lead paint

does anyone else think the Wal-Marts of America play a huge roll in the rise of lead paint incidents? Not to mention being influential in other economic woes??

I saw a news report on tv a few weeks back about one of the lead paint toy recalls. The news reporter was in the parking lot of a store asking a customer what she thought of this most recent recall. She went on to say how concerned she was for her children and how higher quality standards should be in place, especially for children's' toys made over seas. She was of course standing in a Wal Mart parking lot loading huge bags of extremely low priced toys into her SUV.

I thought to myself...maybe if you didn't support and shop at stores like Wal Mart...there would not be extreme pressure on the Chinese manufacturing companies to keep costs low. Cutting corners, not providing overtime pay, no maternity leave, unstable working environment, and in turn lowering quality and inspection standards. Wouldn't you think it is a direct correlation.????

Now i understand why a lot of people shop at wal-mart....low prices....everyone wants a lot for a little, it's the american way.
The mentality seems to be of the general public, is if it doesn't affect me directly (i.e. global warming) then I need not do anything about it or make any effort to change. But this latest development of lead paint recalls is a direct result of wal-mart existing...and it IS affecting their customers...the same ones who are whining about having to pay extra careful attention to the toys they buy because of hazards now. Well people...it is now affecting you directly....care to do something about it? If you have the opportunity to shop else where....why don't you? But I have a feeling it is not seen that way. It is of course china's fault and we need to fix them.

but anyway.... HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

random acts of kindness

Whenever I go out alone with the boys the one thing that drives me nuts is how completely rude and self involved this world has become. (oh my god have I become kevin? LOL) Seriously though and I know Lauren can back me up on this one. It drives me insane when I am pushing a double stroller into a store and no one offers to hold a door open for me & the stroller. Now let's get one thing straight I can definitely hold the door open and push my monstrosity of a stroller through. I have perfected how to do this (that's a whole other blog entry). It drives me nuts when people see me coming & start to google at the boys "oh look it's twins" ...or they start talking to me "oh how old are they" .. "oh they are so cute"...all this while I'm holding the door myself & pushing the stroller through with NO OFFER of holding the door. One woman actually huffed behind me as I was walking into the bookstore and I was apparently taking longer than expected. WELL HOLD THE DOOR FOR ME DIPPY! It happens everywhere and I think it bothers me because even before I had kids if I saw a woman with a stroller coming I would hold the door for her. I just don't understand how some people can be so self involved and not hold the door and just keep on walking. I don't know maybe it's just me but hopefully you are getting my point.

Now with all that said, I take the boys out to lunch by myself once a week. It's fun for the three of us. We usually sit outside because I like sitting outside with the boys and hey the weather is gorgeous so why not. Today we were in Calabasas...I had to return something at BRU (that's mommy talk for Babies R Us) and there is a strip mall filled with restaurants and shops for me to choose where to eat. Well, I wasn't really that hungry at noon (maybe I was full from my 3 breakfasts & peanut butter & boysenberry tortilla?) so I decided to go to Coffee Bean, get a green tea ice blended, and sit outside and feed the boys their lunch. As I'm walking & getting closer to the door of Coffee Bean something absolutely amazing happened. SOMEONE HELD THE DOOR OPEN FOR ME! I was very thankful. I bought my green tea ice blended and on the way out SOMEONE HELD THE DOOR OPEN FOR ME AGAIN!!! Again I was very thankful. And then you really won't believe what happened... as I was sitting outside getting out the boys their lunch and bibbing them up, all the while my green tea ice blended was sitting on the table with no straw in it yet...the straw was in my bag...anyway, a woman walking by noticed the boys (who can't notice them they're cute!) and smiled at them and then at me, she must've seen my green tea ice blended and said to me " can i get you anything inside? do you need a straw for your ice blended?" I said no but that I had one & thank you for asking. She asked "are you sure? I can get you a muffin or something." I again said no but thank you very much. Me and the boys then went on to enjoy the afternoon...me drinking my green tea ice blended and the boys enjoying their peas with rice.

So the next time any of you see a mother pushing a stroller...be it single or double stroller....be nice and hold the door open...it will probably make her day or at the least make her smile. It did for me.

Butternut Lasagna

This is the BEST recipe. I got it out of "The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook." Anywhoo, I thought I would share it with the blogging world..

Butternut Lasagna

9 to 11 lasagna noodles, preferably whole grain (I used regular lasagna noodles)
1/2 onion, minced
2 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 cups chopped kale, chard, or other dark green leafy vegetable (I used kale)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts)
1/2 cup boiling water

tofu filling:

1 1/2 pounds firm or silken tofu (I used organic silken)
2 eggs or 2 tbsp olive oil (I used olive oil because I'm trying to limit my dairy)
2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

sauce:

3 cups mashed cooked butternut squash
3/4 cup milk (I used soymilk)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp miso
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375. Saute onion in olive oil until soft. Stir in garlic & greens. If greens are dry, add a little water. Cover & steam for 5 minutes or until soft. Set aside.

Place tofu filling ingredients in food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. Remove to bowl and set aside. Place sauce ingredients in food processor or blender. Puree until smooth.

Assemble lasagna as follows: Cover bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan with thin layer of sauce. Place a single layer of lasagna noodles in bottom of pan. Leave a little space between the noodles because they will expand when cooked. Spread 1/2 of the tofu filling over noodles. Sprinkle 1/2 of the cooked greens over tofu. Spread 1/3 of the butternut sauce over the greens. Repeat for one more layer. Place noodle layer on top & cover with butternut sauce. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over top. Pour boiling water in corners & around edges of lasagna. Cover pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove cover and bake for 10 minutes more. Allow to stand 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

THIS IS VERY YUMMY!!! If you looked at the recent pix of the boys you will see pix of the first time I cooked this butternut lasagna. It was gone within a day of me cooking it - it was that good!!!

Happy cooking!!!

3 hours behind

you know being 3 hours behind on the west coast really STINKS sometimes! let me explain.....

so anyone who knows me knows that i'm a HUGE reality show watcher. dancing with the stars is one of my favorites. the finale comes on at 9pm. anyway, at 830pm (west coast time) i went online to check my yahoo email account....so i go to yahoo to sign into my account and on the yahoo homepage showed the frickin WINNER of dancing with the stars!

sometimes i really don't like the internet...

