Paint Night, Baby J and Cheesy Zucchini and Red Onion Flatbread

     During the Pandemic lockdown I really missed sharing a paint night with my sister Lisa and our friend Lupe. The three of us are like the Three Amigos and at times like the Three Stooges, depending on how much wine and how many shots of Agavero we've shared. But no matter what, we always have fun.

    Here's a photo of the three of us, it's pretty old, I believe from 2019, but I just love this one. 

    Because of the health of my mom she and I were very careful to stay in quarantine to prevent her getting sick, so paint night was put on hold until this past Saturday night, June 11th. 

    We had planned to get together at 5pm at my house, but Lisa and Lupe surprised me by showing up at around 4:30! They caught me still prepping and I didn't even have time to change the grungy t-shirt I was wearing, so needless to say there are no pictures that I allowed to be taken of me that night!

    However we did take pictures of almost everything else, but let's start with the food we shared. 

    Lupe brought our appetizer, a veggie tray with snap peas, carrots, broccoli, celery, baby tomatoes and ranch dressing. Wish we had a picture!!! Picture or not, it was so good!

   As for a beverage, we started the festivities with a shot of our favorite tequila, Agavero. It was delicious. I had bought two kinds of wine because I know some people don't really like wine and I didn't remember if Lupe did, so I bought a very mellow and sweet Stella Rosa, cause everyone loves Stella Rosa wines. I also bought a 2019 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon as I'm partial to Cabs. I don't remember who had what but after a shot of Agavero and half a glass of Cab I was not so worried anymore about people showing up early!

    By this time the Cheesy Zucchini and Red Onion Flatbread was done and we had that with a mixed spring salad on the side with Italian Dressing. Again no photo, but I have blogged the recipe, so here's a picture and a link to the recipe is HERE. 

    We then cleaned up and what I like best about these two ladies is that they jump in and help! Then it was time to get down to painting.

    But before I talk about the painting, we had a special guest. Someone that has made multiple appearances on my blog, someone near and dear to my heart, Baby J!!! She is Lisa's granddaughter. Here's one of the first pictures I posted about her on the blog back on Sept, 2014. 

    She and I have done numerous Art Projects every time she visits and it was so fun to have her join us for the first time ever for Paint Night. Here she is, all grown up and beautiful!

    I'll show her artwork first. She painted a bunny rabbit peeking out from the left side of the canvas. She's only halfway through in this photo, but you can tell she's pretty pleased with her work so far!

    Here is her final piece, she did an excellent job and she is the smartest, funniest, most insightful child ever. She astonished us with her knowledge and her vocabulary is over the moon. I know she's my niece but I'm not exaggerating, it's a flippin' genius!

    Here's the piece Lupe started, none of us really had time to completely finish our art piece, except for Baby J, but we got a good start. Lupe is wanting to try stenciling designs on some of her walls at home, so she took the opportunity to stencil on a canvas board and we all loved where this is going and hope she frames this once she is done. (You can see the intensity on Baby J's face in the background as she works on her painting.)

    Lisa decided to work on what was to me a very difficult piece, but I love what she's got so far and it's going to be beautiful once she is done. There's a waterfall in the middle part there that is not painted in yet.

    I had purchased a book for Lisa when we had our road trip to Ojai a couple of weeks ago and there was a photo in that book that I really wanted to try painting, here's the photo.

    And here's what I've done so far, I have quite a ways to go and in the photo it looks like the sun setting behind the tree, but in mine it looks more like dusk already, so I may add some stars and then paint the tree over it, not sure yet.

    We also had a surprise visit from Baby J's dad and Lisa's son Sean, who is a police officer with our local police department. Since he was there my mom took the opportunity to give him a handmade quilt she was making for his birthday but she couldn't wait until January of next year. She's so proud of him!

    He just stayed for a second as he was on a break and had to go back on duty, but it was wonderful to see him and I am so grateful to him for sharing Baby J with us all these year. Love you Sean!

    I will end this post with a photo of the joyful chaos that was on my kitchen table that night. I hope Baby J remembers this night, but if not this blog post will always be here for her, as well as all the other blog posts since 2014. 

    Thank you Lisa and Lupe and when can we do this again!

Halloween 2021 - Baby J and Baby Rose and their Nana

 A quick post just as a remembrance of Halloween this year. 

Last Halloween was sad because of Covid. We hard-core sheltered in, we have to because mom is 85 and her lungs are compromised. So no one was allowed in the house. They could visit, but outside, everyone with a mask and they had to sit 10 feet away from mom.

This year we've both had 2 vaccines and a booster and we feel like we can be a little bit more daring...not crazy daring, we're not hitting the clubs or anything, just opening up our home to family again. Maybe we will even host Christmas again this year...we will see, baby steps Alicia, baby steps.

So we got to see our beautiful, sweet, smart Baby J! I posted this photo on my blog on September 2014. She was about 5 months shy of becoming two years old. She's the first great grandchild my mom has been blessed with and she continues to be a blessing to us all. She's the daughter of my sister Lisa's firstborn son who is shown in the picture at his swearing in ceremony for law enforcement. He's still a peace officer today.

