Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Cinco de Tres!

Cinco de Tres (May 3rd*)

Saturday Kenny had to fly to Oregon so Danny & Tonita once again rescued me from a day of sheer boredom.

Around noon I headed over to their house and the three of us went down to the trolley station and bough tickets to Old Town San Diego.

It was D&T's first time on the Trolley and I think the people around us thought we were weird for taking pictures and listening to Tonita exclaim "Oh! It is so pretty from up here!"

When we got to Old Town some really nice people were there giving out energy drinks (which we really needed after the long night we had had the night before!) This was my first energy drink and I have to say that although it tasted good, I didn't feel all that energized.

What was energizing was the Cinco de Mayo celebration going on in Old Town! There were a handful of bands all playing music and tons of fun booths and stuff to look at. We had such a good time!


Our tickets for the trolley!



I am so energized!



Cousins :)



Low-Ri-Der


Danny showing his heritage



More tomorrow...

Monday, May 05, 2008

Cinco de...

Cinco de Dos (May 2nd*)

Friday night Danny & Tonita came over to have Mexican food and watch "Dragon Wars."

Here is the description of the movie...

"Meet Baruki, the vicious, 200 meter long, Imoogi serpent from ancient Korea. His army includes giant lizard with missile launchers, flying dragons, soldiers bred for evil, and mega-intelligent dinosaurs."

Doesn't that sound like the BEST MOVIE EVER?!? No? Come on. We are talking MEGA-INTELLIGENT DINOSAURS... what could be better?!? Semi-intelligent dinosaurs can't even hold a candle to the awesomenesses of MEGA-intelligent dinosaurs.

Don't even get me started on the soldiers bred for evil. They aren't just born evil... they were bred for it. If that doesn't say great screenplay writing, then I don't know what does.

We had such a fun night eating, laughing and making fun of the giant lizards with missile launchers!




Celebrating Cinco de Dos!



YUM!



There is nothing like homemade guacamole!



Danny had too much fun!



More on our Cindo de weekend tomorrow :)


*Don't correct me. I know that Cinco de Dos means 5 of 2 and not May 2nd. Nonetheless, it was dubbed "Cinco de Dos" by D&T and we like it :)

The one that got away...

I have been reading Big Mama for a little over a year and let me tell you, if you haven't seen her site, go check it out because she is hilarious!

Anyway, she has a little daughter Caroline who is what I imagine our daughter will be like. This recent video cracked me up...

http://thebigmamablog.com/index.php/2008/05/04/the-one-that-got-away/

R.I.P. Zippy

Well, Kenny's new fish Zippy swam off to fish heaven yesterday afternoon. So sad.

That makes two of his fish that haven't faired well swimming alongside my fish. Either my fish keeps killing his or he just picks out sickly fish to begin with.

Good thing he didn't get the 100 gallon tank!

Friday, May 02, 2008

Say again...?

So, I am starting to blog funny things I hear on the radio while flying. Here is that latest laugh, I will keep the story short...

A student and I had just taken off from one of Gillespie's two runways. Just as we took off from runway 27R, another student (from the competition) crashes on the other runway, 27L. He manages to smash the small Cessna 152 into the ground so hard it bursts into flames. As one can image, it is no longer advisable to land on a runway which is occupied by a flaming Cessna.

Tower Control now has their hands full in that there were about 5 airplanes all doing touch-n-go's on runway 27L and another 4 planes doing them on 27R. Tower Control remains calm and starts directing all the touch-n-go traffic to land on 27R, the non-flaming runway. Well, one ever so eager student, amidst the flames and smoke, after given his clearance to land, complains, "Tower, Cherokee 25Yankee, I requested touch-n-go's!?!"

Okay, picture this. About 10 airplanes, one active runway, one flaming runway, and everyone wanting to see the spectacle, and this guy feels the need to continue his landing practice.

Tower Control, in his most polished voice, "Uh, 25Yankee, negative. You need to land."

Zippy

Well, ever since Jen killed my fish two days after we got him I have longed for a replacement of my finned companion.

This particular story began with a simple run into Walmart to get Pilot a new leash. Of course, I had to walk past the fish tanks to find his leash. Being the ADHD-oh-look-at-the-pretty-fish person that I am, it was all down hill from there. In less than 15 minutes, I had a new aquarium picked out along with the 27 different fish that I could not live without.

In a rare moment of weakness, I showed some self restraint, and put it all back. I did not really need a 250 gallon fish tank and half of the marine life of the Pacific Ocean in my living room.... or did I?

Unfortunately, Walmart did not have any leashes in stock. So the fish gods forced us to drive over to Petsmart. Now if what Walmart had was considered a small fish section, then Petsmart had an enitre city of fish. I could have both species from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans...and all in a 350 gallon tank. Hooray for me!

