Summertime!

Is it really here again?! I don't feel as prepared for it this year! I just wrapped up the hardest semester I've had yet. Looking forward to recharging in the next couple of months. I'll be doing the day camp thing again this summer.

Scott and I just got back from a trip to Redding to meet his family. The Aldrich clan is pretty large...and this wasn't all of them. Such lovely people. I felt at ease with them immediately. We drove with Scott's sweet daughter Cassie, and her equally wonderful husband Noah. We stayed with Kim and Bill. Kim is Scott's dear cousin. He says she's like a little sister to him. The stories she must have! Note to self...talk more to Kim. Sweet to see how much they care about each other! Scott's brother Keith, his wife Dee, and their son Nathan were down, visiting from Oregon. I also got to meet Scott's brother Bob, his wife Julie, their daughter Melissa, her husband Tav, and their precious baby girl, Petra. Tav is apparently working toward being an RN too. It was neat to talk to him about his goals. Kim's son Daniel was present to provide comic relief...sounds like he's all about pyrotechnics and appears to be an uber fan of that wholesome restaurant chain, Hooters. Far be it from me to disparage his depth of character in any way! Nice guy though! Just don't call him Dan :)



That afternoon, after we'd had a chance to rest for a bit, we drove to see Sundial Bridge. What an incredible site. Why Redding though? The modern structure should have been in Japan or someplace like that. Scott and I were looking down on it and wondering if it lit up somehow. When I got home, I found out that it does, but we missed seeing that. Too bad we weren't there after dark. It was pretty warm, so we sought some shelter inside and got a snack while the rest of the family got a sunburn. :)



Scott's Aunt Sharon came for the bbq Friday evening with her friend and companion Rod. Sharon is such a sweet woman. She makes me feel like family. Hard to believe she had just had surgery a week before. She looked awesome! She is Scott's champion and holds a very special spot in his heart. After a lovely meal of barbecued steak (thank you for grilling Noah!), potatoes, and salad, we played Apples to Apples well into the evening out on their patio. Fun to hear the brothers talk about the various ways they used to torture each other. Unfortunately, Keith looks like he may have gotten the worst of it! Poor guy! Snake pits, falling knives, dart impalement, caterpillar trauma. Amazing he survived! And their poor mom, God bless her! The food bills...the countless trips to the emergency room...the stitches...

Sunday, after Kim and Bill filled us with pancakes and eggs, we loaded everyone up and headed to a park. I don't know what the name of it was, and Scott and I were trying to guess as to whether the body of water it was next to was Lake Shasta or not. It was beautiful,nevertheless, wherever it was. (Note--later found out it was Whiskeyville Lake) We had a nice picnic lunch, and played more games. I'd brought Mexican train with us, thinking we'd teach them how to play. Many of them already knew it though. Scott's mother joined us at the park. She'd driven over from Susanville with a friend. It was nice to meet her, although we didn't really seize the opportunity to talk with each other. I don't think she was expecting me. :)

On the way home, the car was all about technology. Scott and Noah were both watching movies on their ipods, while I just listened to music on mine. Scott even got me to watch Rambo with him on the way to Redding! I'll do anything for that man! Somehow, even Rambo is romantic when you're curled up in your boyfriend's arms sharing a splicer. Pretty sure he owes me a chick flick! And no falling asleep this time! The car was nice and air conditioned. Got a refreshing beverage at the drive-thru Starbucks. What an amazing world we live in! I think we left around 3pm and got back home around 8ish. It was a really fun trip, and I felt privileged to be included.


Jim Gaffigan......



Brian Regan......

She survived to see another day...

We made it back! Bandcon Lalapalooza Fest 2009! Wow...were we wiped! It turned out to be an interesting experience. Got some great girl time with a couple of dear friends, and some quality time with Chris. I missed Scott, but I'm glad I went. The bus wasn't even that bad...had my Ipod...my cellphone for those ever-essential texting purposes....my buds Liz and Patty. All in all...not much to complain about. They even gave everyone a goodie bag as we got on. In it was a band t-shirt that all of the women found uncomfortable. We dramatically improved them by performing surgery with scissors. Good idea Patty!


