Major Praise!!!

That's right people!!! Kirk passed his SE exam...or as I so fondly refer to it as...
The test that caused my husband to ditch me for months last year while he stayed up all hours studying at work or at home in our office, while I did the following: bugged him by asking him continuously if he wanted a drink, food or anything under the sun to which he always said no thanks. So, I would head up to the twins house for some twin time...we got some great twin time in during those months.

He got the letter above in the mail today. His license number is 5406 - so crazy that the number of people who have passed this exam since it started in the 20's or 30's is only up to 5,000+ in California. I am so incredibly proud of him and the effort/smarty pants ability he put into getting through this whole thing.

The parents were randomly out here today, so it was awesome to have them here to go out to dinner with us and W&D tonight to celebrate. Below is us at dinner - CHEERS to the HUSBRO!!! (Note: I borrowed this beer from David...I thought it would look more fun than me cheers-ing with a glass of water).

Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for him during his studying time, test taking time and results waiting time! Woo Hoo!!!

Fruits & Veggies

I am attempting to turn over a new leaf - a fruit and veggie leaf. I actually really like fruits & veggies...but I don't eat them often enough - why?

• Produce is expensive.
• You have to get it from the grocery store - how great would it be if they sold bananas at in-n-out?!? I know, right!
• Peeling oranges, cutting apples, washing...prep work is not conducive to a quick snack or to meal prep after a long day of work where all I want to do is curl up on the couch to watch House (or Toddlers & Tiaras - don't judge!) and stuff my face with a burger or some cheesy pizza! Mmmmmm, I'm hungry!
• When I do eat them, I tend eat eat the least beneficial ones (corn, peas, potatoes) and all with butter and salt schmeared all over them.

I have made some improvements lately though in this quest to step up the f&v intake. I use fresh spinach on all of my sandwiches. I split big bags of apples and oranges with the twin from Costco and have been having one a day as my breakfast or with lunch. I have been trying new f&v and some again that I have not liked in the past - for example - asparagus and blueberries.

Any advise from my friends out there that I KNOW love to eat their fruits and veggies? Sarah, Mya, Candie??? Should I buy a juicer? Those things are expensive though and I bet I would use it once or twice. Any snack ideas??? I just want to get some easy ideas under my belt so that when I am at work and there are donuts or bagels, I grab for my fruit and veggies instead of feeding the beast...the beast being my ever expanding stomach and rump these days!

Burger Me

This weekend brought a group of awesome gals to The Counter in Irvine to celebrate one of the last weekends that Sarah will be a mother of 3. We then proceeded to have a burger experience that was close to being religious...well, that is a bit much...but it was one of the best I have had.For those of you who have never dined at The Counter, it is a sit-down place although they give you paper menu to order your burger exactly the way you want it. You start off with picking the type of patty you want (beef, turkey, veggie, chicken, etc.) as well as the portion - you can order a 1 lb burger - ugh...16 oz of beef on a bun. I went with the 1/3 lb cooked medium well. You then get to pick your cheese (Gruyere for me) then all of your toppings - anything from avocado, to a fried egg to crispy onion rings and more more more. Then you move onto your sauces and even more goodness.

Below are the beautiful ladies that enjoyed the "religious" experience with me. Love these girls! Before the burgers came, the 5 of us shared a trio of french fries, sweet potato fries and crispy onion rings with an array of dipping sauces. Here I am prepping my burger for mastication. The key to eating a burger super tall is to press down firmly while cutting in half. Side note: that delightful sauce in the silver bullet is their Horseradish Mayo...A-Maze-Ing!
The first bite was la bomba and we all pretty much devoured our burgers. Thanks Pye for this oh so flattering camera angle.And here is what was left. The twin killed her burger, the one in front...so did Mya - the one to the left. I think I ate more than my portion of the fried trio which led me to leave a wounded soldier of my burger on my plate. Jessica only left one bite and then Sarah's is on the right. I think cuatro is taking up all her belly room these days.

Welcome to my Office...

