Final Goals Update

As the year comes to an end, I am at the final days to progress through my goals. Obviously I cannot write how many I completed because I still have 8 days left to work like a mad woman.

Although, it is apparent that there are some goals I just cannot finish. There is no way that I can ride 491 miles in the next 8 days, so unfortunately my bicycle goal will not be met. But this is exactly why I made goals rather than resolutions. A resolution leads to regret and resent towards yourself if you do not do it whereas goals only leave room for progress and pride in the things you did achieve.

It is looking like I will be able to reach just over half of my goals. Although not ideal (finishing all of them....like that will ever happen), I am nonetheless proud of myself. It has been a tough year with many trips to the emergency room, doctor's appointments and just an overall feeling of being sick. In addition to that I finally reached my wits end at the bakery and had to quit for my own sanity. So even with these changes in my life I tried to remain focused on my goals.

I am proud of myself right now and I will be proud of myself everyday regardless of how many goals I complete. In the end I know I am a good person and nothing can change that.

Here's to hoping that the next 8 days keep me busy with my goals list, and come January 1st I will be able to start all over with a new goal sheet. How wonderful it is to have a focus throughout the year. :-)

Fall Semester is Over :-(

This semester of school has officially been the most enjoyable. I have never been so sad when school ended ever.

Let's recap the past few months:
August 30 I headed to West Valley College for my first day of classes in court reporting. I was quite nervous since I did not know if I would enjoy it or not. I was concerned that I would hate it and then have no idea what I would do with my life.

Class started at 11am and there were about 30 of us sitting in a room not really sure about what was going to happen. Our teacher explained to us how a steno keyboard is laid out and then we went into the computer lab to start doing the theory lessons. I could not have imagined how much I was going to enjoy it. I ended up working on lessons and drills for about 3 hours. I was just having so much fun.

The semester continued on and by the middle of October I had finished almost all of the 40 lessons for the theory class. I began testing ahead because the pace of the class was just too slow. I ended up completed all of the tests for Theory I and Theory II on the last day of classes.

In addition, towards the end of the quarter I began sitting in on the first speed building class which is 80 wpm. To my surprise I actually passed two of the three tests for the class (Literary and Q & A). Once I pass the jury charge test I will be moving onto 100 wpm. Although it all seems a little scary, I look forward to improving and learning much more as I continue through the court reporting program.

So now that my first semester of court reporting is over I am quite sad. I enjoyed my days sitting in a room practicing on my steno machine for hours. Thankfully I return to school on January 4th.

Here's to hoping that I continue to love court reporting and that we all continue to find our passion in life :-)

Thanksgiving

Well I am a little behind on posting....but better late than never.

So, as I wrote before, Kevin and I celebrated our thanksgiving together the Saturday before because we were not going to be together on thanksgiving. It was an eventful meal for us. It was an adjustment learning to work in a new kitchen and use a gas oven and stove, but in the end we did have a delicious thanksgiving meal.

Kevin and I with our awesome meal; Saturday before thanksgiving :-)

On Thanksgiving day while Kevin's family drove up to northern California I was on a plane headed to southern California. I landed around 11am and was able to enjoy thanksgiving with my family and family friends for the first time in 6 years. It was great seeing everybody. Promptly after our early dinner Adrienne and I headed up to Port Hueneme to go to Rendezvous. We helped out with setup on Thursday night and settled in to get some rest before an eventful weekend. I was head judge of knots for competition on Saturday and Sunday. Overall it was wonderful to be able to go to Rendezvous, but it was also strange to see how much has changed in the 7 years since I competed. There were far less competitors and the field events were empty for hours. I guess the economy has impacted everything including scouting.

I was clearly excited to be done with judging :-)

In the end it was great to be able to see everyone that I hadn't seen in years and it was fun to reminisce about my years in scouting, but I forgot how tiring sea scout competitions could be. I was dead tired by Sunday morning and with a late flight on Sunday, needless to say it was quite difficult to go to the school the next day.

Although a non-traditional way to spend thanksgiving, it was nice to change up the routine Kevin and I had had for the past few years.

Here's to hoping that next thanksgiving is just as fun :-)

Pre-Thanksgiving

For the past two years, Kevin and I have created the tradition of cooking an entire thanksgiving meal. We would start cooking around 10am and race to the finish line and try to have everything on the table ready to eat at 2pm.

It is great fun to try to get all of the dishes done at the same time. In the end we have celebrated that last two thanksgivings together with a spread of food large enough for about 10 people.

This year will be different. Unfortunately I will not be at home during thanksgiving; instead, I will be down in southern California to attend Rendezvous with Adrienne. Kevin and I did not want to abandon our tradition because of this little situation, so we will be making our thanksgiving extravaganza tomorrow (Saturday). We will still have our finish line to cross and will celebrate the day as if it is actually thanksgiving.

