dancing with lisa rinna's lips

so i took my mom to see the dancing with the stars tour when they stopped in at key arena dec 22. i went not really knowing what to expect, but since my mom is ballroom dancer extraordinare and she watched the show on tv i thot it would be fun to go see. the dancing was really pretty amazing. they put on a great show. while they had to focus some on the celebrities, they did a really good job of putting a lot of emphasis on the pro dancers, which was good because they were really good. the only really lame part about the show was lisa rinna and harry hamlin. laaaaame. i had fried chicken for dinner that night and it was damn tasty.

speaking of quotes, i used the best quote ever in a presentation that i gave to my boss. how bout that. he thinks i am crazy. i will never get a promotion. now come on, that quote and then that time at dinner where i drank the wine right from the bottle. dude. i am so screwed. but i am going back to LA 2nd week in january.

i have been off from work for the past 10 days and that is awesome. yes it is new years even and i am updating the blogger. there are two babies upstairs sleeping right now. i can't wait to welcome them to 2007 when we check on them tonight, that is if we manage to stay up past 12.

one of the best parts about taking a total of 11 days off for this vacation is that i am really only using one vacation day which totally rocks. they gave us the 22nd off, and then the 25th and as a bonus the 26th, and then the 29th and then tomorrow. and then for the two days where there were ppl in the office i am using a personal day, so only one vacation day.

good thing because i am going to blow a bunch of vacation in february! we are going to go to canada. and not just like vancouver 3 hrs away, no, like toronto, 6 hours of airplane time with a layover and passports and all of that. yeah, and it only cost $600 for all of us to get or renew passports. what a scam!!! but we will have them and they are funny. we will go to toronto, niagra falls, cleveland and columbus. we will fly and drive all over the place. we will drive right along lake erie in FEBRUARY. we are doing this instead of going to my cousin's wedding in anguilla. yes, we want to drive through the snow belt instead of sit on the beach.

xmas was fun. sirus was hilarious. when we got our xmas tree we brought it in the house and put the lights on while the kids were napping. when srus got up i had never seen him so exicted. i thot he was going to fall over. we went to eric's parent's in yakima for xmas and the kids got to play in the snow which was very fun. we took seamus to see happy feet which was the first movie she has seen since she has been mobile. we took her to see shrek 2, irobot and spiderman 2 when she was ittly bitty. she was totally amazed but the popcorn and the previews but 5 minutes into the actual movie she turned to me and said "ok, i want to go now". she wasn't scared, just done. she managed to make it though the whole thing with only 4 trips to the bathroom, one yelling at an particularly quiet time and sitting in instead of on the booster seat for about 1/2 the movie. not sure when we will go again.

here are some photos:

best quote ever

"it is possible to die from eating, but being professional means not dying." Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi, world record holder for eating hotdogs, among other world records

now that is wisdom. maybe something was lost in translation? regardless its pretty great. i need to see how i can work that one into a presentation or something.

what have i done!

so, off in the mail today went $360 towards to entry fees for the Lake Stevens 70.3 Ironman in July 2007. Oh my goodness. that is 1.2 miles in the warter, 53 miles on the bike and 13.1 miles on the feet. i have a goal of less then 8 hours otherwise i will lose the $500 i am putting in the work betting pool revolving around athletic acheivments. the real one is that you are supposed to do a marathon in less then 6 but we worked the 70.3 in there.

big excitement for the weekend. holiday party on saturday and then gingerbread cookie decorating on sunday. we also have a gingerbread house to decorate which will be fun, too. maybe we will do that next weekend.

what else is going on i wonder?

welcome aboard

the other night i had a dream that i was at a friend's parent's holiday party. my friend wsa not there but kelsey grammar was.
the lame version of return of the jedi is on rifght now. why would they do that? why's he have to go and ruin it.
so the other weekend when i went to that wedding where i got toally hammered, while i was laying in bed the next day totally hung over and not able to move except to maybe transfer over to the bathroom floor, seamus came into the bedroom and said "oh, mommy, i'm so proud of you!" that is so funny. miss guided but funny.













i can't remember the weekend. i can't remember earlier this week. i do know that the kids have been sick and i haven't gotten much sleep and i haven't been exercising but i have been eating lots and lots, like about 3/4 of the 1 lb hershey's bar that eric brought home the other day. it was damn tasty.
big plans for the weekend? i think we are going to go to the tree farm and get an xmas tree. seamus was sooooooo excited when she woke up from her nap and i had put up the stockings and eric had put up the lights outside. i think seamus and i will build a ginger bread house this weekend, too.
dude, we have been watching high def tv lately. and all i can say is that those people on tv, yeah, everyone needs to get high def tv because it will make everyone feel so much better about themselves. the people on tv have jsut as bad skin as i do so that is encouraging.
oooh! james dean cut my hair the other evening. when i left i wasn't totally in love with it as i was last time. but i do have to say that i liked it quite a bit this morning but it is sort of like a fro.
eric is al bummed because while channel surfing he missed princess leia in her metal bikini in high def. a direct eric quote "in real life you wouldn't be able to strangle jabba the hut that way, you would have to be really strong"

big hugs

this is what the kids wear in the snow in seattle cuz they don't have snowpants but they do have rain boots. the neighbor girl came over to play in the snow, too and she was in the same basic thing.














this is my giant hair from the fashion show this weekend. when seamus saw the photos she went: "OOOH! Mommy! You look cuuuute!"













Oh! and that's our giant lcd tv back there, too.
And here is the back:



















sirus learned to vacuum, and he is so good at it he can do it one handed! you can't see him though because he has on camoflauge. sirus also likes to push the doll stroller all around. eric sometimes wonders if he is being the proper role model for our boy. i think he is doing a great job!













seamus and sirus have both ben pretty sick, seamus with a fever al the way to 104.7! they seem to be getting better, but even when they are sick they still give each other big hugs.

inspired to post

jen has inspirec me to post. a lot has happened in the past month or so and i have lots of photos to get caught up on.

Halloween punk rockers at their best! Sirus's makeup didn't wash off for a few days. Should have thought that one through a little better.




























Seamus ran the kids race at the Pumpkin Push. This was after she had already walked 2 of the 2.5 miles of the family fun walk. i like that she has a sponge bob square pants sticker in her hand.













