For those who don't already know Karson left early this morning for Oakland, CA and he will be up there until Thursday night. His work needed help out in Pleasant Valley so his co-worker and him flew up there for the week. He is going to be working Sat-Thursday so he will be exhausted when he gets back. He might have to go back the next week too if they don't finish the project they are working on. What to do when he is gone...hmmm

Dez

Toby and Grase's Anniversary Weekend!

Well this past weekend we celebrated my brother and sister in law's 10th wedding anniversary. We had a dinner at our house for family and close friends. It was an Asian theme so with the help of Keri I was able to get awesome decorations. Karson put up the decorations and it looked great. We had it in our backyard under a borrowed gazebo. We had chinese food and my dad made a sushi shaped cake for them. Toby came dressed up like a kung fu master and little Sofia had on cute red outfit that fit perfectly with the them. Grandma Maria Elena made the outfit for her and it looked so cute. Besides family we had Jimmy, Kelly from moval and Kenny, Bernie and Gracie from Rosemead. We had warm sake on the table and fortune cookies galore! We ate and visited but the best part of the night was the gifts. First Jason gave him some "gag" gifts like a bunch of cheesy cd's like the "Batteries not Included" soundtrack and many more hilarious cd's. Jason also gave them a few t-shirts including a red Star Trek shirt and for those of you who are trekkies should know that all the red shirts would get killed in the series. Kenny got Grace a gift card to one of her favorite places-Macy's and he gave Toby something great too. Jason gave Grase an interesting gift. It was a jar of Jalapenos because Jason is known for eating all the jalapenos that are in the house. Well of course it did not have Jalapenos in it. It had some great gifts from a brand Grase LOVES. She was so happy. I gave Sofia my favorite doll-hollie hobby. Me and Karson bought Toby a Jar Jar Binks shirt, which he loved. We got Grase a wizard of oz address book and a glinda compact. My mom and dad bought them a brand new barbecue and also Grase got 2 15 minute massages gift certificates. Kenny and Jason brought out this guitar case and Toby was like no way but when he opened it it was a fake guitar made out of cardboard. It was soooo funny. Then Jason brought out his real gift. He did get him a guitar that Toby had wanted-it was awesome and Toby was in shock. The Kings got them a gift card to BJ's and Toby said "how did they know we loved BJ's?" Finally it came time for Toby and Grase to exchange gifts. First Grase brought out some gifts they bought Sofia. They bought her some shirts from that same brand Grase likes which Toby seems to hate. Then Sofia got a big gift. A jumper! She is going to love that. Then Grase gave Toby a gift card to his favorite comic book store. Then Toby gave Grase her gift. It was an anniversary ring! It had 10 diamonds and it was beautiful! Grase cried of course. So then Grase surprised Toby by bringing out another huge gift. It was the electric drum set he wanted. He looked like he was going to faint. He literally got light headed and even laid on the drum box for a few minutes. He was so surprised. THEN Grase gave him his final gift-Disneyland Passes!!!! He was so happy. Then the other news we were going to Dland on Sunday. We had told him that we were going to go to the mountains so he brought his hiking boots and everything. It was so funny when he found out we were going to dland he said "I dug out my hiking boots for nothing!" Then we gave them our last gift. T-shirts that said "Sophia's first visit to Disneyland" and on the back it said mom on Grace's and Dad on Toby's. Then they pulled out the rest of the shirts for everyone else who was going-Uncle Jason, Uncle Karson, Aunt Dez, and Uncle Kenny. Quinton ended up going with us but he was not planning to so we did not make him a shirt. So the night was a complete success!

On Sunday we all woke up and got ready to go to dland. Everyone had their shirts on and were ready to go. They decided to come back for all the gifts after we went to dland. Since we all had passes we were not rushed to get on all the rides. We had a nice relaxing day. Of course we took Sofia on a few rides. She went on Buz lightyear and the Winnie the Pooh ride. She was so interested in all the lights that she was not afraid at all. Next time we will take her to fantasyland on all the kid rides. A new thing I learned about disneyland is that they have a baby care center. They have stalls for nursing babies, a big room full of changing stations, a kitchen to warm up milk, and you can buy diapers or other essential items there. I never knew it was there! Of course Karson directed Grase there. All in all we had a nice day at dland. We took pictures, Grase took more than me so check out her blog. Below find some pictures from this weekend. I can't wait to take Sofia back to Dland!!! Dez

The Weekend is over!

