Ugly sweater anyone?

The holiday season brings out the best in me. I love the baking frenzy that ensues in order to spread around some homemade holiday love. I am also one of those people that actually likes Christmas music. My personal fav is I want a Hippopotomus for Christmas. This song is just so funny and the little girl singing it sounds so desperate to have Santa bring her a hippo down the chimney. I also love a good, ugly sweater. You heard me correctly- a GOOD UGLY sweater.

A little background on the ugly sweater thing. Years ago, I was introduced to this at a party honoring the ugly sweater. The point is to show up to the party with a hideous sweater- holiday themed or not. I found  my first ugly sweater at a Thrift store. I had to be a little sensitive to those around me in case I was actually picking up something that other people thought was good looking. The sweater was white with snowflakes on it. Granted it was ugly but not hideous.

Fast forward to the Holidays 2010. At work, we decided to have an ugly sweater contest. I knew I wanted to make mine so I would have one for years to come and not have to worry about finding one at the Thrift store again. I had some stiff competition and the jury is out on who will win the title at work, but one of my co-workers has a beauty of an ugly sweater. Her sweater was bought at a retail establishment ( who shall remain nameless)  in the ladies section- this sweater had the 12 days of Christmas embellished on it and it was gorgeous. I wish I had taken a picture of it to post here. Anyhow, I made mine and Voila! Here it is:

Now, disregard the purple rain boots and shorts even though this adds to the beauty of my outfit. Greg found me little sweater ornaments to sew onto my sweater. Awesome, right? And I also sewed on glitter ornaments- snowflakes and reindeer. I am so proud of my sweater. I cannot wait to wear it next year!

Is this ugly or just unique? An woman at work complimented me and said it was the cutest sweater she had seen. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was supposed t be the ugliest sweater she had ever seen. To each his own!

Baby it's cold outside

Tis the season for hot soups and chilis and breads. I love my crock pot. There are so many delicious things you can make while you are out running errands, at work or just hanging around the house. Our crock pot has been the holder of pulled pork. The recipe I got from my mom is pretty simple- pork shoulder ( which apparently is a fancy name for the pig's butt) on a bed of onions adn cloves of garlic and a can of Coke. When all is said and done, you add a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce and Voila! you have a delicious meal.

Our red crock has also been full of Mac n' Cheese-  recipe courtesy of Paula Deen. B-U-T-T-E-R and
C-H-E-E-S-E do not have a minor role in this dish, but those of you who know Ms. Deen know that low cal is not her forte. A host of other things have come from our culinary crock- hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps, wonton soup and of course our favorite- homemade chili.

This chili is some of the best chili we have ever had. We are fortunate enough to have a friend named Todd who likes chili as much as we do. He was kind enough to fork over the recipe a few years back when we were on the hunt for a to-die-for chili recipe. We struck gold when Todd gave us that recipe. It has become one of our staples when using the crock-pot. Served up with homemade corn bread ( I am still on the hunt for the perfect recipe) it fills us up and leaves us with big smiles. And sometimes a little tummy ache from eating too much!

In a way, the crock pot is our way of bringing calm times to the house. It has brought friends together and even given Greg and I the opportunity to spend a few more minutes together when our days have been so hectic. So this holiday season, I am giving one of my many thanks to the Crock Pot. You have made my life so much easier and my life is much more delicious because of you. May your pot always be full and never bring disappointment in years to come!

Running into the holiday

On the first Sunday in December, Sacramento plays host to thousands of runners who come to run the California International Marathon. Living in East Sac allows us to be a spectator in such an amazing feat of endurance, mental stamina and physical fitness. In years past, my husband, Greg has run the marathon. In fact he has run it several times. When I ask him about how difficult it is to sustain a steady pace of pounding on the pavement for 26.2 miles he says that the finish is worth all the pain you may be feeling. When we see all those runners pass by our house, it makes me want to run the whole thing. For that moment, it gives me this overwhelming feeling of a goal that would be so amazing to achieve.

I hate running. Let me just put that out there. I love exercise but I hate running. Which is why I decided to put together a relay team and run the CIM as a relay. Bizarre, right? I decided a few months ago that I wanted to achieve a running goal. Running the whole marathon would be too much, too soon. So I settled on gathering some girlfriends and convincing them to run it with me! All of us were not runners. In fact, all of us are usually cyclists. This would be a true test of our wills!

