cali trip 2011

cali trip 2011–day 5

and it was BACK to the bay area for us!

we met grandpa dick at the oakland zoo, where he volunteers, and had a great time wandering around and seeing all the animals.

layla and micah w/ the tortoises. they were HUGE! checking out the siamangs. I’m always a fan of trains. even smaller zoo trains. we didn’t have time to ride it this time though. flamingos playing in the sprinkler. our family and grandpa dick by the elephants. layla, kissing the pig for gramma laurie. micah, kissing a pig butt… because he’s micah. hopping lily pads in the children’s zoo. micah, showing that he’s part frog. our family. we had a really nice family picture that we took here 2 years ago, and I wanted to update it. this one didn’t turn out as good. oh well. layla, the spider. layla and shane on a caterpillar.

after the zoo, we made a brief stop to see nana: where we played with toys… and ate cheetoh’s…

then laurie dropped dave and I off with nolan to head to the giants game. selfie at the game. it was SO cold!!! the hot chocolate vender was my best friend!

but it was a good game. the giants won and we got to see brian wilson pitch. I kinda wish I’d had his beard. I probably would have been warmer!

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white wine marinated pork chops recipe

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week 33 in pictures

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homemaking 101... ponderings, ramblings... the usual.

so i've been analyzing lately (because that's what i do) why i get so frustrated with myself, my shortcomings in the areas of housekeeping and organization, creativity, cooking, etc. it would seem that i'm trying to live up to the expectations of june cleaver, or my grandmother, or something equally unrealistic. no, i don't expect to push the vacuum and baste a turkey in heels and pearls, (besides, i have the roomba , remember?), but i do expect more of myself than i have been giving currently. why? i've been doing what i usually do when i have an issue i want to know more about; i check out every book the library has on the subject (organization problems anyone?). there are a LOT of books out there written by homemakers, for homemakers with a lot of different slants on the whole subject. interestingly enough, the view that disturbs me the most is not the one that suggests that God has decreed it so that women have no other calling than to be wives and mothers (alt...

smoothie-crazy!

I’ve always been into smoothies. but I kind of go in phases with them. there will be times that I have the ALL THE TIME, and then other times when I’ve forgotten about them and don’t have them at all. right now, I’m on a major smoothie kick. I was reminded of their sweet, wonderful yumminess a while back when I read a post on the pioneer woman’s site about smoothies . of course, she’s all photography-savvy and has a clean kitchen and whatnot, and I don’t, but this is my take on smoothies. actually, it’s just today’s take on smoothies. it changes daily, depending on what I have on hand or what I’m in the mood for. as you’ll notice, it’s also a shameless plug for my 3rd favorite kitchen appliance. (the first being my coffeemaker, obviously, and the second being my coffee grinder.) so today’s smoothie consisted of the segments of 1 clementine (I have a 5 lb. box that I need to use up before they are not so good… plus, I figure the vitamin c will not hurt me any.), a BUNCH of frozen raspb...

rachel's continued ramblings

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