Kick him or hug him?

It's definitely a toss up. The good news is, Frank definitely has a new job starting Monday. He is VERY happy about it. They hired Frank, his sales partner, and the 4 girls that were laid off too. So that is the very good thing.

The other part of the story. . .
I went to help him at his office move all the crap out. I really went cause he needed his truck (side note: I love riding in his truck, and looking at it, but I'm NEVER driving it again! It's a 55 Ford, no seat belt, no speedometer, no telling if you are in drive, the brake and gas are practically on top of each other, NEVER again!). Well, I get there and one of the girls spilled the beans that they all knew yesterday that they were going to close the office. WHAT?!?!? And he didn't tell me!??! I guess he didn't want me to stress out and lose sleep over it. So he avoided me all night until he got home from soccer and I was in bed. I guess it's better, because I wouldn't have slept and goodness knows, I need my sleep!

Five things I was doing ten years ago...
1.) Looking forward to graduating high school.
2.) Hanging out WAY too much with my boyfriend(s)
3.) Just finishing up my last year in the colorguard.
4.) Counting down the days to graduation
5.)"Sluffing" (it's a UT term) school and going to my house, especially on a snowy day to eat nasty boxed pasta and hot chocolate with Michelle and Steph.

Five things on my to-do list today...
1.) Work
2.)Find my husband a job.
3.)Work
4.)Go to drop off my sister a package at Fedex
5.)Work

Five snacks I enjoy...
1.)Ben and Jerry's Phish Food Ice Cream
2.)Yogurt
3.)Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
4.)Beef Jerkey
5.)Lately peanut butter, honey, and butter sandwiches.

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire...
1.) Support ourselves!
2.) Buy at least 5 acres and build my dream home on it
3.) Buy my Dodge Viper
4.) Help my sisters and Mom out.
5.) Travel

Three of my bad habits...
1.) Leaving my make-up on at night...I know, I know it's bad for your skin...I'm just sooo tired! (I'm stealing this from Steph)
2.) Not keeping my house cleaned
3.) Sleeping too much.

Five places I have lived...
1.) Smithfield, UT
2.) Spokane, WA
3.) Oahu, HI
4.) Panama City, FL
5.) San Francisco, CA

Five jobs I've had...
1.) Callaway's Pizza
2.) USU Catering waitress
3.) Surf Shop Sales
4.) Mortgage Consultant
5.) Business Owner/Bookkeeper

Five things people probably don't know about me...
1.) I have OCD about tangled phone cords
2.) I couldn't name the singer of a song if my life depended on it.
3.) I count stuff just for the fun and to zone out.
4.) I sleep WAY too much.
5.) My husband cares more about clothes and shoes than I do (and that's saying a LOT).

Okay, I tag, Stephanie (my sister), Nicole, Chantel, Kylene, Alesa

Blessing in Disguise?

Wow! It's been a roller coaster of a day!

First of all Frank got rear ended last night. Not bad, just enough to have to deal with the hassle.

Today I get a phone call from Frank and the company that he is working for is closing their doors at 5:00 this afternoon. EEEKK!! Of course, I immediately start freaking out about not just losing the money, but also, and mostly, of losing our insurance. This is NOT good timing!

So then Frank gets a phone call from a competing company regional manager and he wants to meet with Frank. He met with them and he might go work with him making the same that he was making before the huge pay cuts he took in June and September. It might really be the answer to our prayers. Frank has been looking for a job for a while (not real hard because he felt such loyalty to his company) so this might be a blessing because it puts him back into the making real money category.

Bizarre Pregnancy Dreams

I think I mentioned before that I've been having really weird dreams. Most of them I can't even explain because they are so strange, but last night's actually made sense. Well, I should say sense, but it had least had somewhat of a story line.

Frank and I decided that I would carry the baby and the pregnancy for 8 months and then he'd be pregnant the last month and do the delivery. So I was there coaching him the whole time and I was the one to deliver the baby. It was a girl by the way. Then afterwards, we just got up and went shopping and to dinner and while we were at dinner (CAUTION: THIS PART IS KINDA GROSS) I delivered the placenta through my mouth!!! It was VERY strange. Oh, BTW, it was a girl! Maybe that's telling me something!

Candy Canes regular or flavored? Or chocolate covered cherries?

