This Post is Not for The Faint of Heart

or my neighbors...

Glendale credit union hit by robber on Tuesday

I emailed this link to my husband.
This credit union is walking distance (my kind of walking distance - less than a half mile) from our house.
Disturbing.
What is this neighborhood coming to?

An employee and good friend of my husband's told him that while he patiently waited in line at my Fry's (right across the street from my community), the bank branch inside the store was quietly robbed while he watched.

So my husband responds to my email:
(and I quote...)
By the way, the description sounds familiar who do I know that’s 5’9” heavy set build with prescription glasses in his 30’s?

What this Picture Says to Me:

blame my grandparents...

if possible...

This is how I would like to remember them forever
hard to make out because it was taken with my camera phone.
They are waiting for the "ding dong" microwave oatmeal before school this morning.

Happy Anniversary Husband, Dear

Happy Anniversary Husband, Dear.
Happy Days will come to you all year.
If I had a wish then it would be... another thirty years for you and me.

Nine years since that sweltering day in August when we were married.

You are still pretty cute, but you are a much better, and far far more annoying husband than you were nine years ago.

love you mucho, love wife

Not to Be Outdone

So it is 11 a.m. and I am ready for this day to be over.
Where should we start?
First off.
This is my daughter.She insisted on starting first grade today.
I was like, "Buds, you already know how to read, you don't need to go to school!... Please? Mommy will give you candy and take you to the park if you stay home instead?"
She insisted that by law she was required to attend first grade.
Whatever.

Then I went for a little retail therapy. Let me just say that I have spent a lot of time and a lot of money trying to save money on new MODEST school clothes. I seriously was a little annoyed at how much money I saved in shopping today. I bought a ton of junk on clearance.
I should have waited until school started in the first place.
Then. I call the dentist about the filling that I am supposed to get today.
(my first filling in about fifteen years).
I thought that they were ripping me off. The office manager insists that she is charging me correctly according to the fee schedule provided by my own insurance company. It is not until I say, "ok, well, I want to cancel my appointment, I appreciate your help, but I am going to find another dentist..."
"well, wait just a moment, Mrs. Gonzalez, let me check something. Oh. wait. I see here that you are only supposed to pay... (an amount LESS THAN HALF of what she was going to charge thirty seconds earlier!)"
uh. Now I don't even want you to do the work because I don't want crooks drilling holes in my face?

Then. I come home, drag in the groceries and try to switch the laundry before I put them away. When the phone rings I walk back into the kitchen to find JJ squatted on the floor...
with a heavy metal meet tenderizer

and a DOZEN and a HALF brand new extra large eggs. the evidence(JJ ashamed of what he did)

Then. I go into the office to post these pics to blog, of course. This day could not get any better, right? I go to reach for the little shoebox where I keep all of my cords and nonessential electronics junk.
Serendipity.
six inches from my mouse.
The cord for the pink dvd player. We have gone on two painfully LONG car trips without the (very expensive) pink dvd player
because I (Mommy) "cooooooouldn't fiiiiiiiind it. I loooooooooK eveRYwhere" (imagine a very whiny six year old little girl voice that we often imitate when things are "missing" around here)

I am going to take a nap. Hopefully the bed is still where I left it.

Something About The Way You Look Tonight

I really did plan on defaulting to funny. Then I thought to look up this song on youtube...
Then I forgot what I was thinking and got blubbery instead...
Remember this post from two years ago?
Fifty Bucks and Something to Drink

21st Century baby

This is how you know that you are raising a baby in the 21st century.

JJ's word for coins that he finds around the house:
"Mama, this is my 'thousand'"
not my penny... those are worthless...

From the back seat of the truck:
"Daddy, dot com! put it on! dot com!"
Guero turns to me and says, "what does he want?"
both Karina and I respond in unison:
"the radio"
after all, what do you hear THE MOST on the radio - commercials that end in "dot com"

Heaven forbid he sees the golden arches
"Mama, look right there - go right! go right! chicken nuggets! french fries!"

After a solid twenty minutes of silence in the car, he pipes up and says,
"Mommy, hot dog"
I looked over to Guero to make some comment about lunch, and of course - totally unexpectedly - we are passing a Costco.
All of my best friends know - Friday is Costco day. Or as my mother-in-law would call it, "our date with the hotdog"
I just said to Guero, "our boy knows how to read"
how else would you like to explain that commercialized marketing has even penetrated his two year old little brain. The basic red font on a brown brick building = hot dog.

...and don't let me forget. In the most recent developments in JJ's little life, the last vestige of being a baby is gone. I can't tell you what that was, because he, too is very embarrassed about it. We have also started working on potty training. If I lose JJ, the only baby I will have left is that grizzly bear that sleeps next to me.