wanted: fake cake

Jenn's posts always make me laugh. It was for a different reason today, though. I'd just been talking about fake food a few minutes before I read her post and then I see that she has a picture of her kid holding fake food. Hilarious!

Let me explain. . . My mom gave us a crystal cake stand that I absolutely love. Right now it is displaying some cookies I baked yesterday. That's just it; I feel like it always has to have something. Rodrigo was saying that we should get one of those fake cakes like they have in model homes for when we don't have something fresh baked.

me: (laughing) yeah, we should. You know people use fake cakes for weddings
Rodrigo: huh?
me: yeah, they make a fake wedding cake and only the bottom layer is real so they could cut into it, then they send it to the back and just slice off some sheet cake
Rodrigo: OK, but a wedding cake wouldn't fit in there
me: (laughing) I know, I'm just saying. I don't know where I'd get one, though
Rodrigo: a fake wedding cake?
me: no, just a fake cake for the stand. Where do they buy those?
Rodrigo: we should just into a model and take one

Both of us just laughed.

We weren't being serious, but I started thinking seriously about it. I don't think I've ever seen a whole cake at those places. Just slices like they have in restaurants. I started wondering . . . where do they get those?
Of course, when I don't know something, I always ask Mr. Google. I was shocked to see the results. There are sooooo many fake food manufacturers. I'm having a blast looking at all the fake desserts I'd like to display in my stand. Just now I was looking at all the pictures I took in model homes and Alec came up behind me.

Alec: what are you doing?
me: looking through pictures
Alec: of me?
me: both of you playing with fake food
Alec: oh yeah, look they're I'm making eggs
me: yes, you are
Alec: and there's Brianna in front of a giant cookie
me: what? a giant cookie? -pause- Bwah, ha! ha!

It turned out to be this picture . . . . .

What might be nice wall decor for us equals a giant cookie for a kid.

feeling: I need to start packing
listening to: U2 (Magnificent)

tips

I rarely give tips because I think mine are all things people already know. I also kind of feel pretentious. Whenever I've told friends any of these things. though, they loved them. I'm sharing . . . don't call me pretentious.

- Credit report: Please, please, please tell me that you know you're supposed to check up on your credit. I know there are a lot of catchy commercials telling you where you can check yours and sign up for a service with a fee. By law, you're entitled to one free credit report per year. I tend to do it around my birthday, just so I won't forget. Click here to check yours.

- dryer sheets: Yes, I use them. I don't feel like I'm totally destroying the environment, though because once they've been used, I save them in a bucket we have for Badger. We use those sheets to dry him off if he's been out in the rain, wipe his paws, or just wipe him down for a little freshening. My puppy smells like lavender & vanilla.

- more dryer sheets: I also use dryer sheets for more than just the dryer. I have a few in my linen closet to keep towels and sheets smelling good. I also place one or two in suitcases whenever we pack. Those are left in there after the suitcases are put away to keep it smelling all nice. Yeah, I'm a little obsessed with nice smelling things.

-text google: no one uses this anymore because everyone has a iPhone, but when we first moved to Arizona, it was sooooo handy. If you text the name of a place and the zip code to GOOGLE, they text you back with the address and phone number. I didn't know all the zip codes around here, so I'd just text mine and it would send me the closest location. I can't tell you how great this was for me living in a new city.

I could write a book on the million uses for sandwich/snack bags, but I'd rather not get into that now. That's all for now.

feeling: like I need to catch up on sleep
listening to: The Bravery (Tyrant)

Brianna's pigpen

You know where I've been? Here. Cleaning.

Ugh, because Rodrigo and I are constantly on drugs, we decided it would be a good idea to have a yard sale. Well, it was actually my fault. I was trying to convince Brianna to get rid of a lot of junk, er, things and I blurted out "You could have a yard sale and whatever you sell will be money for you". Still, Rodrigo didn't stop me and is going along so it's his fault too.
I've never had a yard sale, have never had any desire to have one either, but it seems that we really give away a lot of good clothes simply because the kids have outgrown them. Plus, we have some old bedroom furniture and other things we need to get rid of, so we thought it would be a good idea. Getting things ready has been a nightmare, though.
I've tried and tried and tried and tried to get Brianna to let go of some things. She saves EVERYTHING. Everything. I knew that if I went into her room and did cleaned it myself, I'd get rid of some things she'd probably want. I warned and warned and warned to no avail.
Saturday we went to Phoenix and spent a lot of time at IKEA. Oh, you cannot imagine how inspired I was with all the choices for home organization. I've been on a "everything has a place and everything in it's place" mode for a while now, so Brianna's messy room was driving me batty.
Sunday she went to a friend's party. As soon as she left, I went straight into her room. I had planned to be done by the time she got back but it became a longer task that I had imagined. Oh. My. God. I could not believe the kind of thing this kid was saving. Think empty plastic Easter eggs, empty party favor bags, homework from years ago, notes, every plastic necklace imaginable, toys she hasn't played with in years, gift tags, pencils, etc. Armed with a new organizer and bins, I tackled that room. It two days and several hours but that room is Or-Ga-Nized. Closet, drawers and all. She owes me big.
Now I just need Alec's room (which really isn't that bad) and the toy boxes in the garage. -groan- All I'm saying is we better make some money on this yard sale thing and make all this worth it.

