The Amityville Horror

Have you seen it? The new one? Ivan & I rented it last night, and for the first time since I was like 12, I had to turn a movie off. We were in agreement that we'd have to try to watch it again in the daylight. And even this morning I mentioned the movie and Ivan was like "Please don't talk about it!" So we'll try again later today or tomorrow, early in the day so we have plenty of time to get it out of our heads before it gets dark. So if you want a really freaky movie-- atleast the 15-20 minutes I saw, go rent the new Amityville Horror. Afer we took it out we put in an Adam Sandler movie and it took me like 15 minutes before I was completely un-tense. It was bad...

We were thinking about going to this place called "Knotts Scary Farm" tonight-- it's a theme park all done up for Halloween. I guess it's pretty spooky. It's open from 7p.m.- 2a.m. We're still thinking, I don't know if I can handle an entire scary park for an entire evening. It's bad enough walking through one haunted house and you know it's over when you walk out...let alone walking out of a haunted house into a haunted park you know? There's no time to recover! We'll see...

House Hunters

Does anyone watch House Hunters on HGTV? Well you should. I just discovered this show and am obsessed. I'm a little upset right now because an episode just got over and I want another one to be on...and it's not. Anyway, it just goes with people while they are house hunting. So you get to see all these cool houses. Makes me want to buy a house! Oh, but that won't happen for a long time.

If you have HGTV you need to watch this show!

Coming Home!

I finally bought my tickets to come home for Christmas. It was a really tough decision-- deciding how long to stay, and what not. So I will be flying into Bloomington on Thursday, December 22nd and leaving on Monday January 2nd. Ivan and I won't be able to travel together because he can't get off the same times from his job. He'll be flying into St. Louis on Thursday morning and has to leave the 26th. So it will suck a little bit that we can't spend Christmas or New Years together...but I figure that I do live with him, won't be home long, and it's Jyll's 30th birthday, so I'm staying home for New Year's. And since I don't have to work, my only obligation while in Illinois is to visit & have fun... I expect to be completely entertained the entire time I am home :) Just kidding...I think that might be impossible.

Anyway, life's good out this way. No news really...it has cooled down a bit, mid 70's. It's nice...the other day it was raining though and it really was cold out. Like 50 or 60 with rain is pretty cold. No big plans for this weekend, thinking about heading back to Santa Monica, because I love it there! You know I'll keep you posted.

Later!

Pasadena

Hey! First of all, it was awesome to talk to you guys at the boys' party last night. I wish I could have been there, it sounded like a lot of fun!! Oh, and those of you "voting" about the purses...there was a tragic accident last night with the brown one...it got stuck on some gum. I think that everything is going to be ok, but it was pretty traumatic :)

So last night we went out in Pasadena for Ivan's birthday. (His birthday was the 11th). It was me, Ivan, his friend Rome from work, Rome's girlfriend and her friend, and then the girls I work with-- Ashley, Eliza, Breigh & Brook. I'm going to put up some pictures too-- there aren't many, and they're not that great, but you can at least get idea of what the people look like that we are always with.

So we went to this place called Q's. It's pretty much a one stop shop-- you can eat, which we did, and there's pool tables, and downstairs there is a dance floor too. So we stayed there all night. The food was good, drinks were too :) We got a private room...I'm not sure why, Rome knows the owner, and Rome's the guy who used to play pro-football...so maybe he feels we needed a private room, I don't know, regardless, it was cool. We just had a pool table, couches, and a couple of tables. And we could look out at the rest of the place but nobody could come back in our room. That was kinda cool. So anyway, we just hung out & played pool all night. The funny thing is that we had been talking about setting Rome & Brook up and then Rome walks in and introduces his girlfriend...oops... I guess they had broken up & were just getting back together to try it out. I think Brook's still got a shot :) Fast forward a few hours and Brook is so drunk, it was really bad. Luckily the bars in Pasadena close at 1:30 because she was in no shape to really be out much longer. So that was a fun ride home...I won't go into more detail than that! And Ivan paid too :)

So anyway, that was that. Today it's actually a little gloomy out, which is a nice change. It's been in the 90's and sunny of course, but today it's only in the 70's and rainy.

