We all have our jobs....

My job is to work, work, work.

To bring home the bacon, bacon, bacon.

So Daisy can sleep, sleep, sleep!

Here she is sleeping under the kids desk in the office.  She barely fits in there.

New Do

Got a bunch of hair cut off - as Kim said, "it was weighing me down!".  This is much lighter and will dry faster!  By the way, that is Kim, the very famous hairstylist and arm chair philosopher!  I have known Kim since I was in the 4th grade and she does mine, Jim's, Drew's and Gracie's hair.  As well as the hair of many of my friends!  She is awesome....

Washing Machine

I guess it is time for all of our appliances to go on the fritz - now its the washing machine!

Walked out of the laundry room this morning and there a puddle on the floor.  Jim took a quick look and thinks its coming from the machine....which has been making strange noises.

We need to look more closely at it tonite!

Apparently I am made of money and can buy new appliance all at the same time!  NOT!

Dog Shaming

I have found what has got to be the funniest website I have EVER seen.  It consists entirely of dogs that are being shamed because of their bad behavior.

You will want to get a cup of coffee/tea and shut your door if you are at work, because you will be laughing out loud!  I finally had to stop reading them because I was hooting and hollering so loud at work!

I want to put them on the big screen tv at home!

Here is one as a teaser:

http://dog-shaming.com/

Tuna

Jim and his buddies went tuna fishing on Friday.  They got a bunch of them and the freezer is now full of tuna and salmon!

Soccer Tournament Update

Grace and team are in a tournament this weekend.  The lost the first game zero to two - they looked like they were running in slow motion!  The won the second game two to zero.  Next game tomorrow morning.  Stay tuned.

Mimi - Soccer Player

This is a pic of my niece, Mimi, this morning before her soccer game. 

She played some goalie this morning and made a great save from a rocket kick! 

Go Mimi!

TNDC Carne Asada Night

Shades and Drew loading up for seconds

The meat lovers were HAPPY!

All the fixin's

Last nite Jim bought 10 lbs of carne asada from the Mexican market and we had carne asada tacos and burritos.

Ouchee

Drew was injured in football practice this week.  He has a sprained shoulder due to a big helmet to the shoulder hit.  He is out of football for a couple weeks and will take about 4 weeks to completely heal.  We had an xray and doctor visit yesterday and then followed it up with physical therapy.

The interesting data out of this process is that his xray showed that he in NOT done growing.  The doc can't tell exactly how much more he will grow could be up to 2 to 3 inches.  Since he is already 6 feet 3 inches tall, I am hoping for 2 more inches since it will be easier to find clothes long enough at 6 foot 5 inches then it would at 6 foot 6 inches!

Nerdy Hoodlum

This morning I took the dogs for a walk a little later than normal because I wanted to see Grace off to her second day of middle school.

When I walk them later than normal, there is way more traffic then I am used to.  That includes cars, bikes and foot traffic. 

I am out walking and watching and listening to the busy lives around me. 

All of a sudden I hear a kid approaching behind me on a bike.  He was singing some kind of hoodlum type rap song that I did not recognize and from the deepness of his voice I though he must be an older teenager.  Then, while still approaching me he yells out "oh F**K!".  And I think, "great, a trashy teenage hoodlum riding his bike to school".  I expect to turn around and see a burly, grumpy 16 year old with saggy shorts and a long black t-shirt, riding a too small, but oh so cool, BMX bike.

IMAGINE my surprise when I looked and it was:

A very nerdy looking, clean cut 12 year old boy wearing glasses, plaid shorts and a collared shirt with a backpack bigger then him on a very geeky looking Schwinn bicycle!

I totally cracked up!  What I had heard did NOT match what I was seeing!  I chalked it up to that weird transition time in Junior High!

Fantasy Football

We set up a Yahoo! Fantasy Football League for TNDC and are having a blast with it.  We haven't even gone thru a draft yet and we are already trash talking! These are our teams:

Scewtop Smashers
Little Screwy
Go Bruins!
Chubby Pigs
Coach's Choice
Stache Blitz
Ahi Crushers
TeamShades
Number One Chaches
Pontoon Mama's Boys

Stay tuned to see how we all do.  My money is on "Little Screwy" - he is a stats machine!

Heart Day Party

My parent's long time friend, Nadine, wrote the following poem for my Dad's 15 year heart anniversary:

TOM

You left your heart in San Francisco 15 years ago,

in the city by the bay.

Your heart wouldn't last much longer and 

your doctors wanted you to stay.

Your name was added to the transplant list, 

a formidable thing to see.

Your name at the bottom of the list because

it doesn't go alphabetically.

A perfect match was needed to shoot your 

name to the top.

You wait and wait and wait some more but

the anxiety doesn't stop.

You jump at each ring of the phone, wondering

if it's for you.

You were baby sitting your grandkids when 

the doctor's call came through.

The operation was a huge success, you became

stronger day by day.

They put you on a special diet and you

had a lot of pills to take,

but then one day you were young again,

and that was no mistake.

Those 15 years have given you 5 grandchildren

of which you are very proud.

