When the rubber meets the road

Yesterday the big day finally arrived. Weeks of preparation were about to be realized. Friday involved the setting up of rental table and chairs, hanging paper lanterns, food prep, and putting together a good mix of music on my iPod. The following pictures hopefully capture some of the fruits of our labor. Unfortunately, the number of pictures that I took were meager. I was so busy keeping the party flowing by ensuring that food trays were replenished and that everyone was having a good time that I had few opportunities to capture the event photographically. So I'll share what I've got.
This was the view from our french doors that go out on our upper deck. You can see the paper lanterns, the and various umbrellas and tables that we set up. The potted flowers that I purchased at Trader Joes were the center pieces for the tables. Some faired better than others, but I did my best to keep them alive. However, you can see that the red flowers in the center of the table are drooping a bit. I remedied the situation with a little H2O before the guests arrived. I also placed bowls of chips and salsa on all the tables to encourage everyone to sit at tables to visit rather than congest the food area. That strategy met with limited success as everyone insisted on hanging out around the food area.
We had two tents that we erected on our lower deck. To the right we have a beautiful tiered water fountain, that surprisingly ended up to be entertainment for the young ones. Good thing I had a dryer handy so the mom's could quickly dry their little ones out and redress them. No nudity allowed at this party...it just was not that kind of party!
Here's a view from the far side of our upper deck. In the distant background you can see where the food area was. We had lots of shaded areas, but it turned out to not be a too hot and sunny day, so everyone faired very well hanging out in the back yard.
Here's our tiered fountain that fascinated the children. It was so lovely on the lower deck. I have to point out that the potted vine on the left was planted only two weeks ago. And when I planted it, it was only 2 feet tall. Please note how rapidly it grew! I had to start looping it through the bricks that border the top of the wall. Quite frankly I am impressed with myself. Or is that taking too much credit?

Here's Dan and our best friend Greg enjoying our lower deck and probably telling each other all sorts of lies...as men often do. I guess the thumbs up means that he's having a good time. I have to also say that Greg felt it was his responsibility to ensure that I had enough margaritas. Before dinner was served he had me on my third! I ended the night with having a total of five margaritas. Put it this way, I was very relaxed and happy by the end of the evening. So snaps to Greg.
This is Rich, the daddy to be. We simply love him. He is such a good guy and the perfect match for our precious Jen. Unfortunately I failed to get a good picture of him with Jen.
Here they are opening their presents. Of course I failed to capture the size of her belly. I had to take a picture when she covered it with a gift bag, oh poop!

Here a couple of Rich's friends. The guy on the right is Eddie. After telling me what a beautiful yard and home we had, he proceeded to ask if he could have his wedding here. I was gobsmacked and graciously declined the request. Further demonstrating his good taste, he also told me that I was the best hostess that he ever met. Now I know that he was just buttering me up for the subsequent request, but I decided to believe him because...I have a sufficiently big ego. So sue me.
Amy is pictured on the left. She is Eddie's intended. She proceeded to ask me to cater her wedding. Again, I have to assume that she was only kidding, but to be on the safe side I used my brilliant sense of humor to decline her request. Note the drooping red flowers. I sure do have the touch.
I could not have put this party on successfully without my best friend Mona. She's married to Greg the pusher of margaritas. She worked her butt off. I asked her to marry me. She kindly declined, but said we could still be best friends.
This is Luke and Diane. She is my sister in law. I couldn't have done it without her as well. She too worked her butt off. I didn't ask her to marry me as we're already related by marriage and I thought that was enough. At the end of the party we all agreed to meet back at our house at 11 am to clean up. All of us went to bed with that plan clearly in mind. I awoke around 9:30 am and as I began dressing I thought I heard feet walking on the deck below. I quickly finished dressing and got downstairs as quickly as I could. It wasn't 11 am and someone was cheating by starting early. Who could these offenders be? I walked out through the french doors pictured above and was greeted with a completely cleared deck. Diane and her husband, Luke, who has to be the best brother in law in the world had almost completed the cleaning up. I was in a state of ecstatic shock. I still felt so tired and achy from the night before that I wasn't looking forward to hauling chairs and tables. But I didn't have to. When I arrived, Dan and Luke were collapsing the tents and putting them away in their carriers. The only thing left was taking down the paper lanterns and emptying the drink containers of lemonade and margarita mix. As each of the others arrived at 11 am to begin the cleaning up, each was greeted with the welcome news that their services were not needed. What was so impressive was that so many willing hearts and hands showed up to help. I am so fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends who are always there to help out and support us whenever there is a need. The amount of money and possessions pale in comparison to the riches we have with family and friends. We love you all!

