Look Who Came To Visit This Weekend!

Emma made her first trip to San Diego to visit Auntie Katy and Uncle Jefe!  She brought along her momma Rosa, dad Geoff and Tia Carol too.  Emma is 9 months old and is very close to taking her first steps all by herself.  She likes to wave hi and hardly ever cries and loves to hear her self scream.  She has toys but prefers to play with magazines, napkins and toilet paper.  She says momma and dadda and hi and can mimic words that others say (like zapatos!).  I tried to teach her cerveza but that might have to wait until her next visit.  Emma is lucky because her momma is teaching her spanish and she will be bilingual.  Daddy is already teaching her to read.  Emma is going to be one smart cookie.  She has a very expressive face so it is pretty easy to figure out what she is thinking.  When she first got to our house and Rosa handed her to me she just kept looking at me like 'who the heck is this white lady?'  But, she warmed up to me quickly and I'd like to think we're buds.

Emma likes to look at herself in the mirror and give herself 'besos' (kisses)

Emma likes to make friends at restaurants and occasionally scream at the top of her lungs for no reason

Emma loves her daddy!



Emma eats like a good girl and can hold the bottle all by herself. 

Jeff and I enjoyed their visit and can't wait to see little Emma Lamma Ding Dong (the nickname Jeff gave her when she was born) again!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Don't you just want to kiss this little guys face off?

My Next Project

I've seen similar letters at Anthropologie or on Etsy and really like the idea of using letters as decor.  We have a ginourmous kitchen with lots of wall space (but not enough counter or cabinet space) that needs to be decorated.  I bought 2 large vintage posters that we are framing to hang on the wall above the kitchen counter but we have this other area of the kitchen that is just empty.  Jeff refers to it as the 'bar area' because it is his dream to use the space to put in a bar but until that dream comes true I'm thinking of moving the wine rack from the living room (which is part of another project which involves completely rearranging the living room) into this 'bar area' and putting these nifty letters on the wall up above, probably resting on a floating shelf.  I bought them at Michaels and I am contemplating painting them black or possible covering them with some type of fabric.  Our kitchen is done in black, white and green so I think solid black on the green wall would look really good.  I also have some awesome candle sconces I found at Pier 1 ages ago but haven't found the right spot for them yet.  I believe they may end up somewhere on the wall with these letters.  Can't wait to show you the finished project!

Limos, Birthdays and Booze...Oh My!

This past weekend was Jeff's birthday weekend and man did we have fun!  Jeff and I stumbled upon this show on TV a few years ago called Three Sheets.  The host of the show, Zane Lamprey, travels the world learning about local drinks, drinking games, customs and hangover cures.  He basically has the best job ever, he gets to drink around the world.  The show got bounced around to a few different channels over the years and currently has a home on Spike TV and Zane has another show on HDNet called Drinking Made Easy where he tours around visiting US cities.  Zane is my drinking hero and when I saw he was hosting a St. Patricks Day event in SD on Jeff's Birthday weekend I immediately bought 6 tickets for the Boeders and their buds.  The best part (besides getting to meet Zane and his sidekick Steve)?  It was an open bar.  Seriously.

They had a camera crew there to film the event for future episodes and for promos for the upcoming San Diego episode of Drinking Made Easy so we had to make sure to dress in our finest St. Patty drinking attire in case we got on TV.  Make sure to tune into HDNet on Thursday for DME marathon and the possiblity of seeing us on TV!

Zane Lamprey, our host for the night (see the camera crew to the right)

Me and Zane and a bourbon and diet.  Heaven!

Zane's sidekick Steve McKenna was a lot of fun.  This guys is nuts and is actually in the Urban Dictionary. 

My "Sisquoc Sista" Rhiannon came down from Orange County to join us.  We have been drinking buddies for years!  I think we drunk dialed her mom more than once that day....

Since we were at a 4 hour open bar and knew that nobody would be able to drive home I booked a limo.  The poor limo driver seemed terrified of us and kept the privacy screen down the whole ride so he could keep an eye on us.  So, we gave him a little bit of a show on the 20 minute ride home.  Once he figured out nobody was going to puke in his limo he kinda got into it.

Most importantly, Jeff had a fun time and we all made it home safe.  The event ended at five so after the limo dropped us off we went to sushi, a local bar (that was dead because it was 7 pm) and we were all home and in bed by 9:30 pm.  Day drinking is kind of fun, you can get smashed and still get a good 10 hours of sleep!  Can't wait to watch HDNet on Thursday to see if any of us are gonna be famous.  If only Zane needed another sidekick...

