Christmas Weekend

There is such a build-up to Christmas and then it is over...


We went to the Christmas Eve service at Trinity Life Center. It was very nice. We hadn't had supper before we went to church so afterwards we went across the street to Brookfields to eat. We weren't sure if they'd even be open. There were a few people from church there. There was a late PGR Welcome Home mission at the airport so we went to participate. Surprisely enough there were about 38 people there for the welcome home. By the time we headed home the fog had gotten really thick.


Christmas Day dawned with rain...a pretty heavy storm...lots of wind and rain. Christmas morning is the only time I fix breakfast. I had a horrible night with my coughing so when I got up Gerry was already awake. He offered to fix it...as it turned out...we did it together...scrambled eggs, sausage links, biscuits (thanks to the "dough boy") and some fruit. I cleaned the kitchen up. Then for dinner I fixed a sirloin tip roast, baked potatoes, fresh steamed green beans and rice salad. I didn't fix a dessert...we didn't miss it.


We laid around and watched TV most of the day. Sunday was a nice day...after church we drove up to Sweet Pea's in Auburn to eat. Gerry wanted their Oatmeal Raisin pancake. It is so huge, covers the entire plate. He does good to finish one of them. He tried 2 once and barely was able to finish it. I had a club sandwich. After we left there we drove north out of Auburn on country roads, driving through the towns of Mt. Vernon, Mt Pleasant, Sheridan and Lincoln. It was a beautiful drive...the fields were all green after all the rain we've had...and it is always enjoyable to see the livestock grazing in the fields. From Lincoln we drove into Roseville, stopping at Bel Air before coming home. I wanted to get some sandwich rolls so we could make some roast beef sandwiches later.


We didn't get each other anything for Christmas. Denise sent us another Creative Memories calendar. Every page is loaded with awesome pictures of all of them. I am going to cut the pages on this year's calendar and put them in an album. The calendar is made that the top is a 12x12 page that will fit in an album. The bottom part can be discarded.


We woke up to rain again this morning. It has been raining all day.

Christmas 2010 Card & Letter

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given...And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace". Isaiah 9:6


Another Christmas is upon us...to once again celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.


How quickly the days go by or so it seems. Maybe it is because we are getting older that it seems that way. This year has been a busy year or at least we have managed to stay busy. Gerry continues to ride with his bicycle club and I've been busy at my craft table participating in over 25 card swaps. Most of them have been online swaps on the Splitcoast Stampers web site. I did very little with cards last year so I've been making up for it this year.


The kids and grandkids are all doing well. Grandkids Seth, Ashley and Rebekah-Elizabeth will graduate from high school next year; Seth and Rebekah-Elizabeth have plans to go to college. (Addition: I forgot this in the letter that was mailed with our cards -- Granddaughter Geraldine will also graduate next year and I'm sure she has plans for college). Nathanael is in the Army stationed at Ft. Bragg Army Post in Fayetteville, NC. This is where Stephen was stationed and Nathanael grew up in Fayetteville. He is a combat medic in the 82nd Airborne. Stephen was also in the 82nd Airborne. We've learned recently that Nathanael is engaged to be married. He took Megan Elizabeth home to Enterprise, AL for Thanksgiving and to meet the family. They haven't set a date yet. Denise said in her Facebook status that she's getting the best daughter-in-law. Rebekah-Elizabeth has a special young man in her life.


On November 1st we celebrated our 30th anniversary with a trip to the coast. It was an enjoyable time and we had great weather too.


Last year in May (2009) we drove across country to Enterprise, AL where Denise and Stephen live. Nathanael was graduating from high school. We were gone for 4 weeks stopping along the way to visit family and sightsee. We had a great time visiting Keith in Ft. Worth and ate some yummy BBQ while in Texas. The last day we were in Alabama, we all drove down to the Gulf Coast. We ate at a restaurant that was located right on the beach. The Gulf of Mexico is beautiful, the water a beautiful turquoise blue. Heading back west we spent a couple of days in Louisiana, visited an Acadian village and enjoyed the drive into Texas along the Intracoastal Waterway. While in Louisiana we enjoyed a ferry ride across the Mississippi River. We stayed in Houston for a couple of days visiting the Johnson Space Center and driving down to Galveston. We took a ferry ride there too and saw the destruction left by a hurricane that blew through the area in 2008. The trip was fantastic, however, it was good to get home. Somehow living out of suitcases gets to be a bit much and we just wanted to be able to sleep in our bed again.


In closing, may Christmas be an enjoyable time with family and friends. And 2011 be a year filled with many blessings.

Mele Kalikimaka & Hau'oli Makahiki Hou
(Merry Christmas & Happy New Year)

Gerry & Betty Townsend

My New Do

I went to see Brent this afternoon for a much needed haircut. I had an appointment with him 3 weeks ago, had to cancel and then I got sick. I called yesterday about noon and was surprised that he had an opening today...and that he was even working today. His normal days are Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Because of the short week, he was working some extra time.


Anyway, I told him I wanted to go short...he said "how short"...and I said up to my ears. So he gave me some layers in the back and shorter bangs. He didn't do any color this time...he said the color still looked good from when he did it in September. What he does is give me some low lights blending the gray hair and still leaving some gray. The gray is mostly at my temples and down the sides. Its covered up so it can't really be seen.


I really like the style and am happy to have no hair on my neck. I'll just need to go in more often. After I uploaded the pictures to my computer and was looking at them, I thought my face looks really bad with no makeup! LOL!!

He gave me an upsweep in the back.

I posted these on Facebook too. :)

My first birthday

I thought I would post some childhood pictures of me occasionally. This one was taken on the front lawn of my grandmother's house at 738 Palani Street, Honolulu, HI (in Kapahulu). It was my 1st birthday. There is an apartment building where my grandmother's house was located.


During the summer of 1971, I took a trip back home with Denise. She was about 20 months old. I took a picture of her in the same spot. Rumor goes that I loved to suck my big toe on my right foot when I was a baby...I know...pretty yuck! LOL!!


I have so many fond memories of being at grandma's house. She was my mother's mother. We didn't know my father's parents as they had died by the time us kids came along.

What A Night!!!

Gerry was told that tonight at the Roseville Galleria Mall there was going to be a "flash mob" singing of the Hallelujah Chorus in the food court or in front of Penney's. Both of us have seen different "Youtubes" of this sort of thing happening so we decided to go see.


We were having Comcast come this afternoon to change our Internet and Telephone service from AT&T to Comcast. The technician arrived on time and it didn't take him long to do what needed to be done. Gerry said the "flash mob" was happening at 7pm. So we left here about 5:30pm to give us plenty of time to get there and get a viewing spot. The traffic and crowds would be a nightmare. We got there by 6pm and didn't have too much trouble finding a parking spot. I believe I mentioned in an earlier post that there was a horrendous fire at the Galleria back in October and the part that was heavily damaged was closed off. We were on the upper level and finally got over to Penney's. We stood there for about an hour. Gerry looked at his phone at 7pm and nothing was happening. Then we overheard some people saying that there was a huge crowd over by the food court. So we walked over there. There were so many people in that location that it got kind of scary. I was starting to panic and told Gerry I needed to get out of there. There was no where to move. Gerry told me to hold on to him and he was going to try and move away from there. Just then an announcement was made that the Fire Department was closing the Mall and evacuating people. There were lots of booing going on. We managed to get away and started to walk towards Nordstroms where there is an exit to a section of the parking lot. Gerry told me to go outside and wait for him and he would bring the car around to get me. We had parked on the opposite side of the mall.


