Audible.com

I'm always wishing I had more time to read books. Usually by the time I pick up a book at night before bed, I'm ready to crash out, so it just doesn't happen. I've also been spending a lot of time in my car since my commute is much longer now--it gets old listening to the same music on the radio all the time and the news channels can be interesting, but only for so long.

So, I decided to try audio books. Audible.com is part of Amazon and it allows you to pay a monthly subscription where you receive credits and you can download books with those credits. They have a free trial, so I thought I would give it a try. I have to listen on my phone, and not through the radio, but that's no big deal for me since the speaker on my phone is fine.

It was tough to decide which book I should listen to first. I looked through some of the best sellers and I just wasn't sure. I went back to my friend's trusty blog (thanks, Melissa!) and looked at some of her book reviews. Based on her review and some of the others I read online, I went with this one:

So far it's been good. It's nice to have something to look forward to during my drive. I'll keep you posted on how I liked the whole book--but I'm almost half way through and I'm enjoying it!

O...M...G!

So I'm getting the kids ready go bed and watching the Bachelorette and this was my conversation with Lexxa:

Lexxa: Mom, is she going to give out roses tonight?
Me: Yes.
Lexxa: So, whoever doesn't get the last rose has to go home?
Me: Yes.
Me: Ok, time for bed.
Lexxa: Tell me if there is anyone that I might like.
Me: What do you mean? Someone you think who should have gotten a rose.
Lexxa: No, like if they are cute or something.

Really? She is not even 6 yet! I guess I need to censor the TV shows that she sees me watching!

Perks

Last week, I went to a conference in Sonoma for work. The company hosting has an annual client conference. We are not clients yet, but were invited to attend to see what they were all about. The beauty of client conferences is that they make sure to add in lots of fun activities along with the regular conference agenda. Since it was held is Sonoma, there was a lot of good wine and food! And, the hotel was fantastic too.

A shot of my room at The Lodge - a Renaissance Hotel where the bathtub area opens up so you can see the TV. I sat and watched the Bachelorette from there!

 The view of the grounds from my room.

 First winery: B.R. Cohn

The weather was beautiful, so it was great sitting outside with a nice glass of wine. It's so peaceful there.

Jacuzzi Winery. This place was beautiful. And yes, this is the same Jacuzzi family that invented the Jacuzzi. We also had a lovely dinner reception there.

 Another shot at Jacuzzi.

On the last day, we also got to learn about some wine and cheese pairings at the hotel with their sommelier (I learned what a sommelier was that day too). We tasted different wines from Sonoma along with local cheeses. It was excellent. I didn't take any pics...I was too busy eating and drinking! All of the food there was so fresh and delicious--even the hotel food at lunch.

And last, but not least, Ravenswood. We did a team building exercise where we made our own blend of wine, had to name it and market it. It was a lot of fun and we got to take home a small bottle of our very own blend.

It was an excellent trip and believe it or not, I actually got a lot of good information that was work-related. I could get used to this. :-)

Wishing for some energy

I feel like I need another day off after the busy weekend. It was fun stuff, but still a lot. Here is the quick rundown.


Friday evening after work. Back and forth three times to Brad's cousin's to pick up kids and drop off stuff for Lexxa to spend the night. Good news = she lives in town so no big deal. Thanks for having Lexxa over!


Saturday. Morning, pick up Lexxa, go to the grocery store. Head to afternoon BBQ at Brad's dad's. Pool, food, sun. Go home, kids napped, got ready and went to my friends Stella & Dot launch party.


Sunday. Slept in a little, got ready to go to BBQ #2 at my brother's girlfriend's house. Pool, food, sun. Headed home and got ready for July 3rd street dance. Waited for Brad to get home from work and then headed out to street dance. P.S. It didn't even cool down much that night.


Monday. Morning, parade. Afternoon, BBQ #3 at my cousin's house. Food, friends, playing in the back yard. Head home. Get ready for fireworks. Head to fireworks. Get home at 10:45 and have to think about work the next morning.