We stayed at The Residence Inn by Marriot in Sunnyvale. I was so impressed by this place. I highly recommend. Wish I could have tried the hot tub, but there was zero time. I roomed with another mom named Kate. :) After we got to the motel...ate some Subway....chilled for something like 20 minutes (you think I kid?), we loaded the fancied up (think tuxedos and gowns) kids back on the bus and headed to Milpitas High School. The men's and the ladies ensemble choirs performed for the judges. It was so interesting to watch these judges. They both talked through the songs into a recording device. I guess their ears are tuned to hear what they're looking for. The rest of us thought it seemed rude. The day was filled with a lot of standing around and waiting. I'm not sure how many other schools participated, but it seemed like 8 or so. After the choirs, the instrumental band got to perform a couple pieces.


Once we were finished at the high school, we loaded back up and went to Home Town Buffet for dinner. Wonder who picked this place? It appeared that several of the other schools had the same idea. It was packed with scads of impeccably dressed young people.....filling their tummies with chicken a la king and 10 different types of jello. I must say....this place....not so good. We were hoping to get some decompression time after we got back, but we were running late. Only got half an hour before lights out. I was assigned a room full of girls to look after. I got a couple of panicked phone calls at lights out time regarding important stuff like manicures and french braiding.


The next morning was an early one. We were supposed to be cleared out of our rooms and ready for breakfast by 6am. Chris's chaperone Tom came to me and said Chris was the first one up....got himself showered without any reminder. He was so impressed! So am I! When did he grow up? Later, Chris confessed that his room played video games until 2am. Smart boys...real smart. After breakfast, we did the bus thing again, only with full marching band uniforms (polyester....toasty!) The band marched in front of Milpitas High for what...30 seconds? With a police escort no less. Our tax dollars at work. Then....a bunch more standing around until the jazz band performed their 3 songs. They sounded great! I'm such a proud mama!




Once the kids changed, it was off to Great America for the day. I haven't been there since I was probably 18? It felt pretty much the same. The junior high kids had to have adult chaperones (which they were not too pleased about!), so Patty, Liz, and I spent the day together with 8 of the precious darlings. Some were more enjoyable than others. (Code for...man, these kids are being bratty!) Chris has never been much of a ride rider. The anticipation of it makes his stomach hurt. I don't push him. I must say, he was so great that day. He never complained...at least not to me. The only thing he wanted was a funnel cake. By the time we tried to get him one, the line must have had 50+ people. I felt so bad. He shrugged it off, and said he'd wait for the fair. Such a great kid I have!



At 5:30 we all met up at the Nick Theater for the award ceremony. RVCS received 5 trophies...all first place...all categories! It was awesome! It says so much about the music program at our school, and especially the leadership of Jim Humphreys. He really gets these kids to give there best! I was so proud of them!


It was time to go at 8pm. We were exhausted from not only two jam-packed days, but from all of the whining. It was a pretty quiet bus ride home. I think Liz was the first one asleep. You should have seen Chris all curled up in a fetal position on that little bench. Me? I texted my honey the whole ride home, as I was starved for his attention. Something tells me that's what Miss Patty was up to too....Alan :)

I think I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. This semester has been intense! Remind me why I'm doing this again? Oh yeah...so I can get my scrubs and make a difference in world...and being a homeless person doesn't sound all that appealing. I like regular showers. I still have three weeks in front of me. This means essays, and final exams. The only class I wanted this summer turned out to be on the Petaluma campus...4 days a week....at 7:30am. Consequently, the girls taking the summer off. Going to work at His Image again though. This time I'm not the arts and crafts director. After so many years of that, I'm going to enjoy a break. Maybe my creative side will have a chance to come back. I have been cooking however, as I now have a special someone to cook for. That has been fun...and I think he appreciates it!

