Over the weekend, Jason and I had the opportunity to mix some business with pleasure in the Dominican Republic.

When we told Davis we were going to the Dominican Republic he said, “Awesome! You’re going to fight a civil war?” lol

We went down with our friends, Mark & Melissa to check out a real estate opportunity, relax, and have some fun in the sun.

Yep! You can now refer to me as “Laurie Trump”! {{giggle}} All the beach front property in the Dominican Republic has been purchased, even The Donald owns some.

As you can see this was a very serious weekend. 😉

It turns out, you don’t have to be rich to own a fraction of a 5 star Hotel Suite. Normally I wouldn’t blog about a financial decision I’ve made, but I am so excited about this opportunity.

You know I can’t keep my mouth shut about a great tip! If you want to learn more, just e-mail me and I’ll hook you up.

I met up with Lisa in Houston and boarded the plane to Salt Lake City, Utah. The guy in front of us couldn’t believe we were so excited about going to SLC so we had to come up with something better…Here We Come Las Vegas!

We were on THE smallest plane I’ve ever been on and as my luck would have we were on the very last row, which happened to by the lavatory 🙁 I don’t know what the people on that plane ate but it was DISGUSTING! Don’t people know plane etiquette? You only go #1!! The guy across from us was cupping the clean air and funneling it to his nose it got so bad.

We had the cutest flight attendant, Nelson (pictured above giving us the food demonstration – sorry for the bad pic). He was more like a concierge than a flight attendant. Lisa wasn’t hungry so he offered me her meal, he offered to get Lisa more ice twice and he was on the loud speaker every few minutes to inform us of the meals 99% fat free turkey, the bread manufacturer, alcoholic beverages, that the bathroom had soap and towels and the weather. I felt like I should have tipped him when I was leaving.

One of our inside jokes is that Melissa loves Nacho Libre and we tease her about it all the time! Some of my friends were Nacho and the Nun, I borrowed their costumes and we changed in the restroom when we landed. As you can imagine we were getting the best looks from everyone! This was Melissa’s reaction…

Can you see how red her face is? We had the best time!! We went to dinner and just laughed and laughed.

We are lucky enough to have some of the coolest (and craziest) friends ever! We all plan pretty much year round for the annual Halloween Party. Not only is the competition stiff for a great costume but the party has a mandatory skit clause.

Last year Jason and I won Best Performance as Neo and Trinity from The Matrix. We did a fighting sequence with about 12 guns hidden in our costumes as well as some acrobatics. 😉

This year, we went as Earl and Joy from My Name is Earl. Jason and I had a great time! I got to be sassy and loud and boss Jason around all night – needless to say we had a blast! 😉 The pressure was off since we won last year and went ahead and picked a theme we would like, even though we knew the majority of the people hadn’t watched the show. (fyi: Earls eyes are always closed when he takes a picture and Joy is usually telling someone off.)

Where do I begin with Rochelle’s costume? Can I just tell you that they didn’t break character until AFTER all the skits (90 minutes later). Rochelle’s good friend, Terresa, who just moved to Utah was back for the weekend. They went as poligamists and Terresa was the “sister wife”. They were soo good it was CREEPY!

Best Performance Winners were Chanda and her man! Not only did they go as Paula and Randy from American Idol, they set up a booth (complete with cokes) and judged each performance afterwards. Yes, they had a CD full of Simon’s classic remarks. It was awesome!

This was Rebecca as a girl-wolf and Greg’s match on eHarmony.com. Every year they have the most creative and wacky costumes. LOVE it!

You will only get your invite revoked if you get make-up on the carpet or sneek in the master bedroom to watch sports. That leaves a LOT open to the imagination…

Which brings me to HO HO HO! Here’s Santa and his 3 Hoe’s. Yes, this party includes cross-dressers, three-somes, and usually a roll on the floor.

Here’s The Dog and his honey. I didn’t get pictures of everyone because I was having such a great time. Our hosts make everyone a DVD complete with pics so we get to review the evening at our whim. The Best Costume Winners were 4 KISS members.

The party rocked!! We had such a great time. After the skits we watched last years skits on DVD and then danced the night away.

What are you going to be for Halloween this year? What was your favorite couples costume? I need some ideas for next year. 😉

Breaking News! Most of my friends don’t even know this, but we hired an attorney and have been in mediation with the School District since August of last year. The ongoing battle has been about the diagnosis of my son, Davis. I have 4 renown professionals that say he has autism and over 100 pages of diagnosis, as well as medical testing, hair follicle samples, blood work, urine testing, as well as countless therapies. They have 3 tests, 1 hour of observation, and their opinion.

Well, I received a phone call today and received a sincere personal apology for how I have been treated throughout this process and was told that they finally agree, Davis has high functioning autism and will document it as PDD NOS.

Mama Bear and little bear cub have won!

I feel like I should be grateful and count my blessings that the fight, stress, and financial burden of this battle is over. However, for some reason my face is red and I fell like someone just slapped it. (I’m not sure why?) Over the phone, I graciously accepted her apology and agreed with her that this has been a huge burden on our family. But I wanted to say “DUH!” 😉

As promised, here are some fun pics of the birthday party. Rochelle and I made T-shirts to proudly display our ages. We both agree that you should own it and wear it proudly, so we did! Julie used this “L” bling on top of my present so I decided to wear it. Rock On! My soul sista’s coming out again. 🙂

Katrina and Katri made Rochelle and me these AMAZING pajama pants!! They did such an incredible job and they added little extras to them…

On mine, they sewed “Shoot Yeah!” on the side!! Seriously, those girls ROCK!

I helped organize Rochelle’s birthday basket with her P.J. pants and it didn’t even occur to me that they would make me some. But they did one better than that, they made P.J. pants for themselves too!

Here are the goody bags I made for the pinata loot.

Here’s our pinata…

It’s my birthday week! Yesterday Rochelle and I went shopping and bought party favors for the big bash this Friday Night. Today I worked on my Witch Switch project with 2 other friends. I’m crafting all week and I can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday week. {{big smile}}

Today I got a call and it looks like I’m going to get a different calling (or responsibility) at church. I’m worried… Right now I sing songs in the nursery (18 months – 3 year olds). It’s super fun and requires a whopping 10 minutes of my time. I use the Song Box. I’m pretty much tone deaf but we clap enthusiastically after every song and the kids love it! Have I told you I don’t like change. 🙁