Team Banana Stompers

 December 5th was yesterday. The day of reckoning. The day where I would either  triumph or choke. I had been having some running injury issues the last 2 weeks of training. Shin splints are fairly common for those runners who increase their mileage at a fast rate. My portion of the marathon would be 7 miles. So, I was definitely trying to get my mileage up there in order to not crash and burn on the day of the race. Fast forward to race day- I was still having leg problems. My shin splints had subsided but my left calf muscle felt like someone had socked it. This was not what I wanted for race day!

Stretching it out

Mentally, I had prepared myself to do my best and no matter what happened that I would finish my leg of the relay even if I had to walk the whole way. Little did I know that the other gals were feeling the same way- except maybe for my friend Jen! She had finished a half marathon recently enough so 5.6 miles was nothing! All of our race day jitters seemed to go away because we rocked it out! My leg was 7 miles and I ran the whole way! I never stopped because I knew that if I did, I would want to just quit. I ran my fastest miles at this race and that was a feat I could be proud of!

The things I have to say are this:
- Thank you to the little boy and little girl who were giving out high fives on my last mile to go- You gave me that push I needed
- Running is mostly mental and of course with a little bit of physical fitness thrown in- if you think you can do it, you can!
- Music is key to running long distances- I had my Lady Gaga and Ting-Tings pumping in my ears and boy was it motivating
- Big shout out to my girl friends, Jennifer Marie, Whitney and Amanda who took on this goal of mine with smiles and amazing run-power! Without you I would have given up
- Even bigger shout out to my hubby Greg who was our chauffeur to the exchange points. You are an amazing man and I am so grateful for your support. And it was great to see you when I hit the wall ( there was a physical wall you ran through on the leg of the relay!) I needed that extra boost!

We did it!!

Since this month is full of traditions, this was one I wanted to write about since it is a Sacramento tradition. We have already talked about doing it next year, but maybe switching the relay mileage around! Our team name was Banana Stompers and we sure as heck did that! Our finish time was 4:19
(4 hours and 19 minutes) and in the women's open relay category we placed 77th out of 226 teams. Way to rock it!

Finishers medal trimming the tree!

It's heeeeere!!

With the turkey being put into leftover status and the easy listening station taken over by Christmas music, I am officially welcoming the holiday season. So deck the halls and all that business because I love the holidays! Since there is so much time between now and Christmas ( 26 days and counting) it only seems fitting that I do a countdown and share some interesting thoughts, memories or tips throughout this next month.

The other day when Greg and I were at home in M town ( Madera, CA for those who aren't familiar with this awesome nickname) with Mama Smith, we were charged with putting up the Christmas tree. Growing up, we had a slew of different trees. We have had a tree with no leaves, live trees that we picked ourselves and hauled back home, a hand me down fake pine and finally a very fancy, beautiful lighted Christmas tree from Home Depot. As the tree was being erected, I had to laugh at the way we had to untangle the plugs and then straighten out the wired branches. This was supposed to be easy, right? We got the tree situated and then I proceeded to decorate it for my mom.

Decorating the tree is such a fun time for me. I get to travel down memory lane when I go through all the boxes of ornaments and decorations. As far back as I can remember, Mama Smith likes to color coordinate her trees. She has always had red and white be the "theme" of the tree. That being said, we also had some ornaments from my childhood that may not be the prettiest things but have to go up in the spirit of tradition. As I was trimming the tree, I got to see the familiar ornament that makes it home on the very bottom yet I can't seem to put it in the back where people can't see it. This ornament is from the year I was born- oddly enough, the ornament still looks new. It is a sturdy miniature old timer's car that just screams 70's. It doesn't seem to match the theme of my mom's tree, yet I don't want to banish it to the "unworthy of trimming the tree" box. So every year, this ornament takes it's place among all the red holly berries, white crocheted stars and white ribbon and a few other un-matching ornaments in order to truly keep tradition alive.

And voila! Mama Smith's tree is up for another Holiday season and ready to be a part of many new memories to come!

Birthday Boy

Tomorrow is the birthday of a very special person. I have always loved birthdays and I like to make them special for those around me. Greg was never and probably never will be a birthday person. For those who know Greg, they know how much he dislikes being the center of attention. But for one week a year- he gets to have a celebration exclusively for him.

Everyday I am thankful for the day that Greg was born. If he hadn't been, then I might not have the wonderful husband I have today! His parents gave him a lot of love and support to see that he grew into a loving, caring and responsible man who is now my amazing husband. For those who know Greg, there are no words to express how generous and kind-hearted he is towards his family, friends and even strangers.

