Home Sick

Remember I mentioned since going to Starbucks Thursday night with Lisa I had not been feeling well? Well, I went to the doctor yesterday and it turns out I have a stomach infection caused by a stomach flu and the beginnings of a sinus infection! Lucky me! But the girls have definately enjoyed having me home and I have really enjoyed being home with them.

Saturday Mom came over and we had lunch at Le Madeline. Then we bought Lena's school supplies. That may have been a mistake because now we are strongly considering home schooling her as well. I found what appears to be a really good online course for both her and CC. It's called Global Student Network. I'm going to call them today and get more info. From what I read on their website it looks pretty good.

Sunday was uneventful. But that's nice.

Yesterday the doc and watching corny old movies all day. I'm hoping today will be the same thing. Why am I up at five in the morning if I am not going to work. Because my wonderful cell phone (really it is) is unplugged and the alarm STILL went off. Emil and I fell asleep on the couch watching Joan Rivers Roast. When the alarm went off at 4:50 we both jumped up and went back to bed. Now his stomach is upset and I am blogging. Nice...imagine that!

Starbucks...

Thursday night we went to Starbucks with Lisa and Jakob. Lena wanted to "real" drink with a little caffeine in it as opposed to the creme I usually get her. It was 9:30 p.m. and caffeine was not going to happen that late! So I ordered Lena and I both carmel cremes with a shot of decaf espresso. It takes just as good and she never knew the difference!

My little happy camper!

Me and Lisa in a "deep" conversation!




I think maybe the creme was getting old or was left out because my stomach was sooooo very upset afterwards! Lena said she woke up in the middle of the night with an upset stomach. I was seriously debating whether to got to work or not Friday morning because my stomach felt so bad. I even fell asleep in my car on my break. Thank goodness Lisa texted me and it woke me up, otherwise I would have really been in trouble. And... to top it off... we had just had a meeting about making sure we come in from lunch and our breaks on time...oooppps!!


Yesterday evening Mom called me and told me they just found her neighbor and good friend Tony dead in his apt. It was such a shocker! He is larger than life and he always has this huge smile that is just contagious! His eyes light up when he smiles and he has the biggest heart you could imagine! I luckily found a pic of him on my computer. This is the way I want to remember him. The last time I saw Tony, three days ago, he was walking to the store. I only saw his big frame from the back, walking away. I like to think that he was walking to somewhere good and that is why I won't see him anymore. The last time I spoke to him was earlier in the week when I was picking Lena up from my moms house and he came over to visit. Had I known that was the last time I would speak to him I would have said more, hugged him and told him how thankful I am that he is always there to watch out for my mom. I just have to know that he is sleeping now, peacefully and the next time I see him everything will be good and no one will be sick or hurt anymore.

Show Us How You Live Friday...

This is my first posting to Kelly's Korner "Show Us Your Life" posting. I'm not sure I even know how to do it...lol. I wanted to enter the kitchen edition but got to it too late. I couldn't enter the wedding dresses because as you will see we got married in Vegas. One morning over breakfast Emil tells me "Let's do it."

Me: Do what?

Emil: "Lets get married!"

Me: Emil, I'm trying to eat. Don't ruin my breakfast. Don't say the "M" word!

Emil: Come on baby. We have two kids and we've been together seven years. Let's just get married.


I did a few more refusals then I figured, "Ok, why not? Let's just get married. I love him."


So off we went to the courthouse. Got the license. Some man found us on the sidewalk. Took a cab to a little chapel thingy. Some guy whose last name contained almost thirty letters (seriously) officiated. He called me Sandra the whole time. (My name is April...) It went something like this....

Guy: Repeat after me... I Sandra

Me: I Sandra

Guy: Take you Emil

Me: Take you Emil...


Guy: Repeat after me.... I Emil

Emil: I Emil

Guy: Take you Sandra

Emil: Take you Sandra.....


Yeah. It was so stupid! But we were married and I am so happy now! At the time it was right for us but now looking back I really wish our moms would have been there and our girls as well. I wore a white t-shirt and black and white and red capris. Emil was in shorts and a t-shirt. I wish I had at least had a cute dress. Oh well... the important thing is that we are married...

So off to the pics!!

Me in front of the Mirage "volcano." At night it spews fire and the water turn into "lava".... orange lights..



My papa bear in front of the volcano.



Right after we got married we took a cab to the Venetian to ride the gondolas outside. I just love the Venetian. It feels like you are stepping into another place when you walk onto the white bricks. It is just incredibly beautiful and I could take hundred of pictures of that hotel alone. Here are just a few.



The gondolas we took our ride on...



This is the ceiling you see when you first walk in...



Luxor...



Inside the Luxor...It is pyramid shaped inside.



We did the King Tuts tour in the Luxor. Its an audio guided tour. You learn alot and you can take your time. I found it really interesting. This is just one of the many pics we took there.



My papa doing his "George" pose in Treasure Island, where we stayed. This was taken while we were waiting for the elevator.