feeling: what did I get into
listening to: Travis (Sing)

calling all independently wealthy people with nothing to spend your money on

This past Friday, the kids' school had a carnival. Alec and I went to the ATM since I knew I'd need cash for that. . . .

- Alec: can I do it?
- me: let me enter some numbers and you can get the money
- Alec: (getting the cash) I like this!
- me: yeah, me too
- Alec: can I have one of these cards? Sometimes I need money. If you give me a card I can get money from here whenever I want
- me: (thinking) if only . . .


So let me complain to you guys about money for a while. No, we're not hurting for it, but there are soooooooo many things I want. -sigh- I wish I could win the lottery without ever playing. We still need so many things for the house. Right now here are some of the things I want . . .

- the backyard: We haven't done anything to it yet. We want some artificial turf (because you know computer guy Rodrigo won't be out there tending the lawn), I wanted some oleanders, but that's not an option anymore now that we have Badger (they're poisonous). I want some sort of border. I think we need some professional landscaping advice.
- curtains for the living room: Our living room has some HIGH ceilings. We have four windows in the living room, two up high and two below those. The two low ones have curtains. The model home had some curtains that started from the top, and covered all the way down to the bottom. I want some. I've seen quotes for those and they cost somewhere in the thousands. That's right thousands of dollars for curtains. Pssh. I'd rather make them. Then I don't know how in the world I'd hang them.
- paint: before we moved in, we painted the kids rooms, the kitchen, the family room and the dining room. Now we really want to paint the living room, but again, it is super high. We'd have to rent scaffolding and/or pay an arm and a leg to have painters come out here.
- the garage: we want to get those hanging shelves to make use of wasted space. We're planning on putting the holiday bins in there. Then we want all sorts of racks and other organizing things in there.
- Brianna's room: that girl needs some major organizing bins and shelves in there. She has way too many toys and collections in that room.
- The kids bathroom: we redecorated the whole thing, now we want to paint it. I guess we should have done that first. They went from a fish theme to yellow rubber ducks. It's really cute.

I can't even list all the other things we want
- frames
- a furniture piece for the family room to function as storage for dvd's and decoration
- things for the wall in the kitchen (we have a coffee theme with black, light brown and stainless steel)

Just soooooo many things. Then we get done, we're going to get sick of it all and start all over, huh? Ah, the joys of home ownership. Don't get me wrong, though, I completely love my house and am glad to have it.

feeling: wishful
listening to: Ethel

quickie post . . . halloween tip

I really need to stop being such a slacker about posting here. It's getting pretty redundant to say that I'm busy. I just have to get used to it and make the most of it.

Ok, so since I'd adamant about posting more often, let me start off by not making my posts novel long. . . . . .
I don't like to give decorating advice since taste varies so much, but I really liked this. We were looking for some more Halloween decorations that we could make at home. We were thinking about some sort of creepy portraits since we have the whole wall going upstairs to work with. Well, I did a search for civil war and one for Victorian era. I found some cool pictures of people from that time. We just printed them out, made some frames (because I didn't want to use my nice frames) hung them and added a spider web around it. It is the only decoration we have that we didn't have to buy anything for and I think it looks the creepiest. I only regret giving away my old picture frames since old frames painted up black and silver would've been awesome!



