Birthdays and Anniversary

Last month the girls turned 17 (Leah) and 13 (Krista), and Gene and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary.

OK, seriously? Where did the time go?

How on earth did the girls go from this:

to this:

in just a couple of years?

I mean, how does that happen?

This year we let the girls each invite a couple of friends from church to spend the night. Leah invited Victoria and Mel, and another friend who couldn't make it. Krista spent the night at a friend's house, so it was just Leah and her friends. We took them to see Tron, and then back home for a quick dinner and an ice cream bar before Mel had to leave, because she was headed to Mexico for a missions trip. Here are a few photos from the evening.

Mel, Leah, Victoria

Victoria, Mel, Leah

Victoria, Mel, Leah

Mel & Leah

Leah & Victoria

Leah in the Christian jacket she likes to wear to pretend she's a Christian : )

Then the following weekend, Krista invited Becca, Charlotte, and Kelby to spend the night. We took them to see Gulliver's Travels (um, not the greatest), then we went to dinner at Pancho's. When we got back home, it was dark, but the girls wanted to play on the tree swing for awhile. Then we headed in for the ice cream bar and presents. The girls had all grabbed 3-D glasses out of the bins in the theatre lobby on their way out.

Krista, Becca, Charlotte, and Kelby wait patiently for Gene to dish out the ice cream

Twilight books (I still say she's too young for these)

Starbucks gift card (and too young for this)

The chocolate syrup came out like poop, which cracked them up

Becca seriously could not stop laughing, especially when it made a farting sound!

And then Becca gave Krista a whoopee cushion, and things really got out of hand!

Kelby is growing up, too!

Later in the month, Gene and I actually celebrated our anniversary, which is something we rarely do. We decided to just do a few random things that we've been wanting to do for a long time, but just never took the time (or money) to do.

We went to the Whaley House, which is famous for being haunted. Basically, it was a bit interesting for its historical value, but was a waste of time and money. Don't waste yours, here are some photos. The real thing wasn't any more interesting!

We also went to Old Town, and ate at a Mexican restaurant (not bad). We walked around a bit before going to the comedy club later that evening. Here's Gene outside La Casa de Estudillo, which was actually more interesting than the Whaley House (and free).

And we finally went to the Corvette Diner. We'd never been, because it's a bit of a drive for us and the wait is always so long. But we were in no hurry, so we braved the crowd. We really enjoyed it, and will definitely go back with the girls one day!

Finally, we went to see the musical, Emma, at the Old Globe Theatre. It was really, really good. I couldn't imagine how they would turn Emma into a musical, but it was fantastic. I highly recommend it! (Though I think it's only playing through the first week in March.)

We really enjoyed our weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing another play at the Old Globe one day!

Reflections of 2010

Well, we're already into the second month of 2011, and I'm finally getting around to making a blog post. There are lots of things I could write about. In fact, there are so many that I really had a hard time making a decision. Should I write about my most embarrassing moments, as Ashley challenged me to do? Should the post be funny, sad, factual, emotional? I finally decided to make it a reflective post. After all, it's the start of a new year (sort of). I wanted to take stock of what happened in our lives in 2010, just so I don't forget.

So, here are the higlights (and lowlights) of our year last year:

January: I passed my real estate exam! Leah turned 16, and Krista turned 12. They are turning into beautiful young women (too soon)! Aunt Linda came to visit, and we had Tim Tam Slams. Gene and I celebrated (well, "celebrated" is not actually what we did--maybe "marked") our 32nd wedding anniversary. It's so strange to think that my parents had been married 39 years when my dad died. That seemed so far off for me, and now, here we are at 32 (actually 33 now)!

February: Gene turned 53. Again, it just doesn't seem possible that I've known this guy for almost 33 years. And he's still as handsome as ever! We contacted Leah's birth mother and began communicating with her via e-mail. It was a difficult decision, but we decided that Leah was old enough to start getting to know her from a distance. It's progressed a lot since then! More on that in a later post.

March: Ryan turned 28. Now THAT'S absolutely crazy! My baby boy is truly a grown man (and has been for several years now)! Since he was in Japan, we couldn't celebrate the day with him. He's been there for too long! Leah had her second hernia surgery right before Spring Break. Poor thing. She handled it really well, but had to be pulled out of P.E. and Dance at school.

April: My neck and back had been hurting for a couple of months at this point, and I finally decided to go to the doctor to hopefully get some relief. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. MRI and X-rays showed some minor problems that I guess all added up to be a major problem, but nothing that they could really fix. So I continued to suffer. Tried physical therapy with no success. Not a good month. : (

May: Our dear friend, Garyn, got married. It was a beautiful wedding. She is happy. I'm glad.

June: I joined Keller Williams Realty in La Mesa. I have a lot to learn. Our beautiful granddaughter, Jenna, turned 10 this month. Holy Smokes! I sure wish I could see her more often than we do. We started planning to go to Scott and Chloe's wedding in the hopes that Ashley and her family could also go. It would be great to see them, especially for such a happy occasion. Krista started playing volleyball in the Starlings league. This was the beginning of a very busy season!

July: Ryan came home from Japan after being gone for a year! It was such a wonderful surprise. Starlings continued. Leah took summer school, and Krista went to church camp (she didn't enjoy herself). Trying to learn as much as I can about real estate while working full-time at Kratos as an Instructional Designer. This was a very busy month!

August: Held my first open house. It went really well. Got a couple of leads that still haven't panned out, but at this point, I was very hopeful. Leah started practicing for the El Capitan Junior Varsity volleyball team.

September: Blessed school! Our beautiful granddaughter, Marah, turned 6! And, our adorable grandson, Alex, turned 2! On a sad note, Carla has been gone 7 years. Time has flown. Also, Leah's best friend from middle school, Moriah, unfortunately committed suicide this month. Her memorial service was beautiful, as was she. I hate that she was in so much pain that she couldn't see how many people loved her. She has left a huge hole in the lives of a lot of people.

October: Our oldest daughter, Ashley, turned 31. Oh my goodness! We feel old. I was laid off work, which was a little scary, but I was also excited, because now I can focus on real estate. NOT! I almost immediately got a consulting job, which has kept me very busy ever since! God is good. We didn't make it to Scott & Chloe's wedding. After being laid off, I just couldn't justify spending the money. We were sad.

November: My birthday. Thanksgiving. We got a new puppy from Stacey. We named her Connelly. She was so adorable, but she really caused a lot of stress in our home. As much as we loved her, it was in everyone's best interest to let Stacey take her back and give her to her boyfriend's brother. We miss her, but our home is back to "normal." Ryan's girlfriend, Ai, came to visit from Japan. We didn't get to see her very much, but we loved her right away. Ryan's planning to go back to Japan in March. He plans to stay for 3 months. After that, who knows. . . ? : )

December: It was a relatively quiet Christmas season for us. Dad's been gone for 16 years. That's so unbelievable. Every Christmas Eve, I take a little time to just think about what a wonderful father he was, and how thankful I am that God gave me him for a dad. He is truly missed.

So, that's our year in a nutshell. All in all not a bad year. God continues to pour out His blessings on us in spite of our failings. It is my sincere desire to do a better job of following Him this year.

Oh, and I'm going to TRY to start blogging more often, but I make no promises. : )

Happy New Year (sort of)!