Personalized Plate

Every year when my car registration comes due I vow that I am going to get a personalized plate and then I spend a few hours trying to determine what I am going to get and I never end up following through with it. These are in the plates in the running this year. My favorite plate is the beach plate but it only allows 6 characters. Which one would should I get? I wish I could get "I Love 22" on the beach plate.

I Love Friday Mornings

Today we hung out at Starbucks and Brooke waved at every customer!

Recess

Coffee Class

Coffee Class?

Everyone had a laptop, everyone was facing the Barista, I was amused.

My Heart Is At Rest

My Instant Heart Rate: 58. Measured with Android App http://bit.ly/gNRxNx

Kim Show-Episode 5

Last night I stayed on the weirdest floor at the Hilton San Francisco. There were only 3 guest rooms, two exits, a storage room and a room marked "Private". It was pretty creepy, I was thinking if there was an emergency they wouldn't even bother with us, "Oh don't worry about floor 21, there are only 3 people on it".

Happy Birthday, To The Guy Who Has It All

What do you get the guy who has it all?

I quickly tally up:
The cutest 3 year old
The most adorable one year old ever
A hot wife
Great nieces (this is almost plural) and nephews
Great in-laws of all kinds
Great friends
A Thunderbolt
A 7D
A 40D
Bunches of Lenses
Bunches of Tools
More bags than any man could ever want
New luggage
Lots of clothes
New job
Great house
Motorola Zoom
I-Pod
Surround Sound
Disneyland Annual Passport
Stuff....and lots of it

I guess I'll give him lots of kisses.......Happy Birthday, honey!!!!!

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.

Happy Target Shopping

I was so happy to see the food court at my Target closed and this sign up.

Mothers Day Recap

The day started out with breakfast with the whole family (minus Nathan-he is so sick and Kevin) at Knotts Berry Farm. We ate way too much biscuits and gravy-yummy. After breakfast was Starbucks and then hanging at home for a few hours until celebration #2 started with a late afternoon lunch/dinner at our house. Mom and Becca did most of the cooking and Sheila brought most of the dessert-it was great! We finished it off with some mothers day gifts and now I sit at the airport about to leave for San Francisco.

Friday Fun at Jumpin Jamming

The Fish Eye Effect

My new camera has several special effects, this one is the "Fish Eye Effect"-the kids love it.

Happy Mothers Day To Me

I am enjoying a half price Frappuccino date with my first born. Love chatting with her.

Lazy People At Target

Unfortunately the pictures do not do the scene justice. Tonight while getting ready to leave Target I noticed that there was not one cart in any of the cart holders in the parking lot. There were literally carts everywhere but not one person took the time to put it in the proper location. Apparently, David hadn't been there today as he always puts the cart back in the cart place, I am not as disciplined, one of the pictured carts is mine.

Flashback Friday (53)

May 2003: Four observations: Rachel graduates, my brothers have changed, I still drink Chai, Becca in her 20's (and hey, so was I)

Is This An Attempted Murder of Jesse or Too Much Criminal Minds?

Stephanie's Doppelganger

No, this isn't the Vice President of the Pacific Region, it's Darcy Miller Nussbaum the Director of Weddings for Martha Stewart.

I like Stephanie's title much better than Darcy's and in case you were wondering Darcy's daughter is named Pippa Dot. I definitely think Sydney and Brooke are better choices.

A Letter To My Katie Girl..........

Katie,

For 13 1/2 years we haven't had any leftover steak and tonight I found myself wondering what to do with the rest of the Carne Asada. After that, I had to sweep up the rice and Carne Asada that fell to the floor under Brooke's chair, I've never done that before, because you always got it before me.

You have certainly left your mark in my heart, our family and in this house. In my heart, You left your loyalty and unconditional love. You were always there for me, no matter where I was you were by my side. When I went from room to room, you would follow, For years you laid on the couch next to me while I worked, watched TV or surfed the internet, you were by my side. You have comforted me in times of sorrow and celebrated in times of joy. Your life changed pretty dramatically went we brought Sydney in the house and then again with Brooke but no matter what you were always so tolerant and loving to these two girls and they adored you! Even on Friday, I enjoyed watching Brooke love all over you. Sydney has looked for you many times today and I have to remind her that you are in heaven. We miss you!!!!

