The End is Near...

We have a couple days left before we close out 2007... It has been an unbelievably crazy year. I can't write much, but I wanted to post a recent picture that my siblings and I took. We haven't taken a picture together in years, so I decided to get everyone together and get some pictures taken for my parents before any grandkids came along. We had so much fun; it's not too often that we spend time together for no reason. Everyone has their own lives and being pulled in every direction, so it was very nice to just spend free time with all my siblings.

I hassled my brothers to meet us at a place to get these pictures taken. They were not too happy, especially my younger brother, David. Once we got there he changed his mind. He was the one wanting pictures here and there with his girlfriend. Peter and Sonia took this as an opportunity to take pictures as well... To bad Peter looked like the sun was in his face or he was surprised.

My brother had to open his eyes wide to not squint... didn't look any better.

Every time we tried to take a serious picture, my brother would pinch us - we just gave up.

David and Steph

This is the shot we picked to be blown up to 16 x 22. I ended with no nose by the time it was blown up.

Merry Christmas

To everyone that reads my blog, I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas!

Shauna, Jenster, Becky, Deeanne, Katybug, Angela, and Barb - wishing you all a very Merry Christmas full of lots of good food, great gifts (giving and receiving), and special times making memories with family and friends.

Hopefully you won't buy anyone a gift like this or receive one...

Or you won't find this delivered to your front door...

Don't forget, TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY... Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, ra-ra-ra-ra =)!

Christmas Rundown

SUNDAY, December 23rd
On Sunday I will be celebrating my grandfathers 79th birthday and going to church in the evening. We will have our Christmas service and the kids will be singing. I really look forward to this service each year. The kids have been practicing - All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, Jesus Christ is Coming to Town (aka Santa Claus is coming), Happy Birthday Jesus, Feliz Navidad.

Monday, December 24th
On Christmas Eve, I have the day off of work, woohoo! This day we celebrate with my mothers side of the family. We get together for a huge dinner which includes turkey and ham as the main courses. I tried to talk my mom into changing the menu to steaks and crab, but it didn't work. We will be eating turkey.

Christmas Day, December 25th
On Christmas morning we wake up super early, sit around the tree and fire, drinking coffee, arguing, and laughing until everyone is up and ready to open gifts. It takes our slow slow family about 3 hours to open gifts. For this reason alone, we always make a mad dash to get in the showers and over to my grandparents house. My grandma makes everything you could possibly think of. She has a dessert table, an appetizer table and then a spread for the main course and sides. Our family is so huge that we eat in different rooms of the house that are opened up to each other by indoor "windows". After we have eaten, opened more presents and had some sort of adventure such as someone getting locked in a car trunk, someone catching on fire, or someone falling in the pool, we head home.

Usually on Christmas night we come home to an empty fridge and starve since nothing is open on Christmas day. This year, my dad ordered dozens of homemade tamales from my Brother's sister-in-law. There family celebrate in the traditional Hispanic way and tamales are always apart of their Christmas. So this year, she will be making some extra for us! yum!

This is how I spend my Christmas, I can't wait! I am also looking forward to a few additional days off of work.

Friday's Laugh

I've had a moment or moments during the Christmas season when I wanted to yell or punch someone while Christmas shopping or trying to park. I assure you that I would never punch a complete stranger, but I did something really horrendous a few years back when I was taken over by the Christmas parking rage.

My sister and I were in a huge line to park and this massive boat of a car comes along the side of us while we were waiting for the car to get out of our space. I was not about to let them get away with sneaking in and stealing our coveted parking space. I put my face against the window and put my fist up with a growl and then saw who was driving the big boat... a little old lady that could barely see above the staring wheel! From the look on her face, I saw that she was scared out of her mind! She most likely had no clue how parking lines worked. lol!

I posted this link since I couldn't get the actual video on here. Just watch out for other stuff that may pop up after the video is done, =).

GO Here to see serious Parking Rage

Where's the Casket?

I went to a funeral on Wednesday for an elderly man that went to my church. I did not know him well, just said hello and asked about his well being from time to time. I went in support of his wife who I've known for years. I sat in the very back and when the time came for the service to end, the funeral coordinator gave instructions. I was in my own little world thinking about how this funeral brought back the painful memories of my Grandma's funeral a few months back and I didn't hear a word.

Next thing I know, the usher was standing in front of me motioning for me to move while the entire chapel, 100 + people, watched me. So I moved to the back and watched as my row moved down the aisle to the front... okay, so I was supposed to go down to the front. I couldn't figure out why, since there was no Casket in sight to pay last respects.

