The Last of 2008

This year has gone by so incredibly fast. We have been talking about it at work for the last six months. 'Where has this month gone?' And then the following month we say it again. Well now it is the last day of the last month of 2008. I reflect back on the year and it honestly feels like a blur. A crazy snow stormed mountain of a blur a matter a fact. The beginning of the year I felt like I was climbing and climbing to the top. And just when I hit my peak it all seemed to come crashing down. I (and we - Malachi and me) have had some great times but because the end of the year has been full of a lot of negative and I'm relieved to start a new year. I am convinced that 2009 will be great! You see, 9 is my lucky number and it's not about to fail me now. I have FAITH!

Some of my memories in 2008 include (may update as I remember more):

• Malachi was fully potty trained (YAY!)
• Got a surgery I've been wanting and saving for a long time
• I took a trip to another city I have never been to before (Boston)
• Spent my 1 year anniversary in MY house
• Attended my FIRST EVER Pro-Football game and watched the San Diego Charger's whoop on the New England Patriots (Beautiful!!)
• Malachi played his first team sport - T-BALL (So fun!)
• My heart was broke yet again
• My grandma had her first (and hopefully last) stroke
• A family member was lost in a terrible accident
• Malachi got suspended from school for the first (and hopefully last) time
• Bonded with my cousins at Allen's 30th birthday party
• Had 8 people in my life tell me they are pregnant and 3 of them gave birth this year
• I attended my first LVMPD Christmas Party (Sooo much fun!)
• I ran into an old acquaintance that has great potential to be a wonderful thing
• My poor 19 year old kitty passed away (12/31/2008)

My New Years Resolution

My New Years Resolution is to be more involved in my faith. I also would like to start talking to and teaching Malachi more about our faith too. God is very important to me and I feel that it's time to show him. Actions speak louder than words, I always say. Well time to listen to my own philosophy.

Girls Night In

Saturday Dec. 27th was supposed to be a exciting night out for me and 3 of my girlfriends. We had tickets to the UFC fights and we were going to make a night out of it. Unfortunitly, tickets fell through and we were all very bummed. I called off my babysitter and Christina and Jen made their way over to exchange Christmas gifts. After some small talk we just decided to order the fight at my house. We ordered pizza, picked up some beer, and after Sandra joined us had a fun filled night in. The next day I just giggled to myself. 4 woman watching men beat up on each other, eatting pizza, and drinking beer. WOW... doesn't get better than that. Most people would only think that this would only be associated with a 'man's night in', but oh how they're wrong.

:o)

Christmas 2008

Christmas with Malachi works out great for the most part. Chi's father's family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve, so he spends the day and most of the night with his dad and dad's family. Then just before bed time he comes home with me. We do our traditional opening of one gift on Christmas Eve, drink some hot chocolate, sit by the fire place (at my mom's), and watch Christmas movies until we fall asleep. This year Santa Claus was bringing Chi his first bicycle. Santa's lil helper (yours truly) wasn't sure how putting the bicycle together was going to go. Luckily on Christmas Eve while Chi was spending time with his dad, my step brother Cameron helped me put the bike together. We hid it in the garage and after Chi drifted off to dream land, I brought it out and stuck it under the tree. It was a beautiful site. Being a child and waiting for Santa and ripping presents open Christmas morning is GREAT! BUT, being a mom now and playing Santa, stuffing stockings and putting together toys and watching the enchanting look on you child's face Christmas morning is WAY BETTER! Honestly, now, I truly understand that to give is better than to receive.

So Christmas morning believe it or not, I woke up before Chi. I gave him a lil snuggle and whispered in his ear... "Santa came..." Malachi jumped right out of bed, almost ran into a wall, and stumbled out to the living room where he found a BIKE! Whoo Hooo! He was sooo excited. His beautiful face made my whole day. What a site. Chi wasn't overwhelmed by the rest of his gifts. He got a great variety of things and loved everything. The rest of the day I helped my mom in the kitchen preparing a wonderful dinner. After dinner, a short nap, and Madagascar Chi and I made our way to bed. What a beautiful fantastic day!

