Carrots for Easter

I was surfing around and found the idea that inspired the picture below. We are hosting Easter brunch at our house on the Riviera aka our Desert house. I presented the basket to my husband and asked, "Do they look like carrots?" Well, he gave me the face, you know crinkled up forehead with silly grin. So I told him to use his imagination. This was a super cheap project thanks to the 99 cent store. All of the items were there. Total project cost $10. Yes, we are hosting a large brunch!

Here it comes...FALL!

The last month has been an emotional roller coaster for us. The biggest hill and drop of that roller coaster was dropping off our youngest at college and coming home to an empty house. (well, not so empty with Roxy and Dude aka deet da dee) John and I are enjoying it, but we do miss both of our kids. Michael stops by from time to time. When he does stop, he crashes on the couch and sleeps. Kevin, will be coming home in a week for the weekend, but those plans may change. In the meantime, John and I have kept ourselves pretty darn busy!

Here are some images from the last month or so:

Kevin packing up to go to college. Notice Roxy there on the side? She was very concerned.


Kevin's new home at the University of La Verne. Move in Day



The weekend after we left Kevin at College, I flew out to Arizona to celebrate my friend Janel's 40th Birthday. All day Saturday we prepped, cooked and baked for her party. I baked and decorated the cupcakes. I LOVE baking and decorating cupcakes!


I came home from Arizona and two hours later John and I were headed out to our desert house for an overnight with our friends. We brought our friend Flat Mary Beth aka Flat MB. We had a blast taking pictures of her with all sorts of folks and things. I had also taken her to Arizona and a previous trip to Las Vegas with the girls. The whole thing started because Mary Beth couldn't make it to Las Vegas with us. So of course we found the most hideous picture we could find and made her flat so she could come with us!



So we came home early (really early) on Monday morning so that we could get going with our jobs/work/coaching/whatever it is we had to do....I had to get down to San Diego for a COE conference and John had to get to work. COE is the Council for Opportunity in Education. The highlight of the conference for me was having the opportunity to help out with setting up the 21st Century Classroom and taking pictures of Congressman Louis Stokes.

There were 4 sections of our 21st Century Classroom. A lecture hall, Brainstorming Area, Collaberative area and a workgroup area. Below is the Brainstorming area.



Here is one of my "official" photographer pictures of Congressman Louis Stokes greeting folks.



After the COE conference (a whole weeks worth),I came home and guess what? I was home for a couple of hours and we headed back out to the desert house. The next morning, John and I left from there to head to the University of La Verne to watch Kevin's Scrimmage Football game.

Here is Kevin during "pre" game drills



The next day, John and I went out with Justin and Paige to go visit the newly renovated North Shores Yacht Club on the Salton Sea. We packed a lunch and visite with the Museum folks. What a great time!



Here is a view of the sea from one of the portholes of the Clubhouse



On Labor day we went back to Escondido and enjoyed a BBQ at the Hurkman's house. I didn't take any pictures there. I wish I had now. The food was yummy and the company was even better!

This upcomming weekend promises to be busy. It's the 1st home game for Orange Glen High School and John is one of the coaches for the football team. In addition to it being the first home game, they are playing on a brand spanking new field! Then Saturday we are off to Citrus College to go watch Kevin in his first official College football game. Go LEOPARDS!!!!!

Wow! It's been a BUSY summer & and it's not over yet!

I feel like I've neglected my blog. I just had one of my facebook friends post on facebook wall that he enjoyed my blog and it triggered my brain, that yes, I do have a blog and I've been neglecting it. It's been just super busy...here is what I have been up to the last month or so.

DENVER
Starting in the last week of June I went to an Education Technology Conference in Denver call ISTE which stands for International Society for Technology in Education. I caught up with a lot of old Friends, made some new friends and gathered a lot of information for work.

Here is a group of us being super silly at a little shindig after the day's events. This was one of those opportunities to hang out with old friends and make new ones as well.



4TH OF JULY
After coming home from Denver, it was unpack and repack for a few days out in the desert to celebrate the 4th of July. It is an annual tradition to go participate in the Ocotillo Wells 4th of July Golf event. This is the 3rd year I have been the official photographer for the event.

This year the entire Donnellon family got to attend. I was so pleased that we got to all do it together. Here is a picture of all of my "boys".



There was also a 4th of July parade with the local fire department comming out and wetting us down. Good times!


LAS VEGAS VACATION
3 days after comming home from 4th of July weekend we took off for Las Vegas with a group of our friends.