Here's a link to the pics, if it doesn't work when you click on it, copy & paste it to see them... share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5YZM

Purse Dilemma

Ok folks, I went shopping for a new purse, which I am very particular about. I found two that I like...didn't fall in love with them, but liked enough to buy. So here they are, which one do you like better?? Click to make a comment or shoot me an email if you have a strong opinion either way :) I'm having a really tough time with this!

Tijuana!

Ok, so one of Ivan's friends from school flew out to San Diego to visit his sister. They were going to Tijuana, Mexico for the day...so we said we'd go too. We had so much fun...but we paid for it dangit.

It's only 2 hours from here. You just drive to the last U.S.A. exit, park your car and ride a little bus into Mexico. They drop you off and that's it. You don't have to get checked out or anything. So we met up with his friend and the people he was with, and went to have some drinks. Ok, so on their menu it will say that the drinks are 2 for 1...so if you order one, they bring you 2 automatically...which is fine...but you for sure end up drinking more than you should. But the drinks are so cheap-- I got 4 Margarita's for $8 I think. The other thing they do, which I remember from going to Cancun a few years ago, they are walking around dumping tequila down your throat, against your will, and then they shake up your head. At some places they say that their only pay is your tip after they do that, other places just say "OK that will be $3!" So anyway...they did that to Ivan :) Then we just walking around and bought stuff I don't really need...I will be sending it home to the kids-- what little crazy boys don't need slingshots?? Come on! It's just fun to bargain with the people...you know, whatever price the give you (which they actually give you awesome prices to start with) you just take them down or start to walk away. On one hand it's so much fun, and on the other you just feel horrible because these people have like nothing! And there's little kids running up to sell you stuff...and you say no thanks, and they just stand there and keep trying. It's pretty sad...so then we went to another place, which is the place that did us in I think. The guy we were with ordered Long Islands for everyone and then Ivan also wanted to try another drink, so we got 2 of those...and then those Tequila guys got Ivan again...this guy was much more adament about trying to get me to do it. I had my hand covering my mouth, shaking my head no, and he's like trying to pry my hand off my face! He finally went away. So we drank there and at that point everyone was over the sobriety edge pretty well...

Ivan's friend & sister were going to a Cardinal's game at 8:00 (this was all going on in the afternoon) so we all had to make our way to the Mexican bus that would take us back to our cars... "Luckily" the bus sat in stand still traffic for an hour giving me time to sober up. And Ivan time to get sick :( I felt bad...you know when you feel that way it's not cool? Then you have like an entire bus either grossed out by you...or laughing at you! And his friend (which is his frat brother) was taking pictures and I'm sure Ivan will never live it down. Then the bus driver starts yelling some spanish about maybe not letting us off the bus unless we clean up Ivan's mess! So the other girls got off the bus and went to the bathroom to get some paper towels...which by the way, they charge you to use the bathroom-- it's $.25 to use it! So they come back and we make do with those. Well, then we pull up to U.S. Customs, because it's a lot harder to get out of Mexico than it is to get in, duh, and the bus driver starts talking to a customs guy about us. Luckily, he was like just go! So we go through customs, get back on a bus, and get to our cars. Now, it woulda been nice to just get a hotel room. But you know, you just want your own bed. So I drove home the 2 hours. (Trust me you guys, at this point I was okay to drive, I know there are people reading who are shaking their heads and you don't believe me, but it was ok :) But the second we got home...it was my turn to get sick...which happened about once an hour for a few hours. And now I am ok!

