Jenn's Gems

Summer Fun

2011-07-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

I remember when summer was fun and relaxing. We went swimming all day or night, or all day and night. We got up when we wanted to. We went to San Diego for vacation for a week here and there. We went to the mall, summer concerts, etc…Yes, we did chores, but they didn’t absorb mass amounts of our free time. This, of course, was summer as child.

Summer as an adult is much different. Even though it’s summer, I still have to get up on time and go to work. I have to do chores that take up mass amounts of time (if I get behind on them). I don’t get to go swimming all day or all night (unless I've snuck away for the day and taken Q to SunSplash). Summer means: get everything done that can’t be scheduled during the school year. Currently, my big project is moving. Even though we're just going a few miles down the road, we have to pack everything like moving across three states. It's not fun, but we are looking forward to being in our new place. A townhouse. No one below us or above us, so I don't have to keep reminding Quentin to quiet down. Cute little backyard too! And a fireplace. But, my favorite thing about the new place is that it has dual master bedrooms! Yes, I finally get my own bathroom! I haven't had my own bathroom since...uh, I think it was back in 1994 when I had my own apartment for a while. Good grief!
The fun part about summer as an adult is getting to watch the kids enjoy summer as a child. Andrew and I took the boys to Disneyland for a few days last month.

We were able to get a great deal on a hotel that had a kid’s suite. Austin called it their “man cave”. Too funny! The suite included bunk beds for the kids. We were a little nervous that they’d fight over who got to sleep where, but Andrew and I ended up really impressed that they boys worked out their sleeping arrangements on their own. They’re solution was to take turns sleeping on the top bunk each night. It worked out great!

I am doing my best to make summers for Quentin similar to my summers as a child. He sleeps most of the morning. He gets to go to Grandma’s house off and on. Okay, it’s not in San Diego, but he loves Sonora and he’s still getting spoiled. He has chores, but they’re not overwhelming. Last summer we went to a couple of concerts, but this summer we haven’t seen any advertised that we felt we couldn’t miss.

For the weekend of July 4th Andrew and I went on a trip by ourselves. We “cruised” to Phoenix and Las Vegas. Good gravy, it was HOT! It was 119 degrees when we crossed the state line. We visited my Dad and Yvonne for a day. Andrew got Dad hooked on the Stupid Zombies game on his phone.

We also got to visit with Andrew’s friend Jarrod and his fiancé Debbiesue. They were great! I loved watching Andrew and Jarrod remind of each other of things they’d done when they were younger.

When we were done visiting we headed home, via Las Vegas. We went to lunch at Serendipity 3, where the portions are ridiculously humongous! But, the drinks are spectacular! If you ever go, sit at the bar and ask if Juan is working. He’s awesome.

The Bellagio is as amazing as ever. Our room had a view of the lake and I swear I could sit by the window and stare at those fountains for hours on end. It’s a good think they’re only on every 30 minutes. LOL

Andrew was like a kid in a candy store at the Carroll Shelby Mustang Museum.

We got to sign the wall in the manufacturing area. The cars are unreal. I would really like to take this one for a spin!

Piepalooza

2011-06-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

I love my job! One of our vendors lost a bet with my boss and as a result he got a pie in the face.

Here is the pre-pie picture.

Post-pie picture. :-)

But, it wasn't fun enough to just watch Scot get pie in the face...we had to eat pie too!

Pie, ice cream, cheesecake, chocolate tarts, and I don't know what else. Piepalooza!

5K...

2011-05-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the year I watched a news story about a 5K walk/run event for charity. I remember doing one in L.A./Hollywood many years ago with Rob. Actually, that might have been a 10K. I don't remember, which is nothing new to me as of late. What I do remember is that at the end of the walk we saw Jamie Lee Curtis! That was pretty cool. And, that is the only time I have been to Hollywood. Anyway, (please excuse my squirrel moment), I half-heartedly made completing a 5K a goal of mine for the year.

A few weeks ago I stared the Weight Watchers program and low and behold they were advertising the Weight Watchers Walk-It Challenge 5K Walks! My half-hearted goal was thrown in my face every time I logged on to the website. So, I decided to do it.

I also suckered my friend Megan into doing it with me!

She was a good sport about it even though she did not like waking up so early on a Sunday morning. :-)

There were almost 700 people there!

Clearly, we did not finish first. But, we didn't finish last either. It was fun! Megan wants to do another one. She thinks we should run the next one. I think she's CRAZY!

Thoughtful Thursday

2011-05-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

This past month has been interesting, stressful, exciting, disappointing, but still good. Easter was spent at my Mom's house in the morning and then at Laura and Andy's house for lunch in the afternoon.

Justin and Lily had a good time working together on the decorating.

Andrew and Austin were able to spend most of the holiday with us, which was great for me! The kids had a great time hunting eggs, especially the bonus plastic eggs that Mom put money in.

Chandel made the cutest egg of all and we named it Rockin' Robin. Sadly, later he was part of the potato salad...Well, sad for Chandel due to the fact that she had grown attached to it, but yummy for me. :-)

The stressful and disappointing aspect of the past month come from me screwing up royally at work. I don't like making mistakes. I especially don't like making mistakes at work. I was supposed to hold a conference call with four County Directors. No problem, I can handle it. I was completely prepared. Had my agenda prepared, had my notes template ready to go, had the conference call number all ready to go. How could I possibley screw this up? Only one way. I FORGOT to make the call!!!! Pure stupidity. I'm thinking about going in for a brain scan. Seriously. I hope it's not a tumor.

The exciting part is that reservations have been made for our vacation with the boys next month. We still need to make some final decisions on some of the trip details, but I'm trying not to be such a "control freak" about those decisions right now. It's hard on me though. I think they can wait a week, or maybe two. :-)

We finally received notification that Quentin was approved a transfer to another school district, so we'll be moving this summer. I do not like moving. I'm already thinking about what stuff I'm going to get rid of just so that I don't have to move it. It's not a big move...just a few miles away. We need to find a place that is within walking distance of the school because there is no school provided transportation thanks to the State budget. I can't believe he is going to be in Junior High. He has changed so much in the last few months. It's difficult on both of us. Here is one of my pictures of him when he was a baby. I think he was 6 or 8 months old in this one. Now he is 12 1/2 and has acne! Uggghhh!

Monday Musings

2011-03-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

1. It is an absolutely gorgeous day outside and I wish I could go bask in the sunshine!

2. I wish there were such a thing as a "How to Put Your DIRTY Laundry in the Clothes Hamper" training session for children. Really. Seriously.

3. I smiled today when I saw my favorite flower (Ranuculus) for the first time of the season. I had to stop and take a picture, so I could see it again later. :-)

4. I love that Quentin loves the Nook Color we bought this past weekend. I truly hope it helps him to concentrate on what he's reading and not how many pages are still remaining to be read. The first book he purchased electronically? "Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder" Yes, he is all boy!

Blog, What Blog?

2011-03-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay...so, I've been slacking on the blogging. Sorry, but you can read about everything on Facebook! :-)

We've been very busy since my last post. We've celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Valentine's Day! Trust me when I say, we were truly thankful at Thaknsgiving; knew we were blessed at Christmas (and always); partied like parents with 9 and 12 year olds on New Year's Eve; and were very loved on Valentine's Day.

Summer vacations are rapidly approaching. We've got plans in the works and some of them could include any combination of the following: Phoenix, Disneyland, Sea World, Las Vegas, or who knows what...depending on funding and the general mood of all of those involved. Whatever the next few months bring, I know I'll enjoy it and I hope everyone else does too!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Nor Cal Renaissance Faire

2010-10-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

Okay okay, I'll try to do better with my updating of this blog. I'm making no promises though.

At the beginning of the month we took a little trip to Hollister and went to the Northern California Renaissance Faire. Quentin loves the jousting and of course anything having to do with swords and other weaponry. He's such a boy.

The first thing we did was see the Moonie comedy show. It was hilarious! The guy does his introduction and then informs the audience that the show is a non-speaking show, so he'll no longer be talking. Well, that lasts until someone in the audience, or a show participant, does something he doesn't agree with. Then, he laughs at himself and has to put back on his "quiet" face. :-)

Austin rented the Robin Hood costume for the day, but Quentin wasn't interested. He opted to wear his new fedora all day and received many compliments on it.

We watched the jousting, saw the queen, Austin participated in a story telling skit, and Quentin tried his hand at the bow and arrow.

He did pretty well. There were some that got away from him, but he got a bulls-eye too.

I think he was inspired by his instructor. He decided he needed to try it again later in the afternoon and was able to get a picture with her.

It was a very long, but fun day...well, except for the throw-up on the way there and the throwing of a royal fit on the way home. But, really, it was a great day! ;-)

September

2010-09-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

September is flying by! We've had two birthday parties for Quentin, taken him to a few doctor appointments, gone to the circus, started the soccer season, made lots of new friends and are looking forward to spending time with old friends too!

Andrew took the boys and I to Ringling Brothers earlier this month. I love the circus! I think I enjoy it more than the boys do. Well, maybe not more than Austin. He's such a cutie! Quentin is less willing to participate. Gotta' love the tween attitude. He did end up really enjoying himself, but he tried hard not to. :-)

Quentin really likes his new soccer team. He is making friends and they are playing well as a team. Here are some pics from the game last weekend.

1st Day of 6th Grade

2010-08-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

Quentin started 6th Grade yesterday. His official report was that his new teacher seems nice, but that she sometimes speaks to them like they're 2nd Graders. (She taught 2nd Grade previously.) He said that the After School Program seems okay, so far. He's not committing to liking anything yet. He's the kind of kid that likes to keep his complaint options open. :-)

I bought him a bunch of new school clothes while he was gone. Not smart. He grew so much that I had to take back about 90% of what I bought! He put on over 10 pounds, his shoe size went up a size, and he grew almost two inches.

Summer = Busy

2010-07-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, I figured I better do an update before I go on vacation because when I come back from vacation I’ll have to do an update about my vacation. You see the logic, right?

It’s been a busy couple of months. Quentin has been a traveling man. He has spent a lot of time at Grandma’s house, which by the way, is over the river and through the woods! :-) I’m very happy to have him home. He’s definitely in the pre-teen stage, but I still love him and like to have him around.

When he comes home we our season passes to go to the water park. Our friend Megan bought a season pass too, but I don’t know if we’ll take her with us anymore since she almost got in a fight with a very large woman in a yellow bikini last time we were there. That’s another story though.

Grandma Nihla turned 75 years old this summer and Mom hosted a party for her. Lots of family and friends came to celebrate with her from as far away as Yuma. Wanda and Juanita did the decorating and the guys were responsible for the BB-Q. It was a delicious Mexican Fiesta! Mmm…carne asada, pollo asada, home made salsa, etc…

Andrew and I celebrated one year together by him meeting the family and him actually agreeing to have his picture taken without half of his face covered or his tongue sticking out. I think that means he likes me. Maybe? Or, it could have been because Chandel told him to do it and Chandel (a.k.a. Dizzle) can be very intimidating. Or so she thinks. :-)

I took Quentin to see The Fray in concert. It was a great show! We froze though. I didn’t think it would get into the 50s in June! I should have known better.

4th of July weekend was really fun! We saw fireworks, BB-Q’d twice, went to the water park and went swimming at my cousin’s, at the apartments, and at Sun Splash. I thought the boys were going to morph into fish by the end of the weekend.

One of our more recent adventures was a trip up the pass. Mom and I took Quentin and Lily so they could swim in the river. Well, that part didn’t work out because the river was the highest I’ve ever seen it. It was flowing way too fast for adults to be in, much less little children. So, instead we had a picnic and witnessed the results of two motorcycle accidents. Not cool. Here’s a hint people…drinking and driving do not mix. Drinking and driving something with two wheels instead of four is even worse!

And my last bit of information…my kid broke my brother’s kid. :-( It was an accident, but my Little Man feels awful. He is Lily’s “protector” and he is devastated that he broke her.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

2010-05-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

I love sports! I can’t play them worth a damn, but I love being a spectator. Attending an event is even more exciting than watching it on TV of course. My favorite is football, but baseball is a close second, followed by boxing, tennis, hockey, NASCAR, basketball, etc.

Sunday morning Andrew surprised me and invited Quentin and I to go to the Ports baseball game with him and Austin. He got us excellent seats in the first row, right behind the home team dugout.

