HE REALLY REALLY HATES THE HALLOWEEN STORE!

The break in

Earth Shattering
Yesterday I woke up sick. I thought about staying home sick until I remembered that no one gets rest with a nine month old at home. I came to work and the events of the day left me cranky so around 5:30 I decided I was just taking the kids home and give them baths and pass out. When we got home Brandon ran to the door that leads from our garage to our house to open it. The door was locked which was very odd considering we have never locked that. Inside my head I thought to myself "Someone is probably in my house right now and they locked the door to escape." (Yes I really am that paranoid all the time)
We walked in and ran to the bathroom because I had to pee. Brandon stripped naked so that he could get in the bath. I sat Codi down in the car seat and walked to the master bedroom so I could grab the bath seat out of my tub because the boys had used my bath last. I walked up to my bedroom and saw this.
The first thing I thought was, "what the fuck did the boys do now." Then I looked a little harder and saw this.

I realized suddenly that something was not right. I peeked around the corner and noticed the curtains blowing and saw a few shards of glass. I turned around grabbed my kids and ran to the neighbors. I did not know if they were in the house or not but I did know I had a few guns in the house and I sure as shit wasn't going to get shot in my home with my own gun. I called the police from the neighbors house and was told they would get to it when they could. The neighbors mother stays home with their kids all day and she told me she saw two young kids walking out of my backyard around 10:30am. When the neighbor asked why she didn't say anything she replied, they looked young and maybe Filipino so she thought they were just friends of Robs leaving through the back. I waited a long time and finally I walked over to the house and grabbed a Tshirt out of the garage to put on Brandon. Rob arrived home and since he had his gun he went into the house to make sure it was safe he was sure they would not be there since the lady saw them leave early. He was right. I left the kids with the neighbors and we walked in. the first thing Rob noticed was my worst fear. They had taken two of his guns. Two registered handguns are now in the possession of kids twice described as no older then 17.

Upon further inspection we found the Playstation 3 and Wii had been removed from our bedroom.
All of the Wii controls, Wii steering wheel things, Playstation wireless cords and so on were gone.
They tossed my bed (that is my bedding that the moved into my bedroom)
Our closet was totally trashed. The basket there on the floor held every single love letter, flower or sweet nothing I had given Rob. It is all smashed, torn and ripped now.
My jewelry box was hidden under those pants on some shelves. It contained my Tiffany, my 3 pairs of diamond earrings, and a necklace from my husband among other things.
The drawer there on the right IS NOT A DRAWER. They fucking pried wood off wood trying to steal shit.
Our computers were located on my coffee table. We have a floor jack that the charger plugs into. They ripped my couch apart to rip the cord out of my floor even.
That is where my Nintendo used to live.
This is the back sliding door that I've been so terrified of since the day we moved in. It is located right next to my bed.

They shattered the whole thing...with one little rock!
We realized they broke the fence in the back of my house because my house backs up to field. We think since the neighbor saw them walk out empty handed that they stashed everything behind the fence or just handed it over to friends. The police were able to find footprints from my yard up the hill behind the fence. I am going back now to document the rest of the losses since I have no idea what was really stolen.

I am only thankful that my family and kids are okay. I'm even more thankful that a week ago our computer guy was here and in a random act of faith he backed up every single one of the 7,000 pictures on my laptop. I'm thankful he set me up with Mobileme and my accounting program was backed up.
I am stunned that this happened just over a week after we had the alarm system removed from our home. It was removed and re-installed into the house we are remodeling. I was so mad that we had it taken out early but that was when the appointment could be done so it was what it was. The odd thing is, if you look in my front window you can see the hole where the alarm was. The boy who lives on the other side of me said two young kids knocked on his door earlier in the day asking if Andrew was home. He said no Andrew lived there so they went to my house.

To answer everyone who asked it is the house we currently live in, not the one we are remodeling. Also, someone asked why I'm not more angry. You were correct in assuming that I was in shock. It feels surreal. I don't know how I feel about it. My husband is angry, ANGRY! I'm thankful my kids are to young to remember and that no one was hurt.

I'll update after I speak to insurance.

Well shit

My house got broken into today. My husbands Macbook, my Macbook Pro, our PS3, Wii, NES, cash, jewlery, two guns and various other things are gone. They entered by shattering the sliding glass door to my bedroom. They dumped out every drawer in my room and every single thing in my closet now lays on the floor. I'm the most bothered by the guns. The neighbor said they saw two teenage kids walk out of my back yard. That means two idiot teenagers are out there walking around with guns registered to my husband. They also have all of my passwords, every photo ever taken of both my children, my accounting info and lots of other random things.

