The Pocket Protectors to the Rescue

Well folks I did it I ran my first race ever, and my body is asking "what the heck were you thinking". The Great Urban race was absolutely so much fun and amazing. It's a great way for couples, family and friends to bond. You really learn that you have to work together in order to succeed. At the beginning of the race I was full of stamina and excitement I was ready to go and find clue after clue. Then about 1 hour into the race my asthma started acting up and my body was giving up, I had no clue how I was going to finish this race. But my sisters constant support (and yelling) kept me going. I knew I had to finish, I teach my kids never to give up and I had to do the same.

For those of you who do not know what the Great Urban Race is, its pretty much a scavenger hunt between downtown L.A and West Hollywood. You are not allowed to get a taxi, ride a bike, roller skate or hitch a ride from anyone, you have to use your own two feet or public transportation i.e bus or subway. You have 12 clues that you must figure out within 5 hours the team with the shortest time wins. Our first clue we tried to complete our tic tac toe which was pretty much finding people with certain clothes, hair do's, or posters. Some were easier than others and some people were down right rude and refused to take pictures with you because they were scared there wife would see this pics and wonder why he was in LA. Well hello wanna be Tiger Woods don't lie to your wife idiot. Ok I got off course a little then we had to donate either 2 pairs of new socks or 3 toothbrushes to a shelter that was set up on our course. Well thank goodness I had bought some extra socks at Target the night before and didn't have to run around town finding a store that sold these items. So that was a score for our team. Then we found a nice group of gentlemen with ties to take a pic with us. As you can see this race will take you way out of your comfort zone. Then we hopped on the subway to WEHO and finshed 4 clues there.

We we're making good time until we got wrong directions a few times which cut into 30 mins of our time. After that back to Downtown LA we went heading to the Staples Center, PAWS, Nokia Place and finding some mysterious statue that no one has ever seen before. Which was up a pretty steep hill and at this point I was really done I can feel my feet we're wet which I knew was blood in my shoes and I just wanted to sit down and cry I was in so much pain. But we were almost there and I couldn't give up and we did it in 3 hours and 50 mins. I was finally done I did it. I might of had 2 bloody toes, a rash down my leg and a pretty good bruise but I finished. I know next year that I will be in better shape and get a decent pair of running shoes.

Here's some of pics from the race.

Life is too short....

Well it's been awhile since I've blogged, I went from working 6 days a week and having no time to blog to being laid off and having all the time in the world but too lost to blog. And what I mean by being too lost is that when you go from being in a routine everyday of going to work, coming home making dinner, getting the kids off to bed and the husband out the door to work and when one of those elements is taken away you become lost. The first two weeks I didn't know what to do with all the extra time I had in the day and I started to become somewhat depressed and wished I was back at work. Some of you are thinking you should be happy your at home with your kids and should being spending all your time with them. Don't get me wrong I was loving every extra moment with my kids, but then you start to think all the extra money from your paychecks you were receiving to pay bills and put food on the table will no longer be coming in you go into panic mode. How will we survive was the big question. My husband is the ultimate optimist, saying we will just have to spend less, cut down on things that were luxuries to us and not to worry. On the hand I'm the ultimate pessimist always worrying and stressing on what will happen. (opposites really do attract, we kind of balance each other out)

So here we are going on week 4 of being laid off and I've come to term with things and enjoying my moments with my kids. I get to be there to make breakfast, lunch and dinner for them, we go to the park, I even to get to visit friends and have play dates which I never was able to do before since I was working all the time. As I see it this was sort of a blessing in disguise, since my grandmother (Oma) can also have time to relax since she was the one watching my kids everyday. And it's not a easy task for a 78 year old lady to keep up with a 4 year old and a 2 year old. But she has managed to watch kids for the last 18 years and I think it is what keeps her going everyday. But now it is her turn to relax, visit her friends and go to her favorite place the casino.

Now that brings me to why I titled this blog "Life is too short". A few months ago I stumbled upon a blog called http://laylagrace.org After reading the stories of this beautiful little girl, I became so touch and admired by this family. Layla is losing her battle to Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. I started to cry as I read each blog post and wondered why God does such things to children. I can only imagine what these parents are going through to have to watch there child pass away right before there eyes. Everyday I think about this little girl and her family and how incredibly strong they are to share there journey with the world. After reading there stories I don't take anything for granted anymore. I make sure to kiss my kids 10x more each day, hug them tighter and know that everyday they are blessing to my husband and I. I want to thank Layla and her family for touching my life and making me stop and think that life is too short and we never know when our journey here will end. That we should take nothing for granted, spend less time in front of our computers and TV's and more time living our lives with our family and friends. Those are memories you will cherish forever.

