2012

So I thought we were supposed to have flying cars by now? Maybe that's 2020?

Either way 2011 DID become a big year for technology in our house. I hope the evil-geniuses over at Apple appreciate our hard earned money...2 new iPods (plus 1 recall trade-in), an iPod Touch, an iPhone and an iPad make us happy and nerdy all at the same time.

I'm not going to recap the year, that's what the right side of the blog is for. But I'd like to note that we are thankful for our jobs, friends, family & health. 

I will however talk about what's in store for 2012. 

I always make the same resolutions:

-get healthy (formerly get skinny)

-get organized

-pay off bills

Every year these things don't happen.

So apparently I need to change my game plan.or actually follow through with the said plan.

As for the get healthy portion I am currently reading these two books

*

*

I'm fully aware that merely reading these won't actually help, so I suppose I will have to put for some effort in my get healthy plan. I already have been working on cutting out(or) back on animal proteins. So far my mechanism for dairy is just not adding any. Like not adding cheese, butter or sour cream. Things that already have them in it are still going into my mouth...like cookies. 

As for meat, I had a turkey on Thanksgiving and pork on my birthday. Along with seafood twice since then. 

It's not a big deal. I..I have made sure to not make it a big deal. 

What I have involved others in is this:

After watching this:

*

I convinced my mom(a die-hard water bottle fan) to use a filtered reusable one. Though she (nor I) love the ones that I bought...poor flowage. We'll see. 

Watch for yourself and tell me you don't want to run out and buy one.

Those above books were influenced by a few documentries I watched on Netflix...damn Netflix.

*

The get organized issue isn't being solved with reading blogs. SO I guess I'll have to be a little more proactive on this one.

The pay off bills portion is a slow and steady battle. I'd like to change this to save money.someday.

I told my girls that once this place: 

is opened that if I can't buy it there we aren't getting it.

Yea, this didn't go over well.

So that's about it. No trips planned, nothing fancy like that. 

However we will now be frequenting this place:

And...

Can't wait for softball season to start.

Can't wait for 2 weeks off for Spring Break.

Can't wait for summer time.

Hope 2012 is full of Sunshine, Rainbows & Lollipops!

Like this:yes-click here for a visual

I hope we ALL stay safe, happy & healthy.

And hope this for you as well♥.

(fyi-thanks google for the pictures)

Cheater Crafty & Overexposure...

I'm not crafty...but sometimes I get these (cheater) ideas in my head and just have to make something. Even if it's just a few little things.cute or not.i'll obsess on it if i don't try it.

So I made a few of these little guys.put them and all the supplies into a ziploc baggie and that was the end. 

 Next up are a few pictures from Treats in the Streets. It used to be a fun stroll through The Circle (aka Old Town Orange). Antique store owners would sit outside their little shops and pass out candy to local kids sporting their sweet costumes. We would walk all four quarters of the area with Abigail toddling around. 

However over the years it's become BIG.and.CROWDED. We now only spend about 20 minutes walking to 10 store fronts while I'm telling the girls "I'll just buy you an entire bag of candy at Target." 

The girls look forward to this event each year and enjoy it and actually don't complain when I cut it short.mom sucks.sorry. 

I do like the annual family photo op that I have my mom take while I'm bitching at her to hurry up and she's bitching cause people are walking in front of her shot. 

The end is like a frustrating freak-show.and this is all me...being a frustrated freak-show. Thanks to my family that puts up with me.

Here are my overexposed shots:

Thanks mom♥for the good one!

Day Trippin'

The Otellio's don't take day trips much(so this is a long post). We've been to Sea World a few times and see a movie maybe twice a year. Usually we hit up local parks or just consider our weekly Costco trip followed by some frozen yogurt a family outing.

However this summer we made a little list of some stuff we wanted to do. 

#2 was Ride a Train

So we did!

We got on at the Santa Ana station and rode the 28 minutes to San Juan Capistrano. 

 The nice train man hurried us along...

We made it...

 The Los Rios Historic District has amazing adobe buildings, shops and little restaurants.

 Yes, I grabbed me a cup...cream behind the counter and no stirrers at 9:45am? Hummm? Oh well...coffee is coffee (for the most part) in my book. 

An old house.. 

I had bought a Jasmere (like Groupon) deal for Zoomars...$18 for us to get in 3 baskets of veggies for the animals and 2 kiddie train rides.

  We LOVE guinea pigs and my kids have always wanted to hold a rabbit. So when they saw a 20x20 pen filled with both running a muck they were in heaven. 
I'm anti-pet stores, circus' and can barely tolerate zoos-so I'm a little sketchy on the care ALL these little guys get-they looked happy and willing to be man-handled my dozens of kids though. What can you do?

We LOVE piggies!

I LOVE goats!

The pigs were sweet.

So were the ponies.

Emus are a bit creepy, but made awesome sounds.

A big cow:

The llamas win for best fur:

A $6 bag of dirt magically had "precious" gem stones in it while panning. I could have sported $12 for the bag that had a "real" arrowhead in it, umm. no.

Juliet thought it was awesome, I suppose that is the real point. (and I should grumble about the $6)

After Zoomars we headed to the the Los Rios Historic District to check out the historical sites...

(yes, I think this hilarious)

We had lunch at a little family owned restaurant that is in the old train depot...they also hold a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater there...it's really a beautiful building.

After lunch we walked by Mission San Juan Capistrano. Abigail went there in March on a field trip and Brad went the many times as youth, as did I. We didn't go in....Juliet will just have to wait four years until 4th grade so she can go too.

 We aren't getting into heaven anytime soon:

We saw a few photo shoots going on around town, there are SO many great spots for them!

Los Rios Park is fairly new. There isn't much shade, since the trees aren't mature yet. But the weather was great and the girls played until it was time to board the train to head home.

Here comes the Amtrak!

Abigail had a brief moment of panic when she read or heard something that said "this train runs non-stop to San Luis Obispo." (which is about a 6 hour drive away)..panic..almost tears. Even the "it's ok we have money to get home or someone can get us and we'll always keep you safe" speech wasn't helpful. Until they announced our stop was coming up. End of panic mode...thank goodness.

We were home by 3:15pm after stopping at 7-11 for some Slurpees. Later that night we went to Souplantation for dinner, stopped at a park for a while, then went home and all watched Kicking and Screaming (we love Will Ferrell-even in clean form)...I'd have to say it was just about the BEST.DAY.EVER. for us people anyhow.

♥