Derby Day

Calling all horses....

Cameron had a marketing event at the Pleasanton fairgrounds over the weekend. I've never been to a horse race before and it was really fun. I'm sure compared to the Kentucky Derby it was nothing... but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to wear a big hat! 
How does one bet on which horse will win? I'm a little unclear on that one but people sure get excited when their horse wins....interesting sport! 

Happenings With The Sister

My sister Emily came into town last weekend... and we had such a great time! I think its been YEARS since we have spent alone time together because I've lived away for so long. But I think this needs to be a yearly event! Here's what we did:

We started off in the city- we went to the jewelry mart and hung around Union Square. I found some awesome shoes at Anthro and Emily found the cutest sweater and purse in the whole world. I sported these sweet shoes to save my feet for the day. I know, its a hot look. And the best part? A homeless man says to us, "Look at those wild stallions." Wow, I never been referred to as a horse before... only in San Francisco.

Em experienced her first protein style in-n-out burger. Who needs the bun anyway?

The next day we headed to Santa Cruz... the weather was awesome! As we were walking back to our car at the end of the day we were walking in the bike lane which we were not aware of until a biker yells "Get out of the bike lane you *#@* mallards." Ok, why do people yell at other people and why did he call us ducks? I wish I had a picture of him.

Em crawled in this hole that these kids had spent 2 hours digging. And of course as she crawled out she collapsed one of the sides. Hilarious!

Cam and I playing around...

We walked all the way down the pier for some taffy... and then found out you could buy it on the boardwalk. Go figure...

The best part of the visit for me... Emily doing my dishes. I think I want a maid now.

Next up, the Alameda County Fair. The fair is quite the experience... doesn't Cam look like he is having a great time??

Why do the goat have no ears? It's a bit frieky looking!

The best part about the fair... the concerts! Teri Clark was awesome!

And Em completed her fair experience with a bull ride. The bull owners blared Toby Keith's "She's a hottie" over the speakers. Classic...

We loved having you Em, come back again!!

Charlie The Dog

So I finally convinced my friend Carolyn to start a blog. Her blog is about her son Tim and his dog Charlie. Tim, a former student of mine, has autism and he has definitely made leaps and bounds since they moved here to California. But they recently received a dog from North Star Foundation, an organization which breeds dogs for children with autism. She is writing about her experiences with Tim and Charlie and I'm so excited for their family to have this opportunity. It will be so fun to see Tim's growth from having Charlie around. Read here to see what an autism dog does. 

Swedish Nectarine Dessert

It's kind of hard to see the details of this dessert... but it is so good! My sister was out this last weekend and she has celiacs's (Em, are you glad I shared that detail over the blog?) Anyway, we were trying to be dessert creative and I remembered this dessert (thanks Natalie!)

-6 nectarines

-2 Tbs. sugar

-2 Tbs butter

-juice of one lemon

-1/2 c. roasted flaked almonds

Cut the nectarines in wedges. Melt the butter and sugar in a pan. Add the nectarines and lemon. Bring to a boil (sugar should be dissolved ~2 minutes) Mix in the almonds and serve over ice cream. 

Scrabble

A few months ago during my "let's do something besides watch T.V. stage," Cameron and I bought Scrabble. Apparently there were too many great reality shows on because we just unwrapped it this weekend while my sister was here... we had a very competitive game, which Cameron  won. I think the most annoying part was when he sang  "Let's hear it for the boys....." after every time he scored big (and he did that a lot).  If you see him, ask him for his rendition. To think I waited 28 years to play this game... it was so fun! 

Like Mother Like Daughter

My mom is going to kill me for writing this. When I was in college my mom, sister, and I went to St. George for Spring Break... trying to "be cool" we went walking down the strip. I can't remember all the details but there was  a fair of some sort going on and a farmer was selling chicks for $5.00. I thought, what a deal- my roommates will love this (I'm not sure why I thought this). So I bought this chick and took it back to our hotel in a box. Here is one thing about chicks... they chirp a lot! They probably chirp more when they are traumatized and I'm sure mine was. Anyhow, my mom said she wasn't going to be able to sleep with all the chirping and we were driving back to SLC the next day. So my cute new chick got banned to the car for the night.... poor thing. The next morning we were loading the car and my mom came up and said she had some bad news. My chick died, I'm thinking from suffocation in the St. George heat.  And the worse news... my mom threw it away in the dumpster. My poor chick didn't even get a proper burial. So the standing joke is that my mom is a chick killer and I have not let her forget it.  

On with the rest of the story... we had a little situation at the house. Lots and lots of poop was appearing on the ground one day so I finally looked up... and found this nest. 

