A Woman of A Certain Age

{TWD/BWJ} White Loaves

2012-02-07T17:28:00.000-08:00

I joined Tuesdays With Dorie so I could bake along with a zillion other people out of the Baking With Julia cookbook. This cookbook was written by Dorie Greenspan and was the companion book for the PBS series, Baking with Julia. I think this is going to be great fun and I'm looking forward to meeting other bakers and sharing baking tips and secrets.
Our first recipe is White Loaves. This was the easiest bread recipe I've ever made and the bread was delicious.

My bread came out much better than my food photography but I will be working on that, too! The only problem I had with this recipe is that I couldn't stop eating it! Check out the other links on Tuesdays with Dorie to see how all the other cooks did it.

Powers Mansion Inn Tea Room

2012-01-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was able to go with my good friend Donna, to tea at Powers Mansion Inn in Auburn. We had a really wonderful time. The drive up there is about an hour and 15 minutes and we just had a blast talking and laughing. We both enjoy going to tea because it's all about getting together and just relaxing through a meal and reconnecting. We both love to take pictures and so we tried to document everything we did yesterday.

We ended up getting to Auburn about 45 minutes before our tea reservation, so we drove around Auburn taking pictures of the historical sites. Auburn was a gold mining town and it was so interesting. I took pictures of a giant miner and Chinese laborer.

1st course
Sweet Potato Soup
Artichoke and Red Pepper Quiche
Fruit

Donna

Tea Tray
Manderin Orange Scones
Chicken Salad Sandwich
Red Pepper Spread on dark Bread
Cucumber Sandwich
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookie
Brownie Square
Pumpkin cake

Manderin Orange Scones
Creme Brulee Tea

We had a great time and after our tea we went to the Bernhard Museum.
More about that to come!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

2012-01-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

I saw this recipe on Flourchild's blog. You can find it by following the link on my blog list. I decided to make it because her pictures were beautiful and I love peanut butter. I don't make cheesecake very often because my hubby hates it. After all my hard work on this he wouldn't even taste it. It was wonderful. I ate a piece and then gave some to one of my friends and then let darling daughter #4 take it to her apartment to share with her friends. That way I felt sufficiently appreciated. Here's a couple of pictures of the finished product.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

2011-12-29T17:05:00.000-08:00

2011 has been a very challenging year for us. I am a big believer that every thing happens for a reason and that God is in control of my life. I don't think I could have made it through this year thinking any other way. The biggest thing we had to face was my hubby being ill. He had a bad case of kidney stones and after having surgery for their removal, he had every complication he could have. Losing your health puts everything in perspective about what's really important. After four months on disability, my husband regained his health and I got some of my sanity back...

In August we lost my dear mother-in-law and we miss her very much. We also were forced to downsize from our house to a one bedroom apartment. The blessing in disguise is that my husband and I really do like each other as well as love each other : ) We look around and we see so many hurting people and we feel blessed to still have each other, a roof over our head and food on our table.

2012 will bring more big changes to us. Hubby will be retiring in March and I will retire in June. We plan to move to Colorado shortly after my retirement to be closer to one of our daughters and two of our grandchildren. It will be a much different place than California but we are ready for and embrace the change.

Last School Year

2011-08-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

School started on Thursday, August 18th. This is my last school year as a bus driver. I will be retiring at the end of June. It's kind of bittersweet. I'm really ready to be retired, but I think I will really miss the kids, too. When I retire I will have almost 24 years as a driver and as with any job, it's had it's ups and downs. I like to think I've made a difference in the lives of the kids I've come in contact with. I realize that sometimes I'm the first adult these kids see in the morning and I have the power to make or break their day by my attitude. I want each and every one of them to have a great day at school and I hope I can help them to do that.

This year is different because for the last several years I've been driving a small wheelchair bus with only about 15 students. I will miss all those kids I've been driving but their new driver is also great and I know they are in good hands. I'm driving a 40 foot bus this year with a capacity of 62 students. I actually have about 30 special needs children on this bus. Although our first day of school was hectic, as always, we got the job done and Friday everything started to flow better. I think it's going to be a really good year!

Don't forget to stop for those red lights when you see a school bus on the road. Be safe and care for all the children!

Sewing a Little

2011-08-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a very productive summer when it comes to my quilting projects. I've been going though a lot of personal stuff, that I won't bore my readers with, but it's been hard to get motivated to do anything. The other day I walked into my sewing room and looked at my design wall and there was a project hanging on the wall that has been waited to be finished. I sat down and finished it. It just has to be quilted and the binding put on. Hopefully I will do that before I have to go back to work in two weeks. Here's a picture:

The binding will be the same color as the inside border. Now that I'm looking at it I feel really motivated to get it done!

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

2011-07-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got up early and drove down to San Francisco for the day. The weather was perfect for our little adventure, cloudy and cool at first, and then the fog burnt off and it warmed up to a perfect temperature of about 75. We started out about 7 am. because we wanted to hit Dynamo Donuts on 24th St. and they open at 9am on Sundays. We got there about 8:30 and we were second in line. By the time the doors opened at 9, they had a line down the street. We wanted to try the maple bacon donuts and we weren't disappointed.

Since there were four of us we ordered two maple bacon donuts, 1 Caramel De Sel, 1 Chocolate Spice, 1 Passion Fruit Milk Chocolate, 1 Vanilla Bean, and a Cherry Cornmeal. These donuts are very expensive because they use the very best of organic ingredients. Truthfully, for us it turned out to be more about the journey than the destination. The donuts were good but not so good that I would get up early and drive an hour and a half to buy them again. But it was fun!

Me and My Shadow

After we left the donut shop we decided to drive around San Francisco and try to see some of the city we had never seen before. We ended up at the Embarcadero Center near the waterfront and had a great time walking around and taking pictures of interesting buildings and fountains.

I loved this sculpture and this building on the right. The next picture is the floor of the Embarcadero Center. I loved the pattern. If I was good at circles I would love this as a quilt pattern.

This is the Old Federal Reserve Building. It's now called the Bentley Reserve and you can have your events there including weddings.

Clock Tower on the pier, Flower Sculpture and Bay Bridge

Darling hubby and two youngest daughters

In front of the Bentley Reserve

Megs and her daddy

Interesting fountain and sculpture

After we finished at the Embarcadero Center we walked across the street to the ferry building where they have put in all kinds of shops and restaurants. We got salami cones from Bocolone, which is Chris Cositino's shop from Food Network.

Buying Salami

All that salami, so little time!

We walked around a little while and then decided to go to the North Beach area of San Francisco to have lunch at the Stinking Rose.

Neon Ravioli, Gnochetti w/ Asparagus, Foccochi w/ garlic

This Garlic Rose Relish was really good!

Foccaci Rolls, Garlic Rose Relish, and Oil

Lunch was really great and since we all shared we

didn't get stuffed. We had a great time in San Francisco

and I will be sharing more tomorrow.

Bagna Cauda

The Postcrossing Project

2011-07-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I heard about the Postcrossing Project from my darling daughter in Colorado. We were visiting her and I noticed a big map of the world on her wall with pins stuck in it. When I asked her about it, she told me it was a project that she was doing with my grand kids for geography. She home schools and she is always coming up with cool things that will teach the kids something. She had found this web site http://www.postcrossing.com and had decided to join. She thought I would enjoy it.

When you register on the web site, you can send 5 postcards to 5 random addresses that they give you. The cards are sent all over the world. When the person you sent a card to, registers that card on the web site then you go to the top of the list and someone sends you a random card.

I've often thought that we are getting so used to e-mail, texting on our phones, and being on the computer that we are losing our ability to have personal relationships. When I get a card in the mail and I see the other person's actual handwriting it makes me feel good. I've gotten cards from all over now and I will continue to do this for a long time.

The Postcrossing Project just had their 6th anniversary yesterday. I advise anyone that thinks they might like this to check it out.

Weight Watchers 5K Challange

2011-05-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today was the Weight Watchers 5K Challenge. If you walked or ran the 5K, at the completion you got a nifty 5K charm to put on your 10% goal key chain. I wanted that charm. Really, really bad. I got up at 6am and had breakfast and then darling hubby and I were off to the challenge. We had about 50-75 people show up from our meeting and other meetings and we started off promptly at 8am.

I have to say that I didn't do much training for this event and I had some fear that I wouldn't be able to finish it, but it was so much fun. I walked with my friend, Corinne and we had a great time talking while we walked. Darling hubby drove to several points on the walk so he could cheer me on and before I knew it we had done more than half of the walk. Right before we hit half-way, we had a very steep hill to climb. We got through that and started back down. Darling hubby again drove to certain points and cheered us on. I was really surprised at how good I felt at the end. I had some pain but not much and I've been fine tonight. I stretched after the walk and took a warm shower when I got home so hopefully I won't be too sore tomorrow. Here's some pictures:

Pat, me and Corinne

Barbara and Sabrina

Right before we got started.

Welcome to the 21st Century

2011-05-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

I have reached a milestone! Several actually...
Last week began the last year of my fifties, I got an Apple IPhone4, and tonight I'm sitting at Panera posting to my blog with one finger on a teeny tiny keyboard that I had to take my glasses off to see! Is this progress? Oh well, it's fun.

Yippee! Friday Night Sew-In is here!

2011-04-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

I was sewing tonight with virtual friends from Handmade by Heidi. Check out my link to her blog on my blog. I really like this idea because it's helping me get some of those unfinished projects done. Tonight I worked on my Block of the Month for Fairfield's Cornerstone Quilt Shoppe. We are making the Starry Night quilt from Swirly Girl.
First I put my squares together and drew a diagonal line and then I sewed a 1/4 inch on either side of the line.

Then I cut my triangles apart.

Next, I pressed my triangles open and cut off the little dog ears and then laid out my pattern before I began sewing.

Here is the finished block-all ready for tomorrow.

Thanks Heidi. I can't wait for the next Friday Night Sew-In.

Got Lemons-Make Lemonade

2011-04-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, http://www.howsrobb.blogspot.com, and Lisa was describing how to make lemon marmalade. Yummy. She was talking about the large lemons she was using and it brought our Italian trip to mind. Talk about large lemons-here's a picture:

These are lemons at a fruit stand outside of Pompeii, Italy.

One of these would make a lot of marmalade.

Friday Night Sew-In and other things.

2011-04-10T17:56:00.000-07:00

There is another Friday Night Sew-In coming up on April 15th. Stop over at Heidi's blog, http://www.handmadebyheidi.com/blogspot.com to sign up and sew with us.

