Anniversary Weekend - October 5

The month of October was emotionally draining for me; a lot going on and a lot of information whirling in my head, but there is always good to balance the bad. 

I always look forward to October for two reasons, it's our anniversary month and I love the fall.  This October was particularly packed with spiritual activity.  We had our annual meeting Oct 5, Circuit Assembly Oct 13 and Circuit Overseer Oct 19.

Here we are starting out our 4th Anniversay weekend at Mira Loma assembly hall.

There has never been a annual meeting open to everyone so this was a really big deal, we knew something unique was coming our way.  How thrilling to get a new bible!  All the information on how it was developed and why was so amazing and we'll put together.

Grey is the new Black - I love the new styling so much!

After being spiritually fed and literally starving we headed over to Bass Pro Shop for dinner and then on to the Mission Inn.  For our second Anniversay Hubby's parents sent us a very nice gift card here that we'd been hanging on to for the right moment. 

Another bonus of being married in the fall is lots of places run specials; this room was half off, came with a gift card and cupcakes!

I'm not sure if this is weird or not but I always take pix of the room and bathroom at hotels before they get all messed up.

Cupcake turn down service.

Hubby knows me so well, Red Velvet is my favorite.

The next day we had the set brunch I've ever tasted.  I was so bummed that I got full off my mini omelette! I was trying to at least take a bite of everything, now I fantasize about going back haha.

And best of all Hubby finally got Instagram! (I caught his first post)

We made our way home by way of this small winery in Ontario.

The outside was very charming.

We took a little tour....

Had a little sampling...

Not bad for a mini get away.

My Anniversay flowers that didn't quite fit anywhere else in the post lol

August

Hey look who's cranking out the posts to catch up, I'm so close!

August was a slightly less busy month, but it was also one of our hottest.  My office hadn't had any blinds installed and this my friends is what happens to glue left in the sun.  It got so hot it exploded past the lid! 

My boss went out of town, took his kids to Disney world and left his work kids behind.  When the cats away the nice will foil everything on in and around his desk.

Aug 8-10

We had a special visit from this little lady and her parents who were passing through on their way home to Arizona.  We hung out for the weekend and got our nails done.

Aug 11

Aileen's Baby shower

My childhood bestie did a wonderful job for our friend and soon to be here baby rainn.  Vintage country and hot air balloon theme.  Really nice summer night with the girls.  I'm really happy how my photography came out too!

Me and some of my nearest and dearest.

Aug 16 Chix w Stix

I had intended our little group to meet every 2 months or so. But we all get busy and I dropped the ball...of yarn (baddum dum) So this was only our second meeting for the year haha.  There was a nice spread of wine and app, by now you know we know how to eat!  It's always interesting to see how everyone one knows each other and who we all have in common. 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon in our JW community is more like 3 degrees  haha. 

Aug 17 Hubby took me out for the day to Laguna beach to check out the Sawdust festival.  Beautiful weather and very relaxing we stopped off and had a coffee and visited a cupcake shop in Newport, drove around down town and perused the festival. They had Beatles cover bands (my fav) and hubby bought me a new toe ring. Then there was spur of the moment dinner with our good friends and our wedding photographers the Napier's.   The boys totally catered to us making steak and lobster!

Aug 30 District Convention 

Our yearly summer assembly, had the privilege of manning the ATM contribution table with my heart of hearts sister/friend.

So much fun, of course I had to get my yearly pic with the boys too. 

July - Summer in Full Swing

July 1-4 Vegas Baby
Our friends Molly and Andrew came to visit from Mexico.  We hardly ever get to see them so we took this opportunity to treat them to a weekend away.

I can't post all the pictures so here's the highlights:

We played sequence with m&ms for board pieces while making up a new guessing game called I Am. You can only ask yes or no questions to figure out what item you are (determined by opposing team), trust me this is hilarious especially when your drinking....err juice. 

We walked through the endless casinos playing/posing with novelty items like gigantic necklaces. 

We found a place that served deep fried lobster tail and lobster ice cream, tried both.  

Ate dinner at a country bar that had a disco bull.  Went to the aquarium at the Mandalay hotel, where I met a piranha and Andrew had his head in the mouth of a alligator.  Stuffed ourselves at a Brazilian buffet with the best chimichuri I've ever tasted.  Saw Vegas the show compliments of our time share.  Did lots of shopping.  Walked the strip at night then has midnight sushi.  Woke up late shopped some more, had lunch and enormous dessert at Serendipity 3.

July 18-20

I took advantage of a miss scheduling at work and some time share points that needed booking and took a little trip to Palm Springs.  It was intended to be a relaxing craft weekend but it didn't turn out like that with a 2 yr old in tow.  We did have a good time watching movies, playing in the pool and getting our toes done. 

