The Living Desert

Last month our home school group took a trip to The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert. We had a great time.

They have a neat butterfly exhibit where you can go in and butterflies land right on you. While Michelle is way too much for butterflies, Catherine made some new friends.

And we got a lot of great pictures.

Michelle also got to ride a camel. She loved it.

And feed the giraffes. Again, loved it.

There was so much to see and do there. It was great. The weather was nice. The people were friendly. We were the only school group that day and it wasn’t crowded.

I tried to take Charlie on the carousel, but he did not seem to like it.

On the way home we stopped and got pizza for dinner, which made David happy.

Just another day of making memories.

Rocket Man

The Martian by Andy Weir

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was one of the best books I read last year. It was funny and exciting. I loved the humor. You would think that one might go to a dark place being alone on a planet with little hope of rescue or survival. But no. It was fun to read. He was so optimistic.

The movie however, not so good. They cut out the humor. It was an okay movie otherwise, but it had more of a sci-fi suspense thing going and I really missed the humor and the optimism.

David and Catherine both read this book as well. Both of them liked it a lot better than the movie.




View all my reviews

A Revival

I am sick of social media. Facebook is so full of people who believe everything on the internet. David calls Facebook a bunch of “Dank Memes” and funny cat pictures. Twitter is only useful for news. I use it as my own special news feed. It includes nice things like when Disneyland is open and what movies are coming out. And Instagram is becoming less of family pictures and more of those “dank memes”. I am tired of it. I want to hear about my friends and family. I don’t want to be blasted from both sides with political drama and nonsense. I want to share my life with my family and friends as well. But I can’t do that on Facebook any more. No one will notice between the political drama and the cat pictures. No, I will not copy and paste to show I love America or veterans or cats or my spouse or that I support cancer research or saving the whales.

So I am bringing back the blog. It’s retro. It’s hip. It’s cool. And you know what?

IT IS MINE!

No dank memes.

No funny cat pictures.

NO POLITICAL DRAMA!

Actually, let’s just go with NO DRAMA!

Keep it to yourself.

I am quite excited about this. I finally have a place where I can record my family history in peace. Okay, so I had it all along and I let technology come and jerk me around. You don’t know it yet, but I have already written at least 15 new posts. Yeah. I know.

So get ready.

And seriously, no more dank memes.

Date Night

David’s brother is into basketball. David likes basketball, but he wasn’t really into it. Well, he wasn’t into football either until he got involved with my dad’s fantasy football. Now I can’t get him to stop.

Anyway, he watched a few games on TV and he had watched a few games also on TV a million years ago with my Grandpa. (Grandpa watched all sports. And I mean ALL.) He decided it might be a fun thing for us to do together.

Growing up in my house there was always sports. Baseball, basketball, football. All the time. I have a brother. My dad likes sports. My mom likes some sports. My step dad enjoyed sports. And of course, my Grandpa.

I wasn’t a football fan until my dad got me involved in fantasy football. I like that a lot.

But I was always more about baseball. My grandpa took me to games. Angels and the Tigers. Every year for years. He took me to Dodger games. I took him to a Milwaukee Brewers game. I played Little League. I went to my brother’s Little League games. I had my Dodger shirt. I had my Yankees hat. I liked Angel games. Okay, so I was kind of all over the place.

David is not a baseball fan. I understand. It can be a little boring.

I like basketball too. It is for sure my favorite sport to watch. The action moves fast and it is easy to follow.

For David’s birthday I bought him tickets to a Clippers game. They were cheap. We went and saw them play the Detroit Pistons.

We had so much fun. We got some snacks. We cheered for the team. It went by quickly.

I guess we are Clippers fans now.

YAY! Go Clippers!

We Are The Champions... Or Not

Fantasy Football is over for the year.

I played in three leagues this year.

The one at work was okay. I didn’t win. I didn’t expect to. It might be more fun if I actually saw some of those guys once in a while. I don't love the webiste they use.

My dad’s league was a mess from the get go. The draft happened while I was at work. I got stuck with all the losers no one wanted and it just went downhill from there. So I came in dead last. Oh well. I will get them back next year. However, my brother in law did come out on top of that. My dad sent him this fabulous trophy. My sister tried to claim it as her own, but it didn’t go over too well.