So that's it for now. I uploaded some new pictures on flickr. Oh! I had someone tell me that I take bad pictures because you can never really see the people. Uh, you all realize that those are just the public pictures, right? If you really want to see ALL the pictures, add me as a friend. Anyone that comes here to my blog is welcome to see those. I just don't like having too many public pics because I get creeped out about internet weirdos. Let me know if you need a flickr invite. There will be more pictures in the next few days, we have a full weekend ahead.
Last thing . . . if you guys have any easy recipes for creepy Halloween food, please let me know. Our house is going to be the meeting place for a few trick or treaters this year. It seems that all of my kids' bestest, bestest friends all live around here. A house full of three to eight year olds . . fun, fun, fun.

odd water bill

I checked our water bill this morning to discover that it is for $14. Not $140. We don't have a credit. It's not for a partial month and we haven't been out of town at all. Odd, no? As much as I think I should be happy, it sounds really screwy. What would you do? Would you call the company or just pay it and keep a proof that you were really charged that amount (I'm leaning towards the latter). It's really not like we get outrageous water bills, but they're not $14 low. Ah, if only my electric bill could be for that amount . . . .


feeling: suspicious
listening to: Muse (Starlight)

back to normal

The kiddies are back and that means that everything is back to normal around here. Back to busy. Next Monday is back to school (year-round calendar) so we're busy getting ready for that.

While they were gone, I expected that we'd be more of a party mood. Instead, we did a lot of shopping and lots of things we needed to do around the house. We had dinner out almost every day. My only criteria was to go to a place where they hadn't even heard of kids' menus.

Anyway, I'm such a dork that the whole time they were gone, I had this earworm of a song that Alec likes. He's only heard it a few times but he's like hypotized by it. I had it stuck in my head for DAYS! Listen here. That show isn't even on the air yet and I already know one of their songs.

Oh, so let me tell you . . . for the whole year that we've been living here, we were unaware of an awesome shopping center. We went on the 4th and there's a Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, M.A.C., Crate and Barrel, Anthropologie, and of course the whole reason that Rodrigo accepted to go . . . an Apple store. I felt so dumb for not finding out about this place sooner. We shopped at our leisure not worrying about kids knocking things over or anything.

So we're leaving again now. I have some giant school supply lists that I have to tackle.

Tomorrow is my birthday, people! For the first time in a long time, this isn't a bad thing.

feeling: happy, busy
listening to: that Yo Gabba Gabba song

settled, finally

I promise this will be the last house, moving, packing, unpacking related post. I'm pretty sick of the subject myself. I just wanted to express how amazing I'm feeling now. I feel settled down. Finally. I can't remember when the last time that I felt like this. It's been years. In the back of my mind, I knew we would eventually have to move from where we were.

- Before Alec was born, we lived in a little two bedroom apartment. Of course I knew we wouldn't be there forever.
- Alec was born and we rented a house in an area that we really wanted to live in. Still, it was a rental and we knew we'd be moving.
- Then we bought a house. Although we all really liked our house, Rodrigo and I knew there might be a chance that we might move out of town.
- Rodrigo got a job in Arizona but we had to live in a temporary home for about a year while this house was being built.
- We finally moved in! No plans to move. Finally.

Ahh. . . . -sigh- For the longest time I felt like I was living on edge. Like waiting for something to happen. We were talking about how we had plans in our head that started with "as soon as we move into the new house . . . ." For one thing, I'm really happy to finally be able to unpack all my things. Pictures I had on the wall and such. Our rental home was so sterile. Now we can finally get to fixing up the yard, decorating the house however we want, not having to tell people that this isn't our permanent address, etc. If I were a puppy, this is the time where I'd be peeing all over, claiming my territory.
Ok, now that is out of my system, so no more house talk, ok?

-feeling: super relaxed
-listening to: RHCP (Hump de Bump)

sales, sales, sales

Settling into the new house has gone quite smoothly. Just lots and lots of work. Bleh. So, this whole neighborhood is new. About six families moved in at about the same time as we did. This means this whole area is a salesperson paradise. So far we've had about 75 million salesmen for alarm systems, exterminators, shutters, and custom drapes.
There is one creepy alarm guy in particular that scares me. He came around once to talk to us. He came around a second time and was just standing on our front yard using the phone for a long time before asking us what we had decided. Then a third time when I finally told him no and he was MAD! He kept saying that he hoped no one would break into our house. The thing is that we were actually considering his company but decided against it because of him. That day all I kept thinking was to get a good look at him in case I ever need to describe him or recognize him at a line-up. Yeah, that's how my mind works.
As for now, I have to go another round with the post office. Each person I speak to there has a different reason as to why I can't get my mail yet. Things like waiting periods, missing yellow stickers, and all mail being forwarded to Phoenix. I hate the fact that I have no choice but to take their crap excuses. What can I do? It's not like I can switch mail companies. -Sigh-

feeling: still busy
listening to: Tiger Army (Forever Fades Away) <-- because apparently this song is ALWAYS on

two homes

We got the keys to our home this past Thursday afternoon. Since then, we've sealed the grout, painted the kitchen, the family room, Brianna's room. Alec's room, the dining room, installed ceiling fans in all the bedrooms, installed a garage door opener, uh . . I know there's more but I can't remember right now. I'm exhausted. I'm at the old house right now cleaning up and trying to take as much as I can to the new house. We don't actually move in until this coming Saturday, but I want to have as many things there as possible. That way on Saturday we really only move heavy furniture. I can't wait until the whole move is over. Both Rodrigo and I are running on very little sleep and lots of caffeine. He lost close to ten pounds this long weekend alone. Me, zero. Anyway, I'll check in soon. Our ISP is getting connected at the new house on Friday, so maybe then. If not, for sure on Monday once everything is done. As for now . . . . back to work.





