Back to Blogging

So, If I have anybody left who still checks to see if I am blogging, I am back! I decided to take the summer off. I have not been busy every single second and could have found the time to blog, but just didn't feel like it. I was having such a great time just enjoying life. Something about sitting down at the computer almost every night to journal my day, sort of felt like homework to me! However, I started this blog to be a memory book of sorts for our family and my kids to have one day. SO I find that I NEED to get back to blogging.

So what did we do all summer?? As for our family, we didn't do the vacation thing this year. Instead, Charlie's family came out to visit us for the 4th of July week. We had a wonderful time visiting, eating, playing games, going to the beach, sight-seeing, etc...Here are some pics from the week.

Lobster Dinner rooftop

The McDonald Family in Palos Verdes

4th of July

Sarah was busy doing camps and Irish dance competitions. Sarah started her camps with a dance (all-in-one) camp. It was basically hip-hop, jazz, yoga, musical theater, cheerleading, and music everyday. She then did a couple of weeks of beach camp, an Irish dance camp, and soccer camp. Amidst all that, she continued to do her art classes, ice skating classes, and upped her Irish dance classes to 2 days a week. She also competed in 3 competitions this summer and did well in all of them. So a lazy summer she did not have, but a fun one for sure.

Sarah's 1st Feis

2nd Feis medals

Soccer Camp

Her team (U.S.A.) won the mock tournament

Lauren continued to do gymnastics and asked me weekly when she would start ballet up again. She is excited for next week! She spent most of her days at the summer camp at her daycare, however, we did pull her out some to do some fun activities. She had some play dates with friends, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Natural History Museum.

Ready for Pirate Fest at the Aquarium

Natural History Museum

Charlie has been a busy, busy worker bee. He has worked 2 bike races (Tour of France and Tour of Colorado) and has been hard at work prepping for his new gig as the producer of the weekly college football game on FX. This is the FOX network's 1st year of doing college football and Charlie was picked to be the producer. It is sort of a big deal and a big promotion for him. It has been a lot of hard work, but it has taken him all over the country for press and media days, he has had some fancy dinners out (which is the part I am jealous of), and has been on the phone or computer about 99% of the summer. A restful summer at the beach he did not have, but he loves what he does.

I have been busy carting kids around to play dates, camps and competitions, as you can imagine. On July 22nd, I became the primary care giver extraordinaire to our dog Peaches. She decided to jump off our tall bed and dislocated her hip and had to have emergency surgery to keep it back in place. I do love my sweet old dog to death, but a good patient she is not. She is supposed to rest and recuperate and she has done everything in her power to be nothing put active and disobedient. We are in the last 2 weeks of this healing period where I have to carry her up and down the stairs (we live in a 3 story house) and I am not allowed to let her jump on anything. (Mind you her favorite place to be is on the couch). I will be so glad when she is back to "normal".... And somewhere between being mom and dog nurse, I have been working at my new business of being a Stella & Dot Stylist. I LOVE this job and have had great success my first 3 months in business. Every month has been better than the one before. If you are not familiar with this product, you need to go check it out and fall in love with it like I did!

www.stelladot.com/tamaramcdonald

Poor Peaches

So there is our summer, busy, but fun! The fall looks to be even busier and even more fun. I love that we decided to move to Hermosa Beach. I think it is suiting us well.

I will be back to blogging more frequently now, in fact, I will post tomorrow about 1st Day of School and next week about our girls weekend to San Diego for Labor Day.

Gift of the Gab

This I do not have, or at least no thanks to the Blarney Stone.


Of all the places we went, this was the sight that was the least like I expected it to be. First off, the grounds of the Blarney Castle are pretty expansive and just gorgeous! I seriously thought we would walk up a short flight of stairs, kiss the stone, and be on our merry way. It was so not like that. The stone you kiss is not only sort of in the middle of the grounds, but it is also on top of the castle, oh..and it is also perched about a foot out from the side of the castle. Not to mention, in case you are not aware, you lie on your back and hang upside down to kiss it. You would think the idea of millions of visitors kissing the same spot every year would gross me out enough that I would not want to kiss the stone, but that was not my reason for not doing it. I couldn't get past the fact that I was several stories up on top of what seemed to me a crumbling castle, shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of visitors in a line that went on forever. I had never felt more claustrophobic, and more stressed about my 2 year old slipping and falling off the top of the castle (yes the thought did cross my mind, it probably never happens). Everyone was so excited to do this and all I wanted was DOWN!

Charlie kissing the Blarney Stone

Since we had a full day on our plate (driving from Milltown to Kinsale with stops at Blarney Castle and Cobh), we did not spend anytime visiting the rest of the grounds. It was raining a bit and that day we had what one Irishman described as a whole year of weather in one day. It went from freezing cold and rainy, to sunshine and fairly warm in the matter of an hour or 2. Reminded me a bit of TX. So, I would like to go back one day, visit the grounds and take photos of all the beautiful sights. The stone, I will probably take a pass on that again!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my hubby's birthday. I have had a pretty busy day, so I am just now getting around to posting about it. I feel bad, because there is only like 4 hours left in the day! Anyway, today he is 41! That is insane to think about. Last year I threw him a great little surprise party for turning 40. See it HERE.

SO my Charlie is everything to me. He is so loving, so supportive, my rock, my best friend, the best daddy (our girls ADORE him), the best husband and I feel so incredibly lucky that I found him. I feel so incredibly fortunate that he saw something in me that made him want to be with me forever. He puts up with all my weird ways and my moodiness. He works so (and I mean so) very hard to give me and our girls a great life. We are a great team and he is our smart, loving, and hard-working leader. I love him just as much now as the day I married him and he is truly my heart and soul. Love to my sweetie! Happy Birthday!

Charlie is back

Well, it was a long, cold February, but Charlie is back and March looks to be a great month. Charlie arrived home on Monday after his month long trip to the Super Bowl and Olympics. I have never seen my girls (and the dog for that matter) so excited! He came bearing Olympic gifts. Red mittens for us all and cute character hats for the girls. It is so good to have him back home, although technically he flew out this morning to go to a function tonight in Washington D.C. He will be home for a couple of weeks starting next week, so this week is sort of a tease. Here are some pics from his return!




Side Note: He could not find child size red mittens, so that is why they look like oven mitts on my girls! They love them anyway!

Vancouver 2010

It all starts tonight! I LOVE the Olympics!


I can't wait to watch the skating, the skiing, the ski jumping, the snowboarding, all of it! I especially love when they do the profiles on the athletes. I think their stories are always so interesting. I can't wait to see Team USA tonight sporting their Ralph Lauren in the Opening Ceremony. Go Team USA! My hubby has been there now for almost a week and I think we have gotten more snow here in Dallas than they have in Vancouver. I told him I would ship some up there if they get desperate! He is working at the bobsled venue.

If I was going, which I am not this time...I would have to have a pair of these. They are so cute and I have heard they are the hot item that everyone wants. Charlie wasn't sure what to bring back as a souvenir for the girls. I say these!

The Emmy goes to......

My Charlie! This is his 5th Sports Emmy. This time it was for his Associate Director work at the Beijing Olympics. His crew won for Outstanding Live Event Turnaround. He had worked at the diving venue. I am so proud of him. He brushes it off like it is no big deal, but they don't just hand these things out to everyone.

His previous Emmy's were for NASCAR on FOX in 2001, 2005, 2007 and for his work at the Olympics in Athens in 2004. That time he worked beach volleyball.

He will be again at the Olympics in 2010. This time working at bobsled and luge. I hope to reporting another Emmy win in the near future!