This trip Kevin and John got to go play in fancy Cars, Kev an Audi & John a Ferrari. Kevin also opted to jump off of the Stratosphere. What? Yup! He did the tallest controlled free fall in the world and jumped off of the Stratosphere. Here is the video to prove it.



After coming home from Las Vegas, I got to stay home for 5 days and then it was off to:

HAWAII
Hawaii was an incredible experience. My company promotes and facilitates 1 to 1 mobile computing in schools and we had the incredible opportunity to go support Nanakuli High School in Hawaii along side Toshiba and the New Tech Network. We facilitated 2 days worth of "out of the box" experiences" for 160 high school freshman who all each recieved a Toshiba Laptop for their day to day high school activities. They will be doing project based learning that is facilitated by New Tech Network. It's such an exciting time for these kids. I can't wait to go back and see all of their accomplishments.
Here is a short video of the program. You'll actually see me in there too!



After Hawaii, I was home for one night to go hang out with some friends out in the desert house

WEEKEND IN THE DESERT

I invited a couple of my girlfriends to come out and relax for a weekend of fun at my desert place. Movies, crafts and a night out at Captain Jims. Good times!

Here I am doing Amber's make up. Amber has her cocktail in hand ready to be "hoochied" up for the evenings activites.



After my weekend in the desert it was back home for a night then off to

CHICAGO

In Chicago I was asked to present at the All Schools Conference for the New Tech Network. Wow! What another amazing experience. I did a presentation on Geocaching and actually had the group I presented to go out and experience geocaching. I set up a course outside of the hotel with 11 geocaches. The entire group had a fantastic time and I loved introducing them to something new.

I even got my own session "annoucement".



So now I am back home for a week and I'm off to Kansas City in a week for yet another presentation on Geocachig and particpation on a Technology Commission that I was asked to be a part of. From there I'm back to Las Vegas for a couple of days, home and then a few short days later, Kevin leaves for college I can't wait to start watching him play football again. University of LaVerne, here he comes!

4th of July - Ocotillo Wells

Last weekend we had an incredible time out in the desert. We attended the 29th annual Ocotillo Wells Golf Tournament. The Golf tournament helped raise money for Thundering Trails and Friends of Ocotillo Well.

Courses are set up thoughout two trailer parks. Golf Clubs are handed out along with a tennis ball. Every hole had a cooler filled up with beverages (both alcoholic and non) At one of the holes, the sponsor was BBQing hotdogs. BBQ hotdogs are the best on 4th of July.

After the tournament there was a 4th of July Parade. Everyone decorated their golf carts, trucks, you name it and they participaed in the parade down Split Moutain road past the Iron Door bar. Calfire even got in on the fun and partipated with a few trucks there. Two of the trucks sprayed water onto the crowd. It as easily over 100 degrees outside and the water was refreshing.

Take a look at the photos and video I took during the event. Press the pause button on my pink playlist on the bottom right so that you can enjoy the sound from the video. Really a good time! Special thanks to all the sponsors and folks that put this event together!

12 of 12 for June 2010

12 of 12 for June landed on a weekend. It also landed on a Saturday with no real plans. However as the day progressed, the plans came together.

1. First picture of the day was of our back yard. Yes, it is June Gloom.
Most times it burns off by afternoon. Sometimes it hangs out all day.


2. FINALLY! I made it to the grocery store!


3. and was able to get some fresh fruit.


4. Then it was off to Kobey's Swap meet down at the San Diego Sports Arena with my two girlfriends, Julie and Debbie. Unfortunately what we went down there for was not there. I spent 6 dollars. Bought a $2 harness for Dude (picture further below) $2 worth of funnels for my husband (50 cents apiece) and a $2 calculator for work.


5. Along with going with Julie and Deb to the swap meet, Julie's Daughter and my "niece" Melissa and her friend Vicky joined us.


6. On the way back to Escondido from the swap meet we stopped in Rancho Penasquitos for some frozen Yogurt


7. The Frozen yogurt place was called Tutti Fruiti. It was a self serve place, meaning pick the flavor you wanted and the toppings you wanted. It was all then weighed to give us a final cost.


8. Here is Dude aka Deet da dee with his new harness on that I purchased at the swap meet. It rendered him unable to move and completely freaked him out. In an effort to get him used to it, I left it on him for the afternoon. He stayed put the whole afternoon. Finally took it off of him at dinner time.


9. Since last week I have been CRAVING a lemon meringue pie. So I finally made one. This time my meringue turned out perfect which was amazing.