Like I said, Tijuana was great!!!! Can't wait to go back! It's like, since you're in Mexico you think things are more acceptable :) Which reminds me, we went to a Mexican strip club...We just wanted to see what it was like... I figured it would be pretty raunchy because you know...standards are a bit lower across the border. It wasn't really any different than any other strip club...I mean, I bet it wasn't :) And Ivan's poor friend, had like 5 lap dances bought for him because they were so cheap...he claims it was the grossest thing he's ever experienced in his life! Oh, we also got out picture taken on a Zebra-Donkey thing...we're calling them "Zonkies." These poor animals--which are just zebra striped donkey's-- are on like every block, just standing there, waiting for some drunk American's too sit on him with sombrero's on and get their picture taken. So we took advantage of that... You feel bad though...and then you just do it!

Anyway...you should go sometime!

King of Queens

We went to the taping of King of Queens last night...so fun!! It started at 5:00 but we had to be there at like 3:30 so we could stand in line for awhile. Then they take us into the studio and have the "warm-up" guy (Roger) just make us laugh so that we're all pumped up for the show. And they had us watch a few minutes of clips from the show to get us in the mood. Oh by the way---me & Ivan were dead front & center. You couldn't have had better seats. It was pretty nice :) So then they introduce the cast-- which was so cool. I've just never really seen famous people except in concerts and sporting events and then you're never really that close. We were like 12 feet away. It was just cool. So then they just start taping the show. They do each scene at least twice...so that takes awhile. But it's funny...they might change the lines a little each time they do it. Oh and last night the show was about them all going to a kareoke bar, and in between takes the guy who plays Doug's brother, Gary Valentine, got up and sang to the audience-- in the show we was supposed to be this Neil Diamond freak-- wearing sequins and everything, so he got up & the audience all sang "Sweet Caroline." Also, to get the audience more pumped they had competitions between the two sides and since we were right in the front center, I was scorekeeper for our team...which is a very big responsibility :) haha...You know, you have to be able to count under pressure, speak, and get made fun of occasionally! So the show was funny. I got a hat for being scorekeeper and at the end the cast were signing autographs, so I get Leah Remini's...which was just too exciting! I think Kevin James' family was in town (his wife had a baby last week), they sat next to us the whole time, and we couldn't find him for an autograph so we just left..plus it was 10:00, we needed to get out of that place! And on the way out they gave us a copy of the script. It was good times...I was a bit surprised that Kevin James didn't interact with the audience...and Leah Remini never seemed like she was having a good time...if you don't watch the show you should!!!! It's so funny. It's on CBS I think on Mondays at 7:00-your time. And if you don't know who I'm talking about-- Kevin James is the guy from Hitch that Will Smith is helping... Leah Remini also played Stacy Corosi on Saved By the Bell-- she was Zach's girlfriend at the beach club... :) Anyway, good stuff...lots of fun...you should go watch a show sometime!

Hello

Hello! Absolutely nothing new to say but thought I should post something on here anyway. It's just life as usual now :) Friday we are going to a taping of "King of Queens." I love that show. So I will actually have something to write about then. Ivan's liking his job...last weekend (not while he was working) some of his kids ran away and stole a car! My work's good...I don't love it but I don't hate. I can't figure out what it is I don't love-- if it's the kids or the parents or the co-, workers or California-- I love it here, but the laws are different and they do things differently out here as far as OT goes that I don't like. I don't think we see kids enough, so I feel like I'm not doing any good. So if you don't feel like you have a purpose, it makes it hard to want to go treat sometimes! Oh well, it's good enough for now but I know OT's not it for me for forever. I want to try treating in the hospitals or outpatient and see if I like better there. In the schools I just feel like it's hard to see progress but if you have someone with a total hip replacement, within days or weeks you will see an almost complete recovery!
Anyway, hope all is well, gotta go.

What's up?

What's up? Not much here. Last night I was so exhausted, I just basically slept most of the evening :) Ivan volunteered to go into work because they kids were having this Madden football tournament thing, so he went to help with that...or play I don't know :)

I've been hearing it's pretty chilly back home?? We just got another heat wave, so it's been around 100 here. It's "fire season." I never knew fire had it's own season. I think we are okay but that fire near us wasn't getting any better. It had burned up I don't know how many thousands of acres and people were being evacuated from their homes. Crazy stuff.

