What Will I Blog About...

February Fun

2010-03-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

Kicked off February with a trip with friends to visit The Blankenships in Denver. Adam and Angela moved to Denver a few months ago so it was fun to get to spend time with them again.

The Blankenship's neighborhood

We hit the slopes the next day and then conked out for a nap. Just for the record in the first two days that I was there I took 4 naps including one as well at the lodge bar like Allison. Crazy altitude or just a relaxing vacation.

Angela is a true Southern Louisiana girl at heart so we had a festive Mardi Gras decorated dinner.

Prior to Adam and Angela's departure from California, they had hosted the past 3 Super Bowl Parties for our Outlet church group. This year the weekend we visited happened to be the same weekend as the Super Bowl so the guys got to watch it in Adam's man cave with the girls upstairs in the family room.

Gotta love the funny shot. Or the not so funny but sad Shannon who just watched her Colts lose to the New Orleans Saints.

So one of my goals for 2010 (well it kind of started back in September 2009) is to be less fearful? What does that exactly mean? Well it looks like this...

- allowing God to lead me and not questioning, doubting or dragging my feet

- trying new things (don't think I've blogged about it but I've taking up Spinning and Kangoo at the gym, joined a kickball team and see the rock climbing pics below) - this isn't limited to physical activities although it might seem like it

- doing things that are out of my ordinary routine

So the next two things fall into the trying new things and doing things that are out of my ordinary routine. Went rock climbing at this gym in Manhattan Beach and it was pretty cool

I'm holding the rope so my friend, Jenn, doesn't fall. Yeah there is a technical term but I kind of wasn't paying alot of attention during the tutorial.

I'm not a die hard Bachelor fan but I started watching three seasons ago when Jason Mesnick was the Bachelor and have mostly continued because I like hanging out with my friends while we watch it. This past season, one of my friends had weekly Bachelor gatherings so I was pretty excited when one of my die hard Bachelor fans who has watched every season scored tickets to the After The Final Rose taping. I'll have to honestly say that the main drive of excitement was to see all the behind the scenes of the taping of a show (had a little dream at the end of college and beyond that I wanted a career in tv or movie production - behind the scenes so I love to go to tapings or see how movies and shows are made).

Anyways I headed up to Burbank with Jen and two of her friends. Signed a $5 million dollar confidentiality agreement, got fed, stood in the rain, walked into the studio and was then with the rest of the audience told to clap, laugh, clap, look shocked, clap, look like I was thinking, clap while standing up, turn to a neighbor and talk, oh yeah and clap and clap and clap BECAUSE we were going to be filmed and possibly be in the audience when the show was aired. WHAAAAAT????

So I got to see the final episode, find out who Jake chose a week before it was aired and find out who the next Bachelorette would be (yea Ali!!!) - yes it was truly difficult not to say anything but dying to share the experience of going to the taping of the After The Final Rose but I don't have $5M so I kept quiet about who was selected.

During the week before the final episode and After The Final Rose aired, commercials advertising it started to air. One of my friends happen to see this clip of a commercial.

My friend Jen who is sitting on my right (your left) and I were sitting in the optimal or non-optimal location and ended up on camera alot The camera actually caught us tearing up a bit during the final episode. Luckily that ended up on the cutting room flow and not on national television. Check out the episode at the link below.

http://abc.go.com/watch/the-bachelor/93507/252564/after-the-final-rose

Such a fun experience to be a part of. Got to talk to Chris Harrison and Jake and Tenley is just as sweet as she was on camera. I will say that after watching After The Final Rose, I do like Vienna and and can see the chemistry (not just physical) with Jake and Vienna and as cheesy as it was really liked them getting serenaded by Jeffrey Osborne singing On The Wings Of Love.

Wrapped up February with Open The Bottle Night at the Harts. This year I brought a chardonnay from my Auntie Jann's vineyard in the backyard of my grandfather's house in the Oakland Skyline Hills.

So fun to hear all the stories behind each bottle that every person brought.

Zooming through January

2010-03-09T09:02:00.000-08:00

Yes we're zooming through January, partly because it was two months ago and also because although I did alot of stuff, I haven't been so good with capturing it in pictures so here goes...

After Sam and Sarah left, I settled back into "single" life. It's a hard transition on one hand because I miss them dearly and the things that they bring to my life and what they bring out in me when they are here and its an easy transition because God has blessed me with great friends and endless amounts of things to do.

Bunch of the Outlet'ers attended the opening night of a mainstream film, To Save A Life, produced by one of my friend's brothers.

Also went to the soft opening of Izaka-ya, part of the chain of high end asian fusion sushi restaurants Katsu-ya, in Manhattan Beach. Pretty random story...One of my friends was trying to make a reservation for Katsu and 411 connected her to Katsu-ya and through the course of the mistaken connection got an invite to the soft opening. Other than heaven there is nothing better than free sushi, appetizers (if you've never had the creamy rock shrimp from this place you've got to try it) and japanese beer (yes a bit of an exaggeration because I'm sure there are many other things that also come close but seriously that is how I was feeling after that evening). Our picture was taken for the Easy Reader but haven't seen the magazine to see if we were in it.

And now onto February...

Three...Two...One...Happy New Year!!!

2010-03-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Yep its only taken 3 months to finally get to the New Year's Post and the only thing that is driving me is all the stuff I want to post about the last couple of weeks.

Anyways left Sam and Sarah with friends (with reliable parents) and headed to my friend, Tim's family cabin in Tahoe to ring in the New Year. I really haven't been to Tahoe since I was 10 years old and first learned to ski. Its worth noting that it was also the last time I was on skis. The whole make a pizza with my skis really wasn't fun and boarding is soooo much better (as are the clothes).

Anyways 15 of us invaded the cabin for a few days of relaxation, hitting the slopes and a food feeding frenzy.

Beautiful shot as we headed up the mountain.

The snowplow that almost ran us off the road.

The food feeding frenzy that ensued - breakfast burritos, Nickki's famous caramel french toast, ebelskivers filled with jam or nutella, calzones, salad, tri-tip and the backyard beverage frig.

First day we boarded at Donner and the second at NorthStar. Few fun shots on our first day.

My Gosh Its Going To Be Christmas Again

2010-02-22T11:44:00.000-08:00

Yes its almost March and the main reason I'm finally getting to December Part 2 is because I have alot to blog about from this past weekend. So let's get back to Christmas.

Sam and Sarah spent Christmas in the US and joined me in Stockton with my mom and dad and then with my mom's extended family. We drove up a few days before and just hung out with my parents, saw a movie, and did a bit of shopping. Sam, Sarah and I attended my dad's church for Christmas Eve's services.

It was exciting to have Sam and Sarah join me for my Christmas Day family traditions.

My parents and I got them a few gifts but here they are each wearing one of their gifts from me. Sarah saw this outfit on the Free People website 4 months ago and Sam had been looking for a leather jacket since summer. Yeah I know I'm super short...

My mom and I with my new box of gift cards for 2010.

After Christmas at my parents, Sam, Sarah and I headed down to visit with my cousins and grandfather and then onto my Aunt's house (used to be my grandfather's and where most of my aunts and uncles grew up) in the Skyline Hills of Oakland.

Here I am with my cousin, Sara and my favorite gift. For her birthday she got a camera so at Thanksgiving, I taught her how to do "selfies". For Christmas she made me this cute gift with the pictures that we had taken. So cute, huh?

At Christmas, my Uncle David is in charge of decorating the house and he's so creative (remember the pics from last year with the movie theater and the picture trees). Well my Auntie Jann has a vineyard in the backyard which she has named Leona Ridge Winery so here's the adult table. Not sure if you can see it but that wreath is made up of lots and lots of cookie cutters.

My Uncle David and his partner, Larry, baked thirteen different desserts and we got to fill a plastic bin full of the sweets.

And the kids table where all the grandkids sit. After we eat, there is always a game for us where we win stuff or money as our Christmas gift. Not sure if you can see it in the picture but there are cupcakes. We each had to lick off the frosting and find a letter buried in the frosting. The person with the first letter of the alphabet got to go first, then the next letter and the next and the next. Now to the game...

A mini claw machine...in each fo the containers there was money rolled up ranging from $7 to $50.

My Auntie Jann also always has a game for the adult kids (essentially teen and up so Sam and Sarah got to participate). The game was in those white envelopes above the stockings. So for that game it was Mission Impossible-ish. In each of the envelopes was pictures of "our team" and a SD card that we put into a computer and watched a video that gave us a riddle/clues on where we would find our present ($). All of the presents were hidden in some part of the house in a box or "secret" container. One of my cousin's was in a fake soda can in the frig. Mine was actually behind the stockings on the bookshelf in a fake book that had a compartment in it.

Oh yeah check out all those stockings. Sam and Sarah got stockings too. So fun they are considered part of my extended family.

Fong Family Christmas picture - we're only missing one of my uncles and his family who live in Texas.

Our Christmas usually goes until after midnight but its so fun and good to see everyone and its really all I've ever known.

December Part 1

2010-01-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

December was a crazy but fun filled month so I'm splitting it into two posts.

I love giving gifts (yes, its my top giving and receiving love language - although to me gifts come in many forms). One of my favorite "gifts" at Christmas is spending time with a friend doing something. Every year (I think we've been doing it the last 3 or 4) my friend, Shannon, and I pick something to do as our Christmas gift to each other. This year we were able to find $20 tickets on Goldstar (http://www.goldstar.com/home) to How the Grinch Stole Christmas Musical at the Pantages. So we checked out a new Italian restaurant near the theater and then headed to the show.

If you've never checked out Goldstar, you definitely should. As I mentioned, we got $20 tickets in the second level but were upgraded to Orchestra and were seated fifteen rows from the FRONT!!!! The musical was so whimsical and cute. It's my mom's favorite Christmas cartoon so it brought back alot of fun memories of when I was a kid and my mom and I would watch it.

The next morning I headed to Portland for a few days to visit Gail (best friend from high school) and have a girls weekend with Ellie and celebrate Allison's birthday. I unfortunately didn't get any pics of Gail and I but we had a great day just having some girl time and hanging out which she doesn't get to do much of with 3 kids. Did a little catching up, exploring, shopping and lunch. Then connected up with Ellie for some dinner and then picked up Nickki and Allison from the airport later that night.

The next 3 days were a whirlwind of activity. First we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Let me just say right now - in case you didn't know - I LOVE CHEESE - creamy cheeses like St Andre, drunken goat cheese, swiss, cheddar, jalapeno jack, parmesian, mixtures of cheese (mexican cheese blend, italian cheese blend), smoked, feta, and especially nacho cheese so needless to say I was really excited to visit a cheese factory.

Random displays like this. Do you remember the one that we had at Ellie's going away party with the Princess and the Armoured guy.

The production process...

The best part - tasting the cheese. I tried the Squeaky Cheese but it really didn't squeak. I was a bit disappointed.

We took the coastal route back. The weather over the weekend (except Sunday) was beautiful. Cold and sunny - my favorite.

Saturday (Allison's birthday) we went to Mother's for breakfast. Super cute place (kind of decorated like Anthropologie) and an amazing menu. A definite place to go if you're ever visiting.

For years Ellie has been talking about Dragon Tree - holistic spa that specializes in foot baths and massages. So that was the next stop for the day.

This lady was the best neck/shoulder and foot massager in the world. She did this funny thing where she was slapping my feet which was kind of odd but oh well. So sad I live so far away from Dragon Tree.

Nickki and Allison relaxing.

Dinner at Portland City Grill. Beautiful night time view of all of Portland. We were planning to watch a boat parade but realized that the boats weren't going to be floating by. What did these four girls do with that info and an iphone. Decide to go to the boats of course!!! Did I mention that we had to go to Washington state.

A little goofing around...

while Allison became the photographer for a family reunion. It actually was really cool because the whole family hadn't gotten together in many years so they got a fun family photo in front of the Christmas tree in the lobby of the building. She's looking pretty professional.