Birthdays and Showers

On Friday, June 27, my daughter Chelsea turned 16 years old. The day of her birth remains burned into my memory. It was a day that transformed me. My baby is now turning into a woman and she makes me proud for so many reasons. She is very mature for her years and she often challenges me during our conversations. It is not unusual for me to say, "where did you come from?" I ask this not in a derisive manner, but to indicate that I can't believe that someone as intelligent and thoughtful as her came from my loins. Chelsea graciously said that it was okay to schedule my neices baby shower for June 28, knowing full well that on her birthday I would be up to my neck in party stuff. Her bestfriend, Van, who lives in Gridley which is 1/2 hour away, came for the day. They decided to walk to the mall which is easily 3 miles away and they spent the day going from store to store doing who knows what, but she expressed to me at the end of the day that her birthday was just great. Having Van up for the day is not the sum total of Chelsea's birthday. In fact, on July 11 we are going to be flying down to San Diego for the day to celebrate her 16th with her two aunts and her grandmother, so there is more celebrating to do.

Now onto the shower preparations. It was very important to me that our yard look lovely for the day, so our landscaper Dave showed up and really spruced the place up. Here is what he did. In our front yard we have a beautiful rock fountain. When he originally installed it he placed ferns around it. The ferns promptly died over the winter and they've look horrid ever since, so he took the dead ferns out and replaced them with the most beautiful array of flowering plants.
In the front plantar the impatiens that he planted months ago are blooming beautifully along with some really delicate ground cover. The back plantar and fountain area you can see some of the flowers.
This is the plantar located to the left of our front yard. Unfortunately the hydrangea that I posted pictures of when it was at its brightest pink has now faded. But, Dave planted some New Guinea impatiens which are much larger and hardier looking.

This is a close up of our fountain plantar. The fountain is running and you can see it if you look closely enough. Too bad I didn't take a video of it because the sound of the water running is so beautiful and relaxing. Aren't all the colors in the flowers beautiful?

This is the plantar located at the south side our our house. He planted yellow snapdragons. Again, just beautiful.

Another view of our fountain plantar. I love our Japanese maple tree.

This is one of the lovely New Guinea impatiens.
More New Guinea impatiens, but they are little ones.

He also gave me some vibrant begonias. He told me they should last the rest of the year.

Here is the pink version of the New Guinea impatiens. I simply loved what Dave did to make our front yard look stunning.

And the prep goes on

For the past few days it has been party prep all day long. Yesterday Dan and I worked outside getting the backyard ready. This involved washing down several pieces of furniture so that they no longer served as lodgings for various multi-legged creatures. Dan replaced the pump in our fountain so that it works now and then he further amazed me by purchasing a misting system and installed it with my help. I barely recognized us, as we are not typically the DIY type of people. We usually hire people to do this sort of thing. So I was really quite impressed with what we got done yesterday. We expect the temperature to be in the high 90's, possibly even breaking 100 degrees. We don't want all the guests collapsing from heat stroke. Hopefully all the steps we are taking to provide as much shade as possible will decrease the discomfort that we all will probably be feeling. As of today there are about 60 people coming, however there are still many more who have not RSVPed and so its a crap shoot whether or not they will show up. What's with people being so rude and not RSVPing? It makes estimating how much food and drink to purchase very difficult. In addition, we've had several people RSVP who informed us that they plan to bring their little children. At this point we have a total of nine children coming and our house is not child safe. We have a pool that is completely not protected, several staircases without gates and toxic substances in cupboards that are at floor level.