Well Baby J is mostly all grown up now. I believe she's going to be 9 in Feb of 2022 and she has a sidekick now, her little sister Baby Rose! Here's a picture of them this Halloween as their daddy brought them to visit their Nana. And even thought Baby Rose has not been as lucky as Baby J to visit Nana every week, there is still a strong bond. My dad used to say "la Sangre llama" which translated means "blood calls" and there is a strong call to my mom with all her grand and great grandchildren. 

Baby J is the big girl with the Mickey Mouse ears. She closed her eyes in this one, but I loved the expression on Baby Rose's face so I had to share it. Doesn't my mom look so happy!

Baby Rose was so cute, she would shout "Trick or Treat" and then reach into her bucket and give US candy! You can see my mom is enchanted with Baby Rose in this one. I should have taken a video so I could know what they were chatting about.

The face of my mom says it all! And guess what??? Next year for Halloween, there will be a new member to this family! A little man! Can't wait to meet him. Thank you Sean for always sharing your beautiful family with us! We love you all!

A Beautiful Wedding - A New Life Together

Who doesn't love a wedding? On April 23rd, I had the honor and pleasure to attend the wedding of my nephew Sean, the son of my sister Lisa. It was a joyous occasion!

The day before the wedding the weather was horrible, the wind blowing like crazy, lightening, thunder, hail, rain, flooding! And the wedding was planned in an outdoor setting! The couple didn't even have a chance to hold their rehearsal because of the weather.

But the wedding day dawned bright and beautiful, much like the love between Sean and his beautiful beloved bride to be, Rocio!

Remember Baby J? I think this was the last picture I posted of her on my blog. Our little Minnie Mouse.

Minnie Mouse has grown up into a beautiful little girl who was the flower girl at her daddy's wedding. Here she is with Baby J's Nini and Poppa, my sister Lisa and her husband Sean Sr. Just Precious!

Don't my sister and her husband look way to young and gorgeous to be grandparents?

Of course I had to pin down that little flower girl and get a picture taken with her. She was starving and not about to let go of her bread so this was the best shot of all the photos I took with her and in every photo this little doll was eating! And eating carbs at that!

The Groom has three brothers who were all part of the wedding party as well. From left to right, Richard aka Richie, the oldest; Edward, then the baby of the family, Issac aka Ikie. Handsome boys!

The father of the four brothers, Sean Sr only knew how to deal with boys since he never had a daughter, but then this little Princess came into the picture and wrapped her Poppa around her little finger and life was never the same again! Here he is helping her to put her slippers back on! Like Cinderella and her Prince!

As you can see there's a lot of dirt in these photos. It was a year ago when the bride and groom choose this venue for their wedding and it was grassy and beautiful. Perhaps you've heard on the news that California is going through a drought? Well this is the result of the drought. Because this venue was outside the city limits and part of a running farm whose well dried up, the farmer was forced to use the water he has been able to get to nurture his animals and crops and not to water the lawns. A sad reality in California right now. But this couple persevered and the wedding was beautiful, dirt and all!

I wish my dad could have been here to see his "Tony" get married. Dad always called him Tony as his name is Sean Anthony. My mom was in attendance though, nothing could keep her away even though just a few weeks earlier she had been hospitalized for five days with double pneumonia! She was so happy for Sean, she's beaming in this picture!

The day was gorgeous, the bride and groom so much in love, weddings are so great!  Here's the new little family and I see so much happiness and joy in their future.

But as we all know, in marriage there are those days when you wonder, "why did I do this?" Just in case I want to post this video of a beautiful song by Kenny Chesney so that this couple always remembers this wedding day, their courtship and the many days filled with "The Good Stuff" that they will have in their future together and just let go of anything else because there will always be more "good stuff" than bad. Love you both Sean and Rocio!






 

Our Halloween and October in a Nutshell

Well today is the 1st day of November and October was a blur! Not sure why starting in October the day's just fly by!

But it was a great month. The weather is finally feeling a little bit fallish, even though today is back to 82 and sunny.

We had some great times this month. We had Baby J all to ourselves one Saturday so we took her for a walk in the neighborhood! She loves to walk the dogs, even though you can tell in this picture that Chorizo is not too sure about Baby J walking her!

We also were lucky in finding my cousin Art outside cleaning out his Koi Pond. Baby J loves the beautiful fish and I thought she would be scared of them but she had no problem petting them! Child has no fear! You can see that her grandmother who Baby J calls Nini is full of fear, fear of Baby J falling into the pond! See her grabbing the back of J's shirt? 

After our walk we headed to the Little Bear Pumpkin Patch. There is nothing like seeing the holidays through the eyes of a little one! She loved it and we loved watching her!

Baby J and I in a pumpkin cutout!

Baby J and I and my mom. Baby J is my moms only great granddaughter.

Baby J and her Nini at the Pumpkin Patch!

Then last night of course was Halloween and Baby J came trick or treating to our house. The funny thing is she tried to give us her candy, silly baby! She looked adorable as Minnie Mouse and she loved Chorizo's costume, a big red lobster!

