Searching For Sophie

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T04:00:00.000-08:00

Today is our 19th wedding anniversary.

(this is the same blog post I write every year around this time, so skip it if you want to. :)

I still can't believe we ever looked like this. We haven't changed that much really(HA!)

19 years ago we got married in this little church.

19 years.

That's a long time(I say that every year), and I can't believe we have made it this far(I say that every year too) but every year I am a bit in awe that we did in fact, make it through yet another year together.

Happy Anniversary Joe!

I'm still crazy after all these years.

Last Day of Love Week

2012-02-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

O.K., so that was longer than a week. I just found so many pictures this year.

Here is the one last picture:

Cool. Heh.

Get it?

Frozen actually.

As you know, I have been doing these posts for a few years now, and I have yet to find a heart of my own to include.

Until now that is. Joe was in the kitchen making dinner about a month ago when he asked me to come into the kitchen. I was busy(probably on the computer) and annoyed that he wanted me to actually stop what I was doing and come in there(the nerve!). He said fine, don't come in here then, but I have a surprise for you.

So I get up and go into the kitchen and he hands me this:

Oh my goodness I was so excited. You would have thought he gave me a diamond or something.

He said "See? I told you it was a good surprise. Now you have your own heart picture to put on your blog this year!"

And that, Ladies and Gentleman, is love. :)

Love Week Day 10

2012-02-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Pretty sure this wasn't naturally occurring but it's kind of cool.

Love Week Day 9

2012-02-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

So cute. And yummy!

Love Week Day 8

2012-02-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

Pretty!

Love Week Day 7

2012-02-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling this might have been photoshopped but if not it's pretty cool.

Love Week Day 6

2012-02-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

I would love to come across this on my daily walk!

Love Week Day 5

2012-02-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Love Week Day 4

2012-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I want to go here so bad!

Night Out on the Town

2012-02-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

O.K., not really on the town, but out.

On a Saturday night, which is not something we do often.

We had the opportunity to pick up some tickets to a broadway show at our local theater for cheap last week.

It was a musical, which I LOVE. Last time we were there we saw Mary Poppins. It was fantastic.

This time it was to see a musical set to the songs of Frank Sinatra.

It's called Come Fly Away.

I love, love, love Frank Sinatra. I know most of his songs by heart.

Pair that up with dance numbers to go along with each song, and I am in heaven.

It was such a good show.

I didn't take too many pics but here's a few.

Ready to go. I was a little worried about wearing jeans. Some people take their theater very seriously. It turned out fine though. I'd say it was about 50/50 w/people in jeans and those in formal wear, which would have been fun if I had anything like that to wear. The jeans people were sitting in the nosebleed section with the rest of us that snagged the $10 tickets. ;)

I suppose we could have gone down a little closer to the stage to take this picture. LOL.

This picture turned out really cool. I love my new camera. We hope to be able to go there one day too. It's the concert hall. They had something going on that night. People were dressed up very fancy. Not a lot of jeans there. ;)

Slightly blurry. I meant to turn off the twilight mode for this pic

Oh by the way, if you are wondering how we are able to afford all of these broadway shows, it's because the Segerstrom Center for the Arts is offerring a program this year that they are calling "Access for All".

Basically for some of their shows they put up for sale a certain number of tickets at $10 a piece. The goal being that they want to provide the opportunity for people of all income levels to see a live performance.

That's how we got our tickets. You have to be quick, as they sell out quickly but if you can get through on the phone(we have had better luck that way than online), they are fairly easy to get.

Saturday night's outing cost us $24.00(with service fee). We ate at home first so that was it. Twenty-four bucks! Can't beat that.

You can sign up for their text alerts and then they will send notifications right to your phone when the access for all tickets will be going on sale. Pretty handy for someone like me who can't remember anything.

It was a great night.

P.S. only 13 days until my trip. I Can. Not. Wait. I'll tell you what it is soon. :)

Love Week Day 3

2012-02-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

So sweet.

Love Week Day 2

2012-02-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

Stunning!

Love Week Day 1

2012-02-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

It's my favorite time of year and time for my annual pictures of hearts that are found in nature. This year I finally found one of my own and I will share it at the end of love week.

I found some pretty cool pictures this year, thanks to Pinterest. Love Pinterest!

Here's the first picture to kick off the week:

Awwwww!!! My favorite animal. So sweet!

Motivated

2012-01-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

I am trying hard to be more motivated. Motivated to eat better. Motivated to get more exercise. Motivated to just get healthier. Thus the shot of my favorite walking trail. I have missed it! I can't wait for it to be more light when I get off work so I can go more than just the weekends.

I have really been trying to choose more healthy foods as well. And it's working! It's actually kind of strange to see the scale go in the right direction for once. I got a gift card to buy some clothes for my trip for my birthday and I was chomping at the bit to go spend it but now I think I am going to wait until closer to the date of the trip and see if I can lose a bit more before I buy new clothes in my current size(that was the longest run-on sentence ever).

Anyway, I have been eating better. Part of that has been trying not to eat so much sugar. I think I have a sugar addiction. I really do. I'm not one to eat baked goods or chocolate but I love sour candy type things. I don't usually keep that kind of thing in the house but occasionally I will pick up some skittles or other candy and I always end up eating it sometime in the period after dinner before bed and I crave it.

But I have been very good about not eating any sugar. Until tonight.

This is the conversation Joe and I had after dinner tonight:

Me: I feel so guilty

Joe: Why?

Me: I kind of fell off the wagon with the whole cutting down on sugar thing

Joe: How? I didn't see you eat any sugar.

Me: Well I did. And I feel guilty about it.

Joe: Well nothing can be done about it now. What did you eat?

Me: I ate a whole box of tic tacs.

Joe: Whoa. Tic tacs? A whole box? Man I hope you don't gain back all that weight you lost. Eating Tic Tacs. (rolling his eyes).

Me: Whatever. They are like 1 calorie each and I ate a whole box. It very well could affect my weight loss for the week!

Joe: Riiiiiggghhhhtttt.

He is so supportive of me. :)

One thing I am finding about eating healthier(I am not calling it a diet) is that I have to be way more prepared and bring a lot of my own food to work so I don't end up eating/snacking on the wrong foods during the day.

After a week of rushing around in the mornings trying to throw something together for lunch and finding that I have absolutely nothing to store my food in I decided I need to be more organized about how I go about this.

So last Saturday night I re-organized my tupperware cupboard. Yes, you read that right. I spent a Saturday night organizing my *tupperware*. Don't be jealous. I really know how to party.

It's kind of unbelievable how disorganized that cupboard was.

Here is the before:

Pretty much none of those items had lids. Most of it went into the trash

My sister's cat decided to help out

Don't worry. This basket was washed out with a bleach/water solution after she "helped" me.

Here is the basket after

and the cupboard

Ahhhhh...........much better. Doesn't it feel good to be more organized? Now if only I could get it in gear to start on the rest of the house.

It's so much easier to get my lunch ready to take along to work now.

Wow. That was pretty much the most boring blog post ever. Not a lot going on in my life right now. LOL.

Continual Catch Up

2012-01-23T21:40:00.000-08:00

I suck at blogging lately.

I feel like I am in a continual state of catching up. I want to keep this as my online scrapbook but I can't seem to make it here regularly so I think I am going to not stress so much about the frequency and focus on the content. If I don't have anything to post, then I won't. Maybe two or three times a month is all I can do right now and that's o.k.

I never did get around to posting about my birthday and now it seems so long ago. It was a wonderful day. Low key and nice. My sister got me a Keurig(I know!).

Oh my gosh I am in love. How did I ever live without this thing in my life?

O.K. that might be slightly overdramatic but I really love it. The coffee is just so good and it is prefect for when I am running out the door and don't have time for a whole pot of coffee to brew. It even has a small filter than you can use your own coffee in if you don't want or run out of the K cups it uses. Love it.

Here I am with my birthday cake, that Joe insisted on putting all 41 candles on and it almost burned the house down. Seriously. That was a lot of smoke when I blew those out.

Let's see, what else?

I made a pact with myself(not a new year's resolution-those never last :) to eat healthier and exercise more. I am following a program but I won't bore you with the details her but it is working so far and I have lost some weight which makes me very happy.

I am back to walking and am loving it. I forgot how much I loved it until I started doing it again. Funny how that works. Also funny(but not really) how easy it is to not do it, even though you know you will feel better afterwards.

I have also started doing quite a bit of yoga(thus the lotus flower at the top of the post. I have only recently discovered them and they are so beautiful!) and I love how I feel afterwards. I have a couple of beginner's tapes that I really love and aren't that difficult for my out of shape body to do. Overall I am just starting to feel better.

I have an fun trip coming up and I am beyond excited. I have already have some of my outfits planned out and it's still a month away. Lisa said I am weird but I haven't been on a real vacation in two years and I can hardly wait. A girl can never be too prepared!

Christmas

2012-01-14T16:35:00.000-08:00

Playing catch up. I suppose I should start in chronological order so that makes Christmas up first.

I didn't get a lot of time off for Christmas this year. At my job we only took one day, which was the day after Christmas.

In fact this is actually the first year *ever* since I started working when I was 15 that I didn't get at least a week off for the holidays.

I have worked at either a preschool or grade school my whole life until I got my last job and then for the last four years that job took off two weeks at Christmas as well.

It's nice to have the time off. But it sucks to have to save all of your paid time off for that, or even worse to not get paid at all(like at my last job). It made for a very lean Christmas and New Years. It was nice to go into the holiday without the worry that we would be flat broke the week following.

But it made for a quick trip again up North, like it was at Thanksgiving. I took off the 23rd so we could at least have one extra day for travel.

We left at the crack of dawn(as usual) and got up to my sister's around noon. It was a relaxing day. We laid around and watched movies, ate far too much and generally just kicked back. Exactly what a vacation should be. I watched White Christmas(my fav!) while Joe took a nap because he was deathly ill with the flu/a nasty cold(which I now have. Lovely).

The next day was Christmas Eve day and somehow we found ourselves at the mall buying last minute presents and using the gift cards that were burning holes in Grace and Cameron's pockets that Papa and Uncle Kenny had sent up with us.

I know this is a stupid question, and your answer is going to be "Well DUH!", but did you know that you shouldn't go to the mall on Christmas Eve Day? No really. You shouldn't. People are CRAZY. And there will be nowhere to park. And people are crazy. Won't be doing that again any time soon.

For Christmas Eve dinner we went for easy this year and ordered Thai food. It was delicious.

Cameron and Grace each got to open a present. Cameron chose what he thought was a video game(it was-shocker) and Grace chose a board game. Cameron quickly ensconced himself in Lisa's bedroom to play his video game and Lisa, Joe, Grace and myself retired to the dining room to play her game.

It's called "Blokus". It is a fun game but it's not my cup of tea. It is a spatial strategy game and I suck at those. Apparently. Because I kept losing. Give me a word game, or even a card game any day over this kind of game. Lisa, Joe and Grace really liked it though and we had a fun time playing so that's all that matters. I guess. (sore loser much? LOL).