It's official!

It's official folks - Christmas time is here and in high gear!

I couldn't be more excited! I LOVE this time of year!

I LOVE to sing Christmas songs. I've secretly been singing Christmas songs to the boys just before bed....white christmas, jingle bells, rudolph the red nosed reindeer, and santa claus is coming to town.

Kevin and I watched "White Christmas" last night and watched "A Christmas Story" tonight.

Christmas is everywhere!!!

I LOVE Christmas time - it rocks!!!

ok - that's it for now at least....

funny me... ha ha ha

Today I was eating some vegetarian green curry. One of the ingredients of the dish were those little corns...you know... the ones that look like little teeny tiny corns on the cob. I cracked myself up (as I usually do) thinking that there is some little teeny tiny farmer out there growing little teeny tiny corns on the cob. Imagine a little farmer guy harvesting his little teeny tiny corns so that he could sell them to the restaurant where I had lunch today so that my vegetarian green curry would taste great.

Thanks little teeny tiny farmer guy!

SCISSOR RECALL!!!!

Massive recall on scissors through out the United States. The ASI (Agency for the Safety of Ignoramuses) has put out a recall for millions upon millions of scissors to be voluntarily turned in...due to a new discovery that one, if not many persons, may be seriously injured if said person runs with the sharp scissor device.The Agency says, "We have had many lawsuits and complaints of people getting hurt by using these devices improperly. It was in the best interest of the citizens of each of the U.S. states, for us to issue this recall."

I am sarcastic because of this recall:
Bumbo Recall

Come on people really? It says right on the darn box...do not sit child in it while on an elevated surface or while unattended.
COMMON SENSE PEOPLE!!!! It's not the manufacturers fault if you fail to follow directions!!!

We better start to consider recalling stoves and no, wait, even fire....yes we need to recall fire...because it is dangerous if handled improperly. Well that might be a tough one to recall.....But I wouldn't put it past some people to try and send fire in the mail. Be right back....gotta warn the mail man.

GIVE ME A BREAK!
call me pessimistic...but sorry, it's just another nail in the coffin of our collective common sense.

*and I don't need to take a chill pill. Just because I voice my agitation for people who lack common sense does not mean I am wound tight. Good day SIR.....I SAID... GOOD DAY.

Phanfare Video Test

the view

ok so "the view" had an entire show dedicated to breast cancer awareness & survivors this past week. having a grandmother who lost the battle to breast cancer made me watch. very interesting show. the part of the show that really caught my attention was one of the guests. her name was lori benson. she is a breast cancer survivor. she made a documentary about her battle with cancer. the name of the documentary is "dear talula." talula is her daughter who at the time of her diagnosis was only 14 months old. upon her diagnosis she was told to stop breastfeeding her daughter. she did not. she actually breastfed her daughter up until the day of her surgery. they were showing clips of the documentary and one particular clip made me cry. like i said she breastfed her daughter up until the day of her surgery...2 days after the surgery...being on medication and obviously not allowed to breastfeed anymore...she sees her daughter for the first time....it's a clip of what looks like her daughter very upset that mommy isn't nursing her anymore and then the daughter is taken out of the room. viewers find out that this was the only time lori cried during her whole battle with breast cancer...when she couldn't feed her daughter. i cannot imagine what she must've gone through but it makes me want to see the entire documentary but i can't just yet. it's been in film festivals and is now on cinemax but we don't have cinemax. the dvd isn't available for purchase yet. just figured i would tell the blog world about it to increase its awareness....ah, but like my father inlaw i too feel that i have only a couple of blog readers.
Dear Talula

just sitting back...

Every once and awhile I will sit back and think about all the things in life that I'm thankful for...things that make me smile and instantly put me in a good mood......the obvious ones always come to mind first...Kevin, Kaeden, Quinton, my family, my friends, my health, technology........ I thought I would share a few of the others with the rest of the blogging world....

1. sunshine
2. peanut butter (love it!)
3. the stars (when i get to see them)
4. turning on the radio in the car & my favorite song is playing
5. the smell of fresh flowers
6. green tea ice blendeds (thank you coffee bean!)
7. seattle's best coffee (decaf at the moment)
8. my food processor (cause it's the coolest)
9. my pink-pod (it says me2 on the back)
10. flatulence (because who doesn't laugh or smile instantly when someone farts)

There are so many other things that make me smile and things that I'm thankful for. You'll have to stay tuned for more...right now I've got to watch part 1 of the season finale of Top Chef!...ah another thing that makes me smile...watching Top Chef.

:-)

Timewarner better like baseball (angry post reader beware)

One...I am posting this because...people seem to have forgotten about blogs and what they are for. There has been a serious decrease in posts among the/our blog community. C'mon people life isn't THAT busy or boring that there is no time or topic to post about. Does anyone even read posts anymore? My lovely wife posted information about her going back to work...something that is very important to her. And no one commented. She was almost in tears....locked herself in our room, and would not cook or feed the family...the house was in shambles. We were all falling apart. NAH...just kidding, she fed the boys at least.

and Two, I am posting this because I am temporarily angry with Timewarner Cable. :-)

All I have to say is, I hope for damn sure, Timewarner Cable removes their head that is firmly planted in their rectal area, and announces that TBS HD will be available for the MLB Post Season next week. First of all, what brainiac thought up this contract??? TBS for POST SEASON???? C'mon, TBS wasn't even a clear broadcast when everyone was still viewing it on standard definition sets. Now they are carrying the post season? And to make it even worse, they have that annoying pop culture whiney sell-out Dane Cook doing the promos. (side note - Dane Cook is the Dave Matthew's Band of Comedy...meaning, he is famous only because college kids are a bit too inebriated and hung over to realize what good entertainment is.)

Anywhoo, By default I am sure everyone in the Atlanta/South Eastern States get it in HD. But now the rest of the US has to wait patiently until the rest of the cable/satellite carriers figure out the contracts and rights to carry it.
Some markets, I have heard have received the TBS HD already...one of them being Boston. They probably got it to them so those fans can watch the collapse in crisp visual quality like in previous years.
So I patiently wait...hoping for some good news. Because it is going to be very difficult to watch the post season, if it's broadcast in standard definition, on an HD set.

