Settling In

September 13, 2015

Shelves are built and the bed is made.  It's beginning to feel like home.

You Would Think It Would Not Be That Hard to Find a Bedframe

September 12, 2015

Do people in San Diego all already have beds? Or do folks there just not sleep in beds?  I mean, in Fresno, you can't seem to go around a corner without finding a couple of furniture stores.  It's probably the biggest industry in the city.  In San Diego, however, furniture stores were few and far between.  Since there's not a lot of competition, apparently they think it's perfectly appropriate to make you sign away your first-born in order to take one of those bad boys home from the store, too.  (Perhaps only the very wealthy are supposed to have beds in San Diego?) Not even Target, The-Store-That-Magically-Has-Everything-Ever, could produce a bed frame for the mattress we carted down for Bree. Luckily, we finally turned to the always potentially sketchy Craig's List and found a nice couple who was trying to get rid of their trundle bed.  They sold it for next to nothing, even though it was in great condition.  I suspect some rich curmudgeon discovered they had it and called them on it.  Who did they think they were, owning not just one bed, but one that actually turned into two beds?

Moving Bree

September 11, 2015

As soon as school got out today, I jumped in the car and headed down to San Diego with Doug so we could take Bree some furniture to her new apartment in Rancho Penasquitos.  She actually got to move in yesterday, but we're carting down a sofa, love seat, mattress, entertainment center, and chair. I'm excited not only to see Bree and help her furnish her new place, but to get a little get-away with Doug at the same time!

And It's Only Tuesday

February 18, 2014

It's been an eventful few days.

--Traveled to San Diego for the CATE conference with my friend Julie
--Met a vibrant and energetic new friend at CATE
--Met several authors and got signed copies of several novels
--Met an author/artist who designed some of the computer graphics on blockbuster movies who is interested in coming to talk to our robotics team
--Got to visit with Bree twice while I was down in San Diego
--Got pulled over by the police who let me know that unbeknownst to me, I was driving around with both taillights out. (He was kind and didn't give me a ticket, thank goodness.)
--Went to my fourth Rick Springfield concert with my friend Francine
--Had a beautiful belated Valentine's dinner at Capo's with Doug
--Woke up this morning to discover that my debit card had been hacked and frozen
--Got a letter from the school acknowledging Nicholas' Honor Roll from 1st semester
--Found out that as a freshman, Danielle beat out several upperclassmen to fall in the top five discus throwers who qualify to throw at the upcoming track meet
--Got a little bit of a family bombshell revealed this evening

All that and it's only Tuesday.

Bree's First Apartment

August 25, 2012

Although I wasn't able to be with Bree on the day she moved in, I was able to take a little trip down south just a few days later for the weekend.  Bree and her roommates were largely settled in, but there were some things they thought they still needed to make their house a home:  some cooking utensils, an ironing board, a broom, some groceries.  She and I made the trip to the local Target (where is the newest employee) to stock up.  When we came back to the apartment, her roommates and I helped her unpack and put away everything.  I think I handled everything well, this being not much different from helping her move into the dorms last year.  And yet, I will say there was a brief moment, quickly pushed back into the subconscious, when I saw the girls sitting at the dining room table and it occurred to me that one day--perhaps not very long from now--there would be holidays spent at her own home, in her own kitchen, with her own family.  The future is not so far away as I would like to believe.

 Bree with two of her roommates, Anna and Jessica.

Road Trip With My Baby Girl

July 25, 2012

Brianna had a workshop to attend for a Fashion Week event she'll be attending in the fall, so we headed down south for a couple of days.  We stopped off on the way to have lunch with a couple of her friends.  We stayed with my good friend Andie, her partner Janal, and their adorable son Eli.  Beautiful weather, good friends, and lots of time with my girl--now that's a vacation!

Happy Mother's Day

 May 13, 2012

For Mother's Day, I picked the kids up from their dad's and they took me out to a restaurant of my choice.  I chose a Chinese Restaurant nearby, and we sat down to a delicious meal.  Even though the bill was probably a bit more than either anticipated, they wouldn't accept any help from me to pay for it.  They also gave me flowers and some of my favorite lotions from Bath and Body Works.  Danielle had also asked Doug to take her shopping the previous day to pick out some flowers we could grow together in our garden.  She and I have been having a lot of fun working together on our little project.

I missed not having Bree with me this year--the first ever Mother's Day that I haven't spent with her.  However, it so happened that Lisa was down near her in San Diego, so she stopped off with the girls to meet up with Bree for lunch.  In addition, Bree's step-mom Laurie was also down in San Diego visiting all of the girls, so she had gotten to see her, too.  If she couldn't spend Mother's Day with me, then at least she got to spend the day with her two 'extra' moms.    It's the next best thing.

San Diego Visit to Sea World

October 31, 2011