A little while back my beautiful friend Sarah inquired about the place I spend the majority of my week. The place that I have developed a serious posture problem from that causes me to harass Kirk to rub my back at night to which I rarely ever get because homeboy always seems to fall asleep right before I get into bed. How convenient for you Kirker.

Anyway, here is a peek into the abyss I sink into every weekday morning to break up the time between my to-n-fro 405 commutes!

There are CPK food & storefront shots all over the walls of our 2 floors and the one next to my office is below. One door down is the Carbonara which I believe if my twin worked here, she would sit next to...peas, bacon and cream sauce! Yup, that seems about right.

Come on in people! There are not normally overnight bags and multiple pairs of shoes in my office, but the overnights at Erin's that I adore and the rain last week created a myriad of crap piling up in the corner this last week.

These are my R.O.C.K. and Service Awards. It is crazy to think that I am coming up on 9 years working for CPK this year!

Yup...it's test item city and I am the Mayor! This is my board that I use to keep track of all of our tests. Writing on a whiteboard is a way of getting out my desires to have become an elementary school teacher.

Because I am here so much, I prefer to cover my line of sight with pictures of my friends and family.

So, that's it people. This is where I spend my time at work...well in here, in the lunch room and in Erin's office bugging her throughout the day. Some people have smoke breaks...I have "I wonder what Erin is up to?" breaks!

The Kids of the Viejo Village

As most of you know...the rain has been crazy this week. I swear that people all over the country must be thinking to themselves, wow California, how lame are you. It's rain, not acid and fire breathing monkeys falling from the sky...it's water! Stop your whining. I have not been whining about the rain, surprisingly too, because I can whine with the BEST of em'! With this being the worst rain we have seen in southern Cali in a long time, it has been a while since I have seen MANY rainy hilarity/ridiculous things in the past few days.

Monday, the Sheraton across the street from our office had a tree blown into it, which shattered some windows...a girl at our office saw it and said. "we should call them to tell them what happened." Um...I am pretty sure they are aware that a huge tree just came crashing through a series of windows in their hotel!

This weekend, as Kirk and I were driving down the 405 freeway we passed an accident on the other side of the freeway. Yes, there were a bunch of cars involved, yes they had closed all the lanes, yes there were cop cars and fire trucks...but NO there were NOT any fireworks, no Tom Cruise was not saving lives (although that is what Scientologists do), there were no adorable puppies involved in the accident, there was no traffic on our side of the freeway...so, to the car in front of us I say "Why did you slow down to 4 mph as you rubber-necked along making my husband honk at you and then make me tell him to chill out...to which he then looked at me and said, 'that person needs to be honked at! You can't just slow to a stop on the freeway when there is no traffic!'...to which I just looked at him and laughed because it got him so mad."

Then tonight the most random thing I have ever seen in the rain. As we turned the corner onto my street, these kids came out of nowhere with boogie boards. They were taking advantage of the huge flooded gutters heading down our hill to street boogie board. What? That is awesome. I wanted to stop the car and get out to take pictures, but not only was it raining way too hard to get out with a camera...I did not even have my camera on me. BOO! Picture this, but at night time on my street...not being pulled by 2 people :)

The kids in our neighborhood are brilliant!!!

***Sarah Fitz...looks like I found something for you and the kids to do tomorrow while it's raining again! You can go ahead and thank me later.

While the Boys are away...

Since Kirk & David took off with Jay & David Ari to Tahoe for a guys snowboarding trip Wendy and I took advantage of the freedom and went up to Valencia to spend some time with some of our favorite girls.


We started off on Saturday morning getting twin pedicures at our new favorite pedicure place. $25 for an hour and 15 minute pedicure, which includes a salt rub and full leg massages that seem to last forever. I may give up my hope for a cleaning lady if I can get a pedicure at this joint every two weeks. The same lady has done my nails 2 times in a row now and she is a riot. She tries to figure me out based upon my polish color choice. The first time I chose a very muted gray purple...she told me that I must be somewhat sad and like to isolate myself most of the time. WOW, I have never heard that before...but she was so sure of the fact that it was a sad color that she went and picked out something "better" for me. I actually really liked the color she picked and I was not sad at all for the last 2 weeks...so hey!

