Day Trip

While Job was out this way we managed to meet up with him up in Idyllwild. It was good times catching up, taking a walk into town and playing Catan (if anyone knows where to buy this let us know) ! The mountain looked beautiful with the recent snow.

Awe

This was what the sky in Victorville looked

like when we went up to visit my aunt.

Don't try this at home....or work....or anywhere.

• Now you too can kill a child just by dialing the phone!

You make the call!

Very soon, a judge is going to have to decide who will raise Sean Preston and Jayden James Spears-Federline. It's a tough job so I thought I'd help out and take a poll on who would be best to raise the kids. Therefore I ask you, who would bring them up best?






Britney










K-Fed











Circus Freaks









Pack of Wolves

I'm ready to let the world know...

I have a confession to make. It's something I'm not proud of, but after talking to a reader of this blog who seems to be leaning the same way, I feel safe enough to get it off my chest.

I am a Justin Timberlake fan.

It feels good to get that out there.

I first had these feelings back in 2002-3 when he released "Cry Me a River" and "Rock Your Body". As much as I mocked him from his N*Sync days, I also found myself listening to the songs when I was scanning the radio. Both made it onto my iPod. I was able to put these feelings aside for a few years as no new albums were released.

Recently, I have been hit with another batch of songs. "SexyBack" was followed by the superior "My Love" which now has been blown away by "What Goes Around...". I can't deny it anymore.

Unlike a lot of R&B stars, Justin does know how to play an instrument, and he helps write and produce all of his songs. Although I don't know for sure, it doesn't seem like he's lip syncing when he performs either.

The guy is a stud. Surprisingly, he has been one of the best hosts ever during his two times on Saturday Night Live. He's dated Alyssa Milano (80's hottie), Cameron Diaz (90's hottie), and Scarlett Johannsen (00's hottie). Plus, he showed how smart he was with Britney Spears by buying low and selling high right before the crash. Then he went and wrote a great breakup song with "Cry Me a River" and moved on. Even his acting in recent movies isn't that bad.

He was in N*Sync. I don't have to like that. But America is very forgiving. Mohammed Ali was the most hated athlete in the world, but now he can do no wrong. Paul Reubens was once a dirty word, but is now a hot comedy guest star. Justin too can overcome his past.

And I'll be there waiting to see what he comes up with next.

If I had a million dollars....

I'd buy your love.

many ups and downs

Last night when we left the hospital my aunt waved to us again. Ron said later on she even wanted to watch TV for an hour but after that just wanted to lay there with her eyes closed. My mom and I went to dinner with Amanda and Josh. We had a very nice time. I think it is the longest conversation we've all had in a VERY long time. Josh drove us in his new truck (i so want one) and we ate at Mimi's. I really had a nice time getting to know my cousins a bit better.

When we went to the hospital today my aunts blood pressure was very high. at one point it was 191/101 both the systolic and diastolic were heading towards the danger zone. why is high blood pressure bad? well it can lead to stroke, heart attack, and congestive heart failure. From what I have read if it gets around the 200 mark for systolic you are at a great chance of having a stroke. They gave her some blood pressure medication but when we left it was still 184/108. Normal is less than 120/80. Ron said he would keep us updated but we had to come home today because my mom works in the morning. Before we left I wrote a note to Robing saying hi and to get better soon.

I will update you when I know more. Again thank you for all your prayers, and e-mails they really lift our spirits.

for funzies

W H O. W A S. T H E. L A S T. P E R S O N.