Ok, now I will have my morning cup of coffee....maybe if i wrote this after the first few sips, I wouldn't have been so irate.

KEEP BLOGGING PEOPLE!!! :-)

love to all.

Phanfare for the Common Man

There comes a time in every man's life, where he finds something better...something more suited to his needs, a better all around woman. It has been a fun experience together, Picasa. For the time we spent as partners, you filled my every need. At that time you were very innovative. You offered for free, what many charged for. And even though you were designed for another platform, you worked decently with me and my Mac. With a touch of help from third parties, we were able to co-exist and work seamlessly to share many of my photographs with family and friends.

However, as time progressed, there were many things I wish you could do. Things that others were beginning to do and offer, so easily...yearly galleries, sub-folders, video upload from a mac, mac support, the list goes on. Over time I noticed more, the lack of support we mac users received. You just were not giving me what I needed. You are great at what you do, and there are a few things (embedded slide shows, integration with my blog) I will not be able to do with this new 'woman', but the pros most certainly out weigh the cons. So...as much as it might hurt you....I must move on.

This new 'thing' I speak of is PHANFARE. For this time being, she is everything I need...to share my photos and videos with friends and family.

So now, I share with everyone.. our new picture gallery site.
KEVIN & TRACY'S ALBUMS

The galleries go all the way back to 2002. ENJOY!

I'm such a mother worker!

Today was my official "first day back to work." For those of you that didn't know...yes, I am back to work on a part-time basis just a few days a month. I am doing the same thing I was before...sales & marketing for upscale hotels.....working for an LA based company, JH Hotels. I prepared my clothes the night before, woke up extra early to get ready, my hubby made me coffee to go, kissed my boys on the cheek (all 3 of them), and left for the day. It was strange at first to leave my boys but then I turned on the radio and enjoyed my 55 minute ride in traffic listening to the radio and drinking my coffee. I was greeted with enthusiasm by all my former clients when I walked into their offices. One particular office jumped out of their chairs and started clapping in joy that I was back to work. The receptionist in one office announced me over the loudspeaker by saying "Tracy Riepl is baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!" Obviously this made my head a tiny bit bigger...thankfully the doorways are big in the offices I visit. :-) Needless to say I had a great first day back and on the way home a song by Whitney Houston came on the radio... "I'm Every Woman." ..... twas quite the liberating song for me and all I could think about was getting home to my boys.

One Thousand!!!

One thousand visits to our blog! AMAZING! you really do like us! you really do!!!
of course about 700 of those visits are probably me checking and re-checking the site when I am creating a new post.
None-the-less...the counter's not at "0".

See the counter (at bottom of page) WAS actually at 1000 when i started creating this post...then checking re-checking and then going back to add the image above its now somehwere at 1010. Gah, who knows if ANY ONE visits this site :-).

"Friday Night (No) Lights"

shall i do a play by play or just give a brief synopsis of the events of friday night? hmmm.....
As you might be able to tell from the post title, we were with out power here late friday night into saturday morning. The power outage was due to the over and increased use of air conditioners in the 115-120 degree heat here in LA....especially here in the west valley.

We were cautioned on thursday by authorities for every one to cut down on power between the hours of 4pm and 6pm to conserve and avoid power outages. Surprisingly every one did so and there were no outages...The news reported that the Dpt of water & power was actually surprised, that the requests were met and the demands for power were kept low. Well, I guess the good people of LA thought the same request didn't apply for friday, an even HOTTER day. So, sure enough around 4:15pm.....CLICK.....everything goes out. the air shuts off...my studio goes silent right in the middle of work (for some reason, my expensive backup power unit failed to kick in). At first it wasn't a full power outage, it was a brown out...so a lot of electronics in the house were buzzing and clicking on half power. So we went around the house unplugging everything we could so nothing would get damaged. And if anything was going to get the little bit of power coming in, we wanted it to be the fridge.

So...being that i had plenty of work to get done...i was kinda ticked that I wouldnt be able to do so. So we sat and hung out and I said...look at the bright side...."it happened late in the day and it's only going to get cooler as the sun goes down". Boy was that a statement I wish i could take back. At the time of the outage it was 100 or so degrees outside. Thinking that opening any doors with in that first hour or two would let in the extreme heat...we opted to keep the doors closed and keep the cool air that was in the house, in as long as possible. Well...that didn't last too long AT ALL....before we knew it, it was getting pretty darn stuffy in the house. So we started opening all windows and doors....we wanted to make sure the boys had a cool room to sleep in that night. Preparing them for bed we just left them in their diapers...opened up their windows and hoped the 'not so hot breeze' that was outside would keep the house some what comfortable. Well shortly after laying them to sleep...the power went completely out, not that the little we had was usable anyway. Oh yeah, and that slight breeze i told you about...gone! We can tell the boys were not too comfortable because through out the early evening they were fussy and sweaty.....we felt horrible that we could do nothing, short of packing everything up and going to a motel. We thought, if we could get them to sleep, we could tough it out.

Tracy became concerned about the many many many ounces of frozen breast milk that sit in the freezer. So instead of wasting all that hard earned pumped gold...we decided to locate a freezer that was currently being powered. We called our friends Tim and Janet (who live in Burbank w/ power) told them our predicament and they were extremely kind to let us use their 2nd freezer, as a temporary home for the liquid gold, my boys call food. They were also kind and offered for us to sleep there, but i declined saying the boys were sleeping already, and if they can stick it out....so can we. At 8:45 I took off for burbank and was back in 40min to sit in the 90degree sauna we called home that night. We hung out for a little bit and i gave in and wanted to go to bed, just to take the heat off my mind, as I was growing more and more irritated with the situation. Since the windows were wide open in the boys room we thought it would be nice in this situation if one of us slept on the floor in the room with them. Tracy opted to do so. Lucky for her...it was the 'lesser of the hot rooms'. I on the other hand slept in the hotter room. Didn't get much sleep...either of us. Tracy, getting up frequently to nurse and console, me tossing, turning, sweating, tossing, sweating....and finally taking a cold shower at 12am to help...well it didn't help. IT WAS COMPLETELY UNBEARABLE!!!! I fell asleep chanting to myself "the power will be back on in the morning, the power will be back on in the morning" the good ol' "Secret" method...even though i don't buy that stuff...i figured, what the heck.

