James Taylor Concert, November 8

For those of you who do not know, James Taylor is my absolute favorite singer and songwriter. He was actually coming to Sacramento this tour, so I jumped on the tickets. He usually comes to the bay area. This was to be my fourth time seeing him, so I was so excited. Before I get into this, I have to come clean. I perform an illegal activity that I just can't shake. I sneak my camera into his concerts. Ok, my confession is out! We had 7th row seats, on the ground floor. After James suggested a 20 minute intermission where they would go backstage and think about what they've done, he started to sign autographs. The stage seemed kinda far away, so I just watched. After a minute, Chris said "What are you doing? Go up there and go for it!!" With a nudge like that, I did, and I was able to worm my way slowly up to James.

This is him, signing my ticket! He was so happy to do it! I got to shake his hand and talk to him, and get an autographed ticket! Can you believe it!!?? He asked how I was, and I said great! I said that it was great to meet him, and thanked him so much for signing my ticket. I told him to go take a break. He was doing all of this on his intermission time. I was in SHOCK and I felt like those teenage girls who were going crazy for the beatles back in the day. But I kept my cool and kept those crazy emotions inside.
Me and my ticket! I have to find out how to keep it in primo shape. What a neat experience! Thanks to Chris for that extra push in the right direction!

Good times with The Fam

Ava and Lily are shown here in the middle of dancing to the tune "My Guy". It is one of their favorites. Don't read into it-- it does have a catchy tune! Ava is almost 2, and Lily is 3 1/2.
I guess you could say that Lily is a ham. She knows I almost always have my camera, and she asks me to take her picture all of the time!
Courtney, Wynter, the girls, and I all had a day to share. So we decided to go Christmas shopping. It was a fun experience and we all vowed to make it a tradition. Here are the girls, as Aunt Chels was trying to distract them with my camera in Target.
We went into Borders and Ava immediatley grabbed a random guitar magazine, and started to "read" it. She was really into it, and kept asking us questions like "Who is that guy?"
Wish this turned out better, but it was a nice lunch at the taqueria in Folsom. Dave met us for lunch, and we had a nice lunch outside.

San Luis Weekend

My good friend since 4th grade, Michelle Hurff is getting married November 10, 2007. I was able to attend her bachelorette party down in Grover Beach. We went wine tasting. This winery was my favorite because they were playing James Taylor's Album October Road. (Ironically it was the weekend of 10/19-10/21) The vines were all turning colors, what a gorgeous sight.
We borrowed a friend's suburban to fit all of us while wine tasting.

Ashley and I at Mother's Tavern.
Gotta have a beach day! It was such a nice day, we walked from Grover Beach to Pismo along the ocean. We had lunch at Splash Cafe, who is known for their clam chowder. Then, we walked back and said so- long to San Luis. What a nice escape of a weekend! Thank you, Michelle!

September

Unfortunately Gramps suffered a stroke late in September. He is doing better, and is now in Transitional Care. We were able to visit with Aunt Claudia, Jerry, Rick and Shari, and the rest of the bunch over some delish Chinese food.



Paul and Janet were up for a visit, and we went to 2 RV shows with them. We also hung out with their friends Paul and Sharon. Here is Paul and Paul pretending to drive a massive RV bus.
Here I am teaching a class to Seniors at a Senior center. That was part of my rotation at Senior Nutrition Services (Meals on Wheels.) That rotation has come to a close, and now I am doing my Food Service Rotation at San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp/Stockton.

Aubin, Bowen, Britton, Schledewitz Camping 2007

This year, we went camping instead of to Bodega Bay. We went up to Hope Valley for the weekend. It was nice to get out of the 104 degree weather and enjoy some 80 degree days and 40 degree nights.
Always have to have a goofy picture. We missed Grammy and Gramps this year, but they were happy to visit with Aunt Sylvia.
Chris and Robert out on Blue Lake on the Bowen's Kayaks.
All of the girls enjoyed a complementary hairdo by yours truly. Even Lily has little braids. I attempted Ava's, but I kept pulling her hair.
On the last day, we hiked over to this big rock. At the top we could see the dwindling creek, vast valley, and a gorgeous mountainscape 360. What a peaceful trip. It was so nice to get out of dodge with the crew. We look forward to it all year. We are still craving a Bodega trip....

Another Birthday Celebration!

I got a little spoiled this year and had the type where you just keep celebrating. I sure wasn't complaining.

The Grover's came over for a dinner that Chris cooked. We had lemon herb chicken with mashed potatoes, and summer squash and corn. Jay made me the best chocolate cake ever! Elly was such a sweet heart and wore her birthday dress for me. Mat was the photographer, so he is unfortunatley not pictured. Court and Robert came over since they didn't make it to the first celebration. Another great birthday!

My Birthday Celebrations

We Celebrated my birthday a few days early since I was starting my internship on that day!
We went to an old family favorite, Mints. As usual, the place was practically to ourselves.





This was a good thing, since Ava was eating all of the rice in the joint, and I was breaking glasses.
We had a great dinner, and I was so glad to have my family with me.















Thank you for coming to my birthday dinner! I love you!