My sweet Grandma Corkill

For those of you who don't know my grandma is terminally ill with cancer. The real reason for my trip down to California was to spend one last weekend or girls night out with the girls in the family, including my Grandma Corkill. We were all planning on going to see Wicked together, but when that Saturday arrived, Grandma felt too weak and sick to go. We were really sad she couldn't make it, but I did get to see her the following Monday. We went over to my garndma's house and spent the afternoon with her. My grandma is an amazing and remarkably strong woman. She was born into very difficult circumstances, but worked hard as a child to support her family and continued to work hard throughout the rest of her life to provide a wonderful life for all her children and grandchildren. I have learned so much by watching her and from the amazing stories I have heard about when she was younger.

My grandma took me on a trip to Europe when I graduated from high school and it will forever be one of my favorite memories of all time. We were roommates for two weeks and went everywhere together - we laughed, played, shopped, and did pretty much everything possible together. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! I had so much fun with her! We have been so incredibly blessed to have this amazing woman in our lives and I am so grateful I got to see her one last time. I love you from the bottom of my heart Grandma and will be eternally grateful for all the things you selflessly did in my behalf. Thank you for being so wonderful and for loving me the way you do - I will love you forever!!!!

I have the fireman blood in me too

We thought this was funny - everything in the station is made wheelchair accessible and all the signs have brail on them. How many blind wheelchair bound firemen are out there? I don't know of any.

For those of you who don't know, my dad and my brother are both firefighters for LA city. While we were in California we stopped by my dad's new fire station so my dad could show us around and my sister and I decided to take a whirl down the new fire pole. My mom was freaking out, trying to tell me to be careful because I had 2 kids at home. We've been doing this since we were little kids but for whatever reason, Mom decided to pick that day to get all panicky. She was fine when we were younger, but now that we're adults she gets all nervous - silly mom! Anyway, here is a picture of me sliding down the pole.

Wicked

All of us outside the theater (me, my dad, my sister Sarah, my Grandma Lillenberg, Mrs. Saggiani, Marisa Saggiani - my soon to be sister in law, and my mom).
Sarah and I outside Wicked.

Sarah and I by Billy Joel's star in Hollywood. Okay, so I'm not a dye hard Billy Joel fan or anything but I had to take a picture by a star to show where I was and Billy Joel happened to be the lucky star.
My Grandma and I outside the Pantages Theater.

While I was in California my family and I saw the Broadway play Wicked. It was so fun! The play was so adorable and just an all around good, clever show! The music was so incredible and the actors/ actresses were just as amazing! Whenever I see a Broadway play I always leave thinking, "Why can't I sing like that?" Their voices were soooo good! Now I can't wait to take Derek to go see it when it comes to Portland in March.

My California Trip

Last weekend I had my trip to California - ALL BY MYSELF!!! It was amazing! Everything I did was so simple and relaxing because I didn't have any kids with me. I love my girls do death and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world, but I have to admit that traveling is not my favorite thing to do with them. The airplane ride was so relaxing and easy and when I got in a car, all I had to bring was myself and my purse - incredible! I wasn't packing around diapers or wipes, no sippy cups or snacks, no books or toys to keep kids entertained with. All I had to worry about was little old me. I highly recommend any mother to do a get away by yourself if at all possible. I can't even say how wonderful it was. I have to admit though that part of the reason it was so great was because my girls were having the time of their life at Nanna and Boppa's house with Daddy while I was gone. Thank you so much to everyone who made this trip so smooth and fun for us all!!

Me and my brother Josh.

My mom, sister Sarah, and me at the Grove (this ritzy outdoor shopping mall in Hollywood).
My dad, mom, soon to be sister in law Marisa, Josh (he is holding the cardboard cutout of my little brother Chris that we used in my sister's wedding last year because Chris was on his mission), brother in law Ryan, Sarah, and me.

It was so fun getting to see everyone! I had such a great trip and absolutely loved being able to hang out with my family and relax for a weekend. What a lucky girl I am to have such an amazing family who I love so much! Thanks guys for a great weekend!!!

I did it!!!

I finally did it! I took the plunge and chopped off my hair. I was a little nervous about doing it, but I have to admit that it has been really nice not having to take care of so much hair - and plus it feels so much cooler! So here is how it went...

I started out with this...

Then took off a little of this... (a 14 inch pony tail plus another 3 inches or so and then massive amounts of razoring)

And ended up with this... (yes I know I look really funky and weird in this picture)

Crazy! I still can't believe I did it! I'm not quite sure how to do my hair yet which is a problem, but hopefully that will come with time. I guess we'll all see!

Derek's pretending to be a radiologist

I gave you all the update a few weeks ago that Derek is finally in his fourth year and life is good! Most of you already know that Derek wants to go into radiology and right now he is taking a radiology elective. Derek comes home every day all excited because he is reading and dictating CT scans and occasionally other doctors mistake him for a real radiologist. It has been a nice change from the usual abuse he recieves as a lowly med student. In March we find out where we will end up for residency - the fun continues on...

Stranded

On Tuesday morning I threw the girls into the car and was about to race off to go workout when all of a sudden the car wouldn't start. I thought maybe it was just out of gas, but then it still didn't start even after I put a little gas in. Here we are on Friday and our car is still sitting in the garage. Hopefully soon we'll figure out what's wrong with it and we will be on our merry way, but until then, WE'RE STRANDED!!! I have to admit that you don't appreciate having a car until it's gone. The first day at home felt a little weird because I knew we couldn't go anywhere even if we wanted to, but since then I've used the time to be productive. It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have any interruptions - well at least not running errands interruptions. The girls are still alive and well so they are still meeting their quota of interruptions every minute! Here is what we've been up to since we fell off the face of the earth:

We made bread and the girls loved kneeding the dough and getting to make their very own loaf. Most of the dough ended up in their mouths instead of the pan, but that just made for an easy lunch!

Another day I cleaned out and organized the garage food storage and the kitchen pantry. I don't know why but our pantry is always in chaos - I can never keep it organized!
I even organized the linen closet. I should have taken a before picture because it was really embarrassing. It was to the point where you would just open up the closet to throw something in and then close the door before everything came falling down on you.

I finally (now that the season is almost half over) planted our little garden - and when I say little, I mean little. Our garden consists of 6 plants! It's better than nothing right? Ella was all excited to help me, but when it came down to it, she was very disturbed that her hands were getting dirty. She's a little bit of a neat-nick (Derek's genes coming through).

Here they are - all 6 plants!
Our little girly girl Ashley loves worms! Even from the time she was a little bean Ashley has been fascinated by wriggling worms. Here is a picture of her pet worm she found while gardening. It was a good squirmy worm that she held onto for about a half hour until it finally stopped moving and Ashley pronounced it dead. She then quickly threw her pet (which she had named Saphira only minutes before) on the ground and stepped on it. So much for loyalty!
Sahpira only moments before her final death!

While we were gardening I put down some snail bait and was explaining to the girls that they weren't allowed to touch it or play with it because it was poison. Ashley went on to explain, "Yeah Ella, don't eat that because it's poison and not even true love's first kiss can bring you back to life!" Gotta love the princess fairytale comments from Ash - I hear them all day long and love it!