I will post pictures of our expansive meal and report back on any and all funny things that happen.

Here's to hoping that our crazy tradition carries on and that we can all be thankful for all of the wonderful things in our lives. :-)

5 years

This past Friday October 22 marked 5 years of dating for Kevin and me. It has been an interesting 5 years....we have had our ups and downs, but in the end they have been the 5 most wonderful years and I look forward to many many more years together. :-)

2005 - The first picture of us....after about 3 weeks of dating

2006 - second picture of us together....we were so cute back then

2007 - Dave and Ruth's Wedding.....we were so skinny back then

2008 - finding an apartment to move to together after college

2009 - the day we got engaged....my big screen TV is so beautiful

2010 - 5th anniversary - 10/22/10 - exactly 1 year until the wedding

......and we are home owners :-D

Wednesday October 13, 2010 we got the keys to our condo that we now officially own. It was most definitely exciting and we had a lovely dinner to celebrate and ate ice cream in the middle of the empty dining room.

We own a home and here it is:






Here's to hoping that we make many wonderful memories in our new condo and that we all enjoy every moment of life :-)

T minus 3 Days

We are just 3 days away from officially owning the condo. I guess in reality it is less than 3 days at this points since they think we will get the keys on Wednesday.

This whole experience has been less complicated than expected, but it has definitely been a test of my patience, or lack of patience. We had our offer accepted on September 3, 2010 and it has just been a waiting game since then.

As the waiting game comes to a close, I am finding more patience within myself because I know the end is in sight. I just can't wait until the keys are in our hand and we can move into our new home that we OWN.

Here's to hoping we are all able to find enough patience to make it through everything. The good things in life are worth waiting for. :-)

Meet my Smartwriter

After quitting the bakery I had aspirations to get my Master's degree but after thinking about it I realized I don't really want a Master's degree nor do I want to pay for many years of graduate school. I decided I would take a fun class at the community college: Court Reporting.

Needless to say I started the program on August 30 and fell in love instantly. Everything about it is appealing to me especially the fact that it is a self pace program meaning I can go at my own pace.

After coming home from school that first day I quickly went online and purchased my own stenotype machine.

So, please meet my Stenograph Smartwriter :-)

My beautiful smartwriter hooked up to my new netbook computer :-)

It is a refurbished machine and it is actually from 1990, but the technology has not changed since then except you can get fancy machines with screens on them now. This is my baby and I love it immensely. It has brought me such joy and is leading me down yet another road in life.

Here's to hoping that we all may find what makes us happy, no matter how many detours we must take to get there :-)

for the first time....

For the first time in a long time or possibly in my whole life I thought to myself as I walked from the bus to class that "If I were to die right now I would be sad because I love my life so much right now. There is so much to be happy about."

Sometimes I forget about how wonderful life is, but today I remembered.

Just some of the wonderful things I love are that we are trying to purchase a condo, I am in school for court reporting which I really enjoy, we are cooking amazing food, and overall life is just wonderful.

Here's to hoping that we never forget how wonderful life is and that if for some reason we do forget, we can find reminders in the simple things in life. :-)

The Finish Line is in Sight

So let us hop into our time machine for what will hopefully be the last time for a while. We are returning to August 7th, just after my plane lands in San Jose. I have finally made it home after the first two legs of my marathon vacation. Kevin picked me up at the airport and we headed back to our apartment. Kevin was already packed so we just relaxed and caught up on some TV shows. We went to bed, because in less than 10 hours we were going to be on the road to Mammoth.

At 8am Sunday morning, we headed out, we had packed up 2 suitcases, 2 sets of golf clubs and our 2 mountain bikes. It is quite amazing what can fit in the back of a fit. We headed out for what we thought would be a 4.5 hour drive and even laughed at googles estimate of 5 hours. Needless to say we were wrong; it ended up taking nearly 6.5 hours to get there. We drove behind every slow car known to man all of which were red trucks. Needless to say we were quite glad to get to the condo in Mammoth and get out of the car for a while.

Vista Point at Yosemite - Pictures do not g

We unloaded the car and after a short rest we headed out to hike up to Mc Leod Lake. Needless to say we all know how out of shape I am, I don't deny it, but I felt even more out of shape on this hike. I thought it was just my body failing me, but then Kevin's dad reminded me that we were at about 9000 feet elevation which means thinner air. It made me feel a little better, and the seeing the beauty of the lake made it all worth while. We hiked around the lake and Kevin tried to skip rocks with a boulder. It was a great start to our Mammoth vacation.

We made it to the lake!

Monday arrived and we had lots of fun things to do. We started off by going to the fish hatchery. It was awesome to see all of the trout, but it was even more fun to toss in the fish food and watch the fish go crazy. The fish were jumping out of the water and splashing about trying to get the few pieces of food. Definitely my idea of a good time.

Look at those fish! They were so excited about the fish food.