I LOVE regular flavored candy canes! I wish I could have them all year long. For some reason they aren't the same as peppermint disk, it's the candy cane that I love. I like the flavored ones too, but not as much.

Blech to chocolate covered cherries. I have never liked them. They are WAY too slimy for me! I only like cherries when they are real cherries in the summer or marachino (I know I just botched the spelling on that one!) cherries on top of ice cream. And they have to be cold.

do you have a nativity displayed?

I wish! See the answer below. I kinda did Christmas decorations only half way this year. I lost all my umphh when I figured out I'm leaving in only a week and a half.

I do love my nativity that I have. My Mom brought it from Jerusalem and it's made out of Olive wood.

What's on top of your tree?

This year nothing. I wasn't able to get my tree up this year. On Sunday I was going to put it up and I looked at a calendar and realized that I was leaving for UT in a week and a half and decided it wasn't worth the work of the mess. It's just not worth decorating when you aren't even going to be there for Christmas.

Christmas in California

It's not quite the same without the snow, but I try really hard to make it feel like Christmas, even though I can never quite get into the Christmas spirit around here. It's not the same without family nearby.

Here's the house from the outside. Frankie had just put all the lights on and they blew! Darn safety fuses! He fixed them, that's why I call him McGyver! He can fix anything! When we were on the East coast last year for Christmas I fell in love with it, but only for Christmas time! No place does Christmas like the East Coast (and believe me, I've lived everywhere from Hawaii to Florida for Christmas). All the houses had little candles in the window, so Frank bought me some this year so that's what the two little lights are in the upstairs windows.

Steph asked for pictures of my garland above my cabinets so here it is. (I'm not much of a photographer!)

Sweet Dreams

I don't know what's up with me, but I've been super chatty lately! Now that I can talk about the pregnancy because everyone knows I don't I don't have to be worried about accidentally saying something someone might pick up on.

Anyway, yesterday when we went to Babies R Us we bought me a snoogle. I LOVE it! I slept the best than I have in a long time! Even before pregnancy. If you have problems getting comfortable at night BUY one!

It's not your average body pillow. It's C-shaped, which at first I thought would totally bug me, but I love it! It's perfect I think I rolled over once during the night is all, and that's because my ear fell asleep
(I don't know, don't ask). You can lay with the pillow part on your tummy, or on your back. When it's on your back it really helps to support your back. I guess it will also help later in pregnancy when you aren't supposed to lay on your back because the pillow wraps around your back either way you sleep on it and so it's not comfortable to lay on your back. Another good point, if your husband snores make him use it! :D When Frank saw me laying with it, he asked if they would take turns cuddling me.

Speaking of dreams, I've had the strangest dreams since I've been pregnant. Not dreams about being pregnant, just REALLY out there dreams. They are so weird when I tell Frank I had a weird dream and he asks me what about, I can't even begin to explain them. My sister, Alesa, says that's how she knows she's pregnant, cause she starts having weird dreams, so I guess it's normal.

Do you have any traditions?

I'm a big fan of traditions, but Frank and I have yet to start any of our own. I guess once we actually have kids it will be easier to start them. One of my favorite traditions growing up was getting new pj's on Christmas Eve from my Mom. She would put them in these funny 3D boxes that she had. We all had our own. I don't remember which one mine was, but I remember Alesa's was shaped like a space ship with an astronaut in it.

Another tradition that I loved was going to my Grandma's house on Christmas Eve. We would always perform the Christmas Story and fight over who was going to be Mary. Grandpa would always threaten that he set a trap for Santa so he wasn't going to be coming this year. Then on the way home we would watch out the van windows for Santa in the sky.

Baby Shopping

Frankie and I went to Babies R Us today to pick up a body pillow so that maybe I'll be more comfortable when I sleep. That "quick trip" turned into an all afternoon affair of starting a registry. It was fun to just go through scanning stuff. We registered for our wedding online so we didn't scan anything, so it was a new experience for us. I can't believe how much stuff a baby needs! We didn't even look at that much stuff, but it made us both very tired and very overwhelmed. There are WAY too many choices!

When do you start decorating?

