Due to pure peer pressure, I joined Facebook.  I went on to simply bug my online buddies and to have access to some pictures of theirs.  I was quite surprised to find Dave’s entire family is on there.  Next, a girl I hadn’t spoken to since high school sent me a friend request and I’ve reconnected with a few people I haven’t spoken to in 10+ years.  This time around with Facebook has been way more positive.  The first time I signed up I couldn’t find anyone and I was just generally annoyed and removed myself.  So far I’ve reconnected with three old friends with whom I used to be really close to but hadn’t spoken to in years.  I’ve gotten a chance to get to know my in-laws a lot better and I know what is going on in Idaho practically every day.  I’ve also gotten a chance to get to know some of the lovely ladies I’ve meet on Xbox a little better.  All around, it has been a good thing. 

This weekend should be fun.  We will have Ryan and Jillian and Dave is picking up Carissa to spend the weekend with us as well.  I see a whole lot of You’re in the Movies being played in my near future.   I will be sure to post the movies sometime Sunday or Monday.  They are sure to be something to behold.  Perhaps I will have a chance to complete the DLC on Fallout 3 while Dave watches the Super Bowl. 

Saturday, Bowie turned two.  The family celebrated it by leaving her alone all day and going to LA to visit museums and the Griffith Park Observatory.  Jillian and I decided to so something special for our baby puppy so we took her to the park and then to Three Dog Bakery where they make healthy dog treats that look like sickening sweet people food.  The pictures were just too funny not to share. 

 

Pictures are to the right. 

For Christmas Santa brought Jillian the game You’re in the Movies.  We had fun.  I think Dave did too even though he says he doesn’t want to play it.  Here are the two movies we made.  The first one is Me, Me and Me.  Jillian and I didn’t play the mini games too well so when the movie was made we looked really funny and HUGE.  We did much better on the second move The Scared Witness. 

 

 

 

 

I thought I was going to do better about keeping this updated, but I failed miserably.   I’ve also been really bad about pulling the camera out.  I couldn’t say when I took a picture last.  I feel bad about that.  I know there are many memories I have let slip by. 

I am still really enjoying my job.  Luckily the slump in the industry hasn’t really hit our company too hard.  Dave’s company is feeling the pain though.  We don’t know what will happen there.  Part of him wants to get laid off so he is forced to take a different path in his life.  I support that since I know he never wanted to be in construction.  We will just have to wait and see what happens.

I was also on an updating rampage today.  I updated my messenger at home, I signed up for Twitter, I’ve signed up for the Xbox Gamerchix Chat box thing, and after I’m done with this I will sign back up on Facebook so I can view friends pictures.  I used to have an account but I was tired of keeping track of multiple sites.  I guess I’m over that now.    Tah for now.  I will try to be better with updating this and with taking more pictures.  I also have some videos from the game You're in the Movies to share when I hook the Xbox back up. 

            Well, Jillian turned 9 yesterday.  Seems crazy that it has almost 6 years since I first meet Ryan and Jillian.  She got two guitars for her birthday.  One is a low end kids learning guitar and the other is a Yamaha youth guitar which is just like her daddy’s but smaller.  Dave took time yesterday to teach Jillian and Carissa “A.”  They were doing good unlike their fingers started hurting from pushing on the strings.  Dave may pick up a finger strengthener for Jilli so she can strengthen her finger muscles.   I hope she can work pat the finger pain.  Jillian would like to learn the guitar so she could play it at her school talant school.  I think it would be awsome if she could learn the guitar.  Dave asked if I wanted to learn.  I don't think so, but who knows.  I may change my mind.  We have an extra adult guitar that I could use.

 

            On Sunday we took the kids to Wild Rivers and spent the day playing on water slides.  We had fun until we went on the bongo bowls for the second time.  The slide spits you out into a bowl where you spin until you finally make it into the hole at the bottom that drops you into a pool.  The kids and I all ended up hitting our heads upon entering the bowl.  I was going so fast that it seemed like I wouldn’t stop spinning which made my back hurt and I had to hook my leg in the hole to get out.  And for some reason from that point forward my top kept having malfunctions at the end of slides.    My top was perfect for the first half of the day.  What the heck???

