a thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat

for thanksgiving this year - we headed up to the sisters in LA - and had an awesome dinner and got a chance to celebrate isaiah's birthday..
i sent ben to buy isaiah's present - and ben came back with a bunch of nerf guns - which ended up being a big hit. the kids as well as the adults were running around shooting at each other - it was a fabulous time.. at one point it was war - and all the kids were running around trying 'get' uncle trevor - and trevor was running around defending himself with a wiffle ball bat, and a nerf bat - i was cracking up..
the nerf war of 2008


because it was isaiah's birthday as well as thanksgiving the theme was pirates/transformers/kung fu panda
here deborah and i were pirates - ready to eat our turkey

to relax after the war and dinner - we watched a movie..
uncle ben and deborah watching kung fu panda -

more thanksgiving fun

isaiah and his auntie kai - enjoying some mario cart -

dance party

uncle trevor and kelly ann

auntie loan and noah tearing it up

it's all fun and games till someone loses an eye

today is the second time i had a pt who came to the ER with an injury from playing the wii... apparently it's an epidemic..

poker party fun

this weekend we headed up to my brothers for some poker party fun.. we had good food, good people, and lots of fun.. it was a great way to spend a saturday night..
ben rockin trevors new oakleys - getting ready to 'bring it'

dano and gil concentrating on thier games

at some point in the night we busted out loans cotton candy machine..

the fam

the black hole

growing up in my household, if you misbehaved, you had to write sentences... my mom often choose bible verses for us to write about a hundred times or so.. one of my moms favorites came straight out of the book of philippians 'i will do all things without grumbling and complaining' - with as many times as i had to write that verse over and over - you think i would have learned by now..
but poor ben had to remind of that sentence multiple times today - because on average i complained about every 3.5 seconds this afternoon.. (in my defense we are two months into a project that ben said 'shouldn't take that long' - and this weekend the santa annas and all the construction dust created the perfect storm for my sinuses - and my allergies went into over drive..)

here are some more pix of all the fun:

ben tried to hang a door about 9 times with no success.. we kept measuring and remeasuring - eventually we even bought a new door thinking that the old door must be defective - which was not the case.. we finally called our friend kevyn who came over for reinforcements.. kevyn figured out that we had a rogue 2x4 - which was not straight, and was causing all problems.. so big thanks to kevyn for saving the day..


ben putting up cement board.. good times..


me doing the most thankless project known to man.. to me - this is my least favorite job.. ben had me 'mud' in some nail holes from the dry wall he hung, and then i had to sand them over - and mud them again... it was very dirty - and dust got everywhere..


so after spending a couple hours helping ben - i realize that i should not complain.. because he has been working on this project non stop for the last 8 weeks - and i realize that next time overtime is offered at work - i am totally taking it - and paying someone who knows a little more about construction then i do..

Bedroom/Bathroom remodel update

I'm taking lots of pictures, just not posting them sorry

Progress update: I'm kicking ass

Drywall is up. Chara helped me tape and mud. she is also very conscious about plumbers crack
its starting to look like real walls and stuff

Started the shower panwaterproof membrane is down and drain is installed
next comes the cement board on the walls. trying to do an elliptical curve in the piece above. those are tricky
shower niche in the wall
niche finished off
our shower valve
thats it for now. shower walls are almost covered. next is to finish the shower pan and finish up the dryall with sanding and such. so much fun.

california dreaming..

i hate to brag but - the weather this weekend was fabulous.. it was sunny and 91 degrees both saturday and sunday - ben and i took advantage, enjoyed, and headed to the beach both days.. gotta love california..

double duty

ventured out in the rain this morning and voted (someone had to cancel out bens vote).. no long lines as expected - the only delays were due to people who don't normally vote not knowing how things are done..

then headed to day two of jury duty - and was promptly excused.. - apparently most lawyers don't want ER nurses on their jury...

so today - i have done my civic duty x2 - and now i am ready for a nap..

go vote....right now

go vote

right now

get up

go outside

go to your polling place

and vote






unless you live up in the mountains and you know your vote doesn't count anyway.

food and friends

for the first time in months all of my girls had the same day off together.. so we headed to an amazing restaurant by the beach and had an awesome lunch..
i really miss these gals - and am so happy that we got to spend some time together..
mis amigas