In between innings there are silly competitions that the fans can participate in. Andrew and Austin got picked to participate in one at a game last season. I would have liked to have seen that! The announcer kept walking by our seats and Andrew got his attention once and told him that it was my first Ports game and that if they were going to do the dance competition I should be picked to participate. I couldn’t believe my ears! I know my eyes were as big as golf balls behind my sunglasses. I kept shaking my head no and waving my hands so the guy would know that I was not at all interested in dancing in front of a stadium full of people. Okay, it’s a small stadium, but that matters not. I DO NOT dance in public…unless there has been a liberal amount of alcohol consumed beforehand. And I mean consumed by everyone, not just me. Luckily, the announcer was on my side and we happened to take the kids to walk around the park during the time that they did the dance competition. The participants ended up being a father and son and they both did break dancing. As for my dear Andrew’s consequences for even suggesting the idea, I haven’t decided as of yet. But, it will be good.

It was a really good game. Unfortunately, Stockton lost to Visalia by one run. We all thought they were going to make a comeback in the last inning. The tying run was on base with no outs. After a couple fly balls to the outfield and the runner getting caught between bases, it was all over. Three outs and no tying run. :0(

We paid for the boys to join the Kid’s Club, so they got a t-shirt and they got to run the bases after the game. Quentin had to be a show-off and run as fast as he could, which ended up upsetting his stomach because of all of the Nerds he ate during the last inning.

A great time was had by all!

Jean-NAY

2010-05-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

Jean-NAY,
It's your Berf-DAY!
It's your Berf-DAY!
I hope it's great!

The Past Few Weeks

2010-04-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

The highlights...

1. I have remembered to wear my make-up everday!

2. I turned 35 years old. Quentin heard these lyrics in a Kid Rock song (or something close to it)..."It seems I was just 16 and now I'm staring at 36." To which Quentin replied, "Wow, Kid Rock is 36? He's older than you Mom!" Here is a picture of the giant cupcake they gave me at work. It's from one of those "As Seen on TV" commercials. It was really good and there was enough for everyone!

3. Easter came and went. Chandel and I had a good time coloring eggs with Quentin and Lily. I dropped the same egg several times because the paint Chandel bought was very slippery! She thought I was just a dork until the same thing happened to everyone else. Yes, I realize that this could indicate that we are all dorks. Here is an egg that Lily painted. I think it looks like the Joker from Batman.

4. It has been storming off and on for weeks. I love stormy weather. I wish there were more thunder and lightening in the storms we get. Generally, it's just rain and wind. Here is a shot I took on Highway 4 this past Sunday.

5. At the end of last week I realized that Quentin is out of school for the summer in two months! That is just plain ridiculous to me. It was just January the other day...wasn't it? Maybe, I am getting senile in my old age. Anyway, I've got to figure out some affordable entertainment for my Little Man for the summer. I thought being in the Big City would give me more options and really it does. The problem is that the options are astronomically priced. We're in a recession people! Does summer day camp really need to cost $1,330? I think not.

What the Hell...

2010-03-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

What the hell is wrong with me?!?

You're probably wondering why my post is so hostile towards myself. Well, for those of you that know me fairly well you know that I do not leave the house without being presentable. That includes, clean hair, clean clothes, and most definitely I have my make-up on. I cannot believe I am about to admit this, but the fact of the matter is I left the house this morning without make-up on. Not only did I leave the house, but I CAME TO WORK!

I did not do it on purpose. It was not a test to see if people would notice. I was not trying to push the boundaries of "Casual Friday". I was not just being lazy and decided not to do it. I completely forgot to do it! I did not even notice until I had been at work for about 20 minutes! What the hell? I think I need a vacation.

I am ashamed.

And no, there won't be any photos to accompany this post. :-(

Photography Class

2010-03-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

This week has had it's share of ups and downs. I'm not going to talk about the downs because I'm tired of worrying about them. So, one of the ups...

Today I went to my first photography class. I found it in the community education classes booklet that I got in the mail. The class is designed for "Active Adults". To be honest, I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to keep up with them. But, there is a big array of skill level and personality among the students. For example, there is the lady who looks like she's between 55 and 60 years old, but she dresses like a 28 year old. She constantly raised her hand. And, she accused two other ladies of being the teacher's pet. Yea, they gave her some dirty looks. It was kinda' funny and really surprising all at the same time. Then, there's the lady whom I thought was going to beat up the little old ladies that she felt were asking stupid questions. And, I ended up sitting next to the sweetest lady that used to be a government employee, just like me!

The lessons today covered Aperture, Shutter Speed and Exposure. Here's a picture that I took after class.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wordless Wednesday: My Dad

2010-03-03T14:25:00.001-08:00

The Trail

2010-03-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

Quentin and I went for a walk down the American River Trail yesterday with my friend Megan. It was a really nice day outside because the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. Q entertained Megan and I the whole way. He is quite the talker. Megan and I hardly got a word in. He can give Auntie Aub a strong run for her money in talking department these days.

We walked for about an hour. Along the way we walked over a bridge that I wasn't aware was for foot traffic. We found a different way home, so we didn't have to hike out of the canyon. We saw pigeons, ducks, geese, rude bicyclists, and chickens.

It was really fun...until we got home and realized Q had lost his house key. He informed me that it was no reason to be mad, because it was an accident. I love his logic.

The Internet

2010-02-23T19:51:00.000-08:00

I now have internet access at home!

For a long time I was lucky enough to have neighbors that weren't security enabling their wireless network. And then all of the sudden they decided to up and move and take their wireless network with them. So, I now have to actually PAY for internet access. It's a bummer to dole out the money every month, but it's such a convenience to be able to "surf" from the comfort of my couch, bed, table, chair, etc... The possibilities are endless when you've got a laptop and a wireless connection.

I've been doing a lot of my internet searches from my iPhone, but you can really only do so much on a "phone". I couldn't download and save the tutorials on Two Peas in Bucket. I couldn't enter the Lego Atlantis contest. I couldn't print my Barnes and Noble coupons. I couldn't update my blog. These are all things that are very important. :-)

As noted above, I haven't been able to post in a while so here's a quick update.

Quentin spent last week with his Dad. He said they had a good time at CA Adventure and Santa Monica. They were supposed to go to Venice Beach (I wasn't too happy about it, but I let Rob make the final decision). Unfortunately, they couldn't find parking, so Quentin said they went to Santa Monica instead (I was much happier with that decision). I stayed home and worked and watched chick flicks. I also went to Sonora and visited my friends, which was great!

The weekend before last was Valentine's Day. Andrew surprised me with beautiful roses and very delicious chocolates. Uh...here's a picture of the roses, but I ate the chocolates before I thought to take a picture. :-)

Quentin asked me to take him to Build a Bear so that he could make me something special. Here is my perfect pet. It requires no feeding, watering, going outside. I love it! And she's adorable. Quentin named her Spotted Love.

Well, I've got to go and do some surfing!

The Globetrotters

2010-01-19T21:05:00.000-08:00

What a great show! It should be a goal for everyone to see the Harlem Globetrotters at least once. When I was in school the Globetrotters came to our rinky dink school and did a demonstration. I was in awe of them and have wanted to go see their show ever since. Now, here it is just a few years later and I finally got to go see them! Okay, so it's been more than a few years, but you weren't supposed to focus on that part of the story. The fact that two of them (Big Easy and Flight Time) were a team on the TV show The Amazing Race this past season made it even more fun.

Quentin and I met Andrew and Austin at A&W/KFC for lunch before the game. Quentin declared that A&W's Rootbeer is "INSANE"...in a good way, and Austin decided that his new favorite food is KFC Popcorn Chicken. Luckily, Quentin ordered a large and was willing to share. :-) After making fun of the rodeo cowboys for driving away in a minivan we headed to the game.

The show was hilarious and there's tons of crowd participation. Austin danced along with the crowd to YMCA, but Quentin and Andrew decided they would pass. A few kids got to go onto the court and participate in the show and they each received an autographed jersey. It was really cute.

After the game the players signed autographs. We waited in line to get Big Easy's autograph and then we were able to get one of the other players also. I think it was Titan, but I'm not positive.

Quentin is so excited that he met and got the autograph of a "famous movie star"!

We finished up the day with a trip to the Spaghetti Factory, because the boys hadn't eaten enough already!

We all had a great time and I'm so thankful that I get to check it off of my "To Do" list. Now, that just leaves the trip to Italy, Skydiving, Win the Lottery, etc...

C-IV Holidays

2009-12-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

Okay, these people know how to party! Here is a copy of an email that my boss sent out this afternoon:

This is my favorite time of year here at C-IV, it is the only place I know of (besides my mother’s house) where you can consume 10,000 calories before noon and someone will say to you with a straight face “what are you doing for lunch?”. This is also a place that runs on its collective appetite, where you can almost set your clock by the activities and traffic flow into and out of the break room, or should I say C-IV café (thank you Grace!).

Ø 7:30 – 8:00 a.m. – Check to see who picked fruit or baked the night before;
Ø 7:55 – 8:22 - Line at the coffee pots due to the two containers of French roast being empty (does anyone else vote that we turn the decaf container into an espresso pot?);
Ø 8:47 – 9:32 – Did anyone put out any pastries donuts or cookies following their morning meeting?
Ø Fridays only – It’s 9:32….. no pastries or cookies in the break room?...... Oh yeah it’s Friday…. the Tech Team brought in Breakfast.
Ø 12:02 – 1:37 p.m. – What committee, workgroup, trainings or brown bag sessions didn’t finish their sandwiches, pasta, pizza, chicken etc? Remember first come first serve, if you wait for the email you are too late.
Ø 2:16 – 3:52 – “Who had a birthday?..... I don’t know why do you ask? Well there is pie, cookies, ice cream and cake in the break room”.
Ø 5:17 – 11:30 p.m. – Did anyone stay late and order dinner?
Ø 11:31 – 7:29 a.m. – It’s pretty quiet in the break room…….hey maybe it’s a cut over or mock conversion weekend and we can get a snack over at the Conversion Team’s area?

That's my boss. He's a crack up! It’s no joke though. There is constantly food here and there is LOTS of food if there is an event going on.

Today, we had our Holiday Potluck. (This is the 3rd party of the week for me.) We set up for 160 people and I believe there were closer to 200. Guess what! There is still a ton of leftovers! Turkey, ham, stuffing, chips, queso dip, bread, potatoes of all kinds, collard greens, rice, sushi (really), some dishes I don’t know the names of because they're from foreign countries, dessert, etc… You name it, we’ve eaten it this week. I’m about to burst. It’s not going to be pretty people.

Halloween is also a huge event here. Here are some of my favorite characters from my first Halloween here:

Boy Scout Cory and Man Bear Pig in front of the cave:

PMO (Project Management Office) as the 7 Deadly Sins. Oh, by the way Barbi and Jeanne, Wrath is the Deadly Sin we couldn’t think of the other day at lunch:

Cowgirl Karen

KISS Live

PacMan & The Mrs.

Happy Thanksgiving and Stuff :-)

2009-12-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know that lately I suck at blogging. Sorry!

Okay, here goes...

Thanksgiving in San Diego was fun. I loved seeing my family and Quentin was really happy to see his Dad. But, with as much fun as we were having we ended up having to come home a day early because I got sick. Quentin had a cold earlier in the week and at first I just thought I'd caught his cold, but I took a turn for the worse and ended up with Bronchitis. Yuck! Time off from my new job, antibiotics, Robitussin with Codien, and an inhaler later I'm back to normal. As normal as can be for me anyway. I think what made it worse was the sitting out in the cold at the Day After Thanksgiving sales. I'm seriously considering not doing it next year.

Christmas is quickly approaching and all of the parties have begun. I was going to go to Gregory's Christmas Party this past weekend, but he cancelled it due to weather. It made me very sad. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone. I did get to go to lunch with Barbi and Jeanne though and as usual they cracked me up. I've posted a picture of us and I'm sure it's going to make Jeanne mad. I think she looks cute, but she seems to think she looks like a linebacker. I miss you guys and your daily antics. Quentin went to a party while we were there. He informed me that he only ate two cookies. I was impressed. Then, after a long pause, he added the fact that he ate about 10 little brownies! But, he said don't worry because he didn't eat them all at once. He let some settle and then he had more! Well, at least he knows how to pace himself. This week there are a few parties at work and last week my boss took about 20 of us out to dinner. I'm sure that by the end of the season I'll be partied out.

