Impink Family Tales

Sad Times.........

2011-03-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

So, I don't know whats wrong with me in the posting department lately, it's not that I don't have anything to write about, I mean we've had A major earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, followed by the battered Fukushima nuclear power plant reactor at near melt down and radiation now showing up in food and milk supplies. Maybe It's just too depressing to think about, let alone write about. I think thats why the everyday little things that happen make me so happy, like the beautiful cowl that I knitted with some yarn I found in a box, It's beautiful and I made it and I love it. I had lunch with a wonderful friend today, and made a super delicious dinner for my family, that they devoured, as we all sat around the table together. Right now, it's the small things that make me happy and the small things I will think about, because if I only think about the thousands and thousands of people whose lives will never be the same and what will become of the nuclear power plant, I couldn't and wouldn't be much good for anything or anybody.

Happy Birthday!!

2011-03-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Evan!

Black Belt

2011-02-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

Evan had his Black Belt promotion on January 31, 2011. It coincided with the Grand Master's seminar as the Grand Master is the one who promotes them. Unfortunately, I didn't get any family pictures with Evan that night but all the grandparents came, as well as Auntie Rae and Uncle Mike. We celebrated later that night at the pizza parlor with the other Black Belt promote (Jack) and his family. I cried and Evan was all smiles!

Happy 50th Anniversary

2011-01-30T09:08:00.001-08:00

Oh, come on now!

That's more like it!
Happy Anniversary to my Parents, Ray and Jean!

1/11/11

2011-01-11T21:07:00.001-08:00

Humm.........I don't really have anything to post tonight. I just wanted to acknowledge the 11th day of January 2011. Or 1/11/11. I can't believe we're 11 days into 2011! So far so good :)

Low key weekend

2011-01-10T06:59:00.000-08:00

This weekend was suppose to be our final Christmas with the Impink family in Sonora, unfortunately Grandma Di caught the flu on her recent trip Arizona and had to cancel, ugh. I Hope she feels better soon! Because we weren't leaving town we were able to go to a friends 40th surprise birthday party, she was really surprised, especially since we told her we would be gone this weekend. We had a great time seeing some of our friends that we hadn't seen for a while. The rest of the weekend we really didn't do much of anything which is not all that common for us. Ian and Wayne worked on Ian's dirt bike and Evan had surf practice and worked on something for Kuk Sool Won in preparation for his Black belt promotion at the end of this month. And finally at sunset on Sunday, we walked to the beach to see the boat that had washed ashore after the crew had fallen asleep, they had been out for three days and had a hull full of Dungeness crab,apparently all the crab had escaped!

My not so hidden treasure

2011-01-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

I've had this funny egg head for quite a while, maybe 20 years. I got when a friend of mine was moving from her childhood home. Her mother had passed and I'm assuming it belonged to her. I've always liked this guy, it's quirky and different and I've never seen another one like it. For years I never thought anything of it, just that I liked it. Then about 6 or 7 years ago I thought about looking it up on the internet but had no luck finding anything about it. Then on New Years Eve, my brother in law Mike asked me about it. I told him I really didn't know where it came from or what it was but that it was signed and dated. He suggested I take another shot at looking it up which I did and got a couple of hits mostly from auction type sites of people wanting to sell theirs. It's still hard to tell what it is worth, but the information I got was that the Southern California artist LaGardo Tackett designed these in the late 1950's (mine is dated 1959).They were advertised in Playboy Magazine as a "condom holder", it is hollow, and had a handled cork stopper with access underneath. Mine doesn't have the cork any more. So there you go, I have proudly displayed my condom holding egg head for years and I will continue to do so until I, A) Need money or B) it falls off the shelf in an earthquake.

High Tide

2011-01-04T20:13:00.000-08:00

I After the last few weeks of rain and cold I couldn't resist getting out today, the weather was incredibly beautiful and warm and the waves were crashing over the rocks. So with dog and "new" camera in tow we headed out for a walk. I didn't have to go far, just down the street before I started dodging the waves coming over onto the road. Further down the road I took this shot which I think is sort of iconic.
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Photo mishap

2011-01-02T21:04:00.000-08:00

I set out this morning with my new camera in hand to photograph a bit with my sister, who is a very good photographer, I was thinking a could learn a thing or two from her about aperture and lighting and whatever else I could grasp. Unfortunately I forgot to put the SD card back into the camera and the only shot I got today was this one taken with my Iphone! It isn't this blurry but didn't transfer well for some reason. I'll have to work on that.

1/1/11

2011-01-01T15:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
With the exception of the loss of our sweet Cleo, My sisters beautiful greyhound dog. I would have to say that 2010 was a pretty fantastic year. We all came through basically unscathed as did most of our extended families and for that I am truly grateful. Christmas came and went with a bang leaving me with the addition of not only a brand new laptop computer from my Mom and Dad to"us", but also a Canon Rebel T1i from Wayne for Christmas. I'm SO spoiled! And I can't wait to document 2011 and to use my blog to keep you all up to date. Not that Facebook doesn't already do that, but one can never have too many places to put things out there virally, right? So stay tuned and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2011!

August-September-October

2010-11-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hummm.............I don't know where those months went! How about a quick low-down on some highlights?
My sister and I drove to LA in September to "pick up my dad". Oh and while we were down there visited the Happiest Place on Earth, saw some of our favorites relatives and managed to survive a record breaking heat wave! 112 degrees in LA.
Evan is an official member of the Cunha school surf team and is now swimming with Mavericks swim club at the High School.
Ian has just finished his 2nd race of this series. Finishing a respectable 8th and 10th place.
I am now serving on the board of HMBHS's PAC- Parent Advisory Council. We had our annual fundraiser in September, it was not only a financial success but fun as hell too.
Wayne continues to find work, totally amazing. He is also dabbling with his cars and running the boys all over the place!
I guess I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Giants winning the World Series! And how excited Wayne was about this!

Evan's new smile

2010-08-19T08:59:00.001-07:00

Can you say Thrilled! Because that's what Evan is, He is absolutely thrilled about his new smile and he even got them off before starting 7th grade! What could be better that that? Congratulations Evan!

July 4x12

2010-08-16T08:53:00.001-07:00

OK, So this is not my favorite picture by far but it's the only on I have of the four of us taken in July. This is at a lake in the Forest Hill area near Auburn, CA. It was a dirt bike trip with a couple of other families, the riding was terrible but the kids loved the lake! It reminded me of upstate NY. Lots of beautiful trees and the smell of pine!

4x12 June 2010

2010-06-28T08:13:00.001-07:00

Well, Here my "snapshot" for June. We were literally running out the door to go to our friends for dinner (obviously a casual dinner) when I got the idea to get this shot. Ian was gone all last week and left again today for 4 days, so I thought I should take advantage of the fact that we were all together. Everyone is laughing because I just yelled that Evan was standing on my foot just seconds before the timer on the camera went off!

Busy Month O' June

2010-06-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

*Ian and Grandma

*Grandpa and Evan

*RUDY

*Wayne and I in Big sur on our way to Paso Robles
June has a been filled with all kinds of fun! A new addition to our family in the form of a Yorkshire Terrier, My dad's 80th birthday, a visit from my brother, and Ian's birthday too! Oh! And Wayne and I even managed to get away overnight for our anniversary to Paso Robles, what a great place! So were do I begin? The puppy was a cast off from a lady that didn't want him. He's a year old and I think he has a pretty good temperament. I had a friend come over and give me some tips on how to take care of him (it's been 15 years since we've had a dog) and I feel much more confident working with him. Oh, his name is Rudy.
My sister and I planned an 80th birthday party for my dad with the help of my mom and brother. We had about 25 people over for a luau. We made much of the food and bought a few specialty items that we could'nt make ourselves, including a beautiful lilikoi cake from a Japanese lady. The weather was perfect and we were able to sit outside an eat. It was a special day.
Ian also celebrated his 15th birthday this past Friday. He was excited to find out he is going to a motocross camp for his birthday present, it's 4 days of safety training and riding at two different tracks.
And today is Father's Day. Wayne is at the movies watching Karate Kid with Evan and we'll be going to some friends for a barbecue later today.
Ian is off at 4-H camp for a week. He is a manager this year and will be in charge of a cabin full of kids! I know he'll do a great job!

4x12 May 2010

2010-06-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

I have such a short memory these days that I almost forgot about my 4x12 photo project. Here is a picture of us taken by My mother-in-law, at her house on May 23rd, 2010 at about 6:00PM.

Time........

2010-05-26T08:46:00.001-07:00

Time keeps on tickin',tickin',tickin' into the future.........That song comes to mind frequently these days. It's hard to believe this school year is almost over and the crush of end of the school year "stuff" is taking it's tole on many. Ian will have finals the last week of school, much different than the elementary years when the teaches were just trying to keep the kids busy with movies and walks to the park, I even remember the kids going to school in their pajamas and having a reading day. I've been getting frantic calls from friends needing help with the all the different special activities planned for the end of the school year. Not to mention all of the different board positions that need to be filled for next year. It's amazing how much work people have created for themselves with all these boards and committees. I don't think a generation ago people were concerned with making sure the kids had everything and honestly, I'm not sure the kids even appreciate it? I hope I'm wrong. But nonetheless, it's all happening and I'm trying hard to pick and choose where I want to spend my extra time. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with the requests that I just want to runaway!

On a lighter note: We celebrated two family birthdays this past weekend. For my sister (pictured below), we had a family dinner at home with cake and a walk to the beach. And in Sonora we attended a "surprise" 50Th birthday celebration for Wayne's Brother Joe.

