Wear Sunscreen

Sun damage.

The first age spot on my hand! It just showed up, like overnight!

The first sign of growing old I guess.

I am now carrying handcream with 30 spf in my bag!

And wearing big bold rings as a distraction!

My First Earthquake

Earthquake Map

A moderate earthquake occurred at 11:42:15 AM (PDT) on Tuesday, July 29, 2008.The magnitude 5.8 event occurred 3 km (2 miles) SW of Chino Hills, CA.The hypocentral depth is 12 km ( 8 miles).

Magnitude 5.8 - local magnitude (ML)
Time Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 11:42:15 AM (PDT)Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 18:42:15 (UTC)
Distance from Chino Hills, CA - 3 km (2 miles) SW (235 degrees)Diamond Bar, CA - 8 km (5 miles) SE (127 degrees)Yorba Linda, CA - 9 km (5 miles) NNE (23 degrees)Pomona, CA - 11 km (7 miles) S (178 degrees)Los Angeles Civic Center, CA - 47 km (29 miles) ESE (103 degrees)
Coordinates 33 deg. 57.5 min. N (33.959N), 117 deg. 45.1 min. W (117.752W)
Depth 12.3 km (7.6 miles)
Location Quality Good

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I just lived through my first experience with an earthquake. It was actually pretty scary! I was just sitting at my desk, working away, and then there was this loud noise like thunder and the building started shaking. It seemed like it latest a long time, I really don't have any idea how long it actually lasted! I was trying really hard to remember what I learned back in First grade about earthquakes. Do I stand in an open area, clumb under my desk, stand under a door, run outside and start screaming? I couldn't remember. So I basically sat at my desk, frozen, and then it continued so I went and looked out the window to see if the freeway was shaking, you know like in the movies, but it wasn't. And then it just stopped. Over as soon as it started. The earthquake was 90 miles away from my office, I was kind of surprised that I could feel it here. I did rush home for lunch to make sure our house hadn't fallen into the ocean! And it was still there, our whole neighborhood was still there!

The White Party

Today was my friend Tiffany's birthday party. It was a White Party, where everyone wears white. We were allowed to use some colour to accessorize.

So check out these shoes!

Aren't they fabulous?

I had been eyeing them for weeks and the party gave me the perfect excuse to buy them!

The party was great! Everyone looked amazing, the White Party was a great idea.

Here's James chillin' in the lounge.

Ajee, Nicole and Me.

James and Me with Nicole and Dennis.

They are our neighbors and good friends who we hang out with a bunch.

Tiffany had her house decorated so well. I loved the two white leather sofa's and coffee tables in the middle of the yard! It made a great lounge area, what a great idea!

The girls! These are some great ladies. We have so much fun together! Playing bunco, shopping, girls night, hanging out at the beach, whatever! They are a blast!

How cute is this!

For some reason Packer loves standing under James. He will come up from behind and nudge his way in between his legs. It's pretty cute.

Just Peachy

On Sunday mornings my favorite thing to do is to sit on my porch and be lazy for a good half hour. This morning I walked out my front door and something was very different, the peach tree had fallen over!

The tree had so much fruit growing that I guess it just couldn't support the weight. I am so sad about it, there were going to be so many peaches. I was going to be the queen of peaches this summer, pies, cobbler, I was even going to try canning! They weren't quite ripe yet so I hadn't even been able to try one!

The gardener came and removed the tree and all of the fallen fruit. While I'm sad we have no more peaches for summer, it is actually nice having the yard more open for a little more sunshine!

The Maxi Dress

I have found my favorite new fashion.

The Maxi Dress!

I bought one yesterday to wear to a concert in our neighborhood and I think I'm going back to get another. I just love it. Not only do you look super cute while being casual yet semi classy looking, its so comfortable. I felt funny in it at first, expecting that my husband was going to ask why I was wearing a mumu, but then I just feel in love and he actually liked it too!

Grand Opening Party

Pic's from the Grand Opening Party!

Hollywood style with a Red Carpet, "the List" and everything!

Doesnt' the place look amazing! I'm so proud of James!

Quite a party, with a band and a dj.



Silent Auction items



Yummmmm sushi!

What a great night! By far the coolest party I've ever been too. It was amazing.

Today is a Gift

I go to check out pic’s of my friends Lara’s new baby and get tagged instead! So here’s my blast from the past, it’s not all pretty, but it’s real.

20 Years ago – I was nine and my sister would have been a brand new baby. I was so glad to finally have a sister! And I guess it would have been the summer before starting 4th grade. I actually don’t remember very much about being 9.