I finally moved down the aisle, up the stairs on the platform, past my pastor and out the door. Where was the casket?

My sister and I got in the car to leave after the grave site service (where the casket finally showed) and she said,

"He doesn't look the same as he did, very very different."

I said "who?"

"Bro. Zitterman." (man who passed away)

"How did you see him?!?"

"He was right there in the casket in the chapel."

"No he was not, there was no casket."

"Yes there was, he was right there. You could see him from the back of the chapel."

"I did not see a casket."

"If you had walked down the aisle to pay your last respects you would have seen him." (she thought I stayed in the back)

"I did walk down and I walked right by our pastor."

"He was right under Pastor's elbow." At this point my sister was laughing hysterically.

"You went to a funeral and didn't see the casket!"

Yes, I did this. If you want to see me make a fool of myself, take me to a wedding or a funeral. I usually mess something up, put my foot in my mouth, or appear insensitive. That day was the insensitive part.

I did want to share some pictures with you. I've never been to a cemetery during the Christmas season. This is what we saw. (pictures are not great since they are from my phone)

My sister said that it looked like "a poinsettia field.

Christmas Party

A group of us at church always get together for dinner at each others homes and go out on Sundays after church. We decided to do a secret Santa gift exchange this year. We got together on Saturday night at my home and had tons of yummy food and played games. We did a "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" Mad lib. You can click here and do one yourself. You can see just how hilarious these turned out. Someone hung some mistletoe and all the couples kept trying to sneak their way in.

I made two pesto pizza, both were gone in a matter of minutes. Everyone should taste this at some point in their lives! =) I've mentioned before that I rarely follow recipes and when I do I always end up missing something. I do all my cooking by "looking and guessing". Here is the recipe:

PESTO:

Handful of fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup of toasted pine nuts

2 tbs of crumbled feta

4-5 artichoke hearts (canned in water)
3 Tbs of Fresh Parmesan

approx. 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients except for olive oil in a food processor. Slowly poor in olive oil. Should be a little thicker than marinara sauce
*******************************

PIZZA and TOPPINGS:

Digorno pizza crust (not frozen)

1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil

Pesto

1 can of artichoke hearts, halved (in water, not oil)

Feta cheese

Fresh Parmesan

Toasted pine nuts

Cook Pizza crust on 450 for about 7 minutes. Remove from oven and add toppings. Rub oil over the top and add pesto. Add toppings, as much to your liking.

Put in the oven for another 4-5 minutes. Remove from oven and put under a broiler for 2-3 minutes.

*****************************

After we had our tummy's full we went out to look at lights. There is this neighborhood close to my home that is all decked out. We walked for a little bit until we were all about to freeze and opted for the cars instead.

KISSING under the mistletoe

Peter laughing at his own Madlib

Scary Snow Dolls Catherine writing a letter to Santa

Madison

YIKES! I knew that I would make a blunder... I forgot to add 3 cloves of garlic to the list of ingredients for the pesto. 3 minced cloves.

A Laugh For Friday

Dead Sea Scrolls - San Diego, CA

Let me start by sending out a warning - this is going to be long... I do not care to read really long post, but sometimes it happens. I am warning those that feel the same way.

Last weekend we took a trip to San Diego's National Museum of History to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are currently 15 on display at the museum. We walked through a corridor of art of the middle east before going into the rooms with the scrolls. We then saw artifacts from Qumran, the place where the scrolls were found. Ink wells that the scribes used were on display. No more than two have ever been found in one place and there were two found in Qumran. Some of my favorite scrolls were of the Ten Commandment, parts of Psalms, parts of Isaiah, and one that was never added to the Bible today, Enoch.

The rooms were dark and lit with small lights to preserve the scrolls. Standing among throngs of people, you could hear the hush. People were packed in, yet there was barely a whisper heard. There's something reverent about being in the same room as the scrolls. Biblical history that is more important than any other artifacts found, or so they are to me. Scrolls that were around before Jesus came to this earth. Before salvation. Now that is something were seeing!

It was a once in a lifetime experience. Sadly, one that I could not record with pictures.

After we left the museum we went to Old Town San Diego. Great Mexican food, shopping, old town charm. On our way there, we went on the bridge that connects Coronado Island to the main land. A huge double rainbow was across the bridge.