After the photo taking, we continued on our adventure to find the boat parade. So we headed over some river and into Washington state. 30 minutes later and a trek down the dock we found the boats (just as they were pulling back into their docking area). No we're not really far away, they were just really little boats. Luckily this was my first boat parade so I didn't have anything to compare it to and it was of course a fun adventure.

Ellie and I being silly at Powell's books. This is the largest and best new and used bookstore I've ever been too. I was a bit overwhelmed and got lost a few times. I did buy a few books, just a few...

Sunday morning before we flew out we decided to go on a hike at Multnomah Falls. It doesn't look like it from the picture but its about 25 degrees and looks like its ready to rain.

It was super slippery...

Such a fun girls weekend and it was so good to spend time with Ellie. I think we all fell in love with Portland.

Nickki's birthday

2010-01-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

We're still in October...

For my friend, Nickki, we celebrated her birthday at this cool restaurant called Rush Street in Culver City. It was a bit of a decoy dinner as there were "surprise" plans in the works for the upcoming weekend.

This lady who apparently was also celebrating her birthday was giving out her cupcakes. Jen willingly took one but when others declined, she got a bit aggressive and forceful sprinkled with some profanity about us taking more cupcakes.

Friday morning, Allison pretended to head to work (aka come to my house to wait until Nickki left for breakfast with Tim). Tim and Nickki headed out to breakfast and we headed back to her house to pack her up for her surprise weekend. Somewhat of a stressful next hour of packing ensued (where I first learned to do roll everything packing). They returned, we yelled out surprise and gave her a basket that Tim and Allison had put together of hints of where she was going. See the bags packed in the background. Yeah we were only going for 3 days but its hard to pack for someone else. Luckily Nickki is so spontaneous and was pretty much ready to go.

Into the car we piled and headed out for Vegas. At this point everything was still not known...where we were staying, more people coming, what we were doing.

Destination - Paris Hotel & Casino

What then ensues basically is a whole lot of lying to Nickki (I'm really horrible lying) as she's trying to make a plan for the evening and the next day. Little does she know that there is already a few plans in place including seeing Le Reve. So Diane and I are out shopping and she's back at the room trying to plan with Allison and Tim. She's calling the concierge to get tickets to Le Reve while Tim's saying he really doesn't want to see a show (very uncharacteristc since he's pretty go with the flow) and I'm saying that I've already seen it which doesn't mesh well since I had announced on the car ride that I hadn't been to Vegas in 8 years and the shows only been there for 2. But with a little quick thinking on my part, I say that I saw it in Chicago. Nickki's response, "Shannon, there is only one 100 million gallon water tank. They can't move that thing around."

Poor thing here it was her birthday weekend and unspoken rule would say that the birthday person would get to do whatever they wanted. She's highly irritated but is able to snap out of it (honestly I don't know how cuz I would have been super irritated by us) to go to dinner. After dinner we head back to the rooms to get ready to go out dancing. By this point the other group has arrived and have the chance to surprise her a bit more. Oh yeah and we then get to tell her we're going to Le Reve the next night. Whew no more surprises, mess ups and lying.

Sorry no pics from Friday night although we had a great time dancing at XS at the Encore.

Saturday was a little bit of spa time and relaxing by the pool. A few of us went out to explore the other hotels. One of my favorites is the Bellagio.

They had these random talking trees.

And the largest chocolate fountain I've ever seen.

A trip to Vegas isn't complete without seeing the Bellagio water fountain show.

Headed out to dinner and to Le Reve.

For dinner we went to Serendipity (there is also one in New York). Its famous for its $3000 dessert - it has a gold leaf in it and the frozen hot chocolate.

the real frozen hot chocolate

the desserts were huge and amazing

Off to Le Reve

the 100 million gallon water tank.....

The show was amazing!!!! Some of the acrobatics were jaw dropping. Highly recommend seeing it if you're in Vegas.

Tim picked the lucky slot machine which provided a few hours of fun and some interesting personality traits surfaced from all of us as we cheered him on. I actually won $50 off that machine.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention probably that it was Halloween weekend. There were some interesting (think XXX) and crazy costumes like the one below.

Dad's visit (a long long time ago)

2010-01-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

Way back in October my dad came down for a few days to visit and one of the fun things we did was go on the Warner Bros Studio Tour. When I first moved to LA after college, I really wanted to work in the film industry so it was so great to see all of the behind the scenes stuff and learn about how they do everything.

Show me that smile again, don't waste a minute on your crying. We're nowhere near the end. Yes the theme song from my favorite show growing up. Why??? Because this is the Growing Pains house!!!!

So fun to see the Nerd Herd car from Chuck one of my current favorite shows.

And a shot of the Chuck set. Shhh though we weren't supposed to have cameras in there but the tour guide forgot to tell us.

Its definitely the best studio tour to take in LA if you're in to that stuff.

Hello Fall!!!

2009-11-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

I blame Facebook for my lack of blog posts. Its just so easy to upload photos on there. Although none of these photos are on there so I guess that's not an excuse.

Anyways, yea, a new post so you don't have to get tired of looking at the Nordstrom photo anymore.

Late September a few of us headed up for breakfast at The Griddle which is famous for their pancakes. I took the road less travelled and got the Nutella filled french toast which was soooo good and actually voted the best dish at our table. No pics unfortunately.

Seriously their pancakes are larger than the plate. One guy that was there had a stack of 6!!!

First weekend in October my old bible study celebrated Rose's 30th birthday at BJ's Pizza. We had taken Rose to BJ's for the first time months ago for a bible study dinner and it became one of her favorites.

Rose's favorite part - the pizookie. And we got TWO!!!!

The following weekend, a bunch of us celebrated my friend, Brandon's birthday at Lucille's (whoo hoo new restaurant for me) and a little bit of bowling at Lucky Strike.

the birthday guy!!!

Tim & Nickki sharing some ribs.

Rouven convinced me to share this two person platter with a sampling of everything. Not shown were the salads and dessert!!! The ribs and tri tip were delicious.

One of the Outlet's Service projects is Laundry Love. Every 3rd Thursday of the month, members of the Outlet go to a laundrymat in Hawthorne and pay for loads of laundry for the people that are doing their laundry and hang out with the community to get to know them and their families. This is our 2nd year of hosting the Laundry Love Harvest Party.

Here's Carla (dressed in the cow costume), our new Outlet Social Lead with two of the kids that attended. The little girl on the left of the picture won the costume contest. She organized the event with Rich (not pictured), one of our Outlet Service Leads.

This year the party was complete with pizza and drinks, desserts, bounce house, face painting, cake walk and pinata.

Me in the midst of the cake walk chaos.

One of the cake walk winners.

Good bye Summer

2009-09-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

Just a quick look at what kept me busy this summer besides living life with Sam and Sarah and all the bike rides (remember the first summer blog post).

In July I went to the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. The past few years I have gone with my friend, Shannon, but she was out of town this year so Allison went with me. No pics of us though. Only this pic I thought to take while I was standing outside on a conference call. Benefits of working from home - not really I actually had a vacation day but called in for this call.

Normally I get my eyebrows waxed but have a bunch of friends who get them threaded at this place in the mall so I figured I'd take the opportunity to check it out because I heard it lasted longer and was less painful. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? It felt like I was getting a million paper cuts on my eyebrow area. I survived but did shed a few tears of pain (seriously).

Later that night we celebrated Jen's 30th birthday.

Travis and I were on grill duty.

We had a fun "anything you could possibly want on your burger" bar, but I didn't get any pictures.

Allison found a place in Atwater Village (North of downtown) that offers fun dance/workout classes so we headed up there for a Bollywood class. As rhythmically challenged as I am, I didn't do that bad. I'm definitely not staring in the next Bollywood movie though.

One of the moves we learned.

She's going to kill me for posting this...

Cool "new to me" restaurant in Silver Lake called Alcove after the class.

Biked to Taco Tuesday at Sharkeez in HB one evening with a few of the girls. Yum fish tacos and watermelon margaritas - my choice for the night.

Some of the girls grabbed some Lotus afterwards.

Little bit of hang out time at Starbucks before the return bike ride.

It was a "fun Jen" night with a bit of pole dancing.

Old cell broke so I splurged and got the new iPhone. I LOVE this thing.

For the past year and a half Angela and I would go to In and Out on her RDO Fridays. She lost the RDO Fridays a while back but we continued to find time to go especially February through August when her husband, Adam, was in Afghanistan. Fun lunches - who else sits at In and Out for 2 hours???

We welcomed Adam back at LAX in August.

Went to Shakespeare in the Park at Point Fermin in San Pedro. Such a fun evening - great location and what better way to spend an evening than watching a play outside on a summer evening.

The temp totally dropped as you can tell by the change in outfits.

Only got to one Concert in the Park at Polliwog this summer. The Mo's organized this since this is Lauren's favorite - Neil Diamond cover band.

Found out that the Pantages was having a student special on the play Legally Blonde. Basically students could come and purchase tickets for the play at $25/ticket with a valid student id at the theater. Lucky for me I had Sam, Sarah and Michaela and was able to "use" them and purchase a few tickets at amazing prices. I took Sam and Michaela up there one day and then took them to lunch at Pink's Hot Dogs and then a bit of thrift store shopping. Orchestra seats!!!!

On August 28th, a few of us headed up to Hollywood for dinner at Katsuya, asian fusion sushi bar restaurant that Nickki had been raving about for a while and was on my list to try. It was really cool and they gave us this sort of private area that was a bit separate from the main part of the restaurant.

The non-fish eaters. Their chicken dishes were really good though.

I loved the presentation of the food. This is a MUST have if you ever go to this restaurant - its the creamy rock shrimp appetizer.

and the fish eaters...

Fun picture of us before we headed inside for the play. There were people dressed up in lots of pink.

Got to try The Habit, El Segundo's newest restaurant, prior to the opening. Sam and I were headed to Chipotle and noticed that people were at The Habit on Saturday, August 29th so we decided to check it out. We entered, they were VERY friendly (which hasn't stopped in the subsequent times I've been there), said that all proceeds from that day's sales went to El Segundo's schools, ordered, went and sat outside to wait for the food. Moments later I saw the manager turning away customers. Apparently it was only open for two hours and the real opening was the following Monday.

Got a season pass to Disneyland.

Had a family and friend pasta night on the last Sunday before Sam and Sarah left.

Michaela and Sam posing for a picture. They are such good sports and good at the active shots.

Sarah and a couple of her friends

Shot of the beach on a bike ride on Labor Day.

Disclaimer

2009-09-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

So it has come to my attention that the last picture that I posted of Sam and Michaela brushing their teeth could be interpreted to be a morning picture BUT rest assured that Shannon's House Rules stayed in tact this entire summer and that was actually an afternoon picture because both of them for whatever reason really like to brush their teeth. Being raised in a household where my mom, the dental hygienist wanted 3 brushings a day and flossing (which I'm not so religious at doing every day still), I say brush on!!!

For those who weren't privy to Shannon's House Rules here they are in case you find yourself in a situation with teens:

No persons of the opposite sex in the house when Shannon isn't home. (Sitting outside on the porch until she gets there and watching the tv through the screen door was okay - they got creative).
No persons of the opposite sex in their bedrooms with the doors closed. (It is amazing what they will try with the door open....)
No sleepovers of the opposite sex. (Watch out for the parents that do allow it though...)
No going horizontal. (I don't know how many times I said "sit up" this summer)

When I was a teen, these rules were outrageous. And look at me now...

Sarah

2009-08-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

So Sam's gotten the last two posts so I figured I'd devote a post to Sarah. Sarah came out from London a few weeks after Sam as her school got out later and she spent a few weeks hanging out with Claire and touring the England countryside. Since she's gotten out here, she's been busy hanging out with friends, babysitting a lot and a week long dog sitting job.

Last year despite my urging because she had a ton of split ends, she opted for an "air cut" which is what my hair dresser calls it when its not even a trim because she didn't want to lose the length. This year she was more game to get an actual cut so that her hair would be healthy.