The good times continued when we headed up to see the earthquake fault. It is kind of funny that they call it an earthquake fault since they have signs that explain it was caused by fission and not an earthquake. Regardless of this fact, it was still amazing to see this huge chasm into the earth.

I was super excited to see the fault. :-)

We couldn't stay at the fault too long because we had to head over to the driving range and get some practice time in before we played golf that evening. It was the first time I had golfed on a real golf course with longer holes, and it kind of showed off how bad I was, but I still had a great time. I even got to drive the golf cart which is kind of addicting. In the end I came in last out of our group, but I was well under my goal of 100 with a score of 86. Pretty proud of myself, and I will just blame my high score on being distracted by the beautiful scenery around the golf course. It clearly distracted me and hurt my game. Regardless of how we all did, we had a wonderful time playing golf.

The view was so beautiful.....clearly it would distract any golfer :-)

Tuesday arrived and we had the morning to spend together before Libby and Akeel arrived. We all loaded into the car and headed out to Rock Creek Lake. It was quite a drive up a windy road. It seemed like there was no one around, until we reached the parking areas. Every spot was taking and after circling around waiting for a spot we just decided to head down the hill to another lake we had passed. While there we were able to see a truck from the fish hatchery stocking up the lake. We sat and enjoyed the view for a little while before heading back to the condo. We arrived at the condo at the same time as Libby and Akeel. We helped them unload their car and we headed out to go on a mini hike around the creek near the condo.

Group picture (minus Kevin's dad) on our creek hike.

We finished up our fun creek hike and then headed to Lee Vining for dinner to celebrate Kevin's parents 30th wedding anniversary. While you might expect it to be a fancy dinner to celebrate we in fact ate a restaurant called Whoa Nelly! Deli. It is a fun little restaurant in a Mobil gas station. They make amazing gourmet food in a very casual setting. Everyone had a wonderful night and enjoyed the delicious food. We ended up back at the condo that night playing boggle. All of the youngens teamed up against Kevin's parents and we shockingly won the boggle game; a rare feat considering they are boggle masters.

After a fun filled vacation, Wednesday arrived and it was time for Kevin and me to head back to Campbell. We went out for a delicious BBQ lunch and then hit the road. It was a great vacation, but it was definitely good to be home and get back into my normal routine.

Here's to hoping that we all have fun adventures with those we love. :-)

2nd Leg of Triathlon Vacation - Los Angeles

Adrienne and I successful made it from Dallas to Los Angeles, arriving at 11:45pm. We were so glad that we didn't have to spend the night in an airport. We made it home and promptly fell asleep. I got to sleep on the couch in the family room because my room has been turned into a storage unit, so it would a hop, skip and a jump to get onto the bed and probably result in a broken leg.

After a wonderful nights sleep, I spent the week relaxing with my dad. We had planned to do some work around the house but ended up taking advantage of the vacation idea and just relaxed.

Tuesday we headed out to Palmdale to be there for the home inspection of the house Adrienne is purchasing. The house is GIGANTIC. We drove around Palmdale a little and after the home inspection we made a quick trip to Ikea followed by a delicious lunch at Islands. Overall a fun and delicious day.

Wednesday night we did have Candy, Rich and Julie over for dinner. We cooked up Tony Roma ribs and chicken and a few other BBQ treats. I, of course, baked cookies. It was a nice evening to catch up with them since I had not seen them in about 10 months.

The Museum had a beautiful building.....simple yet elegant

Thursday arrived quickly and it was the day for our tour at the Nethercutt Museum in Sylmar. My dad and I headed over to Calabasas to pick up Candy and we then headed to the Van Nuys airport. Uncle Sid had flown his plane from San Diego up for the day to spend time with us. We then headed over to the museum where we met up with Tom and Deb.

I loved the paint job on this car :-)

This was my favorite car at the museum.....if only I had about $12 million dollars :-)

The tour was amazing. The cars were beautifully restored, but my favorite part was the music room with the orchestrians. It was so wonderful to sit and relax and listen to the beautiful music. We followed up the wonderful trip to the museum with lunch at Tally Rand in Burbank. We all enjoyed the delicious food and ended watching a car chase on the TV at the restaurant.
After a wonderful day, we dropped Uncle Sid off at the airport and headed home. It was a wonderful day and it was great to see everybody.

Uncle Sid headed back to his plane

Friday was yet another relaxing day. I was left home alone since my dad had to go into work. I ended up spending the morning sorting and completing an inventory of all of Adrienne's Mary Kay products, and then just lounged around. I did bake more chocolate chip cookies since Rob and Deena were coming over for dessert.

Inventory of Mary Kay products....it's amazing I didn't drown in make-up

After a relaxing week, it was finally Saturday. My last day in Los Angeles was spent having a "makeover" by my sister where she showed me all of her Mary Kay products and took some pictures to use with other clients. I packed up all of my clothes and headed off to the airport that evening. My flight was delayed about 45 minutes, but thankfully it wasn't full. I made it back home to Campbell about 10pm that night and slept for a few hours before headed off to Mammoth the next morning.

