Tim & Sheri Holmes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.