We ate at a restaurant called the Cosmopolitan. It does not look anything like it sounds. The restaurant used to be an old hotel. We did some Christmas Shopping in the main square before we begin to freeze.

On our way home everyone decided we needed some more old town charm. We stopped at the Orange Circle, it literally is a circle with a courtyard in the middle. Movies are filmed here all the time, one being That Thing You Do with Tom Hanks. We stopped at this eatery called Luccia. They served the best Panini's and Gelato. If you've never had Gelato, you need to find you a place that makes it fresh. My absolute favorite is Pistachio. We had some Gelato and then walked around in the freezing cold. I was miserable in my flip flops and light jacket. You may think I am insane wearing flip flips this time of year, but in the OC it does not get very cold. If it's down to 58, then it's really cold. I feel like I am starting to ramble so I will wrap this up.

Below are some pictures of our deadseascrolloldtownsandigeoorangecircle adventure.

New Church Building

I went on a tour of our new church building last night. It is huge; the sanctuary alone fits approx. 1200 people, or so I heard. These pictures are from my phone, so they're not clear. Also, everything will be remodeled over the next couple of months. We purchased this building for around 7.5 million (revised - almost 10 million after remodeling) or so, again, I hear =). Seems like a lot, but in Southern California that's pretty normal, especially for a building of this size.

Main Sanctuary

There are rows and rows of classrooms and offices, huge fellowship hall, wrap around foyer, school, preschool, outside rec area... it's so big and roomy and it's ours!! We have our first service there on December 23rd and I can't wait!

One side of the foyer (with the weird tile)

We Got Elfed!

Okay, in true holiday spirit, my siblings and I took a little trip to the north pole to "help" out, jolly ol' Santa. Someone decided to put on some music Falala music... and that was it... look here. LOL!

God's Got The Box

Last night we had classes for our kids department. This session I teach the 12 & 13 year olds with my friend, Brenda.

Last night we talked about God being our pilot. He knows all the controls, all the right paths, all the right angles, how to land, how to take off, how to keep things steady even when there's turbulence. He is in control of the "plane".

Brenda taught the lesson last night and one of the analogies that she used really got me thinking. She was explaining that when you put a puzzle together it's easier when you can see the cover of the box. The pictures is whole on the cover, not in pieces. Once you have the cover you can see where certain colors need to go, what the edges look like.

Just like life, things may be in a jumble, just pieces to a puzzle. But, God has the cover and see's the whole picture. He knows where every piece belongs, every color, every edge. He is in control.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

I am having a wonderful day today!

Yesterday was stinky. Things just weren't going right at work. I was having an emotional breakdown, seriously! lol! Okay, maybe not that serious, but it felt like I was about to have one. I even had a dream that I quit my job. That's what I get for working 10 hrs straight on paperwork. Ugh!

Today I woke up and it's a great great day! I am astonished by my sales on eBay. I have one neck tie that cost about $1.99 and now it's selling for $96 and the bidding isn't even done! Woo hoo! Every time I see this and then I see the same brand selling for around $20 on eBay, I know I have favor. God's favor.

I just wanted to share my happy day. I hope your all having one too, or will wake up tomorrow with one at your doorstep! =)

The World of eBay and Christmas Money

I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but I am a serious eBayer. I don't know what I would do if eBay was never invented. Whoever thought of this - "Thank you!". It's not like you'll be reading my blog anytime soon, but thank you anyway.

I have two eBay accounts, one for personal stuff and one for Men's clothing. I usually sell stuff periodically all year and I buy stuff once in a while, such as books, shoes...

I was stuck to my desk at home last night working away on eBay. I can seriously use the extra cash for the holidays and I know that I can get it on eBay.

There is something about watching your selling price go up and up... I usually get pretty good sales. I started selling on eBay just out of curiosity. It turned into a full blown business in a matter of months. My main sales were from Men's clothing. I taught myself all the specifics of a man's dress shirt. Who would've thought that men's clothing was so detailed! I learned all the major name brands that men like, textures of clothing, styles... Now when I need some extra cash I just throw on some items and I have it.

I used to have a website with hair accessories. I started making hair sticks when I was seventeen for ladies at my church. I had an article done on me for Somerset Studios, wedding edition. I figured I would get some great publicity, so I had a website built. It didn't quite go as planned. Who would have though websites were so expensive! Not just the building but the running of things. That's a whole other story, back to eBay. I opened an eBay store for my leftover hair accessories. Take a look here - GemStix.

I will post more later about GemStix...

