Money Grab…..er, I mean: ZooLights 2010

So, I decided it would be fun to take the kids to Zoolights this year. We are always Zoo Members and go quite a few times through the course of the year, but this was our first time at Zoolights. I got us a deal on the admission tickets. $7.00 each for any night. We went on a Saturday, which probably was not my wisest move.

Gates open at 6pm. We left the house around 5:15 and go there about 20 till. Fortunately we got a decent parking spot. I was stressing that I would have to park at an alternate location and walk 15 minutes just to get there. Chase is lazy. This would NOT have been good for us.

So, a line about 1 mile long stretched out of the entrance gate. SHEESH!

It didn’t take us long to actually make it inside once the gates were open though. I asked Chase if I needed to rent a stroller. Imagine my surprise when he declined me?! This is truly under the category of Christmas Miracle. So, we of course had to buy the ‘light up’ swords and toys they offer all over the event. 22$ later, each boy was armed with some glow in the dark crapola.

There were basically 2 loops you could walk through the park. We did both loops and then went around a 3rd time around the main loop (this was a mistake because Chase pulled a #FAIL move and made me carry him). Oh, I should mention we dropped another $7.50 on kettle corn.

Granted, my trip to ‘Zoolights’ ran me about 50$ total. It could have been MUCH more though. Here are several of the other offerings you can purchase (that we opted OUT of).

Pictures with Santa – I didn’t even bother checking this ones cost.
Stingray Bay – touching a stingray or something lame at 5$ a head
Carousel Rides – I’m sure this was a few dollars a kid and the line was RIDICULOUS
Carriage Rides at 5$ a head – I think the round trip is less than about 50 feet.
Camel Rides at 5$ a head – again, 2 times around a small circle. OY
Polar slide – sit on a tube and slide down about 20 feet. My guess is another 5$ a head.

I’m sure I missed some of the other offerings they had. I was not interested. I suppose this is how they make up the money they lose during the summer months when no one is going to the zoo. Wyatt smelled French Fries half way through our journey and I assured him he could get a happy meal on the way home. I was NOT waiting in line at the snack bar for some 7$ french-fries.

Gotta love the holidays, no?

All the lights made it so my Blackberry Camera didn’t want to use its’ flash. Poor quality, but a cute silhouette. :)

Thankfulness and what not....

This may come as no surprise to anyone actually, but this weekend, I came to the realization that I had a six year old. SIX YEARS I have been a mom. It’s madness I tell you. With that said though, I am SO PROUD of my Wyatt. He is such a great kid! I think he’s finally come to the conclusion that he has a super cool mom too!   He insists I go with him to “Muffins for Mom” because: “I think the kids will think you are beautiful”. What more of a reason could I ask for, right?! LOL

We had our primary program this past weekend. Wyatt was a champ. Had his lines memorized!

“Jesus Christ went about doing good. Jesus went from place to place, loving and serving others in need.” He did a fabulous job. I mean, there were kids MUCH older than him with MUCH less to say that did NOT memorize. I was beaming.

Chase too memorized his line: “Be Positive.” Instead of actually going up to the microphone though when his class was cued, he burst into tears and said “I’m Afraid! I’m too afraid!” Yes, I still love that little punk.

Man, I love my kids. I know, I know. I’m not the first mom to come to this conclusion, but it just hit me this weekend AGAIN that I am so blessed to have these 2 great kids in my life. Couldn’t live without them! #FeelingBlessed

Birthday Month and FREEBIES

I am usually anti-birthday. I'm not married, so I don't have a hubby to dote on me. I'm NEVER dating anyone seriously, so no boyfriends to do anything nice for me. And for those that have met my kids, YOU KNOW they aren't doing jack for me on my birthday. So, usually, I just have a simple dinner at my parents house, with the family. Period. Oh, and lets not forget it's never MY moment to shine because my sister Tenille has a birthday just ONE LOUSY DAY before mine so we always have our family dinner together. Boo hooo. Tear. Yeah.. whatever. I'm over it. HOWEVER, this year, I'm actually kind of having fun with the birthday.

Back in college, we used to have birthday week! You spend the ENTIRE week pretending it's your special day and seeing all your friends and going out on the town. I'm working that angle this year. Tons of fun planned with all my friends and family. Why not? And, on top of those things, I'm also cashing in on all the FREE STUFF you get via the Internet these days....

Want Freebies Too? http://bit.ly/GpLdS

Check out this website. This is only SOME of the freebies. Other websites have more offers.

Thus far, I've gotten all of this... FREE:




Kona Grill gives a Free Meal - sign up online in advance.