Sirus did the faimly fun walk, too. he was carried or in the stroller for most of it, but he did get out to cross the finish line!














We went to pumkin patch! this was seamus's 3rd trip and sirus's 2nd!














seamus was particularly fond of the green and white pumpkins but i was impressed by how strong she is!





























seamus and sirus were being silly and they hid under sirus's bed!














sirus loves his monster and this little plastic cup!





























seamus picked her outfit out. she really like to wear pants under her dresses, but that is in right now, right?





























babies in a box















i made this dress for seamus! it matches a skirt that i have!





























sirus had some fun with a ballon at his bday party!

i am so project runway

so by now you have probably heard - NPH has come out of the closet. i wasn't quite sure how i felt about it, especially since it is my fault.

I was fine with Lance Bass since it was totally about time and with TR KNight, I was ok,too because that kind of made sense, and george's story line could totally go that way, but Barney is just too funny. poor NPH. after seeing me in LA and finding out that i was happily married, he decided that there was no point and made his announcement. its ok barney, you too will find love someday.

other news, i am going to a wedding this weekend and i am totally stoked. we get to get all dressed out, hang out with our friends and hopefully have some tasty adult beverages. one of the most exciting parts of the wedding is that i will be wearing the dress i wore to homecoming in the 11th grade. that is, the dress from 1990. i didn't think i would ever fit into it again, but my hips and arse have shrunk enough to squeeze in and since my chest is now a negative, with the help of eric and some pliers we were able to get the thing zipped up. i had gotten the dress at a thrift store while visiting my sister at college in pittsburgh. it was long and green and had funny little bows right on the tips of the boobies. it was a homemade dress but i totally loved it, except for the bows. my mom said she would alter it for me, so she took off those bows, cut off about 3 feet from the bottom and then had to open up the arm holes because whoever wore it first must have not had arms or something, i don't know what the deal was there.

last night i put the dress on with the super duper padded wonderbra, ya know, to give myself a siloute and that made it nearly impossible to zip up, and once it was up, i really couldn't breath. so, i got all project runway on its arse and let out some seams. ahhh, now i could breath, sort of. i then got all inspired and tried to open the arms holes a little more in an attempt at opening the chestal region some, but the dress has a weird liner to it and i really messed it up. after three attempts at hand sewing those arm holes very poorly, i pulled out the machine and sewed it up, exactly how it was when my mom did it. anyway, the dress looks awesome, i can breath for the most part and i can sit down, too! pardon me if the dress splits totally open at the wedding - it is not my intention to turn the reception into the bachelor party.

other things - headed to LA tomorrow. who will i see this time?

pop it like its hot?

is that how it goes? snoop dogg was arrested at the bob hope airport in burbank a mere 6 hours after my plane took off from that same location. he had some drugs and guns in his car that was in a loading zone and had a vehicle code violation. i would have loved to have seen snoop dogg. him getting arrested would have been an added bonus. but i was pretty happy with seeing NPH so i can't complain.

tomorrow is the pumpkin push, hooray!

NPH

so, the past few days have been TOTALLY nutty.

the excitement over the week was that i was in a fashion show. yes, starting up the old modeling career again. well, sort of, kind of, maybe, we will see. it was a hand bag show, it was really fun and the lady running it has asked me to come back for another show in april. soooo excited! i hadn't done a show in probably 15 years but it was so much fun and i can't wait to do it again!!

next on the list, i am here in la and last night i was checking my email. one of our sales reps Doug was having an email conversation with one of the people who he had a meeting with. the client's name was doug and i thot his email said "hey doug" it made me laugh, anyway i read the email and saw that the client's name was the same of a guy who lived on the same street as me growing up in ohio. so i sent the sales guy a note asking, he said yes the client said he was from ohio so i said hey ask him this that and the other and there ya go, its the same guy. i find that to be totally crazy insane coincidence i can hardly beleive it.

so dinner toniight i went with a collegue to sushi. and who did we see? but good old NPH himself. Maybe you know him as Barney, maybe you know him as Neil Patrick Harris but most likely you know him as Doogie Houser. He is very small. I am much much taller then he is.

anyway that was the highlight of it all. its 10:18pm and I have SO MUCH work to do. i fly out tomorrow whoopee!

that nose job sure is coming in handy

lots to mention today.

I left off when i had jsut arrived in SF. That trip was a lot of fun. not only was the conference that i went to really good, i got to see allie and meet her baby and her husband. i hadn't seen allie since 1997 i was trying to be all punkrock or something back then with platinum blonde hair and i was a crying mess, so i only got to chat with her for about 5 seconds. prior to that i had only seen her maybe once or twice in college and then it has been since like when we were 16. i was a little concerned that maybe we wouldn't hit it off but we had been exchanging emails regularly since we were both about 6 months pregnant so of course if i was going to be in town i was hoping to get to hang out. we both laughed about how we both sounded much more, how do i put it, mature then when we last hung out, but other then that everything just fell into place. i was so happy to spend time with her again, and i was happy to meet her husband and i totally love her little boy - he is so smiley! so, i took the bart to walnut creek and allie picked me up to go back to her house and to get ready for zach's birthday party! after the party we hung out chatting until it was getting pretty late. allie took me to my hotel which i greatly appreciated because although i would have taken it at night, i really didn't want to risk it.
the next day was the conference and i was amazed. it was huge and i learned so much.
that evening i went shopping to get some sensible shoes since although i wore shoes that i thought were sensible, they weren't since i was walking a ways. i wound up buying some very non-sensible shoes and some underpants for seamus from bloomingdales and have the days of the week and Bloomies on the back.
tuesday morning i returned the non-sensible shoes and just dealt with my original shoes until lunch time when allie and zach met me and we went to china town. i got some chinese jammies for seamus and the cousins and some little black chinese shoes for me. they aren't the most elegant but my feet felt so much better in them.
i do not remember what i did on tuesday night.
wenesday i went to the conference for day 3, tried to hook up with xtie's friend who works in the city who i had lunch with the last time i was in SF back in 1999 but it didn't happen so i went to the airport to see if i could catch an earlier flight, which i did. oh, i won a blackberry in a drawing. do you want to buy it from me? i will give you a good deal on it.
so now i am home but very busy and the insomnia is back but it is different. i just stay up late now instead of going to bed and trying to fall asleep. so the problem is now if i wake up in the morning, i stay awake. this has resulted in me showing up at work at 6 and 630am several times this week.
i have taken up a new challenge of running at least 20 minutes a day. that has been working out pretty good. i head out to the tread mill because i am totally in love the thing after the kids go to bed. eric put the tv out there and got some rabbit ears so now i can watch something other then that desire show in a snowstorm.
so something big is happening this weekend. i will write about it after it happens!