Chris and I leave on the band trip to Great America this Friday. I think he's excited because his "girl" friend is going too. So Mom gets to be the spy this weekend! :) Oh...and get this....someone thought it would be a good idea for Mrs. Brown to ride the bus with the kids! Doesn't that sound delightful? I do realize how fast my boy is growing up, so I'm going to concentrate on having fun with him this weekend..and taking lots of pictures. I will post them when I get home.

More Brian Regan....

I'm a little more than half way into this semester already. Started out with seven classes....four remain. I feel like I've made some decent progress. I find myself struggling along in algebra and history. History is my Achilles heal this term. I don't enjoy my professor's style of teaching, his strange and manic personality (I know...imagine that...Kate thinks her teacher is odd...do we see a pattern? Maybe it's just me?! You'd tell me wouldn't you?). The text is so incredibly dry that it lulls me to sleep....and after I wake up with the book stuck to my face, I wonder...is there a better way? Has to be... It's a pity, because I normally enjoy history. So I'll continue to plug away at it in spite of these feelings. No one said this would be an easy process. Truth be told, the hardest part is in front of me now. I need to stay focused on just getting through today's stuff.

Everything else is pretty great. And that's all she wrote........

OK all you Kate fans out there (Hi Alicia...Patty...Jude! :)....yes, she's reporting in. I'm off this week. It's what the JC is calling winter break. Too bad it doesn't coincide with RVCS's Easter break. So, what am I doing with myself? Out of my boredom, I'm working on getting ahead with school stuff. This is all going to hit the fan if I don't. I have an essay to crank out, a project about myself written in comic book form (should be interesting!), and the very dreaded History midterm. Can she do it? I'll get back to you on that one!

Isn't it interesting how God puts people in your path when you least expect it? I've met someone who is occupying a tremendous amount of my head space...which is scary and exhilarating at the same time. So is this what happy feels like? I didn't know....cool!

Just sitting here trying to think of what is newsworthy. School is keeping me busy right now. I felt concern about taking this many units at once. Wasn't sure I could accomplish it and keep an A average. Semester's half over, and guess what? I'm doing it...who woulda thunk it? I got the first part of my Pell Grant finally too! God is really providing for me....us. Thank you so much for all the prayers coming our way. He's clearly hearing them!

I'm meeting new people and having some fun for a change. It's amazing how that will improve ones perspective.

I could go into more details about my Mongolian project, or the looming algebra test.....but who wants to know about that stuff?! Perhaps another dose of Brian Regan is in order?

Just loafing around......

I know! I stun myself at my brilliance!! Some days my humor just seems so...well....is inspired the word? Inspired...yes...

Today was the first of my two classes on yeast bread. Boy, did I get the times off! I thought today's class was 9am to 12:15pm. I thought it was kind of odd that a class on a time consuming art like bread making could be accomplished in a little over 3 hours, but you never know! That JC and its mysterious ways! It turned out that 12:15pm was the lunch break. Kate--you dummy! The class was supposed to go to 5:30pm. Our adorable little teacher let us go by 4:30 though, so that was nice! I was really surprised at the male/female ratio in the class. Way more men! Weird! We learned how to make a poolish (pronounced "pooh-leesh"). It is apparently the wet starter for most yeast breads. We made 2 baguettes, 9 dinner roles, 1 loaf of rustic Kalamata olive and rosemary ciabatta bread, and brioche dough that we froze until next weeks class. It actually was a lot of fun, although I really missed my Sunday School class! I met some really nice people too, so that was a bonus! I'm really glad now that I took the class. When I got home, I cut a piece of the Kalamata bread for mom. She took one bite, and handed it back to me, while making a rather pinched up and unpleasant face! Thanks a bunch mom! She coulda humored me don't you think? Where's the love?? I'm not surprised though...mom likes plain old Oroweat white bread....so what does she know anyway? Hummph!

Homework? Sourdough starter.......with pineapple juice no less...

Have you ever noticed how much I enjoy the "...?" I use it a lot.....................