Julian Road Trip

I haven't wrote in a few days...mostly because I haven't had much of anything positive to say. If you've read my last two posts, you can tell I've been pretty peeved at the world. I wish I could say that I've had some progress with this move...naw, haven't done anything related to the move in a few days. BUT we've been getting in some memorable times...and some more to come!

We went to Julian this past Sunday! I have some really great pics to share! I just realized that I took a lot of pictures of the kids and didn't get any of the other great things about Julian like fresh raw apple cider, candied apples, fresh apple pies, old country houses, cute little shops, and more! That's okay...maybe next time. We brought Matty's friend Ricky and my friend's son Jay along for the day and had a blast walking around the small town, looking at all the vendors at the Apple Fest, and then hit a pumpkin patch.

My Friend's Son Jay Joined Us

Playing the Silent Game

Aren't these two adorable?!

Zeek is my Lil' Cowpoke!
And I love that the horse's tongue is out.

Messy Face

Matty's buddy Ricky! (He's an amazing cook ladies!)

Matty wasn't impressed with this little pumpkin patch

Pumpkin Heads

The Diva was ready to go home

We have a lot planned for this week. We went to our buddy Joe's for dinner and NCIS tonight...We'll be going to my girlfriend Bruni's house for dinner on Thursday (keeping my fingers crossed for some chimichangas!) We're going to Del Mar on Friday night for the Scare Zone! And then having a lil Asian Food Fest over at Ricky's house Saturday night! I have the weekend free to help my girlfriend Melanie move... and I think that's it for the agenda.

Have you done anything exciting lately? Any mini road trips or staycations? Big plans for the weekend?

Owning a Dog is Effing Expensive

I just want to share with you some of the costs associated owning our dogs - what they have cost us to own them up until this point in time, what we're about to spend on making sure they get to the island with us, and approximate costs on how much we'll be spending when we first get there.

So since these broads came into my life July & December of last year, this is what we've cost us, not including their crates and monthly special food (Buttercup is allergic to chicken we've been told - have you ever heard of such a thing?!) and toys and stuff. This is mostly medical related stuff: 

Buttercup - fun, energetic Beagle born 11/03/2010, weighing in around 26 pounds and 13 inches tall,  Matty's Christmas present

• $3000 - To have a pin put in her back right leg after Molly knocked her down a flight of stairs when she was a new puppy. 
• $275 - We got a great Puppy Package for Buttercup at Animal Medical Center in El Cajon. It included all of her puppy shots, three flea preventative treatments, and for her to get spayed...which we had done at the same time of her leg haul-over. 

Molly - the apple of mama's eye, English Bulldog born 04/03/2011, weighing in at a whopping 55 lbs and a couple inchess taller than Butternuts; Was supposed to be Matty's birthday present but was really a present mama gave to daddy for herself :)

• $1200 - To get this bitch a fancy nose job. Oh, did that just come out like that?! Sure did. And again Animal Medical Center worked with us to correct Molly's collapsed nostrils - yes, I mean both of them - and an elongated pallet and spay her at the same time. Bulldogs do not do well under anesthesia so we wanted it all taken care of at one time, after she turned a year old. 
• $100? - Shots 
• $180 - Random Visits for Molly throwing up, Flea Preventative, etc. 
• $500-700 to replace the fucking dining room vinyl she chewed up when we move! 
• $260 - For a photo shoot at JC Penney's with the Kids...yes, the shoot where I bought more pictures of the dog than I did the kids...Matty hated me for this.

So are you thinking what I'm thinking? Could they possibly cost any more?! Well, yes! Yes, they can! Here's what we have to spend in the upcoming month's to move our babies with us: 

• $320 - ($160 each) To get them microchipped
• $50-$150 To get new crates that can fly in. 
• $570 - Molly's plane ticket with an overnight stay at a kennel in Honolulu!
• $470 - Buttercup's plane ticket is cheaper since she's about 26 pounds to Molly's 55, 
• $120 - ($60 each) Entry Permits
• $200 - Medical visits - Well puppy check before take off and blood work to send off before we can even get those entry permits

These girls are not cheap. Once we get on the island, we need to be prepared to pay $20-40 per dog per day to kennel them. This does not include quarantine fees or transport fees to get our dogs from the airport to the kennel. If we don't get everything taken of soon, we could be looking at 30+ days of quarantine! :::fainting:::

Being a Dog Owner is a lot of work, but our dogs are part of our family. We are committed to getting them to Guam with us...though it's costing a small fortune. If you want you help us out you can donate to the Getting "the Bitches" to The Island Fund. No donation is too small. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see where you can cash out.

On a brighter note, I can't wait to have tile floors! It's hard owning dogs and living on carpet.

One Step Closer to Our Move to Guam!