I'm on spring break right now as a school bus driver. I have the next two weeks off and hopefully I can find the time to do all the things I love to do. I want to finish a quilt that I have started for one of my darling daughters. I want to go on the Northern California Quilt Rush this week and I want to plant vegetables and cook some great meals. All the things I don't have time to do when I'm working. I don't know how some women do it, but I'm just not Super Woman. Maybe it has to do with getting older. Usually when I get home from work I just want to slip into my pajamas and have a little dinner and go to bed. It might have something to do with the fact that I get up at 4 am every morning on a work day. Even on the weekends I find it hard to sleep past 6 am. When school lets out for the summer break, it takes me a good month to get used to sleeping until 7 or 8 am. I'm really looking forward to retiring next year.
I haven't blogged in so long that I'm just rambling. Bleech!!
I'll try to do better on this blog, too.

Friday Night Sew-in

2011-03-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the Friday night Sew-in sponsored by Handmade by Heidi. I went over to my friend, Donna's house so we could sew together. Tonight we worked on our Starry Night quilt, which is the BOM for Cornerstone Quilt Shop here in Fairfield, Ca. We meet the third Saturday of every month and so being a procrastinator extraordinaire, the timing was right to make the block the night before our meeting. Here's some pictures: Oops, technical difficulties. All the pictures I downloaded are somewhere in cyberspace and my computer erased the images from my camera. I don't know how I did that! I did take another picture of the finished block and so that's all I've got. Here it is:

I made this one last night.
The next block is the first one that I made last month.

Friday Night Sew-in and Giveaway

2011-03-10T04:53:00.000-08:00

I'm joining Heidi at http://www.handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com on Friday March 18, 2011 for a virtual sew-in to finish some of my unfinished projects. Head on over to Heidi's blog and check it out and join us. It's going to be fun and I hope productive.

Napa Valley

2011-02-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday Mike and I decided to take a little road trip just because. It was a beautiful day and we were having a break in the rain and miserable temperatures, so off we went. Napa is one of our favorite places. We like visiting the wineries there and we always stop at V Sattui Winery because it's beautiful.

V Sattui Winery

This is the Glory Hole at Lake Berryessa. We have been having a mighty drought here (hard to believe with all the rain the last couple of weeks) and when the lake is full, the water is over the top of that cement structure on the left of the picture. It drains down the "Glory Hole" and into Putah Creek behind the dam. As you can see, we need a lot more rain.

While we were in Napa we decided to travel a little farther to just outside of Calistoga. There we were able to go up and see the outside of Castello di Amarosa. It is a castle built in the Italian Tuscan style and it is open for tours and wine tasting. We didn't go in because the cost of the tour was more than we had with us that day but we hope to go back and take a tour.

Mike doesn't usually carry a purse, but he had mine that day. My kids call that purse my Mary Poppins purse because I have everything in it.

He had to point out the gargoyle on the top of the post. It was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The Conservatory of Flowers

2011-01-29T12:25:00.000-08:00

Just down the hall from that delicious chocolate shop at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, is their conservatory of flowers. It was so beautiful in there. Just remember these pictures were taken in October, hence the pumpkins.
This picture is not of the conservatory. I meant to put it in yesterday's post. It is the chocolate fountain in the chocolate shop.

Now on to the conservatory.

The flowers were beautiful in the orchid greenhouse. We really enjoyed our time there.
Tomorrow I will cover the new City Center.

It's Been a While...

2011-01-27T18:18:00.000-08:00

since I posted here. Basically, it's been about computer issues. I had downloaded a lot of pictures on my computer and then the computer went haywire. I managed this week to get them off that computer and download them on this one. Yeah me! So I think I will start blogging again with a post about our trip to Las Vegas last October. Yes it's been that long trying to get my pictures back.

Darling hubby and I took our trip to Las Vegas the first week of October, since I had a week off from work. We drove there, like we usually do and stayed in our time share for the week. Las Vegas seems like an odd place to go to relax but that's what we do. We are not big gamblers. If I lose $20.00, that's too much. So we mainly spend our time walking around all the beautiful hotels and casinos and taking lots of pictures, seeing a movie or two, once in a while seeing a show and eating. My kind of vacation!

Anyway, we went to this pastry shop in the Belaggio Casino right around the corner from their beautiful flower Conservatory. Here are the pictures:

Everything in the shop looked incredible.

Hubby and I shared the dark chocolate thing in the middle of this picture. Decadent, sweet and definitely tasted like more!
The most impressive thing in the shop was this:

Front of Lady Chocolate

She is covered with dark, white and milk chocolate.

Back view of Lady Chocolate

Here are some of the cakes they had on display:

This was just one of the hotels we visited. Tomorrow I will have some pictures up of the Conservatory of Flowers.

The Day After Chrismas

2010-12-26T07:39:00.000-08:00

I want to wish all my friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Blessed New Year. We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Money wise and gift wise we scaled back a lot but it didn't matter because we had family here to share our day. Sometimes I think we get carried away with the gift giving and forget the true meaning of Christmas and the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope everybody had a wonderful day yesterday with their family and friends.
Now just a few pics from Christmas dinner. You won't see any family pics except maybe my hubby and daughter because the rest of the family is a bit shy and I am respecting their privacy. We had a great time with them anyway.

Lucky, the biggest ham in the family.

My turkey reminds me of a resting sunbather, with his wing behind what would have been his head.

Who cares what else you have for dinner as long as you have Turkey and Apple Pie.

Oh, and a little fudge!

My darling hubby showing off the Christmas table.

Now that the feasting is over, it's back on Weight Watchers today.

FFWD: Potato Leek Soup

2010-12-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

Here is another French Fridays with Dorie recipe. Go to the site to see how about 1000 other cooks did this recipe. I loved this recipe and it was a hit with my hubby as well. It was simple, quick and delicious. I added sliced fennel with my leeks and onions and then topped it with some smoked Gruyere cheese and homemade croutons with rosemary. This is a keeper.

This is what the soup looked like at the start of the cooking time. I also used 1% milk in mine because we are trying to lose weight around here. It was just fine and I think rich enough with the chicken broth I also used.

The finished soup. I used my immersion blender to blend it up. We will definitely have this again.

FFWD: My Go-To Beef Daube

2010-12-21T08:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted here. It's just the busy season. I'm off work for two weeks so I'm trying to catch up on house work, Christmas decorating, addressing my Christmas cards, shopping and cooking. I'm afraid I haven't really made my dishes on Friday but I have managed to make two of them which I will post in the next couple of days.

My Go-To Beef Daube took a lot of time prepping and cooking but it was well worth it. My pictures don't do it justice but it was really yummy and my hubby loved it.

The ingredients for this dish were homey and straight-forward. There was a lot of slicing and chopping to do but it helped me hone my knife skills.

This was the delicious result. I will be making this again. Check out how about 1000 other cooks are doing it at French Fridays with Dorie.

FFWD: Potato Gratin

2010-11-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

This week I decided to do the Potato Gratin from "Around My French Table" by Dorie Greenspan. Check out my French Fridays with Dorie link to see what everybody else has been cooking this week. I was looking forward to this recipe with a little dread. I knew the recipe would be delicious but it meant I had to struggle with my demons about using a mandolin. I consider this the most dangerous piece of equipment in my kitchen and if I was threatened by an intruder, I'm sure I could slice and dice them with this thing. All my apprehension is because a few years ago, the first time I used it, I cut myself severely. The potato I was slicing got caught in the blade and I removed the guard to try and pull it out. When I couldn't pull it out, I had a major brain fart and tried to push it through with my bare fingers. Not a smart idea. I ended up cutting my thumb pretty bad. It was very traumatic. My advice: DON'T EVER REMOVE THE GUARD, NO MATTER WHAT!

After following my own advice, I sliced the potatoes just fine with my handy mandolin and the resulting dish was wonderful cheesy deliciousness. I served it with steamed green beans and pork chops glazed with a combination of orange marmalade, honey mustard, and crushed fennel seeds. Definitely a keeper recipe and meal.

Apple Hill

2010-11-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

My darling hubby and I have very little time together during the school year because we just can't get our days off coordinated. When we have a day off together we love to get out of the house for a little road trip. Today we went to Apple Hill near Placerville, Ca. It's a wonderful area with lots of orchards, wineries, and craft items to browse through. I couldn't wait to go on this trip and have been planning on what photos I would take. I wanted to get some of the fall colors in the vineyards because it's really beautiful up there this time of year. We were about 40 minutes from home when I remembered I didn't bring my camera. Boo Hoo! Here's a couple of photos I grabbed off the Apple Hill web site.

We visited Boeger Winery and tasted some of their excellent wines. I bought a Saviongn Blanc for Thanksgiving dinner. We also visited my favorite orchard, High Hill Ranch and had a wonderful piece of Caramel Apple pie. We visited the craft booths and I bought darling hubby a new coffee mug that looks like a little person holding a Giants baseball. Go Giants!!! I had to have some pumpkin butter, apple butter, some pickled cauliflower, and a cinnamon apple cider donut. We also stopped at Denver Dan's for chicken

pasties. Needless to say the diet went out the window today.

FFWD: Roast Chicken for les paresseux

2010-11-12T13:27:00.000-08:00

Translated: Roast Chicken for Lazy People. That's me. This is the latest recipe that I made with my French Fridays with Dorie friends. Check out the web site and buy Dorie Greenspans new book, "Around My French Table" and then come join us in our cooking fest.

This roast chicken couldn't have been any easier. A month or so ago, my darling husband bought me a porcelain covered cast iron dutch oven from Paula Deen's line of cookware. I love this dutch oven almost as much as I love my husband. It cooks the food great and is easy to clean up. But back to the roast chicken. I followed the directions to a t in this recipe and you can see, it came out great. It didn't take long to prep and I cooked it 90 minutes. The only thing I would do different is put the vegetables in a little sooner. My carrots were still a little under done only cooking for 45 minutes. For all you people who are afraid to try the bread in the bottom of the pot, I say go for it. I used a thick slice of Rustic Tuscan bread. I also cooked the chicken liver like Dorie suggested and mashed it up to put on the bread. It was so good. The bread reminded me of something my grandfather always made for us after he fried chicken. He would fry the bread in the chicken drippings and then sprinkled it with sugar for us. Probably not the healthiest snack but boy, was it good!