Now that it is way pass my bed time I'm off to sleepy land and before I do I'm going to give my kids one last kiss good night. Before I go here is some pictures of what we have been up to the past few months.

Disneyland with the Tombs Family

New Years Day with family and great friends.

Ashlyn's 2nd Birthday Piggy Style

Christmas 2009

Aidan's 4th Birthday...vrrroooom Race Car style.

Turkey Dinner and some Paranormal Activity

Well Thanksgiving came and went..wow is time sure flying fast these day. It's exactly 24 days til Christmas are all of you ready, because Im sure not. I think I really need to sit down and create a list of everyone I need to buy for and what on earth to get them. Then on top of all that I have 2 kids birthdays to plan. Aidan's happens to be 2 weeks before Christmas and Ashlyn's is 2 weeks after, can you tell we did not plan to well the birth of our babies. But that's ok because we have decided even though there birthdays fall so close to Christmas they will still have there own special day. Ok now that I totally detoured off topic. So 2 days before Thanksgiving my hubby and I decided that we were going to hold Thanksgiving dinner at our house, since there had been some unforseen events happen. We did not want my MIL to stress about Turkey dinner on top of everything else she had on her plate. So needless to say I was a total stress bucket, I have never cooked a darn Thanksgiving dinner in my entire life. WTH was I thinking when I agreed to this, someone surely must of spiked my drink. So the day before Thanksgiving Im sitting at work thinking about what side dishes and appetizers to make when it dawns on me how the heck do you clean a turkey. First thing that comes to my mind was soap and water of course that will clean the turkey for sure. Well my mexican mommies at work informed that this is not how we clean a turkey and thank God for them they came to my rescue and gave me step by step directions. And even when I couldn't do it all by myself Alba came to help me clean it out and season it the night before..oh how I love those ladies. Now to backtrack a bit when I was washing the turkey I saw a long meaty thing inside its cavity I pulled out and Aidan was like mortified by this. He was like mom what is that..I responded son it the neck of the turkey. I should of never said that, because then he proceeded to tell me I killed the turkey and I need to bring him back to life. He was very upset so I finally sent him upstairs with his dad who was also disgusted by this whole process.

So Thanksgiving morning I got up pretty early and started to prep everything, and boy was that a task with a sick 1 year old needing you to hold her while you peel and mash potatoes. At that moment I was so ready for my Oma to come home, she has been away visiting my mom in New York/New Jersey for a week. So needless to say I made it through all of that and the in laws showed up and my MIL helped me with the Sweet Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole. Finally it was time my turkey was ready and I was so so nervous that it wasn't going to taste good or worst yet not be cooked all the way thru. But low and behold it was perfect, it was really juicy and the meat was falling off the bone. I was so estatic I made my first Turkey dinner ever. Yes mom you would be proud and thanks for all your help via the telephone.

Later that evening we decided since we have a viewers copy of Paranormal activity that we would all watch it. Wow was that a bad idea, especially since my hubby had to work that night and I was going to be home alone with the kids all night. So I pretty much did not sleep very well that night every little noise I thought the demon was entering my house trying to get us. LOL

Next up is Aidan's 4th birthday party this weekend. Its race car themed and he is so excited. The place that made my wedding cake is making his race car themed cake and I can't wait to see what it's going to look like. I do have to say having a race car party was a tricky one and thank goodness for internet shopping, I found everything I needed even down to the plates. Tomorrow Im off to find a pinata wish me luck.

The turkey is done. Gooble Gooble

All the side dishes

Turkey is carved anf ready to eat

My cute lil family except my children were not so happy to take a pic

All of The Gandy's

The Scout and Lil Red Riding Hood

Well Halloween was a much anticipated holiday in our house. Aidan was so very anxious to put on his costume. He like I mentioned earlier was going to be The Scout from Team Fortress 2, and did it take me awhile to find everything for his outfit. I went to several different stores before heading to a Army Surplus store in Hollywood. That place was a one stop shop, thank goodness. They had everything we needed to make him his favorite character. Then there's my lil Ashlyn, oh she was the sweetest lil red riding hood that I ever saw. My friend Crystal's mom made a beautiful costume for her. She even made her a matching basket, which was perfect for holding her Halloween candy as she walked door to door.

