A Romantic Retreat!!!

Last night was a night of dreams come true for me! It was amazing and I know nothing I write will even do justice to the spectacular events of the night...

It all started about 7:30...

Monica is asleep...
Christopher has eaten dinner...
I'm curling my hair...the last finishing touch to my appearance!
I'm wearing a new dress Jason surprised me with...my hair is flowing over my shoulders...I'm wearing black high heel sandals...I have a dressy purse with no diapers in it!

Then Shane and Leilani walk through the door enabling my handsome prince to take me out on a date for a HOT dinner with no kids to distract me till my food is cold...

First off, I want to send out a big THANK YOU to Shane and Leilani (and Lily too) for coming over to watch Christopher and Monica so Jason could take me out. You guys are the BEST! I'm so thankful for your friendship in our lives!

Jason got a scholorship from the Academy of Art and decided to use a part of it to take me out to the Ritz in Half Moon Bay for dinner! It was the night of nights! I felt like Cinderella at the Ball!


We were seated side by side in a secluded booth. The table had a really interesting oil lamp on it which reflected in the shined table wood. Our table settings were so ornate and perfectly placed making one almost not want to disrupt the beauty of it!

Our waiter, Darrell, was really awesome! He explained the food so well and was so attentive. He is a father of two girls, ages 17 and 20. He reminded us to enjoy and treasure these times with our children because they pass so quickly! It was a good thing to be reminded of on our night out!

The food was SO good! We got scallops and a pork dish for appetizers then I got a New York Steak while Jason got a Duck dish for our main course! It was SO good! They also served fresh sourdough break and our Darrell brought us a plate of chocolates and jellied candies for dessert!

As I was eating my steak, I started cutting large bit size pieces in a hurry. I typically cut all my food up right away, so I can eat it with one hand while I tend to children. I then realized...there are no children here...they are sleeping at home...I don't need to rush... So, I savored each bite, cutting each piece into petite sizes! It was all so good! Jason and I shared each others dishes, fork feeding each other!

We talked about so many things and just enjoyed eachothers company so much! I feel so refreshed in my vocation as a wife and mother! Sometimes retreats away are such a blessing from God to reinvigerate our desire to do the smallest duties our vocation requires. I feel so bless to have friends like Shane and Leilani who would give their evening in service so that Jason and I could enjoy creating special memories! May God bless them both!

I'm especially thankful for my wonderful, handsome husband who strives each day to make me feel happy and beautiful as his wife! I'm so thankful God lead me this vocation He prepared for me! I feel so blessed to have such an awesome husband, adorable children and caring friends!

Ground Beef for .36/pound!

Working on getting mine now, but I thought I'd share with everyone else!

Go HERE to see how you can get 5 1/2 pounds of ground beef for .36/pound!

Archbishop Chaput

A friend e-mailed me this address delivered by Archbishop Chaput on October 17th. You can find the whole thing HERE, but I wanted to paste this excerpt on my blog. It's been really troubling me this election, how many people, even dedicated and committed Christians, place various issues over that of abortion.

The words of Archbishop Chaput:
"I believe that Senator Obama, whatever his other talents, is the most committed ''abortion-rights'' presidential candidate of either major party since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973. Despite what Prof. Kmiec suggests, the party platform Senator Obama runs on this year is not only aggressively ''pro-choice;'' it has also removed any suggestion that killing an unborn child might be a regrettable thing. On the question of homicide against the unborn child - and let's remember that the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer explicitly called abortion ''murder'' - the Democratic platform that emerged from Denver in August 2008 is clearly anti-life.

Prof. Kmiec argues that there are defensible motives to support Senator Obama. Speaking for myself, I do not know any proportionate reason that could outweigh more than 40 million unborn children killed by abortion and the many millions of women deeply wounded by the loss and regret abortion creates."

Mommy, Help!

The other day I was doing laundry in the kitchen and Christopher came running up to me. "Mommy, Mommy, help! Help!"
"Help you with what, Christopher?," I replied.
He replied, "Help, where did she go?"
I went running to the staircase, but the child gate was still in place. The doors were still shut going outside...where did she go? I called her name, but no reply... Then, i hear a giggling over near the futon! Monica had hidden herself under the futon!!!

She and Christopher often play hide and seek, but she's always the seeker! This time she decided to be the one sought after and this 9 month old somehow managed to hide herself from a 2 1/2 year old...a compliment to one...um...the other...well....

Anyways, I thought it was cute! Christopher's concern for his sister is so awesome at times! I hope he keeps it up when she's a teenager!

Just a Second...

Now that Christopher is able to verbally make requests of me, I've found myself putting him off with a "Just a Second, Christopher," so I can finish whatever small thing I'm doing before I oblige his request. Yesterday morning I called him for breakfast. He was playing on the living room floor and said to me, "just a second, mommy!" It was SO cute...I just started laughing so hard! I love those special Mommy moments. . .

I got this e-mail as a forward today, but I think it is really interesting!

It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... all before making a human. He made and provided what we'd need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw. We're such slow learners...

God left us great clues as to what foods help what part of our body!
God's Pharmacy! Amazing!
A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.
A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All o f the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.
Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.
A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.
Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.
Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.
Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).
Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.
Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.
Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.
Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Victory!!!

This was my big victory today! Safeway advertised their Clasico Sauces for 2/$4. In a small corner of their flyer there was a little ad for two free boxes of Barilla Pasta if you buy two Classico Sauces. So, that's $1 per jar of sauce and box of pasta. So...here are my savings!

14 boxes of Pasta $1.00 each
14 Jars of Sauce $1.00 each
TOTAL out of pocket today = $28.00

REGULAR PRICE
Box of Pasta $1.99 each
Jar of Sauce $3.79 each
TOTAL = 80.92

TOTAL SAVINGS!
=$52.92

Lily and Monica...

Monica's playdate with Lily! They had so much fun together. :)

Learning simple web code...

A couple weeks ago I decided I wanted a new blog look and went in search of a new Blogger template. The standard Blogger ones were very boring to me, so I looked elsewere online (Love google searches!) I found quite a few, but had trouble putting the code into the blogger system. With my handsome hubby's help, I finally figured it out and feel like I've learned a TON in how things work behind the fancy web front. I still have some work to do on it, but this template went from THIS to it's current state by my nitpicking at the code and doing some photo changes. :)

Something cute...

Today I was catching up on laundry from last week when Jason's Mom, Ray and my brother Grant were visiting. I get a load going and then head to load the dishwasher. As I finish loading the dishwasher I see Christopher watching the washing machine. I walk over to see what he is doing and notice that he put a bunch of his red clothes into the load of whites I had previously put in! There was his Superman Shirt, his Red Dog Sweater and Red Blanket! LOL!!! Guess we know which clothes he wants to wear tomorrow! He was so proud of himself too...

His favorite clothes are his Superman Shirt, his Thomas the Train Sweater and his "Pocket" overalls! :)

Post Script: In response to Trisha's comment: That was the amazing thing! When I saw red clothes he'd put in there I thought for sure my whole load would be pink at the end, especially since it was on hot water. I said a quick prayer to my guardian angel and decided it wouldn't be that big of a deal since it was mostly crib sheets and Monica's clothes. But, in the end none of the colors decided to share their dye with anything else!