Sam, Jack, Mimi from Brian and Diana,

Drew and Gracie from Chris and Jim,

and when you're all together, one might

say you are a crowd.

You've had many adventures with your family, 

you cruise and play golf with friends.

I'd say your transplant was a huge success

and so this story ends.

Happy 15th Heart Dayt

July 15, 2012

Nadine

A little advice from down south

I got a really nice email from our friends in Cabo (remember the ones that killed the big snake in their yard?).

They thanked me for maintaining this blog because it helps them keep up on our lives (and by "ours" - I mean everyone I report on).

And they gave Grace some thoughtful words of wisdom for starting Jr High.

And then....they tried to think up something to tell Drew....

I think they were at a loss on words of wisdom for a teenage boy....so they settled on:

"Make good decisions and look both ways when crossing the street!"

That is really good advice for all of us!

Thanks Tias!

Back to School

In keeping with the theme of back to school pics, here are KK and Mad Dog!  Anyone else who has back to school pics that they want posted on my blog, feel free to send a long!

Hey!!!  SHOUT OUT to Mad Dog!!!!  Be a beast in High School!

Junior Year

Drew's 3rd day of his junior year.  His mama is a loser and forgot to take pics on the first and second day! 

First Day of Middle School

The Fearless Foursome go off to middle school! 

Salted Pretzel - Marshmellow Bars

Made these tonite and they are amazing!  The dough is pretzels (ground up), flour, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Then you put some marshmellows on top and broil them to toast them.  Once that cools you drizzle melted chocolate chips and peanut butter chips over the top!

YUM!

The recipe is from the Food Network Magazine, which I love:


http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/salted-pretzel-marshmallow-bars-recipe/index.html

Water Softener

A couple weeks ago we had to replace our hot water heater, today it was the water softener!  Our water pressure had become almost non-existent.  The kids were taking showers with water dribbling out of the shower head!

So Jim did some research and found that after 6 to 10 years, the water softeners get clogged filters and need to be replaced.  The filters can not be accessed so you have to replace the whole thing. So we spent our morning putting in a new one and transferring all the salt we just put in the old one into the new one.

So in the last month we spent about $1200 to make sure we have hot, soft water!

Free Food Update

I am really loving this free food at work.  And its not so much that it is free.  It is more that I have more freedom on what to eat.  Since you don't have to worry about cost, you go from station to station and make just the lunch you want.

For example, one day, I made half a sandwich and then had a bowl of chili over mashed potatoes to go with it.

Today, I got chow mein and then piled it high with roasted broccoli and cauliflower from the classic station and sauteed zucchini from the Chinese station. Under the "old/paid" system I would have had mostly noodles, under this "new/free" system, I got tons of veggies and very little noodles!

And for afternoon snack today I had the most delicious tangelo sorbet bar - only 108 calories too!

Top 10 Signs You Might Be at a Hillbilly Wedding

10.  More than one adult thought to wear a t-shirt with a carton tuxedo printed on it.

9.  Homemade booze is bring drank out of mason jars.

8.  Backdrop for every wedding photograph is a chocolate lab, knee deep in a pond.

7.  Bride's mother is mooned....and she likes it!

6.  They cleaned out the pig shelter for the reception.

5.  Bride got chased out of the chapel by bats.

4.  Guests have moonshining names like Stacheman, Screwtop, Bug, Shorty, Mad Dog and Grammers.

3.  Bride has to hike a dirt road to get to the ceremony.

2.  Several guests are busy bean dipping each other on the dance floor.

1.  The only photo most likely to get framed will be the TNDC crew.

TNDC!

Sparkly Clean

I broke down and got a house cleaner!  Three gals worked for 6 hours today whipping the house into shape!  It sparkles!  I don't know what I was thinking for so long, but there is no way we have 18 man hours a week to clean the house!

Sunflower!

This is my coworker's 5 year old son.  He wanted to know if his sunflower was taller that that big guy Drew!  How cute is that?

TNDC Olympic Style

A few weeks ago, TNDC went on a road trip to the Screwtop's house and they hosted a special Olympic version!  Everyone brought food from another country.  We had:

Thai food
Egg rolls
Spaghetti
Gazpacho
French pasta
Greek salad
And....Kentucky fried chicken from my Aunt and Uncle who were visiting from Kentucky!

And we had beer from all over the world.

Everyone wore red, white and blue -- and Tyler took it to the extreme!  Gotta love TNDC!

Out Cold!

I love when Daisy Mae lays on her back and she is so relaxed that her lip hangs open.  And this pic is extra funny because she is also laying on her stuffed squirrel!

Daisy Mae at Cherry and Misc Happenings!

Daisy Mae will be 9 years old on Labor Day.  And each year that she goes to Cherry, she gets sorer and sorer.  Part of the reason is she never stops....allllll day long. This pic is on the morning of the third day.  She was up for hours before she finally jumped in.  She just laid next to me all morning and watched the world go by.

On this morning, we heard coyotes for the first time at Cherry. There was group of them on a peninsula that we were by and there was one or more behind us.  They were yapping and talking to each other and we could hear the one behind us travel towards the group on the peninsula.