I had decided not to take a purse with me and I also didn't have my cell phone with me so I couldn't call him. He had to walk quite a distance to get to the car and then he couldn't move for the traffic. I was beginning to panic and 2 different ladies offered their phone to me to call him. The first time he didn't answer his phone. He answered when a 2nd lady offered her phone to me. He told me that he had parked the car and was waiting for the traffic to thin out. I guess at one point he had walked back into the mall. That must have been when I called him the first time. Anyway, the 2nd lady and her daughter offered to stay with me until he came. She came to the mall to do her Christmas shopping. He finally managed to get to me after almost 2 hours of waiting.


We were telling everyone that walked up to the doors that the mall was closed and what happened. Gerry said he saw a long line of ambulances and fire trucks waiting as he walked to the car. There was even a helicopter overhead. A couple of camera men walked up to the doors too.


According to online newstories, people were saying that they could feel the floor on the 2nd level creaking and popping and supposedly there were cracks in the flooring. Gerry isn't believing those reports.


The choral group went outside and performed. They were members of the Sacramento Choral Group and people from some local churches.


We went over to Mimi's across the street from the mall and had something to eat. As soon as I got in the car, I started coughing and could not stop. As soon as we got home I took some cough syrup and a cold pill. I got so cold and being sick was not a good thing.


We were so bummed in not hearing the choral group and then the whole nightmare of trying to connect. I've sung the Hallelujah Chorus many times and always enjoyed doing it...it would have been fantastic to have been able to hear it tonight.


On the rain storms, we had some sun today, lots of wind, no rain. I think tomorrow is suppose to be nice with more rain tomorrow night and Wednesday. Clear on Thursday and then more rain for Christmas. The lunar eclipse is going on right now, the skies were clear when we came in at 10:30pm and the moon could be seen.


I think I'm going to take more cough syrup and go to sleep.

Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake

I follow several food blogs. One of them is called Plain Chicken. The blogger posted this recipe a few weeks ago. I made it tonight except that I made it without the chicken. It was very good, a little rich with all the different cheeses.


Here's the recipe:
1 - 16 oz package of penne or elbow macaroni
2 - 10 oz containers of refrigerated Alfredo sauce
1 - 8 oz container of sour cream
1 - 15 oz container of ricotta cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups of cooked chicken, chopped
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 cups mozzarella cheese

Prepare pasta according to package directions, drain and return to pot. Stir together all ingredients except mozzarella cheese. Spread mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly.


www.plainchicken.blogspot.com

Rain and More Rain. etc.

It started raining yesterday and it continues. According to the weather people, it will be raining into next week. And after these storms are over, another storm is expected Christmas Eve. The wind has been pretty strong too. Supposedly it is going to be a wet winter, thanks to a La Nina weather pattern.


The coughing lingers on...it is mostly bad at night. I have been sleeping better and that's a good thing. The wet weather certainly doesn't help matters. At least we're not having real cold temperatures.


I need to clean up my craft table. I came in from our shoebox swap 2 weeks ago, dropped everything down on my table and there it still sits. I have a couple of SCS swaps that are due the first part of January so I really, seriously, need to be working on them. Somehow I can't get into a mood to even think about them. Of course being sick hasn't helped getting motivated.


Two weeks ago I had a hair appointment...cancelled it because it was raining that particular day. I desperately need to get another appointment made. Its been 3 months since my last appointment and my hair is back down on my neck. It is driving me crazy. I was watching "What Not to Wear" last night and the lady that was getting a makeover had her hair cut short. It really looked cute and I decided I'm going back short...not real short...just off my neck. I know I probably can't have a cut like she got...my hair is too coarse and wavy...I'm sure Brent can come up with something cute. I just need to get in to see him.

A Quick Post

I am still fighting my cold. Actually...I think I've had a relapse. We were out Saturday, Sunday and last night. I think the cold air didn't do me any good. Then Saturday Gerry started sniffling and coughing. At the Christmas play we went to Saturday night and the Christmas concert we went to Sunday night, there were a lot of people around us that were coughing. I hate being sick and will be relieved when all this is over.


The concert we went to Sunday evening was really good. It was presented by the Music Department at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church. The church is pretty big with a balcony and it was packed. They had folding chairs set down the aisles and had set up chairs in the foyer area too. The youth and children were also involved along with the adult choir. The young band played too. One of our neighbors sings in the choir. Every year we say we are going to go and then something comes up and we don't make it. We made it this year and it was well worth it. I sat there thinking about all of the years in my life when I was involved with choirs, ensembles and the like. It was always so much fun...it was hard work learning all the music yet such an enjoyable time participating in concerts.


Last night we made a quick trip out to the airport. The PGR had a mission welcoming some families back from a weekend in Dallas, TX. It's called the Snowball Express and every year the children and family members of fallen military are given an all expense paid trip somewhere. I'm not sure who sponsors it. This was the second year they went to Dallas. Gerry said there were 14 families from Sacramento that went on the trip. American Airlines provides the transportation.


Oh, yesterday we lost phone service and our internet since we have DSL. It was fixed by this afternoon. Gerry got so frustrated with AT&T yesterday that he called Comcast and next Monday we'll have cable for the internet and our home phone. When I finally logged on to my Hotmail account, I had over 100 messages...which I didn't think was very bad.


It has rained all day here...it is really not that cold though. Sunshine hopefully tomorrow, according to the weather people.

Cough, Cough, Cough!!!

Its been a week since I got sick with this crazy cold. The cough lingers now and I sure wish it would go away. Elizabeth told me that Delsym works good for suppressing the cough so I got some the other day. It supposedly works for 12 hours too. Well, that may be true...it certainly hasn't worked for me. So today I got some Robitussin for cough and chest congestion. I'm going to give it a try tonight and see if it works. Here's hoping...


The thing I hate about coughing is that it wakes me up at night. I did sleep a lttle better last night...only woke up a couple of times. However, I woke up about 6:15 this morning coughing "my fool head" off and couldn't go back to sleep. I did go back to sleep about 8:30 and slept for about an hour and a half.


It was a dark gloomy day with overcast skies. There was quite a bit of fog last night and it didn't completely clear up. We came in about an hour ago and the fog was starting to get thick in some areas.


Tonight we went to a Christmas play at the church where Elizabeth and her girls go. Hannah and Emily were both in the play. It was pretty good...they presented the play last night too.


It is rather strange to be in the building where the church is. It use to be a Bel Air Market and it is where I shopped when we first moved to Citrus Heights back in the early 1980's. After Bel Air closed that store, it was a health club and there were some other businesses on the side of the building. The church has the entire building now so the sanctuary is quite large with classrooms surrounding it.


Several of the mobiles right around us have decorated the outside of their mobiles. Sure is pretty. I noticed driving down Madison Avenue, on the way home tonight, that there were a lot of homes decorated. I love to see what people do in the way of decorating the outside of their homes. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen here. Hopefully I can get a little bit of decorating done inside. How about y'all...do you go all out decorating?