 

            Yesterday, we took the family including Bowie to the beach.  My dad with his dog and my sister’s family with their dog joined us.  It was fun.  Bowie would only play in the water if we were throwing her Frisbee.  She didn’t want anything to do with Hook, my dad’s dog, even though they had spent Saturday together playing at my apartment.  Bowie is a little backwards.  She doesn’t want to play with dogs unless they come to her home, unlike most dogs that don’t like strange dogs in their territory.  This was my sister's dog Rusty's first trip to the beach.  He had fun.  Rusty is a big boy, but a very well behaved goofy boy.  He would run up to dog to sniff them and them come bouncing back.  He started to play leapfrog with Bowie when Bowie was chasing her Frisbee.  Dogs are so cute.

Apparently my dog is stressed out.  Her back feet were looking funny and I just assumed she had gotten into something or something was living on her feet.  I took her to the vet since it was getting worse over the course of less than a week.  After a careful examination including a black light to check for creepy crawlies, it was determined that I have a stressed out pooch.  I knew the move was hard on her, but I didn’t realize it was that hard.  She’s stained her back feet from licking and has licked off some of the fur.  So now Bowie is on Prozac.  I didn’t even know that Prozac was made for dogs.  She also has a spray for her feet to help sooth them and make them go back to normal.  Poor doggie.

So this is the new hair.

 

And over there is the months of pictures.   ->

 

Oh and we had a successful garage sale and I passed 22,000 playing Too Human today. 

 

 

I haven’t cut my hair since November or December.  In my opinion, that is way too long, just like my hair.  I don’t know what I’m going to do, but the guy who cut my hair last time was great.  I let him do what he thought would look best and it was my favorite haircut ever.  I’m very excited to see what he does tonight.  I’ll post the after picture sometime this weekend when I post the rest of my pictures from the last few months.

     Say goodbye to this!!!

I knew I was slacking but five months is too long.  I’m sure a lot has happened, but other than our recent move I don’t know what to share.  I will post a bunch of pictures later this week.

 

We moved.  We’re a lot closer to work and to the kids’ mom.  We found a smaller place so the kids have to share a room.  Hopefully we won’t be there more than a year or two.  We are saving close to $1000 a month in rent, gas and utilities so that will help us get caught up on some bills.  The move was tough, but we’re fine now.  I do need to go get some stuff like clocks since none of the appliances or new cable boxes have clocks on them and a dark curtain for our room since the security light outside shines directly on our window.  We have a fabulous blanket over the window right now.  I think I have to hit up Ikea over the weekend.

 

Last weekend was the kids’ first weekend at the new place and it went alright.  Sometimes Jillian would hang out in our room watching Hanna Montana and Ryan played Halo 3 with Dave and me out of their room.  Then Jillian wanted to play Barbies so she got to over take the room and we entertained Ryan in the front.  We had some unpacking so in all the weekend went fine, but from the perspective of children, it was boring.  Next weekend will be better.  Jillian is turning 9 so we’re going to go to the water park and try to think of something else to do that she will enjoy.

 

I also finished 3 classes.  The last one was terrible.  The teacher has so many misspellings and incorrect words on her syllabus that most of us had no idea what she wanted from us.  I’m glad it’s over and that I got a good grade.  I took two weeks off so I could get settled in the new place.  I start a new class on August 26^th.

 

I think that is it for now.  I may post something later this week.

My critical thinking class is over today.  I have decided that this class was just a bunch of B.S.  None of the homework was based out of the books.  Even up to the end I was freaking out because I couldn’t find answers to stuff.  I just made stuff up and posted it and then received good grades.  I don’t get it.  I don’t get the point of this class.  If critical thinking is learning how to make stuff up to get out of a situation, than I’m aces.  I know it was supposed to help us properly identify problems and then implement solutions.  It just didn’t feel like that is what I learned.  It felt like a really boring creative writing class.  Can I go shoot something now?  Blu, where are you???

I turned 30 on March 6^th.  While going through my pictures to download I found it sad that I have pictures of the dog’s birthday, but none from mine.  Dave and I had dinner at Dave & Busters with my sister, brother-in-law, and my niece.  My nephew joined us after we were mostly done.  We had a great dinner and then played games in the back.  For those of you who don’t know what Dave & Busters is, it’s like Chuck E Cheese’s for adults with a great restaurant and bar.    It's one of my favorite restaurants.  I love the food and there's gaming to be done there.  What more can a girl ask for???