bring it on

when i was in LA last week we had to say what our favorite movie was. the first one that popped into my head was starship troupers. while this is indeed one of my favorite movies, i totally forgot about that all time classic Bring it On. I love it. its one right now here in my hotel in SF and i am totally psyched. and it is rigth at the point in the movie where they are going to learn about spirit fingers. so psyched!!

this week has been a long week. i came home from la on friday. needless to say i don't remember friday very much.

saturday eric went and did something and i set up appointments to get the kids photos taken and for them to get hair cuts. i was a little concerned about taking them to the mall for photos by myself but it turned out to be a lot of fun. seamus was totally awesome. she was really good and even posed for her photos. sirus was good, too just he was more into wanting to do other things. it was so funny though because seamus and sirus were rolling around all over the place. i wish the lady would have just taken some photos of it!

hair cuts were fun, too. both of them were sooo good! sirus got his cute really short again and seamus had quite a bit taken off, too. so cute, they looked like grown up kids. they both got baloons and they loooove balloons.

after not really sleeping at all on saturday night i got up at 430 adn headed to the airport. the flight was uneventful. i got on the sky train to go to bart but i forgot what color train i was on sao when the speaker said to transfer to the red train at this stop, i got off. yeah, so i was on the red train. so i had to wait for the next one. bart was good. much less clean then i remember it but still it was a pretty good deal. i got off the bart and couldn't find the hotel that was really only about 2 blocks from the bart station... after about a 1/2 hour of dragging my suitcase around i asked the guy at the 4 seasons and he just laughed and gave me some directions.

it was still pretty early but they let me check in anyway. i went up to my room only to find a suitcase and some purple and yellow boxer shorts in the room. it was still occupied so i went back down and got a new room.

then i went shopping. shopping in sf is really good.

more later.

nose job, death by phonics bus and birthday madness

so, i went to the dermatologist to get a sin check up. since i have had so many things removed over the years and since that last one cam back atypical, it was a good idea. yeah, totally great until the doctor lady loked down the back of my underpants and used her thumbs to spread my ass cheeks ever so slightly, because i might have skin cancer in my butt crack, ya know. oh my gawd.
so, after determining that every thing looked fine, we discussed the growth on my nose. she said she would go either way on it but since i was sensitive to it she urged me to get rid of it. she shot up my nose with the pain killer and then sliced the little fawker right off. she then put a band aide on the end of my nose. i looked really cool. for the past week i have had a goopy red spot on the end of my nose while in public and a bandaide on it while at home. seamus likes to tell me i have a square on my nose.

the other night i woke up at 330 in the morning to a concerning sound. it sounded like crackling and i became very concerned. i woke eric up and told him that i tot it might be the tubing for the radiant heating. he poked around, went out to the garage and got some tools and started taking out one of our lights. i was getting more and more freaked out, and gradually putting on more and more clothes so i could grab the kids and make a quick get away if necessary. eric nticed that every time he leaned down to get a new tool the sound go louder. finally he pulled out the basket of toys from under the stairs and found the phonics bus. it was turned on and crackling like crazy. good fun. the phonics bus is very popular in our family. when seamus first got it she would go out of her way to only push the yellow letters. sirus likes to make it roll around. eric made the funny joke that when you make the drums play it actually sounds like its being shot at by machine guns, so we determined that it is an inner city phonics bus. when the bus says fox it sounds much more like some other word that starts with the letter f.

sirus turned 1 this week. we had a party for him on saturday and he had cake and ice cream for the first time. he just started walking last week, too, so he was able toshow off his new skills at his party. i felt terrible on his real birthday because i had to work late and only got to spend a little time with him. he is so adorable.

wednesday evening i went to LA for work. the flight got in at 9ish and by 945 ish i found the gym and was running on the tread mill. the treadmills had built in tvs but it wasn't until 35 minutes had passed that i determined that you could change the channel. i wached 35 minutes of ESPN and 5 minutes of seinfeld.
thursday was all day full of meetings at the office. they were good meetings and despite having been totally crazy insane and grumpy the past few weeks, everything turned out pretty well. i like to go to la every once in a while to see the people there. we went out for dinner and i had way too many margaritas and hopefully i didn't make too much of an ass of myself infront of my new boss but i was just being myself and it is very healthy to laugh.
finally at 2 i was in bed. flew home this morning, went to the office and then got to come home to see the babies. its only been a few days but seamus is a totally different little girl. she talks in full sentences like "that little boy is reading a book and wearing striped PJs." no joke, that was a direct quote. she is only 2.5 people.

so now i will hopefully sleep a lot tonight, relax tomorow then get up at 430 on sunday to catch the 7am flight to SF. i am excited about the SF trip because i will see allie for the first time in 3823778152 years. i will also get to meet her bebe and her husband which is very exciting. i will be at a conference monday, tuesday and wednesday. since i don't know anyone else going i imagine i will be heading to the hotel and getting some quality sleep those nights instead of doing an LA repeat.

i don't know why

she makes this face:
when she is fuly capable of making this face:

i made her the dress that she is wearing!

eric took this photo. one day she decided she wanted to wear tights. these are her birthday tights she wore when she turned one. the other day i got her up from her nap and she had taken some other tights out of the top drawer of her 6 drawer dresser and put them on all by herself. i was pretty amazed. yes, the dresser is anchored to the wall, thank goodness.

this is what happens in the house every day, at least once to each parent:





no wonder we are so tired.

i had a good surgery

i got a note in the mail today from my doctor saying that its a good thing i had surgery because the moley moley mole had atypical cells in it. ok, so i am imaginging that atypical cells are ok to have since i got a postcard and not a phone call. i imagine the doctor might tell me more about it when i get my stitches out?