See how thrilled I look to be playing? This after I lost. Twice. Hmph.

Grace was quite good at it

After that we settled in to watch "A Christmas Story"(you'll shoot your eye out kid). It was on a 24 hour continual loop on one of the channels. Funny. I think we actually ended up watching it one and a half times, just because it was on and no one bothered to change the channel. Joe and I didn't make it to church(again) this year because Joe was so sick and just wasn't feeling up to it. Last year it was me that was not feeling well with a horrible migraine.

Then Lisa and Grace got into their matching P.J.'s I was super jealous that I didn't have some matching P.J.'s too(hint hint). And they have owls on them! So cute!

After that we headed to bed to wait for Santa to come in the morning. O.K., no one in the Smith household believes in Santa anymore. Except me. Just kidding. Sort of.

On Christmas morning the kids let us sleep until 7:30(yay for the kids being older and not getting us up at 5 a.m. anymore!)

Grace is playing Santa and passing out the presents and Cameron is helping Finn open one of his presents. I think he got more presents than Joe did. No joke. He even had his own stocking.

Cameron opening the one present he was really hoping to get. Mom came through again. Mom rocks!

After presents Lisa made a yummy breakfast and we ate far too much and laid around the living room playing with our new toys.

Breakfast casserole plus the traditional cinnamon rolls. Yum!

Sweet Finn chillaxing after the present opening.

It's a shame that he is so unloved. ;)

Some of the big hits this year were an Xbox game that has an actual guitar and it teaches you how to play, plus more video games than I can count for Cam. His Dad got him a Kindle Fire too! He really made out.

For Grace, she is getting into clothes so she got a few cute outfits, plus a couple of matching ones for her AG doll. She also got a new art set to keep at her Dad's so she can paint when she's there, and a disabled set for her American girl dolls, which she really wanted. She had asked for the wheel chair but she got this one instead because it came with more "stuff".

Funny, I remember pretending my dolls had injuries/disabilities at her age too.

With the gift card that Papa & Uncle Kenny gave her she went to Target and got these strange little things:

They are called Zoobles and the best way I can think of explaining them is that they are a cross between Littlest Petshop and Poke balls(both of which I only know about because I used to work at a daycare center. If you aren't a parent I am probably speaking Greek to you right now).
They are kind of cute little guys.

Here Grace is showing them off for Papa & Uncle Kenny. Thanks for the Zoobles Papa & Uncle Kenny!

Cameron chose a racing game with the Gamestop gift card from Papa and Uncle Kenny. Uncle Joe and he played for a bit. I think Cameron won.

Lisa got me a Kindle Fire(so cool!!-more on that later) plus the camera. She also got me some soaps from LUSH, which is one of my favorite things on the planet. Love me some handmade soaps. I really made out this year too. Joe got a cool tablet for the computer that you can draw on and it transfers to the computer screen, plus some wooden puzzles he likes and a book on making soup. He has taken over most of the cooking and had wanted to try his hand at making different kinds of soup. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

Overall it was a lovely Christmas and hard to come home after such a short time.

When we left on the 26th Lisa was in bed with the stomach flu that she had come down with in the middle of the night. This delayed our depart time by a few hours, as I stayed to clean up the house and make sure she was set up with Gatorade, saltines and chicken broth before the kids went with Scott for the night.

We didn't end up leaving until almost two o'clock in the afternoon and it took us almost 8 hours to get home. Blech. We got home around 10:00 in the evening and I promptly went to bed so I could go to work the next day.

Exactly 24 hours after coming home I was deathly ill with the stomach flu too. Ugh. No fun at all!

Thankfully there were no doctors in the office that week so I was able to take a couple of sick days to get over it before going back to work on Friday.

Then about three days after getting over the stomach flu I came down with the nasty chest cold that Joe and everyone I worked with had. I still have it, two weeks later and it does not seem to be getting better. Double blech. I am on antibiotics now so I hope it kicks it out soon. I am so done with being sick.

Well that was our Christmas. It's funny how it seems like it was so long ago.

How was your Christmas? Did Santa bring everything you asked for? :)

Next up: New Years.

Long Time No See

2012-01-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

I'm back! I didn't mean to be gone for so long. It wasn't my choice. Since a few days before Year's Eve our internet has been down.

16 looooonnnnnnggggg days. I'm not even sure how I survived actually. ;)

Anyway, a lot has happened since I was last here.

Christmas.

New Years.

My Birthday.

Those three things always come in such quick succession after Thanksgiving is done.

Christmas was fabulous, New Years was uneventful and my birthday was o.k.

I will be going back and doing posts about all three but for now I am tired from being sick for two weeks(so over it) that I am going to go watch a movie and veg.

Here's a couple of pictures taken over the last few weeks with the new camera Lisa got me for Christmas.

It's the Sony Cybershot HX5V. I love, love, love it. It takes great pictures for a point and shoot and performs very well in low light, which is something I really wanted.

Joe took this picture of me on New Year's Eve out on our patio. Love the soft glow of the lights in the background.

And here is a picture of Gizmo at Christmas. Isn't that the cutest face you've ever seen? Don't be

fooled. She will bite your face off if she doesn't like you.

Seriously. Be afraid.

More pictures to come.

I am glad to be back! Did everyone have a nice holiday? Kind of hard to believe it's over! It goes by too quickly.

I have missed you all! Hopefully I can get caught up this weekend.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-22T20:32:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's Christmas. I really can't. It flew by so fast this year. I will miss our Christmas tree, which has already been disposed of because it was one giant piece of kindling and we won't be home over the weekend. I will miss the ten million lights(roughly) Joe put up outside. I will miss the excitement of choosing(and making) and giving gifts. I love to give gifts!

I won't miss the stress. Christmas stressed me out this year. I am feeling so run down because of it.

In fact I am headed to bed shortly after posting this, before 9:00 p.m. The last week's stress has caught up with me.

We are headed out bright and early tomorrow morning for San Francisco. Joe is bringing the laptop but I am not going to be touching it. I need some time to unwind and just relax without checking FB or pinterest or blogs. I am going to unplug for a few days.

I wish all of my friends(in real life and virtual) a very Merry Christmas. And Happy Chanukah for my Jewish friends as well.

May this season fill you with Peace and Joy.

You Might have a Migraine if..........

2011-12-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

You post the same thing twice and you don't even realize it. I posted almost the exact same thing about my Christmas tree in my Thanksgiving post and then again in my last post. Sorry about that. My last post was brought to you in a migraine induced haze.

The good news is the migraine is gone. Finally. It took 10 days and much pain medication(including two shots at the doctor's office on Friday, both in the butt-OW!). But it's gone.

Thank. Goodness. I only get migraines that bad four or five times a year. I was having severe pain in my neck and upper back with this one and the doctor determined yesterday that it was actually a tension headache that morphed into a migraine(with blurred vision and sensitivity to light for extra fun). Yay me for being such an anxiety ridden spaz that I am causing myself headaches. I must learn to chill. Geez.

I chose our ornament for this year at Disneyland. It's WALL-E and Eve. So cute. You can see a little bit in this picture how dead our Christmas tree is. It actually has a brown tint to it. It is definitely coming down before we leave on Friday. It's a major fire hazard at this point.

We had our staff Christmas party last night at the Chart House in Dana Point. We had fun. I had a little too much fun. That's all I'm going to say about that. :)

My boss got me a pair of slippers that light up so you can see your way in the dark. He bought them as a joke. We had a lot of fun with them last night. I wore them for the remainder of the night. They were a big hit at the bar we went to afterwards. I am hoping I left my actual shoes in my co-worker's car because they were nowhere to be found when I got home and they were brand new. I told you I had a little too much fun!

I didn't get to do a lot of crafting this year for Christmas presents. Lisa bought all of the materials to hand pour some candles and we forgot to make them at Thanksgiving so she made some for me and had them shipped.

They came today . She did a really great job because they look professional and smell so good.

I decided to fancy them up a little with some vintage like stickers and some pearls I picked up at Michael's a while back for another project. I'm happy with the way they turned out.

I think a lot of people skipped sending Christmas cards this year because I sent out 65 and only received about 20 back so far. It bums me out because I LOVE Christmas cards. I keep each and every one from year's past. It's fun to go back and look at them. I saw on Pinterest how to make them into books, like small scrapbooks. If I'm feeling ambitious I might try it. I have boxes and boxes of old cards people have sent me, for all occasions.

I still have a few things to buy and I haven't started wrapping yet.

Now we are coming into the home stretch for Christmas. I work four days next week and then we head up to Lisa's early on the 23rd. It's going to be a quick trip again for sure but I know we will have a good time.

7 more days!

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas

2011-12-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

My true love gave to me..........

A migraine that lasted seven days. That actually fits into the song if you sing it. Heh.

O.K. maybe my true love didn't give it to me, but I still have it and I am over it. Sigh.

Do you know there are only 11 days until Christmas?

11 days people!!

I am terribly behind. I swear it was Thanksgiving and then I blinked my eyes and we had only 11 days left until Christmas.

I was so on top of things at the beginning of December. I had my cards finished by Thanksgiving. I had my tree up on the first of December.

Then for some reason things came to a screeching halt and nothing more got done after that.

I still have most of my shopping to do. I shop very little as it is so the fact that I have still have so much to do is a bit daunting.

I hope to get a lot done this coming weekend. I better, because it's the last weekend before Christmas(!)

We decided on a real tree this year. I had forgotten how nice it is to have a real tree. The house smells so good! Instead of lugging all of my decorations out of storage this year I bought a couple of packages of plastic ornaments at Target and used those. I went with a silver and blue color scheme and I love the way it turned out. So pretty and only cost me about 15 bucks!

That tree is totally dead now. One of the hazards of getting your tree on the first of December. It might have to come down before we go to my sister's.

Let's see, what else have I been up to?

We went to Disneyland. I love Disneyland at Christmas time. So beautiful.

My sister's cat came to live with us for awhile. She is funny. I'm not sure Gizmo agrees with the being funny part, unless she considers being smacked in the face with a claw every time she walks by funny. And I'm pretty sure she doesn't. We are still in the transition stage there.

She really knows how to party.

Joe put a few(cough) lights on outside our apartment.

He may have gone a little overboard with the lights. I'm pretty sure our neighbors think we are nuts. I love it. It makes me happy to come home and see them.

Sorry so blurry. These are all cell phone pics. Santa is bringing me a new camera for Christmas. Either that or Joe is buying me one for my birthday(which is in 3 weeks!) Either way I am getting a new camera. LOL.

I only get a few days off for Christmas this year(which is nice because I won't have a bunch of time off unpaid) but it means a very quick trip up North to see Lisa and the kids. Very quick. We thought about staying home this year but I have never missed one of the kid's Christmases and I'm just not quite ready to start. We will re-evaluate next year when Christmas doesn't fall on a weekend.

That's what I have been up to.

How about you? Are you ready for Christmas/Chanukah, or are you feeling the crunch like I am?

