January and Early February

It's been a while since I've updated this. So here's what's happening with Scott and Dawn:

1) Getting back into the swing of school happened pretty quickly after break. Now it's all about the "test" and getting the students prepared.

2) We hosted the January girls' birthday bash on the 24th. Joni and Nancy share this day and January is all about them. I cooked Italian with a good old American apple pie for dessert. Along with Scott and I, Joni and Mirl, and Nancy, Susan and Cyndra and Ken came over for dinner. Nancy got lots of fun stuff for her kitchen so that when we go over to house to cook we have utensils. Joni got lots of stuff for scrapbooking.

3) This past weekend we were all at Jen and Ed's in Manteca for a fun party. Hope enjoy the pictures.

Christmas week 2008

What a busy week! It started last Sunday with food shopping and cooking Sunday and Monday for Betsy and Jerry's vow renewal. Nancy, Kierra and I shopped for about 3 hours for all the food. Monday Joni, Susan, Nancy, and I cooked all afternoon to be ready for the big shindig on Tuesday. I think it turned out very well!! About 50 people witnessed their ceremony and ate the food and drank good wine.

Wednesday was spent practicing music for Christmas Eve service and then playing both the piano and clarinet for 2 different services. When I finally was home at 12:30 a.m. I was beat. So we slept in Christmas morning, had a good brunch, and then we open presents from each other and from our families in Iowa. Then we headed off to Manteca to our friends Jen and Ed's, who had invited us for Christmas dinner with their families. We had a great time meeting their family members. Ed's brother and sister-in-law, and 2 nieces were visiting from West Des Moines, IA! They live very close to Rachel and Chris!! Small world. We ate, talked, and played games all evening.

Friday morning we got up, packed our bags, and headed to Monterey. We haven't been there for a few years, and we now wonder why we don't go back more often. We spent Fri. evening exploring Fisherman's Wharf and sampling all the restaurants' clam chowders before we finally chose Cafe Fina. We had a yummy meal with the highlight being the crabcakes! Saturday was filled with wandering through the Monterey Bay Aquarium which has to be the best ever! Then we wandered through Cannery Row shops. Next we spent a couple hours driving the beautiful 17-mile drive oooing and aaahing at all the huge mansions, beautiful views, etc. The weather was so nice we had the moon roof open and we could smell the ocean and the redwoods and eucalyptus. We, of course, had to stop at the Pebble Beach Golf Course and walk out to the 18th green and walk through the lodge. Did you know that in 2010 the U.S. Open is in Pebble Beach? We are now starting our U.S. Open Fund. Maybe we'll get to go????? We dined at the Sardine Factory in the evening having a wonderful meal. Sunday we got to shop in Carmel before heading home to mounds of laundry and a house that needs to be cleaned!

Getting Ready for Christmas

It's been a while since I've updated this! Thanksgiving was a great time in Iowa. Rachel and I did a pretty good job cooking for 31, which turned out to be only 25. We made a 20-lb. turkey and 10 lbs. of pork roast! Everything was a success except for the fact that we forgot to make the corn! We all lived having a Thanksgiving meal in Iowa without corn!

While in Iowa we also saw Scott's family and spent a lot of time shopping for Christmas gifts and for ourselves. We picked up some nice bargains at places we miss like Younkers and my new favorite store, C.J. Banks. When we got to the airport we had to do a little rearranging b/c my suitcase was over 50 lbs. and they were going to charge us $125!! Thanksfully we could put more stuff in Scott's.

Last weekend was busy with lots of music events. Our quartet (well, 3 of us) played for a women's ministry event called Advent by Candlelight. Sunday after playing for 3 services the quartet played at the Windmill Ridge Winery. Our homeless shelter in town, McHenry House, had a benefit tour of homes. Everyone started at the winery. There you picked up your map and had desserts and drinks. We played for about 3 hours.

This weekend has been much more laid back. We atteneded my staff party and a birthday party Friday night. Now I'm trying to decide what to bake. Scott and I went to a wine tasting event at Steven Kent Winery in Livermore last night and then had dinner at a place called Zephyr Grille. We learned about this restaurant in all places--Seattle! Our last night there we ate at a place called the Icon Grille and they had Livermore wines on the menu. That's when we found out that they had a sister restaurant in Livermore. It was very tasty and they had a cool way to give you tastes of wine--a little wine tree.

Scrapbook Weekend

Another weekend of wonderful scrapbooking has gone by. This time there were 8 of us in our group. Meggin's friend Wendy came and I think she had a good time. Lori came for part of the weekend, but left before we took pictures. I got lots of scrapbooking done such as Halloween, Christmas, and the 3 January birthdays. I also finished Susan and David's anniversary party.

We all had lots of fun using the Cricut that we bought together. This is a wonderful machine that will cut out letters in lots of different fonts and sizes. Our books are all starting to look very professional!!!

Wedding Weekend

Yesterday we got to go to a very fun and beautiful wedding. Marco Marchini and I teach together at Monte Vista. In fact, I was on the hiring team when he was hired 6 years ago. He married Catie who is a nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital in Stockton.

The quartet I play in played the preservice music at the cathedral where the wedding took place. And then we played for cocktails as everyone was coming into the Stockton Civic Auditorium. This place was an old auditorium where UOP used to play basketball. They made it look like a bigtop. The whole room was draped in white cloth so you couldn't see all the seats in the balcony. The flowers and decorations were breathtaking. My pictures don't do it justice because of the lighting. Hopefully you'll be able to tell a little about how lovely it was.

All of us Monte Vista teachers had a great time talking, laughing, dancing, drinking, eating, etc. Good call on the open bar, Marco! They even created a drink for the night called the "Marchini." It was X-rated vodka and champagne. Yummy!

Girls' Weekend

So five of us went on a girls' weekend to Windsor, CA and had a wonderful time. Three of the people I play bunco with and one was a friend of one of my bunco friends. We left Friday morning and got to spend about 3 hours shopping at the Petaluma Outlet Mall. Friday night we just hung out in the condo playing games, watching movies, eating junk, and drinking wine.

Saturday we drove a few miles up to Healdsburg and did the "Walking Tasting Tour of Healdsburg." After tasting bread, cupcakes, salsa, frozen yogurt, wine, and gelato we were stuffed. We shopped a little more and then went back and sat in the jacuzzi for quite a while. That night we got on a bus and went up the River Rock Casino. It cost $10 to ride the bus, but when you got off they gave you $20 is vouchers to play. A couple of us won, but not me. But I did play blackjack with $40 for one whole hour!!!

Today we drove over to the Napa Valley and drove down the valley. All the vineyards are changing color and so are the trees. It was a beautiful day.

Hi Everyone

So I haven't posted anything for a while. I think there hasn't been anything too exciting happening lately. Just going to rehearsals about every night of the week, going to work everyday, reading really bad stories that my 6th graders wrote, etc. The picture up above is from the wedding we played at on Labor Day at the Palm Event Center is Pleasanton, CA.

This weekend our quartet plays for a wedding at a winery here in town. Hopefully I will have more pictures next week after a girl trip to Windosr!