Arizona

In early May my dad, and step mom Michelle moved to Arizona, but my baby sis Cassidy (she's 16) stayed in CA to finish the school year.

My brother Tim and I just got back on the 16th from taking her out to AZ. It was a fun trip!! I've really missed my dad, and even though we didn't see each other every day it's hard knowing I can't just go see him anytime.

It was hard being away from Paul for that long, but he was away at a conference on Church history that week. That's why I planned the trip when I did.

There aren't many pics from the trip and what I did take was on my phone so the quality may not be so great.  :/

There's also a short video of a lightning storm!

The view on the drive up. We're almost there!!

Cassidy on our first day exploring.

Dad & Tim on our first day fishing.

Cassidy & her new friend!  :)

Our dinner that night...the BIG one was mine! ;)

My dinner!!

Tim & Cookie on the back porch. 

Pretty rainbow (view from backyard)!

Same rainbow.

Michelle, Cookie, Tink (chihuahua), and Bella (Mastiff) relaxing!

Tim at the top the mountain at the ski resort. We rode up, but hiked down. Tim, Cassidy, and I didn't stay on the trail, we went into the trees where we knew there were bears and things because we saw a bear cub cross the trail on the way up.  It was fun!!

Another view.

Cookie chillin' on the back porch...I think she misses it! :(

This storm went on all day, the day before we left. I'm just glad it was clear the next morning.

Isn't she CUTE!!

My sister took this pictures over the weekend, and since they're the best pictures (in my opinion) taken of Cookie I felt I should post them here.

 I think this one is my favorite!

Memorial Day Weekend

Getting back into blogging....

I know, I know, I've said that before, but I really mean it this time.

Today caught up on housework, but I still have a lot to do tomorrow...ugh!!

This weekend was great. Saturday we went to a party with all of the people who were on the Holy Land trip with us, and we had a great time. Sunday, after Mass we went to my moms and hung out with her and my brother who had his two dogs with him (Zion & Kia), and since we had Cookie with us it made for an interesting visit. It was still fun though! On  Monday once Paul got home from golfing we went for a walk by a lake near our library with Cookie (pics below), got lunch, then napped, watched Bridge on the River Kwai, had dinner and went to bed.  I'm sure people assume that since it's just the two of us, we spend time like that all the time, but we really don't, so yesterday was a much needed relax with your sweetie kinda day!!

Nice night. Excited about tomorrow.

Once the sun was nearly down I took Cookie out to play for a while, and since it's so nice out I decided to come sit at the patio table and do something I've been neglecting for quite some time... :)

It really is a beautiful evening, and it's especially nice after the extremely hot day we just had. I only wish we had eaten dinner outside. We had pan seared Red Snapper, and it was yummy! Perfect for al fresco eating.

Tomorrow is the day of our 5k, and even though I'm not as prepared as I would like, I'm super excited!!! My goal was to be able to run the whole thing, and I'm not sure I'll make it, especially if it's as hot as it's been the last few days. I'm still really looking forward to it. I'll just do what I can do!

My mom's birthday is Sunday, but we are going to take her out to lunch tomorrow as well (my brother too!). We were going to spend the day the OC Food Truck Fest, but it's just too hot and I think we'd all end up in a bad mood. We're going to try out a new burger place so Paul is really excited, it's really cute!!

BTW, my mom is going to be 65!! Wow!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

I LOVE YOU!!!!

I hope that everyone has a happy and blessed weekend!

Our New Addition

On Wednesday afternoon Paul & I brought home a new family member, a little Cockapoo. She's only 9 weeks old and very tiny, she's also a lot of work! :)

We haven't officially named her yet but we're working on it & if after looking at her pictures you have any ideas let me know.

She sure is fun, and super cute, and we're really enjoying her.

Arizona

This weekend I went to Arizona with my dad, step mom, and my youngest sister. My dad plans on moving out of state when he retires so the trip was basically us checking out the area.

