The Weekly Catch-Up (2013, March 25-31)

First, don't laugh-it's an attempt, I won't even pretend that I have confidence that you will see this every week. What a week! It started with me being in Phoenix and Mom and James were there as well. We had dinner at the Bamboo Club and followed it up with a trip to the Talking Stick Casino where I played roulette with 25 cent chips. The 22 came up 7 times while I was sitting there and I ended up walking away up $140.00. The 29 (My grandma's number) came up twice too :)

The girls were with Rachel A who was able to teach Sydney how to swing by herself (finally!), she also had a picnic with the girls and they made a bunch of cookies. (Thanks, Rachel-I have been eating them all week)

On Tuesday I flew home and David flew to North State. Wednesday night we (the girls and I) took mom to LA Live and we went to The Farm of Beverly Hills for dinner. It was good, mom and I shared the steak and the Dill pickle fried chicken. After dinner we took mom home and went to pick up Amy from the airport. The girls loved Amy immediately (especially Ms Brooke). The next day I dropped off Amy at Disneyland while I went to work. Amy hung out with Miranda and did get on a number of good rides although the day was terribly crowded. After David landed I went back and we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Friday we took Amy to breakfast at The Black Cow Cafe and had cornflake crusted french toast before hightailing it to the airport.

On Saturday we decided to head out in hunt for our next family member. While we didn't find her at the Pasadena Humane Society we did end up finding her in Canoga Park. Between shelters we colored our Easter Eggs and the girls loved it! We saw three dogs at Canoga Park and both the girls agreed that "Betty" was the best and they thought we should take her home. Upon bringing her home David decided to name her Dixie (I'm really not sure how that happened).

We had a great Easter with two Easter Egg hunts, great dinner, and now, I end this week the same way I started it, on a Sunday night in a hotel in Phoenix.

Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 24-25)

Home: The last couple of weeks have been so busy on the home front! I have kept many updates on the blog but it's crazy to think how much has happened.

Mom turned 60 on the 15th, most of us took her for dinner that night to Outback, that was pretty fun but I still can't believe she is actually 60! The girls had Elizabeth Aaron babysit them at home during the last two weeks and she did a great job-we love her. On Saturday we went to Nathan's first birthday party-Rachel and Kevin did a great job on it and everyone had fun. When leaving we decided to go look at motorhomes again. Sunday was Fathers Day and we went to Disneyland for a couple of hours in the morning and met up with Dedee and Molly. After going there we decided to go back to El Month RV Sales and this time we ended up purchasing a 24 foot Tioga Motorhome. We were so excited!

On Monday, my niece, Abigail arrived and I fell in immediate love with her. She is so cute!!! The girls and I visited her three days in a row in the hospital and Sydney is absolutely smitten with her. Friday we went to hang out at Uncle Matt's and then went down to El Monte RV to pick up the motorhome. Saturday we went to Madelyn's first birthday party out at Aunt Cathy's-the kids had a great time.

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 23)

Home: For some reason I can barely remember what happened last week! I know David was in Redding for 3 nights and the girls and I ate dinner at moms for two of the nights he was gone. That was great! Monday, David and I went to the Corner Bakery for lunch and I decided to finally order my IPAD 2. (I Love it!)

Thursday night Miranda flew in for a special weekend as Friday we went to California Adventure to go on Ariel's Undersea Adventure. So fun! We went on that ride twice and then headed over to Soaring over California so Sydney could go on that for the first time. Sydney loves to "fly" whether it is in the Laundry basket, on top of the couch, on someones shoulders-you name it. I had been showing her You Tube videos of soaring for a couple of days and she absolutely loved it. After going with me she ended up going with Miranda as well. We then got together for lunch and an afternoon of hanging out with Deena (who was at Disneyland for the weekend). While Deena and I caught up Miranda and Sydney went on the Jumping Jellyfish, once that was done Sydney and I went on the flying swings for the first time and she loved that too. Overall it was a great trip to California Adventure.

Saturday there was a great adventure as we decided to go look for Motorhomes. The girls had a blast and David and I wanted to walk away with one. Still, I am struggling on our long term travel strategy. I want a little of everything, we'll see what happens with this....we may go looking a little more this weekend.......

