Visiting Aunt Bev

I am very blessed to have loving Great Aunts.  My mom's aunts are wonderful women with a very special place in my heart.  Most of them are out of state so we don't get to see them often.  But  Aunt Bev is right here in California! She comes to Fresno now and again to visit but this time we decided to pay her a visit in her new house in Roseville.  It was a quick overnight trip but we had a great visit.  We loved her new house and neighborhood.  We had fun playing games, eating, and catching up.  My kids just adore her and so do I.

This trip served as a great warm up for our week long vacation down south.  I didn't even plan it that way!

All Aboard The Polar Express!

Where are we going?  Well, the North Pole of course!

A Callahan Road Trip!

We are coming off of weeks and weeks and weeks of Daddy working 6-7 days per week.  We all survived and to celebrate, we splurged on a trip to the North Pole (via Sacramento) on a school day (minimum day with class parties).  We slept in, ate out, and had an absolute blast.

The California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento offers a Polar Express Train Ride every Christmas season.  The event starts in November and runs through December and is incredibly popular.  It sells out in a matter of hours.  Kevin and I decided to surprise the kids with tickets.  My sweet husband was so excited about this trip.  Polar Express is his favorite Christmas movie and he knew the kids would love it. 

We took the 5:00 train and it was perfect.  The kids bundled up in their new pjs (WOW JUST FOR ME?!?! NEW PJS!) and we were off to the North Pole.  Yummy hot chocolate, cookies, music, and Santa.... there was even a hobo (he had a stick with a bandana tied to it, he was a hobo.  We saw plenty of homeless people in Old Sac, this guy was a hobo).

The hobo was magic, he made it snow inside the train..... on Kevin's head.  The hot chocolate waiters were there dancing and creating their own magic too!

We don't get to do a lot of things like this so it is extra special to have this time together. 

And just so that little chaos cloud that follows us around doesn't think we forgot.... Do you know what happens when you feed your home cooked toddler nasty restaurant food?  G-A-S (rhymes with class).  On the Polar Express.  It is a good thing that the windows opened.

Never go on trips with anyone you don't love

That's my man Hemingway.

Lately? I've been around the world and I, I, I.... Usually I don't see traveling as a good way to spend my free time. It isn't that I don't like to travel, I just don't want to spend another 6 hours in the car and/or airport. And I tend to need as much time at home as possible when travel is crazing (you like that?) up my life.

This Saturday I had a speaking engagement (for work, on a Saturday, that also happened to be Valentine's Day) so I decided to make it worth my while and bring everyone with. Patrick was so excited you would have thought he had been offered a trip to Disneyland.

I needed to get away. I needed to order room service and go to bed early. I needed to see the City. I needed to contemplate a public organized pillow fight.

The absolute best part of the trip? We walked from North Beach to Pier 39, and on our way we found a lovely hat shop. And we got our portion of the stimulus package pay-out in hat discounts! The shop had all the hats 44% off in honor of our 44th president!

Kevin and Patrick both got hats. Patrick's has a karate kid on it.... cute yes, but check out my hot husband. I love him in that hat. Happy Valentine's Day.

If you look closely at Patrick's face it looks like he has chocolate on his cheek. It is actually balsamic vinegar. He ate bread with olive oil and balsamic for lunch. Because traveling is about eating, sleeping and shopping (usually in that order). After eating and shopping, we walked. Then we rested. Look at these boys, lap of luxury I tell you.



Directly from the only in San Francisco files, Keith and I ran right into the San Francisco Valentine's Day pillow fight. At 6:00 pm, a mob descends, pillows in hand to beat friends and strangers alike with pillows. It was quite the scene. Keith thought the flying feathers were hilarious. In the morning we watched the clean-up from the hotel. White feathers littered the grass like a light blanket of snow. Piles of feathers had been swept into perfect mounds. The big job remained: the pillows and feathers abandoned in the fountain. As the crew of four took care of business, three of the four watched as the crew leader pulled a pillow out of the fountain. He looked like he was lifting a bag of cement, not a feather pillow. Which might just be the most precise metaphor for my life right now. So thank you San Francisco, I needed that.

I would describe it as a hunger strike

I am back from Chicago in one piece. It was a great conference, my presentation went really well. I even went to two museums while I was there. And I did some excellent window shopping on Michigan Avenue.

The conference planners booked me a flight in and out on US Airways. I was on a really early flight so I could attend a dinner when I got there on Wednesday night. Anticipating at least an hour layover in Phoenix I didn't eat anything before I got on the first flight. I was shocked when the lady on the drop down screen joyfully presented the US Airways advantage.... Welcome to US Airways, where you pay for absolutely everything. We offer a wide array of Coke products at a 1000% mark-up. Adult beverages for $7. Plain old water $2 please. Correct change is appreciated, cash only!

