What's for dinner?

I really dislike this question! So, in order to combat this nightly phrase, I've been trying hard to come up with a plan before it can even be asked. Mind you I'm not a cook, but we've been attempting to try a few new things lately besides the normal tacos, spaghetti, mac 'n cheese, etc...

Tonight's dish was pretty good. We had Fetticine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken Breasts and a Cucumber, Tomato & Avacado salad. This is the 3rd time Chico and I have made this dish and it's gotten a little better each time with a little tweak here and there. With the suggestion of Linda I took a photo of my dinner plate (I know I'm no "Pioneer Woman").

Voila!


Hey, do I hear you making fun of my Christmas plates? Let me explain. During the holiday season (2006) I was using these cute Santa plates and went ahead and got rid of my old dishes. I figured that would force me to get some new dishes once the holidays were over. Well... two years later and we're still eating off Santa plates! I don't even really notice anymore, except when people tell me to post photos of my dinner on my blog. Our anniversary is coming up next month, maybe we should have an anniversary party and register for new dishes. Oh, I think I'm on to something!

You say it's your birthday....

It's my birthday too!!

It's been a good day today. I did have to go to work, but my day started off very nicely with a Happy Birhday mocha from my good friend Alicia. She stopped by before I left for work and also gave me a nice birthday gift. I'll have to do another post regarding part of her gift this morning. I need to take some photos for that.

Work wasn't bad today. I received many well wishes throughout the day. I love getting unexpected emails and calls from friends and family! I was pleasantly surprised to receive many birthday wishes from so many of my friends on Facebook too!

The only weird thing about today is that this is the first birthday since having my kids that they are not here to celebrate with me. In fact no one is here at the moment. Chico had to work late and the boys left yesterday on about a month long road trip with Granny. We're calling it Granny Tour 2008. Rose is on her sabbatical from Intel this summer (her 3rd or 4th), so she's taking the boys with her visiting family in Eastern Oregon and Idaho. Mateo just got back on Monday from a trip to Graceland with Granny too! While they were in Memphis, Jaxon went with Nona & Papa to the beach for 3 days. We only got to see the boys for one night and then they were off again. It's going to be weird without them for so long!

Anyway, back to me! It is my day after all (just kidding). I thought it would be fun to find some old birthday photos, but I didn't have any luck with that. So, I thought I'd at least post a couple photos to show that I really haven't changed much over these 38 years!! :)

I still like Pink!















I still have a lot of hair and on the days I don't straighten it, it's pretty big!

I'm still Sassy!

My belly still looks about like that in a swim suit!

I still have knobby knees! Mateo has my knees, too. I call him Obe Won K-nobby Knees!

Alright, that's enough. Thanks again to everyone for such a wonderful birthday!!

Best advice ever...

I got this great housekeeping tip the other day from my friend Kim:

Always keep several get well cards on the mantle..... so if unexpected guests arrive, they will think you've been sick and unable to clean.

I love it!!!!!! I'm off to make some cards ;)

Facebook, you're killin' me!!

Ever since my high school classmate Erik "forced" us to join Facebook.com in order to see his photos from our 20 year class reunion, I've wasted soooooo much more time than ever before on the internet! I didn't think that was possible, but yes, I've been checking to see who's new, if I have any friend requests, if any of my requests have been answered, any new photos.... it just doesn't end!!

The whole reunion experience was fun, weird, nerve racking... I was full of nerves on Friday and ended up not feeling well and leaving around 11pm. At the time I didn't think that was super early, but the next day learned that people had stayed until 2am. I missed 3 hours of activity!!!! Even though I attended both Saturday night and Sunday at the park as well, I think I've been obsessed with what I may have missed and people that I didn't get to talk to (either enough or at all). So joining Facebook has helped in the sense that I have been "chatting" with classmates that I knew back in the day and also those I didn't know so well.

It's funny to me that all these almost 40 year olds are all asking "will you be my friend" and sending each other virtual shoes, hugs, pokes, etc... The instant messaging is fun too! I think we're all a little "obsessed" right now and we're all spending way too much time doing this. I'm enjoying it, but I already have a problem with productivity and time management, so this hasn't helped. Oh well, maybe the newness will wear off and I can go back to my other timewasting activities of blog stalking, tv watching, crafting, etc. All of these are non-productive as well, so I guess what's the difference, right?

Here's a photo of Cindy & I entering the reunion on Friday.

And a photo of the crowd. There was no A/C in this room and I think that may have contributed to my lightheadedness (this was the 100 degree weekend!). It was fun though! I'm already excited about the 25 year reunion!

A weekend for BBQs

We've had a good holiday weekend so far. On the 4th we traveled to Independence for a small family BBQ, then came home in time for Shawna, Justin & Drue to arrive. We had a little BBQ ourselves, then took the party outside. We didn't buy any fireworks this year, just used up the silly little stuff that was left over from last year... mostly snakes & sparklers!