Will post more when I know more!

So you're hungry for some Italian

I got asked where you can find Johnny's Little Italy here in Reno. The actual name is Johnny's Ristoranté Italiano. It was called Johnny's Little Italy back in the day before his son took over and got high class, but us die hard locals only know it as Little Italy. The food is amazing. I ordered Basil Gnocci which was divine. We each got a Capresé salad which was so sweet and made just right. The tomatoes weren't bitter, they were juicy and firm. There was a generous portion of basil and a great ratio of mozzarella. Their balsamic rocked too. My husband got their Bruschetta which had a portabello mushroom basil one, a shrimp, a sausage, and a classic tomatoe. They were great! He got a shrimp scampi pasta which he loved. For desert he had a Tiramisu and I wanted to steal it. I got amaretto chocoalte cheese cake that tasted like a big hunk of crazy thick chocolate pie. They serve bread too. Half fresh sour dough and half fresh rosemary. I walked away in the happiest place ever. If you want to visit Johnny's here is the info, YOU WON'T BE DISAPOINTED!

Johnny's Ristorante Italiano

(This is not a website, they don't have one yet)

4245 W 4th St
Reno, NV 89523
(775) 747-4511

A very small preview

Small house preview here

In which the dorkyness reaches new levels...and Codi makes a mess

Last week some boxes arrived. What was in them?

Let's open them and see


WOOOOOOOOW!!!!!

It's my brand new IMAC!!!
(This totally replaces Whole Foods day as the new BEST DAY EVER)

I looove coming to work now! 24" I guess size really does matter!


Last week Codi was standing behind his walker pushing it around. Funny, he was walking the walker. Anyway suddenly I heard him crying and I turned around to see that somehow he had went from walking behind it to climbing the damn thing.

No clue how but he somehow managed to climb up on top of it and get himself stuck. He was pissed!

PISSED I TELL YOU!



But the real reason you're all here today.

Is to see what happens when you let THREE perfectly capable people watch your son in the office across the hall.

!!!!!!!!!!!!

They let him play with a red stamp pad.

RED!

A RED STAMP PAD PEOPLE!!!!!!!

He had to get a bath at work!

Free spa treatments given here

Today is my 4 year wedding anniversary. We are going out for dinner tonight and all I'm thinking is, "Dude you need to shave your fucking legs Shannon." Seriously ya'll if you rub your hand over my leg you get an awesome exfoliating affect. Add some lotion and lavender scent and it's a full on spa treatment for free!

On top of the sexy legs I now have retainers again. I had braces back in middle school and of course retainers after. About 4 years after having my braces removed I gave up on my retainers. Well now 10ish years later my teeth have shifted to the point of needing retainers again. In fact if I had waited much longer I would have had to have braces again. So I now have myself a shiny new set of clear retainers! That also means I talk like thith. I sound like an athhole when I anthwer the phone at work. Also MY TEETH FUCKING HURT. Like I said Rob and I are going to dinner tonight and I'm wondering if the place we are going has any mush on the menu. Maybe they can blend my bruschetta up into a nice Gazpacho, I mean they are the same thing right!

Also even though I only have like 8 dishes at my house currently I somehow manage to have about 53 in my sink. What the fuck? How is it I don't have spoons, strainers, pans, or bowls but I have an entire sink full of dirty dishes? I hadn't cooked dinner in quite a while with all this house shit. It was a lot of Taco Bell and take out orders. I tried cooking dinner last week which resulted in making gravy with corn starch. We have only one pan so that meant I had to boil potatoes then take them out and mash them in a bowl while washing the pan and starting the gravy. I was so frustrated with that I stopped cooking again. I also hadn't been to the store in over a month. I had bought NOTHING! Finally on Monday I gave up and went to the store. I had to set my pride aside and take some help from the store. I bought some of those frozen Bertolli pasta meals in a bag (Rob LOVED the Alfredo chicken one), some frozen pizzas, and I shit you not I bought the Country Crock premade mashed potatoes. I bought fresh meat, some salad, fruit and veggies too. It's been a relief all week making dinner but not having to use 500 pans and take an entire hour that I just don't have right now. Two nights ago I grilled an amazing bone in rib eye and roasted asparagus. Then I popped a loaf of premade garlic bread from Whole Foods in the oven and my microwave potatoes and wala I had dinner. I only made ONE dish! Well, 3 if you count our two plates and the ENORMOUS Tupperware I used to marinate since I didn't have any baggies. The Bertoli meal in bag took 10 minutes I shit you not and was fucking delicious.

