley Omaha behind. They were woke up in the middle of the night by some phone calls asking them if they were OK. Luckily they were staying at a friends house in Iowa who was going to take them to the airport. Kristi's house was fine. But her old neighborhood where she has a rental property experienced and F2 tornado which ripped apart many homes. The good Lord was watching over them. This happened at 2am so there were no sirens to warn people. No one was killed or injured. The homes that were really really bad, those people just happen to be out of town on vacation. Is that a miracle or what?! We spent much of the morning watching the Omaha news online while eating breakfast.
We took a little road trip north to show them the sights of Sedona. Cathedral Rock was the hiking trail we all decided on. Little did we know that was going to be some good rock climbing in some spots. My 4 yr old wanted to to it all on his own! He is very brave and strong. Its about a two mile hike round trip. What beautiful sights and views. Absolutely breathtaking! Of course we took tons of pictures along the way.

After our great hike on Sunday in Sedona, I thought how cool it would be for them to go do Pinnacle Peak mountain in Scottsdale on Tuesday. Again awesome views. A half mile into the hike Kristi wanted to turn around. Now this hike wasn't as hard...i don't think... as Cathedral Rock, but lots of ups and downs, and we did not have kids to slow us down...we were on the move. Brent is a personal trainer so he was used to this cardio workout. We made it all the way to the end...1 3/4 miles. Only to have to turn back around and complete our trail. I seriously thought we were going to have to carry Kristi back. She took one look at the stairs she was going to have to crawl back up and started to cry. Ha Ha

She was a trooper and made it back safely.
Chad had to work that day so we met him at Wrap and Frap (my favorite place in the whole wide world) for lunch. A C3 wrap (whole wheat wrap, chicken, bacon, cheese, chipotle sauce, lettuce) with no tomatoes and sweet potato fries...just what you need after a great hike! We obviously burned many calories on our 105 degree one hour hike. Of course we had take our sweaty dusty selves to my salon, Par ExSalonce and get our hair shampooed and blown out after our strenuous hike. We both felt and looked so much better! Wednesday &
A ritual for us when visitors come is to either play American Idol, Rock Band or the Wii. THis lovely photo is Rock Band. Brent is our lead singer, Chad on Drums, and Tanner is on the guitar.

Thursday were spent mostly by the pool and/or looking at gyms for Brent as potential job opportunities. Chad has this thing about taking visitors over to Westgate to show them the Cardinals stadium and the hockey arena. Football is a big thing for him and this is where they just had the Super Bowl. We ate at Margaritaville for dinner then Kristi had a friend and his little boy who met up with us for Cold Stone ice cream and playing in the fountains. It was a beautiful night to hang and play outside.

Thursday I had to go back to work so I loaned them my very cool Honda Oddessy to drive around town and check out the sites. After I got off work we met up with my 3rd cousin, his wife and their friends at Sol Y Sombra for dinner and Sangria's.
Another favorite place of mine!I highly recommend the above two places for you to eat in Scottsdale if you ever get a chance.They had to return home early Friday morning. :( We really enjoyed thier company and had such a great time.

a twitch bite

2008-06-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

My sister is in town and we were all outside swimming. For some reason there have been a lot of bee's in our backyard. I hate bugs, so I run when I see something like a bee. I was enjoying my time in the sun laying on my chair when a bee started flying around me. It just wouldn't be right if I didn't wave my arms and make noises or scream over something so little.

Tanner says "Mom, whats wrong? What are you scared of?" "Oh nothing Tanner, don't worry about it, I just have a twitch." I was trying to be brave in front of Tanner. Chad says I have turned them into babies when it comes to bugs.
A little while later the bee moves over to my sister and she does the same thing. She is more of a freak than I am when it comes to bugs. So now she says she has atwitch so we don't freak out Tanner.

Tanner is swimming peacefully in the water and all of sudden pops out of the water and says "Mom, what is a twitch bite?" Man, he figured us out anyways!

Take me out to the ball game!!!