I swear the moon, Venus, Pluto and the North Star were aligned, because I showed another amazing feat of self restraint and managed to pick out a tiny single gold fish for 99 cents. Yep, and his name is Zippy.


Thursday, May 01, 2008

Protect your children, people.

So I admit it. I have watched Hannah Montana. I actually kind of liked it. It is cute and innocent and easy to watch on a Saturday morning when Kenny is off flying.

Needless to say I was bummed by the recent pictures of Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair. It seems as if another child has been sold out by their parents and is destined to go the way of many other child "stars".

DaMomma, a blogger that I read, just wrote a great post about the situation...

http://forums.parenting.com/blogs/parenting-post/posts/gateway-porn


She wrote...
"Adolescents are hypersexual because they do not yet have the maturity, wisdom, experience to control or protect themselves. Until they reach the age of consent, that responsibility falls on the adults in their communities. It is wrong for adults to engage children as sexual beings -- no matter what those children claim to want."


It is so sad when parents refuse to be parents. Miley is only 15 and her parents and other adults in her life should be looking out for her... not selling her to the highest bidder or letting her make life altering decisions on her own.

I am so thankful for parents who loved me enough to protect me and help me make the right decisions. They weren't crazy overprotective and still let me make my own choices, but still did their job as parents. Thanks Mom & Dad :)

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Team Guess

Guess what?!?

Chris and Mihaela are getting ready to go back to Romania as full-time missionaries!

They just launched their new website... http://www.teamguess.com/

If just 66 people team up and give, they can be on their way. We all know money is tight so there are other fun ways to get involved including giving stuff from around the house and... um... raising a cow! Come on... who wouldn't want to raise a cow?!? :)

Most of you know that Kenny and I went to Romania back in 2000 (along with Chris and a team from SMCC). It is an amazing place. While we were there we teamed up with local churches and met some wonderful people. Chris went back to Romania the follow year where he met (and married) Mihaela. They truly have a desire to serve the Lord and support the people in Romania... their goal is to "help strengthen local churches through a variety of ministries in order for them to be able to plant other churches." Very cool.

A few months ago our friend Pat made us a DVD of our 2000 trip to Romania. I will try to post a few clips in the coming months :)

Anyway, Go check out Team Guess and see about getting involved!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Giveaway!

I am attending a conference all week so I won't be online much, but I promise to update the blog next week...

Stuff to look forward to...
  • Pictures & fun stuff from our impromptu trip to Colorado
  • Easter pictures (I know, I know... I am so slacking on the bogging)
  • Kenny's New York pictures
  • Flight school news
  • New blog designs
For now, check out Andria & Co for a blog header design giveaway by yours truly :)

UPDATE: Winner of the free blog header was JelliPants :)

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Call Her Blessed

I just finished up with another design :)

Check out Call Her Blessed

Daiquiri wanted to use some of her photography in the header and wanted a welcoming and warm feel for the site. I used her photo of a poppy and drew a poppy icon in Illustrator to use as a favicon and in the posts.

Daiquiri was so much fun to work with and is very sweet. Right now she is hosting a giveaway on her site open to anyone who leaves a nice comment about the design I did... awww! So head on over, leave a comment and maybe you can win some note cards with her amazing photography :)

Anyway, I know I haven't been posting much lately. I will try to be better. I will at least update here more often whenever I finish a new site.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Easter Fun

David, Jamie and Jeffrey came down for Easter last weekend and we had a blast. I am working on getting all the pictures uploaded, but for now this just about sums up how much fun we had...

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

And it's all true...I swear by my tattoo!

I heard this on the radio tonight while out flying. I always here stuff like this and will try to bring you the best of the best!


Airplane: "Gillespie Tower, Cessna 757 Charlie Mike, uh, how do you read?"

Tower (without missing a beat): "Cessna 7 Charlie Mike, Left to right."

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

He is a bit crazy

The other day we tried to post the video of Pilot after his bath. After 3 days of trying, Google video finally worked. So, without futher ado.. here is our little guy going a bit crazy after his bath...






Yeah. After we clean him, we always have to clean the house.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Kenny was home all weekend!

Yippee!!! This was the first weekend in a long time that Kenny was home both Saturday and Sunday. It was so nice to have him home and have nothing that had to be done.

Saturday we went shooting and then caught a movie.

On Sunday we decided to go hiking to check out the waterfalls up in the mountains. This year we have had so much rain and everything is green. The rivers are flowing more than they have in years and we figured we'd better seize the moment to check out the waterfalls before everything dried up again.




The falls were beautiful and Pilot had the time of his life. We are convinced that he is part spaniel, part antelope... a spanielope, if you will :) He was going crazy running and jumping over boulders along the trail.