At Red Robin, they give you a free burger... But wait! There's more! On top of that, I still got the free birthday sundae. (Of course, I was too full from the burger to actually eat it... but still!)



I also found out that my FAVE Pizza Place gives a free pizza (Grimaldi's) Fabulous!

Seriously. Google the words: Free Birthday Meal and you'll find a billion things you can take advantage of. Why not get something for nothing ONCE in your life with no strings attached. :)

My goal for this birthday is to get as much FREE stuff as possible. So far, so good. Of course, this means my workouts have to be THAT MUCH HARDER too... bah! I guess there is ONE string attached.

I cheaped out. SUE ME!

Yes, Wyatt turned 6, and yes, I cheaped out and did not buy him the usual fancy cake. Why? Well, the kid just doesn't eat cake! Frosting yes, cake.. not so much.

He asked me more than once that day to remind him how old he was again... and when he would be turning 7! 7 is important to him because my cousin's husband owns a Karate Dojo that requires a kid be 7 to participate. Wyatt is amped for that. Me, I'm just thrilled I can put it off for one more year. :) #LazyMom

Anyway... I digress. We did celebrate Wyatt's birthday with many fun activities. Friday was the official day so he took Twinkies to share with his class. That night, I got him a Happy Meal and let him open all of my presents. He was most thrilled for his X360 game, Lego Harry Potter: Year 1-4. He spent all of Friday night playing. Then we got up early and hit the Phoenix Zoo. It's almost tradition for us to do this for Wyatt's birthday. We are members, and the kid loves animals. His fave of course was the "Fairy Dogs" (Prairie Dogs) because there were like 100 of them running around. Even a little small one that kept picking fights with the larger/fatter ones. Was a fabulous time. Did I mention Wyatt thanked me MANY times for taking him to the zoo? Made it so worth it.

Then after it got WAY too hot, we went to his new FAVE donut shop, Bosa's. It's over by the zoo, so it works out to head there after sweating off a few pounds walking around at the zoo. :)

Then we were off to Grandma's for swimming, lunch and more presents.

Finally, we made it to Wyatt's uber lame cake. He didn't complain. I'm just used to fancy delicious Costco cake. Aunt Tenille did the official decorating of said cake... #GoodTimes

And here you have it...the cake. What I consider the most embarrassing part of Wyatt's 6th Birthday. (Wyatt of course told me it was his best birthday ever! <3)

And So It Begins.....

Well, he is off to the races! Wyatt started Kindergarten today at Ishikawa Elementary. It's one of the better schools in the district. (Fortunately, my dad knows the principal, so we had no trouble scoring a spot!) Wyatt is actually pretty excited. I made him pose for a few pictures this morning and then we were off to Grandma's house! My mom has graciously offered to get Wyatt on and off the bus for me each day (WHICH IS AWESOME!). A new chapter in his life begins today! Fingers crossed he doesn't try to take anyone down today! LOL



He really is excited to go! Don't let the pictures fool you. :)

Beautiful Girls... indeed.

I love it when my kids sing! Usually, it's Wyatt....but last night, Chase was on a roll. I was able to catch him on camera. Poor video, but it's really the audio I care about. LOVE that boy!!

http://www.twitvid.com/JJLVO

Sorry, tried to upload, and had NOTHING BUT ISSUES...

My babies all grown up….. (okay, not ALL grown up.)

I can’t believe I have a Kindergartener! (yes, technically the kid turns 6 in September, so he could have possibly started last year, but what’s the rush?!) And THREE cheers for ALL DAY KINDERGARTEN! At least I know SOME of my tax dollars are wasted on ME and MY KIDS! :)

School starts August 11th, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’m already dreaming of ways to spend the extra cash I’ll save in child care costs… Wyatt is pretty ‘meh’ about the whole thing, but I think once he goes, he’ll love it! Right now, he likes to mimic the older kids and say that he “hates” school. Whatever kid. Let’s not call the 2 hours a day you spent COLORING “school”.

I did realize that I would need a lunch box for him. There is no way that kid is buying lunch. He doesn’t eat much, and what he does eat…well, let’s just say that a Sloppy Joe from the cafeteria will never cut it. I plan to stock up on cheese sticks, slim jims, fruits, veggies and Gatorade. Those, I know he’ll eat. Certainly not creamed corn and mashed potatoes cooked by a lunch lady though! Heck, the kid doesn’t even like Pizza. WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM?! (Of course, this is the same kid that BEGS to eat Ramen Noodles every night. #barf)

At any rate, I decided to surprise him with a fun new lunch box. Even my friends on twitter were jealous of it. I’m a pretty rad mom.