2008-06-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

Family fun day Sunday!!! Chad was given free baseball tickets to go see the Arizona Diamondbacks play against the Washington Nationals. When we go to the downtown area, we always have to make a pit stop at UNO Pizzeria. The best pizza in town! We all create our own little personal pizza's. I will take their pizza any day over a ball park hot dog...or will I??? Yes, I am too full. Not the boys though. They are growing and need lots of food.

Baseball's greatest moments have happened here, including Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 of the 2001 World Series with the Diamondbacks ultimately bringing home the championship. It was the first stadium to ever be built featuring a retractable roof and natural grass. Today, the stadium features a swimming pool, memorabilia from the Baseball Hall of Fame and the new jumbo tron video screen.

Chad has taken the boys before to D-back games. So they were familiar with the songs and the chants that they play during certian times of the game. When the organ started, I was surprised at how well even little Rylan knew how to clap and sing to most of the songs.
Even though we just finished at UNO pizza, you just can't go to the ball park with out getting a big ol' box of popcorn, hot dog and soda. Just what the boys ordered. Up till the 6th inning the boys were doing pretty well. The Diamondbacks were having a great game. The first two innings were the most exciting. Couple home runs and big scores right off the back. As you can see Rylan can hardly contain himself and he is hogging the camera action. The boys did awesome and enjoyed the game.
It was a great family fun-day!!

Rylan's 4th Birthday Party

2008-05-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

Amazing Pizza Machine in Omaha Nebraska was the hot spot for a 4yr old's birthday party. My parents got him a birthday room where all the family met for food, presents, and cake. The boys got T-Shirts that everyone signed and colored on. Since Tanner was not in Nebraska, they decided to have a little something for him as well.

After presents the boys got to go out and spin the "big wheel" for extra tickets. They each received 1000 tickets to buy whatever they wanted when they were all done playing games and riding on rides. I think the gokarts were the hit of the afternoon! Fun was had by all, both child and adult.

Memorial weekend trip to Omaha, NE

2008-05-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Going back home for Memorial weekend is anything other than a vacation. Its more...how many people can we see in 4 days and not upset anyone. Both Chad and I have family there. Everyone wants to see the boys and spend as much time as possible. Which is great! We want to see everyone just as much.
The trip started out a bit rocky. Phoenix was having bad weather and so was the entire central part of the US. Our flight was delayed an hour. We were supposed to arrive at 11:30pm. After it was all said and done, we ended up having to stop in KC to refuel and then on to Omaha arriving at 3am! That's right 3AM I said!! That was real fun with the boys. When we arrived we still had to rent our car. It was roughly 4am when we got to my parents house. UGHHH!! Not cool!
Because of our early morning arrival, we slept in pretty late. We had plans to spend the day with Chad's dad(Rick). Scott and Sema were in town from LA and Chad's mom (Bobbi) were also there. That night was designated to our old Omaha friends at Prestige Club.....
The boys ended up staying the night at Rick's house.
They love playing there. Marilyn has 2 older daughters and they have a blast with Rachel and Hannah. They were catching frogs in the pond when we left. EWWWWW
Sunday my Dad got a call from my Great Grandmothers assisted living place saying that she had fallen and needed to go to emergency room.
He litterly spent the whole day there. This was the day we were supposed to hang with my family. At this point he had only seen the boys for about an hour since we got into town. The boys stayed home and hung out with my Mom while Chad and I went shopping for Husker gear and to check out the new outdoor mall that had just been built by my parents house.

Later that evening both sides of our families went to the Amazing Pizza Machine to celebrate Rylan's 4th birthday.
The boys got presents, cake and lots of tickets and points to play all the cool things this place has to offer. We rode rides, played games, went on go-Karts & bumper cars. Every time we go here we spend about 3 hours playing around.
Monday was Labor day. We did brunch at our usual place, Summer Kitchen with Chad's entire family.
After we went to go see Grandma Maxine and my grandma. No, that is not Granny Maxine flying down the hallway with my two boys. That would be the crazy daughter!

Later in the afternoon we cooked out with my family.

