Her name is Lolo....

 ....and no I am not a showgirl.

no yellow feathers in my hair, or a dress cut down to there.....

(a lil Barry Manilow for ya) 

I have been enjoying getting to know you all 

and reading all of your comments.

I feel like we are all besties now!

So I figure if I am going to be your leader,

and since you are all fo-"LOLO"-wing me now....

(thanks Lalo for that laugh!) 

I ought to tell you a lil bit more about me.

Here goes.

Born and raised on the Central Coast in California.

Visual:

 Vineyards.....

(think the movie "Sideways")

Gorgeous, clean beaches

 Lots of lakes for camping, fishing and all sortsa fun

Heres the quick rundown: 

(this is where life starts to fly by) 

 - born in '77

 - went to Private School 

 - got married at 19

 - moved to Pasadena (Los Angeles)

 - had my babies 

 - hated LA

(no friends or my family) 

 - hit a bit of a rough patch......

(ahem - insert the big "D" word here - yes I am a statistic)

 - moved back to the familiarity that I loved, my hometown

 - settled into the single mom life

 - met the most amazing friend

 - turned into the most amazing boyfriend/stepdad

 - got married after almost 5 years of dating

(just celebrated 3 years as newlyweds!) 

 - settled into life together as a new family

  - just bought our first house together and remodeling the whole thing right now!

Phhewww.....

does it feel like 33 years just flew right by you?

Well they did.

CRAZY.

So, now that you know my history

here are some snippets of what makes me, ME.....

I come from a family of 5 kids

I have 4 brothers

(yeah, do the math - no sisters!) 

1 older brother, then me, then 3 younger brothers 

We range in age from 36 to 22 

We all had a busy and active childhood

insert - lots of sports, family vacations, fighting in the backseat

a very loud dinner table :) 

I got my gift of thrifting from my mother when it wasnt "cool" to thrift

I have never been ashamed of thrifting - I love it!

My dad is actually my "stepdad", but I have always called him dad.

(my "real" dad passed away, and was never around as a child) 

I have 2 children from my previous marriage:

my son - Cameron aka Cambo just turned 14

my daughter - Rylee aka RyRy is 11

They are perfect.

Well, perfect to me of course :)

  

Cambo is an aspiring cook and pilot.

He has been reading up on Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

and he is also our Sunday breakfast Short Order Cook

brings me my coffee in bed on Sunday mornings :) 

He is the best older brother....but wishes for a lil brother!

Rylee is my muscle girl.

She loves the outdoors and swimming year round!

She is my lil tomboy (just like I was) 

She also has functioning autism.

Doesnt bother any of us. 

To us she is completely "normal" and we love her just like that. 

  

 My husband is my best friend

I never understood that your husband can be your best friend until I met him.....

and now I cannot imagine life without him!

You will see me refer to him on here as "the Stig".

Its his nickname. 

We are 8 years apart. 

He comes from a family of 3 children.

An older brother and an older sister.

He is half Italian and half German - a perfect combo I tell ya! 

(he still has his very first truck that he got when he was 15- a '75 Ford) 

  

We lead a very active lifestyle - 

  

we play softball,

  

are members in a couple's group aka "CNO" (Couples Night Out),

(we have been getting together with 5 other couples once a month for over 3 years now) 

love to camp, wakeboard, snowski,

enjoy BBQ'ing,

(with oak wood of course)

have lots and lots of friends and try to juggle spending time with all of them..... 

In the rest of our spare time, we like to:

work in the yard and garden, 

cook together,

plan household projects,

go to concerts,

take the kids and our dog Byron to the beach,

tend to our saltwater reef tank, 

go to flea markets and look for "thingies",

(thats what the kids call them)

Ok. 

enough talking about myself and my awesome family

:)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Im going to leave you with one of my new favorite holiday stories...we have lots in my fam.

(btw - I have totally loved hearing all of your wacky and wild stories!) 

Every since the Stig and I got married, we have been trying to take

the Thanksgiving load off of my grandma, who has done all the holidays.

(my grandpa passed away 3 years ago)

So, we have hosted BOTH of our families at our house for Thanksgiving - 

crazy, stressful..... but good times.

Last year my grandma mentioned that she was sorta missing having everyone over.

So, we had both of our families over to my Grandma's last year for Turkey Day.

A total of 33 people.

My family = a little wild and rambunctious.

A family of five kids can do that to a household. 

A total of 3 turkeys, 1 ham, 1 prime rib

20 lbs of mashed potatoes

you get the picture.

Later in the afternoon, one of my little brothers tells me that he is going to get 

a table for the backyard.

Little did I know that he went to go get a BEER PONG table out of his truck

to go set up in Grandma's back yard......

Imagine the look on my face as I look out the kitchen window

(while I am washing 200 dishes, thank you very much) 

and see my brothers teaching grandma how to play beer pong.....on Thanksgiving!

Needless to say, she got a kick out of it :)

And for the record, she didnt drink beer.....

she drank caffeine free rootbeer! 

Talk to you all soon!

XOX

Lo to the Lo