seamus is at camp grandma tonight. we went and dropped her off to have a slumber party and sirus and i will go pick her up tomorrow after dinner. this evening i got to have some quality time with sirus and he just laughed and laughed. i think he now says "whats that?" when he points at stuff and he also says mama, dada, bottle, ball, duck and he can do the sign for more. all of these are of course up for debate but i am pretty sure that i am seeing and hearing what i think i am.

eric told me a funny story how he and the kids were in the car the other day and seamus was teaching sirus to talk. she would make the t sound over and over and then sirus would repeat it. when he repeated it correctly seamus would say "thats right sirus, good job" she is so funny.

i went for a trail run with heather today. 6 miles about. it kicked both of our arses. i was kind of hung over from having gone out the night before and having had 3 tasty margaritas from the cactus. those drinks were so damn tasty. i love 'em.

eric pointed out to me that my shirt with the jack-a-lope doesn't really have a jack-a-lope on it at all. instead it is just a giant bunny with a cow boy on it. yes, i do pride myself on my attention to detail skills. i still like it though, it would have been better if it was a jack-a-lope. maybe i will make a shirt like that and it will be how eric and i make out millions. maybe instead we will make a shirt with the pawpi-lope on it instead.

even more hate

so, i really hate that i got sucked into the last few episodes of Rock Star Super Nova. OH MY GAWD. But i was sucked in and i watched it and was more the sligtly fascintated by it. i also hate that tommy lee is so damn hot. what is up with that? i was concered every time he stood up that his pants were going to fall off because they were so low but i guess he has things in those pants to help keep them up. i did see his wedding video, afterall.

i think that america's next top model starts next week. i can't wait!

i was going to go to the foot doctor today but my orthotics issue seems to have corrected itself. eric got me some yankz shoe laces and ever since i have started to use them my feet go into my shoes and line up perfectly with my orthotics. problem solved. awesome.

the day after my surgery i went for a little run around the neighborhood. i was feeling pretty good about that, since i had just had surgery and all. when i was being operated on i asked the doctor about all the twitching i was having after i gave blood last time. she says it was most likely due to an electrolyte issue and maybe some dehydration tossed in there, too. that would makes sense since i am no longer twitching.

big plans for the weekend? i can't remember if i have any or not! well, that is boring.

surgeried on today

today i went to the doctors. i thought i was just going but then my doctor said that actually i was having surgery. wow, that is pretty nutty. so i had my surgery and am now back home recovering. actually, my doctor is just pretty funny. i had a mole removed but since it was being all cut out and i got two stitches she said that it is technically surgery and that i should milk it for all it is worth. next week i need to milk the fact that i will have to go get my stiches out.

we did the last triathlon of our triathlon season yesterday. i did not want to go. i was so exhausted and i pretty much rolled out of bed and into the water. it turned out to be fun and i did pretty well. at least i felt pretty good, placing is another story. i came in 25th in my age group out of not too many more then that. mission accmolished though, i felt good when it was done. eric came in 11th overall and 4th in his age group. he had the fastest bike time overall, came in 7th in the run but then managed a 120th in the swim. out of 316 men, that is still pretty good.

the past few nights i have actually fallen asleep quite easily. we have The Stick and i have been using it right before bed. i still have all the ice packs in the bed, too, but i haven't taken and aleve or anything and its been pretty good. maybe i have a circulation issue?

i had an accident over the weekend where the computer wound up broken. so i went and bought us a new one. its nice. its not too high tech and will basically do just what we need it to. it was a pain in the arse trying to get it hooked up to the information super highway but eric did the job and got it taken care of.

i bought a shirt with a jack-a-lope on it and i got some chuck taylors for sirus. i also got the kids some running pants, ya know, to go running. seamus has had her's on ever since i brought them home. she is so funny. when she saw my new gaping wound, well there are stitches so its not gaping and there is a bandaid so really, when seamus saw my bandaide she got very concerned, wrinkled her brow and said - oh you have an owie. she is very funny.

later this week i go to the foot doctor for some help with my orthotics and then next week maybe i will have more surgery. i am going to a dermatologist to discuss my options surrounding the thing growing off the end of my nose. eric says my mustache is not really there and is instead a shadow caused by the growth. the doctor will let us know if he is indeed right or not. if he is not and i really do have that crazy hairless mustchew, the doctor should be able to help. while i am sure her job can be totally grosser then gross at times, her schedule is to die for, she works mondays, tuesdays and thursdays but only every other week. what is that?

american idol

when i audition for american idol some day i will sing ceclia by simone and grafunkel for my audition.

i just ate a mystery cheese stick thing that does not require refridgeration. it was packaged next to a peperoni flavored beef stick. it was damn tasty.

why? i will tell you why.

i didn't buy the dress because it was like $345 and that was too much at the time but maybe i should have gotten it - more on that later.

so wednesday night racing was fun. weird but fun. i felt like i was in highschool again. it was strange but i got to hang out with eric and his friends. on the way there i wondered out loud to eric if his friend loren would notice and comment on my new hair. last time i had my hair done we went to a party and loren commented that it looked nice. that was in december i think and that was also the last time i saw loren. sure enough he commented again and eric and i had a little laugh about it. it made me happy though.

thursday we took seamus to gymnastics. her coach is Sheila and she is a little freaky but seems pretty nice. the first lesson we learned is to not take seamus into the building until right before her class starts. she saw all of the amazing things to do and went crazy. everyone thought she was scared and didn't want to do it but no, it was that she wanted to start running around and it wasn't time yet. it was only seamus and a little boy in her particular class although there were a bunch of other kids there. it will be interesting to see what happens. seamus needs to learn how to wait and take her turn. that is one thing she is not very good at.

friday morning we headed out to mt hood for chad and charity's wedding. first we had to go to yakima to drop the kids off at eric's parents. 5 minutes after we left the house eric mentioned that maybe we should have brought the wet suits to go for a mtn lake swim but we decided against turning around. an hour later i realized that we did not bring eric's suit. we would have to stop in yakima and get him something to wear. hours later we got to eric's parent's and dropped off the kids and then went shopping. we found him some snazzy pin stripe pants and a salmon colored shirt. he didnt like the shirt but too bad. we also got him a new belt.