My sister has 2 girls and my brother has 2 boys. Since the cousins live in different states, they cling onto one another when we get there. They pick up right where they left off the last time we saw them. After everyone left, Chad went to a friends house and my Mom, Dad, I and the boys played the Wii I got my parents for Mother's/Father's Day. Mom is addicted now.
Tuesday we went over to our friends house for lunch. The wife couldn't meet up Saturday night with us because they had no sitter for the kids. Angie made really great sandwiches and a salad. I have been trying to duplicate since we got back home. Can't seem to get it right. Chad and I had an hour or two to kill so we went to get tattoo's.
Since we only had time for one of us. He had me get mine. Last year I got a sun in San Diego on my lower back. I wanted to add little squiggly thingies to it on both sides of the sun. I had obviously forgotten how much pain I was in the last time I got one. It hurt so bad. It looks good though...we like it. Chad wanted to touch up the tribal band he got on his arm when we went to Mexico a few years back and add a sun behind it. That would have taken a really long time. We'll do his later. I on the otherhand, will never get another one!
My parents wanted to take the boys to Thunder Bowl for their last night. We bowled one game...Rylan's ball takes a really long time to get down the lane! They also have a game area, restaurant, and go-karts. Unfortunately the go-karts were closed down cause of the heavy Memorial Day traffic they had the day before. Bummer!! I think that was the main thing we were all looking forward to.
The whole trip was very nice. We didn't really have any time to just sit around and do nothing. But that's the way it is when we go home. It was great to see everyone and we all had a great time! We miss everyone!!

Trip to Omaha...Night out with Friends

2008-05-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday when we arrived in Omaha, we set aside one night so we could see most of our friends. It was really neat to see everyone. I haven't been able to see alot of my girlfriends since I moved to Phoenix, 7 years ago. I went to High School with most and worked in a salon with the others. Chad also had some of his high school buddies there. We pick up where we left off. It was awesome to see everyone and we all had a great time. Miss you guys!! Here are a few pictures from our night out.

Tanner had many 8th birthday parties

2008-05-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

On April 21, We celebrated with just the four of us on his acutal birthday. Chad and I bought him a Wii game that he really wanted, Smashmouth Brawl. I made him his favorite chocolate and we had ice cream.

A week later Grandma Bobbi, Aunt Sheri, Uncle Scott and Sema came into town hoping that they would be able to see Tanner and Rylan's new cousin being born. So we celebrated Tanners birthday again with the family. This time we got an ice cream cake for all to enjoy.

Our little baby Ethan decided he wasn't ready to be born yet. The family hung out for the weekend and just enjoyed the nice Arizona weather. We played a little Rock Band and sang on American Idol on the PS3, bowled on the Wii, and played a game called Qwelf in which we all did and said some silly things. Scott had to wrap himself up like a mummy, Sema had to wear a box in her shirt and Grandma Bobbi had to play Peek a Boo with anyone who wanted to talk to her. I have never laughed so hard!

On May 3rd Tanner had 4 of his closest friends over for a slumber party. We took the boys to Rock Bottom where they each made their own pizza and to Dave and Busters for a game of bowling and video games.

It was after 10pm when we left. Presents were at home waiting to be open. Since Tanner already had 2 birthday cakes we did not have another one. I just made cookies for all the kids instead. The boys didn't seem to mind or even notice. Tanner received alot of cool gifts. His friends mostly got him Pokemon or Naruto cards. Star Wars toys were a big hit and of course the other Wii game Chad and I got him...Mario Kart. Once it was time to wind down, we realized that it was 11:30pm. The boys needed to get some shut eye. They were going still going to be here a good portion of the next day to go swimming. I hope they get in...the pool is still quite chilly. 76 degrees. aaahhhh!! All the boys slept together in Tanners room. Of course Rylan had to be in on the action with the big kids. They piled in one by one where the could. Despite the fact they actually fell asleep after midnight, they were still up at the crack of dawn. Ready for eggs, bacon, pancakes, and fruit for breakfast.