Right then and there I decided that I was not willing to pay for anything on that airplane or the next three planes I was going to be on over the next two days. Here's the catch (and proof of my stubborn nature) we were delayed leaving Fresno which meant my Phoenix hour was shrunk down to a quick business call, a check-in with Kevin and the boys and boarding the next plane. The piece of the equation that is missing? Food! I continued to refuse food and drink throughout the long flight to Chicago. I don't even know what was in the $5 snack box, but I don't care.

Upon arriving in Chicago 2:00 pm Central, I sought out the Starbucks like some kind of bloodhound. A venti coffee with cream and a muffin. Crazy caffeine love. And it wasn't even Friday!

Dear Mr. Airline Executive,
This is seriously starting to get out of hand. The generous folks at GCYF paid almost $600 to fly me from Fresno to Chicago. You can't throw in a bottle of water with that flight?
I am a bit concerned. I fear that you are going to continue canceling flights out of Fresno and start selling seats for "Lap Adults". I fear that I am going to return from a trip telling my friends to make sure they bring quarters for the airplane bathroom. I fear that you are going to weigh me and charge me $50 for every 100 lbs. I fear that you are going to charge me for a seatbelt. I fear that at some point you are going to take all of the seats out of the planes and we are going to huddle on the floors clutching our luggage in our laps.

I fly quite a bit (yeah, you should see my carbon footprint, kind of embarrasing) and you all talk about this choice that we have when we fly. Here is my choice, I choose not to get ripped off! That is my choice but it doesn't seem to be an option, no matter what travel website I visit.

You might remember me from my last communication in May. I am the woman who was screaming about great companies and bankruptcy and asking for her airline bailout money back. Not my proudest moment but come on folks, what part of this am I missing?

Oh and another thing? Your crappy old planes do nothing to inspire confidence. If I had a quarter for every time I heard the words Electrical Malfunction I could afford to buy two Budweisers on your silly plane.

Sincerely,
The Hungry Girl in 4C

My Heart Beeps For You

I am going to try to blog every day this week for Kevin. He left today for Irvine and he'll be gone all week. He's packing his new backpack, getting ready to hit the road. If he misses us half as much as we miss him, he'll need these updates and pictures. So here it goes...

As soon as Patrick's last friend left the party last night he repeated the following mantra: I AM NOT TIRED. WHEN I GET HOME I AM GOING TO PLAY WITH MY NEW TOYS. Our Pump It Up attendant was cracking up when he was loading the Expedition because Patrick (as always) was relentless. We promised him that he would have time to play today after church. He got some really fun toys and opened and played with every last one.

Both Patrick and Keith wore the Darth Vadar helmet today. Dr. Matt thought it would be funny to have Patrick say: "I am Robert Fox"

Patrick even had a friend over to help him break in the new toys, he was having a great day. I wanted to take a picture of him with his toys for thank-you's. I finally put my finger on the latest four-year old behavior from my boy: whenever I take a picture he is attempting to portray an emotion. The one below (which was supposed to be "thanks for the presents! I am so happy!") is "frightened," his word not mine. This was the second take.

We had a nice family dinner and agreed to watch "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and eat leftover cake. During dinner Patrick was telling me that his "heartbeep" was telling him that he is missing Dad, which is interesting since it is usually his stomach that determines his feelings. He also told me that he is grateful for everything I do, especially letting him watch "Johnny and Caitlin". His heartbeep told him of course. But I know that it is his dad who taught him to express gratitude for his mom (see why I love my husband so much!).

Keith's new thing (a 17 month old behavior that I am just as slow to catch on to) is grabbing your wrist and snuggling with your hand. It is pretty funny other than the fact that he always does it at the dinner table. But tonight what I realized was he was saying something too: I LOVE YOU.

We watched last week's Jon and Kate (after cleaning the kitchen and finding some order in the playroom) it was the camp-out episode ****I just realized in linking the TLC website that Jon Gosselin and I have the same birth date. Not birthday, birth date. Weird**** Both boys were sitting on my lap, I was loving life. Patrick says to me (in between bossing me about fast forwarding too far), "let's go to Campus Club and then we can go camping too." Campus Club, he must of heard that at school right?

After tv I was trying to get some pictures for my upcoming blog about the boys hair, which was of course behaving very well today. Patrick is a budding photographer and usually gets some pretty good shots. But for some reason whenever he takes pictures of me, my eyes are closed. He was taking a pictures of me and Keith and commented that my eyes were almost closed. They weren't but the picture was mostly of the fireplace so I deleted it. As soon as Keith heard the word "eye" he came running over to poke his brother in the eye. He is proud that he knows "eye". This is him identifying his cute little nose.


After the eye poke we had showers, cuddles and books. One day down, five to go.....

A not so clear choice

This week I embarked on my long awaited, much anticipated shopping excursion to San Francisco. I had a relatively successful experience on Market Street, I got just about everything on my list (and then some). I was laden down with shopping bags (my favorite workout) and ready to head to my hotel.