finally, 7 hours after we left the house we got to the timberline lodge. it was so awesome although our room smelled a bit like pee. we changed our clothes and headed off for a run. we decided to run to the silcox hut which was a mile away and at 7000 ft. we started at 6000 ft. at about 6050 ft we stopped running and walked the rest of the way. it was very beautiful there. afterwards we went swimming and realized that doing anything at altitude is rediculously difficult. we met up with the laylands only to find out that they forgot their clothes, too, which is funny to me. we all had dinner and some beers and then met up with the drunken bride and groom to be. i slept horribly.

in the morning we went and had some tasty breakfast and headed out for a hike. this time we chose a 5 miler with no mention of elevation although there was quite a bit on the way back. then we went for a swim and then had some lunch and then relaxed until it was time for the wedding. the ceremony was beautiful, right in front of the huge mountain. lots of girls there had bra straps and other under garments were making appearances and the lady that sat infront of us had a spider in her hair.

we had some tasty wine at cocktail hour and then the reception started. dinner was awesome and the wine was flowing. eric finally managed to get us up dancing. the best part of the evening was when eric went up to the dj to make a request and when he finally go around to playing it announced that the request was made by the guy in the salmon colored shirt. he is my favorite dj.

more later.

more hate, and some love, too

i hate that i kind of like snoop dog. maybe i like to see him in movies but not really his music. maybe that is it. i definitly like to seem him in starsky and hutch in just hi boxer shorts because he is the tiniest man in the world.

i hate that last week i cried at work. twice. oh my god, it was terrible. the worst and to make it even worse i cried on the phone to my boss. oh my god, talk about humiliating. thank god that i am now on vacation. for a week plus the extra day for labor day. ugh, what a mess. i am so embarrassed and its just so lame.

i got my hair done. every 9 months to a year i get around to getting my hair done. i had it done back in december so i was due. i had the faboulous duo of richard and james dean work on my color and cut. richard is my new best friend. we are both totally grossed out by richie sambora, denise richards and kid rock. we both love america's next top model. the best part about richard is that i told him i wanted a good hair make over and that they could do whatever they wanted just as long as it didn't make my face look fat. after he washed the color stuff out and was putting my hair in the turban he said to me very sincerely that he thinks its funny that i woul be so concerned about having a fat face because my face was the futhest thing from being fat. he is my new best friend. james dean was awesome as well i think he did the whole cut using a straight blade. i wasn't really expecting it to be so short but its not too bad. james dean is a little asian man who works out and has a little bit of facial hair. he doesn't talk much and when he did i could barely hear him. i think he is pretty shy because the girls next to us were trying to get all chatty with him and he seemed to be getting embarrassed the whole time. while i am not sure that he is a new best friend, i do think he is my new hair cutter.

seamus is getting so tall. her jeans that she got at the beginning of the summer that were falling off of her are now on the verge of being too short. we took her to the zoo on monday. she almost didn't get to go because she hit me. she didn't just hit me, she was wailing on me. so not cool. but we eventually got her to apologize so she got to go. sirus slept. but seamus saw a giraffe that was "really, really, really, really tall." a lot of the animals were out and about so it was a fun visit for us all.

later in the day we filled up the pool and seamus and sirus played for hours it seemed. a friend from work gave us an awesome treadmill but we have no where to put it, so its on the patio under the deck. this actually works pretty well because i was able to run on it but also be in pretty much arms reach of the kids while they played. it made the time go by quick. we have a tarp for the treadmill for when it rains but really we haven't had much rain yet. it will likely have to make its way into the garage.

we went and saw a bunch of people's babies recently. we saw sunna last friday, oliver on sunday and i saw zander yesterday. man, there are a lot of babies going on.

tonight is the last wednesday night mtn bike race of the season until the cyclocross wedneday nights start up. my mom is coming to watch the kids and i am going to head out with eric for some social interaction and adult beverages. tomorrow is seamus's first gymnastics class! i hope she has fun.

we are headed to mt hood this weekend for chad and charity's wedding. we are leaving the kids at grandma and grandpa's and it will be two nights away! oh my goodness. yesterday after getting my hair done i stopped in at betsy johnson. i hate that place but managed to exercise some self restraint i found an awesome dress that i was totally digging but managed to not buy it. it was pretty rocking though.maybe te dress wasn't as flattering as i thought? maybe it was the platform stilettos they let me try on with it that made me look extra tall? maybe it was the lighting that made my shoulders and collar bone be acentuated or maybe it was that awesome mirror there that makes you look totally awesome in anything you put on at that damn store.

instead i imagine i will wear my standard wedding attire. its betsey johnson, too, but i have managed to wear it to adam's wedding, nathan's wedding, derek's wedding and now i will wear it to chad and charity's too. i think actually that i wear betsey johnson to everyone's wedding - luan's, nate and andrea, mark d's. those three were at least different dresses, all that have made appearances at various other events. i even almost wore a betsey johnson dress to my own wedding reception except that i don't know if bright red would have been totally appropriate?

ok thatis all for now. eric and seamu sare outside. eric is working on his cross bike and seamus is playing with a cheerios's race car. sirus is napping. ok, later.

is she ready?

i think she might be. seamus starts gymnastics next week. after today's display of agility, i think she is ready.

yes, that is the wall that she has her feet on. she kept telling us that she was exercising.


and if you were wondering, this is what "playing cushions" looks like:

hate

there are a few things i hate. one being that i loved watching hell's kitchen and i hate that the season is now over. that show was pretty much dumb but i watched it religiously every week.

so it turns out i was the last official finisher. we know there were more that either dropped out or just came in after me because i had passed those people that never passed me again and the girl with the broken elbow was still waiting for her friend to finish when we left. like i said, i am ok with coming in last. there was a woman there who finished 50th overall, 8th among women, at 2:16 who was the overall winner of the women at the Seafair tri. she was only 6:31 per minute faster then me. ha!

we had the nicest evening last night. i was so tired when i got home and still really sore. but we loaded up the kids and walked down to the u village for dinner. seamus ran the whole way down and was really good at dinner. the food was awesome the atmosphere was great, we had an awesome waiter who asked seamus directly if she wanted grated parmesian on her penne, and seamus was really well behaved. after we went to the play area and she and sirus went nuts just running around and climbing up and sliding down and having a great time. then we walked home. it was just so relaxing.