I'm Sick

I have a cold...I don't usually get one...when I do it is usually a bad one. I started with my throat feeling kinda of scratchy on Friday. I had a Shoebox Card Swap to go to Saturday so I couldn't be sick. Saturday morning I woke up and my sinuses were draining...I didn't feel bad.


I went ahead to the Shoebox swap and then after it was over, I came home and got Gerry and we went to St. John's Craft Fair. It is held every year the first weekend in December...Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is huge, all the classrooms of the Catholic school are used besides the cafeteria and auditorium. And it is always very, very crowded. The parking is horrendous. Gerry was able to find a spot very close to the entrance.


We were there for an hour...walking through about half of it. I told Gerry I wanted to leave...I was completely wiped out. We stopped by Walgreens on the way home and I got some stuff to take for my cold. So for the last 3 days I've spent quite a bit of time in bed. Sunday it was raining and cold so it was a good day to stay in. Gerry drove me to Bel Air yesterday afternoon to get a few things and I went back to bed soon as we got back.


Sure hope I get to feeling better. I managed to get a couple of loads of laundry done yesterday...have more to finish...towels are on the sofa that need to be folded and there's a load in the dryer that needs to be folded also.


I hate being sick. Hope none of you are sick...

Holly Jollies, Christmas Candy on a Budget, In a Hurry!

One of the food blogs I follow, Southern Plate, posted this recipe yesterday. My stamp group is getting together on Saturday for a Shoebox Card Swap and we are going to do a cookie exchange too. I didn't know what I was going to make until I saw this recipe. It looked super easy and quick. The blogger, Christy Jordon, lets her children make these. On the left are chocolate ones with rice krispies, then white chocolate with chopped up apricots and then white chocolate with dried cranberries. I am having one with apricots right now and it is yum!


Holly Jollies
1 package Almond Bark, white or chocolate
36 mini muffin papers
2 cups of one or more of the following:

• Salted peanuts
• Rice Krispie Cereal
• Dried Cranberries
• Raisins
• Crushed candy canes
• Other salted nuts
• Your favorite dried fruit, chopped to the size of raisins

Line a mini muffin tin with the papers. Place almond bark in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for a minute and a half, stir. Return to microwave and microwave for about 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time, until the bark is smooth and creamy. Remove from microwave and stir in 2 cups of your choice of add in. Spoon into mini muffin papers and allow to sit until cool and hardened. (I used some wax paper too because I only have 2 - 12 cup mini muffin tins). They can be put in the refrigerator to speed up the process if you like.

Note: Take special care not to allow even the tiniest drop of water to get into the bark as it will clot up if you do.

Add this recipe to the Christmas goodies you make. I think you will enjoy them.

Recipe by Christy Jordon of www.southernplate.com

Evening Sky

I looked out the kitchen window just before 5 pm and this is what I saw. I was starting to fix dinner. So I grabbed my camera and went outside to take these pictures. What a beautiful sunset!!

Within a few minutes, the sky completely changed and it was all gray with a little bit of blue by the time I walked back into the house.

I shared these pictures on Facebook too.

Note: the time stamp says a few minutes before 6 pm. I hadn't changed the time on my camera and it was still on daylight savings time. Its on Pacific Standard time now. :)

Tuesday

Here's a quick post before I head to bed.

Today was a combination of some sun and clouds. I don't think it warmed up much either. Supposedly the weather is changing for a couple of days this week with rain in the forecast and more snow in the mountains.

I saw on the internet the southeast has had some horrible storms going through with several tornadoes. There was some damage in Alabama. I meant to call Denise...I think she would have maybe called me if there was anything to tell me.

I didn't get all my laundry done yesterday so I finished that up this morning then went and got some groceries. Before I left for the grocery store, I looked through some of the food blogs I follow and found a couple of recipes I thought sounded interesting. I got the ingredients to make them. One is called "Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake" and the other is called "Bacony Chicken & Rice Bake". I'm not going to use chicken in the three cheese bake. The three cheeses it calls for are ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese plus sour cream and alfredo sauce. It is going to be really rich. Anyway I'll let you all know how they are when I make them.

One of the meals I really enjoy making is swiss steak. The Bel Air market where I shop hasn't been offering round steaks in the meat section for sometime now. Anyway, today they had several packages so I got one. I should have gotten two packages. I'm going to make that for dinner tomorrow night.

Gerry had a welcome home PGR mission at the airport tonight. I had intended to make the swiss steak tonight and then I decided to go with him. After the mission was over several of the PGR folks were going over to IHOP to eat so we went along. It is always so frustrating when we go to one...they are usually short staffed which results in bad service. Tonight there were 2 waitresses working. The one we went to is rather large with two separate dining rooms. They had people seated in both sections instead of having everyone in the larger of the two sections. It took quite a while to get our drinks and then quite a while for our waitress to come back and take our orders. Then we had to go up to cashier register to get our tickets. There was 10 of us. Our ticket was separate; she had written everyone else's orders on one ticket so then she had to run them separately. Of course, none of the other 8 had mentioned that they wanted separate checks.

The mission was to welcome home one soldier, however, there were several other soldiers on the same flight so they all walked through the flag line. I heard one of the passengers say to one of the PGR guys that when the plane landed an announcement was made about the soldiers being on board. The passengers were asked to remain seated until the soldiers walked off. The passenger said everyone clapped when the soldiers stood up. So awesome!!

I got over half of my Christmas cards in envelopes with address labels on. I'll finish up the rest tomorrow. I forgot I have a Shoebox swap this Saturday. We are also doing a cookie exchange. So before Saturday I've got to get card kits put together. There's 7 of us going so it won't take too long to get the kits put together. Just hope my idea goes together quickly. :)

Sunday

The rain went away and we had sunshine today with temperatures in the 40's. The paper this morning said more rain is expected about Wednesday. It also mentioned that December will be a wet month for Central and Northern California. Oh, great!

We drove up to Grass Valley after church to go to the craft fair at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. It is always held Thanksgiving weekend and we use to go every year. It has been a few years since we've been up there. I was very surprised to see that there were not a lot of people there. In years past it has always been wall to wall people. The crafters were not very exciting either...amazingly enough the only thing we bought was a bag of kettle corn.

Gerry dropped me off by the entrance and I forgot to get my heavy jacket, gloves and scarf out of the back seat. I had on a fleece jacket over my long sleeved knit top and cordoroy slacks. I did ask him to go back to the van and get my scarf and gloves. I was a little cold yet comfortable. The sun felt good when we were out in it walking to another building.

The fairgrounds is really nice. It is set among the pine trees and has a lot of grassy areas. There's five buildings that the crafters are located in and they are spread out over the fairgrounds.

We left there and drove through Grass Valley to find somewhere to eat. We ended up going to Paulette's which is on the north side of the town off of Highway 49. It was 2:40 pm and we weren't sure if they would still be open. Thankfully they were, they closed at 3 pm. The building that Paulette's is located in use to be a bank. It is nothing special...the food is very good. Gerry had breakfast and I had a sandwich. Then we drove over to Ben Franklin Crafts which is a couple of blocks away. It is like a Michael's, only bigger. I wanted to see what they had in stamps. I need something for my stamp group's swap next Saturday. The theme is Valentines. I didn't find anything exciting.

