It's a Beach Day.....we thought....

Ok it's supposed to be extra warm today. I would say hot, but then the Arizonans give me grief. :0) So, my little sister and I decided to take our kids to the beach. As I'm sitting here wrapping up work, a cool stiff breeze starts in from the West. Hmm...I hope we don't freeze down there. There was no cool breeze blowing in Monterey this morning when I was hoofin' it around while I waited for my car. Meg and I walked the 3/4 mile to the camera shop for Sam, then took the scenic long route past the library back to the mechanic. It was hot, then, I was feeling pretty cooked. So, I called Ryan at home and told him to open all the windows and pull the shades so it didn't get too hot inside. Now I'm gonna have to run around and close them all before we freeze. We have weird weather here!

So, my sister Kate and her hubby came up and fixed the gate that the car thief demolished. (They built the gate in the first place). She posted a picture here. Looks lovely, no?

I'm getting lots of requests for recipes that we used for our weight loss. I'll post a few of our favorites over the next couple of days.

Elsberry Biggest Loser Contest

So, Susan pretty much "kicked our trash"as my nephew would say. Final results for just our family:

Susan 21.4%

Michelle 16.1%

Sam 14.1%

Ryan 10%

So, Susan got the $1000 prize. We're going to take it next week to the Gilroy Outlets and find that girl some pants that FIT.

I'm bummed that I didn't win, but our little family lost a total of 151 lbs. I'm proud of us. We'll take a new family pic and post it this weekend or something. We plan to keep on so that we can take a great pic by Christmas.

Here are some before and after pics.

Actually those aren't her pants...she left her "fat" pants in Arizona. I loaned her MY fat pants, but not the "fattest" ones, I couldn't find them. In all fairness, my fat pants would have been big on her before she lost weight.

Ry says I can't show his "before" pic without mentioning that he looks much better, too. We all do. Sam only has about half his tummy now.

July, already???

Wow, it's July. Weird. I think my brain is still somewhere in March. This is a picture Sam took last year at Monterey's fireworks show.

We've been pretty busy. I've had friends moving, then not moving. Several other friends with medical issues that we've been helping with meals, tending kids, etc. Trying to get Molly's wedding pictures sorted through. Grandma Bailey is here this week, as are my parents and sister and her two kids. Ry and Sue should be here before the end of the day and another sister on Thursday. I've been scrambling keeping up with normal household stuff and my job. I need a maid, but I'd be embarassed to have her come until I cleaned my house. How bizarre is that??

In other news, Amy called today. It was nice to talk to her and maybe they'll come see us on their way back from San Diego. I've always loved her sense of humor and her forthrightness. It'll be a treat to spend some time with them. I might even clean my house for their visit. Seems unlikely, however. :0)

Sam got a USB turntable for father's day, so we've been recording a bunch of our old albums to MP3 and Cd's. It's been fun listening to all this old stuff that you can't get on CD. Meg is totally fascinated with the vinyl album/turntable thing and Sam has her working on it during the day. So, she's been working on a jigsaw puzzle with Grandma Bailey while she monitors Grandma's Mario Lanza and classical records so that we can make her some CD's. She's doing a good job of entering the information, etc, so that all Sam has to do is burn the CD's. She's also enjoying playing trains with my nephew Tanner aka "The Tan Man" over at Grandma Elsberry's next door.

Well, Ry and Sue oughta be here any minute. We cleaned out the office (sort of) since Grandma Bailey is staying in the loft, and now I need to find some sheets for the airmattress.

It's going to be a party. You should come!

I was tagged....

My niece, Danesa, tagged me....so here goes.

20 Year Tag

20 years ago

1. I was 29.
2. I was living in Orem, Utah
3. I was still dispatching for the trucking company.

10 years ago

1. I was living in San Jose on that crazy ranch.
2. Meghan was between 1 and 2.
3. Sam ditched the crooks at Hytek and started working for Rick/Cad Alliance for a significant raise in pay.

5 years ago

1. Spent the first part of the year building our new house.
2. Moved into the new house in June.
3. Went to England with Sam's sibs in October for 2 weeks.