They couldn't wait to play the new Mario Kart game afterwards. But much of the morning was spent playing Smashmouth Brawl. Their boys, what can I say. They are very much into the battles! Eventually I made them go outside and get into the pool. We had not been in yet, just a bit to chilly for me. They were a little hesitant at first. I told them I would count to 3 and whomever was last standing would get thrown in. Needless to say, I did not have to throw anyone in. :) Thanks for a great time boys!
I just want to say one thing about having 6 boys...I could not imagine having to feed that many boys all the time. Chad and I had an assembly line going for breakfast to get all the kids fed. By the time one of us would sit down to eat, another child would ask for some more, than another... you get the point. Just could not EVEN imagine.

Girls night in

2008-05-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

Chad was out of town for a week and so was my neighbor, Tonya's husband. So we decided to get a bunch of neighbors together and have a girls night in. Tonya, Jen and I got sitters for our kids at one house and the rest had hubby's at home for their kids. The ladies gathered at my house for food and drinks. My old neighbor Traci who moved away to Washington, recently MOVED BACK. I had tried to call her to invite her several times to come back to the "hood" and I never heard from her. Little did I know she was trying to surprise me and drove all the way up here from Maricopa.(hour trip) She decided she was just going to invite herself to sleepover...yeah, now its a slumber party!! So we sang and sang on American Idol, chit chatted, and had lots to eat and drink!!

