What a good weekend!

2-1-10

Good morning! Ok, I am not really that chipper, but I am in a good mood simply because of the magical email that stated this morning that the boss is out of the office. Woo Hoo!

My weekend was pretty good! Friday night we did the standard of visiting with my folks. While I was moving my car into the driveway before we were heading home, my mom must have asked Bobby when he was going to spend the night at their house. Bobby got it in his head that he wanted to do it that night. Dax was excited, too. The problem was, no one was prepared for this. We considered going home and getting their stuff and then coming back. My mom was ok with this, but then I asked her out of ear shot of the boys and she said that yes, my dad would prefer if we did it this coming Friday. I broke the news to the boys and even though they were bummed, we made a plan that this Friday they would spend the evening at Grandma and Poppy’s house. This means Ken and I have a Friday night, which is just odd. We are not sure what we will do. Heck, maybe just dinner at a non family restaurant and going home and not having to worry about children. LOL!

I did spend the evening on Friday drilling it into Bobby to get dressed when he got up in the morning. It is a strange obsession I have with him doing this, but mostly it is me trying to get Bobby to do things without me having to nag him. He has kept his room pretty clean all week because I showed him what he needed to do daily. He has been good about doing it with minimal reminding. Of course, it also helps that in the mornings they play in Dax’s room so that is the hurricane zone.

I bribed Bobby on Thursday that said when he did it, he would get to go shopping with me to get a friend for his tiger, Carson. I have $20 in Build a Bear credit, so I was even willing to let him build a tiger. Every 10 minutes on Friday I would ask him, “So what do you need to do in the morning?” “Get dressed!”

Saturday morning, we got up. Dax was in his room playing quietly, and Bobby was only just getting out of bed. We watched the boys on the monitor and I hoped he would do it. He first let Monarch in his room, but he did close the door. I thought this showed some promise. He played with the cat for a while, which made me nervous. I didn’t want him to dink around and not do it.

We then noticed he had taken off his shirt. YAY! Although it did take him about 20 minutes, he didn’t come out until he was dressed. A good chunk of that time was from him playing with Monarch while he danced around.

During this time, Dax wandered out and declared to Ken and I that he had poop, so I took him into his room to get him cleaned up and dressed. Bobby came into Dax’s room and I cheered and quickly scooped him up to tell him how proud I was of him. He laughed and smiled, and then just as quickly, he burst into tears. I had scared him with my sudden burst of enthusiasm. Oops. Man I suck.

Bobby decided that he just wanted to go with me. So we headed out, leaving a crying Dax, around 10 to the mall. We went to Build a Bear first since the web site indicated that they make little tigers, which Bobby wanted instead of the big ones they also have. Unfortunately they did not have ANY tigers. In fact, true to their name, they only seemed to have bears in house. The nice lady there, who is always super nice, told us that online is the best place to get the cool carcasses. I figured worst case scenario at this point was we would need to order one for him. He didn’t seem too upset about this, so we went down to the Disney store.

The Disney store had a new Bolt collection. Figures. I am out shopping for Bobby and there is stuff for Dax. So we picked up a Bolt, Mittens, Rhino, and Doug from Up for Dax. Bobby picked out Doug and Woody. We then continued our quest for Carson friends since I figured we were in a mall. Shouldn’t there be some place with a stuffed tiger?

There was! We found a little shop that had a very cute tiger that Bobby loved instantly. Carson approved of the new friend, and we left the store victorious!

Since I was next to Lane Bryant, I decided that I wanted to look for a pair of jeans. Since they have had $20 jean sales the last few times I have gone in, I thought I would try my luck. My luck was good! Not only did I find jeans, they were on sale for $13! The best part was that they had another pair of my favorite jeans that I own right now. They had a giant clearance sale, with all things $13 or less. Mind you, much of the bargains looked like drag queen wear, but jeans and nice tank tops were there also, which is all I need right now!

Bobby was a wonderful shopping companion. He was talkative, which allowed me conversation. He also didn’t wander off too far or misbehave at all. He was great at giving me opinion, which was super cute. The best part of shopping with Bobby was his commentary on things. There were several mannequins with no legs and no head. Bobby was amused and kept pointing out that these were dead. He enjoyed the ones with no arms, too. I had to explain that if they had no arms, they would not be dead since there are people with no arms. But he countered with, “But no head means dead, right?” I love that kid!

We headed home with a good morning of shopping under our belt. I was quite pleased, as was Bobby.

When we got home, we picked up Ken and Dax and headed to the other mall. Of course, there was a different purpose there. We were taking some old electronics to the recycling event they were having in the parking lot. We also were returning some shoes at Hot Topic. One of the best things about the return was they were having a giant accessories clearance sale, so we got Dax a wonderful hat (that I wish I had gotten one for me), a hat for me, and some socks. I almost picked up a wonderful hand bag which was the shape of a giant butcher knife complete with blood stains, but I was pretty sure I would never end up using it, even though it was the best purse ever.