NEVER before Thanksgiving. I think it's absolutely against all the rules when you skip one holiday and decorate before it's over. I try to get it done the weekend of Thanksgiving, but this year it has taken us longer. The garage getting cleaned took precedence over the decorations. So I did the one decoration on the front porch I already showed the picture of, and I put the garland above the kitchen cabinets. Then today we hung the icicle lights on the roof and I did some of the lights outside and some of the stuff that goes inside. I still need to go to Jo's house and pick up the rest of the Christmas boxes and then tomorrow I'll put it up why Frankie is golfing. He's a little bit of a Scrooge this year, so it's better if I just do it without him.

*sigh of relief*

So I went to get the echo done this afternoon and I can finally relax. I woke up stressing about this in the middle of the night. It's amazing how the middle of the night can make you stress about stuff that you don't think about in the middle of the day. Anyway, the ultrasound person told me that she saw the murmur, actually both of the them, the Pulmonic (I think that was the word she used) and also the tricuspid, but that neither of them was anything to get excited about. She said the Pulmonic is the same thing 99% of the population has and the tricuspid would be classified as "normal" or on the very verge of mild. It's not the official word from the cardiologist, but it's a least a relief. We'll see what the OB says on Monday.

Mistletoe?

I haven't ever been able to find real mistletoe around here, and I refuse to hang the fake stuff. Maybe this weekend I'll go to the nursery and see if they have it. Growing up we always had it out our house. One year we never took it down. I think it probably hung there for 5 years before we repainted and took it down.

Baby Names

When I went to UT I got to go to dinner with a few friends from high school. It was a lot of fun to catch up with them. Michelle is pregnant and is due this month. Her and her husband still haven't thought of a name for their baby boy. It got me really freaked out about it (something else to stress out about for the next 6 months)! So I immediately came home and started to think of names and make Frank join in. Needless to say, we solved the dilema in about 2 days. I thought it would be a lot harder than it was. With a last name of DeVito you have to have pretty traditional if not Italian names. I have a problem with Italian, because boy Italian names are really long, hard to pronounce, usually have a lot of z and v's in them and are only sound cool if you are in Italy or have an Italian accent (something of which I nor Frankie do). The other problem with naming boys is that everyone in Frank's family is named Frank or Vincent (yes, he has at least one Cousin Vinnie). I refuse to have another Frankie, it's WAY too confusing for me!

Girl names were a completely different story. I love Italian girl names. Sophia, Isabella, Maria, Olivia. When Frank and I first started dating, I told him that I had to marry him because I've always loved Italian girl names. Well, I forgot about the boy part.

Needless to say, I came up with some that would work. Isabella McKaylynn (Izzy or Ella for short) and Joseph Frank (Joey for short). It works out well. Isabella happens to be Frank's grandma and McKaylynn is a mix between my Dad, Grandma, and my Mom. Joseph is Frank's dad's middle name and Frank and his Dad obviously have the middle name.

Wrapped or unwrapped?

Santa never comes to this house, guess we aren't good enough. Growing up the presents were always unwrapped from Santa, I think it was because it was less mess and work for Santa.

I always wrap the gifts that I give. I like wrapping presents. I'm not great at it, but I like it. Someday when I have a bigger house I want a gift wrapping room, at least a closet. I wrapped really nice gifts when I worked at JCPenney and had to wrap. They have the nice paper and the perfect height to wrap them at.

Frank and I have never talked about the fact if we would wrap gifts or not. I'll have to ask him that. The things you don't think to find out until you are married! I should add it to the list of what to talk about before marriage.

Favorites

First time for everything

1.Who was your first prom date?
Nick Call

2. Do you still talk to your first love?
I had my first love when I was 4 and I begged him to marry me. I don't talk to him anymore.

4. What was your first job?
Not counting baby sitting, catering at USU

5. What was your first car?
96 Cutlass Olds

6. Who was the first person to text you today?
Frankie

7. Who is the first person you thought of this morning?
I woke up stressing out about one of my clients.

8. Who was your first grade teacher?
Miss Mauer, she came to my birthday that year.

9. Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane?
Seattle with the marching band (I think).

10. When you snuck out of your house for the first time, who was it with?
I never snuck out, I just would stay out late. My house was WAY too far from civilization to sneak out anywhere.