Work: No travel this week for me, as mentioned above David was in Redding for three days. Dell announced plans to release our 10 inch Android tablet but we are starting in China. Can't wait for it to get here!!!!! Highlight of the work week was lunch with Larry!

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 22)

Home: So we started off week 22 by finishing our Memorial Day weekend in Phoenix. During the day we hung out by the pool and then mom and James left in the afternoon to head home. We went back to Scottsdale Fashion Square so David could check out the Microsoft Store and I could return a very small portion of the loot I had acquired at Gymboree the day before. After our mall trip we met the BFF and husband back at the hotel and then we went to dinner at Grimaldi's and had some super fantastic pizza. After dinner we walked across the street to the Sugar Bowl and had some ice cream, all and all spending time with the BFF on the 22nd week of the year just felt perfect.

Monday morning we got up early and headed out of Phoenix, we landed at Becca's house about 2:30PM and participated in a great barbecue. Becca made some fantastic sliders and Sheila brought some great chicken-super good food. On our way home from Becca's Sydney was devastated that we werent going back to the hotel.

On Thursday, Becca, Joshua, Elizabeth, Mom, Sydney and Brooke took off for San Diego, I drove separately after work. Sydney was thrilled to be staying at another hotel, this time it was the Embassy Suites across from Seaport Village. We went to dinner at The Pier Cafe and the took the kids on the carousel. After swimming at the hotel the kids watched Toy Story 3 and had popcorn. Friday, we headed to the San Diego Zoo where everybody had a great time. On our way home Friday afternoon we stopped by Aunt Rachel's house and spent a couple hours playing with Nathan. It was really fun-makes me wish they were 30 minutes closer to Pasadena.

Saturday we hung around the house and the contractor put in the fixed cabinets. (There will be another blog on kitchen updates). Saturday night we went to the Kitchen, in celebration of James and Andrew's birthdays. It was the first time we had gone on the Metro with Joshua and Elizabeth and Sydney had fun. After we got back we went up to Carmela's ice cream in Pasadena and it was super good.

Work: I headed up to San Francisco on Tuesday and met with the folks at St Mary's and the folks at corporate on Wednesday. Tuesday night was great, I went to McCormick and Kuleto's in San Francisco with my friend Sue. It was great seeing her!

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 21)

When I first started doing the weekly catch-up (10 Weeks ago) I didn't have any trouble remembering details of the week before but the last couple of weeks I have struggled to remember the prior weekend. So here goes:

Last Sunday we got a call around 10:00 am that we could go preview "The Little Mermaid" attraction at California Adventure so we high tailed it down to Anaheim for a quick trip-we all liked it. Sydney became scared at the last minute and didn't want to ride it so as soon as she protested I picked her up, threw her in the clamshell (thats what you ride in) and pointed to Scully. She recovered quickly and yelled "Let's do it again" as soon as we were exiting. We got home just in time for me to fly up to Sacramento that afternoon.

I arrived home Monday night, we had a quick dinner at Daphnee's and then David took off for the Central Coast. Wednesday we had someone come over and look at the damage in the kitchen and they will not only be replacing our water-damaged cabinets but they will be installing the muntin bars that I have been wanting in the cabinets on the north wall.

Thursday afternoon we took off for a Memorial Day weekend/James birthday trip to Phoenix. Brooke screamed like a banchee the whole way and Sydney was honestly the most pleasant girl ever (Yeah, she has never been so good). We stayed at the Hilton Pointe at Squaw Peak (this is something we did when I was in High School) and we all had a good time. Sydney would stay in the water forever if I let her, she has so much fun being in a pool. Friday morning we got up, David went to work, the girls and I headed to Laura's (she made great waffles) and the kids played together. When we got back, we all went in the lazy river and then had lunch by the pool, dinner was at The Hole In the Wall. After dinner, I took Sydney to see Yogi Bear at the dive in movie (it was her first) and she loved watching the movie while swimming. We heard about it the rest of the weekend.

Saturday there was a mega trip to Gymboree at the Scottsdale Fashion Square. Dinner for James birthday was at the Kabuki's at the Tempe Marketplace. The kids enjoyed playing in the fountains and then David and I went back and watched Unknown on the pay per view in the room.