10 Years ago – was one of the most fun summers ever. I had a great job at a law office and was living with a best friend down town Boise. James was fighting wild fires in Nevada with our friend Amber. I spent every other weekend making the road trip to Nevada to hang out with James and Amber during the summer. It was so fun, plenty of time by the pool and lots of bbq’s and softball games. In the fall I was still in school at BSU trying to decide majors – exercise science or business. Funny how things don’t really change, 10 years ago I was working at a law office and James was gone a lot. Here we are 10 years later and I work at a law office and James is gone a lot! Very similar, but still so different.

5 Years ago – honestly it’s kind of a blur. I think because it was the worst time of my life I just blocked it out and blurred it all together. I could write a book about how miserable I was. Of course there were some good things (I’m sure) but I’m just being honest. It was a time full of failed relationships and heartache, being so broke I honestly did not have two pennies to rub together, and a job that was physically and emotionally draining. And it did manage to get worse before it got better – but it did get better.

3 Years ago – on the edge of something better. The worse times continued at the beginning of 2005. I found myself single for the first time in my entire life, and living all alone. I did have a great apartment though! I bought myself my first piece of furniture, a tv entertainment table. It was a pretty basic piece of furniture, I had to assemble it myself, and I had never felt so alone in my life. I knew I could have called my Dad to put it together in 20 minutes, but I had to do it myself. I was ready to do things for myself by myself. It took me the entire afternoon, a bucket of tears, and a blood blister, but I did finally put it together. It was always a little whobbly in the back, but it worked! Just like I put that table together I managed to get my life together as well. I made some great new friends, went on plenty of dates (both good and bad), learned how to have fun, learned what really matters in life, and bought my first house!

1Year ago – James and I were happily planning our wedding, (a lot happened two years ago) a fun pre-wedding trip to San Diego, and great honeymoon in Maui. In the mix of all of that we decided to move too! We had a great wedding and honeymoon. As soon as we got back from Maui we put one of our houses on the market and started looking for jobs and houses in San Diego.

This year – So far this year I really feel like this is the life I was supposed to have. James and I both have amazing jobs. We have the cutest house, in the nicest neighborhood, in the nicest town in all of San Diego. The ocean is just two houses away and it brings such a feeling of calmness in our life. There is an energy here that is almost tangible. The ocean is so full of life and it really does add an element of positive energy when it’s so close. It’s really hard to describe.

Yesterday – After work I did a few chores around the house. James had to work late so I invited my niece Brooke over to make dinner and watch a movie together, keep me company. We watched Fool’s Gold. It was pretty cute.

Today – This morning I discovered my washing machine is broken. I had a ton of laundry to do and needed to do all of it today. So like a real big city career girl, I took all of my laundry to the cleaners for the wash and fold service. I could definitely get used to that! I just walk in, drop it off and go back today after 5pm and it will all be clean and folded! Now, instead of having to go to the laundry mat, or a friend’s to do laundry tonight I can go to the gym and workout. I need to find a handy man who can fix my washer, it’s out of James’ area of expertise. Or I can keep doing the drop off service!!

Tomorrow – The grand opening of the new Harney Sushi is tomorrow. I’m so excited! James really needs the break too. I’ve got our nephew housesitting for use tomorrow night and we are staying in the honeymoon suite in Oceanside. I can’t wait. I took the afternoon off work so I could go lay by the pool for a few hours before getting ready for the party.

I do feel really fortunate to be able to write about having my laundry done for me, and going to grand opening parties, and staying in nice hotels. And not to say I deserve it, but my 20’s were terrible! While all of my friends were out partying and playing I was working my butt off. While they were all getting married and making families I was working my butt off. So I do feel like it’s about time! I worked so hard to get where I am and you never know what can happen, good or bad, so I’m just trying to enjoy life to the fullest right now! You know the saying, the Past is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a Gift, that's why we call it the Present!

I tag Rachelle, Kelly, Nickelle!!

My favorite things about James' job

James has been working so hard lately on his first huge project with his new company. The company does commercial remodels, exclusively restuarants. I had some time off a while back so I went and spent an afternoon checking out Oceanside and his jobsite.

Here is James working on the new Harney Sushi opening in Oceanside.

This is one of the 'during' photos. I'll post the 'after' shots this weekend at the opening.

This is the building the restaurant will be in, it's the first floor.

Here is a picture of the whole building.

Another cool thing about James' jobsite....Does this house look familiar to you????

Think

Think

Think

Here is another view of that same little beach house,

(the big building in the background is the building James is working in).

Still don't know where you've seen that little house before?!?!?

Let me give you a hint.......

Is that Maverick?

That's right! It's the beach house from Top Gun!

How cool is that? When I was a little girl drooling over Maverick and Ice Man I never would have imagined that I'd be standing in front of Charlie's house, and walking on the same beach where the infamous volleyball scene was filmed! And now my husband is working one block away!