MALACHI'S 1ST BICYCLE

MALACHI DIGGING INTO HIS STOCKING

MALACHI AND NIMA (MY MOM)

CAMERON, CHI, AND NIMA PLAYING ROCK 'EM SOCK 'EM ROBOTS

CHI SNEAKING GOODIES IN THE KITCHEN

CHI AND BROOK (SISTER'S GF'S NIECE) PLAYING WITH HIS CAR TRACK

Play Day in the Snow

After all the marvelous snow we got in town I was just dying to go up to Mt. Charleston and play in the snow. Malachi was on the same page as me. So Saturday Dec. 21st we decided to take a trip. Malachi and I met our friends Sandra, Brandon, Alexis, and Seth at Sandra's house and we made our way up to the mountain. We knew that there was going to be a ton of snow, not only because of all the snow we got in town but because once we turned off onto the road up the mountain there was already snow there. The further we went up the more snow there was. As we arrived up to our usual stomping ground we were greeted with a lot of 'DO NOT CROSS' police tape. What What??? We were bummed but knew that we would find another spot. So we headed down a bit and found a good area. We made our way out of the car and straight into the snow. It was sooo powdery and deep. I easily sunk 2 feet down with each step. This made it incredibly hard for Chi to make his way, but he quickly learned to just follow my path. Well since there was so much new snow there weren't any sledding trails ready to slide down. Which meant a whole lot of work for us adults. We then spent the next hour clearing out a path. During this time, Chi occupied himself by climbing the top of the hill and rolling down. It was absolutely hilarious! And adorable! We finally had a decent sledding trail. We took our turns and soon we were all ready to leave. Fingers were frozen and bodies were tired. The kids even voluntarily got in the car to go. It was such a fun time and we can't wait for another trip.

Me and Sandra

Malachi, rolling down the hill

Malachi and Alexis

All of Us up at Mt. Charleston

It Did Snow It Did Snow and It Snowed A Lot!!

Most of this morning comments, hopes, wishes, and even prayers regarding a potential snow day happening. We all just giggled about it. We'd never get a snow day in Las Vegas. Around noon, we made our way to the Macaroni Grille for Dominic's good bye lunch [he's transferring to SC to be with his wife]. As we were sitting sown eating, one of us spotted snow flakes falling from the sky out the window. Again the wishful hopes of a snow day rose to topic and again we all just seemed to laugh it off. WELL - soon after we made it back to the office it was snowing even more outside. It wasn't sticking of course but we figured that it had to be on the out skirts of town. After the news on the TV was turned on and weather reports on the computers were checked be learned that it was indeed snowing on the out skirts of town and hard. Apparently Southern Highlands had 2-3 inches and they showed beautiful pictures of the white blanket ground. My house is even closer the the mountains then that area so I just knew my house had to have more snow than that. I was excited and a lil nervous all at the same time. Excited for obvious reasons and nervous to drive in and drive around the people in this weather. We all decided that we should inquire about leaving work early and it's a good thing we did. I took off around 3pm, made it to Chi's dad's to pick him up around 415pm and then to my house around 5pm. A very long yet adventurous and appealing drive it was. When I made it around the turn onto my street, I was in utter disbelief. I just couldn't believe it. Was I on the right street? Was this really Mineral Park? WOW! I turned into my drive and my car slipped a bit but finally I made it into my garage. First thing Chi and I did was grab our warm snow clothes and headed to the front yard. I took some pictures and then it was down to business. SNOWMAN TIME!!! We made a beautiful Frosty that stood about 3 inches taller than Malachi. Then of course more pictures. Those of you that know me well also know that I'm a sucker in the cold, so I was freezing my lil booty off and wanted to head inside. Chi thought that this was absolute ludicrous! So he stayed outside and played and I started dinner. He finally came in a little while later. I think he started to loose feeling in his hands. Last I measured the snow was at 8 inches and that was 2 hours ago. The snow hasn't stopped falling since and it's suppose to go all night long. It's amazing! The news said that this is the worse storm Vegas has seen since 1979! We'll see what the place looks like in the morning. Not sure if we'll be making past my drive way to go anywhere tho.

My Beautiful House with Christmas Lights and SNOW!

Malachi and our new friend Frosty

Malachi enjoying the snow

The backyard

It Did Snow It Did Snow It Did Snow!!!

Mondays are now part of my normal days off. [YAY!] So, I usually sleep until Malachi wakes up and comes in and graces my with his "Mommy the sun's up... time to open your eyes!" On a good day this will come around 8am but usually it's 7am. ~Yep! That's sleeping in for me!~ At this time I thought it had to have been an early rise considering it still seemed to be rather dark outside. So as I dragged myself out of bed and made my way to the rather dark windows, I opened my blinds and low and behold... I must have still been sleeping! Everything seemed to now be in slow motion! The rain was falling from the sky in such a slow pace. WAIT WAIT! [I rubbed my eyes and blinked really fast] Is it? Could it be? "Mommy is that...?" Before he could even finish I yelled SNOW!! YES baby! It's SNOW! Chi and I threw on our slippers, rolled down the stairs [might as well have, we scurried so fast we almost biffed it!], and jumped outside in the patio and stared in disbelief. It was absolutely beautiful!! During the day I stopped in to the grocery store to pick up a few items. On my way in, a fellow shopper commented to me, "Are we in the desert?" We just laughed and made our way in the store. That evening it came down so thick that I could barely see in front of me while driving home from picking Chi up from school. The next morning all of the mountains were covered in a beautiful white blanket of snow. I could think of only two things! Sledding and Snowboarding!!! Malachi must have been on the same brain waves. "Mommy, I wanna go see the snow, PLEASE???? I'll be a good boy!" I couldn't help but laugh and reply, "Ok honey, we'll go on Saturday." "YAY! I can't wait! I'm soooo excited!", he shouted.