The next day I had a training on Strategic Planning (don't ask) and as anticipated they gave us almost an hour for lunch. For me, having 25 minutes to eat lunch standing up in the kitchen with Kevin on a weekday is a luxury... a whole hour, to eat? My hour went something like this: I spent the first 24 minutes messing around on the computer, emailing my staff and updating Facebook. 12 minutes locating the closest DSW (shoe warehouse) which was unbelievably close. 3 minutes to decide whether I should eat or shop. Shoes or food, Shoes or food. Mind you I hadn't had anything more than coffee that morning. And I was in one of my favorite eating cities.

21 minutes do you choose shoes or food? The insanity of the question was not lost on me.

The catch. As successful as my previous SF shopping day had been, I was still short a critical wardrobe item. I needed an oxford bootie (good name for a rock band) or at least a black bootie. Several days earlier I had literally kissed several faithful pairs of shoes goodbye. Actually a couple of them I just put away in boxes because I couldn't part with them. My New Orleans shoes in particular. Kevin and I bought them in New Orleans (before kids) and I have worn the heck out of them. Not to mention the roads they traveled nightly in New Orleans. The point is this, I had painstakingly made room for new shoes and two pairs of Bandolinos didn't quite do it for me. I needed booties and perhaps a new pair of flats. And I have one opening on my impratical but righteous shelf.

So I did what any self-respecting shopaholic would do... I booked it over to DSW on Powell Street. In the end, I didn't buy anything. Not because I didn't find anything I wanted but because I had run out of time to choose between the 4 pairs I found in 12 minutes flat.

I am honing my power shopping skills. My friend Jennifer and I once shopped for a cocktail dress, a blazer, mary janes and age appropriate clothes in Folsom at Off Saks in under 30 minutes. We're moms who travel a lot, we have no choice.

So shoeless and hungry I grabbed a sandwich and headed back. I was much more comfortable shoveling a roast beef on wheat into my mouth in less than 6 minutes. My digestive system wouldn't know what to do if I actually chewed and swallowed.

I'm still in the market for booties (among other things) but I have fed the beast for now.

So long Express Jet, I hardly knew you.

I'm sorry did the glow of my "good travel karma" hurt your eyes? So you all know that I travel... A LOT. I begrudgingly agreed to travel to The LBC (where there is indeed so much drama) last Friday.

After so many years of traveling in and out of Sacramento on Southwest, I am a travel snob. Especially prior to the 911 security matrix.... I once traveled all the way to South Carolina (or North Carolina, I can't remember) on my charm and good looks. No state issued identification necessary. The only caveat was if there was some kind of terrorist attack I would be stranded.
The point is that Southwest was (and I assume still is) easy... lots of flights in and out etc.

Traveling out of FAT (a.k.a. the Fresno Yosemite International Airport) on the other hand is a pain in the caboose. I make so many turn-around one-day trips that between the inconvenient flight times and the long security lines it is better to gas up old Eddie the Expedition and drive. That is until Express Jet came into my life. CHEAP, EASY, FLIGHTS TO SO CAL!!! Including the worst drive of all: San Diego!!! What more can a girl ask for?

Express Jet is the ONLY reason I agreed to go to Long Beach for a Friday meeting. $169 bucks and I am in, out and on with my life. The catch: the plane was scheduled to arrive at 9:47 and my meeting started at 10:00 am. The plane left at 4:00 pm and my meeting was over at... 4:00 pm.

Now, I have traveled enough to have had my share of "bad travel karma". Some of you might remember the: "I'm stranded in Dallas and I'm pregnant" incident. And certainly the more recent: we changed your connecting flight and didn't tell you debacle. I was overdue for the universe to pay it back. SO...

Express Jet delivered me to Long Beach early! I walked into the meeting (after a nasty little incident with a cabbie who was distracting me from my mission.) 7 minutes early. (By the way, Long Beach airport is portable buildings. Literally, portables. What is up with that?) I delayed my departure from the meeting as long as possible and arrived at the airport at 3:37 pm for my
4:00 pm flight. I figured (and was advised) that LAX it is not and 30 minutes would be plenty of time to make the flight. Mind you all airports advise arriving no later than 90 minutes prior to your flight, blah blah blah. I was too late to check in electronically and I feared the worst. But miraculously the flight was delayed 30 minutes. Perfect. It seriously does not get any better than that folks. Just enough time to check in, buy two more magazines, call Kevin and get on the flight.

That was the last time I will be able to fly Express Jet. They are pulling out of Fresno because of high jet fuel costs (WAH!). Here is an illustration of what that means in my life. I need to be in San Diego in November. With Express Jet the direct flight would have taken about an hour. Now if I want to fly to San Diego I will have to fly through LAX (no more direct flights) so I might as well walk.


Goodbye Express Jet. I may never see the inside of the Fresno Airport again.