Ugh! My alarm going off at 5:30 this morning was not cool!

All in all, it was an great weekend, but I am so exhausted! Getting ready for another busy week and weekend coming up...

The Cheeseburger Challenge

So, back in April we went to Maui for a friends wedding. The night we arrived, there was a dinner outing planned for the people that were there for the wedding. It was at a place called Cheeseburger Island Style. The place was just ok, but it accommodated a big group of people. We knew some of the people there and some we were meeting for the first time. So, as we were perusing the menu, my wonderful husband decided that he should try their cheeseburger challenge. The girls we sat with were definitely encouraging him to go with it...I, on the other hand, was not as excited about it. #1, we barely knew many of these people, #2, I didn't want to deal with him complaining about a stomach ache on our first night in Hawaii. Needless to say, he went with it. The cheeseburger had two patties, cheese, pork, bacon, lettuce, onion, tomato and it was all on top of chili cheese fries. The goal: eat everything in a half hour. The prize: a t-shirt (woohoo!) and bragging rights.

Here is the burger.

Still going strong and almost finished.

Last bite.

He was easily finished in a half hour. The difficult part was the heavy chili cheese fries at the bottom.

All for this fabulous t-shirt. It was the highlight of the night for the group of 40. Good times.

The Poopy Diaries

This one is for you Maryanne...something to look forward to.

So, I've been dealing with a lot of sh** lately. I know he's already 3, but we're finally getting Logan potty trained. Things are going well so far, particularly with going pee, but the #2 is a different story. Here are some things that I've experienced so far (NOTE: some descriptions may be a little graphic):

1. Logan had been holding his poo for a few days because he's still nervous about going on the toilet. So, one night, he sat on his little potty seat (note that this is the one that you have to clean out each time they go to the bathroom because it's just a little plastic seat). He was sitting there for quite a while and I thought he was just kind of playing there. Then I realized that it smelled pretty bad in there. So, he went to get up and sure enough, there was a big, huge #2 in his little toilet. I've dealt with a lot of kid poop in my day, but this made me gag. I carefully dumped the stuff from the little potty seat into the regular toilet. Bad idea. It wouldn't flush. What do I do next? I had to figure out how to break it up--I grabbed one of those wooden skewers for bbq and started poking at it in the toilet. I had to turn my head away and I was gagging the whole time. I even blew up at Lexxa at one point because she was trying to be all up in the mix and see what I was doing. I felt bad after the fact. So, after making sure everything went down the toilet, I had to clean out the little potty seat still. Yuck.

2. On Father's Day we spent the day with my family and went to a San Jose Giants game. We came home and relaxed for a bit and then just decided to go and get pizza for dinner. So, we go to the pizza place and Logan is wearing his big boy underwear. They are playing and eating like normal and then he tells me he needs to go to the bathroom. We go into the bathroom and his underwear are completely loaded with poo. Gross! I noticed when I was getting ready to put him on the toilet and it got everywhere. The underwear went in the trash and we cleaned him up and headed home. At least I got to eat my pizza before all of this went down!

3. Logan has been doing so well with wearing underwear and going on the toilet. But, last night he decided to go #2 in his underwear again. This one wasn't as bad, but still no fun.

I'm really looking forward to him being completely potty trained so we don't have to worry about all of this...but in the meantime, I will just suck it up and deal with it!

When Life Gets In The Way...

Or just laziness. Wow, I haven't posted anything since March--it's really hard to believe that it's already the end of May. I feel like I have so many things to blog about and catch up on. Here's a list even though I don't know if I'll ever get to all of these:

• New job



• Trip to Hawaii



• The Cheeseburger Challenge (part of Hawaii trip but worthy of its own post)



• Logan playing soccer



• Kid's activities - Children's Discover Museum and beach day



• Mother's Day

Did I mention that I started a new job? Maybe my next post will be about my Hawaii trip so I can daydream about being there again...no work, no kids and carefree in paradise! My life is not all that interesting so I suppose my posts might be boring either way.

Hopefully you'll see me here again soon!