Coupon: A&W - Free Small Rootbear Float or Freeze with Purchase

I'm personally not a fan of rootbeer but I know most people are and I won't hold that against anyone :)

Click on pic to download coupon directly from their site

Boogity Boogity

Ethan's no stranger to the race tracks. I think we took to him to his first race before he even turned 1. He likes watching the cars go in circles and hold on to his ear muffs while he yelled "I can't hear you Mommy!!!!!!!!" the whole night (he tried that in the car on the way home in the middle of a lecture and you can bet those ear muffs got confiscated)

Despite the fast cars, awesome crashes and delicious concessions... Ethan's favorite part is flirting with the girls.

Thunder Sticks are for...

Random silliness.

Taken from the AVP Beach Volleyball Tour

Coupon: Red Robin - Buy One Entree, Get One Free

Click on pic to print the coupon directly from their site

Valid May 21 - June 2, 2009

Coupon: Baskin Robbins - Buy One 31° Below™ Get One Free

Click on pic to print coupon from their site

Print this coupon and bring it to your local Baskin-Robbins® store to receive one
free 31° Below™ of equal or lesser value with the purchase of any 31° Below™.
Some restrictions may apply. Offer valid at participating Baskin-Robbins stores in the
US only. Offer expires 6/21/09.

WFMW: Pet Shopping in the 21st Century

Sometime last week, somehow between contemplating about Ethan starting to get lonely and Mike and I not being quite ready for the responsibility of having baby #2, I may or may not have inadvertently promised Ethan we would get him his own “Bolt”.

It fits. We’re moving into our new home and Ethan loves to play with dogs. It’s never too early for him to start learning some responsibility, like feeding or walking the dog. And we want to settle in first before trying again. A pet is a natural addition to a family without the pregnancy, right?

Right.

So now we’ve all convinced ourselves we’re going to get a dog.

But we have to wait until we settle in the house which probably won’t be until July – after closing, we still have some stuff to do in the kitchen before we want to move in. So to satisfy our excitement for now, instead of rushing to the shelters, we started perusing through Pet Finder – which is an awesome site in this Facebook/Twitter era for those looking to adopt a pet.

You can search by breed, age, size, gender, and of course, location. Majority of them have photos, and most even have their histories posted in their profile!

This little guy is definitely one of our runner ups…

We're in Escrow!

So, we finally did it. We sort of maybe bought a house. I don't know for sure. That's because we're in "escrow" and I don't actually understand what that means. We signed the papers last Wednesday and the bank signed it the next day… so that’s official, right? Our realtor beams with the “I’m so proud of you for finally making the decision” smile, and gives us the congratulatory “Yes, you are now in escrow”.

And then in the same conversation, she said something about the deposit going into escrow.

Right, okay. The escrow company hasn’t cashed our check yet… what does that mean?

So I’m a little confused. Your money goes into escrow, and then you are in escrow, except you most certainly are not in the same place as your money. Somehow "escrow" has become a sci-fi planet, and you and your money are both on it but in parallel dimensions. But you’ve already signed the “contract”, which meant you were already in escrow anyway. Huh?

Nonetheless, the good news is that if we jump through about a dozen more hoops, we’re told and that it will close 45 days from when the bank signed the paper – which was on the 14th, so really, we should start packing.

With that said... let me take you on a tour.

This is the front of the house

This is going to be the formal living room and formal dining room from 2 different angles... Depending on the budget, we were thinking of tiling the walkway from the front door all the way up to the back sliding doors.

This is the kitchen... they've just installed ugly linoleum on the floors, that we'll be replacing with tile as soon as they give us the key. Eventually, I'd like to upgrade the counter tops to granite, but for now, the tiles are in pretty good shape and the cabinets are practically brand new (although we're going to be staining them in a darker color).

This is the walk-in pantry (it's actually much bigger than it looks on the photo) -- the second one is where we'll probably put a smaller dining table...

This is the family room with gas/wood fireplace. We're getting some estimates on putting hardwood floors here since it'll be the highest traffic area, although we might wait since it's all brand new carpet downstairs anyway.

This is one of the bedrooms upstairs with a balcony... There's a decent size storage room just outside the sliding doors (by the balcony) which is a plus.

This will be our bedroom with the fireplace and balcony.

This is the master bathroom with the whirlpool tub. There's brand new carpet in there (all upstairs) as well, but we'll likely tile this when we tile the kitchen downstairs.

This is the humongous walk-in closet connected to the master bath. We'll definitely have to put some shelving in there, but I can't wait to finally have room for all my purses and shoes! :)

This is the balcony off of the master bedroom.

