My ideal plans for California...

Everything Thanksgiving we trek out to California to spend the Holiday with my sister. She lives about 5 miles off the beach in beautiful Camarillo. We started a tradition last year of taking the kids to the beach Thanksgiving morning and I have every intention of continuing on with that tradition this year. Let me explain how this trip will go from start to finish. {in my head, that is}

We'll get all packed up on Thursday, take Tay to school on Friday, come back home and get everything put into the car, movies ready, ice chests packed and put into the car, then pick Tay up after lunch and head out. My mom will drive with me, and my dad will meet us out there on Monday {he's very important and needs to teach at the Church on Sunday, he'll be leaving after service}.

So we pick up Tay and we stop in Flagstaff for the night. We sleep, we wake up, we eat, we hit the road. We stop for eating and for diaper changes, and possibly just to let Ozzie hang out OUT of his carseat. We get into L.A. and stop at our old house to reminisce. We get to my sisters house and hang out, happy happy joy joy. Then we go to church with my sister Sunday morning, spend the rest of the day chillaxing and having fun. Monday I go to visit some friends, or I take the kids to the Science Museum {haven't decided yet} Tuesday we go to the mall to do some shopping as well as have a chaperoned visit with my MIL {kill two birds with one stone on that one}, then do our Holiday grocery shopping. Wednesday we set up for Thursday, go out to dinner at The Greek {one of my favorite places to eat, located in the Ventura Harbor} followed by a walk on the beach. Thursday we take previously mentioned traditional trip to the beach, then help prep for dinner. Eat. Laugh. Love. Sleep. Friday we all drive to Santa Barbara for a visit to the zoo. Saturday we start the trek back to Colorado, Sunday we arrive in Colorado and return to normal life!!

Sounds amazing, right?!

Now....if we can just make it happen!!

Final Guest Blogger

Today is the last day of featured guest bloggers, and while that fact makes me sad, I'm at least thrilled with who the last blogger is. David Boreanaz and I have been friends for a couple of years. He's an average guy with an above average job, a sweet and genuine man and I consider him a dear friend. I was thrilled when he agreed to do this. I know there are BONES fans out there who are just screaming in glee right now. At the end of today's post is a link to the community forum for BONES, show your support to the show by signing up at Fox.com and being a part of the BONES fan community. If you have anything to say to David, leave a comment! {I'm sure he'll be checking in, and if not then I'll pass them on for you. }

Enjoy!!

1.      How many kids do you have and what are their names/ages?- I have two kids. Jaden is my oldest, he’s 8 and Bella, she’s 1 y/o.

2.      What do you love about being a dad?- The laughter and the love that I receive from my kids. They make my world a better place and give me a reason to keep on truckin’ even when life throws curve balls.

3.      Where is your favorite place to “chillax”?- At home, in front of the TV or with my family doing something together.

4.      What is the greatest thing about your job?- I’m able to express myself through a different manner.

5.      What did you want to be when you were a kid? – I wanted to be a Architect.

6.      If you could choose to have any profession {other than your current one}, what would it be?- Architect or maybe a Hockey player, or host the NHL games.

7.      What is your biggest fear?-To wake up one day and my life was all a dream.

8.      What is your favorite time of day?-Evenings.

9.      Where is our dream vacation?-On an island, Turtle Island to be exact.

10.  Which character was your favorite to portray?- I’d have to say, Angelus. He was fun to play, but also had a depth to him that allowed me to widen my horizon as an actor.

11.  Where would you like to be 30 years from now?-Let’s see, I’ll be 71 in 30 yrs, so I think I would like to be retired and enjoy life with grandkids all around.

12.  Who is your biggest role model?- My dad.

13.  Do you have a pet peeve? I hate when someone spells "a lot" as one word. That simply annoys me and drives me nuts.

14.  What are some of the challenges being a "celebrity"?- Privacy is the main player. Not being treated normally, I’m just a guy from Philly. I don’t see the point of treating me any different. People having too many POVs of me, when in reality… They no clue who I am. Side part, I hate the word “Celebrity.”

