Oh, February....

How did you turn into March so quickly? I'd like a recall please and thank you! HA!

I spent much of this early morning awake and in bed.

Rather than spend the hours tossing and turning I got up,

turned the lights on and finished a book in peace and quiet, grateful

to feel like I wasn't wasting time reading for pleasure.

Jekyll, my sweet puppy face, who is approaching his 1 year birthday, kept

me entertained while I read as he discovered the mirror, or mirrors in my

bedroom. At one point he was sitting on my bed growling at

the 2 dogs who had invaded his territory.

Poor little guy, he also seemed quite confused as to why "mom"

was petting all of them, seemingly at the same time.

I think I want to come back to the next life as a dog.

Happy 2011!

Well, needless to say, as nearly 2 years have passed since my last posting, quite a lot has happened in the little world of Kendra and Akayla!

We left off in early 2009; Akayla was in 3rd grade, I was working at Century 21 Hometown, living in San Luis Obispo, and just as happy as we could be. Well, I'm glad to say, of those things, the only change has been Akaylas progression from 3rd, to 4th and she is now in 5th grade.

The real fun has been in the many happenings in our lives. Miss Akayla, as expected, excelled in her 3rd grade class with a teacher that kept her excited about school. My thanks to Brian Olson for this! Because it has become our yearly tradition, my mom and I planned a vacation to the city of New Orleans for the summer of 2009. In order to avoid the beginning of hurricaine season, we opted to take Akayla out of school on her last day of 3rd grade in order to catch our flight. I will write more about our trip to NOLA in a later post, but for now I will say, what an amazing place! We all fell in love with that incredible city (and the food, naturally!) and are looking forward to our return trip in April of this year!

That summer was full of mini-vacations for us, camping, musicals and a trip to visit one of my best freinds in her new home in Santa Clarita. There, Akayla and I took a "mom and me" day at Magic Mountain, then spent the next day with Angie and her boyfriend (now husband) Mike. The 3 of us spent an afternoon at the LA Zoo and explored the oddities of Hollywood Blvd. We also called the summer of 2009 our summer of musicals. Every Sunday night, we would set up our living room like a movie theatre, make popcorn, invite a friend over and watch a musical we'd never seen before. Akayla even went on a trip to Catalina Island with her dad and his family.

I think I will stop here for now....ever so much more to catch up on, and real life and daily goings-on cannot be neglected!

Only took me 3 months!

So, I'm quite proud to say that it only took me 3 months to update this! YAY! I'm making progress.

Since my last post, Akayla and I have celebrated Christmas, New Years, and Valentines Day, but have not yet reached my favorite...St. Patricks! I have had success in completing 4 of 6 courses in order to sit for my Brokers exam, which I am very excited about. With work, I have also been learning how to manage a HomeOwners Association, which is no treat! hahaha, at least its a learning experience.

Akayla is working on her Girl Scout cookie sales, and is looking forward to a Brownie outing this weekend, to the animal shelter. She is very exicted because she also signed up for Futsol (Indoor Soccer) for the second year in a row. The other treat for her this weekend is a visit from Grandma Vickie and Granny! YAY!

Something New

In an attempt to try something new, I've considered blogging to keep my family and friends up to date on the latest and greatest from my household.

For those of you who are unaware, and I can't imagine that many are unaware, I have separated from my husband and that process became officially done on December 1, 2008. That's the new part, the separated part is older than a good quality blue cheese.

So onward and upward, right? Yes. No more references to stinky cheese, I promise. Well, no, I can't promise that, but the stinky part of my life seems to be mostly over...well, no. That would not be true either. I had a rather hideous stinky experience at 3:30 am yesterday that curled even my strong stomach. But Akayla and I both seem to have survived her battle with either food poisoning or the stomach flu. For my sake, because I do not wish to worship the porcelain goddess, I hope it was the food poisoning, though being the AIC (Adult in Charge) for food around this joint I will feel some guilt if it turns out it was something I gave her that caused her, and in turn, myself such distress. I suppose the next few hours will tell whether I will feel guilt, or similar pain in "prayer". If the latter occurs I do sincerely hope it comes with less residual clean up.

On that note, I feel it is my responsibility in doing this to update everyone on the highlights, as opposed to the low lights, of the past few years. Separation brought us to the quiet, and not-nearly-as-foggy-as-I'd-imagined town of Los Osos, where we lived in a cute 1 bedroom apartment near the beach, or more specifically, the bay, and the absolutely adorable Elfin Forest. In our time there we enjoyed many of the other things that sleepy town, well at least 2nd Street, had to offer, wonderful Thai food (thank you NOI!), a convenient market, 2 yummy coffee shops, the best breakfast potatoes EVER, Maya, and of naturally, my now forever favorite dive bar, the Merrimaker. And of course, Oktober fest, Osos Style!

During our time there we also enjoyed vacations and mini-vacations away, in Disneyland (duh!), Hawaii, Uncle Mikes cabin, Camping (or rock hounding) in Bridgeport, and our final vacation before leaving Osos to the always fabulous NYC.

Naturally we did do real things whilst living there, commuting daily to San Luis Obispo for Akaylas school and my work. Akayla has excelled in school and is now enjoying 3rd grade, after very successful years in K-2. She is an absolutely wonderful child who never ceases to amaze me. Even in her illness yesterday she was sweet, and even apologetic for the mess that she made. As children go I certainly cannot complain. She has found many new friends and though sports don't seem to be her favorite thing, she is always willing to try. She has joined a Brownie troop, which she has had quite a bit of fun in as well.

After our latest adventure in New York was over we started our next, and moved back to SLO. We moved in August into a 2 bedroom, YAY for me, I have my own room! Though I still need a bit of furniture for my bedroom, most of the house is done. I look forward to the day when my new couches, and bed are paid off, but I don't mind making the payments because they look so durned cute! Yes, I said durned. Currently our little place is decked out for Christmas and looking quite festive.

With that quick review, I probably won't do this again for another 3 years, but we shall see!