In the holiday spirit!

Happy Holidays!  I'm really in the holiday mood this year!  We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll get to visit my parents and grandparents in Washington for Xmas!  We're flying standby and it looks like the flights are really good. :)  My sister will be there too!  

Today also marks our 14th week and 2nd Trimester!  Very excited!  I went maternity clothes shopping w/ my friend J and her girls Al and Em.  The girls found almost ALL of the clothes I bought.  They are good shoppers and are very fashionable!  I can finally be comfortable all day! :) Yippee!  Today I feel prego and very happy!  Getting more and more excited to prepare for the little munchkin!  

This weekend we had a date night on Sat. w/ our friends!  We had a really nice time!  We spent most of Sun. at J's mom's house where the boys could chill in the garage and work on the bikes.  Looks like they may be planning more of the same next weekend. 

Until next time, "We wish you a Merry christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy new year!"

Another Baby Pic!

Hi All, Here are the 12 week pictures of mommy and baby. All is good! :) Today is the start of week 13! The last week of our first trimester. :) Feeling pretty good! Other than being constantly hungry, tired and on an emotional roller coaster, we are doing really well! I really had a great time at this ultrasound! I got to see little hands and the face! It was really, truly amazing! I can't believe we only have 27 weeks left! So much to do...so little time. The cat will be out of the bag (so to speak) at work next Monday(15th). I can't hide it for much longer...big coats and sweaters are starting to draw attention. Especially in the 70 degree weather. Thank goodness it's starting to act like winter! LOL We're starting to toss around baby names, so if you've got a good suggestion, send it my way! :) We have a couple good ones, but nothing is sticking...yet. Well, until next time...Enjoy!

Happy Dec 1st!

I think Nov.  has just flown by in an instant!  Not sure what happened to the month, but here we are!  HAPPY DEC 1st!  By my family rules, we are now allowed to listen to Christmas music.  :)  Yippee! :)  Christmas tree cannot go up until after Dec. 11th.  That's my sister's birthday and I've always honored this great family tradition and respect for my sisters birthday! 

Turkey Day was fantastic!  We had the whole Starks crew over for dinner.  We bought a Wii and the kids (and adults) were entertained ALL day!  I helped Matthew with the stuffing and turkey since he still has a bum wrist!  Poor guy!  As usual, there was enough food to feed an army and enough pies to feed one small country! :)  

On Friday,  J, her girls and I went to see MUMMIES!  We went to the San Jose Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum!  It was fabulous even though the girls weren't really "into" it.  But, Emily went for extra credit.  I learned things about the Egyptians I didn't know before!  I bought a figure of the goddess Taweret, a blue hippo carved w/ papyrus flowers and birds.  Taweret was the Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth, and the protector of both mother and baby.  I thought it was very fitting for this moment in time and something I did not know about.  

Saturday and Sunday was spent lounging around nursing my cold.  We changed out the lights on the aquarium, watched movies and played the Wii and the PS3.  We also got a nice walk in at the beach on Sunday.  It was warm enough we didn't need jackets and I was actually too warm in my sweater!  I can't believe that we can have beautiful days like that in the middle of winter.  I love living on the coast!

The weekends to come will be packed w/ lots of things to do!  We have the company party, shopping, christmas tree, and get-togethers at friends.  Happy Holidays!

What we've been up to...

It seems like we've been busy EVERY weekend from August to Now! Here's a little of what we've been up to...

Took a trip to Leguna Seca Raceway on our motorcycles and met up with some friends. Good friends, carnival food, and FAST bikes! Had fun!




At the end of Oct. We went on a camping trip and M took along his dirt bike to ride w/ the other boys. Had a great time other than his best buddy G rolling the quad into a ravine, and M breaking his wrist on the last ride of the trip (on that big hill!).




At the end of August we visited our friends J&K and their little girl Alexia. It was nice to see them.

Surprise!

We're expecting on 06/15/09. That means 9 weeks this week! Here's our first Pic! We're excited and nervous. As you can see in the pic, I'm not sure I can keep this much of a secret for too much longer...Only posting pics here since just my close family and friends have the link. Enjoy the pics.

Whales!!

On our way home yesterday, the vanpool pulled over for some unexpected wildlife viewing! Humpback whales! It was really exciting to see their spouts. Saw a little glimpse of a tail fluke. The water was calm and glassy so it was easy to spot them. It was really neat!!!
http://www.oceanicsociety.org/whale

TTFN

AMAZING KID

My friend, J, just sent this to me. What an amazing kid! A little inspiration for us all.
http://www.heraldleaderphoto.com/2008/05/31/adam-bender/

Everyday life

Hi Everyone,

So, everything is back into full swing since my sabbatical. It's actually nice to be back into a routine again. They moved my desk at work to a new area. After 7yrs at this company, I FINALLY got a window! Still stuck in a little cube, but I'll take it if it means I can look outside when I want.