Today I went to Costco and purchased the alcohol and several other food items that will keep for the next few days. The big grocery shopping day will be Wednesday and food prep will begin almost immediately thereafter. My biggest concern is that I have one small oven and I'm prepping numerous items that require baking. This means running next door to my sister in laws and using her two ovens. Good thing I have great running shoes.

Pray for their survival!

I've already established that I have a brown thumb. But I persist in making fool hardy choices when it comes to plants. When trying to come up with something simple for table centerpieces, my mom suggested that I go to Trader Joe's and pick up some flowers there. Don't you just love Trader Joe's? We only a couple of years ago finally got a Trader Joe's and I never understood the fanatical loyalty and awe that dripped from those who had access to a Trader Joe's. I resisted going to the new Trader Joe's for months after it first opened. Maybe I stayed away out of fear of becoming one of the "pod people" who swear their allegiance. Finally I broke down and went. I immediately fell in love and count myself among the ranks of loyalists. But I have digressed. Back to my mission of finding centerpieces. When I arrived I was greeted by the most luscious array of potted flowers that were so reasonably prices ($4.49 - 4.99). Even though it meant that I would have to actually keep them alive for 8 more days, I foolishly rushed in with my shopping cart. Filled the whole cart up and bravely walked over to the checkout and purchased them.
Here are the flowers. I simply love the variety of pots. I particularly love the yellow ones that are potted in a really nice yellow ceramic pot. I placed them in my kitchen window box and immediately watered them. Then it occurred to me that I might end up killing them by overwatering them...yikes! Please pray for their survival.

Isn't Target the best?

Now that I'm back from vacation and feeling better after being sick these past couple of days, I decided it was time to get the party planning into full gear. Before leaving for vacation I investigated having the event catered, but when I saw the ridiculously high prices I couldn't bring myself to get the charge card out. So I decided to serve chicken fajitas, a very easy entree to make. Of course I'll have beans, which I can make in my sleep and rice, which I couldn't make right to save my life. So I'm having a local restaurant make the rice. My first stop was the restaurant supply store where I bought these wire chafing dishes.
They cost $9.99 and as you can see in the picture they provide the sterno and aluminum serving dishes. I'll simply make the chicken fajitas and the beans a day or two in advance, store them in the aluminum pans and simply reheat before the party. It shouldn't be too difficult.
This is what they look like assembled and you can see I purchased a bunch of extra serving pans. I contacted the restaurant and ordered 8 quarts of rice and I'm simply going to drop a few of these serving pans off at the restaurant on Friday and they will put my rice order in our serving pans. So it will be heat and eat! I'm feeling pretty good at this point.

I was very organized this morning. I actually made a list of items that I wanted to shop for today. I then went to Cost Plus and checked out their prices, then I went to Lowe's and checked out their prices, then I went to Target and was amazed to see that everything cost about half of what the other two stores charged. I purchased all the "paper" plates and cups in these festive colors.
I needed some big serving bowls as well as condiment bowls and I found these cute plastic serving bowls. They were only $1.99 a piece. I was sad because they didn't have serving bowls in green and they only had two red. They had matching smaller bowls which I will use for condiments. Do you see how perfectly they match the paper plates and cups?
What inspired this whole color scheme were the paper lanterns that I found at Target. I purchased a total of 30 paper lanterns and I think they are going to make great decorations. I'm going to hang them under my deck where I plan on setting up the buffet tables. Doesn't everything look like they were made to go together? I'm terribly pleased with myself.
Here's what the paper lantern looks like and I have them in blue, yellow, green, and red. I got all of these supplies for only $92 dollars. Isn't Target the best? I'm really starting to get excited about giving this party.