FFWD: Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flans

2010-11-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

This month at French Fridays with Dorie we could decide what order we wanted to make our dishes. I decided on the Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flans. This time of year I just crave anything with pumpkin. It is a real comfort food for me and I don't really know why. This recipe was a breeze to fix and it tasted wonderful. I loved it. Darling Daughter complained about the cheese and hubby hasn't tasted it yet. I don't know if he will because he doesn't care for anything pumpkin. I used a little creme fraiche and a drizzle of honey on the top and it was crazy good.

Head on over French Fridays with Dorie to check out how other people did this recipe. Better yet buy Dorie Greenspan's book "Around My French Table" and cook along with us.

It Happened Again!

2010-10-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

This morning at Costco the person checking my receipt said, "How are you doing SIR." I happen to be a 58 year old white woman with a 44 DDD bra size! How does this happen? Not only how does this happen but why does it keep happening to me. Is it because I'm tall? I'm 5'9". Is it because I have a short hair cut? (That's woman short not a buzz cut.) This happens about twice a month to me. Always when I'm shopping and no matter what kind of store I'm in. I don't have a deep voice and I just don't get it. It makes me mad and it's very demoralizing.

I think it's because we don't really look at people anymore. People need to look people in the eye. Look at me. I'm not invisible. I know that when you're in a store the people helping you are busy, but when this happens, I just want to leave what ever I'm purchasing on the counter and walk out. Maybe that's exactly what I will do next time.

FFWD: Marie-Helene's Apple Cake

2010-10-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

So it's time for French Fridays with Dorie once again. About 900 people are all cooking on Fridays from Dorie Greenspan's new book, "Around My French Table." We post on our blogs about it and it's really a lot of fun. Any one interested in joining can check out the link on my web page.

This week we baked Marie-Helene's Apple Cake. This was the simplest recipe which I can't post here. Buy the book, it's worth it and beautiful. This cake was a slice of heaven. I adapted it so I could use my 9 inch spring form pan. I didn't have an 8" pan. I think this may replace my apple pie at Thanksgiving.

FFWD: Hachis Parmentier

2010-10-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

I was really looking forward to this recipe from "Around My French Table" by Dorie Greenspan. It lived up to my expectations. Check out my link to French Fridays with Dorie and buy the book and start cooking. This recipe did take a long time and I think the next time I make it, I will break it up over a couple of days. I added the carrots from the broth to the meat, basically to add some color. I also used more garlic than suggested. I thought the broth was tasty, but I did add the boullion cube. I also used smoked Gruyere and the parmesan cheese.

Step one

Step two

Step three

The Finished French Shepard's Pie

This was just plain old comfort food on a rainy Friday.

Tickled Pink 2010

2010-10-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

I am still recovering from my really fun all-night quilting binge called, Tickled Pink. Tickled Pink is an event to support Breast Cancer Research and put on by our local quilt shop, A Quilted Heart. Michelle and Connie are the owners and they do an incredible job with this event because it is dear to their heart. Michelle is a breast cancer survivor and she knows the how much women need support for this time in their lives.
The event started at 5pm on Friday night and went until 5am on Saturday morning. There were at least 60 women there with their sewing machines and equipment to help craft a quilt that will be raffled off to benefit the Susan G. Komen fund. We also made a smaller quilt to be donated to the Kaiser-Vacaville oncology unit and we helped make Bosom Buddie cushions for women that have had cancer surgery. Not only did we do this but we had a catered dinner, courteous Outback Steakhouse, snacks throughout the night, raffle prizes, bingo and a silent auction. A continental breakfast was served courteous Panera Bread.

The Quilting Room

I didn't win this Bike!

Sorry Karen, I didn't win the pink KitchenAid mixer for you either!

These were the blocks we were making. They won't be sewn together in this order. We just put them on the board when we were finished . It's going to make a lovely quilt.

FFWD: Spicy Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup

2010-10-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

Check out the French Fridays with Dorie link in my blog list. There are about 700 members of this blog, cooking these wonderful recipes from Dorie Greenspan's new cookbook, "Around My French Table."
Tonight was this pot of deliciousness. I was worried that this would be really spicy and I knew my husband wouldn't eat it if it was, so I didn't put in the dried chillies. Also, necessity is the mother of invention. I didn't buy cheese cloth or twine because I knew I had some. Ha! I couldn't find either one, so I used my tea ball for the spices and tied a bundle of cilantro stems with mint dental floss and tossed it into the pot. I used a whole star of anise and at the end I added the juice of two limes. We could taste the subtle licorice taste of the anise and the cilantro and the lime really added some good flavor. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts but next time I will use the bone in chicken for added flavor. My husband loved this soup, my daughter gave it a so-so and I think it was very good. I wasn't feeling very good when I came home from work but a bowl of this soup worked wonders settling my stomach and putting me to rights. I will make it again. Thanks Dorie for the recipe and Laurie for the blog.

FFWD: Gerard's Mustard Tart

2010-10-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Today's selection for the French Fridays with Dorie blog is Gerard's Mustard Tart. I really liked this tart but next time I will cook the vegetables a little longer. The tart dough came out nice and crispy and the custard was great. I thought 4 tbs. of mustard would be too much but it wasn't and I probably could have put in more. Thanks Dorie for the great recipe and Thanks to Laurie for the great blog. Links to the blog are in my blog list.

Pre-baked Tart Shell

The finished product!

In Memoriam: Frankie Valli Brown October 3, 2010

2010-10-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

I just got home from the UC Davis Small Animal Clinic where we took Frankie to help him over the Rainbow Bridge. We got Frankie almost 3 years ago from NorCal Boxer Rescue after our female boxer, Gigi, crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Frankie was the male version of Gigi. They were both really sweet dogs, that loved children and were a source of joy every day of their lives.

Frankie started having seizures yesterday and they continued through the night. Since he was about 13 years old we knew the time had come to help him on his way. The vet said that probably his heart was not pumping enough blood to his brain and we were doing the right thing. He died peacefully in my arms and he will be remembered forever.

French Fridays with Dorie

2010-10-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

Today is the start of French Fridays with Dorie. This is a cooking blog inspired by the same people that brought you Tuesdays with Dorie. About 700 people are signed up to cook all together on Fridays from Dorie Greenspans new cookbook, "Around My French Table." It's a beautiful cookbook and I highly recommend it. Dorie picked the first month's recipes herself starting out with "Gougeres." These are delicate little cheese puffs and are supposed to turn out like cream puff dough without the cream. I made mine tonight after I got home from work. I think I probably did not beat them enough because although they puffed up in the oven the deflated when I took them out to cool. They still tasted great and I will try the recipe again.

Check out my blog list to find the link to French Fridays with Dorie as well as Tuesdays with Dorie.

School Buses with Red Flashing Lights

2010-09-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

It always amazes me that most of the general population of California does not know what to do when they encounter a school bus stopped on the road with their red lights flashing. STOP for crying out loud and stay stopped until the bus driver turns off the red lights. It would also be nice and courteous if you would let me pull back into traffic.

Most of our newer buses have an eight light system at the top of our bus. That means that we have two amber warning lights and two red warning lights mounted on the front and back of our bus. It also says in 8 inch letters on the back of the bus, STOP WHEN RED LIGHTS ARE FLASHING. With our eight light system we are supposed to activate our amber warning lights 200 feet before our stop and then as soon as we stop, activate our red lights. Some people actually take our amber light system to mean, GO AS FAST AS I CAN AROUND THIS BUS!

This afternoon some people got educated the hard way. I have two stops on a certain road in Vacaville that is very heavily traveled. They are actually about 200 feet apart. When I stop for the first one as soon as I have unloaded that student, I turn off my red lights and pull into traffic and immediately activate my amber light system again. When I get to the second stop I immediately turn on my red lights. This afternoon I did that very thing and as my student was getting off the bus, I glanced in my left mirror just in time to see the second car behind me, plow into the car directly behind me. Thank heavens the person behind me was following the law and had stopped with some distance between us and he didn't hit me. I called in to base to see if I had to stay there and was informed that if I was not hit , I was not involved and to move on. I gave all the information to the dispatcher so if the Vacaville PD called they would know what happened. I felt so bad for the driver that was hit because they were following the law and didn't do anything wrong.

By the way, when you run my red lights, the first offence is $250.00. If you run my red lights multiple times you could be looking at a $1000.00 fine. So think about it and make the safety of the children I drive your priority. You may save a few minutes by running my red lights or you could get someone killed.

Who is Visiting My Blog?

2010-09-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

I would love to know who is visiting my blog. I put up the Map Loco and I see that someone has visited from Canada and London, Croyden and Loughborough, England. Is that you Ray in Loughborough? If you have visited please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you all.

National Alpaca Farm Day

2010-09-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

I had a very interesting day today. Lots of miscommunication, but lots of fun. I started the day by taking lovely daughter #4 to work at 8am and driving to Nugget Market to get some things for my first French Fridays with Dorie recipe. As I started to get out of the car, my cell phone rang. It was lovely daughter #4 asking me to pick her up because she was not supposed to start work until 10 am. I drove back to her work place, picked her up and drove back to Nugget. I quickly finished my shopping and went home to take in the groceries. I was supposed to meet my friend at the quilt store at 10 am but first I had to drop lovely daughter #4 back at her job. I got her there at 9:55 and proceeded to drive to the quilt store when I noticed that I needed gas. (I WONDER WHY!) I stopped for gas and drove to the quilt store. I arrived 20 minutes late and my friend had already made her purchases. I picked up a grab bag of cloth and got in line. While we were there my friend got a phone call and it was her son needing rescue because his truck broke down. She went to help him and I was confused about when we would meet again to go to the Alpaca Farm.

I decided to see if my hairdresser could work me in for a haircut but she wasn't in her shop and I didn't want to wait. I drove to the factory outlets in our town so I could look for a 9 1/2 inch tart pan that I needed. I ended up at Kitchen Collectibles and quickly found just what I wanted. I paid for my purchase and drove back home. I had left my cell phone in the charger and when I picked it up, there was a message from my friend that she was in the neighborhood and did I still want to go to the Alpaca Farm. I called her back and we were soon on the road, along with her little grandson, to visit the Alpacas.

I love this hairstyle!

This is a mother and week old baby.

Pretty week old baby.

I thought this one had a very pretty face.

This one was less than an hour old. It had just started to take some very wobbly steps.

Even though it was a confusing day, it turned out all right and I had a great time.

Yippee, It's the Weekend!