i have made some sleeping changes that seem to be helping. my left foot hurts when i go to sleep i will start to doze off and then they start twitching and it wakes me up and then they start aching and then my legs and then its just terrible and it seems to be in my wrists a lot lately too. the left foot has been an issue ever since highschool. it doesn't happen when i take naps during the day, only at night time. so i usually get up and take something. lately though, nothing seems to help and it was getting really bad. so, my new thing is icepacks in the bed. I just lay them in the bed and rest my foot and leg on them while i doze off and it seems to be working quite well. the past two nights i have gotten some pretty good sleep and i haven't had to take any pain medicine at all. hooray!hopfully it will last. i still seem to be having this weird kind of upper body twitch that i don't seem to understand. i gave blood a few weeks back and it has been happening ever since then. i have no clue.

17 free sandwiches

right now we are 5 of 7 towards our 17th free sandwich. do you know how many sandwiches that is? 117 that we have paid for plus 16 free ones. that is a lot of sandwiches!

looks like i can post photos again

the progressions of sirus at the JC Penny photo studio

there would have been some at 2 weeks but they LOST them

here he is at 1 month




here he is at 2 months




i have some at 3 months but i can't find them and i totally missed 6 months

here he is at 9 months!





and now the little guy is almost 10.5 months old!

13 miler

all week i have been feeling not quite right i'm not pregnant, it turns out, so that is good. but it leaves mewondering why i have been feelign the way i have. all week i debated about the 13 mile trail run on saturday. i decided to do it but debated up until the time they sent us off whether it was really a good idea. here is how the race went.

i start out the race thinking ideally i would like to come in at 2:30 but realistically i think 3:00 would be more on target.

Pre-race meeting: they tell us there is 2700 ft of vertical, they tell us there is a water station at 3 and 9 miles. they say at mile 10 there is 600 ft of vertical in that mile so to make sure to be ready for it but then after it the rest is flat or downhill.
they send us off.
15 minutes into the race - there is a hill, the same one from the 5 miler i had done a while back
20 minutes in: i am thinking this was a really bad idea
35 minutes in: i hit the 3 mile water station. eric, the kids and the photographer are here. eric took some pictures.
42 minutes in: i stop to pee on the side of the trail
1:07 in: i am starting to feel pretty good and think this is actually going to be ok. i catch a girl who asks me the time and i tell her i think we are probably a little over 5 miles in. she doesn't believe me but i think that is where we are. about this same time i set my new goal to hit the 9 mile mark at 2:00
1:48 in: i am thinking i might not get to 9 miles by 2:00 since the trail does not look to be heading in any direction where there might be a water station. about this time, i think, ok, next year, i will come better trained, less vertigoed and i will kick some ass.
2:20 in: i start heading up hill. seriously up hill, like so up hill that its straight up switch backs and they are kicking my ass. i think - is this the hill that was supposed to be at mile 10? did they close down the water station because i was taking so long? i was totally ok with that idea i keep going straight up. it never ends. i have to stop a few times, i almost start to cry because it just keeps going and going. i don't cry because if i did two things would happen: i would wind up totally bawling and then i would never get out and the other is that i would then be "they cryer", ya know, the person who isn't hurt but is crying anyway. at this point i decide to screw coming back next year and instead i will drop out at the 9 mile water station.
2:40 i get to the water station and am like "what the fawk!" 40 minutes past my revised goal. ugh. i hang out, have a pretzel, joke with the lady there, some guy tells me that that hill was the big hill and there aren't any more, the lady assures me there isn't anything tramatic in the last4 miles. i grab some more water, some more pretzels and head out. i tell them it will be another hour until they see me at the finish.
2:54 they are big fat liers!!! there is that 600 ft climb. i go way slow, slowere then slow, slower then the slowest of all slow. then i get to the top.
here is when i lost track of time pretty much. i take up a new tactic where i will run for 5 minutes and then walk for 5. it turns into run for like 2 and walk for like 15. i get to some markings on the trail where there are arrows and ribbons pointing in both directions and i just stood there for the longest time tryingt o figure out what to do. i pick my route and run into some horses who say i am almost done. i hit one last water station and they say its .6 miles to the finish. i can run .6 miles! ok, apparantly i couldn't, but i did run most of it.
3:40 i finish. there was no feeling of releif, there was no feeling of great accomplishment. i just wanted to sit down. seamus and i walked to the car. she wanted to watch the water run down the parking lot. and i just couldn't stand up any more so i sat on the ground and she wound up sitting with me.
the two people who came in right before me was a man who was doing the race in tevas and a woman who broke her elbow and cracked her hip mtn biking three weeks earlier. i as not last, i don't think, but i very well could have been the last finisher. i had passed some people at the three mile water station that didn't pass me later but we did not stick around to see if they ever finished.
today i feel sore but suprisingly ok. i tend to kick myself in the left ankle when i am tired so i have a bruise there and i have a really big blister UNDER a callous on that same foot. i have a few other blisters as well, but luckily i didn't discover them until after the race. they did their job and did not pop.
so, i might not do this event next year, but i do think i might try the seattle 1/2 marathon in november. the danskin triatlon is next weekend, the issaquah triathlon is the weekend after that and then the escape from the rock, mercer island is september 10. then i can rest and decide about the 1/2.

oh my gawd

i think i have the vertigo again. this is so not good. last night around 930 the room just started spinning. round and round it went. and round and round it is still going. its not as bad right now that i am at my desk and not moving at all, but once i do anything it makes me want to puke.

as i was leaving to come to work eric sent me off with these parting words: maybe you are pregnant again.

this scares me because i got the vertigo very early in both of my previous pregnancies. i think i am going to cry and then throw up.

the drama, oh the drama

since there isn't anything on tv right now except for the number one comedy, 2 and 1/2 men, oh my gawd, how can that be the #1 comedy? how could charlie sheen be nomintated for an emmy? what is going on? i decided to fill ya'll in on the drama.

i bought a sewing machine and have been sewing a bunch i made seamus a pair of pants and two dresses. i had ordered the fabric a long long time ago and even cut out the patterns but never got around to it. so now they are done. just the one dress needs some buttons.