Work: Kevin and I started the week out in Redding. We drove up to Redding on Sunday and ate dinner on the way at the Riverside Bar and Grill in Redbluff, while it's only rated a 3 on Yelp, I thought it was pretty good. Monday we completed some interviews in Redding and then took the team for lunch at Logan's Roadhouse. After lunch we headed back to Sacramento making a stop in to visit the team in Woodland.

Tuesday, I was in an almost all day meeting regarding site visits and was pleased with the overall outcome. More time in the field is always a good thing! I spent all day Wednesday doing interviews and Thursday was a catch-up day with lots of emails and few meetings.

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 20)

Home: Last Sunday we started the day off by heading to Disneyland and hanging out with Ash and Laura. It was pretty crowded but we had alot of fun.

Monday night I flew to Phoenix and stayed at hotel BFF. After a long day Tuesday I got home and Sydney was thrilled when I arrived-I love that. Wednesday was David and my 14th wedding anniversary, we went to Smitty's Grill lunch and then took a walk down South Lake Ave, it was nice. Wednesday night, we went to dinner with the kids, mom and James at Outback.

Friday most of the family met for lunch at Chilis in Chino Hills and then went to the park with the kids. All the kids had a great time playing together-I think most took naps on the way home. That night we ate dinner at home and then headed to old town where the Cool Haus truck was it. David and I had the Apple Pie ice cream on a snickerdoodle cookie and Sydney had the lemon ice cream-all was outstanding.

Saturday, was a pretty lazy day. We hung close to home and then had mom, Joshua and Elizabeth over for dinner. For the adults I made the "Shaking Beef" Vietnamese salad and for the kids I made these sesame noodles (minus the spicy)

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 19)

Home: As previously reported we had quite a Mother's Day, breakfast with the whole family at Knotts and dinner at our house. The next day was David's birthday and after I landed from San Francisco a bunch of us (Mom, Andrew, James, Becca, Joshua, Elizabeth and us) went to dinner at Claimjumper.

The rest of the week was rather uneventful, on Friday the girls and I went to Starbucks in the morning, did some cleaning during the day and played outside. I love spending Fridays with my girls. Friday night we walked down to San Gabriel/Colorado where a couple of the food trucks were located, we had Slammin Sliders for dinner and Cool Haus for dessert. Saturday, I went to get my hair done at "The Mane Event" in Glendora. Rachel has been getting her hair done here for years and I finally made it out there and was actually pleased with the cut/highlights. We also continued to work on our bedroom re-do and we are actually alost done now, just window treatments left.

Brooke is getting to have quite an angry side, she is hitting constantly and getting really mad if someone tells her "No". She seems to get her teeth in bulk, it looks like 3 are coming in now and lord she is cranky when she doesn't feel good.

Work: I started the week out in San Francisco and then stayed put in Pasadena the rest of the week-very uneventful.


P.S. Red Gold Tomato Ketchup......thats the brand they serve at Knotts Berry Farm.

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 18)

Home: This week we spent alot of time grieving the loss of Katie-I miss her so much. On Sunday, it was clear to us that she was "trapped in her own body" and just wanted to be put out of her misery. So as hard as it was for us, we obliged and took her to the TLC emergency pet clinic in South Pasadena. It was the hardest thing either of us had ever had to do and alot of tears were shed and still are being shed. That day after telling Sydney that Katie went to heaven we put up a new picture of her in the family room next to the girls pictures-something we should have done a long time ago. I have noticed that Brooke keeps walking to Katie's normal spots and I know she is looking for her-makes me so sad.

David spent three days this week up on the Central Coast getting acclimated to work up there. The girls and I didn't do too much although we did go out to dinner to Steer-N-Ale with Grandma on Wednesday (all of the guys, James, Andrew, David) all hate it so sometimes when just the girls are around we go there.

On Friday, we went to Jumpin Jammin at the Santa Anita mall with Becca, Mom and kids and they all had a good time playing around. For dinner we went to Chilis to see our favorite waiter (James) and David went out with his friend Joe who had a layover in Burbank. (He is a SWA pilot)

Sydney has really started enjoying to read the last week or so, typically she doesn't have the patience for my reading her a story but she seems to have turned a corner and now really likes it so I have been reading her a story every night.