What have we been up to? Well, our friends that live 2hrs east of here needed our help with moving, so we headed out there on Labor Day weekend. It was really nice to spend some time with them and help them pack. Their little girl is getting bigger and smarter by the day. She's a sweet little girl. Pics to come. They were finishing up the move this weekend. Hope things went well.

This last weekend we went riding w/ our friends, the Starks family. We had a really nice time, but it was HOT. Had fun on the black diamonds in the morning! At on point I caught too much front brake and dumped my bike. It was facing down hill on a down slope. It was crazy difficult to pick it up, but I did it w/o M or G's help! I was excited I did it w/o help. Problem is, they'll now expect me to pick it up on my own EVERY time from here on out!. :)

It's been crazy hot here over the last two weeks. Yesterday was the first cool, foggy day we've had in a while. I'm really glad the heat has gone for a few days.

Well, I best catch my vanpool home (yes, I'm still at work...shhhhhh, don't tell!) I'll update again soon. TTFN

Go speed racer GO!

Yesterday my group at work had an off-site team building day. We got to do go-kart racing! Now, I'm not sure how good it was for "team building" but everyone had a lot of fun. This group was extremely competitive. There was about 40 of us, so they divided us into about 4 groups and we all got to do a practice round and then a qualifying round, and then if you qualified you got to go into the top 10 main race. The qualifying round was alot of fun because everyone had picked up speed from understanding how to drive the kart and take the corners. What was cool was you only had to get one really good lap to qualify. My team went 2nd to last in the qualifying rounds, so we knew what our times had to be qualify. I was really excited to make it into the top 10! Wooohooo. I was really disappointed when I started out the final race and realized I got the worst kart possible! It was popping and I couldn't get it to go fast or make the corners like I wanted! I was being passed every lap :( and was then slammed into on several occasions and lost ground (this was a competition of place, not time). Oh well, it was a TON of fun anyway. I'm paying for it now w/ sore arms, shoulders, neck and back...

OH boy! I hit 70mph on my street bike yesterday on the way home! That's the fastest I've been on it! I'm still uncomfortable going too much faster and really, there's no need to anyway. I've not split lanes either (you can legally do that in CA!), but I haven't really had need to anyway.

My 3rd cousin, Tomas, is coming out this way to go to school, so I'll be picking him up from the airport on Wednesday and taking him to his dorm! He's really excited to come out and it will be nice to have some more family here. His dad will be out to visit soon too, so we'll have company. Welcome Tomas!

My sister got to visit the DNC in Denver yesterday! Lucky her, she even got to sit in their seats! This has been and will continue to be an interesting year for presidential election!

Well, should get to cleaning the house before Matt gets back from the motorcycle shop (went to get his shims replaced on his dirt bike valves). Until the next post...Carpe Diem!

ZOO Day

Today we went to the Oakland Zoo for my "niece's" Birthday. Happy 11th EM! J got us in for feeding the giraffes! THANKS J! It was an amazing experience and neat to see the personalities of each one. Here are a few pics! Enjoy!

Update

Hi All. Thought I'd post some pics. I had a nice 6 weeks off! I enjoyed many books, movies, walks on the beach, sunny days gardening, and a week in Colorado. I also took my "Nieces" for a couple of days and we had a blast. I rode my motorcycle a couple of times and we went dirt riding too. The whole vacation was very relaxing. Now it's back to work.
Enjoy the Pics.
Em and Al



Girls Week in Colorado


Sisters


Cozumel

Sunny Day

Hello everyone! Well, this weekend was GREAT! Friday was a lot of fun! Our friends the Starks came over in the early afternoon. The guys took my new bike out for a ride and came back for Happy Hour. I had the kids make Dirt Pie! It was fun and messy. Al made the "dirt" and Em helped me make the "mud". Ian got his hands dirty too stirring in the butter and sugar. We put the dirt pie into flower pots and added some silk flowers and gummy worms to top it all off. Gail and her kids came over too, just in time for happy hour! We all had a really nice time even though the fireworks were in the fog!

Saturday we washed the cars and the bikes. We also took a nice long ride and then stopped for coffee before coming back home around 7pm. My bike is a lot of fun. :)

Yesterday we went for a 4 mile hike in the mountains about 45min from here and then to an early dinner at Alice's at Woodside. We saw some really great views, a couple of lakes, lots of lizards and birds and walked through the interpretive center. It was really warm, about 85-90 degrees, but was really nice when we were in the shade. It's amazing that we live so close to so many great places to hike. It's been a while since we've done a hike like that, so it was really nice.

Well, it's getting late in the morning and I need to get out of my PJs. ;) Until next time!