We got some lunch and headed towards home. Dax fell asleep, so I wondered if we should keep driving. We stopped by home and picked up the gift certificate that Ken had made for Stephanie and the talent show raffle she was getting donations for. When we got home, Dax woke up enough that we opted to take the dogs since I also want to get Luna on several car trips right now since she has the mother of all car trips next week and I want to make sure she is up for it.

We dropped off the gift certificate and then ran over to the bird center to say hello to Brandy since she was working the whole weekend cleaning pelicans. She had just gotten another batch when we arrived so there wasn’t too much time for visiting. We walked over to see the mammal center and then we headed home to let the boys and dogs run.

Ken ran over to the grocery store while I worked on cleaning the house and doing laundry. I did a pretty good job since by the time I crawled into bed last night, I had done all the laundry (ok, there was the clothes I took off yesterday, but it wasn’t like a full load!), and the house looked pretty good!

Friday and Saturday night we watched some Glee. God Damn that is a good fucking show. We had to watch the last two episodes on Hulu, but that worked out just fine. Ken was able to work on his computer doing his Facebook stuff and we watched it on my computer. I was glued! And I don’t get a new episode until April???? Unacceptable! DUDE!

Sunday morning we did the bowling thing. Bobby bowled all three games since he figured out he didn’t have to miss out on playing around if he wanted to bowl also. He would go play, then we would just call him up to bowl. This worked out great! He also bowled a strike, which is always fun. A guy at the alley bowled a 300 game and the whole place cheered. I can tell you that we cheered louder on Bobby’s one strike. LOL!

After bowling, we went to Disney’s California Adventure. We went on the soaring over California ride, which I am telling you makes both boys giggle. It still freaks me out a bit, but I managed to watch most of it without too much trouble. We explored the adventure forest which was filled with gobs of rope bridges and slides and what not. After that, we hit up the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Ken took them on the giant Ferris Wheel again. This time they were able to actually ride it properly since they didn’t seem to be stopping it every 2 seconds. I loved it whenever they went around, they would yell down to me. It was very cute!

We went on a couple more rides and then headed on home since the boys were wiped out. Instead of nap, they watched a movie. Quiet time wasn’t super quiet since despite being tired, they were full of energy. Ahh, the strange physics of little kids.

We went out back and played for a while. We played fetch with Lycos, which means Luna can then mess with her. Always entertaining fun for everyone. Ok, Lycos doesn’t like Luna’s antics as much, but she will put up with anything for a rousing game of fetch.

I got to bathe Luna last night since I don’t think we have a bad rain coming for a little while. I see of course now that it may rain Wednesday morning, and Friday and Saturday. LOL! She looks pretty now, though. So fluffy! Her coat is really starting to come in. I will be bathing her again next Wednesday so she looks good for our trip Thursday.

We watched some of the Grammy’s last night, but let’s face it, the show started at 8 and went to 11:30. There was no way I would get through all of it. I have it on Tivo for tonight. I still went to bed later than I wanted to. Plus, for the last couple nights I just couldn’t get comfortable for some reason, so I am super tired again. It will be a long week!

While we were at California Adventure Bobby said he wished Uncle Andy was there. So I suggested we call him on the computer so Bobby could see him and say hello. We got him on the video chat last night and the boys did some show and tell and showed off. I am not sure who had more fun, the boys or Andy! It was a very fun conversation.

Crap! I just realized we still need to get a car adapter for the iPod for our trip. Maybe we can pick one of those up this coming weekend.

We might be heading back to Downtown Disney tonight since Ken needed to go to the Lego Store. We would have done it yesterday, but the boys were lacking in patience when we were leaving. We want to go at night some time soon, too, just because we would like the boys to see Fantasmic. I am thinking that I would like to do that some night when I don’t have to work in the morning. So we might pick some night in a couple months and I can take off a Friday or something and we can do it. We will have to see. It is going to be a very Disney week if we go tonight since we are also going on Sunday for Super Bowl Sunday.

It is a big week in general. Thursday is my writing seminar! YAY! I am very excited and jazzed about this. I don’t know what I will get out of it, but I can’t imagine it will be bad. A couple of funny writers talking about writing? How bad could it be!

At this rate, I think Wednesday is my only quiet day. LOL!

Interesting news. The girl at my work who has been suffering from horrible rashes and allergic reactions for the last couple months finally found out what it was from. A corn allergy! She can’t be exposed to corn oils and corn products. Not cool for a Hispanic woman, let me tell you. But the best part about this is she finally knows. She has been most frustrated with the wrong information she has gotten and all the pills and steroids and creams she has been trying to clear this up. Her eyes have been practically swollen shut on some days. It is awful. She ended up going to some specialist in Oregon just to find the answer. It is so cool they figured it out! Of course, doing a quick Google search for lists of foods to avoid was scary. Man, she is down to a mostly vegetarian diet, but make sure to avoid any mixed veggies. Protein may be an issue since she may still be allergic to peanuts and other nuts (this was one of the first positive allergy tests results, but I don’t know if she has that still), and meats are tough since the livestock eats corn. She eats a lot of chicken, and chicken is one of the items on the list. The doc apparently told her that a lot will be trial and error since one never knows their tolerance until they test it out. I wish her luck but I know she has to just feel good to have an answer.