Andrew and I went to dinner at the Peppery and it was surprisingly good. And, even more surprising was the fact that it was somewhat quiet! It's always so loud in that place. We also went to a movie. We saw the new Sandra Bullock movie, The Blind Side. It's based on a true story about a man named Michael Oher (I don't know if I spelled that right). He went from being basically homeless when he was young to being a current player in the NFL. It is a wonderful movie! Sandra Bullock did a great job. Tim McGraw plays the role of her husband and he didn't do too bad either.

Have I mentioned how sweet Andrew is? I forgot to bring my hair dryer with me when I went to visit and he got up Sunday morning and drove to Wal-Mart and bought me a hair dryer while I was in the shower. It could possibly have been because he was hungry and I wouldn't go out to breakfast looking like a mess with shower hair, but whatever the reason, it was nice of him and I appreciated it. (He's probably not going to appreciate that blog post.) ;-)

Here's a random fact for the end of my post. I love football season for many reasons, but this year I love it a lot because Quentin says "thumble" instead of "fumble". Isn't it cute?! I know I should correct him, but I love it when he says it.

Update for Gregory

2009-11-16T14:16:00.000-08:00

Hello! This is an update that was requested by my good friend Gregorino. Updates, updates...what to talk about? Hmmm...

Okay, one thing to update everyone on is the fact that Little Miss. Lily is five years old as of today! Wow, time sure does fly. I remember when Justin and Chandel met, eloped (we all got in trouble for that one) and had Little Baby Lily. She is quite a character. And this picture of her looks just like her Aunt Aubrey at that age!

Another update is that there are only seven more days until we leave for San Diego! Yeah! I can't believe I haven't been there in a year. Seriously. I used to go down there every 6 to 8 weeks. I miss my sista'! I'm coming to visit Aub!

And the final update is that Quentin's soccer season is almost over! One more game to go and we're done until next summer. Although he has been asking if there's some way he could play soccer all year. I don't know if I have the energy to be a soccer mom all year, but there is an indoor arena just across the freeway from my office. I should look into it, but it's probably too much dinero.

Pumpkin Patches

2009-10-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Fall! What a start to a new season. We had a major storm this past week. I love the rain, but the wind that accompanied it I definitely could have done without. Two huge trees came down at our apartment complex. One smashed a carport, and the truck underneath it, and the other came down over the sidewalk and grass area at the end of our building. Other than all of the mess we came through it okay.

The previous weekend, Quentin and I went to a couple of different pumpkin farms near here. One was not too impressive, but the other was pretty neat. We got lost in the corn maze and we went on a tractor ride out to the pumpkin field and picked our own pumpkin.

Quentin picked a huge one that he could barely carry. He was just a few feet from getting out of the field and he tripped over a vine. I felt really bad for him, but this chick that was sitting on the back of the tractor just kept laughing at him. Later on the ride back to the main farm I just happened to look over at her and what do I see? Hmmm....paybacks are a bitch. Don't laugh at my kid mercilessly. Now, I know that when someone falls it is funny. I will laugh with the best of them, but this was out of line. She never even asked if he was okay between her snorts and laughs.
Yesterday, Quentin and I met Justin, Chandel and Lily at the pumpkin farm in Lathrop. It's so cool. They have pumpkin blasters, a haunted corn maze, a regular corn maze, horse rides, bounce houses, zip lines that were added this year, oh yea and they even have pumpkins! Miss. Lily enjoyed her horse ride. She talked the ear off of the guide the whole way.

She danced her way down the pumpkin aisle. There was music going in the background, but I couldn't hear what it was.

Aren't they just the cutest kids? Lily told Quentin, "Quentin, you're my favorite." I said, "Lily, I thought I was your favorite." She informed me that I was her 2nd favorite.

After we left the pumpkin farm, which by the way was on the news today for having reached a visitor level of 25,000 people yesterday, we went to Bass Pro Shop. What an amazing store. While we were there we saw one of Quentin's teachers from Sonora. Small world huh? Here is a picture of Justin and Lily playing in the ORV department. Justin is fake crashing, and Lily is loving it.
Now, Lily is driving and Quentin is fake crashing. Again, Lily doesn't care. Ahhh....good times!

Good Times

2009-09-27T16:34:00.001-07:00

Quentin and I had a really good weekend. We went to his soccer game Saturday morning and Quentin played very well. I really love to watch him play.

Then, Saturday evening we went to the Dierks Bently and Brad Paisley concert. I had gotten a deal on tickets, but they were for the lawn section. Once we got to the venue I went to one of the people checking tickets and asked if anyone was selling upgrade tickets (like they did at the Fray). They directed me to a man holding a small supply of tickets. I asked him if he was selling upgrades and he said "No". I was slightly confused, but then he said he would GIVE me upgrade tickets! I love free stuff!

Anyway, the concert was great! If the tour comes to your hometown you've got to go check it out! Jimmy Wayne opened the show and he did really good. But, our favorite was Dierks.

Don't get me wrong, Brad was awesome too. All three of them really engaged the crowd and they sounded as good live as they do on their CDs. At the end, all three of them sang Brad Paisley's song Alcohol.

We left then, beause I wanted to beat all of the drunks out of the parking lot. We were tempted to stay because Jimmy Wayne was going to be signing autographs and we thought maybe the other guys would come out too, but as they say "safety first".

This morning we went down to the river and hung out for a while. Quentin didn't have any water shoes and didn't like how the slimy rocks felt on his feet, so he put his socks on and played until it was time to go home and watch the Charges beat the Dolphins! It wasn't a very impressive game, but at least they won. Philip Rivers did have a couple of good passes though.

Sunday Drive

2009-09-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

Andrew and I went for a quick drive around town the other day. There are so many places I failed to explore while I lived there. Here's an old barn that we came across:

And a cool windmill:

Andrew took this picture. I was taking pictures of weathered fence posts and whatnot and he said he preferred the rocks. So, I gave him the camera to take pictures of the rocks. Doesn't that rock on the right look like the profile of a face? Somebody must have done that on purpose. I'm not convinced that it's natural. Anyway, I'm glad I gave him the camera...my pictures of the fence posts sucked and the rocks look cool!

Surprise Party

2009-09-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

Quentin's birthday is in a week, but we had his party today. He didn't know it until he got there and his friends ambushed him at the door of the pizza parlor.

He's been homesick and last weekend he asked if we could go back to Sonora. I told him I didn't know. Then, Monday I called and emailed and did what I could to make contact with the people I knew he would want to be at his party that he didn't know he was having.

It was last minute and a holiday weekend, so I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. But, it was really successful!

He was so completely happy to see his friends and especially his favorite teacher, Mrs. Neumann!

I just want to thank everyone for coming again and for keeping it a surprise! I know it was hard on some of the kids.

The Greatest Show on Earth

2009-09-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. I love it and so does Quentin! I remember when I was a little kid my Aunt Shirley loaded a bunch of us kids up in the station wagon and took us to see the circus. I figure every kid should see the circus at least once, so I asked Q if he wanted to go. He said no. I felt dejected, but said okay.

Well, a few days went by and the weekend rolled around. I told Q I wanted to go to the Circus. He agreed to go, but wasn't excited about it until I showed him a video of it on the web.

He saw those girls get shot out of the double-barrell cannon and he was all in favor of going to the circus!

He thought the guy that was in the cage with tigers was the "biggest idiot on the face of the Earth"! He was cracking me up. The guy kept hitting the tigers on the butt with his whip and Quentin would say, "Oh yeah, that's really smart! Keep smacking them on the butt. That will calm them down! He's going to die!"

We both had a wonderful time and I'm so glad that I talked him into it.

It Has Arrived

2009-08-24T08:32:00.001-07:00

The end of Summer is here. Today was Quentin's first day of 5th Grade. He's not excited, but I am! I drove him to school this morning and we finally got confirmation that he will be staying in that school, so we don't have to worry about him getting transferred due to overcrowding. He is student #34 in a classroom that is allowed to have 34 students. :-)

He was looking quite handsome this morning in his new school clothes. I know I'm a bit biased, but really we've already had the little girls doing "walk-bys" in front of the apartment because "he's so cute"! No kidding. I hope the girls here aren't psycho obsessive like they were in the old school. Harsh? Sorry.

I started this post a little after 8:00 a.m. this morning and in the middle of it the internet went down. Free internet is not all it's cracked to be.

Anyway, Quentin did admit to having a good first day at school. He liked that the Yard Duty on the playground actually played with the kids instead of just standing there yelling at them. He liked the kids he is sitting next to in class. And, he liked his teacher.

Wordless Wednesday: Pretty Pout

2009-08-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

The Fray

2009-08-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

Awesome concert! Fiasco of a day.

Barbi and I were supposed to meet at 3:30 p.m. and have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, so I left early to allow for traffic. Well, it's a good thing I did because one hour into the drive I suddenly realized I LEFT THE CONCERT TICKETS AT HOME! Yes, you read that right. I had already driven for an hour and then I had to turn around and drive back to get the tickets. So, a drive that should have taken me two and a half hours ended up taking me four and a half. I was quite irritated. Needless to say, I did not make it to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. It was all Gregory's fault, because he distracted me with a phone call, but he claims no responsibility.

Anyway, once we finally got to Shoreline Amphitheatre Barbi paid for V.I.P. Parking and that was the best money ever spent! We walked right in with no problems. Once we were seated in our rainbow pride chairs I noticed that the tickets had a row and seat number, but they also said "LAWN". We were seated in the lawn section. Barbi talked me into asking the weird security guard why the tickets had seat numbers when they were lawn seats. He explained that it was so they could keep track of how many tickets were sold. Gotta' stay within those Maximum Occupancy limits! But, he also told me that there was a guy walking around that had upgrade tickets for $10. We both wanted to upgrade the tickets so I went on the hunt for the ticket man. I was so excited when I found him and he was actually legit...not a scalper! We packed up our pride chairs and headed for the center reserved section of the amphitheatre. It was great! They played all of my favorite songs and even though the lead singer can be a bit dramatic sometimes the show was really good.

Knight Fire

2009-08-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

A week ago today the Q-Man and I were driving home and as we came around a curve in the road the view changed. This is what it changed to:

This is the Knight Fire approximately a half hour after it started. It is still burning and is at about 30% containment as of the last report. It has burned over 4,000 acres. The cause of the fire has not been released, but because of the area it's in, I'm going to guess that it was an irresponsible backpacker. Of course, there were clouds in the area, so maybe it was dry lightening. I don't know... Either way, there are homes in the general vicinity and I'm thankful for our firefighters, as I'm sure they are!

GPTW

2009-07-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

My baby is back home! I'm so happy to have him here, even if that means I have to listen to that damn SpongeBob! I bought him a new workbook, so that he can start refreshing his academic skills. I can't believe he's leaving again in a week or so to go visit his Dad. It seems like this summer is just flying by. I registered him for school last week. Hopefully, he'll get to go to the school that is actually in our district. They said that there is a possibility that he'll have to get transferred to another school due to over crowding. We won't know until next month some time. Nothing like the waiting game.

Here is a picture I took on my cell phone when I picked him up at the airport. We kept hugging each other and smiling. He was definitely gone too long! Love you Mom, but we're not doing that again! :-) Well, maybe when he's a teenager and driving me nuts!

