I love my new organization

Yesterday when I arrived home what did I see but the UPS man pulling out of our cul-de-sac...maybe my office organizers are here...YES!!!! Now, I'm sure you're wondering how one can be so excited about boxes and organizing but I'm a little odd and it just makes to so happy, it's actually a wonderful stress reliever. Needless to say, I've been working during my lunches on getting that totally over stuffed bookcase in the office/guestroom more presentable. I'm hoping to have updated photos for you by late next week. I would have them this weekend however 1 of the boxes was damaged in transit, I need them all for the complete look and they can't ship the replacement out until monday. Guess you know where I'll be during my free time for a while.
Where you ask will Dominic be???? In front of the TV playing the new Grand Theft Auto IV. For all you video game virgins this is the stealing cars, beating up guys, and unspeakable acts game that our children will not watch or play until they're 18. With that said, I bought it for him and I hope he thoroghly enjoys it :)

Asparagus Festival

Today we made our first treck to the stockton asparagus festival, Dominic was there last year volunteering but I was on call and couldn't go....Our first stop was the wonderful asparagus food....starting with asparagus burritos, tri tip and asparagus sandwiches and an aspara-mary, which was SPICY

Then we headed for the fried asparagus tent...look at all those people making fried food...they give you six BIG stocks sprinkled with parm and ranch to dunk them in
We decided to take a little walk and find out what else the festival had to offer when we stumbled upon the asparagus eating contest. This is no amature competition, it's goverened by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. We waited in the hot sun (mid 80's) for the competition to begin and were amazed at the different approaches to readying the stocks for quick consumption. Many of the guys were pouring tons of beverages and drenching the stocks with water. Two of the best were in attendance, Joey Chestnut and Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti (both currently ranked higher than the well known Takeru Kobayashi). Of course the hometown boy Joey (he's from San Jose) won for the 4th year in a row...you might notice the numbers they're holding up, that's how many pounds they have eaten already, and the final was more than 8lbs for both first and second place (that's in 10min)
Now that eating was the furthest thing from my mind, we continued to walk around and stumbled upon another fun competition, a dog competition. The pups were in a relay where they had to jump the hurdles and pull the ball off the board and return back when the next dog took off...it's amazing how well they time those jumps so they don't even lose stride.
At this point we were trying to avoid sunburn and decided it was best to head home, but again we came across something interesting...check out the truck we discovered between stockton and modesto....I made Dominic slow down so I could capture this unique vehicle
Finally we arrived home and thankfully were NOT sunburned, here is the pup in her typical weekend rest period, followed by her crazy time, she literally moves from one straight into the other without provoking and the back to rest again

While Dominic managed the pup and XBox 360 I decided to tackle a project I have been putting off since Jan 2006...Organizing and weeding through my nursing school notes. In the end it turned out to be best that I waited because I can now adequately assess what information I truely need to keep and what is just common knowledge for me. Here is the before and after. How small is that after stack!!! and I uncovered my 'award'...I thought it was fitting and you might agree ;)

Johnson-Carvloth Wedding and our wonderful trip to Coronado, CA

First and foremost, I would like to say CONGRATS to the newlyweds. Without you this weekend wouldn't have been possible ;) We had such a fabulous time on Coronado Island and we're SOOOO happy we decided to make the 7hr drive! The weekend started off with a stay at the Omni hotel in San Diego...great rate off priceline ($99) and a very nice hotel just less than a block from Petco Field....for all you baseball fans Thursday night was the 22 inning game between the Rockies and the Padres. We got ready and headed over to Coronado to meet up with Ryan and Mora for some yummy mexican food at the Coronado Brewing Co. We made our way to The Hotel Del Coronado and met up with a bunch of the wedding pary and Cornell guys for drinks at the hotel bar and had a great time catching up with everyone.

Friday morning we checked out early and I dropped Dominic off for a 4 man scramble at the Municipal Course...how gorgeous is this place?

I made my way to the Loews Coronado Bay Resort...again, breathtaking

for a coconut infusion sugar scrub followed by a massage...this was just heavinly and I was SO much more relaxed afterward...this relaxation came in handy when the boys didn't return from their golf outing until nearly 330pm. Thankfully I was able to check into the Hotel Del a little early and as I was not disappointed by the views or service. This is the main building which is the oldest part of the hotel, dating back to 1888!

Here is our room: Love the king sized bed and the room itself was much bigger than the standard hotel rooms now a days. The bathroom was a little small but was certainly adaquate for a quick wash up after a day in the surf and sand. If you make the trip yourself I would choose to stay in either the main building or the beach village. DO NOT stay in the towers building, it's basically added on space that is typical hotel accommodations, why go to such a gorgeous location for typical ammenities?

Once the guys finally arrived back from golf we lounged at the pool for a bit

Then headed out to dinner with the non-wedding party people...we had heard about a great little mexican place less than a block from the resort but when we arrived the wait was long. the hostess escorted us to a private room at the restaurants alternative location...we felt very VIP. The restaurant is Miguelito's Sala de Artes y Comer. Everything in this place is for sale...it's like a restaurant and boutique in one.

This is the room we ate in, but it was set up differently with a HUGE table in the middle that comfortably sat all 10 of us, and several of those 10 are BIG football guys. A bonus to this location, the margarita's are hand made and not a mix which means you get more of the good stuff....and we had at least 20 of those wonderful salted beverages.

That evening the wedding party hosted a dessert reception complete with Port and coffee....needless to say we got a little tipsy.