This is the loft, separating the master bedroom from the other bedrooms. It'll likely become a playroom for Ethan with maybe a seating area/entertainment area on one side (it's already equipped with surround sound).

This is the tandem 3-car garage. The plan is to section off the third space and maybe make it a 5th bedroom downstairs for maybe my mom when she comes over, or could potentially become Mike's "man cave" :)

This is the backyard... not as big as I had originally wanted, but there's plenty of room for Ethan to play safely and not a whole lot of gardening for me to do (I unfortunately did not inherit my mother's green thumb).

Well that's it for now! I will keep this posted on any renovations we end up doing!

We had our inspection yesterday and so far so good -- the only major problem the inspector found was the water heater not working, and hopefully the bank will fix that before escrow closes. The rest were just minor fixes, and that's what I married a handy man for! :)

Til next time!
I'm so excited!

Happy Mother's Day!

A Mother's Love Determines How
Author Unknown

A mother's love determines how
We love ourselves and others.
There is no sky we'll ever see
Not lit by that first love.

Stripped of love, the universe
Would drive us mad with pain;
But we are born into a world
That greets our cries with joy.

How much I owe you for the kiss
That told me who I was!
The greatest gift--a love of life--
Lay laughing in your eyes.

Because of you my world still has
The soft grace of your smile;
And every wind of fortune bears
The scent of your caress.

My Week in a Flash

It’s 1am, and I’m still at work. Yes, still at work.

Why am I blogging then, you ask?

Because I can.

Well, that, and the fact that I’ve spent the past 15 hours working on a deadline…. a deadline that we should never had a problem meeting if only people would extend a little courtesy and not PROCRASTINATE so we all don’t have to stay until 2 in the morning to finish something that should’ve been finished 3 days ago.



/RANT

Here’s a blurb on what’s happened the past week-

Friday: Attended Matt’s graduation, and then went to a dinner with the family.

Saturday: Spent the morning with Ethan, went to the mall to try to find Mother’s Day presents (unsuccessful), and then went to Matt’s graduation party.

Sunday: Spent most of the morning quarantined at the hospital with Jojo – negative on the swine flu, but he did have a pretty nasty ear infection. Met with Sidney to look at a few more houses, nothing we excited over. Went to Dave and Buster’s for Mike’s graduation party that evening.

Monday: Mike spent at least 7 hours on the operating table for his anthroscopic ankle surgery that was only supposed to last 2 – they ended up taking cartilage from his knee and placing it in his ankle.

Tuesday: Looked at more houses (our realtor is super great), one we ended up putting in an offer for – long shot, but at this point, I guess it doesn’t hurt. This is Offer #1 on House #2.

Wednesday: We found out from Sidney that after having been denied on Offer #2 on House #1, the listing agent tells her the buyer then picked over us backed out and (if we were interested), he could submit our offer to the bank without having to put the property back on the market. Essentially, we wouldn’t be competing with any other loans. After a bit of hesitation, we decided to put in Offer #3 on House #1.

Thursday: I came home from a long day at work to find poop all over the house. Ethan has done quite well in the potty arena, but he has pretty nasty poopy accidents. He must’ve been too busy playing to take a break, because it all originated in the playroom – and you could follow the trail through the hallway where he must’ve reached in to “check things out”, then ends in our room where he cleverly disposes the soiled underwear and shorts and tried to wipe them off with his socks.

Fast forward to yesterday/today (now technically Saturday at 1:30 in the morning): Got a GORGEOUS tulips bouquet from Mike. It always makes me the center of attention in the office. A coworker even warned me never to bring him to the office because she’s fallen in love with him (because he does my hair when my hand is broken, meets me for lunch, and sends me flowers all the time). BACK OFF, he’s taken!

Swine Flu Scare

This poor kid's pic has gone viral since the outbreak...

Over the weekend, the president tried to assure everyone that this new strain of swine flu is a "cause of concern, not alarm". News reports spiral on the first documented death of a toddler in Texas this morning, after having traveled over from Mexico.

It's all over TV. It's all over the radio. It's all over the net. It's all over....

I'm in California for pete's sake. Every other person here probably knows someone who knows someone who have recently been to Mexico.

Case in point:

Just found out this morning that one of the guys that work for us is getting tested as we speak for the swine flu. He went to Mexico over the weekend and came back sick. I'm not sure how long the process is for finding out if you're infected with the virus... but we're all getting somewhat nervous. I'm hoping they shut down the office and desensitize it, but most and foremost, I hope he doesn't get tested positive.