Although the hike was fun, we found several ticks hiding on our clothes, so our poor little puppy had to get a bath. Doesn't he look miserable?



Here he is after the bath. He hates baths and they make him go a little crazy...

Saturday, March 01, 2008

It's just a made-up day

Leap Year Day is a stupid day that shouldn't exist. Last week I had bought into the hipe of getting an extra "free" day. I was excited that it was Leap Year and couldn't wait for February 29th. We planned on taking the day off.. since it was an extra day after all... and go to Disneyland. Well, Friday came and we both ended up going to work instead. Big mistake.

February 29th was a cursed day.

Kenny forgot his uniform dress shows and accidentally showed up at his jet job wearing grungy old Vans... a definite no-no.

Then 15 minutes before his flight was to leave for Mexico he realized he forgot his passport at home! He pushed back the flight and called Tonita and pleaded in his most desperate voice for her to drive it up to the airport (45 minutes away). Poor Tonita hit every red light and got behind every bad driver and couldn't make it up there (She did get it to another airport and thankfully Kenny didn't end up in a Mexican prison)

I had a terrible day at work. Nothing went right. It was just plain bad.

A lady from my office had her tire blow out on the freeway. A guy from my office got a black eye and was pooped on by a bird through his sunroof!

Oh... and Danny blew the head on his 4Runner on his way to work.

Ya. Bad day.

Next Leap Year... I think I'll just stay in bed.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Just Because...



Awww... Isn't Kenny sweet?!?

Friday, February 22, 2008

I'm LOST

Allison sent me this today from a blog she reads. It cracked me up...

"LOST... I am in an abusive relationship with this show.

I can't seem to break away from the horrible hold it has on me.

If it were a boy, my dad would forbid me to date it.

Lost is that horrible good looking guy that was mean to his girlfriend but told her just enough of what she wanted hear that she kept coming back for more.

I know I need to cut my losses and walk away, but I can't..I'm not strong enough."

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

From Snow to Surf

San Diego is the coolest place to live... ever! And trust us, we have been all around the world.

On Sunday we loaded up the Explorer and headed up to the mountains 20 minutes away. There was still snow and Pilot had a great time playing in it. It was so deep in some places he would fall in if he landed too hard!

After spending some time in the mountains we stopped at home and swapped out the cars and headed to the beach for a little surf, sand and seafood.

We had a great crab and shrimp dinner and then went for a walk on Crystal Pier.

Yep, San Diego is the best. Where else can you spend the day playing in the snow, watching dolphins play in the ocean, and walk on the beach... and in 72 degree temperatures the entire time. We love this town!


Snow








Surf

Thursday, February 14, 2008

It's been a while

I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to post... I know you all missed me.

If you are bored, check out the recent sites that I have been working on. It is their fault I was so busy :)

Four Angel's Momma

Gray Matters

Sitting on Top of the World

Not So Deep Thoughts

QKG Tallahassee

Quirky Kitsch Girl

Story of a Lifetime

Right now I have three more sites I am working on this week... crazy, but so much fun!

I promise I'll try to post more this month. Love you all!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Bucket List?

Okay, Jen and I went to see the movie, “The Bucket List.” This post is not a commentary on the movie, I will leave that to the experts, but about, well, just keep reading.

The movie, as you may know, is about two old guys that are soon to “kick the bucket” and want to do crazy stuff.

I had a slow day and Jen was able to get off work early, so we caught the 4:45 showing on this nice Thursday afternoon. We made it just in the nick of time and raced into the theatre.

To our surprise, everyone in the theatre had just finished their early bird dinners and were catching a “late show!” Yes, the theatre was filled with a lot of really old people – possibly looking for some kind of weird divine movie-going inspiration. To say that Jen and I were well under the average age of the other movie goers by 30 years would be generous.

While the movie left something to be desired, the experience of the old ladies carrying their own microwave popcorn into the show, old men laughing and carrying on about the funny lines, and the smell of Ben-Gay made the day!

A small confession (which proves that the old adage “you get what you pay for” really is true):

Jen and I used the automated teller in the front of the theatre to buy the tickets. It is really great. Never any line, you just walk up and choose the day, choose the movie, choose the time, and choose which type of ticket…Adult, Student, Senior. Yeah, we chose Senior. The machine does not know and plus Senior tickets are a buck cheaper! And you know the acne-ridden teenager manning the ticket ripping station ain’t gonna care.

Yep, we bought the Senior tickets.

Irony?

Monday, January 14, 2008

New Family Blog

Kenny's parents have a new blog... check it out!

