Friday, March 25, 2011

Anniversary Get Away

Thanks to Income Tax Refunds, and the great deals on Priceline.com, we were able to get away for a few days for our 15th wedding anniversary.

A few weeks ago we used Priceline.com to secure reservations at a four star hotel in the Gaslamp District in Downtown San Diego. We stayed at The Omni of San Diego. It was a beautiful hotel, standing 21 floors tall, sitting right next door to Petco Park and across the street from the San Diego Convention Center. We arrived on Monday afternoon and checked into our room, originally booking a King Size room, they only had a room with two double beds available. We were on the 18th floor and our view was overlooking Downtown San Diego and the Gaslamp District.After checking in and dropping off our stuff in our room, we went walking and ended up walking to The Horton Plaza and then back again. It was a nice afternoon to take a walk. We decided that for dinner we would try Hodad's, a burger place made famous and well known thanks to Guy Fieri and his Food Network Show, Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. We ordered bacon cheeseburgers, fries and onion rings, and chocolate shakes. The burger was out of this world! This is definitely a place to return to in the future. Following dinner, we walked along the board walk and the Ocean Beach Pier. It was the longest Pier we'd ever seen and a Pier in the shape of a "T". The clouds were pretty and the waves were big. After finding a RedBox Movie Rental, we returned to our hotel to enjoy the room and relax.

Tuesday morning, we enjoyed sleeping in and watching the Red Box Movie we'd rented (our room had a DVD player!) and just relaxing. We've both been busy in the last several months that one of our goals for this trip was to just relax and rest.

Midday we figured it was time to start the day. We decided that taking the Trolley to Old Town for Mexican Food would be our adventure for the afternoon. We caught the Trolley just outside our hotel and made the appropriate connections to get to our destination. It was fun and we saw a lot of "unique" people. We had lunch at a place that I saw Rachel Ray feature on one of her Food Network shows, Old Town Mexican Cafe. The homemade tortillas were amazing! Once again, we were not disappointed by the recommendation of Food Network celebrities!

Upon returning to our hotel, we checked with the front desk about the possibility of a King Size room becoming available and there was!! So we went to our old room, packed our stuff, and moved into what would be our new room for the remainder of our stay. This room was on the 14th floor, with the same view. I liked this room much better than the other!We wanted to see the sunset that evening, so after hanging out in our room for a while, we dawned our jackets and our Trolley tickets and hopped the Trolley to Seaport Village where we caught the sun setting over Coronado Island. It was a pretty sunset and a nice evening. We decided to walk back to our hotel which ended up being a 2 mile walk! For a total of almost 5 miles walked that day! Yea for us! This is a picture of our hotel at night. Petco park sits adjacent to the right. Wednesday was our actual anniversary. Once again we got a midday start to our day, having enjoyed another Red Box Movie and sleeping in. For lunch we went to Miguel's Cocina for Mexican food once again. We discovered this restaurant when we spent our 1st anniversary in San Diego and have made this a must every time we're in San Diego. The food never disappoints and the hot jalepeno cheese dip they serve with chips is so good! Through the years, I've been able to perfect making it at home.

After lunch we drove out to Point Loma and visited the Cabrillo National Monument and Light House. It was a beautifully clear afternoon and the view overlooking Coronado Island and the San Diego Bay was beautiful. For dinner that evening, we did something really special (and romantic if you ask me), we took a Hornblower Dinner Cruise! The three hour cruise around the San Diego harbor included a three course dinner, music and dancing, as well as beautiful views of downtown San Diego at night. We had a private table, with our own window, and upon arriving you had your choice of sparkling cider or champagne. There were maybe forty people aboard the ship, it was a small and intimate cruise.There wasn't a sunset that evening as the storm clouds had moved in and it began to rain shortly after debarking the port. There were a few breaks in the rain that allowed us to go up and walk on deck and take in the lights of all the hotel and highrise buildings. The captain invited us into his quarters to take in the view from his point.It was a wonderful and special way to spend our anniversary evening! It'll be something we remember that's for sure!

Thursday came way too quickly. This is the day we would have to check out and head for home. We slept in in, watched TV, relaxed some more. Unfortunately, Steven had an urgent work matter that prevented him from enjoying the last hour and a half of the hotel. Check out was Noon and we squeezed all the time we could...checking out at 11:55am!

Once we got our car, it was on the road to home. The girls had been with Steven's mom since Saturday afternoon and would also be returning home that afternoon as well.

We had a wonderful and relaxing time away. And for me, living in a house with two daughters, it's always nice to get away and be the only girl getting all the attention for a change. :)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Missing Gramma

March 11 marked nine years since my Gramma passed away. Sometimes it feels as though I miss her more NOW, than the years following her death. Maybe it's my age. Maybe it's the love and closeness I see that Hannah has for her Gramma (my Mom).