Thanksgiving

2011-11-30T20:47:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving was lovely. It was low key, which was something I needed. We hung around the house. Lisa's friends cooked dinner(and it was probably one of the most delicious Thanksgiving meals we have ever had). We went to Half Moon Bay one day and the weather was beautiful. Half Moon Bay is one of my fav places. We cut down our own Christmas tree(for Lisa). We ate too much and spent time together and overall had a wonderful time.

The only thing I would have changed was the drive home. Suckage. We left too late. Won't be doing that again.

I didn't take too many pictures but here are a few.

The weather was so beautiful. It wasn't windy or cold for once.

Heaven

The waves were scary huge as usual

I like this picture. Too bad we are so squinty in it.

Christmas tree lot. This place was awesome. Been avery long time since we cut down a tree. I think Cameron was a baby the last time.

It was dog heaven.

Checking out the choices

Nothing about this seems like a good idea.

It actually turned out fine and the kids had a blast. O.K., I did too. But you won't be seeing pictures of that. You'll gave to take my word for it. It was fun.

Cutting down the ONE.

We put our own tree up and I love it. We haven't had a tree in two years. We got a live one and the house smells so good. All of my decorations are in storage so I got some cheap new ones at Target and went with a solid ice blue and silver theme. It's so pretty.

Now I must try very hard not to stress too much over Christmas, which I tend to do. The tree is up and some lights are outside. A couple of presents are bought and I am not buying many more this year. I must not stress about the rest of it. I spend too much time worrying about things that I don't enjoy them. I am going to try not to do that this year.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't been around much. Been grieving and feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I can't believe the holidays are upon us. I always seem to struggle a bit around the holidays. I feel stressed just thinking about Christmas being in four weeks. How come after Halloween everything goes by so fast?

We are headed for a very quick trip up North to spend Thanksgiving with Lisa and the kids. Seems like such a long trip for such a short period of time but it has become tradition.

I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving.

For my Canadian friends, well, happy thursday! One day closer to Friday. LOL.

2011-11-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Last week Joe and I lost a friend to suicide. Our hearts are broken for her family. She is gone too soon.

We were supposed to make Christmas cards together. I don't know if I have it in me to make them without her.

We will miss you S. You were kind and thoughtful and smart as a whip.

I can't imagine how sad your family must be knowing they won't ever see you again.

I'm sorry that you felt so alone. I'm sorry if I wasn't as good of a friend as I could have been.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, please get help. You are not alone.

Here is the number to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline:

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Here is the link to the Kristen Brooks Hope Center

Kristen Brooks Hope Center

No family should have to lose their loved one in this manner.

She will be greatly missed.

To live in hearts we leave behind
is not to die. ~Thomas Campbell

Disney

2011-11-12T16:09:00.001-08:00

Last Friday while Lisa and the kids were here they went to Disney. You know how I feel about Disney so I got off a little early and we joined them.

It was raining. A lot. And I got sick. Which was no fun. But a half day at disney in the rain when you are sick is better than a day at work, right?

Or not.

We still had a good time.

Here we are om Tower of Terror. This ride still scares me. I love it. But it scares me.

The rain did stop for awhile and cleared up that night for World of Color but it was wet and chilly. And I was sick. (whine much?)

This was our first time going on the new ride "The Little Mermaid". My new favorite ride is born! I love, love, love The Little Mermaid! It was one of the very first movies that Joe and I went to when we were dating. Gee, he humored me even then. I'm pretty sure The Little Mermaid would NOT have been his first choice for a date night movie.

I'm not gonna lie. I was singing. Throughout the whole ride. And most of the rest of the day too.

I loved it. I went on it two times in a row. No one but Grace wanted to go the second time with me. Too bad for them!

Toy Story. I have no idea what Grace is looking at. I have yet to go on this ride. It always has the longest ride in the park and we are disneyland snobs and never want to wait.

CA Screamin'. One of our favorites.

They had only a few Christmas decorations up. They were kind of between Halloween and Christmas. I'm sure the Christmas decorations are out in full swing now.

I think she was re-enacting Tower of Terror here.

So pretty at night!

Was supposed to show her glowing ears. Camera fail.

Glowing mohawk

Waiting for World of Color. It is stunning. If you have never seen it, the off season is a great time to go. Although from now until Christmas it's probably crazy. We were there at the perfect time.

Aside from being sick, it was a fun night.

At Lisa's hotel we went to the gift shop to buy Grace some gloves. While we were in there I saw two kids in bathing suits with towels wrapped around their waists and they were buying ice cream. It was 55 degrees at most and had been raining.

I looked like this: Note the scarf and big jacket. I also had a hat and gloves tucked into my pockets as well.

I said to their Mom "I can't believe they are buying ice cream and have gone swimming in this weather. Brrrrrrr!"

She smiled and said to me "Oh, we're from Vancouver. This weather is balmy for us!"

Heh. We Southern Californians sure are wimpy!

2011-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave

Thank you to all who serve and have served our country.

Freedom isn't free.

Thank a Veteren today.

More Catch Up

2011-11-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

I am back dating these because I want to get them on the blog but I simply didn't have time to get to it in October. I seriously don't know where that whole month went. In two weeks it will be Thanksgiving.

Two. Weeks.

Don't even tell me how long until Christmas. I don't want to hear it. SO not ready for that.

Anyway, this post is all the way back to Joe's birthday, which was Oct. 17th. We went into San Juan Capistrano for his birthday lunch. It is so pretty there.

We went to Ruby's for lunch. Grace sent me her "flat grace" project for school so we took her with us. The things I won't do for my niece!

We wandered into an antique store while we were there. It was really neat. I found some old postcards that people had sent to each other. I must have spent a half hour reading the backs. I wish I had bought some of them.

Joe thought this globe was pretty cool.

I thought it was even cooler after he opened it up and showed me what was inside.

It's a bar! That is made of awesome.

More cowbell! But not forty two dollars worth. It must be really old!

One of the vendors had this really creepy booth.

There was some pretty cool stuff in there. But creepy!

Look at these old dolls.

These gave me nightmares.

There was this old apothecary cabinet with all sorts of creepy things inside each drawer.

Doll parts.

Whoever was the owner of this stall was a little twisted(but we loved it).

Antique children's leg braces. Have I mentioned it was creepy??

Flat Grace got in on some of the action.

Afterwards we walked around a little.

Isn't this the cutest little coffee shop you ever saw?

We went to the petting zoo and saw this Llama(is your mama a llama? Sorry. Taught preschool for too long).

He(she?) was quite handsome/beautiful.

Flat Grace checked out the pumpkins.

I thought these pumpkins were neat. They are called Fairy Tale pumpkins. Interesting.

Flat Grace and me posing with the corn.

It was a fun day.

Catch up

2011-11-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

October was a busy month and I'm not exactly sure where it went. I have much to post about and I don't want to forget. This is the only type of scrapbook I am keeping right now so I am going to work backward from today and try and get caught up.

That brings us to today.

Today was my Dad's birthday. He is 80 years young today!

Last night we had a party for him. It was at Cannon's Seafood Grill in Dana Point. It is beautiful there!

Lisa and the kids came down to surprise them. My cousins and aunt came, along with my brother. We all had a fabulous time.

Here are some pics:

View from our table. It doesn't get much better than this!

Grace picked these out especially for her Papa.

Papa with his grandkids

My brother with our cousin Linda

I somehow always end up taking a picture of food. This was Joe's dinner.

Macadamia nut crusted swordfish-yummy!

No, we didn't put 80 candles on the cake(even though Cameron and Grace wanted to).

These ballons were ridiculously large. People stared at us when we brought them into the restaurant.

80 years old!

Siblings

My dad with my Aunt, cousins Karen and Linda(thanks for coming!), my sister and Grace.

It was a wonderful night.

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope your day was special.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

2011-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

*Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes.

**Times five.

5 years.

I have no words.

We have not pulled our paperwork.

I can't even say why. I ever imagined it would be this hard to let go.

I have no idea why we are still hanging on.

I have been praying for the strength and guidance to know what to do.

Yet I am still at a loss.

Sigh.

*Oh how I love that song

**2,628,000 minutes.

Fun filled weekend

2011-10-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was wonderful. Jam packed with fun. It started on Friday night, when I met up with Kayce at the Long Beach convention center to see Joyce Meyer speak. So inspirational and moving.

The themes for the two talks I saw were Perseverance, and Letting go of Anger/hurt and resentment. Both of these topics I needed to hear. She is so good!

Then Phil Wickham performed. This was my first experience with him. I didn't know who he was before this. Love him! Am going to have to download some of his C.D.'s from Itunes. The concert was awesome.

It was so good to see Kayce again. I have missed her so much!

This is the only picture I got of us because we were too busy being inspired and amazed by Joyce Meyer and Phil Wickham.

Saturday was the 15th annivesary of my Mom's death. It is unbelievable to me that it has been that long. I just can't wrap my head around it. 15 years.

Luckily I had plans to meet up with Kayce to see Joyce speak again, so that kept my mind off of it.

Until Phil Wickham came out and played Amazing Grace. And then I started crying right there in the convention center. Nice. It was very moving. He is such a great artist.

Saturday night Joe asked me to bake him his birthday cake a couple of days early, so off I went to the store to pick up the ingredients.

It has become tradition for me to bake him a super duper chocolaty cake. It has also become tradition for me to forget the candles. Two years ago we stuck flaming wooden skewers into the cake. Last year we stuck one huge candle that I pilfered from one of my candlesticks in it.

This year I was NOT going to forget the candles. I made a list of things I needed. Candles were at the top of the list. Right before I left Joe said "Oh, you don't need candles. I just saw some in the drawer.". I asked him if he was sure and he said yes. I didn't check to make sure.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

I baked the cake and looked in the drawer for the candles. I couldn't find them. I asked Joe to come show me where they were. He couldn't find them. We looked and looked.

Not one candle was to be found in our house.

Well actually there was ONE. It was this one:

Yes, that is a girl snoopy candle. I have NO idea where that candle even came from. But it was in the bottom of our junk drawer and it's all I could find, so I had to make do.

Joe just shook his head when I showed him the cake with that candle on it. But he still posed for a picture with it. Oh how he humors me. :)

He got a new coffee maker for his birthday since our ten year old one broke a week ago.

These new fangled coffee makers sure are fancy! Look at all those buttons. Our last coffee maker had two buttons. "On" and "Off". This coffee maker even has a water filter in it. Fancy, I tell you. And this is the cheapest one we found. The other more expensive ones had tons of buttons and features. We're pretty simple. As long as it makes a cup of good, strong(and hot) coffee, it's good enough for us. Love having a cup of coffee in the morning again. That was torture waiting until I got to work to have one.

A new coffee maker is nice and all, but Joe's real present was me taking him kayaking yesterday in Newport Beach. A few weeks ago Groupon had a really good deal on kayaking packages so I bought two of them. It was the perfect way to celebrate his birthday. We had a blast.

Except now I REALLY want a kayak. It's so fun and such great exercise. Loved it. Can't wait to go again.

Here's a few pictures:

Love this view. I could get used to it.

I was the only kayaker out there that actually wore my life vest. Safety first.

Plus I am not that great of a swimmer. So what if I look like a dork?

