Goodbye '08 and Hello '09

So, I'm here to apologize for my lack of blogging. 2008 started as such an amazing year. And I am certainly still blessed in a lot of ways, my husband and I have our jobs, we still have a roof over our heads, our puppies are doing well, and we have our family and friends. However towards of the end of the year things got a bit rough. First my sister's whole incident. We all rallied around her and I spent a lot of free time making sure she was doing OK. Then I got really sick again. Then Mr. Bumblebee got really sick. Thanksgiving morning...Tucker got another cherry eye. Rushed him off into surgery (he's fine by the way). Spent a lot of time for his recovery. Then I've still been sick. Ugh. I'm finally feeling a bit of relief in time to get optimistic about the New Year. I don't usually get excited about New Year's but this year I really want a fresh start and this seems like the great opportunity. I need to get back into shape as I really haven't been trying in the last four months. I'm gonna start walking again, staying organized, trying to eat healthier and I want to continue to blog more often. I won't call them resolutions but a change. I will do these things and if I fail I won't feel bad about it. So there you have it!

Welcome 2009!

Super Trouper

Wow. That is all I can say about how I feel towards the blogsphere. You guys amaze me. The out pour of emotions and well-wishes just takes my breath away. I can't tell you how much it means to me to know that there is a whole world out there of people who I can find some comfort in. I appreciate it, in every sense of the word. Just as you have made me feel, I hope you know how I cherish your shared thoughts.

So as for an update:
My sister is a super trouper. I can't believe it but she's continuing with school. She doesn't want to fall behind. She refuses to allow this to shape her. I am astonished by her and applaud her. I am not surprised really, she's always been very strong. She does have her weak moments still, and no way can one blame her for that. She won't go out at night, and she will be moving in with Mr. Bumblebee and I on the weekends from here on out. Until she feels comfortable being there when not necessary. I know for most newlywed couples, having a baby sister moving in sounds like a major wet blanket. However, for Mr. Bumblebee and I, are totally excited. We were always sort of a threesome. Mr. Bumblebee considers her his real sister and they actually have quite a bit of fun, even without me. So I'm looking forward to this new development and I hope I can help her in any way that I can. She's my baby sister...

As for the b*tches...we have an investigator on the case. They charged some things on her credit card and luckily for us, there was a video camera. Also, some of the things (can't be specific here for safety reasons) have found their way onto craigslist and seems MIGHTY similar to those that were stolen from her purse. I hope these girls get what they deserve.
Thanks again friends. I'll continue to keep you posted on all these events.

As for images, enjoy these from my 21st birthday. I, intoxicated beyond a heaven, wanted to ride the bull with my sister...

My Touchstone.

My baby sister is...a handful. We've always had this incredible relationship. I love her to death. But we are complete polar opposites. I even want to say that we have that twin ESP. We can practically read each other's minds. I've always been a little over protective of her because, shoot, she's my baby sister. We have a million inside jokes and we can sit and talk for hours without speaking a word. She's probably the only other person in the world (besides Mr. Bumblebee) who truly gets me. She's an amazing person. A jr. at CSULB. Smart as hell. Beautiful. Just someone to look up too.
Friday night I got the worst call of my life. I had just fallen asleep when my phone rang. I looked and saw it was my mom. I immediately thought that my dad was back in the hospital but Iwas no way prepared to hear what she told me.
"B. has been jumped"
"WHAT?!!?!" I fling out of bed.
"She's at such-such hospital, she was jumped for her purse"
"WHAT?!?!?!?"
"Can you get there?"
at this point I had already thrown on clothes and was practically walking out the door.
"We are on our way"

My parents live about an hour away from her where Mr. Bumblebee and I live about 20 minutes. We got there in 10. I walked in and the damn nurse wouldn't let me see her until finally I saw her come out and point to me. I ran to her and she (in her over sized hospital gown) just melted in my arms.

We are good people. We follow the rules. We are kind to others. We get the grades and we make a decent lives for us and the people we love. How on earth could this happen to my little sister? I will admit, I have no f'n clue what she was thinking going into the area she was in. She should have known it was a risky area and to just skip that party. But really, how could this happen?

She had 1 dollar in her purse and a debit card with minimal funds on it and a gas card. Within an hour when my mom called to cancel everything they had racked up 200 bucks of charges. 200 bucks...