I was almost embarrassed to buy the food. Feeling like somehow I was sucking as a wife. But then I realized that sucking as a wife would be not even trying at all and being totally okay with fast food and take out. But then I realized I had to wave my white flag and surrender. I just can't devote an hour to cooking every night right now, but I do have 20 minutes to give to it and at least now we all are around the dinner table again and I've at least cooked something rather then let someone else do it. Oh well. Someday we will be fully moved in and I can go back to cooking real food and updating my food website!

In the mean time we are going to dinner at a great little Italian place tonight called Johnnys Little Italy and the server may or may not be able to grate Parmesan off my legs!

A few random pics

Brandon eating his first ever taco from daddies favorite taco joint. He loved all of it but the onions

My husband and his friends are VERY creative huh?

Brandon picked me some flowers. My mom was worried I don't weed enough...but see I've got Brandon on the job!

Ginger showed up at my house with these cookies the other night. A few days ago we were talking about some Oreo's that Brandon's teacher suggested we try. We went on a mission to locate them and when we did we were totally disappointed. Ginger mentioned these other cookies she had once. About 5 days later she emails me to tell me she actually drove out of her way to the little place that sells them to buy me some just so I could taste them.

I ATE THE WHOLE FUCKING BAG!

This might be the best cookie I've ever had. It was a cross between a chocolate covered graham cracker, a kit kat and a little slice of HEAVEN ON EARTH!

They can be found at World Market

Rob waving at the camera. The other picture was actually him flipping me off. Why?

This is about the 298598th time this month he has had to move the fridge. Do you know why? Because our fridge has a water and ice feature. Rob likes to prop his water bottle up into the water filler thing and then WALK AWAY. Every damn time he walks away and just leaves it to overflow and flood the ENTIRE FUCKING KITCHEN. He floods it so damn bad he has to pull out the fridge and mop under that. Sigh!

Hmmm what is in this cabinet?

It's my brother Brandon!!!!!

Hi Codi want to come into my fort?

Sure I'll come in and play

MOOOOM NO GIRLS ALLOWED PLEASE LEAVE!

Other random tidbits.

Karma is laughing at me. I just went to pack my lunch and realized that the very water bottle that Rob floods the house with all the time was sitting on the counter with out a lid ON IT'S SIDE. Yeah it had flooded my entire cabinet, lunch, appliances and so on.

Rob told me last night that until he moved to Reno he had never had real mashed potatoes only BOXED mashed potatoes. I find that weird. It reminded me of back in the day when my cousin Lisa and I would be broke and hungry. We would get on her moped scrounge up a buck and go to the store and buy a box of mashed potatoes. It would feed us for quite a while.

Codi finally got a tooth. He also finally ate some food. He has eaten about 4 bites of spaghetti, 3 bites of sweet potatoes, 3.5 bites of banana and 58983047 organic Cheetos. Fucking kid hates food. No rice cereal, oatmeal, veggies, mashies, bread, butter, NOTHING.

Wait. I forgot. He will eat ice cream. No maternity test needed, he is mine!

Brandon has taken to walking around in his underwear with his hand down his pants like Homer. Which reminds me of last nights conversation. Talking to my husband last night we stumbled upon a conversation where he told me that him and his brother compared "sizes" when they were younger. This totally peeked my curiosity. Is this normal? Do all brothers show their stuff and compare? Do girls compare boobs and I'm just out of the loop because I didn't have a sister? What other weird things do siblings do that I don't know about??????

Learning quirks about siblings is one thing, but learning quirks about boys is a whole other thing for me. I don't know shit about gross things boys do growing up. I'm in for it aren't I?

GROUND BREAKING NEWS

I'm eating cereal again! In an effort to keep on track with my diet I decided to eat some cereal. Today's winner is Kashi Strawberry Fields. I figure my first taste of buggy cereal should at least contain organic bugs.

Hmmmm can I really do this? Can I really eat bugs?

BUGS!!!!!