This little guy was just chillin' on a buoy. All of these pictures look a little cloudy because I realized later that water had gotten on the lens.

These gondolas look so fun. Would love to try them sometime.

Attempt at a self portrait.

It was such a beautiful day

Kayaking suits me. I can't wait to go again.

We were supposed to go out to dinner last night at Ruby's to celebrate but when I got home he said he just wanted to stay in and chill so we'll use the gift card another day(this is so typical of us). Overall it was a great weekend and he had a wonderful birthday. He said to say thank you for all the birthday wishes on FB and here as well.

Happy Birthday Joe!

2011-10-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Today is my husband's birthday.

He asked for his cake on Saturday so I baked his traditional super chocolaty cake.

(Yes, that is a girl snoopy candle on his cake. It's an inside joke).

We went Kayaking yesterday to celebrate and we are using a gift card we have had since my birthday last year to go out to dinner at Ruby's. Nothing fancy for him. He's a simple kind of guy.

Happy Birthday Joe! I hope your day is wonderful!

Halloween craft

2011-10-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last week someone ordered a banner from me on Esty. Things have been kind of dormant over there so it was kind of a nice surprise when I got the e-mail informing me of the order.

It was an order for a Chinese New Year Banner. My first thought was "Boy this person is really thinking ahead" but then I realized it will be here before you know it! The holidays are right around the corner and they always seem to fly by so quickly.

I came very close to buying some Christmas cards at Michael's yesterday. They were cute, and in the dollar bin and I had them in my basket even, but then I chickened out and put them back. I'm just not ready to make a commitment like that yet. I can't even think about Christmas until after Halloween.

Anyway, making the banner put me in a crafty mood and I decided while I was at Michael's I would pick up a couple of things to make this Halloween craft I saw. (On Pinterest of course).

So here it is:

Pumpkin seeds using orange tic tacs. Aren't they cute? I copied them almost exactly how I saw them done and I am really happy with how they came out. They are super easy too. Here's how to make them:

Here's what you will need:

--Container(s) of orange tic tacs, however many you want to make.

I bought a package of 8 at the grocery store. These are the "Big Packs" which are a little bit larger than the regular containers of Tic Tacs. The larger box made them a little easier to work with.

--1 sheet of decorative paper. This is a black and white damask print I found at Michael's, but any cute Halloween paper would do.

--1 piece of orange cardstock

-1 sheet of pumpkin embellishments. I found these stickers in the Halloween craft aisle at Michael's but the original projects I saw used some really cute little Jack O' Lantern buttons.

--Black ribbon. This is velvet ribbon I got in the dollar bin.

First cut your strips of paper. These are 1 and 3/8 inches wide by 4 inches long. If you are using the smaller containers of Tic Tacs, I'm guessing these measurements would be slightly narrower and shorter.

Trace your pumpkins. I drew these free hand but I'm sure you could find a template online, or just use circles. I traced these on the back side of the card stock so you wouldn't see the pencil marks after I cut them out.

Sorry for the crummy pictures. I took all of these with my cell phone.

Cut out your pumpkins and color the stems green. You can distress them with a little ink too, as I did here, or just leave them orange.

Write the saying on them with a thin Sharpie marker.

Glue the strips onto the tic tac containers. I found it easier to bend the paper around the containers and then crease the bends a little before gluing so they didn't pop off while they were still wet. I used regular scrapbook glue and held them in place for a few minutes and they stuck just fine.

Tie the ribbons around them. I went with a simple knot. You can move the knot to the left or right, depending on where you want to put your embellishments.

Stick on the pumpkin embellishments and glue on pumpkins and there you have it!

Cute little Halloween favors. These are going out to some of my favorite girls this week.

Now I am in the crafting mood and may see what else I can whip up for Halloween. I love the Fall holidays!

I heart Fall

2011-10-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

I love Fall.

Come to think of it, I don't know anyone who doesn't love Fall.

Do you? Know anyone who really doesn't care for Fall?

It's my favorite season. For me Fall will always be the start of a new year. I worked at a school for 15 years and September was always the beginning of a new year for me, not January.

It is also the start of the holiday season. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. All three tied for my favorite holidays.

I hate the way the retail stores just skip over Thanksgiving and move right on to Christmas. I want to savor all of the Fall holidays and not be rushed into the stress I often feel at Christmas time

I love apple cider and pumpkins. Cooler weather, although we won't start having that until November at the earliest.

I love all things pumpkin. Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes. Pumpkin everything.

I love pumpkin baked goods but I'm not much of a baker myself. Baking to me seems like an exact science and that is not my strong suit. Every time I bake something it comes out differently, even though I follow the directions to a tee every time. More often than not the things I bake taste great but they don't look great. That bothers my perfectionist side.

But I found this recipe on Pinterest (of course) and I knew I had to try it.

It's two ingredient pumpkin cake with apple cider glaze.

Two. Ingredients. I mean, anyone can do that, right?

So last night Joe and I went to the store to pick up the ingredients. All two of them. Heh. Well, plus the ingredients for the glaze that goes on top, which consisted of three things. So really it was five ingredient pumpkin cake. Still simple enough for me to try.

Here are the two ingredients for the cake. A box of yellow cake mix and a can of pumpkin. That's it. How easy is that?

I can't get these pictures centered. Drove me crazy.

Dump them both in a bowl

Mix them up. The batter is pretty thick.

Pour it in a pan and bake for 28 minutes.

Mix up your apple cider glaze. Apple cider, powdered sugar and pumpkin pie spice.

Once cake is cooled slightly (about 10 minutes or so), flip it upside down onto a serving platter and drizzle glaze over cake, letting it fall down the sides.

(O.K. I will be perfectly honest and admit I didn't take this "after" picture. Mine didn't turn out that pretty. Thus the reason I don't bake).

But it tasted awesome. Seriously. If you like pumpkin and apples, this cake is dee-lish. And super easy.

Two-Ingredient Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze
For the Cake:
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 15 ounce can of pumpkin pureeFor the Glaze:1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons apple cider
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Empty the contents of the boxed cake mix and pumpkin puree into a large bowl. Using a hand-mixer or stand mixer beat until well incorporated. The batter will be very thick, but will come together nicely.

Pour batter into a greased 7 x 11 X 2 pan. This is the small, rectangular-sized pan from your Pyrex set. You know, the set you had to have when you got married and rarely ever used all the pieces. Finally, you have a use for it.

Bake at 350 degrees for 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan, then flip onto a platter.

Make the glaze while you're waiting.

Combine powdered sugar, apple cider and pumpkin pie spice. Glaze should be thick but pourable. Add more sugar or cider if needed. Pour over the cake while still warm. Reserve some to pour over each slice when served.

Serve warm or room temperature.

While we were at the store Joe picked up this beer. I don't usually mind the taste of beer but this was gross. Seriously. Don't buy it. At least the bottle was cool. I will be saving that.

What's you favorite part of Fall?

Back in the Saddle

2011-09-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday my friend Carla let me tag along when she went out to visit her horse. She even let me ride for a bit. I didn't ride for very long because holy cow am I out of shape! I am kind of embarrassed to admit how sore I was the next day though. Riding is a good workout!

I had a blast though, riding and grooming and just hanging at a ranch where horses were.

It has been a long time since I got to do any of those things.

This is Carla's horse Jessie. Isn't she beautiful? Carla has had her since she was a baby and she even broke her herself! That amazes me. She is so sweet and mellow and such fun to ride. Carla has done such a great job with her.

Riding Jessie brought up a lot of fond memories for me. I had forgotten how peaceful I feel on the back of a horse.

For many many years horseback riding was a huge part of my life.

I used to be a stable girl. :)

From the ages of 12-26 I had a horse. Every day I hung out at the stables. I met some of my best friends there, and we are still friends today.

Riding again got me to thinking about the horses I had over the years.

I wish I had pictures of my first horse. He was an Arabian named Karim. I loved him so but soon I wanted to be more serious about riding and showing so I gave him away to a friend and got my next horse, Sandman.

This is Sandman. He was my baby.

He was supposed to be my show horse but it turned out he didn't have it in him so he was delegated to my best friend and I showed other people's horses from then on.

Oh how I loved him. And my bangs in this picture. Awesome.

Riding consumed every moment that I had outside of school.

Here I am with my Sees-ter and her horse Shuttle.

I showed in a couple of small horse shows close to home and loved it so much I decided to get serious about it. I had wanted to show Quarter Horses but showing Sandman didn't work out and somehow found myself on the Appaloosa circuit instead.

Appaloosas are beautiful horses. So colorful and each one is unique.

This is Cara. She was owned by my trainer and was the horse I showed for on for 4 years.

I think am about 14 in this picture. I can't believe I was ever that thin.

This is Sunny. I showed her only for a year or so. She was sweet.

Kind of a blurry picture.

I rode Sunny both English and Western, but I only showed Cara Western. That was my real love.

I never really took to English riding.

Here I am with some of my trophies. I had never competed in any kind of sport before so it was pretty cool to compete and win so many awards. I did quite well showing and one year was number one in the State of CA, and 7th in the nation.

In 1993 I was asked to ride in the Rose Parade with a group of riders who placed top 10 in the state of CA. It was so much fun and such an honor to be asked! I don't have many pictures from it though.

What a fun walk down memory lane. I miss riding. If I had the chance (and the money and time) to own another horse, I would in a heartbeat.

And now my niece Grace is starting horseback riding lessons and Lisa says she loves it as much as we did when we were her age. Lisa and Scott are in sooooooo much trouble.

I am hoping she will let me her ride her new horse next time I come visit! ;)

Busy

2011-09-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

I promised my new job wasn't going to cause my blog fall by the wayside.

I am terrible at keeping promises. Apparently.

I think about writing on my blog all the time. Yup, I think about it. I just never do it.

My job is mostly to blame. It is crazy busy. Like have no time to breathe busy. Then when I get home I am so tired. I surf the internet for an hour and then I watch a couple of hours of t.v. and then fall into bed.

And start the whole process over again.

My job is great. But I can honestly say I have never worked at a job that has been this busy. Even when I worked with kids, and it was crazy and loud and messy at least I had moments where I could breathe. Not so with this job. They have 5 lines and they ring off. the. hook. We turn away new patients every single day because we are booking into December. It's crazy. I had no idea so many had problems with their skin. :)

I barely have time to choke down some lunch on my break and many days my break doesn't even consist of a full hour because I can't go to lunch until all the patients leave and one of our doctors is *always* running behind.

It can be exhausting. But I have been logging a lot of overtime and they pay me time and a half for it, so I can't complain about that.

Weekends have consisted mostly of catching up on sleep and watching movies and just hanging out in my p.j.'s. No complaints there either.

We have been loving the new Fall television lineup. We watch a lot of t.v. Most of it we record and then save up and watch it all on the weekends. Sometimes there are so many shows we can't even watch them all in one weekend (Did I mention we watch a lot of t.v.?)

I am still hanging around a lot on Pinterest. I just love it there. I can't even tell what it is about it that is so addicting but when I do get the chance to be online I find myself heading over there more often than here or FB.

