Homecoming!

Wow! What a day.  Took Alyssa to get her manicure and pedicure, got the car washed then off to do eyebrows, pick up last minute accessories and then to Diamond Bar for hair and make-up.  Alyssa looked beautiful with her hair done and make-up.  Lisa Cramer at Tashi's Hair Studio in Diamond Bar is the best!  She is the daughter of my former boss and she knows her stuff. 

About 4:15 kids started arriving for pictures.  We had Cindy come and take pictures.  She's so funny and such a social person that she made everyone feel so comfortable.  We set up snacks in the backyard and pictures took about an hour.  There were 7 couples here.  We drove them to Spaghetti Factory where they met up with another group and total they had 30 in their group!  How fun:)

We picked them up at 7:00 and drove them to the dance.  The front of the school looked fantastic and Alyssa said the quad was decorated really nice.  Dance ended at 11:30 and all in all, it was a great nite.  She come home beaming from ear to ear. 

Today is the Day!

Well today is the big day.  Homecoming has finally arrived and I woke up this morning to rain.  Now, I love the rain normally, but today we have 18 kids coming to take pictures before they head out to dinner and I don't know where to put them if it rains.  I'm getting ready to take Aly for a manicure, pedicure, make-up and hair appointment.  My sister-in-law will be taking the photos because she is awsome!  She takes the best pictures.  Alyssa already warned her friends that this picture taking thing could take at least an hour because of her aunts obsession with picture taking.  She'll take one with just the girls, just the boys, girls and boys together, each date, whole group, parents and kids, and so on and so on.  But in the end we'll be glad with the results.  I can't wait for the final hour to see how beautiful Alyssa looks.

Autumn Stew and Homemade Biscuits

Oh I love fall!  I think it's my favorite time of year.  Maybe because I was born in the fall, I don't know.  There is something about the weather, or maybe the warm colors of fall and the excitement of Halloween and Thanksgiving!  Whatever it is, I feel like I want to take advantage of every day and savor it to the fullest. 

Last week-end, we went apple picking and had a blast.  Now what to do with all those apples?  Actually, there weren't that many apples left over.  We split the apples with Jessica and gave some away to neighbors.  But, tonight, I used some for my Autumn Stew!  I started making this stew about 3 years ago.  I happened to see the recipe on the Rachael Ray show and thought it sounded good and it had all the things I love - pork, apples, cider, onion, celery, carrots and cranberries.  Robert was really sick that year with the flu and this stew really hit the spot for him.  Every year, I look forward to making it and today was the day!  I even made homemade biscuits, which I had never made before.  What a fantastic dinner!  The best part is that I made enough for leftovers and I just know tomorrow it'll taste even better than today!  Check out the recipe page for the entire recipe.

Apple Picking Fun!

Today we went apple pickin'.  Drove up to Oak Glen and when we got there, it was 58 degrees and foggy.  We bought our bag and started pickin.  Wow! The trees were full this year.  We picked Double Red Delicious, Winesap and Rome Beauty's.  We ate lunch at Los Rios and shopped for our goodies to bring home.  We watched as they made apple cider and decided we'll make our own next year.  Amber and Alyssa have made cider but the little one's haven't. 

We finished at Los Rios and drove to Snow Line to get our donuts.  Cider donuts are the best!  We tasted the different ciders and in my opinion, rasberry cider is the best and we even picked up some cider donut mix to make donuts at home.  I think I'll stash it away for awhile since it'll be a year before we get more donuts.  Of course we couldn't leave without Robert picking up his pie at Oak Tree Village.  The kids love to walk around this place...there's so much to see.  On the way out, we stopped at a place called Wood Acres.  It's a farm and they have a varity of apples to sample.  The folks there are so nice.  They'll slice each kind of apple for you to try and answer all your questions. 

We couldn't resist buying a few more apples there. 

The weather was so beautiful today.  Usually when we go, it's hot but today was cool and crisp and it felt like real fall weather.  We came home, had apple pie, apple cider and sat by the fire and talked about what a great time we had!  We always look so forward to going and once we get home, we are sad that it'll be so long before we go back.  We're already planning for next  year's visit!

Nightmare Before Homecoming

That's the theme of Alyssa's Homecoming this year.  Just shopping for a dress was a nightmare.  I can't believe how expensive dresses are for such a small amount of material.  Funny, that almost sounds like something my parents would have said but it's true in this case.  The dresses are so short I don't know how anyone could be comfortable in them.  Not to mention most of them are strapless.  It's comical to see the girls trying on dresses and pulling them up on top and then pulling them down on the bottom.  We finally found a dress that we both agreed on and it's very, very cute. 

Now we need to shop for shoes which is another nightmare because Aly doesn't wear heels.  A couple of years ago she went to a dance, we bought shoes and when I picked her up, I noticed her holding her shoes in her hand.  When I asked why, she said, "I took them off during the dance because my feet were tired."  So why did I buy shoes? 

Tomorrow a friend of Amber's is coming to do a practice make-up application to see if we like it.  I know she'll look beautiful!  Then it's off to the hairstylist next week for ideas.  I can't wait to see her the night of her homecoming!

Oh, so Good Chili

Well, every Sunday we get together to watch football and we also decide what the menu will be the following week.  Last week was my turn to decide for yesterday's game.  I have been thinking of a nice pot of chili for awhile now but the weather has been so darn hot that it didn't seem like chili weather to me but I decided to go for it anyway.  I got all my ingredients together on Saturday and didn't really have any direction but knew what I wanted the end result to be.  As I chopped and sauted, browned and seasoned, I didn't pay attention to quantity until I put everthing into the crockpot and realized it was up to the brim with ingredients.  Oh well I decide, I can freeze whatever is leftover for future dinners.  Sunday morning, I woke up and the pot was so full and it smelled delicious!  The day was grey and cloudy, and it was cool outside.  We lit a fire and had hot dogs, cornbread, tortilla chips and all the fixins to go with it.  I have never seen such a mellow bunch of guys on a football day.  They ate and just kinda sank into their seats and watched the game.  All the elements added up to a great day!  Oh, and the leftovers.....there are none!

Family Time is the Best Time!

Sundays are set aside for football and family.  As I sit here and watch everyone root for their favorite team and eat, talk and laugh it reminds me how very blessed I am.  Sometimes I loose sight of what's really important by focusing on the things we don't have or the problems of our world but in reality all of that seems really small compared to all that I do have.  No one knows the future and I don't know what tomorrow or any other day brings but I know one thing for sure......I have everything I want and need right here today!  Love like there is no tomorrow