3 years ago

1. I was called to the Stake RS Presidency
2. We did our National Park Marathon in Utah in June
3. Celebrated our ten year anniversary.

1 year ago

1. We took three long road trips, one to British Columbia, one to Arizona via Boise, and one to Arizona and Utah.
2. Sam started working for Nuova Systems
3. Meghan turned 11.

So far this year ...

1. We took a cruise with Sam's sibs.
2. We took a trip to Yosemite and Sequoia Nat'l Park for spring break.
3. We started building our super cool patio.

Yesterday I . . .

1. Watched my friend's two girls while they got ready to move.
2. Went to a birthday party for a different friend.
3. Planned a going away party for the friend who's leaving.

Today I . . . .

1. Found out that the friend's husband got a job here and they aren't moving after all. Yeah!!!
2. Cleaned the kitchen and did the grocery shopping.
3. Finished planning the going away party, which is now a "Woohoo! They're staying!" party.

Tomorrow I will . . .

1. Be "babysitting" a friend who just had surgery, and her two year old.
2. Making dinner for the same family.
3. Doing 852 loads of laundry. ugh!

In the next year . . .

1. We hope to have a grandkid.
2. We hope to have enough saved to pay cash for a new(er) car.
3. We will finish our super cool patio.

OK, I"m supposed to tag three people....How about Mark, Kathryne and Emily M.

Ok, so now it's winter???

This place has the weirdest weather. We were all roasting last week, this week it's freezing. Not literally, of course. But, we're wearing sweaters again and keeping the windows shut. Fortunately, my west facing windows keep our inside temperature nice and we don't have to run our expensive propane heater. Not that I would, I don't get that cold and I'm mean and make Sam and Meg wear sweaters until it's just WAY too cold to do otherwise. Maybe next December. We had a lightening storm on Saturday...something that rarely happens here. I think we've had maybe three since we moved here in 1999. Unfortunately, with the heat and the dry conditions here, it started several fires all over the state, three of them near here. So, the air's not the greatest right now.

Our good friends, the Filceks, are moving to Utah the end of the week. We're gonna miss them, especially Meg. Her two favorite buddies are Filcek kids. We had them over the to spend the night Sunday night and all day Monday so that their parents could help the movers get them packed up. We had a good time. Too bad they can't hold off until Ry and Susan get here, Sue is one of their kids' favorite people. Anya (who is seven) saw their picture while they were here and said "I know her! She's that pretty lady that's so nice... Susan!". I agree!

Speaking of Sue, she's gonna win the Elsberry Biggest Loser prize, for sure. Sam and I are down almost 45 lbs, but she's down 42 and started lower so that's a bigger percentage for her. I've still lost the most actual weight, but unless Mom changes her mind, there's no prize for that. Other than I may break my arm patting myself on the back. Sam actually wore the suit that he bought for our wedding to church Sunday. First time he's had it on in over 10 years, I'm sure. I'm proud of him, this hasn't been easy for him at all.

When Ryan and Susan get here for the 4th of July, we'll take a new picture and post it...

Saw a bumper sticker that made me smile: Jesus is coming! Look busy!

Local news...

1. It was HOT yesterday. 94. No breeze. Ugh! It was 88 in my house, and my ocean breeze "air conditioning" wasn't working. No breeze, whatsoever. Then, a fire broke out about 10 miles north of here. Then it was hot AND smoky.

2. Meg sewed her first piece of apparel the other day. Flannel pj bottoms. She's worn them constantly since, even when it was 88 in the house.

3. Our best friends are moving this week. Again. Not the same friends moving multiple times, it's multiple friends moving away. Sam says we need to start making friends with non-military families in our ward so we have a better chance of them sticking around.

4. We have had fire north of us, and fire south of us. We had ash raining down one day last week, and the air was so bad that it looked like twilight at 4:30 pm....sun doesn't go down here until 8:30 or so. Now everything looks like it has a dusting of snow that will never melt.

5. The idiot who drove through my new gate gets sentenced this week. I gave them a list of damages, but I'm not holding my breath to get anything back.