I don't know what the plans are today...I'm debating between doing nothing and just chilling here in Rancho...or heading somewhere else...like Malibu or Santa Barbara... We'll see! Later :)

Hey

Hello :) How's life for everyone? Good here. I think my cold is going away a little, or at least changing-- now I can breathe but I have a bad cough. Ivan's sick now too, but he's off from work until Sunday so he can just sleep if he wants :) Haven't been up to much, but wanted to say hi. Probably won't do a whole lot this weekend either, just nursing back to health, ha :)

Did you see the brush fires out here on TV at all? Well it's not too near us, but it's close enough that the smoke just heads our way. Which is great, add smoke to the smog!! Alrighty, talk later :)

Hello

Hey :) Not much going on out here. We didn't do anything thrilling this weekend. I managed to get sick though--started getting a sore throat yesterday afternoon and by the time I went to bed last night I couldn't breathe or swallow. And it's not getting any better. Our secretary at work said that when she moved here from Ohio she was stuffed up for a month-- allergies, and she didn't have them until she moved here. I hope that it's not that. I will be mad. She said it's because the smog settles where we are because it doesn't go passed the mountain or something. I dunno, I just want to be able to breathe!

Ivan's working now. He started working weekends this weekend, so his schedule is Sunday-Wednesday afternoons/evenings. It works out ok. Sunday I did some cleaning & got groceries...then got a manicure & pedicure :) I think that might be my Sunday ritual! The place was cheaper here than back home and better too. They did my manicure while my feet were soaking and stuff. Nice!!

Anyway, that's that. Work's good-- planned a lot of fingerpainting for therapy this week so that's a good time :)

Later!

So tired...

Hey! Things are good. Not much new to say. Work is going well but I am so beat by the afternoon. Could just fall asleep anywhere. Too much thinking, I'm sure that's what causes it. No big plans this weekend. I have a conference for work all day Saturday and Ivan starts his regular hours of working Sundays. Friday night we're having a little game night though. It's way more fun than it sounds! Ivan is coming once he gets off work and maybe bringing a new friend from work. His name is Rome, and he used to be a pro-football player I guess. I guess they hit it off.

Alrighty, talk later.

Rain, Rain Come Again!

It rained today for the first time that we know of since we've been here! But I missed it :( I was on the phone earlier on the patio and was so excited just to hear thunder and see the sky get dark. I came inside and then it rained and I didn't notice. Ivan saw it though. I know this doesn't sound that thrilling, but believe me, 90 & sunny does get a little old after awhile. And they are calling for rain again tomorrow!

Oh and we lived through our first earthquake last week and didn't know it. I guess it happened at like 6:00 a.m. while we were still sleeping. It would've been nice to be awake for it to see if it was one that we could even really feel...

Lata!

Hollywood!

Yesterday we went to Universal Studio's & to Hollywood Blvd. It was so fun. Ok, so Universal first-- neither of us have been before, so that was cool. When we first walked in we saw Beetlegeuse. (I know you're thinking I spelled that wrong, it should say juice, but that's not how he spells it). Anyway, that was really exciting because I have to admit, Beetlegeuse is one of my favorite movies. I still love it. I used to act out scenes to that all the time-- like when they first cross over to the other world, and they are trying to "draw a door"...yup, if you take the drywall off the basement walls at our house, you will see many a door drawn on the wall. Ok anyway, so that was cool. Then all these super people pulled up on 4 wheelers-- Spiderman, Green Goblin, Wolverine, Storm, and Captain America. That was cool. Even though I know it wasn't really them, I think I was just as excited as all the other kids. Ivan was taking pictures and I was on my phone trying to call the kids to tell them who I saw. It was cool. So, then we went to the Terminator show. That was cool 'cause it was 3-D and so like bullets and robots were coming for you. After that we went on the Back to the Future ride. It was fun, but you could tell it had been around awhile...a little 80ish. But in ou car we had like 4 French people and the woman were laughing so hard, I think it made it a little more fun. From there we did this Van Helsing haunted house thing. It was scary. Probably could have been scarier but still made me jump :) And then we also watched the Waterworld live show. That was fun too. I love that movie. Oh and we met Shrek...:) I still want to go to back to take a studio tour (of like Desperate Housewives!!), and go on the Jurassic Park ride/show thing. We got a year long pass so we can go back anytime. So whenever you come visit, we'll be going!