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today (March 5th) would have been my Grandma's 91st birthday. Yesterday we gathered together for my grandma's burial where she was laid to rest at Riverside National Cemetery alongside my grandfather who passed away in 2002. Her burial was preceded with a service honoring her military career complete with the folding of the flag and playing of taps. My brother who so eloquently spoke at my Uncle's memorial in May gave an impromptu yet moving speech. As Peter noted in his speech, my grandma was most proud of his service in the Air Force and would refer to him as her 'Air Cadet.' My grandma did not want a funeral with a mass and a whole lot of hoopla, but she did very much want the military funeral honors due to her for her service to our country during World War II and beyond. She is now at rest and with some of the people she missed the most. Unbeknown to the cemetery (shhhh), a dash of Uncle Steve and a pinch of Bailey joined her in her final resting place. I believe they will get along splendidly in their new digs, hope Papa doesn't mind the extra roommates! After the service we all met at The Yardhouse with photo albums in hand and reminisced while looking at old pictures and caught up with friends and family that we see too little of and often only at times like these. Toasts and promises to see each other more often were made, I hope we stick to those promises to see each other outside the occasional funeral and wedding. I met our newest cousin Eli for the fist time and of course fell in love with the fair haired little man, a new little one I can spoil. I really love my family and extended family and I love that it keeps growing. Jeff fits right in and they love him as if he had always around. My Grandma even used to refer to Jeff as her favorite Jeff (even though she has a son named Jeff) and it made for a lot of jokes when my Uncle Jeff was in town. Boy, we're gonna miss her....

 

Military Honors

Handing the flag to Uncle Mike

 

Peter speaking at the service

Grandma (and Steve and Bailey)

Crystal, Peter, Rich and Carlotta

Mingling at The Yardhouse

Family

New Mama Michelle and Eli

Daddy Caleb, Michelle, Eli and Uncle Jeff

Rich with our newest cousin, Eli

Randall, Richard, Brianna, Laura and my Uncle Randy See

My Papa and Grandma in their youth

My grandma in her Navy days

Rich, Cindi, Randy and Pete

All the Cousins (minus one crying Eli)!

Grandma's favorite Jeffs and Katy

Carlotta, Rich, Katy and Jeff

Cindy, Mom, their Spawn and significant others

The following day (Grandma's birthday) at the cemetery

My favorite picture of my Grandma and Me

The Boeder Pharmacy

The downside to having a bad back after being slammed into by an unlicensed, uninsured, under the influence driver back in 2005?  Days like Monday where I end up at Urgent Care because I'm in so much pain I can't move.  The upside?  Drugs, lots of them. 

The thing that sucks the most about having back issues is that when my back does go out it's not when I'm exerting myself like at the gym or mowing the lawn, it happens when I'm blow drying my hair or pulling up my pants or as in this case, washing my hair in the shower.  The doctors always give me a strange look when I tell them I threw out my back washing my hair and I tell them I wish I had a better story.

This episode was the worst yet.  I felt my back go as I was sudsing up my hair and knew immediately it was bad.  I was able to get the shampoo out of my hair and got out of the shower crying to Jeff that I threw out my back and was in agony.  This time I couldn't lift my head and was stuck staring at my feet.  It was a Sunday and my brother was in town visiting and I didn't want to go to the emergency room after hours because last time that ended up costing me $800.  I ended up taking a flexiril left over from the last time this happened (2 weeks before my wedding) and proceeded to pass out just so I wouldn't have to deal with the pain.

Lucky for me Jeff was off that Monday for Presidents day and could take me to Urgent Care (and take care of me all day long, what a sweetie).  The Doc took one look at me hunched over, immobile and teary eyed and promptly gave me a shot of Toradol and a prescription for Vicodin, 800 mg Ibuprofen and my favorite....Flexiril (double the strength of my old prescription). 

Now if you look at the labels, it says to take 1-2 Vicodin 4 times a day, 1 Flexiril 3 times a day and 1 Ibuprofen 3 times a day.  I'm no expert, but that cocktail doesn't seem to make for a very productive person...I've never taken a prescription pain med before but one Vicodin and a Flexiril pretty much put me into an 8 hour coma, I can't imagine downing those 3 or 4 times a day.  There is no way I could take all that and be a functional human being so I stuck to the Ibuprofen during the day and saved the good stuff for bedtime.   

Now its over a week later and I finally feel back to normal.  No more pills for now......and no you can't have any so stop asking (seriously, people perk up when they hear you have Vicodin and Flexiril).