The Humboldt Fire

Last Thursday night we were driving north on Interstate 5 returning to our hotel at Disneyland after having a wonderful dinner at Numero Uno Pizza when our cell phone rang. When we answered it, it was my brother in law Fred calling to tell us that a fire was currently burning near our property on Williams Road and that most of Paradise had been evacuated. Whenever we hear about fire now we become very concerned as last year my older sister Tere and her family lost their home in the fires in San Diego. Fred assured us that even though the fire came close to our house, the fire had passed by us and there really was no real threat anymore to our home. One of the first things we wanted to do upon returning home on Friday was to check out our property, however the Durham Pentz Highway was still closed and we had to wait until Saturday to check out our property. Now I realize that concern over a piece of land burning is rather low on the priority list, but our property really needs the trees that it has as it is a rather hot and dry part of the county. If our property had burned, which it really looked like it did from Highway 99, we could easily deal with it, but we would be saddened to lose the trees. The entire area looked like someone took black fabric and laid it across the entire area. So we set our mind to accept that our property had burned. Our primary concern was our neighbors and how their houses faired. I took my camera and recorded the following pictures. We were quite amazed to find what we did.


The is Williams Road as we are driving up to our property. The hill in the background is where our property is. You can see the sea of black, however it appears that our property still is golden brown!
We stopped the car to get a better picture of our property from a distance. The smell of burned grass was heavy in the air.
Here is our property. Not a single blade of grass burned.
However, our neighbors across Williams Road were not as lucky. The great news is that no one lost their home in this development. The firefighters put up a tremendous fight and at each house you see how the first came right up to the edge of each house, but no further.
The is the other side of our property that is along Cory Canyon Road. Again the neighbor on the other side of the road had all of their land burned.

The is a close up of the land on the other side of Cory Canyon road. Our neighbor had just put up a new wood fence and it is hard to see it in the distance, but there wasn't much left of the fence, but you can see their house stands untouched.
This is our second driveway into our property. Our neighbor put this concrete driveway in and as you can see on the left of the driveway the land is untouched, while the other side is blackened. Our neighbor stayed up over night with his son and fought along side the fire fighters.
This picture was taken from our building pad. You can see our road down to the secondary building site in the bottom right of the picture, the golden grass on our property, Cory Canyon Road and our neighbor's scorched land.
This picture was taken on our other driveway and on the right of the driveway is our other neighbor's property and as you can see his land was burned. The other side of the driveway is our property and is as golden as it should be this time of year. We took the following video to show a 360 degree view of the area.

The happiest place on earth!

We've just returned from the happiest place on earth....Disneyland. I was quite wary about this vacation choice, but it turned out to be one of our better vacations. We left early Monday morning to make the 7 1/2 hour drive down to LA. We arrived about 2:30 pm and immediately checked into the Grand Californian Hotel. What a beautiful hotel it was! I have to say that it is one of my favorite hotels thus far. The lobby was beautiful. The woodwork and spaciousness were breathtaking. Our room was conveniently located and the beds were actually comfortable. We settled in quickly and decided to enjoy Disneyland immediately. We took the monorail over to Tomorrowland and began to orient ourselves. We were astounded by the number of people who were there and were a bit taken back by the length of lines, so we opted to take the train around the park to further get our bearings. We decided to go and walk around Downtown Disney and then have an early dinner and return to the park in the evening. This turned out to be the best strategy as we arrived back at Disneyland right before the fireworks show. Everyone was crowded into the Main Street area. We scurried off to take advantage of NO LINES! We walked right into the Pirates of the Carribean ride. They have really improved that ride. There was a few more dramatic drops and the animatronics were much improved. We then walked right into the Haunted Mansion. That ride was pretty much how I remembered it when it first was created. We walked around a little more deciding what rides we were going to be sure to ride during our vacation and then returned to our hotel room. Overall, it was a wonderful first day.

The next morning we slept in a bit and went to IHOP for breakfast. IHOP is Cody's favorite, however it certainly is not mine. Cody had chocolate chip pancakes, chocolate milk, bacon, and hashbrowns. After watching him consume this rather disgusting breakfast we headed off for California Adventure. This is a second Disney park which is geared to the older crowd. It has a roller coaster and other more advanced rides. Our first stop was Soarin' California.
While waiting in line you pass different displays and as you can see there are pictures of aviation and interesting captions to keep you from wanting to kill yourself as you wait forever in these lines.
I bought a new hat to shade myself from the sun. I readily admit that I'm not a hat person, but boy was I grateful that I had it. The Soarin' California ride was amazing. You are buckled into a seat and then the seat moves out over a ledge leaving your feet dangling. Then a huge screen with various images of California flash in front of you as the apparatus moves giving the illusion that you are flying over landmarks like Yosemite, the ocean, and other beautiful landmarks. They even spray scents that match the landscape you are flying over. This was one of the best rides in the park.
Later that day we made arrangements to meet Chelsea's friend from the internet. I promised her not to post a picture of her and her friend, but I didn't promise not to post a picture of Dan and I and his parents. His parents were wonderful people and we had a great time talking and getting to know each other. Unfortunately, Chelsea did not have the same positive experience and suffice it to say that she no longer wishes to continue growing that friendship. His parents were the tiniest people! We look like Amazon people next to them.