A close to Perfect Mother's Day

2010-05-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

I only say that because a perfect mother's day would be if Wayne took the boys somewhere for the day and left me to watch girlie movies and read books! So this was a runner up perfect Mother's Day which consisted of some of my favorite people (Mother included) coming over for the day. My wonderful sister made all sorts of goodies, a beautiful tomato tart, a quiche and a delicious fruit salad. We had a special blend of Hawaiian coffee and fresh strawberry short cakes for dessert. A very special gift of Mochi from a good friend who knows me too well. A walk to the beach to watch Evan boogie board and ended the night with some take out from the Mexican taqueria, sitting around the table enjoying each others company. I'm just not one to go out on a holiday. It's too busy and all those poor moms that waitress. What a drag for them!

The picture below has a funny story: I told my dad we needed some pictures for the memorial. He just about fell off the cliff laughing. I do think it's a keeper.

Ride for Life 2010

2010-05-03T08:31:00.001-07:00

I need to find out more about how this amazing event got started 9 years ago. I know it was started by some local acquaintances of ours, the Bruces', but I just don't know all the details. We have been invited each year but have always had something else going on. Last year it poured rain on them and go figure, when they got up there on the Wednesday before the weekend it was snowing! Susan Bruce said she was really glad they rented a trailer this year. Can you believe they were in a tent last year! Amazing people! The weather cleared by the time we got there at it was 80 degrees by Sunday. Everyone had a great time as I'm sure you can tell by how dirty the kids were! I'm already looking forward to next years Ride For Life.
Above picture; Ian, Wayne and Evan
Kids: These were just the ones in our group.

Next on the Agenda

2010-04-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

Geesh, I feel like I have been going non-stop this whole month. An 8 day driving trip and family reunion, then came home to have my friend Mimi who stayed with me for 2 weeks, during which I had the middle school book fair and I had to fill in at work for my co-worker who was on vacation. And now I am shopping and packing the camper for a trip to the mountains this weekend. This trip is a fundraiser called "Ride for life" and it benefits the Ronald McDonald house in Palo Alto. Most of our friends have done this ride before, it's our first time. It should be fun, did I mention that this is Dirt bike ride? Yes, It should be fun! I'm sure I will have a story or two to tell when we return.

Half Moon Bay and Beyond

2010-04-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

My Friend Mimi is visiting me for a couple of weeks and we have been all over. She lived here on the coast for 12 years before moving to her home town of Moscow, Idaho and now lives in Colorado for the past 10 years. Coming back to the coast is a real treat for her, living at 7000ft the air is dry and she just loves the damp beach air here. Like I said, we have been all over from Santa Cruz to Healdsburg, where the above picture was taken. Tomorrow we are heading to San Francisco for some Dim Sum and city culture. Not only do I love the company, I love having someone to drag around to places you only seem to get to when someone is visiting!

Spring Break Adventure

2010-04-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

When I found out that my cousin was planning a "Yamane family" reunion in Los Angles for the the second weekend in April, I realized that it was at the end of our spring break and that it might be a perfect opportunity to take a road trip. I never considered a "road trip" with the boys for obvious reasons and crossed my fingers that they would not only enjoy, but appreciate the trip. I had BIG plans at first. Death Valley, Los Vegas, Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon all before heading to LA where we would go to Universal Studios and Hollywood and finally the reunion weekend with our family. After some consideration I decided that The Grand Canyon was too grand an idea and cut it from the itinerary. We did add the Shelby Factory and The Los Vegas Speedway in Los Vegas and we also stopped at the Gamble House in Pasadena. The boys did great with the driving and we have some great memories from everywhere we went. But I think the best part of our trip was reconnecting with our relatives at the reunion. We had family come from as far as New York and Hawaii. We now have plans for another family reunion in 2012. This time on Kauai. And we have plans to bring my dad back down to LA so he can attend a gathering of his Kauai friends that have been getting together the last weekend in September for years.

Hello, My name is Jill and............

2010-03-31T07:51:00.000-07:00

I am an addict. That's right, I'm addicted to a word game on my Iphone. It's called "Words with Friends" and It's, Well, It's addicting. The Ironery about this is that I am the absolute worst speller in the world and I usually hate word games like Scrabble, It's so humiliating to get beat by an 8 year old! But, I guess I can blame my new obsession over word games on my sister. She gave us a word game for Christmas called "Bananagrams". It's quite fun and I like "Bananagrams" because you work independently on your own crossword using the tiles provided. I've recently been playing this game on my Iphone as well and you can play "Live" games against other people out in cyber space (when you get creamed, no one has to know but you), Oh my! Then the other day my hairdresser told me about "Words with Friends" and how she and her husband are addicted to it. Well, I just had to try it out! So now, I'm addicted and I don't care. No 12 steps for me thank you. I'm becoming a better person ,I mean speller because of it! Join me if you want, My user name is Jane67.

In other news, we are going on a driving trip over spring break. Look out for news that could read something like this:
Mother jumps into the Hoover Dam after (stupidly) agreeing to a driving trip with her family.
Or I like this one:
Mother runs for her life out into the barren desert in Death Valley, It was her only hope for sanity after (stupidly) agreeing to a driving trip..........blah,blah,blah! Wish me luck!

Birthday Boys

2010-03-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

Evan and his Uncle Mike have birthday's just days apart, so we usually end up with a "family" celebration, it's become a tradition. We haven't had Evan's party yet, he wants to invite a group of friends to his favorite trampoline place some time soon. But for now I have a couple of pictures to show off.
Below are from 2009.......Above are from 2010

4x12 for February

2010-02-27T21:51:00.000-08:00

I finally did it and it only took a tsunami to make it happen! I'd been wanting to take another family picture at the beach for my 4x12 photo project and between the rain and everyone running in different directions it just wasn't happening. With only 2 days left of our short month o' February I had almost given up hope. I really wanted to take it in the same spot each month but I figured I'll just take what I can get and I think it turned out OK. We actually had gone down to the beach to watch for the Tsunami that was suppose to reach our coastline after hitting Hawaii a bit earlier, an after effect from the horrible earthquake in Chile today. It was expected to hit us around 2:00pm and have a 2ft. swell . I was really hoping for a dramatic effect but alas nothing really came of it, except for my desired 4x12 picture!

Old Pictures

2010-02-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with my theme for this month, I love looking at old pictures. Not that these are particularly old, they just do what all pictures do. Bring you back to a certain time. And I loved this time in my life, we were living in a 950 sq ft duplex. I could stand practically anywhere in the place and see the boys. It was perfect for us, I loved being so close to them. The boys were so much fun at this age. And I can't help but think back to how lucky we were that on any given day we could just go off to the beach or the zoo or the park or the rope swing across the street, we could bake cookies and pretzels or play in the rain and jump in mud puddles. Whatever we wanted to we did all because I was lucky enough to stay home with them. I don't think I squandered a minute of time with them, I loved it so much. In these pictures we had just hand made these pretzels, They were so excited and I think these pictures are priceless!

How are you going to top this?

2010-02-14T21:46:00.001-08:00

I said "Seriously honey, How are you going to top this one"? Here are the before and after pictures of my "family" room officially finished today, Valentine's Day. You can see I haven't even put anything on the shelves yet. When we built the house almost 8 years ago we had no idea what to do with this space and it started out as more of a "living room" (because no one ever went in there) as the kids have gotten older we have started using it more. The TV in the corner on the end table was in the loft upstairs and the boys would use it to play games on and watch occasionally TV. Then on New Years Eve 2008 we decided to bring it downstairs for people to play the wii or Karaoke for the party we were having. But the TV is so heavy that it never got moved back upstairs and we started watching it more and more. Well you can see by the before picture that the room was just plan and ugly. So Wayne designed and built these cabinets over the last couple of weeks and they are gorgeous! I Love that man and not just because he build these beautiful cabinets for me! :) Happy Valentine's Day 2010

And these two too

2010-02-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

Solid as a rock, steadfast and loyal, these two are the bomb! 49 years and counting. They still take care of me! Thank you!

Love these two

2010-02-12T08:22:00.000-08:00

These two are full of life! So fun to be around, generous to a fault and "game" for anything! Happy Valentines to Grandma Di and Grampa Bert!

I Love Food!

2010-02-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

I especially love the kind of food that's messy to eat and isn't always pretty. Fancy food is just lost on me. Maybe one day I will come to appreciate it, but for now I like things I can stand over the sink and eat, like a juicy orange or a left over piece of cold pizza. I also like things I can eat without utensils, things like hamburgers and burritos or this new recipe from my friend Lynn. Pork with Tzatziki sauce, wrapped in flat bread! I think I made it twice in one week and I tried it with chicken breast too! The recipe is so easy to make. Just cube a pork tenderloin (or chicken breast)and marinate in olive oil, red wine vinegar, red onion, garlic and lemon juice over night. Pan fry or put onto skewers and barbecue. I buy the flat bread and Tzatziki at Trader Joe's and serve with a Greek salad. It's so flavorful, you can eat it with your hands and the whole family loves it!

Little Blossoms

2010-02-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

I love these tiny little pink blossoms. They are on the flowering plum tree in my front yard. This poor tree has no idea that it's only February and that another storm is coming in today. At least I can enjoy them for the time being.