6. Ryan and Susan are coming in a little over a week. Hopefully, they'll stay about a month. We can get lots of card-playing in.

I guess that's all. It's supposed to be hot again today, I'm gonna get housework done so that when it does I can take my Pepsi to the beach and hang out.

Bizarre accident and silly video....

Last night Meg was in the bathroom, when I heard a crash and then hysterics. I ran in and found that the screen out of the skylight had just fallen about 10 feet and whacked her in the face. Very weird, since we've never opened that skylight (we can't reach it and the long crank handle has been missing since about a week after we moved in). So, five years, almost to the day, that we move in, it decides to fall off and whack my kid. Mostly it just scared her and she got a fat lip....but she screamed so loud I thought she was dying for sure. We didn't put it back up....we can't open it without the crank or a ladder, anyway.

Totally unrelated, the following is a video that Sam took of me, my friend Lynette, and her son Gordon practicing a three person duet (that sounds wrong, but it really was a three person duet) around Christmas 2004. I hate that you see way too much of my huge backside, and we didn't have the song completely learned. But, he didn't video the actual performance (which was MUCH better) and this still makes me smile. We laughed so much learning the song and figuring out transitions that it's a great memory. I noticed while watching it, though, that we start out pretty fast and then get faster and faster. I hope we fixed that before we performed it, but I don't remember.

Life's a beach...

It was a perfect "beach day" today. We actually don't get many of those, it's usually kind of cold and windy. But, if you get a day when the fog's burned off before noon, you have a couple of hours of lovely, warm weather until the wind kicks up. My friend called, so we dropped everything and with a couple of other friends and a pile of kids, sat on the beach for a couple of hours.

It was lovely..

Didn't take my camera so you just have to take my word for it.

The silliest girls in the world....

We've had my niece's daughter Kennedy with us during a lot of the wedding. She and Meghan are great buddies and Kennedy is such a sweet girl; no tantrums, no tears, very considerate, easy going, etc...we're hoping she rubs off some "polite" on Meghan. They are, however, VERY giggly. Much better than arguing, though. I can take giggling.

We had a couple of carsick episodes yesterday on Highway 1, too winding a road for Kenny's tummy. But, we all applauded her when she managed to get the door open in time and missed the car altogether. I was impressed....how many nine year olds wouldn't just erupt with no warning? She maintained her good nature throughout, though, and we had a couple of fun little adventures. We hiked to a waterfall to get some fresh air and we attempted to get out and see the elephant seals on the beach, but the wind was pretty ferocious.

This is a very blurry pic of them sharing the only coat we had with us. Between the wind, the low light and the fact that they were moving pretty fast, it didn't come out great. Just after we took the picture, the wind blew Meg's flip flop off and they were hopping around on three legs instead of four, trying to catch it. I finally chased it down and we went back to the car while Sam finished taking Elephant Seal pictures.

Well, we're off to go help Liz get ready for Molly and Scott's reception...

Molly's Wedding

Only have a second....Meghan and Kennedy are having a giggle-fest and Sam's still not quite awake. I think I'll walk them over to Jack's for some breakfast...

But, I wanted to post a couple of pics from the wedding. Molly was a beautiful bride (not that we're surprised at all):

It was a beautiful day, and the redwood grove where they held the ceremony was gorgeous. They look very happy and we're very happy for them. I'll post more pictures later...

Just a few thoughts....

Still crazy-busy, but just a few thoughts.

Those silly swallows are persistent little beggers. I go out every couple of hours and spray down any new nest progress. I know that if I let them finish, I won't want to spray them down...I'd be worried about babies. So, I'm leaving the finished nests up, and spraying down the starts. But, every time I go out, they've started again. Why don't they go over to Dad's???? Or someplace else, where a crazy lady won't wash down their progress??? Even over the garage is preferable, as we don't use the driveway/garage that much anyway. Too lazy to climb all the stairs, we usually park by the back door.

Speaking of the garage, at the moment it's clean. Weird. Won't last for long, I'm sure. I should take pictures.

