I can't believe its been 3 weeks since my last post... and I was doing so well!! We have been very busy and have had a lot of stuff going on lately.

Sean's grandpa (maternal) died, so we took a really quick trip back to Cincinnati for his funeral. He was in his 90's and had lived a very full life, yet in the end, I can't really say where he stood in light of eternity. The funeral was a stunning tribute to his life, however. He served in World War II, so there were a couple of army guys who played TAPS on the trumpet and retired the flag on his casket. He was also a firefighter in Cincinnati and later an arson investigator for 40 years, so two of the current fire chiefs stood by his casket the entire ceremony. At the end, a bagpipe player (bagpipe-ist??) played Amazing Grace to end the service. It was really nice.

All Sean's family was there from his mom's side... one of his cousins is having a baby soon-- so exciting! It was just so nice to be back in familiarity again. I love his family, and cannot wait to go back for Christmas. It was also about 25 degrees cooler in Cincinnati than it was at the time in Fresno, so that was a great break. :-)

Several more changes have been taking place in our life, but I have to go pick up the Indian food we just ordered for dinner, so that will have to wait.... hopefully the next update will come sooner... :-)

I have a wonderful, amazing husband. Not that I didn't know this already, but he really takes the cake this year for my birthday. I was all set to celebrate yet another annual milestone (birthday, anniversary, etc) with our youth group, once again because my birthday was yesterday (Wednesday). Sean picked me up from work, and with out saying where we were going, he hopped on the freeway and whisked me downtown. He had booked a suite at a hotel downtown for just the two of us for the night! He'd thought of everything... he packed a bag for me (well, 2 bags actually... he wanted to be sure he brought everything I'd want), brought the gifts that came in the mail from my 'rents, stuck in a bottle of champagne, and to top it all... he baked me a cookie cake from scratch! Now THAT is love, people.... You see, they don't have cookie cakes in California.... and I am always craving them. So he found a reciped online and baked one for me... it came out perfect. I think we may go into some kind of cookie cake business....

So it was great fun. We ate dinner at the hotel then just relaxed and watched a movie. As we were flipping through channels, I came across a song on a show that I absolutely fell in love with from the first line. It is called "Grey in LA" and absolutely described perfectly how I feel about this freaking "Sunshine State." I try to explain to Sean that all this sunshine makes me depressed, and he just doesn't get it... but for a homebody like me who loves to curl up with a book or just watch the rain fall from my front porch, I really miss it. (Side note... they really don't have front porches in California, though... I really miss that, too... Maybe they don't have a need for front porches because there's never any rainfall to watch from the front porch....) Anyways... so you can go listen to this song here.... and here's the lyrics:

"Grey In LA", Loudon Wainwright III

When it's grey in L.A. I sure like it that way
Cause there's way too much sunshine round here
I don't know about you I get so sick of blue skies
Whenever they always appear
And I sure love the sound of the rain pouring down
On my carport roof made out of tin
If there's a flood then there's gonna be mudslides
We all have to pay for our sin
And I suppose that they'll close canyon roads
And the freeways will all start to clog
And the waters will rise and you won't be surprised
When your whole house smells like your wet dog
When it's grey in L.A. it's much better that way
It reminds you that this town's so cruel
Yeah it might feel like fun when you're sportin' sunglasses
But really you're one more fool
And I'm just a chump
And this whole town's a dump
We came out here to dump all our dreams
Of making it big but we're stuck in a sig alert nightmare
That's just how it seems
And I suppose Laurie David sure knows
All those cars we drive heat up our earth
And sea temperatures rise and those constant blue skies
And brush fires can sure curb your mirth
Brad Grey's in L.A. yeah OK I should stay here
There's no place that's better i know
For a wannabe star stuck in a car
On a freeway with nowhere to go

When I was Googling around, trying to find the song, I learned I'm not the only one who feels this was about CA. Here's an 'exegetical blog', if you will, on this song. Kinda funny, kinda sad, mostly true though. Its on these 110+ degree days that I could sure use a rainstorm... or even a small cloud in the sky....

Two posts in one day! Wow!



I am so in love with my husband. And I love our life together... I call it living the single life together, but by that I mean its just me and him. No kids. I cherish all the moments we are able to do things just the two of us that we wouldn't be able to do with kids...



This morning after church, Sean took me on a mystery adventure. He didn't tell me where we were going, just to get in the car... and we were off! We went up 41, towards Yosemite about 45 minutes towards the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. Next thing I knew, we were pulling into the Chukchansi Resort and Casino... so much fun! Since we have to be at church on my birthday (Wednesday) he thought we'd get away up there just for a fun afternoon. We had a great time playing the slot machines. We played with $20 a piece for almost two hours, and at one point I was up $50! It was great! Then we had a deliciously amazing champagne brunch in one of the restaurants there... we sat by a window that overlooked the mountains. It was so much fun to just pick up and go on a whim like that.



Then, just a bit ago, after we spent an hour trying to coax our silly yellow cat, Seal, out of our neighbor's bushes, I got hungry and went for an orange, only to find the underside was covered with mold. Yeah, that's about as often as I go grocery shopping. So, Sean and I decided to go for a little late night Sonic run, just like the old days, in College. It was great! We shared a jumbo popcorn chicken and had strawberry limeades. We sat with the windows down, talking, listening to the music and watching the other late-night noshers.



People always (and I mean ALWAYS) ask us, "When are you going to have kids?" Its like there's some unwritten time line everyone is supposed to follow: date for at least a year, get married, have kids after two years, have second kid after 24 months, and follow up with third kid 24 months after second kid. Maybe someday I'll want that, but not right now... we've been married four years and have just embarked on our 5th year of marriage, and I can't imagine our life any differently. There's something so fun about being able to just go where we want to go, when we want to go. We have a freedom that many of our friends don't have and to be honest, I"m fine with that. I enjoy it.... so today was a good day. Just me and my honey (and our wandering cats), living the single life together.

And finally, a cat picture, just for good measure. :-) Duke likes clean laundry just as much as I do, so the other day he decided to curl up with my Calvin's.....

Am I the only one?

I find people so very interesting. I just spent the last 45 minutes or so blog hopping from one blog to another... its really quite fun! You find all kinds of people and ideas and stuff just by following one blog to another.

I found a really great site for getting in shape... kind of like an online accountability thing... Looks pretty cool. Then there was that great "The World Is Not Flat" blog that I found a few days ago... I found an awesome site that has free music to download (though I haven't figured out how to DL it) for non-commerical short films... some beautiful photography....all kinds of things. Its kinda like a flea market of pretty things and knowledge. :-) Plus, I like reading the thoughts of everyone's inner-authors. We all have one, an inner-author, I mean. So even though I feel like I got nothing physically accomplished, its been an interesting evening blog-hopping.

And yes, Sean is still camping. That would explain my evening in front of this thing. :-)

Yesterday was me & Sean's (not sure about the grammar there...) 4th anniversary! Wow! It was a great, low-key day. We had lunch together (Sushi at Riverpark), then after work, we went for (what else?) some Italian food, followed by a stop at Rocky Mtn. Chocolate Factory for some chocolate covered strawberries (even though they only had one white chocolate strawberry left. I let Sean have it.), and headed home to slumber party in our living room with Disc 3 of the first part of the Final Season of our current TV series we're watching. It was nice for it to be just us... considering that the first year we were married, Sean was at CIY. On our second anniversary, we were at CIY together (our awesome kids did sing to us in the cafe), and on our third anniversary we had Junior High VBS week. This year, he was supposed to be in Mexico, but that trip got cancelled. So, like I said... it was nice to have him all to myself. :-)