Friends Forever

I have been taking a little journey of self discovery lately and loving every minute of it!
When I was 10 my parents bought their first house in Rialto, CA - in what we now call the I.E. (Inland Empire) and where I could not wait to move away from when I was 17!. The best thing about that house was the fact that a single mom and her two daughters moved in right next door right around the same time we did. The crazy thing about these two girls was they shared the exact same birthday two years apart (but polar opposites)! Patty is a year older than me and Christy a year younger (our birthdays are all in the fall). Now Patty being older was way too cool and did not have much tolerance for Christy and I, thankfully we met Karol who lived on the next block and the three of us were pretty much inseparable from the time I was 10 through 17. A lot happened around that time - my parents got divorced when I was 16, my first serious boyfriend, Karol's family moved, etc. Anyways - we were still together for about the next year or so, but nothing like our childhood, and then as these things sometimes happen I just lost touch with them. Completely my own fault, self absorbed, starting a family, very active boys, work alcoholic - I have an excuse for all of it. Between 20 and 39 no contact at all. I often wondered where they were and what they were doing, and then one day out of the blue in 2000 (while at work) I received a phone call from Christy. Seems Denny (always more resourceful than me) went to a reunion site - contacted the person heading up Christy's 20 year High School Reunion who sent Christy a letter on his behalf, and there we were after all these years making excited plans to see each other again. Turns out Christy lives about 20 minutes from where I work - how crazy is that? So we make plans for her to stop by my office . . . . where she completely surprises me by bringing Karol!
More craziness - Karol lives in Huntington Beach - 20 minutes from my house!
Christy and I both married young (exact same Anniversary even!) and have three boys. Karol held out and married later and has a daughter (Erika)- now 12, who is pretty much her spitting image!
Well we still do not see each other as often as I would like (once again my fault as Christy and Karol have been close friends forever with no gaps!), so it is always such a treat when I get to see them. One such occasion was the Saturday before Christmas. Christy had to be in Newport with Joe, her youngest son - which is also where her sister Patty lives, so she decided to spend the night at Karol's. The perfect excuse for a girl's dinner! It was the three of us - Joe, Erika, Karol's mom and Patty who came by later. I have not seen Karol's mom or Patty since High School! I had the best time! I stayed until midnight, and if not for the fact that we are no longer the girls who could stay up all night talking and making crazy plans for our futures I easily could have talked for hours more!
Having friends who knew you as a young girl can be scary and enlightening all at the same time. Karol is completely insightful where I am concerned somehow. She makes comments about my childhood and how it molded me as an adult that I have never thought about or connected. Perfect example "I am not surprised you work in the Entertainment Industry as an adult, when we were kids and you would spend the night we would be watching old movies on the TV, I would fall asleep only to wake up and find you still sitting there glued to the movie until it ended - you loved them!"
I am pretty sure if I really needed (or wanted) to figure out the basis of any of my faults (yes, I admit I have faults!), I could ask Karol and she could pinpoint the exact moment from my childhood that something happened that would correlate!
The other thing I discovered about having been best friends as kids is that different personalities as adults has no bearing on our friendship. Karol the tomboy, Christy the low key, easy going one and then me, the high maintenance girly girl (also known as a total pain in the ass). I know that if I met these two as adults we would not have had enough in common to form a relationship - and I have learned that would be a terrible waste and a shame. I cannot imagine how different my life would have turned out if not for these two amazing people I am proud to call my friends. Next step in my journey is to not label people I have just met. Every person is unique and special to someone. Also to spend more time with Christy and Karol!

My first slumber party

okay not actually mine (I never had one growing up) but my 9 year old granddaughters, and happy to report I held up much better than I anticipated I would.
Having raised all boys I had missed out on the tradition of the birthday party sleepover - boys "camp out" or "have a few friends over", a completely different event.
Kajah's birthday was actually last Saturday, but as it usually falls on Thanksgiving weekend her sleepover was moved to this past Saturday, Dec. 6th. My daughter (in-law to be technical) last year had 8 girls and declared this year that was two too many, so it was 5 plus Kajah. Since it is year end at work I have been crazy busy so I was not able to fly up (they live outside of Sacramento) until late Friday - did not get to the house until about midnight. We were up early Saturday morning as we had a ton of things to do to get ready, pick up last minute groceries, get balloons filled, etc. Kajah decided on a Luau themed party - nothing like a luau in December? - did I mention she is 9? The drop off time was 6 pm, and the girls had about an hour of junk food and playing on their own before we officially kicked off activities. For her Luau Kajah wanted a nacho bar ( it was her party and she will eat what she wants to), so Kisha at least made fruit kabobs to try to keep within the theme of the evening. Nachos and fruit were a huge success. After eating we moved onto the games - and this is where we totally scored (in our opinion anyway), we had hula hoop and limbo contests. I assure you nothing wears a bunch of girls out like a hula hoop contest, and we had two rounds of each one! I was the official "activities director" and of course our activity of the evening was a mini-scrapbook in a tin. I have to say I was a little nervous but the girls loved it and were all very proud of their projects - I think one of the highlights was they discovered double stick tape (tape runners) for the first time and were thrilled with them, and equally excited that they got to take them home with them. We printed out pictures of the girls I took during the earlier part of the evening and these were there keepsakes from the party. Between the games and the project the girls were worn out and so they ended up having birthday cupcakes in their sleeping bags before we started movies, they actually never got past the first one. After cupcakes they all laid down and we started the movie at 11:30. 4 of the 6 girls were sound asleep within the first 15 minutes, and the last two did not make it through the movie either! Of course they woke up a little after 6, but really not bad - we thought they would be up so much later than they were. Pick up time was 10:00 this morning and then I only had about another half hour before I had to leave for the airport myself. Everyone survived and as the last girls left Kisha asked if I was available same time next year :) I think I had as much fun as my granddaughter did!

