Five Days in (1/2 Sunny 1/2 Overcast) California

Jason and I returned last night from a much needed getaway to California. We started out in Sacramento last Thursday, which was for our "MasterMind" business building group... we determined that we (Cindi & Kevin Foshee) and Jason and myself are not MasterMinds when it comes to directions, though. We met up with our friends the Smiths, Lindsay and Gloria Smith and their son Phil run Cal-Pac Roofing in Rancho Cordova, a beautiful city, a 100 degrees hot city, but beautiful, especially the old West downtown. We had a great meeting, amazing dinner at Fat's and the best part was tubing on Lake Fremont! Some photos are shown above.

Working on them...

OK, so the personal assessment thing worked out interestingly... because this weekend I started chopping away (literally) at one of my number 7s, "organizing my home office." This happened because we finally, finally, finally cleaned out the garage. And then when I least expected it, a number 11 hits.

7. I am delighted to announce that The Bennett's Charity Store Mor (read: our garage) is just about closed for business since Monique took all of her stuff back. Scratch that, since Jason and I packed up all of Monique's stuff and moved it back from where it came. Now all we need to do is get Michelle and David's table and chair out of there and it will actually be home to ONLY our stuff! EXCITING!

Anyway, in the garage there were two filing cabinets and a multitude of boxes/bags/piles of paperwork that I have not filed/organized/looked at for more than 2 years. Yup. 2 years worth of receipts, bill stubs, health insurance forms, kids artwork, yada, yada, yada. Our little shredder shred his heart out. I stuffed it full at least six times and I think I'm about 1/2 way through the mess. There are little bits of shredded paper all over the laundry room floor, but I'm happy because I'm making progress. I think Jason is happy, too, because he hasn't even complained about the millions of tiny shreds and they're a pain in the ass, they stick to everything!!!! They are beginning to appear all over the house. Sneaky little suckers.

11. I missed a phone call from my step mom on Sunday. My Dad had a blood clot in his lungs and was rushed to the hospital. He was in intensive care all day Sunday and was transferred to a regular room on Monday morning. The kids and I drove up to Inverness to see him Monday afternoon and came home Monday night. I am exhausted, but happy that I went. He doesn't look so good. Love you, Dad, and hope you get better soon!

By the way, for Mother's Day Jason made his famous spaghetti sauce. Yummy! I'm going home for lunch now to have some! :)

A Personal Assessment

Just thinking about things... and trying to quantify my abilities... and inabilities. I believe the results of this assessment will be very scary.

THINGS I AM GOOD AT...
1. Rollerskating.
2. Writing.
3. Spending money.
4. Wasting time.
5. Talking.
6. Socializing. (Is that a sub-cateorgy of #5?)
7. Being positive.
8.
9.
10.

THINGS I AM NOT SO GOOD AT...
1. Ironing.
2. Listening to my husband.
3. Anything that has to do with having willpower.
4. Any abdominal related exercise. (I totally cheat through these at boot camp!)
5. Putting on make up.
6. Doing my hair.
7. Coming up with a quick comeback.
7. Organizing my home office. (see previous blog entry.)
8. Counting (see above).
9. Hiding my emotions.
10. Getting out of bed in the morning.
11. Dealing with bad news.
12. Flossing.
13. Programming electronics.

Yup. Just what I thought. I'll be back to this later. Many things to think about. But I need to be doing my 2008 budget right now. Always good to do that 5 months into the year, don'tcha think?

I wish I were 3 again...

Yesterday I went to pick up Bryce and Jake at their "school" I like to say school because it keeps me from saying "daycare" and makes me feel better about the fact that I'm not home with them 24/7, which I certainly couldn't handle anyways. (Shit, I can't handle the 48 continuous hours of a weekend with them!) ANYWAYS, I walk in and Bryce and her little friend Ryan are dressed up like gypsies... running around the room laughing and squealing... and I realized for the first time in a long time what a pleasure it was to be a kid. No bills. No headaches. No mortgages. No illnesses. No death. Everything was a frickin' joy ride. For the most part anyways. I think what I'm going to do now is really try harder to be more spontaneous with them and for them, which will probably make my life a lot better, too. Sorry for the philosophical entry. I am just sitting here realizing I could be playing with them now instead of on the computer.

Hershel Fastwheel

Mommy's new ride is the MB R350. Yes... an outrageously frivious and extravagant purchase especially in these crappy economic times. Oh well. I freakin' love it. We've named him (yes, it's a him, we're sure) Hershel Fastwheel. Hershel because he resembles a hearse (my morbid conribution to the name) and Fastwheel is the last name Jake decided on. He probably would have said Hot Wheel, but I think Jake knows that Hot Wheels is trademarked and we don't want to get sued, you know. Smart five-year-old.

Mommy - M.I.A.

What the hell? I cannot believe that I am that much of a loser. I mean, November. Come on. Yesterday I helped start a blog for the BOHOs (a very select group of hot Mamas who get together once a year away from our families to P-A-R-T-Y!) and I thought... what a terrible blogger I have been so I better just get back into the swing of things and make a post. Let's see what has happened since I last blogged..... Hmmm.... my husband keeps losing weight by running and he is looking hotter and hotter! YAY!... Christmas, New Year's, SuperBowl, Birthdays (Jason and the kids).... a ton of crap that I haven't chronicled. Oh, well. Here's a pic of the BOHOs at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday night (actually Sunday morning). We look damn good for that time of night, don't you think?

Why do they display Christmas trees at Halloween?

Oh... I guess cause it's right around the corner. Here are two pics of the kids at Halloween! Trick-or-treat???