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!

The 80's Rock!

Scott and I just got home from a concert. We got to see Foreigner, and they were awesome! Even though there are only a couple of original members, they sound like the originals! The concert was at the Wente Winery in Livermore and it was loud and rockin'! Made me feel like I was in high school or college again, except everyone was in their 30's 40's and above!

Fun Weekend

This weekend was a good one for playing around northern California. The weather was great with slightly warm afternoons and cool evenings. Friday night started our weekend well. Susan, Scott and I went to Windmill Ridge Winery here in Tracy for "Jazz in the Vineyards." We had a lovely buffet dinner and a jazz combo played for a couple hours.

Saturday we went with 4 other couples from church to Livermore for lunch and wine tasting. We got to taste at about 4 wineries, 3 of which I had never been to. We couldn't believe how many new wineries there are in the Livermore Valley. One has to wonder when the market will be saturated! The favorite new one we tried was Bent Creek. They had a red wine that totally smelled like coffee, but had not coffee taste!!!

When we got back to Tracy it was off to Nancy's for a kind of progressive dinner. Two of Susan's daughters came from Santa Cruz with their families. We sat outside and had appetizers at Nancy's. Then it was off to Susan's to cook dinner. Erianne and Antonie's husbands cooked and we had a great dinner. My job was dessert. We didn't end up coming to our house, so it wasn't totally a progressive dinner, but it was still fun!

After all of that playing, our Sunday was full of work. I played clarinet for 2 services in church. Then we cleaned up the house, did laundry, and mowed the lawn!!! Now we're back to the grind at work....oh, well.

One busy week down, one to go

So this last week has been very busy. Last Saturday was our big outreach event through church. It was called "Share the Scoop." We rented the Grand Theater downtown and invited women from all churches to invite women who don't go to church. We've been planning for this for many, many months. I was in charge of "hospitality." All of the people who helped were great because during the event I was on stage playing both the piano and clarinet. Check out the pictures at http://tracypress.com/content/view/15592/2242/. There were many speakers from our church speaking about how through adversity, their faith and God helped then persevere. The event was attended by about 300 people. Hopefully it will be an annual event.

Once that was finished, I had to start thinking about the next project--Bunco. Tuesday night I hosted bunco at our house. So there were 12 of us who played, ate, drank, and had a lot of fun. It just happened that I had so many meetings this week, it was insane. I had to be at a meeting from 4-5:30 Tues. night and people were showing up at 7:00!! I snuck out of school during my last period prep and got a lot of stuff ready and then went to my meeting and came home and finished the rest of the food.

This weekend my quartet is playing for 2 events--a surprise birthday party on Sat. night and a wedding on Monday night. Should be fun!

Back to the Grind

Well, it's official, my summer is over! Oh, well, in 10 months I'll get another one. So here's what's been going on the last 2 weeks.

First I worked with 2 new 6th grade teachers for a couple of days. Every year our new teachers go through a district run program called TTIP-Tracy Teacher Induction Program. For a day and a half content specialists (that's me, ha!) help them look at the curriculum and make their first lesson plans and year-long plans.

This past week was all about WEB--Where Everybody Belongs. This is a program that we started using about 5 years ago at our middle school. We spend 2 mornings from 8-12:00 training 8th graders to work with and mentor 6th graders. This year we had 44 8th graders at the WEB training. On Friday all 6th graders were invited to come to school from 8-1:00. We do a huge assembly until about 9:30 that's full of fun games and songs. Then 2 8th graders take 8-12 6th graders to do the activities with them that they learned earlier in the week. They get to know the kids and tell them about our school and give them a tour. We finish the day with another short assembly and then a BBQ outdoors. It takes a lot of planning for this and I'm so grateful that I have my co-leaders Lisa and Holly helping me. The first year we did this I was the only one trained so I had to do everything!!!! Getting up in front of 300 kids and being silly and goofy is way out of my comfort zone, but I do it! Lisa is much better at it than I am!!! Thankfully she loves to do it.

Monday this week is our "district day" where we have district meetings. Lisa, George, and I are in charge of the meeting at our site on Monday morning. Then I'm done with leadership things and I can concentrate on my room and lesson plans!

