My house cleaner

So a few weeks ago I said goodbye to Lorena. While I was pregnant and throwing up with Gavin my neighbor started telling me about her house cleaner. How she changed the sheets, washed the rugs, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned out the crumbs in the toaster. You had me at house cleaner!!!!
Any way we are getting ready to buy a house in the next couple of months and I wanted to practice making those gigantic Southern California payments before we actually did it. It scares me to death. I decided to take a look at some expenses I could cut. We let the YMCA membership go, then the sailing membership. I just didn't know how hard it was going to be to lay off Lorena. The funny thing is, I orginally decided I would have Lorena help me the first couple of months after Gavin...14 months later I was still trying to find a way to let her go emotionally. I really get an emotional high when I come home from Legoland to find my house is spotless. I don't know if there is price you can put on that. So her English is pretty good but I was hoping I could explain it in a way that was nice. I've never layed anyone off before. She understood, I hugged her and she went out the door. The house stayed clean for about 2 weeks and then it hit me she isn't coming back. I miss her and have decided that once we buy a house I will make the necessary cuts to get her back.:) Ramen it is!!!

The Break In

What a crazy week. Logan beat me to the car as I was getting ready to take him to pre-school. He slammed the door shut and glass went flying everywhere. His first comment was, "Sorry mom I didn't mean to shut it so hard." And then that feeling of something isn't right came over me. So I looked over at the passenger side window which was shattered everywhere throughout the car and sidewalk. Then I looked down to see my purse was no longer there. We had gone to Disneyland the day before and got home a little late. I parked outside our front door instead of the garage and left my purse in the car and now I am no paying for it. So I took care of a lot of it last week only to wake up yesterday and find $1400 spent on an old visa card. Between calling the police, insurance, DMV, banks, credit reporting agencies I am beat!!!! I'm ready to move on and have this nightmare behind us. We should be finished in a couple more days. I am so grateful that no one was hurt and that it is just stuff.

Christmas

So our vacation time ended Dec 17th so it was an interesting Christmas. When most people are getting off work we were going back to it. We managed to squeeze in a few more traditions that we do every year. Logan picked out our Christmas tree this year. It was tied up so when we got home we realized it actually took up our whole living room. It was a beautiful tree and every day he increased his confidence in picking trees by repeating, "Did I pick out a good tree mom?" Knowing we loved it and would give him some good praise. We went back to Rancho Cucamunga to see the lights on Thoroughbread. This is where Tom grew up and this part of town is decorated like Disneyland. His sister Monica and her daughter Avery came with us and they got to see their old digs. Next we met at the Encinitas Botanical gardens for the garden of lights. Logan and Gavin got to sit on the most authentic Santa's lap I have ever seen. We roasted marshmallows and danced to the music. We met K.C. and Monica there as well. Then Christmas Eve we acted out the Nativity. Tom was about 5-6 different characters this year. Playing Mary, I got to ride him as the donkey. I will leave those pictures out. We had Lisa and Sam over for Christmas Egg brunch on Christmas so that was fun. We had quite an action packed December. As I look back on the year, I have to say it looks like all we did is vacation.

San Felipe

I decided that San Felipe deserved its own entry. We rented a beach house on the Sea of Cortez which is the gulf side of Mexico. It took us about 4 hours to drive there and then it was paradise. It was us and our neighbors for about a week. The place was deserted because it was December and 20 miles south of the nearest city. Logan caught his first fish and found octopus and crabs with his dad. I found hundreds of beautiful sea shells and read tons. Gavin and Logan loved playing in the sand all week. We also went into town to grab a famous fish taco and go shopping. Tom took us to buy fireworks in a tourist shop because he claimed they were legal in Mexico. Of course the deal was made behind a door disguised as a book case. My favorite part was standing by listening to him trying to negociate a better price. The $5.00 savings about gave me a heart attack. So we had quite the $20.00 fire work show on the beach one night. It was so great to hang out as a family for a whole week with no computers, blackberrys, or tivo. It was nice to be away from everything and get to enjoy being with each other. We can't wait to go again.

Vacation

So we had an interesting end to our 2007 year. It was very long work wise for Tom because he took over a struggling nursing home that took every waking moment to run. We decided to take two months off from work and decide if we wanted to go back or make a career change. We also decided to make it a very fun two months. So we took Tom to all of our favorite San Diego spots for stay at home moms. We went to the air and space museum, and the automotive museum. We went to the Encinitas Botanical Gardens, Sea World, parks, the beach you get the picture. Then we took some vacations. We went to Disneyland and stayed at the Candy Cane Inn our favorite spot. We took a week in Utah to visit with family and friends and have 3 Thanksgiving dinners. Then off to San Felipe Mexico for a week on the beach. I also had the opportunity to help serve the fire victims of the October fires. It was an amazing experience and reminded me of my mission. Needless to say we decided that we really enjoy spending time together and that regardless of the career we would put our family first. His company offered him a position at his old nursing home and we decided to take it. I am happy to say two months later we are just as happy and enjoying our life like never before.