Here's a few more pic's of Oceanside. It's really pretty there, but they have some problems, hopefully adding a few upscale restaurants and condo's will help. There's a beautiful pier that I wanted to go walk on, but when I got asked if I was "working" I knew it was time to go back to my quiet Solana Beach! So I did not make it out on the Pier, no way am I going by myself! Hopefully James and I will be able to go together this weekend.

a VIP invite

We got our invitation for the grand opening.

It is definitely the coolest invitation I've ever seen!

I am so excited for Friday night!

Just an update

I figured since I haven't written anything in over a month I should probably just post some kind of update on what we're doing.

Tax season came to an end and so did my job. I wish I could say I was surprised, but for about the past month at my last job I just had this feeling that I should start looking for a new job. It's weird, but I didn't pay any attention because my job was paying a lot of money (a lot more than I felt I was worth! our little secret!!) so I just ignored it. I had noticed it had gone from crazy busy, to insane slow. But finally it did come to an end. And I got an even better job! So I am very excited about that, and the best part is it isn't for a CPA firm, so no more tax seasons!!! YEAH!!

James is managing the opening of a brand new Harney Sushi restuarant in Oceanside, CA and has been working like crazy. He's been working seven days a week for very long hours to make sure that everything is ready for the VIP opening on June 27th. Between our work schedules we hardly see each other anymore. So I decided that for the grand opening we are really going to celebrate. I reserved the Honeymoon Suite at the nicest hotel in Oceanside for us and I am so excited about it! The room is amazing, overlooking the ocean, so it will be a fun weekend for us to relax!

James has always been very artistic, and recently he had some one take an interest in his art. We are getting all of his pieces ready for an exhibit in a gallery. I've always loved his artwork, and he thought I was saying it was great because I'm his wife. So it was amazing for him to have someone not related tell him it was great. I can't wait for his first piece to sell! I know it won't take long!

Our niece Brooke graduated from high school this last week. It is wierd for me to have nieces and nephews the same age as my sister, but it's fun to be the cool young aunt too! James' parents come to town for the graduation and stayed with us. We had everyone over for a bbq on Fathers' Day. I feel really lucky to have such great in-laws.

We've just been so busy lately, too busy to take any pictures. And really we haven't been doing anything but working lately. My new job is pretty demanding, it feels like a real grown-up job! And James' job has turned into a real career with amazing opportunities along with long hours. We have both decided that we are just going work as hard as possible during our 30's, we're hoping to retire in our 40's! That's the goal! Laugh all you want! We are going to make it happen!

Darcy comes for a visit

My sister Darcy just came for a visit. We had such a great time. Not enough time to do all the fun thing we wanted, but we'll have plenty for the next visit. We both celebrated our STAR birthday's this year, she turned 20 on the 20th and I turned 29 on the 29th. We weren't able to get together until now, so we celebrated our birthdays over the Lava Fudge cake at The Beach House!

We normally get some pretty amazing sunsets. But the fog rolled in every night right before sunset, so it just looked cloudy. But we still had fun at the beach watching the ocean waves.

The Flower Fields in Carlsbad are beautiful! Rows and rows of bright coloured flowers!

The Birch Acquarium was so fun! We saw all kinds of amazing fish. Next time we'll do Sea World.

Seal Cove in La Jolla. All the baby seals were sunning themselves on the beach. It was so cute!

$$ Shopping at the Outlet Mall $$

The outlets here are amazing! Every store you could possibly think of. We even stopped at Godiva to have one of their Gourmet Chocolate Covered Strawberry's. Yum!!


We all took a long walk on the beach.

I had so much fun hanging out with my sister again. James had fun too, and was a great sport about watching chic flic's every night!

Joy of Art Party

We hosted our first Art Party and had such an amazing time. Everyone had a blast and at the end of the night James and I had a beautiful piece of new artwork.

To have your own here's how it works.

Pick a favorite piece of art in the size you want. It's so easy to order anything you want from Art.com This is what we picked, Navaro Rapids by Ando Hiroshige.

Cut it into squares, one for each guest you have. We had 12.

Get all your supplies together. Pastels work so great, we had coloured pencil, oil pastels, pastels, also get a good art paper, and some fixative spray.

Everyone gets one square of the original print and a blank piece of paper cut the same size of square from the original print. Allow the artist inside to express your creativity. All of our guests knew we were having an art party, they were great sports about it considering everyone said what terrible artist's they were. But eveyone ended up having such a great time and were very surprised just how talented they really were!

A work in progress...

It was so fun seeing everyone finish their squares, you can hardly tell which is the original and which one we recreated!

Once everyone is finished put together the finished product.

The art party was a huge success, I am already picking another print for our next party!