Saturday was a BIG day

Yup!  That's me and my boy, the newest JD in Southern California.  We are so immensely proud of him.  He attended University of California Irvine's brand new School of Law.  He was in the inaugural class which earned him a full scholarship for all three years.  He did very well, making friends and contacts that will last him a lifetime.  Best of all, he graduated with almost no debt!!

This Cinco de Mayo will likely be the best of our lives.

PS: Don't you love the hats they had to wear??

February UFO has been chosen and I sold a book

Judy picked #1 for February.

I am very excited to finally be finishing Audrey's Quilt.  There's a bit of history to this quilt.  You can read about it here.

On other fronts, The Husband and I got very happy when Son #1 called to let us know he wanted to come down the weekend after next.  YIPPEE!

It turns out there is a concert in San Diego that he and his friends would like to attend and would The Hotel be open to guests??  But of course, mon amis.  We have plenty of couches, pillows and quilts.  The Husband also LOVES to make pancakes for a crowd.

Rapid change in Topic:
Have any of you sold books on Half.com?  Son #1 posted a lot of his old History textbooks there, unfortunately, he used my account.  That means that every time he makes a sale, I get an email announcing the event.  He lives in Irvine, the books live  with me.  You see where this is going don't you?  Because I am interested in maintaining my good standing in the the Half.com community, I dutifully print labels, pack books and schlep said books to the Post Office.

These books are used.  They sell for a cheap price.  Very Cheap.  To make up for my efforts, I have not actually been forwarding him the measly $4.00 profit from each of the books.  I finally emailed him yesterday whining about the inconvenience and excessively low pay and told him to please either raise the price or remove any remaining books with a price below $5.00.  He sent back a less than compassionate email.  I think the exact text was "Poor Baby."  And I spent 30 hours in labor with that human being!!
Well, not more than 5 minutes after receiving his email, I received another Half.com email announcing "You've made a sale!"  Oh joy! I read the rest of the notice without enthusiasm until I reached the sale price.  Believe it or not, he sold a paperback History textbook for ... $150.00!!  Ok, this makes my time worthwhile.

I guess I should share the profit this time.

DS1 and Izzy

Poor Boy!  Typically Izzy is CRAZY about DS1.  When he's around the rest of us don't even exist.  For the first year of her life we had to make DS1 greet her in the back yard because she got so excited she would pee.  She licks him, leans on him, follows him everywhere.  She even sleeps with him.

Well.  DS2 had been here for a week and apparently Izzy's affections can be bought because when DS1 came home for the weekend she failed to make any sort of fuss over him at all!  Not any!  Poor Boy!  He was more than a little crestfallen.  Thrown over for the little brother!

 

WOW!  This is my 100th post. 

 

I think I'll come up with a giveaway to celebrate.  Check back tomorrow and see what I've come up with.

My Boy is Here!

DS2 arrived at John Wayne Airport last Monday at 6 PM.  I took the entire week off work to hang out with him because in one more week he will be moving to Haiti for at least a year.

 He thinks he may need to leave Haiti every three months so he plans to come home for Christmas.  After that, he'll probably just hop over to the Dominican Republic to fulfill that requirement.

Here is what we did all week. 

We watched a documentary.  Actually, we took turns dozing through the first 30 minutes of it before we gave up and turned it off.

We watched a movie about a guy who gets "made redundant" (British film) at age 55 and decides to swim the English Channel.  I found it very inspirational and touching.  DS2 dozed through the entire thing.

We got massages.  I got a Thai table massage and it was fabulous.  It really helped the pain I've had in my neck.  I will definitely be getting another one.  As far as I know the son didn't doze - maybe he did, he didn't tell me.

We went to a farmer's market and cooked some really good vegetarian food.

We took a jacuzzi at a condo complex where we don't live! Shh, don't tell.

We took lots of walks and included the very bad dog.  Part of the fun we have walking around our neighborhood is going through alleys to see what edibles are growing over the fences.  We are definitely not too proud to pick what we can reach.  This week we scored several pomegranates and some limes.  Sometimes we score macadamia nuts and we have our eye on several avocado tress that are loaded.  In this area, if it hangs outside your fence, it's up for grabs.  I share a lot of the figs that my tree produces so I feel OK about my harvests.

We did lots more but mostly we just hung out and talked.  I had to go back to work on Monday.  WAH.

What do you do on your staycations??

Summer Vacation

 Since Izzy's adventure is preventing us from taking a vacation this summer, I decided to revisit one of my favorite vacations of all times.

In 2001, 2003, 2007, and 2009 our family had the wonderful fortune to stay for a week at Cherokee Park Ranch in Colorado.  Each time, it was a week of the most sublime relaxation and fun.

The ranch is owned by the Prince Family who are the most wonderful hosts imaginable.
Each guest is given his/her own horse for the week.  This is great because you get a real chance to know your mount and learn how to handle it.  The first year I was given a feisty, recently tamed, wild-bred Mustang.  She tried to kill me at one point by trying to overtake another horse on a  narrow trail on the side of a steep mountain.  It was hairy but I just laid on her neck and held on.  We both survived but I requested a different horse the next year!!  They gave her to my younger son in 2003.  He loved that she tried to bite everyone.  I guess it's a generational thing.

Unless you stay in the lodge, you get an individual cabin.  This was ours in 2003.

 

They have long rides through some beautiful mountains

Overnight rides, meadow runs, a rodeo, and LOTS of photo opportunities

I think the best part of the whole week is that there is NO CELL reception, NO TELEVISION, and almost no decisions to make.  In fact, we think the only decisions we made all week were whether to take seconds at meals and whether to take a long or short ride (we always chose long rides).

Here is the whole gang: Grandparents, Parents, and Kids.  

If you ever get a chance to take a vacation like this DO IT!!

Have fun!

Signature powered by WiseStamp 

WARNING - Brag post to follow

If you are in the least easily nauseated, you might want to pass on reading this post because I am about to sound like one of those mothers that I usually can't stand.

My younger son graduated from UCLA this weekend!

Here's the happy family at the reception following the ceremony.  The son on the right isn't UNhappy, he just finds it difficult to smile for photos.  Do any of you have one like that?

Here comes the braggy stuff.

First, Son #2 graduated with department honors, the first honors graduate in his very young department.

 Second, he won Service Student of the Year. The presenter read his impressively LONG list of accomplishments, made all the more impressive because he only declared this major at the start of his junior year.  I was SO proud. 

Third,  Son #2 and his good friend are planning a to bicycle around Europe for a few months starting in July.  And, no, mom and dad are not paying for the trip although a Christmas gift from his Grandfather didn't hurt.  The push pins represent where they plan to spend longer periods of time.  They are starting at the gear, in Helsinki.

Fourth, Son #2 has turned down his appointment to the Peace Corps in favor of returning to Haiti to work on a reforestation project there.  If you think it is hard to keep up with him, you would be 100% correct.  He is an amazing young man and we could not be prouder of him, his accomplishments, and his huge heart.

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right path, 

but the final forming of a person's  character lies in their own hands.  

                                                          -- Anne Frank

You all go out and enjoy your day,