Saturday, May 30, 2009

Hooray for Brandon and Meagan!

Sooooo, while I was slaving away at camp training at UCSD today, Brandon was proposing to Meagan after the Splash and Dash!!! I am soooooo excited for them! I can't wait to get the chance to celebrate with them too! Congratulations you two!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Just Another Weekend In Paradise

Our weekend ended up being quite different than we had planned, but it was wonderful nonetheless. We had originally planned on heading up toward Sacramento this weekend for a houseboating trip, but our plans were changed last minute and we were facing a three day weekend in San Diego with no plans. (I know, it's a rough life.) So we decided that we were going to make the most of our unexpected weekend and try to create some hometown memories.

On Thursday evening, we met up with my Uncle Joe for a delicious Italian dinner and some good conversation. It's always great to see Uncle Joe, even if we don't get to get together often enough. Friday, we met up with Tony and Shelly and the boys for dessert where we got to see the power of ice cream over three cute and crazy boys ;-). On Saturday, Daryll and I joined the Vitullis for a day at the zoo. We decided to get season passes since we live so close to the zoo anyways (and we can go to the Wild Animal Park too...). The new Elephant Odyssey had just opened that day and we thought that it is a great new habitat for the elephants. After a long day at the zoo we came home and met up with Dad and Melanie to watch the Lakers game and unwind. On Sunday, we went downtown to try to catch the Padres game. Dad and Melanie already had tickets for Melanie's daughter's birthday, but Daryll and I didn't have any because we were planning on going out of town. When we got to the park we begrudgingly discovered that there were only All-You-Can-Eat tickets left (which we were not keen to pay for), so we wandered around downtown for an hour trying half-heartedly to get some tickets (and let me tell you, there were no good deals to be had. Who's going to pay $20 for a $5 park pass, really?). We eventually resigned ourselves to eating appetizers and having a drink at a restaurant to watch the rest of the game. (And of course, the Padres won. And Kooooooz did well. I'm telling you, our theory is real ;-) After the game we went to Old Town to have dinner with Dad, Melanie, and her kids and all their friends at Rockin' Baja Lobster (yum!). Now, this would be a great weekend in itself, but we still had Monday to go! Monday morning we went to breakfast with Dad and Melanie on their way out of town at the Potato Shack in Encinitas where we were treated to the delicious manhole cover-sized apple cinnamon pancakes (well, I was at least... Daryll stuck with his classic french toast). After breakfast we met up with Carrie and Dave for coffee where we made plans to head to the beach and bbq later. And that's exactly what we did for the rest of the day.

Soooo, I guess it's not so bad to be stuck in San Diego for a 3 day weekend afterall.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Confessions of a Domestic Goddess #2

There are 2 things I dislike about our humble abode: the ugly green carpet and all the dust (compliments of the popcorn ceiling).

However, there is one thing that I secretly love about those two things... vacuuming the dust off of the ugly carpet. Yep, tis true.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Weekend Update

Just wanted to share a few pics and comments on the weekend.

Saturday, Daryll and I headed up to O.C. to visit our friends up there. Daryll and Jeff went to see Star Trek (Daryll was most grateful to have someone to see it with, and I was most grateful that I was not that someone). Lindsay, Jared, Mike & Kim Schommer and I hung around Lindsays house and played some games. We stayed with the Schuils that evening and they were kind enough to make us a wonderful breakfast Sunday morning before we headed up to L.A.

Sunday we were on hand as Daryll's grandfather received an alumni award from Chadwick. We enjoyed getting to visit with everybody and hearing Bob speak at the function. Sunday afternoon we took the dogs down to the beach to wear them out and then it was time for the season finale of Despearate Housewives. (Which btw was a good finale and not as traumatizing as Greys.)

Off to a good and busy week so far and looking forward to Houseboating this weekend!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Saturday, Saturday!

It's been a crazy busy week and I haven't had a chance to get on here and blog, so I thought I'd take a free moment this morning and give a little update. Camp planning is in full swing right now so I've been heading into UCSD 3 days a week to fine tune and tweak my schedule for leadership camp. We're really far ahead of where we were at this time last summer, so we're going to try to get some special projects going too, which is always exciting.

Outside of camp I've been working on a couple of projects for my mom's work. I'm making the invitations for a retirement dinner and a tribute book. One Tuesday my Mom called and asked me to create a logo for an affiliated organization and have it finished by the end of the week. Mind you, I have never created a logo before. After the first evening of working on it I was pretty sure that I couldn't do it. But of course Mom gave me the whole "I've never heard you say that you can't do anything" speech, so then I had to do it despite myself. Overall, I think that the logo turned out pretty good. It was a good lesson in taking someone else's idea and making it come into fruition.

Last night Daryll and I went to the Padres game with a couple of my KA coworkers. We had a great time and it was a good game. And the Padres won! (We really happen to think that they should pay us to go to the games because they win 95% of the time that we go. ;-)

Anyways, that's about all to update you on for the week. Have an exceptional weekend!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Two Things That Make Me Smile

#1 When my husband surprises me with beautiful flowers

#2 Pug puppies in pretty dresses

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Celebrating Mom

We had a very nice weekend capped off by a visit with my Mom and Sister for Mother's Day today. Friday evening Daryll and I went to see Greg and Jen. We had a good time visiting, catching up, and playing games.