Greg- you are the reason I keep smiling and laughing.  You make me a better person- I mean you make me strive to be something better than I am alone. I adore your charm, wit ( yes you are truly funnier than I am), intelligence, bad jokes, beautiful eyes and much more. I truly am the lucky one-

Happy Birthday Greg! May this year be one of many more birthdays filled with laughs and lots and lots of love. Oh, and cake wouldn't be too bad either!

For the love of teeth

Most people dislike going to their dentist- let me rephrase that- most people loathe/ despise/downright hate going to the dentist. I am one of the oddballs who actually loves going to the dentist. Let me give you a little background on this strange phenomenon. I have been going to my dentist since I was four years old. That's right, to this day I still see my childhood dentist. My dentist is kinda like a member of the family- he has seen me through my father's death, puberty with a side of braces and acne, love gained and lost and gained again, college graduation, a Peace Corps stint and finally a wedding.Who knew!

I have had everything under the sun worked on in my mouth- braces when I was a teen, wisdom teeth out soon after, numerous cavities throughout life, a severe mouth injury which left my front teeth damaged and finally said front teeth being given lovely new  facade. Through all this work, I kept wondering how much my dentists children's college tuition was and what percentage I contributed.

My dental hygenist is just as amazing as my dentist. She is a rockstar! She is a funny, beautiful woman who own a couple dogs and a vacation home outside of a ski resort. We have a special bond since she gets to look in my mouth every 6 months and remind of how flossing really does help and that I should do it more often. ( who really flosses as they are supposed to?) All the while she has never once made me feel like I was a bad tooth brusher or that I was the bad patient of the day. She is just an amazing person who cares so much about her patients.

As I close my eyes tonight, I will think good thoughts for my dental appointment tomorrow, because now that I have written about how great my dentist is, there is no way I could have a cavity, right?

Daddy's Girl

Today is a special kind of day. Special in the weird sense of the word. My dad passed away on this day 24 years ago. I was so young and not able to fully understand how this would affect me- affect my mom, my life. Every year around the same time, I think about how strange it was to go to bed knowing he was alive and then waking up to him being gone. I have the same memory just rehashed differently every time in my head. I didn't know my dad long, but what I do know is that I am a daddy's girl.

All the odd traits I get from my dad. Mama Smith has made that very clear. She insists that I am exactly like my dad in that I always see the good and never worry. I am the laughter in the house, the baker of cakes, the chocolate fanatic, the Easter egg decorator and hider, the clutter magnet and the queen of hugging- all of which I got from dad. It is great that there are albums of memories from when I was a kid that involved road tripping it with Mama and Papa Smith. The white Cutlas Supreme with red interior  that had the crazy luggage rack on the back. The pictures of us laughing at catching a fish with my goofy Sesame Street sweatshirt on and my dad wearing one of his many flannel plaid shirts ( which my mom incorporated into a quilt). The smiles that we all had that last year he was truly healthy. My favorite memory is one during the last few months he was sick and in bed a lot. He had such an active imagination, just like me and he was lying in bed with his feet up and his unforgettable white crew socks- the ones with colored stripes on the top- and he always had holes in the big toe area. His big toes would always be poking out and one day when I was with him he decided to put on a talking toe show just for me. I just remember us laughing and laughing and Mama Smith kept asking us why we were laughing so hard. It was our moment- my dad and I  had that moment where only we knew what was so funny.

I hold onto that memory and when I feel sad about missing out on the whole father-daughter experience, I think about how he is always with me- in every bad joke I tell, every "ha" in my laughter, every sock that has a hole in the toe ( since I obviously got my long toes from him) and the silly movie, "Muppets Take Manhatten". Every day he is with me and I never forget that-

Love you Daddy and I hope you finally got new socks.

10 things

One of my friends tagged me in her blog and since I have been on a sort of blogging roll, I thought I would oblige her request. This is a list of 10 things you may ( or may not!) want to find out about me.

* As a kid I always wanted to be an astronaut- mostly because of the freeze dried ice cream and my fascination of how the astronauts go potty in space. I mean, aren't we all a bit curious?

* I have a birthmark on my right arm that looks like Hawaii- it would be more appropriate if it looked like the Philippines, don't you think?