They saw her friend and her walking, they pepper sprayed my sister and wailed on her until it got boring. Her friend said when they ran away they we laughing...sick.

I'll never forget having to see my sister with bruises all over her body, bloody swollen nose, shaking out of her bones, eyes blood red and swollen, crying. She had been violated and I was pissed.
I'm a pacifist. I believe that what comes around goes around and I really believe these bitches will get caught/or get what they deserve. But that night, seeing my baby sister in the state she was, I wanted to make them pay myself. I wanted them to feel what she was feeling. She had her innocence stolen from her and she'll never be the same. Even today as we tried to help her adjust, she isn't the same. They stole part of her away from me and in time, I know I'll get a lot of it back but F! I'm pissed that it's been compromised.
This next week is all about helping her adjust. The doctor already warned us about PTSD and I can already see signs of it. She wants to get back to school before she misses too much but I want her to know that she's got the authority and right to take it slow for awhile.
I'm so glad she's here with us. Really, we could have lost her. If they had a knife, a harder blow to her head, a gun...I might be writing a completely different blog. I'm glad I saw her today and I'm glad I'll see her tomorrow.
She's my touchstone.

Dog-filled Weekend Part 1

So what should we take photos of with our brand new camera? PUPPIES! Off to the dog park for a cockerspaniel-get-together!
Here are some of the amazing shots our Canon Xsi took:

My girl and Me

I just love this shot of Tuck and his freakishly long tounge

I love Tess' face in these photos...they look like she's smiling.

Tucker makes a lot of friends at the park.

This is Wesley; a 5 month old pup...so cute!

Mr. Bumblebee got really tricky with the new camera and then photoshop.

Check out these action shots...

Look at all those cute puppies!
The dogs had a blast. It is so wierd how they group together with their own breeds. There were a ton of other dogs at the park, but the cocker spaniels pretty much hung out with only those in our groups. The reaction on the peoples' face who walked into the park and saw 20+ c.s. was priceless.

Stay tuned for part 2!

OMGOMGOMG

So Excited!

It's here...

It's finally here...
more to come.

Christmas Idea...

Some of those who read this blog are family/friends/husband. If you are looking for the perfect gift for me this holiday season...here ya go!

I wear a size 7.5 or 8.

Safe = Dangerous

Not much to report. Just a hilarious video of our weird kids (aka dogs).
We bought a safe today...for safety reasons. The dogs felt it was more of a threat than a safety measure...
**Note: We are not torturing them, they enjoy this type of play and start it most of the time. Notice that both of their tails are wiggling. We also live in a dog friendly neighborhood and their barking is probably nothing compared to some of our neighbors. In our area, letting them bark a few times is not a big deal. Thank heavens!

Beach Fun!

My doctor warned me about this. Because my immune system was so low when I had pneumonia, they mentioned to me that I might can really sick afterwards with normal viruses. Especially since I work with kids. So today I woke up with a sore throat and my ears plugged. I'm not fully congested yet so I'm pounding glasses of water and taking vitamins to shorten the length of this disaster. Before this morning however, I felt great!
Friday night we headed out to Disneyland to meet up with some Disney buddies I haven't seen in years! We had so much fun catching up with all of them. When we all first met we were 13 to 16 years old. Now we all have careers, husbands, wives, houses, and soon probably children...crazy!
Saturday was a good/bad day. UCLA lost...no...not lost...they were killed. But they totally deserved it. They didn't show up for that game...horrible...horrible. So to lick our wounds, we headed out to see the new Coen Brothers Film, Burn After Reading.
We saw this movie for two reasons: 1) No Country for Old Men was great. 2) George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
It was okay. Hard to follow up on such an amazing film but it did have its hilarious moments. Brad Pitt was hilarious. The characters were a little oversimplified compared to their other films but it was pretty suspenseful in certain scenes.
Sunday was our fun day. We packed up the kids bright and early and headed out for Hunington Beach's Dog Beach. We had found a group of local cocker spaniel owners who have these get-togethers. It was pretty entertaining to have 10 cocker spaniels taking over the local mutt and greet location. Here are some photos:

Our water baby, we couldn't keep her out of the stuff.

So many cockers!
They are taking over!
Lily and Tucker became very good buddies.

