Super Bowl Fun with the Family & some birthday shout outs.

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. I love this day. Not necessarily for football, mostly for the company and the food. And let's not forget the commercials.

I invited Eric's family over to watch the game & partake in the food. Only Eric, Cade & Danica came over. Jase wanted to stay home and Jeannette wasn't feeling good. Taylor and her husband Michael couldn't come as they had to take Michael's nephews back home.

Jesse loves Super Bowl Sunday as it gives him a reason to make Spicy Chicken Wings. Except we use chicken tenders instead of wings. You get a heck of a lot more meat for the money.

Here is Jesse and his girlfriend Brin deep frying the chicken tenders.

Eric & I are wimps, we had chicken tenders that only had BBQ sauce on them. We don't like spicy ones. Danica didn't even eat any as she is on a diet & is trying to eat healthy. Everyone else likes theirs spicy. Cade even asked Jesse to make one super hot. And boy did he deliver. It was sooooo hot that Cade couldn't even eat one. Brandon tried it & said it was "Dang hot".

I also cooked meatballs in the crock pot with BBQ sauce. Very yummy!!! I never did take a photo of the chicken tenders, the meat balls or the fries.

But here is a photo of the rest of the food.

Danica made veggie pizzas on pita bread with sauce, feta cheese, garlic and sliced peppers. For being healthy pizza, it was pretty good. But I still like "real" pizza the best. Danica also brought veggies and dip as well as fruit and a dip. Eric brought chips and sodas. I made salsa, guacamole and nacho cheese dip. I also made brownies and Amish Friendship bread for dessert. We had plenty of food. So no one went hungry.

Here is part of the gang getting ready for the game to start. Eric & Cade showed up in their Charger jerseys. Too bad the Chargers suck. It would be great to see them in a Super Bowl. A girl can dream.

Brandon, Cade & Eric sat on the couch. Danica sat in the rocking chair. But she was freezing as she was closest to the front door that was open. It was a beautiful day in sunny southern California yesterday. It reached 80 degrees. But Danica had gotten sunburned on Saturday when they went out to the desert to ride their quads. So the cool breeze coming in the front door made her chilly. She eventually had to wrap up in a blanket.

Mike was in his usual seat at the computer. Not a very good photo as the glare from the window makes for lousy photos.

That was all the photos I took. Was too busy eating & watching the game. Luckily we were all rooting for the Packers. And even better that they won. Yipee!!!

My favorite part is watching the commercials. There was some seriously funny ones in the beginning, then they got kind of lame. My favorites were the Doritos commercials and the Darth Vadar VW commercial.

And the best part of the whole day? A new episode of Glee was on after the game.

Did you watch the game? Did your team win? What was your favorite commercial?

And before I leave, I do want to do a couple of birthday shout outs to some family members.

My cousin John had a birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday John!

And today is Nate & Colin's birthdays. They are my nephews. Nate is Andrea's son and Colin is Todd's son. So Happy Birthday to the both of you!!

Sorry that I have been lame with the birthday shout outs. I keep forgetting to do them.

Kim

Happy Birthday Jodi & Todd!

I've been terrible at this family blogging thing. Maybe it's because my life is so boring there is nothing to post about.

But today, I have something.

It's Jodi & Todd's birthday!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Be sure and wish the both of them a Happy Birthday today. It is their last year before they hit the big 5-0.

Happy Birthday again Jodi & Todd. May you have many more. I love the both of you!

Kim

Christmas 2010 at Kim's house

I know that Christmas was almost 10 days ago. But I'm late in posting about ours and showing you our photos from opening gifts on Christmas morning.

Now my family does not get up early on Christmas morning. Never has, never will. Could be as most of us don't get to bed until after 2am. But even when Brandon was a small child, he never got up early on Christmas.

Nothing like my childhood where we would all go to bed with flashlights & then get up in the middle of the night to see what Santa had brought. And still got up early even though we already knew what Santa brought.

Nope, my family likes to sleep in on Christmas morning.

This Christmas was no exception. My family didn't even get up until around 11am. We didn't even open gifts until 1pm. Mike did make us omelets and hash browns for breakfast.


Above is the gift that I got from Andrea's family. It's already out in my front yard welcoming everyone. At least it is, until I take down my Christmas decor. Yep, it's still up.

Reading my Christmas card from Mike. He has learned over the years that I like the mushy ones better than the funny ones. But if they are both mushy & funny, that is the bomb!

Opening up one of my gifts from Mike. A large self healing mat so that I have something to cut fabric on. He also got me a rotary cutter and a quilting ruler (even though I don't quilt, I just wanted it for cutting fabric).

Jesse opening up the power inverter we, I mean, Santa, got him for his truck.

Brandon opening up the XBox live annual subscription card Santa got him.

See?


Mike got a Soda Blaster from Brandon. Just what he wanted. It's kind of like a sand blaster, but it uses baking soda instead of sand.