I know I'm way more excited about this move than my mother is. On Friday my husband turned in the last bit of my medical paperwork that was required for our overseas screening! Phew! Fine-all-lee!  So I asked my husband, what's next?! I'm ready to start booking tickets, but I guess all of our overseas screening stuff now has to go through admin...and since we're going into a holiday weekend, that means Tuesday it'll start going through admin...the CO has to take a looksie at everything...and THEN Matty will go to PSD and we'll get to pick a date to leave sometime between January 1st-February 1st! This means they'll be shipping our stuff as early as mid-November...depending on the date we choose to move.

This sort of changes things that I had told my employer...especially since I just finished taking a month off of work. If we're going to have an empty house in mid-November, I'm not so sure if I can continue to work through December. Seriously, I don't know how I'll manage to live in an empty house with two small children and no dishes to prepare our meals on. So now I'm brewing up a lot of questions.

What are my rights as a Navy Spouse? If I decide to stop working in November, will I still be eligible for unemployment? Do I start collecting unemployment now or after we get to Guam? Will I still be eligible in January if I stop working in late November? On the other hand, it would be best financially for me to continue working until near time to leave. We could use every bit of extra income we can earn. Plus, as long as I continue managing this property, we don't have to worry about rent. Would it be best to rent furniture here until we move so that I can continue working? Hmm...that actually sounds like a good idea...but will it cost a fortune? Are they loaner furniture programs available here in San Diego through the military? Or do we need to completely rough it and bust out the air mattress and sleeping bags and live off of plastic cup, utensils, and other camping gear?

I need to start getting my dogs ready for this trip too! I just found out that Continental is the ONLY airline that flies dogs into Guam. It's going to cost around $570 for Molly, our English Bulldog, and around $470 for Buttercup, our Beagle...this price includes a night at a kennel in Honolulu, lucky girls! They'll have to be shipped in separate crates (which we're hoping to find second hand for as cheap as possible) and Molly will need a crate that's at least one size larger than she is since she's a short-nose breed. I need to get these girls microchipped this month and their blood work/tests taken care of now that way they can do the 5-Day quarantine instead of 30-120! I think Buttercup will need one more Rabies shot before we do her blood panel...so we can say that she's had two rabies vaccinations prior to the big move.

Matty gets irritated with me every time I start talking about what we need to get done. He likes to do things one step at a time. I like to be overly prepared and to take it all on at once. Catalina is not excited about the move. She's enjoying her kindergarten class and all her new friends, but I try to remind her that a beautiful bright girl like herself is going to be top of her class no matter where she lives! It's the truth too. :)

Well ladies and gentlemen, I hope to have more news to share after Tuesday. Tomorrow we are having a Labor Day cookout at my father's ranch. I have meat marinating overnight and everything is going to be delicious! Hope you all get to enjoy the day off and share it with family and friends.

And We're Back!

So we got back from our Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam/Vegas road trip yesterday morning and we've been extremely busy since our return...We had to wash the car seats (apparently Zeek doesn't do too well on long road trips...let's hope this isn't the case on long flights!) along with five loads of laundry (laundry for a family of four is never easy), and I'm getting ready to go back to work on Thursday so I've been scrubbing my house top to bottom and reorganizing my kitchen while I still have free time.

We headed for the Grand Canyon on Friday after Catalina got out of school. Eight long hours and three Ezekiel barfs later, we arrived at our hotel. After breakfast Saturday morning, we biked approximately 7 miles through the Grand Canyon on Saturday. It was a truly amazing way to see the canyon!

The guys at Bright Angel Bicycle Rentals took great care of us! We rented two bikes and one trailer for Matty to pull the kiddos in.

The guys loaded the bikes and shuttled us up the canyon to Hopi Point and then we biked it to Hermit's Rest. It's mostly downhill but there were a few challenging uphill spots on the ride. We loved the adventure, but the brakes locked up on Matty's bike about a mile in so he had an extreme workout. We had a nice picnic along the way...

And after we made it to Hermit's Rest...

We enjoyed an ice cream treat...

We went back to our hotel, took a dip in the pool, and headed back into the Grand Canyon for our dinner reservations at El Tovar Dining Room and had one of seven of the nicest seats in the place with canyon views while we ate! Then we caught a breathtaking sunset and watched the canyon transform.

Followed by a lightening storm in the canyon!! I didn't get any pictures of that...just kicked back on a rocking chair and enjoyed. Sunday morning we checked out, snapped a few pics near the Grand Canyon Sign & with Smokey the Bear...

And then we hit the road and headed for the Hoover Dam, which I wasn't so impressed with. So We decided to head up to Vegas since my husband has never been there. And that lucky guy turned the $5 that I limited him to into $100!

