I've been to hell, I know what it looks like

Oh the agony....... the pain! Torture, pure torture. And I did it to myself. For the second time in less than 8 days, I trapped myself, my husband and both the Hogettes in the portrait studio at JC Penney. The first time I tortured all of us with the thought of capturing gorgeous Christmas pictures of my darling little angels, all hell broke loose.

Dressed in outfits brought home from China, Emma acted like we were stabbing her with hot pokers. The screaming! The tears! "MAMA, MAMA". Arms extended. Snot pouring out of her nose. All after waiting in a crowded, stuffy waiting room. Other kids screaming, couples fighting, people getting impatient...you know, the types of attitudes that let you know we're all about to embark on the holidays. We left, without buying one photo and quickly made another appointment, but not till after watching Jess push some little boy down on the floor....whole other story.

So today....dragging Mr. Man into the same stuffy waiting room by his fingernails to once again set sail for those adorable holiday photos. All gussied up and ready to go. And once again it was 500 people stuffed into a closet sized room with 10 employees and of course NONE of them were doing anything.

Be still my beating heart.....Emma's actually sitting there, smiling. Great, we may be able to pull this off. Huh? What the hell is Jessica doing with her dress? Why is she pulling it up and showing off her underwear? STOP! Please just stop!

OK, please for the love of Pete just smile. This is wear mom who's wearing the new Gap wool blend sweater bursts into a sweat. The sweat is rolling down my back. I'm begging, pleading....offering things I can't even provide to Jessica. Please just sit there and smile. PLEASE! All the while Mr. Man is doing everything but striping down naked and standing on his head so that they look into the camera.

Whatever. Who really cares? Right? We ended up buying a picture that I'm not so sure even resembles my kids. Shit who knows...I should of bought someone else's pictures of their kids, because I'm not really sure I care anymore. Cute kids, but who's are they?

And because I'm a total loon. I'm going back for more torture with just Emma tomorrow. I WILL GET CUTE PICTURES.........I WILL

Thanksgiving Day at Grandma and Grandpa's

Doesn't happen often, but when it does.....a picture of the 4 of us, is pretty cute. And yes, I am totally biased!





We had a great Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's. The food this year was especially good.






The girls had a BLAST playing in all the leaves

Unfortunately due to a death in the family we have postponed our trip to Charleston till after the New Year. Breaking the news to Jessica, that we would not be going on a big plane to see Nana and Grandaddy was not easy. After all that Jessica has been through in the past 10 days with feeling so awful, she was really excited about going. Little does she know, we're off to Disneyland again this coming week.

Sam's club has a great deal on a jar of nuts...only $13,000

WOW, such a deal! Only about $13,000 for some nuts. What the hell am I talking about? Well, at the expense of sounding like a total assclown, here it goes. Remember when I felt like crap ALL summer? I subjected myself to a esophagogastroduodenoscopy(scope down the throat) and a diagnostic laparoscopy. What ever came about all that? Well nothing as all the Dr.'s were concerned. It was my self diagnosis that found out what was wrong.

It was while lying in bed recovering from the laparoscopy that I only ate food which had been blended and that could fit through a straw, that I felt better than ever. I wasn't nauseous at all. That was until I sat down on a Friday night and as usual, ate handfuls of nuts. Lots of nuts. Kinda like I did ALL summer. Saturday I was nauseous and all sorts of sick.

Wait a minute......grandma can't eat nuts either, otherwise she's in bed all day sick to her stomach. Now that I think about it. I remember the GI Doctor telling the lady next to me in the recovery room not to eat nuts. Something about ridges in her stomach and that nuts would make her sick if she were to eat them. Ok...... so I didn't eat nuts for about another 2 weeks and then tried eating nuts again...to test my theory. Yup, I was really sick. Crap, you mean to tell me I was considering having someone take out my uterus and all it was, was Planter's Stinkin' nuts!!! Gawd do I feel like a dumbshit. Now that the bills have arrived, I feel like an even bigger dumbshit!

$13,000 for both procedures. And NO, I don't have to pay out of pocket for both and YES I do have insurance....but what? $13,000 for some nuts? Needless to say, next time I feel like crap, I'm just going to live with it.

Enough about what a dipstick I am.....on to the cute kids.

Here's Emma loving her big sister. Let's hope this is also the case come Friday. We leave Friday to fly from LA to Charleston, South Carolina. So if you hear screaming coming from the sky on Friday, you can bet it's us! How does a 22 pound diva require us to carry 80 more pounds of crap? I thought packing for China was hard. Two strollers, a car seat, two diaper bags(Phil get's to carry one too), Phil's laptop, snacks, sippy cups, surprise toys to keep them entertained, a few DVD's to play on the laptop, mom's vodka, dad's bourbon, blah, blah, blah....and that's just the stuff we're trying to get through the metal detectors. My apologies now to the poor suckers in line behind us, while we struggle with trying to bend all the FAA rules just get through the security check.

I probably won't post before Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a great one and truly take the time to think of what you are Thankful for. I'm thankful for my wonderful family and my awesome husband. You know, the man who's bringing home Jessica from the emergency room any minute now. Poor Jess, really wasn't feeling better. In fact she's sick again. It was tonight when we lifted up her shirt and saw that the 3 year old looked 9 months pregnant and her belly was as hard as a bowling ball that a trip to the ER was in order. Obviously something was wrong. Fecal impaction. I'll spare you of all the details. But she was so blocked up that the food was coming back in the form of vomit. She just walked in the door with daddy and looks much better. I can't imagine the pain the poor thing has been experiencing. Gotta go, can't wait to tuck her in! OH, Phil just told me, what a trooper she was. The DR. said he's seen adults about to go through the roof with less "blockage" and that she's a strong little girl :)

Have a great Thanksgiving!