Okay here goes nothing measuring out my bugs (notice I have to measure with a Tupperware as all of my measuring devices have been moved to the other house, also behold my only bowl)

Adding milk to the bugs

Okay here goes nothing

Wondering if it taste like bugs

I'M NOT DEAD!
The bugs haven't killed me yet!

School shopping

When I was little my favorite time of the year was school shopping. When Brandon was born of course I bought him a ton of clothes but there was never much of a purpose. I just bought cute things. Slowly you learn the mistake in that. For instance buying cute little outfits with pants shirts and jackets when your kid is crawling is mostly pointless. No one really sees it, it gets dirty, the little jackets get in the way and it's a lot of shit to deal with during a diaper change. This time around Codi has mostly lived in onsies and footie jammies. He still has all of Brandons cute outfits which are handy for photos or dinners out. I would have saved a lot of money had I known that with Brandon.

Now that Brandon is older and walking and potty trained there is a lot of different things that come to mind when shopping. For instance, overalls while cute are now OUT! they are way to hard for kids to take off to go potty. Same goes for belts. I firmly believe in the adjustable waist pants now! I am presenting to you my must haves for school shopping this year!

First off, since Brandon is potty trained he gets to wear big boy undies. For the longest time he only wore the Hanes boxer briefs in red and blue. Last week I went to Gymboree and found these little boxer briefs. They are $7.00 which is very pricey for undies, but if you go on the sale rack you can find tons for $3.49. Anyway, I brought home two pairs and now that is all Brandon wants to wear. I've been slowly collecting them all and we now have all designs minus the pirate ones (which I want BAD) because they still don't have his size.
Also on my list is hooded sweatshirts THAT DO NOT ZIP. Last year the zip up hoodies were fine. Then Brandon learned to unzip his fucking shirts. This means that he can just unzip it and toss it any ole place. At school this is a bad thing because other kids take them, they get lost, or since he doesn't know how to zip it back up he will go outside in the cold with out a jacket since he doesn't quite understand asking the teacher for it back. When I went shopping yesterday I was on a mission for these. THE ONLY place I found them were at Gymboree. They were $20.00. I bought two and plan to buy two more in a couple more weeks if they go on sale. Currently Gymboree is having a sale on a ton of items where anything $12.50 - $20.00 is only $10.00 and anything $21.50 - $30.00 is only $20.00. They had some great jeans for only $10.00 there.
The next thing on my list of must haves is clothes for school. My school requires you to leave TWO changes of weather appropriate clothes there at all times. This drives me nuts because I don't want to buy nice stuff and have it just sit at the school. I also like to keep some clothes for him at work, and in my car, and have some stuff to leave at my parents house. For this I go to Walmart. I did everything in one color so you can see they sell everything in sets (they even had tees and shorts that match for summer).

These long sleeve shirts are very soft and only $3.50. They are sturdy yet soft and wash well. I buy two of each color usually.
These pull on pants rock. They are soft and also ONLY $3.50. I don't care if Brandon gets them muddy and gross and I don't mind leaving them at school, work or families. I also love just having some really cheap pants around for playing in the sandbox or with his sidewalk paints. Not pictured are the matching sweats which are only five bucks. Would you believe these stupid cheap sweats are my FAVORITE toddler sweats of all time! They are soft, don't shrink and last forever. I buy a gazillion of them a year.
These are the matching sweatshirts. They are $3.50 also. I like to have a few of these around to throw on under his jackets, keep in my car or just wherever.
I'm sure a lot of people are absolutely against shopping at Walmart for kids clothes. For someone like me who prefers Gap, Gymboree, and Dillards Walmart is a stretch. However some things I just love getting there. They have great socks, undies, and kids wife beaters (A shirts). I always stock up on the wife beaters for winter as a second layer under long sleeve shirts.

For shoes this year there are two pair I'm really feeling for winter. We bought these Sketcher Nollies. I loved the brown coloring because it matched a lot of clothes I bought Brandon. I also love that they are Velcro so he can put them on with out help from the teachers.
Every single season we get a new pair of black converse Velcro shoes. He will probably own these until he moves out and can buy his own shoes.
Finally we get to real clothes. I prefer to buy all Brandon's jeans at Baby Gap. Yes they are expensive but they last. I pay $24.50 - $30.00 regular price for them. I realize that seems pricey but I have two boys so I need thing that will last for Codi. So far every single pair of Brandons Gap jeans look as good as the first day I bought them. They also have amazing sales. Right now there are some jeans down to $19.99. However if you go in throughout the season you can find jeans and shirts from $3.99 - $6.99. I buy stuff a year in advance sometimes if I like it enough. Here are two of the pairs of jeans I got him this year (we got more, these are my faves)

