Tag! I'm It!

Co-founder of the www.lawritersgroup.com and the author of :Verbs Via Ones and Zeros: tagged me! And so the revealing goes: 10 years ago... The twins, Aaron and Ariana, were born; Christopher had just turned one years old; Elysse was six. We were living with my parents at the time but soon moved out to live in a hideous, roach-infested shack for a week. What were we thinking? There were roaches everywhere: the kitchen, the floors, the bedrooms, in the cribs, bathrooms, the living room patchy carpeted-floors. Fearing that the roaches would eat my offspring alive due to lack of "garbage" in the house, we declared "ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH!" We migrated to the Anaheim area where we've remained since.

5 years ago... Living in Anaheim, working in Cypress for an insurance company, Steve and I awoke one morning to the nation's worst terrorist attack ever recorded: 9/11 Tragedies. The U.S. was under attack with fatalities from the crumbling World Trade Center and the Pentagon, along with an heroic take-down of an hijacked plane headed for the White House.

For several days, weeks, months and years thereafter, vivid images of the thousands of innocent lives lost, scrambling of people everywhere, nightmares of "What if" questions and "If only I had..." stories ring clear in our minds, frantic and desperate searches for loved-ones and the united and unanimous patriotic stand against terrorists become etched in our memories forever.

1 year ago... Our family took a trip to Steamboat Springs, CO for Christopher's travel ball Triple Crown World Series with his beloved Placentia Mustangs team. We clinched 4th place in the nation and Christopher came in 4th place in the Homerun Derby. Our drive to Colorado began on a good, high note until we took the turn at the fork in the rode. Our Dodge Caravan mini-van began to give us trouble and we cautiously drove all the way to Colorado on a wing and a prayer. (Fast forward to our trip home). We had to replace three out of four tires (the trip wiped us out...we were almost penniless then!), and one of them we replaced in Utah after we blew a tire on the road, and after a "Good Samaritan" stopped to lend Steve a hand to change a tire in the rain. I thought for sure he was some serial killer on the loose and we were all goners. Steve had to remind me that we were in Utah and the dude was probably some Mormon Missionary performing his good deed for the day! I laughed. Then our transmission began to give us heck. We took it to a small mechanic shop just outside of Steamboat Springs. He performed some sort of mechanic "wizardry" and soon we were on our way. We stopped in Vegas where my company and my immediate department was attending a convention. We hoped that "extra room" I booked for "emergencies" was available but as luck would have it (no pun intended as we were in Vegas!) we had to drive to stateline and stay at Whiskey Pete with the help of my brother, who searched for vacancies for us. After a few hours sleep, we were up ready for the long stretch home. My brother, the ever-so-faithful-in-a-crisis-brother, navigated us home with constant checks on traffic reports and road conditions. He must have been flying above us all the way home in his "invisible helicopter" because he sure knew exactly where we were at any given moment. Scary. Needless to say we managed to get home by 2:30 PM and believe it or not, Steve went in to work for a few hours!

5 songs I know all the words to:

1. Shout to the Lord

2. Only Hope (karoake version)

3. Killing Me Softly (sadly, karaoke also)

4. Hopelessly Devoted To You (yep, you guessed it)

5. National Anthem (gotcha!)

5 Snacks:

1. Sunflower seeds

2. Skor or Heath bar; Snickers

3. Popsicles

4. Popcorn

5. Chips

5 things to I'd do with 100 million dollars:

1. Pay off all my debt (copied this from Nicole)

2. Pay off all my brother's and parents' debt (borrowed from Nicole)

3. Invest in a house, a couple of cars and SAVE for kids' college

4. build a Big League Dreams Park of our own and employ all my friends and family

5. Donate to my church

(6. Upgrade all computers and establish a "computer center" in my new house! - this one's just for kicks! I had to add this one!)

5 places I'd run away to:

1. Disney World in Florida

2. Take the kids to the Philippines and Puerto Rico to see their roots

3. Hawaii (to visit Lilo and Stitch - ha! I crack myself up sometimes!)

4. Fish Creek Falls in Steamboat Springs, CO (we loved it there a year ago)

5. New York (ONLY to visit!)

5 things I'd never wear:

1. Dittos (remember those?)

2. my high school P.E. gym shorts ever again!

3. Extensions in my hair

4. Stilletos

5. Members Only jackets (no...never again!)

5 favourite TV shows:

1. Suite Life of Zack and Cody (been watching WAY TOO MANY kids T.V.)

2. The News (any channel)

3. You Tube (that counts, right?)

4. ESPN

5. Repeats of "I Love Lucy" (call me an ol' timer!)

5 greatest joys:

1. Elysse

2. Christopher

3. Aaron

4. Ariana

5 My family

5 greatest toys:

1. My laptop

2. My cell phone

3. My iPod

4. My camera phone

5. My blog

5 people I'm tagging:

Lina

Jennie

Elvira

Nicole Greene

Gaylene