Doug & Terry's Blog!!!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Party like its 1999

I was going through my old documents stored on my old computer (new computer story coming soon!) and guess what I came across... a Christmas letter written by Kenny to his friends and family in 1999. It made me smile. Since we are all friends and family here, I thought I'd share it...

Well, what a year 1999 was! I managed to keep incredibly busy. Let’s do a month by month replay of what I managed to squeeze into last year:

January – I started my second semester at Christian Heritage College (CHC) in San Diego, CA. I am a junior majoring in Aviation Flight Technologies (a pilot). I am taking 28 units this semester (12 being a full load). I have two jobs; I am the janitor for my dorm building and I am also an Admissions Counselor for my college. I am playing on two volleyball teams, a basketball team, and an indoor soccer team. I am also on a Precision Flight Competition Team. I meet a girl named Jennifer Aceves in my volleyball class – one of three girls who actually knew how to play volleyball out of the 20 other girls in the class. My normal schedule is get up at 6:00 am and go to bed between 2 or 3 am, if at all! My time is filled with classes, homework, flying, and having way too much fun, probably more fun than is allowed *.

February – I got my Private Pilot’s License on the 14th – yes Valentine’s Day, because I love to fly! I am still way too busy. Oh yeah, I am in the school play, “Cave Dwellers.”

March – I compete in the PCIFA Precision Flight Competition at Castle Air Force Base (now decommissioned). Our team had never competed in it before and with only a month and half’s worth of practice, we came in fourth place, placing in the top ten in every event in which we entered! We also won the Sportsmanship award and were elected Treasurer of the PCIFA (Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Flight Competition). On second Tuesday of this month, I talked to the aforementioned young lady for 2 or 3 hours after lunch. Hmmmm…she seems like the kinda girl I want to marry!?!? I also made several trips down to Mexico for tacos and cheap souvenirs. Plus, I have a friend whose folks live down in Rosarito, so we visited them a few times over the semester as well.

April – We do five performances of our masterpiece play. The semester is almost over with finals in the last week of the month. I get a job with AiRepair as an apprentice airplane mechanic at Gillespie Airport, the same airport out of which I fly. I also stayed up for over 90 hours (that’s four days) without sleep watching the amazing meteor showers that we had every night. I saw on one night over 100 meteors in one hour!

May – School is finally out! I managed to pull off 28 units with a straight A average. I am now working at AiRepair full time for the summer and living in an apartment here in San Diego with two good friends, Chris Jacobson and Chadd Mertz. I will spend my summer working, flying, and having as much fun as possible. I also meet a guy who will become one of my best friends, Dustin Radford. Dustin lives on a boat in San Diego Bay and works with me at AiRepair. He went to CHC two years ago. Oh yeah, remember Jen? She is staying here in San Diego for the summer too. She is an intern for the church’s high school group, so she will be going on all their summer mission trips. She is staying in the dorms, so she has no way to cook for herself. I think I will invite her over to my apartment so she can be able to eat! *

June – What a crazy month! I worked 60+ hours a week at AiRepair. I love it! I also see a lot of that Jen girl. People keep teasing me that I should date her or marry her. Come on now, we’re just friends right? We spend all our free time together. We also almost got her car towed for parking in the wrong spot…a story to be told at a later time. I even drove to her house one weekend with my roommate and we (the three of us and Jen’s sister Jamie) all went to Magic Mountain. We watch movies, eat dinner, stay out, fly around, goof off together, but hey, we’re just really good friends! I also got to go sailing with Dustin on his boat. He, along with Jen, accompanied me on my many adventures this summer! I also spent much time with another guy and good friend, Sam Meier, also a pilot. Together, he and I flew all over CA, NV, AR and NM. We flew to Havasue, Phoenix, Catalina, Palmdale (that’s were Jen lives), and a dozen other places. My roommate Chris’s mom moves into the apartment with us, no complaints here since she is paying the rent.

July – Jen and I start dating on July 1. Yeah, so we said we were “just friends,” now we’re dating, so back off *. Sam, his fiancé and I fly from San Diego all the up to Salem, OR in a Cessna 172. I took us ten hours one way, making a stop in Galt on the ways up and back. First time mom and dad got to see my fly a plane.

August – Cannot stand living in the apartment any longer. Move out one Thursday afternoon, unfortunately had nowhere to go, so I lived in my car for two weeks! Even slept in a cemetery a couple of nights. Hey it was nice and quite and there was always a cool breeze coming off the grass. What more could one ask for? Still working full time plus at AiRepair, flying around, and still having too much fun.