100 plus more things about me

2008-05-01T12:35:00.000-07:00

This seems to be on ongoing list that I keep adding to...it used to be 100 plus 2
-I got married when I was 20
-I became a Christian 5 yrs. Ago
-My husband is an Atheist
-I love Chads quick wittedness and personality, he always makes me laugh
-Chad completes me even though we have different beliefs, I wouldn’t trade him in for the world
-I was named after my babysitter
-I didn’t want to move here from Nebraska and now I could never go back
-I miss my family and think about them every day
-I am addicted to Fit TV and love to work out, sometimes even twice a day
-At one time I trained to do fitness competitions, but never actually went through with it. I don’t like to get up in front of people.
-I love doing hair and making people feel good, but after I get my scissors sharpened I always cut the top of my knuckle off pretty bad
-I can’t stand the feel of hair on me…even though I cut hair all day long
-I sliced off the tip of my right pointer finger with a meat slicer when I worked at the grocery store in the meat and cheese department
-I hate wearing black and white, but wear it everyday to work
-My favorite stores to shop at are Kohl’s, Target, Von Maur, Express, and Black House White Market
-My favorite color is pink
-My children’s laugh’s are contagious, I love to hear them
-Tanner and Rylan obviously have the same parents, but are completely opposite of each other
-I love onion rings, but hate onions
-I don’t like to eat fish or anything fishy at all
-I hate hearing people talk about other people especially if its bad
-I am easily amused and easily irritated
-Being around people that are negative all the time irritates me
-It takes me 2 hours to fall asleep and Chad 2 seconds. That irritates me
-I hardly ever go to bed before 11-11:30pm
-I check on the boys in their rooms before I go to bed every night
-I don’t and cannot take naps unless I have a horrible headache
-I am addicted to Young and the Restless
-I cry every time I watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition
-I love to play air hockey
-My idea of a great vacation is going to an amusement park and riding roller coaster’s all day long
-I have no desire to go to Europe
-I used to be a very bad driver…that is still debatable
-I have been in 5 car accidents, only 2 were my fault. And I wonder why I am falling apart
-I get a speeding ticket about every 2 years…thank goodness I can take the class each time
-I hate it when dishes are left in the sink, even though sometimes I do it myself
-I have to fall asleep to either a TV or a radio
-I always have to wear chap stick or have it with me at all times or I panic when I can’t find any
-I love the look on Rylans face when he comes stumbling out of his room when he gets up in the morning.
-My cat attacks me when I work out
-I love to lay out in the sun….I just started wearing screen this year
-I love the ocean and going to the beach, but hate the sand
-I cannot stand bugs, any kind, shape, or form
-If I find the smallest bug anywhere in the house, I will go hunting for more until I cant find any.
-I will get down on my hands and knees and look in crevices and corners for the tiniest one and kill them all
-If I find a single bug in the house it makes me feel like I have bugs crawling all over me. If its before I go to bed, it keeps me up at night….just talking about it now makes me jittery
-I love practical jokes
-I am scared very easily
-My children are very sweet, but we are not saving college money for Rylan, we are saving bail money
-I didn’t like vegetables other than potatoes, corn, & green beans till after I had kids.
-I am extremely picky eater, everything on the side
-My new favorite vegetable is the mushroom
-I love Reiner cherries
-I started falling apart when I turned 30...neck, back, shoulders, knees…now its my wrist.
-I used to be a swimmer in High school
-I taught both my kids how to swim.
-I am obsessed with sweeping or vacuuming my floor after anyone is in the kitchen
-I love the Vichy room in our day spa. The Lemongrass-Bamboo-Lavender scrub is my favorite
-I check my email several times a day when I am at home
-I cannot grill anything without burning it
-I would die without my DVR
-After all the years of being married to a sports freak, I really like to watch certain football games. Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals,& the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
-I like to watch the Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders, and KC Chief lose their football games
-I am a big Phoenix Suns fan
-I never thought I would be driving a mini van….it still takes some getting use to
-I would rather live in 110 degree heat than in the freezing cold winters of the Midwest
-I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was a little kid
-I used to collect Dolphins
-When I eat salsa, I don’t scoop. I only get the edges wet.
-If I read before I go to bed, I immediately fall asleep
-I only wash my hair once or twice a week if I blow it dry straight or every 2 days when I wear it curly
-Rylan still doesn’t have a baby book. I am in the process of making a scrapbook for him, but only on month 9.
-I used to hate rainstorms cause in Nebraska we would get them all the time, now I love them.
-I love the sound of thunder
-My favorite kind of ice cream is the Cold stone Oreo overload creation
-My favorite drink is Crystal Light Green Tea
-I was diagnosed with IBS 10 years ago…just like all the other women at my work
-I don’t like fundraising for my children’s school, but since I am very competitive I sell as much as I can for them
-Fourth of July is my favorite holiday
-I am in better shape now than I was in high school and after having two kids
-I enjoy having people over and playing games
-I had a peeping tom look in my bathroom window, my husband chased him around the block
-I did my best in Human Physiology and Law Studies. Where's my creeper peeper??
-After my creeper peeper incident, I wanted to beomce a police officer
-I always look outside the front windows of our house and check to see if there is anything suspicious going on before I go to bed
-I dislike confrontation
-My husband squeezed a toot out of me while giving me a hug on our first date
-My husband thinks my chocolate chip cookies are the best.
-My favorite lunch spot is Wrap and Frap or Paradise Bakery
-I hold my hands out like a bowl if I think my kids are going to throw up
-I used to country dance
-I consider chocolate chip muffins breakfast
-My belly button is pierced and I have a tattoo on my lower back
-I think my feet are perfect….Chad says they look like hoofs. I still think he is hilarious!
-R & B and Hip Hop are my favorite types of music.
-As hard as I try to keep my desk organized, it sill looks like crap
-I suck at Trivia
-Oscar, Overboard, Titanic, and Notebook are my favorite all time movies
-I have never experimented with drugs and have no desire to
-I tend to be controlling
-I don’t like my laugh lines, but love to laugh
-I am addicted to the reality show Big Brother. I pay to watch them online and will watch them on Showtime after dark
-I think I am an American Idol and I can’t sing.
-I think Steve Corell is hilarious. I love his show the Office and his movies are great
-After seeing the movie Poltergeist I believed there were clowns under my bed and they were going to drag me under
-I went to Disneyland for 4 days in March 2007 and Disneyworld for 8 days in November 2007 and still want to go back
-I hated school, I cannot spell, I suck at English and grammar...I expect to be corrected.

My 32nd Birthday

2008-03-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

A few girls from the salon decided we needed to go out and celebrate my birthday and Kassi's in Old Town Scottsdale. We started at Blue Wassabi for Sushi and then down to Devil's Martini and Mist for dancing.