Our own home league gained some new players this year. We had a pretty awesome year. I didn’t do too badly either. But to most of our dismays, David won. Stupid David. Maybe I will divorce him so he can’t play anymore. Sucker.

It was a fun time for all though.

See you all in August!

A New Year

6 years ago I started a new job that would forever change the ideas I had of what I was going to do with my life. I was excited to begin and learn. Excited about the opportunities it was bringing to my family.

6 years can really change things.

I still have the same job. I no longer am excited. I am usually frustrated by the whole thing. I used to care about my coworkers and now I find a lot of them are no better than inmates themselves. I don’t see good in people. I see inmates.

Not too long ago, I decided to go ahead and try and remove that awful negative part of my existence. Nope, I am not going to get a new job. This one does still provide for my family and provides a lot of great benefits. I just am choosing to not focus on my work.

It made me laugh, because it made me think of it like a call girl and “you are just a paycheck to me”.

It’s just a paycheck.

This is not my life; this is how I pay for my life.

And truthfully, I have a pretty awesome life.

Pie Dreams

For Mother’s Day, my dear, sweet, adorable husband bought me a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It’s red. He has been trying to buy me one for years. Every time my birthday or a holiday comes along, he offers me a mixer. And I always say no. They are too expensive. Until he found a deal on E-Bay and now I have a fabulous mixer.

Ever since I got it, this same husband of mine has wanted to use it. This guy has a food making repertoire of hot dogs, hamburgers and pancakes. And he thinks he is going to bake.

So he made chocolate chip cookies. They were not bad. He did learn a few lessons. Brown sugar must be packed. And if you don’t put it in an air tight container, it will be a brick later. Flour and sugar must be properly measured and leveled. And the whole bag of chocolate chips is supposed to go in. The cookies tasted fine though.

So then he starts talking about how he wants to make a key lime pie. Really? I don’t think he even eats limes. But he wanted to.

We got the pre made pie crust. But we got everything else so he could make the pie from scratch. He squeezed an entire bag of key limes. They are tiny. But he did it. I zested some. He needed a teaspoon of zest.

He made the filling and baked it. He followed everything exact. He didn’t want to mess anything up. He even made fresh whipped cream.
And then the pie was ready.

Carolynn was the first taste tester. She didn’t make a face. I tried it.

It was good. Really. I am not lying. Catherine tried it. She loved it too. Michelle was into it. (Bite more pie peese?)

Wow.

David tried it. Nope. He didn’t like it. Figures.

Next he is going to make a chocolate truffle torte. I am not even 100% sure what a torte is. But I will let you know how it goes.

Wordless Wednesday

Wow. It has been a long time...

Picnic Day
June 2014
Apple Valley, California

Days Of Wine And Bacon

They say you shouldn't cook with a wine you won’t drink. I don’t drink wine. So where does that leave me? Buying the cheapest wine I find, that is where.

I found this pork chop recipe a few months ago and it has been a hit around here. Pintrest… is there anything it can’t do?

It calls for white wine.

I was going to make it a few weeks ago and I was out of white wine. Around the same time, Carolynn wanted me to make her and Michelle’s favorite, bacon fried rice. We were also out of bacon. So I ask David to pick up those two items on his way home one day.

He picks up the girls from school and heads over to the Winco. He picks up a $2.97 bottle of white wine and a pound of bacon. Quite the combo; Less than $6 purchase.

He takes it up and the cashier won’t ring it up for him. He shows his ID. Okay, he looks young. Good for him. But he has his ID so no big deal… Or so you would think.

But the checker won’t sell him the wine. She insinuates that David is buying this wine to give to Carolynn and Catherine who are with him. Because they are under aged and he looks like the kind of guy who buys $2.97 bottles of wine for minors. Or so he can get them drunk and take advantage of them. Whatever.

The manager is called and basically tells him the same thing. He tries telling them that they are his kids but no one is buying that. We just cook with it. They aren’t buying that either. They eventually let him make his purchase, after making him feel like a creepy child predator first.