Happy 4th of July

Okay, so yes, I've been bad at updating this. Well, what can I say? SORRY
I'm here on my Sabbatical...that's 6 weeks off, paid vacation! I'm two weeks in ALREADY! I'm finally comfortable w/ being at home w/ nothing to do but clean, garden and relax! The weather is absolutely beautiful here this week! I can't believe how lucky I am to be home when it's this nice. Hope the fog doesn't come in for the 4th celebrations! I prefer to see fireworks, not fuzzy colored fog. Either way, the day should be nice. We're having our friends (the Starks family and others) over for dinner and smores.

I got a street bike a couple of weeks ago and got my license on Friday last week. I rode yesterday and really enjoyed it! What a fun and exciting toy. I got the Ninja 250R (2008). It's so HOT. See you on the road...just don't run over me, okay?

Hope you like the new widget I embedded! It's just some of my favorite songs of now and all time! Have fun listening to it!

Hope you are all well! TTFN

too long

Hi all, sorry! It's been too long since I last posted. It's been a very busy spring! We've been a couple of busy bees with work, riding, traveling, and working on the yard.

I'll shortly post pictures or two of our trip to COZ and work on the yard. :)

RATZ

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! It's the year of the RAT! I really wouldn't know that except for the fact that my really good friend J is Chinese and her family celebrates it whole heartedly! Rats are very cool creatures! Haven't you seen Ratatouille?

It's been a rather busy year already. I went to CO the 17th-22nd, we saw Supercross at AT&T park on the 26th, went to the "Bendy Chics" (acrobatic troup from China)on the 27th, and spent Super Bowl Sunday at our friends house so the boys could play Mechanics on their dirt bikes. The future looks just as busy with a trip to the snow in March, Dirt Bike weekends galore, a week long trip to San Diego, a work off-site in May on the misty coast of Northern CA, an 8 week class in May-June to learn the biology of cancer and much much more.

I had an excellent time in CO. It was great to be in the white stuff again. The temp was about 16-28 degrees the whole time I was there. CO winter is really not that cold. The air is so dry that the cold stays on top of your coat instead of seeping into your bones like in the coastal damp winter. That is until the wind picks up a bit.

While I was there, I got to see some friends from way back! My little God daughter is SO adorable and the most well behaved little one I've ever met! She does this cute little super hero face! I'm so glad her and her mommy are so happy, FINALLY! I was really sad to leave them!

MY sister and I an amazing time. It was so nice to just do the normal sister stuff...like chopping our hair off, and trying on crazy outfits at the consignment stores, drinking lots of wine and catching up on all those sister conversations. Mom joined us on Saturday and boy did we have fun. It was really good to have the three of us together for a while! We missed dad though! We'll have to take a family vacation again soon so we can all be together. It was really hard to be away from Matt for so long! That's the longest we've been apart in years...and I have to do it again in April when I go to a conference in San Diego.

That's enough for now...need to get something (not sure what) done. ;)

Almost Friday!

Hey, It's almost Friday! I'm looking forward to the weekend! We're going to watch the Mavericks competition this weekend! It'll be the first time we've been able to go. Other times seem to land on weekdays. It should be exciting!
I'm also getting ready to visit my sister in CO! Mom will be there too! I'm really looking forward to it, but will also miss Matthew ALOT. Hopefully I'll get to see some friends still in the Denver area. I'm excited cause I get to see mom too! I'll also get to see my God daughter! :) I can't believe she's two!!!
I got an email at work today notifying me that I had reached my vacation time accrual limit! Plus I have a 6 week sabbatical coming up! :) Somebody's telling me to take some vacation! :) LOL....
Outta here for now...

Winter Storm

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that JAZZ. Our Holiday turned out to be relaxing, but a little on the uneventful side. I had a nasty cold all week and am still getting over the tail end of it. We enjoyed many hours indoors and away from the crowds. I felt bad for Matt since I wasn't in the mood for much excitement. We did take a couple of trips over the hill for shopping as Matt wanted a new tool box and we had to care for our friends pets while they were on vacation in Hawaii!

This weekend has been stormy!! On Thursday night and into Friday morning, we had hurricane force winds and TONS of rain. We were out of power from 8am until 430pm Friday. Had to start the generator to keep the salt water aquarium going. We used it to keep the pellet stove and fridge going as well. The power came on just in time to make dinner. This morning we woke to rain and by noon it was a full fledged storm with thunder, lightning, hail and rain. It cleared up enough around 3pm to clean up the deck. Matt raked up a giant pile of pine needles and tree droppings! We then took a quick walk down to the ocean to check out the giant waves! The water must have come up to the road during the storm as there were giant stumps and pieces of drift wood all over the side of the road. The winter storm has definitely wreaked havoc in the Bay area!

Well,it's getting to be dinner time! Tacos on the menu!!! :) MMMMMMM Tacos!!!!