After the pedicures we headed up to Valencia and there is nothing that Wendy & I enjoy more about a solo twin car ride than being able to sing super loud to cheesy music...and to not have Kirk wanting to have someone hold a gun to his head to relieve him from his misery of witnessing exactly who he married. This trip...it was volume 1 of Glee!!! So good people...soo good!Next we met up with some gorgeous ladies and headed to Justin's 30th birthday party and got to spend time with a lot of old friends that we don't see too often. What I learned at the party???


1.) Justin does not love surprise parties...come to think of it...I have never been to a surprise party where someone looked - A. Genuinely surprised when they walk in the door - B. Like they enjoy the fact that they walked into a party in their honor - C. If someone ever throws me a surprise party I am going to make an effort to at least smile when everyone says "Surprise" which is then followed by complete awkward silence.


2.)Pye always knows how to make a picture better.
3.) Owen is hilarious!!! Even when he is embarrassing his mother.

4.) Emily and Wendy have very bold eye color when photographed side by side.

5.) Sometimes all a party needs is a leg lamp - straight out of A Christmas Story. And NO, this was not just for the party...this is always lit up in their bay window.

6.) Only one thing in the world could have dragged Mariah away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window...nope, I got nothin' - she was all over that lamp.

After the party we headed for in-n-out then back to my dad's house and since he was out of town we all stayed up super late just talking, laughing and sharing our thoughts, opinions, stories and eventually yawns. Some of us stayed up until 4 am chatting and it was such a great time. We could have talked for many more hours and hopefully we will get to do it again soon. I think it is so important as a woman to have beautiful, brutally honest, caring, loving women in your life...and I am blessed to have MANY in mine!

Not Havin' It

O'Rielly is done with me...and above is proof of it. Could my Little Man have a better look of "Leave me alone" on his face? It is almost the end of day 2 of Kirk being out of town on his guys Tahoe weekend, I worked from home today and he has had enough alone time with me. Come home soon love...the cat misses you.

***Update***

No more than 5 minutes after I posted this, O'Reilly came up to me and got cozy on my lap. Love that cat!

Shoulda Stopped While You Were Ahead

NOTE: Totally superficial blog post below...

I put this lil' beauty together after seeing the far right picture of Heidi Montag on the internet today. Going...going...gone! Yikes! Girl better knock it off or she will end up like the cat woman in 30 more years.

Yesterday...Not as Good as Today

Saturday was spent in the dark...and it was needed. I woke up at 8:30 and worked for a few hours during which I came down with one of the worst headaches I have ever had. The kind that causes you to close all of the drapes in the house (Praise God we have those black out drapes) and curl up into the darkness in a ball and fall asleep, then wake up, then fall asleep, then wake up waiting for the pounding to stop. I thought the side of my head above my right eye was going to explode. I am guessing you get the point, so I will cease my boo hoo details.

Thankfully I woke up this morning with no headache and ready to NOT waste my Sunday. The twin and I headed over to my mom's house to hang out with Grammy while Mariah gave my mom a massage. (Thanks Pye! My mom requested that we get her another massage with you for her birthday in April, you are the best!) Afterwards we hopped in the cars and made our way to in-n-out for some lunch. We were planning on going to Claim Jumper for some $5.99 artichokes, but I suggested the burgers since I had gift cards from my win at David's b-day party...woot woot!

As we got into the car, Mya demonstrated the awesomeness of her air conditioning system. Yes, those are pliers.

The poor gal's air control knob broke off and it has resulted in her putting in some muscle when attempting to cool off. I love you PYE!When we arrived at in-n-out, I decided I was going to have to memorex the entire event...for my blog. I know you might think that is crazy...but I am attempting to post more pics with my ranting (for you Mrs. Martin!!!) Ween snapped a few shots of us outside before lunch.

