I'm back..........

Happy New Year 2009!!!!

Very Merry Christmas?

It is the day after Christmas and my house is a disaster and I have ZERO motivation to do anything besides read. I can't get myself out of my funk of laziness. I did accomplish a little today. I set up the kids new trampoline, moved all our stuff home from Vickies, and started some laundry.... That is about all I am going to get to today. Tomorrow we are heading to our friends house to visit with some friends who live out of town. The kids love playing with all their friends and I am sure they will terrorize the Pinard's house :) Christmas in a nutshell...

Monday: Carmesin's Christmas Progressive Dinner.

Tuesday: Roberson Christmas, Vickie's Side of the Family

Wednesday: McCullough Christmas, At Mom and Dads all day and night.

Thursday: Carmesin's Christmas, At John and Vickies' all day and night.

Friday: Where did the year go, a day for reflection.

How many of you have lacked motivation and kept wondering what was wrong with yourself? All you can think of is how much time you are wasting and how you are just going to have to do it all tomorrow. How do I enjoy doing nothing? Maybe I am not just doing nothing and I am just recharging? Who's to say.

Another Lame One.....

The last couple of days my blog has been filled with posts about how great things are going. It's been a great couple of days:) God knows I have some pretty trying ones but I am going to count my blessings and record another a good day. Last night, Carly spent the night with my mom and Cole went to ice scream with Rachelle, they then drove around looking at Christmas lights. Travis went to sleep on the couch and I watched a couple episodes of House. Cole came home and he watched Parent Trap for the thousandth time. I finished a book and when Travis finally came to bed Cole joined us for the rest of the night. He thought it was special and his dad thought that his name should be Cole Kicks a lot ! This morning we went to church and when we came home I wrapped presents all day and Sis took the kids to Bolt. I am really into detailing everything I did, every moment......Sorry.

Menu for the Week:

Sunday: Prime Rib, Baked Potato, Salad, Cheese Bread

Monday: Prime Rib Sandwiches

Tuesday: Chili and Cornbread

Wednesday: Indian Tacos

Thursday: Flank Steak with Blue Cheese Butter, Salad, Garlic Bread

Friday: Every Adult for themselves

I am actually excited about cooking this week. I have a couple more things to pick up for Christmas, and to figure out for Christmas Dinners and then I'll be set. Merry Christmas Everyone !

Happy as a Clam

This is a picture of the steamer clams that Cole and Travis got yesterday. They needed to soak overnight and this morning when the kids and Travis went to check on them this is how they found the clams. I wanted to post about my fabulous day and the clams gave me the perfect title for my post. This morning Travis and I slept in until 8:00am and the kids did as well. I made breakfast, Travis went to work at my sisters house, I worked in my office, ran on my treadmill, took Carly to dance, made lunch for the kids, cleaned up my kitchen, did a load of laundry, went to my nail appt., post office, and then now I am home, blogging. Was that a lot of commas or what.... Tonight I am heading to Salyer to spend the night with my sister. A group of us are going to play some games have some cocktails and visit. There is nothing better than having close friends who you can trust and my sisters, my mom, vickie, travis, and a few others are the only ones I trust enough to tell more than what I ate for breakfast. Till next time:)

Winter Dreamland

Your probably thinking how all these pictures of my house are relevant to my post title of Winter Dreamland...... I have had a house cleaner on and off for the last 3-4 years. I have a new house cleaner who also cleans my mom's house and it is her fourth week cleaning my house. As many of you know I am often anal retentive about things and cleaning is one of those things. I was raised in a clean home and I was taught how to do a quality job not a rushed half crappy job....There is a point to this story, bear with me. Anyway my house cleaner does an awesome job while being thorough. When I walked into my house today after my house cleaner had been here I thought to myself my house looks like a Winter dreamland with all of my decorations and an ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY spotless house. It may seem weird that I took pictures of my dreamland but I wanted to document it because like every other household in America it will be dirty by bedtime, and who wants to take pictures of that!

Mac Attack

I am officially a certified MAC lover. I have already devoted an entire post to my MAC BOOK and my IMAC but now that I have a new IPHONE I am again reminded of my love for the software. I won't have to take my MAC book with me anymore while traveling just to download movies, listen to music, and etc. My phone can do it all. I had a Moto Q and it also had internet and email and it couldn't hold a candle to the speed and efficiency of AT&T wireless. Enough of my love of a phone:) I haven't blogged lately and will update with some pics of Thanksgiving and whats been going on, until then......

Versatile

If Carly's boots are Irrestible than Cole's Muck boots are very versatile. No they don't have any cute design but these rain boots are made for the boy and girl who trek through cow poop to go feed, daily. For the preschool who lives in rainy humboldt county and for a day when I can't find any other shoes. The inside of these boots are all neoprene and they suck to the contour of your feet. Yes, they are no ordinary rain boot there the versatile Muck boot!