September – I start my senior year of college. I cut back to only 24 units this semester – still two full loads worth. I got an apartment, so no more car living. I am taking Bible classes, aviation classes, and Greek. I am working part time at AiRepair. Still dating Jen. I am the captain of the Flight Team for this year. I am on student senate. I am also on staff with the high school ministry group at my church, yes, along with Jen. In this ministry, I coach a student-led Bible study and Jen and I and another guy are organizing a mission trip to Romania this upcoming spring break.

October – Myself and four other pilots flew three airplanes across Arizona and New Mexico into Texas, landing only 12 miles shy of the Oklahoma border. We made it there and back in three days! That’s over 2000 miles. I also got my motorcycle stolen and then harassed by the cops about it. The cops thought me and several other CHC students had formed a motorcycle gang and were stealing other motorcycles. Yeah, Kenny the hardened criminal. I am still too busy to breath.

November – On the 15th, I asked Jen to marry me, and she actually said yes. I don’t remember anything else about this month. As for the wedding, look for an invitation to follow in the next few months, but the date is going to be June 23, 2000 at Hume Lake, California, about an hour east of Fresno in the mountains.

December – I completed my next to last semester of college, with straight A’s. For Christmas break, I took advantage of being a pilot and flew from San Diego to Palmdale to Galt to Palmdale to Galt to Palmdale to San Diego. Over 40 hours of driving condensed into 13 hours of flying.

January – I am in my last semester of college, yeah!!! Only 12 units, yeah!!! Nine of the units are go fly the airplane and I have only one classroom class, yeah!!! I went to Hawaii, yeah!!! The plans for the Romania trip are in full swing – we will be going April 12-22. Jen, Chris Guess, and myself will be leading 30-40 students with 10-12 staff. I am also building a small “honeymoon cottage” as my parents call it. It is a small granny flat on top of our youth pastor’s garage who is building he and his wife’s dream home. Jen and I designed the floor plan and have done most of the work on it ourselves. It should be done by this summer when we get married.

Well, that was 1999, and part of 2000. If you have any questions feel free to write, call, email, come visit me.

Love,
Kenny Shepherd

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Subway, Eat Fresh!

It was a dark and stormy night, actually it has been all weekend. So what do we do on a dark and stormy Sunday night?

Well, let’s go back a few days…. we had purchased a bag of potatoes because wanted to have baked potatoes for dinner one night and everyone knows that you can buy two potatoes by the pound which runs you like $2.00 or you can commit and buy way more than you really need and get the 5 pound bag for only $2.98! (gluttony and overspending – we are good Americans!)

We have two of the five hundred potatoes that we bought as bakers, so what do you do with the rest?

It was a dark and stormy Sunday night and we were going to make potato salad. Its easy right? Potatoes, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard….stir!

We got half way through when we realized we had a mayo shortage. ARG, and we only needed four ingredients! Curses. Now we need to make a store run, and we have to do it fast because potato salad is best when it is still warm. Me, Jen and Pilot hop into the Prius to run down to the grocery store about a mile and half away. Just before we get to the stop light, Jen remembers the mini-mart on the corner not barely 100 yards from the house. We make the left turn and we are there.

Jen and I scour the aisles in the mini-mart and all we come up with is Miracle Whip. While I am not even quite sure what mayo is…what the heck is Miracle Whip? That will not work.

But wait! There is a Subway inside the mini-mart. They have mayo right? I get into line.

“Uh yeah, I’d like a cup of mayo please…?”

“Umm, mayo?”

“Mmm, yeah, mayo, you see….”

Other Subway employee girl, “Just give him some mayo.” (Okay, make the crazy man happy so he does not kill us all.)

“How much?”

“A cup or so.”

A two dollar tip and I was back in the car.

PS – the potato salad was good.


Thursday, December 27, 2007

Merry Christmas

Kenny was home for Christmas this year and we were able to spend 4 days hanging out and having fun.

Saturday we went out on a date to see Sweeney Todd (we enjoyed it, but we are weird like that!)

We spend the rest of the weekend doing a few projects at home and just enjoying not having to work.

For our Christmas dinner we cooked up some King Crab... yum!


Please note the lovely TV trays. Yep... I am a domestic goddess :) Hey, at least we had the Yule Log on TV... that adds a touch of class don't ya think?!?


***

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a great 2008!




Merry Christmas!

Done with Christmas

This year we packed up our Christmas stuff sooner than most years... maybe because we decorated the day after Thanksgiving, maybe because our Christmas tree was a poster child for the "Fire Hazzard: Live Trees Ruin Christmas" campaign (seriously... one stray spark and our whole house was toast!) or maybe we were just taking our cue from Pilot... apparently he wanted us to know he was tired of the decorations and if we didn't take them down, he would do it for us...




How soon do you take down Christmas decorations? We know a little puppy dog who would love to help.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Kenny's 30th

As you all know, last weekend was Kenny's 30th Birthday!