Holy Moly!

it's the holidays and time is flying WAY TOO FAST! Really - I have not had the time to post in over a month! Unacceptable! The problem is October, November, December aside from the holidays are the busiest and happiest months of the year for me. There are all the birthday's - holiday decorating - change in weather (well okay maybe not here in So.Cal) - and I am actually keeping that promise to scrapbook for me, but not much free time!
Aside from that as of the end of October I started celebrating the last year of my forties! I am keeping an actual journal (which has never lasted more than three entries in my entire life) and I am having fun just jotting down everyday things as well as random facts about me, i.e. - right now I love the song "Love Me Dead" by Ludo - my husband thinks I have somehow had and survived a stroke! I hope when someone finds and reads it 49 years from now they see a true snapshot of who I really am. My mom passed away when I was 34 - I would give anything to be able to have random thoughts and tidbits of wisdom from her, I don't think a daughter ever gets over losing her mentor and role model.
Okay enough of that - don't really have time to travel down that road today!.

Not enought hours in the day

to get everything done I would like to do. However I did manager to finish a layout this week and it is almost current (only off by a month!). I have decided to commit myself to working on MY scrapping every week - which means for ME. I am famous for creating things that are for other people and/or gifts, and I have very little of my own stuff.
Aside from that it is Saturday and the Dodgers are down 2-0 to the Phillies. They better pull out the game tomorrow or they will be swept the same way they swept the Cubs last week! Won't even go into detail (yet) of how unhappy Denny was during that game and how much fun my dad and I were having!

It's Finally October!

And I could not be happier, it is time for the Halloween decorations to go up (although since Denny has been out of town I was able to start a week ago)! Most of the projects are finished and already given out, just a few more things to work on.
I was so excited to see that M&M's came in a new Halloween color scheme this year. Prior years it has always just been orange and black but now we have "Monster Mash"! They have added green and purple to the mix - I love it!
October also means baseball is almost over. The rivalry in the house has gotten very ugly in the last week. We all know my side of the family are devoted Dodger fans, when my Grandpa passed away the two things I took were his Brooklyn Dodger Pennant and the transistor radio he listened to the games on. Now that being said I am very torn during the first round of the playoffs. Denny of course works for the Cubs . . . and I truly do want to see them make it through for his sake and to lift the curse of all those long suffering fans, but now that the Dodgers are up two games I can't help but be a little excited. Denny, my dad and myself are all going to the game @ Dodger stadium tomorrow night. My did will be so tickled if the Dodgers sweep. I personally would like to see the series go at least until Sunday so Cory and Amber can go to the game on Sunday.

I hate summer colds!

I should know better . . . Valen started pre-school on Wednesday, Sept 3rd, by Sunday he had a cold and since I had spent the day trying to get a family photo so he would have one for his class room, I had it by Tuesday night. Now of course he was over it in a few days no worse for wear - not so true for me. Wednesday I knew I was going down for the count and worked late anyway, Thursday and Friday were spent home in bed (thankfully I work from home on Fridays anyway)! I never even got out of bed Thursday! Had a regular doctor appointment on Friday afternoon and he gave me a prescription for antibiotics in case it was not better by Sunday. Friday night ended up being the worst of it - I did not sleep at all, up every couple of hours with that horrible post-nasal drip cough that feels like you are hacking up a lung! Drugs were not even working at that point. Saturday I went and stocked up on all new over-the-counter drugs and finally slept a solid seven hours Saturday night! Woke up this morning feeling at least human again - which meant I could run all my errands, do laundry and go to a Scrapbook class which I signed up for over a month ago!
My scrapbook class was a Halloween project, great way to salvage my almost completely lost weekend.
Also received some good news - Eric, Kisha and the kids are coming down for Thanksgiving! Kisha has already informed me I need to be up and out the door for the Christmas sales the day after Thanksgiving. I can't imagine I could actually get up @ 3:30 am for any other reason than to shop! Only two months away . . . where has this year gone?