I Love this idea 4x12

2010-02-03T07:34:00.000-08:00

So after the last post (which was totally lame I know) I thought I should try and redeem myself with something more meaningful for my month of "Things I love". I saw this idea on my friend Lisa's blog lisadamrosch.typepad.com and It's basically a candid (stop what your doing and come here) photo of her and her family. One a month for a year, 3x12. So last night I picked a spot, the couch and set up the camera, programmed the timer on it and rallied the troops. What a mess, not only was the spot not good, lighting, back round etc, but the boys wouldn't sit still, they made funny faces wrestled on the floor in between shots and I was exhausted after running back and forth to look and reset the camera after every shot. I'm going to post some of them just to spite the boys! And because of my epic failure last night I decided to to post a picture from December (because I like it) and call it January then try again for a good shot for February. Maybe I'll try to get one at the same spot on the beach, I love it there! So here you go, 4x12.
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Amore #1

2010-02-01T13:53:00.001-08:00

As promised, I will dedicate this month to the things that I love. And as you will soon find out these "Things", that I love will be in no particular order. I do not love my central vacuum more than I love my family. But while on the subject of central vacuum systems, mine rocks! Now I know there are many things that I love that I could write about, but I do love my central vac so it's as good a place as any to start. I'm sure most of you know what a central vacuum is, If not here is a brief description for you. "A central vacuum system consists of a power unit installed out of sight in a basement or utility room, and easy to store and use hose and attachments". The best part about the vacuum system is that the canister is outside in the garage so it's not only quieter inside the house but there is no dust or odor from the vacuum either, all of the "veins" or tubes are built into the walls of the house with receptacles through out the different rooms. You just have to plug-in your hose and it turns on automatically. They even have little jackets you can buy for your hoses so they don't mess up the corners of your walls. What solidified my love for my vacuum was when I decided to help out at my MIL's and had to drag her HEAVY, STINKY, and RIDICULOUSLY AWKWARD Hover around her very large, multi-surfaced (for lack of better description) house. All I was thinking as I was dragging this stupid thing around and sweating my a** off was "Thank god she doesn't have stairs"! Now this is no Oprah show, I won't be doling out vacuum systems today, but I can, with certainty say that I don't want to live anywhere that doesn't have a central vac! Call me shallow I don't care!

Miss Puddin' Tater

2010-01-29T15:52:00.001-08:00

Seriously, Our cat "Puddin" loves to lay upside down and last night she had two of her favorite things. A nice hot fire and Evan to lay next to. For some reason she migrates toward Evan, probably because he's allergic to her!
A cabinet update: I went to the shop today and took some pictures of the work in progress. I'm so excited they look great. Wayne is doing an awesome job! I can't wait to show the before and after!

Way to go!!

2010-01-28T15:45:00.001-08:00

Evan was for nominated for Student of the week by his 6th grade social studies teacher Mr. Rippberger who wrote, " Evan is nice to his class mates and participates well in discussions. His work shows attention to detail and organization." I was so happy for him and he was as proud as can be! In addition to getting the "Award", he also had it announced over the load speaker at school and wait for the best part...........he gets a front of the line pass for a week! How cool is that? This morning he said, "Mom, Can I have a dollar to buy something at school"? I mean why not take advantage of an advantage right? Good job Evan!

Before and After

2010-01-27T16:53:00.000-08:00

A while ago Wayne decided that the back door and porch of our house needed a cover. We use it as our main entry into the house and It's a south-west facing door so it gets wet when it rains. Putting a cover over it was a great idea and it looks beautiful. I'm so happy that he choose to do this while he was in between jobs! He's currently working on some built-in bookshelves and TV stand for our family room. I'll post before and after shots when he's done. And yes, that does mean he's in between jobs!

A rockin' night for us

2010-01-24T15:38:00.000-08:00

That's right, no big surprise from us right? We do go to our share of concerts but this one was a little different. It was a benefit concert to raise money for the family of guy named Buffalo Norton, a blues harmonica player who had cancer and died, he was a friend to all the people that played and his wife was there too. They had a silent auction and Wavy Gravy was the MC for the night. It was a brilliant idea, held in the newly renovated Fox Theater in Oakland CA a gorgeous site and not a bad seat in the house. The concert was 5 hours long and included sets by The Doobie Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, and The Steve Miller Band. Special guests included, George Thorogood, Charlie Musselwhite, Roy Rodgers and Elvin Bishop. I'd never seen any of these bands/people so it was a real treat and they all rocked their a**'s off. Before the concert, Wayne and I and Rae and Mike met up with our friend Randy, then drove to one of his favorite restaurants in Emeryville called "Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. One of the guys from Greenday is part owner and It's going to be on Food Network tonight at 10:00 (Jan. 25th)! Wayne's brother Keith and his wife Holly met up with us there, Keith was excited to see the concert because he and Randy did the concert poster which turned out great and we had a surprise when we got there and saw they had used the art to make t-shirts with too. Wayne bought one :)
You probably noticed I changed my page graphics again. I'm thinking I might try to post about "Things I love" during February. There are so many things after all! Until then.........

Stormy Weather

2010-01-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

The storm they have been promising has finally arrived, at 3:00AM to be exact. I know this because the lighting and thunder not only shook the house but completely freaked out my cat! She was actually crying. I had to pick her up and hold her finally bringing her into bed with us. Her little heart was pounding so hard I though she would have a heart attack! The boys on the other hand didn't hear a thing. Nada-nothing! At least they'll be rested for school.
I managed to make it to the gym today, I have new motivation as I've put on a couple of pounds. Probably due to my new addiction to a game my sister bought us for Christmas, it's called Bananagrams. Now I have the application for my Iphone and once I start playing It's hard to stop. It's fun if you crossword puzzles or Scrabble. The other motivation I have is that Wayne's cholesterol test came back a bit high. 231 I think. Not good for someone who has heart disease in his family. So I'm counting fat calories and adjusting our food a bit. The problem is we eat pretty good at home and his "good" cholesterol is high, but so is his bad. Anyway, it leads me to think his diet isn't all that bad and he can probably lower it by just a few changes. We'll see what happens.

Happy Two Thousand Ten

2010-01-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

I was informed that the proper way to say "2010" is not twenty ten, but rather two thousand ten. Why is this important? It's not, just thought I''d mention it. It's a distraction from the more pressing matters in my life. Like putting the Christmas boxes up in the attic and cleaning the kitchen floor. Every year about this time I swear I'm just going to go to Hawaii for Christmas. A girl can dream right? We were gone during Thanksgiving two years ago on a cruise and I have to say it was great not having a traditional Thanksgiving. You already know how I feel about cruising! Not for me please. But the whole being gone for the holiday thing I could get used to.
I was going to send out Happy New Year cards this year, I did send out some Christmas cards, but now I'm starting to think there's a statue of limitations for New Years Cards. Would you agree? If this is true, it officially gets me off the hook. Maybe I'll do the cards next year, or not.
This year one of the things I'm going to try and find out is if you have to pay more for quality? Have you noticed that some of the household items you use just don't hold up? Recently, a gift I got for Christmas last year broke, I use it every morning and actually it started to fall apart little by little. First the little rubber feet came off the bottom causing it to slid all over while in use. I have to set it onto a kitchen towel to keep it from vibrating off the counter (which is what happened this morning because I forgot the towel) and it says in the instruction manual that the motor will not run unless the attachment is inserted. That's bull, It continues to run until you unplug it. So I know that this thing is mass produced and sold at every Costco and Bed, bath and beyond in America. And I'm sure there is one in every household in America (American's are so gullible)I for one like the product in the limited capacity that I use it. And it wasn't inexpensive. But really, can't it last longer than a year? Is this part of the manufacturers plan, to get you hooked on their product then when it breaks you run out and buy another one? Or are they too dumb for that. Maybe they just sell as many as they can and make as much money as they can and walk away. I think that's more like it. I just want things that are quality and that last. Is that too much to ask for? We'll see? For now, I need to put a Bullet in this product, A Magic Bullet.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

Well, all is well in our house. The boys are still sleeping off the excitement of yesterday. The weather has changed from sunny, warm, blue skies to what looks like rain clouds making it easy to just chill here at home. I'm thinking about all of our friends and family and hoping that they too enjoyed yesterday. Ian got what he asked for, a new Sony Cybershot digital camera which he took full advantage of yesterday documenting the days activities and Evan got the "Long board" skateboard he'd hoped for. The rest of the day was spent eating and playing games, walking to the beach and opening more gifts at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We are now looking forward to Grandma Jean's birthday on New year's eve and celebrating yet another Christmas in Sonora.
PS: The huge TV that has been sitting on the end table for a year was suppose to be replaced with a new flat screen but Santa decided to wait for some after Christmas sales.

Photo A Day

2009-12-03T08:46:00.001-08:00

I'm going to try and participate in my friend Moriah's Photo A Day project. I posted Day #2 on Facebook and my wonderful son "flagged" it for removal, so I'm posting here!
December 2, 2009- Evan got his lower braces.

20 on the 20th

2009-11-20T20:51:00.000-08:00

Stole this idea from my friend Moriah :)
Here are 20 things that are on my mind this 20th day of November:

1) Evan is getting another black strip on his black-brown belt from Kuk Sool Won. One year from now he will test for his Black Belt. I'm very proud of him for choosing such a great form of martial arts.

2) Ian and I joined Snap fitness this week. They ( Snap Fitness) asked Ian to work for them already! That kid is so likable.

3) I'm sore from working out. I hope Wayne will want to join Snap too.

4) Spent last Sunday at the Harvest Festival with my mom and sister and Evan. I loved it.

5) Really happy our new tenants are working out. The husband can't say enough nice things about the house. Make me feel good especially after the last people.

6) Think about my friend Moriah all the time and wonder when were going to have a fun day?

7) I spent some time looking into a mini vacation to San Antonio TX. The River Walk and the Alamo look amazing and I'm ready to get away.

8) I'm actually looking forward to Thanksgiving this year.

9) Coming up with 20 things may be harder than I though. I knew I should have done this last Sunday!

10) I'm taking Evan and his friend Kevin to see 2012 tomorrow after Evan's testing. I have absolutely no interest in see it.