From Universal we went to Hollywood Boulevard. It was pretty neat. Just to be around the places where you know all these stars have been at one time or another. It's a very cool place, but also kinda dirty. There are people begging for money, and freaks dressed up in costumes, and crazy people yelling. But it's such a busy area that all of that isn't really scary or anything. We went to this wax museum, which aside from meeting Beetlegeuse and seeing Spiderman, was probably my favorite thing. Some of the statues looked just like the people and some of them were pretty crappy... but was really neat. Don't you worry, I took pictures of almost every single one, so you can see! Ha! I just wish I could have stood next to them for pictures but they are roped off.

From there we went to see all the handprints and stuff in front of the Chinese Theatre. So cool! It was my purpose in going to Hollywood Blvd in the first place. It was nuts to look at the dates on some of those-- like I think Shirley Temple's was in like 1935 or something crazy like that. It was so cool though. And they had one roped off with security that hadn't been put in yet-- turns out it was Johnny Depp's, he'd just done it yesterday. All very cool.

Oh and really one of the most exciting things was just when we were driving down the freeway and looked up to see the Hollywood sign up in the hills. And also seeing the road signs for Hollywood & Sunset. Just really cool to see things that you've only seen in movies or on TV. We also went into the Kodak Theatre, which if I am not mistaken, is where the Emmy's are. I know that the Oscars are. Anyway, it is built in like a big circle and the middle is open...on the outside it's just like a mall and then upstairs is where the "special events" go down.

So anyway...that was yesterday. Did I say "cool" enough in this post?? And here's all the pictures that you're dying to see, copy and paste this up in your browser to see because the link won't work :)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5YYI


Later!

Virus

Hey everyone!! My computer got a virus so I was out of commission for a week. That sucked. Although there wasn't much to say anyway. Work is getting better each week. The more I get used to my kids and they get used to me. Next week I will have a full caseload. I was supposed to be eased into some of my kids with a therapist who would be going on maternity leave in a couple of weeks, but she got put on bedrest...so I get to just dive in next week! I'll be pretty busy then :)

Ivan starts his job on Monday. He'll be doing training & stuff. Learning how to deal with these crazy kids... Ivan has a cousin who lives in Long Beach, which is like an hour from here, so he went to see her on Thursday and brought her back to our place to stay. That was the first time I've met her, she's cool. So on Friday he went to Long Beach to take her back and also went to Venice Beach. He had a good time. Yesterday was one of our friend's birthdays so everyone ordered food and brought to our apartment to hang out. From there, us girls went to this country bar called "Brandin' Iron" in San Bernardino. It was fun. I haven't line danced in a long time!!!!! But they played pop stuff too-- like Usher and Def Leopard. It was a lot of fun though.

So today our plans are up in the air- we're either going to the L.A. County Fair or to Hollywood. I kinda want to see the L.A. Fair just to see if it's really even like a fair at all! The commercials for it on the radio are hilarious. They're talking about food making you fat & talking like hillbillies. It's just funny.

Anyway, I'll get going. Have a good day!!

Finally Treating Kids!

So today was my first day actually working with the kids and it was good. In the morning I worked with another therapist whose Friday kids I will be taking over completely in a couple of weeks. It is nice to have her there to see what she does with the kids and give them a chance to get to know me too. In the afternoon I was flying solo with my kids. It was fun. It was so nice to get to treat a kid and not have somebody sitting there watching every move judging you-- like when you're in school. It's also nice because if I have no idea what I am doing, nobody knows! I can learn that way. And I can figure out what works & what doesn't ya know? And I can always go back to the office and be like "Look guys, I need some suggestions." Which I'm sure I will need. The kids I worked with today are all much lower cognitively than I have any experience with. So that's new. I'll be doing my homework this weekend for sure. Figuring out what I can do with these kids. Such a learning experience! So that's work :)

I think we're going to see that new movie-- "The Exorcism of Emily Rose"...tonight. I'm sure I'll regret it about 10 minutes into the movie, but I like being scared!! We saw "Red Eye" on Monday-- it was pretty good. I'd reccomend it. Oh, and we saw "The 40 Year Old Virgin" last week...very funny. One of the funniest movies I've ever seen probably.