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early, jumped in the Prius and headed up to Hollywood.

Our first stop were the La Brea Tar Pits. I hadn't been there since the 4th grade when I was "researching" for my science project... "Trapped in Tar... Fossils from the Ice Age" (yeah, I won 1st place... I was a nerd!) Kenny had never been there so it was fun to walk around and check out the fossils and try to avoid the pits :)


Next we headed over to the Walk of Stars and had a look around before we jumped back in the car and drove Sunset Blvd through Beverly Hills and Bel Air to the Santa Monica Pier.


The Pier has this cute little Aquarium. The people working there were so nice and were very informative about all of the sea animals. We got to touch starfish, sea cucumbers and sea urchins. For such a little place, it was quite fun.


Just about he time we finished at the aquarium, the sun started to set. What a gorgeous sunset over the ocean!


After enjoying the sunset, we headed back to Hollywood and over to Grauman's Chinese Theater. We spent a while looking at the footprints of the old movie stars before we headed into the theater to see "I am Legend" with Will Smith. The movie was great... it could be because we were so excited to see it in this huge, beautiful theater. If you ever get a chance you have to go see a movie there... it was sooo cool!


The next morning we headed over to Starbucks then made our way to the Griffith Observatory. Besides having spectacular views of the city and the Hollywood sign, the Observatory has a great Planetarium and a show that really puts into perspective how amazing and gigantic the universe really is. What an amazing God we have to create such wonders!


We stopped by Palomar Airport on our way home so Kenny could fly the Citation Jet with one of the owners. I even got to ride along on the flight! It was so much fun to see Kenny up there flying... it was my first time ever seeing him fly the CJ. He is a great pilot!

Later that night we met Danny & Tonita for dinner at a local Mexican place. Service was terrible, but the food was yummy! We even splurged for Kenny's birthday and got a giant margarita (we all shared!).


We, of course, also watched Survivor that night with Danny & Tonita!

What a fun weekend full of experiencing new things and spending time with people we love!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

I turned 30

I turned thirty this past weekend. Only a handful of you can truly appreciate this. If you are more than a year away from turning thirty, then the gravity of actually transitioning from your youthful twenties into your true adulthood thirties is lost. If you have hit thirty already and are looking at thirty-five or forty or more, the gravity is again lost because you look back and say, “well, it isn’t that bad, at least you’re not turning forty” or something along those lines. It is small band of companions that I have here; a select few that can truly appreciate this feeling.

Last year, when I hit twenty-nine, Jen gave me a present. It was my “30 before 30” list. She had me list thirty things that I wanted to do before I was thirty. Seems easy enough right? Not for me. I took it very seriously you see. I could not put something on the list that was small and insignificant, nor could I put some monumental task that would most likely go undone. It was tough – even knowing that Jen really would let me do whatever I put on the list.

I will admit, I never came up with a full list of thirty things (I think I only had about twenty-four items) and not all the things on the list were completed. Some things were easy things, but still things that I truly wanted to do within the next 365 days, for example, go sailing, eat at new restaurants, visit Hollywood and see the Walk of Stars. I had a few big ticket items too: visit another foreign country, fly a jet as pilot in command, and summit Mount Whitney.

A few things came to the wire. This weekend, Jen and I tied up the loose ends on the “30 before 30” list.

Looking back, this weekend ended up being a great summation of the thirty years that I have spent here.

There are several things that I love doing, and might even say that they partially define me. I love doing new and exciting things and going to new and exciting places. I love flying and instructing. I love hanging out with friends and eating. I love Survivor.

And that is what I did this weekend. I closed out thirty years doing what I do.

But this weekend showed me more than just a summation of things I do. It showed me that, both for the weekend and my life, I am content. No, I am even better than content. Paul said we need to learn to be content in whatever situation we are placed, and I am pretty sure he was more meaning on being content when we find ourselves in a less than desirable situation. I am definitely better than content. This is due to many things much greater than myself – the biggest being: God, my parents and my wife.

These three, and countless others, have been there for me, helping me, directing me and loving me unconditionally. I cannot ask for more. I have lived thirty years and was never alone, hungry or wanting. Like I said, I am more than content – thanks everyone for the past thirty years!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Another Giveaway

So, I am once again being featured on Bloggy Giveaways!

Go check it out and see all the nice things they say about me. Yeah, they just want to win the giveaway, but it still makes me happy :)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

New Website!

Check out my newly designed site at:

Blue Yonder Design


Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season and a Merry Christmas!

-Jen


P.S. Know a friend that could use a new website or blog design? Maybe for a Christmas present (hint, hint!)

Get up to $20 for referring a friend (or up to $20 off your next purchase for yourself!)