Trick or Treating was great fun, the kids did about a block and half by our house. Ashlyn is still learning not to run away from mommy when we walk together. That girl gives me my daily exercise. She seems to think its quite funny when she runs away. Little does she know she's giving me mini heart attacks. After we trick or treated in our neighborhood we went to my friend Cindi's house for there annual Halloween celebration. It was great fun to see everyone, especially since I don't get out much. We went trick or treating again with the kids there Aidan was pooped out after 2 blocks. Go figure, I remember trick or treating for hours seeing how much candy we could collect. Well he's still little, I'll give him a few years to catch up. LOL

So without further ado here are some Halloween pics.

Wannabe Holly Homemaker

Yes I admit I'm trying to be a creative momma this year by making my kids costumes. Who the hell was I fooling I can't sew worth crap. So thank goodness my best friends mom can and she is sewing Ashlyn a beautiful Lil Red Riding Costume and I am still putting together Aidan's costume myself. He wants to be the Scout from Team Fortress 2 other wise known to Aidan as the "Catch It". Don't ask where he got that name from cause heck if I know. The darn scout looks like a baseball player to me, but if I even mention he's a baseball player Aidan gets angry. So let's see how he does on Halloween when everyone says "Oh your such a cute little baseball player". I already know my son is going to correct each and every one of them. Poor people if you only known how stubborn my son is.

On another note I took the kids this pass Sunday to the pumpkin patch and they had a blast. We went with the in laws and thank goodness they came, because there's no way I could of done it all by myself. First off I forgot to bring the stroller so carrying Ashlyn was ok at first but my arms were dying by the end of the day. I don't mind her walking around but my children seem to think its funny to run away from mommy, and if Ashlyn sees any kid of animal she's running towards it. That girl is a true animal lover, I've never seen a kid scream with joy every time she's sees a dog or a cat. She's my lil Dr Doolittle. So back to the pumpkin patch the kids went to the petting zoo and had a great time with the billy goats and chickens. We ate yummy roasted corn on the cob covered in butter. So good but sooo not good for my cholesterol or diet.

Here's are some pictures from our lil trip to the pumpkin patch and hopefully next week we will be heading to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween.

Aidan wanting to pay for his own pumpkin

My lil princess always has to carry her Dora purse.
Such a girly girl.

Finally posing for mommy.

My lil animal lover

This right before he asked me if we can take him home. LOL

Boo Hoo I got the Flu

Well the flu has made a full circle in our household. It all started with the hubby, then the kids and now me. I seem to think I've got it the worse, since I've been sick for over a week now. I finally went to the docs yesterday, he wasn't so happy I waited a week to come see him but with our crazy schedule that was the earliest I could fit it in. He said the flu has been hitting people pretty hard this season and will continue to do so until March. So I'm hoping after the meds he gave me it will start to nip things it the butt, because these headaches and bouts of nausea are horrible. I almost feel like I'm preggers again which I'm NOT lol!!!!

Oh did I forget to mention we went to Disney World a few weeks ago. Oh boy did we have a blast. This year we stayed at The Wilderness Lodge and I'm pretty sure that's where we will be staying from now on. Its absolutely gorgeous and it has everything you need right there in the hotel, from a convenience store to a 4 star restaurant. The pool they have at the resort is perfect, there is a 1ft deep kiddie pool and a big pool with a slide which Aidan really enjoyed. He thought he was such a big boy riding the slide all by himself.

We experienced all 4 parks while we were there and just kind of took it at our pace. This year Aidan decided he wanted to be a bog boy and not have a stroller, which was fine by us until he decided towards the end of the days he was too tired to walk. Oh boy a 3 almost 4 year old sure is mighty heavy to carry from the theme parks back to our resort.

Towards the last couple days of our trip my parents came in to spend some time with there grand babies and the kids were thrilled to see them. Since they have moved to the East Coast we don't get to see each as often as we like. We had a great 2 days with them and they spoiled the munchkins with lots of toys, that we had a hard time fitting into our suitcases coming home. But rest assured all the lovely stuff animals made it safely might have been a little crammed and smushed but they made it. Well its time for me to take my meds and but the kids to bed. I will be blogging again real soon.

