Baby Shower

Last week Chad and I traveled to San Diego to attend the funeral of his grandfather, Walter. The family gave Walter a nice service to remember his life. A few members of the U.S. Navy were there to honor his wife by giving her a folded U.S. flag that was laid over his coffin earlier in the service.

On Saturday morning Chad's sisters threw us a baby shower. Because it is the rare occasion that we're all together as a family they decided this weekend was a fine time to do it. We ate individual omelets and fruit for breakfast before playing shower games and opening gifts. I got some really neat homemade gifts for the baby including a hooded towel, a nursing cover, a monkey blanket and a fitted sheet for the crib. We received other cute gifts too. Chad and I are thankful for the shower, the gifts, and time we all got to spend together this past week.

Here's a photo of us playing a multitasking game. We had to hang baby clothes on a clothesline while talking on the phone and holding a Cabbage Patch doll. The entire group was divided into two teams and it was a relay race. The other photo is of me trying on the nursing cover.

Amgen Tour of California

This afternoon I was lucky enough to watch a portion of the Amgen Tour of California bicycle race. It's a multi-day multi-city race and today's leg of it ended in Clovis. In fact, a portion of it took place about a half a mile from home so my friends and neighbors Jim and Kellie walked over to watch it with me. We waited about an hour for the cyclists to arrive and then once they did...they were gone in about 4 seconds.

Overall it was a fun event and I'm glad we went.

Here is the best photo I got from the race. Not great, but like I said, the best I got. When Kellie and Jim get their photos online I'll link to them here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our day started out pretty well. We woke up early, went to H&R Block to get our taxes done (we got refunds!) and decided to celebrate by going to lunch and by doing a little crib shopping. Fun! Well, fun until we got rear-ended. We were in an accident today in my Honda. We're all fine and no one was hurt, but the back of my car is pretty darn smashed in. And I worked so hard to keep it clean and looking new! Such a bummer. Now the fun of getting it repaired begins...

Sweet and Tender Hooligans

Way back in 2000 or 2001 Chad and I went to see The Smiths cover band at Cane's in San Diego called the Sweet and Tender Hooligans. For some reason we had to leave the place early (I think Chad was working the over night shift at that point) so we only got to hear about 1/3 of the show. I didn't want to leave but knew we had to because Chad needed at least a few hours of sleep. He promised that if they played again and we were around we'd go and stay for the whole show. Of course, while I was living there they never came back, and every time they played in the Los Angeles area I was either busy or out of town. So...about a month ago I saw a flyer online for the band--they were coming to Fresno! I held Chad to his promise and made him take me to the show this past Saturday. We invited our friend Garin and we were all excited to see them perform. The band was awesome--even better than I remembered them from nearly 10 years ago. They played almost all of our favorite Smiths and Morrissey songs and did it with enthusiasm and skill. We stayed until the end and afterwards met some of the band members. They were nothing short of gracious and even seemed happy to meet us. After the show we were all super pumped. I can't wait for them to come back so we can see them again. Up top is a photo of Chad and me with the singer Jose Maldonado, aka the "Mexican Morrissey". (Ignore my freaky eyes--the flash was bright--yikes!) Chad and Garin are the clowns in this photo below.

Movie Screen

Using money we got for Christmas Chad and I ordered a new TV for our living room and it finally arrived last night. When he brought it into the house I about fell over because it looked so big compared to the modest TV we had in there before. Our new set is large, but it really isn't that big after you look at it for a couple minutes. This morning I realized I'm used to it and already forgot how the other TV looked in here.

Sierra Summit Friends

On Saturday we made a spontaneous day-trip up to our local ski resort to meet up with friends from the Bay Area. Everyone (but me--although I did see a very pregnant woman snowboarding--yikes!) either snowboarded or went skiing for the afternoon and had a great time. The sun was out and the weather was beautiful so it was a perfect day in the mountains. Here they all are before heading up the lift.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's big birthday and we spent last night at the cabin to help her celebrate it. We went for a walk, had pizza for dinner, played Scrabble and watched the Food Network and American Idol. It was a relaxing but fun day in the mountains. I made my mom this quilt for her birthday. In this photo she's got it folded in half so it's really twice as big as it shows, but you get the idea. It fits right in with the cabin decor so I hope it'll get a lot of use! Happy Birthday, Mom!

Merry (belated) Christmas!

Chad and I have had a great holiday season so far. We spent the weekend before Christmas with my parents in Lodi. We stayed with my grandma and were able to celebrate the holiday with my aunts, uncles and cousins. Christmas Eve we drove to my parents' house for the night before heading down to San Diego for four days. In San Diego we visited Chad's parents, sisters, brothers, their spouses and our nieces and nephews. We played lots of games and had a good time. Below you'll see a photo of the result of one of our games. The group was divided into two teams: Chad's team and Sean's team. Chad's dad bought two pair of old fashioned one-piece red pajama thingies (I have no idea what they're called). Chad and Sean had to put them on and everyone else on their teams had to blow up balloons and stuff them in their suits. Let's just say I don't think I've laughed that hard in a really long time.

Stormy Weather

Today has been quite a weather day in the Valley. We've had rain on and off with some thunder and lightening too. Pretty exciting, really, and especially good when you can stay home and not have to drive or walk around in it. As of this post we've had four unique hail storms and each left a fair amount of ice in our planters. In fact, the hail from our last storm, about 3 hours ago, is still on the ground. Brrr.

Night at the Cabin

Saturday Chad and I drove up to the cabin for the night. It started lightly snowing about 35 minutes into our 50 minute drive. I'm glad I wasn't driving. We made it safely to the cabin and all was good. Chad immediately started a fire and I made grilled cheese sandwiches. About two hours after we settled in the power went out! Fortunately we found candles and flashlights and it was still relatively light outside. The outage only lasted about an hour and we sat close to the fire to stay warm. The snow continued to fall well into the evening and the view from inside the cabin was beautiful.