Running for all he's worth.
Group shot, took awhile to organize all those puppies.

She never wanted to leave.

Great shot of her running.
Cute shot.

My kids.

It was such a great day. It took about 2 hours of shampooing to get all the sand out of them but then they slept like rocks for 3-4 hours. So worth it.

So hopefully I get over whatever I have right now really fast because we have day game this weekend and those are really tough on their own. Especially going into it after a game like this past Saturday. We also signed up for the CHOC Walk, I can not wait for this! So anybody going, lets meet up!

I was looking forward to summer being over so we'd have more weekends to lay around, but then football season and family get-togethers have us busy once again. Our calender is booking up!

Oh...and we bought a lemon tree. Dunno why but that makes me happy!!

Couch Watch 2008

I write this blog with no fun pictures, no fun plans, no fun weekend notes....I write this blog with pneumonia.

That's right....I got pneumonia. I've never been this sick in my entire life.

I missed our game yesterday, watched it on TV. I basically haven't moved from the couch since Friday. My doctors warned me how weak I'd get as my body fights the infection but holy cow! I had no idea how useless I'd be. I just sleep and sleep. I don't "feel" sick but my fever (on and off) tells me otherwise.

Oh and never let a loved on take Levaquin under any circumstances. I had the worst reaction to the stuff only to go online and find all the lists of class action lawsuits against the stuff...now my bones are aching beyond aching and this could last several months for me. Mr. Bumblebee is already looking into filing a suit because no where on my prescription is the black box label warning that it is required to have on it....


...it's been a fun weekend.

Doggie Day Care

I feel so bad leaving the dogs alone for so long, esp. if I'm working a lot. So on Monday we decided to treat them to a day of doggie daycare. I already know Tess doesn't enjoy this. Like I said, she'd prefer humans to dogs and a couch to a bridge. But I think they made the most of it and had a good time.

The daycare has cameras so you can watch your furry companions. I couldn't get to a computer but Mr. Bumblebee took web shots and sent them to me via text message during the day. I love his captions.

Our social butterfly starts to actually socialize.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you will know Tucker is apprehensive about new people. Mr. Bumblebee was pretty excited when he saw that Tucker was actually allowing someone to pet him. This is a huge break through!

They were exhausted when we picked them up. During our short 20 minute commute home, they were out by the time we got to the freeway. There is that yucky tongue again.

I vacuumed that night and while usually they chase down the vacuum with intent to kill, this night they just laid on the couch and watched it go back and forth, not even lifting their heads.

We will be doing doggie daycare more often.

Weekend Recap - Sunday

So basically, since I'm cool and a Disneyland nerd, I got special Family/Friend passes to Company D. Company D is the "Disney Store - Discount" for Disneyland Cast members. It is all the merchandise that doesn't sell in the park. It is all marked at 50% or more off. I was so excited to go because this is my "thing" and I've never been.

P.S. Check out that new top....pretty cute huh?

I love it!

I really have no serious reason to dislike Ashley Tisdale. I know her from high school and we never clicked. She tried out for numerous drama productions and I always was casted over her. I always fought her for my roles and I always won. But I'd lie if I did say that I was somewhat gleeful when I saw at least 3 boxes full of "Sharpay" dolls at the discount center marked for under 10 bucks. Haha! I'm wrong...I know.
Well, since we were just down the street from the parks, we decided to stop by. We don't go there just because we are nerds. We go there to pig out. It was hot and nothing is as refreshing as a Dole Pineapple float (4.50). It's a 16oz cup filled with fresh pineapple juice topped with pineapple frozen yogurt. Tasty goodness. We enjoyed our floats while cooling down in the Tiki Room which was actually crowded for once.
Then we decided to hit Haunted Mansion, another air conditioned ride, and I got a whiff of the Churros (3.00). Being Mexican, I am picky about them. And it sounds silly but I really think that Disneyland has some of the best churros out there. It must be a regional thing. A few years ago at Walt Disney World, we only saw 1 churro stand in the whole resort. All 5 parks, 2 water parks, and one mall and only 1 churro stand. And the Churro was horrible.

