Our secret revealed!

For those of you who didn't catch from the last blog our little secret, I'd thought I would share with you in this one. We are PREGNANT! Unfortunately, I will be the only one sporting the belly, while Ben trys to put up with me and my ever-changing pregnancy moods.

We are not very far along, but have a hard time keeping a secret, especially one like this one. The baby is due around Oct. 23. Ben is thrilled that it will be born in his favorite month of the year and insist that every year the baby will get a Halloween birthday party.

The kids are excited and CJ tells anybody and everybody. She just can't wait to tell the whole world. During the day, I try to sneak in a nap while Xander sleeps and I try to tell Mia that the baby inside me makes me very sleepy. She is pretty good about it and lets me sleep a little.

I thought I would post some pictures of what the kids have been doing.


CJ lost one of her front teeth. Man, she's making money off the tooth fairy this year!


This is Xander's favorite thing to do while Mia plays soccer.


Mia and her asian soccer chums.


Mia should have been named after Mia Hamm!

Ben's First Blog Entry - It's a little one!

When Valerie told me she wanted to start a blog, I said "OK" but she shouldn't expect me to contribute anything, because I had no interest. Well things have changed and I really like all the blogging going on, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Many of you have not seen our apartment, so I thought I'd share some pictures with you so you could appreciate how little it is and laugh at how we spend about $2 per square foot each month in rent (barely over 700 sq ft - you do the math).



Try to ignore the ugliness of the pictures (Val takes much better ones than me), and I'll walk you through things (feel free to click on the pictures to get a better look). This is one wall of our living room. You can see the TV is bookended by 2 deep IKEA bookshelves. The one on the left holds our movies (stacked 3 deep) and the one on the right holds books (also stacked 2 or 3 deep). Notice the rocking chair is facing the wrong way. It has 2 purposes, one, to block Xander from getting the movies, and two, to hold the exercise ball (we don't have a closet). On top of the bookshelves you can see my Wii, Guitar, Videogames, Videocamera, speakers, and some flowers. If you want to see better pics of the flowers, check out Val's photo blog - the link is on the right. They had a deal on flowers for $4 a bunch. I thought I would get Val a bunch for each kid, so I shelled out the $16 and earned a bunch of brownie points!



This is our kitchen and dining room. Notice the bar stool chairs. They are great, except that there is no overhang on the bar so your knees are flush against the wall. If you look to the far right, you can see our "stroller garage" - right in front of the front door. Of course sometimes we set up a mini card table and colorful chairs for the kids. It's exciting to have something new every once in a while to trip over as you enter or exit the home! To the left, past the pictures of the kids, you would see a hall the size of a phone booth (you know what a phone booth is right?) with 3 doors, one on each side. One goes to the master bedroom, one to the girls room, and one to the port-a-potty that isn't portable so it's really a bathroom.



This is the opposite wall from the TV. On the left you see our external coat closet. On the right you can see an external toy box. In the middle you see my bed. Yes I sleep on the couch - except for the nights when Val sleeps on the couch, then I sleep on the floor in front of the couch. See, we only have 2 bedrooms, one for the girls and the other we share with Xander. Lately if we sleep in the room with Xander, he wakes up a million times a night and cries. When we sleep in a separate room (pictured above), he only wakes up half a million times. At the end of July, our lease is up and we will be moving into a bigger place - with 3 bedrooms! One for CJ and Mia, one for the other two and one for US! Our backs can't wait!!!

Well, I've rambled long enough. I hope I didn't bore you with this tour, but if I did, at least (like our apartment) it was a little one!

Be happy, now!

I've been thinking about some advice someone gave me awhile ago. I was working full-time to put Ben through school and I just had Mia. It was probably one of the hardest times in my life. I remember talking to my neighbor and saying,"Oh, life will be so much better when Ben graduates." My neighbor who was going to dental school told me that one thing that he has learned over the years is to BE HAPPY NOW.

How many times have I thought, "I'll be happier once my baby sleeps through the night," "I'll be happier when I lose 10 lbs.," "I'll be happier once we get 3 bedrooms," "I'll be happier when I get a house." The list could go on and on.

If we go throughout life waiting for that something to happen, we'll always be miserable. We will always be waiting for happiness to arrive.

This was just a good reminder to me to be happy now, and everyday. Find happiness in everyday moments and you won't be disappointed. I've just been having warm fuzzy moments and wanted to share.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.




Something that made me smile today.

Love Triangle

Mia loves Kosma. Kosma loves CJ. CJ doesn't care. This is how the story begins. Kosma is our neighbor friend who is 6 years old. He and his family are Polish and just moved here from Boise recently. He enjoys coming over almost every day and even invites himself over for dinner. He will ask me what's for dinner and then comment about how good it smells. He's a smart boy.