At 6:15 AM I woke up to the sound of birds chirping their melodies, christmas bells, and angels singing...or that's what the sound of electricity kicking back on sounded like to me at that point in time. I shot out of bed like it was christmas morning and I was 5 years old. turning on lights as if it was a miracle from the heavens. I checked the thermostat at which point I wondered why we were so hot during the evening....the temperature dropped all the way to a cool 86 degrees. HAH! well needless to say the A/C has been cranking all day and is still not down to 80 degrees and it is now 10pm on saturday. But it's a cool 80 as opposed to no A/C and it being a hot 100.
I told tracy if it happens again....we are finding a cool place to spend the day and evening. I will not subject the boys to something like this ever again if I can control it.

hot dogs

so where do they come from?

go vote...

for me photoblog :-)
If anyone could spare a moment, go rate my photoblog over at coolphotoblogs.com.
Now that I am maintaining a daily photoblog, I am doing what I can to drive traffic to it. So I started posting it on some photoblog community sites in order to amp up the visitors. The higher and more ratings I have the more chance people will visit.
The reason I'd like this to happen is, when other photographers (sometimes pros) who also have blogs visit other's sites the routine is to often leave comments pertaining to that daily photo. Comments can range from positive feedback to constructive criticism. So I figured in order for me to grow as a photographer, any and all input would be helpful.

Thanks everyone, and while you are there, check out some other blogs...there are some crazy good photographers out there, that are not even pros.

39. 52. 71. 93. 96. 126

Things I'm looking forward to....

39 days until the Clerkins arrive in California.

52 days until my brother arrives in California.

71 days until Kaeden & Quinton get dressed up for their first Halloween.

93 days until Thanksgiving, my second favorite holiday of the year. (Easter is my favorite for those wondering.)

96 days until we decorate our house for Christmas.

126 days until Kaeden & Quinton's first Christmas.

Importing CD's into my MAC(aroni)

For those that have been to our house you've seen our living room. In our living room is a shelf of nothing but CD's...and lots of them. Kevin and I are sick of this shelf...it looks sophmoric for our oh so mature lives that we're leading. :-) Kevin came up with a brainiac of an idea....import the CD's into our computers! Here I am thinking how easy it will be to import 867,423 CD's. Well, I started at 8pm .....9pm is approaching....so far I've only imported 8 CD's. I'm tired and the only thing running through my head at this very moment is a line from a book that Kaeden & Quinton like so much.... "the moon is high, the sea is deep, they rock and rock and rock to sleep."

photo blog

The more and more i photograph, the more and more I desire to hone my skills at it. Not only with the camera but also with the post processing of the images. So in order to share, what i think are some cool and interesting photos, I have started a photo blog. If you are interested, there will be a different image posted daily for viewing. Hopefully the photos can remain less mundane and a tad more interesting than the usual gallery of pics i slew around the intra web. This will also force me to pack my camera up and take it with me more often when I leave the house. Even though a certain some one thinks I do that too much already :-)

The blog's daily link will be posted in the right column here on this page under the title [gathering of pixels]. ENJOY and feel free to leave comments on each and any of the photos!

Lazy J.

Yesterday we ventured out to a new park, Lazy J. Ranch Park, in West Hills. We still have no idea why it is call such a name. It was one Tracy heard about through one of the mom groups she belongs to here in the valley. Considering how beautiful it was here yesterday, you would think the park would be filled with a decent amount of patrons...possibly one or two more than us. But nope....we had the entire park to ourselves. It wasn't a huge park...but was a nice quaint park nestled in a really nice neighborhood. We parked at the farther end of the park so we could have a nice walk, the length of the park, to the other side where the swings and playground were. Tracy was hoping the swing set would have a few swings for infants...sure enough it did. The boys are still a bit small to really enjoy the swings, but we threw 'em in anyway. Well, maybe placed them gently and safely in the swings. It was a good time. The boys seemed to really enjoy the spontaneous outing. I wonder if Daddy went with them to the park...? He isn't in any of the pictures.

More pics added to Misc Gallery

Misc. Pics

More pictures added to the miscellaneous gallery.

Some new Pics

[click HERE for full gallery]

GROSS!

All it took was one measly hair. Oatmeal this morning....sat down to eat it...first scoop...HAIR!!!!! It luckily did not make it to the mouth. 'twas not mine, I have none....not my wife's...it was not a dark hair. But that's all it took for me to waste an entire bowl of oat meal. I was disgusted and grossed out.
What is it about one foreign hair that turns us off and initiates the gag response? Is it because we don't know where it comes from? Who it was a part of? how long it was in there? Was it in the bowl? the packet of outmeal? Is it one of your own? Or is it because WE know what it's like to have a foreign hair in our mouths, trying to remove it with our fingers...unable to get a good grasp on it, due to the saliva and other food that is floating around our mouths?

I would much rather have a dead bug in my food. I might even have continued eating, after removing said object. GROSS!

She beat me to it

ok, so she beat me to it....the complimenting that is.
I could not be married to a better woman! It just amazes me from day to day the stuff she does.
She is an awesome mother to the boys and still has time to do laundry and cook dinner :-) Simply amazing, and most of the time she does it with a smile....yes most of the time :-) Something as simple as, my coffee mug ALWAYS being cleaned and in the cabinet ready to be used. The dishwasher being emptied when it is finished....I could go on, but I will refrain, so those that are reading do not get the gag reflex and possibly hurl.
In all seriousness, yesterday we were telling each other how awesome each other was in our duties around the house and with the boys...so we figured we would share with anyone who reads this, the awesomeness we truly are :-)

tongue - in - cheek....but seriously!

ok, now I'm done.

for those of you that didn't know already....

my husband is a pretty awesome guy! he's just fan-frickin-tastic. awesome.

ok - i'm done.