2010-09-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to live for my weekends. It was a long week at work. Friday nights I feel the life seeping back into my body. Tomorrow I'm meeting one of my friends at "A Quilted Heart" to partake of their annual sidewalk sale. After that bit of delight, we are going to visit a couple of Alpaca Farms for National Alpaca Farm Days.

I'm also going to be on the hunt for a 9 1/2 inch tart pan and a growing list of supplies for my first two French Fridays with Dorie recipes. I've got a few ideas for a special dinner I'm going to cook up for hubby tomorrow night, using my new Paula Deen cast iron, porcelain 7 qt. casserole. It involves chicken, fennel, onion, potatoes, carrots, olive oil, lots of garlic and I think some herbs de provence.

If I get time from all this running around, I might try to start quilting a quilt I put together last year and there is always the book I'm reading by Marlena de Blais, "That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story."

French Fridays with Dorie

2010-09-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

Dorie Greenspan has just come out with a new cookbook called, "Around My French Table." Her last cookbook, "Baking From My House to Yours" spawned a cooking group online called, "Tuesdays with Dorie." This wonderful group of people have started a new cooking group called, "French Fridays with Dorie." The premise is that you cook the same recipe as the group every Friday and post your comments and pictures on your blog. I just got my book and I must say that I am very impressed with the recipes and am excited to be a member of the group. I posted a link to French Fridays with Dorie in my blog list so check it out. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Cooking, Sewing, Exercise

2010-09-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had an attack of domestic bliss. When I get into one of these moods, I want to cook, bake, sew and clean house. Not necessarily in that order. I got busy on Saturday and made homemade oatmeal bread, pumpkin crunch for dessert and honey ginger chicken. Yesterday I spent with my friend sewing and I finished my new La Borsa Bag.

Front view

Side view

Close-up of my quilting and the button I picked for this project.

The button was made in Spain and I really like the extra flair it provides.

I really had a lot of fun this weekend doing these projects. I also discovered this weekend that it is very important for me to exercise everyday to bring down my stress levels. I know it will help me with my weight loss efforts too, but right now I think it's more important to help me deal with every day stress. I feel energized after I exercise and more at peace.

What can you say about 9/11?

2010-09-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

It was a horrible day, a horrible, hateful act. People lost their lives for no reason other than hate. It was also a day of heroes and heroic acts. People coming together to mourn, to pick up the pieces, to go on. May God be with all the friends and families of the people we lost that day. May God be with all of our wonderful men and women in uniform, whether in the military or police and fire departments. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice to keep us safe.

Zumba Part 2

2010-09-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I went to the zumba class tonight and even though I had fun, I was a little disappointed. The name of the class was Zumba Basics. Now with a name like that, wouldn't you think that it was a beginners class and they would be teaching you the steps? Not! The instructor introduced herself, asked if anyone was new ( I was the only one brave enough to admit it) and told me to have fun, march in place if I got lost and remember to get the feet down first and then the arms. What kind of instruction is that! She didn't even have us warm up first. We started right out very fast paced and after 10 minutes I thought this is great, I'm going to have a heart attack on the first lesson. I decided that was enough for the first time and took myself out of there and did 20 minutes on a stationary bike. I'm still proud of myself because I showed up, I tried something new and I'm going to go back. If I only make it 15 minutes the next time so be it!

Zumba - Dance Dance Dance

2010-09-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

What have I got myself into??? I'm supposed to take a Zumba class tomorrow night with my youngest daughter. This looks like fun but I'm afraid I'm gonna break something for sure!

Hitting the Gym

2010-09-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

I got a call the other day informing me that I had won a 1 month membership to Gold's Gym for myself and my immediate family members. I decided I would give it a try with my husband and youngest daughter. We signed up on Friday and I started on Saturday. First I did thirteen minutes on an elliptical machine that kicked my butt! This machine starts out with a stepping motion and then you get into your stride. It was really hard and I did work up a sweat. After that I did 15 minutes on a stationary bike and then I was just done. I felt proud of myself that I had worked up enough nerve to walk in there on my own and do anything. We didn't go yesterday but this morning we got there about 7:45am because darling hubby had a 1 hour appointment with a trainer. While he worked out, I did the 20 minutes on a stationary bike and another 15 on the treadmill. I tried the elliptical again but gave up after about 2 minutes. I have an appointment tomorrow with a trainer for a 1 hour session. Gulp! I hope that goes okay.

The one good thing about Gold's Gym is that I saw a lot of people my age or older there. Your membership also includes use of the pool, which has free swim as well as water aerobics and other water classes. You also have spin classes, yoga, tai chi, kickboxing and a lot of other classes included in your membership.

Hubby and I have made a commitment to lose 5 lbs during this free month and go to the gym at least 4 days a week. If we keep up that commitment, we will evaluate at the end of the month whether to join or not. Wish us luck.

Wineries and Cemeteries

2010-09-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my darling friend, Donna and I decided to take a road trip. We decided to go up to Amador County and their wine country. We had been up there once before, about 4 years ago to attend a Red Hat Queen's luncheon at Villa Toscano Winery. We fell in love with the place because it reminded both of us of Italy. The wine was really good, too. This time we started at Bella Piazza, the sister winery of Villa Toscano. Here's a picture.

Bella Piazza

We tried about 9 of their wines. Just little sips, but on an empty stomach, we found ourselves getting very happy. After we walked around for a little while we drove down the road to Bray Vineyards. They have a wine called Brazen Hussy Red. It was pretty good. We ended up buying a half case to share of Black Muscat. It was really good. When we went out to the car, Donna unlocked the car and the trunk and we put the wine in the trunk and she closed the trunk. Suddenly she gasped, "I locked the keys in the trunk!" I was laughing so hard that it was about to become a pee in your pants moment. We went over to sit on some chairs so I could pull out my AAA card when she suddenly remembered that she had unlocked the car door first. She ran over to the car and was able to get the door open before the car locked itself back up. She got the keys out of the trunk and was very happy.

We went on to Villa Toscano and ordered a pizza from their cafe and sat on the terrace to eat it. We drank plenty of water with it and sat for about an hour so we would be able to drive. Here's some more pictures.

After we left the wineries behind we visited three different cemeteries. One was in Plymouth, one near Fiddletown and a pioneer cemetery out in the middle of no where.Here's the cemetery near Fiddletown.

We found Fiddletown to be very interesting.

This bench was sitting on...

...the porch of this building. It was their community center.

We had to take a picture of this. Church was held in the saloon and they were having a tea party meeting and potluck that afternoon.

We loved this old barn next to the Cowboy Church.

We really had a good time and we hope to go back soon.

Spontanous Combustion Day 2

2010-08-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

It was so hot in my bus this afternoon that I thought I was going to throw up before I got my route finished. The poor kids were just melted in their seats. I told them all yesterday to bring a water bottle with them and they all forgot. I had a water bottle with me but couldn't bring myself to drink out of it in front of them and I didn't have water to share with all of them. When I got in my car this afternoon, the temperature gauge read 111 degrees.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

2010-08-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

We have had a very strange spring and summer. Our spring was pretty mild, but we had some 100 degree temperatures in the end of March. That in itself is strange but then we went almost the whole summer with temps ranging from the low 70s to the mid 90s. I think we only had one day this summer that reached 100. Vacaville weather is just not like this. Normally in July we get long stretches of 100 degree weather.

Today the hot weather came roaring back. My bus is not air conditioned and I felt so sorry for my kids because I know I felt like I was going to spontaneously combust. When I got in my car this afternoon, the thermometer said 107. The news reported that we made it to 105 but I believe my thermometer. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 105, but this weekend they are predicting low to mid 70s. Go figure.

TGIF

2010-08-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

Thank Goodness It's Friday! Woo! Woo! I survived the first week back at driving my little school bus. I think the kids are all going to be great this year, which makes my job a whole lot easier. The first week of school is always a little nuts. We have to learn new routes, new kids, new parents and new routines. We also have to write out our rights and lefts so if we have a sub, they know how to do our route. We have to establish assigned seats and a seating chart. I can't believe it but I got it all done this week. Of course, probably next week they will change my route by adding or subtracting a child or two and I will have to write my rights and lefts all over again. I'm just so glad to have a job.

This is a picture of my bus taken last spring. I'm driving the same bus this year, so we'll use this picture again.

The Printer Saga Continues...

2010-08-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

After I took the printer and all the supplies I bought back to Staples, I had some time to think about whether or not I wanted to buy a new printer. I decided not to buy a new one. Instead, I took my husband's barely used printer, which is also an HP Photosmart and went and bought more ink for it and hooked it up to my computer. Now this printer had never worked right on my hubby's computer, but I think that's because he has that horrible Windows Vista operating system. I have Windows XP and am very happy with it.

Hooked up to his computer the printer just kept installing itself over and over. He would hit print and nothing would happen, but like magic, the next day it would appear in the out tray. Since I hooked it up to my computer, it's been smooth sailing. I just want to say that Windows Vista sucks!

Mmm! Mmm!

2010-08-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I got off work at 4pm and decided to go to the new Farmers Market at the Nut Tree. I thought I would buy some fruit and just enjoy the atmosphere. When I got there I walked around and even though there was really a lot of good fruit to choose from, none of it appealed to me. I met up with one of my friends that I hadn't seen in a long time and we sat on a bench and talked for a while. I finally said my goodbyes and went to the car intending to go home.

I had to drive by the See's Candy store. I told myself if there was a parking space out front, I would go in and buy one piece of candy. Sure enough, like a sign from God, thirty times around the parking lot and there it was. A parking space right out in front. I quickly parked the car and went in to get my piece of candy. Now See's candy always gives you a sample before you buy. The lady behind the counter must have seen me coming because she pulled out four samples and before I could say a word, she told me they had lots of samples today and she put them in a bag for me. Well, I could hardly buy just one piece of candy after that! So I bought 1/2 lb. box. Between darling hubby and me, this is what's left.

I've got the Printer Blues

2010-08-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Remember my nice new all in one Photosmart Printer I told you about last week? I took it back to the store tonight to get a refund. Staples was great and gave me my refund but I'm frustrated because now I have no printer, no scanner, no nothing. The printer worked fine until today, one week after I bought it. The scanner wouldn't work and I kept getting error messages. I called Hp support and they were very helpful but I was short on time and we couldn't figure out if it was the hardware or the software. I didn't have time to unistall the software before I went back to work. Hp agreed to call me back at 5:30 pm and when I talked to Francis he informed me that I should just get a replacement. I said, "I've only had this printer a week and I need to replace it?" He said, "Our records show that you have had the printer since May 2010. Gee, that's really funny because I'm staring at my receipt that says I bought this last Monday on August 9, 2010! I distinctly remember going into Staples and purchasing said printer. He said, "I believe you so just take the printer back to Staples and I will give you a deal on the same printer, ink, photo paper and a three year warranty and it will save you $34.00 from what you paid Staples or I can send you a replacement printer. I asked if it was a refurbished replacement and he admitted that it was, but if I took back the printer I would get a new one. I said okay, call me back at 8:30 pm. Then I proceeded to get all the printer stuff together and took it all back to Staples.