* I love being in love. I believe that you can be in love with anything you want to be in love with- for me it is my husband, my mom, Hammie my mom's dog, hotdogs and my neighborhood. I am a love junkie.

* I don't like disappointment- and especially disappointing the 2 people who mean the most to me, Greg and my mom. I know that no matter what they love me unconditionally but it still makes me cringe when I think about disappointing either one of them.

* I dream very vividly at night- and I talk in my sleep- oh, and i sometimes "act out" in my sleep. I once woke up in the middle of the night because I had been standing on our bed trying to fix the curtains. When I was woken up, I pretended that I knew what I was doing even though I clearly was sleep cleaning!

* I like being Catholic.  When I was younger, I didn't want to admit that I was Catholic. I felt judged by people and wanted to rebel, so I stopped going to mass. I decided to make a change and embrace my faith. This doesn't mean I am going to shove my beliefs down your throat and make you uncomfortable, it just means I am spiritual and it is a part of who I am.

* I secretly want to become a vegan. No, not because it is the cool thing to do these days. But because I want a healthier lifestyle. That will never happen though! I mean, I do make smarter choices now, but let's get serious, I love dairy too much. Cheese mostly. Oh, and sour cream. Sheesh, and butter, too. Well, I guess I will just have to keep that secret, won't I!

* I knew my husband Greg was "the one" a month after we had been dating. It just took him a little while longer to figure out I was the one, too. I kept believing my mom when she said, " you just know when you meet the one". Guess mom was right!

* I am obsessed with finding the perfect lip stuff. I have more than enough chap stick tubes on my dresser- eventually Greg just finds one he likes and uses it since I never seem to run out!

* Baking sweets. Enough said.


This was kinda fun. I think you should do it too!

Apple nibbler

 Greg and I were sitting on the couch tonight recapping our days ( which is something we  try to do every night) and he told me about "our little friend". Here's the backstory: in East Sac, there are lots of trees. Big, Beautiful and old they sit throughout the neighborhoods. We are lucky enough to have a few in our own backyard to provide wonderful shade and of course the perfect spot for our hammock. Now,  the inhabitants of our trees tend to be squirrels who like to nibble on our plum-like things high above our heads while we are resting in the hammock as their little juicy bites get sprinkled on our heads. Nothing says summer like an eye full of squirrel spit!  We have noticed over the course of the summer, that the squirrels really enjoyed some of our plants- especially the tomatoes. Greg would go down stairs to water the plants and come back up to say that our fruits were gone. It didn't bother me too much, since our "garden" wasn't really much of a garden, but an experiment to see if I could keep at least one plant alive through the summer. 

Cut to today's Greg story- we had gotten some apples from Mama Smith this past weekend. My mom is an amazing gardener. She has many fruit trees and vines growing in the yard in Madera. Whenever we go home to visit, we are sure to bring back some delicious bounty from her garden. We brought the apples back up with us, which my mom warned us that a few had some bruised spots and a couple might even have a critter or two in it, but they were still good fruit- we just had to cut away the bad parts. A few days had passed and the apples were still on our counter waiting to be made into apple pie ( which is my mom's specialty) . Alas, there was one apple that had gone soft and stuck to the counter. Greg decided to put some of the apples outside on the landing to our stairs in order to move the apples out of the kitchen. He thought nothing of it and went inside. When Greg went out to water our plants this afternoon- what did he find? He found an apple on the grass. How did it get there? The smarty mc squirrel pushed the apple off the landing and onto the grass, went down the stairs to retrieve it and decided to eat about 1/3 of the apple. Peels everywhere indicated that the sneaky little devil had snacked on Mama Smith's apples. 

I just want to know, if the squirrel was smart enough to push an apple off the landing, is he smart enough to make a pie, too? Because if he is, count me in.

Hidden treasures

Just a moment ago, I came home from work. Sitting in the comfy rolling chair we have situated at our desk, I am remembering to jot these small thoughts down before my tiredness kicks in and the silliness of today is forgotten.

At work today, it was a little slow, which makes for the perfect time to "zone". In the retail world, this means checking to see what sizes we have out on the floor, what needs to come out from the back and just general zipping/tucking/folding. I was in our men's clothing area and as I was straightening up the clearance rack, I came across a pair of long underwear that happened to be a bit faded. Alas, upon closer inspection, these had been someone's own long undies they had lovingly used for a long time and decided to abandon in our store. The funny thing about these undies is that they were neatly hung onto a hanger as if the person was going to hang them in their closet at home. What could be better than this you ask? The crotch was blown out. Yup, ginormo hole right near the booty.  That made me laugh out loud and also left me wondering about the history behind those abandoned holey undies.