Sugar Shane Nelson After Pary

After the LVMPD xmas party; Christina, Ari, Kendal, and myself headed to TI to meet up with Abe and much of his family and friends for his brother Shane's after party. Shane was in the most recent season of Ultimate Fighter. Saturday night was the finally for the show. He WON his fight by decision. I didn't get to see it, but I heard it was great! So the Christian Audigier Night Club inside TI threw a huge party for him after his fight. We stayed for a few hours celebrating his victory. Around 4am, yes...4am, I was ready to go and thank goodness so was Christina. So we caught a cab and headed back to my place. Along the way we talked the cabby into going thru the Del Taco drive thru :-)

All in all, I had such a great night. Almost didn't want it to end but I needed my beauty sleep!!!

LVMPD Christmas Party

Saturday was the LVMPD Christmas party. 3 words... what a BLAST!! This was my first one and I don't think I will miss another. I took my friend Ari as my date, Clarice took Christina, Diane and her husband Doug attended as well as Craig and his wife Loni. Diane got there first and found us a table close to the bar... good girl! After we got settled, we made our way to the food. Just about anything you could imagine was there for you taking. Salmon, prime rib, chicken, salads, loaded baked potato table, veggies.....Yyuummmmmy!!! And of course we made our way to the OPEN BAR. After dinner and drinks, they started the raffle. They give away all kinds of goodies. TVs, Wiis, xboxs, digital picture frames, cameras, DVD players, and many cash prizes $100+!! I of course won nothing BUT Clarice won Guitar Hero World Tour for the PS3. Too bad she doesn't have the PS3! Ha ha ha!!! Still tho.... she won... lucky gal! After the raffle they turned the lights down and the music up and it was time to hit the dance floor! Even 8 month pregnant Clarice joined in on the fun! (her back apparently is killing her now) Clarice and Diane left around 11pm and the rest of us kept on partying til 1am! AND... believe it or not there was no crazy cop drama! WOW!

Office Christmas Party

Friday evening my office headed over to Marty's house for a lil Christmas celebration. Usually we have a lil pot luck and white elephant party at the office, but this year Marty volunteered to have a little shindig at his place.

We catered from Famous Dave's BBQ.... ~Ummmmm Gooood!~ .. had a few drinks.... and fought over presents. YAY!-My favorite part! Luckily for me, no one snagged my gift. Of course I had a death grip on it the entire time.

After some more chit-chatting, one by one people made their way out the door. I left and met up with Christina, Abe, and Abe's brother Harry and some friends at the Yardhouse.

Good times Good times. I love the Christmas season!

Congrats To Cameron!

Over the years, divorces, and marriages, my family has become extended and voluminous. I don't mind this at all because I love big families. I find it best to explain through illustration...

Anywho... my point is that I love all them and I am blessed to have SIX siblings!!

My step brother Cameron decided some time ago that he was going to join the Navy as his father did. He left some months ago for boot camp in Illinois. Friday December 5th he graduated from the Navy boot camp! I am soooooo proud of him. Boot camp/basic training (which ever you call it) is NOT an easy task. It is challenging mentally, emotionally, and physically. You definitely leave a different person. Well he did it. He made it through.

Sunday he shipped off to A-School (Army calls it AIT, it's pretty much your job specified training) in Fort Leonardwood, Missouri. Also known as Fort Lost in the Woods, Misery. This is where I was for all of my training - 5 months. It is definitely one of a kind. I saw every type of weather there with an obvious exception to hurricanes. Tornados are very scarey!

So he is there to learn how to do his job. Cameron has chosen engineering as his speciality. I think that this is a great choice because it will give him a lot of options when and if he decides to leave the Navy.

The great thing though is that he gets to come HOME for Christmas! It has been a long time since I've seen him and I hadn't talked to him in months until tonight. It was so good to hear his voice and be able to tell him how proud I am of him.

Being the oldest sibling makes me feel a lil motherhood towards all of them. I know some hate it at times but I hope they know it's only because I love them so damn much!

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow

Last night was Malachi's t-ball team's party at Pump-it-Up. On our drive there, while fighting with traffic, Chi asked me if we could go see the snow. I told him that the snow wasn't here yet and that we would have to wait. He did not like this answer at all! He was very upset and in tears. I figured the best way to calm him down was to attempt to explain the precipitation process to him. So this is how it went...