Bye Bye 6 inches.

She was in mourning the loss of those 6 inches the entire drive home and the next day. BUT its so much healthier.

Its now been 3 weeks and she's used to the length. Two days ago she came home and it was dyed black (yes Elvira jet black). Some pics she took with her computer.

Really cool picture of her although she looks WAY TOO OLD!!!!

Sam & Michaela

2009-08-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

So Sam met a great girl when he was here for spring break. They talked alot when he was in London between spring break and summer and when he came back for the summer he asked her to be his girlfriend. But this really isn't a post about the relationship, rather I just want to show you that in the 9 weeks that I've gotten to know Michaela, she's changed her hair multiple times and she's one of those girls where any color looks good on her. Up until a year ago (her mom showed me pictures) she had long curly blonde hair.

When I first met her it was strawberry blonde

Then she showed up one day and it was dark brown. Here it is curly.

Then some blue streaks showed up.

You can see them better here.

And now its light brown with white blonde streaks.

You can see the blonde better in this pic. I promised them this one would never get out but I thought it was funny and its not going on Facebook so I don't think they'll ever know.

Summer

2009-08-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

So this summer has been pretty crazy. Really just plain busy with work (we are going through a reorg of the consulting division and layoffs both of which are alot of work behind the scenes), having two teenagers for the summer (more on that later if you haven't heard the jaw dropping stories and parenting according to Shannon already...) and all my fun summer activities with friends. Again I've been negligent on the blog...

Anyways the first thing I want to share (partly cuz I'm proud of myself) but mostly because I'm really proud of Sam is that he got his license. Brigitte had been wanting him to learn to drive since he was 14 (I think in France maybe that is okay and mostly for emergencies) but I convinced her that he really couldn't but that as soon as he legally could, I would teach him to drive. His dad mainly because he lives in London doesn't know how to drive so Brigitte wanted to ensure that was something that he could do. So last year a little after she passed, Sam (16) and I worked through the process of getting him his permit.

On July 28, 2008, here he is after passing his permit test.

The same afternoon he had his first 2 hours of behind the wheel (he had practiced a little bit prior to that in parking lots - good thing since they immediately had him driving in rush hour traffic on busy 4 lane roads) so he could legally drive with me. Next day we were leaving on the roadtrip to Oregon - great opportunity for driving in lots of different conditions.

When Sam was back for Christmas Break and Spring Break and summer, we drove ALOT. On July 28, 2009, he took his driving test and passed. While he was taking the test, I was seriously nervous for him. After he passed, I was still seriously nervous but now it was because he was going to be driving alone in my car.

Sam and his girlfriend ready to head off for their first drive without me in the car. He looks so grown up...

So this is just one experience in my crazy but wonderful summer with the kids. Its crazy to think that while I haven't been blessed with my own kids, I've experienced this terrifying yet proud moment and probably one of the milestone moments in a teen's life and that of a parent's as they have to learn to trust that the kid will be responsible and safe and have so much more freedom while I've got friends whose kids are just starting to get their permits and just starting the terrifying process.

Some of my driving tips and rules that I think are working:

- if possible wait until they are 17 - worked for Sam and I think he's a bit more mature; planning to do the same with Sarah

- lots and lots of practice in all different conditions (it may be easier, faster and less anxiety for you to drive but the better prepared they are the better they will be when they are driving alone) over and above what they will make them do during the driving test (we did lots of freeway driving especially in traffic, parallel parking, frequently doing the routes that they will be driving so they learn)

- lots of commentary from me (are you surprised?) on why to do something, why not to do something, anticipating things that new drivers just don't see and experienced drivers now take for granted

- driving with the radio on - I know some will say WHAT??? but hear me out. Initially when they start driving and you are heavily instructing them no radio but as they get more comfortable driving turn the radio on. They are going to have the radio on (and loud) when they are driving alone or with friends so better to prepare them for how they are truly going to be driving when they are alone. Today there are so many more distractions than when I learned to drive.

- I didn't let Sam take his test until I was comfortable NOT that he would pass but that I was comfortable with him driving by himself safely and responsibly and with my car

- Post License Rules - no ipod, hand holding or kissing the girlfriend at stop lights for 2 weeks; no going out of the South Bay unless I'm aware, select people are allowed in the car when he's driving.

Its now been almost a month and Sam has proven to be responsible and trustworthy as a driver and with my car. The anxiety has lessened considerably although I do still pray that he will return safely every time he takes the car.

Last thoughts are to my mom. I remember like it was yesterday, taking my driving test while you waited at the curb (yes the one that I went over and they still allowed me to finish the test) with the other parents and the minute we got home I had you out of the car and was on my way to my friends feeling on top of the world with the biggest amount of freedom that a 16 year old can feel. But I do remember you standing in the driveway waving as I drove away and even as I got to the end of the block, I could still see you standing there. Such a different feeling for the adult than the kid.

I do (since I've now lived through it), but at the same time don't know how you did it. Like everything else this summer, I appreciate you more for it.

Cruisin'

2009-08-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do is ride my purple beach cruiser. Luckily I have lots of friends who also love to do this so this summer has been filled alot of bike rides. A few of us got bike lights so there have been some late night rides too. There have been a ton (essentially anything happening in the Venice or South Bay area is attached to a bike ride) but just a few pictures from some.

Back on Sat, June 27th Taylor organized a late afternoon bike ride to South RB. We checked out the street fair and then grabbed dinner at Creme de la Crepe.

Day before 4th of July I did two really long rides. First one was in the morning - destination the Omelette Parlour in Santa Monica (meals stops are always fun cuz you know you're going to at least work some of it off on the ride home).

Got home, rested for an hour and then headed out on an afternoon ride with my bible study girls to Venice. Of course stopping at Baja Cantina for some margaritas and happy hour food specials.

So in addition to loving riding my bike, I love to (despite how dangerous it possibly is) to take pictures while I'm riding. Most of the time I've mastered the art of taking pics while I'm riding. Its kind of like a selfy shot but really can't have me in it to get everyone else when we're riding. I'm going to coin it Riding While Taking Pictures (RWTP). Unfortunately none of my friends do it so I'm really never in the pics.

Lauren's sister, Tracy, was in town for 6 weeks and joined us on the ride.

How can you not love beach rides with views like this???

This year for the first time I attended the Hermosa Beach Concerts on the Beach. They are only 3 Sundays in July with some relatively popular bands. Here's some shots of the first one.

Jen and Travis

And the second one when Rebelution (reggae) was playing. It was PACKED!!!! Definitely different atmosphere than Manhattan's Concert in the Park. Lots of red cups and interesting smells...

Allison's family came down to visit and she arranged a bike ride on a Wednesday early evening to ride to El Torito in Marina del Rey. We met up with her mom, dad and Noah, her adorable 2 year old nephew. Not bad for another "RWTP" shot.

Beautiful sunset on the ride there. RWTP shot

Fun with Friends Outside of 90245

2009-07-23T09:54:00.001-07:00

Got together with some friends in June and July that don't live in my little South Bay bubble.

My friend Dana who moved to Ohio at the end of last summer was in town for a few days with her husband and Adam, her 6 month (at that time) old. We got to have some girl time and got the toes done. This was my first time at Relaxation Nail Salon (is it crazy that in the small town of El Segundo and like 4 block radius they have 5 nail salons). Not my favorite but I did love those chairs which are by far the best of the 5 nail salons.

I convinced Dana to get blue nail polish which she is pondering even as the nail lady is putting it on her second foot and trying to convince her it looks good.

Blue toes - took her a day but the color grew on her. I hope they have blue nail polish in Ohio.

Met up with the boys for some mexican food at Teresa's.

Susie was also in town from Ohio with her husband and 3 girls and I got to spend the day with her.

Got together with Heidi and Cindy (and her son Travis), roommates from college at the Sherman Oaks Galleria Cheesecake Factory - kind of a midpoint for all of us.

New combo of whipped cream and bread. Good thing I hate whipped cream.

Travis thought it was the best thing though!!!

It was done a long time ago.

2009-07-21T08:51:00.001-07:00

Whoa its been a long time...Get ready for lots of posts...

So here was step two of the picture project. Pictures loaded in the frames and ready for hanging.

Ta Da the finished project. My hallway is too narrow to take a straight on picture so the angled shot is the best I can do.

Picture Project

2009-06-01T17:20:00.001-07:00

So with digital pictures, my blog and Facebook, I haven't printed a picture from my camera in forever. I've been wanting to do a picture collage wall for a while with some of the picture frames I already have and a few new ones. Here's the picture frames ready and waiting for Kodak to send them to me. I should have used Costco - cheaper and I'm getting antsy.

Next decision will be which wall...

the hallway?

or my bedroom?

I'm thinking probably the hallway.

I hope the pics get here soon.

Birthday Freebies

2009-05-26T18:41:00.001-07:00

So I've been really behind on my posts but a few months before my birthday I got this idea that I would try and do everything I possibly could that was free. The internet is a beautiful thing - here are a couple of sites I used to find all the freebies (these are only national ones there are also alot of local ones too). About a month before the big day, I signed up for so many clubs (one of the requirements to cash in on some of the free things). I actually only ended up using one of the national things, everything else was local (you'll see what I mean).

http://www.hustlermoneyblog.com/eat-free-on-your-birthday/
http://www.ehow.com/how_4518275_stuff-birthday-over-places.html
http://www.guidespot.com/guides/free_birthday_stuff

Started off the day with a Red Carpet premium car wash FOR FREE. Only on your actual birthday though (they check your license).

Then it was off to Red Robin with my friend, Shannon. One of my gifts from Jen was Shannon's 35 Things I'm Thankfulness Cards in which I was supposed to write on each of the cards things I'm thankful for. Worked on them while I was waiting for my burger and fries.

FREE Bleu Ribbon Burger and Garlic Parmesian Fries

I was supposed to go to Disneyland cuz you get in free on your birthday (if you sign up ahead of time on their website) with Jen and Travis but Jen's sister had her baby on my birthday so we didn't get a chance to go. Next best thing...go to the Disney Store (which just happened to be at the Galleria with Red Robin).

Poor Shannon...she was a great sport though, I think just cuz it was my birthday.

I kind of felt like I was in high school.

Apparently the clothes from when I was in high school are back in style. Playing around in Hot Topic.

Low key afternoon - no freebies, just went to the gym to work off the burger and the upcoming FREE food.

For dinner a few friends and I went to Mama D's in Hermosa Beach for FREE dinner and dessert (they check your license here too) for the birthday person. Oh and I got a free appetizer at my next visit.

Last freebie stop - Lotus Frozen Yogurt in Hermosa Beach for FREE yogurt. You have to pay for the toppings.

That was my birthday freebies. Essentially it was alot of free food and I didn't even get the Orange Julius, Cold Stone, BJ's Pizookie, chocolate chip cookie from Quiznos, Denny's breakfast, Islands dessert or Baskin Robbins free scoop of ice cream. Good thing I don't like dessert very much.

Friday went to a new restaurant to celebrate my birthday. We were out on the patio and the food was amazing.

Jen got these cute napkins a few months ago. Interesting how we were color coordinated with them.

Some of my Wednesday small group girls

Group pic

Always love the fun ones.

Roadtrip to Oregon with Ellie

2009-05-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

So at 10:46p on Saturday, May 4th Ellie and I embarked on what we anticipated to be a 15 hour journey from El Segundo up to Portland, Oregon (aka her new home). Yes we intended to drive straight because we wanted to see the Outlet Comedy Night but needed to get up to Portland by Sunday afternoon for her to sign apartment lease papers so she could move into her new apartment that she rented entirely by internet. Crazy huh - yeah that is what everyone else said but we figured we could do it.

Here's a pic of just how packed her Nissan Armada was. Seriously there wasn't any room. We actually had to do a bit of rearranging and stuffing things through windows just to make my bag and a few other things fit.

Not kidding when I said it was packed - see the spices in little areas of the car.

