Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

When we first had Penny we were the lone people in our circle of LA friends who had kids. Slowly but surely, some of our friends have had children. Most recently my friends, Charlie and Kristy have had a baby boy. At two months old, it was time to get Momma Kristy out of the house. We planned a spa day at Burke Williams, my favorite place! We decided to go to the one near Kristy's house which happens to be near Disneyland, so hubby and Penny went to Happiest Place on Earth while Mommy had a most magical massage with her girlfriend. This is the fourth Burke Williams location I have visited and I have to say it ranks as number two on my list, right behind tried and true, Pasadena location. This location was big and had more room in the the woman's spa area. It was so nice to meet up with Kristy there and have some good old fashion girl talk. After spending some time in the jacuzzi we each went to our separate treatment. Hers a facial and I did a 50 minute Pure Relaxati...

Penny is growing, growing, growing! Before my eyes my little baby has turned into this little person who explores, mimics, and tries new things. Did I mention she sings now? It has been such a joy these past few months to watch Penny develop day by day. Without fail she learns something new each day. It's fun to see her skills get more fine tuned as each day goes by. For instance, she is practicing counting and learning the letters of the alphabet. She knows numbers through 10 but its putting them in their proper orders what she is trying to figure at the moment. She definitely knows the letter P and for that matter, her name. She is learning shapes and colors as well. She of course, loves her "TB" aka the iPad with all of her Disney movies. She has watch some so many times she can anticipate when something is going to happen. I will be in the car and I will hear an "ow" only to realize she isn't hurt but she is foreshadowing when a frog character ...

It's always hubby's goal to get out of the house at least once. Twice if he is lucky. Penny is behaving better and better at restaurants. Its still work believe me but with the help of a certain "TB" aka iPad it sometimes keeps Penny occupied until the meal arrives. For our one outing I suggested we go to Eden's Burger Bar which I had bookmarked on YELP. I had been wanting to try it for a long time and today was the perfect day. So the three of us drove a mile and a half down the road to get our grub on. We were the first patrons of the day. The waitress saw our toddler and seated us in the back corner which was fine with me because it allowed Penny to watch her movies on the iPad. Penny had fun playing with a painting app much to hubby's dismay as she was enjoying erasing a picture of Mickey that hubby drew. Penny enjoyed sitting in a big girl chair all by herself. There menu was delightful to read as there were so many good sounding burgers. ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We got up at 5:30am to get ready for the parade. We woke Penny up at 630am and left the house a little before 7am. Pasadena is only 5 minutes from us but as we approached we encountered a sea of cars. Hubby excited immediately and took side streets. His quick thinking got us to Norton Simon Museum in no time at all. We picked up our tickets which were given to us by Caroline, who works for the museum and is able to put in a request for tickets each year. Luckily we got the tickets because this year the MSU Spartans, my school, won the Big 10 Championship and were invited to play in the Rose Bowl against Standford. As we drove into Pasadena there was a sea of "green." I haven't seen so many Spartans in one place in over 15 years! It was very exciting to witness. Our seats were amazing! On Colorado Avenue right at the beginning of the parade route. Penny was truly excited by the parade. She loved the first hour and like a true toddler started squirming t...

We just stuck around home this year because we were lucky to be given tickets to the Pasadena Rose Parade, which everyone knows you have to get up super early for! We had fun playing with hats. We ordered pizza and introduced Penny to E.T.  After Penny went to bed, mom and dad watched the truly horrible Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper commentate on the NYC happenings. It was so bad we didn't even make it to midnight instead opting for more sleep!

After spending a fun day at Disneyland we met up with our good friends Charlie and Kristy and their newborn son, Dylan to not only celebrate Brian's birthday but to celebrate their wedding anniversary which falls on December 21st. A few years ago we celebrated both occasions together at Ruth Chris Steak House in Pasadena. We decided to celebrate together again this year and searched for restaurants but fell upon Ruth Chris Steak house in Anaheim. Not that any of us complained! I was a bit worried going to such a nice restaurant with Penny. She is usually pretty good but sometimes she can be unruly. I didn't want this to be one of those nights. But it was as if she knew this was super important and she put on her best behavior. Frankly, I can't believe she was so good considering we didn't sit in a booth and she had to sit in a high chair which she hates doing in restaurants. While I was worrying about Penny, our friends were worrying about their baby. Lucki...

Before heading to Sanger for Christmas with hubby's family, we always open our presents and stockings at home in LA. With us heading to Sanger on the 23rd we decided to open everything on December 22 which happens to be hubby's 38th birthday! We celebrated his birthday at Disneyland yesterday so that we could focus this day on our family Christmas. To start our day we headed down to Chinatown to CBS and grabbed some Dim Sum from their take out store. we brought it home and grubbed. Penny really loved the little fried chicken wings that I got. She must have eaten half of them!!! We planned to take dad out for some Roscoe's but our appointment with the Time Warner Cable Guy took longer then expected. No one could figure out why we weren't getting channel 340, the most important channel of all, the Disney Junior Channel!!! He stayed for quite a few hours and didn't leave until 6:30pm. Since that was a little too late to go out with Penny we had dinner at home...

Guess where we went for hubby's 38th birthday? Yep, we made the drive down to Anaheim and went to Disneyland! Penny's 3rd time in a week and Daddy and Mommy's second time in a week! We got up early and beat the crowd which was projected to be at 91% that day. We were able to accomplish quite a bit by mid-day and even more by 4:30pm when we left the park to meet up with our good friends for a dual celebration, a birthday and an anniversary at Ruth Chris's Steak House.

This holiday season I find myself without a job, which means no company Holiday Party or vendor parties to attend. It's a bit of a bummer when I see all my work friends on Facebook post pictures of the gorgeous Paramount Christmas Tree but what can you do? Mope? Nope. As December closed, I was beginning to think there would be absolutely no parties to go to but I was proven wrong. Hubbby announced his company Holiday party was coming up. Well, he didn't even have to speak the words before I was day dreaming about crashing his party. Okay, the word "crash" was not exactly right. He did after all speak the words "you're both invited." Since it was our only invitation, Penny and I jumped at the chance and drove to Burbank to party it up. The party started at 5pm but by the time we arrived the holiday spirit was a hopping! There was a nice spread of food with caterer's handing out bits and bob's. There were drinks if you so desired. B...