The second leg of my vacation was definitely relaxing and as usual it was great to spend time with my dad. Here's to hoping that everyone is able to spend time with there family and thoroughly enjoy every moment. :-)

Another Trip in the Time Machine

So let's hop back into my fancy time machine and go back about a month to Wednesday July 28. It was 7am and Kevin was helping me load my luggage into the car and we headed off to the San Jose airport. Kevin dropped me off and so began my marathon vacation. It was actually more of a triathlon since there were three legs, but we'll only talk about one for now.

I stood in the security line for a while and finally made it through and headed to the gate to wait for my flight to Dallas, or should I say my flight to San Diego, El Paso and then Dallas. Yes, my flight had 3 stops, but thankfully I stayed on the plane, so no running to catch a connection. After leaving at 10am Pacific time I arrived in Dallas at about 6pm Central time safe and sound. Shayna picked me up at the Dallas Love Field Airport and we headed over to her parents house. It was a beautiful home that would become my lovely accommodations for the next 5 days.

The Beautiful Isenberg Home in Plano Texas

That night Shayna, Ilene and I went out for some Mexican food. It was delicious. After dinner we headed home and just sat on the couch and talked for hours. It was great to catch up considering we all had not been together for about 6 years. The following day Shayna had to go to work at her internship so I was lucky enough to spend the day with Ilene. We spent the day running errands and going grocery shopping. It was so much fun to see all of the different markets in Dallas, and there are a lot of different stores. The prices also amazed me; strawberries were 79 cents as opposed to $3 in California. It was enjoyable to be able to help Ilene out. That night Shayna went out with her coworkers so Ilene and I had a simple homemade dinner. It was a nice end to the day.

On our way to the Casino, we stopped at the Oklahoma state line :-)

That night was a little less enjoyable since I ended up getting sick. For some reason dinner did not sit right with me, but nevertheless I survived because it was now Friday and it was my 24th birthday. Ilene, Shayna and I got in the car and headed to Oklahoma to gamble at the new Choctaw Casino that had just been built. It was great fun stopping at the Oklahoma welcome center. We then gambled the afternoon away; the casino even gave me $10 to gamble with since it was my birthday. My gambling skills were not up to par so I lost $15, but it was a fun way to celebrate my birthday. I don't remember what we had for dinner that night, but I'm sure it was delicious. Shayna and I ended the day with frozen yogurt and hours of conversation.

On the way back to Plano we stopped at the Texas state line....that was one big star

Saturday we all headed over to the Embassy Suites near the Convention Center to pick up Adrienne from her Mary Kay convention. We then headed over to get some ice cream. The rest of the day consisted of relaxing and chatting. We then headed out to dinner with Kristal, her boyfriend Kevin and Shayna's cousin and followed it up with bowling. It was a great night.

Adrienne and I at Braum's Ice Cream....delicious :-)

Shayna and I watching Karaoke in the bowling alley bar....it was quite

Sunday was a jam packed day. Ilene had planned a family barbecue which we prepped for most of the day. I was glad I could help out so much. Everyone came over around 3pm and we enjoyed a delicious homemade meal before Adrienne and I had to head back to the airport to catch our flight to L.A..

We actually ended up having our flight delayed and jumped onto an earlier flight so we could make our connection in Houston. We ran through both airports and of course everything worked out and we actually had time to rest before each flight. We had a relaxing flight to LAX and successfully ended our exciting Texas vacation.

Here's to hoping that everyone has the ability to travel and see all of the wondrous states in this country. It is truly amazing to see how people live throughout the country. :-)

Girlified :-/

So I am a bit behind with my blogs, so what better time than now to start catching up.

Let's hop in our fancy time machine and go back in time to July 9th. It was a beautiful Friday here in the Silicon Valley and I had the pleasure of spending the day in Los Gatos with Suzie.

We headed to Los Gatos and made a quick stop at the bakery. It was definitely interesting being on the other side of the counter. Suzie of course snacked on a banana cupcake and we then headed to lunch at Willow Street. Suzie and I were excited to pretend that we were some of the fancy Los Gatos wives that shop and eat out all day every day.

After lunch we headed over to the pedicure place. I was a bit nervous, but Suzie being the wonderful friend she was made me feel extremely comfortable. Needless to say, I now understand why pedicures are amazing. I received a wonderful massage and my toes looked beautiful. It was a wonderful day with a wonderful friend.

My Pretty Toes After the Pedicure :-)

The pedicure was not totally just for fun, because just a couple of days later was Kerri's wedding. Back in the time machine, it is now Sunday July 11th. Kevin and I got dressed up, or should I say Kevin got dressed up and then helped me safety pin my dress back together because the seam at the waist decided to self destruct minutes before leaving the house.