Tuesday we have a staff meeting and then we get time in our rooms. Wednesday the kids come! Way too early for me, but we do get a week off for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks for Christmas, a week at Easter and every national holiday except Columbus Day, so it all works out in the end.

Summer Fun

Scott and I have been enjoying the last days before we have to go back to school. We are trying to shove lots of stuff in before it's time for work to begin again. We played golf a couple of times this week. I definitely need some practice!!!! We played Monday in Tracy, and Friday we played in Stockton with John Grimes and George Vierra, two fellow 6th grade teachers.

This week Nancy, Kierra, Ken, Cyndra, Emily, Nick, and I tried out a new business in town called Color Me Mine. It's a ceramic shop where you pick the piece of ceramic you want to paint. They bring you all the paint you need and then they fire it for you. My first project was a deviled egg plate that I did in a spring/Easter motif. You can see pictures of us all having fun. Friday night I picked mine up and it looks great! I think I've found a new addiction.

This week Nancy's new sun room was finished. Or is it the solarium? Or maybe the conservatory? Kyle did it the conservetory with the steak knife. . . .

So anyway, we sat for a few hours drinking cosmopolitans and enjoying the new room with the cool Pier 1 furniture. And what do you know, it's blue!

Today Meggin and I had a long, leisurely lunch at Wente. We'd been planning to do this all summer and we finally got to. Our lunch was a wonderful drawn affair that lasted from noon until 3:30. Then we went to one winery for some wine tasting. It was a very fun afternoon. My suggestion for dessert at Wente is the Mexican pot d'creme with homemade churros. It's the best fried dough you'll ever have!

Seattle Trip

Today we got back from Seattle. We had a wonderful time spending a week in the Pacific Northwest. We stayed downtown at a hotel called The Camlin which is acutally a hotel owned by WorldMark, our timeshare. It was a beautiful old hotel built in the 20's.
Here are some of the highlights of the trip:
1) Mariners vs. Tigers game
2) Lunch in the Space Needle
3) Savor Seattle tour of Pike's Place Market
4) 1 hour cruise of Eliott Bay
5) Having lunch with Shelly Devlin--high school classmate of my sister's
6) Eating our way across downtown!
7) The weather was sunny everyday and in the 70s and 80s!

8) Harbor seals at the aquarium

9) Lions at the zoo
Here are some of the lowlights:
1) Jeff Clement, from Marshalltown, who plays with the Mariners didn't get in the game we were at until the 15th inning! And the night before he had hit 2 homeruns!
2) Yes, the game went 15 innings!!!!
3) Our cat, Oscar, got sick and our neighbor had to take him to the vet. $300+ he had diarrhea and was dehydrated. Blood and urine tests all ok.
4) We now realize how dependent on a car we are. By the end of the week we were ready to drive ourselves somewhere. But we did get a lot of walking in!!!
All in all we had a great trip. There are many things we didn't get to do and someday I'm sure we'll try to go back and do them.

I Love Summer

Joni and Daytona show off their new necklaces










Susan and Gitte shop

Julie and Morgan hang out











We have been very busy having fun, hanging out with friends, going to baseball games, etc. Here are some things we have done over the last week:


1) I hosted a jewelry party as you can tell from the pictures above. It was very fun. This jewelry is lockets that have glass on both sides and you put little charms inside. There are hundreds of charms to choose from.


2) Baseball--We are on baseball overload and we love it. My friends Nancy's 12-yr. old son, Cole, is on the Tracy All-Star team for Babe Ruth baseball. So I've been going to a couple of his games. His team won and will be going to state in Fresno. Also one of my students from this year is on the team. Scott and I got to go to the A's vs. Giants game last Sat. night in Oakland and the A's lost 1-0 grrr! Then Tuesday night we went to Cubs vs. Giants in San Francisco. The Cubs lost 2-1 grrr!! But the whole experience at AT&T Park is so fun it almost didn't matter. Almost


3) I've been hanging out with Cyndra, Susan, Joni, and Nancy at Nancy's house eating lunch, swimming, laughing at the kids, letting the dogs out to run the neighborhood, etc. How will we every go back to work?


