Ponderous

I am rich. I am rich in friends. My friends love me. I love my friends, deeply. I hope they know that. I'm confident they do.

I am encouraged by my friends. Not because I'm been low & they've edified me. We all know that that happens, goodness me. Quite the opposite actually. I love that I have friends that aren't perfect & can come to me, or allow me come to them, while they're broken. They allow me to see them broken. They can (and have) seen me broken. It's not comfy. It's not fun. It can be scary & ugly. There can be tears, uncomfortable silence, uninterpretable glances, awkward smiles, and sometimes insincere smiles. And we continue on as family. Not ignoring the ugly, not condoning the ugly, not even necessarily agreeing on what the ugly is or how it should be treated. But we continue. Loving each other. As true family.

I found it odd that I'm encouraged by my friends' hardships. Sounds a little sick at first. To tell you the truth, I was a little horrified. I didn't get it & have been pondering it for a while. It's not their hardship that encourages me but the fact that I have people that love & trust me enough that they can be real. We can see each other raw, broken & bleeding. That's friendship. That's real family. It's not catching a movie together, or chatting over lunch. Real friendship is powerfully, wonderfully and, at times, incredibly uncomfortably worth every emotion we got.

I expect my friends to grow, change & deepen. They better expect the same from me. I do not take well to ineffective complacentness. They better not tolerate it from me. Does this mean years from now I can't make silly faces, giggle or just plain do a whole lot of nothing with a true friend? Oh please, bring on the silly face making! But I will not be the exact same person 20 years from now that I am today. Buckle up, 'cause some of it's not going to be pretty. God is going to mold me into the woman He desires me to me. I'm going to let Him. It's not all going to be comfy. I trust Him with me. I trust Him with my friends.

I say thank you to my friends: broken, struggling, content, or peaceful. I've got ones that fit in each box. I say thank you to those that are willing to reveal your real self to me. It is encouraging to me that you love and trust me enough with it. I will treat it like the treasure that it is. You are a blessing, no matter the box you're in at the moment.

Well, I'Declair

For months I've planned on forgoing birthday cake and getting the I'Declair at Claim Jumper. Yesterday was the day & six of us went last night to split it. That sucker's HUGE! Of course they still brought out the free slice of birthday mud pie. SOOOOO delicious. None of us had had it before. Seriously, how could you? After a meal at Claim Jumper who has room for dessert? Besides, you gotta get the whole mountain of eclair-y goodness. This was the perfect plan. It was the perfect amount of tasty treat for all of us. I think it was the first time I left there not completely stuffed.

Of course birthday cake was not completely skipped. I had pink cake with the family on Sunday. Yesterday we had chocolate cake & macaroon cake at work. Yum!

Family Time

My family's coming over for dinner tonight. It seems like forever since we've all gotten together. It was in mid-July to celebrate my mom's & greg's birthdays. We had delicious eats at Lucille's. It made me sad last week when Kaisara's dad asked me how my folks were & I had to say, "Fine, I guess. I haven't seen them in a while." That's just studpid! I only live 15 miles away & the best I could do was, "Fine, I guess!" Whatever!

So Daddy wanted to break bread on the most excellent patio table in existance so everyone's coming over for grilled burgers (homemade, not pre-fab hockey pucks), chips, salsa, guacamole, watermelon, salad & some early birthday cake for a little certain someone.

Yeah!

Oh yeah...it's really hot.

All Grow'd Up!

I'm not a baby anymore. I just found out today. To quote The Princess Bride, "Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

I went back to SCR today. We're building a WHOLE LOTTA costumes for A Little Night Music. My favorite period, Edwardian. I find out I'm building (and by building, I mean patterning), from scratch, 3 dresses, a corset, drawers, and a robe. Wow, okay. I knew there'd be alot of work and that's the easy stuff? You see, I'm the baby cutter. I get the easy stuff. Not anymore! There's a new baby cutter in town & I've been moved up. (Technically the title is "Junior Cutter" but I think baby cutter's more endearing). Along with the new scary work load I got a little some-in' some-in' in the paycheck department.