After ordering, we realized there were NO tables open. Working near the airport I have been forced to develop amazing table stalking skills at In-n-Out...and Wendy captured me stalking 2 tables...very casual huh?

Turns out my stalking did not pay of quickly enough, the twin found a table first and she beckoned me and the pye over...we were excited as you can tell. I swear I think people all around us thought we were tourists and it was our first ever visit to an In-n-Out.

Way to go Twinner! Table stalking queen!

Pye asked for a cup for water...does that look like water to you? She could not resist soda Sunday.

Pye asked for X X X X Pickles. I kid you not...the cashier Steve typed in X (extra) 4 times...it was on my receipt. The girl loves her some pickles.

Steve even came over to the table to make sure that Mariah was satisfied with the amount of pickles on her double meat! Thanks Steve!

While ordering, Pye asked if I wanted to share fries...to which I quickly said something to the effect of "Are you high Mariah? I don't share fries!"

(which is something that totally annoys Kirker when we eat out)

As you can see, we all ended up with our own fries.

After lunch we all headed home and Kirk was getting his bike ready to go on a ride with David.

Instead of taking down the Christmas decorations in the front yard - yes I believe we are the last people on the block with decorations still up - we decided to play instead. Hey, the decorations are super fun, so they will be up for another week I guess.

Kirk let me hop on the back of the bike for the ride up to D&W's house. I was not the best at trying to snap a shot while on the back of the moving motorcycle. But hey...no helmet, so I was playing it safe.

Kirk & David headed out on their ride...although as they left I wondered how much fun the ride would be with one of them on a vespa and one on a Kawi. Did you keep up David?

After they got back from the ride, the boys all took off for a Sushi Sunday night. That left us with only one choice...after these adorable munchies went to bed...the ladies had a little movie night.

David set up the projector for us before they left and we cooked kraft mac n' cheese, little smokies and crescent rolls for dinner.
Sarah & Wendy humored me while the previews were rolling. I wanted to get the perspective of how big the movie shows from the projector on the wall. Thanks Gals!
We watched Julie & Julia and Sarah and I managed to kill 2 boxes of Junior Mints in the first 20 minutes of the movie. There is something amazing about Junior Mints that have been in the freezer for a while and then put into my grubby little hands. I love them!

Moves Me

Are you like me and have those songs that just stop you in your tracks no matter what you are doing when you hear them? Counting Crows, Colorblind is one of those songs for me. I was in the middle of updating a spreadsheet today and this song came on Pandora (my Joshua Radin station)...it just took the first few notes and I found myself just staring at my computer screen doing nothing until the song was over. It's one of those songs that just cause me to be still. I LOVE that! I love that music can move me to such a place of calm and peace.

2010...Off to a Great Start

A little Twenty Ten Thus Far - At a Glance...

• New Year's Eve - crab & halibut dinner at home with Kirk followed by family fun time at Aunt Suzi & Uncle Martin's house.
• Jan 1st - lunch at Alber Tacos with Wendy, David, Kirk and Josh & Lolly!...Three Rolled Tacos with guac and a ton o' cheese! Followed by dinner with the whole Wilson Clan in Irvine.
• Jan 2nd - Thank you David for turning 30 since it brought with it the greatest party ever. Wilson Casino Night should become a tradition! Loved that so many amazing friends stayed overnight so we could spend extra time together. Staying up to the wee hours of morning has never felt to good!
• Jan 3rd - Round Table lunch with the same group of tired friends followed by a shopping trip to SCPlaza where I managed to make money (I returned a sweater that I must have purchased when I was high or something since it was so ugly) and then only spent $8 on something else.

I think this first pic shows how much fun the first 3 days of 2010 have been. I have been so blessed in the last 3 days being able to hang out with so many friends and family. If this weekend was a preview to the view ahead I am ready for the ride.

Kirk...I think you need a bigger board.
Kirk giving Troy a skating lessonAnd he's a natural!

Love this one! Tied with the 1st one at the beginning of the post for the favorite pic of 2010 thus far.