Leaving there we took Highway 174 which is the Colfax/Grass Valley Highway. It is a beautiful drive. There was snow on the side of the roadway and in the open fields. The temperature gauge in the van got down to 38 degrees. The highway comes out on I-80. We stayed on 80 until we got past Auburn and then got off and took Taylor Road into Roseville. We got back on the freeway for just a very short distance and then got off again. The traffic was backed up by then with people heading west from the mountains. A few vehicles had snow on their rooftops.

Gerry is watching football now and I think I'm going to go look at the Sunday paper ads. I got the Christmas letter written last night so tomorrow I'll go get copies made and hopefully finish the addressing of the cards. I did some last night. The goal was to get them done and in the mail by the first week of December. I do believe that is going to happen...and Denise was questioning whether I'd accomplish it...:-)

Cold, Wet, Rainy Saturday

It is a yucky day...cold, wet and rainy. We have been experiencing some really cold weather, getting down into the 20's at night. There's lots of snow in the mountains and the ski resorts were able to open before Thanksgiving.

Yesterday, after Gerry got in from his ride, we went down to the Scottish Rite Hall to a Holiday Arts and Craft Show. It was put on by the Crocker Art Museum so it was really nice, high end crafts. Something I've noticed, in going to craft fairs the last few weeks, jewelry seems to be the "in-thing". There were several jewelry craftspeople with beautiful pieces. There was one vendor who makes things out of vintage silverware. I bought two coin pendants...they are dimes, one from 1939 the year Gerry was born and one from 1942 the year I was born.

In the morning I drove out to Green Tangerines, a scrapbook store in Rocklin. They had closed up earlier this year and re-opened a couple of months ago. The store is even better than it was. I love to go out there to find designer scrap paper to use on my cards. They also have an excellent assortment of colored card stock. I got some paper to use on a couple of card swaps I'm participating in that are due in January.

I drove by the Roseville Galleria on the way to Green Tangerines and I was surprised that the traffic around the mall was not backed up. The parking lots were full including an overflow lot about a block away from the mall. The paper this morning said business was very good at the mall yesterday. There was a horrible fire at the mall in October. A young man walked into a Gamestop store, told the store manager to leave because he was going to set the store on fire. He was carrying a backpack that supposedly had explosives in it. I don't think that was ever found because the roof collapsed where the fire was started. The night before he had set a fire in one of the Walmarts in our area.

He was apprehended and is in jail charged with several counts. His attorney has filed an insanity plea so he is being evaluated to see if he is able to stand trial or not.

The stores have slowly re-opened and a few opened yesterday for the first time since the fire. Stores around the Gamestop store will not open for several more months.

We had leftovers for dinner and once again stuffed ourselves. Everything was just as good the second time around. :)

This morning the PGR participated in a toy run in Roseville. I was going to go with Gerry...I decided getting up and going out in the cold and rain was not very exciting. The event was suppose to go until 1:30 pm. However, Gerry was home by 10:30am. He went out again to go over to Harbor Freight.

Every Thanksgiving weekend there is a huge craft show in Grass Valley at the fairgrounds. We've gone several times. I want to go up there...not excited to do in this weather. So after church tomorrow we'll probably drive up. It is suppose to be sunshine tomorrow. There may be some snow up there...the roads will be clear though.

So, guess I will work on addressing Christmas cards. My cards have been done for a week now. I still need to do a Christmas letter. I'm doing some laundry too.

Gerry just told me a good friend of ours passed away yesterday. So sad!

Stay safe if you are out doing shopping. Oh, before I forget...read in the paper this morning that a Walmart in the south part of Sacramento had to evacuated early yesterday morning. Seems around 5 am, shoppers became "unruly" in the electronics section. Sacramento County sheriff deputies evacuated the store and then people were given arm bands to re-enter the store in small groups. One of the reasons I don't participate in Black Friday shopping. :)

Hau'oli La Ho'omakika'i!

Happy Thanksgiving every one. I hope it was a great day and everyone ate to their heart's content.

I fixed dinner for Gerry and I which is usually what I do each year. I've fixed a turkey once or twice for us, however, it is next to impossible to find a small one so I do cornish game hens. I was going to do the same thing this year then found a small hickory smoked ham (1/4 of a whole ham). It took about an hour to warm it up and it was very good.

I also fixed some scalloped potatoes, fresh steamed green beans and the "have to have" fruit salad, cranberry sauce (whole berries) for Gerry, cranberry relish for me and for dessert pumpkin pie cake. I forgot to take pictures. :) It was all very good and I am still stuffed even though dinner was several hours ago.

Our weather has been very wintery. Cold, cold temperatures at night and in the morning. Gerry was going to join his bicycle club early this morning to be road guards for the annual "Run to Feed the Hungry" in Sacramento. He got up to get ready and then got right back in bed. It was suppose to have gotten down to below freezing last night. Rain is expected for the weekend. NorCal PGR has a toy run on Saturday and he is planning to participate. It should be "fun" in the rain.

Are any of you planning to be up at the crack of dawn to hit the stores? The paper this morning was thick with ads. Doing "Black Friday" is not something I am even interested in. I don't like crowds and I am not about to get in the midst of "crazy" people tomorrow. LOL!!

I think I am going to head for bed. It is a minute to 10pm. I wanted to head that way at 8:30pm and decided that was too early. :)

Denise's Birthday Card

I meant to include these two pictures in my previous post. To the right, under the flowers, is an ivory flourish. Denise used her Cricut and cut a whole bunch of these for me, in different colors and sizes. The only stamping is the sentiment. I used designer scrapbook paper, a bit of lace and flowers with a flower brad.

Happy Birthday, Denise Noelani

Today is my sweet daughter's birthday. I enjoyed a wonderful chat with her this morning, catching up with what has been going on in she and her family's lives. This is a picture of she with her children, Nathanael Ray and Rebekah-Elizabeth Noelani.

This is one of my favorite pictures of her. I believe it was taken during her junior year of high school.

Denise is celebrating her 41st birthday today. I wonder sometimes where the years have gone. Through out the day today I've thought of so many precious memories of her growing up years and the years she has been married and a mother. She and I were alone from the time she was 2 years old until just before her 11th birthday when I remarried. We remained a twosome, doing so much together, including spending 30 inseparable days together before she joined her husband in Germany. We spent endless hours talking about so many things. She had tons of questions and I tried to answer them the best I could.

These days she is busy working with Stephen in their business - Boldly Going Coffee Shop. They are also a full-fledged Calvary Chapel and have out grown the space they used for their worship and Bible Study. They met in the coffee shop. Their landlady has graciously provided a bigger space upstairs in the same building for them to use for their services.

Her son Nathanael is in the Army stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. He is in the 82nd Airborne as a Combat Medic. Denise's husband was also stationed at Ft. Bragg in the 82nd Airborne so Nathanael is back where he grew up, following in his father's footsteps. He recently became engaged. Denise told me this morning no wedding date has been set yet. Her daughter Rebekah-Elizabeth is a senior in high school and will be going to college after graduation.