I can remember as clear as if it were yesterday the day we found you at at the Pasadena Humane's Society. You showed up as a stray there on January 3rd 1998. We found you on the morning of January 10th and knew immediately that you were the perfect fit but we soon learned that you were already "on-hold" by another family. We left the Pasadena Humanes Society because no other dog measured up, next stop was the San Gabriel Shelter where we found a litter of puppies that we thought "would do" but we were not sold so we called back to the Pasadena Humane's Society and they told us that you were "Too hyper and too much dog" for the other family-we were thrilled! On January 10th we signed adoption papers and a few days later you were ours. A perfect match, my first girl!

My favorite memories include taking you to the beach, pulling in the driveway (at the apartment) after work to see you perched on the couch and looking out the drapes waiting for us to get home. You were always so excited to see us! When we moved into the house you wait for us by laying on the table in the breakfast nook and staring out the window. Most of the years you slept on our bed, usually between my legs, it wasn't very comfortable but I miss it. I'm sorry we haven't let you do that in such a long while. Before you I thought Tennis balls were for tennis and bakeries for humans, there will be no more trips to three dog bakery or the phydough truck and I will never look at tennis balls the same way. You played a great game of fetch! I loved watching you sun yourself in the backyard but the thing you liked the most was "getting to go". If we asked you if you wanted to go you would do a happy dance in the form of twirling around two or three times, it was so cute we would usually ask you again and you would always oblige with another dance. I loved how when we would ask you a question you would turn your head to the side as if really trying to understand-it was so cute!

Everyone loved you, not just us. Daddy always called you "Katie Girl", Jason used to call you "Katers", Matt just "Kater" and Lu gave you the name "Katie Nana". Even those that didn't like animals would say "I really don't like dogs but Katie is great". You were perfect and everyone knew it.

The marks you have left on our house will not be forgotten, they can't be as there are 1000's of them in our beautiful 1937 hard wood floors. Every one of them will be forever reminders of you sliding down the halls, running to greet us and giving us your love. We love you, Katie, you will forever be in our hearts, you really were our first girl, and we will always miss you.

Mommy

P.S. You have been gone just about 12 hours now, I made the announcement on Facebook 6 hours ago and you have already received 38 comments. (Thats pretty good!!!!) (For reference the status was: Kim Evans Thomas had to make the most difficult decision ever today and as a result Katie went to doggie heaven. Our family will never be the same. RIP Katie)

Katie Thomas R.I.P. May 1, 2011

We miss you!!!!!

I Love Katie Girl

My Fun Baby Girl

Love everything about this little one!!!!

The Official Name is Pillbug

Tonight, while reading Sydney's "Bugs Life" story I noticed that Disney refers to these bugs as "Pill Bugs". This was a topic of conversation on Easter because they were being referred to as "Roly Poly's".

Joshua has always called them Roly Poly's and because of him that's what Sydney calls them. When we were growing up, they were definitely "Pill Bugs", Sheila had stated that she knew them as "Potato Bugs" and when we asked Kelly what she called them we learned that these little bugs don't exist in Alaska.

I just found out that Pill Bugs vs Roly Poly's is a routine Internet search, and that Pill Bugs is actually one word: "Pillbugs". I also discovered that they are also known as "Wood Louse"-that name was not reported at Easter.

Roly Poly is a Pillbug nickname because they roll up into a ball.....yeah, I think it looks more like a pill. Pillbugs are crustaceans not insects (Who Knew?) and they have blue blood (Again, Who Knew?), for more interesting pillbug facts check out this website.

Appointments On My Calendar Today

Since the events I posted yesterday got so many comments, I decided to post events and appointments for today:

Events:
Administrative Professionals Day (I guess this extends past the Administrative assistants)
Babe Ruth Day
National Prime Rib Day
PRIMARY SITMAN
Tell A Story Day (Call me, I'll tell you a story)

6AM-8AM-SMAC U Train the Trainer Training
9:30AM-Core Service Delivery Call
9:30AM-Daily Incident Operations Call
10:00AM-FSO Managers Operations Meeting
10:30AM-1 on 1 with Joe
11:00AM-ITAM Status Update Meeting
12:00PM-Lunch with Larry
1:30PM-Desktop Integration Meeting
2:00PM-MOR Reports Meeting
3:00PM-Employee Satisfaction Meeting
4:00PM-CSAT Meeting
5:00PM-Project Delivery Meeting
5:ooPM-iPAD Support Meeting
5:45PM-The Day is done