Then rush right home for Taryn's recital and Aileen's baby shower....

Show ran till almost 7 pm, didn't make the shower went home to crash instead.

July 21 Family Dinner

Our first time having the whole family over since moving to the house.  Like my Brady bunch pic? My parents, grandparents, aunt, cousin, sister, bro in law and his parents...the whole kit and caboodle.

My grandparents have an affinity for grilling; my potato salad came out so good the first time that I made it again with traditional BBQ baked beans corn and burgers!  We also had mason jar margaritas and pineapple upside down cake.

I love my hubby 

July 27
No Shoes Nation tour

One if the best concerts ever! Eli Young Band, Eric Church, Kenny Chesney, my little country head was about to explode!  Hubby bought me a "crazy girl" baseball tee, I love it so much I'm having a hard time not over wearing it lol.

July 30

Turned 32, mom brought me some delicious perfume.

June 2013

I'm so behind and my OCD won't let me blog out of order!  I have half a mind to just scrap these missed months posts but I don't want to forget these little moments so I'll try to blow through these to get to the meaty stuff. 

June 8

Alyssa's grad party

Remember in mays post the madness that was my desk?  That was the creation of little Missy's graduation gift of a years worth of photos and mementos her mama cleverly snuck away.  I was glad to provide my artistic abilities.

June 14

Book club

Ms. Lindsay did an amazing job with our china themed party.  She choose the book Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.  The details in the book were so intricate you could picture everything.  It was so emotional and raw, incredible page turner, I had to get the second book because I had to know what was going to happen next!

As always we do what we do best eat, talk, kiss babies, eat, talk and eat some more!

June 16

The entire month of May my sister and her hubby were touring Europe. (Yes jealous!)

We had them over for Sunday dinner, I made my first ham and tried my hand at grandma's potato salad.  I did pretty darn good too.  My lovely sister brought me these delightful goodies, soap from Paris, bowls from Italy bracelets from Spain.  All in my favorite color, aqua!  It looked so pretty like this I left it to display in my book shelf.  

June  22-23

Yearly I put on a craft day which has affectionately become known as CYBO (craft your brains out) for 10 delirious hours of crafting food and games.  I normally to do it at a local high school in a big room but my connection retired so we were on the hunt for a new location.  Only problem is we were so used to the nice accommodations and being free is a big plus!  Another change this year was that I now have a house to host in, so I took the challenge of fitting 15 crafters between 3 rooms. 

I think these girls look pretty happy.

Zoe de Chanel

This is the newest edition to our family Zoe de Chanel.

Last week hubby went to Albuquerque for work and all week Coco was depressed.  We had indended on getting him a buddy when we moved because he was used to being with another dog.  So I jumped on craigslist to see if there was anything reasonable out there.

For those of you who dont know, Coco's original name was Max.  Not a favorite of mine.  I really wanted to call him something like Lennon, after the color and the beatle, but he wouldnt respond.  Finally I said its to bad your a boy because you look like a Coco and wouldn't you know he came to me.  To make it a little more masculane his official name is Glen Coco.  You go Glen Coco.

If you dont know what this means, you should probably watch the movie Mean Girls.

We had every intention on nameing our new dog Gretchen Wieners, another character name from that movie, but this little sweetie would not respond.

She came with the name Khloe.  This is way to much Kardashian for me.  I thought about calling her Maddie, because she was super matted.  Tried several names ending with the E sound.  Had a three people suggest Chanel to go along with Coco.  She didn't take to any of it.

 So at Petco we went ahead and made her a name tag Chloe....and as its getting engraved I see a demo tag with the name Zoe.  Why didn't I think of that?  I looked at her and asked is your new name Zoe?  Her little ears perked up.  Hubby said Are you kidding me?  It happened again? 

It's to late on the name tag, I'll have to get her another one eventually.  Coco needs a new one to, with our new address.  I love play on words so she gets both Zoe and Chanel as a name, just like the new girl actress.

So there you have it folks, I got my new baby girl.

Thing one and Thing two need toys of pink and toys of blue.

I love how she sleeps with one ear up.



Getting Knitty with it...

Na na na na na nana (in my best Will Smith voice)

I started a knitting club and this is why I was rushing to pull my house in some kind of decent order.

Saturday night had some of my girls over , my homies, BFF's, comadres, sisters, friends...to get their yarn on.  Everyone got a cute little owl bag to carry their projects, we came out with 6 new knitters and 2 new crocheters.  We had a ton of fun, wine and laughter.

