Road trip day 1

We are on our way to visit Grandma in Texas and have stopped in Springfield Missouri for the night (half way point). The children did very well during the drive. They slept most of the drive because we left early this morning.

When they were up we sang songs and played games. What a wonderful trip so far. We just had dinner here in Springfield at Ruby Tuesday's and we were not satisfied at all with either the service or food!! We were there pretty early in the evening when it was not even busy, but the server was slow like molasses!! The food was extremely salty, my tongue is still tingling! Kai didn't even eat his dinner because he said it was "gross"! Kai is so spoiled and used to staying in nice hotels that he said, "pick up the phone and call for food!" Um....I wish we could kiddo, but it's not that kind of hotel.

It's the kind of hotel that people only stay at for short trips. Krystal Air, is clean and doesn't smell like smoke and it has wifi. It is right off the highway, walking distance to a few restaurants and has a gas station close by.

We are settling the kids in for the night so that we can rest and get another early start tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to get some decent coffee too! Missouri needs more Starbucks!!

Which reminds me...since there are no Starbucks I asked Jimmy to stop at McDonald's to try one of their lattes, and I have to say that I will not be buying coffee beverages at McCafe! The guy that took my order asked if I wanted just the plain latte to which I replied "yes", so I was confused when I tasted my drink and it was flavored!!! I asked the guy and he said,"Yeah I sweetened it!"
I asked him to remake my coffee and not sweeten it! Jimmy and I could only drink a quarter of it and had to throw it out! The coffee not only tasted burned, it was so hot I burned my tongue!!! Hello McDonald's, the only reason Starbucks gets so many customers even though they charge an arm-and-leg for a coffee is because it tastes good and have better service!! The counter guy at McDonald's was putting down Starbucks, then even had the nerve to say that the coffee he was about to serve me wasn't any good...even though he thinks that he makes better coffee than Starbucks! Um...dude you should be fired!
I also asked about their sample program for Mondays, since they had a huge advertisement in front of their coffee machine and he said that he didn't know and that the company didn't know what they were doing and that they didn't even have sample cups to sample anything!! Hmm...what happened to training???

All this talk of coffee is getting me worked up...I'm off to bed!

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!

A belated happy new year to all and an early happy birthday to my niece who will be turning 21 tomorrow!!! Happy birthday Tiffy- we love you and will see you soon!!

Yes, that's right, in a couple of days we will be driving down south to visit family and escape the cold!! Nic is going back home tomorrow and back to school on Monday. I think that he had a pretty good visit. We opened presents, did lots of crafts, had a fun new year's eve party and even made it out to Chuck E Cheese twice!!!

Right now, I'm yawning as I am waiting for somebody to win the football game! The Colts and Chargers went into overtime!! Football minute can actually be ten real minutes long!!!

I can't decide if I should hit the sack since we have to drop Nic off early tomorrow or stay up and try to watch a saved episode of Numbers or Iron Chef...yawn.... I think I'll have my cup of chamomile tea and see how awake I am.

Wow! Football is over, that was quick!! The chargers won 23-17! Yay underdogs!

Ciao for now!

I had fun with the kids and their play date today. Kai's friend Uno came over and got to meet Nico. The boys had fun playing with thier new toys from Christmas and after Uno went home they played hide and seek all day!

Nico's cold is getting better, he still has a cough and minor congestion, but no fever so it should be over soon. I've been feeling a little under the weather too, but have started taking zinc and vitamin c to help me. Kai and Cassia are still healthy, hopefully they don't catch the cold. It's so not fun having to take care of two sick babies while being sick too.

I love my new laptop! Oh, I forgot to tell: Jimmy bought me a great new laptop to work on!!! Now I have no excuse to work on my business plan more often! I love you Jimmy!!

Holidays, Family and Snow!!!

I can't believe I've been so busy with holiday preparations and children that I haven't had time to update the blog. Well, Thanksgiving we had Nicholas with us and I made the classic dinner of roasted turkey, mashed potatoes with rutabaga, green bean casserole, stuffing muffins (very kid friendly, what kid wouldn't want to try a muffin with dinner?), praline yams ,cranberry-orange sauce and pumpkin pie. We are a carb friendly household!! We did the turkey sandwich thing the next day and then I made the once a year turkey gumbo....oh I could go for a bowl tonight.

After Thanksgiving, I was on a mission to ready the house for our visiting guests. My best friend of over 20 years and her family stayed with us for a week! I was so excited to see her because I haven't seen her or her family in years (they live in England). It was great to see her daughter who is now eight because it gave Jimmy and I a glimpse of what's to come with our little girl. Jimmy and James (that's Keilani's husband) got along so well, I wish we were neighbors like when we were little girls. I got to have a girly moment of shopping for make-up and nail painting. These days I only wear make-up or paint my nails for special occasions, so it was really fun to play around with it everyday like we did when we were roommates. I also enjoyed how our children took to each other and played so well together. Baby Bella wanted to be like Pixie and I think Kai had his first crush!!

They are visiting with her family for a week then will come back and spend one more day with us before flying back to England. I'm so excited! Nicholas will be here too, so we will have a very full house for a couple of days ^_^

I've been too busy for my usual homemade goodies so everyone will be getting either a suitable substitute or late treats.... sorry. If you haven't received a card from me that's because I haven't sent them. Too much snow and horrible service from the US postal service has made me consider New Years cards instead. Speaking of snow, I used to enjoy its beauty, but now I find it a nuisance and wish it was spring!!

Just a few more days to Christmas and I still have no idea what we are doing so updates might not happen until the new year.

I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and love to you all!! XXXX