"One Small Step for Man..."

instead of commenting on it...i will just share the link :-)

July 20, 1969

Sergeant Joe

Today is Friday.....All DAY, do you believe it??? what a boring post...ok back to work.

one more thing....even though I didn't grow up in the era...what happened to good shows, like Dragnet, M*A*S*H, CAR 54, The Jack Benny Program, Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, The Odd Couple...or pretty much EVERYTHING that's on the TVLAND channel. I mean, c'mon, are our kids, or our kid's kids...going to one day say..."oh man, where are those classic shows like...America's Got Talent, Big Brother, Survivor, According to Jim, Reba, King of Queens, Yes Dear, or American Idol??" Are they going to say this??? I HIGHLY DOUBT IT!!! I can almost guarantee it! Or is television like music...I am sure for every Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, and Artie Shaw, there were TONS of other band leaders we never heard of, or for every Beatles or Stones, there were countless amount of mediocre sound alike groups that no one cares to recall. So maybe shows like The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, and possibly Friends, will be the MASH's and Odd Couple's of the future...again....I am sad to say....i doubt it.

Or will media and entertainment be so advanced 20yrs from now that viewing a TV show two dimensionally and not actually participating in the show will be laughable and archaic? And this will all be irrelevant?

Wow this post got away from me. I am sure I can go on and on and on about how sad I think TV programming is these days...But I will not....such a strong avenue to influence people....and all we have on it is seeing if people can dance.

ho humm....

*for those wondering, the picture was added after ranting... I originally didn't set out to spew hatred towards current television programming.
good day

calmed by commotion

This has got to be one of my favorite photos that I took while visiting New Jersey this past June. I don't know what it is about this picture that just grabs me. Maybe part of the fact that it wasn't a planned picture. I snapped it in the midsts of the hectic commotion trying to get everyone setup for the big family picture. My nephew Dylan seems impervious to the loud talking and babies crying around him, with us all trying to get ready for the picture. The look on his face is in a way, touching and calming. I did however do a bit of editing to the photo. The original was color, I added a dark vignetting effect and I blurred out the surroundings and sharpened Dylan in the middle to help convey the isolation he has from the commotion around him. And the fact that he is looking right at the camera creates even more of the tunnel aspect of the photo.

Monochrome

A new Black & White gallery is up for those interested.
I will be continuously adding to this gallery as I take and edit pics.

Black & White

Appetite of Destruction

Tracy, my lovely hungry wife....had nine and a half of these bad boys in less than 24 hours. Wow, breast feeding really gets that appetite going!!

"the green book"

A couple of months ago I was watching an Oprah Winfrey show...there was a whole week of shows dedicated to helping the environment, what you can do to help save the environment, and one show in particular had the authors of "the green book." At the time the book wasn't released yet and just a few weeks ago I went out and purchased one figuring let me see how I can start living green. Much to my surprise Kevin and I were already living green! We were already buying organic and eating soy based products, using CFL's, had our thermostat set higher, we don't run the water while brushing our teeth, recycling, and the list goes on. There are so many eye openers in this book...easy things that we can be doing too....using cloth napkins (I have loads of them!), asking for paper rather than plastic at the grocery store (besides when you re-use them you get a 10 cent credit on your next bill), shortening our showers (I'm working on this one), keeping the microwave cleaner, and unplugging appliances and/or cell phone chargers when they're not in use.

I know you're all reading this thinking how crazy it all sounds and some of you have even told me to be "realistic" and that I was "naive" to think that by just me living green would make a difference. Well, you know what, call me naive, call me crazy, ... I look at it as being optimistic...every little bit helps. In 20 years my kids will thank me and in another 20 years my grandkids will thank me. So please no pessimistic remarks...that's not how I live my life.

Living green really does make my heart smile.

Ibuprofen

You would think, that going to the gym three days a week, doing cardio and working out, would some how prepare my body for a half day of manual labor. This morning, after doing the landscaping work out front yesterday, it feels like a truck hit me. I am 32 years old, soon to be 33...this should not be happening....yet.
I suppose my 6 years at BFGoodrich Aerospace took some sort of toll on my back. Ho-humm...I think i might need some Ibuprofen today with my coffee.

Landscaping Progress

This weekend I have added a bit more to the landscape project that I started to do last week. I originally was just going to purchase more retaining wall bricks to raise the height of the wall and to extend it back a few feet along the side of the house. However, when I was at the Depot, I started getting ideas on what flowers, trees, & shrubs would work well in this new area. After returning home with the supplement of bricks, I fastened the wall how I liked it and asked tracy if she would like to accompany me back to the store to pick up some flowers and plants. I did not want to keep procrastinating with each step of this project (something I do very often).
Tracy the boys and I returned to home depot. (in two cars). One for her and the boys, one for me and the flowers/plants we would soon purchase. We didn't spend too much time searching as I had a good idea of what I wanted from my previous trip this morning. Tracy had a few great ideas for different kinds of plants that I had not even considered....good thing I brought them along! :-)
We returned home and I went to work, clearing the area...since I knew I wanted to extend the small rock-bed along the front of this area, I figured, what the heck, let me take a drive to the local rock quarry (place I purchased other rocks from) see if they are open on sunday and pick up a few bags of rocks. Since I knew exactly the kind I needed, (1-2" mixed mexican river bed rocks) I knew it would be a quick trip if they were in fact open.
They were open, i purchased the rocks and returned home....once again. I cleared the area for the rocks, removed most of the mulch, and started planting our new palm plants, birds of paradise, lantanas and something that I think are called grass plants. That was all for this time. I was short one bag of rocks and a few border pieces. I'll handle that in the next step. The next phase will be adding plants & flowers to the area behind retaining wall. We're thinking bougainvillea, maybe jasmine, and some creeping/hanging plants for the ledge under the window. Check out pics to see the progress so far.

previous post about project is here

Jumpy Swing Things

Reciprocationg Love

This post is pretty much a simple, boring one, just to share some pics. The pics were taken over the weekend where we basically did nothing... The pics below are from Sunday, of us hanging out in the morning and on the patio in the afternoon. The high chairs we have are extremely convenient. they can attach securely to any chair. making it easy to prop the boys up anywhere.