11) Tried a new barbecued chicken recipe today, it was yummy. The kids really liked it.

12) I think my niece Hannah is adorable, she went to see the "New Moon" movie! She's beautiful and funny and smart.

13) Got a raise at work and more responsibility. I wanted to tell him to keep his money but thought I could use the challenge. I'm now in charge of ordering all the inventory for our office. Oh Joy!

14) We're not going to KFOG'S concert for kids this year, we didn't love the artists that are playing and they moved it to a Saturday night.

15) We decided to get a "family" gift this year for Christmas. A new flat screen TV. Evan's not very happy about it. Of course we will still have a visit from Santa and stockings too.

16) Ian's football finally ended. He was really ready to start riding is dirt bike again, they told him he couldn't ride during the football season. He wants to play again next year.

17) Speaking of Ian riding. He entered his first race of the season last weekend. He placed 21st and was happy with that. It was his first time back on his bike since August. He also said he felt really strong from the football conditioning.

18) Wayne's job is winding down, but it's actually more hectic. Trying to finish up and fix things that the other carpenters messed up. Maybe a couple of more weeks that's it.

19) I want to clean out Evan's room and make it more age appropriate for him. He still has a lot of kid junk in there even though I clean it out regularly.

20) Wow , I'm feeling such pressure to make #20 good. But honestly, I think the fact that I was able to come up with 19 things is good enough. Well it was actually only 18 because of #9. Thanks for reading hope it wasn't too painful :)

Oink-Oink

2009-11-11T19:30:00.000-08:00

Here is Ian getting his H1N1 flu shot. Hopefully Evan will be getting his on Friday.

Another Outing

2009-10-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

My title sounds a bit like I outed someone doesn't it! But no, just another outing with my sister a couple of weeks ago. The plan, you've gotta love that we actually had a plan, was to take a drive to the Walgreen's store that my sister manages in San Francisco and for me to get one of their last remaining flu shots and for her to pick up her hot water kettle. One of out two isn't bad for us. I got my "preservative free" flu shot for an "extra fee" because that was all they had left and she forgot to pick up her kettle. We left the store and headed for the mall because when I was there the day before specifically to get more of my foundation makeup I, of course, walked out of the make up store w/ $80.00 worth of new eye color but no foundation! So lickity split the foundation was in the bag and strait ahead of us was Godiva. A brief pit stop there and we were off to nowhere. This is the place where everyone gets into trouble right?. Nowhere. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking..........

When we saw there beauties we reminisced about going to Macy's in San Francisco's union Square and trying on all the fancy gowns just for fun..........we would laugh so hard.

Pumpkin festival

2009-10-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Well, If your from Half Moon Bay or have ever been to the Pumpkin Festival you know it is all about the Orange Gourd, the big pumpkin itself. This past weekend was the 39th annual in all it's glory. 300k people over the course of two days cram our little town to enjoy shopping, eating, music and my personal favorite.........people watching. For many of us it's a time to raise much needed funds for our schools and misc other non-profits and also to catch up with old and new friends. Here are some photo highlights from my day at the Pumpkin festival.
PS: I have no idea who these people are, just thought they had alot of pumpkin spirit!

Calm before the storm?

2009-10-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Wayne, Evan and I walked down to see the ocean last night before the rain started. I love the smell and the power of the ocean on days like this. This is what it looked.

Sunday Project

2009-10-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

A friend of ours had a baby sometime in the last two weeks, a boy. I can't remember the date exact, Wayne has been working with the guy off and on so when his wife had the baby the guys all took up a collection and had flowers sent. OK, first of all you have to imagine a bunch of carpenters on a job site with no women around somehow figuring this out. What the thought process must have been on this, well it's just funny! So I don't know what possesses me sometimes but I said "Oh, I should make a pumpkin hat" Figuring if I do great, if not, well she got flowers right? So the other day Wayne says to me, "I told John you were making a pumpkin hat for the baby, where is it"? OMG! I guess I really did say that out loud. I don't knit much anymore, but I found my orange and green "Lambs pride cotton" and went to work. I had forgotten how quickly a little baby had knits up and how much I miss knitting. I worked on thought out the day Sunday and finished before Wayne and the boys returned home from Fleet Week celebration in SF.

Cooking Inspiration

2009-10-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while I was surfing new food blogs, a current obsession of mine, I ran across this blog http://food-forthought.blogspot.com/. Scrolling down the site I discovered he/she had posted a recipe for Cannellini beans and kale. Seeing that I had all the ingredients on hand and It sounded wonderful, I went to work.
I used:
1 can of Cannellini beans (Trader Joe's brand)
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
Red Pepper flakes to taste
Diced pancetta
One whole bunch of purple kale, washed and roughly chopped
Sm lemon wedge maybe a teaspoon
Extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Saute the onion, garlic, pancetta and red pepper flakes in a pan w/ olive oil. Add kale and a little water. Cover and cook until leaves are tender at this point I also added a little squirt of fresh lemon.
After the kale is cooked , add the cannellini beans and salt and pepper. Cook until heated through then mash the beans. Plate the dish and drizzle with more olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Serve with sourdough bread. This is how it looked.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can alter it in so many ways. I thought about adding some chopped tomatoes or even a small diced potato. Jazz it up how ever you like!

Home Sweet Home

2009-10-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

A funny story about us is that until now we have never lived in a house long enough to have to do any type of maintenance, like painting or replacing a roof or re-landscape. And because Wayne is a contractor and we have built all but two of our houses, they really don't need anything done to them for a few years. So now, here we are going on year 8 in our lovely home and finding the exterior and interior could use some freshening up and even the landscaping is looking a bit tired. Wayne has had to replace the garbage disposal and repair the dishwasher this month. He even had to repair a broken slate tile in the kitchen. I don't even want to think about the fact that one day we might need to remodel! Moving does have it's advantages, like every couple of years I was able to purge. Now It's an ongoing process of purging. I constantly have items in the back of my car to go to goodwill. Our catch line was always, we'll just build another house. Until now, because we love it here. So let the maintenance begin!

We share a brain

2009-09-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

My sister and I are cut from the same cloth, or as her husband so graciously put it, we share a brain. We often suffer from indecision and forgetfulness. Take yesterday for example, my sister needed to drop her car off in San Mateo for repair. Our plan, as of the night before, was that I was going to pick her up, we would do some shopping and have lunch and I would take her back to her car when it was finished at the repair shop. Sounds simple right? Well, right from the get go our plans went out the window. I called her on her cell phone at 9:00am to tell her I was going to the bank and would head over the hill to meet her after that. When I called she said "Oh, I decided to have Mike (her husband) follow me over and bring me back home because I didn't want to you have to leave so early to meet me. Just pick me up at the house later". This, I am positive put a tail spin on our day. I was dressed and ready to go but I'm good at killing time, I could find something to do for a bit right? So about 10:30ish, after going to the bank and visiting my Mom for a while I picked up my sister at her house and we headed over to the BMW dealer to get a part for my car, by the time we were done with that it was close to lunch time so off we went to our favorite restaurant for our favorite meal of Pho. After devouring our delicious lunch and a trip to Whole foods and Trader Joe's we headed home in a food coma, talking (gossiping) and whatnot. It wasn't until we were all the way back home (corner of hwy 1 & 92) that my sister's phone rang and she was telling her friend how we had gone over the hill to have lunch and pick up her car ........drum roll please...........Yes, one small detail, HER CAR! After all, wasn't "her car" the excuse we were using to have lunch together? With a trunk full of grocery's we couldn't drive all the way back over the hill , we needed to unload, so off to her house first, we pull into the driveway and she realizes she has no key to get in. OMG! At this point we are just bewildered with ourselves! We had to drive to my house, unload, get the key to her house that I luckily had and back to her house to unload her stuff, then back over the hill! But after all was said and done, the bottom line is we got to spend time together, just me and my brain sharing sister! It was a good day and I did still had time last night to make these delicious scones too!

The Real Minerva

2009-09-19T09:47:00.001-07:00

My friend Lynn had recently given me two different books to read. She's a avid reader devouring books as she works out on the treadmill! But unlike Lynn, I don't make the time to read and I most likely won't finish reading a book if I don't like. Which brings me to the first book she gave me. It happened to be by the author of a book I really love, Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. A wonderfully written book that really transports you right into the hard life of a 1930's circus hand, a must read if you haven't already. Riding Lesson's on the other hand was far less enjoyable for me. Looking back, I think it's because of the modern day setting. A story that could be about the middle aged woman living next door (I'm sure that was her point) and I only kept reading it because I thought she was going to have some sort of breakthrough moment in the book, but she never did and in the end I still didn't like the character or her story. I would have been much more interested if the story had been about her mom and dad, I think they had a much more interesting life. But this was not the case with the second book Lynn gave to me. The Real Minerva, written by Mary Sharratt. Lynn said that she had read it in one sitting and that I had better prepare myself for a late night. But what I found myself doing with this book was savoring it. I didn't want to read it in one sitting, honestly I didn't want it to end. I loved the setting of the book, the late 1920's and on. The author tells the harrowing story of three women, their individual struggles, how their lives intertwine and ultimately the outcome of their bravery. I like reading about this time in history. It makes me appreciate what I have and think about what my Grandmother and her generation had lived through not so long ago. I may have to probe a little deeper to find out why I'm so fascinated with this era. I just ordered Mary Sharratt's 1st novel Summit Avenue from the library. It's set in the early 1900's, a coming of age story of a 16 year old German girl sent to live in America. I hope I like it.