Monday, November 26, 2007

Happy Birthday to me and Happy Thanksgiving too!

I had a birthday yesterday... I am getting old.

I can deal with it though because Kenny is soooooo much older (he is turning 30 this year!!!)

This weekend I was so lucky to have Kenny home for 2 full days (Thanksgiving and the day after) and most of the day Saturday and Sunday! Whoo hoo!

Thanksgiving day we hung out at home, watched movies and grilled up some great steaks for dinner. It was a perfect day.

The day after Thanksgiving... Black Friday... we decided that nothing was worth us getting up at 4 am so we woke up around 7 and made our way to a few stores. We found a few bargains, but nothing great. Has anyone else noticed that the day after Thanksgiving sales are getting weaker and weaker ever year?!? Anyway, our last stop was Home Depot where we bought a few pieces of lumber and some tools to make a table for the shed. We also bought a CHRISTMAS TREE! Normally we wait a few weeks into December, but we couldn't help ourselves :)

Friday night we went over to Carl & Rebecca’s for some Cajun Cookin’. Carl & Rebecca make the best Gumbo and Potato Salad and we gladly helped them eat it all :) Hannah kept us entertained explaining her fear of Santa and that she gets her beautiful eyes from Louisiana.

Sunday after Kenny got back from his flight to Eagle, Colorado (it was minus 20 degrees Celsius! Brrrrrr) we met Danny and Tonita at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate our birthdays! Mmmmm

Once we got home, Kenny and I decorated the house a bit. It is so much fun to have everything all Christmassy… I even decorated at work today. I guess I am just in a Christmas mood! Merry Christmas everyone!

Birthday Flowers





Spur of the Moment Thanksgiving

We are nothing if we aren't spontaneous... that seems to go for our family too.

Last Friday Jen's parents came down last minute to visit. On Saturday night David, Jamie & Jeffrey decided to come down so we could all go to Sea World together on Sunday!

Early Sunday morning we went to Balboa Park to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are amazing! If you haven’t had a chance to go see them… GO RIGHT NOW! They are only going to be here through December.

At Sea World, we had so much fun watching Jeffrey interact with all of the animals... he wanted to jump right in and swim with the sea rays and dolphins... and David just about let him :)

That night we decided to do a Thanksgiving dinner since we were all together. The guys fried up a turkey... when they weren't spending time playing with guns!

They also deep fried BACON-WRAPPED-SNICKERS… I know it sounds gross. It was gross. I blame David… it was his idea! Well, the guys kind of liked it, but as you can see in the pictures… I have a more refined pallet.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Thanksgiving a la Merwin

Jen's parents came down this weekend spur of the moment to celebrate Thanksgiving & Jen's birthday. We spent the day shopping, shooting and sorting (clothes).

Tonight we decided to have a "Thanksgiving Meal" as a tribute to Blake & Allison... salmon... because the turkey is still frozen solid!


Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)

Happy Birthday Tonita

Happy Birthday Tonita!
Hope you enjoyed the apple pie in Julian as much as you enjoyed the water reeds in Peru :)

Saturday, November 03, 2007

How old do you think I am?

Okay, so I turn thirty this December. I know, so you, my beloved readers, just rolled your eyes back into your head thinking, “if only I were thirty again!” But get over it, this my tale of woe.

So I am constantly barraged with over-aging. I have been aged as old as, oh say, forty-five to fifty year old! Of course, everyone does some major back pedaling when I tell them I am yet to hit thirty. It is the typical “well you don’t look that old, you just act that way” or “well, its because of everything you have done, you know, a flight school and all.” It always ends that same, I ask, “how old do you think I am?” and I am always aged at least an extra decade!

Danny and Tonita came over the other evening to watch Survivor, as they do everything Thursday night. On some weird impulse (driven by Danny), Danny and I ended in the grocery store looking for the fixins for chili-cheese dogs.

As dumb luck would have it, I ran into the same lady three times, once in the produce section, once in the chili section, and now here we were again in the dairy section.

As I slide up next to her to check out the best price on cheese, I blurt out, “It looks as though I am stalking you.”

She kindly smiles back. No, not the “hey-get-away-from-me-you-crazy-stalker-guy- but- I-will-smile-to-calm-you-so-you-don’t-attack-me” smile.

No it was a real smile as she responded, “No problem, you college guys gotta eat cheap!”

Did you hear that? “College guys.” Yep, a solid eighteen to twenty-two years old, maybe even twenty-four because we were slow learners, but definitely not thirty.

I think I actually did scare the poor lady with my reaction. I almost hugged her….or did I? I can’t quite remember.