Click HERE to View Full Gallery

Oh I forgot about me FINALLY starting the landscaping work in our front yard. It's nothing that big...just something to pretty up the area to the left (to the right, if you're looking at our house) of our front door. We had crappy ol' 70's style hedges right there at the top of the drive way, and a brick retaining wall for what was once a flower bed under the front bathroom window. The hedges needed to come out and so did the bricks...for my master plan that i am envisioning in my head.
The last time I removed these same kind of hedges, along our driveway in order to put the rock bed and landscape lights in, I cut them all down by hand and cut the roots out with a small axe. This time..with the weight of lacking interest in manual labor weighing over me, i decided to go rent a Sawz-All at The Home Depot(i think that's what they are called). Much to my shagrin they were not renting those out. So i went down the tool isle and lo -n- behold for $50 i can own my own Ryobi saws-all thig-a-ma-jig! (Reciprocating Saw I find they are called) So I picked one up.
WHERE WAS ONE OF THESE DARN THINGS WHEN I TOOK THOSE OTHER HEDGES OUT TWO YEARS AGO!!!????
Man this thing "cut down" labor time by 75%. I was loving it. However I still needed to rip the roots out. This time I chose to use a spade shovel and wedge & yank 'em out. Worked like a charm! After the hedges were out, and I cleaned up the mess...I moved on to the bricks. Not as easy getting these puppies out. As below the surface of the dirt, there was another layer of bricks which was firmly embedded in a nice foundation of concrete. So, i tried just wedging the shovel under one end of the 'wall' and counter levering it to pry it out. Just like that, the whole thing unearthed and came out in one large 8ft long x 2ft high piece. Pretty damn good concrete foundation huh? Anyway...now that the wall was out I had to break all the bricks out of their place for ease of disposal. Sadly during this whole ordeal...the boys were inside with mommy and they were not letting her have the calmest saturday afternoon. I felt horrible as I could not go in to help calm either of them. I was covered in sweat and lots of dirt. After a few times checking in on things, I started laying in the 24 retaining wall cement blocks I purchased while at The Home Depot. After doing so I realized I needed much more dirt to elevate the flower bed to the top of this new small wall. My question is...where do i get dirt???? Does the Depot sell it, do i find someone getting rid of dirt....puzzling

Ok that's it... for now...the project is not finished yet. The next step will be to pick out what flowers, trees, and/or shrubs we plan on including in this landscape.

Gears of War CD July 31st

For any who are interested, the music I wrote for the XBOX 360 game, Gears of War, is finally getting a soundtrack cd release.
You may find a bit more info here on the release: IGN

And if you are interested in pre-ordering, you may do that here : AMAZON.com

Boredom = Whines

It seems as though our boys whine and are cranky only when they are completely bored out of their minds.
This isn't the biggest revelation in the world but we seemed to have come to this conclusion during our july 4th festivities. For the 4th, my friend Adam (adam and I became friends when I worked with him on the ABC series 6 Degrees this past fall) and his wife Jeannie invited us to their house for a day of food, drinks and many many many little kids :-). If we did not have kids...I would certainly have felt out of place and uncomfortable. We arrived mid afternoon and the party was already under way...the food was great, drinks were good, and their friends and family were inviting and great to hang out and talk with. The boys seemed to have a great time meeting a bunch of new people...they were on their best behavior...no crying, whining or fussing.
However, if we were home, hanging out by ourselves I have a feeling there would have been a touch more vocal notification from them, wanting attention. For most of the time, we had them in their baby bjorns facing out to everyone...this was able to free our hands for beverages and food, and at the same time...include them in all of our conversations :-)

So it seems to us, they really enjoy socializing, and were very attentive to all things happening around them. no crankiness at all. It made the day very comfortable and relaxing. Our goal i suppose now is to go out to parties as often as possible? This way the boys will always be on their best behavior and will come home and crash! IDEAL RIGHT?

iHappy

Ok...so I couldn't wait....what else is new.

Well, I was originally going to wait and see what everyone thought of it before I had made my purchase, but as the release date got closer and closer...I started salivating more and more. I still upheld the fact that I was not going to wait in any lines and that I would check the Apple Store online to see if I can just purchase and have it shipped via next-day. So...6pm rolled around on Fri. and I went online to purchase it...and DOH! it says 'ships in 2 - 4 weeks'. I was quite upset. Now I thought I would have to wait even LONGER. So I called the local Apple store wondering if they had any left in stock...they said, yes. In way as if it were like "Of course we do...hahaha...there's thousands here!!" So i trekked over to the mall around 8:30pm, arrived at the apple store and saw there was a bit of a line to get it. So i hopped in line and with in minutes they let us in the store and I was in and out of there quicker than I have ever been in an apple store before.

This was all made just a bit easier because Kevin Riepl Music, Inc. purchased one for each of it's employees....ok well just me really.

Black: Conservative Media

when you can't control the views, knowledge and opinions of the public on wikipedia.com what do you do?
Why of course!...You create your own site.... conservapedia.com

Testing a Video Post

Is Quinton an Atlanta Braves fan?

For a few days now Quinton has been doing the Atlanta Braves "chopping" motion accompanied by the appropriate "ohhhh ohhh ohhh ohh." We hope he's not an Atlanta Braves fan....well, things could be worse...he could be a Red Sox fan! LOL!!

Our first playdate!!!

If you didn't know already, I joined a "moms of multiples club." .... Anywhoo, today was our first playdate!!!! Me, Kaeden & Quinton met up with 2 other moms of twins. One set was twin girls and the other set were boy/girl twins. We all met at Lake Balboa Park and had a blast! The sun was shining and there was a cool summer breeze. We're looking forward to our next playdate! I might try this other playgroup but I think they meet when Kaeden & Quinton are sleeping.

mmmm cookies

there is nothing like eating walnut chocolate chip cookies at night.

kids are sleeping so i dashed to ralph's to buy soymilk, cookies, sweet potato chips, and vanilla cream soda. kev preheated and put them in the oven. after a very long 11 minutes kev decided they weren't done yet so they're back in the oven. they smell good. i bet they taste good too. i want a cookie right now.

Decline of Society

Just another nail in the coffin of society's social interactivity. Another device to help people become more isolated from human contact. ...to provide people with the means to constantly bug and contact you... to minimize the excuses for not being reachable...and the best yet device to help further along the Colony Collapse Disorder of bees.

Gah, who am I kidding...i'll damn sher be gettin one!

My Boys!

Baby Portraits

We received our online proofs yesterday of the portraits we had taken by Chris Marconi, while visiting NJ.
WOW they came out great! As you can see when you visit the portrait site, he does really great work.