I am a blessed mom...so thrilled knowing all is well with my precious daughter and her family. She has always been the sunshine in my life!

P.S.

I know it has been a couple of months since I blogged. I have no excuse. I have tons of stuff to share and will try to share some of it. I have been very busy with my handmade cards and see no end in sight. I am thankful that I am able to do what I love doing and enjoy it too.

Crockpot Apple Sauce

I made some apple sauce today. I've wanted to try making some and saw this recipe on the "Eat At Home" blog. It is so easy to do. So here's the recipe:

13 small apples (1 bag) (I got a bag of Fuji apples and there were 9 in the bag)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
4 T brown sugar
1/3 c apple juice

Peel, core and slice the apples. (I cut the apples in chunks). Toss them into the slow cooker with all the other ingredients. Give it a stir, then turn the cooker to low and cook for 4 to 6 hours. (I preheated the cooker while I prepared the apples).

I cooked them for 4 hours as the apples were tender. Using a whisk, I whipped the apples a few times until the apples broke up a little, removed the insert from the cooker and set on a stove burner to cool. My stove has an electronic start so there's no open flame. After they cooled a little, I removed them to a Corning Ware casserole dish to finish cooling.

Gerry and I just had a bowl of the apple sauce. It tastes good, although I can taste the brown sugar and cinnamon. It is kind of runny too. Will have to have some tomorrow after it has set overnight in the refrigerator and see what its like. So the jury is still out as to whether I'll make it again.

For dinner, I pan fried some Red Snapper fillets that I got at Bel Air today. We stopped at Trader Joe's the other day and they had some really nice looking eggplant. We both love it so I sliced that up and pan fried that too. It was so yummy.

Tomorrow morning we are going to a breakfast buffet at a Presbyterian Church in Sacramento. The husband of a stamping friend is doing the cooking. He use to have a restaurant in Sacramento and so he is fixing all the items that were on his menu. They attend this Presbyterian church so that's why it's being held there. Evidently he has done this before and the turn-out is fantastic. I'm sure my friend and others will be helping with the cooking and serving. It starts at 8am and my friend told me people start lining up about 7:45. It ends at 11am, so it is just for 3 hours. They sell tickets for the event at $12 for adults. It should be pretty good.

Then tomorrow night we have a birthday party to go to out in Dixon. A friend of ours is celebrating his 50th birthday. We'll go to eat and be back home early. So sometime tomorrow I need to get a birthday card made...maybe I have one in my stash.

I Forgot!

I wanted to mention that I have a new blogger follower. She lives in Georgia and found my blog while she was cruising "blog world". The post that caught her attention was one I did about fixing Spam and using "shoyu".

She is Filipino and her husband is part Portuguese, born and raised on the Big Island. The largest of the Hawaiian Islands is called Hawaii, however is commonly known as "the Big Island". His Portuguese ancestors came from the Azores Islands of Portugal to Hawaii, my Portuguese grandmother's family also came from the Azores Islands. He is a retired Army helicopter pilot. He had been stationed at Ft. Rucker during his Army career and they lived in Ozark, AL which is one of the towns that surrounds Ft. Rucker. Enterprise, where my Denise and family live is also one of the towns surrounding Ft. Rucker.

She is a sketch artist and has a blog showcasing her sketches. I need to add her blog to my blog list here on my blog. Her sketches are beautiful. The thing that really perked my ears up as I read her blog is that she and her family are Christians. I thought to myself how wonderful that a fellow believer would find my blog and then also have connections to "home" and Ft. Rucker.

The other thing I wanted to draw attention to are two blog buttons that I've added to my sidebar. I don't remember exactly how I found these food blogs. They have the most incredible recipes on their blogs. I am going to try the apple sauce recipe that "Eat at Home" blogged about today. It looks so easy and Gerry loves apple sauce so I'm going to give it a try. There's another one that I was going to add, however, for some reason it didn't work when I copied the link.

Okay, that's it for tonight. Take care!!

Dinners

I've been meaning to blog all week and just haven't done it. When I think about it, it is too late and I just want to go to bed.


This past Monday we got this packet of Lawry's seasoning in the newspaper. It sounded interesting so decided to use it for dinner that night.

It went together very easily. Gerry and I both enjoyed it, it had a very good flavor. It did, however, need a little bit more liquid as the some of the pasta didn't get cooked. And the chicken needed some salt and pepper. So here's the ingredients and how to fix it:

1 1/2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast halves ( I used a package of 4 breasts)

1 1/4 cups of penne pasta, uncooked

1/4 cup of sliced pitted black olives (I used 2 small cans)

1 cup water

1 can (15 oz) petite diced tomatoes, undrained

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (I didn't measure...just sprinkled the cheese on)

Place chicken, pasta and olives in a 9x13 inch baking dish

Mix water, seasoning mix and tomatoes in a bowl until well blended.

Pour over chicken and pasta. Stir to coat well. Cover with foil.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with cheese. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut chicken into serving size pieces. Stir pasta before serving. (I didn't cut the chicken up).

Options: To make Chicken Cacciatore Casserole: Prepare as above using 1 cup each of sliced mushrooms and bell pepper strips, and 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese in place of the olives and feta cheese.

Tonight I made a big pot of stew. It is very simply made and is so good. I forgot to take a picture so here is a picture of the tupperware bowl I put the leftovers in. The aroma was so incredible when I was taking this picture. It will be even better tomorrow. :-)

Here's how I make my stew:

2 packages of cut up stew meat

1 onion cut in wedges

3 potatoes, peeled and cut up

3 carrots, peeled and cut up

2 cans of stewed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato sauce

a small amount of water to rinse out the cans and add to the pot

salt and pepper

First, I brown the meat in a large pot with some olive oil. Then I add the onion and stir them together. When the meat is just about all browned, I season it with salt and pepper. Then I add the stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir everything together, put a lid on the pot and turn the flame down on the burner. It simmers away happily for a couple of hours or more. I'll check on it a few times and give it a stir.

While it is cooking away, I'll get the potatoes and carrots ready and put them in a bowl with some water so the potatoes don't turn brown. About an hour or so before the stew is done, I'll add the potatoes and carrots and season it again with salt and pepper. I don't add any other seasonings. The stewed tomatoes I use are seasoned. I cook rice and serve up the stew over rice. This is pure comfort food!!

Our weather has been so nice. However, according to the weather service, it is suppose to heat up into the 90's for the rest of the week and Sunday is suppose to be about 94 degrees. The nights are nice and cool so its okay if it is hot during the day. :)

Overnight Trip

I forgot I was going to blog earlier.....


Friday afternoon we left Sacramento and drove to Modesto which is about 90 miles south of Sacramento. A Christian group that we enjoy was doing a concert at a church there in Modesto. It was the closest they were getting to Sacramento so we decided to drive down to hear them. Gerry told me we had quite a few points on our Choice Hotels membership and we could have a free room for the night instead of driving back to Sacramento.


It was a pleasant drive down there...it was in the 80's here and about the same down there. It took about an hour and 45 minutes to drive down. We had a room at the Clarion Conference Center. This hotel was probably a show piece when it first opened years ago. It is still in good shape yet shows its age. Our room was very comfortable. It had two entrances...one off the inside hallway and then one from the parking lot. We had to enter from the inside hallway.