10. Here is a Caesar Salad that I put together for dinner minus the dressing. So simple, yet so good.


11. Here is "AL" the bunny rabbit at our friends Jim and Julie's house. Funny story about "Al". "Al" was purchased up in the Garment district in Los Angeles on a street corner as a baby. As a baby "Al" was named Alice. Turns out baby bunny wasn't a little girl bunny but a baby boy. The Hurkman family figured this out after 6 months and a visit to the vet.


12. We went over to Jim and Julie's house to watch the movie 2012. Come to find out after watching the movie there was a 4.9 earthquake felt all over San Diego County during the movie. We didn't even feel it. It's probably a good thing we didn't.

Crazy busy!

What a crazy busy time this has been. Kevin prom, Kevin Graduating, Kevin's Birthday / Graduation party, Kevin up to University of LaVerne for placement testing. But enough about Kevin then there's the work junk. It's busy season for my business and it's been busy. I hope and pray that nobody stops by and visits the house because it is embarrassingly messy. Oh and we are running low on food in the cupboards, not because we can't afford it, but because I haven't had the time, nor taken the time to get my hiney to the store. Bananas crazy for sure! It's amazing I'm fitting the blog in. I just had to, it's my happy relaxation thing. I know, weird.

Here is a picture that pretty much sums up where I would like to be doing this minute as well. I took this yesterday. Kevin had just finished up with workouts at school with his coach and he was beat. I don't know what Roxy's excuse was. I really do wish I had the dog's life sometimes. Now I certainly get that saying now, "It's a dog's life!". (or is there such thing as that saying?)



And on the other couch we have Dude aka Deet da dee.......enjoying his afternoon nap.



This past weekend we had the graduation / 18th Birthday party for Kevin. Kevin and his buddies set up the biggest slip and slide our yard has ever seen. All the kids had a blast. This is video of Kevin going down:


I'm going to close off this blog only because I'm off to another meeting. This one should be fun as we're having it at Hacienda de Vega.

And I think sometime this weekend or tomorrow I'm going to make that lemon meringue pie I've been craving. My mom always made the best lemon meringue pie! Plus we have some HUGE lemons on our lemon tree that need to be used!

12 of 12 for May 2010

It's 12 of 12 day photo project. Every month, on the 12th day of the month, take photos and post 12 that express what your day was like.

As luck would have it, this month my 12 of 12 landed while I am in Hawaii on a business trip. Here are my 12 pictures that defined my day in the Aloha State.

#1 - 1st picture of the day was of my work area here in my hotel room. I am staying at the Marriott in Waikiki. Love Marriott properties, this just happens to be one of my favorites. Also, it's early here, because my body hasn't quite adjusted to Hawaiian time yet. We are 3 hours behind Pacific Standard time, therefore I was up at 5 a.m. ready to go!


#2 - Here is the hotel lobby. I met the "girls" down here for breakfast and a quick meeting before we headed out for our day's activities.


#3 - Our meeting at 10 was at the State Offices in Honolulu.


#4 - The elevator in the State Offices had a tropical/jungle theme on the walls. LOVED it. Here is Julie and Elizabeth in the "jungle"


#5 - On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Leonard's for some malasadas. Malasadas are big donut holes with a cream filling. Very very yummy. The bakery has many other yummy treats too!


#6 - Back in my hotel room. We ordered room service for lunch and finished off our big proposal and practiced on presentations.


#7 - Any time I travel alone without my family, "stuffy" is my replacement. "Stuffy" was given to me by my oldest son Michael about 7 years ago for Christmas for this very purpose. I've taken pictures of "stuffy" during my various travels. I've come back to my room being made up to see "stuffy" in interesting situations. I've had maids make a bed for him, snuggle him up in the pillows and one time *gasp!* thrown on my suitcase! "Stuffy" is an accomplished Traveler for sure!


#8 - After work and preparation was done, we took off for a beautiful beach view via a world famous bar and enjoyed a Mai Tai!


#9 - And of course we had to indulge in the "world famous" Hula pie from Dukes.


#10 - The view wasn't bad either.


#11 - After Dukes, we wanted to head to the "pink" hotel, the Royal Hawaiian. Beautiful property. And here is the view as we finished off our night with one finial Mai Tai.


#12 - Final picture for the day is all three of us enjoying a beverage. It struck us as funny that the sign I am holding said no drinks on the beach. However, the bar was "on" the beach. Hmmmmm........regardless, it was good time with good friends and co-workers! Julie, myself and Elizabeth.