Happy Thanksgiving

I love this time of the year! It's the beginning of the holiday season, a season when everything is rushed and peaceful all at the same time.

I am home stuffed with turkey, ham, stuffing, yams, biscuits... stuffed. I feel so comfy and for once my home is quite. My brother and sister-in-law are gone with her family for the night and my little brother is out with friends, and my sister is MIA. So, I cuddled up on the couch at watched Project Runway (good show by the way). Tomorrow will be a very busy day. I am teaching a morning bible study with my older brother and then coming home to our own family Thanksgiving dinner. No early morning shopping for me... I've convinced myself that I would rather pay full price than fight the crowds.

Now onto the the important stuff... being thankful. Often we forget to even remember to give thanks on this day or any other day for that matter. I woke up this morning thinking of all the things that have happened this year. Here are a couple that I am extra thankful for.

~My Sister-in-law Sonia. As of 11/25/06 she was officially a "Bing" =). She is one of my best friends, my sister, and my boxing bag. I can be pretty rough on her, but she is a Godsend. She puts up with me and encourages me. Gives me her ear and shoulder when needed. And she lets she plunk her in the head every now and than to get the frustration out. =) Thank God for her!

~My Dad. He's been through a lot and WOW! That's all I can say. Wow! God has been good and I am forever thankful for what He's done.

These are two major things that I am thankful for this year. It's a given that I am thankful for this life I have, for my entire family, siblings and mother (who is the greatest women alive).

To all my blogging buddies: You all have made my life richer! I have so much fun with you all! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

I do give thanks to my God, He is mentioned last because He is the one to who my thanks above are really for. He's given me everything and made everything happen. I trust him wholeheartedly more this year than any other time. He the source of all the good in this life!

Thank you God!

Thanksgiving Dinner

This is going to be a very busy week... or maybe I should say it's been very busy.

**

We had our Thanksgiving Dinner for our church family on Thursday. I did not get one scrap of turkey or ham or any other kind of food. Our church has grown so much that we can't fit in our multi-purpose room. I showed up late and got stuck with the kids. I say stuck because there were dozens of hungry kids from 2 to 11 in one room.

**

This actually brings me to another thought... My church is in the process of purchasing a massive facility. We would have thousand and thousands of grounds to use! I am beyond excited and once I can get some pictures up I will. This building is huge with tons of classrooms for the kids and a pre-school, a huge sanctuary and a chapel. It's beautiful and I can't wait to show you.

**

Okay, back to Thanksgiving dinner. I am trying to think of a good recipe that isn't traditional for Friday. On Thanksgiving day we spend it with my entire family. We come home and relax and then on Friday we wake up at the crack of dawn... ugh, and shop. (I might skip it this year) and then we prepare for our own immediate family Thanksgiving. The whole point of this is the leftovers. When you go to someone else's house, you don't have a ton of yummy leftovers. So my family started this tradition many years ago so that we would have our own leftovers.

If anyone has a good recipe for a side dish or dessert let me know... I may want to steal it!

Too busy to write

Hi all! I am still here... barely, but here.

I am so swamped with work and preparations at home that I have been neglecting my blog.

Today is my 3rd year job anniversary.... and I am celebrating by sitting with piles and piles of paperwork around me. WooHoo!

I will post about our early Church Family Thanksgiving dinner that we are having tonight. Yum! Turkey, ham, yams, cranberry sauce... oh joy!

ONE YEAR & ONE HUNDRED POST

It’s been one year and one hundred posts since I started this blogging journey.

On November 8, 2006 I wrote…
Jane Austen once said - Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.
I may have spoken too soon. I have written about misery and sometimes guilt. But that’s life, right?

I started this with no outside viewers. My family would read it occasionally and maybe some strangers who passed through. One thing you would probably never know, I am extremely private. When I got my first comment from an “almost stranger”, I felt like someone was reading my inner most thoughts, I was petrified! lol. But then it donned on me, I wrote it right there for everyone to see! So I just trekked on and here I am today. Not so private and yet, I don’t really care.

I rambled on about my life, death, family, my job, my God, my church, holidays, tumors, books, weddings, eBay, co-workers, scrap booking, my dislikes, my weirdness, vacations, birthdays, kids, books, Jane Austen, fires…

It has been a good year in blogging. It wasn’t without the downs of life, but that just means things can only get better.