Saturday, the girls and I went to Joshua's last baseball game in the morning and had a good time watching him play. In the afternoon I decided to do a craft with Sydney so we made some home-made soap that I had read about for all of the moms for mothers day-she had fun, there will be another blog on this soon.

I also had the pleasure of having lunch on Tuesday with Lu. I grabbed some Clearmans bread and blue cheese salad on my way back from Dr Klausers office. It was great! By the way, last week David got the Thunderbolt and I got the Incredible 2-we both love our new phones. And if anyone is judging, we had the Incredible since last May.

Work: There was alot of follow-up done this last week on customer satisfaction and that will continue throughout the foreseeable future. During the week I reflected on values that the team leads had identified at the last all leads offsite (in 2006). Mine were Integrity, Family and Passion (in that order), I decided that if I had to do it over Family would likely move to first. I am also not sure I would leave Passion there, it may swap with honesty. I'll need to give that more thought.

The Sacramento team finished a huge refresh project this week-I am so proud of the work they have done as it was not only great, it was widely recognized. We also closed a couple of really difficult audit items this week-Larry did a great job of spearheading that for me.

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Weeks 17-Late)

Home: I honestly can barely remember what happened two weeks ago which really stinks because last weekend I wrote the weekly catch-up for week 17 and then it erased (not sure how) and if I recall there was alot of good content but now it's gone.

David and I had lunch for the first time at work and it was really great. Sort of like a date during the middle of the day, it had been a long time since we had been out to eat (or anywhere) with no kids in tow. It was nice, I would like to take advantage of that regularly. (This was during week 17 and we haven't made it made it back due to schedules. It won't happen this week either since we will be out of town at opposite times)

On Friday, (the 29th) the girls and I met Matt and Micah for a park date out in Chino Hills. We had a great time. That night we took the train into Old Town Pasadena and decided to check out "The Kitchen", this is a restaurant that David and I had long time vowed we would not go to because their commercial is awful and it used to run on cable all the time. I guess we moved passed it and I am thrilled we did-probably the best pizza I have ever had. I highly recommend. After dinner we came home and found that Katie was not doing well, I will recap this at another time but suffice to say to vet trips over that weekend and she is no longer with us. As you all know, we miss her terribly (I cried again today) but will cover the details in another post.

Saturday, (the 30th) Mom, Becca, Rachel and I started a new Mothers Day tradition and went for Pedicures at Burke Williams. We topped the day off with lunch at the Counter.

Work: Geez, I can't remember anything from two weeks ago except that Doug and I had lunch at the White Hut. This is why the Weekly Catch-Up needs to be weekly.

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 16)

Home: Well everything was thrown off this week with David back at work. The girls stayed at moms all day Monday-Thursday and overall they did well. Sydney has been acting out a bit and I am sure thats an adjustment from missing her daddy.

Sunday was hot so we picked up a small pool and the girls played in it, the pools pink, Disney princess, shocking I know. Brooke had a blast in it, I am sure the pool will see alot of use over the summer.

Yesterday, Sydney went with Mom, Becca, Joshua and Elizabeth to see African Cats while Brooke and I shopped at the mall. I finally found some decent black shoes for work but I definitely need a couple more pairs. Last night we got Sydney's third birthday pictures (yeah 2 weeks late) and they were ok....she had a fit and refused to smile at first but eventually we got a couple decent ones. I'll post them here soon.

Brooke is now saying 4 words (No real Mama or Dada yet). Night Night (was her first) which sounds like Nigh Nigh and is super cute, she also says hi, bye and tonight started saying "down", for sit down. It sounds like dowww, so stinkin cute, she can start calling me Mama anytime now.

Today we went to Kids Space and had a great time in the toddler area. It's usually too crowded to hang out in there but today there were only a few other kids in there and Brooke loved it. Tonight, David is out shooting basketball and the girls and I went to BMans for dinner and topped it off with a shaved ice from there-Bahama Bucks it is not. After Brooke went to bed Sydney and I decorated a couple of Easter cookies and I have already placed the eggs (plastic) outside for tomorrow's Easter Egg hunt.