The new job is going well. I really like everyone I work with. There is a ton of new information for me to learn. I've been to countless meetings. I have to attend two more tomorrow and at least one on Thursday and Friday. This place uses acronyms like nothing I've ever seen! Seriously. They have an acronym glossary. It's 15 pages long! And it hasn't been updated in a few years. I thought HR had a lot of acronyms, but I guess not. This Thursday is the annual BB-Q after work, so Quentin and I will be going to that. They also do an annual golf tournament in the spring and a bunch of other stuff. There's a committee dedicated to coming up with fun things to do. It's called the GPTW Committee (Great Place to Work). Oh, one of my favorite things is that every Friday morning they bring in bagels and cream cheese! Yummy! What a GPTW! :-)

Ole Mexico

2009-07-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ole Mexico is the name of a Mexican restaurant near here. I've been eating at home because I need to save money, but this evening I was jonesin' for a taco. There are tons of Mexican Food places around here and they've been calling my name since the 1st. I think that me holding out until the 9th is quite an accomplishment. I seriously love tacos!
Okay, so I decided to stop at the restaurant closest to my office...Ole Mexico. I go in and look at the menu and of course they don't have shredded beef. What is it with Northern California taco shops not having shredded beef? Don't they know how delicious it is? Anyway, I decide to go ahead and order the carne asada tacos. I like to order my tacos crispy not soft. So, I tell the little lady behind the counter that I want two crispy carne asada tacos. I go to the register to pay for my order and the guy puts my ticket on the counter. I read what the lady wrote and it says, "gringo steak". WTF!? I get my printed receipt from the guy at the register and it reads, "2 El Gringo Tacos". Apparently, if you order crispy tacos you're ordering gringo tacos! The menu did not say Gringo or non-Gringo tacos...it just said "tacos". When I saw the receipt I almost laughed out loud. I kept my smirk in check, got my tacos, and went home.
When I got home I sat down to eat. I unwrap my El Gringos and to my surprise they are STORE BOUGHT taco shells! Just because they're called Gringo Tacos doesn't mean you have make them like a gringo would! I wanted some freshly deep fried taco shells people...like a Mexicano would do it! How disappointing. Next time, I'm going to the south side of the freeway to Julio's Taco Shop. Ha ha! That's right, I'm going to check out Julio! :-)

The Move

2009-07-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

It went pretty well considering there was a moment that the moving truck overheated and we thought we were going to have to trade it in for a new one, which would have entailed transferring all my stuff from one to the other. My wonderful friends helped me load the moving truck Tuesday night after work and then we moved to the new place Wednesday morning. It was really hot, but it got done pretty quickly. The guys worked really hard. I have no idea how many times we all went up and down the stairs. Woody was kind enough to point out that the stairs were "really going to help me". Well, so far they have helped to make my calves cramp. I can't wait to see what they help with next. :-)
I really like the new place. It's set up differently than the apartment in Sonora. I've made decent progress on the boxes today. I should have the kitchen done by the end of the day. And I've gotten some other things done too.
I'll post pictures when everything is where it's supposed to be.
Quentin, if you're reading this...I love you honey and I miss you!

Sayonara Sonora

2009-06-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

All righty then...this is my last post from Sonora. It's on to the big city as of tomorrow. I've got to say that so far I'm holding it together pretty well. Yesterday, Barbi asked me if I was going to cry today. I told her I was determined NOT to cry anymore! I've had enough of it. She asked if she could cry instead. What a good friend! She bought me breakfast this morning. Yummy!

I will really miss all of my Tuolumne County friends and family. You all mean a lot to Quentin and I. I hope you keep in touch!

Here is a picture Jean-NAY took of me a year or two ago. See how hard I'm working? :-)

Take care everyone!

Packing and More Packing

2009-06-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

Quentin requested that this post be titled, "Hard, hard and more hard." He's not into the packing thing. We're going to do his room today and he's not really looking forward to it. Honestly, neither am I. But, there are no other options. We just have to do it. I have considered carrying everything out to the dirt lot and burning it, but the burn permit doesn't allow that sort of thing. Damn city limit rules!

Here is our pile of boxes that are stacked in the living room. By the end of the day I'll need to move them into the dining room so that the front door can actually be used. Then again, if we barricade the front door maybe we won't have to move.

Today is Father's Day and I hope that all of the Fathers out there (especially mine) are having a wonderful day! Relax and spend some quality time with those that love you. I love you Dad!

4th Grade Fun

2009-06-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

Quentin is finishing up the 4th grade in a few days. So, not much studying has been going on the last week or so. On Friday the fourth grade band gave a concert. They played their little hearts out even if there were some unintentional high notes here and there.

Here's my little guitar man. I'm so proud of him for sticking with band the whole year. He really didn't care much for how the teacher handled the class.

After the band concert the fourth grade classes did a play called "The Pirates of Grammar Island". Quentin was Captain Comma.

In this scene the good Captain was telling his first mate they were looking for parts of speech. The first mate hands the captain a peach pit and a stem. And Captain Comma says, "I said, 'Parts of speech. NOT parts of a PEACH'!"

And here is Quentin's friend Hannah. She was also Captain Comma for her class. She was very animated!

Ch...ch...Changes

2009-06-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened within the last few weeks. I'm trying to believe that changes are good things. However, in reality they sometimes bite the big one!
I was pretty discouraged when I was told that I was being laid off from the County. I worked for them for over eight years. I love the County and the people I've worked with throughout my career there. I kept telling myself, "The Lord will provide. The Lord will provide." Well, guess what! I was offered a job today. It's the one and only interview I went to! It is in the big city, so I'll have to move about two hours away. That makes me sad, but I'm so excited about this new opportunity. Quentin is excited too and that makes me really happy. I'm going to go and look for a place to live this weekend. I want to get to know the general area and try to pick a good place for Quentin to go to school and close to work for me.
Thank you to everyone that has been so encouraging and supportive to me. You are wonderful friends!

Donnell Vista Point

2009-05-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone is having a good time on their long weekend. Quentin and I have! He's really enjoying the kids that moved here. They've been swimming and he ditched me and went to the movie with them.

I had planned on going to Yosemite today, but after reading about the head-on collision that killed two people because someone was passing in a double yellow line zone on the road home from Yosemite, I decided against it. I know better than to plan anything on a holiday weekend, I don't know what I was thinking. Oh well, maybe next weekend.

So this morning we hung around the house and I made Quentin clean his room. This did not impress him very much. But, he survived and suggested that we go for a drive. I was getting restless, so I agreed. We headed up the hill and ended up at Donnell Vista Point.

Here's my handsome little man posing for me.

Here's a shot he took of me. Jeez! This Stress Diet is not working fast enough!

Okay, now here is my favorite part of the trip! I had forgotten that I can't take Quentin anywhere now without him trying to immitate Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild. On the episode where Bear is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains he eats pine needles, because he says they hold a lot of moisture. So, of course Quentin asks if he can try it! I say okay thinking he'll have them in his mouth for a second and then spit them out. But NO!

He's chewing them up!

He's not really liking them, but he refuses to give up right away. If Bear can do it, he can do it!

Ah, he finally has had enough. This is him spitting the pine needles out of his mouth and over the railing of the vista point!

Apparently, the Wild wins this round...

Jean-NAY, It's your Berf-day! It's your Berf-day!

2009-05-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to you!

I bought a bag for Quentin,

And I bought one for you too!

I hope you had an absolutely wonderful day! Your cookies will be waiting for you when you comme back to work.

Mother's Day Weekend

2009-05-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

Wow! I really know how to pack some fun into a weekend! I'm exhausted...

Typically Quentin and I go to the Motherlode Round-up Parade and Rodeo during Mother's Day Weekend, but this year I'd had enough of Sonora and decided to get out of town. I chose my normal "Happy Place"...Monterey! It really is so beautiful there right now. The flowers are blooming and the harbor seals are having their pups and the weather was absolutely perfect.

We left Saturday morning after a stop at one of the three local Starbucks (yes, three). On the way we saw a sign for Mission San Juan Bautista and we decided to go have a look around since Quentin is working on his mission project for school.

The garden had tons of roses and there some chickens and roosters chasing each other around. We met several nice people. One gentlemen Quentin didn't care for too much, because he talked A LOT. He was "not all there" if you know what I mean, but a very nice man none the less. Another nice man volunteered to take a picture of Quentin and I.

Once we finally made it to Monterey I was planning on taking Quentin to a kite festival. As we were driving by he decided he wasn't too interested in that, so we skipped it. We checked into the hotel and headed for the Wharf. Once we got to the Wharf we decided we were starving and we'd like to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., which of course is located on Cannery Row! So, we walked. Along the way we came to the Coast Guard Pier. We had to do a little exploring because Q is fascinated by the Coast Guard. Here are some harbor seals that were sunning on the rocks.

And, here is Quentin running so that he didn't get arrested for trespassing! What you can't see in the picture is the Coast Guard ship that he snuck up close to in order to get a picture of it. His pictures are in the other camera and I can't wait to see how it turned out.

At Bubba Gump's Quentin faught the shrimp and the shrimp LOST, but just barely! He ate it all. There had to have been at least 20 pieces of assorted shrimp in his meal. Said in my best Bubba, "There was Coconut Shrimp, Shrimp Cocktail, Tempura Shrimp, and Fried Shrimp."

After that huge meal we walked, or waddled, back to the wharf to get the truck and we headed for the hotel. It was early evening and I decided to let Quentin go swimming and I'd sit by the pool and read my book. Well, there were people there already. Two mom's and one shared daughter. Uh huh, that's what I'm saying. Anyway, the three of them were a lively crew and so I couldn't concentrate enough to read my book. Instead I counted while Quentin raced back and forth across pool trying to beat his time from the previous attempt. After a while I'd had enough of that and I was freezing even though I was the only one that was dry.

Next, we decided to go do some exploring around Carmel. We stopped at the beach there for a bit and then got back in the truck. We ended up going to Point Lobos Preserve and watching the sunset. It was so pretty!

On the way back to the truck Quentin gave me a hug and said, "Thank you Mom for taking me here. It was the first time I've seen a sunset." Holy Cow! How has my son turned ten years old and not seen a sunset?! Here is a shot I captured of him. I thought the shot was cool at the time I took it, but now that I know it's him watching his first sunset it makes the picture so much more.

Mother's Day we rented a surey and rode from Cannery Row down to Lover's Point and back. Those things are harder to handle than they look. Neither one of us were proud of the decision to rent that instead of regular bikes.

After the surey ride we headed off to my favorite eatery, Fisherman's Grotto. I'd thought ahead and made reservations for lunch. It was so yummy as is to be expected. When I paid the bill they gave me a rose for Mother's Day. They had also given me a free glass of champagne. I only drank half of it because it made Q nervous that I was going to drive us home after lunch.

And that was our weekend. I told you I could really pack some fun into a weekend!

I hope all you Moms had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Movie Line Trivia

2009-05-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

I'm bored, so I've decided to do a little trivia game. I'm going to list a line from a movie and you have to leave a comment telling me the name of the movie. Each line is from a different movie. Some of them will be terrible and obscure movies, but others will be popular and mainstream.

Ready?

Here we go...

1. "I carried a watermelon."

2. "I could have been in a Bar-B-Q!"

3. "Do you hear me Gila Monsters?"

4. "Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity...Two weeks from everywhere!"

5. "Freddy, don't involve me in your fantasies. I wouldn't come to your place with a quart of Lysol and a fumigation truck."

6. "Don't you just love New York in the fall?"

7. "Hang out with us man! We got the pizza dude coming!"

8. "I feel the need...The need for speed."

9. "Pilgrim you caused a lot of trouble this morning, might have got somebody killed. And somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won't. I won't. The hell I won't!"

10. "I've got two guns. One for each of you."

You get bonus points if you can name the character too. NO CHEATING either!

A BART Adventure

2009-04-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit

In California the 4th Graders are required to do a report and project on a California Mission. Quentin was assigned Mission San Francisco de Asis a.k.a. Mission Dolores. The teachers ask that the students visit the mission they are studying if at all possible. Well, since San Francisco is only a couple hours away I decided to take Quentin to visit the mission. One of the things we learned is that the mission is the oldest intact building in San Francisco. It survived the earthquake of 1906 (I think that's the right year), but the basilica next to it did not and it had to be rebuilt.

I'm not too fond of driving in San Francisco. It was hard enough in the little car, but now that I've got the truck I really wasn't looking forward to it. After reading some information on the web about the mission I learned that there is a BART station just three blocks from Mission San Francisco. I thought, "Wow! Problem solved. I don't have to drive in San Francisco and we'll get to go on an urban adventure on the high speed train!"

This is Quentin when the train first started to move. He was so excited.

And then...

Talk about an urban adventure. On the way over a herd of teenage boys with bicycles sat right next to us on the train. They were so loud and unruly even Quentin was annoyed with them (see picture below). Then an Asian lady sat next to us that kept karate chopping herself. Seriously! And on the way back the train was so full we had to stand up for part of the ride. Quentin enjoyed that part. It was a little rough on my back though.

The mission was beautiful and very interesting. It was not in a nice part of the city though. I thought we'd eat lunch there, but I didn't want to even walk on the sidewalk much less eat at one of the restaurants! Oh, and that BART station that was just "three blocks" away was really more like six or seven blocks away! It's a good thing the weather was really nice.

A Parting Shot

2009-03-27T14:08:00.001-07:00

This horrible economy is really hitting close to home. Justin and Chandel both have been laid-off of their jobs for months now. Just this week SPI announced the closure of the local mill. Approximately 150 jobs will be lost. This doesn't include the truck drivers and other contract workers that will be affected. The county is not looking good budgetarily speaking either. The school boards are considering closing schools and combining them with others. It looks like Gottschalks will be forced to close pretty soon also.

It's so hard to stay positive when the outlook is so dreary. So, when little golden opportunities come along you've got seize the moment, the day, etc....

Here is a golden moment I encountered when I went home for lunch.

That's right, it's Chandel cruising in Lily's Dora the Explorer Jeep!

Ah, and here is Miss. Lily whining and asking her Mama to get out of her truck! Oh, she did finally say please and Chandel did get out (with a little help from Justin). :-)

Carpe Diem people!

Daffodil Hill

2009-03-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to go to Daffodil Hill for years and today Quentin and I finally went! There were a few reasons I chose to go today.

1. It's Opening Day!

2. Irish Days is going on in Murphys today, so I figured the crowds would go there instead of Daffodil Hill.

3. We're supposed to get a big storm tonight, so I thought it would be best to see the flowers before they were buried under a few inches of snow.

Daffodil Hill was founded in 1887 in Volcano, CA. There are six acres of daffodils, which include about 300 varieties and about 500,000 blooms annually.

Here's a picture of some daffodils. Their color reminds me of sherbet ice cream. I don't know why.

Here's a little cabin behind a field of daffodils.

Here's a peacock strutting his stuff. When he shook his feathers they made a buzzing sound. It was really cool.

And here's a shot that my sister would have wanted me to take. I wish she were here to take one herself.

This shot is for my Mom. It's not from Daffodil Hill, but it's a redbud bush that was along the side of the raod on the way to Daffodil Hill.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Spring...2 Days Early

2009-03-18T08:18:00.001-07:00

Friday the 13th Strikes Again

2009-03-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

Normally I'm not too concerned about Friday the 13th. It's generally just another day. But, today I had to take Quentin to the doctor AGAIN! This is his 4th trip within the month. First trip was for an ear infection. The doctor on duty was a "holistic" type and wouldn't prescribe antibiotics, so we went and bought some over the counter stuff and the Q suffered a few more days. Then, he couldn't handle the pain any longer, so we went back to the doctor. This time there was a different doctor on duty and he prescribed antibiotics.
Around this same time Q was developing a cough. It was getting worse each day, but I was giving him Robitussin and sending him to school. Monday, he decided he couldn't handle the cough any longer and he had an upset stomach, so we went BACK to the doctor. They prescribed Robitussin with Codeine and we figured out that the upset stomach was from Quentin eating cough drops like they're candy! Go figure!
So, Tuesday and Wednesday he went to school with no protesting, but still having a bad cough. Teacher said it was okay, because a third of the class is coughing. Wednesday night he did his homework. He ate his dinner. He read his book and he took his shower. By this time it's getting to be 8:00 p.m. He sits down on the couch to read a little more and a couple minutes later I look over and he is asleep on the couch. Now, at this point I'm thinking it's odd that he fell asleep so early, but I figure the time change is catching up to him. Apparently, I was WRONG!
Thursday at 4:00 a.m. Quentin wakes me up and says he's dizzy and feels like he's going to throw up, which he promptly does! YUCK! I take his temperature and it's 101.6. That's high people! I start pumping him full of liquid ibuprofen to get the fever down. Later in the day he seems to be doing a little better, so we both figure that he'll go to school on Friday. Apparently, we were WRONG!
This morning at 6:00 a.m. he woke me up coughing and saying he was dizzy again. I check his temperature and it's 102.5! That's really high people! He also is now complaining that when he coughs he has to spit. Great! So, back to the doctor we go...I know what you guys are thinking. Oh, she's one of those hypochondriac (is that spelled right?) parents. Well, I'm NOT! Today the doctor checked his breathing again and said that he's weezing and has a fever. I already knew all of that! So, she says that he has Bacterial Bronchitis. She prescribes another antibiotic and an inhaler. The inhaler makes him nervous. He says he can't hear himself weezing and he thinks he's breathing fine. We get the prescriptions filled, we buy some chicken soup and we finally make it home. He uses the inhaler (and survives) and he eats his chicken soup. He takes his antibiotics....and promptly THROWS THEM UP!
So, a Happy Friday the 13th to you too!
:-)

Friday Traditions

2009-03-12T11:49:00.001-07:00

It seems that in my family Friday has always been the day of the week that we spent together. When I was a kid my Dad and Mom would take my sister, brother and I out to dinner after work. When we lived in Gila Bend there weren't too many choices of restaurants, so a lot of times we would end up at Exit West, which was the restaurant attached to the Best Western Hotel outside of town. Man did I love their shredded beef tacos! Two tacos please...that was ALWAYS my order. When we moved to Phoenix we mixed things up a little more. Sometimes it was Mexican Food, sometimes Italian. But, mostly it was Chinese. It was a buffet place that I don't remember the real name of because my Dad insisted on calling it Tai Fong's Bent Fork! Ha ha! Love ya' Dad! Justin always picked the same thing at this buffet...jello and green salad! Not a single other item. Dad got mad every time! Threatened not to ever take us back, but we'd go to old Tai Fong's Bent Fork over and over. :-)

When Quentin and I moved to Sonora we started going to dinner every Friday night with our extended family in the area. When Mom moved we kind of quit going out on Friday for some reason. But, since then Quentin and I have started our own little Friday tradition. We call it Movie Night. We either rent a movie, pick a movie from our extensive DVD library, or we go out to the movie theater. If we stay home and watch a movie, we turn off all of the lights and have popcorn and call it our movie theater.

This past Friday night we watched our movie at home and we also decided to do something a little different. We went a little wild and baked and decorated some sugar cookies! They were yummy! Here's a picture of them:

I hope you all have your own traditions that make you happy!

The End of an Era

2009-02-22T20:11:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh...the secret is out.

Quentin finally asked if I was Santa. I told him the truth.

It's kind of sad and kind of a relief all at the same time.

He's so proud of himself for figuring it out.

He does have one lingering question..."Wait! Who is that calls us every Christmas Eve pretending to be Santa?"

Ha! I'm going to keep that secret for a while...It's killing him not to know. :0)

Man vs. Wild (Quentin)

2009-02-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

Quentin has become addicted to the show Man vs. Wild. It is aired on Discovery Channel. Quentin has been having a field day with all of the snow and rain, because he is getting to dig snow caves and build shelters to keep him and Lily out of the rain. Luckily, he hasn't started eating beetles and spiders...at least not that I know of. I told Justin to keep an eye on his lighter so we could make sure Q isn't trying to start a fire to keep warm in his shelter.

Here he is in his snow cave:

Friday the 13th

2009-02-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

Most people don't care for this date on the calendar, but Quentin is loving it! Why? Well, first his school called for a one hour delay due to weather. Then at about 8:00 a.m. it started snowing and at about 9:00 a.m. the school announced that it was cancelled for the day. Quentin has been wishing and praying for a snow day all winter. Night before last it snowed a little bit and the school delayed only an hour...Quentin was highly irritated at the situation. When I woke him up this morning and told him it was a one hour delay again he was extremely irritated! Then it snowed and the boy literally did the happy dance!

He went outside and made me a Valentine. Isn't he sweet?!

Another sweet thing he did was loan his cousin Lily a pair of his old boots so that she could go outside and play in the snow with him. Here is a picture of her first sled ride (she wouldn't ride without Quentin):

And here is our old oak tree out back. I think it looks cool.

Hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Sledding

2009-02-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

Goodness we had a great time! Quentin has been very anxious to go play in the snow all winter and today we finally pulled it off. It rained/snowed yesterday and today it was sunny and the roads were clear. I decided we'd drive up Hwy. 108 until we found a good place to pull over. When we got to Sierra Village and there still wasn't any snow I was beginning to get a little nervous. How far would we have to go to find snow...after a snow storm? Well, we ended up having to go as far as Little Sweden. It was perfect! There weren't many people so there were still LEGAL parking spaces. I only saw one group of teenagers get a parking ticket. They were probably from Modesto. The goobers parked right in front of the NO PARKING sign!

Anyway, Quentin is extremely happy that he got to play in the snow. He would have been happier had I thought to bring snacks, but he survived.

Here he is being way to cool and standing up on the sled:

He looks a little scared in this one:

And here is the aftermath of the previous shot:

I went down the hill couple of times...there's nothing flattering about a picture of a big butt on a sled:

And, finally, here is Q catching some air:

Yosemite

2009-01-25T21:34:00.000-08:00

For several years I've been living in fear of driving to Yosemite. This is due to the fact that the brakes went out on my truck on the way home the last time I went to Yosemite. I had my family in the truck and I seriously thought we were all going to die. Well, I FINALLY got over it last week! It was a goal of mine this year...it's actually been a goal for a few years. I'm so glad I actually accomplished it this year! I did not get wonderful photos on this trip, but I bought a year pass so I can go back and get lots of fab photos throughout the different seasons.

Here's one of Upper Yosemite Falls:

This is Glacier Point (I think):

The world famous Half Dome:

And Quentin...famous in his own right:

You'll notice that he's sliding on ice. We planned on doing a lot of walking and hiking in Yosemite, but all of the pathways were covered in ice so we just did a lot of sliding.

We took a picnic and ate it in the back of the truck. We did a lot of chatting. Quentin brought up the fairytales conversation again. He asked me point blank if I was the Easter Bunny. I fessed up. He said, "I knew it! I knew it! I knew that a bunny couldn't be alive!" So, now he's busted the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. So far, he has steered clear of calling out Santa. I wonder if this is the year though. My little man is growing up. :-(

San Francisco

2009-01-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

A week or two ago I went to San Francisco again to take pictures of the Golden Gate. It was the night that the moon was closest to the Earth and so it was supposed to appear to much larger than usual. I had a vision in my mind of the photogragh I wanted to capture. Well, that photograph never came to fruition, but I did some that were okay anyway.

Here's the Golden Gate from Bakers Beach:

Here's the moon over the city:

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T17:23:00.000-08:00

I was counting on 2009 being a better year than 2008. So far, it's not working out so well. I've got strep throat and was running a fever of over 101 degrees. What the hell kind of deal is that? Thank goodness for antibiotics from Mexico. At least I didn't have to go to the doctor. I guess that's a plus.

Quentin has cabin fever. The boy needs to get out of the house! He is way to active to be cooped up this long. I was thinking of taking him to play in the snow tomorrow, but I just read mymotherlode.com and the weather service has issued a winter storm warning for tomorrow, so probably not such a good idea to go up the hill.

Hmmm...I didn't really mean for this to be such a depressing post, but sometimes that's how it works out. It can't be fun and games ALL the time people. :-)

Happy New Year!

A Turkey Tale, Part 2

2008-12-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

Success! The turkey was edible. It took longer to cook than I thought it would, but when it was finally done cooking it was good. But, I still don't want to ever do it again. The pink junk for dessert was delicious also and I will gladly make that again.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

A Turkey Tale, Part 1

2008-12-24T17:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, turkeys are GROSS! I never want to cook one again. I mean you have to get all that goo out of the inside of the turkey and rinse it. And then you have "rub" seasonings and whatnot all over it. What the hell are all of those extra parts anyway?! I seriously almost threw up. I had to go next door and get Chandel to help me. I know I'm a wuss, but you know what? I'm OKAY with it!

I mean look at this! Is that a head or an ass? For some people it's the same thing, but I don't think so in this case.

Here's the bird all ready to go into the oven.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the storey to see if the bird was actually edible or if we had to go to Chinese Food and sing Fa Ra Ra Ra for our Christmas dinner!

Yummy Treats

2008-12-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, today has pretty much been a drama filled day, but I chose to put it all aside and bake Christmas goodies! Well, I didn't put it ALL aside, but I did my best. I even let Quentin help me do the baking. Hey what is a vacation for if not to make a complete mess of the kitchen and to get completely cart-locked in the grocery store? Seriously, it is like a zoo out there! People are running stop signs and speeding through crowded parking lots and to make it all worse it's raining. We all know that rain makes people crazy. Why is that?

Anyway, here are some pictures of the yummy Christmas goodies.

Here is the cookie dough waiting to go into the oven. Oh man, those are good cookies. I had to sample one...okay, maybe it was two...or three. :-)

Here are the peanut butter bars. They don't look so great in this picture, but they're really really good. Besides pink junk (fruit salad) they're at the top of the list for favorite Christmas treats.

And just for Quentin I made fudge. I kicked it up a notch this year and made it in the shape of a wreath and put red and green sugar sprinkles on it. Oh, by the way, it's yummy too!

Tomorrow I'll make the Magic Cookie Bars and then on Wednesday I'm going to attempt to cook a turkey! I got the LAST fresh turkey at the grocery store and the damn little thing cost me $33! Please wish me luck on it turning out well.

Honor Roll

2008-12-10T22:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, to quote my Granny Minnie, "I'm just so proud!" Quentin made the Honor Roll for the 1st Trimester of school. He worked really hard I really really am really proud of him. Really! He didn't know that he scored high enough to make the Honor Roll, so it was surprise for him.

Here he is accepting his certificate and bumper sticker.

Here he is showing off his certificate.

Ah, here are the BFFs. Quentin and Hannah.

And here's the proud Mama and her Honor Roll Student.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

2008-12-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

It's time for the 2nd Annual Christmas Tree Farm in HR office! All of us are having a very hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. We were hoping that setting up the Christmas Tree Farm would help. I guess it has a little bit, but not as much as we'd hoped. It's just too warm outside to be Christmas. And with the fact that I'm staying home this year there is not the excitement and anticipation of visiting far away family and friends. Hopefully, some family members will come and visit US this year! Hint hint. You know who you are. I'm not going to name any names.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the farm.

This spans across the top of six filing cabinets.

This one is on the top of two filing cabinets.

Here is my wire tree.

Here is a cute little bird tree.

And last, but not least, a little snowman tree!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

Quentin and I went to San Diego for Thanksgiving last week. Justin and his family were able to go this year also. It was really nice for all of the kids to get to hang out. Lily now calls Addison her "Big Buddy" and Quentin is still her "Buddy".

Our old friend Eric came to visit too. It was cool to see him again. He's the same smart ass he always was! :-)

Friday the girls went shopping, of course. Aubrey, Chandel and I were camped out in front of the Wal-Mart at 1:45 a.m. It was a frickin' mad house in that store! Wal-Mart really should do a better job of organizing for these types of sales. I mean look at the sad situation in New York with the guy getting trampled! Frickin' da-dickerless! After Wal-Mart we went to Target, where Mom was holding our place in line. Yes, some of the ladies behind her gave us dirty looks. But, we survived with no fights. Sorry to disappoint you Chandel (she really wanted to see me get in a fight). We went to a few stores after that and then went to Mimi's for breakfast. Mimi's is where it all started to go downhill. Breakfast was really good, but for some unknown reason I ended up having an allergic reaction to something and Aubrey's blood sugar dropped dramatically. We both were down for the count. I had to take Benadryl TWICE and Aubrey had to sit in the floor of Bath & Body Works and eat M&Ms. It was horrible. We didn't even get to have our Cranberry Margarita's from Chevy's! Oh, how I long for one... Perhaps a trip to Modesto is required this weekend? MMMMmmmmmm!

Saturday we all loaded into the vehicles and went to Seaport Village and Coronado Island. What a blast! The kids had a great time running around until Quentin got busted by the Po Po. Apparently some stupid tourist fell out of a tree and sued and now no one is allowed to climb the trees. So, Q-man got a little lecture. Auntie Aub was there to rescue him though. :-)

I can't believe how good the water felt at the beach. I expected it to be completely freezing, but it really wasn't. Quentin got completely soaked by a wave. I lost my balance near the tide pools and had to catch myself on a rock that was covered with "stuff" that squirted when my hand landed on it. Oh my gosh it was so disgusting words won't describe it. Seriously, I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it.

Moving on....

Here's a picture of my Sista'! Isn't she pretty?! She's so good for putting up with all of us at her house. Especially me. I always complain about her dogs. I really don't like dog hair. I just can't help it. I'm sorry! I love ya' man!

Wordless Wednesday: Fall

2008-11-19T10:36:00.000-08:00

I'm in my "Happy Place"

2008-11-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

That's right...I'm in Monterey! I really do love it here. It completely relaxes me. This trip is not as relaxing as most, because I'm here for work, but still it's pretty darn great! I went out at lunch time and shot a few photos.

Here's one of a pelican just hanging out on the wharf railing. He got a little nervous when I walked up and I thought for sure he was going to fly off. Or, he was going to get freaked out and attack me. I know, I'm silly but I believe it could happen. Just ask my Mom about getting attacked by birds.

Here's one of the boats. I like b-oa-ts Jean-NAY. (That's my Forrest Gump impression.)

And here are the butterflies in Santa Cruz. I finally saw them! There were not mass quantities because it is still too warm out, but at least there were some to look at.

Okay, I'm off to bed. I've got a big day of listening to seminars tomorrow. Woo hoo! :-)

Fall Photo Shoot

2008-10-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

As a fundraiser the County Recreation Department offered family photographs for $20 last Saturday. Of course, I had to sign up for it. It was a 15 minute session and we got to keep the CD with all the pictures on it, so that we can print whatever photos we like. What a great deal! The photo shoots were done at Cover's in Tuolumne.

Here is one of my favorites of Quentin:

One of me that turned out pretty decent...

Quentin was having some fun in this one...(No, he did not drop the pumpkin.)

Quentin was tired of pictures by this time, so he was making as many silly faces as possible:

Sneak Preview

2008-10-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Quentin in part of his Halloween costume...I love him!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

Today Quentin and I went to the Dell Oso Farms pumpkin patch with Justin, Chandel and Lily. It's quite a drive from our place, but it really is worth it. They have tons of pumpkins, hay rides, a haunted house, a huge corn maze, hay mazes for the kids, pony rides, and best of all...pumpkin blasters! It was our first trip in the new truck. I so completely love it! I'm so glad that I exchanged the last one "like it was a shirt" to quote Miss. Jeanne.

We didn't do the corn maze because there were so many people in line and last year according to Quentin, "it made his butt sweat". No kidding! That's what the kid said! We did do the pumpkin blasters though and oh man are those things cool.

They set us up with blaster #14! Aub can you believe it?! How funny is that? I took a picture just for you. :-) A lot of you out there are probably wondering what the big deal with the #14 is...well, that's another blog on another day.

Isn't Lily the cutest? This was taken at the end of the day and she was pretty much done with the whole trip.

She just loves "her buddy".

I love this picture of Justin, Quentin and Lily.

Here's one of me looking rather large. Jeesh! I've got to quit eating! I promise I will just as soon as I finish the goodies from the Columbia Candy Kitchen gift box that I won in the raffle at Cajun Fest!

And here is the Seel Family. Lily was not being very cooperative with the picture taking so I made Quentin stand in front of me and I tickled him...that made Lily laugh and I got a shot of her smiling.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-15T16:34:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Addis!

2008-10-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Today is my favorite newphew's birthday! Yep, that's right! The B0-Bad-Ass, as I like to call him, is 15 today! Wow! That makes me how old? Okay, let's not talk about that. Anyway, I want to wish Addison a VERY VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We love you!

Here is a picture of him on his 13th birthday....Isn't he cute!?!

Yeah Baby!

2008-10-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

I'm a "Truck Girl" once again! Well, not officially, but hopefully the paperwork will be done on Monday. If they don't come back with the financing I want then I'm giving the truck back. It's a 2001 GMC Sierra 1500. It's four-wheel drive and doesn't have a ton of miles on it. Oh, I so hope that I don't have to give it back. Here she is...

Mom came into town and visited us for a few days. We had a really good visit. Mom made a pumpkin chocolate chip cake for the girls in the office and they LOVED it! We're all dieting, but that was put on hold for a few days so that we could eat cake. It would have been a tragedy to let it go to waste. Seriously!

Quentin scored two goals in his soccer game today. He was terrific on defense too! The whole team really worked well together...there was even passing involved!!!!

Here are photos of my cute Halloween decorations. I really like the witch. She is so cool!

Saturdays at the Park

2008-09-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

Saturdays during Summer and Fall mean soccer. And since today is Saturday I spent a few hours at the park watching my boy play his little heart out.

This week they faced a team from our old neighborhood. The team is quite formidable. Yes, it is Coach Dave's team. Coach Dave was Quentin's coach for two years of soccer and two years of T-ball. Then I had to go and move us to a different district. What was I thinking?! Now Quentin always gets nervous when he hears that he has to play against a team that is being led by Coach Dave. Here's Coach Dave. He and his entire family are some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

Quentin and Zach (Dave & Lisa's son) were best buddies. They went to Kindergarten together and of course were on the soccer and T-ball teams together. Here's a picture of them facing off. Zach is on the left in the grey uniform and Quentin is on the right in the black uniform.

Here's a shot of Quentin doing a little fancy footwork. He didn't score any goals this week, but he played great. Last week he scored two goals...of course I didn't take my camera!

September 11th

2008-09-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 7th Anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the U.S. I had Quentin wear his USA t-shirt today. When I told him to put it on this morning he asked why. I said, "Because it is September 11th." He said, "So."

I had to remind myself that he was two years old at the time of the attacks. I explained to him what had happened on that day seven years ago and I had him watch a little bit of the news with me so that he could see that it was a very significant day in American history.

Here's a photo I took of him this evening:

Quentin-ese

2008-09-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

My wonderful, loveable, adorable Little Man sometimes makes mistakes when he says words. I've taken to calling his mistakes "Quentin-ese". He's not aware of this fact, so sshhhh...it's just between you and me. Here are the two latest additions to the Quentinese dictionary:

Hand Sizematizer

Thumble

Can you guess what the two real words are?

The first one is pretty easy I think. Hand Sizematizer is actually hand sanitizer. This phrase has been used quite a bit lately because of school starting. All the kids had to bring their own hand sizematizer to class. :0)

The second word is actually supposed to be fumble. He's been saying it a lot due to the beginning of the NFL season. There's been a lot thumbles and it's just the first week of the regular season!

Now, I know that I should correct him, but it's just so darn cute! It's da-dick-er-less (a.k.a. ridiculous) I tell ya'!

Wordless Wednesday: Lily & Her Fav. Food

2008-08-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Sea World

2008-08-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from our trip to Sea World. These are all from the first day we went. I took the day off the second day and didn't even take the camera with me! Can you believe it?

First, is a picture of a baluga whale. They're so darn cute. When their mouths are closed they look like they're smiling.

Second, is a picture of a penguin that was loving being out in the sun. He stood there for a quite a while and did a lot of posing for the cameras.

Third, a walrus. Why are these poor creatures so ugly? They're so ugly they're kinda' cute. Except when they're being "manly" if you know what I mean. Then they are just GROSS!

Fourth, is Shamu and his trainer showing off. Doing what they do. I've got to say, I think it'd be pretty damn cool to fly off of a whale's nose.

Fifth, is the Soak Zone. I am so thankful that I have a Platinum membership and therefore get premium seating in Shamu Stadium. I refuse to sit in the Soak Zone, which is the complete lower half of the stadium!

Bummer

2008-08-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well, this morning Quentin and I were supposed to meet Jeanne and we were all going to go on a great adventure. We were going to go on the zip lines at one of the local caverns! I was scared, but I was looking forward to it. Unfortunatley, we didn't get to go. Why? Because for the second time in five days we got locked out of the house while my car keys were still in it! Three years we've been living here and hadn't locked ourselves out of the house and now twice within a week! Da-dick-er-less I'm tellin' ya'!

We eventually ended up getting in the house. My brother helped us. In the process he broke one of the windows, which is why we didn't get to go. I stayed home and tried to get someone to come and fix the window. No such luck on a Sunday in a po-dunk town. I'm very bummed that we didn't get to go. Quentin on the other hand was fine with it. I kept apologizing and he said, "Mom, it's okay. I'm not mad. I was scared anyway." So, I'm guessing he would have chickened out once we got there.

When my brother broke the window he cut himself. Nothing bad, but it was bleeding. His daughter was crying and was really upset. I was holding her and telling it was okay. We asked her why she was so upset. She managed to tell us, between sobs, that she was crying because her daddy broke the window and she was going to tell her mommy! And she did just as soon as she saw her!

Wordless Wednesday: Nest

2008-08-20T18:27:00.001-07:00

1st Day of School

2008-08-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, my little man is a big 4th Grader as of today! And to make it worse, he's going to be 10 years old in less than a month! Oy vey, I'm getting old...

Anyhow, I took him to school this morning and met his new teacher. She seems very nice. He said that he likes her and he believes that he's going to have a good year. He's chosen not to participate in band this year. I've got to say I'm a little relieved. He keeps us busy enough as it is with his sports endeavors.

Only one of his friends is in his class this year. There are a few kids that I'm more than excited about not being in his class! Isn't that terrible of me?! Too bad! They were mean and disruptive and the school did nothing about it. Of course, now if Quentin does get into trouble I'll know that it really is his fault and I'll be dealing with that. But, that's okay. I've got faith in the boy!

Here's his first day of school picture. Isn't he handsome?! I just love him...even if he did lock us out of the house this morning.

After school he had a doctor appointment. The doctor says that we should keep on with the current treatment. They think it'll work if it is done consistently. Which it is when he's home. We go back in six weeks and in the mean time the doctor is going to do some research on the laser treatment options. She doesn't think it's a good idea for kids, but she's going to look into it. Also, we had to take a trip to the lab and get a blood test done. They are going to look at his white and red blood cell counts and make sure everything is okay. They're thinking that if his blood levels aren't where they're supposed to be then that could be contributing to the warts not going away. Anyone that knows Quentin knows that the boy does NOT like going to the doctor and anything having to do with needles is 50 times worse than just a regular doctor appointment! So, by the time we got to the lab he was really upset and by the time we got out of the lab he was darn near hyperventilating. What a day! But, I guess that's what I get for "taking the easy way out"! That's a lovely quote from his father. Today was Quentin's 13th doctor appointment. That's not the easy way out...I don't care who you are!

Armadillos & Alligators

2008-08-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

We spent a day at the San Diego Zoo while we were on vacation. Our mission was to find an armadillo. The weird little creature is Quentin's favorite animal right now. We asked around a bit and found out that the children's area had an armadillo. We walked around the whole children's zoo (with my new found stalker in tow, but that's another blog) and could not find the darned little thing. So, I sent Quentin into the petting zoo area to ask one of the zookeepers. He came back and said that they are not on exhibit but someone would bring one out later. I was a little confused so I asked the man myself. He informed us that the armadillos are not on exhibit right now because they just had babies. However, if we needed to study them for a school report then he could take us to the VIP area and let us see and pet the armadillo! Of course it's for school! Wink, wink! ;-)

Here are a few pictures of Quentin petting Armando the armadillo.

John the zookeeper was a very nice man. You could tell that he really liked being around the animals and sharing them with the people. After we all got to pet the armadillo John decided that he had enough time to share one more animal with us. This time it turned out to be Aubrey's favorite animal. It was a 3-foot alligator! Aub was so excited! I must say that it was pretty darn cool to pet these types of animals. I mean it's not somethin' regular folk get to do on a day to day basis. Ya' know!?

Go Chargers!!

2008-08-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

Yes! The Chargers KICK ASS!!!!!! I mean butt! And speaking of asses...I mean butts :-)

Oh yeah, that one is for the ladies. There's nothing like an NFL uniform. It's a beautiful thing I tell ya'!

Okay, okay...The Chargers beat the Cowboys in their 2008 Pre-season opener. The score was 31-17! A few of Quentin's players did not make appearances, but others did. Antonio Gates and LaDanian Tomlinson did not play. Philip Rivers and Quentin Jammer did play though and they did a great job. The second string QB was pretty impressive too! His name is Billy Volek.

Here we are getting ready to leave for the game. Quentin's Philip Rivers jersey got left at his dad's house and he had been wanting a new one anyway so we bought him a new Antonio Gates jersey. Addis bought a Shawn Merriman jersey and I'm wearing the Merriman jersey that I bought for Justin (because I'm a cool sister like that).

Uncle Jeff bought the boys #1 Fan fingers. Quentin wants one of these things every time we go to a sporting event and I had never given in and bought him one. He was so happy that Uncle Jeff surprised him with one! And, it came in handy since the Chargers kicked butt!

It was the first live NFL game for both Addis and Quentin and so we decided to take the truck and do a little tailgating rather than take the San Diego Trolley. Tailgating requires playing catch so we bought a Nerf football for the boys.

Here's Addis doing a little quick hand work with the ball:

And of course a few beers are a requirement for the adults! Here's Jeff doing the honors:

Here is Darren Sproles doing his victory stance rather than a victory dance after his touchdown.

Hello, My name is Jennifer and I'm a sports nut.

2008-08-07T19:52:00.001-07:00

August equals the beginning of a new NFL season. I've watched two games so far (on my new fancy dancy large screen TV). I think I need to get HD, but it still looks great without it! However, Saturday night I'll be watching the NFL live and in person! Woo Hoo I can't stinkin' wait! The Chargers and the Cowboys! Go CHARGERS!!! When I told Quentin that I bought tickets he was so happy he cried.

Q is visiting his dad this week and last Saturday the Chargers held their Fan Appreciation Day. Rob took Quentin and even though I haven't talked to him I'm sure he's having a wonderful time! I downloaded some pictures from Rob's webpage.

Here he is getting some autographs (I believe that's line backer Tim Dobbins signing):

Here he is having a blast at Universal Studios. Isn't he the cutest?! I love this photo!

Christmas in July

2008-07-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

Santa came early to Sonora. What did he leave under the big giant Oak Trees? Why it's brand spankin' new large screen HD LCD TVs! Why do I say TVs rather than TV? Well, you all know that if I get a brand spankin' new LCD TV then Justin has to have one too! Yes, he's spoiled. And yes I'm blaming it on you Mom! :-) And not only does he have to have one, he has to have a bigger one! Jeez! Boys and their toys. Mine is 42" and his is 47", which I think is just too large for our little apartments. (I believe he's beginning to think it is too, but he'll never admit it.)

I've been talking about purchasing a new TV for about three years now, but I just kept putting it off. I couldn't justify the expense to myself. I've decided that since the TV screen went completely black for two to three minutes one day about a month ago that it's time to quit delaying and make the investment. Coincidentally the TV in Justin and Chandel's bedroom broke a week or two ago.

Now, perhaps this is me thinking out loud still trying to justify it to myself but I can't help it. It's a lot of money and it meant getting rid of my beautiful TV armoir that I love. Don't worry it's not going too far. Chandel talked Justin into letting her have it! :-) So, with the cash from that it will supplement my TV budget.

Here's my new TV (I apologize that the photo is not good.):

I'm in a Spring Cleaning mode. Yes, I realize Spring ended a couple months ago, but I'm a busy girl and one should not rush into these things! I've re-done my scrap area, my living room and I took my bed apart and am going to sell it to my friend Gregory. I'm on the hunt for a new headboard. I want the one from Pottery Barn, but they are idiots if they think I'm going to pay a shipping service charge AND a shipping charge! That's pure highway robbery I tell ya'! It would add nearly a $100 to the cost of the headboard. Da-dicker-less! (Ridiculous in Quentin-ese.)

Dental Dilemmas

2008-07-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday part of my tooth broke. I've been expecting this to happen for quite some time. As in years! I can't believe the tooth stayed together this long. Seriously. Sometime yesterday it finally had enough and crumbled. Of course, I didn't notice it until about 5:15 p.m. You know, just in time for the dentist to get out of the office. Luckily, it didn't hurt. That's probably why I don't know when it actually happened. So, I called the dentist this morning and they got me in at 11:30 a.m. I was praying that I didn't have to have a root canal and those prayers paid off! They put a temporary crown on it and I have to go back in two weeks to have the permanent crown put on.

On a happier note...Aubrey and Jeff came into town yesterday and we met them for dinner. Then, they came over to the house for a few minutes and checked out my new scrap area. They're off on their whirlwind road trip...I don't actually know where they ended up staying last night. I wish we had a bigger place so that company would be comfortable staying with us.

Basketball Camp

2008-07-18T16:38:00.001-07:00

Okay, so the summer is rolling along. Quentin has been kept very busy! This week he attended basketball camp for the first time. It was a couple of hours each morning at the high school. He really enjoyed it and learned a lot! Today was the final day and they invited the parents to watch them play a game. Quentin has great ball handling skills and as I'm sure everyone knows, the little dude can really move down that court!

Here's and example of how fast he is. Look at the speed of that dribble! I mean you can hardly even see the ball it's bouncing so fast!

Just kidding! He is fast, but the lighting is terrible in there so I was getting a lot of blur in the photos. :-)

Here he is on the baseline throwing the ball in to his teammates.

Here he is taking a shot.

His team won the game. I think the score was 12 to 8. They played two 18 minute halves. His freind Hannah (she was in the Yosemite pictures in a previous post) scored the two opening baskets.

Scrap Space & New Frame

2008-07-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

I went to IKEA on the 4th of July. What better way to celebrate our freedom than to pump some cash into the economy? While I was at IKEA I purchased two sets of drawers for my scrap space and also two red shelves. I'm much more organized now and that makes me feel great! Here's the new configuration.

Yesterday I went to Sacramento to pick Quentin up from the airport. I sure did miss him. Two weeks is more than enough time for him to be gone. So, when we got up to two and half I was ssssoooooooooo ready for him to be here! When we were on our way home Quentin wanted to stop at Kohls. Really, it was Quentin that asked to stop there! We got him a few new shirts for school and I purchased a new collage picture frame. I decided to use it for my pictures from my Oregon vacation. I like it a lot. I am thinking about adding some Hambly rub-ons, but I'm not sure yet.

By the way, the picture in the lower left slot of the frame was taken by Jeanne. I believe it won a 1st Place ribbon! She is very nice and gave it to me!

For My Sister

2008-07-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

I came across this little flower while I was in Cottage Grove, OR. It made me immediately think of Aubrey. She loves these little flowers. So, here's one for you sis'!

Mission Accomplished

2008-06-27T23:35:00.000-07:00

Well, if you read my vacation post earlier then you know that I was on a mission to take pictures of the Peter Iredale shipwreck at sunset. Woo Hoo! I made it! Here are a few of the pics:

1. High White Balance

2. Low White Balance

3. The Money Shot! See the fog rolling in really low and the sun in the center of the large whole of the shipwreck?! Love it!

I'm on VAY-KA-Shun!

2008-06-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

And, I'm lovin' it! I'm currently sitting in my hotel room in Astoria, OR. As soon as I'm done with this post I'm going to go ride the Trolley. I'm a bit tired, but I don't have time for that so I'm pretending that I'm not tired at all!

I left Sonora Wednesday morning at about 9:00 a.m. I drove through smoke all the way past Mt. Shasta and then it finally cleared up. The worst smoke was near Redding. It was horrible! I stopped and had lunch at Quizno's in Ashland. Then, I drove to Cottage Grove and cruised around there for a while. I was on the hunt for covered bridges. Here's one:

Then, I drove on to Eugene a.k.a. Track Town USA. I really liked Eugene. They are holding the Track and Field Olympic Trials there this weekend. Needless to say the lobby of the hotel I stayed at was FULL of large muscular men. And I do mean LARGE! I ended up eating breakfast in the hotel along with Michael Johnson. No, we did not have breakfast together, but he was just a couple of tables away and that's still pretty cool. I mean how many people get to eat in the same vicinity as an Olympic Gold Medal winner? Here's a picture of him that I saved from the internet.

After breakfast I went and took pictures of Rhodadenron Park and Pre Fontaine's Memorial Rock. I must say that the thing that impresses me most about Oregon is the fact that they have absolutely beautiful parks and trails. They are so well maintained. California could learn a lot from the Oregon Parks and Rec districts!

That afternoon I drove to Portland where I rode the sky tram. I saw Pittock Mansion and Courthouse Square. Courthouse Square is supposed to be full of flowers right now but for some reason it isn't! I was so disappointed. They even have a sign up saying that the summer flower festival starts June 19th! Hey people! It's past the 19th! Here's the courthouse and the square...with no flowers.

After Portland I went to the Columbia River Gorge. One word. BEAUTIFUL! Loved all of the waterfalls. Thought I was going to have a heart attack trying to climb out of the damn canyon, but it was worth the hike and everyone knows I need the exercise!

So, now I'm in Astoria and I plan on taking pictures of the Peter Iredale Shipwreck at sunset. Wish me luck!

Cousin Nate Got Hitched!

2008-06-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo! Nate's such a sweetheart and we're all so glad that he found someone just as sweet as he is...and that she wanted to marry him! :-)

The wedding was Saturday evening at the Calvary Chapel outdoor amphitheater. The weather was a bit questionable about two hours before the big event, but the skys cleared up just in time! It was beautiful.

Here are some shots from the big shindig.

1. Sarah and her Dad walking down the aisle.

2. The Wedding Party

3. Nate showing off his footwear. Anyone that knows Nate, knows that the boy lives in flipflops. He shovels snow in flipflops! Seriously! You'll notice in the photo above that the groomsmen are all wearing matching flipflops. So totally Nate.

4. Funny posed photo...the siblings are freaking out on either side of the kissing couple.

5. Nate-dog and me!

6. The beautiful and delicious cake that my Mom made (and that unfortunately, due to my lack of thoughtfulness, Miss. Jeanne didn't get to have any of. Please refer to her blog for the story on that.)

Everyone had a great time and it was beautiful wedding! They're going on a 10-day cruise to Alaska for their honeymoon! Congratulations to Nate and Sarah! We wish you all the best that life has to offer!

Rodeo Pictures

2008-06-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been almost a month since the rodeo was in town and I finally got around to looking at the pictures. Some of my favorites are below. Remember, you can click on them to make them larger and easier to see.

1. Buckin'

2. Barrell Racin'

3. Uh oh...

4. Ouch...

5. The reason for every rodeo...cowboys! Nice!

San Diego (Said in my best Madagascar voice.)

2008-05-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

My wonderful sister wanted me to visit so bad that she paid for my gas to get there. I wanted to go really bad, but I was tired and I plan on going in August so I told her I wouldn't go...right up until Friday at 1:00 p.m. when I went home and packed! I hadn't seen her since Christmas! That is a LLLLLOOOOONNNNNNGGGG time for us not to visit! Anyway, we had a great time. Traffic wasn't too bad. It rained off and on during the drive down there, but that's about it.

Quentin got to visit his Dad while we were there. He was very excited about that. I think Addison might have been even more excited though. He loves his Uncle Rob. They went to La Jolla and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, where they apparently had a burger eating contest that Addison won.

Aubrey and I ditched the boys Saturday afternoon and ended up going to the Padres game. The Padres lost, but we got to see fireworks after the game. During the game a beligerant fan nearly got himself thrown out of the park. Of course, he's the biggest Padre fan ever according to him. You would think that he would nearly get thrown out for heckling the other team since he's such a big Padres fan, but NO! He nearly got thrown out for heckling the PADRES! Idiot! He's yelling at the Padres players to hit the ball and they weren't even up to bat! Uh, drunk much? By the end of the game I felt like I had been at a Raiders vs. Chargers game rather than a Reds vs. Padres game.

We went to see the new Indiana Jones film on Sunday. It was good. It was your typical Indiana Jones movie. Hokie parts, good parts, gross parts, and scary parts. The story line was a little surprising to me. I didn't expect it to go the route that it did. Quentin is upset with me because I won't let him go see it. Honestly, neither one of us would sleep for a year if saw it!

Yosemite Field Trip

2008-05-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Quentin's class went on a field trip to Yosemite today. I was quite the annoying Mom this morning while he was getting ready to go. I had to give him "The Lecture". You know the one where you repeat every single rule you've ever doled out about behavior while in public. The one where you tell him, DO NOT get separated from the group, DO NOT run, push, shove, etc. while on trails, DO NOT misbehave in any way. Oh, and IF you do get separated from the group DO NOT go running around Yosemite trying to find the group! They WILL find you! He DID NOT enjoy it, but after one or two rolls of the eyes we went over the rules of using my digital camera and all was well.

Yes, you read that right. I let him borrow my digital camera...without supervision! Gasp! Don't get too worked up, it was the little digital not the deluxe digital. What do you think I am? Crazy? Not quite there yet...

Here are a few of the pictures he took:

Half Dome in all it's glory. What a beautiful day and great photo! Good job Q!

Waterfall. I'm not positive, but I'm thinking it's the lower Yosemite Fall.

This is Quentin and his friend Hannah.

The Boys. From left to right: Parker, Quentin, Ryan and Jarrod.

Morale Booster

2008-05-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

The facility formerly known as Tuolumne General Hospital held a fundraiser/morale booster last week. Actually, I think it was just supposed to be a fundraiser, but hey if boosts morale over there then I say we should do it more often!

For just a little cash you could throw the ball and try to dunk Craig Pedro, County Administrator or you could wait and dunk Bill Morse, Deputy HR Manager. For just a little more cash you could buy a "Guaranteed Dunk"! One person bought a $100 worth of "Guaranteed Dunk" tickets and passed them out to anyone that cared to dunk the dudes.

Here are some photos of the festivities:

This is Craig about to go in. You can see Ann in the background utilizing her Guaranteed Dunk ticket! Love the look on her face!

Bill decided he wasn't going down without a fight, so he brought a Super Soaker. It was such a hot day that the people he shot with the watergun were actually happy about it.

Here's me taking full advantage of my Guaranteed Dunk ticket on Bill. See his socks through the tank? Too funny!

And the classic Nose Plug maneauver from Craig!

Summer Health Hazards

2008-05-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

We all know that summer is quickly approaching. It's supposed to be a 100 degrees here tomorrow. Along with summer heat come some hazards. For example:

1. Heat Exhaustion - I'll be standing in line Saturday morning in 100 degree weather so that I can register Quentin for the summer recreation programs. These programs sell out and therefore NOT standing in line opening day of registration is NOT an option. I'll be sure to drink plenty of H2O.

2. Sunburn - Usually the first round of sunburns happen over Mother's Day Weekend. We sit out at the parade and rodeo for hours and end up with sunburns. Well, this year I remembered to put sunscreen on Quentin and me! Aren't you just so proud?! :-)

3. Drowning - We're all good swimmers, but you still have to be very vigilant! Be careful everyone.

4. Fire - It's already turning into a horrible fire season. Make sure you've got 100' clearance around your homes wherever possible!

5. Popsicle Dangers - Yes, you read it right. I said Popsicle Dangers! How on earth is a popsicle dangerous? Well, do you remember the movie A Christmas Story? The one with Ralphie and electric sex glowing in the window. You know the movie. (No, there are no popsicles in that movie.) There is a scene where a kid gets Triple Dog Dared to stick his tongue to a light pole in freezing weather. He doesn't believe it will stick, but of course it does! Well, I just ate a popsicle and my damn lip STUCK to the popsicle and when it became unstuck a little layer of skin went with it! So, beware my friends of all of the popsicle dangers out there! Don't let anyone Triple Dog Dare you into eating a dangerous popsicle!

Be safe!

Oops!

2008-05-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

I got busted! By my nine year old son. What did I do? It's not what I did...It's what I didn't do.

Quentin lost a tooth a week or two ago. He kept forgetting to put it under his pillow. Well, apparently four or five days ago he put it under his pillow and decided not to tell me. He says it was his little test! He checked every morning and there sat the tooth. I must have looked like a deer in the headlights when he told me. I can't believe he did that!

I remember thinking a day or two this week, "I wonder what he did with the tooth? I better remind him to put it under the pillow before it gets lost." I even kept cash in my purse so I would be prepared!!!

Jeez! He was so proud of himself! He kept saying, "I knew it! I KNEW IT!" Luckily, he was laughing while he was saying it. I was hoping he wouldn't be too disappointed when he finally found out.

Are the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause next? I thought for sure that the Easter Bunny was busted this year, but he talked himself into believing in him still. Oy vey, my Little Man is growing up.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T09:56:00.001-07:00

I hope that all of the Mom's of the world are feeling especially appreciated today. I, was appreciated yesterday because Quentin thought Mother's Day was Saturday. He gave me my gifts on Friday after school. He couldn't wait! He made me a bookmarker, which I am really using. He made me a little laminated poster thingy that he colored with markers. It's flowers in the shape of a heart and in the center he wrote:

Dear Mom, I wanted to tell you how much I love you. Think you for...sporting me, doing the dishis, feeding the fish, the longry.

I love it! Spelling errors and all! He also gave me a candle and another little poster with his hand prints and a poem.

Saturday, Mother's Day according to Quentin, we woke up and got ready to go to the MotherLode Round-up Parade. While I was getting ready to go Quentin made me breakfast. It was a bowl of Total Cranberry cereal...my favorite at the moment!

During the parade Quentin was on the Awana float. Well, he actually wasn't on the float except when he was getting a refill of the flyers or candy he was passing out to the crowd!

Here are some of the pictures from the parade:

Me and Lily patiently waiting for the parade to start.

This is a picture of the Therapy Dog that Quentin reads to in his reading class. His name is Arson and Quentin loves him!

Here's Quentin running towards the crowd to pass out flyers.

Sonora High Golden Regiment Band. They ROCK! No, I'm not a band geek, but these guys are really cool.

And all I can say about this parade entry is...What hell??????!!!!!!!!! This is a family parade people!!!!!!

National Scrapbooking Day

2008-05-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read it right. May 3rd was National Scrapbooking Day! (See there are LOTS of us out there...It really should be INTERNATIONAL Scrapbooking Day).

I didn't scrap on the 3rd, but I did receive scrapbooking supplies in the mail that day. Hey, it was meant to be! I did make time to do two layouts today. A group that I am a member of on the Two Peas in a Bucket scrapbooking web site is hosting challenges all weekend in honor of the special day.

Here are the two I did...

Aren't those two cuties?! I love them. And, they love me. :-)

This layout is about the damage that Quentin does to shoes in record time! The journaling reads: These poor shoes didn't stand a chance against Quentin! They lasted about 2 1/2 months. This is what they looked like after that short period of time. He goes through shoes faster than any other kid I've seen.

Money for my Honey

2008-05-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

Gregory and Quentin have an "arrangement". Whenever Gregory goes gambling Quentin reaps the rewards! This is a very lucrative arrangement for Quentin. What reward does he get? Well, if G.O. (Gregory) plays the table games and gets a fifty cent piece (aka Super Quarters), Quentin gets to have them. Whatever big money is won, G.O. gets to keep and rightfully so!

Now, the first time this happened not much time was spent at the tables and so Quentin got about $6.00, I think. However, since then G.O. has gone and spent a few days in Reno and a day at The Black Oak Casino. The Reno trip earned Quentin $26 and the trip to Black Oak earned him $20.

Quentin and I have an "arrangement" also. It is this: Quentin has to save whatever money he is given by Gregory and use it during his vacation this summer. He was completely fine with that up until he saw the commercial for the new Mario Kart game for Wii. Now, he's trying to talk me into buying that instead of spending it while on vacation. So, yesterday when he was given the Black Oak winnings he told me that he'd decided he definitely wanted the game. I told him he had to save the money for vacation. His solution is this: He's going to buy the game while he's on vacation!

What a smart boy he is!

Happy Administrative Professionals Day!

2008-04-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

Wow! I got flowers again! My boss surprised me with them a few minutes ago. He's a good boss. Apparently, today is Administrative Professionals Day and so he bought me flowers. It is nice to know that we peons are appreciated. I truly enjoy being a peon. I watch what others go through in their management positions and I have no desire to have to deal with the kinds of issues they deal with. I like being a paper pusher, a people greeter (not at Wal-Mart), a phone answerer, a bill payer, etc...

Aren't they pretty?! The colors really are vivid...the camera here doesn't do them justice.

Aubrey, do you see the vase? Daisies are painted on it. Too cute!
And no the water is not green. The glass has a green tint to it.

Thanks Eric! You're a great boss!

Decisions Decisions

2008-04-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

I'm planning on taking a road trip in June. The question is, "Where should I go?" Here are a few of the destinations I'm considering:

1. Astoria, OR & the Coast (I love the Oregon Coast, but I'd really love to see the rivers, covered bridges, waterfalls, etc. along the way to Astoria. Not to mention the Goonies ROCK!)

2. Denver & Boulder, CO (I watched the movie Catch & Release and decided that I needed to visit Colorado. I just found this picture on the internet. It's the Glenwood Springs Alpine Slide...I'll be doing a little research on this. Doesn't it look totally cool!?)

3. Las Vegas, NV (VEGAS BABY! And that's all I've got to say about that!)

4. Yellowstone National Park (Mom, I know you'll be pretty ticked off at me if I go here so I'm keeping it toward the bottom of the list.)

5. Seattle, WA (Sorry, but this idea came from Mom too.Quentin would be pretty mad at me too. He wants to go see Seattle because he's a Grey's Anatomy fan. He's my McCutie.)

I'm most likely going with option #1, but I'd like to hear what ideas you guys have and why. Now, please keep in mind that I'm going to be driving. Let me know what you think...