After we checked in, we sat and watched TV for a little bit then changed clothes and drove over to the church. Gerry had googled BBQ restaurants and he found a Korean BBQ. The reviews were very good and it was just a couple of blocks from the church. So we went and had dinner after we found the church. We were the only ones in the restaurant, it was still early. It is run by a husband and wife...she's Korean, we couldn't figure out what nationality he was. He looked East Indian to me, however am not sure. I had beef bulogi and Gerry had pork bulgoi. The food was fantastic...the husband brought out all the different little dishes that are served with a meal. Half of them were spicey and half weren't so I could enjoy some of them. They will refill them if you want more. We were stuffed by the time we left.


We drove back to the church and for it being an hour and a half before the concert, the church was already filling up. It turned out that the church was packed. The name of the group is "Selah". It was actually a benefit concert for Bethany Home Services. They provide crisis pregnancy services, adoption, counseling and have a home for teen mothers. The concert was outstanding!! I had bought their newest CD so after the concert Gerry stood in line to get their autographs on the CD cover.


Saturday morning, after having breakfast at IHOP (it was the closest to the hotel and next to the freeway), we drove over to Tracy to see my niece Amy and her husband, Joe. Amy had called me Thursday night and I didn't return her phone call until Friday morning. She told me Tracy was about 30 minutes away from Modesto. So when I mentioned it to Gerry he didn't have a problem with driving over to see her. We had to take 4 highways to get there. There was another way to get there, however, I didn't write down the directions on how to get to the particular road. We had a great visit. Joe works for United Air Lines at the San Francisco airport. I think he's an airplane mechanic...I'm not sure. Anyway he works at night and gets home after 9 in the morning. He is part of a vanpool and they could see the San Bruno fire. In fact he called Amy to turn on the news to see exactly where it was. They wanted to be sure they could get to the airport. Amy use to live close to that neighborhood and has a few friends that live close by where the explosion was located. Joe sat up and watched football with Gerry for a little bit and then had to go to sleep. Gerry watched football by himself while Amy and I gabbed. Amy is a scrapbooker/paper crafter so we had to go up to her craft room and look at all her stuff.


We left there about 3:30 pm and drove home. We got home about 6pm, I think, because we stopped out by Arco Arena and had dinner at On the Border. It might have been later. We weren't hungry while we were at Amy's...she offered to fix lunch...however we were starved by the time we got back to Sacramento.


Gerry usually goes for a walk after dinner and picks up the mail. Our mailboxes are down at the clubhouse. Tonight he comes in and tells me all the mail is for me and there's one envelope I will really want to open. Guess what...I received a summons for jury duty. YUCK!! I have to report in next month. I have several card swaps that are due next month so I am going to be super busy getting them done in case I have to actually serve.


Its 10:30 pm so I'm off to bed.

Viet Nam War Memorial Moving Wall

The Viet Nam War Memorial Moving Wall has been in Sacramento this Labor Day Weekend. Its displayed at one of our local cemetaries. Its not too far from us so we drove over last night to view it. It is really quite impressive. I have no idea how many panels it consists of, each one is numbered. I noticed that there were 70 panels in the eastern section of it. Maybe as many on the west side of the wall.


Taking pictures was very difficult...of course...I just have a Casio Exlim digital camera. There were pairs of several flood lights directed towards the wall and the glare from those lights bounced off the wall.


This was one of two floral wreaths in front of the middle section of the wall. I tried to get a whole picture of the wreaths and couldn't get a clear one. I got this picture up close. It was presented by a Vietnamese organization here in Sacramento. This is the one picture I got of the Wall looking east. This is about the middle section so judging from the spotlights, it is quite a distance to the end of it.

These are some facts from the website for The Moving Wall:

• This Wall is a half size replica of the Wall in Washington, DC
• It has been touring the country for over 20 years
• This Moving Wall was built by Vietnam Veterans
• There are 2 structures that travel the US from April to November of each year
• There are 58,228 names listed on The Wall in Washington, DC. This Wall contains 58,182 names. Over 200 names have been added to the original wall.
• The names are listed in chronological order of the casualty date, then alphabetically within the given date.
• The names of The Moving Wall are not exact in the same order as the names on The Wall in Washington, DC
• The names listed start 10/21/57 and end 5/14/75.

The PGR had been asked to help with providing security through the night hours while The Wall was here in Sacramento.

Wow...Over 10k Hits

I just looked at the counter on my blog and I've gotten over the 10k mark of hits to my blog. That's interesting. I wonder who was the 10k one....well, whomever it was...thank you. I hope people who do visit my blog enjoy what I've shared. Would love to read any comments...I will delete any that I deem unacceptable, though.

Today - Friday, 9/3/10

It was another hot day in Sacramento. It was over 100 on our outside temp gauge.


I've been needing to get a hair cut so this morning I had an 11 am appointment with Brent. He has gone back to the salon he first worked at. Its in Granite Bay so it was a little farther to drive. He cut, I think, at least 2 inches off. My hair had gotten quite long and I was wearing it pulled back in a pony tail or held with a barrette. He also put some low lights in, blending the gray into the rest of my hair. Surprisely enough, I have very little gray. It was mostly at my temples. I told him I've been letting my hair dry naturally instead of blowing it dry so that's what he did too. He dried some of it while he scrunched it up. I have natural curls and waves so it was all curly and wavey. The length is now just below my ears. I think I'm going to like it and it will be so easy to take care of.


After I got home, I worked on another card swap and then left home about 5:15 pm to go down to The Paper Garden, my local Stamp Store, for a card class. It was an hour class and we made 3 really cute, simple cards. This weekend The Paper Garden is celebrating its 4th anniversary so Linda Carnell who owns AMuse Art Stamps in Seattle came down for the weekend. She taught tonight's class and then is teaching a couple of projects tomorrow.


This past Tuesday I had lunch with friends, Stan and Donna Warehime. We all went to church together and were neighbors. Donna and I worked together in ministry and are the best of friends. Stan retired from driving trucks with Raley's, a local grocery chain. When he did that, they sold their house here and moved to southeast Missouri. They found a town on the internet that was for sale. It had a general store, post office, hardware store and feed store. It was a lot of work for just the two of them and the winters really got to them. So they sold everything and moved to Mesa, AZ. Stan has a couple of brothers in the area. They are loving being in Arizona and have been busy fixing up the house they bought.


Personally, I don't know why anyone would want to live in Arizona. It is just too HOT for me...110 in the shade is not for me. :-)


Donna's family had a reunion up in Oroville so they came out for that. They were here in June for a granddaughter's college graduation. We didn't get to see them on that trip so Donna was determined to get together this trip. I met them at The Golden Corral. We got there at 11:30 am and didn't walk out until after 2 pm. Donna and I don't know when to stop yakking. Stan is quite a talker too...anyway we had a nice visit. They'll be back in town in December. I think they are headed back to Arizona this weekend.

Beautiful Sacramento Day

We had a beautiful day here today. It did rain pretty heavily during the early morning hours and it was cool and cloudy when I got up. The sun soon came out, the temperature was probably in the low 80's.