feeling: beyond tired
listening to: some song from Rage Against the Machine. I don't know the name

unpacking before moving

Since I knew more than a month in advance exactly when we were moving, I've had sufficient time to pack. Uh, not so fast. I'd packed up all the important papers we have. Then we were told that we were missing half of our earnest money. Half! Luckily, I had all the bank statements showing that we'd paid it (packed already, but I had them). So, I unpacked some things and sent those over.
From Brianna's school, we were told that the last homework project was due this past Tuesday. She finished it, turned it in and I had packed up all my crafty material things. After that, the kids were asked to make one last project . . .some scrapbook pages for an album they are putting together for their teacher. I had to go through and unpack the scrapbook paper, stickers and such.
Thursday we had the closing for the house. Yay! We also had the walk-through looking for anything that may need fixing before we take possession. When we got back home, we had a message saying that there is a spot available for Alec to go to pre-school next year. (I can't remember if I ever mentioned that he was on a waiting list). We went over to the school to register him and found out that he needed his shot records along with the registration package. Also, if we took more than a couple of days to return it, he'd probably lose his spot. I went back home and unpacked some papers again. Geez, at this point it would've probably been easier to just wait to pack at the last minute instead of packing, unpacking, making a huge mess, then repacking.

Days are a little crazy right now. We're getting the keys to the house this week, then getting estimates for shutters, putting up ceiling fans, painting the kids' rooms, installing the garage door opener and getting the cable/internet installed. We move on the 2nd. So, if I have short posts or fall off bloggyworld for a while, you know the reason. Also, I know that I owe some of you emails. Sorry. I hope to get it all together soon. My "drafts" folder in my gmail keeps growing and growing.

feeling: super busy
listening to: Linkin Park (What I've Done)

model homes

My kids may never have been camping a day in their lives, they've never been fishing and have never run a lemonade stand, but they know model homes. That's right. They have the whole model home thing down.
Ever since we moved to Arizona, we started visiting MANY, many model homes. At first we would go to the model of the house we're having built. After that, we started visiting those of other builders. Some just to look at the layout of the house. Others just to get decorating ideas. So far, we have visited the models for this, this, this,this, this and this builder. Those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. We have spent entire weekends just going from model to model. All of us love it. The kids now have a game where they choose their bedroom first (they're mice in this game for some reason) then one of the mice is trapped somehow and the other has to save it. Weird, but whatever. Brianna has now also taken to carrying around a little notebook and writing down colors or things she'd like in her room. She has a little purse where she carries around that notebook, some pencils and paint chips. I'm probably setting up the kids to be major dorks when they grow up, wanting to talk about interior decorating instead of sports or something. :P



feeling: I can't believe how hot it is already
listening to: Garbage (I Think I'm Paranoid)

hello again . . . .

Here's what's been going on so far. . . . .

- We got our walk-through date and closing date for our new house. We move in about a month. Actually, exactly one month. We take possession on the 24th of May. We're planning on taking that week to paint, put up blinds and ceiling fans, etc. then completely move on the first. I am very excited to finally be going to our house but I hate that we have to move yet again.

- We were under the impression that Rodrigo's company would still provide packers and movers since this was considered a temporary home. Well, that's what we were told. I think it was more like a miscommunication between the relocation rep and us. The truth is that they would've moved whatever we had in storage but not in the home. We have nothing in storage and have to move ourselves. It's really not such a big deal, but when you think that you're going to have professionals pack and move for you and then you don't, it sucks. Oh well.