4) Today for the 4th we spent time with Nancy and her kids at Susan's. Both Cole and Kyle are becoming impressive BBQ'ers. But they are not so great at jacks! We got to play with our new Criket--if you're a scrapbooker you'll know what that is!!!!


5) Tomorrow (the 5th) we leave for a week in Seattle. We are so excited. We don't have much planned, but lots of ideas. We will be at the Mariners game Sun. afternoon rooting on Marshalltown native Jeff Clement. Hopefully he'll play. We have a banner ready. Check back next week for pictures of our trip!

Tea in the City

Nancy and Dawn

Susan, Cyndra, Betsy, Kierra, Nancy, Dawn

Queen Kierra

What a wonderful day in San Francisco we had today. Susan, Betsy, Nancy, Cyndra, Kierra, and I took BART into the city this morning. We shopped at Nordstrom a little, and we were magnetically drawn to the Brighton store where we all made small purchases. Then it was off to the Palace Hotel for high tea. The ballroom we dined in was spectacular. It was actually the room that Susan had her junior prom in *#(@ years ago! We had dainty tea sandwiches--I think the pear was the best; we also had scones and fun dessert. It was a toss-up between the eclair or the raspberry-lemon tartlette for my favorite. Kierra had egg salad with "a little garlic" and PB & J with colored sprinkles! She got a crown and large sucker that looks like a sceptor. She certainly was queen for the day!


The weather was perfect in the city, and once we got home I'm glad we were there because Scott said it got humid and overcast and then rained here in Tracy!!!

Father's Day Weekend

This weekend has been a lazy weekend. Friday night we celebrated our 13th anniversary with dinner at Wente Vineyards. This is defintely one of our favorite restaurants and they treat us well there! For the dessert they piped in chocolate "Happy Anniversary" on the plate. It's very fun and tasty place to eat.
Saturday I had coffee with Nancy and her sister Betsy, who is visiting from Austin, TX. Then I went to the farmer's market and then to Stockton shopping.
Sunday both Scott and I had to help lead worship for 3 services. We also are taking care of our neighbor's cats and dog, and that also gives us rights to the pool!
This is also the big inter-league battle between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's, so baseball is on the TV each day. Go A's!
Yeah for summer!

Lazy Summer Days

So here is how we spend our weekends--doing laundry, cleaning the house, doing yard work, etc. And what do our cats do? Of course, whatever they want to! They are very much into sleeping, eating, sleeping, watching birds, and oh, did I say sleeping? So here they are--Oscar sprawled out in front of the fan on the couch and Elmo, burrowed in the clean towels.

Summer Vacation at Last

Yeah, it's finally here. We finished school last Friday. Everything wrapped up with 8th grade promotion Friday evening. It will be the last big promotion ceremony ever! All of us teachers are thrilled with this. Then it was to Jen and Ed's for a party.

Saturday we had a fantastic time with a group from church. Our friends Roger and Elizabeth invited us for an old west train ride to celebrate Roger's 60th birthday. The train left from Oakdale and we rode up into the foothills, had a marvelous lunch, were entertained by gunslingers from the Old West, and just generally enjoyed each other's company.

Tornado Hits Parkersburg, Iowa

Last night we go word that a tornado ripped through Parkersburg, where Scott's grandma lives. Scott's mom told us she had heard about the storm but hadn't heard from her mom yet. We waited for about 45 minutes and scanned the internet. The first reports said that the southern part of the town was destroyed including the grocery store and convenience store. Grandma lives right across from the convenience store!!! So we were pretty stressed. Nancy called back and told us she heard from Grandma. She had taken shelter in the shower in the basement. Her house was demolished. If she had chosen to hide under the stairs instead of the shower she would have been killed. She ended up with some cuts and scrapes from bricks falling on her. She crawled out of the shower and was rescued and taken to Sartori Hospital in Cedar Falls. She then called her neice in CF and stayed there last night. We're waiting to hear from the Arbogasts as to what the house looks like.
If you go to yahoonews.com and click on the slideshow for the storms, you can see pictures. Picture #9 we think is the convenience store across from Grandma's house. There is also a picture of the high school that was destroyed.