My life as a homemaker is influenced greatly by my Gramma. She taught my Mom a good majority of what she knew when it came to keeping house and cooking and baking. And thus, my Mom passed all that knowledge down to me.
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Today, following church, we went to a Senior Apartment complex to have a lunch as part of our "Hands and Feet" ministry. I am really uncomfortable when it comes to these types of things. It is not within my comfort zone to sit and talk to complete strangers.

Hesitantly, after doing every possible job I could that excluded any interaction with people (wrapping hot dogs in foil, restocking desserts), the ministry coordinator asked a few of us women to fill in the spots at tables with some of the residents and talk and visit with them. I didn't chicken out completely, I found a table, a table whereas Steven was sitting. At least with him by my side, I had some comfort.

We sat across from three ladies. Each one different in their own way. Each with stories to tell.

But one lady stood out to me.

I had seen her upon our arrival. She was a tall, slender woman. With blonde/greyish hair, pulled back in a pony tail. I sat and I listened and participated in talking with them. This lady in particular was a fiery lady. She had spunk! She reminded me of my Gramma in so many ways. Right on down to the wrinkles around her lips from years of smoking. LOL.

When our lunch was over and they said their goodbyes and their need to leave (need to go have a drag outside. LOL), Steven commented about the ladies, I told him that the one reminded me of my Gramma. And he agreed. He had seen the resemblance as well. And then, the tears followed...because seeing that lady, added to my missing my Gramma.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Spring Break

Ahhhh. Spring Break 2011 is upon us and it feels great!!!

The weeks leading up to this week have been busy ones for me to say the least. I'm exhausted. Worn Out. Tired of running. And I think I need this Spring Break more than the girls do. LOL.

The past two days have found me sleeping me, lounging about in bed until close to 8:00. Course, the time change has helped make my sleeping in conditions great with it staying dark well beyond 6:00am. The girls, up earlier than they would be on a school day, of course! But I gave them the run down of the rules on Friday night, if you get up don't slam doors, there's no need for shutting the bathroom door all the way, and please shut my door...gently! Obviously my rules are working!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Bright, sunny days, temperature around 80 degrees. Perfect!

Yesterday, I cleaned Rachel's room, her dresser, and had her try on tons of hand me down clothes. Starting to rotate out some of the winter clothes and bring in more of the short sleeve shirts and some spring clothes. Also taking inventory of what the girl needs! I got a lot of little projects down around the house and it was nice to not have to go anywhere until mid afternoon, when I realized I needed to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy. But I did manage to drop off almost 3 bags of clothes in the Salvation Army drop off box that has been conveniently placed in the church parking lot just up the street! (Thank You Salvation Army!!!) This will make my donating all the more easier!

Today, the girls and I set out for Disneyland. I knew it was Spring Break season at The Disneyland Resort, the calendar and park hours, and entertainment schedule resemble it. However, I never thought it'd be as busy as it was today! We lasted only a few hours and then we came home. We were home by 1:30!! Hour long waits for rides only two hours after park opening, Fastpass return times of mid afternoon, yea...not good signs. So we came home.

The girls will be heading to their Gramie's house late Saturday afternoon, and staying until Thursday. They are excited to be going and spending time with Gramie. With school, and Rachel's surgery during our break in November, this will be the first that the girls have spent the night with Gramie since last summer. Gramie has to work part of the time at my in-laws shop, but the girls are looking forward to playing shop, and possibly going on Grandpa's route with him to his customers in the area.

It's that time of year to put on the "Princess Mommy DVD" as the girls so lovingly refer to our wedding video. LOL. Next week, Steven and I will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary (which is why the girls will be at Gramie's house for so long). It's hard to believe it's been 15 years.

It wouldn't be March, or nearing our anniversary, if I weren't sick. I've had a cold/bronchitis thing for the last 3 1/2 weeks. As some family and friends might recall, I was really sick on our wedding day - strep throat and an upper respiratory infection. Made for fun times on a honeymoon! For our first few anniversaries I was always sick too. Good thing the vows said "In Sickness and in Health". There were lots of sick times to be had before healthy ones. LOL. I finally surrendered and went to the doctor last week and ended up with over $80.00 in prescriptions! Thankfully, I think I am officially on the end, and have had a few nights here and there whereas I wasn't up coughing.

Anyways, We are in full swing of vacation mode around here and it feels great!!!

Life

Hello. Is there anybody out there?? I've neglected my blogs for so long, I'm sure I'm just talking to myself. Which is fine. T...