When I got back home I realized that I had put the printer on my charge card and they were refunding my charge card, but it can take several days to do that. I didn't want to go overboard on my card so when Francis called me back, I told him I needed to wait a few days before I purchase the new printer. He's going to call me back on Saturday. So no printer probably for two weeks until all is said and done.

My Morning is Starting Off Great!

2010-08-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

I was upstairs working on my computer this morning when I heard a pop and smelled something burning. I thought darling hubby was downstairs, so I called to him and asked him what he was burning. He was also upstairs and that's when I remembered that I had put a pot of eggs on to boil. Yep, the water had all boiled away and the eggs had exploded all over everything. I just got a new stove and it has a quick boil feature on one of the burners. I used that burner and forgot that it does what it says it does.

Seriously, I think sometimes I'm having early onset Alzheimer's. In the last couple of months I left another pot on the stove for a few hours while I was away. Luckily, that was before the new stove and the burner was on low. The water was almost boiled away on that one. I keep forgetting to lock my car when I go some place and even left my house door wide open and unlocked one day when I went shopping. Am I just too busy or am I losing my mind. I don't know.

Today I have to do laundry, finish the grocery shopping, get ready for work tomorrow and I'm hoping to get some sewing done. I guess I better get off the computer and get started.

Rough Night-Long Day

2010-08-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

I ate dinner too late last night and woke up in the middle of the night with acid reflex. Yikes it was bad. Couldn't get back to sleep and had to take a nap today. Gettin old is for the birds!

Finally Friday

2010-08-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

It feels really weird to work two days and feel like I've worked five. I don't know why the school district insists on starting the school year on a Thursday. Our school year this year is going to end on a Tuesday. What happened to whole weeks? Oh well, the school year did get off to a good start, I made it through the first two days and I have really good kids on my route this year. I think it's going to be a really good year.

New School Year

2010-08-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

I had a very successful first morning back to work. Working on my route the last two days paid off because everything ran like clockwork. Our schools are on a year round modified schedule. We started today and our school year will end June 7th, but we get the first week in October off, the week of Thanksgiving off, 2 weeks at Christmas and two weeks of spring break. I especially love that week in October off, since I can take a vacation with darling hubby and it's a little less expensive than in the summer. Also not as hot. I hope my afternoon runs as smoothly as my morning did.

Working Hard for the Money

2010-08-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

The past two days I have spent about 5 hours working on my school bus route. School starts tomorrow and I think most of us will be flying by the seat of our pants. It's going to be a fun, wild and woolly school year. I never thought I would see the day when I might not have a job as a school bus driver, but cutbacks are everywhere. In the last two years I've lost two hours a day off my route, but at least I still have a job. Last year we lost 10 drivers through cutbacks and this year we lost our assistant transportation supervisor who was a big help to our supervisor. We lost all of our home to school transportation for regular ed kids and now we are just busing special needs kids.

Right now I can't dwell on this stuff because tomorrow I have to go do my job to the best of my ability and remember it's for the kids. My attitude will rub off on them, so I'm going to start this school year with the best, most positive attitude I can have.

More Vacation Pictures

2010-08-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

This is the night we arrived in Denver. The baseball stadium is only a little way from the train station.

This is the entrance to the baseball stadium.

This was one of the columns at the baseball stadium with my precious grand babies.

A few days later we took an insiders tour of the Denver Broncos, Invesco Field. It was a really cool tour. We got to go up in one of the sky boxes that seat about 30 people and cost a whopping $200,000 for the season and doesn't include food.

I was fascinated with taking pictures of the horse.

Here we are on the field.

This beautiful statue of 7 Mustangs running up a mountain was made in Florence, Italy.

New Printer

2010-08-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

Today I broke down and bought a new printer. My old one still worked for printing things that I really didn't care about, but something was wrong when I tried to print photos. It would print half a photo and then just stop feeding the paper and ink would come out all over back and forth. I had this printer for about 8 years so I feel like I got my money's worth. Also, with all the new technology I got the new printer for $20.00 more than the ink cartridges for the old one. It's an Hp Photosmart Plus printer that not only does really good photos but it is also a scanner and copier. It's so simple to use that I've been able to figure it out without even looking at the book. That's a really good thing. I just scanned a postcard and sent it directly to my computer to a folder. It only took seconds. I think this printer and I will get along just fine.

Random Thoughts

2010-08-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

I'm spending way too much time on the computer.

I'm trying to stay on my weight watcher program.

I have to go into work tomorrow to make phone calls and check out my bus.

I want to read more of my book by Marlena de Blasi, "The Lady in the Palazzo."

I really, really need to cut out some blocks and sew them for my BOM that meets next Saturday.

I should be doing the laundry.

I think I'll take a nap!

Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre

2010-08-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

When we were visiting our kids in Colorado we traveled the Lariet Loop around Golden, Co. We stopped at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre and I have to say that it was awe-inspiring. Words can not describe how I felt and I doubt my pictures will do it justice, but here goes:

Many famous people have played this amphitheatre including the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Santana, John Denver, and John Tesh just to name a few.

Karen, Where are the Ear Candles!

2010-08-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

I have been fussing for a week with clogged up ears. Every once in a while my ears just make too much wax and I have to go in for an ear wash at the doctor's office. They make you put drops in your ears for several days before you do an ear wash to make it easier to get the wax out. I've been dutifully putting debrox in my ears for the last week, but when I called for an appointment, they told me I could not get in until August 17th. By that time the wax will be gone and I probably will need some other treatment because debrox is very irritating to my ears. One time when I was in Tennessee visiting my darling daughter, Karen, we went to the health food store and bought ear candles. This was quite the experience. Ear candles are a long piece of rolled wax that is hollow. It is pointed at one end. You get a paper plate, cover it with aluminum foil, cut an x in it and shove the round end up through the hole. Lay down and put the pointed end of the candle in your ear. Have someone light the candle and like magic the burning candle sucks the wax out of your ear. It really does help and I think darling hubby is going to have to help me with that tonight.

By the way, I find it ironic that it was going to take me another 13 days to get an appointment for an ear wash and they gave me an appointment the next day for a mammogram. Go figure!

Pain in the Mouth

2010-08-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

I had a tooth pulled about a month ago and even though it's feeling like it healed up, I also feel like something is trying to work it's way out of my gum. I went back to the dentist this morning because I was worried that I might have a splinter of bone in there and that it could be getting infected. The dentist had a look and reassured me that I don't have an infection and it is healing nicely. What I am feeling is the gum pulling back from the bone which is perfectly normal. He said to give it about another 3 weeks and if it's still bothering me they can open up my gum and smooth the bone, but he wouldn't recommend it. I decided to leave it alone.

Standing Up

2010-08-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a bummer! But as my dear cousin pointed out, God is in control. I know that He will take care of us and I can stop stressing and remember that I can always depend on him. It made me start to think about my many blessings. We still have a roof over our head, for the time being, anyway. We still are paying our bills. We still have food in the house. We still have jobs. What more do we really need! There are so many other people in this world that have much less than I do and they still have joy in their lives. I need to stand up, stop stressing, wash the tears from my eyes, put my big girl panties on and live my life joyfully and thankfully in God's love.

Isaiah 40:28-31
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Thanks Sue for reminding me.

Sad

2010-08-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a very upsetting day. I'm a school bus driver and each year at the beginning of the school year we bid our routes according to seniority. Our school district is struggling like everywhere else in this horrible economy we are in. Last year we lost ten very good bus drivers to layoffs and saw our transportation department lose all of it's home to school busing for regular ed kids. We started busing just special needs children. I went from being in the middle of the seniority list to 3rd from the bottom. We have 14 drivers left, 12 routes and 2 sub driver positions. Do the math. I either have to take the last route available or be a sub driver. I know I'm whining and I know that everyone is in the same boat at work but I still have my feelings and I need to share. Last year I ended up being cut 1 hour a day. Bid day was not my happy place today. I got the last route available and ended up taking another 1 hour a day pay cut. So over the last two years, that's like losing one 40 hour pay check per month.

My darling hubby is in the same position. He is a grocery clerk and a darn good one. He is a 40 hour employee for his company and we think they are trying to get rid of all 40 hour clerks. They are making his life miserable because I think they want him to retire. He used to work every holiday and they told him no more holidays because they have to pay him to much. He used to work every Sunday but now he has to keep reminding them to schedule him on Sunday or they don't. Meanwhile, he has to drive 45 minutes to an hour one way to work and he has to cross a toll bridge that they just recently hiked to $5.00 a day. Our city just raised our water rates again so that over the next three years we will be paying double what we pay now, which will give us a water bill of somewhere near $300.00 every two months.

No one, most of all our dear president can tell me that our economy is recovering. We are in the toilet and it's getting worse.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2010-08-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

While we were visiting our kids in Colorado, we were delighted to find out that they lived about 45 minutes from Rocky Mountain National Park. If you want more information about our National Park system, watch Ken Burns documentary about it. Our national parks should be cherished and visited as often as possible. Here are some pictures from our visit.

Great picture for a self-timer!

An alpine lake in the park.

A closer look at the alpine lake.

Blogging Everyday in August

2010-08-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Once again I have failed to blog everyday. I took the challenge from NaBloPoMo to blog everyday in July. I hope everyone will forgive me, but I did go on vacation for ten days and didn't have access to a computer everyday. I did the best I could and I'm taking the challenge once more to blog everyday in August. The theme is green, so I think I will start out by telling everyone about New Belgium Brewery in Golden, Co.

We visited the makers of Fat Tire while we were on vacation visiting our darling daughter and her beautiful family. New Belgium Brewery was started by a man that went to Belgium on a bike trip and was visiting different breweries in the country. He wanted to visit one particular brewery, but when he got to it, it was closed. There was a small note on the door that said they would be open later that day for just a little while and to come back if they wanted to visit. He went back that afternoon and sat and talked for hours with the brew master. He took lots of notes in his journal and came back to Boulder, Co to start his own microbrewery. Fat Tire took off and that's his story and he's sticking to it.
This was our happy tour guide. He's happy because all the employees are owners.