Also speaking of the garage (in sort of a roundabout way), Sam bought a motorcycle, despite the protests of me, Meg, Ryan and a few friends from church. Maybe it's a midlife crisis thing, but I'm not happy about it. Too many kooks on the road in this neck of the woods.

I found quite few very funny/cute/incriminating pictures from old Bailey family reunions while mucking out the office. OK, maybe not incriminating. But, after the wedding and the Social Worker inspection, I'll scan a few and post them. They made me smile, I'm sure the Baileys will get a kick out of them, if not just because we all look so YOUNG.

School is out this week. Meg will miss the last day due to Molly's wedding, and was initially kind of ticked off, since that's essentially a play day at school. But, she's getting excited now to be out, and we are, too. Sort of. Our summer plans include a trip to the orthodontist and swimming lessons, neither of which she's too excited about. We don't do much traveling in the summer; it costs more, it's hot everywhere but here and the southern hemisphere, and too much competition from other tourists. We like to stay home and host the family that comes for our lovely summer weather, i.e. fog, chill, etc. Arizonans seem to appreciate it, but beach lovers will freeze. However, we have photos of lots of blue people who gave it a shot anyway. Even cold, it's still one of the prettiest places on the planet.

OK, I really should be composing my annual letter to the IRS (maybe more about that some other day when I'm not still ticked off about it. We're right and they're wrong, so I'm not really worried, just annoyed, since we did the same thing last year for a different year's taxes. They conceded that one, and I wish they'd just back off), or mucking out another cupboard/desk/bookshelf, or doing laundry or dishes so I'm off.

This week....

It's going to be crazy-busy this week (not like it isn't all the time, anyway), so I figured while I had 10 minutes, I'd post.

We have some friends in the ward transitioning between military service and civilian life. He's out of the Air Force the end of June, but he doesn't have a job yet. He's got his masters degree, so it won't be impossible, but as of today they have no idea where they are going. Added to that is the foster baby that they're hoping to adopt and can't take out the state of California without jumping through hoops all over the place. They have to be out of their military housing (which is the only semi-affordable housing in the county) the end of June. But, if they're homeless, they'll lose the baby anyway. SO....we're the backup plan. However, that means the baby's social worker has to inspect my house and make sure that it's safe and that we have enough bedrooms for four adults, four kids and a baby. We do, but only if we do some major rearranging. We also have to be fingerprinted so that they check and make sure we're not felons. We talked about it and decided that we really need to do the rearranging anyway, this just gives us incentive to actually get it done, and more importantly, a deadline. The inspection is next Monday, so we have to have most of it done before we head off to Molly's wedding. So I'll be rearranging cabinets/furniture/etc like mad this week. Hopefully, the paperwork will go through and they'll be able to move to Utah as they planned originally and we'll just get a more organized house out of the ordeal. Not that we wouldn't enjoy them here, Meg loves her kids and they're wonderful people. This is the family that took Meg while we went on the cruise and, amazingly enough, are still our friends. :0)

My garden is going to town, we have more lettuce than we can eat (when we can keep the earwigs out of it), my tomatoes are already big and bushy and have actually set some tomatoes, which is a big deal here. We tried a couple of new techniques this year...if you live in a gopher and fog-infested, cold summer area, ask us about it.

Our swallows have brought about a hundred friends to add condos to the swallow condominium above our big great room windows. Means my deck is now a "poop deck" and the windows look pretty disgusting. I may try and shoot some water at the nests that aren't finished yet, don't wanna knock down baby birds, it might be bad karma. I think the babies that hatch are coming back and while one or two nests was kind of fun, 40 isn't so much. I tried to get Sam to do it last night, but he didn't have the heart. He's such a big softie.

Today was weigh in for the Elsberry biggest loser. We're down from last month, but unless Sue had a bad month, she's probably still ahead of me. Last weigh in is July 2nd, so we have one month left for the big push.

We're excited to see everyone at Molly's wedding....unless something momentous happens, I probably won't post until after that. Hopefully, we'll have a couple of pics to post on Saturday so those of you who couldn't make it can see.