My favorite part of someone else’s blog this year was from God Things, devotionals by Shirley Buxton:

Man. What creatures we are. Of what divine and soaring ways are we
capable; yet into what ugly and deep depravity have we sunk. Man. Made in
the image of God. Made a little lower than the angels. Man, God’s friend, an
evening walker in the garden, His companion. Man, cast out, dying, sinful
now and clothed by bloodshed. But…rooting around inside us, struggling
fiercely with our fallenness, is the shinning—the glorious, the rising, the
giftings, the goodness…the distinct image of God.

I truly love blogging and I look forward to spending the next year blogging about life.

It's Coming!

I can almost smell the turkey and stuffing!

Thanksgiving is almost here!
I am so excited. I love this time of the year. The season is beautiful and so full of family.

My siblings and I still make Christmas list. It doesn't matter that we range in age from 22 to 32. We still make out list and make sure everyone in the family has a copy.

At Thanksgiving our extended family picks name and buys each other gifts. This was is easier since our family is huge.

I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks. We are getting ready for our church Thanksgiving dinner, family Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas preperations...

I have so much to be Thankful for this year... I will go into detail later on.

Harvest Party

I am a little late in posting this, but I wanted to show some of the pictures from our church Harvest Party this past week.

We had food, games, and prizes for the best dressed family, best dressed adult, best-dressed kids, and the best carved pumpkin. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the best-dressed kid or family. But, I did get a ton of pictures of the cutest little kiddies dressed up. I was a pirate, no pictures of me since i was behind the camera the entire night. My mom made the Carebear outfit that my brother is wearing. Took her a couple of hrs. She blew us away!

7 Random Things About Me

I've been tagged by Becky to reveal 7 random things about myself. Her 7 things were informative, expect mine to be less informative and maybe a little boring. =)


1. I don't watch scary movies, but the one movie that scared me more than any other movie was the 1966 film, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts. This goes to show you that I am a huge scaredy cat.

2. I love corn. Corn chips, corn tortilla, corn chowder, corn cake. Especially white corn.

3. I sing in a trio at my church. I am the soprano.

4. I don't like talking to people on the phone... come to think of it... I don't like talking to people anywhere but online.. hmm.. sounds like a hermit. lol! I'm not a hermit... at least I don't think I am.

5. I am the biggest procrastinator there is. I love to organize things but I can't seem to get it from my head to my hands.

7. I have very little patience, yet I teach handfuls of kids every week... what's wrong with this picture? Maybe it's very little patience with adults.

I tag the following:

Catherine at Queen's Castle
Sonia at Mrsbingley

Ahoy!

My nephew went to a contest this past weekend.

Isn't this the cutest little pirate you've ever seen?

From one extreme to the next!

Cute & Grumpy!

Pirates have mommies too!

Smelly Fire

My families houses in San Diego are still standing, Thank God! They are watching the fire closely and hoping it doesn't jump the freeway, which is between their house and the fire. Things are looking up for them.

I am very sad for those that lost their homes and those that have lost their lives. I can't imagine if I was in the position to lose my home. I pray that things work out for them in these next few weeks.

I am so proud of our firemen and emergency workers! What heroes they are! Some getting a mere 3 hours of sleep since Sunday?!? Can you imagine?

I am headed off to a restful weekend. I have a Bible study to attend this evening and then I am going to put my feet up and relax with Cubicle Next Door. This has been one long long week, I'm so glad it's nearly over.

More on Fire

I have yet to listen to the news this morning, but as of last night things were looking pretty bad. The smoke was not as overbearing this morning, this is good. We are now walking through ash in the air, 20 minutes away from the Irvine fire.

I heard yesterday that this is the largest evacuation in the nation since the civil war! 900'000 people have been evacuated in Southern California. I also heard that the damage is worse. than Katrina.

As of last night, my family still has their home in San Diego. Thank God!

Just watching and waiting... thank you for your prayers!

Southern California Fires

I'm sure you've heard, Southern California is in a state of emergency. My family in San Diego has been evacuated and I believe they may lose their homes. Please pray for them.

I live about 20 minutes from one of the fires in Irvine; I attend church in Irvine. I get to the church by 5:00-5:30 on Sunday evenings for music practice. The skies were pretty clear and the air was clean. By the time we were about done with service, close to 10:00 PM. the smell of fire overwhelmed us in the building. I walked outside to find smoke so thick it hurt to open your eyes or breathe.

Today my throat is dry and scratchy, my eyes are hurting and it's just plain miserable. It doesn't look like things are getting better. I was supposed to be at prayer this evening, but it has been cancelled due to the weather and traffic from the fire. Pray that it will end soon and there will be minimal homes burnt and no injuries.