We drove out to Chevy's on the River for lunch today. Surprisely we got seated right away. There were people waiting for tables on the back porch. The inside of the restaurant was pretty empty. I had the same thing I had the last time we were there...carnitas enchiladas with green tomatillo sauce. We also got the gucamole that they make tableside. We asked that it be made without any spices so I could eat it and it was really good.


After we left there we drove up the River Road for a ways. We had to turn off because there was road construction up ahead and the road was closed. Driving back east, there were huge thunder clouds towards the mountains. The paper this morning said there might be snow about 8000 feet; the clouds didn't look like snow clouds.


I have two card swaps that are due and so I've been working on them. They are both done now and I need to get them in the mail tomorrow. I haven't taken pictures yet, they'll be on my card blog tomorrow. Organizing the craft closet is finished. There are a few things I need to clean up in the dining room.


It seems impossible that September is here already. The days and weeks just fly by. Soon we'll be talking about Christmas.


Have a great week!!

Bacon & Tomato Pasta

I follow a food blog called "Eat At Home" http://eatathomecooks.com. The blogger has some really interesting recipes and they all look really easy. I decided to try one of her recipes tonight. It doesn't look very appetizing because I forgot to get a couple of items. Here's the recipe:
1 lb pasta (I used penne since that is what she used).
2T butter and 2T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped. (I used a small one)
2 cloves garlic, minced. (I didn't have any)
1/2 c white wine. (I used white cooking wine)
1 1/2 c half & half
1 1/2 c parmesan cheese, shredded or grated
salt & pepper
bacon, cooked and diced. (I used about 5 strips that I sliced up first then cooked it. I set it aside while I started the sauce).
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
fresh basil leaves, chopped. (I forgot to get some)


Boil pasta.
Melt butter and olive oil together.
Add the onion & garlic. Cook until onion is tender
Add 1/2 c wine, cook a minute or two
Add half & half. Stir everything together briskly
Stir in cheese until melted
Season with salt & pepper
Toss in bacon and drained tomatoes

Drain pasta then mix it with sauce. I put the pasta back in the pot after I drained it and poured the sauce over the pasta. Serve with extra parmesan.


It would have been a lot tastier with the garlic and fresh basil leaves. I don't know if there is a difference between cooking wine and regular wine.


She has some other recipes on there I want to try. Oh, she usually takes a picture of the ingredients she is using in her meals. It is quite obvious she shops at WalMart. :)

Triple Digits

We have had a really nice summer with a mixture of high temps and low temps. Last Saturday I don't think it reached 80 degrees. It was cool, breezy and cloudy. The weather service said there was a high pressure pushing into the area and we'd be experiencing some triple digits. They also said Tuesday would probably be the hottest.


Well, probably won't know what the official temperature was for today until tomorrow. I left the house about 11am to go to WalMart and then Bel Air (the grocery store I shop at) and it was about 81 degrees according to the temp reading in the van. By the time I left Bel Air at about 12:20pm, it was up in the 90's. I had to make several trips into the house with my purchases and was about to "melt" by the time I got done...about 10 minutes to do it.


After I had been home for a while, I looked at the temperature gauge we have outside and it said "110". Oh, my goodness! That is totally unreal. The temperature gauge is on the side of our shed that is covered by the roof of the carport. It is out of the sun, however there is no way of knowing just how accurate the gauge is really.


I looked at it a little after 6 and it was 103 and then down to under 100 when I was cleaning up in the kitchen. This is suppose to be a short lived heat wave...its suppose to be cool again by the weekend. Usually August in the Sacramento Valley is unbearable, so we've been very fortunate with the weather we've had this summer.


Made more progress on the craft closet today so that's a good thing. Hope you were able to be cool in your "neck of the woods". :)

Lunch Saturday with Work Friends

Hi everyone! I know...I've been MIA again. :)


Yesterday I got together with some friends that I worked with at the Juvenile Courthouse. We had gotten together a few months ago. There was Sherri, Rhonda P. and Alena. They work in the Delinquency unit where I worked. Sherri brought her one and a half year old granddaughter she was babysitting. Little Sora was so good. We hardly knew she was there. Rhonda D is a court clerk and she just got reassigned a couple of months ago to the Dependency unit. So she's at a different courthouse now. Darlene, our former supervisor, now retired came; Winston worked in the file room, he's retired now also. Then Monica came. She left juvie a week before I retired and is now a correctional officer assigned to one of the prisons in Vacaville. It was good to see her. We were cubicle neighbors in our old building. I haven't seen her since she left so we are going to try and get together on one of her days off and catch up.


We met at The Elephant Bar restaurant. www.elephantbar.com. Gerry and I eat here often. There are two locations in Sacramento, we usually go to the one in Citrus Heights. We met at the one across from Arden Fair Mall. They have a nice variety of meals and everything is so good. Because Gerry and I are old folks we have a Safari card which gives us 20% off on our meals.


I, of course, forgot to take pictures. I was too busy yakking and completely forgot about it. I had my camera with me too. Oh well, maybe next time.


Also, weatherwise, yesterday was a gorgeous day. Cool, breezy and some clouds. Today (Sunday) was nice too. I did turn the AC on about 6pm for about an hour and a half. My craft room got pretty warm...soon as the sun went down, I turned it off. We drove out to Roseville today to eat lunch at Arigato's. Gerry had sushi and I had a bento box. I brought some of my food home and ate it for a snack a little bit ago. All the rolls are 50% off and they are ok, nothing special. The bento boxes are ok too. They have another restaurant in Sacramento, it was the first one then the Roseville store was opened about two years ago. Both places are always busy.


We've enjoyed some nice weather this summer...the weather people did say that this next week is going to be up close to the 100's. It has to happen some time, I guess.


I am still working on organizing my craft closet. Last week we emptied everything out of it and Gerry put together a wire shelving unit for me. I'm going through everything and trying to organize it all better, also getting rid of stuff I don't use or don't want. I have a tub started with "give-away" stuff. Some of my stuff like some of my Stampin' Up stamp sets I'm going to try and sell. Hopefully when I'm done, it will be easier to find things. At least that is the plan.

Fun Day on Saturday

I had a fun day yesterday, Saturday. My stamp group had a Shoebox Card Swap. There were 8 ladies, the regulars. We made some awesome cards. I need to take pictures and then will have them up on my card blog.


Instead of having the swap at someone's home with a potluck lunch, we met at a Round Table Pizza Parlour over in Fair Oaks. My oldest step-daughter has her girls' birthday parties there. They actually have 2 party sections...we were going to use the bigger of the two then decided since there were 8 of us, we'd use the smaller area. It was quite nice. We had lots of room to spread out. Some of us had lunch there too which is probably what Round Table would like to have people do if they are using their space for a function. The lady that was hosting had to leave to go to her niece's birthday party. She was going to come back so 4 of us sat around and gabbed until she came back. We had the area until 3pm and it was about 2:30pm when we left.


We are probably going to have our swaps there at that Round Table. Although one of the ladies suggested having one at a Round Table in Elk Grove then we could go shopping at Stampers Corner, a stamp store, afterwards. So we'll consider that. We'd like to keep our group small although we have about 30 or so ladies on our contact list. And we've had some inquiries about joining.