As I ended the day, I was dusting one of the fixtures. What did I find? What was better than holey underwear? Chewing gum...Stuck on the top of the rack. It was even a freshie. Now that's what I call a great day at work.

Island Fun

I just realized that I never posted any pictures from the trip we took to the Philippines. Here is just a sampling and I hope you enjoy them! More blog to come!

Entrance to Mama Smith's Beach

Greg and I enjoying the sun

Riding my Water Buffalo- Buffy

Hiking in Tasvilla in style

Full Moon on our last night with Grandma & Grandpa

One of many sunsets we enjoyed

Look how green everything is!

Lost in Translation

I apologize for the lack of entries- as you may have read, Greg and I were in the Philippines without uber easy access to the Internet, ,and then when we returned home, we were greeted with NO access at our modern home. Funny how that works. At any rate, I promise to rehash some of the better moments of our vacation and then continue on with life as usual.

I am going to jump around and start with this, an interaction that happened one of the last days we were in Allen. Let me back up and give a little background on the small town of Allen, Northern Samar. This is the town where my mom, Mama Smith nee Zamora, was raised. Therefore, my grandparents still reside there, prompting Greg and I to take our vacation there. It is a very small rural town where the largest building in the town is the Church and everyone knows a lot about your business. The town has "brown outs" every Saturday in order to conserve the electricity they have and also to cause excessive sweating in the townspeople. Since Allen is such a small town, there are only a few places to buy everyday items and it is even more limited on Sundays ( which I came to find out and is the ignitor of my story).

I am going to preface this by saying this topic will probably be most amusing to my female friends who understand the joys ( insert sarcastic snort  here) of being a woman. I am one of the most prepared travellers out there. I usually pack an excess amount of items in three different categories:  Absolutely needed items, possible needed items and this-is-a-longshot-but-on-an-island-I-might-need-this items. Let me just say that I was not expecting to run out of a certain feminine hygiene product while there.

On this particular Sunday afternoon, Greg,  Aunt Remy and myself went out for a walk to the Pharmacy in order to purchase Tampons. Yup, I said it, tampons.  We decided to bring my aunt along since I can only understand the local dialect, not speak it back. Auntie Remy and I walk up to the counter and she proceeds to ask them if they carry tampons. The woman looks at me and then her with a confusing look on her face. Lucky for us, there is a woman next to us who knows exactly what we are talking about. What ensues next is what was to be a back and forth banter about this particular product. The woman next to me tried to explain to the shop girl about what a tampon is.

                      " It looks like a finger, made of cotton with a string and is kind of like a suppository"- all the while I am trying to also explain which I think made it worse.

The girl behind the counter then walked off. At this point I was hoping the shopgirl  didn't think I was constipated and come back with an enema package.  She came back with another shopgirl who we had to repeat the story to. Her answer was no- they only had Charming.

"Charming?" I asked "what's so charming about your period?"

Apparently in this neck of the woods, Tampons are not used, only what they call Sanitary Napkins are available. So I am settled to just purchase those big bulky "napkins" that these women are talking about. The next conversation was trying to get "sanitary napkins" that were not old school diaper-like. Auntie Remy was chatting back and forth with the shopgirl and finally after about a 15 minute ordeal that left me feeling like an adolescent school girl again, we left the Pharmacy with "sanitary napkins". And what was the Charming comment? It was actually Charmee which is the name of a pad they carry on the island ( picture to follow when camera is recharged). I was never more annoyed at being a woman than at that moment. Thank you Mother Nature for that lovely detour on an otherwise amazing trip. 

Island fun

As some of you know I am vacationing in the Philippines. For me it is a time to hang out with my family and most importantly get back in touch with my Filipino roots. That may sound silly to some but to me it is actually quite important. As I stepped off the plane from a very long flight- around 14 hours to be exact, I just felt a wave of happiness come over me. Happy to be on vacation, happy to be with Greg and my mom, happy to spend endless hours on the beautiful beaches of the Philippines and of course VERY happy to spend time with my grandparents.

I wish I had lots of time to write about my grandparents right now but in an internet cafe where lots of people wait in line to use the internet I don't have much time, at least not until I get back home. I am going to leave you all with this- my grandparents are everything to me and they make me smile when I think about all the memories we have here and in the states. My grandpa has Alzheimer's and this may be the last time I get to spend quality time with him. I am making the most of it...