Photo collage

2009-09-15T09:28:00.001-07:00

I have a Google Picasa account. A place to store and organize photos and occasionally share them online or through email to family. The problem is I don't spend enough time (any really) on learning how to use the site. The other day I was fooling around and somehow I ended up on my Picasa page and noticed a tab for a collage. What the heck right? It immediately started adding in photos and this is what I ended up with. I liked it so much I put it as my desktop. Most of these pictures are from my friend Lisa, you can see more of her here www.lisadamrosch.com, who took pictures of the boys for her new photography business. I think she did a fabulous job.

First Timer

2009-09-05T11:58:00.001-07:00

There is a first time for everything right? Well , this first time for me was one I thought would never happen. Honestly, I never wanted it to happen until.............my son joined the High School football team,Yikes! Up until last night I could proudly say, I had never watched a football game in my life, not on TV or in person. Sometimes it was hard to avoid in the house I grew up in (big football fans). The honest truth is that it was fun, even if Ian didn't get to play, it was still fun being at the game and cheering on the team. I don't think I would willingly attend a pro or collage game but I will certainly be there to cheer on the Half Moon Bay Cougar football team and Ian.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh................

2009-08-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to see my mom at her work, we had a nice chat and when I was getting ready to leave she stood up onto a stool to reach for something. I said, "Mom, those are cute pants". She said, "Oh, Thanks. I have to take the hem out a little though". I said "oh yeah, it looks like you hemmed them too much". And she said "No, they're capri pants" . You see my mom is only about 4'11'' and the pants were barely above her ankle. We both got a chuckle out of it!

Bitter Sweet and what a treat!

2009-08-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

The First day of school is always so bitter sweet. And this year more so than others as both the boys have moved on to new schools. My days at Hatch elementary are over for good! Actually both Evan and Mom (grandma Jean) have moved on to Cunha middle school across the highway from Hatch. I think the significance here is that after some 30 odd years at Hatch school Jean decided to take the librarian position at the middle school. Her hours had been slashed at Hatch so she's now working a full 8 hours a day! Good luck mom! Evan has a great school schedule and has a good friend in every one of his classes. Not as important for boys as girls but still a nice thing. Ian started at Half Moon Bay High School today, again great schedule. I had to go up today just to change him out of biology and into Earth science his counselor was very supportive and helpful :) Ian is also playing HS football this year (his first time ever) so he has had the advantage of being at school the last week in July for a football camp and everyday in August so no real butterflies about getting around campus. Me? Back to my routine, today I took Evan to school, dropped my car for service, went to Costco and Trader Joe's, meet with Ian's counselor and came home and made baked ribs w/ spicy blackberry sauce and mashed potato's for dinner and Blackberry and plum turnovers w/ cardamon for dessert! If you noticed a theme here your right. I had picked berries at my friends and needed to use them up. But I'll tell you, the spicy blackberry sauce for the ribs? TO DIE FOR! I hope I can wait for everyone to get home!

Where'd the summer go?

2009-08-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy with some fun and not so fun things that I haven't posted for a while. I'm not going to post any of the bad stuff and just stick to the good times. The super fun things are that my Brother David and his family, Wife Megan and kids Paul (14), Hannah(12) and Mark(9) have been here visiting from NC since the 5th of August. We've managed a trip to Malibu miniature golf and go-cart racing where Hannah started out driving like Miss Daisy and ended up like Danica! A trip to San Francisco for Dim Sum and a tour through China Town, They loved the dim sum and looking at all the cheap stuff in the stores and a first for me was a trip to the Fortune cookie factory, it smelled so yummy! They had plenty of beach time boogie boarding and skim boarding and a family portrait at the beach. Paul played in a tennis tournament in Santa Cruz over the weekend and won the 14 singles and is taking home a beautiful trophy! We all went to watch him play, It was great!
Ian had his High School orientation on Friday the 14th , he got his schedule and had a tour of the school. He's also been practicing football for the last couple of weeks, going to 7AM work outs and is now into what they call double sessions (two practices a day). School starts on the 24th. Evan took a brake from Kuk Sool Won for the summer and will get back to it starting in September.
As a special treat us girls,Mom, Rae, Me ,Megan and Hannah went to lunch and had Mani/Pedi's for my birthday! I'm really going to miss my family when they leave to go home, but I'm sure with the start of school and all that is involved with Fall will distract me from missing them.

Camp adventure

2009-07-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

So this weekend we camped in the Eldorado National Forest with a few of our friends. But this was no "sit around the fire telling ghost stories roasting smores" type camping! Oh No. This was a dirt bike camp trip. We had 8 families with about 18 kids and more loud dirty fun than you could imagine. Only one person in our group had been to this area before so we really didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be perfect, a big open area where we could all park our trailers together. There were trees to keep us cool and we could even have fires (which we needed to keep the mosquitoes away)! There was one bummer of the trip when one of our families broke down just a mile from camp and had to be towed in. It was there transmission, ugh. They have a fifth wheel trailer and no one else has one so they had to call someone from home to come and get them. They only stayed the night and left the next afternoon. A couple of the kids were able to stay with us which was nice. The trails were long and very dusty and hot so we made a few trips to the river to cool off. This will be a repeat trip for sure!

Good friends & Good music

2009-07-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night we went to see Death Cab for Cutie at The Greek Theater in Berkeley. The line up was great. Ra Ra Riot from Syracuse NY and Andrew Byrd (from idk) were the warm up bands. Ra Ra Riot was great. They all looked like they were about 16, but turns out after talking to their sound guy they are between 22 and 26 years old. Good entertainers and the singer has a really nice voice. Death Cab was great. The sound was fantastic due to the fact that they have an awesome sound engineer, our friend Will Markwell. It's always a treat to see him and of course we get the special seats right with the mixer and we get to watch him work and visit too. Will's Mom Lynn and Dad Mike were there as well as Will's Girlfriend Nadine. We enjoyed a scrumptious carrot cake that Lynn made for Will. It was strange to have a little rain though, very unexpected for us. Luckily, there were tarps for the sound equipment that we snagged LOL! Will was completely unfazed saying "this is nothing" apparently they've played in wind, rain, sleet and who knows what else!

Pictured: Lynn and Nadine cutting the cake. Mike Markwell, Wayne and Ian. Ian, Will Markwell, Wayne and Evan. Jill (me), Lynn Markwell and Nadine under the tarp.
On Friday I took the boys over to our friend's house so they could ride their dirt bikes. They had fun and I hiked almost to the top of their property. I got a little lost so about 3/4 of the way up I turned around and came back down. Here are a couple of pictures from Friday.

If this is how summer is going to be.............

2009-07-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

Than bring it on! We've had so much going on since school got out I don't even know where to start. I just feel like this is how summer is suppose to be, spending time with family and friends. I feel so blessed just thinking about it.
Some notable highlights so far:
*Both boys went to 4-H camp for a week
*Our annual Father's day camping trip with great friends
*Ian turned 14!
The 4th of July weekend was great. Watching the parade, spending time with friends and watching the fog less fireworks.
But so far the best part of this summer for me was seeing my cousin Matt Deis. He's an East coaster (lol) from my mom's side of the family and is on tour with his band. They played Canada and came down the West coast stopping in Seattle, Portland, Sacramento and Petaluma which is where we met up with him. The boys thought it was great to meet a rock star relative and go on the tour bus. We had dinner and got to catch up. I have something like 78 first cousins on my mom's side alone so it I jumped at the chance to see one of them and it was great.

Milestones

2009-06-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

We had two milestones in the family this week. Ian graduated from 8th grade and Evan from the 5th grade. This means they will both move on to different schools next year. Ian's promotion ceremony was held at the high school on the football field and was super nice. Both sets of grandparents were there which made it even more special.
Evan's promotion was today in the multi use room at his school and honestly, I think he couldn't get out of there (school) fast enough. Elementary school is so different from middle school. It seems like 6 years in one place is too long. He and Wayne went with a couple of other kids and another dad to Malibu grand prix and to lunch. Ian went with is graduating class to Great America (amusement park) today. I'm sure they will both appreciate sleeping in tomorrow! It was a been a busy week for everyone. In case you missed it on the video of Ian some girls yelled out "We love you Ian!"

Boys, Boys, Boys

2009-06-08T08:04:00.001-07:00

Pictures:
#1 Ian
#2 Ian
#3 Evan
I finally made it out to the ride park to see the boys on their dirt bikes. I have to admit I had a great time watching them. And of course Ian was thrilled that I was there so I could take pictures of him riding. Anyone that knows him (Lisa) knows he really likes to have his picture taken! Anyway, Funny story about Evan. We sold his dirt bike back in December because he swore he wasn't going to ride anymore, he really never had much interest it in to begin with. That didn't last long when all of a sudden he said he wanted to ride again. Go figure. Luckily we have another bike he can ride. And Ian the awesome person that he is takes Evan out on the trails and stays with him. Evan is not an aggressive rider but rather very passive. A funny quote from Ian while they were riding "Evan, we don't have to slow down when you see a "slow" sign okay, we're already going slow" Evan, "Oh, Okay"

Promotions galore this week! Middle school comes to an end for Ian this week and will begin for Evan after summer. The past 3 years have gone by too fast. It's hard for me to believe I will have a High schooler in the fall. So we have a busy week planned with Ian's 8th grade promotion on Wednesday night followed by a class trip to Great America the next day. And Evan's 5th grade promotion is Thursday morning. He already had his class trip to Raging Water's last week. On Saturday we're having a combined 5th & 8th grade promotion party at a friends. On Sunday we drop them off at 4-H camp for a week! But it doesn't end there! On the following Friday we pick them up at camp and head right down to Santa Cruz KOA for our annual Father's Day camp out with our friends. Everyone's happy and looking forward to summer!