If you would like to check them out and possibly place an order...

go to
Marconi Photography
click links, then your portraits

user: riepl
pw: 5846

you're so cute you little widget

Posting this one from a widget on my  mac.
Just trying it out to see how it works!



i have become the uber geek with too much time on my hands....i need to work!!!

they're not so WISE after all!

**not my actual x-ray

"oh boy those MUST come out!" says the dentist!! An extremely nice dentist she is i might add...but hearing those words out of any dentist, nice or grumpy....is not fun. I will not lie, i haven't been to the dentist in quite some time...maybe about eight years.
I take great care of my teeth and I have always been told by my dentists (when i did go) that i had really healthy teeth. So my approach was, if it aint broke don't fix it. I had a dentist visit prior to our trip to NJ. The cleaning and check up went great. Dr. Lilly, our dentist, was extremely impressed with the state of my teeth being that I hadn't seen a dentist in SOO long. She said it looked like I go every six months. SEE!!! all you nay sayers!!! ;-) Flossing and brushing to a point where it could be seen as OCD, pays off :-). However the downfall of that visit was when she saw the x-rays. BAD WISDOM TEETH...BAD!!! bottom two were impacted and needed to come out, causing her to want to remove even the perfect top ones in case problems arose with them growing more into the bottom area where the bottoms were after removal...so...ALL had to come out.
This is what i had to look forward too when returning from NJ. oh JOY!
3 and a half hours i was in that chair....i think i might have gotten around 15 to 20 anesthetic shots. I told them to keep going with them, i dont care if my entire head goes numb...i didn't want to feel a thing!!!!...little did i remember that she wanted to fill 4 minor cavities that developed over this long period of anti dentitism in my life. Ahh the smell of shaved teeth is like napalm in the morning! after about 1 or 2 hrs...the surgeon was now able to remove the 'wisdom' teeth. Top ones came out with out any problems...i actually didn't even know he removed them when he did. being that the bottoms were impacted under the gum, he needed to first make an incision and then cut the teeth in half in order to remove them. the bottom left one put up a bit of a fight, which in turn started me on a downward spiral of almost passing out. With one more to go...and knowing what was in store...i started getting a bit queezy and light headed...the surgeon said that sometimes the anesthetic can get to the blood stream quick and cause this, along with palpatations, queeziness, and chest pain (just what i want to hear with my BP and arrhythmia). oh and it had nothing to do with my envisioning what they were doing inside my mouth with a mini dremmel, a metal hook and a mini shoe horn. not to mention a suction hose that kept falling to the back of my throat making me gag constantly. well, during my very manly moment i felt my pulse slow down to what I thnk was about 30bpm...white face and all, they had to invert the chair to get blood circulating to the head....since nothing seemed to be working, sweats coming on strongly, they had to get out the good boy oxygen tank...AHH now that's what I need! sure enough with in a few minutes...i was back up on the horse ready for more prodding, digging, chiseling, and pulling.
last one came out easier than the 3rd. Whew...i was done!!! I received all my meds a prescription for Tylenol w/ Codine and I was on my way. Recovery has been good...little swelling, hardly any pain...no more bleeding...and i get to lay in bed for a few days while mommy takes care of the three boys :-)

the day of the dad

Father's day was our first full day back from our trip.
We got up and went to breakfast at good ol' Jerry's Famous Deli. Ya can't go wrong with a breakfast at Jerry's.
The rest of the day was rather relaxing...the boys were on their best behavior...THANKS GUYS.
and mommy did all the picture taking that day. ( i wasn't allowed to )

A Room at the Clerk-Inn

our last 4 days in NJ were spent at my sister's house in monroe, nj. I am really glad tracy and I made a decision to stay there with them. It was long over due. we haven't seen them in a year and a half. TOO DAMN LONG. We were able to see our 11 month old nephew aidan for the first time, and they were able to see (in person) their nephews for the first time! And most important, the 4 boys, Dylan, Aidan, Kaeden and Quinton, were all able to spend time together. It was great to see dylan (3) interact with our boys...you can tell he loves them very much...and is and will be an awesome big brother to aidan.
That wednesday, lauren & dave hosted our own cousin get together. jaime, craig & jack and tracey came up from south jersey for the evening. Again, another fun night of food and drinks. It was really great to see them all and see jaime and craig's son, Jackson for the first time. what a rip he is!!!
The evening consisted of many a kids screaming, hot dogs, burgers, and beer. Hanging out now that we have kids takes on an all new meaning. Being responsible comes to mind....meh maybe not.
Thursday we went to get portraits done of the four of us by Chris Marconi at Marconi Photography. Chris was our photographer for our wedding and does AWESOME work. I can't rave enough about his vision and eye for capturing life. Stop by his site,


That evening lauren, dave, tracy and myself were able to get away once again, with my parents baby sitting all the boys. We went to dinner at the Harvest Moon Brew Pub in New Brunswick. The four of us have not been out together alone in a very LONG time. It was indeed one of the best nights we had in NJ this trip, even if it was only for a few hours.


That Friday we had another small gathering at lauren's. They were kind enough to let me invite our friends, glenn, jenn and their two kids, Emily and Brenden. It was really great to see them again...we thought we were going to run out of time this visit to not meet up with them...but we managed to get it in, and fun was had by all. Watching the mets/yankees game with a mix of fandom. Even though we do not to get to see them often, every time we hook up with glenn & jenn, it's like we never miss a beat...just like with family. Great and dear friends. Again celebrating with beer and pizza!! My parents were there all day, and uncle rob, phil, angela and grandma stopped by as well.
the last day (saturday) we all went back to hang out at my parents for the day and had lunch and said our goodbyes...which weren't as tearful as I thought would be...I think mainly because we are having them come visit us in LA within months of each other. So it was more like...see you soon, rather than good bye...which made it easy on everyone. Thanks to everyone who put us up for the two weeks we were home...as crazy as it was at times with the boys...it was an awesome trip. Thanks to grandpa for picking us up and driving us back to the airport where he helped us in all the way up to security. grandma would of come too, but with all our luggage there was sadly not enough room in the car. Our trip ended on a great note, the flight back was half empty, we practically had the entire back half of the plane to ourselves!!! allowing us to bring both car seats on the plan and taking up each of our own rows. A much more comfortable way to fly. even though it happens once in a blue moon according to the flight attendants, who I must say were extremely jolly, i am sure due to the fact they had little to no responsibilities on the flight.