- When we first started up the contract for the house, we were given the credit rating. It was good but of course there was room for improvement. Rodrigo decided to pay off accounts he still had and close them. One of them is a credit card from a certain company that rhymes with Crank of Comerica (I don't want people's searches to lead them here). Anyway, he paid it off and closed it in July. In DECEMBER, we received a "courtesy statement" saying that the account was past due. There was some interest and then late payments. We sent the payment and it posted almost a month later. We called and were told that it might've been because of the holidays and half of the new late charge was taken off. Next month was the same thing. Since the account was now closed, we couldn't pay online. We called again asking why this was happening again and again half the late fee was removed. Then I saw a story on the news about how other people were trying to close their accounts with this same bank and had the same problems. Months and months of delays, fees, all sorts of problems that hadn't existed when the account was active. We called them told them that we were noting exactly when we were sending the payments, told them about the story we saw on the news and that we expected no more problems. After that the account closed and we didn't hear from them again.
Then we went to do another credit check for the home financing and the score was LOWER BECAUSE OF THIS CARD. We were LIVID. Because of their little schemes we were going to have a higher interest rate. We had to call again and speak to more of their customer service reps who really just told basically told us to shut up and go away. The thing is that we have everything, the courtesy bill, the check stubs, notes of the people we'd spoken to, dates when the payments were sent out. After we saw that there was no one that was willing to listen of help, we filed a complaint with the U.S. Treasury. Not even a week later, the credit card company was calling here talking to us like we were a favorite relative they hadn't seen in years. You should've heard their tone. They apologized and apologized and apologized and IT IS GETTING REMOVED FROM THE CREDIT REPORT. A-ha! Dirty rats. I knew it! Anyway, we're very relieved to say the least.

- I have a lot more to say. I'm going to try to post as much as I can within the next month. I also have about a million blogs and pages to read. Lots of catching up to do. Also, today In-n-Out Burger is opening in my city. Happy day! Uh, I just don't know if I want to wait hours for a burger today. Still, it's here now. No longer do I have to drive two hours for one of their burgers.

Have a good day. I'll be popping into your pages soon.

feeling: like I have soooooo much to do
listening to: Amy Winehouse (You Know I'm No Good)

house/ cd help needed

After having waited for months, we were told that it looks like our house will be ready around the first week of May. Uh-oh. I had originally planned to move this past December. That was the deal. Then we saw that there was no way that was going to happen. The house (or dirt, rather at than time) was no where near ready. We were told and thought it would be somewhere around July. That's kind of what I had in mind. Now that it's sooner, I feel like I'm going to be rushed again. I guess it sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm really not. I REALLY, REALLY want to be in our house now, it just seemed sort of sudden. Like waiting, waiting, waiting, then everything happened all at once.
Anyway, this past weekend, Rodrigo finally went through some of his computer junk and got rid of a bunch of old software Cd's. Now I have a pile of Cd's. I figure that I could make something with them, but apart from coasters, I can't think of anything. Should I just toss them? Should I save them and make him a geek Christmas tree? I thought of breaking them and making some sort of shiny mosaic, but come on, I'm not going to have the patience for that. Besides, it would look sort of kitschy, no? Let me know if you have any ideas. Please. I'm this close to just throwing them away.
Lastly, I think I have the whole playing around with my new operating system done with. Yes, I have Vista now. Stop right there. Don't try to tell me about how much better a Mac is. I've heard it. Almost every day. Anyway, now that I'm done playing around, I'm going to try to post more regularly. Take care and Happy Passover.

feeling: this song/video is hilarious!
listening to: Alanis Morissette (My Humps) <-- you have to see it. find it on youtube or TMZ.

our house . . . finally

After months and months of going over to look at our lot and seeing only this . .




I am very, very happy to report that there is finally lots of progress going on in our home. Yay!



Be happy for me. I can hardly wait! You can see the pictures I have so far by clicking here. By the way, don't you just love the sky here? On the other side (looking out our house) are the mountains. Doesn't it make you want to move to Arizona here with me?

feeling: super excited
listening to: Incubus (Pendulous Threads)

flexa

Alec has had a toddler bed for a while now. We knew that he was going to soon need some new big boy furniture, so we'd been looking around for some time. The first time we went looking, we ended up buying a new bedroom set for Brianna (who also really needed one. This past weekend we went to a local kid's furniture store to browse. We immediately fell in love with a brand called Flexa. I love how you can add pieces to customize the room. We bought the basic bed and a chest of drawers for Alec. The basic bed is pretty low and I think that'll work for a while (in case he falls off or something). That's pretty much all the real furniture he needs right now. I want to buy him one of these toy bins. Right now his room is all "Cars". Again, I wish we were already at our new house so I could paint his room. I'm going to start sketching ideas for maybe some sort of Cars theme. All I know for sure is I want checkered flag curtains. Anyway, I thought I'd share. Pictures will come later.

feeling: thinking of things I need to do this week
listening to: Eve 6 but I can't remember the name of the song.