Live-in maid service

I have the most amazing housekeeper!

He is still quite young in the housekeeping business, but he is quite good at what he does. Our housekeeper works all day, and is inexpensive for those of us on a tight budget. His multiple qualities include, but are not limited to:

dressing himself

dusting the piano keys

cleaning the bathtub

sweeping the floor

and my personal favorite...

loading the dishwasher.

How could you NOT love a little stinker like mine?

Just like his T-shirt says... "My parents are EXHAUSTED".

True that.

San Diego

You know you're from San Diego if...


I found this on another person's blog and had myself a little chuckle. All the locals will totally get it!

• Every street name is either in Spanish or Spanish related, and you're surprised when other areas don't have this.
• You see weather forecasts for four different climate zones in the same county, and aren't remotely surprised.
• You routinely go or have gone to Pat & Oscar's solely to get bread sticks.
• You've ever gone to Downtown San Diego and marveled at the homeless people mingling with the rich young urbanities.
• You've gone to Mt. Helix in July and known you still need a jacket.
• You've tailgated at Qualcomm Stadium, and for bonus points, also tailgated when it was Jack Murphy Stadium.
• You've been to the Wild Animal Park but can't remember the last time you went to the Zoo.
• You've ever been on a field trip to see an Imax movie at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.
• You still call it the Del Mar Fair.
• You say "I'm going to the track" and people know what you mean.
• You understand what May-Gray and June-Gloom is.A famous skateboarder/surfer lives in your town.
• There's a North County, a South County, and an East County but no Central County.
• "Mossy Nissan! Mossy Nissan! Mossy Nissan Moves You!"
• You know what it means when two guys are walking in Hillcrest.
• You've gotten stuck in the Horton Plaza parking structure traffic after a Padres game.
• You know what "The Merge" is, and will plan your entire day around not being on it during rush hour(s).
• You've ever been to Belmont Park and rode the Big Dipper.
• (For North County) You remember the days before the all the big movie theaters opened. And when they did. First the Edwards in San Marcos, then the Regal in Oceanside, then the Krikorian in Vista, and finally the Regal in Escondido.
• You've ever taken the Coaster and laughed at people sitting in traffic on the 5.
• You know the difference between Clairemont Mesa, Kearny Mesa, and Mira Mesa.
• You can correctly pronounce Tierrasanta, La Jolla, Rancho Penasquitos, San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, and El Cajon.
• You've ever gone to Sea World on a warm day and sat in the first few rows at the Shamu Show to get cooled off.
• You've ever been delayed at the Border Checkpoints on the 5 and the 15.
• Your house doesn't have air conditioning.
• You know it's San Diegan, not San Diegoan, or San Diegoite.
• Everyone has their favorite beach.
• No matter what the weather is, there is always someone walking around in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops.
• You live on, near or are surrounded by hills.
• You have family and or friends that have moved to Arizona.
• There are four distinct seasons: Nice, Nice, Nice, and A Little Chilly.
• Your house is worth more than the GDP of some small countries.
• You know what MB, OB, and PB stand for.
• You used to, and sometimes still do ride the carousel at Seaport Village.
• You know someone who doesn't own pants, and have a neighbor who doesn't seem to own a shirt.
• Your high school had a surf team.
• You know what Santa Ana's are, and that they have literally nothing to do with the city of Santa Ana.
• You know what a California burrito is.
• You never, under any circumstances call it anything other than "the Gaslamp."
• You never, under any circumstances call it anything other than "L.A."
• Julian Pies.
• You're shocked when you find out people have never been to the beach, and even more shocked to find out some have never seen the Ocean.
• In elementary school you were forced to do countless "duck and cover" earthquake drills.
• You know or have known countless guys under 5'9'' tall that own huge lifted trucks to account for their shortcomings.
• You love driving on the 52, just for those crazy bumps that they always try (and fail) to smooth over.
• When you were a kid you thought the Mormon Church was a castle, or Disneyland.
• You know what this sign means: http://www.trafficsignstore.com/W54.jpg
• You still call it Christmas on the Prado
• "Nobody beats, El Cajon Ford!"
• You've never had a snow day, but you've had a week off for fires.
• Every time there's a major snow storm in the Midwest or the Northeast, the next day's newspaper has a picture of children playing on the beach on the front page.
• You remember going to the WB store at UTC as a kid and playing in that tunnel thing they had.
• You know the worst traffic in the world is Saturday morning-afternoon going south on the 5 and Sunday afternoon-evening going north on the 5.
• You remember when 619 was the only area code in San Diego.

Baby crazy

This post is devoted to Orion James Harrison!

To describe my pregnancy with him, I would have to say that it was mostly uneventful. I of course had the usual aches and pains of pregnancy, and a ton of heartburn from day one, but all in all I had no complaints. I had to carry Lincoln a lot during my pregnancy, because he was still so young and didn't start really walking places until he was 11 months old (me @ 5 months pregnant). But the juggling was simply my practice round for current life!
The only scare we had was around 32 weeks, where Orion still hadn't turned yet(he was still in breech position), so I was told to do specific stretches and put ice on my belly to motivate him to turn, otherwise he would have to be manually turned from the outside. But it worked! Orion finally moved into place by 35 weeks, and it was full speed ahead by then.
Because I was carrying Lincoln a lot and growing out quite a bit, I decided to go the induction route. My OBGYN, Dr. Biter (AWESOME, I would recommend him to anyone!), was totally cool about that, and he said that if I was effaced and dialated sufficiently, then we could do it as early as 38 weeks. I was, and we scheduled it for January 26. We dropped off Lincoln at Grandma and Grandpa's the night before, and he got to have a fun weekend with them while we were in the hospital.

