Celebrating our new neighbor to be!!!

I am beyond excited, our dear friend/neighbor Melissa is expecting and we can't wait to meet this sweet little miss.  She has 2 little boys who are so dang cute and absolute monkeys, so having a girl in the mix is going to be awesome.  Can't wait!

Her shower was last weekend and it was awesome - she got so many girly girl gifts, clearly we're all super excited.

Here's a couple shots from the lovely day:

Nan and Kirk visit

It was so great, last week, my Aunt Karen and Kirk visited for lunch - Kirk's son Parker lives in the Ocean County and they were visiting him for the weekend.  They came down for lunch and we had such an amazing time catching up with them, I didn't want them to leave.  We had such a great chat (and lunch was DELICIOUS and you can't beat those views at George's!), it was HEAVEN - love you guys!!!

BBB Day Of Fun!!!

For our godson Bennett's 5th birthday, we took him for our 3rd outing together and these just get more and more fun the older he gets - he's such a blast.

First, we took him to the Corvette Diner for lunch, and for those of you not in San Diego - the CD is a 50's themed diner where the waitresses are all in poodle skirts, they play oldies music out of the jukebox, it's constant sensory stimulation with balloon animal guy, dancing and delicious burgers and shakes.  It's so dang fun for kids...and I'm not going to lie, we had a blast too.

Kid Crack!!!

 After we all got cracked out on sugar, we went to the New Children's Museum.  We had such a great time there, their current exhibition is about Trash (which sounds super weird, I know) and it's all hands on and informative about the environmental impact, recycling, etc.

 They had this cool art project made entirely out of trash, we built a monster together while the museum docent taught us all about recycling, that horrible floating plastic mass in the ocean, etc.

 Here's Bennett's Monster!

 This was a cool thing, they had the kids dress up as super heros and they're going to be a part of a big comic book, it was neat seeing the kids get really into it.

 Climbing cardboard

 Painting the old car and tires were a huge hit.

 Sometimes you just have to listen to some jams. (though really it was about trash and Bennett said the guy was boring, haha!)

 Dude, what a great day!  Love you buddy.

Van Gogh, eat your ear....off?

We did another one of those Paint it yourself date nights and we had such a blast again!  I think it's official, we're becoming addicted.  Funny enough, we found out we'd picked the hardest one the first time around when we did Starry Night and luckily, we picked a way easier one this time.  We did a really fun cherry blossom one this time, and it was cool because there was way more opportunity to do it yourself and each person had a more individualized and different painting at the end.  It was such a great experience, I love doing these, and now we have our "artwork" hanging at our house!

I know it looks like a poo, but beauty is in the eye of the...well...never mind.

Please to enjoy...

 It's fun how different they are..not sure if you can see that from this view or not, but they are.  Mine's on top.

Sister wives become Aunties!

My dear friend Sarah finally had her darling baby boy Adam 2 weeks ago and he's absolutely precious.  We girlfriends all went to visit together and we couldn't get enough of our new little buddy, he was AMAZING!!!  Here's a few shots we took of the day:

Clearly there's going to be no lack of love for you, little guy!!!

ROW - the blueberry meringue pie edition

I got this recipe out of SELF magazine and I'd just like to point out that it says you should eat a slice after a big workout. Seriously. Hey, people. If its in print that means its true. I'm just the messenger. 

So, anyhoo, of course I had to try this sucker and holy cow it was delicious. Super easy until I got to the meringue part though. Is it me or is meringue more prissy and particular than a Kardashian? After 2 failed attempts I went online and learned that

1) meringues "hate" water and the bowl has to be perfectly dry. Well I hate paying taxes but I still have to deal, mr meringue. 

2) egg whites can't even have a drop/smidgen/trace of yolk or the whole thing will fail. No pressure or anything. And no,egg whites in cartons don't work. I tried damnit. 

3) the whites have to be at room temp for at least 30 minutes so forget being in a rush when you make this thing. Humph. 

Anyway, after that whole drama, it turned out like perfection and the house smelled like baked coconut for days. Wish my blog could be scratch 'n sniff. Seriously. 

Enjoy!!! It's da bomb!!!

Health Update - I'm almost scared to say it....

Oh my gosh you guys, I'm doing really well!  I've almost been scared to talk about it or say it out of fear it'll jinx me...hope it such a dangerous thing sometimes.  I just remember so many times when I would have a decent day followed by a crushing, awful streak of days and days of horrible dizziness that just wouldn't quit and I'd wonder when I'd be lucky enough again to have some relief.  But, not this time!!!

It started with 3 good days in a row which was UNHEARD of, followed by a really tough day at the fair - but granted...the fair is just craziness with the heat, crowds and sensory overload - definitely not good for nerve damage (or anyone, for that matter, haha!)  But, I woke up the next morning and the good streak started again!  It's now been going on 3 weeks with occasional bad moments, a few bad hours and an occasional bad day thrown in there, but NOTHING like it was.  It's so strange, it's like my physical therapy is finally working and something in my brain has just clicked.  PT is easier, I've been able to drive a bit further, and the fog has lifted sometimes.  It's still super random and unpredictable, some of the hardest times for me are still walking slowly in the neighborhood, being on the computer and trying hard to concentrate...but HEY, I'll take it!  After 14 months, I'm just so incredibly relieved.  I'm hoping that this is now a sign of the times and that the dizzy moments will get further and further apart and that I'm able to focus more.

The other amazing news is that I thought my teaching job was gone because you have to teach once a year in order to stay active, but out of the blue they emailed me and said I was able to keep my job if I could attend a meeting last weekend...and you better believe I'd have jumped through fiery hoops to get to that meeting!  My girlfriend was sweet and drove me and I felt so victorious!  It was really tough to focus and I got pretty dizzy, but even just putting on professional clothes and having professional conversations made me feel so...NORMAL and functional, it was awesome.  Score one for the home team!!!

Truly onward and upward.  And as always, thank you to EVERYONE for all of your ongoing support, encouragement, texts, emails, phone calls, visits, prayers, good thoughts, etc.  It means the world and you have gotten Rob and I through this awful year.  I pray we're nearing the end of the hardest part as I'm adjusting to the "new normal" and one that is much easier to live with.  Woot woot wooty woot woot!!!

And for the happy that always I like to end with (not that this needed it), this one takes this cake and is freakin' cute overload.  The last part made me laugh so hard, enjoy: