Back to Posting -Back to Work -Back to the Rat Race

Hi Everyone. I'm posting for the first time since April. Guess I took a little break. Sometimes posting felt like a chore for me, and I know many of my family and friends enjoyed them...but I decided that I only want to post if it feels FUN. And by that I mean that I, as well as you, get some joy out of my posts!

In 2 days I return to work. A job I feel so blessed to have in the current recession. I had an awesome summer vacation with my family. So hard to believe it's over. Since ya'll would rather look at pictures than "listen" to my ranting...here is a sampling of some of the things we've been doing since April:

Brian acquired a new (used) boat and a new hobby.
She's called "The Slack Off".

A visit to the Lefty store for our southpaws.

In June we took a fabulous vacation to Isla Mujeres, Mexico!

Had a fun reunion of Pepperdine friends in San Ramon, CA.

Sent my son, Zach, off on a week of adventure aboard houseboats on Lake Shasta.

Celebrated my baby girl's 13th birthday.
She waited all year for that cellphone!

Spent a week with my kids
helping out with Vacation Bible School.
They made great crew leaders!

Now, as I write this, my son is in San Luis Obispo, CA
riding quadrunners with his friend.
One last weekend of fun before he starts school as a junior in high school.

My daughter is vegging out, watching tv...2 more weeks before she
has to go back to school. Lucky girl!

Brian, my husband is working on "the Slack Off"
hoping to take us out for a ride later...
and me, I'm just trying to get myself organized.

Hope y'all are having a wonderful summer! Thanks for visiting!

December 2009 Round-Up

Seems I've been MIA for the month of December,
but I didn't want to move on into the new year without
filling ya'll in on some of the things we did.

We started out December with a new pet:
meet Yoshi, the bearded dragon.

Just so you know, it wasn't MY idea. It was my
daughter... and my husband, who couldn't say, "No."
after days of begging and pleading from my daughter.

The first Christmas party I attended was my
work party at the Diehl's home.
It was attended by one the 3 Wise Men (Royce) and his
assistant, Crystal. Too funny!

I got to see an old friend from highschool days-
Mark Troutner. His wife, Theresa works
at my school!

Here's my daughter, Summer, starring in the 7th
grade Christmas skit at Vineyard Christian Middle School. She's the girl on the right kneeling down and praying.

Christmas Eve celebration at my in-laws home.
Zach, Summer and their cousins Courtney, Brittney and Kalie.

Christmas morning at our home.

Christmas afternoon at my parents home.
The Louie cousins: Amanda, Tara, Chad and Carson.

Summer and Paulina decorate cakes.

Ta-da!!!


It was a fun and very blessed month.


My son passed his written driver's test a couple of days before Christmas. So now we are teaching him to drive. Scary! Please keep us in your prayers! Thanks!!!

Yosemite in the Fall

This weekend we took a trip to Yosemite with some friends. It was GORGEOUS!

It was a little chilly, but we bundled up and warmed up by riding our bikes around the Yosemite Valley.

Here's our friend, Carol, on her classy cruiser.

Here's the hubby and daughter.

The local wildlife trying to ignore all the people staring and taking pictures of it.

This was my first time being in Yosemite in the Fall. I've only ever gone in the summer when it's jam-packed.

I loved all the Fall colors and hardly any people around!

The were 21 of total riding bikes that day. I hope we didn't scare the tourists!

Jay, our fearless leader, Jason and my son, Zach.

Family picture on a log.

Biggles had to stay back at the cabin.

The cabin was quite cozy. Zach found some extra space in the closet!

Another family pic in front of the cabin.

My sister, Lisa, and her boyfriend Rick.

What a great trip that was. Us Northern Californians tend to forget how lucky we are to live so close to the beauty of Yosemite. We saw busloads of tourists from other countries who came to see it!

What About the Mother-Son Time?

With all the posts you see about my daughter, you've probably been wondering what my son, Zach, has been up to, and do I even HAVE a son??

Yes, I do! He's 15 years old and busy, busy, busy...here he is with neighbor friend Garrett. They are sewing. Yes, that's right SEWING. It was their Chemistry extra credit assignment for National Mole Day. Did you know there was a National Mole Day?? I didn't either.

Here's Zach's mole: "the Cinnamon Moll"
(kinda scary-I know)

Here is Garrett's mole: he was planning to glue a mini soccer ball in it's hands and call it a "Moalie" (instead of Goalie- get it?). Garrett messed up on sewing the correct pieces together so his mole ended up looking like a cross between a mole-fish-walrus thing. What do you think?

Sewing is not all these talented boys do. They also run cross-country. Here they are at the Folsom Invitational.

Garrett's the one in the middle.

Since they both worked so hard the week before the Fall break came, I decided to take them both to San Francisco the week after I went with my daughter. I wanted my husband to go too, but he had to work so it was just me and the boys!

I tell ya', a MUCH DIFFERENT experience than going with my daughter!

Here they are looking COOL in the new rain forest exhibit at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

Here's the view looking down in the rain forest. It was gorgeous in there. Very green and lush.

Here's some poison dart tree frogs. So tiny and cute!

The boys taking some time out to catch up on their social life...Hahaha!

That's our reflection in the pendulum ball- every half hour it knocks one pin over.

There's me, the mom, figuring out my carbon footprint in the world.
It was surprisingly low.

Yes, that's us Americans!

We should all take a lesson from the Chinese and Brazilians.

The White Alligator. He coulda' been fake for all we knew. The thing didn't budge all day.

The Aquarium was quite nice.

Sitting in the Tunnel 'O Fish.

There's the mom again. Standing near the Bio Dome on the roof of the building.
After this we watched a space movie in the Planeterium IMAX theatre. Very cool!

The trip wasn't entirely educational...I did take them downtown for a couple of hours, where they spent almost the entire time in the Apple Store. Notice the giant iPhone in the background.

The boys playing with the gadgets...while they did this, I ran next door to the Container Store!

In the evening they did this: killed zombies on XBox.
We are very blessed to have a place to stay when in San Francisco. This is my parents' condo and it's decorated all in off-white creams...very relaxing. I love it. While the boys did this- I went in the bedroom and read a good book.

I was surprised that I enjoyed the time I spent with the boys, and honored that they didn't even mind hanging out with me!