Anyways, Jen and Tonita had to totally ruin it for me when Danny and I returned home and relayed the story. They, of course, felt the need to dash my highest compliment in days by claiming that she probably saw Danny and mostly referring to him. Well, balderdash, it was directed at good ole stalker me. (and do “early twenty-somethings” use the word balderdash?....ARGGGGGG!)

New Bag


I just got this cute new bag at Target! It is even cuter in person.

I saw it last week on clearance marked down from $25.00 to $11.00, but was too cheap to buy it. Yesterday I happened to be in Target again doing returns and it called out to me. I walked by, trying to avoid it, but then saw that it was marked down to $5.75! I had to get it… I really had no choice :)

It reminds me of the blogs designs that I have been working on. Do you think I can write it off as a business expense?!? :)

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Two...

The number of posts we have written this month... two. (Actually three if you count this post!)

I can't believe we have been such slackers this month. So much has been going on so it isn't like there was nothing to post about.

We had a booth again this year at the Miramar Air Show and of course it rained! It has rained every year since we started selling at the air show... if you are keeping track, this will make it 4 years in a row that it has rained. I think we are bad luck. The air show was a lot of work as always, but having Jen's parents and Danny & TOnita come help made it fun!

A few days after the air show, Jen got a call from Kimberly King at NBC San Diego. She wanted to do a story on Blue Yonder Girl on her Streetside San Diego show! Jen & Tonits got their 5 minutes of fame and had a blast on the show. We are still working on getting a digital copy of the show. As soon as we do we'll post it!

That week Blake & Allison also came down to visit... actually they came for a church conference, but I'd like to think they came down just to see me :) Kenny was in Mexico for 5 days on a trip, so seeing old friends and just hanging out made the time go by faster.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Blue Yonder Blogs was featured on a giveaway site. The giveaway went great and I got a bunch of orders for new designs! It has been so much fun working with these great bloggers and getting paid to do what I love.

Anyway, Halloween is tonight and that means our annual Nightmare Before Christmas party with Danny & Tonita (can it be considered a party if only 4 people and 2 cute dogs are in attendance?!?) I am so excited to eat too much food and watch one of our favorite movies. I have been singing "This is Halloween" all day!

Happy Halloween everyone! We love you and promise we'll post more than two times next month!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Blog Design Giveway

Today I am being featured over at Bloggy Giveaways!

Check it out. People seem to like me :)

Monday, October 01, 2007

And then there was one...

So, one of our new fishy friends died this weekend :(

It was the one Kenny had picked out and dubbed "Lure." Maybe we should have called him "Week 1" like David suggested.

The bummer thing is that Kenny was in Seattle when it happened... I think he kind of blames me for murdering his fish since mine is just fine.

RIP Lure.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Support the Rabid

Danny & Tonita came over last night for our weekly Survivor get together. We have been doing this for years and will continue to do so until CBS cancels the show, one of us moves away or the Rapture happens. Kenny and I have actually watched every single Survivor season and this year looks like it won't disappoint.

Anyway, last night was also the premier of season 4 of The Office. And since this year it is on at 9:00 instead of 8:30, we get to watch it! For those of you who don't watch this hilarious show I say go borrow the last 3 seasons RIGHT THIS MINUTE :)



Some of my favorite quotes from last night...

Michael Scott: Kelly, you're Hindu so you believe in Buddha.

Kelly: That's Buddhist.

Michael Scott: Are you sure?

Kelly: No.


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Creed: I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader.

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RIP Sprinkles


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A few of our other shows (and by "our" I really mean "my" because Kenny can do with or without TV)...

LOST- Best show EVER!
Heroes
Amazing Race
Survivor
The Office

Anyway, What shows are you excited about? Anything that you just have to watch?

New Fall Design

Just trying out a new design for the new season.

It is raining today and the weather is nice and crisp. It finally feels like summer is over and fall is here :)

Edited to add: I changed the site layout 3 times today... sorry if it was crazy. I am my own worse critic.. I really was not liking the first two... I think I finally settled on one I liked :)

Monday, September 24, 2007

Name our fish

Yesterday we were at PetSmart and saw two little fish that we just HAD TO HAVE RIGHT THAT MINUTE! :)

Most of you know that we are notorious for not being able to name living creatures... we have had a beta named "Fish" a hamster named "Hammie" and a dwarf hamster named "Little Guy" (cause he was smaller than Hammie). It was only by sheer luck that Pilot has a name and is not called "Dog.” I am sure our kids may just end up being "Kid 1" and "Kid 2"

Anyway, our new little fish friends need names. The pictures aren't the greatest cause fish are incredibly hard to photograph... who knew?!? They are both fancy goldfish. One is orange and white and has bluish eyes. The other is a really cool green color and looks like a bass or a fishing lure.

Any suggestions?



Friday, September 21, 2007