Thankful....for Women and Target!

Yay, it's Friday!! What a week! I was so glad to be done with work at a decent time today. I went to hang out with Brett for a bit before meeting up with the girls for our Friday night plans.

Reality hosted a Women's Worship Night at the Ventura campus tonight. I was thrilled that we were able to get a group of the girls rounded up to make the trip together. Amy drove so all of us could actually drive together too!! So, we all packed in, and made out way towards Ventura.

We had to get some food in our tummies. We stuffed ourselves silly at Baja Fresh first! So good! :)

The evening at Reality was better than I could have imagined. The worship was wonderful and it was so great to be there praising our Lord with so many other God fearing women. I usually get overwhelmed during worship, to where I can't continue singing, and it happened again tonight. At one point, I looked around and it was just so powerful to be there, with almost the whole room full of women, all singing, worshipping as one.

The note from the church said to bring snacks. Whoa, did the women follow that suggestion!! There were more goodies there than you could believe!! I couldn't believe that I still had room in my tummy after dinner....but I managed to get down a brownie and part of a pumpkin cookie too!! Geez!!!

After the service was over.....we stuck around in Ventura for a little fun. TARGET!!! We managed to find the two story one, and it was so great!! I haven't been to a Target in I can't remember how long.

I had written up a small list of things before hand....and I surprisingly enough didn't stray too much from it. But, I think that we had more fun just playing around and killing time.

Who doesn't love putting on funny sunglasses??

And funny hats too? Do you only have to be cold to wear warm hats?

We had a lot of fun going all through the different departments! I was totally shocked that with everything that ended up in my basket, I was still under $100!! Woohoo!!! Reason for celebrating for sure! :)

I couldn't be more thankful for the wonderful women in my life in Santa Barbara. I sat there tonight and thanked God for putting each and every one of them in my life. I look forward to more shared memories with all of these women - worshipping and shopping alike! :)

Work, work, work!!!

Whoa....it's been a really long few days at work. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I worked from the 6am hour until the 5pm hour. It was great though. Not only did the days FLY by, they were good too!! I'm excited to see how the rest of this quarter ends up.

So, since it's been a long week at work, I haven't done anything else.

That's all.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We got back to Santa Barbara in the late afternoon yesterday so we could start decorating my house for Christmas. Brett had packed up the stuff before we left and it was sitting in his truck in my garage.

He got up on the roof and started with the lights. He had something like 7000 of them to work with, and got right to work. He did that, while I worked on the inside.

He looked like Santa up there...and it was so great!! I've never been involved in putting lights up somewhere that I lived, so this was a lot of fun!!

Isn't he cute? :)

I worked on the inside while Brett worked out in the cold. I unpacked all my boxes marked "Christmas" and set everything out so it could find its way to the right spot. Lots of Santas and Snowmen!

Brett put some of the lights in the house on the floor...and it seemed that Molly was intrigued!! She really liked them....so we quickly put them away before she went and electrocuted herself!

I really love the way the tree turned out. I had a few ornaments and put them up first. Afterwards, I put the rest of the ones from my childhood up there too. Last Christmas my Mom split up the Christmas ornaments from when we grew up and put them all on small trees for me and my sisters. I put all of those on the tree too...and it looks so wonderful! :)

Bright Lights in the Big City

After packing up and saying our goodbyes in Sacramento, we headed over towards Berkley and San Francisco for the afternoon and evening.

When I realized that we'd be going through the area on our way home a few weeks ago, I got in touch with Patrick to see if his family would be in town for the holiday weekend. I was in luck, and so the planning began. My parents and Patrick's parents have known each other since before I was born. There are pictures of me, Patrick, and his older sister, Jennifer, all as kids in Iran back when I was just a few months old. I remember our family visiting theirs one time in Florida when I was in JR High. Small worlds collided when both of our families moved to Katy in 1991. I ended up at the same college as PJ too. Our Moms are still the best of friends after all of these years. Well, I hadn't seen Kim and Patrick since before they had their first daughter, so it was a treat to not only catch up with them, but meet both of their girls too!

We got to the Berkley area a little early and took a quick drive through campus. I have no idea what this building is used for, but it was my favorite. I loved the big C on the campus lawn in front of this one.


We got a tour of Patrick and Kim's place and then headed over to a local pizza joint that they raved about for some lunch. It ended up being all the rave, and we downed the slices. Sydney was an absolute sweetheart and Sam was all smiles!!!

So great to be able to catch up with one of my oldest family friends. We reminisced about old stories and new. Fun times!!

Brett and I paid the toll to get on the congested bridge to get us over to San Francisco. I found us a sweet deal on a hotel right in the Union Square district on the way over (thank goodness for WiFi) and we were on our way to being all set.

Turns out that Union Square is the craziest place to shop.....ever!! It seems that everyone was out doing some Christmas shopping in this block. Insane!!

The lights in the mall were incredible. Brett and I went up every escalator, to the very top, and looking over the edge was a little crazy!

We found a few more spots where the lights in SF shone super bright. The Macy's Christmas Tree was beautiful and so was the night in SF just walking around with Brett. We went out with intentions of doing some Christmas shopping but ended up not buying a single thing, and instead just enjoying each other and the city.