I'm kind of done with FB. They have been making a lot of changes and they are about to make a lot more. The new ones look really cool. Most of the changes I like but some of them I can't stand.

I know, I know, it's free(I wish I had a dollar for every person that said this to me). But I can't get behind some of the changes to privacy so I just won't be over there as much.

I will still be there, posting ocasional status updates or pictures, but if I want to comment on something I will use a private message or an e-mail.

I have been posting more on Google + so if you are over there, look me up.

I suppose that's it. A really boring update to my blog. Nothing exciting going on here.

I did get to go horseback riding last Saturday and that was super fun. I have been thinking about doing a post on that but I can't promise anything.

Because I am terrible at keeping promises.

Soap for a good cause

2011-09-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

My friend is selling some lovely hand made soaps as a fundraiser to bring their second kid home from China. Handmade soap is one of my favorite things and I have ordered a few of my favorite scents. I can't wait until they come!

They have a bunch of great scents to choose from. These would make awesome teacher's gifts.

You should go over and check it out!

Click HERE to go to their site.

I saw this on Pinterest last night and it cracked me up. (This is for you, K)

Have you all heard of planking? I am strangely fascinated by it. Mostly because I don't get it. No really, I don't get it at all. But I can't help myself from looking at pictures of people doing it. (Google it) People are WEIRD.

Tired

2011-09-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

(How cute are these pandas?)

That about sums up my life right now. Tired.

The new job is partly to blame but the fact that I don't get enough quality sleep is mostly to blame. I don't sleep well most nights. Either I toss and turn all night or I go to sleep fine but wake up at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. and can't get back to sleep. On those days I'm so exhausted I can't see straight.

I do take medication to help me sleep, as well as Melatonin(which honestly does nothing for me) and I am very strict about "sleep hygiene" but many nights per week it just doesn't work. It has been decided that sleep will probably be a lifelong problem for me.

My sleep apnea has been worse lately too. Joe says he can hear me snoring from the other room on some nights and I wake myself up quite often due to snoring as well. I don't have my machine anymore, as I need to re-do my sleep study and I just haven't had the time to do it. Yes, I know it's important. It's just a pain to schedule an overnight appointment and now with my insurance changing I have to wait until that is all sorted out. Not to mention I really want to schedule it on a day I can either have off the next day or go in late because I swear I may have slept a total of one or two hours the last time I did one. I'm not even sure how they got the info they needed for the study. They should have called it an awake study because that's what I was for most of the night.

One more thing put on the back burner for now.

My body has also been slow in adjusting to working five days a week. Working four days per week really suited me and helped with the chronic fatigue I suffer from due to the kidney disease. Not much to be done about that though. I just really try to get plenty of rest on the weekends. I also started working 8:30-5:30 instead of 8:00-5:00 and I am finding that little extra time to sleep in in the mornings is nice.

Aside from working five days I am really loving my new job. It is stressful at times and crazy busy but the day just flies by. I swear I look at the clock one minute and it's 8:00 a.m. and I blink my eyes and it's time for lunch.

I love that.

The other thing I love is how thankful they are to have me.

Almost every day someone thanks me for being there and tells me I am doing a good job.

That is so weird for me. I have never experienced that before. And I don't just mean from my old job (where they pretty much told me the opposite. Nothing like having your boss tell you you suck at your job).

I mean even from my job before that, where I worked for 15 years. I always got excellent yearly reviews when I worked there but no one ever just walked up to me and said "Hey, you are doing a great job".

But they do at this job. It kind of makes me uncomfortable actually. I'm just not used to it.

I'm so grateful to have this job too, which really changes your outlook. I'm just very grateful. I'm sure a little of that will wear off as time goes by but for now it's a pretty good place to be.

Appreciated and thankful. Two things I haven't felt in a very long time.

Anyway, I swore that I wouldn't let my blog go by the wayside if I started working full time, so this is my boring attempt at at least posting something semi-regularly.

Sorry it wasn't more interesting. Did I mention I have been tired? :)

2011-09-11T12:28:00.001-07:00

Update on the new job

2011-09-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to do an update on my new job but when I get home from work I am too tired to do much on the computer and then time kind of slips away from me and I totally forget about it.

My new job sucks and I hate it and I wish I never left my old job.

I'M JUST KIDDING!!! I know some people who probably hope the above sentence is true.

But too bad. Because my new job is going well.

Very well actually.

The first week was stressful and I had a hard time adjusting to all the changes. Week number two was easier.

And as I finish up week three (can you believe it?) things are pretty much awesome. I caught on quickly to how their computer software works and know my way around pretty well already. Of course there is a learning curve and I still have so much to learn but so far so good. Very good.

Plus it has some really great perks (aside from the better pay and excellent benefits).

I get a deep discount on some excellent products. If you need something and we carry it, drop me a line. I will hook you up.

Pharmaceutical drug reps come by quite often. Not only are they easy on the eyes, but they bring us treats quite often. They actually have us fax them a request sheet for everyone in the office so we all get exactly what we want. Starbucks. Juice it Up. Gourmet cupcakes. It's pretty sweet(literally).

Then two days a week we have catered lunches as well. This totally rocks because I have been packing my lunch every day and I already have the lunchbox blahs when it comes to deciding what to pack each day. And the food they bring in is not only delicious, but healthy.

I have actually lost 6 pounds in the last three weeks. I think part of it is stress but the fact that I'm not eating crap every day is definitely part of it.

It's only going to get better from here and I wake up every day grateful to have this job.

Although things overall have been very good, yesterday was a nightmare because we had a power outage around quarter to four. All of the rooms but one in our office don't have windows, so people were lying on tables half clothed in the pitch dark. And not one flashlight was to be found(nice emergency plan there). The doctors were having to use their cell phones as flashlights so the patients could get dressed. What a nightmare! Then people were still showing up for their appointments and they were pissed that we couldn't see them. People are crazy. We had no lights, no phones, no air conditioner.........you know..........NO POWER. What part of that is hard for people to grasp? All of our charts are electronic too, so no access to those either. One woman actually asked if the dr. could just freeze off her child's warts, since they drove all the way down there and all. She wanted her daughter's warts frozen off....IN THE DARK.

Crazy, I tell you.

Then the nightmare continued for me as I tried to drive home only to discover that none of the traffic signals were working and the streets were completely gridlocked. I tried driving the opposite direction of my house hoping the signals would be working elsewhere an d I could work my way back, but the power was out in all of the surrounding cities too and there was nothing but rows and rows of cars just parked. Plus I have no air in my car and it was at least 90 degrees out. I was soaked in sweat. It took me almost exactly two hours to get home and I live only 25 minutes away.

Like I said, nightmare!

We have power at home now but I hear the power is still out over there and all of San Diego County as well. I hope they sort it out soon. What a pain for all those poor people. My little inconvenience last night is nothing compared to that.

I was very happy to see Friday roll around this week, even though it was a short one.

TGIF!

And The Winner Is............

2011-09-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

I drew the name for the winner of the digital scrapbook software this morning. I meant to get to it last night but I was too tired.

I was also going to choose the winner via the random number generator thingy but it costs money to use it (and I am cheap) so I went old school and just wrote everyone's names on a slip of paper (for however many entries you got) and pulled one name out of a basket.

Anyway, the winner is.......................

Tracy at My Minivan Rocks!

Congratulations Tracy! I will be in touch to give you the code to redeem your software. Happy scrapping!

For those of you that didn't win, My Memories is offering this coupon code for $10.00 off the software, plus a $10.00 credit in their digital store. Just use this coupon code at check-out:

STMMMS68603

Their website is HERE

Thanks everyone, for playing along!

My Memories Scrapbook software {giveaway}

2011-09-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

Last chance to enter the giveaway for the scrapbook software. I will be closing the entries tonight at 10:00 p.m. and drawing a name tomorrow morning. There aren't that many entries so your chance of winning is pretty good!

My Memories Scrapbook software review {and giveaway!}

2011-08-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

I used to be an avid scrapbooker. I created a book every year that we were married. I loved the creative process, and having a keepsake of our lives.

Over time, I found myself scrapping less and less.

FB and the blog had a lot to do with it. My blog is kind of like my scrapbook now. But I still miss having actual books to pull out and look through now and then and I miss the creative and cute layout ideas I used to arrange my pictures in a scrapbook.

I have looked and looked for a digital scrapbooking program that I liked, but I never could find one that was suitable for MAC and had all the things I was looking for. This software has two versions, one for Mac and the other for Windows. You choose which one you want to download after purchase.

I was contacted by the company My Memories Digital Scrapbooking and asked if I would like to try their product.

I replied and told them of course! So I downloaded the My Memories Suite and started playing around with it.

What a cool program!

I made this page in just a few minutes time, with some free elements I got off of the My Memories website for free!

They also have some great designer kits that you can purchase as well. You can also use Photoshop Elements with it as well.

I found this software extremely easy to use. I was able to use my own scrapbook kits with it, as well as the free elements I downloaded from their website. If you find digital scrapbooking daunting, this software is for you! The My Memories website is full of easy to understand video tutorials as well. It only took me a few minutes to make the page above!

This is going to put me well on my way to creating cute scrapbooks that I can print out and share again.

My Memories has given me one Digital Scrapbook software to give away to one of my readers!

Here's the deal:

For one entry, visit My Memories.com and take a look around their site. Come back here and leave a comment letting me know which of the digital kits or layouts are your favorite. You must do this step to be entered in the drawing.

For one extra entry you can follow their blog:

Blog http://blog.mymemories.com/

For one extra entry follow them on FaceBook

http://www.facebook.com/mymemoriessuite

Or Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

So that is four possible entries per person. Please leave one comment per entry (one comment letting me know your favorite product, another comment letting me know you follow their blog, etc.)

I will keep the giveaway open until this Friday, September 2nd and then I will randomly choose a winner.

If you don't win a copy of the software, My Memories also gave me a Promo code to give out to all of my readers that will save you $10.00 off the price of the software, plus a $10.00 coupon to use in the My Memories store. That's a $20.00 value!

Sweet!

To order the software, go HERE and use this Promo code:

STMMMS68603

Happy Scrapping!

My Memories provided me with my memories suite digital scrapbook software to try and one program to giveaway.

I received a complimentary copy of this software to try in exchange for an honest review/opinion. I received no monetary compensation. I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Change is Hard

2011-08-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

I have never done transitions well.

I don't like change.

As a kid I used to dread the ending of the school year and the start of summer. Not because I didn't like summer, because hello, what's not to like about summer when you are a kid? No, it was because my routine completely changed. I didn't get up at the same time. I didn't get to see my friends every day. I didn't have a schedule to follow. All of those changes left me feeling very apprehensive.

I have always had a hard time when my routine is disrupted.

You can probably see where this is going.

I am having a hard time adjusting to my new job.

I was expecting this to happen. It doesn't make it any easier.

In the end this job will be a great thing for me. I know this. I will adapt.

Everyone tells me to just give it time. But I am impatient. I want things to be easier now. I really need to get over that.

But last week was rough. I am exhausted from it.

