Me

I recently had my photos taken by Alicia Gines. Just for fun. She's building her portfolio.

It was the first time in my adult-life that I've had photos taken of just me. It's very hard to be on the other side of the camera.

See my photos HERE.

And her blog post HERE.

Purple Pancakes

Aunt Janeice taught me that coloring pancakes make them taste so much better. At least the kids think it does.

Colored pancakes are a special treat; I don't color them every time I make them. But Josh and Carley sure love it when I do.



Sometimes it's the little things that make life memorable.

Labor Day Weekend

We took advantage of the long weekend and made a quick trip down to Walt's mom's house. We all love going there. Great company and delicious food with a little beach thrown on the side. Who could ask for anything more?

The first day was beautiful. We went to the beach to play for a little bit.

Unfortunately it was nearly dinner time when we decided to go, so the kids weren't in their bathing suits.

We all had a good time anyway.

We went to the Tar Pits Park beach.

It's so interesting. Tar just runs out of the hillside like a mini-river. It's decomposing animals from eons ago.

On Sunday we went to Rincon Point. The weather wasn't a sunny and warm.

That didn't really matter though. Nothing would stop us from enjoying the beach.

On the way home, we visited the San Luis Obispo de Telosa mission. Josh did a research report on it this spring so I figured we should check out the real deal.



It was beautiful of course.

We read Josh's report on the way to the mission so we were well informed.

Out of all the California missions, the San Luis Obispo mission has the largest collection of Indian artifacts.


Nearby is "Bubblegum Alley." We had to stop and check it out. It's wonderful and disgusting at the same time.

We couldn't visit without adding our own gum! See Carley back there sticking hers on the wall? Walt, on the other hand, wanted to recycle the gum.

Josh decided to add his to a piece of paper. All that black between the colorful, chewed gum is not wall. It's actually moldy gum! Ack!

It was a good time anyway.

Whoa!

The school year has started with FULL force.

I started back at Sac State last Tuesday. That's a week after the kids started. And about 12 weeks after the last exam back in spring semester.


Just because Wendy reminded me here is a picture from my first day of school. I'm a dork. But I've got to keep with tradition. The kids get "first day of school" pictures, why not me? After all, I'm a kid at heart.

Okay, back to the topic at hand... the craziness of the school year.

I'm taking the same number of classes I did last semester but I feel so overwhelmed already! I guess it's because of summer break that had no deadlines or bedtimes. Summer loosened me up. Let me run free and stretch my legs.

That is NOT the case now. I'm 1 1/2 weeks into the semester and I feel like I'm 3 weeks behind on lectures and study time.

I just thought I'd let you know I'm trying to settle into a school routine. I'll get into it. Just about the time that the semester is finishing up I'm sure.

Go Hornets!

Around the World in a Day

My sister, Shelly, visited for a week just about the time that the kids started school. While she was here we went to San Francisco for the day. Just us, no children allowed.


First stop was Coit Tower.


Then we parked the car at Ghirardelli Square and travel the "world" via cable car.


We had a light snack at a little English tea shop. Oolong tea and scones for me. It was lovely.


Lunch was in Chinatown. Chinatown was my favorite spot of the day. It truly felt like we were somewhere different than San Francisco.


While in Chinatown, we visited a fortune cookie factory. These women stuff and fold 10,000 fortune cookies a day! Of course we bought some to bring home.


We took an hour rest in Washington Square Park across the street from Saint Peter & Paul's Cathedral. It was a beautiful day.


Dinner was in North Beach (Little Italy) and was absolutely delicious. The gnocchi I had was made fresh that day and melted in my mouth like soft cheese.


We headed back to Ghirardelli Square for a hot fudge sundae dessert. Oh the chocolate!


We drove over the Golden Gate bridge on the way home. Shelly's never been across it before. Unfortunately the fog had rolled in and this was the only view we got of the bridge. Oh well, next time.

To view Shelly's post of this trip, click here.