Joe Dirt:
"So you're gonna' tell me that you don't have no...
Black Cats, No Roman Candles or Screaming Mimis?
You got no Lady Fingers,
Fuzz Buttles, Snicker Bombs,
Church Burners, Finger Blasters,
Gut Busters, Zippity Do Das, Crap Flappers,
Whistling Bungholes, Spleen Splitters,
Whisker Biscuits, Honkey Lighters,
Hoosker Doos, Hoosker Dont's, Cherry Bombs,
Nipsy Daisers, (with or without the Scooter Stick),
Or One Single Whistling Kitty Chaser!?"

Kickin Wing:
"No, just Snakes & Sparklers."
(I love that movie!)

Anyway, here are a few photos from Friday. It was really dark outside at the time, so my camera didn't do too well.

Chico enjoying a sparkler!

Justin with his whole package of sparklers!

It took a while for the kids to join in, but they finally would hold a sparkler



The neighbors had the "real deal", so the kids took cover under the tailgate of Shawna's truck for safety. Drue, Jaxon & Mateo...


Justin & Shawna


Yesterday Chico decided to attempt to do something with our ridiculous front "yard" area. He rented a skid steer. We'll see how long it takes for Chico's "vision" to come to be.



Now off to get ready for another BBQ today at our house!!

Happy 4th of July!

Everyone please have a safe and happy holiday today!



















Last night we took Papa out to dinner to the Pizza Caboose for his birthday. It was fun, as usual. I happened to have my camera with me, so we had some fun taking pictures. Some of the photos are courtesy of Jaxon & Mateo, too!

Happy Birthday Papa!!

We hope you have a wonderful day!! You're a great Dad and Papa! We love you very much!!

Flashback to 1988

Well, last night was the first night of my 20 year high school reunion weekend. It was great to see everyone! It's surprising to see what changes happen after 20 years! I didn't have my camera with me last night so I'm hoping those that did will share their photos with our class website!

I thought I'd dig into the archives and pull out a couple photos of some of my old friends. Now, no making fun of the 80's hair and clothes. We thought they were pretty cool back then!






And this one's for your Tracy, since I know you're on here :)

Yes, we made it home.

Yes, we did make the ferry Saturday morning and Customs let us back into the good old U.S. of A. We finally made it home around 8pm on Saturday. It was a long day, but it was nice traveling weather and surprisingly warm outside. The boys were pretty tired, so they traveled well, sleeping part of the way. (And by boys I mean Chico, too).

I took a few photos of the room we stayed in while there after we were all packed up and waiting to catch the ferry.







Here's a one more view off our balcony. The ferry going by is the one that travels back and forth from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria BC. It's the one we traveled on.


I took a few last photos of Victoria as we were pulling away on the ferry. The white building near the boat houses is where we were staying.





I wanted to say Thank You once again to Kim & Andrew for giving us the opportunity to let us use your timeshare up in Victoria. It really was a great vacation for us!

Our last day of sightseeing in Victoria

Well yesterday wasn't a good day for us. We were getting ready to go out and tour the city and next thing I knew I was on vomit cleanup duty. Yuck! Chico got really sick and spent the whole day in bed. Instead of going out the kids and I just hung out and played the Wii, Uno and they played some Legos. In the evening I took the boys to the pool. It wasn't very warm, but they really wanted to go. They've been to the pool almost every day since we've been here.

Some photos from yesterday...




Today was a much better day, but I'm exhausted!! Chico was feeling better today, so we did our thursday plans today. We took one of those double-decker busses on a tour around Victoria. We rode it for about an hour and got off at a large park here in the city so the boys could play for a bit. There was a petting zoo that was pretty fun and there were lots of ponds with ducks.







We walked back to the condo from the park. Then we decided to go check out the Fisherman's Warf that's right behind our building. My camera died, but I took this photo the other day. This is the view out our living room window. They had really great fish-n-chips down there! While we were waiting for our food we noticed these three seals that were hanging around waiting for people to feed them. They were very cute, but very overweight! I wish my camera would have been working!!


So, now we were stuffed, but I wanted to go downtown and buy a couple of souvenir shirts for the boys, so we took off walking. We got to the store pretty quickly, but then I had this idea that I wanted to go to a stamping store. So we set of walking and discovered that I had written down the directions incorrectly. After doubling back and then asking for directions we found that we were at least 9 blocks away. I really wanted to check out the store, so after walking for what felt like hours we arrived only to find out the store had closed a half hour before!!! The boys were not happy. I have to give them credit because we did walk a really long way. I was hoping to catch one of our double decker busses on the way back, but there were none in sight. So, we walked all the way back. We did take a couple more photos ops along the way.


I'm beat, but it was a great way to end our vacation. The boys went swimming one more time while I made dinner. Here's a shot of them from our balcony.


We're catching the ferry tomorrow morning back to Port Angeles. We don't have reservations, so we have to go park our car down there around 6:30 am to try to get a spot on the 10:30am ferry, otherwise the next one departs at 3:00 pm. Wish us luck!!