We had a little sushi for dinner at Sakana before calling it a night!! It was a wonderful weekend, but I'm anxious to get back because we can now officially start setting up the place for Christmas!! Ho ho ho!!

Running on Turkey Fumes the Day After

On Friday we met up with everyone over at Barb's and took a quick trip up to Nevada City for the afternoon. The street was lined with all sorts of cute shops and restaurants. I got a few cute Christmas ornaments, while Grandma Jan tried on a nice warm fur coat!

We stopped in at The Beach Hut for a bite to eat. Grandpa must have gotten so used to holding Grandma's purse over the years....he looked so natural in this pose. :)

Their hot chocolate looked so good!! I thought this quick shot was so adorable of Jan and John. If they were sending out a photo card, I'd vote this to be the image! :)

After cleaning up a bit, we met back up again at Brad and David's for some evening conversations and dinner. They cooked us up some yummy French Dip sandwiches.

We had a great time hanging out by the fireplace and enjoying each other's company.

Last night, Grandpa reminded me that he was still mad at me for beating him at Cribbage last year. It was my 2nd time playing ever, and I ended up winning. Chalk it up to beginner's luck. Brett and I played a few times at the beginning of this year, but when I agreed to a rematch, I had to have him remind me of how the game went. I honestly had forgotten already.

So, we started our game and Grandpa was headed off to a good score. He pegged 24 points in the first round to my 17....and it was my crib! Nice round!! The game was back and forth up until the last hand. It was Grandpa's turn, so he had 3 turns to count to my one. He was only 9 points from winning, and I was about 20 behind. It looked like the fate of the game was already sealed.

Until......I don't recall every move....but Grandpa ended up not scoring a single point in the first part of the round, and I pegged a few. Then, he counted up 8 points. EIGHT! One short of the end. Then it was my turn to count, and some how, I ended up getting right at 121.

We couldn't believe it. It's the closest game that Grandpa has ever seen in all his years of playing Cribbage. I beat him by ONE point! None of us could believe it.

Brett played a round so Grandpa could have his win. He beat Brett by 6 points. It was another close one, but he pulled out the W.

Another great night with the family here in Sacramento!! Looking forward to our next visit soon!

Giving all sorts of Happy Thanks!!

We arrived in Sacramento last night after a quick 6 hour drive up the 5 to visit Brett's family for Thanksgiving. Grandpa John and Grandma Jan were so excited to see us!! It's great to be up here visiting with them again. It's been almost a year since we were here!

We were told that Barb was expecting us around 11am and we'd be going for a hike. Luckily Brett gave me a heads up on this so I knew to pack my tennis shoes.

Shortly after we arrived, Brett, Tom, Jessica, Kevin, Ashlee and I took off out the back door gate into the reserve behind the house. I think that everyone else would have called this a nature walk, but it was a good old fashioned hike to me. I even got winded near the top....but that might have been because I was having such a great conversation learning about Ashlee and Kevin's exciting traveling life.

At the top, we got a great view of Folsom Lake.

The hikers....I was all prepared for it to be cold up North....but I had worked up quite a sweat by the time that we got to the top. I really had wished that I had on a short sleeved shirt like Brett. :)

We stumbled across a lake of glass.

Brett tried his hand at skipping rocks!

We got off the path and picked up the walk back home through the neighborhood. We saw this kitty chasing a squirrel, and after he lost that battle, he thought to follow us for a bit. He followed us all the way to Barb's house, meowing and purring the whole time. He was so cute, and I loved his coloring. He looked like a little mini bengal tiger or something like that.

But when we got back to the house.....that is where the real wildlife was hanging out. Turns out that there is a wild peacock that hangs out in their neighborhood and makes appearances in their yard from time to time.

He sat on the rock outside the window and showed his stuff. Brett went out the backdoor to try getting a closer look...but he jumped the fence to get away.

But then.....Barb let us know that the bird was in the front. Brett went out there, and the chase ensued. Here is what happened. It's pretty funny....check it out. :)

Back at the casa, we snacked until it was time to chow on the real meal!! It all smelled so yummy. Grandpa had the honor of carving the bird. Evidently, Tom has managed to avoid doing this for something like 20+ years. So funny.

All the food was amazingly good!!! I went back for seconds and cleared both of my plates. Yup, yup....oink, oink....I know!!! We had such a great time at dinner too. I've never laughed so much at the dinner table.

Brett had a little bit too much fun with the serving spoons after dinner.

We had a great time together for Thanksgiving 2009!

Losing Symbols

Passed out last night watching TV around 930. Guess it was a long week and I was really ready to relax.

I woke up this morning around 7am and couldn't sleep any more, so I picked up the book and started to read. Brett read this one when we were in CR and I took it from him when we parted ways in Houston. I started it on the way back home, and it's a fast read. I picked it back up this morning and read until around 3.

Brett decided to do a little searching online about the book and found the Dan Brown site that had a fun symbol game! He played it for a while until he finished it....only to realize that by solving it, he learned that there were puzzles hidden in the book....which he then stole back from me to solve those too! :)


We hung out and watched the rest of Season 4 of How I Met Your Mother.

It was a wonderfully relaxing Saturday. Exactly what I needed. :)