Sweet! I'll post pics weeks from now when the show's up.

Glorious

Kaisara & I went to the beach this morning with Kyle & Lydia. It was wonderful. I love the beach. Why don't I go more often? I sit on my towel for maybe five minutes & I can't wait any longer, I gotta get in that water. Somehow it just feeds my soul. Didn't even know it was hungry. I swear going to the beach has healing powers.

All 4 of us got in the water, got out, had lunch, got back in the water. A big ol' wave took me out & nearly took my bathing suit bottoms clean off (that would NOT have been pretty!). Kyle made a comment that every time a wave comes he could hear me laugh. I confirmed it. The water makes me happy. The weather was awesome, the water was great.

What a glorious first half of the day. Now we're showered, groomed & heading over to Dana & Melanie's luau party. They're gonna crack up at Kaisara. He's going with his roots & wearing a lava-lava. Don't worry, he's wearing a shirt!

I'm Getting Things Done, Man!

Let me tell you, I am really enjoying "The Summer of Cate". (btw: in case you didn't know, that's what summer 2007 has been renamed due to the fact I'm no longer at Pageant). I've seen movies. I've had friends over for dinner. I've gone to girls' night. I've baked brownies. I've gone to bridal showers & wedding celebrations and didn't have to leave early. Most importantly, I see my hotty-hubby like every day. Who'da thunk?!

Today is my 2nd day off after finishing R & J at SOC. I'm really glad I took that miracle-in-plain-sight job. It was low key, the people were great & I got to make some neat-o things (I'm awaiting a photo CD from the designer). The shop manager wants to hire me for some other projects (did I already post about that? if so, sorry).

While now being out of work for 2 days I've done tons. Ran a bunch of errands yesterday, almost finished the quilt top for my etsy store, painted the door sashing for the bathroom, laid the contact paper in the vanity & drawers, did & put away I don't know how many loads of laundry, paid the bills, uploaded a few more patterns onto my store (hey, I made another sale too!), did the dishes, shall I go on? I tell you, I'm en fuego!

Tomorrow is fun with Cat, Saturday is Luau party with Dana & Melanie, Sunday is Luau birthday party for my niece & Monday is L.A. with Iris.

Better go, don't wanna loose my momentum!

It's Been a While

Not much going on here. I'm almost done with my job at Shakespeare Orange County (SOC). I've enjoyed my time there. It's much more relaxed and less stressful than SCR. The shop manager wants to hire me for other projects at Chapman so it's nice to have another contact. My last day at SOC will probably be Monday. I don't start at SCR until Tuesday of the following week. A little time off won't be complained about.

I'm heading up to Cat's shop at Cal State San Bernardino on Thursday. She thinks I'm going up to help her with Cyrano. I told her I'm mostly going to hang out :-) I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze both in there. Kaisara's going to take the train up after work & we'll have dinner with all of the Ericksons & we'll only have one car to drive home. I LOVE the train!

I still plan on riding my bike to work once I start at SCR again. I'll carpool with Kaisara to his work & bike from there. It's only 3 miles and it will probably only be one-way so my mileage is going to take a major hit. I'll have to squeeze in other rides elsewhere. Kathy better get her bike rack soon!

Kaiara & I are almost done with the master bath remodel. We started in January but why rush? It's turning out awesome. I've got the first coat of paint on the base boards & crown molding right now. Then all we need is to paint the door molding & a new medicine cabinet. I'll post pics when it's done.

Don't forget to join my race for the cure team or to donate toward my participation!

A Link Would Be Nice

It never really occurred to me until Kaisara asked, "Do you have a link to your store on your blog?" DUH! Not that I expect you all to purchase my items but because you may, from time to time, want to check it out, just 'cause. So I've added a link in the left column under "You Might Be Interested" called Go Shopping.

I recently added two more knitted purses. I'm 1/2 done with another. I'm also working on a quilt to sell. It's velveteen diamonds. Sort of like a harlequin.