One of the ships in front of Treasure Island that does the pirate/siren shows. We were lucky enough to have a strip view and we could just open our blinds at night and watch the show. The sidewalk there in front gets pretty filled up so we were just as happy to watch from our room!



An outdoor bar/lounge thingy there at T.I.



Paris. I love, love, love the cobblestone streets inside the casino there.



The beautiful fountains in front of Paris. When you walk on the sidewalk in front of the Paris casino there are little outdoor cafes and if you're lucky mimes. They will very quietly walk behind you and tickle you with a feather or tap on your shoulder then run off. Its really fun!



The beautiful Bellagio dancing fountains. Too beautiful for words. I actually teared up when they played Bocelli's "Time to say goodbye!"



A statue inside Ceasars.

The big wooden horse in the entrance of FAO Schwarz inside Ceasars. Our girls have gotten many, many gifts from there.

NYNY Hotel Casino. One of our favorite places to play and stay. There rooms are very pretty and only a few rooms on each floor of each building. We stayed in the Chrysler building one time. It always reminds me of the Sex and the City episode where Big tells Carrie he is moving to Napa and she tells him, "You can't leave New York. You're the Chrysler building. The Chrysler building would be all wrong in a vineyard."

A view of the strip standing on the walkway in front of NYNY Hotel. Everytime we go to Vegas on our lst night we stand on this spot and just recap our time there. And I always ask Emil the same question... Do you think we'll be back?

Excalibur. It's very pretty on the outside but quite boring on the inside!

I have many more pics. We used to go to Vegas at least twice a year. So far we haven't made it back since I started working. It's crazy when I stayed home we went to Vegas alot, some years even three times a year. Now that I'm working we haven't been able to go back. It's so hard to get off during the week. Everytime you go something changes. I haven't seen Trumps new hotel/casino. I am REALLY looking forward to that. I absolutely love, love, love Donald Trump!

Impromptu Date Night...

Lena stayed with my mom Monday night. Our theatres offer free movie showings for children on Tuesdays before 10, so she and mom went. They were showing Space Chimps. After the movie they ate at Incredible Pizza. After work I took Sierra to her thyroid appointment. She lost 15 pounds since last year and grew half an inch. Wonderful in the weight department... I wish it could have been more in the growth department. They said it looks like her height is leveling out and it's really important for her to take her synthetic thyroid medicine so that she may grow a little more.

When I was picking Lena up from Mom's house I saw on the news there was a HUGE grass fire just a few miles frommy house. Since we have been so long here without rain our grass is so dry and combining that with our record setting temps of over 100 degress grass fires are common during this time. I was very worried because Luigi was outside. We raced home.. got him in. The big, black rolling smoke was climbing so high in the sky. And scarily it wasn't all that far from us.

After we were sure everything was ok I laid on the couch to take a quick nap. Emil suggested to me that we go eat Chinese. We had dinner then off to Barnes and Noble. (Thats MY dessert) I love, love, love that store!

We spent a good three hours together... just spending time together. It was so nice and so much needed!! We listened to music, talked without being interrupted, read sushi cookbooks, magazine and were just together. It was so very nice!

So now we just got back from Sonic...happy hour. Emil is talking to his dad on skype. His dad lives in Siberia and this was their first face to face (via the internet) conversation in over 17 years. It was very emotional! He said hello to the girls and to me. He blew us kisses and told us he love us in English. We all had tears in our eyes. I just hope if we make it to Russia he will be able to come see us! I took a picture of this. Will post in a bit. This seems to be my routine. I post now and add pics later.

I had the fabulous idea of getting sopapillas! I need to learn how to make them. My goodness they were ohh so good!! I only have two left in my box!

New Template...

I was so excited to log on this afternoon and see my new template from the designgirl. I love, love, love it. I think she did an amazing job. You should definately stop by her blog and check out all her beautiful and unique items. She has everything from stationary to custom templates. You will surely find something you will love!

Not much to report today. I am playing with this new laptop trying to learn how to import pictures on here. So far it just puts all of them to download. There is something like 633 photos on my camera. I need the last two. This is going to take some work.

Ok.. just a quick post. I am surprised at how regular I am getting at posting. I hope I didn't just jinx it.

Started off Bad... (updated w/ photos)

This weekend has been good. Saturday we wanted to get Mom out of the house and try to cheer her up. We went to Barnes and Noble, looked at books and drank Java Chip Frapps and just had a good time. Then the girls and I went over to Ross and found some really good deals. I bought two dresses (really needed them for church), two pairs of shoes, CC a pair of shoes, Lena some pants, shoes and really cute shirt for school, then Emil and I large pillows for our shams. So..... it came out to a very, tad bit over $100. Not too bad!! We then looked around more store and bought groceries. Lisa wanted to go see the Orphan but my feet hurt so bad I just wanted to go home. Ok... good day!

