I was so excited to go to Watsonville for the weekend to celebrate Uncle Paylor's and Coley's birthdays, but I went alone. Jarom went camping; a trip he has had planned for months and Jenna had to work so she had to stay behind. Although I was alone, I had a great time as I always do.

I left at 3pm Friday afternoon and what should have taken no more than two and a half hours took me almost four to get where I was going. Once, I could get off 805, I headed through Gilroy to bypass all the traffic. Poor Uncle Paylor was starving by the time I got there after 6:30pm. I didn't mean for them to hold dinner for me, but they did and we had grilled chicken and green salad. We watched Ghost Whisperer and then Knowing, before we all turned in for the night.

All the festivities started around 3pm. We had chips and dips plus fruit and chocolate fondue as snackies before dinner. Fondue is definitely something I need to do sometime. We had dinner about 6pm and we had salad, veggie kebabs, teriyaki skirt steak and potato salad. Dessert was delicious...there were 3! Chocolate swirl cheesecake, carrot cake and chocolate chocolate cake were present and accounted for. So yummy!



We visited around our little bon fire until about 11pm before everyone started to head home. There was a lot of laughing and it was just an all around great time.







I left Sunday around 3pm to head back home and traffic was slow on 17 until I got to 205, so it was about 6pm before I got home. I was run off the road passing throuhg Stockton. The guy didn't signal or look, he just started coming over. I was lucky that there wasn't a lane or guard rail on my left side or I'd have been toast. It was really freaky.

I got home to a quiet house; both Jarom and Jenna were both sleeping, so i put my stuff away and came down stairs to catch up on the shows that I missed.

It was a nice weekend and I had fun.

Friday afternoon, Jenna and I drove up to Oregon for a quick weekend trip. Jenna had a wedding and since she didn't have to work wanted to attend. I made a promise to my mother-in-law that I would make sure she got up there safely. After dropping Jenna off in Prineville I continued on to Troutdale to my parents' home.

Saturday while Jenna attended her wedding in Prineville, I was helping and showing my mom how to use her Cricket machine. We had fun playing with the different settings and now I'm completely sold on having one, the one that will cut fabric so that I can applique items onto quilt and pillows, etc. I was able to see my Aunt Stephanie, who I haven't seen for about 4 or 5 years. It was just a quiet and relaxed weekend for me, until Sunday morning when I left to drive back over the Mt. Hood to Prineville to get Jenna. We left Prineville around noon and hit the border about 4pm where we learned that they just closed Hwy. 97, 5 miles south of Macdoel because of a fire. Jenna and I had been watching the fire grow as we got closer. We drove down to the where they were turning people around and told we could wait it out, but we decided to go back across the border to hit the Lake of the Woods Hwy which eventually leads to Hwy. 160. Hwy 160 connected us to Hwy. 62 into Medford and from there we were able to hit I-5. It added four hours to our drive and we didn't get in until 11:30pm, but it was beautiful and an adventure. We noticed as we drove back over the border that you could see the fire from I-5 and it was even bigger. We even saw the copter that was dumping water come back for a refill. He are a couple pictures I took just after we were turned around:





It turns out that, I was glad we didn't wait it out. Jarom came home from work Monday and told me that the highway still shut down.

Monday was Jenna's 19th birthday and she had a couple friends over to swim in the pool and have some cake and ice cream cake. Yes, there were two cakes. I made her favorite rainbow chip cake with rainbow chip frosting, plus we picked up a chocolate fudge crunch ice cream cake from Baskin & Robbins. I didn't do a very good job, but I managed to write "Happy Birthday Jenna" on the ice cream cake.

Next month, we are going to treat her for her birthday, a little late, but just coming back from a trip to Oregon we needed to wait. Next month, we have it planned to go out to Roseville to Golfland Sunsplash for a round of evening miniature golf at 5pm and the enjoy a night slide that starts at 7pm.

Ice Cream Cake with Colored Flame candles and a Singing Candle








This weekend, I'm headed down to Watsonville to celebrate some more family July birthday while Jarom goes camping with some friends up at Meadow Lake. Jenna wanted to go to Watsonville with me but she has to work this weekend, so she has to stay home. She really want to go down the the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and the beach, so she is a little bummed, but I told her there will be plenty of time and opportunity to do that, so she gets the house all to her self.

Tuesday morning, Jarom called into 105.1 FM KNCI for to win dinner at Morton's Steakhouse with a live performance of new solo recording artist, Jessica Harp. The radio station was taking callers 9 and 10. He let the phone buzz and buzz with the busy signal, about to hang up when it started to ring and well, he WON!



Our prize was dinner for two, that night, at Morton's Steakhouse in downtown Sacramento. Jessica Harp is a new solo recording artist that already has a top 20 Billboards Hot Country Song song with "Boy Like Me". She used to be part of the singing duo with Michelle Branch that made up The Wreckers.

Neither Jarom or I have ever been to Morton's until Tuesday, so I looked it up. I remember hearing about it and thinking it was a more upscale fancy restaurant, to our standards, and I was right. From what little I could see for pricing it was expensive, too. I decided I would wear a nice summer light skirt, so I picked my white one with my teal green baby doll top and white tank top underneath. I didn't expect Jarom to wear a suit and tie, but I did expect Dockers and a button up shirt. He wore jeans and a button up shirt. When we walked in a 6:30pm, everyone was in suits and ties, but they ushered us to the patio outside in the 100 degree heat for our fare. It was actually nice outside, once the sun started to go down and there was a nice, refreshing breeze, too. It was a relief to see that we were dressed nicer than most of the other winners.