June 4, 1994

2009-06-04T08:21:00.001-07:00

Wow! I wonder if the next 15 years will go by as fast. I hope not.

Birthday Girl

2009-05-23T17:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my sister Rae's birthday! Unfortunately she's been in the process of moving her store and has been working umpteen hours a day all week. The grand re-opening will be on Monday and after that things should start to settle down for her again. Then we can celebrate! Happy Birthday Rae!

Memorial weekend?

2009-05-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

I had no idea this was the long weekend until people started taking about what they were going to do etc. Isn't it usually the last weekend in May? Anyway, previous to finding out about the long weekend we made commitments, Ian and Evan are dog sitting for two different neighbors that were smart enough to make plans. And both of the boys are going to be in a Portuguese Holy Spirit festival in Pescadero called Chamarita. Evan did it last year after he was invited by a friend to hold a pole that encompasses the queen in the parade or in that case it was the little queen. So this year they needed help again and we said sure. So that falls on Sunday right in the middle of the weekend. You'd think the way I'm carrying on about it that we would have done something else when in reality I hate to do things on the long weekends because of the crowds and drunks on the road. But I would have considered going to my mother in laws in Sonora where I'm sure the sun is out and the temperature is over 50 degrees! So feeling a bit bad about hanging around all weekend, Wayne took the boys dirt bike riding in Hollister today. Some of our other friends were already there so I'm sure they're having fun. I stayed back to take care of the dogs the boys are watching. I also took advantage of the free time and rented a couple of movies I didn't think anyone else would want to see, The secret life of bees and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, both were good but during Ben Button I got up and made some tea, did some laundry and came back without feeling like I missed any thing. It was too long, but I kept watching because I was curious how it would end. Hench the curious in the title I guess. I liked the Secret life of bees too although I thought the book was better.
And......there are just 13 days left of this school year. The last week of school is usually a total waste of time, especially for Ian this year. They go by bus to the High school twice during the week to practice the promotion ceremony that will be held there in the evening on Wednesday June 10th, Then they go to Marriott's Great America on Thursday and that's it for middle school for Ian. Evan has his promotion ceremony in the Morning on June 11th. His big 5th grade trip is to Raging Waters and that will be on June 4th. It's hard to believe the school year is over. They both go to 4-H camp for a week starting the Sunday after school get out, then we go to the KOA in Santa Cruz for Father's day weekend with our friends again. Fun times are coming!

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

Or should I say weekend? We did have the usual running around on Saturday, Evan had his Kuk Sool Won competition and won! Yeah, Evan :) Ian had a work day for this weekend's Redneck Rodeo at Long Branch Farms. Everything was wrapped up by 1:00pm so we headed over the hill to have lunch and do some shopping for our Mother's Day lunch we hosted at our house. We first went to an Asian buffet that Wayne had been to a couple of times for lunch (it's across the street from where he's working) He said the sushi was fresh and it was, but everything else was mediocre at best. Of course it didn't stop me from eating it all! The boys LOVED it. I think it reminded them of the cruise where they could eat whatever they wanted and they did. Note to self, buffets are a good place to take hungry teenagers, LOL. When we got home Wayne took the boys dirt bike riding for a couple of hours and I rented the movie "The Wrestler" for Wayne and I to watch and "Hotel for Dogs" for the boys. It worked out well that the Boys ended up taking their movie across the street to their friends who wanted to see it with them and we were able to watch our movie earlier in the evening and hench avoided falling asleep during it! LOL I actually don't think I would have fallen asleep, it was an awesome movie, very touching.
On Sunday, we had the pleasure of Wayne's mom Diane for lunch along with my family, the weather was beautiful and we were able to sit outside for a while and enjoy the day and had a great lunch of Tilapia (thank you Giada for the great recipe), asparagus, salad and fresh strawberry shortcake for dessert.. Diane spent the night so today She and I are going to have some breakfast and tour the new Oceano Hotel and mall that Wayne worked on all of last year. She hasn't seen it finish yet. I was a wonderful weekend.

Redneck what??

2009-05-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

Redneck Rodeo that is!. This is an event put on in a joint venture by the Half Moon Bay High School FFA and the Half Moon Bay 4-H kids, it will be Saturday May 16th from 2-8PM at Long Branch Farms. Last year was the first year they did it and I have to say, we had the best time. They have Redneck games, a dunk tank, panning for gold, watermelon spitting contest and a great dinner, tritip for only $10.00 and $5.00 for hot dog and fixins'. The games are ticketed just like a carnival, 1 or 2 tickets per play etc. fun for the whole family. We'll be there again, I better start working on my costume for this years costume contest. You know I won last year! LOL

Note to self............

2009-05-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, a note to myself. Wear Lipstick! XOXO

Wet Wedding Weekend

2009-05-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, just as reported it was a wet weekend. Like the song by Alanis Morissette said isn't it ironic, We haven't been to a wedding in a couple of years and this weekends wedding was suppose to be outside at the new Oceano hotel and spa in Half Moon Bay. We were looking forward to seeing the hotel finished and in business after Wayne and the groom Mark worked on for 18 months or so doing all the finish trim. It didn't disappoint, it was a first class wedding. The ceremony was moved inside to the atrium and I think it was probably better than outside sometimes you can't hear anything outside. The food was wonderful, the grand ballroom was gorgeous as was the bride. She was aglow and she let us all know why at the reception! OK, I have to admit it was a first for me but whatever, they couldn't be happier it was truly a great wedding! It turns out they had the same pastor Terry Plank and the same cake made by Elegant cheesecakes, so of course we did a lot of reminiscing about our wedding coming up on 15 years ago this June! Our pictures didn't turn out very good but you can see the cake is actually a bunch of little cakes that they served. Yum!
Ian and Evan stayed home so we decided to have a kids day on Sunday, but with the rain our choices were limited a movie seemed like the best option. There are not many movies playing that both of the boys wanted to see so we decided on The Soloist not really knowing what it was about it turned out to be really good, even Evan liked it. It makes you think about what it must be like to have a family member suffer from schizophrenia. So after the movie and realizing that it wasn't exactly a kids movie we took the boys to Malibu go cart racer. Ian didn't race because his legs were sore from working out. LOL So just Evan raced and he had a blast. Overall, it was a pretty good weekend.

In my next life.........

2009-04-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

I want to be a cat. Not just any cat though. Hopefully my cat will come back as me and I will come back as her! Can you say spoiled.

Dream Machines

2009-04-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

We started a tradition a few years ago of having all of our friends meet here at our house in the morning so that they could all drive into the Deam Machine's show and park together. I usually stay back and enjoy the day before they return from the show to eat and hang out, but this year I decided to ride in with them in the morning which was nice because it's not very crowded and it's easier to see all the cars and misc stuff they have there. I took a bunch of pictures and looked forward to posting some, but when I uploaded them I realized I only had a few. So I can only imagine that someone has some really great pictures on their camera! I didn't even see the whole show because it's so big. Airplanes flying all over, including a Japanese Zero, monster trucks crushing cars and giving rides, every type of small and large gas engine on display, motorcycles, classic and modified cars. They had a great display of Half Moon Bay drag strip memorablia from the 1960's. You name it, there is something for everyone. And the whole thing is put on to raise money for the Coastside seniors by some very dedicated volunteers.

Murphy's Law

2009-04-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

I knew that finding the perfect strappie sandals to go with my perfect little skirt and than a great little white jacket with a belt tie and short sleeves was too good to be true. I just looked at the wedding invitation and saw the time of the wedding is 4PM! Ugh. My little ensemble would be perfect for and 11:00 shindig. Oh, whats a girl to do?

Scan,scan,scan

2009-04-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

I love looking at our old pictures and now that I've figured out how to scan them in I'll start posting some of my favorites. These are from a trip to Kauai, Grampa wanted to cut some bananas from the tree in the back yard. The boys were so excited! Grandma Yamane used to ask me to make her banana pancakes when we were there, I loved that she asked me.

Spring Break Day Days 5 & 6

2009-04-18T09:55:00.001-07:00

Evan lucked out on day 5 when grandma called and offered to take him to the movie Monster vs aliens in 3-D. I went to work and Ian stayed home because he landed a couple of dog feeding/walking jobs for some neighbors. He was stoked to earn some money. At the end of the day we decided we would take Ian to a dirt bike race in Ukiah and that we would take the trailer and camp overnight. Sounds fun but I knew that the trailer was a mess after the winter and it would need some serious work not to mention getting food and packing. So first thing in the morning on Day 6 I start my list and packing and all of a sudden I realize that Evan not only has Black Belt training but he also has a competition on Saturday! DUH. So It was actually easier now that just Wayne and Ian were going. I got the trailer ready for them and packed up some food and off they went. They caravaned with some friends whose boys were also racing. I sent them with the camera and hope they remember to use it! I'm sure their having a blast.

Green Day and SB day #4

2009-04-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

Well, when I asked how the concert was the overwhelming response was "LOUD". We've been to so many concerts and many of them are loud but it's seems like recently the one's we've seen were not so I didn't send Ian with earplugs, bad mom! Wayne was feeling pretty bad about it too. But besides that they said it was "really long" and "really good". Apparently the band played their whole new album cover to cover(see above program) than came back and played for about another hour. Wayne said the first part was a little strange because he or anyone else for that matter knew any of the songs, but overall said the new album sounded good. The whole concert was filmed too. He also said the Fox Theater which has just reopened is beautiful maybe that's why they chose that venue to film?.
So that was Tuesday. On Wednesday went to work and the boys slept in, Grandma came over to check on them, they hung out until I came home for lunch then I took Evan to his friends and they went to Kuk Sool Won together. Because it's Spring Break the school is having "fun" week. Yesterday was twins day so Evan and his friend dressed alike. I should have taken a picture it was too cute. His friend is here for a sleepover (3rd time this week :) and I'm going into work later this morning. Ian is working on getting some people together for a ride this weekend, I hope he can work it out. The weather is suppose to get warm and I think we're all ready for that!