The World Health Organization just raised its alert this morning another level -- two levels short of declaring a full pandemic. News reports also confirm that the virus is being transmitted human-to-human, not pig-to-human. Forgive me for not craving for pork chops, but I think I'll stay away for now until all this is over.

What is Your Emergency?

A few months ago, Ethan picked up the “You’re not my friend” bit from school and would strategically use it against anyone that does anything he doesn’t like.

Lately, his threats have escalated to “I’ll call the police on you” whenever he doesn’t get his way.

When my brother was 3-years-old, he called 9-1-1, told the operator “my sisters are being mean to me” and hung up. They traced the call to our house and sent patrol over to check on him. My mom finally convinced them that was no harm done, and he just learned how to call the police if something bad happened. They let us off with a warning.

So I guess we’ll hold off on teaching him how to call 9-1-1 for maybe another year.

Last thing we need is Ethan calling the police whenever we put him on time out.

FREE Chicken at EL POLLO LOCO: Tuesdy, April 28th Only

Details from the official El Pollo Loco website:


Taste the Fire^® for FREE
at El Pollo Loco on April 28

Official Rules

• The Taste the Fire® Offer (“offer”) consists of one flame-grilled leg and one flame-grilled thigh, two tortillas (choice of flour or corn) and fresh salsa.
• Offer is available upon request only.
• Valid only at participating locations.
• No coupon necessary.
• Limit one offer on April 28, 2009 until 8:00 p.m. per customer.
• Must be present to receive. Sides, drinks and breast substitutions are extra.
• Available for walk-in orders only (dine-in or carry-out). Not available for delivery or drive-thru. While supplies last.

Remember: CALL before you make the trip, to make sure your local store is participating.

Weekend at the Gaslamp District

Just before the free hotel stint went kapoot, I managed to book a couple of free hotel rooms spread out for the rest of the year, including this past weekend in San Diego. Not just anywhere in San Diego, but right smack in the middle of the Gaslamp Quarter (aka Gaslamp District)… which was a perfect getaway, even for just an overnighter.

After eating $20 to valet, we set out to discover block after block of bars, lounges and restaurants.

View from the Ramada rooftop just before our drinking binge...


This is us before hitting happy hour at the Double Deuce...



Alcohol makes you do stupid things....



Yes, Sissy's hat does say "I put out"....

Roro looks a little drunk, even if he wouldn't admit it....

View from our rooftop before we retired for the night....

Our First Offer

We’re putting in our first offer for a house this afternoon! I know I shouldn’t be getting all emotionally attached to the house, since it’s never a guarantee… blah, blah, blah. But I can’t help but get excited that we’re on our way to finally getting our own home. It is after all the American dream, isn’t it?

We’ve only been searching for 2 weeks (seems like forever) and have seen about a dozen or more houses across two neighboring cities. Many had potential, some were just “ok”, and others were just too disgusting to even talk about. This was the first house that we both like that is within our range – in the lower end of our range, even. It fell off escrow on Friday, our agent told us about it immediately, and we looked at the house first thing Saturday morning. Spent Sunday mauling over the “big” decision, and concluded that the only deciding factor would be my commute to work. So I woke up really early this morning, went to the house, and timed my commute from there. It took me roughly the same time to get to work compared to what I drive now, so at 8am this morning, we gave our realtor the green light.

Only to find out that someone else had made an offer late Sunday night and so we’re technically not “first in line” but we were assured our offer will be considered just the same.

While we’re hopeful about this one, we’re not wasting any time. There’s another house that went on the market today that we’ll be looking at.

We’re keeping our fingers cross though. Hopefully, the bank will get back to us with an answer by the end of this week.

Scooting By

Sandbox

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted any photos of Ethan!

Well.... I'm so glad I get to hold my camera and take photos again! I still can't carry much weight with my right hand, but all I need is the trigger finger and I'm good to go!

These photos are taken at the sandbox at the park the other day. After a couple minutes of unsuccessful hunt for treasure, Ethan decided he'd to bury himself in the sand. Too cute!

Is it yummy?

McDonalds - 2 for 1 Drinks M-F 2-5pm

Sissy got me addicted to the Vanilla Iced Coffee with 2 extra pumps - which by the way is an extra .30 PER pump!

So the deal is every Monday-Friday, from 2pm-5pm, you can get 2 drinks - MIX and MATCH - for the price of one, which I'm guessing would be the higher priced one.


Details here