Is everyone making their donations to the Red Cross??? If you look to your right, yes right now on your computer screen, you will see I now have a link to the Red Cross on my blog so you can just click there and make your donations :) I think Ivan & I are going to do our part next week-- Steve Harvey, the comedian, is doing this huge comedy show in Inglewood with like him, D.L. Hughly, Bernie Mac, and a bunch of other people and all the proceeds go to the hurricane victims. We'll see, we had to make sure Inglewood was safe and all :) The only time I've heard of it was in Tupac songs so that's not usually a good sign...but the girls at work said it was a-okay!

Talk to you soon!

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow I start treating kids! YAY! I'm really excited because that's when I'm the most comfortable I guess. Just me & my kid ya know? Anyway I will let you know how it goes.

Oprah

Did anyone watch Oprah today? (Today being Tuesday) She had her show taped in the areas where Hurricane Katrina hit. It was horrible. I just had no idea...I mean they show you on the news that some people are homeless, okay, you understand that some people died, and it's all pretty bad. But then there's the stuff that I hadn't ever heard anything about-- like that people were being raped, kids were being raped, and killed inside the Superdome... that the gangs were taking control and shooting people inside the place, people were being taken to the morgue even though they weren't dead yet, just that they were so far gone that they couldn't be saved. It's really messed up. Anyway, tomorrow she is doing another show...I think you should watch it. Everyone just needs to see it.

Hola

Hey guys! Not much going on here. Today I started making treatment plans, Wednesday & Thursday I will be hanging out with another therapist who's caseload I will be taking over after she goes on maternity leave, and Friday I will actually start treating! Only 3 kids on Friday but it's a start. I'm excited, hopefully it all comes back to me. Pretty nervous too though :)

Ivan's still waiting on his job to finish checking his references. Any day now I think he should hear something. I don't know what we're going to do this weekend...we were invited to Vegas for a co-worker's birthday (Vegas is only 3 hours away), but I don't think we're going. I've been spending too much money out here! It costs a lot to do just about anything, and people are always wanting to go out to eat! We'll have to go to Vegas some other time.

What else...I'm looking into doing some volunteer work somewhere. Kinda need to do something to keep yourself from getting too self absorbed! I will say this about California-- I love it here, and everyone is really nice, but at the same time, people seem to be in their own little worlds ya know? Something as simple as walking through the mall and nobody paying attention to the fact that they are about to walk into someone! It's a bit annoying :) Whether people try to or not, it's just apparent that it's easy to get caught up in brand names & nice cars etc... so I am looking into the volunteer thing-- either at the animal shelter or at a therapeutic horseback riding place. We'll see. I might not do anything!

Ok, gotta go. Talk soon. Come visit!

Long Weekend!

Hey! Not much new out here. Just life as usual now. This week at work I did finally get to go out & meet my teachers and make my schedule- which is exciting & very scary. I'm supposed to be a real therapist now ya know? I just want to fast forward a few months and be comfortable & confident with treating! I'll get there. But I'm so happy to have a 3 day weekend. The work days while doing nothing just kinda suck!

Last night we went out to Burbank Bar & Grill with the girls from work and a couple of them's boyfriends for one of em's birthday. It was fun. They had an 80's band playing and stuff. Good times. I think tonight we're going to Dave & Busters. Tomorrow Ivan invited everyone over to the complex to grill out & chill. We'll see if that really happens...either way it should be a good time.

That's all here. Happy Labor Day!

Just in case you forgot what we looked like, here's a pic from last nite.