Hi!

 Thought I'd pop in and say a quick "hello!"

I've been crazy busy with work this week,
and nights have been filled with:

• fulfilling etsy shop orders,
• making custom Eclipse t-shirt designs {as well as a custom "backstreet boys" t-shirt design for a concert--I didn't even know they were still touring!},
• sushi-making classes with friends,
• graduation parties for my young women,
• playing around with a borrowed nikon again,
• babysitting for these adorable triplets,
• working on a custom website for an up-and-coming author from Newbury Park,
• another flash website for my boss's insurance agency,
• and watching movies from our netflix queue, to which we've been irrevocably converted...

Meanwhile, I've read The Hunger Games {wow}, I'm currently reading Spells, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, and The Graveyard Book, and I'm currently listening to my new favorite song "My Love" by Sia, found on the new Eclipse soundtrack. It's my favorite Twilight soundtrack so far, and the movie hasn't even come out yet.

 This weekend, I'm looking forward to more netflix movies {LOVE the instant viewing option!--we've seen "Bedtime Stories" like four and a half times}, eating some chocolate drumsticks at the sunny park by the pool, and just finally breathing...

Toodles!

I Kind Of Feel Like Lorelai Right Now...

There's this one episode of the Gilmore Girls

that I can kind of relate to at the moment.
{watch a clip of it here.}

Lorelai, Lauren Graham's character,

has smelled something in the air.

She wakes Luke up and rolls him out of bed.

Luke grrs and grumbles.

They head outside because Lorelai smells snow.

Lorelai is remembering how much  

she loves snow, 

her favorite time of year.

 "Flakes, flurries, swirls, crystals,

whatever form it comes in.

I’ll take it.

We go back, snow and me.

We have a beautiful history."

Luke says the forecast didn’t call for snow.

But, Lorelai is right.

The flurries start coming down.

And she grins from ear to ear.

 So the day continues and Lorelai's in heaven.

But the snow causes a lot of problems
and she realizes that snow isn't as
welcome as it's always been for her.


"Snow is nothing but annoying icy frozen water stuff
that falls out of the sky at inconvenient times.
It’s just stupid stuff you have to shovel out of the way
so customers can get into the Inn. It’s the stuff that melts
and leaks through your roof!
It’s the stuff that stalls your car,
it’s the stuff that buries your car."

 How does this pertain to me right now?
I love the rain.
The smell, the sound, the sense of renewal.

But when the power shuts down at my office
and I can't do the work I need to do,
the rain doesn't seem too nice to me anymore.

One of my bosses, Jason,
drove an hour in the rain today from his home office to work at the
Camarillo office today and literally two minutes after he got here,
the power went off.

And, today is the only day of the week when I don't have my car
so I couldn't drive home myself.
Poor Jason, he had to drive me home,
where there is power and internet access,
and then had to drive all the way back to his house.
I feel so bad.

I need a homemade ice rink to reconcile myself with the rain.

Boys

You know I babysit triplets once in a while...

it's one of the joys in my life.

Aidan, Kyle, and Julian are spunky, well-behaved {for the most part}

almost-4-yr-olds whom I love very much.

I've babysat them since they were months old.

They're my boys.

A few weeks ago,

we had a little photoshoot at the park

with Kyle {brown shirt}

and Aidan {yellow shirt}.

Julian was at therapy.

Aidan wanted to take pictures.

I won't include all the pictures he took of mud, grass, his binoculars,

a jolly jump, and of other random things.

But I will include the pictures that Aidan,

age three,

took of Kyle & me.

And I'll throw in a couple that I took.

I took this one, above.

I took these two above. All the rest are copyright of Aidan Barker.

Glasses

My incredibly hot husband looking in the mirror at his new sunglasses

Franco works at an optometry office and sometimes gets things at no cost or for a really good deal. That's how come he got some shades to put over his Ray Bans...oh, he's stylin' now.

These past couple of weeks have been gratefully slow. Slow as in not as busy as our weeks usually are. Therefore my posts have been a little blah. What can I blog about when the highlight of this week has been setting up a new computer at work? I don't want to put myself to sleep, which I'll admit is what I wish I was doing. At least we don't have anything planned for tonight so I can crash when I get home. Franco and I were planning to see a movie but nothing out there looks good.
Anything you suggest?
We're waiting for X-Men next weekend. Hugh Jackman, sweeeeeet.

Full-Time Job + Watching The Office Every Spare Moment = No Time For Blogging

I thought it might be time to let you know

I'm still into this blogging thing and don't want to seem like a slacker.

Unfortunately, it's a little difficult because I'm lazy.

I will do my best.

Here are the pictures of 2 of the 3 adorable boys I babysit.

The first two are of Kyle Barker and the last two are of Julian Barker.

Julian was diagnosed as autistic just a few months ago.

Better

Today didn't start off too bad at all with work. I think this is going to work.

I Actually Have To Work!!

AAAAaaah! I'm going crazy!
I just started to work full-time for the Farmers Insurance Agency
I've worked at for the past 2 1/2 years--
I work for 3 insurance agents now.
And they all expect me to work for them 100%.
So far, I've been buried with work
and it seems I will be buried until 5 pm.
And it's only 10:30 am!
I've never had this happen to me.
So this is how real work is supposed to feel like...
deep breaths...
the smelling salts, please.

Korean BBQ

My boss, Jay Christiansen,

 has been talking about his favorite restaurant that serves

authentic Korean BBQ to me for years.

Finally for his birthday last week he drove his wife and daughter

 and me down to Garden Grove to eat a little BBQ.

I bravely tried his favorite menu item, spicy octopus,

but leaned more toward the safe teriyaki chicken and beef.

The coolest part about it is that you can choose raw meet at the buffet

and cook it on a small built-in BBQ at your table!

I loved it, and I wouldn't mind driving the two hours again to have lunch.