At about 5:40a I'm "flying" through Redding, Ellie is sleeping, and I see "lights" in the side mirror because again seriously it was so packed from floor to ceiling that there really wasn't a rear view mirror view. Yep got a speeding ticket - traffic school here I come. Never gotten a speeding ticket before which I guess is the bright side of things. Tried a few excuses but he wouldn't let me off.

Few hours later we hit Oregon (we wanted the welcome to Oregon sign but its so small and there isn't anything that gives you a hint that you are going to drive past it in two seconds) but of course it was raining in Oregon which was a big enough sign that we had entered the state.

About an hour left until we get to Keizer, Oregon where I was going to stay a few days with my best friend, Gail and her family. At this point, I've had 30 minutes of sleep and we're high on Monster and Starbucks. But I'm allowed to drive again!!!

Got to Keizer, OR which is about 40 minutes outside of Portland. Boys are so fun - got Collin, Gail's son who's 11 to climb in this bush so I could take a picture. Then we all headed up to Ellie's new place to help her unpack.

Ellie's new place.

the view from her balcony and bedroom - so beautiful and serene

After we helped her unpack, I headed back to Keizer with Gail and the family. Here we are on Monday night BBQ'ing Oregon style. Yep of course it was raining again and of course I didn't want to get wet but did want to BBQ so we turned the grill inward.

Tuesday Gail's daughter didn't have kindergarten so I took a lunch break from work and we went to lunch and did a Target run. For those of you who know that I love the minivan, I'm so sad - Gail doesn't have one anymore for me to drive the kids around when I'm up there.

Camie got to pick the lunch location - of course what would any 6 year old pick but McD's.

Me and Courtney, Gail's oldest at 14, almost 15.

Me with Collin and Camie after his baseball game - guess what it rained throughout...

After the game Gail, Collin, Camie and I met up with Ellie half way and had a little Cinco de May celebrating at Chevys. How cool are those hats!!!

Afterwards we headed over to the Portland City Grill to see the nightlife in Portland - not much going on but it was a Tuesday.

Wednesday we worked from home - this isn't my usual work from home attire - usually its gym clothes but they didn't fit in my little bag that had to cram in the car so you get pajamas.

Here we are looking a bit more professional before heading out for lunch and to our flights.

Oh yeah it only took us 13 hours to get to Portland in case you're thinking of a road trip and that was with a sit down breakfast of tacos from Jack In The Box, several bathroom and gas breaks including one where we couldn't figure out how to get back on the freeway and of course the speeding ticket pull over.

Bye Bye Ellie

2009-05-11T23:57:00.000-07:00

One of my good friends, Ellie, took a new job in Oregon so Jami threw her a going away brunch two Saturdays ago. We were well fed with Nickki's famous Baked Caramel French Toast, egg casserole with sausage or veggie, bacon, sausage, fruit, orange juice and coffee.

We thought this would be very "Ellie" and Jami just happened to have some at her middle school for us to have a bit of fun with.

Next up Ellie & my crazy 13 hour road trip from the Gundo to Portland, Oregon later that evening.

The kids are here...

2009-04-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

Sam and Sarah were here over Christmas break and back again for Spring Break for 2 weeks. They got here on Sunday the 5th and we have another week until they leave. They've mostly been hanging out with their friends (its been so great to see them able to constantly stay in touch despite living in London) but here's a pic of us from last week after Sarah got her belly button pierced. For all my blog readers with young ones, yes, something to look forward to.... Her dad actually gave the okay, I could have waited a few more years.

Shanifer Anniversary

2009-03-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

God has done some amazing things in my life over the years and this is definitely one that stands out so clearly to me. Six, years ago I joined the Outlet, my Sunday school church group and about two years in wanted to step up to lead in an area (I was so NOT in a place to lead and I'm sure God knew that cuz I missed the meeting at the Anderson's house).

Fast forward a few years later, a few steps of obedience and a call to step out of my comfort zone and volunteer to organize an Outlet Women's Social (God challenged me in more ways that one with that - some of you know the pray out loud in front of people story).

A few weekends after that, I was at a birthday brunch for Hollie Vogel at Allison Bowers' house and we're all standing in line to get some food and I'm talking about ideas for the upcoming event and Jen randomly asks in front of all these girls, "hey do you want to start doing the Social activities for the Outlet with me". Without thinking, I'm like "sure". Later on the drive home, WHAT WAS I THINKING??? I HAVEN'T EVEN HAD THIS OTHER EVENT. WHAT IF I CAN'T DO IT? WHAT IF I'M NOT GOOD AT IT? I HATE SPEAKING IN FRONT OF LARGE GROUPS - I CAN'T DO ANNOUNCEMENTS IN THE OUTLET. Well I stuck by my original response and the rest is history...

So three years ago today, Jen and I met for the first time to plan our first Outlet Social Event - Battle of the Sexes. She had been planning events prior for a few years. It happened to be St. Patrick's Day so I had already been planning to make corned beef (tradition of my family since I was little), rice and cabbage. Every year since on or around March 17th we "celebrate" the Outlet that brought us together, our friendship that grew out of all this and of course plan a few things non-Outlet related now since we've both stepped down from those leadership positions. One thing to note, after year 0 celebration, no more corned beef as Jen discovered she really didn't like it. Year 1 was Reed's (near Ralphs) which has since closed down and last year we went to a hockey game cuz she had free tickets. This year we went to BJ's (using the gift cards...).

Here we are over the years...

Battle of the Sexes in the old Outlet room (March 2006)

Outlet Poker Night - one of our largest attended events (June 2006)

Grub in the Gundo (October 2006) - I think it was sometime around the planning of this at Shannifer was jokingly created.

Outlet Halloween Party (2007)

Outlet Christmas Party (2007) - my last event

Mammoth Trip - 2008

Sheri & Tim's wedding - 2008

SOS bible study Christmas dinner - 2008

March 16, 2009

So we've gotten a bit older, shed a few pounds, learned to team together for an event - Outlet events, friend parties, JOF events (not so sure others love this as much as we do), and became really great friends. Love ya Jen!!!

Shannifer Party Planning may some day come to fruition.

Happy St Patty's Day everyone. Don't forgot to wear Green.

A Little Fairy Tale...

2009-02-05T17:26:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time a long, long, long, long, long time ago in a little town called The Gundo lived a girl in her apartment. The building was old but it was in a great location, grass for her dog and lots of parking unlike her previous place in Manhattan Beach so she could actually entertain and have a bible study at her place. She loved it, such a great place to live and work.

Sidebar - this girl had just finished living through 2 years of renovations to the Manhattan Beach apartment.

Back to the story...

Six months after she moved in, the apartment building changed ownership and the new landlord decided to do renovations. Old so thin they might as well not be there windows were replaced with double paned windows, roof was redone (there were some leaks although not in my apartment), plumbing redone, new garage doors with openers, water heaters (the size of maybe 4 Sparkletts containers removed for tankless water heaters (whoo hoo for those who don't have one, you can take hours worth of showers and it never gets cold) and some of the apartments were remodeled and upgraded (envision Brigitte's apartment). All great things but then progress stopped not the landlord's fault but rather the contractors - one guy was living in the garage (guess he had been kicked out), deck guy decided this "life" wasn't the one he wanted (could be concidence but the same thing happened to the deck guy in Manhattan Beach) and the stucco guys were just plain not reliable.

Silence for a few years. Although the building looked half done with stucco surrounding the windows not matching the building and deck torn up with plywood showing, it was so wonderful for the girl to not be woken up to hammering, staple gunning, or the sound of an electric saw or other languages being spoken, have to ask a truck owner to move so the girl could get her car out of the garage or dust her house and plants off every day.

Neighbors and friends were puzzled by the left undone state of the apartment building but the girl felt blessed to have noise free work days and waited patiently for the conclusion.

One day a few years later the contractors reappeared (remember the blog entry from September 2008) and the symphony of construction began again. Scaffolding was erected and a lovely veil encased the apartment building.

The windows were covered with black plastic...

Creating this work in the dark atmosphere at mid-day.

For the sandblasting. A few cracks and holes were found during the next rain storm and more stucco was added. The outside ceiling was redone. The roof was tilted or angled and tiled. And then wind and rain curbed the momentum that was building and the veil was lifted. Now the building was still undone but now surrounded by scaffolding and the flooring was covered in plastic and the death trap stairs.

Earlier this week, the veil came down again. There was some more stucco'ing going on behind there, more pounding on the roof and...

Waaaaahhhhhh Laaaaaaaaa

A new castle (remember the fairy tale theme) for the girl. Come by and visit it looks pretty cool at night with the lights over the garages.

And they all lived happily ever after...well almost... There was still some residual scaffolding, but that is actually dismantled now as well. All that is left is re-doing the stairs and walkways and landscaping.

In all seriousness, although it seems like a long time coming, God has blessed me with alot of patience so, for the most part, the noise, workers or the duration really didn't bother me. And he blessed me with a great apartment that didn't have any leaks or issues as some of the other apartments did and taught me over the years to unclench my hold on my stuff and things that had to be moved, covered, or exposed as workers came through my apartment. My landlord is awesome for caring and investing so much time and money into her building.

Holy Guacamole...

2009-02-03T00:53:00.000-08:00

Did you know???

Avocados are a fruit.
54.9 million pounds of avocados were estimated to be eaten this year for Super Bowl. This is enough guacamole to cover a football field end zone to end zone 10 feet deep.
Someone bought 15 avocados for her guacamole this year.

3rd Annual Outlet Super Bowl Party at the Blankenships minus Capt B as he was in Iraq. Angela did a great job of throwing another great Super Bowl Party.

The guac was gone by the 2nd Quarter. Jen's scraping up the remains.

In the absence of Adam, Brandon and Dave took on the task of grilling burgers, Louisiana sausages and hot dogs all afternoon with a bit of help from Tim. Pretty amazing to see him on crutches only 2 months after his motorcycle accident.

Allison and I checked out the commercials at halftime with our super cool 3-D glasses.

This appears to be a calm moment of the crowd. The second half was a bit more lively as the game got exciting and the Steelers pulled out a win (I was cheering for the Cardinals).

Birthdays

2009-02-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

This past week we celebrated two birthdays in my Wednesday small group. Kristin's (2nd row, 4th person) birthday was on Monday and Lauren's (2nd row, 3rd person) birthday was on Thursday.

Wednesday following bible study we celebrated Kristin and Lauren's birthdays with cake and a bit of Happy Birthday singing.

Thursday, Lauren's true birthday, we celebrated at C&O Trattoria. Such a fun place on the patio. A little toast following singing their traditional "That's Amore" song.

Friday more celebrating Lauren's birthday at Upper Manhattan with close friends and co-workers.

A little bit of O-Bomb fun. Carla didn't like it so much.

Christmas Fong Family Style 2008

2009-01-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

Holidays have always been a big deal filled with traditions and family. Being an only child I was always quite spoiled in the gift department both from Santa and from my parents. My mom is one of the best gift givers that I know.

Here's my favorite gift for the past 4 years - my box of gift cards. I think I mentioned it on my blog last year but as a refresher, 4 years ago my mom gave me a box filled with 12 gift cards individually wrapped in tissue paper in a fabric sleeve for each month of the upcoming year so I get to open one on the first of each month. Its always so much fun over the course of the year to see what the gift cards or gift certificates are. My mom gets pretty creative and some are from restaurants or stores only found in the South Bay. In case you're wondering, January 2009 was for Target.

Christmas Eve I wore a new magenta hooded button up v-neck sweater that I bought recently from the Nordstrom Rack. My mom commented all day that she loved the sweater - style and color. I thought she was just being affirming. Christmas morning, I opened one of my presents and there was the SAME sweater. So of course I had to put my sweater on just for a picture.

My grandfather recently moved to a Board & Care home. In the past, I would pick him up and bring him to our extended family holiday celebrations. At Thanksgiving, it became apparent that bringing him was challenging (he's blind) and logistically difficult and it would be better for the family to visit him over the course of the Christmas week. I rallied my cousins, all of his grandchildren, together to visit him on Christmas. We spent several hours hanging out with him and joined in for a bit of singing when the Christmas carolers came to sing Christian Christmas songs/hymns. This was my BEST Christmas - those two and a half hours were so special and memorable.