1. Who made you smile? my cousin and TK

2. You rode in a car with? mom, josh and amanda

3. Went to the movies with? my mom

4. Went to the mall with? my mom, amy and leslie

5. Talked on the phone to? Orange School District (i didnt so much talk as i did listen)

6. Made you laugh? my cousins

7. Talked to on the Internet? bubba, amy and my dad

8. Last person you told and/or they told you they Loved you? bubba and TK

W O U L D. Y O U. R A T H E R.
1. Pierce your nose or tongue? tongue

2. Be serious or be funny? a lil' bit of both ;0)

3. Drink whole or skim milk? Non-Fat

4. Spend time with your parents or enemies? parents

A N S W E R. T R U T H F U L L Y.
1. Do you like anyone? lots of people

2. Sun or moon? oh... a little of each

3. Winter or Fall? I like a little taste of all the seasons

4. left or right? i like to be right

5. Sunny or rainy? balance

A B O U T. Y O U.
1. What time is it? 9:29pm

3. Where do you wanna live? in a fantasy land where all my friends and family live in the same town.

4. How many kids do you want? 2-3

5. Do you want to get married? we have already crossed that bridge : )

6. Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it? both at the same time

7. Have you ever eaten spam? oh, heavens no!

8. Favorite(s) ice cream? peanut butter -n- chocolate

9. How many kinds of cereal are in your cabinet? um... lets see... cheerios, rasin bran and life with vanilla yogurt

10. Do you cook? yup! i can't assure you that you'd like it, but i do and that's all that matters.

11. Current mood? tired

I N. T H E. L A S T. 4 8 H O U R S. H A V E. Y O U.

1. Kissed some one? nope, i am away from my bubba

2. Sang? in the car, yes

3. Been hugged? no...and that sucks!

4. Felt stupid? yes

5. Missed someone? oh, definately. missing people like crazy right now.

6. Danced Crazy? not that i can recall

7. Gotten your hair cut? nope.

8. Cried? yep

9. Lied? nope

R A N D O M. Q U E S T I O N S.

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops? only at the airport

2. Do you have a Dog? no... but i wish i did.

3. When was the last time you went sledding? a year ago with the Askews

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone? with someone, long as i knew them.

5. If you were a hotdog, would you eat yourself? of course

6. Do you consider yourself creative? i have my moments

update on my aunt

First of all I want to thank all of you who have e-mailed, called, texted and IMed. I am greatful for your thoughts and prayers. I just realized that this hotel gives us free internet access. I wish I had inquired about it earlier. Well, here is how my weekend is going and how my aunt is currently doing.

We were planning on coming up to Victorville on Saturday morning however just before I reached San Diego my mom said that Amanda had called and that things were not looking good. We decided to head up that night. We got to the hospital around 11:05pm but from 11-midnight they don't allow visitors at this ICU. So we waited around. At midnight we finally were able to go in and see her. We stayed till 1am. Then headed to the hotel to get some shut eye.

On Saturday we got up and dressed and met two of my uncles in the lobby. We grabbed a quick bite and then headed back to the hospital. My aunt was a bit responsive. She held my moms hand told my uncles and mom that she loved them. She cannot speak because she had her vocal cords removed but she mouthed them. The boys (my uncles) had a 430 flight out of Ontario so we stayed at the hospital with them until they needed to leave. My mom and I decided to take a break so we headed over to Ontario Mills to catch a movie. Then it was dinner time and at 9 we finally made it back to the hotel. We fell asleep pretty quickly.

This morning we were woken up by a phone call from Ron saying that things had worsened. She was unresponsive, blood pressure was too high and the percent of oxygen she was taking in had dropped significantly. They had to put her on a ventilator. We got dressed fast as we could and headed over. When we got there she had stabilized again and her vitals were looking good. We stayed until 1pm and then headed back to the hotel for a little while. We will be picking up Amanda and Josh for dinner in about two hours. Then we may head back down to the hospital.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to check out of the hotel. We will get up early, have breakfast at the hotel and head to the hospital. I am not sure how long we will be staying but we do need to head back down to San Diego tomorrow.

So as of right now she is doing slightly better. But everyday there has been at least a few hours where they thought she wasn't going to make it. Please continue to pray for her, and our family.

New feature

Ok, I heard you. I got a lot of hate mail this week when our picture thingy starting playing My Chemical Romance for everyone with no way to turn it off. My bad. It wasn't supposed to do that.

I did want the blog to be a bit more musical though. I put up a player a while ago, but it wouldn't recognize most of the songs I tried to load into it. Luckily I was directed to a website that would take care of that for me called FineTune. The only downsides I've found so far are that your playlist has to be at least 45 songs and you can only put a max of 3 songs by each artist.