The clouds go over the ocean and pick up water. Then the clouds have to travel all the way to us. Then the clouds have to work really hard and turn the water into snow and then they can sprinkle the snow on the mountains and sometimes in the valley. So we will have to wait for the clouds to do their job and the snow will come soon enough.

Not bad, right? I thought it was pretty creative myself! It's amazing what us parents can come up with at times.

So, my plan worked. Chi repeated every step after me. He was intrigued by this complicated process and I think his imagination let his visualizations wander. I then told him that this was called precipitation and asked him to repeat. I wish I would have had a recording of it to share. No words can explain how adorable he said it. One of those things that just melts a mother's heart...

Thankful for Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving week and Thanksgiving it's self was GREAT! So many wonderful things happened. This was the second year in a row I volunteered to cook at my house. I just love owning my home and being able to have holidays here and decorate to every extent.

Monday and Tuesday I mostly grocery shopped, cleaned house, and prepped food. BUT Tuesday evening I went to the airport and had the pleasure of picking up my baby brother, Alex. Him, nor any of my brothers, and I have never had the opportunity to spend any holidays together. I was so honored that he wanted to come spend Thanksgiving with me and that it was all his idea. After I got him back to my house and settled in, we went down to Town Square, caught a movie, and some great food at Claim Jumper (French Onion Soup there is delicious!!). We got to do a lot of talking and caught up with each others on going busy lives. The next day I took him to Adventure Dome inside Circus Circus. It was a blast! I can't do it like I used to though. After about the 3rd heavy duty up-side-down throwing you around ride my head began to hurt and I felt very nauseated. Alex and I then grabbed some sushi with my girlfriend Christina and then called it the night.

Thursday I had the pleasure of hosting my brother Alex, my great friend Christina, my mother Robin, my step dad Rob, my step brother Tyler, my sister Kaylie, my sister's girlfriend Heather, and my sister's father Herb. Sounds like a crazy mix of a bunch, huh? And that's just the way I like it! These are all people that I love and adore and that love and adore me back. And what better company is that?!?!? The only one missing was my lil boog, Malachi. He got to spend Turkey day with his dad and his dad's family this year.

We deep fried the turkey, the only way I will prepare it now. I'm hooked! If you have never had one, you are definitely missing out! It's so moist and juicy and flavorful.... ok, better stop, making myself hungry again... Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, turkey and all the sides. Before we ate my brother was asked to say grace. His prayer and blessings brought tears to my eyes. He thanked God for allowing him to be with me, for allowing me to have a great home to have all of us together in, and then he thanked him for bringing Malachi into his life. I lost it! Tears all over the mashed potatoes and everything! I gave him a huge hug and a big kiss on the cheek and then stuffed my mouth.

After everyone helped me to clean up, we played Taboo. This has now seemed to become a tradition, which I didn't mind at all. Malachi had come home around 7pm. Everyone, especially myself, were happy to see him and he us. We had a great time in each other's company and then everyone started to head home around 8pm. We finished the evening watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and one by one drifted off to dream land.

Friday morning I took Alex to the airport and then Malachi and I headed home to put up our Christmas tree. Yes, we put our Christmas tree up the Friday after Thanksgiving. I wouldn't necessarily mind waiting until I don't know... Saturday or Sunday, but NOT Chi! It is absolutely positively imparative that the tree goes up as soon as possible! Which is another thing I don't mind at all. Chi has started our own lil tradition. :o)

So after the tree was up and a few light strands hung outside, believe it or not, Chi and I packed our things and headed to California. My Aunt Glenna wasn't able to make it to my house for the holiday due to work and it was my cousin Allen's 30th birthday so we had much more to do.

Saturday we spent most of the time with family just hanging out. I didn't see Chi much the rest of the weekend. He was busy running around with my cousin's kids having a blast! Saturday night was the big bash. My cousin's wife Denise threw a huge Hollywood themed party for him. Everyone had to dress up as someone famous. It was soooo much fun! There were a lot of famous appearances! Just to name a few... Tom Cruise, Madonna, Steve Urkel, Ice T, Raymond, Pregnant JLo, Juno, Penelope Cruz, Queen of Sparta, Miami Vice... I went as Adriana Lima, the Victoria Secret model. Trust me I kept it PG! We all had a great time and rocked the place until 4 in the morning!

Sunday was spent relaxing and packing up. However, we did fit in a lil time to see SANTA! We went down to a motor cross store where Santa was making an appearance. My Aunt insisted on buying Chi a whole get up to ride in on his quad and then he went and showed Santa and even sat on his lap for a picture. First time in 3 years!!

Chi and I started on our journey home first thing Monday. I love spending time with my family, but it was soooo good to be back in our home.