A few months ago I decided to take the third week of May off from work. Our real estate situation seemed bleak and I really needed to take some time off to relax.

Oddly enough, this particular week was to become one of the most amazing and memorable yet as everything would suddenly come together!

#1: Found out that Josie was with child!

According to Josie, the baby has been alive for approximately three weeks and should look something like this:



From looking at the photo the middle layer will become the bones, muscles, blood vessels, heart, and sex organs. The heart should begin beating by this weekend.

#2: Michelle's 2nd Birthday Party!

We decided to hold Michelle's party this year at Gymboree. Michelle was the complete center of attention and the environment was completely perfect for toddlers. The kids were in heaven and I could tell that most of the adults were even having a great time too.



#3: Found a great house!

See "Real Estate: The Saga Nears Its End".

#4: Relaxed in Pismo Beach!

See "Pismo Beach: Year Two".

#5: Watched "Revenge of the Sith"!

Fun movie. Go see it now!

Our trip to Pismo this year was short but very sweet! We stayed at the Pismo Lighthouse Suites with a great balcony view of the Pacific.

There is nothing quite like waking up to the sound of crashing waves and having the ocean as your first view of the day. Ahhhh!

Michelle had a wonderful time!

It's been a grueling and disappointing four months since we first put our house up for sale. Since then we had put forth four offers on houses without any luck. Things were beginning to seem dreary and bleak for us. Just when we were about to give up, a great house in our price range opened up in the La Verne neighborhood that we have had our eye on since the beginning.

On Saturday, May 14th, Michelle's Birthday, we visited the house, fell in love, and signed up an offer right away. This house is actually located in the same neighborhood as the first house we bid on back in February. In fact, it's right down the street from it! After arriving home from signing the offer, Josie somehow knew that the house was ours. I had gotten so used to disappointment that I honestly had no idea either which way. Somehow, she was certain that things were going to work out in our favor.

She was 100% right. The day after we made the offer we left for a short break to Pismo Beach and lo-and-behold, by Monday they had accepted our offer!!! :-)

It's a great feeling finally getting over all of the uncertainly and waiting. I am very happy with this house. I think it suites our needs just perfectly and it is definitely the upgrade we were hoping for. Beyond this, the neighborhood is quiet and all of the houses are consistently well kept. The school district is great and we are within walking distance of the coolest trail and park around. I'm happy and my strength hath been restored. ;-)

We are expecting escrow to open up right away with an expected close date of June 30th. Just in time for the Fourth of July!

Today my precious Michelle turns two years old!

Time certainly has flown by and she is practically a little girl now. Two years ago today the greatest moment of my life happened when I gazed into her beautiful brown eyes for the first time.

Michelle always makes me so proud and I am continually humbled by God's grace for entrusting one of his angels to me.

Happy birthday baby girl!

On Saturday I took Michelle to see "Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Coloring Book" at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Michelle is at that rare age where it's very easy to surprise her. I don't think she had any idea, after about an hour long trip to Hollywood, that we would be sitting about twenty feet away from Elmo and the entire Sesame Street gang.

Sure enough... she was in complete awe of the Sesame Street characters as they danced and sang about the stage. We had great seats too, third row! It definitely pays to check Ticketmaster for tickets about a week before any show.

The show itself was very energetic and the stage sets were especially vibrant. The music was probably the low-point in the show as there wasn't much there for the kids to identify with. In contrast with the Wiggles where the kids practically knew the words to all the songs. Still, that probably wasn't the point as this was much more of a musical that fit a specific story than a concert.

Best of all, it was really cute seeing the looks on all faces of the babies and toddlers in the audience. Michelle was certainly no exception. ;-)

For the past year, Cornilius, our pet Mbu (Tetraodon Mbu) Puffer and Shadow, our Tiger Plecostomus, have been living in relative peace and harmony in our forty gallon tank. I noticed a few months ago however that Cornilius had begun nipping some of Shadow's fins. This was a clear sign that territory was becoming a concern. I took action by adding a cave ornament to the tank so that Shadow could have a place to take refuge. Unfortunately, this did not work out as well as I had expected it to. Shadow continued to suffer wounds inflicted by Cornilius.

I decided next to buy a new five gallon tank just for Shadow. Unfortunately, it seems I acted too slowly as Shadow died a day after moving him to his new tank. Shadow had survived through every single phase of our tank and had survived when other fish could not. I was certain that he'd be with us a very long time. He would have lived on if only I had the good sense of moving him much sooner.

Beyond the fact that Tiger Plecos are rare, they also grow to a maximum length of about five inches unlike most other plecs which never seem to stop growing. Best of all, Shadow was the first fish of ours that Michelle ever took a real interest in. Michelle was only about six months old when she learned his name. She would routinely seek him out in our tank and always enjoyed feeding him. So, replacing Shadow was an absolute must.

I checked every single tropical fish store in my local vicinity and had no luck finding the ever rare Tiger Pleco. I did manage to stumble upon some even rarer baby Mbu Puffers. An amazing sight I never thought I'd ever see.

Instead of wasting more time and effort searching I decided to order a Tiger Pleco through one of the on-line tropical fish merchants. Fortunately, fish2u.com had Tiger Plecos in stock and I soon arranged for an overnight UPS delivery.

Shadow II arrived on Friday afternoon in a very well padded box. As soon as we removed his bag from the box Michelle right away pointed to him and recognized him as Shadow. Though he was much smaller than the original Shadow and had far more fins Michelle was still very happy to see him "again".

All in all, the on-line purchasing route turned out for the better. Shadow II has a great color and looks very healthy despite what was probably a bumpy trip. Usually I'd really try to avoid buying tropical fish through this method but I really had no choice. This was indeed another Millan fish emergency that worked out fine in the end. ;-)