Work: I started off the week with a couple of days in the Bay area. The first day I was at Corporate and St Francis. Between the two we took the Corporate team out to lunch for their winning "Before and After" contest entry-we went to Momo's and it was great. Monday was a great food day for me as that night I went to dinner with Anne Marie and Patti at Annabelle's, I had the Cippiono-it was fantastic. Tuesday Jeff and I left early and headed to Santa Cruz for a meeting with the team. It had been awhile since I was there and it was really great seeing that group.

Friday, was my first real Friday off, I managed to get through the day with only two conference calls, two escalation calls and an hour or so of email. It was great!

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 15)

I am a little late on this weeks catch-up as it should have been posted on Saturday. (Better late than never) Last week during the weekly catch-up I mentioned that we took the train down to Old Town Pasadena but I failed to mention that it was the same day that Brooke learned to say "Hi" and she said "Hi" and waved to every person on the train. It was cute!!!!


Home: Saturday, the girls, mom and I went out to the Camarillo Outlets to get the "Belle" costume that Sydney would wear to her Princess Party on Sunday where we served a super cool Princess Cake. Favorite present was probably her singing Belle doll from Grandma and Grandpa.


Wednesday night a bunch of us went to Indio to hang out at Matt's timeshare (Worldmark). It was a blast hanging out with my brothers and sisters catching up and the kids loved hanging out in the "Penthouse" with their cousins. Brooke was thrilled to have Micah and Nathan around and wanted each of them to play with her, neither were too interested but I have a feeling that will change over time. We had great food which included ribs made by Matt, spent time in the lazy river and went in our private jacuzzi each night. My favorite part I think was reminiscing about times past, particularly Rachel reminded me of how when we went to sleep at night we would ask our siblings to "tickle my back". LOL, good times. Most everyone left on Friday but we stayed longer and spent Friday visiting the Cabazon outlets where I spent way too much at the Gymboree store....thats a surprise.

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 14)

Home: Last weekend we decided to take the train, aka Gold Line down to Old Town Pasadena for dinner. After walking around and people watching we decided to eat at Bella's Gourmet Pizza and it was fantastic. It is located in the old Manny's Pizza restaurant on Fair Oaks but the Pizza was way better. Sydney loved the train so much that the next time we headed on it again but to South Pasadena. The South Pasadena train stop didn't result in as many dining choices and we will likely not be getting off at "Mission Street" again any time soon. Sunday afternoon we headed to the park with Becca, Joshua and Elizabeth followed by dinner at Chilis with the best waiter in Monrovia, James.

Monday night I got to see Rachel play volleyball followed by gyros with Laura and Ash.....then Ghost Armor, shopping an after dinner Chai and much needed conversation.

Tuesday, the construction company came in to start demolition on our cabinets after the water leak that was discovered last week. While I did great on the cooking front during water leak week 1, water leak week 2 resulted in dinner out every single night. Friday night found us back in Old Town where we went to Kings Row that was definitely a first and last trip to this restaurant which had what felt like 5 items on the menu-don't recommend it.

The rest of the week consisted of Sydney's birthday celebration. As you have seen in other blogs we spent her birthday at Disneyland with all of the cousins. Matt shattered his Iphone while waiting in line for Disney Jr, Sydney loved seeing "Live on Stage", particularly Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, everyone loved the show. Sydney got two birthday party pre-gifts, a new Jesse doll from us and a Tangled character playset from Grandma.

Work: Monday I had a great lunch with the folks based at St Bernardine's. I flew out of Ontario and when I opted out for a pat down with TSA, the agent told me that they use the millimeter wave units as opposed to the backscanner and they have zero radiation. I would like Laura to weigh in on this. Tuesday was a whirlwind day with back to back to back to back meetings in Phoenix and a lunch was with my boss thrown into the middle. At Sky Harbor, in effort to get on an earlier flight I decided to go through the full body scanner for the first time since December (When Laura told me: Go through if you want breast cancer) . Unfortunately, I missed the flight so it was all for not-very unhappy about that.

