Lucky

Scrapbooking had to show up somewhere in here and well, here's a good a place as any.

Why this page, don't know, maybe its because I like green maybe its because Amanda will be 20 in 3 weeks. My how time flies when your busy. Contrary to what people say, I have not forgotten the pain but think it was worth it.

I have scored again and gotten out of making Thanksgiving dinner for another year. We will be eating with Tony's Aunt and Uncle. It's not that I don't like to cook but I do it so rarely now because we are just so busy; why change the pattern? I do the big Christmas thing still.

So this time next week we will be at a Puddle of Mudd Concert. YEA!! Tony bought me the tickets for our anniversary. A good kick off to the holidays and Thanksgiving weekend, which is booked every day already. So much for the all day Twilight Zone Marathon.

As a side note for any of you who keep track, add another flat tire to my score. I got a flat on the way to work Friday (that would be 3 in 3 months, lets not even look at the count for the last 12 months) It has however been 4 months since the last cracked windshield.

Forever Isn't Long Enough

The top picture is the night we got married (10-13-85) and the bottom one is recently at Disneyland.

Thank God it doesn't look like we are old enough to be married for 22 years! At least that's what I like to think. We tried oh so hard to spend a quiet weekend away but it didn't really happen. We took time off 2 weeks ago so really couldn't this past week.

We left on Saturday to spend the weekend in Anaheim. We left the house before noon and didn't see Anaheim before 3:30. We got stuck in that traffic jam on the 5 freeway from the 27 truck pile up. Tony couldn't do too much walking, after all he had that awful rock climbing accident and hurt his ankle (good choice of what happened to his ankle don't you think?) So we opted for a movie. By the time the movie was done we had been called 3 times by the children for various requests. I'm glad they call and ask before they do things but we've left for 4 days and WE have to call them to make sure they are still alive. We are gone 5 hours for our ANNIVERSARY and they MUST speak with us immediately. Go figure. Sunday's drive home took as long but we had to get home, the children needed us. We learned that the freeway wouldn't be open until Tuesday so we both decided to stay home on Monday. (should have taken the extra day in the first place and stayed away another night)

So our anniversary dinner was popcorn and pretzels at the movies and for desert we had fig newtons when we got back to the hotel. Not quite the canned tamales and Doritos's we used to eat when we first got married but close. We did go out for a nice dinner the night before we left town though. However the good part is still to come, and I mean that sincerely. I got tickets to go see Puddle of Mudd and yes that totally outweighs everything else. Since my children love to keep in touch with us there are two extra tickets, and they get first dibs. But if they opt no to go, we will not be answering our phone at the concert. As if we could hear anyway.

Excuse me?

"Why are your new shoes dirty?"
"I Fell"
"Excuse me?"
"I tripped"
"What?"
"I tripped and fell"
"You fell?"
"Ya, and tore my pants" as he turns his leg and shows me the offending torn pants.
"How did you fall"
"I tripped"
"On what"
"nothing"
"Excuse me?"
"NOTHING"
"So, the ground wasn't uneven, a lift in the sidewalk"
"No"
"You just fell... over nothing?"
"Yes"
I am now nearly rolling on the floor laughing.
The 3rd party enters here:
"He tripped over his feet, I do it all the time"
I ask the obvious: Are these people for real? And No, its not a conversation we are having with Zach. This my friend was the exchange between Tony and me. Apparently there is no reason for his fall other than his feet got in his way. Let it be said here and how: Like father, like son as demonstrated with this incident. 43 years old and still can't walk; Zach has a lifetime of tripping ahead of him. My suggestion is that he lie and when someone asks why he is limping he come up with another story; after all that's what I did and now I'm going to hell for lying. (Which Tony reminds me of on a regular basis when a similar topic comes up)
I love you Tony and Happy 22nd anniversary.

Kids, Halloween & Mickey

This has got to be my favorite time of year! I love the fall, cooler temps, the change you can actually feel in the air, my birthday, and Halloween. Strangely enough, I don't make it a habit of dressing up for Halloween (in fact I avoid it at all costs) but I love the holiday decorations (and candy best of all.)

So we went to Disneyland, got to see the park all decorated, celebrated my birthday, ate too much junk food, all in all a great time. Of course going to Disneyland isn't that unusual considering we have passes but we always do something different. This time we went to the Saloon and watched the show. The kids and Tony have NEVER seen it in all the times we've been there. I think I was 5 the last time I saw it.

