Last and First!

Our New Year's Eve and New Year's Day could not have been any more different!  The picture above was taken at our spot I'm calling "Burrito Beach."  I call it that because our new "thing" to do over the last few months is to go pick up burritos with the girls and drive the van over to this spot.  Then we roll down the windows and eat in the van, overlooking the ocean. 

You might wonder why we stay in the van when it's so beautiful - and well, that's because it's SO much more peaceful for us to eat when the girls are strapped into their carseats.  Hahahaha!  Plus, usually Baby Violet has fallen asleep in the car, and we don't want to wake her up.  ;-)


Anyhoo- New Year's Eve was Mr. M's birthday!  Here is Ginger eating pancakes on that morning, with Baby Violet causing trouble.  Violet is always trying to steal Ginger's food...no matter how many times we move her off of Ginger's chair, she always climbs right back on:





Around the time that photo was taken, Mr. M threw his back out horribly.  It was so awful.  He was in such pain...I've never seen him in so much pain!  He usually refuses all medications (even Tylenol) - but he was requesting to go to the hospital.  So, I knew it was bad.

I took him to Urgent Care and he waited about two hours to get care (on his birthday!) - then we went to the Pharmacy and after I waited in line forever, they told me to come back in an hour.  In the meantime, we went and got burritos, and drove around (Ginger was asleep). 

When we went back to the Pharmacy, I noticed the name of the medication seemed SO familiar.  I could not figure out why until we got home and I realized that they had given Mr. M the same pain medications that Daisy had for her spay/neuter surgery...and we still had a bottle of that kicking around.  It was the same doseage even!

So, had I known THAT ahead of time, we could have saved ourselves serious time and money, and he could have just taken Daisy's dog meds.  Live and learn.





So, after we got home, Mr. M settled into bed with a movie and we made him some fresh squeezed veggie juice.  Grandma Pat bought this juicer for us for Christmas, and we love it.  Love. 

Ginger is our resident juicer.  It's a whole other topic, but basically, Ginger is going to be fine in this life, I just know it.  You know that saying:  God Bless The Child That's Got Her Own?  Yup, that's Ginger.  There is nothing she can't do - she is so stubborn, and MY GOSH...the will of that child is incredible.  Organized, and ON it.  If you ask her to put away the toys, she's done it before Paprika's had a chance to complain about how hard it is.  Ginger helps me with the laundry, does the dishes, makes her own sandwiches, gets herself dressed, cleans out her own potty. 

And she makes juice!  Great juice.  She loves to do it, too.  She is all business! ;-)





So, after Ginger made a beautiful glass of juice, I went down to sit with Mr. M.  As we were deep in conversation, I looked over to find him snoring.  He slept for about six hours - and a few times I went into check on him and we talked...but later he remembered nothing of it. 

Now, this was New Year's Eve, mind you!  I was feeling a little sorry for all of us  - I was trying to keep the kids quiet while he was woozy-snoozing.  The kids were so excited about the holiday - but we don't have a TV (so we couldn't even watch the Ball drop)- and I didn't want to leave the house with Mr. M being so sick.

Eventually (around 10:30pm) - I stuck Daisy in the bedroom while I was fixing some food for the girls.  Daisy was so worried about Mr. M that she jumped onto the bed and started licking him all over - probably thinking he was dead. 

So, that woke him up.  He wanted to grab a pizza - but he couldn't drive and I didn't want to go out by myself to pick it up (nowhere to park) - so after I took a quick shower, all five of us loaded into the van to go to the pizza place.  When we got there, Mr. M was in too much pain to get out of the van- so I went in to get the pizza.  It was about 11:30pm - I had wet hair (from the shower), no makeup, and was not wearing my wedding rings. 

I picked up the X-Large pizza and was standing on the curb when this guy out of nowhere came up to me and started hitting on me!  He seemed like a really nice guy- and I saw him look at my ring finger just before he started chatting me up.  We stood there FOREVER (where was Mr. M?!) - and I didn't want to say "Hey, I'm Married!"  - because I didn't want to assume anything.  But at the same time, it was so obvious.  After a few moments of this awkwardness (which seemed like an eternity) - Mr. M came around the corner in the van with all three kids in the back and I was all:  "Well, there's my ride!"  :-) 

Mr. M was cracking up and then of course asked me:  Was he drunk? 

For the record, he was NOT!  Haha.





The next day - New Year's Day - we roadtripped up to Montecito for a friend's New Year's Party.  Mr. M was feeling much better and the doggie pain meds had worn off - so that was good.  The party was lovely  - the girls had a great time - the food was amazing, and it was perfect all around.  We stayed over four hours at the party and the girls fell asleep on the car ride back to LA. 

Here's a picture from the van I took driving up the coast.  It really doesn't do it justice.  The view was spectacular in real life:




So, that was our New Year's - The Last Day of 2012 and The First Day of 2013. :-)

Mr. M really deserves a do-over for his birthday. It was awful. No one died or anything (how I judge every good/bad day) - but still...he was so miserable and slept during most of his special day.

I forgot to add: on New Year's Eve we all rang in the New Year together at midnight - and the girls (and Daisy) went outside and banged pots and pans. Our neighbor across the street was also outside banging, so it was a little symphony. After the banging, Paprika and Ginger both said it was the BEST New Year's Eve ever! So, it really doesn't take much to make them happy, does it? Haha! :-)