Oh yeah! I made a sale! While on our cruise someone in Akron, OH purchased two of my vintage patterns. It was exciting. Someone I don't know, found my site & bought something! Since the customer was in Ohio, I can say my business is national. That's me, a woman with a national company.

Watch out!

Racin' for the Cure (again)

Most, if not all, of you who read this blog already this but I'm posting it anyway.

I'm heading up a team again this year for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I'd love for everyone to join my team. If you're too far away to participate, I'd love for you to sponsor me. Hey, I ain't to proud to beg!

The event is 3.1 miles long & is on Sunday, Sept. 23rd at Fashion Island. Last year our team, Galatians 6:10, raised $2,500!

To sign up & hopefully join my team you can click here.

To support my participation in the event you can click here.

Thanks guys!

Fillin' You In

O.k. I've had a chance to breathe so here's the cruise update:

We had a great time. Neither one of us had cruised before but I'd never heard anything but great things about it. I'm really glad we tried it. From the moment you show up at the dock you're treated as a guest, not just 1 of 2,500 passengers. Our cabin had an ocean view which was nice but I'm not sure if I'd spring for it again just 'cause we didn't spend alot of time gazing our window. I'm glad we did it this time though.

The food was delicious & abundant. No charge, of course. The say that the average weight gain on a cruise is 8-10 pounds. I really tried to keep myself in check but still enjoy what was offered. That, in addition to the 40+ miles in the gym, I came back 5 pounds lighter. Ha HA!

We pulled out of the port on Monday at 5pm-ish and spent that night & the whole next day at sea. Tuesday's weather was great. All of the sun decks were pack with people. We lounged, Kaisara napped, I knitted, we ate & repeat.

We woke up Wednesday morning to a gorgeous view of Cabo San Lucas (see photos). It was really hot and there wasn't a breeze to be found. We got sucked in to a resort time-share tour. It was an awesome place & I thought priced excellently but still out of our league. Once back downtown we shopped around (didn't buy anything) and had lunch. We asked a guy how to get to a beach. It was a crazy long walk & by then we didn't have time.

Thursday was at sea but the weather cold and windy. Kaisara kicked my butt at Scrabble.

Friday was Ensenada. We took a tour to the blow hole & flea market. That was cool. Again, no beach to be found. Dang!

Saturday we woke up in San Diego.

Best things about the trip: Time with my man (of course), being treated so great by all the staff, playing Bingo (even though I didn't win), watching the horse races (I didn't have any cash on me to bet), losing 5 pounds.

Disappointments about the trip: The pool was really small & 2/3 of it was blocked off for the water slide landing, the water slide was only for kids, no beaches at the ports of call (later we found out we could have taken a water taxi to one in Cabo), the shows were pretty cheesy.

Dana wants to take a friends cruise someday & I'm all for it! I'm gonna try to get my sis & mom to take a just girls cruise sometime too!

We're Back

I'll give more details later but...we're back from our cruise. It was awesome. The photos are up so take a look it you're interested. And while you're over in the left-hand column check out my weekly mileage. That's right! I hit the gym several times (had to burn off at least a little of all the food I ate).

Super Excited!

Kaisara & I are leaving Monday morning for San Diego. We're taking the train. I love the train. I'd go everywhere by train if I could. "Why are you going to San Diego?", you ask? Well thanks for askin'! Goin' to San Diego to catch a little thing called a cruise ship.

That's right people. We're cruisin'. Yeah! We're celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary (that's 18 years together for you math geniuses). We wanted to do something that was a big deal since it is the big 1-0 and because we haven't been able to celebrate our anniversary for the past 5 years (thank you very much Pageant of the Masters). We've got some catching up to do. We were going to go to Barcelona. But I ended up out of work for 6 weeks in early spring so it woulda' been even more of a credit card vacation than this. It's not as big of a trip as Barcelona would have been, but I'm thrilled with our choice. We leave Monday, return on Saturday so we won't be gone as long or jet-lagged in the slightest. Since it was cheaper than our original plans, we went all out & got an ocean view room.