At first, Kosma would come over and play with Mia. Mia loved having a small friend for herself since CJ has all of her big friends. Then out of the blue, Kosma discovers beautiful CJ, and doesn't mind the age or height difference. He even wrote a school paper about how CJ is his hero.

Well, soon enough, Mia realizes the situation and fights to keep her man! One day, Kosma came over to tell Mia he can't play. Well Mia is obviously disappointed,and longingly declares, "But, I love him!" as he leaves. Another day, Kosma knocks on the door and talks to CJ about something. Mia in the background yells, "He's mine!"

I have to tell Mia constantly to give Kosma his space. She puts her arm around him and hugs him from the moment he arrives. This maybe okay for him because Mia is out of his line of vision and he can focus his all of his energy on CJ. The last sentence is speculation but what if I'm really close to the truth?


Years from now the girls will laugh about this, just like Ben and Joe do today about sharing the same girlfriend.

Happy Val Day!

Ben and I are pounded 3 months in a row with possible gift giving opportunities. It all begins in December, the month where we feel the poorest, yet, we still want to get something for each other because it just feels right, and we've been good all year. Then January arrives and we celebrate our anniversary. I, myself, don't really care about getting a present for my anniversary. This year Ben wanted to get me a drill, and only a crazy person would say, "No". So then, I was forced to get him a gift,which was easy, because he told me what to get. So when February marches along only 2 weeks later, we are basically out of ideas.

This year I suggested we make something for each other. I came across the idea when I was writing in my journal and the previous cards Ben made me poked from the pages. In case you don't know,Ben is a paper master. I don't think there is anything he couldn't make out of paper. I bet he could make paper underwear that would last.

I made him decorative picture frames for his office,each containing very life esstential Pixar movie quotes like, "Oh I'm detecting nuttiness all right", "You're the boss, you're the big hairy boss!" and "I killed a man, with this thumb!" Just to name a few.



Ben made me a children's book about how we met using animal characters. The binding is even hand sewn. The book was so accurate, I don't know if it is a non-fiction or fiction book.

I think we have decided to get a gift for each other on Christmas, do something fun on our anniversary, and make something for each other on Val-Day. And then, for 9 months be bored. . . until December comes again!

Oh. . .I forgot, Ben gets slammed in May because my birthday is around Mother's day. He tries to blend them into one, but I won't let him. I suggested changing my birthday to another month, since I don't know when my real birthday is anyway. I think he is afraid, I'll somehow get away with 2 birthdays a year!



What I like to do in my spare time. . .

Zoo-a-liscious!

It was a sunny, 70 degrees day and we decided to invest in a year membership at the Oakland Zoo. Don't you just love winter weather? We had a great time looking at the animals in captivity and how the tigers played safely in their cage. I think the highlight of our day was when one of the chimpanzees decided to come and have a stare-off with us. As it walked away, the girls giggled at the sight of his behind. CJ said, "Look at his buttocks!".



This past Monday we enjoyed hanging out with Betsy, Russ, Joe, and Kendell before they took off to Utah. Betsy and I went to Alamo Square with the kids and saw the famous painted ladies. For those who have never heard of the word "painted ladies" before, they are the Victorian houses above. Sorry if you were hoping to see some famous ladies with their faces painted.




Ben and the boys rented go-cars and took a GPS computer guided tour around San Francisco for 3 hours. They saw some beaches, the Golden Gate bridge and park, the neighborhood of mansions along the cliff where Robin Williams house is, ChinaTown, and tons more. Ben wants me to point out that 2 days after Russ' motorcycle accident, he was driving one of the go-cars and controlling the throttle with the wrong hand. Here is the proof! Judging from the smile on Joe's face, he had no worries.



It was a great time, including when Kendell drove Ben out for a brief stroll onto the freeway.

Hannah Montana Crazy!

Oh my gosh (OMG)! I can't believe I totally posted something about Hannah Montana. Like, she really is so cool, I mean she has the coolest clothes. What? Are you telling me you have no idea who I am talking about? Gosh! What planet are you from?

CJ got to go see the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds 3 D movie (Whew did I fit that all in?) with her BFF Sam and was literally in heaven. When she got home I got a break down of the movie along with a demonstration of some cool dance moves and poses. My favorite pose is the one where her back is turned, her arms are crossed and she just happens to look over her shoulder.

In 3 years or less, this is what I have to look forward to, I mean, this is where my life is headed; I can just feel in coming and hitting me so fast that I don't even realize what happened. Makeup, designer clothes and jewelry and even boys coupled with puberty, hormones, body changes, and acne may just be enough to hospitalize me. Hopefully in a few years they will come out with a miracle drug for parents who have teenagers or even tweens. The drug will num you through these scary years and will not have any long lasting side effects. At any rate, all one can do is buckle up and enjoy the ride and hope they serve lots of caffeine!.