I know a lot of dumb criminals.

But in this case…

If you are planning on buying alcohol for minors, why would you bring them with you? Why would you make the purchase in broad daylight at a large market? And why would you buy a cheap bottle of white wine? And why would you need bacon?

Bacon…

Sick

Everyone got sick.

Catherine had it. She was in her room coughing and sniffling and falling asleep at 2:00 in the afternoon.

David had it. He was in bed coughing and blowing his nose feeling miserable for days.

I had it. Coughing for days. Endless tissues. Nyquil to the rescue.

Michelle had it. Snot running down her face, humidifier in her room constantly. Lots of wiping. Lots of naps. Lots of cuddles.

Somehow though, Carolynn is fine.

I want her immunity.

Not Such A Hot Date

The other day David got it in his head that we needed to go out more. So he took me to Outback and we had a great time. We hadn’t been there since we moved from San Diego. Carolynn watched the baby and everything. It was fabulous.

Usually when we go out we go to Red Robin. David is a big fan of burgers. (And Pizza.) So it is a good choice for us. I can get a burger or chicken or fish. They have great food. And a lot of burger choices. And amazing fries.

So last week, on Thursday night, we decided to go there. It was just us and the baby. The other two were off visiting friends. We got there at about 5:00 PM, according to my FourSquare.

So they were super nice right away. We didn’t have to wait to be seated. They brought us drinks right away. They even brought crackers for Michelle. So we ordered our burgers and then…

We waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

At about 5:40 PM the waitress finally reappeared. She apologized for the wait and brought us a basket of fries. She said there was some kind of mix up and the manager would be out to talk to us. By that time, we were starving and Michelle was sick of waiting. She is 1. She doesn’t wait.

A few minutes later, they finally brought the food. My burger looked right but David’s was wrong. He had to send it back. The came back a few minutes later and brought him the correct burger. Too bad for him it was way overdone. Mine looked right but, it didn’t taste right. I had ordered a bleu cheese burger and whatever sauce they put on it didn’t mesh with the bleu cheese. The manager never came and talked to us. Even though she said he would.

It was awful. AWFUL!

I complained. We eat there often. They should make it right.

Hitched

Okay, so maybe we didn't get drunk and get married. But as you probably already guessed, we went to Las Vegas to get married. We left the house on Tuesday, the 23rd of July. That is our anniversary. We were off. First stop, marriage license. Too bad we got lost. We went a good 20 minutes past where we should have. I blame the GPS.

We finally found the courthouse and took care of our paperwork. Then we went to the hotel to get ready.

We had booked our wedding at The Little White Wedding Chapel. We picked that one because it was so "Las Vegas". We wanted it to be fun. It is where Ross and Rachel get married. It is also where Frank Sinatra married Mia Farrow. Where Brittany Spears married that guy who she divorced the next day. Pretty cool right? Incidentally, my friend Shelley got married there just a couple of weeks before us. And my friend Jackie married her husband there too.

We went to the hotel to get ready. We didn't have a ton of time though, since they were sending a limo for us. Yep, we got to go in a limo. Carolynn barely had time to put on her face. And just so my sister knows, Carolynn insisted I wear at least mascara and lip gloss. Ewwww.... I hate make up.

The driver came and got us and drove us to the chapel. We had so much fun.

We got to the chapel and Sherri, Mary and Tonya were waiting. Taylor and Mandy arrived a few minutes later. David and I got our paperwork all together. They got our flowers out, they were so pretty. We were ready to start.

The pastor who married us was super nice. (He was the same guy that married Shelley and her hubby just weeks before. LOL!) He explained to us everything we were going to do. He asked us our preferences. We told him that Mary would be the maid of honor. She had David's ring. Tonya would be the Best Mate. She had my ring. They would also be our witnesses. And Sherri was walking me down the isle. He made it happen.

Sherri walked me down the isle. Mary cried like a faucet. We tried not to giggle. And I married my best friend.

It was so much fun.

The photographer did an amazing job. We had a fun time with the photo shoot. And when he was done, Mandy took a few more. Like this one of Michelle.