I however was really looking forward to some picture taking. The area they are looking at is in the mountains, so there was plenty of snow on the ground. I love snow!!

Here are some of what I consider to be my best photos, and since I love black & whites that what I did to most of them.

Penny Pizzas

Had some left-over cheese and pepperoni from my brother-in-law Sean and came up with the idea of making mini-pizzas. We call them "penny pizzas", so-called because the cheese and the pepperoni were free, so all we had to do was pay for the Triscuits.

The cheese we used for the pizzas was a smoked mozzarella, and to some of the pizzas we added green olives. It was really yummy!! Some may say they can't be called pizzas 'cos there's no sauce, but we didn't have any, so that's why it's not there.

Just put everything in the oven at 425 for 8-10 minutes & they're ready to enjoy!

Good Times

I hope that everyone has a fun, relaxing, happy, great, and blessed weekend!

I will be spending the entire day with my mom, which I haven't done in a while so I'm really looking forward to it. We don't really have any plans, I'm just gonna show up & we'll figure it out from there, that seems to work for us.

I don't think we have any plans for Sunday, just stay home and relax (except for Mass), maybe catch up on some reading.

Happy weekend to all!

Another Year Older

Yesterday I turned 29 and it was a wonderful day. Thanks Honey!! I got to open presents first thing in the morning (a great start), and I love all of them, especially my self cleaning fish bowl!!! Best thing EVER!! Can't wait for it to be ready to put the fish in. I also love my new books, vase, and thimble curio cabinet.

Paul took me out to breakfast & since it was my B-Day I was able to justify chicken fried steak & hash browns--sooooooo Good!! Bowling was next on the list. It was lots of fun. I wish we did that more often, I really need the practice and I love it. My best score was 77, so there's plenty of room for improvement. On our way home we went to Pet Smart to buy our new pets, we got two Calico Goldfish (I think), they had the most personality. Once we got home I set up the bowl thinking I could add the fish right away & we have to wait 24 hours for the filter to be ready--poor fishees!!

While I was taking care of my tank Paul was baking me a cake. He made a flourless chocolate cake that had pecans in it and topped it with homemade whipped cream made with Splenda. It was really, really GOOD!! You couldn't even tell he didn't use sugar in the whipped cream, or the cake. Paul was determined to make a healthy birthday cake & he did an awesome job, thanks Sweetie!! Pictures are below. Went to a new place for dinner (can't remember name), it was very nice, and the food was great. I have to admit I couldn't wait to get home and have some cake!

In a funk

I've been in a bit of a funk the last couple of weeks and I'm going to say that's why I haven't posted in a while. I do have some articles I'd like to post and videos too, so I'll probably spend the next couple of days doing that.

I did have a great weekend though. Saturday Paul and I spent the day with my brother and my mom--it was my moms birthday!! My mom just turned 64. It's hard to believe she's in her 60's, but it's also hard to believe I'll be 29 next week.

Well I hope you all had a nice weekend & I wish you a wonderful week also.

Weekend Happenings!!

This weekend I hung out with "the kids", well just on Sat and we didn't do anything too thrilling, but we had fun. "The Kids" is how I refer to my younger sisters (Kelsey & Cassidy), even though Kels is 18 now, and my niece and nephew (Cierra & Sean).

I got to meet Cassidy's new dog, and most of the time was spent playing with her. The dog's name is Bella and she's a Mastiff--and so CUTE!! Of course I did very little petting since I'm highly allergic, and I still had an allergy attack, oh well. We played Scattergories until my dad got home, had dinner, after dinner we actually got him to play a game with us. :) The bummer was just as I was leaving my little brother (Tim 27, lol) showed up, and he came over 'Cos he just found out I was there. :(

Sunday was pretty relaxing, we went to Mass, then went to lunch, and once we got home just read & talked. It was a nice day.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend, I'd love to hear about what you did.

Bella!! Not the best pic, but it was taken with my phone.