11. Who was your FIRST best friend?
Christa Winn

12. Where was your first sleep over?
I have no idea.

13. Who was the first person you talked to this morning?
Frank, barely. I mumbled to him as he left for work.

14.Whose was the first wedding you were in?
I guess my sister, but I wasn't really "in it."

15. What was the first thing you did this morning?
ate cereal so I wouldn't pass out and die.

16. What was the first concert you ever went to?
Peter, Paul, and Mary with my family

17. First tattoo or piercing?
ears

18. First foreign country you went to?
Mexico

20. When was your first detention?
In the 8th grade when Mr. Haderly thought that I threw cheese in his classroom window (I didn't!).

21.First state you lived in?
UT

22. Who was the first person to break your heart?
My ex-husband.

23. Who was your first roommate?
I can't remember their names, it was a long time ago.

Favorite Holiday Dish

Definitely Monkey bread! YUMMY!! My Mom makes it every year on Christmas morning. It's like a cinnamon pull apart, but it has butterscotch on it as well. It is so yummy. I think it's the only time of year that she makes it. I'm looking forward to Christmas morning this year, just for that. Could be that I'm starting to have cravings!

Stress and worry

As most of you know, when I was 16 I had open heart surgery to repair 3 holes in my heart. The last time I was checked I was 19 at that point the murmur that I had before the surgery (since I was 19 mons. old) was gone. I went to the cardiologist yesterday. At 19, they told me that the next time I needed to get checked again was when I got pregnant. He told me that he heard the same kind of murmur that I had before. He didn't make me feel very comfortable about it. He doesn't know what it is or why it's there. I'm having an echocardiogram done on Friday, but I won't get the results back until 10 days later. I'm hoping that when I go to the OB on Monday next week, he'll be able to call the cardiologist and get the results sooner.

I tried googling it (I'm the queen of google searches) but the only thing I can find on it is in medical language that I can't understand. SO if anyone out there has any medical knowledge and wants to tell me what it says about tricuspid murmurs during pregnancy, I'd really appreciate it!

I'm not worried that it's anything that could kill me. Heck, I lived with it for 16 years before, what's another 6 months. I'm just thinking about having surgery again and that scares the crap out of me. I don't think I can deal with the pain again. It makes my chest hurt just thinking about it. Come to think of it, I wonder which is worse, childbirth or having your chest muscles ripped off the bone and then stitched back together. I'll let you know in 6 months.

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

Definitely hot cocoa! With mint and whipped cream please! I like one cup of egg nog with sprite about once a year, but on a cold rainy day I love a cup of hot chocolate!

White or colored lights?

My sister is doing a holiday question of the day, so I'm going to follow her. I'm a couple of days behind, so I figured I'd just start at the beginning.

I prefer white lights. There's nothing I love more at Christmas (okay there are probably a few things, but one of my favorites) is when a house has it all outlined in perfectly straight white lights with the snow on top. Unfortunately here in CA we don't get the snow on top part. Maybe I'll be lucky this year and get snow in UT. It's been a LONG time since I've seen a white Christmas. I love my tree to be all white and silver, or white and one other color. I think it's so elegant.

Body Worlds

AMAZING! If you ever go get the chance to see this exhibit ~ GO! I thought that I might be a grossed out by it, but everything looks fake so it's not gross. It's the most fascinating thing I've ever seen. Being that I'm pregnant, my favorite part was the fetus'. They had a 14 week fetus still inside the uterus that they had cut open (the uterus), being that I'm 14 weeks it was REALLY cool to see exactly what my baby looks like, not a CG image, not an ultrasound, but the actual baby. They also had the embryo's from 4 weeks until 8 weeks. At 8 weeks it was amazing you could see the eyes and the spine and the fingers and toes beginning to form. They also had a woman with the baby still inside of her. They opened up her abdomen and showed the baby, that was amazing!

The only thing that really made me realize that they were real people was one of them still had most of his skin on and on his hand you could see a tattoo, that was weird. That made it real, that they weren't just plastic. He had the hair still too which was really strange.

They also had a heart that was sitting in the pericardium still. That was really cool to see that, because that's what was used to repair the holes in my heart.

If I was a smoker before I went, I definitely wouldn't be after going there. In one exhibit they had a normal lung, a smoker's lung, and then a coal miner's lung. The smokers lung was really bad, but the coal miner's lung was horrific! It looked like a lump of coal. It gave me a new respect for coal miners!

