Coldplay

I must say Coldplay was amazing... that was one of the best concerts I have ever gone to. We drove down with the Brintons and found sweet free parking. We had a bunch of time to kill so we went to grab dinner but of course there was a super long wait at every restaurant. Lucky for us we found Quiznos and just as we finished ordering the sandwich maker says, "You know we close at 7 so you have to take this to go." That was defintiely not lucky and why did he not tell us this before we ordered? So we ended up eating on the curb, freezing, eating our hair because of the wind, and watching parts of our sandwich's blow away. Thanks to my self timer I caught this classic moment on film.

There was some good pre concert entertainment as Cam and I watched a girl pass out before the the opening band started playing. And after listening to 2 horrible opening bands... Coldplay came on. It was so great! 

Chris Martin likes to do this jumping action almost every song. I thought it was hilarious... check out his moves from afar. 
 

Sunrise Cafe

A few weekends ago we went with the Halls to Sunrise Bistro in Walnut Creek. If you haven't tried this place then you really should... and order the yogurt pancakes. They are to die for and I would pay to get that recipe. After we did some serious house shopping ... which the boys were super excited about. 

Trying to convince Jason that he is having a good time.  

Jason made us take this picture... 

Baked Beans

My mom is famous for her baked beans, I whipped up my first batch for July 4th. Unlike most things I cook for the first time, they actually turned out pretty good. Here's the recipe: 

-4 slices bacon, cook till crisp (I used turkey bacon which turned out super great)

-2 Tbs bacon drippings (I did not add this)

-1/2 cup chopped onion

-2 (1 lb) cans pork and beans

-3 Tbs brown sugar

-1 Tbs worcestershire sauce

-1 tsp mustard

-1/2 cup catsup

-1/4 chopped green pepper

Cook bacon till crisp, drain, reserving 2 Tbs. drippings. Crumble bacon. Cook chopped onion in drippings (I used Pam) till tender. Add with bacon two 1 lb. cans pork and beans, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, prepared mustard, catsup, and green pepper. Mix everything together and put in a serving dish (I 2 times the recipe and it fit in a 9 x 13 pan).  Bake at 325 for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours. 

The Wasp Nest

Do you see this teeny tiny thing in the middle of this picture? You might have to squint to see it. Well, I have deemed this the smallest wasp nest in the world and Cameron seemed to think we needed to make a trip to Home Depot to get wasp spray. Are you kidding? Can something this small hurt you? 

I asked Cameron if he needed binoculars to aim... 

July 4th {2008}

Why am I posting this late? Because last Thursday as I was paying bills- my computer screen went completely black. I figured it was stressed from paying bills :) Turns out the logic board (or something like that) just broke inside the computer. What a great weekend surprise. Well its back and back into blogging action. We had a BBQ at our house for the 4th and watched Livermore's fireworks from our front yard. 

Brooke, Nicki, Tessa, and I

Cameron's mom was in town for the 4th... it was great to spend some time with her and she was definitely my party planner. She came with a suitcase full of decorations and decorated for the BBQ... it looked so great!  

The spread

Cam and I

How many boys does it take to grill a burger? Apparently 4

I love this picture of Tessa. She had this giant piece of bread in her mouth and would show it to me everytime I said "Smile."

Brooke entertaining us before the fireworks started. That girl can dance...

Right Under Our Noses

Every time we go to Utah Cameron and I make a million stops at this particular gas station to get diet cokes with pellet ice. Does it get any better then pellet ice? I wonder why diet coke tastes better with pellet ice... its a mystery?? We stopped in at this ghetto am/pm the other day and look what we found... pellet ice. They call it crunch ice- but same thing. The highlight of the trip was not only finding this ice but while I was getting a beverage this homeless man says to me, "No offense, but this is the first time I've ever seen someone my height." My response back to him... "You should really start hanging out with taller people." Do people think before they talk sometimes? 

Canned Pumpkin

A while back I  read somewhere that you can make a cake or cupcakes with a cake mix (chocolate or white) and canned pumpkin. I never dared try it... but I had some friends over for dinner last week and Lisa brought cupcakes made with a white cake mix and a can of pumpkin. She sprinkled sugar on the top and they were super good and only 2 points (good news apparently for those who watch their points). 

Anyhow- I'm not a huge fan of the ingredients in a cake mix, but the cupcakes are pretty good. I made some this week

but mine didn't turn out as cute as Lisa's because she used this pan. She sells pampered chef and I think she could convince anyone to buy anything in that catalog... cupcakes in this pan are very cute! 

First Home Improvement Project

This is my kind of project. First you buy stones, next you put them on the ground, and then you are done. Now if only all projects were like this... 

Hired Help

Look at my hired help... isn't he cute? I think Cameron is still feeling inspired from the fair... 

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!