It’s been almost 2 years since my dear friend Pauline has come out from Illinois to California, and a year to the month since Valerie was out here with her father. Both times were related to Valerie and boyfriend Roni’s desire to move to this area, and after a long year full of anticipation Valerie and Roni dreams have come true. Roni is transfering out with his job from Bloomington, IL to Irvine, CA. Valerie will probably transfer within her job as well. So, once again, Pauline and Valerie drove across the states in 2 days and arrived ready to accomplish their goal, to find an apartment for Val and Roni. It was also a great excuse for Pauline and Patty to see each other once again.

As always, Pauline and Valerie looked so pretty, and I was so excited to see each of them. So to honor the time we were going to spend with each other I had my awesome hubby, Jerry, take photos of us. We started out wanting to critique each photo after Jerry took them.

As time went by we got a bit goofy, lightened up a little, and having some usual fun times together. Most of it was caught on Jerry’s camera.

And as usual Pauline and I were giggling and having a bit of fun. Doesn’t Pauline look cute when she thinks she’s gotten away with a little something?

We went a bit further and clowned around, being our usual silly selves. Only with a such a wonderful friend can you truly not care (well, mostly not care) how silly you look.

Pauline ended up bringing her laptop which resulted in us having a lot of fun sitting side by side sharing photos, playing FarmVille, and delighting in the fact that we were indeed right next to each other and not chatting on line long distance.

In between Valerie and Pauline’s search for an apartment we enjoyed eating out at Souplantation as well as feasting on Valeries’ home cooked meals. Can that girl cook! umm, umm, umm!

Catching Pauline in a quiet contemplative mood was a treat for me. I’m not sure why you don’t like this photo Pauline, I sure do. So pretty!

Taking a day off from their tasks, Pauline and Valerie enjoyed a long wonderful day at Disneyland. The weather cooperated and they came home with stories and photos. Ahhhhh!

Pauline and Val took me out to lunch at Oami’s, a favorite Sushi place near by. What a treat, such yummy food and a lot of it too. Thank you girls!

Another fun get together and one that could become a tradition, was inviting one of Pauline’s neighbors from way back when she lived here in Mission Viejo, Jill, on the far right, as well as a friend of mine, Karen on the far left, and now friend of Pauline’s. 3 bottles of wine later and we can all say that we had a great time visiting. Ready to do this again whenever you’re back out here Pauline!

Anxious to spend some time with friends she’s made out here in CA, Valerie left our little wine gab fest early. I had to snap a few photos of mom and daughter.

Isn’t she just adorable? Valerie always knows how to put an outfit together, and always looks so stylish!

The 9 days went by too fast, both Pauline and I agreed on that. Knowing it would not be the last time we saw each other again, and anxious to head home to her sweetheart, Pauline and I were able to keep our goodbyes dry eyed. Valerie will be back in about 3 weeks time, bringing with her her boyfriend Roni and a truck load of furniture. If I know her well enough I’m sure she’ll have a big smile on her face too. Love you girls!

As always my visit’s with good friends Steve and Beth are full of love and laughter. This time was no exception. As I grow older I appreciate so much of what my friends have to offer me in the way of companionship, wisdom and grace. Or not! ha! Looking back to a time when Beth and I were in our 30′s or even late 40′s and our families were still young we seemed to have endless energy to run errands or garden till we dropped. Now adays it’s more about quality time together and thinking about doing these things. It isn’t that we don’t try it’s just that there is a lot more grunts and groans and yes even humor at our klutzyness as we try. Steve, Beth’s other and sometimes better half is an equal partner and becoming very close to my heart. We enjoy the same TV shows, have the same sense of humor and love of all things tools. I always enjoy visiting with their children, they youngest son Luke shown here with Tinkerbell loving Diana beside him. It has been a long friendship, one that I treasure with each passing year. One that grows and grows and never seems to stop showing me what true love of family is like.

This Master Geneaologist and Acting Assistant Library Administrator has a green thumb both in and out of the books. Wow! Her favorite type of flower is geraniums, the brighter the better. I”m not sure who is the luckier one, her family, her garden or I!

I’m late posting photos, but as the saying goes, better late than never.