Like I said if this is exhibit is anywhere near you spend the $20 a go. It's breathtaking!

Nesting

Wow! I guess what they say about nesting when you are pregnant is true. I've been on a rampage this past week. Frank and I took two full size house and between the 2 of us 30 years of living on our own and combined them into one house when we got married. It was very tight! The garage has been a complete disaster and stuffed full since we have moved in together. Just to do laundry (in CA the houses are so small that they all have the laundry in the garage to save space), you practically had to be a gymnast to get to the machine. We have just had so much other stuff going on that we haven't had a chance to go through it all and clean it out. Plus, the garage is NOT my domain of organization!

This week I listed practically everything in our house for sale on Craigslist! We are selling a car, Momo wheels that have been in the garage for 3 years, an aquarium stand, a couch, renting a room (in the house I own). This week as soon as I can get pictures taken I'm going to be putting on 2 or 3 receivers, MORE wheels (who has 2 sets of brand new wheels laying around their house, besides Frank De Vito), and whatever else I can find, I'm sure!

Then yesterday after weeks, no make that months of talking about it, we finally got started on the garage. We went and bought some cabinets to go in it and we went to. We stuffed three car loads of stuff to go to Goodwill. I'm so happy about it. It's so nice to go to that laundry with out breaking an ankle. I don't know how I would do that when I get huge!

I'll post a picture of the after when I get a chance to take one.

I'm becoming domestic

And they said it couldn't be done (really I guess it was me that said that)!

I have cooked twice this week. Hey, no giggling! That's a record. I do run a business and work late most nights. On Sunday I made a pot roast and veggies and fed about 10 of our friends with it. Then yesterday I cooked a turkey breast and potatoes. Okay, it was all crock-pot cooking, I have to confess (I think it's impossible to ruin that). Frank even said the turkey and gravy was about the best he's ever had. Way to go me!! He comes from an Italian family of amazing cooks! And if you don't know Frank, he's not one to sugar coat things to make me feel better. I was very proud of myself.

Also, today I even got creative (something I NEVER do) and put together a flower arrangement for Christmas. I'm quite excited about it. When I was in UT Stephanie (my very creative sister, they are both creative, I think by time the gene got around to me there was nothing left) helped me pick out all the flowers to use and so today I put it together. It's still missing some large ornaments that I bought for it (they got left in UT) but I should have them next week and then it will be finished. Stephanie did consult through pictures to get it perfect, but I did most of it on my own. It has white lights in it too. I'll have to take a picture once it's dark.

I just elfed my family!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1114034075

This is about the funniest thing we've ever seen.

The Official Announcement!

Now that all of our immediate family knows I can post on here. We are expecting a baby! I'm twelve and a half weeks along. I'm due on May 30th. We are beside ourselves with excitement. This week my belly started to pop a lot. We surprised all of Frank's family with the news when we cam out here, they are very excited, of course.

Leaving on a jet plane!

I'm getting very excited! Frank and I are leaving for New York/Washington D.C. on Friday for a week. We will be spending 3 days in New York and 4 days in Washington for Thanksgiving. I think we will mostly be in Long Island while we are there, but it will be fun. I like going back East for the holidays because it just puts you in the spirit. Palm trees and 60* doesn't really do it for me to get me excited for Christmas. Plus people out here really don't have much Christmas spirit. I loved it last Christmas when we were back there. Every house is decorated and has the candles in the window and the wreaths on the door. If I didn't hate the cold so much in January and February, I might want to consider moving there, maybe I'll just move there for 2 months out of the year, November and December.

Link to the Newspaper Article

http://www.parkrecord.com/education/ci_7322976

Here's the link to the newspaper article where my nieces are quoted. They are Maddie and Kathryn Austin.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

I finally feel like I live in California. I was sitting on the couch on Tuesday night, on the phone with my sister, when my legs started to shake. At first I thought it was just my legs shaking, then I looked around and realized that the walls were shaking and I could hear them moving. I looked at the fish tank and sure enough, the water was sloshing back and forth. I was still on the phone, not quite sure what to do, so I ran outside where Frank was. Smokey had been barking and agitated a few moments before, so Frank had taken him out. He was in the shed and he said the whole thing was shaking. I guess it's true what they say, Dogs can feel it before it happens. Although Bandit just laid there the entire time. I think it's because he thinks that he's human.