The best thing on my trip so far is not the beach, but the time I got to spend with my grandpa this morning- just him, Greg and me- we were laughing. He loves to laugh and I definitely get that from him!

I will hopefully get to write a little more but I wanted to put this down in writing so you all could see what an amazing time we are having so far- family time.
 And the tanning ain't so bad either!!

July 10

Today is the day I am going to talk about Mama Smith. Since today is my actual birthday, the one true person that should be celebrating it is my mom. It is no easy feat ( from what I hear) to give birth to a baby. In fact, it has been compared to having to pass a kidney stone ( which is more painful than childbirth- but stay with me). And then all the diapers, clothing, food, love, wisdom, MONEY, etc, that goes into raising a child. Sheesh! At any rate, it is not an easy thing to raise a child in the world, yet Mama Smith did it and did it well.

Many years ago, I can't remember when, I read an article in some women's magazine about a woman who had a great relationship with her mom. Every year on her birthday, she would send her mom a  sort of birthday/thank- you- for- giving- birth- to- me gift. I decided to borrow that idea and follow her lead. Every year, on July 10, I send my mom a birthday gift. That gift is always accompanied with a heartfelt card. The back story which I haven't told yet is this: my father passed away when I was nine, and it has been just my mom and I since then. She has given me everything and made me who I am today. Without getting mushy, I am truly blessed.

So, today on my birthday I am giving thanks to my mom. You are a beautiful, smart , funny and so many more adjectives could describe you which won't fit on the page woman. I am lucky to have you as my mom and role model to be a good daughter/wife/human being.

I love you Mama!!

Another year older, another year...

On the afternoon,  on the eve of what will be my 33rd year of existence, I am thinking of this cliche that is my header. They say that another year older is another year wiser. That may be true, but let's sit and think about this for a moment. To me, wisdom doesn't come from someone in their 30's. Wisdom should be coming from someone in their 60's or at least someone who has gray hairs- which at this sitting, I could be a part of that "wise" group as made evident by the couple of white hairs that have been making their home on my 32 year old scalp for the past few months.  Even as I tried to pluck them out, those rascally hairs would not go away, and instead made me believe in the old wives tale of " for every white hair you pull out, three more grow in it's place". You have convinced me, ye old wives.

As I "celebrate" my aging, which at this age is not really "old", I am trying to gracefully accept that I am "officially" in my 30's. Which really is a great, yet odd place to be. I am reminded though of how life changes once you hit your 30's. It is almost like your body takes notice the day you hit 31 and decides you will need to start watching your diet, exercising MUCH, much more,  letting bygones be bygones and letting your 20's be a  thing of the past. What a system shock! But alas, you have 10 years of getting used to this new lifestyle. "Officially" living in your 30's.

Tomorrow I turn 33. My mom says it is a magical birthday year. She has never said anything like that on my past birthdays. It makes me wonder if 33 was her magical year. That some life changing event happened to make her believe in 33 being "magical". Or that she wants me to know that unicorns and fluffy clouds will be flying over my head tomorrow. Or just the simple fact that she believes that something great is going to happen for me this year. I love my mom for her spontaneous belief in the unknown. Whatever this year brings, I am ready for it- magical or not and am looking forward to adding another "notch" to my decade of 30's.

Ready or not, here I come 33!

Going to the Chapel

This past Friday evening, Greg and I went to our friends' wedding, Mike and Teresa. Celebrating with them was a reminder of how emotions can bloom from simple friendship to full blown  I-wanna-spend-the rest-of-my-life-with-you love.

We met Mike a few years ago through work. His hearty laugh and crazy sense of humor grabbed our attention and kept it long enough to form a wonderful friendship. He was a typical single guy- beer, burgers and bros were on his to-do list of the moment. As we got to know Mike, his sometimes crazy antics were just a cover for his warm, generous and good natured heart. It was only a matter of time before he would get snatched up by some lucky gal- and he did.

Teresa came along shortly after we had gotten to know Mike. Infectious laughs, cuteness to boot and all-smiles-all the time, were the things I remember most about the first moments we hung out. I have also had the opportunity to get to know Teresa over the years and I can honestly say that she complements Mike, just as he complements her. And that's why we were surprised and excited to find out they had decided to get married!

