Treats, not Tricks

I made these slider packets for my co-workers for Halloween.  I got the idea from My Pink Stamper .  I may do them in a Christmas design in Decemer, with hot chocolate packets!

Fore!

Last Saturday, we drove about 1hour northwest of here to the city of Rohnert Park, to go to a golf/wedding reception for friends of ours.  Also joining us was our friend, Dana, from Oceanside, who stayed with us last night as she flew in for this quick trip, and Mike, a Seahawks friend of ours from the San Jose area.

The bride and groom actually got married on 09-09-09 in a private ceremony in a cemetery (my kind of place! lol).  They are both avid golfers and wanted to combine golf and a party to celebrate their wedding.  They are also huge Seahawks fans. :)

The day started around 2pm.  We arrived and waited for our tee time at 3pm.  They have about 10 groups of 4 signed up for 9 holes of golf.  Since I do not know how to golf, I was the golf cart driver.  I was Dana's driver...lol.  Hubby and Mike were in the other cart.  So, our foursome was really a threesome, with one player getting to shoot twice.  It was a Scramble/Best Ball format.

We brought a change of clothes for the wedding reception and enjoyed the rest of our night.

Dana and my hubby - waiting for our tee time

Dana and I waiting - I was the designated driver

My hubby, Mike, and Dana

An appropriate wedding favor!

Jet Lagged

...and I am not sure how I can be since I stayed in the same time zone all weekend!  This past weekend was my last planned trip up to Seattle for football for the regular season. 

Here are some photos of our season of football fun so far:

Me on the left with 2 of my closest friends!

Mr. Seahawk, PaintedHawk, Kiltman

View of the field from our seats - Sea Gals about to perform pre-game

Quiet Week

It has been nice and quiet here so far this week.  My oldest sister, who lives with us, is on a 7-day cruise to Mexico with a chaperoned group of disabled adults.  I have already received 2 email updates from one of the chaperones.  It seems like they are having a great time!   Maybe I will help her put together a scrapbook when she returns.

New Direction

I am about to undergo some major changes in my life and, hopefully will post about it soon!  The hubby and I are fine - just very blessed to call him my husband.

In other news...I have a new toy - the Cricut Expression.  Here is the description from their website - "Cricut® personal electronic cutters allow you to get amazing creative results with the touch of a button. Cricut machines with the Cricut cartridges cut beautiful designs and alphabets for card making, home decor, scrapbooking, paper crafting, and more."

I had never scrapbooked before and wanted to get into making cards. 

Here are some that I have made so far:

Birthday card for Hubby's Sister

Birthday Card for a photographer friend

These are very basic cards as I still have a lot to learn.  Hopefully I will get better by Christmas! :)

A Walk on the Wild Side

I have had a lot to blog about but not in the mood to type it all down...lol.

Last weekend, we went with our friends and their two boys to the San Francisco Zoo.

Here are some photos of my favorites:

A friend from Down Under

Waiting for Oceanic 815 to arrive:

Beautiful Peacock:

Giraffe - just hanging out..



I.... will.....not....smile.....

Happy Feet!

Real or plastic?

I cannot wait to go to the San Diego Zoo in August!

Another Year

Today is my 38th birthday. There....I typed it.

Hubby and I, along with 12 members of his family drove up to Sonoma today to try a Portuguese restaurant I had heard of but not tried yet. I had joined their email list last year and had read about a promotion they had during the winter called Sopa Sundays. The best way to describe them is from their website - 'Sopas is a classic Portuguese dish served at Festas throughout California. It consists of roasted beef and braised cabbage accompanied with crusty bread moistened with a beef-mint broth.' Hubby's mom (and hubby) make sopas a couple of times a year (minus the cabbage). We call it Soggy Bread.....but very yummy!

I had received an email saying that today was the last day that they were serving sopas for the season and I forwarded it to my mother-in-law. Hubby's parents take us out to dinner on our birthdays and she suggested we give this restaurant a try. She then thought it would be a fun idea to invite other members of the family in the area who like sopas. We sent out an email to everyone and got the large response. I let people know that this was not a party for me - we just wanted to try out the restaurant and their sopas.

Here is the chef's interpretation of Sopas:

I strayed from the group and ordered a favorite from my past -

BACALHAU à GOMES de Sá

-a Traditional baked casserole of North Atlantic salt cod, potatoes, onions and olives

And this is our group outside the restaurant:

The verdict on the sopas was 'thumbs up' from everyone who ate them. I had a bite of hubby's and enjoyed it. We had appetizers before the meal of linguica and blood sausage. The verdict is still out for me on the blood sausage though. We also ordered desserts to share after the meal. They offer dessert 'trios'. The "trio" we ordered to share had miniature malasadas, rice pudding, and a pumpkin spice cake.

Hubby and I will definitely return. The drive was beautiful, even though it rained all the way up there. We will have to plan to go in August or September during the grape harvest, so we can see the vineyards along the way in full grape mode.