The earthquake was a 5.6, the biggest we've had since the "big one" in '89. It hit about 9 miles North of San Jose, and we are about 15 miles North. We've had about 45 aftershocks since. I've only felt one, they said it was a 3.5.

Welcome to California!

Girls Weekend

Last Thursday I took a last minute trip to UT to spend the weekend with my Mom and sisters. We had a great time.

We spent Friday just relaxing and then Saturday we went down to stay at my sister Alesa's house in Farmington. That day we went to Gardner Village and saw their display of witches. I guess they do it every year, but this is the first year that I've seen it. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them from Alesa.

Saturday night I got to go to dinner to see my friends that I went to high school with. It was so fun. We haven't seen each other in almost 3 years, so it was great to catch up. All of us are married, have babies, or are having babies, it's funny when you remember people how they were in high school and how they have grown up. You know that you grew up, but forget that other people do too. We had so much to say we stayed until the restaurant kicked us out.

Sunday we drove to Park City and stayed in a hotel up there for the night. We went shopping at the outlets, I bought so many clothes I had to buy a suitcase just to bring them home in. I've got to learn to start taking an extra bag with me.

Monday, my Mom had UEA conference. UEA is the teachers union in UT. They are in the middle of a big controversy over providing vouchers for public school students to go to private schools. It's a horrible idea. It's the only entitlement that Republicans have ever thought was neccessary and it's a complete mistake. Hopefully, it won't pass on November 6th, because if it does it could make the public education all over the country in for a drastic change. Anyway, they were having a PR event for this issue, so we all went and took the kids. The newspaper for Park City was there and they interviewed the little girls. It was very cute. I've never been to anything like it and it was actually quite emotional to see how much politics that we take for granted can affect our lives.

After the news event we went to Hogle Zoo. It was a beautiful 71* that day so it was perfect. All the animals were out and about. The kids were all very well behaved for walking so far.

Overall, we had a great time and I'm so glad that I was able to take the opportunity to spend the time with my family. I forget how much I miss them until I see them. I'm still working on Frank to get him to move to UT.

Blech*

YUCK! I'm so sick. I was feeling great all weekend just tired and not great. Well, today I'm sick. I hate being sick. I haven't thrown up, but I have that feeling in my tummy right before you are going to throw up. Of course, I couldn't have been really sick over the weekend when I didn't have anything to do, but now that I'm supposed to be working, I get to be sick. GREAT! I'm off to sniff some peppermint oil, maybe that will help!

So tired!

I am so tired today! It was a great week. Very busy, lots on my mind, so I haven't been sleeping very well. Today I just want to sleep. I do not feeling like that. I think that it has to do with being back on my diet. It is hard for me to go through all that "detox."

I went to a chiropractor on Friday. He isn't a normal chiropractor, he does more of a holistic approach. He works to make your whole body work together in unison. He told me my gallbladder is "clogged." It was interesting, because he knew things about me based on muscle testing that there was no way he would have known those things. Like, he knew I had open heart surgery and he knew that I was left handed and that I had TMJ problems. It was very bizarre. My naturopath that put me on this diet told me that every month the different vitamins that I take push the toxins through my body. She had told me that this month we were working on my gallbladder. So for him to know that was just STRANGE!

The good news? I lost 4 lbs this week! I'm not doing this diet to lose weight, but it's a great side benefit!

Date night in the city

Frank and I got last minute tickets to see the Jersey Boys for last night. We went to the city on The Bart and then walked to a restaurant called Max's and then we went to the theatre. Jersey Boys was absolutely AMAZING!! It was probably my favorite Broadway play I've ever seen. We really enjoyed being that the main character was Tommy DeVito. I enjoyed it a lot more than I think I would have before I met Frankie and his family. It's got a lot of bad language in it, but other than that. It was SO much fun! We had a great time. They did a really good job of casting the people so they looked like the real guys. If you ever have the chance to see it, GO!

I got tagged

I just realized that when Celeste posted my 3 three blogging cousins, I was one of them. . .