Kevin and me all dressed up....Photo Booth fun times at the wedding :-)

The wedding was beautiful out on a golf course in Gilroy and it was great to see everyone from the bakery again. It was a fun filled couple of days at the beginning of July in which Lindsey was girlified. Although it was fun, it was definitely a bit labor intensive for my style. Needless to say I have quickly returned to my t-shirt and capri lazy style which suits me quite nicely.

Myself and the Beautiful Bride Kerri :-)

Here's to hoping that we all have wonderful friends to spend time with and that we all have our moments of stepping out of our comfort zone and finding that it is more comfortable out there than we expected.

One Month Down....

So I have been officially unemployed for just over a month now. I have finally reached the point where I don't think about the bakery and what I would be doing if I was there at each hour of the day. I have finally adjusted to being able to do whatever I want, finish my "To Do List", and work on new hobbies.

Although I have adjusted it hasn't been easy. It is difficult to feel that not working is acceptable. I still have moments of panic where I feel like nothing is going to work out, I won't get into school, I'll never find a job, and that life will just fall apart. Normally at that point I go and find Kevin and he reminds me that everything will be okay.

I'm still not sure what my plans are come September. I have registered for the court reporting class at the community college and I have to see if I can get into any math classes at San Jose State. Not sure what will happen which is a little nerve wracking, but it is comforting to know that I do have the court reporting class guaranteed, assuming I can't get in to any math classes. It is all so complicated, except thankfully SJSU classes start the week before West Valley so I will know if I am able to attend the court reporting class in the end.

At this point I must keep reminding myself that there is no point in worrying about something you can't control. I don't know if the math classes will fill up, I don't know if I'll get my master's degree, I just don't know what is going to happen, but in the end everything will be okay because Kevin and I will go through it together.

Here's to hoping that whatever does happen come September makes me immensely happy and leads me down the most awesomely fun road on my journey through life.

Eagle, Birdie, Par, Bogey......no words to describe me

So recently.....well maybe a few months ago Kevin convinced me to go to the driving range with him and his friends. I was nervous considering I had not held a golf club since 8th grade, and even then I had no idea what I was doing. Teaching me any sport never went well and P.E. in 8th grade and golf did not go together. I was horribly out of shape, not that I'm in great shape now, and I was horribly uncoordinated. So needless to say I did not learn much of anything about golf then and I was terrified to start again.

The first time at the driving range was actually quite fun. Kevin explained pretty well how to hold the club and hit the ball. I did my best considering my shoulder is a little abnormal. I could hit the ball kind of consistently and hit it maybe 50 yards with a driver that is supposed to go much more.

Anyways, over the past few months we have been going to the driving range and I have been progressively improving, which means I can now hit the ball maybe 80% of the time and get it to move forward. I am not a professional golfer and have no desire to be; instead, I like hitting the balls. Thinking, analyzing, planning....all overrated topics for me. I simply put a ball down and swing the club.

Kevin and I decided a month or so ago that we would go to Mammoth with Kevin's parents in August, and while there they usually go golfing....real golfing. I barely knew how to hit a ball, let alone aim and get a ball into a hole. So we have been working on improving my skills.

This past weekend I had the chance to go golfing for real for the first time. It is called the Short Course at Santa Teresa Golf Club. It is just 9 holes all of which are par 3, meaning that a score of 27 is par. Awesome, I could totally do that....yeah right.

Me getting ready to hit the ball on the first hole on the first real golf course ever :-)

We played with Lionel and Jillian (it was her first time too). What a day it was. Needless to say I have a lot of room for improvement. Make that massive room for improvement. Kevin scored a 34 which averages out to Bogey golf. I scored 70 (remember 27 is par), twice as much as Kevin. Unfortunately golf does not have names for this score, so I will say that my score averages out to Lindsey golf. Lets just call any score as bad as mine Lindsey. Kevin got a birdie, Lionel got a par, Jillian got a Bogey and Lindsey got a Lindsey.

So next time I go real golfing, I will be able to name my score. When Kevin asks my score I will say I got a Lindsey, which averages out to about 5-8 above par. That is how good I am at real golf, or should I say how bad I am at it, that I can name my level of golf. Not many people can do that. Graeme McDowell, winner of the PGA tournament at Pebble Beach, (he has the same birthday as me) can't name his moves, he simply says par or what not. I plan on becoming famous in golf now, for how awesomely bad I play. My style of golf takes a lot of focus and effort, not just anyone can play like me.

Here's to hoping I improve slightly with golf, but not so much that I have to start using official terms to describe how I play....how unoriginal is it to say Bogey. I am unique and clearly must play the game that way and keep up my record.....don't want to let anyone down. :-D

FUNemployment

Well it has been about 3 1/2 weeks since I stopped working. The first week didn't feel different because I was busy traveling and hanging out with friends. It has finally start to hit me that I am unemployed and can do anything I want to. It is a bit overwhelming at times. So many projects to do, but where to start.

