Here are some pictures that we took from this weekend. Here is Zoey outside of the Long Beach Aquarium. If you watch Grey's Anatomy, I think she looks like meredith on the show in this picture:





Here she is inside the aquarium. it is a fun place for us to go. We race through it in just about an hour and always stop at something different. Outside is lots of stuff to run around and see as well, so it always makes for a neat half day.



here is Max walking through a little maze thing. He loves the fish for about 20 minutes and then wants to play. His favorite are the Jellyfish- he knows exactly where they are!!


Not much else happened this weekend. Hope you all are well.

I am just testing something, so this is just a photo of us

eBay, MILK and Paper People

What??? Do any of these things go together? Sort of. So for those of you who have never experienced bidding on ebay, let me tell you, it can get pretty intense. Laugh if you will, but any time I do it, I get so caught up in the bidding that my heart is beating like crazy when it is all through and if we won the item, it is time to celebrate, if we didn't win, you feel really let down and disappointed. And what gets people is that when your in the bidding race you get so into it that you often spend more than you say you would, because you just don't want to lose! We have only done this a couple of times, but it is really fun. Ross finds a lot of parts for his chopper on ebay for a really good deal, and this was the case a couple of days ago. He wanted to bid on two different items that were ending at the same time! So we set up a command post, I was on one computer, Ross was on the other, ready to bid and WIN!! I know it sounds a little silly, but for me, I don't even care about the thing I am trying to get, actually I don't even know what I am bidding for most of the time, and I still get into it!! So we sat down with about five minutes to go. We checked on the kids, they were both playing fine, so the bidding began. Long story short, we were successful! So Ross spent his Christmas cash on chopper parts, Mom and Dad:) And is very excited about it. As we were in the midst of craziness talking to each, I kept hearing the refridgerator door open. As many of you know, Max LOVES milk and he often goes into the fridge and brings you the gallon of milk. Well, while we were busy, he did this:





All he said was, "look, mom-mom, daddy, MILK!!" It was hilarious. And two of those are full!! He's a pretty strong little dude who really wants his milk.

As for the paper people, I am changing the subject. Zoey has started this, all on her own, and we may be sending one to YOU in the near future. She takes paper and cuts or rips out bodyparts (like body, head, arms, legs, ears, etc) and puts them together with tape or staples to make characters and people!! And she puts faces on them. Sometimes she makes a ball for them to carry or kick. They are really good. So here they are, it might be a little hard to see, but you get the picture:



Signing off for now- self-proclaimed ebay bidding CHAMPION!!

Eternal January

Is it just me, or does January seem to last forever? I feel like this month should be over already!! I think it is because it starts on New Years (yeah I know, duh... but stick with me) and at that time you are still in the holiday spirit, probably on vacation and just not in the normal routine. And yet, it is still the same month that we are in today, and it is only 22 days later!! It isn't even close to being done. I used to really hate January in Massachusetts because it was always so cold and so dark, like one continuous freezing night with a few light hours that you looked at through the window but didn't venture out to, thus really feeling never- ending. (don't worry, I already know I could never live in Alaska) All I am saying is just give some days to February, already!! I figured there was a possibility that I may be solo on my thoughts and observations, but not so... Some guy has determined through some self-derived equation that today, Monday, January 22, is actually the most depressing day of the year. Now I wouldn't go that far, but he made up this fancy equation that calculated how many days it had been since the holidays and how much money we are in debt compared to what we paid and how long we have in the future to look forward to something new. Seems that his equation always figures some Monday in late January to be a pretty depressing day. I can't believe that he is actually getting credit for this and that his name is known to the msn internet people of the world. It's just what I have been thinking all along... January, just roll on through, we have other things to do...

Happiness is...

the irony of this kind of stuff cracks me up...
Our next door neighbors are an elderly (late 70's) couple who are pretty grumpy. The guy has been nice on occasion, but the lady is always just yelling, usually at the other neighbors. I don't know anything about her, except that she rarely gets dressed and has yelled at everyone around, including Max, who was playing in OUR yard. I have actually never spoken to her. Basically, they are just grumpy. Anyway, I parked behind one of their cars on the street today and for the first time I noticed they had one of those things that outline your license plate that says on top, "Happiness is" and usually the bottom says something like skiing or surfing or in Ross' case knitting (hee, hee, j/k).

But theirs said nothing!! It was all scratched out. I got a little chuckle out of it. Hopefully you did too. And I hope they actually do have stuff to be happy about. Happy Friday;)

Move over Martha....

That's right, Martha Stewart better watch out... Check out my domesticity (is that a word?) in action:





I made this Challah bread and did not stage the two little hands sneaking in for a taste. I have made it before, so the kids knew what it was. It was really yummy too. We added soup for dinner just to make it seem like we weren't just eating bread as the entire meal, but that is what we did!! Clearly we are not following the Atkins diet in this house. And although I did make the bread from scratch, with Zoey and Max's help of course, Martha doesn't need to sweat, I don't have the desire to bake all day or make crafty things that would either be eaten/smashed/broken within seconds. Here they are helping me in the great bread bake-off. The kitchen was COVERED in flour!!!





Zoey had a Pajama Party at school today. They are learning the letter "P" and everyone dressed in PJ's and ate Pizza. All the kids looked so cute running around the playground in the PJ's. Even the teacher's dressed up. I was wondering if they changed at school or just drove from home that way!! Zoey wouldn't let me take her picture. But she is wearing the PJ's in the picture above.

The Amazing, Flying, Face-Planting ROSS

It seems Ross is stealing the show lately with his goings-on, so this one is all about him again. We went to a store yesterday and he ran back to the car for something. On his return he decided to jump over a bush, only his sandal got caught on a plant, and he tripped, and face-planted into the street!! Lucky for him, no one saw it, not even me, and he was up and back on his feet within a nanosecond. Besides his limp and actually telling the story to me, we have other proof. His cell phone busted. It has a crack so that the screen is totally busted and you can't see anything. It is even a flip phone. The sad thing is... this is not the first time this has happenend. The exact same thing happened to the screen of his last phone. He kept it in the cargo pocket of his BDUs and one day just hit a door or something, I don't know. Anyway, I think his next phone needs to be THIS

FYI, his phone still works, he just can't see who he is dialing or calling.