The only down side for me is that I went WAY off the paleo wagon.  So far off that I stayed off all Sunday and Monday, bearly seeing the wagon wheels fade into the sunset haha.  I made enchiladas and beans, there was a abundance of appetizers and dessert!  Shamefully I put away the remaining pieces of tira misu last night.  I was hungry! So now we've rolled around to Tuesday and I'm having all these cravings for things I know I shouldnt be having.  Hubby will be leaving super early tomorrow for Arizona through Friday.  I gotta take those days to reset and get back on track.  Next Friday I'm hosting book club!  So now starts the search for some Paleo friendly munchies. 

Home Sweet Home - Mid way Photos

I say midway because there's always something to improve on a home.  I finally emptied my craft room of boxes, I even brought a rack to hang my embelishments from a closing scrap store.  Slowly getting the pieces were I want them but this is pretty much what my room looks like.  The cabbage patch in the chair is one of the original all cloth pieces from Xaiver Roberts, my grandma had purchased one for each of her grand daughters in the early 80's.  there's also a desk to the left centered under the window but my camera is not that wide angled.

On to the bano (guest bath) Picked up this sweet little shower curtain at target.  Giving it a try, its a little shiny for my liking but the color is dead on!

Our Bedroom

Kitchen
My mom worked really hard to help us pull together our country kitchen look.  Just waiting on a few more personal touches.  Hubbys great grandfather actually peddled milk!  Can't wait to put up some authentic milk bottles and canning jars.

View from the other side.  We'll be hanging some lanterns on the wall soon.

The Den, curtains and art hung!

Love that the ceiling fan has a matching Edison light bulb to the pendants in the kitchen.

There's only one room left to do now, its our front entry/parlor area. 

30 is the new 20

I know I've been dormant for a while.  Mainly nothing momentous to share and partly still resonating on the load of information from my last post, but here's a little fun from last week.

These ladies are the core of my youth.  My childhood bestie's and my sister.  These day's its FAR and between that we actually can all be together in the same room, but last Thursday some things shifted in the right place and we were able to have a nice girls night out.  (I say far in a quite literal term, as we are scattered between San Clemente and Los Angeles)

I had bought some concert tickets as an anniversary gift for another friend.  We were supposed to go on a double date, but that quickly fell apart when Hubby had to go back east for work and the other couple couldn't make it because of a non-bottle-taking-baby situation.  So I found myself with 3 open tickets and couldn't think of 3 people I'd rather take then these.  I felt very "sex in the city" getting the girls together.  Ironically in our 18 year friendship we've NEVER gone to a concert.

We started out the night at a swanky West Hollywood restaurant called the Fig & Olive.  One of the girls had a coworker who's husband just happened to be working and was able to get us a table.

It was a interesting set up, kind of like a patio but inside.  We sat in wicker chairs that pulled up to a coffee table and all ordered an assortment of crostini's and a salad. 

We have this a inside joke where you have a "moment" with your first bite of something new. Something you know is going to be good but surprises you on just how good and its "food-gasmic". Each bite was divine, I didn't want this evening of good food and friends to end.  But at the same time I kept glancing at the clock thinking we have somewhere to be.

And that's when the waitress comes up and asks if we just have 10 more minutes to spare because the manager would like us to have a desert.  How could we turn that down?  Behold the "moment" giving chocolate lava cake with the surprise citrus semifreddo.

I considered taking an after shot but we basically licked the plate clean if that gives you any indication on how good it was.

We left the restaurant saying why don't we do this more often?  We should do this once a month!  Would that realistically happen, probably not because lets face it LIFE happens but it's nice to hope. 

It was only a 5 minute drive to the concert venue so I really had nothing to worry about we got there in plenty of time.  The concert was Tristan Prettyman (mentioned in this post)

This would be my third time seeing her in concert and she just keeps getting better.

Fun Fact: the first time I saw her 6 years ago was with one of my besties and now we were seeing her again together.

I thought I was pee in your pants excited before... I think I literally turned into a 15 year old girl when Joshua Radin came out to do a song with her.

All the music was beautiful, emotional and raw; a genuinely Great concert.  I'm super happy I got to share it with my sister.  Although theres only 3 years between us, we've had a gap in our social scene the past oh I don't know 8 years lol.  Now that she's a married lady and almost 30, I see that gap is closing.  I would have NEVER thought we'd go to a country bar together, let alone try line dancing. 

The evening was full of reminiscing, remember whens and where did the time go?  And then there was the interesting conversation of age, discussing how 30 isnt so scary afterall  (we range from 29-31)  At what point are you a adult?  In my mind I'm still 23! Although some days my body feels 63. When I look at my peers some with children some without and we're just "the girls".   My sister made an interesting point, "our 30's are to redo the 20's but BETTER."  We're more mature, have more money and can appreciate things differently than 10 years ago.   Funny and true.  I bet we'll be having the same conversation in 10 more years.