Am I the only one who wishes on eyelashes? I also wish on my necklace chain when the clasp gets down to the charm.

Grammie has surgery tomorrow on her knee. I am considering the idea of going out to visit on Saturday. I am going to talk to my mom to see if she has the info on where she is staying since she is in the hospital for a couple weeks I think. Since my mom will already have the boys, I am thinking that Ken and I can just meet them out there and get the boys from them when we get there. I don’t know yet. It might be nice to visit.

I was enjoying this way too much yesterday. My silly dogs were of course in front of me while we were playing and I was able to say “Sit!” Both dogs promptly did. Synchronized sitting makes me smile.

Luna is starting to get the old wise Golden Retriever look when she sits. I love it! I am also so please with her devotion. While Ken trimmed Sideshow Bob and the boys played, I just relaxed in one of the chairs. Luna just sat at my feet all happy. When I walked over towards the garage, she followed. I stood there for a moment, talking to Ken, and she settled in at my feet just because she was happy to be next to me. It was very sweet.

I have been feeling squishy towards my critters lately. Not to say I don’t normally adore them, but sometimes they just seem especially sweet and nice. Hmmm..maybe there is something to be said about these pills I take.

The only real problem with no boss is I don’t feel inspired to do much work. It doesn’t help that I also am loving just sitting here barefoot in my comfy dress and my heater warming my toes. I feel cozy.

I saw some really cute things on Old Navy’s web site. For the longest time I didn’t care for Old Navy. Mostly due to that scary old broad with the big round black glasses and all the commercials. But in the last few years, I have decided they are way worth while. I am thinking that for spring time I want to have a whole bunch of fun sun dresses since they will go great with my hair cut I will get. They had some cute dresses. Makeover time for Gena!

OMG!! How did it take me this long to mention the best thing Ken has ever done for me??????? Saturday night, he was messing with my phone. He then gets his phone, calls my phone and tells me to not answer it. The ringing was now the wonderful sounds of “Let’s go to the Mall”!!!!!! For those of you not obsessed with How I Met Your Mother, this was a song that one of the characters, Robin, sang when she was a Canadian pop star. It is cheesy and wonderful and so in the same kind of style of Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. It has always made me happy when they reference it on the show. The best part was that Ted, one of the other characters, has the song as his ring tone. They didn’t really point it out, I just noticed it on one of the episodes, and I was instantly excited. Ken has spent the last couple weeks searching for it for me and then put it on my phone. He also has the video and song that we are going to put on iTty. I was so excited I even danced a little. Seriously, is anyone more lame than me???

It is confirmed that we are going to Downtown Disney this evening. When I get home, I need to exercise, make some sandwiches and pack some snacks and milk, and then make sure everything else is done sine we are going to head out as soon as Ken gets home from his class at around 4. I figure the boys can have PB&H for dinner and Ken and I will figure something out for us. We may, depending on the boys, walk over to the park and go on one or two rides. Maybe let them each pick one? Don’t know. A lot depends on the length of the lines, too. Dax loves the crap out of that flying over California ride, but the line can be crazy long. Then again, we may not go in the park at all. We will see.

Reaction update. Ok, there is no real update other than no change. LOL! But it has been almost 2 weeks now that I have been taking my meds. I think I feel a little less stressed, but it still is probably in my head. Of course, if it is in my head, I am cool with that, too, since then I would only have to take fake pills. LOL! I have not taken anymore Xanax. I do notice the slight attacks at night, which is starting to really make me wonder how much of that reflux stuff makes some sense. Once again, my head is pretty persuasive, so I may just get the attacks at night now since there is a possible answer. Man, I am one screwed up chick. That is ok, at least I still crack myself up.

I have decided I am leaving here at 2 today. It isn’t much earlier, but that extra 20 minutes will allow me to get my exercises done, add an extra 10 minutes on the exercises, and still be able to make their dinner and prep for our departure.

I also have to prep for packing this weekend. All that means is I do all laundry, pick out the clothes I want the boys to wear up there and set them aside so they don’t wear any of them before Thursday. It is one of those things that make me realize Dax needs more pants.

It cracks me up how many times they check Dax’s height at Disneyland and California Adventure. When he stands under the little height checker for rides like Star Tours and the Soaring over California one, his head hits the bar. But of course, he is right at the correct height so you have to check. But they checked him before we walked into the line. Then they checked him midway through the line. Then they checked him right before we sat down. Dude, do you think no one checked him? I suppose it is good they are diligent, but it is still funny. Thankfully, he has grown even since Thanksgiving, so it is even more apparent he is fine. Plus, Dax now knows the drill so he never complains. LOL!