On their 1st anniversary of employment they receive this:

They encourage all their employees to live green and to ride their bikes to work. This is how many pounds of carbon they've kept out of the air:

One of the ways to de-stress at this job is:

to take the slide. Or to dress up and act silly.

I loved their cool chandelier...

...and his motto.

Colorado Vacation or Boy, Am I Tired!

2010-07-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

We just got home last Friday from a trip to Colorado to see one of our daughters, our son-in-law, and two of our fantastic grand kids. Our daughter and son-in-law played tour guide for us and had something planned everyday we were there. We had a wonderful time and I took about 600 pictures of which probably less then 100 are good, but that's the way it goes when you take pictures through the window of a moving car or train. Did I forget to mention we took Amtrak's California Zephyr to Colorado and back to California? Darling hubby informed me that the train trip was a once every 63 years kind of thing to do. The trip took 30 hours from Vacaville, Ca to Denver, Co and the same going back. We didn't have a sleeper car but the seats all lean back and have leg and foot rests so you were able to kind of sleep on the train. The food on the train was very expensive and not good so on the way home we got small insulated lunch bags and packed our food and water with us. It wasn't the most comfortable way to travel, but the seats were bigger than airline seats and it was the experience I wanted. This is the California Zephyr pulling into the Davis, Ca station where we embarked.

This is the Denver's Union Station where we got off.

Denver's train station entrance.

This is a picture of the front of our train. I'm in the back of the train and it was moving around in a circle to climb a steep grade on our way home.

To be continued...

Quilting and Shopping

2010-07-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today I spent with my darling daughter at her quilt block of the month meeting. She goes to the Sweetheart Quilt shop here in Loveland. She's making some really lovely quilts and it's a very nice shop with very nice owners. When we were done there we went shopping for some clothes for me. I found some very nice things and it was a pleasure shopping. This afternoon we just hung out at home and tried to recover from all the running around.

Boulder, Colorado

2010-07-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went into Boulder, Co. Everything is so beautiful here. Still having a little trouble with the high altitude. We went on the Celestial Seasonings tea factory tour. It was really interesting to learn how they blend their teas. We went into their Mint Room where they store there mint leaves, which are peppermint, spearmint, and catnip. Yes, there is catnip in their Tension Tamer tea because it has a calming affect on humans. The mint smell is so strong that if they left the door open all day you would be able to smell the mint 2 miles away. The mint is stored in a sealed room so that the smell can't contaminant the whole factory.

After we left the tea factory, we went to the Boulder Ice Cream factory tour. It is a small factory that makes their ice cream in batches as it is ordered. We bought a bunch after the tour. Good ice cream.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2010-07-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday we took a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. What can I say about this beautiful, majestic, wonderous work of God? I'll blog more about this when I get home and download my pictures.

Mile High Stadium, Cherry Cricket, and Candy

2010-07-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

Today we set off for Denver to tour the Denver Broncos Mile high stadium. It was an awesome tour. Our tour guide took us into a sky box where you could see the whole stadium. It's $200,000 to rent that box for the entire season and it doesn't include food! If you are going to rent one, you have to rent it for the entire season. We also learned that the nosebleed section in the stadium has a 35 degree pitch to it. That is really steep. I think I would not like sitting there. Seats in that section are $52.00.

Our guide took us into the press box and broadcasting box, the visiting locker room, (no one is allowed into the Broncos locker room), one of the beer keg rooms, one of the party rooms, the private club that costs $500.00 to get in to, and down on the field. We saw the beautiful gigantic sculpture of 7 horses running up a mountain with a waterfall out front of the stadium. The tour took about 75 minutes and was well worth the money. It was only $9.00 for adults and $7.00 for kids.

After the tour, we went to Duffy's Cherry Cricket. It's a neighborhood bar that has been featured on the Food Network's program, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." They are known for their hamburgers and other great bar food. It was a really nice meal but I almost had a heart attack when they brought the bill. Suffice it to say it was pricey!

Our last stop was at the Hammond Candy Factory. They make all their candy by hand and even package it by hand. They only have one facility in the whole United States and some of the workers have been there more than 30 years. They make all the ribbon candy and candy canes that you see at Christmas and a thing called a Mitchell Bar that is a homemade marshmallow wrapped in homemade caramel. Their factory tour was short but fascinating. It was really interesting to see them making the candy by hand. Well, I took pictures of all of this but since I'm not on my home computer, you will have to wait to see them.

Trains, Planes and Automobiles

2010-07-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

We just spent two days on the train going to Denver. It was a very relaxing trip and I'm glad we did it. It was a little hard sleeping in the coach seats but because there wasn't a full train, darling hubby took the two seats in front of me, so we could both stretch out. We went through some beautiful country and I took some great pictures that I will post when I get home.

Today we spent some time here in Loveland visiting the Visitor Center and the Sculpture Garden and then Kim and Mike took us to Fort Collins to the New Belgium Brewery. They make Fat Tire Amber Ale there as well as a lot of other micro brews like Sunshine, Mothership, Ranger, and Skinny Dip. This is the girl that hated beer until today. I really liked the Fat Tire and Sunshine beers. And here's the picture to proof it.

Still..On the road again...

2010-07-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

On the train headed for Denver. Arrival time 7:18pm. More to come tomorrow.

On the road again....

2010-07-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

I just can't wait to get on the road again. I love that song. It means that I get to travel. Darling hubby and I are off to Denver this morning by train. It's a 31 hour trip from Vacaville. I'm really excited about traveling on the California Zephyr. We are taking our daughter to breakfast and then she's taking us to the train station. I'll have lots to say later.
P.S. Psycho Dog is a lot better.

American Beauty-Double Delight

2010-07-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

Oh my aching back! I've been working on a quilt block of the month for two days. It took me almost all day yesterday just to cut out two blocks and it took me almost all day today to sew one of them. It took so long because I had to take frequent breaks to rest my back because I need to be able to get on the train and go to Denver on Sunday. I get so knotted up when I'm sewing that sometimes I don't know why I do it. Then I look at the finished product and say to myself, "Oh that's why I do it." This block is called "Double Delight" and it has 49 pieces. This is for a quilt called "American Beauty" and it is going to be beautiful when it's finished. We do one block a month with our local quilt shop, "A Quilted Heart" and the last block is done in January. I'm doing two of these quilts because my daughter Kim saw this and wanted the finished quilt. I loved it so much that I knew I had to do one for her and one for me.

Psycho Dog

2010-07-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

I have two male boxers. Our oldest one, Frankie is between 10 and 12 years old. The youngest one, Lucky, aka Psycho Dog, is around 5 years old. Lucky is the sweetest dog most of the time, but he has issues. We adopted both dogs from NorCal Boxer Rescue a couple of years ago. Lucky and his mother had been put out in a back yard to starve to death. When they were rescued, neither of the dogs weighed even 40 lbs. Lucky now weighs somewhere around 60 to 65 lbs. I think because of that abuse he has issues with food and eating everything he can get his mouth on. If we are not there to pick up the poop as soon as he does it, he'll eat it. He's not good with little kids, which is unusual for a boxer, so we have to keep him away from our grand kids or watch him closely when he's around them. He's jealous of any attention I pay towards Frankie and even to my husband. He will try and put himself in between me and the object of my affection. He also seems to know any time we are getting ready to leave on vacation. We don't take them with us, but we always get our daughter to house sit and take care of the dogs while we are gone.

Lucky will start moping around a few days before we leave. He will eat less, drink less, sometimes vomit or have diarrhea. The last three days he's been doing that again. I've taken him to the vet each time and they can't find anything wrong with this dog. It's frustrating because I really can't afford another vet bill for his head trip but I don't want to see the dog really sick and not pay attention. I'm taking him off all food today and we'll see how he feels tomorrow.

Leftover Blueberries

2010-07-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made that fantastic blueberry pie but I had prepared too many blueberries and had about 1 1/2 cups leftover. This is what I made this morning with the leftovers. New England Blueberry Coffee Cake.
It was a little gooey in the middle, but I think that was because I used so many blueberries and the blueberries already had sugar and a little flour on them because they were supposed to go in the pie. My hubby loved it anyway.

Hmm! Hmm!

2010-07-07T19:36:00.001-07:00

My mouth is very happy right now. A few days ago my darling daughter #1 won a pie contest with a Blueberry Pie recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking From My House to Yours." I love pie and I hardly ever make it myself because it never turns out right. I was inspired by my daughter and since I have the same cookbook, I decided to give it a whirl. Dorie says the trick to a good pie crust is to make sure your butter and shortening are very cold, even frozen. Last night I cut my butter and shortening into small pieces and I froze them. Today when I was making the pie crust in the food processor, I was amazed at how easy the crust came together. The only downside of this pie is that some of it leaked out of the crust into my oven so I have to clean that tomorrow, but the pie was so worth it. Here's some pictures.

This is a definite keeper recipe.

What's Meant To Be

2010-07-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Do you believe in love at first sight? I'm not sure I do, but I believe that there are things that are meant to be.
My hubby and I have a great meant to be story. I had been divorced about five years and was not dating very much and that was okay with me. I was 44 years old and had two daughters that were 19 and 22. My oldest daughter was away at college and my youngest one was engaged and planning her wedding.

One night my friend Michele, called me and asked if I would like to go to dinner with her. I said yes and she asked if I would pick her up at her office because her daughter had her car. I said yes and when I got there, she was on the phone. Now Michele had been divorced about 5 years also and was not dating. As soon as I saw her face, I knew she was talking to a man because she was as red as a beet and just saying uh ha, uh ha.
She put her hand over the mouthpiece and said this guy wants to go out with me. I asked her if he sounded nice and she shook her head yes. I told her to go ahead and make a date with him at a local restaurant and don't get in his car. She made a date to meet him at Bakers Square for coffee a couple of days later.

When she got off the phone, she said, "I don't want to go out with him." I said, "Why not, does he sound like an axe murderer." She said no, but she didn't want to go out with him. Michele explained to me that a patient named Marilyn had come in for treatment and told Michele that she just had to meet her friend, Mike. That he would be perfect for Michele and she just wouldn't give up. Michele told her she would let her know if she wanted to meet Mike and Marilyn took that as a yes. She went home and called Mike and gave her Michele's office number and told him to call. That's when I found Michele on the phone with Mike.