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 13)

Home: Brooke and Sydney both had an odd virus during the last week. It appears that they probably got it from Nathan as he had a similar virus that started 4 days earlier. It basically consisted of odd pooping and vomiting for about 6 days. They would eat a couple good meals, we would think it was over and then they would throw-up again the next day. Odd part is it didn't come with the normal "I'm sick-whining", they would literally throw-up, give you a look like "What just happened" and then go about their business. Odd-but luckily it's over.

Sunday, we discovered that our dishwasher has been leaking (for awhile) and some of the kitchen cabinets, walls and possibly flooring has water damage. Lovely. Demolition on that part of the kitchen starts on Tuesday. Despite our kitchen issues I managed to make dinner every night and good dinners at that. We had Gemelli Pasta, Mediterranean Chicken and Balsamic Vinegar/Garlic Chicken from For the Love of Cooking. Both were excellent. We also tried the Chicken Enchilladas recipe from the Cheeky Kitchen-I was really happy with those.

"Tangled" was purchased and watched on Tuesday. Sydney was thrilled with this addition to our Disney collection and we have watched it now more times than I care to admit.

In case you missed it, James won the Price is Right this week!

David will be starting a new job on April 18th and we are really excited for that. In celebration he has outfitted himself with a Motorola Xoom and I have to admit it is pretty darn cool! While not as sleek in my opinion as the IPAD, I love the open source and ability to customize the Android OS, also love not being held hostage by Itunes. It makes me wonder when we will have a new Dell Tablet-I can't wait!

Other Highlights include: A visit to the Grilled Cheese Truck, Gigi's Farmers Market on Saturday morning at the Americana.

Work: I managed to stay on track with my planning system this week and completed all my big items except one this week. I had a great lunch with the Glendale/Pasadena team thanking them for a job well done on a Severity 2 a few weeks ago. We went to "Frida" and had a good time. Enjoyed a good visit with Anne Marie this week and she is very pleased with how the FSO teams are doing.

Other: I failed to play any April Fools jokes this year

The Weekly Catch-Up (2011, Week 12)

Home: Brooke is still drinking the allergy formula because she gets sick every time she has regular milk. Thinking this was a simple allergy we had an allergy test done only for it to come back that she is not allergic to anything! (Which is great) Now we have to figure out why the milk is bothering her tummy so we can get her off of the ultra-expensive Nutramigen.

Last night Sydney watched the 101 Dalmatians and she was quite scared of ole Cruella DeVille. The expression on her face looked very similar to her expression when watching Maleficent go after Sleeping Beauty

I cooked good meals every night this week. Two came from Williams-Sonoma's "The World Kitchen" cookbook. I made the "Shaking Beef" salad (which was to die for) and a Vietnamese Pork Stir fry which was also great! I also made a couple of soups from "For the Love Of Cooking", the first was Ribollita (I used the Giada version) and the second was the White Bean and Chicken Chili and it was outstanding! Great week to not be traveling and in the kitchen.

Other highlights include: Having a 40+ minute conversation with Andrea Braun, receiving flowers from Jane, celebrating Queen B's birthday.

Work: This week I began re-using the Franklin Covey Plan Plus System for Outlook (for the 10th time) and it has greatly improved my organization skills. Other than methodical planning the biggest overall change I am making to improve my effectiveness is logging out of email. Email is such a distractor, when trying to complete a task, you see that little preview message open and are immediately dragged off into email-land to deal with that crisis or this question or another action item. This results in you never getting to complete the task you started so the solution is to schedule email time on your calendar and log out of it when trying to get something else done.

Highlights from the work week included: Getting my surprise package, sneaking in two good lunches, having 6 of 7 Performance reviews delivered and having the FSO All Hands meeting. I'm looking forward to a couple of site visits in Southern Cal next week. BTW, Joe called me "Kimmer" yesterday, I love "Kimmer"!!!!

Other: Did you see where Oxford added a bunch of words to their dictionary? My favorite was "Bloggable"-so happy that is now official.

Lastly, Elizabeth Taylor died, USA Today had the following headline "The biggest star ever?". I say, No. Zsa Zsa Gabor reacted by thinking she was next.