The actual day of my birthday was spent in Las Vegas with some friends. We were there for a long girls weekend to celebrate Stacey getting married...her bachlorette party. They were very nice and got me Cafe Mortorano's version of a birthday cake. There was enough to go around for 12 girls believe it or not.

It was a very fun, but tiring weekend. I don't remember the last time I stayed up till 530a.m. or lost $250 playing Craps!

Neighborhood Nighttime Easter Egg hunt

2008-03-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

One of my neighbors came up with a brilliant idea. Lets get all the neighborhood families together and go on a NIGHT TIME Easter Egg Hunt. We gathered at her house where she had tables of cupcakes, pastel color frosting, edible grass, jelly beans and and other fun food decorating items. The kids decorated and played in the backyard while the fathers went up to the park to hide the eggs in the deep dark grass.

They phoned in the troops when they were ready for the hunt. Mom's rallied up the kids as we marched in long lines a couple of blocks after dark to the big park behind the school. And at the very, very back, was this huge grassy area where the fathers hid over 100 eggs. The eggs had special tape on them and the kids had flashlights so they could see them. Now it was time for a talk...little kids 5 and under get a 30 sec head start. Then the big kids could go. Each kid was to get approx. 17-20 eggs which were filled with candy.

Each and every kid found all the eggs they wanted as the gathered along the sidewalk to eat all their candy. Including the sour lemons...yum! The families went over to the playground area to let the children play for a bit before we turned in for the evening.
Everyone had such a great time and we can't wait to do it again next year.

Meeting friends at the Railroad park in Scottsdale

2008-03-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful spring day out, so why not get together with some friends and go to the park. The Messmer's and the Tomasso's met our long lost buddies, the Sandells who just moved back into town from Washington. Since they live in Mexico...(HaHa, it's actually Maricopa) this was a nice half way point for us to meet. We set up a picnic and the kids played for hours on the playground. Of course you can't go to the Railroad park with out going on the train. Oh yea and don't forget we need to make ourselves sick on the Merry Go Round. Yippee!!!

Family visits Phoenix

2008-01-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

My Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle from Michigan and my parents from Nebraska decided to come to Phoenix for a little visit. The weather was much better here than it was where they came from. Although it was cooler here for us than normal. We kept ourselves busy by doing what my family does best...playing poker! My moms side of the family also has some cousins here in town so we went over to their house for dinner and a game of poker that started out by everyone putting in a quarter. By the end of the night we had a $600 pot! I told Chad he better be able to win with out a doubt if he was going to go in on that hand. I think we broke even in then end, but at least we didn't lose big time like others did.

They were able to see some hot spots around town. Gainey Ranch Resort, Old town Scottsdale,Lake Pleasant and how could we forget the CASINO. We ate at Sapporo's in Kierlands, where they cook and entertain you throughout the whole dinner. Very fun!! In Old town we had to take them to one of our favorite places, Los Olivos.

One of the highlights of this trip was grandma teaching me how to make tortillas. So I watched her add all the ingredients...looks easy. They turned out AWESOME of course! So when she left I tried to make some myself. I added all the ingredients just like she did. And would you know it...they crumbled right before my eyes. She doesn't measure. I needed exact measurements. When I got a recipe like hers I started making them allot. They were good, but not as good as Granny's.

One of the main reasons for this visit was for Grandpa's 80th Birthday. Happy Birthday!!! We had a yummy ice cream cake, played more cards, games, and Foosball.

Welcome to my Blog

2008-01-01T23:13:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to start this blog. I think it will be a great way to keep friends and family posted on our busy lives since I am really bad about getting emails or pictures out. I will try to update as much as I can. I am learning as I go. I am sure I will be doing allot of rambling...sorry
A few things to start out... I am terrible at writing and I don't have a lot of experience when it comes to blogging. I write down what I am thinking as I am thinking, not reading what I am writing. That may bother some of you grammar people. That was not my favorite subject in school. My husband has to correct me all the time! He is the creative one when it comes to writing. So until next time...