1.) What I was doing ten years ago: September 1997. I was just starting my senior year of high school. I was recovering from open heart surgery 4 months earlier. I was dancing in the color guard with the marching band. And whatever else it is that high school students do.
2.) Five years ago: September 2002. hmmm. . . this is a little harder, I was moving so much at this time of my life, I have to think where I was. . . oh yeah, I was living in Washington state, Port Angeles, specifically. We (my ex-husband, Paul and I) had moved there 6 months before. I was working as the CFO for the American Red Cross local chapter.
3.) One year ago: September 2006. I was living here in California with my best-friend Josephine. Frank and I were dating. I was very busy getting my business off the ground.
4.) Yesterday: September 20, 2007. hmmm. . . again, too long ago, I
can't even remember. Oh yeah, I worked all day on a project for a client and then Frank and I got last minute tickets to Jersey Boys. I'll post more about that later.
5.) 5 snacks I enjoy: Ben and Jerry's Phish Food Ice Cream
( this is as close to heaven as I've ever tasted!), Carrots, Phish Food Ice Cream, water, Did I mention Phish Food Ice Cream??/
6.) 5 Things I would do if I suddenly had $100 million: Buy LOTS of land and build a custom home on it, give some to my sister, travel, retire, and buy a Viper!
7.) 5 locations I would like to run away to: Africa, A house with a lot of land, a warm beach anywhere, bed
9.) 5 things I like doing: sleeping, gardening, relaxing with my boys (Frank, Bandit, & Smokey), going to the city, traveling
10.) 5 TV shows I like: Desperate Housewives, The Office, Oprah, Law & Order, CSI
11.) 5 things I hate doing: Dishes, organizing the garage, putting away clean clothes from the laundry
12.) 5 Biggest joys of the moment: My marriage, my 3 boys, my business, my front yard, and my back yard that I've fixed.

I now have to tag 5 people (sorry): 1. Doug (good way to start a blog) 2. Keri 3. Tara (good way to get one started) 4. Stephanie (you've now been tagged twice) 5. Annette (again, get it started!)

I have twins!

Okay, now this is just silly! I got home from visiting clients today and I walked in the backyard and lo and behold, what did I see. . . TWINS

Yummy lunch

I'm on day 3 of my candida diet. So far, so good. I even survived Chevy's for dinner. I LOVE their tortillas, but I didn't even have a bite! Today for lunch I modified a recipe Alesa had given me. I took avocados, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and basil and chopped them all up like a salad. Then I sprinkled olive oil and salt and pepper over it. It was SO yummy!! I made enough for lunch tomorrow too. I'm SO proud of myself!

Rhonda Kay

I'm so excited! Tropical lillies are kinda hard to grow and a little finicky about blooming. I got this one about 6 weeks ago from another ponder. When it came it had a bud on it, but that one died and all the leaves died. Last week I started noticing some buds under the water. This one broke through yesterday and today it opened up!! It's not quite all the way open yet. It's a little cool today so hopefully as the day gets warmer it will open up some more. It's name is Rhonda Kay. YAY!

2 days down!

Today is day 2 of getting back on my health kick! I did it for two and a half months before the wedding, but the cruise made it all go to pot.

I forgot how hard it is to go without any sugar! It's in pretty much everything you eat! The naturopath said that if I do it for 3 months I should be good to go and can then start eating a normal, but healthy diet again. If you're curious about it, you can check out here: Candida diet

My family

For Labor Day Frank and I flew to UT to see Holly's family. Katie, Holly's niece was getting baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had family pictures taken. Here's the whole family.

We went to Park City to the Olympic Park and rode the luge. It's a steel slide that goes down the mountain. You sit on a sled. It's a lot of fun as long as you don't crash!

My family had to introduce Frank to tin foil dinners as well. They are YUMMY! You put carrots, potatoes, onions, and hamburger wrapped up in three layers of tin foil and cook them over a camp fire. Just be careful not to burn them!

Not such a bad week after all!

After 7 hours and having to endure an "I told you so" I was able to recover everything important off my hard drive! YIPPEE! The friend that helped me recover it had told me that I needed to back up to an online service and that was what the I told you so was about, I should have done it two weeks ago, but I got busy and forgot. It's amazing how when a crisis occurs we manage to make time for the stuff we should have done to divert the crisis. VERY scary lesson to learn, but don't worry, I learned it well. I'm on my way to that website to setup the service right now.

