Thursday nights..

Sorry peeps...no blogging tonight.
For the past 11 years, Sean and I celebrate the weekend by staying up late and watching a movie on Thursday nights to welcome in the weekend. My husband and my movie await as I write, so I'm going to have to ditch you tonight.

No hard feelings, k??

:)

Redondo Beach, California

Before my freshman year of high school, our family moved from Idaho to Southern California. My Dad was working for a company in the City of Orange as a welder and moved with my Mom, sister, and two brothers from farm town to big city. Dad always wanted us to live our later years in a big city, saying it was good for us to be in a place that would provide more opportunities for us. Perfect timing, considering I was just starting to feel comfortable with my friends in Jr. High. So moving to a completely different place right before high school was, you know, pretty sucky. I attended and graduated from Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, about one mile from one of Dad's favorite places to take us on the weekends: the Redondo Beach Pier. There we would order loads of shrimp, fish, crab and sit by the pier enjoying time together and the gorgeous beach weather we had grown to love. After we ate we would walk along the pier to enjoy the different shops and would sometimes stay long enough to watch the sun set.
Fast forward almost 20 years to last weekend, where I had the opportunity to take my babies and my husband to enjoy the same scenery and seafood we used to enjoy during my high school years. Although it was raining, we still had a great time and even stopped off to take a few pictures where we once did with my Dad, who passed away in 1992 before I graduated high school. I miss my Dad everyday since then, but at least I'll always have Redondo to go back to and relive those memories forever...and now with my own little family.

My Sister's Keeper

Whoever came up with the phrase, 'A picture is worth a thousand words' sure knew what they were talking about.

This afternoon, I walked upstairs to wake up the baby from her nap and heard Loseli talking in the bedroom they both share. Loseli loves to beat all of us to the crib when 'Ilaisaane wakes up, so it is never a surprise to walk in the room after nap time and see her standing next to the crib waiting for someone to come and pick up the baby. So when I walked in on the two and saw the scene depicted in the picture above, my heart melted all over the floor. Loseli had managed to get her chair up close enough to the crib to climb in with a comb and a brush to groom her little sister. After I managed to get a picture without disturbing her, I admit to having a little bit of an emotional moment. I have to say, this picture truly is worth a thousand words, if not a thousand bucks. Loseli is not known around these parts for being, uh, how should I say this...NICE?? She is constantly beating up the twins, bossing them around and the funny thing is the twins actually do what she says because they are too afraid of going against the grain for fear they will find their toothbrushes in the toilet. Recently, 'Ilaisaane has been crowned the Snow Queen of our home because not only is she the "fairest" (uh-hum) of them all, but Loseli absolutely refuses for anyone to touch, look at or play with her. Every morning at 8am we hear a, "Mom! WAKE UP! BABY NEEDS A BABA!!" and we are sure to be informed when 'Ilaisaane needs a diaper change or when she needs to take a nap, all because she has a two year old keeper that is built like a human security system. I say this is sisterly love at its finest and I wouldn't have it any other way. Small blessings like this make life with children, especially four daughters, so fulfilling!

The City of Angels

I absolutely love the City of Los Angeles. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that L.A. is the place where I will someday live and retire. I'm so good in fact, I have conditioned both my husband and the kids to believe the same.

Last weekend we traveled to Los Angeles to attend the funeral of my Dad's sister, Meivi Raass. Although it is always disheartening to visit family under these circumstances, I will always try my best to take advantage of every opportunity to visit with my extended family. I am a firm believer in the family unit and that no matter how much we love or want to stab each other, in the end we all need one another. God gave us family for a reason, to teach us tolerance, love, respect and most importantly how to serve. When we were kids, my Dad always said that it never made sense to go and serve strangers if you weren't willing to love and serve your own brothers and sisters. Now that I have my own kids, I try my best every day to push the same message. I hope to raise these girls of mine to always love and serve each other so that one day, they will in turn take that love and give it to those outside our family who need it most.

B is for BLAH.

There is nothing inviting about the word BLOG. Defined as a contraction of the term 'web-log' I have never been interested in participating in or reading any one's BLOG. I mean, the term itself kind of reminds me of the weather my husband used to describe while serving his mission in Scotland: wet, cold and depressing. In other words BLAH. So really, when blogging first became popular and I was constantly receiving invitations from friends to read their blog, I honestly saw no point. Months after these invitations poured in, I became curious and started reading these online journals I was invited to read in the middle of the night after the kids went to sleep. I found myself not only engulfed in the lives of others after hours, but I basically was losing sleep while reading countless blogs that had nothing to do with anything that I was even remotely interested in knowing. These blogs were basically one big brag fest for anyone who could get their hands on a computer: cars, clothes, money, everything materialistic you could get your hands on in an "..look what I have and you don't.." attitude was shared on these blogs and I was reading nothing about life, family, fun, special interests or anything that wanted me to get to know these people or a particular subject on a personal level. What a disappointment.
Fast forward several months when I received an invitation from my sister to read my cousin's blog titled The Future is Brown. I'm sorry, but the title alone cracked me up. I stayed up late one evening for HOURS reading this blog, laughing at all the posts about him trying to find entertainment for his cousins wedding, political posts during the Presidential Election, his family, his friends, his special interests, photos of random people while on public transportation and special articles of world issues that I knew nothing about. This blog had me wanting more..so much that I kind of stalked it for hours, hitting 'refresh' on the computer hoping not to have missed a thing. It was then that I started shopping for other blogs dedicated to areas such as commerce, politics (something I'm not well versed in..), fashion, food, fitness, family and found that people are blogging about EVERYTHING these days. The "blog" has since become my new found friend...so much that I felt inspired to start one of my own.

Will anyone read it? I don't know..but if someone does, will there be anything worth staying up all night to read?

Man..I hope so.