the end of Summer

Labor Day always means the end of another summer to me, even though Denny does not recognize it until Baseball ends!
What a great four days off. Janine and I had a great time Friday @ Disneyland and can't wait to go back in both September and October now that she has her own annual pass!
Friday night was the kickoff of the Orange International Street Fair and of course we were there shortly after the it opened @ 5:00. The first stop of course was Ginza for Denny's beef Teriyaki strips - I think over the weekend he had about 15 of them!
We were very happy to learn that Rod's Liquor was going to be open again this year after they had it closed last year. It's not that we drink that much (actually this is only one of three times a year Denny will have more than one beer!), it's just that it is tradition - with a better selection (I don't drink beer) and better prices than the street vendors. I think Rod's being closed last year (and the fact that it was 110 degrees) really hurt the fair last year.
Of course there were bratwursts, BBQ corn and the opportunity to see old friends we only see maybe once or twice a year. Cory tended bar at the Elk's Lodge on both Friday and Sunday nights so when it got too hot - too crowded and we needed a clean bathroom (no porta-potties!), we would head over to the lodge and take a break. Friday night @ the fair was spent with Becke & George and Sunday with Steve & Carol Leavitt.
Now Monday has rolled around and it is time to get errands run, see the grandkids and get things in order to go back to work tomorrow - oh well.
The end of summer is not so bad as it rolls right into my favorite season - FALL!

A few moments of down time

It has been a completely crazy week @ work! I must have put in 70 hours in the last five days, mostly on budgets for shows that don't even exist yet. And I have to work making more changes tomorrow Sunday, UGH! - as though I could not think of better ways to spend the day.

Very happy that Halloween decorations are in the stores. I have already completely stocked up for various projects I want to get done before the end of September. Some Halloween banners, decorated candy containers for the office and the house and surprise treats for the kids and my friends. Already starting to work on layouts for this year's batch of Halloween photos of the grandkids - can you now see that work is interferring with my spare time?

Very much looking forward to next weekend - Labor Day. Four whole days off! Janine (bff) and I are going to Disneyland Friday morning (can't wait for lunch @ The Blue Bayou) since we need to be back at the house by 4:00 pm. The Orange International Street Fair kicks off @ 5:00 and heaven forbid Denny is not there when it opens! The only thing he looks more forward to during the year than the street fair is the night before Thanksgiving in Corona at the Wilkerson's.

Back to my normal (if there is such a thing) life . . .

I would never have quessed that after 8 days I would really not be ready to send the kids back home! I completely broke down after they were back on the plane and on the way back to their parents. There is obviously something wrong with me (and those of you thay know me too well can keep your snarkey comments to yourselves!)
It was such a busy week, most of it even went according to plan! We went to Knott's Berry Farm - the O.C. Fair - the movies with thier cousin (Valen), took Kajah to see "Wicked" (Her first stage musical!), and even managed to get in a portrait setting with all four of the grandkids!
If you asked them their favorite thing we did all week, it was the fair - we had a GREAT time! Fair food (highly reccomend the Totally Fried Oreo's!) - the exhibits (I could spend all day in the Visual Arts Bldg looking at the photography), and of course the carnival rides (thank goodness for unlimited ride wristbands on Tuesdays and Wednesday for $20!)! We had perfect weather and I was so thrilled to have both Denny and my BF Janine there too! Denny and Cory kept the kids over the carnival area so Janine and I could go explore the exhibits for awhile and then we releived them (Den and Cory left around 3:30) and had them the rest of the day - we did not leave the fair until 8:30 that night!
The other excitment we had was Cory, the kids and I were all at Knott's Berry Farm when the Chino Hills earthquake hit @ 11:42 am on the 29th! Ty and Kajah had never been in an earthquake before. Cory and Ty were strapped into "Ghost Rider" (the large wooden rollercoaster) and seconds away from leaving the platform when it hit - scared poor Ty who was really not all that keen about going on the coaster anyway! It would not have been that bad if they then did not have to shut down every ride in the park for over an hour - children get very bored very quickly when they percieve "There is nothing to do!"
The week went by very quickly and I hope we get to do this again next summer!

Well at least I have activities planned for the entire week

Tyler and Kajah are coming to spend 8 days with us for the first time without their parents. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I can't wait to have them here but Cory is almost 26 and I am a little out of practice when it comes to running full time with children.
I hope after the week they remember this as one of the best vacations they have ever had. There was nothing better than being the center of attention while spending time with my grandparents as a child - and I hope they feel the same way!
It is so cute - Kisha is looking forward to down time without them, but on the other hand I can tell she is getting a little anxious. Calling to remind me about sunscreen - making sure I have the list of what they will or won't eat, etc.
Wish me luck - I know I will need a vacation from my vacation to recoup after they go back home.

I don't even keep a journal!

So why do I think I will keep up a blog and really is anybody that interested in what I have to say? Maybe it will be easier for family and friends to keep tabs on me!
Last week was our 25th Wedding Anniversay which we spent in New York (I had to work for most of it but oh well). Had a great time as we saw four different Broadway shows in the 7 days we were there, my idea of heaven! We had dinner on our Anniversary at "The Twenty One Club". It was very nice as they gave us a table in a corner and then did not seat anyone next to us - not trying to sound anti-social, it just made it a little more romantic. 25 years, I still can't believe it myself and then I look at myself in the mirror and suddenly remember that yes, enough time has passed that I deserve those laugh lines around my eyes (I refuse to call them crow's feet).
Well there you have it, my first entry . . . I don't think it's too bad