I've dropped Zelda off at Grandma Marty's for summer camp. Dana's coming over a couple times to get the mail & water my plants. I've made all of our pre-boarding arrangements. Now all I have to do is pack & keep praying really hard that my co-celebrator recovers quickly. Yep, Kaisara's sick. Please pray that he gets better fast.

I'll close with a quote from What About Bob?:
Bob: Notice anything different about me? I sail.

I'm Not Made for Competitive Sports

It's true. I've no problem admitting it. I'm just not made for competition. I don't think I've got a competitive bone in my body. If you wanna play, sure, I'll play. I just don't care who wins. Let's just play for the sake of playing. I competed in horse shows in my younger days but that was more of a showing off frame of mind & doing the best I could rather than an "I'm better than you at this" mind set.

This has been drilled into me hard this weekend. Kaisara & I have two of our awesome nieces this weekend. Tiana & I took Kayla to her all-star practice yesterday & I watched the girls get yelled at for 3 1/2 hours. Today, while Tiana & Kaisara were at church I took Kayla to her tournament. I like watching them play but listening to the girls get yelled at for 7 hours really got to me. It's not even just the coaches yelling. Everyone's yelling! It's not even an "oh, I'm so excited this is a great game!" yelling. They're honest to goodness yelling. Get a grip people!

While at the final game I was reading a magazine. One of the ads said, in huge letters, something to the affect of, "An inspired child can do amazing things". Huh, never knew that yelling was a form of inspiration. I held it together long enough get to my bedroom & brake down for a moment. I'm better now & am inspired even more than I ever have been not to be a yeller (and that was already a major goal of mine).

I Killed Obi Won

Not really. In reality, Alec Guinness died in 2000. I did however kill him in a dream last night. It was horrible. I have no idea where it came from. I love him. I've only seen him in the Star Wars movies & Doctor Zhivago but I think he's great. The horrible part of my dream is that I killed him on purpose. Premeditated murder. WHERE DID THAT COME FROM??!!??!!? Let just say he wasn't at all expecting me & it was messy. Afterwards I was completely remorseful. I knew I did something horrible & that I deserved to go to jail. I wanted to turn myself in but I knew that everyone would know what I did. I was more remorseful of dissapointing those I loved more than the killing poor Mr. Guinness. That's so bad. I was however relieved that my dream was a dream within my dream. I "woke" up to find that Dana & Melanie had been planning a suprise 10-year anniversary re-wedding for Kaisara & I. It was beautiful. Thanks ladies. It was gorgeous. I wore my wedding gown (that was a little too big, yeah right) and my dad did my hair (again I ask, where did that come from). The dream ended with me running past the door where Kaisara was getting dressed & I hollared at him to where a white dinner jacket with a black tie (it was an evening event). I raced into my room (we where running late) and took my hair out of the hot rollers. I smiled at myself in the mirror & said, "I look beautiful". Way better than slaying Alec Guinness with a piece of glass from a bronekn window pane. Yuck.

Must...Stay...Motivated...

I'm working from home today since the designer & assistant wouldn't be in the shop today. I took homework home with me & got as far as I could. I need a pattern I left at the shop & didn't bring enough muslin for my mock-up any way.

I'm a much faster worker at work. Too many distractions at home. Well, back to it. I'm now working on a quilt a friend has hired me to make from her wedding gown.

Life's Been Busy

Last weekend Kaisara & I drove up to Cal State San Bernadino to see Cat in Noises Off. It's one of our most favorite plays so it was great to see Cat's shop's work again AND see Cat in the show itself. They did a great job. We laughed out loud for two hours. If you've ever an opportunity to see a production of it GO (& let me know so I can go too). After the show we went to Fridays with Cat, Randy, Kathy (whom Cat & I went to school with) & her beau Jody. We closed the place down. Not sure when the last time was that I had a restaurants lights turned on & the music off on me. Needless to say we had a great evening.

Sunday Four stories lead worship at church. AMAZING (as always). We then went to lunch with everyone & it was great to be joined with Alex & Becca. We sat & chatted 'til 3:30 when we had to go to our niece's birthday BBQ.