15.  Favorite indulgence?- Cheesecake. I make love to that puppy. Jack Daniels!

16.  Favorite sport and why?- Hockey! My first game I ever attended was with my dad, it was a Flyers game in Philly. Grateful Dead, my favorite band played at the opening.

17.  Do you turn the music down on the stereo when trying to find somewhere?-No

18.   What kind of movies do you most enjoy watching at a cinema??- Action packed or Thriller. I avoid the romantic movies.

What advice would you give to my readers??- Always remain true to yourself. Don’t ever let anyone every put you down and don’t sell yourself short. Life is too short to keep dwelling on the past, live it to the fullest and always keep a level head. Life is a tricky SOB, so play the game and you’ll come out a winner.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in my Guest Blogger event, and thanks to all of you have have visited to read!!

Don't forget to sign up on the BONES Community Forum

Homemade ketchup & laundry detergent

This morning started off a bit rough for me. When I went shopping on Friday I picked up some more laundry detergent, and I was so focused on finding one for an "HE" machine that I forgot to fin one that was fragrance free.....>sigh<

My mom is allergic to chemical fragrances so when we moved here, I had to give up my fresh smelling laundry. {something that I absolutely love}

I didn't realize I had brought home the wrong detergent until after I poured it into the machine, so Ozzie's diapers smell amazing, but my mom's throat was not feeling so amazing. This morning she told me that she was going to replace the new stuff for some fragrance free stuff.

This may seem like a simple matter, no big deal, but for some reason unknown to me, my heart felt broken. I miss that smell of fresh clothes when you pull them out of the drawer and all of a sudden I started thinking about all of the other things I miss.

Like going to the museums or zoos on the weekends, my friends from our home church in California, walking Hollywood Blvd., walking to Fudruckers or Marshalls and watching the kids play in the water fountain. I miss That Hat and In N Out, and I miss knowing that I had a job if I ever wanted to go back to work.

It seems so silly, but like I said, it just got me going.

So I went outside and helped unload some more fire wood and when that was done I cleaned my house and made it look amazing. I felt a little better, but still sorta bummed.

So I made ketchup!

Being allergic to salt, ketchup is something that I really can't indulge in very often, even though I looooove it, so I decided to make my own, that way I could control how much salt was used.

It turned out really good. Not as good as I was hoping because I misread a little and put in a tiny bit too much honey as a sweetener, but it'll be better next time, for sure.

I'm feeling even better now. Still a little bummed, but at least I'm not crying over the lack of fresh smelling t-shirts......so I don't have to feel like a total fool.

It's an improvement!

Sleep? Me thinks not...

For the past two weeks, four out of seven members of our household have struggled with illness. Tay {who was sick a total of 13 days in her first three years} brought home a lovely cold, and since then, she, myself, my mom and my dad can't seem to get back up to 100%.

Of course, whenever one of the kids is sick, I'm up during the night to comfort and aid them as needed, and when I'm the one who's sick, I'm up all night because I'm allergic to two of the three main ingredients in cold and flu medicine.

Usually what I'll do is give Tay some cough and cold meds about an hour before she goes to bed, set up a vaporizer in her room, and put her to bed. That works fairly well, and she will go to sleep and have a decent night.

Not any more. This time I gave her the meds as per usual, but then she was throwing up in the middle of the night.....surprise!! Guess who now is allergic to cough medicine too!!!

So now I can't give her any good memmies, which means I'm up with her through the night trying to make her comfortable as she coughs and heaves a lung......Doing this night after night when you aren't feeling great yourself results in one of two things, if not both:

getting sicker
being so tired that when it comes time to wake up in the morning you resent the very thought of the sun.

I haven't gotten sicker, but I do think one of the reasons why I haven't been able to kick this bug is because I'm so stinking tired. I do resent the sun, though.

On a daily basis.

One thing I am glad for is that because I've been doing such a great job keeping my house clean {patting myself on the back} I don't have to freak out over a mess on top of it all.

All I really want to do is go back to bed and sleep for a few days. But alas, the duties of mom.ness call and thus I pry myself from between my lovely warm sheets.

Don't expect me to be rosey and lighthearted about it though.