Yes, only I could be overwhelmed by having too many FUN projects to do. I'm working on finding more recipes to cook and bake, working on stained glass projects, and trying to get rid of stuff. All things I love, but with so much time to do them, I don't know where to start. I have more than 12 stained glass projects going, more than 200 new recipes and boxes of stuff I have collected over the years.

Other than being overwhelmed by fun things to do, I have dealt with being sick again. About a week ago I ended up back in the emergency room with the same stomach pain I had in January. It was the worst experience I had ever had at a hospital. The doctor was awful. She tried to discharge me twice without actually getting rid of the pain I came in with. Thankfully my two nurses were looking out for me and wanted me to feel better. Anyways, I still have to file my formal complaint against the doctor for her inability to actually treat me for my pain. In the end I did get morphine and the pain disappeared.

Me in the E.R.. I look excited because it was just after I receive the morphine, so no pain. I'm also pointing at my IV that says Baxter. Thanks Adrienne, your company makes the best things in the world. :-)

After a few day I was back to normal. Yesterday I saw my personal doctor and learned that I had gallstones that are all gone now, so my gallbladder is completely empty and normal. Hopefully it stays that way and I don't end up in the hospital again. I did learn that I also have kidney stones, yay. Random finding when doing the ultrasound in the E.R.. Thankfully the kidney stones shouldn't affect me at all. This is all just proof that I am my parents daughter; kidney stones from my father and gallstones from my mother. I love them more and more for all of the wonderful traits they have passed on to me.

Other than that, my few weeks of time off have been wonderful. Lots of relaxing and enjoying life. I'm looking forward to the next couple months: Kerri's wedding, visiting Shayna in Texas, visiting my family in L.A., and visiting Kevin's family in Mammoth. Should be an exciting time before I attempt to return to school.

With school, I have to wait for the first day of classes to try and crash classes. If I can't get into any of the necessary classes, it will delay my application to the master's program. I will cross that bridge when it comes because there is no need to worry about it now. No need worrying over things I can't change, I'm slowly learning this and putting it into practice.

Here's to hoping that this summer will be amazingly fun and that the rest of my life will be even more fun. :-)

Farewell Sweet Treats

So as most of my friends and family know, June 9th was my last day working at the bakery. For many reasons the work environment was no longer good and healthy for me. I made the decision to leave and go back to school and pursue a Masters degree in mathematics.

Me on my last Sunday - bittersweet

Sunday May 30 was the last Sunday I worked. Sunday's were my favorite day of the week. It was a calm relaxed day where everyone worked together as a team. In order to thank my fabulous Sunday group I decided to provide breakfast and snacks.

Breakfast and snack treats for my wonderful Sunday group :-)

It was a fun day with many of my friends and their families stopping by to see me off. I spent my lunch chatting with Kerri, Mira, Suzannah, Rachel, Warren and baby Aerik. After lunch Marissa and Megan from college stopped by. It was such an enjoyable day and if every day at work had been that enjoyable I probably would not have quit.

Regardless of how I felt at times during the day, I knew that leaving was the best thing for me. My last day of work did not feel any different than every day I worked. I continued to help customers, answer phones and do any work that needed to be done. I left the bakery with the same work ethic as when I started.

I did end my time at the bakery by giving hugs to my fellow employees, even some that I did not get along with so well. Lynn bought me flowers that were waiting for me when I clocked out. I left feeling complete. I was not sad or anything like that, I was simply content that I was making the right decision and moving on with my life.

The day at work was followed by dinner with Kerri, Rachel, Maggie, Suzie and their significant others. It was a treat to celebrate my last day with the people that made my work experience so wonderful.

Buca di Beppo with all of my favorite IOTC countergirls

As cliche as it may be, I am now onto another chapter in my life. I learned a lot from working at the bakery and I am now ready to move on to bigger and better things. I cannot guarantee that going back to school will go exactly as I planned. Let's be honest, it probably will not go as planned, but I am excited to see where life takes me.

Here's to hoping that everything works out and that my scenic route through life takes me through some beautiful places and on fun adventures. I am so excited for the future :-D

5 years of dating, 1 year of engagement, 1 fabulous weekend

Needless to say I am a little behind on blogging, but better late than never. About 2 1/2 weeks ago Kevin and I had the pleasure of going to Lake Tahoe for Doug and Laura's wedding. We made the decision early on to make the weekend into an extended vacation to celebrate being engaged for 1 year and dating for 5 years. It was an easy way to celebrate everything at once.

View from our hotel room :-)

We both took Friday June 5th off of work and made it a leisurely drive to North Lake Tahoe. The drive lead us through Sacramento and our state capital has the benefit of having Chick-fil-a. So Kevin and stopped there for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the food we had not had since college. We finished the drive through slightly raining weather and made it to the Cal Neva Resort early Friday afternoon. We settled into our hotel room and then ventured out to explore the lake.