Monday & Tuesday I finished up my hours at SCR. I was originally going to be fired last Friday but Amy found 15 hours of "costume unassigned" so I put in all those hours in a day & a half so I could start my new job Tuesday afternoon.

Oh yeah, I got a new job. Perfect timing as I started right when SCR ended & this will end right when SCR picks back up. I'm the cutter for Shakespeare Orange County. It's been 4 years since I've done community theatre. Sure is different. I'm glad I'm there. Katie is the designer for both shows (oh yeah, we're doing Shrew & R & J). I know Katie from SCR. She's worked as Designer's Assistant & crafts on several shows. She's great.

Last night I picked up Dana as my date for Hamlet at SCR. Kaisara didn't want to go since everyone dies at the end & he's seen it before. I know it's one of Crista's favorites but I never heard from her so Dana was my arm-candy. I was really eager to see this production. I was really curious about how the actors I got to know a bit would pull it off & I, of course, wanted to see how the costumes looked after working on them for weeks. I did 13 pairs of pants as well as did all the costumes for a few of the actors. Go to SCR's website to see a brief slide show & video if you're interested. Dana & I both LOVED the show. Horatio, played by Michael Urie was our favorite. We both loved his performance, Dana thought he was hot & I know that he's a nice guy. So there ya' go.

I'm now adding a couple people to my "Rubbed Elbows With" list. You don't know their names but their faces might be familiar.

This weekend holds an Oceans marathon before viewing the new one and playing with 2 7-week old kitties that we're fostering for 2 weeks.

Born To Ride

I'm sorry, did you even notice my weekly mileage?

The booty's a bit sore but I'm goin' out again tomorrow!

Open For Business

So I've got my store up & crawling. I can't say up & running as I've only got a few items posted right now. I'm hoping to crank out a few more things & post them rather soon. I'm 1/2 done with another purse & I've got several more baubles ready to post I just haven't done it yet.

My store is Lucky Zelda. A fitting little name for anyone who knows me & my love for my pets (past & present). My super generous & talented Julia designed my banner for me. She designed three so I've actually got two others that I also love. I plan on rotating them every so often.

I'm not really eagerly anticipating regular sales. If I get one here and there, that'd be awesome. I'll get you posted!

Delicious Never Sounded So Good

Kaisara, Daryl, Kyle, & Dana (otherwise known as Four Stories) will be playing at The Corner Broiler on Monday, June 4th. The Corner Broiler is, in a word, DELICIOUS! The band plays from 7:00pm - 9:00pm. This is they're 2nd time there & they'd love to fill it again with friends.

Kaisara & I discovered the place right around Christmas last year. It's a TINY (and I mean tiny) joint in the Albertson's center at Muirlands and Rockfield. The owner, Chris, welcomed us in, the wait & bus staff were awesome & the food was so very tasty. Anyway, come to here the band & eat great food. If you don't want to fork it out for a whole meal, they've got a bar & you could just order a beverage (or the brownie al la mode).

We'd love to see you there! I'll be outside knitting as I want to leave the tables for actual paying customers. I'm hoping Lydia with be there too. We also have wonderful chats.

Not Cheating...exactly

I've made a decision. Since purchasing Silvia (by the way, I've named my bike Silvia. Odd, since most of my things get boy names, but Silvia's a girl so her name is Silvia. Not sure how I decided she's a girl. She just is okay?!) now back to my sentence... Since purchasing Silvia, I've been biking rather than walking. I've made the decision to modify my goal of walking 500 miles in 2007 to include biking rather than just walking. I feel like this is cheating a little but that's okay. The goal of the goal was to exercise more & Silvia enables me to do that more than a mere walk. My heart rate is increased much higher, I don't get bored & I can accomplish more while riding Silvia instead of walking places because well, you cover alot of ground on a bike in no time! I'd forgotten that. Man! My mom & I went for 14.5 miles on Memorial Day. We're practically athletes, ya' know?