Their wedding was a blast! We ate, drank and danced our tushies off in celebration of their amazing commitment to each other. We are truly thankful for their friendship and wish them many happy years of marriage.

                                                  Mike and Teresa cheers to you!!

Year Old Wedding Cake

You know how on your wedding day everyone tells you to save some of your wedding cake so you can eat it on your one year anniversary, and you just nod your head in agreement because it is tradition and you don't want to be rude and say, " Year old wedding cake? Are you kidding me? How freezer burned is it going to be???" Well, our wedding cake has sat, carefully wrapped with newlywed love and care, in my mom's freezer for exactly 364 days- one day shy of a year.

For the first month, Greg and I would say to ourselves that our cake was going to be so good on our anniversary. Now, Greg and I love our sweets. We carefully chose our cake flavors, our favorite pick being  a yummy chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and heath bar filling. The other flavor was not so important to us but we thought we would be nice and choose a cake that those non-chocolate people would like ( very sensible, right?) This cake was amazing when we had tasted it months before our special day. We were so excited about this cake that we even told our friends, " If you like chocolate, don't eat the white cake because the chocolate one will be served, too" . We had been anticipating this delicious cake for months and finally our day arrived.

Long story short, as it turned out, the chocolate cake was never even cut up and served, as we would find out the next day when we had lots, and  I mean LOTS of chocolate cake sitting at my mom's house. And in the weeks to come, it would come out from our friends that they had waited and waited for this highly talked about chocolate cake only to be disappointed with our second choice, white cake. Who would have known that we talked about this cake so much that people actually waited to have a piece of it!

Today, after waiting a year, the moment had finally come to see if our wedding cake was still edible after being in my mom's freezer. This cake that had caused such excitement and disappointment all in one day was being given a chance for redemption. We had brought champagne down  in order to celebrate our year of being married and to eat our cake. And you know what? Our year old cake was quite delicious. And I am not saying that because I want the wedding cake myth to be true, but it really was yummy cake. So thank you Eddie's Bakery of Fresno, California for exceeding our expectations and providing a little sweetness on our one year wedding anniversary.

Happy Anniversary my sweet Greg! I look forward to many more years of chocolate cake, champagne and lots and lots of laughs.

Small town love

Today I am sitting in my childhood home in Madera. For those of you who know me, I speak of Madera quite frequently and with great fondness. In fact, I truly think Madera is the place to be, as if it were a hot spot that Hollywood is destined to find and love just as much as I do.

I think a lot about how living here "made me who I am today" ( the often muttered cliche) and the friendships I was able to form...and surprisingly keep. There are a group of girlfriends that I have whom I have known for almost 20+ years and counting. What a blessing to have friends who stand by you no matter what/where/who you are and all the life stuff that happens in between. We have seen it all throughout our years of friendship.

When I was thinking of the love I have for my hometown, I realized there are several things that keep my heart tied here- my mom, my mom's cooking and my girlfriends. I truly love these girls, and I say girls because they will always be "my girls". The girls who had big bangs and frizzy hair but were still cool to me. The girls who would squeeze into one bed so we could stay up late talking about boys. The girls who came together when tragedy struck in our lives. The girls who stood by me and each other when we got married. And of course the girls who I fell in love with years and years ago at Camp Fire Camp, tennis, catechism and high school.

I guess that's why I love Madera and always will.
 

When it began...

As I am sitting here contemplating what my subsequent entries will consist of, I am reminded of a wonderful event that is coming up. In a little over one week, I will be celebrating my one year anniversary of being married to my wonderful husband Greg. Husband. A few years back, I would have laughed at that word. It was a girlish laugh of course, a giggle really.  I had always known that I would one day be married and have a husband, but the word itself was just strange.

Back to the happy occasion that will be celebrated, I am extremely lucky to have found my "one". When I was younger, I would ask my mom how she knew that my dad was the "one". She always replied with, " I just knew". That stuck in my head for years and years as I went through the dating ritual. Uneventful really,  until I met Greg. The One. And as my wise mom said, I just knew. I am one lucky woman to have found my Greg, my husband, my life.

Third time's a charm

Today is my official first blog. Actually not my first blog entry since years ago I decided to get my own blog name and keep it for a rainy day. Well, after several short entries ( which were quite uneventful I might add) here I am.
It took me a while to figure out what I would blog about and I still don't truly know, but I am going to give it ago with my musings about life, love, family and friendship with a dose of humor of course. I welcome you to the small window of my life and hope you plan on reading on...