Monday, Feb 1
Can you believe it's February already!! I guess I'm constantly amazed
how quickly time flies!!
One more day til the Hearts for Haiti auction is finished. The auction
is doing real well. I'm so happy to be able to do something
for the cause. Thank You to all who have placed a bid!!!!
I remember so vividly the Loma Prieta Earthquake
in 1989. I was in Capitola with my brother when it hit. We had been bike riding and were sitting on a bench eating icecream and the whole earth shook. After it was over we got on our bikes to ride home and see if everyone was ok. Capitola was a disaster. I don't think there was one intact window. My family was ok but many people were injured, roads were closed, stores were closed, it was life altering to say the least.
I was living in a bubble of safety and that earthquake burst it. I think a lot of us take our warm, safe american lifestyle for granted until something like a natural disaster rocks our boat. The epicenter for the Loma Prieta earthquake is only a few miles from my house.
The epicenter lies in a beautiful Ca State Park called
Forest & Nisene Marks
This is on the trail of one of my favorite mountain bike rides. A gnarly ride we call Sand Point- straight up and straight down!!
Tuesday, Jan 25
I have partnered up with my friend Maria Grimes. We both thought it would be great to make a bracelet and auction it off and donate the proceeds to a charity for Haiti relief. Our ebay auction is called "Hearts for Haiti" and 100% of the auction price will go to the Clinton and Bush Haiti fund. That was the only charity that gave 100% of the proceeds to the charity.
Just click on the pic and it will take you to our auction!
I've been super busy as usual. We bought a new computer- finally. The computer I'm typing away on now is 9 years old. It's been fixed and refixed and now I think it's futile to fix anymore. It all started with a R/C flight simulator video game I got Steve for Christmas. It wouldn't work on this computer although the box said it would. That lead to us buying a computer and returning it without even opening it after the salesman gave us really bad information. We ended up having this computer made for us by the people who made us our last 2 computer, so we've been using them for about 15 years. The only reason we didn't start with them is that they are over an hour drive away and it's a major pain if there are any problems.
Monday, Jan 18
Hey there, Sorry for the prolonged absense. My Dad got sick and I've been taking him for tests
and to the doctor for follow ups. Every time I go to visit him it basically eats away
most of my day. But that's ok, cuz I luv him.
He's doing much better. He finally has warmed up to
us getting him in-home help. I found a wonderful lady I think will work out great and he really
likes her so far.
I took a beginning Bee Keeping class on Saturday with my friend Maria and her husband.
We had a great time.
For Christmas Steve got me all the equipment to start 2 beehives. We got them all built last weekend.
We just need to paint them. I picked out some pretty green and
teal colored paint.
I can't wait to get bees.
Beads- I will be working on beads this week!! Bear with me.
Friday, Jan 8
I hope you are off to a good new year. We've been super busy.
We snuck in a little get a way to Lake Tahoe.
The weather was beautiful. Warm days and cold nights. The kids sleded and snowtubed,
We found the best place for breakfast. The Log Cabin Cafe in Kings Beach.
We ate there both mornings. Oink Oink!! We took Mollie with us. We found a wonderful new housesitter
and I didn't want to have her worry about Mollie getting out. It was Mollies first time in the snow and she loved it.
We were surprised, we thought she'd hate it but she was jumping into the snow and loved it. She probably loved it
because she got to go to the snow in STYLE. Check this out.
She loved wearing it too. She knew she looked good!!
The kids don't go back to school til this Tuesday. I probably won't get on the torch til then,
but I'll sure try.
Monday, December 28
I hope everyone had a great holiday. We had a really nice Christmas. It was so darn busy.
Christmas Eve I spent the whole day cooking desserts for Christmas day.
I made a Buche de Noel, a triple berry cheese cake, and blondie brownies.
On top of
all that I was trying to get all the other treats I made packaged and delivered to friends
and neighbors. (the kids helped-Thank God) And because I knew I had sooooo much to do I woke
up at 2:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep so
I got up and layed on the sofa and watched TV so I didn't wake Steve up by thrashing
around. Don't you hate that? By 6pm I was ready to collapse. I still needed to make dinner and wrap
presents. I finished it all. I was a walking zombie. Christmas day was very nice. We opened gifts, I finished up
two of the desserts, and we headed to my sisters for a crab feast. Dinner was great! There were a ton of people.
I think we ended up with 30 people. We had a great time.
My bday is the day after xmas. So we got up really early and went to Pavels, my favorite bakery, in Pacific Grove.
We got a bunch of pastries and drove to Monterey and snuck them in to Avatar.
We went to a 9:30am show. We heard you really need to see it in 3D. Unbelievable movie. I loved it!! It was probably one of the best movies I've every seen. The 3D made it.
After the 3 hour movie we walked around the outdoor mall for a while. It was raining off and on and super crowded.
I can do rain- but I can't do crowds. We had Subway sandwiches for lunch around 2, drove around some
of the beautiful houses. After that we got a cup of coffee, hot chocolate for the kids, and headed for home.
And I colapsed!!!!
in Carmel and down by the beach. I love Carmel- it is so beautiful and serene.
Monday, December 21
Happy Winter Solstice!! Today is the first day of winter.
I'm busy doing XMas things. Today I'm making gourmet carmel apples.
Homemade Engiish toffee plus
plus carmel = YUMMY!!
I'll try to post a pic if they don't get eaten too fast.
I've been torchin a few orders and gifts.
Tomorrow I'm taking the kids, picking up my niece, and going to my sisters house to bake
and make candy. We'll have a blast.
Steve got me a YUDU for my Bday.
I can't wait to try it. I don' think I'll even open it til my bday,
I don't want to be tempted to try it.
I'll leave you with a pic of my kitchen helper.
Sunday, Dec 13
Happy Holidays- I love this time of year. I'm so darn busy but it's soo much fun.
Steve and I are cleaning out the upstairs of our garage- YIKES -What a mess. It's all storage gone bad. We've just dumped everything for the last 10 years up there. We have stuff we need to sell and stuff we need to throw away. Steve just left for the dump with a truck load full of ap-cray(crap).
It's been pouring rain here for the past 3or 4 days.
My tree is in the rain so I've got to let it dry before I can bring it in and decorate it.
Our power went our yesterday about 5pm and came back on sometime early this morn- Thank goodness. We fired up the generator to watch the new Harry Potter- Half Blood Prince. Steve and the kids ran to Target cuz they just couldn't wait for Netflix to bring it.
I'll be busy making English Toffee and cookies this week. I have a few things made and I'll try and get photos if the sun will come out for me.
Tuesday, Dec 8
Wow- Time is just flying. Christmas is on it's way!!! I love the holidays.
Free Beads winner this morning is.....drum roll.........
Jennifer P from NY
Thank you for all the votes everyone!! Next drawing will be after the New Year. I have a few things made up so I may post pics of them and let you choose your freebie.
I promised I'd post a picture of the PMC birdhouse I made in the class a while ago. I've had a few people ask me to post it so here it is.
I took my walk at the beach morning and it was butt cold.
Cold for Calif I should say. I'm gonna be busy this week and next doing what I call my holiday shuffle.
I'm making xmas cards , english toffee, toffee covered carmel apples, and tons of cookies - I better keep walkin or I'm gonna have to be rolled to xmas dinner.
Better get busy!!