Spring Break Day 3

2009-04-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

In keeping with our Japanese theme, yesterday Evan requested a "special" dinner in his honor. So off we went to the Japanese food store to buy what we needed to make sushi and somen, his favorite. Our Japanese exchange student actually taught us how to make somen which is a cold noodle soup, he brought everything to make it from Japan but no matter how many times we make it, it never tastes as good as when he made it for us. Anyway, after a short stop to Trader Joe's Evan announces he's starving and I remember a noodle house across from the Japanese food store, of course I've never been there because no matter when you go there is always a line outside. So I'm thinking this place must be good and it's only 11:15am we'll check it out. When we get there we're surprised to see no line, oh, because the place doesn't open until 11:30. So I tell Evan lets run in the store and get the things we need and when we come out it should be open. No kidding we came out of the store a couple of minutes later and there was a line! The restaurant wasn't even open yet and the girl is outside taking orders. So we get in line, the restaurant opens and we sit down to look at the menu. Guess what? They only have ramen nothing else and it was by far the best ramen we've had. We'll definitely go back.
Today we're off to Planet Granite to do some rock climbing and tonight Ian and Wayne are going to see Greenday at a little theater in Oakland called the Fox theater. I guess Greenday has been playing these little venues and announcing it just the day before. The tickets went on sale yesterday at 5pm and sold out in a matter of minutes. A good friend of ours works for Another Planet so he had tickets put into will call for us. The Fox is a pretty small place so it should be fun.
The photos above I scanned today:
Ian, me and Grandma Yamane 1997
Wayne, Ian and Evan 2001

Spring Break Day 1

2009-04-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

I'm sure your sick of seeing my old post by now so here's a little update. Ian is feeling a bit better after coming down with "the crud" that has been going around. He has motivation as we're going to our friends today for an Easter party. These are the people we went on the cruise with and are so much fun to be around. They have a beautiful house on 60 acres so the kids ride there dirt bikes and have tons of fun running around outside. They also have a pool and hot tub. It's a kids paradise. Before we go down to the party Evan has a Pan Moin competition at Kuk Sool Won. The kids are broken up into teams and have weekly tournaments for a few weeks and the team with the most points wins. This will be the 3rd year he's been in Pan Moin.
Yesterday, the 1st day of spring break, Evan, my mom and I went to Japantown in San Francisco. I hadn't been there in awhile so we had lunch and walked around . It's so beautiful, the Cherry Blossom Festival is this weekend and next so they were setting up tents and getting ready. Evan loves all things Japanese so he had a good time, he had a huge bowl of Udon and a California roll for lunch. Ian was up and around by the time we got home. Hopefully no one else comes down with anything and we can enjoy our time off.

It finally happened

2009-03-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

I got the flu. I had been feeling a bit tired on Thursday night so I decided to take a shower before American Idol came on. I sat down with Evan to watch and I couldn't make it through the show. My arms were aching as was my neck and joints. I went to bed and woke up Saturday I don't even remember Friday. I missed our friend Travis' funeral service on Saturday but couldn't imagine sitting through a 2 hour mass when I couldn't even sit up. Wayne went for us and said it was nice to see all of his (Travis') friends there for him. So now I'm anxiously watching the rest of the family hoping they don't also come down with it. I was thinking that this year was a late season for the flu than I remembered last year the boys both had it over spring break and I almost canceled our trip to Disneyland. We ended up going anyway and made the most of it. Working in a orthodontic office is kind of like working at a school the kids come in sick all the time. I like the old preschool rule, 24 hours fever free before returning. I want to thank Mike and Lynn for the movies. Yesterday I watched Transformers, Big Fish, Legends of the fall and Mr. Destiny. Wayne was the best caretaker ever! Keeping the boys busy while I slept and rested. I'm going to attempt to function today, mainly grocery shopping. Evan is on an all day fieldtrip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He loves that place! Their going by coach so I decided not to go. Which is a good thing considering the headache I still have.

Cross Country

2009-03-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Ian did get to do his first Cross Country last Sunday even though it was cold and wet with periods of hail and wind and bits of rain mixed with sun. There were a ton of racers, I think over 60 in his class alone. They line them all up according to race experience, racers that have come in the top start first, then 30 seconds later the next group (Ian's group) then 1 minute later another group starts. It's very time consuming to get them all ready. The dad's all stand out with their kids and give them pep talks and final advice. The kids wear a little device on their chest protector that records their time and number at the checkpoint and posts it on a board so that you can see how they are doing. Most of the course is in the mountains so you can't see them until they come to the checkpoint. Ian did 3 laps and averaged 22 minutes on the 6 mile course. He placed 29th which was great for his first time. The winner averaged 17 minutes per 6 miles. So now Ian knows what he needs to do to move up. I have to admit I was nervous and relieved that he didn't get hurt. He's already for the next one and we'll be there to cheer him on!

Evan kicked and broke

2009-03-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Weird title I know, Evan was involved in a fundraiser today at his Kuk Sool Won studio. He raised money for the Diana J. East Breast Cancer Foundation named for the mother of one of his teachers Sheri. Basically he got people to sponsor him either for a flat rate or per kick. He broke 25 boards and kicked 1680 times! A number of the kids broke 100 boards! Most of those kids didn't stay for the kicking part. I'm sure they went home to ice their hands! The event was 4 hours long and Evan kicked for 1 1/2 hours strait! It was a fun, low key event and a great way for the kids to be involved in something bigger than themselves. They should all feel proud. The day has been drizzly and cold so we decided on watching movies and having popcorn for the rest of our day. Tomorrow we meet Ian and our friends the Andrieni's (who have Ian with them) down in Hollister where if weather permits we will watch Ian in his first Cross Country motorcycle race. I hope the weather holds out for him, he desperately wants to do this. Hopefully my next post will include Ian's standings in the race. Stay tuned!

Music to my ears and a fabulous haircut

2009-03-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

My kids walk around the house singing all the time. It really doesn't matter what the song, to me its the sweetest sound in the world. It makes me happy and I'm so grateful to them for that. When I first started dating Wayne he would "woo" me by playing the guitar and occasionally still does :)
Oh, and the fabulous haircut part! It's true.

Unbelievable

2009-03-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just can't believe what I'm hearing. Things like AGI not taking responsibility for its failure, taking tax payers money and than giving out bonus and the unthinkable Bernie Madoff, I mean really! How could anyone be so greedy and evil? But the news today from Pope (what ever his name is now) on a visit to Africa proclaiming that the Roman Catholic church stands behind its decision to discourage the use of condoms as a way to prevent the spread of AIDS and HIV is unconscionable, unscientific and will ultimately lead to an increase spread of HIV. It's just not fair to expect people to live by the word of a outdated religion.

What have you been up to lately?

2009-03-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like your so busy you haven't taken a breath, then someone you haven't seen for a while will ask you "what new"," what have you been up to lately"? I swear, every time that happens to me I go blank. It's all the mundane things that no one really wants to hear about thats been keeping you so busy. Do they really want to know about your tax preparations or the cleaning and running around you've been doing? Honsestly, I think for us mom's we're hoping our friends they might have a story or two to brighten our days. So we ask," What have you been up to lately"?

1 to 10 and back again

2009-03-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

1.) Evan turned 11!
2.) David (my brother)came for the weekend
3.) Saw Slumdog Millionaire
4.) Went to Sacramento on an overnight field trip
w/ Evan's class
5.) The passing of a good friend Travis
6.) The passing of my mom's brother Rosco
7.) The rain finally came
8.) Taxes
9.) Snowboarding this weekend, again
10.) 4-H meetings
10.) Can't upload pictures on to the computer....Again
9.) Suddenly can right click again. yeah
8.) Tour De Calif. barreled past my front door.
Exciting at the time, don't know who won.
7.) Ian has a girlfriend
6.) Evan passed his test for this first black stripe, on his way to black belt
5.) Started knitting again, a sweater.
4.) Celebrated Mike's b-day
3.) Mike got his braces off!
2.) Wayne's working! Yeah
1.) I promise never to do this again. Cross my heart.

Get yours now

2009-02-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

We were lucky to have some pictures taken by my good friend Lisa Damrosch. I love these pictures so much, they really capture a moment in time which is exactly what you want from a photographer . Ian is into riding and Skating and Evan in his Kuk Sool Won. I'm so excited to show everyone and to let you know where you can get yours! http://lisadamrosch.typepad.com/photography/

Bad Cat

2009-02-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

And they thought I ate the whole bag!

ChinaTown

2009-02-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

Wayne and Ian planned a trip to Hollister Hills about a hour or so south of here to ride dirt bikes on Sunday. Originally Evan said he wanted to go and to make a long story short I talked him out of it. Numerous reasons like: He doesn't have a bike anymore, he'd have to get up at 5:00am, I'd have to go too. You get the point, so as part of my bargaining I suggested a few places he and I could go instead. So out of a fairly long list he choose Chinatown, One of my personal favorites too. We took BART into the city, walked a few blocks to "City View " our favorite Dim Sum restaurant, than started up the hill to the heart of china town, that's when we heard the firecrackers and drumming. What a treat! There was a dragon going from shop to shop stopping in the doorway to do a dance than the firecrackers would go off. Bang, Bang, Bang! You and imagine how excited we were to stumble upon this Chinese New Year tradition of blessing each business. We finished up with some shopping for "only in Chinatown" stuff and of course brought home some steamed pork buns! Yum!!