We headed clockwise around the lake and stopped at a beautiful vista point. We continued driving and it was getting close to dinner so we ended up driving to South Lake Tahoe for dinner. We ate some awesome pizza, got some ice cream for dessert (watermelon sherbet for Kevin) and then headed back to the hotel. The adventure continued when a raccoon tried to follow us into the hotel, but the manager kept the curious little creature outside.


Just as we arrived at the hotel Doug called Kevin and we headed back out to hang out with all of the college friends with a crazy double game of beer pong. The tables crossed adding extra challenge. After a fun evening we went to sleep to re-energize for the wedding.

Day 2 commenced and we continued exploring. We drove around searching for a place for lunch and stopped at Steamer's. They had a beautiful back patio with a view of the lake. We ate delicious sandwiches and then walked down the beach to step foot in the beautiful lake. The day was quickly fleeting so we headed back to the hotel to change in time for the wedding.

View from lunch - just feet away from the beach

All dressed up, we headed over to the church. The ceremony was simple, yet beautiful and followed by a super fun reception. The reception ended, but the fun times did not. Everyone relocated to the hotel lobby and played pool and foosball. Kevin enjoyed the rest of the evening, while I headed off to bed after an exhausting day.

Dressed up for the wedding - too bad you can't see the lake behind us

Sunday was the day most people were heading home so we went out to breakfast at The Log Cabin with Kevin, Robert and Rob and their respective significant others. After breakfast we said our goodbyes and Kevin and I headed off to Reno.

The drive was only about an hour which was nice and along the way we stopped on the side of the road and played in the snow. We couldn't say no, especially since the snow was only a couple feet away from us.

Me with my little snowball on the side of the road :-)

We made it to Reno and gambled a little, went to the water driving range and overall had a relaxing fun day. We headed back to Tahoe and after a short nap, Kevin went out to get dinner. We ate in the hotel room and watched a Star Trek movie. It was definitely a good end to a fun day.

Kevin golfing at the water driving range - he really wanted the free soda

Monday brought day 4 of our vacation and the time to head home. We started the drive home and of course stopped at chick-fil-a again. We enjoyed the time together and celebrated our 1 year engagement anniversary by relaxing and enjoying the time.

Saying goodbye to our hotel as we headed home

It was a fabulous vacation and great to see old friends. Here's to hoping that every day can be as fun and relaxing as the time in Tahoe was. :-)

Summer Project

So with the last days of my job quickly disappearing, I am planning everything I will do with my newly found free time. I have the basic list of keeping the apartment clean, cooking and baking more, finishing up projects that have been left by the way side and other such things, but me being the OCD person I am decided that this was not enough.

In order to guarantee that I would always have something to do I have added on yet another thing to my to do list, and it is taking care of my new vegetable garden. Officially I am not sure if it can be called a vegetable garden since there are only a few planters sitting on my balcony, but it doesn't matter. Regardless of the officially term for what I am doing, it should keep me busy for the summer. I have to tend to the plants, keeping them watered, fertilizing and then trimming them and making sure they stay healthy and hopefully produce some delicious vegetables.

Vegetable Plants: Two Tomato Plants, Cucumber and a Watermelon Plant (just for


My Herb Planter: Rosemary, Basil and Chives

I'm looking forward to taking care of my new garden and hopefully learning a lot about plants and gardening along the way. Should be an adventurous summer with many new things learned along the way.

Here's to hoping that this summer is the best yet and that the fun times continue to happen :-)

just what I need......a new hobby

Recently I have become addicted to baking blogs. Reading one is so much fun and then they gracefully link or reference to another which I just have to look at. I start reading that blog and get addicting and then keep blindly linking to more and more blogs. My google reader keeps me up to date on all the blogs but that is not necessarily a good thing. A lot of the blogs keep showing cookies they have decorated and I find them intriguing. So my new plan is start decorating cookies like the picture below.


It doesn't seem that difficult: just make royal icing, outline, let dry, flood with royal icing, let dry and then draw on the details. Sure I say that it is easy now, but just wait for my blog after I actually try it.

So my plan for the summer is to bake tons of generic sugar cookies in a variety of shapes and keep the in my freezer. I will then make royal icing and decorate to my hearts content. We'll see how much I actually enjoy it and how good I am at it, but it doesn't matter because I just want to try it at least once.

Anyways that is all for now, there will definitely be posts about either the amazing cookies I decorated or the chaos and disaster that ensue.

Here's to hoping that new hobby becomes a joy and new passion for me, and may all your passions consume your life and make you more than joyous than you could ever imagine.

Am I a Bakeaholic?

So I have come to realize that I have a slight addiction to baking. It is not so much that I want to eat the sweets, as I really just enjoy baking. I enjoy measuring, mixing, scooping, timing, and yes I do take a taste (or two) in the end.