I had just gotten home after taking our houseguest Valerie to the airport (she went home to Illinois for the holidays) when I saw Jerry’s car in the driveway. I was so excited to see him home for lunch! I was sure he had come home to see me so I rushed in the front door to say “hi sweetie”. When he walked out of his study and I saw the look on his face I knew there was a different reason for him being home in the middle of the day. You know the rest of the story, another job lay off with the holidays right around the corner. This short story line leads up the photo of me with a very special person in my arms, baby Jack L. Hord. Carol’s daughter Teresa, husband Jeremy, and daugher Emily welcomed Jack into the world a few days after Thanksgiving this year. Jerry had gone back to work after telling me about the job lay off news, and I was on the phone with my girlfriend Pauline boo-hooing about it. I was in no mood to break away from my conversation with Pauline, despite Carol’s persistance. She called my cell several times, then the home phone. I finally gave in and took her call. She didn’t tell me that Teresa and Jack were with her, she didn’t know about Jerry’s recent job status. She just knew how much I loved her girls and T’s kids. I hung up with Pauline and waited for Carol to come over like she said she was going to do. When I answered the door I was so tickled. I also knew that I needed a baby’s love at that very moment to lift my heart. Thank you baby Jack, Teresa and Carol.

We started our festivities by having good friends Terry and Karen over to enjoy the Christmas vibe. Karen brought over hot chocolate and we enjoyed that while we opened our gifts.
It was Jerry’s year for all things Coke related. Maybe next year we’ll put up a small tree in his study to show off his Coke ornaments.It was the year of the fairy for me. I was blessed to receive Tink in many different forms this year and loved it. This was a Mary Cicely Barker calendar, another favorite artist of mine who illustrates exquisite fairies.

Terry’s gifts came in the form of Disney. Not too big of a surprise because that’s his mantra, his main thing, what makes his heart go thumpedy-thump. Karen and I went to an estate sale this last year that had a awesome amount of Disney items for sale. We found out as we were purchasing our items that the estate sale was due to a foreclosure which made it very sad. But in the end Terry got this shirt and a cool Disney blanket, so I was thankful for those gifts.

Next on our holiday festivities was spending Christmas eve with good friends the Bennets. Jill made everyone a wonderful mexican feast with delicious margarita’s, and Matt joined us for dinner that evening which was nice. In a festive mood Jill placed celebratory New Years eve crackers on each table setting which was a lot of fun.
Inside each cracker were crowns, a joke, and a prize. Each end of the cracker was tied up with twisty gold ball ties. Those ended up being the most entertaining, something akin to the box, not the contents. Patrick made “knuckle-cracking-beaters” out of his. Steve proudly shows off the paper crown. It seems to fit him just right, don’t you think? Jill bravely shows there is more than just 1 thing you can do with the New Years cracker ties thank you, while Matt tries not to notice that mom did not have her focus set right!

We had a nice treat this year with having both boys home for Christmas. Jason and his good friend Christina, better known as Chuck, made the long trek down from Arcata, Ca in his dependable blue Honda. Since it is about a 14 hour drive one way, they decided to stop over in San Fransico on their way down. It had been almost 2 years since we’d seen Jason last, so we were all very excited. Christmas morning was nice. We slept in a bit, and Matt drove down from Newport Beach to open gifts with us. Matt appreciated his gifts as did Jason, of course, yet the best part for Jerry and I was the fact that we had both the boys home for the holidays at the same time.
As part of our family tradition, we traveled down to San Diego for Christmas day dinner at Patty’s cousin’s house. Greg and Doreen make the best prime rib known to mankind and are the most gracious of hosts. Getting to see Greg’s parents, and Patty’s closest aunt Lou and uncle Jim who live a stone’s throw away, is another part of the wonderful tradition, as is seeing a whole host of other family members. It is time spent with great food and spirits, lots of wonderful stories around a long table, and best of all simply the best family a girl could ever wish for.

And no, Karen is not drunk, or at least I don’t think she was. She just has a thing for camera’s….errrrr I mean flashes. She is working on it! No worries Karen.