Full gallery of our stay at my sister and dave's:

NO WHITECASTLE ALLOWED!!

Saturday after the wedding...tracy's brother jim was kind enough to host a family bbq. family consisting of sarno's and chlebicki's.
Every once and while tracy's family tries to get all the cousins together for a hang out. A lot of times it doesn't pan out due to conflicting schedules and out of state relatives. Seeing that everyone was in town for the wedding, it made it easier to get together. Much thanks to Jim & Sharon for hosting and providing the food and drinks. food..GOOD, alcohol...GOOD, family....GOOD, Whitecastle...BAD!!! (not to mention disrespectful)

the day couldn't have been better. Always love going back east for the good ol' Yuengling Lager...not obtainable out here on the west coast, sadly....but we do have our FAT TIRE!

The sunday morning after, we left for a 3 hr drive to northern PA, where we spent 3 days up at tracy's parents (grandma & grandpa sarno). Never seems to be anything but very relaxing up there in the back woods. The cool crisp air, thunderstorms, coyotes in the distance...however the boys did have other ideas on that whole relaxing bit :-). Tracy and I were able to get away again. Her parents watched the boys for an evening letting us escape to a quiet dinner at the Inn at Starlight Lake

Pictures of our saturday at jim and sharons, and our few days up in PA:

Christie Wedding...not for the weak...

...or for those who have 4 month old twins
Well going to weddings is A LOT different now. especially being in them. Although, it was an excellent time, even with the limo driver getting lost in between pictures and cocktail hour, causing the entire bridal party, bride and groom, to miss the cocktail hour....aside from that...it was a blast.
Being that we were staying at my parents, they were kind enough to watch the boys for the day. Since that was the case...tracy and I were able to indulge in a few libations. Well mostly me, as tracy is breast feeding and only had one beer...pumped & dumped :-) The drinking started early in the day with the grooms men....however Jimmy da groom, refrained from doing so...showing MUCH MUCH will power and restraint. Some of which i have never seen before from him!

~UGH...i seem to get into the a bit of doing a sort of play by play in these posts...i must STOP!~

Well..the rest of the wedding went great...it was a lot of fun, except for me coming down with a severe headache during the reception....possibly due to not getting any sleep that week and 'a more than my usual' amount of beer and johnny blue.
At the top of the last hour of the night, i conked out in the bridal suite...only to be woken up by tracy, RAVING about this wonderful viennese dessert spread...i took one look at it, turned around and headed back to the suite. I was at the mercy of the pain. Like i said...the wedding was a lot of fun, but seems to take more of a toll on the body when you are a new parent.
Tracy and I are very grateful that we were asked to be a part of Jimmy and Cassie's big day!! We had a blast!!!!

Gallery of Rehearsal Dinner:

At the Riepl house

**NOTE** as you may be able to tell already...this blog basically consists of me rambling on...a lot of times in run on sentences and fragments...i dont care :-) so don't try and correct me or my spelling.

Well, our first weeks stay in nj was at my parents house...or should i say grandma & grandpa riepls..hehe.
It was great staying there, but it took about 2 nights for the boys to get adjusted to the new sleeping time and room they were in. So needless to say the first night was complete HELL. Once they got adjusted...things went smoothly.

Being that tracy and I were in her cousin jimmy's wedding, we had to make our rounds the first day to make sure her dress and my tux fit properly. afterwards we stopped at GG's so Kaeden and Quinton can hang out with their great grandmother. I got a couple of really nice pics of grandma holding the boys.

The wednesday of our first week there. Our good friends Jeff & Liz came up for a visit at my parents. Sadly they were only able to hang with Kaeden for the night, as quinton was out for the count...sound asleep, only to be awoke once for a diaper change.
It was great to see jeff & liz...we always like getting together with them and we are grateful for them taking the drive up to see us and the boys that night. I am sure if it wasn't for our lack of sleep and teir drive home...we could of spent hours on end talking!
Below is the gallery of the days we stayed at my parents. feel free to click on any of the images and it will bring you to the full size gallery.

NJ Visit

Well, our 2 week trip back to New Jersey was very successful and exciting, to say the least. It was actually a lot of fun seeing EVERYONE again. We have not been home to NJ in a year and a half. It's so difficult calling NJ home these days, being that we have started a family now out here in LA and this is the boys' HOME. But i suppose there will ALWAYS be a part of us that calls NJ home because, of course all of our families and friends that live there still, but also all of our memories of growing up.

The flight back to Jersey, was the good ol' red eye. Being greeted by an unfriendly gate agent at our continental flgiht's gate, we were unabe to secure one more seat on the plane to garauntee an extra seat to bring on the 2nd car seat, so both boys can sleep comfortably for the 5hr flight. Being that we ALREADY new the flght was not packed, especially in the back of the plane where we were sitting...the gate agent seemed to not want to be bothered with helping us out. Starting out with a "please make this quick I am very very busy' type of comment. So we were stuck with the 3 seats we purchased...Quinton had the car seat and was out the entire flight. Kaeden on the other hand had to sleep on my or tracy's chest the whole flight. Seeing that he got pretty cranky every hour almost, I can only assume his brother was a tad more comfortable than he.

We landed on time and every thing seemed fine, we met my dad at baggage claim, who was estatic to see the boys and we proceeded to retrieve our luggage. Two of our three bags arrived. The third and important bag with tracy's breast pump and few other baby items, was missing...no where to be found. Needless to say, it wasn't the best way to start a 2 week trip away from home. tracy filed a missing bag complaint and continental said it would immediately begin to be tracked. So, fingers crossed, we left to head to my parents house in cliffwood beach, a 35min drive in which quinton decided to get hungry and proceeded to scream the entire way down the nj turnpike, rt9 and 35. After unloading all our luggage minus one, an hour later we checked the status of the bag on continental's site. It was found, saying it was 'delayed' and being delivered to my parents house that afternoon. We actually thought the bag was a gonner. All in all the visit was under way... tbc

First Post

This is only a test to check the workings of our new blog. I figured this would be a nice way to keep people updated on the status of our lives here in LA. Also people will be able to find out the going's on of our twin boys Kaeden & Quinton.