There were 10 other winners, each with a guest and we were the last to arrive, but we had a nice time. Our meal was several platters of "Bar Bites" from the bar that just kept on coming. Jarom and I were the only ones at our table and there was a lot of leftover food, but we couldn't eat it all. I wish I had taken several pictures of our food-it all looked so yummy and it was. I enjoyed all of it and I'm a picky eater, but I ate crab and blue cheese. I was able to find a few pictures on thier website, though, at www.mortons.com.

Immediately, we were each give a swag bag. In it was a t-shirt, pen (that lights up) and key chain that has a bottle opener and flashlight.




This is a list of all the food that they brought us:
-Miniature Crab Cakes with Mustard Mayonnaise
-Chicken Goujonettes with Mustard Mayonnaise, these are crispy fried little chicken bites.
-Prime Cheeseburgers with lettuce, tomato and purple onion

-Iceburg Wedge Bites with tomato, egg, bacon and blue cheese
-Jumbo Lump Crab, Spinach and Artichoke Dip with French Bread Croutons (So Yummy!)

-Blue Cheese French Fries with blue cheese, red pepper flakes and chive (Not my favorite, in fact this was the only dish I didn't really care for)
-Petite Filet Mignon Sandwiches with Mustard Mayonnaise


Jessica soon came out with her two bandmates and started to play her set. Her CD will be released in September. She played 3 or 4 songs from her album, and "Leave The Pieces" that she sang and produced with Michelle Branch as part of The Wreckers. When she played "Have You ever Seen the Rain" written and performed by John Fogerty (it was first performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1970 on their album the Pendulum) everyone sang along. Jessica's music is great and she has a beautiufl voice.







Jessica played and sang 7 or 8 songs and then for anyone who wished to have them, she autographed photos and our KNCI t-shirts and took photos with us. I got an autographed picture and had her autograph my shirt, too, and then Jarom took a couple photos of the two of us. She was very nice and I really hope that she rockets to the top and that we see a lot more of her.





Jessica autographing my photo


Jessica Harp and Me




We left the restaurant around 8pm and walked back to Macy's to the parking garage where we parked the car. We weren't exactly sure where it was and my navigation system said we arrived at our location, when in actuality we still had to go another street down, so we parked a bit of a ways away. It was a nice walk except for the heat and my feet being swollen so my sandal heels were hurting my feet. I even have a little blister on the side of my left big toe. Had we known exactly where it was we would have seen that they had valet parking for $5. Oh well. Besides parking, all we had to pay for was our drinks. Jarom had a coke and I tried the Veuve Clicquot, Rose, Brut champagne. It was okay, but not as sweet as I like. I was hoping they would serve us dessert, because their Hot Chocolate cake and cheesecake looked fantastic! Oh well.

I had a sweet tooth on the way home, so we stopped at Baskin & Robbins down the street from the house before going home. It was $1 Tuesday Scoop Night, too, but only Jarom's was $1. He got a sugar cone with vanilla soft serve ice cream. I, on the other hand, decided I wanted a 'blizzard" which is called a "31 Below" at B&R with butterfinger. YUMMY!

It was a really nice evening. We both really enjoyed ourselves. Jarom and I haven't been doing well when it comes to going on a date together, for some time now, so this was a very nice date with my wonderful husband.

Thank you, Baby, for a really great night! I love you!

Just real quick...I just added a button to both blogs. They are for wonderful baby blankets made by my friend, Natalie. I can assure you they are of the highest quality and you WILL want to have one not just for your babies but all the babies in your life.

Just click on the button and it will take you right to her page to choose the pattern/fabric combination you want and order your blankies today. And yes, that cutie on the page is her youngest, Madison.

Just one more quick post today.

I started a second blog. I quit doing my other helpful hints blog becuase I had a hard time keeping up with it. Well, here I am with a second blog again. Anyway, this is a lbog dedicated to the recipes of the foods I make for my family and friends. I have several that come from recipe books that I will cite accordingly and several from family. As often as possible, I will include pictures of the foods. That will be the tricky part, because I don't really make a habit of taking pictures of my food.

With that siad, you can find this new blog at: http://deathbygoodfood.blogspot.com/.

As of early this morning, when I couldn't sleep, I posted the welcome message and four recipes that I made this weekend. Enjoy!

I can't believe the holiday has come and gone already. It was a far better one than last year, when Jarom and I were on seperate coasts and our street was very quiet. This year, a much livelier picture was painted for us. Most of the day, it was quiet, just hanging around the house. I made my Aunt Michelle's chicken rolls and black bottom cupcakes-a cream cheese filled chocolate cupcake.

Around 7pm, half of our cul-de-sac came together to share in the fireworks show. I broght out some cupcakes to share as the kids twirled sparklers until it was dar enough to watch the big show. Jarom brought out chimanea out to the driveway from the back and some chairs. The Subletts to our left (looking at the house) had a houseful that all came out and the new neighbors across the street came out with thier 4 children, too. The neighbors to our right set off thiers on the side of the house, which we has to watch closely so as they didn't set our house on fire.

We didn't buy any fireworks but there was plenty betweent he neighbors to wathc quite a show. We had our very own fire thrower, or in this case fireworks thrower. I know, it is dangerous, but it was quite a show and he was very cautious. After all the fireworks were done, we made s'mores and passed them around to everyone who wanted one. It was all over by 10:30 and we were in bed by 11pm.

Fathers & Daughters with Sparklers


Fireworks on the Ironing Board


Girlfriends Smile for the Camera-Destiny, Shannon & Madison


Fireworks Thrower


Jarom & Jenna


LeeAnn & Wallace


LeeAnn with her Mom & Aunt


S'Mores Time