Brian Hale-Yeah!'s blog

Trying to relax

We drove the family out to morro bay this afternoon to spend the weekend with our friends Josh and Kelley Frese.
I've been to morro bay a million times because my grandpa had a vacation home nearby, bit I've never stayed in the marina area.
I'm sitting here in the living room of this nice little beach house looking out at the boats and the jetty. Sounds relaxing hugh?
Did I also mention we have 8 kids 5 and under? So maybe in another hour when they all go to bed I'll be feeling a little better!

A day away

I haven't had a chance to breathe, let alone a chance to blog. I've been working until 8pm a couple nights a week and when you get there at 6:30, those are some long days. My oldest daughter turned 5 on Wednesday and I haven't even said anything. I feel like a failure, but, just in the blog world. We loved on her all week, celebrated, played, threw parties and now tomorrow we are going on a day trip to Monterey.

More specifically the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's gotta be one of Kiara's most favorite places and last week while checking out a friends new workout studio, we scored 4 free tickets from a local radio station. I can't wait to just be out on the road, listening to music, catching up with my bride, all the while having some serious quality time with my little girls.

From my iPhone

in a couple weeks from today...

CAN'T WAIT!!!

what to do?

Well, we're back in LA tonight and I'm laying on Carlos' floor looking through some houses that they are thinking of buying in Georgia. We had a killer party tonight at this amazing house on the outskirts of Riverside. Now, it's 1:17am and I'm fighting sleep.
Next weekend, we'll be heading to Livermore, CA for a wedding. Jacinda is in the wedding, so I'll be appointment free all morning and afternoon. I just fell asleep...sorry.
I need something to do next weekend besides sit a starbucks and mess around on my computer. My grandparents used to live there a long time ago, but the only thing I really remember about there house is that there are lots of windmills just before you get there.
Goodnight!

Finally...Hawaii Pictures

Some of the pictures are missing, so I'll have to check that out. If you are reading by RSS, you need to go to my page to see the pictures through PictoBrowser.

aloha!

aloha from hawaii. We haven't had internet access in our hotel, but boy do we have a story for you! It was interesting getting here, but we are here in Oahu right now (Honolulu mac store), and leaving to go to Maui tonight!

Mahalo!

Every year for the rest of our lives

Well, Jacinda and I loved the Newport Coast Villas so much...we bought one! We now have a vacation home on the Newport Coast smack in the middle of Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. 2 Bedrooms, 2 baths, and all ours....well, for a week a year. That's right, it's a time share, but after 10 years (or sooner) it will be paid off and we'll pay less than $1,000 to vacation there every year. There are tons of options as far as trading weeks, when you go, and upgrading whole vacation packages. I never really knew too much about the whole "time share" thing, but this is amazing! Carlos' parents have several of them, so I've been wanting to look into it. The cool thing is that I actually own the property and my name is on the title, so when Jacinda and I die off, our girls will get them. Plus, even cooler, if you don't use your week every year, they give you points (that don't expire) to use towards another vacation, another day. Since we won't be using ours this year, plus the bonus points we got for being first time buyers, we will have enough points to go to New York, 1st class, for free next year!

I ' ve got Spring Break Fever

You know you haven't blogged in awhile when your blog provider (TypePad for me) makes you log in again! Whew. I just haven't had the time/energy. Our house has been crazy the last two weeks. We had a yard sale, sold our bed, the new bed hasn't come in yet, so we're sleeping in the living room; me on an air mattress, Jacinda on the couch (her choice). But, we get a break on Friday. I can't wait. I've totally got that Senioritis vibe going right now.

My job, although I work for a corporation, is more like owning your own business since I am 100% commission. So, if you're not working, you're not making money...kind of. Needless to say, I don't have a set number of days for vacation or even set hours, which sounds nice, but I end up taking less vacation than I probably should for the amount of stress I take on, and instead of clocking out after 8 hours, It's on average closer to 10 hours. But, I love what I do, and everytime you sit down with someone, figure out how to get them to retirement, make sure they are taken care of, and you get that honest and heartfelt "thank you so much Brian", it just energizes me to go and do it again. So on top of a great meeting todya I got this email which just plain made me happy:

Thanks for signing up. You'll be the first to hear the latest about iPhone— coming this June. That gives you just enough time to think of ways to break the news to your current phone.

We are Here!

Yesterday, Jacinda and I dropped the girls off with Maama and Papa and we headed to San Jose. Jacinda's uncle is the marketing director for this cool company called Joie de Vivre. They manage a small group of boutique-esqe hotels that are very swanky. This picture is part of the lobby here. And it really does look like that. I'll take pictures of our room after they come make it look nice again. We're going to the Christina Aguilera concert tonight and shopping all day. It's been awhile since just the 2 of us got to hang. I'm so pumped.