I loooove waffle shirts. They go great under hoodies, and jackets. They keep him warm but not so warm that they are hot when he is inside for class. They come in tons of colors and at gap if you buy more then one they are only $9.00 each. I have bought these every year for Brandon and each shirt still looks new so I'm happy knowing they can be passed right down to Codi.
I got a couple of these waffle shirts also. They were $16.50 so a little pricier. I love them because they are fun colors and can really tie an outfit together. This shirt can go with browns, reds, and denim.
Finally I love to hit up Old Navy for some fleece. I got there right on time and was able to find these fleece jackets for $9.90 and the pants for only $7.90. Fleece is so versatile. It is soft, and warm. It's great to put on under snow pants. I like it also because it is comfortable. On days he is feeling a little blah I like to put him in his fleece. It's nicer to nap in at school plus durable. Old Navy really does good with fleece. I have all of Brandons fleece sets saved for Codi. They wash well, don't bunch and are stylish.

This is basically what I spent my weekend doing. Putting together a great winter wardrobe. Here is a breakdown total of what I got and why.

*6 pairs of jeans. (1 from Old Navy, 1 from Gymboree, and 4 from gap all adjustable waist) (one for each school day and a weekend day if needed that way I can make it one week with out having to wash jeans)
*2 pairs of pull on pants, sweat shirts, and long sleeve shirts from Walmart (to leave in his class as his change of clothes)
*2 pairs of fleece pants with matching jackets from Old Navy
*8 waffle shirts total (4 from Old Navy ((2 for $12.00)) and 4 of the above from Gap) I buy a lot to make outfits look different. Same jeans different shirt.
*1 pair of super cute Corduroy pants. (For dressier days, dinners out etc)
*2 sets of sweat pants and hooded sweat shirt (One from Gap and one from Babies R Us for $9.00)
*2 hooded non zip sweat shirts in basic colors (camo green and brown)
*2 hooded waffle shirts from Babies R Us.
*4 pairs of jammies. (I got 2 at Babies R Us and two at Walmart) (I have to admit I bought stupid matching jammies for Codi, I've never been that mom but just think of the pictures of the boys in matching jammies SQUEEEEEE!)
*8 new A shirts from Walmart in various colors
*8 new pairs of boxer briefs from Gymboree and Walmart
*Socks. I got 4 pairs from Gymboree in fun colors an styles. A ton on sale for $3.00 at Gap, again in fun colors. Finally a few standard pairs from Walmart in calf and ankle length so he had variety.
*6 Cute fun long sleeve shirts from Walmart and Gap (mostly Gap) just to change things up.
*6 pairs of finger gloves ($1.00 for a pack of two at Walmart)
* 2 beanie's ($1.50 from Walmart)

I feel between the jeans, sweats and fleece pants Brandon has a full arsenal of pants for the year. He is also set shirt wise. One of the other things I forgot to mention is that I LOVE to get a couple plain color waffle shirts (white, brown, and black) to layer under his T-shirts. I spend a lot of money on good T-shirts there is no reason to waste them. Not to mention you can actually pay extra for that look at stores, so why not create it myself and spend half the price. 3 of the waffle shirts I bought above can create at least 20 different shirts when combined with Brandon's T-shirts. Here is an example of the. REALLY. CUTE. SHIRTS. BRANDON has, so can you see why I would layer them and reuse them during winter?

Still on my list are snow boots, pants and a winter jacket. I also want to get some more cute beanie's from Baby Gap but they didn't make it into the budget this time. I don't have to buy anything else again until next summer. I also didn't buy anything for Codi. Well not true, I got the two cute pairs of matching jammies and one little matching sweat suit because Babies R Us clothes are buy one get one 50% off so I grabbed a little one for Codi. Other then that, since I buy everything of Brandon's in high quality it has all lasted and I don't have to buy ANYTHING for Codi AT ALL! So while it seems like I spent enough now, keep in mind I only have to shop for one kid! (My mom also went in halves with me at Gap, had she not I would have spaced my shopping out over the next 4 weeks, two pairs of pants and shirts per week!)

(Before anyone thinks Codi is getting screwed my mom did pick up this super cute outfit for him from Gap, and I also got him one really cute little sweat outfit so he did have two non hand me down outfits)