The next morning Chelsea wanted to go to Toontown so that she could take a picture of Ariel for her favorite teacher's 3 year old daughter Gracie. Unfortunately the characters that came out were Micky Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, and Goofy. So instead we decided to take some pictures of sitting in the various displays.

This is Goofy's car and I barely fit.
After much begging I finally got Chelsea to get into Mickey's car for this pic. I think it is really a cute picture of her and she had to agree once she saw it.
Much to Chelsea's horror I made her take a picture of me in Minnie's living room.
I was having a hot flash. Can you see the profuse perspiration on my forehead and cheeks? Please find me the nearest fan!!!!

Later that day, my mom, little sister, my nephew and neice came up to visit us in Downtown Disney. We had the best time. We sat around and talked for a bit, got a snack before dinner and then went to the Rainforest Cafe. We had the best waiter who really added to the fun time that we were already having. I can't remember the last time that we've laughed so much.
Caralyn and I are very close. Share similar interests, taste, and sense of humor. I couldn't ask for a better sister and I'm so happy that she and the kids were able to come up for a brief visit.
Earlier that day Chelsea and I went off on our own to explore Disneyland a little more. We took this picture for my friend Mona who is a horse woman. Pretty horse, pretty girl!
Here's the magic castle with my little princess who deserves to live in magic castle.
We then met up with the boys who wanted to use some of their testosterone by shooting something.

So, we went to the shooting gallery where they shot things and felt much better afterwards.
You can see the deep satisfactions and peacefulness that results from expressing their testosterone laden need to shoot things.
Next stop was Splash Mountain. We had fast passes, but we had about 20 minutes to kill before our appointment time. So we enjoyed watching Eeyore greet the crowd.
We found some shade and Chelsea contemplated her wait alone while we had all the fun on Splash Mountain. She refused to go....too scary.

Our last day we decided to try to get on the Finding Nemo Submarine ride, so we got up early, arrived at the Monorail before it opened. Once open we hopped on thinking we would arrive before the general public did, thereby avoiding the long lines. Good idea, but it just didn't work that way. By the time we arrived, the line was already wrapping arond the Matterhorn which meant about a 2 hour wait....NOT. So instead we went on the Autopia ride, which is probably the most stupid ride in the entire park. The only good thing about it was that I got to do it with Cody.
Here's Cody giving me a look of cocky satisfaction regarding his driving skills.
Then we met up with Dan at California Adventure where Cody decided to face his fear of the roller coaster, Screamin' California. After riding on the roller coaster, he bravely rode on the ride that shoots straight up and then drops rapidly, a ride that I refuse to go on. This picture was taken after the completion of both these rides. Cody's expression is a mixture of pure joy of facing the challenge and slight relief that it's over. The Screamin' California coaster is the best coaster that I've been on. Dan and I became slightly addicted. Dan rode on it 4 times and I rode on it 3 times. Believe me it would have been more, but the lines prohibited any more rides.
After the excitement of the coaster and the other ride, the boys decided to throw some baseballs. Here's the video of their attempt to win a cheap stuffed animal.

After this we left the park to get a late lunch at our favorite pizzeria from our college days, Numero Uno. It was just as good as we remembered it to be. After that we returned to California Adventure one more time where we all rode our favorite ride. Chelsea rode the Ferris Wheel, Cody rode the Grizzly Bear Run (a water ride where you get soaked), and Dan and I rode the Screamin' Calforinia one more time. We returned to the room, packed our bags, went to bed early, arising at 5 am to leave for our long trip home. What a great family vacation!