Tracy, the Windy City

So now we have cool, windy weather. Sounds wonderful, huh? Much better than our 100 degree heat, definitely. This morning as I'm driving my 7 min. drive north to school the sky is kind of brown because it's so windy that there's so much dust in the air.

And for the big surprise when Scott and I get home from school at about 5:00 half of our tree is down over the driveway. Thankfully this is a city tree, and they came and put it through the wood chipper. The rest of the tree could not be saved so it came down too. Very sad. We would have never thought that this tree would go down. The one closer to the house looks as if it could go down, but it is tied up with a cable.

They say that they will come and take out the stump and plant us a new tree. So I guess we'll have to wait another 13 years to get the shade of this one. Thankfully our yard faces north so we don't need a lot of shade.

Sad Days

Yesterday our dear friend, David Jones, passed away. He had contracted pneumonia which happens with the cancer that he had. He was surrounded by his family and had spent the evening listening to them talk about memories and family. He held out until after midnight. It was his birthday. His wife, Susan, felt he held on until it was his birthday.

Susan is doing as well as could be expected. All of us will be there to help her cope and lead a different life without David. We promised him we would help take care of her. Please pray for their family.

Only 12 Days Left!

I don't know if I can make it. Every morning it's hell to get out of bed. Every day is interminable for me and the kids. My 7th period class stinks. I don't want to see them ever again. Tomorrow we have of all things, open house. Who cares! Why do we do this to ourselves? What parents want to come to see their student's stuff 2 weeks before school is over. They just want to be done too. Tomorrow and every day through the weekend is supposed to be about 100 degrees outside. Yuck! It's too early for this.
Ok, I have bitched enough. Did I say I CAN'T WAIT FOR SUMMER BREAK?

Wine Dinner

The big event for this weekend happened on Friday night. Clear back in November our church had a gala to raise money for Bella Vista Christian Acadamy, which is a K-8 school we have. My friends Julie, Becki, and I were in the live auction. We auctioned off a 5-course dinner for 8 with wine pairings. Julie and I were going to cook and we had the dinner at Becki's house. She and her husband, Robert, provided the wine and decorated the table.

So the big day finally came on Friday. We spent all day cooking, and had ourselves very well-organized. Here was the menu:

1st Course--Asparagus wrapped with Phyllo and Proscuito and Mushroom Tartlettes

2nd Course--Salad with mustard vinegrette and warm, breaded goat cheese

3rd Course--Grilled scallop and prawns with a warm bacon vinegrette

4th Course--Beef Tenderloin with red wine mushroom sauce, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and saute of green beans and peppers

5th Course--Chocolate cake with blackberry meringue filling

Everying turned out well. We did have a little glitch with timing in between the 3rd and 4th courses, but it all worked out!!! Needless to say we were very tired after the day was over. The 8 guests had a good time. We had fun too. After washing all the dishes we ended up on the couch with lots of wine!!!

Birthday Dinner and Anniversary Party

Friday Scott celebrated his 44th birthday. He had a relaxing day. He took a personal day and slept in, played a little golf, and relaxed. I took him out to a new restaurant called Movida in Livermore. It is a little tapas place. The menu is full of "small plates." We ordered several items, most of which are not on a Medifast diet. We had a hard time determining which was our favorite. Maybe it was the mini-burgers or the fried calamari. Or maybe the chocolate lava cake. It was a fun night of freedom. Now back to the diet!

Saturday night we attended our friends' anniversary party. David and Susan were celebrating their 13 years of marriage with family and friends. They had the party at our principal's winery (where my ensemble played last weekend). With their family, Susan and David renewed their vows. David was also baptized, which is something that many of us were praying for. David is in the late stages of pancreatic cancer. He's beaten all the odds and has lived and managed the disease for 4 years! He's something of a miracle case. Since the fall the cancer has gotten worse. Needless to say this was a bittersweet celebration. But David is trusting in the Lord and we have all vowed to him that we will take care of Susan when he's in heaven.