This is Linda, my grandfather's caregiver. She and her husband own, live and manage the board & care home where my grandfather lives. She has truly been a blessing to my grandfather and to the entire family. She has a true gift for caregiving. Given my life experiences over the past year I am extremely appreciative for the love, care and comfort that she provides him.

And now we get to the Fong (my mom's maiden name) family extravaganza. If you read the blog last year, there was a carousel. Thanksgivings and Christmases are always at my grandfather's house that is now owned by one of my aunts. My grandfather helped design this house for my grandmother, who passed away years ago, and their 9 children (although I think my mom was already off at college at that point). Its in the Oakland Skyline Hills. With 9 kids, spouses and 10 grandkids, it makes for some big family gatherings best shown by the stockings. Couples have to share because there isn't enough room otherwise.

My Uncle David does all the decorating at the house every Christmas for the family get together. As mentioned above last year there was a pretty large carousel. This year he scrounged up all of the 5000 family photos from way back when (before my grandparents were married) to present day and projected them onto a old time movie theater backdrop. We also each got a Christmas tree (see the wall in the picture below) with pictures through the years.

The kids table that all the grandchildren have to sit at. I think I'll always be here even as the oldest grandkid. Look at all the pictures.

More pictures...

Even pictures in the bathroom...

This was a first - for some reason we decided to do hair. We straightened my hair - looked a little straighter and shinier and my littlest cousin's hair and curled my cousin, Jennifer's, hair (it looked great if I can say so myself).

My Uncle David always has a game for us to play each year. This year we each got a paper with 7 pictures (mostly old pictures) on it and we had to put them in chronological order.

We were allowed to help each other (I wasn't cheating) because it was really hard.

Then for the first time, the siblings (aunties and uncles) had a game - to figure out the years that my grandfather, grandmother, grandfather's second wife and all the kids were born and the president that was in office at that time. They were allowed to help each other but in their case it didn't really help.

Family photo - only missing one uncle and his family of five - and my grandfather because I had already taken him back to his home and Nellie, his second wife.

Another tradition - my Auntie Jann gives us a puzzle each year that we have to solve to get the $. Last year we had to do sudoku puzzles to get a combination to open a bag. One year we had a tub of keys and had to find the individual key that opened our box. This year we got advent calendars and the money was hidden in one of the days. I loved mine, it was a church.

My mom, dad and I.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as we celebrated the birth of Christ, our Savior, and had the opportunity to spend some time with family and friends.

December

2008-12-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

December has flown by and tomorrow is Christmas. Lots of fun times this past month.

My Auntie Lindy, Uncle Dave, cousins Scott and Sara were in LA the first weekend in December. Did a self shot (pretty good huh with 5 people?) and then took them to Journey to Bethlehem. It was so fun and the first time I've gotten to take anyone to J2B that didn't go to my church.

My Wednesday night bible study girls got together at Kristin's parents house for chili and baked potatoes and to see the Torrance Christmas Lights.

Niki's pre-MB fireworks party. Her and her husband have a great apartment on Marine and Highland with a great view of the fireworks. Me with the Wednesday girls.

Fun shot after the most amazing MB fireworks show EVER!!! Every year it gets better and they always have fireworks I've NEVER seen before.

Delicious...Tuesday small group (some of us) got together at La Creperie for dinner and gift exchange.

Got a great scarf from Rhonda. I'm trying to do more fun shots to make it more interesting.

Loved this arch and insisted we take a pic under it.

Outlet Women's Christmas Social

Krista and Becky our Women's Bible Study Leaders

Great representation by our bible study.

Rose with her Santa Claus cookie dessert. Isn't it cute?

The spread...

El Segundo's Candy Cane Lane

Shannon really loved this Santa bush that one of the houses created.

Blankenship's Wear Your Worst Christmas Sweater and Congrats to Adam on completing his Masters program Party.

Going for the Olan Mills shot.

I didn't win...

but Travis and Adam did for best sweater (aka costume in Travis' case)

Hope you're all having a wonderful December!!!

You Can Never Have Too Much Cheesecake

2008-12-11T23:17:00.001-08:00

Be prepared...I'm behind again on posting so there are a few coming. Few weeks ago we celebrated Allison's birthday at the Marina del Rey Cheesecake Factory. It was a cool evening but warm enough to sit on the patio surrounded by heating lamps. Gotta love December in Southern California.

Making a Wish

Tim's first fun outing (since doctors visits don't count as fun) since his motorcycle accident. Can't even tell that he's bolted together, wheelchair bound and on a pain medication diet. Fun little group shot.

Tim has some VIP card that got us a bunch of free slices of cheesecake. My fave was the one on the right.

Diane loving cheesecake #1. Remember the guac shot...So I made her take one with the cheesecake container.

Cheating with Facebook and Neglecting My Blog

2008-12-11T22:38:00.000-08:00

It's just so easy to upload photos to Facebook. Anyways this is pretty old but figured I'd add it.

Back to Black Friday...for the past 4 years (I'd say its now a tradition), I've gotten up at the crack of dawn (actually its still pretty dark for a few hours so not really dawn) to get an early start on my Christmas shopping. Honestly I really just like the experience of it all and seeing all the really crazy people camped out hoping to get one of 10 tvs or computers for an unbeatable price.

This year was the earliest of the four past years as my Auntie Jann, my dad and I headed out to brave the crowds. We always have late holidays so I should have just pulled an all-nighter since I didn't get to bed until almost 2 a.m.

I'm telling you these people are crazy. This is the front of Best Buy. People left their chairs and clothes to get into the store as fast as they could. If anyone wants a camping chair this is the place to "shop".

So glad I dragged myself out of bed at 4 a.m. to help my Aunt battle the crowds for the Guitar Hero Wii bundle. As you can tell, we got the last one...

Stop #2 - pretty cool - first 100 customers got $10 extra dollars off.

My first (and actually only as I write this on Dec 11th) Gingerbread Latte (or GingerSnap as they are now called) of the season.

Happy Birthday Rhonda

2008-11-20T00:06:00.001-08:00

A bit out of chronological order but on Tuesday night we celebrated Rhonda's birthday with dinner, flowers, chocolate cake and vanilla bean ice cream and a little gift certificate for a mani/pedi.

Her actual birthday is today (Thursday). Happy Birthday, Rhonda!!! We love you and are all truly blessed to have you in our lives.

Fun little wrap up

2008-11-19T23:43:00.000-08:00

My Wednesday night small group study wrapped up Gifts - The Joy of Serving God this evening discussing abiding in Christ and how God prunes us. We concluded the evening with a little creative exercise of decorating hand towels with our spiritual gifts and passions.

The towels represent the servanthood of Jesus as he washed the feet of his disciples at the last supper. Some of us are very artistic and some of us (me) draw people as if they were linebackers on a football team.

It's been a great 10 weeks getting to know these women and I'm excited to continue with our new bible study when it resumes in January. Only missing Carla below.

Nickki's EPIC Long Birthday Lunch

2008-11-19T16:44:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday headed up to Malibu to Paradise Cove for a late lunch in a belated birthday celebration for Nickki. One of my favorite things to do is try new restaurants and this is one of Nickki's faves.

Self proclaimed Tim & Nickki's relationship photographer. There are a few cute pics of them.

One of their signature appetizers is the guac which comes in this monster margarita glass. We also got the calamari which was in a monster martini glass. Diane loved the salad at the bottom of the guac so had to get a fun shot of her with the glass.

little birthday peck on the cheek

We left the Gundo around 1p and as you can tell it getting dark. In this pic its after 5p. What can we say, we're having a good time.

some chocolate cake

They were starting to seat and serve for dinner so we headed down to the beach.

Such a fun and relaxing Sunday to end the weekend.

A Little More Halloween...

2008-11-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

Yeah I know its a week away from Thanksgiving, but I started this post and then I've been a bit sidetracked with Facebook because you can post all your pictures so easily and aren't limited to 5 at a time so sorry folks who've been checking the blog only to be reminded of my seriousness on voting day. Anyways here we go...

Guess I didn't want Halloween to end...headed to Knott's Scary Farm on Saturday even though it was November 1st. Hadn't been since college, but it was still just as scary with crazy masked people jumping out of the dark and fog and sliding up to you and making strange noises in your ear.

motion sickness challenged so I skipped the rides

Went through all 13 mazes. This was one of the first where all the scary monsters picked on Nickki.

Scary Spider Ride which wasn't that bad.

Another scary guy bugging Nickki especially when I accidentally called her by her name and then he did too.

And as requested, costumes from the past 4 years where I've won for Most Original. Which was your fave?

Did you vote?

2008-11-04T11:52:00.000-08:00

So I must admit that when I was legally allowed to vote at the age of 18, I didn't. Nor did I for quite a few elections after that. Honestly I didn't feel like I was knowledgeable enough about the presidential candidates to warrant voting.

Then I grew up...and realized that if I wanted to vote I needed to educate myself on the candidates, propositions, etc.

Now I can proudly say that for the past 3 election days (including today) I have gone to the polls and voted. I'm slightly more knowledgeable although I didn't realize there were 5 candidates for President (did you?) or know half of the candidates running for judical positions and what about the poor teacher/coach running for the water position against what looked like the head of the water department.

Anyways for the most part I'm pretty comfortable in conversations except discussing two areas - of course religion and politics. Let me explain that a bit further. I love talking about my faith, but I am pretty nervous when it comes to talking to a non-Christians about the facts because like politics I never feel knowledgeable enough to debate.

So why am I going on and on about voting and politics (and then bring religion into the mix) well because I was at the gym (after I voted) watching The View and these women defend their pick for President and have somewhat watched the debates, the critics after the debates, the commercials and the mudslinging, each of them on the cover of People and US Magazine and truly newsworthy mags as everyone tries to build up and pick apart each of the candidates and their running mates and me being the relational person that I am sat wondering how many have gotten caught up in their passion for a candidate and how many friendships have suffered for it. I know, I know but what else do I have to think about while I'm on a cardio machine.

Anyways then I went a bit deeper and came to the realization that as we so often forget, we are a lucky and blessed country. We have the privilege to choose our leaders and in today's election, we have two good candidates otherwise why would everyone be battling back and forth on their stance on issues and their character. We don't live in a country where there is a monarchy or a communist government or anything else that is so far from the freedom that we have always known.

So hopefully you had the opportunity to vote today.

Okay back to the photo blogging. This is all too serious!!! Geez not even a pic of the I Voted sticker.

My Claim To Fame - 4 time winner of the Outlet Halloween Most Creative Costume

2008-11-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

Wasn't going to dress up this year for the Outlet Halloween Party. Wasn't even sure I was going because I was coming home from London the day before and if I didn't conquer jet lag would probably be sleeping. BUT didn't have any jet lag so it got to be 5p on Friday, October 31st (two hours from the start of the Halloween Party), and I decided I couldn't NOT dress up for the Halloween Party. It was at that point that I realized that I LOVE to dress up in costume for Halloween!!!

Mentally I was determined not to spend any money on this year's costume or run around the day of the party so I was left with whatever was in my apartment. I had looked around London a bit and did try and think of something over the week that I was there but was pretty stumped.

At 5p I was convinced that I was going to be a Colts Superfan and wear all my Colts stuff. Not much different than me watching a Colts game so I didn't really think it was truly a costume and definitely not up to the standards of my costumes in past years. There was an idea that I was tossing around a few weeks before and it just so happened that I had all of the necessary items for the costume. So no Colts Superfan but rather for this year's Outlet Halloween Costume Party I was...

A Basket of Dirty Laundry

-it was clothes from my goodwill pile, not my true dirty laundry from London-

The 6th Annual Outlet/Fuse Halloween Costume Party was held at Jasmine (aka Sarah Palin) and Cliff's (aka Joe the Plummer) house. They did a great job of hosting.