 

The weekend before my birthday Dave, the kids and I went to the San Diego Zoo and checked out one of the museums.  They had an exhibit of Pompeii, Italy which I found fascinating since I used it for a report I did on volcanoes last year.  It's so strange to see molds of people who died thousands of years ago in a volcano eruption.  If you haven't seen any images, look it up.  It is truely facinating.

 

Ryan got his first cell phone.  Since it has MP3 capabilities, I tried to get that to work, but between trying to convert iTunes purchased songs into MP3’s and dealing with the memory card that my computer can’t seem to find, I gave up for today.  I don't know if the disks are bad.  I don't know if I am just a tard who can't seem to figure out the simple stuff.  I tried three different programs.  I really don't want to do the buring of CDs just to turn around and rip the music off, but I may have to.  At least I have CD-RW so I'm not wasting CDs.

 

On the gaming side, Dave and I are participating in the Halo 3 doubles tournament with the Gamerdads.  We won the first round, but Dave totally carried me.  I’m so out of practice.  I need to play a whole bunch before our next match next week.  I’m also playing Lost Odyssey which I was surprised with how much I like it.  We have a couple of games coming from Gamefly and RSV2 comes out soon.  I don’t know when I will be able to play everything with school and all.

 

Dave and I are officially dieting.  I typically like to get my weight back under control before I have to buy all new clothes.  I barely caught it this time.  Some of my pants really hurt me, but I think this will be good for the both of us.  We’ve been gaining that happy couple weight.  He’s being a trouper with the dieting/changing eating habits thing.  We’ve also rejoined the gym.  Hopefully all of my pants will fit again soon. 

 

AHHHHHHHHhhhhh!!!  I don't really have anything else to say...  My mind is just spinning right now.  I may share more later....   I need to put some pictures up here too.  Oi.  Back to homework.  I thought after I grew up I wouldn't have to say that anymore.

I don’t know why I’ve waiting so long to write.  Last time I posted it was Jillian’s birthday.  Ryan has come and gone.  I have a ton of pictures but I’m too lazy to do anything with them.  The following are all the random stuff that has happened not in sequential order since I can’t remember when anything happened.

 

My buddy from Washington came down with her family.  It was so great to have them here.  And then the following weekend my sister in law came down with her perfect boyfriends.  We finally got to meet him. 

 

My gamer score has risen by 5,525 points since last time.  Crap I play a lot.

 

I earned my Associates Degree and now I’m working on my Bachelors Degree.  Each class is only 5 weeks long.  It feels weird to me.

 

I got my hair cut.  The last time I cut my hair was when I donated it and I didn’t like the cut then so I didn’t touch it for a very long time.  It’s grown out quite a bit now, but I still like it.

 

I’m currently playing Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed.  I started on AC, but after the 6^th guy it was feeling too repetitive and the guards were pissing me off.  I’ve beaten Mass Effect once already and have started my second character.  I loved that game.  I plan to play the crap out of it.

 

 California practically burned down.  The school I was working at was near one and there was another near our home.  We left over the weekend to get out of the terrible air.  We ended up in Laughlin, NV.  The river was nice, but the hotel was not so much.  They did allow dogs though.  It was strange to walk through a casino with a dog on a leash. 

 

I can’t think of anything else right now.  I plan to write more.  I’ve been bad. 

 

We had Jillian’s Birthday at Pirate’s Cove in Corona Del Mar.  It was a perfect day even with the water being quite cold.  Dave got there at 7:30 in the morning to make sure we got a fire pit.  The girls and I got there around 11.  We played in the waves and had a lot of fun.  My sister and her family made it as well as Jason, Laura, Annabelle, Ethan, and Crystel.  Jillian had a great time which is important since it was her birthday.  She got lots of presents and it made her feel special.  She loved everything she received. 

 

We stayed late and had hotdogs and smores cooked in the fire pit. Yummy.  We didn’t leave until 8pm or so.  I’m burned, but I was quite white going in.  I also decided that the spray sun block is crap.  Dave and I both got burned, but in weird patterns.  I know I covered him well and I re-sprayed him three times and he’s all splotchy with burn spots.  The kids are fine.  They all had nice color before we went so the sun block worked fine on them.