Delivery went off without a hitch, and it was so FAST! We got there on the scheduled day, I got hooked up on pitocin, had an epidural a few hours afterwards (walking epidurals are divine, ladies!), and eight hours and ten minutes of pushing later, Orion was born! Let me tell you, eight hours and four pushes is a huge difference from 45 hours and 1 hour of pushing (with Lincoln)! Like I said, pretty uneventful. It was such a relaxed atmosphere, it really was wonderful! Orion was born January 26 at 6:35pm, 7lbs 10oz, and 20.5 inches long.

Orion is such a sweet baby! He loves to sleep (yay!), and he coos and looks right at you when you talk. He hardly ever cries, and seems to have such a patient personality. I of course want to get baby announcements out, but only when he starts to smile so I can get a really cute picture of him!

Lincoln loves his baby brother to pieces, so much that I have to really watch them together. He gets so excited that he can't contain it, and starts getting too aggressive with Orion. Such is having two boys, I guess!

So at the end of this blog, here is my shameless plug:

Dr. Biter was referred to me by a friend of mine. She would gush about what an awesome OBGYN he was, how nice his facilities were, how great his staff was, etc. I was slightly skeptical of her rave review, but I went to see him anyway. Seriously ladies, if you are planning on having a baby any time soon, GO SEE DR BITER! He takes most insurance, delivers at Scripps in Encinitas, is very knowledgeable, and has great bedside manner. My husband really liked him, too. I give him my stamp of approval, and as long as we live here, we are having all our babies delivered by him! If you want more info about him, email me and I will give you all the dirt! I can honestly say that I was SO happy I took my friend's advice and went to see him for my prenatal care. YOU SHOULD SEE HIM TOO!

Photos and links

I thought I'd update my last blog with pictures and mini descriptions. Here goes:

SAN DIEGO WILDFIRES

For a really good representation of what it was like to be affected by the Wildfires in October '07, go to http://youtube.com/results?search_query=z8nate&search_type=

There are about 5 or six segments of video to watch, some longer than others. I also remember that Bryan had to go to the emergency room a few days afterwards for smoke inhalation treatment, simply because he was outside in the smokey air, and we were relatively far from harm!

LINCOLN'S 1ST BIRTHDAY

It only took a year, and Lincoln went from this...

...to this!

And here's a more recent picture of my little guy. Sometimes I can't believe how fast the time flew by, he is just so big now!

SAINT GEORGE, UTAH THANKSGIVING WEEK

This was the t-shirt design that Bryan did. My mom and I printed them out onto iron-on transfers, and made all of them the night before (over 20 t-shirts, all different sizes!)

We made it for the St George temple square Christmas lighting. There was a huge turn-out and it kicked off our family tradition of going to see Christmas lights each year.

We also had family pictures taken at the red rocks. It was a large group, but it was a lot of fun, especially for the kids who all played in the red dust/dirt! The hardest part was keeping them clean until after pictures! As you can see, Lincoln didn't like the photographer much, which is so weird for him. He usually is the first one to get his flirt on! It must have been a traumatic experience for him. :)

Here are all the 'McBride' grandkids:

Back Row L to R: Maga, Paga, Zack Adair

Middle Row L to R: Taylor McKay, Laurel McKay(in her arms), Madison Spencer, Lincoln Harrison, Zane McBride

Front Row L to R: Jacob Spencer, Savannah Adair, Jason Spencer, Erin McKay, Hannah McBride, Patrick (Patch) Adair.

13 kiddies in all!

This blog is already way too long, so I'll stop it here. Next post will be about Orion! See you in about an hour :)

A day in the life of...

Well, much has happened since my last post! Too much to remember, bad Sarah, don't go so long next time! My computer is being really strange and refusing to post pictures at the moment, so once I figure it out then I will add them.
Anyway, since last September, we had the following happen in our lives:

• California wildfires (over 500,000 officially evacuated; we were three of them!),
• Lincoln had his first birthday party (that weekend, what craziness!)
• ONE YEAR MARK FOR OUR BUSINESS, YAY!!!
• We went to St. George for a week for Thanksgiving
• Bryan turned 27
• Bryan started working at the YMCA Encinitas in the afternoons
• Christmas with Operation Homefront instead of exchanging gifts between siblings
• An understated New Year's Eve celebration
• Church switched to 8:30am... UGH!
• Orion came January 26!
• Sarah turned 28
• A simple Valentine's day

And that's where we are now! I didn't realize how much had happened until I actually wrote it down. But having a growing family keeps me motivated to archive moments like these for my boys to learn about later! Someday I will have all the time in the world, but for now I must go to bed to start all over again tomorrow. :)