It was a bit inconvenient to clean up this poop so I found this stick and told Cameron to go take care of his manly outside duties. 
Down came the nest... and the stored up poop (wow, birds poop a lot). 

And down came 2 soon to be chicks. Just for the record, we didn't know there would be eggs.

Mom, you should be happy... you aren't the only chick killer now. 

Viva La Vida

One word about Coldplay's new album Viva La Vida... AWESOME! 

Things I Love This Week

1. The unpacking is done, the boxes are recycled, the garage is FINALLY cleaned out, and there are 2 cars parked IN the garage instead of on the driveway. Hooray! 

2. Cameron is now having very loud nightly jam sessions.... with the amp. Why is the picture so blurry? Because he is rocking out... in his work socks. I love it! 

3. We are going to see Coldplay in July! Considering that Cameron is still talking about the last Coldplay concert he went to... we of course had to go to this one. If it came down to it he would sacrifice his food to go see Coldplay again. 

Blush

In my constant quest to find healthy treats I found

Blush is this super good yogurt shop in Dublin that just opened. We spent a long time talking to the owner (who is super nice and down to earth by the way) and he told us all about Blush and how it came to be. The thing that I liked about him is that he is a teacher in San Jose and he loves it! He didn't want to give up teaching so he is still going to teach until noon and then drive to Dublin to serve his yogurt. How cool is that? They use all organic fresh ingredients, there is no powder in the mix, they have tons of fruit to pile on, and it is dang good!

The decor is super cute... 

And the yogurt is to die for... 

Tinted Water

I'm liking tinted water these days... it adds a fun new dimension to flowers! 

Walk Now For Autism

Today Carolyn and I 

were the photographers at the

It was such a great turnout and I love going to events like these. Carolyn took the candid shots and I captured the team/group shots. We loved hearing who the teams were walking for and hearing their stories. I have such a special place in my heart for this organization and such respect for all the walkers. I even saw some of my past students... I loved it! The best part was that they raised $360, 000 for Autism Speaks!! 

Fluffy White Frosting

I love this fluffy frosting! It is so good on chocolate cake or even angel food cake. 

-2 egg whites

-3/4 cup sugar

-1/3 cup karo syrup

-2 Tbs. water

-1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

-1/4 tsp. salt

Put all of the ingredients in a double boiler with water in bottom pan. Heat water in bottom pan before starting the cooking process. Using a hand mixer, put on high and beat until soft peaks form. Take from heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla. 

And just a small note: don't use beaters in a teflon pan... it ruins the pan (and I'm not speaking from experience:)) 

Wedding Bells

Wow, it is a miracle. My baby brother finally did it... he's engaged and getting married in August. Congratulations and I can't wait to meet Angela! 

Moving On

If someone were to ask me, "What is the worst thing ever?" I would say moving... with no hesitation. I HATE IT! But the best thing Cameron has ever said was the day after the move. We were with Brooke and Jason and Cameron says, "I was bounding up those 3 flights of stairs like a gazelle. " I love that he compared himself to a gazelle. He actually moved most of our apt. by himself (I was conveniently at work) and he seriously did an awesome job! 

This is a fake cleaning picture. I left that for the cleaning ladies because apartments somehow never return your deposit even if you do clean. 

Brooke was such a good slave this weekend. I love you Brooke!! 

Oh the memories we left behind... 

but looking forward to making new ones! 

Love Maui

I'm finally getting around to posting about Maui... this was a trip with Cameron's company and we had such a great time. It was way fun getting to know the other administrators. Cameron works with such fun people. Here are the highlights: 

How cute are their airport bathroom signs? Maybe California should have hippies on their bathroom signs? You may be wondering why I had time to take pictures of bathroom sings... well, because lucky for me my bag didn't come through in Maui. Our driver told us to just keep waiting because it might be on the next flight. Two hours and two flights later my bag appeared... thank goodness. 

We stayed in the beautiful Grand Wailea in Maui. It has the most AMAZING spa!

and laid out during a rainstorm the first day.

Who's to say you can't catch a few rays under an umbrella, towel, and rain cloud?

Heres the annoying bee that stung me... bee stings seriously hurt.

We had lots of game playing and team bonding... I'm coaching my windup frog across the pool. I lost. 

Here's our team... the Gladiators. We thought we chose a winning team name but turns out we lost every game except for water balloon dodgeball. My arm was definitely sore after that game. 

And don't forget the grape throwing contest... Cameron amazingly caught 2 and I got pegged in the lip. Go figure. 
And we can't forget ping pong... we definitely brought our A game to Maui (thanks to all our Friday night practices at Club Sport).

Here is Molokini where we went snorkeling and saw awesome fish and eels.

And of course photo shoots at all moments... Cameron loves this part of vacation!!