Quesooooo

This weekend we drove to the mountains to meet up with Mandy, Seth, Chandon, and Seth's parents!! John and I left home after work on Friday and arrived well after dark that night. Saturday we ventured out into the town of Asheville which turns out to be very similar to Berkeley so needless to say, we didn't last there very long. Next we toured the town we were staying in, Black Mountain.





Right about the time we had seen everything there was to see (it is a small town), Mandy called to say they had just arrived. We met up with Mandy, Seth, and Seth's parents, then went to get Chandon!!! Chandon is Seth's son who lives in Charlotte, NC with his mom (and family). Chandon turns 3 this week and his birthday party was in the Asheville area where his grandparents live. So we took Chandon out to dinner for Mexican food which spawned the cutest, and most repeated word for the weekend, "k-soooo" (queso, cheese in spanish, we used it when taking pictures..."say queso"...."k-soooo").






Sunday John and I had breakfast with the Haak's at their bed & breakfast, then spent the morning playing with Chandon before we headed out of town, and they headed to a pirate birthday party! It was so great to see my sister!! And we had a great time with her new family. :)


As a side note, here is the progress on the deck!! Almost done!!!!

The Latest Storm

We survived another tornado! We have an amazing weather reporting system called the Dual Doppler 5000. You can literally watch the storm or tornado as it travels in its path of misery. This is the second tornado warning we've had and I've had to weather them out (pun intended) by myself with John at work. During the first tornado watch, I watched the Doppler intensely as the tornado came directly at my area. I eventually rounded up the four dogs (we were dog sitting) and squeezed into the bathroom for safety until the Doppler reported that the tornado had cleared. This is me in the bathroom...


Last week we had our second tornado watch, but this time the power went out so I didn't have the Doppler to help me through. I had been at WalMart when the storm hit, so I left quickly to out run the storm.



Again, I rounded up the puppies (only our 2 this time) and sat in the bathroom again. No power, no internet, and no phone. I had no idea what was happening outside other than it looked like it was 10:00pm but it was only 4:00pm. Shortly after the storm passed, my neighbor's came over to check on me. But it should have been the other way around!! She mentioned that a tree had hit their house, and sure enough, a HUGE tree had taken out the entire front porch along with a corner of their house. 2 more trees had taken out their brand new fence and part of their back deck. We can only figure that the tornado had touched down on their trees as there was no other damage to anyone else in the neighborhood.



**note: I never saw the tornado, so no, I was not trying to outrun the funnel cloud....they say not to do that.

*note to self: make an emergency kit with a battery powered radio!

I love to BBQ (cook-out)

John has been hard at work building our deck and it looks great!



So while he was working out front, I made him dinner! I am really enjoying being home, cooking, baking, and seeing John! Tonight during dinner I commented on how I had forgotten what it felt like to have 2 full days off and that I actually was ready to go back to work on Monday rather than dreading the end of Sunday night! Of course, I'd love to stay home every day, but that's just not in the plans for the moment. ;)





Can you believe it is the middle of July already?

We had friends over for a 4th of July "cook out" (that's a BBQ in California language). I rushed to put together our grill the night before the party...This is me praying to the Citronella gods to keep the bugs away from me for a little while longer.


the bugs finally got to me, so I had to finish it the next day...


FInally!


John, Ray, Michelle, and Melissa (Uzi and Nikita)


We had steak kabobs, veggie kabobs, bbq chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad, grilled corn on the cob, baked beans, mexican dip with chips, and lil' smokies! I guess we didn't take a picture of the spread!

Banana Splits, Apple Pie, and Dr. Pepper Floats for dessert


Gunner, Gauge, Nikita, and Uzi

Our new deck

I have never been happy with the fact that our house looks like a trailer on blocks, so John is building "me" a front deck/porch! Our neighbor Ray is teaching him the fine art of deck building.








This was my contribution to the project: