Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Catching up...

So, during my hiatus from blogging, quite a few things happened and I'm going to just go back and give a quick recap.

Last month, Dave took the girls for a walk by himself down the street (and I emphasize "by himself" because it's a pretty big deal to embark upon any kind of journey alone with these little punks). Well, about an hour passed and night fall had come and I was starting to get worried. I called Dave's cell and he miraculously answered. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Dave, where the *#$ are you (honey)?
Dave: We are down the street in the ex-president's house.
Me: Ex-president. What are you talking about and where are my children?
Dave: They're fine. They are somewhere around the house right now. These people are really nice and keep giving them presents. We'll be back soon.
Click.

Well, as you may gather, Dave and the girls eventually made it home. Apparently the nice Chinese couple down the street (who were PRESIDENTS of a COMPANY, not country) had seen the twins, invited Dave in, and let the twins pick from a most eclectic collection of figurines that they had on display in their home, but were apparently willing to part with to please my little ones.

This is what Dave came home with in plastic bag:

Definitely a cat theme going on here, but hey, who doesn't love Sylvester the Cat! I almost wonder if Dave picked him out in honor of Frisky...

Moving forward...

This is what I get to see every morning when I hear that the girls have woken up:
And this is what I see when it's 8:30 and they don't want to go to sleep...

Linda's newest antic is that she will grab something of a seemingly fragile or valuable or dangerous nature, turns to me and says quite ominously, "Mommy, this IS NOT a toy." Apparently, I've been throwing that one around pretty often lately.

Lucy has unleashed the puzzle-master in her. She can put any puzzle together you throw at her-- it's like... a Beautiful Mind. Seriously, she just gets this look on her face and starts throwing pieces together left and right and before you know it, TA DA, the puzzle is done. And I'm not talking about a wooden puzzle for little tykes either-- like puzzles for a 5+ year old. She's amazing I tell you, amazing! I'm most impressed because Linda really isn't half as good at Lucy at this, and since we all know Linda is also BRILLIANT, it's just that much more astounding. Lucy loves doing it too-- she loves grabbing pieces in her chubby little hands and trying to fit them together while saying, "Riiiiiiiiight, here? Riiiiiiiiiiiight, here?" Pretty cute.

And here are some pics of the munchkins for Easter. I will definitely appreciate this much more than anyone else, since I didn't get to spend Easter with these kiddos since I had to fly out to San Francisco and deal with the nefarious custom's agent who was holding my goods hostage. I called her up, pleaded my case, pleaded my staff's incompetence and she kindly responded that she'd release goods on the condition she received the original time cards. Easy enough right? Not if you live in my shoes. I did get the goods released, mind you, but only after making new time cards for Feb 1-16 by punching every member of the Bebe team in and out for every day they worked for 2 weeks, since my brilliant accountant lost the originals. I'd take a picture of my raw thumb and forefinger but thought I thought it was bad taste.

It was great fun taking a time clock on a plane and having to announce every time I went through security that that strange looking object, the one that could be possibly mistaken for a bomb, was actually an innocuous time clock (to be used for criminal activity granted, but just not the violent kind). To the skeptics out there, this was totally legit, since as an owner, I can do whatever I want. At least that's what my attorney told me to say....

Anyway, after freaking out on the plane until the moment I walked out of Tonda's office victoriously, I had a fantastic time in that beautiful city ( and, yes, her name was Tonda-- which, although a bit strange, was nothing compared to the name of the woman who was in charge of storing the goods-- her name was Princess. Kind of funny, because my friend Kate heard me talking on the phone, saying things like, "THanks so much Princess-- just call me as soon as you find out, princess"-- and thought for a full 10 minutes that I was throwing that out there as a friendly nick name).

Well, after the goods were released, it was time to let loose. Kate Wilcox Nance, Esquire was kind enough to take care of me in my homeless state. We had a fantastic time catching up and she showed me around and took me to some fantastic restaurants. Did you know, by the way, that a gallon of Milk, MILK, in San Francisco cost $6.50?? And cereal, costs like $6? Yowzers.

After Kate's, I spent the day with Anne, my sister-in-law/hero. She just got back from a Diabetes camp where she met up with the triathletes she's working together with to train for an Ironman in Wisconsin-- these Emmy-award winning producers are doing a documentary on this group-- they all have Type 1 diabetes and are amazing, I mean, amazing athletes. It's really very inspiring. Their website is www.Triabetes.org, I think. Anyway, Anne's just phenomenal-- I am hoping to be able to do something half as cool as her in the near future.

So, anyway, while I was off enjoying a beautiful San Francisco Easter weekend with my friend and sister-in-law, the girls were just being their beautiful selves, having fun on their Easter-egg hunt. Here is what they looked like when I was so far away, missing them, but also, retrieving any semblance of sanity that I could steal while away...

Turn your head...it's worth it.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Tonight

So, I was putting the girls down for bed tonight and Linda yelped for more milk (yes, they still drink milk before they go to bed-- I am a loser). Anyway, I said as sweetly as possible, "I'm sorry, honey, we don't have any more milk" because I was too lazy to go downstairs and get some and I knew this was just a stall tactic anyway.

Lucy, not Linda, got up on her knees, looked at me in the eyes (which was actually kind of scary in that light...) and said, "THEN. GO.BUY. SOME. MORE. MILK."

Wowzers. The things they learn from their father...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Home Sweet Home


When Dave and I lived in San Diego-- it was the greatest. Seriously, hands down, San Diego is the best place to live in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. Besides the fact that Dave and I associate the place with late night gallivanting at Boomers, surfing and boogie boarding at the Shores, and really, the care-free life that comes pre-children, it's just a great place where we met some of our most favorite people (you know who you are...and who you aren't...j/k).

One of the best parts of living in this Eden, was the fact that whenever we went on vacation somewhere, anywhere, you name it, landing in San Diego or driving down the 5 along the Coast, we couldn't help but feel like we were starting on a whole new vacation but it was actually HOME. So, needless to say, going back to SD a couple weeks ago to meet up with our homies was a bitter-sweet homecoming.

We actually went to Cali to go to my sweet cousin's wedding where the twins starred as the flower girls-- they aimed to please as they very obediently placed rose petals down the aisle and then one of them proceeded to yell out, "oh no, I made a mess!" as both twins stopped in their tracks, and picked up each petal they had so deftly dropped just seconds before.

OH, I ALMOST FORGOT! Another great thing about Cali is going star-searching, like Hollywood Stars searching. We actually got to meet the one and only Jane Maynard, blogger-extraordinaire of This Week for Dinner. She even let me take a picture of her and her family.


I love it when famous people are so humble and let you take pictures of them looking like the people next door...

Anyway, the twins met up with one of their oldest friends, Cate Maynard (who happens to be Jane's daughter) and met the newest Maynard addition, little Anna-- what a sweet heart. The highlight of the trip must have been the play ground. Cate showed them the ropes and the twins were delighted to hang out with such a big kid. When bed time rolled around, the twins slept in Cate's room---- at 2am I was awakened by a suspicious chatter. Lo and behold, there were the 3 girls, huddled around each other on the floor, laughing it up like it was 1999. It was so cute.

The big kids were serious party animals too. Except for Dave, he went to sleep, on the floor, at like, 9. We made a feeble attempt to play Catan but since it was clear I was going to embarrass the Maynard's on their home turf, they sabotaged the game by claiming exhaustion. Whatever.

Anyway, it was a great trip except for the fact that Dave and I spent 90% of the time wrestling with evil custom's agents, who, by the way, are now going on 4 weeks, 4 freaking weeks, holding over $100,000 worth of merchandise until they review the 100+ production/cutting/import reports we compiled for them within 24 hours of their initial audit request. Does anyone know the port authority of San Francisco by the way?? I wrote a sob letter explaining that we are a small family owned company out of SLC and that our client could and would very likely cancel the order if goods weren't received within 7 days. Apparently, no one was moved. Fortunately, bebe has not canceled though- yet.

So that was our fun weekend get-a-way. We are hoping for another great adventure in May with the Riches if we can find a way to keep afloat and get someone to hold the fort down for us while we are gone escaping this world of fun we call being stressed 24 hours a day.

here are some more pics:

Slides are fun.













Fun with Cate and the headless Amelia Wignall.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Dave finally beat me at something...

165 words

Speed test

How freaking cool is this?

81 words

This must significantly increase my chances of getting a job in the real world, right? Just keeping my options open in case this whole factory thing doesn't pan out...

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

luck o' the Irish?

Well, for some time now, I've found myself pretty, pretty, entertained by the way Linda addresses things that are HERS. For example, "oh, it's me balloon!" or "oh, it's me crayons!" Who would have thought the Holmes' closeted Irish roots would show themselves in this lovely little lassy of mine.

I have found this especially entertaining because once when Dave and I were in Ireland (at the airport), we got off the plane and a little girl about 4 years old, looked up at her father, pointed out the window and said with the sweetest Irish accent I've ever heard: "Don't ya know, we're in Ireland now, Da(d)?" I say this phrase at least once a month just for kicks.

Anyway, unfortunately for Linda, poor grammar is a bit of a pet peeve for her mama, so I've been trying to correct her and teach her to say "my" instead of the otherwise endearing "me"-- but to no avail. Just today she yelped, "Lucy took me bubbles! Me bubbles!"

As she said this, a smile swept across my face. Sonya, our helper-lady, laughed too. It was then, however, that it dawned on me: Linda is not an Irish lassy at all. "Me" is not "me", but MI, as in Spanish for "my" which just so happens to be pronounced the same way.

Sad day. I much prefer thinking of her as a little leprechaun.