So exhausted.

I have so much to do and so little energy left to actually do it.

I'm supposed to do a giveaway for some scrapbook software that I was given to review.

I want to do a post about an awesome fundraiser that my friends are having to help bring home their second child.

My car is a disaster and badly needs a washing and to be cleaned out.

I should plan out our menus for the week.

None of those things will likely happen this weekend. I'm just too tired.

The second week at my new job will be better.

My thoughts and prayers are going out to everyone on the East Coast who is in Irene's path. I have lots of bloggy friends out there who might be affected and I pray they all stay safe. Stay safe bloggy friends!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-08-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

A lot has been going on the last week or so.

The most notable being that I got a new job! I have been looking for a few months(actually more like 6 months but only aggressively for the last three).

I went on a lot of interviews. I was only offerred one of those jobs and it didn't have medical benefits so I couldn't accept the position. Other than that I had a lot of interest in the form of interviews, but no actual offers. It was disappointing.

There was one particular job that I interviewed for that I really, really wanted. The pay was better than my current job but what really made the job stand out was their benefit package.

At my current job, when I started working there 4 years ago (almost exactly four years ago-can you believe it?) we had benefits. One week of vacation pay, paid holidays, health insurance and retirement. As the economy took a down turn, our benefits were slowly taken away. First our vacation pay went. Then the paid holidays. Next we had to pay for half our health insurance. Finally the retirement plan was halted. While I understood the need for some of these things, as business had slowed considerably, it sucked. Big time. Coming from my last job where I worked for a very large company with an excellent benefits package, this was hard for me to swallow. I began to feel bitter about it and I felt a general negativity towards the job in general. I made a pact with myself that I was going to find a job that offerred up some of the benefits that my current job used to offer.

So, back to this job. I went in for an interview and met with the office manager and the financial person. That interview went for 2 and a half hours! I have ever been on an interview that long and it felt promising. Then they asked me to come back and do a "working interview". So the next day I went and worked 3 and a half hours in the office. I loved it there. The office is beautiful and I felt like clicked with the girls. I was very aggressive about pursuing this job. I sent thank you notes to everyone in the office that I had come into contact with(which I would have done anyway). I called to follow up, not once, not twice, but three times. It is not like me to be so aggressive. But I have a really great group of women that I get advice from and they suggested I really let them know that I was interested in the position and that I was the one they should hire.

Well I didn't get the job. The financial person said he admired my confidence ( I told him he would be sorry if he didn't hire me), and that they were still interviewing and that he would call me either way.

He never called. Why do they do that? Why do they say they will call either way and then they don't? It's rude.

I was so bummed.

I went on with life and put that job out of my mind, determined to find another job with similar benefits.

No luck.

Then one day, out of the blue a week and half ago I get this message on my cell phone from the office manager at that office.

The message went like this:

"This is so-and-so from so-and-so's office, I don't know it you remember me (Ummmm...of course I remember you. I worked there for half a day...LOL), and anyway, it came down to you and one other person for the position we had open and we hired the other person. Well she didn't work out, and would you be interested in meeting with me again? If you already found another job, or you don't want to I understand. But when the position became open again your name was the first to pop into my head, because I liked you very much and I think you would be a good fit for this job."

I have to admit for a minute I was like "Ha! See? you should have hired me in the first place, and why would I want to come meet with you again, after you gave me the run around the first time?"

And then the logical side of my brain overtook the emotional side and I called her back and said

"Yes, I would LOVE to come and meet with you again and I am still interested in the position."

Insert one very long, emotional week while they did background checks(not that I was worried about that), and reference checks and a bunch of administrative mumbo jumbo until finally on Wednesday they called and offerred me the position.

Was I second choice? (Or as my co-worker put it "Their sloppy seconds". Nice).

Yes I was. Does it matter? Nope. In the end I got the job and that's all that matters to me.

I started on Friday.

If I could do any part of it differently, the only thing I would change is how things ended with my current employer. I wasn't able to give any notice, and I regret that. This position needed someone to start immediately.

My current job knew I had been looking for some time. At one point I was told that I wouldn't be replaced right away(although that was before our busy spell that occurs in late summer). My leaving is creating a lot more work for everyone that is left behind, especially my co-worker. I regret that.

If I had been able to give more (well, any) notice I would have. I simply couldn't pass up this opportunity. I had to do what was right for me and I did.

Unfortunately there were hurt feelings and resentments between me and my co-worker. I could have handled a few things differently. But when I left my current office on my last day I got a cursory goodbye from my co-worker and my last paycheck and a pat on the back from my boss, and that was it.

Thankfully my other co-workers were very forthcoming in their sadness to see me go, which made me feel somewhat better.

But I worked there four years and it would have been nice to have had a pleasant send off and some "sorry to see you go, but good luck" sentiments.

Oh well. It is what it is and I need to look forward now.

Thus begins my first full week of work at my new job. Wish me luck!

P.S., as for benefits, they almost equal the benefits I had at my last job.

3 weeks paid time off
9 paid holidays
Medical insurance completely covered, with the option to add a spouse or family member.
401 K retirement plan

Plus it's a completely different type of office (dermatology), so I am excited about learning some new things.

AND, the drug reps cater lunches for the staff twice a week! How cool is that?

I feel good about this new chapter in my life and I am excited to see where this job takes me!

Busy

2011-08-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

This summer has really been flying by. I can't believe it is almost September and the kids will be going back to school.

We have had a really fabulous summer.

As I look back on the blog over the last 8 or 9 weeks, we have gotten to do some really fun things this summer. I'm so grateful for it, as last summer was dismal and I have nothing but bad memories of it.

But that is not the case for this summer.

Yesterday I got to go and hang with my friend Joannah and finally meet the most beautiful baby in the whole world. I might be a tad biased. But seriously, she is precious. And how fun is Gymboree for little ones? Do those of you with kids have experience with this? I have vague memories of attending a class or two when Cameron was a little guy, and yesterday had the opportunity to attend a class with Joannah and Michaela too. So fun! It actually made me a little wistful for my preschool teacher days. Singing songs at circle time was one of my favorite parts of that job. It has been a long while since I sat in a circle with a group of children singing songs and it brought back some good memories. Even if the children were babies of only a few months old and had no recollection of what just occurred. :) It was fun. And very peaceful.

Afterwards I went for a walk with a friend down at the beach (thanks Carla!) and had a fabulous chat with her as well. You are a good friend to me Carla!

Also very peaceful. I could use some peace in my life right now.

What have you all been doing this summer? Anything fun?

Not much on the agenda for today, except to plan out our meals for the week, and go for a bike ride.

Also, do some laundry and basically prepare myself for my first full week at my new job.

Oh yeah. Did I forgot to mention I got a new job? :0

I have a whole post on that coming tomorrow.

Enjoy your Sunday!

P.S. Can anyone tell me why all of my pictures from previous posts (like 8 or 9 posts ago) have disappeared and been replaced by a black box with an exclamation point? This has me very upset! I will take me days to re-upload those pictures into those posts! Google has been no help at at all.

Summer

2011-08-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Mostly just pictures today. DeAnn and I went to the Fair yesterday. We had fun.

Such a cute display in the tent

Love, love love this bunting idea. Perfect for a party.

I have been looking into ways I can grow things on our balcony. I am doing this for sure! Hanging herb garden in soft drink bottles. Love it!

Baby animals are always cute

So sweet

This guy was handsome

Baby cows. So cute.

No piglets this year. Bummer.

Hydroponics. Joe wants to do this too.

Tribal masks and totem poles. Had no idea these were popular. Or maybe they aren't? LOL

Funnel cake. Mmmmmmm.

Fair food. Yum.

G Force

We rode this. It was hard core. But the sky ride we were on when I took this scared me more.

On Saturday we went to a 40th birthday party. I saw this online and wanted to try it.

I couldn't fit 40 suckers in the bouquet. I still think it's cute.

I made this necklace that I saw on Pinterest as a gift. I like the way it turned out. I am going to play around and make a couple more. I want one for myself.

I think it turned out cute

My new favorite picture of us. Taken at the party.

That is all.

Wordful Wednesday

2011-08-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

I am loving this weather we are having. It has been unseasonably cool over the last couple of weeks. I know people who aren't as happy with it as I am. They miss the heat that August usually brings us but not me. I hate heat. This weather suits me fine.

Just off the heels of hurting my back last week, I injured my knee on Saturday night.

Joe and I were getting ready to go to a party. We were running late because I was finishing up the gift I was making (procrastinate much?). Anyway, we were getting ready to head out the door when I got up off the couch and slammed my knee into the corner of the coffee table. I can't tell you how much that hurt. Well I can. And I will. It hurt bad. I actually saw stars. I was crying and sitting on the floor and almost hyperventilating it hurt so bad. I put some ice on it immediately but it swelled up pretty good. Thankfully I was wearing a skirt so you couldn't see it.

Of course we were late to the party and missed the surprise part of it. Oh well. It was still a fun party.

It has been very swollen and stiff ever since and I can hardly bend it. Walking isn't that big of a problem but the stairs to our apartment are a pain. Literally. Hopefully it will be on the mend soon.

I am a danger to myself.

I mean really? How is it possible for one person to hurt themselves so often? Joe calls it Klutzy. I prefer the term injury prone. :)

I have been wanting to get into a more regular exercise schedule and these injuries are making it very difficult.

Maybe I should just wrap myself in bubble wrap. Or as one of my FB friends suggested, a blow up Sumo wrestlers suit.

Here's a kind of sweet story that happened last night.

I came out of the bedroom last night and Joe was talking on the phone.

This is strange for two reasons:

1. Joe never answers the phone. He doesn't even answer it when I call. I usually have to call twice before he manages to locate his phone, see that it's me and answer it.

2. It was 10:00 at night. No one calls us that late, unless it's an emergency.

So I was alarmed when I saw him talking on the phone. He was only on for a minute or so and then he hung up.

I asked him who he had been talking to and he said "Paula's Mom".

I asked him who the heck was that? We don't know anyone named Paula and even if we did he certainly has no reason to be talking to her Mom at 10:00 at night.

He explained that it is an elderly lady that calls his cell phone a few times a week looking for her daughter Paula. Each time he tells her it's the wrong number but she keeps calling anyway.

Sometimes he talks to her for a few minutes before telling her again that she has the wrong number.

He said this has been going on for 4 months now. She often leaves messages for Paula on his voicemail as well.

Once she called and asked where Paula was and he told her "Paula doesn't live here".

She got all upset and asked "Why? Did you kick her out? Why would you do that to my Paula?"

He explained again that she had the wrong number and Paula had never lived there. She apologized for taking his time and hung up.

She obviously suffers from some sort of dementia and her daughter's number must be a number or two off from Joe's cell phone number. Sometimes she tells him about a phone conversation she had with Paula earlier in the day so it seems as if she does get a hold of her daughter at the right number occasionally. At least I hope that's the case.

Joe said that lately if he sees that it is her calling he will make an effort to pick up the phone and talk to her for a few minutes because he feels she is lonely.