This weekend was sooo busy. On Friday I went out to Rosemead to babysit my niece for the day. I got up early-5:30am! Only for Sofia would I get up this early! I arrived in Rosemead around 7:30am. Baby was awake and recognized me right away. She knows her Auntie! She always remembers me! She is so big now. She is no longer a baby. I mean she does not just cry and sleep anymore. She can grab things and entertain herself. She eats and sleeps less and she is sooooo easy to babysit. She only gets grumpy at night. She is soooo cute. She laughs and smiles so much. I love babysitting her. I love holding her and making her smile and laugh. She was laughing at me alot on Friday. I made her laugh so hard she was coughing instead of laughing because she does not know how to laugh for long periods of time. She does this new sound bbbbbbbb. I think she likes the way it feels when she does it. She fits in to six month cloths now and there are outfits she has only worn once since she grows so fast. I wish I could see her every week. I managed to visit my whole family in one day. What a day! I met Quint at Vincent Lugo park since his last day of school was a short day. I got to hang out at the park with Sofia for a bit before he got there. I want to mention that Quinton ended his school year with a 3.2 grad average which is very good. He also passed the High School Exit test and scored PERFECT in English. He scored high in everything. I am so proud of him and I hope he keeps it up. All I could afford to give him was 20 bucks but I just want him to feel like I am very proud of him. Then I took Quint and we picked up Chris and went to lunch. Sofia was so good the wholed time we were eating at a diner in Alhambra. Then we went back to Chris's house and just hung out for awhile. Sofia was great there too! Then I left Quint with Chris and me and a sleeping Sofia went to pick up Grase from work. We went back to Toby and Grace's and I got to visit with Jason until Kenny picked him up to go to a concert. So then me, Sofia and Grace went to my parents house and Toby met us there. So then I got to visit with my parents for a bit. Then me Toby, Grase and Sofia went to Dinner at a fantastic Thai place by my parents house. It was sooooo good. I had some hot and sour soup which is different from the chinese hot and sour soup. It is really good and me and Toby ate it up. I had chicken pad thai and we all shared fried green tea ice cream for dessert. I also tried a Thai beer and it was really good. We got done around 10pm and I headed home. I got home around 11:30pm. It was a long day and I was in sooo much pain by the end of the day but it was worth it.

My Brother in law Kris and his wife Erica and her sister Angela came to stay with us this weekend because we had the yearly Turner/King Reunion on Saturday. They came in late Friday night before I got home. Karson and Kris got up super early to go save a spot at Lake Perris which is located in Moreno Valley. The day went great because we got to see family we don't see often. It was such a nice day too. We got home around 6pm and ordered pizza and then got into the hot tub and soaked for about 2 hours. We all were tired from the day so we all slept good that night. Today we got up and went to breakfast at Brandon's, our new favorite breakfast place. We had a relaxing day. So that was our weekend. I can' t wait until next weekend because it is Toby and Grace's 10 year wedding anniversary dinner here at our house. I get to see Sofia two weekends in a row! Yah! All in all I think this weekend was great. I would really love to watch Sofia every Friday I am off! Here are a few pictures I took at Chris's house of Sofia.

Dez

Vacation!!!! Oh and Surgery Date

So first of all I want everyone to know that my surgery has been scheduled for August 11th. This works out because it is right after our District Convention and it is summer and my mom and Quinton are off.

Okay so as most of you know we went on vacation from May 24-29th. We left at 5am on Sunday morning. This is what we did:

Sunday-drove through Zion park and got to Utah around 6:30pm

Monday-Delta, Utah

Tuesday-Delta,Utah

Wed-Utah then drove to Vegas

Thursday-Vegas

Friday-Vegas and drive home

You might be thinking why utah? We have some friends who live in Delta, Utah. They moved there to help out the small congergation with a huge territory. Our friends are Danny and Rochelle Leary. Karson, Marcel and Roni have known them for a long time. I of course did not grow up in Moreno Valley so they are newer friends to me. I was the only one who had not been to Delta, Utah. Turns out Karson was in the first group who came to help with the unassigned territory. He was very young. Marcel's brother Elijah was in Delta, Utah for awhile helping out so they have been there before.

