I'ff Mario Lopez

wow. the past two weeks in a nutshell: listing our house, cleaning it spotless, driving to NorCal, camping in Santa Cruz, getting and accepting an offer on our house, doing vacation laundry (ewww, I hate that Bob Barker), editing my book, oh and losing my mind. Let me elaborate:

So RedBull is requiring that we use a real estate agent, whatever. Two weeks ago, Kenna, our agent, (is her name Kenna because she comes from a house of all girls and her dad wanted to pass on his name Ken or did her parents just think they were clever? My mom keeps pressing that we call our next girl Paula...to pass on Aaron's first name Paul, yeah, that's not going to happen.) didn't even have a sale sign outside or our house on the MLS but she brought through a couple that she has been helping to find a house. They loved it.

Then two days later, when we left for Santa Cruz, the couple went to our ward to see if it was good. She introduced herself in RS as looking to buy our house. Yeah, the RS went nuts. Poor Heidi freaked out because her house has been for sale for six months and she lives five houses down. Anyway, they loved the ward and made an offer on Monday while we were in Sacramento.

We accepted and then went camping with all faveros in Santa Cruz. This is a Memorial Day tradition. Best thing about the past two weeks: sound of the ocean, sand between my toes. Of course, camping with four children all under five is not a vacation. Poor Bryn touched hot coals twice. Only second degree burns, so no emergency room catastrophe but my goodness child, no touchy! By the end of the week, Aaron and I were wasted. And then we got in a car with these banchees and drove ten hours back to Utah.

We got home on Monday. This week has been Grandma detox, Lauren's last week of school, laundry week from hell, and now I need to break Ava. She's turned into a wild beast child.

So I printed a copy of my book and took it with me, I meant to send it to my editors, but decided one more round of edits while on vacation wouldn't hurt. This was a very good thing. Seeing it in print, I was able to catch a lot of rookie mistakes such as: she began, he began quickly. So I'm making the changes tonight, and hopefully, if I find time tomorrow, will print my readers' copies. Even if I don't publish, I'm so crazy proud of myself for doing this. It has been everything I hoped it could be...and it is almost checked off my life list.

So yeah, that's a catch up on my life. We're closing on our house on June 19, then we're homeless. Aaron and I are headed to Denver next week. We're debating between Broomfield and Evergreen. Evergreen is a tiny mountain town about a half hour out of Denver. It is gorgeous but still has snow. We'll see what we find. seacrest out.

I want chicken, I want liver, meow mix, meow mix, please deliver

I really need an escape pod today.

KHAAAANNNN!

I am making it official: Webkinz suck for parents of children that can't read. We are now the proud parents of five webkinz in puke varieties of pink pony, fluffy kittens, and pink poodle. What kind of girls am I raising? If they didn't come out of me I would have sworn they weren't mine. Why did I buy these puke pets, because I love my kids and fight the urge to mold. Plus, I owned a white unicorn named "Uni" (duh) that I took with me to school and chased the boys with it. So it would be hypocritical to bag on Janie and Panie.

My bane is the website. Lauren can read but not well enough to navigate the arcade and quizzes. So I help my ladies in their daily care of these digital friends. Of course, my girls purchased the swimming pool blowing all their money on it and other riparian entertainment. Unfortunately, they didn't have a backyard to put all the fun. So the most awesomest mother that I am, I helped them earn the $1k to buy a backyard. I took 5 excruciating quizzes. These simple tests last a millennium. 50 questions per quiz which counts down to 5 before showing you answers and then asks you to click yes after every question to see if you are ready to go on. Murderous. At $250 a quiz they're the quickest way to get loads of cash money. So of course, I straight up hate webkinz world right now. swine webkinz jobs, I haven't been able to hold one yet!

merely a flesh wound

So Aaron's friend from work, DQ, went on a Philippines vacation two weeks ago. While there, he and his friends hiked around and on one of their hikes, DQ got a cut on his foot. They have no idea what he cut his foot on. The next morning, DQ woke up with a swollen throbbing foot that had a small black line crawling up his leg. Wisely they rushed to the 3rd-world hospital and got DQ on some anti biotic. Nothing doing, the infection got worse. By the next day in the hospital they didn't know if DQ was going to live. They decided to amputate his left leg from the knee down. At the time, DQ says this was a blessing because of the pain and trouble he was in. He called Aaron last monday with the news that he would not be into work on account that he was missing a leg.

This shook Aaron. He's been having a hard time coping with the shock. Watching him internalize his friend's misfortune has been difficult for me. Aaron is an incredibly loving and caring person and I'm watching him struggle with how to ease his friend's burden.

Aaron went to see DQ this morning before flying off to work. All things considered, DQ is doing well...we just hope this experience reactivates him.

frack

Last night while I was working on my book, Aaron watched Snatch next to me on his ipod. I was insanely jealous and actually debated not writing. Why? Because I have a severe weakness for (rated r) British comedies. Lock Stock, Hot Fuzz, Bridget Jones, Snatch, Sean of the Dead, Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors, Death at a Funeral, 4 Weddings ...I can go on and on. I love them. For some reason I'm completely un-offended when a Brit uses the f*** word. It is almost comical. Anyway, I need to get cracking on my book so ta ta.

One last thought: I cannot name one of my main characters to save my life. I've tried 4 different names on him and I hate them all. I'm struggling. I've only one more week till I give a copy to Addy and Porter. Maybe I could let one of them name him...but then I'm stuck with what they choose. Arrrrgh.

A frack'n sidebar: Yes I'm referencing something when I use the word frack. It is a shameful pleasure. So shameful I cannot reveal its origins, mainly because it buoys my nerdish sublayer. But maybe this is the first step to recovery...it is a little over drama this season.

blurg

I'm beginning to feel the stress of getting the house ready for selling and moving. We're having movers come but I'm trying to dewinter and dejunk so nothing moves with us that we won't need. I'm finding that this is not a small task. Where does all the crap come from? Or at least, why are we holding on to so much stuff. I don't know what kills me more: the stuff or that I have to call Aaron to verify if it is ok to chuck certain things...like my old MAC from college. We've moved it twice without removing it from the box, and yet I know this is hard for Aaron to let it go. Marriage is about give and take.

I just want to retire and create a currency for dogs and cats

Aaron gave his two-weeks today. It is official-ficial. We are moving to Denver and Aaron is going to work for Red Bull. He starts on the 12th.

So when he went into Wunderli and dropped the I'm actually leaving, Wunderli was really cool. We'll see if they're nice tomorrow when they fully comprehend what this means for them. They have no one internally that can do Aaron's job, so they're really screwed. Wunderli began to realize this as he was talking to Aaron. He kept repeating two weeks. Aaron feels bad for the people that actually work there who will have to pick up the pieces but HOORAY! And hooray for finally getting out of Utah. I was beginning to believe this would never happen.

Now my life is revolving around getting the house ready to sell by dejunking and packing away winter. We're planning on listing the place when we get back from Santa Cruz. Because Utah is part of Aaron's territory, RedBull said he could work from Utah till the house sells. This will be good but we would still like to move before school starts for Lauren. We'll see what happens. It's all in the hips, it's all in the hips.