The Daily Snoop

Michael has been in Milwaukee for the past few days helping take care of his Mom, who recently had a full hip replacement surgery. What a great son, eh?! He had a chance to spend quality time with Mom and Dad, Anthony and the boys and Grandma C. He cooked, cleaned and did laundry too. What a great guy!

Here’s a pic of us Skyping while he was away. Look at those big lips!

Here’s a pic of my Welcome Home surprise for Michael.
Martha Stewart’s Individual Rhubarb and Raspberry Tartlets

And here are some of Michael’s trip pics!
The one that gets me every time is the one of him holding Grandma C’s hand. It’s so precious.

Yeah, did the title of this blog post get you?! What is Chocomize, you ask?

Well, I will tell you – unless you already clicked the link and found out through the Chocomize website!

Chocomize is a place to customize your chocolate!! I just made my dream bar to see how much it would cost – not that I can eat it or anything – because I am allergic to dairy – but I can dream, right?

Sarah’s Dream Bar – $6.85 (with 1% going to charity)

• milk chocolate
• goji berries
• lavender
• pistachios

YUM!

I just heard about this place from Aunt Jean. Have to give her a shout out! Hi, Aunt Jean!! Thanks for letting me know about this place! Love their story and their motto. Love that they donate to charities too, even the Michael J. Fox Foundation. (Michael J. Fox is my hero – PS)

Double PS – If you clicked the link to their story and looked at the Chocomize founders, I think the guy in the middle looks like Hunter Parrish.

Ah yes, the friend that would never leave Los Angeles has left Los Angeles. Well, I only thought that she would never leave because her family lives here! She never actually said she would stay in LA forever. She is from Newport Beach, just south of LA. It made sense to me!

Kari has moved onto bigger and better things – New York. She is attending a graduate program through NYU. I am so happy for her. BUT – I miss her dearly. I don’t know if it’s possible to get any closer to someone, but somehow we have. In the two weeks she’s been gone, we’ve gotten closer than ever! She is my rock.

My strategy for her move was this – AVOID. How I’ve handled this whole thing thus far:

• Honestly, I just avoided thoughts of the move in the weeks and months leading up to the actual departure day.
• Denial.
• During the week before she was leaving, I acted like she was going on an extended vacation. She did go to India and Spain for like three months last year. I figured this NY thing was like that.
• Day of – cried like a baby.
• Since the move – added Kari to my Fave Five, which she has been wanting me to do for months.
• Watching Eat Pray Love this weekend – cried at all the parts where Liz Gilbert reminded me of Kari. There were many scenes.
• Currently planning a trip to New York this Fall.

Here’s a few of pics we took just before Kari moved. The last pic being us walking out the door to take her to LAX for her flight to New York.

Road Tripping with The Tenth Amendment Center. Had to stop for Buffalo Jerky!

Picnic in Santa Monica. Look at our healthy stash of food!
That’s Kombucha on Tap in my hands. Ah, the good ole days.

On the way to LAX. My face – mix of smile and sadness. Kari – jazz hands!

Can’t wait to visit Kari in New York. I hope to go within the next two months! Till then, we have Facebook, Skype, email, IM, text, phone and snail mail!

Last month, we had some family in town. Such fortunate timing that the Boldin boys and my Mom were able to plan their trips to LA at the same time. They got to meet each other!!! Needless to say, we had a ton of fun. Just see for yourself!

I also put a ton of videos of our Family Fun Day at the Beach on my Youtube Channel! Check it out! ~ Rosa-Boldin-Garrett-Joe Family Fun Day

Um… yeah… we were helping… really…

Can you tell?

So when I have a bunch of errands to do, my anxiety gets a little out of control. I generally try to fit everything in during the work week. Michael doesn’t like to run errands, and I want to be with him as much as I can on the weekends.

However, this past week was a doozy. I couldn’t get much of anything accomplished.

What would normally take me 2-3 weeks of figuring and scheduling took me one Saturday. Michael was kind of enough to drive with me all over Los Angeles to help me get my needs met. (more…)

Dad,

Life has caught up to me again. I never thought it would happen again, but it did. I had another nervous breakdown yesterday. It happened on a Monday morning while I was at work. Just like last year. What tips me over the edge is a grueling work project that comes this time every year, which coincidentally comes right after Father’s Day every year. I took yesterday and today off work to have some alone time to recover. Recover from what though? How do I recover from this?
(more…)

Hung out with Angelus on Sunday. We tramped around Pasadena – Whole Foods, Zona Rosa, Old Town (car show), Bird Pick, the park. It was great!

Angelus is taking a drawing class, and is currently working on Sumi-e, an East Asian type of brush painting also known as wash painting. He had 21 sketches to draw so he could sumi-e them later. Michael and I made the cut!

• 5:45-6:05 ~ Hit snooze.
• 6:06-6:19 ~ Get ready to power walk/run Grand Ave., Downtown, Los Angeles.
• 6:20 ~ Let White out and leave.
• 6:22 ~ While crossing street, drop keys, and hold up four lanes of traffic.
• 6:23 ~ Realize that my iPod Touch is shuffling songs while I walk. I try to stop it.
• 6:23 ~ Realize I am at 20% battery and turn unit off. Realize that the music keeps going. Leave it.
• 6:24 ~ Realize that shuffling of songs has stopped. Realize I don’t know how to turn off my iPod Touch.
• 6:25 ~ Realize that I don’t know how to use my iPod Touch.
• 6:26-6:39 ~ Power walk to Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
• 6:40 ~ Feel very faint and sick. Realize I didn’t eat enough last night. Shouldn’t have done this while so hungry.
• 6:41-6:58 ~ Force my legs to move so I can get home. Try not to black out.
• 7:00 ~ At home – Reset Date/Time on my iPod Touch. I have no idea how it got offset.
• 7:01-7:25 ~ Eat banana, avocado, garlic herb pita chips, soy milk and jasmine green tea while watching clips of TODAY on the laptop. Fighting my feelings of nausea.
• 7:26-7:40 ~ Sea Salt Scrub my entire body in a nice hot shower.
• 7:41 ~ Tweet, “Just sea salt scrubbed my whole body! It felt wonderful! And now I am extremely soft!”
• 7:42-8:02 ~ Lotion, make-up and hair.
• 8:03-8:05 ~ Scrub some previously unnoticed mold off White’s water cup.
• 8:06-8:12 ~ Feed the birds.
• 8:13-8:25 ~ Get dressed.
• 8:26-8:30 ~ Pack up my lunch bag.
• 8:31-8:34 ~ Put White away and close down apartment so I can leave.
• 8:35 ~ Leave for work.

Making a decision to have a child–it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
- Elizabeth Stone

You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.
- William D. Tammeus

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
- Tenneva Jordan

When I was a child, my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk you’ll end up as the pope.’ Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.
- Pablo Picasso

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.
- Sophia Loren

I love you, Mom!! Happy Mother’s Day!!