Thankfully we were feeling great come morning time, Dominic even made his way down to the fitness center and did some cardio. We took a walk on the beach and shot some nice pictures of the hotel and ocean:

and headed up to the room to get ready for the wedding....some how the camera didn't make it to the actual ceremony...so no pics of that...but I ran and got it before the cocktail hour and we got some nice shots of all the guys on the lawn

(From L-->R) Vic, Kevin R, Marschall Burkes, Dominic, Jason, DJ, Chad, Tom B, Ryan, and Kevin B

The beautiful ladies with the gents

Megan (Marschall's wife), Vic's Finnish GF, Kevin B, Rosalie, Dominic, Shawna, Lauren (DJ's fiance), Jason, Maura (Ryan's GF), Tom B, and Neil. Those missing boys are getting drinks, they were constantly running to the bar the whole time.

We made our way inside (thank goodness because the ladies were getting chilly) The reception was in the Crownroom, named because of the crown lighting....

Here we are before everyone got crazy on the dance floor
Dinner was great and we got to congratulate the bride and groom
Can you tell which ones are Megan (the bride) and Trent (the groom)??? They looked fantastic and were beaming the whole evening

During the first dance Dominic snapped this photo...and that aura is NOT added, it just showed up like that

And the dancing commenced....craziness ensued...great fun was had by all! Thanks again Megan and Trent (and your parents) for a phenominal evening

Jason and I on the dance floor

Kevin and Kate having a blast (can't wait for their wedding in Aug)

Dominic and Jason gettin down

I've GOT to go here

Most of you know I lived in Tennessee for over 2 years. Most of that time was spent in Nashville, but I did spend about 8 weeks in Knoxville with the Cook's. In all that time I never heard of or came across this place:

I discovered it on another blog today and am thinking it's getting added to my must do in life list. Check it out for yourself and I'm sure you'd agree.

Feeling lucky

I realize this post is a little premature but I had quite the epiphany in the car on the way back to work from lunch....We are complely Blessed to have amazing women in our lives! Mother's day is coming up quickly and I was out shopping for presents for the 3 mothers in our lives. To those of you saying "three?", I count my sister in there as well since she too is a mother. Let me start with her.

Cindy is an amazing mommy to our neice Hailee. She is managing to raise a smart, inquisitive, compassionate and funny little girl all while traversing one of the toughest paths one can take in life. We truely hope her recent engagement will make 2008 the best year of her life so far and that the road gets easier from here forward.

Dominic's mother Mary is the most fabulous mother-in-law anyone could ask for. She has raised the most amazing man I have ever met. He is compassionate and strong while managing to put up with me on a daily basis, how she managed to instill those qualities is beyond me but I will be forever greatful and hope I can do the same for my son one day. Mary is one of the busiest ladies I know and she still finds the time to connect with us down in Cali. She has treated me as her own and I couldn't be more thankful to be a part of their family now.

My mom, Brenda, has had one of the toughest years and is still in the middle of a battle with her health. She is staying strong and helping with a grandchild all while trying not to fall. Anyone else in her situation would have given up and she has done just the opposite. It's so difficult to continue to stay positive when life keeps knocking you over but she just gets back up and keeps going. I think this woman has been through more in the past year that any person should ever have to go through and I'm so proud of her for her strength. Sure, there have been tears and there will be more I'm sure but she will conquer this. On my way back from work I heard a new song on the radio and that is what sparked this post. The song is by Bucky Covington, an American Idol contestant from years past, and is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opys9ye0hm0 I won't tell you the name because it will give some of the emotion away.

A little irony now, I'm not exactly known for my love of music....By that I mean I don't follow music much. I have been known to burst into tears when the right song comes on the radio and that's exactly what happened with that song above. But my husband is always going, "what, you've never heard that song?" However, I do know the lyrics to a TON of music just NOT rock and roll because I wasn't raised on it.

We got the album proofs

Ladies and Gentleman we have proof pics! I realize it's very difficult to see these with so many on a page but I didn't want to post a bazillion photos and as you can see there are a ton of pages! We love most of them but will be doing some tweaks here and there. If you notice something you love or loathe please let us know!

I bought me some organization!

I'm sure everyone remembers this picture of that bookcase in our office that is TOTALLY overstuffed. Well today I've started down my path to fix that eyesore....just a reminder of the beforeI was doing my morning blog role call and found these wonderful file boxes to replace those clear boxes that are way too big for the bookcase. I got a combo of white and green
And I picked up a few boxes to hold extra papers and misc tools from the same site. Best part...they were 1/2 the price of the same ones at the container store. Now I need to pick up some new folders to help coordinate everything..PS dominic will be finding out about these wonderful purchases when ya'll do! :)

Outdoor furniture

You know you're an adult when...you're researching outdoor furniture (ok, this is one of many things that we've encountered this last 16 month that are very adult in nature) We cleared out that nasty hot tub a while back and have been humming and hawing over what to put in the space. The outdoor furniture still hadn't come out yet, well it has now and I still can't find much I like. We're looking for something sturdy and attractive but NOT wicker as the hubby finds anything wicker offensive looking. Here are some top choices...

this is from Kmart but they don't seem to have the great little cafe set in stock and that what we'd like since we prefer to 'lounge' rather than just sit at the table. ($499 for the cafe and $600 for the table and chairs)

Up next, Sears

This one is $700 not including the umbrella (we really want an offset umbrella like this one only larger, maybe 10ft diameter)

Next we have home depot (we've actually sat in these)

This combo is $1000, but no ottomans :(

This is also $1000 and it's comfy. Dominic could lay down it's so long

I don't want to pay more than $500 so I'm sure you can see where the dilemma is coming in...HELP