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...laughing today.

I said to Anna, in a playful voice, "What's up?!" She replied, "THE SKY!!" (I know this is a common 'joke' - but neither of us ever says it, so it cracked us up.) Curtis asked, "Where did you learn that?" Anna said, "In college."

This morning, Anna was playing dress up in her Barbie Princess clothes (her favorite thing to do lately). She put it on and said, "Do you like it? I got it on sale." We both started laughing again. She said, "Ask me where I got it on sale. (We complied, and the she said...) ...IN COLLEGE!"

Such a funny girl. I'm not ready for college yet. Pre-school in the fall is going to challenge enough!

We finally got the city to accept our addition plans for review today (after some fancy footwork by yours truly). It was cute...Anna actually carried the whole big role of plans in all by herself, and put them up on the counter. And we made a special request that they approve "Pink" for Anna's new room. Now, we wait for the first set of comments and hope for no BIG surprises! Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Look what my friends sent me....Just because. I feel so incredibly loved right now. I can't even say how touched I am. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you - from the bottom of my heart. You made me cry today - but every day that I look at my beautiful lamp for years to come, I'll smile when I think of you guys.

Tonight was great! I got to finally meet a few friends who I know from my mothers' board. It was so neat to finally meet them in person. Jen was out from New York for a work trip, and Renee and I (shamefully) only live about 2 hours apart and have never met until tonight.

We met at Pier 39 and rode the carousel, went to see the sea lions and had dinner at Bubba Gumps. Jen was so sweet - I love her accent. Silly California girl that I am, the sound of a New York accent just tickles me. :D And she brought Anna the cutest little bear. Anna was instantly sold. I hope we get to meet Kate one day soon! And Renee and I totally hit it off. She and her husband and their son Kainoa were all awesome. We HAVE to hang out sometime soon! Thanks for meeting up with us guys! We had a blast! Here are some pics!

I can see that this process is going to piss me off. (Although, I was all sweetness and light at the building department. And I took Anna along to up our "cute co-efficient".)

So - first try, no go. We need:

1 - The plans 'wet signed' (and stamped with their seal) by the architect (which is our neighbor) and the engineer (which is Curtis). All 6 sets...on each page. Fun.

2 - 2 sets of Title 24 Energy calcs (in addition to the 6 copies already included in the plan copies)

3 - Structural plans??! WTF? I don't think this is a requirement, but she said it is. She's checking and is supposed to call back this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed. That would be big bucks. The docs that I saw said that we need a soils report and a structural calc if the addition has greater than a 500 sqft FOOTPRINT. Well, our addition is 900 sqft, but it only has a 450sqft FOOTPRINT because it is 2 story. I hope she's wrong. Ugh.

Does anyone else find it ironic that if you blog about something, in your blog, on Blogger, that Blogger's spellcheck does not recognize the word "blog"?

No? Just as I thought. Too much free time. Gotcha.

It's D-Day. (Or, maybe "P" day - for "Plan Submission. Or "P" for, I'm so nervous I'm going to pee my pants. Hell, who am I kidding. After Anna, it doesn't take a hell of a lot for me to pee my pants. Anyway....I digress.)

Tomorrow, I am going to the city to submit our plans for review to get our building permit. I'm soooo skeered! Argh. Maybe it's because Curtis and I are both anal, perfectionists - but we still see lots of little things on the plans that need correcting. But, after so many drafts, and so many delays, we're going ahead with what we have. We know they will have some revisions anyway - so hopefully, this will get us started. Keep your fingers crossed for us! This is SO nerve wracking!

(You kind of have to read that like the 'Da Bears' in the old Saturday Night live skits.)

Just channeling the love for my boys. Well, actually, Anna claims Rigby (the little one with the big attitude) to be HERS. And Kodi, she asserts, is Mommy's. Daddy doesn't want a dog of his own. Too much mess. She's got it all figured out.

She and Rigby really *DO* love each other. They drive each other crazy, but they are pretty inseparable. And I have to admit, he's grown on me, now that he's getting past his 'puppiness'. He only barks about 100 times a day now, instead of the billion that he used to.

And then there's Kodi. Kodi is my boy. He was my BABY before Anna came. Our dogs are dogs, but they are a bit spoiled. They live inside - all the time. It's pretty cushy. Kodi - well, he's not just a dog to me. He's my boy. Kodi just has something to human about him. I swear he can speak by looking at you. He has so much expression in his eyes. (Yes, it's OK to think I'm a fruit at this point. I know I sound like one.) Mastiffs are the coolest dogs, but Kodi is rare, even among the breed. For a dog that weighs over 200lbs, I have NEVER known any dog that was so absolutely trustworthy around other animals, dogs, people, children. Anything. Anyone. Anytime. (Hell - he puts up with Rigby in his face all day - he'd HAVE to be a saint.) Awww....just wanted to gush about my boys.

We're going to do the addition! Yeah! I am excited, scared, nervous, happy. We did our usual 'spread sheet analysis' last night. We're admitted spread sheet geeks. Everything needs a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet does not lie. So, when we looked at building, versus selling our house and buying new - we can ALMOST afford to buy our own house. It's actually pretty funny. Despite the fact that our house has appreciated a GREAT deal - by the time we pay realtor fees, fix the roof, increase our mortgage interest rate by over 1% (we have a GREAT rate right now) - we just can't afford it.

So - we're going to take out a second and make a leap of faith! We've been praying about it - so hopefully there will be a way somehow! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

My sweetheart comes home tomorrow!! Yeah!! I miss him sooo much when he's gone. It's been four days. WAY too long! I can't complain, because he doesn't travel often, but I'm ready to have him back.

Since he's been gone:
- Anna has refused naps 2 out of 3 days.

- I slept 3 hours or less both nights so far.

- Kodi (yes, the BIG dog) has peed on the carpet MULTIPLE times. (My poor boy is getting old). Do you have ANY idea how much pee a mastiff bladder can hold?! I have run out of garage towels and had to re-launder them twice, gone through half a bucket of Oxyclean and a full bottle of Resolve. Tomorrow, I'm buying a steam cleaner. I swear. This is gross.

- It's been raining (that just sucks in general).

- We got ants in our kitchen. (Have I mentioned that I HATE ants?!!)

BUT....Anna and I have been having some fun 'girl' time. We've played dress up, danced, played Legos, read stories and made new potty charts. She's pretty good company, if I do day so myself.

And I got all of our china packed up to store, so that we can hide our garbage cans in that cabinet. And I got our desk cleared off and about a year's worth of filing caught up. See? Sleep is over rated!!