Sunday..... morning was nice. I woke up early because Charlie was crying and crying and forced me out of bed at 7:30. I hate waking up so early on the weekends because I have to wake up so early during the week. I put on some of my shows I had on the DVR... Homes Across America and If Walls Could Talk..... I fell back asleep on the couch. Then Emil joined me for a little nap. Next thing you know we hear a glass knocked over on the table. Charlie! He doesn't like to drink out of a bowl, only cups or glasses or a running faucet. Soooo.... I knew there had to be water in the glass. I jumped up and told Emil "There might have been water in there!" Why the problem? Our laptop live on the kitchen table. Sure enough. He knocked it over on Lenas laptop. Emil jumped up, grabbed the laptop, turned it on its side and the water just poured out. Needless to say, the laptop never turned back on. Lena woke up and was in tears. I was pretty upset. Emil was mad at Charlie. He knew that he did something wrong because he hasn't come into the kitchen area at all today except to eat. I wanted to get the day back to normal to try and calm everyone down so I made potatoes, scrambled eggs and Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage patties. We got ready for church.... enjoyed a beautiful talk. Then... we went laptop/pc shopping. The "/" because I didn't know which one I was going for. We ended up with a really good deal. A dell laptop... 3GB for under $400. Nice. I haven't had the chance to try it out yet. Emil and Sierra have been breaking it in.

Charlie before the accident.....




Lena after the accident....





I do have a couple of pics to post. Will do so and edit this tomorrow.

I just made another wonderful batch of brownies. Mom accused me of using a mix. I wanted to make them, infront of her, from scratch but she didn't come over in time. Mom... 100% homemade. I will post the recipe for those as well... tomorrow. I have to wake up at 4:45 tomorrow morning and need to go to bed.

Debbie and I went in to talk to Iz about the crazy schedules Dorothy has been giving us. I am so nervous what I will get tomorrow. I will pray about it and see. I can't do anything right now so there is no point to sit here and worry about it.

I'm a Winner!!

I am very excited to announce I won the first ever giveaway I entered. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE what the design girl does. I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like! I choose the templete with brown and blue. I love the look of those two colors together! They truly compliment each other very well.



After work I met up with Lisa and her mother-in-law Nella at Buffalo Wild Wings. We approached the topic of healthcare. Nella has many heart problems and health issues. She moved here from Russia in the 90's. Her husband passed away two years after the moved here. She is unable to work due to her health issues and there is nothing they can do about this. They have tried many avenues, such as state sponsered health care. She was told no they couldn't help her and turned away. She looked into local avenues, such as our Carelink program sponsered through the University Health Systems. In order to apply she has to go through numerous interviews, one monthly, complete enormous amounts of paperwork and documentation. She cannot drive and both her son and daughter-in-law work full time jobs and cannot afford to take off one day a month to get her to these appointments/interviews. What is a person to do? Nella recently went to an appointment with a cardiologist. Just a regular appointment and her bill is over $3000! How is someone her age and in her health condition supposed to pay this crazy amount? It is so sad. Something definately needs to be done. How can people be given the added stress of these bills when they are already in poor health? Her medicines are only $100 a month. Thankfully her son takes care of this, but what if he couldn't? Is she supposed to just suffer? My mother-in-law works for our states sponsered insurance program. Her office states that anyone from Mexico or China is automatically approved for insurance coverage. But our own citizens can be turned away so easily? I do not think it's right and it certainly is not fair! I get really upset over things like this.



On to other subjects... I am so very happy the weekend is here. I don't know exactly what we are going to do but I am think the local museum of art. I bought more cocoa to make brownies. I brought my mother the last of the brownies I made and she accused me of using a mix. No mom, they are 100% homemade. Come over tomorrow and I will make you a fresh batch!



Lena's new word is "dead-gummit.." I don't know where she heard that but it sure took me right back to big 'ole Yoakum where that was commonly heard. It's cute to hear her say it. I can't help but smile when she says it. I just bought Lena a membership on PixieHollow. She is more than overjoyed and is creating her character right now. My how (just got another dead-gummit, haha), as I was saying, my how things have changed since I was a kid. We certainly didn't have games like that. There were not computers! We wanted to play we hopped on a bike and rode around town until it got dark and we knew we had to be home so we wouldn't get in trouble. We played cards, board games, made mud pies, played king of the hill at the cemetery (now that seems creepy but didn't at the time), made up songs... we found things to do. Now it seems like my girls are always plugged into something. You never see Sierra without her MP3 player thing plugged into her ears. Lena is really addicted to her laptop. I think the laptop and chatting with CC online is what got her to spelling and reading so well. Crazy!! We read books.. We went to the library and checked out books. I think my girls have been in a library once! Imagine That!



Ok... I will try to post more later. I am feeling so lucky after winning my first give-away entry I think I will try to win the give-away monogram chick has. This giveaway is for a monogramed travel mug. A must-have for any coffee drinker on the go. The other option is for a monogramed tote. Too cute as well. I am entering fot the travel mug. The link is http://monogramchick.blogspot.com/... I dont know how to just put her name and have you click on that yet. I am learning. Slowly but surely!!