This group won from Best Teamwork as the cast of Clue.

As Jasmine promised during Outlet announcements, there was a cotton candy machine.

Here are some pics of the other costumes.

I'm already ready for next year, at least with the idea. Came up with it when I decided that I was going to be a dirty basket of laundry this year. Stay tuned for next year...

These were a few of my favorite things...

2008-10-31T07:06:00.000-07:00

hanging with Sarah, Sam and Dan...528 steps to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral...original fried apple pies from McDonalds...mastering London's public transportation...the british accent...the architecture...indian food

Check out the pics - hope the links work.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39463&l=23a8a&id=836778728

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39752&l=96ae4&id=836778728

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40012&l=3c755&id=836778728

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40214&l=31260&id=836778728

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40538&l=46602&id=836778728

Greetings from London

2008-10-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hey - day 5 of my 7 day trip in London. It's going well. Hanging out alot with Sam and Dan and seeing the sights of London. Sarah's in France, but I got to hang out with her on the Thursday that I got in. Taken loads (British word or maybe just a Dan word) of pictures and have lots of exciting stuff to blog about when I get back. If you have Facebook and you're my Facebook friend, I have all of the pictures posted there if you want a sneak preview. Having a great time!!!

Oktoberfest

2008-10-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

Oktoberfest pics from last Friday.

carpooling from the gundo - there's more but they're heading down separately

they had these awesome german pretzels

Laundry Love

2008-10-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Every 3rd Thursday for the past few months, the Outlet and the Fuse have a service opportunity called Laundry Love where they go to a coin laundrymat in Hawthorne pay for a few loads of laundry for the families that use that laundrymat and hang out with the adults and kids (playing, tutoring, entertaining).

This past Thursday we hosted a special Halloween Laundry Love and Rose, in my bible study, had signed up to make 100 sugar cookies (for cookie decorating) for the service event. We decided as a bible study to get together before bible study on Wednesday to help make the cookies.

Here's the coin laundrymat where we do Laundry Love. Usually I have a conflict, but I skipped a portion so I could check it out and help.

Rich & Beth spearhead all of the Laundry Love service events and went ALL out for the Halloween one (as you'll see from the pictures). They did an absolutely amazing job of pulling this all together and bringing us all together. It was so cool to watch everyone who came to serve doing different roles and utilizing their gifts to reach out to the Hawthorne community.

Dave Hart putting quarters in to run a load for a woman at the laundrymat.

Lauren was part of the face painting team. This was a favorite for the kids.

There was trick or treat bag decorating.

and a costume contest for the kids

and a pinata filled with candy (poor parents - giving kids candy at 7p at night could only be trouble). Unfortunately the string didn't hold up the pinata so Rich grabbed the tallest guy to hold the pinata while the kids swung a paddle trying to break the pinata. The kids were so cute, they kept hitting the pinata softly because they didn't want to hit Billy.

Eventually though some of the older kids weren't so worried about physical damage and broke the pinata and out came the candy.

and mass chaos ensued

Free Stuff at Monday Night Football

2008-10-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

If you've been one of my blog readers for a while, you'll know that for the past 3 years Jen Carpenter and I have gotten together every Monday night to watch Monday Night Football and hang out. We have 6 or 7 different sports bars that we rotate through. The first year it was just Jen and I. Last year we had one or two others that would join. This year we went big and have a Facebook invite and its been fun to have a big group get together to hang out, rave about the food and drink specials and watch a little bit of football. If you're up for checking it out sometime, let me know.

Anyways had to blog about this last MNF as for the first time, we got some (I should actually say ALOT) free stuff. Well it wasn't exactly free because we each had to buy a Three Olives shooter but it was only $3 and it was pretty tasty since my was grape and tasted like grape soda.

Poor Daniel...he had to model all of the Three Olives stuff that we got. Chapstick, Popshots, tshirt, tank top, keychain. I think we cleaned them out of the stuff they had since there were 8 of us there and we all wanted everything.

Remember poprocks, well Three Olives has popshots. No alcohol in them, just fun to eat like you did with poprocks when you were a kid.

The Three Olives girls must have loved our table because they came back by with this one random beanie that they found and figured we'd want.

Have I grown out of my FANatisism?

2008-10-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

When I started this post on Tuesday, I would have totally said YES. Come on what woman in her 30's still is obsessed with New Kids on the Block like she was when she was a teen?

When I was a teen, I loved New Kids on the Block. My fave was Jonathan Knight. I bought every magazine that featured them, was part of their fan club (see those glossy pics in the left top corner they were from the fan club and had paper frames with my name on them) and cut out every newspaper article written about them in our local paper.

I didn't realize until my dad showed up with a XL ziploc bag full of all of this stuff. Apparently along with 3 mini Jonathan buttons, my mom had saved all of this stuff for the last 18 years. I'm so embarassed although I couldn't resist thumbing through the mags.

I didn't even remember this, but I guess I used to cut out the pictures of Jonathan Knight and put them in my own photo albums (just pics of him, I'm not that psycho that I put my picture in there too).

Seriously I was over them on Tuesday. THEN CAME WEDNESDAY and the NKOTB concert at the Staples Center. It was 18 years since I last saw them in concert and was semi interested in seeing them reunite but was really more interested in seeing all the other crazed now old fans.

First let me say that the majority of 30(s) year old women in Los Angeles and the surrounding area was probably at the Staples Center. We (me, Taylor, Nicole, Jen and Jen Carpenter (not pictured)) joined the thousands of women and handful of men to see our favorite boy band. Although we re-lived our teen years, there was an air of oldness as the car ride consisted of comments focused on how late the concert was going to go, how tired we were going to be on Thursday morning for work, what we were going to eat, forgetting ear plugs and how I was going to get pictures since the ticket said no cameras which being old and responsible I followed because I thought out the consequence that I could possibly have my camera confiscated.

The concert was impressive and the guys sang all of their old popular songs as well as some of their new ones. It was a pretty good concert and I must admit I was crushing a bit and spent a bit of time today doing a few internet searches on them and watching some YouTube stuff.

So I did leave my camera in the car, but was friendly with the woman sitting next to me and asked if she would take a few pictures and send them to me.

If you loved them before, I would definitely recommend going to see them in concert - they're coming back to LA on November 26th.

New article in the LA Times on Friday. Another to add to my collection...

Other Stuff From This Week

2008-10-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night my Wednesday bible study girls met (because of the NKOTB concert on Wednesday). We celebrated Rose's birthday a day early minus a few of the other girls that couldn't make it.

Happy Birthday, Rose!!!

My dad's school work schedule gives him two weeks off in October so he headed down to hang out with me this week. My mom had to work so she couldn't get away to come down with him. On Wednesday, the weather was so beautiful that we headed down to Manhattan Beach for lunch.

I always love this view when I'm on the pier and looking back at Manhattan Beach.

my dad & I

Also went to see 9 to 5 the Musical at the Ahmanson Theater on Thursday night but didn't get a fun pic. I would definitely recommend seeing it although its only playing through October 19th. http://www.9to5themusical.com/ It was really funny and cute.

Girl Time

2008-10-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend in Solvang with my Tuesday night small group (minus Nickki and Stephanie). A little celebration weekend after we finished our first study on Song of Solomon and before we embark on our new book Strong Women Soft Hearts.

The weekend kicked off with a slight drizzle on the way up there but by the time we got there it cleared up and was a beautiful weekend.

God definitely had his hand in this trip as we only locked down on the lodging a few days before we were leaving because EVERY other place had a two night minimum and this was originally the place I found a few weeks before but they weren't originally willing to relent on the two night minimum. Definitely recommend this cute B&B - Solvang Garden Lodge. Its two blocks (definitely walking distance) from all the shops and restaurants.

Goofin' around after we checked in - well maybe me screwing up the shot by goofing around.

After we checked in, we headed out for a picnic lunch at the Kalyra Winery. What a great way to spend a Saturday.

So the shot above is from two years ago when I visited the Kalyra Winery for a bachelorette party and there was this dog that roamed the winery and kept begging for food.

and...

we meet again...

Next stop was my favorite winery, Sunstone Winery. Its beautiful and a great backdrop for pictures. I got to test out the sepia function on my camera. They have (or had) an amazing Reserve Chardonnay - which apparently they don't have anymore and this great bread dipping sauce made with grapeseed oil.

This is my favorite shot of the group from the weekend.

After the wineries, we headed back to Solvang to walk around a bit. Taylor raved about these prezels that she used to get when she came to Solvang when she was young so we definitely had to sample. It was one of the best soft prezels I've ever had. Checked out a few other shops, searched for some Dybdahls (Allison informed us on the way there that this was the land of her "peeps").

AJ Spurs for dinner - made friends with a bison and then feasted on a great steak, ribs and shrimp dinner. Good thing Taylor and I shared although it was big enough for 3 to share.

So my goal is to be more "actiony" in pictures and take more action/playful shots so had to throw this one in. Sorry Allison...

Can't have a trip to Solvang without sampling the Aebelskivers (any idea why William Sonoma leaves the A off? only wondering because I got an email advertisement for the pan and mix yesterday - kind of random huh since I just went to Solvang)

Great weekend away with these girls.

Will It Ever Be Finished?

2008-09-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

The never-ending apartment renovation...

It's kind of the story of my life or at least the apartments that I choose to rent.

About 5 years back when I moved into an apartment on The Strand in Manhattan Beach, the landlord decided to renovate their house and the apartment I was living in was part of their property so it was included in the renovation. The renovation took less than a year and I survived (I say this because I was working from home at that point too) reframing window spaces, new windows, removal of stucco, metal plates, insulation, replacement of insulation, metal plates, stucco, replacement of roof tiles and new brick walkway. While it was messy, loud, a pain to find the workers every time I wanted to leave because their truck was blocking my garage, the workers were really nice, clean (swept every day), no communication issues, AND FAST.

Then I moved to El Segundo and lived in peace for a year. Then the building changed ownership and the landlord decided to renovate the apartment building. All of the renovations have been beneficial but its just the pain of working through and living through the process. Its been a kind of on again/off again thing because the workers haven't been as reliable or fast and definitely not as clean. Anyways after a year+ hiatus, it looks like we are in the homestretch. The plan is in the next three weeks there will be sandblasting (to take off the outer coat of paint on the building, building out of the roof, tiling of the roof, painting of the outside of the building, redo'ing the deck and landscaping.

Last Friday this lovely drapery went up around the building. I think its to protect the neighbors from the eyesore. Either way it makes my apartment darker and me sleepy during the day since I refuse to work with the lights on.

Today was sandblast day. They taped up my windows and doors for 5 hours with me inside.

Here's what my apartment looked like from the inside - pretty dark other than the light from my computer, huh? I broke down and turned on the lights to work. It was really weird to have no lights and it kind of made me think of those people that are imprisoned in basements or boxes and stuff. It would be pretty scary.

Anyways the black stuff is off the windows and doors and I'm free to go. I've gotta get out of the house for a bit. Off to the gym.

ironically a good follow up to the last post...

2008-09-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

Started my Christmas shopping last Friday. It wasn't planned, although I generally like to start early cuz I have a list a mile long with family and friends. I also like to be finished by the first week of December so I can really enjoy the Christmas season.

What's Your Love Language?

2008-09-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

If you've never read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, you've definitely gotta check it out. Its such a great book to give you insight into you, your significant other, friends and kids and a key to relationships and friendships.

Anyways my giving (because sometimes its different than your receiving) love language is Gifts. I love giving gifts - sometimes its special things that I buy or make or a creative idea, sometimes little and other times elaborate or maybe just something I do for someone else that meets a need.

Anyways I found this sign like 10 months ago, and I've been waiting for my friend, who LOVES Bunco (can you guess who - since she was faster at posting it on her blog, you might already know) to have her turn at hosting so I could put the sign up before she got home and be happy and surprised (best part for me of giving gifts).