And now we're in November. Thanksgiving, changing of the leaves, football and hopefully more Baby J awaits!


 

Frazier Park Fiesta Days - Small town fun!

We decided this weekend to get out of the valley heat and head up to the mountains. Frazier Park was celebrating their 48th annual Fiesta Days and we thought we would head up the mountain and check it out. 

Picked up my sister and noticed how beautiful her Arizona Plant is this year. It's huge and just gorgeous and I am so jealous!

Her plant gets sun constantly and these types of plants love the sun. My plant is next to a huge tree and it doesn't get but a few hours sun a day so it's no where near as pretty as hers. I'm going to have to move it next year.

So we left Lisa's house and headed to pick up our friend Connie who went with us and headed towards Frazier Park which is about 45 minutes south of Bakersfield.

We found the park and we were surprised how nice an event it was. The weather was great, about 77 degrees with a nice breeze. It wasn't too crowded and they had lots of great vendors.

One vendor had what she called "hand made sandals" for $20 and we all bought a pair. I really don't think they were hand made but they were adorable! I bought a red pair even though they weren't practical and I can't wear them with everything, but I just loved the way they look and red is my mom's favorite color.

There were also lots of food vendors. I was a bit worried about going because I wasn't sure what I was going to eat. They had Kettle Korn which is something that I always buy, but I didn't. They had regular yellow corn on the cob with lots of different toppings, but it is filled with carbs and something that is not on my list of foods I can eat.

Finally I decided on a Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog. I requested it without the bun and they were nice enough to put it in a little cardboard tray and then they added onions and bell peppers. It was delicious and minimal on carbs. Where there's a will, there's a way!

We walked around the whole event twice to make sure we didn't miss anything. I also purchased some green olives stuffed with jalapenos and they are delicious. I'm sure I will be eating them often throughout the next few weeks when I am craving salty chips!

My gorgeous sister Lisa bought a flower garland. I should have taken a picture from the back as it had long curling ribbon trailing all the way down her back. She looked so cute!

She also took this great picture in a real race car. Those things are hard to get in and out of!

After a great time we decided to drive around the small town and see what it was like. Lisa made me pull over because she wanted to get a picture of a "tin man". It was kind of cute that most of the houses had home made decor like this. It was a very quaint little city.

So all in all we had a fun time, we all now have cute shoes and great memories and then today I got to see Baby J and I had bought her a Little Nemo Bubble Gun and she loved it and me for buying it for her :)

July was a Great Month!

July is my birthday month and this year it was an especially fun month, even though it has been dreadfully hot and humid!

For my birthday, my sister and our friend Lupe planned a day trip to Monterrey, California. We left home early, around 7 am and arrived right around noon. First thing we did was something that has almost become a tradition for the three of us. We hit Ross Dress for Less. We love to shop at Ross!

After that we headed for Fisherman's Wharf where we took a ride on a glass bottom boat. Unfortunately due to the algae in the ocean we couldn't see anything but green and every once in a while some seaweed. 

But we were able to see some pretty cool harbor seals just lounging around sunning themselves on rocks.

We had a great dinner at El Torito Restaurant. I had bacon wrapped shrimp and Lisa and Lupe both had Vegetarian Fajitas.

Then the highlight of the trip for me, the 17 mile drive.

17-Mile Drive is widely recognized as one of the most scenic drives in the world. The famous coastal landmark runs through Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach, from the dramatic Pacific coastline to the majestic Del Monte Forest. The awe-inspiring vistas and legendary sites can easily fill an entire day with exploration and discovery, although visitors with less time should not miss the opportunity to experience this wondrous journey as well.

This whole drive is so beautiful. Unfortunately we got there pretty late and it was almost sunset so we couldn't lolly-gaggle as much as I would have like too, but we still enjoyed it.

One of many stops along the way - 17 mile drive

Another stop - 17 mile drive, my sister Lisa and I

Me on the Beach - 17 mile drive

Magical Sunset - 17 mile drive

It was a great day and a long drive home but well worth it. Next time we go though we will definitely make it an over night trip and take our time on the 17 mile drive.

Then my dear friend and co-worker Angie provided a special treat she made just for me. Low Carb even!

She gave me a beautiful silver ring with a purple stone, she bought me Starbucks and she made a low -carb cheese cake with a beautiful strawberry design on top. This cheesecake even had a chocolate crust!. She also invited a lady that works next door that has become a good friend, Maria. It was a very special way to start my birthday, even though I chose to work that day (our employer give us our birthday off, I'm save it for something else).

Then last night we went to a surprise birthday party for my niece Sarena. She is my baby brothers oldest child and she turned 25. We got to dress in costume and had a lot of fun with family and we danced til we dropped!

Lisa and I with our niece Sarena

My sister Lisa, me and our brother Jaime with our mother

The today was a Baby J Sunday! Yay! Love this precious little girl and the older she gets the more fun and funny she is!

So July was a very good month for me! A very busy month. Not sure what August has in store as I don't have any plans but time will tell.