This shouldn't be happening.

2009-01-30T15:18:00.000-08:00

As beautiful as this is It just shouldn't be happening right now. It's only the end of January and with more record highs this weekend it's not looking good for our water supply. I remember in the 70's we had to ration our water we would collect our washing machine rinse water into a bucket and than use that water to flush with, after that it took me years to be able to flush the toilet w/ only one use! Oh, between the gas shortage of the 70's (even and odd fill up days) and the water rationing (If it's yellow let it mellow, If it's brown flush it down), I feel like I'll have something to tell my grand kids one day! LOL For now I'll just enjoy the beauty of our screwy winter.

This is driving me crazy!

2009-01-29T19:48:00.001-08:00

This is Evan's Ipod Nano. He got this from Santa for Christmas and has been a pain in my side ever since. Really it has nothing to do with Evan or the Ipod. It's all me. Shortly after Evan got it he downloaded this game "ZUMA" and showed me how to play. Well, who knew! It's just like Crack! One time and your hooked, seriously hooked. I even have pain in my wrist from the repetitive movement. But the good news...........I'm on level 9!

Snow and Skate

2009-01-26T09:39:00.001-08:00

On Sunday I ventured out of my comfort zone yesterday and drove in the snow. Surprisingly, I wasn't as nervous as I though I'd be , it started to snow almost immediately but didn't stay on the ground until we got to about 3500 ft. (we started at 2500ft.) There were almost no other cars on the road and it actually made the drive more comfortable. No one tailgating or throwing up sand. The boys had a great time boarding/skiing in the "powder" and I got to read (Midnight in the garden of good and evil) in the lodge.

On Saturday we had a 4-H Ice skating get together, Ian didn't skate because he didn't want his ankles to hurt for snowboarding? I had to practically drag Evan and his friend off the ice. We left directly from the ice skating to drive to my mother in laws 2 1/2 hours away. We decided to see a movie and I actually laughed through the whole thing (almost as much as the guy sitting in front of me). If you want to just laugh, go see Paul Blart, Mall cop. It's pretty dam funny!

Up and running

2009-01-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

If your on Facebook you know that my computer had some problems this month, but I'm back up and running thanks to our friend Paul. I got a 1TB external hard drive and he showed me how to back up my information, he also suggested I edit my pictures. LOL Funny because in the "digital age" we/I just shoot, shoot, shoot and it's true that I have sometimes as many as 5 of basically the same picture.
I decided last year to make a "bucket list" rather than a "new years resolution" It makes so much since to me. Rather than the generic: lose weight, get into shape, eat better. I can make a list that I can add to and cross off. So this year I'm adding visit Savannah Georgia to it. Who knows when I'll get there but when I do I'll cross it off. Last year I crossed off go to Yosemite. I don't have anything to crazy on it like sky diving, but I do have take a snowboarding lesson on it. The boys ask me every time we go if I'll try it. I have a feeling I'll be crossing that off my list soon.
Pictured above:
Evan
Niece Kelsea, Ian and Evan @ Dodge Ridge CA.

Likability

2009-01-15T08:06:00.000-08:00

Ian has this thing about him. Not a bad thing necessarily, He's just likable. I've tried to explain to him how lucky he is to have this gift. And how much easier life will be for him simply because people like him. But in thinking about that today I've decided that it's not all good. For instance, whenever I've meet with his teachers whether it be for teacher conferences or with a specific problem they always start by telling me how wonderful he is and how much he participates and contributes to the class and my concerns are "poopooed" as I'm told not worry he's doing fine. So last night after the science fair at his school I approached his science teacher to basically apologize for Ian's disastrous project and thank her for her efforts ( I didn't want her to feel like all of her effort was in vain). She went on to tell me with a huge smile on her face, starting with an "ahhhhh" "Ian has a beautiful spirit, he contributes so much to the class, I really like him". So I makes me wonder? Did she even look at his project?

Bad Blogger

2009-01-07T07:54:00.000-08:00

Turns out I'm not so good at this blogging thing. The truth is I kinda knew this already. Oh, Well. I was going to post a couple of pictures from the final Christmas festivities we had over the past weekend, but something is wrong with the computer and won't "read" the SD card? When I figure it out I will post again.
Otherwise, We finally got the Christmas decorations back into the attic, boys are back in school, Wayne is back to work and so am I.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas day went off without a hitch. My kids are not early risers so I woke them up about 9:00 am, opened some presents and had a nice brunch. Seems as though everyone got what they wanted. Ian a much need new snowboard, Evan a Ipod Nano (I washed his shuffle), Wayne a gift certificate for a massage and I some beautiful earrings. After a very relaxing morning, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house about 1:30 and didn't even start opening presents there until about 3:00. It's sort of nice that the kids are older and it's not all about the opening gifts. We enjoyed each others company , as we usually do. Ate so many appetizers that we opted not to eat dinner and played games the rest of the night. The hit presents was the Wii fit a gift from uncle Mike to everyone. (Last year he bought the Wii) Seeing everyone Hula Hoop! You had to be there. I'd like to point out my Wii age is 36! Not too bad. :)
New Years Eve is also Grandmas birthday and everyone will be coming over here to celebrate! Party hats and all.
Here's wishing you all a new year filled with peace, hope and love. We're all in this together!

Christmas EveTradition

2008-12-24T11:11:00.001-08:00

It's become a Christmas tradition for us to have Crab Chippino on Christmas Eve. Evan took these pictures this morning at the harbor while buying the crab from the fisherman. Later we'll take them to grandma's house and she'll work her magic to come up with the best dinner, Chippino and sour dough bread. Yum. Happy Christmas Eve!

Hamburger Virgin

2008-12-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

How ever stupid the commercial is, the conversation that perused between 10 year old E--- and me was hilarious. If you haven't seen the commercial it basically portraits a "person" who supposedly has never eaten a hamburger before. A "hamburger virgin". He/she tries a Whopper from BK and than a McSomething and then chooses the Whopper as the best tasting hamburger. Whatever!
So here is the conversation:

E: Oh, I thought that (a virgin) was someone who didn't eat meat?

Me: No.....That's a vegetarian.

E: Oh, Than its the kind of person that doesn't eat any type of animal at all?

Me: No.....That's a Vegan.

E: Huh, Than whats a virgin?

Me: A person who's never tried a hamburger?

Crazy Cat

2008-12-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

This is our Puddin'. Otherwise known as Puddin' head, Puddin' tater, Puddin' cake, Puddin' Puddin', Sweet pea,Sweet potato, Sweet puddin'. Her collar says "kitten". And just as you would expect form a cat, she answers to none of them.

Cruise Quotes & Highlights

2008-12-01T07:50:00.000-08:00

Quote from Evan, "I don't think I'll go on another cruise"
Quote from Ian,"When are we going on another cruise?"
Quote from Jill, " I'm not planning on going on another cruise"
Quote from Wayne, "Ian and I will go again"

Highlights from the trip include:
2 for 1 Margarita's
Good friends
Kids running crazy (sometimes all night)
Laughing, a lot

Lucky Wayne

2008-11-20T06:31:00.000-08:00

I know your thinking...Huh, I don't see Wayne in the picture anywhere. So what makes him so lucky? It's an inside joke with all of his friends, they call him the luckiest person they know. It's hard to deny after all he has me and I haven't killed him yet. That's pretty lucky! He also has two fantastic boys, friends and family that would do anything for him, a beautilful house, And a collection of cars that even Jay Leno would envy. Anyway, he's been on a roll lately winning concert tickets from KFOG our favorite station, earlier this year he won Bruce Springsteen tickets and a cd collection. Some lucky friend of Wayne's went to see him as we didn't want to go. He also just won Loudon Wainwright tickets for this January at the Great American Music Hall SF (we're going to that one) and of course the Alanis Morrestte tickets that My sister and I just enjoyed. So I guess I'm pretty lucky too. I did once win a Disneyland trip. But the Alanis story is pretty funny. See Wayne didn't win the meet and greet tickets, just regular seats. But when we came in the beautiful Oakland Paramount theater we saw the KFOG table set up and I went up to say HI and thank them for the tickets. She asked me If I was there for the meet and greet and I said....No:( but she looked at the list and one couple hadn't come yet. So after sometime, I think an hour, the Warner Bros. guys came out gave some really lame rules "don't do this" "don't say that" Then he started passing out the back stage passes and there you have it. So whether you call it luck or Persistence, I think we both have it. Keep dialing babe!

November

2008-11-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, November.......it's been a relatively busy month despite my neglectful blogging. I'm having somewhat of a mental block or should I say mental breakdown this month. See we're scheduled to go on a cruise a week from today. And I'm hyper focused on it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get Noro virus (cruis ship virus) or sea sick or hate the food or feel trapped. I know! I'm completely NUTS! I'll probably have a great time. The best part of the trip is we're going to have a visit with our friends the Scarboroughs who moved to San Jose Del Cabo a couple of years ago. I can't wait to see them.
I'll post the picture we gave to them when they were moving. Did I mention how excited I am to see them? Maybe I can stay with them and catch the ship on the way back.

Kuk Sool Won Tournament

2008-11-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we all went to Oakland for Evan's very first competition in Kuk Sool Won. Even Grandma Di and Bert came (see picture). There is alot I could say about the 12+ hours that we spent in a crowded collage gymnasium but I think I'll just keep it positive and mention that Evan did very good. Despite his having to wait 2 1/4 hours for his turn to compete, he got a silver medal in techniques, a signature from The Grand Master and got to see some of the best in his sport do a demonstration. And made a new friend as well. Truth be told, Evan held up better than I did!