The Grand Canyon was a sight to see and now I understand why it is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. I hope that if we are able to return someday, we'll visit it again...but maybe do the helicopter tour or a week long rafting/camping adventure down the river...when the kids are older of course! Maybe while we're living in Guam we'll have a chance to see the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Has anyone else had a rad summer vacation, sporadic road trip, or some exciting adventure lately? We're hoping to do some traveling again around Thanksgiving... Oh where oh where shall we go?

Going to the GRAND CANYON!!

My husband and I have planned a very exciting last minute weekend getaway con los bebes to the Grand Canyon! I'm super excited because it's one of those places on my list of things I must see before I die.

Matty and I are considering a move to Italy after Guam, if the orders are open...I know, sounds like planning WAY ahead, but it is something we've talked about. So there are some places here in the states that we would like to visit before we leave just in case we're not back in the states any time in the future.

We're going to leave when Catalina gets out of school and drive straight out. We booked a hotel room for two nights that's only about a mile from the South Rim. We'll get in late tonight and sleep, have a free continental breakfast in the a.m., then we're renting bikes for the day (one with a trailer for Matty to pull the kids)! They shuttle you to the top of the canyon and you ride down on a private road with no traffic and magnificent canyon views! I can't wait. The rest of the weekend we'll be unplanned.

Bright Angel Bicycle Rentals

I have a lot to do before we go.

• Kennel our dogs 
• Straighten up my house - especially the kitchen!
• Make Matty take the trash out before we go
• Get a cooler - either from the store or borrow from a friend 
• Pack our bags - for myself and my babies - make sure I bring lots of sunscreen & my Rebel!
• Pack food, drinks, snacks for the kids
• Drive a loaf of my Zucchini Pineapple Bread to my dad (he's at work)
• Pick Ezekiel up from MiMi's 
• Get Catalina from School
• Hit the Road Jack! 

Gotta run! I'll be sure to post pics for you to enjoy!

Do You Leash Your Baby?

Tomorrow Zeek baby and I will be heading to Virginia Beach to visit with family and to pick up Sister. As much as I can't wait to see my baby girl I am equally dreading traveling alone with Ezekiel. I don't know why. I did perfectly fine by myself with Catalina when she was younger and part of me knows everything will go smoothly... But Zeek doesn't listen as well as Catalina did. And he can't be still. I dread being that mother with the crying baby that makes everyone on the plane miserable. And we have a layover in Vegas. That airport is a nightmare to me. There are all kinds of people...like any other airport...but there are also those trollies that shuttle you around the airport and so many stinking terminals. Anyway, I'm sure it'll be super fun the time of my life okay. I'm a big girl; I can handle this.

Getting ready to travel leads me to my title. My friends and I were discussing baby leashes at Matty's birthday dinner. Personally, I've always been opposed. I look at parents walking their children around the malls and shopping centers with disgust and mentally I spit on them. I know, I know, that sounds so cruel. I have voiced my opinion to several mothers in my day though. At a pet store one time I looked straight at a lady and said, "That's the cutest thing ever! Oh where did you get him? Does he do tricks too?" referring to her toddler. I've seen women ignoring their children as they tug at their "leashes" and I've seen a dad jerk his kid's "chain" and for the most part I just think it's degrading to the child and a sign of a lazy parent.

Ezekiel's Mimi, our friend Michelle, put things into a different perspective for me though. I think about this more now that we're embarking on an international move. There are certain situations in which it child-leashes could be okay and I hope to humor you with explain my thoughts on each:

• Extremely Crowded Places - I'm not talking Walmart people! This is more llike Six Flags or Sea World. Places you might want your child to explore since exploring helps build your child's self confidence and self esteem. Places where you want to enjoy time with family and not worry about someone trying to take off with your kid...not without dragging you too.  
• Airports - I will not be leashing Ezekiel for a flight stateside...though if I see a baby leash at the airport I might take pictures of him in it to send to his dad and everyone in my contacts list...but I am considering it for international flights. Strangers are always walking up to my son and asking to hold him or to take their picture with him - NO CREEPY MAN AT SIX FLAGS YOU CANNOT HOLD MY SON FOR A PHOTO! The thought of losing my babies in a foreign country is just morifying!  
• Near the California/Mexico Border in San Ysidro - Before Zeek came into this world, we were shopping at the Carter's Outlet in San Ysidro and I swear the people down there could not keep their eyes off of my daughter. It was not in a perverted way either. More like a "I will take your baby and sell her for mucho dinero on the black market" sort of way. Either that or they were jealous amazed that my lil beaner speaks such articulate English. I chose not to take my children there any more. 

So anyone who has stumbled across this, what is your opinion? How do you feel about leashing your baby? Have you ever done it? Is there a certain that you do it? Or is it like a babysitter for you while you gab on the phone with your boyfriend? Just kidding! There's no judgement here...well maybe some, but no one will blast you down for it here and I promise I won't spit on you.  I appreciate your sharing.