Chase of course is now not speaking to me…since I didn’t buy him a lunchbox he had NO USE for! #LittlePunk

Master Bathroom

While I can admit I did have some help doing my Kitchen Cabinets, I'm taking FULL credit for the Master Bathroom. I did it 100% by myself... and I'm quite proud.

The floors were updated when I first moved in, but the Oak nasty cabinets had to go! Still need to special order the granite counters and sinks, etc. but for now... at least the cabinets are nice. :)

Here is the before - obviously after I removed the CRAP.



And here they are after:



I refaced the oak with my Alder Veneer. I ordered the doors and drawer fronts, but did the install myself. Even bought a new compressor and nailer to install the toe kicks and trim myself. Not too shabby. **pats self on back**

Of course, I wasn't 100% without injury.



Whatever. I'm still awesome. :) :)

I love the smell of progress!

I'm sure everyone is painfully aware (especially ME!) of the fact that I'm remodeling my kitchen. I came across the "before" photo of when I first bought the house. Had to giggle. When I got ready to buy this place, I knew there would be some major remodel projects, but I also knew this was TOTALLY GONNA BE MY HOME!

Here is what it looked like before.



And here is the progress to date. Still have a bit to do, but definitely came a LONG way from the 1980's look it started with.



I'm hoping to have this wrapped up in the next week or 2. Then... well, there is a laundry list of things I plan to do with this place, so I'll move ONTO the next great project.

Last day in London...

Our last day in London, we did a bit of exploring (meaning WALKING) and again, some more shopping. We needed a souvenir for Nat's husband, but there was no WAY we were buying him the $150,000 gun he is in love with...so we got him a teaser from his favorite store. He seemed to like the gift well enough though.



Of course we took more scenic shots. It really is a beautiful city.



We even found the closest thing to the church during our walk...although, I think this was just the family history center.



The only thing I thought of when I saw this sign was ... HOW MANY TAX DOLLARS DID IT REQUIRE to make this?! I guess government waste goes on ALL around the world. hee hee



Sales tax in the UK is acqually quite high - 17% or more...but you don't totally notice because it's built into the price. Which means the cute pink tank top I bought for 3.99 pounds was actually not all that much when you think about it. They said something about apply to get all your sales taxes returned...but let's face it.. I'm lazy and I already have to fill out my passport paperwork for the THIRD time now. Not interested in more paperwork!

Next on our journey we went to Kensington Park... It's a HUGE area - dog park included. Beautiful.

Gate Entrance



I'm standing here in front of a GINORMOUS tribute to Queen Victoria. It was a bit much, but I guess I really don't know anything about her. Maybe it was well deserved??



This is the actual Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived. They now have it open to the public to solicit $$$ of course. We didn't bother...



Nat and I finally found some women we trusted with her uber expensive camera to take our picture together. HOWEVER, the only reason we trusted them was because they were older, and had slipper shoes on. Worst case, I knew I could take em if I had to. hee hee



We walked forever in circles in this park forever looking for the dang tribute to Princess Diana ONLY to find this. Seriously. The was the tribute. #LAME Clearly, the queen loathed her. ha!



We had to take this picture for Wyatt. If you have seen the movie 'Up', then you are familiar with Doug the Dog that always throws a "SQUIRREL" into his conversations. Wyatt does that from time to time too. Gotta love him.



We grabbed a bite at Bella Italia for lunch. I would have loved to try some good Thai food, but Natalie is less adventurous in her eating than I. Service in the UK leaves a bit to be desired though. They are NEVER in a hurry, and never that eager to please. They definitely take life a bit slower than we do here in the US.



After lunch, we just went shopping for hours. It's funny, they have STORES everywhere once you exit the tube...but they are ALL THE SAME stores for the most part. I guess it's like the malls here in the US. Most of them have the same shops. We did pick up a few great things though.

All in all, it was a fabulous trip. Had my purse not been nabbed, it would have been perfect. Now, back to real life where I need to resolve all my BANKING crap. Good times!

US Consulate, Boat Tours and The Theatre...

Our day 2 started off at the US Consulate. I went in alone. Waited. Got to the window. Got more paperwork. Waited. Was asked for 100$ which of course I did not have AND 2 pictures which I did not have. Out of the Consulate. Found Natalie. Went in through security again only to discover the photo booth I needed only took cash IN CHANGE, which we did not have. Back outside through security to a pharmacy that took my photo for 5 pounds. Back to the Consulate. Paid them their money. More waiting. Up to a window to chat with a British dude. Back to my seat for more waiting. Back to another window to talk to a US officer who told me that this happens to a whole lotta people (robbed from a restaurant). Back to my seat. More waiting… FINALLY 2.5 hours later and several trips in and out of the building, I walked away with a 3 month TEMPORARY passport....just so I can apply for the same damn thing In the states AGAIN. OY. What a process. It was like the DMV alll over again. At least everyone was nice. :)

While Natalie was waiting outside for me (when we thought they wouldn’t let her in) I sent her to take a picture of the 9/11 tribute sculpture built just off the grounds of the US Embassy. It was kind of sad, but here’s a glimpse of it.