I think that's so sweet of him. He could become annoyed at the frequent calls and be rude to her, or even go so far as to block her number from his phone.

But he doesn't do either of those things. Instead he answers it and talks to an old woman that he doesn't even know and acts like it the most natural thing in the world when I ask who is calling so late on a weeknight and say "Oh, it's just Paula's Mom".

He has such a good heart.

I am headed to the fair later to eat some fried food. It's the last week so DeAnn and I are going to go hang for a couple of hours. Should be fun.

Black and White Wednesday

2011-08-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate it when you have a terrifically fantastic weekend and then a crappy week to follow?

I do.

But that's exactly what is happening to me this week.

What I want to be doing is basking in the glory of our fabulous weekend at the dragon boat races and enjoying my day off.

Instead I am lying flat on my back in pain sweating because I threw my back out and our air conditioner is broken.

Blahhhhhhhh. That pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole thing.

After the races my back was fine. I mean, I was sore, which is normal, but my back was alright. Then Monday at lunch I was sitting in my chair at lunch and I twisted around to get something out of the microwave and bam-I felt sharp shooting pain in my lower left back (which is always the place I throw it out).

Owwww........... immediately I couldn't stand upright.

Sigh.

Can someone please tell me how I can paddle vigorously in a boat for 11 weeks straight and then participate in 2 days of the most intense physical exercise I have ever experienced and come out fine but then simply twist in my chair at work and completely throw my back out???

I mean surely my back was already weakened from the paddling right?

Otherwise I feel totally lame.

So I have been flat on my back in bed ever since(well I did go to work yesterday but it took a whole lot of Tylenol to make it through the day and I had to leave early).

Then to top it off I got home yesterday and it was 87 degrees inside our apartment. Joe said he had called maintenance but they had a lot of "emergencies" and were unable to get to us before 5:00 yesterday.

Whatever. Obviously they haven't seen the mood it puts me in to be in horrible pain while simultaneously sweating profusely. Now THAT'S an emergency. LOL.

Joe tried to appease me with ice packs and shave ices but I was miserable. Finally I took a muscle relaxant and called it a night at around 9:30 or so.

They better get their butts out here to fix it today. Just sayin'.

Since I'm home and can't really do anything much more than watch t.v or perch the laptop on my stomach and surf the internet I thought I would participate in Black and White Wednesday this week.

One of our dragon boat team mates took this picture of us in the tent at the races. I love this picture. It's a great shot of Joe and me.

What I didn't love about it was that I am wearing very little makeup and my face has this ruddy/red look because of my sunburn. (How vain, right?)

Black and White pictures tend to hide a multitude of flaws so I turned it B&W. I can't decide if I like it better in B&W or not. What do you think?

Here's the original

I think I am going to try taking another muscle relaxant and take a nap with an ice pack. Oh how I hope this episode passes quickly. Last summer when this happened I was in pain for several months. Blech.

Anyone here have back problems? What are some of the ways you get relief?

For more Black and white Wednesday shots, head over to The Long Road to China {and back}

Dragon Boat Races Day Two

2011-07-31T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am sore. I am sunburned. I am exhausted.

Everything is as it should be after the second day of races. :)

The weather started out weird this morning. We woke to cloudy skies and quite a bit of rain on the ground. Not normal at for us this time of year. Thankfully the rain seemed to have passed in the night . Although it remained overcast the rest of the day we only had about a half an hour of rain and it wasn't considerable. It was actually during warm up and we were hot so it actually felt good.

Someone donated a bunch of money and we had brand new boats for the races this year. They were so pretty.

I pulled out the big guns in terms of hats today to keep from being sunburned further.

Getting ready to head out for the race

Warming up

On deck

Waiting. There is a lot of "hurry up and wait" right before your race starts

Caller's seat and Drum

Loading the boat for the race

Keeping the boat steady. Kind of important when you are loading.

Dragon Boat Races 2011

2011-07-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Day one of the Dragon Boat Races was a blast, as usual. I am tired, sunburned and sore and will be heading to bed soon. We race in two races tomorrow. If I can still move after today.

This will be picture heavy and short and sweet on words. I am exhausted.

Me with our spiffy new team banner

Mixed team, first race

Joe resting after his first race

I love to go around and check out the other team's names. Some of them are funny.

This was written on on of the other team's boards. Funny.

One of the vendors

Chilling in our tent between races

Girls playing a mean game of cards

Poor little guy was worn out. His mom pulled him into the shade after this

Women's team, second race

As you can see, I am rocking a pretty good sunburn on my face by the end of the day.

Must reapply sunscreen more regularly tomorrow!

Men's team race two

Look! They aren't in last place! :)

Kind of blurry but they are still ahead! They placed 4th out of 7 teams and we were thrilled. We don't usually do better than 5th or 6th. Not bad for a team that only practices for 11 weeks out of the year!

Our picture in the program

The clouds were awesome in the afternoon.

The future paddlers playing on the beach. They can hardly wait to turn 8 so they can paddle with us.

Little paddlers cheering us on. So cute.

That's it for now. I'm hitting the sack.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

2011-07-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to go see Mary Poppins on Wednesday night.

It was awesome. Simply awesome.

It has been such a long time since we saw anything on the stage. I have missed it so!

You just can't beat a live performance.

Everything about it was wonderful. The sets, the casts, the musical numbers, everything.

I sat forward in my seat mesmerized the whole time. I was so mesmerized, in fact that I didn't even notice Joe nodding off a bit. Apparently he was a tad bored.

It wasn't until intermission when I turned to him and saw that glassy look in his eyes that I realized he wasn't enjoying the performance as much as I was.

And then I was kind of shocked. I was like "Isn't this is AWESOME?? What do you mean you are bored? It's MARY POPPINS! LIVE! Mary Poppins is standing just down there!! And she was flying! And she sang Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" He just smiled and told me he was glad I was having a good time. :)

I suppose I get it. Mary Poppins isn't exactly a movie made for dudes, plus it doesn't have the same nostalgia for him that it does for me. It was one of my very favorite movies as a kid. I remember watching it, then when it was over immediately re-winding it and watching it again. I knew every single song. I could recite every word.

The play was slightly different from the movie (some scenes were taken from the series of books that the movie was based on. I had no idea there was a series of books! Now I must check them out!)

Anyway, it was slightly different from the movie but all of the characters and songs from the movie were in the play so it didn't bother me that it was different.

Our seats were kind of high up (thus the low $14 price tickets). I wish I had brought my glasses. Next time we will bring a small pair of binoculars to look through. We couldn't see the actors faces very well at all, and it would have been nice to have seen their expressions.

They didn't allow any pictures but here are a few I stole off the internet:

From my favorite scene "Step in Time"

The sets were magical

It was fabulous. If you get the chance to go see it, you should.

Even Joe gave it a thumbs up at the end (although he thought it was a little long.)

I want to go see something else on the stage now. I got an e-mail from the Performing Arts Center we saw it at outlining the rest of their shows for the year and I have serious envy now. They had a special where you could see three plays during the week for $50 (for all three!) and I was totally tempted.

Maybe if I get a full time job.

Loved every minute of it!

Bullets

2011-07-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Seems as if I don't have any real topics to blog about lately, so more bullets it is. I think facebook is killing my writing mojo. It's so much easier to sum up things in short bursts.

We had a hard week last week as a couple. My last post explains a little of the reason for that. The other reasons I'm not at liberty to talk about in a public forum. There are times when marriage is hard. Even after 18 and a half years. It's just hard. This too shall pass.

Tomorrow we are going to see the stage play of Mary Poppins. I am so excited! It was one of my favorite movies as a kid (after Pete's Dragon-that was my very favorite). It has been way too long since we saw anything on the stage. That is one thing I miss about Joe having a job. We used to go see plays pretty regularly and I don't think we have seen one in almost 2 and a half years. Well, Lisa and I did see Wicked, but the two of us haven't seen one together in a long time. I'm so excited!! I'm not sure that Joe is as excited as I am. If he got to choose a play for us to see, Mary Poppins would not be his first choice. But the tickets were a steal ($14.00 per ticket, plus convenience charge). And he is happy to go because it makes me happy. He is so good about that.

Joe brought home this dog toy for Gizmo the other day:

Doesn't every dog need a pirate rubber chicken? I cracks me up. And it makes the most hideous noise when you squeeze it. Not a squeak, per say, but kind of a groaning sound. I stepped on it in the middle of the night last week and it almost gave me a heart attack. Of course Gizmo loves it.

Our local news came and did a short story on our dragon boat team on Sunday. It was pretty cool. I tried my best to stay off camera but they still caught me a couple of times. Joe and I are in the opening sequence where the team is warming up. We are both doing jumping jacks. Yay! Not. If there was ever something I would not want shown on television, it would be me doing jumping jacks. Thankfully it was brief. Then you could see me in the boat at the end of the clip too. They actually did a very lengthy interview with Joe which they ended up not using, which he was thrilled about. He did not want to do the interview in the first place but the reporter asked him like 4 times and finally he gave in. It was about the adoption process and the wait. I think it would have been cool if they used it but he was so relieved that they didn't. Joe is not a t.v. kind of guy. :)

Here's the clip:

View more videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com.

I have two job interviews on Wednesday. I am not getting my hopes up. I have been on several interviews and not been offerred the job (the one I was offerred didn't have health insurance), so I am trying to go into these interviews with no expectations to avoid disappointment. I really need to find a full time job. As much as I love working four days, the reality is that if Joe doesn't find a job then I have to bring in more money. It sucks but I have to do what I have to do.

Dragon Boat races are this weekend. Woo hoo! We have a blast every year and are so looking forward to them.

Limbo

2011-07-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

Saw this on Pinterest tonight.

Limbo.

That pretty sums up our lives right now.

Waiting for the change we need to continue on this journey.

Losing Faith that it will come.

Long, agonizing discussions lasting long into the night.

Sadness.

Tears.

Knowing what needs to be done but not having the courage to do it.

Random

2011-07-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of things rattling around in my head, none of which have anything to do with the other, so this is going to be all over the place.

I'm so bummed because the beautiful ivy plant that our neighbors left us is dead. Deader than a doornail(my mom used to always say that). I can never grow ivy. And it's supposed to be easy! Same for lavender. Can't grow it for the life of me. Bums me out.

Our couples counselor is from England and I love her accent. I could listen to it all day. Sometimes in the car on the way home from our appt. I will speak with an british accent all the way home. Joe loves it. LOL.

We went to our favorite Asian market the other day to pick up some things. We are always the only white people in there. God only knows what they think of us. We picked up a couple items while we were there (like pork buns, almond cookies and green tea Mochi-yum!) , plus a bag of my favorite rice crackers.

I love this store. There is nowhere else that makes me feel more like I am back in China than here. And yes, I am aware that it makes us stick out like a sore thumb even more when I am snapping pictures of things in the store with my cell phone. I try to be discreet, o.k.? Joe actually walked away from me when I took this one and pretended not to know me. As people wouldn't know. I was the only other white person in the store. I mean, obviously we were together. Duh!

They have a whole aisle for just noodles. This is only a small part of it. It is overwhelming! How do you choose from all of those noodles?