Gerry went to men's breakfast in the morning then after I left, he went out for a ride. After he got home and he rested for awhile, we drove down to the Food Festival at the Sacramento Buddist Church in Sacramento. They are holding their annual festival this weekend; they've been doing this for 64 years. We hadn't been for several years. One of my friends always works the festival and she mentioned it a week or so ago. So I wanted to go. I thought if we went in the early evening it wouldn't be too bad. Oh mercy, was I ever wrong. It was crowded, the food lines were so long and the parking was horrendous. It took us a few minutes to find seats and then Gerry went to stand in line. He got us some teriyaki beef sticks, chow mein, rice, sliced cucumbers and the chopped up cabbage. I can't think of what those are called...so bad. The line for tempura and teriyaki chicken were so long and he didn't want to stand in them. It was fine...we had plenty to eat. After we ate, we got some bottled water from the hot dog stand and left. I'm surprised at myself that I stayed that long, my claustrophia can really get the best of me sometimes. I just cannot stand crowds and feelings of being trapped. Gerry is claustrophic too, however he handles it better than me in some situations. Gerry told me there was a lady standing in front of him that passed out. The friends that were with her helped get her up and took her to first aid.


The weather had turned cool so that was a good thing. It would have been worse during the day, I think.

A Dozen Red Roses & A PGR Event

On Tuesdays Gerry works at Carmichael Cycles. Evidently it was very slow so he left at noon and came home. He surprised me with this lovely bouquet of red roses, my favorite flower. I had forgotten and was reminded when I read posts that he had put on Facebook of a special day for us.
On Sunday, August 10, 1980, a lady at Arden Nazarene Church introduced me to Gerry. So today was that 30 year anniversary. We had a very short courtship...we were engaged on September 1st and married on November 1st.


The roses are beautiful...the camera made them look orangey.


PGR EVENT ON SATURDAY, August 7th.
Two organizations, Honor The Fallen Foundation and Never Forget Our Fallen with help from the Davis Rotary Club had a PGR Appreciation BBQ "to recognize the outstanding service and dedication of the Patriot Guard Riders for their support of military families of fallen heroes." It was quite an event. Also invited were Gold Star Mothers, Blue Star Mothers and others. The PGR came from all over. The lineup of motorcycles was awesome and it was looking at a sea of leather. Here are just a few pictures that I took:

Gerry is in this group.

There was a Marine Corp Honor Guard there.

Gerry is the 4th one from the right.

They had tri-tip sandwiches, tossed green salad and beans for lunch. The lunch was free to the PGR...there was a small fee for everyone else there. The event was held in the parking lot between a winery and flower shop just off of the I-80 freeway.

Bernice Kealoha Hulihe'e Chung-Hoon

My mother, Bernice Kealoha Hulihe'e Chung-Hoon, was born on August 8, 1914 in Eleele, Kauai. She was the eldest of six children. Her siblings all preceeded her in death. One brother, Edwin is the last surviving brother. She was the mother of six children, Edwin Ernest, Puanani Rowena, Violet-Elizabeth, Ernestine Kealoha, Agnes Naomi Piilani and Samuel. She was also step-mother to six children, Ernest, Marie, Viola, Harriet, Ethelwynne and Edmund-Paul. She enjoyed 15 grandchildren, step-grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.


Besides raising her children, she worked as a seamstress. She and a cousin (Auntie Lou) had a dressmaking shop in Waikiki for several years; she and her sister, Elizabeth (Eli) had a shop in the International Market Place in Waikiki making caftans out of beautiful fabrics. She also had many customers who would visit Hawaii in the winter time and would contact her to make items of clothing for them. She made a lot of our clothing as we grew up. I have fond memories of the many outfits she made for me, including my wedding dress when I married the first time and a beautiful ensemble she made that I wore on the plane coming to California in 1962. It was a beautiful powder blue light wool dress, completely lined with a matching coat that was also completely lined. I still have my wedding dress, for no other reason than the fact my mother made it for me. When I decided to start sewing, I would call her with numerous questions, including how to sew a zipper on a velvet skirt I was making. She told me to use tissue paper and it worked.


This picture of she and I was taken at a hotel in Waikiki in August 1994. I had gone home to surprise her and join in the celebration of her 80th birthday. She was an active member of the local Christian Women's Fellowship and this was at their monthly luncheon. Someone had given her the double ginger lei and she gave it to me to wear. The fragrance of the lei was so beautiful! As you can see, my mother was short at 4' 8". I, at 4' 11" towered over her. :) My mother made all her dresses and dressed very well. Over the years, people who knew my mother have said to me that I look like her. I probably do look like her in some ways. I definitely have many of her personality traits...some good...some not so good. :)


My mother loved the Lord. Her Bible was her constant companion. I have her first Bible and it is a treasure trove of her thoughts as she read the scriptures. Our first Nazarene pastor told me she was like a sponge just wanting to soak it all in. She was a Sunday School teacher and Missionary President for many years in her local Nazarene church. Nazarenes on the Hawaii District knew who "Mrs. Chung-Hoon" was...she made many friends.


She died on April 20, 2002 at 87 years of age and today would have celebrated her 96th birthday. I think of her often. Happy Birthday, Momma!!

Celebrating Our Birthdays

Gerry's birthday was Sunday, the 25th. He celebrated by doing a moonlight century bike ride last Saturday evening. The ride started in Davis at 7pm and he was home by 2:30 am Sunday morning. He managed to ride 80 miles of the 100, the last few miles of the 80 he got a sag ride back to the start of the ride. He missed the first rest stop and ended up riding 57 miles before he stopped. He was hurting from being in the saddle that long and I guess his whole body was hurting.


My birthday was Wednesday the 28th. We had breakfast in Folsom and drove down Highway 49 to Columbia State Park which is off Highway 49. The last time we were there was in the early '80's.


At one time Columbia was the 2nd largest city in California. The town was created in the 1850 when gold was discovered in the area. In 1854 and 1857, the town was burnt down and then rebuilt. In 1945 the California Legislature designated it a state park in order to preserve a typical gold rush town.


Deserted mines surround the area as do numerous caverns. The cavern that the family visited a couple of weeks or so ago, is in the general area.


A few of the buildings remaining in the town:

I thought this bench cut from a log was rather interesting.

The stage coach ride seemed to be the most popular thing to do.

Gerry standing beside a freight wagon.

There was an area where people could "pan" for gold and that was a busy spot too. We noticed a lot of foreign visitors judging from the different languages being spoken.

After we left there, we continued on Highway 49 passing through Jamestown, past the turn-off for Yosemite, into Escalon and Manteca. We stopped there for something to drink and a potty break. As we got into Elk Grove, we decided to get off the freeway and have some dinner. We went to a place called "Hawaiian Style Grill" - local fast food. I wanted to go to Michael's and by the time we got on the freeway, traffic had died down quite a bit. Denise called just as we were leaving the restaurant. She had called a couple of times and I hadn't heard my cell phone ring. Hearing her voice made my day.

I had gotten Gerry a Razzleberry pie from Marie Callendar's Sunday night so we came home and finished it up.

It was a nice relaxing day just being together. And Thursday morning I woke up not feeling any older than I did Tuesday night when I went to sleep.