Irrestible

Even if you aren't a cowgirl at heart like Carly you can still enjoy the adorableness (is that even a word?) of these pink and tan leather cowboy boots. As I am packing the kids clothes for a freezing vacation to visit my grandmother in Idaho I remembered that I had set these boots aside for Christmas. Well again, I think all gifts should be practical and Carly practically needs these boots for our vacation. I thought these boots were so cute that they need their own post :)

I know a lot of pictures but between me, Cole, and Carly my camera has been snappin a lot. My parents' and Clay and Rachelle were in Jamaica last week and they just got home yesterday. I missed them all. Last night, Travis and I's families got together to have an early Thanksgiving. We are all going to be gone during the holidays and we wanted to make sure that we had one dinner here. It was delicious and Vickie made a bunch of recipes from Williams-Sonoma. When Travis was sick at U.C.S.F. he had a couple good days so we went shopping. William-Sonoma inspired our Thanksgiving creations. Dinner last night was relaxing, and great because there was just the right amount of people and everyone liked eachother, imagine that:) Cole made dessert and he is posing by his creation which was fabulous. Well I am off to write my Christmas letter and I will be sending my Holiday cards pretty soon, be on the look out:)

Surprise.

Vickie turned 50 years old last year in 2007 and as a family we all went down to visit her twin brother Mickey. To make a long story short the drive was horrific, the trip too short, and not what any of us would want to do on our birthday. This year Heidi and I decided to do something special for Vickie's 51st birthday. A group of Vickie's closest girl friends got together in Redding and spent the weekend in my travel trailer. It was a blast. We stayed up late playing this game where everyone had to ask personal questions and it was insightful, fun, and we laughed until we cried. We drank a costco size bottle of Grey Goose and had too much fun. Saturday morning we all woke up and got ready to head to the Spa for the day. We had multiple treatments and relaxed. The spa we went to was called the Spa Downtown in Redding. You can google and there are pictures but this Spa met my stamp of approval very clean, professional, an awesome treatments. It made Personal choice spa looking even worse, if that is possible. Heidi and I decorated my trailer, did pedicures on people with hot foot baths, and I made each person their own spa package with bath and body works products. I love parties where they give great party favors. Friday night I made homemade Chicken Caesar Salad with fresh croutons. I also paired the meal with cheese Bread. Everyone loves this fatty bread. I will post the recipe below.

Vicki was very surprised and it was great to see her laughing and being with her girls. Thank you to everyone who came you made this wonderful woman feel appreciated:)

Cheese bread:

1 loaf of French Bread
2 spatula scoops of mayo
Pour cheddar cheese into the mayo until it is predominantly just cheese then mix. Spread onto bread. Sprinkle with green onions, and bake for about 20 mins at 375degrees.

You'll love it:)

5 years and lots of laundry!

On November 15th, Travis and I will be married for five years! The years have gone by quickly. I love him a lot each day and I reflect on the past years and I think of many smiles, laughs, tears, hugs, memories, snotty noses, parties, and etc. I am repulsed by bloggers who always post how perfect their hubbies are because maybe I am jealous or maybe I hate the lies. Marriage is hard but well worth the struggle. Travis is my best friend. He keeps me in line and vice a versa. One moment that I will share with everyone is how Travis supported my financially, emotionally, and physically through college. I remember the day we decided to get married and how he told my mom that it was very important to him that I finished school and he meant it. When I was trying to decide what I wanted and needed to do after college and the credential program Travis was right there next to me urging me to stay home/only work two jobs and to have some time to myself. I can't thank him enough for communicating when it is crucial and for being a wonderful husband and a dedicated dad.

p.s. I just got into an argument with him because he was telling a story and it took to long:) Back to reality.

Oh yeah, Travis bought me new HE LG Stackable washer and dryers yesterday for our 5 year anniversary. I chose the pearl gray color. He also built me a white storage cabinet to go in our laundry room. One thing about Travis is that he doesn't talk about doing things he actually does them. We got home with the washer and dryers, and storage cabinet at 5pm on Sunday and by 7pm I had a completely new laundry room. What a man:)

Must Read

"The Lucky One" is Nicholas Sparks newest fictional novel and it is TERRIFIC! I was depressed that I finished it so quickly. I read it in two days and no, I didn't lay around reading. One morning I couldn't sleep so I decided to read to fall back asleep, well needless to say I didn't go back to sleep at 3am. (That was a run-on sentence.) I don't know anyone who hasn't at least once in there life wanted to be a writer and storm the literary world just like j.k. rowlings(didn't spelling correct because I have never read her books:) The point is that Nicholas Sparks wrote one HECK of a novel. I am reading "Secrets of a Shoe Addict" by Beth Harbison as I type, No Mom and Vickie it isn't my memoirs....

Civil Servants.

This year both Cole and Carly chose to dress up as our under-represented civil servants. We went trick-or-treating for the first time this year in a neighborhood, grace park. They walked door to door and we followed. We decided that this year we would forego all the driving to a million places and just do one place and it was very calm.

My mom dressed up like a pirateer and Cole and Carly we trying to spray her with their fire hoses, arrest her, wrestler her, and a lot of other things. She was hilarious:)