Love it there.

In other food related news,

I made these baked Parmesan tomatoes for lunch the other day and they were super yummy. And so easy! Found the recipe on Pinterest (of course).

Tomatoes, Fresh Oregano, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. So. Good.

We will be having these again. Soon.

The Recipe is below is you are interested. You should make them.

You won't be disappointed. Mmmmmmmmmm.

In non-food related news,

The other day Joe and I stopped at McDonald's for him to get a cup of coffee and this car pulled up next to us:

I mean really?? Is this kind of car really necessary?? A mom and her 3 kids got out of it. I just don't get it. Forget about the environmental footprint it leaves, it's not even practical. Well unless you are going to a Monster Truck rally, but I'm pretty sure this family had just come from their house to pick up a couple of happy meals at McDonald's. Give me a break.

Lastly, I got my hair cut yesterday. I went in knowing I wanted a change. I knew I was going to go shorter. But I didn't expect to come out with such a short, choppy cut.

Sorry for the weird angles. I had to take them myself because I drove Joe so crazy making him re-take them that he refused to take anymore.

Yesterday after I got it done I liked it. I put it on FB and people said it was cute and I believed them. Then this morning I woke up and looked in the mirror and cried.

I hate it. It's too short. It's too choppy. Who am I kidding? I can't pull off a hair style like this. I don't know how to style hair. I can barely put my hair up in a pony tail when it's long! And now I don't have enough hair to put it into a pony tail at all.

I don't even know what to do with layers. It looked o.k. when the stylist did it (doesn't it always?) but I can't get it to look like that and I seriously don't like it. I think I will be wearing a lot of hats until it grows out. :(

Anybody want to come to my house every morning and help me fix my hair? Because I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I am having serious regrets.

I hope it grows on me. Pun absolutely intended.

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes recipe
INGREDIENTS

4 tomatoes, halved horizontally
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 450° F.
Place tomatoes cut-side up on a baking sheet. Top with Parmesan, oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and bake until the tomatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

NUTRITION

Per serving: 91 calories; 6 g fat ( 2 g sat , 4 g mono ); 4 mg cholesterol; 6 g carbohydrates; 3 g protein; 2 gfiber; 375 mg sodium; 363 mg potassium.

Not so Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do wordless Wednesday today but I didn't have a picture to post and I can almost never do them because it's too hard for me not to say anything. :)

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last posted. That week just flew by! Probably because I had last Monday off. I only work 4 days per week so if we have a week day off it puts me at a three day work week. Which would be lovely if I got paid for my days off. But I don't. Sucks. As much as I love the time off I would much rather have the money I would make if I was working.

There are only 2 more weekends of Dragon Boat practice and then the races and then it will all be over until next year. SOB!! You already how much I love it, but I can't even tell you much much we are going to miss it.
We will miss hanging out at the beach.
We will miss being in the boat. We will miss the exercise.
We will miss the people we practice with, who we have formed bonds with but probably won't see again until next year.
We will miss the weekly trips to In-N-Out after practice every week with the group(for grilled cheese sandwiches since we don't eat red meat-yum!).

We will simply miss everything about it!

Joe has been scouring Craigslist to see if we can find a used Kayak but he haven't had any luck. The ones he has found are still not in our budget. I'm so bummed. Joe is going to put an ad up on Freecycle asking if anyone has one that is sitting in their yard in disrepair that he can fix up. He is very resourceful and with his Dad's help he's pretty sure he could fix one up if he can find one.

I have been trying my hand at making fabric rosettes for some craft projects I want to make. I'm kind of hit or miss with them. They are more difficult than I thought they would be. Here's a picture of some of my first attempts:

There are several different types you can make and I am going to try a totally different technique later today with patterned fabric. I hope they turn out.

We have been really good at getting exercise in pretty regularly throughout the week. Dragon Boating on Saturday(or Sunday), a bike ride on whatever weekend day we don't have dragon boat, plus two more walking days throughout the rest of the week. I am really trying to focus on just being healthy and not obsess over weight loss right now. That part will definitely come later, but for now we are exercising regularly and trying to eat healthier.

Speaking of eating healthier, the other day Joe ran through Wendy’s because we were in a hurry. I wanted to try and keep up my healthy eating habits so I looked to see if what their healthy options were. I ended up ordering their Berry Almond chicken salad.

Oh my, it was soooooooo good! It had lots of fresh blueberries and strawberries in it, plus a generous amount of almonds and grilled chicken. The dressing was like a raspberry vinaigrette (I'm off to google it so see exactly what it was).

I didn't take this picture but someone on the internet did and it looked pretty much exactly like this:

I loved it so much I am going to try and re-create it at home so we can have it for dinner on those nights when it is too hot to cook. So good.

Getting My Craft On

2011-07-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

I have been finding all these cool craft ideas on Pinterest that I have really been wanting to try.

Yesterday I made one of my favorite items. It's cute and practical.

It's a makeup magnet board!

Here is the one I saw on Pinterest:

The tutorial for that one is HERE.

I wanted to find a really cool frame like that and paint it and have my metal board cut to fit but I went to two hardware stores and they only sell metal in certain sizes(and all were too small), and they WON'T cut it for you. I'm not sure where the person who made this lives, but here in CA that was a bust. So I had to come up with another plan.

I ended up just buying a small magnetic board at Office Max. I don't have a lot of makeup and my bathroom is kind of small so I went with a small board. I think mine was 11X14. Or 12X18. I'm not good at math. It didn't have that neat scrollwork on the frame, but that's o.k.

Then I picked up some fabric and spray paint at JoAnn's.

First thing I did was spraypaint the frame a robin's egg blue color that matches my shower curtain. It's hard to see in this picture. The color is very pretty. I didn't worry too much about overspray, since I was going to cover it with fabric anyway.

I dry brushed a little white on top of the blue afterwards to give it somewhat of an aged look.

Again, hard to tell in this picture.

After the paint dried I cut the fabric to the right size.

Next I had to adhere the fabric to the board. Be sure to use this stuff in a well ventilated area. It smells awful and I felt kind of lightheaded after using it.

This part is hard. You have to be very careful about overspraying the area you want to glue on because wherever the product is sprayed becomes tacky and sticky. I got some on the outside frame and could not figure out how to get it off but when I put a layer of Mod Podge over it the stickiness went away.

I finished off the edges of the inside of the board with some white grosgrain ribbon, to give it a polished look..

Closeup of the ribbon. That was done with the hot glue gun.

When everything dried, I painted the whole thing with a layer of Mod Podge to make it water resistant. It gives the fabric kind of a shiny look as well.

Next came the fun part: putting on the magnets. I picked up a couple of packages of these at OfficeMax as well, plus I had some at home already. You can even pick some up at the dollar store.

Then I laid out all of my makeup (I don't wear a ton of makeup, which is why I went with the smaller board). I heated up my glue gun and glued magnets to the backs of my makeup. Some of them needed two(or three) magnets to make them stay up.

I found this cute little wire cup at Office Max to keep my brushes in. Isn't it cute?

I needed a smaller cup to keep eyeliners in, so I soaked the labels off of some pill bottles and gave them a couple of coats of the same blue spray paint as the frame.

Here is the finished product:

And the cute brush holder. Love it!

I am beyond happy with how it turned out!

I added some other products that I use all the time like my face scrub, and perfume and dental floss.

All of my eyeliners are in the painted pill bottle on the left.

Now I won't have to dig through my makeup bag to find anything because it's all right there!

And because I used hot glue, the magnets peel right off and can be used again when the makeup is used and needs to be thrown away.

One thing I had a problem with is that unless the back of the product I wanted to stick on was completely flat, the magnets kept coming off, no matter how much hot glue I used. Those flat backed magnets simply wouldn't stick on a rounded object. For those items, like my powder and foundation sticks I used adhesive backed velcro and it worked like a charm. Yes, I know that defeats the whole purpose of the board being magnetic, but it was a pain to try and re-glue the magnets on each time they fell off. The velcro works much better and when I am done with it, it peels off the magnet board quite easily.

All I have left to do is hang it on the wall. Joe's going to do that tomorrow for me.

It was fun to make and so practical too.

Next up is a necklace I saw on crafting site. I am a little worried about the fabric rosettes because I have read the tutorial like 10 times and I still don't understand what it is asking me to do.

Wish me luck!

Pinterest Addiction

2011-07-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Michelle and I am addicted to Pinterest.

The first step in getting help is admitting you have a problem, right?

If you are my FB friend then you already know about my Pinterest addiction. Sometimes I get carried away and post too many pins to my wall.

If you don't know what Pinterest is, here is an explanation from their website:

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

I use Pinterest to organize all of the cool things I want to save for future use. Gift ideas, cool do-it-yourself projects, favorite recipes, and even products I long for, so I can give Joe a list of possible Christmas gift ideas (Hey-it's only 6 months away! Gotta plan ahead!).

One of my boards is named "Hotness" and has nothing but photos of good looking celebrities that I find attractive. Last night Joe was looking at my boards (because I have a whole board dedicated to just things I think he would like).

He saw my "Hotness" board and he was like:
"You have a board just for hot men? What are you, thirteen?"

I said "Yes. Inside I am a thirteen year old girl. Deal with it." Hee!

Here a a couple of the pins on my "Hotness" board:

John Hamm

David Duchovny

Jake Gyllenhaal

Hubba Hubba. Is it hot in here, or is it me? :)

Ahem.

I also find it quite handy to put recipes that I would like to make. I just got a crock pot, so I have one board specifically for crock pot meals. Any time I want to try one of those recipes, I simply go to that board and click on the recipe I want. So convenient!

I am GOING to make this:

Here's the link to the recipe

And also this:

Taco Soup

Link to recipe

And this too

Lasagna(with ground turkey)

My second most favorite thing is the funny quotes and sayings I find there. Some of them have me laughing out loud at the computer while Joe gives me strange looks because I am laughing and talking to myself.

Here's a couple I found funny:

Ha!

Here's one I know a couple of people this would apply to:

Joe would love this. Being the English teacher that he is, it bugs the heck out of him when people don't use proper grammar.

This is funny. I want to put it up in our office.

Lastly, I love, love, love some of the inspirational quotes that I have found there.

Here's a few:

So true!

Sometimes I forget to turn on the light.

I must, MUST remember this!

If you want to follow my boards, drop me an e-mail and I'll send you a link. I would rather not put my last name on the blog. I believe you have to have a FB account to have a Pinterest account, but I'm not sure on that.

You do have to have an invitation to join, so if you need one of those, shoot me you e-mail and I'll send you an invite. chinaadopter(at)gmail(.com)

It's so fun! And a bit addictive.

You have been warned. :)

Happy Independence Day

2011-07-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready
in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.
— George Orwell

Freedom isn't free.

Thank you to all of our servicemen and women for everything they do to ensure our freedom.

Yesterday was my 6 year Blog-a-Versary. In other words, I started this blog six years ago. Six. Can you believe it?? I can't. Thanks to Teena in Toronto for remembering it. I think she was the one who reminded me last year too! Thanks Teena!