And what did Brandon give me? Why a Silhouette digital cutting machine. Just what I wanted. Brandon is way better than Santa.

Jesse opening up another of his gifts from Santa.

It's a Bucket Head wet/dry vac and a bucket to use it on.

Santa even brought Mike a new inner tube for his unicycle. Isn't Santa the best? Wait, Brandon is the best. Santa comes in 2nd this year.

Santa, I mean I, got Mike this new paint spray gun contraption to hook up to his compressor. Now I should be able to get him to paint more furniture for me. Aren't I sneaky? I'm always putting him first.

I'm not showing photos of all the gifts we got. Or we'd be here all month. Just kidding. We really had a small Christmas this year. Jesse got a couple of socket sets and Brandon got some new windshield wipers and some sour patch straws. The only other gifts to open were from Andrea's family.

About 3pm, after opening gifts, we drove over to Eric's house for Christmas dinner. Luckily, Eric only lives about 20 minutes from me. This was the first year that we did not get together with Mom, Dad and Jodi. They were going to come up, but decided they would spend a leisurely day at home by themselves. It was weird having such a small get together for Christmas.

But we still had 11 people at Eric's (his family, Taylor and Michael and my family). Jeannette cooked the ham, green beans, made a tossed salad and a cranberry salad. I brought the cheese potatoes and the home made ranch dressing for the tossed salad (per Cade's request). It was a very yummy dinner, but the company was even better. Just wish everyone from our family could have been there.

And can you believe that I forgot to take any photos while we were at Eric & Jeannette's house? I can't believe it either. I have 2 blogs and I forgot to take photos.

I guess I was enjoying the food, um, the company too much. That's it, I was enjoying the company too much.

So what did your family do for Christmas? And what was your favorite gift this year? And what did you eat for Christmas dinner? Do tell!

Kim

New Year's: Look Not behind Thee

Merry Christmas from Sacramento!

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight!

Christmas Eve and Christmas with the Sizemore's and all of our extended family.  With love and good tidings to all.

It's now flooding!

It's still raining here in SoCal (at least where I am). And because the ground is so saturated, it is now flooding everywhere. Maybe I do need to rethink that building an ark scenario.

Anyhoo, I want to show you some photos I took on my way in to work this morning. But first I want to show you something I saw on the 11:00 news last night.

I was watching ABC Channel 7 (LA station) and they were showing storm photos various people had sent in. When all of a sudden I recognized something. It was Eric's street. On the local news.

Here is a photo I took of the photo submitted that they showed on TV. It was submitted by someone named Justin Dewey. Hey Eric, do you know him? There is a truck in the middle of the street that looks like it is going to turn into a driveway. I think that is Eric's truck. It's about where Eric's house would be on this street.

It was kind of fun seeing Eric's street flooding making the local news.

Now on to the flooding I saw on my way to work. And no, I was not driving while taking the photos. Brandon was driving. And I'm sorry that some of the photos are somewhat blurry, but we were in a moving vehicle.

This is to the right of Interstate 215 heading north, between McCall & Ethanac. The fields were all flooded.

The Ethanac offramp was shut down for a rescue attempt. The frontage road is called Encanto & it always floods when it rains and they always close the road. But there is always some fool who drives around the barricades and got stranded. And now he has to be rescued.

Here is the fool that is on his car stranded. Why would you think you could drive through a lake? Your car is not a boat.

All along I215 through Perris it was flooded on both sides of the freeway.

Lake Perris. Wait, there is already a Lake Perris and it is about 5 miles north of here. So we will call this Mini Lake Perris. What you can't see from my blurry photo is that there were a bazillion seagulls. See, they already think it's a lake.

After the 2 mile stretch north of our house, the flooding went away. At least until we reached Riverside. Here the 215 was flooded under the Alessandro overpass.

I told Brandon to get over to the left, but it was too late. And it really didn't matter since all lanes of the freeway were flooded here.

The waters were quite choppy.

The entire freeway was flooded.

I love when the water splashes up as the cars go by. Good thing our windows were up.

And finally I thought this sign was kind of ironic. It says "Rain for Rent". I guess this business can go on Christmas vacation early. No one will be needing their services for quite a little while.

At least we made it to work in one piece. But I'm tired. I've been up since 4:30am because of the latest storm. This one was quite windy, which makes for a lot of noise. Do you think anyone will notice if I take a nap? Just kidding. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Kim

It Never Rains in California. Or so they say.

It's been raining for 40 days and 40 nights. Or so it seems. I feel like we should start building an ark. But wait, I don't have to, we already have a sailboat. And since I'm not Noah, God hasn't commanded me to take any animals on my boat. Well, except for Missy our cat.

Ok, so I exaggerated a little bit. I've been known to be a little over dramatic.