A little later on in the evening we had our photo taken under Disneyland’s first artifical Christmas tree. And a huge and beautiful one it is. But seriously, who cares about that, check out Karen. Her eyes are open! Karen, we are so proud of you!

We lucked out and walked right into the park when Disney’s Christmas parade was coming down Main Street. There are so many fun characters to see and photos to take and people to move around…oh my dear!

Prince Charming and Cinderella can dance the day away….oh stop my heart from pitter patting. I do love Disney so!

Sleeping Beauty’s Castle shown bright with lights and colors like you wouldn’t believe! We stood around for quite some time and stared at it in amazement, taking photos in hopes of capturing some of the magic. If you’ve never seen the fireworks display at Disneyland I certainly recommend it as it is something you will never forget. Simply spectacular!

I think my favorite colors the castle displays throughout the entire evening even during the fireworks is this gorgeous pink glow. Isn’t pink one of a girl’s favorite colors?

At the end of the fireworks show during the Christmas holidays it snows! The music and snow are piped out over the airways around the castle and the Disney magic lives on!

Another stumble and we walked into Fantasmic coming around the bend at Pirate’s Island. Way cool for words. Water jets sent up into the air and loud music may make this show too much for a lot of kids under the age of maybe 7, but for adults it is just plain impressive.

We moved on to join in the amazement and joy of It’s A Small World’s new lights display set to music. Wow! Jill took a video of it which I hope to post at some point. Disneyland also did work on the canals on this ride but this part takes the cake. So very impressive Disney!

Last but certainly never least was Andrew. A inventive young man who made this one of a kind Christmas celebratory hat. Wish I’d snapped a photo of his face, or better yet blogged about him sooner so he could have gotten his 15 minutes of fame, as he did ask what my website was when I told him I was going to blog about his cool hat! And that, my friends is what Disneyland is all about! At least on this trip!

I found a wonderful little surprise in my garden yesterday! I dutifully planted the perennial sweet peas last year that my girlfriend Carol gave me from her Mission Viejo garden. They’ve been making a slow progress ever since, climbing and winding up the white arbor we have in the corner garden, clinging to the red shrub roses I have planted there. I was beginning to think they would just climb their little hearts out without producing any flowers until I saw their sweet sweet pea heads up over the top of their neighboring plants. I love it! Thank you sweet Carol.

Another days work at my girlfriend Jill’s school, with the help of good friends Terry and Karen, and much was accomplished. Blue felt bulletin boards with colorful borders, more moving of furniture, cleaning out bookshelves, portable storage cabinets and filling black plastic bags full of trash made us feel as if we’d accomplished a lot. Terry and Karen made the work seem like fun at times, laughing at our mistakes, and discussing the right way to accomplish certain tasks!

After about 3 1/2 hours, Terry and Karen took off and Jill and I finished up the lose ends. Because Jill’s portable is clear in the back end of the school, we found another new teacher there to unlock the gate so Jill could drive her car back to fill it with the boxes of donated books we had accumulated. There was more activity at the school this time as opposed to last, a repair company was there to fix the AC unit and the night custodian was waxing floors for the day custodian who was on vacation.

To get a vehicle around to the back by the portables you need a key to unlock the main gate, something we didn’t have, and why we got the teacher to help us. Since there were a lot of people at school we didn’t give much thought to having the car inside the school grounds. We figured the custodian would be there until closing, about 4pm, so we would have plenty of time to move the car before he left. Wrong. Jill and I left about 20 minutes after Terry and Karen took off, still well before the 4 o’clock hour, so we were really surprised to see the gate locked and the parking lot almost empty when we drove around to the front of the school to go home. After the initial shock set in, Jill and I set out to find someone who might be able to help us in getting the gate locked. I remember seeing the AC repairman towards the back of the school just before we left so I walked around the building hoping to find them. When I came back towards the front I saw Jill had got ahold of him and we got the district phone number. Much to our relief there was still personnel at work and they said they’d send someone out as soon as possible, though it might be a while. So Jill and I parked our hot sweaty and tired bodies in the shade and waited. About 15-20 minutes later someone arrived and let us out. Jill talked to him for a few minutes before we drove of. He told her it was a good thing she called when we did because in another few minutes there wouldn’t have been anyone at the office to take our call!