eric went on a mtn bike ride with his friends yesterday. he left the house at 730am. he got home at 930pm. the ride was 3 hours long. what was the other 11 hours for?

while eric was out seamus and the neighbor girl were playing in the backyard. i was back there watching them play and taking photos and all was great. until the neighbor girl fell off the slide and hit her head on the cement retaining wall. blood was squirting everywhere. luckily her dad was right there. she stopped crying as soon as they went home and she wanted to come back and play with seamus but everyone stayed indoors the rest of the day. she turned out to be ok but man, i am so overly protetive and paranoid about that stuff and then boom, i was sitting there watching as it happened. it makes me feel terrible. i am glad she is ok. she wa over here playing in the yard again today, so that is good at least.

my car is in the shop. yeah, we all know that. its been like 20 days now. i called vw and told them i was lemon lawing them. they are looking into it. their customer care people are so awesome. and the people at the dealership where i bought the car have been really great, too. except when at first they weren't going to give me a loaner car. but they have been really helpful so its been good. now i am faced with if they buy the car back from me, what kind of car do i want? i could do it all over again. that vw eos looks pretty fun but that's not around until september i think. i do like the passat, though. we will see. all i know is that i don't really trust getting it back on day 29.

i signed seamus up for some gymnastics classes. it will be interesting. its for 2 1/2 - 3yr olds and does not involve parental participation. eric will be taking her on thursday mornings. i will go to her first one though. i hope she has fun. she is pretty advanced in all the physical stuff already so it might not be challenging for her that way but she will have to take turns and there will be other kids there, too.

eric, the kids and i went on an aproximate 9 mile run on saturday. it was actually not that bad. until saturday and sunday night when we have both had terrible insomnia.

for dinner tonight seamus had a very spicey bratwurst. it was really spicey but she just ate it no problem. she is a funny one.

we took the kids to a baby and kids modeling and talent agency and they want to sign up sirus. seamus's screaming and running around when they tried to see how tall she was didn't really impress them, but sirus layed the charm on pretty thick as he tends to do. we will have to see what happens next, if anything.

everyone is having babies. starla had hers this weekend, and david and stephanie had theirs, too. erik's is on its way, craig and jean had theirs just a few weeks ago and luan's and also mikki's will be coming here pretty soon, too. so that is 6 babies. that doesn't include kathleens, jamie's, bradie's or brandy's all from earlier this year, or rena's a bit later. add onto that my sister's friends john and rajesh and the population just doubled.

ok, that is all.

bye bye

so this morning, after waking up all cranky and sick with what seems to be a fever and a running, snotty nose, sirus said what we are pretty sure were his first words! eric was holding him and i gave them kisses and i waved and said bye bye and sirus semi-waved back and said bye bye, too!! eric an di looked at him and that each other and were both like - hey - did we just hear that!

this moring sirus and i played donuts. its a new game that i think he made up this morning. i sit on the floor and he brings me the colored plastic donuts that stack on the thing, ya know the toy i am talking about? so he gives me a donut and then he would take it away. turn to the side and then turn back and give it back to me. this was apparently a lot of fun.

seamus plays cushions. that is a game where she takes all if the cushions off of the couch and does whatever with them. last night she told me she didn't want to play cushions.

on sunday she told me she loved me, but i didn't hear it. i was busy talking to my mom and she said somethign and hugged me and then turned to my mom and said the same thing to her and hugged her. my mom heard it and said she was saying that she loved us. i wish i could hear it.

so, the word of digital cameras is great. you can take 100807 photos and really the only thing you pay for is the initial investment of your camera. i got an email from a friend who stored their family photos on their computer and their computer recently died. they lost all of the ir photos from the past two years, including all of the ones of their son's birth and everything since then. eric kind of makes fun of me for making 237874589273 copies of our photos and stashing those copies in various locations like my office and work and the safety deposit box, but once those photos are gone, they will never come back.

my car is still in the shop.

how lame

so, i havn't said anything in a while. partyly because i have been really busy and partly because it won't let me load photos and that annoys me. but this morning i just had to comment on one of the most disappointing things i have heard in a long long time. floyd landis tested positive. that is so annoying. sheesh!

lets see what else is annoying? my car has been in the shop since last wednesday and they have no idea what is wrong with it. lemon? what i am i going to do. at least i have a loaner.


lance bass is gay. that is not lame, just obvious. if you didn't see it coming then you are lame.

seamus is talking up a storm, like real serious sentences now. it is so crazy. i love to hear her say real things. she is amazing. i have so much more to say but i have to get a bunch of stuff done and wanted to express my annoyance.

huge headache

my head hurts a lot. its a tension headache i think. its been hurting pretty much since last night when i went to bed.