Once we wrapped up our time with the government we headed off for a boat cruise up the Thames. On our way to catch the ferry, we discovered we had just missed seeing the Queen by about 15 minutes. Neither of us was uber sad. Here is where she lives though, not too shabby. J





The boat tour was fabulous…as you can see. We took off around Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.





We went up to Greenwich Village and eventually hopped the tube back to Green Park…and grabbed a quick bite and we were off to bed.

The next morning we got up and dressed up a bit since we’d be hitting the Theatre today and didn’t want to be the White Trash mucking the place up. We may have been a bit too much for some of the freaky dudes though…. Catcalls sound the same in ALL countries and languages.



A few things we HAD to get pictures of were the Red Photo Booths. Classic. The architecture over here is what really sets this place apart from the madness known as NYC. Such beautiful buildings.




One other essential photo was the street signs that actually save a LOT of American lives I’m sure. We never knew which way traffic was coming if not for the signage!




After some MAD SHOPPING in Covent Gardens, we were off to The Queens Theatre where we saw our show. It was amazing. We had premium seats and the talent was fabulous. I’ve seen it before, but Natalie had not. It still brought me to tears though. LOVE it!

R.I.P.

To my favorite Coach Purse. Goodbye. You will be missed.

London in Springtime...

Made it to London in one piece! Although, it was touch and go in Geneva. One of the biggest morons on the PLANET is employed at that airport and I thought FOR SURE we'd miss our connection to Heathrow. Fortunately, we made it..but Nat and I both agreed we'd NEVER fly without a direct flight again. :) Tickets were free though, so we kept our complaining to a minimum.

We were exhausted upon arrival to our hotel, but we powered through. Got showered and went for about a SIX HUNDRED MILE walk around Regents Park. Gorgeous weather... blistered feet. :)



Imagine my sadness to discover that we are not the ONLY idiots in the world being subjected to RIDICULOUSNESS.



We did end up finding a cute little pub for dinner - I decided to go with a local tradition. Ordered the 'Fish and Chips". WHAT THE HELL IS THAT LUMP OF MADNESS on my plate?!



Day 2, we actually slept until 10:30AM. We were both in shock since we'd gone to bed at like 8pm the night we arrived?! At any rate..we were well rested.

We opted to take a bus tour of London. Fabulous idea. It was one of the double decker types with an open roof.



We got to see every major attraction on our list. Big Ben:



London Eye



St. Paul's Cathedral where Princess Diana Wed.



...and the beautiful Tower Bridge



BUT.. by far, the coolest spot on the map:



OKay... kidding. :)

We decided to hit the ever famous Hard Rock: London. Where it all began for them...



We posted for photos on the patio (notice the location of my purse. this info comes in handy shortly.)



Natalie even ordered a VIRGIN daiquiri...of course, she had to special request the whip cream and the waitress said: REALLY? Whip Cream? Interesting... Clearly, they don't like their sugar like we do in the States.



And just before some punk in a PURPLE shirt of all choices NABBED the cutest coach purse EVER - we grabbed this photo:



Just as we finished up a man approached my table and asked if I had a bag hanging on my chair -which of course I did. Some punk had grabbed my purse. I had my Nike SHOX on so I bolted after him, but it was too late. Apparently everyone saw him but us. We rushed back to the hotel so I could cancel all my cards. None of my companies allowed me to do it online but ONE?! #EPICFAIL

fortunately my Brother in Law was on standby and we could IM him via Blackberry. He cancelled everything by phone, called my boss at work to cancel my AMEX and I've ordered a new drivers license already. My dad will overnight it to my Brother in law so at least I can get on a plane in the states. tomorrow, we visit the US Embassy and see what happens... FORTUNATELY one of my colleagues advised me to get a copy of my passport - I left one photo copy with my mom and my sister had one in her purse. I also have my birth certificate (which I grabbed at the last minute). Now, we wait for the cops ...they are on their way to take a statement. Funny thing is, there was only 40$ in US dollars - only worth 25 here in the UK. MORON. At any rate, not letting it spoil our fun. Natalie and I are DETERMINED to find that coach purse online and replace it. That was the biggest loss for sure. Although, the cops had no idea what a Coach purse was. LOL