After the big wedding, we went out for a wedding dinner at The Cheesecake Factory inside the Caesar's Palace. It was so nice.

After that we were exhausted. We went back to the hotel and listened to the baby cry for hours. Then I soaked in the hot tub and watched Friends.

Best day ever.

No Sense Crying Over

So I was in the middle of writing about our trip to Las Vegas. (See this and this.) Then I stopped.

Why?

Because someone, namely David, spilled water all over my laptop. It has been lost forever. Almost five years of use and it is gone. Luckily, David recovered all my pictures and stuff, so he is sort of forgiven. I also got a nice new tablet to play with. (My iPad still works too, but it is so old and outdated.)

So I am back in business. For the most part. There are some things you just can not do on a tablet. So David will have to share.

So...

We left off with this....

Holiday Spirit

Yesterday's post had a bunch of people asking me....

Why not just invite everyone? The more the merrier. Right?

Maybe.

But let me tell you a fun story about an experience I had....

Every year at Christmas, we have an ornament exchange party. Christmas rolled around almost a year after I started at my job. So I decided to invite a few of my new coworkers. Five or six of them I had gotten to know. People who had kids like me, or who I had things in common with... 

Not only did none of them come, but 3 of them told me, in various words... 

We won't bring our families near gays. 

Really? 

You think I am going to boot my family for your sorry asses? Hell no. You can't catch gay, stupid. If you could, I would be soooooo gay. 

I couldn't believe it. They are no longer my friends. Only one of them still works there, and I don't see them often. 

On top of that, another one of them told me that they couldn't come because the age difference between David and I is just sick and they refused to be a part of it. 

OMG? Are you serious? Ten years isn't that bad. Look at some celebrity couples. 

Since then, I have been avoiding most social situations involving my coworkers. No Correctional Worker's Week events. No ball games, no holiday parties. I don't need to know all of my coworkers are jerks.

It kind of sucks though. I don't meet people anywhere else. And I really think I could be friends with some of them. 

But I am to wary. 

Like I said yesterday, yes, I do over think everything. 

Is this a problem? 

Probably. 

Alien Nation

David and I are finally getting married. I know, about time already. But anyway, we are not having a big fancy wedding. Actually no wedding at all. But we are having a barbecue party to celebrate with friends and family.

And there lies the conundrum......

Who do we invite? 

Family? Obviously. 

But so many of them live far away, especially David's family. I don't want anyone to feel obligated to come. But I don't want anyone to feel left out either. 

Friends? Sure. But which ones? 

How well do I know you? Who will have hurt feelings if I forget them? Who could care less? 

Do I just invite everyone and let it sort itself out? 

Do I over think everything?

Yes. Yes, I do. 

Wordless Wednesday

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"I smell something...."

"Oh, it's you."

"You smell delicious."
San Diego Zoo
May 10, 2013

Are You Ready For Some Football?!?!

Last year I played Fantasy Football with my dad, Vicki, my sister, my step-brother, and my cousins. It was pretty fun. I wasn't very good at it. I didn't know many players. I didn't watch games. But I was having a good time seeing who beat who each week. In the end, my cousin Wendy won the Super Bowl. I came in somewhere in the middle.

This year, we had more players for our league. Up from eight to twelve. More cousins. My sister's husband. My dad's car buddy. And David.

David got so into it. Eventually. He didn't bother to look at players to draft until after the draft had started. He never really had been a football guy. Besides the Super Bowl each year, I can't remember him watching a football game.

But this year, once he got going....

We watched games together. We rooted for the players on our fantasy teams. We razzed the other fantasy players. David wrote ridiculous recaps. Phrases like "rectum romping" and "butt devastation train" are now part of everyone's football vocab.

The season was so much fun. I hated to see it end. But it did.

I thought that meant the end of football in our house.

I was wrong.

David has become a true fan. He watches reruns of games. He watches highlight reels. He watches all the stuff on NFL Network. Every day.

I think it is kind of cute. It is fun we have something we can do together.

And in case you were wondering how I did in this year's fantasy league...

I Am The Champion!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

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Shaver Lake, California
January 1, 2013