Saturday morning after Daryll got back from work we got to take the pups to their first "pug meetup" at the Coronado Dog Beach. They had a great time socializing with the other pugs, chasing balls (Ella), and frolicking in the waves (Lulu). They were so cute sticking by each other's side almost the entire time we were there. Later that afternoon we met up with my friend Mike to watch the Red Bull Air Races down at Sea Port Village. I'd never been to see the races and overall I'd say that they were just alright. It made me nervous to watch the planes flying so close to the water, but it is pretty impressive to see the turns they can make on a dime.

This morning we met up with my Mom in Oceanside at our favorite little Oceanside restaurant, Beach Break Cafe (actually, the only little restaurant that I happen to know in Oceanside). We all had a delicious breakfast and were reminded why it's worth the drive to eat there. Daryll and I brought Lulu with us too and she behaved wonderfully, wagging her tail at other customers and chomping on her bone through our whole meal. (We couldn't bring Ella because of her tendency to freak out and start making the most awful barking/tortured sound in "stressful" situations.) After breakfast, we came back to the house to visit and then Mom, Amy, and I went and got a much deserved and long-awaited pedicure. It was a nice (although too short in my opinion) visit.

Now, just a few words about my Mom on Mother's Day. I happen to think that my Mom is an amazing person (yes, I know I might be a bit biased, but that doesn't take away from the fact that she's amazing). I have learned many valuable lessons from my mom about having self-respect, and courage, and an ability to continue persevering no matter what life throws at me. My mom is one of the toughest people I know and also one of the most driven. For Mother's Day this year I signed her up for a half marathon and I am so confident that she is not only going to finish it, but do it with bravado. I am a very lucky girl to have such a wonderful Mom. (And to have gotten her good looks as part of the package :-) I love you Mom!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Craft List

Yesterday I decided that I needed to start a "to craft" list in order to give all of these ideas that are constantly floating around in my head a place to land. This is already changing the way I work. I don't know why I never thought of it before because in every other aspect of my life I am a list-maker. It is truly gratifying to cross things off of a list after completing them. It definitely adds to the sense of accomplishment. Anyways, in the past 2 days I have designed and sewn a new apron, painted the chairs in my garage (well, 3 of them at least),photoshopped, printed, and framed our silhouettes (in frames which I painted and decoupaged fyi), sewn dozens of buttons onto fabric to create a monogrammed "D," beautified another D that I found at a craft store, and made 3 flower hair clips. Now that my friends is some crafting accomplishment ;-). As I'm sure you've inferred the D wall is nearing its time to be hung. Pictures will be posted as soon as all the beautiful pieces adorn my walls.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Confessions of a Domestic Goddess #1

Tonight I thought I'd get a head start on dinners for the week so I prepared 2 meals instead of one. One of our dinners was to include pulled pork sandwiches and the pork shoulder must cook for approximately 4 hours in the dutch oven, so I got started on that one quite early in the afternoon. A few hours later I started on our actual dinner for the night of grilled shrimp, mini quesadillas, and white corn. We finished dinner around 7 and I thought that we should utilize the still early hour by going to Coffee Bean for a chai latte and to play some Scrabble on Daryll's computer. We left at closing time (8:30) with the Scrabble game still up in the air and a quick car ride back home. As we came into the house I caught a whiff of a uncommon scent...pork! Yes, I had left the house for several hours with the forgotten pork shoulder still in the oven. Lucky for us there was plenty of liquid still in the dutch oven and the pork came out just perfect. Just another confession of a domestic goddess...

Out of the Woods (for a while...)

Today Daryll and I thought that it would be a lovely day to take the pups out on a hike through the canyon behind our house. We set out on our journey with high hopes and a slight air of caution. We decided to keep the dogs on the leash today, despite the fact that they usually love to run ahead of us on the trail. Approximately halfway through the walk, just as we had decided to turn back toward home, my precautionary decision proved to be a beneficial one. Low and behold, no more than 7 inches from Lulu's cute little wrinkly face was a sunning rattler. I pulled Lulu back and said "SNAKE!" and Daryll said "where?" and pulled Ella back toward him. I quickly pointed it out and assessed that the snake was laying in a non-threatening position, and also that there was no way I was walking past it. We swept the dogs up in our arms and looked for a different route, but our path was blocked on both sides by low lying tree braches and a ravine. We had to press onward, but the longer we contemplated, the greater I insisted that I couldn't walk past him. We finally reached our conclusion...we would run past him with the dogs in our arms. Daryll went first with great success. The snake hadn't so much as batted an eye at Daryll's passing. Summoning all of the courage within me, I went next...sprinting as far right as possible and clear past the snake. We carried the dogs until we reached the first street opening and took the out of the way surface streets the rest of the way home. Crisis averted. But we're not planning on taking the dogs out there again until winter. :-)