Anyway, just to try it out, I put together a playlist of songs from my concert experiences. You can tell how many shows I get out to these days by the mid 90's feel to most of it. Oh well. I plan to make more lists later so check it out every now and then. Oh, and before I get any complaints, I am not responsible for content in the songs...though I did try and put less offensive songs from some groups (I see you over there Rage). I also put the live versions of songs if possible.

Just call me Debbie

Aunt Robin, Amand and my mom

I got a call from my mom today, my aunt is doing worse. We are told she is fading fast. The siblings have made arrangements for us to all converge on Victorville this Saturday. We are told that it may be the time to say our goodbyes. The fact that this is happening breaks my heart. Please pray for our family. This is my moms little sis and things are going to be tough for awhile. Pray that I can be strong during this time and help where
and when I am needed.

So tomorrow after work I am immediately heading down to San Diego. Then Saturday morning we will be driving up to Victorville. I do not know how long our stay will be...

Valentine's Day pets

After our fishies went Jim Jones on us last week, we had quite a mess to clean up. The filter was in bad shape and needed to be replaced. When we went to the pet store, we found that for just $10 more, we could get a whole new set up with a tank twice as big as the one we had. It was too good to pass up, plus it saved us hours of trying to get our old tank back in working condition. This is a picture of our new tank, complete with air bubble powered spinning wheel. We have 10 new fish and all seem to be happy.

Send up a prayer

My aunt is not doing so well again. She recently had to go back into the hospital for a week She has developed two tumors on her tounge, one of her eyes is swollen shut and has lost hearing in one of her ears. The doctors aren't sure what is going on and in about a week she is supposed to begin chemo. again.

Our Weekend

My mom came up to celebrate her 60th birthday. She drove up on Saturday and we headed out to some houses she wanted to look at.

On Sunday my mom and I met up with Leslie and Amy at the mall for some shopping followed by a delicious lunch. Then we played some games at Dave and Busters. We wanted to catch a movie but there just wasn' t enough time to fit in everything. That evening my mom and I headed over to Burbank to the hotel we were staying at. Our room was so much nicer than the motel we stayed in last time. They had tennis courts, swimming pools, fitness center and much more. Our rooom even had a balcony.

At the crack of dawn on Monday I headed over to get tickets for Ellen. I got there at 645am. Line up was supposed to start at 7am but there was already a good 50 people in front of me. So I stood there until 930am. It wasn't looking good as each person could be getting up to 4 tickets.

I headed back to the hotel to pick up my mom and check out. Then we headed out to breakfast. I have always loved Bob's, since I was a toddler. So when I found out that there was one near by I didn't need to think twice about where I wanted to eat :)

Then it was back over to NBC studios to get a parking spot and wait in line to get through security. Then we were lined up in number order to be seated. We cut it real close to not making it in. Only about 4-6 people made it in after us! We were to Ellen's left and in the middle. The taping we saw will air on Friday, Feb. 16th. It has Ryan Phillipe, Bob Harper and McPhee (from Idol). We also got a bonus of John Legend performing (his segment will air with the show that Oprah is on). He even gave us a bonus, usually musical guests only do one song, he performed a second for us. Everyone got McPhee's CD at the end of the show. They have a photo booth in the riff raff room so on our way out I took my photo and emailed it to myself.

Today, my mom and I got up early and had breakfast, then we went in search of at theatre that was playing Because I Said So before noon. Lucky for us the Regal down the street was.

My mom has been saying since the previews came out that she wanted to see it.

My mom said she had a good weekend and that is what was important :)

I guess I'm "The Man" after all

Score: -180

I am the establishment,
Get off my lawn you damn hippies!

Take the elitemrp.net "Are you a Hippie?" Test

60

HAPPY 60th Birthday MOM!

All 4 of our goldfish died today...

I guess it was hard for them to go on in a world without Anna Nicole.

Off the top of my head and in no particular order...