In case you care, my receiving love language is also Gifts, but it holds to the same criteria as the giving. Kind of confusing - but I really don't enjoy the gift side of Christmas or my birthday cuz its really not the stuff that fill me. To get complicated, its the time or thought that the person puts in to personalize a gift (which isn't always a product) that I really appreciate. There is a little sub-section under Gifts called the Gift of Self and that probably best explains it.

I'm feeling a bit like this post was a bit too revealing of me.

Tim & Sheri Holmes

2008-09-15T23:23:00.001-07:00

Tim and Sheri's wedding was this past Saturday with the wedding ceremony at a Christian church in Torrance and the reception at The Reef in Long Beach. The Blankenships organized a party van to transport us to all of the festivities.

Adam provided door to door service.

The party van was decorated inside and out.

We fit all of them

and all of us inside that van.

The next two pics are my favorite. Sheri and Tim look so amazing and happy and I loved the colors of the bridesmaid dresses. I can't wait to see the professional ones.

Here is Pastor Glen, the senior Pastor of our church, Journey of Faith, who officiated the wedding with Sheri and Tim.

Some pics from the reception.

Congrats Tim and Sheri - such a God centered and fun wedding ceremony and reception. I was moved to tears by all of the toasts.

A80 meet A1000IS

2008-09-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

My Canon A80 has been on its last leg for the past few months - problems surfaced at the Open the Bottle Night when red lines started appearing on the screen and in pictures. It only happened every once in a while and if I hit the camera hard enough they went away. Its still functional but also had a few friends giving me a hard time every time I pulled the camera out - I guess its kind of large relative to all the new cameras out there and the screen is pretty small with only a 1.5" screen and that red line problem kept resurfacing and I'd have to re-pose everyone to do retakes.

So I decided this past Monday that I was going to buy a new camera with my craigslist money (got really hooked on craigslist when I was rapidly selling all of Brigitte's furniture and proceeded to sell my dining room table, bar stools and mountain bike). Being the time management nazi that I am, I allotted an hour and a half before Monday Night Football (yes I know once again good thing I work from home...). Set out for Best Buy armed with my Circuit City and Ritz Camera ads (I was shooting to make it to three stores in my hour and a half - if you know me, you probably know that really wasn't realistic). Walked straight to the camera section (very uncharacteristic of me, although I did glance at the front table that advertised $5.99 xbox games - I don't even have an xbox!!!) and spotted the A1000IS. Apparently it had just been released (or as I later found out from looking on the web it was released yesterday and Best Buy must have put it on the floor early) because the guy couldn't answer any of my "comparing" questions. Anyways it took me about 10 minutes to decide that I wanted this camera - I loved my Canon A80 so I was positive I would love the newer model that was just released. Bet you're thinking, "wow - hour and twenty minutes to spare".

There's more to this story...

The sales guy then proceeds to tell me that he should have clocked out 6 minutes ago and hands me to another sales guy who then asks a question that I think he now wishes he could take back, "let's get you a memory card and case". Memory card took a few minutes but the case took - yep you guessed it - the remainder of the time you thought I had to spare. How is that possible??? Well you have to consider size, color(s), leather vs fabric, zipper vs flap over secured by velcro. So I ended up with the one in the picture that fits the camera pretty well, colors that make me happy, fabric and flap over secured by velcro like my old one. I like to take pictures while I'm doing other things (remember biking and taking pics) so I need to be able to get to the camera with one hand. Luckily this process was between 315 -445p so not really any other customers so the sales guy stuck with me the entire time.

Anyways here's the old camera, new camera and THE CASE. The new camera is smaller, lighter, 2.5" screen, slightly more zoom, more megapixels just in case I want to print 14 x 16" pictures, uploads pictures to the computer faster and so far doesn't have any red line interference.

My A80 has gone to my camera graveyard.

Saturday Night at the Drive-In

2008-09-06T23:19:00.000-07:00

Lauren Rogers discovered this cool drive-in which a bit different than your typical drive-in that I was used to growing up. The drive-in in Stockton was off highway 99 in a dirt field - pretty typical.

Angel City Drive-In only plays old movies and this past Saturday they were showing Say Anything - such an 80's classic.

Angel's City Drive-in was in downtown LA on the second floor of a two story parking structure (actually a few blocks from my old office). They use a 24 foot air screen and you have the option to either sit in your car or there is astroturf at the front where you can use chairs or blankets and sit outside.

It ended up being a great night to sit outside.

a pic of all the snacks - raided the Rite-Aid and stopped at CPK on the way there, there was a concession table too (they had nachos - yep the ones with the nasty cheese - my fav)

Had to get a shot of the famous scene.

if only I could put music on my blog

2008-09-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

I would have the Beverly Hills 90210 theme (the one from the 90's) playing in the background as you read this post. Oh well...

Anyways I still love movies and tv shows about high school so I couldn't pass up the chance to have a 90210 get together this week with them re-vamping one of my favorites that I grew up with.

We kicked off the evening with an episode of the original Beverly Hills 90210 (the new show decided to drop the Beverly Hills in the title even though its still in Beverly Hills). Its actually the one where Brenda sleeps with Dylan at the school dance. Of course its the 90's and they don't show anything. We laughed throughout the show because it was a bit slow and some of their lines were cheesy. The clothing and hair were classic!!! I noticed that bangs were in then although they were a bit more poofy.

Following the wholesome (yeah I know when I watched it when I was a teen, it didn't seem like that but relative to the new show and other shows that are on, it was pretty apparent that it was bubblegummy) original, we ventured into two hours of the new 90210.

So what's my take on the new show? Undecided I've realized that the original is now pretty slow and sappy relative to what I'm used to watching. I'd still watch a re-run on soap.net though. Don't love the new characters yet. Probably wouldn't be too keen on having my teenager watch it (I did miss Sarah a ton while I was watching it though cuz it would have been something we probably would have watched together - I know sorry for the "sad" bit - gotten some feedback that I've had some sad posts that have made others sad).

I can proudly say that Allison, Taylor, Jen and I were part of the 4.9 million viewers (biggest show viewing on the CW) that tuned in AND luckily we were part of the age range that it was targeted for 18-40. US Magazine is my source for these wonderful stats.

Last Week of Summer

2008-09-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

Although we, who live in Southern California, are blessed to pretty much have summer'ish weather year round, today marks the end of summer. Perhaps its because its getting dark at 7:15p now, school is starting back up and all the kids I know are headed back to school or my teacher friends are headed back to work this week, seemed like everyone was wearing white at church on Sunday or tv shows are done with reruns and season premieres are being advertised. I think for me in alot of ways there is the combined sadness of the end of summer with the end of a 2 year chapter of my life.

Either way this was the last week of summer so despite everything that was going on have a few fun things to blog about.

Rallied for a last summer Taco Tuesday at the newly rebuilt Sharkeez in Hermosa Beach. Taco Tuesday is year round, but if you recall from my blog last year, we mainly went during the summer. Wow I've been blogging for at least a year. Susie - are you impressed?

So here are Claire and Jen riding bikes to Taco Tuesday. Yep I'm biking and taking pictures. Probably not the safest thing but I do it all the time and there aren't any laws against it or $20 fines yet.

Of course had to take a pic with the Taco Tuesday specials. I think I have a shot of Dana with one from last year.

New friend (Renee) - Renee was Sarah's Assistant Principal at ESMS this past year and through all the meetings about Sarah's school stuff and events over the summer, we've started hanging out.

A first Taco Tuesday for everyone but Jen. See my signature Taco Tuesday drink - large watermelon margarita on the table. Nice catch on the Facebook pic, Dana.

Jen and Taylor organized an Epic Long Bike Ride for Labor Day. 44 miles from Torrance Beach to Will Rogers State Beach. So while the rest of the nation opted to NOT labor, here's what we did.

What possessed them?

Well for those who bike, run or walk The Strand (for those who don't, its a paved path that borders the sand which borders the Pacific Ocean that runs the South Bay (Redondo, Hermosa, Manhattan, El Segundo), you've probably seen these numbers on the ground. Well they decided they wanted to ride it from the start (Torrance Beach) until it ended (Will Rogers State Beach).

So just to be honest I only rode 28 miles (so put an 8 in place of that first 0) as I started from El Segundo. Needed a bit of extra sleep and was lazy and didn't want to drive my car down to Torrance.

Here's the "laboring" group. Some started in Torrance at 0.00 and a few of us started in El Segundo at 8.00. We left here around 9:30 a.m.

After a few stops, we made it to our destination around 11:45 a.m. Stopped for a little rest, energy and water replenishment, bathroom break and turned around and headed back with a stop at C&O Trattoria for lunch and a few carbs... Ended in El Segundo at 3:00 p.m.

So 28 miles (especially 44 miles) sounds a bit daunting and bordering on crazy but really it wasn't that bad. I've done the ride to Santa Monica a few times and this was only 4 miles past Santa Monica. The path is pretty flat as well and we were going at a cruiser pace so all in all it was a great way to spend Labor Day.

Summer of Goodbyes

2008-08-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this is the last goodbye for a while. My last post was at the beginning of the day (8/21) that they left. Here's the last couple of hours before Claire and I took them to LAX.

Sarah was out with her friends for most of the day and then they all came back to hang out with her while she packed up the last of her stuff. One of the mom's had some pizzas delivered.

Sarah with Danielle's mom (in blue), Danielle, Natasha and Kim.

Pic of everyone before we headed to LAX.

A few of Sarah's friends came with us to the airport to see her off.

All of us trying to cram in the elevator - 4 suitcases, 8 teenagers, 3 adults. We were a bit over capacity and the doors wouldn't shut.

Claire and I got to go through security with Sam and Sarah and see them off at the gate. It was a pretty tearful goodbye. They arrived in London safely and I've gotten to talk to them via AIM and webcam pretty much every day. They are slowly adjusting to London and all of the changes.

After Sam and Sarah left, Claire and I packed up the remainder of the house. I had packed all of Sam and Sarah's things that were being shipped to London while they were still here and boxed up all of the things that Brigitte wanted to keep for them when they were older so the remainder of the stuff we went through and gave out to friends, donated or sold in an estate sale this past Saturday.

This was Claire's first true American Garage/Estate sale (she's British and lives in NY). I kept hearing her tell her friends that she was having a car boot sale which as she explained was what they called them in England. I think they are slightly different though because that describes an English person that has stuff to sell in the "boot" of their car. A garage is significantly larger than a car "boot" but I guess conceptually its the same.

So its been one unexpected, crazy, memorable summer. Brigitte's house is completely cleared out and ready for new neighbors to move in on the 15th.

Well the Christian cliche says that when one door closes, another door opens...

Less than 4 days - The Day Is Actually Here

2008-08-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

So kind of a random title for a post but I think I started a post (just with the title) obviously 4 days ago.

Anyways sorry for the lack of posts but between July 29th and August 4th Sam, Sarah and I took a roadtrip to Oregon to visit Gail, Troy and the kids with stops up and back to see my parents, my grandfather, cousin, Mike, and San Francisco (Sarah had never been before). We took a ton of pictures which I sent out through Kodak Gallery as there were really too many for the blog. If you didn't get them and want to see them, let me know, and I'll send you the link.

Since we returned, I've been focused on getting Sam and Sarah packed and prepared (physically and emotionally) to move to London to live with their dad. Four days ago I started this post - I think when the reality that they were moving really set in and the large part they have played in my life the last two years and especially the last two months. They have taught me so much and shown so much maturity in dealing with all of these life changes and given me a great trial run at raising teenagers.

Anyways tonight is the night that they head to London - 12 hours. Its been a sad few days for all of us. Please join me in praying that Sam and Sarah will be safe, strong and comforted in all these changes and for Dan, their dad, that he will have wisdom, strength and patience in this new change in his life.

Some pics from a little going away party we had for them with some of the adults that had been close to them and Brigitte. I let them each bring 3 friends and didn't really get any pictures of the adults.

Sarah's friends (Danielle, Natasha, Andie) - can you believe they are only 14?

Sam and his friends being boys.