It has actually only been raining 4 days. But it has been non stop. It hasn't stopped raining at all. We've already had about a years worth of rain in 4 days.

So now the ground can take no more!!! It's rebelling and now we are suffering the consequences.

Exhibit #1:

Had to take a detour on my way to work this morning. It seems a tree decided to fall over and block this street we normally travel down. It took out a couple of power lines with it. At least it didn't fall on the house. Or on the guard dogs who usually lay on a table in this yard. And the wind wasn't even blowing. This is from the ground being too saturated.

And no, this is not my neighborhood. This is the neighborhood around where I work in Moreno Valley. Not in the best area. That is why this house usually has vicious looking guard dogs laying out front.

But my day has been easy so far, at least when you compare it to Eric's.

Exhibit #2:

This is Eric's street. Totally flooded.

They have this drainage canal right across the street from their house. When it rains, it can fill up fast.

Then it overflows into their street.

So what is Eric to do?

Move to higher ground! This is Eric's downstairs living room. They decided they better move their furniture upstairs. Just in case the flood waters reach their house.

But there is a silver lining in all of this. Eric has a pretty cool dance floor for Christmas. We will be busting some cool moves come Christmas.

Oh, and I have a boat to get there. Bon Voyage!!!

What are your plans for Christmas? And how is the weather in your neck of the woods? Do tell.

Kim

P.S. Everyone have life jackets?

Taylor & Michael's first apartment

On Wednesday night Taylor (my niece and Eric's daughter) and Michael had a little house warming open house. So we went over to see their first apartment.

Here is the master bedroom. The bed pretty much takes up the entire room. I think the bedding was a wedding gift. The end tables came from Michael's parents. I think they had been his brothers.

Between the master bedroom on the left & the bathroom on the right hangs this picture that Taylor did.

Here is another one of Taylor's paintings. This one hangs on the stair case.

This is the extra bedroom upstairs. They are using it as an office. Sorry the photo is so dark. I don't like to use my flash.

A wall in the extra bedroom.

Another one of Taylor's drawings. You always have something to put on the walls when you are an artist.

One of their wedding gifts.

The other wall & Taylor in the extra bedroom.

This was on the bathroom wall. Another wedding gift.

And this Indonesian looking statue. I want to call it Buddha. But isn't Buddha fat? He resides in their bathroom as well.


Looking down into their living room area from the stairs. This is the right half of the room. Taylor's friends Ashley (the blond) and Michelle.

Left side of living room with Mike (mine), Michael (Taylor's) and Danica. The couch and coffee table came from Eric & Jeannette's.

On the living room staircase wall resides the "Eternal" picture I made for them as a wedding shower gift.

Taylor & Michael opening up my house warming gift.

I gave them a jar of home made hot chocolate mix. Yes, I made it myself with the help of Stephanie Lynn over at Under the Table and Dreaming. Got the recipe and the labels over at her website. She also has a recipe for making your own marshmallows. But I wasn't that adventurous. I bought my mini marshmallows at the store. And I also gave them a couple of Christmas mugs to drink their hot chocolate in. They loved my gift.

Here everyone is drinking hot cider. And boy was it hot!!! Here we have Eric, Mike, Jesse and Michael. You can see behind Eric an opening beneath the stairs. Here is where Taylor and Michael have their TV and their dog Tonk's dog bed/cage.

They have some wedding photos hanging on this short wall in their living room. On the other side of this wall is another bathroom. I totally forgot to take any photos in there. And they had a cute tile someone had made for them with a temple silhouette and something else on it (I've already forgotten). Cute idea for a wedding gift.

Here is Taylor and Michael's first Christmas tree. It was so cute.

The kitchen area has room for this small table and chairs. This came from Eric & Jeannette's as well as the bench in the back. Aren't parents the greatest? I've always loved hand me down furniture. Hand me down clothes, yuck, but furniture, I love.


To the left of the table and chairs Taylor has a set of 3 small Christmas trees (another hand me down from mommy).

And finally the other half of the kitchen. Here is Taylor and her friends Amanda and Ashley. Taylor is lucky to have a dishwasher. The fridge is located to the right, I forgot to get a photo of that part of the kitchen. I should have also taken a photo of her cute red microwave.

I loved Taylor and Michael's apartment. It was so cute. They have done a great job furnishing it (thanks to the moms and dads) and decorating it (thanks to cute wedding gifts and Taylor being a talented artist).

Sorry that I couldn't get complete rooms in one shot. Their apartment is pretty small (but just the right size for the two of them), so I couldn't back up far enough to get entire rooms at once.

And I didn't get any photos of their dog Tonks. She was sleeping the whole time we were there.
But you can see what their dog looks like in this photo. Except she is already twice as big. She is going to be a huge dog.

Thanks Taylor and Michael for having us over and for letting me share your apartment with the rest of the family. We love you!!!

Aunt Kim