This was also the morning that we got a ticket for having our tents too close to the water.  The ticket was for $125 dollars!  It was a bad deal because we had previously talked to a ranger who said that we could put the tents close to the water but that the "kitchen" had to be at least 100 yards from the high water mark.  We can't complain too much because we have camped there for free for the last 11 years!  A $125 "donation" seems like its the least we can do.  That comes to $11.36 a year.  And it is not really even that much because we split the cost between the 4 families that were there.  So that would make it $2.84 per year for each family!  Pretty good deal!

Mari and Kyle's Wedding

All dressed up!

Mari and Kyle's wedding was AMAZING - it was absolutely perfect.  It was sweet and down to earth - just like them!

After a week of camping and boating, we all managed to get gussied up and look good for the event.  However, it was 107 degrees, so we did look a little sweaty!  But not to worry, we had Popsicle for all the guests.

All of Mari's 7 brothers walked her down the aisle, with Marty walking her the last part to Kyle.

There was not a dry eye in the chapel.

Doug officiated the ceremony and did a great job.  It was just perfect and you could feel the love because of how close he is to them and how seriously he took this role.

Mari came in and was BEAUTIFUL!  Her dress was stunning.

I don't have any pictures of it, but Kyle was wearing green Converses and Mari was wearing green peek-a-boo shoes!  So cute.

I have never seen them both so happy! 

The Walker Famiily

Cindy and Missy handing out the favors

Cherry - Pre-wedding Trip

Because we frolicked in Hawaii in June, we only managed one Cherry trip this summer.  And we squeezed it in right before Mari and Kyle's wedding.  As usual, it was WONDERFUL.

We had great weather.  We had WAY too many wasps!  And we had visitors - Kyle's family from Colorado!

One of the highlights of the trip was when Grace and I started to set up the tent and couldn't figure out why it smelled so bad.  We took it out of the bag and started unrolling it to discover a smushed lizard from our last camping trip....a year ago!  So we decided to just let it air out for awhile while we got the tent poles out and ready to go.....only to discover that there were NO poles!  What a disaster!  So we decided to sleep on the boat and throw away the lizard death stench tent!

We at breakfast on these rocks every morning and waited for the sun to come up all the way.

One nite we had a thunder, lightening and rain storm.  Grace and I were sleeping on the boat, so Jim came and built us this shelter - it kept us dry.

The lightening was amazing - it lit up the sky all around us.  It also came with lots of really LOUD thunder - which meant that Ahi was in my sleeping bag shaking!

The best part of going this late in the year is the water is warm - well....relatively warm!

Drew and KK's 16th summer

Toes, toes, toes

We spent 4 days at Cherry right before Mari and Kyle's wedding and all of us did not do our toes before we left because we knew our feet would be a mess!  And we were right.  These are my cute "after" toes done for the wedding.

These are all our "before" toes and feet!  The poor gals who had to do our toes had their work cut out for them!

New Melones - Pre-wedding Fun

A huge bunch of us went to New Melones Lake on the Thursday before Mari and Kyle's wedding.

The Screwtops brought their boat and we brought the Pontoon Mama and the jet ski.

It was about 100 degrees, which meant we spent most of the time in the water.

Mari - so strong!

Missy didn't come out of the water the whole day!

It was fun to hang out with Kyle's family.  There was lots of wakeboarding.

Colored Pens

When getting the kids their school supplies, I got myself these colored pens!  I can't wait to use them at work!

Sometimes you get what you pay for....

The girls all did volunteer work this morning and helped Mari get her classroom ready for the year!  This is them right after they took a break from playing soccer in the hallway!  I know I am totally biased, but these girls are AWESOME!

Road Rash

Th

This is Jeremy.  Some people say he has impulse issues.  I say his "danger meter" doesn't work right!

He crashed last nite riding his long board down a hill.  A trip to the emergency room, his mama's TLC, advil and some rest will make him better soon.

The big problem is he is suppose to go to the lake with us tomorrow.  Not sure how that is going to work!

YIKES!

Free Food!

I have a new CEO at work and she is shaking the place up!

She is changing strategy, process, products and culture all at the same time.  It's what I would call the "all in" approach.  She is not going to try to make small changes, a little at a time, hoping that they, in turn, will cause other positive changes.

One of the first things she did was start providing free food!  What do I mean by free food?  I mean EVERYTHING in the cafeteria and the coffee bars is free:

Main courses (pasta, burgers, burritos)
Pizza
Sandwiches
Soup
Sushi
Chinese food
Salad bar
Fruit
Indian food
Dessert
Chips
Ice cream bars

And best of all.....FREE rice krispy treats!!

People are going crazy.  Today I watched a woman put so many croutons on her salad that it had to equal half a loaf of bread (we used to pay for our salad by weight)!   Then, a guy sat down next to me with a plate piled high with bbq chicken, chow mien, rice, broccoli and corn bread!

I was pleased that I only had half a sandwich and a salad....and a rice krispy treat!