friday - eric asked if he could go mtn biking. since i had been gone the previous two days and will be headed out of town here again in another week or so, i said ok. i took seamus and sirus to the park for a while which was fun. when it was time to leave seamus took off running. i had sirus in the stroller and was wearing flip flops and you would never beleive how fast an almost 2.5 yr old can run when headed down the middle of a caldesac headed straight towards an intersection. boy did she get in trouble for that one. i yelled and yelled and told her we won't ever come back to the park if she does that. she just sat there and didn't say a word. i was so freaked out by the whole thing. it was terrible. ugh.
eric had also asked if he could go mtn biking on saturday. i agreed since his lover russel was in town and he and the boys needed some good man love in the woods. seamus, sirus and i took a walk to the uvillage to return some stuff and we stopped in and they both got hair cuts. they were both so good and look really cute with their new doo's. sirus got some hair gel, too which is funny. they got into their first fight, too. seamus had a balloon and sirus wanted. they were both in the stroller and he kept reaching over seamus to get to it and she kept freaking out. if she knew how to say "he's touching me!!" i am sure she would have. anyway, she was screaming and he was crying the big old crocodile tears and next thing you know seamus let go of the balloon and off it went. problem solved. everyone stopped the crying and yelling and everything was better.
sunday was the xterra. i was not really in the mood for it. i am feeling fat and tired and slow. eric wasn't so sure about it either since all of the loving from the guys the day before left him dehydrate, thrashed and 10 pounds lighter then when he started out earlier that day. he was not in good shape. but we went anyway.
the swim was twice as long as any i had done and even though the water was super smooth, a lovely color and just really nice, i for some reason could not convince myself to swim crawl. i started out and went for just a little but then started with breast stroke and kept at it. i have to get this swimming thing figured out.
out onto the mtn bike portion i was pretty excited. it was a two lap, 12 mile course that started with a big road climb. it kicked my arse. the single track was fun and the first 1/2 of the loop wasn't very technical. there was an amazing view of mt rainier and then into the woods we went. the 2nd half was a little more technical with lots of giant logs a few tricky downhill sections and a drop off right at the end. on the 2nd lap i had a total crash which was pretty funny. i was coming up to a log that i knew i couldn't clear so i clipped out, stood on my other foot and was closing into a stop. but then something got stuck in my back spoked and i went down. there i was laying on top of the log with my bike on top of me wondering what happened. as i was entering the transition area, the leaders were already done. that was a little disheartening but oh well. the run started with a pretty big climb so i walked that. at the top of the climb i saw eric coming down headed towards his finish. that was kind of neat! i started running. after a while i had to pee so bad i didn't know what to do! i was contemplating stopping just when i saw someone a little a head of me! so i kept going and passed her. then i couldn't stop because then she might pass me again! i was so close to last overall that i couldn't stop! i thought that maybe i would run the first 10 minutes and then walk for a few but i kept running - especially after i passed that lady. finally i headed to the home stretch! i was so happy to be done. i think it was one of the most challening things I had ever done. i was so tired that when we got home i had to lay down. today i am so sore. i haven't been this sore sine the first time i tried snowboarding.
here are some photos that eric sent me.

i don't want to hear that song no more

so, i just got back from la. it was a really great trip. i have a new boss now. i was pretty concerned about the whole thing but after meeting him i think it is going to be very good.
lets get back to that - its been a while since my last post so i will see what i can do about getting everyone updated and i apologize if i repeat.
my brother came for a visit. hooray! it was good to see him. we only hung out for a little bit but as always it was pretty fun. my mom was there and christie and jon came too and we all got to meet rick's girlfriend, so that was good, too.
after rick left jen came for a visit! she brought her bf brian. the last time i saw them was at the hs reunion in 2002.

here are some photos from that reunion. not of jen and brian but of some of our other classmates.















it was so great to have jen for a visit! even though it had been so long since we had hung out it was like old times, maybe even better. she is awesome. we met up with our friend goat from HS, too. he hasn't changed one bit. what a great guy! i have known him longer then pretty much anyone other then my family which is kind of crazy. one of the days luan from work took us out on his boat. it was very fun. what the hell? i am trying to load some photos from their visit but it won't let me. so lame. anyway, it was good times. jen took seamus for a ride in the convertible and seamus wasn't as interested in that as i thot she maybe would be. i on the other hand thought it was very fun. it was about 7342 degreed for their visit which never happens in seattle in june. i loved it and i now have some nasty growth on my arm that i am going to the doctor on monday to get checked out. it is the melanoma?
we got a 4.5 day weekend over the 4th of july holiday which was very delux indeed. we took the kids to my moms on friday to go swimming. one of the days i went for a 7 mile run and then another day i went on a 6 mile trail run. how fun is that? i was all amazed with myself. i slept a lot over the weekend and i sat in the sun a lot, too. it i am going to have the melanoma i better get my money's worth since my insurance will make me pay for 20% of my hosptial bill. but now i am tan - more tan then i have been since i was in costa rica. i am loving it. eric even says that my mustache isn't as noticeable any more - ya know the mustache that he told me before that he couldn't see.
we went and got some family portraits. can't wait to get them back!
on the 5th i woke up super early to head to la. i went out to get in the car at 445am and my neighbor was there standing on his driveway. he said he was waiting for the newspaper. he is a crazy man. he is going to do the exterra with us this weekend! hooray!
the flight to la was mostly uneventful except that the guy sitting next to me reeked of alcohol and shaved his arms. the stubble was growing in - arm stubble is not pretty.
we got the rental car with the Never Lost, typed in the office address and it took us a route neither of us had ever gone before. that is fine but what made it great was that it took us to the one freeway on ramp in all of LA that was closed. whatever.
i can't really remember anything else about that day except that i went to the hotel and watched a lot of TLC - real stories of the ER.
the next morning i got to meet with the new boss. so cool, i am very excited about the whole thing. hopefully i made a good first impression.
on the flight home i got bumped to first class and sat right behind smokey robinson. he is in town playing at the emerald queen casino. the lady that was sitting in the seat accross the row from him told him how she really liked it when stevie wonder was on american idol. what he? regardless, what a dumb thing to say.
the kids were asleep when i got him but sirus was so huge when i checked on him. seamus was so snuggled in her bed it was adorable and then i went to sleep.

one up me

so eric always has to one up me. when i crashed on my bike at the bear tracks and beez wax mtn bike race a long time ago and the end of my handle bars rammed into my sternum to the point where i couldn't breathe, i called eric and he told me how he crashed up at the test of metal and tore off his leg.
when i swallowed a fish bone and had to go to the ER and i had to be totally put under to have it taken out, eric put some rusty metal chunks in his eye ball and had to go to the ER in the middle of the night to have them taken out.
after having sirus when we were still in the hospital, even though i was the one with the swollen yoohoo and guts coming out everywhere and having my motherly parts chewed on nonstop, eric was the one who was more uncomfortable because the weird chair they had in the room for the dad was vinyl and he kept sticking to it because he tried sleeping on it in just his boxers (which i couldn't understand at all)
when i was so excited about finishing my first triathlon eric came home from the trail run race only to have come in 10th overall and 5th in his age group.
when i finished 3rd in my age group at my next triathlon, eric went and did his first triathlon a week or so later and won the whole thing. he came in 1st overall. oh the frustration of always being one upped.
but here are some photos from the most recent triathlon. i love the one of me crossing the finish line with the double chin and belly rolls. i will always be able to one up eric at looking bad. the goal for my next race - do better on the swim and look less horrid in my running photos. eric says it looks like i am using my head to slow myself down - leaning back to come to a stop. he might be right. why is my shirt flying up like that though?