Chocolate Chip Muffins
(with a little too much chocolate, if that's even possible)

I have recently started to bake at least 3 things a week. Saturday mornings are my ideal time because it is my one day off at home and I can bake before Kevin ever wakes up.

Needless to say I am well on my way to reaching my goal of baking 30 new recipes this year. In fact, I only have a few more recipes left before the goal is met. :-)

Homemade Oreo Cookies

If anyone ever wants a sweet treat, feel free to stop by because I always seem to have containers full of sweets with no one to eat them.

Here's to hoping that I continue to love baking and I continue to find other who are willing to eat my baking creations :-)

Is 99 years enough?

This past Thursday, April 8 2010, a wonderful man ended his 99 year journey through life.

Kevin's grandfather, Bop, was one of the most amazing people. He had a calmness and passion to just have fun. He lived a life that extended through the invention of cars, TV's, computers and countless other things, but it was the simple things he enjoyed the most. Bop loved his crossword puzzles, back massages, bingo, and simply spending time with family.

Bop ended his 99 years in life but will live on in our hearts and minds for eternity.

All I can say is 99 years is more than enough time to live life if you thoroughly enjoy every moment.

Here's to living your life and taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself to you, and if you are lucky enough to live 99 amazing years, you will have lived each year to it's fullest.

May we remember Bop for the wonderful man he was, the amazing family he and Buba raised, and the knowledge and passion he has passed on to everyone he has met. 0:-)

Waste of a Saturday?

So am I the only person that feels like noon on a Saturday marks the day as almost over. I am lying on the couch typing this blog feeling like I have wasted away the day. Kevin, as usual, is still asleep even though we were supposed to leave the house 45 minutes ago to go to the Campbell Easter parade. Considering it starts in about half an hour, I can conclude we will not make it.

Lying around doing nothing makes me want the day to just be over. I have already wasted enough hours, why not waste the rest of the day too.

Not sure if anything will get done today....the only thing I am sure of is that today feels like a waste and it is hard to change that feeling around :-(

Here's to hoping something gets done today.

EDIT: we ended up going to a 41 acre pakr in the almaden hills and taking a 2 hour hike....yep, something did get done :-)

A Whole New Wardrobe without Shopping

So this year has been a year of productivity for me. My goal list is keeping me moving forward towards the person I want to be.

Weight loss is probably the most common new years goal, and it is on my list as well. I am making a conscious effort to lose weight and so far it is working. I have lost about 15 or 20 pounds already without any major work. No I am not taking a diet pill or doing some sort of trendy diet or cleanse system. I am simply trying to live a healthier lifestyle.

I have decreased the amount of food I eat to a more normal amount. Trust me I still eat whatever I want but I take the time to decide if I am really hungry or if I just want to eat. What a difference that has made. I am now aware of what feeling full feels like as opposed to feeling stuffed and sick from eating too much.

An unintentional side effect of the weight loss is the fact that I have lost enough weight to fit into some of my old clothing. It is so exciting to be able to wear shirts that I have not worn in more than a year. It is like a whole new wardrobe. I hate shopping so this is the best system ever. I get new clothes without shopping....and I know that they will fit me because they were my clothes to start with. Oh how wonderful life can be.

Here's to hoping that everyone achieves the goals they have set for themselves and that you enjoy the journey of reaching them :-) (maybe I'll post some before and after pictures of my weight loss in the next couple of months :-). )

New Years Goals Update....

So as almost everyone seems to do, the New Year is the time to make resolutions to make yourself a better person. I'm not sure if I ever officially made resolutions in the past, but if I did, I definitely did not stick to them. This year I decided to do something a little different, instead of making resolutions I made goals. Goals that I could keep track of and feel accomplished each time I note them in my excel spreadsheet (yes I have a spreadsheet for my goals :-P).

Anyways my goals included things like losing weight (of course) which I am actually doing well with, 10 pounds down. Other things are to cook 60 new recipes, bake 30 new recipes, blog 30 times, complete 12 stained glass projects and last but not least watch every single Star Trek movie.

I'm sure there are more goals on my list that I have forgotten but whatever. So I have already seen 2 of the movies and blogged quite a few times and I have been diligently working away on my cooking and baking. Here are some of the fun thin
gs I have made (yes, Kevin did help with the cooking, not so much with the baking :-P ).

8 Layer Cookies (Adrienne helped with these)

Black and White Cookies (Adrienne helped with these too)

Valentines Day Breakfast for Kevin (First time I ever made french toast and bacon :-) )

Well I guess that's enough photos for this update, but you can definitely see all of the fun things I have made over on facebook. I hope that everyone has become a better person in this new year whether it be by making resolutions or simply by being your wonderful natural self.

Here's to an ever more exciting year in which we can all become even better people than we already are :-)