So what is there to do in Utah? Nothing much really. We mostly visited with our friends. We did eat breakfast at a small restaurant. Other than that we ate some good food and had a good time visiting. On the last day we were in Utah we went to "the caves" which turned out to be in Nevada about an hour and a half away from Delta Utah. It is a National park so it is something people go to see while they are on vacation. It was totally awesome! It is mostly level and had so many different formations. We were suprised to find out this cave is one of the only caves that has all formations-don't ask me to name them all. We took lots of pictures and had a nice time.

We then headed to Vegas! We stayed at Excalibur. It was awesome. Thursday we went to see a Cirque du soleil show at the MGM called KA. We were in the second row! We were up close and we had a front row view to the awesome show!

We had so much fun because we went with our close friends Marcel and Veronica. We had such a great time on the road. We listened to every musical we had and all sang along. We went a little crazy together from bieng in the car so long! We had so much fun. I hated coming home and going back to work. :(

Here are some pictures from our trip. I hope you enjoy! Dez

Update

Well this past weekend was so busy! Saturday Karson went to meet Jason and Toby at a brewery for a beer festival. Grase drove out with Sofia to our house and she arrived around noon on Saturday. We had to prepare for our beach trip. We were not in any hurry so we went to Baby r us and spent some time there. That is such an awesome store. I got to carry Sofia in the baby holder, you know the one where the baby is facing you just chilling. It is was really comfortable. We then went over to WINCO, a local store. We finally left for the beach at about 3pm. We got to the beach around 4pm. The boys (Karson and Toby) got there right after we did. We had so much stuff for the beach and there was no sun! It was overcast! We still had fun. Sofia sat in her baby tent for awhile but she slept most of the time. Sunday we went to the meeting and then just hung out at our house with them and Jimmy. It was a relaxing day.
Me and Karson bought a small pack n play for Sofia. It is so cute it has little monkeys on it. It fits perfectly in our spare room. We have diapers and wipes stocked too. Now Toby and Grase have to come visit more often!!! All in all the weekend was fun.
I had an appointment today with a OBGYN for a second opinion regarding my cyst. Well I found out that he will be doing the surgery to remove my cyst and to also try and get any scar tissue he can see. He will be doing the laprascoptic surgery (through holes in my tummy) but if the adhesions are bad they will have to open me up (laparotamy-the incision i had last time). They will call to schedule the surgery so I am not sure when it will be. Hopefully after my vacation (next week). The surgery will be outpatient at Riverside Kaiser but there is always (highly likely) a chance I will have to be admitted if they open me up. I am sort of happy because this might mean some relief from my pain but it might cause more pain too. You see if the adhesions are on my bowels or bladder things can get complicated. There is always the chance they might have to take my remaining ovary which means I would need to take hormones and might other problems. With all these risks I am still happy that they are at least going to look inside of me and maybe fix some of the pain I am having. At the least they will remove the dermoid cyst I have on my ovary. I guess I am just sick of bieng in pain and would endure all the pain of surgery just for some relief. I will post updates when I find out when the surgery will be.
Dez

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland this past weekend. Me and Karson went up Saturday night and stayed in a hotel for a little vacation. We had fun with our friends Marcel and Roni and a few other friends. Here are some pictures to enjoy.

Laughter

When I am down and feeling sad I look at these pictures and others and I am glad
I am glad to have a family who cares and takes the time to laugh away their tears
No matter how sad and lonely I feel I can look at my pictures and it helps me deal
I deal with my pain and my sadness too by just simply looking at all of you
Your laughter take it away and I am grateful for the laughs you send my way
We go through so much every day and it only takes one smile to take it away
You might think it strange that I stare but these pictures mean so much more
More than a frozen smile in time more than a laughter captured and stored
It is a precious gift for me ;don't ever stop smiling or laughing and hear my plea
The next time you laugh or smile remember it may live on in pictures, so just smile!

This one is my favorite! Karson looks like he is thinking "oh not another Caringella joke"

Dez