We went to dinner, and for two hours I tried to convince her that she should meet him, but as I was talking to her, I had a very strong feeling that I was the one that should meet him. It was weird because I was not the type of person that went on blind dates or would give my phone number to any random person. At the end of the evening, Michele told me that she was going to call Marilyn and tell her to call Mike and let him know she wouldn't be meeting him. I told her if she was really not going to meet him, to give him my phone number.

Three days later, Mike called me. He had a very pleasant voice and manner about him and I agreed to meet him for lunch at Bakers Square. I arrived at Bakers Square first and when he came in and introduced himself, the first thing I noticed about him was his eyes. He has the most beautiful hazel eyes with eyelashes that most women would die for. He told me he was a widower with two small children. He was five years older then me but he and his late wife had the children later in their marriage. They had been married 22 years when she passed away. His daughters were 5 and 8 when their mother died. He showed me pictures of these beautiful little girls with eyes like his and he was so proud of them. I told him about my two girls and how proud I was of them and showed him pictures. We sat and talked for 3 hours. By the end of that date I knew this person was going to be special to me. We got married 14 months to the day after we met and we've been married over 13 years now. He's my lover, my best friend and the best companion I could ever hope to have. I'm sure that it was God's voice I was hearing whispering in my ear that day, telling me I was the one that was supposed to meet Mike. By the way, Michele was our wedding photographer!

Wii Fourth of July

2010-07-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

We had a really nice 4th of July weekend. Daughter #3 and her boyfriend came up for the weekend and spent some time cleaning out her storage locker to move the rest of her stuff to LA. So I guess that means she intends to stay in LA. Both she and daughter #4 were sharing the storage locker, so they helped her move her stuff to her apartment here in Vacaville. I'm sure she will have to go though a lot of stuff and throw it away.

Brian borrowed his parents Wii and brought it up here so we could try it out. We had so much fun with it, that we bought one. Hopefully it will help darling hubby and I to get up and move. I also think it might stave off memory loss. We got the Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort with it and really had a fun time bowling. We both liked the 100 pin bowling. Megan tells me that I will really enjoy the boxing when I've had a frustrating day at work and want to punch somebody out. I think I'll try it.

I barbecued tri-tip and after we ate, hubby took the kids downtown and dropped them off for the fireworks so we could play with the Wii by ourselves. Ha Ha! We really had a relaxed time this weekend, which is just the way I like it.

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July and that we take time out from our picnics and fireworks to think about the sacrifice of our military men and women that allow us to celebrate our freedom. Freedom isn't free but they are willing to put their lives on the line every day for us. I just want to thank them all and share a picture I found in my Grandmother's pictures. She didn't write on the back of it to let us know who this was, but he was important enough to keep the picture.

Kitchen Drawer

2010-07-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

Why do I save the things I do in that special kitchen drawer, known as the junk drawer? I have one neat bundle in a gallon sized zip lock bag of directions for different household products, like my stove and refrigerator, my dishwasher , gas grill, Weber barbecue grill, bread machine, and a Showtime Rotissere Barbecue machine. Each time I find a nut, screw or bolt laying around it goes in the junk drawer because I don't know where it came from, but I will need it as soon as I throw it away. I have nails and a hammer in there and picture hangers, a barbecue lighter with no fluid and coupons that should have been thrown out 2 years ago. There is also a paint brush, allen wrenches, bag clips and pencils.

I never want to move out of my house because the sad fact is, this is just one drawer. I accumulate things that long ago outlived there usefulness and I have a hard time getting rid of it. Oh, I don't mean my house looks like the houses in that show "Hoarders", but we could all learn to live with less. I think I'm going to spend the rest of this year, using one day a week to sort and throw things away that I don't need anymore. I'm going to try to streamline my life.

Pain

2010-07-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

I made a commitment to write something every day this month. The topic today is pain. Like in the back pain I'm having right now, that is making it difficult to sit here and write this. It started yesterday when I was cleaning up the house and then sewing in the afternoon. My back goes into spasms and if I don't listen to my body, quit what I'm doing and start icing immediately, I pay the price. Yesterday I didn't listen to my body, so I'm knotted up today. I will be icing today for sure and taking a muscle relaxer.

NaBloPoMo

2010-07-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

NaBloPoMo is a challenge to blog everyday this month. The theme for July is Saved. I'm going to start the month by thinking about all the things I save and how I have been saved. Jesus Christ is my Savior and that is the most important part of saved for me. I know I will be with him in his kingdom someday and I am grateful that he died on the cross for my sins and rose again on the third day to prepare a place for me to live with him forever.

A couple of things I have saved in recent years are these:

Frankie is in the dog bed and Lucky is laying outside the dog bed. I adopted them from NorCal Boxer Rescue in December 2007 and January 2008. Frankie is now about 10 -12 years old and Lucky is about 5 years old. They really bring a lot of fun to our household. They both have their own issues but for the most part have been great in our home and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Oatmeal Applesauce Cake

2010-06-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

Hey Karen,

I made a round cake. It's pretty good. Dense, moist and rockin cream cheese frosting. Here's the proof.

Missing My Kids and Comfort Food

2010-06-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged on this site in a while, so I thought I would share some thoughts and pictures tonight. I'm really missing my kids and grandkids tonight. I just saw them last week, but when you don't get to see them often, it's never enough. We had a terrific time and I know I'll see them again, but it's just hard. I've also been missing my mom. She passed away in 2003 but sometimes it seems like yesterday. Lord knows we didn't have a perfect relationship, (what mother and daughter does) but I loved her and I still miss her. When I get the blahs like this I want to cook, so in honor of my mom, I decided to make her Goulash recipe. To all those purists out there, this is not a traditional goulash recipe. As a matter of fact, I think you could say my mom invented Hamburger Helper with this recipe. But it's from scratch Hamburger Helper.

1 can of tomato soup

1 can of diced tomatoes

2-3 cups of elbow macaroni

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

1 onion

1 green pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Chop the onion and green pepper.

Saute the onion and green pepper in a little olive oil.

Add the hamburger and brown. Drain the meat.

Add the tomato soup, diced tomatoes, and spaghetti sauce.

Boil the macaroni with love, 7-9 minutes.

Here you have Mom's Goulash.

Sprinkle on some shaved Parmesan cheese and enjoy with a California Wine Cooler.

To Everyone Following My Blog

2010-03-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much on this blog for a while because I have been busy posting on a blog I set up to upload a picture a day for this entire year. The new blog's address is http://www.365dayswithawomanofacertainage.blogspot.com/ Please pop on over and check out my pictures and I love to get comments too. Just no spam please.
This month because it's mine and darling hubby's anniversary month, I'm sharing pictures of past anniversary trips if you are interested.

It Never Hurts to Have Silliness in Your Life

2010-02-13T18:57:00.000-08:00

My daughter thinks I'm silly. She's right! I have a big silly bone in my body that I very seldom let come out. I think I will change that. Sometimes I get bogged down in the seriousness of life and forget that God gave me this life and I should live it to the fullest. Part of that is getting silly. I don't mean neglecting my responsibilites. That's stupidity. I mean just trying to see the little silly things in life and enjoy them. For those of you who didn't get my previous Squirrel post, that was a line from "Dances with Wolves" and it seemed pretty silly and appropriate for said Squirrel. It made me laugh. I hope after you said "Huh?" it made you laugh too.

Squirrel

2010-02-12T17:53:00.000-08:00

I was driving my bus today when I saw an unfortunate squirrel. I say unfortunate because he was belly up in the middle of the road, his little front paws reaching for heaven. At that point a bizzare thought went through my mind. I could see in my minds' eye, his little squirrel wife back home with the kits and she's saying to them, "Now why don't he write!"

Cooking for My Family

2010-02-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

This evening I came home from work and started dinner right away. I wanted to make three dishes that I saw demonstrated on Food Network's show Five Ingredient Fix. The premise of the show is that you can take just five ingredients and make a great dish. The host of the show is Claire Robinson and I like her. She kind of reminds me a little of Rachael Ray. Anyway, I made all three dishes from that episode. The first was Easy White Pizza. The ingredients were Garlic infused Olive Oil, store bought pizza dough, mozzerella cheese, ricotta cheese and fresh oregano. Here is a picture of the finished product. It looked great, but it wasn't good. It was very bland. If I made this again, I would put chicken, onions, mushrooms and a little bacon to jazz it up. Oh, and maybe some artichoke hearts.

The side dish was a romaine salad with some of the pizza dough cut into little pieces and fried in olive oil then tossed with parmesan cheese. The salad was dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Again not great. Dessert was more pizza dough coated and rolled in sugar, then cut in 3" rounds and baked for 20 minutes. It made a nice little hockey puck to spread marscopone cheese, top with strawberries and a little balsamic vinigar reduction. It was the best part of the meal.

It wasn't a terrible meal, but it wasn't the best meal I've ever cooked or eaten. I think the 5 ingredient premise is good for people that are just learning to cook, but I think anyone that has been cooking for a while would see right away how to improve these recipes.

I feel like Oprah!

2010-01-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

Here it is 2010 and I'm still talking about weight! Could this actually be the year that I get off the hamster wheel and actually get to a healthy weight? I ordered Chris Downie's book, "The Spark" and it is really starting to click in my brain. I know that probably most of what's in the book is on the Sparkpeople website, but I'm really enjoying the book. It's easier for me to read than to sit in front of the computer and try and read everything on the site.

Right now I'm at the part of focus and setting goals. I have decided that as a long range goal I want to lose 70 lbs. A short term goal would be to lose 5 lbs a month. That is do-able. Another short term goal is to exercise 10 minutes a day for the first week. I've almost completed that goal. Next, I want to drink 3 24 oz bottles of water a day. I'm on a streak with that. I'm trying to go to Sparkpeople.com every day and keep track of what I'm eating. Another immediate goal is to remind myself everyday to "Be kind to myself and others." Ban negative self-talk.

I was thinking about "Love thy neighbor as thyself" and if I rephrase that as "Be kind to myself and others", it really is the same thing. It's very hard to be kind to others or love my neighbor if I hate myself. My body really is the Holy Spirits' temple, so I need to give it a throurgh cleaning.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

New Years Day was wonderful for me. My hubby had the day off for the first time in 12years, so we got to spend some quality time together. He also sent me to My Retreat Day Spa for a 30 minute soak in their hot tub, a 75 minute massage with an aromatherpy salt scrub, and a 45 minute facial. I love that man! I was like limp spaghetti when I left there.
I'm also jumping on the photo a day for 365 days bandwagon. I started a new blog at http://365dayswithawomanofacertainage.blogspot.com Come join me as I see if I can keep something up for more than a week!!!
Happy New year everybody!

