30 April 2010

the clutterless flower * in my opinion


The orchid.
Just happens to be my FAVorite.
Husband and daughter (gosh I love them) got me this very orchid
for Mother's Day
4 years ago and yes it is STILL blooming.
Every year.
Multiple times a year.
Like a champ.
I noticed last night it has a new sprout even. YAY!

I give it my vitamin residue.  I take the powder kind mixed with water.
I think that is why I have been so lucky.
And I think it blooms out of love.
Laugh all you want but I believe that. So there.

If you want a clutterless flower I suggest you try this.
Give it love every day and vitamins once a week.

Bloomed with love. :0)

Undiagnosed insomnia update:
2 nights in a row I slept 4 hours and 45 mins straight.
Yes uninterrupted. Whoop!

27 April 2010

Well hello good morning!

After about a month of 'rough patches'
I am feeling pretty darn spiffy.
I think the exercise is "releasing endorphins
and endorphins make you happy".
-Elle Woods, Legally Blonde (hee hee hee)
Although I still am dealing
with the undiagnosed insomnia
but that is ok. I can deal.

The weather is up and down.
My sinuses have been up and down.
My emotions have been up and down.
Just dealing with lots and lots.
I don't like be sick. Or sad. Or mad.
Well you get the picture.

So today, I woke up
(once at 4 am and again at 5 am & this is after
not falling asleep until after midnight)
and told myself,
"self, don't let anything drag you down."
Be your strong, witty, beautiful self no matter what."
So wa la!

I decided that the allergies. The weather.
The stuffiness. The wrong decisions.  The favoritism.
Stupid remarks.  And anything else that I
have let affect me in the past month
is buh-bye!
Now, I say bring it. I'm ready.

So, today I want to share that
I love the following:

*My new love and motivation for exercising.
*My new bestie...lady treadmill. Oh how I can't wait to
walk all over you tonight.
*My yummy breakfast...strawberries and cottage cheese.
Heck ya!
*Of course, Hubby and daughter.
*My job.
*My new mailer.
*The thought of writing all of the addresses on the mailers by hand.
Oh wait, I don't love that so much.
*My tan.
*Most recent date night. I want another...STAT.
*My Blackberry. I will always love you.
*My new white wedges with flowers up the center.
*American Idol is on tonight!
*This is Hubbys last week of working out of town.
I sure have missed snuggling...every day.
*New friends.

Well, I guess I better get back to work.

Find your loves and what makes
you happy and run with them.
We have no time to let the things
we CAN, or CANNOT control bring us down.



26 April 2010

Ladies & Gentlemen - Daughter has made t.v....for a few seconds

On Friday
Kylee was asked to race a
News anchor on Good Day Sacramento.
Channel 31.
She was so excited.

filming a shot...Jackie, the anchor was her competition


Jackie was so petite she was able to
fit in and drive Joshua Jennings' car.

Kylee & Joshua with their cars


Kylee loved being on t.v. and
being on t.v. in her race car.
She loves to race.

dad getting her ready to go

It is very funny to listen to the other
news anchors in the studio after
they ran the cars.
Jackie left before the starter said 'go'
so they were teasing her about cheating
against a 9 year old.
ha ha ha

After this we took Kylee to school ~
on time I might add!

Saturday was the event called
Funny Car Fever.
This is an event for the big
(mom & dad size) cars.

Joshua and Kylee were asked to
make a couple exhibition passes against
each other during the down time
of this big race.

So they did.
And there was a big crowd.
The stands were full.

The Jr. Drag Races don't pull a
big crowd so this was very exciting for the kids.

Throughout the day Kylee had
people coming up to talk to her.
Ask to take pictures with her.
She asked little kids if they
wanted to sit in her car.
She is one social butterfly.
Preparing herself for the big time I guess.
She's a natural in front of people.

After this we rushed her to her friend's house
for a sleepover.
Hey the star needs downtime too.
hee hee hee



21 April 2010

little miss sicky face

It's me.
Not daughter or husband.
Thank goodness.
I don't like being sick.
I feel so useless.
So helpless.
I need to be moving around. Working.
But I can't.
This darn sinus infection is kicking my butt.

I will be back up and running in a few days.
Stay tuned.

This pic caprtures the highlight of my days right now.
Sad I know.
I know taking meds will get me better.
So chug-a-lug-lug

19 April 2010

super softball Saturday! oh & Sunday too!

This was a jam packed
fun filled
soak up the sun
weekend at the park.

The Sizzlin' Slam
softball tourney was this weekend.
Both days.

And it went a little something like this:
Starting at 7:45 a.m. ~ Yes a.m.
we had 3 games on Saturday.
At about 4:30 when the games were over we
hung around and BBQd with some
of the families from our team.
Great fun!
By the way, the kids continued to play softball
during the BBQ.
Gosh I wish I had that kind of energy!

Sunday also started at 7:45 a.m. ~ Yes a.m. again.
Another 3 games were played.
The girls did great the entire time.
I was impressed.
Considering by about 11 I was ready to curl up in
my chair and take a nap.
But the fear of getting hit by a line drive or a foul ball
while resting my eyes kind of woke me up a little. HA!