After we rode Haunted Mansion we decided to head home but I'll give you a little bit of Disney trivia. The Haunted Mansion is known for pranks because it is so dark. Several decades ago, two boys brought on a beebee gun and shot at the ballroom scene. Well, there is about 3 inches of glass in front of you which is also almost 3 stories tall. Instead of removing the whole glass, the designers just painted a spiderweb over the crack the beebee created. Interesting huh?

....well it is to me.

Weekend Recap - Saturday

We got up early Saturday morning and headed to the Rainbow Store. My beloved pets had devoured 2 pairs in 2 weeks and I needed replacements. I can't say it was there fault. I left them out. In our house, anything on the ground when left alone for longer that 2 hours is fair game for Tess and Tucker.

Afterwards we decided to take the "kids" to the dog park to get some wiggles out. Usually it's nuts at the park on the weekends but to our pleasant surprise, it was dead. The kids romped and chased. Tess is kind of our "special" kid. She isn't big in interacting with other dogs. She just stalks around smelling poles dreaming of ligers. Tucker is "dog-park security". Anytime a new dog enters he must greet them and give them the run around.

I'm pretty sure Tucker has the longest tongue ever...it's kinda gross.

After the dogs were worn out we dropped them off at home and headed out to Westwood. YAY!

UCLA football scrimmage at Drake Stadium. Not my favorite stadium, no good food! Overall, I'm just going to say that I am "optimistic" about this season.

....HEY! It's a rebuilding year for us!! haha.

My sister was set on finding a hot UCLA football player boy toy all day long. Being recently single, she's ready to jump back into the game. GO B.B.!

Not too many exciting opportunities were available. The girlfriends swarmed their players like flies on poop. They were so busy grabbing their "honey's" hand and rubbing his back as he signed autographs. However, we did run into the new coach, Rick who is thinner that the last time I met him. This picture makes me blue/gold blooded daddy proud (if he turns out to be a decent coach).

After the scrimmage we headed out to 3rd St. for dinner and shopping. I found an adorable tank top from a fashion boutique, Kira Plastininia, that was started be a 15 year old Russian girl. Amazing!

Recently, Victoria Secrets has jumped onto the wagon for collegiate wear and is now selling NCAA clothing. I got one of the 2 styles they have for UCLA a month ago and got the second style on Saturday night. They are perfect because they are so thin, but for day games they are perfect.
After that we dropped my sister back at her place and headed home to ours. No rainbows perished today. YAY!

Weekend Recap - Friday

Remember back to when there was the Stamp Unveiling...through a slew of fortunate events, I ended up getting 2 tickets into Disneyland that would expire on the 15th of August. Family and friends bailed out on me and then I remembered my coworker V. We met up with V and her hubby R one night after work for Happy Hour and we all got along great. After talking all night we found out the R is from the same neck of the woods that Mr. Bumblebee and I are from. Mr. Bumblebee even went to the same high school as R. So I asked if they were interested in meeting us there on Friday night and they were game!

I have never been so happy that other people flaked on me. Inviting R and V was the best idea ever! They are basically carbon copies of Mr. Bumblebee and I. We have the same humor, style, look on life, and grasp on reality. It was a joyous night and it better happen again soon!!

Here is our photo from Space Mountain, V...please don't kill me.

R and V are behind Mr. Bumblebee and I.

Ya, we are a wild bunch.

U-C-L-A

FOOTBALL SEASON!

I love summer. There are people who gripe about not having four seasons in Southern California but I would love for summer all year long. But as much as I love summer, there is one aspect of Fall that I can not live without. Bruin Football! We've been season ticket holders forever and it really has become part of who I am. My other friends and even my ILS don't understand since neither parents of mine went to UCLA and we are such huge supporters but we believe in the school and we believe in the program which is why we support it.

This weekend if fall scrimmage. Our first game this year is on a Monday, Labor Day. We always tailgate and have some amazing food. I'm so stoked. GO BRUINS!

Olympics!

No....I'm not talking about those Olympics. I'm talking about these Olympics.
So cute! Tess is sooo going into training for these ;).

Beach House Fun

I love the beach house. It's always such a good time. Continuing with the celebration on Friday for Bumblebee MIL's special birthday, it was a family celebration Sunday night.

This is my MIL, she's 50 and can still ride her unicycle. When she was a little girl they would put on shows here at the Beach House and people would come by and even throw money at them. To this day random people still come up to the house and ask if this is the house with the unicycles.

Like Father Like Son.