Good Friends

2009-12-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I called my husband from work and he told me I had a Christmas card in the mail. He told me the last name on the envelop and where they lived and my response was, "I don't no anyone by that name that lives in that state." I told him to open it and it was from one of my dearest friends that I had lost track of and hadn't talked to in a least 8 years. I've been looking for her for at least that long. I realized that the last address I had from her was the address on the envelop and I had a phone number too, so I called. She answered the phone and I was so thrilled to hear her voice. We talked for an hour and it was like we had never been apart. I believe that in this life you are fortunate to make one really good friend that you can tell anything. I have been extremely fortunate to have six women in my life, including the one I just found again, that no matter how far we live from each other, no matter how much time goes by between phone calls or letters, I know they are there for me and me for them. Thank you ladies for being such great friends. You know who you are. Thank you Lord for bringing each of them into my life.

A Conversation with my 6 year old Grandson

2009-11-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

Last night my darling daughter and son-in-law and my two grand kids that are visiting, took me to Chevy's for dinner. As we left the restaurant, my grandson ran ahead to the car and opened the door for me. I said,"Thank you very much." I was very impressed with his manners. When we got in the car I told his mom that Papa must be rubbing off on him because my husband always opens the door for me. My darling grandson replied, "No I learned that in my mind." "Do I get paid because I opened the door for her because she's old?" His dad said, "You don't say that!" He replied, "Why not, she's really old!" We were trying really hard not to laugh, but we weren't succeeding very well. Oh the innocence of children!

Songs of my Youth

2009-11-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

For some reason today, I can't get some songs out of my head that I learned when I was a teenager at church. Don't get me wrong, I love the music today but for some reason I can't remember the contemporary songs I've learned in church in the last ten years but all the songs I learned 40 years ago are flooding my soul.

Heaven is a wonderful place
Filled with glory and grace
I want to see my Savior's face
Heaven is a wonderful, Heaven is a glorious, Heaven is a wonderful place.

Teenager are you lonely
Do you need a friend
Take Jesus as your Savior
He will be there till the end
He'll be your guide
Stay by your side
Teenager take Jesus today!

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever
I will sing, I will sing
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.
With my mouth will I make known
Thy faithfullness, Thy faithfullness
With my mouth will I make known
Thy faithfullness to all generations.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.

Oh Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to thee
How great thou art, How great thou art!
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to thee
How great thou art, How great thou art!

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see.
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Then when we first began

By the way, what was up when we were kids of only singing the 1st and 3rd verses of a hymm? Anybody know or was that just in the interest of time. I always felt like I was missing some good music when we skipped the 2nd and 4th verses.

BUSY, BUT FUN DAYS AHEAD

2009-11-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

This morning I got up at 6 am with the thought in mind that I would finish my quilt block for my 1st Saturday QBM in Winters. Not happening. I cut the material out last night but for some reason, I just can't finish it right now. I have to be in Winters at 8:45 so I guess I have to pay this month. When I finish in Winters, I need to come home and make a grocery list and go grocery shopping. Yuk!

Saturday, Nov. 13th, darling daughters number 2 and 3 will be visiting us with #2's darling husband and two beautiful grandchildren and #3's boyfriend (that we haven't met yet). Darling daughter #4 will also be dropping in (since she still lives in the area)and we wish darling daughter #1 could also be here with her beautiful family. Since we will be having 3 of the four girls here, we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday, the 14th. So I have a lot of cleaning , shopping and cooking to do in the next week. We are planning some fun things to do with the grandkids, like a trip to the Jelly Belly factory and baking Christmas cookies together. I want to take them to ride the carousel at the Nut Tree and I'm going to try to take them to see A Christmas Carol in 3D.

It will be a great time and I can't wait to get started.

Bad Things Happen to Good People

2009-10-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

Last week I got an automated message on my phone from the Vacaville Police Department, warning me that a man had been spotted in my neighborhood, knocking on doors. If someone answered, he would say, "Oh sorry, I have the wrong house." Then he would be on his merry way. However, if no one was home, if he could get in the side gate to the back yard, he would look for an open window or door and come in and steal everything he could carry out. He knocked on my next door neighbors house and the great grandma that lives there took a minute to answer. When she walked aroung the corner of her living room, he was standing there looking in the window next to the door. He gave her his rehearsed speech and left. He also went to the neighbor 4 doors down from me and knocked on their door. The daughter was home and asked who it was and he left her house too. She was quick thinking and ran upstairs and got a look at him through the window. Unfortunaly, he came back to her house yesterday while no one was home and he and whatever accomplices went through their side gate, and kicked open their side garage door and proceeded to ransack the whole house and steal them blind. We have had 20 of these robberies in our neighborhood and no one sees anything because they do their homework well and hit between 10am and 3pm while everyone is working.

This is so frustrating. We have an alarm on our house and two large dogs but we spent time last night making more improvements that we shouldn't have to make, but we don't feel safe in our own home. We weren't the only ones. Our neighborhood will be locked up tighter than Fort Knox. One good thing about this is that we are all making an effort to meet and know are neighbors so we can prevent this from happening in our neighborhood again.

Eagle Run and the Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

I got to spend a week with my darling daughter and her wonderful husband and two of my beautiful grandchildren during the first week of October. The weather was pretty nice and I had a great time. The day before I left, the kids had their major fund raiser at school. It's called Eagle Run. They raise money by getting pledges and running around the circular driveway in front of the school as many times as they can. I didn't actually get to see the race because I was at lunch with Munchkin while Little Man ran his race and then I went to lunch with Little Man during Munchkin's race. They also had lots of fun things for the kids to do while they were waiting for their turn to race, like a cheerleading demo, a fencing demo, martial arts demo, volleyball, and gymnastics to name a few.

The next day, before I had to fly home, we took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch where they met their friends and we were able to go on a hay ride and pick out some good pumpkins. It was a little muddy but the we all had a great time.

Munchkin, Soccer Star, Little Man and the Big Kahuna

Bobby and Karen

My Brother, Mental Illness, and Homeless

2009-09-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

My youngest brother is mentally ill and homeless. Writing these words makes me feel terrible. I'm eleven years older than him and I remember when he was born to my mom and stepdad. He was the cutest baby and we all adored him. Unfortuneatly, as he grew older, there was clearly something wrong. He probably had learning disablities but in the 60's kids like him didn't get the help they needed in school, so they failed. When he was 2 years old he got very sick and had fever convulsions. I think that probably was the cause of his learning disablities. There was also something else going on with him but my mother and stepdad kept it secret. I suspect he may have a chromasome abnormality. My stepdad was ashamed of him because he didn't live up to being the son he wanted. He was damaged goods. On the other hand, he was not disiplined for doing things he shouldn't do and when he wanted to find a job as a teenager, they wouldn't let him. So he grew up with no disipline and no responsiblity.

When my stepdad died in 1995, he left my brother a mortgage free home, two paid for cars and about $50,000.00 in the bank. By this time, my brother had been diagnosed with bi-polar disease and was spiraling out of control. I think his father was trying to make up for the way he had treated him all his life, but he didn't have the good sense to put that stuff in a trust, so my brother would be able to hang on to it. My brother had plenty of friends during this stage of his life and lost everything he owned within two years of his dad's death. His life just got out of control. He lived with my mom for a while until he was so abusive to her that she threw him out, and then he lived for a while with my grandmother. Grandma felt so sorry for him but he was abusive to her too, and had to leave. He wouldn't stay on his meds and he got addicted to internet dating and started traveling around the country to meet these women. It always ended the same.

My mother died in 2003 and he thought he would get everything she owned, but he got a big surprise. Mom didn't leave him any money and he only got a few things that he promptly sold and spent the money. By this time, he was so out of control that none of us wanted anything to do with him. He would have violent outbursts and you just couldn't trust him. We lost touch with him until about a year ago, when I got a phone call from him, telling me that he was in Denver and in a program at the Rescue Mission to get his life straightened out. I kept in touch with him and he wrote me how his life was changing and that he had accepted Jesus as his Savior. I sent him a Bible for Christmas and told him that someday we might be able to see each other again and encourged him to stick with the program. They were helping him so much. He was on his meds and for the first time in years he was really better.

Then he got into the phase where they started job training. You see, over the years, my brother has become one of those people who think everybody owes him something. He is entitled because of his illness to collect whatever money or help he can get from people and not have to work for any of it. He promptly went off his meds, got a cell phone, which he knew was forbidden, and got kicked out of his program. He called me six times last week and I missed everyone of his calls because I was at work. I'm really bad at checking messages, so I didn't get his messages until yesterday. The last call he said he was in Atlanta, Ga and was headed for the Rescue Mission in Nashville, Tn. He also said he didn't know what to do, that he was really messed up and he had three bottles of pills with him that he was thinking about taking. I called the Rescue Mission yesterday to see if he was there, but they couldn't tell me if he was because of confidentialty. I left a message for him to call me if he can.

I don't know how to help him and it's so frustrating. I can't take him into my home because of his violent tendencies and you never know what's going to set him off. I can't finacially support him because we just don't have the money. It makes my heart ache to think of him wandering the streets with no place to call home, but what can I do?

My 100th Post!

2009-09-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

This is my 100th post...and it only took me three years to get here! Suffice it to say I haven't been a very avid blogger. Over the last three years, I've blogged about loving Frankie Valli, my kids, my dogs, Tuesdays with Dori, trips to Italy, Alaska, Nashville, and Asheville.

I've talked about my love for photography, quilting, reading and anything grandchildren. I don't think I've had many readers and sometimes I feel like I'm just talking to myself, but that's okay.

I still have a job as a bus driver and I'm thankful to God for it. I will be starting my 22nd year in November as a bus driver and I've had lots of experience with all kinds of kids. Sometimes I've had bad times as a driver but most of the time it's been a great, fulfilling job. Hopefully I've made a difference in some of those kids lives. I know I've had some kids that have made a difference in my life. Here's some pictures I just wanted to share.

My New/Old Picture

2009-08-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

I just love this picture. My sister found this in a box of pictures she was going through at my brother's house. We are 22 months apart so I must have been about 4 and she was 2. This was our version of a big wheel! I love the clothes, too. I think those must have been Buster Brown shoes and we must have had Little House on the Prairie dresses on under those coats. My grandma probably made the dresses and may have made the coats. I'm sure the car buffs will love the car.