Zach was gone for the weekend in Frazier Park. He came home today and told me I was lucky that I didn't have to eat what he did for breakfast. It really wasn't so bad, a corn muffin type casserole with eggs. Its nice to know that your kid likes your cooking though and lets you know once in awhile even if they're complaining about someone else's. "No one cooks like mom" as the saying goes. Things like this actually give me the warm fuzzies in a strange sort of way. That and even though he didn't like it he didn't complain, ate it with a smile, and said, "thank you". I did good~ if he would just be as polite at home.

Still lookin' good

I hope I look this good after being a few feet deep in dirt for 25 years. This is the ring that Tony & I lost 25 years ago. I took the picture before I cut the string off and cleaned the ring. The dirt was rinsed off but you can still see some of it in the photo. I think this would be a great promotion prop for Josten's class rings!

So if you have to buy anyone a class ring, may I suggest that you shop at http://www.jostens.com/ I guess this is why they have a lifetime guarantee.

Next week is the big 4-0 for me. In celebration of living this long, my birthday gift from Tony is a Canon Rebel XTi. I LOVE IT. If you don't know what a photo freak I am, let me just say I take a lot of pictures.

Yes, I realize that this is camera #5 that I have in my possession, but hey you should know that I have given 3 others away. I made the sacrifice and cut back. I know that I will one day want to use my faithful 35mm SLR (film camera). It is patiently waiting for me under a thick layer of dust on the top shelf of my closet with friends.

I even took the banner photo of the water lily. I used my Nikon coolpix digital fixed lense 2.1 mp

Not bad for a camera that will never stand up to the Rebel.

25 years later

WOW!
When Tony and I were dating I wore his class ring; that was more than 25 years ago. It had the yarn on it so it would fit my finger. For some reason the ring was in my pocket and we lost it out on his property somewhere in the dirt and sand. Needless to say we never found it. His mom bought him a new ring and I wore it on a chain, life goes on and it was replaced with a wedding ring.
Over the weekend some (nice) lady left a rather strange message telling us that she had something that belonged to Tony, give her a call, and read the newspaper on page 3. We called and she told us that she had his class ring. His Class Ring - with the yarn still on it. Someone who lives on the property next to his old house was digging and found the ring earlier in the week. So she went to AV high School asked to see a yearbook from 1982, used the initals AMA inscribed on the ring and found only one AMA. She did a search and found us (rather scary and easy to find ANYONE!!). She went on to let him know the yarn was still on it - and he (here come the aaahhhh's) got a big smile on his face and said I married her and we're still together. He really does love me!
We picked up the ring Sunday evening ( will post picture soon). 25 years later. Wow. How often does something like this happen? Even more unusal, someone took the time to find him and return it. I don't know for sure I would go to that much trouble, would you? She even called the paper and they ran an article on the "mystery" on page 3 of the front section. That just goes to show you not much exciting happend in the Antelope Valley. They called and are going to run a follow-up article in Thursday's paper.
When things like this happen, it kinda gives you the warm fuzzies for humanity and the world we live it. Thank you June for being you and returning the ring (and bringing forward a lot of great memories we haven't thought about in years!)

For what its worth

We all have to start someplace. When Zach is famous and supporting me in my old age I will have to look back on this with fondness. Right now I look at it as resume stuff (even if it will be denied by said actor at one point) So for all of you who haven't seen this (and thats most of you) take a look www.livevideo.com/teennerdsquad and send Zach a note.

On a far more social level check this out. We went to a friend's wedding this weekend and had a great time. Out of this group of friends there is only one left (Fred) who isn't married and his wedding is next month.

Congratulations Zita and Jason ~ It was beautiful!

What a concept...

and hopefully something to make staying in contact a little easier. This is primarily for our family and friends that I don't get to talk to often enough but think of very often.

This picture is from Zach's graduation party this year. Physically we don't look much different than we did at Amanda's graduation party last year (top picture). The rest of our family life has changed dramatically. Both kids are out of high school and going on to do the college thing. WOW! I wasn't so sure we would ever get here but at the same time it was just yesterday I was dropping them off for their first day of school.

As the days go by I'll let you all know what's up and try and not make this look like the boring family vacation movies that no one wants to see. Here's to hoping the entertainment value any one of us alone can provide will keep that from happening.