Happy Birthday Nikki!!!

Nikki turns 7 today. My little pumpkin...always smiling and laughing. I feel badly that we didn't have a party for her. Stress is my middle name these days and unfortunately I just couldn't drum up the energy to throw a party. We hope to have one for her next year. Here are some pictures I took of her at schol and at home opening her gifts.

Ramblings

I don't know what's with me lately but I can't seem to get my energy level up. I haven't been sleeping all that well lately and it shows. Work is so incredibly busy and stressful. The other day I asked Ernie to check the lottery numbers. Maybe by some miracle of God we're millionaires and don't even know it (lol). Unfortunately that wasn't the case. If it were, right now I'd be on some island in Hawaii sipping a virgin pina colada, feeling the sand between my toes and not have a care in the world (except for my kids of course). But you get the picture? I'm just dreaming of course. It's okay to dream isn't it? I love the life I have. I can't imagine it any other way. Except for the job part of it and other stresses I could certainly do without. Other than that I'm good.

Friday is Nikki's 7th birthday. So after work today we went to the dollar store and bought some treats to put goodie bags together for her classmates on Friday. I'll either bake or buy some cookies or cupcakes and take them to her school and take pictues as the kids sing her happy birthday. Then in a couple weeks we'll take her to Knott's Berry Farm. The kids can't seem to get enough of that place. I find the older I get the less inclined I am to get on the really scary rides. I remember once I went on the dive devil free fall ride at Six Flags years ago when Lindsey was about a year and half old. What was I thinking? I wouldn't dare go on it now. Anyways Knott's should be fun and the kids are looking forward to it. We're going on November 8th . It will be a late celebration of Nikki's birthday if anyone wants to join us.

Pictures Taken in Palos Verdes

One of my favorite places to go to take in the view is Palos Verdes. I love the openness and the cool breeze. It seems that no matter what kind of day it is, whether it's sunny or cloudy, you just can't go wrong with coming up here.

These were taken in the garden of the Waferer's Chapel. It's a glass chapel that sits atop a hill in Palos Verdes. The surrounding area is a beautiful garden that overlooks the ocean. Hmmm...maybe I should have taken a picture of the chapel. Oops! I forgot. Next time.

Happy Birthday To Me

I took the day off from work today to take care of some appointments and things. My intention was to only take half day off but it didn't work out that way which was totally fine. Instead I got to spend the day with my dad. We had lunch and spent some much needed father-daughter time together. We laughed, we cried, we talked. Most of all I got to say things to him that needed to be said. In the end it was all good and definitely a day that I'll hold close to my heart forever.

Some fun videos of Nikki

As you can see Nikki just couldn't sit still. She didn't have any candy or soda, not that I know of anyway. She was on a natural high I guess.

Nikki just made up this tune on her own. She kept playing it and playing it until she had me cracking up. Kids are fun!!!

I finally got Nikki at the piano. This piece is called Malaguena. Enjoy!!!

Random Pictures

RV Show

We went to an RV show in Pomona today. We've been wanting to get a pop-up trailer so we can take the kids camping more often. We usually camp up in the Sequioa mountains every Summer but we're kind of tired of tent camping so we are hoping to take a step-up and try something different and better. We were looking at the motor homes as well and boy are they beautiful and expensive. It's like a house on wheels. They had the big buses which are the Class A's and the Class C's are the smaller less expensive RVs (less expensive meaning in the $50,000 to $80,000 price range). For now we want to get a little cheap pop-up camper (about $10,000) that we can tow. The only problem is our minivan doesn't have that kind of towing capacity. It can only tow up to 3,500 pounds and these campers are about 3,200 (unloaded) so that would be pushing it big time. So if we want to get a pop-up camper we need to trade one of our vehicles in for a truck that can handle that kind of load. I should have taken pictures but we left the house in such a hurry that I forgot to take my camera.