Happy Belated Birthday Catherine!

My sister's birthday was yesterday, she turned 32. We went to the Citrus Grille at the Orange Circle on Saturday. (I have pictures to post later.)



My sister is my best friend, roommate, partner in crime, and so many other things. We work together, live together... I don't think there is anything we don't do together. Sometimes we pull each others hair our, more then sometimes recently, lol! And sometimes we get along great. We have different taste in clothing, this is just one of the many differences.

There is a 7 1/2 year gap between us, this used to be odd when I was a young teenager, but by the time I got into high school the gap wasn't noticed as much.

About her:

• She is on her way to making a CD. She starts recording this weekend.


• She loves the Lakers, Angels, and UFC


• She loves shoes


• She loves to go out


• She loves Lobster Bisque


• She is very giving

Introducing Myself to Siri L. Mitchell

I zipped right through this book. At first, reading was difficult since it was written in first person. I almost put it down after a couple of pages because it made me think too hard and I wasn't in the mood.

I'M SO GLAD I STUCK WITH IT. The book started off great, just the first person struggle, and it ended unbelievably wonderful!

This is my new favorite contemporary Christian Fiction! I loved loved loved it! I couldn't put it down, I read it on the way to work (I carpool), during lunch, after work and sat on the couch and read until I finished. Needless to say, I didn't get much done at home... or at work.

I was so drawn into the characters, Claire and Adrien. I loved how there were not many characters to get to know. Mainly just these two. Everything was about them and not other people. They were not perfect, like some characters in other christian books, they were relatable. I knew them, well Claire that is, Adrien was French and not too relatable, but who cares, again, he was French.

It was a sweet, romantic, funny, and very real. I loved it when Adrien told Claire that she was a snob. She said she believed God was omnipresent but there were places he wouldn't be at, such as a bar, a club... She looked down on people with sin without realizing she was doing it. Adrien had some good comebacks, but as we know anything can be argued. In France he could have been right, but in America it's another story. You'll just have to red it to draw your own conclusions.

I would recommend this book to anyone.. as a matter of fact, if you haven't read it, go here and buy it. Christianbook.com should give me some free books for this. =)

~~~~~~~

I read Moon Over Tokyo in one day. I read it on the way to work and when I got home in the evening I stayed on the couch until I finished. I really liked it.

I feel like I've taken a trip to Tokyo, stayed in Hiroo, visited the church, got confused on the subway, wrote a tiring novel, and... met Eric.

Very sweet.

Pay attention Christianbook.com, I'm doing it again, if you haven't read this, click here.

Happy Birthday Dad!

at my older brother's wedding, drinking iced tea having a good ol' time!

Yesterday, October 16th, was my Dad's birthday.

He is 57 years young.

What a whirlwind of a year for him and my whole family! A lot has happened for the good.

My Dad was always involved in my childhood and teenage years. He takes us on the best vacations, Death Valley in the winter and Tahoe, Mammoth, Eureka in the Summer.

He loves surprises, especially at Christmas. He still, to this day, can't sleep Christmas Eve; he gets so antsy and can't wait to see our faces when we open gifts from him.

My Dad loves practical jokes. When we were kids, he told us about how he used to walk in his sleep. That night after my parents went to bed, my siblings and I were watching a movie. Next thing we knew, my dad was walking in the room, eyes glazed over and just walking around. We jumped up and got our mom, "Dad's sleep walking!". We carefully guided him down the hall back to his room while we whispered at each other not to wake him up. He got to the end of the hall and started doing a jigg. LOL! Yeah, we fell for it.

These are just a few things I love about him! Happy Belated Birthday Dad!

Work Work Work

I have been so overwhelmed with work!

I am doing enough work for three people at this point and it's driving me crazy.

Business is booming so bad that work is hanging off my desk. LOL! I am not kidding, literally hanging. My inbox is about to break from the pressure... don't believe me? see the pictures below.

1st inbox and bookcase

2nd in boxes and emails unanswered

I work on records for legal cases. The amount of paper work I go through each day is mind boggling. I came in on Saturday and tried to catch up and made some headway.

I say all this not to complain, just to vent. Yet as I write this, I feel petty. I am so blessed to have a job. Having these piles makes me think that the work is never ending. I believe this to be a good thing since I know that I am needed. Now that feels good!

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out

Deut 28:1-7

One more thing Lord, bless me with an assistant... or another one that is.