NYC/NJ trip and the plane ride from hell

Well since I have not blogged in a month I'm going to give you small updates everyday of what happened throughout the month of may. This has been a busy much and I always tried to get around to blogging, but by the end of the day I was either too exhausted or my laptop was on the fritz. So first off beginning of the month we went to New York/New Jersey to visit my parents. We had a blast as usual except that it rained for a majority of the time we were there so that wasn't so much fun, but we made the best of it. We went the the Natural Museum of History, ate at the Shake Shack, walked around Soho and Greenwich Village, went to the Tribeca Family Festival, the Hoboken street fair and much much more eating. I gained 5 pounds. On the day we were to leave we all wanted ice cream even though it was cold and rainy so my sister searched yelp.com and found a place called Dollie's Ices in Brooklyn. Oh my was this the best homemade ice cream ever. All of us including the kids had ice cream. (remember this ice cream story)

Then we drive to the airport which wasn't far away, thank god our parents were there to help us because we had way to much luggage and on top of it 2 kids, 2 strollers and 2 car seats. AHHHH what was I thinking bringing so much crap. So finally we get thru security which was not easy since they make everyone take off there shoes including the baby and Aidan was screaming because he had to put his new pirate toy thru the X-ray. After that we decided we needed food for the plane ride so went and got a chicken wrap and some chips. Then as we are walking to the gate we hear final boarding call for Monique Gandy, Aidan Gandy and Michanne Quinney. I look at my sister like did they just call our names over the loud speaker. Holy Sh&# were gonna miss our flight. So if you have ever seen Home Alone the scene in the movie where they are running thru the airport that is us with 2 kids in there strollers. We barely made it. Oh my word I was so embarrassed. Finally we get on the plane and were told after we started taxing that there are more than 35 planes in front of us to take off so it will be about an hour or so. So during this time my darling daughter poops and everyone knows when you are taxing you are not allowed to leave your seat. So I wait awhile til the smell gets so bad I have to call the flight attendant. He comes over and says he has to get permission from the captain. Finally 15 mins later he comes back saying I have permission. So Ashlyn is finally clean and changed Captain comes on the loud speaker saying there are still another 20 or so planes in front of us will be another hour and half. Holy lord are you kidding me. I have 2 antsy kids don't make this plane ride any longer on me.

About 20 mins later still taxing Aidan tell me "Mommy I really have to go poo poo". So I'm like ok, I call over the flight attendant again, tell him my son really has to go the bathroom. He says he can't call the captain again to stop the airplane, but to let him see what he can do. Finally he comes back stating he can take him to the restroom, but before I could say yes Aidan has already bolted to the restroom. Now I'm in shock that some man I don't know is helping my son in the restroom, I keep looking over my seat to see if I need to go help him. Finally the other stewardess comes over and says don't worry he is ok he just has to poop a lot. At this point my sister is in tears laughing, and I'm thinking what else could go wrong. Finally Aidan comes back the male flight attendant tells me he use to be an Au Pair and has wiped many kids butts. Well doesn't that make me feel better, not so much. So finally after being on the ground for 3 hours we finally take off. Aidan is fast asleep at this point and Ashlyn is still awake when my pants get really warm and wet when I realized she has peed thru her diaper. So as I get to the diaper bag to get a diaper to change her I realize she has also pooped and has bad diarrhea. Then within minutes she pukes and luckily I caught it in my hand. Then I'm wondering why is she getting sick and I realize she at ice cream and my lil booger is lactose intolerant. Oh lord what did we do, she is sick to her tummy on an airplane. So I finally change her again and wipe me off I had no extra clothes to change in so I had to sit in my pee and puked soaked clothing. Lord did I feel sorry for the people closest to us. Then Ashlyn finally falls asleep and Michanne and I decide to eat our food. In the middle of eating our food I go to grab my soda and drop it all over my poor sister Isabella Fiore purse. At this moment I think we got to be on the tv showed punked or having a really bad joked played on us. Then as I finally relax I bend over to get my magazine to read and the person in front of me decides to recline her chair at the same time and about knocks me out. And all she did was say sorry (not very nicely mind you) and still left her chair fully reclined. I was so uncomfortable with hardly any room with a sleeping infant on my lap and this lady half in breathing area. Lord did we have bad luck.

Tomorrow I will tell you all about my big "30" birthday!!!