Along other good news, Stephanie (my sister/employee) called me today to let me know that I had received a fax from Chipotle saying I had won lunch for 10 people from my office, well, I only have 1 person in my office (and two dogs) but I think I'll have to get my friends together for a free lunch! I wish I could do it for 10 days, because I love Chipotle that much, I could eat it every day!

But the best news, I went out to my pond when I got home from work this afternoon and I looked into it and there sitting on the lily pad was my frog that I thought was gone. I figured while we were in UT he left the pond, but nope, he's there! I tried to get a picture, but he jumped into the water, he's a little skitish. I'll get one soon.

VERY bad day at the office

I decided that today was the 3rd worst day of my life. Today I woke up at 6 am to get some work done that I needed to finish before 8:00 so that I could be in Alameda by 9:00. So I go to open my client's file and it won't open. So I get QuickBooks tech support on the phone and an hour later my hard drive quits working. I take the external hard drive to my client, that owns a computer repair place, all day long I hear nothing, maybe they just haven't gotten to it, I keep thinking. Finally at 4:30 I call them to see what's going on. They have run recovery software on it, and my hard drive is shot! WHAT?!?!? I have 30 clients entire financial information stored on there! This can't be happening. Oh but it his, he ever so calmly tells me. SCCREECH! CRASH! I freeze, thinking it was my business falling down around me, nope, just the 6 cars in front of me that I have to swerve around at 60 miles per hour. Whew! At least I missed that!

Needless to say, I had a REALLY bad night. Nothing that 1/2 a pint of Ben and Jerry's couldn't fix. So my options are, tomorrow take it out to a friend's house that is going to try something else to recover the data, or else, send it to someplace in TX and for anywhere from $900-$3900 get it recovered from them. So tomorrow I should have a better idea. If it can't be recovered, I figure it's going to cost me around $10,000 to redo the work that is lost. Plus, any lost revenue from work that can't be done while this is being fixed and any clients that fire me because of it.

A growing business

I'm so excited! I just bought my business a server. I know, I know it's kind of a lame thing to be excited about, but the first thing that I'm excited about is that I'm not going to have the headaches that have come from the lame set up that I'm using now. But the thing that I'm most excited about is that my business is growing big enough to have to need a server! I'm up to 3 employees now, plus me, and I think I will be hiring one more person in the next month or so. My goal is by the end of next year to have 10 full-time employees!

To see more wedding pictures. . .

go to http://picasaweb.google.com/HollyDeVito777 There are WAY too many to upload to here!

More wedding pictures

Before and After Pictures

This is the before and after of the outside of our house. Frank bought this house 3 years ago and has spent that much time, on and off remodeling it. It is almost finished! FINALLY! There are just little things, like the shower in the master bath has REALLY great shower heads, but no glass.

As we finish each room I'll take pictures and show you the difference. It has been a lot of work but definitely worth it! We thought about selling it for a couple of weeks and moving into a house that we flipped, but this house had all of us in it and we couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

Landscaping

We have been doing a lot of landscaping trying to get this house done so that we can enjoy our lives. I must admit, this is a lot more fun than the work we were doing before the wedding! MUCH less stressful when you don't have a deadline you are trying to race against.

This is my pride and joy passion fruit vine. The first one is the flower and this one below is the fruit. When I bought the plant it was only about 3 feet tall and had one little tiny fruit on it and no flowers. Now it's almost 8 feet tall and has about 20 fruit on it and LOTS more flowers and buds. The fruit is almost ripe. I have no idea what passion fruit tastes like, so I'm really excited to try it!

Wedding and Married life

Our wedding was absolutely magical! Thank you to all of our family and friends that were able to join us there. We missed all of you that weren't able to make it.

We've been married now for 7 weeks, not very long, but long enough to know that we love it. A couple of weeks ago Frank was saying how much he loved being married and asked if I loved it as much as he did. I told him, yes, because you are a much better husband than you were a boyfriend!

Now that we are really committed to each other the bond between us has grown so much. Frank keeps telling everyone that he feels like we are really partners now.

I guess we now have a blog too. . .

Is it wrong that I started a blog with no kids? It seems like everyone that has one has kids. Oh well! We have furbabies for now and someday we might have real kids so we can just add them to it!

I guess now I can cancel myspace and our other website and we will use this one.