The best parts of both days were...
1) seeing Kylee improve each game
and
2) visiting with friends.

Here are some pics - thank you Lori and Shelly.




Just another day, or two of softball...
Thank you Mother Nature for the perfect weather.







14 April 2010

Wedding Day Random

Just a random story of the wedding day via photos.

Here ya go...

The cake...
Not sure whose butt is in the background but really?
Again, this is random. :0)
Us...

Bride & one of her brothers.
He walked her down the isle.

My fave of the day! For sure.

The beautiful magazine quality couple.
Love them!

Kylee and half of magazine couple...Ashley. :0)

The kids getting their boogy on...



Thanks Mr. & Mrs. Leppanen
for this day.

Peace!




13 April 2010

baby brother-in-law's wedding

So sweet.
The two of them.
Cody and Marti.
They met after they both had partied.
It's so sweet. So true.
Two different people.
Two different lives.
One day to be husband and wife.
They just knew.
Their love would be true.
So on this day they asked us all to witness
their moment of complete bliss.



And so their life begins...

CONGRATULATIONS!


"my first full day of being married was pretty awesome." - Cody Leppanen
"you better say that. I love you." - Marti DeLeon Leppanen


The Dinner - It's a Pre-wedding Thing

After much preperation.
Hard work.
A bit of stress.
(speaking for my in-laws)
Multiple trips to the store.
Many stores.
Even cyber stores.

It was time.
Time for the rehearsal dinner.
It was a shrimp boil.
And here we go...

Even though people came for the food
there had to be some sort of decoration too.

Thank goodness my in-laws have
something just short of a floral shop on
their property.
You can never have too many flowers!


Here are the boys of the family...
Can you tell who was in charge of the pot?
And the groom is in white.


Other brother-in-law and his beautiful girlfriend

On to the food. Hello! That's what 40 people
gathered on this night for, right?

The hard working ladies...

Someone had to watch the pot.
That is one big pot! Thanks Mona!

There are a lot of ingredients that go into a shrimp boil pot.
They all have specific times.
This really is a hard thing to do and you have to
pay close attention to your pot.

Done now draining...

Then the dump

Time to make it pretty. It's a must.
I like how Andre made his way into this picture.
Notice how the apron on top is in a weird position...hmmm

What a meal. What a night.
And it was all for them.
The soon to be bride and groom.

Very casual. Very comfortable. Very good.
A perfect night.




12 April 2010

08 April 2010

i LOVE me magazines

I previously did a post about
Lucky Mag.  One of my faves.

Here are a few more.

In People, I love the real life stories. A lot.

In US Weekly, I love the gushy celeb gossip.
I know. I know. It's addicting and I can't help it.





07 April 2010

Dim the lights!

It's not good for your eyes to watch
t.v. in the complete dark.
I don't think so anyway.
Hmmm maybe this is just my opinion.
I can't remember if I have read this somewhere or not.

Regardless,
WE don't like to watch t.v. in the complete dark.
WE don't like to keep all of the lights on either.

So we use these...

We call it mood lighting.
Boom chicky wow wow.
HA HA HA

Seriously though.



06 April 2010

the little things make me smile

It's the little things that make me smile.
If I am tired. Bummed. Stressed. Sad. Bored.
I pull out my phone and start looking at pictures.
I take a lot of pictures.
One of my favorite things to photograph
is husband and daughter together.

Looking at their pictures makes me smile every time.
No matter what.

They are sweet together.
I am so happy I have been blessed
with an amazing companion and a perfect daughter.
I love them.



05 April 2010

Sushi? Yes please!

Typically Friday nights we go to dinner when Husband gets home from work.

Mikuni is one of the places we frequent. A lot. We. All 3 of us LOVE it.
Oh and by the way, you sure are missing out if you don't have one. :o) Sorry!

Anyhoo...

We went to Mikuni the other night & Taro was there making sushi at the sushi bar. He is so nice & talked to just about everyone. You know what? I do believe he was smiling the entire time too. Seriously. What a nice guy.

We sat at the sushi bar like we always do, thank goodness.

As you know if you have been reading my blog, husband likes to order odd ball/custom stuff from the chefs. We sat down in front of Joe & asked him to make "something spicy. The hotter the better. Put shrimp, crab & whatever else you want. Oh with soy wrap".

Joe was amazing. He quickly whipped up the Average Joe roll and it was D-LISH!

03 April 2010

Busy means writer's block - sorry!

Busy day. Will be back tomorrow with sushi pics.
Liz Leppanen, Realtor (916)275-5511 VGC Real Estate Group #01820535

01 April 2010

we spent the past 4 days...

here

and we did a little of this

Husband (daddy) and Grandpa were working
so Kylee got to spend lots of time with Grandma

When the sun was out we saw this

Oh yes. 4 days filled with no make-up...
jammie days - seriously...sweat suits...lots of couch love...
catching up on magazines...cut fabric for daughter's class...
t.v. time...naps...sleeping until 9 - WOW amazing...
and mind cleansing.

Boy was this relaxing.