Top 10 songs named after women:

Eleanor Rigby -- The Beatles
Ana Ng -- They Might Be Giants
Maggie Mae -- Rod Stewart
Billie Jean -- Michael Jackson
Layla -- Eric Clapton
Sweet Caroline -- Neil Diamond
Polly -- Nirvana
Oh Yoko -- John Lennon*
Valerie Loves Me -- Material Issue
Anna Begins -- Counting Crows


*In the event that Yoko is proven to not actually be a woman, that spot on the list will go to either "Sheena is a Punk Rocker -- The Ramones" or "A Letter to Elise -- The Cure"

For a good cause

I earned quite a nice bit of change when I took in our bottles and cans today, it got me thinking I would like to put all the bottles and cans from now on towards supporting my team in the MS walk. I am asking you kind people if you drink water, soda, beer or anything else that is in a bottle or can to donate them to us. You can bring them by my apartment, I can come pick them up at your home. If you live in San Diego you can take them to my moms, or when I am down there for a weekend I can come by and pick them up. I am trying to raise money in anyway I can for the MS walk. It is near to my heart to do anything I can to help.

Superbowl Sunday

Paul worked the morning shift and then headed over to his folks to meet everyone there. We watched the first half the game and then P&C headed over to get sub sandwiches for everyone. We had an early dinner and then watched the rest of the game. As per tradition there were brownies for dessert. Cyndi didn't really care who won as she doesn't like or dislike either of the teams. It was a nice way to end the weekend.

SaturDay Trip

We drove up to visit some friends this Saturday. Everyone hung out and talked for awhile. We walked over to the swing set and swung for a bit. Then Paul and Cyndi joined the Idyllwild Disc Golf Club and completed the 9 hole course. Paul ended up two back from Josh with a 42. Cyndi finished with a 51. Lisa and Sarah were in the fifties and sixties as well. P&C are looking forward coming back for a rematch.

The photos from top to bottom and left to right:

Chatting with Sarah and Rosie, Lisa, Josh and Sarah on the Disc Golf Course

Group DG photo, Bowden playing Peek-a-boo, P&C at Pizza, Rosie and Lisa

Catan, Cyndi playing the game, group photo at the house, Lucy and Annie

They should've brought Jim McMahon out of retirement

Workout update

We've been working on our goal of 750 miles for a month now, so I just wanted to update everyone on my progress so far. I am a bit behind in my number of miles...not quite 2 a day up to this point, but I'm only 5 miles short so that's fixable. Yesterday the scale read exactly 20 pounds less than when I started. That means only 80 more to go. I've dropped one pant size and need a new belt or else I need to start poking new holes in the one I have. I don't have as much of a chance to do weights as I'd like, but I have been adding them in when I can.

Happy Belated Groundhog's Day

Groundhog's Day was also my last day of Kindergarten so I decided to bake up some cupcakes and decorate them to semi-resemble groundhogs. The kids loved them, and said they tasted good. I took ALL the extra and put them in the teachers lounge and handed them out to the office staff and principal, everyone thought they were so cute and thanked me. It was a nice last day. :)

#500

After the horrid start this blog had, we've finally made it to 500 posts. The first 3 years were rough...we only posted 8 times (and 2 of those were posted by Brad). The original idea for starting it was to make it a place for extended family, cousins, etc. to keep in touch. That didn't happen and we didn't bother updating it to help get things going.

In 2005 we really picked it up and did even better in 2006. Up until a few days ago, we even had a streak of posting at least once a day for over 3 months. I even woke up in the middle of the night and asked Cyndi if we had blogged that day. The answer was "no" with an irritated sigh added on.

Anywho, thank you to everyone who reads this blog and keeps us inspired to keep posting. We continue to have fun with it as well as with keeping up with everyone else's blogs. Now, since I'm a geek, here is our blog by the number:

First blog: December 24, 2002
5ooth blog: February 2, 2007
Number of comments: 721
Number of states visiting: 38 (plus D.C.)
Number of countries visiting: 24

Too soon?