This should be illegal.....and oh ya, I need your help

Well Jess is finally feeling better. But not till after watching 2 and a half straight days of cartoons and Disney movies. I still can't believe that there isn't smoke coming from the TV....I feel like I'm committing child abuse! Poor thing has been lethargic and only wanted to lie on the her little couch and do nothing. Oh ya, and eat nothing. I think, she's had a few pieces of cheese and maybe a bit of a PB&J. Now you know she's sick....I don't call her Hogette for nothin'.

I also would like to solicit a little help from you. We are putting together a website that involves pets. I would like some cute (high resolution) pictures of cute babies and fuzzy pets. If selected your child will appear on a website that will be used to make money....just so we're clear. Hopefully with a little luck, your pet/child and my website will both be famous! I won't go into specifics yet about the website (can't give away that million dollar idea!). But as many of you know, the mortgage/real estate market has all but crapped the bed and we're looking for something else to do. Maybe you don't want your child in the picture but have a super cute pet....great! Any pet is fine, although we do prefer ones with hair.

So if you have a little talent and cute animals/kids around...start taking photos.

Thanks!

Can we pweeeeeeeeeeeeze go to Disneyland?

It started at 1pm, when caller ID showed that the preschool was calling. Immediately you get a pit in your stomach.


Dear Gawd, why are they calling, how hurt is she? What happened?

Mrs. Nance? This is Miss So-in-so calling from Montessori school. Jessica is throwing up everywhere.

We'll be there, right away.

Poor Jessica. She wasn't sick when we sent her to school, therefore I sure hope the school doesn't think we knew she would do that. Phil got to school quick and there she was....embarrassed, claiming to her school mates, teacher and daddy that "it was an accident." Upon coming home and flopping on her Dora the Explorer couch, she grunted, moaned and clung to her belly for hours. While both daddy and I were doting over her, she did manage to look as pathetic as ever, struggle with a weak voice and ask

"Can we pweeeeeeeze go to Disneyland?"

That's when the parents looked at each other and unanimously voted that "she was milking it."

But really she wasn't. Of course knowing Jessica she'll try to get something in there....gotta love her effort. But hey, the poor thing asked to go to bed almost 2 hours early with only having a popsicle for dinner....that's after passing up an entire can of 7-UP we offered...which around here, is a big treat.

He's turning California

Did you hear that? Right there....that loud burst. Hmmmm sounds to me like the housing market bubble just burst. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Actually for us, we feel like it's a good thing. This way all the hacks in the business will hopefully move on to something else. During that past 5 or so years the refi and housing boom has made way for people to become "experts in the business" by only having to fog a mirror. Thanks to these clowns who've given the rest of us a bad name, any time you mention you're a mortgage broker people think of you in the same way as if you had said you sold used cars. Phil just got his new license plate.

Pretty funny.

One way you know you're in California is that almost everyone has a personalized license plate. Just trying to drive down I-5 you can get lots of reading done, just checking out the plates. And of course to go with his fancy new plate, he's also been putting together a website too.

www.philnance.com

This last week I took Emma to finally get her first haircut. It didn't go to well.....

hmmmm, interesting, scissors and comb. Sure hope she's not going to touch me!

I'm hating every second of this

Most of the time Emma just makes a lot of noise when she crys....this time we had tears to boot






The girls were busy, as Pop came out from SC to hang out with them







We love Pop!

















Great fun at the park













NOT SO BABY ALERT

I looked at Emma the other day and thought.....Dear Gawd she's getting old. And unfortunately it is true....you really don't take as many photos of the 2nd child as you do of the 1st.












Mama busted out the camera and rectified the situation

Just cruisin' on my bike

more cute pics here

searching for the end of blog world.......

Have you ever gotten "lost in Blog world? I remember back when I started my blog, almost a year ago, I could search and search trying to see what other blogs were out there. Almost all the time they would somehow lead back to one or a few that I had already seen. Now it seems even my grandparents have their own blogs. Everyone has a blog. In a search for "the end of the blog world" I did come across this. A blog written by cats.

Cindarella, Piglet, Fried Chicken and Beer

Blogger has finally cooporated and the pictures are up. The girls had a blast Trick-or-treating last night. Jessica's best friend, who no longer goes to her preschool (which makes her visit extra special) came over to trick-or-treat. They were both dressed as Cindarella and looked so cute!Jessica is old enough to truely appreciate Halloween. Emma wasn't too sure about her Piglet outfit and didn't care for the hood. Once we got outside and started hittin' the streets she was much better.

Two cutie pies! Jess and Chloe

More candy please!

Baby Piglet

Look at these two.....they know how to dress up for Halloween and throw one heck of a party! Every year they throw the best Halloween party. It takes days to decorate and get ready.

Phil and I all dressed up. Phil won first prize for his Colonel Sanders costume. The live band was a hit and the party was great















More pictures of the pumpkin patch
















Grandma and little "E"











Mama's Buckaroo's

click here to see more photos