Natasha and Andie got Sarah a going away present - Tiffany bracelet engraved with each of their initials of their first names.

Student Driver Alert!!!

2008-07-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

I remember the minute I turned fifteen, I couldn't wait to start driving. After I had my permit, every time I went anywhere, I would ask my mom or my dad if I could drive and then once I got my license it was FREEDOM to go to my friends houses, to movies, to the mall.

In El Segundo with everyone living within walking distance, the teenagers don't seem to anxious to get their driver's license. All of Sam's friends are sixteen or older and don't have their license, some don't even have their permit.

Before Sam even turned fifteen, Brigitte wanted him to learn to drive so over the last two weeks Sam took an online drivers ed course and on Monday, July 28th we went down to the DMV and he took and passed his permit test.

Even though he had his permit, the requirement is that before he can legally drive with an adult, he has to have two hours of behind the wheel with a driving school so later the same day Sam had his first two hours of behind the wheel instruction (we had gone out driving a few days before in parking lots and after he got his permit we drove the streets of El Segundo - mainly because his first lesson started at the Galleria at 6p and I figured it wouldn't be good for his first time on the road to be during rush hour on Hawthorne). He did really well in his first two hours. The instructor had him drive on the busy streets and go all the way down to San Pedro and then back to El Segundo. He even wanted to take him on the freeway but Sam opted not to at that point.

Why the rush to do everything the same day??? We were heading out on the roadtrip the next morning, and I wanted him to legally be able to drive with me.

It was pretty cool to see how excited he was when he got his permit and every time he drives since it was like pulling teeth to get him to even want to drive.

Swenson Going Away

2008-07-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

Going away lunch at El Torito after church to say goodbye to Dana and Phil Swenson. Phil is in the Air Force and their next stop is Dayton, OH for the next year and a half. (My friend, Susie, Andy, who is also in the Air Force, and their three daughters are also moving there so I'm excited to visit all of them.)

Only 4 1/2 more months and you can have a real margarita again Dana. I love how the virgin margaritas are 2x the size of real margaritas and served in water glasses.

James enjoying his cool blue agave martini.

We'll miss you Dana and Phil!!!

Christmas in July

2008-07-28T00:08:00.001-07:00

For the past two years, Susie and I have celebrated Christmas in July. No that isn't taking advantage of post Christmas sales or 4th of July sales but just that for the past two years although we get each other Christmas gifts we don't seem to get together until the summer and for whatever reason we seem to think that its better to hang onto them until we see each other than just send them by mail. So in the last week of July before Susie and her family moved to Ohio, we got together to hang out and exchange our Christmas gifts.

I was so excited to get her this scarf since they were the in thing this past winter but as we exited winter and I still had the gift it didn't seem to be the greatest gift and now with her moving to Ohio it will be perfect for their winters.

Picnic Table Debut

2008-07-28T00:04:00.000-07:00

I remembered this time!!!

Checked out the Fabulous Diamonds, Neil Diamond cover band, on Sunday, July 20th and THIS TIME, I remembered to bring my picnic table that I had forgotten last time in the car. I had a few random people come up and complement me on the table (thanks Jen) and ask where I got it.

Here's the table filled with lots of food to munch on while at the concert.

Celebrations - Part III

2008-07-18T21:44:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the delay on Celebration - Part III...

On Sunday, July 13th I co-hosted a baby shower for my friend, Dana. She's not due until December, but she and her husband and baby boy Swenson are moving to Ohio in early August so we threw her an early shower.

Dana "hearts" Taco Bell so I figured she'd get a big kick (as you can see from the pic she did!!!) out of one of our games - Guess how many Taco Bell sauce packets are in the vase. Lots of trips to the bell and purchasing lots of tacos for that sauce. Try to guess how many hot sauce packets there are (if you weren't at the shower) - the answer is at the bottom of the post.

Hollie, Angela, Anna (not pictured) and I threw Dana the shower.

Phil's mom, Dana's mom and sister, Grace, came out from Minnesota for the shower and to visit for a few days.

the spread...

Janice checking out the tea sandwiches.

The other game we played was guess how big Dana is using toilet paper as a measurement. Nicole won with almost an exact match on size.

Look at all the stuff for the BABY!!!

Some of the gifts Dana received... Jen quilted baby boy Swenson this quilt. Love the frogs and the combo of colors.

Dana received another beautiful quilt and Phil's christening outfit when he was baptized as a baby from Phil's mom.

We, the hosts, got Dana's the Boppy Travel Swing that was on her registry.

Nicole and Carrie got her the diaper bag filled with all sorts of goodies.

Anna did an awesome job recording all the gifts.

510 hot sauce packets...how close was your guess?

Celebrations - Part II

2008-07-18T19:05:00.001-07:00

On July 10th, I went to Jami's Breakfast Birthday Bash. Jami's sisters and close friends arranged for a surprise birthday breakfast (and what a surprise it is when your friends show up at 7a at your house to wish you a happy birthday and have breakfast with you before heading off to work). It was my first surprise birthday breakfast but was such a cool idea and a great way to celebrate Jami.

Here are Jami's sisters, Carrie and Staci, hard at work making bacon, eggs, caramel french toast and fruit.

After Jami fell asleep the night before, Jami's sister, Carrie, stayed up all night decorating the place with balloons, streamers and happy birthday signage.

Happy Birthday, Jami!!!

Pic of a few of us enjoying the awesome breakfast food.

Even the kids (Charlie, Siena, Mattie Sue and Malyn) woke up early to wish Jami a Happy Birthday.

Celebrations - Part 1

2008-07-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

So here's my first of three posts of "celebrations" for the week.

As most of you know, my friend and neighbor, Brigitte, passed away on June 24th after battling cancer for the past two years. Its been a crazy two years, and God has taken me on quite a journey of spiritual growth, emotions, service and love.

On Tuesday, July 8th there was a memorial celebration of Brigitte at The Farmstand, her favorite restaurant in El Segundo. Unfortunately her mom and sister were unable to fly out from France but about 40 people came whose lives she had touched in the US. The evening was complete with her favorite dish, grilled salmon salad, along with other tasty appetizers, her favorite music playing in the background and everyone gathering to honor Brigitte and get to know each other a little better. The mood was very lighthearted with a few tears shed as we shared how much she meant to each of us, a funny story or just how much she loved Sam and Sarah.

This is one of my favorite photos of Brigitte. Its from several years back as it was originally a photo with Sarah in it and Sarah is about 1 years old. People were given the opportunity to write letters or pass along a memory of Brigitte to Sam and Sarah and put it in the box for them to read at a later time.

Riley and Sophia were two little girls that Brigitte had been tutoring in French over the past year. Even on the days when she was really sick or tired, these two could brighten her mood and day. Their moms (Nubia, Sophia's mom, and Michelle, Riley's mom, are on the left).

Sarah surrounded by all of her friends. They have been a great blanket of support for her. Sarah's Social Studies teacher and Vice Principal also came to support her (no pictures).

Sarah, Sam and I

Jen, Lauren and Dana (in addition to all of my other friends) have been so supportive and understanding over the past two years. They have gotten to know Brigitte, Sam and Sarah pretty well over the last few months. Lupe, Brigitte and my neighbor, also attended.

Brigitte's close friends, Clare (her best friend of 20+ years that she met through Dan, Sam and Sarah's dad), Paola, Armelle and Debbie. The guy popping his head up in the background was from Brigitte's Cancer Support Group.

Dan and Sophia (tutoring kids). She was quite enamoured with him as he's a really talented artist and was drawing her pictures on the paper on the tables.

The following morning 9 of us headed down to Redondo Beach for the scattering of Brigitte's ashes in the Pacific Ocean. The lightheartedness of the night before helped to set the mood for the scattering, and I think Sam and Sarah have walked through both of the events emotional but in a way that would have made Brigitte very happy and proud of them.

We had about 15 minutes after we arrived and before the boat was going to take off so we snapped a few pics.

The mood was a bit more somber once we got on the boat. Before Brigitte's ashes were released into the ocean, there were two poems read by the captain and I had the opportunity to say a prayer (captain was planning to say a generic prayer but I asked everyone if it would be okay if I prayed for Brigitte and the group). This was a huge witness as no one on the boat,including Brigitte, was Christian or had a strong spiritual affliation.

I Love 3 Day Weekends

2008-07-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July has always been a pretty important day for me - yes its my country's independence day and I love fireworks - but its also the day that I lost my 5th grade "boyfriend" Chad Ebensteiner to childhood leukemia. We were "going with each other" so when I was younger I always thought he was my boyfriend forever.

Anyways the 4th of July also happens to be Sam's birthday. The 4th of July festivities tend to overshadow his birthday though so we opted to have his BIG 16th birthday party on the 5th. There are lots of pics further down in this post.

So what did I do on the 4th? The day started off with going to the annual 4th of July Outlet BBQ. Forgot the camera in my eagerness to ride my cruiser and save on gas (can you believe its $4.75/gallon) so no pics. That night had a few people over to watch the fireworks and we played a bit of guitar hero to pass the time until the fireworks show.

Thought this was a cute pic of father (Dan) and son (Sam) watching the fireworks from outside my apartment.

Here we are sitting in the middle of my street. Although we weren't right under the fireworks, we had a great view of the fireworks as my street is right up from rec park and on a hill.

Saturday I went on a bike ride with a few friends. Here's Taylor showing her patriotism and Jen just flexing her muscle.

We stopped for lunch at a local fish and chips type place in Marina del Rey.

As mentioned above, Sam's birthday is on the 4th but we celebrated it on the 5th at his favorite restaurant, Red Robin. It's one of my faves as well - bleu ribbon burger and garlic parmesian fries is what we always order.

Here's Sam with all his friends. They sat outside on the patio and we (Sarah and her friend and the adults, I needed drivers since El Segundo produces kids that don't seem anxious to get their licenses. I remember dying to get my license when I turned 16 and being so bummed that my mom made me wait until summer before I could take my drivers test to get my license.)

So cute...

I was so excited when I was parking the car, I saw the Red Robin walking into the restaurant. By the time, they were going to sing Happy Birthday to Sam, I guess "Red" was off the clock and wearing a cut off tshirt and jeans, but we had a really cool waitress and she and the manager put him back on the clock and got him back in costume to sing to Sam and take pics with the group.

We couldn't pass up a chance to take a pic with Red Robin. Thanks to Jen, Travis, Dana and Phil for chauffering the kids to and from Red Robin and Yogurberry with me.

Travis ordered a cherry coke and I guess Red Robin doesn't have true Cherry Coke so they did what most places do - gave him a coke with marachino cherries in it. Only difference was that they literally put a mound of cherries, seriously like 10 cherries on the top of the soda. So what does one do when given marachino cherries, take the stems and tie them in knots with your tongue. Sarah impressed us with her skills as she was able to tie them in seconds. Jen was equally impressive although not quite as speedy. As you can see Sarah did about 5 to Jen's 1.

Sunday afternoon I went to my first Manhattan Beach Concert in the Park for 2008. I was so excited for the event because Jen had bought me a cool Crate & Barrel picnic table to use specifically for fun outings like this and this was going to be my first chance to use it.

Megan and Dave Lockridge with a bit of overdramatized PDA just for my camera.

The Baker's hammin' it up for the camera as well.

Phil and Dan deep in conversation.

As you can see, we were (and always are) there to hear a good concert. I'm not sure we actually ever really listen to the music or see the band. This past Sunday, we actually parked ourselves in a big grassy area that was completely unoccupied as there was a big bush that was completely blocking any view of the band. It's really just a great opportunity to hang out with friends and share a bit of wine and food with each other.

So... in case you didn't notice in the above pics, there wasn't ever a pic of the cool new picnic table. Well that would be because I accidentally left it in the car and didn't remember it until half way through the concert when John Mo asked where it was and then I was too lazy to walk back to the car. Oh well saving it for another Sunday...we're actually set to go on July 20th as Lauren is amp'd to see the Fabulous Diamonds.